Reborn with a Necromancer System-Chapter 230: The Smiling Demon

The air rippled with heat as the hulking, ever-smiling demon stepped from the smoke. Its skin was a glossy, dark crimson, stretched taut over bulging muscle, as though it had been carved from some obscene, living statue. The grin never faltered. It was too wide, too sharp, filled with jagged teeth that seemed to glisten no matter how dim the light. Each breath rattled like a forge's bellows.

Seyren ducked low and darted behind a small hut connected to the base of the watchtower, his back pressed against the rough planks. He clenched his fists, trembling slightly despite himself. From here, he could only catch fragments of the fight, the blur of the demon's claws, the thunder of its stomps, and the sound of barriers snapping apart like wet parchment.

The hulking demon didn't rush. It didn't need to. Each step forward shook the broken stone beneath their feet, the air thickening with the weight of its chaotic mana.

Kai's skeleton guard rushed forward first, but the demon swiped one arm casually, and half of them shattered into dust. Those that remained loosed arrows at his command, a steady hail from skeletal archers he'd pulled from the shadow space, their bows creaking as they fired again and again.

The arrows snapped uselessly against the demon's skin. Not a mark left behind.

"Figures…" Kai muttered, already cycling through alternatives.

Then the demon lifted one clawed hand and aimed it, not at him, but at Orlin.

The blast came fast, a compressed wave of crackling chaotic magic. It hit with a sound like tearing steel. Orlin was flung back into the grass, his arm spiraling away in a trail of necrotic ichor.

Before Kai could even call out, Vepice gasped.

Her eyes flared with a sudden, searing golden light.

Mana crackled through the air.

A type of mana different from anything Kai had felt from her before. Her voice caught in her throat, no words spoken, yet the magic surged forward like water breaking through stone.

Orlin's severed arm was there again. Whole. The flesh knitted instantly, the black stitching of undeath vanishing as if it had never been ripped away. Like time reversed the damage itself.

Then Vepice crumpled, her eyes going dark.

Kai stood between the beast and Vepice's unconscious body, his eyes dark with focus. Four shimmering layers of barriers floated around the two of them in nested spheres, one of pure force, another woven from shadow magic, the third laced with frost sigils, and the innermost glimmering faintly with his life essence.

The demon lunged. One claw swipe tore through the first barrier like it was nothing, shards of energy scattering into the air. The second cracked, groaned, and split apart under the sheer weight of its next blow. Kai poured more essence into the third, frost instantly crawling up the demon's arm, but it shattered under a single push.

The fourth and final barrier, the one tied directly to his own vitality through the sigil carved on his body, shivered violently as the demon slammed against it. Every strike made Kai's chest tighten and his vision blur for an instant. He pushed back with shadow-forged chains, wrapping them around the demon's limbs, but it only roared and ripped them apart, its smile somehow widening.

Kai slammed his palm to the ground, sigils flaring. Spires of jagged obsidian burst upward, driving into the demon's legs and forcing it to pivot back toward him. The monster tore through the black stone like brittle wood, but it bought him seconds, just enough for him to pull Vepice closer and begin weaving another set of barriers, this time layering them with explosive backlash spells.

The demon came again, bounding forward in a blur, its grin so large it almost split its face in two. Its claws met the new barriers, and this time, each layer detonated as it broke, blasts of fire, shadow, and raw kinetic force staggering it step by step.

Still, the grin remained.

Kai clenched his jaw. "Orlin... buy me time."

The undead necromancer didn't question the order.

Skeletal arms erupted from the ground at his command, layering slabs of bone into walls. The demon's magic tore through them one by one, Orlin meeting each breach with another wall, taking part of the blasts head-on when he couldn't replace them fast enough.

Kai drew shadow into himself, more and more until the air around him began to warp. His weapon was no mere spear this time. He shaped a javelin, folding it into itself over and over until the seams blurred, until its edges vibrated with unnatural tension. It looked less like a solid object and more like a blade of pure absence.

The demon crouched, its enormous wings beating the air in heavy bursts.

It saw Orlin, wounded, half-guarded, and moved for the kill.

"Orlin, move!"

The necromancer dove aside just as the monster's shadow passed over him.

Kai loosed the javelin.

It didn't fly so much as split the sky. The impact was instantaneous, the shadow tearing through the demon's center with a crack that shook the watchtower walls.

From the knees to the neck, there was nothing left, just an empty gap where its core had been. The head and legs fell separately, hitting the ground with wet, final splatters.

The unnatural stillness after was worse than the fight.

They dragged Vepice inside the crumbling watchtower, setting her against the far wall. Her breathing was steady, her pulse strong, but she didn't wake until morning.

The three of them took that time to rest while Vepice recovered.

Kai looked over the fire to the person sitting on the other side.

"So, what are your plans after this? After you help us?"

"Well... I was hoping that-" Seyren tried to put his thoughts across, but he was cut off.

"We'd take you with us?"

"Yes..."

"You haven't helped in combat, and your only use is as a guide. And we don't need a guide back in Imeria."

"But..."

"Just think about how you can help. I probably can't even reanimate you as an undead soldier. You've got some time to think of something or prove yourself.

They sat there in silence while Kai practiced his sigilcraft, and Orlin traced markings on the ground while reciting something.

When she did, she blinked up at them groggily. "What happened?"

"You healed me," Orlin said simply, lifting his fully intact arm.

Her brows knitted. "I… can't. That's not my magic."

"You did it," Kai said, watching her expression closely. "Your eyes lit up, and the wound reversed like it never happened."

She shook her head slowly, then sagged back against the wall. "…If you say so. I don't remember it. And I'd know if I could do something like that."

They left it there, and after a quick feed from the rations Seyren had scavenged, Kai turned to Orlin.

"The fewer of us that can be tracked right now, the better." His voice was quiet but heavy, each word carrying intent. "And you…"

"I radiate necromantic energy like a beacon," Orlin finished, nodding.

Kai didn't have to explain further. Orlin stepped toward the waiting darkness, and with a silent command, Kai's shadow space swallowed him whole.

"Just us, then?" Vepice asked.

"Yeah. Stealth is paramount." Kai replied.

He, Vepice, and Seyren set out toward the fortress from the southern cliffs, as planned, rocky, treacherous terrain that promised fewer patrols but no shortage of danger.