The Ruined Death Knight

"Before we start, let me mention this. There are 3 absolute rules for all of you." Danzel said as he raised 3 fingers for the others to see.

"First, any similar attempts like those of before will have to embrace Death. As it's too annoying to deal with it every time, for each person attacking any of my minions or us, I will additionally kill an innocent from here." He said before lowering one finger.

"Second, you all will follow my will without exception. Those who break it will share the same punishment as the first rule. So make sure to keep the people in check." Once again he closed a finger.

"Third, adding up to the second rule, I will be capable to make use of all of your possessions." Danzel said before closing his last finger and making a first.

"As long as you follow through with those rules, I promise that you won't embrace death as of yet. And to some certain, those who follow me will be under my protection."

Danzel gazed at the three of them with his cold ethereal gaze.

"On those rules, I will make no compromises. In fact, it's easier to kill you all and extract information once you all are turned into the undead. Though for the sake of her...see that as my mercy. Now say your part." Danzel said as put his hand on top of Shiro's head.

Of course, what he told those three was nothing but lies about extracting information from them.

Of course, making them all into undead would essentially make things all the simpler, but making an undead was like creating a completely new being.

That meant that the previous memories of the body would not be available on the undead. Though the undead could inherit some parts of their past living self.

Nevertheless, that was most of the case in the skeleton type of undead, and many exceptional existed in the undead race.

Most notorious of these was ethereal undead-like wraiths, Banshees, and many more.

A perfect example was the Death Spirit, Nersan'rah.

Once a 4th-tier magic caster, re-animated into an ethereal undead with his memories intact.

There was many undead with such nature, some would receive partial memories, complete memories. Though they were quite rare.

But one thing was certain, skeletons, Draugr's, and Anabast's didn't go under that category.

And in fact, Danzel was bullshitting those 3 people in front of him.

Though dead they had some of their uses, what Danzel was desperately in need of was information about those lands.

He simply lied to make them realize the situation that they were in was far from severe.

He also used Shiro as a sign of hope.

Although he wasn't going to play or tell them that he was some kind of primordial god, he didn't mind adding fuel to their imagination.

And by the look on their faces, his threat made them have pale faces.

Well, at least two of them as the supposed priestess were wearing a white wooden mask. Albeit by looking at her tails flying in a chaotic way, he imagine that the meaning behind his words reached.

And he was right.

The so-called priestess was currently under a great deal of stress.

When she followed Danzel, she didn't exactly know what to expect.

And when the group that wanted went to resist the being in front of her, she genuinely thought that everyone will be slaughtered and turned into the cursed beings that the being called "undead".

'He even said that he would have done it if it weren't for her...' She thought as she sneaked a glance at the fox-masked girl opposite her.

But once she looked there, her eyes and Shiro's eyes met with each other despite both wearing masks.

Making her quickly avoid her gaze.

'She is also not so simple...' She thought internally.

The priestess only glanced for a single moment, but even then, the eyes behind the fox mask followed her.

That's when she remembered the discussion of yesterday's gathering.

'They must be the primordial ones!!!'

That was the opinion that many had because the resemblance of the two beings in front of her held an extremely similarity in knowledge of their ancestor. She couldn't help but think the same.

So after thinking it about a while, she couldn't help but ask the two what was on her mind.

"O great ones...as one of the representatives of the village, I will try- No, I will enforce your words on the people of the Vashara village. But for clarity's sake...what should we call you two?"

Upon such question, Danzel turned his gaze towards the masked girl.

"What you call us doesn't matter. Through the years I was called many names from the ten of thousands that I even killed. Some call me Cruel, some call me the Creator and many had called me Death with many more. You people might refer to me as you want, as for her..."

Danzel looked at Shiro for a moment, before grabbing her head with his hand.

"You call her, Shiro... I think you told me that it means white, right?" Danzel asked Shiro.

Shiro in turn nodded at her head.

As Shiro and Danzel were pretty much the whole time together, in between small talk, Danzel remembered that Shiro mention that her name meant white.

'Cruel and Death...and she is white... they should be them then...' The masked girl said contemplating.

As for Danzel's side, though he didn't lie to her, his words were specifically used to sprout further misunderstanding her.

He was once called Abdiel the Cruel while he was a mercenary.

Creator by his creations.

And Death by a few soldiers that he killed.

For a necromancer to gain such titles wasn't all that difficult.

Though for Shiro's name to mean white was a complete coincidence.

And as the name of their primordial was white life, he went ahead and put more fuel to increase the misunderstanding between them.

Although he wasn't keen on playing the role of their primordial God. He knew that if they truly believed it, things will go way smoother.

And while he was in his thoughts, the old man who was also the owner of the house that they were in suddenly spoke out.

"You mentioned that our possessions will be used... Might I ask you for more details" the old man asked Danzel with an extremely worried look.

Danzel looked at him briefly before nodding.

Albeit to the old man, his brief look felt like hours long.

"Firstly, I would like to see where you are making your weapons and where you get resources like the black ice and metal ore. A map for the latter would suffice for now." Danzel said.

The old man nodded somewhat wary before he stands up.

"Then let me show you where our blacksmith is. As for the latter...we don't have a map available as it's guarded information. It will be some time till we can make one accurate one..."

"I will give you 7 days to make you one." Danzel said with a cold voice as he and Shiro followed the old man toward the blacksmith building.

Once they arrived, the difference between this building and the other ones was clear to see, as it was mainly built with stone.

Apparently, the actual blacksmith wasn't here today, for better or worse.

But once Danzel entered the building, he could see a clear difference between this blacksmithing forge and a certain's dwarf forge.

The one in front of him was much smaller compared to the one he was experiencing with.

"I've seen enough, tell the man who works here that I will come and meet him," Danzel said as the 5 of them walked out.

"Now, now show me where you people are burying your dead." Danzel said suddenly.

Making the masked girl look at him shaking.

"W-What might you plan to do there?" She asked.

"I can make someone else guide me if you are not willing." Danzel said while gazing at her and revealing his death aura.

Biting her lips under that mask, she nodded her head unwillingly and showed the way toward the Vashara village graveyard.

Though as a priestess, leading what probably was the primordial god of Harsh Death to their village was a massive sin. Her dying there was a much greater sin.

She was the only one capable of healing magic in her village after all.

Essentially their only doctor.

She was still young and had not arranged an heir, which make it all the worse.

Her death would be a massive blow to the future of the Vashara village.

And soon enough, they arrived in a vast place after walking through an artificial tunnel.

The tunnel lead to a place with a variety of items pierced in the snow. Acting to what Danzel guessed were gravestones.

"The amount of miasma is so little..." Danzel said somewhat disappointed.

"You people must have been keeping this place quite well maintained." He added.

"Of course, here rest our people and warriors of many generations, it's my duty as the priestess to keep it so." The white-masked girl said, somewhat proud.

Danzel then gazed toward her.

"As for now, you don't have to do that anymore." He said with an ice-cold voice.

"Huh? What do you mean...?" The masked girl asked confused.

Danzel grinned at her question.

"I will be laying claim on the dead here, your work here is no longer required." Danzel said as he gazed at the graveyard.

'With this amount of bodies, I might bring the other Great Rune into the perfect stage.' He thought internally.