Chapter 276 - C276. Necromancer

Having been so casually addressed by the strange man who felt as though he was nothing but an ordinary human. One would expect Daenerys to flare up in anger or annoyance even if the man's confident demeanor unnerving and the drake's presence was overwhelming. 

However, that did not happen as she only seemed surprised and had suddenly grown quiet, not uttering a word in refuter. Her guards had gotten defensive but even they did not retaliate, having heard the stranger's name. 

Zerahut on the other hand felt unpleasant by the stranger's tone and frowned intensely as he stared a the undead drake that looked over his army, oozing an aura that matched his own. 

He had barely any skin on his face and thus, could not physically frown but his lingering instincts as a formerly living being took him through the motions reflexively. 

'How unpleasant this is.'

Zerahut thought as he played with the lightly glowing orb in his right hand. He had heard Daenerys giggling softly beside him the moment the strange man had mispronounced his name but had suddenly grown quiet after being addressed by him directly. 

Her actions were always strange, to say the least, but her reactions this time were even unexpected, and the fact that he could not tell what she was thinking was more annoying than he had expected.

However, he decided to ignore those thoughts for now and focus on what was important. 

His first impression of this man was inconclusive as non of his appraising skills or spells showed any conclusive results and he could not even confirm his name.

However, as a former demon noble that had spent the majority of his life on Magic research and devoted his wealth and resources to attaining artifacts, he knew how to tell the difference between an ordinary man and someone he should be absolutely cautious against. 

He could easily tell that everything the man had on was not only a Magic item but ones of excellent quality. Several colorful rings also adorned his fingers as they gave off a faint glow that told him they were nothing less than magic artifacts. 

It was obvious that one of those rings was responsible for blocking all his attempts at appraising the man and as any scrying Magic aimed at him was being deflected. Most likely preventing anyone from sensing his Magic and even his presence.

Zerahut was aware of several Magic items in his life that had similar effects but to achieve so much in such a thorough way was beyond him. Surely this was no ordinary man to possess such an item amongst others. 

There was no way this person was someone that could be taken lightly. He had already lost most of the army he had spent centuries trying to amass but that no longer mattered to him as he had collected a sufficient amount of negative energy in return. 

He could simply create and summon more undead after defeating this man as it seemed his patron, Mammon must've already been killed for all this to happen in such close proximity to the castle and for the man to already be aware of iOS arrival. 

What struck him as strange was that the seven great behemoths didn't seem to be the reason for his army's destruction yet he had sensed the presence of so many demigods earlier, well unless they had all suddenly decided to swear loyalty to this man who called himself a Darknar. 

Of course, Zerahut was aware of the implications of that name. No matter how strong one was, one could not just casually adopt the name of the late demon king as they would bring down the wrath of the entire continent upon themselves.

Yet, it seems this man was not afraid of such consequences even if they were currently the only ones to had heard him. 

'Ty Falls Darknar uh... That is indeed an effective threat. Well played.'

However, Zerahut could not be fooled or intimidated by such tactics. What had actually surprised him was the fact that there were actually undead being accompanying this man and obeying his command. 

He could also sense a vague sense of negative energy attached to him, indicating that he was indeed responsible for creating that powerful undead accompanying him. 

The drake the man rode on was a high-ranking undead monster and the five figures behind him seemed to be of the same race with similar ranks.

They all had flesh and their eyes shone with an intelligent gleam. There was no doubt in his mind, those five, and even the drake were all intelligent undead beings with wills of their own just like his generals.

[Hmm... To think there would be a day I met a necromancer with more skills than I, how troublesome.]

For a necromancer that hadn't lost his mortal flesh to be able to manipulate enough negative energy to create so many intelligent undead being was unheard of. 

Such a feat could've killed the former him and was even one of the reasons why he had abandoned his mortal flesh for the immortal body of the undead. 

Even for demigods, there was no escaping negative corruption, the body of the divine only increases their resistance to it. However, as long as one was not undead or a spiritual being, one would surely suffer from the negative corruption when manipulating so much negative energy. 

"A necromancer you say, I'm not exactly one of those you know."

Tyler answered while maintaining the same smile on his face. Frankly, he had tried becoming a pure necromancer but now had a deeply rooted corruption to show for it. He had to be careful on how he proceeded in the future.

[Is that right? Do you wish to mock my judgment.]

"No no no... I'm just saying I'm more of a Magic Sorcerer than a simple necromancer. I do I little of everything you see."

[Simple?] 

Zerahut seems to have taken offense to that word as the aura around him flared up and intensified, the Doom Knights around him moved forward. The undead knights' that carried his throne also dropped it as he stood up and stepped forward. 

[Do you mean to tell me that you consider the practice of necromancy simply?]

The tip of his staff glowed brightly as several black Magic circles appeared in the air and large bone monsters came dropping out of them as their ghastly shrieks would normally make one cover their ears. 

They then flapped their wings as they surrounded the massive dark drake with their bony figures. 

These were all undead Wyverns with strength above advanced class monsters, and while they were not comparable to a Lord class monster like Drago, there were about 30 of them. 

"Well, this escalated quickly. You're still full of surprises ain't ya."

Tyler said in a sigh as he watched the undead wyverns charge at him but did nothing. However, the same could not be said for the five shadows around him as they had already moved before the summoning was completed.

*Booom *Bang *Booom!...

Several blasts reverberated in the night skies as they moved rapidly in the air and grounded everything aside from Drago. 

Everything had happened in an instant that even Zerahut had failed to comprehend the shadow's movements and had only seen flashes of Maeve using her spells. As a shadow mage, she was the only one that did not need to move around at super speeds. 

"Well, it seems we're past the point of any sort of negotiation so I'll only ask this once. Surrender your core peacefully to me and offer me your life and I'll grant your soul a new body. Resist and surfer the vconsequences, think carefully." 

Tyler's smile seized as he spoke his last words, his eyes seemed to glow in a red hue that caused all of Daenerys men the instinctively take a step back. However, as undead, none of Zerahut's unit had moved an inch.

[Offer my core? How amusing, I don't know how you manage to defeat the Grim Reaper but you will regret the moment you underestimated me. Kill them!]

Although he had been cautious due to the disappearance of the Grim Reaper from his soul link which was immediately followed by the appearance of this man. He knew there was no longer any point in talking this out and ordered his undead to attack. 

He was not delusional, he knew full well that not even his special unit could take on those shadow guards by themselves. All he needed was time to construct the Magic that would summon his trump card. 

[Daenerys! Call back your men to assist us. I'm well aware that they haven't been attacked yet.] 

Zerahut snapped at the silent lamia Queen whose men were still stunned by the man. 

Although having a youngling like Zerahut talk to her in such a rude tone was annoying, Daenerys oddly didn't have any grievances with the order as she simply complied and the male Lamia next to her contacted her assigned regiment to advance to their location while her personal guards moved slowly to assist Zerahut. 

Zerahut had originally wondered why her unit was the only one spared but it came to his mind that the enemy was also a necromancer and probably thought his army was compromised of only the undead and the 100 Lamia Legion that accompanied Daenerys.

If that's the case, then he needed to take advantage of the situation. He didn't know how many men this strange man that called himself Ty had hidden around them and needed to be prepared for an ambush while he attempt to summon the King of Shadows. 

Abiding by his wishes, Zerahut's special unit moved out in perfect unison, his doom knights led the fray as his heavy infantry which was closely matched by the hundreds of black Knight. 

His horde of mages maintained the defensive barrier while his Magic support Liches and wraith moved in to, well, support his archers— who were a league above the ones on the other regiments as these were all Tier 3 and Tier 4 archers with enchanted arrows and Magic bows. 

His entire force was leagues above the rest as his knights wielded Magic weapons and a few of them had Magic items. Having spent centuries with a single plan in mind, naturally, he had slowly prepared Magic weapons and equipment from his fallen energies, stockpiling them in preparation for this day. 

*Boom!

Like bullets, the massive frames of hundreds of Doom Knights shot towards the hovering drake with their blades already drawn and engulfed in flames. The beast riders and archers moved to the sides as they unloaded a fury of attacks at the flying monster.

There were even a few mages that had managed to cast powerful spells that came down from the skies in a cascading rain that descended upon the dark drake.

However—

None of their attacks had hit their mark as they had all been deflected by an invisible force a few meters from the massive frame of the undead drake. 

Not even the spells of tremendous power had penetrated that barrier, causing even Zerahut's to be stunned speechless. He couldn't understand how such a powerful barrier could be constructed in such a minuscule amount of time and by only a single mage.

An uneasy feeling washed over him as he felt that something was terribly wrong somewhere but could not place his finger on what it was. 

"Hmm, since you've decided to resist my generous offer, I guess it's my turn now."

The wind carried the soft voice of the young man clearly to them as he stepped forward and a tiny white singularity was formed in front of his outstretched index finger and dropped slowly towards the ground. 

•White Nova•