It all happened so fast that nobody even had the time to react.
“Move! Move…!”
“Fall back!”
“Retreat…!”
Seeing the incoming waves of undead, the cadets had no choice but to retreat.
The same was true for Leon who hastily moved back.
SHIIING–!
With his sword, he slashed past everything that was in his way, helping some of the cadets along the way.
Pfttt!
“Let me help!”
“Akh…!”
They were a group comprised of fifteen cadets. The elites of Haven, and yet, they were all struggling so much.
“Fall back!”
All of a sudden, the Professor’s loud voice echoed in the distance.
Just in time, Leon turned his head to stare in his direction.
The Professor was running at full speed towards them. Behind him was the giant wolf. Its towering figure and pressure loomed over them from the distance. However, much to everyone’s relief, it wasn’t chasing the Professor.
Rather, it was looking at the approaching hoard of the undead.
“Retreat! Retreat–!”
Though the Professor didn’t look like had suffered any serious injuries, seeing his disheveled state, one could see that he had spent a lot of energy.
The fight wasn’t an easy one.
Thump! Thump!
The ground shook with each step the undead took.
Everyone moved further away.
“Ah, wait…”
Everything was proceeding smoothly until someone stopped to stare into the distance.
“There’s someone still there!”
Their gaze was locked on a certain figure.
“What are you doing?!”
“Julien…!”
Indeed, a single cadet stood motionless in the distance. He wasn’t far from the horde of undead. In fact, he was merely a few meters away from getting swallowed up by them.
“Ah!”
As if noticing Julien, the Professor, who had just managed to retreat to them, opened his eyes wide.
“I’ll go ge–”
Awoooo–!
His words were cut short by the wolf’s owl. All of a sudden, the atmosphere changed again. The pressure that surrounded the space intensified.
It became apparent that the wolf was about to attack again.
The target? No one knew, but they had no time to dwell over such a matter. Especially when the pressure that surrounded them increased by the second.
“Khh…!”
So much so that Leon could not breathe for a short moment. The same was true for the other cadets.
“Haa… Haaa…”
“Hua..!”
“Damn it…!”
It took Professor Hollowe’s spell to alleviate a lot of the pressure.
But by the time he had done that, it was too late.
The undead had reached Julien.
“…..”
As if time had frozen, all eyes fell on him.
He stood with the same collected gaze of his. Staring at everyone equally, he appeared completely unbothered.
Alone, he stood in the middle.
And alone, he disappeared from their view.
“Ah–!”
Several cadets screamed horrified, unable to grasp the situation.
“Shit!”
Professor Hollowe was the one in most trouble. Alternating his gaze between the cadets behind him and Julien, he clenched his teeth.
“….Crap!”
He had made his choice.
“Retreat!”
“What?! Bu-”
Some tried to protest, but he cut them short.
“It’s too late! It’s either you or him! I can’t risk you all dying here.”
Once his mind was made, there was no changing it. Despite the protests, Professor Hollowe cast another spell and forced everyone to retreat.
“Retreat! Retreat…!”
It was chaos.
Utter chaos.
Nobody understood what was going on.
Or at least, they refused to believe the reality of the situation.
All besides one person.
“Leon!”
Leon lifted his head slightly. Fiddling with something in his hand, he placed it in his pocket before turning his attention back to the undead.
Grooowll–!
They growled in the air.
“…..”
He stood in silence for a brief moment before turning away from them.
“Go! Go!”
In this chaos,
He followed the others back.
Not before muttering a few last words,
“….I’ll be waiting.”
***
I let my eyes stay closed for a moment, then opened them.
Grooowll–!
I was surrounded from all sides. The familiar-looking zombies, and the purple dome. It was all the same as before.
“As expected…”
I rubbed my chest and looked around.
There was a small space around me. Not a single zombie was walking near me. Rather, they seemed to avoid me as they moved forward.
“Why?”
Why weren’t they attacking me?
I extended my hand to touch one of the zombies.
“….?”
The moment I did, they turned their heads and cocked their heads. It was almost silly, but they didn’t do much after that.
They continued to march forward.
Awooo–!
A certain muffled cry echoed in the distance. It most probably came from the wolf.
‘….Now that I think about it, the wolf stopped attacking the moment the zombies started to move.’
Was there a connection to this?
Could it be that the zombies only reacted because of the wolves, and not us?
“I wonder.”
It was an interesting thought.
Awooo–!
The wolf howled again, but this time, its cry was a lot further than before.
‘Is it running away?’
To where…? And why?
The necromancer maybe?
Thump! Thump!
The zombies continued to move forward, the ground shaking at their unified steps. It was hard on the hearing since it was so loud, but they eventually stopped.
Thump!
“….”
And silence returned.
That was until…
Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh–
Their heads turned and all eyes locked on me. It was only for an instant, but I flinched.
‘How creepy.’
I felt like the protagonist of a horror movie.
“Hm?”
Sha—!
Amidst my thoughts, the zombies parted ways. With their gazes still lingering over me, they created a small path.
I unconsciously took a deep breath.
Because in the distance a figure appeared.
They weren’t tall, and their features were covered by a large cloak.
It was standing there surrounded by all zombies, locking eyes with me.
I felt scared by it.
But despite my fear,
Tok—
I took the step that led to it.
Fear was a meaningless emotion in this situation.
What was the point of being scared when I was surrounded from all sides?
“…..”
I only stopped when I was a few meters away from it.
If I could faintly feel it before, I felt it even more now.
‘How terrifying.’
Just standing still proved to be a difficult task. The pressure coming out from the necromancer’s body wasn’t something that I had ever felt before.
Especially when I could tell that it was currently suppressed.
“…..”
I quietly met its gaze.
It just stood there without muttering a single sound.
Carefully observing my every feature.
“…..It’s cold here isn’t it?”
I was the one to first break the silence.
At my words, the necromancer raised its head to stare at me.
I wasn’t even sure if it could understand my words.
“The cloak helps you, doesn’t it?”
It was just small talk. I wanted to see if I could communicate with it.
“….”
But it didn’t seem like I could.
Rather, I must’ve annoyed it as the pressure around me intensified.
“You’re grumpy, aren’t you?”
But it didn’t really affect me as much as it did before.
Was it because it meant no harm, or because I was getting used to the [Curse] thick environment?
I wasn’t sure.
“….”
Either way, the necromancer didn’t react.
All it did was continue to stare at me until it turned around. A path cleared for it as the zombies parted ways.
Scrunch.
It stepped forward, heading deep into the horde.
“…..”
It said nothing but I understood what it wanted.
‘Follow.’
Was what it said.
It wanted to show me something.
Tak.
I followed it without saying a word.
The path was narrow and the zombies’s gazes continued to fall on me as I walked. I learned to ignore them, but as I walked past, I couldn’t help but see a few familiar figures.
‘Hey, are you feeling okay?’
Their voices echoed in my mind whenever I passed them.
‘Wear this. It’s getting cold outside.’
With each step that I took, a familiar figure entered my sight.
‘We’re almost there.’
It was almost as if they were still alive.
‘It was nice to celebrate your birthday with us, wasn’t it?’
The twelfth subjugation squad.
The forty-fifth subjugation squad.
The One-hundred and eleventh subjugation squad.
The Fifty-sixth Subjugation Squad.
The soldiers that had been sent to subjugate the very creature that I was following.
They were all present.
“…..”
The necromancer’s back shrank as it walked faster than me.
Despite being surrounded by so many zombies, its backs looked rather lonely.
Like a kid who had a lot of toys to play with but no one to share them with.
“…..”
And then, the necromancer stopped.
I did as well.
“Ah.”
The sound inexplicably escaped from my lips as I looked up.
Cracks appeared in the very fold of space before me. But that wasn’t what made me let out that sound.
Rather, it was the enormous corpse that rested in the middle.
It looked like a rock at first, but upon closer attention, rather than a rock, it was more like a…
“Dragon.”
A rock dragon.
Its figure towered over anything around it, and if not for the faint purple film covering its body, I wouldn’t mistaken it for a simple boulder.
‘Purple film…’
My eyes widened as I lowered my head to stare at the necromancer.
“….So that’s what it is.”
A lot of the pieces within my mind started to piece themselves together.
All the collection of memories that I had managed to collect flooded my mind as the information that I had gathered became clearer to me.
There were still many questions that I had, but I understood something.
“…..”
It was a sad realization.
The powerful necromancer before me.
The powerful ‘monster’ that everyone wanted to subjugate.
The focus of the town’s hatred.
It had never been an enemy, to begin with.
But rather, another unlucky soldier like them. A member of the first subjugation squad.
“Haaa…”
I couldn’t see the expression it was making from its turned back, but I could guess.
For the first time, it spoke.
“T-hirty years.”
It was a high-pitched voice.
One that belonged to a woman.
“…..H-here.”
Her words ended there.
It had most probably reached its limit.
But it didn’t matter to me. I didn’t need a voice to speak to someone.
I took a step to approach the necromancer whose back was turned away from me.
Tak.
As if sensing my step, she turned to look at me.
I held out my hand to it.
Lowering my head in a sign of faith.
“I know you may not understand me right now, but I have a request…”
I wasn’t sure if what I was doing was the right thing.
Whether what I had pieced together was the correct sequence of events. But I nonetheless tried.
I raised my head and tried to peer through what was beneath the cloak.
“…..Will you let me see your world.”