Rise of the Supreme Necromancer-Chapter 44: The Nature of Human Beings

Oakdale was the best place for Aleric to grow his army before the ever-ticking countdown of the king’s gathering forces would hit him.

Without this city, Aleric’s further plans for conquest would be thrown in disarray. Not only would he lose most of the local resources, even the bodies would become half-unusable because of the fire damage.

Aleric could be even forced into hiding again...

’Never!’

"Samuel, send forces to extinguish or isolate the fire—immediately," Aleric ordered as more arrows flew into the city.

His fist skeletons had just climbed the walls. Like the fodder they were, were quickly thrown back, but there were more coming. The defenders of the wall grew in urgency, and some burning arrows began flying into the undead instead of the city. But there were still too many! 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

Then, Aleric raised the Spine Staff, gathering magic power. The distance to the countess was short enough that he could kill her with a Pain spell reliably...

Next to him, Danit Arstain was even more alarmed than Aleric.

"What?! Wife, what are you doing?! Archers, stop immediately! This is an order from your lord!" he shouted.

The archers that were about to set their arrows flying hesitated, hearing Danit. He sounded just like in life.

Aleric lowered his staff a little; meanwhile, Danit continued to shout, shaking his fist in the air.

"Wife, you can’t give such orders! What next, are you about to set the castle on fire, too?!"

Salia Arstain looked down at her undead husband with a pained expression. Danit gasped.

"You ARE!"

As the owner of that castle, Danit knew how easy it was for someone inside to set it aflame. Although its outer walls were made from solid stone, inside the castle were plenty of furniture, tapestries, wooden support beams, and other burnable things. There were even several barrels of cooking and lamp oil in the cellar, which could be poured on things to make igniting them even easier!

"Don’t do it, Salia! What are you, insane?!"

Salia sobbed.

"I am only doing my duty to the city! The evil sorcerer got my husband, Count Arstain... But he won’t get anyone else!"

The archers on the wall hesitated again. The sights of the undead crawling from below, the argument between heir lords, the terrifying necromancer below—it was all adding up to their growing panic.

Aleric’s eyes burrowed into Salia.

He stomped the Spine Staff into the ground. Suddenly, the entire battlefield was very quiet, as every undead stopped mid-movement and grew quiet as a grave. This made the living pause in confusion, too.

"You don’t actually want to die, countess," Aleric said. In the sudden quiet, his voice carried far.

Salia jolted.

"It’s the nature of human beings to want to live. Just like I want to live, you want to live too. You don’t want your family and your servants to die, either... You don’t want to risk your lives fighting, and you don’t want to kill yourself to escape me... You want to kill your own families even less so."

Aleric’s smooth voice mesmerized people on the wall. Every word was the absolute truth, and it pinned them to the ground.

"You don’t have to do it. We can make a deal instead."

"A... deal?" Salia asked. "It will be just a trick."

Aleric grinned—the ghastly sight that made many soldiers go pale with fear.

"Open the castle’s gate, surrender, and I will spare everyone who doesn’t hold a weapon right now," Aleric said. "Not the soldiers, of course—or you would just rebel against me. But their wives, mothers, and children. And YOUR parents and children, countess. No harm will be done against them."

The soldiers who heard Aleric’s offer clenched their fists in rage. And yet, hope was worming into their hearts.

Even the archers with the burning arrows were hesitant to follow Salia’s plan from the start. The soldiers themselves were ready to die for their families, but to kill their families with fire?..

The necromancer was offering a dark, but tempting deal.

"I don’t believe you! As soon as the castle’s gates are open, you will just slaughter everyone here! Just like you did with Tronvill!" Salia shouted.

The call jolted some soldiers.

"I had an uncle living in Tronvill," one of them muttered, looking down at the undead army. "Does that mean... Is he and his wife there somewhere?.."

"Is this what would happen with me and my father?" another asked.

"You might not believe me, people, but believe this!" Aleric raised his voice to drown out the dissenters, "If you don’t surrender, then even if this city burns to the ground, I will find your bones among the ashes and make sure that your soul will be bound to them FOREVER! You will serve me until the end of times, and no Light will save you!"

The torch fell from Salia’s hand.

Her next breath came out as a gasp.

’All of this... Even if I burned myself and my children... It would be useless?!’

As she looked at the skeletons under Aleric’s command, she believed that immediately. If the necromancer could make a pile of bones serve him, why not a charred corpse?

This was a breaking point.

Bereft of all her strength, Salia fell to her knees.

"I agree. I agree! Surrender!" she sobbed, covering her face with her hands. "Just don’t take them. Don’t take my baby boys..."

This caused a chain reaction. The sight of their leader losing spirit sent other men into despair.

At the same time, Aleric let his undead move again. Some of them had a very important task of putting out the fires.

"Open the gates!" Count Arstain shouted immediately.

This time, Salia said nothing, and someone actually obeyed his command.

A few minutes later, the tall doors of the castle were pushed open, and the portcullis behind them was lifted.

Without a single strike, Castle Arstain was taken, and the army of the dead marched inside.

The fate of the castle’s defenders was going to be defined now.