Hungry Necromancer

Chapter 272: An Old Enemy

With Lotar going through the trouble of rearranging the clouds and mists to make his presence known, I postpone my talk with Kaylin and the Diviner once again but order Yelenia keep the city occupied and running until I'm done. I've sent Shaco, the undead Mayor and the survivor all out to deliver a clear message to the Marquess.

With all the loose ends tied up, I turn to one that I left in Lotar's charge. Curling my feet under me and muttering a prayer to the Wolf deity my spirit is lifted out of its body and once again placed atop the mountain with a single large three. The tree has gotten larger since I last saw it, longer, wider branches and now wolves hop through them, all eyes on me.

Lotar him or itself, stands in human form, nude as always but covered with a waterfall of white furry hair. The ears attached to his skull are that of a wolf, twitching at every step, Lotar turns, facing away from the altar that'd kept his attention to fix me with a grim look.

"Good to see you too?" I chuckle but he's not having any of it.

He shakes his head and walks to the edge of the mountain, I follow and what I see below isthe world. The seas dividing the fractured continents, I can quickly pick out Ire and the March that's now essentially mine at a single glance but everything else takes effort.

The world beneath has glowing marks, on Ire and the rest of the continent. The marks are scattered all over and some are moving. By my knowledge of things in the March I identify one of the spots the marks glows at. 

"That'sCarbina isn't it?" I ask, pointing down at it. Lotar glances at me then back, the world zooms into Carbina at his handwave and at the center is the faceless Beta Warrior I left behind after the incident there.

"It's time to clean that up, holding it down is a lot harder than destroying it." Lotar starts, "And I can't hold it down anymore."

This startles me and I snap to face the deity, "How can you not hold it down anymore? It's just a Beta Warrior, not Phien himself!"

Lotar frowns, "Just because I'm a Deity doesn't mean I don't have weaknesses, one of those weaknesses is putting power where I can't afford to. I'm stretching myself thin with my support against Phien himself, corrupting the world and answering the prayers of the followers you got me in Demme. I also have to suppress the rise of Icktar there as well, and there's also the fact that I'm trying to not become obsolete, so I'm fighting Frozia for pieces of followers on the continent, along with several other Deities and Demon Lords seeking to rise to power."

He shakes his head, "This continent is on the verge of breaking in two and the only person that can stop that now is Anera or a Deity as strong as she is. I'd hope that ending the Warriors serving Phien with an agent would help me grow, it did, or at least it used to. As per our pact you have to go on ending these Warriors and I believe you're strong enough to end a Beta, or at least die trying."

I nod slowly at this, digesting his words. I wonder whether I should tell him that a Demon Lord has already made a way into this World, that Venegue is going to pop out of Demme the same way Icktar did, maybe even worse.

In the end I decide not to, I've got a deal with Venegue to keep shut and I will, until I decide I ought to end his little field trip away from Reais. But the enemy today isn't Venegue or even the Marquess or the Kingdom. 

Today it's the Beta Warrior that tried turning everyone in Carbina into Gamma warriors.

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"What do the surroundings look like?"

Lotar silently adjusts the view and I can already make out seven or ten Gamma Warrior's marching out of Carbina and journeying towards Aste, towards Frozia and some even leaving the March and crossing into the Kingdom next door.

"So four headed towards Aste and five to Frozia, guess it seems to think Frozia hasn't suffered enough."

"Let the five visit and make camp in Frozia, they will drain the Goddess of her strength and make it safe for you to return."

I blink at his words and he shakes his head solemnly, "You hadn't thought you would be in danger returning to the Goddess' place of strength in this world? If you go back, she will kill you."

Choking, I hurriedly ask, "Well, what about Aste, she has some strength there too, her winter reaches us there."

"Not for long, yourDiviner has made things divinely awkward. There are worshippers of Frozia and Anera in the city but as it's supposedly governed by the laws of a deity that doesn't existwell, a lot of everyone's faith is going into making it exist."

It's a bit awkward talking about my blaspheme and raising myself up to be a deity, "SoI'm going to become a god? Because they're worshiping me right?"

At this he cracks a smile, "You would think that, like many other mortals have thought. But no, if this religion of yours grows large enough and holds strong fervour in its practice, it may birth a quasi-deity or a Lower Deity like myself. The power of faith is poured into an entirely new being that will uphold the tenets of the faith and guide the worshippers.

"You're not making yourself a Deity, you're making an entirely new deity.It will have your name, your image but it will be nothing like you becausewell, it isn't you these people have been worshiping, it's an idea of a God of undeath and that idea is warped and changed by other worshipers, that idea is nothing close to what you are."

My mouth hangs open at this and my first thought is to call off the religion entirely. It's not serving me the way I thought it would, why would I create a new deity rather than become one?

'But if a deity is born, is there a way I can control it? I would have essentially given birth to a child so why can't I raise it the way I'd want?'

"Because it's not a child, it's a deity wielding power beyond what you can imagine." Lotar answers, rudely reading my mind, "If you want to become a deity, an endeavor I strongly advise against, you should meet the worshipers and introduce yourself, your true self as the being they're worshiping. If you're lucky maybe you'll have the divinity channeled into you instead."

He snorts, "Frankly I wouldn't mind having another ally of power."

"And it'd help me quite a bit in ending this Beta. Are all the red glows Betas?"

He nods, "I've been monitoring them ever since this one was born over Carbina, this was the first, these others are new and all over the continent."

"Shouldn't the Synagogue be doing something? The Following must have been sent out to strike against these guys."

"It's been a long and arduous battle, and the Synagogue using the appearance of Cultists to leverage Fief holders into doing their bidding is starting to back fire hard. The Following have begun dwindling in their numbers, a few great Mages remain and are on the forefront battling the crisis, but Phien is quickly becoming an endemic that can't be contained."

"What happens if we can't end them all?"

He shrugs, "I and many other Lower Deities will die off from having worshippers lost, but if it comes to that point I'm sure my father, Harlfary will propose wiping the world of every living thing, including animals."

"Including undead" I hum.

I feel his stare against my head as I think, "Undead? What are you thinking?"

"I'm thinkingwhat if I end Phien's advance and take the entire continent, guard and protect it with undead. The living will be my worshippers, or worshippers of the Asher that becomes a deity, but the rest of the world is still untouched by Phien's scourge, I could save some of you Lower Deities."

Lotar snorts and chortles a laugh, "Save ushuh, you are an overly ambitious human, you know that?" He shakes his head and stares down at the faceless Beta down below, "We can talk about saving deities when you've saved yourself, Phien is as much a pain to your Kingdom building as he is to your enemies."

"Yeah yeah. Keep sending me a strong pack of wolves like this time and I think I'll be just fine."

He snorts and turns away from the edge, the Beta vanishes from the sky and I walk back with him and add, "Though, I might need some teleporting wolves? Do you have any of those? Or a skill maybe?"

Looking over his shoulder at me, hair getting in the way a bit he says, "Rewards like that are for servants who've met up the end of their deals, go kill some cultists and we'll see about a third Boon."

He waves me out of his realm, launching my spirit back into my body before I can stutter any other words.

"Master? You weregone but at the same timewhere were you?"

It's Wraith speaking, confused as he'd felt my soul and spirit, the one he's bonded to disappear.

"Speaking with a god, we have work to do, Wraith and you'll need brothers to do it."

"Brothers?"

"Yes, you're getting competition."