“Left! Go left, you dolt!”

  “Are you sure? The last time I followed your instructions, we ran into more of those seven-star scripture guys…”

  “Don’t talk back to me, minion! Just follow my orders, and we’ll be at our destination in no time!”

  Rusty would have been rolling his eyes if he had any. A day had passed since he arrived in this place. He was not sure whether it was the same world Gwen occupied or the one belonging to his other elven summoner, but everything he had seen so far was new.

  The first thing he noticed was the sky. There were multiple moons overhead, seven in total, or at least that was what the Necromancer claimed. They did not all appear at once during the night. Supposedly, that depended on a person’s location and the time. At the moment, he could see only three spheres hanging in the darkness, each a different size and each glowing with its own shade of blue.

  Then there was the Seven Star Scripture, the people who were chasing them, and the main holy religion in these lands. The seven in their name referred to the moons around this world, which they had decided to call stars for reasons he did not understand. He was not really sure how any of it worked, and whenever he tried to ask, the Necromancer ignored his questions and instead hurled insults at the group.

  It was clear that they despised necromancers and any form of black magic. If he ever returned to this world, they would likely become his primary enemies, so perhaps learning some dark elemental magic would be wise. It stood in direct opposition to the divine, and while both dark and light clashed with one another, his body of twilight metal was well protected against both.

  “Left! I said left! Do you have metal in your ears as well as on your body?”

  “I am made entirely of metal, yes. Also, I don’t really have ears…”

  Rusty replied flatly as he adjusted course anyway, vaulting over a ravine without breaking stride.

  “And if I keep listening to you, we’re going to run directly into another ambush.”

  As if summoned by the statement alone, a horn blared somewhere ahead. Rusty skidded to a halt behind a cluster of boulders just as a squad of paladins appeared in front of them. Their shields were up, weapons ready, and torches lit.

  “You were saying?”

  “...Ah.”

  Vesperus scratched his head in confusion.

  “I just need more life force, I haven’t been able to rest for a while now!”

  The necromancer attributed his failure to fatigue, but Rusty was not sure if that was true or if his new summoner was simply incompetent or terribly unlucky. Every path he chose seemed to lead them into even more trouble, and the paladins somehow continued to find them.

  ‘They must be using some type of tracking skill, but it could not be that precise.’

  Rusty thought this as he waited behind the boulders. While their pursuers could eventually locate them, they could not directly follow their trail. It was as if the paladins could sense that they were somewhere within a half-kilometer radius, but could not determine their exact position. That uncertainty had allowed them to slip past more than once.

  “Is the Bottomless Chasm of a Thousand Poisons close by?”

  “Indeed. It is right over there. Those blasted paladins must have figured out that I would have to pass through here, but how?”

  Their first major hurdle now stood before them, a long bridge stretching across the chasm. It ran for nearly six hundred meters, and the drop below was immense. At the bottom lay nothing but poison and corrosive sludge. Supposedly, even metal would eventually dissolve in those pools, and no living being could survive there, not even a necromancer or their undead.

  “They are guarding it from this side, so how do we get through?”

  Rusty paused to think. It seemed the paladins had anticipated their arrival and were already setting up a defensive perimeter. Waiting any longer would only make things worse, as they would soon fortify the area and possibly cross to the other side as well.

  “What do you mean, how? Let us simply massacre them all and cross, my minion!”

  While Rusty was not opposed to killing them, he doubted that it was the best option. The necromancer was weak and would fall instantly to a paladin’s blade. To make matters worse, he could not summon additional creatures. The spell used to summon Rusty could only be performed once a week and carried a high failure rate. Creating more undead servants required fresh corpses, and that process took time. If they stopped for too long, the army of religious zealots would catch up to them.

  “Uh… Master, that might not be the best solution. I’m sure this is only one of the locations they think we will pass through. Otherwise, there would be more people here… right?”

  “Hm… you raise a good point, my minion. I bet those bastards have just been lucky.”

  Rusty nodded a few times as he tried to work with his new temporary summoner. He knew that if he wanted summoner coins, he needed to cooperate with this man somehow. Since this mission would take longer than usual, it was possible he would earn a decent amount of points this time around. His relationship with Gwen had been calm and pleasant, so he assumed that if he worked well with this summoner, more coins would be rewarded at the end. Still, it was not easy, as the necromancer was already starting to test even his iron nerves.

  “Bah, it matters not. Let’s just go and kill them all.”

  “Uh, but master…”

  Before the man could move forward, Rusty grasped his wrist to stop him and tried to reason with him.

  “The paladins will know we passed through if we kill them, and some of them could escape. Why don’t we just slip by unnoticed after, uh… perhaps disguising ourselves?”

  “A disguise? How would that even work? They will recognise me instantly, you silly minion.”

  As expected, Vesperus did not want to go along with the plan or believe it would work. To Rusty, however, it was a perfectly valid tactic. The paladins and priests wore various garments, including long, fitted robes that draped over their armor. To make things even better, they wore white masks marked with a seven-star symbol on the forehead, hiding their faces completely. It was something Rusty could easily wear over his body.

  Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  “It’s simple, master. I’ll take one of those robes and disguise myself as a priest to cross the bridge.”

  “Hm… you dolt of a minion. What about me? I won’t fit into any of those armors or robes. They will discover us instantly.”

  It was true. Vesperus was quite lanky and too thin to pass as a paladin. The armor would hang awkwardly from his frame, and he lacked the finesse needed to move convincingly in heavy gear, even the lighter armor worn by priests. Still, Rusty already had another idea.

  “Oh, you’ll just get inside of me. They are searching for a necromancer and his minion, so they won’t expect only one person to pass through.”

  Vesperus stared at him as if Rusty had just suggested jumping into the chasm for fun.

  “Inside of you?”

  The necromancer repeated slowly.

  “Don’t be ridiculous. I am a master of death, not some trinket you stuff into your body.”

  “There’s plenty of room inside. I am hollow, you know. If you just relax, I’m sure we’ll be able to make it to the other side in one…”

  “I refuse.”

  Before Rusty could finish, Vesperus snapped.

  “Absolutely not. I will not crawl inside a mindless construct that I have created. It is an action beneath someone of my great stature.”

  At this point, Rusty’s patience was at an all-time low. In the first place, if the man had listened to his commands, they probably would have made it here before the paladins arrived, and none of this would be an issue. Instead, he constantly ordered Rusty to stop and take breaks.

  To make things worse, Rusty had been insulted, ordered around, and blamed for all of the necromancer’s failures. Gwen had never once treated him like this. He no longer cared about the coins. He decided to do things his way and so he moved.

  There was no dramatic wind-up and no shouted threat. One moment, Vesperus was mid-rant, and the next, Rusty was behind him, one arm snapping around the necromancer’s throat while the other locked behind his head. His grip was precise, placed correctly to perform a rear-naked choke.

  “W-wait, what are you doing?”

  Rusty tightened the hold just enough.

  “Calm down and go to sleep. Once you wake up, we’ll be on the other side. You’re just taking a nap, that’s all.”

  Vesperus struggled, clawing at Rusty’s forearm, his boots scraping uselessly against the stone. A pulse of greenish mana appeared for a moment as the necromancer attempted some kind of protective spell, but it had no effect. When it fizzled out seconds later, his resistance weakened, and his limbs went limp. Rusty carefully eased him down to the ground and looked at the unconscious necromancer.

  “Finally. Some silence and I’m still here, so that’s good.”

  For a moment, he wondered if he had failed the mission by attacking his summoner and rendering him unconscious, but everything seemed fine. When he had been with Gwen, she could sleep without affecting his existence, so he was fairly certain that knocking the man out would not cause failure. Only death would.

  He glanced toward the bridge. The paladins were still unaware of what had happened. Their formation was loose as they secured the perimeter and set up a barricade. One of the armored priests had stepped away from the others, standing near a torch and murmuring a prayer. The target was acquired.

  Rusty blended into the shadows and crept forward, his body making no sound at all. A burst of speed later, his hand struck the man’s neck. Though the man shouted, the spell canceling sound was active, allowing Rusty to drag him into the bushes and deal with him without making things bloody.

  “I hope this works.”

  First, he carried the robe and mask back to where his summoner lay resting. Before putting on the disguise, he needed to place the man inside his own body. Luckily, his limb control skill would help with that.

  He clasped his metallic hands around the man’s wrists and hoisted him up as the gauntlets hovered in the air. Vesperus’s body was completely limp, making the process easier. Rusty began positioning the limbs one by one. First came the lower body, then the boots and greaves. Soon, the necromancer was enclosed from head to toe within Rusty’s frame. Once the gauntlets were in place, the body was fully seated inside him, leaving Rusty feeling slightly awkward.

  With that done, he pulled the robe over his own frame. The fabric stretched uncomfortably over metal, but once it settled, it hung convincingly enough. The mask concealed the rest, and now he was ready.

  “This should do it.”

  Rusty rose to his full height and tested his balance. The added weight inside him shifted slightly, but with the help of the weight increasing skill, he was able to forcefully balance the limp body inside.

  He stepped out from the trees and into the torchlight. The bridge loomed ahead, made of wood and hanging over the chasm quite loosely. It wasn’t something a lot of people would cross, but he had to.

  One of the paladins noticed him almost immediately, but his disguise held; the man merely nodded and let him pass. Rusty mimicked the other priest’s behavior, raising his hands in a gesture that resembled a prayer as he moved through the checkpoint. Moments later, he was on his way.

  Luckily, everyone seemed to be in a rush. Other paladins were crossing the bridge at the same time, and he slipped in among them without trouble. His metallic boots clicked against the wooden planks as he stepped onto the bridge. It swayed beneath his weight, and winds howled up from the chasm below.

  The Bottomless Chasm of a Thousand Poisons lived up to its name. A sickly green haze churned far beneath the bridge, bubbles rising and bursting with faint pops that echoed upward. He kept his pace measured. Moving too fast would draw attention, but moving too slowly would invite suspicion.

  Halfway across, the bridge began to sway more violently, tugged by the wind and the uneven steps of the paladins ahead of him. Thick ropes anchored the structure to massive wooden pylons on either side, creaking under the strain. Everything was progressing smoothly until something shifted inside him.

  “Unhand me, you mindless brute. I am your master. What do you think you are doing to me? Let me out.”

  The voice boomed from within his frame. Normally, he could suppress it with a silencing spell, but his luck had run out. A paladin stood right beside him. He had disabled the enchantment to avoid raising suspicion, and now it worked against him as the necromancer inside him struggled to escape. His body began to move erratically, and his disguise failed.

  “What was that, brother?”

  The man turned to face Rusty, who was jerking and twitching as he tried to keep moving. Rusty could not respond. Without a head to possess, he was unable to speak, and he chose not to waste mana suppressing the necromancer with possession when he had to conserve it.

  “Hey, wait. You are not one of us. Who are you?”

  Before the paladin could finish his question, Rusty activated his skill. Twilight engulfed him as he surged forward. The sudden increase in power allowed him to force the struggling presence inside him into submission.

  “Ahhh!”

  The paladin screamed as Rusty slammed into him, shoving him hard toward the edge of the unstable bridge. Shouts erupted from the paladins ahead as they noticed the disturbance, but Rusty did not slow. He barreled forward like a battering ram. Two more paladins stood in his path, one still on the bridge and the other just reaching the far side.

  “Gah… w-what are you doing, you s-tupid minon.”

  Vesperus shouted within him as Rusty retrieved the concealed shield from his back and held it in front of himself.

  “Just be quiet in there. I’m trying to keep you alive!”

  His body slammed into the next paladin, tossing the man aside. Soon, there was only one obstacle left in front of him. The remaining paladin stood his ground at the bridge, gripping a large two-handed hammer. Behind Rusty, more paladins swarmed onto the bridge, rushing to aid their allies as he struggled to escape.

  ‘This better give me a lot of summoner coins… and some good enchantment talismans.’

  Rusty thought this as the armored paladin swung his hammer against the shield, forcing him to take a step back. He had not expected a summoner to work against him to this extent, but even if he had to bind the man and gag him permanently, he would finish this mission one way or another.