Outside the pub the sight was much the same, dead bodies everywhere. I looked at the body of a woman, there were no wounds and her face looked sunken in. Her body was a husk, I went to poke her skin but as soon as my finger touched her the body fell To Ash.

Had I done this when I tried to absorb the mana from near by bodies? How big of a radius did the mana absorption cover? The life of these people I couldn't careless about but I didn't want to harm neighboring villages. I may have been betrayed by the people of this village but I did not want to hurt others. I continued to look around the village hoping to find someone who wasn't a husk.

Not a single person was found who wasn't a husk. Just as I thought that I could hear the sound of something moving to my far right. It wasn't actually the sound of movement more like the sound of a sack being dragged across gravel. I walked over to find out what the noise was and to my surprise it was Garrett, he was dragging his lower half across the ground. He looked over and noticed me the look of fear came across his face.

“Garrett my old friend, let's talk.” I said picking him up by the throat and slamming him against a wall.

“You lich, you heathen, god will smite you.” He said between gasps for air.

I was confused, what was he spouting off about? Garrett noticed my confusion and laughed. I slammed his body against the wall again to shut him up.

“You don't even know what you are, you are an unholy abomination.” He chuckled and spat on me.

I wanted to kill him desperately but I needed information.

“Explain.” I snarled.

“You are a lich, the most unholy of any creature.” He began to cough blood, he won't last much longer I need to make this quick.

“What is a lich?”

“Someone who uses the dark arts in order to make themselves undead and defy god's will.”

Undead, I was a zombie? This didn't make any sense if I was like a zombie wouldn't I be unable to speak? A thought crossed my mind instead of killing Garrett and ending his suffering I could make him like me “an abomination to god.” But how did I do it? I closed my eyes and started to focus the mana inside my body. There was a lot more than when I was alive, I guess sucking an entire village dry would give me a boost.

“What are you doing?” Garrett asked trying to squirm his way out of my grip.

I began to move large amounts of mana into his body. Garrett began screaming in pain. I guess doing this to a living human was more painful then a dead one. When the screaming stopped I cut the flow of mana and dropped his body. He wasn't moving, I guess forcing mana into a living human kills them. As I began to walk away I could hear the sound of him getting up.

I turned around and saw Garrett standing in front of me. He was different though instead of attacking me like he should have he stood there without moving. He looked different as well, his normally blonde hair was black, his skin pale, and his eyes red. I moved closer and Garrett did something unexpected he saluted me. What happened, did he have a mental break because of the pain?

“Aren't you angry?” I asked.

“I do not feel emotion, all I know is to follow your orders.” He said, his voice was different, it was much deeper than before and sounded as if it had an echo.

He would follow my orders?

“Run into that wall until I tell you to stop.” I said pointing at the wall I was holding him against.

Garrett began to run at the wall and continued to do so. I wanted him to suffer for eternity but becoming my slave also works. What made him so submissive though?

“Okay that's enough, I have a few questions for you.”

“Of course my lord ask me anything.”

“Are you undead like me and why do you follow my orders all of a sudden.”

“No my lord I am still alive but I will not age, as for your second question your magic has corrupted my will, you can do this to anyone as long as your mana pool is greater than the targets.”

Interesting while I have no interest in bending the will of everyone it is still a neat trick to have. Looking at Garrett it looks as if his body had grown a foot or so, he was standing at six foot now. His armor he wore didn't look like it fit properly anymore.

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“Let's get you some new armor.” I said.

Now that I think about it, the armor I'm wearing feels a bit snug now as well. Did my body change as much as Garrett when I turned into a lich? We walked back to the pub because I remembered seeing a holy knight who was at least six feet tall. All the holy knights were rather tall, the knight commander was about my height so I stripped him of his armor he wasn't going to need it anymore. We didn't bother to put the helmets on, they blocked our vision to much.

Looking at Garrett we looked too much like holy knights so I burnt a symbol shaped like a skeletons head on the chest piece. Now that I was getting the hang of magic I would need to experiment to test some spells.

“Garrett go watch the entrance to the town make sure no one comes in if someone does come tell them  I the village is quarantined.” After I said that Garrett bowed and left.

Since I had an understanding of death magic I should practice that I thought. I found the closest mostly intact body I could. It was the body of the priest who lead the group of knights. My assumption on how his body survived was rather simple. The fact he stayed whole is most likely caused by the fact a priest he cold manipulate mana and had more mana than most people.

How Garrett survived was still a mystery by all accounts he should be dead. If I could bring myself back from the dead by having large amounts of mana could I bring a body back as a puppet if I gave minimal amounts to the body. I slowly brought mana to my hand and placed it on the priest's chest. The priest's body began to twitch, but instead of getting up the skin and meat began to melt until all that was left were bones and a puddle of meat. The skeleton began to move and stood up. You could see the mana between its joints keeping its body together.

I started to examine the skeleton head to toe it didn't move or speak without me telling it to do so. It was the perfect puppet no will of its own all it did was move on my order. I heard a loud crash coming from the entrance of the village. I ran towards the sound with the skeleton following me. The sound was Garrett fighting a group of holy knights.

“Where did they come from?” I asked Garrett while crossing swords with one of the knights.

“From the forest, they came to investigate why the priest hadn't returned.”  he said cutting the head off of a knight.

Garrett's power had increased significantly since I gave him some of my mana. The knight I was fighting was striking with heavy blows and knocked my sword out of my hand and went for the killing blow but just before the sword was about to strike me down the skeleton jumped in front of me.

“A necromancer.” The knight said moving back a little.

The skeleton had fallen to pieces, good fodder but terrible soldiers. More experiments were needed to improve the skeletons. I grabbed my sword while the knight was distracted. The knight got over his initial shock and swung his claymore at me once more. I was ready this time and sliced the air in front of the knight stopping him dead in his tracks. The knight fell to his knees with blood pouring out of his armor.

This knight was the captain, while I fought the captain Garrett made quick work of the underlings. Garrett only had one knight left, but this knight Was different he wasn't wearing the same heavy armor he wore light leather armor with a short sword. Garrett raised his sword above his head and was ready to strike the knight down.

“Wait, we need one alive to show us where the rest of the knights are.” I said grabbing Garrett's wrist.

Garrett backed away and put his sword in the sheath. I walked over to the knight and knelt down. As I got closer he looked rather young, he most likely was conscripted by the holy church to fill some ranks.

“Okay boy, you can make this easy or make it hard your choice. Are there anymore knights in the forest?” I asked.

The boy nodded his head vigorously.

“Good how many more?”

“Twenty, and one paladin.” He said with heavy breaths.

“Okay calm down or your heart might explode. What makes this paladin so special from a regular knight?”

The boy looked uncomfortable talking about it.

“They are knights blessed by the archbishop himself.”

I didn't have anymore questions but I didn't know what to do with the kid. I couldn't just let him go back to warn the knights and this paladin. Then a thought crossed my mind. Since Garrett and I are the only ones left in the village does that make me the Lord? The thought made me slightly giddy.

“Alright boy you have two options, one I kill you and you join my undead army or two I let you live and you become a servant.”  I said with a greedy smile on my face but I wouldn't actually kill the boy.

“Servant.” He said without hesitation.

“Very good now go to the village and clean up the husks lying around they are of no use to me.”

The boy ran into the village and began to move the bodies and sweep up their ashes. Garrett did not look pleased with this choice.

“Are you not please?” I asked

“What is to stop him from running back to the paladin?” He asked with a sour look on his face.

He had a point nothing bound him to me, I could break his will like I did to Garrett but that takes a lot of mana, or does it? I would have preferred to experiment myself but time was of the essence whether the boy ran away and told them or not the knights were going to come it was inevitable.

“Garrett how much mana would it take to only break someone's will but not increase their strength?” I asked.

“Not much as long as the person is weak it shouldn't take too much out of you, one of these knights should suffice.” He said.

I didn't want to waste a body when there was a group of twenty knights just around the corner. My mana will have to suffice until I can refill the tank as it were. Garrett and I lined the bodies up in a row and I replicated the same thing that I had done with the skeleton but with more mana so the flesh would stay on. The bodies picked themselves off the ground they felt different from the skeleton as if I didn't need to keep my focus so they don't fall to pieces.

Garrett organized the knights while I walked over to the boy. He was still picking up and moving the bodies. He had already got a decent portion of the village cleaned.

“What's your name boy?” I asked watching him work.

“Joshua.” He said.

“Joshua from now on you will be my servant.” I placed my hand on his forehead and channeled a small portion of mana through his body.

Joshua stood still for a moment but didn't scream in pain like Garrett as the mana went through him. I stopped my mana flow and waited for Joshua to move. He twitched at first and took a large gasp of air into his lungs. Did he die or something for a second? I placed my index and middle fingers on his throat feeling for a pulse, there wasn't one. I killed the boy by mistake, I may not like the holy church but a young boy doesn't deserve to die. Luckily he was made into an undead.

“Since you have no magical talent like me you aren't a lich but you breath so you aren't a zombie, what are you?” I asked curiously.

“I am a draugr, an undead born from vengeance and dark magic.” He said.

“Wait from vengeance as well, what happened to you?” i asked assuming he was vengeful towards me.

“The holy church murdered my family and forced me into their service.”

So he wasn't some church lackey who just begged for his life, he was wronged and conscripted to their army. I left him to continue his cleaning. Garrett had organized the undead knights as best he could they weren't to bright.

“Are we ready for the knights?” I asked Garrett who was standing on top of a watch tower.

“Well since these guys are already dead it will be hard for a human to kill them again but we are still outnumbered significantly and the paladin is still a problem, they are experienced warriors you and I will have to fight him together while the death knights take on the holy knights.” He said leaning on the towers wall.

Death knights? He gave them a nickname, I kind of like it, it's fitting. After waiting about half an hour the holy knights were seen marching out of the forest. An older man wearing white and gold armor was leading them at the front.