I Became The Academy Necromancer-Chapter 272: The Mountain Lord And Deus

Creak—

Having traversed countless dimensions and appeared in innumerable places all over the continent, the door naturally carried the sound of age, a worn-out resonance.

Why?

Perhaps due to the man’s presence emanating from within, even that very ordinary resonance felt like the scream of a ghost.

Thud.

The sound of shodden feet stepping outside echoed across the land, signaling that the continent itself felt burdened by his presence.

As he stepped outside, the man with skin so pale that ‘pallid’ seemed a fitting term for that came into view. However, his long hair, reaching down to his shoulders, was a stark contrast—black against his white complexion.

Black coat with a layer dust, a prosthetic right hand, and cold, beautiful features.

The man who led the dead to eternal rest.

His very existence was their requiem.

The comforter who embraced all the dead.

He was Deus Verdi.

“Mas…ter…!”

The door vanished, and Deus stood tall.

The moment Findenai saw him, a wave of emotion surged within her chest.

He had finally returned.

The man she thought to be dead, the one she truly loved, had come back.

Had he returned, Findenai initially planned to yell at him, hurl insults, but upon seeing him, she couldn’t even utter a word.

All that came to her mind was a simple, heartfelt thank you.

“De-us…”

Deus Verdi’s lips hardly parted to articulate a single word.

Grip.

Findenai clenched her fist hard enough to make her hand tremble with rage. If she wasn’t wearing gloves, her nails would have pierced her palm and drawn blood.

“Again…?!”

It was almost reminiscent of when the original Deus Verdi emerged in place of Kim Shinwoo after the Demon Lord Magan defeated him, though in a different sense.

“SHIIIITTTTTT…!”

Findenai immediately realized that it was not Kim Shinwoo possessing the body.

Her body tensed, her hairs stood on end as an intense killing intent surged from within her.

If it were the original Deus Verdi, as it had been last time, she might have let it slide, but …

That man’s soul had long perished after being consumed by Magan.

Then, who, or what, had taken over this body?

“YOU BASTARRRDDD!”

Unable to contain it any longer, Findenai charged at him. If the presence in front of her wasn’t Deus Verdi, then the whereabouts of the true one were once again lost in a mystery.

She rushed toward him.

Her heavy weapon, Snow White, scattered a cold chill like cigarette smoke, sharpening the atmosphere.

The man opposing her felt it, too.

The power of the Ancient Dragon gradually became one with Landhart’s body.

If just a ‘mere’ guardian deity’s power was this potent, how immense would the power of Deus Verdi, who possessed the souls of millions, be?

The answer to that question lay right in front of his eyes.

Although had never seen Deus Verdi in person, he instinctively perceived that the man standing before him was the man.

No, if this man weren’t Deus, then it would be natural to conclude that Deus simply didn’t exist in this world.

The air around him wavered, which signified that numerous souls were accompanying him.

“I’ll be claiming your head.”

Although he reacted a beat slower than Findenai, Lanhardt also rushed toward Deus.

Two powerful fighters were charging at him from both sides.

Ironically, the two who had just been aiming their spear and halberd at each other just moments ago, now shared a common enemy and had formed a sort of alliance.

“…”

However, Deus, who was receiving the full weight of their combined killing intent, showed no reaction whatsoever.

In fact, he couldn’t even sense their hostility because the countless souls around him blocked their killing intent, preventing it from reaching him.

“DAMN IT!”

“…!”

The two, who had shot forward like arrows, were flung backwards simultaneously.

No, it would have been an understatement to say they were ‘pushed back’.

They were sent clearly flying off the battlefield, and Deus Verdi had already become just a small speck in their vision.

“What the hell…!”

Findenai cussed as she soared high above the Norseweden soldiers and hunters as they fought.

She frantically tried to activate her War Shoes to put up some sort of resistance, but the overwhelming, invisible, crude lump of mana, unrefined into any kind of spell, kept pushing her away.

Are those souls… helping him?

Was this some type of Necromancy?

The souls were aiding the being that had taken over Deus Verdi’s body.

“Findenai!”

Darius, who was in the middle of fighting Yun Ye, shouted desperately when he saw Findenai being flung through the air.

He looked confused, unable to grasp the situation.

Unfortunately, he, too, was caught up in its impact.

“Huh?”

“W-wait a second!”

“M-my feet are off the ground!”

A giant wave came crashing down on them.

Waves of invisible souls, beyond the grasp of human sight, swept across the battlefield, engulfing everyone in their path.

This place was no longer a battlefield.

Due to the appearance of just one man, it was now akin to a scene of devastation caused by a natural disaster.

Soldiers were pushed back.

Their bodies were raised off the ground, and they began to drift like dandelion seeds in the breeze.

People collided and got entangled, forming a strange spectacle.

Findenai, the first to be thrown, suddenly found herself halfway up the mountain range and was bewildered by the sight.

What’s going on here?

At first, she thought it was just a simple, overwhelming show of the mana’s might, pushing them back. But as the situation prolonged, she couldn’t help but wear a subtle look of disbelief.

The greatness of the power contained within the millions of souls seemed to have no end.

Eventually, she flew past the mountain and began drifting toward Norseweden.

What in the world…?

What was its intent?

What was the entity that had seized Deus Verdi’s body trying to accomplish?

She couldn’t help but deliberate about this.

Eventually, following in Findenai’s wake were the Norseweden soldiers, Darius, and even the hunters.

They were floating around the mountain range like they were riding a current, all headed toward Norseweden.

When she saw that even their landing was being carefully controlled, Findenai gave up on trying to make sense of things.

“What the hell is going on!”

She scratched her head in perplexity as she watched the people who were following the exact path she’d been flown across.

Many were terrified because they were suddenly floating in mid-air, but no one appeared to be injured.

Her head began to throb painfully.

The situation was so sudden and incomprehensible that she struggled to grasp it completely, but she placed Snow White on her shoulder, intending to arrest the hunters as soon as they landed.

As Findenai waited, looking up at the Norseweden mountain range.

Three figures appeared in her line of sight.

Through the trees, she occasionally caught glimpses of three people hastily descending the Norseweden mountain as if they sensed something unusual.

Deia?

Deia Verdi was coming down, holding a shotgun.

There’s a kid, too?

An unfamiliar young girl was accompanying her.

…Hmm?

And a man at the back descending vigilantly, as if he were watching over the other two.

She was sure she had never met him before.

Though Findenai didn’t have the best memory, something about this man struck a chord deep within her chest.

He didn’t look like someone from the Griffin Kingdom. Rather, he seemed like he was from the Han Empire or the Duchy of Valestan, like the hunters.

However…

“Hmm?”

Findenai’s blood-red eyes followed the man’s movements closely. Although she couldn’t see him clearly from afar, she observed his every action minutely as he descended the mountain.

“…”

He was undeniably different, yet…

He bore an uncanny resemblance to someone she knew very well, from the way he helped Deia and the young girl down the mountain path carefully to the way he silently checked their surroundings, keeping a watchful eye.

Habits and mannerisms could not be changed as easily as one might think.

And very few people could ever notice them.

However, Findenai was someone with an instinctive, animal-like intuition that was hard to describe with words.

Therefore, setting aside her plan to capture the hunters, Findenai found herself running toward him before she knew it.

* * *

While the soldiers and hunters gathered around the mountain range and were being transported to Norseweden, heeding the advice of the Mountain Lord, Deia, Kim Shinwoo, and Xiao Hu were making a temporary retreat.

The weight of the presence that had suddenly descended upon the land was enough to make even the Mountain Lord feel tense.

All three of them agreed with the Mountain Lord’s judgment that approaching it recklessly would be unwise.

What was the intention of the being that had become Deus Verdi?

Countless souls.

A being that held enough power to bring the continent to the brink of destruction just by existing.

It wasn’t like the souls had cast some grand magic; the continent simply couldn’t withstand the mere presence of this entity.

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And Deus Verdi had accepted a force like that into his own body.

[Is that even possible?]

The Mountain Lord was filled with numerous doubts.

How was Deus Verdi, a human, able to endure a power that even the continent itself couldn’t withstand?

And furthermore, after having absorbed the entirety of that force in his body, how was Deus Verdi able to reappear in this world?

[To save the continent, he had transported the souls to another dimension.]

If Deus Verdi had emerged once again, then perhaps the threat that would herald the destruction of the continent was yet to be averted after all.

The Mountain Lord had many questions, but now was not the time for such reflection.

Step. Step.

Someone was drawing closer along the mountain path.

Though the footsteps were from elegant shoes, ill-suited for climbing a mountain, the wearer didn’t seem to care and just kept moving upward.

Suddenly, the Mountain Lord remembered the time when Deus Verdi had once approached him.

Back when he had lent Deus his strength to stop Findenai and Scrapyard Nomads.

And now, Deus had somehow grown to become a being with the fate of the continent in his hands.

At the summit of Norseweden Mountain, the Mountain Lord gazed calmly at the uninvited guest intruding on his territory.

[Impressive.]

It might have been invisible to ordinary humans, but the Mountain Lord could see countless souls gathered around Deus, shielding him.

It was the concentrated force of a power that had nearly brought the continent to ruin by its mere presence alone.

And an enigmatic being had become its master.

Letting out a low growl and wary, the Mountain Lord addressed Deus.

[What do you seek? Why have you come here and disturb the peace of this land?]

The Mountain Lord had never imagined that he would feel intimidated within the land he guarded.

If the mountain were to be burned or vanish, he could lose his strength.

However, it was unthinkable for him to feel fear in his prime.

Deus Verdi raised his head slowly, answering the Mountain Lord’s question in a flat tone.

“I simply want to know.”

Know what?

No further answer arrived.

And then, countless souls began to surge toward the Mountain Lord without any /genesisforsaken