Secret World: I Became a God Through Lies

Chapter 483 Burning Star: The Fall of the Necromancer
It is not the stars that are burning.

Rather, it is humanity's last vestige of reason.

Death is falling.
Falling is eternal.

—The Posthumous Manuscripts of the Star Disaster

Si Ming suddenly broke free from the pile of paper scraps, panting heavily.

All around was still that dim world of envelopes, the sky was gray with creases, and the ground was covered with moldy papers.

It felt as oppressive as a coffin.

He looked up.

The postmaster, as vast as the starry sky, still watches from afar, the meat drawer slowly wriggling, as if waiting for the next delivery.

Those countless postmarks, like indifferent judges, coldly survey everything.

Beside him, Isabel staggered and sat down on the ground.

Her right arm was completely gone from the shoulder down, and blood mixed with alchemical potions splattered all over her dress.

Even so, she forced a pale smile despite the pain.

"...You made it out alive? That's really not easy." Her voice trembled, but she remained calm.

Si Ming opened his mouth as if to say something, but noticed that three unopened envelopes were still hanging quietly around them.

The three letters were not lost; they seemed to have been deliberately preserved by some force, their surfaces chillingly cold.

Isabel raised her only remaining hand and pointed to the letter in the middle.

“Wayne… is in bad shape.”

Her voice was low and tinged with a rare urgency.

The next moment, the envelope in the middle suddenly exploded.

There was no firelight, only a loud, tearing sound like paper being ripped, and the entire environment suddenly distorted.

The ground beneath Si Ming and Isabel's feet instantly changed, as if they had been immersed in a new painting.

Ancient Roman-style castles and manors.

They were standing on a tall watchtower.

The stone pillars were broken, the iron railings were rusty, and the wind carried the stench of decaying bones.

The sky in the distance was blood-red, like fire.

Beneath the tower lies an endless ocean of white bones.

Piles of bones formed mountains, covering the earth, as if the whole world was filled with the dead.

The whispers of the dead echoed through the pile of bones, each sound like a cry from hell.

Si Ming and Isabel looked down and saw the figure kneeling in the center.

Wayne.

He was surrounded by countless white bones, his body half-buried in the pile of bones, as if he were about to be swallowed up by the whole world.

Beside him, a wailing banshee floated, screaming and driving away the postman bull demons that surged from all sides.

Her voice tore through the air, but it couldn't mask the eeriness and despair surrounding her.

The God of Fate's gaze froze.

Wayne's face... was no longer the withered, burned look it had been before.

Instead, there was the handsome face of a young boy, youthful and pale.

However, there was no longer any light in those eyes.

Instead, there was utter madness.

In the center of the sea of ​​bones, Wayne slowly raised his head.

He looked like a dying boy, his lips pale and his eyes devoid of all human light.

Suddenly, he stretched out his hand and pointed straight to the sky.

His voice was hoarse, yet carried a frenzied power, echoing above the sea of ​​bones:
"—Death Star!"

"I command you to descend!"

"In the name of me, the Lord of the Dead!"

boom--!
The whole world trembled in an instant, and the pile of bones churned like ocean waves.

Si Ming and Isabel were on the watchtower, almost unable to stand due to the impact.

Isabel's expression changed drastically, and she shouted sharply, "Oh no! Quick, stop him! He's going to burn the star!"

Siming was taken aback: "Burning Star? What's that?"

Isabel gritted her teeth and explained urgently, "Burning Star is the state where the Star Calamity is completely engulfed! The power of the Star Calamity is lost every second—one unit per second!"

"If it doesn't stop before reaching zero, it will fall into negative territory..."

"Then they'll never be able to come back!"

"Completely—revert to the old ways!"

Her voice was shrill, tinged with the smell of blood and cold sweat.

Siming's pupils shrank.

At that moment, he stared blankly at the Star Calamity Card in his hand.

—【The True God Who Weaves Lies into a Destiny】

His heart clenched suddenly. In that instant, he seemed to see his reflection in the mirror: draped in a cloak that blurred the lines between illusion and reality, wearing a bizarre smiling mask on his face.

"This is...my Burning Star?"

He clenched his fists instinctively.

Isabel urged anxiously, "Stop him! There's still time!"

Si Ming remained silent for a moment, then slowly shook his head.

"—It's too late."

Boom——

The sky cracked open.

It wasn't a planet slowly descending, but rather the entire night sky being forcibly lifted by an invisible hand.

In the depths of darkness, a colossal creature was revealed.

It is not round, but twisted and irregular, like a celestial body pieced together from countless skulls.

The skull's eye sockets emitted an eerie light, each pair of eyes looking down with a mocking and deathly sneer.

It rolled and slowly approached, like a huge corpse floating in the void, yet possessing the mass and pressure of a star.

There was no light in the sky, only the shadow of this dead star.

The moon was completely swallowed up.

Si Ming held his breath, a chill running through his heart.

As the Death Star drew near, he felt the whole world collapsing.

The air seemed to freeze, and each breath felt like swallowing bone fragments.

He seemed to see the most absurd gaze before his eyes:
The Death Star is already in orbit.

Isabel's face turned deathly pale, and for the first time, a clear look of fear appeared in her eyes.

"It's over... Wayne really ignited his Cataclysm."

Her voice seemed to tremble: "He is no longer human."

The sea of ​​bones surged.

Wayne's body was encased in countless white bones, his flesh and bone powder mixed together, completely merging with the earth beneath his feet.

"Kaka...kaka..."

The sound of bones snapping together echoed between heaven and earth, as if the entire world was rebuilding his body.

Bone powder fell like snowflakes, drifting down from the sky and landing on him.

A moment later, a huge skeleton stood up in the center of the sea of ​​bones.

It towers into the clouds, with pale flames burning in its eye sockets.

The ribs, made of white bones, resembled a prison, and the arms were like giant towers, each swing carrying the power to shatter mountains and rivers.

Wayne is no longer human.

He became the King of the Dead.

"Roar--!!"

A deep roar resounded through the heavens and earth, causing the earth of white bones to tremble.

The Death Star in the sky also answered his call.

The skull planet slowly rotated, and light burst from the eye sockets of countless skulls, as if hundreds of pairs of dead eyes were staring at the earth at the same time.

Then, the Death Star split open.

Burning fragments of white bone fell from the sky like a meteor shower, each one carrying the aura of death.

The falling star crashed down with a deafening roar.

The earthquake split open, bones turned into flames and burned, and ashes and corpse dust filled the air.

What followed was the awakening of the undead army.

"Gaaaaaahh ...

The cries of agony rose and fell.

Hordes of skeleton warriors rose from the pile of bones, wielding rusty spears and shields.

The armored bone knight rode a bone horse, his eyes burning with white flames, his spear pointing straight ahead.

The enormous bone dragon flapped its decaying wings and soared into the air from the mountain-like pile of bones, breathing out the chilling breath of the dead.

The entire sea of ​​bones instantly transformed into an endless army of the undead.

Their king was that towering skeleton.

Wayne.

—The Necromancer King.

Si Ming and Isabel, who were on the watchtower, witnessed this scene, and their hearts clenched simultaneously.

This was the beginning of a war.

“…Wayne…” Si Ming murmured.

Below, the giant skull slowly turned its head.

Those burning white flames in their eyes suddenly subsided, revealing the last trace of human tenderness.

He forced a smile at the distant God of Fate.

This was his last moment of lucidity. Then, he abruptly turned around, his gaze fixed on the crack that was gradually tearing open in the sky.

Thirteen or fourteen enormous figures slowly emerged from the void.

They all had the heads of bulls, bodies as tall as twenty meters, heavy mailbags on their shoulders, and wielded calamity hammers as large as mountains.

—A giant bull-headed postman.

They are the high-ranking officers of the Hell Post Office, the true transporters of calamity.

"Roar!!!"

Wayne raised his arm and pointed at them.

White flames burst forth in his eyes, and a roar resounded throughout the heavens and earth.

That's not a human voice.

It was the roar of the King of the Dead.

"In the name of myself—the Lord of the Dead!!!"

The undead army erupted in jubilation.

The bone dragon flapped its wings, stirring up a gale, and pounced straight at the bull-headed postman.

Bone knights lined up, the ground trembled, and their spears charged forward like a white torrent.

Thousands upon thousands of skeleton warriors roared as they charged forward.

The death stars roared in the sky, and one by one, they fell and crashed down beside the Minotaur Postman, exploding into towering clouds of bone dust.

The giant minotaur postman roared and swung his calamity fire whip, crushing hundreds of skeletons with each strike.

But the next moment, more skeletons poured out of the sea of ​​bones, filling the gaps.

This is a torrent of the dead, the final battle of the Necromancer King.

Wayne raised his head, his steps shattering the earth, and the giant skeleton charged straight into the center of the battlefield.

Behind him, the Death Star in the sky slowly pressed down, as if to crush the entire world into a path of death.

The sea of ​​bones churned, and the battlefield roared.

The Death Star spun in the sky, its cracked skull eye sockets cascading down, transforming into countless falling death stars that crashed down one after another.

boom! boom! boom!
Each falling star explodes upon landing, creating a cloud of white bones and dust, collapsing the ruins of the ancient castle, and knocking the giant bull-headed postman off balance.

However, the postmen still wielded the Calamity Hammer, the enormous weapon sweeping across like a mountain.

Each swing shattered hundreds or even thousands of skeleton soldiers, sending bone fragments flying everywhere.

But the dead have no fear.

The skeleton army surged forward like a tidal wave, the bone dragon opened its massive jaws and spewed out a deathly breath, and the bone knights roared as they charged forward desperately.

This is a clash between the dead and calamity, a war that will shatter even heaven and earth.

On the watchtower, Si Ming gripped the railing tightly, breathing rapidly.

Isabel, however, remained surprisingly calm.

She took an old pocket watch from her bosom and snapped it open.

The hands on the dial are not ordinary markings, but rather dancing starlight.

One star goes out every second.

"After the star ignites, the Star Calamity Value is consumed at a rate of one unit per second."

Her voice was cold, as if she were describing the process of an experiment.

"If we don't stop before it reaches zero..."

"At that time, he will no longer be human."

The ticking of the pocket watch was exceptionally clear amidst the roar of the battlefield.

Si Ming whispered, "Wayne...is he really unable to stop?"

Isabel did not answer, but simply raised her eyes, her gaze icy.

"He has reached the end."

On the battlefield, Wayne's figure became increasingly terrifying.

The giant skeleton shattered the earth of bones, each step accompanied by a deafening roar.

He pointed to the sky, and the Death Star fell faster and faster, as if his frantic heartbeat was urging the end of the world.

"Roar--!"

His roar shattered the clouds, and his voice no longer sounded human.

Pale flames danced in his eye sockets, yet they carried an uncontrolled frenzy.

Bones and flames continued to emanate from his body, and his figure increasingly resembled an indescribable necromancer king, rather than the young mage.

Isabel closed her pocket watch, a complex look suddenly flashing in her eyes.

She finally couldn't hold back any longer and screamed towards the battlefield:

"—Stop! You can still come back!"

The sound traveled through the storm and reached Wayne's ears.

The giant skeleton paused for a moment.

Those white, fiery eyes trembled slightly, as if struggling.

The next second, he slowly raised his head and looked in the direction of the watchtower.

He didn't speak.

He simply shook his head silently.

Then, he roared again, swung his skeletal arms, and led his undead army to charge at the giant minotaur postman.

The deafening sound was like the world itself was crying.

The battlefield of bones burns, the shadow of the Death Star looms.

Wayne's body grew larger and larger until it was no longer recognizable as human.

But amidst the frenzied white flames, he suddenly paused for a moment.

He lowered his head, his gaze falling on the wailing banshee beside him.

She continued to scream, her voice piercing, chasing away the noise of the dead.

But Wayne's gaze pierced through the broken shell and saw another phantom.

A familiar face.

blonde hair, blue eyes, and a gorgeous yet fragile smile.

--Princess.

That was the person he was once willing to burn everything to protect, and also the fleeting light that pushed him into the abyss of the dead.

The wind howled, and the flames of war burned.

Wayne bent down, and the enormous skeletal body cautiously extended a bone finger to touch the banshee's face.

His voice was low and hoarse, yet it carried a final tenderness:

“Princess…I have hated, and I have loved.”

"Now... I'm setting you free."

"I hope that when we meet again... you will no longer be that princess."

"And I am no longer an innocent magician."

The wailing banshee's figure trembled, her voice gradually lowering, her screams turning into sobs.

Then, her figure began to shatter, turning into a faint phantom.

That was the appearance of a human princess, smiling gently as she looked at Wayne.

She did not speak.

It simply turned and vanished into the white light, quietly and silently.

Flames burned fiercely in Wayne's eye sockets.

He raised his head and roared to the sky.

The enormous skeleton suddenly accelerated, the sea of ​​bones beneath its feet churning, as it charged toward the three minotaur postmen in front of it.

The three colossal figures, each twenty meters tall, wielded their doom hammers and roared as they fought against the undead legion. But Wayne did not back down.

He opened his arms and hugged their bodies tightly.

The collision of bone and flesh produced a deafening roar that seemed to tear the heavens and earth apart.

He looked up abruptly, his voice shattering the sky.

"I am not a necromancer!"

"I am Wayne!"

"—The mage Wayne!"

The Death Star roared in response.

The entire Skull Planet crashed into the Earth.

The blazing white light engulfed everything; the ancient castle, the undead, and the minotaur postman were all shattered in the flames.

The world seemed to have been cremated.

boom! ! !
The watchtower where Si Ming and Isabel were located shook violently, the tower collapsed, and they were thrown away by the shockwave.

When the light faded, the battlefield had become a blank wasteland, with only embers and ashes drifting in the air.

—Wien is gone.

Amidst the ruins of the watchtower, Isabel slowly propped herself up, still clutching the pocket watch tightly to her chest.

The last starlight on the dial went out.

She lowered her head, gently closed her pocket watch, her voice cold, yet trembling uncontrollably:
"Five minutes and forty-seven seconds."

"...This was his last act of rationality, and also his final performance as a celestial calamity."

The wind blew, stirring up the ashes of the bones, which drifted away like snowflakes.

That was Wayne's final curtain call.

"A throne made of bones"
The stars burned as a form of cremation.

You are not a ghost.
You are still human.

The name will be forgotten.

But your fire,

It will endure forever in the Death Star.

—The Book of the Dead

(End of this chapter)