Metallic ravens circled the tower and hovered outside the windows of the top rooms. A short incantation came from the room, opening a corner of the invisible barrier in front of the window, and the raven quickly got into the room and landed on the high bookshelf.
"Teacher, I've come to see you," it said in a young woman's voice, "I'm under the tower, and I brought you something."
Necromancer Boris let out a "hmm" and continued to bury his head in the parchment. The metal raven flew out from its original place, descended slowly, and landed on the forearm of a blond lady. She gestured, and the bird turned into a silver ring, which was firmly worn on her left hand. . After all the black runes on the tower door faded away, the woman raised her robe and went up the steps. Inside the tower was a floating disk with blue light waiting for her.
After ascending to the top floor, the woman stepped down from the floating plate and politely knocked on the door in front of the study. The people in the room said "Please come in", but the woman hesitated. She clenched her fist lightly and prepared an attack spell in her palm.
"I said, please come in. What are you waiting for? I don't need to touch up my makeup." The voice in the room urged.
The eyebrows on one side of the woman trembled: "What? Could it be that you..."
"Think my voice is different?" The instructor seemed to see through her mind, "You will understand after you come in and take a look."
The woman just opened the door. This study was no different from what she remembered, it was still spacious and slightly messy, and it smelled like herbs. The difference is the person sitting among the piles of books, her mentor, the master of the tower—Necromancer Burris.
Burris is already eighty-four years old this year, but the person at the desk...is a pale young man who looks less than twenty years old.
"Esti, do you need to be surprised for so long?" asked the mentor who suddenly became younger.
The woman quickly maintained her dignified expression, and walked into the study cautiously: "Mentor, have you changed your body?"
"Well, it's changed." Burris stood up and moved to the sofa. "It happened so suddenly that I didn't have time to tell you in advance."
"Is there something wrong with your body?"
The mage sighed: "Recently, my joint disease has become more and more serious, and the precordial area has been feeling uncomfortable. I also had a sudden angina pectoris a few days ago... that old bone may not work, and I am in danger of sudden death at any time. Time It was urgent, so I quickly found a corpse and moved the soul up... "
Estee sat across from the mentor and looked him up and down: "Teacher, forgive me for asking... why did you choose this corpse?"
Boris looked down at himself: "He was a kitchen worker who died of drinking too much. He was only nineteen years old. When he came to work, he signed an agreement and was willing to donate his body to me for a fee after his death. His relatives in his hometown will receive it. remuneration."
Sensing his apprentice's tangled face, Boris waved her hand: "What else do you want to ask, just ask, I'm not your lifeless father, I won't blame you for offending."
So Estee told the truth: "This body is young enough, but didn't you realize...he has no ears?"
Burris sighed: "Of course I found out. Let's make do with it. Wearing a hood can barely block it. Alas, this child is born with a disability."
"Don't you mind that he's missing a hand, too?"
Burris raised his broken wrist on the right: "He was young, but he inserted his hand into the meat grinder after he was drunk. This hand can only be amputated. What a pity."
"You don't mind... he doesn't even... have hair?"
The mage put on the hood painfully: "Of course I knew it a long time ago. It's nothing, anyway, the original me has almost no hair, and it's the same as the ear problem. Putting on the hood can block it... At least the child's face is long. Pretty decent, isn't it?"
The eyes of the beautiful female apprentice were filled with pity, and Boris felt uncomfortable when he saw it, so he took the initiative to explain: "This is just a container for my soul temporarily. My own body is preserved in the coffin of the arcane gold. In the future, I will I will still use it. The current body is just a transition, not a long-term solution. After all, he lacks a hand, which is inconvenient."
"Even if it's just a transition, at least you can find a healthier corpse..." Estee said.
The mage shook his head: "I have many healthy corpses here, but I can't use them for such trivial matters. As for their function...you know it, Estee."
The apprentice's eyes lit up: "You mean... that army of chimeric golems?"
"Yes." Boris handed her a mirror, and the scene below the tower appeared on the mirror: the space magic expanded the room into a training ground, and there were at least a thousand flesh and blood golems standing densely in the field. The body combines the characteristics of several different creatures: human, half-dragon, orc, troll, half-wolf lycanthropy... and each of them is tall and strong, and equipped with sophisticated weapons.
Looking at this army, Estee subconsciously covered her mouth. Even as an apprentice of a necromancer, she never thought that she could see the chimeric golem army with her own eyes.
She returned the mirror to the mentor, and her tone of voice trembled: "Gods of the three benevolent gods, this is really... amazing..."
Boris said dissatisfiedly: "Honey, you are a necromancer, please don't call the Three Good Gods just because you have nothing to do, they are not our gods."
"It's just spoken words, after all, I always have to talk like this..." Estee's eyes became more and more excited, "Teacher, could it be that you have found the entrance to the Swamp of the Dead in another world, and that's why you put this army on standby?"
Burris' eyes became serious: "Yes, I have found the entrance. Next, I will open a passage and summon the entrance directly to the door of the mage tower."
Estee answered excitedly: "As long as you successfully pass through the Swamp of the Dead, you will be able to meet the Lord of Skeletons!"
"Yes, I have been waiting for this day for a long time..." The "young" old mage frowned slightly, and gently stroked the cover of the spell book beside him with his left hand, "I met the Lord of Bones when I was young. Curse, unable to completely leave the Swamp of the Dead, he can only get seven days of freedom every one hundred years... More than sixty years ago, I was lucky enough to meet him during those seven days. I exchanged a contract with him, if I can Find a way to liberate him once and for all, let him return to our world, and he will be my ally, sharing power and knowledge with me... ”
Estee was even more excited. This is simply a legendary experience. I am afraid that even the old people of the Arcane Federation have never experienced it. "Mentor, when do you plan to act?"
Boris smiled: "It's today. I have assembled an army to deal with the danger when passing through the Swamp of the Dead. Estee, I need you to enter the Swamp of the Dead with me. The way to lift the curse, this process requires the assistance of others... and you are the best assistant."
After finishing speaking, Boris reached out to the apprentice, and Estee took the initiative to lean over and helped the mentor who had no right hand, ears, or even hair. The two stood on the floating disc outside the door and slowly descended to the bottom of the tower.
Boris first opened the gate of the mage tower, and then pointed to the basement with his staff. The door of the basement then turned into a transparent gas film, and the golem army lined up and drilled out of the gas. Several tall golems with troll characteristics are in charge of leading the battle, followed by undead horses and cavalry, as well as a large number of archers and infantry.
The army filed out from the gate of the mage tower and stood in order in the open space. Two mages boarded the chariot and were protected by the army in the middle, and there were several golems on both sides for close guards. Estee found that the chariot carried the mysterious gold coffin mentioned by the mentor. There was a crystal window on the upper part of the coffin, through which Burris' original body could be seen.
"You..." Esther wanted to say: You even put on a make-up for yourself, and the technique is quite good... Of course, she didn't say this, but changed a more meaningful question: "Teacher, with your original body, are you planning to ask the Lord of Skeletons to do something for you?"
Boris said: "Yes. The power of the Lord of Skeletons is beyond undead spells. Maybe he can help me strengthen this old body... I don't really want to give it up completely. After all, the problem of coherence between body and soul is still It's very important."
After speaking, Boris raised his arms and began to chant into the air. The hair-thin mantra overflowed from his palm, dancing with his mantra. He manipulated the mantra with slight movements of his fingertips, making them entangled and intertwined with each other, gradually forming a fine plane.
The plane is getting bigger and bigger, and thicker and thicker, forming an arched gate standing on the open space. Boris put down his hand, stretched out his staff and made a hooking motion, and with a creak, the door opened.
On the other side of the door is the blue-gray Swamp of the Dead. There is no distinction between day and night in that world. On the sky, the setting sun and the night sky are separated at both ends, and the ground is always covered with smoke and dust, and no grass grows.
Boris gave an order, and the golem army began to pass through the gate and march towards the other world. Estee was a little nervous, holding the armrest of the chariot tightly with both hands, and Boris comforted her thoughtfully: "Don't be afraid, it will be very smooth. .”
Estee bit her lips: "Teacher, I didn't know in advance that I would carry out this plan today, so... the spell I prepared is not perfect..."
Burris laughed: "It's okay, I don't need you to prepare any spells. You are so honest, you don't even think about it. If I plan to let us both fight desperately, why would it take me so long? Time to build such an army?"
Estee frowned: "Isn't it because we will meet enemies?"
"Yes, we will encounter enemies. We will encounter obstacles that are native to this plane. They are creatures made of undead energy. They have no mind at all and will shoot and kill outsiders. But this is a very small plane. There are not many creatures, and our army is enough."
Just as he was talking, a cavalry team appeared on the distant horizon. The rider wore bone-colored full-body armor and rode a warhorse as black as a shadow. As soon as he appeared, he sprinted towards the golem army at full speed. After getting closer, the mages discovered that the weapons of these riders actually grew on their bodies. During the charge, their right arms stretched out several feet, and a sharp scythe grew from the top.
Burris had set up a barrier ball around the chariot, and as for the fighting, he intended to let the golem army, which was outnumbered, take care of itself. If it is a war between humans, the number may not equal victory, but golems and mindless undead are different: they don't fear death, don't know pain, don't surrender, and don't care about tricks and tricks. The mission is to kill the enemy, they will only perform the mission, and will not be influenced by other things at all, so in this case, if the abilities of the single creatures are similar, then the advantage in the number of groups is very important.
While the golems fought, the undead horses were still dragging the chariot. After a while, there was complete silence outside the barrier, at least half of the golem army was lost, and there was no scythe cavalry left. With the protection of the barrier ball, not only were the mages not affected by the battle, but even their robes were as clean as ever. Estee knew that the mentor's spell lasted for a long time, as long as he didn't take the initiative to cancel it, it is estimated that the ball could last forever.
"I can't go on like this," Estee looked around, "Teacher, did you bring the restoration scroll? Only the two of us can't finish repairing so many golems..."
"Why fix them?" Burris looked at her. "That's what consumables are for."
"But... we have lost too many golems! This wave of attacks has been overcome, but if there are more attacks..."
Boris smiled and said: "Silly boy, it's okay. Didn't I say that this plane is very small, and we have already found the place we were looking for."
He raised his staff and pointed it forward. The clouds and mist ahead were thicker, forming a cylindrical wall that completely obscured the line of sight, a bit like a slow version of the eye of a typhoon. Boris said that was the place where the Lord of Skeletons lived. He lived in a black tower built by the fog of death. He was both master and prisoner.
Boris stepped off the chariot with the help of his apprentices, and used magic to float the coffin, allowing it to slowly follow behind him. Standing under the tower built by the fog of death, he raised his head in awe: "From here on, we have to abandon the army and go in by ourselves. By the way, Estee, how long have you been my apprentice?"
Estee thought for a while: "I was about thirteen years old when I first met you, right? Eleven years have passed. Why do you suddenly want to ask this?"
Burris said: "There is a sentence... I have asked others, but I have never asked you. Now I want to ask—His Royal Highness Esterine Pacia, how much are you willing to pay for magic? Facing the infinite mystery and unknown , are you willing to offer everything in front of the God of Arcane Law?"
They have already reached the fog wall, and they can get into the tower with one more step. Estee stopped where she was, looking at her mentor in bewilderment. She didn't understand why Burris suddenly mentioned this, why he suddenly called her by her full name and honorific title.
Estee thought for a while and decided to tell the truth: "I don't know, mentor. I'm still young and my vision is too narrow, so I can't answer this question hastily."
Burris sighed and motioned Estee to move on. The two walked into the clouds side by side, and Esther glanced at Burris' profile from the corner of her eye. The mentor smiled calmly, but she felt a shudder.