Revenge of the Sorcerer King 3 - 19

Good morning all!

Chapter 19

Oberon

Back in the castle, Irgire, Ted, Lenora and the golems were waiting for me in the portal room. I gave GobTerka to Arathorn to be trained. The goblin looked quite excited to have a teacher. Apparently, he had managed to teach himself how to read. Either way, I felt like he would be a good choice for a diplomat.

“Everyone have their gear?” I asked. “We won’t be returning for a while.”

“Everything is prepared, my king,” Lenora said with a bow.

I got nods from the others as well. Ted had several undead with him that looked like he was using them as assistants. “Derrick is that you?” I asked noticing the lich behind Ted.

“Yes, master. If possible I would like to accompany you as well.”

“I don’t mind.” To be perfectly honest, I had forgotten about him. Irgire looked the same as always when I glanced at him. With that I figured we should get underway.

Clapping my hands, I opened a portal to the captured city and waved them through. Stepping through, I found Maya waiting on the other side. She actually looked like a child her age, as she sat on a stool kicking her feet.

“Who is this child? Her mana pattern looks strange,” Ted commented looking the girl over. Maya shied away and hid behind my back.

“She’s… well, she’s basically my ward right now. In the future, she might be quite deadly, so I wouldn’t antagonize her.”

“If you’re claiming her as your ward, I would never do such a thing,” Ted said shaking his head. He was bound by a loyalty contract so that would never happen anyway, but I’d rather him not piss the girl off and ruin my efforts to cultivate her.

“With that settled, everyone get ready. We’re leaving in a few hours when the sun sets. It will take just over a week to reach the capital. I would hate to be late. While most of you will be in the rear until after the battle since I want to have you at full strength when diving the dungeon, if you’d like to join the fray, let me know. It never hurts to gain a few levels. Ted and Derrick, I want to speak with you so stay behind.”

Everyone but Ted, Derrick and Maya left to handle their affairs. Maya looked like she was playing around, but I could see her stealing glances at us. She was trying to learn everything she could and was using the only card she really had to her name. The fact that she was a child. I decided to ignore it. If I wanted her to leave I would tell her to leave.

“What is it, master?”

“A few things. I see that you’ve made significant progress on your undead,” I started gesturing at the High Zombies and skeletons behind him. They were all in the hundreds and would give most mortals a run for their money. Of course, the crap undead he made in the cave I found him in were giving the mortals a run for their money.

“Yes! I have gotten much closer to you over the recent weeks. I still lack the sheer mana needed to create some of the undead that you do, but,” he waved one of the undead forward. A woman that looked almost normal stepped from behind the others. If it wasn’t for the miasma leaking from her mouth and a few open scars, you might overlook her. “This one here is a Corrupt Walker. She is quite powerful.”

I looked her over, checking out the mana patterns that made up her animation. I had created a few of these by sheer coincidence, as like Ted said, I had a lot of mana to throw into my undead. When I actually worked on the undead to control their creation, I usually aim as high as the body would allow thus I had skipped this form a few times.

“She is indeed quite the masterpiece.”

“I should be able to create my zombies at this level from now on! I can actually contribute to future battles. I need to, actually, I need to raise my level!”

“Running out of will?” There wasn’t an exact science to the number of minions a necromancer could control at a time. I barely noticed the large number of undead under my command, but from Ted and Derrick I knew that the number was usually based on what your level was.

“Embarrassingly enough, yes.”

“Very well. I’m sure we can isolate part of the battlefield enough for you to gain a few levels. Besides, after we take the capital, it is on to the Wandering Dungeon. What better place to level up?”

“I agree. Thank you for your consideration.”

“Now, on to the main reason. Thanks to a certain god, we’ll be going to Hizen in the future to deal with some things. I’ve checked a few maps over. If the location of the city of night hasn’t changed, then we’ll have to travel through the Fiden Lordship. You know what that means?”

“Finally! FINALLY! I knew you would not forget our conversation. Please, let me burn it to the ground with you.”

“Of course. I will be consulting you on the details of the country here soon, so try to prepare as best you can.”

“Understood! AH! I have so much I need to do. If you will excuse me, master,” Ted bowed and walked away with a skip in his step.

“You don’t need to go with him?” I asked Derrick who stood still.

“I actually wanted to ask you something.”

“Oh? Shoot.”

“Around the Wandering Dungeon is the Traveling City. What are your plans for it?”

“If they get in my way, I suppose I will crush them,” I replied honestly. “Why do you care?”

“The Traveling City has… there is a…” He scratched the back of his head nervously as he tried to think of what to say.

“If you say there is a woman there that you fancy, but have been unable to woe, I swear I will kick you.”

He sighed and nodded his head. “It is exactly as you say…” My foot connected with his chest and sent him into the wall.

“Master, what does it mean to fancy a woman?” Maya asked.

“When a man wants to have the woman all to himself, I suppose would be the easy way to put it,” I replied as I stepped over to Derrick and put my foot on his chest. “We have a contract. If you want the woman, you better rush ahead of the army and make the city surrender to us without a fight.”

“I… might be able to make that happen. The woman is fairly well connected.”

“Fine, whatever.” I sighed and took my foot away. “Come, Maya.”

Alessa

Laying in the tree, I cursed the sun even though I barely bothered me. Something about it was just irritating on a deep level. With the town completely destroyed, there weren’t many more targets between the captured city and the capital. The villages were better served as places to gather food for my Familia then to destroy outright with how much of a level difference there was now.

The few targets that were big enough to hit, I was leaving to Jade. I didn’t want to risk my sin going out of control again.

“Your highness.”

I glanced at the girl and gestured. “What is it?”

“Master Oberon’s army is close. They should be here within the hour.”

“Is that so? They made good time.” I rolled over. “Inform the others. I will go meet Oberon once they are here.”

“Understood.”

Over the next hour, the sun steadily darkened as storm clouds filled the sky. I almost wanted to chuckle at the obvious evil feeling I got from the weather. Anyone with more than a few marbles in their head could tell the storm was unnatural to the extreme. I sat up and stretched. Time to go see the old man.

Jumping from branch to branch, I used the trees to go over the heads of the undead. If I had tried to walk it would have taken several times longer with how pressed the bodies were. The force had to be close to thirty thousand. Not a small number. I found a line of carriages toward the center and aimed for the roof making sure to make myself as visible as possible. Last thing I wanted was to be attacked by my own allies.

“Alessa. Over here,” Oberon shouted as he waved from the center most carriage. I adjusted my path and landed lightly in the open door.

“Oberon. Helena. Maya,” I said nodding to each in turn.

“You’ve gained a decent amount of levels,” Oberon said looking me over.

“Yes. I might have gone a little crazy in the town we attacked.”

“Already taking out entire towns on your own. Quite the feat,” Helena said clapping. With her tiny hands, it sounded more sarcastic than it likely was.

I sighed and dropped into the empty seat opposite Oberon and Maya. “When I transformed, it appears my Gluttony sin went over the hundred mark.”

“Interesting. You’ve obviously recovered. Do you know how?” Oberon asked leaning forward.

I shook my head and shrugged. “I was out of it for most of the event. I ate most of the town’s people then Jade managed to knock some sense into me. I’m not sure how these factored together in pulling me from that state.”

“Maybe it was the anger from being attacked that pulled you from a max gluttony state. You have problems with your rage as it is. So as your wrath went up, your gluttony went down?” Helena suggested and I leaned back as I considered it. The reason sounded as good as any.

“It might also have to do with the fact that she was transformed. When Rachel reached max wrath she changed into a monster, since Alessa was already a monster that was well suited to Gluttony it triggered, but because her mental state is already changed while in that state it was only a pseudo sin triggering event rather than a full blown one.”

“Either way, I nearly killed over half my Familia. I’d rather avoid it if I could,” I retorted. Even though I said that, even now I felt a raging hunger inside me. The hole almost hurt if I focused on it. I’d had to drink blood almost on the hour lately to counteract it. If I couldn’t find a way to counteract it more permanently, I would be the one straining our food supply. Unfortunately, I didn’t know if it was my overall gluttony sin or the Ruler of Gluttony curse that was causing the pain.

“We’ll have to investigate soon. At least we have a nice large city packed to the brim with people for you to feast on,” Oberon said jokingly completely unaware of my pain. “There is also a chance that the city might have records relating to this topic that are less than public knowledge. Royalty usually like to control this sort of thing.”

“I hope so,” I said sighing again.

My vampires joined up with the main force and we moved as one group toward the capital. While we could have gone ahead it wouldn’t have helped much. With the storm, the undead were able to move through the entire day, while once we left its influence, we had to wait for the sun to pass.

We didn’t slack off though. There were plenty of monsters and prey to hunt around the marching army. Mainly, enemy scouts became our prime target. The girls started competing over who could capture the most during their turn to patrol. Of course, Jade was winning hands down.

“That makes ten. Maybe I should give everyone else an upgrade too,” I commented when she landed next to me dropping a body.

“I wouldn’t. My need for blood is much higher than before and I still remember the pain. I don’t think some of the others would be able to survive until they are much higher level,” Jade said as she searched the man for anything useful. They were packed lightly, and they barely knew anything when we captured them alive.

“That is sound council. Alright. I’ll wait for some more.”

“Main thing is to get your own level higher, my lady. Greater levels equal greater mental strength.”

“Everything around here is too weak to give me much experience. Oberon is suffering from the same problem.”

“I’ve heard the Wandering Dungeon is the true target of this. Then we should be able to get you quite a few levels soon.”

“You’ve been before?” I asked curiously. The Wandering Dungeon was famous after all. If you could dive even a few of its floors, you could make more money than some people see in their entire lives.

“No, but as the princess, I was taught about things that were able to affect the country. The Wandering Dungeon is basically a treasure chest on legs. If it walks into your country, profit was sure to follow.” She sighed when she could find anything on the body and tossed it to the nearby ghouls. “Though, the deepest dive was recorded to be six hundred floors. I’m sure it’s much deeper.”

“We’ll both need to level up like mad. I don’t think I can do this royalty thing without your help,” I said dropping my head.

“It would be my pleasure.”

A few more of the girls returned, each dropping a scout. One was still alive, but knew as much as the others. They had all been promised large amounts of gold if they could return with information on the army. When he claimed that only a handful had made it back so far, I grinned glad to hear that my girls were doing a good job at harassing the enemy.

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