Death King Karnak

Chapter 42. 11. The Curse of Dawn (2)

Serati cautiously surveyed her surroundings.

The underground area of the Ranpelt mansion was quite large. It stood nearly 7 meters tall and appeared to stretch over 20 meters wide on both sides.

‘Is this really a wine cellar? It’s too big.’

After a closer inspection, she understood the reason.

It was actually a structure divided into two floors—basement levels 1 and 2—but the walls and floors had been demolished to create one enormous space.

‘Where are Mr. Alius and Mr. Riltein?’

While she searched for her companions, Shutraff was trying to calm his excitement.

He had been momentarily taken aback, but upon reflection, it wasn’t something he couldn’t understand.

The tactic itself wasn’t particularly impressive. All they did was divert his attention to the outside of the mansion and use that opportunity to infiltrate.

He simply hadn’t anticipated that a cowardly necromancer would deliberately leave the safety of his zombie horde and plunge directly into a dangerous situation.

Glaring at Karnak’s party, Shutraff muttered.

“Well played.”

“You were easy to deceive.”

Karnak continued with a sneer, looking him up and down.

“You look really tired. Did you wear yourself out dealing with the zombies?”

“Hmm…”

Shutraff groaned softly.

He wasn’t wrong. It was true that Shutraff had expended a significant amount of his magical power while continuously using necromancy.

He was still far superior to Karnak. However, he was no longer strong enough to overwhelm him with necromantic power alone.

He could no longer guarantee a decisive victory.

‘Should I withdraw the necromantic forces stationed outside the mansion?’

As Shutraff pondered, a voice echoed in his ears.

“Thinking of retracting the necromancy you’ve deployed to replenish your magic? Go ahead, if you like.”

Karnak’s attitude was one of complete indifference.

“Then we’ll just run away again. Your zombie army can take its time getting down to the basement.”

“Huh? Can the zombie army alone capture that guy, Young Master?”

“Nah, that’s impossible. That man’s pretty strong.”

Karnak pointed around the room.

“But we can definitely destroy this underground facility, can’t we?”

Red magic circles and symbols were drawn everywhere. On the walls and pillars, masses of bloody flesh were writhing and twitching.

To the untrained eye, it might appear to be a scene from hell, but to Karnak, it was a familiar sight.

This was an altar.

An altar where captured offerings were tainted with deceit and impure energy, and then sacrificed to demons.

He had made plenty of similar things himself, so he couldn’t have mistaken it.

“Do you really think you could restore an altar of this scale in just a few days?”

“So, we can just take a nice rest and come back tomorrow night?”

“Exactly!”

Shutraff scowled.

It was true that if the zombie horde from outside the mansion surged into the basement, it would become a real headache.

The issue wasn’t just about winning or losing. The moment this place became a battlefield, the altar would be lost.

He had spent a great deal of time and effort to prepare it; losing it so easily wasn’t an option.

However, the thought of playing into their hands was equally distasteful.

“Run away? Are you saying you’d abandon the comrades you went through all this trouble to rescue?”

“I am a bit worried, of course…” Karnak shrugged his shoulders.

“But if the altar is destroyed, at least we don’t have to worry about them being sacrificed, right?”

Varos chimed in again.

“What if that guy just kills them outright?”

“You think a necromancer would simply give up on valuable sacrifices, like high-ranking priests and mages, just to irritate me? Not likely.”

Shutraff’s expression grew even more twisted.

They were blatantly playing games, and the worst part was that he couldn’t help but fall for it, even knowing their intentions.

As Karnak said, there was no way he could afford to kill such valuable sacrifices, like high-ranking clergy and mages, without any gain.

“Fine, I’ll play along.”

Shutraff stepped out from the protective barrier.

“But there’s one thing you’ve miscalculated.”

The tentacles that had been wrapped around his arms slowly unraveled and returned to the wall of flesh.

“It’s true that I’m exhausted, but…”

At his feet, darkness began to rise, swirling and spreading in all directions.

“I’m not so weak that I can’t handle the likes of you.”

Uuuuuhhhh…

Ooooohhh…

Throughout the basement, corpses began to rise.

They were all hulking figures, heavily armored and armed—ghouls.

These were the corpses of the Shadow Hunters that Shutraff had captured earlier.

The dark energy reverberated through the entire underground space.

“A lion, even when tired, can still catch a rat!”

* * *

The ghouls, armed to the teeth with swords, shields, and armor, let out terrifying roars as they charged forward.

“Graaaaah!”

“Uaaaargh!”

Varos and Serati leaped forward as if they had been waiting for this moment.

Amidst the dozens of ghouls, two swords began to wreak havoc, slicing through everything in their path.

Karnak raised both hands.

He had amassed a significant amount of necromantic power by now. This wasn’t like before when he had to fight using only chaotic magic.

“Come, slaves of the soul, I summon you from the depths of the infernal abyss…”

He activated a black magic spell that summoned cursed spirits—‘Echoes of the Netherworld.’

From various spots on the basement floor, malevolent spirits rose and swarmed the ghouls.

“Kekekeke!”

“Kyaaak!”

Moans, screams, and bizarre noises blended together, creating a chaotic and frenzied battle.

The outcome of the battle was not easily decided.

Shutraff’s necromancy was crude, but his necromantic power was overwhelming, while Karnak’s necromancy was supremely efficient, though significantly lacking in raw magical power.

This disparity was reflected in the ghouls and spirits, leading to a stalemate between the two sides.

As Karnak continued to wield his necromancy, he carefully observed his opponent’s reactions.

‘Now, what will you do next?’

Shutraff did not resort to using additional necromantic barriers. Instead, he simply poured more dark energy into the ghouls, enhancing their strength.

“Rise, my servants! Let death grant you its protection!”

The tainted power of darkness rained down on the fallen ghoul warriors. They rose, further empowered.

The spirits and Varos, along with Serati, who had been holding their ground, began to be pushed back.

“Ugh!”

“These bastards… they’ve gotten stronger…”

Internally, Karnak gave Shutraff some credit.

‘His learning ability isn’t bad.’

He refrained from using necromantic barriers, instead efficiently maneuvering the pre-positioned ghoul warriors.

This suggested that Shutraff was wary of Karnak’s method for nullifying necromantic barriers.

‘Though I doubt he fully understands why.’

It seemed that Shutraff only knew that “necromantic barriers don’t work, but other necromancy does.”

‘If he had fully grasped the cause, he would’ve used the simpler barrier spells without hesitation.’

In any case, the situation was not unfavorable.

At this rate, Karnak could slowly drain Shutraff’s magical power.

Of course, this was contingent on Karnak’s party holding out in the meantime…

“Miss Serati! Left side!”

“Yes, Mr. Varos!”

The combination of the experienced Varos and aura-user Serati was proving to be more effective than expected.

Though they had been caught off guard initially, they quickly adapted to the situation.

Varos’s support of Serati’s movements resulted in an increasing number of fallen ghouls.

Karnak watched Shutraff’s expression harden and smiled coldly.

‘It’s about time you reveal your trump card, isn’t it?’

* * *

Varos and Serati rampaged, the summoned spirits clashed, and the ghouls surged forward in endless waves.

With each collision, the murky dark energy in the basement swirled violently without pause.

Wooooom!

Shutraff broke out in a cold sweat.

‘Damn it…’

As the turbulence intensified, his necromantic power was rapidly depleting.

‘Who would’ve thought that bastard could push me this far…’

At this rate, he was going to collapse from exhaustion without accomplishing anything. He needed to act before that happened.

Fortunately, he still had enough power left to make one final move.

Gritting his teeth, he raised his voice.

He gathered all his remaining necromantic power and summoned the most powerful entity he could control!

“Come forth, demon of Gehenna!”

A dark portal opened in midair.

Through the summoning gate, the hellish landscape beyond was visible, and a blood-red giant, standing at nearly three meters tall, began to emerge.

Serati cried out in alarm.

“A demon!”

Varos, on the other hand, looked unimpressed.

“Oh, it’s Maznun. He’s using that again?”

Karnak also wore a smirk.

“I knew he’d do that.”

There was no way Karnak hadn’t anticipated something that even Varos had guessed.

Of course, Karnak had expected that if pushed this far, Shutraff would resort to summoning Maznun.

That abyssal demon, equivalent to a Purple Knight, was indeed the strongest card Shutraff could play to turn the tide.

Darkness surged over Karnak’s shoulder.

Demon summoning, like necromantic barrier spells, was a complex art. And if it’s a complex spell, it can be broken!

“Let’s end this.”

A simple necromantic barrier enveloped the demon summoning ritual.

Chaos ensued as the summoning spell itself began to unravel.

Booom!

The dark portal started to shrink, and the hellish energy that had been leaking out rapidly lost its force.

The demon, who had been about to answer the call, looked around in confusion.

“Huh, what’s going on?”

The bewildered demon and the equally confused Shutraff.

Watching the two of them, Karnak grinned broadly.

‘Once I nullify this, he won’t have any necromantic power left.’

Everything was going according to plan.

At least, until now.

Boom!

Suddenly, there was a loud explosion, and the shrinking dark portal stopped in its tracks.

Karnak’s eyes widened.

“…Huh?”

* * *

Originally, the dark portal had been several meters in diameter—large enough for the three-meter-tall demon, Maznun, to pass through easily.

But now, it had shrunk to about a meter in size. It wasn’t even a portal anymore; it was more like a window.

Varos stared blankly at the demon standing on the other side of the window, still in hell.

“……”

Maznun also stared blankly through the window at the humans standing on this side of the realm.

“……”

A bizarre scene unfolded, one that you couldn’t pay to see: a human and a demon, staring at each other in silence, blinking in confusion.

Varos turned to Karnak, bewildered.

“Young Master? It… it just stopped closing.”

Maznun was just as flabbergasted.

‘What the hell is this?’

The dark portal was open.

Yes, it was open, but it was the size of a dog door.

It wasn’t entirely impossible for him to squeeze through, but to do so, he’d have to crawl on all fours.

That meant the noble demon of the abyss would have to crawl like a dog.

‘Should I abandon the contract?’

It was too valuable to give up.

His contractor had promised him many souls in exchange for answering the summons.

‘I have no choice then…’

Maznun reached out with both hands toward the summoning portal.

The blood-red demon’s fingers grasped the edges of the portal, imbuing it with his power. Crimson lightning crackled and shot in all directions.

*Bzzzzt!*

Simultaneously, the portal began to widen again.

The demon was using his own strength to force the dark gate open once more.

Serati cried out.

“Karnak! The portal is—!”

*Boom!*

With an explosion, the dark portal shattered. Amid the billowing smoke, a towering black figure emerged.

A voice echoed through the air.

“Contractor! State your desire!”

Shutraff, who had been in a daze, hastily replied.

“K-Kill the men and bring the woman to me!”

“The same conditions as before.”

Maznun sneered as he looked at Karnak and his party.

The conditions were the same, but there was one difference from the last time.

“This time, I can see you clearly… Hehehe…”

The demon’s eyes swept over Varos and Serati, who were both visibly tense.

Both were sweating profusely.

The abyssal demon Maznun was a high-ranking demon that neither Varos, nor even Serati, an aura user, could hope to contend with. The gap in their abilities was simply too vast.

Varos, gripping his sword, asked in a trembling voice.

“Young Master? This is all part of the plan, right?”

A disappointing answer came back.

“Uh, I didn’t see this coming…”