Chapter 65: Tricks and Training
"For the sake of all Aleshat, I urge you to give the order to exhumate graveyards, at least in the counties closest to Oakdale," Garron insisted. "I said it, and I will say it again. They hold thousands... dozens of thousands of bodies. All the reports my informants and agents brought show that the necromancer can and will use them against us. And unlike the living people, who naturally flee from him, the dead can’t escape."
Rafael shook his head.
"I approve of people fleeing the necromancer... I even assisted it, because I don’t want innocents to be harmed by the sorcerer. But digging out the bodies? It’s a desecration of the graves! Listen, Inquisitor. It’s the Church’s responsibility to guard the dead, and it’s the Church’s failure if they are unable to. But I will not give the order for my soldiers to do something so heinous to fix your mistakes!"
Garron gritted his teeth.
’That stubborn, self-righteous idiot...’
The old inquisitor could have added that by his inaction, Rafael was likely increasing his future combat losses and causing the deaths of hundreds of people. He could have said that exhumation of graves was a much lesser offense against the dead than forcing them to walk the earth.
Instead, he bowed his head.
"As you say, Your Majesty. I won’t pester you with this anymore."
"Hmph. Finally! A bit more, and I wouldn’t have looked at the fact that the High Magister himself had sent you to assist the inquisitors of Aleshat."
Garron wished that Judi was with him right now, and not carrying his missives. His pet raven’s presence was always calming.
Many people have thought that Garron was overestimating the threat of the necromancer, and by a large margin. That he was forcing the king to waste money on gathering such a large army, when a smaller force would have been enough.
But Garron himself never had these thoughts. Instead, he HOPED that he was overestimating the necromancer—but knew that he wasn’t.
’The king is a fool... But at least, I still have my own people. The Praetor is wise enough to give me the forces I need, and all the inquisitors of Aleshat are under my direct command. With Light’s help, it will be enough. The necromancer will yet see some unpleasant surprises.’
***
Aleric’s army traveled without stops for an entire day and night. While the undead soldiers marched, Aleric sat in his cart and listened to the lessons from Spine Staff.
The growth of his mana reserve opened paths to much more powerful spells than before, if only Aleric had the knowledge to use them... But until now, he had relatively little time to study.
After a day of travel, the army reached the next large town in Oakdale. By this point, it was almost empty.
Those who could have fled it long ago. The only people who remained were those without anywhere else to go. Even the town’s burgomeister and guards had left after the Church, and the king together offered shelter to those who were escaping the necromancer.
The place became a ghost town, just like the villages Aleric’s army passed earlier.
Despite that, Samuel still sent his scouting wights there and dutifully reported what they found.
"There are still some living people inside the town, master. Should we do something about them?"
"Don’t touch them unless they attack you first. Instead, tell the locals about their new lord and the Body Tax they now have to pay in addition to all the others. In the meantime, I will go to the local graveyard. It will be a short stop—I just want to practice magic a little."
"As you command, master. I will send some guards with you."
Followed by ten Black Riders, Aleric rode to the town’s graveyard. By his estimation, there should have been at least a thousand usable corpses... If he was using math correctly.
Aleric still had troubles with numbers larger than a thousand, despite Spine Staff’s tutoring.
As he rode, he was muttering under his breath and folding his fingers. By now, the burns on his palms have fully healed.
"A single skeleton slave takes... Hm... Five Pains’ worth of mana. But if I raise them with the mass version of the spell, it takes... Fifteen skeletons for fifty Pains?.. This is so inconvenient to count."
Spine Staff, which was lying over Aleric’s saddle, flashed its eyes.
"Mass versions of spells are more advanced and generally more mana-effective than singular ones, master. They have their own difficulties, though. If you tried to raise multiple undead servants, you’d have to subdue all their souls at once... Anyway, with your current mana reserve, you are still very far from raising an entire graveyard without sacrifices."
By this point, the graveyard’s fence appeared ahead. Beyond it were rows upon rows of weathered wooden grave markers and more expensive stone tombstones. Grass was growing over most of them, and despite the glum atmosphere of the rest of the town, this graveyard felt simply peaceful.
Aleric dismounted in front of the first row of graves and drew a heptagram around himself. On each corner of the seven-pointed figure, he carefully drew a symbol of power and put a drop of his blood.
"If I succeed in this spell... Would this make me a third rank mage, Staff?" Aleric asked, preparing his magic.
"Yes! You will become the lower stage third rank mage, master. Although this spell is one of the weakest in the third rank, it’s still there."
"Then..."
Aleric planted his staff into the ground and channeled Dark energy, all that he had. It poured out of him in a torrent, spun through the heptagram and, empowered by the runes, sank into the graveyard’s soil.
"Kaiva hitta orjaudat yls, nosni, loplmon tansuani ja tanssi svesisi, tapa, tapa, tuhoa..."
Through his Dark energy, Aleric reached for the graves, searching for soul remnants in the dead bodies. It was straining to look at such a wide area at once, but he had a lot of practice with weaker spells.
But no matter how hard Aleric was searching...
He couldn’t find even a single soul remnant to bind, as if there weren’t any corpses in the entire graveyard!