5 The rise of a genius

She ran for half a day before finally stopping. She was in the middle of nowhere, but she could still hear the sound of water near. She realized that she was hungry and thirsty again and that she left the provisions that she got in the cavern. Her only possession was the burned book, still firmly held by her. Walking toward the source of water, she wondered what she will do now. The death of the two bandits by her hand didn't trigger anything in her, besides the fear that they were still alive. After finding a spot where she could rest a little besides the small river, she began to study the book.

Even if it was burned and a lot of pages were gone, some were still intact or at least readable.After a few hours, she began to understand a little how to use magic, or at least she thought that. This book was covering the basics and teaching how to create a bone arrow, a supposedly easy spell. Unfortunately, she could only have some partial knowledge and one instruction on how to do that. Even at her age, she knew that the mages learned a very long time some spells and that not everybody could become one. Without a proper training, her chances of succeeding were extremely low.

But at that moment, it was her only goal. Besides living the life of a homeless or a thief, she had nothing else to do. A frail little girl, with clear dark marks on her white body, eyes so black that no one could differentiate the pupil from the iris and black hair will not go unnoticed. And men like the two that tried to capture will come. During an entire day, she tried to gather everything she could from that book, all the fragments of pages, all the partial illustrations. As for returning inside the cavern, she knew that right now it was impossible. She slept like she did during her travel to the cave, curled near a tree and hoping that nothing will happen. The weather was hot enough, even in the middle of the night.

By midday, she confirmed that she couldn't get anything more from that book. There were still some parts missing, but it should be enough. She never thought that on her first try, she will be able to immediately create that basic spell. After a dozen minutes, she mastered it and she was even capable of piercing the tree close to where she slept. Only when she tried to jump in joy did she realized that she was exhausted. She fell on the soft ground, incapable of lifting her arm. The few attempts drained all her stamina, leaving her defenseless. But even in that state, she was crying in joy, for she had opened a brand new world for her future. A future where she would not be an easy prey but a dangerous threat to those that will have dark intents.

She finally recovered her strength, but only after the dawn of the next day. And even there, she still felt very weak, without anything to eat. But now, she had enough power to enter the cavern once again. Inside, not only will she find food and water, some crucial supplies. But also more books, more knowledge, more spells. She knew that with only that bone arrow, she will be able to fight back against the basic enemies. Mainly some animals and normal humans. But not against experienced warriors, dangerous monsters or even worse, powerful magicians.

The travel was uneventful, and with that, she finally realized that she couldn't hear anything. No birds, no sounds of small animals. She understood that it was not luck that let her go unharmed in this place. But only the fact that it was void of all life. The cause of this was pretty obvious, either those peaceful animals died or they were driven away.

"BWAAARG"

Not exactly without anything living. She could see the same burned skull roaming near the cavern, searching for something. Behind him, another corpse was moving, only that it was crawling. The right part of its head and its ear was gone. And she could see that a leg was missing completely. The time to become a zombie for him was clearly longer than for Cortez. But for Leilade, it was perfect, the only real threat will be a single zombie. And they clearly lacked a good vision since they weren't able to see her.

Of course, she was hiding behind a tree, but she was certain that a human would have noticed her black hair easily, especially since it was the middle of the day. But since it was the case, she could take her time to wait for the best opportunity. The burned skull was moving erratically and with no clear pattern, causing a lot of problem for Leilade. If she managed to hit it with one of her bone arrow, she was certain that she could destroy it. But she only targeted immobile thing like a tree or a stone, not something that moved as much as that thing.

She realized that she was too far anyway to hit it, so she carefully got closer to the entrance of the cavern where the two zombies were located. A lot of trees were still providing her cover for her advance and none of her enemies noticed her as she walked softly. But even closer, she couldn't be sure to hit the moving corpse. Fearing that it could leave the cavern at any moment, she searched the ground for something that she could use as a distraction. She found a stone small enough to be thrown at that distance, but big enough to do some noises.

CLONK

Instantly, the two former bandits moved to the location where she threw the little rock. For the first time, the burned skull stood still for more than a second, allowing Leilade to finally hit it. The bone arrow tore apart the left arm and the chest of the zombie, projecting it on the ground, on top of his former companion. The crawling undead immediately attacked the object that fell on him and only after biting one of the legs did he stopped. On the other hand, the burned skull was still moving and trying to stand up.

Leilade realized that she needed to destroy every limb of those monsters, since destroying the heart was not enough. She casted another bone arrow, this time targeting the blond zombie that was facing her. The spell pierced his head and removed his right shoulder from his body. She was ready to throw another arrow when she noticed that he was immobile. Even after the burned skull painfully managed to stand up with his remaining arm, his companion was apparently dead. For good.

It didn't take long for Leilade to add the two things together. The open skull and the pieces of brains scattered all around was a good indication of what happened. Profiting off the weakness of her last enemy, she aimed at his head, to see if it was real. Seeing his head being cut off and falling, his body soon followed. She only had to wait for a few more seconds before being able to confirm her suspicions. None of them were moving anymore.

As she left her hiding spot, she fell heavily on her knees, hurting her. She forgot that she was still weak, even if three magic arrows were not her limit. She began to crawl on the soft ground and managed to stand up before touching the stone of the cavern. She bypassed entirely the two immobile corpses, her feet leaving blood mark as she kept going deeper. Once again, she rummaged the ground to find a torch, and this time, she gathered everything she found near the exit. In the end, her supplies problems were finally resolved.

As for the numerous books and diaries, some were totally incomprehensible for her. One, in particular, looked like a love story, telling the tale of a beautiful and young peasant that managed to catch the attention of a prince. In fact, she was not a peasant but a princess from a foreign land that escaped the clutches of her evil step-mother. He married her and they lived happily ever after.As for why this was found in the lair of dark mages, even Leilade was baffled.

Nonetheless, she stayed nearly a week inside the cavern, assimilating everything she learned. Besides the two bandits, other people tried to enter the cavern. But the bloody spectacle in front of it quickly reduced their courage and all those men ran away. One was not afraid, and he joined the pile of corpses. His face will be forever stuck with how surprised he was that a frail girl killed him.

(Outlander, I have analyzed everything and the retreat of the Lanfos can be resumed at two choices. In both cases, I advise you to leave this planet for the moment.)

The voice in her head stopped her daydreaming. She was the keeper of many souls, like the one of master Agnil, but only one had as much freedom as this one. Her most loyal assistant, the man that allowed the young necromancer to survive this long. If she was considered as a genius in magic, especially for the darkest spells, he was a true genius, born on the same planet as her. His only flaw was the fact that he still had his pride, causing him to call her an outlander. And when they met, it was true.

"Why Viscount, and what are those cases?"

(The best for us would be the appearance of an external enemy in the East of the Universe since we are on their western front. That would force them to spread their forces and therefore will even allow us to crush them if they are not careful. The worst would be them finally activating one of the most dangerous weapons left by the Ancient. Something so powerful that they need to retreat or be destroyed with us.)