The Ruined Death Knight

With the king of the Dynasty of Ioratal now dead without appointing someone to take the throne. The civil war between nobles that the immortal Liches predicted didn't happen.

Instead, only those of the royal family and those who pretend to be one were now fighting for the throne. Their respective factions would have long ago raised arms to force the others to give in if it weren't for the still raging war between the Arcana and Berum.

While they destroying border walls in the Arcana kingdom brought out an opportunity for Berum to counter-attack, essentially lowering the pressure on them.

It wasn't to the point where it would put a stop to the war or remove them from the targets list.

The ones who actively sought to start a civil war in the current stay of events will receive the dissatisfaction of both people and more importantly, Lancelot.

The spear of Dynasty.

Being the most loyal to the kingdom and the most powerful, despite his dislike of politics, his influence on who should be the king was essential.

Without him, the dynasty would be unable to respond to threats that only a 5th-tier could solve.

Sure, they were a very small number of 5th-tier in the dynasty other than him, but they were essential rogue and were none different, if not worse than mercenaries.

Without him supporting the throne, the few nobles of the 4th-tier could seek to better their position. After all, they would be the strongest beings after the 5th-tiers.

If that were to happen, the fate of the dynasty will be like tossing a coin flip.

After all, armies of lower tier could never defeat someone that reached a 4th-tier or above. Or at the very least, it was close to impossible.

Nevvan's spell was a perfect example of that.

A single spell was enough to severely crimple a whole army.

In other words, he was essential.

And that made it all the worse with him temporarily taking the throne together with the help of the king's adviser. The adviser was the previous king's trusted secretary and a far cousin of the king.

Those two operated the current dynasty and kept things in flow,

But that wasn't going to last.

Other nobles and those of the royal family criticized Lancelot for forcefully taking the throne when he is not worthy with others speculating that those two were the ones who assassinated the king.

Despite the fact that there was no proof of poison or something unordinary about the king's death.

He simply appeared as he receive a heart attack and died.

No poison was found and with the hundreds of eyes of powerful being present, any attempts of assassination would have been seen.

Further proof of his innocents was the fact that the king's several protection magic items didn't activate at all.

Despite all the proof of their innocents though, it still made things all the more ugly for Lancelot and the adviser.

The view-see crystal that showed the terrible event proved at that time to be a blessing in disguise with the events being capable to be played back.

Sadly, not all people wanted to listen to reason and logic. Instead, some still believed that they were the killers.

The burial of the king did manage to save them a few days, but after then every one of the royal family complained for Lancelot to leave the throne.

Something that he dearly wanted and yet couldn't allow happening.

They were more than the 6 princes after all.

It would be as if he opens the front door of the sheep barn to a bunch of walls. The barn contained only a single sheep.

And decided which wolf is supposed to eat the sheep and leave the others starving was something that Lancelot and the adviser had a hard time thinking about.

Until they came up with an answer.

That one is that the faction that gained the most merits in the war, will have the prince become the king of the dynasty. He even oathed in front of a view-see crystal. So if he lied, he could be held accountable.

Lancelot knew that the wolves wanted to rip each other throats. And since he couldn't effort having them fight inside the house, he changed the aim to the neighbor's farm. The last remaining one should take the sheep.

Of course, that brought a ton of problems internally, but for the sake of fairness, Lancelot didn't mind.

Though his decision and the follow-up of events were easily predicted by an entity that disguises itself as one of the royal families.

***

After assassinating the king of the Dynasty, several days passed.

There was a time when they were watched by the soldiers for the reason of being a suspicious subjects. And that's only his group but all the other people present there. But thanks to his perfect assassination, he and the others were left alone.

Originally, he didn't want to get involved in the assassination of the king, as he found the risk of doing much too high. But after hearing out Velkir's plan, he decided to act on his own.

After all, the plan that he suggested was way too dangerous. If they had to act, not only would his group be put on the target list of the 5th-tier spearman, but the other powerful people present would also act accordingly.

In short, a chaotic situation that he would have no control over.

Resorting in using his new skill, [Soul Ender].

And even then, there was still risk involved.

But he was confident that [Soul Ender] would destroy the king's soul. His confidence came from the reaction other people had with [Mortal Reminder]. Not only was it level 1 then, but activating [Mortal Reminder] back then would be enough to bring someone with the strength of the king close to death.

When he tested it on people of the 1st-tier, most of them would fall to the ground and shake constantly, their faces becoming as pale as ghost.

Though he never managed to kill someone purely by [Mortal Reminder], it was enough to paralyze the body of weaker people for a minute or two.

So his assassination went smoothly and was unknown to anyone, at least for the most part.

The king, despite his weak body, lasted more than he expected, but died in the end from having his soul destroyed, a potential risk.

And Azrael seemed to have figured out what happend back in the throne room by the way he stared at me meaningfully from time to time.

Though surprised, he wasn't shocked.

After all, Azrael was the only one present that experienced [Mortal Reminder]. Though [Soul Ender] and [Mortal Reminder] were different skills, they shared some similarities.

'I still fail to understand why the Dynasty appoints such a weak king to rule.' Danzel shook his head.

He acknowledged that knowledge was power and that a wise king would be better for a kingdom than someone that was just powerful. But with existence such as himself or Velkir.

They just needed a flick of their finger to end the life of the king.

Even if they had a 5th-tier as a guard.

Danzel was of the opinion that they should have seen something like this happening. After all, magic existed. And with the combination of two elements being possible to become completely new magic, similar to blood magic and soul magic, unique abilities such as his [Soul Ender] could be born.

In a way, ignorance was a sin such as weakness.

...

He didn't linger long on the reason why humans do such decisions. Instead, he focused on the sight in front of him.

A wall hiding behind massive buildings, but most massive of all of them was a sky-piercing tower in the center.

The last that the Dynasty of Ioratal has given us according to Velkir.

Its place is overseen by one of the kings of the Arcana kingdom and one of the biggest military bases. The Magus of the Tower.

Just watching from afar, Danzel could see the seer amounts of mana in the air circulating around. Danzel was reminded back when he fell into the cursed lake. How large amounts of dead mana were everywhere to see.

And the place where he was looking was similar, only much large, and instead of dead mana, only mana was there.

"Is it your first time seeing such an amount of mana?" Velkir said from the side, Danzel having long sensed him.

"Yes...the sheer amount together with how it surrounds the whole place is impressive." Danzel said, receiving Velkir chuckle, something so rare that made Danzel look Velkir in the face.

"If that's the case when the mission is done. I will show you a place that is much greater than this place. A place filled with our element." Velkir said as he summons his staff in one hand and a communication device in the other.

Looking at the device, it started lighting up after a few seconds.

"It's time..." Velkir said, his dead mana inside his body released to the surrounds.

"Prepare. Vannesa, Agares go for the core of the tower."

Velkir dead mana filled a huge area that span several kilometers far and wide with shadows

"The others~"

Within the shadows, armored undead started to raise, each bearing incredible artifacts and powers. From hundreds to thousand started to appear, with no sign of their numbers stopping increasing.

"-annihilate those humans!"

The undead who came from the shadows raised their weapons and yelled harrowing battlecries.

Looking at the stunned Danzel, Velkir said.

"This is what true necromancy looks like, my discipline." he said.

As the undead army marched towers the tower.