Re:Zero - Starting Life in Another World as a Skeleton

Chapter 254: The Antimagic Crystal

The moment Thanatos stepped through the Planar Gate, the violet-gold soulfire in

his sockets swept over the surroundings, processing the environment with

predatory speed.

Emerald grasslands, a piercing azure sky, and the oppressive warmth of a genuine

sun. It was a world brimming with the vulgar vitality of the living—a stark

contrast to the sterile, silent grey of the Necrotic Realm. Such a world, in

Thanatos's logic, was a waste on the living. Soon, it would be a new playground

for the dead.

Behind him, the massive Planar Gate vomited forth a flood of undead. Millions of

his most elite subjects spilled onto the prairie, organizing into perfect,

square phalanxes that began to blot out the horizon.

Thanatos did not issue the order to attack immediately. He tilted his skull

back, sensing the flow of Mana in the atmosphere.

Rich. Dangerously rich.

The concentration was higher than any Tier 7 Plane he had ever subjugated. This

was an anomaly. The Mana density of a world was typically dictated by the state

of its Plane Core. This level of saturation indicated that the Core was not

dormant or peaking, but in a state of hyper-active growth.

Thanatos's soulfire pulsed. Indeed. A world of immense value—and immense risk.

His gaze drifted to the silhouette of a city in the distance—Gale City. It was

modest in scale but built with a terrifying geometric order. The battlements

were already teeming with defenders. Most of them were Undead. Skeletons,

Vampires, Liches. It matched Unit One's report perfectly: a world governed by a

Sovereign of the Dead.

A second later, Thanatos's senses caught a massive ripple in the local

space-time fabric.

In the open fields before the city, the air began to warp. A gargantuan

teleportation array—hundreds of meters across—was manifesting in the sky.

Thanatos deciphered the tactical intent instantly. They intended to bypass the

travel time and drop their heavy hitters directly onto the front lines to seize

the initiative. It was an elegant, efficient tactic. Against any other foe, it

would have worked.

Regrettably for them, Thanatos had spent centuries preparing for this encounter.

He reached into his spatial storage and pulled out a palm-sized shard of jagged,

grey crystal.

[The Antimagic Crystal].

It was a relic plundered from the ruins of a Primordial Civilization during one

of his early crusades. Its function was singular: to forcibly scramble the

Mana-harmonics of an entire sector.

Without a second of hesitation, he crushed the crystal in his gauntlet.

An invisible wave of grey energy erupted from Thanatos, expanding across the

prairie at the speed of thought. The wind died. The Mana flowing through the air

began to vibrate with a violent, disorganized frequency.

Before the city, the massive teleportation array flickered. The lines of light

forming the geometric patterns began to snap like frayed wires. With a sound

like breaking glass, the entire array collapsed, dissolving into a shower of

useless sparks.

The Evernight soldiers who had already materialized through the gate stood

frozen, staring back at the empty air where their reinforcements should have

been.

Thanatos's soulfire burned steady. Success.

But he was a king who favored redundancy. He pulled out three more Antimagic

Crystals and crushed them in sequence, ensuring the atmospheric scramble would

persist. Once the magical blackout was established, he raised a hand of black

bone. Mana poured from his fingertips, weaving a massive, blood-red array in the

sky.

A barrier of crimson energy expanded from the circle, racing outward until it

formed a colossal semi-spherical dome that anchored itself into the earth,

sealing off a hundred-mile radius.

"[Boundary of the Crimson Purgatory]."

This was Thanatos's signature battlefield spell. It isolated the sector,

transforming the prairie into a closed gladiatorial pit. Within this barrier,

the soulfire of all Necrotic Realm units was nourished, their regenerative speed

and physical power amplified by the field. Meanwhile, for any living being,

every breath drawn was a tax on their life-force, accelerating their biological

decay.

More importantly, the rising of the dome was a declaration. It informed the

world that this sector was now the private hunting ground of the Necrotic Realm.

However, the "natives" of this world had no intention of allowing the barrier to

set quietly.

On the walls of Gale City, several hundred high-tier Bone Withers raised their

arms in a single, fluid motion. Death energy coalesced behind them, manifesting

as massive, obsidian-tipped arrows.

The air shivered. Hundreds of black bolts streaked across the sky, trailing

plumes of dark energy as they shrieked toward Thanatos's position. Each arrow

held the mass-energy to level a small hill.

Thanatos didn't even flinch. He continued his incantation, focusing on anchoring

the barrier.

As the arrows neared the boundary, the silent sea of undead behind Thanatos

reacted. Thousands of his own elite archers raised their bows. Two tides of

arrows met in mid-air with surgical precision.

There was no world-shaking explosion. There were only hundreds of dull thuds as

the projectiles neutralized each other, vanishing into puffs of grey smoke.

The Crimson Barrier remained untouched, expanding until it sealed perfectly

against the horizon.

A perfect interception. A meaningless probe.

The Bone Withers on the wall didn't lower their arms. The space behind them

warped again as second and third salvos were prepared. On the plains below,

Thanatos's legions began to maneuver. The front line contracted into a testudo

of heavy tower-shields—a wall of bleached bone that looked impossible to breach.

Then, the Necrotic Realm's mages moved. Tens of thousands of Skeleton Archmages

raised their staves.

Fire, Frost, Acid, and Curses.

A multicolored cloud of death coalesced in the sky, beginning its descent toward

the walls of Gale City. The city's Arcane Legion defenders possessed higher

individual quality, but they were numerically overwhelmed. They could only

project overlapping Mana-shields to weather the initial alchemical storm.

In that moment of stalemate, the isolated Evernight vanguard—the units who had

made it through before the crystals were crushed—made their choice.

The Punishment Legion Centurion raised a hand, and a massive Bone-Cleaving

Greatsword manifested in his grip. He swung the blade forward, pointing directly

at the endless sea of enemy bones.

"GAH!"

The Death Knights of the Fearless Vanguard lowered their lances. They kicked

their skeletal steeds, which reared back and spat plumes of hellfire from their

nostrils before breaking into a thunderous charge.

The Shadow Guards vanished, their forms melting into the silhouettes of the

other units, waiting for the micro-second to deliver a terminal strike.

The Vampires of the State Army bared their fangs, wearing predatory grins that

were the total opposite of their usual bureaucratic masks. The immense pressure

of their daily paperwork and administrative duties was finally being channeled

into its intended purpose: slaughter.

They abandoned their Ghoul subordinates, transforming into streaks of blood-red

mist that blurred alongside the charging Death Knights, heading straight for the

encroaching apocalypse.

"FOR THE SOVEREIGN! FOR THE EVERNIGHT!"

"CRUSH THE INVADERS!"

☆☆☆

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