chapter 3: strongest necromancer

Ban Corvidae himself was not a well known necromancer his actions however were well known by all. Actions such as launching an attack on the one of the largest training facilities of holy knights with an army of undead elemental beasts.

But having never revealed himself, Ban as an individual did not gain any fame, which suited him perfectly as he did not want people hunting him constantly.

He also had a deep hatred for the Church of the Descended Angel and the Holy Sword Kingdom which sanctioned and even supported the vile actions of the Church.

The church taught that anyone born with an innate affinity to the darkness element was to be killed along with his or her entire family, innate elemental affinities were not a rare thing, one in every two-hundred children were born with an affinity and all that it represented was a slight learning advantage in martial skills or magic pertaining to that element.

But the Church taught that anyone born with a darkness elemental affinity was born to do great evil and must be killed along with their families to ensure that a no other great evils were born from that family.

Ban was born in a town with such beliefs at the age of seven it was found that he had the darkness elemental affinity. his father, mother, and older brother stood against the whole town with the all strength they had to allowing Ban to escape. from there he managed to live long enough so that with his natural talent, extremely hard work, and relentless perseverance he grew into the person he is today, a necromancer who stands at the peak of what a mortal can obtain.

If he grew any stronger he would reach the realm of legends and myths. lately Ban had been contemplating the idea of creating a death knight, a death knight was considered the hallmark of a true necromancer but he had never used humans to create undead to fight for him and instead opted for the usage of elemental beasts.

then just as he was beginning to think of a way to get his hands on a holy knight to make himself a death knight, one offered himself to him in the form of a trade. a holy knight wanted to trade one of his country’s knights for the corps of a death knight this seemed like a good opportunity to ban because not only would he get to make his enemy into a death knight he could also possibly gain a person who could help him against the church from the inside. ban decided to arrive at the meeting place early in order to set up some magic formations in order to creat his death knight.

The creation of a death knight is by no means a simple process, in order to create one the necromancer would need to break the mind of his subject then kill the knight in question by extracting the soul of the knight.

After that the necromancer would need to go through the long process of changing the element of the knight’s core to the darkness element by using his own elemental energy. After setting up all the necessary magic formations all he had to do was wait for the knight to arrive.

Once the holy night arrived Ban tried to be civil and at least act the part of a person cooperating but the boy was incredibly rude and ill-mannered but he didn’t mind the young man who was only about twenty years old had incredibly chaotic elemental energy and would not be able to achieve any thing in this life, add to that the fact that today he would die it would be pointless to be angry at a soon to be dead man.

After waiting a couple of days the other knight, his supposed target finally arrived this boy on the other hand had some true potential his elemental energy was extremely stable and had the look of a seasoned warrior. Seeing him Ban decided to greet the young man

“Hello young one what business do you have in these woods, perhaps I may be of some assistance.”

The young warrior did not respond immediately but instead took a stance readying himself for battle.

“Ah, sorry I may have startled you my name is Ban Corvidae, as a child I lived in a forest similar to this one so I may be of some assistance to you.”

Finally the young warrior responded “I am David son of the earth, knight of the Kingdom of the Holy Sword. I have come looking for a necromancers head to take back.”

Ban was somewhat surprised when someone named themselves a son or daughter of an element it meant not only was that person an commoner with no background but also an orphan left to die by those around him or her, and this young man seemed to say that with pride while most would only say that in the event that an official or someone of high standing asked them for their proper identity.

“Hmm a necromancer in these parts, while I know of a one what has this horrid criminal done that one such as you would have to trouble yourself to find him.”

Ban had decided from early on to try and persuade this young one to his side and all the more now that he had taken an interest in this young David. Hearing this David had a pensive look on his face before answering

“Nothing that is know, but the practice of necromancy is forbidden in the kingdom and the punishment is death.” This statement was in itself wrong but Ban decided to correct it “But young one your statement seems to be false and invalid.”

As he said this a warm smile appeared on Ban’s face like that of an elder teaching his junior the important things in life. “False because having darkness element or being related to someone with the darkness element is what is not permitted and invalid because this is not the kingdom but the elemental beat mountain range, has the kingdom become so stable and powerful that it can now try to enforce its laws outside it’s borders.”

While this conversation was going on the young one, David had been gathering earth elemental energy and forming it into a protective layer of stone while also strengthening himself to his peak. Ban allowed this as he did’t see it as a threat, the young man had only just stepped into the grand stage while Ban had long stepped into the master stage, regardless of preparations this young one would be unable to win. “that doesn’t matter I have been given a mission and I will complete it.” Sense he had completed his preparations David finally launched his most powerful attack with full confidence, he had thought that this old men was just an advanced ranked necromancer at the human stage but still decided to use his most powerful attack because of the odd fear he was feeling form the old man.

At this attempt Ban simply chuckled and waved his arm activating the formations he set up earlier trapping the young one in six magic arrays forming a cube. David was stunned by these arrays and quickly attempted to break out using the energy he had gathered but failed, only now realizing how helpless he was in front of this old man. Ban saw all this and simply continued talking as if nothing had occurred. “See don’t you realize where you were fundamentally wrong in your statement.”

David hearing this was stunned that the old man decided to continue his conversation instead of killing him, he had previously thought that like him the old man was simply buying time to prepare an attack. “then yes my statement was indeed wrong but my mission has not changed, I have sworn loyalty to the kingdom until death, so unless I die prepare to be hunted.”

After the young one made his statement ban could do nothing but sigh, getting this youngster to his side would be an extremely difficult task if not impossible. But warriors especially knights were like this placing their kingdom above themselves.

“Then lets have a small talk about your kingdom, who has more importance in your Kingdom, the people, the nobles, the royal family, or is it the Church. Be honest with me young one.” After hesitating for a while David answered

“The Church it is what guides the people and the nobles, having more influence than the royal family.” Hearing this Ban simply nodded.

“Then tell me if you serve the Kingdom and the Kingdom basically serves the Church then the church hires me to kill you wouldn’t you say the kingdom does not want you.” Hearing this David knew exactly what situation he was in the old man was basically offering him a choice of join or die for most it was a simple choice, life was always the right choice but David had decided that he would always keep an oath once he made it and nothing could break his will not even death.

“Then I will hate and curse them in death but in life I will keep true to my oath and serve the kingdom for a knights oath is his life.” At this moment Alexander appeared laughing “knight, what honorable knight? You are nothing but a commoner who dared cross me and for that you will die and lead a life of torment as a death knight the furthest thing from an honorable duty bond knight.”

With this Ban decided his new corse of action this young David said that n death he would curse and hate his enemies, wasn’t this basically telling him to turn him into a death knight. Beginning the process was fairly simple fist one had to kill the knight and trap the soul, because Ban had already set up a large formation made up of multiple powerful magic arrays it was done instantly and without pain to the young knight.

After this Ban began to change the earth elemental energy inn the young knights core to darkness elemental energy this was a process that would take a while and needed a deep understanding of the elements, after five days this had been completed and ban had gained new understanding in the darkness element.

The only step left was to chain the soul back to the body, this was normally not something possible but thousands of years ago a necromancer had completed a magic array for this and any other necromancer at the master stage could use it, so using this Ban was able to complete his death knight.

Alexander mean while was extremely frustrated thinking that he the grandson had to wait for this old man to finish in order to revive his reward the only thing he had done was trap the uncooperative bird in an array off to the side where he had watch the little talk between the necromancer and the commoner, when he saw everything was competed he contained his frustration and said “Now that your finished old man give me my reward.”

“Ah but I regret that this is the first death knight I have ever made, but kill him and take it back as a prize. Death knight kill him.” Hearing this Alexander was now furious and knew that if he didn’t escape death was certain, he had fought the commoner various times and knew he had a low chance of winning.

So he began to retreat but was immediately stopped by the death knight. After a few clashes with it Alexander knew he would have been dead many times over if not for his superior equipment. Ban watching this exchange from the side was laughing and saw that the young holy knight was going to attempt an all out attack in hopes of escaping, so he ordered his death knight to match the holy knight with equal power.

As the two clashed the oddest thing Ban had ever seen occurred, a three eyed crow circled the clash from above and opened it’s third eye the eye like the rest of its body was gray in color following this the crow let out a deafening cawing noise and flew strait towards the two knights.

This baffled Ban for multiple reasons first the eye on its forehead was open one thing these crows could not do and where know for was there blindness stemming from the inability to open their eyes, second was the deafening caw it let out going against another well known fact about these birds, they were mute.

The final and most inexplicable thing that happened was as the crow entered the clash of the two knights a vortex appeared and swallowed the three leaving behind a small gray haired child of about three years old with a small horizontal black line on its forehead. During all this confusion no one noticed the holy crow flying out of the broken array and back to the elemental beast mountain range.