The Black Necromancer

The battle had ended and the clean up began. With Leon present, it was pretty easy for them to take care of the corpses of the Demonic Beasts, however, it would be too wasteful for him to get rid of everything by turning them into his summons. Some of the Demonic Beasts possessed part of value that could be used to craft rare materials and potions.

So, to balance things out, Leon only converted roughly half of the fallen Demonic Beasts into his summons, but even than was a large number. The majority of them were C rank, but a good number were still B rank creatures.

Leon retreated from the front lines to return to Fort White and meet Kai, who had been working with Gizmo to create magic cannons of excellent quality. The moment he stepped into the smithy, he was met with the loud calls of Gizmo.

"Oi! Have you finished engraving the array?" The dwarf's deep voice rang.

"I did that hours ago." Kai's replied in an exasperated tone, as if he was tired of repeating the same thing over and over again.

"Oi, don't give me no attitude, laddie. I'll smack you upside the head and you won't know left from right." Gizmo snorted back.

Leon shook his head and walked past the busy apprentices that were hammering down on heated metals. He even passed by Damian, the main disciple of Gizmo. The boy was already a bit familiar with Leon, so he did not freeze up like the other apprentices, even though he was still a bit nervous.

"Gizmo." Leon called out to the dwarven blacksmith when he reached the man's private workshop where he and Kai worked together to piece together many high level pieces of equipment. The bearded dwarf was shirtless as he hammered over a plate of metal. The metal glowed with a bright blue color, indicating that it was not normal in the least.

"What is it, laddie? You know I'm a busy man these days." Gizmo paused and raised up his goggled to eye Leon for a moment, before he went back to work.

"I need your help. You and Kai's to be precise. It is of utmost importance." Leon answered the man. Kai appeared from a corner of the massive workshop, his goggles sitting atop his head of silver-grey hair.

"You need something to track the Phantom Millipedes, yes?" The young man asked.

"Yes." Leon nodded his head, and Kai threw something over to him.

Leon easily snatched it out of the air and held it up. It was a locket. Confused, Leon opened it, revealing a contraption that resembled a compass.

"Although the Phantom Millipedes only just appeared, I poured my all into finding out a good way to track them. I only just finished that. It is not the best it could be conceptually, but it should do well enough to satisfy your needs for now." Kai explained.

"Ah, I see. Thank you." Leon grinned and tightened his grip on the compass. It was a great thing that he did not have to wait any longer to begin his search on this forgotten foe.

After thanking them, Leon felt Fort White and informed the others of his departure into the other parts of the Desolate Lands. He would spread his summons through the Desolate Lands, but also personally take part in the search.

An hour later, Leon found himself standing atop a hill in a barren area of the Desolate Lands that was almost devoid of traces of life. The earth was a dark and murky color, and sparse patches of grass, along with a few lonely trees was all that Leon could see for the next few miles.

"The Desolate Lands is truly a large area. It is as large as three kingdoms from what I can tell." Leon spoke to Nedra who was in her millipede form. She was already aware of the fact that Leon was hunting down the possible incarnation of the millipede queen that had overthrown her, and she wanted in on the hunt.

"True. If we can turn all this land into our, then we can be an unstoppable force on the Central Continent. With allies like Gublin and Oceabal, then we would truly be a force to be reckoned with." Nedra chimed.

Speaking of Oceabal, Leon had asked Leonidas, and found out that Ursula had received some news of trouble at Oceabal, so she had to withdraw her people. When asked of the nature of the trouble, he had been told that an attack had been launched on Oceabal's territory by the Demons.

"You're right, but that is still something far in the future. Right now, only Fort White is enough of a headache, and that is when I am not even involved in its day to day running. Taking charge of an entire kingdom is a big deal." Leon said.

"True." Nedra nodded her head and waved her antennas.

Leon held up the compass that acted as a rough locator to any concentration of the unique energy that the Phantom Millipedes gave off. The needle that pointed directions within the compass swayed and turned around before settling in one direction.

"That was quick. That means we must be close to a hotspot." Leon hummed and stored the compass within his spatial ring. "Let's go." He gathered his thoughts and turned to his Spirit Companion.

Just like Nero and Kaladin, she had also broken through to A rank, but had chosen not to show herself off. She did not want to expose all of their cards just yet, as there was a chance that the Demons might try something and make a move directly at Leon. If they did not expect her to be A rank, then she would catch them by surprise!

"Alright." Nedra morphed her body into a more compact form and climbed onto Leon's shoulder before Leon took off, heading in the direction that the compass had pointed out.

Unknown to them, a blazing red gaze was trained on their backs.