Helmach would be dead in 7 days. This is what Drayya promised to Baccharum. She had been granted 7,000 gold pieces--a fortune--to guarantee this outcome. If she failed, the entirety of Lieze's cult would be in his debt until the end of time. Despite their tragic failure at ending the Acolyte's life, neither Drayya nor Lieze had changed their mind on the matter; Helmach needed to die.
Marché wasn't surprised in the least to hear that they had been unsuccessful in their endeavour. He and his followers had taken to the hideout splendidly, grateful to finally have a home that wasn't knee-deep in sewage and reeking of shit.
"I'm amazed both of you survived." As he escorted them into the hideout, he made his opinion on the matter quite clear, "Helmach is quite the stubborn man, as I've no doubt you understand perfectly well at this point."
"Answer me this, Marché-" Lieze began, "You're acquainted with Helmach. You've told us so already. But how, exactly? Are the two of you former allies? Rivals?"
"Hm." Marché lowered his head, "...The former."
"You used to be a worshipper? Or a priest?"
"Nothing so grand." He replied, "The two of us were the best of friends as children--alongside Noma. The three of us grew up in the same village."
"Evidently, you became ideologically opposed at some point."
"What a sterile way to put it." Marché paused, "...It's quite the dramatic tale. Or, perhaps that's just what I tell myself. But it is rather tragic."
"Give me the abridged version. We don't have the time to recount our youths."
"Helmach burned the village down." He revealed, "Killed… well, just about everyone bar myself and Noma. His parents, my parents… a few days later, while we were squatting in the remains, the priesthood arrived and took us in."
Drayya tilted her head, "And, did he have a reason for doing this?"
"No. Or--it might be better to say that his reasons were completely incomprehensible." Marché explained, "Helmach is… not well. I call him paranoid, but that might not be the whole truth. The priests thought they could preach--or cane--his sickness away, and from their perspective, it seemed to have worked. But I can tell it only made him worse."
"What about the Blackbriar?" Lieze asked, "Nobody can summon a deity single-handedly."
"Ah… he went that far, did he? You must have really been pushing him…" Marché didn't try to hide his pity, "That's a shame. The Church will have picked him up by now. I hope you weren't planning on having any more conversations with him."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Dragon Cardinals--oh, Helmach used to be one, if you didn't already know."
"I did."
"Right. Well--Dragon Cardinals swear a vow to uphold the Church's beliefs when they're inaugurated. Breaking that vow results in a 'punishment'. I'm sure you know by this point how much the Church likes its penitence."
"What sort of punishments are we talking about?"
"There are three, and they proceed sequentially." Marché replied, "The first is the punishment of the pride. That's also when the Cardinals are excommunicated--on paper, at least. The second is the punishment of the soul. And the third is the punishment of the body."
"Are you omitting the grisly details because you think I won't be able to handle them?" Lieze spoke with morbid curiosity in her voice as they proceeded through the hideout's chambers.
"You want to know? Fine." Marché relented, "Helmach is a eunuch. That's the punishment of the 'pride'. And no--I don't know how it works for women. Frankly, I don't want to know. The punishment of the soul is your tongue; your ability to express and expound your beliefs. The punishment of the body is death."
"Of course." Drayya rolled her eyes, "One can always count on the Church of the Golden Dragon to prove themselves even more degenerate than their mortal enemies."
"I see…" Lieze paused, "-And this wasn't the first time Helmach has called upon the power of the Blackbriar?"
"Unfortunately not. The first time was during Bran Drayya's crusade against the Sovereign Cities." Marché explained, "He killed many undead that day, but the Church didn't approve of his methods. He's been with the Acolytes ever since."
Most of the weaker thralls that Marché's followers had brought back from Saptra had been converted into blood. Most of it was being used to continuously keep the Nightcrawler Breeders fed, but a sizable portion of it had also been consumed in the creation of 2 brand-new Flesh Elementals--levels [18] and [15], respectively. The hulks of muscle and organ tissue were almost too large to wander around inside the hideout.
"He still needs to die." Lieze declared, "We have an agreement with Baccharum."
"I was fearful that you would say something like that…" Marché sighed, "I hope you have a plan. I doubt he's going to be taking any more midnight strolls."
"Attacking him head-on is too reckless. We need to think about this strategically." She replied, "For now, we should return our attention to the city at large. The Wraith is still alive, so I want you and your followers to continue snatching up thralls from Saptra. I want at least 250 more in two days' time."
"T-Two hundred…" Marché blinked, "That's-"
"Not possible? Completely untrue." Lieze interrupted, "I'll lend you some gold. Rent a few wagons from the city and put them to good use ferrying thralls back and forth. 250--it doesn't matter how powerful they are, but that's the number I desire."
"We won't have enough space!"
"For what? Most of them will be glorified blood bags. Are you afraid they're going to run away? Just let them stay outside until the crypt is complete."
"...And what will you be getting up to during this time?"
"Improving the thralls we already have." Lieze answered, "And investing in myself."
"Is the Order always so demanding?"
"No. If my father was here, it would be even worse." She replied, "He would have you carting thralls back and forth until you passed out from exhaustion. And 250 of them wouldn't be nearly enough to satisfy him."
"I suppose we'd best get moving, then."
"Oh- and while you're at it, make sure to send somebody to pick up the alchemy table I purchased." Lieze added, "Feel free to fill out contracts in my name. Just don't go spending our hard-earned gold on anything frivolous."
"As you wish."
Marché understood the severity of their situation better than anyone else. It would only be a matter of time until the priesthood discovered their hideout, especially after all the trouble they'd been making recently. Once that happened, they'd need to be ready.
Lieze's cult was beginning to blossom into quite the well-oiled operation. With plenty of manpower to spare, she could focus on improving her own abilities. After ordering Drayya and Alma to continue syphoning their weaker thralls, she found herself returning to the grimoire of blood magic. Disappointingly, its most powerful spells had been censored, but a number of those still available for perusing eventually caught her eye.
Technique Studied (+10%)
Technique Studied (+10%)
Technique Studied (+10%)
…
..
.
Technique Learned!
Type: [Spell] Name: [Blood Sacrifice]
Description - Sacrifice a percentage of your maximum HP to empower your next spell or martial art. For every 1% of your max HP spent, the effect of your next spell which either deals or absorbs damage is amplified by 1%. This spell can reduce you to 0 HP.
Secret Quest 'Apprentice Blood Mage' Complete!
Description - Learn 3 spells in the [Blood Magic] category of the [Necromancy] school.
Reward - 1,200xp
"So it can kill me… I wonder how many necromancers before me found that out the hard way…" She thought, "Still, this is exactly what I need to improve my spellcasting. Provided I can tolerate the pain it will cause…"
If there was one thing Lieze disliked about necromancy, it was the surprising number of occasions where she was expected to harm herself to see results. She was barely 10 years old when Sokalar insisted that she start taking part in the Order's sacrificial rites.
Her studying seemed gated by the passage of time. She could only 'study' a technique every half-hour, whereas she could 'observe' the technique as many times as she wanted to. Therefore, it would be more practical to witness spells firsthand in order to learn them. By the time 5 hours had passed, she was completely exhausted by the day's events, suddenly grateful that Marché's followers had been so kind as to decorate the hideout with some straw bedding. It wasn't comfortable--not by any stretch of the imagination--but it was certainly a lot better than trying to fall asleep on freezing, damp rock.
All in all, she managed to get in just over 5 hours of sleep between rude awakenings caused by the Dwarves above. Marché had yet to return with more thralls, but Lieze was sure that he was following her instructions closely.
"Look who's awake." Drayya stood above her, seemingly a few seconds away from rousing Lieze herself, "Alma and I have spent the last 5 hours separating the wheat from the chaff--so to speak."
"Mmh~" Rubbing her eyes, Lieze reluctantly sat up, "How many thralls do we have…?"
"Altogether? Close to a hundred, I think." She replied, "Gravewalkers, mostly. 10 Horrors, counting the ones standing guard outside, and 2 Flesh Elementals."
"...Not enough."
"No." Drayya paused, "Hopefully Marché will fix that."
"Haven't you tried getting some sleep?" Lieze asked.
"Come, now. You know this isn't the first time I've pulled an all-nighter."
"Have it your way." Scrambling to her feet, Lieze brushed off the bristles of hay from her cloak, "Only promise me you won't collapse at a crucial moment."
"I'll try my best not to." Drayya smirked, "One of Marché's disciples dropped by a few hours ago to deliver the alchemy table. I had it placed next to the barrel."
"Finally…" Stretching, she stared towards the passage leading to the upper chambers, "I should improve the thralls we already have. I'm starting to worry that sheer numbers won't be enough to defend us when push comes to shove."
"-And when do you expect that to be?"
"Soon." Lieze answered, "Very soon."
There was no denying it. The power of her scale notwithstanding, Lieze's cult had the might of an entire city to contend with. Once Ricta discovered a way to worm out of his predicament, he wouldn't waste a second bringing the entire weight of Tonberg down on her. Helmach's death was secondary to the imminent threat of destruction.
The hundred-or-so thralls crowding the hideout would need to be capable of resisting at least a handful of raids until Marché could reinforce their numbers. With the alchemy table finally delivered, it was the perfect opportunity for Lieze to dump her MP into a rigorous session of [Necromantic Alchemy].
First on the agenda was granting [Speed Upgrades] to every Horror. She'd already demonstrated the effectiveness of removing their sole weakness during her spat with the late Friedrick and his party.
MP - 527 / 570
Three hours later, she'd only used half as much MP as she normally would have. The Horrors looked almost comical as they shuffled back to their guard posts outside the hideout. It was barely a few minutes into her next [Speed Upgrade] when two of Marché's followers returned in a wagon, unloading 23 tightly-packed Gravewalkers out into the afternoon sunlight before departing just as quickly.
[Level 8]
[Level 3]
[Level 4]
As expected, their levels weren't particularly impressive. But as Drayya had once said to Lieze, a necromancer's strength was often a matter of quantity rather than quality. With that said, there was the issue of her maximum capacity to consider.
"I'm only capable of directly commanding 24 thralls at once… I can't imagine Drayya's limit is much higher--perhaps double or triple that number."
"Oh-" The woman in question's voice emerged from the mouth of the hideout, "So we've already received another group of lifeless puppets, have we? Marché's people work quickly."
"Drayya…" Lieze placed a hand to her chin as the girl wandered over, "How do we intend to put these weaklings to good use?"
"Well… I was hoping to birth a few Briarknights. But to do that, I'll need some exceptionally pristine corpses. None of these walkers will suffice." She crossed her arms, "...But, there is another option."
Lieze tilted her head, "-And what would that be?"
"You'll see." The smile on her face was wicked, "For now, let's coax these Gravewalkers inside. I think you'll be rather pleased with my proposition…"