The Shadow Tombs

Two hours before dawn broke, David, Rebecca and the Raven ventured out and made their way up the steep stone steps toward the Shadow Tombs.

It was a long and silent climb towards the top and, with no sunlight or torches to guide them, Rebecca was terrified, desperately clinging onto the sleeve of the Raven. David and the Raven, however, had the ability to see perfectly clearly in the night so they had no problems finding their way.

Maybe it would’ve been better to leave Rebecca behind, David wondered. I brought her along because I was worried she might try to tell the village about us, but. He glanced over his shoulder at her trembling form. I don’t think she would, especially not after last night.

Even though they were both human in David’s mind, there was no way that they could have a normal conversation with one another.

No, it was worse than that.

There wasn’t anyone David could talk to normally.

Everyone saw him as the tyrannical and cruel Demon Emperor and nothing else.

He thought back to the pleasant conversation he’d had with Nate and Mellissa, the villagers and how he didn’t have to be the Demon Emperor here.

But no matter how much he treasured those times, he knew they couldn’t last.

Stop it!

Don’t think like that!

You can’t care about them.

None of them will know you killed them.

David had never felt so mortified in his life when he realised just how cruel those words were.

You already decided your fate when you accepted Eris’s offer. Now, you have to see it through or it will have all been for nothing.

When they finally arrived at the entrance to the Shadow Tombs, the sun had started to rise and a few beams of sunlight illuminated the necropolis before them.

It was just as gigantic and intimidating as he’d imagined, right down to the way the thick fog in the air made his skin crawl. The gravestones and tombs outside of the main structure were withered and old, and there were bones scattered everywhere.

Among the field of bones were corpses, some appeared very old given how much they’d rotted, whereas others seemed to be fresher, maybe only a day or two old.

Rebecca covered her mouth and shut her eyes, but it was too late and she threw up behind them. The Raven remained as calm as ever; David, however, was struggling to stop himself from doing what Rebecca had.

This is the reality of what I’m doing, David told himself, his teeth chattering. He closed his mouth as tightly as he could and started doing breathing exercises to calm his body down. If I can’t stomach a scene like this, then how the hell am I going to be able to give the order to destroy Black Port?

“…Let’s go.”

The Raven nodded, took Rebecca’s hand and the three of them slowly walked towards the main castle. David locked his gaze on a broken part of the wall near the main gate, and kept walking. Rebecca’s eyes were still closed, leaving only the Raven to keep an eye out for threats.

David could sense that there were a handful of skeletons and zombies stirring in the fields around them, but they were no concern to him.

He knew that he was more than enough to handle the undead.

“Your majesty, shall we deal with the undead here?”

“There’s no need,” David grunted. He stopped in front of the gates to the castle, turned around and raised a hand towards the field of bones. “They will handle the other undead.”

A black and purple magic circle formed before David’s palm from which mana started to pour. It slithered across the ground and wrapped itself around every bone and corpse. Skeletons and zombies rose up from the ground with a purple aura around them.

“Destroy them.”

David’s undead immediately descended upon the others, destroying all other monsters at the Shadow Tombs.

“I am, once again, in awe of your power, your majesty.”

“Your flattery is unnecessary. My powers are not public knowledge and will remain as such, I assume?”

“Of course, your majesty!”

“Lady Rebecca?”

With a slight jump, Rebecca timidly opened her eyes and looked up at the Demon Emperor staring down at her.

“…I won’t say a word.”

“Good. Then, let us proceed.”

David threw a powerful kick at the gates, blowing them off their hinges with ease.

He could’ve easily opened the doors or just walked through the holes in the walls, but David wanted to remind Rebecca and the Raven of his strength.

After what happened in Stonefall, some at the Dread Keep need another reminder not to defy me.

David scowled and bit his lip. I can’t let them put me or my family in any more danger than they already have.

His companions timidly followed David into the tombs to the deepest part of the castle, its crypts, where lines of unopened coffins lay. They had been sealed with magic runes and, based on the scratch and scorch marks around the room, many had failed to open them.

“Are these the undead we are after, your majesty?”

“Perhaps.” David raised his hand up again and conjured the magic circle he had used earlier. “If Nate’s theory is right, then there are some mages here that we could revive as liches to raise an undead army for us. Then, there would be no need for any one of us to do the process ourselves.”

David’s mana poured across the room and attacked the magic seals, breaking them easily before slithering inside.

Then, the coffins began to shake.

Cracks appeared in the stone before the coffins eventually exploded into tiny pieces, revealing the skeletons dressed in torn clothes holding rotting, wooden magical staves inside. One by one, the freshly raised liches clambered onto their feet, then dropped onto one knee before David and lowered their heads to him.

“We serve the Dark Lord!” They said in unison, their sickly, creepy voices echoing throughout the chamber.

“As expected of your majesty! I have never seen someone raise twenty liches at once before.”

That’s hardly a surprise when you aren’t even a year old, Raven, David thought, amusing himself slightly.

“You there,” David said, pointing at the lich he sensed to be the strongest. “You will be the lich king of this castle and command the others in my stead whenever I’m not here. Understood?”

The lich with a long, black beard with spiderwebs in it, looked up and bowed to David. “I graciously accept, my liege.”

“Excellent. Then, hear my words and follow my orders to the letter. You have one month to raise an undead horde of at least thirty thousand strong and then march on the trade city of Black Port. You are to slaughter everyone inside the walls, raise them as undead, occupy the city, then terrorise the areas within five miles of Black Port.

“You are not, I repeat not, to go further than five miles from Black Port until further notice. Then, once that area is under your control, you will take a few hundred undead back here with fifteen other liches and then continue raising undead. You will not leave the Shadow Tombs again until I order you to do otherwise. Is that understood?”

“Yes, Dark Lord!”

“Then, why are you still kneeling here?”

The liches bowed once more, then quickly departed for the main chamber to begin their preparations for David’s army.

Soon, we’ll see just how strong the Holy Empire really is.

***

I wasn’t able to stop him.

Right before her eyes, the person who had freed her and her servants from her parents, was ordering the slaughter of thousands without batting an eye.

She knew, deep down, that there was nothing that she could possibly say or do that would make the Demon Emperor change his mind, but that didn’t ease the pain grasping her heart.

Why don’t I have the courage to say anything again?

Rebecca had a small hope when the Demon Emperor had taken over her home that maybe he wouldn’t be as cruel as her parents had been and that Castle Kelsey might become a slightly safer place for her and the servants.

At the cost of her freedom and in order to protect the servants, Rebecca had to bear witness to the crimes that the Demon Emperor would commit and she wouldn’t be able to stop them.

She could’ve tried telling someone about him and his plans, or maybe have a servant leak the information in Stonefall, but she knew it wouldn’t be of any use.

Rebecca was too scared to even try to stop him.

She might have been freed from her parents, but she wasn’t free from the chains that bound her.

I might not be able to save these people, but there must be something I can do to try and save some people from the Demon Emperor. Even if I had no choice in the matter, I am a co-conspirator of the Demon Emperor and a member of his council.

If I have to walk down this path, then the least I can do is try to save as many people as I can and, to do that, I need to change. If he was willing to spare us, then perhaps he would be willing to spare other people.

Rebecca steeled herself and firmly looked upon the back of the Demon Emperor.

I will break free from these chains and do everything I can do to save as many people as possible by your side, Lord Allaric.