Necromancer Academy’s Genius Summoner

Chapter 179

Slam!

Prince grabbed the hellhound's paws in one hand and pinned them to the floor. Although he bore the appearance of a small boy, he didn’t lack in strength against the gigantic chimera.

[Oh, and because you asked me, I brought this.]

Prince removed the crown from his head, spinning it around his finger. It wasn't the usual imitation. It was the real crown worn by the main body.

[Are you really going to use this?]

"!"

The moment Simon saw the crown, he felt his eyes strain and his hands shake. He thought the addiction would’ve lessened with time, but it was still the same.

Simon replied with a bitter smile,

"I don't want to use it if possible, but just in case…"

While Prince and the hellhound were having a contest of strength, blood zombies rushed into the car. Rete immediately reacted and went to cast a spell, but Simon raised his arm to stop her.

"It's fine."

"What?"

Prince was again wearing the crown on his head.

Bling!

Prince's eyes turned gold.

The dozens of zombies rushing in paused momentarily, and their eyes now equally golden.

Soon, they changed targets and started clambering onto the knocked-prone hellhound.

"What? What's wrong with them?"

Rete lowered her arms, dumbfounded.

"Prince is controlling them."

The hellhound shook its body and kicked at them, but the zombies relentlessly attacked, clinging all over its body.

Then, Simon spread his right hand. Zombies conscripted by Prince could be detonated by the Commander with…

'Corpse Explosion!'

Kabooooooooooooom!

The zombies imploded in succession, leaving the hellhound whimpering in pain. Taking the opportunity, Prince jumped up from his knees and punched the hellhound right in the face.

Pow!

The huge hellhound flew to the side and crashed into a battered train wall, punching a hole in it and being sent tumbling outside.

Simon and Rete cheered in joy at the same time. Prince brought a hand to the crown to keep it from falling and came down to the floor.

[Whew~ You can use Corpse Explosion without wearing the crown now?]

"I learned it the hard way from Father during the holidays."

The two bumped fists. Then, Prince belatedly noticed Rete clinging to a seat like a vigilant cat.

[By the way, who is this? Isn't she a priest?]

Slap!

As soon as Prince took a step closer, Rete slapped Prince in disgust.

"You crazy bastard! Don't come any closer!"

[Ouch!]

Prince burst into anger.

[What the hell are you doing?! We just met!! Simon! Can I kill her?]

"Take it easy. Please be nice to her."

Rete looked Prince up and down, her face deadly serious.

"This aura I'm feeling… I'm sure he's undead, so how is he talking?"

"Prince is an Ancient Undead."

Rete looked back in surprise at Simon's explanation.

"So you're a Commander after all…"

"Yeah. I told you so."

Rete never met a Commander in person, but she had heard the rumors.

The greatest obstacle to conquering the Dark Territory. They were said to be capable of leading armies of undead and handling unknown entities known as ‘Ancient Undead’.

A fire sparked in Rete's eyes.

'This bastard… So he's getting ahead of me, huh? Ugh, I need to become a Saintess as soon as possible, too.'

Prince glared at Rete and then turned away.

[Let's go.]

The three quickly tore through the train. With Prince at their side, each carriage was a piece of cake. He put on his crown and manipulated the zombies as his own army, catching the cultists off guard and letting them strike first.

Progress was smooth, but a complication soon arose.

Crrrrrrreeeeaaaaak!

One side of the train's wall was torn off, and the hellhound that was pushed off the train before made its way back inside. It had run fast enough to catch up with the train.

[You're persistent!]

Said Prince, taking off his crown and throwing it to Simon.

[I'll take care of him. Also, it's probably better for your mental health if you don’t use that.]

"Thanks for the advice."

As soon as Simon received the crown, he placed it in his subspace.

A series of roars broke loose as the two monsters, the zombie lord and the hellhound, clashed. In the meantime, Simon and Rete moved on to the next car.

"Ugh! Just how many of these are there?"

Heavenly Blood cultists had barricaded themselves with beds once again and were casting blood spells. Behind them, swarms of zombies were on standby.

"This is going to take a while again."

"We can't keep wasting time forever. Let's split up."

She tilted her head at Simon's suggestion.

"Split up?"

"You continue moving on and rescue the captives. I'll make a beeline from the top of the train and head straight for the engine room. After clearing it, I'll hit the rest from the back."

Eventually, both Rete and Simon would meet in the middle as they took down their opponents.

Rete nodded.

"I guess that's better than the both of us being stalled here."

* * *

* * *josei

The strategy changed. Simon opened the emergency hatch of the car and climbed up.

Clackety-clack! Clackety-clack!

The train could still be heard chugging away, and the headwind was strong as ever. Simon covered his face with his arm and looked around.

Blood zombies were still rushing in from the fields, and the magic circles drawn on the train walls were still summoning zombies and cultists.

'Let's get moving. If I reach the engine room, I'll be able to find out what happened.'

Simon started running.

"Intruder!"

Even on top of the train, there were some Heavenly Blood cultists and zombies taking guard. Simon spread his right arm as he dashed forward and opened his subspace. Skeleton bones whipped out from it before quickly covering his arm.

{Bone Armor - Handgun Mode}

It was a new skill he developed during the holidays. Simon aimed his arm forward at the approaching zombies.

Whirrrr!

The middle of the handgun spun like a wheel, and bones shot out like bullets from the muzzle above Simon's wrist.

Pssshhhk! Slice!

The bones struck zombies with enough force to either knock them prone or right off the train.

'This is my first time using this in actual battle, but pretty good. Reload!'

Using the skeleton’s Restoration, he could recycle the bullets as well. The fired bones came back, clicking into the weapon’s chamber and reloading themselves.

Ratatatatatata!

He ran, pouring bone bullets into the swarming zombies. He could hear the shouts of cultists around him.

"This bastard! He's a necromancer!"

"Surround him!"

As the cultists surrounded him, Simon stomped down with his left foot. The Overlord's blades swung out, sending all the surrounding cultists flying off the train.

"Huff! Phew!"

After his frantic struggle, he eventually reached the head of the divine train, near the engine room.

Like a spy, Simon carefully hung off the side of the train, cracked open a window with his feet, and slid inside.

Landing with a roll, he scrambled to his feet and looked around.

"…Ah."

It was the crew's lounge. There he saw the crew’s corpses, soaked in blood.

Simon hurried to the engine room.

'I was a step behind.'

The chief engineer, the only person who could control the train, was now also a cold corpse. There was no way to stop the train now.

Simon looked around for clues, and he soon spotted a map on the floor.

It was just a map with the usual stops commonly found within the cabin but with the letter 'C' written in red. The map just showed a forest, but someone had marked a straight path with a red pen.

'We've entered this ‘C’ route.'

Simon's gaze followed the red line. The last X mark at the end…

He didn't know where that place was, but he was certain whoever caused this was trying to get the divine train and its passengers to it.

It appeared that, before the train arrived at its destination, they had sent followers and zombies to nip any remaining resistance in the bud before slaughtering the passengers who were now trapped on the train.

'But…'

Simon frowned as he tucked the map into his pocket.

'…what were the inquisitors doing when this happened?'

It was hard to think that such powerful priests could've already been defeated, but given that he hadn't encountered any so far, he might have to assume the worst.

Simon left the engine room, walked through the crew's lounge, and entered the inquisitor's lounge.

'…Oh.'

He had to swallow his gasp of horror.

Five inquisitors were sprawled on chairs with holes bored through their chests.

They were all familiar faces after the innumerable interrogations he had undertaken.

'By the looks of it, somebody must've betrayed them from within.'

Then, suddenly, a painful moan could be heard. Simon turned his head in surprise, and he saw one of the inquisitors lying dying in a pool of blood at the far end of the wall.

It was Methyn, who had been tormenting him persistently.

'He's still alive!'

Simon went over and examined the wound. He placed his left hand on the wounded area and cast Heal while taking a potion from his subspace and pouring it into Methyn’s mouth.

Little by little, both the internal and external wounds healed, and Methyn's breathing began to return to normal.

'This should've saved his life.'

After finishing the healing, Simon stood back up and started walking to the next car.

"…Why?"

He heard a faint voice behind him.

"Why are you saving me? After everything I did to you…"

Simon didn't answer and kept walking. Methyn spoke again.

"Beware of the tiny, tiny drops of blood. They're smaller than you think."

Simon stopped.

"…A bishop of Heavenly Blood is on this train."

Simon stared at Methyn blankly. But it seemed Methyn had said everything he wanted to, slumping against the floor as his breaths suggested he had drifted into sleep.

Simon filed away that bit of information and headed to the next room.

Clackety-clack! Clackety-clack!

A huge fight probably happened here, as the wall had collapsed. The wind howled through the hole, and he could hear the train. The carriage was also soaked in blood.

'There don't seem to be any useful clues.'

As he was cautiously walking in the direction of the next cabin…

'…!'

He saw a tiny droplet of blood floating in the air, invisible to anyone who wasn't looking for it.

Simon quickly jumped back.

Kabooooooooooom!

The blood droplet erupted into a huge explosion.

As Simon flew backward through the air, he realized that the floor and walls also had blood droplets on them.

Simon clenched his teeth as he formed a jet-black platform beneath his airborne feet so he could reverse his momentum and roll forward.

Kaboom! Kabooooooooom!

He dodged everything by a hair's breadth, leaving him gasping for air as he got back up.

"Good reactions."

A man was walking over from the opposite cabin.

He had auburn hair and red eyes, and although his clothes were ragged, they were unmistakably an inquisitor's attire.

"A masked figure, out of the blue…"

The man laughed at Simon's disguise.

Clearly, this man was the bishop of Heavenly Blood. The strength the man exuded told him more than enough.

"I'm Alloken, a bishop of Heavenly Blood. You seem to be a necromancer. Why do you attack us?"

Simon furrowed his brow.

"Are you saying that all necromancers should help you?"

"I'm not saying you have to, but you met a necromancer in enemy territory. Wouldn't it be nice to help your kind out?"

He raised his arm.

"The inquisitors and priests we've killed here, they're all a burden to the Dark Territory in the event of war. In war terms, today is a great—"

"That's if we were in times of war."

Interrupted Simon, getting ready for a fight.

"Right now, you're nothing but a terrorist."

——