Summoning the Undead

How could someone be made to vanish from the face of the earth?

Answer: secret execution.

Aokiji naturally did not want to kill people for no reason; he was not Akainu. So what he meant was erasing every trace of Lowett's original existence!

As long as "Lowett" disappeared, the government would not have time to fuss over such a trivial matter.

The Marines were well versed in this sort of thing.

It only depended on whether Branch 153 was willing to keep Lowett's secret... and on Lowett's own wishes.

But the answer was equally obvious.

A few days later, East Blue, Shells Town, Branch 153.

The spacious square was packed with people who had come to mourn. Though the crowd was dense, it was utterly silent. The bodies of the fallen soldiers had already been sent to the cemetery for burial; today was their collective funeral.

After several days of rest, Lowett's fever had subsided. Other than his somewhat pale complexion, he showed no obvious signs of weakness. Of course, injuries to the soul could never be healed overnight. Many Great Liches still failed to recover even centuries after their phylacteries had been destroyed.

Standing in a concealed corner at the edge of the square, Lowett turned around, his empty left sleeve swinging with the movement.

"Is it really all right for me to be here, Colonel Monka?"

The higher-ups' decision had been conveyed to Branch 153. Monka had successfully been promoted to colonel and taken command of Branch 153, while Lowett had his bounty revoked and was appointed a Navy Ensign for his contribution to Kuro's capture...

Aside from a few staunch opponents who voiced their disagreement, most fence-sitters did not care.

After all, Marine Headquarters had made its intentions very clear. Lowett could not be promoted in any form, could not hold real power, and could not even leave East Blue. They were merely keeping him as a mascot.

With Aokiji backing it, they could also give the World Government an explanation.

Lowett did not care that those above wanted to erase all traces of his existence. He had never belonged to the "past" anyway.

This was also a good opportunity. The name he had grown used to did not fit this world's customs, so he changed it to Francis Lowett and adjusted it slightly.

As for Lowett, the "Triangle Spellbreaker"...

He had already died in that battle.

You caught the Spellbreaker. What did that have to do with Lowett?

Hearing that, Monka, his chin wrapped in bandages, stared at the square in the distance and replied, "Since everyone agreed to keep your secret, then everything from before is in the past... As a Navy Ensign, what is wrong with you coming here?"

Something had ultimately gone wrong with his personality!

Based on the information Lowett had heard these past few days, Monka had originally been an extremely rigid man.

But that suited me perfectly.

The corners of his mouth lifted as Lowett smiled. "Understood."

"Then that's that... I need to head over there. There's a pharmacy in town, so go wander around by yourself."

With that, Monka followed the gazes cast toward the front and strode away.

"How touching, taking such good care of me..."

After Monka left, Lowett's smile faded, and his expression became indifferent as he spoke.

"Too bad it was all a lie I wove myself... There wasn't even as much affection as one would have for a pet!"

Lowering his head and clenching his fist, Lowett's eyelids drooped. Beneath his curtain of hair, his gaze slanted toward Monka's retreating figure. "I truly look forward to seeing what expression you'll wear once you discover the truth and recover your memories."

"Having tasted the sweetness of power, you who now crave it to the marrow... You will surely be very interesting then."

His fist loosened, and a dim Soul Light Orb appeared in his palm as if by magic, flickering constantly.

Lowett spread his fingers and pressed his palm over his face, taking a deep breath.

Hiss...!

A sour, swelling pain instantly spread through his entire body, making Lowett tremble all over.

For a Necromancer, devouring souls was not only a technical task but also a physical one. Without a powerful soul to serve as a foundation, this was the result.

His head buzzed as chaotic fragments of memory surged in. Lowett skillfully controlled them and swiftly cleared them away.

Memories could affect one's personality and even distort one's perception.

Therefore, although Necromancers could directly consume fragments of another person's soul through soul-devouring to steal their memories, most of the time they still chose Soul Search, like watching a movie.

After the impurities were discarded, the Soul Light Orb shrank dramatically again. The Soul Energy actually remaining was less than one-tenth of the original amount, but what remained was the purest and most harmless nourishment.

Given Lowett's current soul condition, this was enough to fill him up.

Placing his fingers beneath his nose and breathing deeply to ease the swelling pain in his head, Lowett let out a long breath and turned to look at the forest behind the town.

"Ten days should be enough, right?"

The moon shone bright amid sparse stars, while crows flew south.

Within the silent forest, a shadow swayed unsteadily forward. From time to time, eerie, inexplicable whimpers from unknown animals sounded beside him. Combined with the night obscured by dark clouds, the scene was chilling to the bone.

After an unknown amount of time, the shadow stopped beside a section of man-made fencing. At that moment, the bright moonlight overhead happened to break through the clouds and spill down like a curtain, illuminating the weathered gray-white tombstones standing ominously before him.

This was Shells Town Cemetery, directly behind Branch 153.

"The town cemetery has existed for decades and was expanded once midway through. This half belongs to the older section. Almost no one comes to pay respects here."

Relying on the map he had memorized during the day, Lowett tightened the black cloak around himself. His face, paler than the tombstones, looked toward the other half in the distance, which was noticeably newer.

"Over there?"

His footsteps rustled. Walking alone through the grim cemetery beneath the moonlight would have made an ordinary person's hair stand on end, but for a Necromancer, there was really nothing exciting about it.

Would you feel terrified by a plate of braised pork on the table?

That was roughly how it felt.

Arriving before the tombstones in the newly built section, Lowett glanced at the cemetery caretaker's hut in the distance. Through the window, he could see the old gravekeeper sitting in a wicker chair with a newspaper in his hands.

The room's dim yellow light was on, but he had been asleep for quite some time.

After confirming that no one was around, Lowett bent down and pressed his ear against a tombstone.

What could be heard in a cemetery at night?

Only Lowett himself knew the answer.

He held his breath and waited quietly...

Suddenly, thud!

A dull impact rang out from the cemetery, where only the dead should have been!

Conducted through the tombstone, Lowett heard it clearly!

A hint of a smile appeared on his pale face. Lowett's lips curled up as he chuckled. "Not bad luck. A fine start!"

Necromantic magic had three major foundations and five major branches. However, it was fine to remember only the five branches, because they were classifications established after distinct types evolved from the three foundations.

The five branches were Summoning Magic, Bone Magic, Flesh Magic, Soul Magic, and Curse Magic.

Within the Soul Magic branch was a basic spell comparable in status to the summoning branch's Skeleton Revival. It was not the Soul Shock he had used on Sam and Buchi of the Black Cat Pirates, but...

Forced Obedience!

This move had originally been developed by Necromancers when exploring certain death-ridden forbidden lands, used to clear out those naturally formed Undead creatures.

Some powerful undead were so troublesome to deal with, thanks to their immortality, that even Necromancers found them a headache.

Later, Necromantic Great Mages of the soul school improved it, turning it into something with an extremely high upper limit and an extremely low lower limit.

The most notable change was that powerful mages could use this spell to forcibly seize other Necromancers' control over their summoned creatures.

Control, not destruction.

Its impact was unprecedented!

When the spell was improved, it happened to coincide with a millennium-long war in the necromantic academic world, and the result was...

The enemy swiftly improved summoning magic, strengthening their control over summoned creatures!

Truly... congratulations, congratulations.

That was why Necromancers were so skilled at fighting. Their own kind had forced them to become that way.

But Lowett had no such complicated thoughts at the moment. He merely wanted to find some tools to work for him and subdue some... artificially created wild undead.

An obscure, low chant filled the empty, freezing cemetery. The insects quickly fell silent, as if some indescribable monster had descended upon the place and intimidated all things.

The old man in the caretaker's hut felt an itch in his nose. He rubbed it, turned over, and continued sleeping.

Whoosh... whoosh...

The airflow around them suddenly began to accelerate, stirring the hem of his clothes.

Lowett extended his sole right arm. The rhythm of his chant changed, becoming impassioned and forceful. Yet strangely, the sound in the surrounding air did not grow louder. Those syllables only reverberated within the soul.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

Suddenly, a column of black smoke appeared with the wind, endlessly circling around him.

Then came two, three...

When dozens of black wisps had formed around him, sweat dripped from Lowett's forehead, and his eyes were no longer so bright.

"That should be enough. Even with energy-saving casting, this is my limit... Nearly a one-fifth conversion rate. In my current condition, that is already perfect."

Not every corpse could be transformed into an Undead creature, nor would every undead naturally obey a Necromancer. Being able to control twenty-seven Zombie Puppets at once, Lowett would give himself a nine out of ten.

The remaining point was for humility.

Drawing his arm back before his chest, Lowett controlled his scant Mental Power and shoved heavily outward.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

Streams of black mist shot forth, each finding its own path. They looped through the air and accurately entered one newly made tombstone after another, all less than ten days old.

That's right!

Even before the reinforcements arrived that night, Lowett had planted the Corpse Transformation Curse in every corpse aboard the ship, waiting for them to undergo corpse transformation.

What use were old corpses from the cemetery, even if they revived? He needed fresh undead soldiers!

If he had possessed enough Mental Power to use large-scale resurrection magic, he would not have spared a single person on that ship.

A minor curse spell like Corpse Transformation Curse could barely even take effect on living people. In most cases, it would only be treated as a skin disease.

But when used on the dead, its effects were outstanding!

Having finished everything, Lowett sensed the twenty-seven faint but undeniable connections in his mind. He took a deep breath and smiled.

"Rise, my servants! In the name of your master, I command you—rise!"

Crack... crack!

As his words fell, a pale hand covered in obvious corpse spots pierced through the soil and reached toward the sky.

The earth throughout the cemetery began to tremble without end. One hand after another pushed open coffins and broke through the dirt, creating an incomparably bizarre scene.

Before long, twenty-seven Zombie Puppets of various heights and builds crawled out of their graves one after another, standing silently beneath the moonlight.

Looking at the Undead Army before him, missing arms and legs included, Lowett's exhausted face was filled with a smile.

"This will be an epic adventure."

Though they did not look impressive, the appearance of this group of undead declared that the profession of Necromancer had officially gained a foothold in this world!

The title of Chapter Four disappeared, then reappeared after I changed it. So here's the question... what is the difference between "Marine Headquarters' answer" and "an answer from Marine Headquarters"?

Please provide the text you would like me to translate, along with any glossary terms or gender notes if applicable!

Thank you all for your recommendation votes. It's still a bit annoying that I can't post on the web version, but thank you all for your support!

One update per day before signing the contract, but I still need to maintain the word count.

Also, the review ended so long ago, and I've written over ten thousand words without receiving a contract notification. Honestly, I'm a little nervous now.