Awakening: I Ascend As A Legendary Ranked Necromancer-Chapter 85: Master

"She’s okay. Fortunately, it didn’t harm any internal organs except for some intestines, but we’ve both patched up." Litha had already begun the process of treating herself before Temur reached her, but he helped her and made things faster.

We turned to the crying Awakener. "So you that inflict pain can’t even handle it. That’s a twisted irony if you ask me." Temur kicked him in the ribs, the force lifting him to face us. 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

Kaidos still held his bleeding hand, his face slick with sweat and blood. His expression twisted and livid. "You... I’ll kill you!"

I looked at him curiously and smiled softly. "I don’t think you can, not in your current state at least. Why don’t you remain calm for a while?"

Kaidos huffed. The ring on his right hand shimmered, and medical instruments poured down, potions and some magical bandages. "Just wait till I patch things up. I’ll show you!"

Temur and I looked at each other, and we couldn’t hold back a dry chuckle. "We should wait till you patch things up? Are you kidding? Besides, this is not just flesh wounds. You can’t treat broken bones with just potions."

Temur stepped forward and stomped on the wounded hand, his foot squishing against the torn flesh. Kaidos let out a scream, gripping Temur’s leg like a vice, but Temur didn’t let go. "That’s for doing that to Litha, now you can feel the pain too."

Kaidos screamed until his voice was nearly raw before Temur ground his foot harder into the wound, listening with satisfaction to Kaidos’s agonized moan. "He’s your kill, Torvan. Make it quick so we can get out of this cursed zone."

I nodded and brought out my sword, coating it in Unholy magic of bright green power as I lifted it. But then Kaidos began to laugh, and I paused, narrowing my eyes.

He gasped through his laughter, foamy blood covering his mouth, his eyes wild. "You think I’m just going to go down like that? No way you bastards! I’m not going to just die under someone like you! Oh! But you see, it’s time! It’s time! It’s finally time! Yes! MASTER!!!!"

As his last shout resounded through the air, the whole castle shuddered, the air tightening with pressure as a weight settleed on everything and everyone. One of the rings on Kaidos’s hand blazed red, throbbing with power that spreads in ripple, it was an artifact, the gold one that had torn time-space apart earlier.

An overwhelming aura poured from it, so strong it slammed Temur and me away like toys, throwing us back. The ring slide and llifted from Kaidos’s hand to hovered in the air, then an intense, concentrated red beam shot straight upward from it.

It was a sharp light and It punched through the castle ceiling easily, through the zone itself, and then into the sky of the Tower. The full power of the gold artifact had revealed itself.

☆☆▪︎☆☆

Outside the zone, Thayer woke to screams and blaring alarms as artifacts detected abnormalities. He rushed out of his tent, and what he saw made him shiver.

A red pillar of light erupted from the black castle zone and pierced the sky. Everyone knew what that meant—someone was interfering with the zone.

Thayer’s eyes darkened. "This isn’t good. At all. My team is still in there."

"Mr. Argent, I believe the Tower Guards are taking control of the situation. They are already preparing to enter the zone..." Cole adjusted her glasses as she studied the readings.

"The entrance to the zone has been blocked by a red energy force that looks suspiciously like the one shot out." Thayer hissed. "This is getting out of hand. The safety of my team is a priority! I must speak with the others!"

Cole watched her master hurry away, then turned her gaze toward the crimson pillar. Just who would dare to do such?

☆☆▪︎▪︎☆☆

"What the...?" I muttered as I pushed myself to my feet. A pillar of red fire stood where Kaidos had been. The floor around it was shattered, jagged, cratered.

"Agh." Temur groaned as he stood as well. "Is this guy a cockroach? He just refuses to die. What is this now...?" He stopped when he saw the pillar.

Not just because it lit up the room, but because we could feel the power pouring from it, an amount unlike anything we had ever sensed gathered in one place.

"It looks like a portal," I said. "But one I’ve never seen before."

Before I could say more, the pillar unfurled. Then we understood, it really was a portal. We couldn’t see who stood on the other side, but their aura pressed against us like a crushing weight.

Blood and Iron, with the lingering cold of death. I shivered. I knew this aura. I had felt it before.

"The Necromancer."

Temur snapped his gaze to me. "What?"

"It’s the same kind of power as the Necromancer from the goblin fortress. It feels almost identical."

A chill ran through Temur. If that was true, and if this was Kaidos’s master, then we were in deep trouble. The power coming from that portal wasn’t Iron rank.

Movement stirred behind the portal. Kaidos crawled into view, dragging himself to its edge. "Master...!"

Silence followed. Then a voice emerged, a cold, emotionless, exactly what I expected from a master of beastmen.

"Ah. I see you failed, Kaidos."

He flinched. "No, master. It was just that it was more difficult than I thought. They are more...."

"No?" the voice interrupted calmly. "But you haven’t secured the sacrifice, have you?"

Kaidos fell silent, and the voice continued. "I gave you every advantage. I even gave you an artifact that allows you to use my stored power, and you created blood goblins. But it was suddenly cut off." Though the tone was calm, the anger behind it was unmistakable.

Temur and I exchanged looks. Blood goblins. Were they talking about the one in the fortress?