Blurred shapes stood over me, white and formless, a ringing filled my ears and I began to blink rapidly to try and clear them, but try as I might I could not. My vision returned, the shapes resolving into Farlow covered in blood and speaking to me. The ringing hadn’t stopped so his mouth moving meant nothing to me and I reached out to grab him. His stony hands grasped my wrists and hauled me to my feet. I felt lighter and stronger. I clenched my fists and heard the clack of bones. Startled, I quickly looked at my hand and realized it was the brilliant, vibrant, ivory of fresh boiled bones without even a strand of flesh on it. The rest of me was still clenched in flesh except for that hand, all I can assume is that it was the Gem’s effect on my direct body. I checked my pulse and saw I had none. My transformation, my creation, my goal of an unending life seemed to have worked but made most of my organs useless flesh. I looked around at my surroundings hoping to see the carnage that had unfolded once I had passed out, but the only things around the entire throne room were discarded skeletal pieces, dust, and Farlow. Who was still talking to me as though I could hear him so I held up my hand of bone in a gesture of silence and began to channel magic to cast a heal on myself. My magic felt different, sluggish, thick, and vast. When I coalesced the spell into being it took on the color of bone, it intrigued me but the ringing was not abiding and so I released the spell, which flashed black, then a pop as sound returned and the ringing stopped. Farlow stood waiting calmly still covered in crimson as I approached him.
“Speak” I ordered and Farlow shifted his feet in nervousness before starting to talk
“Welcome back Master! Your ritual was a success but there were… side effects that I do not know if you are aware of yet.”
I said nothing and gestured for him to continue
“It has allowed your creations to both procreate and naturally spawn in the world. This procreation is different from what you are likely imagining and is as varied as your creations have been. Natural spawning happens to any corpse that is not prepared properly and is allowed to naturally decay for at least 2 days. This has been an issue for all the various nations and caused multiple rather strict burial practices which is mostly cremation.”
He looked to me for permission to continue and I allowed it as I was curious how so much could be found out. “It has been almost 900 years since you enacted your ritu-”
I roared “WHAT!” a bone white aura started to form around me as I tried to come to terms with being in a different time but mostly just got angry so many plans were ruined. I ground my teeth and grated out “Continue... Farlow.” He nodded and picked up where he was cut off.
“After the ritual commenced it resurrected every corpse at the same time, but mindless and aggressive to everything with a heartbeat. This is considered the Death Parade by scholars and it ended most kingdoms as most graveyards then were not built with thick walls or guarded. Your creations have all been classified as Undead and are also named.” Farlow gestured to himself “I am a Vampire or more specifically the Prime Vampire as I was first and have made quite a name for myself. York would be called a ghoul and the shambling dead are called Zombies. The original ways to create Undead were lost as you never taught them to anyone but new ways were discovered but none have been considered a High Undead, or an Undead that is sapient. I have kept this city from being destroyed but it is considered to be ruins as only the Undead are the true populace here. Nothing else from the old kingdom is here; it all was replaced by the newer rulers of the world. I have returned as the only living servant to you Master, for the rest have been slain.” Farlow fell silent.
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I stood motionless as I processed all the information. I felt anger, true, but also loss for the people that were unable to evolve while I was evolving even beyond that. I needed to get back out into the world to see the changes myself. A shower of bricks rumbled and buried the throne and I sighed “I suppose I should make a more stable home before leaving. Servants too. Yes, that sounds better…” I trailed off and reached out with my senses and found many Zombies shambling around aimlessly, in a simple effort of will my magic had seized them and guided them to a few nearby ruins en masse to disassemble them. I frowned as I peered through one of them and saw it smacking its bloody stump against a brick with all of its strength and just reducing the stump further. Well this is a downgrade from a normal human I thought, annoyed, as I commanded them all to stand down.
Standing in front of the grunting mass of flesh in the form of corpses, I commanded a single Zombie to approach me. As it shambles closer I begin to channel my magic and see if I can form any of my circles without needing to draw it all out since I felt absolute control of my magic. My hand began to glow white and spread out and around the Zombie, runes appearing around the circle. I added the runes for what I wanted from the creature's new function, ‘Hammer’, ‘Dexterity’, and ‘Haste’ , unsure how exactly it would turn out I cast the spell and the white flashed black.
Blood and decayed, rotting, flesh exploded from the Zombie raining muck in a 10ft radius. I looked down at the new form it has taken on. It was about one foot tall, made of pure bone, with a chisel on one appendage, and a hammer on the other. It looked like a wishbone. It just laid there, but I could still feel a connection to it. I hesitantly ordered it to deconstruct a building to my right and it began to flutter, moving both the chisel and hammer faster, and faster with more flexibility than bone had any right to. It went nowhere, it just spun on the ground wildly while I stared down at it. Maybe if I throw it? I thought tentatively as I gripped the conjoining part, lifted it and threw it at the wall closest to me. It slammed into the wall and fell back down and clattered onto the ground spinning wildly yet again. I sighed and slouched a little bit as I realized this was going to be more work than I expected.
It took me two weeks of various combinations of runes before deciding on a form that actually worked. I already knew the form as well and knew the exact way to create it but figured smarter zombies would be easier. Skeletons, almost every single one of the Zombies I changed into skeletons that apparently just innately understand how to do dexterous work. Some I was even able to give bone shaping abilities to change their hands into the tools needed. They quickly took apart all the buildings in the main courtyard outside the ruined palace and were now actively using those resources to repair the palace. Although calling it a palace was a generous description of the building, most of the walls had to be brought down and built into a much more defensible state. The small fort was imposing on the outside looking sleek but multicolored from the various discolorations of age, it was definitely the tallest building nearby. The inside on the other hand was very plain, only a single large empty room. Farlow was in this room but looked more ghoulish than before which is why he caught my attention.
“Farlow!” I called out to him and he reached my side in haste “Go feed and find me a map of the region as I am sure it has changed.” He bowed once and dissipated into a cloud of mist that zoomed away. I figured I should make some furniture or at least a desk to work at.
I ordered some of the Skeletons to bring me a few large pieces of stone and stack them in the center of the room. Once that was done, I funneled my magic and tried for a creation spell to mold the stone into one solid stone table. My white aura oozed out of me slower than it did for the other spells I cast and flashed gold once it was cast. The table was about 30 feet across and completely smooth. The feet looked like fossilized leg bones of some large creature, a drake or similar maybe, and a small indent all the way around the table forming a type of static magic circle. The runes would have to be added every time but it should still allow my magic to be at least more precise than the freeform casting I have been using. I summoned a couple zombies I kept as Zombies and ordered them as well as two Skeletons to get onto the table. It was finally time to get a more helpful servant one that could speak or at least think for itself.