Who Said A Necromancer Can't Be A Priest?

An undead?

Aaran peaked over Lucien's shoulder, staring at the strange orb. Hundreds of questions swirled in his mind.

What was the core of an undead doing inside the castle? Why was it referring to his father as the master?

Those two questions were the prominent ones.

A priest like Lucien can't be a necromancer. However, judging from his reaction, it didn't seem like the orb was lying. It only complicated things.

A priest and a necromancer were at the opposite end of each other. One was the herald of life, the other was the harbinger of death. They couldn't exist in one body. At least that's what the conventional saying was.

"Is this your brat?" Unable to hold back, the orb asked. "He unsealed quite early, commander."

Lucien stopped when he heard that word.

"Enough," Lucien snapped. "You're not calling me that anymore."

"Oh, but it's what you are," the orb taunted. "Forgetting the past won't erase it."

Commander, as in commander of an army?

Aaran stared at his father. In all his incarnations, he had always seen his father as nothing but kind. Imagining someone like him being the commander of an undead army was a laughable thought.

No, it's downright ridiculous.

Meanwhile, Lucien looked at the orb, wondering if he should destroy it and be done with it. But he couldn't. The deal he made didn't allow him to crush his former subordinates, or he would have done that instead of sealing them away.

"Amara won't like this one bit…" Lucien sighed.

Meanwhile, Aaran looked around and found it strange that none of the servants were loitering around. The guards might be outside, but the servants should've been in the castle.

Unless they were told to leave.

"It's quite an empty castle, Commander," the orb chuckled. "You cleared your servants out. Smart move. I wouldn't want anyone to see your dirty little secret, either."

Lucien didn't reply. Instead, he tightened his hold on Aaran and turned toward the door.

Aaran understood why no one was there. If anyone saw them with the core of an undead, all hell would break loose. The empire would send its army to raze their little kingdom.

To the emperor, it wouldn't matter if Amara and Lucien subjugated the demon lord. He vowed to eradicate all the dark magic from Elysium. That was one absolute rule no one could challenge, not even the hero.

They entered the room and saw Amara, her arms crossed, covered in monster blood. Aaran's little adventure had worried everyone there, and he even felt guilty. He had thought it would be a quick trial and no one would even know about it.

However, his little trial led to a massive problem.

Amara's gaze shifted from Lucien to Aaran and then settled on the orb. A small sigh escaped her lips as she raised an eyebrow.

"Well?" she asked. "Care to tell me why you've brought that into our home?"

"…Aaran."

That's all Lucien said, and Amara's face fell.

Everyone in the room knew the secret except Aaran, and he was dying to know more. But he was spent. He yawned as Lucien placed him in Amara's arms. Amara held Aaran close, brushing her cheek against his.

"You little troublemaker…" she smiled wryly. "You have no idea what you've done, do you?"

Without another word, she carried Aaran into the adjoining room. But the orb didn't stay back. It followed them inside. When Lucien tried to stop it, Amara told him off.

"Aaran is now the legion's commander," she said. "It is natural for Dread to follow his new master."

"Huh, Mistress Bitch knows more about the undead than this former commander of mine," Dread, the orb, snickered.

However, his snickering stopped when Amara turned her gaze towards him.

"Don't forget, the one you call Mistress Bitch kicked your ass countless times."

"…yeah. Those were good times. Chaos and death everywhere… it was a paradise."

Dread didn't have hands or shoulders, but if he did, he would have shrugged.

"Dear… we can't have this guy roaming around—"

"I know," Amara interrupted Lucien. "He needs a body."

Lucien opened his mouth, but then closed it. The thought of giving Dread a body to control was daunting. As his former master, he knew Dread better than anyone else. The bugger would cause a chaos the first chance he got.

"Why the long face?" Dread asked. "Just give me my old body back. The new master's going to be asleep most of the day anyway, so it's not like I can wander around. Since our connection is weak."

"That's not gonna happen."

Amara firmly refused Dread without a moment's hesitation, while Lucien silently agreed with her. Giving Dread a physical body was already pushing the limits, and giving him his original body back was completely off the table. Besides, it wasn't like he carried the body around with him.

It was then Amara's eyes fell on Aaran's teddy and a plan formed in her head.