After they made the deal the scene suddenly changed. Arlo was in a castle sitting down on a chair while drinking a cup of tea, he hadn't tasted anything ever since he became a skeleton so the taste was overflowing his taste buds. In front of him was a desk and on the other side was a person also sitting down and having a chat with him. Was it another memory?
"Hey Arlo! Are you even listening? The situation is very bad, the demon lord's army Will reach my kingdom soon. We need to make an alliance to defeat them"
Arlo was in the body of his past self but he didn't have control over his words or actions, it was a fixed scene. It felt like he was just spectating.
"Look Jerold, I'll try my best to help but I can only bring my own militia for support, I'm just a prince so I don't have control over the whole army. My father is the only one that could make that decision, all I can do is try to persuade him. Sorry for not being able to help more, friend"
Jerold looked a bit disappointed about the situation, but he understood that there wasn't much Arlo could do. He was still thankful that Arlo was trying his best though.
Jerold put his hand forward and said "well there's nothing much that can be done about it, but it's a pleasure to work with you"
After they shook hands the memory stopped and Arlo became a skeleton again.
"Let's get going Arlo, we're currently close to the middle of the western territory, so if we head further west it'll probably take about two months to reach the shore"
They got out of the tower and headed west. The forest they went through didn't have any leaves on the dead trees nor did it have grass below them, the ponds and rivers that used to be filled with water were now filled with black goo and the sky was still pitch black as it had been for the past 500 years
Along the way Krause asked Arlo about the inhabitants of the badlands and if they should be worried about any of them.
Arlo was getting pretty bored from just walking straight ahead so the conversation made him very happy.
"Well there's Shadow wolves and zombie bears, as well as skeleton horses. There's no need to worry about any of them though, since they don't attack skeletons. Even if they would attack me, I'm still proud of my swordsmanship skills so they're no threat"
Krause seemed sceptical about Arlo's swordsmanship since he had never witnessed it before. So he had challenged him to slice a bolder in half. Arlo proudly accepted the challenge since he was bored anyway.
Arlo placed Krause beside a dead tree so he could witness the sword skills he was so proud of.
Arlo made a stance in preparation to slice the bolder in front of him, he focused on the weak point of the bolder and slashed with all his might making every bone in his body shake from recoil after his sword had made contact with the bolder.
"…."
"Bwahaha, what did you expect? Your sword was rusty so how would it be able break the bolder. Looks like we'll have to search through some ruins along the way to get you a new sword"
Arlo was devastated when his sword broke. It was his favorite sword that he brought with him everywhere he went for the past 200 years, maybe even longer.
Arlo picked up Krause and made his way west with his head looking down with grief and sadness. It was as if he had lost his best friend.
After they left the area, not only did the bolder split in half from the after shock, but also everything a few meters behind it got sliced as well.
Krause was very curious about the demon lord's army so he had asked Arlo about it. Arlo seemed a bit uncomfortable talking about it, but he answered him anyways. He explained that the demon lord's name was Goro and he was the demon lord of the undead.
He told him about the ranks of the skeleton army and that he was 1 of 5 generals from the demon lord's army. He told him more information about himself and 3 of the other generals.
"I'm the general of the skeleton soldiers. My army is skilled with melee weapons and I'm the second strongest general"
"The demon lord general of the skeleton mages is an elder lich that is very skilled with spatial magic. He's presumably the strongest general"
"There was also a general of ghosts, I don't know much about her, because I've never seen her use her powers"
"Lastly there's a zombie general, he's the weakest general of the army, but has the most soldiers"
"I don't know anything at all about the last general and have never seen them"
Krause was satisfied with the knowledge he had gained, but he noticed something after listening to Arlo's explanation.
"I knew you were a big deal, but i don't expect there to only be 5 of your rank, I expected at least a thousand. There will be a big problem"
Arlo didn't know what the problem could have been so he had asked "a problem? What would that be?"
"Well if there only 5 of you and 1 went missing, the demon lord would notice right away wouldn't he?"
If Arlo leaves the badlands and becomes a deserter then he'll become an enemy of the demon lord.
He had overlooked something as simple as that. He was panicking in his mind, but kept his cool on the outside.
"Even if I become the demon lord's enemy from this betrayal, there's no way I'll be hunted outside of the badlands. The demon lord probably wouldn't care if I leave and he'll hire a new general. He wouldn't have time for nonsense like sending assassins on a nobody"
"Well will figure it out later, if we have to face the demon lord one day we'll be fine as long as we have me, the genius sage. By the way I think we found ruins of an old city"
Arlo looked down the mountain they were on, he looked north and saw ruins at the end of a long field. He felt like he had seen this place before.