Chapter 57 - Chimera Subjugation

We make our way down the tunnel. It's nearly entirely straight, only deviating to make its way around metal deposits that seem to have been too hard for the Chimera to excavate. Less and less Chimera approach us as we continue, perhaps they've realized their situation and are withdrawing towards their nest.

"They're hunting us?"

"A folly."

"We will not tolerate this."

I pause as those familiar voices reach my mind. So it really is you, huh. I pinpoint their location. It's moving further away from me, but its close. The Queen. I cast Empower and Quicken on the Undead with me. Let's speed this up.

Before I merely walked behind them as they ran, now I have to break into a light jog to keep up. I do notice that their SP is decreasing though. Once we encounter more Chimera, the Draugr savagely rip them to pieces, gorging themselves on the remains.

The Death Knight merely hold out a hand towards a carcass, and I sense magic flowing between the body and the Knight. It does restore their SP though, so I guess it's a Skill?

*The Death Knight, as well as many higher ranking Undead, possess the Necrophagy Skill. It allows them to consume the lingering magic in freshly dead entities to convert to SP. Like Vitaephagy feeds off the energies of the living, Necrophagy feeds of the energies of the dead. Additionally, entities that have been fed upon have a chance to revive as non-sentient Undead that serve the Undead that fed upon their corpse.*

...

Once the Death Knight has finished feeding, I incinerate the desiccated remains, leaving not even ash. They observe me, a solemn feeling emanating from them. They then shake their head and rally the Draugr so we can continue.

I'm unsure if doing that somehow saddened them, but I don't want more Undead rising, at least not at the moment. As we continue, the composition of the enemies we encounter changes. Going from mostly Tri-Ant Workers with the occasional Charger (the ones with large termite heads), to Digging Sneaks (the mantis-like Insectoid) and Tri-Ant Guards.

The Guards seem to specialize in the ant head, possessing an enlarged ants head with disproportionately large mandibles used for grabbing and restraining foes as its allies attack its victim. Unfortunately, the Size-Change and Ethereal Phase Skills made them less than useful against the Draugr.

The Digging Sneaks seem to have originally been preying on the Chimera, but now that the Owner of the Lair is in peril, their Minion Status makes them fight alongside the Tri-Ants. They're easy enough to kill, once you spot them at least.

The tunnel, which up until now has been straight and without branches, suddenly branch out into a web of tunnels and chambers. A base of sorts used to breed more Chimera?

*Scans indicate the presence of structures on the surface. Tri-Ants predominantly position their nests under population centers in order to hunt the humanoids living there for food.*

...

*No humanoid entities detected*

My body tenses as an icy feeling spreads from my stomach. If on-

"We couldn't have known. Take your anger out on the one responsible instead of being upset with yourself for something you couldn't have prevented."

Shadow interrupts my thoughts. I hesitate, making the Undead with me turn to look at me with, at least in the Death Knights case, worry in their hearts. I take a shaky breath. "Kill them all, leave no Chimera alive." I order them. The Draugr hiss in delight, the first time I've ever heard them vocalize, and take off down the tunnels.

The Knight waits behind, though. It holds out its hand, in seemingly the same gesture as when it was feeding, except instead of absorbing energy, it's releasing it. What's it doing?

*It's using its Skill, Call Other, to call upon any lingering Other Wills in the area.*

It stops, then shakes its head before pointing towards me. I'm besieged by prompts from my Death Lord Skill. I hastily reply yes to all, and after a moment the deluge stops.

*Current count of Other Wills under your dominion, excluding the one currently animating the Osseous Slime: 147, all originally humanoids.*

*Due to dominating a certain amount of Wills, the following Skills are obtained: Animate Will: Shield (Lesser), Animate Will: Hammer (Lesser), Animate Will: Sword (Lesser).*

Taking a moment to compose myself, I consider my options. The Tri-Ants make poor Undead material since we're taking their heads out to kill them efficiently, same with the Digging Sneaks... Let me just look over what I have.

*Stored Items that might be of use in raising Undead: 2x Beelzetoad Eyes, 1x Beelzetoad Tongue, 1x Ayvin corpse, 1x Minars corpse, 1x Accan corpse, 1x Pyrean corpse, 1x Photian corpse, 4x Lizardman corpse.*

I completely forgot I had stored those... Weren't there five Lizardmen though?

*The one you killed is in too poor shape to create anything with.*

Huh. I suppose reviving the Lindorm is also a bad idea given the sheer size of it. Still, it's better than nothing...

"Weren't we not doing the whole Undead army thing?"

I- we were, but we need numbers, and what's better for that than Undead? Also, why should I care all that much about what people think when I do this to help them? I bring out the dead Aurellium members and the four Lizardmen.

Quickly removing their equipment so it wont hamper the revival, I then cast True Raise upon them.

*Bond multiple Wills to the raised bodies? This will allow the Undead to make use of any Animate Will Skills you know.*

I consider for a moment, then decide to bond three Wills to each body. That way, one will be moving the body, and the other two can serve as a shield and one other weapon. The humanoids rise, looking around and taking in their new bodies.

*Raised Wight*

*The Wills of those seeking revenge create Wights. Raised Wights have been created through the Raise Spell, though there exists other kinds of Wight as well. If the one that Raised the Wight also is the target of the Wights revenge, an unruly Undead is created, fighting the bonds that prevent the Raised from lashing out against their creator at every turn, causing them to willfully misinterpret their orders. Like all Undead, their weakness is their head.

The use of their parts is taboo, and slaying a Wight before it has exacted its revenge is said to cause the Other Will to possess its killer in order to fulfill its desire.*

*Rank: 3 Stars*

I see... The Other Wills want revenge on the Chimeras, thus creating Wights... I wonder what the Lizardmen will become. Once I've given the Raised Wights, who are operating on seventy percent autonomy, something to wear, I cast True Raise on the Lizardmen.

Nothing happens for a moment, before the bodies twitch and spasm, each movement causing more and more skin and flesh to slough off their bodies. Like a shedding snake, they eventually free themselves from their own bodies, leaving only their bones.

As they rise, a thick, viscous liquid, not unlike see-through syrup, starts oozing from their bones. Instead of dripping onto the floor, the goop seemingly fills out their bodies. Looking more like a museum exhibit of a Lizardman's skeletal structure encased in clear plastic to showcase how the body would look like, the clear fluid then pales and becomes opaque, hiding the skeleton inside.

*Water Deimos*

*Wretched water assassins, the Undead Water Deimos is created when a Pseudo-Dragon aligned with Water has Raise cast upon it. When submerged in water, the Water Deimos becomes invisible to the naked eye, and only the smallest ripple in the water's surface betrays its presence. The Ectoplasm that coats its bones absorbs Death, Dark and Water Spells, healing the Water Deimos and strengthening its body. In addition, it shields the fragile bones within from most physical damage.

Often found in the service of high ranking Undead, acting as guards of the waterways in its territory.

The Ectoplasm evaporates upon the Water Deimos' death, leaving only the Pseudo-Dragon's bones, which could have been much more easily sourced directly from the Pseudo-Dragon when alive.*

*Rank: 4 Stars (No water nearby) 5 Stars (water nearby)*

Well, you'd be more useful if we were fighting underwater or something, but I'm not going to complain. I pair the Wights up with a Water Deimos and send them off. The last Wight pairs off with the Death Knight and head off as well, leaving me alone to ponder the outcome of my next experiment.

So, why would the mangled Lizardman not produce a viable Undead, but these eyes and this tongue will?

*Beelzetoads are known for three things: How well their meat tastes, that their parts make for great Mage equipment, and lastly for their uncanny ability to birth three kinds of Undead from their body.*

*Eyes create one kind, the tongue another, and the main body (eyes and tongue intact) create another. The tongue-sourced Undead can be created from other monster tongues as well.*

Welp, and here I was holding onto it to eat. I bring out the eyes and tongue and cast True Raise on them. The eyes swirl about on the ground, manically trying to look in every direction at once, before sprouting a thick tail. Rising up like a snake about to strike, a pair of wings sprout from the base of the tail. Shifting their weight onto their wings, the tail grows a three-clawed hand at the end of it.

*Evil Eye*

*A small Undead created from the eyeball of a Beelzetoad. Fast, nimble and keenly observant, they make excellent scouts for their master. For this very reason, defeating them whilst remaining undetected is of key importance to anyone wanting to sneak into the lair of a monster capable of necromancy. Their Second Sight Skill allows them to share what they see with their master. Many a would-be humanoid necromancer has had the creation of the Evil Eye as a goal, and for this reason any trade of Beelzetoad eyes is viewed with great suspicion.

Too small to provide useful parts, the original Beelzetoad eye becomes useless for any of its other uses due to the degrading properties of Undeath.*

*Rank: 2 Stars*

The Evil Eyes turn to look at the tongue, which is writhing upon the floor. It shrinks in length, instead becoming thicker. Small prolegs (~like those on caterpillars~) sprout a small distance from the end where the tongue would at one point have connected with the rest of the mouth, a toothy maw appearing on that end.

Looking like a horrid cross between a caterpillar and a hagfish, the newly created Undead wiggles over to me. I pick it up, and it wraps itself around my hand like a snake, holding on with its squishy little feet.

*Tongue Leech*

*A truly horrendous Undead, born of the long tongue of a Monster. Not to be confused with the Armoroid 'Tongue Louse'. Its body consists entirely of muscle, making it incredibly strong. It's method of attack is to tightly wind around the victims neck, asphyxiating them and causing their tongue to swell. Once dead, the Tongue Leech feasts upon the blood pooled in the victims tongue. Can also sometimes combine forces with lesser Undead, where it replaces the tongue of its host. In this state, the Tongue Leech lures prey by mimicking distress cries, not unlike the Lurastray, another kind of Undead, and letting its Undead host do the dirty work once prey has been tricked into approaching. It violently defends its host by flailing its muscular body, making for quite a sight.

Provides no useful parts, though some daring chefs claim it tastes great.*

*Rank: 2 Stars (Without host, add one star to host rating if in host state)*

I eye the Tongue Leech. You're kind of... useless at this time, huh. No matter, I'm sure I can find an use for you. It looks down, seemingly ashamed. With two Evil Eyes following me, a Tongue Leech around my left arm and an Osseous Slime on my shoulder, I look more like a bad guy in a fantasy novel than I'd like.

Let's try to avoid letting people see me like this... I pick up the pace and make my way towards where I sense the Tri-Ant Queen is. With my Undead taking care of the others, it's time for a showdown between rulers.