"HAAAH!"
Simon suddenly gasped for air, his body jerking as the familiar sounds of battle returned to his ears. For several moments, he stood frozen behind the Seventh Legion, struggling to catch his breath while his eyes moved across the battlefield.
Pier and Manus were still fighting near the frontline, Prince was busy smashing through another group of Shadow Soldiers, and the ruined mansion remained standing behind him.
Everything looked exactly as it had before, but this time, Simon remembered.
The image of Pier's severed head suddenly flashed through his mind, followed by Manus being cut apart by a black-armored knight. Then came an enormous wave of violet light, a gigantic High Orc, and two dragons unleashing a sea of blackish-red flames across the battlefield.
"...What?"
Simon staggered backward, his hand instinctively tightening around Prince's crown. The memories were incomplete, but the fear accompanying them was far too vivid to dismiss, especially when he could still remember the sensation of those attacks swallowing him.
[Boy! What are you doing?!]
Pier's voice interrupted his thoughts, forcing Simon to look toward the frontline where several Shadow Knights were attempting to break through his zombies.
"Ah! R-Right!"
He hurriedly prepared to send reinforcements, only to notice something strange about the approaching soldiers. Before they had even begun moving, Simon somehow knew that a group of Shadow Knights would attempt to circle around his left flank.
Acting on instinct, he immediately sent several zombies to intercept them.
And sure enough, the Shadow Knights moved exactly where he had expected.
"...Huh?"
Simon stared at the result in surprise, but he barely had time to think about it before another familiar movement caught his attention. This time, he ordered Manus's skeletons to reinforce a weakening section of the frontline just before the enemy attempted to break through it.
Once again, his prediction proved correct.
As the battle continued, more of these strange moments occurred. Simon began anticipating certain attacks before they happened, allowing him to react much faster than he normally could.
Naturally, the three Ancient Undead soon noticed.
[Boy, how did you know they were going to attack from there?]
Pier sounded genuinely confused after watching another group of Shadow Knights fall into Simon's prepared defense.
"I... I just had a feeling!"
[A feeling?!]
[Heh! Since when did the kid get this good?]
Prince sounded amused, although Manus was watching Simon with considerably more interest.
[His commands have been unusually accurate. Almost as though he already knows what the enemy intends to do.]
Simon didn't answer. He was still trying to understand it himself, but the more familiar the battlefield became, the harder it was to believe those disturbing memories had merely been dreams.
Whatever had happened to him, those memories were helping him avoid mistakes he hadn't even made yet.
And for a while, it seemed to be working.
The Seventh Legion was holding its ground better than before, while the two commanders Simon feared most, Igris and Tusk, had yet to make the devastating attacks he remembered.
Unfortunately, just as Simon was beginning to feel relieved, he noticed something on the opposite side of the battlefield that he didn't remember seeing before.
The Commander of the Eighth Legion, the Shadow Monarch Jin, had finally made a move.
Jin, who had been observing the battle with his massive scythe resting against his shoulder, was now looking toward the countless zombie corpses scattered across the ruined grounds.
The fighting had already claimed thousands of undead, leaving their bodies piled across large sections of the battlefield. Some had been cut apart by the Shadow Knights, while others lay beneath the feet of the soldiers still fighting.
After examining the corpses for a moment, Jin slowly lowered his scythe and raised his empty hand.
"Arise."
At that single command, blackish-violet energy began rising from the fallen zombies.
The phenomenon started with a few corpses near the frontline, but it quickly spread as more streams of dark energy emerged from the bodies scattered across Death Land.
Before Simon could understand what was happening, the shadows began taking shape.
Humanoid figures rose from the fallen undead, their bodies resembling the zombies that had once occupied those corpses. However, their flesh had been replaced by blackish-violet shadows, and their newly formed eyes glowed with eerie violet light.
One after another, they rose.
Hundreds.
Then thousands.
"W-What the...?!"
Simon stared at the growing army in disbelief.
Those were his zombies.
Or rather, they had been his zombies before the Eighth Legion destroyed them.
Now, the same soldiers were standing beneath Jin's command, their glowing eyes turning toward their new master as the last of the shadows emerged from the ground.
[BOY! LOOK AT THOSE THINGS!]
"I KNOW!"
Simon gritted his teeth, but before he could decide how to deal with this unexpected development, Jin had already lowered his hand.
"Charge."
ROOOOOAAAAAR!!
The newly raised Shadow Zombies immediately surged forward.
Unlike the disciplined Shadow Knights, these soldiers made no attempt to maintain a proper formation. They rushed straight toward the Seventh Legion, pushing against one another while those farther behind climbed over the slower shadows ahead of them.
Some scrambled across the ground on all fours, while others leaped over their companions or used the piles of corpses as stepping stones. With thousands charging at once, the resulting swarm resembled an enormous blackish-violet wave sweeping across the battlefield.
"EVERYONE! STOP THEM!"
Simon's zombies rushed forward to intercept the approaching swarm, and moments later, the two forces collided.
BOOOOOOM!
The impact sent several undead tumbling backward, but the Shadow Zombies continued charging without slowing down.
Even when Simon's soldiers managed to drag some of them to the ground, the shadows behind simply climbed over their fallen companions and pushed forward. Their relentless advance quickly overwhelmed the frontline, forcing Manus to send his skeletons into the growing mass.
[GET THE HELL OFF ME!]
Prince grabbed a Shadow Zombie by the head and hurled it into the approaching swarm, knocking several others backward. However, another group immediately rushed into the opening, forcing him to raise his fists again.
[DAMN IT! HOW MANY OF THESE THINGS ARE THERE?!]
Nearby, Pier swung the Greatsword of Destruction through the swarm, tearing several shadows apart with each strike. Manus supported him from the opposite side, while Simon directed more zombies toward the sections where the enemy was breaking through.
For several minutes, the two armies struggled against one another as the Shadow Zombies continued throwing themselves into the Seventh Legion's formation.
Eventually, the combined efforts of Pier, Manus, and Prince began slowing the swarm. Their attacks cleared several openings, allowing Simon's zombies to push back the shadows nearest to the center.
Yet while the Seventh Legion was desperately trying to regain control of the battlefield, Jin remained standing behind his army.
He watched the fighting for another moment before slowly raising his hand again.
And this time, something changed.
Several Shadow Zombies suddenly stopped attacking.
At first, their opponents assumed they had finally been restrained. However, even as the Seventh Legion continued striking them, the shadows remained completely motionless.
Then a faint light appeared inside one of their bodies.
"...Hm?"
Simon narrowed his eyes as the unusual glow spread through the Shadow Zombie's limbs and torso. Another began shining nearby, followed by several more among the enemies surrounding Prince.
Before long, similar lights were appearing around Pier and Manus as well.
Simon felt his stomach tighten.
Something was wrong.
Very wrong.
"Pier...?"
Pier had also noticed the unusual glow spreading through the shadows around him. He briefly stopped swinging his greatsword, and the moment he examined the lights more closely, his expression changed.
[Wait...!]
Across the battlefield, Jin finally spoke.
"Corpse..."
Simon's eyes widened.
No way...!
As a necromancer, he recognized the technique immediately. He also understood what it meant when thousands of controlled undead were gathered so closely together.
And now, those same undead were standing throughout the Seventh Legion's formation.
"...Explosion."
The light within the Shadow Zombies suddenly intensified.
Simon instinctively opened his mouth to shout a warning, but before a single word could escape, the first explosion erupted.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!
A tremendous blast tore through the center of the Seventh Legion, swallowing hundreds of undead in an instant.
Before the shockwave could even spread, another Shadow Zombie detonated nearby.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOOOOOM!!
Within seconds, the battlefield erupted into a chain of explosions as thousands of Shadow Zombies detonated almost simultaneously.
Their bodies burst apart in blinding flashes of magical energy, ripping through the ground and sending violent shockwaves across Death Land. Entire formations vanished beneath the overlapping blasts, while the explosions continued spreading through every position the shadows had managed to infiltrate.
Pier, Manus, and Prince found themselves surrounded by flashes of light, and even the zombies protecting Simon were caught in the spreading destruction.
"...!"
Simon stared at the approaching explosions, that same terrifying sense of familiarity returning as the brilliant light spread across his vision.
Again...?!!
Before he could move, the Shadow Zombies nearest to him detonated.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!
The explosion swallowed him along with everything around him.
And just like that...
Everything went black.
Once again.
Third Death: Killed by Klee... Cough! Cough! I mean, Corpse Explosion.
***
"HAAAH!"
Simon returned to the battlefield with another desperate gasp, his hand instinctively moving toward his chest.
Once again, there was no wound.
Pier, Manus, and Prince were still fighting, and Jin remained behind the Eighth Legion as though nothing had happened.
But this time, Simon remembered all three attacks.
Igris.
Tusk.
And the thousands of exploding Shadow Zombies.
Three different deaths, followed by the same impossible return.
"...No way..."
Simon looked down at his trembling hands, a horrifying possibility finally beginning to take shape inside his mind.
Don't tell me... I've actually been dying this whole time?!
He had no idea how something like that could happen, but he certainly wasn't interested in experiencing another death.
And if fighting the Eighth Legion only led to disaster, perhaps the answer was simply to leave.
"EVERYONE! FALL BACK!"
Ignoring Pier's confused protests, Simon immediately withdrew his zombies toward the ruined mansion, leaving several groups behind to delay the Shadow Army while he hurried away from the frontline.
For a moment, the retreat appeared to be working.
Unfortunately, several Shadow Knights had already moved around the mansion's outer ruins. Just as Simon thought he had found an escape route, they emerged directly in his path.
"...Ah."
Several violet blades flashed toward him.
SHRAAAAK!
Everything went black.
Fourth Death: Killed while trying to escape
***
By the time Simon returned again, he had already abandoned the idea of escaping.
Instead, he decided to attack before the Eighth Legion could unleash any of its terrifying abilities.
He immediately began gathering his zombies into an enormous formation, ordering Pier, Manus, and Prince to prepare for an all-out assault.
[Boy? What's gotten into you all of a sudden?]
"Just get ready! We're attacking with everything we've got!"
While Simon was busy arranging the troops, however, something unusual appeared in the distant sky.
Several tiny lights were moving high above the battlefield.
At first, he thought they were stars, but as more appeared behind them, he realized they were moving far too quickly.
Long, shimmering trails followed the descending lights, making them resemble a sudden meteor shower.
"...Hm? Shooting stars?"
Meanwhile, some distance away from Death Land, Cyrene was still keeping watch over the route the approaching Kizen reinforcements would have to take.
Unfortunately, waiting around wasn't particularly entertaining.
"...I'm bored."
Having found a moment to amuse herself, she had casually drawn her bow and sent a volley of shimmering arrows high into the sky, toward the distant battlefield.
And those were precisely the lights Simon was watching.
By the time he realized they were getting closer, it was already too late.
"...Eh?"
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!
Everything went black.
Fifth Death: Killed by Cyrene (because she was bored)
***
"HAH!"
Simon nearly stumbled as he returned to the battlefield, instinctively looking up at the sky to find the strange lights that had killed him moments earlier. However, no matter how carefully he searched, there wasn't a single trace of them.
"...Did I seriously just get killed by shooting stars?!"
He stared at the empty sky for another moment, still unable to believe that something had fallen out of nowhere and killed him before he could even put his next plan into action.
He had already been killed by swords, magic, and exploding zombies, but now even the sky seemed determined to kill him.
With both retreating and attacking proving useless, Simon decided to concentrate entirely on defense. He reinforced the frontline, kept his Ancient Undead close, and carefully watched Igris and Tusk for any signs of movement.
Unfortunately, he was so focused on the two powerful commanders that he failed to notice several High Orc Shamans gathering their mana farther behind the Shadow Army.
By the time Simon spotted the violet magic circles forming above the battlefield, their spells were already complete.
"...!"
A barrage of magical attacks immediately rained down upon his position.
BOOOOOOM!!
Everything went black.
Sixth Death: Killed by the High Orc Shamans
***
"Haa... Haa..."
Simon returned to the battlefield once more, his shoulders rising and falling as he struggled to catch his breath.
This time, he didn't even bother looking around.
Six deaths.
Six different ways of being killed.
No matter what he tried, the result remained the same, and every time he opened his eyes again, he found himself standing behind the Seventh Legion as though none of it had happened.
Even the three Ancient Undead who had been protecting him seemed completely unaware of what he had experienced.
"...What am I supposed to do...?"
Simon slowly looked across the enemy formation, his gaze passing over Igris, Tusk, and the countless Shadow Soldiers fighting under their command.
He had already seen what those soldiers were capable of, and the thought of experiencing another death made him hesitate to issue his next order.
But while Simon stood there, something on the opposite side of the battlefield finally changed.
The Shadow Soldiers standing nearest to Jin began stepping aside, gradually opening a path through the Eighth Legion's formation.
At first, Simon barely noticed it. Then more soldiers moved, and the growing opening eventually drew his attention toward the black-armored figure standing at its far end.
At the end of that path stood Jin, the Shadow Monarch himself. With his violet eyes fixed on Simon, he slowly lowered the massive scythe resting against his shoulder before finally taking his first step forward.
Clank.
The sound of his armored boot carried across the battlefield, reaching Simon even through the ongoing fighting. And as Jin continued walking toward him, the young necromancer could only watch, wondering what terrible fate was waiting for him this time.