After hours upon days of relaxing, training, and experimenting, the deadline imposed upon us by the Guild Association finally came upon us.
In that time, all of the troops I'd captured over the last week had made the transition. Including Humphrey, who, despite his willingness, changed after the scorpion and small crab I'd captured only days ago. All but answering the mystery behind the spell.
Ed had made jet boards for Roheisa and Lucia shortly after we arrived and they'd been riding ever since. With Toril spending days training, only Jaimess seemed to be as bored as I was. When he wasn't cooking or swimming, he was found on deck. Reading through book after book with an implicit gaze while the sun bobbed up and down across the Plane.
That wasn't to say I was completely bored, however. I'd gained a great deal of insight into how my ancestors lived during their time and, more importantly, the state of the world back then.
All that was left to do was to meet the last ancestor accessible to me at this time, Henry Cole's mother. And while he never gave me a name, I had a strong inclination as to who she was. So I made my way to my Necro Throne and repeated the name in my head.
Within a few seconds of focusing, I felt my mana drain in a way that I never felt before. Almost as if a mass of death mana was taken from my core and used to summon… something.
I leaned forward to scan the infinite expanse before me, only for the soft pitter-pattering of flesh slapping against the stone to echo behind me.
"Greetings, fellow Sovereign of Death." A regal voice echoed just as a towering woman rounded my throne. She was just over two meters in height and, unlike my other forefathers, her skin was made of living flesh. Albeit in the same ashen-gray tone as the others. She wore a blouse and hood made entirely of feathers that shrouded her body and face in an all-too-familiar way.
So much so that I recognized it in an instant.
"I am Corvus of the Cole Clan's nineteenth generation." She bowed, paused for a long second, and then stood to reveal a fanged grin.
"It's my pleasure." I bowed in my seat. "I am Amun, of the Cole Clan's twenty-fifth generation."
"Your ears." She blankly blinked.
"My mother is a drow."
"A drow." She tapped a long nail under her smile. "I've had the pleasure of meeting a few. They were… tenacious. Intelligent. Powerful. I've never known them to breed with humans. Tell me." She leaned forward. "What was her status?"
"I was told she's royalty." I shrugged. "Her name is Eved."
"A royal by our standards." She shook her head, giggling knowingly. "Eved is a High Priestess. But enough of her, for what reason did you call for me, child?"
"I seek information," I stated simply. "Mostly about our Clan. About our history. Information about where we draw our power from and from what lands we originate. And." I pointed to her. "About you."
"I fear that information has been lost to time." Corvus sighed deeply. "Like you, I have communed with our ancestors in search of the truth. My limit was a member of the thirteenth generation, a man who went by the name of Nigel. Through him, I learned of the crusades launched against our people long ago. In his day, our clan was slaughtered and driven into hiding. The land they occupied would later become the Cole Crypt, and it would be where Nigel's descendants would live out their lives. Attempting to hide from the great nations, churches, and guilds that came to power and spread across Maru."
As horrible as it was to hear, I couldn't say I was surprised. It didn't matter how many numbers we had, even a handful of void, death, or shadow-wielding sorcerers had the power to terrorize an entire continent. Let alone dozens of them.
"Before my birth in the year 649." Corvus continued. "The nations that rose to power had migrated through the rifts. Giving my siblings and I more freedom than the likes of my parents. I was born to Rigel Cole, and my father was a vampire named Nostro from the City of Brass. Making me a Dhampir. I spent my 448 years researching the lost arts of our people in earnest."
"Necromancy?" I asked with a raised brow. To which she cackled wildly like the old hag she was.
"That's child's play." She waved her clawed hand. "One can't call themselves a practitioner of death if they cannot raise even a single undead. Why I used an entire army for landscaping alone. No." She shook her head and finger. "I'm speaking of becoming one with death itself. True Lichdom. And from what I understand. Our Everandus is the one who finalized my research."
"My great grandfather." I nodded.
"Seems the selfish, lazy bastard did something right at least!" Telman's voice echoed just before his ghostly form solidified before me. Followed in turn by Henry and Azrael.
"He never visits me either." Azrael attempted to console his grandfather. To little success.
"That must make you Evvy's boy!" The latter turned to Azrael with a wide grin. "Nice to meet you, Grandson."
"I wanted to meet them," Corvus whispered to me while they continued exchanging pleasantries.
"I didn't know you had so much control in here." I snorted in disbelief."
"This place is the same as my expanse." She giggled and pointed skyward to one of the many stars suspended in the sky. "Death is not the end for us, Amun."
"I see." I nodded.
"Nice to see you again, Grandma." Telman sheepishly bowed.
"Tel, Henry." She smiled at them both. "I trust you've been giving our young sovereign the knowledge of the dead?"
"Of course, mother." Henry bowed. "Amun has proven to be an outstanding company. He even agreed to find my ship!"
"Oh?" Corvus turned to me with an amused grin. "And what other promises have you made."
"I've expressed a shared interest with Azrael in capturing a dragon. Other than that." I shrugged. "I plan to find the Cole Crypt and explore the Mortal Plane in its entirety after I return to Maru."
"Quite the ambitions. But." Corvus grinned. Then gestured to the empty expanse behind her. "How do you plan to do that with no army? Souls will only get you so far, Amun."
"I have a few wraiths and poltergeists stationed elsewhere," I assured her with raised palms. "But, I'm waiting to encounter a suitable candidate for my first undead."
"A suitable candidate." She repeated slowly. "Such as?"
"At least something sentient." I shrugged. "As well as something powerful. Perhaps magical even."
"Like a unicorn?" Azrael chimed in.
"That would be a suitable candidate." I nodded.
"But not a human?" Corvus concluded.
"At least not one from Maru," I said. "Everything here is weak."
"I won't say your choice is wise or unwise, but I will tell you that you can't afford to be picky forever. We are Devils who rule this Underworld, Amun." She threw her hands out to the side with a foul sneer. "All who are born within, and all who enter its gates, kneels to us."
"I understand." I bowed in my seat. "Once I have my first undead raised, I'll be raising the rest without discrimination."
"Save our family, of course." She added, lowering her gaze.
"Of course." I nodded.
"Good." She grinned and held her gaze for a long moment.
"Now then," Corvus finally said. "You implied you were leaving Maru soon. To where are you adventuring to?"
"The Bodhi Tree," I said.
"Ah, yes." She rocked back just as a nostalgic sigh escaped her lips. "There was little that I learned there. But, I heard the times have changed."
"Oh, yes!" Azrael sighed in much the same way. "I got absurdly more powerful after graduating from the Bodhi Tree."
Oh?" Telman turned to him. "In what way?"
"Well." Azrael reached up to scratch his head and let out a meek chuckle. "It'll be best to let Amun here explain once he experiences it. Wouldn't wanna ruin the surprise for him."
"Fair point." Telman nodded, then turned to me. "How many days left until your deadline?"
"It's today." I beamed. "It's almost sunrise on the outside. So, I'll probably be on my way once I go back outside."
"Then I'll leave you with some advice." Corvus beamed back to me. "Never hide your power. Be proud of the fact that you're a Devil. Show all at the Bodhi Tree that the Cole Clan lives. And when you see the False Devil, tell him the Raven Reaper will still keep her promise."
"The False Devil?" I raised my brow in confusion.
"You'll understand when you meet him." She winked. Then trotted off to the abyss from which she came. "Until next time, o' Sovereign of Dearth."