Revenge of the Sorcerer King 3 - 5 (Patreon)

Good Morning everyone! I hope the week is being kind on everyone. 

Chapter 5

Oberon

“Increase hunting the area. A town is one thing, but a city, the capital no less, will be well defended. They are likely to know something is a foot already, even if they don’t know the exact cause. We need as many undead as we can get for the upcoming battle.”

“Understood. It will be done.” The undead captain bowed before leaving the carriage by hopping on an undead horse. I turned back to the magical screens to resume work on a spell I wanted to try. I had invented plenty of new magic back in my last life, but this was my first real attempt in this life.

“Master?” I lifted my head to find one of the Undead Generals waiting for me.

“Yes, Uh, Mike, right?” I asked. I had given the generals names but hadn’t really thought too hard on it. He was an undead lich that could use lightning magic. A decent asset in a fight.

“I was wondering why you didn’t change the imps into fairies?”’

“Ah, back at the last town. While I would have gotten a little mana from the exchange, it does take some time to preform the change. Plus, I’m not sure they deserve it even with a loyalty contract. Need to let them earn it,” I explained. It was best to help the undead understand that way they could grow into stronger versions. Just in the few hours since we left the town, several dozen of the undead among the army had mutated and evolved to higher forms.

“I see. I knew master must have had a reason. My mind was just to weak to see it.”

“Better to ask. I could have just forgotten and that would have been a waste.”

The general nodded then left after I told him to get some more levels. The prey around the town was nothing short of pathetic. What else could be expected when the area was constantly hunted for food by the low-level adventurers. Further out was a different story. Once people got away from the roads and the towns, the monster levels jumped by almost twenty or thirty at times.

It’s a miracle the people haven’t been overrun since the change to the world. With levels making such a big difference in combat. The townspeople that had managed to survive the night. I’d observed them to find that most of them barely broke level ten. I had thought Alessa was a odd case given her situation, but it looked like being low-level was the norm.

I cleared my head and turned back to the screen. My space magic was almost completely unlocked, but there was still a bit to go. That was a problem as it meant that I couldn’t access my dimensional storage. Many of my items had a failsafe that should I die they would be teleported to certain locations, hence why Mercy wasn’t in my possession. It had teleported to a location likely on the other side of the world then over the years was found by a hapless adventurer which eventually led it to being consumed by the Wandering Labyrinth.

That said, there were still things in there that I could make use of if no one managed to break my seals. Given how far magic had fallen, I was willing to bet they hadn’t and even if they did, it would be nice to have my full storage back. I could fit a castle’s entire treasury inside of it before.

That lead me back to trying to create a work around. Using what I had learned of the system so far, to make it work in my favor. Sure, it might cost five, ten or even more in mana, but at least I would know where I stood on resources. I cracked my knuckles, which sounded like I broke a finger, and got to work.

~~~

“Master. We’ve arrived.”

I glanced out of the carriage to take in the sight. This town was much bigger than the last and I even saw a mage’s tower toward one side. It was night, but there were still plenty of lights among the windows and streets. With my magic sight, I took in what we would be dealing with. There had to be close to twenty-five thousand people in the town. I could feel the undead part of me start to desire to rend their flesh.

“This is as good a time as any,” I mumbled to myself. Holding my hand out, I chanted for close to three minutes. A chant length that was equal to a grand spell for me. My mana drained as I mouthed the words that most of the world had forgotten. Finally, a small vortex opened and a virtual vault appeared in my mind. “Took more than I’d liked but at least no one found my dimensional plane.”

I reached in and pulled out a crimson spear. As soon as the weapon was completely free of the pocket dimension, the heat around us rose by the second. “Oh. Wished your old master?” I said laughing at the action. Promise at my waist suddenly lashed out with its own mana and all the heat was sucked into the weapon. Once that happened the Spear realized that it couldn’t win and stopped wasting mana. “That’s better.”

“What is that? I feel like I’m staring at the sun!” Helena groaned in pain as she moved back. I noticed that even Alessa that was basically immune to the sun had backed a few steps away.

“This would be Delha. Spear of the immortal flames. A little something I acquired in the past after defeating the king that wielded it. Poor man didn’t know what he had, though to be fair the weapon was controlling him.”

“Sounds like just the sort of thing you would have,” Alessa said with a glance at Promise at my waist.

“I did like to collect weapons of great power.” Most of the others that I had were teleported to a few vaults I had placed around the world. This one though would have caused more destruction being free, thus I took the risk of leaving it in my pocket dimension. If someone managed to break my seals than they would have had the knowledge to contend with the weapon. If not, well, they wouldn’t have a very good day then.

“Isn’t Promise good enough for you?” Helena asked with a scoff. “Besides you’re a mage, not a spearman.”

“Ah. My dear Helena. This isn’t just a spear,” I said with a wicked grin. “But it would ruin the fun to tell you, so you can wait to see.”

“You and your secrets,” Alessa said shaking her head.

I gestured to the undead generals. “Ready the troops. We’ll attack at midnight!”

Alessa

I thought Promise would be the only legendary weapon that I would see, but whatever that spear was. I knew it had ended hundreds of thousands of lives. The rage and anger coming from it was unlike I had ever felt. I had even taken a few steps back despite myself.

“We’ll move in and attack before the main event takes place,” I said but Oberon caught me before I could leave to ready my Familia.

“Stay out of the city until I give the signal.”

“What is the signal?”

He grinned but shook his head. “I think you’ll know when you see it.”

I nodded slowly then moved off to join my Familia. Some of the girls had turned the people in the last three villages we attacked into ghouls. I hadn’t experimented with them too much choosing to create the stronger vampire. It was still good to know what the ghouls were capable of doing. The ghouls of my Familia were linked to me, so I could control them at will as well. Jade had taken charge of that. She made a great assistant when it came to dealing with things among the Familia.

Once all this was over, I planned on asking Oberon to give me a Lordship to rule and make it a paradise for my Familia. She would be a great help in making that still fuzzy image into a reality. I knew there was still a long time before that all happened, but there was no point to the present if you didn’t plan for the future. Given that I was immortal, I had many years to plan out.

I moved with Jade and a group of ten that had taken to being called my royal guard to the east side of the city. I planned to hunt the adventurers and anyone with holy powers before they are able to set up a defense again. The barrier from the last town was taken down in seconds, but with more people meant more priests. We can’t hope that Oberon will be able to one hit it every time.

“Shouldn’t we move it before the attack starts?” Jade asked. I had already told everyone to wait for my command. A benefit of mental abilities.

“Oberon said to wait for the signal. Knowing him, he’ll probably level half the city before we get a chance to participate.” The spear flashed through my mind and I shook my head. I had no idea if I was just being paranoid, but I felt that weapon could do that. Level the city.

We waited as I knew the undead were marching into place. Oberon’s ghosts and shadow lurkers easily dealing with any scouts or patrols that were sent outside the side. It wouldn’t be a long before anyone knew something was a foot, but by then it would be too late. I focused on the road that the army approached from easily able to spot Oberon with my darkvision.

He strode forward in front of the lines of undead with the spear in his grasp. He took a stance then lunged the spear toward the town. A streak of orange red lined the night sky as it gained speed unnraturally. In what felt like a blink of an eye, the weapon struck the plaza in the center of town.

Nothing happened, except the alarm started ringing through town. With my life sight, I could see soldiers rushing toward the weapon as well as the walls. I waited sure that it was about to happen but still nothing came.

“Was that the signal?” Jade asked a little upset. She usually had quite a strong poker face so it showed how annoyed she was. “We lost our advantage…”

Before she could finish, an explosion bright enough that I had to cover my eyes ripped through the town as everything around the center plaza was reduced to ash, including the two or three hundred soldiers that were investigating the weapon. A torrent of flame tore through the streets incinerating anyone in its path. When the flame reached the gates, the were ripped apart and turned to splinters.

Looking at the devastation, I would honestly be surprised if anyone survived that. I could feel the heat from where we stood nearly seven hundred meters out from the walls. “By the Gods! Was that Delha’s wrath?”

I looked at Jade in surprise. “You know of it?”

“I was a princess once. I was forced to study the history of the kingdom. Delha’s wrath wiped three cities off the face of the planet before the calls of the humane forced Oberon to stop using the weapon. I fear for the world if that has been unleashed again.”

“Surely he can’t use the weapon repeatedly?” I had to agree with Jade, if Oberon could use that weapon on every city we come against then this war was going to end a lot faster than I thought.

“The three times he used it before were separated by months and then a year, so its hard to say. Likely, only Oberon knows how many times he can use the weapon. And knowing him, he will keep it that way.”

I tightened my hand into a fist as we watched the burning city. There was nothing for us to do. The people fleeing were being slaughtered by the undead outside. I went ahead and sent a message to my Familia telling them to hunt anyone fleeing, but I just shook my head and made my way back to Oberon.

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