Necromancer Academy’s Genius Summoner

Chapter 181

[Kyaaaaaagh!]

It was an overwhelming sight.

The swarm of screaming zombies resounded like the cracks of thunder and crashing of waves in a storm at sea.

Alloken, flinging explosive blood behind him as he ran, was no different from a small boat caught in that storm, threatening to become capsized at every moment.

'None of this makes any sense!'

Zombies rushed in from all directions of the train. Alloken felt like he was fighting the endless wave crashing down on him from all sides.

The biggest problem was that all the new zombies clinging to the train were falling under the control of the man with the crown.

"Judas! Answer me!"

Alloken flung drops of blood in a full circle around himself to buy a few seconds to activate a communication crystal ball.

[This is Judas. Is the situation clear?]

A calm male voice came from the crystal ball.

"No! A strange necromancer has interfered and is taking control of the zombies! Stop the zombies, now!"

[What are you saying? How could someone take control of blood zombies connected to the Chalice of Blood?]

"I don't know! Just hurry up and—!"

Shatter!

One of the zombies got too close, and it went for the crystal ball.

Alloken screamed in rage before leaping into the air and sending volleys of blood below.

'What in the world is that monstrous bastard?!'

Alloken looked at Simon, who was riding on top of the zombie throne, watching from afar.

'I'm sure someone like that wasn't among the passengers!'

In that moment, Simon's eyes under the mask flashed.

[Capture him.]

The zombies on the train connected end to end to build a long ladder. One of them grabbed Alloken's toe as he tried to fly into the air, paving the way for two zombies to immediately climb onto Alloken's back.

Before Alloken could take them off with a blood explosion, Simon clenched his fist.

'Corpse Explosion.'

The dark-blue smoke wafting from the three zombies began to glow.

Kabooooooooooooom!

He took a direct hit, bringing him down. Alloken plummeted, barely managing to break his fall by rolling across the roof of the train.

"Kughh!"

Blackened flesh fell off his body. It was 'Meat Armor', a dark spell used to absorb blows in place of the caster.

'More than half of the Meat Armor is already gone…!'

That was the problem.

Zombies couldn't bite through Meat Armor, but getting caught even once would have him hit by Corpse Explosion.

Besides, that masked man seemed to detonate zombies by just clenching his fists. He seemingly didn't need to draw any magic circles or do any calculations.

He had never seen such a zombiemancer before.

[Are you sure you want to keep gawking?]

Cautioned the masked man as he clenched his fist.

'What? None of them should be close enough to explode yet!'

Alloken hurriedly looked around, but sure enough, the zombies were still a fair ways away.

It took him a moment too long to realize that, although nothing was coming from in front of him, a huge power pulsed from beneath.

'Crap! He attached zombies in the cabin below to the ceiling and—!'

Kaboooooooooooooooooooooom!josei

Caught in another Corpse Explosion, Alloken lost a bulk of his Meat Armor and fell through the very recently caved-in section of roof and into the cabin below. He was screaming the whole way down.

"Kuuugh! Ugh!"

The assault wasn't over.

As if waiting for the moment, several zombies broke into the cabin. The dark-blue smoke coming from them was glowing.

Alloken was dumbfounded.

'You're saying that he can spam Corpse Explosion without delay?!'

On the roof of the train, Simon grinned as he opened his hand for hopefully the last time this fight.

'Control the output, and…'

He clenched his fist.

'Explode!'

Kabooooooooooooooom!

The entire train shook, nearly coming off its rails, as an entire carriage was turned to rubble.

Soon, the smoke cleared, and the full extent of the damage could be seen.

The car was a ruin, with only the floor and the thin frame remaining. On the other side, Simon saw Alloken running away, a thick trail of blood following him.

He was trying to retreat to the other end of the train.

[Chase him.]

The group of zombies carrying Simon rose like a wave and surged forward.

Jumping over the ruined car, Alloken hit the ground running and continued to the next.

Then, Alloken cast a new dark spell. Four fleshy arms burst from his back, and he smashed through the windows of the cabin and grabbed passengers.

"Kyaaaah!"

Passengers caught in his arms screamed in fear. Alloken grinned proudly and tossed passengers with all his might.

A dirty trick to buy some time.

But Simon didn't falter. He immediately opened his subspace and sent out sets of Bone Armor. The people being thrown out of the train were given Bone Armor one after another.

'Retrieve.'

As Simon waved his arm, the passengers returned to the train. Seeing this, Alloken's face stiffened.

'His ability to handle crises also changed. He seems completely different from when our fight started!'

Even in the midst of this, the zombies carrying Simon were diligently moving.

The zombies arched toward Alloken's back, bringing Simon in range, but…

Whirrrr!

A divine magic circle unfolded behind the fleeing Alloken. Seeing this, Simon clicked his tongue and jumped off the swarm of zombies.

Kiiiiiiiiiish!

When zombies hit the magic circle, instead of bouncing off, they were ground into mince and spat out the other side.

Upon landing, Simon turned to find the source of the barrier.

'…An inquisitor?'

In the distance, a woman in an inquisitor's outfit could be seen gasping for breath. She was covered in wounds, but she was recovering by using Heal on herself.

'Perhaps she figured I'm an enemy?'

As Simon thought that, he heard Alloken yelling,

"Why were you so late?! Get rid of him, quickly!"

"I didn't come here on purpose!"

Ka-bo-bo-bo-booom!

Arcs of light fell in bundles, each one shaking the carriage as they landed. At the start of each of the arcs was a girl, approaching in a pure white storm.

'Rete!'

"Can you afford to get distracted? Your opponent is me!'"

Rete charged in, swinging her divine sword. The inquisitor conjured a stack of barriers, but a single sword strike broke away several layers.

'I guess I can leave her to Rete.'

Simon looked back at Alloken.

* * *

* * *

Alloken gnashed his teeth.

'…Dammit! What is the chimera doing? It took my all to bring it as a means to eliminate that Efnel bitch!'

[Kieeeeeeeeegh!]

Just then, he heard the chimera's, the hellhound's, cry.

When Alloken turned around, he saw the hellhound being held out of the train and forced against the rails with Prince riding on top of it.

[Hahahaha! Die, die!]

He was overpowering that hellhound in a battle of strength.

Seeing the hellhound's head grinding against the rails, Alloken realized the severity of the situation.

'Where in the world are all these monsters coming out from?'

In this situation, he had no choice but to risk his life. Alloken flicked his wrist straight down, and a red magic circle formed on the train's roof.

[Keguguguguh!]

Another hellhound he had prepared crawled out of it.

"I'll show you the true power of a bishop of Heavenly Blood!"

Alloken flung blood to block the zombie crowd, then approached the hellhound. Its ribs split open and engulfed Alloken.

The highest version of the necromancer's defensive skill of Meat Armor.

The hellhound's body squirmed before standing completely upright on its hindlegs.

Its muscles had been rebuilt, giving it a bipedal form, and the hellhound's head disappeared into the flesh. The forelimbs even took the shape of hands.

Alloken had changed into a hellhound, leaving only his head exposed.

"Bwahahaha!"

As he swung the hellhound's arm, drops of blood shot out in all directions, exploding zombies once more. Even in that form, he was still able to use dark magic.

'As expected from a necromancer.'

It was quite the necromancer-like dark spell. Simon felt that all active necromancers seemed to have at least one insane spe—.

'Ugh!'

Simon stumbled.

He'd worn the crown for too long. Controlling so many zombies at once was beginning to take its toll.

In that moment of weakness, Alloken rushed toward Simon, denting the train roof with every step.

He threw aside any zombies that rushed to protect Simon and swung his fist. Simon clenched his teeth and reached forward as his left foot pressed against the ground.

'Open!'

Six Overlord blades collided with the hellhound's fist in the center. The manbeast roared in anger. Soon, its fist was parried to the side, and the blades also slithered back into their subspace.

During the clash, zombies crawled onto the hellhound's body. Simon stepped back and clenched his fist.

'Corpse Explosion!'

Kabooooooom!

A series of dark blue explosions erupted, but Alloken only had to cover his head and managed to tank the explosions unharmed.

Thunk.

Simon gasped and fell to a knee.

The crown fell from his head and clattered across the roof. Seeing that, Alloken smiled in satisfaction.

"Yes, yes. There's no way an artifact with such great power would come without a price. That's what happens when you try to wield power out of your league."

Simon, gasping for breath, raised his head. He was still smiling.

"Don't you think something's wrong?"

"What?"

Now that the bastard mentioned it…

…the train had stopped.

'What the?'

Before he knew it, countless zombies had climbed underneath the train and dragged it to a halt.

"Now…"

Picking up the crown again, Simon stood up, writhing for a moment like a zombie before putting it back on in one fluid motion.

[Now, I'm serious.]

Rrrrrrrrrrrrrumble!

Beyond the stopped train, zombies surged up like a tidal wave, the dark-blue almost matching the color of the oceans. All who saw it felt their eyes widen in horror.

[Follow.]

At Simon's command, thousands of zombies crashed toward Alloken all at once.

Alloken splattered blood everywhere as he tried to run, but the dark-blue wave swallowed him. However, he broke free with another series of blood explosions and jumped into the air.

'There's no chance of winning head-on! First, I need to get out of here.'

As he looked for a good place to land, he saw the floor was getting closer faster than it should be.

A horde of zombies was rushing into the air, directly where he was heading through the air.

'Don't tell me… He read my moves!'

[You always escape into the air.]

Simon grinned, flashing his teeth, and opened his hand.

{Barrier of Obstruction}

The inquisitor who was fighting Rete had once again created a divine magic circle in front of Alloken. She knew there was no chance of winning if Alloken went down.

'Nice! Good assist!'

She thought that the zombies would pass through the barrier and turn to mince this time, too, but…

[I can do anything.]

Muttered Simon, closing his eyes.

No, that isn't enough.

[I'm…]

Everything became clear.

This moment, where he could focus on his ultimate goal without distraction… He felt a giddy rush upon returning to this state of immense concentration.

[…omnipotent.]

Whirrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

A massive burst of divinity erupted from Simon's crown.

White mixed with the gold in Simon's eyes, and the dark smoke that seeped from the zombies was bleached white.

"What did you do?!"

The zombies, now creatures of divinity, passed through the divine barrier without any resistance. They grabbed Alloken and dragged him to the floor.

Slaaaaam!

He was unable to process what happened in time to resist, and countless divine zombies piled on top of him. A huge mountain of white zombies formed with him trapped underneath.

Rete, after managing to knock out the inquisitor who had gotten distracted casting the barrier on Alloken, raised her head.

She shivered.

'…Oh great Goddess.'

After pulling himself together, Methyn, who had come up to the roof to help in the fight, felt his jaw drop in disbelief.

'Is this even possible?'

After defeating all the cultists in the tail car, Ellen's eyes shook as she looked out the window.

'…Simon!'

Gripping the crown, Simon took a deep breath and raised his left hand to the sky.

The gaze of every passenger watching followed his hand and looked to where he was incidentally pointing. Countless divine magic circles nearly blotted out the sun.

Compello.

The absolute insight to arrive at the ultimate truth.

Even in the few moments between conjuring the circles and activation, the formula for the magic circle was changing hundreds and thousands of times before settling on the final version.

Upon finishing the calculations, the countless failed magic circles winked out of existence, and only one divine magic circle remained, directly above Simon's outstretched hand.

{Celestial Explosion.}

The world went white, followed by a series of explosions of light and darkness. They drowned out all sound and stretched in all directions.

Pale, odorless, and silent.

A pure-white explosion.

Everything went silent for a moment.

Then, the ensuing backdraft rocked the train with a vicious fervor and uprooted the surrounding trees.

Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrumble!

"Kyaaaaaaaaaah!"

"Kugh!"

Passengers jumped to the ground in a desperate act of survival. Windows shattered, objects were thrown across entire carriages, and chaos ensued.

Swiiiiish!

After the massive backdraft passed, Simon slowly lowered his outstretched hand.

A single beam of blinding light shone down on him.

——