In a certain village through the desert, where tragedy and disasters could pop out of nowhere were a common occurrence.
The nameless village had met its worst disaster yet.
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*Tap~Tap~Tap~
Walking on the very road that the villagers had built with much difficulty and sleepless nights, an over 2-meter tall figure wearing a full plated armor, released an aura that was unfitting for the living.
Looking around the buildings, the figure saw bloodstains all over the place, with a rare corpse or two still oozing fresh blood out of their body, and beside it was a skeleton that had his skull broken in half.
"It seems some didn´t make it." The plated figure said as he looked around the place where he saw a few more of the skeletons that the figure had created.
Of course, those were none other than Danzel draugr´s laying down on the ground.
And he didn´t like that to say the list.
The weirdest thing was his draugr shouldn´t have disobeyed his orders and kill a person. To Danzel it was fine if they brought someone half dead in front of him, and most of the draugr who stormed through the village did exactly that before leaving to catch another prey for their liege.
But seeing a dead person with a slash wound beside one of his draugr who happend to wield a sword, it didn´t take a genius to guess what had happend.
His undead disobeyed his orders.
`It shouldn´t have been from his choice...something must have happend here.´
Considering that his reanimation spell has evolved once more, not only did it make him capable of rising much more powerful undead, but it also improved how his will and solicited his control over them.
In theory, they shouldn´t have been capable to go against his will.
`Something must have happ-´ Before Danzel could finish his thoughts, a vibration on his hand together with a muffling sound stopped him
"Mhhm! Mhmmm!"
Lowering his gaze to his hand, he saw a hand holding a man that had a pale blue expression on his face similar to that of a corpse.
The tears on his face together with the terror inside his eyes of the man clearly hinted that the man was terrified beyond belief.
"Ah...right. I forgot about you." Danzel said in his cold voice in order to hide his embarrassment.
The finding of his undead disobeying his orders made him forget of the man he was dragging to the floor.
Raising the pale man up to his eye level, since Danzel got taller by him experiencing a partial evolution of a Death Knight, the man was essentially not touching the ground.
Making his already agonizing experience all that much worse.
"Mhhm!Mhhm!"
"Stop making those sounds..." Danzel said as he let go of his grip.
As it happend, the adrenaline rushed through his body and his survival instincts took over the man action.
"HEL-!!!"
Before the man could even finish his despaired cry for help, Danzel gripped the man at his neck tightly.
"Didn´t I already tell you to shut that mouth of yours? If you are in believe that anyone is going to help you, then I am sorry, but you are delusional." Danzel said with his cold voice at the terrified man.
Raising his one hand towards the corpse that was between the dead Draugr, dead mana surrounded his hand and swiftly traveled towards the corpse.
Not a second later, the corpse that was infected with Danzel's dead mana rose to its two feet and took the sword of the one that was responsible for his death in his hand.
"Guah~" The newly created Draugr that still had the flesh of the man he was before, bent his back and bowed towards Danzel as a sign of loyalty.
"Good." Danzel mumbled just loud enough for the man in his hand to hear.
"M-Max? W-What-happe- Agh!" The man screamed by Danzel tightening his grip.
Unbeknownst to him, he had put just a little bit more strength on his grip, he would even have broken the man's neck.
"Now then...if you don´t want to turn like him and serve as undead for eternity, answer my questions. If you do I will grant you a swift death."
Cold sweat runs through the man's back upon hearing Danzel's words.
Max, a person he saw every day and even had a few drinks with him to celebrate his wending with a beautiful maiden, people knew him for being an honest and strong guy who always lifted to mood wherever he was in a group.
Seeing the current Max though, there was nothing of that left but a being who oozed killing intent and showed an expression full of hate.
`I-I am going to be turned like him? Into such a being?´
The man clearly feared death, similar to how most of the living did.
But the thought of being enslaved for all eternity and becoming undead was all that more terrifying.
Death could be swift, but becoming undead is for eternity.
"I-I will do- I will do it! Please...just don´t make me into...that thing!" The man said with a broken voice.
Hearing his desperate answer, Danzel grinned sinisterly.
"Alright then, tell me if there is anyone who is capable to destroy that skeleton over there...For your information, those guys are off the 2th-tier."
The man showed a moment of confusion on this question, but suddenly with the hand tightening around his neck, he remembered something.
"Yes! There are! Some mercenary or explorers! They-Guh! They should be the ones who done this!"
Feeling the grip of his neck lessening, he took a big breath to relieve himself.
"I see...you know their actual numbers?" Danzel asked.
"I-I don´t- No! There should be around 8, yes they should be 8!" The man said in desperation.
His unconfident answer didn´t manage to go unnoticed by Danzel though.
Without a hint of hesitation, Danzel's gauntlets started to glow in dark green light and started sucking the vitality of the man. Resulting in pain that the man never felt ever before.
"Ahhh! W-Why! I did as I! You told me!"
Ignoring the man's thoughts, the color around his neck started to darken and his skin shrink to the point that the mana looked like a mummy.
[You received 1200 XP]
Letting the course of the man fall to the ground, Danzel's dead mana escaped his hand and entered the man's body, turning him in a matter of few seconds into a Draugr.
"Delusional until the end." Danzel mocked the man.
Although he could uphold his deal with him, Danzel didn´t feel any need to do that.
Not only would it be a huge waste to leave a course ready to become one of his soldiers, but the pain he inflicted on the man also satisfied his undead urges.
Most of the time Danzel found the urge of undead, the hate towards the living to be as convenient as annoying.
Killing any of the living would refresh his mind and bring him satisfaction unique to the undead race while annoying when he had to suppress his instincts.
And for some reason that he wasn´t aware of, his hate towards the human race was much stronger compared to the other mortal races' beings.
"Now, the guy said about 8 people, but based on how he spoke, there might as well be many more. If they also have multiple 3rd-tier combatants, then me alone wouldn't be enough... I need more numbers" Danzel said as he looked through the distance and concentrate.
Another feature that came with the [Greater Raise Undead] was that he now could perceive the locations of every of his undead in a limited area.
If he had to describe it, then it worked very similarly to when he placed a curse upon someone and was able to track them down.
'My Undead...come back at my location' Danzel send out a command through every undead that was in the range hm.
A few minutes later, undead Draugr dragging other humans through the ground while still being heavily injured came to Danzel's view.
Few carried their prey in there while others didn't have any spoils at all.
Nodding in satisfaction, Danzel drew his sword out of his sheath while the undead presented the half-dead humans in front of Danzel.
"Now with those done..."
Swinging his sword to the people, Danzel made quick work with them and ended their life in a swift.
Though he could enjoy it to the fullest by torturing them, Danzel didn't was to of any of that and decided to go right into business.
With the dead mana raising up, it flew towards all the corpses.
At first, there was no reaction, but moments later the corpses started to raise up from their death to serve their lodge.
"Only a few remain..." Danzel said as he and his undead behind him walked deeper into the village.
