Chapter 120 - The Forgotten King

  We were deep in the shit now. There was no doubt in my mind that the being riding toward us was the big bad, the leader of the zombie horde and ruler of the Domain based at the mall. What, precisely, it was, I didn’t know, but the power radiating from this being was palpable even at a distance.

  Row after row of zombies parted for his horse, while the remainder of the horde stayed almost perfectly still. The white horse he rode drew the eye, and I recalled some old poetry about a rider and a pale horse. The comparison made me shiver.

  Looking at the rider was much more difficult than eyeballing the horse. It was weird, like my gaze wanted to slide away and look elsewhere. It took a focused effort of applied Will to keep my focus on the rider. I couldn’t see his face, so I was only assuming it was a ‘he.’ The cloak around his shoulders covered his head as well, obscuring all details from view. That cloak flipped and twisted in the air like streamers of smoke or a black fog.

  I dropped to the ground, landing about twenty meters ahead of where our force was desperately digging in and preparing for a last stand. For the moment, the horde’s assault was on hold. Every minute that continued was a victory for our side. After all, we weren’t trying to win here. Not anymore. We just needed to hold them here for long enough that dawn would arrive before they could go killing anyone else.

  There I stood, battered shield in one hand, sword in the other, my armor deeply stained with my own blood. I must have been quite a sight, but it wasn’t enough to faze the rider. He just kept coming nearer.

  Waves of power washed over me as he approached. It was all I could do to stand my ground and not go running away as fast as I could. How was I supposed to fight something when my knees were trying to knock together before combat had even begun?

  The waiting alone was killing me, but at long last, the rider came to the front ranks of his army. Like all the rest, they parted for him, letting him ride through. The horse kept plodding forward, keeping the same steady pace it had used for the entire slow march toward us.

  He closed half the gap between the enemy front line and where I stood before I figured that was close enough. I raised my sword, pointing the tip directly toward the rider.

  “Stop where you are,” I demanded, pouring my Charisma power into each word. I doubted that would work, but it was worth a try.

  Imagine my shock when the rider pulled back gently on his reins, bringing his horse to a stop.

  “So young,” the rider said. The voice was deep, male, and gravelly, so I’d guessed right about his gender anyway. I was a little offended about the ‘young’ comment, but before I could say anything, he continued speaking. “Young to have caused me so much trouble, certainly.”

  That made me feel better for sure. I was causing trouble for him? Good.

  “You’re killing people. Not cool.”

  “I am the future. Undeath is the future. You are newly come to your powers, but you are a necromancer. You should understand this.”

  “My still-living friends would beg to disagree,” I replied. I lowered the sword. I still wanted to be on my guard, but it felt goofy pointing the thing at someone. “Who are you?”

  “I am death and undeath. I am the ruler of all things undead, and under my command all life will slip inevitably into the shadow realm between the living and the dead,” he said. “My wraith told you there is a place for you among us, yes? A place of honor even. You are a necromancer, so your powers are special. You would keep your mind, your will, your sense of self—and live forever!”

  “They offered, yeah,” I told him. “I declined.”

  “Why?”

  Well, that wasn’t the question I’d expected. For a moment I wasn’t sure how to answer. He sat there astride his horse, waiting for my reply while I considered my words. Again, I figured that anything I did to draw things out was only a plus for us. A glance at my watch told me it wasn’t even nine in the evening yet, so there was no way we were keeping the horde tied up until dawn. But the closer we could get, the less harm they could do overnight. Every minute we tied them up in this field was another person who might live through the night.

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  Finally, I replied. “Because independent will still matters. You strip that from people when you kill them, when you turn them into zombies without their consent. You strip their freedom and their Will from them.”

  “Only those with power have a right to their Will,” he said. “You have earned that right, because you are strong. Join me, and you can retain your mind and thoughts. Refuse, and you will still live eternally, but as a zombie instead.”

  “Yeah, heard all of this from your wraith. Either I submit to you and become another of your lieutenants, or I get turned into a zombie. Thing is, I don’t like either of those options.”

  “Why not? You raise the dead. Why not become undead like your minions? Your power will grow, and you will not age and fade, as all the living must.”

  His words felt so damned reasonable that I opened my mouth to agree with him before I remembered that no, that was absolutely not what I wanted to do. What was wrong with me?

  “If you fear being ugly, have no worry,” the thing told me. “I can make many forms of undead. I can change you so that you will retain this face and this form for eternity, every day as beautiful as you stand there today. As a living human, you will wrinkle, fade, and die. With me, you need not fear those things ever again.”

  He’d called me beautiful? Why was I blushing at a compliment from a monster? The rider let go of the reins with one hand, reaching it out toward me, and I took a step toward him before I halted myself.

  What was I doing? I didn’t want to be undead! Why was I…

  Charisma.

  He must have Charisma, too. He probably had a bunch of stats raised, in fact. He was tier ten. He was easily the strongest being I’d seen since the Event, so there was no doubt he’d have a ton of powers. It made sense for Charisma to be among them. He was using that power to charm me, to make me agree with him.

  It had come far too near to working, too. If I hadn’t been able to socket a tier five Will stone in addition to the tier six one, I might have gone and joined him. The power flowing from him was that strong. Everything about that idea terrified me.

  But now that I knew what he was doing, my resistance was much stronger, and he seemed to sense that. “You will not join. A pity.”

  “Even now, you’re still trying to use magic to coerce me, dude,” I said. “Not cool. How much freedom would I have if you’re using magic to make me do what you want?”

  “I never said you would be free, child,” the rider hissed. Then he fired a black bolt from his palm.

  The blast of magic rocketed through the air, sizzling as it closed the distance. Without my Agility, there’s no way I could have dodged the thing. With it, I was just barely able to get out of the way. The blast smacked into one of the buildings behind me.

  “Never said I’d stand there and let you shoot me, either,” I called back to him. “Listen, Bones, I think you ought to turn around and head back the way you came, if you know what’s good for you. We’ve got a lot of troops here, and we’re ready with even more tricks to fend you off.”

  I was utterly terrified, so I went to the wisecracks. It was either that or gibber in terror, and that didn’t seem either very productive or likely to inspire morale in our troops. Better to see if I could keep him off balance with words, rather than letting him know just how scared I was.

  “Bones?” The rider looked confused a moment, then nodded. “Ah, you want a name. I am the Forgotten King, child. In life, I was Lyonius.”

  “Never heard of you.”

  “Thus the forgotten part of my name,” Lyonius growled. “As for your paltry array of animals and men, I think they represent no real threat to me. We will finish them in short order, and then we will ride on that military outpost. I’d been waiting a little longer, until our numbers grew enough to be certain of victory. But once I eliminate you and your people, I doubt there will be enough defenders remaining at their base to stop my horde. Especially not once you and your people join it.”

  “Yeah, that’s not happening,” I snapped back.

  “You say that now,” Lyonius replied. Then he drove his heels into his mount, sending the white horse rushing toward me at ever-increasing speed!

  The white horse went to full speed way faster than I thought should have been possible. As it did, the thing bared its teeth, revealing long, sharp fangs more like those of a tiger than a horse. What the hell was that thing, anyway?

  Lyonius drew a sword as he charged, raising it above his head. The cloak’s hook slid back from his head, revealing my enemy’s face for the first time. He was gaunt, almost skeletal, but there was still flesh covering his bones. His eyes were just sockets filled with a blue-white fire. Around his head was a tarnished crown.

  His headlong rush carried him straight toward me, but worse was how much more intense his aura became, now that he was on the attack. It was like the fear he emitted had become a tangible thing. It washed over me like a tidal wave, threatening to drown me. I braced myself, using my Will to resist what I knew was a magical attack, but again it was all I could do not to fly off. I wanted nothing so much as to run from this fight, to flee this terrible foe, and not stop running until I was someplace far from here.

  Instead, I held my ground, sword and shield at the ready, and prepared to face his charge head on.