Why mess around with a middle man, when you can control the ghouls yourself?

You order your troops to attack, at which point the Ghoul King orders his ghouls to do likewise, as he attempts to slaughter his way through your army to get to you!

"Little necromancer, did you really think you could intimidate me? I am still more than a match for a mere mortal!" he mocks as jumps and leaps towards you.

Your troops have no noticeable effect on him. Their draining powers do nothing, though the scythes of the wraiths do some damage. You have to use non-necromantic magic against him and you cast a fireball into his chest.

It's enough to cause him to leap away from you and attempt to roll out the flame, but he kills two of your necromancers in the process. His ghouls are getting wiped out by your undead, but they're coming like hordes of lemmings, you have to kill the Ghoul King now.

"Blast the bloodsucker with fire!" you order your last remaining necromancers to do. Fortunately being ex-demonologists, their knowledge of fire magic is still quite strong. The Ghoul King attempts to leap out of the way, but the flame spells still hit him. He runs around burning and howling horribly.

Soon the wraiths put a final end to the Ghoul King with their scythes. The rest of the ghouls seeing their King dead, begin to run away in multiple directions. You manage to easily dominate most of them and corral them into your fold.

Not too bad, though losing a couple of necros wasn't something you wanted. At least not so early. You press on with your quest to conquer the Drozz tribes.

Weeks turn into months and your campaign there is going…mediocre. You did alright in the beginning, but after awhile the tribes began to unite in a way you didn't think they would or at least you'd think it would take longer. While mostly low in magic, they had more shaman and witch doctor types than you expected as well. They also know to start targeting you and your other necromancers whenever possible, which has resulted in you being the only one left and supporting the entire undead army. Given how long you've been without rest, lack of other magical enhancers, the constant drain and the large number of undead you're controlling, you could be over exerting yourself.

Your time here hasn't really been profitable. You've gained more troops, but you've lost necromancers and you still haven't really conquered the area. The tribes have been simply moving and hiding around the area.

You wonder if you should cut your losses…

You return to Aftermath

A little dejected, you make your way back to Aftermath. Along the way, you come across Trelik who's looking particularly pathetic. It looks like he's got his ass handed to him once again by the Grand Alliance. He sees you and your army and runs towards you! You hold back from attacking as this should be interesting.

"Please! Ya gotta help me! I've got no where to turn to! The Grand Alliance is unstoppable! They destroyed all of what I had accomplished in the Brot Kingdom! I hear they're even starting to make progress against Velzix! All around me are hunters! I can't rest! They're all out to get me!" he rants while groveling on the ground. He's badly scarred; he's even missing a few fingers.

You have no sympathy for this dickhead though, especially not after what you've been through. You're going to enjoy this.

"Pfft! Look at you. Useless. Why would I help a traitorous dog like you who obviously can't handle pressure?" you say kicking him in the face. He whimpers and begs for his life.
"Pah! You wouldn't even make a good corpse! Ghouls, fulfill your hunger on this waste of flesh!" you shout as the ghouls eagerly follow your orders.

Feeling a little better from hearing Trelik's screams you continue on your way to Aftermath.

When you get there, things are more or less how they were. Catalina is full of questions, questions that you're really in no mood to answer.

"So…what happened? No undead giants?" she asks.
"No, it was a bad idea, and I never should've went there!"
"…wait are you blaming ME for this?"
"(Sigh) Me blame you? No of course not. Nope it was my own stupidity at work here for following your advice in the first place. Don't worry, you're off the hook."
"Y'know maybe it was a good plan and it was your own incompetence that lead to defeat, you ever think of that?"
"Watch it Catalina…don't fucking piss me off right now. The only reason why I'm in a tolerant mood is because I killed that dickhead Trelik on my way home. Damn that felt good."
"Yeah, well I hope you're in the mood for a fight, because I hear the Grand Alliance is preparing another attack."
"I don't give a fuck. Just let me know when they get here, and I'll save this city again like I always do." You say heading to your study.

And so it happens, the Grand Alliance attacks and just like you said, you successfully defend against them.

Four years pass…

It's been five years since you took Aftermath, and you've made little progress. In fact you sense the end is near and you'll be happy about it because this has been a miserable time and you wonder what the hell you were thinking all those years ago when you pursued this path…

When Velzix was finally defeated, the Grand Alliance was able to focus the full brunt of its attention towards you, leaving you in a perpetual state of being on the defensive. Never again were able to attempt another act of conquest and over the years you've gotten weaker in resources while your enemies have only gotten stronger.

Catalina and you never got along really well after you came back from Drozz. She never saw you as the formidable leader she thought you were, and you blamed her for her idea to go to Drozz (Even though you said you didn't blame her). The relationship became strained and one day in a particularly heated argument, you struck her down with a powerful blast of negative energy. She died instantly. You apologized to her before ultimately burning her body.

Vampire assassins from the clans made multiple attempts on your life. You barely fought them off. The last attack left you with missing fingers. You remember laughing at the time since they were on the same hand that Trelik was missing his fingers all those years ago.

You recently received a letter from your family. It's been so long you'd almost forgotten you had one. It's your Mom. She begs for you to give yourself up as she doesn't want your sister to have to fight you in the next Grand Alliance attack, which apparently she's leading.

Good old Mom, she always did try to protect you from your sister. But not this time. You're going to carry this through to the end.

You finish up writing your letter back to Mom just as The Grand Alliance has broken down your gates. The cause of "good" has won. You wait for their final arrival in your throne room.

You see your sister approach with her elite guards, she says nothing. Just a look of scorn on her face says it all.

You stand up.

"Let's do it." You say and unleash a blast of negative energy and summon ghostly soldiers to defend you.

The fight is furious, but your sister has the cause of righteousness on her side. She eventually reaches you and stabs you through the heart. You look down and tell your sister one last thing.

"…letter…on the desk…take it to Mom…tell her…I'm sorry…"