I became a legion lich-Chapter 80
80 Future plans
Outside the base, Sevenus was waiting for him. Sevenus looked at Athos in surprise, sensing that the air around him was different, but he asked no questions.
“Did you hear anything?” Athos asked in a still husky voice. He looked at Sevenus with a look that promised only suffering.
“I didn’t...hear nothing...my lord.” Sevenus shivered at that look, bending his head so as not to look him in the eye. He inwardly sighed in relief at having resisted the urge to eavesdrop on the conversation, or he would have joined the dead again.
“Fine. I want you to take the base down again and make sure the corpse inside is buried and not crushed.” At Sevenus’ words, Athos’ gaze softened.
“Understood...my lord.” Sevenus understood Athos’ intentions and quickly got to work.
After making sure that Khali’s body would not be damaged, Athos climbed the trapdoor back to the surface and returned to creating undead. He didn’t say a single word or create any of his crazy hypotheses and theories, he just worked robotically. The sun had been up for some time when it finally finished turning all the fresh corpses into undead.
It was an incredible sight. Athos didn’t bother to count, but one of the mage skeletons acted as a secretary and counted each undead created. There were an incredible 5346 skeletons! If the skeletons under Emilia’s command and animals and monsters were added, he would have nearly 10,000 undead under his command.
“It’s an incredible number.” Emilia said after reaching her side. She had delegated her tasks to her subordinates, so she was just supervising them at work. She was wearing her mage slayer attire, an ordinary dagger replacing the dagger lost during the fight with Finn.
“How are the preparations on your side?” Athos asked.
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“The corpses scattered around the city and piled up on the wall have already been delivered to you, master. We found approximately 50 people hiding inside buildings and in the sewers and they are already among the undead. The carriages we found are already lined up on the main street. . Collecting resources is taking a little longer, but in a few more hours, the carriages will be full.” Emilia reported proud of her work.
“Anything that is edible should be given to the skeletons. Order them to circulate as much mana through their body as possible and eat until they are satisfied, it should be enough to heal them. This garbage must also recover, it will not be useful to me in that state.” Athos spoke, remembering that Finn was still in a deplorable state.
“Understood. But what am I supposed to do with the corpses on the wall? They haven’t turned undead, so aren’t they useless?” 𝘧𝑟𝘦𝒆w𝚎𝙗nov𝘦𝗹.𝐜o𝓶
“Load the carriages with the corpses, I want to do some experiments on them. I’m pretty sure normal necromancers can create undead from rotting corpses, or they’d have to live roaming the battlefields like buzzards looking for carrion.” Athos replied, remembering that the dark elder was interested in his body even though it took two weeks to reach the nearest town.
“Understood. Half of the carriages are already filled with metals and miscellaneous items, but we can use the carts to transport the corpses as well. They are easy to build and we have a lot of manpower, but where are we going after we leave the city?” Emilia finally asked the question she was curious about. Depending on the next city he chose to attack, she could provide information and plans on how to invade them.
Unlike small cities like Faltra, large cities like Clastro or Shiima would have small armies belonging to the nobles stationed in the cities, as well as branches of the order of magic with dozens of mages and hundreds of adventurers. Skeletons might outnumber them, but the power of the cities would still be overwhelming.
“Beyond borders, the semi-human empire.” Athos said as if it was no big deal, almost making Emilia’s jaw drop to the floor.
“What? But why?” It was all Emilia could say after recovering from the shock.
“It’s simple. I will be destroyed if I continue on human territory. Human countries will not stand by and see an undead roaming their territory and will launch all their forces to kill me. I need time to settle down and create strength to face them. Strengths I can obtain by devouring the Demihuman empire.” Athos began to explain his plan.
“Demihumans aren’t weak, master. They are barbaric and underdeveloped, but they make up for it with brute strength and large numbers. I don’t have much information about them, but most of the race are warriors and I can’t imagine these fragile skeletons having a chance against them.” Emilia gave her honest opinion, concern clear in her voice.
“I know our chances are slim, but I have no other choice. I’d rather face a powerful but stupid race like demihumans than a powerful, cunning and treacherous race like humans.” Athos said with a wry smile.
“Think about it, even if I use a genius strategy to attack a human city, all it takes is a mage with a communication device to report what happened and all the information will leak out. The more I fought, the more countries would create countermeasures against me until I was cornered and killed.
Demihumans are different. My teacher taught me that demihumans are divided into several different tribes that war with each other and against other races, so communication between different tribes should be minimal. Humans call them an empire just because they don’t care to tell them apart. I also believe that their intelligence gathering is poor compared to humans.
If I can take down a single tribe, I can use them as a spearhead and slowly take over their entire territory. Although this is a plan that should take 100 to 200 years to complete.” Athos finished explaining his thoughts and plans for the future. As an immortal undead, he didn’t have to worry about time and planned to take the semi-human empire slowly.
“When you talk like that, demihumans seem more pleasant to face. But we have a problem.” Emilia said with a serious tone, before explaining what happened inside the forest of Faltra and the meeting with Treevor. She gave a very detailed explanation, mainly of the strength Treevor displayed and made it clear that strength was probably not his full power.
“What do you mean by teleportation? Do you still have this item with you? How does it work?” Athos, on the other hand, was more interested in the concept of teleportation than false spirit. He’d only heard of the concept from Khali, but he had no idea how it worked.
“I do, but I believe the most important thing is to find a route to avoid entering the forest.” Emilia replied, taking the crystal with the Ripha symbol and handing it to Athos.
“What are you talking about? We’re going to kill him. You said he had an elven body, right? If he has a body, he has a weakness. More importantly, what is the teleportation range of this crystal?” Athos asked, questioning why she made such a stupid suggestion.
“A few kilometers. Wait, what do you mean you plan on killing him?? Even if you throw all the skeletons against Treevor, they’ll just be fodder, You know??” Emilia started screaming in confusion, not understanding Athos’ thoughts.
“That also means he has a power worth sacrificing 10,000 skeletons, doesn’t it? What was his approximate size?” Athos continued asking questions, while ignoring the confused Emilia. f𝚛e𝚎𝘄𝒆𝚋𝚗𝚘ѵ𝑒𝚕.𝑐𝘰𝑚
“About four, maybe five meters? But why do you want to know? Want to teleport a bomb right in his face or something?” Emilia tried to deduce his plan. The blast that nearly killed her was powerful for sure, but she doubted it would be enough to kill Treevor.
“No, that would be too risky. Besides, you said yourself his defense was amazing. I doubt the remaining alchemical items will be able to create an explosion strong enough to kill him. To make matters worse, the corrupted mana is likely it will make the teleporter unstable, so it runs the risk of exploding in our face and not even reaching him.
“I have a better idea. Is that garbage already cured? I want him here.” Athos gave a sickly smile as he thought of Finn.
“He’s still putting the bones in place and regenerating what he’s lost, but I can bring him here if you want, master.” Emilia replied, ordering Finn to come closer.
Finn’s skeleton appeared a few seconds later, his state better than after the explosion, but far from perfect. His left arm was back in place, but his ribs were still broken and his right leg was still missing, so he had to be carried by another skeleton.
“Hi, trash. Cheer up, soon you’ll be released from your torment.” Athos laughed in his face, before telling him the plan he had thought up. It was risky, suicidal and would require the sacrifice of nearly 4000 undead, but Athos counted on a smile as if he was enjoying himself.
Emilia and Finn listened in shock, but for different reasons. Emilia feared for Athos’ safety, while Finn feared being used as a suicide soldier.
“Get everything ready by tomorrow. Let’s nip this Treevor in the bud.” Athos said, causing all the skeletons to start running around the city to do his bidding.
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