Chapter 228: Aftermaths (4)

The Anti-Space-Time Transcender had two roles. First, as a beacon to guide future beings to a single point in the past. Second, as a breakwater to hold back the waves caused when those vessels of the future came crashing into the harbor of time and space.

Caressing the pitch-black cube, Karnak nodded. "So the breakwater was actually its main purpose."

No matter how sturdy the breakwater, if ships came crashing in from other directions, it couldn’t stop the waves. Thus, the beacon function was essential as well—to lead the ships safely to the breakwater.

"More precisely, it’s a beacon standing atop a breakwater."

The spirit’s voice drifted onward. "With Tesranach’s power, it wouldn’t have been difficult to interpret the Obelisk of Transcending Time-Space to construct the Anti-Space-Time Transcender..."

However, he had not found a way to send the completed Anti-Space-Time Transcender into the past. Entrusting the task to those already in the past carried too much risk. Creating the Anti-Space-Time Transcender required not only necromancy but also an advanced understanding of magic. The martial kings and popes, even if given the instructions, would be incapable of creating it. Which meant, among the vanguard, only Elezar had the potential.

"But the Anti-Space-Time Transcender could only be crafted by the undead."

Considering her position in the Empire of Lacania, turning undead would have been far too great a risk for Elezar. Of course, if there had been no other way, she would have become undead to complete it. Fortunately, that hadn’t been necessary. Tesranach had found another solution.

"That’s where the Four Grand Governors of Necropia came in."

Varos tilted his head in puzzlement. "Huh? Then does that mean the archliches can return through time without needing the Anti-Space-Time Transcender?"

Jedex nodded. "Space-time disturbances occur when souls from the present and the future meet."

The paradox of time-space arose when two incompatible existences overlapped. But archliches, when they traveled back in time, didn’t invade their past selves’ souls. They simply returned to their own long-dead bodies.

"Thanks to that, there was almost no disturbance in space-time."

Propping his chin in his hand, Karnak murmured, "I see. If those are the conditions, it makes sense that Tesranach couldn’t send additional people from the future without an Anti-Space-Time Transcender."

It was an exceptionally restrictive condition. For a soul from the future to return to the past, there must be no version of that same soul already existing there. However, the original body had to still exist at that point in time. Unless it was a truly exceptional case like an archlich, there were almost no undead who could meet such criteria.

From there, the story matched what Karnak had already heard from Demphis and Maloka. Tesranach had used the archliches who returned to the past to build the Anti-Space-Time Transcender, and through it, tried to send the rest of his subordinates back in time.

"That part checks out." Nodding, Karnak suddenly asked, "But then, why didn’t Demphis or Maloka know any of this? They were the ones actually building the Anti-Space-Time Transcender."

"Tesranach told only the three of us," replied Jedex.

"Why?" Karnak asked him.

"He always kept information tightly restricted," came the answer.

The fewer who knew a secret, the better.

"Even if they didn’t know, it wouldn’t interfere with their assigned tasks. He probably thought there was no need to burden them with unnecessary knowledge."

If it didn’t matter whether they knew or not, then it was simpler to keep it hidden. That kind of thinking wasn’t limited to necromancers. It was common among anyone in a position of command.

"Well, that makes sense." Satisfied, Karnak changed the subject. "So then, how many Anti-Space-Time Transcenders do you have on hand right now?"

"All of them have been lost."

Demphis had been crafting one, and Maloka another, but both were currently unaccounted for, or so Jedex’s spirit claimed.

So even Jedex only knows about two of them?

This needed confirming. Karnak took two black cubes out from inside his robes and held them up. "I have these Anti-Space-Time Transcenders."

Jedex’s spirit didn’t react in the slightest. His artificially reassembled soul was so thin and faint, there was barely any emotion left to show. "Yes, master, you have them."

"And there’s this one as well." Karnak produced a third cube, the one he’d obtained from the mysterious witch, and asked, "What about this one?"

The answer came flat and absurd. "That cannot exist."

"What? It’s right here in front of your eyes, and you’re telling me it can’t exist?" Karnak asked with a frown.

"That cannot exist." As he had already noted, Jedex’s current soul had almost no self-awareness left. "The Anti-Space-Time Transcender can only be crafted by archliches. There is no knowledge of any other way."

Staring at the spirit repeating itself like a parrot, Karnak let out a quiet laugh. "So basically, you have no idea."

***

Since it was unclear when Jedex’s spirit might disperse, Karnak decided to clear up all remaining uncertainties while he could.

He began to probe at the lingering questions that had gnawed at him. "How does Tesranach communicate with you all? Can he make contact with this world from where he is?"

"Indirectly, it is possible."

Since Tesranach resided beyond the veil of time, he couldn’t interact with the present directly.

But even now, he was steadily spreading the Shadow of Doom throughout the world.

"I see. So he embeds messages within the Shadow of Doom, and when a human comes into contact with it, they’re overwhelmed by the shadow and deliver it to you."

It was a method Karnak could easily understand.

Karnak continued his questions. "Then how do you contact Tesranach from your side?"

"It is possible through the spell known as Devourer of the Void."

"What is that?"

Tesranach had created the spell, so how could Karnak know about it? Jedex calmly explained the concept behind it, and as he did, Karnak’s expression darkened. "This... actually makes sense."

Karnak’s method of intervening with the void involved projecting a sort of necromantic construct, using precise control to explore beyond the void.

Tesranach’s approach, on the other hand, had been a bit different. He had sacrificed countless human lives and souls to amass a murky force of dark energy, then used that overwhelming power to pierce a hole straight through the dimensional boundary.

Of course, even with such force, no human mind could endure exploring that vast abyss. To avoid losing oneself in the infinite, one would need the meticulous finesse of spell control at Karnak’s level. He had always wondered how Tesranach managed to overcome this limitation for his followers, but the answer turned out to be unexpectedly simple.

"So, you just didn’t explore?"

Rather than probing into the void, Tesranach’s followers would simply plant one foot inside and shout at the top of their lungs.

—I’m over here! Tesranach! Come to me!

Tesranach, being on the other side of the void, couldn’t extend his reach directly into the material world. But he could reach and connect from void to void.

"So you only go as far as Tesranach’s influence extends and call out to him from there? Hah, I never thought of that."

It was certainly a crude method, but there was no denying the spell was powerful enough to affect the void. It wasn’t something you could pull off with necromancy alone.

Curious, Karnak pressed Jedex’s spirit. "Recite the spell for me."

Jedex’s memory was fragmented, so the spell wasn’t complete, but it was enough. For Karnak, even an incomplete version would suffice.

A blend of magic, dark aura, and necromancy? Not bad. There’s plenty here I can work with.

He asked a few more questions, but they didn’t yield much beyond what Demphis had already explained. It seemed this was as much as he could learn about Tesranach’s plans.

So, he changed the subject. "What happened to Leven Strauss from the future?"

Beside him, Leven’s expression hardened. At last, they had arrived at his story.

Jedex’s spirit slowly answered. "He currently inhabits the body of Emil Strauss."

It wasn’t surprising. Frankly, it would have been more shocking if he hadn’t been in Emil’s body.

"Then why doesn’t Leven Strauss want the body of his present self?"

According to Maloka, Jedex had claimed there was no need for them to secure Leven’s body.

Now was the perfect chance to confirm the reason. Jedex’s spirit opened his mouth to answer, but at that moment, his spectral form began to violently distort and scatter in all directions. At last, his limit had arrived.

"Wait! At least tell us the answer!" Leven cried out in panic, but it was too late. Jedex’s figure dissipated completely.

Turning to Karnak, Leven asked, disappointed, "Is it over?"

"Yeah."

"Can’t you summon him again?"

"He’s completely gone now."

Whether his soul had been destroyed or crossed into the afterlife, it no longer existed in this world.

"You could’ve asked earlier..."

"I did ask in order of priority, you know." Karnak felt the same regret. But he shrugged it off. "Well, no helping it. We still got plenty from him."

Even though he could torture the soul for information after capturing his enemies, Karnak always tried to get as much as he could beforehand, when they were alive, for exactly this reason.

"Life’s full of things that don’t go as planned." He chuckled as he consoled Leven. "Don’t worry too much. We still have plenty of ways to find out."

There were plenty others who knew the answer to this question, including Elezar, Dreltein, and even

Future Leven himself.

But Leven shot him a glare. "What’s the point? Once we deal with all of them, there’ll be no need to wonder anymore."

"Well, can’t fool you." With a grin, Karnak got to his feet. There was nothing left to do here. "Let’s head back. The others will be waiting."

With all their business concluded, Karnak’s party departed from Harthol City. They took up the long road north, driving their carriage back toward the Kingdom of Eustil.

"What’s the plan from here, young master?"

Varos asked, and Karnak replied, "First, we’ll head to the capital, Drunta. There are a few things to take care of there..."

He trailed off for a moment before continuing, "Once that’s done, I plan to spend some time at the estate."

"Our estate? What for?"

"Jedex died at our hands, remember? Naturally, word of that will reach them as well."

Demphis and Maloka had already been dealt with, and now, even Jedex—one of the Three Saints of the Black God's Cult—had fallen to Karnak. Moreover, two more archliches had crossed over, though their arrival hadn’t yet become common knowledge.

At this point, the Black God's Cult could no longer afford to ignore Karnak. There was no way they would let him be. Until now, neither Elezar nor Dreltein had personally targeted Karnak. There had been no need to risk blowing their imperial cover when they could simply send underlings in their place.

But those underlings had all been crushed by Karnak. Even one of their equals in rank, Jedex, had been defeated. The odds of the archmage and the martial king personally coming after him had just shot up dramatically.

"If Elezar or Dreltein comes after me directly, do you think we’re ready to face them?" Karnak pondered.

"Not yet," Varos admitted, shaking his head.

"Exactly. So I’m thinking it’s time to speed up the process of making you all stronger."

Varos and Lapicel could quickly return to their former level of power, as long as they had enough aura to fuel them. Leven might not reach quite the same heights, but given that he was destined to become a martial king in the future, he had more than enough talent to grow significantly stronger.

As for Serati...

Well, once everyone else powers up, she’ll probably grit her teeth and catch up too.

There wasn’t any real basis for that hunch, but Karnak just had a feeling.

Varos, however, frowned. "Well, maybe, if we have enough aura. But how exactly do you plan on increasing our aura reserves? That’s not something you can rush."

"Yeah, well, I’m going to try and make it happen." Karnak chuckled, rolling the Anti-Space-Time Transcender between his fingers. "Thanks to Jedex, I managed to snag something very useful this time."