I had seen enough; I knew how to get to Blink and where the big boss of the humans was. At least, I thought he was the big boss. The lich’s phylactery was still not located, but I had a feeling it was one of the items I had just seen in the room. I didn’t know which one was the phylactery, but knowing that the shades could see magic, it was only a matter of time.

I also had seen enough to know that I would seriously think about killing every member of the merchant’s guild I met. They might not all be bad, but with what I saw here, it was a good guess they were. I didn’t know who they had chained up in the bed, but what I saw in the kitchen was enough to make me angry.

Fishing out of the bag on my lap, I got more shades ready. I sent a few into the kitchen walls and a few more into the main hall. I sent two to each place I saw a guard. While I couldn’t have them all attack at once without risking the prisoners and others not armed, I could prep them.

I took a deep breath and winced as my breathing shifted the placement of my leg. When I let my breath out, I commanded the shades in the kitchen to kill the guard. Then my hell dogs charged through the room. The first one took down the unchained woman pinning her to the ground. Others took the chained staff to the floor.

Then my guards started to pour up the stairs. As I filled the kitchen, I began to attack the other guards with shades. In most cases, two were enough to kill a person. However, when it wasn’t, the guard would scream. It only took a few calls before there were yells for more guards.

My minions pushed through the kitchen doors before my throne even made it up the stairs. As my hell dogs and skeletal guards broke into the room, I sent shades down to the portal. The cry for guards made it to the portal before my shades did, and I watched as one of the porters jumped through the mercury.

The arch shut down for a moment before I saw it start acting differently. Where the arch had sent out a section in the middle, now it pulled a section in. Then that middle area turned blue and splashed on the pane of the arch.

A few moments later, there was a ripple, and an armed team came through the gate. First through were two huge men in full plate. They made the guards I had seen in Last Port look small. Each one had to be over six foot tall and three hundred fifty pounds, and that wasn’t even counting the armor. If they had green skin, I would have thought them orcs. As it was, they were just huge. Each one had a shield and hammer.

Next through the gate were a pair of mages of some sort. One cast a red dome shield that snapped into place. The other one spun a staff around, and then both hulking brutes started glowing.

Right after the dome was up, two women dressed in white gowns came through. Each one carried a staff with a crystal at the top. The one on the right started to scan around and cast an area-wide spell. As it hit the shade, I saw a tall man step through the portal dressed in all black with a single sword on his belt.

When the spell hit the shade, it vanished. I screamed in pain as I felt everything that the shade felt in the moment it took for the spell to wipe it out completely. The spell wasn’t even a directed attack. It was, however, something it seemed geared toward killing the undead. I shuttered and looked around at my army as I was being carried through the kitchen.

I pointed at one of my zombies. “Cut the chains of the prisoners.”

I paused beside one of the chained-up cooks and had my throne put down. Then I pointed at the woman that hadn’t been chained up. My hell dog had her pinned, and she was softly crying and begging for her life.

I snapped my fingers, and the chained cook looked at me. “Is that woman with the ones who did this to you?”

The cook gulped and shook her head. “N… no!”

I nodded and had the dog get off her. “Help everyone get unchained. A team just came through the arch, so there will be a fight of some sort. Grab weapons if you can since they seem ready to kill undead.”

The cook nodded, and then we pushed out into the throne room. As we moved out, I sent another shade to watch that approach of the team. As that one went, I sent my fastest guards down to where the lich was.

I heard shouting coming from Blink’s direction and the direction of the big boss’s room. Even if he wasn’t truly the one in charge, he got the name because of how fat he was. I had never heard of a fat elf, but I was sending some of my undead to find him.

I jumped back into the vision of my new shade, heading to where the elite team came from. I wasn’t sure what was happening and needed to keep tabs on them. The shade showed me the group moving. No longer were they under the red dome. The front were the two massive brutes. Next was the man in all black without even armor. After him were the two women in white and then the mages.

Behind the front party was another ground that appeared to be a lesser response team. It was a group of eight men, all in chain with shields and maces. They moved in pairs, marching forward like they didn’t have a care in the world. With the speed they were moving, I would only have a few minutes before they got to me.

I didn’t like that timetable as I wanted to have my party before these guys showed up. So I broke a few more shade stones and sent them flying through the walls to the other one. Once they linked up, I had them start attacking from the rear.

I knew the hallway that the Merchant guild’s team would be coming through. Because of that, I started having my undead move the piles around. I wanted to block off the passage as much as I could. As I had some moving things, I posted the mages I had claimed. I didn’t know how long the last Deathwalker had worked to assemble his army, but I was happy to be using it.

I flipped back to the shades right as they attacked the back line of the guild’s fighters. Again, I watched two die outright before one of the women in white did something. Then all of my shades in the room vanished.

I shook my head and rubbed my eyes. Those two women were going to make things hard for me. I wasn’t sure how much or what type of energy they were using, but I knew it would cause me problems if I didn’t get them run down.

My bag was, at this point, mostly empty of shades. I sighed. I didn’t have the means right now to wear them down slowly. Which thinking about things was what they were expecting. This team was clearly geared to fighting the lich, which meant they were also ready for me.

I jumped to my guards, that was heading down to get Blink. They had met the lich’s forces and were now engaged in a battle. Each of mine was over thirty levels above his, but he had far more than I did right now. The good thing was that his guards were mostly outside while mine were going right towards him.

Next, I moved to the ones pulling the fat elf from his room. The problem they were having was that he had some level of power. They couldn’t just force him out because of the magical items that he had. At least one of them was a shield that kept their weapons from hitting him, including their hands.

While I wanted to know things, I wasn’t sure how much time I could invest in getting him. I might get forced into changing my skeletal guards from capture to kill. It would mean figuring out what was going on was more challenging, but at this point, I was dealing with three battles.

My throne was on the way down to where the lich worked. I wanted to be near my team and see what I could do to help them. On top of that, I needed to speak with them and get back into a party.

As I was heading through the throne room, I yelled out. “The merchant guild has sent in a team to stop me. If you want to join up with them, head that way. If you don’t want them to recapture, you follow me! The undead outside aren’t mine, so you can also take your chances on your own that way!”

The cook that I had freed looked over at me and asked. “You’re not the lich?”

I laughed and shook my head. “Not even a bit, but I’m going to kill him soon enough!”

* * *