Book 4: Chapter 56

In a dusty dark room, barely lit up by ghostly blue lights, Mr. Skelly was standing in front of a crude map drawn on the walls. There was a creaking sound behind him, and a skeleton came into view. “Leader, we found a way out.”

Mr. Skelly turned around. Surprisingly, it was very difficult to find a skeleton that retained its ability to speak. The raise dead spell that the mistress had taught him was the best one there was, but if it couldn’t bring out the full potential of an undead, then the problem lay with the skeletons themselves. He suspected they were over thousands of years old with their residual souls mostly dissipated. The large majority of them could only be used as mindless puppets that rigidly accepted orders. Mr. Skelly scratched his skull. “Have the ghosts finished scouting it?”

The skeleton paused before nodding. “Outside, there’s lots of people. The biggest power seems to be a church. On the outside, they’re respected by the common people.”

“Ah.” Mr. Skelly frowned and stroked his lower jawbone. “A church, is it? Either the church is a corrupt entity that’s prolific in necromancy, or there’s a hidden force that wishes to go against the church with this giant ritual.” His eye socket expanded as he raised an eyebrow. “Which one do you think it is? You’re a native, aren’t you?”

“I used to be a slave,” the skeleton said. “I don’t know much about the world. The buildings outside are much more impressive than they were in my time. However, I think the church represents my beliefs. The ghosts said there was a cross with a man pinned to it. If I’m not mistaken, that’s Jesus Christ, someone I believed in while I was still alive.”

“So, you think it’s the second option?” Mr. Skelly nodded. “A hidden force wishes to cause chaos right underneath the church’s nose. Certainly, that’s a standard plot in stories. However, in some stories, there’s a twist where it turns out the church was the evil one all along!”

The skeleton didn’t respond. After Mr. Skelly stared at it for a while, it shrugged and asked, “What are your next orders?”

Mr. Skelly sighed and shook his head. “Ask me what I’m planning to do first.”

“What are you planning to do?”

“Since I don’t know whether the church is evil or not, I’m neither going to destroy them in case they are or help them if they aren’t. Instead, I’m going to create an undead army with the sole purpose of raiding cemeteries and graves!” Mr. Skelly grinned. “Once we’re joined by all the people who’ve ever died in this world, no matter how big the church is or how big the evil organization is, we’ll root them out and determine the truth of the matter.”

The skeleton didn’t react. After a brief moment, it asked, “What are your next orders?”

Mr. Skelly’s shoulders sagged, and he sighed again. “Have we finished excavating everything?”

“Yes,” the skeleton said. “We set up magic circles in the places you indicated. All of the dead have been brought back to life thanks to them. The ghosts haven’t found any more tunnels.”

Mr. Skelly tapped his fingers against his thigh bone. “How many undead do we have?”

“Too many to count,” the skeleton said.

Mr. Skelly blinked, his eye sockets contorting. “How high can you count?”

“Up to seven.”

“Seven? You never learned beyond seven?”

The skeleton raised its hands. Three of its bony fingers were missing. “I used to be able to count up to ten. But now I can only count up to seven.”

Mr. Skelly sighed. It was a shame all of these skeletons were dead for so long. Even the ones that knew how to speak were still dumb. “Alright, well, if we’ve finished bringing everyone back to life, destroy the magic circles and have everyone gather in a single-file line facing the exit.” After a short pause, he added, “The ghosts don’t have to line up. Have them gather around the exit as well.”

“Okay.”

Mr. Skelly nodded and followed the skeleton. After a few hours of walking and inspecting, he concluded there were over several tens of thousands of skeletons. There really were too many to count even if he could count past seven. The number of ghosts were a little less than the number of skeletons. It seemed like burials were more popular than cremations. The exit of the winding ritual site was mostly blocked off, but a few streams of light broke through some cracks. Along the way, ghosts informed him there were more than one exit, but this one was the most obvious one. Mr. Skelly looked behind himself at the long line of skeletons. Normally, he’d give an inspiring speech, but with these subordinates, they wouldn’t be affected by low or high morale. He turned back around and pushed down the stones blocking the exit.

***

Prika swam up to the shore and squinted. Unlike the last landmass she was on, this one didn’t seem to be frozen. In fact, it was thriving with life. Past the initial sandy beach, there was massive patches of green grass. Prika blinked and crawled up onto the shore and shook herself off. She raised one wing into the air and waited. She didn’t get shot by laser beams. After confirming there wasn’t any immediate danger, she lumbered past the sand and onto the grassy portion. A strange creature with a tail hopped away from Prika, bouncing on two legs, but it didn’t get very far before Prika snatched it up with her claw. “What are you supposed to be?” she asked.

The strange creature peed; then it fainted.

Prika blinked twice and wrinkled her snout. She dropped the kangaroo and wiped her paw on the grass, removing the foul smell. She raised her front paw, checking for laser beams. After confirming nothing was going to shoot her, she leapt into the air, spreading both her wings.