Somewhere inside the Dark Lands, in the tower of Dark One, the owner of said tower was conducting experiments on recently revived heroes. Most of the experiments were morally dubious in nature, but morals are not for true wizards. Most of current research had something to do with soul magic, as the souls of heroes were foreign to this world, and so they had different imprint on them, if you compare those to souls of his usual victims.
"Finally! They summoned all heroes from the different worlds." Dark One was ecstatic, after all those years researching souls of heroes he could finally compare the souls from different dimensions at the same time. Usually heroes are summoned from the same world, but occasionally the summoning may malfunction and target random creatures from random worlds. Unfortunately for him, in such cases heroes were small in numbers or nonexistent at all, as summoners usually got rid off them, as most of the times heroes were summoned along with animals or monsters, which killed them right after summoning, or in the middle of one. That's why he used few dozens of his minions to secure the materials, as they would be able to prevent harm being done to 'subjects' if they were summoned with something like 'wuh-ale' with them. That enormous thing upon summoning wrecked the castle and killed few heroes, but with the help of 'infiltrators' few heroes were saved, and they were the ones who told about this oceanic monstrosity, as well as how tasty their meat could be if prepared right.
The reason for those experiments was quite simple, revenge. His goal was to destroy this world, along with it's inhabitants, but after some thinking on it he decided to postpone it until he finds the way to another world, and after some time 'some magician' made a breakthrough in summoning allowing humans to summon heroes, there was sacrifice, tons of rare ingredients, but this ritual allowed humans 'a break' for 444 years, sort of. Actually Dark One for this time just researched the souls of summoned, or impersonated a hero, if there were no heroes available.
“Few more years, just few more years, and I will be off from this shithole of a world, at least if it goes all well.” in the years he 'lived' Dark One got one annoying habit, talking to himself. Fortunately for him this habit surfaced only when he conducted experiments, laid out plans or cooked, and as most undead had no taste, his dishes were awful, and so it was one of the torture devices in his torturer's arsenal.
While he conducted experiments a hundred years had passed and finally his experiments bore fruit. He created a beacon for a random Hero-type world, from where heroes could come to this one. Now it was only a matter of creating a Rift, but fortunately for him he knew of one such way.
“To all Generals. Gather the Legions, we are going to exterminate the filthy vermin.” There was clear hierarchy in his army, first was Dark One, followed by his Generals, which were all his creations, and after that their troops, which had different hierarchies from one general to another. Now his legions had a total amount of almost half a billion undead and few million elementals, including golems.
For all living beings it was despair. All sentient races rallied all their troops, militia and regular citizens just to survive, but it was futile. Despite their numbers being almost a billion, they were undergeared and therefore they were as good as dead, and being dead meant that Dark One's armies were upped by all the dead creatures. Farmers became zombies and skeletons, children became ghosts, merchants became undead merchants, that would strip you of all posessions before taking your life away, knights became ghouls and royals just fled, but those that weren't able became abominations.
For ten years flames of war burned, but for Allies it was just prolonging their inevitable fate. The sages were all killed and with them dead the power to summon heroes was lost. Brave knights became nothing more than corpses only to be risen by minions of Dark One, proud elven sorcerers boosted the enemies' ranks by becoming undead magicians, dwarfs known for their smithing skills as well as their steel legions boosted the black legion, while beastmen... beastmen didn't even fight. They decided to sabotage allies futile attempts for survival. It was plain revenge, but they were saved by it. They were converted to undead by Dark One himself, at least those who were strong and lost their loved ones to humans.
After ten years only one fortress remained, not yet conquered by Dark One. But even it fell after he brought blizzard on it, after showering it with fire and meteorites. With the last stronghold of living being conquered Dark One started finishing the ritual of 'Otherworld Travel'
“My generals, you served me well, and will serve me in the future. You will be put in stasis in my personal dimension, while I travel. When I get to the otherworld I will summon you, if it is possible. If you wish though, you can remain in this world.” with such words being spoken Generals stiffened, but all decided to go with their creator. To them, creatures with unduying loyalty, being near their one true master was the only necessity, only blessing, only goal.
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Finally after more than a year of preparations the ritual was finished and Rift to Otherworld opened and Dark One stepped through it. What he found on the other side was strange steel boat without sails, and with further inspections “There is not a speck of mana... not only on this construction, but also in the air around it...” looking around he also noticed the low ambient mana in the surroundings. “Is this the world from where heroes come?” he couldn't understand it. “The world without mana shouldn't exist, and yet here it is. But there is a bit of mana, so maybe the world is just too young? Need to find out. If what I remember from heroes' tales, the world has 'an-tar-net', but for it you need 'pee-cee', whatever that means.”
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While he mused about what to do next, he heard a loud explosion from the 'boat', followed by what he would describe as 'hype before the battle'. Annoyed at the thing that made him lose concentration, Dark One used one of his favorite spells [Frost Nova], and engrossed the 'boat' in ice.
“Well at least I can use magic, though said magic is much weaker compared to the one I used in old world. Maybe it has to do with elements? Let's try something else next.” As he drifted his gaze, he noticed a human, with his leg covered in ice. “You should do.” silently casting [Magic Arrow] and guiding it in the heart of the human, he noticed increased mana cost of the spell. “Hmm... interesting.” after that spell he used simple [Rise Zombie], but “So I can't summon undead? Or does it cost too much in this place?” Then he decided to use [Ice Age] on the surrounding area, but there was only blizzard for forty or so kilometers, unlike the old world where said Ice Age would engross everything in ice in three hundred kilometer radius, as well as creating a blizzard for a thousand kilometers.
Then he felt it. The death energies, produced by the souls leaving their bodies. “Souls? Good, I needed a snack anyway.” despite him saying 'snack' he would only take some portion of soul energy, and not eat the soul completely. Even for gods, if there were any, it wouldn't be possible, at least in theory.
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Meanwhile Eugene Onegin was trying to survive the revolt. He was one of the relatives to Nicolay the Second, who was current ruler of Empire. Unfortunately for Eugene he took the worst time to come and meet his cousin about the succession.
“Come on cousin, those pricks almost got through!” Eugene was anxious, but he remembered all the secret passages throughout the palace. He wanted only to get back home, and getting impaled on a pitchfork was not in his life goals, at least not in his sober life goals, who knew what goals he had when he drank a bit?
“It's useless. Even if we get through, where will we go?” Nicholas, or Nicolay, was Emperor only on the paper, while in reality he was a goofball and a heavy drinker, also he easily snapped under pressure, which usually ended in him crying in the corner, as well as drinking.
Finally Eugene found the secret door and entered the tunnel leading out of palace. After spending ten minutes on the run, they managed to get near the water canals, where they had a boat, but.
“How? The river is frozen?” Eugene looked at the ice in bewilderment.
“Indeed it's frozen.” said some strange crackling voice. When Eugene turned to face it he screamed like a girl. “Why are you always so noisy?” It was Death. Like in all those stories death was a skeleton, with glowing white orbs onside it's skull. However in stories Death was wearing black robes or sawan, but it wore something akin to an armor. The thoughts of two nobles were 'Death had come for me/us'.
With trembling voice Eugene asked “You're Death?” on which the 'Death' chuckled.
“Me? Death? You could say that, but if you offer me something valuable I will be for your enemies, considering the idiots who decided to wake me up are those who stormed your mansion.” that gave Eugene much needed hope.
“I suppose I could offer you a throne?” asked Nicholas.
“Death is supreme, so no throne is needed.” after such declaration current Emperor started sweating streams.
“Money, power, women, support-” he started on listing every good point about being Emperor.
“Only women is boring, support... if I stay to play in this realm I would need it, probably, and about everything else the noble should have, I don't really care. However-” with such words entity turned to the Eugene “It won't be bad if I would get your firstborn son. And you-” it turned towards Nicholas “Will you still be an Emperor? Or would you give the reigns to your cousin?”
“Fuck me sideways! He will be Emperor, not me. I'm done!” with such words Nicholas took his flask and gulped all the brandy he had in one go.
“Guess I have no other choice.” said Eugene “I agree to your offer.”
“... I won't fuck your cousin.” Death said not amused.
“That's the expression, he didn't really wished for that.”
“Oh. You mortals are strange. Anyway you got yourself some time. Use it wisely.” and so the death became black mist and dispersed.
“Fuck my life...” Eugene was not happy about a deal, but it was much better than alternative. “I met Death... What's it gender by the way?”