Reborn with a Necromancer System-Chapter 240: Closing the Path

Before the gates could be secured, there stood over a hundred demons between them and their goal.

"How should we do this?" Seyren asked.

"Guns blazing?" Kai asked.

"I suppose you are to mean we just attack?" Orlin presumed.

"I'm in agreement of that!" Vepice said.

"Let's do this." Kai said, marching forward.

The battle before the portal gates raged like a storm. The sky above churned with sulfur-like smells as the demons were cut apart. Lightning filled the skies as the mana in the air condensed and mixed.

The air quickly grew thick with the stench of burning flesh.

Kai's shadows created much the chaos, writhing like serpents, slicing apart any demon that dared press close. Vepice's blades cut through the battlefield, her radiance turning twisted forms heaps of flesh.

But still they came.

And continued to come.

Seyren roared, his chaotic magic creating wide arcs of impending death as he threw himself into the fray. One demon towered above the rest, its wings charred, horns bent forward like a crown of bone.

A demon general.

Tempin, one of Seyren's old rivals.

The two locked eyes, and for a heartbeat the battlefield hushed under the weight of their recognition.

"So, you survived," Tempin sneered, barbed tail lashing.

"Barely long enough to kill you," Seyren replied, lowering his spear.

But before the duel could unfold, Kai's voice cut through the noise.

"Not today."

A black sawblade of condensed shadow whirled into existence at his side, spinning faster and faster until the air screamed. With a sharp gesture, Kai sent it flying. The blade sheared through Tempin's chest in a blink, cutting him clean in half.

The sound was like saws cutting through wood.

His body split apart with a wet crack, dissolving into burning fragments. Seyren blinked once, lips twitching, then simply turned away without comment.

The army wavered, but only for a moment.

Wave after wave of drones, hulking brutes, and shrieking flyers pressed in around them. Kai resisted the urge to consume their souls, he knew what would happen. Demon souls were poison to his soul vault, corruption that would seep into his mind and his very core. These corpses, tempting as they were, would remain untouched.

"Move!" Seyren shouted, cutting down a pair of clawed fiends as the gates loomed closer.

At last, they reached the steps.

Orlin gestured to the small braziers either side of the gates, and Kai sat the crystals inside. No incantation, gestures, or additional steps were required.

The crystals glowed brighter until a swirl of black and purple appeared within the gates.

Imeria.

"Finally." Kai said.

With a final push, Kai shoved Vepice and Seyren through the runed archway, the gate's power crackling as it responded to the crystals' presence. He turned back, his shadows snapping around him like wolves. Only he and Orlin remained to stem the tide.

The horde thickened, demons screaming as they hurled themselves forward. Orlin's skeletal hand burned with power as he blasted the front lines apart. But even his strength was not endless.

"More of them…" Orlin muttered, his voice low, grim. His glowing sockets shifted toward Kai. "They'll never stop. If the gates open, they'll pour through into Imeria. I cannot allow that."

Kai gritted his teeth, slicing a demon in half with a spear of shadow. "What are you saying?"

"I will remain here," Orlin said. "The crystals must be hidden. Sealed away. There is an old village, south of here, buried beneath the ground. Its homes were carved below the soil centuries ago, so the demons' eyes could not find them. That place has long served as my vault, where I store everything I may need. The crystals will be safe there, and when the time is right, I will return to Imeria."

Kai's shadows wavered as his chest tightened. "You'll stay behind…?"

"There is no other choice." Orlin's voice was steady, resolute, though beneath it Kai felt the faint tug of sorrow. "I can hold them long enough for you to flee. If I do not, all of this will have been for nothing."

The bond between them stirred, images flashing in Kai's mind. Not memories, but impressions that were left inside Orlin's body before death.

The hidden village, with its covered stairwells and earthen halls, its silent rooms preserved in time. A map etched into Kai's thoughts, guiding him to where the crystals could be buried.

Kai's lips curled into a grin that didn't match the weight in his chest. "I'll manage it. You've given me all I need."

He stepped forward suddenly, shadows whipping out, shoving Orlin back toward the gates. The skeletal necromancer staggered, the lights within its sockets widening in surprise.

"Kai!"

"Goodbye, Orlin." Kai's voice was firm, but his heart clenched with each word. "You've done more than enough. Now it's my turn."

With a sharp push, the shadows forced Orlin through the portal. The gate flared, swallowing him in light.

Kai grabbed the crystals from the braziers and the gates sealed shut.

The battlefield fell silent around Kai for the barest of moments, as if even the demons sensed the choice that had just been made.

"Come." Kai commanded.

Not to the demons.

To his army.

His shadows opened wide, and thousands of skeletons poured out.

He heard the vicious screams of the demons before he turned to face more of them.

Then the horde screamed and rushed him, but his army stood in their way.

Kai gripped the crystals tight, their eerie glow humming against his palms.

'Come, Shade.'

A shadow coiled around his arms, his chest, his legs, until he was a storm of darkness incarnate. He carved through the demons, using his shadow-creation to cut his way out from the gates and onto the blood-soaked plains beyond.

He didn't fight to win, but to escape.

Step by step, strike by strike, he forced a path through the endless swarm, eyes fixed southward. The image of that underground village burned in his mind. A sanctuary. A place to hide what could not be destroyed or taken to his homeland.

And so, drenched in blood and shadows, the crystals pulsing like hearts in his grasp, Kai began his desperate march toward the hidden village beneath the earth.