A New Dawn 93 Two Living Liches

"Oh, well, forgive me for forgetting the main topic of this council. You didn't even have the time to explain anything to the rest before this madness appeared. I only hope that you will provide your strength to Archet. I and all its citizens will be immensely grateful to have such powerful people protecting them."

Even when he was talking to them, his voice didn't change at all. Whether he was facing nobles or commoners, the Mayor never spoke haughtily at anyone. Otherwise, he wouldn't have conserved his position for so many years. Only when he was alone, or when he thought he was, did his calm and respectful tone turned into something else. Like he was previously when he was humming that song.

Recalling that event, his face flushed with embarrassment, but it only lasted during a blink of an eye. And since the two others were neither speaking or moving at all, the Mayor was a bit perturbed. Anyone normal would have understood that his praise and demand needed an answer or at least a reaction. "It was a basic courtesy, from which deep hole of this planet did those two came from?" Remembering that even the White Hand didn't manage to find a lot on them, he decided that it was fine anyway. Until they betrayed them and attacked them, he will consider the two strange armors as allies.

"If you have any questions, you can ask the Guild Master. I am certain that he will use your abilities to the best and not belittle you or undermine you. Don't worry about the rewards, Archet will not let anyone that worked at its defense to be unrewarded. That's it, you can go."

Seeing Davion and Meridiana both bowing at him and beginning to leave, the Mayor finally could enjoy his drink alone. Right before they closed the doors, he felt that the Black Gauntlet could already be on their tails and from the reports of the Guild Master, losing those two would be extremely detrimental for their survival.

"Stop … wait a second."

Meridiana reopened the door and looked at the human in front of them. This fickle con-man would be capable of selling snow to an ice troll if he had the occasion. With him in charge, it would be impossible for Gwendoline to gain anything and his death was already planned. Otherwise, whatever will happen afterward would be firmly controlled by this human.

"What did you do to the White Hand? Someone came looking after you."

"Nothing."

The young and sweet voice of Meridiana matched her face and took the Mayor slightly by surprise. He wondered if she was truly a human or another race similar but with a higher life expectancy, otherwise, how could she be that powerful. Slightly tilting his head to look at her more carefully, he saw nothing that could not belong to a human. As for her companion, he was so ugly that it was apparent that he was either a troll or something alike.

"I see. If it is the case, be more careful about your backs. Monsters won't be your only problem if I am right. That adventurer's group you beat down; they will probably come back after you to test the waters. That's all I can do for you."

He was suspicious about the fact that they truly did nothing toward any branches of the Organization, but it was also true that the latter targeted any peculiar people without any distinction. However, the moment someone entered their radar meant that they will have to either work with them or against them. Even if it seemed radical to only deal with absolutes, it was the way those criminals worked. Nobody that had the power, intelligence or charisma to threaten them will be allowed to roam freely any human kingdoms.

"Thank you, Mayor." Meridiana bowed and left without any additional words. Turning around, she saw Gwendoline smiling at her and the group left the City Hall without any other incident. Maybe because they were looking at those humans or they relapsed their vigilance, but no one noticed the extremely thin and barely perceptible trace of mana behind a tableau hanging on the wall, near the room they left. Nor the dark silhouette that silently grabbed it and left without making any sound or being seen.

Far away from the human city, on a nearby plain, an immense amount of skeletons and zombies were currently looking at the two liches that were constantly pestering at each other. It had already been the third time that the army stopped because the argument was getting too heated. A skeleton inside the army was constantly shaking its head and squeezing the two empty orbits where its eyes should have been. He was the only undead moving, excepting the two liches.

For avoiding to be traced by anybody or anything, Malakov had the initially brilliant idea to not use any souls that he or Leilade captured and trained but something coming from this planet. Namely, the female elf and the male human that were spying at them with the ratman. With all those days at his disposal, he managed to wipe out most of their memories and inscribed the fact that they hated all living beings. Right before letting them march toward Archet, he was quite proud of his work, but to still be without worries, he planted a spy. He never expected them to behave so … humanely.

Because they were originally some normal living beings, a certain procedure had to be accomplished before turning them into true undead. Unlike those that were naturally born like that. Even in death, there were different kinds of beings. Dozens of different classifications existed and every hundred of year, a new one was created because they encountered something new. But for easier understanding, three main groups were defined.

The first one is the basic and mindless one. They are created by a superior undead like a lich or created by an unnatural environment but don't have a real soul. In that case, the first question would be how could they move if they don't have any muscles or their bones are not even really tied together? The answer was mana. Either the environment or the lich provided mana that allowed those mindless creatures to move and accomplish a basic task.

At the same time, for a skeleton that is conceived without any external help, why would he hate living beings? Only a few special locations can accomplish this feat, and nearly all of them are battlegrounds were armies were slaughtering each other. All the baleful emotions, hate, fear, anger, sorrow and such that are naturally present during those dark times are deeply rooted inside the very soil. So, when an amass of mana find a skeleton and give birth to an undead, the latter gain those emotions. It's not that it hates all living beings, in truth it hates everything. It's just that it recognizes his peers and won't attack them. In the same logic, the lich spread its dark emotions inside its minions.

Without any supply of mana, the undead will naturally crumble on itself. Diverse spells and technologies could cut that connection, and most of the times, when someone spoke of a holy spell that could kill a skeleton, it was just that it cut the undead from the mana that sustained it. Of course, sometimes, it was just a ray of light so powerful that it destroyed the body, but it was quite wasteful.

Finally, the more decomposed the undead was, the higher the demand for mana was. In other words, if the mana was infinite, only destroying all the limbs until it turned into dust would truly kill the undead. If the amount of mana was pitiful, just beheading it could make it crumble. Of course, since none of them had any souls or emotions, they wouldn't even care if they lost a limb or were seconds away of extermination.

The second type of undead was the same as those two liches that were still fighting each other. They had a soul, and most importantly a mana core inside their bodies. It was both an advantage and a fatal weakness. Only by destroying the mana core would such an undead die, but at the same time, even if the core was extracted from its main body, the soul will not be destroyed. Meaning that some funny situations did happen across all the planets. Funny for Malakov of course.

For example, a lich core was protected for so many years that it was in the end forgotten. Looking at the gem that was dirty and covered by dust, they only thought of it like a jewel. It was later inserted inside a necklace. The day the woman wearing it died was the day for the lich to be reborn. Using her body as a catalyst, the lich managed to destroy the entire kingdom and took its revenge. Thinking about that, Malakov tried to remember its name. Was it something like Kelops? Phelet?

"Why are we going this direction? Why are we going right? Why not going left?"

"Because I chose it, I chose right. I am an elf … a lich elf … a lich … something and I chose right!"

"Well, I am an huma … lich too … and I say we go left!"

"Right!"

"Left!"

Who would have thought that the two actually deeply hated each other? Because they only had access to their memories to prevent their soul of collapsing, they only saw cordial interactions between the elf and the human. But the moment Malakov left the two together, they began bickering for anything. The more they did this, the more he had to manually tamper their minds to make sure they followed his road.

Unfortunately, by doing so, the previously sealed memories were sometimes leaking, like right now where the two instinctively said their races, but only remembered their current condition after a few seconds. The only good thing that did happen was when they first met a group of soldiers. The two liches instantly attacked them without even asking a question beforehand. Meaning that his training did have some qualities.

"Right!"

"Left!"

"RI …"

"Le …"

Shutting down the two morons, he once again temporarily took control over their bodies and mind and the army began to march toward Archet once more. At this point, and after looking at the sun that was high in the sky, he felt that he would need to do that at least one more time. And with a bit of luck, they will arrive a few hours before dusk. If only they hadn't stop for so long, and he hadn't been reluctant at fixing the problem quickly.

"Well, it doesn't matter anyway" They had voluntarily pumped up the number of skeletons just to make the defense even more heroic. However, half of the undead will crumble after just a single arrow hit them. There was no way for liches like those two to manage and provide mana to such a large army. Otherwise, undead across the entire universe would have already conquered each planet.

"Why does your side have more zombies than mine? I want some zombies too."

"Hahaha, that's because I am better than you. You only have skeletons, look at those three zombies."

"Shut up, give me my zombies."

"They held for one minute." The only intelligent skeleton in the entire plain was mindlessly looking at his two white feet while trying not to think too hard about the rest.

Chapter end