Chapter 3 Five Years of Preparation
1
Night Liches were beings who had absorbed a great deal of mana, and by doing so transcended the state of Elder Liches. Such occurrences were rare even throughout history, for which the living were grateful.
This was because Night Liches were very powerful.
They were well-versed in using incredibly high-tier spells beyond the realm of humanity — the so-called sixth tier. They were on par with even aged Dragons in a fight. In addition, they also possessed many special abilities, hordes of undead followers, a great degree of intelligence, and resided in many-layered impregnable bastions.
They were capable of ruling nations, as undead kings. In truth, there were three known Night Liches— The Dragon Night Lich, Guphandera-Argoros.
The Titan Night Lich, Siyern.
The nameless Night Lich, a lord of the shadows known as Fear.
They ruled a domain that was the size of a small country, and the surrounding nations knew them as figures of dread.
For that reason, the name “Night Lich” was only ever spoken in hushed,
frightened tones. One could say that they were mythical mythological beings comparable to natural disasters.
And right now, in front of one of those terrifying Night Liches, the one who secluded himself from the world and remained laired in darkness — Kunivela — a pair of figures suddenly appeared, as though from out of nowhere.
One of them was in a robe. The other was also in a robe, but their statures were very different from each other, as though they were an adult and child.
Even the undead Kunivela was briefly confused when this mysterious duo suddenly appeared in front of him without any forewarning.
His research had been fruitful, he possessed vast magical knowledge, and he was quite famous in his field. He understood that there was probably a ninth tier of spells in the world — a fact that many people in the world probably did not even know. Yet even he had no idea what had happened.
Kunivela made his lair in a house in a destroyed city, in a cellar he had dug out below it.
Nobody, not even the organization, should have known about this place. And he had undead minions deployed throughout the city. How had they evaded their eyes and passed all his magical traps to reach this place? After all, Kunivela had also used divination magic to ward himself.
Still, Kunivela had not sensed anything before they suddenly appeared before him.
However, his confusion swiftly receded. What replaced it was fear.
In this world, Night Liches were some of the mightiest beings in existence. Just as superior beings looked down on others, it would be impossible for them to be afraid of others. This was particularly true for those people who understood his overwhelming power.
Assuming, of course, that this had happened a year ago.
A single thought appeared in Kunivela’s mind.
—It was, “They’re trying to kill me.”
He had no intention of speaking with the two people who had suddenly appeared. Kunivela immediately cast a spell. He did not choose an offensive or defensive spell, but [Teleportation].
He abandoned this city and teleported to a distant base that he thought was safe — he had thought this place was safe too — without any hesitation.
Fighting was not an option. That was the only choice he could not take.
Actually doing so would have been utter foolishness.
It was true that neither of them emitted an aura of might. He could not even sense any mana from them.
But that was why they were so fearsome.
Under normal circumstances, he would have greeted them with an attack spell to teach them the foolishness of standing in front of him.
However, these two people had broken through the Night Lich Kunivela’s surveillance network. For that reason, it was only sensible to assume the two of them were so far beyond Kunivela that he could not even sense them.
Surely the undead of the organization would have mocked Kunivela if they heard that the Night Lich Kunivela had abandoned everything and immediately chosen to flee. However, he would only have drawn that reaction a year ago.
Right now, the organization’s members would unanimously back Kunivela’s choice and would have vouched for the rightness of his decision.
●
There was an organization called “Corpus of the Abyss.”
It was a group composed of undead magic casters. Originally, it had been formed to work for their mutual benefit and avoid conflicts.
The reason for that was because when the undead — as beings with unlimited lifespans — studied magic together, friction tended to develop.
Without the three great drives — for food, rest, and sex — undead invariably developed other, powerful desires, and in the case of undead magic casters, they generally tended to thirst for knowledge. For that reason, once a conflict over knowledge began, it would tend to escalate. Neither party would stop until it became a battle of extermination which would end with one side being annihilated.
If the three great drives of the living were concentrated into a single urge, surely that single desire would become uncontrollable. It was very common for the undead to be destroyed in this way, to the point where the living could destroy both parties while they were absorbed in their feud.
For that reason, undead eventually emerged who understood that it was wiser to make trades and to cooperate within reason, rather than fight to mutual extinction over knowledge and magic items. In the end, a list of names was made. It was an unenchanted stone tablet that was inscribed with the participants’ names through some unknown magic, which would later be known as the “Granisle Inscription.”
At that time, it only contained the names of four Night Liches and three Elder Liches. There were few rules and rulebreakers would be ganged up on by the others. Such was the looseness of their relationship.
But 200 years after that, it gradually became a complete organization.
Thanks to an increasing number of undead members, the seven grew by 48, becoming a large organization with 55 members, with the original seven each being difficulty rating 150 undead creatures.
However, very few people knew of this organization.
Its members could be roughly divided into two types.
One kind cultivated their influence among the living and used them to achieve their aims. The other had nothing to do with the living, working quietly for their own aims in the world.
Very few people thought like the former, so most of their members fell into the latter category. As a result, they did not cause many ripples in living society.
As for those who planned to build their influence among the living, along with it came an increase in the number of enemies. In particular, since the undead were the enemy of everything that lived, there were times where the living would form international alliances to exterminate them. Because of this, there were even fewer members of the former groups. Of course, there were also those who had put down roots in the darkness of the world of the living, but such skilled undead were few and far between.
In the end, “Corpus of the Abyss” became a group that existed only in rumors. The reason why they did not try to compel the aforementioned three Night Liches to join them was to avoid them gaining attention when they did so.
That was why it took so long for the problem to be discovered.
The first to notice that problem was one of the oldest members of the inner circle. He was one of the founders of the organization, Benjeli Ansis, also known as “The Abyss.”
He was a six-armed, two-headed Night Lich, who was proficient with sixthtier arcane spells and sixth-tier spells from other traditions, and a fearsome being that humanity could not overcome. If he had been willing to emerge into the spotlight, the aforementioned three Night Liches would have become four instead.
That day, he had been heading for the stronghold of Granz Locke, a fellow member of the inner circle and a practitioner of the eighth tier.
After paying various prices, he had intended to learn how Granz had reached the eighth tier. But Granz had not appeared that day. Therefore, Benjeli went to Granz’s stronghold.
It was not unusual for the undead, who had no maximum lifespan, to lose themselves in research. Granz must have been that way, Benjeli had thought as he reached his destination. However, as Benjeli dismounted from his Undead Dragon, his bodyguard cum mount, he froze in place because of the strange mood in the air at Granz’s stronghold.
Granz had dozens of Elder Liches on guard duty and drove them hard as his servants. Usually, one of them would have immediately appeared to show Benjeli the way after he showed up, but nobody came even after he waited for a while.
Benjeli summoned his own minions and cautiously entered the stronghold, where he immediately realized what had happened.
Everything had been taken. His research and his wealth was gone without a trace.
The undead were the enemies of the living, so it was not unusual for the undead to be destroyed. Even such powerful undead beings were occasionally killed off by even more powerful living beings. But the strange thing was that there were no signs of battle. It seemed as though he had suddenly gone outside. Granz was a Night Lich. In other words, he was of the highest order of undead. Could someone like that have been destroyed without any room for resistance?
With a strange unease in his heart, Benjeli checked the status of all of the organization’s members.
And then — the organization trembled.
Of its 55 members, 21 of them were completely uncontactable. This was not just limited to members of the outer circle, but even founding members of the inner circle.
Before anyone had realized it, roughly 40% of the group’s membership had been destroyed. This chilled the spines of the undead, which should not have known the meaning of fear; the idea that their members — who could destroy nations — had not even left any messages or information behind meant that they had been unilaterally obliterated.
As powerful individuals, they could each take down a nation by themselves. Everyone was possessed of such arrogance, which was why they rarely worked with each other and “Corpus of the Abyss” had never worked together as a group. However, they no longer had the luxury to do so.
Everyone shared their information, looked out for each other, and joined their forces. Once, this organization had many absentees in their meetings that were spaced years apart, but now they all met on a monthly basis.
Even so, their numbers continued to dwindle.
Some unknown being was slowly, gradually hunting down the organization’s members.
These beings, who were more than a century old, knew fear for the first time. At this point, they no longer cared about face or reputation.
They had started meeting on a monthly basis at first, but as their numbers fell, they were now meeting once every two days. Seeing everyone present at those meetings reassured them, but if someone was missing, they would worry that they would be next, and thus they would live each day in fear. Some of them had even started staying together.
Even though they tried their hardest to gather information, all they found were mysteries.
They did not know why they were being attacked. Was it because of hatred or revenge or some other emotion? Or was it for the fruits of their research, or material goods like money and the like? But the most important question was— —Who was doing this?
Their aims were irrelevant now. The new conclusion for their current course of action was an unconditional surrender followed by begging for their unlives. While some people had suggested fighting at first, they had all lost the will to fight at this point.
The organization of Night Liches known as “Corpus of the Abyss” was now in the grip of an unknown terror.
●
It was under these circumstances that Kunivela had decided to cast [Teleportation].
He had not chosen to surrender because he thought he could flee. Rather, it was because he needed to organize his thoughts enough to converse with them. In addition, he did not want to speak with them by himself. It would be better to withdraw first and then surrender as a group, Kunivela thought.
However, a moment after the [Teleportation] took effect, Kunivela froze.
He was still in front of these two mysterious people. The [Teleportation] had not taken effect. Perhaps some spell had negated it.
Kunivela, as one of the undead, had already witnessed many things he had never seen before just today. The fear rose inside him once again, and his eyes went wide as he studied the pair before him.
The taller robed figure extended a hand.
It was a skeletal hand.
The names of many skeletal magic casters flashed through his mind, but they were all oddballs. None of them could have defeated Kunivela the Night Lich. So what was this being — as his thoughts reached that point, they froze.
He had been dominated.
He could not even resist it.
Kunivela the Night Lich had actually been dominated like a Zombie or a Skeleton. His mind and soul had already acknowledged the being before him as his controller — his Master. What should have been an object of fear had become a Master to whom he owed his loyalty.
He could tell that this was a skill to dominate the undead, one which he possessed as well. However, that skill was only effective on undead weaker than himself — which meant that his Master was significantly more powerful than Kunivela. Once under his dominion, Kunivela would have no chance to shake it off so long as the other party did not want to relinquish control. All that was left now was to beg him — his Master — to show mercy.
Master pulled back his face-concealing hood.
It revealed a bony skull. Based on the skeletal hand he had just extended, it was not a mask, but his actual face.
There must have been some meaning behind not killing Kunivela but choosing to control him. It would be best if it was because he felt that it would be a shame to kill him — that it would be better to keep him alive, the dominated Kunivela thought.
“Now then, start by — handing over all your research notes and your treasure.”
“Hand it over!”
The smaller figure to the side removed its hood too.
It had blonde hair and red eyes.
She looked like a human child, but she was apparently undead. Given her intelligence and appearance, he concluded that she was a Vampire that had been spawned from a human. As she was a companion of his Master, he could not bring himself to harbor any hostility towards her.
“I hear and obey. Now I shall begin with my treasure.”
Kunivela used a key to unlock the treasury in his room and took out all the sacks within.
There were 15 of them in total. Each of them contained a thousand gold coins, for a total of 15,000 coins — weighing 150 kilograms in all. While the undead did not directly need money, there were times where some of the living were willing to deal with them, typically people from the dark side of society. Completing their requests would reward them with gold, and gold was also a valuable item when dealing with them, so he had naturally saved up a lot of it.
There was also a bag of gemstones in addition to those. The table also had spell scrolls, enchanted wands, and other magic items.
“I also have three other bases in addition to this one. The other half of my assets are located there.”
Since he was being dominated, he truthfully revealed the location of all his hidden treasure in order to maximize the gain for his Master.
“Hoho, that’s quite a lot.”
“It really is!”
“…Home Invader Number Two… don’t you think you should show a little restraint? You really let yourself go, didn’t you? While I’ve been thinking it all this time… I have to say it today. Shouldn’t you behave more like a princess? You were when I first met you.”
“—Number One. We’ve been travelling together for five years, you know? After going through so much, even the undead will change to some extent.”
“Umu. I have my doubts about that. Logically speaking, the undead should not be changing on a mental level — does that also mean they’ll never grow? So does that mean this is the way your personality’s always been, Number Two?”
“It doesn’t seem that way to me… and when you get down to it, it’s all because of you, Number One. What with all that impossible magic, magic items that are each worth an entire kingdom, and summoning monsters that look like they could level an entire country by themselves…”
Master ignored the chattering girl and opened a sack, then took several gold coins out of it.
“…So they’re all trading currency, then? That helps me out a lot. After all, exchanging a large sum of money is quite troublesome.”
Calculating the gold content of each country’s gold coins was very troublesome, and so in order to facilitate easy trades, Kunivela only used these coins.
“Was that why you’ve been using recast Yggdrasil coins all this while then, Number One?”
“You’ve seen them before, haven’t you? That’s exactly it, Number Two. Now then, on to the heart of the matter. My first question is, what are the movements of your organization? How cautious are they of me?”
“We are wary of you, of course, but everyone is basically prepared to surrender unconditionally at this point. It seems some of them have also fled the group.”
“Name them.”
Kunivela recited a list of former members who had run away. There were half a dozen in total.
“What do you think, Number Two?”
The girl consulted the piece of paper in her hand and nodded.
“It seems two of them got away. What should we do, Number One?”
“Hunt them down and kill them. If we don’t rip them out by the roots, we’ll never be able to get a good night’s sleep.”
“—That’s wonderful, Number One! You’ve gotten better at telling jokes! See, the undead can grow too! Next we’ll have to work on your naming sense!”
“…I was not joking.”
“Ah, um…”
Master did not speak. The girl bit her lip and peeked at Master.
Rudeness to the Master was intolerable, but Kunivela had not been permitted to attack.
And also…
Were the two who escaped lucky or unlucky? Given the conversation from just now, they don’t sound like they’re going to spare them…
“Are the names I pick really in such bad taste?”
“…Frankly speaking, they are. Ah, but Heteromorphic Zoo was pretty good. It was funny.”
“Funny, huh…”
“Still, Blondie was terrible!” The girl planted her hands on her hips. “Those guards were giving me weird looks back then and it was so embarrassing!”
“But they didn’t say anything…”
“That’s because names have different meanings among different races, and being killed for making fun of someone’s name isn’t anything new. People are more sensitive to that problem in cities with mixed populations. But they couldn’t hide what they were thinking…”
“But we didn’t go there again after that—”
“—Excuse me, Master?” Kunivela asked nervously. Both their eyes — Kunivela only cared about his Master’s gazes turned to him. “All the undead magic casters who belong to ‘Corpus of the Abyss’ are willing to surrender to you, Master. Does it please you?”
“Oh, yes, let’s settle things on this end first. While it’s bad form to answer a question with another question, I still have to ask: why do I have to accept it?” Kunivela gulped at his Master’s doubt.
“You lot might say that, but you’ll definitely harbor resentment in your hearts. Why should I spare you? Only by tearing you out by the roots will I eliminate future problems.”
“We would never do such a thing. We could not even think of defying—”
“—Ah, I’ve heard enough of that. Then what would happen if you learned our weakness?”
He could not hide anything from Master’s demands.
“If it benefited us to destroy our foe once we seized his weakness, we would do so.”
“You see?”
“Only with respect to elements that Master deems harmful by taking us as vassals we will surely be of use. For instance, I can guarantee that we can outperform any other think-tank as long as we work together, and of course we can serve as troops against your enemies. Master, while your power is matchless, surely numbers can serve as an advantage—”
Kunivela desperately struggled to demonstrate his worth.
“Hm, that is true. I do have something that needs researching. But according to your colleagues which I eliminated earlier, nobody can do it. Is that true?”
Everyone had a rough idea of who was studying what within the group. They shared their information to avoid feuding over resources due to duplicating each others’ efforts. However, there was no guarantee that each person was telling the truth about the contents of their research. Kunivela himself was conducting secret research of his own.
Perhaps this hidden material could be used as bargaining material. If he said, “everyone has their own secret topics,” then Master would need to go and question everyone, which would mean he might step up his attacks against the organization. Perhaps the others had considered that too, which was why they had chosen to be killed without saying a word. That might have been why Master had not brought the topic up.
“—Then, what if we offered up a fixed sum to you every year? With a great deal of money, you could hire more of the living to help carry out research—”
“I have no need for money.”
“Mm.”
The girl beside him nodded,
“Then, then why did you have me hand over my treasures first?”
Was that not very strange? In response to Kunivela’s question, Master shrugged nonchalantly.
“I was just looking for any rare items you had among it. Ah, and I also wanted to savor the adventurer’s spirit of gaining treasure after beating a dungeon.” Kunivela could not help but wonder what he meant by “adventurer’s spirit.” Was he going to wipe all of them out just for that?
Surely he would have fought back with all his might if he had not been dominated. Of course, that was nothing more than a pointless fantasy.
“I have more questions for you. Since you are under my control, will the other members of your organization come to save you, or will this stronghold selfdestruct after a while — that is to say, is there any demerit to us in staying here?” It was hard to explain what those demerits were.
If Kunivela vanished, the others would assume that something had happened to him. But who on earth would risk themselves like this? Perhaps all of them might come, but probably not to rescue Kunivela or to attack Master. It was more likely that they would offer surrender or ask to negotiate.
In any event, there was nothing which would be immediately unfavorable to Master. However, one could not overlook any disadvantageous developments which might emerge after this.
“There are none. However, that is only for the next day or so. If several days pass — the more time passes, the more likely someone will think something is off. In addition, there are still dominated undead in this base. What about them? If they are still around, they might launch an attack.”
Kunivela might have been dominated, but that was just him. The undead he had created were a different matter. They would probably carry out their orders to kill all intruders the moment they saw Master.
On the other hand, now that Kunivela was dominated, the undead that were under Kunivela’s domination would be freed of it. Those undead were probably trying to flee right now and would not attempt to begin hostilities.
“Ah, if it’s just the undead here, then I can deal with all of them easily even if they attack me all at once. There’s no need to worry about that.” “Sir!”
Kunivela bowed his head.
He understood this already, but hearing Master actually talk about his superiority left him speechless.
“Now then, explain your findings to Number Two. Be quick about it.”
“Understood.”
For the members of “Corpus of the Abyss,” the fundamental aim of their research was to achieve great magical might. While he did not think the girl would understand, he told her anyway.
During this time, Master stored all the treasure into a magically created pocket dimension.
“…And that is it.”
“Alright, thank you for your hard work. Now, for the next question: Tell me everything about all the members of your organization. Their abilities, their locations, points of note, and so on.”
So that was it. He had used this power to dominate the others, then made them tell him everything before destroying them one by one.
In the past, they had all acted individually, but now that they were all informing each other of their status, it was as though everyone was joined by invisible strings. Rather than reap the harvest when he sensed his prey approach, all Master had to do was pull on that string and draw them over.
He did not want to talk, but Kunivela told him everything he knew. Thanks to the effects of the undead domination, he could not hide or lie about anything.
The girl would throw pointed questions his way from time to time. It was probably to ensure that it matched up with what they had learned from the already-destroyed members.
“Thank you.” Although Master had thanked Kunivela for coming clean, he probably meant none of it.
“Now then, this is the last question—”
The words “last question” made Kunivela panic. He had not yet shown his usefulness, and if this kept up, it would be for the worst. “—Enough, Number One.”
The girl interrupted in a tone that suggested fatigue, or an empty vitality.
“That’s enough, Number One. After all, I’ve done a lot of research on my own, and I understand now… you know what I said about not deluding myself anymore two years ago?”
“…Is this about the Divine Maiden of the Sun? But this isn’t just for you, Number Two. I’ve told you several times, but this is also for my own personal interest. It’s not for you, but for me.”
The expression on the girl’s face was strange; it seemed lonely and happy at the same time. Kunivela could not understand it.
“I’ll ask, then. Do you know anything about how the country of Inveria was destroyed by all its people becoming Zombies?”
He searched his memory after hearing the word Inveria, but all he knew about it was that it was some faraway country.
“No, I know nothing.”
“Is that so… Then, do you know of any way to revert a person who has been turned into a Zombie back to normal — that is to say, back into a living being? It doesn’t matter if it’s very unlikely.”
While he felt that this was a good time to demonstrate his worth, Kunivela knew nothing about the topic. If he had not been dominated, he would probably have tried to make something up to save his life, or lied that he was just about to begin research into that topic.
“No, I do not. But they say legendary beings like the Dragon Lords should know something about it.”
“That name comes up often. The vast being that floats in the sky, as well as the Brightness Dragon Lord.”
“In addition, there are—”
He listed the names of all the Dragon Lords he knew of. But he added that he was not sure where they were or if they actually existed.
Kunivela felt that this was his chance and desperately tried to sell himself.
“If you give me time, I will find the locations of these Dragon Lords immediately.”
“A good suggestion, but I will still be destroying you.” The reply came back immediately.
“But, but why? Am I not useful to you?”
“Because allowing others to know about us would have many demerits for us. It is because you did not know about us that you could not find the right way to deal with us.”
“But it would be impossible to betray you if you used your ability to dominate everyone.”
“Indeed, that is so. But as you know, there is a limit to [Undead Domination], both in upper limits and total numbers. There are far too many drawbacks for me to afford the luxury of dominating you, as long as there is no way to absolutely guarantee that you will never betray me.”
“We would never betray—”
“I explained it to you just now, didn’t I?” Kunivela swallowed his words.
There was nothing he could show the undead being before him that could change his mind.
“Now then, let’s put an end to this.”
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