Deus Necros

“Inside enemy territory? You’ll be caught.” The caution was not fear. It was the old habit of a ruler who had learned that walls do not only keep men out, they also keep voices in.

“This is the best way to do it,” Ludwig explained. “Since if I were to fail in doing so, I can immediately return to my death point.” The notice still hung in his mind where it had struck earlier at the gate. A saved place. A promise that the sand would be under his feet again if the night decided to close its fist.

“It’ll cause too much of a ruckus.” The Knight King seemed interested but still wanted to reveal to Ludwig where things might go wrong.

“I have a way around that,” Ludwig said as he pulled a small crystal from his pocket. The crystal was embedded with what looked like glyphs and magic insignias, lines interlocking like chains made of light. “And right now is the best time to use this.” He rolled it once in his palm. It was heavier than it looked. The edges were perfect facets that caught the candle flame and made it into a thousand small trapped suns.

“What is that?” The Knight King asked, intrigue filling him as he wasn’t always with Ludwig. And never realized that he obtained an item with such magic power and output.

“Something I got from my master. It’s a tool that isolates space for some time. Similar to what the Witch of the mare had done to her territory.” The memory of that pressure returned, the way sound had flattened and time had been taught to walk in a smaller room. He had hated it, and he needed it now.

“And why have you decided to do this right here, instead of back at the academy?” The Knight King asked, more questions to reveal the broad picture in Ludwig’s mind more clearely.

“The academy was on tight watch, everyone was keeping an eye on us, especially me and master. We even got raided by the holy church. It would have been a hassle to cover up necromancy, unlike normal dark magic which can be wiped.” He remembered the smell of incense stubbornly clinging to stone, the polite eyes of men who wanted him gone, the way a whisper had learned to take the shape of his name at every corner.

“And here?” the question came instantaneous.

“Well, they’re not very against dark magic here in the desert, no better place to try it here. So, are you ready?” He set the crystal on the table for a breath, as if asking it to confirm its worth, then took it up again. Outside, another red flower climbed and burst. The palace answered with nothing, as if what it had sent before in term of soldiers under the guise of the night was more than enough to wipe all and any of the kingdom’s worries.

“You’ll have a lot of explaining to do if I were to actually revive. Although I think you’ll need a proper body for me to revive into…” The Knight King seemed to approve but still worried for Ludwig’s safety. After all, having an Undead companion where he had none before would definitely make people ask questions.

“What do you mean a proper body?” Ludwig smiled as he tapped his side. The smile was not for show. It was the small relief a craftsman feels when his hand falls on the tool he meant to use all along.

The Umbral Codex appeared out of thin air, the leather book opened and a couple pages turned, the drawn body of the Knight King, former ruler of Tibari, showed up in there. The cover had taken on a darker sheen since the glutton infested lands, as if it had been drinking shadow, and the corners were worn by the weight of being hidden too long. The pages knew his touch and went where he wished without being told twice.

“That’s me…”

“I thought you knew…” Ludwig frowned. He laid a palm against the parchment. The ink lines had the depth of scars.

“No, I didn’t, I always thought I was tethered to the book. That it was a mere drawing…But now I see it, it feels more… real.” The voice thinned for a heartbeat, then steadied. The Knight King had always kept his center even when the world stole the ground.

“It is your body, I placed it here after you were defeated. No wonder you never saw it,” Ludwig said as he placed his hand on the page where the knight’s image was. The contour was not only a picture. It held that particular echo strong things keep, the sense that if you turned away and then looked back it would have changed where it lay.

“Emerge,” Ludwig said and waved his hand from the book’s page to the ground. The motion pulled a line of cold through the air that set the candle flame to a thin blue.

The body appeared, it had the same injuries and tearing as it did when he defeated him alongside his master. The great rent across the breastplate, the long bite along the left thigh where steel and something worse had eaten, the silvered ash at the hairline where a spell had licked and tried to claim the skull. But the slob and slime of the gluttonous death was no longer there. The body felt far too damaged to be used in anything, but it was still a far better choice than putting the Knight King’s spirit into a body that didn’t belong to him. The weight of it made the floorboards give a little groan. The smell of old steel and older grime rose from it, not foul, only honest.

Ludwig wasn’t going to repeat the same mistake that the bastards Sebas and Evan had done to him. Where they killed him when he first appeared in this world, and carved away his organs. The memory slid a knife under his ribs and then withdrew it, leaving only the clean ache of a scar. There are lessons a man need not learn twice.

Ludwig had learned under his master a bit more about necromancy. What those two did was foolish, they wanted to remove all organs to weaken the heroic spirit. Since they couldn’t control a hero summoned by the gods to this world, what ended up happening was that they fully removed his qualifications as a hero and only revived a normal skeleton. Although Ludwig was abnormal since he was able to retain his memories and improve to be what he is today. His hands had discovered strength where bone met will, and he had built the rest by refusing to fall a second time.

Though he couldn’t admit it, somehow this was much better than becoming something like Hiro. The thought passed like a shadow and was gone, leaving the room brighter by a fraction.

As for the Knight King, though the Gluttonous Death did a number on his body, he still retained most of his body. And unlike an Unwilling soul, the Knight King was a companion in many deaths and battles. He wouldn’t refuse the revival. The respect between them did not need the ceremony of oath or the polish of court. A companion and a teacher. Though they started their journey on the wrong foot, they still became great friends. Surely it would help in the revival process, even for just a bit.

“So, let’s get started,” Ludwig said as he tightened his grip on the crystal until it shattered, engulfing them in a purple dome that allowed no one to hear, or feel anything that was about to happen. The sound of the break was soft and crisp, like thin ice under a careful heel. The dome rose without a seam, light falling along its curve in slow bands, and the room stepped a little away from the world. The fireworks outside climbed and died in silence. The torch on the wall burned as if behind glass. The air grew clear and exact. Even the dust that had been circling in the candle’s weak heat set itself down and waited.

A notification showed up in front of him.

[Necros’s Gaze is upon you.]

Ludwig smiled, perhaps, unlike where he summoned normal Undead, this time things will be different. Since even Necros seems interested.