Chapter 28: The conditions in which the first objective can be achieved
「O Prophesized Holy Son, thank you for gracing us with your presence and descending upon the[Capital of the Sun], Talosheim. Please grant salvation to us, who only await to return to dust!」(Mysterious Undead)
As the mummy-like Undead pressed his hands together in prayer with these words, Vandalieu was dumbfounded for a short while. He quickly came back to his senses when Darcia called out to him.
『Hey, Vandalieu, are you alright?』(Darcia)
「! Ah, yes. I'm fine, I was just a little surprised. Could you please explain? Err…」(Vandalieu)
「Of course, o Holy Son. I am the Lich Nuaza.」(Nuaza)
A Lich. These were people with magic-related skills that retained their knowledge and techniques after death and became Undead monsters. This Lich, named Nuaza, continued speaking.
「The tragic sight before the Holy Son right now is the Titan race's fortress city-nation of Talosheim, renowned as the[Capital of the Sun.]This city flourished through the secrets left behind by the fallen champion Zakkart and the blessings of the goddess Vida. But as you can see, due to the destruction in the wake of the sudden invasion by the Mirg shield-nation two hundred years ago, it is now a Devil's Nest. Please grant salvation to us, who only await -」(Nuaza)
「I'm sorry, but could I have you explain the details further?」(Vandalieu)
Conversing with this Undead required patience, but it was also important to interrupt it and guide the conversation from time to time.
To summarize Nuaza's explanation, the Titans had participated in the battle between the goddess Vida and Alda a hundred thousand years ago. Though they were defeated, the surviving Titans gathered here and built this city-nation.
This place was in the middle of the Boundary Mountain Range that was mostly made up of Devil's Nests, and the hours of the day that this place received the sun's light were short. But thanks to the secrets and knowledge left behind by the champion Zakkart, the city received abundant blessings from the sun.
And then the Titans used their naturally robust bodies to open up the land, cultivated it, made affluent fields of crops, used the name of their ancestor to name the city Talosheim, the[Capital of the Sun]and worshipped the goddess Vida and the champion Zakkart.
They trained their bodies, improved their martial skills, stepped into Dungeons in search of materials they lacked to find an abundance of stone to use in building, and then erected a sturdy, beautiful, white fortress.
The Titans obtained stone, metal and meat by fighting monsters.
And then they discovered a tunnel in the eastern mountain range that had been built in ancient times, so they constructed a highway leading to the Orbaume Kingdom and began commercial trading.
The products of their Dungeons sold for high prices in the Orbaume Kingdom, bringing prosperity and wealth to Talosheim.
However, that prosperity was laid to waste by the sudden appearance of military forces from the Mirg shield-nation.
「With no prior notice, an army simply appeared one day over the mountain range and marched onto Talosheim.」(Nuaza)
The following is what could be deduced from the stories told later to supplement Nuaza's explanations by Sam and his daughters who had been employed by noblemen of the Mirg shield-nation in their past lives, and Kachia who was waiting for Vandalieu and his party's return.
About two hundred years ago, the Mirg shield-nation was ordered to wipe out the nation of the Titans in the name of the Amid Empire and the Church of Alda.
To preserve the relationship between the shield-nation of Mirg, which had been building up its power as a nation, and the Amid Empire. To remove some of the power that the nation had gathered by forcing it into conflict with the Titan nation. To act in accordance with their religious worshipping of the champion Bellwood*. These were the reasons behind the Mirg shield-nation's invasion.
Bellwood was the representative of the three champions that had fought on the side of Alda, the God of Law and Fate. Vandalieu learned for the first time that Bellwood had constantly said that the champions being carelessly brought here to share the knowledge and technology from other worlds was robbing the people of this world of the opportunity to make progress on their own. He believed that while it might produce good results in the short-term, it would have disastrous effects in the long term.
Because of this, Bellwood had frequent disagreements with the champion Zakkart, who was doing his best to spread the knowledge, technology and culture from his own world, such as finding rice seeds and using magic to selectively breed them to advance the cultivation of rice, before Zakkart was revived as an Undead by the goddess Vida.
And so with the battle between Alda and Vida as an opportunity, Bellwood and the other champions went around and destroyed as much of the technology and culture that Zakkart had built as possible.
The Amid Empire that considered themselves Bellwood's descendants and the Church of Alda that praised him as a saint lived with policies and doctrines based around him and his beliefs, even today. Of course, only the champions and the god that summoned them could tell which technologies were from other worlds and which were developed in this world, so the Amid Empire used ambiguous criteria to determine which technologies were left by Zakkart and which were not.
Incidentally, this is the justification that the Amid Empire used for its attempted invasions on the Orbaume Kingdom, whose civilization utilized the cultivation of rice.
With these political and religious reasons, the Mirg shield-nation's forces, led by the military personnel of the Amid Empire, completed the difficult task of finding a safe route across the Boundary Mountain Range and marched on Talosheim with an army of over ten thousand.
It was certain that the Amid Empire wanted to take the riches of Talosheim for itself, in addition to the above-mentioned reasons.
And for the reluctantly-dispatched troops of the Mirg shield-nation, the Titans were not humans, but a race inferior to humans birthed by the corrupted goddess. There was no doubt that they pillaged and slaughtered the Titans with no mercy.
A large number of Talosheim's villages were burned and taken, but their warriors' bravery and excellence didn't shine only when fighting against monsters.
They didn't have any experience in large-scale battles against other civilizations, but their warriors' swords cut down the Mirg shield-nation's soldiers with ease, and their knights' shields crushed the flesh and bone of the Mirg shield-nation's knights, along with their thin spears.
Best of all, there were numerous heroes in Talosheim.
The[Sword King]Borkus, who could defeat any monster, no matter how powerful, with a single sword.
The[Saint of Healing]Jeena, the young leader of the Church of Vida who excelled in the use of life-attribute magic.
Ogbahn, the[Hungry Wolf]who preferred solitude and had solo-cleared every single Dungeon in Talosheim.
Barigen, the[Dual-Halberd]who held a halberd in each hand and swept through his enemies like a windstorm.
Zandia, the young Second Princess who possessed an affinity for every attribute of magic in spite of the Titan race's general inaptitude with magic, the one renowned as the[Tiny Genius.]
『Do all of their names contain dakuten because Titans are a race created by Vida, just like Ghouls?』
So Vandalieu thought, but reading the serious mood, he didn't mention it out loud.
Because of these heroes, Talosheim was able to push back the Mirg shield-nation's advancing army, but the enemy had a hero as well.
The hero that participated in the war to reinforce the Mirg shield-nation's forces, the A-rank adventurer who was a candidate for the next ascendancy to S-rank - the[Divine Spear of Ice], Mikhail. With him joining the fray, the scales tipped in the Mirg shield-nation's favor once more.
「The legendary magic spear of ice that was one of the Mirg shield-nation's national treasures,[Ice Age], was a legendary-class Magic Item said to have been created as a weapon for heroes by an ice god who served Peria, the goddess of water and knowledge. With this weapon in the hands of Mikhail, the Titan warriors fighting alongside the heroes fell, one by one. The fortress walls were finally broken and the savages of the Mirg shield-nation poured into the city.」(Nuaza)
The only thing the people of Talosheim could do was to have the women and children who couldn't fight escape through the trade tunnel to the Orbaume Kingdom with their First Princess and her bodyguards.
「Though I was but an apprentice, I fought until the very end as a member of the Church of Vida. However, without being able to send a single arrow flying into the detestable Mikhail or defend Jeena-sama or Zandia-sama, I died.」(Nuaza)
And the Mirg shield-nation didn't stop their destruction and pillaging after Nuaza died. Mikhail attempted to destroy the treasure of the goddess Vida that had been hidden deep beneath Talosheim's royal castle.
But the goddess had personally stationed a Dragon Golem underground to protect the treasure. Even Mikhail, whose ascendancy to S-rank had been all but confirmed, could not destroy the treasure.
In fact, the Dragon Golem's right arm and wings were destroyed, half of its tail was cut off and its head was crushed, but at the cost of all of Mikhail's companions being slaughtered. Mikhail himself sustained a serious wound; all he was able to do was to throw his magic spear at the still-moving Golem to imprison it briefly, and then use that opportunity to escape with his life.
Though the Mirg shield-nation was victorious, they were exhausted due to the fierce resistance of the Titans and the hero that led them was on the verge of death. Unable to maintain their occupation of Talosheim, they decided to make a retreat.
Even if they slaughtered every last Titan in Talosheim, there would be no end to the monsters attracted from the nearby Devil's Nests to the city by the smell of blood.
Nuaza didn't know what became of the victorious Mirg shield-nation and Amid Empire after that, but it wasn't a victory that they could have celebrated.
The desperate medical treatment of Mikhail was unsuccessful; he died several days after his return to the Mirg shield-nation. Many of the Mirg shield-nation's other elite individuals had also perished in the battle, and many had become unable to continue serving as soldiers.
On top of that, since Talosheim's First Princess had escaped with the truly valuable treasures and all of the city's funds, the amount of money and goods that the Mirg shield-nation gained were lower than the estimate that they had made before the war. It didn't even compare to the enormous cost that they had paid for their victory.
And since the First Princess had made it to the Orbaume Kingdom, the Kingdom learned of the invasion of Talosheim and dispatched soldiers against the Mirg shield-nation and the Amid Empire as divine punishment for the immoral, unjustified attack on the nation of Titans that it had been allied with.
During the battle of Talosheim, the Mirg shield-nation had sent reinforcements from border due to the unexpected difficulty of the battle. The border's defenses were easily broken through because of the lack of soldiers; many of Mirg's fortresses fell and its cities were occupied.
The Amid Empire was forced to hastily dispatch soldiers in order to protect the country that was supposed to be its shield.
The Amid Empire had been steadily invading the Orbaume Kingdom and expanding its territory, but with this defeat, all of the land that it had conquered was taken back in one movement. Most of the wars that had occurred in the last two hundred years were apparently the Amid Empire's efforts to recapture that land once more; it had finally gained some new territory in the most recent one.
The population of monsters in the Boundary Mountain Range had been controlled by the adventurers of Talosheim, but with Talosheim's destruction, their numbers suddenly multiplied and monsters overflowed from the Dungeons now that there was nobody to clear them.
As a result, the Devil's Nests expanded and it became difficult for the Mirg shield-nation to even go near the Boundary Mountain Range, let alone find a safe route back to Talosheim to take back the national treasure lost there.
In summary, the invasion of Talosheim was a historical failure for the Amid Empire and the Mirg shield-nation in particular.
When Nuaza learned this, despite having the face of a mummy, he broke into a smile that covered his whole face -
「Serves them r-!」(Nuaza)
He accidentally overdid it and almost passed on to the afterlife.
Since his nation had fallen and he had lost his own life, it was only natural for him to feel this way.
Vandalieu was exasperated at the foolishness of the Amid Empire and the Mirg shield-nation.
They shouldn't have attempted a sudden, brute-force invasion. Talosheim had a tunnel in the mountain range to the east that allowed safe passage to the Orbaume Kingdom. They should have instead maneuvered between Talosheim and the Orbaume Kingdom, formed a non-aggression pact with Talosheim without necessarily having the intention of breaking it and then passed through the tunnel and launched a surprise attack on Orbaume.
If they had done that, they could have purchased materials, including provisions, to maintain a supply line while taking an advantageous battle.
As they had prioritized their strange national policies and religious beliefs, the Mirg shield-nation had lost far more of their strength than expected and suffered a counter-attack from the enemy nation instead. Even Vandalieu, who didn't even possess any experience with military simulation games, could come up with this plan. Was the Amid Empire run by idiots?
It wasn't as if Vandalieu agreed with Rodcorte, but he really thought that this could only be expected from the Empire of an inferior world.
「Mhmm, mhmm. The Mirg shield-nation and the Amid Empire never do anything good. They should just all die out.」(Vandalieu)
「Boy, I do believe that Sam-dono and his daughters were humans of the Mirg shield-nation…」(Zadiris)
『Bocchan, there are some humans like Kachia-san in the Mirg shield-nation, so I don't know about killing all of them.』(Saria)
『That's right. Well, we were chased out of that Devil's Nest by the Mirg shield-nation, but that doesn't mean that all the people there are bad.』(Rita)
『We were born in the Mirg shield-nation, but if you were to order it, Bocchan, I would not hesitate to run over and kill my fellow countrymen. But please do not forget to keep your views open.』(Sam)
「Holy Son, even we only feel hatred for the Mirg shield-nation and Amid Empire of two hundred years ago. For us Titans, that is long enough for parents' and grandparents' generations to have passed; for humans, it is long enough for even their great grandparents' generations to have passed. Even the goddess tells us not to direct our hatred towards their descendants.」(Nuaza)
『That's right, Vandalieu. Don't forget the kindness that you showed in Evbejia. I'll be happy as long as you don't forget how to be kind.』(Darcia)
As the hatred that had been gathering at the bottom of Vandalieu's heart like sediment was dragged out and manifested itself in his words, he received remonstrations from every direction. Incomprehensible. No, he could comprehend it, and he knew that what everyone was saying was right.
「Yes, I'll moderate myself. By the way, what is the Prophesized Holy Son?」(Vandalieu)
Putting a lid on the hatred in his heart, Vandalieu pressed Nuaza to continue. Nuaza explained what had happened to the Titans after the war.
Half of the Titans revived as Undead within a month from the hatred of being killed and the fact that their bodies weren't buried. Seeing the soldiers of the Mirg shield-nation who had also revived as Undead, they began killing each other again, even though they were already dead.
And they were victorious. However, their feelings of wanting to protect their home country were strong even after becoming Undead, so they didn't leave on an expedition to take revenge on the Mirg shield-nation.
However, they were anxious about whether the First Princess and the people had managed to safely escape to the Orbaume Kingdom, so some of them headed towards the tunnel.
But the tunnel had been collapsed with its entrance sealed. They had planned right from the beginning to use a hidden mechanism to destroy the tunnel to prevent the Mirg shield-nation's army from giving chase once the Titans had already traveled through.
The fact that the tunnel had been sealed meant that the First Princess and the others had made it through. The Titans had no way of knowing what difficulties she and the others were facing in the Orbaume Kingdom, but they decided to trust in the Kingdom that was their allied nation and Duke Hartner, with whom they had done business directly.
They were Undead, and though they believed that they had retained their sense of reason, they didn't know if that was true or how long it would last. If they were to chase after the First Princess and the other Titans in this state, they would be more likely to hinder them than to be of any help.
The great majority of the Undead Titans thought this way.
Even so, some left to cross the mountain range and never returned. A few dozen of the Titans that didn't chase after the First Princess lost their attachment to this world and faded away.
And so when Nuaza and the other Titans returned to the city of Talosheim that no longer had living citizens, they simply spent their days guarding the ruins.
『That was the slow road that led to our ruin.』(Nuaza)
There were numerous Devil's Nests surrounding Talosheim, and Dungeons that the adventurers used to venture into day after day in search of materials.
But Nuaza and the other Undead gathered at the center of the ruins, at the royal castle and in the area around it, never venturing outside. Of course, they didn't go out to hunt monsters themselves or venture into Dungeons.
Because of this, the monsters continued to multiply and the corrupted Mana released by those monsters, the source of evil, accumulated and expanded the Devil's Nests for two hundred years and finally even reached this place, the center of Talosheim.
If any monsters other than the Undead Titans entered the central area of Talosheim, Nuaza and the others would exterminate them. Their skills… their Ranks as monsters were quite high. They were monsters created by the spirits of elite Titan warriors inhabiting the remains of their own bodies, and their memories and personalities from while they were alive were preserved to a certain extent, as Nuaza's were.
For them, killing a hundred or two hundred of the monsters overflowing from the Devil's Nests that they used to hunt in and the Dungeons that they used to clear was nothing but a way to pass the time.
However, perhaps because of a problem related to their mental or emotional states, there were none proactive enough to attempt to purify the Devil's Nest that had spread into the ruins.
Though since they were monsters themselves in the first place, they wouldn't have been able to purify it entirely.
In the Devil's Nest that gradually encroached into Talosheim, the monsters multiplied at a rate far beyond any normal creatures. And as the monsters multiplied, the struggle for survival between them grew fiercer and as the powerful monsters survived, they were the ones to multiply and increase in number.
In contrast, the number of Undead of Talosheim might decrease, but was never able to increase.
Regular groups of Undead would turn the corpses of the adventurers or monsters who killed them into Undead; their numbers would increase by the number of people that they killed. But adventurers visiting this place were non-existent.
And since Nuaza and the Undead Titans had retained their personalities from when they were alive, they didn't see the Undead monsters as their companions and killed them the moment they began to move.
One day, when a group of a thousand or more powerful monsters closed in on this place, Nuaza and the other Undead of Talosheim would return to dust.
『We believed that this would happen one day. As the years and months went by, our numbers gradually decreased. There is no purpose for stray Undead who have forgotten their regrets and hatred to exist. While acting as gravekeepers of our own land, praying that the Princess and the others who made it to the Orbaume Kingdom would find good fortune, we have simply waited to be destroyed. However, that one fateful day, the goddess gave us a prophecy.』(Nuaza)
It happened when Nuaza finished the fifty-year-long process of restoring the statue of the goddess that had been destroyed by the Mirg shield-nation's soldiers.
『From the west shalt cometh a white child, leading my forgotten children. That child shall guide thee to prosperity and glory.』(Nuaza)
Nuaza heard a voice filled with a deep love, and he instinctively felt that this was a prophecy from the goddess.
At the same time, he remembered a legend that had been passed down from their ancestors. The founder of Vampires was born between the goddess Vida and the champion Zakkart. When he was defeated by the champion Bellwood, he left behind a certain prophecy.
『Though I may perish here, I shall be reborn once more, rise up with my brothers and bring ruin to the disciples of the arrogant god!』(Vampire founder)
And then Nuaza was certain that the white child of the prophecy was unmistakably the legendary founder of the Vampires.
And more than a hundred years after the prophecy was made, Nuaza had met a white child emanating a divine aura (the effects of the Death-Attribute Charm), leading the Ghouls who were a race created by Vida but treated as monsters by human society.
「O Holy Son, you are the white child in the prophecy, the second coming of the son born between the goddess and the champion. Rise up with us, and bring prosperity and glory -」Nuaza)
「No, let's wait a minute, you're getting the two prophecies mixed up.」
As Nuaza was overcome with emotion, Vandalieu hastily restrained him.
He had been bewildered at being referred to as the Prophesized Holy Son, but with this strange prophecy made by the Vampire founder added onto that, simply being bewildered about it would be dangerous. At this rate, he might become forced to become the leader of an anti-Alda resistance.
Vandalieu hated the god Alda and those who followed him; he did consider them his enemies, but they were so powerful that he was hesitant even to fight against just a single High Priest and his dozen or so subordinates.
No matter how composed and rational Undead looked, they were fundamentally creatures driven by desires and urges. If they got too excited, their minds tight turn towards,「Let's attack the Mirg shield-nation!」
And Vandalieu doubted this prophecy, rather, the one made by the Vampire founder.
There was a chance that the prophecy was something that Nuaza had simply hallucinated after becoming an Undead, but its contents matched Vandalieu and the Ghouls too perfectly for that. He had no intention of guiding the Undead to prosperity and glory, but what Vandalieu and the Ghouls would achieve from now on might lead to prosperity and glory for Nuaza and the other Titans.
If Vandalieu had heard a prophecy while he was living on earth, he probably wouldn't have believed it, but since he knew that a god did in fact exist (even if that god was a good-for-nothing god), it wasn't strange to imagine that the gods whose names appeared in myths would give prophecies to those who followed them.
But why were the prophecy of the goddess and the prophecy made by the Vampire founder getting mixed together? They didn't seem related to each other at all.
「Hmm, Vandalieu is indeed white, and we Ghouls do have our roots in the goddess Vida. While the goddess's prophecy may refer to us, I do believe that the prophecy of the Vampire founder's rebirth is unrelated.」(Zadiris)
It seemed that Zadiris agreed with Vandalieu and began to remonstrate Nuaza, but Nuaza didn't seem to be fazed in the slightest.
『It matters not. For us who cannot rid ourselves of our attachments and turn to dust, nor scorch our souls with hatred, who have only submerged ourselves in our feelings of resignation, your mere arrival gives us hope, o Holy Son.』(Nuaza)
Vandalieu wasn't unhappy to have a person(?) that he had only just met for the first time to trust in him so much, but his feelings of confusion were stronger. He had no plan or strategy to lead them and say,「I understand, prosperity and glory is right this way.」
However, it was convenient that Nuaza and the Titans had a good impression of him, considering his original plans.
「Well then, would it be alright if I brought the six hundred or so Ghouls that I led here to move into Talosheim?」(Vandalieu)
「Ooh! You would reside in our city, Holy Son?! These are the ruins of a dead nation; nobody would object. Isn't that right, everyone?!」(Nuaza)
In response to Nuaza's question, the Undead Titans who had been kneeling silently suddenly let out cheers that sounded like groaning.
『We will welcome the Holy Son and his companions! UOOOOH!』
『Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah! Gaah, ah, ah, ah!』
『Kill them! Kill them! Kill all who would get in their way!』
『Kill them all!』
A moment ago, the ruins had been silent like a graveyard, but now it was full of delight and bloodthirst. The Undead Titans lifted their weapons into the air, stomped their feet, their fighting spirit welling up as if they were about to head into battle right this moment.
It was such a change that one had to question where their docility had gone, the fire of their emotions were inextinguishable once sparked. This was just another quality of Undead creatures.
Most Undead had such fires sparked in them from the moment they rose, so not many knew about this, however.
「Boy? It seems that some of them are saying quite dangerous words…?」(Zadiris)
「They mean they���re going to kill everyone that gets in the way of our migration into Talosheim.」(Vandalieu)
『I concur, but there is such a thing as over-enthusiasm…』(Sam)
『That sounds very convincing when Father says it, doesn't it?』(Saria) [Sarcastic]
「Let's see then, those who are willing to help, follow us.」(Vandalieu)
And so several hundred Undead Titans charged into the Devil's Nest that separated the center of Talosheim and the temporary camp that the Ghouls had set up outside, with enough force to stomp the ground flat.
They slaughtered the Needle Wolves and Raptors that attacked them while cutting down trees that were in the way. Though the distance they covered was only around two kilometers, they turned the fortress city-nation from the center to the front gate into a safe ruin where not even a single mouse moved.
Was it Vandalieu that was amazing for inspiring them, or were they the amazing ones for being able to do this just from the uncertain hope that Vandalieu had offered them?
「I think it's the latter.」(Vandalieu)
After that, since there was now a safe path through, Vandalieu led the pack of Ghouls, who were surprised by the Undead who seemed driven crazy by their fighting spirit, in their migration into the center of Talosheim.
They had chosen the central area that contained many buildings that had been government buildings such as the royal castle, the church and government offices instead of a residential district. This was because the sturdy buildings of the central area were in better condition.
The central area had been exposed to the fierce battle that had taken place two hundred years ago, but what the Mirg shield-nation had focused on trying to destroy was the Church of Vida and, most importantly, Vida's treasure that had been hidden below the royal castle. That was why they didn't destroy the buildings made of solid stone.
In addition, the Undead had been guarding the buildings of this central area for two hundred years, not allowing monsters to take up residence and damage them, so they would be usable once cleaned.
The Titans' buildings were too large for the Ghouls, their furniture and implements had all decayed except for those made of stone, and the things that were left didn't match the Ghouls' size, so a considerable amount of remodeling was still required and new furniture needed to be built.
But there was a mountain of materials to be found here.
First, the timber from the trees that the Undead titans had cut down was gathered and lined up.
「[Wither.]Get up. Cut. Get out.」(Vandalieu)
Vandalieu used the death-attribute magic spell[Wither]to remove some water from the trees and have them dry up, turned them into Wood Golems, used[Golem Transmutation]to have them cut themselves into appropriate sizes and then removed the souls possessing the wood again.
With this method, the Devil's Nest's trees turned quickly into usable timber. And then the Ghouls built partitions between rooms and furniture. The Ghouls were originally native to a Devil's Nest forest; since they didn't need particularly elaborate furniture, this work was finished in several days.
Vandalieu went around using[Golem Transmutation]to repair parts of the buildings that had fissures and parts that had crumbled. Seeing this, the Undead Titans who had been craftsmen while they were alive exclaimed,『We won't lose, either!』and,『We cannot allow only the Holy Son to perform all of the labor!』They dropped their weapons and began to work as well; this was something that Vandalieu hadn't included in his calculations.
Speaking of things not included in Vandalieu's calculations, Nuaza had said that he was only an apprentice priest. As such, he was only the Church's representative among the Titans (Those of priest status or above either never revived as Undead or had already faded away). He wasn't in a position to make decisions and speak for all of the Undead Titans.
Therefore, there was a considerable number of Undead Titans other than the ones who had helped with the migration still remaining in the buildings. Most notably, one of Talosheim's heroes, the[Sword King]Borkus, had turned into an Undead and was apparently still guarding the inside of the royal castle.
That was certainly one capable person… capable corpse that Vandalieu wanted as his ally.
「If I could have him act as a mediator for the Undead, there will be fewer troubles between the races after I get to the Orbaume Kingdom, too.」(Vandalieu)
The Ghouls had already secured plenty of living space, so there was no need to have Borkus vacate the royal castle. Even so, Vandalieu requested Nuaza to accompany him to convince Borkus to become his ally and headed towards the royal castle, giving a puzzled look towards Zadiris, Saria and the others who had refused to follow him.
[The level of the Strengthen Followers skill has increased to level 5!]
[The level of the Carpentry skill has increased to level 2!]
[You have acquired the Cooking skill!]
Monster explanation:
[Orcuses]
These are mutated Orcs, created by being submerged in death-dttribute Mana before birth. Their base Rank is Rank 4.
Their physical strength is about the same as that of Orcs, but their tenacity, endurance, dexterity and their intelligence in particular is superior to Orcs.
They possess the[Dark Vision],[Superhuman Strength],[Physical Damage Resistance]and[Bad Eating]skills from birth. Because of these, once an Orcus becomes an adult, his offensive and defensive capabilities exceed those of a fully-armed Orc even if the Orcus has no weapons and armor equipped.
However, they possess lower levels in the[Endless Sexual Stamina]and[Breeding]skills, and some do not even possess these skills at all. Their reproductive abilities are only a little superior to humans.
Their appearance is that of an overweight human with a black or grey-furred wild boar's head, and only male individuals exist at present.
Though this is a conjecture, their lifespans are estimated to be roughly equal to those of humans.
As the Orcus race has only just been born, it is unknown what kind of superior races of Orcuses may exist.
If one were to report the existence of Orcuses to the Adventurers' Guild with proof, they would be rewarded handsomely for reporting the existence of a new race of monsters, but that would be difficult at present.
Chapter 29: The Black Ghoul King and the One-Armed Sword King
While Vandalieu was in the royal castle with Nuaza to recruit the[Sword King]Borkus, the main members of the group that knew Vandalieu well, except for Sam, were gathered in a certain room in one of Talosheim's buildings.
「It seems that everyone has gathered here besides Sam-dono who cannot leave his carriage.��(Zadiris)
「So, Zadiris, what were you planning after gathering us all here?」(Tarea)
「If I'm not mistaken, nobody called for you to be here, though.」(Basdia)
Elegantly hiding her mouth behind a folding fan that she had made herself from Ent wood, Tarea gave a small laugh in response to Basdia glaring at her through half-closed eyes.
「I cannot miss this meeting after hearing that we are gathering to form a plan to comfort Van-sama, after all.」(Tarea)
「Muuh, I do not recall saying anything of the sort, just where did you hear this? Well, it is fine.」(Zadiris)
Zadiris had planned to have a discussion with only those who knew about Vandalieu's circumstances… His past lives, the god, the one hundred people who would be reincarnated here. But since Vandalieu seemed to trust Tarea considerably, Zadiris decided that there would be no problem long as she was careful with her words, and started the meeting.
「Now then, the reason I have gathered everyone here today is to make you aware that the boy needs rest, and because I wish for you to cooperate with me in making the boy rest.」(Zadiris)
Zadiris brought up the topic of discussion, but this only caused confusion to stir among the people in the room.
『Rest, did you say? Bocchan is sleeping well every night.』(Saria)
『Yeah, he's always sound asleep.』(Rita)
Saria and Rita, who were attending the meeting on Sam's behalf, spoke their opinions. Vandalieu was in fact sleeping well as the two of them said. He didn't even turn over in his sleep, and his breathing was soft.
There had been more than a few instances where they checked his pulse to make sure he hadn't suddenly died.
「That's right, Zadiris. Vandalieu hasn't shown any sign of being tired, and if he was tired, he'd definitely say so himself that he needs to rest.」(Vigaro)
「You're right. When he was making sauces and preserved food, he didn't seem any different from usual.」(Basdia)
As Vigaro and Basdia said, neither Vandalieu's behavior nor his facial expression showed any signs of fatigue. He had never even said,「I'm tired」, or,「I want to rest.」
He sighed often, but that usually because things weren't going his way rather than because he was tired. Because his breaths were so quiet in the first place, there were also a lot of times where nobody could even notice him sighing.
『And everyone is treating Vandalieu with care. He really is a hard worker, but I don't think we're forcing him to do anything unreasonable.』(Saria)
Darcia, who was awake at this time, was also participating in the meeting by having Saria relay her words.
In response to the trust that Darcia expressed through Saria, Zadiris gave a small groan and shook her head.
「I am sorry to betray that trust that you have in us, but we are demanding the unreasonable of the boy. Recently, I massaged the boy's shoulders half-jokingly, but they were… stiff. He didn't dislike it; he called it『heaven』and almost fell asleep.」(Zadiris)
「I was wondering what you were going to say, but you just wanted to boast that you are skilled at giving shoulder massages? Anyone would feel sleepy after having their shoulders massaged.」(Tarea)
「The elderly should at least take five seconds to think before opening their mouths. Remember that the boy is only just about to turn three years old.」(Zadiris)
Everyone was taken aback by Zadiris's words.
Vandalieu was an infant who felt pleasure from having his shoulders massaged, in other words, his shoulders were stiff… No normal child of that age would have stiff shoulders.
「And just think. Think about how much the boy does in a single day. Incidentally, he does not stop his lessons in Alchemy until he has completed at least four hours.」(Zadiris)
Vandalieu spent four hours a day in lessons where he would crush materials in a mortar, mix them together, knead them and pour Mana into them.
「… He also makes sauces from walnuts and herbs, and cookies with acorns and other tree fruits with everyone. We ran out of salt and he was worried about finding an ingredient to replace it. He did come up with the idea of turning the mortar and pestle into Golems so that it wouldn't take too much time or effort, but…」(Basdia)
Even the work he did while chatting with people took a considerable amount of time.
「He did take care of us during our migration. He used Lemures and Undead insects to watch our surroundings, and most importantly, he created roads for us and then returned them back to how they originally were. Currently, he is making lumber out of the trees and repairing the buildings, isn't he?」(Tarea)
『Also, he is practicing no-attribute magic until late in the night. He performs small tasks with[Telekinesis]while practicing his Mana Control skill.』(Saria)
『Eh?! Bocchan wakes up early in the morning to practice his death-attribute magic, doesn't he?!』(Rita)
『That can't be! Then when is Vandalieu sleeping?!』(Darcia)
「That is what I mean. The boy possesses the[Status Effect Resistance]skill, so he is likely enduring the effects of fatigue and sleep deprivation. He even seems to possess the[Surpass Limits]skill as well.」(Zadiris)
As Zadiris was saying, with the skills that Vandalieu possessed, even an infant's body could endure the effects of fatigue. Even to the point that Vandalieu himself wouldn't really notice that he was pushing himself past his limits.
Because of his resistance skills, even if he was fatigued his body still moved normally, so he would be under the impression that he was still fine. That was why he could endure being sleepy, so even the time that he did spend sleeping so that his development wouldn't be negatively affected grew shorter, as he would always think,「This much sleep will be enough.」
But the resistance skills only allowed him to endure this. They wouldn't remove his fatigue or help him quickly recover from it. And so, in reality, his fatigue was accumulating.
「And… I've only just realized, but Van rarely shows any emotion in his expression. I'm able to tell how he's feeling to some extent from his tone, behavior and the air around him, but…」(Basdia)
And as Basdia said, Vandalieu's accumulated fatigue almost never appeared in his facial expression. His face was always white, almost enough to be called too white.
It wasn't white in an attractive sense; he always looked unpleasantly pale, as if he had smeared candle wax over his cheeks. That was why it was impossible to tell how healthy he was from the color of his face.
And Darcia, Sam, Saria and Rita had all been unaware of Vandalieu's overwork. That was because they were all Undead without bodies of flesh, so they didn't feel fatigue themselves.
Mental fatigue may have been another story, but even though Saria, Rita and Sam had only been Undead for less than three years, they had already become unable to recall the sensation of being physically tired.
In addition, Darcia was spending more than half of each day sleeping in her remains. Nobody could blame her for not knowing how much rest Vandalieu was getting.
「Nuh, then why doesn't Vandalieu try to get some more rest himself? It's true that there might not have been any time for him to rest while we were on our journey. But it's different the past few days. And even on our journey, I'm sure he could have at least rested for one day.」(Vigaro)
As Vigaro was saying, Vandalieu could have rested if he had wanted to. All he would have to do is tell everyone,「I'm tired today so I want to rest.」
After all, he was truly the King of the Ghouls right now, standing at the top of their community.
Of course, Vigaro, Zadiris, Tarea, Basdia - all of the important Ghouls - recognized Vandalieu as the Ghoul King.
If Vandalieu had stopped building roads during their journey across the mountain range, then they wouldn't have been able to continue traveling. But if they had chosen to stop at a spot where monster attacks would be relatively infrequent, Vandalieu could have rested for a day without a problem and nobody would have complained. After all, without Vandalieu, it would have been impossible for the Ghouls to cross the mountain range in the first place.
No, without Vandalieu, the Ghoul women would still be in Bugogan's custody and many of the other Ghouls would have perished after having their villages destroyed by the Orcs. The Ghouls had no reason to complain.
However, words expressing a desire to rest had never come from Vandalieu's mouth.
「Indeed. Why is that, I wonder?」(Zadiris)
Zadiris and the other Ghouls couldn't understand why this was. The Ghouls were a fundamentally lazy race. Though they would often need to tell each other,「Don't rest, keep training, work harder」, they would never need to say,「You can take a rest now, catch your breath.」
Ghouls rested plenty without being told to, and if they were tired, they would say so themselves. In this regard, Ghouls were indeed part-monster.
『Hmm, ever since Father became a carriage, Bocchan has been taking afternoon naps, but…』(Saria)
『I wonder if it's because of the resistance skills after all. I have a feeling someone told me that those born with resistance skills have poor awareness of the status effects that those skills grant resistance to…』(Darcia)
After careful consideration, this was the conclusion Darcia had come to.
As a Dark Elf, Darcia had been born with the[Magic Resistance]skill. This skill caused damage from offensive magic spells to be reduced and status effects caused by spells were less likely to occur and faster to recover from.
As a result, she had apparently experienced more than a few situations where she relied on her[Magic Resistance]skill too much and sustained severe burns, and situations where she was trying to taken an enemy alive in battle and cast a spell thinking,「I'm sure they won't die from a direct hit by a spell like this」, only for the target to be turned into a piece of meat.
Because of this, all Dark Elves were taught about resistance skills while they were children, including how much of an effect certain things would have if one didn't possess these resistance skills.
However, Vandalieu hadn't been taught this. It was very likely that he thought he could simply endure things because of the[Status Effect Resistance]skill, thinking,「I'm surprisingly not tired.」
『That's why he doesn't think to rest. And he might be thinking of the current situation as a state of emergency. Because after I died, a lot of things happened…』(Darcia)
He had been desperate to survive since his mother had died, and he had been doing his best to gain revenge after that. As a result, he had come to work with the Ghouls, but his original goal when he first met Zadiris and the others was to learn certain skills and then leave the Devil's Nest. And so he had worked hard in his lessons.
He had defeated the Noble Orcs, led the Ghouls across the mountain range and helped them find a new home. It had been a series of emergency situations.
Because much of Vandalieu's work hadn't required him to physically move his body, he might not have a good sense of having「done work.」
However, everyone here knew that using one's Mana caused fatigue.
「I understand that Van-sama is tired. So can't we solve this if we simply tell him to rest?」(Tarea)
They were now well aware that Vandalieu needed to rest. But then, wasn't the solution very simple? Tarea suggested that it might be so, but Zadiris shook her head.
「If that were the case, I would have already told him to rest long ago. But he does not really listen.」(Zadiris)
One time Zadiris had suggested for Vandalieu to take a rest, and Vandalieu did stop his Alchemy lesson. But it was with reluctance, as if he felt that he could keep going.
But he would continue practicing death-attribute magic while lying down, and just when Zadiris thought that he was taking a relaxing walk, he was performing needless repairs on the buildings of Talosheim. He was always thinking of the next thing he should do and doing them on his own.
When it seemed like he was playing with the Black Goblin and Anubis children, he was helping them with their studies and taking care of the Live-Dead. He barely rested at all.
He was also performing strange experiments to somehow make Bone Man stronger, as Bone Man was the only one of his Undead who hadn't increased in Rank despite reaching level 100.
「Now that I think about it, Van said that he wanted me to teach him unarmed fighting when he turned three. He said something about stories where one can become a master if he begins learning from the age of three.」(Basdia)
「WHAT?! Why is he asking you, Basdia, and not me?!」(Vigaro)
『Isn't that because your arms are clearly too long, so he would not be able to learn your techniques? You're the one who told us that unarmed combat for Ghouls is completely different for men and women, Vigaro-san.』(Saria)
「Vigaro, be quiet for a moment. Basdia, if you are going to teach him, you must be skillful with your words and make the boy rest. So that is how it is, everyone. We must form a plan to have the boy take a break. I have spent so much time wondering how I could get the youngsters to train themselves diligently. To think that I would also have to strain my wit to have them rest themselves as well.」(Zadiris)
And so Zadiris and the others discussed how to make Vandalieu rest while he was away at the royal castle.
With Nuaza's guidance, Vandalieu passed through the collapsed gate of the royal castle with some difficulty.
「… These tall stairs aren't kind to infants.」(Vandalieu)
The buildings of Talosheim were very rough on Vandalieu, as they had been built for Titans whose average height was 2.7m for males and 2.5m for females.
Climbing the stairs was an athletics exercise.
「My apologies; as you can see, the stairs for the use of other races have been buried in the rubble.」(Nuaza)
As Nuaza said this, he suddenly picked up Vandalieu with his arms that were only made of skin and bones. Even after becoming a Lich - a Lesser Lich, to be more precise - he hadn't lost his[Augmented Strength]skill, a transformed version of the[Superhuman Strength]skill that he had possessed while he was alive.
「We haven't used it up until now so I decided to leave it until later, but it's probably best to repair the royal castle as soon as possible.」(Vandalieu)
If Darcia and the others had heard this, they would have stopped him, but Nuaza replied,「It matters not as long as it is at your convenience, Holy Son.」
「It would indeed be fortunate if you were to repair it for us, but it is a castle where no soldiers or civilians live. And it will likely not collapse for several hundred more years.」(Nuaza)
For Nuaza and the rest of the Undead of Talosheim, the royal castle was an enormous gravestone for their nation. If it were to be repaired, they would be happy, but it seemed that they didn't desire it so badly that it would delay Vandalieu's plans.
Even now, two hundred years after the fierce battle, there were parts of the city that had been destroyed and collapsed, but the royal castle built of building stones originating from Dungeons still stood tall. As Nuaza said, the castle would still be here several hundred years from now. Its impressive presence was enough to make anyone feel certain of that.
「… I understand. I'll do it if there is some spare time. So, where is Borkus-san?」
「He should be in front of the door of the audience chamber, which contains hidden stairs that lead beneath the castle. He has not moved a single step from that spot for two hundred years.」(Nuaza)
Before coming here to recruit the[Sword King]Borkus, Vandalieu had asked the Undead Titans, including Nuaza, what kind of person Borkus was.
According to them, he was the only one of Talosheim's heroes to revive as an Undead, and the most powerful among the Undead Titans right now.
His personality was -
『A heavy believer of justice and virtue; a cheerful, kind person. He loved to buy others drinks but was weak to alcohol himself. He was someone who did not hesitate to say that a woman's charm was in her chest, while a man's was in his muscles.』(Nuaza)
This is what Nuaza, who had apparently been among the intellectual group of Titans, had said.
The other Titans had replied -
『He was bald!』
『Strong! Strong! Strong!』
『His complaints about his wife and boasts about his daughter were too long. So annoying, so annoyiiiiing, but he's a gooood guuuuy!』
In summary, he was apparently a good person.
「I don't have any confidence in my muscles; is there any chance that he'll say,『Come back the day before yesterday*?』」(Vandalieu)
「I am sure he will not. And speaking of muscles, I am only skin and bones myself.」(Nuaza)
「I suppose that's true.」(Vandalieu)
And after proceeding through the inside of the castle with cracked walls and floors littered with broken fragments of smashed reliefs* and broken pillars, they soon arrived at the audience chamber.
The[Sword King]Borkus was there, as if taking the role of the ruined door that had probably once been heavy and yet extravagant.
His three-meter-tall body was enormous even for a Titan, with his bloodless skin covering his organs and large, piled-up muscles. Even as an Undead, a powerful presence radiated from him.
Borkus had lost his right arm in the fierce battle with the[Divine Spear of Ice]Mikhail, and his enormous two-handed sword had been broken halfway up the blade, but he hadn't lost any of his strength.
Vandalieu was sure of this, even without using[Appraisal.]His constantly-active[Danger Sense: Death]was telling him,「Do not make him angry.」
『The youngster from the Church… Who is this unusual brat?』(Borkus)
The[Sword King]Borkus, whose skull was completely exposed on the right side of his head, glared at Vandalieu suspiciously. From the vigilant tone in his voice, Vandalieu knew that he was resisting the effects of the[Death-Attribute Charm]skill.
「This is the[Ghoul King]Vandalieu, the Prophesized Holy Son.」(Nuaza)
『What? Ghoul King, you say? So she's not a Dhampir, but a mutated Ghoul? To be a Ghoul King as a little girl, even if you disregard the strange air around her, means that she's no ordinary person.』(Borkus)
「No, I'm a Dhampir, not a Ghoul. Also, I'm a boy.」(Vandalieu)
『Is that so?』(Borkus)
Vandalieu hastily corrected Borkus's misunderstanding, but even though Borkus had said that Vandalieu was「no ordinary person」, he didn't seem very interested.
『I don't know what you were thinking when you came here, but I have no interest in what you do… If you want to settle down, or take away the bodies of those bastards from the shield-nation, go ahead.』(Borkus)
Resting his broken sword on his left shoulder, Borkus looked down at Vandalieu. He seemed relaxed, but he would certainly bring that sword swinging down in an instant if anything were to happen.
From his behavior, it was difficult to imagine that[Death-Attribute Charm]was having any effect on him. In fact, it seemed to be making him only more vigilant.
『I hadn't thought that it would be this ineffective.』(Vandalieu)
Vandalieu had never assumed that[Death-Attribute Charm]would affect every single Undead. Naturally, he had known that there was a possibility that Borkus would resist it.
He had thought about that possibility, but hadn't thought of any concrete plans on what to do if Borkus really did resist it.
If Borkus were to become an enemy and Vandalieu couldn't Charm him, he had to think of a way to defeat him.
If Vandalieu wanted to build up more forces, he had to think of another way.
But now that Borkus had declared that he wouldn't have any part in Vandalieu's activities, what should Vandalieu do?
(I suppose I have no choice but to negotiate normally.)
Well, that was the conclusion that Vandalieu arrived at.
「Borkus-san. There is something that I wish for you to help me with.」(Vandalieu)
『Sorry, but I refuse. I have things to do, you see.』(Borkus)
Rejection. It seemed that the recruitment negotiations had failed.
No, no, it wasn't over. It was too early to give up.
「Borkus-san, I can use death-attribute magic, a magic that has never existed in this world up until now. It might be possible for me to grant your wishes with this magic.」(Vandalieu)
In a negotiation, one has to present something that the other party desires and offer it to them in exchange for the other party fulfilling a request. Thus, Vandalieu thought to first find out what it was that Borkus desired.
Would it be revenge on the Mirg shield-nation? Or the restoration of his body? Or perhaps he wanted to find out what had happened to his daughter who had escaped into the Orbaume Kingdom?
『… Can a brat like you really do something like that?』(Borkus)
「At the very least, I've been able to do a number of things that weren't possible in this world before.」(Vandalieu)
Borkus asked his own question in return, but Vandalieu could give him a proud answer. This wasn't a matter of him having pride or not, but because he could use magic that had never existed before, he knew that it was only natural for him to be able to do things that were never possible.
Even the most basic of death-attribute spells like[Sterilization]and[Bug Killer]were apparently difficult to reproduce using other attributes of magic.
Hearing Vandalieu's answer, Borkus turned his face that had only one eye down towards the ground. And then he spoke without looking up.
『But you can't do something like removing the curse of a legendary-class Magic Item, can you?』(Borkus)
There were some legendary-class Magic Items that inflicted curses on their targets or their users that even first-class mages couldn't remove. Such curses could only be removed by another legendary-class Magic Item, a hero or any beings who could match the gods or the gods themselves.
Would that not be impossible, even for the Holy Son? Nuaza surreptitiously turned his mummified face towards Vandalieu with a concerned expression.
「A curse, you say? I can do that. I haven't used any Mana today, either.」(Vandalieu)
『You can do that?!』(Borkus)
「How can that be?!��(Nuaza)
As Vandalieu quickly answered that he could do it, Nuaza and Borkus simultaneously expressed their disbelief.
『It's a curse, you know, one from a legendary-class Magic Item! It's so powerful that it can't be purified no matter how many gold coins you pile up at the Church!』(Borkus)
「That is right! The High Priest-sama and Bishop-sama who I cannot even be compared to, and even the[Saint]Jeena-sama, could not purify such curses! Never mind purifying it, what would we do if you were to become cursed yourself, Holy Son?!」(Nuaza)
From the point of view of Nuaza and Borkus, Vandalieu was saying the impossible, so their reaction was only natural.
「Yes, I did it before… I was forced to do it, so I think I can. It's a curse after all, isn't it?」(Vandalieu)
However, from Vandalieu's point of view, it was only natural that curses could be broken, so he hadn't the slightest idea why the two of them were so confused.
Well, judging from their behavior, he had at least realized that in Lambda, curses were probably not something that could be so easily removed.
「Curses are basically Status Effects caused by Mana, aren't they? Depending on the curse, malice or hatred might be at the core of the curse, but the specific effects… Causing incurable illness, bringing misfortune or sealing certain actions - Mana is necessary to cause those kinds of Status Effects.」(Vandalieu)
Mana is fundamentally essential for curses to manifest their specific effects.
For instance, sending a doll that has been torn to shreds to a hated person is nothing more than a psychological attack. If that person has nerves of steel or doesn't fear anything, then this will have no effect at all.
Mana is necessary to turn a curse into something more than just a superstitious charm. Mana needs to be embedded into it through a ritual, chant, a sacrificial offering or something of that sort.
This was the definition of a curse in the world of Origin, in which science and magic had co-existed.
「Death-attribute magic is capable of absorbing energy, including Mana, to extinguish it. So if the Mana that makes up the curse is extinguished, the curse can be removed.」(Vandalieu)
Vandalieu repeated the exact words that the researchers had once told him.
Curses had previously been incredibly difficult to remove in Origin back then. Vandalieu remembered how loud the excited researchers had been when the experiment had succeeded.
Well, the success of the experiments hadn't improved the way Vandalieu had been treated, nor would the researchers grant him any wishes, so Vandalieu had never appreciated how amazing it actually was to be able to remove… erase curses.
『So you mean to say that you can remove a legendary-class Magic Item's curse?』(Borkus)
「Yes. As long as it's not some incredibly unique curse.」(Vandalieu)
Even as Vandalieu gave this answer, he was silently puzzled. He couldn't feel any sign of Borkus being under the effects of a curse… other than the fact that he was an Undead.
『… Alright. If you can bring those guys back, I'll become your subordinate or minion or anything you want. I don't know if this has any meaning to it now, but I swear it by my honor as the[Sword King.]』(Borkus)
「Those guys?」(Vandalieu)
『Yeah. My companions who are still trapped by the curse of that damned spear of ice… Please release Jeena and Zandia-jouchan. I beg you.』(Borkus)
Borkus's head had been far above Vandalieu's own up until now, but now he lowered it to Vandalieu's feet.
「I understand」, Vandalieu replied as he looked down at Borkus's hairless head.
Monster explanation:
[Live-Dead]
These are special Undead created when life-attribute magic is used on fresh corpses that have not yet undergone rigor mortis to grant artificial life from the outside, resulting in a soulless body with biological processes such as the cardiac and respiratory functions restored.
As they are corpses without souls, they do not even possess the most basic intelligence and do not attack the living like Zombies. All skills that the owner of the body originally possessed while alive are lost, other than skills that he or she was born with. (From this fact, there are scholars who insist on the theory that skills are dependent not on the body, but on the soul. But they are in the minority.)
Defeating them is simple; if they are injured in a way that would be fatal to a normal human, they will die.
Their base Rank is Rank 0; they pose even less of a threat than a Slime or a Goblin. In addition, they do not spontaneously appear in Devil's Nests or Dungeons. All Live-Dead are artificially created by mages.
The reason mages create these Undead that only possess the most basic of biological functions is because their lack of souls makes them ideal for use as familiars and to act on the mages' behalf.
In such cases, the Live-Dead's physical abilities increase beyond its normal limits and it becomes a dangerous enemy.
There is a whispered story where the king of a nation suddenly passed away and the people had been deceived by being told that the king was not dead, but simply lying on the floor because he was feeling unwell. There is another, though its authenticity is questionable, where the head of a noble family passed away without a heir, and he was turned into a Live-Dead in order to make one.
As it is impossible to create Live-Dead who have sustained injuries that render biological functions impossible (including loss of blood), only corpses that have died spontaneously or of most illnesses can be used.
It is also impossible to create Live-Dead from the corpses of monsters or races that were created when the goddess procreated with monsters (Vampires, Dhampirs, Ghouls, etc.), as their corpses contain residual amounts of Mana following death.