LIGHTNOVELONLINE Interlude - The Power of Old
Power of Old
Knight Commander Bailor Rew of the Order of Warbringers stood above the shore, far away from the Empire’s borders. It had been a long journey, and hard too. They had to get through nearly impossible to cross mountain range, and then fight both monsters and avoid the patrols from the enemy. The enemy’s focus seemed to be on the Empire and the Wall, but there was an entire swath of land beyond the mountain range that kept their Eastern border where they could’ve moved unopposed. True, it was filled with monsters, many of which were incredibly powerful, but many in the Orders believed that the enemy could’ve pushed its forces through there and attacked the Empire from the North, or even just avoided it altogether. Which meant that there was a reason as to why they hadn’t done that.
Still, the enemy had sent scouts, and Bailor and his task force had managed to avoid them all.
Now, he watched as another enemy came toward him, someone who he was supposed to think of as allies. Which was one of the hardest things that the Emperor had ever asked of him. He led the Order that was tasked with preparing the way for their attack on their enemies, and now… Now he was here, and supposed to welcome them with open arms. It was enough to make him want to scream, but he was a loyal servant of the Empire, and he would fulfill his duty no matter what.
He watched his new allies as they came to shore, quite interested in who they were. He recognized none of them, not from his own experience at least. But he had expected that, the deal that was struck between the Empire and the Settled Territories was that none of those who had been part of the war were to be sent. It had been hard enough convincing the heads of Great Houses to accept the deal as it was, if any of the old Rankers from the core came, none of this would work. There was a lot of animosity toward them, toward what they had done. A few stood out, those who had killed so many. In the end, this was better.
But… they had sent only seven. True, their plan required small numbers, yet Bailor had doubts. He knew that individuals with great power existed, but he just didn’t know how much they could truly help. Though the heavens knew that they did need help.
The seven that came on shore didn’t look that impressive and Bailor recognized only two of them. The two sect leaders of one of the strongest sects in the Core. Selia Ha Jhan and Erdania Xi Jhan, both were… powerful, High Rankers, though his information didn’t put them quite on the levels of some. Granted, getting information on the power of Cultivators was notoriously hard. Getting spies into sects was nearly impossible for the Empire as they had no powerful Cultivators, and even when they managed to get some, they were never granted access to the upper echelons of the sect because of their power.
The others were an unknown to him. There were two humans, one cthul, a ravzor, and another whose body had attributes of several races, though the base looked to be demasi. He assumed that she was a cultivator with some kind of strange true body, though it didn’t matter that much. One of the humans was tall, with black skin and wearing armor. On his hip, Bailor noticed a badge which with a use of a skill to look closer across the distance he recognized as a warden’s badge. The cthul wore all black robes, while the ravzor had a loose green tunic and brown pants on. The second human wore a classic sect robe, but what really drew Bailor’s attention were the cracks in his skin that leaked violet and black mist. Another true body he assumed.
Behind them, the sailors that rowed their boats were pulling something off of them that made Bailor frown. Two were massive identical boxes made out of wood, almost the size of a small village house or a cottage. They had tied it to the boat and pulled it over the water. The other thing was another box, though this one was far more ornamental and glowed with runes that Bailor assumed were formations. After a few moments of looking at it, he realized it appeared like to be a coffin. That made him frown, such things hadn’t been in use since the first few years of the Iterations arrival in the Infinite Realm. Still, he stood on the small hill above the beach and waited.
He had been just a child when the war happened, when he and the others were forced to flee. And he grew up on the run, in the wild where they fought against monsters every day. He had seen too many fall, and he had watched as those that survived struggled to rise and build up the Empire.
He took a deep breath and then gave orders to his people. Ten of them followed him down the hill and toward the beach where the seven stood around the three strange boxes while the sailors got back on their boats and left.
He steeled himself and made sure that his face was blank of all emotion as he stopped a short distance from them. The new arrivals were the ones to greet them first, and one of them stepped forward and bowed.
“Greetings,” the demasi, Selia Ha Jhan said, her bow was in the style of the sects, over her closed fist, then after a beat she straightened. She met his eyes, then gestured behind her and spoke. “We come to fulfill our part of the agreement made. Next to me are chosen representatives of different factions of the Settled Territories. All of us were chosen because we fit the terms your side set, because we have enough power and or the experience against these foes. With me are Wardens Zacharia Gardner and Nahamassa Plainrunner, Vryull Klaar, Maleatus Enis, Ryun Nacht and Erdania Xi Jhan. I am Selia Ha Jhan, it is a pleasure to meet you.”
Bailor’s eyes glanced in the direction of the shorter human, the one she named Ryun Nacht. Something about the name was familiar to him. He remembered reading something in some report a few years ago, but he couldn’t quite recall. He made a mental note to investigate further, as any piece of information was valuable beyond measure. The others he didn’t know, except for the Jhans of course. Bailor realized that he had remained silent and that everyone was looking at him with expectation. He inclined his head, and then spoke.
“I am Knight Commander Bailor Rew, with me are my Knights. I was tasked with escorting you to the Empire. And we do not have much time. We should be on the way immediately,” he gestured at the boxes behind them. “I don’t know what you’ve brought with you, but unless it can fit in your storage items… it will only serve to slow us down.”
“Ah,” Selia started. “I do not know what the two big boxes are for, but we should know shortly, as soon as our leader arrives.”
Bailor frowned. “You are not all here? Are they on one of the ships still?” He grimaced. “We don’t really have much time for—”
Selia interrupted him by raising her hand. “He will be here shortly,” then she turned to the two people closest to her, Erdania and Ryun, and whispered something to them that he couldn’t quite hear.
They turned and walked to the smallest of the three boxes, the coffin-like one, and picked it up carrying it to Selia then placed it on the ground. Selia then pulled out a small silver orb out of her storage, a Far-link Orb.
Bailor immediately stiffened and he felt his Knights do the same. He didn’t know what these people were planning, and a million things went through his head. For all he knew this was some elaborate scheme to finally end the Empire and all of their people. He was on the edge, almost ready to summon his weapons and attack, but the only thing that stopped him was the curious looks from the rest of their party. It seemed like not even they knew what was about to happen.
Selia had her eyes closed and her head tilted, for a few seconds, long enough for a short conversation. Then, she opened her eyes, and the coffin flashed. The formations glowed brighter and the chains around it unlocked themselves. Then a moment later the top clicked and shifted up just enough that white mist left through the cracks. Ryun and Erdania moved closer and grabbed the top, then pulled it off completely.
Bailor was close enough that he could see inside, and what he saw made him freeze. Inside the coffin was a body, a well preserved one though unmistakably dead. The skin was pulled tight, embalmed or preserved through some other means. Every inch of the body’s skin that was visible was covered in what looked like black tattoos, inscriptions that Bailor recognized as formations. The corpse opened its eyes and bright orange light shone out of them. At the same moment, every inscription on the body ignited with the same color. The body shifted, then pulled itself out of the coffin. The corpse was big, that of a demasi with white horns that were covered in inscriptions that now glowed orange, and white hair falling behind the gold and black headdress that almost resembled a crown. The pale blue skin looked smooth and almost glistened in the bright sunlight. Its clothes were resplendent gold and black cloth, embroidered with even more formations made out of thread that looked almost like it was made out of metal. Over the cloth came armor plates; one was on the upper torso, hanging from a double chain that went around the undead’s neck. Another was on top of both arms, circling the upper arms like some kind of a bracer. Several spread around the groin area, hanging on a half skirt that stretched almost to the ground. The tail was long and covered in tiny plates as well. Each of the plates, big or small, was as covered in inscriptions as the rest of the undead. Each plate gold in color with red gems set into the metal itself and with lines of inscriptions connected to them.
It held a large weapon in one of its hands, a cross between a spear and a sword, or perhaps a spear and a staff. A straight blade took about a third of the entire weapon, with the handle being the last two. The blade was black, with gold lines covering all of it, the handle-staff was bound in leather and had a large round gem at the bottom that shone with ruby light. On the left hip, the undead had a curved sword, a khopesh, hanging through a loop—likewise with the black blade covered with golden lines.
The orange glowing eyes looked at each of the people around it in turn, and then finally turned in Bailor’s direction. The undead met his eyes and he shivered at the intensity there.
This was… it was a powerful undead, more powerful than anything that Bailor had ever seen from the Empire’s necromancers. It was… there was something more about it that he couldn’t quite place.
The undead tilted its head, in a very strange way, then spoke. “We’ve arrived and had been welcomed, this is good.”
It spoke, and the deep and almost reverberating voice made Bailor shiver. It was… it didn’t look like any normal undead. It was more like the greatest of undead, those that had souls in them. Selia had said that they were waiting for their leader, but he… he didn’t think that they would take orders from an undead, even if it had a soul.
“What is your name?” The undead asked, snapping Bailor from his thoughts.
Bailor frowned, then narrowed his eyes and used one of his perks. Immediately he realized the truth. It was not an undead.
“You are not the tool, you are a necromancer,” Bailor said, he wondered where the necromancer was. Perhaps on one of the ships behind them. He was… unsure what all of this was supposed to be, but he was still wary of a trap.
“Ah, I apologize,” the undead spoke. “I am used to… this is not my land, and I am just a visitor, a guest. I should not have demanded a name without first providing mine.”
The undead straightened then spoke again. “I am Eratemus Prideborn, known by many names, but I doubt that you know them or even require them to know who I am.”
Bailor swallowed as he realized who he was standing before. There were tales of this necromancer, the necromancer, in every account of the war. The Lord of Death, the greatest necromancer in the world. He hadn’t taken part in the war, not to the same extent as the others of his Iteration had. But Bailor also knew and remembered a much recent encounter with this monster.
He was there when he and the Grey Horde ambushed the Empire’s army. When he decimated it with his undead. To stand now before him… A part of him wished that he could just order them to attack, but… even if they had a chance against him it wouldn’t matter. He was not here, he was projecting himself from somewhere safe in the core. At least that was one of the suspicions that his informants and spies had come to. He was one of the most elusive High Rankers, and Bailor didn’t for a moment believe that his rank on that list was real. This was one of the most dangerous and powerful beings in the world. And it was here, waiting for Bailor to escort it to the Empire. It nearly made him laugh, the turn of events and how insane everything could get in just a few short years.
“I am Bailor Rew, I command your escort. We… we need to get on the way, as soon as possible. Those big containers behind you… I don’t know what you have in them, but they will only slow us down.”
The undead, the vessel for the Lord of Death, Eratemus, just waved his hand. “It is no issue,” he then turned and raised his hand at one of the containers. The front of it slid open and only glowing eyes could be seen in the darkness. A moment later armored skeletons spilled out, with swords at their hips and shields on their back, they walked out of the container until all two dozen of them were out.
With one look Bailor knew that each of these undead was equal to some of the most powerful monsters that he had ever faced. Each had that eerie look of the undead, but each was also a work of art. Their bones plated in black metal with gold formations inlaid over it.
Without any delay, half of them moved as one to the second container, arranging themselves around it and picking it up. Carrying it on their shoulders.
“There,” Eratemus said. “We will not be slowed at all, I assure you, the living flesh will tire before my creations.”
Bailor nodded his head, equal part impressed and terrified. “Then, we should move immediately.”
Eratemus nodded, then gestured and a few of his remaining skeletons picked up the coffin.
“I agree, for now I shall remain in this vessel. There are things that I need to speak with my team about, and I would very much like a more in-depth account of what is happening in your Empire—your people were not nearly as forthcoming as I believe they should’ve been.”
If the body wasn’t so clearly unable to show facial expressions, Bailor was certain that the necromancer would’ve scowled at him.
There wasn’t much that he could say to that, so he just nodded, then gave orders to his people to start taking down their camp.
It was a long way back.