Chapter 22: Black Legion

The battle ended with the execution of the goblin lord. Not a single living soul was spared, all being killed swiftly by the blades of the skeleton brothers. Atlas ordered the brothers to conduct a search for all the bodies in the cave and to bring the corpses to him with equipment on them. This order was for obvious intentions, a melee army is weak on its own, but with ranged support; they may flourish. Especially with the skeleton army's natural resistance to piercing damage, they can now do manoeuvres that would usually be considered as suicide.

"Eldest brother, we have gathered all of the bodies, including the ones of the human prisoners." Blue announced.

"Very good, Brother. Tell each senior Brother to select 10 goblin corpses, except for the top 5, let them select theirs from the human corpses." Atlas instructed Blue.

"Yes, Eldest Brother." Blue responded as he went over to the senior brothers.

"Very well, with this extermination, our forces will gain an additional 250 brothers. Now I can extract the goblin lord's soul, and turn him into a Brother." Atlas spoke to himself.

"Lord Ainz would be so proud." He spoke again.

Atlas walked back to the corpse of the goblin lord, looking at the heavily damaged body of the animal. Atlas noticed during the fight that this creature was of at least 35th level, perhaps this one would make a great material for another brother.

Atlas placed his hand over the corpses ribs and extracted his soul without a further moment. Absorbing the soul was relatively easy since the goblin was not too powerful, giving only a small amount of power to Atlas. Atlas then began his spell process.

"Create low-tier undead."

The body began to absorb a mountain of negative energy, turning into a small mound of it. After a brief moment of stagnation, the mound formed another ordinary humanoid skeleton, leaving behind a small pile of melted flesh on the ground. This skeleton was already equipped with a gold plated plate mail with a mainly silvered base colour, with many small etchings on it. The skeleton spawned with a great helmet beside him and a golden bow. the skeleton rose up and equipped the two items, facing towards his eldest brother.

"Greetings Brother, is see you have been created at 40th level, Welcome to our brotherhood under Nazarick. Nazarick is the great tomb that gives us life and strength, serve Lord Ainz Ooal Gown with all of you strength." Atlas spoke.

"Yes, Eldest Brother, I will serve with all of my strength and end the enemies of Nazarick." The skeleton spoke.

"For now you are the Archer Captain, you will receive a name after you prove yourself in battle."

"Acknowledged, Eldest Brother."

Atlas returned to his brothers with the newly appointed archer captain, awaiting results.

"Eldest Brother, we have all raised our levels by 10 because of the technique you showed us, we have also gained 250 15th level brothers. Most of them are archers and some are mages." Red announced.

"Very good, Brother, let us leave this cave and regroup outside. I have important instructions for everyone." Atlas spoke.

The army slowly traversed the cave yet again, eventually getting back to the surface without a single injury. The brothers stood in a large formation outside of the cave in tight positions, ready to hear their eldest brother.

"Brothers, you see this stone? It is ours, it is Nazarick's! We have conquered this land and now we will expand the territory of Nazarick with the labour of our bodies. We will build our fortress in this very forest, but to do that, we must get rid of the nature that lives here. So my order is to CLEAR ALL OF THE NATURE WITHIN 100 SQUARE METRES OF THIS CAVE!" Atlas announced.

"Know this, we must get this done within a week. While we are undergoing this project, I will bring several units with me to cleanse the surrounding settlements. The creatures that live here are in the way of Nazarick! Our Lord Ainz Ooal Gown desires this land, so we will give it to Him."

"YES, ELDEST BROTHER! WE WILL BRING GLORY TO NAZARICK!"

The army of undead spent the next few days building a grand fortress that covered 100 square metres of land, fortified with archers at every point of sight, no invaders could hope to capture this keep.

Atlas and his subjugation units managed to destroy several towns and villages belonging to monsters and humans alike. This grew the numbers of the army even more, to the point that it could rival an entire nation. With this expansion of fighting force, the land was further cleared and utilised for the army's benefit, becoming a grand necropolis of the brotherhood. Nazarick had gained a large foothold within the short week. Within this week, the name of 'The Knight Of Grim' spread throughout the entire kingdom as people came to hear reports of a skeletal legion being led by a single knight. The entire kingdom of Re-Estize came to fear the name, as several settlements had already been completely eradicated by the legion.

—————————————————

Re-Estize Kingdom, E-Rantel:

"DAMMIT LENNOX! THIS IS GETTING OUT OF HAND!" The marshal shouted.

"Sir, the situation in the forest may seem grim, but we cannot expend so many soldiers at this time." Lennox explained.

"WHY?!"

"You have already heard about the situation with the Lizardman tribes... they are unity, they might already be planning to strike, if we send troops to the undead army... we may all die!" Lennox shouted.

"SHIT! I DO NOT CARE ANYMORE! FUCKING EIGHT FINGERS, LIZARDMEN, AND NOW THIS? Tommorrow we exterminate the undead, and kill their leader. THAT IS AN ORDER!!!"

The marshal pulled out a large map from his desk drawer and place it on the table, pointing his fingers towards a large 'X' on the map.

"This is the recently identified necropolis, where the Knight Of Grim is located. We will send an entire army to exterminate their forces." The marshal spoke.

"But we can't just send these troops with the mighty threat we already face!"

STAB

"SHUT UP LENNOX."

The marshal gave his orders to his subordinates, ordering them to attack at noon the next day, to completely destroy the undead forces.

Little did he know, this was already foreseen by Atlas. A human can only strategise so much with their internal struggles and conflicts, but the calm of the undead was unwavering. Atlas may live in dirty flesh, but he is a skeleton first and foremost. The intelligence of those under Nazarick far surpass what humans can comprehend.

"We march, to destroy... the Black Legion."