Walter had never had a meal with anyone since he was alive. Unless you include sucking creatures dry to death.
Still, he didn't remember dinner being so awkward; the guests sat around his table in his apartment and not a word was said afterward. Was the food bad? Walter didn't like to eat seasoned deer, not even when alive, but the cook had pulled a meal straight out of some nobleman's private pantry.
After transforming into human form, Tai himself had no food to eat since he had no need to eat animal flesh; instead, he observed the people around him like a snake watching a mouse.
Hagen stood behind him like a sullen, silent shadow. Mrs. Salter stood on his right, with her hands clasped together in silent prayer, while Anne stood on his left, thoughtful. Percy sat at the other end of the table, focusing more on Mrs. Searse than on the plate. Although he was the only one who touched his food.
Tai had thought that regardless of the current situation, everything would return to some form of normalcy, but he was wrong. Anne was still thinking about the notes he had allowed her to see, Mrs. Salter was still distressed by her god's silence, and Percy was half-convinced that the necromancer would kill them all before dinner was over. Otherwise, why would Hagen show up?
In fact, Tai just doesn't bother hiding who he really is anymore. Hagen was his most trusted companion, even though he was a terrifying ghost while on duty, and his presence calmed the necromancer. Unfortunately, Hagen politely refused to sit around the table, deciding instead to stand next to his superior. Dullahan seemed to take pleasure in making the mere mortals in the room uncomfortable.
painfully.
Tai could not blame the others for their silence, for he himself did not speak; instead, Medelot occupied his thoughts. The necromancer knew his friend had changed over the decades, but he never imagined the knight could be so mad. The truth he told was equally heart-wrenching.
Is Metroro right? Is Ragnarok inevitable?
No, of course not. It's like death isn't a fundamental part of reality, but just a design flaw that no one wants to correct. The prophecy said Nyhogg would help cause Ragnarok, but Walter Tye was unwilling to do so. So he won't.
There is no power in the universe that could allow him to destroy the world.
However, Medelot obviously would not stop there. He will attack Nastrom and attempt to unleash the apocalypse in the near future. Blinded by anger, he refused to listen and fought until his death in order to watch the Nine Realms burn.
Short of killing his old friend (which Tai didn't want to do), there was only one way to make him reconsider.
Or rather, a person.
"I'm going to attack Helheim tomorrow," Tai said loudly.
Everyone turned to him immediately and there was silence.
"My first escape from Helheim was a hasty and desperate affair." Hagen chuckled behind Tye, recalling the [Death Wagon] ride between Helheim and Midgard. border. "Even with my careful planning, I could only take a few people with me. The masters of my order, including my own mentor, are still trapped in Hel's arms. I vow to free them, and I will." "
Anne's eyes widened. "You don't mean-"
"Now that Hel is vulnerable, I intend to personally invade her territory and liberate my people from her control." Tai replied, shocking everyone present. "If you want me to save the people down there, I can bring their souls back; if I can find them."
While Spook, Duke, Asclepius, and Sevilog are his primary missions, Tai intends to release every Pale Serpent he can find. One day Helheim will be sacked.
There was a glint in his eyes; a curiosity and hope, but she quickly squashed it. Out of politeness, Ty refuses to read her mind, but he's eager to get to the bottom of her troubles.
"Walter, you did something wrong." The priestess finally spoke. "I understand rescuing those who don't deserve to be tortured in Helheim...but many earn it."
"Like me," Hagen said proudly, and Tai silenced him with a glare. The Dulahans love to mock noble people, especially knights and priests.
"Do you propose to kill the criminal?" the necromancer asked the priestess.
"The most dangerous thing," said Joseph, "or at least leave them dead."
A shrug of the shoulders. "If our society can't think of anything other than killing criminals, then it lacks imagination. Those who can make progress must be imprisoned and rehabilitated, and those who cannot make progress must be stoned to death."
"The death penalty is forbidden in my country," Percy said, surprising Walter with his stance on the matter. "Many countries on Earth do not kill prisoners, and most are safer than those that do."
Huh? You learn something new every day.
"If as the population grows, everyone becomes immortal or undead, then our resources will decrease."
"Then we will go to the Nine Kingdoms and other places." The Necromancer replied. "Are Esil and Vanier thirty or forty?" However, they each have their own world. Two worlds, two clans and their servants. "
"You want to invade the territory of the gods?" Mrs. Seer looked at him with blasphemous fear.
"I'd start with diplomacy," Tai replied dryly. However, my attempts were not met with an enthusiastic response. You are the one who should know the most. "
"If strangers rejected you, would you send an army of monsters to make them obey?"
"The privileges of the few should not get in the way of the needs of the many," Tai replied dryly. "According to the Earthlings, there are a thousand worlds beyond Asgard and Vanaheim beyond Yggdrasil's system. I doubt we will be running out of space anytime soon."
"Then, do you want to invade the elves and dwarves?" the priestess continued. "You have to keep running, Walter. Where will it end?"
"Even if we're short of space, we have alternatives. Magic can reshape reality as we see fit; we can create food or drink, or even new worlds for us to settle. We now have an eternity to figure out a solution, no What can surpass human ingenuity.”
"I doubt it," the priestess replied sadly.
"You can believe in gods but not humans?" Tai asked coldly. He never condemned her for her beliefs, but the debate only clarified where they both stood.
"There will be no eternity, Walter." "You are a disaster. Your existence hastens the arrival of Ragnarok."
"I am immortal, beyond the reincarnation of the soul, beyond the dictates of fate," he answered. "It's my choice whether I destroy the world or not, it's not going to happen."
No matter what Medillo thinks.
"Like you chose to be the devouring dragon you were destined to be?"
This problem troubled the necromancer greatly. "I didn't destroy its roots."
"So far," Joseph replied, looking away. "Now."
Ty watched his old friend carefully, trying to figure out her reaction. Why does she look hopeful for a second, only to end up being even more distrustful? Maybe it has something to do with her god?
It clicks. "Mrs. Searle, isn't your god in Helheim?"
Before she could answer, Ty knew he'd nailed it.
"Balder is the god of light and beauty," Mrs. Salt began, looking away sadly. "The kindest and best-loved man in the family of Ethil. Everyone loved him, but a great light casts a great shadow on the envious."
"Balder was killed by an arrow made of mistletoe for his treachery," Hagen said. "It's a famous story, mainly because Loki's admirers talk about it."
"She said she would release him only if the gods wept for him," lamented the priestess.
"But Loki didn't," Tye recalled. "Thus exposing himself as the murderer."
"He said it was just a prank," said Mrs. Salter in disgust. "It was the last straw, Ethil ordered to kill him; it turned out to be a disaster for Loki. Unable to kill him, Odin sealed his former kin in Helheim."
"So, if Balder is dead, how can he still pray?" Percy asked confused. Anne, meanwhile, remained silent; listening to the discussion, but her mind was evidently wandering elsewhere.
"He reached a compromise and treated Balder as an honored guest, allowing him to continue casting spells and praying."
"No," Tai denied Surte's words, his instincts snapping. He was already somewhat familiar with that crazy woman, she was as ruthless as a lion chasing a deer. "He never compromised. There was something else at work."
"Yes," Hagen said. "Chief, I've been in Helheim much longer than you, but I've never heard of an Ethil being trapped there. Loki sure, but what about Bald?"
These words greatly disturbed Mrs. Searle, but she distrusted Hagen too much to believe him. "Yes, the meaning of the story is clear," she said. "There's no point in trying to cheat death. Even the gods can't escape it forever."
He wondered how she would react to Medlaut's revelations about the god's nature, though Ty wisely waited to find hard evidence first. "Mrs. Thrall, you don't understand the true moral of this story. First, every god wants to bring Balder back to life, but they can't force him to obey. Second..."
The necromancer frowned.
"Gods go to Helheim when they die, just like us mortals"
The longer the discussion went on, the more frown grew on her face, even when she tried to defend her position. "The Esilians are fair and hold themselves to the same standards that they hold us to."
Oh, yes, but they never cultivated their mortal followers as much as they cultivated their own. No, there was something else at work, some ancient secret kept by the Ethier family.
If you think about it, no one knows the level of Haier. Could it be...
"Mrs. Sert, please come with me to Helheim." Walter suggested to the priestess. "We can work this out and ask your God directly."
Her face was red with anger. "If you hadn't stopped me, I would have done it!"
"I didn't," Tai replied.
"Your activity,"
"My [Godslayer] skill prevents people in holy classes like [Priest] and [Paladin] from touching their gods if they are lower level than me," Tai admitted. "But I can selectively exclude individuals from that impact."
Mrs. Salter froze.
"Your God didn't answer because he didn't want to answer," Tai said, "or couldn't answer for an unrelated reason."
She clearly doesn't want to trust him, but maybe she still feels some embers of trust due to their old friendship. Mrs. Salter's fingers fidgeted with suspicion.
"No one alive can survive in Helheim," she said. The Necromancer sees this as a step forward.
"You underestimated me." Tai snapped his fingers. A zombie servant walks into the room, holding a silver tray with three crimson potions on it.
The priestess recognized it immediately. "Your treatment..."
"Improved version," Tai replied. "The Elixir. It's almost perfect, although there are still some holes in the regeneration process that I'm working on eliminating."
Anne finally spoke. "I think I know what to do."
"Do you know how to improve this elixir?" Tai suddenly asked with interest.
"No," Anne admitted. "I looked through your notes and I realized... you don't need to improve the elixir. It already grants new life and eternal youth."
Tye notes: "It's vulnerable to [fire], [acid] and [silver].
"You're too narrow-minded, fool." Anne smiled. "You don't need an elixir of change to remove these weaknesses in a person. You can change the person alone."
"But magic items can be lost -" Tai paused, suddenly understanding what his former apprentice meant. "My spell tattoo."
"They can be adjusted to become resistant or even immune to these elements." The witch nodded. "The process takes more time than drinking a potion, but it's much easier than creating a perfect elixir."
"It's awesome," Tai admits, saying he had never considered this path. "Is there a way to copy the [Necromancer's Stone]?"
"We don't actually need to use the Philosopher's Stone to make potions," said Anne. "At least I don't think so. This elixir has fundamentally changed the biology of those who drink it, because they carry it in their blood. This gift. We could simply give the basic elixir to a universal blood donor and transfer their life blood to someone else."
"An immortal blood bank." Why didn't he think of it?
"With the [Nagel's Law] spell, you have proven that stone can be made," Anne continued. "Maybe we can find another way to rebuild it without all the damage."
"Anne, do you agree with him?" Mrs. Searle was petrified, interrupting her young friend.
"I don't agree with all of Tai's methods," Anne said, glancing at her mentor. "I believe you could achieve the same result with less pain and less murder."
"That would be slower," Tye pointed out. "It is better to find immortality and resurrection as quickly as possible, rendering the sacrifice ineffective. To Naglfa, death is just an inconvenience."
"You could have achieved the same effect with less suffering and less murder," Anne stubbornly insisted. "But the knowledge in the notes can improve everyone's life. Immortality aside, your slime machines can be repurposed to mass-produce potions, elemental transmutation can help us create better materials more easily, and your rat swarms The mind can expand, creating a kingdom-spanning information system..."
"Innovation is based on a disregard for life and barbarism," Mrs. Searle said.
"But the done thing is done," replied Anne. “Knowledge is knowledge, even if it comes from terrible sources.”
It was refreshing for Tai to be able to discuss magical theories with someone who knew magic.
"I...I don't want to die."
Ty glanced at Percy, who looked very nervous. The squire was shy by nature, so it took him a while to speak.
"I died briefly once," Percy recalled, "when I was mummified."
"I apologize," Tai said.
"I saw what was going on on the other side." Percy said seriously, his face pale. He apparently served time in Helheim as he died ignominiously in an assassination attempt. "I only stayed there for half a day, but... that was enough. I don't want to go back. Even if I am immortal."
"I understand," Tai replied. "Will you still accept my offer? "What do you want, Percy?"
"I...I want to protect the living," the squire said. "I understand why you...why you want to save the dead, but there are too many refugees in need right now." They need protection from bandits and monsters, food and shelter. This is the duty of a knight. this is my dream. "
"You can take the elixir, but stay in Midgard." "I need people like you to keep order, that's true. If you want to point your bow at a living enemy, so be it. Convenience."
"Maintain order?" Mrs. Se frowned.
"In the near future, this region, and the Yggdrasigan beneath it, will need to be fortified against the forces of the Catastrophe," the Necromancer admitted, making the priestess turn pale with worry. "I need to throw all the corpses to them. Especially the immortal warriors, maybe to make up for our lack of numbers. The beasts will also become immortal."
"A lot of people will escape your control and run around," Mrs. Salter pointed out. "You've spread the undead everywhere."
Great, Tai thought, that was the plan. He would fill Midgard with legions of undead, and the prophecy's data would rot in their own corruption. The Necromancer withheld this information until she agreed to become more mentally flexible.
Anne was the most willful and was the first to grab the potion. "By the way, you can do a spell tattoo on the potion's weak point?"
The Necromancer nodded, and Mrs. Seer looked at her descendants worriedly. "Annie, think about what you are doing," the priestess implored. "This will be permanent."
"You stop aging in your early 20s, and this elixir keeps your body in tip-top shape," Tye said, dismissing his friend's concerns. "I don't understand why anyone would say no."
"I...I don't want to die either." The witch admitted. "I...I don't mind going to the Hall of Valor, but..."
"But?" Yseult asked.
"What are my chances of winning?" Annie frowned. "What are the chances that I will go to the Hall of Valor?"
"Annie..."
"What are the chances that I won't be assassinated? Poison? Die from old age? Die from an accident?" Anne continued, to which the priestess had no solid answer. "Even if I pray hard to God, the odds are they will accept me." How old? "I almost died of illness if Tai hadn't saved me. What are my chances, ma'am?"
These words hit her hard because they reflected her own situation.
"I tried to think rationally, but... my chances weren't good," the witch said. "I don't want to put my life in other people's hands. So I won't."
Mrs. Joseph said nothing.
So Anne drank the crimson potion without hesitation.
Ty was extremely proud of her and smiled widely, while Salt's eyes were sunken. At the same time, Anne frowned. "Main Lifegift?"
"Can you point it out to me?" he asked.
Anne held his hand, which felt particularly warm to the touch, and then revealed her personal information to him.
Anne Vivian Silverberg
Level: 40 (Witch 30/Scholar 9/Necromancer 1)
Type: Humanoid (Huma
oid).
Party:Nast
o
d.
"Beautiful new class," he said, and looked into her eyes, which were as red as tomatoes.
Clearly, Anne was doing more than just learning theory; there was no way she could get into a new class at her level without serious practice.
[Major Lifegift: You gain immunity to [disease], including magical effects, and you recover twice your HP from healing effects. When your body reaches its peak, you stop growing, and if you magically age, you'll be back to that age in a minute. Additionally, you gain natural [Regeneration, allowing you to regenerate from wounds, organ failure, and limb loss; this effect is interrupted by contact with []. Fire], [Acid] and [Silver]. This ability cannot be denied or removed.
As he read, Anne's fingers touched his hesitantly. Even without reading her mind, he could sense that she was conflicted; a desire for intimacy mixed with fear.
Clearly, even if she was ambivalent about his approach, her intentions were not entirely academic. "Do you want us to work together like we used to?"
"There are limits," she said, and let go of his hand.
"The offer I got
It’s working in an organization that allows for free thinking,” Tai points out.
"Fewer restrictions doesn't mean no restrictions," Anne argued stubbornly. "And... I want to bring someone back."
A person that Tai himself would not want to go back to.
Gwe
hyfa
.
Ty thought they would argue about this for a long time, but the Necromancer took it as the price of gaining the apprenticeship he dreamed of.
Although Percy hesitated, he mustered up the courage and took the elixir.
There was only one potion left on the silver tray.
"Ma'am, I really wish you were here with me," Ty argued. He was particularly fond of this priestess, almost irrationally. "A new world will soon appear, and I want you to be by my side."
"A world of undead and decay."
"A free world where no one dies," Tye said. "My former victims were necessary sacrifices."
"You can't measure human suffering," she replied, her voice thick with pain. The Necromancer suddenly thought that so many tragedies had hurt her pure heart at once. "I won't get involved."
"But if you don't accept it, you'll never know the truth," Walter pointed out, feeling a hole in her mental defenses. "You won't survive the mists of Helheim, and you'll never know if your faith is worth it."
"Walter, you have so insidiously poisoned my mind," Mrs. Serenity replied, growing increasingly distressed. The foundation she had built on collapsed from beneath her; after years of faithfully serving the gods, challenging their system in any way sounded like betrayal. Her lover's betrayal and Avalon's collapse only hardened her mind. "My God has nothing to prove to me. Just like you, as my friend, have nothing to prove; I trust you unconditionally. That's faith."
“Faith is earned,” Tai responded. "I know you may not believe me after I lied to you, but what did the gods do for you to start trusting me? They didn't cure you, I did. . "
"Walter". Her tone hardened.
"I'm just giving the truth," Tai responded, tension rising. "You cannot go to Helheim without taking this elixir. Whatever dark truth awaits you there, you will never know. You will prove your faith and perhaps earn a peaceful afterlife . Maybe it’s better this way.”
Perhaps out of respect for their old friendship, she listened silently.
"But if you don't drink this medicine," Tai continued, his cold eyes boring into hers, "you'll never know if your faith is worth it. If you have any doubt that even a small percentage of you believe me I am not a great demon who destroys all things. I believe that my path may have some advantages, then you can take the elixir and you will see the truth with your own eyes. The choice is yours."
"Really?" she asked skeptically. "What happens if I don't accept it?"
"Nothing." This was getting tiresome. "Ma'am, I've given you many chances to walk away. Every time you got a chance, and despite your repeated protests, you didn't take any of them. So let me ask you a simple question."
The necromancer moved closer to Lady Thrall until he could feel her warm breath on his face.
"Why are you still here?"
The priestess looked away from him, looking at the potion, and a painful silence fell over the room.
She wasn't trying to convince Tae that he was wrong.
She tried to convince herself that she was right.
Tai hated to admit it, but he had set up the scene and rehearsed it carefully. He wanted Mrs. Se to stand firmly by his side because she was an extraordinary woman, kind, strong, and wise in her own way. But under Medelot, he needed someone he could trust. Those who agree with him, those who can question him behind his back. He wanted Mrs. Searle to be his trusted lieutenant, just as he had wanted Laufey to be.
Her hands fidgeted, maybe for the first time in her life she was really asking herself. Over the years, she has trusted others unconditionally; her lover Tristan; her god Balder; the Supremacy of Avalon; and even Walter himself. The Necromancer gives her a chance to either continue on her path or develop a healthy skepticism.
Long before Laufey, Ty had learned this lesson from Asclepius and Calvert. One should open up slowly to avoid being penetrated. It needs to be handled with care, protected, and then made available only to those who truly deserve it.
With undead patience, the necromancer waited for the priestess to make her decision; the others in the room were as silent as the tomb, shifting uncomfortably in their seats.
Mrs. Salt closed her eyes and took a deep breath. A tear emerged from the edge of her left eye.
"forgive me."
Five seconds later, the zombie servant returned with the silver plate and the three empty bottles on it.
