Reborn with a Necromancer System-Chapter 219: The Scent of Blood

The sun filtered dimly through the twisted canopy of Muderan's ancient forest. Kai, Vepice, and Orlin walked towards the skeletal remains of a house long since surrendered to decay.

Of animals, or perhaps the previous inhabitants, but there were no corpses or carcases to speak of.

"We'll stay here for a moment," Orlin said quietly, brushing aside a clinging vine as he stepped into the half-collapsed structure. "We're not far from the forest's exit now, but the forest thickens from here on for a while. And it becomes... less forgiving."

The walls were damp mulch, the floor little more than dirt and fibrous roots. The air smelled of mildew and death.

Vepice sagged to the ground with a tired sigh, her limbs trembling from the hike, her breathing shallow but steady. Kai sat beside her, resting his back against a wall that cracked under the pressure.

He breathed as calmly as one might having woken up from a restful nap.

Orlin stood near the ruined doorway, his voice low. "You should know what you're walking into. If you're going to be fighting against Ebonbrand within the crown, you ought to know more about him."

Kai raised his eyes. "Yeah, how did you meet him?"

Orlin nodded, slow and solemn. "I was a boy: young, stupid, curious. I was born here in Muderan. Not in these haunted woods, but in a city far to the north. We weren't what you'd call an advanced people, not by your standards. But we lived well enough. Magic provided what the earth could not."

There was a distant screech through the trees.

Orlin didn't flinch or falter. "My mother was human, though not entirely. A variant, they called her. Something in her blood refused to remain normal. And my father… was a Forebearer."

Kai leaned forward. "What were they like?"

"Also by your standards, you would call them strange," Orlin said with a faint smile. "Pale-skinned, silver-haired, with eyes like polished gems. They were the first to reach into the realms of death without being consumed. Ebonbrand was one of them. A teacher, a tyrant, a father to our art. To necromancy. To magic. The humans feared what they couldn't control. The variants, their own children, were the first to die."

Vepice glanced at Kai, her eyes dark. "And the demons?"

"We fought them for centuries. Every few years they'd spill through from their corner of this world into our corner. Until we, foolishly I dare say, made a portal to a different world. We thought we could flee the war."

Kai's breath caught in his throat. "You sent them to my world."

"Yes," Orlin said, voice heavy with guilt. "We didn't know they'd follow. We didn't know the war would spread like a plague across dimensions. But it did."

"The history books. Everything... Nothing mentions demons."

"Because history was wiped when a few people... Well, they became the gods that the people of Imeria worship."

Kai stared down at the floor. In his mind, images from Ebonbrand's memories flickered, burning cities, skies torn open by blackened wings.

The crown wanted him to see it. To know it. To empathise with it.

"That's enough history for now." Orlin turned to Vepice, who was still breathing hard but beginning to stand. "Can you keep going, girl?"

"I think so," she said, nodding, though her legs still trembled. "It must be nice, being undead. You two never get tired."

A shared glance passed between Kai and Orlin, their voices overlapping:

"I miss it…"

They blinked at each other, then smiled faintly.

When they left the ruined house, the forest seemed thicker, as though it had been waiting for them to finish speaking. Gnarled branches tangled above, casting twisted shadows. The air felt charged. Damp.

"We'll cut straight west," Orlin said, stepping over a root thicker than Kai's arm. "The tree line will break soon. You'll see the plains from there."

Kai nodded until he saw the sun.

It was on the wrong side.

He turned his head sharply, and so did Vepice. "Wait," she whispered. "Shouldn't the sun be behind us?"

"We're turned around," Kai muttered.

"No, that's not-" But before she could finish, Vepice yelped and pulled back her leg from a bramble patch. Thorns had ripped through her trousers and a crimson line streaked down her calf.

Then they heard it.

Chittering.

A thousand tiny voices in the underbrush. High-pitched screeches. Clicking mandibles. The forest came alive.

"The little ones," Orlin said grimly. "Run."

They didn't wait. The three of them turned and sprinted, Kai gripping Vepice's wrist, dragging her through the brambles. Twigs whipped their faces, and the shrill screams grew louder behind them. From the corner of his eye, Kai saw flashes of movement.

Small.

Twitching

Hungry.

They burst through the trees. Light poured in.

But Orlin wasn't with them.

Kai skidded to a halt and turned. "Orlin?!"

They saw him at the tree line, just before the swarm overtook him.

Black shapes poured over his body, furred and twitching, their teeth flashing like shards of broken bone. They tore into him, pulled him down into a heap.

"No!" Vepice cried, staggering toward the forest edge. Kai caught her, held her back.

"We can't-" he said through clenched teeth. "We can't go back in!"

The forest echoed with shrieking madness, and then, laughter.

Dry and cold.

Manic yet calculated laughter.

Kai's eyes went wide. Vepice gasped.

From the heart of the swarm, a figure rose.

Still covered in the biting, writhing creatures, Orlin stood, calmly brushing his robe. His face, or at least the half with skin that once covered flesh, was torn open, revealing exposed bone, but he was grinning.

"Persistent little bastards," he muttered.

The moment his foot touched the sunlight, the creatures scattered. As if the light itself burned them, they vanished into the forest.

Orlin walked forward, brushing bits of matted fur from his arm.

Kai's mouth opened, but he didn't speak. Vepice clutched his arm tightly.

"I suppose," Orlin said, tilting his head, "I had no meat left for them to snack on."

Kai blinked, unsure whether to laugh or scream. "I... suppose not."

Vepice just stared, pale and silent, her hand still gripping Kai's arm so tightly it hurt.

They didn't look back as they continued west.

After the harrowing escape from the forest, the sun felt like a blessing. A cruel, searing, overbearing blessing.

Kai sat with his knees drawn up, panting softly as the oppressive heat bled into his skin. Vepice slumped beside him, gulping air, her face slick with sweat. Orlin, still somehow bone-dry despite being wrapped in rotting cloth and undead stillness, stood silently as if the past half-hour hadn't just nearly gotten him devoured.

The sunlight above them was blinding, nearly white in its intensity. Kai squinted upward until his eyes watered.

After a while, Orlin cleared his half-rotten throat with a wet, leathery croak. "So, you were both wondering about the sun?"

Kai didn't answer. His eyes remained fixed on the glaring sky.

"In Muderan," Orlin went on, "we have two suns. At this time of year, it would seem they are aligned with each other… orbiting in unison, overlapping as they pass your sky. A rare spectacle, this. You should feel lucky."

Kai dragged his fingers into his sweat-damp collar, tugging it loose to let air in. "This much heat and you're saying we're lucky?"

Orlin gave a dry laugh. "When both are visible, when one isn't blocking the other? It can get twice as hot as this. Without magic, the world would be a scorched husk. No water. No air. No life. Just ash blowing in the wind of a dead rock."

Kai blinked. Something about Orlin's phrasing had him question the mentor he thought he knew almost everything about.

'A dead rock floating in space?'

'That's... Got to be at least seventy degrees Celsius,' Kai thought, feeling his sweat pooling beneath his armor. 'And he understands that planets are just rocks floating in space? He understands what space is? How?'

His thoughts were still catching up when, without warning, the sunlight vanished.

Dimmed.

As if a knob had been adjusted in the sky.

The air around them shifted. Birds stopped chirping. The wind stilled. Everything went silent in a way that sent prickles crawling down Kai's arms.

Kai glanced up, expecting clouds.

Instead, a wide shadow fell across the land. Its movement was lazy and ominous, like a predator that knew it couldn't be challenged.

At first, he sighed.

'Finally,' he thought. 'Cloud cover.'

But then he saw the outline of wings.

The relief turned sour. His gut clenched.

"No... no, no, no," he muttered.

The massive shape passed directly over them. Spines like jagged spears trailed from its tail. Its silhouette blotted out half the sun's disc. The sheer scale of it defied comprehension. The air seemed to hum with pressure, like reality was being squeezed inward by its presence.

Then came the roar of displaced wind as its wings beat once, and a shockwave of dry, smoldering air slammed into them.

"A dragon!" Vepice screamed, stumbling back into Kai.

Her voice cracked, high and sharp with panic. Even Orlin's eyes widened a touch.