Revenge of the Sorcerer King 2 - 29

Chapter 29

Alessa

Jade was quick to bring the prisoner to the throne room. He was still in the ice shackles but most of his cloths had been removed. He was left in only his undergarments. This might have been fine under normal circumstances, but the ice was starting to cause frostbite to set in.

Oberon spread his arms wide as if welcoming the man. “Welcome to Fallen Haven, the capital of Mayhem. We were just discussing whether you are incredibly brave or a complete imbecile and decided to have you brought here to help us decide.”

“Silence undead puppet. Let me speak to your master!” The man was surprisingly calm.

“My master, you say. That might be difficult since I am my own master.”

I saw the man give a sinister grin before there was a surge of necromantic energy that blasted out from him. A tendril latched onto Oberon as both Helena and I rushed across the room. A laugh from the man caused us to pause with our hands only a centimeter away from the man’s throat. “Kill me and the undead will die as well.”

“Interesting! Alessa this is a spell similar to the one we created a while ago. Its even more sophisticated,” Oberon said as he looked around at the magical runes circling around him. 

“Is this really the time to be impressed?! He’s trying to enslave you!” I shouted a little worried about letting the spell to continue on its course.

“Ah. Don’t worry about that.” Oberon reached out and appeared to wrap his hand around one of the runes. Without any effort he crushed the rune and the spell collapsed around him. The man between Helena and I was sent flying by the spell backlash. “Still, a necromancer that has made his way to us. Isn’t that what we wanted?”

Helena dropped her hand to her side. “I didn’t expect them to try and control you the moment they saw you.”

“I was surprised more by the fact he snuck in like a rat. The fact he tried to control me doesn’t though.”

“This is all well and good, but what are we going to do with him?” I asked moving next to the man. My desire to drink his blood from earlier coming back to the surface as I smelt the fresh blood that was leaking from his nose and ears. Common injuries caused by spell backlash.

“Down girl. If we killed every person that we wanted one our side just because they attacked me we would end up alone, plenty of undead sure, but alone.” Oberon moved next to the man and placed a hand on his head. I sensed him pouring mana in to heal his wounds. The fact that Oberon, a mage and sorcerer could heal wounds always astonished me. For the longest time, the priests had always made it their domain after all. 

The man sputtered as he came awake. “What? What happened?”

“You tried to do something that even the gods had failed to do.”

The man looked at Oberon in shock. “Not possible! No undead has ever resisted my spell!”

“Well, Insanity and Chaos make their home here, so be prepared for more unbelievable things to happen.” Oberon moved back to his throne and sat down with a flourish. “Now then. I can see that you’re not an ally of the soldiers at my doorstep. What does that make you?”

The man screwed up his face in an obvious ploy not to talk. Helena placed her hand on his shoulder and extended her nails. They were soon the length of daggers. “I was in the market for a new toy. Unlike the girl, I can control my strength. It would last… for a very, very long time.”

The man gulped before he dropped his head. “Lord general Herald knew of me in the prison. He said he would pardon me and send me to the southern continent if I helped him tame the undead.”

“He wanted you to tame over twenty thousand undead? By yourself?” I couldn’t help but blurt out.

Oberon glared at me and I realized I just gave away how many undead there were in the city. I would need to be more careful in the future. Next time might not be a prisoner. 

“Twenty… thousand?” the man murmured. “Yeah, no way in hell was that happening. I literally walked into the dragon’s den on my own two feet.”

Oberon leaned back placing his chin in his hand. He was obviously thinking about what to do. We had talked in the past about gathering necromancers to his cause, but I don’t think this was how he expected the first to come to us. Ted, notwithstanding, we sort of found him after all.

“What is your name?” Oberon asked eventually.

“Derrick.”

A swirl of magic appeared just in front of the man. “Derrick. Sign this loyalty pact and I will guarantee your freedom in my lands. Mayhem will continue to grow and will be built on the law of strength. You will know who you can and can’t kill, but other than those, I won’t bat a single eye lash.”

Derrick narrowed his eyes, but looked over the contract. Oberon gave him time to do so, but I could tell his patience was running thin as he tapped on the arm of the throne. I wasn’t sure how long passed before Derrick thrust his hand through the magical construct. “Sounds like a good deal.”

Oberon

I grinned as Derrick signed the Contract. “Again, Welcome to Fallen Haven. Welcome to Mayhem.”

“Thank you, Lord Oberon.” He paused and looked around for a moment. “What exactly do you want me to do?”

My grin grew even more sinister. “I want you to go back to the generals of that little force marching my way and deliver a gift.”

“A gift?” he asked with speculation.

I nodded. “Me.” I turned to Alessa. “Where’s that revenant been hanging around. Its time to put him to work.” 

Helena waved her hands and shook her head. “Wait! Wait! Is this really a good idea!? You’ll be walking right into the center of the enemy camp!”

I chuckled in response to her worry. “It’ll be fun.”

“Umm, if we don’t go soon then they will start marching for here either way.” 

I stood and cracked my knuckles. Time to make the first move. “Helena would you take mister Derrick to the gate. I will be there in a few minutes.”

Alessa and I moved out of the throne room. This plan might be reckless, but I knew I would be fine. Just from what I’ve learned about how magic has progressed in the last month, I knew that teleportation blocking spells were almost non-existent. Helena, the over five hundred year old vampire, didn’t even have that spell.

“Are you sure this is safe?” Alessa asked as we came to the courtyard.

I patted her shoulder. “For anyone else, probably not. For me. It’s like taking a walk.”

“If you say so.” She looked into the distance then turned back to me. “If you die, can I have your castle?”

I burst out laughing. “Sure. Do what you will with it.” She gave me a grin that caused her fangs to pop out.

In the courtyard, we moved past the living basilisks and came to the undead ones that I made a few weeks ago. Only a few retained their petrifying sight and those were the ones I wanted to take with me. With a combination of necromancy, shadow, and space magic, I was able to create a subdimension to store undead. It would make traveling much easier in the future, knowing that I had an army with me. 

I placed the undead basilisks into the storage just as a figure jumped down from the roof of the castle. The revenant that Alessa had tamed two months ago had largely been given free reign. I noticed that it had gained a decent number of levels in the time since I last saw it. I waved my hand and put him in the dimension as well though it did give me a non-pleased face.

“Try to bring him back. I have grown kind of fond of the creature.”

“I’ll do my best.”

We made our way over to the entrance of the castle. Other than grabbing and equipping Grodo, I managed to grab two hundred undead that ranged from level sixty to level one hundred before my sub-dimension was full. If I visualized it, I could see the undead standing in rows in a dark space. They were partially suspended in time.

“Mister Derrick. I hope you’re ready.”

“I feel like I’m walking towards my death, but other than that sure. I’m good to go,” he replied ringing his hands.

“Good. Here. You can ride Nightmare.” I summoned the undead mount for him.

We were about to leave when the sounds of horns went up along the wall. I turned to view the distance horizon and saw a blaze of life flames starting to crest the sand dunes. Looks like the enemy had decided to move earlier than my scouts stated. That meant the generals knew they were being watched. 

I shook my head at that thought. No, it was more likely they expected they were being watched. Especially after all their scouts failed to return. It was smart of them to move ahead of schedule. Any troops I might have planned to place in the desert to ambush them would have been taken by surprise.

“Change of plans. I’m going to leave with Mister Derrick, and we’ll attempt the original plan. In the meantime, I want you guys to hold the walls. It shouldn’t be too hard. They’re only mortal after all.”

“The undead will be less affective without you giving orders,” Ted said. I hadn’t even noticed him show up. He really didn’t have any sort of presence to speak of. 

“Between you and Alessa, I think you can manage. There are a decent number of high level undead now, they should also be able to assist.” Derrick hopped onto Nightmare and I followed behind him using mana to enhance my body to keep up with the horse. We needed to move quick or we would be caught by the troops moving towards the castle. Turning back to the others as we left, I shouted. “Give them hell.”