Reborn with a Necromancer System
Chapter 144: The Test of Three

Chapter 144: The Test of Three

Kai climbed the ivy-covered trellis up the side of the Eldridge estate, slipping quietly through the attic window with the practiced ease of someone who had done it many times before. The sun cast amber streaks through the glass, cutting across the floorboards.

He landed silently, brushing cobwebs off his shoulders. The moment he was inside, he got to work. With a flick of his fingers, twelve distinct layers of barrier magic rippled outward from his core, weaving over the attic walls like translucent veils of light and shadow. The barriers shimmered faintly, each tuned differently, staggered to blur, distort, or deflect any divine sense that might brush against them.

"Just need to buy myself some quiet," he muttered. "If the gods notice, they notice... but let’s not hand them an invitation."

He stood still for a moment, testing the stability of the barriers, sensing the faintest resistance like taut silk stretched thin.

Satisfied, he raised one hand and pulled open a fracture in space, his shadow space, torn along the seams of reality like someone unzipping a cloak. Out poured cold mist and silence. It had been days since he last opened it.

From within emerged Ralts and Joe, both visibly irritated.

"Oh, finally," Ralts snapped, her bone crown glowing faintly. "Do you have any idea how boring it is in there? It’s like floating in water that has no temperature. And the god-awful smell..."

Joe stepped out behind her, stretching his massive limbs. He cracked his knuckles, rolled his neck, and gave Kai a gruff nod. "Could probably cleave a mountain in two after how much training I’ve done in there. Or at least a very big tree."

Kai winced. "Sorry. Things have been... complicated."

"Complicated is fine," Ralts said, arms crossed. "But no more weeks in the dark with nothing to animate or destroy."

"I brought you out, didn’t I?" Kai smiled. "I need your thoughts. I’ve been thinking about fusion. More specifically, how to improve it."

Ralts’ annoyance faded into focus. "Go on."

Kai reached into the shadow space again and pulled out a lesser arcane wolf, its lean form glowing faintly with violet threads of latent spellwork. With careful precision, he etched fire sigils into its hide, each rune pulsing like embers sinking into skin.

"Ignis," he named it.

The wolf shuddered. Its form rippled, flames catching along its back and licking out from between its ribs like living tattoos. The moment it accepted the name, it grew.

Its shoulders broadened, claws hardened into obsidian, and twin trails of smoke curled from its nostrils.

He brought out the other two: Zephyr, the wind-bending wolf with translucent fur and flickering afterimages, and Voltis, the electric hound whose every breath crackled with lightning.

Kai reached deep within himself, into his soul vault, and flicked through his options. With a swift movement, a wild orb floated from his chest. He grabbed the soul, the size of a baseball, and held it up in the air.

It radiated a deep power. Artificial, but powerful.

A grand-ranked human soul, crafted from using the soul forge weeks ago. He held it silently, and for a moment, he hesitated.

"Will this even work...?" he muttered.

Ralts didn’t interrupt. She stood still, watching. Joe leaned on a beam, curious but quiet.

Kai breathed in deeply and pressed the soul forward.

"Undead Fusion."

The soul floated between the wolves. All three lifted from the ground, their bodies unraveling into radiant strands.

Fire, wind, and lightning swirled like a miniature storm.

Energy lashed outward in great arcs. A shockwave rolled through the attic.

Kai braced himself and threw up a reactive barrier just as a blast of raw elemental magic slammed outward. Dust flew. Sigils crackled. One of the barrier layers hissed and distorted, but held.

Light poured from the fusion like a sun being born. Wind howled through the eaves. Fire curled up into the rafters, and lightning cracked like a whip through the room until, abruptly, it all stopped.

Hovering before him was a beast that dwarfed its origins.

Three heads, with each one slightly different.

One blazing, one shrouded in swirling mist, the last crowned in lightning. Its body was massive, its paws silent despite their weight, and six glowing eyes stared into Kai’s soul.

[Elemental Cerberus Created.]

[Durability: Increased.]

[Mana Capacity: Increased.]

[Trait Gained: Multicast – Able to channel three elemental spells at once, each head acting independently.]

Kai let out a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding. "Brilliant... It actually worked."

The Cerberus lowered itself, curling its tails and sitting obediently as if awaiting orders.

Joe let out a low whistle. "That thing could eat me alive."

Ralts nodded, impressed. "You’ve improved. Clever, mixing elemental focus into the fusion. I’d have expected a mess. Instead, you not only fused enchanted undead, but you did it with three of them and you’ve made something stable."

Kai turned his senses outward, searching for the faint prickling sensation of divine interference.

The same feeling he’d gotten when he turned the wyverns.

But there was nothing. No whisper of celestial disapproval. No ripple of warning.

He grinned. "The barriers. They work."

He paced the room, mind racing.

"If I can do this here... I can do it anywhere. With enough time and enough layers, I can create necrotic zones completely invisible to divine sense. I can build an army. Slowly. Carefully, and no one will notice until it’s far too late."

He looked back at the Cerberus, who continued to sit with eerie stillness, steam rising from its central head.

"And if anyone does notice," he said softly, "I’ll have more than enough to fight back with."

Joe grinned. "So, uh... anything you want killed yet? Or are we just playing necromantic dress-up today?" he looked at the trunk in front of Kai’s bed as if insinuating that was the goal.

Kai laughed, the sound dry but genuine. "Not today, Joe. I just didn’t want to leave you in there while I brought Ralts out. It didn’t feel right."

Joe blinked, then nodded once. "Thanks."

Ralts tilted her head, smiling faintly. "You’re getting sentimental."

"I’ve always been sentimental, Ralts. But you’re wrong. I’m getting strategic," Kai corrected.

He looked to the window, the sun starting to dip toward the horizon. Two days until the meeting for the paste. Six days until Mari.

Time was ticking. But for now, he had a place to work, allies to build, and, most importantly, a little breathing room.

Kai stood in the attic’s center, staring up at the towering beast he had just created. The three-headed elemental wolf sat with a silent nobility, all six glowing eyes fixed on him as if awaiting judgment.

"I guess I’ll call you Berrus," Kai said after a pause. "Serve me well."

The Cerberus bowed slightly, its three muzzles exhaling fire, mist, and sparks in unison.

With a flick of his wrist, Kai opened the dark seam to his shadow space once again. The air grew colder, quieter. Threads of shadow snaked outward and gently pulled Berrus back into the fold, the beast vanishing without a sound.

Kai exhaled slowly. The magic still buzzed in his veins, but the real work had only just begun.

He turned to the others. "I’m heading into the city. Might as well collect a few more souls... and see if I can field-test some of my new ideas."

Joe raised an eyebrow, grinning as he crossed his arms. "You’re thinking about killing some folks, aren’t you?"

Kai didn’t answer directly. He just smiled tightly.

"Any need for some magical backup?" Ralts asked, already weaving faint green sigils between her fingers.

"Yes," Kai said. "I’ll need both of you. But not right away."

He motioned again, and the shadow space yawned open. Joe stepped into the dark with no complaint, and Ralts followed with a sigh and a flick of her cloak.

"I’ll bring you both out when it’s time," Kai promised.

When the attic finally fell silent, he pulled on his coat, made sure Mirage’s Veil held strong, and slipped out the window into the cooling evening.

---

He walked through the slums of Forne, hidden by his Umbral Mantle.

It was quieter than usual.

Too quiet.

He passed burned-out safehouses, gang symbols crossed out in chalk, and bodies half-covered by refuse in alleys long since abandoned. Even the thieving dens near the old aqueducts had gone dry.

His own handiwork, some of it.

Dozens of lowlife factions had been wiped clean in his quiet crusade through Forne’s gutters. He’d taken their leaders, stripped their souls, and left nothing but ash and memory.

A grim satisfaction curled in his chest. But the problem remained:

He was running out of evil.

Kai drifted deeper into the slums, eyes sharp, senses stretched thin. He slipped between cracked walls and collapsed stairwells, through fog-choked alleys where even the rats walked softly. Hours passed before he finally caught something.

Voices. Low. Heated.

’Found some rats. They’ll make fine additions to my undead army, I’m sure. Even if they’re just cannon fodder. I can always fuse them and make them stronger.’

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