The OP Lich is a Returnee, Chapter 30 (Patreon)

Chapter 30 – Annihilation

I waited until nightfall to make my move. Not because I had to, but because I knew that the Sumiyoshi-kai would spend time getting their enforcers on alert. If they were smart, they would have had those enforcers already in place to counter any reprisals the Inagawas would make. With my messenger reporting in, letting them know I was involved, chances were that they would try to draw some of them back, to reinforce their headquarters.

Of course, I was watching their compound through scrying while I waited for night to fall, just to make sure that no rats left the trap. I wanted them to have time to realize death was coming for them, but I was not going to let any of the leaders escape. What was about to happen was grim, certainly, but it was necessary, if I was to prove, once and for all, that it was profoundly unwise to try and use force to intrude on my affairs.

I was not going to get into the day-to-day business of the crime syndicates. I was not going to join them as an associate or anything like that. I was a friend of the clan, and that I would remain. But if I allowed an attack at an event I was attending, hosted by my friend, to go unanswered, it would make me look weak. And weakness invites people to try and take advantage of you.

As night fell, I cast the spell that I had been preparing. A black dome rose up, covering the Sumiyoshi manor and its grounds. From the outside, the dome merely blocked vision. Anyone could broadcast into the dome, and even an unprotected mortal could step through the barrier without ill effects.

If they were going into the barrier, that is.

On the inside of the barrier, things were quite different. While those outside the barrier could not see in, those inside could most certainly see out. Additionally, the barrier was quite solid, preventing all forms of escape, even by way of teleportation, astral projection, or creating dimensional gateways. All communication was cut off, whether electronic or magical. Anyone listening to the radio could still hear their music, or those trying frantically to reach anyone inside the barrier, but their responses were unheard.

I teleported just outside the barrier, in full Lich Queen mode. A wave of my hand summoned a platoon of Skeleton Warriors from my pocket dimension. But these were no mere mindless skeletons dug out of the ground and dressed in rotten armor with rusted weapons that could barely hold an edge. These were my personal creations, and part of my army, not wild undead or the works of a novice necromancer!

Each Warrior was clad in plate armor of midnight steel, so named for its black color and the way it enhanced the power of ‘dark’ creatures like Undead that wore it. The substance was nearly as strong as Mithril, yet far cheaper to obtain, and working it was no different from working normal steel. The only reason it was not used more often was because the process of making midnight steel cursed the armor, making it so that any living creature to wear it would gradually sicken, die, and then be raised by the armor into undeath. Because of that, it was useless as an armor material, unless you were a necromancer leading an army of the damned.

You could tell the Warrior’s rank by their armor, for the higher in rank they rose, the more highlights were added to the black of their armor. A mindless undead might not care about such things, but my army was not mindless. They may have all been bound to my service eternally, but they were still thinking beings, and a cosmetic indicator of rank appealed to many.

The privates had armor that was unadorned, the only color being the silver-white of the symbol of Risen Athelia emblazoned upon the shields of those who carried them. Corporals were much the same, with only a bronze circlet fitted over their helm to show the difference. For a sergeant, the circlet was still bronze, but the right pauldron of his armor was emblazoned with a brass skull. With lieutenants, the circlet and skull became silver, and the theme continued on throughout the ranks.

In my legion, a platoon’s weapons were divided up by squads. Two squads, numbering twelve privates and a corporal each, and a sergeant over both of them, armed with spears and shields, with short swords as backup weapons, following the style of the phalanx of old. One warrior of each squad was a banner bearer, replacing their spear and shield with a banner displaying the colors of Risen Athelia. These were the backbone of the platoon, able to take and hold ground with the inexorable weight of an undead tide advancing upon the enemy. More than one enemy force fled at the sight of my legion advancing, shields locked and spears at the ready.

One squad was armed with heavier, two-handed weapons, an even mix of greatswords, two-handed mauls, and battleaxes that would cleave a man in two. This squad was smaller than the others, at eight Warriors and their corporal stong, but their job was to break through an enemy’s shield wall, opening their defenses for the legion to push through. They were often deployed in twos or threes throughout the line.

The final squad was armed with twin scimitars as melee weapons, but their primary weapon was a longbow. Twelve strong, and with a corporal and sergeant to lead them, this force provided ranged support, and also acted as scouts for the platoon. They carried magic items that deadened the sound of their approach, allowing them to move silently as death, if they chose to.

Above them all was a lieutenant, ordering the platoon and directing them where they needed to go. Armed with a bastard sword and an iron staff capable of launching a magebolt, they were capable fighters in their own right, but they were truly devastating with their full platoon around them. Indeed, a lieutenant’s sword or the flash of their stave was the last thing many of my enemies ever saw in life, before they rose to join the legion that had just slayed them.

Once the platoon had formed up, I stood at their back, looking into the compound. I was sure that all eyes were on me. That was as it should be. After all, one should always look death in the eye as it comes for you.

“Go forth, my legion! Leave none alive!”

And, with a roar, my legion obeyed.

(Later)

Detective Hisakawa Miyu sighed as she leaned back against the seat of her car. The last twelve hours had been hell. The yakuza clans, which were normally good about keeping any infighting behind the scenes, had apparently gone to war. She didn’t know the reasons for the war, but she did know that it was completely ruining her Friday night. Well, Saturday morning, now.

The opening moves had apparently been the Sumiyoshi clan going and attacking a building that was owned by the Inagawa clan. Some said that the building was their headquarters. Normally, that wouldn’t matter to her. She was homicide, not vice or syndicate task force. But, tonight? It was all hands on deck, so here she was.

The Inagawas had met the fifty men that the Sumiyoshis sent, and, apparently, killed them all. That much wasn’t entirely a shock, since it was their home ground, after all, but the story was that they did it all without taking a single casualty after the initial surprise attack! That kind of thing was almost unheard of, outside of anime!

And then there was the scene, itself. She’d heard from her friend, who was one of the officers that worked the scene, that there were bodies, and parts of bodies, everywhere, all apparently made by a sword. All of the bodies were in a single stairwell. Why had the Sumiyoshis all crowded in that stairwell? Why had they rushed headlong into a blender? There wasn’t any indication that they ever broke, or tried to flee, even as they were getting slaughtered.

Some people were saying that they had to be on drugs, and sent in on a suicide mission. Miyu wasn’t so sure. According to her friend, the bodies that could be identified were all of known Sumiyoshi enforcers. Trusted soldiers, not disposable fodder. Not the kind of people you’d just throw away on a whim.

That was just the start of things. Members of the Inagawa clan had hit several Sumiyoshi businesses. Strangely, most of the hits did not involve any fighting, beyond a brief exchange between the guards, if that. Almost like the Inagawas were sending a warning, rather than responding to an attack on their headquarters.

Whatever. So long as the syndicates weren’t killing each other in the street, and drawing innocent civilians into the mix, then it wasn’t her problem. Of course, her current location meant that the Inagawa reaction was just a feint for something bigger.

She’d been tasked to go, with two officers as backup, to the residence of the leader of the Sumiyoshi clan, in Setagaya, on an observe and report. Neighbors had reported a black barrier appearing around the building earlier in the night, just after nightfall, in fact. Some of the reports mentioned an army in the street, and it marching into the barrier. One even claimed they saw the Returned Sleeper leading the army!

When they arrived, well, the barrier was most certainly still there. They tried calling, both with phones and radios, trying to get someone inside the barrier to answer, but they got nothing. One of the officers even tried a bullhorn, for all the good it did.

Collectively, the three of them agreed that, without permission from the property owner, they were not going to risk their lives trying to break through a barrier. Instead, they called Dispatch and asked for the meiji keikan, the mage cops, to deal with it. Their captain agreed with them, but asked for them to remain outside the barrier and keep watch. Ostensibly, it was to prevent any innocent civilians from wandering into the barrier by mistake, but they all knew it was so that they would be in place, in case whatever was going on spilled out into the streets.

The mage cops showed up, took one look at the barrier, and backed away, refusing to even try and dismantle it. Miyu knew why, the instant she saw their faces. It was the same look she’d seen on bomb disposal officers one time when someone had decided to make a bomb incorporating magically enhanced FOOF. When a bomb scares people whose business it is to disarm bombs for a living, you know it is bad news. The mage cops had that same look on their faces.

It was now almost midnight. According to the syndicate task force, the Sumiyoshi leadership had been out of contact with the rest of their organization and their allies ever since the barrier went up. Word on the street was that the Lich Queen had been attending the wedding of the Inagawa leader’s granddaughter when the Sumiyoshis attacked, and took personal offense at the action. Apparently, the Inagawas were now spreading the news that the only Sumiyoshis that would be safe from the coming purge were those that switched sides to join other organizations, or surrendered to the police, for the protection of the prison system.

Just as she was looking forward to the prospect of her relief showing up in the next fifteen minutes and allowing her to go home, the black shield suddenly shattered with a sound that was more felt than heard. Quickly, she turned to look at the area the barrier had covered. Then, she slapped her cheeks, trying to rouse herself, because she was clearly still asleep. But what she saw didn’t change.

Where the Sumiyoshi mansion had been, there was nothing but a large hole in the middle of a dirt lot. Not a trace of the expensive home was left. Even the foundation was gone! It was as though some giant had reached down and plucked the house out of the ground like a farmer pulling his harvest! Worse, even, was the fact that there was no trace of any living thing on the lot, not even a blade of grass.

The most disturbing part, however, was that there were also no bodies, or any sign of the people who had been on the property only hours before. No one had seen anyone leave. There had to have been over one hundred people, perhaps as many as two hundred, on the property, even before the ‘army’ showed up. All of them were now missing, as though they’d never existed.

In the entire lot, the only landmark was a wooden sign by the edge of the hole where the main house used to be. The message was written in perfect kanji, in what looked suspiciously like blood. One look at the sign was all Miyu needed to decide that she had made the right choice in not trying to get through that barrier.

THEY CHOSE POORLY.