The Ruined Death Knight

"It\'s an honor of making acquaintance with one of the friends of Master Velkir..." Danzel said while scanning the room for possible escapes.

"Baah, no need to be so formal with me. I am merely someone who is trying to make a living in this place and nothing more. But when we are outside you will have to pay respect according to my rank among those vermins." Kingra\'mash said as opened and closed his fist multiple times.

"Damned flesh..." He mumbled to himself.

*Blegh~

Danzel heard a small and weird noise of something getting smashed together around Lich\'s hand.

He could faintly feel the dead mana travel in the Lich\'s hand, probably because the latter didn\'t try to hide his mana signature at all.

Based on how it looked, the Lich was continuously shredding the muscles of his fake flesh and making adjusted improvements to match his skeleton hand.

"I wonder how those fakes get used to wearing those flesh bags for so long. It\'s such a hindrance you know? I still find how you master, Veleron, still getting used to it." Kingra\'mash said before engulfing the hand that he was incomparable within a wave of dead mana. Removing all the flesh of his hand and revealing the bony hand that had black veins traveling inside the bones.

"Anyway, don\'t you think it\'s about time that you introduce yourself."

"Didn\'t you already do a background check on me, considering that you called me here..." Danzel said with a cold voice.

"I did indeed, but I still don\'t know your name. At least not your real one."

"..." Danzel\'s mind raced on what to do.

Having one Lich know his name was already a huge risk to which he exposed himself though. He was lucky with Velkir, but wherever the Lich in front of him was the same couldn\'t be said for certain.

\'I guess I will have to risk it...\' Danzel though.

"I am merely a Wight who sought to learn the secrets of necromancy by master Velkir...nothing more, nothing less." He said in the end.

Kingra\'mash\'s eyes landed straight towards his head and seemed as if he was staring directly at his ethereal eyes despised of the helmet. His eyes glowing in an ominous dark blue light.

"I see...so you aren\'t willing to share your name even after I shared my."

He left those words to remain in the room before going completely silent.

Considering the being that he was in front of, Danzel felt extremely anxious.

"Don\'t worry, though I called you here to learn about your relationship with Veleron, I am not planning to force a natural-born undead like you to talk. Even if you are a lesser undead, the accumulated death inside you will probably bring you to the same level as where I and Veleron stand. I will wait till then to receive my answer when you join us that is."

\'Accumulating death? Does he by any chance mean the mission and my evolution? And what does he mean by joining us?\'

Many questions appeared in Danzel\'s mind to the point he forgot the Lich knowing that he was a natural-born undead.

"What do you mean...wait, what do you mean by accumulating death?"

By that question, Lich moved his head slightly to the left as if he was confused.

"Am I wrong? As long as I am aware, much lesser undeath have to meet a certain requirement to ascent to being a true undead like me. The most common of them all being accumulating death, or otherwise said, killing a huge amount of mortal beings." He said while tapping his head with his bone hand.

"Beings like me, are capable to see through the such accumulation of death. After all, we are the kings of the dead. Didn\'t you join the war for this purpose?"

`So he knows the requirements of my mission for my evolution. At least a portion of them.\'

By carefully examining what the Lich just said, the "probably" meant that he was unsure if he manages to reach the next tier and become what he calls a true undead.

\'Wait, if he knows, doesn\'t that mean that Velkir also knew my intention to join the war?\'

Danzel ethereal dark green eyes flared in understanding.

\'He didn\'t give me just the knowledge of magic, but also a safe path in reaching the 4th-tier...\'

He suddenly felt much less confident that the reward that he gained would be enough to finish his armor.

Considering what Velkir has given him, he doubted that his runes will be enough.

Were it another undead trying to kill a total of 10 000 living beings.

The years it would take together with the risk would be enormous.

Destroying a few villages of just a few hundred alone would bring a huge alarm on the kingdom controlling that region after all.

Once the word of an undead rampaging appears and circulated, the undead would end up being hunted down before it reaches the next evolution.

Also, the other undead weren\'t like him, who possessed a power that could crush others of the same tier. The remark itself said that he might as well be a calamity.

He quickly pushed all thoughts of his and Velkirs deal to the back of his mind and focused on the Lich in front of him.

"Excuse my ignorance, but are you and master Velkir working together? And what exactly does it mean to join you?"

Hearing this question Kingra\'mash froze.

"I and your master Veleron are currently in a partnership. We usually don\'t work together, but we are still a part of the same group. Specifically, we are members of the council."

"..." Danzel waited for him to speak more, but after the continuous silence, it was clear to him that his explanation was done.

\'He didn\'t answer my question, but mentioned that council again...\'

"If that\'s the case, what exactly is this council that you are speaking of?"

As soon as he asked the question, Kingra\'mash\'s eyes seemed to be engulfed with a dark blue color.

"What do you mean by that? Are you referring to that you don\'t have any knowledge of what the council is?" Kingra\'mash said as he raised up from the cough together with a cold voice of disbelief and a dark hungering aura escaping his body.

Alarmed, Danzel unconsciously pushed the couch back and moved 2 steps back, his hand on top of the hilt of his cursed sword.

"I have heard of its name, but no, I don\'t know-"

Before he could finish his sentences, a much deeper and colder voice echoed through the room.

"Silence."

As soon as the voice appeared, the barrier put in the room flickered with light before a crack similar to a broken mirror appeared around the door.

The barrier exploded in mana fragments, showing that the spell broke for good.

Once that happend, the shadows of the room seemed to merge together and rise up from the ground, slowly creating a cloaked humanoid figure with a staff.

Once the staff tapped the ground, a wave of other spells spread through the room, replacing the previous barrier with a set of new ones.

While Kingra\'mash could stop those spells from happening and attack the intruder. He let the shadows reveal the figure of Velkir.

"What is the meaning of this, Kingra\'mash?" Velkir said, his eyes glowing in gray color.

"That\'s what I am supposed to ask, Veleron! Why does your apprentice know nothing of the council!" Kingra\'mash said in outrage, completely ignoring the confused Danzel.

"I said silence! Kingra\'mash! I decide when or what I tell my apprentice!" Velkir\'s aura exploded, revealing the huge mass of mana that inhabits his body.

Following suit, Kingra\'mash also revealed his aura, making several barriers tremble and on verge of breaking.

It seemed like two pillars were clashing with one another, on Velkirs side a gray pillar was on Kingra\'mash\'s side a pillar made out of dark blue color.

"You...tell me! Why did you pick him as your apprentice!? What are you hiding!? Tell me!" Kingra\'mash yelled as he turned around to look at Danzel.

A wave of domination traveled towards him, much stronger than the one that he felt previously.

Danzel was in mids of amazement at the mass of mana that the two were releasing but also terrified at the will of Kingra\'mash overwhelming him, but not breaking fully.

But that didn\'t last enough before he was surrounded by shadows and dragged to the floor.

"We will talk later." Velkir said.

That was the last thing he heard before his environment completely changed.

Before he was in a room full of luxuries and two Liches, now he was in an almost bland room with little to no furniture.

"Teleportation?" Danzel asked himself.

Meanwhile in the same room where two Liches were releasing their auras.

Kingra\'mash looked at Velkir with an unnaturally frown appearing on his face.

"You better explain yourself, Veleron."

Ignoring what Kingra\'mash said, he went and raised up the couch from the floor before seating there.

"Didn\'t I already tell you not to call me Veleron?"