Whispers of a Dead Empire

Chapter 37

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I dropped my hands like Alessia showed me and kept my sword in the ready position. My arms ached from the strain of holding the blade, and my feet were spread apart just like how I was shown. Alessia stood in front of me and held her sword in the same position. The blade was pointed directly at me and held by a steady hand.Her eyes were locked onto me, and she watched my every move. Even before I moved, she was reacting to my next strike. Though it was more of a spar than an actual fight. For the last few hours, she showed me various positions with the sword and properly blocked and moved around.

Growing up, I never had much knowledge of the sword and always thought that you blocked with the edge of the blade-like I saw in movies. Instead, you have to block with the flat of the sword and try to deflect the blade the best that you could.We went back and forth once more, a bit faster than before, as I worked at swinging my sword and deflecting hers in the process. It took me a short while to get used to swinging around the sword, but I realized that I actually really enjoyed this as I got better. I loved the feeling of life that coursed through me as we danced around each other, blocking and riposting each strike. I never saw myself as a person who would love stuff like this, but to be fair, I also never would have thought I would have become a domain god.

The wind kicked around me as I stepped backward and deflected the blade as it plunged towards my chest. I wasn't worried about it hurting me since I had complete faith in Alessia. Still, my heartbeat grew heavier in my chest as I felt my arms reach their limit. "Enough." Alessia stopped her blade mid-swing and quickly sheathed it. It really astounded me how well she moved with it. I was, but a child compared to her. She was monstrous, and since she didn't suffer the stamina penalties that I did, it made her all the more terrifying to me. I swallowed a breath of the cool air and rifled through the notifications that have been building up since I started training.

I sat down on the ground, almost moaning from how good it felt to get off my feet. This was hard work, and I did not have the cardio for it just yet. Though I am happy to say that it was getting much easier for me to do it. I could feel my body getting more robust with each passing day. The only thing I had to do now was level up. But I wasn't too keen on killing anything.My eyes lazily glanced at the notifications that had built up since I started today's training. It was handy having something like this, but it was also annoying at times. I brought the notifications up after a brief mental struggle. I just wanted to sleep, but I wanted to get this done first.

Wait, I unlocked new undead? I quickly skimmed over the title, thankful for the slight boost in stats, but really the undead had my interest. Though the one thing that I didn't know was that I had dark magic. I didn't realize that a single mob here had access to that. I was also slightly jealous that they got to use magic, and I didn't. The zero caught my interest as well, and after a brief look over, I saw that it was just a fading soul. Poor thing. I would find a use for you yet, don't worry.

I glanced at Alessia and gestured for her to come over to me. I wanted to teleport over to the stronghold and test out the new undead that I had. Mostly since I wanted to fold them into the legion. Once I figured out what everything was, I would create more ferals to populate the surrounding forest. But in all reality, I was beyond excited about this. My domain was growing more powerful as time went on. But that also meant that I had to flesh out more lore about why things are the way they are. Just more things to work on, I guess. I glanced at my domain screen and saw that my timer was slowly ticking down for when my protection period ends. I still had a little less than a month left before it ended. A month didn't really seem like all that much time.

It's funny, I didn't think that much time had passed, but everything was different here, I suppose. I still had time to build up the entrance a bit more, and the undead was laboring around the clock, adding in buildings and small outposts for future use. I still had to set chests, respawn, expand my domain more, move past my first level, and hit t2 before anything else. I rested my hand on Alessia's shoulder and teleported back into the stronghold with the intent to mess around with my new mob types.

However, I wasn't expecting to appear into a flurry of activity. Undead were rushing towards the walls as fast as possible while other zombies were clearly sprinting, aiming towards the holes in the wall. I saw the captain directing some squads and pointing towards the purposefully destroyed spots on the wall.

"Mistress, I need you to get into the main building now." Kharon's monotonous voice tore through my thoughts and added another layer of confusion.

"Why, what's going on?" The reason I came here was quickly swept away as the activity mounted around me. In the distance, a thunderous roar shook the air, and a sliver of fear pierced my heart.

"Some of the ferals are attacking the stronghold in mass. While they will not harm you, I still fear you getting caught in the crossfire." Kharon reached out with his boney hand and pulled me backward towards the central building. Panic clouded my thoughts as heavy steps filled the air with another bone-shattering roar.

"Wait, let me help." I hissed out as I was pulled against my will.

"No. Not yet. You are far too weak right now. Let us do our jobs." Kharon slammed his teeth together and brought me into the main lobby.

I was a little angry at that. I wanted to help them out, but a part of me felt anxiety at the thought of killing. It was something I've never done before, but I knew it had to be done if I wanted to get stronger. "Please let me do something." I shot daggers at him, hoping he would relent. I refuse to sit around useless in my domain.

"Fine, just spawn in reinforcements for us and gear, but stay here, Calixa." His scarlet red eyes affixed me and burned holes into mine before I finally relented, daring me to fight him on the matter.

"Sure. I'll do that." I crossed my arms and brought up my menu. I'll listen to what he has to say for now. It just didn't feel right for me to sit here doing nothing while everyone fought and died out there. I could stop it with the snap of my fingers, but it's something that I would have to let play out. No matter how much it hurts me to do it.

This struggle was unlike anything that I have ever felt before. It all just felt so wrong to let them do this to each other. I steadied my shaking hand and began selecting the templates that I want to summon. I didn't want to bite too far into my reserves, so I summoned many regular mobs and equipped them with the new combat uniform I made for them.

The room lit up with ominous lighting as they slowly rose from the ground. I might summon a few of the new T2s as well. I selected the brute template and summoned it and was shocked to see that it was almost triple the cost of a base undead. The summoning circle grew in diameter as a large bald head rose from the floor, followed by a body that dwarfed everyone in the room.

This brute stood at almost two meters and was made of thick, corded muscles. Viens crisscrossed its body right underneath the skin that was pulled taut across its muscle. Its chest was so large that it couldn't spawn with the combat uniform on and instead wore the pants, which only barely contained the massive muscles that made up its lower half. Its milky white eyes slowly traveled across the room, and it released a deep roar that shook the lobby and caused my ears to ache.

Across its flesh, open wounds festered, and pus dripped in a constant rhythm. I didn't know what it took to create a creature like this, and I didn't want to have to find out. I summoned a few crates of bows and arrows, along with the swords and shields that I made. "Everyone, take gear out and join your comrades on the front lines. This strong hold is not to fall." I tried to sound strong and commanding, but there was far too much going on for me to approach this with any sort of cool head.

The brute reached forward and quickly grabbed a few of the crates and lumbered out of the building, followed by the host of undead. "Kharon, what happened here? Why is there a war going on outside of my stronghold?" My voice a quiet hiss as I tried to contain the flurry of emotions that filled my chest, all the rage, and confusion, but most of all, the feeling of being useless.

"They have been besieging us since you finished with Aaron. They have been evolving the last few hours rapidly and have been keeping us on our toes. More than likely, there is an intelligent undead amongst their ranks that is orchestrating this." He had his violin ready and was resting against the now-closed wooden door, ready to spring into action at a moment's notice.

"That would explain the slew of evolution notifications I got while I was training with Alessia." I mused to myself as I felt my heart rate calm a bit. It was like Kharon said. They wouldn't hurt me. I just had to stay out of the crossfire, and I would be alright, yet that didn't feel right to me.

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