Death King Karnak Novel - Chapter 17

Pursuers comprising about ten men carrying torches were wandering through the woods.

“Here! This way!”

“I found him!”

The light revealed the man hidden in the woods. He was a man in his thirties and had a nasty expression.

The man muttered sullenly, “They’ve already followed me…”

The pursuers surrounded him and drew their swords.

A knight in armor with the emblem of the sun inscribed on him appeared in the middle of the siege.

“Fallen necromancer.”

He was a crusader of the Church of Ratiel.

“Kneel obediently and ask for forgiveness from the goddess!”

“Keuk…….”

The man was looking around and suddenly let out a demonic roar.

“Kwaaa!”

Darkness rose around the man.

The crusader got agitated and shouted, “Beware! He’s calling out evil spirits again!”

The darkness headed for the encirclement of the pursuers with five black demons. But the soldiers were not taken aback. They already have experience in fighting that evil spirit.

“Useless!”

“That’s because we have Ratiel’s protection!”

The soldiers held out the sun god’s protection amulet with their left hand and began stabbing them with their swords in their right hand. The evil spirits that would otherwise ignore the blades were blown and blurred.

Explosive booming sounds from all directions. The protection of the protection amulet imbued the soldiers’ swords with the power to land physical strikes. However, the evil spirits did not fall easily. Even though they were constantly swaying, they vomited out a howl while tying the feet of the soldiers.

Aaaaa!

In the meantime, the man tried to escape again. The crusader roared and threw himself.

“You’re unlikely to miss it!”

In an instant, the man touched the ground with both hands.

“Come out! Demons!”

Three streams of darkness surged up again and turned into evil spirits. Seeing the evil spirits coming from all sides, the crusader fixed his sword.

“Do you still have this much power left?”

Soon, the blade of the long sword shone and cut away the evil spirits.

“Keugh!”

The authority of the priest who served the sun goddess Ratiel was in conflict with necromancy. It took only about 10 seconds for him to cut down all three evil spirits. But it was also long enough for the man to escape.

The Crusader gnashed his teeth as he saw his opponent, who had disappeared to the other side of the forest before he knew it.

“Ha! You won’t get far. Dirty necromancer bastard!”

The necromancer, Fred, gnashed his teeth while dashing along the mountain road.

“They’re like the dogs of that goddamn Goddess…….”

Until half a year ago, he was a physical laborer who lived in the back streets of the Derat City, a trading city in the northern part of the Earldom of Chad. It was a hard life. Even if he had to carry luggage all day, he would only get a small change in his hand.

It was a life filled with basic food to satisfy one’s hunger, sleeping in a place worse than a stable, and paralyzing one’s brain with cheap solo liquor as it was the only means of pleasure. Fred was drunk in the routine that day and passed out in a back alley.

“Damn it… this dirty world…”

Aristocrats lived their whole lives without knowing hardships because they were born into good families, so why was his life like this?

“I’d rather die…….”

Looking up at the night sky then and spitting out all his frustration had become a habit. The darkness of the back alley suddenly expanded and overtook him. Darkness enveloped him and began to fill his entire body.

“H-Huh?”

He was terrified at first. But the fear soon dissipated. It wasn’t that the situation wasn’t scary, but it felt like the emotion of fear itself was paralyzed.

He realized at the same time.

“This……”

That was power. That was the power of darkness and death. Even though no one told him, he knew it by himself.

The power about which all the religious entities on the continent were shouting out loud by mentioning the prophecy of ruin that it would bring about the end was enveloping him.

“Aaaa…….”

Hard as a corpse, Fred groaned. The way to use dark magic was directly infused into the soul. It told him the silent truth and forced a choice.

If he turned away, the darkness would leave. And he would go back to being normal again. He could get power if he wanted. And in return, he had to abandon his humanity.

Choose

Choose

Choose…

‘Abandon my humanity?’

He snorted.

‘When have I ever been treated like a human being?’

The choice was too easy. He chose darkness without hesitation and automatically learned how to use that power.

The method was surprisingly simple. He just had to wish earnestly. If desired, darkness would rise and become an evil spirit moving according to its will.

He killed the civil engineering guild leader, who had been harassing him, with evil spirits. He killed the back street thugs who used to look down on him. Interestingly, he wasn’t afraid of murder. He was just a little worried about getting discovered.

Fortunately, no one heard it. Evil spirits appeared silently, took lives, and disappeared without a trace. No one noticed that the murderer was him.

Gradually, the crime became bolder. He sneaked into a rich house and killed everyone. He stole money, went to brothels, and spent the money lavishly, enjoying luxury and pleasure.

If he had thought a little, he would have found out that kind of life wouldn’t last long. Even if his identity wasn’t revealed in the beginning, there was no way people would just turn a blind to those series of murders.

Aren’t the seven churches already monitoring abnormal phenomena across the continent in preparation for the Oracle of Ruin?

But Fred didn’t even think about it that far. He was only preoccupied with enjoying pleasure. In the end, the interrogators from the Church of the Sun were dispatched to Derat City.

They soon figured out Fred’s identity and started pursuing him fiercely. The evil spirits could’ve easily killed them if they were ordinary people, but that tactic couldn’t be used against priests.

The only thing he could do against the knights and soldiers who received the protection of divine power was to run away with his life. He left the county of Chad and headed to the north while constantly on the run.

Life as a fugitive was harsh. He had to wander through the forest like an animal, suffering from cold and hunger. Even so, he did not regret choosing darkness.

He only regretted one thing.

“For me to end up like this…….”

Hiding among the bushes, Fred bit his nails.

“Damn, if only I had more power…….”

He didn’t even think about the sins he had committed. He thought it only happened because he was too weak and wasn’t strong enough to kill all the pursuers.

“I must become stronger…….”

In the darkness of the forest, the man laughed like a demon.

“Yeah, I just need to get away from here.”

He only needed to escape the crisis right in front of him. Then, he could kill more people and increase his power. The absolute power of darkness to kill those guys at once!

“Let’s wait, and then I’ll kill them all!”

Even being cornered now, he was still drunk with power.

A path leading to the wastelands to the north of the Jeden Mountains.