The next village was only a couple of hours of travel away, and it was completely empty.
While his army waited near, Aleric stepped into its modest graveyard and walked between the wooden markers. Before casting any magic, he kneeled over a grave and reached out with a tendril of Dark energy.
To his relief, he imdiately felt a soul remnant in the body beneath.
"It looks like the inquisitors didn’t have the ti to consecrate every body in every village around," Aleric said, standing up. "This couldn’t be a simple process for them, unless they are also fourth rank mages, like their leader. Although, would even a fourth rank spell be able to affect an entire graveyard at once?"
"If it’s a graveyard like this one, then certainly. But in the town... It really depends on how hard it is to consecrate a body compared to reanimating it, master," Spine Staff replied.
"Then they can’t consecrate as many bodies as I’m about to raise... It’s not called Raise Countless Slaves for nothing!"
After these words, Aleric repeated all the preparations he had made for this spell in the town earlier: a heptagram, blood, and a lot of Dark energy.
"Kaiva hitta orjaudat yls, nosni, loplmon tansuani ja tanssi svesisi, tapa, tapa, tuhoa..."
This ti, as Aleric’s energy spread over the soil, he imdiately felt hundreds of soul remnants in the vicinity. For a mont, their sheer number overwheld Aleric’s senses, but he never fully lost concentration.
He poured Dark energy into the soul remnants by dozens. More and more... At first, it seed that the spell’s energy was unending, but a few dozen remnants later, Aleric felt a dip in it. Still, there was enough for dozens more.
When the energy was fully over, Aleric had no idea how many undead he had risen. He put the staff down and simply waited for the skeletons to break through the soil and dig themselves out.
Soon, skeletal hands began sprouting all over like spring saplings. All the graves within several hundred feet of Aleric were affected.
His eyes widened as he watched the spell at work.
Even Aleric himself was shocked at the scale of it when all the skeletons stood to their feet, dropping clumps of dirt to the ground. From outside the graveyard, his soldiers watched in complete awe of their master’s power.
Spine Staff’s eyes flashed, counting the undead.
"One hundred and fifty-five skeletons... Excellent result! This spell can be overcharged with triple mana for even more skeletons per cast. You will raise an undead army in no ti!"
"Yes... As long as there aren’t any consecrated graveyards." Aleric frowned. "Anyway, these skeletons are trash, and I don’t have any sacrifices on hand to recover mana. We aren’t staying in this village."
He ordered his new undead to follow and went back to his army and his horse.
Aleric only paused here to practice a new spell, and because he had mana. His real goal was Diawale County and its capital city, Frinstoun. A place where there will definitely be both sacrifices and valuable bodies to raise.
Unlike these small towns and villages, Frinstoun was too large to simply abandon.
***
The border between Oakdale and Diawale was guarded.
A very desperate-looking regint of piken was standing behind a barricade that blocked a road leading to the next county.
Originally, the place was a toll gate. It was reinforced with extra soldiers recently, but as they looked at the approaching army, these piken still realized that they were dood.
The horde of skeletons in front of them seed unending. Behind their yellowed skulls, it was hard to see the other soldiers, and only people on horses stood out.
In the day it took to reach the border between counties, Aleric raised six hundred skeletons from several more graveyards of villages on his army’s way. Sotis, especially mad people tried to attack the army...
They beca a sacrificial fuel for more skeletons.
From his side, Aleric could only see the piken over the heads of his undead slaves because he was riding a horse.
"These people see that they are dood... But they still follow their orders and don’t run. It’s admirable." Aleric said. "But they won’t bow to , either. And even if they would, I won’t accept it."
He put a hand on the Ghost Blade on his hip. The ghost could give them all a swift death...
But then, where would Aleric take sacrifices to quickly raise a new regint of elite soldiers?
"Soldiers, subdue them. I want these people alive until I reanimate them!"
***
The fight was over almost as soon as it started. The piken couldn’t resist the undead horde for long. The several dozen skeletons that were destroyed were an acceptable price to bring them down in a convenient manner.
Now they marched with Aleric into Diawale.
Just traveling down the road, Aleric saw how many people were still staying in Diawale compared to Oakdale. So of them were even on the road, only to flee from it at the sight of Aleric’s army.
This was still a ripe ground for harvesting the undead. When the next town appeared on the horizon, Aleric was already anticipating it.
"Samuel, send Black Riders and skeletons to go around and block the exits from the town. Its citizens will bow before or beco my next undead."
Inside the town were about a hundred militian who tried to resist his army, and a priest with a few bottles of holy water. It was far from enough.
Looking at the site of the brief battle and the streets behind it, where his soldiers corralled other townspeople, Aleric smiled.
’I wonder how many of them will refuse to accept as their new lord. A lot, I hope,’ he thought.
"Ditrich!" Aleric called for the head of his logistics. "Bring the corpses and everybody who doesn’t bow to my rule to the local graveyard. And the torture instrunts, too. We will be staying in this town for a few hours."
He just wondered whether the town’s graveyard was consecrated...
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