14 Undead Mage
Henry was walking down a stone corridor. He wore a weirdly decorated robe which covered his bandaged body.
His master recently left on some business so he's currently free to roam the castle. Surprisingly, the only orders he got was to not escape, he worried he might be ordered to run laps until she came back.
As Henry walked down this corridor he soon stopped by an old door which led to the old library.
He anxiously opened the door and was met by an impressive sight. At first he thought that, since this world resembled medieval times, books would be rare and expensive, but that was not the case it would seem. The library was jammed packed with shelves upon shelves filled with books.
Each section of the bookshelves was marked in some kind of letters, but he did not understand at all. He walked to the farthest back of the room and picked out a random book.
He was surprised at the weight of the book; it must've weighted more than 10 kilograms. Inside of the book was not surprising though, it was packed with hand-written language he did not understand at all.
Henry just kept scrolling the pages and after he finished he grabbed another book. He was looking for something…specific.
After another three books he finally found whatever he was looking for. The book was pitch black and was covered in a thick layer of dust. The pages looked ancient, but surprisingly were made out of paper and not a weird parchment like the other books.
The page Henry was looking at had a big magic circle on it. There was some small hand writing to the side of it, possibly explaining the magic circle in detail.
"This is it, maybe" Henry mumbled to himself and stood up.
He took the book and hid it in his robe before leaving the library.
---
I need to learn the language after all… I read a lot of fantasy books in my life and the main character would usually learn the language effortlessly, it's not that easy in real life though…it's real life, right?
I do understand people speaking so it might be easier if I find a teacher…but it would have to be her then.
"*sigh* I don't want to do this, but I have to."
I readied myself and knocked on a large double door.
After a moment an elf in a maid's outfit peeked through the door, but almost immediately went back inside. A few loud sounds behind the door went off, but I was eventually let inside.
The room I entered was very, VERY luxurious. I could even see silver plating the windows and the bed! Do these people not know the value of silver? Or is it that common in this world? The coins are made from it though…
"What do you want?" an arrogant voice asked me all of a sudden. It was the haughty princess…damn I wish I had a knife right now.
"Since my Master left, I thought I'd get more useful for her sake and learn something new, reading for example…" I tried to come up with an excuse so she'd teach me. Yes, I actually came here to ask her to teach me the language.
"Ha! Are humans that stupid? You can't even read, all you know is how to swing a piece of metal around!"
"Could you please teach me?"
"Grovel. Then I might consider it."
Tsk, this bitch. Damn I hate her so much...When did I become so aggressive…?
I never wanted to kill anyone, even in my past world I never hated or despised anyone at all. At most I would not like a person, but I wouldn't go out of my way to try to make them miserable or wish for them to die…
As I contemplated on my recent mental changes I slowly got down onto the ground with my face down, it's so humiliating…
"Good good, what a nice pet you are. Hmmm, how about you roll like good doggy, then, I'll teach you!"
Come on, just suck it up for now…
I did as she told and rolled around on the floor like some kind of dog.
"Will you teach me now, m-milady?"
"Yes yes shut up and wait for now. I'm busy. I'll do it when I have time."
After that I waited and waited until the sun disappeared behind the horizon…
"Good job waiting like a good puppy. Come, I'll teach you a bit now." She suddenly said, all the while having a huge evil grin on her face.
---
"Shit shit shit shit shit! Why is this happening to me!?" a hooded figure shouted as it ran through a muddy forest. The sun has already set and it was raining intensely.
The figure ran and ran, all the while trying to not fall over the protruding roots of old trees. After a couple of minutes it finally reached its destination. It jumped out of the green forest and ended up inside a small camp.
A couple of people could be seen, but without saying anything they raised their weapons. Their target wasn't the hooded figure though, but something else.
"What's this presence?!" a man asked his comrades. He was a well-built man and looked like a veteran warrior, if you ignored his frightened face.
"I don't know, but it's nothing good!"
"It's coming!" the hooded figure shouted as it grabbed its bow.
What came from the tree line was…pure evil, if you could describe it like that.
From afar it resembled a robed person carrying a staff, but it was not a person. Its skin was shriveled up and lifeless as if it belonged to an ancient corpse; in some places there was no sign of skin or muscle at all. The robe it wore was pitch-black, accompanied by a lot of dark red stains.
The staff slightly resembled its owner, by looking ancient that is. It was made from very old looking wood, with the top end of it having multiple gems embedded inside the mouths of the carved screaming faces.
"A god damn lich?! Why is it here?!!"
"That does not matter right now! Tine, make a protective barrier! Gustav, get chanting already!"
The people in question instantly listened. Gustav, the priest, grabbed his amulet and started chanting something incomprehensibly, while the party's magician Tine took out an old looking scroll.
She raised the scroll in the air and poured mana inside. The magic circle drawn on it started shining in bright purple color before burning up along with the scroll. After the flames vanished an anti-magic barrier surrounded the party.
"Will it hold?"
"It will. By decreasing its size, the defensive capabilities increase." The magician answered full of confidence.
The lich looked at the barrier and its empty eye sockets shone in a bright red light. The shriveled up corpse moved and raised its staff, thereby unfolding its bare arms. The staff shone in a dark violet color and the faces on the staff seemed to move for a second. The monster then slowly spoke.
"DeEaThhh tO yoU"
The night's sky turned even darker and hid all of the stars in the process. The shadows of the trees moved restlessly and then the magic took effect.
Its power was obvious. Everyone started restlessly coughing. Blood started coming out of their mouths and eyes, some even wanted to scream in agony, but could not move their mouths properly. It was a horrifying scene.
Then, suddenly, a piercing light started shining off of Gustav's necklace. The darkness of the spell dissipated and the people slowly recovered, though their fighting spirit barely remained.
"I-It overwhelmed the barrier" the magician said with a voice painted in horror. Her face was bloodied, but she didn't even try to clean it. She only stared at the monster with her empty eyes.
"Idiot! Why did you use an anti-magic barrier?! Liches are known for their dark magic, use the right attribute, you fool!!!" Gustav shouted in anger, to be honest, the scene of an old man, who kind of resembled a lich himself, was rather amusing.
*Kakakakakakaka*
The sound of colliding teeth, probably the undead-type of laugh, resounded.
Gustav stopped shouting and instead raised his hand. It had a precious looking white ring, which slightly shone in the darkness.
"Funny is it, devil? I'm going to purge you now."
The lich stopped clattering its mouth and gripped its staff. For a second, it looked like it wanted to say something, but instead pulled something out of its pocket.
To everyone's surprise, it was a dead rat.
"Kakaka. ChoOSIng thE riGHt WORds tO spEAk tO sOMEOne WHo's abOUt tO END yoUr liFE Is nOT somethING hUMAns aRE cAPAble oF iT wOUld SEEM. NeXt tIMe*kakaka* leaRN tO bEG."
The dead rat suddenly moved and stood on the lich's hand. It then ran about its arm and went inside the sleeve of the robe.
"SEE yOU LAteR huMANS *Ka Ka Ka Ka*. RISe MY FrIENds!"
After finishing its sentence something out of this world happened. The ground split and started spewing out blue flames. As the earth started to tremor, corpse after corpse climbed out of the crack. Hundreds, thousands of undead started reaching the surface.
