“Stop preparing your magi-ballistas! I said halt!” the lich admiral kept shouting to no avail. The pirates on the ships prepared their mages and swordsmen for boarding actions; a mix of plate armor and brown tattered rags was a common theme amongst the combatants. At the same time, the sailors were trying to cruise their ship away from the undead ship.

“Yaaaharrr the free life’s for me, ye rot-filled, worm-ridden, bespawler!” the pirate captain announced back while bashing his staff against his ship’s deck. He turned his sight towards his line of pirate mages and ordered, “Ye brainless parrots! Loose!”

“O’ Goddess of the Bloody Light! Bedamned those who wish to not see the might of yer curves!” the pirate mages chanted together. Blue bolts exploded out from the side of the hull, causing the ship to recoil sideways. While some bolts got blocked by the undead ship’s barriers, some managed to deal some damage to the republican ship. Of course, the undead didn’t just stand around to get smashed into oblivion. They also responded back with their own spells.

Both ships exchanged spells against each other, both from above and below. Deep underwater, pirate mages in cages attached to the ship dueled with undead attack squids and other sea animals. Any sailor that was swallowed up by the ocean was promptly captured by the undead sea creatures.

“Alright, kids! To me!” I shouted as I grabbed Kendra and Lard. “We’re hiding in the cargo hold!”

“Wait! I, Vakasa of the Darkness, wish to see this glorious battle!” Lard cried back.

“I would throw you off the water, but I’m going to need you for now!” I hissed, dragging the fat boy back.

Pirates and pieces of the ships flew everywhere as the republican ship began to fire their cannon at us once both ships were close enough for brawling range. Apparently, the undead had loaded their cannons with balls of bones which would shatter violently upon contact, but they would reattach themselves moment later, creating some kind of skeletal monster.

I sped through the ship, avoiding the skeletal monsters while jumping over the dying pirates. The poor bastards were insistent on having their last drink of rum before they kicked the bucket, so I didn’t want to disturb them.

As soon as we got to the cargo hold, we hid inside the corner of the ship. I also used a near-divine spell to fortify this part of the ship. After all, I didn’t bring any spare robes so it would be troublesome if I fell into the water and got myself wet.

Explosions rang out and soon, sounds of swords clashing erupted above. It took perhaps a few minutes before it became silent. At this point, I stopped using my spells and waited patiently. The banging of heavy boots against the wooden floor echoed around, until the doors to the cargo hold opened.

At the doorway, there was a half-rotten lich wearing a navy blue jacket. For some reason, he was also wearing black shades.

“Aha! The cargo hold! Men, search this place!” the lich ordered while making his way to me. The skeletal monsters entered, bashing the crates inside the cargo hold open. Inside, there were some… white liquid inside.

“Sir!” a skeletal monster approached the lich and saluted.

“Lieutenant, report!”

“These crates and barrels are full of high quality minotaur milk! All contrabands, sir!”

“Patooey! Disgusting drugs! Dump them overboard!” the lich ordered to which the skeletal monsters followed. With his minion busy, he turned to me and raised his head. “And you? Who are you? You don’t look like a smuggler!”

Wait, this might be a good time to test something!

“I am Lord Archlich Boss! The only archlich in the entirety of the undead realm! As your senior, you should respect me!” I declared.

The lich looked at me with a befuddled face, bobbing his head up and down. After a moment of hesitation, he said, “We Republicans do not adhere to the seniority rule!”

“What? But it’s inherent! It’s in our instinct!”

“The Constitution is our instinct! It is within the right of every undead being! Not some kind of… hierarchy that was arbitrarily decided by nature!” he challenged. “Besides, I don’t sense anything from you! Are you even undead?!”

I took off my mask, revealing my skeleton face. “Ta-dah! Full bones, no flesh!”

“Whoa, this is the first time I, Vakasa of the Darkness, have seen your face!” Lard interjected.

“Shush, you!” I chided.

The lich looked at me, unamused. He then looked down towards my short apprentice, Kendra. “Wait, you’re a necromancer, aren’t you?”

Kendra gasped then replied with a slowly-growing grin. “H-How did you know?”

“I could sense a faint essence of death in you!”

Kendra hid her smile behind her hand then looked at me. Without saying a word, she had somehow communicated, ‘Master, master! Look! Even as you suppress my aura, people could still tell I am a necromancer!’

‘Not now, Kendra!’ I replied silently.

“Are you perhaps the one who made this skeleton?” the lich asked Kendra.

“What?! No! She is NOT the master! I am my own master!” I angrily replied.

“So you are a free man?”

“Yes, I am!”

“Ah, good. I would’ve enforced the Emancipation if it weren’t the case. Back to the task at hand, I need to have you all under arrest! Please declare your weapons!” the lich ordered.

“What? Come on, we’re just passengers,” I muttered.

“No buts, skeleton! You sought to travel to the Republic in an illegal transportation hence you have already violated the law!”

I clicked my tongue and sighed in defeat. “Fine. But can you at least keep us together? These kids and I were looking for a new life in the land of dead dreams.”

“Understandable. Now, declare your weapons to me!” the lich answered with a nod.

Kendra had to surrender her wand and dagger, while Lard surrendered his… guide to romancing book. The lich didn’t find it amusing, but he still took it either way.

As for me, I gave him a small dagger.

“Is this it?” the lich asked.

“Indeed, good sir! I have nothing else on me!” I said, trying to align Fatebinder, my beloved sword, against my spine.

The lich squinted his half-decayed eyes then tilted his body to the left, causing me to mirror his action. When he tilted his body to the right, so did I. At last, he said, “I see.”

The skeletal monsters slapped handcuffs against our wrists before leading us up to the deck. While some of the pirates were killed, most were arrested or knocked unconscious. Not long after the skeletal monsters were done with sweeping the pirate ship clean of pirates and contraband, we were moved to the lich’s ship which felt strangely firm for a ship that looked like it was about to break in half.

The pirate’s ship was broken into pieces by a massive undead squid, and the undead ship sailed towards the horizon. Just hours later, we found several ships of various types passing by. Some were as decayed as the lich admiral’s ship, some looked extremely new. Some weren’t even ships. There were giant undead sea monsters with platforms built on top of them which moved almost as fast as a sailing ship.

I placed a hand on Lard’s and Kendra’s shoulders as I eyed a massive dome-shaped barrier coming out of the water. It was invisible to most people, so the strength of this barrier had to be somewhere close to divine level. The ship slowed down then passed through the barrier without fault, causing me to let go off the kids’ shoulders.

The lich’s ship continued navigating through the water until we saw a large city in the distance. The sky had a sickly feeling to it, and the city’s general color palette was simply gray. Tall structures jotted the city much like the sorcerer city-states, except there was less magical element in them. Skyscrapers were very prominent, making up most of the observable inner parts of the city.

“What in the name of me, Vakasa of the Darkness?! Is that a modern city?!” Lard exclaimed with a hint of shock.

“What is a modern city?” the lich asked as he stood next to us. “That, little fat boy, is the pride of Gravia, the land of decayed freedom and dead dreams, the home of the undead—the Undying City!”