Chapter 10

Chapter 10
## Chapter 10

Fragments of the Immortal King (3)

My retribution was complete, and I turned my attention to the aftermath.

To begin, I called together the remaining spirits under my command to evaluate our losses.

The legions that had clashed alongside Malcom appeared to have been nearly wiped out, and the skirmishes against the resisting dark wizards within the settlement had claimed a severe toll.

[There were roughly five hundred at the start, yet this is all that remains?]

The once massive horde of the walking dead had dwindled to barely over thirty.

The price paid to eliminate just over forty adversaries was staggering.

Had the force consisted only of simple zombies or skeletons, it would be understandable, but several higher-tier entities had been present in those ranks.

If Malcom had not utilized those dark wizards as mere fodder to absorb the brunt of the assault, the forces sent toward the village would have been entirely decimated.

‘Had that happened, I could have finished Malcom off much quicker and arrived to provide backup.’

After estimating the scale of the destruction, I went over to inspect Malcom’s lifeless form.

Lost numbers could always be replenished without much trouble.

As long as the remains were not ruined beyond all utility, a fraction of the host could be restored.

Besides, raising the corpses of fallen enemies to swell one’s own ranks is precisely what makes the path of a necromancer so appealing, is it not?

‘Let’s see… I wonder if this will yield results.’

Averting my eyes from Malcom, I scanned the immediate surroundings and spotted a specific target I had been keeping an eye out for.

It was the polite dark wizard who had provided my very first lessons.

Though he had been tossed around by the violent shockwaves of the conflict and left in a battered state, his skeletal structure remained largely intact.

‘His spirit has been ripped away as well. Even so, given his current state, I should be able to salvage something from him.’

He had given me individual instruction and even provided hands-on experience.

With a sense of appreciation, I attempted to raise an undead servant.

Drawing upon the principles of “Dark Magic” I had mastered, my practical observations of reanimated corpses, and the intrinsic insights regarding the undead granted through my attunement with the “Fragment of the Immortal King,” I began to channel the dark energies.

‘Binding the remains with dark magic, establishing a synchronization, corrupting the dormant energy within the frame, altering the physical structure… and drawing together the lingering traces of the spirit… is this the proper sequence?’

Moments later, dark fire wrapped around the body, consuming the flesh until nothing but the skeletal frame was left.

The process seemed to be going perfectly at first.

Snap!

Crunch!

The remaining skeletal structure began to fracture and disintegrate into dust.

[Ah… my apologies.]

I offered a brief expression of regret.

Even so, the failure allowed me to truly comprehend the underlying mechanics.

Without delay, I commanded my servants to retrieve Jeraf’s corpse from the storage area so I could attempt the reanimation process once more.

Perhaps because of the reliable ‘Jeraf Chance’ that always seemed to work in my favor, this attempt proved successful.

A Skeleton Mage stood completed before me.

Though this success bolstered my morale, attempting the process on Malcom’s remains still felt far too risky at my current level.

It clear that I needed several more successful trials before I could proceed with absolute certainty.

‘No matter, since there is no shortage of raw materials here, I can practice extensively before making the final attempt.’

I signaled a nearby servant to carry Malcom’s body, then stood up to survey the rest of the settlement.

Tottering slightly, my posture wavered for a second.

Navigating without a right arm made balancing quite troublesome.

‘Fixing this needs to be my immediate priority.’

I directed the servants to locate my missing right arm, which had been severed and thrown aside during the intense fighting.

They conducted a thorough search and recovered it quickly, though its structural integrity left much to be desired.

‘The upper portion is completely obliterated. This is useless.’

There was no way to connect the lower arm directly to the shoulder joint.

Had I already isolated my core essence and taken the form of a truly deathless lich, I might have been able to reassemble the fragments and trigger regeneration, but such a feat was currently far beyond my limitations.

As I pondered my options, my gaze fell upon the shattered pieces of the Death Knight, which had been blasted apart just before my duel with Malcom.

It appeared entirely ruined and beyond any hope of standard repair.

However, upon closer inspection, I realized the right arm assembly was perfectly preserved and matched my physical proportions quite well.

‘I can simply substitute this!’

Grasping the Death Knight’s right arm, I aligned it with my empty shoulder socket.

Channeling my dark magic, I forged a connection and synchronized the limb with the fragments inside me; dark flames erupted, burning away the remaining tissue on the polished bone until only the stark white structure remained.

Shortly after, “Rapid Recovery” took effect, fusing my torso to the newly attached limb of the Death Knight.

[Hmm… it feels just a bit unnatural.]

I swung the newly acquired arm in a quick arc and utilized bone manipulation dark magic to carefully refine its dimensions until a perfect balance was achieved.

[There we go! This is actually quite remarkable!]

Though the coloration of the bone varied slightly from the rest of my frame, I was highly pleased with the outcome.

Due to the exceptional resilience of these bones, channeling dark magic felt every bit as seamless as it had originally.

[Now, shall we proceed to gather our prizes?]

The village was entirely deserted, leaving a vast wealth of resources waiting to be claimed.

A satisfied grin crossed my face as I surveyed the quiet settlement.

—

Regrettably, the vast majority of the undead crushed by Malcom were damaged beyond any hope of salvation.

I reanimated what few I could save and walked through the devastated village.

Skeletal remains and broken constructs were strewn across the pathways, interspersed with the corpses of various subordinates.

These appeared to be the fighters who had been isolated from the main defensive line and overwhelmed during the initial onslaught.

Stepping closer, I salvaged the remains that could still support reanimation and raised new servants from the bodies of the fallen minions.

[Would this one qualify as a Skeleton Warrior?]

Accompanied by my growing host, I systematically cleared out the surrounding structures for useful materials as we pressed forward.

The number of fresh corpses along the paths was far lower than I had initially anticipated.

It was only when I reached the open square at the center of the village that the reason became apparent.

‘This is where they made their final stand.’

A conflict of massive proportions had unfolded in this central area.

The shattered remnants of hundreds of undead were piled across the ground, alongside the bodies of the dark wizards who had apparently been wiped out in a single, decisive stroke.

I had been unable to fully grasp the wider tactical situation during my duel with Malcom, but it was clear they had consolidated their forces and mounted a desperate defense within the narrow corridors following the initial breach.

Furthermore, every single dark wizard was fully outfitted in traditional robes and carrying a staff.

Judging by the weapons clutched in the hands of the ordinary minions, they had successfully organized and rallied for a coordinated counterattack immediately after the alarm was raised.

[Wait… the distribution of these undead looks peculiar. Why are there so many concentrated here?]

A significant detachment of undead stood in defensive formations, as though they had perished while shielding the center.

[Ah, these must be the private reserves that the dark wizards kept in reserve and summoned out.]

Looking closer, very few of them belonged to the higher tiers of the undead.

Even so, their sheer volume was substantial, and they had clearly played a vital role in maintaining the perimeter.

As I examined the fallen defenders more thoroughly, I detected a few individuals among the minions who possessed exceptional strength.

This was particularly true of the mature warrior who had previously been stationed at the village perimeter.

[I sensed a powerful presence when I initially surveyed the entire valley, but I never anticipated his combat capacity would be this formidable.]

The vast majority of the high-tier attackers seemed to have been brought down by this single warrior.

It appeared that his background as a trained combatant, rather than a practitioner of sorcery, allowed him to utilize his dark magic with far greater physical efficiency and martial prowess.

[I may have grown arrogant simply by measuring raw magical signatures. I must exercise greater caution moving forward.]

Though this warrior had put up a spectacular resistance, he was unable to hold the line for long once the dark wizards were annihilated en masse by Malcom’s actions.

[Regardless, they will serve as my premier assets now.]

Beginning with the specimens that exhibited lower magical signatures, I began the process of reanimation one by one.

The dark wizards were reshaped into Skeleton Mages, while the standard minions were raised as either Elite Skeletons or Skeleton Warriors.

A few of the more prominent combatants were elevated to the rank of Skeleton Knights.

As I focused on the repetitive task of raising these servants, I came to realize that the absolute lowest tier among the newly raised host was the Elite Skeleton.

In truth, I had been the weakest entity in this entire village.

‘Well, the hierarchy has shifted, and I am the strongest now. I will let these servants do the heavy lifting from this point onward.’

There was no complex reason why my newly raised forces consisted entirely of skeletal forms.

While shaping the undead using the ancient records embedded within the fragment, it was highly probable that Malcom’s personal tactics leaned heavily toward sacrificing skeletons, making that specific blueprint the most developed and efficient.

Additionally, my own nature as a skeletal being likely made it far easier to channel magic into that specific category.

‘The lack of variety is a bit disappointing, but it cannot be helped.’

Even so, I invested an extra measure of focus into the village guardian, as leaving such a prime specimen as a mere Skeleton Knight felt like a waste of potential.

Since Malcom had been preparing to forge an even more powerful entity, I utilized every ounce of my accumulated knowledge to construct the highest tier of undead possible.

[Gargle…]

A low, churning sound echoed from the torso on the ground, and the severed head that had been resting loosely suddenly rolled aside.

The armored form then pushed itself up from the dirt, retrieved its own head, and securely tucked it under one arm.

[Excellent, the process was an absolute success.]

A Durahan, the legendary headless executioner, had been brought forth.

With almost all the other high-tier undead destroyed in the fighting, this Durahan stood as my most formidable asset.

There were a few other potential candidates for this transformation, but their physical remains were in far worse condition.

Of course, this baseline was merely temporary, and the internal hierarchy could easily shift in the future.

At last, it was time to deal with the long-awaited Malcom.

Before proceeding, however, I paused to carefully consider my options.

The records available to me contained very few high-tier undead variants tailored specifically for magic users.

Transforming a practitioner of Malcom’s caliber into a common Skeleton Mage felt like a massive waste of resources.

Incorporeal entities like ghosts required an intact, tethered soul to function, and the creation of a Lich followed a similar restriction.

‘Under normal circumstances, a Lich comes into being when a powerful sorcerer undergoes a deliberate, ritualistic transformation into undeath. I have no access to that specific methodology.’

Malcom’s previous mocking remarks about my incomplete nature had not been without merit.

As I brainstormed a solution, my eyes chanced upon my newly attached right arm.

A true Death Knight represented the absolute pinnacle of martial undeath; they maintained full cognitive awareness and rivaled a Lich in terms of sheer destructive capability.

The specimens I had encountered previously had simply been exposed to the draining influence of the fragment for far too long, stripping them of their power and erasing their minds.

‘Naturally, I cannot transform a pure spellcaster like Malcom into a standard Death Knight, but I might be able to replicate the core principles of the process…’

Detailed schematics regarding the Death Knight existed within the “Fragment of the Immortal King,” and since my transition into a Demilich, I had reviewed those records repeatedly. Furthermore, my right arm now consisted of those exact components.

[Very well, let us put the theory to the test.]

Adopting a stable stance, I pressed my right hand firmly against Malcom’s chest and concentrated my entire focus.

A darker insight, driven by my accumulated experience, whispered the necessary adjustments through “Vile Wisdom.”

Simultaneously, the “Fragment of the Immortal King” pulsating within my chest granted me the necessary energetic output.

Soot-black flames burst into life across Malcom’s remains.

Yet, unlike the previous experiments, his flesh did not simply burn away to reveal bones; instead, his physical form withered rapidly like a fading illusion, as though all moisture was being instantly drawn out.

The experiment was a success.

Acting quickly, I captured Malcom’s scattered remnants of consciousness and bound them back into the frame.

The broken pieces of his mind held no value as actionable intelligence, but this consolidation would provide him with just enough cognitive function to interpret complex scenarios and make independent choices.

Malcom slowly rose to his feet, standing perfectly upright as a cold, sapphire light began to dance within his empty eye sockets.

He looked directly at me, then immediately bowed low in a gesture of absolute submission.

[Awaiting your orders.]

‘He actually speaks!’

I felt a brief surge of genuine satisfaction, as this was the very first time an undead servant had conversed with me in a normal tongue.

‘Given that he possesses a functioning intellect and the capacity for speech, he deserves a designation…’

After pondering it for a brief moment, I realized there was little point in overcomplicating things.

[Your designation shall remain Malcom. I expect great results from you. Ensure that you obey my directives implicitly from this day forward, is that clear?]

Inventing an entirely new title would only cause unnecessary confusion, and in all likelihood, his original name had been nothing more than a cover identity, much like my own.

He gave a slow nod.

Though he had only just regained awareness, he did not seem particularly inclined to engage in lengthy dialogue just yet, but his responsiveness would undoubtedly improve over time.

Smack!

If it did not, I would simply resort to physical correction.

[Acknowledge your master, servant.]

[…Understood.]

In this manner, my vengeance was fully realized, and the very sorcerer who had once brought about my demise was reborn as a “Death Wizard,” bound eternally to my service.