Chapter 1106: The Horned One
For a long ti, Saturnina seed to be rely staring into empty space, fiddling with various alchemical equipnt, checking through parchnts detailing various ans of utilising mana, but none of it seed to truly capture her attention.
The experintal hall was silent, and it was dark, the corners appeared like solid blocks of darkness, the silence was only broken when her master, Vilitomus, the royal archmage, and greatest advisor of the king, opened the door to say sothing to her, leaving the area entirely to go attend a eting.
This was a place only accessible to the royal archmage and his disciples, and since Saturnina was the only disciple he had, this ant that she was not all alone.
She sighed, going through all of the theories and ideas she had attempted to put into motion since the war had started, the young mage truly wanted to make herself useful, everyone seed to be downplaying how serious the threat of the dirt-blooded and their mysterious backers was, all seed confident that even if it stretched in ti, that eventually, they would erge victorious once again.
Saturnina had even heard so of the greedier mbers of the court speak in hushed tones about the potential opportunity this would bring to attack the elves and take over their territories filled with natural resources.
Those people were careless and rely driven by a wish to enrich themselves, she didn’t get why the king kept such awful characters amidst his court, they might have skills, but they were huge liabilities as well, she could only hope that the king was always prepared to lop their heads off if necessary.
The temperature of the experintal room seed to drop at a steady rate, until her exhaled breath beca visible to the naked eye, the dark corners seed to grow taller, deeper sohow, the silence grew more oppressive, as though calamity was soon to fall…
But quickly, a deep, masculine voice cut through the silence, or rather, it was as though the quietness parted to let it through.
“Have you decided to listen to , or are you going to try one of your little theories again? An inquisitive and sharp mind is a noble quality… But ignoring an obvious answer would be a sin that far outweigh it”
Footsteps followed the voice, and the outline of a figure beca visible, stopping just on the edge between darkness and light, making it difficult for one to discern the finer features of this person.
Saturnina was certain that there had been no one else when she entered the room, she had checked everywhere, and the corners in particular, there had been absolutely nothing, and her master had noticed nothing.
She stared directly at the silhouette.
It was a mostly humanoid figure, a fra reminiscent of that of a knight, shoulders shaped in a way that inspired confidence, appearing like shoulders you could trust to be able to carry great weights.
The figure was tall, not terribly so, but definitely in the range people would expect from a warrior.
Most striking of all, however, was this person’s head, it was not shaped like a human’s, and most importantly, there were horns protruding from the side of the silhouette’s head, bent forward like those of a bull.
Standing with both arms behind the back, steadfast and unmoving.
“Once again, why would I follow the machinations of an intruder like yourself?” this was not the first Saturnina had had the displeasure of being visited by this being, and in fact, the so-called ‘explosion’ she had caused had actually been her attempting to blast this creature to pieces, but, as the current situation clearly demonstrated, the apprentice mage had been wholly unsuccessful in that endeavour.
The figure had done sothing that made her give up on ever trying again, having grabbed the spell- The mana itself with his bare hand and just threw the spell to the side like it was a re rock.
Worst of all, she hadn’t even felt any mana fluctuations, so either the figure was simply so good at manipulating mana that she was unable to sense anything, or had rely used his hand without any usage of mana, both options clearly demonstrated that she had no hope of doing anything about this.
She could tell her master, but the horned being seed elusive enough to even escape his attention, and that thing would not just reveal itself to the archmage, so instead of encouraging it to be even more elusive, she had been trying to find a solution to this herself.
Unfortunately, all that happened was the sa scene again and again, the horned figure… Was offering sothing to her.
“With this thod, you could help the domain of mankind crush the dirt-bloods, you would be hailed as a hero, a person to be carefully nurtured, protected and even worshipped by the people, you would make your master proud-”
“Silence! How many tis do I need to repeat myself? Do I look stupid enough to accept a gift from a foul creature that dwells in darkness? You have horns as well! What tells that you aren’t a dirt-blood yourself? What if you are just trying to trick to spell doom upon the domain instead?” she frowned, this being’s persistence was uncanny, no matter how many tis she refused him, he just kept coming back.
“Oh, do you mistrust because you assu my form is that of a dirt-blood?”
“…I would say that the fact that you appear out of the dark, and that you make rooms colder is more of a worry, but that as well, I suppose”
“That can not be helped, these are just how things happen…” the figure stepped back into the dark, and in the next second, Saturnina felt a cold hand fall upon her shoulder.
“Rigor”
Her body felt stiff, paralysed.
“Do not worry, this shall not persist for long” the voice was much closer now, the young felt the hand move away, and footsteps rang out as the figure walked around the workbench filled with materials and tools, stopping directly in front of her.
Standing in the light for the first ti, finally allowing Saturnina to see the true form of the mysterious intruder, and indeed, the shapes she had been seeing had been horns, and they were certainly those of a bull since the man’s head was the skull of a bovine.
A perfectly preserved one at that, the bones a perfect white.
The shape of his hollow sockets made him look a mixture of serious and unbothered, unmoving.
His hands were skeletal as well, so there was no chance that this was actually a mask.
What stood before her was no dirt-blood, but so foul, humanoid skeletal being with the head of a beast.
He was dressed nearly entirely in white, with only his fabric belt being black, he carried a blade at his waist, his posture oddly professional, looking like those ministers who gave lengthy speeches about the most inane of things like they mattered.
But he was certainly far more intimidating than those out-of-touch, power-hungry, decrepit vestiges of tis that no longer bore any relevance to the present, he had a presence that commanded to listen and pay attention.
Indeed, sothing that those old crooks lacked entirely- Charisma, although here, it was far from the pleasant kind, the horned one inspired a feeling of dread, you felt compelled to listen solely because you felt that the consequences could be dire if you didn’t.
“Now… Do you see ? You may refer to as… Carnifex”
“It seems like you want to say sothing?” he said, and with a wave, Saturnina’s mouth was freed from the strange rigidity that plagued her body.
“A skeleton that walks? You must be one of those undeads! That’s even worse than being a dirt-blood, you are the ones behind them!”
Carnifex rely shrugged.
“Now, we are undeads, we rely picked up the dirt-bloods because they were so easy to control, and so simple to enhance, but we–I–Can do the for you humans, and most particularly, for you, young mage”
Saturnina was not convinced.
“You people do not know anything of undeath, you don’t even have a handful of naturally spawned undeads anywhere… So you don’t understand, we undeads served Death, The Pale Lady”
“Serving Death ans spreading it, all that lives needs to be cleansed, the accursed must be blessed- This applies to all life equally, the dirt-bloods, the humans, the elves, the trees and every single blade of grass… All must perish and be reborn”
“So there is no point in picking a team, we undeads are working for the betternt of all”
“By killing everything?”
“Precisely, I know that it is a hard concept to grasp, but witness , I am a corpse, I hold no life within , and yet- Here I am conversing with you, and capable of immobilising with a re word… The Undead Empire is far more advanced that your human domain, I guarantee you that my offer is genuine”
Saturnina was rightfully skeptical, but it was hard to imagine a being that was seemingly so powerful needing to do all of this to succeed in his goals, it truly felt as though it didn’t matter whether she agreed or not.
But also, why be so insistent if it didn’t matter?
“It is rcy, young mage, it is the expression of Death’s kindness, there is no need to go forward and do much, you can apply what I tell you on a small scale at first, see for yourself if I am laying a trap for you” and with these words, he leaned forward and pressed his index against her forehead.
“Mnemor Passis”
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