chapter 163

The atmosphere in the basement, where the wizards from the "Black Star" were all sitting in their cells, was gloomy and filled with hopelessness.

The men's eyes lacked the usual "live" shine, and judging by their pale faces and emaciated figures, the wizards could easily be mistaken for dead people, if not for their heaving chests. 

And even the leader of this subgroup had already lost his former "belligerence", but at the same time, he could still experience emotions other than fatigue and gradually approaching despair, one of them was surprised when two bodies were brought to the opposite cell, without heads, and then the two heads were tossed.

The leader had long ago realised that it is very unlikely that they will recieve any help , but in addition to his iron character, he had a steel will and did not want to give up so easily, especially his goal, but the sight of decapitated corpses brought him very bad thoughts, several times he even imagined himself in their place, from which he shuddered. 

After all, no matter how unshakable his will was, but almost everyone is afraid of death and he was no exception, and the sight of the team, which was ready to go after Merlin himself made him very proud, but it also made him responsible for their lives. 

No matter how cold and insensitive he was, over these months, he truly began to feel respect for them, because not everyone is able to go through this and follow their commander to the very end. 

Therefore, he had already decided that as soon as their captor came to this place again, he would lower his head and surrender, because there was simply no point in enduring all this when you were most likely considered dead, and the appearance of that bastard from the "Gold" department was proof of this, and what he overheard, thanks to his improved hearing, about the "Black Star" being ready to pay a ransom for Laurel, and then the return of the unharmed Snape, completely dispelled all hopes for freedom. 

Just when the member of the organisation was about to plunge into his thoughts again, in order to at least slightly distract himself from all this, a familiar figure appeared from the emptiness in the centre of the room, causing him many unpleasant feelings. 

But, in turn, the man did not even look in his direction, but walked past his cell and stood opposite the one where the two corpses lay.

" Hm?I didn't even notice who she caught..." Snape's surprised voice sounded, his gaze never leaving the bald, pale head, which in its appearance was very reminiscent of Voldemort, except that this one had a nose. 

Opening the cell, he went inside.  "You all, after I am done with this, you will be next, do you understand?" he addressed the wizards of the "Black Star", "As soon as I finish with them, you will have only two choices: death or complete submission," pointing his palm at the blood-covered bodies, Snape was slowly surrounded by a cold grey aura, which in a few seconds lowered the temperature in the room several times, and those who lived in the cell next to the corpses began to exhale steam and shiver, as if they were naked outside, right in the frost.

The next thing that happened made all the observers shudder: the body, which had previously shown no signs of life, trembled, and right before everyone's eyes, began to rise ... "Although I have mastered some spells from the school of "necromancy", but still, they are too difficult for me, it's exactly like a light wizard using dark spells, fortunately my element is fire so this limitation does not work on me in full force." finally, when the body got to its feet, it went to the head lying on the floor and, bending down, picked it up, and then pressed it to the neck and right in front of everyone, it grew back in a few seconds and in front of Snape, there was already the same necromancer who had seriously injured Toby and was most likely their leader or the brain of the team. 

And looking at him, the Slytherin no longer felt the same anger, although it had not disappeared anywhere, but was suppressed at the root, so as not to do something stupid.

After all, now he could not use all his strength and what kind of toys were hidden by that woman, the wizard simply did not know, so an attempt to attack them could lead to not the best consequences, which he could not allow at the moment, because too much was at stake. 

Severus simply had no right to act recklessly. The members of the Black Star, who had witnessed all of this from beginning to end, turned even paler as they realised what Snape's words meant. After all, resurrecting the dead as ghouls is the kind of magic that would, in any country except for a few, send a wizard to prison for life at best. 

And even the fact that they had seen it, even a memory wipe wouldn't save them, he would never let them go, because they themselves would have done the same if they had been in his place. 

"We will obey," the tired but still cold voice of the group's leader sounded, who was looking gloomily at the "living" corpse, and then he turned his gaze to the young man standing with his back to him.

 The eyes of the other wizards, who heard these words, "came to life" again. 

"Glad to hear it, but I'll deal with you a little later, first I need to finish with them," Snape's palm fell on the necromancer's head and he closed his eyes, and the next moment, the dead man's hand moved and suddenly rushed forward, grabbing Severus by the throat and with a crash, drove him into the steel bars, while a bloodthirsty grin was on the dark wizard's face.

Such a turn of events caused shock on the faces of the Black Star members and even their leader was no exception, but at the same time, he was already preparing for the worst, one thing is Snape, whom he more or less studied during this time and understood that he would not kill them yet, and another is an unknown wizard, from whom nothing good was definitely worth expecting. 

"BITCH! HOW DARE YOU TURN ME INTO THE UNDEAD?!" he barked in the face of Severus, who looked at the face of the enraged necromancer with slight surprise. 

It was a great surprise for the Prince himself that the dark wizard would retain his mind, but after a few seconds, it finally dawned on him what the reason was when he felt a chill on his neck, which was magic. 

"So that's how it is... at the moment when you became undead, your core was able to move to the middle rank of "Master" and thus, you were able to retain a small part of your mind…" he had a similar assumption,remembering the contents of one book from which he studied necromancy, it described that when transforming the highest rank "Masters", there was a small chance to preserve the victim's mind, but the chance was only three percent, and for "Masters" of the middle rank, there was almost none at all, for this reason, he did not check him for intelligence.

"What are you talking about? Do you think you can distract me with your nonsense?!"

"No, what are you saying, why would I talk to you? I am just thinking out loud,"  Severus said and then gently tapped the dark wizard's hand, who, to his own amazement, unclenched his palm and Severus calmly walked past him, "But I will remember this, thank you for the lesson."

"W-what did you do to me?" to his own horror, the undead realised that he could not move even a finger, as if he was walled up to his neck in cement.

"When you tried to drain my life force, I added a slave seal, forgive me, I'm not very good at necromancy," Snape answered coldly, pressing on the dark wizard's shoulder and forcing him to kneel down, and he again placed his palm on his head, but without the former indifference, "So you wanted to turn my servant into your slave?"

 Severus had managed to read a small part of the memories before the necromancer's mind woke up, "I promise, before you go to hell, I will organise an unforgettable farewell for you…" his voice no longer had that youthful intonation, for the dark wizard, he became a demon from the very underworld and it was not only in the angry mood of Severus, but in the setting of the seal that he sent into his body, which increased the feelings of fear towards him a hundred times, "Even though you became undead, but don't worry, you will feel all the pain in full…"

"W-wait, I will t-tell you everything you want to know, j-just raa …" and a terrible, pain-filled and despairing, inhuman scream swept through the dungeon, from which the members of the Black Star, wizards who had looked death itself in the eye more than once, trembled like little children, realising what this creature was experiencing now, but the leader of the Steel subgroup saw something else at that moment, it was revenge, and not for some close person, but for a simple servant, for him, who was almost betrayed and forgotten by his own organisation, it was something unexpected and impossible, but he saw, from Snape's expression and his feelings, that he was not pretending, he was truly taking revenge... 'Maybe... this will not be such a bad decision...?' a treacherous thought visited his head.

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