“Haa~ Zana!”
The necromancer jumped at the tyrant who moved out of the way swiftly, avoiding her hug.
“What is the meaning of this?”
She asked.
“What do you mean? I just wanted to thank you.”
“Then do so normally.”
The necromancer stood up and cleared her throat.
“Fine. Drop the summoner on the ground.”
Zana looked at her surroundings. Hinotori’s summons were still going at it, beating up the undead army, whereas the necromancer’s top five undead were being kept busy. She still failed to see how the necromancer would win, but there was something about the necromancer’s confidence that made it look like she was not going to lose.
She cautiously dropped Hinotori’s body on the ground. Zana approached it and picked at the body for a bit.
“It’s still alive?”
“Well, you said you want to meet her.”
“Hmm, I wanted to converse with her first. And I see they don’t just go back even if she is asleep. That means she can literally have such an army at her disposal all the time. This little one is truly impressive.”
The necromancer picked up Hinotori’s body and inspected further. She sniffed it and dropped it.
‘Not even some months old and this powerful? Oh, its potential is too much to just kill it off at the moment. And trapping it as my pet would probably be counter-effective. What do I do then? Brainwash it? No, being able to control this many summons means it won’t be easy to take over its mind.’
The necromancer found herself pondering. It was quite the precarious situation she found herself in. If she allowed the creature to grow, given one year she could possibly hold an Imperial rank in her hands with control over more imperial ranks. An army of Imperial ranks would be troublesome, even to Celestial ranks.
While thinking over a solution, her eyes fell on Zana who kept shifting gazes between her and the chicken nervously. At this moment it was obvious that there was a trick both were plotting. She never trusted Zana from the beginning, but she couldn’t hate Zana for trying to protect herself.
“That’s it!”
She screamed as a stroke of genius hit her. Zana flinched as soon as the necromancer spoke.
“You two. Listen here. I won’t kill both of you.”
“Eh?!”
Hinotori and Zana both yelped after hearing that.
“That’s wild, right? I’ll simply allow you one year to grow to your fullest, then I’ll kill you off for my personal gain. That’s a good deal, right?”
She said, seeing no flaw in her proposal. Zana gulped after having her life being threatened once again.
“You’re speechless? I mean I would be too.”
She deflected a fireball that Hinotori threw at her without the slightest bit of care. Hinotori jumped towards the Zana’s side and gulped.
***
‘Hehe… this is going to be hard.’
I said to Zana, who just gripped her staff tighter.
“I will take that as you throwing your frustration at me, so I will forgive you since you have a right to do so. In that case, I will return in a year for both of you. Grow st-“
‘Over my dead body!’
I jumped at her and activated [Black Ursula’s Obsidian Claws] just to see what would happen. My talons were covered in a black haze and I instinctively felt that the attack would be deadly. However, my opponent was simply much more than I could have expected. The necromancer easily moved out of the way to avoid the attack and grabbed me by the neck, before pushing me into the ground as if the speed I were moving at was child’s play.
“You see what I’m talking about?”
She lifted her hand and it was being covered in a weird hazy blue aura. Slowly it was forming a sort of astral hand that kept getting bigger and bigger till it matched Aeri’s fist in her full form.
“Right now, you can’t even dream of fac-“
The mist in the area came together to punch her off of me. When I looked back, I saw Zana growling at the necromancer with her arms raised.
‘That’s the spirit.’
She made a stroke with her hand and the mist punched the necromancer into the air once again. Another stroke and another punch came flying.
“I am Zana of the Swamp! You do not! And I repeat, You do not come into my territory and give me orders or hurt my friends!”
She hissed at the necromancer in a rage, giving me goosebumps.
‘Hehe. Goosebumps.’
‘Of course, you’d find a way to laugh in a situation like this.’
‘Shut it. It’s my coping mechanism.’
‘I know. Listen to me. As you are now, there’s no chance of beating the necromancer.’
‘You think I haven’t noticed?’
‘That’s why I’m here to help.’
‘What did you have in mind?’
‘My plan will take some time. Tell Zana to hold her off for as long as she can.’
‘Ok.’
After having my conversation with my second mind, I told Zana what he told me. She agreed, telling me to hurry before returning to the fight. Afterwards, I teleported back into her cave.
‘So, what’s the plan?’
‘Um, well…’
‘Yes?’
‘I need you to help me get the agent’s actual name.’
‘Huh? What’s the point of doing that?’
‘Think about it. We get the agent’s name, then we can get information on how to beat this.’
‘What? How does that work. The agent proves useless in situation like this.’
‘No. The agent tells you to run away and you ignore.’
‘B-Bu… I made a vow.’
‘Yeah, that vow is worth shit if we end up dying.’
‘Ah! Fine. What makes you think the agent will give us useful information this time instead of telling us to run?’
<<Because I do carry such information. I know the quickest way to beat the necromancer>>
The agent spoke to us.
‘And that is?’
<<Name>>
‘How am I supposed to guess your name you shit?’
<<Figure it out>>
‘Ugh, goddamn it! I will turn you off forever if you don’t stop being a twat!’
***
Zana stomped her staff into the ground and in response, the ground swirled around the necromancer’s feet trapping her in it. She grabbed her trinket and started to mutter a chant in the ancient language. Her trinket glowed faintly with her hand raised and a light blue fireball started to form in her hand. She shot it off with no hesitation.
The necromancer started to cough after receiving the massive attack head front.
“That… reeaalllyyyyy hurt.”
She said, her voice trembling with rage. She flapped her wings hard, but to no avail. Zana shot another fireball at her, causing her tremendous pain which was a cruel reminder of her fate before. It was not as much as her being hurt by the flames as much as it was simply mental damage.
Angry, sad, scared. All these emotions that had been piled up and covered by a wall of excitement started to swirl about in her. This only powered the orb that she carried around with her. It hummed with power and filled her up with it. Aura wings formed up around her, allowing her to easily break free from the ground into the air.
She rose her hands and several undead fell to the ground, the force powering the beings completely absorbed by her.
“You want to join my army so soon? Oh, bring it on then. I will reserve a special place for you.”
The necromancer fired a blast of hazy aura that hit Zana head on, forcing the tyrant into the ground.
“You abomination. What are you even?”
The necromancer dropped down and formed a scythe from bones in her hand. Quickly, Zana jumped out of the ground to avoid beheading. She cast a powerful wind, but the necromancer’s scythe sliced through the wind.
She tried to will the mist to crush the necromancer, but it was as if the mist was scared of her. It would try to get close to her, but then stay back some distance. Zana forced the earth, but where the necromancer walked, the ground turned pitch black, devoid of any life energy. The necromancer’s eyes were now purely black. The cracks that used to glow were now bleeding a black glue. On her head, her hair had become ghastly blue flames and her horns had elongated.
“I heard you were a naga, but I’ve nagas before. You don’t look anything like them.”
Her voice even sounded unnatural. Like multiple voices speaking in one. Zana could feel the immense contrast between the two souls. The necromancer she fought before was completely different from the current one.
“Who are you?”
“Who am I? I am the necromancer you dreaded so much.”
“N-no… you’re different.”
The necromancer slashed at her face, cutting her cheeks.
“Pfft. You’re stumbling, Zana.”
The giant tried to avoid the volley of slashes coming from her neck, but to no avail. She just kept on receiving the attacks on different parts of her body. She was starting to regret not learning offense magics.
“Are you sure you’re a tyrant? Because I doubt the others would be this easy to beat.”
A massive arm punched Zana from beneath into the sky.
“I knew this would be easy, but I didn’t think it would be this easy.”
The necromancer flew into the air then kicked Zana further into the sky.
“Don’t come down now, the sky is so nice and clear today.”
Again, she kicked Zana higher into the sky and the tyrant coughed out green blood.
“Look at that. I’ve seen naga blood. Naga blood isn’t green.”
Each kick was equivalent to a giant trying their hardest to kick down an iron fortress. It was unbelievable that Zana was still alive and conscious to feel the pain.
“So, the summoner left you to die here? Hahaha, how pathetic. To the very end you had no one at your side.”
She kicked Zana about like she were some kind of toy.
“I normally wouldn’t use my host like this, but this body is going to be damned very soon either way. Your body on the other hand.. I will take over, then capture the summoner.”
