After Lindley and I locked up the lab, informing the others that we had imprisoned Miranda and Mikhail in there and that it was too dangerous to open it, I took the chance to rest. I had expended quite a lot of mana and mental energy, and I needed to sleep for a long while in order to recover my strength.
While I rested, Stella took charge of cleaning up the garrison. Under her instructions, Lindley sent his army of undead to scrub the place clean and pile the corpses together into the disposal chamber. Leaving them where they were would only encourage the spread of disease, and none of us wanted that to happen.
Having Lindley with us was so convenient. Thanks to his legion of undead, we were able to clean a place as large as the garrison in a matter of hours. Once we had gathered the bodies and piled them up in the disposal chamber, we left it to Chris to incinerate them with a gigantic fire spell. By torching them and reducing them to ash, we ensured that diseases wouldn't spread.
Once that was done, I requested that Lindley release his hold over the undead, to allow their souls to pass on and rest in peace. He agreed amicably, though I suspected it was more because he was aware of how troublesome it was to transport an army of the undead across the human kingdom of Havan than because of any sort of altruism on his part.
Lindley had his undead march into the disposal chamber on their own accord, then when all of them were gathered, he dispelled his reanimation spell. Like puppets whose strings were abruptly cut, they all collapsed in unison.
Chris then ignited a spark in the disposal chamber once more, cremating the corpses and ensuring nothing was left of them but ash.
"Thank you," he told Lindley. Wilson, Rose and Lance bowed as well, expressing their appreciation. The lich lord merely inclined his head, but maintained his blank expression.
"My duty is to my lord," he replied. After the four mages returned to their bunks, which had been cleaned and laundered by the undead, Lindley paid me a visit in my room, along with Stella.
I was still groggy from only having recently woken up after a short nap, and stared at him, bleary eyed.
"What's up?"
"With this, our deal is sealed. You have given me what you've promised. In exchange, I shall pledge my loyalty and the service of my legion to you. We will recognize you as the new Demonic Emperor."
Lindley bowed his head, swearing fealty to me. I cocked my head slightly to acknowledge his vow.
"Thanks. I'll be relying on you in future then."
"The gratitude is mine." Lindley was sincerely smiling now as he retrieved a tome from his robes. "This grimoire on alchemy and homunculus will prove vital to my own research. While most of the data research here have proven worthless, I have at least gleaned useful insights from the abhorrent experiments taken place here. Not to mention…the research on cursed weapons."
As it turned out, Lindley was more fascinated by the Chains of Void than he was by Miranda's chimeric surgeries. He was impressed by how she replicated the effects of the Blood Spear of Longinus in just a few short months.
"Alas, she had to waste her genius on such twisted pursuits. Otherwise we would have worked well together."
"I guess," I responded, though inwardly I was uncomfortable at the idea. Two mad geniuses working together on insane magical research…that would certainly put the world in danger. I had best kept a close eye on Lindley's magical pursuits. Letting him run free would prove to be disastrous. I didn't want another Miranda to emerge in the Demonic Empire.
"This is great," Stella said after Lindley left. "Now you have two legions under your command. With the legion of undead and General Winters' legion, you should be able to turn the tide against the vampires."
"Yeah." I nodded and sighed. "I can only hope the cost won't be too high. I hate civil wars. In some ways they are worse than conventional warfare…and the civilians are always the ones who suffer the most."
"That's why you're going to change everything, right?" Stella gave me an encouraging smile. "You are going to put a stop to all this bloodshed and petty bickering, and unite them under a single banner."
"Will things be more peaceful that way?" I asked skeptically. Stella shrugged.
"Who knows? But one thing is for sure. We cannot allow things to remain as they are. Decisive action is necessary." She narrowed her eyes. "Otherwise we'll surely regret it later. We'll begin wondering if things might have been different if we had acted and rue over what could have been."
"You are right."
Lying back down on my assigned bed, I closed my eyes and rested once more.
Not long after that, I was approached by Chris and the others. The four mages had several questions of their own.
"What do you plan to do from now on?" Chris asked.
"Return home," I replied. Well, that was technically not a lie. The vampire province of Tyranvania was my new home. I didn't have any other place to return to. Then again, I probably had another home here. "I'm going back north."
"North?" Wilson raised an eyebrow. "Are you going to participate in the war against the demons?"
"Not exactly." I wasn't sure how much I could tell them. I didn't know how they would react if I were to tell them that I intended to return to Bravia, pick up a good amount of Sylvia's legion, and return to Tyranvania. They would probably receive the shock of their lives if they learned that I was the new Demonic Emperor.
"You should be careful," Rose warned, ever the concerned one. "There has been plenty of fighting along the northern borders. The demons are pretty active lately. They have calmed down somewhat after invading Bravia and taking it away from us, but there continues to be skirmish along the other borders."
"There are talks in the capital about a plan to retake Bravia," Lance added. He shrugged. "It didn't go very well the last time, though."
"The regiments they sent there were decimated," Chris agreed. "It'll be a while before we try taking back Bravia again."
They clearly didn't give up on the hopes of retaking their territory, huh? I grimaced and decided to move the conversation in a different direction.
"What do you guys plan to do after resting here? Do you plan to stay here after Stella, Lindley and I leave?"
"Good question." Wilson paused for a moment. "When are you leaving?"
"Probably after tomorrow," I replied. "What about you guys?"
"I don't know." Lance glanced at the others. "The four of us aren't enough to man an entire garrison on our own."
"We'll also have to report this whole fracas to the royal family and government." Rose sighed. "We've collected enough evidence to testify against the multi-mage Miranda and her corrupted subordinates."
Although Chris had demanded for the destruction of Miranda's research data and notes, in the end the others had pointed out that they needed a few of them to provide evidence to the court regarding her corruption and atrocities. They had also recorded other surgeries as proof to bring back to the capital.
"So you'll be returning to Royales?"
"That's right." Chris nodded. "The royal family needs to know what happened here."
"Good. I'll leave that to you then."
With that settled, we all decided to leave together before tomorrow.
As for tomorrow, when the day finally came, Lindley and I finally broke the seal on the lab doors and stepped inside. There, the fused body of Miranda and Mikhail hung, suspended by my blood chains and stakes. They raised their heads wearily, staring at me.
"They're dying," Lindley said unnecessarily. I could tell. With my vampire senses, I could see their lives draining away from them at an alarming rate. They had minutes at most.
"Just end this…already…" Miranda moaned pitifully. I felt nothing but contempt for her. After ruining and taking the lives of countless innocent villagers and turning them into monsters, she still felt no remorse.
On the other hand, Mikhail continued to be in ecstatic blankness, practically drooling as he mumbled to himself about how happy he was. Miranda must have given up talking to him for she continued to pointedly ignore him despite the deranged stalker whispering sweet things into her ear. Quite literally, I might add. She continued to stare at me.
"Please…haven't you punished me enough already? Fine, you can take my life too."
My lip curled and I shook my head scornfully. Miranda whimpered pathetically.
"Why…why didn't you just…kill me?"
"You don't fear death," I replied coldly. "You welcome it. Your punishment must be more severe."
"Torture." Miranda hung her head.
"Yes. But not of your body. Of your soul."
"What do you mean?"
"You'll learn the truth of despair. Earlier, you asked me to end this already, right? To take your life? You'll find out that…death is not the end, but only just the beginning."
Both Miranda and Mikhail stared at me, not comprehending. That was fine.
"Just…just kill us," Miranda gasped, not caring. She probably didn't believe me. After all, to her genius but demented mind, what could be worse than death? Oh, right…a continued existence in such a hideous form.
"Fine," I replied and raised my hand. "I did promise to give my permission for you to die. And I'm a man of my word."
Two gigantic blood stakes speared the chest of the abomination, obliterating their hearts. When I fused their bodies together, I had somehow melded their circulatory system and had both their hearts continue to pump blood throughout their bodies. So to kill them for certain, I had to destroy both of their hearts, otherwise sparing one would allow it to continue to do the work of both. Albeit it would shorten their already short lifespan further, being overburdened, but as I said, I was a man of my word. If I promised to kill them, I would kill them.
However, I didn't promise to let them die peacefully.
"Lindley," I said, nodding toward him. Then I grinned. "Your necromancy allows for the targets to retain their consciousness?"
"That's right," Lindley admitted. "Depending on the spell, there will be ranges of consciousness. The lowest level would be a vague consciousness, and the highest level would be complete lucidity. However, no matter what level of consciousness the reanimated undead retain, they will not be able to control their bodies. They are completely slaved to the lich or necromancer's control, prisoners in their own minds. Unable to control their bodies, unable to suppress the unending hunger, and unable to defy the commands of their summoner. Usually, we don't bother with the highest level because their sanity would snap after a while."
"That's fine. Please do it for the both of them. Especially Miranda."
"Understood." Lindley shrugged. "If need be, I can easily extract information straight from her brain, and it's easier to do so if she is more conscious. I hope she doesn't go insane too soon."
"Oh, but she's already insane," I pointed out with an equally demented grin. "So you don't have to worry about that."
Lindley looked skeptical, which was quite a feat when considering that he still had trouble displaying emotions on his human disguise face.
"Well, here goes nothing." He took a deep breath and began weaving a complex necromancy spell. I watched as the dark magic went to work and reanimated the slumped corpse. By now, I had retracted the blood chains and stakes, allowing the abomination to topple over in an undignified heap.
After a few minutes, Lindley revived it as a zombie. Miranda and Mikhail rose up in their fused body, staring blankly at us through cataract eyes.
No, not blankly. If I looked deeper, I could see agony and despair deep within those eyes. And fear, hatred, anger and resentment. Looked like Lindley did preserve their lucid consciousness and allowed them to experience the full horror of realizing that they had become undead.
Yet they were unable to express that horror, fury or resentment. The dark necromancy that Lindley wrought about had bound them to his will for eternity, until they died in combat.
"They'll make for powerful shock troops, don't you think?" I asked Lindley. He shrugged.
"Given the rate their body will break apart, I'm not sure about that. Yes, they might possess tremendous strength, but they'll last much shorter than regular zombies. Why do you think I hate this sort of chimeric surgeries?"
"That's fine," I assured him. "Use them until they break apart then. Until then, they will continue to suffer."
I turned to them with a wide grin. Miranda and Mikhail couldn't even quail or tremble in fear and anger. They couldn't even scowl, howl, scream or glower at me. Their fused body would only do whatever Lindley wanted them to do.
"I told you, didn't I?" I sneered. "Death is just the beginning. After all the atrocities the both of you committed, don't think I'll be letting you off so easily."
Laughing like the archetypical villain, I then went off to do my final preparations.
First, I found a coffin to trap the Miranda and Mikhail zombie. Lindley ordered them into the coffin, and I cast an ice spell on them. Ironically enough, as per Miranda's request, I was placing them in stasis so as to prolong their un-life and current condition for as long as possible. It wouldn't do if they fell apart before Lindley could use them in actual battle.
Then I locked the frozen coffin up and dragged it along on wheels. Once I had emptied the lab, I had Chris torch it. Burn everything down. The four mages collected whatever additional evidence they thought they needed to supplement their current archives, and then they destroyed the lab. I didn't want them to clean it up, and they agreed.
We all desired to erase all trace of Miranda's horrific experiments from the world. Well, not all (because we needed some for evidence), but we didn't want anyone making use of her lab and the tools within it ever again. With the exception of some, of course (I took possession of the Chains of Void, since that seemed like it would be super useful).
"Good riddance," Chris remarked after incinerating everything in the lab. He took on last look at the scorched walls and floor, then shuddered. "This will haunt me forever."
Rose nodded as she held Wilson's hand tightly. He put an arm around her shoulders and drew her closer.
"I hope all those who suffered here will find some form of peace," he said.
"They will." I turned to regard them gravely. "Now it's up to you four to tell the whole kingdom of what transpired here. All of Havan must know. Do not let these guys get away with this."
"Yeah, we will," Lance vowed.
"Good. Then let's go."
Turning around, I left the smoking remains of the lab behind and led the others toward the exit of the now deserted garrison.