Revenge of the Sorcerer King 3 - 27

Chapter 27

Oberon

The snow started to pile up even before I had made it back to the center area of the undead army. With a few thoughts, I ordered the undead to make a sort of camp. I had no need for walls, but if my spell did as I wanted it to, then we could be attacked in an attempt to stop it. I felt bad about leaving Alessa to whatever fate waited for her in the mountains, but right now, we had no way of locating her.
Once back at the center, I waved my hands while channeling so mana to erect a massive tent. I had borrowed it from the capital. It had been meant for the lord or one of his family. There was a decent amount of magic weaved into it that would prevent outsiders from listening in, warn the inhabitants if someone was trying to break through it, and even came temperature regulated.
I really didn’t need any of it, but I liked using it as a status symbol. Plus, while I might be undead, Maya still had a living body. Even if only partially. She was weaker to the elements and it would be rough on the girl to make her sleep in the carriage. She was hiding behind Rachel when I finished setting everything up.
“What is it?” I asked directing the question at both Maya and Rachel.
“I think you scared her.”
“I’m an undead monster with knowledge that would scare most men a few times her age. It was strange that she hasn’t been scared up until this point.” I directed my full gaze at Maya. “Mind your words. Revenge and malice can last much longer than a lifetime. You don’t want to piss off someone that controls your fate.” She nodded slowly and I grinned. “Then we’re good. I know you didn’t mean any harm.”
She crept out from behind Rachel and came up to me slowly. “Master is a good monster. He gave me freedom.”
I patted her head but shook my head. “I’m as far from good as one can get.” I looked up into the sky and clenched my fist around the black snow. “I’ll dirty my soul much more before this is over.”
I moved my hand and cleared the center of the snow while erecting a dome. While part of Maya’s bow wasn’t human, I didn’t want to inadvertently kill her. Thinking about it, I created another such dome over Alessa’s mortal stock. I don’t think she’d be very happy if I killed all her blood bags.
“How long until this spreads throughout the mountain?” Rachel asked as Maya ran into the tent. The black pulsing as her body absorbed the death energy around us. It might be interesting to see if any of the undead evolve from this little event.
I looked away from her up at the mountain peaks. “A day before all of the mountain feels it, after that it depends on the strength of the creatures.”
“I hope the girl is well.”
“I am sure she will be fine. Vampires won’t be bothered by the snow, other than the normal inconvenience.”

Alessa

Standing in front of Jade with my arms crossed, I wasn’t sure how to feel. I obvious reacted to her actions, my body made that clear. I had never taken or rather had the time to consider my sexuality, but I had always thought I liked men. Maybe that wasn’t the case.
Jade laced her fingers together and looked at the ground looking to me to try and appear innocent. “Yeah… well I prefer women. You, your highness, are quite lovely. Not to mention cute in your actions. When you came onto me, I lost all my reason for a moment. Forgive me. I never meant to put you on the spot like that.”
I sighed and dropped my stern expression. “I see where you are coming from. I admit that I found myself quite appealing when I look in a mirror.”
She looked up at me with bright eyes. “Exactly! I can’t help wanting to run my fingers through your hair or carasses your skin!” Jade exclaimed, breathing heavily.
“Calm down.” I sat on the rock next to her. I probably trusted Jade the most after Oberon and Helena. Even then those two are sometimes unreadable. Jade was bound to me and it made me want to at least consider her feelings. Even if they might stem from pure lust. “I’m not sure if I can return your feelings, but I will consider it once we’re in a better situation.” Talking about this, I actually felt like a normal girl for once rather than a cursed vampire hellbent on taking over the world with a long dead ancestor. I chuckled to myself at just how crazy it sounded.
“Your highness!” she cried wrapping her arms around me and burying her face in my chest.
“First we need to survive this,” I said patting her head to help her calm down. I sensed something and looked up. I couldn’t see the sky due to the mists, but I could tell that it got much darker compared to a few minutes ago. Before long what looked like ash started falling around us. I reached out to grab one and pulled back more out of instinct then necessity.
Jade sat up and examined the snow. “This snow is packed with enough death mana to kill anything normal.”
“You think so too. It shouldn’t bother us, but it will…” there was a loud yelp as the wolf that we captured a few minutes ago cried out. The beast suddenly stopped moving as it gave a single struggle. “Shit.”
Rushing over, I bit into the beast’s neck and quickly drained it of all its blood before giving it a single drop. Even if it failed to become a vampire, it would become a ghoul. It’s memory would be weak, but hopefully it would at least be able to lead us out of the mists. Jade pulled her arrows out of the paws of the beast and we waited.
“Were we too late?” Jade asked kneeling next to me. I didn’t reply as I could feel my drop of blood working its way to the dead heart.
After what felt like an hour, but was only a few seconds, the wolf twitched before its eyes snapped, dyed crimson. “Welcome to the family,” I said standing up to give it space. The already long canines had grown even longer, and its white fur was turning black. The death mana in the snow was affecting the change in some way, but there was no way to prevent it as the beast was already covered by a good amount of the stuff.
Finally, the wolf finished its transformation. It was a bit a bigger than before and colored black. Its maw could split down the side of his head to open a set of jaws that would be terrifying to a normal mortal. To me though, he was acting like nothing more than an oversized dog. As this was the first time transforming an animal, I had no idea if that was normal or just him.
“Who’s a good boy now?” I cooed while petting him. He wagged his tail before he rubbed up against me.
“What now? Should we try to find the source of the mist or head back to the army?” Jade asked squatting next to the dog with a hateful glare. Please don’t be jealous of a mutt, Jade.
“Can you take us to the undead?” The wolf tilted his head to the side, before letting his tongue lull out. I looked over to Jade. “What do you think? Yes or no?”
“Probably no,” she said with a sigh.
“Take us to the undead,” I said hoping an order would be better than a question. He stood up and walked around me over to the corpse of the other wolf before he sat down as if presenting it to us. I walked over not sure how the dead thing was his answer when I found the death mana in the air was starting to corrupt into unholy mana. More accurately, the miasma that resulted in natural undead being formed.
I snapped my hand out and enslaved the thing before it rose completely. The undead was nothing compared to Oberon’s undead, but it was definitely one of the stronger kinds. Either caused by its level, or the combination of death, level, and the ambient mana in the air. The undead wolf got up unsteadily before it moved to stand next to his vampire version brother.
“Take us to the area that has a lot of undead like him,” I said pointing at the undead wolf for emphasis. My vampire wolf barked before it turned and started walking into the mist.
“Maybe this will work out after all,” Jade said as we took off after the wolf.
“I hope so. Both the mist and the snow are getting thicker,” I said looking to the sky. It wasn’t quite blizzard levels yet, but it was certainly getting there. “I hope the old man remembered to protect our food.”
“Master Oberon wouldn’t forget such a detail,” Jade said with a laugh. I wanted to join her, but there were times that I worried about his mind. He had been sane for most of the time we were marching, but I felt that was more because he felt at home amongst an army. Either way, it would be interesting to see what he did once all the fighting was over. If he ever lets it end.
“I think we’re lost and that’s saying something considering we were lost before,” Jade said after we had been following the wolf for almost two hours.
“You know. I was thinking the same thing. I really had my hopes up,” I replied calling for the wolf, which we’d started calling Jecht for his jet-black hair, to come to a stop. I sat down on a boulder, and leaned my head into my hands. “At this rate, I think we’re going to be stuck up here until Oberon deals with whoever is causing this.”
“While I’ll be fine, I’m worried given how much blood you’ve been needing lately.”
“My thoughts exactly.” It had only been a half a day since we separated from the main army, and I was already feeling the slight pangs of hunger. Even Jade was starting to look appetizing… I quickly shook the thought away.
“Should we just, I don’t know, play dead?” Jade asked looking between the two wolves as they waged their tails. Jecht much more rapidly than Bone, the undead wolf. I started calling him that as Jecht would steal a bone from his decaying body to play with it before putting it back with a few extra bite marks.
“What?”
“You know… Just sort of wait here hoping that the enemy might capture us and take us to their leader.”
“I would agree, but with this,” I said scooping up a handful of black snow. “It might be hard.”
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