I became a legion lich

243 Fortress D

“I will ignore your past and current rudeness, as you are not thinking rationally out of anger.” Canan spoke while crossing his arms, squinting at Eishin.

“Haah. I’m sorry about that, I’m not on my best days.” Eishin’s gaze softened and he rose, descending the throne stairs to meet Canan toe-to-toe. Eishin was still looking at the holograms anxiously, but he wasn’t acting arrogant anymore.

“No problem. We all have personal problems and ghosts from the past that haunt us to this day. I probably would have done the same thing in your place.” Canan also softened his tone and looked pityingly at his old friend.

“Now, do you mind explaining why you’ve turned down all my calls up until now? Eirin and I were worried you’d do something stupid.” Canan asked after the weather had improved enough.

“Working on my personal projects. I can’t reveal details, but I assure you it’s nothing that could affect our agreement with the other Gods, that much I can guarantee.” Eishin kept his grand ascension plan to himself and the seraphim only, keeping it a secret even from Canan and the cherubim.

“I won’t lie and say that answered anything, but I’m going to trust you.” Canan replied before turning to the holograms. “Is everything okay on your side?”

“As good as it could be.” Eishin replied indifferently. “And on your side? If you’re here, who’s watching the strongholds?”

“I have trusted servants to do that. Focusing on watching holograms with nothing going on won’t change anything, so I preferred to come here and visit him. They’ll call me as soon as the battles start, so I won’t miss anything.” Canan replied with a despondent shrug.

“Order mages are not weak and their technology is the best that currently exists, but morals couldn’t be lower. They are arrogant, spoiled and cowardly, acting arrogantly and bragging about their powers, only to cower when they are really needed.” Canan began to vent about how useless the order mages were, making Eirin cringe in the corner of her mind.

.....

“I couldn’t agree more. The order is a disgrace to humanity, a place where degenerates and criminals gather, committing inhumane crimes in the open and can pay to escape their punishment.” Eishin spoke with disgust and Canan didn’t say anything to correct him as he was of the same opinion.

The guarding cherubs all nodded in disgust, feeling disgusted just thinking about the order of magic. Unlike the three kingdoms, where the order of magic was seen as an organization that gathered the most talented and trained them to develop their talents, in the Makima empire they were seen as a place that gathered the ambitious and disloyal mages, a dangerous place where the most strong reigned and the weak were trampled underfoot.

Most of the Caria empire’s mages or young talents joined the army or imperial mages, leaving only the rotten apples for the order.

“So we can only wait and hope the cowards of the order do their job. There’s nothing more we can do now.” Eishin concluded with a defeated sigh, feeling frustrated that he couldn’t do anything.

‘Even after ordering Samael to advance the ascension plans, it will still be a few decades before we purify the energy of the world enough for our plans. Can the continent of Caprio hold out for that long? Eishin questioned himself, the defeat of the human kingdoms was already a sure thing in his mind.

It wasn’t just the trauma that made him pessimistic, it was the harsh reality of someone who lived during the age of chaos, someone who experienced the terror of giants firsthand. Even if the evolved demihumans only had a fraction of that power, it would be enough to level the three countries even with the help of the order and the church.

The rest of the continent would also fall in a few years and the Adula continent would be next. The Nytrer continent was on the other side of the world and if the evolved demihumans wanted to attack them, they could just travel east and invade them.

The dimensional storage ring on Canan’s finger began to glow, interrupting Eishin’s thoughts and drawing everyone’s attention. This only happened when the ring’s wielder injected mana or someone tried to interact with an item within the dimensional ring, causing the teleportation crystal in the ring to glow.

“Looks like we were the first, lucky for us.” Canan muttered with a wry smile, taking a communication cube from his ring. A hologram immediately appeared on top of the cube, revealing the face of one of Canan’s royal guards.

“Sir, the demihumans have become visible on the horizon of D fortress.” The guard reported right away, but his voice was sour and he seemed to be bothered by something. The order hadn’t bothered to name all the fortresses they had to build, they just used letters to designate them.

“Damn it, why of all places did it have to start with him?” Canan clicked his tongue in annoyance.

“What’s wrong with this fortress? The defenses weren’t completed in time?” Eishin asked doubtfully and Canan shook his head in denial.

“That’s not the problem. The problem is who is left to defend the fortress.” Canan complained. “We leave the defense of the fortress to former Elder Louis Zahara and his undead army.”

“The one responsible for destroying the portal tower and so many other crimes? Did you let this guy live?” Eishin asked shocked, doubting Canan’s sanity. “How could you leave a bastard like him alive and in charge of an entire fortress?”

The news that the black elder was judged and lost his position spread throughout the empire and beyond, reaching Eishin’s ears.

“Alive yes, in command never. We allowed Louis to live because of the emergency we are in, but he became a war slave and will only live as long as the war lasts. He was also forced to share all his knowledge with the order .” Canan explained his motives, but Eishin laughed.

“Like I said, paying to get away with it. Want to bet me he’ll get away before the end of this war?” Eishin scoffed at the idea and wagered with the guarding cherubs.

“You’ll probably bite your tongue when you find out what that bastard was researching. That motherfucker was a sick genius, but a genius nonetheless.” Canan spoke, but refused to share any details and Eishin didn’t insist much.

He climbed the stairs again and sat on his throne, but there was no arrogance in his posture this time. The Divine Palace also changed shape and created a second seat next to him and Eishin waved his hand for Canan to sit next to him.

“Let’s watch the battle then. I’m curious to know how strong this dark elder is for you to have spared him even with so many crimes.” Eishin spoke as Canan sat down.

Canan ordered the guard on the other side to transmit the images from Fortress D to his cube and zoomed in on the hologram above them so that the angels below could see it as well.

“It really is a big army for a single necromancer. He must be as talented as he is disgusting.” Eishin spoke with disgust, looking at the undead gathered inside the fortress.

There were over 10,000 zombies and 5000 skeletons, mostly human and having full armor and equipment. In the middle of the zombie army, a death knight was riding a zombie horse, carrying a spear bigger than him in his right hand and a tower shield in his left hand.

Its armor covered its entire body and it was impossible to distinguish its original race, but it appeared to be a human or elf by its size.

500 lichs were waiting behind them, wearing tattered cloaks and carrying long black wooden staffs. A lich wearing a black cloak with dark green embroidery, which the human Gods recognized as an elf by the pointed bones where his ears should have been, was standing in front of the mages.

Louis was waiting just behind the army, but he wasn’t alone. Standing like a statue just to his right was a Zombie Drake, a lesser dragons like the wyverns or hydras.

The Zombie drake was almost 15 meters long from head to tail, its tail alone measuring 5 meters. His scales were originally orange, but turned darker after becoming a zombie.

Two masters of magic were standing some distance away from the former elder, following Louis like a shadow.

Louis himself was dressed in his finest gear, wearing a simple black robe with suffering white faces appearing and disappearing randomly on its surface. He carried a bone staff in his left hand, with the skull of an unknown deer monster.

He wore silver armor under the cloak, but there was no important detail, just looking like a plate of divine mithril.

Eishin found it odd that a mage wearing such a gaudy cloak and staff would be wearing such plain armor underneath, but Canan seemed to understand what was going on, so he decided there was a reason behind it.