Back in the county of Protaris, the ruler had been having a serious headache for quite some time. Having to temporarily shut down the mines to find the source of the infection, Protaris poured a ton of resources into it, finding everyone who was working in the mines to hear our all their stories and ideas on the origin. Nothing was found.
After a while, the temporary shut down became indefinite. With the amount of people sick, all his businesses lost their manpower, the mines were abandoned, the production ran at the lowest performing rate ever.
If that wasn't enough, the sickness didn't kill, but severely impacted a person's function. Some people survived but lost their memories of their family. It was a national disaster for Protaris, who was seeking a solution.
A cure propped up in the capital and was acknowledged and certified by the Guardians, making it credible enough, the issue was the obscene price they requested. Protaris pleaded with the Duke to request a sample to reproduce the cure himself, yet he denied the petition, stating that a patent was already given by the officials. Overruling that wasn't deemed necessary since the sickness was quarantined in Protaris' county.
The borders were heavily guarded, at the expenses of Protaris, sadly.
The office of Protaris used to be a beacon of prosperity, yet the sour and dour looks on the people displayed the change perfectly. Dorian also hadn't slept in a week, trying to keep things as operational as possible.
"Young Master, we received a report that the cure is working, many people are recovering. Current statistics say that 85% suffer from the aftereffect and have memory loss, the others are mostly fine. The problem is that there are still many more sick that haven't gotten a cure."
"Then tell them to pay for it themselves!"
Dorian kept quiet, knowing full well this wasn't the moment to talk back to him. Without any production, the incoming funds were drying up. The sickness made many merchants move out of town, finding great opportunities somewhere else.
Not only that, but since Duke Vesper made it clear the sickness didn't originate from him, the Duke punished Protaris to solve the issue by himself, making him bare the brunt of all the costs.
His treasury was still somewhat flush with cash, but things weren't looking good.
"I have created a program to get the people with amnesia back into the workforce. Current results show that it has promise in the long run, but there are too many people to work with. Next to that, the remaining family wants to shelter their sick members, as distrust in our methods are starting to appear."
"Why? We used an extremely expensive cure from the capital that was acknowledged by the Guardians themselves. What's the problem?"
"Because some people who receive it still lose their memories. It's clear the effects aren't perfect, but it does lessen the pain and overall harm done to the body. Based on that, some decided to not take the cure, feeling that normal recovery has a higher success rate."
"Have they lost their minds?"
"I don't mean to cause any disrespect, master, but the people who we are talking about are already in a very vulnerable position. Some might say they've been taken advantage of by the merchants."
"There's no such thing, they just must've not read the contracts correctly," waving it aside, Protaris tried to hold back a headache that was forming.
Protaris was having a hard time, mostly because of the epidemic, but also due to his business partners leaving him behind, all with petty excuses on why they can't be here any longer. 'Parasitic pieces of trash! When I get this machine back running, I'll make you all pay!'
The amount of stress that came with ruling a county so large and prolific certainly took a toll on him. If things couldn't get any worse, an urgent knock came from the door. Without even waiting for permission to enter, a man burst through the door.
"My Lord! The Undead have invaded!"
A moment of silence crept in the room as everything in Protaris and Dorian's brains stopped. "What?! Dorian?"
"This is the first I've heard of this! None of the security personnel mentioned anything."
Rushing out of the office, Dorian and Protaris followed the man outside. Large plumes of smoke were visible in the distance. His eyes widening, Protaris couldn't believe it.
The sound of battle were audible, the collapse of buildings created massive clouds of dust and debris flew everywhere. It was a nightmarish sight for the business man. Rushing towards the sounds of battle, he arrived at the main square, where barely any building was still standing upright.
Many of the beings causing the destruction were demons, but plenty didn't have any skin or flesh, simply bones with small horns on their skulls.
In the center of the square, a demon was being restrained by two others as a skinless demon grasped something in the sky, making his hand light up light blue before pressing his palm against the restrained demon. A horrifying scream later, the demon stood up calmly while flexing his body.
"Dorian!"
"Yes, young master!", stepping forward, he conjured a few spells and kept them floating in the air while grasping the open air to take out his decorated saber. He was the only Rank 3 mage present. The demons and undead stared at him for a moment before scattering, avoiding any and all confrontation.
Dorian was expecting a hard battle, yet they avoided him like the plague. The urge to run and kill them was pulling Dorian forward, but he couldn't. Not while he was still protecting his master.
"Young Master! I can't chase after them!"
"Yes you can! Go! I can protect myself," ordering Dorian out, he shot forward like he was being pulled by a string. Rushing to the nearest undead, he instantly cut the body in two, leaving Protaris alone.
The moment his trusty aid left his side, his ears picked up someone approaching. Turning around, he raised his arms, spells at the ready. Soft footsteps approached him, but with all the crackling of the fire and the destroyed environment, it was hard to tell from where.
Spreading his willpower, he avoided the risks.
"What are you doing here?"
A young woman with short brown hair appeared with a few of the mages from the healing institute, their hostility wasn't exactly hidden. Their faces all contorted in creepy smiles, their emotions weren't in control.
"Oh dear, you already forgot my name?", her mocking tone made Protaris think of his elder sister, but he had to push those thoughts aside so as to focus on the many people that appeared with her. Armoring himself in a layer of condensed stone, there was just a slit open for his eyes.
"I'll have you know that colluding with the undead is a criminal offense punishable by death! The same goes for you in the back! If you continue with this, you will no longer have any place at our healing institutions!"
"Hahaha!", laughing her heart out, she truly enjoyed the emotion running through her, "You're a bigger fool than I thought! Weren't you meant to be a strong man?", the woman laughed at Protaris while the members of the institution stepped forward.
It was hard to tell, but pieces of flesh were missing on some, "Who wouldn't help their family in dire times?", one of them said as he pulled a weapon out of his storage ring.
The woman raised her hand, the men and women behind her rushed forward, each carrying spells ready to be fired. Seeing the difference in numbers, Protaris launched a spell towards the ground that destabilized it entirely while also causing a large smoke screen. Flying out of the square, he backed up as far as he could.
Protaris was a business man, not a fighter. He knew spells and wasn't exactly weak, but compared to mages on his Rank, he was pitiable at best.
"Young Master!", from below, Dorian quickly joined him, "Young Master, the undead are everywhere. I've killed at least a hundred, yet they keep popping up."
Being in the air, it was easier to grasp the overall situation, and things looked more dire here than on the ground. As far as his eyes could see, buildings were being destroyed as screams from all over filled his ears. Despite the horrific circumstances, Protaris was trained to stay rational.
'This wasn't a sudden attack. How did they get in so deep? Where did they store their soldiers? No time. Doesn't matter.'
"Dorian, contact my father, request him to come to our aid, and ask him if we can call all the guards we deployed to the border. Make it clear that we're in a national emergency. Contact Duke Vesper and Descartes as well, bordering us, they might arrive sooner."
What he left out was the fact that they might not even bother to support him. Despite the situation, Protaris knew full well what the prospects of his own county were. It was sick, dying, and now overrun with the Undead. Some might come to his aid out of selfish intentions, but whether or not they are selfish, it's aid. The pain would be saved for later.
Doing as told, he quickly wrote messages on his contact device to alert the Duke. "Young Master, what do we do?"
Seeing the burning and destroyed buildings throughout the city, Protaris could only think about the costs to rebuild it all. To him, this was just a temporary setback, or so he wanted to believe.
"Dorian, what is happening? Where are the private military groups, and why aren't they fighting back? They get paid more than enough to shoot in action in case of an emergency!", from what he could see, the undead were easily overpowering the civilians, turning them into undead on the spot. The scenes disgusted him, but more than anything, he was frustrated that nothing was happening, why was nobody shooting into action?
"I do not know, Young Master. The latest report didn't mention anything out of the ordinary, they should still be present, the closest one should be on the eastern side of the city," trying to stay calm, the butler tried his best to keep himself collected. The screaming and destruction around him definitely pulled his strings.
Instantly moving towards the place, they moved back into the streets to avoid any further attention. On the streets, Protaris expected bodies to be covering the streets, yet there were none, most likely all turned into undead. Only a few stray corpses were left, ones that were ripped apart of had lost most of their limbs, most likely not useful to house a soul in.
The thought of all his precious human resources being turned into enemy combatants made it extremely unsettling. The only saving grace was the fact that most of the bodies were just normal humans. Of course, being Undead, they'll be more powerful than the average demon, but nothing compared to mages.
From one of the few buildings still standing upright, a few demons exited. Without knowing what they truly were, Protaris halted his steps. 'Some of the demons were conspiring with them. What could possibly make them give up their fellow neighbors? Were they Undead all along? No that can't be, we... no, we stopped checking for Undead some time ago to save costs. Was I... naive?'
The moment the demons saw Protaris and Dorian approach, they quickly raised their hands to fire off a few spells. Stepping in front of his young master, he waved his hand to deflect all the attacks. A clear display of power, yet the demons didn't lose their smiles as they kept firing despite the large gap between them.
Pressing his hands together before pulling them apart, Dorian unleashed a wave of devastating flames that would burn any normal being to a crisp. These poor demons were no different as the buildings were also caught in the attack.
Their burning bodies stumbled around before jumped out of the fire and continuing to attack. Jolted back from shock, Dorian wasn't sure what to do. Raising a barrier, the attacks mattered little, but the scene freaked him out.
Flesh falling from their bodies, all that remained of the demons where their skeletons and core, still moving as one. Realizing he wasn't dealing with normal demons, Dorian stopped holding back.
Dorian cleared the way of any Undead brave enough to face them. Some weren't even harnessing magical powers but were just rushing towards them with knives and cutlery found in nearby houses. Completely destroying their bones, Dorian unleashed his aura where necessary to pulverize them.
He stopped caring about the question if they were truly Undead or not. If they had a smile, they were targets for elimination. Eventually they reached the stronghold of a local private military.
Normally, the merchants came here to hire mercenaries to protect their goods during travel or as guards at the mines. A large building made from two floors with the first being a large open room and the second containing smaller rooms to discuss contracts.
Reaching the entrance, Dorian pushed the doors open to enter an open space. Stopping in his tracks, the Undead had long invaded this place. Undead mages crowded the place, but that wasn't the issue, Dorian froze in place because he could tell there was a Rank 3 Undead in the room with them.
"Hohoho, so the big boss has finally run out of options to seek refuge here, huh? Didn't expect us to be here, did ya?" a large skeleton with big horns stepped forward. Its core floating inside its rib-cage instead of being in the guts, it had no eyes or any kind of flesh to be seen. Its bones discolored, showing off the beings age.
"This level of destruction reduces usable assets. You're just wasting resources!" part of Protaris couldn't hold himself back from shouting out his thoughts impulsively.
The undead tilted its skull in response. "Do you truly believe this chaos serves no one?"
His blood ran cold, instantly realizing who would be able to gain the most benefits from the situation, his economic perspective still more than active.
"Young Master," almost whispering, Dorian held his arm out to shield Protaris.
'Father, for once, hurry up!'