Rise of the Supreme Necromancer-Chapter 46: The Temple of Light

"Master, the prisoners from the castle are locked in the dungeons or cellars–wherever I have found the space. There are still militiamen in the city, so I put the extra guards around the corpse-gathering teams. So far, they haven’t dared to approach. Also, wights have found a large group of living people hiding in the main Temple of Light. At least, as far as I understood their hissing."

"Good work, Samuel." Aleric smiled at him. "Temple of Light, you say? Just the place I wanted to visit, anyway. It... brings back memories."

***

Six years ago.

After running away from Mushdall town, Aleric spent an entire day walking down the Dall River.

Several times, he met people on his way: a few travelers and a road warden patrol. Thankfully, the first of them was just a lone traveler, because Aleric was still walking in the open back then.

A single sight of Aleric’s gray face and white hair sent the traveler running. After this, Aleric hid at the first sight of another person ahead.

But by sunset, Aleric finally saw the goal he was so stubbornly traveling toward—Wheatdall, the next town on the Dall River! This town, like most others, had a temple of Light with priests.

Still hiding from people, Aleric went there. Despite the darkness, he found that he could see almost perfectly, which let him hide far from the few lit streets.

Like that, he reached the temple. Even at night, there was a lantern glowing over its door, showing that travelers and people in need could seek shelter here.

Aleric hoped they would share some food with him. He had had a drink from the river, but didn’t have a crumb of food ever since leaving Mushdall.

Now he approached the door and was about to knock on it, but paused. Aleric felt a strange energy coming from the door and walls of the temple, and it made his hair stand on end. The closer Aleric got to the walls, the more unpleasant the sensation became.

His stomach grumbled viciously. At the very thought of the temple’s bread, Aleric’s mouth filled with saliva.

He knocked on the door—

"Ouch!"

Aleric jolted back, holding his hand.

The door was burning-hot!

At least, it felt like that. When Aleric slowly moved his hand toward it, he realized that the burning feeling came from the energy he felt earlier.

Finally, he realized what energy this was.

’Is this... Magic? But I thought only mages can feel it! Wait, does this mean... I have a magic talent?!’

It was insane. Only rare people were born with the ability to sense and control magic, and they could become clerics—some of the most respected people in Aleshat!

Aleric smiled brightly.

’I will just explain to the priests that there’s some terrible curse on me, but I have a magic talent... They will help me. They should!’

With this thought, Aleric knocked on the door again, using a stone from the street this time. 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

A short while later, the door opened. On the other side stood an elderly priest with an oil lantern in his hand.

"Sir! Sir, please, help me!" Aleric blurted immediately. "I was cursed, and—"

The priest gasped and clutched his heart with a free hand. If he were any older, he’d die of fright on the spot.

Then, he threw his lantern at Aleric.

"Unholy abomination! Begone!"

The youth screamed in pain as the lantern broke, cutting him with glass shards and splashing him with burning oil. In blind panic, Aleric ran away from the temple, throwing his burning clothes off along the way.

"Guards! Guards!" the priest shouted behind him, but his voice was growing quieter and quieter every second.

Luckily for Aleric, there hadn’t been too much oil in the lantern. When he stopped running way outside of Wheatdall, he only had a few small burns and cuts.

But he knew that he wouldn’t be going to temples again.

***

Aleric, Samuel, and twenty zombie soldiers in light armor and with swords or axes were marching down a wide street. It wasn’t as dark in the city as just a few hours earlier—there were still small fires burning in several places. But Aleric knew that they were, at the very least, contained.

Of course, the undead weren’t bothered by darkness. Their eyesight was based not on their rotten eyes but on Dark magic that fueled them. The absence of light didn’t impede it.

Ahead of them was a massive building of the Oakdale’s Temple of Light. Eight spires—the magical number of the Light—were rising toward the sky, each with a golden holy star on the very top.

The temple’s tall windows were covered with colored glass, and all walls were painted pure white. Light magic was shimmering inside of them.

The gate was closed tight, but there was light in the windows.

"It seems that people have sought shelter here, just as the wights sensed," Aleric said.

"Should I disperse them?" Samuel asked. "Besides the parishioners, there will definitely be priests of Light. They aren’t trained in either magic or fighting, but I am sure they won’t accept your deal with the countess. Even if it was extremely generous."

Aleric raised his eyebrows.

"Generous, Samuel? I think we were the lucky ones for this opportunity."

"Of course! Do you need many more bodies for your conquest? The king’s army will be counted in thousands of people. And yet, you just let these civilians go."

A grin grew on Aleric’s face.

"I thought about this too. But after today, I realized that having a good reputation is even more useful in the long run. If people fear resisting me more than complying, they would just... comply! Isn’t that nice?"

Samuel bowed his head, ashamed of his short-sightedness.

"Indeed, master."

"Besides... Quantity is good, but after watching you at work, I realized that I should focus more on the quality of my troops. Instead of wasting time raising every homeless cripple, I can focus on the champions of the realm."

Aleric stopped walking in front of the temple’s doors. His troops stopped as well.

"Samuel, who’s the head priest of this temple? Were you friends before?"