Whispers of A Dead Empire

Chapter 44

As we marched through my domain, a twisted thought entered my mind. The sounds of the undead behind me marching as one reminded me of a character from a movie series I loved watching. The march of a fallen paladin of light, as he marched on his former temple with an army of the church's warriors, now turned traitor. Such a strange thought to enter my mind, but one that made me chuckle nonetheless than we marched on. I even hummed the tune as we walked on, though I knew it was highly inappropriate for the situation.

A few brief minutes later, the stronghold appeared through the thick fog. Its walls, while short, were a bit menacing to behold through the fog. Today it seemed a little thicker than usual, and I couldn't even see the sky through it. Just vast swatches of deep, impenetrable fog so far. The only reason that I was navigating everything so well was the map I had tucked away in the corner of my vision.

We slowly marched around the outer wall and a few undead came into focus on the outer wall. Their forms were hard to distinguish through the fog because of the camo that I made for them. Thankfully, I had a minor road built into the area surrounding the stronghold, which helped guide me to the front gate.

Brown ichor stained the road, and all the bodies were now gone. All that was left was the stench of death and puddles of blood that have long since congealed. My mood was already wavering. This was just too much. I bit my cheek and kept marching into the stronghold, my mood already soured.

In the middle of the courtyard, a large wooden construct that was tiered and held dozens of compartments. In each compartment was a body of the undead, and a few empty ones that I think were made for the incorporeal that perished. Small torches topped with red flames sat on each corner and flickered in the foggy air. All the undead were in a tight formation, each led by a warrant officer, and broken into tiers based on the weapons in use.

The air was deathly quiet outside of the sounds of undead that marched in behind me. To maintain that silence, I sent a sliver of will towards the formation behind me to break off and join their respective elements, while I kept walking forward to my three bosses, who were standing next to the wooden construct. The captain was staring at the now perished undead, his face as impassive as ever, though I felt his pain.

"Hello. Captain, I have brought reinforcements, along with a few changes in the ranking structure. However, that will wait till after the Ceremony." The towering zombie gave me a quick bow, and I turned my attention toward my companion.

"Hello Kharon, thank you for doing this." It meant a lot that he did. I honestly wouldn't have been able to do something like this. It would have hurt too much.

"Anytime, my lady. " I pursed my lips as I watched the undead shuffle forward into the formations. We all stood in silence as we waited. I adjusted my hood and mask as the air felt heavier than before. I reached into my cloak and pulled out the piece of paper that I had written the eulogy on. The paper felt like it weighed a ton and seared my palm.

My heartbeat was heavily in my chest as I tried to shove down the emotions that were swirling through my chest. All my actions set the tone of the domain. So I wanted this moment to be a call for mourning, yet I wanted it to be a call for celebration as well. As I stood there; I realized that the undead have long since finished filling into formation. Now it was me they were waiting for. I let the silence hang in the air for a little longer, out of respect for those that had fallen.

"Ladies and gentlemen of Asteria, I thank you for your service to the empire, and for repelling those that wished to take our stronghold. It was a hard-fought battle, though it wasn't without loss." I stopped there for a moment, letting my words hang in the air before I walked towards the pyre. "Now, we honor those that fell in battle, defending their empress and their empire."