There was an expansive forest near the Strauss estate. It was a place where past martial kings had often gone to train, and more recently, where the Keliante Dungeon had been discovered.

Three figures stood deep within the forest. They were Karnak, Varos, and Serati.

Karnak drew a sigil of blood between six lit candles as he prepared for the necromantic ritual. "All right, now we sprinkle the blood..."

Serati clicked her tongue as she watched him at work. "To think we’re doing this in the Strauss family’s territory... What if someone finds out?"

Karnak replied nonchalantly. "Then we’ll just explain ourselves properly."

Serati scoffed. "Oh, you mean explain?"

Karnak frowned. "Surely you don’t think I’d explain it with words?"

Serati shook her head. "That’s not something to brag about, you know."

She continued to observe the preparations. Then, a question came to mind. When they had dealt with cultists and necromancers in the past, Karnak never went through such troublesome rituals.

"Don’t you have the ability to summon spirits without all this fuss?" Serati asked him.

"I do," Karnak admitted. "But this is more of a courtesy."

"A courtesy?" she repeated.

"A courtesy to the soul being summoned from death," Karnak replied.

A monarch who held absolute power could summon their vassals at any time. But if you were to call your subordinate, wouldn’t it be proper to at least offer them a proper meal?

"It’s something like that. Emil is a victim, after all. I can’t treat him like I would those cultists," Karnak declared.

Serati was genuinely curious. "Why are you showing more respect to the dead than you do the living?"

The preparations were soon completed. Karnak stepped into the circle and began to channel necromantic power.

"Then, I will summon the soul of Emil Strauss," he declared.

A chilling aura of death seeped from his entire body. The heavy energy blended with the darkness and spread faintly in all directions. At the same time, the air around them grew cold and still.

Serati watched, tense. No matter how many times I see it, I just can’t get used to necromancy.

After a short while, Karnak tilted his head. "Hm?"

Varos asked, "What is it, young master?"

"Emil’s soul isn’t coming," Karnak answered him.

"Oh? Then it seems Sir Emil is still alive, doesn’t it?" Varos suggested.

"Maybe."

Since soul summoning was a technique that summoned the souls of the dead, it was only natural that the soul of someone alive couldn’t be called forth. Just in case, Karnak tried a few more times, but the result was the same.

In the end, he gave up on summoning Emil. Karnak moved on to the next spirit. "All right, let’s try Gellard this time."

Unlike Emil, Martial King Gellard was certainly dead. There shouldn’t have been any trouble summoning his soul.

But just then, Serati stopped him. "Wait. Shouldn’t we call Sir Leven as well?"

"Leven? Why?" Karnak responded.

"It’s family business, isn’t it? Shouldn’t Sir Leven have a final farewell with his father?" Serati said.

However, both Karnak and Varos made strange expressions.

"Ah, well..."

"Right, ordinary people usually think that way."

Serati blinked. "Am I wrong about something?"

Karnak wore an awkward look while scratching his head. "The thing is, the state of a soul summoned through necromancy... isn’t exactly pleasant."

Varos chimed in beside him. "You saw what happened when we summoned Jedex’s soul, didn’t you? Did he look like someone fit for a peaceful farewell?"

Serati nodded. "Well... no, he wasn’t exactly in his right mind."

"Spirits rarely are, when they’re called back like this."

Most of the time, they had to forcibly subdue the spirit just to wring answers out of them before releasing them again. Serati figured it was better not to tell Leven after all, and she held her tongue. Karnak then proceeded with the summoning.

"Hm?"

"Again?" Varos frowned as he noticed Karnak wearing the same puzzled expression as before.

"He’s not coming, either," said Karnak.

"You’re not saying Sir Gellard is still alive, are you?" Varos replied.

It was possible that Emil was still alive, but Gellard was definitely dead. They had seen his corpse, and they had already held his funeral.

Varos asked, "Are you sure you haven’t lost your touch?"

"This is such a simple spell, failing it would be harder!" Karnak shot back in frustration.

Karnak scowled. He had a hunch. "Did Tesranach do something to Gellard’s soul as well?"

If that were the case, then he couldn’t be sure Emil was still alive either. His soul might be in a similar condition.

Karnak clicked his tongue in frustration. He couldn’t make sense of it. He understood why Tesranach had reclaimed the soul of future Leven.

But Emil and Gellard? Why them?

Sure, the souls of warriors that powerful had all kinds of potential uses—but that only applied to ordinary necromancers. What use could beings like Emil and Gellard possibly be to Tesranach, who resided beyond the void?

"What the hell are you scheming, Tesranach?"

***

Beyond the world, beyond time and space, in the endless expanse of the void, there stood a colossal tree. The branches of the tree were formed from bones, and they grew in an infinite tangle. It was Astra Shunaph. From within that grotesque shape, a figure began to emerge.

A voice echoed. "My servant, Leven Strauss..."

The voice came from a black shadow. It had the shape of a man, but it was not human. It was not even a living being. It was merely an existence, a will, a consciousness. It was a transcendental will that existed as authority itself.

The figure continued to speak, "You have returned safely this time."

The shadow reached out. At its fingertip flickered a light brighter than any sun on Earth, yet within this void, it was as dim as a firefly.

"Lord Tesranach..." Leven Strauss managed a faint response.

Then the brilliant soul faded away. It was inevitable, since a mortal soul could never last in this infinite realm. Only the great God of Death could retain himself in such a place.

Leven’s soul had instinctively activated its own defense mechanism before he lost his mind. Tesranach, the black authority, spread his fingers and enveloped the fading soul in his pitch-dark grip. The god of darkness and death retrieved the now-unconscious soul of Leven Strauss.

"Show me."

The memories imprinted in Leven’s soul flowed through the darkness into Astra Shunaph.

Everything he had seen, heard, and felt in the material world was transmitted through the tree of void to Tesranach.

"I understand at last."

Tesranach was a being who had unraveled the laws of all things. If a truth was allowed by the laws of the world, he could discover it. But he did not know how to go against the laws of the world.

Only the master of darkness and death could know that forbidden wisdom. Tesranach may have been the God of Darkness and Death, but he was not their master. And if a pretender desired the wisdom of the true master, he could only steal it.

"At last, fate may begin to flow as it should." Muttering to himself, Tesranach opened his palm once more.

The soul of Leven Strauss began materializing beyond the void. Then, like ice slowly melting, his soul gradually seeped into the tree, into Astra Shunaph. After sending Leven’s soul into the tree, Tesranach gently moved both hands.

From Astra Shunaph, a black fruit fell. It sprouted. And it grew. And grew. It continued to grow until it became a towering tree, one that bore another fruit. The fruit fell, sprouted, and grew again.

Darkness that replicated itself endlessly expanded through the void, and eventually, that darkness took on a clear shape. It was in the shape of a perfect black cube, an Anti-Time-Space Transgender.

This, too, was something Tesranach had already been capable of creating. There had been no need for the wisdom of the master of darkness to reach this point. What came next, however, that required the unholy act of tearing a hole in space and time, defying the laws of existence.

"Yes..." Tesranach murmured again. "Now I can finally act."

The form of the Anti-Time-Space Transcender changed once more. It was no longer a geometric cube. It now took on a human-like shape.

It became an old witch, a headless knight, and a man with freakishly long limbs.

"I love plump little children! Show me your hand, let’s see how fat you’ve gotten!"

"Red guillotine or blue guillotine?"

"Give me a neck and I won’t eat you!"

Bizarre noises echoed throughout the void.

Tesranach waved his hand. "Silence."

The noise vanished at once. In the returned stillness, he smiled in satisfaction.

"The first button is fastened..." Tears opened across the void, rifts linking to the fabric of time and space in the real world. "Let fate unfold as it must."

The witch, the headless knight, and the grotesque man with the elongated limbs were all swallowed by the rifts of the void. Once again, only Tesranach remained in the darkness.

Well, he wasn’t quite alone anymore. One more light remained by his side, and his black hand closed around it.

"And this one..." Tesranach muttered.

It was the soul of Martial King Gellard. It glowed as radiant as Leven Strauss’s, yet it was hopelessly muddied and darkened.

***

Ten days passed after future Leven’s defeat. Karnak and his companions still remained at the Strauss estate. By all rights, Karnak should have returned to the Eustil Kingdom. As commander-in-chief of the subjugation forces, he was obligated to submit a postwar report, and as Vice Commander of the King’s Order, there were various matters awaiting his attention.

"But if I use Leven as an excuse, I can dump all that annoying stuff on Sir Erantel!"

Since Leven had become the new duke of the Strauss family, Karnak claimed he needed to stay and assist him, thus shamelessly shirking his duties.

It was a move practically begging to get him kicked from the King’s Order, yet he wasn’t the least bit concerned. After all, what need did he have now for a position like that? He’d only joined the order to gather intel on the cult. But now that he had the Twilight Order, he no longer needed to cling to the King’s Order.

The power and influence that came with being vice commander? Hardly necessary anymore. He’d earned the favor of Prince Lloyd, which expanded his sway among the nobility, had a merchant guild to handle his finances, and had solidified his connections in the academic world of magic.

He had power, with or without the King’s Order. And with his own rising fame on top of that? He’d become a figure that couldn’t be taken lightly not only in Eustil, but across the entire Seven Kingdoms Alliance.

If anything, it was the King’s Order that had reason to miss him. Perhaps that was why the kingdom wasn’t making a fuss about it. In any case, the cultists only grew weaker the more freedom Karnak was allowed. There was a general air of letting it slide.

A recent message from Sir Erantel confirmed as much.

—I’ll handle the aftermath. Do as you see fit, Karnak.

Thanks to that, Karnak was enjoying the warm hospitality of the Strauss family and indulging in a period of luxurious feasting. It was his first real break in a long while. Granted, only he was taking it easy. The others were still pouring sweat.