"Mercy...."
Alsana called out the name while jumping back from the crypt gate. The winds erupted from the door, violently shaking away the scales of the serpent queen.
The ice crystal covered the sides of the walls no more, and the cold blood inside Alsana felt warmth.
"Alsana." From his crypt, dressed in a green tunic and shroud on his back, his hair was black and his eyes were pure green. The voice was no human; it felt like terror entering her.
His fair face hid behind his double-horned helm, and his body rattled the surroundings with sounds of fear and death.
His magic sword reflected in the green light of the spirits around him.
Thud.. thud...thud...
Each step felt mighty and ground-shattering, and Alsana's cold blood was nearly boiling.
Alsana's body started glistening with light, and the shape of her body began to change. Hands, legs, hair, breasts and clothes all took form.
Alsana became a feeble old hag with white hair and a wrinkled little face. The weak hands were against the ground beside the head. She was begging.
The man walked at his pace freely, passing by Arya's halved body. He was still alive and breathing, but not for long. The sword moved close to the body.
The two halves floated in the air, coming together. The venom mixed with blood soon flew out of the bite marks, and Arya was unhurt and unscathed. Alsana dared not raise her gaze.
"Alsana, I did not think you would stop me from returning to the living. Why did you stop them?" The lord asked the question.
His sword and helm disappeared in the air and, his raven wave hair on his head and the light bread on his face came to light.
"I did not want to do that, My lord! I had my reason for coming here. I did not want to stop you from returning. Please do not hurt my children."
Alsana refused any urge to raise her hands on the ground, and only her gaze shifted to his blood-red royal garb and his gilded boots.
'My lord?!!" He laughed his lungs a lot, so loud that the voice began to echo in the tunnels.
"Alsana, you've become a old hag, why did your hair turn black to white?" He looked curiously at her face and hair, seeing how much she changed.
"I would never hurt your children, and you are older than me, and elders deserve respect. We were friends, raise your head from the ground." The voice turned from anger to light-hearted in a second.
Alsana smiled and looked up at her old companion, the idiot she used her deadliest poisons on and failed to kill, and then she had to dance for him for 7 years in one go.
"I didn't think you would spare me after being away for a long time, Mercy." Alsana raised her hands off the ground and turned into her enormous snake form.
"I never forget, Alsana. You are a friend. Although your beautiful human form had turned pretty dull, your snake form looks more ripe than ever." Mercy slowly rubbed his hands over Alsana's face. With each movement, his hands turned to ash but returned soon.
"Mercy... You promised a wish to the people who open your crypt, and their wish... You will betray their wish?" Alsana closed her eyes.
"I don't think I will betray their wish...But I also don't mean to take away the land you have earned in this attack."
A map appeared in thin air, it marked the border between Uro and the eastern snowlands.
Mercy marked the land of Uro that he planned to give Alsana as her right, and the rest was under his protection.
Alsana understood that and closed her eyes to signal all beasts attacking the Uro land. A large wave of sound that could kill any human in a second came out of her body.
Mercy was killed in a second, but he returned soon after she was finished doing her call.
"Really, I am surprised that you defeated the snow lords and took control of the entire northland. Those are way larger than your children and other beasts would ever need to live. Why are you attacking Uro and Dynasty?"
Mercy backed up from Alsana's face and looked at the ashes of the flame priest lying on the ground.
"What are you talking about, Mercy? I never killed the snow lords and their people. It was a plague. Deadlier than any venom seen by the world, it took all 5 million of them in a day. I was surprised. Didn't you see the memories of dead vipers in the snow?"
"Wait?" Mercy moved to the side and turned his back towards Alsana. He cast his power in his mind.
「Power: Lord of Souls.」
This ability allows the lord, to go back in time ever since the day of his birth and look back on the memories of the dead. Any thing with a soul can have their memories given away even birds, venomous snakes, at least they hadn't forgotten everything themselves.
No memories of the dead snow lords came to his head.
The entire memories of the snow lords weren't there. In fact, he couldn't see any memory past the flame priest's from the point he entered the territory.
「Power: Lord of Souls.」
He activated it again, but it was the same. The dead lords before the time of his slumber weren't listening to his calls either. It was the words of the priest and the empty silence.
「Power: Lord of Souls.」
Then again and again,
「Power: Lord of Souls.」
「Power: Lord of Souls.」
「Power: Lord of Souls.」
..
...
The thousand times he cast his ability, it bore him no result. The souls did not deed to his calls.
"Mercy, what is happening? Can't hear the undead?!" Alsana changed her form back to human once again. She jumped forward and observed Mercy's face.
She was not disappointed with what she expected.
"I can't." Mercy was smiling with his teeth out, happiness and craze running through his face. His hands clenched so tight they were white.
The craze of fighting someone who could stop him, the all mighty being.
"The Gods of the forest had gifted him a rival that could fight him, not force me into a stalemate. Praise be Gods, Praise be." Mercy shouted from the top of his lungs.
Alsana on the other hand, was staring intently in with her wrinkled green eyes, waiting her moment to say anything. She placed her hand on Mercy's shoulder.
"You are not the only one affected by this, my friend. The world is decaying in the millennium you slept. Everything is falling apart."
"I invaded Uro because the snow lands are frozen with temperatures below control. It is not possible to live there." Alsana paused, and Mercy stole the words out of her mouth.
"There is a warlord behind this, someone strong enough. The warlord has achieved at least 18 orbs of power to get this powerful. To control the season, destroy the flame gods, born vampires... this will be fun."
Mercy was amused, and Alsana glimpsed at her happy time with him.
"I know you were trying to call me back by invading this land. Sadly, the humans got here first." Mercy raised his hands in the air as a sign of Alsana's defeat.
"Take care of yourself, Alsana. You are old now, don't push yourself much. I don't want to see your funeral for at least the next century. Also, can you drop me a ride to the capital? I will start my search from there." Mercy patted her on the back.
"A ride to the capital? You can't even teleport right now?" Alsana laughed.
"I can, maybe once or twice, but riding with you will be more fun."
With a smile, Alsana took her distance and transformed into her snake form. While Mercy picked up Arya from the floor and jumped on top of Alsana.
"Let's ride like the old times."
"Like the old times."
As Alsana took him at swift speeds while shattering the grounds, Mercy looked at Arya and smiled. His gears were already running for what he had to do.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------