Reborn with a Necromancer System - Chapter 205

Chapter 205: The Crucible Origin

Kai exhaled slowly, his breath fogging in the cold air he summoned.

The hallway was choked with skeletons, dozens of them clattering forward in a relentless tide. Their sockets burned with unnatural blue light, their rusted swords scraping against stone.

He didn’t charge in. Not yet.

Kai extended his hands, feeling mana surge into the stone beneath their feet. The air temperature plummeted, the very moisture in the chamber condensing into rime that clung to bone and blade alike. One by one, the skeletons slowed, their movements growing rigid as frost crept up their joints and into their hollow ribcages.

Only when the last of them stood frozen in place, brittle and still, did Kai strike.

“Ignis Ventum.”

A roaring blast of superheated wind erupted from his palms. The sudden thermal shock rippled through the icy forms, and in a deafening cascade, they shattered, exploding into clouds of powdered bone and shards that clattered harmlessly across the floor.

Kai lowered his hands, his shoulders tense but steady. “That’s how you do it,” he muttered. “Freeze first. Heat second. Otherwise, they’ll just keep crawling.”

Vepice wrinkled her nose, stepping around a smoking femur. Her knives, each etched with Kai’s precise sigils, glimmered faintly in the dim light as she twirled them between her fingers.

“Kind of a waste of effort if they just keep respawning,” she said softly.

“They won’t,” Kai said, scanning the corridor. “Not this time. We’re close to the heart of this place.”

They pressed onward, only to step into another chamber, one unlike any they had seen so far.

A floating battlefield stretched before them, its platforms rearranging themselves in a chaotic dance above a black void. Five glowing pedestals encircled a hovering core at the center, each pedestal blazing with a distinct aura.

Fire, Ice, Wind, Light, Dark.

And on each pedestal, something stirred. Shapes, humanoid only in the vaguest sense, composed entirely of their element. Raw, living forces of nature. Elementals.

Kai swore under his breath. “Oh, for the love of… really? A Crucible?”

Vepice tilted her head. “A… crucible?”

“The Arcane Crucible,” Kai said, scanning the shifting arena. “It’s a sport. Or at least, it’s supposed to be. Floating platforms, arcane nodes, scoring points, except this time, it’s us versus five elementals with no referees and no mercy.”

Another platform shifted violently beneath their feet, forcing them to stabilize as a glowing node flickered into existence a few meters away. The fire elemental stepped down from its pedestal, each stride leaving molten scorch marks behind.

“Quick rundown,” Kai said, his voice sharp. He crouched, dragging a rough diagram into the dust with one finger while keeping an eye on the approaching elementals. “Goal: collect those glowing orbs, Arcane Nodes. They need to be charged first at the Pylons, the pedestals those things came from, before we can feed them to the central Crucible. And puzzles need to be solved in the boxes that house them before they can be moved.

Each of us has to play two roles, or we’re dead.”

He pointed to the glowing core at the center, then traced arrows toward it.

“I’ll handle Spellbreaker and Runesmith. I hit things, keep us alive, and disrupt attacks. You handle Gatekeeper and Puzzlemancer, arena control, puzzle-solving, and possibly some time magic. If you can’t solve the Pylon puzzles, we can’t score.”

Vepice twirled one of her knives nervously. “Time magic… I’ve never even tried to manipulate time. I don’t know how.”

Kai smirked faintly, though his tone was grim. “Guess you’re about to find out. Don’t slow me down.”

The ice elemental stirred now, its chilling presence creeping across the platforms. Wind howled as the air elemental joined it, while Light and Dark began circling each other like predators.

Kai stood tall, his dark mana flaring around him like a living shadow. “Five elementals. Two of us. No shadow space. No undead. Just what we can do on our own.”

His eyes narrowed, scanning the glowing Arcane Node as it pulsed brighter. “Stick close. Keep those knives ready. And if your new chronomancy decides to kick in? Now would be a good time.”

The first puzzle for the Arcane Node ignited, signaling the beginning.

Kai lunged forward, a surge of shadow and wind launching him across the first platform, while the fire elemental’s body erupted in a wave of flame. Vepice followed close, her knives gleaming as the sigils hummed faintly, ready to cut through more than just flesh.

The floating platforms jolted into motion, rearranging like the shifting pieces of a colossal puzzle as the five elementals descended from their pedestals.

Flame erupted first. The fire elemental surged forward, its molten body dripping rivers of liquid heat that hissed as they struck the void. A tendril of wind curled around it, pulling the flames into a spiraling inferno.

“On me!” Kai barked, vaulting to a higher platform as he flung a shadow barrier around Vepice to shield her from the first burst of heat. His mana burned in his veins as he slammed his palm down, releasing a pulse of freezing air that spread like a shockwave. The firestorm dimmed, the elemental’s body momentarily slowed.

But only momentarily.

Vepice scrambled behind him, knives drawn, her sigil-etched blades humming faintly as she crouched by the first Pylon. Its glowing runes shifted like clock hands, symbols rotating in layered rings.

“Charging node!” she called. “Cover me!”

Kai didn’t answer, already moving. A shard of condensed wind magic sliced past his shoulder, forcing him to twist mid-air and slam another barrier into place before a gust could hurl him into the void. He caught the counterflow of his own wind magic, launching himself toward the wind elemental as it swooped low.

“Take this!” His voice cracked through the chaos. A wave of jagged, compressed air shattered the creature’s spiral, forcing it to disperse into dozens of glittering motes before it coalesced again.

From behind, a sudden flash of light magic.

Kai spun just as a beam of pure radiance lanced toward him. It burned through his outer barrier and scorched the leather at his shoulder, leaving a raw, blistering welt on his skin. He gritted his teeth, forcing himself forward.

“Node’s up!” Vepice shouted, lifting the glowing orb she’d just charged.

“Go!” Kai snapped, leaping back to intercept the light elemental’s second beam. He hurled a slab of conjured stone into its path, shattering the blast into harmless sparks. Behind him, Vepice darted between platforms, her sigils flaring as she leapt to deliver the node into the central Crucible. It absorbed the orb in a rush of energy, glowing brighter.

One down. Dozens more to go.

The battle blurred into a relentless rhythm.

Collect. Charge. Deliver. Survive.

Kai fought like a storm incarnate, switching from freezing waves to bursts of searing heat, his shadows erupting from the cracks of the shifting platforms to whip and crush anything that drew close. The dark elemental became his personal nemesis, their shadows lashing at each other in chaotic duels that left whole platforms cracking and falling into the void below.

Vepice kept moving, kept solving. Her knives tore through gusts of hostile wind and splashes of molten flame, her sigils flashing as she used Kai’s crafted glyphs to stabilize platforms or dampen magical hazards. Yet her chronomancy, the one thing that could tilt the fight in their favtor, remained stubbornly dormant.

Every time she reached for it, all she felt was strain, like something ancient and locked deep within her bones that refused to wake.

By the time they had scored their sixth node, both were covered in burns, cuts, and bruises. Kai’s ribs ached from a glancing strike of dark energy, and one of Vepice’s knives was shattered from blocking a concentrated gust of wind.

And yet, slowly, the tide began to shift.

Kai noticed it first. The fire elemental’s bursts dimmed. The light elemental’s beams shortened. Even the wind elemental’s movements grew sluggish.

“They’re slowing,” Kai rasped, leaning against a platform as Vepice dragged the seventh node into the Crucible. “They can’t gather mana fast enough to keep up their output. Not with both of us draining the arena’s ambient flow.”

Vepice collapsed onto one knee, panting. Her remaining knife trembled in her grip. “Then… this is almost over?”

Kai wiped blood from his chin, eyes narrowing at the elementals as they faltered. “Almost. They’ll burn out. We just need to keep the pressure on.”

—

The last phase was a war of attrition.

Kai secured three more nodes himself, shielding Vepice as she solved the puzzles despite her shaking hands. His barriers shattered under the relentless magic, and his breath came ragged by the end, but the Crucible flared to full power with their final deposit.

The elementals, drained to flickering wisps, recoiled to their pedestals. One by one, they collapsed into motes of light, leaving the arena to still itself.

The platforms locked back into place, and the Crucible dimmed, lowering to reveal a spiraling staircase of polished black stone.

Kai exhaled sharply, wincing as he straightened.

“No undead. No shadow space. And somehow, we’re still alive.”

Vepice wiped sweat from her brow, staring down at her trembling fingers. “…I didn’t use it. Not once.”

“Chronomancy?” Kai asked, glancing at her.

She nodded, eyes distant. “…What if I can’t? What if it’s not even real?”

Kai shook his head, voice firm despite his exhaustion. “It’s real. You’re just not ready yet. And maybe… that’s for the best. Time magic’s dangerous, even for the gods.”

He rested a hand on her shoulder, giving it a reassuring squeeze before turning toward the stairwell.

“Come on. Whatever’s next… this was just the warm-up.”

They descended, the door sealing behind them, and the Crucible chamber went silent once more.

‘I guess I finally got to have that crucible experience… But, if this was the resting place of someone who died over five hundred years ago, doesn’t that mean that the Arcane Crucible existed and originated while necromancers were still around?’

Kai didn’t look back. He only looked at the steps below, subtly lit up but he glyphs covering the walls.

All of the fear that Vepice showed previously had dried up and been replaced with confidence.

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