Kain was furious. Absolutely livid.

“You are a collection of ass-hats and bone-headed morons, no offence to Skeletal Undead, of course, but seriously! Are you really going to execute your greatest General… Field Marshal over something so petty?! This is self-sabotage on a scale I have never witnessed before!”

Kain’s most recent series of explicative laden sentences were due to the effects of the most recent building that had been constructed. The Black Library had finished some ‘Research’ and had resulted in Kain being able to glean small bits of intel from a handful of people in every remaining nation in the Luminas Confederacy. The ‘Research’ had been titled Unknowing Eyes and had resulted in Kain getting some rather intriguing tidbits of information. The bits of intel would come in sporadically and there was no telling whether he would get something worthwhile of just the price of bread in a specific town, but occasionally the intel would be enough to be truly desired.

What he had learned that made him furious, however, was the knowledge that the Field Marshal who made the previous attempt on Necrograd was being penned up and was slated for execution. While he did have to worry about Field Marshal Asshole’s large forces, the lack of tactics made the battle to come less dangerous that what had been fought prior. It was a shame, Kain wanted to meet Teutonia’s ‘exception to the rule’, a General who cared for his men and used knowledge and guile to win fights, not just brute force and/ or numbers.

That’s when it hit him. Why not get this lovely leader to defect? If he could pull just the right strings in just the right way there would be a possibility, no matter how small, that he could get this Field Marshal on his side. It would take guile, wit and a whole lot of luck, but if he pulled it off, he would have another ace up his sleeve AND someone who would and could willingly attest to him not being a total monster. Now he had to move his pieces into place. It was time to push his concentration to the limit and raise up another army.

…

Arschloch had arranged his five armies in a standard line formation. He had no ranged formations among his forces, and no siege implements to speak of, just infantry in the front armed solely with wooden spears and a few formations of Teutonian Knights in their rear. Whether due to arrogance or sheer stupidity he assumed that the undead would come out to meet him outside their defensive fortifications, just like the Ruskians did. Hours passed, and finally night fell. The undead still stayed in their fortress city, and the fact that they refused to sally out was infuriating to the overweight General. The next three days followed the same pattern. At the crack of dawn Arschloch would arrange his forces in a neat line, wait for the undead to come out until nightfall (which they didn’t) and then march his tired, thirsty and hungry men back to camp.

Finally, the big pig had enough and ordered Krueger to be brought before him.

“WHY AREN’T THEY COMING OUT?! How did you manage to fight them? Did you NOT fight them and instead have your men turn on each other?! ANSWER ME!”

With a smirk and a laugh, Krueger made a joking retort.

“If you took the time to learn to read maybe you wouldn’t have wasted everyone’s time these past few days!”

This earned him a backhand to the face and a beating by Arschloch’s cronies, but Krueger couldn’t care less. He had a feeling that the next few days were going to be what truly decided the fate of Teutonia, and his feelings had served him well on many an occasion. These feelings had saved him from assassination plots and saved his men from ambushes. As he sat in his cage, beaten and bruised with his left eye gouged out with a red-hot poker, he fought the pain that wracked him and chanted a minor healing spell to erase the pain.

As the night fell and the whole of Arschloch’s army fell fast asleep, Krueger remained awake and had his one remaining eye focused on a specific spot in front of him.

“I know you are there. Everyone is asleep, monster. Reveal yourself and just deal the finishing blow. I’ll not beg for my life.”

The air distorted and a massive, seven-foot-tall man clad in a hybrid of black plate-armor and robes materialized in front of Krueger. The shape sat down in front of the former Field Marshal and withdrew two wineglasses and a bottle of over 1600-year-old Albion Wine from a pocket dimension. The Abominable King uncorked the bottle with magic and poured a bit of the wine into both glasses. It took a drink from one of them and placed the other inside the cage where the manacled General could grasp it.

“Why, Mr. Krueger, I don’t expect you to beg, I expect you to drink. After all, It isn’t every day that someone gets to drink something from before the Great War, am I not correct? This may well be your last chance to drink anything other than slop or your own blood, so shouldn’t you take the opportunity to live a little?”

Krueger lifted the glass and took a whiff. He didn’t smell poison, and his feelings didn’t tell him to not drink. Although half-expecting the wine to kill him slowly and painfully, Krueger took a swig.

He did not regret that decision.

The wine was unlike anything that he had ever experienced before! The rumor that wine became better with age had been proven to be truer than his wildest imaginings!

“Want more?”

Kain offered Krueger the whole bottle, which Krueger almost accepted.

“Why are you here? Shouldn’t you have died a long time ago?”

Kain poured himself another glass of wine.

“I did, and I didn’t. The various events that took place that allowed me to be here would take too long to explain. So, unless you want to listen to a multi-day long story that is as boring as can be I suggest we talk about other, more interesting matters.”

“Fine. But I will not be giving you military secrets.”

Kain smiled and poured Krueger some more wine.

“I wouldn’t dream of doing something like that.”

Kain and Krueger sat and talked for a while. The fact that the Abominable King seemed to be more relatable than what was expected led Krueger’s mind down a path he had not expected to go down. The two chatted about politics, religion and the inherent rights that all intelligent creatures possessed (and those that they did not). The two of them hit it off quite well, far better than either of them expected. Kain expected to have been refused at every opportunity and Krueger expected the Abominable King to simply butcher everyone in the camp, but the fact that both of their expectations had been proven false was a welcome surprise.

Kain finally took the now empty bottle and the two glasses and stored them away in the pocket dimension. He rose to his feet and began to walk off. Krueger knew what this meant, not that Kain was going to destroy everything but rather that morning was coming. The two bid each other farewell and Kain vanished from Krueger’s sight. As he lay down in the cage, attempting to get a small bit of rest before being yanked by a chain to watch the ‘Glorious Battle that was certain to be fought today’ (like all the previous days) his mind hung on select few words spoken by the giant of death.

“I would be more than willing to have a great man such as you who cares so deeply for the innocent. Hopefully, if someone like you were at my side people would see past the lies and the dogma that plagues this world. If you ever have the slightest idea to jump ship, my doors are always open. Not only to you, but to anyone who follows you.”

Krueger thought about other things that hey had spoken about and realized a truth that he had never considered. The Abominable King may very well have just been misunderstood. He seemed to want not the destruction of all life, but for its prosperity. To him, the undead were just tools to be used in the pursuit of a better world for as many people as possible, not just a select few. His use of tactics and strategy was done to end conflict as quickly as possible, thus avoiding any further casualties. Shock and Awe, Terror Tactics, Blitzkrieg Maneuvers, he used everything he could to end wars as swiftly as he could.

Despite what he had been led to believe his entire life, Krueger now had the slightest doubt in his heart that fighting the Darksol Empire was a good idea and instead the belief was growing in him that joining Darksol might be the best thing he and his men could do.

Kain walked away and by chance heard the thoughts of Krueger via Unknowing Eyes.

“All according to plan. Now to greet my wife’s kin. I wonder how the Midnight Aristocracy will react when they realize that not only their ‘Goddess’ is back, but their ‘God’ too. If worse comes to worse, I can simply use the stick rather than the carrot…”