Reborn with a Necromancer System
Chapter 155: The Death of a Goddess

Chapter 155: The Death of a Goddess

Kai coughed blood and grinned at the trapped goddess, red trailing from the corner of his mouth.

"What have I done, you ask?" he rasped, wiping his bloodied chin with the back of his sleeve. "In case you didn’t notice, I’ve been getting stronger. Smarter, too. Made something similar in the Citadel. I’ve created barriers that imprison souls. Prevented them from escaping me so I could store every single one of them. Genius, if I do say so myself. Figured it might work just as well on gods..." he raised his eyes to hers, "in borrowed flesh."

The goddess-inhabited Mari glared at him, her golden irises pulsing with dying light.

Kai tilted his head, almost with curiosity. "If only you’d come down with your real body. You might’ve actually won. But instead..."

He limped forward a step. "You’ll die. The end."

The being tried to summon divine magic again. Her fingers trembled, her lips moved through a forgotten chant, but the glow that built beneath her skin flickered. It faltered. Then it vanished. The barrier’s airtight seal had taken its toll.

Her eyes widened. She clutched her throat, then her chest, stumbling to her knees as Mari’s mortal body struggled with the oxygen dissipating within the barrier and began to buckle under the strain of divinity it was never meant to hold.

"I... command you to-" she choked, voice raw, thin.

"To what?" Kai’s voice darkened, low and cold like the grave. "To kneel? To beg? To die like all the others? Don’t be stupid. You’re in no position to give out commands."

He took another step, his shadow spilling forward across the sigils like creeping ink.

"I’ve had enough of goddesses telling me what to do," he snarled. "Just suffocate and die already. This is already taking long enough."

She collapsed to her knees, gasping. Her fingers scraped against the barrier’s inside edge and were met with a sharp pulse of repulsion. She was trapped. And she knew it. Her whole form shimmered with a faltering halo as slivers of light tried to escape her skin, only to be dragged back inside by the prison Kai had forged.

"Please..." her voice cracked, gentler now. The arrogance was gone. "You’ll... regret this..."

Kai’s expression didn’t waver. "No."

He stepped forward, bloodied but upright.

"I’ll enjoy this."

The light sputtered, flared, and died like a candle drowning in wax. Mari’s limbs trembled violently. The voice speaking through her stuttered now, unsure, panicked.

"You’ll never... survive... the others..."

"Then they’re next," Kai said simply.

A flicker of true fear danced across her face. It was brief, but it was real.

"I... beg... of..."

And then the light died.

The sigils dimmed. The radiant bow she’d conjured earlier shattered into motes of brilliance, like stardust falling through the gloom. Mari collapsed onto her hands and knees, her breath returning in broken, desperate sobs. Her body convulsed with exhaustion.

Kai didn’t move.

He stood still, watching, waiting, expecting anything.

But there was no more glow.

No more divine spark.

Just Mari.

Just his sister.

A murdering puppet, but his sister nonetheless.

He released the barriers. All divine signatures inside had vanished. The soul once wearing her like a puppet had been severed from its lifeline.

"...Kai..." Mari croaked, barely lifting her head. Her voice was raw, human.

"Kai... what have you done?"

"I stopped you," he said coldly. "And the bitch that was using you."

Mari’s eyes filled with disbelief. Not pain. Not fear. But sorrow. Like something completely irreversible had happened.

Well, it had.

"That... She was not just some enemy. She was a goddess. A holy being of light and warmth... And you killed her..."

Kai looked down at her like she was a stranger.

"i don’t care. She deserved it. They all do. Now, tell me. Where is our brother, Mari? Where is Peter?"

Her face fell, defeated.

"Being turned into a... weapon for the Church. His connection to divinity was even stronger... than mine."

Kai’s jaw clenched.

"Of course he is." He stepped closer. "Then I’ll have to save him. Or kill him. When I get back."

Mari’s mouth parted to respond, but her breath caught in her throat.

Kai’s shadow extended beneath him, and a blade formed in his hand. Not steel.

Pure shadow. Cold. Silent. Absolute.

He plunged it into her chest.

Her gasp was soft.

Wet.

"And with this," he whispered, leaning in close, "I cleanse you, Mari. I will never forgive you for what you did to our parents."

Mari’s body sagged. Her breathing ceased. The last light in her eyes dimmed.

Kai stood still for a moment. Silent. Listening.

Then, with a whisper of magic, he reached into the unseen.

[Soul Extraction.]

A bright red glow surged from her corpse. He gripped it tightly, pulling it into his chest, into the ever-churning vault he carried with him.

[Mari Tensen – Grand Soul stored.]

But that wasn’t the end.

A burst of blinding golden light shot out like a fleeing comet. It twisted, spiraled, and surged away from her body at impossible speeds, racing to escape him.

Kai’s eyes snapped wide.

"Not so fast!"

With every fiber of his being, he recast soul manipulation. Like an angler, he grabbed it. It bucked and resisted like a wild star, but he forced it towards him and stored it within his soul vault.

Unlike the shadow dragon’s soul, he felt that it resisted little once contained.

[Lady Elerin – Primordial Soul.]

"...Oh?"

The orb pulsed. Radiant. Heavy. Dense with godhood.

"Primordial? Now that’s some power," Kai said, panting. "What could I even use you for...? A weapon? A... blade to slay your own kind?" He shook his head. "No. I don’t have the skill for that. Any vessel I put you in would shatter..."

With a breath, he pushed Mari’s soul into his soul vault as well.

[Life Essence –109]

He grimaced. "Figures."

He turned toward the Iron Bears, most of which were still groaning or twitching from the earlier divine blast.

"Thanks for the help," he muttered.

Kai pulled off his gloves and knelt beside the nearest one. With reverence and efficiency, he drained each of their souls, whispering thanks as their bodies withered to ash in the grass.

Now brimming with life essence, he limped back to Mari’s corpse.

Kai stood over the pile of meat before him, the night around him still trembling from the aftermath of divine versus necromantic power. The air shimmered with a residual charge, like the forest itself was holding its breath. His heart thundered in his chest.

He stared at her limp body. At the girl who had once been his sister.

Who had betrayed him.

Who had begged.

He didn’t flinch. He didn’t grieve. He only breathed, and raised a hand slick with blood.

"...Now then," he murmured hoarsely. "Let’s see if I can bring you back. My way."

He pressed his palm to her sternum.

[Raise Undead.]

The spell surged outward, only to slam into something unseen.

It bounced back.

Pain lanced through his arm like a lightning bolt. His knees buckled, and he screamed through clenched teeth as backlash flooded his circuits.

Mari’s corpse jerked violently once. Then fell still.

"No... No, you don’t get to resist me. Not now."

He forced his hand back onto her chest and began pouring life essence into the spell. More. He called on the bindings of death, the shape of necromancy, the soulcrafting knowledge he’d stolen from the archives beneath the Citadel.

And still, Mari’s body rejected him.

Divine light clung to her bones like a parasite, even in death. Her cells remembered godhood.

"You bitch," he whispered, veins throbbing in his temples. "You won’t defy me."

He dropped to both knees. Both hands now on her chest.

[Overchanneling Active.]

"I DON’T CARE!" He screamed.

More sigils erupted around them, black and jagged, unfamiliar even to him. Improvised. Instinctive. He didn’t care. They burned with shadow, dripping in his own blood.

The forest around him screamed.

Animals fled. Trees twisted. The sky itself seemed to blink.

He was burning through his life essence like oil on a pyre.

[Life Essence: -40]

[-61]

[-98]

[-156]

[-217]

His vision dimmed at the edges. His skin split. Blood poured from his eyes, his nose, his ears. His very soul felt like it was fraying.

He pulled one vial of soul ichor out of his shadow space after the other, but still, raising her drained his life essence quicker than he could absorb it.

And still, Mari fought back.

He could feel her inside the corpse. She was dead. But her will, that stubborn, indomitable fire, lashed at him like spears. Whatever divine spark had entered her, have her a defense mechanism to prevent being reanimated.

Even dead, she tried to deny him.

How fitting.

"I WON’T DIE HERE," Kai roared, "I’LL MAKE YOU MINE!"

He slammed his forehead against her sternum, anchoring the final sigils with his own pain. His aura exploded outward, a pillar of death that lit the sky like a second moon, black and red and screaming with rage.

The world shuddered.

The winds stopped.

The divine presence that lingered was crushed under the weight of his spell.

Under pure necromancy.

And then something shifted.

The resistance broke. Like a dam shattering. Like bone snapping under pressure.

A scream, not Mari’s, not Kai’s, but something else, howled from the corpse.

Then her fingers twitched.

Her spine arched.

Her mouth opened in a silent gasp.

And Mari returned.

But not the same.

Her eyes opened wide and cold, completely colourless, like polished bone. Her hair fell in ashen strands around her pale face. Her lips had lost their colour.

But she breathed.

If only barely.

Kai collapsed backward, gasping for air as blood soaked the earth beneath him. His body spasmed. His heart skipped a beat.

He was alive.

He’d made it.

Barely.

He coughed, and a clot of black came up. His hands trembled. The ground beneath him had been cooked by the intensity of his spell.

Across from him, Mari knelt. Unmoving. Watching.

Awaiting command.

Kai gave a shaky, bloodstained grin.

"Welcome back, sister."

His vision blurred, and he collapsed.

’Oh, I overdid it... Of course, I did.’

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