You begin to concentrate and prepare for whatever is coming at you. A couple of zombies enter and as soon as they see you they shamble over.

You maintain your calmness and focus, backing up only to get out their reach. It's not work though, but you refuse to give up so you do something that you never thought you'd ever use.

You're underground and there are a lot of roots where you're at, you remember a minor spell you learned in you nature magic class. You cast the spell, and the roots entwine the zombies' feet causing them to be unable to move at you anymore. You then concentrate on controlling them, which now comes a lot easier to you because you don't feel in danger anymore.

When you're sure you have a hold on them, you release the roots and then practice telling the zombies what to do. Sort of fun, like having a pet. Your fun is cut short when Mr. Demar reappears.

"Well, that was an interesting way of handling things. Don't think I've ever seen combining nature magic with necromancy before. Usually the student kills one of the zombies with a fireball or something and then focuses all their attention to control the other one. Still, whatever works, and you are one of the few that's managed to control the both of them with no training in necromancy at all, so you have natural talent. And natural talent will serve you better for this path."
"I understand why you gave me the test, but I have to say I thought you'd start me off on raising the dead rather than controlling them first." You say.
"Ah! Yes, that's a common misconception. You want to know why most necromancers fail even before they get started? Because they lack the control. Raising the dead is relatively easy; controlling them takes a great deal more focus and power. Most of the time a neophyte necromancer will go to the local graveyard and end up getting himself killed by the very bodies he raised because he can't control them. Okay, I think it's time we introduce you to the rest of the class. We'll have lots of time to practice while most of the so called regular students are away for vacation."
"Uh, I'm ready, but I was supposed to go visit my family for vacation…and well also I don't think I've passed all my classes either, specifically the nature magic class."
"What? (Sigh) Very well I shall take care of your grade; I know exactly how to handle the situation and I have a lot more pull in this school than most could ever dream of. As for your family members, I'll leave that up to you. Surely you can think up something to tell them, right?"
"Yeah."
"Very well then, it's all settled. Time to meet the rest of your kind."

Once again Mr. Demar takes you through another portal. You're still underground, but now you're in a more structured setting with actual bricks rather than a cave like setting.

You're soon introduced to the rest of Mr. Demar's "class" known as the Dark Order. Some of whom you've actually seen on campus or even in your other classes. Those that know you are surprised.

"You're letting THAT guy in here? I remember him back in Illusion class, and he ended up creating clones that punched the professor in the face!"
"That's nothing, back in Evocation class; he ended up setting the professor on fire."

"Okay that's enough class! I can assure you that he has the potential to master the dark arts. He wouldn't be here if I didn't think so. Now Trelik and Felsa, you're coming with me, the rest of you practice your lessons and one of you help our newest associate here get started, we're all in this together you know."


After Demar leaves with two of his students, you're left to your own devices as it seems nobody wants to help you. You look around the study area a bit and you start to pick up one of the many tomes lying around until someone comes up to you.

"Hey, do you even know what those are for?" an ugly student asks you.
"Well, they have a skull on the front, and from the looks of them they contain descriptions of various types of undead creature. My guess necromancy."
"Yeah, so what do you know of it?"
"Not much, that's why I'm here obviously, isn't that why everyone else is?"
"Not at all, in fact you're only the fifth necromancer-to-be here. Most of the students are into studying how to control the infernal planes. You know Demonology. There's even a guy studying on the lost art of temporal magic."
"Temporal? You mean time?"
"Yep, a lot of people forget about that one being outlawed as well. Good reason, considering it could really fuck up something if not used properly. I'd actually stay away from Quayle, I think all that studying on time has made him a little loopy. He tends to talk backwards, and sideways a lot. Even Mr. Demar has a hard time keeping him on track."
"Interesting, so what's your name, are you a demonologist?"
"Me, nope I'm one of the disciples of death as they say. My name's Sebastian. You might as well meet the others, you'll be working with."

Sebastian takes you over to two other students. Catalina and Irwin. They nod at you and go back to their training which involves creating a some sort of bone golem. Catalina looks somewhat familiar. Sebastian tells you the other is Trelik who just left with Mr. Demar.

"He's the most skilled, besides Mr. Demar of course." Sebastian says.
"So what exactly do I start on first?" you ask.
"I'd start out with raising and controlling some skeletons. I know you probably did the zombie thing, but you'll need to hone your skill a lot and skeletons are easier to practice with. Take this book, and get started. You'll find the bone pits down the corridor and to the right, don't go left though; the demonologists got some bad ass demon locked in a circle down there. He's really pissed off too. Best stay away."

You take one of the necromantic tomes and head down the corridor. On your way there, you begin to hear a voice penetrating your head.

"You, come here. I know you. You seek power. I can give you that power; you need not waste your time studying anymore. I can grant it to you instantly. You want to be a master of death? Come to me…"

This voice is very tempting.

You head to the bone pits

No way, you're not going down that path. There are too many stories about demons fucking people over in their deals. In fact, you're a little worried about the fact that this "class" has more dedicated demonologist than necromancers. Still you'll just have to deal with it for now, you can only hope they know what they're doing and have a better grasp on things than a certain cabal of wizards did during the Dead War.

As for you, you need to start mastering your own branch of magic. When you get to the pits, you are literally surrounded by bones. You open up your book and begin to read a bit before casting your spell.

Your first attempt isn't too bad. You animate one skeleton, and surprisingly it doesn't attack you. You continue to practice this, and while it's only been an hour, you've already animated thirty skeletons, all of which are completely obedient and not attempting to attack you at all.

You're not sure if this is normal, good or bad for a beginner, but given how many problems you had with other branches of magic, you think you're doing pretty well. In fact you feel pretty proud of yourself.

You decide to get a little more inventive and you see rusty weapons on the floor along with the bones. You command the skeletons to pick them up and begin to start sparring with each other. They do so, without problems.



This sound of minor battle brings in a few of the students, most of whom are shocked.

"What's going…whoa. I thought you said you never did this before." Sebastian says walking in.
"I haven't…I dunno, it's just coming so easy to me. For the first time I feel like I'm actually good at something!" you say.
"Well, it's a lot better than what you did in Enchantment class when you managed to charm all those frogs which then proceeded to attack the professor." Catalina says.
"That was you? I even heard about that. Man, what is it with you and your spells accidentally hurting your professors in some way?" Irwin adds.

You ignore Irwin's question, and address Catalina.
"I thought I remembered you from somewhere. I asked you out once."
"Hmm, yes and you were unsuccessful in that as well. I suggest you stop looking at me and pay attention to your little army there, before they get out of hand. Like that one."

You turn around and stop one of the skeletons that's wandering in your direction and then command him to go back to sparring.

"Man, I've never seen someone with this much control just starting out. Well Trelik comes to mind, but he was already very skilled in general magic and was learning directly under Mr. Demar. From what others have said, you were completely inept at magic and have no previous training in this stuff whatsoever. You're like an idiot savant of necromancy or something." Sebastian says.
"Um…thanks. I think."
"Well anyway, glad you've joined up. We'll leave you be. If you want to try something harder, there's more tomes in the study area and just ask one of us where the other practice centers are."

And so it goes. You find your place among the Dark Order and practice your skills there, in fact it gets to the point that you rarely leave the secret underground base at all. You begin to catch the attention of Mr. Demar who is very impressed with your ability to learn and master so quickly. "Natural" isn't the word for it, more like prodigy. Trelik however is showing signs of jealousy…

Mr. Demar has to tell you to take a break every now and then or else you'll drain yourself. You don't feel that way though, you feel like you have more energy than ever.

As he promised your grades were "fixed" though Mr. Demar's actions meaning you don't get kicked out of the college. You tell your parents that you're taking an advanced course in magic that requires you to stay and how you're really excited about it. Your Mom is a little disappointed that she won't see you, but is happy to hear that you're doing so much better in school.

If she only knew…

The City of Nuro is a quieter place with less students around, but the guise of secrecy still must be kept. After a month has passed you find out that this "class" aren't the only allies Mr. Demar has. He's been teaching the dark arts for years and most of his "graduates" are living in this city. The attack is going to come when classes first start up again. Demar feels that it will actually be more beneficial to attack with more people in the city because after the demons are done with the killing, the Necromancers can raise the dead to reinforce the hold on the city.

One key part in all of this is Quayle. He is to cast a slow spell of the greatest proportions over the city. While everyone else is moving at a near stand still, the Dark Order will be able to take over key locations much easier.

While all of this sounds exciting you can't help but still be concerned about this plan. Mr. Demar is placing most of his faith in the demonologist, which you suppose is understandable given his background in conjuration, but you feel as if you necromancers are getting put on the backburner. Sure you're playing your part, but it almost seems as if you're just there as "back up". Not to mention you're still not keen on the whole idea of dealing with so many demons.

Of course these concerns are the least of your problems as another month goes by, Trelik is becoming a complete asshole to you. Within the short time you've been here, he's time and time again attempted to sabotage your spells, but usually you manage to overcome.

You've got a month to go before the final plans are in place, but suddenly Mr. Demar has some news he's not pleased to inform everyone of.

"Class, we've got a delegate from the Vampire Clans. I don't think I have to tell you how annoying this is."

You ask Sebastian what's the problem and what exactly is going. Sebastian tells you that ever since the clans heard about Demar's plans, they've been strongly opposed to them for they fear that it will draw attention to their one last stronghold which is kept invisible and secret to the rest of the world. It is there where the last of the "ruling" class vampires still exist, most of them having been killed or degenerated into little more than mindless beasts that are eventually hunted down.

While you're fascinated by Sebastian's explanation of things, you're suddenly singled out by Trelik.

"YOU! Do you find this so unimportant that you feel the need not to pay attention?"
"No. I just didn't know the whole situation and I was asking…"
"If you wanted more information you should've been asking Mr. Demar after he was done talking!"
"Okay, okay. That will do Trelik. Someone should've explained it to him before actually, given that he'll be playing a large part in this plan. In fact, maybe he should come with me to meet the delegate instead."
"But Mr. Demar! I have more experience in this sort of thing!"
"True, but to be quite honest, the blood suckers don't care too much for you. You're too combative. So how about it? Do you wish to be present when I speak to this delegate?"

You go with Mr. Demar

"Sure I'll go."
"Very well, you and Felsa are coming with me. Trelik, you go brush up on the attack strategy."
"But!"
"No buts! Just do it!"

Trelik storms off while you, Mr. Demar and Felsa head towards the conference room. When you arrive, you see a single pale emaciated figure. He doesn't look at all like the vampires you've heard of in past. There is no regality here.



"It's about time you showed up. I must confess I was not enthused about you leaving me here waiting like a dog. We have very important matters to discuss!" he hisses.
"My apologies Yolev. I just needed to take care of a few things. Please sit, and let us all discuss this."
"There really is no discussion Mr. Demar! You are to cease your plan immediately lest you face the full brunt of the vampire clans! Your foolish mortal desires will kill us all and we cannot allow that to happen! We must continue to survive!"
"Survive? Is that all you vampires worry about anymore? Why at one time you were secret rulers and puppet masters. Hell, without you the Great Lich Lord wouldn't have made nearly as much progress as he did."
"And THAT folly of those ignorant vampires is exactly why we must stop you now. The Dead War cost us greatly, we should not have thrown our lot in with a mad man who was determined to bring death to the world. It was only at the last minute that the wiser of us realized to do so would be detrimental to us. Almost too late. We are only a shadow of our former selves, but that shadow is still long…and we can make life difficult for you." Yolev warns.
"I don't respond well to idle threats, but I will say this, your fears are unfounded. The Dark Order is not seeking to bring death to the world, we are merely going to reestablish the proper order of things. The strong were meant to rule, and WE are the strong. Those who master the dark arts have always been strong. It is why we are so feared and hated and hunted. You should not be against us Yolev. You should see this as an opportunity to reestablish your rightful place as vampires."

Mr. Demar's words have a slight effect on Yolev. He falls silent and looks almost wistful of ancient times, when his kind roamed more free in civilization, rather than hiding and cowering on the outskirts like animals. He quickly snaps out of it though.

"Idealistic words, Mr. Demar, but even if we were still to use what little influence we still have, I cannot believe that you and a few students can change the world. Even if you manage to take this one city, you can't believe that you'll get away with it. You there! You're one of these students are you not? What do you think? And tell me what you TRULY think, not what Mr. Demar wants you to think." Yolev points to you.

"Well uh…I think we can do it." You stutter off guard.
"…You think you can do it? Is that all you have to say about it? This is what you're working with Mr. Demar? How could we ever place any faith in your plan when you're training near idiots that can barely form sentences?"
"Yolev, you might be a delegate, but you best watch your tone, you're not in the best position right now, and given your previous threats you're already treading on dangerous ground."
"You dare to threaten ME? I've crushed greater men AND women than you!"
"Yeah, and now you're a running lap dog for some so called vampire king who rules over nothing but a few remaining scraps of a dying legacy."

As this begins to get hostile, you notice Felsa preparing to cast something.

You think that if you say anything, things are only going to get worse, so you stand back and do nothing, but hostilities don't cease and eventually Felsa casts a blast of fire at Yolev, he falls to the floor trying to beat out the flames, but Demar isn't pleased.

"FELSA! WHY DID YOU DO THAT!?" he shouts and then finishes off Yolev by casting some sort of spell that causes his chest to explode. Two Imps suddenly appear and begin to rip Yolev apart before he can get a chance to recover.

"The pair of you really fucked up today! You with your actions and you with your bumbling! I might as well had Trelik with me! Shit! (Sigh) Alright. Fine we can still do this, but the vampires are going to be pissed off at us now for killing their delegate and it's definitely going to make things harder. Come on we got a lot to prepare for."

The last month is no picnic. Mr. Demar has you all training a lot harder than you have before. He's been pushing everyone a lot harder to the point that they're getting tired and sloppy. One of the demonologists gets eaten by a brimstone beast. Another accidentally casts a spell backwards and causes himself to be sucked into the infernal realm. Morale isn't exactly the highest.

But the plan goes through and after the first week classes go back in session, the gates of hell are literally opened. Portals appear all over various parts of not only the campus, but also the city. Demons come swarming out of the portals gleefully killing all in their path. The demonologist lead the attack, while you and the other three necromancers take advantage of all the new corpses in the area. Soon, you have a fair sized army of dead. Mr. Demar himself is taking on the head professors at the college, with the help of Felsa and Trelik. Given the amount of explosions you're seeing from the streets, you're glad you got a "lower" assignment.

All seems to be going well until it looks like the demons have decided to leave the city limits, one of the demonologists tries to corral them back shouting that they are supposed to only concentrate on Nuro, but they laugh and simply say: "You didn't mention that in the deal!"

With the demons completely unreliable now, it's up to you necromancers to take up the slack. You do alright, but there's still a lot of resistance and something has gone wrong with Quayle's spell as your attackers are beginning to move at a normal rate instead of a slower one.

You don't see this ending well, unless something changes quick. Even if you win, you know you got a shit load of problems ahead of you.

You attempt to regroup

Victory isn't beyond your grasp, you just need to regroup and organize. You immediately seek out Irwin, Sebastian and Catalina.

You find Sebastian and Catalina, and they're running low on viable corpses.

"Hey, glad you could get here, the Nuro mage guards are putting up a hell of a fight! The demonologists can't keep the demons in line and whatever former graduates Mr. Demar had to help us are probably all dead by now!" Sebastian explains.
"Yeah, it's bad all over. Where's Irwin?" you ask.
"Irwin? He's dead; can't you see his body lying over there with all the arrows in it?" Catalina points out.
"Well, no point in letting this go to waste, we need all the help we can get." You say and command Irwin to rise to join the rest of the horde

You tell Catalina and Sebastian to hand control over the rest of their troops to you, as if you can concentrate them with a single mind, you'll be able to break the doors down of city hall and take out the remainder of the mage guards holding out there. You also tell them that one should head back to the college itself and go check on Quayle, and the other should go help out Mr. Demar.

Oddly enough Sebastian and Catalina obey your orders immediately. You begin to feel even more confident in your power of command. You proceed to tell your now larger undead horde to attack the last bastion of Nuro's governmental control. You unleash blasts of dark energy at the mage guards who attempt to defend from the windows while your zombies and skeletons break down the doors and begin to massacre all those inside.



You enter the building nearly oblivious to the carnage. You feel a very real sense of calming peace amongst the death. Eventually you encounter the "First Citizen" of Nuro busily trying to slay as many of your soldiers as possible, but as you continue to raise them, even he realizes it's a futile endeavor.

A skeleton warrior hacks his arm off with an axe, and then a recently raised mage guard clubs him in the head with a small mace. He falls to the floor of his own office before your feet and looks up at you.

"Why? You…you'll never get away with this…" he sputters as he bleeds out.
"You might be right, but it'll be interesting to see if I do." You calmly say and kick him in the face before another skeleton lands a killing blow to him. He is then raised to join the ranks.

You exit the building and notice that the city is near empty. At least as far as the living go. The dead however are plentiful, bodies litter the streets. More resources for you, you think.

A demonologist looking very worn from battle sees you and you have to stop your small horde from attacking.

"Hey hold on! I'm on your side! Shit, this didn't turn out as planned, did it?"
"Oh I dunno, we got the city."
"Yeah, but Mr. Demar is still battling the rest of the staff in the college and I'm really worried about what the hell's going on with Quayle's spell, I don't know if you've experienced it yet, but I've been seeing buildings phase in and out of existence. I knew fucking around with time would be trouble!"
"Where are all of the demons?" you ask.
"Most of them left! I mean there's a few that stuck around, most of the weaker variety. There was a major demon called Velzix who was supposed to be helping, but he took off as well. Bah! Unreliable lot they are. I should've done what you did, become a necromancer! The dead always obey."
"Not always…but you may still fulfill your wish after all this is over, so where exactly are Mr. Demar and Quayle, I mean I know they're in the university, but where exactly?"
"You can't miss either one of them, Quayle's located in east section of campus, where you see all the damn buildings phasing in and out. As for Mr. Demar, well I'm sure you can still hear the explosions. I'm going to try to corral at least some of the imps and help Mr. Demar, I'm not going anywhere near the eastside of the campus though. I'm off!"

The demonologist runs to go do what he said, leaving you with a couple choices of proceeding. You could go try to fix this problem with Quayle since it won't do anyone any good if the city collapses on itself or disappears to gods know where, of course you don't know exactly what you're going to do, hell you've never even spoken to Quayle before. He was always kept locked up by himself in his room studying most of the time.

Of course you could go help Mr. Demar, chances are he could solve the problem with Quayle a lot better if he survives.

You go deal with Quayle

Mr. Demar is a powerful wizard and he's already got help, along with the help you sent and also the help that's coming. You need to do something about this time problem.

When you get to the east campus, the demonologist was right, you see a lot of weird things going on, nearby plants are growing older and younger before your eyes, buildings are indeed disappearing and reappearing. It's a mess. You see Catalina watching it all in wonder. She looks at you briefly only to acknowledge your presence and then goes back to watching the changing landscape.

"I see you choose to check on Quayle." You say.
"Yeah, I think he's in that small gray building over there, the only one that seems to be stable. I can't get to him though, well at least I'm not risking it, I sent some of my troops in there and I watched them either accelerate in rot and disintegrate, or even stranger actually turn back into their living selves until they eventually became babies and then nothing. In fact I'm getting out of here as it only seems to be getting worse. This plan sucks." Catalina replies.
"Well someone's gotta go in, so I guess I'll do it. I've risked too much already to fail. I suggest you go help Mr. Demar." you exclaim.
"Wow, this whole thing has really made you really authoritative. You've come a long way since Enchantment class."
"Yeah well I've had a revelation that I'm really good at this necromancy stuff and I won't be denied my career in it before it's truly begun."

You suddenly grab Catalina and kiss her on the lips; she pushes you away and slaps your face.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing?! Just because you're not incompetent at one thing, doesn't automatically mean I'm wet for you!"
"Well let me show you I'm not incompetent in two things then!"
"Ha ha. Maybe later, like next century. Nice try though. But I will go help Mr. Demar seeing as that would be the best course of action for me. Good luck with the time storm there."

As you check out Catalina's ass as she leaves you realize you should be focusing on the task at hand, but it's just you feel so alive for the first time in awhile as ironic as that may seem given the circumstances.

You begin to employ the same strategy that Catalina did, and you get mostly the same results she did, however you currently have a lot more troops than she, so eventually you manage to map out a safe path to the building she thought Quayle was located in.

Apparently she was right, you see him sitting in one of the auditorium class rooms in a lotus like position on the floor in a trance. A strange white field of energy surrounds him.



"You are the future…there is no future…there are many futures…it's all so fascinating…" he says in an echoed voice.
"Hey Quayle, we pretty much won, you can stop doing whatever it is you're doing with time now. It's really starting to mess things up."
"Things have started to get better…they will get worse…they will stay the same, all is relative… how will you proceed…you have decided…"
"Uh, yeah. Look Quayle you NEED to stop what you're doing, the whole fucking city is going to disappear if you don't, and I don't want to know where it might end up. So stop this right now!"

As soon as you give this order, a flash of light appears from above Quayle's head and a bizarre creature with way too many tentacles comes out. Naturally it attacks. You dodge out of the way of its tentacle whip and command what remains of your troops to attack. You don't know why, but you don't feel very well in its presence. You feel like you're about to vomit.

"There are so many things…worse than hell…worse than death…madness…insanity…I must show everyone…I have shown everyone…I have lost…I have won…"

Quayle's either gone completely mad, or he's speaking perfect sense. Probably both, but either way if this one creature is any indication of what he's talking about, you'll have to stop him, but you're having a really hard time concentrating as strange thoughts begin to enter your mind. You see all manner of images from the past and the present…you dare say the future. It's all going so fast though and you're getting dizzy.

You cast a blast of negative energy at Quayle

You attempt to concentrate, but as you do so another strange creature appears and smacks you in the face, knocking you to the ground. You don't even have time to recover before it begins to wrap one of its powerful tentacles around your head and squeezes until your skull cracks and your brains come leaking out.

Given what is in store for the world, you were lucky to be killed so quickly.