The dwarves widened their eyes.

“What? Is this true?” And older-looking dwarf asked.

“Absolutely,” Reylor replied.

“By who?” The young dwarf questioned, unsure if he should believe his ears.

“Have you heard of the one Vilnor soldiers call the Crystal Witch?”

“Yeah, she was the one that stopped Vilnor's first attempt to conquer our lands. But does she really have the power to overtake an entire empire?” another responded with a bit of incredulity.

Well, she had a little help…” Reylor gave a wry smile. “Also, there was one other matter that smoothed things over: she’s a Praefectus.”

“What? Are you serious? I thought they had been all wiped out!” The older dwarf exclaimed.

“That’s what they thought, too,” Eric added in with a laugh.

“By the way, have you seen any shade beasts out here?” Reylor spoke up again.

Silence

“He means those animals that look kind dark and are really aggressive and strong and weird and stuff.” Elany said, noting their confusion.”

“This… I haven’t seen any around here, but I’ve heard mention of something like that, but then again, no one usually travels to the southwest, so there could be something there. OF course, I wouldn’t recommend it though. That place is dangerous.”

“In what way?” Eric asked.

“That place is known to us as the dead lands. This is because it is literally a place of death. It contains a host of undead from ancient times. Zombies, skeletons, various beasts, and even dragons can be found there; and the strange thing is that becoming undead does not seem to have decreased their power by much. That fact combined with the sheer quantity of these creatures makes the place the most dangerous location we know of on this continent.”

“Thank you much. Well we must be off. If you ever meet the empress Queensilvia, give her our regards. I’m Reylor, and these are Elany, Eric, Aileen, and Khes. Also, that one is Rose,”

He said pointing to the fire mage who was currently stomping on a pile of ashes.

“Reylor, thank you. My name is Derglen, this young one your group saved is Markli, and that one is Tirodial. I appreciate you for letting us know the situation. If you ever find yourself in Derklo, please visit us!”

“Will do,” Reylor said with a wave.

“Lucy! Time to go!” Reylor yelled out.

Lucy froze, looked at Reylor and the rest of the group, and immediately turned red. This was not an act befitting royalty, so she felt quite embarrassed.

“Sorry about that,” She quietly said while returning to them.

“Roasted.” Khes whispered.

“In more ways than one.” Aileen giggled, leading to a chorus of laughter from Reylor and Eric. “He’s really quiet, but actually kinda funny,” Aileen thought. Of course, she kept that to herself, though.

*** *** ***

The area was very clear, so with the help of void magic, they were able to make it to the territorial border within a few days.

“Woah, that’s really creepy.” Elany spoke up.

There was no question about where the territory changed from Gruvedrift to the dead lands. At the edge, there was a line where the scenery changed from light brown dirt with sparse green grass to a land with nothing but black, except for the other ominous colors that painted the undead within, which were plentiful.

They felt like they were staring at a massive aquarium. At the line, the very air was permeated with a fine black mist, making visibility quite poor. Despite this, it was quite easy to see that this land was teeming with life. Or death. Something of the sort, anyhow; as there were countless undead creatures moving around.

Aileen and Elany’s faces had apprehension plastered all over them. “Do we really have to go through that?” It didn’t take a genius to guess what they were thinking.

In contrast, another member of their group had unwittingly plastered a smile on his face, and his eyes seemed to glow—with a dark color, but glow nonetheless.

“Khes, think you can keep these monstrosities off us?” Reylor asked.

“Mhmm” was all he replied.

Well, let’s go then, Reylor said, stepping through the dividing line.

Aileen and Elany looked at each other. Aileen put up her barrier and entered with Elany, Eric, and Lucy.

“Whoosh!” A mob of undead rushed over from every direction. Flying beasts swooped down from the sky, creatures on the land ran over, and the ground trembled as burrowing creatures rushed up from below.”

“Thump” A pressure wave washed over the area, originating from Khes. As soon as it reached the undead, they immediately stopped.

“Let’s head that way.” Khes voiced.

Reylor nodded and changed his direction.

“What’s over there?” Aileen asked nervously.

“A commander. A high-leveled undead. I can only control around 4,000 undead at once right now, but if I collect some commanders I can use them to indirectly control more.”

Aileen opened her small mouth in surprise. “4,000? That’s a lot!” She totally missed the “only” and “right now” parts. Nevertheless, she was quite impressed.

Elany was also impressed. “That’s a lot!”

“Not really. If you include all the bugs, it adds up quite quickly. Right now I don’t have the capacity to control all of them, so I am using an aura to pacify them all. It takes quite a bit of energy though.

“In order to control an undead, I have to imbue them with some of my soul. It doesn’t take much, but it does add up, and a being only has so much soul to give. On the other hand, a commander does not have to use soul to command beings, so controlling something as small as bugs is a cakewalk, regardless of how many there are.”

“Oh, I see,” Elany said, with a pleasant expression.

“Huh?” Aileen made a sound of surprise and a little bit of fear. “The mist is going through the barrier!”

“Try using a domain, instead” Reylor said, nonchalantly.

“Umm. Reylor. I don’t know how to use a domain…”

Reylor looked at her over his shoulder. “Hmm. Well have to fix that then. Void Haven!”

A small void domain sprang out from Reylor, at which Khes quickly retreated outside of its area of effect. Also, the black mist immediately dispersed from the area.

“Huh? What’s going on?” Lucy asked.

“Put your hand outside the domain and observe. It should be pretty obvious” Reylor directed.

Following his directions, she did just that. Her eyes widened a bit. “No way! No wonder it leaked through the barrier!”

“What is it?” Elany asked.

“Darkness energy. There is so much darkness aspected magical energy that it has condensed into this mist.”

“Ooooh,” Elany and Aileen said in unison. It all made sense now, because the barrier would only block physical elements and activated magic. Since the magical essence was not the result of someone or something casting a spell of any sort, the essence was dormant, and thus the barrier did not block it.

Nevertheless, it was still potentially harmful, as any person subjected to strong magic they did not have an affinity for was likely to receive adverse effects. There were a few exceptions to this however, including void energy; thus Reylor activated a low-energy void domain to ward off the darkness energy.

“There it is!” Khes shouted out in an uncharacteristically excited voice. “Yep, he definitely is not normal,” most of his companions thought.

Approaching closer, the figure of a gigantic beast began to come into view.

“So how does this work?” Lucy said, glancing at the beast. Most of the group were wondering the same thing, and were preparing themselves for battle. “That thing is huge!” “How long is it going to take to gain control of that thing?” No one could tell how big it was at this distance, but their best guess is that it was at least comparable to a whale, but likely a whole lot bigger.

The dragon lifted its bony head to face their group.

“Roar!” Soundwaves assaulted everyone as the beast took to the sky above them.

“Uh, Khes?” Elany called out.

The dragon flew to an area directly above them. “What’s happening? Are we safe?” Elany and Aileen were starting to panic a bit.

As for Khes? He smiled. “Done.”

Silence

“Whaaaat?” the two shouted in unison.

Khes was beaming. “Of course. I’m a lich. As long as there isn’t someone else already in control of an undead, it is a simple matter for me to control it, even if it were something five times as powerful as this.”

Reylor and Eric let out wry smiles while Elany and Aileen gawked at Khes’s performance. To be fair, it was pretty impressive, nonetheless.

Khes and Reylor tensed up and glanced at each other.

“Link up!” Reylor shouted.

Only Khes and Reylor knew what was happening, but all of them knew one thing: When Reylor said to link up, you better link up, and fast. They wasted not time in doing so, and as soon as they did Reylor teleported them 150 yards to the side.

“Kaboom!” A shockwave erupted from where they had just been as what appeared to be a giant fist left a 70 yard-wide crater from the point of impact.

“What was that?” Eric stated in a bit of a rhetorical manner, at which time Reylor’s eyes narrowed slightly.

“Reylor?” Elany asked. “Do you know what’s going on?”

Silence

Reylor just kept staring at the fist, which was now slowly disappearing into the sky, as whatever it was connected to raised it back up.

"Construct," Reylor voiced in an unknown language.

“Uh, Reylor? Is there something you’ve been keeping from us?” Lucy asked, though in more of a questioning way than a demanding one.

“Stay inside the circle,” Reylor said, using a sort of Seldin telekinesis to draw a circle, which he also stepped into.

He then stretched out his hand, which act was followed by various lines forming below them and forming a dim magic circle. Well, I say “magic” circle, but this was actually formed from spatial energy.

When the final lines were connected, all the lines began to glow fairly brightly, and the line forming the outer circle glowed incredibly brightly, even appearing to shoot into the sky like some kind of beacon.

“Stay… Inside… Cir…” Reylor said, passing out before even being able to finish the last word.

“Well, I’m not too sure what’s going on, but I have a feeling we should stay inside this circle for some reason,” Eric said, scratching his head. The girls all glanced at him as if he had just told the world’s worst pun.

*** *** ***

Reylor awoke to find himself laid out on the ground, save for his head on a comfortable pillow. He opened his eyes, as the purple glow of spatial energy filled his eyes.

“Good morning Reylor,” Elany said from his right, noticing some movement.

“You’re finally back with us,” Lucy said from a place a bit closer on his left. Ok, make that a lot closer—like almost right above him.

He opened his eyes to see a pair of gentle red eyes peering down at him. His mind cleared instantly, and he gracefully, yet swiftly sat up. “Crud, that wasn’t a pillow, those were Lucy’s thighs!”

“Uh, Th-thanks” He said, before quickly proceeding to call everyone into a circle.

Elany and Lucy made eye contact, as they were both thinking “So even Reylor can get flustered!”

Lucy blushed and looked away, while Elany began to wear a big goofy grin.

While Eric and Aileen amusedly enjoyed the show, Khes took over for Flint’s obliviousness and launched into a question he’d been wondering about.

“What in the world is this circle?”

Quite content to redirect everyone’s attention, Reylor launched into an explanation. “This is a concealment spell, of sorts. I have quite a bit to explain, and it would do to have this conversation while also trying to run away from that thing.”

“Concealment?” Elany asked. “But what about the bright light it’s making?”

“Step outside and take a look. Just keep your bearings and don’t wait too long outside.”

And so Elany did just that. She stepped out side and turned back around to look at the formation, and then her eyes got really big. She stepped back in and proceeded to say “Wow, Reylor, you’re so cool!”

“What is it?” Aileen asked.

“You try it!” Elany replied.

And so Aileen, Eric, Lucy, and Khes all followed suit, though Khes with his undead army already knew fairly well what to expect.

When one would step out of the formation and then look back, there was nothing. It looked like the formation and everyone inside it did not even exist. Not only did it mess with their sight, but it also concealed their very auras and presences. Khes noted that he couldn’t even sense anyone’s souls! This was nearly a perfect concealment.

Seeing everyone’s curiosity was satisfied, Reylor launched into his real explanation.

“That thing you saw strike into the earth is a construct. This one you can think of as a golem of sorts, but it is a lot more dangerous. We can take it down, but it’s not going to be easy. It is nearly impossible to damage with physical attacks, due to what it is made out of, and it has high magical defense. Furthermore, it has a spatial energy shield. I can take care of that, but that means it will be up to the rest of you to bring it down in the meantime.”

Eric raised his hand. “Couldn’t we just run from it?”

“Good question. Unfortunately, I’m pretty sure we will have to take it down if we are to get to where we need to. You see, attacking is not its primary purpose, but a defensive measure. Its primary purpose is to maintain an impenetrable magic barrier—which will likely something our objective from us.”

“Reylor,” Lucy softly asked, “Did you say it has a shield made from spatial energy?

“Yes, I did. “

“Does that mean…” Her voice trailed off as she made an indiscernible expression.

Reylor’s next sentence went off like a bomb in everyone’s ears.

“Yes, Lucy. There is another in this world like me—another Seldin.”