Two days after meeting.
In a lair underground a wide room of absolute darkness lay. The darkness was so dense it was particularly tangible.
No signs of life. Except the periodic sound of water splatting on stone.
For a while these sounds echoed, along with four distinct footsteps entering the room.
Suddenly all sound stopped and for a moment it was quiet until— "I wouldn't mind some light in here." a voice echoed.
Two green orbs lit up within the darkness, along with two blue ones beside it.
"I second that." another voice added.
"Open" a spectral voice rumbled through the atmosphere.
5 Green orbs burst open.
Circling around the room.
The green orbs shed little light on the area as they circled around,
They revealed a stone table, with Rakira and pastel standing behind their master who sat facing forward. On the same side sat Aragon by himself.
Orbs only lit up slight parts of everyone along with giving the big stone room a little bit of light. Though their light didn't extend toward the far end of the room where the voice and green and blue orbs were.
"Pointless spell if it barely lights anything up." Aragon said.
"Kekeke" laughter broke out from the other side of the table.
"Takashi and Aragon. Why have you come to my Domain." Its ghostly voice sounded harshly within the atmosphere.
"Well if you didn't know, there's a new necromancer causing problems and we are wondering if that's your doing—Lich." Aragon replied
"I know of him but I don't know him."
"So you know about him." Aragon said annoyed "And haven't dealt with him yet? He could ruin everything we have built here—Lich!"
"Do you believe me to be so—senseless. As to not remember our agreement"
"So then tell us what have you done lich?" Takashi said.
"We knew of his existence before everyone else did and had eyes on him ever since."
"That means you could have prevented all this Lich—What the heck!" Aragon slammed his fist on the table, cracking it.
"And why is that lich?" takashi said.
"Thats all you ought to know."
"No, tell us right this moment you grave scrap! This is all our heads on the line!"
"Aragon calm, yourself he has a plan"
"Forget those plans, I want reassurance now!"
A loud crack of bone came from the lich, interrupting Aragon's rage.
"Be going if there is nothing else."
"Alright one more thing. Can we entrust you with this—lich?"
"He won't be a problem, very soon. As for horsemen and the rest of the undead you will have to deal with."
Aragon looked over to Takashi seeing him smirk as the orb went by.
Aragon looked back at the lich shrouded form.
"Do your part lich and we will do ours." Aragon said as he got up along with takashi and left.
Two weeks had passed.
During it Viscura was on the move.
Now that the regional master of trishtan was gone no one could manage the region so it meant Sekar the regional master of tourian had to take and house all of the people within the second province of Trishstan. All the forces within the second province went back to umbra, aurora and joined their own orders.
Tourian was already preparing its own defenses within its land. After a few days the region of Trishtan was completely vacant.
Every order was also on the move within aurora and umbra.
Each with its own regiment of troops.
Gallantry forces spread out in aurora and manned every settlement.
Commanders - 24
Captains - 743
Sergeants - 37,150
General - 1
And 1,114,500 soldiers over 4 armies.
Nobility on the other hand, had men stationed all around the devourers cave inside and outside.
The devourer was sealed in a cliff cave at the edge of aurora.
Noblitty also covered a large body of water in front of the cave , preventing the necromancer from being able to get in via boat.
They had covered a chunk of land too. As well but any settlements within that chunk of land from the cliff cave, was still manned by gallantry; it was just the general area and roads were controlled by nobility. Not allowing people to go near the area of the cliff cave. Unless they lived near it.
Nobility had a current count of 36,400 soldiers, 3,640 sergeants, 19 commanders and 1 general. Over 4 armies.
Serenity spread out within the region of Umbra,
Taking the place of settlements previously controlled by other orders.
Their current forces are - 10,500 soldiers, 1,050 sergeants, 105 captains and 11 commanders. And 1 general. Over 3 armies.
Fealty, the smallest and the specialist unit, had only 1 army.
It spread out into two smaller armies.
2,671 soldiers and 500 sergeants, 2 captains and 2 commanders.
Spreading those forces out to aid in umbra and operations and Aurora operations. As extra specialised units.
Generals were stationed with their unit burgos and amanda stayed within Aurora.
Rakor stayed at Alcon's palace frequently moving around and checking perimeters.
Volka and Jackson once he was healed joined Captain Javier, who held down the grand provincial capital city of telepar in umbra, with his commander Aidris and their troops.
While the commanders and captains from serenity spread within the whole region rather than just that second province and oversaw the whole region. Julie left the palace and went to her forge.
Alcon took this time to extract more information about their enemies from those who survived the assault on trishtan.
Volka, Jackson, and finally Serene.
He got a hold of Volka and Jackson first getting key information, though Volka's mind was slightly fuzzy now. She still retained most of her memories explaining in detail to Alcon, what happened that blightful night.
Along with Jackson also explaining what happened during the village raid.
Neither of them saw the necromancer. Only his underlings.
Alcon saw one thing that weirded him out, that Jackson mentioned a boy he carried to the medical area. Jackson couldn't remember his exact look as the boy was pretty messed up. Though he mentioned one key detail, which was white hair.
Alcon was really interested in this as when Jackson was explaining the story of how everything happened. To Alcon it all seemed to all go downhill as soon as the boy was given to the medical area, connecting that too after Jackson had left to his post, he decided to take a leisurely route going through a few stalls. But then he ended up getting reports of the village people complaining over the medical area's door being shut tight and they had been trying for hours and the people were getting increasingly aggressive due to some having medical needs and attention.
Even though the evidence was there, for the white haired boy, it was too on the nose for Alcon to suspect it was the boy.
As Volka didn't see a white haired boy but rather a lackey, this also means they must have split up at some point as well.
Back at the regional capital he heard Galerius' daughter was saved from the disaster in the provincial capital by a boy around her age and was later buried in tourian. Though that boy was vastly different, he had red eyes and black hair. The similar thing was the height. But Alcon didn't want to disrupt the girl with questions as she was mourning the loss of two. So he didn't ask any questions. He instead asked the doctors and they said the boy came in at night.
Alcon at that time didn't have much time to investigate more so he left with unfinished questions.
Puzzle pieces bounced around in his mind but none connected. He gained a lot of information, but nothing at the same time. Nothing connected.
Alcon walked into a large medical room.
Serene was now sitting upright staring at the wall with a blank stare, her eyes weary as if she hadn't blinked at all.
Alcon grabbed a chair and sat facing her, "Hello serene."
Serene continued to stare at the wall. "Hello."
"How have you been holding up?"
"Mediocre I think doctors say I will be in for the month latest."
"Oh really. How do you feel?"
"Dreadful. I want to fight…i want to help—but I am stuck here, replaying everything in my head. It's tormenting."
"Whats on your mind right now." Alcon said his voice lower.
"Everything, Fygeld's death, not being able to save a single person in Trojan town never mind the region itself. I just—i just can't process it."
Silence filled the room for a moment
Tears dropped on Serene's sheets.
Serene eyes dropped down, as she felt it.
Serene then looked toward Alcon, hand covering his eyes, head facing down.
Tears seeped through gaps in his finger.
He sobbed and sniffed.
"Alcon?"
Alcon looked up, his face blemished red, as tears went down his face. Soft laughs escaped his mouth.
In his eyes he saw a younger 16 yr old Serene.
"Why are you crying?" she asked, her face perplexed.
Alcon sniffed "you know," he said, wiping his face.
"You have grown so—so much serene. You never used to care about the lives of people. Now I see your heart has softened. Now I see that all that I did in viscura was for something. Viscura's frosted heart had melted into something beautiful."
"Thank you."
Memories rang in Serene's mind. "Father!" hanging off Alcon's arm as she giggled.
She smiled and hugged Alcon.
Closing her eyes."No. Thank you father, you saved me and my sister."
After a while they pulled away, Alcon still wiping his eyes.
"I just wish Amanda had come out the way you did."
He pulled out a handkerchief and blew his nose.
"She will come around, she's just a little stubborn but she definitely has a heart though it may be still softening up." Serene said smiling.
"You're right, I hope soon." Alcon then tucked his handkerchief away and cleared his throat sitting up right. "Anyway lets get back to business i would like to know about what happened during trojan"
Serene began to explain.
At the end of it Alcon left, with more information this time
Bone giant with smarts of undead champion and the physical dominance of bone giant. Along with this it continued to come back again and again.
Again a lot of information but it added nothing to Alcon's to the puzzle pieces he already had.
…
Far away within an underground lair.
Dark and gloomy prison.
The hallway was lit up with green flamed torches.
Prisoners reached their hands out, as prisoners shouted.
Jailers walked around, in normal clothes with wooden staves.
They would hit prisoners' hands and hit the cell bar if they were too loud.
Some walked around with bags, throwing a single loaf of bread into cells of two or more.
Some cells were given two. Some jailers walked around with cleaning supplies in sweeping the floors and empty cells and using wet rags to wipe stained blood off the walls.
Then a figure floated by, its presence caused the noises of prisoners to hush and jailer to tense. Some stopped in their position until it went past them.
The figure stalked the stone hallways. The prisoners' hands receded from their jail cells.
No one dared look in its direction, lest their soul was drained from their body and they became a husk.
The figure glided through the space, down the hall and across a dark passageway leading to a decrepit stone door. From this door, loud intense sounds of pain echoed along with wood and metal contraptions spinning and slamming.
The door opened itself as the figure entered a room full of torture equipment used by other jailers.
Many prisoners within the room were being tortured.
The figure didn't care as it glided through the room.
Its orbs set on the next hallway door, which sounded of intense dull slaps along with the rustling of chains consecutively.
As the lich glided through the doorway, then to the next door.
The dull slap and rustling of chains got louder.
As it reached the room.
The door opened as it entered, then closed behind it.
There was a bonewalker with a black and deep purple cloak standing on side watching him another bonewalker. Its had horns that were in place of its sockets, curving upwards,
Its teeth clattered, shadows coated its skeletal fists as they flew through the air battering the body of Zero the Necromancer.
He was shirtless with circular brown bruises all over his body, he was also hooked through his shoulders, which were connected to chains embedded into the stone ceiling. They held him up as the bonewalker beat him like a punching bag.
Zero's face was lumpy, and he could barely open his eyes so he kept them closed.
"Great timing lich, this child has not let up at all. He hasn't said a thing about the chaos relics and how to use them."
Lich looked over to the side, his form still shrouded in black.
The staff of deluxe and the book of deluxe lay there.
"Have you tried activating and resonating with them?"
"Thats what we did try but they didn't respond as if they had some type of loyalty to him."
The bonewalker, punching Zero, halted suddenly. His voice rang through the chamber "It's best we kill him lich. As it's no use leaving him alive anyway he would cause more problems for us. Unless you have forgotten he's just a child and managed to eradicate a whole province. At this age our necromancer was still learning necromancy."
"Yes we watched him ourselves. Despite all the loose ends we tied up for him. He has a large amount of potential and he's intelligent. I believe if we let him get back out there or even recover. It's uncertain of our future. Along with this, he won't cooperate." Bone walker on side said.
"Verily it's best we kill him and be done with it." Bonewalker next Zero said, dispersing the shadow gauntlets.
"And Yes and maybe if we kill their master the relics will finally yield."
The lich held his hand up, a pure marble sat in his shrouded hand, it was not affected by its darkness. It stayed clean and pure, as it was handed to bonewalker next to Zero, the colours within it gleamed near Zero.
The bonewalker at the front took a look at it first before bringing it up to Zero.
"Hey boy! What's this thing? Tell us now!"
Zero eyes crept open as much as they could. Until his purple iris could be seen.
Eyes twitched on the marble.
For a second nothing happened until Zero opened his mouth as if he was about to talk, then closed it on the marble gulping it down.
Immediately a skeletal hand infused with a shadow gauntlet came flying toward Zero face. Zero flinched as it came at him. "SPIT IT OUT!" —But it stopped suddenly…
As the gauntlet stopped at Zero face, green mana circled around the bonewalkers arm.
It looked back confused.
"What is the meaning of this lich!"
"Don't kill him yet."
"I want him to suffer more."
Zero eyes remained closed. He was silent.
"We've had him for a week now surely its to time—"
"More time. Vescoroth you torture him now." Lich said his speech was ancient as he said the bonewalkers name.
Through Vescoroth's cape slipped a sickle, which he used to start slashing Zero up.
Everyone watched Zero squeal and wince in pain as the sickles tore his flesh.
They remained utterly still. A day had passed during which they had just stood watching there as Vescorth slashed Zero up.
Vescoroth didn't even try to persuade, he just continued to slash Zero up slowly, dragging the blade along his skin as it tore open. Each time. Zero winced in pain.
But he didn't speak.
After another day, Zero's body was slashed up with big slashes all around his body, none on his face or neck though as they still needed him to talk.
But the rest of his body had skin slashed off.
Vescoroth finally spoke "TALK!" He stabbed the sickle all the way into an old scar Zero had on his right peck near his arm. The sickle slowly reopened it.
New hot blood below Zero on an already stained ground.
Zero was breathing but barely.
At this point everything was stained with his blood, the whole room was even the ceiling splotches of dried blood everywhere.
"He won't talk."
"Lich, can you kill him already?"
The lich approached.
Zero's head was down.
"I will attempt to take his position as necromancer over his undead. They will be a great asset to me."
The lich placed its cold hand on Zero face, completely covering it.
As its green mana swirled around Zero's body.
Sucking Zero's mana.
Zero eye opened while the other was covered by a skeletal palm.
He couldn't breathe either. Zero's body was vibrating involuntarily.
The liches green sockets met Zero's eye.
Even with Zero being suffocated, sucked dry of his mana, his eye the only thing not covered.
Did not show fear nor did it show pain, or demoralisation rather it glinted with amusement, and childlike intrigue as if this was a game to the child rather than a torment. As if it was all a part of his sick plan. The liches socket grew brighter trying to scare the little one but Zero's eye didn't change, it was still, it didn't betray any form of fear or inferiority and instead Zero's eye was so focussed it was as if he looked directly underneath all the liches shadows and even deeper toward the liches soul.
The liches sockets dimmed for only a second in bewilderment.
What is this child?
Then suddenly a jolt of purple mana, lashed out the lich and quickly took its hand off the zap itself didn't go through its shroud.
"What is it lich?"
"Should we kill him?"
The lich just looked at Zero.
One of Zero's eyes stared at him with the same look, now somewhat mocking.
While the other was closed.
Zero's body looked heavily malnourished after the attack but his eye and small area around it looked very vibrant.
"No. I want him alive. I didn't to take a thing from him,"
"why!?"
They said in unison.
"Brocker vescorth. Did you remember when we got that letter?"
They both silently affirmed.
"What if whatever it's connection it has to the boy will allow us to understand our necromancer's mission who she truly is." the lich said its sockets moved from its hand to Zero.
Brocker and vescorth both calmed down at this revelation.
The next minute.
Zero is gagged and taken to the deepest depths of the prison, where he is thrown.
Beating, bloodied and malnourished.
In the darkest and deepest cell.
A male and female jailer both standing at six feet. Guarded the cell.
The cell was large, two cuffs embedded with runes which restricted Zero's mana usage and recovery of his mana.
Zero was treated a little bit better than others. He was thrown food every two days, usually two loaves of bread or some porridge with water always.
Both bonewalkers brought him there and threw him in and locked him there; Zero fell hard on ground, he shouted in agony. As he just lay there. Both bonewalkers left muttering curses under their breaths.
Once they left, silence hit the cell.
Zero giggled. It was low at first but then it transformed into maniacal crackling.
His laughter echoed, he coughed constantly through his laughter, it echoed from the depths of the prison. It continued on for hours. The guards became increasingly unnerved.
How serious was the person for both bonewalkers to carry him to the deepest cell.