Kryzen was back at the storage room and continued searching for treasures. Mining didn’t take long and those undead weren’t bright enough to question his speed too so he had no worries. After an hour of searching he managed to get some useful items.
A sheath for his knife, a blade that was too short to be a sword but too long to be a knife and a backpack to help him keep any new things he found. It occurred to him that within the dumpster/storage facility there were different objects from different sources, ranging for basic cold weapons like swords to wreckages of futuristic ships. It was unfortunate that the most of the more technologically advanced relics and objects were already picked apart beforehand.
The basic Nano machine package must have been a case of negligence or oversight by the undead. Looking over the cave one last time, Kryzen continued exploring the mine system. He exited the cave and came before the vast expanse he saw a while ago, but this time he was going to covertly scour it for the teleporter.
It had to be here given the huge space and massive amount of undead. There were cartloads upon cartloads of ore being transported through here and if he followed them, maybe it would lead him to the teleporter. Thus Kryzen followed cartloads, being careful to stay far away from them in order to not alert the undead. Some of carts went to furnaces to be further refined whereas some were directly stored in containers. He followed the containers and found they were being taken down a series of tunnels all in the same direction.
Most probably they lead to the same place, which has to be teleporter. After all there was more than enough space to store them in the big cave if they wished. Kryzen followed the undead pushing the containers into a new giant cave. This cave was different as all the walls were smooth and the cave gave way to corridors that resembled ancient palaces.
Before he could take a step though, he was lifted up and brought to face with a giant death knight. His head grasped between its two fingers, Kryzen came to face with the death incarnate. Black armour, a horned helmet and giant sword strapped on its back coupled with blue flames in place of its eyes, the monstrosity in front of him was the very definition of a death knight.
Looking into its eyes, Kryzen was stuck by fear and froze in place. He lost his ability to even think and just stared at it, waiting for death come but instead of having his puny head crushed or his head torn off, the knight spoke to him,
“The Lord wants to see you little gremlin.”
Even the evil coarse voice didn’t manage to get him out of his shock and he watched on as the surroundings blurred and in a whoosh he was inside a massive throne room. Kryzen was dropped on the floor without prompt and this brought him out of his stupor.
Kryzen got and up and looked around before looking at the throne which was empty. While he was inspecting his surroundings, Kryzen failed to notice he was being inspected himself by cloaked figure. Even though the mysterious figure was right next to him, he didn’t sense any presence at all and was utterly clueless.
“A curious one aren’t you?” A coarse voice said right next Kryzen.
He Jumped back in fear and carefully looked over the cloaked figure.
‘Lich’ was the first thought that ran through his head as he looked at the monster before him, it was wearing a luxurious robe with a dark cloak over it and he could only see its head or skull to be more precise.
Unlike the other undead he met so far though the lich didn’t seem to carry the undead aura that made the living uneasy and the air rotten. Instead it carried a regal aura filled with power and he even dared say the lich before him was a tad bit scholarly.
Not waiting for him to respond the Lich continued speaking,
“Did you think I would not find you? Did you think you were safe from me? Did you think I wouldn’t detect the presence of a human soul within my realm?”
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The Lich waved his hands and Kryzen was levitated in front of him and held in place by an unseen force. Kryzen was scared out of his mind and didn’t know how to respond to the Lich. Without thought he spurted out,
“I’m sorry, please don’t kill me. I just woke up here and didn’t mean to intrude or anything.”
Kryzen was no glorious warrior or a man with an indomitable will, he was but an ordinary person from modern earth who liked to play video games. In front of such a supernatural creature Kryzen broke down and tears fell from his face as he pleaded for the Lich not to kill him and not to eat him.
“Tch, why would I eat an insect like you, I’m an undead Lord and stop your incessant crying at once” said the Lich.
Kryzen at once stopped crying and looked Lich with teary eyes, which was not a good look on a gremlin. Lich looked at him with unfeeling eyes but was puzzled on the inside. The gremlin’s soul was only a little stronger than the typical mortal and it wasn’t special in any way.
Even if the Lich’s enemies wanted to send a spy, they would send someone with a powerful soul that could mask itself from the Lich’s senses. Since the chances of this gremlin being a spy was low the Lich wondered about how the human possessed the gremlin in the first place.
This dimension was locked through the Lich’s abilities so it was impossible for a foreign soul to come into this dimension without the Lich’s permission.
“Explain how you came here human.”
Kryzen wondered how the Lich even knew he used to be a human but realized necromancers had great expertise in souls. It was one of the key reasons they were so formidable. This Lich found out he used to be human at a glance.
Kryzen gathered his courage and explained that he just woke up one day in the body of a gremlin and that he himself didn’t know how it happened.
“Tell me about your past life then, which dimension were you from? The Indus sector or the Nova sector maybe?” said the Lich.
He knew none of those dimensions and instead bluffed,
“I don’t remember much about life as a human, please forgive me” said Kryzen it what he thought was pitiful face. Kryzen may be scared but that didn’t mean he turned stupid. There was no way he was going to tell the Lich that he transmigrated from another universe.
Some things were better kept to himself in his knew life and while he might tell others he reincarnated, he would never tell them he was from another universe. Whether or not they believed it Kryzen couldn’t care but that small bit of information was his and his alone.
He didn’t know why but his intuition told him he should keep it to himself. Reincarnation was probably not a big deal in a supernatural universe such as this one and forgetting past lives was normal. The Lich couldn’t detect any lies with its powers and the Lich could only guess that it was most likely true if not a little vague.
“I believe you, but it still doesn’t explain how your soul breached my defences. Well it doesn’t matter much, kill him.”
Kryzen was relieved at first but panicked after hearing the Lich. To the Lich, an anomaly such as Kryzen wasn’t truly a big deal. Killing the gremlin and then taking his soul to study would be the best course of action to take to find the source of all this mystery.
Just as a familiar Death Knight appeared at the corner of Kryzen’s vision, he hurriedly spoke,
“Please wait, I can be of use to you, I’m a member of the Beyonders and can do plenty of work for your highness.”
Kryzen grew alarmed as the force holding him in the air tightened and he looked at the glowing orbs of energy the Lich had for eyes with fear.
“Didn’t you say ‘woke up’ and didn’t remember anything”, said the Lich dangerously.
Fearing the Lich would kill him on the spot, Kryzen quickly told how he found the black crystal which gave him Nano Machines and made him a provisional membership of the Beyonders. As he elaborated the Lich became silent and even when he finished his story there was no reaction.
Looking at the silent Lich, a thought occurred to Kryzen.
‘What if the Beyonders are the enemy of this Lich?’
The Beyonder membership was all he had to stop this Lich and was the only thing of value he currently possessed.
“The Beyonders are quite the exclusive bunch. You have quite the luck to gain even provisional membership, but you are still not a true member and that VIKI wouldn’t send even a warning for your death.”
As the Lich spoke on, Kryzen was terrified but then the Lich continued,
“The Beyonders have many relics and items that only their members have access too, so I shall help you become a true member and rise up the ranks so that you may get me what I desire.”
Kryzen quickly nodded his head up and down but then the Lich told him to sign a contract. Obviously no one would trust the words of someone they just met so the Lich made Kryzen sign a magical contract.
He would bring one specific item from the Beyonders to the Lich in exchange for his life and freedom. Kryzen didn’t hesitate as he would deal with the downsides when his life was no longer under immediate threat.
Lich then dropped Kryzen down and began a lengthy explanation.