23 Chapter 23

Aerwyn found himself in the darkness once more. The smokey shadows wrapped around his tiny soul like a sheathe to a sword. It looked as though it was attempting to protect the small flame but that didn't ease the feeling of dread he experienced.

He floated there unmoving, suffocating, for what seemed like days. It was torture of the highest order, worse than what he imagined the underworld was like when Tylin spoke of a necromancers afterlife. It felt like there was no time in the darkness but it also felt as though all of time was being experienced each and every moment.

The idea began creeping into Aerwyn's mind that he would be stuck here, forced to endure this torture for eternity, only adding panic to his dread. He could see the souls of Bon, Rin, Ren, and Rorik next to him. He screamed with all his might in hopes that they could hear him but the flames didn't move.

Aerwyn thought that if he could just reach out to them he'd be able to communicate but he didn't have a body in this place, or at least he couldn't see anything other than purple souls. Little by little he fought through the suffocating feeling that had him frozen and imagined his hand reaching out for Bon's soul string.

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Bon was nearby when his master collapsed. He had seen this once before during the fight with Velk but that didn't stop his anxiety. Ever since the human had brought him back to life he had been plagued with the sense that this human was his master. It was a foreign feeling, one that didn't seem to originate within his mind.

He tried to fight it at first but the more he struggled the stronger the feeling became as if it was a noose around his neck. Eventually it just made sense, that this human was his master. Almost as though it would be silly for him to believe anything saying otherwise. Like any good servant; how could he sit idly by and not panic at the sight of his master collapsing?

As soon as his master hit the ground Bon was already in motion ready to catch him. Once in his arms Bon quickly checked to see if he was breathing and sighed in relief. His master was alive for now and that was all that mattered. Holding the human in his arms a few minutes went by before he experienced a sensation akin to an itch within his soul.

"...Need..souls.....NOW!" It took Bon a moment to realize the voice he heard didn't come from his masters lips but from inside his mind.

"I-i believe master has just spoken to me. He sounds to be in great pain and he asked for more souls. Rin, Ren, and Rorik protect the master. I will take the rest on a hunt."

Bon was surprised that the undead seemed to follow him without question.

'Perhaps the simple mention of masters orders could force them to comply.'

Once at the gates he met with Kabba who was working on masters plan to attract beasts with the corpses in front of the walls.

Bon brought Kabba up to speed on the situation before splitting the undead in four groups each with a hobgoblin in the lead and one with Teek leading. The sun began to set as each group of nearly two dozen undead took off in different directions.

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Aerwyn hoped his message had gotten through to Bon whilst still inside the darkness. He could see the souls of his undead begin to move further away and under the constant stress he was experiencing, his mind like his eyes, could only see darkness.

The thought that his undead were simply leaving him seemed to be constantly echoing out into his mind. That he had lost control of them and that he would be stuck in this place for the rest of his days.

Time flowed and the sensation of suffocating seemed to mirror the level he could endure, growing as he became more used to the sensation. To Aerwyn, days had past and it was only now that he saw a light in the darkness.

A white light covered in slithering tenebrous tendrils slowly made it's way towards him and it was only now that Aerwyn understood that time in this place was different. Normally the white souls would reach him within seconds but in this place it was as though every meter took hours.

Aerwyn pleaded for the creeping white soul to hurry and end his torment. The darkness merged the white light with his purple soul before closing up once more. There was no warming sensation here, only the cold suffocating emptiness. Days turned into weeks and then into months as many white lights made their way to him at an excruciatingly slow pace.

Throughout it all, the sensation of suffocating only got worse. Appearing to always be a step ahead of the threshold that he could handle. The only good that came out of this experience was that he learned something new about his powers. The white souls were too fast in the outside world to see properly but in here he could get a good look at them.

Having nothing to do other than to endure the suffering he noticed the white souls were all different. Some were larger than others, while others were the same size but their luminosity was either brighter or duller.

He noticed three different sizes of white souls over time and he made the connection with his own undead to categorize them. The largest white souls coming in were near the same size as his goblins, brexil cats, and trolls. The second largest souls were near the same size as the direwolves and tenri. He didn't know what the smallest souls coming in were, as he didn't have any undead that matched their size but he assumed that they were probably creatures such as boar and deer.

Rorik, the hobgoblins, and the Vosk seemed to have the largest souls out of all his undead which confused Aerwyn. The only pattern he could see was that the larger the soul the more intelligence the creature had but if that was the case, then Rorik should be able to speak.

The hobgoblins and Vosk could speak and their souls were very close to being the same size as his. The thought that Rorik could speak this whole time and simply had been ignoring him infuriated Aerwyn and surprisingly allowed him to forget about his suffering, if only for a moment.

Suddenly Aerwyn felt six goblins disappear from him in rapid succession, then two tenri, followed by a direwolf. He tried to sense what was going on as another two more goblins disappeared but all he could tell was that they were about twenty five kilometers north of Ardin. He suddenly remembered what Tylin had said about the orc village to the north.

A long time passed and no more undead were cut off from him, he could tell Velk and the rest didn't get away without injury but he was just glad they survived. If it really was orcs and there were more than one of them he wasn't certain his undead could take them. The only other person he's fought was Sera and even with his undead he doubted he could touch her on his best day.

A new white soul appeared in the darkness, much larger than any he had seen before. Confirming his undead had fought something with more intelligence than Rorik. The large white light casually crept along before the darkness enshrouding his soul shot out around it and pulled it in. Finally the darkness dispersed, allowing him to break free from his endless torture.

Aerwyn was still worried about his undead and didn't want them attacking the orcs if they hadn't already. He reached out to the soul strings of Bon, Kabba, Velk, and Teek before ordering them to return to Ardin before leaving the darkness. Opening his eyes he was met with the sight of Rin laying on his chest while Rorik and Ren were nearby minding their own business.

"Rorik you can speak can't you!" Arewyn howled, pointing at the barghest.

"..." Rorik looked as though pride was oozing off him as he raised his chin up in the air.

"Why haven't you spoken all this time?!? Answer me in words!"

"You're too weak! How could a mighty barghest ever allow himself to serve such a pitiful human! AWOOOOOOO!" Rorik howled, angry that he was forced to speak against his will.

"..." Aerwyn froze. Rorik's voice sounded far more terrifying than he thought it would. It was truly demonic, sounding as though his words were spoken by two bestial voices in harmony with each other.

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"Well... It's a good thing you're a damned dog and not a barghest then huh! Roll over! Roll over! ROLL OVER!!!" Aerywn commanded forcing Rorik to obey as he howled defiantly.

"Good boy, now that we've established who your master is, from now on you are hereby ordered to speak to me with words. Do you understand me?"

"..Yes.." Rorik spoke through his teeth.

"Ah, we should fix that too. From now on you will refer to me as 'master'. Do you understand?"

"...Yes.....master.." Rorik spoke nearly shattering his teeth in anger.

"Good boy, i'd throw you a biscuit but it looks like i already gave an ungrateful mutt most of my soul, so better luck next time doggo." Aerwyn chuckled.

"AWOOOOOO!"