I Refused To Be Reincarnated

"Humph. Mere dark mages dare stand before me."

The elegant, echoing voice boomed, chilling the surroundings as the part of Adam's soul that had been dragged out of the puppet swirled and shifted.

A blue light glinted as an eye sparkling with mockery and malice condensed. Ethereal dark hair tied in a neat ponytail followed before a time-worn traveller coat fluttered on a 1.9-meter frame.

"What's happening?"

Cormac's legs trembled as the mysterious man's lips curled into a soul-chilling smile, forcing a realisation to collapse into his mind.

"He's a dark mage, too! But no matter who he is or why he hid with the ghost, he can't use mana! Continue to drag him out!"

However, he recovered the next second, eyes narrowing into slits. Their mission took priority over everything else, and the man had no relevance.

"I can't? Who told you I needed to?"

Gaston's smile enlarged to reach his eyes as his favorite game would soon begin.

Before his words could register, his single eye pulsed with mana, revealing the ritual's power threads. Jubilant about their enlarging eyes, he tugged at the weakest with a finger.

"You see, before that idiot killed me, I was an anomaly or what peasants like you called mythical."

His face turned somber, sending icy shivers to rock their bodies and their teeth to clatter under the malicious pressure he released.

"Mana is my slave as much as weaklings like you are."

He snapped the thread, causing the ritual to collapse and the bright symbols on the ground to dim, then disappear.

Behind the two ambushers, he peered into the being's eyes, unafraid and unaffected.

"You want me to come because I cheated death three times? Sure. Just wait a little longer, and I'll come by myself... to loop your head off and claim what's yours!"

"I'll wait for you, uncrowned arcane sovereign."

The zombie's lips curled into a cruel smile before it collapsed powerlessly to the ground, and dissolved with the nether stone at its feet.

"Hahaha."

Gaston's maniacal laughter echoed as he bent backwards, his arms dangling under his torse before the verdant forest.

Then, he gazed at the two terrified mice who dared expose his survival.

"Let's play a question game. Option one, do you prefer spending time with me, a tier-two man or your target and his tier-six puppet?"

Awakened from their stupor by his cheeky tone, Zack lept to his feet and drew his wand.

"Shut up, fool. I'm a mage specialising in souls. You have no chance!"

Gaston rolled his eye, delight flashing in it.

"Wrong. The answer was to spend time with him because he would have beheaded the both of you cleanly. Hahaha."

As he laughed, Zack roared his first spell, determined to kill the madman who pressured them into fearing a lowly acolyte.

"Soul agony."

However, with a swipe of his finger, Gaston disassembled the bolting dark spell in a shocking show of mastery and visual acuity as he shook his head like a disappointed mentor.

Then? His lips parted, forcing the two mages to doubt their reality.

"Soul agony."

"ARGH!"

An agonising howl pierced through the area, forcing birds and animals to scatter in panic as Gaston's bolt collided with Zack, sending flying backwards.

Like a puppet seeing its string cut, the proud mage collapsed to the ground, trashing and raising mote of soil as his veins bulged and his body cried under the spell's effects.

"Don't die yet. We're just starting to have fun."

He smirked, arms trembling in excitation as tender memories resurfaced in his mind. Men and women begging, clawing at their faces for his forgiveness and a chance to live one more day. The noise of their bones shattering one by one under his strikes. He loved nothing more than to hear them.

And after six years, he would hear them again.

"I give up! Do whatever you want with him, but let me go."

Cormac pointed at his colleague, not an ounce of remorse distorting his determined face before he continued.

"You can take everything I have on me, my wand included."

Without waiting for his answer, Cormac showed good faith. Hand trembling, he threw his belongings before his spectral frame.

"Oh? Interesting mindset. Sadly, I scorn necromancers the most. Reviving dead people in an emotionless state? As sacks of bones and putrefied flesh? You guys are way madder than me.

Hahaha."

As Cormac turned to run for dear life, his face pale, Gaston pointed his index finger at him.

"I've seen everything this idiot did. He once fought a Dullahan who used ancient dark curses. Want to try them?"

"Curse of eclipsing souls."

The words reverberated through the forest as the ground under Cormac turned dark in his eyes.

The bright morning sky turned into an abyss, and the sun a black hole letting a threatening scarlet light filter around it.

Smoke erupted, howling to life and filling the place with its icy caress.

As a necromancer, he recognised it. It was the fog of death, one that hid terrible creatures within. And he was right.

Bones pierced the ground all around him as undeads rose one after another.

"WHAT IS HAPPENING?!"

His heart sank, its beating almost stopping at the apocalyptic sight his eyes fed him and the noise of bones colliding he heard.

The acrid stench of decay filled his nostrils as Gaston's voice echoed through the fog like a devil's.

"How do you like the personal hell I prepared for you? Since you like those creatures and their emotionlessness, I took the liberty to make them keep you company. Are you grateful? Are you happy?"

"Please spare me! I'll give you everything I have. I'll steal from the other teachers and the academy! I have more value alive!"

Tears rolling down his cheeks and his dark pants turning wet, Cormac collapsed on his knees, pleading for this nightmare to stop.

"Endure for thirty seconds, and I'll spare you."

Gaston nodded, a hint of respect flashing in his eyes and causing a ray of hope to shine in Cormac's eyes.

Through gritted teeth, he cast his defensive spells and prepared to face the skeletons marching toward him.

They were weak individually, but no matter how many he destroyed, more replaced them, biting and clawing at his dark barrier.

After twenty-five seconds, they shattered it, making him sweat but sigh in relief.

With a brief five seconds left, he would survive despite the wounds.

Each second crawling by mirrored a painful yelp as he used his soft arms to protect his neck and torso.

Hot blood spilt like a cascade from his mangled limbs as the odor of rot filled his nostril.

But he smiled. He had counted them! The five seconds passed by.

Hope sparkling in his eyes, he raised his head weakly to gaze at Gaston.

"Well done! What incredible determination. I'm impressed."

Gaston's nod raised his hopes further, causing it to banish the dread gripping his heart and returning light.

Yet, he froze the next second as a skeleton bit through his shoulder and a splitting pain shattered his sense of safety.

"My bad. I forgot to count, so let's restart the timer. Endure for thirty seconds, and I'll let you leave."

He noticed Gaston's evil smile split his mouth and how his eye rolled in pleasure.

"You're the worst human being I've ever seen! Even Aurora isn't as black-hearted as you. I curse you. May your soul never find rest and wander aimlessly for eternity!"

With a final rage-filled roar, Cormac bit his tongue, unwilling to suffer for this madman's amusement and died.

"Rest? It was offered to me on a golden plate twice, and I refused it both times. Hahaha."

He took a second to observe Cormac's intact body, nodding at the curse's insidious effects. Everything had happened in the man's mind but directly damaged his soul.

"As for the third time? I must thank that little Morgane for awakening the third of my soul they had used to heal the fool and Ossian for fixing the seventy missing percent. Hahaha!"