I became a legion lich

78 Post slaughter

“Ended.” Athos said, seeing the last of the citizens fall dead to the ground right in front of him. For a second he didn’t believe that he had really managed to destroy the entire city, that he was just having a dream, but the pleasant smell of blood in the air and the thousands of corpses strewn at his feet said otherwise.

Even though his total mana kept growing, his mana still dried up before he could turn 1000 corpses into undead. Athos planned to turn all corpses into undead as soon as he regained his mana, increasing his army even more. But now was not the time for that.

“I won! Not you, but me! You who took my mother from me, who forced me to hide like a rat in the sewers, forced me to live below you! You are now my slaves and you are all below me! I hope you have lived happy lives, because I will make the afterlife hell for you!” Athos yelled as he looked at each of the skeletons around him.

He had a lot of grudges in him and now that he had the chance, he planned on spouting all his venom on these people. Athos wanted to break them both physically and psychologically, not because he found it advantageous to make the skeletons as loyal as Sevenus, but because he wanted to see them suffer. Feeling that most skeletons didn’t understand what he was talking about, Athos’ anger grew and he decided to explain who he was.

“Do any of you remember 5 years ago when you all executed a woman because of a fire? Well, I am her son. I killed the captain of the guard as a child, I caused the war between the bandits and guard that destroyed the city and I was the one who drove the whole city crazy days ago. I am the monster you created.” Athos spoke with rancor dripping from his voice, rejoicing at the disbelief in the skeletons.

“You will never see your familiars again, you will be forced to fight until your bones turn to dust and then feel the agony of destroying your own core only to sentence others to the same horrible fate as yours. You will be treated worse than slaves, working tirelessly forever, or until I order you to stop. But believe me, that’s not going to happen.”

Sevenus and Emilia also returned, followed by the bandits’ skeletons, so he decided to stop the psychological terror here. Athos pointed to the ground, causing all the surrounding skeletons to kneel with their heads down, in a demonstration of the power and control he had over them. Emilia and Sevenus were unaffected, but followed the lead and knelt in front of him.

“Was there a problem?” Athos asked Sevenus, ignoring Emilia’s existence.

“No problem, my lord. I only intervened...just in case, but it was unnecessary.” Sevenus tried his best to hide his disappointment, but he was like an open book to Athos. The number of undead linked to him has increased, so his diction has also improved,

.....

‘Shit, why was that woman so strong? I’ll be left behind and forgotten with that woman around here!’ Sevenus thought in frustration.

“Fine, because I’m going to need her knowledge from now on. I give you command of the human skeletons, except the mage skeletons.” Athos said in a pompous tone, placing his right hand on Emilia’s skull.

Emilia shivered for a moment, feeling nearly 4,000 chains winding through her mind. Her mind was stronger than Sevenus’s, but the number of chains was colossal and destroyed her in an instant. Even the chains that were attached to Sevenus were moved towards her, making him click his tongue in disappointment.

“Tell me your name.” Athos ordered, noticing the change in the glow of her orbit. No more anger and fear, but joy and wonder.

“My name is Emilia, master. It is an honor to serve you.” She said it almost perfectly, making Athos realize that the number of ‘subordinates’ was what defined the freedom the skeleton would have. Or else it wouldn’t make sense for Emilia to have a better diction than Sevenus, who was a skeleton older.

“I already have my first orders for you. The city has already been destroyed, but there may be people hiding inside buildings or in the city sewers. Find them and kill them all. I also want you to gather anything useful such as food, weapons, tools, various metal items and the corpses scattered all over the city. Also, I want you to prepare all the carriages you find around the city.”

“If I may ask, why food? Is that useful?” Emilia asked in confusion. They were skeletons, there was no point in them needing to eat.

“It’s to have energy to heal them. Broken undead are no use to me and even garbage can be useful depending on the situation.” Athos said with a sneer at the skeletons kneeling around. His gaze stopped on Finn and only now did Athos remember that he was still missing his limbs.

“Besides, there are thousands of corpses near the walls. They are preserved thanks to the cold, so I want you to bring them to me too.” Athos continued talking as if nothing had happened. The creation of undead relied entirely on the mana spread within the core, so he doubted he would be able to turn corpses that had died more than a day ago into undead, but it was worth a try.

“Understood, master.” Emilia replied, before getting up and ordering the skeletons. She divided them into four groups, each consisting of 1000 skeletons. She also set a leader for each group, discovering that the other undead could also designate subordinates. This would be useful for managing the undead in the future when their numbers increase too much, creating a hierarchy among them.

Caio, the captain of the guard, the leader of Halt’s bandits and one of the strongest bandits working for Halt. Emilia wanted Finn to take over the fourth group, but realizing the contempt that Athos showed him, she avoided naming him leader.

“My lord... shall I help you?” Sevenus asked, not wanting to lose to a rookie. His diction regressed again, so he was feeling anxious.

“There’s not much to do now-” Athos was about to send him away, when he remembered something. “No, there’s something you can do for me.”

“Just say...and it will be...done.” Sevenus rejoiced at the chance to prove his worth.

“You fought my master before he died, right? I want you to find his body among the corpses that Emilia will bring here. While she doesn’t bring them, I want you to use the remaining mana to restore what you can from the underground base, under the sewers.” Athos spoke, his voice almost cracking at the mention of Khali.

“I understand...my lord.” Noticing a different air around Athos, Sevenus asked no questions about the strangeness of the order and just obeyed.

The skeletons worked quickly from there. The skeletons led by Caio invaded the houses and searched thoroughly, finding a few dozen people hiding. Those led by the captain of the guard descended into the sewers and found only a few bandits who were easily killed.

Halt was responsible for gathering resources across the city, as he knew where most of the useful things were. The common bandit was responsible for the collection of corpses. Sevenus was underground repairing what he could of the base. And as for Athos, he spent all his time regenerating his own mana and raising corpses into skeletons once his core was full.

“As expected, I can’t turn him into a proper undead.” Athos said, looking at the skeleton in front of him. It was one of the corpses of the crazed who died a few days ago. When a person died, their core would break down and spread throughout the body for approximately 1 day.

Athos’ ability to create undead used the residual energy of the corpse to create them, so it was questionable whether or not Athos would be able to create a skeleton from a corpse that had been dead for some time.

“It’s possible, but it’s not really worth it. Since there’s no residual energy, it consumes my mana until it’s full, and the life force spent is not recovered once created. Its strength is no different from other skeletons, so it’s not worth.” It was the conclusion that Athos arrived at. Another important thing that Athos noticed is that the skeleton had no emotions.

There was no fear towards him, anger at being turned into an undead, or respect for him as their master. He was cold and just obeyed his orders, as if he were an artificial being. It was like-

“-As if it didn’t have a soul.” Athos muttered, realizing a shocking truth. Perhaps a person’s soul would remain tethered to the body as long as the residual energy didn’t disperse and his necromancy chained the souls, not the minds of the undead?