Deus Necros

Something in Ludwig’s inner pocket vibrated once. Distracting him from what almost turned into a disaster.

Picking it up, it was the communication crystal. The vibration was small, but insistent, like someone tapping a nail against glass.

Ludwig’s gaze narrowed. The crystal only rang when someone with access wanted him now, not later, and the timing was annoyingly perfect.

The only people who had his communication number were all the way up in Solania, fighting hordes of enemies. If any of them called him for whatever reason, then that was reason enough to be worried.

“Hmm, is it working?” he heard. This was the voice of Kaiser.

“Kaiser? What’s going on?” Ludwig asked as he noticed that the Lich was somewhere familiar.

The crystal’s view snapped into clarity in that slightly warped way these devices always did, colors a little off, edges slightly blurred as if reality was being viewed through water.

Even so, Ludwig recognized the place immediately. The tubes, jars of organs, and the familiar brown brick walls were those of the Black Tower laboratory.

The lighting there was colder than the forge, and the air looked damp with chemical vapor. It felt like a place where life was treated like a resource rather than a right.

“Ah, I can hear you, can you hear me?” he asked.

“Yes, loud and clear. Seems like you succeeded in your… possession.”

“It’s not possession, it’s more like a full migration. There is no soul that is competing with me. I’m fully bound and linked to this body; no one would think otherwise… Well, the fact that I’m an Undead is sadly still unsolved.”

Kaiser’s tone carried that particular blend of pride and annoyance he always had when discussing his own work.

Ludwig could almost picture him gesturing at himself off-screen like a scholar presenting a thesis, except the thesis had organs floating in jars behind it.

“There is nothing sad about being an undead that can sense.”

“That is true,” Kaiser said.

“So what did you call me for? I’m kinda busy.”

“Oh, just wanted to show you something, and I have some news,” Kaiser said as he turned the crystal around.

The view rotated, and Ludwig’s eyes fixed immediately. Two people were hanged by their arms. The scene was lit harshly, with no shadow to hide details. They had nothing left on their bodies in terms of flesh or skin. Their bodies were literally bones, nerves, and blood vessels. The nerves looked like pale threads stretched tight. The blood vessels pulsed faintly in places, just enough to prove the horror was still alive.

And their hearts were still beating.

“Damn, what have you been doing? And what are those?” Ludwig asked, both shocked and surprised.

“I’m a bit saddened that you didn’t recognize them. These are the two that were caught at the palace a couple of months ago. I’ve known what was going on thanks to a few… birds of mine. And acted when they were taken to prison. I didn’t want them to say the wrong thing, it’ll make your days more annoying.”

Kaiser said it like he was explaining a minor correction made to a plan, not a cruelty engineered into a display.

Ludwig’s first reaction was not moral outrage. It was the same practical irritation he always had when someone interfered with his plans.

Those two had been his loose ends to tie. Kaiser had tied it with a knot made of insanity.

“Are you telling me that’s Sebas and Evan?”

“I don’t know their names, but one of them did say that he used to work under Van Dijk and he’ll avenge him.”

Ludwig snorted. “Yeah, right. That’s probably them. What happened? Did you turn them into undead? Skeletons, I guess?”

“No.” The lich said. “They’re very much alive… well… as close to alive as one could…”

“Why did you do that?” Ludwig asked.

“I thought you’d like the gift.”

“Not really,” Ludwig said, “After all, it feels like you stole something from me.”

“Ah, have I ruined your revenge?”

Ludwig sighed, and in that sigh, there was more exhaustion than anger.

He had imagined a lot of punishments for those two, and he had prided himself on being creative when it came to suffering.

Yet looking at that display, he couldn’t pretend he would have reached this level. Kaiser had taken revenge and turned it into a laboratory project.

“Nah, you made my revenge feel pointless. It’s fine,” Ludwig sighed as he looked at Noctivex.

There was some sort of resonance, or understanding.

Noctivex must have felt it. The lack of satisfaction was almost worse than the satisfaction itself, because it meant the whole concept of revenge could still fail to fill whatever hole it was meant to fill. Ludwig didn’t like that.

Ludwig obtained his revenge. Yes, but… it didn’t feel satisfying for Ludwig.

“Are they dying soon?” Ludwig asked.

“Not as long as I’m here.”

“Are they in pain?” Ludwig asked.

“As much pain as they can mentally suffer without breaking,” Kaiser replied.

Ludwig watched the hanging bodies through the crystal and felt something in him settle into a colder place.

He didn’t need to see their faces to know what they were. Fear reduced to a reflex. Pride stripped away.

The punishment was complete in a way Ludwig hadn’t planned for, and it irritated him because it removed choice.

“Then keep them that way. Until I think otherwise, that should be good enough punishment for what they did to me. Let them suffer. Now, tell me what the other thing you wanted to tell me?”

“Ah, yes, it was the reason I called, mainly. I need to come with you,” he said.

“To?”

“To the Tower.”

“I’m sure that the tower only allows one person per instance.”

“I’m an Undead servant, I can be pocketed inside your book the same as Gale.”

“Sure then, the more the merrier.”

“But I do have to warn,” Kaiser said.

“What is it? I don’t like it when you speak half thoughts.”

“Yes, my apologies. For the tower, its difficulty increases based on the person’s powers. You’re already strong, and if the two of us are added, it’ll get even more difficult.”

Ludwig’s mind ran the math automatically. Adding Kaiser and Gale might turn the trials from brutal into absurd. Yet Ludwig’s target wasn’t the Tower itself. It was what waited beyond.

“Doesn’t matter, my goal isn’t to clear the tower, it’s to take down Pride.”” Ludwig said as he pushed the crystal away from his face.

“Good, then once you’re at the entrance to the tower, you can reverse summon me. I’ll be by your side faster than you could blink.”

“I’ll do that then,” Ludwig said and hung up.

The crystal’s glow faded, leaving Ludwig back in the forge’s dim quiet with Noctivex in his hand and Nightbreaker at his side.

The coals popped softly. Somewhere deeper in the building, wood settled with a small creak. Ludwig didn’t move for a moment because he could feel the Heart of Wrath stirring again, that inevitable return of pressure and noise. It was as if his Heart was anticipating. Hoping, waiting, and longing. Not for a loved one, but for one that it could finally let loose against.