CHAPTER 9 UNDEAD ARMY

Yama raised his right hand and summoned a rope like structure. It was black hunter with golden embroidery. He slapped the ground with the hunter and called, "My lord, witness the might of your loyal devotee. Those who wish to serve my lord rise from the slumber of death".

Thousands of skeletons were already present there and now more are coming out from the land. Om was surrounded by skeletons, there was not even space to step to the ground. The skeletons as big as buildings to as small as a rat came out. The whole scene was witnessed by Om while mounting on the skeleton horse. Om was astonished of Yama's abilities yet felt guilty for disturbing the dead.

Feeling guilty, Om stopped Yama, "stop, what are you doing?"

Yama replied, "I am building an army of loyal subjects to serve you to your cause, my lord doesn't feel guilty, it was their idea. Since there is no heaven and hell, souls have no place to go and are stuck here. With me as a medium, they want to serve the one who I serve."

Yama slowly raised his both hands sideward, his body was now radiating dark aura, his eyes released black flames. All the skeleton present there were on dark flames, howling and roaring. Motivated from the roars of dead, Yama, "let's build a new hell where soul will pay for their deed by be at your service, my lord."

Panicked Om, "but from the looks of it You are forcing them to do this. Your skill 'necromancy' attracts dead in lust for revenge."

Yama calmly replied, "my lord, this dimension is unstable and could be destroyed soon. With the destruction of the dimension, souls of deceased will be destroyed too. As a former judge and god of death, I can't avoid my duties. I possess some skills that can call and preserve the dead. I help them in surviving, and in return, they help me serve you."

From the back of skeleton horse, horrified looking at the skeletons on flame, Om, "Fine, but if you use them in battle, they may also feel pain or get destroyed or die."

"No worries, my lord, even after burned or crushed, they never die. Upon destruction of their skeletons, the soul will return to me. And can be called again with new skeletons. Some soul can take over other non-living objects to form a new body. You can also say that they are immortals, stuck between the cycle of life and death. Furthermore, their strength is directly proportional to their potential and my strength." Yama explained.

Om after hearing confident words from the mouth of Yama, "fine, I will allow you to use your powers, but you will never summon or call innocent souls in battle."

Yama replied, "my lord, if they wanted to battle or serve you for your sake, I will not stop them."

Angry yet smiling sarcastically, Om, "OK, fine, do what you want to do."

"All loyal subjects make path for our lord." Yama commanded the dead. On command from Yama, all skeletons cleared a path straight from the skeleton horse to Yama's Thorne and kneeled.

Om, who was not found of popularity and crowd, was feeling a little odd. He was blushing red yet witnessing the kneeled beasts skeleton's, he couldn't do a thing but walk on the path they created. He slowly came down from horse back, again looked around him.

The first skeleton he found was of a wolf missing a leg was near him. Without the muscles and skin on his bones, expressing the feeling is impossible, but for no reason Om understood that the wolf was smiling. Om quickly turned away from him and started to walk. The feeling of new responsibilities rushed through, and his head turned down. Now, the only thing he wanted to is, quickly end all this and return to his world.

"My lord, raise your head high, without you there will be no hope of me, these soul or for this world. You are our hope and My lord who I wish to serve for eternity." Yama said this to motivate Om.

After listening motivational words from Yama, Om questioned his existence, "why only I am here, this responsibility is too big, and I am alone not enough." Om didn't say a single word after that.

Upon, Om reaching to the throne, Yama, "lord, I was sitting on the throne but since now, you are here, take my throne as a first gift from me."

Om thought, "I hate this kind of treatment, all these souls are watching. What should I do now?" He wanted to deny Yama's request, but was unable to do it. He just sat on the throne like a king without even wanted to sit on it.

Yama shouted out loud, "hail to our lord."

After hearing the hail cry from Yama, all skeletons again roared black flames turned white and ignited more intensively and then again all beasts kneeled.

Staring at the gigantic army of skeletons, Om thought, "controlling this massive army of undead required a huge amount of Mana. How much Mana, he got to control them." Om opened a status window of Yama from his familiar's menu. There he found out that Yama's Mana status was infinite. Om was shocked.

Om asked Yama, "hey! Yama, why are your Mana stats showing Infinite?"

Yama replied with proud, "My lord, I, Yama was born as a deity, having limitless energy is natural, a natural trait for me. As a deity, I was given the responsibility to maintain the balance of the universe. Similar to me, all deities got authorization over certain laws of nature. And even in between deities, I am a little special because I have complete authorization over the law of death. To fulfil our duties, the Goddess nature let us use all her power's. Our divine bodies are not the source of energy, we continuously use the energy of Nature as per required. Mana is a synonym for word energy and Since there is infinite amount of energy in nature with it, my Mana is also infinite."

Om slowly digested everything and replied, "that's why when I use my divine body combining it with weapon master my stats become immeasurable."

Om stood from the throne walked near Yama, formed a fist and hit Yama on his head, "now that everything is clear. Answer me why you leave me alone. If someone had attacked me, I would have been dead by now."

Both started to laugh. Slowly, all dead started to turn into white balls of light, and were absorbed by Yama. Om asked, "your power of dead was dark in nature while, all dead that you absorbed now were of white. Why is that?"

Yama replied, "dark doesn't mean bad or evil, similar to that white is always not good or pure. While my power in nature looked dark, but in contact with natural energy it turned into white. Dark and light energies are primordial energies. As I already told you, I am a little special in comparison to other deities is because my power over dead or authority over law of death is part of primordial dark and light energy. There might be similar occasions when you get to witness different types of energies."

Then Om thought, "Yama's energy is a combination of dark and light energies. Then what about my energy? Why is it red?"

Yama took a while to answer Om's question. He turned his gaze towards Om's face and started to stare at his eyes. In the eye's of Om, Yama saw the entire process of creation to its destruction, cycle of life and death, past, present, and future. Yama then looked at the sky stared at the stars and said, "My lord, until now, what you used was red in nature, it means that the destructive power of you is red. All energies that are red in nature, make its user angry and sometimes emotionless. If you can control your emotions completely, law of destruction make your energy transparent similar to nature's energy which is commonly known as natural Mana".

Om moved his head up and down, "OK, I finally got it."

Om then asked, "you are here, but what about Soul? Where is he?"

"My lord, when you fell unconscious, I heard calls from all these souls. So, I left you in care of Soul. Thereafter, I don't know anything." replied Yama.

"So, you also don't know about Soul's location. Where is he right now? Hmm, if he is not here, then there is chance that he is wandering in the forest." said Om.

Yama replied, "My lord, the size of the forest is huge, and finding master soul is peace of hard work."

Om got an idea, but was shy to ask Yama for help. His idea was to send dead beast in the forest. With more numbers, finding Soul will become efficient.

While somewhere in the forest, Soul was watching some shadows of humanoid figures killing animals. Soul's both hand were folded. He witnessed the whole scene from abduction of animals to brutality of their deaths.