Walter Tye will destroy death, even if he has to kill everyone first.
The last member of an ancient order of necromancers, Walter Tye has a goal: to achieve immortality for all mortals beings and throw off the yoke of the gods deciding the fate of mortals’ afterlife. Forced to flee from paladins and witch-hunters, he must hide his identity under the cover of a humble shopkeeper, selling potions to fund his research.
His quiet life of deceit and research is finally shaken with the discovery of an ancient city below ground; one that may hold the gods’ most forbidden secret. But beware of paladin blues…
It’s strange that I actually haven’t read too many necromancer-focused stories in this genre. Solo Leveling barely counts, and Awaken Online has it but with the VRMMO veneer on top. Suppose I just haven’t read enough popular korean serials. Anyway, all that to say that I definitely enjoyed the necromancy focus here.
This story doesn’t follow Tye from his humble beginnings, no, we start Tye already as a powerful necromancer lord, with minions, a dungeon, and the grandest of plans: defeat death not just for himself, but for everyone alive.
Why, you ask? Well, in this world, unless you die with blade in hand and a history of dedicated service to a god, you go to Helheim, not Valhalla. And Helheim is not a fun place to go, and Hel (the goddess ruling it) is not a fun person to interact with.
Of course, Tye has some problems. Defeating death is… difficult. And it’s not helped by all those harmful stereotypes about necromancers, and those stupid summoned Earth heroes out to make his life miserable. But what’s a necromancer to do, apart from plan and persevere?
The characters in the story are well written and varied, and all of them have strong convictions that guide their decisions. All of them, as well, are shades of grey. Is Tye the hero of the story, the anti-hero, or actually the villain? Do the ends justify the means? It is delightfully left up to the reader to infer, and when the story is all done there’s no secret revelation providing a simple answer.
I liked that.
Most of the LitRPG stories I binge are very black and white, and that’s great for a popcorn-style read. The nuance here was change of pace that I think I needed before jumping back into more straightforward narrative structures.
To those who like fairly OP MCs, necromancers, and plots which have you questioning at what point a hero becomes a villain, I highly recommend this story.
