Thirsting for more possible knowledge you head to this new address. This time you're not in a residential area and more in a warehouse district, still not a safe area though.

When you get to the warehouse, once again the signs of battle abound, except this time it would appear that you arrived in the middle of one still going on.

"Don't just stand there, the fucking thing, damn it!"
"Shit! Thing's too fucking tough!"
"Well summon another…arrrggh!"


You enter cautiously and see a huge stone golem battling a couple people in robes. One lies on the floor dead. Given the dead imps that also litter the room, they're probably demonologist. Some of Mr. Demar's no doubt.

You stand back and watch the battle from the shadows, staying hidden the whole time. While keeping an eye on the battle you take out one of your necromantic books and quickly glance through it. You come across a spell that allows you cast a bolt of pure negative energy. It seems pretty easy, so you decide to try it.

You come out from behind the boxes you were using as cover and blast the golem in the face with a powerful beam of dark energy. Its head explodes into several stone pieces, but it doesn't stop. Such a hit will not automatically kill a creature like this. The demonologists look surprised to see you and even more surprised when you bark orders at them.

"Get it now! While it's blind! Take its legs!" you shout.

They do exactly what you say and cast super hot blasts to the golem's knees burning right through them, causing the rest of it to collapse and shatter. It's definitely dead now.

"Whew! Good thing you came along. When Mr. Demar sent us to search this address we didn't expect to encounter a golem guard. How did he know to send help?" one of the demonologists asks.
"He didn't." you say and blast him.
"Hey…" is all the other manages to utter before you blast him as well.

You're now left alone in a warehouse with multiple dead bodies, and as a certain goblin wino once said, the mage guard probably won't be coming around here anytime soon. You see this as a perfect opportunity to practice some REAL necromancy.

You open the page to the appropriate spell and begin the cast it. Soon one of the dead demonologists begins to rise. It doesn't even take you much effort to control him. It's very easy actually. You've never had such an easy time at any kind of magic before, but this feels so right to you.

You summon the second one and then the third one. You command them to do various things for you just to see how well you can control them. It barely takes you any concentration at all.

You spend the rest of the night practicing, before making a search of the place which as it turns out contains nothing, but banned pornographic writings. You then head to your apartment where you sleep for the entire day.

When you wake up you write a letter to your family saying that you're going to be staying at Nuro for vacation since you have some extra curricular studying to do and a big opportunity could be opening up. You mostly study your necromantic books and absorbing the knowledge within.

You keep up with local news and the deaths of Big Red and his girlfriend are barely mentioned, and nothing is mentioned of the warehouse. You gather that you're in the clear.

Next week you get a letter in return from your Mom who says she's disappointed you won't be coming to visit, but pleased that you're doing well and your grades are back up. (At least Big Red came through for you on the nature magic thing before he died) She also mentions how proud she is of you.

If she only knew…

A month passes and you've almost finished the books you acquired. You can't really do too much practicing though, which is something you desperately want to do again. You know you've got all this power within you yet you can't use it.

The problem is dead bodies aren't exactly something you can just come across. Oh sure you could go to the graveyard, but that would most likely attract a ton of attention given that most of them are always monitored to prevent such things from easily happening. You wonder if you should approach Mr. Demar and join his Dark Order. While you typically don't work with groups, but if it gets you some practice maybe it would be worth joining. Plus you'd get to find out what's going on with all that, since it seems like something you should worry about.

Then again large groups tend to get targeted first. So maybe you could try summoning spirits. It's not like they're as obvious. Though from what you've read controlling such incorporeal dead requires more experience and you haven't been able to practice a lot.

You summon spirits

You've been doing pretty well by yourself so far, so you decide to continue that trend. Still you do wonder what Mr. Demar's Dark Order is up to.

During the night you head out of the city and into the nearby wilderness. After checking around, you're sure nobody else is around and you begin to cast your spell.

Soon it happens. You've summoned several ghostly figures to your side. The strain to control them is much greater, but you manage. However you don't want to push your luck so after a few brief commands you dismiss them. You've satisfied your desires for awhile.


Another month passes and you go about your life more or less. Soon classes will start again, but you have no idea what you're going to take. How can you? You're sitting on all this forbidden knowledge that you seem to be extremely good at while the "acceptable" magic is stuff you can't perform worth shit. Doesn't seem fair somehow. Still you're going to have to at least put up a front of normalcy if you're going to not arouse suspicion.

You're convinced you were born in the wrong time period. You should've been alive during the time of the Great Lich Lord. Ah how exciting those times must've been!

But as you soon find out, today's times can be just as exciting…

As the first week of classes start rolling around you finally decide on taking something easy and head towards the registrar offices as a late arrival. As soon as you step out of your apartment building, you hear screams, sounds of battle, explosions and general sounds of chaos.

Portals are opening up all over the city and demons are pouring out of them! Amidst the bedlam you notice a few young wizards directing the demons. Demonologists. They have to be part of the Dark Order and this has to be some kind of plan of their to take over the city. You wished you'd joined up with them after all, but you think perhaps it might not be too late to get in on the action.

You're about to do so, when you feel your whole body going in slow motion. Apparently you're not the only one, but it doesn't seem to be affecting the demons or Dark Order members. They must have someone also dabbling in temporal magic (A practically forgotten branch of magic which is also illegal, and obviously for good reason!)

It would seem that The Dark Order certainly has their shit together as far as this attack is concerned.

You're not going to be deterred, but you know you need to be cautious. You slink back into your apartment building and back into your room. Remembering your spirit summoning from last month, you decide to try it again. You need defenders and ghosts are probably going to serve you better for as long as this slow spell lasts.

Once again you succeed and with your ghostly bodyguards you march outside a little more confident.

You find that the city is one big killing zone. Demons are really running amok through the streets, a few of them attack you, but your ghost protect you. It would appear that they don't see you as an ally.

Sensing the need for even more protection, you raise some of the many dead bodies that now litter the streets. A few of Nuro's mage guards attempt to stop you, but you easily defeat them and add them to your ranks. It's so easy for you. Soon you're commanding a small army and it's barely taking any effort from you at all.

"HEY! Who the hell are you? You're not in the Dark Order!" a voice calls out to you, and you turn around to see another necromancer. He's rather non-descript looking and isn't controlling nearly as many dead as you are. No ghosts either.

"I'm not. I'm what you call…independent I suppose."
"Oh is that right eh? Well if you ain't with the Dark Order, you're against us!"

You attempt to ask if you can come to some sort of arrangement, but he's not hearing it, he orders his horde to attack you.

So much for making allies…

He and his troops are going to be faster, even if you do outnumber him, so you decide to do something else.

You enforce your will upon his advancing horde, and with a little effort you're successful. They stop in their tracks, and then they turn around in his direction.

"Hey! Stop that! You can't do that! You're supposed to listen to me!" he shouts totally losing his cool, not to mention his control.

Instead of trying to regain it, he attempts to blast you with a bolt of negative energy, but at this point you're well protected by meat shield of corpses, who seem to be moving faster…

The slow spell! It's gone! Or at least it's not affecting you anymore. You smile wickedly at the enemy necromancer. Now you can show him real power! He doesn't get a few inches from his position before he's overwhelmed and killed by your forces.

Besides the effects of the slow spell being gone, you also notice many of the demons jumping over the city walls, or otherwise leaving Nuro. You hear demonologists shouting at them to come back and once again you shake your head. It would appear that Mr. Demar and the Dark Order didn't have their shit as together as you thought.

"Pah! This is what Mr. Demar had to work with? I guess I was lucky not to have hooked up with such fools!" you say to a nearby zombie who doesn't answer.

You march through the city truly exercising your power for the first time, soon you come across two more necromancers attempting to destroy city hall where the last bastion of resistance resides in the city. An ugly man and a woman. Naturally it's the ugly guy who calls over to you.

"Hey Irwin glad you…hey you're not Irwin! Who are you?"
"I'm the guy who can probably save your ass from this fiasco you Dark Orderites call a take over."
"Huh and I suppose YOU could've done a better job?" the woman sneers.
"Better job than you're doing. Look at you, you lost your demonic support and you can't even take out the first citizen and his weak ass mage guards." You retort.
"Hey Catalina stop fighting! We got enough problems!" he says to the woman before addressing you. "Look, my name's Sebastian and if you want to help out I'm not going to turn you away because you're right, we could use it! I'm sure Mr. Demar is having no problems taking care of the dean and the other professors, but I'm more concerned with Quayle!"
"Who's that?"
"He's the guy that was responsible for that slow spell you were probably feeling the effects of earlier. I don't what's gone wrong with the spell, but some demonologist came by here a minute ago saying that the whole east side of campus is fucked up. Like it's phasing in and out of existence or something. Someone needs to go check it out or stop it before we're all killed!"

You go check on Quayle

While these Dark Orderites haven't completely impressed you, you remember that Serena mentioned you would need allies and they could serve that purpose. From what you can tell, you're a better necromancer than the rest of them and this city would be an excellent beginning of your career especially since you don't have any better ideas in mind. You know that even if this event plays out well for you, you're going to have a whole shit load of trouble ahead of you so you better get a few people on your side now even if they need to be "disposed" of later…

"Alright, I'll help out, but I'm not doing this for you or following your orders, I have my own agenda!" you say flat out to Sebastian.

Before you leave Catalina speaks to you.

"So, come a long way from Enchantment class huh?" she says.
"…I thought I recognized you…and yeah I have. I finally found a branch of magic I'm really good at." You say finally realizing who she is.
"Just remember, as good as you are, you aren't the best."
"We'll see." You retort and leave.

The march towards the university where on the west side of campus you see and hear explosions. That must be where Mr. Demar is. You wonder how you'll have to deal with him after you take care of this Quayle problem.

When you get to the east campus, Sebastian 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 a small gray building that doesn't seem to be suffering any effects; you bet that's where Quayle is.

You march over with your horde only to start feeling very ill. You try to shake off the effects so you can keep control, but it doesn't matter as you begin to see your various undead troops go through weird changes. You watch them either accelerate in rot and disintegrate, or even stranger actually turn back into their living selves until they eventually become babies and then nothing.

You're only halfway to the building and you begin to worry that you're going to suffer the same fate, but manage to get in the Gray building which contains a simple auditorium like classroom. You must be back on campus. At the front of the class you see a strange man surrounded by a white glow. This must be Quayle.

"This is not the way…you have lost…you may win…it's all so fascinating…" he says in an echoed voice.

You have no idea what the hell he means, all you know is you need to kill this guy before he fucks everything up. You're having a hard time concentrating still though and once again you begin to feel very sick. That feeling becomes stronger when you see grotesque creatures pop into existence. They have writhing masses of tentacles and give off an aura completely hostile and alien. Not even the demons you've had contact with give off anything like this.

You have no time for spells you'll have to do this the old fashioned way. You run towards the front of the class where he sits and just narrowly dodge another tentacle beast appearing suddenly in front of you.

"…stop…stop it…you must stop…"

You tackle Quayle and something completely unexpected and disgusting happens. His body literally breaks like a fragile glass vase and all manner of insects and maggots come crawling out, mostly on you.

"EEEEYEEECAAAGH!" you yell trying to get them all off of you, completely ignoring anything else. Fortunately for you, whatever you did has stopped the temporal disturbance. The creatures disappear and everything else seems to go back to normal.

After stomping on some centipedes you notice Quayle's head has rolled into a corner. Surprisingly it's still alive.

"You have won nothing…" his head says before it just simply disappears.

You shake your own head at all of this. As much as you've seen during your short time raising the dead, you've never seen anything like this.

You can't hear anymore explosions; you wonder if Mr. Demar has won. You exit the building and begin to walk over to the other side of the campus where the explosions were coming from.

You arrive to burning buildings and ruins of towers. Once again you see Sebastian, he's sitting outside holding his head in his hands. He looks like he's sobbing.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" you ask.
"It's over! It's all over!"
"What are you talking about? It looks like the city is ours."
"But for how long? All our so called demon allies took off! By the time I got here Mr. Demar had already been severely wounded and his second in command Trelik had betrayed him. Catalina and I managed to kill Trelik, but Catalina fell in the battle! The Dark Order is over and I dunno what's coming next, we're all in a lot of fucking trouble! Trouble that I wasn't prepared to handle! I'm not really a leader. Mr. Demar was a leader! Oh man why did I choose this path!?"

Sebastian is having a complete mental break down and it sickens you. It's unbecoming of a necromancer.

"Where's Mr. Demar?" you ask.
"He's dead in the library!"
"Good, saves me the trouble."
"Huh? What's going on?"
"I'm in charge, that's what's going on and I'm not going to tolerate whimpering weaklings like you." and you blast Sebastian with negative energy to his face, killing him.

Yep, you're in charge.



A month passes

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. You've renamed the city Aftermath.

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 the Dark Order summoned to help them, soon left Nuro during its attack, and managed to unite the rest of the demons that felt the need to break their contract with the Dark Order. They 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.

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. They're mediocre at best though, they might be better if you took a more direct hand in training them, but you're too impatient and you have so many other things to take care of as well.

You haven't heard anything from your family; you can only wonder what they think of all this and you don't really care.

While things are somewhat quiet now, that's not going to last. The Grand Alliance will keep attacking and they may very well overwhelm you in time. You can't just sit in your throne room and prepare for the next attack and you need to be proactive about this threat, but the big problem though is, you're basically doing all of this yourself. There isn't anyone anywhere near your equal, let alone anyone you can trust to handle important things.

As much as you loathe thinking of it, you could ally with Velzix, granted he's an untrustworthy demon, and not fond of the Dark Order for imprisoning him, you were never a member of the Dark Order and may be receptive. You soon send messages to him asking for an alliance. Eventually you get a response, and it's a positive one. Velzix even says he'll meet you in the city of Aftermath. Apparently he isn't worried about you.

When he arrives he gets right to business.
"Nice decorations…so, you wish to make a deal with me?"
"I've come to propose a pact between us yes. We have a common enemy."
"Yes, but what does this pact entail exactly?"
"Simple, we don't attack one another and we coordinate our attacks to be more effective against the Grand Alliance."
"And I suppose while my attention isn't on you, and I waste my valuable resources, you build up strength and attack me eh? Heh heh, I know you little necromancer. I see the desire to murder the entire world in your eyes. I even respect it, but if you think I'm trusting you, you're as brain dead as those corpses you raise."
"What?! You're a fucking demon and you're accusing ME of being deceitful?"
"Of course. Who better to see treachery than one who is an expert at it? But assuming you genuinely mean for us to be best buddies forever and ever, I still don't see what you can do for me in your current state."
"What are you on about now?"
"I'm saying as a military power you ain't shit that's what! Your necromancers are barely competent enough to hold your defenses of that little necropolis you rule. It's mostly you doing all the work, and while you've got a little power, it still ain't enough to attack anything in a meaningful way."

You hate the fact that Velzix is right, but you hate it even more that he's so damn smug about it. Which makes you wonder why he called you out here…in fact you're starting to prepare yourself for trouble.

"Alright then what the hell are you proposing?" you ask.
"I propose a…merger rather than an alliance."
"You're proposing that I let YOU take over Aftermath and I just become your bitch."
"Not exactly how I worded it, but if you prefer that designation…"
"NO! I don't prefer it!"
"Okay then how about this? I say you'll last maybe another year tops if you stay walled up in this little city of yours just letting the Grand Alliance constantly beat down your gates until they finally succeed. Then assuming you don't die during that final attack, I predict that you live a ragged existence on the run for maybe a couple years afterwards at which point you'll end up getting hunted down and killed hiding in some cave somewhere."
"And that's what you see?"
"Seen it happen to more powerful mortals than you. BUT! It doesn't have to be that way. Joining with me can be more beneficial than you think. You don't think I don't see the power in you? You would be a very valuable asset to my plans. Your ability to control the dead is very strong and quite frankly it would be nice to actually have not just troops that aren't fighting among themselves, but a great general as well. Think about it! You'll gain more power and you could still bring death to thousands and not have to worry about all the bullshit of ruling, because as I'm sure you know, it isn't as fun as it should be most of the time. You will prosper, if you continue to prove yourself worthy and useful."

You join Velzix

Velzix's offer does have some appeal to it, you must admit, but having to answer to Velzix is repugnant to you. You feel that you were meant to rule, not follow. Perhaps you can build up a following though while serving under his rule, there's nothing saying you HAVE to be loyal…

"Very well. I'll join you."

Velzix smiles.

"Ha ha! I knew you'd see the smart thing to do little necromancer. I predict this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship…"

You transfer your city over to Velzix, though the majority of your undead are still there, he just supplements its defenses with some of his own demons and the humans that have pledged their servitude to him.

You are about to take your Necromantic career to its next level

Chapter 3: One Foot in Hell



One year has passed…

It's been one year since you made an alliance with Velzix, and so far it has paid off. With your combined might, you both have successfully held off the Grand Alliance. You haven't gained too much ground, but that's looking like it's about to change.

Everyday Velzix has somehow been managing to attract "free demons" from other nations to join him, though its not as if they have too many other options as mere suspicion has turned into hatred and they are to be rounded up and killed as possible enemies. Though again, thanks to mortal failings and greed, there are those few nations that are still letting their small demonic populations run free. Not surprisingly Velzix has been attempting to convince the leaders of these governments into joining him in exchange for even greater power. Velzix has also been attempting to open portals to his own infernal realm on a permanent basis. Right now he can summon in a few reinforcements to replace battle losses, but nothing on a major scale.

As for you, things could be worse, but they could be better. All your potential "acolytes" reverted back to being demonologist when the merge came, though many of them were purged by Velzix himself, as he still remembered their attempts to imprison him before during their days in the Dark Order, not to mention if they were so quick to change allegiances so quickly, then they obviously weren't to be trusted.

Your magic powers in other branches of magic have somewhat improved, though this might be due your infernal dealings. Necromancy is still your area of expertise obviously and as it stands, you're the only true necromancer allied with Velzix. You sort of hold a unique position, but you question its importance in the scheme of things. You've been basically put on defense duty. Your undead troops are nothing more than meat shields for the most part, and while that is what they are there for, you'd rather they be YOUR meat shields than some asshole demons, (or worse mortals). You feel like your talents are being wasted to a degree, like you've got a lot of untapped potential that's dying to get out.

However, open rebellion against Velzix isn't likely to happen, but there's nothing stopping you from setting the stage. You still have Aftermath under your control, even if you do have to put up with the demons and mortals stationed there now. One night in your study while you're contemplating how to go about all this, you figure there are two ways.

You've actually got a lot of troops at your immediate disposal. You believe you could probably take over the nearby Brot Kingdom by yourself without any help. They have a weak military and most of the Grand Alliance armies are busy elsewhere. You could build up a bigger power base. You might piss off Velzix by doing this by yourself, but you could take the chance that he might over look it if you're successful as it's also increasing his own territory.

The other option is to remain doing what you're doing and engage in a more secret assassination conspiracy against Velzix. You already know that tons of others are probably doing it, why not you? The problem is, individually most of you are fairly weak against him; though together you'd be more successful. Of course getting a bunch of demonic assassinating liars to trust one another is probably even more difficult than the attempt itself.

You engage in military conquest

What's the point of having power, if you aren't using it in any meaningful way that can
help you? You're sick of being "reined in". You're going to do what you've been wanting to do for a long time.

You prepare to march an army of undead to the Brot Kingdom. The demons and mortals stationed at Aftermath are wondering what's going on though since most of them know you're mainly used for defense.

"Where do you think yer goin'?" a demon solder steps up to ask you as you're about to leave the city gates.
"I'm gonna go conquer the Brot Kingdom, got a problem with that?"
"Me? No, not at all. Just didn't know Velzix let you off your leash." The demon soldier grins.

This remark is met with a negative energy blast to his face, completely ripping the flesh off and revealing the still grinning skull underneath. As the rest of this body falls to the ground, you feel the need to make a speech to the gawking onlookers.

"I am not on anyone's fucking leash! Nobody tells me what the do! Now what's going to happen, is I'm going to leave and lay waste to the Brot Kingdom. The rest of you are going to defend this place while I'm gone! And when Velzix comes here, like I know he will I'LL handle it. The rest of you can cower before that fucker, but I ain't the one."

Having made your thoughts known, you return to your undead army, which obediently still stands only awaiting your commands. As the way things should be. The way ALL things should be.

After a few days you eventually reach the Brot Kingdom. You start by decimating the small border villages and then quickly raising the peasants you slaughtered. You've moved on to larger towns before the Brot military manages to start opposing you. Their military is weak though. Most of them see your horde and run in terror before the fight even begins! Those are the smart ones. The rest soon become just more fodder for you to raise. You actually feel more powerful after your conquests, which is odd given the amount of energy you've been expending. You can only take this as a sign of this being what you were meant for!

Within the week you've single handedly taken control of the Brot capitol and most of the Kingdom in general. Much of the royal family has abased themselves before you in an attempt for you to spare their lives. You laugh and grant this request, after all someone has to still run this territory. You've successfully subjugated your first territory. In fact, it's the first "real" territory conquered since Velzix took over the Tulan Kingdom. Tivadol's petty victories haven't even compared to what you've done.

When you return to Aftermath, you're half expecting to be met by Velzix, who has undoubtedly heard of your actions by now. It's only now that you realize you may be in more trouble than you thought! However, you're surprisingly met by Sesisek instead who sits in your study.

"This place is as dead as my status among demonkind." He says looking at the many skeletal structures and decorations.

"It's a fucking necropolis, I'm a necromancer, and what do you want? I figured Velzix would be here meeting me."
"Oh he's on his way, and from what I've heard, he's quite pissed about you playing the role of conqueror. He's just a little more preoccupied with the Grand Alliance army that's currently attacking him directly right now, which probably explains why you met little resistance at Brot. Congratulations on your victory, I'm sure Tivadol won't be too pleased with accomplishing something he couldn't either."
"Yeah, yeah, so why are you here?"
"I'm here to help you get out of this shit pit you've stepped in and are quickly in danger of sinking further into. You've showed entirely too much ambition, too soon, my mortal friend."
"What of it? Like I'm the only one plotting against Velzix? Hah! Tivadol makes no pretense of his goals."
"Ah yes, but you're not taking some things into consideration. Tivadol is still a demon and you my mortal friend are not. We are not fond of ever being bested, but to be bested by a mortal is even more repugnant to us. Tivadol is also a predictable loud mouth brute who is never going to achieve his goal. Velzix knows exactly how to manipulate him. Perhaps the day will come where he'll have to kill him, but that day is far off in the future. You on the other hand are still new and he's still learning about you. Velzix probably thought you could be manipulated and cowed into submission by his sheer strength and magic abilities alone, but it's apparent that you aren't afraid of such things. I could've seen that though. Necromancers embrace death; fear of it won't be a factor. Though there are worse things than death…"
"Guess you're proof of that." You mock.
"Hmm, your pointless barbs at me are quite unproductive and are in fact hindering you. I am offering to help you, I'd advise that you take it before you meet Velzix."
"Offering me help huh? I seriously doubt you're doing this out of kindness."
"Of course not. I'm doing it because I see an opportunity for revenge and quite frankly, you are the only one that will be able to help me achieve it. However, I assure you that we will both profit greatly from this, if you listen to me. If you don't want my help though, I shall leave."

"Okay I'm listening, what are you suggesting?"
"Ha ha, no my mortal friend. I would be quite the fool if I told you how to handle Velzix before I got your word that you are in fact accepting my help. ARE you accepting my help?"

Sesisek looks at you expectantly.

You accept his help

Well, you probably could use the help in this matter. Smoothing this out with Velzix is going to be a delicate affair.

"Alright, I'm accepting your help."
"Excellent." Sesisek smiles.

Sesisek explains that even if you do manage to talk Velzix into not killing you for your actions, he's still going to take away your hard earned victory for himself. You can't let him do this, nor are you to get into a fight with him. Instead you must convince Velzix that you are indeed loyal and would never dream of betraying him, but that you must take a more active role in things if you are to be effective. You must remind him that if you're doing activity, then Velzix can concentrate more on opening up the portal to back home and victory will come quicker. Finally you must always point out of how weak you are compared to the might of Velzix, remind him that you are but a lowly mortal and will always remain so when compared to a demon lord.

After advising you, Sesisek leaves you as he mentions he doesn't want to be around if things don't go well. He doesn't need anymore of Velzix's anger to spread out to him, but if you happen to be successful; he'll definitely be around to provide more help in the future

You feel just by agreeing to this you've lost something of yourself. Much like when you allied with Velzix. Maybe you haven't gone so far to sell your soul and granted you were walking the path of darkness to begin with, but the twisted taint of hell that you've been getting deeper into is definitely starting to change you and it's probably not for the better.

In any case a couple days pass and Velzix arrives, he's a little more calm than you were expecting, but he could blow up at any minute.

"So little necromancer, I hear you have been taking matters into your own hands and acquiring territory yourself. I am displeased that you have done this. The Grand Alliance has been attacking and you've been squandering my potential reinforcements elsewhere. What if they had succeeded in breaking through my defenses? I would've had no troops to support my position, and much would've been lost."
"Forgive me, but I felt that with the Grand Alliance focusing their attention elsewhere, I believed an attack on the Brot Kingdom would be a good idea. And I might add, it was. The conquest was very successful."
"Yes, but you have dodged the question of what would've happened had the Grand Alliance broke through my defenses?"
"I did not worry about such a thing since I knew they would be no match for a powerful demon lord such as yourself and even if they had, I'm sure you personally could've dealt with the few stragglers. They are only mortals after all; they would never be a match for you."
"Obsequious words little necromancer…I have never heard any such tone from you before. You have always carried an air of arrogance about you. Tell me, is my mere presence enough to make you regret your clumsy attempts at gaining more power?"
"I fear you have misjudged me in this. I simply feel that my talents have not been used to their full degree, because you believe I shall be treacherous in the future. I have no desire to do such a thing. What would be the point? I could never hope to defeat you anyway. I only wish to be more active in your eventual conquest of this world. I have already proven to be a more competent general than Tivadol."

Velzix laughs out loud at this last statement.

"I'm sure Tivadol will be thrilled to hear that a mortal has achieved more in military victories on this world than he has…very well. You wish to choose a more active role, so be it. It will be most amusing to see Tivadol compete with you, perhaps this will even inspire him to succeed, since as you have pointed out, he has yet to conquer an entire kingdom for me like you have…and it IS MY kingdom is it not?"
"Yes, it is." You say with a bow.
"Hmm, yes. Well you've talked your way out of this one necromancer, but know that I will still be watching you. You had best prove successful in your new active role, but also remember who is in charge and who serves."
"Of course."

Velzix informs you that since you have taken on this role, he'll be issuing more orders to you AND that it will be up to you to oversee larger areas of territory (Starting with the recently acquired Brot Kingdom), not just Aftermath. And if you fuck up, you're going to get fucked up.

And with that, you have your new place in the hierarchy…

Four years pass…

It's been five years since you made your alliance with Velzix, so far it's proven most beneficial more or less.

You've managed to carve out a niche for yourself as a good general, and just in time too since Velzix has been successful in keeping infernal portals open longer which is allowing more demons to come in. While your undead troops are looking to be somewhat "obsolete" your expertise in military planning has assured you a place in this demonic empire.

You don't lead demons though of course. They'd never allow such a thing. You lead a strange combination of undead and mortals who have decided to throw their lot in with the infernal forces. Sesisek has even provided you with a few mortals who have displayed an interest in necromancy, allowing you to not carry the weight of up keeping an undead army constantly anymore. While you haven't completely abandoned your necromantic roots, you've been forced to broaden your magical horizons and tap into the infernal plane, which has allowed you to create potent unnatural abominations.

However, this type of magic is highly experimental and you're probably the first one to even attempt it. It's beginning to take a toll on your deteriorating health, because as they say, you don't change hell, hell changes you. However your power is keeping you going. You haven't lost sight that one day you'll be in charge…

Your immediate rivals haven't lost sight either, in fact you've become more of a threat. Tivadol the Destroyer constantly makes threats that he'll one day see you crushed underneath his foot. Sinthinia is a little more interested in your relationship with Sesisek and finds the fact that you two are on too good of terms to be very suspicious. Oddly Velzix doesn't seem worried about this though, or if he is, he hasn't made it known to you. Indeed he's been pre-occupied lately with finally opening up a portal permanently to his infernal home. He believes he will soon be successful.

In the meantime, the Grand Alliance has been hard pressed to hold the line, they are slowly losing ground to you and Tivadol. Heroes from all over the civilized governments have been employed, but so far they've have proven unsuccessful in even getting to Velzix, let alone killing him. Vampire assassins however have had a little more luck, but Sinithina's internal security magic guards have detected them all as soon as they get near Velzix's fortress.

You can't say you're too thrilled yourself with Velzix opening up a permanent portal as it could certainly make your job a lot harder of killing him in the future. Sesisek, realizes this too and has recently approached you about this.

He tells you to meet him for a plan to kill Velzix, in a couple days. While you're in your study pondering what this could entail, you are suddenly "greeted" with Sinthinia's presence. Unusual since she's directly kept her distance from you ever since you conquered the Brot Kingdom. (Indirectly through her spies is another matter however) Whatever she has come to see you for probably isn't good…or is it?


"Hmm, this place still reeks of death I see. It is much too cold in this place. Not warm like many of our other conquests. Look how hard my nipples are. Why it's cold enough to make me almost want to put on clothes…almost." She says touching herself in a seductive way. You've seen her in action before, and you're not some weak willed fool, so this routine has little effect on you.
"Yeah, well zombies tend to be flammable and I hate the heat, so this grave chill stays. You'll just have to deal with hard nipples."
"How about YOU deal with them. Hm?"
"Sinthinia what do you want?"
"Besides your dick in my nice warm body? I want to see you not ruin your most promising career by siding with a loser like Sesisek. I know that the two of you have been collusion together ever since you conquered the Brot Kingdom…a most bold move might I add. Only the first of many. You are obviously a man who knows what he wants and takes it…"

At this point Sinthinia is turning on her demonic seduction and getting closer to the point of touching you. You'd be lying if it wasn't having any effect on you.

"Yeah…well just get the point Sinthinia!"
"See? So forceful! Very well, the point. My point is Sesisek is an obsessed fool who's time is running out. I know he's got plans to kill me and Velzix, so far I haven't exactly determined how he's going to attempt it, but I know it's coming soon. My concern is, if YOU have anything to do with such plans. It would be a shame if you did…"
"Well he hasn't said anything to me about any specific plan." You reply.
"Ah, careful words you chose without actually lying. You have been hanging around our kind and learning! However you will not dodge me so easily. Specific plan. Specific being the key word. I'm guessing he's approached you about some act of treachery though and just hasn't given you the details yet."

You say nothing and she presses up against you while speaking into your ear so close that she nibbles on it a bit.

"I'll take your silence as a yes. Know however that you are still not powerful enough to kill Velzix. I am very close to him just like I am very close to you right now and I can tell you with all certainty that you will not be able to defeat him. Not even with that bitter old idiot Sesisek helping you…I advise that you not go down the same path as he is."
"Oh yeah? Well if you think we're doing something, why not just kill us both right now?"
"It's not how I work my necromantic cutie. Besides, I am giving you a chance to join with a better and more grateful ally in the long run. Namely me. I want you to find out what Sesisek's plan is and then at the right time, betray him. I would be most grateful."
"Hmm, I don't trust you. Sesisek trusted you once and look what happened."
"Sesisek proved to be weak and unworthy of my loyalty, but of course you don't trust me, nor should you. Still, you think on this, I have offered to become your ally and more if you wish. I run the internal security of Velzix's empire. Do you not think that having me as an ally would be more beneficial for your future than to stay allied with Sesisek whose plan is surely doomed to failure? I already KNOW he's planning something. He will be punished soon, along with all that have conspired with him. Stay loyal to him and you'll suffer his fate. Betray him, and you'll suddenly find yourself in control of his holdings and have one less potential enemy to worry about. Not to mention you will make me very happy. So happy that I may provide favors for you that you could never dream of. So what do you say?"

Normally you'd think more about it, but Sinthinia has made a somewhat appealing offer and the fact that she's currently shoved one of her hands down your pants and stroking your cock isn't exactly helping you think straight either.

You agree

If Sinthinia already knows that something is going on, chances are she's already got counter measures to solve it. Her overtures for an alliance, must be some what genuine to some degree otherwise she'd just let you go through with this plan and just have you all killed when you attempt it.

"Okay, Sinthinia I'm in." you say.

Sinthinia continues to rub against you and then looks into your eyes before kissing you.

"Mmmm, I can taste the truthfulness on your lips. A rare flavor around here. I'm glad you decided to join me; we're going to have so much fun together. Now, let me taste more of you. Something more…carnal."

A few hours later Sinthinia leaves your study (Which is now a mess) and remarks that she'll be expecting to see you soon after you meet with Sesisek.

A few days pass and you meet Sesisek in the forsaken area known as the Drozz Wasteland. The barbarian tribes here still hold sway, but you need not concern yourself with such minor threats, they know enough to stay away from two dark individuals such as yourselves, and the others…

The others in question are vampires. It would appear that Sesisek has been planning more than just "normal" betrayal. The vampires eye you warily.

"So, how did you swing a deal with the vampire clans?" you ask.
"Let's just say we all have similar interests. And that interest is seeing Velzix die and that bitch Sinthinia."
"Remember Sesisek, our primary target is Velzix! Your desire for revenge on other targets is secondary!" one the vampires exclaims.
"And I assure you that taking out Sinthinia is very necessary to our goals as well. She's head of internal security. Killing her is vital to our plan."
"I thought getting Mr. Necromancer here to mask us long enough to enter Veltrix's fortress was the plan?"
"He will be, but…"
"Hey hold on, what am I supposed to be doing now?" you interrupt while exaggerating your clueless act.
"You mean you haven't even informed him yet or what's going on?"
"I was going to do it now!" Sesisek hisses before turning to you. "Look isn't it true that you can use some sort of necromantic magic to hide our friends here? The reason why assassination attempts have been so unsuccessful before is thanks to all the magic detection security in the fortress."
"Oh. I see what you're getting at. Yeah, but I can't just do it myself. I'd still be giving off too much of a deathly aura that would probably arouse suspicion from Sinthinia's detection shit. I'd have to enter the fortress with either a bunch of zombies and skeletons, or I suppose I could just enter with a few of my abominations. Those would arouse less suspicion since I use them as bodyguards anyway. You vampires could travel with us invisibly, and you shouldn't be detected until you decide to go into a blood frenzy and start killing everyone."
"Ha ha! See! I told you he could do it."

You all "agree" to this plan and hammer out some other details before parting ways.

You head back to Aftermath, when your undead abomination bodyguards begin to sniff the air and you feel a presence stalking you, you stop and prepare yourself for an attack. Once again the vampire assassins become visible. Apparently they've been following you.

"You can't sneak up on a necromancer. I can sense your undead presence remember blood leech?"
"Is that what you still consider yourself? I thought you'd become a worshipper of demons rather than death, given how long you've been with them." One of the assassins says.
"No. I don't worship anything. I'm concerned with my own power; all of this is just a means to an end. And I have not given up the necromantic arts; you would be wise to remember that vampire."
"Good. Then it's not too late."
"What are you on about?"
"Look, this plan will be more successful if you fully cooperate with us. After we kill Velzix, Lord Rostov wants to invite you to join us. He feels that your connection and understanding of death along with your power would serve the Clans well. Among us, you would find a sort of peace. You would not have to deal with demons anymore."
"You must be joking! After I kill Velzix, I'm taking over! And anyone who opposes me is going to feel my wrath!" you say still keeping up the illusion that you're going through with this assassination.

The vampire assassin runs her fingers through her hair and pauses before speaking again.


"No you won't. And I'm not talking about a knife in your back by one of us either. I'm saying if you believe you'll be able to control an empire mixed with mortals, demons AND while controlling all your undead troops, then you're beyond delusional. Look at you. You're a wreck from all the infernal magic you've been taping into. Is it any wonder that demonologists don't live a long time? It's probably only due to your baffling plentiful necromantic energy that's kept you going this long. Even if you do manage to rein in the chaotic nature of the demons, and hold off the Grand Alliance, I doubt you'll live enough to enjoy any of it, let alone conquer anymore territory."
"I guess you bloodsuckers forgot that I can always become a lich."
"A lich? There hasn't been one of those since the time of the Great Lich Lord! The amount of death energy to become one must be huge! You're not there yet, you're not likely to get there and you're not pure enough anyway. You're tainted too much by hell. While you haven't directly sold your soul, you've thrown your lot in with them long enough to be damned. You will not be allowed to escape death on your own. BUT…becoming one of us will give you a chance. You will defeat death, and live lifetimes."

You think on the assassin's words. Much of what she says is true. You aren't in the best condition anymore. You're in pain a lot though you try to ignore it and not display your weakness. As far as being damned, you're not sure, but it's probably true. Your thoughts have focused less on death and more on demonic nightmares. The purity of what you once pursued HAS been tainted. You could almost kick yourself for allowing yourself to turn into what you are.

However, you wonder if the vampire is just telling you this to get you on their side. They must be worried about you if they want you to join this bad. Of course he could just be lying, but you don't think so. After being around so many liars you've come to see the signs, not to mention your own insights into the undead.

You join the vampires

You've come to the realization that the assassin is correct. You foresee a long struggle plagued by headache after headache if you continue to deal with these demons. It's been nothing, but back stabbing and double dealing since you've dealt with them. Given your recent "alliance" with Sinthinia, you can only expect more of the same from her. Is that what you really want to deal with? Not to mention if Velzix DOES open the portal to his infernal realm he'll be even more powerful and no matter what you do, you can't stand against hell alone and the demons would NEVER follow the likes of you.

Joining the vampire clans might not be ideal, but then again nothing you've done so far has.

"Alright, I'll join."
"Excellent. Though I certainly hope you're being sincere. It would be such a shame if you lying…"
"No I mean it. My days of walking with demons are going to be at an end soon. One way or another."

Coming to an agreement, you prepare yourself for this assassination attempt. You also plan to have all your undead troops strike at just the right time to cause even more chaos since you won't be sticking around after Velzix's death. At least you hope you won't.

A few days pass and Sesisek tells you that he has everything ready. He mentions he'll be taking care of Sinthinia personally along with her whole secret service. You'll meet the vampire assassins in a dead forest near Fury.

You send Sinthinia a message that you'll be arriving at Fury to report what Sesisek is planning. She'll be expecting you, but what will actually happen, will be completely different.

You make your trek to Fury, without incident with your hidden friends in tow. You take a deep breath before entering the gates where upon you half expect the demon guards to stop you, but nothing happens. You've succeeded. Your next move is to get as quickly as possible to Velzix's inner chambers.

You don't get far when an alarm is raised…

"Assassins! Kill them! Sinthinia's orders!" one of the demon guards says. Suddenly you're surrounded on all sides

Shit, apparently Sinthinia was somewhat wise to your last act of treachery.

You mentally call out to your undead minions to attack anything living.

"Come on! Secrecy is over! We gotta haul ass to Velzix!" you exclaim.

While chaos is reigning in the fortress, you and the vampires easily dispatch those that would attempt to stop you. When you get to Velzix's inner chambers where he's attempting to open up a portal to get reinforcements.

"Treachery. I expected this from Sesisek, but I am very disappointed in you. I had such plans…oh well perhaps I will yet get pleasure when I break your bones and have you flayed over the course of a very long and painful torture period. And I assure you, you'll be very much alive to experience it."

Velzix's portal opens and a swarm of demons come pouring out. The vampire assassins waste no time and begin their work with deadly efficiency. Your abominations have less finesse, but they get the job done.

Velzix unleashes horrible infernal magic that causes a couple of the assassins to liquefy. You're just trying to stay out of the way of most of the fighting and attempting to keep a control over your troops, but you soon realize you're going to have to play a direct role in his death and unleash your own negative energy bolts at Velzix.

The battle is brutal, and dead bodies soon litter the chamber. You're beginning to feel the effects of the energy you've expended in this fight. Thankfully Sesisek arrives with some of his mortal lackeys, giving you a breather. He looks like he's seen a hard battle already, but still has a lot of fight left due to the revenge that fuels his rage.

"Velzix! Your bitch is dead! Now you shall join her!" he shouts and unleashes a flurry of blades upon his former master.

In the mean time the femal vampire assassin that first approached you comes to help you up.

"Come on let's get out of here."
"We haven't killed Velzix yet."
"Yes we have, look."

You look over at the battle between the two demons and its clear Sesisek has the upper hand, literally. He's chopped off one of the Velzix's limbs at the forearm. You take the assassin's advice and leave with her.

After a little more fighting to get out of the Fortress, eventually you find refuge in the dead forest again. Chaos has overtaken Velzix's realm. You doubt if his demonic empire will be able to recover from this, even if he manages to survive.

You're so tired that you don't have time to react when you're suddenly bitten on the neck and drained of your blood.

You feel your life force ebb and then disappear completely…

You die and for a moment you can feel yourself being pulled towards the infernal realm and the hideous tortures that await you there, however you are sudden brought back to the living, so to speak within just a few minutes. You don't feel the taint of hell within you anymore, but you also feel less powerful in terms of necromantic energy. You can sense that whatever undead troops you raised or controlled have now crumbled or collapsed.

"Good, you're up. Welcome to your new life. Your blood tasted terrible. Ugh. All tainted and shit. Spat most of it out."
"Wow, I'm really one of you now." You say ignoring her comment and still in awe of your new form.

"That's right. But I think you'll find that you won't have some of your powers anymore. While this transition does have benefits, it has it's downsides as well. But I'm sure Lord Rostov will still find you a welcome addition to the clans. I think he's actually been interested in meeting and talking with you. Been awhile since we had someone new join us. We should go now, the sun will be up soon."

The vampire assassin pulls out a black cube like device and presses a few button and you're whisked away to the Vampire Clan secret fortress. It is there that you begin you new life.

In the years to come, the chaos caused by Velzix's demonic empire settles down somewhat. Velzix did indeed die that day in battle with Sesisek, but he did not live long after getting his revenge. He was soon cut down by other demons who saw a grand opportunity to kill the hated traitor. The Grand Alliance once again gained the upper hand as the demonic infighting begins to take its toll. Tivadol the Destroyer who was the last remaining demon with any meaningful leadership skills was eventually struck down in battle by your sister who became a hero. Your parents also survive the chaos. This pleases you, well about your Mom and sister anyway.

As for you, once again you find yourself under orders, this time by Lord Rostov, but you don't mind them. You find this life of ruling the mortal world through the shadows to be more appealing and less hassle. While it is true you no longer possess the powers you once had, and may never get them back, you've come to be satisfied with less and not living a life in constant pain anymore.

Your existence continues and the future is unknown as the world's status quo is starting to return, but your life as a necromancer is over.