CHAPTER 62: FAILED?

The blinding radiance of the spell and lightning bolt combined to release a flash bright enough to light up the entire island chain.

Zephyr instinctively blinked to protect his eyes. The proximity to the light could blind him for several seconds. So, he had to blink.

At that exact moment, a thunderous cry exploded outwards, sending electric pulses along the ground. Although the necromancer had flown away to the other side of the temple island, Zephyr still felt a jolt of pain travel up his leg.

The lightning that struck the wet ground was sending an electric current into his body.

Gritting his teeth, he crouched in pain.

The villagers were further away. If the lightning couldn’t kill him, they would be safe. The thought calmed his heart as he slowly opened his eyes.

Even with his eyes closed, the lightning’s light had pierced through his eyelids. It took him a few seconds to see clearly.

Blinking twice, he gazed at the side of the temple where the lightning struck with great expectation.

Is the necromancer dead?

His heart thumped.

The lightning had lit the air on fire, warming up the water droplets and creating a thick fog around the area it struck.

Despite squinting his eyes, Zephyr failed to see through the fog.

However, it lasted only a second before the storm returned with a blast of wind and rain. It swept away the fog in a matter of seconds, letting Zephyr see the inside.

The sediment deposited over the temple island’s edges was as hard as rock and looked like cement. However, the smooth texture only existed on the surface. Beneath, the rock was porous, filled with tiny holes that carried water.

The lightning strike heated the sediment rock and the water inside. The rock, momentarily molten, was then blasted away by the evaporating water. Some of it even sublimated, releasing an unpleasant odour of burnt biomatter.

The wind that swept over brought the unpleasant smell to Zephyr. At the same time, he could see the deep scars and glazed crater the lightning left behind. But neither was as shocking as the person standing amidst the destruction, covered by a bubble of dark mana.

"I failed..." Zephyr mumbled slowly.

The necromancer was unharmed. Lifting his staff, he was standing in the middle of the crater, slowly unraveling the bubble-like shield covering him.

"If even that couldn’t kill him...I will fail again."

After all the tricks and strategies he used to gain any advantage he could, he still failed to kill the necromancer.

"I would have failed even if I could sneak attack him like I initially planned. His defence is truly unbreakable by a beginner mage if he decides to use all his mana."

A cold dread settled in Zephyr’s stomach.

Zephyr glanced over his back. The hundreds of villagers were still being controlled by the necromancer, standing to the side of the altar peacefully.

"I thought I could kill him. But I suppose I can’t. Like games, I can’t escape or respawn to try again."

"What made me think that I could kill him? My preparations were not enough."

Despite the unexpected success of hacking the undead’s command system, he still couldn’t defeat the necromancer.

Zephyr wiped off blood from his nose.

The ache of overusing mana was drilling from his head to every part of his body. It was paralysing him.

And yet, Zephyr took a step forward and looked at the necromancer.

Unlike before, the man exuded a chilling calmness.

He brought the staff to the ground, tapping slightly on the crater floor. The crystal and glass formed by the lightning crumbled under his legs. Then he took a step forward.

Zephyr heard the glass shatter and crack.

The bubble of darkness around him disappeared as he slowly walked towards Zephyr.

In a matter of seconds, the necromancer reached within a few meters of Zephyr.

There was no point in turning around and running away. Zephyr firmly stood on the ground, breathing heavily.

He failed to achieve his primary purpose of killing the necromancer. Trying to run away now would only make him a fool. After all, the moment he came to the temple island, he knew there was no running away.

As Zephyr contemplated what to do, the necromancer walked up to him.

"Did the backlash from the death of your minions cause you to fall out of the sky?" Zephyr asked.

The conversation was initiated to delay again.

"Yes, it did." The necromancer replied.

His relaxed tone sent an ominous chill down Zephyr’s spine. He straightened his back, calming himself.

"How did you survive my railgun?" He asked.

"Hm...Railgun. Is that the name of the spell or the artifact?"

"The spell," Zephyr answered plainly.

"How did you kill my undead?" The necromancer ignored Zephyr and asked a question of his own.

"Will you answer mine if I answer yours?"

"Yes."

The necromancer agreed to the terms and nodded.

It prompted Zephyr to respond.

"Your command to the undead has three components. An authentication part to allow it to recognise you as the master. A target specification part. And an action part that tells what it should do? Is that right?"

The necromancer nodded.

Zephyr smiled.

"I learned this by constantly monitoring the commands you sent to the undead. Then I exploited the target specification part by sending a stronger mana pulse with the same mana signature as yours, asking them to target themselves for the obvious action ’kill’ you sent."

"This made the undeads kill themselves. I never thought it would work since I was not sure of all the commands you could use. But it worked this time. I think I was lucky."

"You can mimic my mana signature!" The necromancer was surprised. He focused on the crux of the issue and asked. "How did you do that?"

"Not exactly. I just have to make it close enough and send it right after the authentication part of the command. The undeads would fail to see the difference in command when the mana pulse is overwhelmingly strong. That might be a bug in your spell."

Zephyr replied.

"A bug?"

"I meant to say a problem." Zephyr corrected.

Then he asked. "Now, can you tell me how you escaped from my spell?"

The necromancer sighed after digesting the information he had just received and began to speak.

"The spell is not difficult to defend against. I could cancel out the measly amount of light element you imbued on it with a flick of my finger. However, the lightning that came after, attracted by the lightning from the spell, was difficult to defend against. I had to spend a tremendous amount of mana to deflect the rampaging energy it sent towards me."

"Ah! Then you must not have any mana to make new undeads or even sacrifice villagers. It must mean half of what I set out to do was a success."

Zephyr smiled.

"Half?" The necromancer asked.

"Um...half," Zephyr answered. "Initially, I wanted to kill you. I seem to have failed at doing that." He shrugged his shoulders.

"What is the other one again?"

"Saving the villagers by delaying you and draining your mana. It was a little side quest I thought I could do."

"You failed at that, too. So, you didn’t succeed in doing anything." The necromancer corrected, then asked. "Any last wishes before I kill you?"

"None. But why do you think I failed?"