He, Zassler, had two summons which he was extremely proud of.
In order to subdue these two creatures he had encountered in the plane of undead, he had expended a tremendous amount of effort. Zassler’s lips were constantly moving as he mumbled the words to this spell. The difficulty of summoning these two undead was far greater than the first five.
“Flee, now! The Undead Dragon is about to arrive!” The two Special Executors, the two Ascetics, and the Cardinal all hurriedly fled from the courtyard.
But right at this moment…
“Swish!” “Swish!”
Two golden arrows split the air, piercing directly towards the two Ascetics. At the same moment, two black blurs suddenly appeared from outside the courtyard.
“Lampson. Not one of you will escape,” Linley’s callous voice rang out, while at the same time, Linley charged towards them like a bolt of lightning.
Linley’s movement speed really was incredibly fast. As a peak-stage ninth rank combatant who had inherited the speed inherent to the Armored Razorback Wyrm, was supported by the Supersonic spell, and also borrowed the ‘imposing force’ of the world… Linley’s speed far surpassed those two Special Executors, to say nothing of the Ascetics and the Cardinal.
“Roaaaar!”
The Blackcloud Panther, Haeru, charged recklessly at one of the Special Executors, clawing and biting at him. Terrified, the Special Executor immediately chopped viciously at the Blackcloud Panther with his sword.
“Ah!” The Special Executor’s skull was caved in by the panther’s paw, while his sword hadn’t managed to injure Haeru in the slightest.
“Hrmph.” The Blackcloud Panther was filled with contempt.
In the past, Linley had used the adamantine heavy sword while at the peak-stage of the ninth rank in Dragonform, yet still hadn’t been able to do anything. In the end, he had been forced to rely on both the Supergravity Field as well as the Airwings spells before he could force the panther to submit.
In terms of defense, the Blackcloud Panther was even more formidable than Linley, and only a whisker inferior to Bebe.
“Slash, slash!”
Catching the Special Executor totally off-guard, Bebe pierced straight through his defense, driving his claws into the man’s chest and ripping the man’s heart out.
In the blink of an eye, the two magical beasts had killed two combatants of the ninth rank.
“Grooooowl!” The Blackcloud Panther turned and attacked the nearby Ascetic. The Ascetic was truly stunned. Two magical beasts had just popped up out of nowhere and killed two Special Executors.
Bebe charged towards the other Ascetic as well.
The two Ascetics and Lampson were all truly in states of shock. They specialized in light magic, but all magic took time to set up. The spells they could instacast wouldn’t be of use against these two magical beasts.
“Lampson!”
Linley let out a loud roar. Wielding his adamantine heavy sword, like a demonic god, he chopped down with his black adamantine heavy sword, causing the very air to vibrate with the force of the blow.
Lampson discovered, to his terror, that the space above him had been totally locked in.
“Lin-”
In the moment of his death, Lampson thought back to that first time he had encountered Linley. That was the day that the sculpture, ‘Awakening From the Dream’ was being auctioned. At that time, Linley was an optimistic, joyful young genius. But a few years later, Linley had become so frightening. And today, Linley was going to take his life.
“Bam.”
Before Lampson’s unwilling eyes, Linley’s adamantine heavy sword slashed down directly on his body. At this moment, Linley managed to link together some of the scattered insights he had regarding the new level he was trying to attain.
It was like the pulse of the world itself.
Those deep tremors. Those irresistible vibrations. The terrifying force that the adamantine heavy sword was carrying suddenly transformed into a ‘pulse-like’ rhythm which entered Lampson’s body.
Lampson’s entire body trembled once, and then he collapsed to the ground. Not a single wound could be seen on Lampson’s body… but blood was flowing from Lampson’s ear and nose.
If someone were to cut open Lampson’s skin, they would discover that Lampson’s internal organs had all disintegrated.
At this time, Bebe and Haeru finished off the two remaining Ascetics. This killing spree was simply too perfectly formulated. The undead creatures which Zassler had summoned, along with Linley’s fearsome appearance, had actually frightened Lampson’s group so much that they had directly fled, but just as they had reached the walls, they were caught totally off-guard by Bebe and Haeru, these two unspeakably terrifying magical beasts.
The end result was plain for everyone to see.
Bebe, Haeru, and Linley had killed five combatants of the ninth rank! If they counted the person whom Linley had killed at the beginning, they had killed six.
“Groooowl.”
Right at this moment, in the middle of the courtyard, the space began to rumble as a dimensional crack appeared. An enormous, black dragon’s head stretched out through the dimensional crack.
Wraith Call – Undead Dragon!
“But… but…” Zassler stared at Linley, as well as his black Shadowmouse and the Blackcloud Panther, Haeru. He was totally shocked, totally speechless.
Just now, he had been very arrogant, going so far as to say that he would deal with three of them, if Linley could handle two.
But before his undead creatures had killed a single person, Linley and his magical beasts had killed all of the combatants.
“Mr. Zassler, there’s no need to finish summoning this Undead Dragon, I think. Or did you want to test it out against Bebe, or perhaps Haeru?” Linley said calmly.
The leathery face of the Arch Magus necromancer, Zassler, twitched. And then, he banished the Undead Dragon back to the plane of undead.
“Linley, those two magical beasts of yours are indeed rather powerful. But my Undead Dragon isn’t weak either. What’s more, the Undead Dragon isn’t the only creature I possess. I also have an Ancient Wight.” Zassler sneered. “You must understand, so long as the undead realm remains, the army available to a necromancer is endless.”
Linley truly was frightened by Zassler’s words.
Actually, in his heart, Zassler knew that taming an undead creature in the undead realm was no easy feat. They had to be subdued one at a time, after all. In the past, when he had subdued this Undead Dragon, he had sacrificed many other undead creatures.
“Let’s hurry up and clean up this courtyard. Don’t let the Radiant Church know what happened here,” Linley said immediately.
Zassler immediately began to issue orders to his undead creatures.
Those two golden skeletal archers and the three golden-furred zombies very obediently began to dispose of the corpses. They were quite efficient. Very soon, all the corpses had vanished.
“Linley.” Zassler looked at Linley with interest. “From what Lampson said, it seems you are quite famous. Tell me about yourself?”
Linley glanced at Zassler. “Shut your mouth. Quiet.”
Seeing Linley’s absolutely emotionless golden eyes, Zassler began to laugh. “Linley, it seems as though you have quite a large grudge against the Radiant Church, am I right?”
“So what if I do?” Linley responded this time.
“What sort of grudge?” Zassler immediately asked.
“I won’t stop till one of us is destroyed.” Linley’s voice was quiet, but it was like the sinister wind which blew in the undead realm, capable of making one’s soul shudder.
Zassler’s eyes immediately lit up. He excitedly said, “Haha, good. Linley, it seems you have some ability. How about this. You assist me, and together, we will deal with the Radiant Church.”
“Me, assist you? You be the leader?” Linley looked at Zassler.
Zassler had to admit to himself that
he felt just the slightest bit uncomfortable when Linley stared at him with those dark golden eyes.
“No need to differentiate between who is the lead, and who is not. The two of us will work together.” As a necromancer, Zassler’s close-combat abilities were very poor. In addition, his undead creatures took a certain amount of time to summon.
Linley’s dark gold eyes stared at Zassler for quite some time.
“Fine. I accept,” Linley said finally. Linley had to admit that joining forces with a necromancer could indeed make him stronger.
Zassler immediately exulted. “Haha, wonderful. With the two of us joining forces, what have we to fear? Heidens, there will come a day when I kill you, you old bastard. Linley, who in the Radiant Church do you wish to kill?” Zassler was certain that Linley had to have had a major grudge against someone in the Radiant Church, for him to hate it so.
“Who?”
Linley shook his head. “I intend to destroy the Radiant Church and tear out its roots.”
“The Radiant Church?” Zassler was truly stunned for a moment, then he laughed loudly. “Haha, wonderful, excellent! When the time comes, we will kill Heidens together and annihilate the Radiant Church!”
But Linley’s face was cold and emotionless.
“Let’s go.” Linley led Bebe and Haeru towards the exit.
“Where to?” Zassler immediately followed.
“Do you have any destination?” Linley asked.
“None.” Zassler shook his head.
Linley said calmly, “Then starting today, just follow me.” As he spoke, Linley led Bebe and Haeru into the darkness. Zassler started, then mumbled to himself, “It seems that by following this Linley, the future will be quite exciting.” And thus, this eight-hundred-year-old Arch Magus necromancer followed Linley into the night.
115
Mutual Trust
There were no stars in the night sky, nor was there a moon.
Linley and the Arch Magus necromancer, Zassler, the Blackcloud Panther, Haeru, and Bebe made their way through the secluded alleyway. At this time, Linley returned to his human form.
“Crackle”
Linley’s ripped and torn pants were instantly consumed by flame. And then, with a flip of the hand, Linley retrieved yet another pair of pants as well as a form-fitting black shirt. In the blink of an eye, Linley redressed himself.
“Oh, this Linley kid is even more special than I thought.” Zassler’s green eyes stared at Linley. How could Zassler not know what had just happened? Linley clearly had an interspatial ring.
He, Zassler, had an interspatial ring of his own as well.
Over four hundred years ago, in the Mountain Range of Magical Beasts, when he was collecting undead slaves, he had accidentally raised a half-shattered skeleton that had been dead for who knows how many years. On the skeleton’s finger, there was an interspatial ring.
At the time, Zassler had been wildly overjoyed.
Based on his observations of the surroundings, Zassler guessed that this skeleton most likely had engaged in battle against magical beasts countless thousands of years ago, and then crawled into a deep valley where it had died of its heavy injuries. But after thousands of years, the local geography had changed and the valley had been sealed off.
As an eight-hundred-plus-year-old Arch Magus necromancer, it was understandable for him to be in possession of an interspatial ring. But this young man in front of him clearly was very young. Where did he acquire one?
“Let’s move, fast.” Linley finished dressing himself and let out a quiet order.
“Linley, I find myself more and more curious about you.” Zassler’s laugh was so very sinister.
Linley glanced at him sideways. “Zassler, remember. In the future, without my permission, you are not to call me by my real name. Just call me ‘Ley.’”
Zassler’s eyebrows twitched. “I understand. You are afraid your identity will be revealed.”
Actually, Linley’s name was a relatively famous one in the O’Brien Empire as well. But this was primarily in the field of sculpture. Sculpture aficionados knew a great deal about Linley. A sixteen-year-old who was able to carve a sculpture on the level of the Ten Masterpieces? How could they not be filled with admiration towards him?
Unfortunately, Zassler, that old philistine, had no interest in sculpture.
They hurried along the way.
“Where are we going?” Zassler asked quietly while maintaining his high rate of movement.
“Outside the city,” Linley said calmly.
“But this isn’t the direction of the city gate, is it?” Zassler asked suspiciously.
“Must we leave the city by the city gate?” Linley glanced at Zassler, who immediately understood what Linley meant.
“But it isn’t ten o’clock at night yet. The city gates haven’t shut yet. We absolutely can depart by the city gates if we wish,” Zassler objected.
“I’m not certain of the forces that the Radiant Church has in the prefectural city of Cerre. Perhaps they have people planted amongst the gate guards here. If you go by that route… it’s possible that they will recognize you. After all, aside from those six experts from the headquarters of the Radiant Church, there are others who have seen you today and knew that you were heading towards that residence,” Linley said calmly.
Zassler nodded.
On the way to being locked into the residence, there had indeed been another group of people within the residence, all of whom clearly were the Radiant Church’s people in the prefectural city of Cerre. Originally, there were servants there to serve Lampson and the others as well.
But Lampson was extremely careful. He was afraid of the possibility that these people had been infiltrated, and thus all of the servants had been sent away.
Linley and Zassler quickly arrived at the high city walls. Those twenty-meter-high walls were more than enough to render Zassler speechless.
“There’s no way I can get over.” Zassler was quite blunt.
He was an Arch Magus necromancer. His physical condition was on par with an ordinary fighter of the third rank. But for him to leap over a twenty, thirty-meter-high wall was impossible.
“Haeru.” Linley looked at his Blackcloud Panther.
“Grooooowl.” This two-meter-tall, four-meter-long, handsome black panther, Haeru, stared at the Arch Magus necromancer Zassler with his cold eyes.
“Ride on Haeru’s back,” Linley instructed.
Zassler no longer hesitated, immediately leaping onto Haeru’s back. Standing on Haeru’s neck, Bebe also gave Zassler a challenging look. Zassler, however, didn’t dare contend against these two magical beasts.
He had clearly seen the results of that battle just then. Given his judgment, he could clearly tell that both the black Shadowmouse and the black panther were magical beasts of the ninth rank. Without having his undead minions ready, he, an Arch Magus necromancer, didn’t dare irritate magical beasts of the ninth rank.
“Let’s go.”
With a leap, Linley flew into the air like an arrow, vaulting over thirty meters with a single bound, easily flipping past the wall and landing on the other side.
“Swoosh.” With a mighty bound, Haeru transformed into a black blur and easily leapt past the twenty-meter-high city wall.
On the wild grass outside the city.
“Whoah. This panther is quite fast.” Zassler clutched his chest, letting out a shocked breath. As he spoke, he dismounted.
“Stay on,” Linley said immediately. “Haeru, let’s go back now.”
Linley immediately executed the ‘Supersonic’ spell on himself. Linley quickly hurried towards their mountain valley home, moving as fast as the wind, but Haeru easily maintained pace with him.
Scant minutes later, Zassler and Linley arrived at the mountain valley.
“Starting today, you will live here. If you want to leave, it’s best if you change your appearance first,” Linley said calmly. Looking at his surroundings, Zassler nodded with
satisfaction. “I like secluded areas. This place is very much suited for my training.”
That very night, Linley built a wooden room for Zassler as well.
Late at night, when Linley was seated on the grass, preparing to quietly train, he suddenly sensed that from Zassler’s wooden room, there was a dense, deathly aura emanating from within. No wonder Zassler liked secluded areas. In places where there were many people, Zassler wouldn’t dare train in such an open, unrestrained manner.
“Necromancer.” Thinking back to the information he had read about necromancers, Linley couldn’t help but feel some fear.
Generally speaking, the older a necromancer was, the more powerful his spiritual energy was, and the more terrifyingly powerful he was. Because, with enough time, they could amass an enormous number of undead minions.
“At the courtyard, Zassler’s undead minions were all of the ninth rank. Most likely, he also has an ocean’s worth of middle-rank undead minions as well.” Linley had heard that an Arch Magus necromancer could be considered an entire terrifying army by himself.
An Arch Magus necromancer was totally capable of summoning a massive army of hundreds of thousands of minions to do battle.
And, in wars, as long as he could kill his opponents, the necromancer would be able to create undead slaves out of their corpses, controlling the deceased warriors of his opponents. His opponent’s corpses would do his bidding and wage war against his enemies.
A necromancer’s army only grew with each battle.
But of course, the pre-requisite for that was that the necromancer have sufficient spiritual energy.
“In addition, I’ve heard it said that necromancers have more than just the Wraith Call ability or the ability to create undead slaves. I’ve heard that there are some unique, sinister necromantic spells.”
Necromancers were most famous for their plagues.
In historical records, there was indeed a case where, because of a single necromancer, a huge epidemic had occurred, costing tens of millions of people their lives. This was also the reason why, when Linley had seen Holmer using poison, Linley had wondered if Holmer was a necromancer.
Dragonblood: Book 2 of the Coiling Dragon Saga Page 90
