On that day, the westernmost village of Duke Gerald’s territory was attacked by a powerful horde of undead, led by a Skeleton Champion wielding a thunder magic sword.
The villagers, hibernating for the winter, were mercilessly slaughtered without any means of resistance, and only a few who were lucky enough to escape managed to raise the alarm.
The undead horde then advanced in a southwesterly direction, crossing multiple territories and annihilating villages along their path. Befitting undead with no concept of fatigue, their advance was like the wind, and by the time the royal palace grasped the situation, six villages had already been destroyed.
The royal palace deemed this an emergency and requested the adventurer party “Zero Chill Javelin,” said to be the strongest in Ciel-Terra, to be accompanied by a priest from the temple for subjugation and investigation.
With “Zero Chill Javelin”, a party consisting of three sixth-rank Elites and two fifth-rank Adepts, they should be able to counter a nightmare-like enemy like an undead army led by a Skeleton Champion. However, the royal palace’s true intention was to suspect that the “Rose Princess of Hellrage” was behind this.
Naturally occurring undead are weak. For such powerful undead to appear, there must be someone who created them. If that’s the case, the suspicious one is the “Rose Princess of Hellrage,” who is still believed to be in hiding.
Therefore, they arranged for adventurers who were strong enough to escape with information if something happened. Duke Gerald also recommended this selection. He requested that ‘a strong adventurer be dispatched promptly anyway’.
The royal palace had no objection to this, and the strongest party, “Zero Chill Javelin,” was immediately chosen.
The members of “Zero Chill Javelin” moved ahead of the undead’s movements, heading south of Ciel=Terra, which was thought to be their destination.
Around the same time.
Duke Gerald was gathering knights and peasant soldiers under his command from his own territory.
The knights, who had been urgently summoned yesterday due to the appearance of the undead in the territory, had already entered Wesala by today, the following day.
The city was bustling with the sudden increase in people. This kind of festive atmosphere occurs only a few times a year.
There are various types of knights under the Duke’s command. The wealthy ones have residences in Wesala, the capital of the territory, but many stay in inns. Some of their servants and peasant soldiers are allowed to stay with the residents or at the temple out of goodwill (the Duke will provide lodging expenses later).
Sturdy men in silver armor come and go on the main street, and daily necessities and groceries were selling like hotcakes.
When the sun was high, they gathered in the spacious courtyard of Duke Gerald’s castle. It’s a bare courtyard used for gathering and training soldiers.
The knights and even the peasant soldiers looked dignified as they lined up with their weapons. They are elite peasant soldiers who have been trained in between farm work as part of the Duke’s policy, and are somewhat exempt from labor because of it.
When the Duke appeared on the balcony, the lined-up soldiers tightened their faces even more.
Those with a heart of loyalty. Those who are nervous about making a blunder and being punished. Those who fulfill their obligations in a business-like manner in return for land security. Those who secretly harbor dissent…
Their thoughts are different, but that was no longer important to the Duke.
“I have gathered you all here today for a specific reason.”
The Duke began to speak, his voice booming.
“«Ruinous Wind Death Cloud» x Cross «Create Undead». Assembled Spell… «Bloody Red Paper»”
A girl’s voice, out of place in the silent courtyard, could be heard. The clear sky turned dim, and a dark red storm of death arose.
“Gyaaaaa!”
“A, agaaaaaa!”
“Uwaaaaaa!”
A blood-colored storm, like a tornado covering the entire courtyard, roared and raged. Screams echoed, and the lined-up soldiers fell down one after another. The Duke looked down on this with a cool expression.
“From now on, all of you… will serve a great person.”
“Your Grace, what are you!”
Only a few survived, including magicians who managed to defend themselves at the last moment and knights who had brought activated amulets even to this place. There were only a handful of them.
Looking up, there was a small figure walking out from behind the Duke. It was a beautiful girl with silver hair and silver eyes. She was wearing a brilliant pure white dress, but the skirt was decorated with a bright red rose emblem. Despite her innocent features, she looked down on the surviving soldiers with a wicked and sadistic smile that showed no regard for life. She nimbly jumped onto the balcony railing, crossed her legs leisurely, and looked down at the carnage in the courtyard.
“What is, that…”
One of the survivors muttered. He couldn’t say ‘that child’ or ‘she’, only ‘that’.
“There are some stubborn ones. Take care of them.”
The girl snapped her white, small, and soft fingers sharply.
Suddenly, the fallen ones rose up all at once. Their expressions were uniformly vacant, and some of them had their bodies turned to dust, leaving only bones to stand.
“Undead…!”
Whether there was even time to be surprised or not. The survivors were stabbed, slashed, and cut down from all directions, and immediately rose again as soldiers of corpses.
Soldiers are lined up in the courtyard. A knight order consisting only of undead. Ghouls, skeletons, zombies, and liches. There are also some powerful individuals mixed in who are considered to be of a higher rank. The results of the New Skill are excellent.
The new power that Renée obtained by devouring Miriam’s soul. It is the creation and control of undead (more precisely, its efficiency). When devouring a soul, Renée can grow her own abilities in a direction she desires to some extent. She understood it as ‘acquiring skill points and allocating them to a skill tree’.
Creating undead was something she could have done before, but undead constantly consume the magic power of their user. It’s like having your magic attack power and maximum MP reduced by the number of undead you have. Even for Renée, maintaining and controlling an army-sized group of undead is a heavy burden. Therefore, she honed her soul to a form more suitable for using undead, and became able to efficiently control a large number of undead. Renée’s own basic stats have also increased. With this, she should be able to fight while maintaining a large number of undead.
On top of that, perhaps because she had just eaten such a big shot, Renée was in top form. She should be able to exert about 150% of her usual power right now.
“You did well gathering the materials, Alastor.”
“I am honored to receive your praise.”
Duke Gerald bows politely. However, this is not exactly the Duke himself. The Duke has already been killed by Renée, and his soul has long since ascended to heaven or fallen to hell. Renée doesn’t know where he went, but she strongly hopes it’s the latter. She really wanted to capture his soul and torment him even after death, but he had cleverly protected his soul, so she couldn’t touch it. It’s extremely regrettable that she let the central figure of the Royal Uncle’s faction die without much torment, but it’s for a more important purpose. The Duke who is here now is just the Duke’s corpse after his soul was removed, being animated by magic. A Revenant… an undead given temporary life by magic.
From a cleanly dead corpse, a Revenant with the same appearance and abilities as when it was alive can be created. The current Duke has almost the same intelligence as he did when he was alive. The only difference is that from the moment he was revived as an undead, he was imprinted with absolute loyalty to Renée, his creator.
His breathing and pulse are currently normal, he eats and drinks, and sleeps at night. There is nothing strange about his words or actions. At first glance, you wouldn’t notice that he has been replaced. However, the current Duke will act as a faithful servant of Renée, the caster. Priests and magicians can sometimes see through Revenants, but such personnel were sent away from the castle by the Duke’s orders before they could realize that the Duke had become undead. The drawback is that it doesn’t last long, either physically or mentally, and gradually deteriorates, becoming just a ‘fresh zombie’ in a few days. It’s a lot of trouble to maintain it. But in this case, a few days’ grace was enough.
Incidentally, Renée, who currently has the same appearance as she did when she was alive, is actually in a state of disguise as a Revenant. Renée’s body and intelligence do not deteriorate. In terms of abilities, it’s a ‘lower-compatible form that removes the magic power enhancement from the Lich form’, but the headless Dullahan and the skeleton-faced Lich were still forms that she, as a girl, wanted to avoid.
After that battle, Renée first carried the corpses of the Night Python members and Brian to the edge of the Duke’s territory, where she created an elite undead unit and had them attack the village. And then she had them head southwest. The purpose was twofold. First, to use the powerful undead as a decoy to draw strong adventurers and the elite of the knight order away from the royal capital. And second, to create a pretext for the Duke to gather soldiers.
Renée ordered the Revenant Duke to gather his subordinate knights and elite peasant soldiers. And they were killed here and became Renée’s forces as undead without exception.
“Alastor.”
“Yes.”
“I will lend you my loyal knight order. Lead them and turn Wesala into a city of death. Kill the adult men, leaving their original form as much as possible, and pile them up in the square. Only the strong-looking women. I will turn them into soldiers. Gather girls around my age alive as much as possible. Capture those who can use magic alive as much as possible. We can’t make them into Liches without their souls. Loot any weapons or items that can be used in battle and have the soldiers carry them. …With this, I will raise the signal fire of my counterattack.”
“As you wish, Princess.”
The remains of the man who once ruled this land bowed respectfully.