My na is Ezekiel Verniac, my voice bood across the arena and across the town around it. The stands were full, the news of the failure of the invasion had spread quickly when players were drug into the arena one by one by the Dread Thirteen. This is my dungeon and my domain. These fools challenged at the request of a mad god.
The fifty captured players were still bound and gagged, now stripped of gear and evenly spaced around . A very simple ritual was drawn out around myself and each of them. Let show you sothing I swore never to do to a sentient beingbut these are bound souls, their lives are not worth anything.
I slamd rcy down, shattering a death core at my feet. Eldritch power flooded out of the staff, shattering dozens more. Death energy swirled through the arena, not touching the captured players. They were protected by dos of eldritch power.
Activating the ritual, chains made of death magic bound every player and lifted them into the air. All at once, the protections faded and the death energy flowed into them, but not quickly. They all scread. The ritual I was wielding reached out and seized each of their hearts with eldritch power as wisps of soul energy fed into it.
Slowly their bodies were overwheld by death energy guided by necromantic power. The wisps of soul energy coursing through my eldritch power suppressed any resistances. The ritual was crude, cruel, and efficient. When the last dregs of the death magic and death energy funneled into their bodies and their hearts were consud, the spell ended.
I told you all once I could create the living dead, so long as it was earned and you brought the necessary resources. Every player was a whimpering ss on the ground, though I noticed the elental wizard was recovering quicker. Those resources were to ensure the process was smooth, and also so the process was complete.
What have you done, the leader of Larrys guild demanded, but the confidence of his voice was gone, it shook with pain and horror.
I kept my voice loud enough to address the crowd. I changed your race. Youre now living dead of whatever race you were before. But not a living dead like Id created before out of kindness, youre missing sothing. Your bodies will fall apart and die unless you consu life. You are not quite a zombie but youre also not quite living dead.
His eyes were distant as he read over sothing, and I pulled up the description of what he was just to check one more ti that Id done it right.
Remnant Living Dead
Level: 152
The remnant living dead are caught between worlds. They are neither fully living nor fully dead. Driven by both the needs of the dead and the needs of the living they slowly go mad as their body regenerates and decays at the sa ti. Neither death nor life can help them. Unless this condition is fixed, the inevitable is true death and oblivion.
If you co across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
Dont panic overly much, youre bound souls, so you wont ever actually die here, though you might have to make a new character, I said. But in my lenience, I do offer you a way.
Kellnock strode out onto the arena. Bind yourself to my dungeon and I will keep you alive until the death priest arrives to cure you.
The other players were recovering by this point, and the crowd in the stands was deadly quite. I returned my address to them.
This town will beco part of my dominion. There was a crack and flare of magic from the top of the ziggurat. From where I stood on the sands, I could see the top and the steady column of bone guard marching down the stairs. I would suggest running if you have a problem with this. And run far, because I am not stopping here.
***
Well, this is not how I expected the day to end, Livia said to in the town square. First their army marches in, and then your army marches out and you enslave a whole bunch of players.
Enslave is such a dirty word, I protested. I think of it as more pressed into service to pay for their cris.
Livia snorted. Okay, Mr. Overlord.
Im not sticking around, I have so places to be and people to kill, I told her. My vampire, Vito, will arrive shortly to make sure things are running correctly. Overall, this should be a good thing. There is also going to be a high death priest that can create living dead eventually.
I was wondering about that, Livia said. Marcus was actually joking about changing himself, said that Olattee was getting a bit not fun.
I will convert him right here on the spot if he wants to, I said, looking around for Marcus.
No, I dont think he does, Livia laughed. After your little display I think its going to be of few days before anyone makes that choice.
Anyone who wants to co with my army to go kick so ass will get it done for free, unless they still wish to provide the resources, otherwise they will have to wait for to gather them as I go, I said.
Following an army of undead to war Livia smiled. You know players, always looking for a new kick, you probably get a few more interested than you think, though none of my good teams are waiting around for gear from Kellnock.
Yeah, hes been a little busy, I agreed. Vito needs help with a project developing a type of undead that can command detachnts to send reinforcents to , I was hoping you could help figure that out.
Livias eyes went distant and I smiled. You know, for claiming that youre not a normal NPC, you did just hand out a quest.
I shrugged. Gotta work with the tools I have.
Youre building a road, Livia pointed out. How are you going to defend that from the creatures in the marsh?
Its rather simple, Ill make sothing to defend it, and the problem you guys had was the living were using the road and looked tasty, for my needs, I dont need anybody living to use the road. I hopped up on Shadow. The dead worked just fine for .
The construction of the road went fairly quickly. It still took us several days to make it out of the marsh, and it wound around several of the larger land spurs, so it wasnt a quick road, but that was okay. Any creatures we ca across were hunted down and added to a growing pile. Once big enough, I worked with Izban, Tola, Jair, and Othniel to create a massive undead construct.
I didnt want it to be a living dead, it existed to patrol the road. It was as big as an elephant but simple. Its size was its strength. There was nothing I knew of in the death marsh that could threaten it and it would keep away anything that would destroy the road or threaten the undead moving up and down it.
Reviews
All reviews (0)