Arpious of the Planes

VWOOM

Suddenly, a slight clear purple box surrounded Lan where he fell to the floor of the box and regained his stamina, and caught his breath.

I was confused for a split second before realizing that he had used [Magic Barrier Creation: Tier 4] around himself.

"That's one way to use a barrier," I mutter before tightly gripping my scythe and readying it above my head.

My soul monsters kept trying to attack the box, even to the point where the ground monsters created a staircase out of themselves so that they could scratch at it.

But, as the barrier was way too strong, they did absolutely nothing, and that included my flying soul monsters, which kept nose-diving into the box.

"Move," I ordered my soul monsters as I had finished preparing my scythe with [Forbidden Magic: Medusa], [Ancient Fire Magic: Amaterasu], and [Apocolyptic Weapon Swing].

And as we were currently in my throne world, I didn't need to worry about hitting any of my allies besides my soul monsters, who were essentially infinite due to how many gargoyles I killed.

SHING

As I brought down my scythe, I let go of my katana to add just the last bit of power that I thought I needed.

And just in a split second, my scythe had cracked the barrier with Amaterasu trying to devour it from the inside out.

On the other hand, Medusa didn't do much besides the swing I had done earlier against his arm and leg, but it seems he acted quickly as his entire left leg and arm are gone, signaling he was forced to cut the excess off to stop the spread.

"That's a nice advantage," I muttered as soon as the crack became even larger and larger.

Not even a few seconds later, another crack appeared, causing a chunk of the box to fall out and my soul monsters to flood in.

The screams and cries of Lan could be heard, causing a sadistic smile to appear on my face, but I wasn't so naive as to take down my throne world just yet as I knew he wasn't done.

He still had much more to use, but as it would've destroyed everything around him, he held back… but he's in a throne world now, so holding back could be thrown out the window.

"I didn't want to use this as I'll be bedridden for quite a while, but it seems I have no choice," I hear Lan's voice come from the pile of monsters that had now fallen to the barren ground.

I guess that's another reason…

But just as my soul monsters started to disappear into thin air, Amaterasu came flooding in, burning my soul monsters with what seemed to be Lan, who began to scream in pain again.

And just like last time, Lan began talking to himself as the black flames were sucked into the palm of his hand.

Lan had finally rid most of the monsters around him, allowing him to escape and levitate up, but what I saw wasn't human.

He looked closer to Aika than anything else due to his ghostly white hair and black sclera that matched perfectly with his baggy and almost martial artist-looking white robes.

His expression didn't waver as all you could see was an ear-to-ear grin that practically closed his eyes.

"He's insane," I mutter but matched his grin with my own grin as I dashed in, while summoning my katana back.

[Mystic Arm and Leg]

A dark purple exoskeleton-like leg and arm appeared on the left side of my body, which compensated for the strength disparity between my new scythe and Raiu.

[Apocolyptic Weapon Swing]

I made an X-like attack with Amaterasu infused into my blades, causing an X-shaped flame to burst towards Lan, whose arms, hands, and mostly everything past his chest had turned pitch black.

But, the black coating stopped right before it hit his chin, so his face was perfectly fine besides his black sclera.

VWOOMP

Suddenly, my X-shaped cross made of black flames had disappeared into thin air, causing me to hesitate with my next move slightly due to shock.

What the hell just happened…

And as if it was never there, my left arm and katana had disappeared into thin air.

…

(Past Aika POV)

I had achieved easier words to remember and words unique to myself over these past few weeks with my son, so I had been testing them out against whatever Hades killed and didn't want.

Though it was hard changing descriptions that were set in my mind since I managed to absorb the Nether Stone, after quite a while and intense training, I was finally able to change into words that fit me and are unique to me.

First, there is "Sacrifice," which allows me to sacrifice the body of a deceased one and create an undead that is much stronger than their previous self, but with this word, it is mainly used for large groups of corpses rather than individuals.

My next word is "Genisis," which allows me to sacrifice the body of a deceased one and turn them into an undead, just like "Sacrifice." But, the difference with this word is that it rebirths an individual into something much grander than a mindless undead that has no will of its own.

They are essentially reborn with their previous memories, emotions, and will, but one thing is added: loyalty towards myself and whoever I order to give loyalty to.

My third word is "End," which allows me to take the corpse of anything dead and then insert a bit of necromancy within it before exploding it with just a thought.

The radius really depends on what I think of, but then there's also the factor of how big the corpse is, so exploding corpses in combat really help with crowd control… Especially with the previous war, I racked up so many kills because of that one attack.

My fourth word, "Crumble," allows me to destroy any undead that I want to kill, but it isn't just a simple fall apart, and then the deed is done; the bones of the undead, which I use this word on essentially crumble into dust.

This works not only my undead but any undead from another necromancer weaker than me. If they are as strong or stronger than me, I'll most likely get backlash as it only makes sense that I'm technically attacking my superior... but that's just a guess.

Finally, my fifth and last word, "Rearrange." This word allows me to take the bones of any corpse and then rearrange them into what I want, but the rearranged thing can't be bigger than the original size… cause… that's how it works, I guess…

As I was at my desk in my own office, my reborn heroes stood behind me, awaiting my orders as I began to plan out what to do next.

"In the next battle, you all will come with me. Support me, and don't slip up; otherwise, you will be punished, and I'll make you wish you're dead," I say while looking up at my newly acquired necromancy status screen.

『Necromancy』

[Necromantic Summons on Stand-by: 9128]

[Necromantic Soldiers: 5]

[Commands: [Sacrifice] [Genisis] [End] [Crumble] [Rearrange]

"As you wish," All my reborn heroes, otherwise known as Necromantic Soldiers, respond.

…

(Present Aika POV)

"I guess it's time to test these commands out on the big guy," I say with myself, Kumo, Homura, and Treyni splitting off from Arpious, who decided to challenge the mage guy levitating in the air.

SWOOSH

Suddenly a gust of wind with an overwhelming pressure hit us, causing us to take a knee while the man we were set to face towered over us with his massive dark red and silver sword swung over his shoulder.

A dark red aura radiated from the guy as if he was a demon that I only heard in stories. And to match that perfectly, all we could see was his massive silhouette with blood-red eyes and a blood-red smile that glowed.

"Huh? How the hell did my soldiers lose to these weaklings," The man in front of us, which I instantly assumed to be thing king, spat out before bringing down his sword.

TING

Just barely, I managed to block the attack with my sword, which I had slung along my waist, buying time for Kumo, Homura, and Treyni to stand up before attacking him with all they had.

Homura had summoned 3 massive halos made of raging blue fire, which almost rivaled Arpious's black flames, that could swallow anything.

Two halos were above her head while the biggest and most dangerous was lined against her back as she began to summon hundreds of tiny foxes that created even more blue flames that she began to manipulate.

Kumo created hundreds of chains used to restrain the king as she was more used to providing support, while Treyni created hundreds of flowers and vines that were used as a distraction for Homura's attack.

SHING

Suddenly, in just a split second, the king had brought his sword up and slammed it back down on my sword, breaking it in half instantly.

The sword I had used since the beginning of my training... was gone.