Chapter 121: Power Trip (P2)

It's fortunate that Frozia is nothing like Aste. Aste is stratified, going levels deeper in some kind of large crater. Frozia is nothing like that, it's been snuggly settled on flatlands, lands that are just the right elevation for something like horse riding.

A joyous activity I'm still getting used to.

Unfortunately, I'm not riding this horse for recreation, but instead as a form of rapid transport; my would-be pawn is trying to get himself killed facing a Gamma warrior that's been adapted to combat me.

The fool.

With speed I and the timid boy that served as a messenger arrived at the South Gates, the ride here displayed a city in turmoil. It seems news has been leaked of the rather foolhardy Mayor's decision to fight again.

Leaked or announced, I'm not sure which, but I don't care.

I can't have Matthias killing that Gamma by some sort of miracle and I can't have him dying before I've properly established the power dynamic between us and the rest of this damned March.

"Necromage." Leon all but growls, glaring at me as I pull the horse to a stop.

"Good to see you too, Leon, cheerful morning I see." I shrug and he says nothing, narrowing his eyes even further, "Well, Matthias certainly seems to think so."

I hop off the horse and take a cursory look at the wagons and carriages lined up to transport the horde of armour and weaponry to Aste with me. Now that I think of it, where is my carriage?

"Drop the pretence already, Necromage, you know well you are responsible for his rashness today."

I don't bother glancing at him, he follows closely behind as I go by wagon and carriage, uncovering the tarps that hide my demanded products.

They look fine. Yes, they should do nicely for the elves of the North back at Aste. 

"And why do you think that is? I haven't spoken to him since last night." I muse.

"Since you, a vagrant beast of foul magics he picked out of the snow and brought to warmth kicked him out of his own office and threatened his life." He spits.

Here I take a deep breath and turn to face him, "You've got some nerve now I see, Leon. You know I'm capable of…" I hum, looking for the appropriate word to soften the blow of the reality the man is living in but swiftly think otherwise about it, "Emasculating your Mayor, and yet you still summon the balls to challenge me with your words. You try my patience, Leon."

At my warning hesitation and fear wash over his face, but he scowls deeply, scrunching his face as he resists, putting up the bravest front he can possibly muster. 

"No." He says firmly, firmer than I like. "My Lord is fighting those Gammas to show he can defeat them without the interference of an outsider like yourself, he will push you out, I won't stain his honour by expressing doubt now."

I would applaud him standing up to me if it weren't so annoying. For a moment, as he glares fiercely at me, I ponder on the consequences of killing him here and now and using his fleeting soul as a practice tool for my shiny new skill Soul Manipulation.

Hm. No, it could cause the rift between Matthias and I to deepen even more than it already has. We met yesterday and I've already betrayed his trust and taken his power and respect as well as the thing his covets the most; Authority.

But then again, do I really need to have a good relationship with him to keep him on a leash? Perhaps. But in his case, things have already deteriorated to the point where it'd be more work salvaging the trusting relationship, I had with him in those first few hours than it would be to just put him on a leash. 

Carrot and Stick Style.

The carrot? The promise of more authority and power, a free family too. The stick? His death and further emasculation.

Yes, I think that'll work best in his case. Leon serves no true purpose.

"Soul Manipulation." As the word leave my lips Leon's brave façade dies. The fear is back on. 

[Soul Manipulation Active.]

[To Manipulate a Soul, User MUST Have Captured It.]

[To Capture a Soul User MUST apply Spell: Soul Invasion or Have a Soul Gem.]

Very well.

I take a single step forward as I prepare the next spell. "Soul Invasion."

He trips, sweat beads running down his face.

Mana swirls around me, green cold necrotic mana. Concentrating it all into my palm I lunge after Leon.

Deftly, he pulls a sword and swings at me in mad rage, screaming all the while.

Annoying. He's drawn more attention to his death than needed.

"You would fight me?" I ask, watching him spill over himself in the snow, trying to get on his feet and into a stance. 

"I would," He huffs, just as the wagon and carriage drivers start to peer in, staring at what's happening, "For my Mayor and my pride of death. I would."

"You're wasting time you know, I'm the only one who can help your Mayor and you're delaying me by fighting against your inevitable death." I drawl, shaking my head at the counterintuitive behaviour I'm witnessing.

He snorts, defiance exuding despite his visage twisted with fear, "Who says the Mayor will lose?"

At this, I narrow my eyes, "What's to say he doesn't? You? The Gamma's were closing in on you, multiply their numbers until I arrived. They've no doubt adapted to my fighting style, as well as his, there's no doubt he will be killed."

Leon gulps, not speaking another word, only keeping his sword levelled plainly at me.

"Death Grip." I announce tiresomely. The swirling mana in my hand transforms as the spell changes, within a second the familiar hand of death spills forth, lunging greedily at Leon.

He swings. A futile attempt to cut the hand in half but to his paramount dismay, the hand moves onwards, latching onto his neck completely unperturbed by his flailing.

As I raise his flailing body up into the air, our uninvited audience starts to back off, pushed aside by the guards, all of which have their arms drawn and train on me.

Is the entire city full of idiots?

Still with Leon a foot in the air, I level them a glare, "Do you lot have a death wish?"

A cold and tense silence falls over the scramble of around twenty guardsmen. A silence broken by the soft, yet audible sound of metal clattering on the snow.

"I-I can't do this, I'm not a Mage! I didn't sign up to fight monsters!"

Rude, but the right attitude nonetheless. The man starts a chain rout with those few honest words, but as always with men of pride and fierce ideals, about half of them take a stand, albeit shakily.

"Tch." I click my tongue, annoyed. "Fine then, don't say I didn't give you a chance to survive." With a snap of my finger and minimal concentration, twelve Death Grip tendrils launch from my navel, swift to latch onto my newest victims.

And just like their Marshal, they haplessly flail in the air, struggling to breath as my grip not only constricts their airways but begins to rot their flesh.

"Why…why are you doing any of this." Leon manages to bark over the screams of his subordinates. "Why did you come to Frozia, Necromage? Why did you betray Matthias' blind trust?"

At these words I only stare at him. True enough, I didn't intend to stay or even enter the premise of Frozia in the original plans. But things changed, and things changed again when Kaylin called.

But, do I need to go this far? 

"You damned fiend!" He spits, "Matthias should have trusted me when I said all Necromages are evil." He says, voice humbled in a familiar defeated resignation.

Narrowing my eyes, I feel my chest fill up with a familiar rage as his words ring the same as Maylins, "I am not evil." I say through gritted teeth. With some reluctance I let my grip on him go and he plops onto the snow, hacking and coughing.

"You think letting me go proves anything?" he still manages to speak defiance, "It doesn't you're still a monster of a Mage, a sin! Leave the dead for dead!"

"Leave the dead for dead?" I tut, "Why would I? They have so much to offer and I'm the only one buying. I don't have anything to proof, especially not to you, Leon."

I turn my gaze to the still hanging twelve guards, most of them have resigned to their fates, "I am not evil, but I'm not good by any stretch either." With that I pronounce the words to the spell, "Soul Invasion."

I expect screams but I'm doubly disappointed as their body's abruptly jerks about in my grip, like a fish out of water and stop just as suddenly as they start.

Instinctively I feel it, they're dead. I let their bodies fall to the snow and I'm greeted by the sight of twelve unevenly shiny orbs of light. Souls.

One after the other they descend and circle me, above each of them is an option for Manipulation. Soul Manipulation.

"How…how could you? They bore you no grudge!" Leon screams in horror. 

"Well, it seemed ousting the Mayor wasn't enough of a power move to let you and your foolish Mayor know that I'm not to be trifled with. I haven't the time or patience to slowly instil obedience through wisdom and trust, so I'll do it quickly, through fear."

"From now on, you answer to me and so does the rest of Frozia, including that idiotic Matthias I've got to now save, ugh."

Leon bemoans some more, wailing over the bodies of his subordinates and cursing after me. But I pay it no mind, far too intrigued with my options for Manipulation.

I'm a bit torn…Matthias will have to hold out a while longer, it's his mess after all.