Chapter 139
139 Hecatonchires
“I wanted to show off a little, but the main reason is that I need your help to turn all these corpses into skeletons. I need you to conjure a field of the undead on these corpses.” Athos explained his plan, but Treevor denied it.
“I don’t think it’s going to work, boss. If I cast the spell, they’ll charge my mana and energy signature. That would be counterproductive.” Treevor said.
“The spell just turns pure world energy into corrupted one, so it’ll be fine. Corpses will naturally attract the corrupted energy and I’ll use that to make my job easier. I’ll personally transform all corpses.” Athos spoke with a weary sigh.
“We’ll have to wait a few hours for that. I’ve abused the willow a little bit and it will need at least six hours to recover naturally. Forcing energy into it won’t help either, it just risks permanently damaging its functions. Remember that the ability to attract darkness is not an enchantment, but a natural ability of the willow.” Treevor explained with false regret.
He would finally get a chance to get some rest, without this workaholic pushing another task on him. Or at least he thought it would be.
“If you’re going to wait, start corrupting the general’s equipment. We have a lot of weapons and equipment that we still need to corrupt. In addition to the defensive equipment you promised Emilia and Caio.” Athos said, shattering his hope of finally resting.
“I’ve just finished the large scale spells, my mana is less than half. I don’t think it’s a good idea to work in this state.” Treevor said trying to escape but Athos was relentless.
“If the large-scale spells are ready, then the mages have already been released, right? Order them to enchant the items while you corrupt them. Since you’ll only need to draw world energy, your mana amount doesn’t matter.” Athos cornered him with a smile on his face.
“All the mages are also out of mana. Most are lying on the ground and in a stupor, as we are unable to sleep.” Treevor began to plead and to his surprise, Athos relented this time.
.....
“Well, without mages it’s useless to continue, so try to recover as soon as possible. I’ll keep gathering corpses to create other bone abominations. I should have enough mana for at least 100 more skeletons if I spend all my mana. Should be enough for two bone abominations.” Athos thought, trying to calculate the most efficient way to proceed.
“Sorry to burst your bubble, but it’s been a whole day since you left for your experiments. Even if you disregard time with other experiments, you still spent at least 8 hours on this abomination. You’ll only be able to build a few dozen at most. before the enemy army arrives.” Treevor spoke.
“I’ll split the mages into two teams, one for runesmithing the weapons you corrupt while the other will help me. They cannot create the skeletons, but using my bone crafter spell to shape the bones should greatly reduce the time spent.” Athos spoke confidently.
“Also, it took me a long time to create this one because I had to do trial and error to find a working body. If we use this as a base, it would take me less than two hours to create it.”
“I’m starting to feel a little sorry for the enemy army. You’re building up strength at an absurd rate.” Treevor spoke in exasperation, but Athos scolded him.
“Do you really think the next battle is going to be that easy? They will come to kill and come prepared. Of course, these weapons are going to be an unpleasant surprise for them, but our victory is not certain. A lot can happen during a fight and I I want to prepare myself as much as possible for that.” Athos was serious, making Treevor laugh.
“And here I thought I was being a mad scientist just for fun. Until you have a brain, or at least something that acts like one inside that skull.” Treevor spoke while laughing.
“Hilarious. Now leave while I’m in the mood or I’ll get you another job.” Athos spoke in a threatening tone, a threat that Treevor took very seriously.
“Okay, okay, we don’t need to make threats here. One last question. How long do you plan on leaving this guy like this?” Treevor asked as he turned to leave.
“What do you mean like that?” Athos did not understand your question.
“Like, white. Your skeletons are black, do you plan on making them white to stand out as a decoy or something?” Treevor spoke as if it were an obvious thing.
“Is it possible to turn them into black skeletons? I mean, so far I’ve only turned corpses directly into black skeletons.” Athos asked.
“There’s only one way to find out.” Treevor responded with a shrug, stopping run away to see if it would work or not.
Athos ordered the abomination to duck and entered its rib cage, where the central skeleton was. If he was going to try to turn the bone abomination, he would do his best.
The mass of bones that protected the main body split open and Athos placed his hand on the skeleton’s solar plexus, where he felt the central core of the abomination. Athos shared a single spark of life force with the core, and the skeleton’s empty eye sockets darkened as a black mist formed inside its skull and spread through its bones, bathing them in darkness.
Its bones turned black and the darkness quickly spread beyond the skeleton, blackening all of the abomination’s bones. The bone abomination made a happy grunt, feeling the changes in his body.
Unlike a black skeleton, ordinary skeletons did not preserve all of their senses. They saw everything in black and white, and their taste and smell were absent. Now the abomination was seeing all colors and feeling things that were impossible before.
Athos felt the mana bond between them turn into a black current the moment all the bones darkened. He didn’t get his life force back, but a few sparks of life force wouldn’t be a problem for him.
“You look better in that color. I’m sure you feel better too.” Athos spoke, feeling what seemed to be happiness
coming from the abomination of bones. The abomination had no control over what it sent through the mindlink and shared its thoughts of joy with everyone until Athos ordered it to hold back.
‘Who is the new guy and why is he so happy?’ Emilia asked curiously.
‘My new experiment. I call him...’ Athos paused for a moment as he thought of a suitable name, until he remembered a certain species among the extinct giants. ‘Hecatonchires, our newest soldier.’
It was the name of a 50-headed, 100-armed giant who used to live on the Adula continent, before the human crusades wiped them all out. It still lacked a few arms to match, but His abomination of bones was similar enough for Athos.
‘How are the other plans? Everything going well?’ Athos asked as he thawed a few more corpses, starting to prepare the next abomination.
‘All going according to plan, master. Large-scale spells are fully charged and ready to be activated at any time. We left 4 mages together with 10 skeleton soldiers to protect the control room and any one of them can activate large scale spells.’ Emilia reported.
‘The queen of the hawks hive has also departed with most of the flock towards the mountains. The queen is very smart but still took some time to explain in detail what she needed to do. A few hive hawks were left behind, as the master wanted some close by.’ Caio added.
‘By the way, what do you need them for? Of course, it would be useful to fire spells from a safe place, but I can’t imagine you doing something like that.’ Treevor asked suspiciously.
‘That depends. How many wands can you craft before the enemy army arrives?’ Athos asked with an evil grin and Treevor could tell he was up to something.
“As many as you want. I only need to pluck a single willow branch to make several wands and then use the darkness to feed on the earth to recover the lost mass. How many do you need?” Treevor asked with a shrug.
“One for every mage, paladin and priest in our army. Wizards have common wands which while still useful, are unsuitable for undead. Paladins and priests are in an even worse situation, unable to cast magic at the moment.
Paladins still have their duties on the front lines, but if we bring all the mages and priests together, we will have a powerful unit of mages who can cast spells in the safety of the fortress, while the hawks transmit attacks behind enemy lines.” Athos spoke.
“We’re not going to rain spells. We’re going to cast just one and crush their ranks. We have more than enough mages to cast a temporary large-scale spell. Can you imagine their faces when such a powerful spell appears out of nowhere among their ranks? It’s going to be hilarious.” Athos began to laugh just at the thought.
“I see, that works too. As soon as the willow recovers I’ll prepare the wands.” Treevor agreed with his idea.
“Alright, we have a lot to do and little time for it, so let’s get going.” Athos spoke and returned to focusing on raising corpses like undead.
***********
“I wanted to show off a little, but the main reason is that I need your help to turn all these corpses into skeletons. I need you to conjure a field of the undead on these corpses.” Athos explained his plan, but Treevor denied it.
“I don’t think it’s going to work, boss. If I cast the spell, they’ll charge my mana and energy signature. That would be counterproductive.” Treevor said.
“The spell just turns pure world energy into corrupted one, so it’ll be fine. Corpses will naturally attract the corrupted energy and I’ll use that to make my job easier. I’ll personally transform all corpses.” Athos spoke with a weary sigh.
“We’ll have to wait a few hours for that. I’ve abused the willow a little bit and it will need at least six hours to recover naturally. Forcing energy into it won’t help either, it just risks permanently damaging its functions. Remember that the ability to attract darkness is not an enchantment, but a natural ability of the willow.” Treevor explained with false regret.
He would finally get a chance to get some rest, without this workaholic pushing another task on him. Or at least he thought it would be.
“If you’re going to wait, start corrupting the general’s equipment. We have a lot of weapons and equipment that we still need to corrupt. In addition to the defensive equipment you promised Emilia and Caio.” Athos said, shattering his hope of finally resting.
“I’ve just finished the large scale spells, my mana is less than half. I don’t think it’s a good idea to work in this state.” Treevor said trying to escape but Athos was relentless.
“If the large-scale spells are ready, then the mages have already been released, right? Order them to enchant the items while you corrupt them. Since you’ll only need to draw world energy, your mana amount doesn’t matter.” Athos cornered him with a smile on his face.
“All the mages are also out of mana. Most are lying on the ground and in a stupor, as we are unable to sleep.” Treevor began to plead and to his surprise, Athos relented this time.
.....
“Well, without mages it’s useless to continue, so try to recover as soon as possible. I’ll keep gathering corpses to create other bone abominations. I should have enough mana for at least 100 more skeletons if I spend all my mana. Should be enough for two bone abominations.” Athos thought, trying to calculate the most efficient way to proceed.
“Sorry to burst your bubble, but it’s been a whole day since you left for your experiments. Even if you disregard time with other experiments, you still spent at least 8 hours on this abomination. You’ll only be able to build a few dozen at most. before the enemy army arrives.” Treevor spoke.
“I’ll split the mages into two teams, one for runesmithing the weapons you corrupt while the other will help me. They cannot create the skeletons, but using my bone crafter spell to shape the bones should greatly reduce the time spent.” Athos spoke confidently.
“Also, it took me a long time to create this one because I had to do trial and error to find a working body. If we use this as a base, it would take me less than two hours to create it.”
“I’m starting to feel a little sorry for the enemy army. You’re building up strength at an absurd rate.” Treevor spoke in exasperation, but Athos scolded him.
“Do you really think the next battle is going to be that easy? They will come to kill and come prepared. Of course, these weapons are going to be an unpleasant surprise for them, but our victory is not certain. A lot can happen during a fight and I I want to prepare myself as much as possible for that.” Athos was serious, making Treevor laugh.
“And here I thought I was being a mad scientist just for fun. Until you have a brain, or at least something that acts like one inside that skull.” Treevor spoke while laughing.
“Hilarious. Now leave while I’m in the mood or I’ll get you another job.” Athos spoke in a threatening tone, a threat that Treevor took very seriously.
“Okay, okay, we don’t need to make threats here. One last question. How long do you plan on leaving this guy like this?” Treevor asked as he turned to leave.
“What do you mean like that?” Athos did not understand your question.
“Like, white. Your skeletons are black, do you plan on making them white to stand out as a decoy or something?” Treevor spoke as if it were an obvious thing.
“Is it possible to turn them into black skeletons? I mean, so far I’ve only turned corpses directly into black skeletons.” Athos asked.
“There’s only one way to find out.” Treevor responded with a shrug, stopping run away to see if it would work or not.
Athos ordered the abomination to duck and entered its rib cage, where the central skeleton was. If he was going to try to turn the bone abomination, he would do his best.
The mass of bones that protected the main body split open and Athos placed his hand on the skeleton’s solar plexus, where he felt the central core of the abomination. Athos shared a single spark of life force with the core, and the skeleton’s empty eye sockets darkened as a black mist formed inside its skull and spread through its bones, bathing them in darkness.
Its bones turned black and the darkness quickly spread beyond the skeleton, blackening all of the abomination’s bones. The bone abomination made a happy grunt, feeling the changes in his body.
Unlike a black skeleton, ordinary skeletons did not preserve all of their senses. They saw everything in black and white, and their taste and smell were absent. Now the abomination was seeing all colors and feeling things that were impossible before.
Athos felt the mana bond between them turn into a black current the moment all the bones darkened. He didn’t get his life force back, but a few sparks of life force wouldn’t be a problem for him.
“You look better in that color. I’m sure you feel better too.” Athos spoke, feeling what seemed to be happiness
coming from the abomination of bones. The abomination had no control over what it sent through the mindlink and shared its thoughts of joy with everyone until Athos ordered it to hold back.
‘Who is the new guy and why is he so happy?’ Emilia asked curiously.
‘My new experiment. I call him...’ Athos paused for a moment as he thought of a suitable name, until he remembered a certain species among the extinct giants. ‘Hecatonchires, our newest soldier.’
It was the name of a 50-headed, 100-armed giant who used to live on the Adula continent, before the human crusades wiped them all out. It still lacked a few arms to match, but His abomination of bones was similar enough for Athos.
‘How are the other plans? Everything going well?’ Athos asked as he thawed a few more corpses, starting to prepare the next abomination.
‘All going according to plan, master. Large-scale spells are fully charged and ready to be activated at any time. We left 4 mages together with 10 skeleton soldiers to protect the control room and any one of them can activate large scale spells.’ Emilia reported.
‘The queen of the hawks hive has also departed with most of the flock towards the mountains. The queen is very smart but still took some time to explain in detail what she needed to do. A few hive hawks were left behind, as the master wanted some close by.’ Caio added.
‘By the way, what do you need them for? Of course, it would be useful to fire spells from a safe place, but I can’t imagine you doing something like that.’ Treevor asked suspiciously.
‘That depends. How many wands can you craft before the enemy army arrives?’ Athos asked with an evil grin and Treevor could tell he was up to something.
“As many as you want. I only need to pluck a single willow branch to make several wands and then use the darkness to feed on the earth to recover the lost mass. How many do you need?” Treevor asked with a shrug.
“One for every mage, paladin and priest in our army. Wizards have common wands which while still useful, are unsuitable for undead. Paladins and priests are in an even worse situation, unable to cast magic at the moment.
Paladins still have their duties on the front lines, but if we bring all the mages and priests together, we will have a powerful unit of mages who can cast spells in the safety of the fortress, while the hawks transmit attacks behind enemy lines.” Athos spoke.
“We’re not going to rain spells. We’re going to cast just one and crush their ranks. We have more than enough mages to cast a temporary large-scale spell. Can you imagine their faces when such a powerful spell appears out of nowhere among their ranks? It’s going to be hilarious.” Athos began to laugh just at the thought.
“I see, that works too. As soon as the willow recovers I’ll prepare the wands.” Treevor agreed with his idea.
“Alright, we have a lot to do and little time for it, so let’s get going.” Athos spoke and returned to focusing on raising corpses like undead.
***********
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