I am a little sore, which says a lot. The room I am in looks worse than I feel. The blue sky above sends me quickly scurrying into a corner. I am about to call my generals. I can feel them yearning to come out. Then I see my sister, Reeva is sitting in a meditative pose glowing an amazing purple. She stares at me like I'm the crazy one.
"Finally, Four days you have been out of it. So much for your rapid healing." She sounds tired but not physically tired, emotionally drained. There is a hoarseness to her voice. I can hear her bones pop as she stretches, she looks smoother than before. Not as smooth in the skin as Topa, but definitely more. I point at the wall and stuff already us. Not realising the cold air in the cottage until now. There is a snow-capped mountain off in the distance.
"Where are we?" I shouldn't ask as that terrible smile that has nothing good for me appears on her face. The wind ominously starts howling, using the broken to create varying pitches of itself. I sit up in the corner, trying to fight back the urge to run.
"Does it matter? Are you ready to go? We have issues with the outbreak." I nod. I feel much better and my armour looks grand. My scythe is on my back, I have only one problem.
'Pepa? What's wrong with me?' Something is missing. The feeling is similar to the sensation of hunger.
💬"Damage to your soul detected." What Pepa impart to me is bone-chilling. My attempt to control An Adam by using decimation has literally removed the ability to have a fourth general. Of course, with time and effort, I can heal my soul, but it shocks me to know that it is possible to be hurt by one's own power. The understanding makes it all clear, I have to be careful.
"What issues?" The look on my sister's face is odd. An outbreak is a small thing. There should not be any problem. She is a Night Sister not many can defeat her in single combat.
"We trapped in a lure." A necromancer's lure is often used to divert outbreak shafts. It is one method a living necromancer can use to capture the undead. Reeva, unlike me, can't have generals under here. She can become one in somebody's army, but she can't have her own. Most undead is like this.
"The necromancer has he found you yet?" Catching High ranked undead is their dream. With skills similar to domination, they could force us to fight one another. She shakes her head.
"He has Helga Von Helsing, a rank 3 Shadow Witch." Reeva smirks folding her arms, clearly she can beat that as she is a rank 5 so I wonder what is holding her back but first I need to understand the immediate problem with the necromancer.
"That's not possible unless he is high ranked himself," I say I'm not suicidal the damage I have will make being killed extremely costly.
"I estimate at least a rank 2, but his staff isn't normal. I think that is how he is doing." The necromancer is using a magical totem to bypass the level suppression system. This is bad but not terrible. It is still doable. With my generals, anything...
💬"Soul damage prevents summoning. Please level up!"
"Well shit! Then let's take him out!" I stand stretching. I know I should be bleak, but it is just another obstacle I need to overcome. At least I have one of my father's old scythes with me.
"I can't leave this shack. I'm keeping that connection. Once the lure is down, then Marcus and the others can come through. I have already spoken to father, and he suggests you do something about it. As they have no way of reaching us as long as the lure is open." I can't tell anything from her expression but it makes why she is tired. If she was acting, would she exhaust herself? It doesn't fit her profile.
"Shit, this is not an elaborate test right!?" I ask, because waking up in a small shack in the middle of a disaster is not normal. As it stands, my only hope is to level up, kill the necromancer.
"We are unlucky, is all. The lure was in the very place we were going to. We have already thought about what crossed your mind just now. First, we must survive." Reeva is trying to keep me on task. This smells of a trap, but she is right. I need to focus on the task at hand.
"So what am I do?" I haven't been on a necromancer from this side of it. If I was still a paladin, a company of one thousand recruits is the standard response. The church rarely sends out Paladins first. They are too precious and entitled to handle every little thing. They often use outbreaks as testing grounds to find new paladins.
"This is an outbreak, go kill some people level up. Find the necromancer. Kill and Helga never sees you. She will rip you apart in the blink of an eye. Remember the story I told you right?" I shiver as Reeva reminds me that Helga is not only a vampire but a shadow witch on top of that. Together, it is powerful as she is effectively immune to physical damage. The story she is referring to is about Helga the Talented!
As a young vampire, Helga found herself amid a zombie onslaught. The Norstral Vampire clan had purposefully created too many new zombies to wipe out some of Van Helsung line. That night, Helga unlocked her Rank 5 talent shortly after turning to rank 2. This is unheard of and has never been repeated since no matter how many times the Van Helsung replicate the events of that night.
"Alright, but I'm doing it my way." I won't hold back if this is going to place where I die then so be it but I will turn this hilltop into hell before I go. I head out. Getting intel from Reeva will only delay what am itching to do. The mountain town from the shack we are in is further south by maybe two kilometres.
The town can at most hold five thousand people and given the large fire burning in the middle. The necromancer is trying to build his army rather wait. Fresh corpses are easy to control and since they are so dull minded shouldn't affect his leadership amount.
Along the way, I check to see the full changes to my Spectral Armour. Pepa neatly cuts out everything else for me and shows me a detailed graph that comes with an understanding.
💠[Spectral Armour [D]++]
Info: A link skill from your minion. Spectral Armour is a passive effect that will always be active.
Description: A special passive skill that you and your minion share. Can only be upgraded by you.
Properties: produces a spectral armour that [D-rank - creates a shield for 30% of your health.
+ Adds three forms to the Spectral Armour. ✨1- Light armour ✨2 - Heavy Armour ✨3 - Medium Armour
✨1- Light armour: 2[WS] 2[AS] 4[MS] 4[SS]
✨2 - Heavy amour: 4 [WS] 4[AS] 2[MS] 2[SS]
✨3 - Medium armour: 3 [WS] 3[AS] 3[MS] 3[SS]
+ Sharding - creates an additional physical layer of armour
"Thanks, Pepa." I didn't know spectral armour was so versatile, but it makes sense seeing as how it changes and grows with me. I select the medium armour variant for now since I'm still starting out. The balance in Weapon Solts, Armour Sockets, Mana Scripts, Soul Stores.
The Soul Stores are most helpful for me as they can hold 1000 souls each which I plan to use as a reservoir for my own generals. This should reduce the costs of having them in combat at the same time. I am confident in my Dread Combat mastery. The scythe from the master, my father taught me, is Slaughter Style good for massacres and close combat.
Spirits dance around me like a wave of 💠[Teleports]💠 me to the human side of town. Being away from the necromancer's force is my best option. killing underlings will only warn him of my presence. Plus, Helga is that way. She might not be a city destroyer but is masterful at taking lives. The dark bubble surrounding one of the bigger homes in the city is a sign of where she is. This also tells me the necromancer has spoken to her or cannot, otherwise, he would look for us. At least I hope that is the case, as he would never have several thousand corpses to even put a scratch on my sister.
Three deathly skulls return to me. I landed in the middle of the cemetery that is linked to the church of light. My first order of business is to wipe out anybody here. The thing about believers is they are excellent, expandable husks for gods.