“I have gathered one thousand soldiers with experience hunting and trapping animals, fifty stonemasons, and another hundred who with some experience in unorthodox warfare.” Svend said as he guided me through the military camp several hours later, “I cannot guarantee how useful the traps they set will be though. We do not have the time to completely remodel the catacombs.”

“That is fine. I don’t actually expect them to actually be able to harm Sebastion,” I replied as I followed behind Svend, struggling to keep pace with the oversized man’s gait. A single step from him required several from me just to keep up. “The main goal is simply to drain Sebastion’s energy by forcing him to keep his domain up and use his innate talent regularly. If we can get him under ten percent before he reaches the end of the maze, I think we can win.”

“Easier said than done,” Svend said with a sigh, “King Sebastion is not an idiot. He will recognize what you are trying to do. Is there an actual plan, or are you just going to hope for the best?”

“Of course, I have an actual plan,” I said as a mischievous grin spread across my face, “I may not have returned to my full strength but fighting against enemies stronger than me is nothing new. We have the home ground and I plan to use every advantage that brings.”

Svend shuddered slightly as his eyes drifted to look up at the sky. “At least I am not on the receiving end of it this time. I still remember the time you tricked my men and me into that minefield. I lost more ships in that one day than I did in an entire year of war against the Demonkin. Worst of all, you were not even there! All those sacrifices for nothing…”

“That was a fun day,” I laughed cheerfully.

Svend shook his head in exasperation. “For you, maybe. I pity King Sebastion if that is the tactic you are using.”

“I will draw up my ideas when we get back to the mansion so the soldiers can get to work.”

“Do you want to make a public appearance as Aurielle? It would inspire them to work harder in what little time we have.”

“Yes, sure,” I replied dismissively, “Just go get my body double whenever. I have no interest in making another speech so just write down whatever you want her to say and I will make sure she repeats it with sufficient flair.”

Svend and I continued to discuss my plans as we reached the edge of the military camp where many of the soldiers that would be taking place in this operation had already started to gather. Light from the evening’s sun glinted off their weapons and armor. Seeing a thousand soldiers all gathered together was an impressive sight. Unfortunately, they would only be a drop in the bucket compared to what was required to defeat Sebastion. Still, every little bit of help could be the difference between whether or not I survived the upcoming encounter.

Among the gathering of soldiers was one I recognized. The rugged mercenary that had fought alongside my family on the long journey to Kala.

“Esben,” I called out, “I have not seen you in days. I was starting to think you had run off.”

The mercenary chuckled as he approached with a grin. “I wouldn’t dream of it. If I missed an event like this, I would regret it for the rest of my life. No, when Chief Svend gave the order to rally all the troops within his borders, I returned home to make sure that sorry lot would not drag their feet. I am now second in command of the Odjur clan’s forces, numbering six hundred and twelve fearless souls. Once I heard Svend was gathering men for a special assignment, I knew you would be involved and was one of the first to volunteer.”

“Good man!” Svend roared as he slapped Esben’s back with his giant hand, “Wish I had a hundred more with that kind of loyalty.”

Esben grimaced at the painful slap on his back but quickly brightened up upon hearing Svend’s words. “Thank you, Chief. I promise I will do everything in my power to help.”

Seeing Esben so happy getting Svend’s recognition, a mischievous streak flared up inside of me. With my hands behind my back, I leaned close with a grin. “Does that mean you do not mind transforming into me when the most powerful man in the continent comes for my head?”

Esben blinked in surprise as he looked up at Svend then back down to me. “You… You're joking, right?”

“Not at all. Sebastion will be coming soon. That is why we have gathered all these men, to start preparing for his arrival. I say we should use your talent to the fullest. Transform into me and we will dress you up in a skirt to take my place.”

“You don’t even wear skirts,” the burly man complained without missing a beat.

Unable to contain myself anymore, I broke out into laughter at seeing Esben’s pleading look towards Svend. “Ok, all kidding aside, I actually can use your help. Don’t worry, I will not use you as a sacrifice but your talent could be useful in getting Sebastion emotional and not thinking logically. Are you willing to help me?”

“Somehow, that sounds more dangerous than just pretending to be you,” Esben replied, followed by a sigh, “Yes, I will help. I did volunteer after all.”

“Excellent!” I said with a clap of my hands, “Follow me back to the manor. For now, you can act as my assistant. The sooner we get started, the better prepared we will be when Sebastion arrives.”

Esben sent a pleading gaze towards Svend but the giant man completely ignored the mercenary’s worries and gave him a thumbs up. “Good luck.”

With my new, albeit somewhat reluctant assistant in tow, I walked out of the military camp full of ideas on how to make Sebastion’s time here as infuriating as possible.

After returning to Svend’s manor, I raided Svend’s many storage rooms for a variety of supplies. As the man in charge of an entire nation, he had no shortage of valuables and precious resources. The glittering hoards of gold and jewels amazed Esben and left him speechless but I did not take any of that.

What I was looking for was much more mundane but no less valuable than gold. I handed Esben the airtight vials containing dried blue flowers with what appeared to be a pink star in the middle. He looked at me in confusion.

“Do not drop those. If the vial breaks before I make the solvent, we will both die a rather miserable death.”

Esben’s face paled as he carefully held the vials. “Will this be able to kill King Sebastion?”

“No,” I replied with a shake of my head, “So long as Sebastion is using his domain, the poison will never reach him. However, Carians have a unique effect of corroding energy after they are mixed with a couple other materials. Sebastion will have to expend quite a bit of power just maintaining his domain after I finish refining them.”

“They are also more valuable than an armful of gold,” came a second voice from the door. I turned to see Cyra standing there with her arms crossed. She did not look happy. “I would appreciate it if you did not enter our vault without permission. You set off more than a dozen alarms I set up when you opened all those doors.”

I looked over at the door and saw a small shattered yellow crystal attached to the backside of it. I gave Cyra an apologetic smile as I pushed Esben past her. “Sorry, I will pay you back… eventually.”

Cyra shook her head with a sigh. “It is fine, just ask next time. Do you need help refining the flower?”

“You know how?” I asked in surprise.

“It is not that much different from cooking. You just have to be a little more careful with the ingredients.” Cyra replied.

“You are just full of surprises,” I mumbled.

With Cyra’s assistance, we quickly gathered the remaining supplies I needed for the first step of my plan and made our way down into the catacombs beneath the mansion. My breath froze in the extreme cold as sleeping corpses surrounded us in every direction. The endless mausoleum was already an endless maze of bodies, I could only imagine how hard it would be to navigate this place after Svend’s men got started.

Shivering against the cold, despite remembering to bring a heavy coat this time, I stopped at the first of the bodies I would be working on today.

“Cut open its stomach,” I said to Esben.

The mercenary grimaced as he pulled out a knife and approached the woman laying on the shelve. “Seriously, why did you make me come along for this. Couldn’t you have just used one of your undead?”

“You are much more entertaining than a corpse,” I replied with a grin.

“Is this just your payback for teasing you on the journey here? I will get you back for this!” Esben shouted furiously as he plunged the knife into the corpse’s stomach. Despite being frozen and bloodless, Esben could not stop himself from gagging as he opened up the long-dead body.

While Esben worked, three vials were placed on the ground between Cyra and me. One contained a purple liquid we prepared before coming down here, one containing a pink liquid from the vaults, and one with the flowers from before.

The catacombs began to feel warmer as Cyra’s domain spread out and filled the halls. I watched to make sure there were no mistakes as one drop of the purple liquid and two drops of the pink were lifted into the air by an invisible force. Two flames appeared under the liquid heating each to different temperatures before they were combined into a single mass. Moving quick, I undid the wax seal of the vial containing the flowers. There was a flash of light as the liquid caught fire the moment it came into contact with the air from the vial. Cyra then lowered the drops into the vial and the flames spread across the dried flowers as a chemical reaction took place inside the vial. Before the flame extinguished, I recorked the vial and let out a sigh of relief. Working with this flower was always extremely stressful. One mistake and the room would fill with deadly, toxic gas. I was lucky to have Cyra here or I would have had to use a complicated apparatus in order to complete the refinement of the flower into the smoke and ash that ate away energy.

“I thought you were a pureblood of the family of fire, why do you know the refinement process from the family of wind?” I asked curiously.

“I never got along well with others in my family,” Cyra replied curtly before falling silent.

Realizing she did not want to talk about it anymore, I left her alone and walked over to the corpse Esben cut open. I placed the vial we made in the cut open stomach of the woman. I then activated my own talent. Green flames sprung to life and seeped into the skin of the corpse. There was a short pause before the large open cut along the stomach slowly began to close.

Two bright green eyes shot open as the woman took her first breath in decades. “How may I serve you, my lady?”

“You will stay here and pretend to be one of the many corpses around until I give you further orders,” I said with a satisfied smile.

The woman nodded and closed her eyes. Laying among the corpses, the woman looked no different than the countless undead that surrounded her.

“I see!” Esben remarked in delight, “When King Sebastion comes down here, he will not be able to tell the living from the dead. He will have to treat each and every corpse as a potential enemy. How many undead can you create like this?”

“I have gotten stronger recently but I am still limited to only a little over one hundred undead I can control right now. However, I plan to use these one hundred to their maximum potential. There is still one more step before we are done with this one,” I said with a grin. I then shut my eyes and took a deep breath.

Acting according to my will, the air around me stilled as my unstable domain slowly spread out. I felt the drain on my energy immediately and acted quick. With a mental command, a small blue flame sprung to life on my hand. I then manipulated the pressure of the domain to wrap around the flame, condensing it and solidifying it into a small blue crystal no bigger than a marble. My innate talent, solidified and stored just like the crystals Cyra created for me to regain my strength.

Despite the exhaustion of creating just one of these, i could barely suppress a giggle at actually succeeding. Finally haveing access to my domain again gave me a world of limitless possibilities just like this. I placed the crystal into the undead woman’s mouth. All she had to do was bite down and shatter the crystal in order to release all the energy inside.

“Now Sebastion will have to treat each and every undead as a walking bomb.”