Chapter 28: Viola’s Story

This thought had been bugging me more than I would like to admit. Why hadn’t the bats came to my rescue? I had been pretty deep in rat territory, but Viola still found me. And she was alone. This meant that either all the bats that were traveling with her died, or that no bats traveled with her to begin with. Either way, neither of the two options seemed pleasant.

“It’s nice to see you again Viola.”

The moment I said this, Viola leaped on top of me with a tearful smile.

“You too!”

Gasping for a breath of air, I petted the top of Viola’s head. We spent the next few minutes talking about what happened to me before I finally asked the question that had been on my mind. Where were the bats I told her to find? Before she even spoke, a look of anger crossed her face. I could already tell that what she was about to say wouldn’t be good.

“The moment you told me to leave, I fled as fast as I could. Thanks to your intervention, none of the rats were chasing me. I did run into a couple on the way there but I managed to escape quite easily once I utilized wind gale. Some of the enemies I saw could’ve been killed easily by me, but I ignored them since time was of the essence. I have no idea how much time passed, but I finally managed to reach the bats base after a strenuous flight.”

Thanks to me, Viola was able to travel towards the bats safely. Well at least as safe as you can get in a dungeon infested with monsters. It was a good thing I taught her wind magic, since without it she might have been delayed or even killed. In order to escape the rats, I had used wind gale in order to increase my speed. Although it was painful, it did help me escape. Unlike me however, Viola had wings. So when she used wind gale on herself, it was bound to be twice as effective.

“The moment I reached the base, I tried to go inside. However some stupid bat guards wouldn’t let me in. It was unbelievable. I was pretty sure they had seen me with you before so I had no idea why they wouldn’t let me in. After a few minutes of wasted time, I was just about to barge in when the undead general came to my rescue. Thanks to him talking to the guards, I was let inside. But once I was inside, I ran into a bigger problem.”

My eyes narrowed unconsciously as I thought about the guards that blocked Viola’s passage. Did they do it because they didn’t know who she was? Or was it something else? Hmm. I would have to hear more before I made any conclusion. I also made a mental note to thank the undead general for getting Viola inside. If you have to count on anyone, count on the undead.

“After I was inside, I immediately turned towards the undead general to ask him for help. After all, he was more likely to help me than anyone else here. The next five minutes passed by slowly as I urgently explained the situation. After hearing me out, the undead general told me to follow him. Some bats tried to stop us from meeting the boss even though the undead general told them that it was important. But once he bared his teeth and extended his claws, no one tried to stop him again. Yet even after all that, we still had to wait a few minutes before we were able to talk the bat boss.”

Yet again the undead general tried his best to help me. I really needed to do something nice for him. I did not like leaving debts unpaid. It also annoyed me that Viola and the undead general kept on getting stopped in the base. It seemed that the general wasn’t lying when he said the majority of the bats didn’t like undead.

“Once we were standing face to face with the boss, all of the moisture in my throat evaporated. I could feel the sheer amount of power he had just from his gaze. Thankfully the undead general decided to speak so my silence went unnoticed. He explained the situation to the boss and asked for some soldiers so we could look for you. The boss seemed to think about it for a little bit before he turned to his advisors. After discussing it with each other, it seemed that we would be able to have reinforcements in order to look for you. But before the boss could speak, he was interrupted by the door bursting open.”

It seemed that the bat boss had that powerful effect on all people. When I had met him for the first time, my throat had dried out too.

“In through the now open doors came some type of unknown bat. From the look on the undead general’s face, I could tell that we did not want him here. As the intruder walked towards the boss, he gave us a cold glance as he passed by us. Yes, he definitely did not like us.”

Tch. I could already see what the problem was before Viola even told me. More than likely this bat stopped the reinforcements I was supposed to get to look for me.

“Once he was close to the boss, he began to whisper in his ear, occasionally sneaking us cold glances. I couldn’t tell what was being said, but I knew it wasn’t good. A few minutes later, the bat boss told me that we would not be able to send reinforcements to help you. He told us that it was your fault for going so deep into the rat territory and that you should’ve been more careful.”

My eye began to twitch angrily as I listened to the story. Oh, so it was my fault for going so deep into the rat territory. Technically you could say it was true. However it was this motherfucker who told me to get stronger before I could talk to him again. I had Viola describe the bat who suggested the boss to do this so that if I saw him, I could give him a little thank you gift. It wasn’t going to be pretty.

“The undead general and I tried pleading for you for a few minutes, but nothing we said had an effect. Maybe if that damnable bat wasn’t by the boss’s side then it might have worked. But since he was, we accomplished nothing. Finally, in a fit of rage, the undead general said that he would look for you himself. Letting an undead prophet just die went against his very being. But as he turned to go, the boss stopped him. If he tried to save you, then that meant he was going against the boss’s orders. And if he went against his orders, then he would be killed.”

Man, how many times had this undead general had my back? I would remember it too. Whenever he needed me, I would try my best to be there. The more Viola talked, the more I was starting to dislike the notion of an alliance with the bats. You could say that it wasn’t the boss’s fault, it was his advisors. But that wouldn’t be true. If he wanted me alive, then he could’ve told his advisors to shut up and try to save me. But he didn’t.

I didn’t know the reason for it either. Maybe it was because I was human, maybe it was because I was an undead prophet. Either way, these bats would regret their decision. The next time I met them, they would meet the end of my spear. I almost die without their help. If the vampire hadn’t saved me, I would be dead. All because these fucking bats didn’t want to save me. They wouldn’t even left the undead general go by himself to look for me. I let out a sigh of anger as Viola continued her tale.

“The undead general was forced to stop and looked at the advisors angrily. Even if he wanted to save you, he couldn’t. There was no way he would be able to escape without being killed. I nodded my head and thanked him for everything he did. Just the fact that he wanted to look for you was enough for me. As I flew out of the room, I glared angrily at any of the bats that dared to look my in the eye. How despicable. I couldn’t believe I was related to these cowards.”

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It was a shame to be honest. Although I was killing all of the rats regardless, I at least wanted it to be different for the bats. But that wouldn’t be possible. Hopefully I would be able to convince the undead general to join me when I waged war against the bats. But if he decided to go against me, I wouldn’t hesitate to strike him down. I was getting out of this dungeon, and I would let nothing get in my way.

“I was almost to the door when I was stopped by my fellow reanimation. It seemed that the first complete bat you reanimated wanted to join me in search of you. When I asked why, he responded that he felt closer to you than he did with the bats. I decided to let him join me since the more the merrier. In a burst of wind, we flew away from the base and went towards the area I had last seen you. I didn’t know if we would be enough to save you, but we had to try.”

Man, the fact that I had reanimated another creature had blown my mind. I had been more focused on Viola so I had completely forgotten about my other reanimation. I glanced behind Viola to thank him for trying to look for me. But no matter where I looked, my reanimation wasn’t in sight. Closing my eyes, I tried to sense our mana connection despite how weak it was. But no matter how I tried, the only person I could feel with the connection was Viola. I opened my eyes and gave Viola a questioning look. Where was my other reanimation?

“No matter how much we searched, we couldn’t find you. Since I flew to the bats base as fast as I could, I wasn’t really familiar with which way I had gone. I tried my best to remember, but the turns and curves of the sewer were just so unfamiliar. I was just about to scream in frustration when I remembered something you told me before. We had some sort of mana connection that connected the both of us. So after concentrating for a few minutes, I managed to find your general location thanks to our connection. But the journey only grew harder from there.”

So if I concentrated on our mana connection, I would be able to find out where Viola was? Hmm, this would prove useful in the future. I stored that tidbit of information to the side of my brain for when I needed it later.

“In order to find you, we had to go deeper and deeper into rat territory. We were able to avoid most of the rats for the first few minutes, but soon our luck ran out. A group three giant rats and one berserker rat managed to surround us unknowingly. Since we wouldn’t be able to escape, I decided to fight. I was pretty sure I could handle one berserker rat. I left the other three rats to the other reanimation since I didn’t want them interfering with our fight. The only reason I did this was because I thought the reanimation was as strong as me. How wrong I was.”

A group of three giant rats and one berserker. I didn’t think Viola could handle a group like that by herself, but who knew? She also had my other reanimation to help her so it should’ve been easier than normal.

“A vicious and deadly battle ensued between the berserker rat and me. One wrong move and my wings would be torn apart. The only thing I was focusing on was the battle, so when I finally noticed my partner’s screech of pain, it was too late. Finishing the berserker with a wind blade, I turned around too help the reanimated bat. But sadly all that remained of him was a small clump of dust. By surveying the scene I was able to tell what had happened. The reanimated bat had managed to kill two of the giant rats, but the third one managed to kill him. I didn’t know if it was a lucky shot or if the reanimated bat was just weak, but either way he was dead.”

Wow, it seemed that Viola was finally strong enough to take on a berserk rat by herself. Impressive. On a more somber note, it seemed that the bat I had reanimated was dead. Although the bat was dead, I wasn’t all that affected by it. For one thing, I had forgotten that I even made him. Maybe if he was close to me like Viola was I would be sad. But he wasn’t. Therefore, although it was a shame, there was nothing I could do about it.

I also wondered if my reanimated bat died because he was weak or because of a lucky hit. If I compared him to Viola, he was pretty weak. But Viola had berserker mode and wind magic while the reanimated bat only had his claws and teeth. Giant rats weren’t that strong either so I didn’t know what to think. Shrugging my shoulders, I decided to think more on it later.

I was about to turn towards Viola again when I realized something. Since my other reanimation was dead, didn’t that mean I could start training my necromancy again? I had been unable to train it before since my mind couldn’t take any more stress from the reanimation. But now that the reanimated bat was dead and our connection was gone, I would be able to start reanimating corpses again.

“After he died, I dug him a small hole to put his dust in. Although I wasn’t that close to him, I respected him for coming with me to look for you. After that, I flew more stealthily than I had before. That battle had taken a lot of time, and I knew that you needed my help sooner rather than later. But it was right at that moment when I felt immense pain coming from our connection. The pain was so powerful that I was able to feel it from my side of the connection and I was forced to take a few minutes to recuperate.”

The immense pain Viola was taking about had to be when I was fighting the formidable rat. Since I was feeling quite a bit of pain at that time, Viola was forced to bear with it also. This made me wonder about a few things. If I reanimated something and it got burned to a crisp, would I feel the sensation of being burned alive? I hoped not because that would be quite unpleasant.

The next few minutes passed by quickly as I pondered about the question I had asked. Maybe she felt my pain because of how close we were. I hadn’t noticed my reanimated bat dying because our mana connection was barely even there. But my mana connection with Viola was quite strong since I even had to sacrifice some of my health to reanimate her. So the stronger our connection, the more likely it is for us to be able to feel each other’s pain. Once I was done thinking, Viola continued her story.

“Once I was recuperated, I searched for you again. But this time I couldn’t feel anything from our connection. At first I was afraid you died, but then I realized that you couldn’t be. Our mana connection wasn’t gone, it was blocked. There was something blocking me from knowing your location. But I still didn’t give up. I spent the next few days searching for you and hiding. Whenever I needed food, I would stealthily kill a rat and eat it. Although I knew the general location of where you were, I still couldn’t find you. I was about to scream in frustration when a man appeared in my vision.”

Huh. What was blocking her from finding me? Although I tried thinking of reasons for our mana connection being blocked, I couldn’t find any. Maybe Simon had something to do with it.

“A lot of things happened, but in the end he told me he knew where you were. Since I didn’t have any other options, I followed him. And that was where I found you.”

It seemed Viola had gone through a lot trying to find me. But it was alright now since we were finally together again. We talked about a few other things before I got up to look for Simon. He said he was going to train me, and I was ready. It was time to become stronger.

AN: Sorry for the delay, I was a bit busy this week.