After leaving the arena, I wasted no time in migrating to my usual spot to dive into my shadow. Like a meteor, I blew past my material goods and the Menagerie to arrive in my domain of death, where I paused in objective surprise.
To put it simply, my subspace in the Underworld had evolved. No doubt as a result of Carbury being the first undead being to occupy it. It was a vast jungle filled with flora that made the blackwood trees of Deapou look like lawn weeds. They were Bodhi Tree size. And they were everywhere, spaced apart like intermittent city blocks arranged in an illogical pattern. As I descended, I saw that the Aegis and Burning souls that had been sentinels before my throne were now white and red wisps placed in an orbit above it. The throne itself was unchanged- a surprisingly comfortable seat that mirrored my magical mark to a T. The space ahead of it, however, was a perfect example of ecological harmony.
Carbury made his ‘home’ to the right of my throne. A comparatively thick patch of moss denoted his bed, which had been placed auspiciously close to a still pond in which he intently stared. Simion sat across from him, and much closer to me. Poised atop a plush pillow, which itself sat atop a Corinthian-style pillar that rose from my throne’s dais, he looked upon the space with as much wonder as I did. Despite his firsthand account of its creation.
Carbury’s Lake. Or rather, Carbury Lake was like a ‘front yard beach’ for my Necro Throne. In a way, it was similar to the lake outside the Cove. Only in much larger dimensions. The land between my dais and lake held a wide road that connected Carbury’s bed with the great bridge looming ahead of me. Like towering gatehouses, twin keeps lined either side of the bridge. On the left was Lana’s house. A proper castle that served as the barracks for my first 66 shadows. Naturally, that left Zaraxus to take up the keep on the right with his five minions. Together, they were both the gatekeepers and the wardens of the towering structure at the far end of the bridge.
Even now, as I orbited with my wisps, shadows, skeletons, and zombies alike trailed to and from the place to either prepare for the next generation or train. Meanwhile, those without orders were scattered about in camps along the shores of Carbury Lake. Always in groups of at least five, they could be seen far and wide pulling sticks from the pocket of shade above and sharpening them into impromptu spears, clubs, or crude bows.
“Glad to see everyone’s settled in nicely,” I said after falling into my throne with a needless grunt.
“I did not expect you to be fond of jesters, my Liege,” Carbury commented with a glare towards Simion.
“I’m not.” I eyed the fire-eyed skull out of the corner of my eye. “He can be quite annoying. But he has information about the sixth century. Information I find valuable. As do you.”
“Apologies, my Liege.” Carbury swayed his horn. “I was never one to meddle in... civilized affairs.”
“That may be so, but your knowledge of the natural world is just as valuable,” I assured him. “You have knowledge of many creatures, both magical and natural. Do you not?”
“Correct, my Liege.”
“And there you have it. Now.” I split my focus to summon the start of my legions before me. And in a sudden wave of deathly smoke, they were arranged before me in a neat formation.
With but a squint of my eyes, I sent an order out to Lana and the company of shadows behind and watched them shuffle in a similar display of waving clouds. Like Zaraxus and his squad, Lana was now standing before the twenty-best shadows out of the 66. Half were fighters and half held some type of magic- and they were all the shadows who had magic; mostly of the elemental variety.
One of them, my third kill, was a comparatively young man with an affinity for Blast Magic. As the name implied, his fire was as intense as a blast furnace and as concussive as a flashbang. But he was sent flying into a rock while I was raging all the same. As a result, he now had fat blots of glowing ‘skin’ that glowed behind his light leather armor. Naturally, the same feature applied to his hair and five-o’clock shadow, both of which were an autumnal red in life and now glowed in the same blue-green brilliance as his teeth, nails, eyes, and tongue.
As the first of my shadows to possess a magical affinity, he was named Caleb and was temporarily ‘promoted’ to Sergeant of the mage squad. In charge of nine other individuals who possessed variations of the other three basic elements. Plus Granite, Wire, Glass, Mud, Cyclone, and Spark Magics.
Their counterpart was a squad of four fighters and five archers, led by a hulking man of a fighter I named Bruce. He was one of the bandits who loved torturing Hill Base. After torturing him in kind and letting his body sit in my under for months, he was reborn as a shadow with a glowing wedge-shaped scar on his sternum haphazardly covered by mismatched armor. Or, it was mismatched in life. Now, the sleek set of pauldrons, gauntlets, and greaves were all different shades of abyssal black and gray.
“Now then.” I turned to either side with a sigh. “Carbury, Simion, there are a few individuals I want you to meet.”
“Hmm?” Simion raised himself off his pillow and began looking around at once. “There are more of us?”
“My, my!” The cold, femme voice called out from the necrotic darkness before the substance converged in the form of the Raven Reaper’s body, towering over Carbury like an old crone from a horrific tale. “A unicorn as your first undead?”
“It is as they say,” Azrael came forth next. “Patience is a virtue.”
“A creature of legend!” Henry appeared next, grinning wide. “I’ve met many legendary creatures in my day, never a unicorn.”
“Hah!” Telman arrived with a mad cackle. “I can practically hear Ev’s frustrations from here! Well done, Amun!”
While they surrounded and shrouded Carbury with praise and gleaming eyes, Simion helplessly bobbed and bounced around their perimeter in a desperate attempt to introduce himself. After watching him try and try again, I called him to my side through our link and gave my ancestors a few moments to finish cooing Carbury before I called out for their collective attention.
“I must say.” Corvus turned to me with a fanged grin. “I am veritably impressed, Amun.”
“Oh?” I amiably snorted. “I’ve graduated from ‘boy’ to my proper name, it seems.”
“Still as impudent as ever.” She playfully harrumphed. “Regardless, you are now an official Shadow Necromancer. Congratulations.”
I accepted her regal bow with one of my own and was surprised to see her standing straight with a new life in her eyes. “If Shade brings fear, Death brings horror. Let that be your first lesson from me, Amun.” She bit at the words, then paused to let them sink in. “As one born from the Void, your potential far exceeds any of ours.” She gestured to her descendants standing down her left side before turning her cold, undying eyes back to me. “While your useless great-grandfather will teach you how to make the most of your undead minions, it would not hurt for you to tell how you wield death in its raw form.”
“I Usurp Life and Strength to counter my physical weakness as a Drow,” I said. “Other than that, I’ve been experimenting with souls and curses to prepare myself for the Artificer Class. I made a cursed weapon. But-”
“How did you make a cursed weapon?” Telman interjected with the widely intent eyes of a mad scientist.
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
“I fused these to make a Gray Soul.” I pointed to the wisps around me. “A soul with a neutral disposition. I used a cursed technique to imbue the soul with my magic and fuse it into the weapon with conditions to find a suitable user.”
“That is not a cursed weapon then.” Telman knowingly chuckled. “It is a Sentient Weapon. But a remarkable achievement all the same.”
“Thank you.”
“And tell me of your undead,” Corvus demanded with a regal wave behind her.
“I have thirty-eight zombies, seventy-five skeletons, sixty-six shadows, and one draugr. Five of the skeletons have been promoted to what my Grandpa Lich would call a Captain.”
“And what do you call them?” She turned back to me.
"Sergeants. And the draugr is their Uncle.” I simply said. Then snickered at the abject confusion before drawing out the letters with darkness. “An extension of Unc: Undying Night Captains.”
“Clever.” Telman mused.
“His name is Zaraxus,” I told them post-chortle. “Other than them, I have two vampires and one of their spawn on the outside that are obsessed with me.”
“That is natural. You are a Sovereign of Shadow and Death. Even a lich will prostrate in your presence, Amun. Unless they come from our family, of course.” Corvus added with a prideful grin.
“Which, in turn, makes for powerful allies.” I grinned myself before splaying my hands out to my sides. “This is Carbury. Though he’s the first creature I raised, he won’t be a mount. Nor will he be used to fight. Primarily, he’ll be a healer. Secondarily, he’ll be my nature adviser. Contrarily.” I turned my gaze to the bobbing skull. “His counterpart is my sixth-century historical adviser and will soon become the undying loremaster of sorts for my legions. His name is Simion Lumbarde. He was born in the year five twenty-six, in the bustling city of Lumiere, northern Ulai. He was both a scholar and bard of the Tempest Guild. But he is first, a gentleman.”
“Oh!” Simion snapped to me with equal parts gratitude towards me remembering his introduction and frustration at me for stealing his thunder. “It is my pleasure to meet you!” He bobbed before each of my ancestors and even Carbury for some reason to give them a sort of umbral handshake. “I and all from my time have heard tales of places such as this- such as yourselves. How fortunate it is to find myself in this domain, before all of you! How pleasurable indeed!”
“Yes.” I snorted. “Now, with this growing vault of information before me, I’d like to you all- particularly you, to humor me.” I squinted at the skull. “What do you know about the Nox?”
“Well, that’s you.” Simion chuckled in nervous disbelief. “That’s the name of your Clan, isn’t it? That was the name in my day. There were three of you. The Black Beetle, the Mad Void Monk, and the Lich King. Of course, they had many followers. But those three were the only direct descendants I was aware of.”
“Our name is different because our name was changed during the end of the Guild Wars,” Corvus stated. “By the ‘Mad Void Monk’ himself. Cole Nox.”
“Ah, the Guild Wars!” Simion rocked. “That started when I was just nine years old, it did.”
“And it did not end until the year seven seventy-two,” Corvus added with a wave down the line. “About a hundred years before my dear Henry was born.”
“That’s right!” The man himself leaned back in the pridefully nostalgic way that he did, grinning wide all the while. “All that peace made pirating one of the most lucrative professions out there!”
“I, however, was born about a hundred years after it began. As things went, we were blamed for any atrocity committed during the Guild Wars,” Corvus explained. “Eventually, we were blamed for the ruined state of Maru as a whole. By the end of the wars, antimagic weapons saw our forces depleted. Even with Cole, we were fighting a losing battle. And he was a half-high elf, thus he was quite powerful. And so, he used his power to gather us on an island off the coast of Phaegrath shortly after the Lich King's demise. Half in the Material and half in Shadow, we were to remain hidden in plain sight. Waiting until the time comes for darkness to spread across the mortal realms once more.”
“So that explains that," I murmured. Then flicked my eyes to hers. “But that begs the question-”
“Where are we originally from?” Corvus beamed after seeing the interest of all of us. Minus Carbury. “Where do you think? We are from Ulai.”
“So then, it’s safe to surmise there’s another crypt there somewhere”
“I do not know.” Corvus dejectedly sighed. “I lived alongside Cole for some one hundred and twenty years, yet he never cared to tell me much. He was quite... aloof, hence his moniker. After his demise, I have never been able to commune with him, as you are now. He refuses to see me. He has refused to see anyone. But you can enter his tomb.” She smiled. “I cannot wait until you tell me all about it.
“But for now.” She turned to the towering fortress of deathly smoke looming behind them. “Tell me, what is that building over there?”
“Tis the Shade Palace, Your Excellency.” Zaraxus bowed a degree lower upon my command. “'Tis where the mindless and their superiors are trained by the Shades. All for the glory of the Legions.”
“Legions?” Azrael darted his raised brows between us.
“Yes.” I nodded. “After planning a route around the Mortal Plane, I’ve concluded that I’ll need no less than twenty-seven legions comprised of millions of living and undying troops.”
“Fascinating!” Azrael gasped. “I can’t wait to see what you create.”
While a sudden rise of agreements rose from the men of my ancestry, Corvus split an inquisitive glare between Carbury and me. After shifting our gaze between us long after an awkward silence ensued, she strode to stand beside the unicorn and leaned forward as if she wanted to whisper into his ear. But stopped halfway to study me.
“Amun, dear?” She asked, then continued without awaiting my reply. “Do keep in mind that whatever happens in your domain, stays in your domain. We all know the saying about the dead and tales after all. Your secrets are safe with us. Are they not, boys?” She threw daggers for eyes at her descendants. Who each hurriedly sent a wave of nods back in her direction.
“I’ll be honest with you if that’s what you're asking.” I snorted. “You have my word.”
“Now then.” She turned back to Carbury. “You are both a Fae and a Celestial, yes? Touched by the Gods with knowledge and power?”
“Correct.” He lowered his horn.
“So then, you have access to spells most unevolved would not, yes?” She amiably waved her hand and frowned as she looked up in faux contemplation. “Clerical abilities. Magical detection. The sensing of good and evil. Things of that nature, yes?”
“That is correct.” Carbury nodded again.
“Well, we are all in agreement that our descendant here is… special.” She smiled at me. “More special than being Drow would permit. He is far smarter than he should be, you see. He possesses arcana and dreams of an entity that could possibly be our first ancestor. But most importantly.” She leaned a bit closer. “There is something inside him. Something I can’t quite place. It feels…”
“Warm.” Azrael stepped in. “I feel it too."
“It’s light,” I said before Carbury could.
“W- what?” Corvus shook her head.
“One of my affinity cores is for Electromagnetism. A spectrum of energy, of which visible light is a small portion of.”
“While you are correct, you are simultaneously completely wrong, my Liege.” Carbury stepped between us, shaking his regal horn. “The magic spurred from what you call an Affinity Core would not be as potent as the darkness in your spirit, but it does illuminate it like a pale light. This is the 'Moon' to which I made reference. A name I garnered from your memory of our meeting, wherein you saw my white fur and thought of a pale light that is not of this world. Through that, I saw a glimpse of the word, Moon. Synonymous, it seems, with the pale light you mention.
“The Sun is what…” His head turned slightly. “Lady Corvus senses within you. It is neither heat nor light, but a touch of Divinity. A Divine Soul. Eternal.”
“As in, blessed divinity?” Henry stomped forward. “Who in the Seventeen Hells would bless a Devil?”
“Telin.”
“Who?” Azrael and Henry turned to me at once.
But it was Carbury who answered, thankfully. Even then, however, his voice was just as airy and full of disbelief as Captain Darkblood’s had been. “The Eternal God, Telin, is the creator of the universe.”
“That, and the source of magic. And the hand behind the portals that connected the realms,” I added. Then paused to summarize my experience as neatly as I could before I began explaining. “I am not from this universe, originally, if you couldn't tell. I lived for over a hundred thirty years in a realm without magic, filled only with humans who mastered the art of war over the course of a quarter million years. When I died, I met a God who called himself Telin. He held this universe in the palm of his hand and told me I would be blessed with knowledge, power, and freedom within it. He told me I would face challenges as his champion. He told me I would become the Eternal God of this universe. All so he may judge me, to see if I am to join him and those like him once this universe comes to an inevitable end.
“However.” I sighed. “Shortly after being born, I decided I didn’t want to join him. I want to explore and learn everything there is to know about the realms until there is nothing left to explore and learn. Then I’ll either make something new or find some uncharted realms to make a mess of. But, if what Telin says is true, I’m certain I’ll obtain a Prestige Cleric Class that’ll evolve me into a living god. And if what we think of our ancestry is true, I think my Sorcery Class will evolve me into a… devilish void dragon, like our ancestor I see in my dreams. The God of Devils, among other things.
“And so, with that in mind, I’ve aspired to bring the knowledge of my world into this universe, filled with magic, and combine them to make the greatest guild and empire to ever exist. Legions most indomitable and unyielding, even to the Gods."