A few years past since the lineage of Tusk was destroyed and a new force arose in the Demon Lands. This force, which opposed the war that was being planned by the Demon King, was composed of several powerful nobles that were afraid of the damage that would result from the war. It was an understandable reason but many were surprised to hear news of a resistance force. After all, Lambda was a place where might was placed above everything else, it was also because of this reason that revolts were rare. Although there may be differences in the strengths of each Demon King, all of them were beings that wielded power beyond the limit.
With such power, even if the resistance force held the numerical advantage they still wouldn't be sure of victory. However, there were rumours that the leader of the resistance force was a demon that had also surpassed the limit. According to one rumour, a noble had tried to abduct one of his concubines but not only was that noble killed, his entire territory had become barren land a day later. In another rumour, several members of the resistance force wanted to push him out of his position as leader and challenged him together, but despite being ganged up on, he still crushed them with overwhelming strength.
There were several other stories extolling his power, but many still remained sceptical. They didn't believe he was as strong as the rumours made him out to be, but kept an ear out for more news. Either way, there would be a grand battle taking place in the near future.
However, since that grand battle was still in the distance, Lia organized a private banquet for the members of the resistance force. The venue of this banquet was my castle and if I was to believe her, the banquet was supposed to boost morale and strengthen my status as leader.
To prep the venue, Lia's workers and my undead had to work tirelessly, but their efforts wouldn't be acknowledged publicly. I felt a little sorry that I had to make everyone hide in a small mansion close to the forest during events like this, but unfortunately showing the undead under my command could be taken as a connection or a provocation to the skeleton faction, and we couldn't make that mistake.
I had gotten used to acting like a high noble, but I still felt tired whenever I had to attend events like this. As I became increasingly annoyed by these events I considered making Jeanne come with me, but that would require giving her a formal name. A proper one that could be used in noble society. Unfortunately, months had past and I was still drawing a blank.
"Sir Elios, shouldn't you be greeting the guests?"
While I stood by a table with a glass of wine in hand, a devilish woman who could charm both men and women with a single glance approached. For the sake of our guests, she wore a puffy black dress like the kind you would see in fairy tales. Not that I would admit it, but I sometimes wished to see her dress more naturally, but as guests still fainted when they saw her current attire I knew that wouldn't be possible.
"I already greeted the important ones so I figured I would leave the rest to you. They don't look eager to approach me after all."
I tried to be reasonable but Lia refuted my claim, "How could they when you're releasing that loner aura?"
It sounded like an excuse to me but I knew where she was coming from. I knew that this was an important task, but being in the limelight didn't suit me.
"I know I've asked this before, but why didn't you become our leader? Your lineage, strength and popularity would make you a much better candidate than me."
"Like I said last time, that was my condition for working with you. Do you really wanna pry into a girl's secrets?"
After all this time, I wasn't fazed by her pouting face but I still backed off from this topic. I was curious about what prevented her from being the leader, but in the end this was only a business relationship.
I put down the glass and then held my hand out to her.
"You'll at least accompany me, right?"
With a seductive smile she took my hand, "Of course."
Now, I know this sounded like quite the romantic exchange, but I had practical reasons for having Lia come with me. In addition to her being great help in driving the conversation, her presence greatly reduced the chance of a noble 'introducing' their children to me.
I knew that some of them thought I was completely gay since I could keep my calm around Lia, but even demons like antmen somehow got it in their heads that I could see the beauty in a clean pair of manacles. I didn't want to be offensive, but my tastes were still leaning to the human variety. Well, I could admire the shiny scales of the reptile demons so maybe my race had started to affect me in that way as well.
With growing tension between our force and the Demon King's camp, it was only a matter of time before war was declared. This banquet was to build our morale and have fun together for one last time before the turmoil began. Due to the plan that we had set in motion, neither Lia nor I thought that there would actually be a war soon, but we had to act contrary to those thoughts.
We continued greeting guests and socialising until I personally talked to everyone. Thankfully, I only had to give a short speech to thank them for their attendence before becoming a wallflower and staying like that for the rest of the party.
It was a very busy period, but there was still something I considered as important as our rebellion activities. After the banquet was over and I sent Lia home, I took a trip to the lowest floor of the basement.
On this floor was a room barely five metres wide, but it was enough to hold the ice coffin with Ryan's body and a magic circle to maintain it. I wasn't sure what effect staying in my ring would have on it, so I left it here and added a magic circle at the door that would transfer the coffin if anyone besides me entered.
As I looked at his pale skin, I recalled our battle, my promise and my objective.
It originally started as a silly thought I had after learning how to create familiars, but once I unlocked Soul Magic I started seriously considering it. I still doubted it's chances of success, but that changed as my proficiency in Soul Magic grew and I got the soul of that death knight.
I fused the souls of the death knight and the lich, Farrow, and was able to create it.
Name: (****) Al-mana
Race: Pseudo-Superior Spirit - Dark
Alma wasn't a perfect spirit but in due time he would wield the same power. Once I met the wind spirit king, I thought about making it my next goal, but there was something I had to try before that.
"Ryan, like I promised I'll free you from that undead body and give you power you couldn't imagine. In exchange, I just need you to be patient."
I was still at level 7 in Soul Magic, but I was more knowledgeable about his soul as well as the curse that bound him. Once Ein came back, I would be able to commence the next step in my project. I would artificially create a heroic spirit.