Chapter 224 – Whatever It Takes.

“Left! Go left, you dolt!”

“Are you sure? The last time I followed your instructions, we ran into more of those seven-star scripture guys…”

“Don’t talk back to me, minion! Just follow my orders, and we’ll be at our destination in no time!”

Rusty would have been rolling his eyes if he had any. A day had passed since he arrived in this place. He was not sure whether it was the same world Gwen occupied or the one belonging to his other elven summoner, but everything he had seen so far was new.

The first thing he noticed was the sky. There were multiple moons overhead, seven in total, or at least that was what the Necromancer claimed. They did not all appear at once during the night. Supposedly, that depended on a person’s location and the time. At the moment, he could see only three spheres hanging in the darkness, each a different size and each glowing with its own shade of blue.

Then there was the Seven Star Scripture, the people who were chasing them, and the main holy religion in these lands. The seven in their name referred to the moons around this world, which they had decided to call stars for reasons he did not understand. He was not really sure how any of it worked, and whenever he tried to ask, the Necromancer ignored his questions and instead hurled insults at the group.

It was clear that they despised necromancers and any form of black magic. If he ever returned to this world, they would likely become his primary enemies, so perhaps learning some dark elemental magic would be wise. It stood in direct opposition to the divine, and while both dark and light clashed with one another, his body of twilight metal was well protected against both.

“Left! I said left! Do you have metal in your ears as well as on your body?”

“I am made entirely of metal, yes. Also, I don’t really have ears…”

Rusty replied flatly as he adjusted course anyway, vaulting over a ravine without breaking stride.

“And if I keep listening to you, we’re going to run directly into another ambush.”

As if summoned by the statement alone, a horn blared somewhere ahead. Rusty skidded to a halt behind a cluster of boulders just as a squad of paladins appeared in front of them. Their shields were up, weapons ready, and torches lit.

“You were saying?”

“…Ah.”

Vesperus scratched his head in confusion.

“I just need more life force, I haven’t been able to rest for a while now!”

The necromancer attributed his failure to fatigue, but Rusty was not sure if that was true or if his new summoner was simply incompetent or terribly unlucky. Every path he chose seemed to lead them into even more trouble, and the paladins somehow continued to find them.

‘They must be using some type of tracking skill, but it could not be that precise.’

Rusty thought this as he waited behind the boulders. While their pursuers could eventually locate them, they could not directly follow their trail. It was as if the paladins could sense that they were somewhere within a half-kilometer radius, but could not determine their exact position. That uncertainty had allowed them to slip past more than once.

“Is the Bottomless Chasm of a Thousand Poisons close by?”

“Indeed. It is right over there. Those blasted paladins must have figured out that I would have to pass through here, but how?”

Their first major hurdle now stood before them, a long bridge stretching across the chasm. It ran for nearly six hundred meters, and the drop below was immense. At the bottom lay nothing but poison and corrosive sludge. Supposedly, even metal would eventually dissolve in those pools, and no living being could survive there, not even a necromancer or their undead.

“They are guarding it from this side, so how do we get through?”

Rusty paused to think. It seemed the paladins had anticipated their arrival and were already setting up a defensive perimeter. Waiting any longer would only make things worse, as they would soon fortify the area and possibly cross to the other side as well.

“What do you mean, how? Let us simply massacre them all and cross, my minion!”

While Rusty was not opposed to killing them, he doubted that it was the best option. The necromancer was weak and would fall instantly to a paladin’s blade. To make matters worse, he could not summon additional creatures. The spell used to summon Rusty could only be performed once a week and carried a high failure rate. Creating more undead servants required fresh corpses, and that process took time. If they stopped for too long, the army of religious zealots would catch up to them.

“Uh… Master, that might not be the best solution. I’m sure this is only one of the locations they think we will pass through. Otherwise, there would be more people here… right?”

“Hm… you raise a good point, my minion. I bet those bastards have just been lucky.”

Rusty nodded a few times as he tried to work with his new temporary summoner. He knew that if he wanted summoner coins, he needed to cooperate with this man somehow. Since this mission would take longer than usual, it was possible he would earn a decent amount of points this time around. His relationship with Gwen had been calm and pleasant, so he assumed that if he worked well with this summoner, more coins would be rewarded at the end. Still, it was not easy, as the necromancer was already starting to test even his iron nerves.

“Bah, it matters not. Let’s just go and kill them all.”

“Uh, but master…”

Before the man could move forward, Rusty grasped his wrist to stop him and tried to reason with him.

“The paladins will know we passed through if we kill them, and some of them could escape. Why don’t we just slip by unnoticed after, uh… perhaps disguising ourselves?”

“A disguise? How would that even work? They will recognise me instantly, you silly minion.”

As expected, Vesperus did not want to go along with the plan or believe it would work. To Rusty, however, it was a perfectly valid tactic. The paladins and priests wore various garments, including long, fitted robes that draped over their armor. To make things even better, they wore white masks marked with a seven-star symbol on the forehead, hiding their faces completely. It was something Rusty could easily wear over his body.

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“It’s simple, master. I’ll take one of those robes and disguise myself as a priest to cross the bridge.”

“Hm… you dolt of a minion. What about me? I won’t fit into any of those armors or robes. They will discover us instantly.”

It was true. Vesperus was quite lanky and too thin to pass as a paladin. The armor would hang awkwardly from his frame, and he lacked the finesse needed to move convincingly in heavy gear, even the lighter armor worn by priests. Still, Rusty already had another idea.

“Oh, you’ll just get inside of me. They are searching for a necromancer and his minion, so they won’t expect only one person to pass through.”

Vesperus stared at him as if Rusty had just suggested jumping into the chasm for fun.

“Inside of you?”