Hero of Darkness

In an open field where not a single living being could be seen, a completely horrifying scene that contradicted this peaceful and quiet scene happened inside an invisible barrier that couldn't even be sensed from outside.

"Aaaaaaaaarrrrrrr!!!" screamed a woman archer as beast skeletons with sharp claws cracked open her chest, breaking her ribcage and then chewed her heart while she was still alive.

"Hahaha!! That's a good one!" commented Loki as he was reveling in the wails of the people who were tailing him not long ago.

After being surrounded by 300 undeads.. These 20 people had no place to run or hide. And the barrier itself couldn't be broken or their teleportation scrolls worked here.

The mage in front of them had set a perfect ambush and they were not left with a single escape route.

Loki had already ordered his soldiers to take their time and kill them all in creative ways. All their weapons, bombs and skills barely killed 50 or so undeads but the problems were the big ones who weren't receiving any considerable damage.

One of the defenders accidentally blew himself up when he was trying to throw a bomb at the skeletons but they pulled his legs from below the ground and he dropped the bomb right below him.

To Loki, whether it was the pursuers or his own skeletons dying seemed like a fun activity as he was maniacally laughing and passing comments as if he was a judge of some competition and the most creative and cruel death will get a reward.

"Nooaaaaar!" wailed a female tigerkin assassin as her buttocks and tail was ripped out by a four-legged beast skeleton.

Next, a human's intestines were used to gag his mouth as hound-like skeletons chewed his legs from the thighs while both his arms were pierced through by an amalgamation of a centaur and mithrans who had spikey extension coming out.

His pitiful cries filled the surroundings but there was not a single soul who cared about the agony and brutality he was suffering through.

"Good. Now tear him in two and use his legs to beat the others." ordered Loki aka Ceril while he drank a glass full of red wine which looked like blood to everyone present here.

In just 20 minutes, 8 of them had fallen. Given the number of attackers, they wouldn't have lasted even 2 minutes but since Loki had ordered these undeads to take their time, the lives of these people were being toyed with as the mage dressed in black robes was enjoying this horrifying and bloodied scene.

"How the fuck is this possible? Wasn't necromancy abolished completely? Only the undeads from dungeons can use it. So how come this fucker is using it?" asked a male foxkin.

"How the fuck would I know.. How many bombs you have left? We need to create a path and escape!" replied a snakekin archer.

"But can we?... We can't even get out of this circle." replied the foxkin as he parried an attack from a monster with his daggers.

Stab!

Before more words could be spoken, the snakekin's throat was pierced through by a boney tail of a giant monster that seemed like a combination of a botir and mithrans.

These were the creatures none of the defenders had seen in their entire lives.

As the night went by, all of the defenders were brutally murdered and the place they previously stood was now covered in different colors of blood. Their mangled and torn bodies filled the surroundings as all of them were played with before their miserable and inhumane deaths by these undead monsters.

"Ah, what a pain." said Loki as he took out the restoration artifact after all of his summons returned inside the magic formations. The crops were trampled upon by his undead soldiers while the ground was painted in red.

So he decided to cover up tracks and bring back the surrounding back to how it was before the massacre started. He used the same epic rank artifact that he used while robbing graves in the first few days of grave robberies that removed every single track of a grave being dug out.

The pursuers were now part of his undead army so he was content with this little harvest as he too had some quality time.

TWO WEEKS LATER.

Ceril was already in his bedroom, looking at the morning sun through the window. Unlike the other subordinates, he didn't need sleep at all. But to keep his identity as a human, he had to put up some pretenses to not raise suspicions as instructed by his master.

For the past two weeks, he had been carrying on his experiments after receiving 3 thousand bodies in the first batch handed to him in large inner space rings. As if being fearful of him.. Hank, the right-hand man of Odin who was the one to deliver these rings didn't even dare to utter a word or ask about the people who went to tail Loki two weeks ago.

As if they already had a sense of understanding on what topic not to touch or put their nose in.

And Ceril had been carrying on his experiments as usual, improving and creating more stronger undeads and skeleton soldiers. His success rate also drastically improved and he now had 200 peak master rank monsters and soldiers after tiresome effort.

He already had his daytime duties so only the morning and night time was available to him. This also indicated his talent in magic and necromancy. Because inheriting someone's skills was one thing and completely mastering as well as evolving them into something higher was another.

Just like Kahn, he too had to work his way up with hard efforts.

When Kahn was continuing his morning practice sessions for weapons and magic, Ceril visited him in the training grounds that were in the opposite end of his research facility.

"Master, I wish to borrow something from you." said Ceril donned in his usual white and purple mage clothes.

"What is it? And why?" asked Kahn who was sweating profusely after an intense workout and training session that was his routine for nearly a month now.

First, he trained his body with regular weapons and combat techniques training that tired him out and then spent the rest of the day studying and performing various magical skills and spell which required him to sit down so his body would also get the much-needed rest.

And hence, he would end up training both the body and the mind. This form of discipline required a lot of commitment and tenacity. But Kahn knew that slacking off was no longer an option.

Ceril then told him what he had in mind and why he needed something from him.

"Are you certain? Because the way I look at it.. It's a very dangerous goal to accomplish even for a semi-saint rank fighter like me. If you want, I can provide help or send the other generals to help you.

Omega & Jugram can be a big help to you as well given the actions you wish to take." said Kahn solemnly.

Just now, Ceril had told him a very devious yet completely bananas type of plan and goal he wanted to achieve.

"No need, master. This is my personal operation. No help from anyone is needed. I can easily handle this on my own.

I just need the artifact." replied Ceril, his tone filled with absolute determination.

"Fine. But if you die, what about the undeads you created? I can revive you again but they're not my direct creations so I can't do the same for them." asked Kahn.

"They all will perish and I will have to start from scratch again. Please, do not worry. I have thought this through." said Ceril.

Kahn sighed and took out a familiar artifact from his space ring that he had used previously on a few occasions. After handing it to Ceril, he went back to his training.

He knew that he had to show some faith in his generals as well. Because in the future, they would be like his own vassals who served an Emperor.

So just like him, this was also a time for them to gain worldly experience and knowledge. They too had to learn from trial and error to be forged in fire and come out as someone capable of handling matters related to commanding others.

And Ceril was planning to do exactly that.

At that same night, Ceril in his Loki persona met Hank again. But this time, he passed a letter to Hank that was only to be read by his boss.

Hank delivered the goods and returned to their main headquarters at midnight.

Odin read the letter sent by the peak grandmaster mage and even he was gobsmacked after reading the context.

"Is he out of his mind?! Who the hell is his backer to pull off a move like this?!

This is like putting all of the people who want to kill each other in the same room!!"

Spoke Odin as soon as he read the final words of the letter...

SUMMON THE HYDRA.