Solomon entered the mansion and found himself in his real home.
But something was different there.
The zombies at the entrance were cowering in fear and Skully was hidden behind some grave pillars.
Solomon tensely walked to the castle feeling the air and atmosphere in his home changing, as if something terrible would befall him.
Near the castle and Jord, there was a shining man with white holy clothes. The space around him was constantly purified of the energy emanating from the ground, he definitely stuck out like a sore thumb in this area full of death and zombies.
His hair was scarlet as Ibyr’s hair in her human form and it was really short and well arranged, he had a scar running over the middle of his face and he was taller than any man Solomon ever saw.
“Good timing, by what Jord said you must be my new nephew. Unfortunately, I’m out of time and can’t wait for my daughter to come home, you technically as part of my family will do.” The all-knowing, amber wolf-like eyes of the middle-aged man penetrated Solomon’s very being and completely paralyzed his body, not in fear but by some unseen force on the middle-aged man’s eyes.
“What are you doing with Sol?!” Bessy cried out as she lunged toward the man even in fear though he ignored it.
The tall man touched Solomon’s shoulders and the teenager felt like he was being transported against his wishes in the same way he was before entering his home.
Solomon soon enough found himself without Bessy in a well-lighted tent with a lamp hanging over his head and outside’s loud shouts reverberating on the shabby tent.
“There isn’t much time to explain right now, my name is Raithe. And if you don’t want to my daughter become an orphan or to die, just put this mask on and follow me.” Raithe gave a blood-red mask with two horns that covered only the upper face to Solomon and dragged him out of the tent.
Before leaving the tent Raithe put on a similar mask and the purifier aura of holiness disappeared while his face changed to a completely different one, Solomon almost hadn’t time to put on his mask as he was in a bewildered state of being teleported to a strange place and not knowing what to do about the threat of death of him and his uncle, but he was able to put the mask, changing his face to an older one.
“Damn, DH. Only one minute remaining to you die and you appeared.” A woman in armor with an antique claymore sword and a mask said. “You are the last one.”
Solomon looked around him and saw many adults wearing masks or with forms to hide their identities together with children and teenagers in a similar garments.
“At least nobody will die by arriving late, I would hate to make my God do that. So let’s divide who will go to each place and where our children will go, we need to make sure to put us in the most dangerous situations.” Raithe spread out a map on a nearby table and began to discuss with the other adults about siege strategies.
Solomon saw a city at distance and perceived he was in a type of army barrack with tables and weapons spread out beneath the afternoon burning sun, not exactly the best time to raid a city in Solomon’s opinion, not that he was a specialist, of course.
The children and teenagers seemed quite comfortable with the current situation and were chatting between themselves without a care in the world.
Solomon stayed still for a long time, too embarrassed to ask what is happening and too confused to do anything else.
“Oh, Brother. Go there, I saw a demon. Go ask her what is happening. I assure you she will answer without joking or telling anyone about it.” Asmo said.
Solomon finally having an objective went to the purple-skinned tall muscular-horned demon with axes.
If he wasn't wrong, she was a violent demon known as Brawl Fiend. “Hi, I’m kind of lost here. Could you explain to me what’s happening, especially with those ones behind me?”
The female demon thought she was dreaming as she heard someone calling to her in the antique language of her master, and when she turned to the scarf boy she saw a shadow behind him waving to her. “It will be an honor to do so, Master.” She kneeled and noted the shadow making army’s signals to her not to divulge this encounter which she respectfully accepted.
“Okay…?” Solomon looked around and didn’t see anyone the demon could be calling a master.
This mask must be the reason.
He thought while Asmo stealthily snickered.
The female demon explained about the pact between her Lord and the other gods and how the Republic of Earth was to be helped by all champions to conquer the world, making this strange situation where paladins, demons, and Gods’ champions are helping each other.
But the Gods’ champions had it worse, they can’t reveal their appearance or their true powers as it could cause many problems and they are obliged to bring a relative of them to the war to force them to take the war seriously, their relatives will be sent to the infantry without any bodyguards or safety measures so the champions must conquer the city before their children die in the war.
This pact was made after all Gods accepted it as they know that there was a chance their champions wouldn’t help. And if the champions do not appear or are without a relative, they will immediately die.
So I’m a type of hostage? Who could think that the Gods would become equal to the Dragon Empress and have political hostages?
“The only thing remaining to be made for now is to conquer the capital of the Republic of Renar and the war will be considered ‘done’. The Republic of Earth will take care of the aftermath.” The female demon said.
“What I don’t understand is how a republic will be conquering the world. Isn’t it a democracy? I thought the people there would be against it.” Solomon said looking at the soldiers and seeing all of them in iron armors being excited while looking at the city at distance.
“Master, there is a fundamental difference between republic and democracy. And-”
A horn sounded and interrupted the demon, soldiers came and surrounded the children and teenagers, Solomon was also surrounded. “It’s time to go the frontal infantry.” The soldiers said and looked like they would even force the champions’ relatives to go despite their difference in status.
The champions ordered their relatives to go with the soldiers meanwhile Raithe just said this to Solomon. “Try to survive, I will pick you up later. I think I can conquer this city in seven hours. Don’t fret, I will properly apologize to you and my sister if we survive this.”
Solomon was taken together with a bunch of demons to the frontline where soldiers beyond the horizon were surrounding the city before the first attack.
“We have a chance of surviving even if you don’t accept me. Look at our comrades’ weapons and those pieces of machinery.” Asmo said while Solomon was shaking, feeling in his skin the same what soldiers feel before going on a suicidal mission which is to be on the first frontline.
Different from the weapons the nobles Solomon know, all soldiers’ weapons, swords, spears, halberds, bows, and many others, were without any magic crystal. Those were weapons coming since the Dark Age when all magical weapons disappeared.
And there was also the machinery, Solomon had never seen something like them in his life, they had wheels like cars but were more reinforced with a barrel similar to Jesse’s handgun.
“If the Republic backed up by the wishes of The One Down There have these weapons, imagine its enemies? Although everyone has magic, one truth is still maintained even after magic came back. This is that commoners that are the majority of all armies still have such low quantities of magic that they can’t even light a fire, so all of them use Dark Age’s weapons and can’t for example, throw a fireball at you from afar. To survive you just have to use Dark Magic at them while they try to reach you with their obsolete weapons.” Asmo explained.
A second horn sounded and the soldiers began to march against the city’s four gates and their soldiers.
Solomon was taken away by the crowd of soldiers against his wishes and thrown in the middle of the battle.
With his own eyes, he saw nearby soldiers being taken by arrows and then killed by the enemy soldiers. His body was coated with the blood of the soldiers near him.
“Die!” A soldier was impaled and others had their eyes poked out by arrows.
“For Renar!” A head fell and was used to throw at the enemy.
“Fiends, we won’t fall in despair!” A demon was cut in the middle and its two parts twitched on the ground without dying.
Similar scenes but with much more horror continuously happened in the field of battle.
Solomon was finally able to get his bearings to see near him fallen bodies and a mini river of blood flowing, something inside of Solomon broke for the first time being so near where people died.
The stench and blood-curdling screams were the worst, and there were innumerable ghosts being created all the time, with them even after death trying to destroy their enemies’ ghosts.
It was complete chaos that threatened to break the mind of any sane person.
Solomon was paralyzed until finally, an enemy soldier came running at him with a sword in his hands.
The fear of death surpassed Solomon’s horror at the war’s carnage, making him at the last second evade the sword but ended up tripping and going to the ground.
The soldier screamed as he went to finish the scarfed man.
In war, mercy to his enemy is cruelty made to oneself.
“Is this my death? Solomon thought as the sword went to cut his head off. “No! I don’t want to die!” In despair and an instinct bigger than himself, Solomon raised his hand to the sword as if to stop it with his own hands.
But from his hand that he absorbed the dead hand to become a necromancer, a dark glob of energy with tiny silver stars within it appeared.
The source of this power was so nefarious the soldier momentarily stopped swinging his sword, it was as if he was looking deep into a horrible abyss that seemed like would ripe his soul out of him.
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The soldier continued to swing his sword after recovering, however, the small pause in his movement was all that the energy on Solomon’s hands needed to launch itself on its enemy.
The ball of darkness penetrated and corroded the whole sword, going straight to the soldier’s skull.
Solomon watched horrified as the soldier’s body fell with an enormous hole in his head.
The man couldn’t be more dead than this, it was the first time Solomon killed someone.
“No, why… I didn’t mean, I only didn’t want to die. Is it my fault? Why? I didn’t want to become a murderer, I only wanted to be happy and live normally, so why am I here? In this war?” His actions were completely contrary to what the person that nurtured him always told him to do.
He was a failure and-
Before Solomon could continue his self-depreciation, the soldier’s body stood up with the black glob with silver stars flowing through him. His soul wasn’t allowed to go to the afterlife and he became a zombie with his skin becoming gray and the stench of death strong in him.
The enemy soldiers saw this and despite their disgust, they knew that they need to kill the masked scarf man to their comrade's soul rest in peace.
Solomon’s mind wasn’t working properly and when he saw many other soldiers coming at him, he thought of death coming at him again.
In response to his thoughts and raised arms, more globs of darkness launched themselves at the soldiers, killing them and resurrecting them after that.
And it wasn’t the end of it, before using his Dark Magic, the emotions of fear coming from Solomon were still on the globs of darkness and the resurrected zombies felt that fear inside of them.
How could they pardon the ones that made their master feel like so?
Screaming, the zombies advanced against the horde of enemy soldiers and began to slay them.
The enemy soldiers were now suffering another kind of horror and mental suffering of seeing their comrades’ condition without heads or important parts of the body destroyed, each time the zombie soldiers killed anyone, it seemed like a virus as the killed soldiers also stood up with their skins becoming gray and attacking the ones that they were friends with, that shared weal and woe with them.
Relationships like father and son, or daughter-in-law and uncle were meaningless and served for nothing in stopping the zombies.
The wickedness of such magic and the masked scarf man that created it was beyond inhuman, be it the enemy soldiers or the soldiers from the Republic of Earth thought the same.
The necromancy has three paths and each one focuses on different aspects, but only the third antique path is able to spread in such a way through all enemies. Its sinfulness came from a time when the most civilized thing that existed was to not eat the enemy’s body.
More and more zombies appeared, making the job of raiding the city easier as they didn’t fear pain or death.
Because of the zombies, God’s champions hastened their siege and began to destroy the city’s gates.
In the middle of all this, Solomon sat on the ground, crying with many zombies around him protecting him and asking. “Master, please stop crying. We eliminated all your enemies.”
It seemed to have a distance Solomon’s zombies could go away from him so as they eliminated and created more of them, they went to Solomon’s side to calm him down, causing an impenetrable circle of zombies to form around Solomon.
The screams of the people Solomon killed, constantly echoed in his head. Only now guilt settling within him.
Those people he killed weren’t bad, they were only protecting their country and they had a family to feed.
He had become what he abhors the most, he was a murderer.
And moreover, one who is so wicked to make friends and relatives kill each other after death. How could he be so naive to not expect something like this to happen after learning necromancy?
No matter how he told himself he didn’t know what his new magic would do since he never used it on living beings could change what he did.
The spell, Dark Blind, he used was supposed to only temporally blind the target to him flee, not create a swarm of zombies. But he became too strong for the spell to work as intended with his fear of death dominating and pouring more magic and feelings than necessary into the spell.
At the end of all self-depreciation and guilt, Solomon ended up feeling empty without any emotion. He became dull as he ignored the zombies and just vacantly looked at his hands.
“What did I become? And why am I not in complete despair after killing someone? Why am I not thinking of killing myself to pay for this sin?” Solomon wept for the true reason of his sorrow. “Miss Olivia, I miss you. Things were much easier when you were near me. I shouldn’t have ever left the orphanage. I will never go to war once again in my life.”
***
Meanwhile Solomon was having a useless existential crisis when his soul is already corrupted by a demon, Raithe reached before all other champions the place that made the Republic of Renar special enough to many put spies on it and the reason the Republic of Earth wants this city.
“Your masters are all dead, will you surrender or met the same fate?” Raithe asked the swordswoman guarding in a cave a strangely placed purple gate with runes of ‘homeworld’ all around it.
“I was contracted to guard this place and I shall do so.” The middle-aged woman full of scars raised her one-handed slim sword which was a new generation magical weapon with magic crystals embedded in it. “My name’s Morag. What’s yours, demon’s worshipper?”
Raithe advanced against Morag as she got distracted by things like telling her own name, punching her face, and making her fly.
“Another without honor, my luck lately has been terrible.” Morag used her sword to stop the momentum of her flight and as she stepped onto the ground, she swung her sword vertically without caring about the great distance between her and Raithe.
From her sword came a ray of azure lightning, destroying everything on its path until it reached Raithe who only slightly liberated his true form to stop the attack while rushing at Morag.
With his right arm full of white fur coming from his werewolf form, Raithe crushed the ray of lightning and took the chance to attack the stunned Morag.
He first kicked her belly and took the air from her to use his furred arm to penetrate her breast, finding her heart and crushing it.
Raithe with his arm going back to normal, watched Morag’s lifeless body fall and a ball of light rising until it became her ghost.
“Sister will be quite angry with me so you will serve to appease her.” Raithe took out a withered tree’s branch and put it on Morag’s body.
The branch shuddered and began to absorb Morag’s body together with her screaming soul. After some moments everything that remained was the branch.
Raithe carefully picked the branch and went beyond the purple gate to confirm the presence of what many nations wanted more for research and curiosity purposes.
Raithe looked without any surprise to the place called Wonder Chamber, the gimmick of this was that it without any pattern spew random things. It had sugar spread out, some spiders, some things the Republic of Earth was after, petroleum, saltpeter, sulfur, and other things Raithe couldn’t pronounce.
This place only got famous after it spewed a delicious food known as pizza and the whole world discovered its taste and eventually created a recipe for it.
Nodding to see everything in the correct place, Raithe came back to the fight and helped to finish the city’s siege.
Because Solomon’s zombies caused both mental and physical damage to the soldiers, the siege was quicker than anyone could think, ending in only two hours.
Raithe went to the place where the zombies were surrounding Solomon and released a little of his holy aura to purify all of them, which took a while with the staggering amount.
As soon as he finished he felt an even bigger headache coming to him than stealing her sister’s son, he saw Solomon with his eyes red and dried tears on his face.
Raithe sighed and said. “It was the first time you killed someone?”
“... Yes.” Solomon said still looking at his hands.
“It saddens me to know that I was the cause to a good boy to shed blood. My Light God is for sure disappointed with me. But I must ask you, did you feel excited with happiness by killing someone and making them zombies?”
“Of course not! How would someone feel like that?” Solomon shouted, clenching his hands.
“So you aren’t still lost to the temptations of Dark Magic, therefore you must think of this as a cruel lesson to your future. Did you see how your power can be terrifying?”
“Yes.” Solomon closed his eyes remembering everything that happened with the dread on the face of the soldiers near him.
“So now you know to not use it without being careful and how horrible is to kill someone, but what will you do if you have to kill once again to protect someone dear to you? Would you not just because of this experience?”
Solomon became silent.
“Never forget of the guilt you feel now but also don’t be hindered by it. You must continue living on by the ones you killed.” Raithe sat and bowed in apology. “And this time was my fault anyway. I’m sorry for putting you in this situation but I didn’t want to make my daughter become an orphan. Can you forgive me?”
Solomon was able to easily understand Raithe’s position to be between life and death, and didn’t blame him for it. “It’s fine, can we go home now? I’m hungry, I’m tired, and also want to go to the bathroom.” Solomon just wanted to this day end already. The worst first day of school of his life.
“Yes, let’s go home.” Raithe said while thinking. “If only Ibyr wasn’t in the Fay Garden training, this wouldn’t happen. Let’s hope I’m still alive after surviving my sister’s wrath.”
***
Before going to sleep Solomon made sure to ask Asmo to not let him really sleep and call him to that dreamscape, if Solomon normally slept he was sure he would have nightmares.
Bessy was without words for what happened to him and didn’t know how to comfort him. She wanted to be there to maybe help him.
A day passed without him seeing Ibyr or his parents, and the clock rang to wake him up.
With low spirits, he began to prepare himself for a new day at his school and went to the kitchen to have his breakfast.
As he reached the gigantic table with fruits, guava juice, and bread for everyone in the castle, Tessa came running to him, she tightly embraced him while gently stroking his hair.
She whispered and whispered to him that everything would be fine.
Solomon didn’t know why he felt like crying, but he could feel Tessa’s warmth and care for him. Is this what to have a mother? It… isn’t a bad feeling at all. He thought, hugging her back.
Jesse walked to both of them and silently watched over them, and it was enough to Solomon perceived his father’s way of worrying for him. Just silently watching but still there for whatever is needed, he isn’t showing his emotions like Tessa, however, Jesse will always be there like an immovable mountain whenever should Solomon needs him.
Solomon loved this moment and the thoughts of returning to the orphanage disappeared from within him, this was what he searched for, after all. A sensation of belonging and having a family, he wouldn’t trade them for anyone else despite them controlling undead and probably killing a lot of people.
The time to go to school was reaching and Solomon asked to be released, he wasn’t completely mentally healed from the incident but was feeling a lot better now.
They went to the table and Ibyr was with her father there. Ibyr looked worried at him but not knowing what to do while Raithe was quite injured, his face was swollen and purple from the beating he received.
They ate breakfast all together as a family, even Jord and Monty the Python were there. Solomon tried his best to not feel fear of Monty.
As they finished the breakfast and Solomon was getting ready to go to school with Ibyr, Raithe said. “Solomon, I got punished by my sister yesterday and told her what I did and why. Luckily the next wars Republic of Earth will make I know the exact date and can forbid Ibyr of going to the Fay Garden to her substitute you.”
Solomon was happy about never going to the war anymore and yet was still worried. “So Ibyr will be going in my stead?” Solomon felt like he was running off something by making Ibyr go in his stead. Will he let his cousin kill others just because he himself was scared of doing the job?
Everyone in the room felt Solomon’s emotions with his eyes looking at Ibyr. Their relationship was really good to him caring so much for her despite her being a ghoul without any care for human lives.
“It’s fine, Sol. It isn’t like it will be the first time I killed humans.” Ibyr said with a smile trying to reassure Solomon.
Raithe put his hands over his forehead in exasperation, Ibyr just made everything worse. “Solomon, your parents are mercenaries and were contracted to also help the Republic of Earth. If you are so worried about my daughter, come also to the field of battle, not to kill others, come just to protect her. In this way, you won’t be running away from anything and you will be able of preventing Ibyr from going too far away from her human side.”
Solomon nodded with determination in his eyes albeit just thinking yesterday to never go back to war.
This necromancer’s hypocrisy knows no bounds.
Tessa and Jesse weren’t happy with the situation but since they weren’t God’s champions they could bring Solomon with them and closely watch him not get injured.
And they knew that as a fellow necromancer, it would be impossible for to Solomon flee from death and carnage.
“So let’s go to the school already. Jord, bring us there.” Ibyr grabbed Solomon and put him over her shoulders, which unfortunately for Solomon became a habit for her to do so while running to the door outside of her home as Bessy and Jord followed them, the house’s spirit feeling vexed by being treated like a personal driver but he couldn’t do anything about it, his mistress was in fury for him letting Solomon go with Raithe to the war.
And talking about Isabel, she was there in her tower watching Solomon with distress present in her eyes. “I won’t lose Father ever again, who cares about Tessa and Jesse’s opinions? If this form can’t be near him so I will become someone that can. I won’t let anyone take you from me anymore, not even the Soulkeeper, that piece of shit.”