The Undead King of the Palace of Darkness

Three-dimensional magic circle. I chow over those words inside my mind.

I’m pretty much an amateur when it comes to magic. I read the grimoire and somehow learned several magic that I could use in everyday life but none that I’ve learned could be used for combat.

Partly because punching is faster, but also because powerful combat magic is originally kept a secret. Also, there was no combat magic at the level that would make me want to go out of my way to learn it among the grimoires that Senri gathered.

You can’t learn powerful magic unless you ask a magician mentor to teach you. You also need to have a disposition for it. Therefore, despite the existence of the miracle that is magic, science and technology has flourished.

The only magic I’ve learned over many days is the most elementary out of all elementary levels, the magic that can be activated just by myself. However, magic is originally something that’s exercised through the use of multiple tools, catalysts or rituals.

Magic circle. I’ve heard the term before.

It’s one of the rituals used to exercise powerful magic.

It’s my first time hearing the term three-dimensional magic circle, but judging from its name, I’m sure it’s… three-dimensional.

Because of Sable’s curse, my head and body hurt so much it feels like I’m being torn apart. The only reason I’m not crying yet is because I’m just acting tough. The Lord, who still doesn’t relay the information clearly despite the situation I’m in, deserves to be destroyed. Senri frowns at the Lord’s words that pass through my mouth. “Three-dimensional… magic circle”

“Y-yeah. Basically, it’s a… three-dimensional magic circle. It’s, three-dimensional.”

“So… you mean?”

Senri still doesn’t know that the Lord is inside me. She’s suspicious because the Lord isn’t relaying the information properly.

In order to buy time, I look around the surroundings and pretend to investigate.

The Lord, who was freely bustling about in all directions, laughed.

‘The spellcaster is quite strong. However… Hmm. The Mirage King… made a mistake…’

I want to split him in half with the machete.

Looks like I have more studying to do… I should think of some ways to improve.

Now that I think about it, I’ve been always fighting ever since I started traveling with Senri.

I wanted to pretend to stagger and hug Senri to buy time, but I can’t do that when Golems keep attacking us. Senri kept staring at me, waiting for me to finish my words.

“In other words…?”

“… In other words… everything, might be, the Mirage King’s, fault.” “I see… ”

Senri’s gaze is chilly because of this worthless ghost. It was my mistake to try and earn her favorable impression by using the Lord’s words. The Lord, who’s all bones, cackles.

“Kukuku… End, look carefully. There are already very few spellcasters who can put together a magic circle of this quality. This is ―― Necromancy that was once called ‘Reincarnation’”

Reincarnation necromancy. What an indescribably eerie sequence of words.

But, I was resurrected through necromancy in the first place. Wouldn’t that also be called reincarnation (I’m not alive though) in a way?

If this underground passage itself is a magic circle, it’s quite large. The Lord’s mansion was wide, but it still doesn’t come close to this place. I’ve heard that the power of the magic increases in proportion to the scale of its preparation.

… So, what do I have to break? Should I destroy the magic circle? Should I return Senri to the surface and destroy the basement? Hey? What should I do to go home quickly?

‘Fool! This circle is already overflowing with sufficient power―― the power of the dead! If you destroy it carelessly, you might end up annihilated.’

“… Senri, you can’t destroy it. The power of the dead is already gathered at this magic circle, you absolutely can’t destroy it! You might be thinking that we should break it for the time being but you absolutely can’t do it! Endure it!”

“…”

Well then, I made sure to warn Senri. Senri cut off the Golem’s arrow that was fired from who knows where with her sword. There was a lot of force put into it.

But… that’s right. I’ve thought up a quick solution.

First, we return to above ground. We’ll blow away the castle’s basement with Senri’s ‘Photon Delete’ from far away. The power of the dead might go rampant and explode, but we’ll be doing it from far away so we’ll be fine. The castle will disappear but Dessend shouldn’t have any complaints either. All we have to do is act innocent and leave. It’s a pity that I won’t get a spare Night Crystal, but, well, I’ll give up on it.

“Kh… End, it is those who come with the brute force approach that are the most terrifying! Whatever the circumstance might be, have you no pride as somebody who has inherited my wisdom?!”Even I have an adventurous spirit, but right now I want to quickly go home and get blood from Senri.

I can’t reach the Night Crystal that’s supposed to be nearby, my stomach hurts, my back hurts, my head also hurts and Senri’s still in danger, so my excitement has dropped to its limits.

To start with, the Lord’s speeches are too long. In other words, he’s self-righteous. He doesn’t look at his surroundings and that’s why he was betrayed by me and Roux. I want him to explain in a way that even idiots could understand.

As I silently sent him my thoughts, the Lord sighed deeply, perhaps finally giving up.

‘End, this is a ―― magic circle of reincarnation. It gathers the power of the dead and forcibly changes the curse of the undead. That’s the kind of spell this is.’ Se he finally got to the essence of the matter. It forcibly… changes the undead? The Lord used a curse to change my human corpse into an undead that moves with the power of death. What does he mean by further changing the undead?

The only monsters that have appeared so far are Golems, with no undead to be seen. As I frowned and measured the timing of relaying this to Senri, the Lord snorted amusingly.

‘This is the formation… for turning the curse of the Skeleton into the curse of the Fleshman. I would say that at present this castle ――is the place of the ritual.’

That is why I said it ―― that the Mirage King made the wrong choice. The Lord shrugged.

But I can’t understand what the Lord said.

Changing Skeletons into… Fleshmen? Why? Senri has certainly said before that the Mirage King belonged to the Skeleton race. But, would the undead, who evolved so much that he earned the title of the Demon King have any reasons to change himself? From the Lord’s words, it can be inferred that the very purpose for why this castle was built was the ritual.

I certainly did think it was strange. It’s said that the Mirage King had the power to hide his presence from the Death Knights. In that case, even if he was targeted by the Order of Death Knights who found out the location of his castle, running away shouldn’t have been that difficult. He’s different from me, who’s still being pursued despite continuously running away.

Nevertheless… the Demon King was killed in this castle. I don’t know anything about that era, so it might’ve been the matter of the Order of Death Knights being too strong, but it’s hard to imagine that the Demon King that commanded an army couldn’t even run away.

However, before I could think more about it, the Lord looked ahead ―― towards the direction of the Night Crystal and said something unbelievable.

‘And, End. The magic circle is still working. The ritual still―― hasn’t ended. He’s going to come back to life―― the dark king who reigned over the old world.’

☠☠☠

That King truly had the divine appearance like the night itself. He had a jet-black body that devoured the light. His bone body, however, did not exude any sort of weakness and had the majesty similar to a large tree that had lived for millenniums.

While there was not even a fragment of life in him, his existence possessed the ‘transcendence’ characteristic for those whose time had stopped for eternity.

Far beyond the Skeleton evolution. The mage who acquired power in exchange for his flesh. The King of the Death, who swallowed the light and lived in a standstill time.

“Night Closer.”

There is hardly anybody else left who knows that in reality, that mage, who was called the Mirage King and feared by all humans and demons alike, hadn’t let go of his ‘humanity’.

“It was a mistake. No matter how much I despised humans, I should not have cast away my flesh.”

His words were very dry.

That was most definitely the side effects of reaching the realm of gods as a human. He lost his flesh, he lost his life and he lost his greed.

His right arm, who had followed him for a long time. The Night Lich created from his power would also have no ways of understanding the heart of God.

A created undead would have no way of understanding what lay in the heart of the demon God, that was once a human.

“I understand how you feel. However, you are as close to the night as possible.”

“There is nothing―― beyond. There is hate created by the curse, but I do not understand the reason for it. I cannot be fulfilled. Aah, there was nothing we aimed for… in complete stagnation.”

The army of the dead that was created by the enormous mana only existed to relieve that King’s boredom. Even if he had memories, he had no feelings. The only thing remaining was power. The Night Lich could not do anything about the King’s lament.

“I have no other choice but to ――discard my body and retrieve it. Before I’m degraded into a mere phenomena――”