Revenge of the Sorcerer King 2 - 30

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Chapter 30

Oberon

Derrick and I turned to the south and made our way parallel to the castle and approaching army. Not sure how far observation magic had fallen since my departure, I went ahead and cast some cloaking magic. It wouldn’t serve my purposes if they generals knew that Derrick left without issues. 

We were about an hour south, when we ran into an enemy patrol. They had magic enhanced lizards that were allowing them to navigate the sands of the desert easily. I could risk them heading back to the enemy with information on us, but Derrick held up his hand before I cast any spells. I decided to wait and see what he was going to do.

He created a burst of mana that formed a symbol of some sort. It had no magical properties, other than to create light. The patrol quickly surrounded us, but I had to resist the urge to laugh at how weak they were. The highest level among them could only be level fifty. 

“I am Derrick in the service of General Herald. I was sent on a scouting mission and have valuable information for him.”

The leader of the patrol looked him over with a critical eye. “Why did you head south instead of coming straight for the army?”

Derrick simply pointed at his mount and me before he replied. “I didn’t want to be blasted to meet my god. I thought my chances were better if I encountered a patrol that would escort me back to camp.”

The leader looked at me with a questioning look. “Something about the armor?”

Derrick turned in the saddle. “Unleash your aura, undead!”

I considered not listening but knew this was likely the fastest way to get in contact with the leaders of the enemy force. I lifted my helmet and uncovered my aura like Derrick wanted. Before I realized it, I had unleashed the full amount. The mounts of the patrol all collapsed to the ground foaming at the mouth while the patrol members were thrown.

“Seal it!” I drew my aura back with only a small chuckle. “This is the undead responsible for the trouble the west is experiencing. A Doom Knight.”

“Why haven’t you killed it!?” The leader demanded as he picked himself up off the ground.

“The best I can do is control it. As you have guessed I’m a necromancer. If you want me to increase it’s power by five or ten, I can easily do that.”

“Damn! I would run you through if I thought it would help.”

Derrick just shook his head with his nose in the air. “Do it and you’ll have to deal with it.”

“Very well. We’ll escort you back to the encampment.” The leader turned to another of the patrol members. “Run ahead and tell them we’re coming.”

“Understood!”

~~~

It wasn’t long before we were in the midst of the enemy camp. A battalion of priests and priestesses were walking along side of us as we were led to the enemy leaders. People were more afraid of Nightmare which had no way of reducing his aura than compared to me. Looking around as we walked, it was hard to control my urge to kill the mortals.

This was the largest congregation of mortals that I had been around since becoming undead. Even while we were in cities, the walls and other structures of the city helped reduce the urge. I made do with flexing my hand into a fist then relaxing it. It helped, but only a little.

We were finally brought to the leaders. Two men in some of the finest armor I’d seen so far. It fell by the wayside compared to Grodo, but it was decent. One wore silver and gold colors, while the other donned plate that had green and brown paint. They matched the two flags waving in the evening wind.

“General Herald! I have completed the mission you have assigned me. This is the undead responsible for the situation the west is experiencing.” 

“Very good! I knew I was right to entrust you with this mission.” General Herald nodded and a dome of pure light appeared around me. From the mana, I could tell it was a few of Yuin’s followers. They were the only one with spells that actively worked against the undead like this one was. “Here is your reward.” 

He gestured and a man moved forward with a box. When he was right in front of Derrick, he dropped the box and stabbed forward with a dagger that had been hidden plunging the weapon into Derrick’s chest. “W…hy?” Derrick asked wetly. His lungs likely filling with blood. 

“Cause you’re a necromancer. Why else?” Derrick collapsed to the ground as a puddle of blood spread out around him. “Someone get this garbage out of my sight!”

While I had enjoyed the show, I couldn’t have someone that had signed a loyalty pact to me suffer such disgrace. I started laughing because, frankly, I found it hilarious. Hilarious that they thought they could contain me with such weak holy magic. Yuin clearly wasn’t helping them as much as she should be. That will be her downfall.

I reached forward and ran my hand along the barrier. White sparks flew but couldn’t hurt me through Grodo. I was glad I had decided to wear him into this. “That wasn’t very honorable. Perhaps you should join my side. We welcome people like you.” 

“Silence monster! Your words will never sway me, and you will never be able to break through that barrier.” He waved around him. “Priest ready your spells!” 

Lances similar to the lance of Naomi that I had used against Avernim’s undead formed around me. Since that pierce through physical armor, I might actually be in trouble if those hit me. I couldn’t say the same for these since they were from a different Goddess. 

“Sway? That sounds good. Let’s all sway a little.” I created my own spell then tapped my foot on the ground. The terra mana surged faster than they could finish their spells and everyone in five hundred meters was tossed about by an earthquake. Being that we were standing on sand, people started sinking or being thrown into the air as the grains reacted in various ways to the magic.

The priest that was responsible for my barrier was managing to maintain the barrier with all he had. He was on his stomach and chanting previously as sand sprayed around him. “What are you doing!? Kill the monster!” The other general shouted even though he himself was barely standing with help of a tent pole.

The barrier started to shrink around me and soon was pressing on Grodo. I just shook my head and walked through the barrier since it had stopped being interesting. The priest coughed up a mouthful of blood from the barrier being forcibly broken. I rubbed the back of my neck while popping it. “That was disappointing.” 

I looked around at the twisting and wreathing sands around me. My spot the only circle of calm. With a clap, the two hundred undead that I had brought with me appeared from the shadows. The basilisks doing immediate damage by petrifying a swatch of people. The rest of the undead rushed into the mass of bodies around us and started going to work. 

Moving next to Derrick’s body, I found he was very much dead. I reached down and poured necromantic energy into him. It would be a pity for the second necromancer to join my cause to die only a few hours later. I gave him enough energy to transform him into a lich. The second one I had made so far. 

“Wake up. It’s time to work.”

Derrick coughed as the last of the blood in his body was pushed out from the wound. “I died. I saw the lord of death himself.”

“Don’t mind him. We don’t around here,” I said with a grin, knowing that Siateth would be able to hear me.

I worried the enemy wouldn’t even put up a fight and would just retreat, but both the generals had survived and were rallying their troops. I had to give them credit to escape from the undead that I literally summoned on top of them. They also recognized the basilisk right away as well.

I drew Promise as I could feel the blade wanting to drink mana. The thing was becoming as demonic as I was. Well, at least it was a good fit for my new personality, I released my aura to its fullest, enjoying the release for the first time. I hopped onto Nightmare that had stood by me the entire time, even though I could feel its bloodlust. It wanted to kill just as much as the other undead.

I canceled the earthquake as most of the mortals in that zone were already dead. With a quick count, I put the death around five and six hundred. It was still going up, but the enemy soldiers had rallied and were putting up a defense. Mainly, the priests were making hard for my undead to attack as freely as they want.

Checking all the fronts, I spotted a large number of enemy troops fleeing. Given my location, I gave up on chasing after them. It looked like we wouldn’t get a full kill today. I was about to turn away to decide which general I wanted to kill first, when I spotted a figure flying in the air a bit further than the fleeing soldiers.

The next thing I saw was a surge of terra mana that rippled off the figure in waves. The figure nosedived straight down and struck the ground with enough force that I felt from here. They were at least ten kilometers out. Explosions of sand heaved along in a line going north and south from the struck point.

I couldn’t see what the damage was, but I did notice that the enemy forces turned and began rushing back to their allies. Whatever had happened, they couldn’t pass it easily. Looking around, I decided that General Herald needed to join my ranks of undead first.

Alessa

I stood on the wall with the others as the enemy encircled the city. I expected them to start launching spells as soon as the encirclement was complete, but nothing happened. They set up a few siege weapons, but nothing too advanced. They likely didn’t anticipate a full fledge city with intact walls to be here. The reports they had received up until this point were only from the two men that fled to Guil and told a ruin had risen from the sand.

Like that a few hours passed as the tension rose. It was about midnight if they sky was still visible, when there was a change. The center of the enemy forces began to heave as terra magic was being used. It wasn’t long before I felt Oberon in the midst of the craziness that was happening.

“Jade, Irgire. Follow me!” I extended my wings and took off into the air. We flew into the clouds to avoid detection, but it probably wasn’t necessary, they were focused on the undead in their midst and weren’t looking up.

“Mistress. A large group is breaking off. They’re trying to flee.” Jade pointed to the back of the force.

“We can’t have that,” I replied. I glanced at Irgire, but his poison would only stop them momentarily. I took one of my shard and bit down on it. The frozen blood melted istantly and flowed into my body. With a surge of mana, I concentrated on one of Oberon’s lesson on terra mana. Once I was sure I had the spell ready, I aimed directly in front of the fleeing soldiers.

For the first time since Siateth named me Maverick, I didn’t hold back. I dropped straight down with my terra mana encased fist. In a blink of an eye, I struck the ground and caused the ground around me to buckle and the mana ripped a canyon open. I was surprised at how deep I managed to make it.

Correcting my fall, as the ground underneath me was completely gone, I flew back up. I passed a few soldiers that had been too close to the impact site as they fell screaming to the bottom of the cavern I’d created. It was only a couple dozen, but every kill counted.

Rejoining Jade and Irgire in the sky, Jade was clapping as I came to a float next to her. “Well dome, mistress. You managed to cut a third of the desert in half with that.”

“Shit! Really?!”

Irgire shook his head. “She’s not exaggerating. That canyon extends nearly three hundred kilometers. Though the edges are much less deep and narrower than here at the direct impact.”

I blushed at the fact I managed to cause so much destruction. I coughed to hide that fact. “Well… They aren’t going to retreat anymore. Let’s head back to the city.”

“You guys go on ahead. I want to get some kills myself,” Irgire said waving us on. 

Jade pulled her bow from her back. “In that case, myself as well.”

I chuckled at the two. “Have at it. I’ll make sure none of the mages down there get any funny ideas. Let’s still move toward the castle at the same time though.”

Irgire and Jade nodded before they got to work. Irgire channeled his breath into a cloud that quickly grew to a few dozen meters. The poison inside grew denser until it couldn’t remain a mist and started to fall to the ground as drops of rain. Irgire continued to create more of the cloud as we moved slowly.

Looking at Jade, she was going for quality over quantity. She took her time and only fired her bow when she had a bead on someone of rank in the enemy force. It wasn’t long before five people on decent status found an arrow buried in their head.

The two managed to strew plenty of panic in the enemy ranks. People caught in Irgire’s rain quickly melted if they didn’t get out. Screams and panic were testimony to the two’s prowess. Moving slowly, we made it back to the castle after killing close to two or three hundred enemy soldiers. A swatch of the battlefield was a no-man’s land due to the poison that seeped into the ground. 

We landed on the wall next to Helena that had a woman I’d never seen before standing next to her. Even with her cloaked in shadows, I could detect the vampire features easily. Helena saw me looking and waved me off. 

“Don’t worry. She’s one of mine.”

“I figured. I’ve been wondering if you’d ever introduce any of your Familia to us.”

“In time. Hizin isn’t exactly a place you leave your lands undefended.”

“The more you talk of Hizin, the less I want to visit it.”

“After watching what you just did, I think it might do some good to have you go there.”

“Thanks?”

“Don’t mention it.”

I turned to check the situation of the battlefield. From the air it felt like we had the enemy in hand. “How’s Oberon doing?” I asked. 

“The bag of bones is doing fine. If things keep going how they are, he might wipe them out without needing any of our help,” Helena said with a sigh. I glanced at her, but she was hiding most of her face behind her fan. I knew that she was as bloodthirsty as any of the undead in the city. She wanted to be out there as well.

“Generally, when people say things like that, it usually results in trouble.”

Helena snapped her fan closed revealing a large grin. “Why do you think I said it?”

I rubbed my forehead and turned back to the battle. The undead manning the walls watching on without a single change. Silence ruled most of the wall, expect for a small section manned by goblins. They were cheering and hollering as they watched the massacre taking place in the desert. 

As people continued to die in the battle, I could feel the grip of Lord Siateth growing stronger over the land. I could almost picture the God laughing in his throne. Truly, any god that managed to get Oberon on their side was likely to see a large growth in power. He was almost a god himself.

I turned to the oldest person I knew. “Hey Helena. Can a person grow to equal a god?”