Reborn with a Necromancer System-Chapter 226: Feast for a Godkiller

The celebration began the moment the worm's corpse finished collapsing into ash.

Even though the leader had wanted them to leave, the thousands of darkwalkers that heard about the death of their oppressive god started to welcome, worship, and offer their thanks to Kai.

Word had already spread throughout the buried city, and as Kai, Orlin, Vepice, and Seyren were escorted into the largest plaza, the Darkwalkers whispered a new name in their stilted, rasping voices.

"God… kill-er."

"Godkiller… Kai."

"Worm no more… tunnels safe."

The feast was crude but clearly the finest the Darkwalkers could muster. Long stone tables were dragged out into the plaza, their surfaces uneven but cleaned with rough cloth. Clay dishes were heaped with steaming mounds of pale, spongy fungi, some sliced thin and fried crisp in insect oils, others boiled to translucence in thick broths. Chitinous platters held roasted beetles the size of a man's thumb, their shells lacquered in sweet, sticky resin. Bowls of thick stew swirled with mushroom caps, worm segments, and vegetables grown in the bioluminescent gardens beneath the city.

The smells were… overwhelming. Earthy and sharp, with the tang of minerals and a faint sweetness from roasted grubs.

Kai, who had eaten horrors both in his previous life and this one, hardly flinched. He conjured a faint barrier to coat each bite, preventing the more dishes from turning to ash from his necrotic energies long enough for him to swallow.

Orlin, of course, didn't eat. He simply sat, hands folded, watching the Darkwalkers with quiet amusement.

Vepice tried one tentative bite at a time, cautiously chewing, then nodding with visible approval.

Seyren, on the other hand, dove in like a starved wolf. He tore through roasted centipede legs and fungus slabs, barely pausing to breathe. His hollowed cheeks filled out slightly as he ate, and the edge of desperation in his eyes softened.

While they ate, the leaders began bringing forth the promised relics from the old city, the treasures left behind by the original inhabitants before their fall. Most were mundane: rusted tools, cracked pottery, ceremonial masks long stripped of enchantment. But a few… a few still hummed with power.

The first was a crude cloth doll with stitched black eyes. When Kai held it, he could feel the whisper of other minds at the edge of his perception. The leader explained, in halting words, "Hold… doll. Hear thoughts. But… doll take. Take mind. You… slow. Stupid. For… long time."

Another was a small, plain ring of tarnished silver. The moment Kai slipped it on, he felt the faint ripple of its warding magic, an invisible shell, repelling any attempt to spy on him. "No see. No find. No know," the leader said. "Safe."

Orlin claimed a thin silver necklace with a pale blue gem and said nothing about it. When Kai asked, Orlin's permanent skeletal grin widened, and he simply tucked it beneath his robe. Kai decided not to press the matter.

Vepice received a curious pair of bronze-framed glasses. When she slipped them on, her eyes sharpened and darted, as if following lines invisible to the rest of them. "See… maybe. See… choice. Where move. Left, right," the leader explained.

The explanation of it reminded Kai uncomfortably of Kleo's uncanny way of predicting the flow of a fight.

There was also a smooth river stone that could change its weight at the bearer's will.

It could be light enough to float on water, or heavy enough to pin down a wagon.

The last item was a scroll whose surface shimmered faintly; it would display whatever the holder wished to see, whether a distant place or the page of a long-lost book.

By the time the final artifact was presented, the feast had begun to wind down. The Darkwalkers offered them sleeping chambers carved into the cavern walls, but Kai shook his head. "We leave now," he said simply.

The leaders conferred briefly in their broken tongue before sending for a guide. The chosen Darkwalker arrived. He was a thin, long-limbed figure whose skin had the pallor of old bone. Without a word, they gestured for the group to follow.

They passed once more through the city, the air heavy with the musk of fungus gardens and the faint metallic tang of centuries-old decay. Ahead rose the spire: a colossal pillar of stone that seemed to pierce the ceiling of the underdark itself. Only when they reached its base did Kai realize it was hollow. A spiral staircase carved into its walls wound up and up, disappearing into darkness above.

The climb was grueling. The air grew steadily fresher, but thinner, and the dim bioluminescence gave way to total blackness until the first, faint sliver of sunlight spilled down from far above. They emerged at last into blinding brightness, the sun burning against eyes long used to shadow. The guide hissed, shielding their face, and stepped back into the cool mouth of the stair.

"Good luck… Godkiller," they rasped, before turning and vanishing down into the depths.

Kai, Orlin, Vepice, and Seyren stood together in the light, the underdark now far beneath their feet.

"Couldn't there have been more to learn, find, and discover down there?" Vepice asked as the massive stone doors groaned shut behind them, sealing the dark tunnels away.

"The air down there would have driven us mad, the creatures would have tried to kill us, and even the darkwalkers might have wanted to eat us or throw us down the hole of the god," Kai replied, his voice calm but firm. "Our goal is up here, the teleportation gates that lead back to our world."

"Yeah, but..." She started, then trailed off, chewing on her lip.

"The demons?" he asked.

"Yeah..."

"We'll be okay. We've faced worse."

"Come on, you three. I know where we're going from here," Orlin said with a grin, his long coat swaying as he stepped into the light with a spring in his stride, heading north along a jagged ridge.

They emerged into Muderan's strange soft, pale, and rippling daylight as though filtered through water. The sky shimmered in hues of violet and green, streaked with slow-moving arcs of magic that resembled falling stars frozen mid-flight.

Kai grabbed Vepice's hand, tugging her along before she could get too lost in staring.

Seyren lingered at the threshold for one last glance back at the cavern mouth, his stomach remembering the feast they had just left behind. The smell of damp stone was quickly replaced by the sharp, electric tang of Muderan's open air.

"Keep your eyes open," Kai said, scanning the strange foliage such as the trees with translucent leaves, blossoms that swayed without wind, and creatures darting between shadows with too many eyes. "This realm's beautiful, but beauty's just another kind of trap here."

Vepice tightened her grip on his hand. "I'll keep that in mind."

Orlin didn't slow. His staff clicked against as he led them north through the world around them. The shadows between the trees seemed deeper here, as if reluctant to give up what they had claimed.

"We've still a few more days before we arrive. Pick up the pace," Orlin demanded.

'It's like you're becoming more and more like your old self the longer you're around...' 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

Kai shook the thoughts from his head. Orlin was just an empty shell with the memories of the man he once was.