I was currently in a very special room. The room looked like the epitome of grandeur, what with all the red and blue on the walls along with the paintings drawn by… Father.
The walls were adorned with paintings depicting scenes from Egyptian mythology—Osiris on his throne, Anubis weighing the hearts of the dead, and Ra's journey through the underworld. The images were so rich with colour and detail, that they seemed almost alive.
The room was also lined with towering bookshelves that looked old but sturdy.
Each shelf was crammed with ancient books from various time periods, their spines bearing titles in languages that have been long forgotten by today's people. Though, we do have dictionaries to translate them. My family was resourceful like that.
I haven't learned many languages, but I do have a good grasp on Coptic, Demotic, and other ancient forms of Egyptian. As for languages of other factions, I am a beginner in Old Norse. I have been focusing on it more due to how they have such a complex and yet efficient runic system.
Anyway, I wasn't currently reading about languages.
I sat at my study table, the heavy scent of old parchment and ink filled the air.
The heavy wooden desk was intricately carved with Egyptian motifs, occupying the centre of the room. On it, many things were scattered around, including parchments and quills, their tips stained with ink.
Before me was an ancient-looking book, its cover was weathered by time, and adorned strange markings. As I turned its pages, the hieroglyphs glowed in the dim light. I heard distant wailings that screamed for help, but I ignored them. This book was cursed and I knew that.
After all, it was one of the most infamous books in the world. No one knew that it was in the possession of the Apetnakhts. Everyone believed that it was destroyed along with its last possessor, the Original Apetnakht. It was a book gifted to him by Set, as part of their deal.
Despite the consensus, many people have tried to demand this book from us like they were the real owners. Tsk, Father used to mock those Magician Groups so much. Turns out a certain group didn't get that no means no, and ended up getting annihilated. This book was that valuable after all.
The Book of Anubis.
An ancient Egyptian text consisting of a number of magic spells intended to make the reader a damn legend in Necromancy. This was the best resource one can ever find, other than being taught by a Death God I guess. This was something that my father left behind for me to study. However this wasn't the only thing.
My eyes shifted to the ring on my hand. It was the final gift that my father gave me. It was the Lord's Ring. A symbol of my heritage and the key to the Apetnakht Houses' treasure trove of knowledge. It basically had a storage space where there were a lot of books stored, all related to the powers of Apetnakhts. That's where I got the The Book of Anubis from.
However, this ring wasn't just a storage device. It also had many other benefits. It increased my energy by converting ambient mana into my own, and enhanced my control over sand and scorch winds. If the history of our house is to be believed, this ring was also the key to enter the Apetnakht Territory in Egypt.
I would probably visit that place someday. Despite the Egyptian Pantheon recovering from the damage it had suffered in the past, it was still relatively weakened. It was left alone nowadays because Lord Aten was unaccepting of anybody messing with them now.
In the last few centuries, the Apetnakhts had received many invitations to return, but as they had already solidified their position in Romanian Vampire Society, they didn't want to move back to Egypt and have to go through all the pain again. That had been a mistake. All those sons of bats should have accepted the old Vampire's advice.
Then again, father too was one of the people who didn't want to leave Romania. I wanted to get more into these thoughts but I quickly pushed them aside.
There was work to be done.
Returning my focus to the Book of Anubis, I concentrated on studying a spell that allowed the user to control spirits. I had already somewhat practised the spell for summoning them to the mortal world, but I do need to be able to control them for it to be useful. And that was no simple task.
Beside the Book of Anubis lay another book—my father's notes on this subject.
I opened it and scanned through the index (My father was a very orderly vampire). As I looked through his beautiful handwriting, I finally found what I was looking for. I then opened the mentioned page, and there it was. His explanation of what a soul is, was detailed and profound. I already knew about it all, but renewing knowledge can never be bad.
The soul is composed of many different parts, not to mention how different parts had different functions.
The outermost layer is the easiest to study, as showcased by how detailed the description written by my father is. It is the essence that differentiates the living from the dead. It creates "Life Energy", something that is very important if one wants to live.
After death, that layer of soul degrades in the case of weaker souls and is just partially damaged if the soul is strong enough.
This layer mostly functions as the protector of other layers and supplies energy to the body and inner parts of the soul, so they can function properly.
The next layer is the personality, character, and memories of the individual. According to the notes, this layer remains mostly intact in death. However this layer is very prone to attacks from magicians targeting it.
Skilled Necromancers can actually change this layer to change the personality of a soul to fit more to their purpose. Again, the extent of its security is decided by how strong the soul is.
The deepest layer of the soul was presumably one that handled thoughts, will, and intention. It is also the layer that father had the least knowledge on. According to him, only Death Gods and legendary necromancers should know how that layer works.
Other plebeians like us can only cast spells that can slightly affect that layer, and even that is a very hard thing to do for stronger souls.
There is also the thing he found about the soul's second layer being engraved with the name of the individual.
The name of a person is something that is very mysterious. There are many rituals, spells, artefacts etc. that require the name of a person to take effect.
As the owner of the soul makes their name known in the mortal realm, their soul gets stronger. This also has a physical effect on the mind of most mortals, pushing them to make social connections, do acts that would enshrine their names.
When someone dies, their soul loses the 1st layer. When they enter the afterlife, the 2nd layer is also slowly removed so they can reincarnate without being burdened by their past life. The 3rd layer remains intact with presumably no changes.
All of this information was gained by father in his century of research. He had already done the heavy lifting for me. Before his death, he had predicted that he would be able to perform True Revival in some tens of years.
He already had the knowledge but what he lacked was the energy and resources it would require. Apparently, sitting in a mansion doesn't help you earn much resources.
Well we do have a lot of riches, magical stones, magical ores, weapons and many other magical things in our treasury. We just lack the specific things that father theorised one would need for Resurrection.
Well thinking about resurrection right now is too far fetched. First I need to learn the less advanced stuff, which is unfortunately most of necromancy.
I should probably start with revising the rituals for summoning spirits. Then I can just overpower them with some tools from the treasury.
As I looked at the complicated diagrams that I was oh-so-familiar with, I realised something with sadness.
Sigh, looks like I will be here for a long time.
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Sitting at my study table, I continued reading the book. The soft, golden light of the lamp illuminated the room and created shadows on the walls in the process. I was passively controlling those shadows to shape them into what I was imagining while studying the book.
This helped me with keeping in mind what I was reading, and also helped me practise my Shadow Manipulation simultaneously. It was a pretty neat way to read, when you just have so many Partitions in your mind, that multitasking becomes a child's game.
Just as I finished reading the page, I took a long stretch. I was finally done reading everything on summoning souls. Just as I remembered, it wasn't that hard or complicated.
The only caveat was only being able to call upon Lost Souls. They are spirits of people who didn't get to enter any afterlife. Generally they tend to haunt the living or just linger around. Most of the time they were exorcised by the local shamans.
But that's a thing of the past. Nowadays, there have been cases of many false shamans and the true ones have lost their legitimacy, and hence there has been a heavy increase in the number of Lost Souls.
Which is good for us, free necromancers, but bad for mortals who have made an enemy with a Lost Soul in their past life. In the last century, "Ghost" attacks or incidents have become more common, but are written off as false.
Anyway, back to Soul Summoning.
If I don't want to do that alternatively, I can try summoning souls from an afterlife but that would require the permission of the concerned Death God. My family's contract with Anubis had been annulled centuries ago, when the Apetnakhts decided to leave Egypt. So no summoning souls from Duat.
Despite all these minor complications, I was still determined to test this ritual. I had already prepared the materials needed for the ritual in the Ritual Chamber.
I stood up from my chair and walked towards the exit door. As I left the room, I mentally controlled one of the undead that was initially cleaning to walk towards the Ritual Chamber but not before going to the Treasury and bringing a particular tool that would help me a lot.
I entered the ritual room that I had become somewhat familiar with now.
I started preparing for the ritual by first taking the candles placed on a table and placing them at strategic points around the room. Then I focused on my magic and commanded it to come out and form a Pentagram enclosed by three circles made out of different egyptian hieroglyphs. The Pentagram then turned into a Satkona, which also fit perfectly with the circles.
The formation of the ritual space was done now. The three runic concentric circles provided security to me, the summoner, and the Pentagram had already done its job by purifying this place of any influences of past rituals. Now the Satkona was responsible for summoning the soul while I provided my magical energy as an offering.
Just as I had finished, an armoured undead entered the room with a wooden staff that looked straight out of an ancient book. I took the staff from the undead and controlled it to stand aside, while I began the ritual.
The candle flames flickering as I began to chant the Coptic incantation I had learned from the Book of the Dead. The air grew heavy with anticipation, and a low hum resonated through the ritual room.
As the time passed, the ritual circles began to emit a faint glow and something started to form in the centre of the Satkona. The glow intensified, and slowly but surely a ghostly figure began to appear— from what I could sense, it was a Low-Class Spirit.
This was intentional on my part, as I had only supplied the ritual with enough mana to summon a Low-Class Spirit. I was a Mid-Class Vampire, and I also have a lot of tools that could help me subdue stronger spirits but I didn't want to take any risk.
This was also my first test subject, summoning spirits with very limited power wasn't really helpful but it was ideal for practising the summoning spell before I can summon the stronger souls.
The spirit, despite being weak, tried to escape the circle, its form wavering slightly. But I (or I should say the book) had already anticipated this, that's why the already glowing runic circles glowed even more to restrict the spirit. The next step was obviously subjugating the spirit.
And oh Dracula, did I have the perfect tool to do so. I could easily do so by myself, but I wanted to use the tool I had only seen father use. I wanted to test the limits of Heka's Staff.
With a firm grip, I raised Heka's Staff, an artefact of immense power capable of controlling and binding spirits. Channelling my energy through the magnificent staff, I focused on the spirit, feeling the power of the staff amplify my will and press it upon the spirit.
"Obey," I commanded in a harsh tone, directing the staff towards the spirit. The spirit shuddered, its form solidifying as it came under my control.
Satisfied with the control I had established, I moved on to the next step. While I could just keep the spirit as it is and use it as a spy or as an invisible guard for the mansion, I had summoned this spirit to automate my undead.
Using the staff, I began the process of binding the spirit into the undead form. The air crackled with energy as I directed the staff's power, infusing the spirit into the robust armoured undead that stood there and presented no resistance.
The spirit successfully merged with the undead, a half-sentient undead now standing before me.
The undead creature's eyes glowed faintly, indicating its limited awareness. It was capable of understanding and following simple commands—a useful addition to my undead army. After all, I can always enhance the body of these undead forms.
Using stronger spirits is somewhat risky due to how there's a chance that they have retained their personality and memories. They can be used to create undead that are smarter and better at leading, but their power would still be decided by what body they are possessing.
Hmm, I should probably start looking into personality changing spells. I do think my reserves should be enough to make them at least loyal to me.
My thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the door creaking open. The Undead turned its head towards the newcomer without any command from me.
Eirene entered the room, her presence a comforting contrast to the solemn and creepy atmosphere of the ritual room.
She moved gracefully, her eyes scanning the room slightly pausing at the ritual circle and the Undead staring at her. Surprise and pride flashed through her eyes and that made me feel happy.
However she composed herself quickly and her eyes settled on me.
"Eirene," I greeted her with a nod. She smiled at me and then continued to conjure two chairs from the ground with her magic. We both took seats and I ordered the undead to go out and return to its duties and it obeyed after bowing to me.
Heh, not having to manually do all this is pretty neat. I would automate all the undead when I am free.
"Sethos. Congratulations on your success, we will celebrate this later but I have something important to talk about with you." she began, her voice soft but firm.
"We have been here for some time now. We should consider going to the Underworld. We're already in Mesopotamia(A/N), and it would be beneficial to visit the old allies of your grandmother's family, the Udug Demon Clan."
"Your father had done them some favours in his time and though they had paid him back with many gifts like this mansion, I am sure they would be interested in meeting you and forming some new contracts. They could be very useful allies, as they are also allied to some Devil Houses from the Abrahamic Faction."
I looked at her intrigued by her suggestion. The Underworld was a parallel dimension to the human world with various factions and hells of different pantheons. I had heard stories of its vast landscapes and the various creatures that resided there. It was divided into various territories, each ruled by different factions.
The Devils, for instance, had their own hierarchy and kingdoms, with the Maou and the Four Great Satans at the top. The territory was vast, comprising multiple realms with unique characteristics, from fiery landscapes to frozen wastelands.
However the biggest territory obviously belonged to the Narak, the Hell of Hindu Pantheon, then there were the Asuras and other demonic Hindu creatures inhabiting their own territories.
My grandmother's family, the Ekkimus, had ties to the Udug Demon Clan, a powerful group known for their dark magic and influence. They both tracked their roots to the Mesopotamian pantheon. The Ekkimus had left due to some conflict in the past. I don't know the details, but it was very violent.
Thinking about the Underworld, I couldn't help but feel a dark amusement at the idea of allying myself with the Devil houses. It would certainly put me at odds with the Church, a prospect that appealed very much to my revenge.
Despite all the benefits I can think of, I wanted to know what Eirene thought of this.
"Eirene, what exactly do you have in mind?" I asked, curiosity piqued.
"The Udug Demon Clan has resources and knowledge that could be very useful for us," she explained. "Given our current situation, building and strengthening alliances is crucial. I am sure you can already think of how it would be very beneficial. Besides, the Underworld is a place where we can gather power and information discreetly."
"If we can deepen our roots in the Underworld, we will have an easier time doing a lot of stuff. Your father wasn't really that big of a social person, but he had managed to secure a corpse supply chain for his experiments. We can build up from there and see what other prospects are available."
I nodded, considering her words. The Underworld was indeed a place full of opportunity, albeit a dangerous one. Its various factions—ranging from Death Gods to Demons—made it a complex and unpredictable place. However, with Eirene by my side, I felt confident in exploring it.
After all, she was a High-Class Magician and a vampire thrall at that. She can slap me to death if she wants. She was awesome like that.
"Alright," I said, closing the Book of the Dead and placing it carefully on the table. "Let's prepare for our journey to the Underworld."
Eirene smiled, her eyes gleaming with determination. "We'll leave at dawn. I'll start making the necessary arrangements. Buying a ticket to the underworld isn't easy, you know.
"Also, don't go overboard with your magic, you need to be well-rested to meet your distant relatives."
With that, she stood up from her chair and left the room to prepare, leaving me alone in the ominous room. After a long stretch, I leaned back in my chair, contemplating what I would be doing in the future.