"P-please, spare me, sir! I will do anything! I will sing for you, I will warm your bed! Don't you want to touch something warm instead of all these corpses, sir necromancer?!"
Aleric paused with a knife raised.
'Something warm..?'
The woman looked up at him hopefully. It didn't matter that Aleric looked only slightly less rotten than his zombies; if she could survive, she was ready to sleep even with him!
"Right," Aleric said, nodding to himself. He set the Spine Staff aside, letting a zombie hold it for him, then took the knife with both hands.
The woman had time only to gasp before Aleric plunged the knife into her chest. While she coughed up blood in her lungs, Aleric gathered the sacrifice's energy.
Afterward, he wiped the knife on the woman's dress and stepped away.
"I have a mattress, but I should've told Samuel to bring a good blanket, too. The nights aren't too cold yet, but they will be when winter comes. Spine Staff, remind me next time my army will be looting something."
"Yes, master." Spine Staff cackled a little. "The gall of this wench—it will serve her good to become your undead servant. Trying to seduce you with things you could just take, ha!"
Aleric turned to look at the staff, then at the dead woman on the ground, then at the staff again.
Before, he wasn't even entirely sure what the woman was talking about. But now a realization dawned on him.
"This is disgusting and stupid, Staff."
The cackling stopped.
"Of-of course, master! I apologize for even mentioning such a possibility! Laying with a walking corpse—"
"Seriously. It's a mystery to me why people keep breeding." Aleric grimaced. "They have to poke each other with the same parts they use to piss. What are they, dogs?"
"Oh."
Aleric shook his head, confused by the mysteries of humankind. Maybe he wasn't able to understand these parts of living beings, because he himself was closer to death and the Dark?
He threw the thought out of his head and returned to his work. There was always more of that.
Again, Aleric drew the ritual circle and used a Raise Undead Servant spell on the woman's corpse. The soul barely needed his summons, and in the soulscape, didn't even try resisting.
Soon, the woman stood in front of Aleric and respectfully called him "master".
And because he used mana from her own death to raise her, the entire process took only a few minutes!
In the same way, Aleric raised the rest of his human prisoners. In a couple of hours, twenty new undead servants were standing there and waiting for his orders.
Aleric called his right-hand lieutenant to him.
"Samuel, since you commanded an entire chapter house of templars, you should know how to organize an army's supplies, right?"
"Somewhat, master. The logistics of our chapter house were in a large part the task of another brother templar."
"Well. Either way, I want you to take these people," Aleric gestured at the undead servants, "and set them to work fixing my undead and their equipment."
Samuel looked at the two dozen former peasants. No matter who they were before: men, women, elders, or even children, now all they listened with absolute loyalty that replaced their every worry.
Logically, Samuel knew that this was all evil and abhorrent. But because of his loyalty, it felt right. Almost like bringing people to the Light felt before…
Suddenly, something in his dead heart clicked in place.
"Gladly, master. These people will find their purpose serving you," he said with conviction that made Aleric raise his brows, and saluted with a fist pressed to his chest.
So far, the former justicar was almost emotionless, but now it felt like a new spark appeared in him. Aleric hoped it meant Samuel would recover more of his old skills, or even learn new ones.
"After you're done with this, prepare the army for a march. I want to start moving at nightfall."
"Yes, master. What about the cattle? They can't travel at the same pace as the undead—they need rest and care. And they can't sleep in a cart, like you."
Aleric huffed.
"I wish I could take it with me as spare sacrifices… But since I can, I will kill them all today. The Staff has been teaching me some magic that I can spend the extra mana practicing."
"Very well, master. And where will we be marching? If it's Oakdale on your mind, then I advise you to reconsider. Taking Oakdale itself with your current forces would be… Near impossible, master. This city has walls and proper defenses in case of a siege."
Aleric smirked.
"Where to march next? You tell me. I don't want to waste time scouring tiny villages over the entire countryside, but Oakdale isn't the only city in this county. There are smaller towns where I can bolster numbers with new and old dead. Towns without walls. Ah… I remember one—what was its name?.."
"Probably Tronvill, master. A small market town… It has a temple, and templar patrols, but not a chapter house."
"Perfect. If I remember the area correctly, we should reach it in a full day. Then I will have enough numbers to take Oakdale. After which…"
Aleric chuckled to himself.
As long as he had time and sacrifices, his army would grow and grow without stopping. His undead were of low quality right now, but they could still drown the enemy in bodies. Even high-ranked clerics, those who could with a single spell destroy a thousand undead or bless a thousand soldiers, would still run out of mana eventually.
"First, the town. Then the city. Then, the entire province. And after that—all of Aleshat!"