Record of a Thousand Lives - Chapter 151

Corpse Artist Necromancer. Once-in-a-Millennium Genius. Mad, Cold-Blooded Black Magician. Those were the titles of the prisoner Rawelkan.

Bzzzt… Bzzzt… Bzzzt…

The sole lightbulb in the eerie, gloomy prison flickered on and off.

“Rawelkan, there’s someone I want you to get rid of.”

Rawelkan was moved beyond words. He would have started tap dancing if not for the chains that were binding him down. He looked at the orb that was floating in front of him and asked, “How long has it been since you last contacted me? Is it some big shot, for the church to directly issue an assassination order?”

“Refrain from mentioning anything about the church, Rawelkan. The other churches might have planted a bug there, even though it’s a prison.”

“As you wish, church leader,” Rawelkan replied.

“Don’t refer to me by my position either…”

“Ah, then shall I call you by your name, Ravelstir?” Rawelkan replied with a hint of sarcasm in his voice.

The chains binding Rawelkan suddenly shone brightly.

Bzzzzzzzzzzt!

“Heok!” Rawelkan gasped as a sudden surge of electricity coursed through his entire body. His body spasmed as he gasped for air, barely managing to stay conscious. However, he lived up to his title as a madman, as his gaze was still sharp despite being tinged with madness.

“You’re treating your old disciple quite warmly, aren’t you?” Rawelkan remarked.

The floating orb ignored his ramblings and said, “I’ll grant you freedom while you carry out this mission.”

“Freedom?” Rawelkan asked, tilting his head in confusion.

Crack… Clack!

The chains binding Rawelkan cracked open, but the shackles around his ankles were still there. He massaged his wrists before asking, “Why are these shackles still here?”

“Those shackles are imbued with magic. You’ll spill blood out of every orifice and die if you dare disobey my orders or try to run away. They’ll never break, nor will you ever be able to get rid of them.”

“May the air form into my sharp blade,” Rawelkan recited, casting a spell. Then, a magic sword formed out of thin air, and he swung it as hard as he could against the shackles.

Clang!

A barrier formed around the shackle, deflecting the magic sword. Rawelkan did not stop swinging his sword, however. He attacked the shackle, then moved to his ankle, then to his calf, then finally tried stabbing his thigh.

Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!

However, the shackle continuously summoned barriers to deflect the attacks.

The voice from the floating orb said, “It’ll be no use even if you try to cut your legs off.”

“It seems so,” Rawelkan muttered.

“A word of advice. It’ll be no use even if you use your vilest spell, Undead Transformation, because the shackles will just grow along with your body.”

“Vilest spell? Who taught me that spell in the first place?” Rawelkan grumbled.

It was then that the prison cell door opened, and a guard entered. The guard passed Rawelkan a sword and some clothes, saying,, “He commanded me to give you your belongings.”

“Oh, how considerate of him,” Rawelkan replied with a snicker.

Rawelkan donned his clothes and observed his sword. It was a strange weapon, made out of bones instead of steel.

“You have a week to complete the mission given to you,” the orb said.

“Who’s the target?” Rawelkan asked.

“The Skeleton Church Leader of the Church of Madness,” the orb continued.

“Skeleton Church Leader? The target is undead?” Rawelkan asked.

“That’s right. It’s a mutant skeleton that has been converting monsters to follow its religion,” the orb answered.

“Interesting… It definitely can’t be an ordinary skeleton if you personally gave the hit order,” Rawelkan muttered.

“Be sure to do things thoroughly. You could lose your life if you fail your task,” the orb warned him.

Rawelkan furrowed his brow and replied, “Alright. I’ll make sure to successfully finish my task, so stop with your empty threats.”

“You can kill as many civilians as you want, under the condition that none of this will be traced back to the church,” the orb concluded, and the light subsequently faded from it.

Rawelkan licked his lips and said excitedly, “I guess I’ll get to taste blood after a long time.”

The guard opened the cell door, but Rawelkan did not leave the cell. Instead, he grabbed the guard’s shoulder.

“Do you need anything else?” the guard asked.

“Well… I need a corpse right now,” Rawelkan replied.

Sukeok!

A pool of blood painted the prison floor.

***

Rawelkan was a Necromancer. Perhaps because of that, he idolized the Ultimate Necromancer, Nakron, to the point of mad idolatry. That was also the main reason why he used a sword made out of bones.

‘They say Nakron used a weapon made out of bones when he was still alive,’ he thought as he swung his bone sword a few times.

It was a sword he had crafted out of the excavated bones of a dragon, but its stats were not that good. However, he increased its stats by imbuing it with magic because he had a great deal of emotional attachment to the sword; it was a symbol of his commitment to walking the same path as his idol.

“Guuuuoh…!”

Rawelkan had massacred many civilians, turning them into undead. He yawned while thinking, ‘It can get pretty boring being a Necromancer…’

He was certain that if any class could be considered the most laid-back among all of the combat classes, it would be the Necromancer class. A Necromancer could learn black magic and increase the size of their forces the longer they fought after reaching a certain level. In the hands of a gifted individual like Rawelkan, the potential of the class could be maximized.

‘I’ve already gone through most of the city, so now it’s time for me to go to the plains,’ he thought as he stood up.

It had been quite a while since he last smelled the fresh outside air. However, he grumbled, “Damn it… I only smell the stench of corpses because of what I did…”

He spotted an arm sticking out of a pile of rubble while he was grumbling, and he thought, ‘I’m certain that I turned all of the residents into undead…?’

Rawelkan commanded his undead to clear the pile of rubble. There, he found dozens of corpses clad in luxurious white robes. The corpses each held either axes, swords, or staves. He thought, ’I guess there was a museum in this city.’

The museum in this city was quite a strange one; they did not showcase models or replicas, but rather put well-preserved corpses on display.

Rawelkan examined the corpses from the museum and found that they were pretty well-preserved. In fact, these corpses, which he assumed to belong to the founders of this city, were of far better quality than the corpses of the citizens he had massacred.

‘I almost left behind such useful corpses,’ he thought with a smile. The quality of the undead he could summon greatly depended on the quality of the corpses prior to their death.

Rawelkan gathered his mana and raised the museum corpses back to life. Thus, he was able to obtain several high-ranked undead, including Dark Dullahans, Flame Skullknights, and Crying Witches.

[You have formed a large legion of undead.]

[Please name your legion.]

‘Ho…? It was enough to turn them into a legion?’ he thought in surprise.

It was indeed a surprise. A Necromancer could command thousands and thousands of undead, but such a message would not appear unless the undead they commanded reached a certain level of quality.

“Eternal Legion,” Rawelkan responded.

[Eternal Legion]

Total Count: 2,001

Troop Types

Skeleton: 1,152

Ghoul: 475

Zombie: 320

Dark Dullahan: 11

Corpse Knight: 8

Flame Skullknight: 12

Crying Witch: 13

‘These will be more than enough,’ Rawelkan thought. He led the Eternal Legion to the plains, and saw a large white cathedral in the distance.

‘Shall we scout from afar first?’ he thought.

He then took out a very rare magic stone and crushed it. The entire legion slowly began to fade from sight before turning completely invisible. He then used vision-enhancing magic to scout out the cathedral.

‘There are Templar Knights and a few hundred monsters… It shouldn’t be a problem,’ he thought.

The Templar Knights were a bit of an issue, but he was confident that the Eternal Legion would be able to quickly dispatch them. The monsters were mainly weak creatures such as orcs and lizardmen, and as such would not be a problem.

‘The problem is the Skeleton Church Leader…’ Rawelkan thought.

He looked around the cathedral. He did not spot anything out of the ordinary outside the cathedral, so he took out another rare magic stone that granted x-ray vision and crushed it. Then, he looked around the interior of the cathedral.

‘Is that the Skeleton Church Leader?’ he thought when he saw a skeleton preaching at the center of the cathedral. He observed the skeleton for quite a while, but felt severely disappointed as he thought, ‘It doesn’t look strong at all…’

Rawelkan suddenly felt demotivated. He had massacred an entire city and prepared a legion of undead, but his target, the Skeleton Church Leader, would barely be stronger than a normal skeleton.

‘At most, it won’t be much more than a basic skeleton. It’s not something that they had to get all worked up over. What the hell…’ he thought in disbelief. He would have seen the flow of mana if the skeleton knew how to use magic, but he could not see a trace of mana around it. The target was basically a weak skeleton that did not even know how to use magic.

‘It would have been easier if I just snuck in and assassinated it…’ he thought.

He had prepared an entire undead legion because the church leader Ravelstir emphasized the importance of the mission, but he could not help but feel that all of his efforts had been for naught.

‘It’ll be a different story if there’s something else hiding there, but I doubt that skeleton would have prepared that much…’ he thought for a moment, then decided that he had had enough.

He drew his sword and commanded, “Charge at the cathedral.”

The invisibility magic was dispelled the moment the undead legion moved, and the Eternal Legion started charging toward the cathedral.

***

The earth started to tremble, and Amon, who had been taking a nap, opened his eyes in surprise. ‘What’s that?’ he thought as he looked at the undead legion charging over the horizon.

‘I guess the sun decided to send a mirage of bouncing undead instead of its usual heat wave to disturb my sleep today,’ he thought before going back to sleep.

The goblin tried to enjoy his afternoon nap under the sun, but the sun suddenly disappeared, as if it had been covered by something. Amon opened his eyes and saw that dark clouds were forming overhead, and he thought, ‘Something’s strange.’

It was not only Amon who sensed that something was off. Ravotel bit his lip before shouting, “Damn it! It’s a group of undead! Where the hell did that many corpses come from?!”

“Necromancer,” Kang Yoon-Soo said as he opened the cathedral doors and emerged from within.

Ravotel’s eyes opened wide in surprise as he asked, “Necromancer? What do you mean by that?”

“A Necromancer brought a legion of undead to wipe us out,” Kang Yoon-Soo replied.

Ravotel scowled angrily as he said, “So you knew the undead were coming. Why didn’t you tell us?”

“Because we’d still win even if I hadn’t,” Kang Yoon-Soo said confidently.

Ravotel scowled even more furiously upon witnessing Kang Yoon-Soo’s arrogance.

However, Kang Yoon-Soo was unfazed. He said casually, “Prepare for battle. I’ll give the commands.”

***

Rekil stretched his arms while looking at the undead charging at them and remarked, “A bunch of undead charging at a clergyman is no different from a bunch of moths rushing into a fire, don’t you agree?”

Reanna smirked and asked, “Are you confident that you can crush them?”

“The soles of my shoes and hems of my pants might get damaged, but I can easily take care of them,” Rekil said before kneeling in prayer. Divine power enveloped the entire cathedral, and a bright, warm light surrounded the monsters and the Templar Knights.

Kang Yoon-Soo stood at the forefront and commanded, “Attack.”

“Waaaaaaaaah!”

“Protect the cathedral!”

“Remikurja!”

All sorts of battle cries rang out from the cathedral. The hastily-formed congregation army had no battle formation or particular structure, but they all shared a common goal of protecting the cathedral against the Eternal Legion.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

The monsters and low-ranking undead clashed. Blood spurted everywhere, and the battle kicked up a cloud of dust as troops started to fall one by one. The high-ranking undead then joined the fray, pouring out all sorts of curses against the congregation army.

“Kikiki…!”

“Die…!”

“Come and join us in the netherworld!”

The curses were not particularly effective against the congregation army, as they were covered in divine power. However, even as Rekil continued to pray while drenched in sweat, some of the weaker monsters eventually started to be afflicted by the curses from the undead.

“Templar Knights, go and join the battle,” Kang Yoon-Soo commanded.

The Templar Knights from the Church of Helix imbued their swords with red divine power and jumped into the fray. The moment they attacked, they severely disrupted the undead’s formation. Just like that, they cut their way through the undead army. Ravotel and Reanna cut down multiple undead with each swing of their swords.

Then, a bone-chilling voice suddenly rang out from behind enemy lines. “Arise from your slumber, you who have died. Raise Corpse.”

The monsters that had died in combat all rose from the dead, and the congregation army’s former allies turned into their enemies in an instant.

The Templar Knights pointed at the black magician behind enemy lines and shouted.

“Necromancer!”

“We have to kill him first!”

However, Rawelkan was fully surrounded by high-ranking undead. It was common sense for a Necromancer to surround themselves with the protection of their undead.

‘This is too easy…’ Rawelkan thought as he let out a sigh.

The Eternal Legion was overwhelmingly more powerful than the enemy in both quantity and quality. Additionally, it was made up entirely of undead. Thus, they were bound to have the upper hand the longer the battle dragged on, as the undead would grow in number as their enemies fell.

‘What can this ragtag army do against my undying legion?’ Rawelkan thought as he let out a yawn. He had been quite excited to let loose after just being released from prison, but this was even more boring for him than when he had been in his cell.

‘I’m getting tired of this. Time to put an end to this,’ he thought as he raised his bone sword. He muttered, “Slay Divinity.”

The dark clouds covering the sky thickened further, and the light that had been covering the congregation army dissipated.

Rekil shouted in a hoarse, exhausted voice, “Damn it! My divine power disappeared!”

‘It’s the end,’ Rawelkan thought as he let out another yawn.

However, at that moment, a bright light descended from the sky.

‘What’s that?’ Rawelkan tilted his head in confusion while looking up at the sky.

A large creature flew down from between the wyverns and the harpies. The bright light from before had originated from its body.

“That’s…” Rawelkan muttered, squinting to get a better look at the creature flying down from the sky. Only then did he clearly see it.

A creature that only existed in legends descended down to the plains.

“Keeaaaaaaah!” The creature’s cry reverberated throughout the entire battlefield, followed by a powerful wave of heat.

Rawelkan’s jaw dropped and he exclaimed, “T-That’s… That’s a phoenix!”