We have been marching now for what feels like weeks towards the Bottom Layer’s Upper Stratum with most of the older undead, a few additions of course. Where we are going, we will be surrounded by hostiles on all sides so I brought the best of them with me, including the recently made undead constructs.
At first looking down at the reassembled body parts, some torn apart, others cleanly cut thanks to some of the left behind tools, I was not sure if I could just raise them without some adhesive or thread to keep together the body parts, even toyed with the idea of using the thread of the undead spiders and arachnes, but then I just went with it thinking that in the worst case I’ll use them as some expendable vanguard type undead, but overall it seems like the Earth media was wrong or at least unnecessarily complicated the whole sew together and then raise them part of the undead constructs.
The negative matter of mine spread through the body parts, locking them together tightly while also filling the wider gaps on those torn body pieces, forming into an ethereal flesh of sorts’ appearance wise at least.
Performance wise they are above the average undead of mine, while some of the raised or risen undead are overall better in terms of physical power and magical prowess, at least the latter is true for the mages and the arachnids, but they were quite adept even in their lives so I guess that was to be expected.
But with the added undead constructs now I can divide my forces into divisions, giving them a bit more awareness compared to the lesser undeads. They have already proven themselves while we traversed the pathways leading towards the Bottom Layer, taking out smaller monster colonies along the way while also providing me with ample absorption material. Now I just wish we would have already reach it, but from what I gathered from the memories of the raised members of that group, the path down is a long one, even they themselves are unsure on the length of it.
At least we can march on endlessly without taking breaks, besides the few times when I join one of the divisions in eliminating the monsters that we run into, practicing a bit my newly acquired powers including the sub-aspect of blood and evolving the mind sub-aspect even further after how useful it proved in weakening the Horde party sent down to eliminate us, I mean the vampires.
Speaking of the Horde, just in case I left some of the undead behind to hunt some of the ecosystem of the Upper Layer of the mountain, standing guard and attacking anyone that enters the mountain for now at least. Well mostly the weaker or damaged ones that would just slow us down or at best could be used as expendables at best, so even in the worst case they at least slow down any hostiles from the back.
Oh finally, after walking on who knows how long, a mix of cool lights enter my vision, mostly blocked by the hundreds or maybe thousands of undead marching all around me, a sign of the vast first area of the Bottom Layer’s Upper Stratum where the Arachne I absorbed lived in one of the now probably smoldering ruins of a dark elven city.
After a walking for a few extra kilometers, approximately maybe two hours in terms of time, we reach the cliff side overlooking the Upper Stratum, with a magnificent looking landscape that spans probably hundreds if not almost a thousand kilometers, then again, I am not really good at taking measurements. All I can say is that the opposite end where the entrance to the Middle Stratum is located is impossible to see from here.
There are a few rivers flowing swirly straight towards into the far distance, a few underground rocky hills sprouting from the dark ground, some almost reaching the ceiling that is way above our heads naturally decorated with spike morochite formations if I remember the name right emitting the variedly, mixed cool colors. I would say that the whole place seems eerily empty, but with the presence of the Dragon and its rampage that happened not too long ago, at least in terms of the lifetimes of the locals, it is to be expected.
Beside the rivers, underground hills and a few outposts in the far distance I also spot the remains of the dark elven city, the one from my memories, not that far from the cliff we are currently standing on. After taking one more look of the view, I give the order and we start marching towards the city that will serve as our first base of operations down here.
**
I slowly enter through the remains of the gate, or maybe it’s just a hole in the wall. One of the two because there are a few more entrances like this alongside the wall running around the city in an elongated manner. As one can expect from ruined cities, this one is filled with undead besides mine of course, probably belonging to the Dark Elven high priest of the Dragon whose orb I absorbed on the Upper Layer.
The buildings while ruined bare the typical dark elven architectural style, making them appear quite frightening for the normal folks that don’t worship evil deities, demons and whatnot. While some of them are destroyed completely, leaving only the foundation, some others still have some of their walls relatively intact, with the textured dark surface of it depicting demonic runes inscribed into them, a sort of trial to make their people stronger against curses, or just to scare away or drive insane spies and assassins of other cities or even from the outside world. While I went through multiple life, I can still recall these from reading the books back in Svartalfheim, in my prison of a home.
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Anyway, while my undead start converting the Dark Elven Lich’s, I head towards the remains of the temple, where the Arachnid me was born, mostly hoping to find something to change my ragged clothes. They have overstayed their welcome, and even though the clothes in the temple are not that much better probably, they can’t be worse than clothes that are almost torn to shreds, and I did think about altering one of the dwarven armors from their former outpost, but I decided to use them for some of the undead constructs to make them sturdier so to speak, while I also absorbed some of them after that gift evolved.
Stepping inside the large spire temple with its top half that once connected to the ceiling of the Upper Stratum of the Bottom Layer, I find a few more undead. I pour my negative matter into them quickly, slowly mutating their decaying forms, the pitch-black darkness eating way the dim light gleaming through the open ceiling of the temple once dedicated to numerous demonic entities from what I can get from the devasted statues between the shattered tall windows.
I send the converted undead outside while I’m heading towards one of the doors, with a room that still seems to be intact, the others are pretty much caved in, finding what seems to be like a former dressing room or armory. If I recall it correctly, they did tend to have these in their temples, not necessary for the temple guards but because of certain violent demons or evil deities sacrifice rituals are resembling an actual duel to the death.
Well, it seems like the armors are out of question, the first three I touched quickly crumbled to pieces, seemingly the after effects of the flames of the Dragon if I’d have to take a guess. There are a few charred boxes I look through but as expected the clothes in them are practically a pile of ash, or maybe it is a dark elf that got unlucky, doesn’t really matter though.
Well, seems like the fire claimed everything, even the wardrobes on the same side as the entrance as destroyed too, with the clothes in them nothing more than piles of ashes. I guess for now I just look through every building that seems a bit more intact until I find something to wear, I am even willing to accept some exposure if I can finally get rid of these torn moon elven clothes.
On a more serious note, it feels like all the undead have been converted that were stationed here by the Dark Elven Lich so at least now I can send out some to scout the nearby areas while I try to look for something better to wear.
**
“Seems like there is a new competitor” A dark elven woman whispers to herself wearing dark leather armor that obfuscates her slender, well-fit body with a dark bluish gray skin, a leather and silken masked hood covering her head with her long platinum whitish hair tied in the back while her crimson red eyes emit a faint wicked glow from under her masked hood. She watched as a small legion of an undead with a sinister aura marched down the cliff leading to the exit to the Upper Layer’s Bottom Stratum and then enter the once second largest dark elven settlement in Mount Dhaugrúz ravaged by the Deadfire.
Through a surveillance type spell, she watched as the strange undead converted the minions of the Traitor, mutating the undead. Some zombies grew carapace like armor on their bodies, others rotten skin turned scaly partially, while their formerly barely intact teeth grew out, with an extra pair of fangs reminiscent of vampire’s. While some of the rotten holes in zombies got repaired to an extent, their light bluish glow of necrotic energies that corrupt their soul or act as a makeshift soul, turned so dark it ate away the light of the Bottom Layer lightning up this underground world, making even the dark elf shiver in a calm fear as she peered into the darkness for some unknown reason to even her.
“I guess for now I just report” she notes to herself, after noticing one of the undead constructs, a centaur with the upper body of a bulky orc that misses its jaw, a long tongue mutated by the dark energies that make up its makeshift soul, even growing small horns through its back similar to Basilisks and four arms sprouting from its shoulders neatly melded together with each hand holding different kinds of weapons. Most of its body armored that appears to be dwarven in origin, yet it has some wicked motifs on it depicting tendrils of arms shooting up from the bottom sides towards the neck area.
She leaves feeling the piercing stare of invisible eyes on herself, knowing full well that she has been spotted by the one she hasn’t spotted yet. Her slender body turns into a mass of shadow, appearing like a dark silhouette that slowly melds into the dark ground, heading back to her dark elven community to report, hoping that the one’s watching her is not an enemy, but one that will challenge the Deadfire, a Dark Messiah for her people.
**
Dark Elven Architecture:
The first thing that has to be mentioned here is in worlds where magic exists, architects and builders are usually Earth Affinity mages. Most civilizations use stones, rocks and objects that fall into the Earth Element for their buildings. These people also act as their own guards against any threat that would attack them during constructions, even though the number of guards are still the same.
Now the difference in architecture comes from where they are building, and in some cases do they mix it with other Elements. Dark Elves usually mix the Aspect of Earth and Death when it comes to building their temples and watchtowers at least.
They build their cities in the same fashion as the mountain dwelling Dwarves. Usually near the entrances and in some cases in the middle of an underground section. The main buildings (Temples, and Forts) themselves usually resemble spiraling towers that connect from the ground to the ceiling itself, with a few smaller buildings here and there built to the sides of the towers ground floor. Castles are the exception, that resemble human or other elven made castles and temples, but with more edged arches with usually a spire in the middle or on the end close to the entrance leading to deeper parts usually, not in every case of course.
Watchtowers as mentioned before are usually made with the infusion of Death and Earth Affinities. Death Affinity with mixed with Earth makes the stone a bit more durable while also having some side effects, like raising the enemy’s fallen troops and then turning against them. On top of these towers are usually a dark orb that is the source of the main magical defense system that protects against invaders, both against ground forces and aerial troops, even though the latter is a rarity in underground places where the dark elves tend to delve, but while most of them are quite arrogant, some amongst them are also quite paranoid.