This necromancer is going to seduce the beautiful girls who are already dead.

Almost no one has ever been to the Shadowfall, but it is known to everyone on the continent. Its fearsome reputation is so widespread that some parents even use it as a way to scare their children: "If you don't go to sleep, the dark mages will send you to the Shadowfall."

The Shadowfall wasn't originally called the Shadowfall. One era ago, about 1,300 years ago, it was known as the continent of Kaledi.

Although called a continent, it is actually just a large island in terms of area, equivalent to one-third of the Western Empire, about two million square kilometers. It is the nominal territory of the Minia Empire, but the empire does not actually control it. It is located in the northeast of the continent of Hai-Tver, with a cold climate and sparse population, but it has rich magical crystal deposits, making it a favorite territory for mages.

Mages or wealthy merchants often traveled there with their followers, digging up large quantities of magic crystals and returning home laden with their spoils. Upon their return, they would pay the empire a 30% tax, then process the crystals themselves and sell them, making a fortune.

However, without warning, one day a pitch-black rift suddenly appeared in the sky above the continent of Kaledi. Just as the people living there were wondering what it was, a group of monsters ran out from it.

The monsters come in all shapes and sizes: bison with bat wings, giant stick insects with jet-black skin, and enormous moles that fly through the sky… They are covered in disgusting black mud, polluting the soil wherever they go. But that's not the worst part; they also attack humans without provocation. They don't eat humans; they simply kill any humans they see, tear them apart, and pile them up.

These monsters conquered the entire continent of Caledi in less than a week. The survivors fled back to Hai-Tver by ship and reported the situation to the Empire and the Church.

The Empire and the Papacy joined forces. The Empire dispatched an elite force, while the Papacy assembled a team of veteran paladins and high-ranking priests to rush to the continent of Kaledi, which had been overrun by monsters.

A month passed, and not a single person returned.

The priests of the Holy See sent back a message using divine magic: a rift exists on the continent of Kaledi, from which emerge monsters from another world. These monsters are incredibly strong and prolific, and the plants on the land they have polluted have all mutated, becoming their food source. These monsters are self-sufficient, possessing a complete food chain. The magical crystals and natural environment of the continent of Kaledi have been completely corrupted and rendered worthless.

Even though they were extremely unwilling, the empire still abandoned the island. The magic crystals, corrupted by monsters from another world, were no longer useful, and the continent of Kaledi had been transformed from a crystal mine into a wasteland, losing all its value.

Afterwards, some people tried their luck there, but none of those who ventured deep enough returned alive. Only a few with considerable strength managed to bring back investigation reports. As for treasure? Unfortunately, the magic crystals produced there were contaminated and would shatter upon infusing them with magic, rendering them completely useless.

Because the black mud on the monsters had the ability to corrode and assimilate, people later changed the name of the continent of Kaledi to the Land of Shadow Fall, and referred to the monsters there as Shadow Demons.

Leona, who loves legends and chivalric romances, has certainly heard her share of tales about this place. It's understandable that powerful figures would go there, but the idea that some powerful organization would establish a stronghold there is utter nonsense.

"Are you serious?" Leona looked at Abyss suspiciously. "Don't think I'm stupid and you're just messing with me. I'm two years older than you."

“Of course I’m not kidding you. The mud on his feet really is the kind of contaminated mud you only find in the Shadowfall.” Abyss shrugged. “Actually, if you think about it, it’s quite possible. The Council of the Dead has been trying to find a way to make themselves safe, and the Church’s influence is spread all over the continent. The only place it can’t reach is the Shadowfall. After obtaining the power of the extraterrestrial evil god, the Council of the Dead may very well choose to move to a more secluded place to live.”

"Hiss... They really are a bunch of ruthless people." Leona shrank back in fear. "I can't stand the thought of having to fall asleep to the roars of monsters every day and smelling the pollution every day. It's amazing how those necromancers can put up with it."

“You couldn’t find one necromancer with a nose as sensitive as mine out of ten thousand,” Abyss immediately pointed out. “Necromancers deal with embalming potions, spellcasting materials, and rotting corpses all day long, so most of them have a somewhat impaired sense of smell.”

“That’s true. After all, they’re a bunch of perverts. This kind of harsh environment is really nothing.” Leona nodded immediately.

"I feel offended," Abis said, scratching his head.

"Abyss, are we going to the Shadowfall next?" Flora asked anxiously from the side. This had nothing to do with their strength. According to the investigation report, these monsters were extremely bizarre in appearance and behavior, and were nauseating. Any girl with a normal sense of aesthetics would absolutely not like dealing with those creatures from another world.

Abis shook his head and said to Flora, "No, what we need to do next is to find out the other three geniuses as well."

"Whose grave are you going to dig up this time?" Leona rolled her eyes at Abyss.

“One was a genius alchemist and mechanic, buried within the Eastern Empire; another was a genius druid, buried within the Elven kingdoms; and the third was a genius dark elf assassin, whose current clues suggest he is buried in the southern part of the continent,” Abyss immediately said. “Their strength is on par with yours. I need their power to be confident in dealing with more evil gods.”

"Tch... If you like digging up graves so much, why don't you buy your own graveyard..." Leona seemed a little jealous.

“Oh, we also need to buy a cemetery. I suddenly have an idea to make some money.” Abyss seemed to have thought of something after being reminded by Leona. He clapped his hands. “We can’t let you wander around with me forever, so I plan to buy a decent and grand cemetery for you to live in. I will also build a decent and grand portal. When I need your help, you can just go through the portal to come to me.”

“I don’t want to live in a graveyard!” Leona immediately protested. “I’m a princess! I want to live in a spacious palace!”

“There will definitely be a palace. I’ll build it for you according to the scale of the Western Empire’s palace, okay?” Abyss spread his hands. “Anyway, I can summon a lot of undead to help us build the house.”

"Really? The size of the palace?" Leona asked, still somewhat skeptical.

"Of course, it's just upside down; the royal palace is on the ground, and our palace is underground."

"...Isn't that just a big tomb!"

Chapter Sixty-Seven: The Meteorite Incident

Flora's holy light shone on the bottle that Dalan had once used. The elven head inside revealed a relieved smile, opened its mouth to Flora, silently said thank you in Elvish, and then turned to ashes and disappeared.

"Now I'd like to ask you to cast a mental chain on everyone nearby who can see our battle," Abyss nodded approvingly at Flora and instructed her.

Flora immediately understood and began to recite a prayer softly.

A sacred wave rippled outwards from Flora, instantly spreading to the Golden Griffin City and its surrounding areas several kilometers away. Invisible chains, unnoticed by anyone, bound everyone. And that wasn't all; the soul chains continued to extend, following the trail from some within the city to many more places: some journeyed to the other side of the continent, others linked to the nearest cities and villages. After Flora ceased chanting her prayers, these invisible soul chains had formed a vast network, encompassing the entire world.

High-level divine magic, Soul Chains. This divine magic is mostly used in wartime, linking designated individuals together so that magical power and the effects of divine magic can be transferred between them. While a typical high-level divine mage can link dozens or even hundreds of people, Flora is different; if she so desires, she can even link together all the intelligent races of an entire continent.

The target this time is everyone who knows about the battle that took place outside Golden Griffin City tonight, regardless of how they found out. As long as they obtain this information, they will be linked, without exception.

Flora winked at Abyss, indicating that she was done.

The Abyss then began chanting an obscure incantation. Powerful magical energy emanated from the Abyss, completely ignoring the massive magic circle of Golden Griffin City, which was said to be able to defend against all attacks, and silently affecting everyone linked together in a network of soul chains. This…

"Huh... why is our city's protective magic circle activated?" A mage apprentice suddenly blinked in confusion, looking at the old mage standing beside him, who was maintaining the magic circle by placing his hand on the magic crystal node in the city.

The old mage glared at his apprentice: "I remember telling you not to drink stimulant potions to stay up all night, it'll damage your brain! In your panic, you didn't even know what just happened? A meteor suddenly fell from the sky and crashed in the deserted countryside. We activated the magic array to protect the city from the meteor. Instead of asking these nonsense questions, you'd be better off making me a cup of tea and getting running!"

The apprentice, suddenly realizing what was happening, scurried away. The old mage grumbled as he continued to stand beside the magic crystal, complaining that the younger generation was getting worse with each generation.

The mages who were originally hovering in the sky dispersed after confirming that no more meteors were falling. The old mage even saw several huge figures slowly descending towards the palace – those were the royal army's most elite troops, the Western Empire's ace troops, the Griffin Knight Guard composed entirely of young noble warriors of the sixth rank or above.

The royal family even mobilized griffin riders for a few meteorites? Although the royal family has spent a fortune on mages, they still don't trust their abilities. The old mage shook his head, inwardly grumbling once more.

"Alright, alright, go home now! The meteors have stopped falling!" The guards, moving through the streets and alleys, held swords in one hand and their helmets in the other, clanging them together. "The magic circle won't hurt any of you, so disperse!"

After a brief moment of stunned silence, the city's residents dispersed. Some of them had wet themselves in fright, and laughter erupted from the crowd as everyone mocked the men for being so scared by a few meteorites, intending to make it a topic of conversation for decades to come.

The chief mage, still hovering in the sky, frowned and pondered for a long time, still wondering why he had been so impatient as to fly up into the sky to maintain order. It was just a few meteorites; if necessary, he could simply launch a spell to blast them into pieces, which the city's protective array could then catch.

"Sigh, the older I get, the more things I can't let go of." The chief mage sighed, then flew straight back to his mage tower with his hands behind his back.

Most of the mages retreated, leaving only a few young mages or capable apprentices to maintain the city's protective array to a minimum.

No one realized anything was amiss, and even those who received the message through magical communication only remembered that Golden Griffin City had narrowly escaped a meteorite impact.

A few people who recorded this incident tore off their notes and burned them. They couldn't explain why, but they just felt inexplicably annoyed by the paper.

……

"That's it?" Leona watched in disbelief as the seven-layered defensive array of the Golden Griffin City gradually extinguished, leaving only a thin layer in the end.

“Thanks to your sudden attack from the sky, that blow was just like a meteor shower. It didn’t take me much effort to manipulate the memories of the city’s inhabitants.” Abyss laughed. “It’s much easier than making them forget everything. Otherwise, if their memories were to crack, I would have to make up other stories to fill the gaps.”

Leona looked at the large crater on the ground around her, which had been burned and melted by the magic, and it did indeed look like a meteorite impact.

“It’s a pity we can’t sleep in the wild tonight. Let’s go to the city and find a hotel.” Abis looked at his campfire with a pained expression. “Sigh, it’s quite comfortable to rest in the wild, quiet and spacious.”

"You've been having a noble imperial princess sleep with you in the wilderness these past few days!" Leona kicked Abyss, then realized her words might have been a bit ambiguous, so she blushed and turned around, wrapping herself tightly in the cloak Abyss had draped over her earlier.

"Are we leaving tomorrow?" Flora asked, somewhat clumsily trying to pack up the tent.

"Ugh... I don't want to go digging up people's graves with a pervert who's only interested in dead people..." Leona kicked a rock away in annoyance.

“Let’s not set off tomorrow. Princess Helen still has one last thing that needs our help with.” Abyss helped Flora pack up the tent, stuffing the tent and blankets into the two-meter-wide mouth of the magical catfish. “Although we’ve done what we were supposed to do, we should help to the end. According to reliable information from the undead friends I summoned earlier, a few audacious nobles in Golden Griffin City seem to be getting a little unruly.”

Chapter Sixty-Eight: Reunion in the Tavern

“Guests, I wonder if you saw the meteor yesterday?” Dwarf Dahl held the handles of three wine glasses in his broad hands and placed them in front of the Abyss group. “It’s a pity, I was in the tavern preparing spices when the meteor fell yesterday, and I didn’t see anything. The earthquake also broke two of my glasses. I lost a lot of money.”

“I saw it! I saw it! We slept right where the meteorite fell yesterday. That meteorite almost destroyed our camp.” Abyss picked up his glass and took a sip. “It was as hot as a dragon’s lungs right next to us.”

"Oh ha ha, you're joking again." Dahl laughed heartily. "I know you didn't see it, so never mind."

Abyss simply smiled at Dahl and didn't say anything more.

Today, Abyss didn't take out Starr's Notebook to read; instead, he chatted quietly with Flora and Leona. The topic of their conversation, of course, was what Leona and Flora had done after Abyss lost consciousness the previous night.

"I always thought Leona was all about brute force when she fought. I never knew she had such a thoughtful side." After listening to Flora's story, Abyss looked at Leona in disbelief.

"Do you think I'm stupid?" Leona huffed and took a big gulp of her drink. "Let me tell you, I am indeed very efficient in my work, but that's not because I'm brainless, it's because I'm too lazy to use my brain. When I throw these fists out, who on the continent would dare to disrespect me? My ancestor left behind a saying: 'If you don't make a sound, you'll be silent until you make a stunning appearance,' which means I'm a genius with a balanced development of physical and intellectual abilities."

"I'm much relieved to see that your intelligence isn't a weakness." Abyss nodded in satisfaction and reached out to ruffle Leona's hair.

"Stop touching me! Stop touching me!" Leona immediately covered her head. "I'm two years older than you! In terms of seniority, you're the younger brother!"

"Oh, okay, sorry, I won't touch your head anymore," Abyss immediately apologized.

“You…” Leona seemed a little anxious. She stood up, her face flushed, and grabbed Abyss’s collar. “What I mean is… you have to get my permission first! I’m not that petty…”

"Welcome!" Dahl suddenly called out loudly.

Upon hearing this, Leona knew that other guests had entered, so she quickly lowered Abyss's collar and sat back down in her seat.

The girl who entered was a graceful young woman. She wore a gray cloak and her long, silver-white hair was tied into a ponytail. Who else could she be but Princess Helen?

Helen spotted Abyss and his two companions sitting at the bar, drinking. She walked over excitedly and sat down next to Abyss.

"You're here! I was worried you'd already left Golden Griffin City!" Helen exclaimed happily. "I have a question for you!"

"Those beads were the ones I gave you, right?" Abyss smiled slightly. "Did they all shatter last night?"

“That’s right,” Helen nodded. “May I know what you did?”

“This… is related to yesterday’s meteorite. I used this to protect some of the residents in your city,” Abyss replied.

"Did you predict that there would be a meteorite?" Helen's memories had also been altered by the Abyss's magic, so she knew nothing about the great battle last night and only assumed that a meteorite had fallen outside the city.

“That’s right, I predicted it.” Abyss smiled mysteriously. “It was actually coming for me.”

Helen didn't understand what Abyss said, but clearly he didn't intend for her to understand either. Out of politeness, Helen didn't press the matter. She hesitated for a moment, then said to Abyss, "This morning the court was in a bit of a flurry of activity organizing people to investigate the meteorite crater, so I took the opportunity to escape. I'm here specifically to thank you for your help, Mr. Bellator!"

“Just call me Abyss.” Abyss waved his hand. “I accept your thanks, but are you sure you weren’t followed by anyone when you came out?”

"Huh?" Helen was a little surprised. She didn't expect Abyss to ask her such a question. "I don't think so. I ran away secretly."

“Do you know how many people’s interests you’ve threatened?” Leona, sitting on the other side of the Abyss, leaned over. “You should know that there are many people in Golden Griffin City who want you dead. Now that you’ve run out of the palace alone without your personal guards, this is the perfect opportunity for an assassin to strike.”

"This..." Helen panicked slightly. "Are you saying that I'm being followed?"

“There is indeed someone following you.” Abis nodded. “And it seems that these assassins didn’t just start targeting you; they’re probably waiting for an opportunity. There were more pedestrians on your way from the palace, so they wouldn’t act randomly. But now that you’re in this quiet, secluded tavern, drinking in a quiet corner, if the assassins intend to strike, they will definitely choose this time.”

"Please protect me! I will definitely repay your kindness!" Helen finally panicked.

This was on a completely different level from the pressure she faced when threatening those nobles a few days ago. Before, she traveled as a princess, her itinerary protected and monitored by the royal guards throughout. Even if she offended those nobles, no one dared to challenge the royal family. But now, Helen had deliberately avoided royal surveillance, coming alone to this rather secluded tavern. If she were assassinated on the way… she might not be discovered for a whole day.

“I will definitely help you this time.” Abyss gestured with one hand to signal Helen to calm down. “But you have to answer one question for me: are you really willing to give up being a carefree princess for your country and take up power to fight against those corrupt and greedy nobles? Once you choose this path, there will be no turning back.”

Helen calmed down, thought for a moment, and then looked directly into Abyss's eyes: "I am willing, and I will not give up."

“Very well, then have a drink with me.” Abyss gave her a big smile and loudly called out to Dahl, who was wiping a table on the other side of the tavern, “Boss, a cup of Eregia Knight, please.”