Snow drifted slowly over the ground, like a blue blanket over the land, clumps of ice fell from the trees. The area was peaceful, the signs of battle, and carnage was long covered by several feet of snow. Everything avoided this area, a deep pressure covered the area any had a sense of magic could tell why, there was domain in the area that was thick with power. The military was called after three scouts went missing in the forest, their stuff found but not their bodies, the area that they were found is now considered a Soul Well. The forest was once considered a druid safe haven, the mage’s guild has hypothesized that the druids were murdered by what killed the Dryad from reports months ago.

The officers of the 22nd Elven Division were the ones called in to take the brunt of the work, they specialized in these types of situations. Like Druids, they had an affinity to nature so they could slip through the natural dangers that the Druids might have created to keep their area safe. There was a sense of unease throughout the Elves as they traveled, Druids were considered almost on par with Heroes, especially the Dragon Druids of the North. They haven’t heard from any of the Druids for several hundreds of years, which was normal for the hermetic Druids, but now they suspect otherwise.

As the Elves got closer to the domain, the three witches moved forward, the men had large tattoos covering most of their body. They loved nature more than the elves liked to admit, feeling a bit ashamed of the half breeds that come out of these nature lovers. They laid out a spell formation letting the military group see the domain themselves. The area lit up in deep purples, and blacks flames seeming angry, and vicious it only lasted seconds before the formation broke under the violent energy.

“This energy, what school of magic is it?” A red haired elf asked, his position was a joke to those that worked under him. No one answered, who would take notice of a commander that was vain enough to dye his hair with magic, the black suit that he wore was not fit for military wear, being an elf he could get through the forest without problems but fighting would be out of the question.

An older man was smiling, his beard was proof that he wasn’t a full elf, and the reason he would never be in command, “Sir Thomas here asked you guys a question. I’m sure he doesn’t like waiting, wool is too itchy for that.” A few of the people laughed softly, Christian was the only one who could make fun of Thomas to his face, he was too valuable to be charged with insubordination.

“Necromancy, a deep domain there’s probably a graveyard here.” Two of the witches nodded as the other talked, “The thoughts that this is a Soul Well was probably true. The beasts here seem to be afraid, skeletons aren’t this powerful alone so when you see one, there are probably hundreds in tow.”

“Everyone, bows are useless, drop them here with your backpacks. Witches, mark this place so we can find our equipment easily. One hundred men stay back to create an encampment, we will be back once we check out the center of the Soul Well.” Christian raised his voice, yelling at the Elves around him. The hundred that stayed back were mostly male, their speed was inferior to the females and they knew they were less important to military.

The army broke into three groups without orders, forty-two females gathered making the scouting unit, strapped around their hands was strips of metal running across the knuckles, and their bodies were loosely covered in black cloth that covered the important parts of their body. Five hundred men carried a crow’s beak, it was the elves’ weapon of choice for the males for its utility, building the warrior section. The last group was the smallest, and the only truly armored group composed of around twenty people, which included the Witches, fully covered blackened metal light chain mail across their chest with a matching shield.

The groups may seem to be off balance but each of them were considered to be the same in power, forty two scouts would prove a good match for five hundred warriors, or three witches with guards. Christian motioned for the scouts to go into the woods alone, waiting for thirty minutes before going in with the last two groups. Thomas followed in annoyed silence, he knew he was a formality without any real power while they were in combat, but he didn’t like it.

The forest fit the feeling of a graveyard with a heavy silence that was dense with a feeling of dread that filled their subconscious, making people jump at shadows. As time went by, this feeling of dread started to effect moral along with the cold, the army starting to grumble as they walked through the forest. Christian cursed, this wasn’t what he was expecting from a Soul Well, the tension of a soon to be battle has dissipated long ago replacing it was boredom.

Thomas was surprisingly the first to point out the problem, which should have been obvious from Christian’s experience but it was too in his face to notice, “This Domain is too damn big, how big would a horde have to be to have this big of a Domain?”

Christian stopped immediately, staring at Thomas before a look of horror came over him, “Everyone back to the camp! We need more men!” The army as a group looked confused, they had yet to fight a single skeleton, why would they need more men. “This Domain is too big for a regular horde! We might have a lord on our hands, Witches get in touch of the scouts!”

The Witches started casting spells, then stopped, looking at each other concerned, “We.. can’t contact them.” One of the Witches stepped forward to Christian and whispered into his hear, “We aren’t sure if its interference or if they are dead.”

Christian cursed again, he had let his guard down and it may have cost him a full squad of scouts. Scouts were a limited resource, he would have rather lost all five hundred of his warriors but it was too late to regret his actions. “Warriors, Witches, we are to fall back in a full withdrawal, we need to reassess the situation.” This wasn’t his first Rodeo as the humans liked to say, he knew that letting them know that the scouts might be dead was a bad move.

Suddenly a woman appeared, followed by several others, the scouts that he had sent out earlier which made Christian cry out in alarm. “We’ve come back to report, we’ve scouted the area and have found a place that needs the Witch’s attention. There is only one location which we have found undead, but their numbers… are unexpected.”

“You found the Horde?” Thomas perked up, knowing that the group needed a fight or these people would be in a bit of unrest when they got back.

“No, only two… and a Druid’s corpse.” The woman shook her head lightly, “Also I don’t think the Druid was killed by the skeletons, the wounds are too clean, not made by bite marks at all.”

Christian nodded, a Druid being killed by a skeleton, or even a few thousand of them seemed impossible their strength was the things of legends. “Very well, we shall proceed.” Raising his voice to the hesitant soldiers he motioned to the direction the woman indicated. “Proceed, take caution we seem to be nearing a suspicious area.”

They continued on with a new vigor, and a bit of blood-lust now that the scouts were back, many warriors took fancy to them and would try and prove their worth in battle. It was open knowledge that the scouts themselves couldn’t have children, but many soldiers still considered it an honor to catch the eyes, and maybe the body of one of the scouts.

It didn’t take long to come to the clearing, it was nearing the end of the Domain, the Witches pointed out making sure it was known that they were still important. Christian ignored them, focusing more on the path ahead, the trees becoming less until the clearing emerged. Snow was pushed away from a body, piling up into blue mounds around him with little to no decomposition.

“How old?” Christian knelt next to the body of the Druid, one of the Witches kneeling beside him.

The Witch closed his eyes, chanting a necromancy spell to tell how long the body has been a corpse, when he opened his eyes he seemed solemn, “Six months.”

“That long, and they only sent us out now. This Domain must have been here this whole time, why weren’t we informed before hand?” Christian studied the body, and frowned as he looked it over brushing his fingers along the stump of the neck that was left. It was too clean to be a sword cut, at least one held by anyone short of a hero.

Christian stood up, moving his way over to the two skeletons that were uncovered from the snow. There wasn’t any piles of snow next to these two skeletons, and he looked to the scout confused. “We didn’t uncover these two, the snow just melts around them. We think the skeleton’s cores weren’t shattered in the fight they were in.”

“Yes, they are still alive.” The Witch chimed in, “At least… what constitutes as alive for an undead creature.”

Christian nodded, looking to the one in armor concerned, “Have you ever seen a skeleton in armor?”

“No sir, they are usually too… skinny for armor.”

Another nod, “And the greatsword, to pierce that far, what could have done that do you think?”

“A hero, or one of the demon kind, they are known for their immense strength.”

A shout could be heard from the army, and a group moved away from an area not far away from Christian near a tree. Looking back, he made his way to what they were looking at and found another skeleton. This one had a blue flame pulsing through his eye sockets, and seemed to be saying something. Seeing how damaged the skeleton was, he knew it was no threat and leaned closer to listen to it.

“Hungry… need… energy…” The pulsing stopped and the flames seemed to condense and focus in the center of the crystals that lay in his eye sockets. The skeleton looked at Christian, and somehow he knew that this skeleton was insane right now.

“He’s the source!” The Witch exclaimed suddenly.

Christian knew what he meant as he suddenly felt weak, a crystal forming of a deep darkness that seemed to swallow the light around it formed above the skeleton’s head. He stumbled back in shock, “Skeletons can’t use magic!” Everyone that viewed the crystal above the skeleton’s head started to feel weaker, their bodies trembling as they noticed the trees starting to wilt in the area.

“No, don’t let him finish the spell!” The Witch tried to chant a spell to attack the skeleton on the ground, but in his panic he learned that his mana reserves were completely gone. Black swirls of energy became visible to even the non-magical of the group, making many abandon their formation to try and escape the spell’s radius.

The swirls of energy became larger, spiraling into the sky into a large black beam of energy, a look of recollection came over Christian’s face as the sky turned dark. “The rumors are true, another lord is being created.” Drawing the sword at his side, he rushed forward at the skeleton knowing that if he lived, thousands would die by his hand. Two steps away something stopped him, a deep burning feeling in his ribs started to spread throughout his body.

“This simple knight can not let you harm my lord, I have already failed by letting him get this injured but I had to follow orders.” Looking down Christian saw a very large insect in front of him that came to his waist in height, his eyes traveled further down to the large crimson patch on his clothes that was spreading around the jet black appendage that was stuck into his ribs. “I hope you can accept your fate.” He heard a soft crushing sound as everything seemed to slow around him, then in the end faded to black.

The area around Mr. Fly turned deadly silent as the rest of the army joined their leader Christian in the afterlife, falling in tens until there were none left. The area seemed peaceful again, though now it looked like an ancient battlefield. Withered bodies littered the ground looking nothing like the beautiful elves that they once were, eyes and mouths twisted in horror.

Only two figures stood in this carnage, a black insect standing around two feet tall, and a black skinned creature with elven figures. Elves were beings that filled the description of tall, pale, blessed with beautiful looks and joyous eyes. The creature that stood there was tall, dark, with glassy eyes that seemed to have a pale blue light in them. At six feet tall, he was dark skinned with a blue tint that touched on purple, white hair flowed freely from his head rolling down his shoulders and falling on his mid-back. The figure touched his chest, but felt no heartbeat, it was still an undead but something more than the skeleton he once was.

“I guess I can no longer go by the name Mr. Skeleton.” He smiled, before walking to Purple and Red, prying out their cores to toss them among the bodies. The leftover necromantic energies from his spell would help them form their new bodies from the corpses left over, and in his Domain their bodies would be much better than the ones he discarded for them. “Mr. Fly, I thank you for your dedication. I’ll need loyal people like you in the future, I hope you can guide them when that time comes.”

Mr. Fly nodded hurriedly, before bowing, “My lord, I am always at your service.” The insect looked very happy, its wings slightly buzzing behind it every few minutes as they searched for the necromatic crystals, his lord was in need of more subjects.

Author Note: Hmm.. Names... Mr. Dark Skin! Mr. Lord! The Necromancer Formerly Known as Mr. Skeleton! Mr. I'm Not Dead Yet!