“Your highness, Queen Ellysa VI, what on the Goddess’ name is going on in the capital?! The entire place was wet and stank of alcohol, and there’s crazed dwarves everywhere! We rushed here to make sure that you’re…” A man garbed in white walked into the throne room complaining. He stopped when he saw me. The rest of the entourage came in and stopped as well. I wouldn’t blame them since it was weird looking at a man who was almost twice the size of the throne sitting on it.

“Greetings, fellow worshippers of the Goddess! For what reason would you be here?” I smiled at them. I was wearing the same outfit as I wore when I was at Aon. I was pretending to be the Lord in the sky or whatever I was supposed to be. These guys appeared to be the same Inquisitors who attacked me when I was talking to the head of Aon.

“Your...your lordship! We didn’t know you would here! We rushed here as fast as we could because we detected presence of death essence everywhere!” They all knelt before me. The leader was a woman who had red-tinted silver armor with black hair. I believed that I’ve seen her somewhere. I’m sure it was that fellow who ordered the Inquisitors to attack us when Sarjay insulted their leader. I had better be careful of her.

“Of course! Even I sensed that! That’s why I came here to purge the place of its taint.” I stood up from the throne, I nearly fell off it but I managed to regain my balance. I checked if anyone was looking, but fortunately, they all had their face down as they knelt before me.

I inspected the party closer, the leader was at the front, on her sides were priests and heavily armored knights. There was also that lady in a red dress who was our receptionist at the guard station back in Aon. Who was she to be part of this group?

“May I ask your lordship as to where Ellysa VI is at?” Their leader asked. As soon as she mentioned Ellysa’s name, Ellysa twitched a bit, shaking behind the throne. Ellysa was a strong source of the essence, since the strongest undead acts as conductors of such mana. I couldn’t just have her locked up in a basement until the priests left, although I wished I could.

“She’s...sick. With a fever. Yes. Nevermind that. As I am a...Lord in the Clouds or something, I’m obviously the highest ranking here!” I posed heroically.

“It’s...Lord in the Heavens, I mean, yes! That’s absolutely correct, as divined by the Goddess herself!” A priest commented. Ellysa’s shaking the crap out behind the throne so I should get rid of these guys soon. I cleared my throat and fixed my robes, I wanted to look as cool as possible.

“Brothers and sisters! Although you had worked all the way here, I believe you are not required here as I am here,” I announced towards the priests.

“But, we could help you, your lordship!” The leader cried.

“Hey, you! What’s your name?” I asked.

“It is an honor for you to know my name. It’s Adrianna of Aon, my lord!” She lowered her head closer to the floor as if she was going to kiss it.

“Adrianna….You dare doubt MY ability? I am a Lord in the Heavens! Recently promoted back after my job back at Aon! You really think the Goddess is incompetent at choosing who gets their title back?” I pointed at her menacingly. It’s not she could see since she had her head down, but my aura caused her to yelp.

“No..no! Your lordship! It’s...nevermind! We will make our leave as soon as your lordship orders us to!” She nervously answered back.

“Good! Then begone! Off! Never come back!” I shooed them away. As soon as they got up and turned, the throne room doors bursted open. Standing at the doorway was Sarjay without his helmet.

“Hey, Boss? What’s with the commotion! I heard you came here in a hurry and…”

“...” “...” “...”

Silence.

“Ah...wait, that’s...THAT’S NOT WHAT YOU THINK IT IS!” I started to wave my hand trying to get the priests’ attention.

“Perhaps that’s the source of all of these miasma of death!” Adrianna announced. Her party got ready to pounce on Sarjay and mercilessly wreck him. Sarjay was still surprised at the appearance of the Aon priests and it took him a moment to react. I was about to lose myself thinking what to do when I heard another familiar voice.

“Hey, grandpa? What’s going on?” Asha’s voice sounded behind Sarjay. A lamp just went off my mind. I just have an idea!

“Wait! I said wait! Do you all not see? That’s Asha! The Master Smith! That thing next to her is obviously a golem!” I tried to explain to the priests. They had doubt in their looks for a bit, then Sarjay started moving mechanically.

“Beep boop. I am a golem” Sarjay buzzed as he did the golem dance, twirling on the floor. Asha caught on quickly and started acting like she was controlling him.

“Aha! Gentlemen! Erm...this is…..This is the reason why I left Aon! I was trying to build a...a...prototype combat golem! The first of its kind!” She laughed nervously as she slapped Sarjay’s back.

“Oh. Is that so? Our apologizes, master Asha. Well, it would’ve appear that we were once again mistaken. Your lordship, may I ask one question before we go?” Adrianna turned to me as she sheathed her sword.

“Hmm? What is it? I’m a Lord in the Heaven. There’s nothing I can’t answer!” I replied.

“It seemed that the essence are all diverging towards...well, you. What does it mean?” She asked. Oh crap, since Ellysa and I are two incredibly overpowered undead standing around in the same room, all of the essence are coming towards here. I clenched my teeth, preparing my next play of lies.

“Er….I am...taking all of the essence into my body! I am sacrificing myself for the better of the world, and for the Goddess’ will!” I announced.

“To think that your lordship is willing to take in such incredible amount of death….your...YOUR LORDSHIP IS VERY ADMIRABLE!” Adrianna started crying. A priest fell onto his knees begging for forgiveness towards his incompetence. The knights all tried to rush towards me, trying to kiss my feet. Only the lady in red was the one standing around doing nothing. She seemed to be the only sane one in the group.

“Wait, back off, you fools! I mean...Brothers and sisters! I do not want you to be infected! I wish to do this on my own! So go, and tell the cardinals of this moment! Let the annuls of history sing of my sacrifice!” I shouted at the room, spreading my arms and doing a cross with my body. Kuh, I’m so cool.

“To commemorate your sacrifice, we shall designate the dwarven capital, Londonius, as a holy site! Millions of our brothers and sisters shall visit this place everyday, we shall remember what you have done for us!” Adrianna proclaimed.

“Yes yes..Wait WHAT?!” I unintentionally shouted. The throne bumped forward, Ellysa unintentionally kicking as she jerked forward unintentionally. Hmm, I didn’t exactly cared if Ellysa’s life became more miserable with a million lunatics coming here everyday...but I could use this to gain a favor. I turned towards the throne and saw Ellysa peeking at me. Screw the favor! Seeing that miserable face already made my century.

“I’m afraid I cannot let you do that!” I replied to Adrianna.

“What? Why not, my lord?” Adrianna asked.

“I changed my mind. Don’t tell anyone about this. Just like what happened in the inner cathedral at Aon, no one must speak of what happened here. It is the Goddess’ will. If people found out that the capital of the United Fortresses, the largest dwarven nation, was corrupted by death, do you think people would feel safe?”

“That is…”

“It would also give confidence to the forces of the Dark to press on the advantage. I am sacrificing not only my body, but also my existence! That is what it truly means to be a Lord in the Heavens!” I declared. The priests all cried and cheering for me and my selfless sacrifice. Many of them would probably try to emulate my selfless sacrifice or something. I don’t care. Just get off the city, will you? What would happen if they happened to stumble upon one of my companions? Don’t get me started with those oversized undead spiders living just way below the city.

“Now, off! Get out! Shoo!” I waved my hands dismissively. They obediently left the palace in a hurry. I’m sure they won’t come back and bother me. I don’t mind it if they bother Ellysa. Speaking about her…

“Oi. It’s safe to come out now.”

Ellysa stepped out of the throne and took a deep breath. Her thralls all came out of her shadow one by one. We didn’t want any thralls carelessly tipping the priests off. But then again, one of my own nearly blew it all. I’m just glad those priests were dumb. If I pointed at a tomato and said it was an apple, I’m pretty damn sure they’ll believe me.

“Well...that was unexpected of you to help me. Why?” She fixed herself up before sitting back at the throne.

“Heh. It’s just out of the compassion towards another undead, of course!” I bowed mockingly towards her.

“Cut the crap. I don’t even know why I bothered asking you.” She snapped at me. She massaged her temples in annoyance.

“Nevermind that, how did you even trick those priests?” She leaned in closer from her throne. I took a few steps forward thinking. I shrugged and decided to just tell her the truth.

“Well, let’s just say I was the indirect founder of Aon,” I told her.

“What? But Aon been around for about 800 or so years! Are you telling me you’re as old as Aon?!” She angrily replied.

“Yes. I’ve been dead for over a thousand years,” I nonchalantly told her.

“No way...since I’m only 600 years dead...that means...you’re my...SENIOR?!” She backed off onto her seat again, dejected. I remembered the strict hierarchy within the undead world. The older you were, the stronger you were. Of course, it also depended on what type of undead you were but then again if you were a ten-thousand year old skeleton, you must have been that good to survive for that long with nothing but bones on your body. Usually the younger undead would try to suck up to the older and stronger undead for at least some bit of knowledge.

“Er...ugh…...sir? How about tea?” She nervously smiled at me. A bright and dashing smile, but fake. It sent chills on my back.

“Eh. No. HEY!” I threw the cup onto the floor that magically appeared on my hands. Was this thing trying to suck up to me or piss me off? I massaged my metallic temples and crossed my arms. Now that I realized that she’s my junior, and remembered about that hierarchy, I should discipline this haughty little shit.

“You. Sit down onto the floor. Everyone else, leave the room. I’m going to have a long talk with her.” I looked down at the shaking dwarf blankly staring at the floor. She was muttering like, ‘I didn’t know’ and ‘I didn’t mean all that I said’. The thralls who were walking towards the door gave the queen a silent ‘Good luck!’ nod before they closed the throne room door.

“Now then…” I started as she took a deep gulp.