The Black Necromancer

"What?" Leon was frozen with silence. He stared at Leonidas like the man had just vomited a bucket of garbage.

"I am serious." Leonidas said and turned to look at the others, which led them to nod in agreement.

Leon held his chin in thought as he realized that he must have been out for a much longer period of time than he had expected.

"While you were absent, your summons also disappeared. It was a significant loss to our defense, and the Demons have been able to make landfall." Lyra said, her head held low.

"The Demons made landfall?!" Leon was shocked. He did not expect that. Even with his absence, he was sure that the defenders should have been able to maintain their defense line for a mere three days.

"Yes, it is complicated. We are also fighting a battle on the inside, in fact." Leonidas sighed and shook his head. "Let us show you." He turned to Lyra and the woman nodded, opening a small portal.

Everyone walked through and Leon followed behind them after casting a glance back to the golem. The stone guardian had already returned to its guard post after seeing that Leon had appeared to defuse the matter. It seemed to know that Leon was the master of this place whenever Michael was not around. He stepped through the portal and found himself in a brightly lit room with four stone walls and no openings.

"Where is this?" Leon asked, but before he could get a reply, a loud screech rang through his mind, and he spun around to find a strange sight.

A ghostly, red figure of a giant centipede was huddled in the corner of the room, its glowing red eyes glaring at the new entrants.

"What is that?" His question changed as he regarded this new creature. He was completely unable to sense its presence, even though it seemed to be much weaker than himself.

"This is a C rank Phantom Centipede." Leonidas said. He was holding a small rock in his hand an flung it forward. The centipede did not move, and allowed the rock to fall on it, but surprisingly, it phased right through its body!

"How... the hell did it do that?" Leon asked, his curiosity flaring.

"We are as shocked as you are, but right now it is important that you know a few things about this creature." Leonidas started, "As you can probably tell, it is hard to sense its presence. This is a considerably serious problem for our soldiers, as they are even worse in this aspect."

"I see." Leon held his chin. "But I don't think I can come up with a way to sense them either."

"We didn't expect you to have a way to detect them, so we have already begun working on our own measures." Leonidas hummed. "The main issue we are dealing with is how to find out where they are coming from. Because of how hard it is to sense them, it is insanely difficult to lock down on a possible location. And we simply don't have the numbers to spare for that work while also fending off the Demons."

Leonidas turned around and a portal appeared in front of him, which he led the others through, and they arrived at the frontlines where the army had retreated to after the Wall was overcome.

The air was abuzz with energy as everyone was busy with their tasks. Because of the Demons, they had to remain on their toes and expect an attack at any moment.

"We-"

BOOM!

The ground shook and a deafening explosion rang out, cutting off Leonidas' words.

Dong!

A loud bell rang and everyone sprang into action. A new Wall had been erected to support the defense, and many cannons had been built onto it to reinforce the defense. Over a dozen massive catapults were also standing behind the Wall, manned by soldiers that were on the weaker side, or those that were average humans and had come as support personnel with the armies.

"The Demons are striking again." Leonidas said and floated up into the sky. He did not join the battle, however, as there was no sign of an opposing A rank powerhouse. It was beneath him to act personally in that case, and would tarnish his image.

"Let me take care of this." Leon rose his arms and a flood of mana left his core. After returning to the Desolate Lands, he had left most of his summons manifested, so he did not need to burn up a large amount of mana to summon them like this. But now, after his summons had been withdrawn during the time he had spend unconscious, he needed to summon them all again.

Boom!

A wave of dark purple light erupted with Leon as its center. Thousands of summons sprung up from the darkness that spread beneath Leon's feet. The combined pressure that they released caused many people to freeze in shock, both on the side of the defenders, and on the side of the attackers. The summons, however, did not pause, and rushed forward like a wave of death and darkness.

The might of the massive undead army that served Leon was not to be doubted. Instantly, thousands of Undead B rank summons appeared on the battlefield, and immediately, they took the initiative, cutting down the Demonic Beasts that made up this wave of attackers.

Thousands of grotesque beasts of many shapes and sizes screeched and hissed as they fearlessly rushed forward to engage Leon's army. It was as if their innate natural instinct to flee, that had risen when they summons first appeared, had vanished mysteriously. They rushed forward, clashing head first against the wave of advancing darkness.

Buzz!

Lightning crackled above in the sky as clouds appeared out of nowhere. A mighty, terrifying presence made itself known as Kaladin floated in the sky, eyes blazing with power and lightning. The first Obsidian Skeleton under Leon's command made himself known.

Bang!

A mini explosion of red light and fire drew people's attention back down to the ground. The immediate surrounding around Nero was caught up in a haze of blazing red energy as he expanded his own Domain. Whatever stepped into that area was sliced up by invisible red blades, and then burnt up into a crisp in an instant! The second and final Obsidian Skeleton under Leon's command had also made himself known!

Two gargantuan auras burst out of the bodies of the two summons, startling everyone who was paying attention to the battle.

"They both broke through to A rank?" Leon was surprised, so much so that he spoke his thoughts out loud.

"They did." Leonidas nodded with folded arms. He was truly shocked, but he did not show it in his actions. He instead eyed Leon with a more critical expression. 'His summons are quite powerful on their own, and now he has three A rank summons. This is just incredible!'

Greed bloomed in Leonidas' heart, but he forcibly suppressed that emotion. He needed to cultivate a lengthy and sustainable good relationship with Leon. Everyone who had come in contact with Leon could now see the immense potential that he possessed. If they were unable to recruit him, then forging an alliance with him would be the next best thing.

'I must make sure the Empire of Light does not get their hands on him.' Leonidas thought to himself with resolution.

Meanwhile, as everyone was busy with their thoughts about Nero and Kaladin, the two Obsidian Skeleton exploded with power. Everything in their path was instantly shredded or turned to dust. Entire areas of the battlefield were left in ruins in mere moments.

Part of the reason why the Demonic Beasts were being killed so quickly was because of the fact that they had seemed to have lost all reasoning. They did not put up any defenses at all, but instead threw themselves forward to attack with as much ferocity as they could.

Coupled with the fact that there were thousands of other B rank summons around Kaladin and Nero, and then with support from Oris in the air, the three A rank summons were completely unstoppable in the face of the Demonic Beasts!

As Leon kept on watching as his summons ran through the enemies than numbered in the thousands, a tremor suddenly shook the grown a distance away.

"What was that?" He turned around when he felt a swelling force of mana in the distance. A red flare of light shot up into the sky on the other side of the battlefield as well.

"It's the Phantom Centipedes." Leonidas answered.