“Annoying roaches!” roared a very angry dracolich as he smashed yet more unwanted and undesirable undead to dust beneath his massive feet. A follow-up attack of gaseous entropic magical energy wiped out the rest of the undead in the immediate area, but Pluton knew for a fact that they would be back, and quite possibly in even greater numbers.

Even though Kain had long since returned from his deep slumber, and although Kain had given the undead here a full pardon, Pluton still had a massive bone to pick with what little remained of the former nation of Ititlis and the cursed undead remains of the people who once called it home. He had made it his mission in unlife to wipe this place clean, and while there was little to nothing left standing and the land was corrupted and desolate beyond any reasonable normal limit, the fact remained that something still called it home.

So long as the undead kept rising, he would not stop his endless, self-imposed, Sisyphean task. Like that great sinner who now rolls a boulder up a mountain for eternity, Pluton was trapped in an infinite loop of wiping out the risen dead, moving on, and then having to eventually come back and put them down again. But, to him, it was kind of just another job at this point.

He didn’t need to eat, drink, sleep, or breathe, and he now had a set schedule that he had created over the course of his pointless, self-imposed task. He had a full, precise patrol route that let him arrive at a place just moments after the last undead there would rise, and he knew exactly how much force he would need to get rid of all of them, albeit temporarily. And, of course, he couldn’t just do this song and dance for this long without finding some way to make it less tedious and monotonous.

As such, he added a bit of dialogue here and there, along with a bit of showboating. By now the massive undead dragon was fast, efficient, and able to keep his sanity intact despite the endless loop he had put himself in. That said, he had noticed something rather strange during this most recent loop. Fewer undead had appeared this time, and not just in the most recent group that he had sent back to the grave. No, there were fewer in each group that he had deleted, and while that was welcome, he did feel a bit unnerved by it.

To put it in perspective, it was a bit like doing a tedious 9-5 job with a set, unwavering schedule, with both an office and coworkers that never changed, only to come in one day and instantly notice that there were fewer people than average and that a few cubicles had been removed. Add in the fact that no warning was given, and you would begin to see why the dracolich was concerned. Still, maybe this was just a sign that his self-imposed job was finally nearing its end, and if that was the case, then it would be most welcome.

After all, he needed to do something different after all this time, and there was a war going on across the sea that he wanted to get himself into. He would need to see if the loop was finally ending, though. If it was, then he may yet have finally gotten the reprieve that he wanted, even though he was already free to leave whenever he wanted.

…

“HAHAHAHAHA! AT LAST! VICTORY!”

The booming, deep rumble of Pluton’s near manic voice echoed out over a dead land. After his third loop, the last of the undead annoyances were gone! He had done it! That damnable land was now utterly free of the last vestiges of that which formerly resided in it! He had won, and it only took him a few hundred thousand loops around the whole damned corpse of a nation!

The oversized undead lizard was giddy with excitement, and he felt more powerful than ever before. It was almost as if the endless destruction that he had caused had gradually empowered him, growing his strength to a level that even he hadn’t expected. It still was a far cry from Kain or Alexis, and even their own children were quickly catching up to his own level, but damn he felt strong!

Just to be sure that his task was finally done, he finished one last loop around the former nation to check and see if he was, indeed, done. Rather than fly close to the ground, he increased his altitude and looked down upon the corpse of a once-great nation, which was, as he had hoped, utterly devoid of all living and undead things. He did note that there seemed to be channels cut through the landmass in a sort of odd, almost spell-circle-like manner. Perhaps the unwanted pests had done something without him noticing?

Well, it didn’t matter. They were now gone, and hopefully for good this time. He was finally able to proclaim that his mission (one that only he had forced upon himself) was accomplished. Now all that was left was to fly down to the continent south of his current position and deal with the bastards in that neck of the woods. They would pay dearly for trying to kidnap the Royal Twins, and they would pay dearly for starting this war.

He wondered if they even understood what was about to come their way, or if they even had a counter for it. Well, in the end, he was stronger than any creature down there, with the exception of that annoyingly self-absorbed tree. He didn’t expect anything in Arcfira to give him a challenge at all. After all, it wasn’t like they had a dragon or two at their disposal, and even if they did, it would not be able to match him blow for blow.

He was unique. He was special. He was more powerful than any other dragon, and if he needed to prove that with force of arms then he would make all other dragons (if they existed) bend the knee before him. Nothing would stand in his way of becoming worthy of being Kain’s mount once again, and if anything did try and do so, he would break it, devour it, and take its power for his own. He twisted his body in the air and made his way down south, silently hoping that something down there would be a worthy challenge.