Reborn with a Necromancer System-Chapter 245: An Abyssal Soul
Shadows bled upward from the dirt like living ink, writhing into long, barbed spears that hovered in a spiraling halo around Kai. The air trembled with their presence.
And behind him, rising like a mountain of bone, sinew, and fused arcane power, Wivre unfolded.
The Ancient Omega Wyvern's serpentine body swept upward, nearly blotting out the red sky of Muderan. Its eyes, those enormous, swirling pits of undead fire, narrowed on Vaerith.
"Is this pest causing you issues, master?"
The wyvern's voice was a deep, echoing rumble that shook the ground.
Kai pointed at Vaerith with a twitch of irritation.
"It is. I don't care about the body. I just need the soul. Exterminate it."
Wivre dipped its head in a grand, respectful bow.
"As you wish."
The moment the words left Wivre's fanged maw, Kai unleashed everything.
A torrent of spiraling shadow spears erupted forward, thousands, not dozens, each one a drill of killing intent, rotating fast enough to scream through the air.
At the same time, Wivre inhaled.
The surrounding demons, roughly fifteen soldiers with armor etched in abyssal runes, reacted instantly. They raised shields, summoned barriers, channeled their own chaotic mana, and then Wivre exhaled.
A column of annihilation, pure entropy wrapped in flame, tore across the battlefield. It didn't burn, didn't melt, didn't blast.
It erased.
The demons didn't die; they ceased to exist. Armour, flesh, weapons… all gone, stripped from reality in one cleansing howl of dragon-born devastation.
Only Vaerith remained.
The spears hit him at the exact same instant, timed perfectly with Wivre's breath.
He didn't even blink. Mana rippled around him like a dark ocean.
He lifted one hand lazily.
"Magic," Vaerith sighed. "Really? Do you not know an Abyssal being is impervious to it? You're but a child in this world. I have lived for millennia."
Kai's stomach tightened.
Fine.
Time for blades.
He summoned twin shadow-forged swords from his shadow space and lunged at Vaerith, closing the distance in a blink.
Vaerith didn't even unfasten the scabbard on his waist.
He lifted two fingers.
And with nothing more than polished fingernails, he parried Kai's strikes. Just metal on keratin with sparks flaring each time.
"Wha-?"
Kai barely got the word out. 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖
With a dancer's grace, Vaerith pivoted.
His long, muscular tail whipped outward at an impossible angle, striking Kai's blades right along their weakest point.
Both swords shattered like cheap glass.
The same strike slammed into Kai's ribs, sending him tumbling through the air like a ragdoll.
He smashed into the dirt hard enough to carve a trench, skidding a dozen meters before staggering upright, breath ragged but unbroken.
'Swords don't work. Magic doesn't work. So what can I do?'
Vaerith stepped casually toward him, brushing nonexistent dust off his immaculate sleeve.
"Are you lost, little human? Nothing can breach my defenses, and nothing can survive my offense."
Kai bared his teeth.
"What if it's intangible?"
Vaerith blinked.
"Intangible?"
Kai's grin sharpened.
'Ebonbrand's Covenant!'
The invisible crown of Ebonbrand constricted around his skull like claws digging into his brainstem.
His vision flickered, white, then black, then streaked with sickly violet.
Nine hundred and ninety-three Forged Primordial Souls ripped free from his Soul Vault, wailing through the air like a storm of ghosts.
They swirled together overhead, merging, screaming, twisting into a colossal wraith bigger than the trees, bigger than Wivre, bigger than anything in the legends of Imeria or Muderan.
A true abomination.
A soul-born titan.
Vaerith stared upward.
"…Oh."
Kai tilted his head mockingly.
"Think you'll survive this?"
Vaerith didn't bother answering.
He sprinted.
Tail slamming the ground, using the impact to propel himself forward.
But it was far too late.
'Squash him.'
The wraith descended with a sound like the world ending.
Vaerith's scream wasn't a battle cry.
It was pure, primal agony.
An ancient demon being shredded on a metaphysical level.
Reality quivered.
His body convulsed under the crushing mass of spirits.
And then Kai had a realisation.
'Wait!'
Kai sensed it immediately.
The wraith didn't stop.
"I command you! Stop!"
The colossal soul-titan didn't stop.
Vaerith's physical form was nearly gone, and his soul was starting to tear apart under the crushing pressure.
Panic shot through Kai.
"By the order of Ebonbrand himself, you are to STOP your actions IMMEDIATELY!"
The wraith, slowly, impossibly, horrifyingly, turned its massive, warped head toward Kai.
Its face formed out of screaming souls.
Kai's instincts screamed.
He raised a barrier of shadow, layered it ten times, wrapped himself in Shade.
And waited.
Nothing happened.
He peeked out.
The wraith was dormant. Completely inert.
"Finally…"
One by one, trembling with the effort, Kai pulled the primordial souls back into his vault, storing them safely away.
The field had gone quiet.
Only Vaerith remained, broken, nearly dead, lying in a cracked crater.
Kai walked toward him leisurely.
"Y-you…" Vaerith choked, "you have bested me… a worthy foe. Kill me… let me ascend to the world beyond…"
Kai crouched beside him.
"Oh, I'll kill you," he whispered. "But you're going nowhere."
Vaerith managed a flicker of confusion.
Kai smiled.
"I'm going to devour your soul and become even stronger… so nothing like you can ever stop me."
For a moment, something clicked inside him.
His voice.
His hunger.
The tone.
It felt just like his experience with the Devourer.
The same madness.
'You're becoming a monster worthy of my crown…'
A voice echoed inside his mind.
Kai snapped.
"No! No! No!" he hissed aloud. "I am, and will ALWAYS be myself! Not some creature or monster or long-dead necromancer!"
Vaerith looked at him, actually looked, with something like pity.
"…Oh… you p-poor soul…"
Kai snarled.
"Don't pity me!"
A spear of shadow formed instantly and drove through Vaerith's skull.
Kai reached out, grabbed the demon's soul, and ripped it free.
The Abyssal Soul writhed in his grasp like a flaming shadow, burning and freezing at once.
[Abyssal Soul acquired.]
Kai exhaled slowly.
And then opened himself to it.
[Abyssal Soul devoured.]
[Advancement Requirement: Devour an Abyssal Soul – COMPLETE.]
For a moment…
Nothing.
Then a surge of raw, violent, electrifying power tore up his spine, branching through every nerve, every vein, every drop of mana in his body. His heartratr tripled, vision expanded, senses sharpened beyond human limits.
His whole being twisted, and then re-stabilized under sheer force of will.
[Mortality Deviance: 7/10]
Kai shivered once.
And smiled.
"That's more like it."
