The Ruined Death Knight

For the first time in the 5 years of his own existence, Danzel tried to teach one of his spells to someone else. That someone else being Shiro, a particular genius of magic.

He thought that someone like her would easily be able to understand a spell-like [Sense of the Damned]. But once he started teaching her, he found that she couldn't fully understand the concept of dead mana.

That's when Danzel that he had to start with the basics with her.

He tried to explain to her how to create dead mana and manipulate it.

Her first attempts were frustrating to watch, as instead of dead mana, she would create dark mana with only a tiny amount of actual dead mana. Which lead to some confusion for Shiro as dead mana and dark mana had little visual difference from each other.

For Danzel it was particularly annoying in watching attempt after attempt of her failing, which further dispirited Shiro, who was always very understanding of magic and mana.

In Danzel's point of view, it was as if someone gave him a glass of water, with 99% there being water and the remaining 1% being apple and that person insisted that he was selling apple juice.

Also, the fact that Danzel wasn't much aware of how dark mana is being created, made his explanations a bit less detailed information for the little Shiro, who was used to learning from a Lich who studied the ways of magic for who knows centuries.

In short, Danzel lacked the broad perspective of magic to be an effective, good teacher.

"Can't you explain in more...detail?" Shiro asked while failing again to create dead mana.

"I already explained the core of it. Dead mana is the essential "death" of mana, that happens through an event, action, or forcefully made by us necromancers. Though the "death" of mana doesn't apply to the consumption of the mana, It's more like letting the mana...."

Danzel stayed for a moment silent trying to find the words so that she understand.

"...Spoil. Yes, you can see it as letting the mana spoil, but doesn't get consumed."

"When someone dies, a large chunk of the mana that the person has disappeared through the air naturally, but there is still some mana remaining in the body, which at this point is "clean"."

"If the mana isn't being disturbed by other forms of mana for a long time, it will slowly turn to dead mana. Though at times, the life force of the corpses also disturbs this event, which further stops the creation of dead mana." Danzel tried to explain.

"So...life force is something that fights dead mana?" Shiro asked with a frown.

"Mhm...that's indeed the case. Though, both of them can co-exist with each other, to some level that is. For example, skeletons have bits of life force remaining in them together with dead mana. Albeit, for the undead to grow stronger and create his own consciousness and soul, they have to remove the life force."

"Doesn't that mean that the living can't use necromancy?"

Hearing that, Danzel raised his hand and emitted visible dead mana.

"No, they can, though their bodies aren't suited for it, as dead mana decay one vitality. Undead like me have the perfect body to use dead mana and we can emit a large amount from our bodies, but for most of my spells, I still have to make my mana into dead mana."

"We have an advantage in necromancy, while mortals like you have to be careful not to decay yourself from the dead mana"

Danzel brought out a large piece of wood while letting his dead mana do the work.

And shortly after, the wood started to wither and fall into tiny pieces to the ground, making Shiro gulp.

Danzel demonstrated again and again slowly how the creation of dead mana was made with pieces of wood and Shiro stared intensely at the ominous mana.

She tried to figure it out for hours long to the point that Danzel stopped withering the wood and simply recreated dead mana in his hand.

They had to make a break and take shelter for the night, mostly because of Shiro.

That is when Danzel noticed that the amount of food that Shiro was eating was weirdly quite a lot. While he didn't have a weight or anything of the sort, the amount that Danzel cooked was around 1,3 kilos of meat.

Though, he shrugged it off as she using her mana and being of a race that eats a lot.

In the night, she still was trying to make dead mana till she was tired to continue and eventually fall asleep.

Danzel went back to practicing his runes.

As for Koji and Niyuki, they stood emotionally around.

...

The night passed and the time for Danzel's cooking to be challange came.

Though his cooking was mostly making sure not to burn the meat.

After Shiro eat, they continued traveling toward the direction where Danzel saw the brief light.

Shiro spends her time trying once again to create dead mana and after 3 hours of trying...

She succeeds.

With her hands facing forward, a dark ominous mana flickered above her hands. The mana that was the source of the undead.

Seeing that she succeeded, a wave of excitement washed over her.

"Rue! Look, I did it!" She raised her hands to show the small amount of dead mana.

Though by doing that and her lack of control over the dead mana, it slowly moved closer to her hands.

Danzel ethereal eyes flared up upon noticing that.

His hands turned to mist and movent faster than the speed of sound. And before the dead mana touched Shiro's hand, Danzel crashed the dead mana in her hands and guided it away.

"How reckless." Danzel shook his head as Shiro's eyes lost all light for a moment, and blankly stared in front of her eyes.

"Haven't you paid attention yesterday? Dead mana makes thing decay and withers naturally if not controlled or changed. If I hadn't interfered, your hands might have decayed, albeit a bit." Danzel explained before looking at Shiro, doubting if he should continue teaching her.

'Wouldn't she just blind herself if I teach her [Sense of the Damned]?' Danzel thought to himself.

Sure, the spell was awful simple for necromancy, but taking to account that the spell was taking place in someone's sight, a lack of control might harm her eyes.

'She does know healing magic, would it be enough to heal her eyes though if that were to happen? And if not, wouldn't I be killing myself if I bring her to Agares blinded by necromancy?'

Danzel complained about the idea of starting with a different spell.

"Mhm, it seems like we will have to leave learning spells for later...For now, try to learn to control the dead mana without coming in contact with it. The amount that you generated should be easily healable with your magic, but until you learn to control the dead mana and not harm yourself with it, curse magic is the most that I can teach you." Danzel said while turning around and continuing walking.

Shiro stared blankly at Danzel's back, before noticing Koji and Niyuki looking down on her while beside them.

"W-Wait for me! Rue! You walk too fast!" Shiro said while running to catch up with Danzel.

"It's you who walks too slow..." Danzel said with a cold and emotionless tone.

Danzel wasn't much aware of how harsh she was with Shiro, who was a child in her early puberty. Literally crashing her efforts was a bit shocking for Shiro, who wanted to show off her talent.

Though Shiro was quite bitter about it, she understood that Danzel crashed her efforts for her own good.

She put her attention to better control of her dead mana while they continued walking in the frozen lands.

Danzel only observed a few times in between before focusing on the path in front of them. And after hours of walking, they found a small mountain, with a clear and yet rough path leading to the top.

'If I remember right, the light came from this mountain...' Danzel thought as he tried to remember what he saw.

And as the path was rough, Shiro had to pause her training and focus on not misstepping and falling.

Danzel observed her hands, and her finger seemed to have been harmed by the dead mana, but Shiro's healing magic seemed to fix the damage with no side effects.

"Are you still interested in necromancy?" Danzel asked with his cold voice.

"This type of magic is scary...but I still want to learn it" Shiro said while looking at her fingers.

Danzel at this point could only shake his head internally.

The rest of the path they walked in silence, with only the armors of the 3 undead to be heard.

And they arrived after walking half an hour at where Danzel suspected he saw the light.

Danzel turned his head and saw the other mountain where the avalanche happend, confirming that this was the location.

"Rue...nothing is here." Shiro said, disappointed.

"Let's follow the path, there might be something." Danzel said as he followed the path.

The path leads to the peak of the mountain, with nothing else to see other than snow and stone.

But beyond the mountain, Shiro was quick to take notice of something.

"Rue! Look!" Shiro yelled as she pointed her finger to the other side of the mountain.

Danzel turned to look, only for his eyes to flare up.

"This is.-"

"Houses!" Shiro finished for him, albeit what he wanted to say was not only houses.

But smoke as well.