[Hollow King] Chapter 9: The Cost of Immortality (Patreon)

Lucas had tried to carry out his assassinations quietly, but in the dead of night, with nothing but a crackling fire to mask the crunch as he snapped the goblin's neck, it was only a matter of time before the bat-eared goblins on night watch realized something was wrong.

Four goblins rounded the smoky fire and approached the entrance together.

Lucas peered through a gap in the blankets and the wooden stakes. Two Goblin Scavengers and two Warriors. He switched on his Mana Sense. None of them stand out as particularly strong, but quietly dealing with four at once is a problem.

The goblins paused a few paces from Lucas's undead, which stood beyond the reach of the smoky campfire's light.

"Grunt," the warrior leading the group hissed. "Where other warriors go?"

The undead offered no answer.

"Grunt deaf?" a second whispered, adjusting its grip on a stick sharpened into a spear. The third, a Goblin Scavenger, stepped forward and sniffed the air. Its ears flattened against its skull.

"Smells wrong," it whispered. "Smells like death."

The others began sniffing too, with one approaching the bedsheet wall and narrowing its eyes in suspicion. "The smell of death," it hissed. "It's strong here—"

Lucas punched his hand through the bedsheet wall and clamped his bone fingers around the goblin's neck. It let out a strange gasp as he tightened his grip and tore through the cloth wall, hoisting the goblin into the air and towering over its brethren, who were half his height.

He snapped the held goblin's neck and let the body fall to the ground with a thud.

[Soul of the Goblin Scavenger harvested]

The two Warriors pointed their weapons at him and snarled, while the Goblin Scavenger gathered mana in its throat and let out a screech that tore through the silent night.

[Goblin Scavenger's Intimidating Screech has failed]

[Elder Liches are immune to Fear]

Lucas had experienced this attack before, but this time it was different. He could feel the mana from the screech wash through his hollow body, find nothing to latch onto, and dissipate. He wouldn't have bothered tracing the mana in the middle of a fight if it hadn't awakened a deeply buried instinct.

His bones remembered what it felt like to inflict fear. Letting his instincts guide him, the markings across his entire body lit up at once with violet light and expelled mana into the air, shrouding him in a shadowy haze.

[Skill learned: Aura of Fear (I)]

The three goblins' ears pressed against their skulls, and they began to tremble at the sight of him. The mana cost for this new skill was high and rather wasteful, but Lucas enjoyed the thrill of being feared.

It also made things easier.

He reached forward, his skeletal hand trailing darkness as he tore the weapons from their trembling hands. Being disarmed seemed to instill some fight in them as they snarled and lunged at him, while the Goblin Scavenger remained too scared to move.

Lucas grabbed the two goblins by the face but was surprised by their strength as they pushed him back. Goblin Warriors must possess more strength than the others I've faced so far. With no choice, Lucas pushed the two warrior goblins to the ground and pinned their heads to the frost as he activated Death Touch. If the Goblin Scavenger's howl hadn't woken the camp, their wails of pain did.

"Just die for me," Lucas hissed in Goblinese as he plunged his skeletal fingers, wreathed with necrotic mana, into their eyes, making them scream. Lucas didn't need Mana Sense to know his cover was blown. Movement swarmed around him as goblins shouted to one another.

"Found an undead!"

"Intruder!"

He glanced up and saw one Goblin Scavenger trying to light a wooden stick in the campfire, suggesting they knew about his weakness to fire.

"U-Undead!" The effect of his Aura of Fear finally wore off on the Goblin Scavenger before him as it came to its senses. It grabbed a rock from the ground and charged at him with it raised overhead.

"Goblin, come defend me," he commanded his undead. It lurched into motion behind him and tackled the Goblin Scavenger to the ground before it could crack his skull with the rock.

"Undead filth," the Goblin Scavenger snarled as it tore off one of the undead's arms. But the undead felt no pain. It kept faithfully following its master's commands, latching onto the Goblin Scavenger and holding it down.

Lucas left his undead minion to its losing battle as he focused on his own. Even after losing sight, the Goblin Warriors were strong enough to keep his skeletal hands somewhat at bay. They desperately gnawed on his hands, even as it broke their fangs, and tried to kick him away with everything they had, but nothing they did stopped the necrotic mana from eating them alive.

Eventually, the two Goblin Warriors stilled beneath his hands at around the same time. Unlike the other times tonight when he had started the fight with Death Touch but ultimately killed them by strangulation or a snapped neck, these two had died to the necrotic mana of Death Touch eating away at their brains.

For that, he was rewarded.

[Death Touch (III) -> Death Touch (IV)]

[Soul of the Goblin Warrior harvested]

[Soul of the Goblin Warrior harvested]

[Your Soul Level has increased to 6]

Mana surged into Lucas as he pulled his bloody hands free. The kills hadn't been clean, nor quiet. He rose quickly, switched to Mana Sense, and checked the large mana signature in the wagon.

It's still sleeping even with all this noise? Lucas was baffled but glad. From his estimations, whatever slept in that wagon was still stronger than him. I'll kill the rest of these goblins and get out of here—

He felt his connection to his undead abruptly cut. The Goblin Scavenger staggered to its feet, bloody and wounded but otherwise alive. It glared at him with hatred as others came to its side. Lucas counted eight in total, including the two Slingers crouched atop the tents, spinning their slings.

"None of you can defeat me," Lucas said in his ancient voice while feeding more mana into his Aura of Fear. It worked, as many of the goblins' ears flattened against their heads in terror.

A whooshing noise came from his left. On instinct, he raised his hand and summoned a Lesser Barrier. The hastily summoned shield stopped the speeding rock an inch from his hand, then cracked and dissipated. The rock fell uselessly to the ground, the thud making a few goblins flinch.

Lucas pointed at the other Goblin Slinger, still charging up its attack, and used Mana Bolt. The markings on his forearm flashed with violet light, and the goblin's head exploded with the sound of a whip-crack. The sling flew off in a random direction as the headless Goblin Slinger fell forward and slid down the tent's sloped roof, coming to a stop on the edge and spilling blood down the side.

[Soul of the Goblin Slinger harvested]

It was beyond gruesome. If Lucas still had a stomach, bile would be rising in his throat, and he would be holding his breath. Yet, his second life had deprived him of such human weaknesses. He was nothing but a magical skeleton determined to harvest souls and return home, and these goblins were in his way.

Stepping forward, his large seven-foot frame radiating darkness loomed over the goblins gathered hastily before the campfire. With the recent level-up and soul harvesting, he had mana to spare and little reason to hold back.

With Unseen Hand, he reached out with a spectral claw and stopped the remaining Goblin Slinger's sling in midair, stunning the goblin. He then pulled, dragging the confused goblin off the tent's roof. Between throwing a goblin off the roof with his mind, obliterating another's head, and his Aura of Fear, the goblins were all too scared to move.

All except one.

The Goblin Scavenger his undead had failed to kill bolted through the fire. Lucas had to switch to Mana Sense to track it past the smoke but could guess where it was going.

Oh no you don't!

He tried to reach out with Unseen Hand, but the goblin was too far. Powering up a Mana Bolt, his finger tracked it with Mana Sense, but the goblin moved erratically, like a rabbit on all fours. Lucas fired, but it uselessly struck the stone wall at the back of the camp.

The goblin reached the wagon and banged relentlessly on its leader's door.

Shit.

Lucas began backing up toward the camp's entrance and let his Mana Bolts fly. None of the goblins could move as they were afflicted with fear, so they were sitting ducks. His Mana Bolts tore through their chests, sending them crumbling to the frozen ground one after another.

[Soul of the Goblin Warrior harvested]

[Soul of the Goblin Warrior harvested]

[Soul of the Goblin Slinger harvested]

[Soul of the Goblin Scavenger harvested]

[Mana Bolt (II) -> Mana Bolt (III)]

[Your Soul Level has increased to 7]

His easy slaughter stopped abruptly as the wagon door was kicked off, sending the goblin banging on it flying and tumbling across the dirt.

"Why are yer lot makin' such a ruckus?!" A voice thundered from within the wagon in Goblinese, but in an accent that made it sound rougher than grinding stone. "I'm tryin' to sleep!"

All of the remaining goblins forgot the towering lich before them and scrambled like their lives depended on it. Lucas didn't bother chasing them.

The wagon rocked as its occupant moved, and a wooden cask rolled out of the opened door, bounced down the steps, and burst open against the stones of the fire pit. Whatever had been contained in the cask caught fire and blazed with an azure blue.

Alcohol? Lucas guessed. Is that why it slept through all this noise? Because it drank itself to sleep?

The wagon groaned as the leader stepped out. It had to duck and twist its massive body to fit through the doorway, and even then, the frame groaned against its shoulders.

When it straightened in the azure light of the flames, Lucas finally saw who lorded over these goblins.

The monster stood a full head taller than him and was at least three times as broad. Gray-green skin stretched over slabs of muscle, crisscrossed with old scars. Two yellowed tusks jutted from its lower jaw, smaller than Tusky's but chipped from use. A bearskin cloak hung over a shirt of chainmail clearly made for a human, the links split down both sides to fit.

Noticing him, the monster seemed to sober up slightly as it reached behind the wagon and pulled out a club carved from an entire tree trunk, the thick end bound in iron bands and studded with nails.

That's not a goblin, Lucas realized with a sense of dread. That's an orc.

A brutal monster that lived for violence, and he had woken one up. Mana Sense showed its mana spreading through its body, feeding its already ridiculous muscles more strength. Just one look at the towering giant made Lucas realize he had been a fool to base its strength on how much mana it held.

I fucked up. Lucas kept backing out of the camp, keeping himself facing the orc so he could launch a counterattack if it decided to chase him.

The orc glanced over its dead goblins with disdain rather than anger. With a snarl, it lumbered forward, crunching the fallen goblins underfoot as it dragged the enormous club behind it, carving a depression in the frosted ground.

"Where are you going, Bone-Man?" the orc slurred with an unsettling grin. It was still clearly drunk, but Lucas doubted it would matter if they fought.

"I'm an Elder Lich," Lucas replied, hoping his race's past exploits would scare the beast off.

The orc snorted. "And I'm an Orc King. We can exchange lies all night, Bone-Man."

"I really am—"

"An Elder Lich does not negotiate with lessers," the orc snarled angrily. "If you were truly an Elder Lich, I'd have died before ever waking up."

Lucas clenched his jaw. That may be true for the last Archmage inhabiting these bones, but he was only Soul Level 7. That let him dominate 'lessers' like these goblins, but this orc was on another level.

"So let's cut to the fun," the orc said. "I'll give you a ten-second head start, and then I'll hunt ya down."

Lucas took one look at the orc's muscular legs and knew even an hour's head start wouldn't cut it. Yet, as shameful as it was, he turned and ran.

The orc playfully counted to ten behind him. "One... two... four... five... wait, I forgot one. Er, four? Five..."

Lucas made it halfway up the hill when the orc reached ten. It grinned, and Lucas felt the ground shake beneath him as it charged out of the camp and after him.

"Here I come, Bone-Man!"

"Tusky, stop him," Lucas shouted as he stepped behind a tree and began channeling all the mana he could into the markings on his arm. His Mana Bolt spell didn't take all his mana, but it took most of it.

Hopefully, this is enough, Lucas thought as his undead boar charged past him down the hill toward the rampaging orc. Lucas rounded the tree, aimed both hands at the orc, and waited for the perfect moment to strike.

"You think this can stop me?!" The orc swung its massive club overhead, slamming it down upon Tusky with such force that it split the earth. Lucas didn't even register Tusky's connection being cut as he unleashed his own attack.

Twin Mana Bolts cut through the air like released lightning, striking the orc square in the chest. It roared in pain and stumbled back a step, but it did not fall. The wounds were not fatal, and the mana in its body was consumed to heal quickly.

It grinned at him. "My turn."

Lucas turned and fled as the eight-foot monster abandoned its club on the ground and charged at him. Its fist punched through the tree he had been under a second earlier, snapping it in half like a toothpick. The orc grunted, its breath visible in the cold night.

What can I do? Think, Lucas, think! I'm almost out of mana. I could run forever as I barely tire, but I'm far slower than this orc.

Dread began to set in as he felt cornered.

"Catch this!" the orc yelled.

Lucas turned in time to see pieces of Tusky whistling through the air, moving far faster than the Goblin Slingers had ever managed. Crossing his arms before him, Lucas summoned Lesser Barriers and braced. The attack felt like a shotgun to the chest as it obliterated his barriers and threw him to the ground.

Sharp soul pain flared through his body, notifying him of the damage. His left arm was detached, and half his ribs were cracked. He tried to sit up, but something else was broken.

"An Elder Lich that falls over from some thrown bones?" the orc scoffed as it lumbered closer. Every step sent a tremor through the ground until it loomed over him.

"W-Wait," Lucas said as he realized his second life was about to come to an end. "Can we talk about this—"

"An Elder Lich would never beg." It raised its foot and stamped down on his legs, pulverizing them. Lucas clenched his jaw in pain as the monster turned and walked down the hill to retrieve its monstrous club.

Lucas could do nothing as it returned with a sick grin. It was enjoying this, and Lucas had never felt so helpless in his life. Even as he was bleeding out in Anna's arms, her soft voice had convinced him that everything would be okay. That he would wake up the next morning and make Sophie her favorite pancakes.

There was no warmth this time. Only frost and stars, and an orc that might as well be death incarnate.

"Well, Bone-Man, I hope you enjoyed killin' my slaves." It raised its club into the air. "Because this is the end of yer undeath!"

Lucas desperately flung up his right hand and summoned a Lesser Barrier. The shield of hardened violet mana bloomed in front of him, wider and thicker than any he had made before, and he poured everything he had left into it.

He wanted to live more than anything—

The club shattered the barrier and his hopes like a window.

***

Lucas jerked awake, throwing his hands up to shield his face from a club that was no longer there. The orc was gone too, as were the evergreen trees and the smoky campfire.

Streaks of sunlight greeted him, along with the roof of a crumbling tomb and the backrest of a throne.

What?

He sat up and inspected his fingers. Still skeletal and covered in markings, but more importantly, they were intact. His left arm was back, and his legs weren't crushed to dust.

Even stranger, he felt the weight of the golden crown upon his head.

"I'm... alive? But how?"

[Phylactery has reconstructed your vessel in exchange for memories]

What?! In exchange for memories?

The amazement of coming back to life was destroyed by the cost.

Besides my soul, all I have are the memories of my loved ones to keep me going, yet they were taken from me? Dread settled into his bones as, unlike mana that he could feel leaving him, memories were less tangible. Let's think, what do I still remember?

He grabbed a loose rock from the ground and treated the back of the throne like a chalkboard.

At the top, he wrote Anna and Sophie. Under each name, he wrote everything he could remember. Their physical descriptions, favorite foods, habits, and more. Sophie loved her stuffed rabbit more than anyone, and Anna hated him changing the channel.

"...and of course, Anna and I got married on the—"

His stone stopped.

He couldn't remember their wedding day. Not the date, or what happened. He knew they had gotten married, as he remembered picking out her wedding ring. It was a day he swore to never forget.

And yet, it had been taken from him.

"So this is the cost of immortality," Lucas said bitterly, setting the rock down. The wedding was something he knew he was forgetting, but what about other core memories he might have surrendered for his resurrection? Ones that he wouldn't know if he was missing?

If I'd known this was the cost, I'd never have fought so recklessly in that goblin camp. Lucas cursed himself and rose to his full height. But what is lost is lost. All I can do is make sure I never die like that again, and to do that, I need to know what an Elder Lich is truly capable of.

It was time he carefully inspected his full status.

[Author Note]

And with that, the opening arc of Hollow King is done. When this fiction eventually gets posted to Royal Road, I'll dump these initial nine chapters at once, then continue posting 2x a week.

I'm still debating whether to keep posting chapters of Hollow King on the free tier. Eventually, I will have to lock all chapters past this one to paying members only. The question is whether I do it now or mass-lock them later, when the fiction is ready for release. Thoughts?