The Betrayed Necromancer - Chapter 2

 The Abyss

How much time had passed since I last felt pain?

My consciousness awakens, slowly floating up as if from the depths of the water.

"……Where am I?"

I slowly open my eyes and check my surroundings.

It was a place where a desolate, ruined land stretched on indefinitely. There were no landmarks anywhere, but I immediately knew where I was.

That was because thick miasma was drifting across the entire area.

A place this filled with miasma could be nothing other than the Abyss.

"But this is strange. I can breathe normally. Living things shouldn't be able to survive within the miasma..."

Miasma corrodes the bodies and souls of all living creatures.

As a Necromancer, I had more resistance to miasma than an ordinary person, but even so, being in miasma like this would kill me in a matter of minutes.

"The only logical reason is... could it be the effect of Soul Reincarnation?"

Reincarnation magic, Soul Reincarnation, absorbs surrounding matter when being resurrected to reconstruct the body... or so I had heard.

Being reborn while absorbing the miasma might have given me a "resistance" to it. If so, that's lucky. I should be able to survive in this pit for a while longer.

"Still, I feel power welling up within me much more than before. And my perspective feels higher too... wait, ah?!"

Looking down, I noticed something.

My height had become taller than before I died. The height that used to be only around 155 cm has grown quite a bit, matching that of an adult.

Age-wise, maybe around 18 years old. This must also be the effect of absorbing the miasma. My voice feels deeper too.

"Being completely naked is embarrassing, though... but there aren't any clothes around, are there?"

The remnants of what I wore were at my feet, but there was no way I could wear something like that.

Even if my previous clothes had survived, I wouldn't have been able to wear them with this enlarged body.

"Still... what should I do? It doesn't look like I can climb back up out of the Abyss, anyway..."

The Abyss is unimaginably deep.

There was no way I could climb a rocky cliff barehanded.

Besides, no matter how much bigger I've gotten, my current strength wasn't enough to take revenge on Ares and the others.

"Power. I want power...!"

I crave it from the bottom of my heart.

I want overwhelming power that can cast them into the depths of despair.

If I can obtain that, I will pay any price. Right now, revenge is my sole reason for living.

As I was thinking that, I heard the sound of someone stepping on the ground: crunch.

"……Who is it?!"

I instantly braced myself.

I had never heard of any living creature surviving in the Abyss. No living thing should be able to live amidst this miasma.

As I watched the source of the sound with caution, a single skeleton wrapped in black garments emerged from the miasma.

"A skeleton? Why is it in the Abyss...?"

Although skeleton monsters have some resistance to miasma, they should lose their soul's shape and perish within the Abyss.

Why on earth is there a skeleton in the Abyss? While I was wondering, the skeleton took off the cloak it was wearing and offered it toward me.

"Is this... for me?"

Nod. The skeleton gives a small nod.

Far from being hostile, it was actually offering me clothes.

The mystery only deepens, but if it's offering out of goodwill, I'll accept. I put on the cloak, and for now, I was no longer naked.

"Thank you, that saved me. By the way, who are you?"

When I asked, the skeleton just opened and closed its jaw without uttering any words.

As expected, a bone body can't speak, can it?

I hadn't noticed while she was draped in the cloak, but this skeleton was wearing a maid uniform. Although it's tattered now, the embroidery and design were high quality. She might have once served someone of note.

A, oo...

Thinking about that, the skeleton maid turned back and began walking back into the miasma.

Along the way, she occasionally glanced back at me.

"Follow her... is that it? I don't have anywhere else to go, so let's check it out."

I followed behind the skeleton maid.

After walking for about ten minutes, I arrived at a certain place.

"This is...!"

What appeared before me was a colossal, ruined city.

A collapsed gate, and stone statues that once towered proudly. The rows of buildings were all magnificent, but every single one of them was damaged and weathering away.

And in the center of that city, an equally magnificent castle stood tall.

The castle was also heavily damaged, but it still retained its shape. To preserve its form even within the midst of such miasma, it must have been an extraordinarily sturdy fortress.

"Incredible. I've never seen such a magnificent city. Isn't it much bigger than the current royal capital?"

To think there was the ruin of a city at the bottom of the Abyss. Information like this probably isn't in any records.

Whose country was this, and why did it perish? The questions were endless.

Thinking about such things, I stepped foot into the city.

Inside the city, besides the skeleton maid, there were numerous other undead.

Skeletons clad in knight's armor, zombies in wizard robes, and ghosts sitting listlessly—various undead populated the ruined city.

When the undead caught sight of me, they wore surprised expressions and stared intently. Well, living humans rarely ever come here, so being surprised is only natural.

"To think there was a city like this at the bottom of the Abyss... And that there are so many undead who haven't perished within the Abyss. Who are the people here?"

Upon entering the miasma, ordinary people can't even become undead and would simply perish.

The only ones who could enter this place and survive as undead are humans with souls strong enough not to be eroded by the miasma.

It's hard to believe there are so many humans with such souls. Just in my field of view, there were dozens; if I searched the entire city, wouldn't there be over a thousand?

"……I've never heard of such a city existing. What on earth is this place?"

I asked the skeleton maid.

The skeleton maid moved her mouth as if she wanted to say something, but unfortunately, it didn't form clear words.

Perhaps despairing over that, the skeleton maid sat down right on the spot. If she still had a flesh-and-blood body, she might have been able to cry and ease her suffering, but with a skeleton body, she couldn't even cry.

Not knowing if it would offer any comfort, I squatted down beside her and placed a hand on her shoulder.

At that moment, a vivid landscape welled up inside my head.

"This is...!"

What popped into my head was the scenery of this city before it fell.

An ideal city where many people lived happily.

However, that city was destroyed by a colossal "light" that suddenly poured down from the sky. The people resisted desperately, but to no avail, and everyone in the city perished.

Yet, whatever entity poured down that light from the sky wasn't satisfied with that. They committed the outrage of causing the land holding the city to sink, further filling it with massive amounts of miasma.

Because of that, they haven't even been able to pass on, and continue to suffer in this place. That's just... too cruel.

Up until now, I could occasionally catch fragments of what the dead were thinking, but this was the first time I could actually see what a deceased person had witnessed. This must also be an ability newly awakened through my growth as a Necromancer.

Desperately wanting to know why something like this happened, I set my mind to work... and arrived at an answer.

"Hey, I am a Necromancer. Would it be alright if I tried to 'resurrect' you? I want to hear your story."

While I had been able to save people wandering on the brink of death, I had never been able to resurrect someone who was completely dead until now.

Complete resurrection consumes a massive amount of magical power, and above all, the old me was young and inexperienced.

I couldn't do it before, but with my current powered-up body, I should be able to.

Hearing my proposal, the skeleton maid pondered for a moment, then clasped her hands in front of her chest into a prayer-like posture.

It seemed she was telling me to go ahead.

I focused and activated my magic.

"Necromancy—Complete Resurrection (Resurrection)!"

Complete Resurrection.

It is the ultimate art of necromancy that re-anchors the soul to the flesh, repairs the body, and restores life once more.

No matter how many times I practiced before, it had never succeeded, but Complete Resurrection activated with unbelievable smoothness, returning the skeleton maid back to her living form.

"This is... really...!"

In mere seconds, the skeleton maid regained her physical body.

What appeared was a woman with beautiful silver hair.

Smooth, pale skin. Slanted eyes that gave a sharp, cool impression. Her eyes were a pale silver color, making it feel like she could see straight through to the depths of your heart if stared at steadily.

The maid uniform she wore was also restored, regaining its original beauty.

Stunned by her beauty, as if she stepped straight out of a painting, I was momentarily left speechless.

"……Might I ask your name?"

"Eh? Ah, I'm Crow. Crow Hornet."

"Lord Crow, then. I have finally found the master I ought to serve. I will never forget the grace you showed in saving me. I, Alicia, shall become your hands and feet, and serve by your side until this life expires."

The mysterious maid, Alicia, bowed deeply to me and made her declaration.

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