CHAPTER 193: KAI’S BARRIER AND A REVEALED NAME

Kai stepped toward the shimmering barrier once more, his boots crunching lightly on the dust-veiled stone floor of the basement chamber. The air inside the manor was stale, too still, too preserved, and heavy with a weight he couldn’t place.

He raised his hand, cloaked in shadow, and pressed it to the veil.

Nothing happened.

Not the flicker of a crack or the hum of weakening magic. Instead, a pulse shot through him. Not enough to throw him back, but more than enough to push back with force. His body tensed in reflex.

It was stronger than before. Denser. Saturated with energy and time.

He narrowed his eyes and pulled off his gloves, revealing the pale, necrotic marks along his hands. Marks that shimmered faintly with threads of stolen life.

He pressed his bare hand against the barrier.

A deep, foreign warmth rushed into him, flooding his system faster than any drain he’d ever performed. His body tensed, then shuddered. His vision swam with red, and for a moment, he thought he’d pass out.

A message appeared, flickering in his mind’s eye:

[Life Essence Capacity Reached: 115,000/115,000. Absorbing more may result in overload or soul destabilisation.]

Kai staggered back, shaking his arm to dispel the creeping numbness.

"Right..." he muttered. "Same thing that happened last time Orlin dumped his life essence into me. And that ended with me coughing up blood for a week."

Across the room, Orlin’s broken, preserved corpse turned toward him. The barrier, fueled by Orlin’s life and magic, reacted as though sensing Kai’s intentions.

Spells began flying again.

Shadow bolts, screaming skulls of flame, creeping hands made of bone and ice. The barrage was unrelenting, but none of them passed the veil.

Kai moved along the edge of the room, evading where he could, humming softly to himself.

"So... Can’t brute force it. Can’t drain it. I could siphon it slowly, bleed it dry... but it’d take weeks. No."

He paused, raising his hand and pulling up his status window.

[Name: Kai Tensen |

Age: 15 Years |

Specialisation: Necromancer |

Rank: 6 |

Advancement Requirements: Command an army of 10,000 - 1,640/10,000. Find E⸮o⸮b⸮a⸮d’s final resting place. |

Life Essence Stored: 115,000/115,000 (11,500/11,500 - Phylactery Reserves) |

Mortality Deviance: 6/10 |

Artifacts: Abyssal Band, Dampening Gloves, Mirage’s Veil |

Soul Vault: 108/1,000 |

Souls Absorbed: Winfried Drummond (Greater), Angelica Trunsdale (Greater), Lesser Human Soul (5), Greater Human Soul (41), Grand Beast Soul, Grand Wyvern Soul, Grand Human Soul (20), Sovereign Thieves Guildmaster Soul, Mari Tensen (Grand), Lady Elerin (Primordial) |

Souls Tethered: 1 - Carter |

Undead Army: 1,640 {Mari Tensen (Divine Lich), Joran (Brawler), Rhea (Commander), Finn (Flight Unit), Merri (Shadowsworn), Berrus (Elemental Cerberus), Kael (Splitspeed Rogue), Ralts (Sentient Chaos Lich), Joe (Death Knight), Princess Aliza of Forne, Arcane Wolf, Skeleton Novice Fire Mage (12), Skeleton Novice Shadow Mage (10), Skeleton Novice Elementalist (3), Skeleton Warrior (38), Skeleton (1153), Zombie (12), Zombie Warrior (41), Zombie Sprinter (59), Zombie Shambler (110), Ghast (13), Shadow Death Knight, Greater Lich, Grave Maw, Grond (Undead Ogre), Undead Rat, Undead Pup (4), Skeleton Magister (14), Skeleton Knight (7), Undead Wyvern (12), Undead Rat (42), Undead Rat Alpha (40), Undead Rat Broodmother} |

Languages Translated: Imerian, Salan, Forebearers (64%) |

Skills: Mana Manipulation, Mana Tempering, Mana Sense, Elemental Magic (Minor), Thrall Control, Combat Arts (Intermediate), Shadowmeld, Precision Targeting (Magic), Shadow Space, Death Sense, Murmurs of the Departed, Shadow Decoy, Sigilcraft (Fortification, Elemental), Aura of Undead, Undead Fusion, Umbral Mantle, Overchannelling, |

Spellcasting Ranks: Mage (Greater), Necromancy (Greater), Shadow Magic (Greater), Strengthening Magic (Greater), Ice Magic (Greater), Fire Magic (Greater), Sigilcraft (Greater: Speed, Fire, Strength, Ice, Chaos, Anti-Chaos, Shadow, Flight, Shared Senses), Barrier Magic (Greater) |

Necromancy Spells: Raise Undead, Wither, Gravebound, Mass Raise Undead, Tether the Fallen, Undead Enslavement, Bone Lance, Soul Manipulation]

He stared everything with a discerning eye and took special note of the advancement requirements.

"Ten thousand undead," he muttered. "Still far from it."

Then he squinted at the strange name in the advancement field.

"Erol-bland? Ebon-brind? Enon-brand...? Ebonbrand?"

The moment the last name passed his lips, something shifted.

[Ebonbrand’s name has been spoken.]

A rush of foreign memory poured into him. Visions of ancient scrolls. The scent of old parchment and Orlin’s voice, reading by candlelight. The name repeated in his head. Ebonbrand. Over and over.

Then the passage surfaced, written in ink faded with time:

"Where stone claws kiss the salt-born winds, and daylight bows to shadow’s crown, when twin lights embrace in skyborne unity, the veiled path shall reveal what Ebonbrand left behind."

Kai’s brow furrowed. When he had first read it as a child, the words had seemed nonsensical.

But now...

"Stone claws... The Ironforge Mountains. They do look like claws on a map. Salt-born winds—that’s the ocean. ’Daylight bows to shadow’s crown’... that’s got to be an eclipse."

He blinked, the pieces falling together like sigils into a perfect circle.

"So I need to go to where the Ironforge Mountains reach the sea... and wait for a solar eclipse."

He turned to the barrier once more. Orlin’s corpse hurled another storm of spells, some of them strange combinations of magic Kai didn’t even recognize.

Still, none touched him.

He exhaled, long and heavy.

Then he turned and left the basement.

Vepice sat on a pristine couch just beyond the sealed stairway, a journal open in her lap. She looked up as Kai emerged.

"Is it...?"

"Done?" Kai asked, finishing her sentence. He shook his head. "No. Not yet. I can’t break the barrier. Not with my current strength."

Vepice stood up, concerned. "Why not?"

"I need more undead. Thousands more. And... I need to find the resting place of Orlin’s master. Someone named Ebonbrand. By doing so, I’ll become a stronger necromancer."

"Ebonbrand," she repeated, like tasting a strange fruit. "where are they?"

Kai nodded. "I’m pretty sure they’re dead. The Ironforge Mountains, somewhere near the sea. The path only reveals itself during an eclipse."

"You’re sure?"

"I am."

Vepice stepped forward and put her hands on his. "Then that’s what we do."

Kai blinked. "You’re not... mad? We came all this way."

She smiled softly. "I came here for you. If you’re not ready, you’re not ready."

Kai exhaled and rested his forehead against hers. "Thank you."

A moment of quiet passed between them. Then she pulled back and clapped her hands.

"Alright! We have a plan. You raise ten thousand dead. We find the eclipse thing. And somewhere along the way... I get to take that specialisation assessment."

Kai laughed despite himself. "Of course. Ylthara’s got a testing center."

"Great!" she beamed. "Oh, and one more thing..."

"What’s that?"

She looked up at him with a mischievous grin. "What the hell is a solar eclipse?"

Kai laughed louder. "It’s when the moon passes in front of the sun and makes the day look like night."

"Oh! I saw that once! I called it the dark days in the forest. The arcane beasts go crazy during it."

Kai nodded. "Then you already know what to look for. I’m sure someone in Ylthara will know more about it. They’re very in touch with nature and the world."

They stood in the echoing stillness of the mansion’s atrium.

Everything outside the mansion was crumbling, consumed by nature and time. But here, it still stood, untouched by the rot of the outside world. A bubble of what once was.

Kai looked toward the stairs again, his eyes narrowing.

"I’m coming back, Orlin," he whispered under his breath. "I’m coming back when I’m strong enough. And next time, I’ll set you free."

As they left, the old manor doors creaked as they shut behind them, the sound echoing like a sigh through the ruined halls. For a moment, Kai stood still at the threshold, looking back at the only part of Mirth that remained untouched.

He didn’t speak. He didn’t need to.

Vepice gently squeezed his hand. "Are you okay?"

"...Yeah," Kai said, though his voice lacked conviction. He glanced at the mansion once more. "It used to feel like a sanctuary. Now it just feels like a tomb. I want to bury it after we’re finally done here."

They stepped away, boots crunching on gravel and vine-choked cobblestones. The air beyond the barrier had grown still and colder, as though the land itself mourned what had been lost.

Kai walked toward the horses grazing quietly where he had left them, just beyond the edge of the barrier. The moment his boot touched the wild grass outside the mansion’s domain, the air changed, less dense, more chaotic. The natural flow of magic returned, untamed and unpredictable.

"Still alive, old girl?" Kai asked, stroking the lead horse’s neck.

She snorted gently, and he smiled.

"Let’s not waste another moment here," Vepice said, swinging up into the carriage.

Kai chuckled and climbed up to sit beside her, reins in hand. "Northwest it is. To Ylthara."

"And the specialisation test," she added, more excitedly. "You think they’ll take me seriously?"

"Sure, you’re a little older than most people when they get tested, and they’ll wonder how you avoided it, but I’m sure they’ll be okay with it."

"Let’s hope so..." Vepice added, the two of them looking towards the distant horizon.