Necromancer Survival
chapter-408

‘If you were to open your eyes and wake up, you would have to accept that everything is a dream.’

‘A dream…?’

For some reason, out of all the things the auditory hallucination told him, that statement kept swirling around in my head. I felt a rush of dizziness and felt as if I might collapse; I started massaging my temple, which had begun to throb.

Dawon quickly reacted and called out to me, “Lee-kyung-ah?”

Even though his voice was concerned, I couldn’t calm my expression.

“…Wait. I’m a little dizzy.” I managed to grit out an answer, but soon my heart started to beat, as if it were about to burst. I could hear the beats in my eardrums.

As I rose from the table, overwhelmed by this strange sensation, I felt somewhat emotional. In the end, I took a few shaky steps before I had no choice but to run straight to the bathroom.

Slam–!

“Blergh…”

I immediately closed the bathroom door and leaned over the sink, trying to vomit out whatever was surging up. It felt like the food I had just eaten was reversing up my throat, but strangely, no matter how hard I tried to vomit, nothing came out.

“Haah… Haah…”

After I wiped beads of cold sweat off my forehead, I bowed my head over the sink and tried again. But to no avail. I thought about forcing a finger deep down my throat to induce vomiting. As I began to act on my thoughts, a cold saliva began to accumulate in my mouth.

“C-Cough…”

However, it wasn’t food that surged up my throat. I felt a bit flustered when I felt something hard and angular against my fingertips. Instead of being pushed back in, the object kept pushing out. I felt pain, as if I were vomiting blood from my throat.

“NNnngh…!” I managed to spit whatever it was out in the sink. After searing pain, I heard something rattling around. Only after I wiped away the tears welling up in my eyes was I able to pick it up and properly identify what it was.

“This is…”

What had been blocking my throat was none other than a diamond-shaped black gem.

I cautiously brought the crystal under running water. But, I didn’t have to wash anything off; it was glistening as if it were new–as if it had never come out of my body. The gem didn’t smell strange either.

“What is this…”

I felt like I’d seen something like this before, though I wasn’t sure due to my fragmented memory. However, the feel of this gem in my hand was quite familiar.

“Ah…!”

As I groped through my memories and gripped the jewel in my hand, my palms began to burn; pain shot up my hand.

As I slowly opened my clenched hand, I noticed there were cuts in the shape of a cross on my hand, following the edge of the jewel. My eyes opened wide as I looked down at the wound. I don’t know when I had cut myself, but the blood that had coagulated in the palm of my hand was seeping into the diamond-shaped gem.

‘…It’s drinking my blood.’

Strangely, I didn’t want to remove the gem from my hands–I felt neither shock nor fear. It was like I was possessed, and I dug the sharp edges of the gem deeper into the wound.

Bang–! Bang–!

“Lee-kyung-ah.”

At that time, I could hear Dawon’s voice outside the door. The locked door’s handle also moved roughly. Strangely, though, I felt an inexplicable anxiety–I felt that Dawon-ie shouldn’t come in through the bathroom door. “I-I’m alright, Dawon-ah. Don’t come in, it’ll smell.”

“……”

I spoke in a trembling voice, but I continued to cut through my wound with the gem. I didn’t really think of this as self-harm; this was the only way for Dawon and I to wake up from our dreams. I wanted to believe that. I wouldn’t gain anything from running away.

“Haah. Haah…” Looking down at my bloodied palm, the black jewel was transformed into a brilliant ruby.

I quickly washed my hand and placed the jewel in my pants pocket. I also dabbed myself with water to get rid of the bloody smell and hurriedly opened the bathroom door that I had closed. I wanted to reassure Dawon.

However…

“…What.”

When I opened the bathroom door, the table and the warm atmosphere that had existed until then had disappeared as if everything was a lie. Only a desolate black desert stretched out from beyond the door.

However, even as I took this all in, I wasn’t agitated. I didn’t feel anything–rather, I felt as if this was right… what was supposed to happen. It seemed as if the strange, discomforting feeling in the back of my mind had melted away. It was as if unfitting clothes had disappeared off my body, taking the discomfort in my heart with them.

“……” I took a deep breath as I stepped barefoot onto the cold sand. The air that made my lungs ache began to circulate in my body, and one by one, my senses began to return.

I put my hand back inside my pocket. “…Ha.”

Then, I held the fragment that contained the [Vengeful Ghost Memory] inside my hand.

* * *

3 days after they escaped from the Dungeon Lim Jisoo created:

“Seo Dawon?”

After breaking out of the temporary dungeon, the group gathered in Koo Hui-seo’s new ‘safe house.’

Since that day, Choi Lee-kyung had been asleep, unable to arouse himself. Seo Dawon set Lee-kyung aside in his room and took care of him, feeding him various potions that Choi Kyung-sik made. Of course, that wasn’t all he was doing; he was also rallying every possible resource, including servants, Koo Hui-seo, and Kim Sangyoon, to gather strength.

Yesterday, however, Lim Jisoo and Bae Jaemin’s movements turned suspicious, putting everyone on edge. Especially since Choi Lee-kyung still hadn’t regained consciousness. The servants knew what Lim Jisoo and Bae Jaemin were up to but were unable to respond effectively.

Kim Olim, influenced by this tense atmosphere, had refrained from disturbing Seo Dawon, but now she had no choice but to speak to him. After all, an incomprehensible, unbelievable phenomenon had occurred.

“You… Your hand… How is there blood…?”

Suddenly, a metallic, iron-y scent began to fill the conference work; blood began to dribble from Seo Dawon’s wrist. Perhaps the injury was covered by his glove, as redness pooled in the area around the Mage’s palm.

“…..” Seo Dawon looked at it–silent and lost in thought.

“What happened?” Kim Olim broke through his long silence, urging the Mage to speak. It wasn’t just her–the other servants in the room also had their eyes fixed on him…because everyone knew this blood’s scent well.

“Why does it smell like Lee-kyung-ie’s blood?” Kim Olim looked at Seo Dawon with distrust in her eyes. However, he rose from his seat without bothering to answer. Then, he walked over and opened the door to where Choi Lee-kyung was asleep.

“……”

“This is…” Following him, Kim Olim opened her eyes wide when she saw the swirling black aura inside the room. Furthermore, the black, wedge-shaped [Vengeful Ghost Memory] spun over Choi Lee-kyung’s motionless body.

As she sensed the unusual whirlpool of magic, Kim Olim held onto Seo Dawon, who was as firm as a stone statue. “What happened here? He’s unconscious, but he’s also activating summoning circles?”

“……” However, Seo Dawon stood there motionlessly, staring intently at Choi Lee-kyung’s pale face. Kim Olim thought his unreadable expression seemed somehow pained. Because of this, she couldn’t bring herself to press him further and released her grip on him.

After a moment of silence, Seo Dawon slowly took off the gloves on his hand. “…I guess he wanted to wake up.”

“What?”

With those incomprehensible words, he revealed bleached-white bone.

Kim Olim was shocked when she saw Dawon’s bare hand. Soon, she realized what he had done and shouted, “Seo Dawon… Have you gone crazy?!”

“……”

“That hand…!”

However, instead of responding to KIm Olim, Seo Dawon strode inside the storm-like aura. As he walked, he looked down at Lee-kyung’s body, which was floating 10 centimeters above the bed.

A golden magic circle appeared above Seo Dawon’s hand. The concentric circles, blooming like flowers, repeatedly overlapped before scattering–rinse and repeat–building up a massive amount of energy…enough to shift the airflow in the room. Immediately, all the light fixtures and ornamental decorations in the room shattered and flew around the room.

The golden glow of Seo Dawon’s magic circle and the black aura enveloping Choi Lee-kyung’s body filled the room, consuming each other like light and shadow. Kim Olim felt a pain akin to staring directly at the rising sun, but she forced her eyes open to witness the clash of colors.

‘This is…’

Startlingly, the darkness swallowed the light.

[Replaying the memory of the last ‘Vengeful Spirit,’ Jo Chan-young.]

Kim Olim’s eyes opened wide when she heard a whisper in her ears.

Become a member!

TL: Kim Olim is about to smack someone.

I’m at a conference again you guys T_T Once again dipping into my nonexistent stock pile T_T