I am going to try someting new starting this chapter. anything that the characters think but not say out loud will be yellow in colour." this way i can avoid repeating the usage of " He thought" or "She thought".
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“Ahhhh…… souls… so many souls… hahaha… stupid Drigor. He made a mistake and sent his legion too far… now that they have died in my territory, their souls go to me… Today really is my lucky day. First, Isana steps into my territory on her own will for the very first time in history, next I get such an abundance of souls to replenish myself. My inhabitants sure did a good job luring the undead in and killing so many so fast…” (???)
[[Chasm Battlefield]]
Kiefer had spent the last 4 hours poking and prodding at the various zombie and skeleton types on the battlefield, leaving none for the Fiora Army to touch. Right now, the army was relaxed and were simply watching the magus perform several brutal and inhumane tests on their former comrade turned undead.
Opening his red orihalcom prison, Kiefer notices that the zombie inside had disappeared, similar to the ones he captured the morning before. Intrigued, he beckoned Isana over from beyond the chasm.
“Sana, can you do something for me? Encase this fella completely in ice will you? I have a hypothesis I want to test out and maybe it will help the Avian Alliance deal with the undead menace.” (Kiefer)
Isana for some reason had been feeling unwell since stepping foot in Fiora and would constantly be looking back over her shoulder and shudder. Kiefer had told her to stay back so that she did not hinder him, but being by his side now made her feel more secure than ever. She watched as the zombie wolfman Kiefer picked up was encased in ice and the moment the last bit of ice covered him completely, the wolfman disappeared, leaving a hollow pocket of vacuum in the shape of the wolfman inside the block of ice.
“Ahahaha. Thank you Isana! This just confirmed my hypothesis on the summoning requirments for the undead legion. Now then, to test out what I just learnt…” (Kiefer)
Kiefer had a malicious look on his face. Considering that these were not living things, he did not need to hold back on his experimental methods. Just within the 4 hours he had up till now to study them, Kiefer had gathered almost as much information as the Avian Alliance had on the undead. He had been ruthless and even bone-cringing in some of his methods, but they all produced results.
Crushing the skull of a skeleton did not stop it from moving, indicating that skeletal warriors did not have any weak points in regards to their anatomy. Completely crushing each bone was the way to go. The zombies had no perception of pain even as their limbs are torn off, but they required a head to function. Torn arms did not crawl forwards on their own like in some of the zombie movies he’s seen. Burning limbs worked against the zombies and surprisingly, they do not bite. Instead, the zombies and skeletal monsters alike all carried the same weapon they carried while they were alive.
Seeing as none of the surviving members of the Fiora army, injured or otherwise, have turned on their own crew, it could be said that the zombies did not spread an infectious agent either through the air or through physical injuries. The undead were strictly limited to being summoned from the dead through the use of necromancy spells.
The most important point though, Kiefer thought was that if mana from the spell was cut off from the undead by completely enveloping it with your own mana, they get transported back to where they came from, presumably the netherworld as Feni had explained during the day.
With the night still young, Kiefer was not used to staying up this long without rest and decided to head back to the base to hit the sack. He instantly poured his mana out into the battlefield and increased the gravity field several folds crushing all the remaining undead that had yet to surface under their own weight. With that done, along with Isana, he headed back to the base and passed the job of defense to Feni and her army.
As morning approached, Kiefer had woken from his rest and decided to oversee the situation at the chasm. The army was currently fighting off the undead that were hurled over the chasm. It would seem that more had been summoned after he had left.
Seeing that the moons had set and the sun had yet to rise, Kiefer estimated an hour or 2 before the battle ended, but that was when he had a brilliant idea. With not much time left, he worked fast, rushing across the chasm and crushing all the undead using his gravity field.
Manipulating the red metal on his shields, Kiefer stretched it out into a 100m wide plough and proceeded to crush and mix the soil with the flesh and bones. Finally gathering the top soil all into a single mound, Kiefer transformed the red plough into a drum with numerous small spheres inside it. He had made a ball mill out of his orihalcom ore and proceeded to finely mix and grind the mixture of soil and flesh and bones, while rotating and carrying the ball mill back towards Feni.
“Since the undead that you’ve killed do not disappear, it would be a waste to leave them there on the battlefield. Bring me some carts and load this fertilizer into the carts. You can distribute them to your farms and help increase your crop yield.” Kiefer said to Feni.
“Fertilizer? Whats that? It can increase crop yield? Like manure?” (Feni)
“Yes it’s like manure, but its better. This bonemeal will provide more calcium, protein and phosphorus for the crops than ordinary manure. And I’ve ground it in a way that it’s not too fine, making it a slow release fertilizer. So you don’t have to keep supplementing it to your crops. Of course, in exchange for this, you will acquire for me every piece of document regarding the undead.” (Kiefer)
Feni did not quite understand what Kiefer had just said. Slow release fertilizer was still a concept that is unknown to this world. But saying it will do a better job than manure, Feni somewhat got the gist of it and started yelling out orders to the Lamias and foxmen. She knew Kiefer was doing them a service and that he had helped them a great deal last night, all in exchange for some measly documents they had kept on the undead. She had no idea information was so important to Kiefer that he would do so much for it.
It was close to lunch time and Kiefer was still inside his tent browsing through the stack of parchments that Feni had procured for him. It would seem that she got into a little bit of trouble with her superiors when she handed the classified information to Kiefer and was now being given a lecture outside in the sweltering heat. This was despite Kiefer having cleared up the misunderstanding with her General.
Isana had been clinging onto Kiefer ever since they had actually set foot on the ground in Fiora. Previously, they never had the chance to actually touch the ground and had spent most of their time in the air or on Kiefer’s mana footholds. Sher on the other hand had found another cooling resting spot as it had become unbearably hot and humid inside Kiefer’s breastplate. She was clinging onto the top of Isana’s head, ruffling Isana’s silver hair with her tiny talons. Sprawled out and wings spread on the top of Isana, Sher had buried the rest of her body inside Isana’s hair, making it look like Isana was wearing a pair of white wing shaped hairpins.
Kiefer did not mind as much, with Isana clinging to him. Isana’s mana always brought with her a chilling aura, and with this heat in late spring, the cooling aura was welcomed. He had been comparing the documents on the table with his knowledge and confirmed that most of it was what he already knew. With the exception of a few uninteresting interrogation reports, Kiefer could only learn one new thing.
He confirmed that cutting off the spell from the necromancers will teleport the undead back to the netherworld, and the reason the spell doesn’t work in the day was because mana from the sun would envelope the surface, cutting off the mana from the spell. It would seem that the more undead soldiers each necromancer controls, the weaker the intensity of the spell is on each individual undead soldier. As such, with such high numbers of undead pouring out every night, it was no wonder even the weak mana signature from the sun could cancel the spell.
“I wonder if the necromancers thought of simply controlling only one unit, then maybe they could operate in the day too.”(Kiefer)
Standing up from his chair, Kiefer sauntered out of the tent into the humid forest. He observed lamias and foxmen maintaining their weapons. Gnolls were feeding and brushing their cindertails while Feni was looking dejected, facing the ground as her General walked away from her back to his tarsus. Still holding his arm, Isana followed behind Kiefer, wondering what his next move would be and dreading that he would once again suggest meeting Fiora.
Letting go of Isana’s hand, Kiefer turned to her, grabbed her by her shoulders and lookedher deep in her emerald eyes. “Sana, I need more information and I will be heading to the drigor army to get it. You and Sher need to stay here, I cannot risk Drigor sensing another Titan’s presence in his territory. Will you be alright?”
Isana kept silent for a while, hesitating and pondering, before finally parting her lips with one word. “OK” she said, with a forced smile on her face. Kiefer could see that she was still unsure, but he couldn’t help it. Isana would be safer in Fiora than in Drigor.
Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
“Sher.” Kiefer called out as he observed a tiny blue snake head pop out from Isana’s silver hair. “Take care of your sister ok. You two need to watch out for each other. I won’t be long. A day, maybe 2 at most. Do not take part in the battles. I do not want to risk alerting Drigor of your presence if u spend too much mana. Just leave it to Feni.”
Finally letting go of Isana, Kiefer briskly strode over to the now recovered Feni and informed her of his departure. “Feni, I will be going now. I need answers that only Drigor’s army can provide. You will have to defend the perimeter yourself. My companions will stay behind, but they will not be able to help you.” Having said that, Kiefer put on his mask and raced out of sight from the base above the canopy.
“Comrades?” Feni thought to herself as she stared at Isana. “I thought there were only the 2 of them?”
Sprinting through the skies, Kiefer chose to move through the clouds to mask his arrival, only occasionally going below the cloud lines to orientate himself. He could see several human bases with watch towers scattered in a circle radiating out from the city of Diantes. The forward bases were scattered sparsely, with roads paved between them to facilitate transport of supplies. Only the 1st and 2nd lines of defense were out in the open on the dry barren ground, the rest were inside small clearings with a sparse forest that surrounded the major city.
Standing just below the clouds, right above one of the 1st forward bases, Kiefer tried to figure out the best way to sneak in. It was the middle of the day and even if he way human, with his enhanced eyes, he could easily identify that his armour was greatly different from the standard issue armour that the human soldiers wore. He couldn’t claim to be a random traveler as that would be even more suspicious.
Looking around for any ideas, he decided to mask his approach using the weather, though it may get messy, it will certainly get the job done. Chanting an improvised and impromptu spell with no idea if it would work, Kiefer tried to make it rain, remembering that it is not the language that determines the spell.
“By my will, clouds condense and precipitate, gather around me and pour forth onto the ground.” Kiefer chanted monotonously as he poured his mana out as wide as he could. Immediately after chanting, he rose above the cloud line to admire his handiwork, all the while willing his mana to coat himself and destroy them to release energy, keeping himself warm. The air was thin but with his enhanced lungs, the effect was not as drastic.
[[26th regiment forward base camp]]
“Sir! We are in for wet weather!” one of the lookouts on the watch tower yelled, pointing at the sky.
“Looks like the rains are coming in early this year boys! Prepare your wet gear! Get the horses into their stables and secure them! We do not want them running away due to thunder. Secure your tents, the ground will get muddy and soft, use the long spikes and hammer them deep! Make the covers taut; do not let rain water collect! MOVE IT MEN! We don’t have much time!” The captain barked out orders one after another as the base became lively with soldiers scurrying around frantically.
Within minutes, the once bright midday sky turned dark and the first pitter patter of the rain could be heard on the roof of the tents. Thick leather cloths had been draped over the supplied and weapons racks to prevent them from getting wet. Solders were all rushing back to their quarters to avoid getting wet, leaving only those on patrol duty to stand out in the rain with grimaces on their faces.
The soldiers wore capes imbued with water resistant runes over their armour with hoods over their helmets. The rain had progressed into a full-on torrent and vision was limited to barely a few metres ahead. With everyone looking down on the ground to avoid rain in their eyes, no one noticed a lone figure teleporting behind the stables and grabbing a spare cloak on the racks inside the stable.
Blended in with everybody minding their own business, mud splattered on his shiny boots as the hooded figure began combing through the living quarters of the soldiers. They were temporary shelters, large spacious tents almost as wide as a school gym and 2 levels tall. It housed 30 bunk beds in 3 rows of 10. There were almost 20 such tents that the sneaky figure had to look through.
Releasing a mana pulse, Kiefer could feel that most of the soldiers were ordinary humans, with a few exceptions that registered a feedback to Kiefer from the 2nd farthest tent. “There they are.” Kiefer thought as he made haste through the rain. With his vision limited by the rain, he could not teleport around as he wished, but instead had to tread through the wet thick mud.
Sending his mana pulse again, he registered one mage and 2 regular soldiers inside the tent. They were gathered in a circle around a bed near the middle of the tent. Whether or not the mage was a necromancer, Kiefer had no way to know. The only way was to confront them.
“Ah! Scott! You’re back! Did you get the alcohol? We are deprived over here!” The mage called out over the sound of the rain, seeing the tent flaps open and a hooded figure in armour step in. removing his hood, Kiefer revealed the silver and red mask and stared at the 3 people. Alarmed, they stood up immediately and the soldiers drew their swords.
“Who are yo-mmmhmmfff” (Mage)
Without letting them raise their volumes, Kiefer muffled and restrained the 3 people with his threads and walked to them slowly and threateningly.
“I will ask the questions and you will answer them. If you choose to do anything unwise,” Kiefer looked over at one of the metal bunk beds, lifted it up and crunched it into a ball of scrap metal and cloth, then looked back into the frightened eyes of the mage and continued, “that will happen to you. Understand?”
Feeling the bindings on his neck and mouth loosen, the mage nodded silently.
“First, are you a necromancer?” (Kiefer)
The mage shook his head vigorously, afraid that if he spoke and the masked mage didn’t like it, he would lose his life.
“Where can I find one?” (Kiefer)
“The- the officer’s barracks, near the northern gate at the back of –“ (Mage)
“Oi Johan you Fuckwit! The capt’ns hording all the alcohol fer himself! He gave me an extra shift in night duty fer asking fer some! An’ He told’ya to Fuckoff! You owe me – WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON HE—mmmpppffffmm” (Scott)
As Scott came back to the tent yelling and cursing, he stepped in on a strange scene where a masked stranger had held 3 of his bunk mates hostage. Before he could yell for help, he himself had been constricted and muffled. The look in his buddy’s eyes told him to behave as they too were at the mercy of this mage, with them throwing glances to the side to warn him. Looking at the side of the tent, he saw a ball of metal at where his bed used to be, and immediately understood.
Bringing the 4 people in front of him, Kiefer whispered in a low but threatening voice. “Now, I have no use for you. Just know that I am not you enemy but I could wipe out your entire base of operations with my thumb like squishing an ant if I wanted to. I just want more information on Necromancy and I am here to get it. I will release you, and you will not tell anyone about this. You will not leave your tent and you will act like none of this happened.”
“B-but sir.. my bed… what will I say if someone asks. How will I explain it to my commander?” (Scott)
“That is for me to know and for you to find out.” Kiefer replied, uninterested, as he released them and walked out of the tent again, making a break for the officer’s barracks at the north. Scott and the 3 other people just stared at the ball of scrap metal, trying to come up with a legitimate excuse for the bed.
The officer’s barracks was a tall stone building 3 levels tall. It was one of 2 identical buildings and Kiefer’s mana pulse pinged 2 mages on the second floor, along with 11 regular people, presumably knights or officers. Kiefer avoided the front door that was guarded by 2 soldiers and decided to use the cover of the rain. Climbing up the back wall to the second floor, he peeked into the window and then teleported into the open corridor.
The mana pulse pinged again and all the men were in the next room, door closed but not locked. With his enhanced hearing, he could hear them discussing the events that transpired last night, with the undead legion being wiped out almost instantly near the beginning and ending of the night.
Throwing his stolen cloak on the ground, Kiefer knocked thrice on the wooden door to the conference and then entered, revealing his intimidating red and silver armour. All eyes were on him, unsure what was going on, or how a stranger even managed to get into the building.
Closing the door behind him, Kiefer glanced across the room and identified the 2 mages seated at the back of the room in their robes. Before any of them could speak up to question the stranger, Kiefer spoke up.
“Now then Gentlemen, you may be wondering who I am. Unfortunately, you will never find out. So let the interrogations begin shall we?” Kiefer declared, extending his mana threads to cover the entire room.
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Do tell me what you thought of the new colour scheme for the thought system in the comments. ty.
Next chapter: The truth and only the truth