The Dhau-Íssz members that the undead constructs captured finally returned to their bases. Seems like they managed to traverse through the underground landscape without too much problem. They did run into a few monsters here and there, but they made short work of those monsters, some even turning them into their undead servants. Seems like that they have not yet been suspected of being tampered with, thankfully, so for now I can gain some information on their bases of operations down here.
From what I can see through the spell I inscribed into their minds showing me what they see here in my personal Divine Space, most of their forces down here are made up of undead, led by individual necromancers. With the numbers, it makes sense that the Dark Elven Lich of the Dragon wouldn’t want to just take control of all of these alone. My gifts help out a bit with this issue, but even I gave a bit more control to some of my undead so to speak to help alleviate the strain all these almost a thousand undead gives to me. Mostly just a mild headache so far to be honest, that I’m already used to thanks to the absorption skill I was gifted with helped in that in a way.
Speaking of the undead, I did send out some undead constructs, while I ordered the mages and zombie necromancers to stay and keep watch around the city. While a little battle experience would not hurt me, I’d rather much thread lightly down here from this point on. I let the undead constructs out to hunt monsters for me to absorb for now while I gather some information on the enemy, including the location of the Dark Elven Lich, even though I may already know that unless he changed locations since I absorbed his orb on the Upper Layer. Hard to know to be honest, he doesn’t move out that much and even the self-proclaimed pilgrims of the Nightscale or Deadfire have no idea where he actually holes himself up.
And the Dragon. I’m getting closer and closer to him, so I also have to start coming up with some plans when I’ll confront him. If I am being honest, it makes me kind of excited to my core. No matter which life of mine I was in, my unflinching love of the dragon kind stayed with me, and with the ability to devour anything, that love turned into an obsession of getting my hand on one. And now it is within just an arm’s reach, a very long arm’s reach. But for now, let’s just focus on the Dark Elven Lich for now. I’ll give the command to the undead bugs, and they start flying towards the location where through his memories he may be hiding. Let’s see if the memories are fresh enough that he still uses that place. Oh, one of the undead constructs also found some interesting beast a bit far out from our base of operations, eastwards if I am correct.
**
The high-pitched screams of the goblins scattering all over, many getting impaled and or torn to pieces by the hands and spears of the undead of the Nameless fill the open area of the section of the Upper Stratum of the Bottom Layer of Mount Dhaugrúz, their former camp surrounded by dark jagged cliffs with narrow pathways between them, their leader a Tainted Hobgoblin the size of an orc with his half of his ape like head turned scale, dragon like with three sets of horns sprouting from the back, his bulky body unevenly transformed similarly, his left arm reptilian in its appearance with smaller horns protruding from the shoulders, his two legs completely turned and his previously monkey like tail covered in dark scales reflecting the cool mixed light emanating from the stones of the cliff and from the ceiling of the Upper Stratum, his eyes dark reddish like the eyes of the Deadfire himself.
While he tries to order the other goblins who are in complete panic mode, he is also facing one of the undead constructs of the Nameless, a weird mixture. The construct possesses the head of a minotaur with two large horns sprouting from the sides of its monstrous cow like head, turning and twisting to the back after it was exposed to copious amounts of negative matter, its eyes replaced with a darkness with clear-cut pupils filled with a sinister dark light, its multiple arms that once belonged to a dekatoncheires branching out from its oversized armpits, the decaying chest with several holes in it belonged to an exceptionally tall and bulky ogre of the Upper Layer of the mountain, the bottom of its body, the nine scythe like legs of a mantisoid holding the weight of its enormous body towering over the Tainted Hobgoblin piercing into the dark ground of the Upper Stratum.
The Tainted Hobgoblin lets out a deep roar that brings the other goblins back into line, but then they all start to panic once again when the Undead Construct lets out its own guttural deep and otherworldly roar, the darkness that fills its decrepit, put together body escapes through its relatively elongated mouth filled with dark sharp teeth, negative matter imitating its tongue that no longer takes up space in there, the pitch black necrotic energy spreading towards some of the smaller goblins clad in their crude armour decorated with the purplish fur of some beast native to the underground world, entering their body which then makes them scream as the pain of their bodies rapidly rotting away registers in their being.
The Tainted Hobgoblin quickly concludes that as long as the Undead Construct stands, the battle is lost, so he starts funnelling his mana through his corrupted body, dark purplish flames, a mixture of necrotic energies and the element of fire, appear in his partially open mouth and then quickly shapes it into a round shape, putting a bit more of its intent into it as he launches it towards the large Undead Construct, whose scythe legs bend a little as it prepares to dodge the incoming attack, the creaking of the bones barely audible as the rest of the undead start engaging with the goblins, tearing them to pieces while the goblins themselves stick and swing their crude weapons towards the undead, their survival instincts partially overcoming the fear that either froze their body or made them drop all their weapons and run towards the narrow paths between the cliffs that surround their camp. The Undead Construct manages to propel itself in the air, a few meters above the two groups, landing on top of three goblins and two of its own undead, impaling each with its legs.
It then lifts the legs with the corpses on it, hurling the slowly raising corpses towards the Tainted Hobgoblin, who is already preparing another attack towards the Undead Construct. The dark ball of flame hits the screaming undead goblins, their small decaying ape like bodies with a dark bluish skin tone envelop in flames completely, and after several seconds turn to ash completely. The Undead Construct quickly moves on to the offensive, weirdly scurrying towards the Tainted Hobgoblin, its muscular dark toned arms pointed forward with some of its hands curling into fists with dark runes appearing on them as it funnels its dark energies into them, landing a hit on the Tainted Hobgoblin who started to back away while loading another shot in its mouth filled with razor sharp teeth and a pointy tongue.
It barely manages to hit the Tainted Hobgoblin, cancelling the spell it cast on its fists as its master’s will reaches its feeble mind, the force behind it sending the slender, yet bulky body of the Tainted Hobgoblin towards the jagged walls of the cliff on the east behind its back. The Tainted Hobgoblin manages to survive the impact that created a small crater around its body, cracks forming on the surface of the jagged wall, a few cuts appearing on its back but besides those, nothing life-threatening thanks to its hardy partly scaled back skin that can easily take a hit from even enchanted and blessed mithril or adamantine swords, bouncing off of it as fast as he landed on it, a soft deep groan escaping his wide mouth as he drifts into unconsciousness, the pack of goblins that it was assigned to already subjugated and raised by the undead whose leader grabs the Tainted Goblin by its head carrying him back to its home.
**
Far east to the goblin camp, another group led by the undead construct with the head of the greater vampire spawn glued onto the torso of a minotaur, the two’s fur melding together into one while the chest of the minotaur showing signs of burning, the ribcage completely exposed and burnt dark, the insides barely visible by its corrupted visible soul, its intestines and other organs already turned to dust by the massive amounts of negative matter. The back like the front exposed, the negative matter of its master mutating it to the point where thin and long tendrils, numbering in the hundreds, wiggle behind its frame, each tendril ending in sharp needless that can easily pierce even the hardest stone or metal. And its upper body anchored on the lower horse body of one of the centaurs of the Horde party that ventured down into the mountain. Its hooves emanating the sinister darkness that its made soul turned into.
If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
It is currently facing a single bulky bipedal dragon like creature that was once an ogre of the Horde that received the taint of the Nightscale. While ogres in most cases, even in the rarest, are usually shorter than centaurs, this one thanks to the taint, or as the Dhau-Íssz like to say to the blessing, is now at the same height as the Undead Construct with the head of a greater vampire spawn. Its once brutish crude ogre face and subsequentially head now resembling more of a dragon’s, covered in a dark purplish scale if light hits it, twelve horns protruding from the back of its elongated head with still some hair leftover from its previous state. A similar number of smaller horns also grew from its broad and massive shoulder, his hands ending in claws unnaturally sharp.
The two mini giants circle around each other, surrounded by the undead, including the Dhau-Íssz members who followed their self-proclaimed saint of the Nightscale, one of the few who directly received it from the Dragon himself. The Tainted Ogre is the first to make a move, launching his enormous heavy body towards the Vampiric Undead Construct, aiming its fist that slowly get engulfed in flames the colour of the starless night sky, directing it towards the head of the Vampiric Undead Construct.
The Tainted Ogre makes a surprised noise, the Vampiric Undead Construct instead of dodging, or creating a ward of negative matter to protect itself from the hit, decides to take it in a manner of its own. The fist of the Tainted Ogre lands in the unnaturally open jaw of It, the upper part of its head seemingly hanging like it’s about to fall off after someone cut Its head open cleanly with an axe or a sword. The Tainted Ogre tries to remove it, knowing well that he may have walked into the trap of the Vampiric Undead Construct, but after a few tries he gives up and tries to tear it off as it feels small cold hands touching his scaly fingers and hand, slowly extending towards where he tries to tear it off.
But before he could do it, the tendrils grown out of the spine of the Vampiric Undead Construct swiftly extend out in the air, their sharp pointy ends focusing towards the large frame of the Tainted Ogre, quickly heading towards their target, cutting the air with their speeds, easily entering the skin and flesh of the Tainted Ogre, making it scream in its deep guttural voice before the light fades from its reptilian red eyes staring emptily up to the ceiling of the Upper Stratum of the Bottom Layer. After the Vampiric Undead Construct lets the corpse of the Tainted Ogre out of its hold, it falls quickly to the ground, creating a small tremor that shakes the other undead's light bodies before it gets up and the whole extended group start walking back to their home.
**
“We should report now.” Rodersha, one of the many scouts keeping an eye on the movement of the undead and the Dhau-Íssz and the Dragons Tainted says hurriedly to his partner, Aivah one of the older generation dark elves, formerly the apprentice to the magus lord of the city the Nameless occupies.
“Not yet, there are still a few more groups we should check up on before we report to the Council.” Years of experience working with the dark entities of the Abyss and the Void made her resistant to an extent to the aura oozing out of the undead of the Nameless, instilling a primal fear in at least most of the dark elves and the members of the Dhau-Íssz accompanying their self-proclaimed saints.
“I’m not sure what you expect to see other than these amalgamations mopping up more of the slaves of the Dragon.” Rodersha says with clear annoyance in his voice. The two have been rushing all over the Upper Stratum, watching the Undead Constructs deal with some of the Tainted, while also taking care of some monsters that migrated up from the Stratums of the Bottom Layer after the Deadfire coursed through them.
“If you are afraid, you can go back and report what we have seen so far” Aivah says mockingly as she stands up, stretching her joints in unison, the faint cracking sound echoing through the vast space while she uses a detection spell to pinpoint her next location and target to check out. “If I do, I’ll probably get scolded by the Master” Rodersha says with a deep sigh as he stands up. “So, what is our next location” he asks reluctantly.
“North east of here” Aivah says while pointing towards the dark, dimly lit distance. After Rodersha finishes stretching his slender dark elven body covered in their dark leather armour, his androgynous face partially visible under the masked hood, appearing to bear demonic tattoos that emit a feint dark light under the hood, highlighting weakly his crimson red eyes. The two quickly disappear in a dark shadowy mist, appearing several meters in front of them, and continue on.
“So why exactly do we need to see more of the same?” while the two teleport forward from one place to another, sometimes landing on top of a jagged rock or two that allows them to take a break, sometimes on an underground tree emitting a light bluish light, and sometimes on a flat ground with signs of monstrous footsteps of various beasts migrating in different directions, Rodersha asks his partner.
“Don’t you find it weird that they kill the slaves of the Dragon, but they pretty much leave monsters unaffiliated with him alive?” Aivha say. “Well, maybe whoever controls the undead is one of the many enemies of the Dragon.” Rodersha replies while the two stop on a cliffside overlooking a crater filled with hundreds of jagged rocks curving and pointing towards the vibrant ceiling of the Upper Stratum, the whole view resembling the mouth of an enormous sand worm of the south with the middle having a small open space. “That can be a possibility, or more than likely, but then why not kill the monsters too and convert them to undead?” Aivha says. “I mean could be because for now just ratios them?” Rodersha follows up, his reply turning into a question by the end of his sentence.
“I mean, he could do that without leaving them alive. Plus, you felt their aura, and seen the constructs, whoever controls them is a necromancer even beyond the power of the Traitor, or at least one with the backing of an entity of the Void.” Aivha says after feeling a familiar cold, calming yet terrifying feeling as she observed the undead. “Well, if you say so, I was never under the tutelage of our maguses, so I can’t say anything on that” Rodersha speaks while the two start teleporting forward once again after their little break.
“Seems like we just arrived late” Aivah says as they land and swiftly crouch down, their bodies covered by two large stones with a dark moss-grown on its hard dark surface, emitting a faint reddish and purple glow. By the time they arrived the undead construct made mostly of bones with a thin layer of skin covering its grotesque skeletal body, with a head that is made up of at least four or five different skulls, each socket’s filled with darkness with a cut in them masquerading as their pupils, its shoulder also made up of 3 different skulls on each side with the same fake eyes forming in their sockets all staring down at the enormous body of a fully grown hydra with nine heads spreading towards the at least three meter tall body of the Skeletal Undead Construct.
It points at the collapsed Hydra with its long bony rotten dark skin covered fingers with small holes in it, a mist like darkness eating away the faint light that reaches down here escaping through them, several spiders with rotting body, emitting the same darkness through their fatal injuries surround the Hydra with their backs to it and quickly shoot their darkish white thread towards it, their thread firmly sticking onto the arms, legs, and long tail of the Hydra. The Skeletal Undead Construct stands aside, each of its step creating a small tremor that shakes the two dark elves, who quickly notice through their elven eyes that one of its shoulder skulls stares at them, a cold shiver running through their body, Aivha managing to subside the fear, while Rodersha keeps shaking in fear.
Then It turns its sight away from the two and follows after Its war band, heading back to their Master.
“I think that was enough, we can return now definitely.” Rodersha says, the cold fear still occupying his being, his voice trembling. “You can return, I’ll follow them” Aivah says with a newfound determination and intrigue plastered all over her eyes peeking out from under her hood with her lower face covered in a silken face mask with barely visible trims at the edges.
“What!?” her partner screams in confusion, quickly clamping his own hands over his own facemask covering his mouth. “What more you could see by following them? Not like entering the city is a good idea?” he quickly follows up while his eyes dart all over making sure that no beast hears it in their proximity.
“Maybe, but if we go back now, we will practically report nothing of substantial” Aivah says while staring at the group of undead slowly disappearing in the distance, her mana coursing through her body and soul ready to teleport at a moment. “Fine, but you go by yourself, in no way I’m going to approach that place.” He says before quickly teleporting away, leaving Aivah alone who starts following after the undead, back towards the ruined city that was once her home.