Interlude

Kazan worked tirelessly deep into the night scratching away at some calculations he had been working on for the last several days. Mid equation the light of his glow globes when out, the spell’s ten minute duration having run its course.

The spell was simple, requiring only enough motion to direct where he wanted the four spheres of light to appear. He had become so practiced with the spell he could cast it without missing a stroke of his quill.

Kazan was used to having to work without permanent lighting. It seemed to always be that he found himself working in the dark and often abandoned places. Kazan was a necromancer and despite being a graduate of Guivern University with his degree in Abnormal Magix, his work was never met with much enthusiasm especially among mundane folk regardless of species.

His specialty of animation and reconstruction was particularly unfavored due to its long history of use in the subjugation of the entire population of Mir, but there were so many benefits, people just couldn't see all the applications. The undead could be round the clock laborers never needing to take breaks or tend to bodily functions.

Current Magix can produce menial laborers only capable of the simplest tasks. He was on the brink of a breakthrough. Kazan figured out that by adjusting the ritual he could implant an artificial construct spark into the core of the specimen and transform them into a hybrid undead construct, an undead android in some respects. He had even worked out the decay problem. By embalming the specimen prior to and after its animation he could preserve the organic portions nearly indefinitely. At least that was his theory.

He had a tremendous amount of individual data, but the problem came when he realized the magi-meridians of the corpse couldn't maintain connection to the artificial spark. He needed to seat the artificial spark inside a living spark in order to allow for proper flow of energy without the breakdown of the specimen’s meridians.

He dismissed the idea until he ran across that man in the woods. By all accounts the man was already dead. The spiders had gotten to him. He was barely alive, the spiders clearly hadn't gotten around to eating him and it had been a few days. Kazan had judged that trying to get the man out of the woods and back to civilization alive was an improbable task.

Statistically, the man was likely to die on the journey from any number of complications arising from his spider situation. It was then that Kazan decided to put the man out of his misery, but as he raised his hand to do the deed, he remembered his research. In hindsight, it was all quite a stroke of luck for the necromancer. He had just found his current lair. A secret chamber under the main cavern where no one would disturb him and his work.

The cavern was a once in a lifetime discovery in itself. At the back of the chamber, Kazan discovered a large stone slab carved with ancient arcane symbols. Kazan was no expert on the Magisphere, but he recognized a conflux of planetary Magi-Meridians when he saw one. The magic was so thick here that he could see the distortion of the space and taste the subtle hint of vanilla on the air, a tell-tale sign of high magic concentration.

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A positive Conflux like this could produce immense amounts of energy if harnessed with the right rituals. That stone table was created for just such rituals. His first experiment using the living spark worked spectacularly. The result was an undead construct hybrid that could function at a much higher level than the average of either single type of creation.

He quickly discovered his creation was much too powerful for a standard body. While testing, the android had managed to rip its own arm off while trying to lift a large boulder. It was then that Kazan set about creating his Zolem. He did some calculations and gathered up the extra things he needed; one skeleton of a troll, three hundred feet of spider silk, ten liters of resin, and at least one more living spark. He rationalized it was for the greater good and the furthering of the field of necromancy.

He created a couple of Ghouls to do the dirty work and set a little trap in the main cavern above his lair. It wasn't long before someone wandered in and was captured by the ghouls. With everything at hand he had done exactly what he had set out to do: meld the second living spark into his first creation and then translate that whole core into the body he had reconstructed.

His creation was remarkable on all accounts; it was nearly eleven feet tall and weighed around five hundred pounds, he had no way to know exactly, but given the amount of materials that went into it, he felt pretty confident in his guesstimations. Using spider silk to augment the musculature was a moment of brilliance he had patted himself on the back for, for the better part of a week. Everything was going perfectly until the other guy showed up.

“ Aye moron.”

The man's voice grated at Kazan's mind. It was a voice like gravel. The deep scratching indicative of a lifelong smoking habit.

“Aye moron”

“What is it you want you insufferable oaf?!”

“Well excuse me, I figured you'd want to know that despite you not giving me any food or water for the last twelveish hours. I need to take a leak.”

“Well whatever would you have me do about that?! I would never stoop so low as to help you relieve yourself.”

“Hey man, I just said I had to take a leak. I didn't ask you to stoop low and help me relieve myself. Although I suppose rape aint too big of a leap for a psychopath who digs around in corpses all day.”

“My word! I never said! I do not have time to deal with this!”

Kazan threw his hands up and turned back to his work. His frustration with the man at an all time high. This man showed up a few days after he had completed Zolem One. He was in the testing phase when this fat bearded man confronted him in his own lair.

Turned out the man was an aged adventurer. He had lost a few steps, but had it in him to go check out a missing person's report in his area. He happened to have enough magic to cast Sight of the Magi and get through the secret entrance.

It didn't take much for Zolem One to subdue the man, the problem was what to do with him now. He initially planned on just leaving him tied up down here, but Kazan figured the old adventurer would get out somehow and notify the Adventurer’s Outpost and there goes all of his hard work. Then Kazan got the idea to incorporate the man’s spark into his creation.

The problem was he needed to place limiters on the Zolem’s body or the extra power would cause it to rip itself apart. So here he was frantically working out the equations so he could transfer the spark and be on his way with his walking breakthrough. It was then that Kazan could hear the trickling sound of liquid on stone.

Kazan whirled around fury in his eyes as he raised his hand up to strike the man. He saw a glint streak out of a shadow on the ceiling. A beam of bright golden energy crashed into Kazan’s chest.