Reborn with a Necromancer System
Chapter 145: The Thieves Guild

Chapter 145: The Thieves Guild

Kai stepped into the mouth of the alley, eyes already glowing faintly with intent. The two thieves stood between stacks of refuse and broken crates, blades half-drawn.

They didn’t speak.

They didn’t need to.

The challenge was clear.

Kai raised a hand.

The first barrier shimmered into place with a flicker of silver light. Then another. Then another. Ten layers deep, pressed tightly into the confines of the alley. There would be no witnesses.

The thieves charged.

Kai snapped his fingers. A lance of sharpened bone erupted from the earth beneath the first man, impaling him through the stomach and launching him upward like a ragdoll. His scream was short, cut off mid-breath as the lance cracked through his ribcage and spine, leaving him twitching in midair.

The second man shouted, rushing forward with a clumsy swing of his dagger.

Kai dodged to the side, caught the man’s wrist, and drove a knee into his gut. He fell to the ground choking, but Kai didn’t let up. A heavy fist followed, then a second, breaking the man’s nose and splitting his lip.

"Enough," Kai said coldly as he knelt beside the bloodied figure. "I’ll ask once."

The thief coughed, spitting red. His face was a mask of panic.

"Will you give me your soul... or will you die?"

The man looked up, dazed. "What...? What does that even mean?"

Kai waited. Impassive.

"I-I got gold!" The man fumbled at his belt, tossing a small coin pouch toward Kai’s feet. "There! You want more? I’ll get more!"

Kai didn’t even glance at it.

"I don’t need your money. So... your soul?"

A pause.

"...Okay! My soul! Whatever you want! Just don’t kill me, please! Please!"

’Pathetic.’

Kai placed two fingers against the man’s chest. The thief twitched. Light flared between Kai’s fingertips as ancient glyphs surfaced in his irises.

"Soul Manipulation."

There was a soundless pull, like breath being stolen from within, and the man arched backward, convulsing as his soul was forcibly ripped from his body in a stream of silvery-blue light. The spectral form hovered, shaking violently, trying to resist. It didn’t matter.

Kai’s will crushed it like a steel vice.

The soul trembled, then went still, floating in the air like a broken marionette.

Kai pushed it back into the man’s body.

He gasped and collapsed to the cobblestones, panting like a drowning man. His eyes blinked in confusion. Then focus. Then obedience.

"Name?" Kai asked.

The man swallowed thickly. "Sen. I’m... Sen. Street-level runner for the guild. Didn’t think you were one of ours..."

"I’m not. You’re going to take me to your base."

Sen nodded quickly, still shaking. "Of course. I’ll do as you say. You promised you wouldn’t kill me."

"I didn’t, but maybe you’ll be worth keeping around for a while."

---

The journey took over an hour.

Sen led Kai through ruined alleyways and hidden routes, skirting the edge of abandoned wards and burnt-out churches. At one point, they had to climb through the remains of a collapsed granary, pushing through rotted wood and broken masonry.

They arrived at what appeared to be a ruined storefront. Half the wall was caved in. Sen moved to the far side, kicked aside a few broken chairs and splintered beams, and revealed a rusted iron ring bolted into the stone floor.

With a grunt, he pulled it open.

A trapdoor.

Kai stared at it for a moment.

"Underground?" he muttered. "You really are rats."

Sen chuckled nervously. "Rats? The Thieves Guild is better than rats. We... we’re organized. Respected."

Kai’s mouth curled into a faint grin. "Thieves Guild, hey? This’ll be fun."

They descended.

The tunnel sloped steeply, deeper than Kai expected. As they passed beneath thick stone archways, he felt a familiar tug, those were magic-nullifying sigils. Just like the palace’s anti-magic archway keeping him from rescuing Firra. But these were damaged, or maybe incomplete. They flickered uselessly.

[Forebearer’s Language Translated: 62%]

When they reached the base of the passage, Sen pushed open a pair of warped, reinforced wooden doors.

They creaked loudly.

What lay beyond wasn’t a hideout.

It was a city beneath the city.

A massive chamber opened up.

It was easily the size of three marketplaces end to end. Wooden and stone platforms stretched out above old sewer channels, and bridges of makeshift steel connected upper terraces to the floor below.

Dozens of people moved about: merchants peddling stolen relics, hawking illegal potions, enchanted daggers, and magical trinkets; others sparred in makeshift arenas; young pickpockets practiced hand-speed near training dummies; and several larger rooms appeared to house workshops for forging tools and alchemy.

The Thieves Guild was thriving. Even with Kai’s slaughter of thieves and bandits, it looked as though they hadn’t suffered.

Kai lifted a hand, and the first barrier formed.

Just like before.

Then another. Then five. Then ten.

Films of dense, silvery power stitched themselves across every surface.

The ceiling, walls, vents, and doors.

Nothind would escape, and not even the gods could peek in now.

"Sen!" someone called, waving. "Who’s your fri-"

A blur shot from Kai’s feet. Shade, his honed shadow construct, erupted in silence. In one swift movement, Shade carved the man’s head clean from his shoulders.

The guild went quiet.

People turned, gasped. Some screamed.

Kai exhaled and let himself feel it.

That cold, electric thrill in his veins.

’When did I start to enjoy killing, rather than just doing it out of necessity?’

The answer didn’t matter.

"It doesn’t matter," he muttered aloud.

He raised his arms. "Let the slaughter begin."

Undead burst from his shadow in waves.

Joran charged first, an undead brawler with fists like stone. His punches shattered bone and steel.

Rhea followed, shouting orders in a voice that made living men flinch. Her troops skeleton warriors and knights, charged in formation, shields raised.

Finn soared overhead, looping between rafters, throwing out wind spells that sliced through people from above.

Kael appeared in a blur, his speed magic fractured into dozens of copies. Blades flashed. Thieves fell.

Berrus roared from the rear, his three heads trailing fire, mist, and lightning in snapping arcs.

Ralts cackled as she summoned a rain of green-black flames, her lich-form hurling chaos into the masses. Joe, protecting Ralts, waded forward like a juggernaut, cleaving through enemy lines with a massive, enchanted axe.

Then came his army:

Fire mages, shadow mages, elementalists, skeleton warriors, magisters, and basic skeletons, zombie warriors, sprinters and shamblers, ghasts, a Shadow Death Knight a Greater lich and Grond the Undead Ogre.

He left the grave maw, the rats, pups, and wyverns from the battle, as they would either get in the way, or ruin his spoils.

They filled the chamber until there was hardly room to breathe.

Screams filled the air. Magic flew in wild arcs. Thieves pulled blades, spells, and potions, but it didn’t matter.

The waterways filled with blood.

The bodies piled up.

Some stragglers destroyed his outer barrier, but Rhea commanded her squad to eliminate them as soon as the barrier broke.

In less than twenty minutes, it was over. Kai didn’t lift a finger.

The floor of the thieves guild was coated in gore. Charred wood, shattered bone, collapsed stalls and shattered crates. Over a hundred corpses dragged to the center by Kai’s undead.

He stepped onto a raised dais, took a breath, and whispered three words:

"Mass Raise Undead."

A pulse of necromantic energy surged from his core.

The corpses twitched. Bones clicked into place. Muscles stitched together.

Eyes glowed with necromantic power.

They stood.

All of them. Not a single one too damaged to resurrect.

[Undead Army: 639]

Kai staggered briefly, winded from the draw of life essence. But it wasn’t enough to weaken him. Not now.

Not with this much power.

He scanned the chamber.

Not a single soul had escaped. The barriers held. He looked at the faintly glowing wisps that hovered in the air.

He raised a hand once more.

"Soul Manipulation."

The souls surged toward him. Wisps of blue and gold, red and silver, spiraling through the air like comets.

Dozens of them. Over a hundred.

Thoughts. Memories. Regrets. Hatred. Triumph.

It all slammed into Kai like a tidal wave.

He dropped to one knee.

[Sovereign Thieves Guildmaster Soul]

[Grand Human Soul x21]

[Greater Human Soul x39]

[Lesser Human Soul x37]

[Petty Human Soul x10]

His head throbbed. Voices whispered in languages he barely recognized. Fears, desires, sins. All now his.

"Damn," he muttered. "Another sovereign soul? They’re just popping up everywhere now..."

He steadied himself, wiping blood from his nose.

"That might have been too much. But if the gods can’t find me... even at this level..."

He looked around the ruined chamber, at his army, his tools, his victims.

"I’ll be fine. As long as I keep the barriers strong."

Kai opened his shadow space.

One by one, the undead vanished inside. So too did the corpses that hadn’t yet risen, the soul-rich bones, the crates of enchanted items, the weapons, gold, and magical tools once belonging to the thieves guild.

All of it.

Gone.

Now his.

"I’ll sort through it later."

He stood alone in the silence and took a deep breath.

Kai turned towards the exit and left for his home.

’How am I even supposed to get an army of 10,000? One step at a time, I suppose.’