Chapter 1

  “Look, Kid, you’re not listening to the words that are coming out of my mouth,” Hades, god of the dead and undead, said as he slumped back into a black iron throne and let out a sigh.

  “I am listening, but slavery is something I will not budge on. You lived here for several thousand years, you know how that plays out and the atrocities committed under the guise of necessity,” Drew Wright shook his head firmly and locked eyes with the god.

  Three months had passed since the final destruction of the Devil incursion and the elimination of the Slosth threat, and much had changed for both Sanctuary and the world itself during that time. One such change was the Temple of Hades that had been built, which acted both as a place of worship and petitioning, but also as a place of education, one that Hades himself had dedicated an avatar to leading. The school wing was where Drew and Hades now stood, repeating the same conversation that had played out countless times before.

  “You really should have been a warrior or something, because you almost never use that muscle in your skull for critical thought and reflection,” Hades retorted, burying his head in his hands. “I am a god, for fucks sake, I should not need to spell things out to The Lady’s Champion.”

  I do too use my brain… most of the time.

  “You. Are. Mortal,” Hades tapped a finger on his leg with each word, “You are neither undead, machine, nor a god. You are limited by what your mortal coil can process. The fact that you can command as many minions as you do without having an aneurysm is solely due to your race as a Dhampir and the benefits it provides. But ultimately, you are still limited. Your brain cannot multitask to the level you’re wanting it to, that’s why The Baleful Lady and I both suggested mucking about with your template options.”

  “And I did that. But I ended up getting my soul shattered in the process and created an entire race of sapient slaves bound to my will,” Drew argued. He had raised his voice this time, it wasn’t intentional, but he was becoming frustrated. This wasn’t their first conversation, nor their tenth. The god just didn’t seem to understand his flat-out aversion to sapient slavery.

  “Yes, you did do that,” Hades nodded before adding, “But neither I, nor The Lady ever told you or even suggested you do that. We told you to experiment, specifically in the hopes that you would find a solution on your own without us needing to hand-hold you through the entire process. It seems as though our high expectations of you blinded us to the fact that you needed more assistance than we originally thought.”

  “Uh… what? I’m not following…”

  “Of course you’re not, because you’re not thinking about what we tell you. Neither one of us has suggested that you use an army of sapient beings enslaved to your will, and if your stopped to consider what we were telling you, then maybe you would have seen that sooner. But alas, here I am in my own temple and instead of teaching your citizens about the multiverse, The System, and necromancy, I’m here dedicating this avatar’s time to making…”

  “Okay, okay. Just get to the point will ya? I don’t need a lecture.”

  “Ugh,” Hades groaned, “You do need a lecture. Fine. Look, there are many ways for a mortal to use an undead army without dying or turning into a vegetable. You found one way, a single way out of thousands, and one of the less savory ones at that. Ultimately you decided to turn them loose and grant them freedom, which I am whole-heartedly proud of. But there are other ways.”

  Well duh, that’s what I’ve been asking for help with for the last three months. But you always go into lecture mode and my eyes glaze over when you repeat the same talking points over and over.

  “And what ways would be good options for me specifically?”

  “That’s what I’ve been trying to get you to think about,” Hades stood up from his throne with a jolt of force and waved his hand. A white, dry erase board popped into existence behind him along with writing. Then the board extended, and extended. Soon the board that Drew had so often seen in school had wrapped around both the large room and itself several times over.

  “What’s all this?”

  “These,” Hades said waving at the boards, “Are all options. But rather than let you loose to read everything and potentially make another mistake that you end up regretting, and thus put me in a similar situation all over again, I’m instead going to ask you some questions. Your answers will filter down these options to applicable ones. Apparently, giving you subtle hints these past few months has not born fruit, so now we’re going to do this a different way.”

  “Why didn’t you do this in the first place?” Drew asked.

  Hades stared at Drew for a minute before sighing while a small smile pulled at his right corner of his mouth, “Because we both thought that you had the capacity to figure this out on your own without divine assistance. Which, in all fairness, you probably do. But I am tired of repeating the same advice to you week after week when I have students here to teach. I suggested that you reevaluate your options and think deeply on them before moving forward, but much to my annoyance, you seem to have thought that I was only encouraging you to continue using sapient undead, and as such have made no progress on alternatives. Of which there are many.”

  In the three months that had passed, many people, not just of Sanctuary, had taken up the worship of Hades. For a while he was the only god in town, as The Lady refused to offer anything in exchange for worship. That all changed once The Baleful Lady departed to go back to her realm. Once she was gone, the other gods descended onto Earth, or at least avatars of them.

  Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

  Those gods and goddesses came in every shape, color, and flavor of divinity that was possible. Some were of hope, justice, fertility, and light. Others were of revenge, war, decay, murder. It wasn’t all so black and white however, there were plenty of craftsmen related gods, or gods of more esoteric designs. And they all swooped down onto Earth like a pack of hungry used car salesmen.

  For Sanctuary, there were three main factions. Those who worshipped The Baleful Lady and, by extension, Hades. Those who kept to their old faiths, and a small, but vocal minority that followed the whims of other divines. Agnostics and atheists no longer technically existed with gods becoming common knowledge.

  Of course, there were people who refused to acknowledge or worship any of the divine beings for one reason or another, but that was the only common ground they shared as there was no organization behind them.

  “Now, first question, and although I already know the answer… Sapient minions of any kind are bad, yes?” Hades asked pointedly.

  “Of course,” Drew nodded his head as he crossed his arms. The white boards shrunk in number considerably as Drew answered.

  “Good. Now, what about enslaved sapients that had a firm, yet fair, term limit after which they’d either be set free or sent to an afterlife?” Hades questioned.

  Drew scratched his chin. “Hmm… better than outright slavery but not preferable if willing combatants are possible.”

  The numbers of boards shrunk again, this time to the point that only half the room was taken up.

  “And what about your Soulflames?” Hades asked, “You are aware that even though you tell them to live their lives as they normally would, they are still tied to your will, and it is impossible to give them true freedom in the same way as you did for the undead of Bonetown, as it would untether their souls and send them to the afterlife.”

  Bonetown was another one of the recent developments. It seemed that Drew’s former minions had inherited his own awful naming sense when they founded their own settlement. Diplomatically, they had formed friendly ties with Sanctuary. Most of their citizenry felt thankful to Drew for granting them freedom… despite the desperate situation on Earth with the Incursions and lurking C-Grade monsters and Beasts.

  He'd thrown them in the deep end of the apocalypse, so to speak, so not all of the residents were his biggest fans, but most of his ex-minions shared a level of respect for their former master. They were well aware he hadn’t had to free them, and was actually severely reducing his current fighting force by doing so.

  It had been the right thing to do, and Drew never once regretted it, but there had been serious consequences. Towns and cities that had fallen because Sanctuary hadn’t had the manpower to get to them in time were a major source of the guilt and stress. And that was only the tip of the iceberg. Other atrocities were taking place all throughout the world, and even with Sanctuary’s intelligence teams, they only had information from several nearby states.

  The fact was, Drew needed an army.

  “I am aware of the Soulflame situation, yes. But short of any true resurrection that’s the best I can offer them. Outside of Daniel, I try to refrain from interacting with them for any length of time as to not unduly influence them. Last I had heard, several of them had actually immigrated to Bonetown.”

  Hades nodded, “That’s correct. Many of them no longer felt at home among the living, especially with the reminders of their former lives around every corner. But, how would you feel about enlisting their aid in your army?”

  “No, they’re not a real option. Daniel would probably volunteer, but I would never ask anything of them,” Drew frowned at the thought. They had already given their lives once, and they had paid a terrible price to remain on Earth. They could no longer taste anything except coffee, and while workarounds had been found for sexual intercourse, they could not reproduce nor enjoy the sensations reserved for the living. He couldn’t ask even more of them, despite knowing that at least a few of them would take him up on the chance.

  The white boards shrunk until they numbered only three sections.

  “Then you have but three options, but they are options nonetheless,” Hades gestured to the boards with his hands, “Before we go into detail about them, there’s some things you should know. Number one, your former minions that you freed, their powers still remain, but the things they can create are far more limited now that they are no longer connected directly to you. Those mechs and mounts for example no longer function, and the rifles you had built your former army around are far less effective than they once were, but they remain an option, albeit a poor one. More akin to powerful bows and arrows.”

  “Why is that?”

  “They were intertwined with your soul, and your class as an evolved form of Necromancer. That connection was severed to free them, so the power that was once behind both them and their creations is now severely reduced. The Boneweavers can still create outstanding creations, but nothing with such advanced enchantments as before. Think of them as a new race, with skills commensurate with their age and experience. Most of them are mere months old and likely no more powerful or skilled than the humans of Sanctuary. As with all creatures under the System, they will grow, but if you intend to utilize them or convince them to join or trade with you, you should have realistic expectations.”

  Damn… and after all that work that went into getting those things operational in the first place…

  I was hoping I’d at least still be able to access some of the bone magi-tech, if not the minions themselves. I won’t be able to organize an army in the same way without those rifles or support from those mounts and mechs. I’m going to need to rethink the entire structure of my army.

  If the Boneweavers and their creations were affected that deeply, then the rest of my former minions have likely had their powers reduced as well since they’re no longer directly tied to my soul. It’s probably less impactful, but I’m sure there’s a noticeable difference now.

  “Secondly, as I mentioned before, mortal necromancers have found workarounds for their mental shortcomings when it comes to minion control. The ‘standard’ format is to use sapient beings in positions of power to act as sub commanders. This was actually what The Lady and I had in mind when we suggested you experiment with the templates. Whether enslaved or not, this is the is one of the ways you can move forward with an army as the subcommanders will share the mental burden of leadership, if they were undead, it would be even more favorable as they wouldn’t be constrained to mortal limitations.”

  “Which means what?” Drew asked as he scratched at this stubble.

  Hades pointed to one of the boards, “It means that you would be able to retain the number of minions you previously had, or more, without facing detrimental effects by simply delegating command to appropriate minions or volunteers. You didn’t need to make every minion sapient.”

  “Ah, that makes sense,” Drew nodded, flushing slightly and scratching at some stubble on his face.

  “Lastly, each of the three remaining options are mutually exclusive. Each one requires you specialize your skills and locks you onto that progression path. You would face extremely harsh penalties both to your soul and from The System itself if you were to attempt to re-specialize down the road. Therefore, I recommend you take your time to think about each option before deciding.”

  “So, no takes-backsies?”

  Hades chuckled, “No. Now, are you ready to hear your options, clearly spelled out to you?”

  “Yes.”