Ludwig’s tone carried that familiar snark that made him sound more alive than he had any right to be.
"If you wish." The Knight King said.
There was no warmth in the acceptance, but there was no objection either. It sounded like a man allowing a servant to choose the shape of a title.
"Good, then, let us begin... though there is a small problem," Ludwig said.
He rolled his shoulders once, feeling the room’s contained air settle against his skin. The wards made everything feel closer, tighter, like even breathing was monitored. Ludwig’s gaze shifted to the lantern, to the staff, to the space in front of him where ritual would soon take shape.
"What is it?" Kaiser asked.
The Lich’s voice sharpened with interest, like a man leaning forward in a chair he couldn’t leave.
"Eh, I’m pretty sure your body got pulverized..."
Ludwig said it casually, but his eyes remained sharp, watching for any reaction that would hint at deceit. Pulverized wasn’t an exaggeration; he rembered bones and dust and the crude finality of it. Mot wasn’t playing when he destroyed the Lich’s body.
"It is of no worries, I have a few spare bodies hidden..." Kaiser said.
The statent dropped into the room like a coin thrown into still water. Spare bodies. Ludwig’s brow rose, slow, unimpressed.
"You could haven ntioned that before, now I’ll have to go out and look for them..."
His annoyance ca out imdiately. They’ll have to waste more ti now searching for a lich’s graveyard.
"No need, they’re hidden close, in my staff. Summon it." Kaiser said.
The confidence in Kaiser’s words made Ludwig’s fingers tighten. Hidden in the staff. Of course it was. Liches never traveled light, they just disguised the weight.
Ludwig pulled out the lich’s staff and wondered where his corpses could be saved in.
The staff felt heavier than its shape suggested, the kind of weight that wasn’t physical alone. Its surface was smooth in places, worn in others, as if it had been held through countless trials. The jeweled tip seed to drink light rather than reflect it. While its ebony surface seed to drink light itself. A staff made from the corrupted tree of life.
The Lich spoke in a strange tongue. Words, ancient, powerful, and loud ca out from the lantern, and suddenly, the purple jewel on the top of the lich’s staff shuddered with each sentence.
The chant was not pretty. It sounded like sothing dug up from old graves, syllables grinding against each other like teeth. The jewel vibrated, then warped, and a circle of light unfolded in the air, thin at first, then widening, its edges sharp enough to look like they could cut. The air around it tasted tallic, and Ludwig felt the subtle tug of space being persuaded to open.
"What’s this? A storage space?" Ludwig asked.
He kept his voice even, but his eyes narrowed with suspicion. Storage spaces were common. Liches making them look like this was not.
"A special one, with my tools, books, and bodies I could use. I was called the Marrow King not because I rely control bones, but also can summon innurable allies. I’ve hidden the more powerful ones there... though I don’t have anything comparable to the body of the Knight King Gale for a warrior, I have sothing better for a mage..."
As Kaiser spoke, the circle steadied, the opening deepening into sothing that did not look like darkness, but like distance. The words "innurable allies" made Ludwig’s mind itch in a different way. A thousand corpses could be a resource or a disaster depending on who held the leash.
"You an you have sothing that was better than your forr body?"
Ludwig’s skepticism sharpened. Better than a lich’s body was not a casual claim. It sounded like bait.
"Yes."
The simplicity of Kaiser’s answer did not help. It made it feel more deliberate.
"I find that suspicious. If you had that, why didn’t you use it?" Ludwig asked.
His voice stayed controlled, but his eyes hardened. He didn’t like being handed a gift by sothing that had survived as long as Kaiser had. Gifts were just debts dressed up.
"The ritual you have... It’s sothing even I don’t have. A ritual that’s able to revive soone close to perfection and allow them growth. It’s sothing I researched for half of my life. Sothing I wanted to use to bring back my wife... I couldn’t simply bring her back as an Undead."
The ntion of a wife changed Kaiser’s tone, not into grief exactly, but into sothing tight and old. Ludwig felt the air thicken at the confession, him speaking of his dead wife was dragging humanity into the room where it didn’t belong. The line about half a lifeti of research did not sound like an exaggeration. It sounded like an obsession.
"I see, let’s see where that body is then?" Ludwig asked.
He didn’t offer sympathy. He stepped closer to the circle, feeling the faint pull on his skin as if space itself wanted to swallow him.
"The one encased in ice. And the jar that has the seals in it. Those are what you’ll need for my body."
Kaiser’s directions ca crisp now, back to business, as if the confession had cost him enough. Ludwig nodded once, letting the instructions settle, his mind already mapping the steps. The contract with Necros was all the safety Ludwig needed to not get backstabbed.
That was the comfort, thin as it was. Contracts in this world were often more reliable than people.
As he linked his mind with the space inside the jewel, Ludwig was stunned. This is what the Lich called a small space...
The inside was not a room. It was a warehouse. A hidden chamber that felt like it had its own climate, its own stale air untouched by sun or wind. The first sensation was cold, grave-coldand the second was the sll: preservatives, old blood, and the dry, dusty scent of bones that had been stripped clean.
It had more than a thousand corpses inside it. Shelves full of books that radiated evil itself. Tools, materials, and trinkets that would look like they were taken from an undertaker’s shop. Though these ones seed of higher quality and far more precious materials.
And gold... so much of it that it would make a dragon jealous. And now all of this belonged to Ludwig...
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