On that day, a powerful horde of Undead, led by a skeleton champion with a lightning magic sword, attacked the westernmost village of Duke Gerald’s territory.
The villagers who were holed up for the winter were slaughtered helplessly, and the few who were lucky enough to escape reported the emergency.
Following the attack, the undead swarm moved in a southwesterly direction, crossing multiple territories and annihilating villages in its path. As if the undead had no concept of fatigue, their march was like the wind, and by the time the royal court grasped the situation, six villages had already been destroyed.
The royal court saw this as an emergency and asked “Sub-Zero Crystal Spear”, a party of adventurers said to be the strongest in Ciel-Terra, to accompany the temple’s priests to take down the undead and investigate.
With a party of three 6th class Elites and two 5th class Adepts, “Sub-Zero Crystal Spear” would be able to take on a nightmarish enemy such as an undead army centered around a skeleton champion. However, the royal court suspected that the “Rose Princess of Hellrage” was behind this.
The naturally occurring undead are weak. For this many undead to appear, there must be someone who created them. If this is the case, the one who was suspicious was the “Rose Princess of Hellrage” who still seemed to be in hiding.
Therefore, they arranged for adventurers who were strong enough to escape and return with information in case something went wrong. The selection was based on the recommendation of Duke Gerald, who wrote, “I want you to send out strong adventurers as soon as possible.”
The royal court had no objection to this, and the strongest party, the “Sub-Zero Crystal Spear”, was immediately chosen.
The members of “Sub-Zero Crystal Spear” headed to the south of Ciel-Terra, where they thought the undead were headed, anticipating their movements.
＊ ＊ ＊
At the same time.
Duke Gerald was gathering knights and farmers from his own territory.
The knights, who had been summoned yesterday to deal with the undead that had appeared in the territory, had already arrived in Wesala by the next day.
The town was booming with activity due to the sudden increase in the number of people. Such festivities happened only a few times a year.
The knights under the duke’s command came from all walks of life. Some of the wealthier ones had residences in Wesala, the territorial capital, but many of them stayed at inns. Some of the servants and farmers they brought with them were accommodated by the residents and temples (the duke later paid for their accommodations).
The streets were crowded with strong men in silver and white armor, and daily necessities and groceries sold like hotcakes.
As the sun rose, they gathered in the spacious courtyard of Duke Gerald’s castle. It was a spacious courtyard for gathering and training soldiers.
Not only the knights, but also the farmers, were imposing in the way they were arrayed with their weapons at the ready. They were elite farm soldiers who had been given training in between farm work as an initiative of the duke, and were somewhat exempted from labor because of it.
When the Duke appeared on the balcony, the faces of the soldiers in attendance tightened even further.
One who had a heart of loyalty. One who was nervous about being punished for being crude. Those who fulfilled their obligations in a businesslike manner in return for being guaranteed land. Those who secretly harbored animosity…
The feelings were different for everyone, but that no longer mattered to the duke.
“What I have gathered you all here for today was nothing special.”
The duke began to speak, his voice rising in a cheerful tone.
“≪Death Cloud≫ x ≪Create Undead≫.
Assembled Spell…≪Corpse Recruitment≫”
A girl’s voice sounded out of place in the quiet courtyard.
The sky, which should have been clear and sunny, seemed to dim, and a red-black storm of death rolled in.
“Gyaaaaa!”
“Aaaggaaaaah!”
“Aaaaah!”
Like a tornado covering the entire courtyard, a blood-colored storm roared through the air.
A chain of screams followed, and the soldiers in attendance fell to the ground in a heap.
The duke looked down at it with a calm expression on his face.
“From now on, you will all serve the… Great One.”
“Duke, what!”
The only survivors were the magicians who were able to defend themselves on the spur of the moment and the knights who had brought their protective charms in an activated state even in a place like this. There were only a few of them.
Looking up, a small figure stepped out from behind the duke.
It was a beautiful girl with silver hair and eyes. She was wearing a brilliant pure white dress with a bright red rose emblem painted on the skirt. Despite her innocent face, she looked down at the surviving soldiers with a wicked, lecherous smile, a smile that did not consider their lives to be precious.
Flopping onto the balcony railing, she leisurely crossed her legs and looked down at the devastation in the courtyard.
“What is that…”
One of the survivors muttered.
It wasn’t “that girl” or “she”, it was “that”.
“There are some very bad people out there. Get rid of them.”
With her small, white, soft hands, the girl snapped her fingers.
Immediately, those who had fallen down rose up all at once.
Their faces were all vacant, and some of them stood up only with bones, as their bodies turned to dust.
“Undead…!”
The survivors were moving in all directions.
Thrust in all directions, the survivors were cut to pieces and fell, and soon rose again as corpse soldiers.
＊ ＊ ＊
The soldiers lined up in the courtyard. An order of only Undead.
Ghouls, skeletons, zombies and lich. There were also a few fierce fighters of a level that would be treated as higher species.
The results of the new skill were excellent.
The new power that René gained from feeding on Miriam’s soul. It was the creation and manipulation of the undead (or more precisely, its efficiency).
When she fed on Miriam’s soul, René was able to grow her abilities to a certain degree in the direction she wanted. She understood that it was ‘like getting skill points and assigning them to a skill tree’.
Creating undead was something she could have done if she had wanted to, but the undead would continue to eat up her magic power. The number of undead depleted her magic attack power and the maximum MP. Even for René, it was burdensome to maintain and employ a legion of undead.
Therefore, she had her soul refined into a form more suited to undead recruitment, so that she could efficiently command a large number of undead. René’s own basic specifications were also increased. She was capable of fighting while maintaining a large number of undead.
In addition, René was in great shape, probably because she had just eaten such a big meal. She would be able to demonstrate about 150% of her abilities.
“You did a great job gathering the materials, Alastair.”
“I am very honored to receive your compliments.”
Duke Gerald bowed respectfully. But this was not exactly the Duke himself. The Duke had already been killed by René, and his soul has long since ascended to heaven or hell. René had no idea where he went, but strongly hoped it would be the latter.
She really wanted to capture his soul and make him suffer even after his death, but she was unable to do so because he had already put his soul under protection. It hurt her to let the main figure of the royal brothers’ faction die without suffering enough, but it was for a more important purpose.
The duke who was here now was merely the corpse of the duke after his soul had been drained and moved by magic.
Revenant … An Undead whose magic has given the corpse a temporary life.
From a clean dead corpse, a Revenant can be created with the same appearance and abilities as before death. The duke now had almost the same intelligence as before he was killed.
The only difference was that from the moment he was revived as an undead, he was imprinted with absolute loyalty to his creator, René.
His breathing and pulse appeared to be normal, he ate and drank, and he slept at night. There was nothing strange in his speech or behavior. At first glance, one would not notice that he had been replaced.
And yet, the current duke acted as a faithful servant to René, his creator. Priests and magicians may recognize the Revenant, but such personnel were sent away from the castle by order of the Duke before they realized that the Duke had become an Undead.
The downside was that physically and brain-wise, he wouldn’t last long and would slowly deteriorate, becoming just a “fresh zombie” in a few days. Trying to maintain it would be a lot of trouble. But in this case, a few days were enough.
Incidentally, the current René, who appeared the same as before she was killed, was actually in the state of having been transformed into a Revenant. As one might expect, René’s body and intellect do not deteriorate.
In terms of ability, it was a backward-compatible form, “like a lich form minus the magical strength enhancement”, but a Dullahan with a missing head or a lich with a skeletal face were still forms that a girl would want to avoid.
After the battle, René first flew to the edge of the duke’s territory carrying the corpses of the Night Pythons members and Brian, where she had an elite squad of undead attack the village. Then she sent them southwest.
There were two objectives.
First, to use the powerful undead as a diversion to draw the strongest adventurers and elite members of the knights away from the capital.
And second, to give the Duke an excuse to rally his troops.
René ordered the Revenantized Duke to gather the knights under his command and the elite farm soldiers.
They were all killed here and became part of René’s army of undead.
“Alastair.”
“Yes!”
“I lend you my faithful knights. Lead them and turn Wesala into a dead city. Kill the adult men so that they remain as intact as possible and pile them up in the square. As for the women, only those who look strong. I will turn them into soldiers. Girls about my age should be rounded up alive as much as possible. Those who can use magic should also be captured alive as much as possible. They need to have a soul to make them into a lich. Whenever you find weapons or anything that can be used in battle, loot them and put them in the hands of the soldiers. … This shall be the signal for my counterattack.”
“Yes, my princess.”
The corpse of the man who once ruled this land bowed graciously.
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