Chapter 119: 066. New Fate -2 (Part One)
**
“Lord... Angel?”
Tina muttered out while staring at the boy.
But the Necromancers were simply tutting away.
They heard that plenty of Rahamma’s children were born with some kind of defects, and that assertion seemed to be true in this case. Not only did she use divinity instead of demonic energy, she was even blabbing some nonsense about an angel, too.
“...Hang on a minute here. Did she say angel?” It was then, one of the Necromancers suddenly piped up. His expression hardened as he swallowed back his dry saliva. “H-hey, haven’t we heard about something similar to that before?”
“What are you on about?”
A fellow Necromancer threw him a question, and his colleague replied while trickles of cold sweat began falling from his forehead.
“I’m talking about the angel of Humite.”
“Wait, that serial killer rumoured to have hunted down and tortured Necromancers?”
This tale was from about three months ago.
During the pandemonium raised by the Chaos plan, several surviving Necromancers managed to escape from Humite. A portion of them returned to Aslan somehow, and reported everything they went through to the higher-ups.
And their report spoke of how an existence referred to as an ‘angel’ captured Necromancers and tortured them endlessly to steal away all sorts of magic techniques.
At first, the survivors’ tales were treated as a mere fantasy cooked up by a bunch of madmen. If their testimonies were true, then that meant one could use divinity to perform Necromancy, that’s why.
However, the Necromancers who argued that such a thing was true continued to grow in numbers. And before long, this ‘angel’ became a symbol of fear among those who practised Necromancy, almost like some kind of a spooky campfire tale.
“Hang on, are you saying that the serial killer named ‘angel’ is a real thing?”
All of their gazes shifted over to the boy.
He was still sitting on the throne, not showing any signs of moving from there. Other than holding onto the valuable relics, all he did was glare straight at them.
The Necromancers cowered from the pressure he emanated and swallowed back their dry saliva again.
“Who are you calling a serial killer?! This noble being is our Lord Angel who has descended from the heavens above!”
Tina still naively believed what Damon had told her. She continued insisting that the boy was an angel.
Was it because of her voice? The other slaves reacted and began shouting out as well.
“Lord Angel has woken up.”
“Lord Angel... Lord Angel has opened his eyes!”
Before long, the temple was filled with murmuring voices coming from the slaves inside. The Necromancers became tense once they realised countless slaves were still hiding within the shadows.
They raised up their staves and began backing away.
“For now, let’s retreat from here.”
“I’m not sure whether he’s the rumoured angel or not, but we need to make our report first and...”
It was then, crumbs fell from the ceiling. One of the Necromancers raised his head to confirm what was up there.
...Only to find a wretched-looking skull dangling on the ceiling. A Lich, normally an object of terror, had been staked up there for all to see.
“It can’t be... Nasus?!”
Fright quickly dyed the faces of the Necromancers.
“Now do you understand?”
They flinched in surprise at Tina’s voice and looked back at her.
She slammed her staff down on the ground and declared proudly. “The noble being behind me is Lord Angel who killed the grim reaper!”
Her bold words caused the Necromancers to suck in a deep breath.
Did she say the grim reaper...?
Could Nasus have summoned a grim reaper, then?! But that didn’t make any sense. Especially more so when the Lich summoning the grim reaper had died instead!
‘What does that even mean?’
The ‘sword king’, Oscal Baldur, was nowhere to be seen.
That could only mean that the boy alone killed Nasus when it summoned the grim reaper and proceeded to dangle the Lich up on the ceiling.
All semblance of colour drained out of the Necromancers’ faces. Clearly frightened silly now, they looked behind them in order to start their escape, but then...
“Stop them! They pose too much threat to our Lord Angel!”
Damon loudly roared out.
The slaves who were still hiding within the temple walked out and blocked both the altar and the building’s only exit. While brandishing all sorts of shabby make-shift weapons, they glared at the Necromancers with madness-filled eyes.
“H-how dare you lowly slaves try to stop us with higher stations t-than you?!”
“Get out of the way! Now!”
The Necromancers loudly yelled out and stood behind their summoned skeletons. However, the hundreds of slaves didn’t falter despite displaying obvious signs of fear.
No, they were actually rebelling against them.
“Protect... Protect Lord Angel!”
One of the slaves roared out.
A lone arrow flew in from somewhere and pierced the shoulder of the Necromancer. A scream left his lips and caused the rest of the group to lose their reasoning as well.
“You accursed bastards!”
“Kill all the slaves!”
The skeletons’ jaws creaked and opened wider, then the small group of undead raised their weapons high.
It was at that precise moment that the boy sitting on the throne flicked his finger and lightly tapped on the armrest.
A huge rune letter suddenly manifested on the surface of the altar. And from the glowing symbol, numerous skeletal undead kitted out in armour leapt out.
“Chantless casting?!”
“Not only that, Necromancy too?!”
Just as the Necromancers began freaking out even more...
“I’m not quite sure what you lot have been yapping on about since a while ago, but...”
The boy’s tired-sounding voice echoed within the temple’s hallway.
The Necromancers looked back at the boy on the throne. Divinity-infused skeletons were summoned around him and they glared straight back, the eerie blue glow in their eyes firmly locked on the dark magicians.
“...The ones to die today will be you.”
The boy’s chilling words came to an end, and immediately, the holy undead pounced on the Necromancers.
Their spears easily shattered the pathetic skeletons made of demonic energy and stabbed through the hapless Necromancers.
One of the spear-wielding holy undead chucked the skewered Necromancer from the top of the altar. The other Necromancers rolled down the altar’s staircase after getting stabbed and sliced apart by the swords and spears.
The slaves who were waiting at the bottom quickly rushed in at the still-breathing Necromancers and started hacking away.
All of these things happened in the blink of an eye.
Tina couldn’t help but stare at the boy with shocked eyes, and he stared right back at her. “Okay, so. Let me ask you something, Dark Elf. Where is this place and who are you people?”
**
(TL: In 1st person POV.)
My whole body felt stiff. No, hang on – never mind stiff, I couldn’t move a single muscle at all.
It was like all of my muscles bunched up and melted into one mass while my bones hardened like fossils.
Did my body freeze up after sleeping for so long? Thanks to whatever it was, I couldn’t do anything while sitting on this wooden chair.
The best I could do right now was slightly move my finger around, that’s about it.
historical
Before all that though, just where am I, anyways?
I shifted my eyeballs around and scanned the illuminated interior of the temple. Without a doubt, this place had to be the headquarters of the Black Order, the one I warped into.
However, the overall vibe I got felt seriously different.
Unlike how gloomy and cold it was before, this place was overflowing with vitality now. The divine energy that came from the holy water abundantly filled up the air, and there were plants growing on the edges of the water, too.
Maybe I should blame my current state on sleeping for too long; not only could I not immediately figure out what was going on here, but even my memories were so faint and blurry that I was getting seriously confused right now.
Blooming hell, what a relief it was to have Raphael and Alice next to me after I used [Resurrection]. Now, I didn’t even have such luxury.
Just how long was I left alone like this, in this sitting position?
It could’ve been probably somewhere around a week.
Right, fine! Whatever. That’s all good and well. As far as my body was concerned, it should get sorted out eventually if I kept trying to move little by little.
However, just imagining what these strange people before my eyes did to me while I was unconscious sent a creepy chill down my backside.
“Everyone, offer your prayers to our Lord Angel.”
Even though it was an early morning, some folks kitted out in black robes were already gathered around the altar’s vicinity. They all knelt down towards me and began praying.
“Oh, our Lord Angel!”
“I thank you for delivering salvation to us!”
Most of them muttered softly to themselves, but some started sobbing away as if their emotions got the better of them.
...Their actions kinda made me think that they saw me as a deity or something.
What the heck was happening here?
Did something weird happen after I killed Nasus that caused them to behave like this?
Hang on, could it be that I became some kind of a sacrificial offering for a crazy cult, or maybe even a subject of an experiment?
“Who is this Lord Angel? Just what on earth are you people talking about?”
What a relief that my voice still came out.
While I was sitting there in confusion, a man walked up to me and spoke up, “It’s time to consume our tribute, Lord Angel.”
It was a middle-aged man in his early to mid fifties.
[Name: Damon.
Age: 40
Attributes: weak divinity, weak magic, healthy physique. Deep devotion and loyalty.
+ Lady Tina has been chosen by Lord Angel! What a wondrous, glorious day this is!]
This dude brought a bowl filled with holy water up to my lips.
I quickly addressed him, “Hey, will you listen to me for a second, Mister Damon? I’m asking you a question here.”
After hearing me talk, he dropped the bowl all of a sudden.
His jaw nearly fell to the floor as an expression of shock spread all over his face. “How in this world... My name, how could a noble one such as yourself know of my name...?!”
“W-well, that’s because...”
“It’s a miracle!”
The zealots around us suddenly exclaimed loudly.
Loud exaltations and cries of joy were coming out of their mouths.
As I was tutting unhappily away, I finally understood why people were so afraid of those crazed cults.
Hell, at least I could hold some sort of civilised conversation with Vampires, lycans, and even the Lich, Nasus, while fighting them. But man, words were simply not getting through these folks.
I could use magic to solve things here, sure, but trying to deal with an insane cult was making my head chaotic as well.
“I just want to ask you a question, okay?! Can’t we just have a regular conversation already?”
My holy skeletons stood in front of me to provide protection against the zealots.
Unfortunately, Damon seemed to have misunderstood my intentions because he flinched greatly and bowed deeply towards me. “Please forgive this foolish believer for failing to understand your deep wisdom, Lord Angel. This lowly servant dared to engage you, our Lord Angel, in trivial conversation.”
“...”
Oh, man... I really wanted to massage my temples right about now.
One of my skeletons seemed to have figured out my needs since it began massaging my head for me instead.
“Lady Tina.”
While keeping his whole body bowed deeply, Damon began stepping back. A young girl next to him came up to me in his place.
She was pretty small with tan skin and long ears, plus the scarlet-coloured hair and eyes.
A Dark Elf, huh.
This would be my first time seeing an elf after coming to this world.
The small elf girl holding a staff was wearing a long robe that dragged on the floor. She knelt down before me and lowered her head before speaking up, “The daughter of the ruler of this land, Tina Aslan, greets our Lord Angel.”
“Okay, can I finally ask you some questions now?”
I really wanted to get rid of all these questions burning a hole in my head.
“Please speak, Lord Angel.”
She raised her head. Her face looked innocent, but there was a clear hint of curiosity as well.
I spat out a groan and questioned her, “First of all, what rubbish are you even talking about? And secondly, how long have I been sitting here?”
“As a mere child, I do not fully understand your noble words, but... If it’s a question regarding how long you’ve been staying in this temple, then you’ve been sleeping for around three months.”
“Three months?!”