I returned with 10 more undead. I had a feeling we would need a lot of research subjects. As I entered the lab I saw that Nyx had grown in size and was sitting next to the tub. She used her paw to fish for bones from the destroyed zombie.

“I think I am just trying to condense the spell in one of them.” I said.

“Sure. Just tell them to follow our orders. We will try something more with water.” Helena said.

“Are you going to reuse that tub?” I asked. The whole thing was filled with destroyed zombie parts. Although Nyx was at least eating some of the bones.

“Sure. Maybe it helps? Maybe some death mana remains inside?” Skadi wondered.

“If so, be careful. None of you are immune to that.” I cautioned.

“An undead dying in water is not going to turn it into something harmful. Don’t worry.” Helena reassured me.

While they did their thing I concentrated on a zombie. I could feel the spell animating it. Compressing it into the bones though? It was hard. I tried to imagine the spell as a physical thing I could squeeze. I could feel sweat on my forehead as I tried to compress the magic.

Then the spell shattered. The zombie collapsed. I had destroyed the magic animating it.

“Well, that did not work.” I said, staring at the remains.

Nyx appeared surprisingly quickly and started munching on the remains.

“At least Nyx seems happy with our efforts.” Skadi observed.

“Have you managed anything with the water?” I asked.

“No.” Helena replied. “It seems that a zombie does not have functioning blood vessels anymore. We can’t circulate water through it like we could with a fresh corpse.”

“If we force water into it, we end up doing damage.” Skadi added. “Best we can do is soak it. But I doubt that does anything.”

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“Yeah. I think circulating the magic water based on our technique is what made the draugr. We can’t replicate that here.” Helena said.

“We did destroy another zombie though…” Skadi admitted.

I shrugged. “It’s fine. I don’t want them anyway. Let’s see if I can manage to turn one into a skeleton.”

My next two tries had the same result. I destroyed the zombie instead of changing it. The third one showed a little promise. I could feel the spell move slightly, then it shattered as well.

I sighed and wiped the sweat from my forehead. “I can understand why most necromancers just get new corpses. This is hard.”

“HA!” We heard Cassie shout. “I got it!”

“What are you doing?” Skadi asked.

Cassie grinned. “I have an idea! You know that self cooling drink thing? I made a potion that you can inject into the zombie! It will add water magic from the inside.”

“Isn’t that just going to freeze the zombie? And maybe destroy it?” I asked.

“I have combined it with some of the mixtures to strengthen undead.” She said.

“But… you need to use them before you raise them.” I countered.

“Eh. Let’s try it anyway! It’s my own creation!”

She sounded very excited. And she was gifted when it came to alchemy.

“Ok, how does this work?” I asked.

Cassie grabbed a syringe and filled it with her potion. “You just inject that into the torso.” She offered me the syringe.

“You are not doing it yourself?” I asked.

“You are the necromancer. Maybe you can get some information on what happens. Or play with your spell.” She shrugged.

Skadi was slowly moving away from the test subject.

“You do have a water shield. Cassie lacks defences.” Helena pointed out.

“It’s not going to explode! Probably…” Cassie said.

Oh well. I took the syringe and approached the test subject. Then I injected the potion. Something clearly happened. I could see frost spreading all over the zombie. I tried to figure out what was happening over my link.

“Hm. I think you did something.” The zombie formed an ice armour around it. “It does not feel permanent though. I think you created a potion to temporarily give a zombie some ice powers.” I concluded.

Then my eyes widened. I quickly formed a shield in front of myself. The zombie exploded, violently. Shards of frozen undead flesh filled the area. The bones crumbled.

“I told you it would explode.” Skadi said.

“In my defence, it did work, for a bit. I might need to tweak the formula.” Cassie mused.

“Are you alright?” Helena asked.

“Yes. My shield was in time. But the room is a mess…” There were now parts of undead flesh scattered around.

Nyx sniffed one of the pieces, then she ate it.

“Huh. Normally she is more into bones. Maybe she likes your potion.” I said.

“Nyx has great taste.” Cassie stated.

After that I continued my efforts to compress the spell on the remaining zombies. I made some progress but failed in the end. All the zombies I had brought were destroyed. I still had ten left in storage though.

“I think that is enough for today.” I said after my latest failure. “I am getting exhausted.”

“Yeah. Let’s clean up and get some food.” Helena suggested.

“At least Cassie’s potion was a partial success.” Skadi said.

“Partial success? It was a great success! With some minor side effects.” Cassie stated.

“And Nyx consumed a lot of undead. I think she was the one who truly profited.” I pointed out.

Nyx stretched, then jumped on my head and curled up. We cleaned the lab, then we left to get some food.