Ein's sickly-red skin continued to deepen in colour. Very small, but visible openings began to pop up everywhere on his skin. Black oily liquid seeped through the holes. Perhaps this was not the intended effect of the poison, but perhaps the poison itself served as a catalyst to
something in Ein's system.
The black oil poured down on the ground, melting all the life it touched.
--- --- ---
Steorra sighted Nick in the distance. What could he be doing here? She flew over to the speeding figure.
-"Hello, I believe I know you from somewhere... You're Nick, right? Why are you here?"
--- --- ---
"Reading "School of Destruction for Noobes" was definately a great pastime. The process of casting a fireball was particularly intriguing:
"1. Stretch hand in front of chest. Open palm."
Holding the book with one hand and stretching my other one directly in front of me, I complied.
"2. Concentrate arcane powers in palm. A tiny spark should appear."
I closed my eyes, and channeled my energy to my palm. A bloodied skull appeared on my hand, its brains seeping through the eye sockets, undoubtedly runing my great robes. Hilarious.
Carefully landing the book on the table, I threw the skull into the air and gave it a good kick. The skull was sent flying across the room, and right out the window. A nasty "crack" followed.
I tried again, this time instead of using my Necromancer powers, I attempted to imagine a comet burning in my hand. My hand turned red, but otherwise I did not have much success. Bah! To hell with this stupid fireball. Let's try something simplier.
I flipped back to the table of contents. Let's see...
"P. 2 - Don't read this
P. 4 - Simple things even a noobe should know
P. 6 - The four elements - Hotness, Wet stuff, Dirt, and 'that other one'
P. 12 - The REAL four elements - Fire, Water, Earth and Air
P. 20 - Casting that first lightning bolt
P. 53 - The NEXT LEVEL - Casting the Fireball"
Oh, grand. I missed more than 50 pages. Well, I suppose it's back to the lightning bolt for me...
I flipped to page 20. A strange illustration depicting a positively triangle-headed man being stuck by a lightning was the first thing that caught my attention. He had a rather surprised look on his face, and his hair seemed to stand up. I looked down to find the steps.
"1. Hold hand in front of self. Close palm."
I complied, feeling a bit dumb.
"2. Letting the power flow through your fingers, slowly open palm.
Remember! As outlined in "Things even a noobe should know", be very careful not to shake your hand too much. A beginner's power may be unstable, and could go off in the wrong direction!"
This time trying not to draw power from my Necromancer reserves, I thought of energy flowing freely through myself. I even felt that sort of sensation, as if I were a hose that water was pumped through.
Taking my sight off the book, I glanced at my palm. It was shaking. Very carefully, I opened it up a little...
There were small arcs of electricity zapping in between my fingers, as if a dome! I did it!
Someone knocked at the back door. Without looking behind me, I yelled out "come in!"
-"My Marshal... there is something you need to know..."
Recognizing one of my advisors' voices, I turned around and held up my accomplishment.
-"Am I great or am I great, Necirrejel?"
-"You are truly a blessing, my Lord... however... the Mervanians are acting up..."
The force of the latter statement felt like a punch in the face. Before I knew what I was doing, I exclaimed:
-"WHAT?!"
Drowned by choking surprise, completely forgot about the power accumulated in my hand. Without realizing it, my palm opened up completely. Necirrejel barely dodged the incoming lightning, which blew a respectable hole in the wall behind him.
-"It's a good thing that your wife keeps the Bintmeat in her highest shelf, Necirrejel, otherwise all that lard of yours would be just as roasted as the rest of you. Surely you wouldn't want to burden me with reviving another corpse? Besides, having a hole in the middle of yourself is totally out of fashion, even amongst my
non-living citizens..."
Necirrejel blushed and said nothing.
-"Yes... anyways, back to that Mervanian situation we were talking about... What was so direly important as to disrupt me from my studies?"
-"I'm sorry, my Lord... but they say that if we do not provide them with sufficcent pigfish by Noyabr, they will leave..."
I took a deep sigh of relief.
-"Well, what's the problem, then? Assemble the fishermen, and get to it!"
-"My Lord... the fishermen are too starved to fish... I checked myself..."
-"Ah, is that the case, now. Well, tell them that if they don't catch enough pigfish, food will be the least of their worries. Meanwhile, subtly triple their pay."
-"Triple?... Yes, my Lord..."
-"Of course. In fact, Nova Sanctum is coming up, isn't it?"
-"Yes, my Lord... In four days..."
-"Oh my. Make that six times their pay. Increase everyone else's by three, for at least two months. Also, cancel all executions due this week."
-"You seem generous, my Lord... may I inquire why?..."
-"You may not. Now get lost, or the next bolt isn't going to miss."
-"Of course, my Lord..."
The chubby man hurried out of the room, while I picked up my book and continued reading."
--- --- ---
Horus finished attaching the cords to his new Conversion engine. He grumbled with satisfaction as he heard the initiating hum.
Just then, he noticed the blurry golden streak, heading right for Draven. Giving his maul a nice spin, he slammed it right on top of the mechanism, just before it reached the Emperor. Considering the weight of the maul and the speed of the moving eagle machine, this feat would never be even dreamt of by a normal human being.
