The Ruined Death Knight

Going a few hours back in time before Danzel was forced to activate the enchantment of his shield...

The dark mist manifest by Skull Claw came right at the edge of the forest, where in front were the castle walls with all the patrolling soldiers.

The rogue named Kenn stared at that exact dark mist with a frown.

"Why is he using the dark mist? The magic caster patrolling the walls should be able to notice it with their mana senses when outside..."

After all, the dark mist was purely a visual effect. Mana-wise, it was just a cluster of mana put together.

Those inside in the mist who tried to identify someone by seeing their mana would in the end be blinded by all dark mist that is made out of dark mana.

It was essential a smoke bomb, but 10 times better as the dark mana absorbed light itself to some degree.

Being inside of it, one would be at the complete mercy of the caster's mist.

But that outside would be easily able to detect the mist if they try to scan for nearby mana.

'So ridiculous, at this rate I won't even need to intervene.' the rogue thought to himself.

As soon as he thought that, a portion of the dark mist dashed with immense speed right towards the wall.

Seeing that, the right guessed that the undead wolf used a tremendous amount of his own mana to speed up the mist forcibly.

That speed only lasted till the mist rammed to the wall, revealing a shadow that catapulted up into the wall.

Kenn could barely follow the movement of that shadow piercing something in the wall and using it as a stepping stone to reach the top of the wall.

He saw with his own eyes how the soldier died and then rose up as if nothing happend.

'He turned him into an undead in order to avoid suspicion, huh?'

"Tch, I guess the time has come to make our move." He said as he jumped off the tree he was on.

"[Phasemorphosis]"

Once he mumbled those words, the rogue's entire body started to be shrouded, or rather, devoured by the darkness, leaving only his eyes free from this phenomenon.

"[Reality Phase]"

In the next moment, his entire body started to sink to the ground.

But it wasn't like he buried himself alive.

If one were to dig where his body sunk, they would even find no traces of him.

Where he appeared next was on the other side of the wall coming from the ground up.

Seeing no one witnessing his appearance, he dashed towards the castle, literally entering the castle walls (like the walls of the building) as if he were a ghost.

Moving past the guards and the various servants undetected through the walls.

If one of them were to carefully look at the wall, they would even have noticed a barely visible silhouette.

After a few seconds of travel through the castle, the rogue Kenn soon found himself in an office where the two phoenix warriors were looking at a map with great focus.

He observed those two for a few seconds before the rogue decided to step out of the wall, only now singing his presence.

The swordsman drew his sword at a breathtaking speed were the magic caster was already starting chanting his spell.

"I am from the Natures Dagger mercenary group, I came here to deliver crucial information." The rogue said unfazed by those two.

He brought out a small amulet that looked weaved from metal strings in the form of a compass pointer or that of a leaf.

"The sign of the elves?"

The swordsman blurred out seeing the amulet.

The two did lower their weapons, but their guard was still raised up in case the rogue does something.

"The Nature's Dagger, you say? Weren't you guys send on an assassination mission? Why have you come to this place!" The magic caster demanded, his mana clearly building up in the mana crystal from his staff.

"The mission has been delayed because of some unexpected outside interference...I came to warn the Berum kingdom that those outside forces have passed through the walls. In the meantime we speak, some of the soldiers are probably dying silently in a dark corner and turned into undead"

"...are you telling us that a necromancer slithers around and turns our people into those abominations while we speak?"

Nodding his head, the rogue gave his parting words before going back into the wall.

"The necromancer is going by, Abdiel the cruel. He focuses on melee combat and curse magic. While currently only he is here, the other outsider is of the 4th-tier... That's all the unpaid warnings you get from me."

The 2 phoenix warriors did want to stop the rogue for further questioning, but once he went into the wall, his presence completely disappeared.

Both of them tried to sense his presence, alas to no avail.

They had their doubts, but they couldn't treat such information lightly.

Those deployed in the war against the Dynasty have heard that they stepped into the territory of taboo magic.

Many soldiers heard stories about how an army of their kingdom gets annihilated and turned into beings that loathe life itself and know never to rest.

The phoenix warriors in particular had much more accurate information about what was happening in the war.

They were aware of Wilhelms group that had a 4th-tier and a sword-wielding necromancer.

Even if they decided to not trust the rogue's words, his bring here would also mean that Wilhelms group was here.

"Sigh, go inform the higher-ups, I will warn the soldiers," the swordsman said to the magic caster with a heavy expression.

He and the magic caster knew, that if what the rogue said is true, then everyone here is going to die and that no support is to be expected from their army.

After all, the enemy had a 4th-tier among their ranks.

In front of a such powerhouse, their fate was already decided.

'I really hope that this guy said the truth. Killing that vile necromancer is the least that I can do for his majesty and the kingdom before I die.' Ge thought in determination.

At that point in time, he was unaware that his last wish will never be fulfilled.

***

A few minutes before the druid attacked Danzel.

The rogue felt extremely annoyed.

Their job was supposed to be extremely easy to execute.

He and the other two of his allies were hired by his elder brother of Wilhelm with the official job to be his bodyguards.

Or rather, the elder brother of Wilhelm made it so that their group will be chosen by his father.

By pulling some strings and bribing the other bodyguard candidates, their Nature Dagger group received smoothly the bodyguard position.

Their true mission was to assassinate Wilhelm in order to secure his brother's position as the heir.

In the nobility, such a thing wasn't all that rare.

Eliminating the threat to secure your position was the norm in a sense for most nobles.

But the truth about the Nature's Dagger group wasn't as simple though.

They were associated with the elves, a race that hides in the great forest on the "edge of the world"[1].

And while this wasn't known to the outside of the world, the elves had already created a secret alliance with Berum.

Making the Nature's Dagger group essentially double agents that sold information to Berum by using the clueless Wilhelm as their informant.

At least that was the case with the rogue Kenn. His other two allies didn't know of the second part of the mission, but they were very much in assassinating Wilhelm.

But that proved to be more difficult than it seemed at the start of the mission.

Participating in the war, they were countless opportunities to kill Wilhelm and make it scot-free.

But because of Danzel's and Vanessa's presence, they couldn't execute their mission without getting caught by them.

While their group promised to kill Wilhelm, they weren't going to put their lives on the line.

They tried to look for opportunities, but after receiving information that Wilhelm will soon be recalled to his house, it was either now or never.

'We never know when such a chance will ever come again. With that dark elve in another room, as long as I deal with Wilhelm, we could make a run for it.' He thought before traveling through the walls and reaching inside Wilhelms bedroom.

The person to be killed was sleeping much more comfortably in his bed.

With the recent merits that "he" achieved and how everything was going well, he became much less stressed and more energetic than before.

The rogue who entered his bed chamber looked around the room for potential traps.

He wasn't going to lower his guard and let some kind of mistake ruin his mission.

He never forgot that Wilhelm was a 3rd-tier magic caster that had much sharper senses than normal people.

'[Phase Location]'

With his very secretive dark mana spreading to the walls of his room, he made it so that his presence wouldn't be detected even by the Necromancer guarding the door.

He was able to thoughtfully study the strength of that Necromancer through the many battlefields they took part in. And he knew how monstrous and powerful he was and how high his senses were. But even he doubted that he could see through [Phase Location] and all other buffs that he had on him to hide his presence.

'Still, I shouldn't underestimate him. I will finish it and get away. As if the others follow or not I don't care.'

Walking on the edge of the bed, the rogue started down on the sleeping Wilhelm with ice-cold eyes.

Pulling out of his sleeve an almost pitch black dagger, he raised it above ready to pierce Wilhelm's head.

'No, it doesn't matter if the other two don't make it. If they die, I will simply collect their reward.'

Without any hint of hesitation, he pushed down his dagger, aiming for the kill!

Alas, at the exact moment where he was about to pierce Wilhelm's head, he felt an incredible cold sensation creeping from his shoulder.

That cold sensation turned into pressure before feeling his shoulder getting pierced by something.

The rogue's eyes darted towards his shoulder while continuing to swing down his dagger towards Wilhelm. When his eyes lay on his shoulder, all he saw was an ominous dark green skeleton hand seemingly piercing the flesh of his shoulder.

His eyes raised in surprise, not because of the appearance of the skeleton hand, but from the pain itself.

Someone like him has long ago undergone training that allowed him to withstand pain and poisons. Something like having his flesh barely pierced by the skeleton hand should even be nothing for him!

But even then, the pain was enough to make his one hand start shaking.

Not long before, the skeleton hand started flying back while pulling a part of a dark green replica of his shoulder. His body seemed to receive no physical harm.

But the feeling of having lost a part of himself was still there.

Not only did he feel his shoulder losing a part of its vitality, but that vitality couldn't be replaced even if he tried. But that wasn't what made the rogue start panicking.

What made him uneasy and surprised was the skeleton hand that dragged his actual body itself.

It was as if someone was grabbing his shoulder from behind and dragging him in, the only difference was that he couldn't resist nore hinder the pull!

The pull-through wasn't strong enough to throw him several meters back, but it did manage to make him do a 180* turn and take a step back so as not to fall to the ground.

*Bahhhm!

In the next instance, the door that was previously closed exploded violently.

With the crippling sensation downing towards his head, the rogue reflects bends down his waist, making the ominous cursed sword barely miss its target and carve a cut in the wall of the room and a pillar of the bed.

*Crringshh!

"Die!" A yell filled with pure hate echoed through the room.

The massive figure standing in front of the rogue pushed rammed his dark kite shield right to the target of that hate with incredible speed.

The rogue unable to dodge, received the full experience of the incredible strength that Danzel had.

The force of the shield sent the rogue flying right to the wall, making him catch a large amount of blood from his mouth.

"Waaahgh! What is going o-" Wilhelm yelled in horror as he woke up from all the noise happening in his room?

The sweet dream of him becoming a respectable Archmage and becoming the head of his family suddenly turned into a nightmare, the people around him turned into undead and binned him down, one of them wielding a hammer ready to smash his head into pasta itself!

It was true horror!

But what does he wake up to!?

A tall figure excluding an incredible amount of killing intent, making even himself who was of the 3rd-tier to start suffocate.

Right as he was getting somber from his sleep and his survival instincts started to wake up. The previous 4 wooden pillars that held the roof of the bed had lost one of the pillars, making the whole roof of the bed collapse right down to him and crashing the bed itself.

"Agh!"

Oblivious to Wilhelms suffering, Danzel didn't stay dare and watch the rogue recover.

Kicking the ground, small craters appeared on the stone floor.

Seeing that Necromancer dashed at him with incredible speed, the rogue cursed out loud.

"Dammit! [Reality Phase]!"

Right as the cursed sword was about to cut his body in half, the rogue sank to the ground, disappearing from sight.

*Creaghhshh!

With only the floor being cut and the rogue nowhere in sight, Danzel's ethereal eyes flared up in engager.

"As if I let you escape after messing with me!" His ice-cold shout of anger shook the room itself, making the dust stuck in the roof fall down.

Spreading his will throughout the castle to every single undead of his, his furious command entered the minds of the undead.

'My undead! Search and kill the rogue! Find him at all costs! Find also that damned elve!'

[1]: Edge of the world is a location that hasn't been revealed yet. Don't take it as the planet where Danzel is currently is flat.