Aeon is the Holy Land, the Land of Eternity made manifest. Lyka is the land of clay, the land of those who are not granted the Presence of Lykandeon.

High Priestess Karin to Clarissa Latimer

You can see Lyka from Aeon if you look up. Lyka is beautiful, like a giant blue marble. It’s hard to believe so many people live here.

Ekari to Clarissa Latimer, four hours after her mother left

I wonder how many religious people back home would be incensed to know that getting to Heaven is as simple as traveling to the Moon; easier, even with portals. Yet people aren’t allowed to go because if they were allowed there would be too many people.

Serenity would say not to tell them, that it would distract from what’s important. It’s only for the Eternal Church.

Good point. They’d call it a heathen religion and not think any farther.

Clarissa Latimer and Ita ena a’Serenity, two days later

The flyer’s noise was lost in the shouting from the camp ahead of them.

Serenity didn’t really care if he was overheard or not as he leaned over to Andarit. “How far away should I stop for you? I can deal with the undead, as long as I get close enough.”

“Not far,” Andarit stated firmly. She had a determined look on her face. “The flyer’s faster than running, we need to get there as soon as we can.”

For sustained speed, that was definitely true. In a sprint, Serenity wasn’t certain; the flyer wasn’t all that fast and he could run awfully quickly. Either way, he certainly wasn’t losing anything by staying in the flyer a little longer.

Serenity grounded the flyer just outside the circle of stones. They were spaced well apart from each other, but they were all about a foot tall and more or less egg shaped. Serenity sensed some magic around them as he hurried into the circle, but it was minor, with a feel like an active but low power ward. Far more important was the feel of death radiating from the undead who had just entered his range.

They were two of the three undead who’d managed to get past the ward so far; Serenity could see others trying but they were slow and backing up at the edge of the circle of stones. Their eyes glowed faintly; it was difficult to see because it was so weak, but he was close enough now to make it out.

There was only one woman inside the circle that was actively fighting the zombies, but there was another pair of people struggling on the ground. Serenity pegged them tentatively as both alive, or at least that they’d both been alive when the undead attacked; most people wouldn’t wrestle with undead unless they were friends. He’d have to confirm it when he got a little closer and they were within his aura’s range. Serenity suspected that the three people were the guards, though three guards didn’t seem like many for the four wagons in the warded circle.

They definitely needed some help.

Serenity activated an ability he hadn’t used in quite a while. It was perfect for the situation, just like it was perfect on Tzintkra.

Eat Death

Absorb Death energy found within the Death Eater’s aura. Absorption based on Affinity. Intensity of absorption can be varied but the ability cannot be completely disabled. Absorbed Death energy may be used as if it were Death mana. Dissipates with time.

Ability damaged

It started slow, not doing much to the zombie closest to Serenity, so he pushed more power at it and called on his Incarnate. He might have gotten the Skill when he first formed his core, but it was no simple low-tier ability once he put the power of an Incarnate behind it.

The two closest zombies fell almost immediately. The woman fighting them stumbled as her attack hit air instead of the zombie’s body. One of them was based on Undeath instead of Death, but that didn’t matter; it was close enough that once Eat Death removed the Death portion, there wasn’t anything left to keep the zombie alive.

There was a feel to the mana when it reached Serenity that was extremely familiar. They were dungeon monsters, which meant he was looking at dungeon overflow of some sort. The fact that they were mixed Death and Undeath implied something worse than a simple dungeon overflow: it implied that either there were multiple dungeons overflowing or that what had come out wasn’t the zombies themselves but something that could raise or control them. At a guess, the odds were that there was a dungeon spitting out undead and another spitting out controllers. That would explain everything.

The undead were very low tier, probably Tier Zero or Tier One. If there was something stronger, this wouldn’t be so simple; they were barely holding together even before he started pulling on their Death mana. Between his higher Tier and their lower Tier, they were far easier to kill than the undead on Tzintkra.

The next closest undead was interesting because it didn’t quite sit in the body correctly; on top of that, it was currently pinned to the ground by one of the living guards, who seemed to be trying to keep it still instead of killing it. Serenity pushed Magesight active for a moment and confirmed his assumption: he was looking at a possessed man. That was a far better option than the next most likely situation; contagious undeath was very annoying to deal with.

Serenity flared Eat Death again, focusing it on the ghost in the man’s body, and the spirit dissolved into shreds of mana and essence, feeding into Serenity’s temporary additional Death mana pool. The Skill didn’t mention it, but he noticed that there seemed to be a little temporary Death-affinity essence gathering as well. “You can let him up, he’s fine now.”

The woman closest to Serenity was the first to react. She’d recovered from her missed swing and was already fending off another zombie when Serenity spoke, but his words pulled her attention away from her strike and caused her to miss. “What, who are you?”

Serenity shook his head and concentrated on that zombie next. He didn’t reply until it was falling. “We’re here to help.”

Serenity looked into the fading light ahead of him. There weren’t many zombies or ghosts in the camp yet, but he could see a whole horde coming. Killing one at a time with his aura was working for now as they stacked up at the edge of the warded circle and slowly worked their way in, but he was going to need to be faster than that when the horde arrived.

Serenity moved forward to get his aura outside of the warded circle; he wanted to see if he could adequately work on the zombies to kill them before they got through the wards.

“You’re the necromancer who raised these things, aren’t you?” The female fighter had her sword up, between her and Serenity.

Serenity turned his attention towards her. It didn’t mean he had to slow down his eating of the death energy of the zombies. “What? No. These are dungeon monsters. We heard the screaming and decided to come help.” Serenity debated with himself for a moment, then added to the answer. “Plus, I don’t want a horde of zombies with the occasional ghost, specter, or revenant to find us in the middle of the night. That’s never a pleasant wakeup call. I am concerned, though; is the overflowing dungeon close?”

“If there is one in the Dead Swamp, no one’s ever been able to find it. People have tried.” Andarit was inside the circle as well. Good.

Serenity glanced down to see the man restraining the formerly-possessed man still holding him down. “I meant what I said, he’s not possessed any more. You can let him up.”

Serenity could see the two of them talking, then the one on top let the restrained one up, so he turned his attention to what was happening outside the ward.

Several of the zombies slumped to the ground outside the warded circle. They seemed to be the weakest undead present. Serenity was curious if it would be the lone revenant next or if it would be the weakest ghost. The specter that was within his aura was probably the strongest creature there.

“Your eyes glow like theirs.” The lady guard was still staring at Serenity instead of turning her attention back to the undead.

“It’s a Sight Skill,” Serenity admitted. “They often make the eyes glow. The undead are using one to find the living; most undead don’t see using their eyes. I’m using my Magesight to see them, since some of them don’t have physical forms. Doesn’t have anything to do with necromancy.”

“It’s not the same color,” Andarit added. “Plus Serenity’s is a lot brighter. He’s not a necromancer; Father would never let a necromancer guard me. He hates the undead, goes to the Dead Swamp a few times a year to cull them.”

Andarit had an awful lot of faith in her father’s ability to figure things out, didn’t she? Serenity made a mental note to talk to her about that. He wasn’t sure if he’d admit that he actually was a necromancer or not. He definitely was one, even if he didn’t have the Path for it, but telling her that might not be a good idea. It certainly wasn’t a good idea to contradict her here.

“I’m good at killing undead.” It was the best reply Serenity could come up with. There was no reason to mention that the same Affinity that made him good at it was also the Affinity he’d use to raise the dead if he chose to. “Right now, that’s what you need. I don’t like the looks of that horde.”

The guards had only managed to handle a dozen or so zombies before it fell apart; it looked like they’d been managing until a ghost possessed one of them. Serenity suspected that at least one of the people running earlier was also a guard, possibly all three, but if so they’d dropped their weapons before he saw them.

The revenant fell, followed almost immediately by the weakest ghost. It was definitely slower per undead when he didn’t concentrate his Skill on one zombie, but it was much faster on a group. That was fairly normal, and with the incoming horde the area effect would be useful.

There were dozens of undead coming that Serenity could see now, possibly over a hundred. He could handle them as long as they were slow enough, but they’d bunch up and get around him if he wasn’t careful. If that happened, it was better if it happened outside the warded circle. “I’m going to move forward; take care of any that get around me. Don’t worry about ones near me; if they get too close, I’ll use my ax, but most won’t get that close.”

Serenity moved forward, stopping just outside the warded circle. By the time he got to them, the last of the group pushing at the ward had fallen and he was simply able to move them out of the way.

Three of them had mana cores. Huh. Serenity reached down and was using Loot Core to retrieve the cores when Andarit objected. “Shouldn’t you stay in the circle? They’re protected and will slow the undead down.”

Serenity snorted. He’d already realized that. “That’s why I’m not in there with you. I don’t need them slowed down, but if they go past me, you might.”

“Next you’re going to tell me you have a Skill to counter undead corruption.” Andarit’s voice had an odd note in her reply. Was she both amused and annoyed? Or was she just teasing him?

Serenity wasn’t sure, so he decided to act like she was teasing him. He turned and flashed a grin at Andarit. “Of course I do.”

Eat Death worked on undead corruption really well. He’d proven that on Tzintkra. He could handle Death magic without it, but it definitely made things easier.