“Temp-Boss, there!” One of my subordinates shouted and everyone in the caravan stopped. I got off from our favorite demon tortoise’s back and landed onto the ground. A few of us came down as well and followed me.

Slowly creeping onto our targets, we quickly unveil our weapons at them. There was nothing left untouched!

“Aaaah! It’s the rare White Horned Thrundo! These birds are the true epitome of birds of prey! Get this, in order to hunt, they launch themselves down like an arrow and swoop in by skewering their horn into an animal. How the skulls of the thrundoes remain intact is still unknown!” One of my subordinates blabbered.

“That’s nice, it’s a great thing we have a bird expert here…” I joked.

“Jeez, thanks Temp-Boss, you’re the greatest!” Obviously my sarcasm flew over his head but I just ignored it because these birds did indeed look very beautiful. Boss would love these pictures!

Since the teleportation array used by Boss and the others to quickly move from Angolia to the Great Elven Forests wasn’t big enough to fit Alph, the giant demon tortoise, some of us decided to move towards the capital of the elves by foot.

“Are you sure this is the right way, though?” Someone asked me.

“Lord Sarjay recommended that we head towards the capital of Sayitsi even if we don’t know where they teleported off to. So, why not?”

“That’s true…Alright, everyone get back onto Alph. We’ve been riding for a while but we haven’t encountered any elven groves. That means we haven’t entered Sayitsi yet.”

We continued our journey while following our roads. Sometimes we have minor detours because we found a very nice spot to rest or to tour but we were still in the borders between Angolia and Sayitsi! I felt like we were moving too slow.

“Temp-Boss, right ahead! I see some weird tree structures blocking the road!”

“Do they have any visible angry half-naked hippies swinging their twigs at us angrily?”

“No…in fact, I don’t know…”

I got off Boss’ sun chair which I was currently borrowing and decided to take a look at what my subordinates were blabbering about. True to his words, the road in front of us was blocked by what appeared to be a gate made from two conjoined trees. They were also manned by…people with brown clothes?

Angolian guards usually have colorful clothing and armor. Even the standard kingdom uniform had white and red tabard patterns. Does that mean that was the Sayitsin border?

There was no path around the gate because there was also a wall of thick wood branching out, signifying the beginning of the Sayitsin sovereignty. Approaching the gates, a person riding on top of a bear with antlers blocked our path. He held a large sickle and had a peaked cap.

“You are at the border of the glorious Sayitsi! What is your reason for approaching the borders of my beautiful motherland?” The person was obviously an officer so I got off Alph and decided to talk to him.

The talk with him was very brief. I gave him documents signed by Lady Asha and Lord Sarjay and I simply answered some simple and everyday questions such as ‘What is your purpose for coming?’ and ‘Do you believe in the righteousness of overthrowing the monarchy and the seizure of the means of production?’

I held my non-existent breath as I studied the person in front of me. Without a doubt, this was an elf! What happened to the people that loved to run around half-naked, wearing only leaves on their bodies and what-not?

It took us a while to get the elves that pledge their services to Boss to wear some actual clothing. I recalled that the only one who hadn’t complaint much was Maven. In fact, she even happily accepted some dresses my Boss gave her.

Yet, here I stood.

“Vah, all good. Enjoy your stay in the Union.” The officer gave the other elves within the gate orders to open the gate and my group promptly continued our way.

“Temp-Boss, what was that? Were those elves?!”

“Yeah. No doubt about it…We have no choice but to take pictures of them!”

We all took our orbs and started taking pictures of elves and the border base. It was just a simple military fort but we were astonished at how changed the elves were. They were marching in lines holding halberds tipped with a kind of crystal with discipline unbecoming of the long-haired narcissists we once knew.

The border fort was strictly for only transit and military personnel so we were forced to leave and continue on our path. After that, our days continued without finding another elven settlement.

As my group continued our journey, we soon left the grasslands of Angolia and into the thick forest of Sayitsi. With luck, we might step into an elven grove without even realizing it. Back in the days, trespassing into elven groves would usually be rewarded with an angry horde of druids.

“How long will it take for us to reach the capital?” One of my subordinates asked me.

“At our pace, I estimate a month or so. I hope Boss is still at the capital by the time we arrive. I’d like to hear his thoughts on the elves,” I replied.

“If you want to know my opinion, I’d say it’s as weird as the dwarves being changed.”

“Thanks for your unnecessary opinion, it’s so usef-…” I stopped and looked up onto the air by reflex. All of my subordinates noticed a change in the air and we started gearing up. Grabbing my war cane, I jumped onto Alph’s head to survey the surrounding.

“Temp-Boss, you felt that, too?”

“Sure as hell I did. This is the delicious taste of…”

“Death.”

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I tapped onto Alph’s head with my cane and bent over. “Alph, let’s stop over to the side. We want to check something out.”

Alph didn’t complain as he got off the path and moved into the forest to find a spot to rest. My group jumped off Alph while he does his job and started following the presence of death. This was not ‘death’ as in ‘someone was killed recently’. This was…

“Over there,” One of my scouts pointed at a distance. We all focused our magic into our sight and noticed some figures cutting their way through the thick forest. I held my hand up and silently gave me command to move closer.

As if it was already rehearsed a million times, my men obeyed and started making the appropriate distances between each other while preparing their weapons. I stood at the very back of the group holding my war cane with one hand. When we were close enough, I stood up from the bush I was hiding in and shouted, “Halt!”

The figures stopped and stared at us without being surprised. Standing in front of me was an assortment of people equipped with various types of armor and weapons. Only, these people were walking corpses. The dried bloods were still visible on their faces and their armor, their eyes white and lifeless. Some of them even had their innards hanging out of their bodies.

My group only numbered less than ten while the other side had perhaps fifty or more shambling zombies. Of course, their powers were no match to the minions of a thousand year old Archlich, but I was still curious as to what a bunch of zombies were doing in the elven lands. After staring at the zombies for quite some time, a voice in the distance broke the silence.

“Why have you damned sacks of meat stopped?!”

The zombies parted and gave way for a person dressed in black robes. His body was bandaged with bloody rags and his hood barely covered his rotting, scarred face. His eyes glowed with a hateful red as the staff he held gathered a thick essence of death.

There was nothing else to call this person but a ‘lich’ - The lowest form of an ascended necromancer.

“Who dares stand in the path of Makkamal the Deathfiler?!” The lich shouted with a raspy voice. He placed an emphasis on ‘Death’ before continuing with ‘filer’.

“Ha, ha. Temp-Boss, you get it? Deathfiler? Right? Defiler? Defiler of death?” One of my scouts started laughing and slapped his knees. Soon the entire group started laughing with him and I could just barely contain my own laughter.

“What are you…Pfftt kekeke…HAHAHA! What a fucking joke…Ahem…Give me a minute,” I had to contain my laugh as I addressed him, “Anyways, what are you undead doing here?”

“It matters not what the living wishes to know. The dead answer to no one but Death itself!” The lich gave stupid answer to us and we started laughing. Angry at our actions, the lich pointed his staff at us and pounded the floor with it.

“Behold, fools! A move that was granted to me by the Desecrators of the Living – The Demons!” A wave of mana surged from the lich and echoes across the ground. My group briefly stopped laughing as a magical current swam through us while the trees and grass around us died and the ground became lifeless black.

However, nothing happened to us.

“That was what one would call an ‘epic fail’, wouldn’t you say so?” I clapped slowly.

“W..what?! I…Behold! The power of the Demons!” Once again he caused a surge of mana to erupt in the air, but the shockwave of magic did nothing to us.

“Impossible! No living being has survived this! Could it be…?”

As the leader of my group, I shrugged towards the lich and lazily spun my war cane around. He tried to hit us with magic that would consume life. Too bad, we were already dead.

“You are all undead as well! Tell me, in which side do you stand for?!” The lich barked at us to answer him but we simply ignored him.

“Answer me, you fools! I sense that you have no overlord. Puahahaha! You fools won’t be laughing soon! CONTROL UNDEAD!” He pointed his disgusting finger at us and waited for a while.

“Temp-Boss, can we kill him? He attacked us first anyway.”

“Wait, not yet. I want to see what he does.” I waved my hand back at my subordinate.

“Why isn’t it working?! CONTROL UNDEAD!” This time, the lich held his palm towards us.

“You’re a lich, right?” I started to cringe from his embarrassing efforts so I decided to take the initiative.

“Indeed! How observant of you! I am a lich, but not just any lich! I have been alive for a hundred years! You masterless dogs should be bowing down to me as dictated by the rules of the Undead!”

Rule of the Undead? Hmmm…A quick recap would be that the undead follows seniority and power above all. This was something ingrained within us and something most undead would respect, which was one of the reasons the dwarven vampire queen Ellysa immediately started sucking up to Boss as he was way higher in the seniority rank.

Add to that, our Boss is the only undead to ever reach the status of ‘Archlich’, the highest form of undeath. Nothing could ever break his control over us.

“What is your name, lich?” I asked.

“Remember my name! I am Makkamal the Deathfiler! I am a hundred year old lich and at the very edge of breaking the limit of a lowly lich!”

“Then, Makkamal, allow me to introduce myself…from one lich to another.” I gave Makkamal a bow and my dark brown robes started to leak black smoke. This black smoke slowly hugged me tenderly as my power took form and the essence of death swam around me.

“You…you’re…a lich?!”

“A lich under the control of a greater power, as well. Know this, Makkamal, I am someone that does not like it when a mosquito like you think you could take control of the minions of His Unholiness.”

“I…M..Minions! Attack them!” The lich realized he screwed up and ordered his zombies forward. To be fair, he should have realized something was wrong when all of the undead in my group was exhibiting sentience.

“I, the lich Thyros of River Fallfyne, order you all to cease and desist.” I waved my hand and spun my war cane. In an instant all of the zombies stopped running towards us and stood in place.

Makkamal dropped onto the ground, scared of his wits. He started to crawl back as I approached him while spinning my war cane.

“Wait! Senior! This lowly being had not realized it! I ask for forgiveness!” He raised his staff as his weakly body shook with fear that no undead should feel.

“Makkamal, Makkamal. I cannot give you forgiveness, for you have insulted my overlord by trying to take his minions. You know the price that must be paid.”

“I’ve…I’ve worked so hard to gain immortality! This lowly being begs your forgiveness!”

Just standing above the lich, my mask which imitated Boss’ mask but dyed black looked down upon the undead. I thought of the possibilities I could do against this beef jerky. Boss always said not to waste a good opportunity, though!

“You said you got a certain power from the demons? Can you describe the demons?”

“They’re..They’re small! And pink! Horrifyingly p-pink! My skin crawls with fear just mentioning their tutus!” The lich stuttered as he answered. These people sounded familiar…

“Are you the only one that was taught this magic?”

“No, senior! This lowly being wants you to know the demons taught many liches how to become stronger. However, I’m the only one that operates within the lands of the elves!”

“What? What’s going on? Why are the demons teaching the undead all sorts of magic?”

“A few months ago, the curse which pulls all of the undead closer to Aon was lifted. With nothing keeping us caged, many of us started to gain power once again and what better way for an undead to gain power but through genocide? So, our kin decided to throw our lot with the demons and assimilated into the demons’ ever-growing army.”

“This is interesting news…” As I pondered about this, one of my subordinates approached me.

“Temp-Boss, what are we supposed to do with the other undead?” He asked.

“Great One, please spare this lowly lich and allow me to serve you instead! It’s obvious that…”

The lich’s entire upper body was vaporized at the wave of my war cane. With the destruction of their overlord, the zombies all fell limp onto the ground.

“Let’s get to the capital quick. I think Boss might get a heart attack when he hears this and I’d love to see him act out a heart attack.” I hung my cane against my belt and strolled back to where Alph was at while humming to myself.

The undead are joining the fairies, hmm? However, the vampires hate the fairies and they’re also undead. What would this mean?

A massive undead civil war? But where does my overlord…Ahem….Boss stand in this? Doesn’t he want to put his vampire pet in control of the other vampires as a ‘side project’? Things were becoming very, very interesting.

If I could smile, it would’ve stretched from my cheek to the other.