The Necromancer Who Was Despised

As a vessel, he might not know, but from the perspective of the majority of the Black Star, my value wasn’t as high as I thought, he said.

-But the Black Star has grown too big for that. That’s all there is to it.

Somewhere, a faint, childish voice murmurs.

“Leader?”

The leader of the black star.

Slightly, Dark Elves, including Yeri, and the two elders, show a slightly surprised expression.

“Leader…”

Tinus’s teeth are even slightly revealed.

“It’s the black magician’s leader.”

Fundamentally, the black magicians’ leader, who can’t be ignored, has a great deal of symbolic power, even if their actual power is somewhat lacking.

-It might be better to side with the red ogres, as Durke said.

“That’s not possible!”

Tinus’s gaze sharpens at the mention of the red ogres.

“It’s better to deal with the empire than to make a deal with them.”

-Neutrality has its limits. Currently, it’s not working out. Durke is putting a lot of pressure on us.

The old man’s face becomes distorted at those words.

The strange atmosphere continued, and in the end, the two couldn’t find a compromise.

-Neutrality won’t move this time either.

“Remember what they did to the Orcs. They see everyone outside their race as targets for conquest. And if you know what they’re planning to do…”.

-But the empire has also betrayed us in the past.

What are they talking about, having set us up like this?

Akichi’s face turns red as he looks at the still-present Orcs and shouts.

“Take him.”

“What?”

“If possible, I want to catch that old man.”

“Well, that’s not for me to decide, but for the leader here.”

“If you want to, let’s try.”

“I do want to. If we can get him to talk, we might be able to extract some information.”

“It seems plausible.”

Quahar laughs with a fierce expression.

“It looks like the internal situation is a mess, but you’ve decided to invade anyway.”

“Well, it might be because of that that we’ve chosen to invade.”

To strengthen internal unity, they start a war with another country.

It’s a common tactic. However, since they’re egoists, it’s unlikely to work.

It seems that the internal divisions have accelerated instead.

“There are those who have sided with the empire, and those who have sided with the red ogres. The leader seems to be neutral.

And the neutral force seems to be somewhat large. They’re trying to pull us in somehow.

“I understand. I’ll try to capture him somehow.”

-This is bad. We shouldn’t be having a conversation like this.

We’re keeping our enemies close, and it’s not the first or second time we’ve been chatting with them carelessly.

At first, it was to persuade Sol, then to use me, and finally, to have a leisurely conversation with the leader.

We’re so calm that we’ve forgotten we’re in the middle of a battle, no, a war.

But I didn’t plan to just watch forever.

Initially, they had lost their will to fight, intimidated by the Red Ogre’s power, but I had no intention of letting them off easily.

‘Those who want to join hands with the Red Ogre’s enemies need to be dealt with as well.’

Despite the Red Ogre’s dwindling power, their influence was still considerable.

It was the Red Ogre who had suppressed these people with force.

If they were to obtain magic…

‘That would be a real headache.’

Honestly, I thought the Red Ogre would keep quiet for a while.

I thought they would be busy taking over the former territory of the Horned Orcs in the southern forest, just like they always did.

But attempting to form an alliance with the Black Star on top of that seemed quite bold.

“Attack!”

As soon as Cuahar gave the order, the sniping of the Black Mages began.

“This is…!”

Many Black Mages fell in the surprise attack.

It seemed they hadn’t expected us to launch a surprise attack.

This was a forest, not an open battlefield, and it was also the hunting ground of the Beast Hunters.

Moving stealthily here was impossible for the Beast Hunters.

As a result, the effect was dramatic.

“Counterattack!”

“Maintain the mages’ formation!”

“What the hell! Release the Chimera and monsters! Kill them all!”

I didn’t stay idle either.

In reality, I had turned the monsters obtained from Sol into undead and sent them charging at the enemy, while our troops intentionally formed a battle line.

Although our numbers were slightly inferior, the enemy’s monsters were not immune to damage or injuries.

In the end, the difference in numbers would soon be bridged.

‘It seems these people are going against the Red Ogre.’

Even so, I chose to attack.

It was a natural choice.

Although they were wary of the Red Ogre… ultimately, they were targeting me, and simultaneously, they had joined hands with the Empire, which was an unchanging truth.

In other words, the Black Star was… an enemy that I had to eliminate completely.

‘I’ll take care of them and, if possible, attack the Black Star’s main base as well.’

I would capture as many leaders as possible and extract information from them.

Sol, who had turned his own monsters into undead at my hands, wailed as his comrades’ monsters were destroyed.

◈ Black Star

Although we had succeeded in creating chaos through sniping and forming a battle line, the enemy somehow managed to stabilize the situation.

They had consumed some of their monsters to protect the Black Mages, and simultaneously released the Chimera to restrain the Beast Hunters.

The Beast Hunters, who knew that the Chimera were not easy to deal with, had no choice but to retreat, and the enemy took advantage of that gap to stabilize their formation.

“Chimeras are coming.”

After driving away the demon hunters, they deployed some of the chimeras that had been mainly targeted by them to the front line.

The chimeras, as their names suggested, had diverse appearances.

Most of them were based on monsters and, since the Black Star’s stronghold was in the Great Forest, they all seemed to be incredibly powerful.

Most of them possessed magical power, and each had distinct characteristics depending on whether they were bipedal or quadrupedal.

However, one thing they all had in common was their extraordinary regenerative abilities, which were so impressive that they could slowly push back the undead that were blocking their way.

“Not bad.”

“There are a lot of them. Did they create only those in the Great Forest?”

The three leaders gathered to invade a country, which clearly showed that the Black Star’s power was not ordinary.

Even the Red Ogre, who had been pushed back by the demon hunters, had acknowledged the Black Star’s military power, and the current situation of the Red Ogre was irrelevant.

The dark mages, now that their safety was secured, began to support the chimeras and monsters.

Some used attack magic, but many focused on supporting the chimeras instead.

“Is that… replenishing their magical power?”

It seemed that the chimeras consumed some magical power every time they regenerated their bodies.

The efficiency was unbelievable, but it was clear that they were consuming it.

However, the dark mages were replenishing that magical power.

“Is that… possible?”

There were individual differences in magical power, whether it was mana or magical energy.

It was not like they could use it freely, even if they were dark mages who had created undead like myself.

I, for one, use nearly pure magical energy, and when I provide it to the Dark Elves, including Yeri, I simply release unprocessed magical energy.

It was a research outcome, but the result was beyond common sense, and I couldn’t help but be surprised.

However, that was irrelevant, and I needed to stop them.

The central part of the front line I had created was slowly collapsing.

“Entin, Valdur.”

-Yes.

“Yes.”

“Defend the center. Bolledi will support you.”

The undead knight squad and Valdur’s team, along with Bolledi’s priest squad, worked together to hold the center.

Meanwhile, Golun’s large undead units were also deployed in the center, greatly strengthening the central power.

The undead that had collapsed earlier began to rise again.

It was impossible to just watch, so the dark mages’ firepower concentrated on the center.

However, most of the magic was intercepted.

“Damn it!”

Sold’s angry voice was heard.

The reason was simple: the skeleton mages had intercepted the dark mages’ magic.

Many of them were former slaves or disciples of Sold, and although they were hastily assembled, they had merged with the existing skeleton mages, making their numbers sufficient to intercept the magic.

Of course, there were some failures, but Bolledi handled them easily.

Thanks to that, the chimeras that had been pushing forward began to be pushed back.

The leaders of the Black Star side frowned, losing the crucial battle of strength in the center.

They seemed to want to deploy more chimeras, but most of them were being held back by the demon hunters.

Somehow, the situation had already disappeared from the scene.

Through various signals, I had given orders, but it seemed like they had unleashed the Chimera to utilize the hunters more thoroughly.

In the end, the first one to take action was Sol.

“I’ll kill you.”

The other leaders beside him no longer tried to stop Sol.

In reality, a full-scale war had broken out.

I was just reassessing the timing to take action, but eventually, someone had to take a stand.

Looking at the current situation, if no one took action, the front line could collapse, so someone had to take the initiative.

Massive magical power burst forth from Sol’s hand.

He was extracting an absurd amount of magical power, only to scatter it into the air.

“What is he doing?”

The magical power he scattered was almost wasted, and it was an incomprehensible action.

The scattered magical power naturally affected our undead, and Bolledi, sensing danger, swiftly used his shield.

Zziaak.

And that was a wise decision.

“What, are you insane?”

Most of the undead under Sol’s command were affected, and I had thought they were disposable, so I didn’t defend them.

Initially, I thought that if I could extract that much magical power by sacrificing them, it would be a gain.

However, that was a mistaken thought.

The magical power Sol scattered was absorbed by the undead, only to be retrieved by him.

“…Incredible purity.”

The enraged Sol suddenly calmed down.

“Leader, you’re wrong. If we get that guy… we won’t lack magical power. It’s incredible purity. With this level of purity…”

An intense greed gleamed in Sol’s eyes as he looked at me.

Of course, the undead whose magical power was drained were weakened and collapsed on the spot.

They weren’t completely destroyed, but they had lost their vitality.

Those weakened undead were then torn apart by the monsters that had gone berserk.

Was it because their magical power was insufficient? Their regeneration was also slower.

“…We have to abandon them.”

Tinus, who had confirmed the undead, narrowed his eyes.

“It’s a Life Drain type. That guy, why was he so young? He was a parasite who lived by sucking the life force of others.”

“…Others’ life force?”

“He must be quite old. However, if he continues like that, he’ll eventually reach his limits and go crazy or his body will collapse… Well, he’s still managed to surpass his lifespan’s limits quite a bit.”

The higher one’s cultivation, the slower the aging process. By utilizing others’ life force, he had extended his lifespan.

And it seemed like he had applied that Life Drain method to magical power, draining the magical power of the undead.

“He must have made a significant contribution to the creation of that unique Chimera.”

Just like how he used others’ life force as his own, the Chimera used others’ magical power as its own.

There was a part that resonated with each other.