Supreme Magus novel Chapter 216

Without waiting for a reply, Kalla Warped Lith to Scarlett’s headquarters. It was located in a secret building underground the mining town, kept out of phase with the outside world thanks to dimensional magic.

"I’m sorry for the rush, but there are many things I have to explain to you and a favor to ask." Kalla explained.

"What are you talking about?" Lith replied, being still a bit shocked by the sudden turn of events.

"I know from your smell that you have become a Necromancer too. Also, I learned from Protector about the changes you experienced. I have yet to completely master higher Necromancy, but my teachings could still benefit you greatly, at least to avoid repeating my mistakes.

"Power comes with a price and responsibilities, though. Are you willing to pay it?" She stared at him, waiting for a reply.

"What do you mean?"

"After yesterday’s attack, I’m pretty sure that this Balkor guy will make me his primary target. My skills are the perfect counter to his own and now he is aware of my existence. I trust Scarlett, her strategy is sound.

Yet I want a contingency plan, in case something happens to me. I want you to teach to my children in my stead. I’m entrusting to you the core of my knowledge for it to be passed down to them."

"Do you mean Nok?" Lith still couldn’t make heads or tails of her request.

"I have more than one, but yes. I’m worried about Nok too."

"Sure, okay. I like that furball and teaching one or two of them makes no difference." Lith was glad to accept her deal. He couldn’t even imagine a fake mage defeating an Awakened one as strong as Kalla. There was little he wouldn’t do for power and knowledge, helping the young Byk was nothing to him.

"First, I have captured and experimented on the thralls of the ’god of death’...’" Judging by her sneer, Kalla seemed to find the moniker quite hilarious.

"...and discovered a great flaw in his creations. A flaw that proves he is a fake mage, not one of us." By waving her paw, she opened a dimensional vortex, conjuring one of Balkor’s undead between them.

It was completely bound and blinded like a pig ready to be roasted.

"Unlike true mages that mix light and darkness magic when they raise undead, fake mages need a mark to control them." Kalla touched the undead, making several runes made of light appear on its forehead.

"Yes." Lith nodded.

"Have you ever tried to add your mark on a creature that already bears one?"

"No." Lith cursed at his own stupidity for not having thought of it by himself.

"Try it. Either the fake spell or the one I taught you. Both work just fine."

Lith did as instructed, using the fake spell to check such knowledge could be useful also to Tista and the other non Awakened. As soon as the second mark appeared, Kalla let go of the creature which started to shiver uncontrollably until it turned into smoke.

"Undead created with human magic can bear more than one mark. That makes them unable to attack both the new and the old master. Since their nature is to blindly serve, the inner conflict kills them." Kalla explained.

"Does it work on greater undead too?" Lith’s eyes shined with hope. Maybe he had found a way out in case Balkor’s creatures managed to reach him.

"Sadly, no. This applies only on creatures without an ego. A greater undead can use its will to refuse the second mark, sorry." Kalla shook her head.

"Don’t underestimate this knowledge just because you are strong. Imagine if you were weak, alone, against one of those creatures. Do you realize you would still come out victorious? There’s no need to destroy them with sword or magic, just a single spell."

Lith pondered about her words, recognizing their truth.

"Now I will teach you how to create a greater undead."

"What?" He couldn’t believe his ears. He could solve Solus’s problem and his own in one fell swoop.

"Scarlett told me about the friend you carry in your ring. I’m afraid you will not like what I’m going to tell you. Don’t make the same mistake I did. Never create a greater undead. Please, I beg of you."

"Then why teach me how to do it?" Kalla was not making any sense to him.

"Because if you don’t know how to create them, you can’t learn how to destroy them if the necessity arises. Knowledge is power. You and I are similar, we never get tired of accumulating both, but I digress."

Kalla shook her muzzle putting her paws close to Lith.

"First, you need a corpse. The fresher it is the better. You can even use it on a live subject, but the only difference will be inflicting them an enormous and useless amount of pain.

Then, you need to infuse darkness magic, as you have already done the first time we met, but as soon as the blood core starts to form you must stop using darkness magic and inject light magic until the balance is reached."

Her right paw generated a small sphere of darkness, that became greyer the more light magic the left one infused until the color became uniform.

"Only then you’ll make the blood core grow using both the elements at the same time until the undead comes to life." She held the sphere between both her paws, growing it until it was as big as an apple.

"That’s it?" Lith was incredulous.

"Yes, but it’s an incredibly delicate process. One mistake and either you’ll create a crazy beast that needs to be put down or destroy the corpse. It took me several tries before succeeding and I spent weeks with greater undead, studying their rituals and cores.

Do you think you can do any better?"