Chapter 3: One Foot In The Grave

One year has passed…

It's hard to believe it, but it's been a year since you took control of Nuro…or rather Aftermath as you renamed it.

The "Nuro Incident" as it came to be known was a shock to the civilized world. Nobody had anticipated such a thing occurring despite all preparations. Certainly not to Nuro given it's near "invincible" reputation.

The Grand Alliance was immediately formed to retake the city, but fortunately for you, you weren't the only problem they had.

Velzix, a demon lord who soon left Nuro during its attack, managed to unite the rest of the demons that felt the need to break their contract with the Dark Order turned their attention to the Tulan Kingdom. Right now he's established his own rule, enslaving the population and is most likely planning further conquest assuming he can keep his own troops from fighting each other long enough.

Trelik the "other necromancer" has been rampaging across the countryside in a vain attempt to establish some sort of dominion of his own, but so far without any real allies he's yet to be successful. His actions have still kept the Grand Alliance and other governments busy however.

As for you, you've already managed to hold off one Grand Alliance attack quite successfully due to your preparations. The first thing you did was command all the surviving Dark Order members to become necromancers. Some of them the more die hard demonologists hated this idea, so you gave them the option of taking their chances with Velzix or alone against the Grand Alliance.

After being presented with these two undesirable prospects, they grumbled, but the rest soon fell in line. Catalina was mainly responsible for training them, given that she's the only other "true" necromancer in the city. You're glad of that as it saved you from having to do everything.

Your relationship with Catalina's has improved mainly because you've proven yourself to be a competent leader that has managed to hold on to the city despite the odds. She still acts like she's not interested in you, but you catch an extended glance from her every now and then. Oh yeah she's definitely warming up to you.

You haven't heard anything from your family, you can only wonder what they think of all this and in some ways you don't want to know.

While things are somewhat quiet now, that's not going to last. The Grand Alliance will keep attacking and who knows how long they'll be distracted with Velzix and Trelik? They may very well overwhelm you in time, if the other threats are taken care of. You can't just sit in your throne room and prepare for the next attack; you'll need to be proactive about this threat.

This of course this means conquest. Your standing army is stronger than ever right now and your powers in necromancy have grown considerably with the last year. You're confident that you could probably take over a small kingdom. Gaining more territory that your enemy can't use is usually a good way of making things harder for them.

You well maybe you better check up on all the players first (Background info)

The dark path isn't an easy one and you've made (or rather inherited) lots of enemies besides the obvious ones due to what is now known as the "Nuro Incident".

While you have many enemies, you realize you don't have too many allies. Just you, your city and a sexy female necromancer.

Things could be worse!

You catalina and Aftermath

You remember Catalina in your Enchantment class, but you were so busy trying to pass it, that you barely paid any attention to her. Good thing you didn't, otherwise you would've failed it. (Not that it really matters now!)

You've gotten to know her better since then of course. She's a few years younger than you and grew up in the poor district of Nuro. Unlike you who had at least one loving parent, Catalina was an orphan. She did grow close to the kindly woman who ran the orphanage and took an interest in the woman's minor magical abilities to entertain the children. This interest along with her natural ability, lead to Catalina's path to become a magic practitioner.

However when this kindly lady was killed by thugs in the night, all the orphans were cast out on to the streets. Most of them turned to criminal lifestyles for survival. Catalina on the other hand was interested in a little more than just mere survival. She still had a thirst for magic knowledge, she left the slums far behind and began to she lurk around Nuro's magic college, stealing books and trying to learn the secrets within. Even finding quiet places to practice minor spells. She was very isolated during these years and rarely interacted with others.

Eventually she stole a book from Mr. Demar. A book on necromancy. The magic contained within was nothing like she ever saw before. The philosophy of it was different as well. It fascinated her, and she couldn't wait to practice it.

Fortunately she was caught red handed by Mr. Demar before she could. Mr. Demar sensed that she had much potential, but lacked discipline, so he decided to take her as one his pupils for his Dark Order. He even paid for her enrollment of other classes to give her a sense of stability and routine. She would stay in the underground base of the Dark Order so she could learn to better work in a group.

While all of this did make her a more organized person, she still never really connected with her peers. They were all a little older for one thing. She couldn't identify with the demonologists and saw little in common with her fellow necromancers. Trelik's arrogance and unwanted advances were a huge turn off. Sebastian and Irwin were okay, but seemed a little boring in the scheme of things. And while she appreciated Mr. Demar's "generosity" and respected his abilities, she still never completely trusted him.

She's still pretty guarded around you, though she does respect your abilities. (Much like how she felt about Mr. Demar actually) She's a competent and moderately powerful necromancer. She tends to prefer to control small groups of elite undead troops rather than hordes of weak ones. She's a little more versatile than you, as she has skill in other forms of magic. (Some of which she's helped you at least be mediocre in)

As she's the only one that's at least approaching your level of power and a true necromancer as well, you feel closer to her and trust her to be your second in command and when something important needs to be done and if you can't do it, you'll assign it to her.


The former city of Nuro, now called Aftermath looks vastly different now of course, but you think it's for the better.

Most of the "population" is dead and they go about their undead lives performing the same jobs they were typically doing before except now they never stop unless you command them to do something else.

A few of the dead do have higher brain functions, letting them able to make simple decisions. These you typically put in charge of guard duty or similar minor roles.

Your small group of necromancers takes care of any true "free will" undead problems by either corralling them, or bringing it to your attention to take care of it.

Other than the necromancers, there are no other living creatures in the city, at least not sentient ones. You won't take the risk, at least not while Aftermath is your only holding.