The Necromancer's Servant

Asa now differed from a corpse only by the presence of breath. He had been unconscious in bed for several days. Elaine had been by his bedside, taking care of him during this time.

Some of the thieves had also inquired about the couple among them, and the half-orc boss had said that the lord of the city had asked them to stay behind to discuss some important matters. They used their imagination to speculate, believing that the couple must still be negotiating some benefits with the lord, and they sighed in admiration of their discernment before leaving with their goods.

Asa had been moved from the roofless house to another room. This matter had not been made public; after all, the lord of the city also had a responsibility to uphold the dignity of the law. Any theft, regardless of the reason, should end up on the massive gallows in the town square. Mayor Theodorus simply stated that Asa was a friend who had been injured during a magical experiment.

Healing spells were finally able to take effect on his physical condition. There was no type of magic that Theodorus could not use; although he had learned too much to delve deeply into many high-level spells, he could master any magic he knew, and his healing spells were not inferior to those of any high-level cleric.

However, no matter how high-level the healing, it could only treat 'injuries.'

His hands, chest, bones, and muscles were shattered to pieces. Even the most skilled craftsman could not separate those fragments, smaller than grains of rice, from the clotted muscles and blood vessels and piece them back together. Many of his broken ribs had pierced internal organs, and his skull was completely cracked, just a little away from bursting open.

Even Theodorus found it hard to believe that a person could survive such injuries.

This was indeed a serious misunderstanding, and a rather coincidental one.

If Elaine had also come with the thieves to transport the stolen goods, she would have definitely seen Mayor Theodorus. If Asa had not been so stubbornly insistent on solving this issue in his own way, if he had discussed it with Elaine, if his fighting spirit had not been so fervent, if he had managed to explain himself slightly or simply surrendered when caught... if any one of these scenarios had occurred, things would have turned out differently.

Today, Mayor Theodorus came to check on Asa again, shaking his head grimly. Through conversations with Elaine, he learned that it was indeed a misunderstanding. While he still could not explain why the young man was wearing the robe of the ghost king or why he attempted to steal that book, he could tell that someone who was willing to use a leaf from the World Tree, coveted by all mages, to save another person, could not possibly be a member of the Necromancer Guild. Furthermore, the bishop's letter of appointment was genuine.

Theodorus could also see the nature of their relationship, which piqued his interest. He tentatively asked Elaine, "What if he never wakes up? It seems your engagement isn't far off, is it?"

"If he doesn't wake up, I will stay here forever. I'm going nowhere," Elaine replied calmly.

Theodorus fell silent. Her tone was not that of a passionate declaration; if it had been, it would have been fine—passion is always fleeting, and after a period of impulse, one naturally calms down. But her resolute calm indicated that she had accepted reality.

If it were someone else, the lord might have felt some admiration for such a romance, but she was the daughter of a duke, carrying many other burdens on her shoulders.

Theodorus said meaningfully, "Do you know that, in a way, this is quite unfair to you? If he truly never wakes up, are you planning to spend your whole life devoted to him? You're still young, with a bright future ahead."

Elaine shook her head. "I was once unconscious too, and he saved me. Now I can't save him, so at the very least, I will accompany him."

"But everything you do now, he is completely unaware of. You're just deceiving yourself."

Elaine simply replied, "This is my own decision."

Theodorus said slowly, "Have you considered your father? You should know how much hope he has for you. Are you really willing to disregard everything else for your one-sided feelings?"

Elaine remained silent, slowly feeding a spoonful of honey water into Asa's mouth. Her expression was void.

Theodorus looked at her, sighed, and turned to leave.

He suddenly felt like a very unpleasant person.

But distasteful or not, he had to say such things because it was necessary. If she truly wanted to stay, the most troublesome person would not be the duke, but himself.

Suddenly, an official rushed over from the city hall, saying, "Lord, the thieves who left a few days ago have returned, but only a few remain. They said there's a huge fire-breathing monster heading this way from the wasteland."

"A monster?" Theodorus's brow furrowed.

At the entrance of the city hall, Theodorus picked up an arm from a horse's tail.

This was evidence of a thief's desperate struggle to escape before dying. The thieves had been awakened at night by strange sounds from the ground; they saw a gigantic creature approaching them in the moonlight and, in a panic, mounted their horses and fled. The thieves who hesitated or were slow to react were engulfed in the flames spewed forth by the monster, with only a few fortunate ones returning.

Theodorus examined the arm closely. It was intact, with a clean break, as if it had been chopped off with a knife or axe. However, the bone's broken surface was black, crumbling like dried bread at a touch. No natural fire could inflict such harm on the human body, burning a person to ashes while leaving the arm, which had only been slightly exposed to the flames, unharmed.

Such corrosive flames should be the effect of dark magic. And what kind of creature could spew magical flames? Although he suspected the Necromancer Guild was behind this, he could not discern their method.

Mayor Theodorus had been traveling and adventuring across the continent since he was over ten years old, having witnessed the strangest things. He had even seen legendary dragons in the underground world and interacted with necromancers in the Dehya Valley. He loved reading and had visited nearly every famous library on the continent. He could remember a wide variety of books, making him one of the most knowledgeable people on the continent. If there was something he didn't know, it could only mean that it had never existed.

"When did you encounter that monster?" Theodorus asked the remaining thieves.

"Three nights ago," replied the old thief, Fodolone. He was one of the fastest, having almost immediately rushed to his horse when he heard the noise, while others had taken their time to grab their weapons and look around. It seemed that the longer people lived, the more they wanted to continue living.

From the thieves' words, Theodorus inferred that the monster was not particularly fast, but it must be nearby.

Theodorus and Grutt rode their horses to the northeast swamps of Orford City, where the lizardmen had established a separate settlement. They embarked on a wivern from there.

Not only did they have the wivern, but they also quietly raised wild cattle and carrion lizards. The lizardmen generally did not participate in other matters within Orford City; their task was to experiment with the domestication of these animals in the swamp.

There had never been a record of such creatures being domesticated in the continent's history, and no one had ever dared to entertain such an idea. These were dangerous animals living in extremely perilous regions.

The wild cattle were a unique species found in the Lizard Swamps. At first glance, they looked like cows, but they stood about two meters tall, were four to five meters long, and weighed several thousand pounds. Their bodies were covered not in fur but in thick, large scales, making it difficult for even an axe to inflict effective damage. Though they were herbivores, their tempers were fiercer than any carnivorous beast, and combined with their massive size and strength, they were undoubtedly among the most dangerous beasts on the continent. Furthermore, due to their diet of toxic plants in the swamp, these animals had stomachs filled with gas fermented from the poisonous grasses, which they could expel at any moment. This gas could harm human skin much like a substance created by alchemists called "sulfuric acid."

Only the wivern could incorporate the wild cattle into its diet. These enormous flying creatures possessed unimaginable strength and speed, capable of grabbing a wild cow and throwing it into the sky, repeating this process until the wild cow was smashed to death before consuming it.

Though these creatures were extremely dangerous, they were also immensely useful. Just imagine a wild cow charging into battle; no general would want to send their soldiers to face such a creature. On the other hand, the wivern was invaluable for surprise attacks or transporting goods, effortlessly capturing generals amidst thousands of soldiers.

With such massive and dangerous combat capabilities, no army would dare to act rashly here.

Only Mayor Theodorus had the courage and imagination to domesticate these creatures. He was well aware of the habits of these strange beings from books and could deduce methods for taming these beasts from humanity's history of domesticating other animals. Only he could have the lizardmen retrieve these animals' eggs and young from the swamp and train them in the swamp's unique environment. Over the years, only a few had been successfully domesticated, but even those few were incredibly useful.

With the astonishing strength of the wivern, carrying both Theodorus and Grutt along with a lizardmen driver was effortless, and its flying speed far exceeded that of horses. Thus, within half a day, Theodorus saw the monster described by the thieves from the sky.

"What is that? A giant bat? It looks like there's someone on it?" Sandru furrowed his brow, watching from the distant woods where Theodorus could not see them.

"That's a domesticated wivern. I didn't expect someone to use it as a flying vehicle—what an interesting trick," said Vadenina, somewhat surprised but not letting it dampen her pride. "It seems the leader of the orc city-state has come to witness our magnificent creation firsthand. I wonder how he feels seeing this masterpiece that could turn his city to ashes."

With just a glance, Theodorus could confirm that this was a creature capable of turning the entire Orford City to ashes. He could sense the unimaginable magical fluctuations surrounding it.

"Fly closer to take a look," Theodorus instructed the lizardman driver. The driver pulled the reins, and the wivern let out a cry as it dove toward the corpse dragon.

As they flew past the corpse dragon, Theodorus could clearly see the countless bodies that made up the monster's form and felt the magical energy contained within them. Such a creature could only be created by the Necromancer Guild, yet the sheer size and perfection of this magical organism exceeded his imagination. It was not only powerful but also a perfect fusion of several different types of magical forces. His extensive knowledge and deep understanding of magic allowed him to distinguish these magical energies clearly, intensifying his shock.

Those bodies were not ordinary corpses or zombies; they were living corpses. Only a master of limb magic and dark magic could create such transformations. It involved burning away all remaining life force in a body in a very short time, allowing an ordinary corpse to possess combat capabilities rivaling those of a high-level warrior. However, there were hundreds or thousands of such bodies here; originally, they represented an army's fighting strength, but now they served merely as the corporeal form of this monster.

Theodorus recognized the shape of the creature—it resembled the legendary dark spell, "Dark Dragon." It was merely a magical projection formed by the concentration of magical power, which would normally dissipate after the spell was cast. However, now it was fused with the hundreds of living corpses. This was not merely an appearance; there was indeed a surge of dark magical power flowing through these countless bodies.

What shocked him the most was the monster itself. In a sense, this was a living being. The rotting parts were merely isolated limbs and hands protruding from the surface of the corpse dragon, while the segments closely joined to form the body of the corpse dragon retained their original appearance. Even the skin of those corpses still had the characteristic luster of living tissue. Living corpses could only be maintained for a short period, but it was evident that this creature had not just been newly created. It had somehow merged highly activated corpses with the "Dark Dragon" magic during the extreme burning of their life force, temporarily forming a cycle of magical energy, thus granting this composite body the semblance of life to maintain its power. The astonishing magical and life force within this creature created a self-sustaining cycle, allowing it to unleash devastating flames almost limitlessly, akin to the breathing of a living organism.

Each aspect of the magic was perfected, and the balance among the various magical forces was expertly maintained, allowing the strengths of each type of magic to be fully realized. He marveled at this; it was truly an unparalleled masterpiece of magical art.

But suddenly, he snapped back to reality and shouted to the lizardman, "Too close! Quickly, fly up!"

The head of the corpse dragon had already turned toward them. After the bombardment from hundreds of mages a few days ago, it had become highly sensitive to human presence. It extended its neck to inhale, and even the lizardman driver, who knew nothing of magic, could feel the strange fluctuations in the air caused by the frantic gathering of magical power.

Theodorus chanted an incantation, waving his hands forward. A white ball of light shot toward the head of the corpse dragon. This was "Thunderous Burst," the most offensive spell in air magic.

With a loud bang, the neck of the corpse dragon shook slightly. The intense explosion left a small dent on its head. However, such damage evidently had no effect on it; it opened its mouth, and green flames were about to spew forth.

Grutt bent down and leaped, letting out a thunderous roar as he punched. The force of his legs propelled the massive body of the wivern downward. Wrapped in white light, he resembled a silent flash of lightning, charging toward the head of the corpse dragon with earth-shattering might.

The tip of this lightning struck the head of the corpse dragon. At the moment of contact, it erupted in a dazzling light and a massive sound; this single strike surpassed the brilliant roar of hundreds of spells. The head and neck of the corpse dragon snapped sideways under the force of the blow, and even its massive body tilted with the impact. Had it not been for the neck acting as a buffer, this punch could have knocked down a creature as large as a mountain.

The sky seemed to suddenly rain down fragments of corpses. The head of the corpse dragon was nearly obliterated, leaving only half a jaw dangling from its neck.

In the distance, the three mages who witnessed everything were utterly shocked by the earth-shattering power of the blow.

They were all pinnacle mages, and they could tell that this was not magic.

It required no skill or wisdom, no deep magical arts of transformation, resonance, or synchronization; it was a raw, unadulterated display of life force, the most direct and exhilarating expression of existence.

Anyone witnessing such power, such a scene, such an aura, would only think of one word: strength.

All three of them had once been obsessed with the desire to make themselves stronger, which is why they had become top-tier mages. But now, as they faced this true power, they were completely stunned, feeling the same shock a poet or painter might experience upon encountering the breathtaking beauty of nature after refining their skills and artistry to express beauty.

However, this magnificent scene was only a momentary pause, as the green flames continued to surge from the dragon's half-open mouth. It wasn't a true creature; a small portion of its form being damaged did not hinder the flow of magic.

The skeletal dragon's neck immediately swung back around, its frenzied green fire shooting toward Grutt, who was still suspended in mid-air.

Grutt maintained the pose of throwing a punch. This punch was his full force, and his body had yet to recover from the explosive power he had just exerted. He was completely suspended in the air, with no place to exert force. Faced with the raging green wave, his solitary figure in mid-air resembled a leaf, as if he would be swallowed by this ocean of death without leaving a ripple.

But then, his body suddenly moved backward as if a giant hand were pulling him, allowing him to narrowly evade the wave of green fire. This was the effect of Theodorus' wind magic.

The wivern flapped its wings and shot upward, but the gust of wind also carried a few specks of green fire that ignited the dragon's wings. Although just a few small flames, they were enough to cause the wivern to struggle in pain, equally deadly.

Theodorus continued to control the wind magic with one hand to pull Grutt over, while his other hand launched several white cold beams that intercepted the green flames. When the green fire and the cold beams collided, they emitted a light sound and vanished into thin air.

Grutt stood back on the wivern's back. The dragon soared into the sky, flying over the range of the skeletal dragon's flames.

The skeletal dragon seemed angered by this attack, moving more swiftly, shaking its body and leaping into the air. However, it did not jump high and was quickly pulled back down by its weight, landing with a resounding thud.

From high in the air, one could see changes occurring on the skeletal dragon's body. The corpses that formed its body began to writhe, gradually replenishing the shattered head with other corpses crawling in from different places.

"Wow," Grutt's eyes lit up. The fact that his previous full-force strike hadn't toppled this monster excited him. "Let me try again."

Theodorus quickly stopped him, saying, "That's too dangerous. Those magical flames are irresistible. We need to think of another way."

The skeletal dragon groaned at the sky, sensing its helplessness. It resumed its slow steps, continuing to move northwest.

Theodorus furrowed his brows and slowly said, "There should be a core. To maintain such a massive cycle of magic, there must be a strong core. From the fluctuations of the magic, it should be located a bit below the right side of the chest, about three to four meters within the body. But the key is how to destroy it... And what exactly is that thing? What could allow such immense magic to gather together in a living form and circulate endlessly…" Theodorus furrowed his brow, muttering to himself, suddenly realizing something. "I know!" He said to the lizardman rider, "Alright, let's go back now."

The wivern circled in the air and reversed direction, soon becoming a small dot that disappeared on the horizon.

Sandru was the first to breathe a sigh of relief, still shaken by that strike. He asked, "Who was that? Was he really a person?"

Ronis was also shocked by the attack but turned to look at his equally astonished student, saying sarcastically, "If everything really is as you predicted, then why are you surprised?"

"Regardless, I believe my creation is invincible. I believe it can eliminate all garbage completely," Videnina's hoarse voice came out strongly, as if to assert that even upon witnessing such a shocking blow, his confidence had not wavered in the slightest.

Confidence, while a form of power, is purely personal, an inner strength. If one needs to announce it loudly, it might suggest a lack of self-assurance.

Ronis could certainly detect this insinuation. He nodded with a smile, saying, "Not going back was the right choice; it seems things are getting more interesting." The person who could skillfully control both systems of magic reminded him of an old friend.

"How interesting, how interesting," Sandru nodded in agreement.

Orford City, Nightfall.

Elaine had just finished feeding Asa honey water. Her hand caressed Asa's face, her soft palm following the clear contours. She felt troubled, as Theodorus' words earlier had disrupted her previously firm resolve.

Was she truly just deceiving herself? Was she merely escaping reality here, avoiding her responsibility toward her father? But leaving him here to return alone was simply impossible. She felt the pain of her emotions being torn apart.

Lord Theodorus entered the room, looking at her actions with a sigh, and slowly said, "If I can heal this young man, but you must promise me to complete a task you originally should have fulfilled, will you agree?"

"I agree." Elaine stood up, her expression one of hearing a divine revelation of salvation.

Theodorus reached out and patted Elaine's head, nodding, "I know you've always been a good child, always obedient."