Emil stared down into the stairway of the ancient dungeon. It hadn’t taken him long to arrive. He had just stayed in the air and flew straight towards here. With a fly speed faster than walking, and having no need to stop, it had overall been much quicker to get here from the town.

Outside of the dungeon, not a soul stirred. There were some abandoned pieces of equipment and pitched tents. But other than that, there weren’t any people currently around. At the moment, it was the middle of the night. So perhaps they had all gone to sleep in some nearby encampment.

After what had happened with Emil’s group, it made sense that nobody would want to fall asleep right next to the dungeon’s entrance. The dungeon’s entrance remained unsealed and easily accessible, so it didn’t seem like they had fully abandoned it as of yet. Emil began to make his way down the stairway.

He clutched the half-soul of the mayor. Everything else was left behind at his camp. However, just as a whim, he had decided to bring it with him. At most, maybe he could give it Alterum as a snack to put the dragon in a good mood.

As he went through the dungeon, Emil chose to take the long way. He had to, since the soul he carried wouldn’t be able to phase through objects with him. But as he traversed its corridors, the memories of the first time he had come down here flooded back. Memories of the people who had explored it with him. Of those who died and were used to give him his necromantic powers.

“I have to make good on their lives,” Emil muttered to himself. He felt that it was his responsibility to make sure their deaths hadn’t gone to waste. They had paid the price for him to work under Alterum. That was why he needed to continue forward, to make sure that he used his powers for the greater good. Before long, Emil arrived at the point where the dungeon gave way to the entrance of the undead dragon’s prison.

A large slab covered the entry point. As he approached, it rose up from the ground. Emil stepped then into the large space. The sound of thousands of churning insects hummed from all around. In the center of the room, the scattered bones began to move. Like before, a string of light connected them together as they rose up into the air.

“It seems that you have returned, my servant. Though, it seems that you have changed somewhat since we last met.” Alterum’s voice spoke within his mind. But it was different now. The last time he had come hear, the mental projection of the dragon’s voice had felt like needles stabbed directly into his brain. Where then its every word would echo through his mind and shake his skull. Yet now, it was still quite loud, but bearable.

The skeletal dragon’s form was now fully completed. It stretched out its wings of bones. The glowing sockets of its skull looked down upon him. Emil gulped. He was here, so it was far too late to have any regrets about his choice to come here. And yet, he felt no true fear even as he looked back up at the massive undead. He was nervous, but not really afraid.

“Yes, I recently… well, I died. I’m sorry for disturbing you, Alterum. But if it helps, I didn’t come here empty-handed,” he said as he offered up the half-soul. The dragon reached down, and picked up the sphere with its claws. Alterum brought it up to its skull. Compared to the size of it, the offering seemed like nothing more than a tiny speck.

“I see, this is half of a mortal’s soul. You managed to separate its personality from its memories. It was done rather crudely, but it was still done. It would seem that in the short amount of time that’s passed since you left this place, you have become fairly acquainted with your abilities. I can tell that you were the one who ended this mortal’s life. It is that fact that is worth some praise. I commend you, my servant.”

“Wait… really?” That was not at all what Emil had expected to hear. He thought the dragon would be upset by the fact that he had died. That he had chosen to come crawling back. He hadn’t even expected it to like the offering, really. Since it had previously seen humans as comparable in worth to the insects that filled this chamber.

“My servant, your worries are unnecessary. You have done well to return here. Doing so in of itself is proof that you remain loyal to the contract we made.” The dragon reached its arm down and dropped the half-soul back into Emil’s hands.

“Now, tell me everything that has happened. It would be dull to simply learn it by examining your soul. I wish to hear it all from your own mouth.” Alterum lowered itself to the ground, its skull now directly in front of him.

Emil followed the dragon’s wishes, and began to recount everything. From the moment he had left the chamber. Emil spared no details, and shared both his every thought and every action that he could remember. From his panic and regret while leaving the dungeon, to his decisions upon entering the human town. He even shared his idealistic dream of being the one to protect humanity from being destroyed in the dragon’s future war against the gods. Alterum said nothing in response as it listened to the end.

“And so, I ended up deciding to come back here and throw myself at your mercy. Honestly? I started feeling like I was a bit over my head. I killed two people associated with the Order of Flumdea. But a goddess taking human sacrifices, innocent children at that… it goes against everything I thought I knew about the gods…”

Silence filled the large underground chamber. Even the countless insects around had gone completely quiet and still. Emil became worried that he had been too honest. That he had said too much and angered the dragon. But before he could say anything else, Alterum began to shake. A deep rumble then started to echo inside his mind. Alterum looked up at the ceiling and opened its jaws wide.

Laughter. The dragon clutched its ribcage as it laughed, laughed, and laughed some more. It continued to shake as it did, the sound of bone scraping against bone was the only noise aside from the continued laughing. The unexpected reaction utterly stunned Emil. Seconds passed, a full minute, and then a few more minutes. It was only after several more minutes had passed that it finally slowed down, and then came to a halt. Once it did, the dragon looked back down at him.

“How many countless years has it been since I last laughed? I did not believe I was capable of it. And yet, your story brought forth an emotion I had thought was long gone. That was truly entertaining, far more so than the game I conducted before.”

“You’re… welcome?” Emil said, not sure how else to respond to that. On one hand, he was more than slightly offended that Alterum had found it all so funny. But at the same time, if he had to choose between laughter or unbridled rage, the former was preferable.

“Ah, my unfortunate servant. Don’t fret, my amusement does not mean I do not feel any empathy about your plight. I am sure that as a mortal, the experience of being a spirit is something that would be shocking. For beings of such short lifespans, the prospect of being disconnected from the spirit world would be overwhelming. Your uncertainty is completely understandable,” Alterum began. As just a skull, its expression had not changed. But somehow, Emil could feel a wide, mocking grin behind its words.

“But as your patron, I do have the responsibility to correct some mistakes in your assumptions. The biggest of which is about this Flumdea you mentioned, the being that killed your physical body. Take this from I, one who has memorized the name and face of every deity who will suffer at my claws. She is no goddess, or any sort of so-called holy divinity. Most likely, based on what you have told me, she is what’s known as a prisca.”

“A prisca?” Emil had never heard of that term before. But more than that, he still needed to process the fact that Flumdea wasn't really a goddess. In the relatively short amount of time he had known about her, that belief had become cemented within his mind. It had been the explanation that made the most logical sense. With Hadwin’s zealous worship of her, and how his soul had been protected from Emil’s attempt to reach it. And of course, the quickness of which he and Emil smote down.

“Yes, a prisca. I told you before the war, that we dragons ruled the skies, while the gods had the land and seas. But that wasn’t always the case. Once, the gods simply controlled the earthen ground and were seemingly satisfied by it. But once they started creating you mortals to worship them, their arrogance grew. Some of you mortals even began to worship the priscas as water deities, which I am sure invoked jealousy amongst the gods. Before they fought us dragons, they attacked the priscas who rules the seas. The priscas that survived were culled down to a small number. But they were allowed to live if they accepted their place under the gods and faded into obscurity.”

“But why does she require human sacrifices then?” Emil asked as various questions popped into his mind. “If they were around before mortals even existed, it’s not like they needed us before, right? Wait, but when the gods attacked them, how did the dragons react?” At that last question, he heard a loud sigh inside in head. Emil felt a sense of regret wash over him, but it was not his own.

“To answer your last question first, we chose inaction. I was a young dragon at this time, barely more than a whelp. I did wish for my kind to raise a call to war, to join the priscas as their ally. But my opinion was just one of many. In the end, a vote was made, and the result was to simply stand by and do nothing. Perhaps I should have gone anyway. Perhaps I should have rallied those with the same thoughts as me. Perhaps then, we could have prevented what happened to priscas and what later happened to my kind.

Alterum’s words were dripped with shame. This was a side of the undead dragon Emil had never guessed would have existed. Pride in its strength, arrogance in its view of humanity, vengeful rage against the gods, those were emotions he could understand such a mighty being having. But such a level of guilt felt… human. Not at all what he would expect from an undead that had claimed Enil would lose such emotions as he too walked the path of undeath. Had he misunderstood Alterum’s personality?

“But in regards to why she would want humans sacrificed and feed on the souls of mortal children, in particular, an explanation is needed. Tell me, my servant, I just said that the gods created your mortals so that you would worship them. But as you already know, they had made an inferior product first. These are what you call golems. Tell me, beyond simple vanity, why do you think they went to such trouble to create your kind? Think long and hard about it.”

Emil placed his hand under his chin as he rolled the question around his mind. He closed his eyes, and tried to imagine everything he knew as separate pieces of a puzzle. The fact that golems were the prototype humans, but lacked souls. The power he had felt in a human soul compared to any other source of arcane energy.

There was Flumdea’s desire for them, as well as his own practically instinctual reaction of hunger when he first met the ghosts of the murdered children. Then there was the afterlife, a place everyone was taught they would go upon death. And yet, there still remained dead humans who clung to the world as ghosts.

Emil thought about the history he had been taught. The Kingdom of Mendac was founded by King Emerson, someone who was directly chosen as a champion of the gods. To this day, his bloodline was believed by every citizen to still be blessed by the High Pantheon. Finally, there was the System, something that helped one’s growth and mastery over their chosen skills. Round and round, he attempted to put it all together and connect these dots.

“Wait a minute, don’t tell me!” Emil’s eyes widened as it suddenly clicked for him. Already knowing what he was thinking, Alterum nodded in confirmation.

“It is no different from breeding domesticated animals. But rather than meat, what they take from your kind are your souls. Gods do not have souls, neither do the prisas nor my kind. It is something entirely unique to you mortals. And I can tell you that compared to the very first of your kind, the average mortal soul seems to have grown far more potent. I’ve seen it in your memories, how your nation in particular favors those with the potential to use magic. It is those mortals who are considered to have prime souls.”

What Alterum said felt like lead in Emil’s heart. But in the deepest recesses of his soul, something told him that this was the truth. It was as though the foundational layer of who he was as a person had always known that this was its purpose. And now that the thought was in his conscious mind, it was that intrinsic part of him that responded with confirmation. Emil, his family, his friends, each and every human’s purpose in life was to be livestock.

“Now, even I can’t say for sure why this prisca wants them. She could have some greater plan to collect them. Or maybe she truly has gained a taste for a child’s soul in particular, and enjoys eating them. But to a cow, does it matter if it's being raised for its leather or its meat, when the result for it is the same? However, if you wish to rebel against this fate for your species, there is something that you may want to know, my servant.”

The dragon pointed its claws up, and a sphere of inky darkness appeared into existence. Around it, layer after layer of similar spheres began to form, each one increasingly bigger and more transparent than the last. When it seemed to have reached the final layer, several more separate spheres were created around it. These ones were not dark though, instead they came in a vibrant rainbow of colors.

“What I am able to reveal is part of the true reasoning why I gave you power and offered our contract. For it is that inherent trait for growth in your souls built with, that will be the downfall of the gods. You think you understand magic from your time as a Mage, correct? What you were taught is a flawed understanding of reality. You have proved yourself as accepting of the powers of undeath and the terms of our contract. So I shall teach you the truth behind the arcane, so that this knowledge will help you understand your role as my servant.”