Undying Villain: Strongest Necromancer

Chapter 3 Not So Holy Father

A long ago, when Malachi was just a 5 year old child. There was only him and his mother. Malachi never knew who his father was, and even though his mother was extremely wealthy, he was still jealous of his friends who had their own father to play with.

His mother realize this and always tried to bring a man home, but none of them were suitable. His mother was beautiful. The most beautiful the town ever seen. She was also extremely wealthy. No man should ever rejected her, but she was also very picky because she wanted to give Malachi a great father.

A man then came into their life. A novice of the Path of Divinity which was the religion of this empire. Any figure of the church in any level were admired and respected as they were serving the god himself. 

His mother was charmed by this man. He had nothing. No wealth, no status, not even strength in magic. All he had was his words. 

Yet, that was enough to convince his mother that he was the right man.

Aldric. That was his name. Even though he was still a low ranking figure in the church, he had a number of loyal followers.

A few weeks after they met, his mother married him and they lived together. Aldric treated Malachi as if he was his own son, giving him everything he could ever expect from a father and he also treated his mother with the utmost love. Because of this his mother willingly spend a lot of money to donate to the church.

But, two years later, his mother grew sick. The best doctors in town even shook his head and couldn’t find the cause of her sickness.

Malachi wanted to bring his mother to a better doctor outside of town, but Aldric didn’t let him saying it was too expensive and said that even all of her mother’s wealth wouldn’t be enough. Instead, he told him to pray to god.

Malachi believed him. His mother grew weaker day by day and he kept on praying for her. However, a year later, she died.

He was still 8 years old at that time. He was just a child. When he saw his mother breathe for the last time, he ran to Aldric in tears, but the man pushed him away and looked at him in disgust.

That was when his whole world completely changed.

The wealth his mother had gathered were all used to funds his campaign in order for him to raise the rank. He spent so much that all of his mother’s business almost went bankrupt, but he manage to reach a high position within the church which earn him funds and support.

With his mother’s businesses and high position, Aldric became the most influential spiritual leader in town. 

The only stain in his name was Malachi. As he was the child of Elena, Malachi had the right to take away all of the assets. 

With that in mind, Aldric quickly thought of a way to remove him. Every day, he would be told to drink a tea filled with poison to slowly kill him.

“Wake up, you son of a whore.”

Malachi stood up as his mind returned to the present moment. His gaze wasn’t filled with contempt however. He had extreme resentment towards Aldric before, but as he grew older, he began to admire his tricky ways and cunning mind. 

That was a little lie he told himself. In truth, he still hated Aldric and will kill him when given the chance.

Aldric did not have any talent in magic. He wasn’t born from an influential or wealthy family. He was just a man great with words. But yet, that mouth of his was enough for him to gain extreme wealth and gain a position of power within the church.

In his last life, even after getting stronger, Malachi failed to kill this man as he was protected by the church. He was extremely intelligent.

‘But this time, I will kill him in this life.’

“What are you looking at brat?” Aldric slapped him in the face. “Maid, bring this filth his tea.”

A maid came in with a tray of tea. “Here it is, young master.”

Aldric frowned and pulled the maid’s hair which made her yelp in pain. “Why are you calling him your master? I am your master. He’s just the son of a whore.”

“I am sorry, Father Aldric,” the woman begged. She knew Aldric’s true personality despite being a high ranking figure within the church. Of course Aldric had threaten her if she dared to spread this. No one would believe her words anyway. In fact, she could be killed if she dare to stain the name of a priest.

“Humph! Drink the tea.”

“I will drink it later. Thank you for worrying about me, father.”

“Are you disobeying me?”

Malachi frowned, but inside he was laughing at how careful Aldric was. Every single day, Aldric would come to his room and make him drink the poisoned tea. He wouldn’t even leave the room until he saw Malachi drink the tea with his own eye.

‘That’s how careful he is. He make sure everything will go as he planned. What a cunning bastard.’

Aldric watched Malachi drinking the tea slowly without blinking. ‘The poison in that tea works too slowly to my liking. But if I don’t do that, my enemies might investigate found out that I poison this child. They can use that fact to bring my downfall.’

In every organization, even in religious organization, there were always rivalry from within. In order to raise up the ranks, Aldric had to pick a side, but picking a side meant having enemies. If he wasn’t careful, he could lose his position. He had many ways of removing Malachi, like killing him and saying that he killed himself, but that was too easy to investigate, his enemy would find out.

He was a high ranking elder now, so many people were watching his moves. Acting like an arrogant was fine, because everyone in his circle did it, and it wasn’t a big deal, but killing a child in his own home would bring him down.

‘For now I have to bide my time. That poison will make him grow weaker as time passed.’

Malachi watched Aldric left his room. The maid bowed apologetically before leaving as well. Right after, he ran to the window and punched his own stomach, trying to make himself puke.

“As I thought, nothing comes out.”

Malachi was certain that the tea was made using a certain liquid that made his stomach process it easily, therefore it cannot come out.

In his last life, Malachi drank the tea until he fell ill and realized the tea was the source of his sickness. He ran away from home, barely able to escape.

“At that time, Aldric was out of town and the rivalry within the church intensified, so he didn’t have any energy to focus on me. But that time is too far. I should escape this place as soon as possible.”

He looked around at his own room and recalled the memories of his mother. The thought of leaving actually angered him a bit. This was his mother’s house, and he had to leave it again.

“It’s just a house,” Malachi said to himself. “It’s just some stones and brick piled up on one another.”

Seraphina appeared and sat on his shoulder. “What are you going to do? I suggest you pick the path of evil again as it will be easier for you to obtain a lot of souls that way.”

Malachi laughed. “I am not even considering other ways than the path of evil. And why do you so eager to help me pick souls?”

“The souls you gathered can be used as offerings to the dark god once again should you need his help.”

“The amount of souls needed for that offerings numbered in the millions with high quality and purity. It took me hundred of years to gather the amount.”

“The dark god can help you.” Seraphina smiled. “The powerful being blessed you with a system so it can foster a beneficial relationship. The more you sell souls to him, the stronger he become. And you will also gain power you never had before.”

Seraphina’s words made him not want to rely on the system too much. He didn’t want to work for the dark god as his soul gatherer, in fact, he wanted to surpass the dark god in the future.

‘Since I am still weak, I should accept this and use it to my advantage.’

“With my knowledge, I know a way to cure the poison inside of me, but it will require me to obtain materials that I currently cannot possess. Seraphina, is the system able to cure my poison?”

“The system is able to cure your poison, but you have to give souls as offerings. Because the level of the poison in your body is quite low, you don’t need souls that is of higher quality or purity. Even the soul of a weak animal is enough.”

Malachi frowned. “I am currently on house arrest. That bastard wouldn’t let me out of the house. Unless…”