"Yes, everything," Emily spoke bluntly.
"Did you even try to hold back???" The Queen shook her head.
"I did my best, and this is what it got us. Honestly, when I first talked to him about this, he outright rejected me." Emily spoke of her first conversation with Jack.
"Rejected you!?" It never occurred to her Queen-Mother that her princess-daughter would be rejected.
"Yes. He was unfazed." Emily spoke with a slight bitterness hidden in her tone.
"I see? So what made him decided to take you as his Consort?" The Queen asked. She was very curious about this matter now.
"Because he felt like it, I suppose." Emily shrugged as if her mother could see her.
"Really? He wasn't swayed by any of our gifts, but just... On the spur of the moment said, 'Oh hey, be my consort...'?"
"Uh... Pretty much, in front of all his trust people no less. In front of his first consort, even." Emily added.
"Well of course. If his first consort means anything to him, he's already talked this over with her. Interesting. In that case, if he wasn't swayed, why is he asking for your dowry now?" The Queen assumed that Emily called her because The Holy Witch King wanted their offerings now.
[He didn't tell me to get anything from you, but I will... I will fight for him.] Emily was spurred on by Leslie. Even though Leslie was a zombie undead, she felt close to her. This didn't mean Emily wasn't prejudice to other zombie undead, she simply treated Leslie different now.
"Because he feels that way, I decided to not question him." Emily simply replied.
The Queen released a snorting sound, that Emily heard.
"Is Neolith not going to show that it really means what it is offering, or do I tell my husband that Neolith is only talk." Emily continued.
"Husband? You haven't married him, yet..." The Queen felt slightly funny by her daughter already addressing the King as such... Not that she didn't want her too, but she shouldn't be that loose with her words, as she had more work to do if she wanted to become Queen of Deagoth.
"I'm marrying him, so it's going to happen. Royal-Mother... I can't help, but feel you keep dodging my question." Emily pressed.
"Well... There is hope, after all, my Spiderling. I will concede half of the dowry now, and the other half later. I will let you decided on what you wish for me to send. Does that sound sincere enough?" The Queen spoke with a happy tone. It was almost like she wanted her daughter to do this.
"Very. Let me think then..." Emily replied as she descended into thought.
[Jack had a bad feeling... What bad feeling? Something is going to happen, right? Then... We need to fight... Fight for him? Power? Personal or Kingdom? Well, the Kingdom is him and he is the Kingdom, right...? Well, Royal-Mother isn't giving up the piece of the "Lich's Dream" that easily, so that's out of the question... Let's go with the Kingdom.]
Emerging from her thoughts she spoke, "Send over a quarter of the Military forces, two legion of Zombie-Slaves, and enough food to feed them for ten years."
"...Spiderling... Do you even come from Neolith... Or did you board the Witch King's Pirate ship and have come back to rob us???" The Queen laughed. It was rare that the Queen of Neolith laughed in a natural way, and not putting on an act.
"Fine. I will do this, but only food for five years. Remember, We just put down the insurgency. I don't want to have to turn around, and ask for the food back."
"Alright. Five it is."
"Where do you wish for Us to deliver the dowry?"
"Send it here to the capital. I will organize it when it gets here."
"Alright. If that's all, I need to get back. Your Elder-Aunts want me to decimate the insurgence We caught so as to teach them a lesson. We don't want there to be a next time, so I am include to do so..." The Queen said thoughtfully.
"But if you decimate them, there won't be a next time..." Emily tilted her head in wonderment.
"Didn't your tutors teach you better? Decimate... To destroy a tenth. I'm going to make nine out of ten of the insurgence kill one of their own if they wish to remain among the unliving."
"Oh."
"Bye-Bye, for now, Spiderling. Make sure you call again... I'll try to make time for you, but don't forget what I told you. Be your man's little pet liar." As the Queen's voice faded away on this last line, the Gem Spider crawled to the edge of the web and stopped moving. It seemed to have gone to sleep.
"Well... That went better than I thought." Emily thought out loud. She had a terrible habit of talking to herself out loud while being by herself.
A certain banshee nodded in approval, as she left the room undetected.
*******
Jack had been in his library for about a month now, and he had gone over the Tome the Heretical Side of the Light many times. There were parts he didn't understand without reading and absorbing them many times.
He finally understood the part he was hoping to decipher for a while now, how to connect to the Light.
Jack sat in a chair at a large table. On the table, there were numerous tomes stacked on top each other, and many more still of odd items. The most abundant of all these items were tons and tons of Glow Stone. When Jack first came to this library, he didn't know that Glow Stones were the currency, but now on his return, he realized that he lived like a rich duck with a money bin.
[I think I can connect to the Light. If this tome is to be believed though, I need to build a type of node that will connect me to it, a type of antenna. Hmmmmm... I can't get the numbers right in my head to save my unlife...]
Jack had the basic idea down, but he wasn't an engineer, he was a programmer. This thing that he could only describe as an antenna would amplify a connection with the Light, and though this he could interface with it directly. In short... He could become a part of the Light.
[Well... If I can make the damn thing, this could be a short cut to being OP.] Jack shook his head, he had casually tossed the warning the Tome provided saying that only those that had achieved Ancestor rank should directly connect to the Light. Jack figured... No pain; no gain. What he needed was power... Power unequal, or he would just be choking on another noodle and waking up who knows where...
[Well, let's toss this to the side for now. Time to see if I can really make this spell.] Jack had, for the most part, figured out what he needed to for now with the Tome, and the antenna it described.
So, he began work. Scroll, after scroll, after scroll were written by Jack. He made more scrolls and used many regents, based on his readings. He was making a light construct that could think. This was his ultimate plan; his ultimate weapon.
*******
It had been two months since Jack started working on his new spell, and he now had a three-meter tall pile of scrolls. Each scroll in this pile was a component of his spell.
Jack's mindset changed many times these last two months. The following would describe Jack's decent, each with a progress nature of anger.
"Alright, it's the first week. Rome wasn't built in a day!" Jack would tell himself in the first week.
"Well, I got this. This is a big project after all, haha." The second week continued.
"I wish Leslie was here... I could take some breaks." The third week matched on.
"What does Ichor wine taste like anyway???" Jack lost focus on the fourth week.
"Fucking, I got this shit!!! WHOOOOO." Jack motivated himself in the fifth week.
"My life... fucking unlife sucks... I just want to bone babes..." Jack cried while working in the sixth week.
"You wanna be my Lover, La da da dee da da da da." Jack song the lyrics of a favorite song of his for a full week, during the seventh week, still hard at work.
"WHY IS THIS SO FUCKING HARD! AUUGHHHH!" This brought us to week eight, and Jack is rolling on the floor next to his hill of spell scrolls.
Jack got up after his fit, and began again, even if he was angry with the time this was taking, he had to continue. He had already been closed doors for three months... He felt that this was going to take a year, instead of six months as he wanted. He still had that antenna to work on...
Finally, another month had passed, and Jack completed his spell scrolls. Jack mine of completed, but he had successfully written ninety spell scrolls, with each scroll containing a whooping five hundred thousand spells! If any modern scholar in the underworld would come to know this, they would have taken Jack's bones and burned them and scattered the ashes in pure anger and spite.
It took undead, and most other creatures countless years to write and refine on spell let alone Jack who complained about writing forty-five million spells in two months. Granted each spell were smaller parts of the whole, even with him working around the clock, and acting a fool, this feat had never been accomplished by any other undead until Jack.
Jack had sat up a ritual to invoke all the spells at once. It took most of the Glow Stone he had to act as a catalyst. It was good that Lucius didn't see what he was about to do, as he was going to burn 1.3 million Glow Stone Cubiks on this ritual. This was the budget of a military operation for Deagoth.
Jack called out with his hands extended standing in front of the large formation of scrolls that lined the floor. He had pushed all the tables out of the way and formed this. [Well... I'm not getting any younger... Well, I don't age any more either.. Whatever] Jack started the ritual!
"I am who I am, and I am me! I set the course, and I make the call! I bend the will, and the will is mine! All my knowledge and all my power bend to my will, and form to my want! HIRDOHXP!!!"
The Glow Stones became bright, blindly bright. Jack couldn't see anything, as it completely whited out. Outside of the Library, all the Glow Stones of the Palace went dark, plunging the Holy Palace. This didn't stop here. It was like the Light of all the Glow Stones were being sucked dry, with the Holy Palace acting as the center. Glow Stone one by one went out. The Skull of the Sun God was dimmed for the Night, but it too... Went out.
Many undead in the City of Saigunrai were not use to the dark, as the came to depend on the Skull of the Sun god had met darkness again. Beyond Sairunrai, the Glow Stone Lights of the other Cities. This Blackout rolled until it met with Borda, Stonedge, Neolith, Jakahn, and even Dragon's Jaw. Glow stone, and even the luminescent webbing used in Neolith went dark.
It was as if a god had blown out the candle of Light that was the Ruined Continent. This darkness caused widespread panic.
In one such place, Jordan Lightborn was preaching to a mass gathering in the City of Nogore, closest to Saigunrai, and trade hub of the Kingdom of Deagoth. When the Lights went out, Jordan spoke out, "Fear not children of Deagoth!" He spoke to quail the fear of the people.
"The Light has gone out, but has not abandoned us! It heeds the call of the God-King! Our God-King of Light commands it, and so it is! If you wish for him to bring the Light back, kneel down and pray! Pray as I have taught you tonight! Pray to the God-King!" Jordan had wiped himself into a fanatic frenzy, as he fell to his knobby knees and began to pray aloud.
The Archbishop of Nogore, Archbishop Edward, wasn't receptive to the idea, but he too knelled down and prayed in earnest. Hearing the Archbishop praying, the other usual members of the congregation of Nogore knelled down and did the same.
This praying didn't just happen with Jordan Lightborn, the other Archbishops in the other cities did the same as if inspired by divine intervention. Lucius did the same in Saigunrai. They all did this, without speaking to each other, as if on the same wavelength.
After many, many undead did this the Lights... flickered, and came to life again. Light reign again throughout the continent. This blackout lasted seven minutes.
"The God-King has heard us! He has answered us! Pray to your God-King! We will never go without an answer!" Jordan had gotten back to his feet and worshiped. It was this day that marked the death of the Faith of Deagoth, and the birth of the Faith of the God-King!
[Holy crap! That was crazy! Did it work?!?!?!] Jack finally had his vision coming back, as the room started to darken back to its normal light levels. All the scrolls had turned black as pitch and smoldered as if burnt. The Glow Stones that were used to connected each scroll to the next were now normal looking rocks, gray in color.
"YES! YES! YES!" Jack exclaimed as he looked at the finished product that took shape in the center of the Ritual. It glowed with a golden hue and was Jack's most powerful weapon, that would never be surpassed by anything in this world for its use.
Jack stepped over the burnt scrolls and gray stones, to walk to the center. It picked up the object, and spoke, "I might just be a god in this world with this thing." Jack nodded to himself.