“My Lady, we’re received reports that the first son of the Duke has begun his travels into the Catacombs. Should we,” the man report slid a thumb over his throat then waited for his Lady's response.

Mira Doom looked at one of her many servants and spies and sighed. Internally she was thinking how much of an idiot this one and most of them were.

“What do you think the Duke would do if his first son went missing or died?” She asked the servant still kneeling in front of her.

The bandit Charles scratched his chin before answering. “Investigate throughly and probably kill the culprit?”

“So Charles if you could think that far ahead, what in your right mind made you think killing the son of a Duke was a bright idea?”

“My Lady, we’ve been looking for an opportunity to strike a crippling blow to the Dukedom for over 2 decades. If not now then when?” Charles the Bandit cried in protest.

“We will strike Charles just not kill his son. Capturing, torturing, disabling, remember what we have put in motion for such a long time. Remember necromancy is outlawed in the Empire, yet such a strong force exists underneath the Dukedom. Do not let vengeance cloud your judgment.”

Charles took a long look at Mira before sighing. He gave a bow and dismissed himself. 20 years, 20 years ago he and his band of 6 other brothers were captured by the Duke's forces. He was the youngest of the brothers and managed to escape through the sacrifices of his other siblings. A bloodline all but wiped out. Their mother died after giving birth to Charles and their father succumbed not long after due to depression of losing his wife. Far from the orphanages of the capital he and his band did the only thing they could do to survive. Steal.

From stealing, It turned to robbery and from robbery to heist. From 7 brothers they became known as the 7 Scourges all running their own bait gangs. They became big ultimately too big because the Duke forces came marching. That was twenty years ago in depression and disappear from the loss of his wealth and the death of his brothers. Charles wandered the Dukedom until he met Mira. Until he fell in love. She was cold to him, finding how laughable that the 7 Scourges who pillaged, raped, and lived like kings could get even lower than they already were. So she offered Charles a deal in exchange for his services. See a bandit army couldn’t run itself. Logistics, planning, the communication needed someone with knowledge behind it. That's how their bandit group evaded the Dukedoms forces for such a long time. Besides the fact that the Dukedom was massive. Charles was the coordinator for their group and the one thing Miras already vast forces of necromancers was missing was a solid planner and coordinator.

Charles helped turn their disgruntled ‘resistance’ against the Empire's forces to actual fighting forces waiting to strike a decisive blow. Mainly against the Dukedom of the West. The Empire's shield where it would hurt the most. He wanted to strike the Duke exactly as he struck him. Killing his family and burning everything he loves. Starting with his son.

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Mira watched Charles leave. She looked around her office then to the door behind her that led to her lab the only way in and out of it. The office was messing with magic formulas and constructs strewn all about. 20 years ago she and her fellow necromancers were barely above a bandit group themselves. Running from the law and doing experiments in abandoned keeps from the Age of Extermination. The Age of Extermination, how Mira wished she had been born during those times if only to stop the events that turned necromancy in the Empire into its outlawed state today. When humans were fighting for a chance at survival they turned to any magics they could use in order to stop the unending hoards, the necromancy of course was one of the biggest reasons humans were still existing to this day. Until after the War of Extermination and Duke Rognif Claw, who was a leading necromancer and in charge of most of the necromantic forces, coup d’état. Right after the Empire won the war. The Duke felt as if it was a prime opportunity to change leadership.

If he won, fine Mira wouldn’t have cared, but he didn’t. Necromancy was outlawed and all who practiced the art were hunted down. Those who didn’t give up on it executed. How where rank 6-10 beings supposed to give up on their path of power their very foundation. They were supposed to be willing to cut off their own legs. So when Charles became their chief coordinator and suggested they establish a base in the Catacombs almost under the Dukes every own nose they accepted and for 20 years they grew and thrived.

Mira's goal had always been to study her profession in peace. The power of the undead was practically limitless. Undead soldiers, undead craftsmen, and undead farmers. Their potential was always there but the goodwill had all but disappeared. Mira found how stupid it was for her great grandfather to start a rebellion knowing the royals were the very bane of his necromantic army. But the downfall of men will always be their need for power and want for beautiful women.

Mira was downright gorgeous, with pale skin and red eyes. She stood around 162cm tall and fit the description of an hourglass figure. Her hair was black with streaks of grey and white running through it and she wore a white lab coat. If A.K. saw her he’d say she was a female version of Reed Richards. Mira was also a genius in the arts of necromancy. It was she who figured out the next step in the advancement of power after the 10th rank.

The ranks, the first step of any mage, warrior, or being of power would need to break through to be considered notable on this continent. It's when you earn your Title as a Land God, for those from low worlds see a being of that strength as nothing but a god. Untrue in the world of Gaia but with reaching rank ten you could destroy entire continents in low worlds. What would you be classified as if not a god? Mira had figured out how to progress in the path of necromancy to the next major rank. Rank 20 Titled: Sky God. The minimum needed to establish an Empire on the continent.

Mira had already progressed to rank 15 and was quickly gaining more and more strength. Gathering energy for the undead and converting it into a purer form of death energy. Using that energy to build a more complex spell model in her mind space. Able to support her soul and increase its strength. See each profession followed a more a less generalized path. Warriors follow the Path of Strength, in which, those warriors would utilize magic to enhance their physical body. These warriors included knights, aura masters, monks, and other body cultivators. Mages followed a different path instead of enhancing their body they enhance the mind/soul, the Path of Mind or Soul depending on who was teaching. This enables them to cast stronger and more complex spells.

To break into the level of Sky Gods the path Mira created carved a spell matrix directly upon the soul. There further you completed the spell the more advance in rank you’d become. The necromancers were disconnected from the Empire and knowledge of further advancement lost after Clawdom, necromancy capital, and home to Duke Claw was burnt until not even rubble remain.

Getting to rank 10 was easy as you only need quality and quantity in mana but further beyond? Only the high-ranking nobles knew the pathway further beyond. Mira sigh once again thinking about Charles and his foolishness. The man was little more than a boy in her eyes as she had lived far longer than her 30-year-old appearance portrayed. Whilst he hadn’t even hit his first century she was going on her 6th. Mira had never been in love before and knew not what it felt like. If Mira could describe herself as in love with anything it would be with necromancy. Mira always grew excited when the undead was involved. She knew every part of the human, goblin, orc, and several other races' bodies. Both men and women had undergone her scalpel all to complete a goal, her goal.

Mira walked into her laboratory. It was much cleaner than her office with shelves upon shelves lined with different bones and organs. Eyes, nose, kidneys, and toes, all were aplenty. A bubbling excitement started to build within Mira. She always got this way in her lab. This was her passion for finding out how the brain sent signals and the body reacted. In the center of the lab was her goal. The very objective that put her upon this pathway. Mira stared at it a shiver ran down her spine as the decomposed body of her great grandfather stared back. Well, at least she hopes it would one day. Mira was trying to revive him into a lich. The ultimate undead, able to raise massive armies and cause great destruction through their magic. She hated the man but he was also her best hope on breaking the boundary and leaving this continent to travel higher into the realm. She stares at him, her heart racing in anticipation.

A blush appeared on Mira's face as she thought of the various experiments she’d run on the decomposing body, Charles all but forgotten.

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“Mira has ordered the extermination of the runt of the Kan. You’ve been assigned to the task Kavlar Briggs. The boy's strength is unknown however he should hardly be a match for a rank 6 necromancer.”

Kavlar looked at Charles searching the man's gaze for any signs of misinformation. He dismissed the man with a wave of his hand. A wave of boiling anger that had long been slumbering started to reawaken.

“VASUuuuuuUuu KAAAnnnNNN,” Kavlar said in anger. Ever since his run with the Duke’s men, Kavlar had never been able to talk probably as his throat was all but torn out. If not for Mira's knowledge and quick thinking Kavlar would be an undead already. Kavlar looked to his left where the body of a beautiful woman was encompassed in a crystal coffin. She was his sole reason for becoming a necromancer. His wife, his life, his everything. He was willing to go beyond and back for the woman lying in that coffin. She was taken from him all too soon. Nobles.

It physically hurt every time he looked at her. So he encompassed her within a crystal coffin as a reminder and something to always push him forward. In life, Kavlar promised to reunite with her. The Kan almost took that promise away from him. It was the nobles who caused her death in the first place. Kavlar's wife was a seamstress and produced some of the best work the Empire ever saw from human hands, yet in the eyes of nobles no matter how high you rise and how you serve them you will not be them.

“Thosssee MAgggi huuuMMaans,” Kavlar muttered at least to the best of his ability.

Those magi humans took everything from Kavlar and he wanted to take everything back. When his wife died he turned to the dark arts in which he stumbled upon necromancy. A book on common spells and their uses and applications, but the law is never far behind in detecting the use of dark arts and within a few months, they were onto Kavlar.

Kavlar on the run managed to escape pretty far into the countryside. Stumbling upon a village graveyard he raised the undead to buy him time by attacking the very same village hoping to slow the knights who would recuse the village. Kent Kralc one of the Duke's personal guards was assigned to the task. Instead of helping to defend the village. Kent chose to chase after Kavlar, catching up with him and tearing the man's upper body apart with an emphasis on the throat with his aura alone. It was a miracle Kavlar didn’t die immediately and the forces of Mira appeared to repel the knights and rebuild Kavlar's body.

Kavlar looked at the crystal coffin still feeling a pain in his chest. He looked at his wife’s scarred body. 237. 237 different bruises were upon his wife’s body when he found her dump outside. Raped and very much dead. All because she offended some pompous girl from the east nobility. 237 whips, cuts, and grips from different men laid upon his wife. After gaining significant strength he hunted them. Torturing every man, woman, or child that knew anything about the case. He would whip, lash and rape each one of them. 237.