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Athos tried a few more times and found that his body held up almost any skill or spell he used, but there was a limit to how many skills he could maintain without becoming overwhelmed. Its maximum limit depended on the complexity of an ability or spell.

Abilities like death vision that used body parts he didn’t already have were impossible, but now Athos was sure he could get his entire body back.

“It looks like a magical support organ that stores energy and can be consumed if you’re in danger. It doesn’t feel like it can recharge on its own, so you’ll have to concentrate to recharge it, but it’s still a great skill.” Treevor spoke after Athos explained in detail.

“It’s really amazing, master. You could keep your abilities active with minimal expenditure, while focusing on fighting and casting spells, or vice versa.” Emilia cheered happily.

“It’s a shame it doesn’t regenerate mana by itself, but it’s still amazing.” Athos spoke up and concentrated on regenerating his body’s energy back to maximum before continuing. “There’s something I still don’t understand. Why did my body look like this?”

“I have no idea. Undead have unique abilities depending on their species and you seem to be a new species. I’ve never heard of black skeletons, but their ability to mass create undead is not common.

Most species have restrictions on transforming members of other races, but you don’t seem to have any. I only know of one species capable of creating that many soldiers. A lich.” Treevor looked at Emilia and asked.

“My knowledge is very limited by my incomplete education, but I’ve heard that you used to work for a powerful dark mage in human society. Perhaps you know some more?”

.....

Emilia thought for a while before answering. “I know of one, although I don’t think it fits what we’re looking for. There is a species of undead called a draugr that bears some similarities to the master. They are capable of releasing a cursed aura that transforms fallen warriors into other draugrs, but I doubt the master has any kinship with them.”

“Why? I’m sure I can release an aura that’s capable of creating undead, or at least something similar.” Athos spoke, but Emilia shook her head.

“Draugrs are only able to turn other warriors or people who died fighting into undead. The master has no such limitation. Also, draugrs cannot use magic, so their powers are quite limited.”

“Then all that’s left is the lich. They’re very powerful undead mages, capable of creating armies in a short time. They’re all bony and I’ve never heard of anyone capable of recreating the body they had in life, but do you have some pretty unique abilities besides your body so I think you’re a mutant or superior species.”

“What other skills?” Athos asked confused.

“Master, do you really think all of your abilities are normal? Absorbing a fraction of the power of each undead you create is something unheard of and would make most intelligent undead die a second time from envy if they knew about it.

I heard from the dark elder that whenever species like vampires turned humans into other vampires, they used up their own life force and that energy would be lost forever.” Emilia explained.

“Besides, this chain that binds our souls is also strange. Something capable of corrupting souls is not normal. We also have a hierarchy among us, decided only by your will, rather than the strongest being at the top.” Treevor added, but this time Emilia refuted him.

“I don’t know much about souls, but hierarchy is a common thing. A lich is absolute and all the undead are his slaves, but he can select competent slaves to become generals of his army.” Emilia said.

“I think we veered off topic a bit. What were you saying about my body and my abilities?” Athos caught everyone’s attention and urged Treevor to continue talking.

“What I was saying is that the lich is a magic-centric species, so it wouldn’t be strange for the chief to form a magic organ that aids in the use of magic if it’s really a superior species. We’d need to learn more about the undead to be sure,” Treevor said.

“Do you think you could replicate that in other of you? It would be amazing to have so many mages with that magical support organ as you call it.” Athos asked hopefully, but Treevor shook his head.

“I can’t be sure of anything, but I don’t think so. All the life force we’ve gathered goes to you, so that would be impossible.” Treevor spoke with disappointment.

“Well, we’re going to be here for awhile, so we’ll have time to experiment.” Athos dropped the bomb like it was no big deal. Treevor and Emilia stare at him in shock before Emilia asks stuttering.

“B-But, master. We weren’t going to flee to the demihuman empire? Why should we stay here? The realm will definitely send a subjugation army to destroy us, so why?” Emilia asked in panic, but Treevor understood and sighed, scratching the vines in the back of his head.

“You want this, don’t you? Wasn’t one war enough for you?” Treevor asked in exasperation.

“Exactly. Treevor, you alone would be more than enough to destroy this stronghold alone if you spent all your power, with the rest of the army it is more than possible to destroy an invading army as long as we prevent the use of large scale spells.” Athos spoke confidently.

“It’s still dangerous. The fortress has received reinforcements, remember? Which means the kingdom could send troops to target us at any moment. I don’t think it’s a good idea to stay and fight.” Emilia tried to reason with Athos, but he kept smiling at her.

“I highly doubt they’d be stupid enough to attempt this. Like the boss said, I could have crushed your army single-handedly and they know it. You’ve also seen the mage using a comm device to record the battle. They must be in an uproar right now, discussing measures to deal with me.” Treevor smiled at the thought of being feared, before shaking his head and realizing that this kind of thinking was foreign to him.

“Also, teleportation crystals are rare and hard to find. Crystals capable of moving tens of kilometers like my grandfather’s are even rarer. Crystals capable of moving entire armies are just myths. There must be some trick behind it and I killed the right person to tell us.”

“The general.” Emilia spoke and Treevor nodded. “You know, I thought you were against the war. I never expected you to support the idea of us staying.”

“I’ve just accepted that it’s useless to try to use logic with our boss. We can make the best arguments in the world and he’d still insist on us staying to fight, so we’d better save your energy and start thinking about countermeasures.” Treevor said and was surprised by his own words.

Normally, he would insist on fleeing, but something in the back of his mind was telling him to obey Athos’ will. The thought startled him and he quickly stopped thinking about it, deciding it was just his imagination.

“Anyway, we’ll still need to spend some time in the fortress, gathering the corpses and getting organized, so we can interrogate the general about how they received reinforcements and then we’ll think about whether or not we’re going to stay. How about that?” Athos decided to procrastinate the decision for now.

“Haah...just promise me you won’t make a reckless decision. You know what, forget what I said. Of course the master is going to make a reckless decision.” Emilia started to complain as she walked away, intending to find the general’s corpse soon and question him at once.

Trevor and Athos looked at each other for a second before following her, leaving the courtyard behind.

********

Throne Hall, at the moment the cube was destroyed.

“Oh my God!” The king screamed in fright and threw himself back reflexively, only to hit his head on the throne. Fortunately, none of the nobles were paying him any attention. All of them were in absolute silence, some trying to understand what they had just witnessed while others were trying to escape reality.

“What the hell was that?” A marquise asked for God only knows how long and as if on cue, an uproar began. All the nobles started shouting their opinions to each other, not caring about etiquette.

Treevor’s appearance and the power he displayed were enough to cause such panic. Plant monsters were incredibly rare. Plant monsters powerful enough to annihilate an army of crusaders and easily kill a combat-experienced general at the seventh level was a nightmarish motif.

But one capable of creating hundreds of undead at once and leading an army? This was madness. Such a powerful monster could threaten the entire kingdom.

In the minds of these nobles, the fact that Treevor was the leader behind all this was already an indisputable fact. The recording showed Athos turning other corpses into skeletons as well, but the impression Treevor left on them was so strong that they thought Athos was just some kind of assistant.