The days passed quickly as the day of our departure arrived. Two weeks for a complete restoration of the town with all its knick knacks and charm. The bricks and cobblestones were neatly replaced or reused. Even the broken wood had been turned to mulch and buried by the trees to help as fertilizer.
I found out this places name. Meeresbaum. The Sea Tree in elvish. Though I guess elvish and German are incredibly similar. As elvish reminded me in many ways of the German I had to learn when I went on trips with my father.
Quite aptly named as it was a mighty tree city that grew on the sea side. It was supposed to be a beautiful, thriving, and song filled city. A place of commerce to welcome the weary travellers.
But due to a horror of the world finding this place. It was reduced to rubble and ash. The wood rotting and the dead restless.
Though the dead are working hard to get what they deserve. The peace and rest they had been denied by the one who summoned them. I was greatly saddened and angered at the same time.
The dead should remain so. The course of life may be prolonged but should not be denied entirely. And some necromantic madman had blatantly done so. So on our last night I called some of the dead together to find out what all had truly happened.
We met in the mayor's old office. It was on the town halls top floor with an open window showing the beautiful night sea. The moon reflecting off of the crashing waves as they were hushed against the shore.
Though the scene through the window did little for the discussion which we were about to have.
When we arrived I had spoken to Hector about why things were... different. And his answer was good but not complete. A mysterious stranger or merchant of sorts unleashed a power or spell of some kind. But before I could hear the rest I was interrupted by the crew and passengers on the ship. So now I brought together the heads of the different parts of the city. The mayor, the local adventurers guild master, and a fisherman who really held no position but the others said he was like their leader at the docks. And of course we had the captain of the guards. Hector.
"We were an honest and hardworking community. The passing sailors giving us much of what we need for commerce and growth. But we have grown soft so we didn't notice the threat till it was upon us." Said a ragged corpse. It's body covered in bite marks and its face nothing but a skull. It's clothes were the ragged remains of a noble attire. Obviously the mayor.
"That merchant claimed to have come from Belmac in search of something rare and valuable. Said it was gonna make him famous he did." A sailors corpse spoke. His body was a skeleton filled with greenish flame that had long since burned away his clothes. All except his hat that is.
"Though we all felt he was... different. We didn't see him act till it was too late. He unleashed a strange dark flame filled with screaming souls upon us. It chewed at our bones and feasted on our flesh till we were left hollow corpses." Hector said from my right. His voice a deep croak as expected.
A woman spoke up next. Her body was a living dress with silver lining throughout it. A mages robes laying on her spectral shoulders. Her body was see through but it was obvious that she had been a looker when she was alive. Her hair was down to her waist and her body was curved in just the right places. This was the guild master.
"What he unleashed forced our souls out of our bodies to feed on our fear before he shoved us back into our corpses. He said he wanted to leave us as a welcome present for anyone that followed. So he ordered us to bury ourselves and hide till someone arrived. That was three weeks ago." She said. Her voice hollow and echoing throughout the room.
I knitted my fingers together as I rested my head on top of them in thought. ( Her statement is similar to what happened in Hargo's village. So this psychopath is still out there doing the same thing to other places. Taking the lives of the innocent and toying with them for his own pleasure.) I thought as a growl escaped my throat.
The undead close to me retreated as the bracelet with the soul scroll began to eminate an eerie aura as my temper rose. The energy the dead emit may chill the air or drive away the living. But this aura devoured and shifted. Transformed the very energy it touched into different spectral elements as it passed.
"We must find this criminal. This... Murderer, Psychopath, Fiend. Where did he say he was going next?" I growled.
I know my time being scorched by soul fire has tempered my soul. It made me understand that rage has little intent, reason, and direction. But when it is given those things it becomes something more. A Targeted Conviction.
And now I had plenty of it.
This creature needed to be put down. He was disrupting an already tense balance. And now he was seeking to completely break it at the cost of so many.
Hector stepped forward. "He mentioned a town called Hoffen. It's a small place but it would be a good place to hide after a catastrophe such as this." He said as he laid out a map on the table. It was incredibly detailed from every small patch of forest to the distance everything covered and how far each place was from each other.
"Hoffen is here my liege." He said as he pointed to a small colony to the south east of this place. And as he said the map showed a small place without much indication on the map. It was more like a hamlet compared to Meeresbaum. But I didn't really question it and nodded silently mapping out how to get to Hoffen in my head.
/You have acquired the mapping skill (Novice) Now loading map of Melra... Loading complete./
I raised an eyebrow as the map seemed easier to read and understand than before. The terrain and distance much more noticeable.
I nodded before looking at them all. "How come the repairs on the city?"
Hector saluted with a fist over where his heart should be. "We will be finished by sunrise my lord." His voice croaked through the room.
I stood up and they all bowed low to the ground.
"Then I will release you all at daybreak. I will uphold my promises as I've stated. So if you have anything left for grievances, regrets, and perhaps a will. You should deal with it before then." I said as I walked to the door.
"Oh and one more thing." I said turning about to face them.
"I won't allow a single soul to remain in this village so perhaps telling everyone would be the best option. I don't want to deal with anybody who screams out protests at the end. Makes people uncomfortable." I said with a grimace.
Hector and the others seemed to visibly sweat. (If that was possible for the undead.) "Of course your Lordship. Hector responded.
The Next Morning...
I woke to the smell of burning. Not the smell of wood but of meat and bones. The smell of bodies burning. My eyes shot open as I ran to the window to see what was happening. And what I saw shocked me.
A bonfire had been started and undead were slowly walking into it with whatever they held most dear. Books, toys, explicit books in some cases. But most were seemingly just waltzing right in without any order or direction.
I ran downstairs and flung open the door.
Hector and the others I had met yesterday turned to greet me and my confused gaze.
"What in blue blazes are you all doing?" I asked them.
It was the mayor who spoke up first.
"We as undead townsfolk have been denied a burial. And without any living loved ones, kin, or otherwise to mourn us in this place we have come together to hold our own mass funeral of sorts. Kinda poetic really." He said. His rotting form turning to gaze lifelessly at the parade of undead feeding themselves to the hungry flames.
Hector's helmet nodded as the mage woman turned with him. She was seemingly grappling his arm like a wife or lover would in their time of need. Their fingers intertwined nice and comfortably.
I couldn't help but grin a little at them though.
But what made me laugh was the sailor. He was downing as much strong alcohol as possible from the city stores. Even the expensive stuff.
"And what are you doing?"I asked trying to hold in my laughter as I knew the dead couldn't get drunk.
He turned his head to me. "Though I don't taste, smell, or even feel I want to go to the afterlife knowing I had some of the best this world has got to offer. And when I go this will be turning into a cloud for the heavens to drink with me." He chortled.
I stifled a laugh again as he returned to what he was doing before returning my gaze to the morbid parade. It's paired up participants burning into a glorious flame. The flames feeding an enormous smoke pillar fanning out through the trees leaf covered branches.
Two by two they went till only the four I had met remained.
They all turned to me in unison before bowing. "We owe you our thanks for this almighty one."
Hector stood up straight before approaching me. "Millie and I have a few things left in the guild house. You'll find them in her office. If you can use them take them. But if you can't just sell them. We can't use them anyways." He said.
"Millie" came forward and grasped his hand again before striding with him into the awaiting flames. Hector's armor heated to a red color before falling alongside the ashes of his loves mage robes and dress.
The Mayor only gave me a curt nod before hobbling into the ash pile to burn.
And that damned sailor looked at me. His bones soaked in the world's finest and most potent alcohol. Before jumping into the flames which exploded his body into fireworks from the alcohol. His laughter echoing throughout the city.
The sparks flames, mist and smoke twined through the air with the smell of burning alcohol and bones. The ashes dancing in the wind.
I couldn't help but shake my head as I stepped up to the flames. The living people staring in shock as I entered. The clothes upon me desintegrating in the heat to reveal my bare scales. The jewels and plating glinting and glowing amidst the heat as I raised my arms together towards the heavens.
"We come together! Not to damn the weary and the broken! Not to chastise the faithful and the wronged! But to set them free!" I said as I brought my arms down mightily. The action causing the flames to flare away from me.
The heat the fire was creating was matched by my body if not enhanced by it. The not yet fully ashen bodies desintegrated into nothingness at my feet as my power rose to the occasion. The multitude would stand witness.
And as the fire flared there arose glowing embers attaching themselves together around me like a robe. Till I was dressed in a flaming wardrobe. My entire body seeming to be nothing but flames. My holy relics appearing in my hands eminating power that coursed through me like none had ever truly witnessed.
"We have come to set things right! To set open the gates of the eternal! I shouted as I clasped my hands before me. Before slowly parting them to form a circle. The orbs of darkness and light orbiting my hands like the sun and moon.
" From Shadows which once lived, From darkness which knows light." I said.
The ground beneath the ashes began to glow with an etherial light that was lost amid the fire. But a beat was heard. Like the drumming of a living, beating heart.
"From Young to Old, bitter to sweet, rotten to clean."
The airs fetid smell of smoke and rot was replaced by the smell of spring as the light beneath me grew brighter matching and surpassing the flames.
"Pass ye through the doors of eternity and receive new light!" I shouted.
I spread my hands wide breaking the circle before clapping my hands together with force. The light beneath me exploding blindingly as the ashes were scattered to the winds. A cyclone sweeping them into the sky and out toward the sea. The flaming bonfire reduced to not but a few burning coals on the paved courtyard.
And me? I stood there as my garb began to fly away in its blazing glory. It's ashes flying on the wind to anywhere they could. Till I was left in my loincloth of gold. My body exposed to the rising suns light. I may say that I am nobody. A little god in the face of the greatest in the cosmos.
But to the people in that city in that moment. I was otherworldly.
I turned and the sun seemed to appear behind me. The power and light dancing off my scales as my relics shivered in happiness. In almost a sigh of relief.
To those people I appeared as a true god. With might and power beyond description. And there was not a soul that did not kneel to me.