Then Joyle asked "why are you uncles fighting?" without stuttering or any mistakes in her speech. Boy was I proud of teaching her for the past few days but with the matter at hand I didn't get a lotta time to praise her. I went in front of her and stood with my cleaver in hand (he just decided to name the sword in his hand since it felt unusual).
I deflected the bone arrows the skeleton necromancer shot. The former werewolf and chimera didn't attack and instead walked aside. Then from the ground bones erupted and caged both of us in but I hid Joyle with my body to protect her if something got in. I also signaled chreshield and woden to stay back.
Something felt ominous, a fog began to set and then from behind light flashed across the hall. It was the insignia of greed. Usually, it was like any simple black spot unable to differentiate it from other burn marks but now suddenly it started burning up while Joyle started screaming in pain.
I used my eon energy to connect our nerves and rerouted any form of pain she felt towards my body. This pain was something a child should never have to experience, the feeling of having the muscles being torn over and over while being rebuilt along with the very tissues, nay the cells of the body being rebuilt.
By the time I regained my consciousness I was on all fours sweating like a pig with Joyle crying beside me. In front me, no in front of Joyle, the skeleton necromancer kneeled down with the two seemingly mammalian beasts behind it.
The insignia of greed on her back had developed from a black spot to the symbol of a white dragon which contrasted with her skin. The dragon's left claw facing forward it was the same as what was engraved on the skull of the skeleton necromancer.
Then the fog that had settled all this time suddenly started to gather around the necromancer. I couldn't figure out what was happening but I knew I had to protect joyle. Chreshield and woden were still out of sight so they could serve as our trump cards if something happened.
The collected fog started to take form, the colors were faded, the crown was cracked, his cape was torn off, his dress ragged. Even in this form, I could see his face, the king of pancratia 'Rathore' himself. He started to speak but his voice was a complete disorientation from the tone he used to speak in back when he was alive. It signified his years of loneliness trapped as a lich seeing the people he had sworn to protect left to roam as the undead.
"We the last people of pancratia were left to roam 457 years and still counting after the attack of the dragon you see over there. The battle was supposed to be our victory, yet my wife as she swung to battle in her armor was instantly stopped by something as soon as she saw the dragon. She looked back at me with tears in her eyes and I knew that she had resigned.
The dragon swatted her with its tail like she were a fly but I caught her midair, and I knew that she was no longer with us. I set her down and charged over to battle, screaming in rage only to be defeated myself.
At that time, I don't know how but someone managed to summon one of the seven virtues, the virtue of charity. With a beat of her wings, time had stopped. With the heavenly scales in hand, she kept something on the both sides of the scaled and decided something by herself.
Within the next hour I don't know what had happened but I woke up as an undead with my sword in the skull of the dragon. Then the angel ascended back to heaven with a devilish grin on her face and I knew something bad had happened.
I looked at my hand and realized what I had done, what had happened and then a voice rang inside my head it was our ancestor "remember the prophecy" it said and I knew it meant the one where we'd meet our queen to serve and protect not only our kingdom but also our world.
We entered a primitive state of sleep for over 4 hundred years but these last 57 years, Athanasia's magic power has been fluctuating. This woke us up but by then my mind was muddled and only these two poppers could face me (pointing at the chimera and werewolf). I don't know who they were but they've been helping to keep me at bay while waiting for her."
Oh yeah, this guy was definitely a talker, even in those times he could inspire people's hearts with confidence or depress the enemy with just his words. But I could feel his pain as someone who also wanted to protect family. I asked "why do you think Joyle is the queen you've been waiting for?"
He first looked at me in perplexion then he said "you who has two souls in body must know that she is a disaster. But guided down the right path anyone can become the savior. All we need is someone to lead us. Plus, anyway we are monsters right now and she the monster queen. Her wish is basically now our command and we can't do anything to resist it."
I asked again "then what is your purpose though?" to which he replied "we will accompany and help the queen as she wishes, all she need do is to summon us. Take this (hands over a medallion) this is the medallion of pancratia, you can use that to summon us at any given time or even just if you wanna talk. Every single undead will be at your service my queen."
Joyle giggled like she had just eaten something she loved, right I don't really know anything about this kid do I. well that's for a later issue, "Oi Woden take this medallion and convert it into a timepiece it can serve its purpose while also having additional functions. Make it so that only Joyle can access it". Woden came from behind the pillar while chreshield still didn't seem to trust the undead though I figured her position was already compromised. Woden took the medallion .
The sun had risen once more and the undead had slept. It was time to head back to the base and collect some items to continue our journey, being the king, Rathore should have some paper and boats left since our boat had sunk to the middle of the sea due to a storm last night.