The misadventures of the necromancer

Chapter X

Seres trailed Nero and Adar down the staircase that led to the hall where the coven convened for their experimental work. Until now, Seres had assumed that Adar had been exaggerating Nero's eccentricities when he had singled him out as their experimental subject. However, as they descended the stairs, Seres found himself in complete agreement with his friend's assessment.

After Nero’s completely bizarre expression, of being sad about the end of this, leaving the "this" in the air, he proceeds to descend the stairs calmly as if nothing happened.

Nero descended with an air of casual indifference, but also with a hint of curiosity in his gaze that struck Seres as highly uncommon. None of the previous subjects had ever displayed such a reaction. It was clear that Nero lacked the fear that had plagued those who had come before him.

In the room, the others start to notice the casual entrance of Nero. He seems more interested in the room than anything else. Observes the room around him, including Bren and Shorty, who were talking by the left wall and now have fallen silent while watching this unusual young man.

The master and Agatha stand in the center of the room near the stone table that dominates that part of the room. When the master finally notices their arrival, he beckons Nero to come closer with a movement of his hand.

For the first time since Seres had known him, Nero shows concern on his face. Watching the master closely, his relaxed posture turned tense.

Seeing the growing anxiety he's causing the young man, the master smiles, and repeats, "Come here, young man." His rough voice resonates throughout the room, trying to persuade the young man to come to him.

However, Nero remains in the same spot, unmoving, simply observing.

This visibly frustrates the master, who may assume that the young man is just paralyzed by fear, like others before. He tries to motivate him by saying,

"Come here before you regret it." An order that, when he realizes it's not being obeyed, prompts him to demonstrate some of his power.

He whispers something inaudible, raising his right hand, where a pale light appears, illuminating the entire room. Even Seres, who had seen this happen before, feels his heart race as he watches his master's face being lit up by his power.

However, when he looks at Nero, he only notices him tilting his head slightly to the side as he continues to observe the master's power. Furthermore, his body relaxes once again.

Nero starts to gently scratch his head while looking around with a confused expression on his face.

Observing the young man's reaction, Agatha becomes irritated and shouts at him, "If you know what's good for you, come here."

His response is simply, "Why?"

Hearing this answer, Agatha falls into stunned silence, apparently taken aback by the strange question. Nero continues, "Or are you also going to threaten me with one of the most useless spells out there?" He points to the master, who still has his spell active.

Before anyone can say anything, he continues, "Okay, calling it useless might be a bit much. After all, I've saved a fortune on torches thanks to it." He says while scratching his head again.

"But anyway, Lightball is great for illumination, but it doesn't harm anyone. So, it's useless to attack anyone." He concludes his explanation with a nod.

Upon hearing Nero, the usually pale features of the Master turn red, and Seres isn't sure if it's from embarrassment or anger. Nonetheless, he remains quiet, the ball of light still in his hand, disappearing at that moment.

Agatha, on the other hand, becomes even more furious and yells, "That doesn't matter; you come here immediately."

Meanwhile, Nero seems to have returned to studying the room, particularly the grates that lead deeper into the ruins, on the opposite wall.

"Thanks, but no thanks," Nero replies.

Hearing this response, Agatha turns to Seres and Adar and shouts, "What did you do? The Obedience Collar isn't working."

Before Seres can even think to say anything, his friend Adar responds, "We didn't do anything. I saw the Collar working just before we entered."

Nero's nonchalant voice is heard again, "Obedience Collar. You call this an Obedience Collar." He points to the collar around his neck.

"What a stupid name. These are Slave Collars, at best Prisoner Collars. Why on earth would you call this an Obedience Collar?" He asks, still pointing to the collar and looking around.

"Don’t, tell me. You guys really think this makes someone obedient?" Nero asks again without receiving an answer. Seres isn't sure of the reason for the silence, but he thinks that, like him, the others are baffled by the unusual situation.

Nero came here to be sacrificed, but it seems more like he's the one in control. Before Seres can continue thinking, Nero's voice is heard again.

"There are no obedience spells. You don't know how this works, do you?" he asks, pointing to the collar again. But this time, he doesn't wait for anyone to respond before continuing.

"These collars consume magic from the person they're attached to, theoretically depleting their magic, removing their ability to cast spells. Then, they use that magic to power a calm spell." Here, he pauses for a few seconds, casually rubbing his nose.

"Every time the wearer becomes more agitated, the spell activates and calms them down, preventing a slave from becoming aggressive. Do you understand?" He explains calmly as if he were teaching a class of students.

"Of course, there are limits. But these limits are to be expected. For example, the calm spell only works up to a certain threshold. If the wearer has a higher level of willpower than the spell..." He pauses his explanation, appearing to reflect in silence for a few seconds before continuing.

"Well, it just keeps them more relaxed, which seems to have some positive effects. It has generally made the experience here positive."

Seres thinks that the explanation makes sense, but how can he know all this? This time, his thoughts are interrupted by Bren, who has approached Nero during the explanation.

"None of that matters. Just obey.", he tells Nero, reaching out to grab him.

Nero simply grabs the shorter man's arm with one hand and takes a step forward, driving his elbow from his free arm into Bren's face. Bren immediately falls to the ground with a shout. Still holding the fallen man's arm, Nero places a foot on top of his fallen body and starts to pull his arm. Causing Bren to cry out again.

"Oh, you're not so brave now, are you?" Nero says, immediately releasing Bren when he notices the large presence of Shorty approaching.

As Shorty gets closer, Nero begins to step back and raises his hands calmly, saying, "Hold on, big guy. It's been fun so far, but we don't want things to escalate. Someone might get hurt."

"Are you not so arrogant now?" Agatha shouts with a smile as she sees the young man stepping back.

"Arrogant? Where was I arrogant? As far as I know, refusing to go to a stone table with bloodstains isn't arrogance.", Nero says, making it clear to Seres and probably everyone else that he fully understands the situation he's in.

"How about we do this? What do you say we part ways amicably? After all, I should consider you guys, even if unintentionally helped me a lot. " Nero asks, looking around, but especially focusing on Shorty, who is now standing next to Bren’s moaning body.

At that moment, a growl interrupts the conversation, causing everyone to look at the gates behind which an undead creature reaches out towards them.

"Undead! You guys are necromancers.", Nero says while studying the creature on the other side of the gate. That once upon a time had been a tall and skinny man.

Hearing Nero's conclusion, a rare smile spreads across the Master's face before he speaks, "Yes, now you understand what you're up against."

In response, Nero lets out a clear sigh of relief before saying, "Good, I was worried you were dark priests. Necromancers are so much simpler.", he takes a couple of seconds before adding, with an almost amused expression “And kind of ironic.”

This response leaves everyone confused, but apparently, no one more so than the Master, who says, "What are you talking about? You must now understand the magic power you're facing."

"Magic. Are you talking about the cheap tricks you use? Or do you think I didn't notice that all the magic I've seen so far is due to items?" the young Nero comments disrespectfully. Seres can't help but remember the magic the Master used a little while ago. That surely wasn’t made by no item.

"Explain to me how someone who knows magic would use a magic ring to cast such a simple spell as Lightball. The Ring of Light, if I understand what you were mumbling correctly," Nero asks the Master directly, raising his eyebrow slightly. While using his finger to point to his lips.

However, the question leaves Seres and at least also Adar confused, as they exchange glances. What is he talking about? Thinking about it, the Master does have an iron ring in his hand that he usually uses when casting the spell. But does he cast the spell with it? This magic is the main reason why he and Adar had decided to follow the Master. It was the first spell they had seen.

Seeing the Master's face turn even redder, there must be some truth to what he said.

Once again, Nero's voice interrupts Seres’ thoughts.

"Hey, I just remembered a question I've always had. Why do the hideouts of necromancers always have so many wild undead?", he asks, looking especially at the Master. "After all, as you must know in this ga… world, for a necromancer to summon an undead and not be able to control it. Well, it's a sign of incompetence."

When the Master realizes what he has just heard, he starts to back away before saying, "You wretch, are you calling me incompetent?"

"Oh, don't be like that.”, Nero says in an almost sympathetic tone of voice.

“I'm not talking directly about you, but all the necromancers I've met so far. For me, it's been useful for gaining experience. But for you, it must be a nuisance, with these aggressive monsters that you can't control, all around.", while Nero is talking, the Master runs to the wall where he reaches for a chain coming from it.

"You want to see my power. Do you want to see what I can do? Well, then, watch." The Master says this while pulling the chain.

This terrifies Seres as he understands what the Master is about to do. More than one voice shouts, "No," as the Master pulls the chain, causing the gate containing the undead to open, allowing them to surge into the room.

 

Seres can hardly believe what their master has done. Opening the gate like this is a danger. Usually, when opening it, everyone must be prepared and in position. Furthermore, we must make sure there aren't too many undead nearby, to avoid an attack with the group in numerical disadvantage. Opening the gate like this is an immense danger. Despite understanding that the master was frustrated with Nero's behavior, his actions are still dangerous.

As Seres reflects on what is happening, despite speaking in a whisper, Nero's voice makes itself heard.

“Fool.” Before any reaction to the insult, a loud growl comes from the other side of the room. This growl is quickly followed by the appearance of an undead near the master.

The master, in turn, doesn't even have time to turn around before the undead attacks. When attacked, he lets out a scream, eventually muffled by another scream from Agatha.

At the end of Agatha's scream, she pulls out the knife hidden in her robe and throws herself with fury at the undead attacking her master. At the impact, she manages to push the undead away. But before anyone can go help her, two more undead appear and start attacking her and the master.

Seeing this, Seres begins to walk to help her, but Adar grabs him.

“Stop, more are coming,” he says, pointing to a group of half a dozen undead entering the room. Upon noticing the arrival of the new enemies, Nero says, “Fantastic. Setting this place on fire wouldn't be a bad idea, but I prefer to leave you and your old friends to talk to each other,” and with that, he starts running past Seres and Adar toward the entrance.

Watching Nero run away, Adar shouts, “Let's go.” but Seres is paralyzed, part of him wants to help his master surrounded by undead only with Agatha for assistance. But Seres also wants to leave.

Before he can do anything, Shorty pushes him, making him start walking. “Don't stand still, start running,” Shorty yells at them while pulling a disoriented Bren.

The four as a group head for the entrance. When they reach the staircase leading to the entrance doors, Seres notices that Nero is trying to close the doors but luckily, he isn’t being able to do it. Fearing being trapped in this hall full of undead, that fear drives him to accelerate his run.

When he is almost close to Nero, he hears him saying. “Damn doors. It won't close. But who the hell designs doors that stay open when another door is opened.” With that, he shakes his head, and upon realizing they are close, starts running along the outer corridor.

Adar and Seres are the first ones to reach the doors, stopping there and looking at each other. “Should we close the doors?” Adar asks.

“If he couldn't close them, I doubt we can. He's right, who built doors like these.”, Seres hears Shorty's voice saying behind them.

“I didn't know they worked like this. Maybe we should have studied these ruins more.”, Shorty says, his voice now calmer. Before continuing, he lets out a heavy sigh. “But I guess it doesn't matter now.” Seres turns around, seeing that Shorty stopped almost at the top of the stairs and turned to face the group of undead that followed them. “Go, run.” Seres hears Shorty saying in a calm and tranquil voice. In the time he had known him, Shorty had never sounded so serene. As he completes his sentence, Shorty says a quiet, inaudible murmur. And his hands burst into flames.

While brave Shorty prepares for the upcoming fight, Bren runs past Seres and Adar. With that, the two friends look at each other again and start following Bren.

Seres has no doubts about what will happen. He had only witnessed Shorty's magic one other time. That time one of the experiments had gotten loose, and Shorty had to use his magic to fight it. But even then, he had the group's help to fight, and it wasn't easy.

Although Shorty is undoubtedly the best fighter in the group, Seres had heard that the reason for the scar on Shorty's face was from fighting another undead. And this time his companion will fight at a numerical disadvantage. Shorty will hardly be able to do more than win them some time to escape.

They run because there is little else, they can do. With the sound of the beginning of a fight behind him, Seres hears a snort from Adar, reminding him that the two get along well.

Seres runs while he begins to reflect on what happened today that led to this outcome. But then an idea comes to mind, a horrifying idea that freezes his heart with terror, an idea that leads him to say, “What if he tries to close us in again.”, saying that Seres looks at Adar. An expression of terror appears on his face as he comes to the same conclusion as Seres.

With the monsters behind them and the possibility of being locked in with them in front of them, all other thoughts flee from their minds, and the two, start running faster and faster.

In a short time, they reach and overtake Bren, continuing to run almost in despair at the situation they have ahead. Slowly, Adar moves to the front, which is not surprising since his friend has always been the more athletic of the two. Finally, almost at the end of the corridor, Seres can see Nero passing through the door at the end of the corridor and turning to close it.

Seeing the door starting to close, Adar accelerates even more, probably driven by desperation. The moment the door slams shut with a bang, Adar uses his body to hit the door. Fortunately, the door wasn't completely closed yet, so it burst open with Adar's weight. Both Adar and Nero fall to the ground.

When Seres gets close to them, they are rolling on the ground. While Nero tries to get up and Adar fights to stop him, Seres throws himself on top of him to keep him down. “Get off me,” Nero yells at them.

“To have you close the door on us.” Seres yells back.

“You're already on this side of the door, idiot,” Nero yells at them while struggling to get up. Hearing this, Adar seems to stop fighting. But Seres doesn't care and stays in the struggle.

“We have to close the door anyway, or do you want to invite your old pals for tea?” Nero continues to shout. Adar now completely abandons the fight and stands up.

“You were going to close us in with them.” Seres yells at Nero, not letting go of the fact that this bastard is going to leave them to die. He is so angry that it’s hard to think.

“Hah, you're sad because your little friends are angry with you,” Nero says with an incredibly mocking look on his face and tone in his voice.

“Go to the deepest of hells, bastard.” Seres yells at him, not understanding which friends he is referring to.

It is in that moment of distraction that Nero grabs him by the collar and brings his face closer. “You can't blame them. After all, how many of them did you put down there?”, Nero says this to him in a low and calm voice. It is when Seres realizes that he is talking about the undead. Starting to understand what Nero is talking about, Seres tries to say without much confidence, “I don't understand.”

“Yes, of course. Still sulking about what I did. But let me ask. What was Agatha's knife for?”, Nero asks him coldly, still holding Seres and staring him straight in the eyes.

“I don't...” Seres begins weakly to answer him, knowing full well that Nero guessed what the knife was for. But fortunately, Nero interrupts him.

“Okay, okay, you don't need to answer. But get off me before I get annoyed.” Nero tells him, pushing him off him. Seres falls to the side as Nero begins to get up.

At that moment, Adar's voice is heard. “I’ll wait for Bren, who was coming behind us. Then I'll close the door.” Hearing that, Nero nods approvingly and finishes getting up.

Nero then goes towards the door of the prisoners' cell, where not long ago Seres and Adar had gotten him. In the short time that had passed, Seres's whole world had collapsed."