Resurrection and the Undead.

We were now in a huge hidden room in the castle. There were thousands of small tables with a body on them. They were all elves, and they were bodies I had created. They were modeled after the souls that would receive them. Since I had gotten the Jesters on my side I had been working on this.

I had analyzed Clayman's soul and had separated it back onto its components, so I now had 10,000 souls and one ego.

"This is… How?" Kagali was speechless once she saw all of the preparations.

"Magic" I gave her a wink and a vague answer.

"No time to waste." I said as I pulled the "soul" of Clayman.

The soul began to glow and it began to split apart into thousands of little strands that began to connect with their respective bodies. The "soul" in my hand was becoming smaller and smaller until it became the size of a grain.

The souls glowed with light as they entered their bodies. Since most of them would be in a process that would heal their souls it would take a while for them to wake up. Pointing to the small object in my hand I told them.

"This is Clayman."

"Are you… going to bring him back?" Kagali asked with a worried expression.

She knew that Clayman had planned to attack me, and knew of the possibility of me destroying Clayman's ego in retaliation to the attack. The only real problem with that is that the puppeteer was also a puppet. He had been mind-controlled by a mental domination skill. Clayman was a puppet of the Eastern Empire.

"Yes. I told you about it, Clayman was a puppet without knowing. But he will not be able to gain any strength. He will only be as strong as a regular human. And he will remain that way."

That answer had allowed Kagali to release a breath she didn't even know she was holding.

Just because he was a puppet it didn't mean I was still a bit salty with his behavior. I was already doing the Jesters a huge favor by bringing him back. But I wasn't going to let him gain his strength back. The pseudo soul I had created for his ego would be incapable of holding any skills or increasing in strength. Clayman was given a direction to follow but he wasn't given exact directions, so he was still responsible for some of the decisions he made.

I had created a replica of Clayman and placed his pseudo soul inside.

Chloe had an amazed expression on her face as she saw all that was happening. But we did take some steps back with her to give the Jester's some space. Clayman was the first to open his eyes and he saw the people in front of him.

"Kazaream? Footman? Laplace? Tear? How did I….? I thought I had died."

And before he could speak anymore they all jumped on top of him to have a short celebration.

"He is still weak from the process, I won't bring him back a second time you know."

Hearing my voice the Jesters pulled back from Clayman. It was hard to tell with their masks but it was clear that Tear and Kagali were crying.

"You! You were the one who-" Clayman tried to speak but he got smacked in the head by Kagali.

"Watch how you talk to our new boss." Kagali told him.

"New boss?"

…

After the Jesters had let Clayman catch up in information I had left them in the room for a moment with Kagali.

"You know I could put you in a replica of your body before you got turned into an undead elf? It would take some time for your soul to recover but at least you wouldn't be inhabiting a homunculus body. You'd be back to how you were before"

Kagali looked at me for a moment before she spoke quietly.

"It would be better to do this process with all of the Jesters and leave me for last."

She stayed quiet for a few moments again with a lost look before she spoke again.

"I don't know how you did it. And I know nothing I can do will ever be able to repay it. But thank you. You are bringing back my people. Something I thought would be impossible, and you are also rebuilding the country I used to be a part of.

Not only that but you brought back Clayman."

She looked through the window outside to Jistav and finished speaking.

"I guess you have already fulfilled your part of the promise even without bringing the rest of them back. Yet we haven't been able to do much with the guild and Cerberus yet.

Cerberus went into low profile mode the moment Yuuki disappeared. Even when I try to call a meeting they are reluctant to meet up."

I also looked out the window and sighed.

"Well, I guess I'll have to add that to the list. You said you haven't been able to do much with the guild but you have done what you can. We still have the constraints of the western nations to deal with for the moment.

I have some people managing Jistav at the moment, but I still haven't chosen someone to be the one acting as a proper leader. This used to be your country right? How good would you say you are at managing it?"

Kagali's eyes widened before she asked.

"You mean…"

"Why not? It will take some time to resurrect all of the elves using their souls since I don't want to destabilize Jistav by suddenly adding 30,000 people. So we will first integrate and make sure Jistav can take care of the new additions before bringing back any more of them. I will probably bring you back to Jistav after we settle what to do with the guild.

You used to be their leader both before Jahil went mad, and after you became Kazaream. So I am sure you will do your best to take care of your people."

"Why do you trust me? We were practically enemies not too long ago."

"So far you haven't done anything you were not supposed to while I left you alone in the guild. And, well, by this point it would just be the biggest act of stupidity to betray me. You know this too right? If you tried to backstab me it would mean the end of the Jesters, including you."

Kagali could only let out a firm nod.

"Plus we have similar goals. You just want to enjoy the world with your Jesters, and I can understand that."

I began to walk back toward the room where the resurrection had taken place.

"Let's go, the people should be waking up soon."

…

Meeting back up in the room Chloe went back to my side, she had a lot of questions but knew it wasn't the time.

I had called some servants to assist in directing the resurrected elves and called the representatives of the country I had placed to assist in getting them places to stay and letting them know everything they missed. Preparations for them were complete before I started so I would just leave the rest of the work to them.

I left with Chloe to meet with one of the main guardians of the kingdom, Adalman.

Adalman had become a pillar of strength for Jistav. Most of the undead he commanded had received a name through a Timuru in the church. Evolving them into many different and more powerful undead. Adalman himself had formed a soul corridor connection with me which allowed me to increase his strength, even though we had yet to meet. Adalman had also evolved his race to become a Death Emperor.

There were benefits and disadvantages to having become an empire. While we were in control of a large portion of the land it also meant having to protect all of that land. I couldn't just bring all of the strongest forces into Tempest, which meant having Adalman stay in Jistav.

In fact, once we finished working on the new training ground to strengthen our forces we would begin analyzing the best locations to place them. And soon enough warriors of the Empire would be free to come to the Labyrinth to train before returning to their kingdom to defend it against potential attackers.

Once we arrived at our location we were greeted by three people. Adalman, a skeleton wearing priest robes. Albert, a pale ghostlike man wearing armor. And Wenti, a pale woman that had a dragon aura around her. Wenti used to be the skeleton dragon that served Adalman yet she evolved after receiving a name.

Adalman had Diablo's signature excitement as he saw me. I was sure that if they met they would probably get along really well.

Once we approached they all kneeled on the ground.

"My god, it is my deepest honor that you have graced us with your presence."

"Stand up, we are here to take a look at your army. You don't have to worry about formalities that much, it would take too much time that way."

"I understand. I apologize if I inconvenience you. I know your time is extremely valuable" Said Adalman while standing up.

I patted his back as I passed him to enter the room and told him.

"Don't worry about it"

Adalman froze as I patted him, and after a few moments, he got back to action and entered the room after me.

"Thanks to your grace we have been able to improve the undead army tremendously. What was previously only skeletons and some ghosts have all evolved. And as we continue to practice with our god's guidance we continue to become stronger." Adalman began to explain.

The gigantic room was filled with undead.

"I continue to summon more undead every day until we meet the requirements you, our God, have set for us. I hope you are satisfied with our progress."

While I hadn't given out many direct orders Ciel had given them many orders while she was still Raphael in how to improve. And looking at the monsters inside here I could tell they had.

The report Shuna had given me was that the undead other than Albert and Adalman appeared to be only puppets without much sense of self, and judging by the undead in here I could tell that wasn't the case anymore.

There were Liches, Wights, Banshees, Deathlocks, Death Knights, Nightwalkers, Alhoons, Skull lords, Boneclaws, Will-o-Wisps, Poltergeists, Draugr, Bone Colossus, and many more different types of undead. All who appeared to be sentient. Some were training and some lounging around talking with other undead.

I had heard some reports of this through Ciel but it was incredible to watch so many different undead all together. That was until I remembered Chloe had entered behind me. I turned around to look at her but she didn't seem bothered by all the undead. Rather than scared she looked impressed.

"You really don't get scared by anything?"

"Why should I be scared when you are nearby?" Chloe answered, earning a few approving nods from Adalman nearby.

Once the undead noticed us entering they all turned to look and out of instinct bowed down to me.

"We have all worked according to your directions and our strength in the past is nothing compared to what we can do now. If before we could protect our castle now we can fight an empire. Your instructions on how to increase our strength have improved greatly in the past few weeks, so we have been able to make great improvements lately.

Albert, Wenti, and I have improved the most. And I hope for a time where we can show you our prowess and be of service."

…

Read author's note.