Reborn with a Necromancer System-Chapter 237: Leaving the Castle

Kai looked down at the crystals in his hands, their surfaces faintly pulsing as though a slow heartbeat resided within. The glow shifted colors. From violet to deep cerulean, then back to pale white. They hummed softly, but now that he knew what they were, that hum didn't feel like sound. It felt like breathing.

"So, if we can't transport the crystals safely..." he began, his voice low.

"We will have to travel as safely as possible," Seyren finished, folding his arms with the grim certainty of someone who had done this before.

"Exactly."

Vepice frowned, her arms crossed, her shoulders tense. "Why do we need to travel safely? Can't we just… I don't know, keep them in a bag or something?"

Orlin, who had been quiet, tilted his skeletal head until a loud crack echoed from his neck bones. He reached out and set one bony hand on Vepice's shoulder, his hollow gaze fixed on her with almost paternal patience.

"Ah… of course you don't understand," he said, his tone equal parts explanation and warning. "These crystals aren't just enchanted stones. They are prisons. Thousands of people's lives have been compressed inside each one, their souls stretched, compacted, and then bound. Afterward, they were loaded with magic until they became something beyond dangerous."

His fingers tapped lightly against her shoulder, as if to emphasize the point. "If one were damaged, even slightly, the backlash could… rip a hole through several worlds. The blast would kill everything as far as the eyes could see."

Vepice's eyes widened, her mouth falling slightly open. "So… a whole city?"

"Worse," Orlin rasped. His jaw twitched as though forcing the words out. "Think… as big as a medium-sized island, spreading across ten or more different worlds. Perhaps more. All of them erased in a single instant. Just erased. Gone."

Kai's throat went dry, and he tightened his grip on the crystals until his knuckles whitened. "So we-"

"We'd all perish instantly," Orlin finished, his tone flat and merciless.

Vepice immediately threw both hands into the air. "I vote for a safer path!" she shouted, her voice carrying far too loudly in the stone corridors.

The echo seemed to laugh at her before dying in the distance. Kai couldn't help a small, grim smirk, though his stomach was knotted.

Seyren sighed but didn't argue. Instead, he motioned for them to follow. His boots clacked against the stone floor as he led them through several winding corridors. The further they went, the air grew cooler, heavier, until Kai felt the weight of the castle above pressing down.

At last, they came to a small alcove. Inside was a statue.

An armored knight, faceless and rigid, carved from the same pale stone as the walls. Time had worn its edges, but its eyes still glimmered faintly as if dust hadn't touched them.

Seyren stepped forward, studying it. "Keep watch," he murmured, though none of them knew what they were supposed to watch for. Then, with deliberate care, he pressed his thumb against the statue's right eye. Stone ground on stone as the orb sank deep into the head until it vanished entirely.

Then, without hesitation, he reached up and pulled the other eye outward. It came free with a wet pop that shouldn't have been possible for stone, leaving behind a black hollow socket that looked disturbingly organic. Seyren waited, hand steady.

Kai and Vepice exchanged looks. Her face was pale, but she didn't say anything this time.

A moment later, an identical stone eye slid back into place where the missing one had been, as though it had grown back. Seyren turned the orb in his hand once, then placed it into the opposite socket.

The statue shuddered. Its jaw twitched, then its eyes rolled inside its head, spinning wildly before focusing forward. Dust shook free from its shoulders. Slowly, it straightened, lifting its massive stone arms. It stepped down from its pedestal with a softer grace than expected.

With a grinding rumble, it pressed its palms against the pedestal it stood upon and pushed it back with a strength no carving should possess.

The pedestal slid until it revealed a staircase spiraling downward into darkness. The smell of old earth and stagnant air wafted up to meet them. Then, as if nothing had happened, the statue stepped back onto the platform, folding once more into its original pose.

Silence followed.

Kai tilted his head and exhaled through his nose, looking sidelong at Vepice. "Another one of these..." he muttered.

She grimaced, her arms hugging herself. "We have to go down another staircase into the dark? l don't like it."

"Neither do I, but I'm sure this will be fine. It's just a passage, not a dungeon created by the first-ever necromancer."

Kai gulped, hoping his words wouldn't come back to bite him.

[Name: Kai Tensen |

Age: 15 Years |

Specialisation: Necromancer |

Rank: 5 |

Advancement Requirements:

Survive the wrath of a divine avatar, lasting at least one hour against a divine being (complete),

Devour an Abyssal Soul,

Survive the Rite of Hollowing |

Life Essence Stored: 93,217/250,000 (25,000/25,000 - Phylactery Reserves) |

Mortality Deviance: 6/10 |

Artifacts: Abyssal Band, Dampening Gloves, Mirage's Veil, Ebonbrand's Crown |

Soul Vault: 1,000/1,500 |

Souls Absorbed: Winfried Drummond (Greater), Angelica Trunsdale (Greater), Grand Beast Soul, Grand Wyvern Soul, Sovereign Thieves Guildmaster Soul, Mari Tensen (Grand), Lady Elerin (Primordial), Forged Primordial Soul (993) |

Souls Tethered: 2 - Carter, Seyren/Seyrel |

Undead Army: 19,983 {Mari Tensen (Divine Lich), Joran (Brawler), Rhea (Commander), Finn (Flight Unit), Merri (Shadowsworn), Berrus (Elemental Cerberus), Ralts (Sentient Chaos Lich), Joe (Death Knight), Princess Aliza of Forne, Arcane Wolf, Skeleton Novice Fire Mage (12), Skeleton Novice Shadow Mage (10), Skeleton Novice Elementalist (3), Skeleton Warrior (38), Skeleton (13,531), Zombie (12), Zombie Warrior (21), Zombie Sprinter (59), Zombie Shambler (70), Shadow Death Knight, Greater Lich, Grave Maw, Grond (Undead Ogre), Undead Rat, Undead Pup (4), Skeleton Magister (14), Skeleton Knight (7), Undead Wyvern (12), Undead Rat (6,243), Undead Rat Alpha (40), Undead Rat Broodmother} |

Languages Translated: Imerian, Salan, Forebearers (64%) |

Skills: Mana Manipulation, Mana Tempering, Mana Sense, Elemental Magic (Minor), Thrall Control, Combat Arts (Intermediate), Shadowmeld, Precision Targeting (Magic), Shadow Space, Death Sense, Murmurs of the Departed, Shadow Decoy, Sigilcraft (Fortification, Elemental), Aura of Undead, Undead Fusion, Umbral Mantle, Overchannelling |

Spellcasting Ranks: Mage (Greater), Necromancy (Greater), Shadow Magic (Greater), Strengthening Magic (Greater), Ice Magic (Greater), Fire Magic (Greater), Sigilcraft (Greater: Speed, Fire, Strength, Ice, Chaos, Anti-Chaos, Shadow, Flight, Shared Senses), Barrier Magic (Greater) |

Necromancy Spells: Raise Undead, Wither, Gravebound, Mass Raise Undead, Tether the Fallen, Undead Enslavement, Bone Lance, Soul Manipulation, Ebonbrand's Covenant]