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Chapter 46. Reive
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2024-10-29 19:42:56Yeah, he liked how it looked. He liked being as before, the very same Reive, who had easily controlled hundreds of the dead. The very same Reive whom ghosts feared, and to whose music they were coming to dance.
Firel, his home, became his own for a few long intoxicating minutes. It began to breathe. It was resurrected as it felt the dance of death. Reflections of old tapestries flittered on the walls and the dark polish shone on the lacquered wooden floor. The shameful miniatures on the walls and the pictures on the ceiling disappeared.
Alas, it was only a memory, spirits of the past enclosed within the castle stones together with the death of several dozen builders. Their souls became the ghosts of the castle.
Reive had no mercy on his subjects. He had thought he was doing the right thing.
The music was still playing, and Reive was sitting on his former throne surrounded now with the familiar Dark. He had only to snap his
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To say I was put into a flutter didn’t describe it. All kinds of thoughts were whirling round my head, threatening to tear me to pieces.Reive was the Undead King! Let him even try to say it wasn’t so!Every graduate of the Josh the White City Academy of Magic with a modicum of reason knew that it was impossible to play the Nocturne of Death without knowing the exact order of the Ashgenrian characters. One had to weave special magic into each note. This magic was known only to the creator of that very same nocturne. There came the man who could play the melody. He called a mob of ghosts into the royal castle and made them dance! Then, he said he was only improvising and made it all up! Where did he come from? From right under the ground!What nonsense! Reive never made a secret of his name. From the very beginning, he’d been doing things that were beyond the ability of a regular necromancer! I didn’t know why I couldn’t
Do not awaken the Undead king Chapter 49. Angelina
“This vial was to have saved my life in the case of violent death. If an arrow had pierced me during a battle, or some lucky beggar had come close enough to chop off my head,” he continued with a doleful half smile, “that artefact would have restored me and diverted my injuries onto the one I’d been connected to. What’s more, I should have lived much more than a common person. Maybe two or three centuries. Exactly as long as the energy stored in the artefact.”Reive paused and sighed deeply. He knit his brows and his lips twisted slightly, “My best friend betrayed me and imprisoned me in a cursed grave. His spell submerged my body into so-called antibiosis. I’m still not sure how it affected the vial of blood. Judging by appearances, after that the artefact had no need to expend much energy to maintain my life. I was almost dead. And that’s why its reserve has lasted for so long.”“Does that
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“My wife. She was my wife.”I gasped.“Likely she suffered after your death. And maybe she was looking for a way to have you back.” I paused, “I would.”Reive smiled, but there was a taste of wormwood in his smile.“Very unlikely, little one. My wife two-timed me with Ulfricus. Right before he buried me alive.”“But...”“I don’t want to talk about that, Angel. It’s a sad story without a very happy ending.”“But you’re alive! It means the ending’s still happy,” I smiled hesitantly, and without realizing what I was doing, I suddenly reached out my hand and touched his palm. Just a very little, with my fingertips.This movement burned me. I suddenly understood Reive wasn’t just a human. I felt frightened. He was the one about whom many books had been written. The one because of whom necromancy had become a cursed scien
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“Sorry, little one, sorry,” the necromancer gasped and stood up. “I think we’re both too tired today. And you likely don’t want to hear a seven-hundred-year-old necromancer snore beside you.”With these words, he grabbed his jacket from the table where he’d thrown it no more than an hour ago and headed towards the door, breathing heavily.“Reive!” the girl exclaimed nervously. Almost offended.He stopped, pursing his lips. Her frustration felt like a knife in his ribs. He turned to her and, trying not to look at Ulfricus looming before his face, said, “Go to bed, Angel,” a forced smile distorted the mask of anger on his face, but Reive tried not to think about how he looked. He just finished, “It turns out I have a couple of urgent things to do. I won’t be back anytime soon. Don’t worry. Go to sleep”.He left the room as fast as he could.Actually, he just nee
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Do not awaken the Undead king Chapter 54. Reive
curse! Angel... that had been his last thought before the girl fell unconscious into his arms. Dying. Like a snowflake melting in front of him.Reive didn’t have to shift focus to see the flows of twilight. He knew what had happened. Alas, he hadn’t been able to be see the approach of the curse. Human eyes were not designed for that, unless of course they were the transformed eyes of the undead.That’s why only when the curse went into effect, did Reive see the black spider as large as life on the girl’s solar plexus.People gathered around Angelina and the necromancer. They made noise, tried to give advice and called for the healers. Reive paid them no attention. It was a matter of seconds. If he didn’t stop the curse, it would take Angelina’s life.The Undead King was rather competent at curses. In his time, he had himself created many invocations that had been almost impossible to break. It
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Dark and Twilight, how could this happen? Why?!“Duchess Myria Clarian Castro-Arcs broke away from the ranks of the main army and raced through the rows of our zombies under her own initiative,” Glein answered gloomily, drawing his sword uncertainly.It seemed I had asked the last question aloud. The garrison commander, Reive man who had been covering our rear all this time, didn’t know what he should do now. How he could bear arms against the woman he had formerly sworn to protect. Gerhard Ayris’s sister, the Princess of Aldenor.Also her own brother’s lover and my mother. Nevertheless, it was hardly likely that would be known to anyone.“And all this for the sake of killing Reive?” I moaned, struggling to help Glein keep the necromancer on his feet.The Undead King lost consciousness, and I could feel how heavy he was. I wanted to make a joke like: ‘you couldn’t tell by the look
Do not awaken the Undead king Chapter 91. Reive
Angelina smiled confusedly but didn’t let him distract her, “You must stop this battle. Right now. You started it, so you stop it.”Reive pursed his lips, thoughtfully rubbing his chin with one hand while continuing to hold Angelina’s wrist with the other, “Hmm... The battle’s already started. The Council is continuing its attack despite the throne guardian’s death,” he was deliberating. “I suppose either they don’t know that, or someone else is acting as supreme commander. But...” he made a short pause and then smiled and winked at the girl. “But I have a plan.”He clicked his fingers and the canopy of the Dark above them dispersed like mist.“Your Dark Majesty, it’s dangerous,” broke in Glein, standing at a respectful distance from Reive all this time. “The arrows, the magic, the flying beasts. We may not reach the walls of the fortress.”He looke
Do not awaken the Undead king Chapter 90. Reive
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Do not awaken the Undead king Chapter 89. Reive
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