Having seen how easily the gorilla killed the wolf pack leader and the wolves themselves, he was stunned, but his tattoo pulsed. After which, he received a message: "Warning: you are too weak for the new enemy. Advice: run with all your might."

"No arguing with that," he ordered his servants to attack the stone gorillas and the female gorilla. Then he turned around and ran.

The gorilla turned her head towards the fleeing man. Then, snorting, she drew on the sand, and hit the drawings with a stone hand. A strong earthquake arose, and a stone wall in the form of a ring began to grow out of the ground, surrounding the entire battlefield, not allowing anyone to escape.

***

The main bird, upon seeing Alpha's corpse, felt a strange emptiness. He had felt this feeling before when his beloved had died.

Alpha had been a good friend several centuries ago, and he would still be a friend now if not for this curse. Yes, I stole food from him, but who in this world hasn't started killing their acquaintances to prolong their existence by a drop? No one wants to fall.

"Ah, farewell old friend, and now my former enemy. It's a pity it all ended this way," he shouted, ordering everyone else to fly away from here. "Today is not our day." With that cry, all the birds flew away, leaving the battlefield.

***

The gorilla, seeing the birds fly away, grunted. Then she looked at the only human on the battlefield. Watching the rats and wolves fight together, she realized that they were all moving very strangely. Undead? Watching them, she couldn't feel a soul in them. Or were they too weak to sustain their existence? Could this man be a necromancer? They had all disappeared a long time ago. Did he run away? Interesting.

The stone gorillas killed everyone who crossed their path, whether it was angry wolves or crazy undead. They all fell on the sand. But if an ordinary wolf did not rise from the black sand, then the undead either revived or parasitized on new bodies, turning them into undead.

"What to do?" - watching as enemies approached him, he didn't know what to do. But suddenly he noticed a bird flying. - "Exactly!"

Focusing on the threads that connected him and the undead birds, he ordered them to descend. There were only a few birds left after the battle. Then he ordered them to capture him and lift him into the sky.

But before they descended, the gorilla struck the sand. After that, several stone spears grew out of the sand. Taking them in his hands, he threw them straight at the birds. With insane speed, they hit the birds and collided with the wall.

"Damn it!..." - He wanted to swear longer, but received a strange message.

[The owner will not be able to survive in this battle. In this case, you can only save yourself by invoking Ancestral Aid. This service will summon the soul of one of the great necromancers. But the price will be a part of your humanity and necrotic energy. You have 3 seconds to decide. Your choice: Yes/No.]

"Yes!" - He had some doubts, but seeing that he would reach those stone gorillas now, he decided to accept and learn all the details later.

A black burst of mist enveloped the man in black. The gorilla, seeing this, began to get angry. At the same time, the first stone gorilla tried to strike the black mist. But before it could make contact, a skeletal hand emerged from the mist and struck the enemy, causing it to fly straight into the stone wall.

The mist was dispersing, but not completely. A light dark mist clung to the black man, taking its own form and size. This mist became more distinct, changing his appearance and... dressing him.

But if you looked closer, you could occasionally see his previous form behind the mist.

The skeletal hand began to crumble, turning to ash. And the new black man in a mage's black suit began to survey the entire battlefield, after which he looked at his hands.

By saying "Yes," he received a new message: "Attention, Ancestral Help is being launched. This service will summon one of the past owners of the Necronomicon. For the owner's safety, he will be asleep during this time."

After finishing reading the last words, a strong urge to sleep overtook him, but before he fell asleep completely, he received new messages.

"Attention, attention, attention! Duke of the Grave has been summoned. In order to protect the owner, the first seal will be forcibly removed at the cost of part of your spiritual energy. Forced seal removal is initiated..."

He wanted to close his eyes due to sudden tiredness, but he fought against it, trying to learn more. He felt like it was all going to be too complicated. And then there was this Duke of Mogil. From the name alone, it was clear that he used to be a big shot. Suddenly, he felt something being sucked out of him, but he didn't know what it was. It was like a vampire sucking blood out of you.

The feeling of mild pain was short-lived. After that, a new message came.

"Attention, attention, attention! Please, don't resist and fall asleep. For safety reasons, you will be forcibly disconnected."

The message ended, and his vision became hazy, and he fell asleep. But the messages didn't stop, and a new message appeared on the old one. At the same time, the tattoo pulsed without stopping, releasing black mist that surrounded the entire body.

"The summoning process is starting. The process of extracting part of humanity begins."

The strong emotional pain almost woke him up, but a new wave of tiredness made him fall asleep. This pain was like someone cutting meat with a knife. Or like a zombie eating you alive.

This pain didn't last long because it became stronger than before. Fortunately, it lasted only one second, after which everything subsided.

***

Duke Mogil looked around and then his gaze was drawn to his left hand, where there was a tattoo.

"How much time has passed? Has this world not died yet?" he said, looking at his left hand.

Suddenly, an icy blue panel appeared out of nowhere, with the words "Duke Mogil, you have been summoned. Your goal is to save the owner of this body."

"Hmm... Was Ancestor's Aid used? And what was the reason?" he looked around and saw stone gorillas, who could grab him at any moment. But he ignored them and looked at the black gorilla with stone hands.

"Who are you... Are you the Stone Master Gar?" he asked with a hint of skepticism. Did Gar fall so hard?

The gorilla, hearing its name, became angry. No one had talked about him in a long time. And now this... Duke Mogil? How did he end up here?

Realizing who was before him, the gorilla could no longer remain calm. The thought of running away crept in, but he quickly dismissed it. The Duke wouldn't let him go, and secondly, he must be weakened like everyone else. The gorilla doubted that he could have somehow preserved his powers. Moreover, this was not his body, but simply a spirit that was summoned.

If he could be summoned, then all the other necromancers must be hiding somewhere and couldn't escape this doomed place, as others believed. This was very logical. But now Gar had to do everything himself. Striking the ground, Gar summoned ten more stone gorillas, but this time they were one meter taller. Gar could no longer summon a golem for help - too much energy would be spent. It was better to leave them to somehow kill Duke Mogil and take as much energy from his soul as possible.

Duke Mogil, seeing how Gar summoned his golems for help and raised his right hand, turned all the corpses nearby into undead. When rats, wolves, and birds rose from the sand, the Duke shook his head and said:

"Plague rats, hunting pack for sins, and birds... birds of the children of the wind? How low they have fallen. Truly, a world that destroys everything. Cursed be those who are responsible for all our suffering."

Snapping his fingers, bones tore out of all the bodies and flew straight at the Duke. Each bone changed size and shape, and in the end, all of them combined, becoming armor on the Duke.

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Looking at his armor, the Duke shook his head discontentedly and, clicking his tongue, said:

"The bones are too weak. It's clear that they have degraded for quite some time. Hey, I'll take some necro-energy from you. Your owner has too small an energy storage. Better train him if you want him to survive."

The tattoo pulsated, and panels appeared before the Duke, which read:

"Your request has been accepted. Duke Mogil has the right to use the current owner's energy."

"Hmm... He didn't collect that much. But if you look at how much he wasted, you can guess he had a lot of energy. I wonder how long he trained him?"

"No more than a day!"

"What? He was able to learn how to create this circle so quickly. Even if it's a simplified version of the Undead World Circle. This is interesting!" Closing his eyes, he began to examine the soul of the successor, but not before reinforcing his comet armor. After which, he summoned several tombstones, from which armed skeletons began to emerge, attacking the golems.

Finishing, he began to explore the soul of his summoner. Nothing unusual, if you leave aside its purity or abundance of energy.

"Has he recently come to this world... How? That's impossible. Isn't it? I must know."

"Attention, attention, attention! You are prohibited from harming the owner of this body. Launching protective mechanism: three, two, one..."

"Aah! Has the first seal been removed? So quickly? Could it be... You know, he summoned me and now forcefully removed the first seal. Don't you know the consequences?"

"The owner will be able to deal with the problem. Fortunately, all the necessary materials are in this world."

"Haha! You want to make an enemy of this world? Interesting... Well, I won't touch him. My mood is ruined." Watching as his skeletons fought against stone gorillas, he shook his head. Jumping slowly, he made a big leap right at Gara, who was watching his servants fight. This jump surprised him, but quickly hitting the sand, a stone wall grew out of it, against which the Duke collided before hitting the wall. The flight speed stopped, and putting his hands on the wall, he jumped straight onto it.

Looking at Gara's bewildered face, he began to mock him:

"You foolish monkey, my younger siblings paid a high price to summon me because of you. Oh, poor boy."

Two huge skeletal hands emerged from the ground and lunged at Gara. He struck the ground and summoned two columns that grew out of the sand and struck the bony hands.

The skeletal hands struck the columns, after which Gara, gripping the columns in his hand, began to squeeze them. Small cracks appeared on the columns, which began to spread and increase all over.

"Monkey, your struggle is useless. It's better to surrender," said the Duke.

Gara was enraged to hear himself called a monkey. It was very insulting to him. But he couldn't relax and attack directly - that would mean death.

Without waiting for the bony hands to destroy the columns, the Duke jumped on Gara. During the flight, a bony sword flew out of the sand, hitting Gara in midair and landing in the Duke's hand. At the same time, Gara used his hands as a shield.

The sword, hitting the stone hand, only managed to scratch it severely, even penetrating it by two centimeters. Jumping aside, the Duke looked at the point of impact and saw several small cracks on the stone hand. Clicking his tongue, he said:

"Not bad. Your hands are still as strong as they used to be. But you've become somewhat relaxed, haven't you?" - hearing the question, Gara felt the danger.

Rotten hands emerged from the ground and caught his legs. Looking down, he saw several tombstones. When did this happen?

"Don't be surprised. I'm in a bad mood. So, before I fall asleep again, you'll be my punching bag."

After hitting the tombstone and zombie hands a few times with his stony hands, he managed to break free. Then, Gar blocked the swords aimed at his head with one hand and drew something in the sand with the other before striking it.

The stone walls crumbled and spikes grew out of the sand in their place. They continued to grow and flew at the Duke like bullets as he jumped.

The stone spikes shattered on contact with his stone armor, and the bones only cracked slightly.

"Don't be foolish," said the Duke.

Snapping his fingers, the zombies, which had been turned into mush, joined together, and their tentacle-like arms clung to Gar. Gar tried to remove them with his hands, but they began to grow in size in response.

Seeing that they were only getting bigger, Gar tried to jump as far as he could. But before his legs could break free from the sand, something pierced his back.

"Relax, Gar. You've become weaker. Ah, this idiot..." Before the Duke could finish, Gar screamed and hit the sand with both hands. A weak earthquake occurred, and a huge stone platform grew out of the sand.

Taking the swords pulled from his back, Gar threw them onto the arena sand. But the arena continued to grow. Clenching his fists, he struck the Duke, and spikes emerged from both of them, like those of Wolverine.

The Duke looked mockingly at Gar, and then, touching the ground, a circle filled with runes appeared where his hand was.

The rocky ground began to crack, and from the cracks came out Dead Gorillas, or rather, zombies. But where did they come from, and how were they summoned - a mystery.

"You thought I couldn't summon my servants? If it weren't for these times, I would never have summoned these low-grade creatures," growled Gar.

Hitting the ground again, Gar destroyed it, and he and the Duke began to fall. Gar sat on a piece of the floor, watching the Duke. Touching the ground several times, all the pieces of stone began to replicate and headed straight for the Duke.

The first copy collided with his armor and was able to penetrate it, wounding him. Seeing that his armor was useless, he began jumping from one copy to another, trying to avoid the others. But the copies were faster and still managed to pierce him. The copies that made it inside began to become softer and, like snakes, embraced the part of the body where they hit. In the end, they connected with long ropes, the other end of which was in Gar's hands.

Pulling sharply, the Duke flew straight at Gar, where he got a few stone needles in his chest. Gar already thought it was the end and relaxed a little. But four long arms appeared from the Duke's back, freeing him. After that, he jumped off.

The Gorilla was surprised that the Duke didn't attack her. But she quickly understood why. Hitting the ground, she felt strong pain in her legs and chest. Looking down, she saw bones that had penetrated her. She saw how the entire field was full of sharp bones. When did this happen?

"Surprised?... I can see that you are. Well, goodbye, old friend," as the bones within Gar's body exploded like a bomb, tearing apart his heart and organs into pieces. Collapsing to his death, all of his bones turned to dust. The Duke fell on his backside and stared at Gar's corpse. And from it, huge clouds of gray mist emanated, which then entered the Duke.

"I need to do something with his soul if I want him to stop causing problems... But I'm so weak. Hey, book, how much time do I have left before I disappear?"

"Thirty-two minutes."

"Alright." Sitting down, he began to survey the entire field, where there were stones, some stink, and rotten meat. And only a few corpses remained untouched, was it a miracle?

A skeleton emerged from the sand, which knelt before the Duke of Graves. The Duke, with an icy stare at the corpses, commanded, "Collect them." After that, he lowered his head.

The skeleton rose and began to drag all the intact or nearly intact corpses. At the moment when he dragged one of the wolf's bodies, a live wolf unexpectedly attacked him. But the skeleton quickly grabbed it by the head, squeezed its bony hand, and crushed the wolf's skull. After that, he continued to drag the corpses.

Seeing undead gorillas, which were under the clouds, the skeleton ordered to clear the battlefield of stone fragments, while he collected the corpses for his master.

Looking for corpses among the rubble, he came across the body of a wolf that was larger than the others. The body had many wounds and even several fractures. It was the Alpha's body. The skeleton took him by his hind legs and began to pull.

Alpha's closed eyes began to twitch weakly until they opened, and he looked at the skeleton that was dragging him. He stood up abruptly and attacked. The skeleton, not expecting the attack, could not defend itself.

With a single blow, the skeleton flew several meters away. The gorillas, who were hauling stones, turned to Alpha and began to throw stones at him.

Alpha jumped from side to side to avoid each stone. After another jump, he pounced on the first gorilla and tore it apart. But that same gorilla caught the enemy and didn't let him move.

Alpha paid no attention to it, as if he didn't care. The skeleton, which flew away after the blow, returned and pounced on Alpha. He caught him by the paw and began to beat him against the sand and stones together with the gorilla.

"Leave him to me," said the Duke, pointing his finger at Alpha and shooting a small ball of darkness. When he hit Alpha, nothing happened, but he stopped and turned to the Duke. The destroyed gorilla released Alpha, and he pounced on the Duke. When he was ready to attack, he fell to the sand. His wounds healed, but he did not get up, as if he had died.

Watching as the wolf recovered, the Duke began to speak aloud: "This is what those who have lost their last drops of sanity look like. What were they called then? Fallen, right. I couldn't watch them back then because the world was finally rotting. We all closed in on ourselves."

Standing up, he began to touch Alpha's body. He infused it with his power and began to observe its soul. It was empty, devoid of any energy or humanity. But it was filled with dirt, black, foul, the slag of all those centuries.

"He lost himself and can no longer be the same. If I'm not mistaken, you must be the last son of the first Leader of the hunting pack for sins. It's a shame that this line disappeared like this... Sorry, but you will become my undead."

The fur, and then the skin, began to rot, and then the organs themselves turned into black liquid. Dripping onto the sand, it began to gather into a ball until only Alpha's bones remained.

"Come." - He ordered the gorillas with a commanding tone. All of them, even the one turned into mush, dragging themselves across the sand, headed towards their master.

As he gathered them, the Duke did not hesitate to recite a few spells. After which, the rotten flesh of the gorillas fell off their bodies like threads, and each one headed towards Alpha's skeleton, transforming into new muscles, organs, and skin.

At the same time, the Duke, looking at his left hand where a tattoo sat neatly, asked:

"How much time has passed? When did we still walk this land?... Nevermind, it doesn't matter. Whether I know or not, it's not important. What's more important is what happened to the previous owner?"

"He was taken and punished," a blue panel appeared before him.

"And who is the new owner? What are you so ready to protect?"

"He was chosen by him and became an apostle... And as you guessed, he is not from this world." Reading the first line, he was not surprised, but the next one gave him many thoughts.

"That's for sure. In this world, everyone knows each other, and it's impossible not to know someone. But an apostle - that's interesting. And what name did he get?"

"He did not get a name." Now this completely shocked him.

"How did he not get a name? A name is bestowed by death, it becomes your strength, but also your shackles."