A New Source

Etham Bannecath

A faint but piercing tap echoes through the old conference room and the curving corridor beyond. I can’t help but drum my feet on the floor or the like whenever I have to patiently wait for something. The something in this case being Bob. Well, not the original Bob, or the one after that one. But it’s Bob nonetheless. I say so and my word is law. My will is the only one

And so my throne, which I actually made, is not just symbolic or plain cool but truly a solidification of my power. It’s also a very comfy throne, perfect for when I rest or contemplate something. The throne isn’t that special, apart from comfy, since I had to make it myself with but a small choice of materials. In the end it’s more construct and illusion than a physical chair.

In fact the entire splendour of the old conference room, now the new throne room, is all due to semi-permanent illusion I put up. I even included kingly banners throughout the facility. The charred walls can’t be seen anymore, instead red carpet covers the floor which complements the now pristine white walls.

Finally, after a bit, Bob enters the throne room with all the other zombies I have currently active in tow. I can’t quite order them from a distance without giving an audible command but I have nicely circumvented that with my improvements on Bob. I managed to create an entirely new version that has only a one time cost to animate the corpses. Even though they are both weaker, less adaptable and utterly fragile compared to the traditional undead.

Still, they are useful and it helps that I can have some corpses working while I have more mana to experiment with. Though there is little that needs to be done anymore. The security centre turned out to be totally hopeless even when it was only excavated till the crushed door. I didn’t even bother have my zombies try to clear it.

The elevator similarly turned out disappointing, the power generator is utterly destroyed as well and there is nothing left in the control room. Nothing recognisable at least. Who knows that was, probably some poor bastards that Errhart murdered.

But I didn’t only improve and research illusions and these undead. I once more grin with a stupendous amount of pride as I look at Bob walking in the room. I used one of the most intact corpses I could find. Current Bob was lightly incinerated during the experiment. Actually, there were two of them in that bed but I only took away the male to use as Bob.

But what a beauty did I make it into. Force constructs encase him in armour, each plate firmly attached to the corpse, and gives of a light yellow glow. I did have to attach an illusion to it that changes the force construct appearance from translucent to amber, so that I could properly see it. The glow is a property that I added later and its supposed to show the strain and weight that’s on it. Would have been useful to have had that on the beams when the elevator tunnel caved in, way back then.

“Stop.” A flat and dry voice comes from Bob as he reaches the front of my throne. A simple illusion ingrained into it but with some help, I can make the other, more simple, zombies obey them as if my own. Technically they are my own since I had to order Bob to say them. Believe me, I was happy enough at the time that I got it to work with a reasonable temporary cost. The first time I tried it as permanent, I had to cut off the flow before it became too much. I don’t know what would happen if I do that too often without letting the gate to my source repair, but it doesn’t seem good.

I have two more zombies, of the stronger tradition undead spell, with the same armour at the foot of my throne. The shield is moulded onto the left arm and the helmet looks as helmety as I could get it to be but where there should be holes for the eyes, I have replaced it with see through force construct. You can’t believe the time and effort it took to create curved force constructs.

The thing with these dead knight is that while the force construct don’t weigh anything themselves, I had to leave gaps at the joints or it would else be a statue. And the weapons, I just had to give them weapons didn’t I? Not that they can really use them anyway, but I still managed to create one mace, one sword and one spear. If making curved constructs is hard then making sharp ones is impossible. Hence why I have sharp stone blades and spear points attached to the constructs.

At least I think I might have a solution to the weapon problem. All this time since the collapse, I have been working on improving the intelligence of my undead and while I also always have had side projects that were easier and I improved a lot in, I say that I have tried to keep focussing on the first thing. And with the end of a few side projects as well as the need for some sort of skill in the weapons I gave my dead knights, I finally got an insight to a solution.

The reason I had Bob fetch all my zombies was because I had run out of test subjects. Just one or two wouldn’t do and anything more than that would take even longer to prepare for. I can cast the lesser version of the spell, lets call it raise corpse, five times with the same amount of strength it would cost me to cast one raise dead, raise dead being the original version of the spell.

I touch the connection between zombie one and I. With a tug and a small command, one of the zombies behind Bob stumbles forward. Perfect, my first test subject. With a gentle but firm hold, I start to cast a spell at that very connection. Stupid that I didn’t try this earlier. But then again, it had been a profound insight that this bond wasn’t the same as normal mana. Quickly, all the mana in my source is available.

“Corpse connection, convey, contain, anima controls, learn. Be strengthened, empower the connection with anima, empower the corpse with anima, empower the inner anima remnants, my knowledge to the matrix…” It goes on a bit longer, but the intent and ideas I hold in my mind that go with the spell plays a huge role as well. It is more costly this way, holding more of it in thought, but some things are simply hard to express in words. And I try to keep the spell from going into an actual description of what happens. Sounds simply to unrefined.

I finish the spell and immediately zombie number one begins spasming. I can still feel the connection between us, and it only thickens and bloats in some places and thin and shrivel in others. “Interesting.” I mumble to myself. After a while spent observing the connection, it starts to even out again. In the end the only noticeable difference is a new rough and perhaps more solid connection between us. “It actually survived this time. I must be going in the right direction then. Now for the test. Clap!” It’s the first time I get to use the command I prepare to test the spell.

The zombie brings its two arms up, the hands in front of it with the palms turned to each other. Then it quite humanly, though not fluently due to some bad muscles, pulled them more apart before bringing them back together in, you guessed it, a clap. Well, I say clap, it was more a wet, mushy and sharp smack.

The connection between me and zombie number one snaps and then instantly crumbles, together with the zombie. “It did manage to use the muscle movements and language meaning I sent it, even if it broke down immediately afterwards. Perhaps, if indeed the inner matrix is influenceable by anima, I can send the information right at the physical connections. Then when I order it, the information of the order itself might go through it and use it… Jeff, place the corpse on the maybe pile.”

One of the dead knights at the foot of my throne starts to move over the fallen zombie. It bend down and with two hands grasps the corpse’s head, the closest part of it to it, and begins dragging it over to a pile of bodies that technically could possibly be reused if I put effort into it. Or if I test that they weren’t too broken. Why would I though with this still plentiful supply of corpses, now that I also look around in the dead quarters, the former living quarters. Oh, me and my boredom sometimes.

I pull on number two’s connection and look at the responding zombie. It might have been a female once, but by now it is barely telling. This zombie is also in worse condition than previous number one, but apparently it can still function.

In a bit, I have hold of my source again. Focussing on zombie number two’s connection with me, I cast a slightly changed version of the spell. Strength leaves me and the cold inside of me increases again. I have mostly become insensitive to anything but the utter lack of any strength. But still, I’d say that I can maybe cast two more of these spells before I need to rest.

I wait eagerly on my throne to see what will happen this time. Again the connection bloats but this time it stays so at one place. That’s fine, I can wait a bit. And a bit more then, I guess. I’ll give it a moment more, but then I will stop it. The connection is still bloated and it doesn’t look to have lessened even a tad. “Guess I can try out the other spell.” I say with a sigh. I access my source again to cast the severing spell. “Hm, what?” I can hear a faint echo, I think, in the distance. “I seem to be going mad. Get a hold on yourself Etham.”

I quickly finish up the severing spell and the zombie immediately went limp. The spell pulls the connection apart, string by string, until it disintegrates. The zombie stops reacting to orders as soon the connection is being attacked and went the first string breaks, the zombie stops any basic processes. Until the connection disintegrates, if you stop the attack it will repair itself slowly.

“Jeff, throw that one on the recycle pile.” The noise is still there, in fact, is it getting louder? To be honest, now’s a weird time out of the ages that I have been here to clearly start going crazy. Jeff once more grabs and pulls a corpse away. This time it goes on a pile with only two other corpses. I admit, these experiments aren’t too healthy for my corpse supply.

The noise has become even louder, it sounds like some is scraping away at stone, maybe even hacking? No, this can’t be a hallucination and I don’t have a clue in hell what else it can be.

With a groan, I get up from my throne for the first time in ages. It can’t hurt to have a look can’t it? It is probably nothing but stretching my legs now and then is also important.

First with a few awkward steps but then I quickly walk on in a steady stride. Soon, I am past the old smaller labs in the bend around the ruined central laboratory and into the hall. The hall also has an illusion covering it, replacing all the scorch marks with how I remember the hall to originally look. With a few improvements of course, such as a few banners, a carpet in the middle and candelabras standing next to that in opposite pairs. A bigger hanging candelabra supposedly lights the rest of the room. Quite classy if I say so myself.

The clanging noise is certainly getting louder. I hastily walk into the corridor to the elevator, where the sound seems to come from. “Zie je al wat?” Are those voices? I mean… It can’t be right? “Ik ben net pas rond the stalen balken gekomen maar ik ben bijna door de wand.” No, that can’t be. The rescue team finally arrived. I can’t really understand what they are saying, but I’m sure that’ll be fine.

I run back to my throne room, excited about my impending release. When I reach it, I immediately walk over to a desk in one of the corners of the room. I pull out a draw and take out all the papers in it. “Everyone, stand in three lines, in front of the door.” I wait to see if any of the zombies can’t process the command that went over my connections with them.

When all but one do as I say, I nod satisfied and grab a nearby bag from beside the desk and neatly try to stuff my papers in it. What else, what else. Ehm, no, that’s all that I want to bring. I have also decided to just come out with having these powers to the corporation. I am powerful enough I’d say that they can’t force me into tests. Well, not if they want me alive that is. Hopefully they want me alive.

Nonetheless, there is simply too much here, in the way of magic that is, for me to quickly hide and break it all for they notice. If I manage to get out of here before they notice the few closets full of useless corpses or the kitchen where I put all the rocks from the excavation, all the better.

I think I am all ready and set now. “All follow me.” This time the zombie that couldn’t act out the last order, moves as well. Without any particular order in it all, all my zombies and dead knights try to keep up to me. I have to consciously stop myself from running ahead of them to the people. People! Can you imagine it? Bob, certainly can’t. Never could, in fact.

But if I go ahead of my zombies, then when they lose track of me, who knows where they’ll then random wander off to. So, I can’t go any faster than what is practically a stroll. How joyous. Just as we enter the hall, I can hear the voices again. “Ben je zeker dat je iets hoorde? Ik zie hier niks.” I can’t understand wat there is being said, but this person talks with authority. However that sounded again.

“Ja! Ik weet het zeker. Alsof iets aan het rennen was.” An indignant but somewhat scared reply. It’s all in the tone of voice. That slight tremor and speed that shows the unease. “Ssst. Hoor je dat?” A different voice than the other two. I think it might be one of the two I heard before.

That’s when I turned the corner leading into the long corridor going to the elevator. I can just see a woman and two strong men looking at me and my zombies with their mouths agape and shocked. Three more burly men were observing the glowing beams in the ceiling.

The woman was the first to come to action. She starts rambling some numbers and mumbling words between that. Meanwhile the men quickly pick up pickaxes and after a second hesitation storm at my zombies with a yell. The miners behind them turn to notice and begin to rush at me with pickaxes in hand as well.

“Peace, they aren’t going to…” I can’t finish my sentence as the floor where my zombies and I stand up shoots up. It only goes up in the air some twenty centimetres but it breaks up as it does so. It easily disrupted my zombies’ balance and were utterly defenceless to the miners.

“Attack!” Sure, they may be my rescue team, but they actually attacked me and I am not going to lose Bob, Jeff or Fred. They cost me too much effort for that. The eight or so zombies that weren’t thrown over or just hit by the miners immediately lunge at them. One of the miners hits the armour of Fred, but apart from the glow of it increasing drastically it doesn’t break.

“Grab him and swing the mace.” I try to convey the command as properly as I could over our connection. That’s why I was trying out that new spell in the first place, so that it would be able to do that when I ordered it to fight in the first place. Fred takes hold of the miners leg and while still on the ground, it takes hold of the mace attached to his armour and makes a mighty swing at the miner’s knee. With a crunch, the miner falls over. With another crunch, he stays down.

“Fallen zombies, stand up!” You really have to command them for every single little thing, if they aren’t properly included in previous orders. By my interpretation of fallen, the zombies who had finally stand up. Then they just stood there. “Attack damn it.” I don’t even have time to sigh.

The enemy mage holds up her hand and when she finishes, a ball of fire the size of a fist erupts just before it and shoots itself at Jeff’s head. It hits and for a short while, I can’t see it Jeff’s face as it is submerged in the fire. Luckily, it vanishes in a few seconds and leaves behind only a glowing helmet.

“Jeff, charge.” Jeff, the dead knight with the stone sword, runs forward at the mage. Well runs… running as how a moving corpse with magically stimulated withered muscles and bulking armour would do it. Quite amusing actually. It does however let me free from engagement with the other zombies holding back and sometimes even taking down the miners. I close my eyes in preparation, something I didn’t have to do in a while, and focus on my source.

Vaguely, I feel something hit me, but I decide to ignore it however. With effort, I get to my source. From within my dream like state, I open my eyes. “Bones, burst, shatter. Pierce the flesh. Rend the flesh. Fragments.” I save time on the chant by holding most of the meaning in my mind. Costly, but saves time.

The mage is hastily stepping back from Jeff as my spell hits her. “Aaagh.” A scream of utter agony. She tries to grasp her head but her arms could only move but a moment before she entirely burst apart, with white bone fragments even hitting some of the miners and zombies. A shredded chunk of meat and organs falls to the floor as the legs previously supporting it disappeared.

Most of the zombies are broken and flounder or wiggle with their useless bodies. Fred is holding a piece of miner, the leg it looks like, and is swinging the mace at the crushed remains of the rest. Two other miners are brought down by the zombies and are still being mauled as I speak. One more miner runs back into the hole they made. “Eight, four, stop him!” One of the zombies mauling a miner stops and follows the miner back in their entrance.

I turn to the scared last miner, who is too far from the hole to make it and facing a dead end. Well, the entire facility is a dead end, except for the new entrance of course. “Bob, stay at the hole and alert if anything living comes.” I then turn to the unfortunate miner, who is cowering on the floor.

“Dood me alstjeblieft niet. Ik heb een familie. Ik heb kinderen. Genade, ik smeek het je.” More dribble. I pick up a pickaxe from a fallen miner. I pains me to do this, especially being the first other living beings in a while. But in truth, I can’t see much difference between you and Bob. Perhaps there is a grain of ominousness in that. “Sorry, but this is for your own sake.” I stride forward and the man, picking up my tone of voice, fearfully scrambles backwards. In the end, he hit a wall and I hit his chest.

One quick step into my source with a raise corpse later, and the most intact zombie to have ever graced my presence joins my slaves. Now, that woman, she had magic. I walk over to the lump of shredded flesh. I sit myself down in front of it and close my eyes. I can also access my source standing these days, but for the first time in a while, time isn’t a luxury I can afford right now.

I quickly mumble through an old spell that lets me inspect the quality of a corpse. “Ha aha ha aha!” I can’t help but let an excited laugh escape. Could I ever have imagined this? No, probably not. Simply beautiful.

There were still parts of her that hadn’t completely died yet, even some of the paste that was her head. It seems like some cell tissues have mana imbued in them! It’s true, as they slowly start dying as well, a concentrated spark of power escapes. It proves a multitude of theories I came up with in my time here, just like that. But that isn’t what attracts my attention the most. No, this is in fact far more powerful.

Between each mana imbued cell, there is this sort of connection to each other. The inner matrix also certainly wasn’t made out of mana, it just doesn’t behave this way. No, this just is one more step to proving that there is also anima, barely distinguishable from mana but different nonetheless. You can compare mana to kinetic energy and anima to thermal. Both so similar and practically the same, but also with their own obvious characteristics.

I peer at the slowly disintegrating web of connections. It is happening fast, far too fast to try to repair it, with whatever experimental spell. Perhaps there were more cells, but they died during my attack. Still, there is a pitiful amount of mana imbued in her cells compared to me. The entirety of my little finger has easily double the amount.

But I can’t just sit here doing nothing. I need to see what the matrix does. I need to! The life I could breathe into Bob. Aha! Genius, utterly genius. I can convey knowledge over my connection with it, so why can’t I some similar but opposite? Extract information. I can establish a connection with her by the raise dead spell. Maybe I should try to see what I am doing there that establishes a connection. Later.

I cast raise dead on the chunk of flesh. I feel most of my remaining power flow from me for the spell. The cold exhaustion is starting to affect me, already I can barely feel everything properly. I remain in the dreamlike state that my access to my source feels like. Would my source be similar to the matrix? Actually, they could very well be the same thing. More to experiment!

The connection brightens up in my consciousness from nothing, but it still manages to be stronger and firmer than the connections of the lesser zombies even with its completely ruined body. Though it is clearly worse than that of Bob and the other two dead knights. This must be due to the matrix that the animated flesh has. The matrix even seems to have stopped degrading, for now at least.

While looking at my connections, I look for zombie number eight and four among them. Four is there, however it is faint. Probably one of the mangled heaps of zombie here, as the miners couldn’t finish them properly off. But eight… Nowhere to be felt. I sent number eight after the miner, so whatever may have happened, it probably means that the miner survived. “Damn.”

I have to quickly finish this up and then smash through whoever is up there. Can’t imagine why people would attack me. Sure, seeing undead would scare anyone but you wouldn’t attack them. They didn’t look like military in the slightest, hells, they had pickaxes for gods sakes. Pickaxes! Why in the gods names would they have that?

No! The connection is dimming! I knew a chunk of flesh and shredded organs wouldn’t work, a waste of mana! Urgh, well it doesn’t have to be a waste. If I can quickly try it out before it breaks down or more people arrive. Those people wouldn’t be so bad if I didn’t feel so drained. I mean, I can always appreciate new servants.

“Corpse connection, obtain, take, anima controls, learn. Be strengthened, empower the connection with anima, empower the corpse with anima, empower the inner matrix, the matrix’s knowledge to me…” I could haste through it and leave more out but with this low level of mana that is deadly. I have eventually learnt my lesson and I am in no mood to fall unconscious in this situation. If I could even save myself before I turn into a dry mundane husk that is.

The spell manages to take effect and immediately targets my bond with the undead flesh with the power it used from me. The connection shudders, tears and thins considerably. Then surprisingly, it works! I can barely register the undead flesh’s matrix withering, so much does the information the connection now gives overwhelm me. “Argh.” I had suffered through worse but this feeling is simply too… internal, like I’m too unprotected. It is even worse than the seeping cold of spending mana.

But the information… I can’t make sense of it. It all feels slightly off, foreign as it were. The connection snaps and I am left reeling with this random information the spell gave me. Then another connection instantly disintegrates. Weak and confused, my eyes shoot open.

I am in time to witness a smoking and charred recently rekilled corpse fall to the ground. “Attack!” Bob and my other dead knights immediately turn to face the invaders. A crack splits the air and an amber flash follows soon after. Jeff falls backwards, his head nearly entirely detached from the rest of it and chunks missing from the top of his chest. His helmet and chest force plate construct have vanished.

The man responsible for this steps through the hole and makes space for heavily armoured men to come through as well. “Zie je this? What pathic monster, I heb ergere en sterkere gedood. With minder moeite as well.” The mage remarks to the other fighters. Regardless of what just happened, it is confusing but I think I can understand some of what they are saying.

The lesser zombies reach the fighters but get effortlessly cut down. “Alf, schakel de mage uit. Probeer to not kill hem.” The lead fighter shouts at a nearby invader who just cut the newly raised miner apart. With a nod, he runs at me. I hastily get off from the ground but not before he reaches me. With a kick, he knocks the weakened me over. Not enough to knock me out but it makes it all hurt much more.

As I lie dazed on the ground a feel more bonds snap, fade away or disintegrate. In the end there is only one left over. I look up to see bob still fighting away, clawing and hitting the fighters with the spear I made it. So it is useless when it is needed anyway. Damnit. The fighter that kicked my head notices me shifting. “Boss, he is nog steeds wakker. Moet ik him nog a time schoppen.” The boss nods absently, observing my undead. The mage finishes a spell and suddenly Bob starts blazing within his armor. Blazing as in fire by the way. He continues fighting however, still under my order to attack. But he is not the only thing that burns. The bag with my notes that I had attached to him quickly burst in flames as well. “No!” Then the knee hit my head again and I finally crumbled.