Rebirth

I awoke. It was different, my mind suddenly snapped to consciousness. I was gone, then I wasn’t.

My plan worked. I was no longer living. I was in the dark; my body was thrown in a mass grave, along with my undead. I noticed that my body no longer had intact flesh. Only rotten scraps remained.

I struggled. Hmm, looks like I was in a bit of trouble. With the weight of the soil above me, and my undead pressing around me, I was immobilized. Fortunately, I did not use up all of my remaining undead in the attack, though most of them did. I had skeletons beneath the roots of trees in hibernation, surrounded by runes to hide their power. I still felt the threads connecting them to me. My mind beckoned them to come to me, and begin digging.

While I waited, I took stock of the situation. It was apparent that my plan went off without a hitch. They bought the lich ritual, hook line and sinker. I never left my body. I never became a lich. That whole ritual was mostly about making it look like I was becoming a lich. That and making my body die in the ritual chamber. The chamber was important to the whole settup. It kept me from actually dying. My soul was forced to remain in my body, and its mana was cycled out, and replaced with pure death energy. It might of not worked, however the deaths of the three templars cemented it.

Unlike a Lich, I was not dead; I never truly died, and my soul was not replaced with a phylactery. I believed that replacement was why liches always went crazy. They had no soul, they were just constructs, just like any undead, but with a much more powerful control mechanism. No, I still have a soul, even if its nature was changed. I was not undead, but unliving. What few muscles in my face remained twisted into a smile, in spite of the pressure exerted on my body.

I even feel emotions! Remarkable! Liches only have facsimiles of emotions, if that. But I have my emotions! This is revolutionary! I am not Undead. No,I am unalive… or wait. That doesn’t sound very good… no I am Unliving. There, much better.

After exactly five hours, twenty three minutes, and sixteen seconds, my skeletons started arriving, and digging at the dirt of the mass grave. Fourteen hours thirteen minutes and fifty eight seconds after that, I felt the clawl-ike fingers begin to scrape at the dirt around me. It was not long after that I crawled my way out of the hole. My body was mangled by all the weight, but I was alive… or rather unliving. My skeletal minions pick me up, and begin to carry me away.

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It takes days of travel. We travel at night, and bury ourselves in shallow graves during the day. It’s not like we can’t take the sun, but I would rather not be seen by the living right now. Finally, we arrive at the tomb. My last tomb. My home base. The tomb I was operating from was just a distraction; I knew that the Templars of the Light would look for it. So I built a fake home. I have been operating there for years; I did not make it easy on the brutes. When they drew close, I erased all evidence of my true Tomb, and withdrew my active undead there…

From the outside, my tomb looks like a large hill. Notable only in that its one of the biggest in the area. Only I know the truth. Buried under tonnes of dirt is a pyramid.

This is one of the tombs of the lich-king from so long ago. It was completely destroyed and sacked. Just a bunch of bricks and a few tunnels of empty rooms. The only thing left of the lich-king's legacy was the relatively high density of death mana (Not as high as what naturally occurs in a swamp - so it isn’t outside of the realm of normal).

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That and one of the research journals of the lich-king, which I found by following the density of death mana still left. That journal is what gave me the idea in the first place. Early on in the lich-king's reign, he needed to mass produce intelligent undead, not just rely on necromancers and the occasional vampire. He wanted a kingdom of the dead. One of the dead-ends was what clued me into this method of ascension. It described using a process by which the soul never leaves the body, and is forced to use death mana. The lich king abandoned the process, because the subjects retained their memories and values, without the advantages of the lich ritual - that being invulnerability. It never got to the process he eventually used, as this place was sacked before that. Nonetheless, this provided a lot of insights, and provided a way to become undead without becoming a lich. This was what I wanted all along. True, I was not invulnerable like a lich. However, I am still me. Most liches lose any semblance of their former humanity. This way, I can retain my empathy; my love; my care. I can stay me.

It took awhile to unbury the entrance to my tomb. Soon, however I was inside, and walking the halls again. I rebuilt the ruins years ago, and had my undead bury the place. I used it as my home for years, before I thought of this plan.

I had my skeletons bring me to one of the preperation chambers. I normally use these rooms for cleaning skeletons and otherwise preparing them for raising. I am not a fan of zombies, as skeletons last longer, and are more flexible. Though they are killed easier, at least baseline skeletons. I have my minions bring the tools forward as I lie down on the operating table.

My flesh Is stripped from my body by the hands of my skeletons. My vision goes dark, and I find myself unable to move. There is no real pain, though it is uncomfortable. I control my skeletons remotely. Looking through their eyes, I treat my body as any other. I peel flesh from bone. I remove fragments of that which is broken, then I replace anything missing. Both of my lower legs have to be replaced, which is done. Bronze spikes (for corrosion resistance) are shoved into my joints, and are bound with soft, but tight, leather. I can hold bones together with magic, however it is so much easier to simply bind them together, and save yourself the hassle.

Next comes the hard part. I heat up my furnace nearby, and begin to melt down gold. I have to exert extra mana on the skeleton I am working through to protect it from the heat, but it is worth it. Gold is one of the best mana conductors around, and unlike other materials, it works with any mana. This is ironic, as silver is the best mana insulator. Perhaps it is precisely because they are so similar that they react as polar opposites with regards to mana. That is a question for the alchemists to answer, however. I begin laying down a very thin layer of gold in specific patterns along the bones, with a few deeper points. As I do so, I scribe spells and effects into the patterns. Mana changers, force producers, and all sorts of enchantments are laid out in these designs. On the skull, I lay out enchantments to store power and information, and even assist with calculations.

It takes days of slow methodical work, but boy is it worth it when it is done. Fortunately, boredom seems to be a non-issue for me now. My body is covered with runes. Various mana changers and absorbers collect ambient mana to make use of. They take it to mana banks in my skull and through my spine, which power the various enchantments on my body. Sure, I could use my spells to animate myself. However, this way is much more efficient, and can actually generate surplus mana. Spare no expense on my body. I reinforce it magically, make it stronger than I can normally animate, and even submerge myself in alchemical solutions to make my bones stronger, before sealing them in. I stand up now, feeling really light, and fetch my clothes. Twin crystals in my eye sockets turn light into useful information as I take everything in.

My crystal eyes seem to spark as I mentally grin.

I have been reborn.