Year 80

"So you're really going to do it?" Cassandra asks while lying in bed next to you.
"That was sort of the point of going to Mortos in the first place." You answer.
"True I suppose. I really hated it there. I mean killing and capturing svelk was about the only thing that was remotely enjoyable. I was pretty glad you eventually sent all the Eyes back home."

You get up out of bed to get your day started.

"Ah, shit." You say feeling an ache in your back.
"Are you alright? I thought you…um…replenished yourself recently."
"If by replenished you mean drained the lives of twenty of my citizens last month then yes I did, but as I've told you before, it doesn't last long and it wears out quicker as the years have gone on. Not to mention humans don't exactly have the most sustaining life forces to begin with so it takes more of them just to turn back the clock a few decades."

As you look in the mirror at yourself trying to determine if you need to "recharge" today, Cassandra doesn't pursue that line of questioning anymore. She knows that elves being long-lived creatures would probably require less effort on your part and sustain you longer. In fact that's probably why she started to show "attraction" towards you a few years ago. She'd never admit it, but she fears that you'll suddenly start rounding up elves and draining them instead.

While it definitely had occurred to you to do so, you tended to limit it to just a few since they still don't have the largest of populations and you had no idea how long you'd have to "ration out" the lives of your citizens before you could unlock all the secrets of the book. Cassandra probably believes she's "swaying" you through sex though.

Gnomes probably REALLY feared being rounded up, but fortunately for them you still respect their engineering skills and you don't have a gnome fetish like Casimir did. Besides, ever since your human engineer losses in Mortos and Elam dying last year (Another rarity via natural causes), you need all the skilled engineers you can get.

As for your "relationship" with Cassandra you have no love for her, a mild fondness, a respect for her abilities and her usefulness, but nothing more. You're fairly certain Cassandra has no true love for you either. Respect and loyalty sure, a desire to place herself in a higher and "safer" position, most definitely, but she does not love you.

Part of you has wondered if you reciprocated her advances in the first place was because she was an elf. Besides the natural attractiveness common to their race, she very faintly reminds you of Semra. Not in personality or even looks, but she's an elf and it's close enough.

"I am seriously fucked up." You mumble to yourself as you think about that again.
"What did you say?" Cassandra asks.
"Nothing, just thinking about something. You better get dressed, I'm going to need you and the Eyes on full alert for this thing." You say which stirs Cassandra to get up and follow your lead in getting dressed.

"Emperor, the…subjects are currently all being held at the ritual pyramid in the Usksha Desert, all ten thousand of them are still alive and restrained. I know I've told you this before, but Empire citizens' have not been calm about this. Most don't even know exactly what you're planning, but they're already coming up with stories and most of which are not too far off from the truth. The Eyes have been working overtime in keeping the peace, but I fear that a rebellion of some sort will be inevitable. Most likely in Rask and Nakol province, perhaps even in the Tral province."
"The citizens' would like it even less if I continued to just drain random people at a greater rate eventually exceeding ten thousand. This ritual is going to prevent having to do that anymore. After it's done, we can deal with the civil unrest and in time Dokkrus as well."

Cassandra smiles a bit when she hears that, you know she's probably been eager to go kill more svelk again.

"I always meant to ask, but why is this to be performed in Usksha?" Cassandra says.
"No major settlements nearby and it isn't like the usksha nomads are a problem anymore. Haven't even had a sandworm pop up in decades. I thought about the plains of Tor, since there was nice flat land there to build the pyramid, but the Usksha desert works just as well. Besides, this is only going to be necessary once. No need to have the pyramid any more afterwards and it'll be cheaper to just let the sands consume everything rather than having to tear it down and having crews to dispose of all the bodies."
"Couldn't you just animate them to walk into the ocean or something?"
"Hah, I'm sure a dead march to the ocean is just what the already agitated citizens' would want to see." You chuckle.

"No, this is a better way. To be honest raising the dead takes a great deal of willpower and I find it to be a waste of the time and energy. I mean I did it to a limited degree in Mortos with the fallen Eternals because it bolstered the ranks and using the dead negated some of the advantages the necromancers had. Personally though I'd rather just cast a rain of fire down or chain lightning to directly harm my enemies. I don't need unreliable rotting corpses to do my work." You say.

Cassandra nods at your answer and the pair of you are off to the Usksha Desert.

Even before your carriage reaches the desert the black pyramid is visible from the Nalin border. The closer you get the more it looms ominously.

There are grim deeds going to be performed this day and night and well…until the ritual is complete.

The necromancers of Mortos didn't need as many sacrifices when they attempted this ritual since there were a lot more of them to perform it and support each other's magical energy. They were also more skilled. You are just one man that has tried to shove as much necromantic knowledge into your head in just a few years. You sometimes wonder if this is indeed a fool's errand.

But you've gone over the rites, you've gone over the symbols, the steps, made allowances for your unique situation, and of course had a big ass pyramid built just to accomplish all this. You don't think you could be any more ready.

When you arrive at the ritual pyramid, several Eternals stand ready for your commands. There are so few of them left now and they're all fourth gens. It wasn't but a decade ago that together with the third gens, Eternals were nearly two thousand strong. When this is all over, you really need to get that project back on track again. Too bad Elam isn't still around to carry out some of his theories, but maybe he left some notes in that now abandoned workshop of his.

"The sacrifices are inside the pyramid, my Emperor. All we await is you to take your place and begin." An Eternal says when you exit the carriage.
"Very good, we will begin soon." You reply as you shield your eyes to look up at the pyramid which does look pretty impressive this close up."

Cassandra begins to leave the carriage, but you stop her from doing so.

"Cassandra, why don't you head back. I don't think you're going to want to be here for this. Not because I don't think you can't handle it, but because it's going to take awhile and I'd rather have you keeping a check on the potential civil unrest situation you've been concerned about. I mean other than my Eternals here, you're about the only person I can truly trust and rely on anymore."
"Very well, and thank you my Emperor." Cassandra says and kisses you before getting back inside the carriage.

With Cassandra on her way back, you begin to make the long climb up the pyramid feeling the aches the entire time. You'll be glad to put an end to that soon. When you finally get to the top, you take a short breather and accept the water that a nearby Eternal hands you.

"Shit, that sun is a killer. Maybe I should've had this built on the Tor plains after all. (Whew) All right then let's get on with this. Bring out the first sacrifice." You say and a couple of your Eternals nod and go through the entryway to carry out your orders.

While you wait you place the ritual book on a nearby stone podium and examine the sacrificial altar and the symbols you had etched into it. The altar itself was designed to be sturdy, but also has a slight elegance to it. The craftsman really put some artistic touches to it. You aren't normally one to admire something like that, but in this case you do.

As the screams of your first sacrifice get closer you draw out your mithril dagger. Ah this dagger has certainly been with you a long time. Saved your life more than a few times too.

Still, you only keep it for one reason. As a reminder to end Semra's life with it one day. (Yet another thing on the to do list after achieving immortality)

Your Eternals bring out your first sacrifice. A young elven girl. She's terrified, crying and begging for her life.

"Well, it's a good thing I sent Cassandra home. Pretty sure she wouldn't have wanted to see this. How many elves are there in there anyway?" you ask one of the Eternals ignoring the girl's screams.
"Apologies, but I'm not exactly sure my Emperor. I know we brought in a lot, but we're not sure how many the Eyes brought in."
"They most likely didn't bring in any. Probably primarily stuck to humans. So…who do we have in there anyway?"
"Mostly humans as you might expect. They're from all over the Empire. Some elves, some kobolds, some orcs, some usksha, I know we even dragged a few ogres down here. All of them are of varying ages, colors, occupations and gender. You said the more variety from walks of life the better."
"That's true. For some reason this will work better with more variety of life. Not exactly sure why, but I'm following the instructions. Just out curiosity, any gnomes?"
"We did get a few. Tried to limit them to criminals though."
"As long as we got a few, okay throw her on the altar and let's get started." You say.

As the girl continues to scream for her life, your Eternals place her on the altar.

"Did you want us to gag these people in the future?" one of your Eternals asks.
"No, apparently the terror and fear they outwardly display helps this ritual too, again don't ask me why, I'm just following what was in this book…shhhh…I'll make this quick." You say and then chant as you bring the dagger down.

When the deed is done and the girl's life has indeed been exstinguished, her body is thrown down the steps on the left side of the pyramid. That pile is going to get very big before this over.

Time passes from day and night as one by one people are dragged for you to kill. You have to take breaks every so often and after a few days of this you even resort to draining the life of some of your Eternals just to keep your strength up.

You know its working though, you can feel it. By the time you've passed the five thousand mark the daytime sky no has a sun beating down on you and a constant overcast hangs in the air. A sandstorm whips up and at one point it even begins to rain, which it practically never does in this desert.

You preserve through the sand and the rain as you did with the sun. The closer you get, the more you can feel your success. Eventually you don't even begin feeling tired after killing a few hundred people, you're starting to feel energized by it. Eventually you stop taking breaks and start dragging victims out yourself since your Eternals are certainly tired.

By the time you hit over nine thousand your surrounding area is in a permanent state of unnatural darkness. A blackness has covered a wide area of the desert and you're not even seeing the stars at this point, its just black like a void.

And then finally the last victim is brought out. A miserable looking malnourished kobold who looks like he's on his last legs anyway. He's so weak that one of your Eternals picks him up by one hand and places him on the altar.

You speak the last parts of the spell and bring down the knife ending the kobold's life instantly and that's when it happens.

You feel a surge of energy like you've never felt before. It's like when you drain the life of someone, but this is different, like a feeling of completeness. You believe its working. You don't have a mirror handy, but your hands are certainly deprived of wrinkles now and you don't have any aches or pains from age anymore.

"I feel it! It's working! It's…" you shout and then suddenly you fall to the ground and a large rumbling sound from above is heard almost to the point to it being deafening.

You are helped up by your Eternals, who begin to ask you what to do next. You look up and see several ghostly forms screaming out of the black void above. They don't attack, they just seem to hang there and float around, but that doesn't mean they won't soon.

"Emperor! Watch out!" an Eternal shouts and hacks down the kobold you just killed.

Just as Nicodemus told you what the necromancers did, just as Semra warned you, you've opened up a gate to the Realm of the Dead.

You run down the pyramid steps

Realizing the immediate danger you're in, you waste no time in running down the steps of the pyramid. The ghostly forms begin to mock you.

"Why do you fear death mortal? Did you not ssssummon it here?" one of the ghosts says nearly causing you to lose your footing on the steps when it suddenly floats in front of you.

You blast the ghost with a magic bolt and then proceed to do the same thing to others that fly near you. Several of them dissipate instantly.

"Undead bastards! You won't….AGH!" you start to say when all of a sudden you begin to feel very weak. It's not just you either; it's your Eternals too. The feeling is similar to the draining effect by undead creatures or the negative zones of Mortos. You might not be aging, but you definitely don't feel well, in fact you feel like you're going to die and given how close to death you've been on several occasions, you're very familiar with what that feels like. In fact, you're reminded of the time when Cyrus nearly killed you. Feels like that.

And unfortunately due to this sudden weakness you do lose your footing on the pyramid steps, as do a couple of your Eternals. You end up tumbling down the rest of the steps smacking your head against the hard stone several times. By the time you hit the bottom you have most certainly broken your neck. You aren't dead, but you're definitely not in a good position.

Having little option you attempt to mend your broken neck through healing magic. It's requiring all your focus which is already weak due to the negative energy in the area. The spell is working, but it's going much slower than normal.

In the meantime more spirits and the like pour out of the black void above the pyramid and the pile of bodies that were one dead have now begun to shuffle around their original area to the other side where you are currently at. Your Eternals that didn't manage to kill themselves falling down the pyramid try to slow down the horde, but ultimately they fall before the sheer numbers and the unnatural magic affecting them.

Soon it is only you who are left and your broken neck still isn't quite mended, you only manage to sit up just in time for the newly risen bodies of your sacrificial victims to eat you alive.