Alanus and Reyn watched, together with their remaining men, from the top of Veriates' walls as the undead slaughtered the army of the traitor prince. Without pity or mercy they were cut down in the blink of an eye. And now the leader of that horde, no army, was coming towards Veriates with the enemy leader taken prisoner.
Connor was on his way towards Veriates and behind him followed the whole undead army. Connor stopped and turned around. "Aknar and Aldaek stay outside the city. Order the soldiers to gather the corpses of the dead. I have something I want to try on them."
"As you command, my king, but please take some soldiers to accompany you" Aldaek spoke.
"Hmm, alright. Not that I need them but sure. Why not?"
"Let's go. You two." He pointed at two random skeletons. "Drag that worm with us." By now Niel had fallen unconcious from the shock. The hit on his head from one of the soldier skeletons when he tried to struggle sure didn't help him stay awake either.
"Uncle, are we really going to let that thing inside? What if it turns against us!?", Reyn yelled as he watched the approaching Connor.
"Calm down, Reyn. If he wanted us dead he would have killed us the day we met. Don't you think so?" Alanus spoke.
"I guess you are right, uncle." Reyn answered as he lowered his head.
"No need for you to lower your head, Reyn. Anyone would have reacted like you did after seeing this slaughter we witnessed today. One thing is certain, there is no shred of humanity in that creature. Nothing. I felt this way the first time we met but now I know for sure."
Alanus took a look at his soldiers and what he saw in their eyes was fear. Fear at what that creature would do to them if they had to oppose him. "Men open the gates! The battle is over! We are victorious!" Alanus yelled with his sword raised high above his head.
The soldiers snapped out of it, looked at Alanus and their faces started to brighten up. A victory cry marked the end of conflict, at least for now.
"Ooouuuuuuhh!"
"Reyn, lets head back to the castle to meet our guest. We wouldn't want to get on his bad side." Alanus spoke and turned around to head towards the castle.
"Yes, uncle."
Just as Connor arrived in front of Veriates' gate, it opened. "Ohh? I guess they are not that scared then." Connor muttered as he entered with his soldiers and the still unconcious Niel.
Connor headed straight towards the castle and on the way the eyes of many people, mostly soldiers, followed him. Noone dared to say anything or even move until he was out of sight. To them it felt like death itself walked right pass them. They were petrified by the mere thought that the dark knight and the dead right behind him would decide on a mere wim to just kill them all.
Upon his arrival at the castle he passed the gate and inside the same courtyard as before he found Alanus and Reyn with a couple of knights beside them.
"Ohh, such a warm welcome. I see." Connor spoke.
"This is just a precaution. After witnessing that slaughter you surely understand, right?" Alanus spoke with a calm outside, but in reality he was very nervous deep inside. His many years as commander of the knights had tought him to not let feelings like nervousness or fear show on his face. His feelings were justified of course, if this monster decided to attack, there would be noone left alive.
"Yeah, yeah. I understand. We are scary after all. Hehe." Connor spoke. His laugh at the end made Alanus and all the rest shiver.
"But enough of fooling around. I have brought you a gift. Bring him here" Connor ordered his soldiers to bring Niel before Reyn and Alanus.
The skeleton soldiers dragged Niel and placed him in front of Connor.
Connor and grabbed Niel's head and lifted him up in the air and showed him to his brother and uncle. From the sudden movement Niel woke up. Quickly he understood the situation he was in.
"Uncle, brother! Save me, please! Save me from this monster!" Niel yelled, his eyes filled with tears.
Reyn and Alanus looked at the pitiful appearance of Niel. "Save you? You bastard, how dare you say something like that? Do you have any idea how many lives were lost because of you? Even Ilene was hurt running from you and now you ask us to save you!?" Reyn lashed out on Niel.
Reyn drew his sword and headed toward Niel but his shoulder was quickly grabbed by Alanus to stop him. "Listen Reyn, I know how you feel and believe me I feel the same way, but killing him is not the answer. He will be put on trial and be judged."
"Consider yourself lucky Niel. Guards take him away!" Reyn yelled but as soon as they got closer, Niel started to scream.
"Aargahh!"
"What's wrong with him!?" Everyone was confused. "I-........It's crushing my head! Help me!" Niel yelled.
"What is the meaning of this? Release him!" Alanus yelled at Connor,taking a step forward with his hand ready to draw his sword. His knights did the same and in response the soldiers behind Connor stepped in front to block them.
"The meaning is that I have kept my end of the deal, but what about you?" Connor asked in a cold voice.
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"We will keep our end of the deal but please release him first."
"Alright, but do not dare betray me. You know what happend to the last person that opposed me. And if you decide to betray me against all reason, well, then I will simply have a bigger kingdom, hehe."
Connor released his hand and Niel fell on the ground. Immediately the knights dragged him away. Connor turned but was stopped by Alanus' words. "You are an undead, am I right? They called you the skeleton king, but that is a title. Do you have a name?"
"Yes I am undead and yes I do have a name, Connor."
Alanus bowed and spoke: "Well then, as our saviour I am deeply grateful to you but I need to ask for your help once more. The capital city of our kingdom, Frostford, we can not reclaim it with the force we have here. And we can not grant your desire like this. We need a king to do that. Reyn here is the rightous heir to the throne, he will be the next king of Azeria even if he is still young."
Reyn did not say anything. It was already decided long ago that he would be the next king and now it simply was the time. The circumstances of his ascension to the throne would in no case be good ones, in every case his father would have to die in one way or another.
"Hmm." Connor stopped his movement to think. "Well it is a pain, but very well. It's more fun this way and I have some new toys I want to try out as well, hehe."
"I shall aid you in reclaiming your capital. When do we move?", Connor asked. "In a few days, we need to burn the dead and pay our respects to the fallen warriors."
"Very well, but only your soldiers. I need the rest for myself." Connor stated and started walking towards the gate of the castle. His buisness with them was over for now and he wanted to stay as little as possible in this city.
"Wait! What do you need the dead for?" Reyn asked but Connor neither turned around nor answered. He just continued walking.
"He is the king of the dead. What do you think he needs the dead for?", Alanus answered.
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"Ohh how nice. So many bodies to experiment on. Well then, let's get started." Connor had returned to the battlefield where Aknar and Aldaek had followed his orders and made piles of dead bodies. Two very big ones and fours smaller ones were what was left of the whole enemy army.
Connor focused his mind on the piles of the dead bodies and soon black aura gathered in Connors hand. His power started entering the piles and the bodies started to shake. The flesh slowly dissolved and started to meld together to create a grotesque abomination.
"Excellent", Connor said as he looked at his new creations. Two six meter tall creatures and four three meter tall. They were covered in blood and on their body one could still see the countless faces of people these monster's bodies were made out of. The abominations themself had no heads, only big bodies and arms and legs.
"hmm... I guess 'flesh golem' would be an appropriate name for them. Now I can easily siege a city as well." Connor spoke to himself as he admired his new creations.
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Deep inside the forests of the southern part of the holy kingdom of Sernia, where the champions of light have been summoned lied the kingdom of El-Duin, the Elf kingdom.
El-Duin was protected by a barrier erected by the oracle with the purpose the keep her people from the evil of the outside world.
Deep in the halls of Shalla, the elven capital, the oracle, a elven woman in her thirties sleept.
"My lady, I come to you with a message. A great evil has awoken, far in the north. This evil threatens the very existence of this world. The foolish human gods have summoned champions from another world and in response the dark gods answered with a champion of their own. The champions of humans do not belong in this world and now the balance is broken. But this thing that dark gods summoned is terrifying. Even now its power grows at such a rapid pace. Its army is endless and it will not be long before the whole world starts to tremble. I come to you with this message so you can be ready for the darkness that is to come."
The oracle woke up with heavy breathing. "I understand Elune, we shall be ready." the oracle spoke.
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Dranath, the capital city of the demon kingdom. Inside its palace what seemed to be a young man sat with crossed legs on a throne. On his head long black hair and sharp horns and on his back big black wings. His right hand a glass cup filled with red liquid as he was watching a small glass orb in front of him. Soon his face showed anger, he crushed the cup in his hand and stood up.
"The king of the dead, huh!? Very well I shall play with you. Noone ruins my plans!" He yelled.
The man was the twenty-first demon king Azoram.
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AN: So sleepy will be checked for mistakes later and hopefully PR as well cheers.
Enjoy