Cadian looked down at his hands, trying to figure out how his new body was any different from his previous one. Disiratus said he would make this body without the flaws of humanity. Cadian soon realized that his hands were not what had changed. His vision, which was always blurred, had not only become clear but hawk-like. He could distinguish each individual leaf on the trees around him, which were quite beautiful compared to the green blurs he was used in his old body. He could smell something strange in the air, not knowing what it was but realizing it was nowhere close to him. He could hear the slightest noise from a thousand paces away, and his own steps were loud enough to annoy him.

Humans were never attuned with mana enough to use magic like the elves in the distant forest of continent or the dwarfs below the Orengan mountains, but they could sense when overwhelming mana was present. Cadian felt the sensation of mana but was not repressed by it. He felt empowered by it. Disiratus told him he would be given the authority to summon and control the undead. Enough people had died since people had stopped worshipping him that an army of shades could be forced into husks on earth. Disiratus explained how summoning undead would work. Shades or mindless spirits that Disiratus refused to judge because he did not receive a proper offering, would be summoned by Cadian to a body that he had created with mana. The spirits could think for themselves but they had no will of their own. When they receive an order they will think only of how to accomplish the task. They would have no will, no conscience, and no mercy. These undead would never tire, but their body was not indestructible, it would be easy enough to repair the body with mana but if the vessel that held the shades spirit was destroyed it would return to the realm of the dead, where Disiratus promised that he would judge the spirits fairly.

Cadian constructed a skeleton with mana, the vessel for the spirit, and a hard lower rib cage to completely cover the vessel. He meditated to feel his connection to the realm of Disiratus and found a shade that seemed particularly strong. Cadian forced his will upon this shade and forced him into the vessel. Disiratus had shown him how to construct the vessel so that the shade's ideal weapon and armor would appear when it's spirit entered the vessel. This undead warrior had manifested heavy armor and a large club, all of which was made of mana manifested in metal form. It was a dark metal that matched the dark grey color of the body.

" Can you speak warrior? Tell me what they call you." Cadian said in deep, monotone voice that sounded more like the overseer of death's than his. He already knew the answer to every question he was going to ask. He only wanted to see if the warrior could answer them himself.

"Yes I can speak. I have no name." the warrior responded in an ethereal voice.

" Of course, the dead usually have no attachment to life," Cadian said, mostly to himself. "Do you have any control over mana?"

"I do." it said curtly.

" Do you possess the ability raise an empty shell similar to your own?" he asked, wanting to minimize the hassle.

"Yes. Would you like me to do so?"

"Make it fast." Cadian ordered.

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The warrior raised the husk in a flash. The husk was lesser in quality than the warrior but it was raised in half the time. Cadian inspected the husk and found the warrior's method more efficient than his. At these early stages, quantity would take priority over quality.

"Good," Cadian praised, "you have skill in creating these husks. This one will not be able to harness mana as you do, but it will wield a sword well enough. Make twenty more."

Cadian made forty by the time the warrior was finished. He had no idea how many shades he could summon at a time, but this was the time to find out. He meditated and chose sixty shades to join his ranks. He kept meditating and found that only ten were entering their husks at a time. Soon, all the shades had joined his ranks, and Cadian decided to make forty more to put under the warrior's command.

The rest of the night in the forest was spent by making nine more divisions and their commanders. Cadian now had a thousand undead under his command and ten commanders to take control over them in the midst of battle. By the day's end Cadian had created another thousand troops with the help of his commanders. The more his forces grew the faster. It took a week for his forces to grow to ten thousand. Cadian decided that forces of the same size should have commanders of their own. He decided to take his time to create this general while his hundred commanders set to work creating the ten thousand troops.

This commander would be important to his mission and his revenge, so he would need to have at least a forth of Cadian's power and control of mana. The husk would be difficult to make, and, by the time he was finished with it, the commanders would already be finished with the second battalion of ten thousand. He would need protection and privacy, so he ordered the troops to spread through the forest and kill all the humans that entered. Cadian took his time with the core to imbue it with as much mana as was necessary. In his meditation, he chose the shade of an elf, which would already be familiar with mana use.

He then set to work on summoning the shades to the husks that his commanders had made while they protected him. The work took half a day and a third of his remaining mana. He finished summoning the shades and making all hundred of their commanders. In all, it took one and a half weeks to raise twenty thousand two hundred undead. Cadian had used a lot of command over mana and needed to meditate to recover. It took the rest of the week for him to recover his command and his general had reported two hundred encounters with humans and five hundred kills, no casualties. That forest seemed to be the center of some trade route, Cadian knew that the once safe forest would soon see an invasion to protect trade. Before then, many scouts would be sent, so Cadian ordered his army to bring him a single scout when they arrived and to kill all other humans on sight.

Two more weeks passed and soon a scout was brought before Cadian. A young man of about twenty years, with blond hair and handsome features. He had a bow in his possession and a long knife. Cadian was handed a map of the territory and his set it on the ground next to him.

" Human, when is the human military coming to this forest?" Cadian asked the scout.

" Go back to hell, you undead bitch." the scout spat on the ground at his feet.

Cadian's rage had been a cool hatred while he was focused on building the army, but now that a human was in front of him, it burned brighter than the sun, though it did not show on his expressionless face. He grabbed the scout's dagger and drove it into his left shoulder. A scream of pain greeted his effort.

" When is the human military coming," he repeated, " I will not ask again."

The scout remained silent. It was inconvenient that the he had not talked, but Cadian was prepared for when they came regardless of when that was.

"Kill him." He said as he was walking away. Cadian took the dagger with him because he had no weapon. He couldn't go into battle weaponless. Cadian went to meet his commanders to strategize a coordinated ambush on any army entering the forest. It seemed the next few weeks would give Disiratus an interesting show.