8 The Art Of Necromancy

After cutting through his second wight, Aerion continued forward at an average pace to conserve his energy. He did not know how many of them resided within the castle's walls but he doubted that it was only two. There were bound to be many more... otherwise, it would not be much of a challenge. As Aerion started to explore the castle, he wondered who that being earlier was. The being who had supposedly blessed him and prepared this trial certainly had some mystical abilities.

Is he... God?

The thought did cross his mind and it would have explained quite a lot. Being blessed by God was certainly amusing... considering his circumstances. One would expect a near-perfect life if they were truly blessed and Aerion's life was far from perfect, to say the least.

Perhaps this God pities me.

Aerion opened the doors to a window-less room and was warmly welcomed by an ear-piercing scream from a female wight. He closed the door shut and backed away before she could touch him.

"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!"

"Nevermind being blessed, I am cursed..."

Aerion moved to the side of the door and watched as it was barged open. Then, without hesitating for a single moment, he stabbed his sword into the screaming wight. Her screams were louder once she caught on fire... but those loud screams were followed by eternal silence.

Except for Aerion's flaming sword, of course.

Then the silence was broken by an ever-growing number of strange noises.

"REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

(Current objective: Survive.)

Aerion realised that this tight corridor with two different sides was not going to help him much against multiple wights, especially if they attacked him from the back. Standing around and waiting for them to get to him was not a wise idea... instead, he looked for a way out or, at the very least, a more advantageous place.

Unfortunately, there was no way out and every corridor was much of the same.

"REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-"

SLASH.

Aerion cut through another wight, his fourth, and continued to hastily explore the rest of the castle. With every turn came the disappointment of not finding any sort of exit into the exterior of the castle. In turn, he decided to seek out the remaining wights and cut them down one by one.

Fortunately for him, the wights were disorganised and scattered across the maze-like castle. As long as he confronted them first, one by one, it was unlikely that he would fail this challenge. However, if he waited for them to gather towards him, then that would truly be a troublesome ordeal.

With his flaming sword in hand, Aerion went on a wight-slaying rampage. Every time he saw one of those emerald-eyed, moaning and slow bastards, he would swiftly add to the number of wights he burned that day. Once he killed his thirtieth wight, the castle finally changed.

Aerion leaned against the wall, resting from his previous encounters. His breathing was more erratic than usual due to the physical exhaustion from slaying thirty wights. As he regained his breath, his eyes scanned across the similar castle, stopping at the only change he could notice.

The rather plain wall from before was now replaced with an extraordinary small black-emerald gate. There were countless strange emerald markings inscribed onto the gate, all of which Aerion had no understanding of.

Aerion looked at the round handle that was attached to the gate. He keenly listened for a few seconds just in case there was another wight around. After not hearing another set of footsteps, he decided to proceed further. There did not seem to be another way forward, after all.

He grasped the round handle and pushed it back, opening the gate to a basement of sorts. The small room was made out of black marble which had similar emerald markings spread across it, reminiscent of the gate itself.

The first thing he noticed was a flight of stairs descending into the depths. Instead of heading right in, he took a longer break. He formed some drinking water through his water magic at the small cost of 1 magic vitality.

This room is more attuned to magic...

Aerion noticed as his magic vitality was recovering at a far greater rate than usual. So, as this was the case, Aerion waited for his magic vitality to recover fully. This wait took no more than half an hour.

Aerion opened his eyes and stood up, raising his sword once more. He placed its edge against the blazing fire of the torch and willed the flames to engulf the rest of the blade. As he had done before, Aerion formed a layer of fire around his sword.

Then, after a slightly deeper breath, he descended the black flight of steps. Every step seemed to echo across his seemingly hollow surroundings. After twenty whole steps, he elegantly descended onto the marble floor.

The chamber was darker than the night except for the glowing emerald markings and scarlet torches scattered across the chamber. It resembled a tomb as there were nine coffins, eight to the sides and one at the very centre-end. The one at the end of the chamber was elevated by a single step as if the person buried was superior to the rest. The coffin itself was more unique to the other four, glowing with the same emerald markings while the others were plain black.

Boom.

Suddenly, the coffin at the very end was shoved open by a skeletal hand. Following that, a clothed skeleton rose from the coffin. His eyes glowed a powerful emerald tone... trapping Aerion within, but only for a moment.

"Ah, so you are the one who dared to slaughter my underlings. Hahahaha... to think that a young man would enter my domain so easily. How did you do it, I wonder?"

"I was sent here."

"Sent? How interesting... how interesting, indeed! But do you know the consequences of trespassing into my domain?"

"Death?"

Aerion gave it a good guess.

"Smart boy... then why did you trespass? Do you not fear death?"

"I trespassed your 'domain' for greater power." Aerion smiled confidently. "In the end, however, it will be you who will die."

"We will see about that." The skeleton chuckled as his long robe started to flutter. He raised his left arm, from where emerald flames started to form.

Aerion formed his flames, at a greater magnitude than usual. Before the skeleton acted, Aerion hurled a massive fireblast towards him.

"Oh, my."

The skeleton countered the greater fireblast with his emerald flames. However, Aerion added onto its strength with his magic vitality.

"Such ferocious flames... hmm, so you are a pyromancer?" The skeleton chuckled. "I have yet to add any kind of mage to my collection... how wonderful of you to come to me!"

The emerald flames grew and completely overwhelmed Aerion's scarlet flames. Once his scarlet flames had dispersed, the emerald flames flew to him with ease. It all happened so quickly... there was no time to dodge or form a defence that would settle the emerald flames.

BOOM.

Aerion felt the flames burning him... for many seconds at a time. But, in truth, they did not harm him in the slightest.

He managed a smirk as the emerald flames started to almost dance around him. The result certainly shocked the robed skeleton. Aerion's violet eyes from before started to shine emerald for a couple of seconds.

"Fire cannot kill a dragon..." Aerion laughed. "You have only strengthened me. For that, I should thank you. Hmm... do you know how I will go about doing just that?"

"Don't get ahead of yourself... you foolish living being!"

"I will be returning you to that very coffin!"

Aerion sprinted closer to the skeleton who raised his hand once more. This time, the emerald flames spread to the other eight coffins where eight different wights rose from. It was clear that the rights relied on his emerald fire to live. Aerion instinctively converted the emerald flames into his scarlet flames before dispersing it to the eight wights.

They all burned away within seconds and Aerion continued his path to the skeleton.

"Bastard..." The skeleton was clearly worried. He had only practised necromancy closely so his strength mostly relied on his underlings. Other than that, he could wield his emerald flames but they would only serve his enemy. "Listen, how about we negotiate this-"

Aerion jumped over the step and descended soon after, thrusting his burning sword against the skeleton. The flames around his exploded with greater ferocity as they burned through the skeletons robes and continued towards his bones.

"Ah..."

After thrusting his sword through the skeleton's ribs, he withdrew and pierced its skull. His bones started to scatter and melt away as the flames burned him.

Aerion sheathed his sword as the skeleton died at last.

He could hear a thunderous round of applause.

"Well done, little dragon. It seems that I have underestimated you... indeed, you are worthy of the name Aerion Targaryen."

"Aerion Brightflame?"

"Yes... you burned brighter than he ever did." The voice chuckled before changing the topic. "Now I shall grant you the reward for the trial. The art of reviving the dead through fire or ice... but necromancy for short. Fire is your greatest weapon so I advise you use it well, little dragon..."

Aerion nodded, taking note of his advice. Not like he was capable of conjuring ice of any sort in the first place. His water magic was limited to... well, water.

He felt another chain break as the basic knowledge of necromancy surged into him. Meanwhile, his surroundings returned to the ordinary ruined castle of before - as if nothing had happened previously.

It was the following morning.

Aerion brushed his left hand against his hair, adjusting it slightly.

"What a night."

He looked at his palms which sparked with emerald flames.