Revenge of the Sorcerer King 3 - 6 (Patreon)

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Chapter 6

Alessa

Back with the main section of the army, I found Oberon observing his handy work with a smug grin on his face. Helena just had an exasperated expression. I was sure Oberon was using this to rub in her face. The had that sort of relationship after all.

“You really burned it to a crisp,” I said coming up on them.

“Alessa. Now, now. This will preserve the troops for the real fight.”

He had a point. These towns were one thing, but the next target was a city. They had a standing force as well wards to protect from such spells. I personally didn’t know how powerful they were, but Oberon would have a good idea of the challenges ahead.

“Do you want me to scout ahead again?” I asked since the battle was basically over by this point.

“Yes. Stay off the main road for the most part. Not matter how quickly I crushed this place, they will have been able to get a message out to the capital this time. Scouts will be moving to understand our forces. Few of those travel the main road.”

“I understand. I’ll make as wide a net as possible to catch the flies.”

Oberon nodded than turned to Helena. “How many towns are there in this part?”

“The capital is three days’ time to the east. I believe there is a town to the north that is rather sizable, while the south has a port roughly a fortnight away with various villages in between.”

“We’ll deal with those after we capture the capital. It might be an interesting experiment to have the undead play defense.”

“You want to try and hold the capital?” Helena asked with a surprised tone, though I wasn’t sure why. I didn’t see how that would be difficult for us.

“Saves me time if the living come to us. With the capital taken, a special sort of person will rise and I plan on dealing with them before they become a problem.”

“Special sort?” I asked not sure what he meant.

“What was I hailed as before I became king?” he asked with a toothy grin.

I drew a blank since I’d only learned about him as a King. He sighed and glanced at Helena. She returned the sigh, but answered. “A hero.”

“Exactly. If there is anyone that could stop us, it would be those that have the strength and charisma to draw others to them. They will have divine protection from one god or another that makes them harder than fuck to kill. Luckily, I know all about it.”

“I didn’t think I would ever be having a conversation about killing a hero. The summoned one that roamed the world shortly after my birth was basically a monster. Nothing could kill him according to the rumors.”

“I will admit that it will be as hard if not harder than the goddess’s avatar ploy. But like I said, I have this covered. Divine protection isn’t a guarantee. Only a sort of second chance.”

“Should we limit how much more destruction we cause?” Helena asked. “I heard that the hero’s strength was usually in comparison to the adversity he’d be facing.”

“You raise a good point, but in our case, we need to corrupt as much of the land as possible. The divine protection will hinder any sort of miasma that might affect the hero or his party, but it will still prevent larger armies from moving easily.” Oberon tapped his sword’s hilt in obvious contempt. “Personally, I’d rather just deal with a small party rather than an entire army.”

“Sounds like a plan then. I really hope you know how to defeat any heroes that pop up.”

Oberon’s eyes burned bright as he grinned. “Trust me.”

Helena and I watched him move off toward the town. I turned to her with a worried expression. “Do you really think he can kill a hero?”

“I’m more worried that he’ll do something more extreme.”

“What would be more extreme than killing a hero?”

Helena looked like she wanted to explain but just shook her head. With a chuckle to whatever was going through her head, she turned into a bat and flew after Oberon. I wanted to smack both of them for not explaining more, but just let out a deep breath. To them, I likely would be just a girl for several more decades.

I summoned an undead horse and rode after them. The night had only just started and there were still things to do. My girls were chasing down anyone lucky enough to flee the town. Thinking about the net I needed to create for scouts, I sent a mental order for them to capture. Time to add some more people to my Familia.

Oberon

Reaching out, I wrapped my hand around the handle of Delha. The feeling of satisfaction washed over me from the weapon. I grinned with humor. I supposed that was a demon’s weapon for you. Charred bodies laid around us, turning to ashes as the undead trampled over them.

Having retrieved the weapon, I went to return it to my spatial storage but got a plea in my mind to stop. I looked at the weapon before I created a binding and threw it on my back. It didn’t want to go back into the darkness of the void that was the storage. Since I would need it to be in a good mood when I go to use it next time, it was beneficial to do as it asked.

With that taken care of, I turned to my next goal. The Mage Tower sat only slightly scorched from the flames. The wards were rudimentary, but still decently crafted. I was interested to investigate the records the mage tower might have regarding magic. There was also that I could get my hands on some decent magical components.

“Surround the mage tower. Send in some disposables to see if anyone remains.”

Mike saluted before he began issuing the orders in the undead guttural language. I could understand it, but my mind was wired for common. It was one of the few things that I wasn’t good at as an undead.

The sound of fighting came from inside of the tower. I felt the mana in the air respond to the call of the mages in the tower as they used their spells. It looked like some soldiers were serving as shields for them otherwise the undead would have overrun them before they could have finished.

“Send in an aberration!” I shouted before I lost more undead to the tower. An undead creature that looked like four or five bodies fused together in horrific ways with a black sludge slid passed the gathered undead. It had a higher magic tolerance than the other undead while still possessing the strength to crush the resistance of the soldiers.

The creature went into the tower and screams soon followed as it could move frighteningly fast when it struck. There was a window over the street that was soon covered in a splattering of blood as the creature tore through the enemy. When it sounded like everything inside was dead, I moved through the entrance with some weaker undead to act as a shield.

Everything on the first floor was covered in blood and juts. At least there didn’t appear to be too many books on this level, with it mainly serving as the lobby of the building. I directed the undead to make sure there weren’t any more people still living while ordering the Aberration to head back outside to hind more prey.

The added scent of death took a little away from it, but I could still detect the faint linger smell of ink and parchment. Scents that had been with me most of my life last time. The tingling sensation of concentrated mana also felt right at home. While I was enjoying the remote feeling of nostalgia, I heard a scream from the upper floors.

The screaming continued for longer than I expected until I began to wonder why the undead hadn’t dealt with the source. Finally, I decided to check on the problem and moved to the stairs. Making my way up, I was soon on the sixth floor. My undead surrounded a young girl that couldn’t be more than ten and were slamming their weapons into the barrier that encircled her.

“Stop. You obviously can’t get through it,” I said with some derision. It looked like I would need to find a way to increase the undead’s intelligence before we reached the capital. There would be more than a few people of power and I’d rather not have my undead rush to their defeat.

I motioned for the undead to back away and really took in the girl. At first, I wasn’t sure what I was looking at. Her head looked like that of a normal human girl. All the features were correct. However from the neck down it looked like they’d tried to fuse or replace parts of her with those of a golem. Her right arm was made from a silver metal, while her left was more along the lines of stone.

“What are you girl?”

“Naram,” she answered though barely above a whimper.

“Not who. What?” I corrected.

“I… don’t… don’t… know,” she replied with fresh tears leaking from her eyes.

I knelt in front of the bubble that she had smartly kept up then fully shifted my vision to observe her life force. Parts of her torso still displayed the flames of life that made its way to her head, but everything else was black. Much like looking at stone with my vision. If I judged it right, only her lungs and heart remained. Everything else was tied into a magical system of runes.

I switched back to my normal sight before I chanted a spell and focused on mana. I almost wanted to gasp from what I saw next. This girl was pulling mana from the lay-lines. More accurately, the tower was pulling the mana then channeling it into her golem parts. No wonder my undead couldn’t break through the barrier no matter how much they assaulted it. If she kept up her concentration, her barrier could theoretical remain active, well, forever.

“Who made you like this?” Even I in my undead state found this a horrible perversion. A fascinating one, but still not something you do to a living human. At least I made sure my experiments were dead before I started working on them.

“Mast…er.”

“Where is your master?”

She managed to point. I followed the tiny digit to where a half-dismembered corpse lay. It looked like the man had been fleeing back up the stairs when the aberration killed him. That creature would have a hard time detecting the life signs from this girl with how much mana her golem parts put off as interference.

“I see. And was this man your master by choice, or are you a slave?”

“… Slave.”

There was so much magic at work in her body, it would have taken me a few hours if I wanted to find her slave seal. Thankfully, the girl was willing to tell the truth. I tapped my finger on the hilt of Promise. The blade could easily cut through the barrier, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to do that.

She was the first display of advanced magic that I’d found since returning to life. It gave me hope but at the same time gave me pause. If people were creating things like her, than we could encounter something that will give us trouble much sooner than I planned. Though, it might have just been a case of random genius. I should know, I was the best sorcerer of my time and I original came from a small village in the middle of nowhere.

I spotted some blood on her body, and when I glanced around I saw a table that had a decent amount of blood on the surface. Tubes that had apparently been connected to her body laid on the ground leaking some sort of substance on the ground. Even if she could reconnect them, without her master she would eventually run out.

Looking at the girl and the magic that was in her possession, I could help but want to make her mine. To understand the magic that had been modified or created to allow her existence. The problem was convincing her to come to my side. Her enemy was dead on the floor a few meters away. I couldn’t use that to make her come to my side.

“If we leave, would you survive?”

She stared at me for a moment before shaking her head. “Can’t… eat. Can’t… drink. Will… die.”

I nodded in understanding. She was missing her stomach and intestines after all. I figured there was something that was supplying nutrients to her body from the fluids, but it would require studying her. “How about a deal?”

“De…al?”

“I’m the most powerful sorcerer in the world. Compared to the mages, I can snap my fingers and change it to suit my needs. I want to understand your body. In return I shall do something for you. Ah. Don’t worry. I don’t need you to be a slave.”

Wide eyes reflected me as I waited for the girl to process what I said. I could see the intelligence in her, but it was being washed out by the terror of the current situation. I gestured to the other undead in the room and ordered them to leave. Soon it was just the two of us.

“I… don’t… know.”

“Take your time. We are in no rush,” I said with a grin, before sitting on the ground next to the barrier. There were times when it was nice to act like my old adventurer self. Not have to worry about appearances.

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