( i could understand now , why I was having this feeling of importance . this technique was too terrifying . )
( i had been at it for two complete days and nights . i have been gathering mana like crazy for these two days. to be honest , this was not my first time cultivating . i had cultivated and managed to reach a pretty high level myself . it was the fifth stage sixth rank . naturally that high level had no meaning if you didn't have the combat power to back it up. I lost everything I had to a man who had not even reached half of my stage , that was what drove me to make the deal . leave it be , these are not matters that need to be discussed now .)
( increasing your level meant two main factors , one was increasing your control over mana and the second was storing mana. due to my previous cultivation , the control aspect was very easy for me. but I still had to store mana in my body . )
(most of my time was wasted in me filling up my body with Mana . I kept on getting a feeling that this breakthrough was both important and necessary . I felt that if my breakthrough into the first layer had the lightest flaw I would lose out on something important .
(.I could not tell you how right I was . anyways , the reason I called this art terrifying was only due to a single technique that I comprehended when breaking through . if my breakthrough had any quicker I would have lost this precious technique . this was a breakthrough technique which had the title of 'seven sin undead '. while the name or the technique was lame ,it effects were terrifying . the technique allowed the creation of seven undead each linked to my soul . and I could use some pretty sick abilities through these undead such as
1. i could share my senses with them , sound sight, smell and even taste could be shared .
2. they would have their own innate abilities , which was terrifying regardless of what it was .
3. the undead were pretty smart themselves , they could command my troops for me .
while this technique might seem lame to some people let me just tell you that in the emotion gathering death magic , creating intelligent undead was impossible . because they were not living beings . you could create undead like robots , they would do what you command them but you had set something similar to a programme to make it work . undead which could make their own decisions were impossible in our method atleast and though the other method could create these intelligent undead , those were more like us where we couldn't be completely sure of their loyalty . this was literally something that was not possible . )
(the technique had seven layers and entry into each layer would allow me to create one sin undead . i was in the first layer now so I could create one undead right now , but decide to leave it for now. nobody is dumb enough to expose their Trump cards before they are even created .)
( since I had completed my goal , I left the seclusion to meet jack who was busy meditating which I knew was a sign that he was giving mental commands to my undead . )
me - jack , i have managed to break into the first layer . how are your cultivation levels.
jack - ( opening his eyes and getting up .)so you finally ended coming out, young man . i will soon breakthrough into the first layer like you. but our techniques are not like yours , where you use your mind to control mana . we must use our bodies to control mana.
me - leave it , how are the defenses coming up .
jack - pretty nicely to be honest , but we don't have enough time to set up a solid defenses . even those that we have set up might or might not stop the enemy for a few hours . it is hard to tell their power unless we actually faced them .leave that problem to me . I will figure their power using any way , you have some work to do . the bodies of fifty archers , you need to raise them .
me - can you at least let me rest for a few moments before we start with all of this .
you don't know how repetitive this spells tend to become. oh. .. wait a second , I do have that spell no
(the spell I was talking of was a pretty rare spell known as 'undead invitation ' . it effects were simple . it could be used to extend an invitation into the underworld to the souls of the recently dead , whose body had not become completely decayed . the important thing was that it was a area if affect spell . at least I would decrease the number of undead I had to create . we would also get the benefit of getting Intel about our enemy .)
me - jack , take me to where the bodies are . I will convert them right now .
jack - sure .
( soon we we're in front of a pile of dead bodies . the bodies had already begun rotting and were pretty stinky. I had no problem with the smell but I knew that jack found it uncomfortable.)
me - jack , I need these bodies to arranged in a manner that they are not touching each other .
jack - I am not one of your undead , young man that I will do whatever you wish . you can tell your undead to do it yourself
( this was a problem with all necromancers , after commanding undead of near human intelligence for such a long time , there were times when we accidentally commanded those who had their free will too . it was a problem all necromancers had though they did not admit to it . but what worried me was the for some reason my ability to command jack was becoming weaker . originally , whatever I commanded home to do , they did so just like an undead of mine . but situations like these were getting more frequent . it seems that my ability to command them was getting weaker . at least they could not still kill me , otherwise they would have done so already . either I had to earn their trust or take care of them before they become a threatened to me . maybe this was the trick of the devil to keep us separated and divided .)
( any ways I command my undead to clean up the mess that was in front of me .)
( after a while , all the bodies were in a manner that not one body touched the other within a certain radius of mine . this meant that I could prepare my spell now . )
me - (chanting) under my command , oh divine death extend these invitation to the dead that lay around me .
( a black smoke filled my hands which seemed to move like a snake creeping towards the mouth of the bodies . as the smoke entered the mouth , the bodies began to glow in a black light . )
(the bodies seemed to suddenly begin to decay much faster then before , as their flesh turned into bone , the black glow became more intense as the flesh collapse and the bone could be seen . )
( presently the spell was consuming the flesh of the dead to summon their spirits from the underworld . i didn't understand the exact mechanisms behind it, but that was the life of a mage ,until you broke through atleast the seventh stage there was no point in even trying to comprehend how such kind of summoning spells work . they were a complex pieces of magic . normal spells like death bolt , all were simple spell for which I have already discovered the theory behind . you could do so at the third stage )
jack - by the way , young man . we have a serious problem . i have managed to find our enemies base .
me - give me all the information you got on them . everything , don't even miss the lightest information .
jack - the enemy camp is roughly twenty one kilometers away . they have roughly two squads of archers , four squads of shieldmen and the same number of spear men.
me - anything else . the weapons they had , their behaviour .
jack - their weapons were very high quality , which means that a pretty powerful force is behind this army . luckily it seems that the overall cohesion of this army is weak , from what I saw the amount of punishment were more than normal . so that must mean that there must be some form of friction between the general and his army . but I am not so sure as I have to to spy on them from very far away . their general seems particularly sensitive to my gaze . I was almost caught twice .)
me - you are we should not assume such stuff so easily . there is a possibility that we could be wrong . anyways we have the best source of information or we will soon have ( pointing at the glowing corpses. ). if even one of them rises up , we will have a personal source of information . it will be your duty to interrogate them as you can tell wether they are lying or not .
jack - then what if nobody rises .
me - that means that your assumption was wrong and that the general inspires a ridiculous amount of loyalty in his people.
after all not many people could resist the opportunity for rebirth .
jack - anyways I completely forgot about it but I have been sending out the sting wolves to hunt for the last two days . if my counting is correct we have around two fifty corpses right here , stored .
me - okay , but I need some time and a lot of privacy to succeed . by the way we need reinforcements. if I remember correctly we should still have one giant wolf left if I remember . take it and talk to your brothers and convince them to lend some troops . if not return with your troops .
( why did I have to choose being a death mage . I had just felt happy that I had escaped a big job now I had a bigger job thrust on me. maybe I should have just become a fire mage when I had the opportunity. at least I would not have to suffer this torture . )
jack- okay, but I need time and a actual plan if we are to convince my brothers and also take care of our enemies at present . i will leave at dawn tomorrow . i will be making preparations for it so I won't disturb you for now . you have that summoning spell no use it . then use that big brain of yours to figure out a plan.
(saying this he left immediately before I could even answer him . right now I have a ridiculous amount of work . 'death invitation was a spell that summoned the soul if the dead . if we're to use the spell on beasts then these dumb animals would show a flight it fight response. i didn't even have a beast tamer with me so that spell could not be used . i had to to do it the hardest way , to manually summon each of these undead . )
( after a while . )
me - so why are they hiding it .
( i have not randomly blurted this out but it slipped out as I was in deep thought .
i was considering the matter of jack . jack was definitely not what he was claiming to be . if you pick up facts from the beginning . jack could handle commanding pretty easily , you could see it from how he controlled the undead i lent him against the archers. he was pretty skilled in using them . i could tell he was trying to hide it , but I was good at picking intormation from people who didn't want to give them . anyways I saw no reason that they needed to do so . i mean right now everything might seem well and peaceful . but the truth was that there were forces in this world that could destroy us just by looking at us . it was our luck and the power of the altar which were keeping us safe . in this type of environment people tend to give it their all because to not do so meant that they would die. this meant the secret they were keeping from me was more important then their life or keeping the secret was the only way to keep themselves alive. bother we're not good for me . )
( another thing also worried me . i was supposed to command them , but spending the last few days with jack . i knew that my commands had no effect . jack followed every major order i have him , but the small ones like the order i had given him just before he didn't follow.now I don't know if they have a way to resist the power of the devil that gave me the ability to command them or not . maybe I was being overattentive and nothing bad would happen. )
( anyways , that was a matter for later . we had another problem right now . we were not only facing a massive problem , we also could not trust each other to fight at our full force . )
( BY THE NEXT DAY )
jack - what happen to you kiddo
(this was the first thing I heard . after starting my work on the corpses and thinking about how to deal with our enemies , i entered so deep into thought that I lost all sensations of my surroundings . it was called a trance and it happen in soul possessed undead . in a soul possessed undead , the body was a anchor and it did nothing else . the senses of such beings were a byproduct of the soul rather than body . so if you were to keep your soul busy like mine , dual tasking in making undead and thinking strategy the soul tended to shut down our senses to prevent the soul from taking too much strain . )
me - sorry , what are you doing here . i thought you would left by now . it is almost afternoon. .
jack -i been standing trying to get you wake up for almost a couple of hours now . what happen to you . I was seriously considering attacking you to get you out of the trance. you really dare to enter a trance in this place .
me - sorry , it happen by mistake .anyways you should have left already , why did you even wait . we need those reinforcements .
jack - that's why I waited , where is the plan that you promised me.
me - can't help you with that , it's just that our enemy has too much fire power we can't fight the head on especially the archers me . of I am right our surroundings does not even have the necessary being to handle those archers . we can easily handle the other troops bit if they are being supported by archers , i don't really know .they will be ready for my death bolt this . that's why they have yet to attack .)
jack - then leave it. , I will try to convince my brothers . they might just be convinced if I am lucky .