Necromancer Academy’s Genius Summoner - Chapter 292

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

The Necromancer Academy’s Summoning Genius — Episode 292
His mother burned to death.
Surging white flames. Within them, his mother’s arms clawing down the wall in agony, her nails bending and breaking.
Young Figaro did not understand why such a thing had happened.
So he asked the adults for an explanation.
“Your mother was gloriously chosen by the Saint’s Essence,” they told him.
“But her faith and belief were not strong enough, so her body could not withstand it.”
“It is unfortunate, but unavoidable.”
He could not accept their words.
He wanted to understand for himself.
Figaro strived, and at last he entered the Essence Research Institute, where the Saint of Sin, Israfil, was involved.
Israfil was researching in secret from the Pope both how to remove the Saint’s Essence from the human body and how to prevent it from entering at all.
He did not know her reasons.
Yet their purposes aligned, so Figaro studied the Saint’s Essence here.
The more he researched, the more the anger and resentment within him melted away like spring snow, and soon a new emotion blossomed in its place.
Fascination.
He was captivated by the power called the Saint’s Essence — one of only seven in the world.
He pursued his research with obsessive fervor, desperate to unravel the secrets bound up in this power.
None of the other researchers at the institute surpassed his achievements. But then.
“You have crossed the line, Figaro.”
He was dismissed.
Israfil had discovered him conducting indiscriminate human experimentation.
He changed jobs. The work of an ordinary priest overseeing a monastery was mundane, but he remained captivated by the Saint’s Essence and continued his research.
People came to pray.
To those who came seeking counsel, he administered small doses of drugs under the guise of “holy water.”
Whenever he had the chance, he conducted further biomedical experiments on monsters.
“Brother Figaro! What—what is all this?”
His secret did not last long. His senior caught him. This time too, he received a harsh rebuke.
Efnel scorned empirical inquiry.
People had no interest in understanding the principle behind the Saint’s Essence.
Being chosen by the Essence was simply being chosen by the great goddess Deva.
If one died unable to accept the Essence, one simply died for lacking faith and belief.
That was how they closed their minds and achieved acceptance.
Because this was the power of the goddess.
One must not dare to question it, nor suspect it.
One must simply accept it as it was.
Such was Efnel’s iron law.
But Figaro could not understand this culture.
Why.
Why did no one wonder?
Why were there only seven Essences?
Why could only women become Saints?
What criteria did the Essence use in choosing humans?
Could men become Saints?
Figaro’s thirst and obsession regarding the Essence only deepened, and at last he lost his second position.
Months later, he found himself working in the Neutral Zone.
It was clearly a demotion, but not unwelcome. Rather, away from the Federation’s gaze, he could conduct his experiments far more freely here.
Then one day, while living in the Neutral Zone.
He met ‘that child.’
A girl’s agonized scream pierced the air.
An entire house was burning in white flames.
He heard the girl’s cry of suffering.
Exactly — the same sight as when his mother died.
The villagers came with buckets of water and threw them on the flames, but White Flame would not be extinguished by such means.
Figaro ran into the house.
And within the white flames, he saw a six-year-old girl burning.
The emotion Figaro felt upon seeing the dying girl.
It was neither pity nor sympathy nor sorrow.
He envied her.
He resented her.
Figaro believed himself to be strong.
At least in this village, he was stronger than anyone else.
He’d spent the same night in this village as them—so why had the Saint’s power not come to him, and why had it gone to that small girl instead?
The doubt passed quickly. Figaro mobilized all his accumulated research knowledge to save Sasha, and succeeded in sealing the Essence of Purification within a Magic Circle drawn upon her body. He took pride in the fact that only he on this continent could accomplish such a thing.
But at most, it would last two months.
Within that time, he planned to obtain this Essence and become a Saint himself.
How a man becomes a Saint.
It was simple.
Allow this girl, Sasha, to accept the Essence of Purification into her body.
Then take possession of her form.
Her body was merely a tool—a vessel to contain the Essence.
And he, who animated her, would become the true Saint.
She, knowing nothing, followed Figaro as her savior and patron. He created drugs to drive her abilities into overdrive, ensuring her body could withstand the Essence of Purification.
The research had been proceeding smoothly when he encountered an unforeseen crisis.
The Sacred Federation, anxious because the next Saint of Purification had not appeared, dispatched people to the Neutral Zone to collect those they’d marked as Saint Candidates.
He had to prevent Sasha from falling into Efnel’s hands by any means.
Figaro leveraged his connections to volunteer as a guide, buying time by greeting the students Efnel had sent. In the interim, he bribed gang members to take Sasha and flee.
He’d planned to confine the students in some suitably shabby location under his authority as guide, then depart this place with Sasha.
But then Kizen intervened.
When they defeated the gang members and seized Sasha, he altered his strategy.
He brought Efnel’s Priests to engage Kizen in direct combat, hoping both sides would annihilate each other.
While the two forces fought fiercely, Figaro seized Sasha and fled.
Time was running out.
Both Efnel and Kizen now knew of Sasha’s potential, and after the students’ failure, they would dispatch true powerhouses.
Sooner than he’d anticipated,
but he had decided to become a Saint.

* * *
‘……What is that?’
Simon questioned his own eyes again and again.
Just yesterday he’d been in this village with the others, yet he’d never seen such a colossal tree.
[Boy.]
Pier’s voice reached him.
[Wait. Let me show you the top of that tree.]
The Dark Element in the right eye socket of Pier’s Skull that Simon wore rippled like a mirror. It was a sort of Telescope Effect.
Simon closed his left eye and gazed at the treetop with only his right.
“……!”
Simon’s expression went pale and cold.
At the tree’s crown stood a man with orange hair—Sasha’s patron, Figaro.
His lower body had fused with the tree; only his upper half protruded free. His skin too had transformed into wood in places.
And visible just below him was another face.
‘Sasha……!’
Sasha’s entire body lay buried in the wood, her face alone left exposed, eyes shut as if unconscious.
Simon trembled at the shock.
‘So this massive tree is Sasha?’
[Who goes there.]
At that very moment, a colossal voice echoed across the entire Barrier.
It was Figaro’s voice.
[I sense the presence of an intruder. To tear through the Barrier by force and enter—who are you?]
His entire body quaked. An overwhelming kind of power radiated outward.
The same oppressive force he’d felt when facing Phlema, the Saint of Purification.
‘Does he even know my location?’
Using his expanded vision, Simon gazed at the treetop. Figaro’s eyes were wide open, fixed directly upon him.
Since his position was already discovered, Simon answered using Pier’s voice.
[If you wish to know about others, shouldn’t you reveal yourself first?]
[Fair enough. I have nothing to hide.]
Figaro stretched both arms outward, his mouth splitting into a grin.
[I am the new Saint of Purification, Figaro Mertens!]
Simon’s face went rigid.
‘……A… Saint? A man?’
[Ah, yes.]
Figaro’s mouth twisted into a crooked smile as he continued.
[When the Saint changes, a new epithet is bestowed! The Saint of Purification is old hat now, so what shall we call her? Hmm— yes, yes. This one suits perfectly.]
Oooooooooooh!
Tree trunks suddenly erupted from the ground, swelling so massively that they engulfed the entire ceiling of the vast barrier. And beneath those limbs, countless fruits began to form.
[The Saint of Sin.]
They were snow-white apples.
Thud.
Plop.
White apples fell from the branches with the force of a bombardment, plummeting toward the ground below.
The moment they touched the earth.
Boom-boom-boom-boom-boom!
Massive pillars of holy light erupted from each impact point, consuming everything in their path.
Throughout the entire city, these pillars of light were ascending.
Simon’s brow furrowed as he raised the Sword of Ruin toward a white apple descending above his head.
Crack!
The apple split in two and erupted, creating twin columns that boxed him in. Simon grunted, lowering his stance between them.
‘Unmistakably……!’
It was the same kind of holiness he’d felt when he first faced the Saint of Purification.
Though the character had changed.
Where the previous Saint of Purification’s White Flame had simply swept in as pure sacred fire, this technique possessed vast physical destructive force as well.
Caught in this, even Simon, immune to holiness, could not avoid taking the hit.
[Isn’t it marvelous!]
Figaro spoke with evident relish.
[Fruit of White Flame! This is the power I gained after becoming a Saint!]
[Speak truthfully.]
Simon’s voice was cold.
[That power isn’t yours—it’s Sasha’s.]
[Sasha and I are one now. And.]
Figaro’s lips curled upward.
[She is now nothing but a vegetative husk. Her consciousness no longer exists in this world—only I remain!]
Crack-crack-crack-crack!
Crunch!
[Bow before me!]
Beneath Figaro’s root system, countless plant-form monsters of various sizes formed an army advancing toward Simon.
That was not all.
‘People, too!’
Humans covered in root-like veins were shambling forward, their eyes empty and unfocused.
They were like zombies.
[Boy! They are as good as dead already!]
‘I know.’
Boom-boom-boom-boom-boom!
Crash!
Even as this unfolded, the vines and roots spreading throughout the entire village grew more densely, toppling structures, while white apples continued to rain down from above.
[Now, it’s your turn! Reveal yourself, Necromancer of unknown name!]
Simon grasped the Sword of Ruin and swung it lightly in a full arc.
Slash-slash-slash-slash!
Crack-crack-crack-crack!
The advancing plant-form monsters were split asunder, buildings cleaved in two, and descending white apples detonated.
[Oho……!]
[I am—]
The village had been annihilated; within this barrier, there was no need for concealment.
Simon opened a dimensional storage with his free hand behind his back.
Click.
Screee-screee-screee!
Legionized skeletons wreathed in blue flame and Corpse Spiders came pouring forth.
Simon raised his hood as he continued speaking.
[I am a Legion Commander of the Dark Alliance.]
The dead wailed as they formed a vast legion behind Simon.
Whoooooooosh!
Countless branches overhead swayed as if dancing in the wind.
[What cruel trick of fate is this!]
Figaro was overjoyed.
[As a Saint, to face a Legion Commander as my first Necromancer opponent! How magnificent!]
Beyond vanquishing the mightiest of Saints, he would now claim the honor of felling a Legion Commander—in Figaro’s mind, no debut could be more perfect than this.
[Wait right there.]
Simon lifted the Sword of Ruin high, its tip leveled directly at Figaro.
[I’m coming up now to sever that head of yours.]
[Splendid! Come and try!]
Simon walked forward, wielding the greatsword.
[Follow me.]
The dead shrieked in unearthly wails as they surged after him.
[I’ll show you the overwhelming difference in power! I am a being who has transcended even the Saints!]
Plant-form creatures erupted from the roots, alongside infected humans, all charging forward.
Within the Barrier that none could breach, a vast and unrecorded war began.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————