Raising an Army of Undead

"Why not? It's not every day I can help out our city's honoured warrior. What do you want?"

Perhaps due to alcohol, Lloyd felt a lot more approachable. It seemed his smile was sincere for a change.

"I need more of the black goo. I have 39 hours left."

"Sure, take as much as you need," Lloyd said dismissively. "But it won't work anymore."

"What?!" Kai suddenly stood up in fervour as the City Lord Lloyd's usual imposing attitude seemed to dwarf in comparison to Kai's. "You used me!"

"So?" Lloyd replied after shaking the liqueur in his chalice. His eyes wandered for a moment before adding, "This is my city. If it helps me protect it, I'll gladly grind you into dust."

"Father!" Alexandra suddenly interjected. Kai stood silent, which was always intimidating.

"Andra, leave! This matter does not concern you."

"How can it not concern me when you said you'd grind my friend who saved my life into dust?!"

Lloyd didn't look to be regretting his words, and before he could say anything else, Kai spoke up again, "I understand."

"Kai, how can you accept this?! I will help you escape if that is what you want to do, I will pay you back for saving-"

Lloyd drank what was left in his chalice and looked into the eyes of a certain skeleton, "He knows I am the only one who can provide the treasures he needs. I am the only one who can stabilize him. If he escapes, he dies."

Kai stayed silent while Alexandra seemed to be wanting to argue, but she could find no words. She cursed herself for bringing Kai into her home and cursing him through her father as such. She wanted to apologise to Kai, but that would do no good, either.

"So, what do you want me to do for something that will stabilize me further?"

Kai's voice almost seemed somewhat cheerful and more human. At least this slight change in his tone of voice was enough to remedy Alexandra's bleeding heart albeit marginally. She cursed herself inwardly again.

"That's what I like to hear!" Lloyd replied cheerfully again. Even as a drunkard, Lloyd seemed to be too clever by half, as well as calculative. "Say, what do you think about assassinating a higher demon?"

"I'd probably die, I'm not exactly the most inconspicuous thing here."

"Right," Lloyd said and raised his voice, calling Gort over as he added, "You know what to do."

Alexandra meekly started following Kai who was leaving quietly with Gort. To which Lloyd raised his voice again, "Andra, you may go back to your room."

"Yes, father."

…

Gort led Kai to a basement room with hundreds of goblin bodies inside while mumbling about taking care of useless skeletons. Some of the goblin bodies had started rotting while others seemed newer.

"What am I supposed to do with these, then?" Kai asked, with somewhat of a worry in his tone.

"Raise them all, use your skill to empower them, and then destroy them all. Don't destroy even one before all are raised," Gort said with a voice that had neither empathy nor pity in his voice. To him, it was just another mission from the City Lord. It was obvious the skeleton should do his job.

"Surely, you are joking-"

Gort closed the metal door without saying another word. Kai was alone in the room with hundreds of corpses. Sure, he had raised some undead in the heat of the battle back then, but it was different this time. He felt like he'd be violating the corpses if he brought them back without a reason. Furthermore, he couldn't really control his undead properly when they numbered ten. Even with his new skill, he didn't think it would be possible to control hundreds.

He checked the time once more.

*39:09:08*

As the seconds continued counting down, fear appeared in his heart. What if the timer really ran out? Would he just be erased from existence? Would he die and go to heaven, or likely hell? Kai cleared his mind and focused on the task ahead. If he was running out of time and was nowhere near finishing his task, he'd steal some treasures if he could.

Outside, Gort stood next to a woman with an aura that exuded nobility, a woman who had followed the two without her father's permission. Alexandra could already hear what Kai was doing inside, the sounds of undead continued to become louder and numerous as time passed.

"Lady Alexandra, you should return to your chambers as the City Lord commanded."

"Commanded?!" Alexandra scoffed. "I will do what I want."

Gort couldn't speak further. After all, he was technically an underling to Alexandra, as well as the City Lord. He had always thought of her as naïve, he never truly respected her the way he respected the City Lord. Gort knew the best of his prowess in battle. The City Lord was probably the strongest thing amongst the underground cities. Sometimes he wondered why the City Lord didn't just go and destroy all threats, but he also knew the City Lord was far smarter compared to himself, so he never brought it up to him.

"Just don't go inside," Gort added. "He is raising undead that he cannot control. I will be here for safety."

"Safety of Kai, or safety of the city?"

"The city cannot be lost, the crossdressing bastard of a skeleton can be lost," Gort had no mercy in his voice, but also had a tinge of spite. It seemed he was still bothered by the fact that he tried to court Kai back then, thinking it was a woman similar to his own stature.

Alexandra felt talking to this brute was useless as she also chose to wait outside the door, albeit multiple attempts from Gort to send her away. After around half an hour of waiting, the duo felt a chill created by the Light of Death skill. Gort would never mistake it, even from a distance. He had seen the City Lord use this skill before. It was far more terrifying than what the skeleton has been using. They then still heard a thud even with the sounds made by the undead. It was as if something really big had fallen.

"Kai?" Alexandra yelled, coming closer to the door.

There was no sound except the undead.

"Kai, are you okay?"

There was still no sound from him. She immediately rushed to open the metal door, to make sure he was all right. She heard Kai's voice at that very moment.

"Don't open the door. Call for Gort!" he yelled. "I raised them all and used my skill and buffed the fuckers. They went crazy! They are far stronger than before!"

"Gort, I command you, save him!"

"The City Lord's commands supersede yours," Gort said and continued guarding the door. He would only interfere if the undead managed to kill Kai. He was undoubtedly a shocking weapon in the eyes of the city's enemies, yet if he couldn't improve, it would be better if he died there and stayed as hidden leverage in the eyes of the said enemies. This was Lloyd's reasoning.

Gort then got closer to the door and spoke, enunciating each letter very clearly, "If you can't do it yourself, they will be your executioners," and added, "Using a high-level spell like 'Light of Death' on hundreds of undead as a lowly necromancer, they will squeeze you out of your mana and eventually kill you."

After a series of curses from Kai, Gort almost considered going inside and beating him to death himself. However, that wasn't the point. He knew even if the City Lord's methods seemed unconventional, Gort trusted his judgment.

Kai looked at the hundreds of undead he managed to raise when just ten of them had caused him to feel light-headed before. The undead he raised clawed at him and tried to bite him as much as they could. Unbeknownst to Kai, using Light of Death on such a large number of undead had levelled his skill to Level 3. The skill's description hadn't changed at all, but his undead were at least better than the undead army that attacked the city. These were made of goblin bodies, too.

"All right, then," Kai tried to grin as much as he could without a face as he gazed at the rabid undead he had created. "Time to party, I guess."