Yorun and his group have teleported back to the Qur'Anther Magical Research and Development Institution yet as they approach the building the ground itself shifts as if it were alive, it launches vines that grab onto Golarier restricting every possible movement and what feels like ancient magic stops the flow of magic from his own soul though it does not cut the connection to Yorun. Vinak quickly rushes out and looks over to the group confused especially upon looking at Golanier, Yorun looks over to him.

"Vinak? The fuck is going on?" Yorun asked

"This undead has a soul? What the fuck even is it? Actually I'll ask about that in a minute, it triggered ancient defences and they are extremely well done ones at that. Who was this person in life?" Vinak Asked growing more confused yet cautious

"I am Golanier, I was the necromancer of 1000 years ago the creator of the cursed lands a little ways away" Golanier said

"It fucking talks already!? Ok Raeknar explain!" Vinak shouted

"Golanier here is both body and soul, to explain the soul survived outside his body after his final death 1000 years ago and this was due to the curse. He's changed somewhat since then and is going to help me learn more about my magic that you cannot help with. I changed the curse at his request and raised his body which he can apparently inhabit" Yorun said

"No wonder these defence's activated, it's highly likely that they were made for him" Vinak said

"Can you undo them? I do not currently have a reason to harm anyone here so can you?" Golanier asked

"Possibly? I have to go take a look at them" Vinak said as he walked away

"I'm surprised they had something that could hold you" Yorun said as he looked to Golanier

"Ha! This? Are you kidding? At the height of my power I can't be held by this. I'd get myself out were I not being held back by you" Golanier said

"Held back? What do you mean?" Yorun asked slightly confused

"The curse that binds me to you, it has weakened my soul to put us on equal footing so that my soul does not overpower yours or damage you in anyway. I am someone who trained to become a threat so large everyone needed to fight me and then I had 1000 years as just a soul that supplied magic to a curse, your soul cannot handle that and as such the curse has dampened my magic so that I have as much as you do" Golanier said

"Shit, guess that throws you raising an undead army large enough for me" Yorun said with a slight chuckle

"We'll see what we can do about that once I'm freed" Golanier said

Vinak eventually returns after a few hours and upon doing so the ground shifts again and the vines that came from it recede as if they were never there to begin with and Golaniers magic returns to him.

"Took you long enough" Golanier said somewhat annoyed

"Well turns out those defences were not easy to turn off, they were developed 1000 years ago for well you and eventually that was forgotten alongside most knowledge of you yet at some point someone started the rule to keep those defences active by charging the ancient magic with our own every now and then. 1000 years of magic is not easy to well turn off" Vinak said

"Alright fair enough. Lets just go rest I need to think on some things" Yorun said

Yorun, Golanier, Onarin and Koralin made their way into the building and to the room Yorun has once they get in Yorun sits on the bed exhaling hard when he does so as he finally relaxes a bit. Yorun clearly has something weighing on his mind.

"What is it Yorun?" Golanier asked

"How many undead mages would it take to raise all those killed in a first battle between 2 empires?" Yorun asked

"Well I don't know exact numbers of armies these days but I'll take a guess, for such a thing to be done you would need at least 10 mages that includes me and you by the way so in actually you need 8 undead mages. Currently I can sense you are able to make one undead mage and that only takes about half of your magic" Golanier said

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"Wait that's not right, I only made an undead mage the other day and it took so much magic to do so" Yorun said

"You fail to realise how much you can improve at such speeds when you are starting off, the training you've done with Vinak whatever it was and handling the curse to bind me has done you a lot in terms of improvement. Anyway not the point you can make one and still use magic yourself so that's 2 mages, I can do the same due to the limited nature of my magic right now so that's 4 of us.

"Meaning we need me to train enough to make 3 more as you will then be able to" Yorun said

"Exactly" Golanier said

"Got any tips on getting more magic quicker?" Yorun asked

"This would typically fall under what Vinak would teach you but for now there is something I can teach here since Vinak can't one method and then won't teach the other method yet" Golanier said

"Well tell me" Yorun said

"The methods for training your magic while sleeping, there is a method for normal mages which is just extreme concentration even during sleep to the point you're dreaming of whatever you're training with and trying to focus on it in the dream. There is another method though one I doubt Vinak realised, you can at the moment drain all the magic from yourself to make two undead mages just have them keep using your magic to the extreme during the night, it will put stress on your soul enough to make it try and work harder to generate and contain more magic" Golanier

"That is rather useful" Yorun said

"Indeed" Golanier said

Yorun telepathically reaches out to a couple undead mages and calls them to him and fairly soon they get to the room, Yorun then supplies them each with half his magic.

"Go outside and while I remain in here just use my magic to the fullest to train my soul" Yorun said getting only a nod from the undead mages who return outside and begin the training

"You managed to call them well enough" Golanier

"I can see through the undead's eyes I just used that base connection and sent my thoughts instead of my sight" Yorun said

"Well you did well with it, soon you will likely discover something on your own, I could easily tell you but where's the fun in that?" Golanier said

Yorun just sighs and he drifts off to sleep. While sleeping he can feel the connection to those undead mages every time they use his magic, his mind drifts to that connection unknowingly and he watches through their eyes as if they were one the show of magical prowess they have, the mountain of ice one creates is matched by the flames of the other but while Yoruns mind watches both as if they were won he sees an incredible combination of the two. While Yoruns body rests as anyone else's would, Raeknar appears in the room.

"Golanier" Raeknar said

"Ah Arikel" Golanier said as he turned to look at Raeknar

"Just use the name Raeknar, you'll be hearing that far more than the name your people gave me" Raeknar said

"Fair enough, to what do I owe the pleasure Raeknar?" Golanier asked

"You may have changed a little Golanier but I do still see the weight of your soul" Raeknar said

"I don't claim to have changed entirely Raeknar, I do this so I do not end up in whatever the human name for hell is. I made that clear and if this is the way of doing it I will do whatever I need to do, train this man or if need be kill anything and anyone in our way regardless of what it is" Golanier said coldly

"Your motives are not great Golanier especially with that mindset, yet I know more than many justice and death come in many forms. You will deliver justice even if it is a dark kind and maybe along the way you'll actually redeem yourself a bit" Raeknar said

"Maybe but well for now I care not for actual progress in that regard" Golanier said dismissively

"You should, Konlair is far worse than your mind could ever imagine and 1000 years ago you did come up with some vile tortures" Raeknar said while glaring daggers at what feels like Golaniers soul which makes him look away to try and not feel that

"Y-yeah I know. Listen Raeknar do you really see this human getting far?" Golanier asked

"The path will not be easy and as it goes on Yorun may grow numb to things he'd ordinarily not grow numb to yet based on what I've seen? He has a chance and those who can raise the dead do not come around often never mind two existing at once" Raeknar said as he turned to look at Yorun

"Never understood why you didn't just give that power to someone fit for the job" Golanier said

"Theres a rather simple solution, during your time you learned of the god chain and our transactional rules. They are linked, not all of our rules were ones we made for the hell of it, some were made to put into words what our chains told us. We need to operate in this transactional way or our chains react in the same way as if we didn't do our jobs, so as for why I don't just give this power to someone else? They need to come to me for it and no one deserving ever has" Raeknar said

"Huh, that has to be frustrating" Golanier said

"It is, had we not needed to operate this way and I did have Yorun doing this anyway I'd have given him all the power necessary to do all of this extremely quickly but instead if I were to do that he'd be working for me for longer than any human mage has lived" Raeknar said

"Damn" Golanier said

"Anyway Golanier, just continue to do your job and you may not end up in Konlair" Raeknar said before disappearing

Golanier sits down and exhales deeply as he waits out the hours till Yorun wakes merely watching through the window as the undead mages continue to put on a show...