The Undead King of the Palace of Darkness (WN)
chapter-24

My body, my consciousness, is being polluted by darkness.

The body that is supposed to be impervious to pain, felt like it was being torn apart from the inside, like something was devouring me from within, and I felt tremendous pain all throughout my body.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!”

My screams resounded through the dark woods. And I came to a late realization that they were coming from me.

Death is approaching rapidly. The tremendous pain that I had not felt for some time, unwillingly made me realize that nothing had changed from back when I was still a weakling.

The silver arrow fell out of my hand. My palm still hurt from holding it, but that was the least of my concerns.

Extreme nausea. Pain. Listlessness. My soul is tormented by all sorts of agony.

I felt my feet being pulled which created the illusion that I was being dragged down to the very depths of hell, to the realm of the dead.

“Your soul… is steadily descending deeper intodarkness.”

The words I once heard from Horus came to mind. Desperately thinking through the pain should give me at least a bit of relief.

I cannot tell top from bottom, left from right. I almost collapse but manage to cling onto a nearby tree.

My heart that was frozen in place, is beating frantically. Heavy breathing. Memories and knowledge that are not mine flow into my mind. I felt so awful, that I bashed my head against the tree over and over.

What… in hell in this?

I feel nauseated. I am completely at a loss. The only thing I know is that if I lose focus… I will die.

The tree breaks down. Blood starts pouring from my head. My knees give away and I fall to the ground but I crawl on my hands and knees and grab on to another tree.

I make use of anything to keep myself from goingcrazy.

I recalled the days I spent sick in bed. I grew weaker as the pain gradually grew stronger. The unbearable pain did not allow me the luxury of sleep, a life in which every single movement led to more torment. I desperately clung onto life, as I was left with the loneliness that no doctor or mage or anybody could cure and regret at not being to do anything but watch as I gradually wasted away.

I am changing. My body, my soul is evolving. It is merging.

Stronger, more fiendish, to one that would be more befitting of the title of… The King of the Undead.

It must be a part of the Lord’s plan. I cannot make sense of what exactly he did to me since I lack the knowledge.

The memories, the knowledge flowing into my mind, are not mine. I should never accept them.

As I was helplessly tormented by the pain, a thought that ‘is not mine’ flashes through my mind.

— That’s absurd!… Why can’t I take over?

Dark. Alone. I raised my head and my breath felt hot.

Standing before me, was the Lord. Unlike when he was a wraith earlier, his two feet were planted on the ground.

I am not sure how, but I understood that it was not his real body nor his soul but an illusion that my mind had created.

It was not of my own volition.

I overpower the pain with wrath and thirst to kill. I get to my feet and swing my arms. It was not a swift attack nor did I have the luxury to extend my claws. However, it easily slashed through the illusion of the Lord.

The illusion disappeared.

— What, a tenacious soul!… are you still not willing to admit your defeat?

My whole body feels hot, as if it was on fire. My head,… brain and heart feel especially hot.

I hear a voice from behind. I swivelled around, swinging my arms sideways. It was the illusion of the Lord that I had just dispersed.

The illusion disappears. However, it appears anew again. Before I knew it, my field of vision was completely filled with countless illusions of the Lord.

From top to bottom, in all directions. There were illusions standing, others with their lower-half buried in the ground and some others flew around freely. Empty pairs of eyes that were as cunning as a snake’s were all looking at me.

I lose myself to anger as I rush to attack them. Horus Carmon is invading my mind. The consciousness that poured into me was like a muddy stream, and it was so mighty that I felt if I were to drop my guard, I could get pulled down deep beneath.

— Im-possi-ble. Your will is too strong. How dare you! You’re just a soul that wasted away… Is it the noble blood? No… Im…possi…ble!!! It’s entirely impossible for you to fight me!!

No matter how many I dispersed them, the illusions showed no signs of disappearing completely. I frantically, with all my might fought against the soul that was trying to swallow me whole.

I shall… survive. And, get hold of true freedom.

—The abyss is too deep… in this vessel! However… End, this is an order! Stop resisting!

The Lord’s voice echoed through my brain putting my soul through even more torment.

End. Who… is that?

I claw at my chest. My heart is beating right out of it. It is not my imagination. My heart is beating. I am alive. I have a pulse.

I am not a corpse anymore. I have transformed into something even more evil… I am in the processof being reborn into a monster whose existence cannot be forgiven, a being that has transcended even death.

Ahh, so this is the necromancer’s aim, the end goal of the curse!

Amidst the mind-numbing pain, I suddenly comprehended the long-cherished wish of the necromancer.

The end goal of the necromancer’s curse. Their objective, the King of the Undead. It is ‘Immortality’.

It is not the same as continuing to exist even as a corpse. They continue to exist, as a living, breathing being. The perfect ‘Undead’ and ‘Immortal’.

Death is simply a rite of passage to them.

Necromancers are experts capable of creating countless undead. It should be simple for them to become one themselves.

However, they never choose that path.

I remember what I heard from Senri. First class necromancers are beings that have transformed their own selves into a ‘special’ kind of undead.

The illusions of the Lord had disappeared before I knew it. Instead, there was a huge mass of darkness before me.

Another illusion. Horus Carmon’s face popped up amidst the widespread dark haze.

Attempting to devour me, to drown me in the depths of darkness.

His voice echoes in my head. A voice filled with anger and confidence.

—This is the end!! I shall take over that body of yours!! I am superior!! You shall… live for eternity as the vessel of ‘The King of the Undead’.

“Ahhhh, ahhhhhh, ahhhh, aaaaaaahhhhh………..”

So powerful. I do not know how long he has lived for, but even a fragment of the Lord’s soul is mighty strong. It had firm, misdirected conviction and the power he had accumulated through the years.

These turn of events, his loss to Senri must have been an unexpected outcome to him. He must have been forced to take this measure, so I wonder just what would have happened to me… if things had proceeded the way he had planned.

The lord flew high up into the air. He descended swiftly towards me, hiding from my view, the moon, the sky and even the whole world.

My hand moved. I am not sure if it happened because of my animal instincts, or because of my heart that desperately clung onto life.

My hand did not move towards the Lord, but my own mouth. It entered my mouth and slit it wide across. Pain was not a concern any longer.

The Lord suspended in the dark looked dumbfounded. I smile wide through my slit mouth. I lose consciousness for a moment from the pain.

It is I,who will become ‘The King of the Undead’. I’m sorry but you’re going to have to become my food.

You are… the first human I shall devour.

I jump into the darkness myself. The mouth that was slit open to the maximum bit into his neck.

There was no taste. It was simply an illusion and not the real person.

However, I heard terrific screams echo through my head.

—–Aaah!————– Aaah!———

I see. So this is what… real terror sounds like.

As I was immersed in strange admiration of it, the voice disappeared. Leaving behind a still woods.

My arms and legs lost their strength and my body fell to the ground. The pain that had tormented me so badly had disappeared entirely.

☠ ☠ ☠

A full moon shone in the night sky. I wonder if dawn will break soon.

I accessed the current situation as I lay down on the ground, looking up at the sky, while a cool breeze caressed me.

I did not sense any other presence in my mind. The Lord’s soul that had tried to take possession of my body, the very thing that was monumental to his existence, was considered a foreign substance and devoured by me instead. I felt refreshed.

I could not recall the memories and knowledge that were supposed to have merged into my consciousness. Maybe my instincts deemed them dangerous and repressed them.

The Lord’s experiences and memories are far richer and overpowering than that of mine. It would not be surprising if any attempt to recall them triggers something that could result in my consciousness being overwritten by his. It would be better if I do not force myself to recall them.

Since I had regained my composure a little, I attempted to push myself to my feet but failed in my endeavor.

I feel lost for a moment, but once again, I try to get to my feet using all my might, by holding on to a tree nearby.

My arms and legs… feel limp. I lose sense of my surroundings for a minute. Exhaustion that I had not felt in a long time, seeps into my body.

Looks like… I still have not dug myself out of the hole.

I could sense my body and myself changing. I reckon the evolution process has begun. Maybe I had met the requirements when I absorbed the Lord’s soul that had fallen into darkness, or the mechanism etched into me was the reason, I am no longer a ‘ghoul’. Neither am I a ‘Dark Stalker’ that I was supposed to transition into. Because that results in the body turning dark in color but my skin looked the same as before.

I shall contemplate in detail later. I was completely drained out of my usually surplus energy. This situation is very similar to the pangs of hunger I felt when I first transitioned into a ‘ghoul’.

I wipe off the blood dripping from my head and take deep breaths.

Still too weak. Would I even be able to defeat the monsters in these woods in this state? Well, would I even be alive long enough to come across them in the first place?

Well, I have no other choice. I devoured the Lord, my master.

I made use of every possible weapon at my disposal to accomplish that. I have sacrificed a lot of things to get here.

At present, I need to look for food and someplace to avoid the sunlight before dawn breaks.

My weaknesses should have multiplied after transitioning from a ‘ghoul’. No matter what I have transformed into, I imagine being exposed to sunlight would be fatal.

I had not realized it as I was in too much pain,but it would seem the battle with the Lord went on for a few hours. So there is not much longer before the sun rises.

What an inconvenient body. However, that is also precisely why I feel alive. It is not a bad feeling.

One step at a time, I moved my helpless body forward; feeling the hard ground beneath my feet, I proceeded carefully.

And I recalled that I had dropped my machete.

I… should recover it. Given my now weakened state, the machete would make it a lot easier to hunt for food.

I stopped intending to turn around. At that moment, I noticed something silver flash across.

“…Ah…?”

The sound of wind.

A little later, I felt a tearing pain shoot up from my left leg and collapsed to the ground.

I bite down my teeth to stifle the pain and look down at my leg. There on my left knee was an arrow that was fine until a moment ago.

It was silver in color. It had cleanly pierced through the flesh and bone; white smoke arose from the spot.

I try to remove the arrow but the fatigue makes my arms tremble, rendering me immobile.

As I sat there thoroughly perplexed, I heard a familiar hoarse voice.

“Ah, great. So we did miss you… you monster. Shit, such a waste of time!!”

“Well, calm down. You, you are the one who deceived our princess, am I right?”

“A lesser vampire huh… so one of Horus’ henchmen had escaped! Although I heard it was a ghoul… Senri still has a long way to go before she makes it to first class.”

“W…why…!”

I asked, forcing myself to speak.

The male knight I had come across in town the other day was standing a few feet in front of me. The same one who had suspected me of being an undead. He looked at me like I was trash as I lay pathetically on the ground.

“Why? Did you just ask me why? There’s only one reason, we, the Death Knights would make our move. To eliminate monsters.”