"North of Golden City, northwest of Ashton Territory, western regions of the Jefferis Domain…"
In the castle's conference room, Hel's main body was busily sketching out areas where she had recently sensed abnormal fluctuations in the ley lines through her undead perception.
As mentioned before, the deaths of countless Beastmen had caused their dying resentment and blood energy to taint the ley lines of this region.
That contamination made it far easier to construct dark or evil-aligned magic arrays here.
When Hel arrived at the northern border — the Ashton Earldom, which bordered the Mandrake Territory — she sensed something unusual within the ley lines.
It was a strange current of power, completely different from the bloodlust or resentment of before — a force of pure, concentrated malice, filled with hatred toward the world itself.
Though faint, Hel could tell that someone, or perhaps some organization, was using the Beastmen invasion as cover to perform an extremely powerful spell — something on par with a fully realized National Transmutation Array, a magic that far surpassed even high-tier forbidden spells.
"How terrifying… Still, it's fortunate that Heim City isn't within the array's range."
Connecting the recently discovered abnormal regions together, Hel drew a crooked arc across the map.
Heim City sat just outside the line.
In both alchemy and magic, arrays were almost always circular in shape.
The outermost ring — sometimes called the Ouroboros Circle, The Sage's Ring, or Mercury's Orbit — was the most crucial part.
Its purpose was singular: to supply power.
Energy flowed continuously within that outer circle, drawing in ambient elemental forces to sustain the array's operation.
Only through such a cycle could a mage cast stronger spells with less of their own mana.
Thus, by linking the areas of leyline disturbance, Hel could reverse-engineer the scope of the array's influence.
Once she finished sketching the full circle, even though she'd mentally prepared herself, the sight still left her astonished.
The center of the formation lay at Snowvel City in the Duchy of Snowvel, and taking it as the core, the resulting circle spanned nearly four-fifths of the entire Sacrifice Kingdom.
"What a massive undertaking…" Hel sighed in awe.
If this were a complete National Transmutation Array, the range would be almost identical.
And by coincidence—or perhaps not—Hel's eyes drifted to a smaller circle drawn in the lower right corner of the map.
It marked the location of her own planned transmutation array.
Compared to the massive circle covering most of the kingdom, hers looked pitifully small.
Yet by chance, it sat exactly on the edge of the greater circle—right along the Ouroboros Ring.
"Maybe… I can make this work."
Hel stared at the map for a long while, an idea forming in her mind.
But just as the plan was taking shape, she suddenly felt a strange fluctuation—something wrong with one of her lesser bodies.
Not the one wandering outside, but the one stationed in the underground base to receive incoming undead.
Recently, undead arrivals from the Free Nation had been decreasing, so Hel hadn't been paying much attention.
Normally, she only checked in before bed, collecting the few dozen undead that had gathered over the day.
But now, she felt a massive surge of undead energy appear in the underground base all at once.
Switching her consciousness over, Hel was greeted by a shocking sight—thousands upon thousands of undead crammed together, filling the space like a suffocating tide.
That made no sense.
Unless summoned by a higher undead, these creatures should've remained obediently within the Free Nation's borders.
So why were they all migrating toward Heim Territory?
Could it be…
Hel's eyes widened as a realization struck her.
She immediately expanded her perception through the Soul Network she'd established across the Mandrake Territory—and soon discovered a familiar undead who hadn't yet joined the network.
Sweet, one of the late Grand Duke's unlucky subordinates.
He was leading a vast horde of undead northward along the Mandrake River, toward the Duchy of Snowvel.
Behind him, an endless mass of undead followed—so many that some, unable to fit along the riverbanks, were climbing over the surrounding mountain ranges to keep pace.
The scene looked like a rolling tide of death, an ocean of undead surging forward.
"What in the world is happening?"
Hel frowned deeply and linked her consciousness to Sweet through the Soul Network.
It didn't take long to uncover the cause.
"Orders from the Church of the Divine Descent…?" Hel muttered as she read his memories.
"But why summon this many undead? To power the array?"
She noticed that many of these undead bore marks from the Witch of the Underworld herself.
If they were to be sacrificed like this, weren't the cultists afraid of provoking her wrath once she recovered?
Or… was this actually the Witch of the Underworld's own command?
If so—then as one of the Witch's four nominal commanders—should Hel… get involved?
A mischievous grin spread across her skeletal face.
"Well, I do like a bit of chaos. Wouldn't hurt to stir the pot."
But before causing trouble, she needed to handle a more immediate issue—what to do with the overflowing undead already clogging her underground base.
So, over the next several days, Hel threw herself into nonstop work, expanding her Soul Network using the new arrivals.
Day and night, she harvested souls, connecting thousands upon thousands into her system.
Within a few days, she had gained control of hundreds of thousands of undead.
Meanwhile, the summoning circles buried deep in the Monster Forest had finally exhausted their elemental crystals after constant overuse.
But thanks to that, Hel was finally free from the repetitive grind of maintaining them.
Letting out a long breath, she smiled—this time, without having overworked herself to death.
Her harvest was immense.
Those hundreds of thousands of undead were a mere bonus.
Her true prize was the Soul Network that now stretched across nearly the entire Sacrifice Kingdom—formed through the boundless Sea of Undead itself.
With it, Hel might no longer need to rely on Blood Crystals at all.
She could now construct her incomplete National Transmutation Array right atop this tainted land—using the power of death itself as her foundation.