The Betrayed Necromancer - Chapter 15

 A Familiar Scenery

"Nng, where am I...?"

Shortly after the incident in Borut. Gaoran, who had been beaten black and blue by the avenger Crow, woke up to a swaying sensation in his body. His kicked head throbbed dully, but that was about it. His injuries had been closed up by Gina's healing magic, so his body seemed ready to move properly.

(The idiot, letting his guard down like that. I'll find an opening and make a run for it! If I can just report this to the Royal Capital, Crow is finished...!!) Gaoran muttered to himself in his heart. Despite being treated so roughly, Gaoran still refused to acknowledge Crow's true strength. Deciding to flee, Gaoran observed his surroundings to assess his current situation.

Currently, he was being carried on the shoulders of a large undead—a troll zombie. As the name suggests, a troll zombie is the undead form of a monster called a troll. Standing over two meters tall with a protruding belly and pointed nose and ears, trolls possess incredible physical strength true to their appearance. Even after becoming a zombie, that monstrous strength remained intact, making carrying a single human child's play. Carried by such a troll zombie, Gaoran was advancing through a forest.

(What forest is this? It doesn't look like it's anywhere near Borut... Though it does look somewhat familiar...) Gaoran felt a vague sense of familiarity with his current location. However, that memory wasn't from recent times, and he couldn't recall it immediately.

(Well, it doesn't matter where this is. As long as I can escape first, I can deal with the rest however I want. Time to slip away.) Walking ahead of the troll zombie were Crow and Gina. However, they were moving forward while looking ahead, paying no mind to Gaoran at all. Gaoran judged that escaping would be easy.

(Here!) Gaoran did not miss the single fleeting moment when his restraints loosened. Channeling magical power into his fingertips, he thrust a shuriken (or rather, a nukite thrust) into the troll zombie's arm that was gripping him. A zombie feels no pain, but taking damage weakens its grip. Once completely freed from the restraints, Gaoran quickly broke away from the troll zombie, landed soundlessly, and bolted in the opposite direction of their travel.

(Yes, success! Too easy!) Gaoran began his escape with a smile on his face. His movements up to that point had been entirely devoid of waste, going exactly as planned.

――――However, he was not the only one whose plans were going according to schedule.

"...Guh!?"

Suddenly feeling a sharp pain in his leg, Gaoran collapsed on the spot. There should have been no one else around. Yet, his right thigh suddenly burned with pain.

"What on earth..." 

Gaoran twisted his face as he checked his leg. A black, blade-like object had stabbed into his right thigh. That blade was growing out of his own shadow, and as Gaoran watched, the blade smoothly receded back into the shadow.

"Good grief, did you really think you could get away?" 

As Gaoran sat there dumbfounded, Crow approached. Since anticipating that Gaoran would try to escape was within expectations, there was not a trace of panic on his face.

"Crow, you bastard, pulling another weird trick...!" 

"A Shadow Edge Assassin, a monster that lurks in the shadows. I planted this one inside your shadow. No matter where you run, your shadow will always follow you. Don't ever think you can escape."

At a nod from Crow, the troll zombie walked over and scooped Gaoran up onto its shoulder once more. The troll zombie's strength seemed even greater than before, and its wounds were fully closed. Escaping the way he just did seemed unlikely to work again.

"More importantly, Gaoran. Doesn't this forest look familiar?" 

"Huh? Never seen a place like this." 

Reluctant to make conversation, Gaoran feigned ignorance. Yet, with every step deeper into the forest, he felt as though he was on the verge of remembering something from the depths of his mind.

"Is that so? What a shame. Especially since this is the place of our memories. Well, maybe seeing this will jog your memory?" 

"Hah? What are you talking about..."

The moment Crow finished speaking, the party emerged from the forest. As his field of vision opened up and he laid eyes on that sight, Gaoran instantly realized where he was.

"T-This is...!"

Spreading out before them was a gigantic crater. Miasma pooled at the bottom of that pit, and merely being near the edge made one feel sick. Gaoran had seen that pit before.

"The Abyss...!" 

"That's right. The Abyss you people threw me into. It was quite the ordeal, climbing back up from the bottom of this." 

Crow spoke with a nostalgic look in his eyes. In truth, he had been thrown here and died once. Without necromancy, he surely would have rotted away at the bottom of the pit.

"Y-You're not planning to throw me into the Abyss and kill me!? Just like you guys did to me back then!" 

"That's an option, but... hehe, I'm not going to kill you off quite that easily."

With a soft chuckle, Crow snapped his fingers, causing a magic circle to appear beneath their feet. The magic circle was imbued with magical power; simply channeling mana into it allowed one to activate advanced magic. The spell infused into this magic circle, built right beside the Abyss, was [Teleportation]. Thanks to this magic circle, Crow and his group could freely travel between the inside and outside of the Abyss.

"Let me guide you into the Abyss. I'm sure you'll love it." 

"Are you out of your mind?! There's no way anyone could like being inside the Abyss!"

Gaoran shouted, but Crow paid him no mind and activated the magic circle. In an instant, they teleported, moving straight down to the bottom of the Abyss.

"Guh...?! What on earth is happening... te...gh!!"

Opening his eyes at their destination, Gaoran lost words in sheer astonishment. The bottom of the Abyss was supposed to be a deathly space pooling with miasma. Yet, the scenery before his eyes was entirely different.

"Welcome, Gaoran. To my kingdom. I welcome you."

A sun shining in the sky. A land rich with nature. People living with smiles on their faces, and architecture far more lavish and magnificent than the Royal Capital. It was truly a "paradise." A supreme city deserving of that very name spread out before them.

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