“This is… truly exhilarating! Truly I feel so warm inside!” Ellysa moaned.

“Shut up, you damned dwarf! If you say anything weird again, I will pulverize you!” I warned as I watched two of my companions lay a dead girl onto the floor in my room.

“Boss, the sound barriers are up. You’re good to go,” one of my companions said.

“Good. You guys can head back to wherever Satel needs you to be.”

Once my companions left the room, I started inspecting the body. It was the body of the supposed musclemancer saboteur, and it was in perfect condition. Her body was kept fresh using necromancy anti-rot magic, so animating her wouldn’t be too troublesome. Not only that, Kendra did a great job striking straight into the musclemancer’s heart, which meant that the body wasn’t damaged at all.

“Hurry, hurry!” Ellysa begged.

“Quiet!”

“B-But it’s not often I get to watch the most powerful undead animate the dead! I want to learn; to feel; to absorb!” Ellysa stammered with excitement. She drooled as she observed the dead body, almost as if she wanted to eat the corpse. In fact, she was slowly crawling towards the corpse.

I grabbed Ellysa by the back of her neck, then placed her back onto my bed gently. “If you don’t want to be kicked out, I suggest you stay put quietly.”

Ellysa pouted, then bit into her finger.

“You know, we could get you a gag. You might hurt yourself if you use your finger,” I offered.

“I am glad that you care for my well-being, but I am fine as I am,” Ellysa answered, then went back to biting her finger.

“If you say so.”

I shuffled back to the corpse of the musclemancer, then placed my hand against her head. After running my mana through the corpse, I sensed something unusual. It felt as if she was infected by The Abyss, but not to the point that I couldn’t resurrect her like the Order Knights.

While I was sure that it won’t spontaneously summon The Abyss if I tried to expel the corruption in her body, one can never be too sure. Unfortunately, Satel wasn’t with me since she ran off to lead my companions against the Order, so that would mean I would have to tackle The Abyss all by myself should she appear.

I could feel that Ellysa was feeling anxious, but since I told her to stay quiet, she didn’t say anything.

“Ellysa, just in case something demonic happens, prepare to defend yourself,” I ordered her to which Ellysa responded by nodding her head.

I turned off all the light sources, then strapped the body onto a chair with ropes. Not only that, I also placed a table in front of her so that I could do my interrogation tricks. With my preparations completed, I concentrated the essence of death within my body and mind. Although Mauri placed a small barrier around me in order to keep me from inadvertently leaking essence of death, it wouldn’t stop me from deliberately using essence of death.

Slowly, the essence crept onto the corpse in the form of black smoke, and soon the body started twitching. Once the body had enough essence, I waved my arms slowly to dispel the transference ritual.

“Uhh…” the corpse gasped. “I am… alive. I am-”

“ALRIGHT, YOU PUNK! WHO DO YOU WORK FOR? WHAT DOES YOUR PAPA DO FOR A LIVING? ANSWER ME!” Before the corpse could even say anything else, I slammed the table in front of her and lit up a lamp in front of her face.

“Gueh?! What?! What’s going on?!” the animated zombie shouted.

I shoved the lamp closer to her face, and she pulled her head back as she closed her eyes. “Answer me this, punk! Who are you?!”

“I’m… I’m… My name is Flexia!” the corpse answered fearfully after stammering a few times.

“Good! Now, answer me, who do you work for?!” I shouted.

“I work for… No! NO! I cannot tell!” Flexia shouted back.

“That’s amazing! Your animated corpses retain their memories and independence!” Ellysa remarked with sparkling eyes.

“Well, I didn’t really intend for her to disobey me. Apparently, she’s been corrupted by The Abyss. It was probably the work of the fairies-... I mean demons,” I explained.

“I’m… I’m a zombie?! It can’t be! I don’t want to be a necromancer’s toy! Help! The professor is a necroman- Mmmph!”

Before Flexia could cause any more trouble, I gagged her with a piece of cloth. My plan was to turn the musclemancer saboteur into a zombie, interrogate her, and be done with it. But it seemed that I would have to think of a new plan…

“Should I try torture?” I muttered to myself.

“That’s absurd, my dearest husband! You can’t torture the undead!” Ellysa pointed out which earned her a flick to the forehead.

Mind you, the tips of my fingers were plated with heavenium which could nullify and enhance attacks by will, so Ellysa’s brain would’ve been scrambled if she wasn’t a durable vampire dwarf queen.

“It hurts! My head! Ouch, ouch!” Ellysa cried as she rolled around my bed while clutching her head.

“What are you doing? The undead can’t be hurt, you know?” I pointed out.

After all, if the undead could feel pain, zombies would be constantly screaming in pain the moment they get animated.

“It can’t be helped! I have this thing around my neck!” Ellysa grumbled as she raised the amulet I slapped onto her the other day. That reminded me, ever since she had that thing on, she had been moaning about pain every now and then. Even touching the amulet would hurt her.

“Ah, right. The blood of an angel… Wait…” I tapped my mask as I began formulating a plan.

Taking blood from the amulet would be too risky because that would mean releasing Ellysa from her weakened state. I also didn’t want to impose on Clouds, and it would be slightly creepy to ask her for more blood.

I grabbed Flexia and pulled her over my shoulders with her bindings still intact.

“Wait! Where are you going?” Ellysa asked.

“I’m taking this zombie to the priestess for interrogation.”

“May I ask why?”

“I’m going get Inez to use miracles on the zombie,” I answered. “Besides, it’s not the first time I had her do something like this.”

While I didn’t have problem casting miracles, I might accidentally disintegrate the zombie since miracles aren’t my forte. I needed something lighter or weaker so Inez would fit the bill.

Marching off my room, I snuck around the night just in case someone passes by. After all, I looked like I kidnapped someone.

Upon reaching Inez’s door, I snuck glances to the sides to make sure nobody was watching. I gently knocked onto the priestess’ door a few times.

I could hear locks being undone before Inez’s door opened slightly. “Yes?”

“Heya, kiddo. I need your help.”

“Boss? Give me a minute…” Inez replied as the door closed. The final lock was undone before the door opened again.

This time, I could see Inez clearer. She always wore her priestess uniform around, so seeing her with long loose gray hair and casual night dress was quite a surprise. I was sure that all the fanatics wore their uniforms all day or something.

At the very least, I knew the previous priestess of the heroes’ party did that…

“How can I help? You don’t call me this late that often…” Inez asked as she tilted her head. She had a worried look on her face until her gaze fell upon the set of legs hanging from my shoulders. “Who is that?”

“You remember Felixia?” I asked.

Inez nodded slowly with a skeptical look. “She’s one of your students, isn’t she? I haven’t seen her since the school trip to the forest.”

“Well, she’s a musclemancer.” I plopped Flexia off my shoulders and onto the floor. She tried to wriggle her way out of her ropes to no avail.

“A musclemancer? A sorcerer from the other city-states? But aren’t sorcerers like those supposed to be… well… full of muscles.”

“I know. But she has some kind of power which lets her change her body,” I explained, then realized I could spice things up. “In fact, the reason she could change her body is that she’s actually a zombie!”

“What?!” Inez gasped with shock while Flexia tried to murmur something in protest.

“I have good reasons to believe that she works for the demons, so I need you to perform miracles to purify her,” I continued.

“Purify her? So you want me to kill her?” Inez asked.

“No, no. I need answers from her, so you’ll have to torture her with miracles.”

“Tor-... ture… Torture with miracles?” Inez’s eyes went wide as she muttered. It must had been my imagination but I saw sparkles in her eyes. “Can I really do that?”

“Yes. It’s what you Path people do, right? Vanquish the undead, give charity, and all other boring stuff.”

“But vanquishing doesn’t mean torturing…” Inez pointed out as she knitted her brows. “No, never mind. Give me a minute.”

“Not a minute more, Inez,” I said.

“Yes, Boss!” Inez quickly shut her door, and I could hear her rushing around in her room. At one point, I heard her crash onto the floor.

Finally the door opened once more to reveal a messy looking Inez. She had her uniform on untidily, and her headdress looked like it was slipping off her head.

“Ready!” Inez exclaimed as she pumped her fist into the air. She must be excited on vanquishing the undead… or something.

I managed to convince her that nobody must know that one of the students was actually a zombie-infiltrator-demon-minion, so she kept her mouth shut as we snuck into one of the empty sorcery towers in the school grounds.

After making sure that there were no delinquents or patrolling teachers nearby, I locked the tower shut. I hastily made some anti-sound barriers, then prepared a set of stone chairs and tables with magic.

I strapped the still-struggling Flexia onto the chair, and snuffed out all of the light sources inside the tower. Using a spinning orb of light, I started walking around the zombie musclemancer.

“Alright, Inez. Your job is simple. Every time I give the command, cast a minor miracle on Felixia.”

“Understood!” Inez replied then took her seat.

I slammed my fist against the stone table then shouted, “Answer me this, musclemancer! What is your real name?!”

“Mmmpf Hmmpf!” Flexia responded.

“That doesn’t sound like a real name! Inez, cast a miracle on her!”

“But she’s gagged and-... Understood! Oh Goddess, let there be light to those…”

I could see smoke coming out of Flexia and she was struggling with pain. After a few seconds of torture, I took the gag off her mouth.

“I already know your name, though. Kendra told me all she knows about you,” I said.

“Then why…” Flexia groaned.

I pointed towards Inez with my thumb, then answered, “I’m pretty sure the first thing that will come out of your mouth would be ‘Don’t listen to him, Inez! He’s lying!’ and it would make this whole thing somewhat annoying.”

“You’ll never… guh…” Flexia winced in pain before she could finish her sentence.

“This is amazing! I didn’t know you could torture the undead!” Inez exclaimed.

“Inez, focus. We have a lot of work to do,” I reminded the priestess.

“Yes, sir!”

*

*

*

I stretched my back as I got out of the tower. It seemed that the sun was rising, so it was quite an inconvenience to me that it took me the entire night to get all the answers I wanted. I could’ve been lying down on my bed doing nothing after all!

“B-Boss, we’re done?” Inez walked out of the door shaking. She looked messier than before, and she couldn’t stop grinning. The entire night, she would obediently cast miracles on Flexia, though she would sometimes cast without my warning.

She must really hate the undead like the rest of the followers of the Path...

“Yes, we’re done. You can take the day off,” I told her.

“Aw, really?” Inez dejected mumbled. “I mean… of course! Thank you very much. Off I go then.”

With reluctant steps, Inez disappeared back into the staff dormitories. Inside the tower, Flexia was still sitting on her chair unconscious. During the interrogation, I also took the opportunity to learn more about the minor corruption she had in her body.

Whatever the fairies did to her, she managed to subvert some of my influence around, though not entirely. Strangely enough, the miracles inflicted upon Flexia had weakened the defenses around the corruption so I could probably spend some time cleansing the zombie off of The Abyss’ influence without summoning that damnable space demon.

Once all those are done, I could have my very own musclemancer zombie to further my study on musclemancy!

“Senior! There you are, senior!” a familiar voice called out to me.

I closed the door behind me before any misunderstanding could occur, then turned back to the owner of the voice. “If it isn’t Yomi. How did you find me?”

“Sister Inez told me. I just wanted to return this tome to you,” Yomi replied as she handed a book back to me called ‘How to Pet Cats 101’. “I’m ready for the next stage of necromancy!”

“Must you really say it out loud? Are you looking to get kidnapped by followers of the Path?”

“Oh, sorry! I didn’t mean to, senior!” Yomi bowed to me apologetically.

While the students underwent hell training, I gave Yomi necromancy tomes to allow her to study the full scope of necromancy - down from the basic to the complexities. They were usually labelled ‘How to Pet Cats’ of different variations in order to hide them from plain sight.

I shoved ‘How to Pet Cats 101’ into my robes, then handed a book named ‘How to Pet Cats: Secrets of the Underbelly’ to her. “Take good care of this. This should cover how to use basic necromancy spells, but they will be used as your foundation. A real solid foundation, not based on weird scrolls you find in someone else’s basement.”

“This is great, senior! Thank you!” Yomi took the book then bowed once more. “Also, here! This is just an experiment I made some time ago when I was learning necromancy, but I want you to have it as a gift!”

Yomi gave me a small piece of skull with some different types of gems and metal strapped onto it. I turned it all around to inspect it, but found nothing intriguing about it.

“Why would I want someone’s skull?” I asked.

“Oh, it’s not an ordinary skull! Watch this!” Yomi took out a similar looking skull, then held it by the top before placing her other hand onto the skull that I held.

“Testing. Can you hear me?” Yomi spoke into her skull trinket, and her voice echoed from my own skull trinket.

“What in name of The Abyss?!” I exclaimed.

“I know it’s something minor, but I am sure senior is capable of making something like this!”

“What’s the activation mechanism in this?” I asked.

“Oh, the top of the skull would suck tiny amounts of blood from your hand as you speak to it. That’s how the runes in the skull are powered,” Yomi answered.

So it was like vampiric spells? They used blood if I recalled correctly. It seemed that this was a mixture of blood magic and runic inscription, so this would be interesting to study. After all, I was already studying blood and rune magic.

There was a small problem, though. I’m a skeleton!

I don’t have blood!

“I’ll study this later. If that is all, I’m going to go back to… doing whatever I was doing,” I said.

“Oh, senior is busy? Then I’ll take my leave!” Yomi bowed, turned around, took one step, then turned around again. “Ah… I’m sorry, but I forgot to ask something.”

“What is it?”

“How did the selection process go? I know I’ve been neglecting my students but…”

“They aced every exam. Cahalot will be solely represented by my students in the Interstate Sorcerer Academia Games.”

Yomi stared at me silently for a moment before going, “EEEEH?”