“The given period is one week.”

The group gathered closely together.

Park Hyun-a’s strategy briefing began.

“The first few days will be reconnaissance. We’ll slowly wear them down while figuring out their strength.”

“You mean guerrilla-style hit-and-run tactics?”

“Exactly!”

Park Hyun-a spread out a map.

Her finger pointed to a vast desert area located at the top of the map.

“Currently, the undead legion is here in the Isilius Desert.”

“That’s near the Odria City-State Alliance, right?”

“Yeah. It’s an abandoned land now, but they say there used to be a large nation in this desert long ago.”

“Hooh…”

Interest flickered in Choi Hyun-seok’s eyes.

A nation in a desert with nothing there.

He thought that the terrain might have changed over a very long time.

“Could it be that this enemy is the ghost of that fallen nation? Is that it?”

“That’s right. Though I don’t know how these thousand-year-old dead guys crawled out.”

“That’s a bit strange.”

“What is?”

“Well, wouldn’t even bones decompose completely after a thousand years? Necromancy should need some traces remaining to work.”

Necromancy naturally requires corpses.

At the very least, there needs to be bone fragments remaining to create something.

“Well, those demon bastards must have used some method. Anyway, what’s important is that there’s already a horde of corpses walking around, and their numbers are increasing.”

Park Hyun-a drew two circles on the map and connected them with a line.

“Currently, they’re moving toward Honken, the nearest city. Since undead move slowly, it’ll take about four days to arrive. During that time, we’ll reduce their forces and deal with them just before they reach the city.”

Choi Hyun-seok frowned while crossing his arms.

“What if we fail? Then Honken City behind us…”

“No need to worry. The Odria Alliance has already made evacuation plans.”

“That’s a relief.”

Choi Hyun-seok nodded.

Still, his eyes continued examining the map.

“What? Got something else you’re curious about?”

“The guerrilla warfare. It’s good, but how will we hit and run? With their huge numbers, I feel like we might get surrounded.”

“There are countless ways. First…”

A deep smile appeared on Park Hyun-a’s face as she explained the plan.

***

Sara Dunphy.

Called the Mother of Magic, she was a legendary figure who laid the foundation of the current magic system.

She was also the founding monarch who established the ‘Vallington Kingdom’, once renowned as a magical nation.

“Worship the divine…!”

Sara Dunphy lived for over 400 years, and after her death, the Vallington Kingdom built a massive tomb.

It was a kind of temple that deified Sara Dunphy.

The tomb was filled with countless treasures and rare magical artifacts unique to the Vallington Kingdom.

However, the glory of the Vallington Kingdom didn’t last long.

After Sara Dunphy’s death.

The Vallington Kingdom rapidly declined due to internal conflicts among her disciples.

Eventually, the kingdom fell.

And the tomb of Sara Dunphy, who was worshipped as a divine being, was also plundered.

“Is this that temple?”

“Temple? Nonsense! It’s just a tomb built by fools.”

For hundreds of years afterward, numerous grave robbers sought Sara Dunphy’s tomb.

The valuables and magical artifacts that filled the tomb.

Even the building materials used to construct the tomb – if it had any value, it was all taken.

Only corpses remained in the tomb.

Only the preserved bodies of Sara Dunphy and the founding contributors who followed her remained to guard the tomb desolately.

After more than a thousand years passed like that.

In an age when Sara Dunphy’s name and her tomb had been completely forgotten from everyone’s minds.

Sara Dunphy opened her eyes again through demon necromancy.

It was exactly 1,121 years after her death.

“The wind is nice.”

Sara Dunphy murmured.

Although she is undead, she maintained the appearance of her younger days by magically manifesting her youthful body.

Smooth bronze skin.

Various jewels dangled all over it.

These were jewels plundered from nearby villages and cities.

Clatter…! Clatter…!

Thud-! Thud-!

Escorted by an undead legion numbering in the tens of thousands, Sara Dunphy sat proudly on her throne.

The palanquin she rode was so massive that it required five hundred skeletons just to move it.

“The sunlight in this desert remains the same no matter how much time has passed.”

Sara looked up at the sky.

The desert days are hot.

Since there was nothing but sand and rocks here, with no shade, they had to endure the scorching sunlight directly.

“My Queen, if the sun is too hot, I shall shade you.”

One of Vallington’s founding contributors.

Liam, who was the bravest warrior, said.

“No. The sunshine is pleasant. I like this sunlight that hasn’t changed even after more than a thousand years.”

Sara smiled self-mockingly.

“Compared to that, how insignificant we humans are. My kingdom. My people. All have crumbled into history without even leaving their names.”

“My Queen. We can raise the kingdom again. Vallington can reclaim its past glory.”

“No. We are already dead.”

She looked around.

-Grooowl!

-Keeee!

Tens of thousands of undead.

Rotting flesh emanating stench, and screams of evil spirits echoing around.

“We are ghosts of the past. All that remains is the boiling bloodlust. For us to pursue past glory… It’s not right.”

Sara Dunphy leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes.

“In this era, we leave only terror.”

Clack clack clack-!

The skulls decorating the chair rattled their craniums as if in agreement.

“Hmm?”

Sara Dunphy opened her eyes.

The beating sunlight had disappeared.

Looking up, something pure white covered the sky.

“Is that… Magical power?”

Similar to magical power, but somehow different.

Its true identity was holy power.

Since holy power didn’t exist during her active years, it was something she’d never seen before.

“It seems like a newly born power, like this demonic energy I now possess.”

“My Queen! It’s dangerous!”

“It’s fine.”

Sara reached up her hand.

Simultaneously, rain infused with powerful holy power began pouring from the sky.

-Gyaaaaaaah!

-Kyaaaah!

Thousands, tens of thousands of undead writhed in pain.

However, around Sara, it was quiet.

Within about a 500m radius centered on her, the holy rain couldn’t reach.

The corner of Sara Dunphy’s mouth curved upward.

“Whoever it is, they’re quite skilled.”

“I’ll find them immediately.”

Just as warrior Liam was about to move.

The holy rain stopped, and intense heat was felt from the sky.

It wasn’t that the sun had come out again.

Even the desert’s scorching sun wasn’t this hot.

Something much hotter and more intense than the desert sun.

It was a massive fireball.

“Hooh. So there are two mages?”

Sara stared intently at the falling fireball.

“The structure isn’t complex. Though the magical power is powerful, it’s focused simply on expansion. If you increase the volume like this…”

Intense demonic energy shot from her fingertips.

“It’s easy to break.”

A single stream of demonic energy.

Compared to the falling fireball, it looked like a speck of dust.

However, the moment the demonic energy touched the fireball.

Kwaaaa-!

The fireball exploded.

As a result, a rain of flames poured down to the ground, but Sara paid no attention.

The flames couldn’t penetrate the barrier surrounding her and dissipated.

-Grooowl!

-Keeeeeee!

Of course, only her surroundings were protected.

Once again, countless undead outside the barrier burst into flames.

“These insolent bastards dare…!”

Just as warrior Liam was about to charge out gripping his sword hilt.

Sara stopped him.

“Enough. It’s already too late.”

She pointed to a rocky mountain about 5km away.

“They escaped using teleportation. Seems to be around there.”

Warrior Liam knelt and bowed his head.

“I apologize. It was my oversight for not checking in advance.”

“No, Lord Liam didn’t do anything wrong. The enemy mages just prepared well.”

She smiled with an intrigued expression.

‘This time should be quite interesting.’

The human hero who came a few days ago.

Though the fight with him was quite fun, it was a hero’s battle, so there wasn’t much need for her to step in.

However, this battle is between mages.

She had a feeling it would be more interesting than last time.

“Let’s wait for the next one. After all, the attacks won’t end with just one.”

***

“Whew… That woman is no ordinary opponent.”

Park Hyun-a, who escaped using magic, wiped sweat from her forehead.

Choi Hyun-seok beside her wore a puzzled expression.

“Is the enemy that strong? From what I saw, it seemed like we were winning.”

They had dealt quite a bit of damage with Abelson and Park Hyun-a’s magic.

Though Park Hyun-a’s magic was broken midway, it actually seemed beneficial since it hit a wider area because of that.

“It’s not that simple.”

Park Hyun-a sat down on the ground and continued.

“Do you know how much magical power went into that spell just now?”

“Uh… I’m not sure.”

“Abelson used about 50,000 marang. Mine was 100,000 marang.”

“Is that a lot?”

This was not the first time Choi Hyun-seok had heard about ‘marang’ from Park Hyun-a.

He knew nothing except that it was a unit for measuring magical power.

“The magic I used to blast the pig orc was about 80,000. Today’s 100,000 is a 25% increase in raw numbers, but the actual power is almost 1.5 times stronger.”

“It was that powerful!?”

He had no idea.

Even the magic used to kill the pig orc Kadrak had tremendous power, but this was 1.5 times stronger than that.

‘I did feel like the sphere was a bit bigger…’

Being too far away, he couldn’t feel much difference from before.

Plus, since it was destroyed midway, he thought it was just an ordinary use of magic.

“Meanwhile, that lich’s magic was at most 20-30,000 marang, high-rank hero magic level. Yet she broke my magic with just that. What do you think this means?”

“I’m not sure.”

“Well…”

Park Hyun-a said with a serious expression.

“I don’t know either.”

“What?”

“I said I don’t know, dammit! How did she do it!?”

The magical power used was less than a quarter.

In terms of power, it shouldn’t even reach one-tenth.

How did she break her magic with such a spell?

It wasn’t simply neutralized.

Something inside the magic was cut off, completely shattering it.

“Plus that lich originally used magical power!”

Demonic energy appeared 500 years ago when demons emerged.

Holy power appeared 300 years ago when gods and warriors emerged.

According to records, the magical nation Vallington fell about 1,000 years ago.

Sara Dunphy, Vallington’s founder, was from roughly 1,500 years ago.

She couldn’t have encountered demonic energy or holy power.

“She definitely used magical power, but when she woke up, only demonic energy flows through her body. What do you think would happen?”

“I guess it would be hard to use things like magic…”

Choi Hyun-seok recalled the undead ‘Lophar Dozer’ they fought before.

One reason why Choi Hyun-seok’s group could defeat him, who had reached legendary status in life.

One of those reasons was the demonic energy flowing through Lophar Dozer’s body.

Lophar Dozer, originally human, used magical power in life.

Naturally, he would be unskilled at handling demonic energy.

Thanks to that, the group could properly exploit his weaknesses.

“No matter how similar they are, demonic energy and magical power are clearly different. But that woman used magic without any trouble.”

Even Park Hyun-a, skilled in demonic energy control and veteran of countless battlefields, had never seen such unfamiliar magic.

It felt fundamentally different somehow.

Park Hyun-a muttered with a serious expression.

“This might unexpectedly be a bad match-up.”

Honestly, before facing her directly, she thought it wouldn’t be difficult.

Because she thought the lich mainly specialized in summoning.

For Park Hyun-a, who excelled in magic, a lich who relied on numbers should have been easy prey, so she thought they just needed to go collect experience points.

But when they actually opened the lid, the result was completely different.

“Damn it! The information was wrong!”

Park Hyun-a kicked the dirt irritably.

“In the end, that lich woman is the core strength. This kind of thing would be better left to close combat specialists rather than me…”

“Then what should we do?”

“What else? Whether it works or not, we have to try.”

There was no one to help them.

They had to overcome this difficulty somehow with their group’s strength.

Park Hyun-a clenched her fist.

“First, we reduce their numbers. I’ll blast them day and night!”

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