Chapter Ten "Human Necromancer"
Khajiit continued with their magic ritual to continue emptying E-Rantel's great cemetery to fill the ranks of his undead army. That was until Khajiit felt a large spike in magical energy that was not his own. Lightning came crashing down and in the wake of the magic attack was a loud explosion and blinding flash.
"So, you are alive." Khajiit spoke as a sphere of bones that had protected him dispersed to reveal his figure.
"It takes more than a rogue to kill me." Shirou bluntly stated as he made his presence known.
"I have worked too long for this to see it fail! Anyone who foolishly attempts to derail my plans will die! Let me show you the power of the Orb of Death!" Khajiit roared as he lifted the black pearl in his hand like it was a game-changing object.
The Orb of Death was simple a very large obsidian ball. It was so large that someone might have mistaken it for a crystal ball had it not been for its lack of transparency. Shirou saw the pearl was pulsating with light. His magical senses could detect an immense amount of prana stored within the black orb. Enough prana stored within the black orb to easily surpass most of prana-infused gems that Rin, the most knowledgeable magician that Shirou knew that used gems as magical tools, possessed. He could pick up waves of invisible magical energy oozing out of the black pearl. Not only was the black pearl radiating a significant amount of magical energy but even more than the prana reserves that Khajiit, the user, or Shirou possessed.
"You shall learn that your death is inevitable!" Khajiit shouted.
Shirou was about to attack the black robed magician when he heard a sound. It was the sound of the wind. A giant object came sweeping down at Shirou, which he dodged easily by jumping backwards.
The thing that had attacked Shirou then slowly landed next to Khajiit. It was a being made from bones and about three meters tall. A legendary creature known as the dragon. With a long neck, wings and four legs, it possessed the shape of a dragon. Only it lacked very important features such as scales and flesh. Only the skeleton of the dragon remained. Its movement wholly powered by magical energy in its undead existence.
Shirou looked surprised then reined in his expression as he assessed the undead dragon.
"Hahaha!" Khajiit's unrestrained laughter erupted. "The Skeletal Dragon with absolute resistance against magic, a powerful enemy that renders Magicians helpless!"
If magic wouldn't harm the Skeletal Dragon, then there was the fighting method that he was most familiar with. Black Keys materialised in his hands in a claw-like fashion as he held the hilts of the rapiers between his knuckles.
Shirou took swung both arms. Black Keys went flying into the Skeletal Dragon's foreleg. The blessed blades punched through the bone with ease. Instead of cutting through bone after bone like each layer, it was more like acid melting through metal. Had the Skeletal Dragon been a living creature then it would be howling in pain as blood oozed out of its wounds.
"What!?" Khajiit was dumbfounded.
Dragons were legendary for the death and destruction that they left in their wake, and a very good reason for such a reputation came from the fact that injuring or killing a dragon was very difficult task to the point that killing even one dragon made the dragon slayer famous. Dragons had three distinct parts of their biology that made killing them very difficult. Scales, hide and bone. Each part of the dragon's natural armor ranging from steel to adamantium level of protection provided by the said metals depending on the dragon's age and strength.
While the undead dragon that Khajiit had summoned had died long ago voiding it of its incredibly strong and durable scales and hide that did not mean that it was defenseless. Its bone was nearly untouchable to mundane steel and difficult for even mithril to damage.
"–You, who the hell are you! I am seeing someone that is clearly an adamantium-class adventurer. Yet, I have never heard of someone of your strength." Khajiit shouted in shock and fury.
"There are beings beyond your comprehensions. One such example is in front of you." Shirou replied.
A Skeletal Dragon was a very powerful monster. While it was weaker than its living counterparts because of the lack of instincts that a living dragon possessed it was strong enough that a team of mithril class fighters. Even a adamantium class fighter should have difficult fighting it by themselves. Khajiit should be seeing his enemy struggling to survive. There was only one possible explanation that came to him to explain how his enemy was so talented in combat and didn't struggle with the undead dragon.
"You, you! You cannot be one of the God-kins that Clementine had told me about! Did you come to hunt down Clementine for betraying the Black Scripture and the Slane Theocracy! That could be the only explanation that you have access to those blessed weapons!" Khajiit shouted in disbelief.
"Maybe? All you need to know that someone has come to stop you." Shirou replied cryptically.
The Skeletal Dragon was beginning to move slower and slower. Eventually it reached the point that it seemed like it was dead from the lack of movement. Its undead existence fueled by magical energy was being exhausted by the Black Keys' concepts to hurt and kill any that threatened humanity's existence, in this case the human was Shirou.
Damage dealt by the Black Keys to the undead dragon's skeleton was extensive. Shirou had specifically targeted the spine of the Skeletal Dragon. The spine in which facilities any movement was so badly damaged that even if the dragon's fuel source was not distinguished then its skeleton would fall apart with every movement until none of the bones were connected with each other.
"No! No! No!" Khajiit screamed. "Bone healing. Prana Infusion."
Rays of light shone from Khajiit's hand onto the Skeletal Dragon, repairing the Skeletal Dragon's damaged bones and reconnecting bones that were barely holding on to each other. The dragon's lack of movements increased for nothing to sluggish then back to normal with the refueling of magical energy.
"It doesn't matter if you heal it. I will bring it down." Shirou snorted.
Ignoring Shirou's taunts, Khajiit continued casting magic.
"Reinforce Armor, Lesser Strength, Undead Flame, Shield Wall." Khajiit kept casting spells to strengthen the Skeletal Dragon.
Shirou dashed forward and materialized another set of Black Keys in his hands. He threw them at the black magician, but the undead dragon moved to intercept the holy blades with its body. The hero didn't just stop there. He continued to dash forward and continued his ranged attacks with the Black Keys until he was within melee distance of the Skeletal Dragon.
"Trace On." Shirou chanted.
Black Keys that manifested itself as a rapier. The same couldn't be said for the blade within his hand. It was a Black Key had been over Reinforced to the uttermost that it was very close to breaking point. The form of a claymore. It possessed the mass that allowed him to do more damage than had he used a lighter weapon. There was also the fact that it possessed a longer reach, keeping him further away from the dragon's claw.
The claymore-shaped Black Key easily cleaved through the skeleton of the undead dragon. Its heavy mass, Shirou's magically enhanced superhuman strength and speed were the more than enough to overwhelm the undead dragon's mithril-hard bones.
"Bone Healing." Khajiit healed the Skeletal Dragon with his magic.
Fighting the Skeleton Dragon was unless. No matter how much damage he dealt, Khajiit would restore the Skeletal Dragon from behind. Shirou wanted to take out Khajiit first, but the Skeletal Dragon was in the way, stopping him. If he attempted to disengage from the dragon and attack Khajiit, the dragon would block him. Casting magic was worthless if the dragon used itself to block his magic attack and Khajiit healed the bone dragon.
A white object that covered his entire field of vision appeared before Shirou. It was impossible to evade. He brought the claymore in front of him and blocked the attack, but the force behind the strike made his body fly into the air. The attack was the result of the Skeletal Dragon's tail swinging with Shirou's face as the target.
Shirou didn't fall as he landed agilely with both feet on the ground but he still stumbled backwards. Khajiit showed his face from behind the Skeletal Dragon and used it as a chance to attack.
"Rain of Acid Javelin."
The green spear-shaped objects rained down on Shirou. The javelins of acid should have harmed his, but it was nullified and dissipated. His Magic Resistance was so high that nothing short of more powerful magic such as C-ranked magic could harm him that meant magic that normally required more than a single-action magic spell to affect him.
"... How troublesome. Whatever you are wearing is providing protection that would render magic below 3rd Tier unless against you." Khajiit said in displeasured tone as he glared at Shirou. He held the strange ball up to the sky. "Witness the true power of the Orb of Death, which I had not yet revealed to you!"
The ground trembled and Shirou's body followed suit. That was a sign of a gigantic being showing itself. The ground cracked the next moment and eight more white beasts slowly rose.
"... Really. More undead dragons." Shirou sighed.
"If you are indeed God-kin then nothing short of nine Skeletal Dragon, which would overwhelm even an adamantium team, will be enough to deal with you," said Khajiit.
After breathing taking a deep breath, Shirou thought about testing something that he had wanted to check out. He consciously willed for the status of the Skeletal Dragon. He had been expecting something like a screen to appear to describe the dragon in RPG terms, but none came out. Shirou wirly smiled. It had been too much to expect that he could get a status window when the New World was clearly a bizzare mixing of video game and reality. The Skeletal Dragons proved that it hadn't been a creation from YGGDRASIL like the deceased Shalltear Bloodfallen was.
It was time for another experiment.
"Trace On." Shirou chanted as he brought his right hand up and supported it with his left arm at the biceps.
Shirou opened his right hand and grasped the imaginary handle of a weapon that had yet to exist. The size of the blade was too large for him to handle. He modified it so it could fit his hand. It possessed an extraordinary weight. His brow shot up in confusion. He should've felt torturous burden placed on his body. His body aching as it struggled to carry such a heavy burden for he had yet to replicate the superhuman strength of the original wielder required to support it.
The time for thinking stopped when the nine undead dragons came at Shirou. They came all at once. From every direction. Giving Shirou no room to escape. Their wings were flapping in preparation in case he jumped up to avoid them.
"Nine Lives Blade Works!"
Khajiit stared in abject horror and amazement. There were glints of light. Something moved so quickly that its movement was invisible saved for the light that it reflected from the moonlight. What he saw was suddenly all nine undead dragons cleaved into pieces. Bones of various sizes were sent flying into the air and into the ground. Bone fragments so small, the size of sand, showered the air alongside various sizes of flying bones.
"Impossible?!... Just who the hell are you?!" Khajiit roared at the series of impossibilities that he had witnessed.
"Not good enough…" Shirou muttered, ignoring Khajiit shouting. "Hercules was able to deliver a hundred strikes nearly instantaneously. I was barely able to replicate 79 strikes at the same time. There is more much room for improvement of magecraft it seems."
Khajiit became frightened. The man before him must be so sure about himself that he didn't worry about his surrounding despite being in front of an enemy.
"Go! Skeletal dragons! Take the live of the one that had dared to set against your creator!" Khajiit shouted in a mixture of desperation and bravado.
Out of the ground came out several more, fresh Skeletal Dragons. Though, these undead dragons were significantly smaller then the previous and slaughtered dragons. The forelegs of the two closest undead dragons lifted up then stomped down, attempting to squash Shirou.
"Rho Aias." Shirou chanted with a smirk.
"Impossible!" The aged neocromancer shouted as his eyes bulged out of their sockets when he witnessed the sight before him. What should have occurred with the crushing of the man into paste did not occur. Standing definitely was the man with his hand stretched out before the paw that had been about to crush him. While his hand was at least a meter away from the blocked paw there was seven-layered pink barriers that stood in the way.
"How are you still alive?! No, what is that magic?!" Khajiit demanded.
"Rho Aias. A seven-layer shield with each layer said to have the defensive power of fortress wall." Shirou bluntly replied with a growing smirk as he saw Khajiit's desperation.
"No such magic barrier could be that powerful or they would be used against sieges."
"It exists, and for your bad luck. I happen to be the only one in this world that can use it."
Khajiit was left speechless. Dragons were known as the most powerful monsters for a reason. A single dragon could destroy entire armies depending age and strength, but it was common knowledge that only teams of elite fighters had any chance at fighting dragons because the destruction dragons wrought. While it was said that dragons could destroy even cities that was partially true, they couldn't wipe everything to the point that there was nothing left standing in their destruction. Stone buildings were known to surviving being destroyed by dragons, but stone fortifications survived all but the strongest dragons.
What Khajiit was facing was someone that could use summon up to seven such defensive magic barriers that rivaled a stone fortification only the strongest of dragons could destroy one or two stone fortifications.
There had to be something that he could do.
"Hoh, but you cannot possibly sustain such a powerful defensive magic forever. Eventually you will tie. That magic barrier will disappear and then you will die. You are just delaying the inevitable. And the fact that you didn't use that spontaneous resurrection again means that you cannot do it again." Khajiit said confidently as he smirked.
"Maybe. Maybe not. Too bad for you, I am not so limited in my arsenal. I want to use another thing in my arsenal."
Shirou then disappeared. Khajiit frantically looked around to searched for the missing Shirou. The sound of a clap could be heard. Khajiit turned in the direction of the clap to see white arcs of lightning surrounding his like it was a sentient being that was protected its creator. The surrounding air sparkled brightly. Shirou was enveloped by a white glow.
Khajiit was dumbfounded. He knew that was an incredible magic beyond him. He could see Shirou smiling coldly in the glaring white light. Before him was the gigantic body of the Skeletal Dragon. Remembering their presence, a shrill alarm sounded in Khajiit's heart.
"──You think you can defeat Skeletal Dragons with their absolute magic resistance?! Go! Kill his!" Khajiit couldn't conceal the fear in his shrill voice as he shouted his orders.
When the Skeletal Dragons drew near, Shirou smiled like a master scolding his foolish disciple.
"Absolute magic resistance? There is no such thing. Magic Resistance can be defeated through a variant of ways. The most common method is simply using magic that will overwhelm magic resistance. I shall demonstrate before you that I am able to use magic to destroy the supposedly 'magic-imperious' dragon."
The closest Skeletal Dragon was about to strike Shirou's exposed back when…
"Gewitter."
The field of electricity that had pulsed protective around Shirou shot up into the air. What unfolded next was a freak natural phenomenon, a lightning storm that had happened out of nowhere. Lightning began to strike the earth with such ferocity that it matched the thunderous roar of a dragon. Whatever that was hit by the lightning was torn asunder or simply disintegrated.
Khajiit collapsed onto the ground. What he was witnessing was 5th Tier magic spell, Lightning Storm. It took a team of elite magicians to cast such a powerful magic spell or to be done took the highest of adamantium class magicians to cast alone.
He had no doubt in his mind that his undead army was going to be destroyed. It wasn't going to take an entire army of soldiers or teams of adventurers. It was going to be annihilated by one individual. A man that surpassed even that nineteen-year-old leader of the adamantium-class team of adventurers, the Blue Rose.
"Why! The fruits of my labor over 5 years are gone in less than an hour! I spent five years to prepare in this city! The wish I couldn't let go after thirty years! Do you have the rights to destroy all this!? You, who suddenly showed up!" Khajiit's howled.
"Whatever happened to be your goal, it wasn't right to threaten an entire city of innocent people. I have no doubt that an equal number of people that you were prepared to sacrifice for whatever had been your goal died in those thirty years."
Shirou directed the lightning storm with his magic to strike at his desired target. The lightning that was thicker than an arm hit a Skeletal Dragon, and shook its massive white body. The lightning flowed through the entire body of the Skeletal Dragon, ending its false life. The results were clear. Under the might of the lightning, the Skeletal Dragon that had so much durability to resist damage that it was thought it was impervious to magic started to shatter.
Even after shattering the Skeletal Dragon, the lightning still remained arced and passed into another target. One after another, the Skeletal Dragons fall victim to the lightning that was so hot that metal would melt. Until none of the skeletal dragons were left but melted liquid that had once been bones.
"How can this… Gah–!"
Khajiit felt an unimaginable amount unlike anything that he had felt before. It hurt so much it felt like something extremely sharp had pierced his torso. When he looked down Khajiit saw a very familiar weapon protruding out of his chest.
"Why… Aarrrhhh!"
"Keep silent Khaj-chan~! My Master has decided that you needed to die. So, no hard feeling~." All too familiar voice to Khajiit spoke.
"Clementine. Kill him quickly. As much as I want to see him die slowly and painfully, ever second is another second for the undead army that he had created to hurt and kill the people of E-Rantel. Only with his death will undead army be cut off from their fuel source and become weaker and weaker until no more prana is sustaining their existence or they are destroyed." Shirou said in disapproval.
"No don't kill me. I want to –Gah!" Khajiit begged until he was silenced when cut his throat with a stiletto with his free hand.
Contrary to popular belief, a person doesn't die until their brain ceased to function or didn't exist anymore as the brain continued to function as long as oxygenated blood fed the brain cells. Khajiit was fully conscious and dying slowly with the lack of oxygenated blood flowing into his brain with the destruction of his heart until Shirou brought his feet down and pulverized the dying neocromancer's skull with his magically enhanced strength.
"Let's go, Clementine. We have to deal the undead army and someone to rescue."
- O -
"This is where the scent goes into…" Shirou muttered as sniffled the air while he entered the crypt.
"You are like a bloodhound…" Clementine commented as she allowed her hatred of her new master evident in her voice.
"I am hardly insulted. In fact, I take it as a compliment. My 'bloodhound' nose has helped me to save many people and hunted down numerous criminals." Shirou replied proudly. "Now, do you remember Khajiit setting up any traps?"
Clementine wanted to keep her mouth shut. The wish to live was starting to bite her back in the ass. She didn't want to help the man, who had killed her and resurrected her. Her mouth automatically opened against her will. The thought of disobedience was quickly dispelled as she felt like her heart and lungs being gently squeezed as a reminder of disobedience.
"I don't think so. Khajiit was confident that no one be able to guard past either me or him. He didn't think that anyone would be able to get past us. Though, he might have left some alarm traps to notify that someone had entered the vicinity and that we needed to protect the power source." Clementine replied, against her will.
"It's seem the familiar contract from YGGDRASIL is working…" Shirou muttered as he walked into the crypt. "So, in the New World, the humans save for myself seem to be all categorized as NPCs… I wonder if I am the only player…?"
"Player…?!" Clementine repeated in shock as she froze up. "Are you telling me that you're a God?! Not a God-kin?!"
"Hoh?" Shirou said in a very interested tone as he turned around. "Are you telling me you know something?"
For the first time since she was had been resurrected, Clementine felt like she was in control for once. She smirked as she tauntingly looked at Shirou.
"Maybe?" Clementine said in an innocent tone as her smirk grew.
"Tell me everything you know," said Shirou in an annoyed tone.
Clementine's smirk grew as she thought how much enjoyment she was going to get from withholding the information that her captor wanted. Her glee didn't last long when her mouth opened like before against her will. She screamed at herself to not tell him, but like before it felt like her heart and lungs were being squeezed as a warning.
"I don't know much, even as a high-ranked member of the Black Scripture. What I do know is that YGGDRASIL was the world of the gods. That the Six Great Gods and many other powerful being known as Players descended from." Clementine answered in a robotic tone. "That is everything that I know regarding Players and YGGDRASIL."
"So, the Slane Theocracy might know more. That is good to hear. Though, I wonder why Nigan and Linda wouldn't have known? They did say that they were part of the Sunlight Scripture…" Shirou mused. "I can think about this later. I have someone to rescue." He shook his head and then turned to Clementine. "Didn't you also say that magic source for the spawning of the undead army was here?"
This time Clementine was forthcoming with the information. She had already felt it happen twice. Her mouth speaking against her will. Trying to keep her mouth shut was useless when asked a question.
"Yes," said Clementine. "The magic source for creating the undead army is not far ahead."
"If I create of the source of the undead army, will it cease to exist or just prevent more of the undead from spawning?" Shirou interrogated Clementine.
"I don't know. I am not a mage and Khajiit, who knows all the answers, is dead." Clementine answered willingly. "I guess the undead army would stop spawning of their power source was cut off."
Shirou for a moment debated whether or not to resurrect Khajiit. He quickly shook his head. There was no way that he was going to resurrect Khajiit. The New World wasn't a video game. While there were elements that shouldn't exist in real life, the New World was no doubt reality. Likely a parallel world from Earth. There was absolutely nothing redeemable about Khajiit. He hadn't been trying to make a harsh decision like one might make for the greater good. He had been trying to sacrifice thousands of human lives for his own personal gain to become a Lich.
It wasn't just that Khajiit was unredeemable in Shirou's mind that he didn't want to resurrect. Unlike Clementine, who could be forced to repay for the evil she had committed as forced labor, Khajiit had the arcane knowledge and magical ability to potentially free himself from Shirou's grips. There was no way he was taking a chance to allow Khajiit to harm even more. The only way to resolve the situation at hand was with his own hands.
"Leady the way to the magic source." Shirou beckoned at Clementine.
The woman huffed. She didn't want to lead the way, but the gentle squeezing of her hearts and lungs reminded her that she was on a leash. If she wished to continue living than she would have to obey her new master unless she wanted to find herself dead. She walked deeper into the crypt and Shirou followed.
It was several minutes later that Shirou found himself before structure that had been clearly prepared for a specific reason. What the purpose of the structure was easy to discern when he saw a gigantic and complex magic circle engraved on the ground. Shirou looked around and inspected the area. He found out that a complex Bounded Field that used the lingering spirits of the dead to once more inhabit the world of the living by powering and controlling the undead.
Shirou looked at the center of the Bounded Field to found was a woman standing in the room. She wore a transparent shift which drew attention to her body, but Shirou's attention was on her face. Someone had cut her across the face and punctured her eyes. From the tear-shaped clots of reddish-black blood that wept down her cheeks, it was clear that she was now blind.
It was times like these that Shirou sighed in relief. His appearance in the New World had altered him. He had gained abilities and skills that he would've never been able to do in real life. Outside of his specialty magecraft revolving around his Reality Marble, the most he could do was basic feats of other magecraft and never beyond that due the limitation of his element and origin.
"Thanks to my abilities of my YGGDRASIL avatar, I can heal most, if not all, physical wounds, but healing the mind is beyond me…" Shirou said in displeasured.
His gaze settled on the spiderweb-like crown that rested on blinded woman's head. The Crown of Wisdom was a very frightened tool. It was not frightening to Shirou because it enhanced the wearers magical might. He knew numerous Mystic Codes and Noble Phantasms that could do the same. What was frightening about the item was that it turned wielder into a mindless doll. A terrible fate.
"Ahahahaaaaa!" Clementine began to laugh as she enjoyed the concerned expression of her captor.
"Why are you laughing?!" Shirou shouted in a looked furiously at the amused Clementine.
Clementine's face went sour the moment she realized what she had done without knowing. She should have instead kept her reaction to herself and just enjoyed what she had been seeing within the safety of her own mind. Now, she was going to have to spill the beans and prepare for the worst to come. That didn't mean she was going to enjoy herself to the end.
"That girl before you was once a male! Her name is Nfirea Bareare. You should have seen her scream as I tortured her." Clementine replied earnestly as she wore a victorious smirk.
"Nfirea Bareare… So, this must be the… the one that Lizzie Bareare had sent me to rescue." Shirou muttered and then he turned to Clementine. "Were you the one to kidnap Nfirea?"
She smiled gleefully. "Of course, I did. Who else would?"
"You know what? I cannot kill you because you're too valuable as a tool and source of knowledge. What I do know is various methods to punish you and wish that you never take pride in the horrendous things you do." Shirou said with a smile that sent shivers down Clementine's spine and made her fear for her life. "You know what I know just the thing to do."
"No, please stay away! Stay away!"
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