The OP Lich is a Returnee

Book 1 – An OP Returnee

Prologue – Victory at Last

BANG!

BANG!

BANG!

Rorzomon the Terrible, Archdemon of the Ninth Circle, Lord of Flames, Slaughterer of Hador, Consumer of Souls, Ravager of the Histacine Sisterhood, Violator of the Holy Maiden, Demon King of Haerth shuddered as he heard the banging at the doors to his throne room. He was once the terror of the entire world, and now he was preparing to make his final stand. Already, the Soulforged Adamantine doors were beginning to buckle under the relentless assault. The Enemy was almost upon him.

“How did it come to this?”

He remembered the last time there had been a major challenge to his rule. The human kingdom of Athelia had performed a Grand Summoning, sacrificing the souls of one hundred peasants to bring forth twenty Heroes, blessed by the Soul of the World itself with great power and greater potential. He had known then that, if they were allowed to grow, then they would eventually become too strong, too mighty for him.

So, he had sent his best assassins. Skilled in the arts of stealth and poison, they had infiltrated the castle only a month after the Summoning. One by one, they found the heroes as they slept, and ended them, along with the King who had ordered the summoning. Athelia burned in civil war not long after.

That had been forty years ago, and, for a time, there had been no force that could stand against his inevitable march across the continent, across the globe. For years, he had been content in the surety that there were no threats to his immortal reign. But sometime, when he wasn’t even looking, that had changed.

Twenty years ago, the Dark Kingdom had risen in the west. Ironically enough, it was in the ashes of Athelia that the Lord of the Dead, as his new rival was called, stepped into the light. And the ‘Free Kingdoms’ knew despair.

For a moment, Rorzomon had thought to offer the Deathlord a place in his service. It was only right, after all, that creatures of darkness such as the undead joined him in his conquests. Together, they could easily crush the kingdoms that stood in his way, shortening the length of his projected campaign to conquer the continent by fifty years or more. And he would have given the Deathlord a place of honor at his side, as was proper for such a powerful lieutenant.

But the Deathlord spurned his advances, slaying his messengers and reanimating them, so that they could carry their own heads in boxes to give to him. If it weren’t directed at him, he would have clapped in appreciation of the perfectly executed insult. As it was, he grew enraged, and changed his plans, focusing the front on Scaula, the nation directly between their lands, so that he could reach the Deathlord by the quickest road, and teach them the error of their ways.

But the Dark Kingdom had not stayed idle. They, too, marched on Scaula, their black banners raised high and openly. This was fine, as far as he was concerned. Let them fight against Scaula and pull off defenders that would otherwise be arrayed against him. It would make his conquest all the easier.

Except, that is not what happened. Scaula did not pull away any defenders from their borders. Indeed, they fought on, harder than before, not giving any ground that was not won in blood. Soon, he knew the reason.

It was at the siege of Vacete that the truth became known. As the sun began setting on the western hills, the sound of horns blared. All eyes turned to see rank upon rank of black-clad soldiers marching, their eyes glowing with the icy-blue flames of the undead. Their black banners, barely visible in the dying light, glowed brilliantly to those with the ability, whether by blood or by spell, to see through the darkness, and upon them shone in ghostly flames the symbol of the Dark Kingdom.

Athelia’s heraldry of old had been the Crossed Sword and Scepter, with a Rose upright across both, and all of it beneath a crown. The spectral heraldry upon the black banners was not that of Athelia, but one could easily see their Athelian heritage. After all, the Crossed Sword and Scepter were the same, but now they sat beneath a Skull topped with the Crown, and a Rose in its teeth. The Dark Kingdom was clearly proclaiming that it was Athelia, risen in Undeath.

The city’s defenders answered the horns with their own, and even from his command post, and great cries went up from the people. But, to his dismay, he could hear that those cries were not ones of shock, dismay, or even despair, but of courage and renewed hope! Like a thunderbolt, it hit him. The Dead had allied with the Living against him!

Unprepared for an onslaught of the undead in the dimming twilight, his forces were pushed back from the city. For the first time in one hundred years, his armies had been defeated, but he was no incompetent warlord who could not see the truth beyond the scope of his own power. He had managed to pull his forces back without losing too many, once the tide of battle became clear.

And it was good he had done so, for every orc, troll, or demonic beast that fell before the Undead soon rose up and joined their slayers. Even the dead of Vacete rose to fight again. Catacombs and graveyards stirred as the Dark Kingdom’s army passed by them, and their longtime residents took up blades once more.

That had been the beginning of the end, he saw that now. The Free Kingdoms united behind the Dark Kingdom of Risen Athelia, and offered up their dead to the Lord of the Dead. The tide of the war was slow in changing, but it was relentless. Supply lines became trivial when all the undead army needed was a fresh supply of corpses, and whatever materials might be needed to maintain and replace their arms and armor. The Free Kingdoms were starting to recover, even as they supported Risen Athelia in war.

Since then, he had spent the last twenty years fighting a losing battle. Any schemes to divide the alliance were foiled, the Free Kingdoms putting their spymasters to work in common cause. Any attempts to negotiate peace ended the same as that first entreaty did, with his messengers sent back, bearing their own heads. It was clear that Risen Athelia had no interest in peace so long as he lived.

After ten years of fighting, he had attempted to conduct a Grand Summoning, to bring heroes of his own to fight against the Dark Army. But the Summoning failed. How could it fail? There was only one answer to that: there were already heroes in this world, and no more could be summoned until they had been dealt with.

After five years of searching through the Free Kingdoms, without his spies ever finding trace of newly summoned heroes, he began to lose hope. Somehow, the heroes had been summoned, and were hidden away from him, so he could not eliminate them as he had done before, and could not summon his own heroes to combat the Dark Army. The only place they could be hiding was in Risen Athelia, for that was the one place in all the continent that his spies could not reach.

Not that it mattered. Without summoned heroes to turn the tide, he only had his own power, his own forces, to fight with. And powerful though he was, he was constantly driven back, as the Living and the Dead marched on his lands, slowly pushing him back. Until now, when they were fighting through the streets of his final stronghold, and breaking the doors of his final citadel.

CRASH!

With the sound of thunder upon steel, the great doors of his throne room were thrown open with such violence that they were ripped from the stone walls, crashing upon the floor of his throne room. Resolutely, Rorzomon stood from his throne, perhaps for the final time, and readied his two-handed sword, Soulrender, the fabled Mageblade of Forlorn Hopes. The blade was a priceless artifact of great power, forged in the blood of his enemies, and empowered by the souls of those who had died by his hand. He did not know if it would be enough.

The dust cleared, and he saw his foe, and what hope he had failed. There stood the thrice-bedamned Lord of the Dead, the Lich Queen of Risen Athelia, and, behind her, her honor guard, the nineteen Death Knights of the Black Company. There would be no escape for him this day.

Accepting his fate, Rorzomon the Terrible, Last King of Haerth, called out to the dark powers for strength, in one final battle. But the fates would not be so kind, not to him. He did not even get to finish his battlecry before a bolt of necrotic power blasted him in the chest in an explosion of smoke and shadow, uncaring of the enchanted armor he wore. The Demon King was dead before he even hit the ground.

And then, the Archlich, the Lord of the Dead, Lich Queen of Risen Athelia, Hopebringer, Demon’s Bane, the Dark Hero raised her eyes upwards, gazing not at the stone ceiling, but past it, at something or someone only she could see. “I did it. It took me forty years, but I finally did it!”

Chapter 1 – The Return

The Grand Summoning to bring heroes into the world was not a secret. The basic elements were all common enough knowledge. There was a cost, of course, and that was often a cost that people were not willing to pay, except in the direst of circumstances.

Of course, Thangvald’s Third Rule of Magick clearly stated that, “For every Magick, there is an equal and opposite Magick.” While this normally was meant to describe counterspells and the like, it could also apply to summoning spells. Namely, there was a ritual magic to reverse that of the Grand Summoning.

The Returning magic was less well known, but the archives of every country with the resources to perform a Grand Summoning had the knowledge stored inside. After the Fall, finding the information in Athelia’s archives was simple enough. Even gathering the proper amount of power was easy, if you were willing to make sacrifices. The problem was the Catalyst needed to perform the Ritual of Returning: the heart of the Hero’s enemy, killed by their own hands.

The Catalyst was, in part, symbolic. Certainly, the heart of a powerful enemy would have a certain amount of natural Magickal energy to it, making it a useful reagent. However, the intent of it being the heart of an enemy the Hero slayed personally, and, ideally, being the cause of the trouble that necessitated his summoning in the first place, had an exponential effect on the power of the catalyst, and dramatically reduced the other power requirements of the spell.

The reason for the different requirements was simple enough, really. If you thought about it, the Hero returning to their old world was not the same as the one who was summoned. If you take an empty waterskin, and fill it with hard-earned experience, then it takes more effort to lift it than it did when it was empty. This is simply common sense.

Naturally, the same principle applies to sending people across the veil between worlds. Which is why the power required to send one Archlich, well versed in magic and possessing forty years of experience upon the battlefield, back where she came from was on entirely different level than it is to bring twenty schoolkids who did not have the slightest concept of how to hold a sword, much less how to use magic or anything like that. So, a Catalyst was needed to supplement the power, unless you wanted to go and convince an entire city to willingly sacrifice themselves to power the spell. And yes, it had to be a willing sacrifice, since that ‘intent’ gave more power to the magic.

After finishing her business with the Demon King, she had taken her legions of the dead, and returned to Risen Athelia. Behind her, in the lands formerly ruled by the demon kingdom of Haerth, she left nothing. Haerth itself was wiped off the map, its people put to the sword to reinforce her Legion.

The lands Haerth had conquered got off lightly, in comparison. All industry, all trade, all government, anything that had supported the Haerth war machine had been destroyed. The only exceptions were the farmers and their fields. The people would have food, if they stayed, but for everything else they were essentially starting from scratch.

This would not have been a problem if the she had any intention of staying and ruling the former Demon King’s lands. Unfortunately, that was not the case. Instead, she stripped the archives, treasuries, and armories of the conquered lands bare, leaving no weapons in the ‘freed’ lands more potent than a kitchen knife, and left the survivors to their own devices.

The Free Kingdoms did not care. She had kept to the terms of her contract with them, after all. She had fought the long fight, giving the kingdoms time to recover, without the threat of invasion, and she had ended the threat of the Demon King forever. And, as agreed, she had not sought mastery over them when it was done.

What they had not realized was that she was not going to simply stay there, and help pick up the pieces of the fallen world. The war-ravaged lands of Haerth would likely spawn untold horrors, as both monsters and undead arose due to the amounts of magic thrown about during the war. It would take generations of work to make those lands safe again.

As for Risen Athelia, well, the situation was much the same in ‘her’ lands. Death magic hung in the air, and all manner of monsters were spawned there, a result of her conquest of the land during the wars after the Fall. Only the work of her legions kept the monsters contained within Risen Athelia, her undead making certain to cull and contain, but never eliminate the monster populations. She wanted their population to be strong, and healthy, after all.

Athelia was home to the dead, and none others. No people lived here, now, and much of the country’s cities and towns had been consumed, their materials turning into materiel for the Legion’s wars. In another twenty years, as the death magic faded, nature would reclaim Athelia.

But that was later, and she had no interest in seeing it happen. She was the Lich Queen of Risen Athelia, and had lived as such for forty years. Now, her mission was done, and she intended to leave this world behind.

She had no love for this world. She’d never asked to be summoned. No one got her permission before making her a hero. No, they just went and kidnapped her entire class in the middle of the school day. No warning, no chance to escape, no right of refusal.

No, one moment she was learning social studies, and the next she was in this very chamber, in the dungeons beneath the royal palace of Athelia, surrounded by people in fantasy clothes, like something out of a damn isekai novel. There looked to be a mix of warriors with swords and shields, and others in robes, with long, wooden staves. There was even a princess-looking person, being helped up by a man who was clearly a knight, as some weird glowing symbols on the stone floor started fading away.

Part of the Summoning apparently gave them the Polyglot boon, granting them the ability to speak and read any language. That was great, because otherwise they wouldn’t have been able to understand when the shitty king who summoned them welcomed them, and told them that they were heroes who would save the fucking world. As if schoolchildren knew anything about fighting demon kings!

But they hadn’t been given a choice. They were taught to read their Status, and then sent off to their class trainers, to learn the skills they would need to save the world. When they tried to object the king had them fitted with slave collars, to keep them from raising a fuss, and made them train twice as hard.

She’d been almost grateful when the assassins came. The Lychblood Ichor they had used was a potent poison, deadly against any living creature, with no known antidote. You either survived it (unlikely), or you didn’t (almost certainly). Unless, that was, you found a loophole.

Like the rest of her class, she had received a class and three boons during her kidnapping. The first of those boons was the Polyglot ability, which they all had. The other two were different for everyone. Hers were… uniquely suited to this situation.

The first, Panacea, granted her great resistance against all poisons and diseases, even magical ones, like Lychblood. It was not a perfect defense, of course. Resistance was not the same as immunity, after all. In this case, it did slow the progress of the magical poison, turning what would have been instant death into ten minutes of untold agony.

Her second ability, Crystalheart, was, on the surface, a fairly useless ability, since all it did when she got it was allow her to turn her heart into a crystal gem upon command. Since the heart did not do well at the whole ‘pumping blood through the body’ thing while it was a crystal, this was generally considered to be useless for any living creature. And it would have been, except for the fact that her class was Necromancer.

As the poison coursed through her, slowed, but not stopped, by Panacea, she had activated Crystalheart. A crystal gem may not have been much use as a heart, but it was perfect for a lich’s phylactery, and her knowledge of Necromancy made the transformation possible, with the ‘assistance’ of a shocked noble who had been, only moments before, hoping to order her to bed with him.

The king’s death disrupted the control her collar had on her, as he had bound them all to himself, and then ordered them to follow orders of their trainers. The moment his daughter, the Princess, took up the crown, it would slam down on her again, but that was time enough. No living being save the owner could remove a Slave Collar once it was locked in place, but the moment she became a lich, she was no longer amongst the living!

With the castle in chaos, no one noticed (or cared), when she slipped out in the confusion, pausing only to leave the snake that Carol, her classmate that had become a witch, used as her familiar in the princess’s bed. She made her way into the city, where the intended to lay low for a while. When the Princess died the next day, after receiving a snake bite, the Fall began in earnest.

The country erupted into civil war as the nobles squabbled over who would take the throne. No one of importance bothered to check the cemeteries, or noticed that, after every battle, the bodies would disappear. By the time that locals could get anyone to listen to them, it was too late. Her army of the dead was enough to wipe out the remaining nobles, one by one.

After becoming the Lich Queen, she had gone from place to place, ostensibly gathering allies for the coming war against the Demon King. In reality, she was going to every archive and library in the land, and stealing all references to the Grand Summoning. In the place of each scroll or tome she took, she replaced it with an identical-looking one that was completely blank, save for the words “NEVER AGAIN!”

That was her final revenge against this world. The breeding grounds of monsters and the undead had been fueled with twenty years of constant warfare, and the Free Kingdoms’ armies had grown soft, as commanders relied on her Legion to hold the line against the Demons and monsters, instead of standing beside her. Now, she would leave, and unleash the monsters once more. Only this time, they would not be able to summon heroes to save them.

Alone in the summoning chamber, she checked her inventory again. With her power, her inventory space (to say nothing of the bottomless bags she carried) was large enough to fit, well, all the treasures and libraries that she had looted, as well as the majority of her Legion. Which is exactly what was in there now. No sense just leaving such resources behind, after all.

The runes of the Returning spell glowed brightly as the Heart of the Demon King was placed in the center of the circle, with the hearts of his ten generals, six children, and three wives arrayed around it in a reinforcing formation. This, combined with her own power, was enough to power the spell. All she had to do was say the final incantation.

“Ανοίξτε το δρόμο για μένα και επιστρέψτε με ασφάλεια στο σπίτι μου.”

The runes exploded in power and light. Well, there was also a real explosion, reducing the city of Arela, capitol of Arelia, to molten slag. But that wasn’t her problem. The instant she uttered the final word of the incantation, she was whisked away.

In another world, an archlich looked up and saw neon lights for the first time in forty years. If she could, she would have cried tears of joy. “I DID IT!”

Chapter 2 – The Forgotten Name

Rufus Trent was not a brave man. He knew this. He was no coward, but if he was truly brave, he would have joined the military, or perhaps the Adventurer’s Guild, instead of becoming a glorified night security guard for the Memorial Museum. After all, those were the jobs with ‘honor’ and ‘glory’ attached to them, that made all the women drop their panties at the mention, at least in the movies.

No, he wasn’t brave (or perhaps foolish) enough to go that route. Instead, he chose an honest, safe, stable job. Being the overnight security guard at the Awakening Memorial was a respectable job, and an easy one.

Mostly, his nights consisted of making his rounds, or sitting in the guard shack watching the TV. He didn’t have a problem with the local homeless population. The Gym that used to be part of the Memorial site was still there, and ostensibly used for ‘classes’. With his boss’s permission, Rufus put the word out about it, the first few times he caught one of the homeless trying to bunk down on a bench in front of the Memorial.

The rules of the Gym were simple. No drugs, no alcohol. People cleaned up after themselves, and didn’t go breaking shit, and the door would ‘accidentally’ be left unlocked, giving them access to a place to sleep that was out of the weather, and had working restrooms, including showers. The locals policed themselves for the most part, since no one wanted to ruin a good deal.

No, the homeless weren’t usually a problem. Most of his problems usually came in the form of young magelings and occultists who had ideas of conducting rituals at the site of the Awakening. They were all types: some wanting power, others wanting to conduct a séance to contact the souls of the Lost Sleepers. Mostly just young brats on dares, but some of them were legit kooks.

By chance, Rufus was watching the monitors as a flash of light went off in the middle of the memorial. At the same time, the mana detectors started screaming at him. Grumbling, he got to his feet and grabbed his magelight and radio. “Goddess damned kids. What did they do now?”

As he stepped out of the security building, he could see the fading light of what had to be some kind of ritual. It was too fast for a successful ritual, so it was probably kids on a dare. Shaking his head, he turned towards the ring of black stones that marked the Memorial. Best to roust the kids out quickly and put a bit of a scare into them, before they got in trouble doing something really bad.

The Awakening had happened forty years ago, right here. No one really knew what caused it, but the main building of the International School just got wiped off the map one morning. Whole building, just gone.

Crazy part was that, despite the school being full of students and teachers at the time, most of them were completely unharmed. Not even bruised. They said that it was like they had all been just shoved aside, just before the building went away.

The only ones who weren’t fine were the Lost Sleepers. That’s what they were called in the history books, anyways. That event kickstarted the Awakening, spreading magic all around the world. So, the twenty students that disappeared in the event were called Sleepers, since they never woke up.

The site was now an unstable power site, making working any magics there dangerous, and the International School was already looking for a new campus, since their building had been wrecked. So, no one fought eminent domain, and the place was turned into a national heritage site and a memorial to the Lost Sleepers was built, along with a museum, providing jobs to Rufus and those like him in the process. A perfect solution, as far as he was concerned.

The Memorial itself was tasteful enough, and fitting, considering the fact that Magic was real. Three rings of Stonehenge-style arches made of black quartz, with nine arches in the outer ring, six in the middle, four in the inner ring, and a final, twentieth arch in the center, upon which the names of all twenty students were carved. Before that last arch was a stone altar, to offer prayers to the fallen.

Rufus frowned, as his portable magic scanner started going nuts as soon as he passed the outer ring of the memorial. That wasn’t good. He wasn’t a mage, but he knew enough about magic that whatever ritual the kids had done shouldn’t be putting off this kind of energy if it failed.

Bringing up his radio, he decided to call this one in to the dispatch center. The security company he worked for had people at several sites in the city, so, instead of having dedicated dispatch teams at each site, they had a central site to facilitate management. The Memorial Museum was quiet enough that Rufus barely ever had to deal with it. But this? He was kicking it up the chain.

“Control, this is Trent, call number 442. Reporting from the Memorial Museum. Suspicious magical activity detected on security and personal scanners. Am investigating. Over.”

A moment later, Control came back with the reply. “Control to Trent-442, copy suspicious magical activity. Suspected hazard level? Over.”

“Unknown. Probably kids trying to talk to the Sleepers, like last time. But the readings aren’t going down like they should after a failed ritual. Over.”

“Understood. Observe and report. SPD backup is on its way. ETA one five minutes. Over.”

“Copy, control. One five minutes until SPD backup. Will try and get a better view of what is going on. Trent-442 out.”

Putting away the radio, he switched his magelight to his off hand, leaving his dominant hand free in case he had to go for his weapon. Not that it was much of a weapon. Just had a preloaded Paralysis spell, good for locking up anything living it hit, at least momentarily. Anything that needed more than that, and he’d leave it to the people who got paid to be stupid.

As he passed through the second of the circles (always careful to move widdershins around the henges, rather than passing under them, like he was taught to in Magic Safety class in school), the scene in the center came into better view. A skeletal figure, dressed in black robes and wearing a mithral crown upon their head stood by the center henge, hand outstretched to touch the names carved upon the stone. Rufus stopped dead in his tracks just outside the first circle, as the creature turned to face him with its glowing eyes of blue flame.

This was not a ‘skeletal figure’, but an actual Undead! And it had clearly spotted him! Frantically, Rufus tried to calm himself. He didn’t have anything that would harm a powerful undead, and running wouldn’t do any good at this point. He was not a brave man, but he was no coward, either.

Moving his hand away from his paralyzer, he instead grabbed his radio. “Control, this is Trent-442. Advise backup that there is an Undead in the ritual site. Does not appear mindless. Over.”

“Copy, Trent-442. SPD expediting. Magic Containment Unit on route. Backup in four minutes. Keep transmitting. We’ll record everything for evidence. Over.”

Sirens could be heard in the distance, as the cops, who had been just responding to a suspected break in at the Memorial site changed their response. Thankfully, they were already close by, so they would not be much longer. With luck, he’d still be alive in four minutes when the officers got here.

That in mind, he did not respond to Control, but held down the transmit button all the same. As he did so, he played the magelight over the Undead, trying to get as much detail about the creature as he could, for when the MCU got here. Any details could affect their endgame, turning a difficult fight into a snap, if the stories were to believed.

“That device, it is magical, is it not?”

The undead spoke! It actually spoke! And it was pointing at his magelight. He’d guessed that it wasn’t mindless, since it was not shambling towards him, trying to kill him like mindless undead did, but to be able to speak? That put it a good few rungs higher up the scale than the typical skeletal undead.

“Y-you mean my magelight? Yeah, of course it is. You never seen one before?”

The Undead looked upset at his words. “Has magic always been part of this world?”

Rufus was beginning to forget his fear in the face of this surreal conversation. Talking with an Undead was NOT something he was trained in! But a talking Undead was an Undead that wasn’t actively murdering him, so he figured he could just keep it talking, until the cops got here.

“No, the Awakening was forty years ago. Everyone knows that. Magic came, or came back, all over the world, starting right here. This is the Awakening Memorial Museum.”

“Awakening Memorial Museum, huh.” The Undead shook its head. “I was worried for a moment that I had the wrong world.”

“Wrong world? You came from another world?”

The Undead shook its head. “No, I come from this one, if I did my calculations correctly. But I have spent the last forty years in another world. Not by choice, mind you.”

Rufus felt his eyes go wide. “You came from this world? Forty years ago? A-are you one of the Sleepers?”

“Sleepers?”

“Ah. Um, forty years ago, the International School blew up. All the students and staff were fine, except for twenty. They never found any trace of them. Since that event sparked the Awakening, people started calling those twenty the Lost Sleepers.”

The Undead laughed. It was not a cheerful laugh. It was a laugh that chilled Rufus’s bones to hear it. Sheer malevolence and hatred rolled off the Undead like waves at the beach. “Hah. Lost, is it? Yes, Lost is a good word. Damned to a nightmare, more like.”

Rufus took a breath to steady his heart. He wanted nothing more than to just fall apart, but that wasn’t an option. He had to keep it talking. “What is your name?”

“My name?” The Undead paused, as though thinking about the question. “My name. It has been so long since I had a name. They took them from us when we wouldn’t do what they wanted, you know. Made us forget. Part of the slave magic, to keep us from getting organized, or finding a way around the bindings. And after, well, people called me plenty of names, but none of them my own.”

The Undead turned back to the henge, running its skeletal fingers across the names. “My name. It is there, on the tip of my tongue, if I still had one. I remember Marina-san liked the sound of it. Her Familiar helped her keep her name, all our names. Remembered them for us.”

Rufus just watched as the Undead rambled to itself. From behind, he heard footsteps. Turning, he saw two officers, armed with spellguns. They moved quickly up next to him. The closest officer spoke in a soft voice (not whispering, since that carried further), “You the night watchman?”

Rufus nodded once. “Rufus Trent.” Motioning with his head at the undead, he said, in the same soft tone. “Unknown species of Undead. Intelligent, can talk. It claims to be one of the Lost Sleepers.”

“No shit?”

Rufus nodded again. “I’ve got a hot mic, and Control is recording everything.” The two officers looked at the Undead with the same wonder that Rufus had just a moment ago.

For its part, the Undead did not seem to care about the new arrivals. Instead, it was still concentrating on the henge. “My name. My name. My name! MY NAME IS AKAGAWA KAORI!”

Chapter 3 – Identity

Kaori sighed. Even if she didn’t need to breathe, being a soul mystically bound to their body by way of a phylactery, the motions of a sigh were still the same, and she could force herself to make the sounds, if she wanted to. But that was neither here nor there.

Honestly, she didn’t know what she had expected to happen. Part of her honestly wished that the return ritual would somehow put her, and her classmates, back in the world they came from, at the moment they left, all very much alive. But that was a fool’s hope, she had known that even at the time.

Magic had its limits, even when practiced by an Archlich who had trained to the level of Archmage. Going from one world to another was one thing. Choosing a particular world to go to, out of all the possible ones, was on a whole new level of difficulty. Adding in time travel and resurrection to that? Well, that was, in all likelihood, completely impossible without a lot more power than she had access to.

Time magic was simple enough on the surface, but far more complicated in practice. Locally slowing or speeding up time was the basis of the ‘Slow’ and ‘Haste’ spells, after all. Taken to extremes, that could see someone age to death in a matter of seconds, or have someone’s time frozen until later, effectively sending them forward in time. But moving willfully through time (especially BACK in time) was on another level altogether.

Simply put, the forces of magic did not like time travel. Time was meant to go in only one direction. Magic could be used to view the past, even experience an echo of it, but actually going back, and possibly changing it? Magic itself resisted something like that. And bad things happened when Magic started resisting you.

Resurrection magic, on the other hand, was wholly impossible, given what she’d learned in that other world. Oh, there was a window between the moment of death and when the soul left the body where, if a healer was present, they could revive a ‘dead’ person, but that was the equivalent of using CPR or a defibrillator on a clinically dead person and resuscitating them. While it was technically true that they were dead, and then they weren’t, it was not truly a resurrection.

The stories of someone dying, and then rising on the third day after they’d been entombed were either the result of an undead, a deception, or myths of divine entities playing about in the mortal world. Unless there was a true god getting involved, those who died were dead, and could not be returned to the living. There were workarounds, of course, mostly involving various forms of undeath or soul constructs, but that did not change the fact that returning someone to life was impossible.

So, she shouldn’t have been surprised that, when she returned to her home world under the power of her own rituals, that such fanciful things didn’t happen. Instead of seeing her classmates in the flesh again, she was faced with a tasteful memorial, with their names and hers carved upon a henge. At least in this world they would be remembered, even if no one else in the other world would be left who knew their names.

She had spent the last forty years planning how to take down the Demon King, and make sure that what happened to her, and her class, would never happen again. That world would either burn, or it wouldn’t. The years she had spent with her Legion forming the bulwark against the Demon King had given the Free Kingdoms time to rebuild, so they had a fighting chance. They just wouldn’t be doing it with kidnapped schoolchildren to throw into the fire.

She had planned all that, but she hadn’t planned what to do once she finally made it home. Now, she was here, and, for the first time in forty years, she was at a loss as to what to do. Everything had changed.

Currently, she was sitting in an interview room at the local police department. Like she had been for the last four hours. It was now four in the morning, according to the clock on the wall, and she had spent most of that time talking.

Confirming her identity had been troublesome. She didn’t have fingerprints, retinas, or blood to do any of the normal identifiers. As a Necromancer, she could rearrange and shape bones, so even dental records weren’t reliable. And her memory of her life forty years ago was somewhat limited, just like anyone in their late fifties or early sixties might be when trying to remember details about their childhood, and the stuff she could remember was all publicly available.

Fortunately, the police department had a mage with some divination ability, and so they were able to at least confirm that she believed what she was saying was true. With was good, since the other magical tests weren’t available, what with her not having any magical records on file. But at least having them acknowledge that she believed her words and wasn’t trying to lie was a step in the right direction.

The door opened, and a tired-looking mage walked in. “Ms. Akagawa?” She nodded, and the mage continued as he sat down across from her. “I’m sorry. Normally, I’d ask you if you wanted any refreshments right now, but I’m honestly not sure if we have anything that you could drink.”

She chuckled at that. “You are not the first to run into that issue of protocol with me, mister…?” She trailed off, obviously seeking his name.

The mage smiled, and said, “Sorry, manners. I am Captain Marcus Fairchild, commander of the Magic Containment Unit. Basically, the MCU is the magical equivalent to the SWAT units of your time.”

“I see. And I take it that my entrance caused some concern about my being a threat?”

“Heh. You could say that. You have to understand that, despite magic being around for forty years, it is still a pretty young science. There’s a lot we don’t know. There have been some outbreaks of undead before.”

“Ah, let me guess. Young necromancers, raising more than they could control, or using improper methods that allowed the undead to spread like a virus? Probably skeletons and zombies for the most part?”

The mage nodded. Leaning forward, he asked, “Yes. I take it this ‘other world’ you were summoned to has had similar events?”

“Yes. Mages of all kinds have similar issues, but necromancy has a little more chance to get out of control if improperly used. That’s part of why the kingdoms focused on finding and training those with magical ability as young as possible, at least giving them enough discipline to not be a danger to themselves and others. People made sure to get their children tested, because depending on their strength, it could be a ticket out of poverty for them.”

“Then that makes it a bit easier. So far, we’ve only come across two types of undead that could reasonably be called sentient. Ghouls and Vampires. Some argue that ghosts should be included, but most believe that they are merely psychic echoes of people, not thinking creatures. Any skeletal undead we’ve found have been, well, mindless. Even the ones that were capable of using magic were only running on animal instinct, at best.”

“Ah, well, I am what is known as a Lich.”

Fairchild nodded. “Like the old D&D monster? Powerful spellcaster, binding their soul into a phylactery and all of that?” He smiled at the looks she gave him. “The Awakening caused a lot of people to revisit ‘existing source material’.”

“Ah, Thangvald’s First Rule of Magic.” Now it was her turn to smile. “As you said, Magic is new here. But in the other world, it was much older. As much art as science, but there were certain rules that people knew. Thangvald was a scholar who put them into common circulation.”

“What were they?”

“Rule One: Magic is Mana shaped by the Mind. The Mind is Knowledge, Perceptions, and Intent. Therefore, each facet of the Mind influences the shape of the Magic.

“Rule Two: The sum of Mana, Energy, and Mass cannot be created or destroyed, it merely changes form.

“Rule Three: For every Magic, there is an equal and opposite Magic.”

Fairchild nodded slowly. “I see. So, our knowledge and preconceptions about magic from games and stories helped shape it when the Awakening happened?”

“Yes, that is what I would theorize. However, I’ve only been back in this world for a few hours, so I would hardly be qualified to make an actual declaration.”

“Well, that leads me to the first thing I was going to talk about. I want to state that, officially, you are not in any trouble, nor are you going to be held or detained. Also, barring any evidence to the contrary, we are accepting your stated identity of Akagawa Kaori as fact. We’ll have a lawyer in here in the morning to go over the legalities with you.”

He paused for a moment, obviously a bit uncomfortable. “However, there are some… concerns from those we’ve been able to wake up. One of the Lost Sleepers returning, and as a new kind of undead? There is no way that the story isn’t going to get out, and we really aren’t certain what will happen when it does. There are some people who would like to take you into protective custody.”

“Ah, please inform them that I do not need protective custody. I can handle my own protection quite well, I assure you.”

“That is part of what they were afraid of, honestly. Laying all the cards on the table, they wanted you in protective custody as much to protect you from the public as to protect the public from you. At least until things are sorted out.”

“Hmph! Even in the other world, the number of individuals who weren’t full-fledged gods that could be a threat to me could be counted on both hands, if I’m being generous. And most of those were ancient dragons and other such monsters. By the time I was done, the Demon King went and died in a single hit. Really, it was quite anticlimactic.”

“Ah, yeah, you mentioned something about that before. Part of why there are people who are a bit scared of you, and what you might do if someone attacks you out of fear or ignorance. Your appearance doesn’t help any, either.”

She chuckled. “Ah, yes. Well, that, at least, I can do something about.” With that thought in mind, she reached out to the side, as a black tear in reality tore itself open. Her hand disappeared into the rift for a moment, before she came out with two pieces of jewelry. A silver ring, and a stylized golden ankh with a blood-red stone set in the middle, hanging from a golden chain.

When she put on the ring, the oppressive aura of power and danger that she unconsciously gave off cut off. Fairchild straightened, feeling as though a heavy weight had just been lifted from his shoulders. He hadn’t even realized that her aura was so oppressive, and he was a trained combat mage!

The lich responded to his relief with a smirk on her skeletal face, as she slipped the amulet around her neck. Before Fairchild’s eyes, the lich’s form changed, muscles growing upon her bones, and then skin covering them. The blue orbs of fire that were her eyes became a human’s eyes, brown in color. Black hair sprouted from her head, growing down to her waist. Instead of a skeletal undead, all his senses said that there was a human girl of Asian ancestry sitting in front of him. If he weren’t watching it happen, he would have said it was impossible.

Almost lovingly, she stroked the gem on the ankh. As she did so, the regal clothes and armor she wore changed. First, they became a gown, fit for a ball out of a fairy tale, then the white kosode and red hakama of a Shinto shrine maiden’s traditional attire, before finally settling upon the school uniform she had been wearing when she was taken, forty years ago. When she looked back at Fairchild, he had to pinch himself to make sure he wasn’t seeing a vision straight out of one of the photographs that were housed in the Awakening Memorial’s museum, showcasing the Lost Sleepers.

With a more human voice, she asked, “Is this better, Captain?”

Chapter 4 – Family

With her ability to disguise herself as a human established, Captain Fairchild was quickly able to arrange a compromise. She wouldn’t be in protective custody, but she would have a plainclothes police escort from the MCU. He also arranged for a hotel room for her at the Sheraton Grand Seattle.

Kaori was thankful for the last part. Sure, undead did not require sleep, but hotels weren’t just for sleeping. She was certain that there were people that were going to have quite a few questions for her, and a chat in a hotel room was preferable to sitting in a police interrogation room. More importantly, the hotel had a connection to the aethernet, which was apparently a successor to the internet.

That little surprise datapoint was just one of who knew how many things she had missed in the last forty years. Magic had, apparently, returned to the world when she was summoned. Instead of treating it as a mystic art, like the other world had, Earth treated it as another science, trying to figure out how it worked, and integrating it with existing technology, even as it completely shook up the political and social landscape.

Forty years of change was going to be tough to catch up on, and she needed to catch up, quick. Sure, she had the plunder she had taken from the treasuries of her otherworld conquests, but she needed a way to convert her treasures into this world’s money, preferably without crashing the economy or sparking a war. She couldn’t do anything until that happened. Even if she had her phone from when she was taken, it wouldn’t have service, much less connect to this aethernet, after all.

So, she spent the hours before dawn watching television in her room, trying to keep her mind off one meeting that she knew for certain was coming. Captain Fairchild said that they had reached out to her family before he came to speak to her. Thankfully, by the time he got through to my parents, it was only eight at night in Tokyo. Apparently, when he told them the news, they had set out for Seattle immediately.

She wasn’t surprised that her parents were still alive. As she recalled, her father would be eighty-six in the spring, and her mother was only a couple years younger. That was old, certainly, but even in the other world, magic could extend one’s lifespan, so that a noble’s natural life expectancy was one hundred and twenty years. Of course, peasants didn’t have it as good, and the number of nobles who actually lived to 120 were few, due to all kinds of ‘unnatural’ causes. But in a modern world, with magic and medicine? She wasn’t surprised that they were still alive.

What did surprise her was that she had younger siblings now! Tatsuo was thirty-nine, married with children, and being groomed to take over the family business. (She couldn’t believe that she was an aunt!) Eri, on the other hand, was thirty, and finishing up her thesis for her Doctorate of Thaumaturgy at the University of Seattle.

Eight o’clock rolled around, and Kaori was still watching the news channels. Much had changed in the last forty years, but twenty-four-hour news networks were still around. Though the Veritas Act under President Ocasio-Cortez had apparently gone a long way to reforming the networks. Just the fact that opinion pieces had to be clearly labeled, on screen, as opinions and editorials, had done wonders, it seemed. MSNBC and Fox News had been driven out of business before the start of the president’s second term, while outlets like CNN had focused more on facts, and less on interpretation, to survive.

A knock on the door to her two-bedroom suite shook her from her train of thought. Rising from the bed where she was lounging, she caressed her ‘wardrobe ankh’, as she called it, and changed out of her nightgown. The school uniform was fine for coming over here last night, but she’d never been entirely comfortable in it. Instead, she decided to go with the one of the traditional kimonos that she had had made from enchanted silks while she was in the other world, settling on the black one with the dara blossom pattern on it. She had always loved the dara blossoms in the other world, as they were almost exactly like cherry blossoms, except for their purple color.

She had just finished becoming decent for mortal eyes when she heard Sergeant Perkins, her current escort, knock on the door to her bedroom. Opening the door, she smiled at the female officer. “Good morning, Sergeant. I take it I have visitors. Are they official or unofficial?”

Perkins shook her head. “Personal, ma’am. Your family is here. And you have a meeting with the lawyers at ten.”

“What? I wasn’t expecting them so soon!”

That was the truth. After all, when she ‘left’, the flight from Tokyo to Seattle was nine hours on its own. Depending on circumstances, you could easily add another two hours or more on either end of that, just with getting to the airport, waiting for the flight, dealing with customs, and the rest. For them to get here in just five hours was, well, impossible!

Perkins just smiled, and stepped to the side of the door. “Would you like to see them?”

Trying to overcome a sudden bout of nerves, she forced herself to step forward, and saw eight people standing in the living area of the suite, staring at her. She only recognized two of them. But that was not surprising. Only two of them were even alive before the summoning.

Her parents were almost the same as she remembered them. There were a few signs of age. Mostly the eyes. The eyes looked older. And they recognized her face, the one she had when she was alive.

Suddenly, her feet felt like lead. Slowly, she moved in front of her parents. Her body may be covered in flesh, thanks to her ankh, but that did not mean she could tear up, even though she wanted to. Like she saw they were trying not to.

“Otōsan, Okāsan, tadaima.”

Her mother lost the battle against tears, and embraced her. “Okaeri, Kaori-chan. Osoi yo.”

“Gomenasai, ka-san. Gomenasai.”

Her father stepped forward, and hugged them both. “It is good to have you back, daughter.” He looked her in the eye, concerned. “Your skin is cold.”

“Yes, father. It is because—"

He cut her off with a shake of his head. No one had cut her off in twenty years! The shock of it made her almost miss his words. “I will hear your excuses for missing curfew later. For now, come and meet your family.”

The former Lich Queen of Risen Arelia, helpless in front of her father’s smile, decided not to argue, and instead simply nodded. “Hai.”

Her father took that opportunity to make the introductions, starting with Tatsuo and his wife, Hiroko. They had apparently met through work. Hiroko had been an in-house counsel for a company that the Akagawa Company had been doing business with, and they had been smitten with each other ever since. Their eldest son, Genjo, was nineteen, and in university. Teika, the second son, was fifteen, and attended a private school. And then there was the youngest, their slightly sleepy daughter who was now wide awake, Kaori.

Looking up at her, the young girl grabbed the sleeve of her kimono. “Aunt Kaori? You have the same name as me!”

Smiling in spite of herself, the elder Kaori nodded as she kneeled down in front of the child, to be at the same height. “Yes, I do. And how old are you, Kaori-chan?”

“I’m five!” She said this like it was a momentous announcement. “My birthday was last week!”

“Oh, dear. I missed your birthday? Then I guess I ought to give you a present, hmm?” Without waiting for an answer, she reached into her storage, and pulled out a silver bracelet. It was a simple thing, not adorned in jewels or beautiful engravings. But she had kept it for forty years.

Offering the bracelet to the wide-eyed girl, she said, “This was one of the first bracelets I ever enchanted. It will help protect you, if you get in trouble.”

“Thank you, Aunt Kaori! It is so pretty!”

“That’s a very thoughtful gift, Kaori-san.” Hiroko smiled at me, before eyeing the two boys, who were looking slightly put out that they weren’t getting gifts, and were clearly about to say something. She quickly put an end to those thoughts before they could get rolling, and cause trouble at this first meeting. “Boys, Kaori’s birthday was last week, and Aunt Kaori wasn’t able to make it. You know your birthdays aren’t until later in the year!”

“Yes, mother.” The two boys replied dejectedly at having been caught before they could start asking about gifts.

The lich in human guise smiled. Kids were the same everywhere. She was glad to see it. Catching Hiroko’s eye again, she said, “Can I count on you to get me a full list of birthdays and other dates, when I get situated, Hiroko?” The mother smiled, and nodded, and a crisis was averted.

“Oh, my goodness! How did you do that? I’ve never seen magic like that! And without any chanting or gestures or even a casting aid device! You have to tell me everything! This could change everything we know about magic! Oh, gods, I am going to have to totally rewrite my entire thesis! The implications of this alone are massive!”

Of course, the moment the crisis had passed, the final person in the room was in her face, eyes wide and wild with passion, her words spewing out like water from a hydrant. The torrent only stopped when her mother not-entirely-playfully chopped the very, VERY enthusiastic woman on the head. “Eri, you’re being rude.”

Eri gaped like a fish out of water for a moment, and then managed to get ahold of herself. “Sorry, Kaori. It is just that I am studying magic, and have never seen magic like that portal thing you did. Can you explain how you did that? And what do you mean about an ‘enchantment’ on the bracelet?”

Kaori (the elder, as the younger one was too busy admiring her new jewelry) nodded. “Yes, it is good to meet you, too, Eri. The portal, as you call it, is a simple storage magic, an extension of the magics that allow a bag or room to be bigger on the inside than the outside, if this world has such things yet.

“And the bracelet is enchanted with a passive ‘armor’ spell, which reduces the damage the wearer takes.” She looked over Eri’s shoulder to Hiroko. “It isn’t that powerful, since it was my first piece, but you should see a reduction in the number of scraped knees, bruises, and other such things while she’s wearing the bracelet.”

“But how did you—”

She set a hand on Eri’s shoulder to cut her off. “We can speak about the technical details later, when it is just the two of us, perhaps. I am sure that there is much we can teach each other, since I have never heard of a ‘casting aid device’ before. I would be a poor archmage if I passed up the chance to learn new magics, after all.”

“Archmage? What’s that?”

“Ah, it was one of the classifications for magic-users in the other world.”

“Other world, you mean like one of those isekai novels?”

“Genjo, don’t interrupt!”

The archlich smiled at Hiroko as she tried to shush her son. “It’s all right, Hiroko.” Looking over to Genjo, she said, “Yes, though I didn’t meet Truck-kun, if that is still the normal method in those stories. My class was… summoned.”

Both the boys’ eyes went wide at that. “You mean, like summoned heroes, brought to save the world?”

She nodded slowly. “Yes, exactly like that. Only, no one asked us if we wanted to go or not. None of us were asked. They just snatched us up with their ritual, and said we had to go and save the world.”

Her father cleared his throat. “Then, the others?” She shook her head, and he nodded. “I see. I know that the Museum is contacting the other families. To get closure. If you don’t want to speak, I understand.”

“No, they deserve better than that, papa. I will tell them everything. But no children. I would like to keep them innocent a while longer.”

“I’ll let them know.”

Chapter 5 – Interview

Her family did not stay for long. While Eri may have been local, the rest of the family had come from Japan, and there was still a seventeen hour time difference between Tokyo and Seattle. Stay-awake spells were only so effective, after all. Fortunately, they were staying in the same hotel, so she could see them when they recovered from their jet lag.

After her parents, she had a meeting with the lawyer Captain Fairchild had mentioned. Lilah Morgan, of the firm Wolfram & Hart, was actually the legal representative of the Awakening Memorial Charitable Fund. She was also a demon.

Oh, she looked normal enough, but that was just an illusion, a good one, too. Would probably fool most mortals, even mages. But while Kaori currently looked human, her eyes were just for show. She hadn’t needed them to see since she first became undead.

Sergeant Perkins had left them, standing watch outside the door, most likely. So, she didn’t bother with any preamble. Looking the demoness in the eye, she said, “So, why would a demon lawyer be coming to see me?”

Lilah blinked once, the only sign of surprise that she had pierced her veil, before she quickly cast a spell which the lich recognized as a soundproofing spell of some kind. Smiling once again, the lawyer met the lich’s eyes. “So, it is going to be like that, then? This job just got a great deal more interesting.”

She took a breath, and then continued. “Well, for starters, I actually do represent the AMCF. They’re one of our pro bono clients, since it is good PR. The AMCF provides for the maintenance of the Memorial and the Museum, as well as providing grants and funds for charitable works all around the world, though they are best known for their annual scholarships to help prospective magic users get an education. As I said, it is lovely PR.”

Kaori motioned for her to continue. “Yes, well, when the AMCF was first formed, they put together a Trust, totaling $20,000 in 2020, to be disbursed to any of the so-called Lost Sleepers or their descendants, should they be found. Obviously, $1000 per Sleeper was not a terribly large amount, but at the time it would at least pay a month’s rent with some left over for food, if the individual weren’t too extravagant in their tastes. However, the charter of the AMCF also included that 1% of all contributions to the fund be channeled to the Sleeper Trust.”

“Why would they create a fund like this, if they believed we were dead, or otherwise ‘lost’?”

Lilah nodded. “In the beginning, it was just a way to acknowledge the lost, and set something aside to help them, in case they came back. For such a cheap initial payment and minor continuing payments, this move won the AMCF a great deal of public support, as you can imagine. There was also a clause about the trust expiring in 2100, at which time if no Sleepers or their descendants had come forward, but that point is moot now, obviously.”

“Obviously.”

The lawyer smiled at her. “Now, between those continuing contributions, good management, and so on, that initial $20 thousand has grown considerably. The Sleeper Trust is now worth $3.2 billion, though only about one percent of that is liquid capitol.”

Kaori jolted upright in her chair. Even if inflation meant that a billion was worth less than it had when she was summoned, that was still an insane amount of money! “And I presume you’re here to tell me it all belongs to me, then?”

“That’s correct. Of course, there is some legal work that will need to be taken care of, re-establishing your legal identity, and all that, but I assure you, our firm is quite capable of maneuvering the red tape. If you wish to keep the current management team in place, and not make any withdrawals from the invested balances, then we can have things sorted within a couple weeks.”

“If the current team has done this well in growing the Trust in the last forty years, then I am content to leave them in place, though I will expect reports. The actual reports, mind you. I understand that the potential loss of control could lead people to making ‘unfortunate’ decisions, and I will be most upset if that happens.”

Lilah smiled like a predator that had spotted one of their own. “Ooh, I like you. I think we’re going to get along nicely. Now, I have the paperwork to open a bank account in your name, with an initial deposit of $20 thousand, and a line of credit for $1 million, which should be sufficient to cover incidental expenses between now and the legal work being finished. The only obstacle would be if we can expect any more Sleepers or their families to return?”

I shook my head. “They are dead. However, I did bring their remains with me, so that they can be returned to their families.”

“A pity. But that will save us one potential source of legal troubles, so all the better.”

“Excellent. So, with that part out of the way, why did a demon lawyer really come to see me?”

Lilah chuckled. “Well, you weren’t exactly subtle in your return, you know? Anyone in a twenty-mile radius who was sensitive to magic probably felt that tear in the face of reality. That kind of power outlay demands attention.”

Kaori nodded. “Especially from a demonic law firm, who might want to be sure any new player wasn’t going to upset the balance of power, whatever it is? I love the reference, by the way. I watched that show, and the one it spun off of. My roommate had both series on DVD.”

“Ah, was it the name that gave it away, then?”

Kaori shook her head. “No, that was just a pleasant catch on my part. Your glamour never worked on me to begin with.”

“Well, at least there’s that. It would have been most unfortunate if our work was undermined by a cute joke during the firm’s creation. I even had my name changed to fit in with the theme!” She sighed for effect, and then looked my way, inquisitively.

“If you don’t mind, though, would you tell me what you are? The firm is contracted to work with you on the AMCF business, regardless, but for a private retainer we would need to know more. And since you didn’t call for help or attack me the moment you discovered what I was, I can only assume that you are at least open to being represented by someone who is morally flexible, shall we say.”

The lich grinned, and said, simply, “I’ll show you mine, if you show me yours.”

Lilah simply shook her head, and in the next instant a shimmer passed over her body. As the glamour faded, she was remarkably unchanged. It was just the little things, like the horns coming from her head, a pair of wings sprouting from her back, the tail draped over the arm of the chair, red skin, and hair the color of dried blood. You know, minor details.

For her part, Kaori just nodded, seeing exactly what she expected. She pressed the gemstone in the center of the ankh, and blue-black spectral flames seemed to immolate her for a moment. And then it was done, the flames gone, except for where they lit the place where her eyes should have been. Her clothes, of course, were not even singed, though they did hang differently without her flesh to hang from.

“Oh, wow. I was NOT expecting that!” And, in truth, Lilah wasn’t. After all, she had never seen a glamour that used flame to remove itself. And the flesh! She had felt the woman’s flesh as they shook hands. It had been a bit cold, but it had been there. “A physical glamour, how?”

“Trade secret, I’m afraid.” No need to tell her just yet that it wasn’t actually a glamour, after all.

“Hmm. If we can come to an agreement about a retainer, I can promise you that there would be plenty of people who would like to learn how to make a physical glamour. All of the more… noticeable members of the community, in fact.”

“So, I take it the Awakening brought its own supply of nonhumans? Or did they come from elsewhere?”

“That’s right, you wouldn’t have been around to see it. As magic started spreading, people started changing. Elves, dwarves, and the like started popping up. Even catgirls and such. Some were pretty, others not so much. Regardless, people freaked out, especially when kids started being born that way. About 10 percent of the global population is ‘other’ when it comes to the human question.”

“So, actual demon, like from the abyssal planes, or altered human?”

“Altered human, though we have met with some ‘natural’ demons, and the only real difference is in power levels that come from age and experience.”

“Fascinating.”

“So, you? Some kind of undead?”

“Yes, I’m a lich. A mage who bound their soul into an object, cheating death. Usually, it requires the person to be a powerful spellcaster, but there are ways to augment one’s power temporarily, especially if you’re a necromancer.”

“Ah, not one of the other Sleepers, I hope?”

“No, one of the nobles who was ordering me around.”

“Fine, we can spin that nicely if it ever comes out.”

“If it helps, I didn’t have much choice, as the Demon King had sent his assassins to poison all the newly summoned heroes, and the king that had brought us there. And it worked. The poison was one that was an incredibly lethal one, with no known antidote, not even magical ones. Using my abilities to turn into a lich was the only way I survived, when everyone else died.”

Lilah nodded slowly. “All right, that’s definitely some extenuating circumstances. What about the noble? Any way we can paint him in an unfavorable light if people start asking questions?”

The lich laughed. “Of course. The moment we indicated that we did not want to be the ‘summoned heroes who saved the world’, they were ready with an enslavement curse. Enslaved us all, and suppressed our memories of our own names. The noble I sacrificed to complete my transformation was actually about to order me to bed with him.”

Lilah’s smile grew wide at that. “Excellent. It makes you the victim, who took a bad hand, struck back against her kidnappers, and made the best of the situation. That will play well in all the demographics that really matter.”

She took a breath. “So, Wolfram and Hart would like you to consider putting us on retainer to handle any legal needs you might have. Given your new financial status, we can also recommend an accountant separate from the Fund’s people, to work on your personal finances. I think you’ll find our rates quite acceptable.”

Kaori nodded. “You have the paperwork for that with you?”

“Of course.”

After another half hour of reading through contracts and signing paperwork, the deal was done. Moments after Lilah sent in the scanned papers, there was a small flash of light, and a checkbook, debit card, and smart phone were sitting on the table in front of her.

The lawyer grinned at the look the lich gave her. “We used the express option, of course. The phone is charged and activated. You’ll find the number and the pregenerated PIN in the box. Obviously, you’ll want to change the PIN. The checks and card are to the account we set up, and you can use your phone to activate the card and set up your PIN.”

She took a breath, and said, “And I think that covers everything on our end. Unless you have any future plans you’re considering that might need legal work? We also have connections that can vet potential staff.”

“Well, I have a few ideas. Obviously, I’m going to need a permanent place to live. Ideally, I would like someplace both locally, and in Japan. Someplace where no one would mind if I put in my own security, you understand.”

“I’ll get our people looking for options in both places. Also, I’ll forward any relevant laws regarding magic and supernaturals to you. The Undead parts, specifically. Fortunately, sentient undead are classed differently from the mindless ones under the law, but there is definitely still pushback against demons and undead that you don’t see against the elves and catgirls.”

Kaori nodded. “It was the same in the other world. Pretty people always get special treatment over the ones that make you afraid. My staffing needs are fairly minor, aside from the accountant, which I will need. I think, at first, I will just need a series of tutors.”

“Any particular subjects?”

“History of the last forty years, of course: Global, US, and Japan. Current events. Also, technology, since I’ve missed the last forty years of innovations. And I want a magic tutor.”

“Really?” Lilah couldn’t keep the surprise out of her voice. “I would think you’d know plenty of magic already?”

“I know the other world’s magic. But belief changes magic, as I’m sure you’ve discovered. Magic in this world may be able to do things differently than the other world’s magic can. It is like the difference between a katana and a longsword. Both are great weapons, and are roughly equivalent, but they are used slightly differently, and have different strengths and weaknesses.”

“I see what you mean. I will have our people start looking for appropriate individuals.” Lilah made a note on her phone, and then looked up. “Now, about the press conference.”

“Press conference?” Kaori didn’t like the sound of that.

“Yes, unfortunately something like this is going to be impossible to keep out of the press. A few outlets have already noticed the Memorial getting the families of the Sleepers together. I recommend doing a press conference after the meeting this afternoon. We can have a few trusted local reporters get the ‘big scoop’, in return for making it a softball affair.”

“That sounds all right. I assume afterwards I’m going to have to do some real interviews, if only to keep the hounds at bay?”

“Yes, that’s the idea. Obviously, it won’t help with the paparazzi, but if we can get you a sympathetic interviewer on a couple shows, which we can use to get the story out there, on our terms. Then, we can have you step back, out of the limelight, so you can ‘take time to heal’, or some other PR-friendly phrase, and the major outlets will back off. Any preferences?”

Kaori shook her head, and shrugged. “I don’t know any of the current shows. I think, however, CNN for the ‘news’ part of it, then one of the night shows in the US, and one for each country one of my classmates came from, including Japan, if you can find sympathetic hosts.”

Lilah nodded once. “Oh, that shouldn’t be a problem. And I was going to suggest something similar. Specifically going to each country one of your classmates came from will play well, like you’re honoring your friends.”

She took a breath, and said, “Now, for the big question, are you going to reveal your being undead?”

Chapter 6 – Live Show

The big reveal to the families of her classmates went off about as well as could be expected. Yes, her being the sole survivor had stung them, but not as much as it could have. Forty years had been enough time for some closure, and there were a few next of kin who hadn’t even been alive when they’d been taken!

Returning the bodies of her dead classmates (properly de-animated, of course) went a good way to smoothing over any hurt feelings caused or old wounds dug up by her return. Sure, there were a few questions about why their bones were blackened, but that was easily explained away by the fact that she had used her magic to reinforce the bones with heavier materials, making them more durable and preserving them. She did NOT, however, mention that she did it to enhance their combat abilities.

Oh, sure, some of them had caught on pretty quickly why a necromancer would just so happen to have the complete skeletons of her classmates with her after forty years. Necromancers weren’t exactly common in this world, but over the last forty years they had made enough of a splash that everyone knew a bit about what they could do. But there was a difference between knowing that your family member’s dead body was used as a weapon and being told directly about it by the person who did it.

The other big reveal, of course, was her true nature. After talking it over with Lilah, Kaori had decided that it was best if she revealed that she was an undead from the start. This would cause some PR problems early on, certainly, but it was better than having to deal with ‘lies’ if it ever came out that she wasn’t human. Also, there was the little benefit of short-circuiting the questions and recriminations about why SHE was the sole survivor. After all, she didn’t ‘survive’ as a human.

The initial press conference with the local reporters and the follow-up with CNN had gone well. It was basically the same presentation as she’d given to the families, and a brief account of what had happened to her over the last forty years, with a few more details in the CNN interview. Lilah was more than pleased with how that worked out.

So, too, was Holly Gibson, the PR spokeswoman Lilah brought on to work with her. Gibson was American, but worked for a firm based in Japan, which was useful for establishing some international sensibilities with her public presence. The spokeswoman had immediately signed off on their initial thoughts of which shows to do, and offered further refinements to her idea.

Which is why she was now on the set of one of the more popular late shows, hosted in New York, barely two weeks after her return. When Holly reached out to the host, he had, naturally, been thrilled with the idea of getting the hot new topic on his live show. Not to inflate her own head or anything, but she was a big deal at the moment, which would kick his ratings up a ton.

“—and now for our featured guest, the Lost Sleeper, Kaori Akagawa!”

The clapping became a bit strained as she walked onto the stage. After all, she was wearing her royal robes and armor, complete with her crown and the staff she carried on her long campaign, with her true form visible for all to see. She did, however, keep the ring on which dampened her aura. No sense in being nasty about things.

The host, Jack Harris, was quick to cover his shock. “Oh, my. That is certainly one way to make an entrance, Kaori! You look like some kind of royalty, riding off to battle!”

Kaori smiles as she sat down. “Funny you should mention that, Jack. I spent the better part of the last forty years doing just that! And this is my actual crown.” She touched the mithral crown as she said that.

“Really? I know the reports said that you and the other Lost Sleepers were summoned to another world, like something out of a story, but you actually became royalty? How did that happen?”

“The hard way, I’m afraid. It wasn’t like the fairy tales, you know, where the summoned hero is treated like a king, and wins the heart of the fair maiden for slaying the demon king, thereby gaining the princess’s hand in marriage, or anything like that. We were tools to be used, and expended. And when we complained, we were enslaved.”

“It seems like a fairly dumb idea to summon someone and then enslave them.”

The lich chuckled sadly. “Unfortunately, it would have worked all too well, if they hadn’t been stopped. You see, summoned heroes are invested with a great deal of potential power, allowing them to grow quickly, and reach greater heights.”

A brief sigh, “But no one who goes ripping people from their home for their own convenience cares much about things like ‘consent’, so they also have no problem with damnable inventions like slave collars which literally shackle someone’s will, making them little better than puppets. Those puppets can still grow, after all, which means they make for perfect weapons.

“It is ironic, then, that I was saved by the Demon King’s assassins. Well, ‘saved’ is a strong word for it, since I ended up like you see, but I at least was able to get my freedom back.”

“We’ve all heard the story of how you managed to defeat the poison that was killing you by turning into an undead. But how did you then get to be royalty, if the kingdom had betrayed you?”

“Well, the assassins made sure to get the King while they were killing all of us, which broke the slave magic temporarily. No living creature but the owner can remove a slave collar once it is set, but the moment I became undead, I was no longer living. With all the deaths, the castle was thrown into something of an uproar, and I was able to escape.

“The next day, the Princess was found dead in her bed. You see, my friend, Marina Davis, had a familiar, a serpent. She was dead, but it seems like someone helped the serpent into the Princess’s bed before they escaped the castle.”

Jack made a show of gulping. “Note to self: don’t get on summoned hero’s bad side.”

Kaori laughed politely, but it didn’t quite reach her blue flame eyes. “Always a wise choice, Jack. Anyways with the royal family dead, the country quickly fell into civil war. I wasn’t willing to just sit back and do nothing, so I went to the graveyards, and recruited reinforcements, the way only a necromancer could.

“Not that I needed to worry so much. By the time I was ready to make my move, the main players had already bled themselves plenty. It didn’t take much for me to take them out, with them all focused on each other. Still, it was another decade before my new kingdom was secure enough that I could start thinking about external affairs.”

“So, being royalty in a world with established magic, you had to have seen some really incredible things, right?”

“Oh, yes, Jack. I saw many incredible things, both great and terrible, and I learned a lot. In fact, during the twenty years of my long campaign against the Demon King, once I had united my new country, I made sure to visit every country I could, and stop by their libraries, picking up any knowledge I could.”

“Knowledge like the summoning ritual that brought you to that world?”

The lich shifted slightly. “Well, I might have gotten a bit mischievous there. You see, I was still upset with the whole idea of snatching someone from another world to deal with your own problems, so I made sure to ‘borrow’ every copy of the ritual I could find. I didn’t want anyone else to go through what I did, after all.”

“But doesn’t that mean you were basically leaving them without a way to defend themselves from monsters?”

“Jack, they had a world of magic and swords. They were plenty capable of defending themselves. Part of the reason things were so bad is because it was cheaper to just summon heroes than pay for and train a professional army or adventurers to the skill level needed to take down threats. So, they let things get bad enough that summoning heroes was their only choice, again and again.”

“YOU MURDERING WHORE! GOD WILL SMITE YOU FOR YOUR SINS!”

A shout from the audience ripped all eyes from the lich on stage. Standing in front of the doors that had just been thrown open were a trio of humans dressed in the white combat robes of the Purifiers, religious zealots that sought to wipe out anyone they deemed to be ‘unclean’ or ‘impure’. All undead were pretty much at the top of their hate list. And all of them were holding Sanctified Spellrifles, assault rifles blessed by a priest and holding spell rounds designed to be especially lethal to the undead.

Ignoring the crowd that was still frozen in shock, their leader pointed his gun at Kaori, and the other two followed suit. “DIE, MONSTER!” And, with that, they opened fire.

What should have happened was a scene of the evil undead being riddled with bullets, and burning out of existence. What actually happened was that, without even taking her eyes off Jack, a flick of Kaori’s wrist caused a translucent ebony shield to snap into place over the stage. The blessed rounds were designed to pierce through the necromantic magic used by the undead, but the difference in power level was so extreme that the bullets simply melted as they hit the shield.

Undeterred, the leader cried out, “Go to full auto, brothers!” More bullets hit her shield, with the only effect being that the archlich was losing patience with the fools. Finally turning to look at them, she pointed her finger at them, unleashing three bolts of ebon lightning that arced unerringly through the air to strike the three assailants.

The men tried to scream, but it was cut off as their bodies fell to the ground, limp and lifeless. Their faces were frozen in what looked like expressions of complete agony. Worse still was the fact that the three men’s souls were visibly still standing where they had been, open mouthed at their sudden downfall.

The newly dead spirits didn’t get a chance to complain, before the archlich’s staff tapped the ground. The onyx eyes in the skull head of her staff glowed black, and the three spirits screamed as they were drawn into the staff’s headpiece, to await some untold fate. Only then did the shield around the stage fade away.

Kaori had never even moved from her chair.

“Sorry for that. It seems some idiots believe that all undead are a scourge to be wiped out, or some such nonsense. Same thing happens in every world, unfortunately. Fortunately, these ones were especially weak.”

Jack, for his part, did his best not to impersonate a fish out of water, and did a better job of it than the crowd, who split their attention between staring at her, and watching as crew dragged the three apparent corpses off the set. Taking a big breath, he said, “Are they… are they dead?”

“Oh, no. Their bodies are still alive. I just extracted their souls temporarily so they wouldn’t cause any more trouble. I can put them back later, promise.”

Jack didn’t seem to know what to do with her giving him a cutesy undead smile, all while talking about ripping souls out of bodies, so he decided to carry on with the interview. “Well, enough about the past. What are your plans for the future, Kaori?”

“I’m glad you asked, Jack. In the short term, I plan to go and visit the countries my classmates came from. After that, well, I am waiting for the legal issues to work themselves out, and then I want to find a nice place to live, and perhaps visit one of the universities with a good Thaumaturgy program, and study how people in this world use magic.”

“Really? You seem to have an extremely good handle on magic already, from what we just saw. What use could you have for more?”

“Oh, that was just raw power, Jack. But magic can be shaped by the mental state of the user. Basically, magic in a world with a scientific method may work differently from one where magic was always present. For instance, my sister introduced me to this thing called a ‘Casting Aid Device’, which they had no concept of in the other world. So, I can’t wait to see what other new magics and new ideas this world might have!”

Jack looked surprised at that. “Really? I can’t believe a magical world wouldn’t have something like that!”

“Oh, it is true, Jack. In the other world, a mage might use a focus for their powers, but that was not the same as these CADs I’ve seen, and was more like an aiming device. They helped you channel power, and improved accuracy and cast time, sure, but they didn’t have the sheer utility of a CAD like my sister has, which can help run calculations for all the various effects, giving someone far greater control.

“The downside, of course, is that a CAD is more fragile than an ironbone and mithral staff reinforced by enchantments to be nigh unbreakable, and they have to be frequently recalibrated to match with their users, while being somewhat limited when it comes to spells and effects not in their onboard database. On the other hand, my foci allow me to use any of the spells I know, quickly and easily, and switching between foci is like switching from driving one vehicle you’ve had for years to another of the same make. It feels slightly off, but, except in high performance situations, the difference doesn’t matter.”

“Fascinating. I’m sure there are professors in universities all over who will be clamoring for you to be a guest lecturer in their courses.” Jack looked over to the side, and said, “And it seems like we are going to take a quick commercial break now. When we get back, more from Kaori Akagawa, the Lost Sleeper Returned!”

As the music cut for a commercial break, a staffer came up to us, and said, “The police are here, Miss Akagawa. They would like to question the three men?”

“Of course.” Kaori looked to Jack, and smiled. “I’ll just pop their souls back in, and be back to continue before the commercial break’s over.”

“Sure, sure. That’s fine.” Poor man seemed afraid of her. Maybe she would send him a gift basket when this was done. Holly would know the right brand to send, she was sure.

Chapter 7 – Purify

Needless to say, the Purifier attack on her, while on live TV, caused a bit of a scene. Not just because the terrorists had decided on such a public assault, but because of the abilities she had displayed. Apparently, her being able to create a necrotic shield, without chants, a CAD, or any kind of production or preparation, that could stand up to Santified Spellrifles at close range without faltering was kind of a big deal. To say nothing of her other tricks.

Kaori had to just shake her head at that. The first two spells any mage learned were always some form of Magebolt, and Mage Shield. The spell names varied depending on the element and type of magic user, of course, but the fact remained that, almost without question, the first thing a magic-user learned was to ‘shoot’ a ball of magic at a target, and the very next thing their instructors beat into their heads was a way to defend against hostile attacks. Even the most powerful mage was useless if they were dead, after all.

Necromancers were no different in that regard. Sure, raising the dead, and those kinds of things were flashier, and what got Necromancers most of the attention, but even the baby necromancers who could barely animate a freshly-killed rat as a zombie could snap a Necrotic Shield into place. It might not do much, if they didn’t have some power behind it, but they could do it.

She just had more power than most people. Literally, it was part of what happened when she was summoned to the other world. Her class gained the potential for greater power than normal people. She had forty years of training on the battlefield, and had killed the Demon King. Anyone who thought that she could just be taken down by some idiots with a couple holy guns clearly didn’t know who they were dealing with.

That was the thing with Magick. The more you rose in power, the less you had to worry about groups of idiots with mass-produced attacks. Whether they were a group of goblins with their blades, or the enchanted bullets from those rifles, for a mage of her power she would have to be under assault from an entire army for those crude attacks to reach her, and, even then, killing her was another matter entirely.

If you wanted to kill a magical being, you either needed to overpower their defenses with raw force, swamp them with so many attacks that you drained their mana dry, or outwit their defenses, finding a chink in their armor. If you didn’t have an army (or at least one that wouldn’t object to suffering 60-90% casualties in human wave tactics), and you didn’t have a champion that was simply more powerful than the enemy, your best bet was with a team of skilled adventurers, who could work together, covering a variety of skills, so that you could wear the enemy down without too much risk. That is why you never saw any adventuring parties made up entirely of mages, despite their massive offensive potential. Get an enemy into melee with them, and they were fucked, unless they had spent time training to fight hand-to-hand, and without a healer, any injuries could be fatal while in the depths of a dungeon.

At any rate, she hadn’t intended to flaunt her power. Indeed, she thought she had been very restrained, simply throwing up a shield to catch the bullets, so they wouldn’t accidentally hit the host, or others, and complete a simple, efficient, nonlethal takedown. The fools didn’t even have any protections against Death magic, despite facing a lich!

Fortunately, the craziness was not the only result of the interview. One of the managers at the New York office of Phantomline, the Akagawa Company’s ‘magic supplies’ division, had been watching the show, since the Big Boss’s daughter, one of the Lost Sleepers, returning was HUGE news in the company. He was much more interested in her comments about how CADs were different from the ‘foci’ that magic-users used in the world she’d been snatched to.

He sent the clip to the American VP of Phantomline, who quickly forwarded it to the home office. The home office apparently took all of thirty minutes to get in touch with her father, most of which was due to the fact that he was in the middle of being talked down from contacting an oyabun who owed him a favor to ‘handle’ the Purifiers for daring to attack his daughter. Once he calmed down, however, her father clearly saw the business potential of a completely new field of magic technology, one where there was only a single expert in the world, that they already had a connection to.

Which is why, during her 9 A.M. meeting with Lilah and Holly to discuss the aftermath of the show, her father called her at her hotel. He had a business proposal for her! He was asking her to start a new division of Phantomline, devoted to ‘her’ kind of magical equipment! A division that she would be the head of!

Lilah quickly took over the call at that point, and, on speakerphone, the four of them quickly decided that being an independent contractor, with a design studio headed by Kaori, was the best course of action. This would allow her to consult with Phantomline to try and develop a mass-production version of her foci, while also selling a limited number of ‘premium’ artisan-made items, for an ‘elite’ crowd. And it also reduced the liability for Phantomline, since they wouldn’t have to cover the studio costs during the development phase.

Deciding where to base the studio was difficult, but eventually they decided that it would be based in Tokyo, though it was expected that she would have to experiment with this world’s materials, seeing as how much of what she knew was from working with materials that had been created in a magical world, and this world’s magic was still young, and hadn’t fully infused everything around them, not yet. Between the funds she would have once the courts decided she was who she said she was, and the treasures she brought from the other world, she would have plenty of money to repay the startup loans her father’s company would give her in short order, even without a product that could be sold immediately. Better still, that would give her some official standing to work with Phantomline, so she could compare and contrast different styles of gear.

The next week had her endure talk show interviews in England, Germany, South Africa, China, and Japan, finishing her promise to give an interview in each country one of her classmates had come from, ending in her own home country. Fortunately, there weren’t any idiots who tried to attack her in those countries. Sure, the increased security that surrounded her when she traveled was part of it, but she didn’t doubt that most people who may have wanted to kill her decided to rethink their plans after her little display.

None of which mattered at the moment. She had returned to a place where she was always happy, even as a child. Thanks to her father’s connections, she had been able to spend part of her afternoons working as a miko at the Hie shrine. Doing the work had taught her humility, despite her family’s wealth. It also felt good to have a connection to something greater than herself.

Now, she was thankful that the priest had allowed her to return. She wore her ring to suppress her aura, and used her ankh to become ‘human’, at least outwardly. The same tools had allowed her to step into shrines and temples in the other world without issue, despite many of that world’s gods hating the Undead just slightly less than Demons, so she was glad to see that it worked here, too, when she passed under the tori gates.

The head priest, who had been a novice the last time she’d come here, before heading to America for school, met her at the top of the stone steps. “Ah, Akagawa-san. It is good to see you, after so many years.”

She smiled warmly. Here, at least, was someone that wasn’t her family, greeting her simply because she had been gone for a long time, rather than making a big deal out of it. “Ah, Sensei. It is good to be back.”

Looking him over, she nodded approvingly. He wore the karingu well, and he looked as though he was still in his thirties, despite having to be at least sixty by now. She could sense the magic in him, circulating through him, strengthening his body like the ki talked about in martial arts circles and cultivation light novels.

She focused her eyes on his again. She could see the question in them, and smiled. “Sensei, you would have made a proud warrior in the other world.”

“Hah! My if one of my students was telling me that, I would make them run laps so they could put their energy to better use than flattering me. But, if it comes from one who has killed a maou, then I will just have to accept the compliment.”

They shared a laugh, before the priest turned, leading further into the shrine. “So, your message mentioned that you wanted to undergo purification? Are you sure that is wise, given your… nature? The powers are there to cleanse negative energy, but they also dispel dead spirits, and set them to their rest.”

“And I am, in essence, a dead spirit inhabiting my formerly mortal shell, yes. Consider this a test, to see whether the kami will accept me, after all this time, and after everything that has happened. I promise you, Sensei, that if I start feeling the rite damaging me, then I will stop.”

The priest sighed knowingly. “You seek to find your place. A lot of people did the same, when their magic first awakened. They did not know if becoming majin would cut them off from the kami or not.”

He considered for a moment, then nodded. “Very well, Akagawa-san. I do not know if this is wise, but sometimes one must tempt fate to know the truth. I will aid you in this. You can use the miko’s bath. It is still where it used to be. Cleanse yourself, and I will have one of the mikos bring you clothes.”

“Thank you, Sensei, but I have my own, that I had made for me in the other world. I think it fitting if I wear them for the rite.”

In the bath, she brushed her ankh, and the traditional kimono she had purchased when she returned to the country disappeared, leaving her naked in the changing room, wearing only her ankh, her ring, and the pins keeping her hair bound up. When she got to the bath itself, she found that she was not alone. A young miko was there, also cleansing herself.

Looking over, the girl smiled at her. “Oh, hello. I haven’t seen you here before. Are you new?”

Smiling at the innocent interaction, Kaori sat on one of the stools, and began washing herself as was proper before getting into the bath itself. “No, child. I used to be a miko here, long ago, but I haven’t been able to help with services in a long time.”

The miko frowned, clearly upset. “Child! You can’t be much older than me! I might not be as hefty in the chest as you are, but I’m still thirteen!”

“Oh, don’t worry, little one. You’ll grow, and grow up, in time. But I’m afraid I’m a good deal older than you are. I only look this young because of magic.”

The girl blinked, and said, “So is that why you’re wearing jewelry in the bath?”

“Yes. Otherwise, I would be looking a lot older than you.”

“You mean old old, like thirty?”

Kaori giggled. “Oh, much older. I’m fifty-six years old, now.”

“WOW! That’s the same age as sensei! Can you teach me that magic, so I look like you when I’m old?”

She sighed. “You are better off learning to be healthy and strong like sensei. I went down a different road, which is part of why I haven’t been back here in forty years.”

“Forty years? Does that mean you know the Lost Sleeper that returned? Sensei said she used to be a miko at this shrine when he was a novice.”

“Of course, I know her, little one. She’s me.”

“WHAT! Oh WOW! Wait until I tell my friends about this! Can I get a picture with you?”

She laughed, and nodded. There was no political game here, just a child wanting to impress her friends at school. “Sure. Once we’re both dressed, you can take a picture with me.”

Chapter 8 – Magic Lesson

“Kaori! I’m so glad you made it!”

The lich in human guise smiled as her sister greeted her the moment she knocked on the college student’s apartment near campus. It had been a couple weeks since she’d come to this world, but suddenly having siblings (to say nothing of a niece and nephews!) was still something she was getting used to, though she wasn’t complaining. And Eri was certainly genuinely happy to see her, though part of that was because she was a magic nerd through and through, and the lich was here to explain the other world’s magic to her.

“Of course, I made it, silly! I promised you that we would get together and talk about magic, right? I might have had a few things come up the last couple weeks, but the word of the Lich Queen is her bond.”

Eri shook her head. “I know this look is some kind of illusion to hide your true form, like you showed off on that talk show, but hearing you talk about being the Lich Queen is just weird. Like you’re something out of an isekai light novel.”

“Hah! Well, I was summoned to another world…”

Eri laughed at the joke, and said, “Fair enough.” She ushered her in, and soon they were sitting at the table. “Now, how do you want to do this? I mean, there’s a lot to know about magic.”

Kaori scratched her chin, considering. “Hmm. Why don’t we start with how magic in this world works, and then I can tell you how the magic I’ve learned is different?”

Eri nodded. “All right, I guess that will work. Well, I guess to start at the beginning, all magic is fueled by Magicules, or magic particles. You can think of them like electrons, if you like.

“Now, magic happens by channeling magicules, directing them to whatever desired effect you want to have happen. Some people have a greater ‘conductivity’, you could say, than others, allowing them to channel more magicules, which allows them to cast bigger spells, or cast more often.

“As far as the actual casting, you can do raw, uncontrolled effects through pure willpower, like a blast of force to knock someone back, but anything more complicated requires the assistance of a CAD. Like the name suggests, the Casting Assistant Device is a handheld computer device that does most of the calculations for you. For instance, with a spell to produce a fireball-type explosion, the CAD would already have the variables to create a fiery explosion loaded, and you would just need to add in target coordinates, and set how powerful an explosion you wanted. Are you with me so far?”

Kaori nodded. The concept of CADs had intrigued her ever since she’d heard of them, and the little bit of web browsing she had done had gotten essentially that much. She could see some benefits to this kind of casting route. But there were some obvious questions that came up.

“Yes, before, you were talking about the body as if all it did was channel magicules. Do you mean that people in this world haven’t learned to pool their mana? Not even infusing it into their bodies long term?”

“What? No, I’ve never heard of that. Not in humans, or other sentient species. I mean, it is obvious that some creatures with magic are just tougher than normal, but that’s from using active reinforcement, right?”

“Not at all. While you are correct that magical ‘conductivity’ is important for any mage, it is only part of the story.” Reaching into her pocket dimension, Kaori pulled out the closest thing she had to a familiar, a Dreadcaw. The undead raven’s flesh and bones had been infused with magic during its creation, swelling the bird to the size of a small child.

“This is my pet, Poe. I created him from a common raven. When I first made him, he was indistinguishable from a normal raven, when not using his abilities. Over the years, however, he has grown, as he’s been exposed to more and more magic. But it is more than just size. You could take one of those magic rifles the crazy people who shot at me had, and they would not even scratch him. Even if they did manage that much, his mana would allow him to regenerate his wounds, in time.”

Eri’s mouth was almost on the floor. As the raven preened itself, before flaunting its plumage at her, she managed to get a hold of herself. “Oh, my goodness! You said you made this? But it looks so intelligent! Most of the zombies I’ve seen or heard about have been mindless!”

Poe clearly took her words as flattery, and posed with his wings outspread. Kaori, on the other hand, just smiled. “Well, your world’s necromancers haven’t really had a lot of practice. Conveying intelligence to an undead requires either an enhanced level of power and skill, or a transference of a living mind into an undead body. However, even with more power, I doubt it would be possible for your world’s necromancers, not without some major retraining.”

She shook her head. “But we’ll get to that in a bit. The reason I brought Poe out was to show you that, even in a nonhuman creature, there are benefits to internalizing mana and building your pool. Actually, it is one of the best ways to advance if you are not one of those who can naturally channel magic quickly. After all, even if you can’t cast spells on the fly, having a stronger foundation is a boon for any warrior. And when you have a pool that you can push at your physical abilities, that can make a strong man superhuman, or allow someone to literally dodge bullets, if they take it to the limits.”

Eri nodded once. The lich could see her sister rewriting her doctoral thesis in her head, even as she tried to take everything in. “How do you do that?”

Kaori chuckled. “Well, the first part is finding your mana. You’re a mage, so you should already have a feeling on how to touch your mana. It is the same process as when you channel mana for your spells. However, instead of sending it out, as a cast, I want you to take it, and hold it, inside of you.”

Her sister took a breath, and closed her eyes. Kaori could feel the flow of the magic in the air as Eri began drawing it in. “Not too much. Not yet. As far as your body is concerned, you might as well be a starving man, suddenly finding an all-you-can-eat buffet. If you go too quickly, or take too much in at once, the results are not going to be pretty.”

“I-I feel it! I can feel it, Kaori! What do I do now?”

Kaori had to smile at Eri’s pure joy. She had been like that, once, when she’d first touched magic. Before the King slapped those collars on everyone. It was a heady experience, to feel that power inside you.

“Good. Now, I want you to picture that power you have, and picture it trickling out, into your body, going through every part of you. Your bones, your flesh. Your brain. Everything. Just a trickle, not all at once. Just a little at a time. Then, when you have the trickle started, I want you to start drawing in power again, but only enough to replace what you are letting trickle out.”

She took a breath. “It will feel odd, at first. Unnatural. And that is because it is. Or, at least, it isn’t natural for a nonmagical creature. Anything born of magic has a natural instinct for this, as natural to them as breathing is to you. But, over time, you’ll find it becomes more and more natural, and eventually, you’ll be able to continue doing it in your sleep.

“The end result? Well, your body will become stronger, faster, more agile, even without active spell buffs. You may also find your memory getting better, or finding you can think more quickly. Your senses may become more acute.

“The mana pathways you lay down as you allow the mana to permeate your body will grow, over time, like a stream becoming a river. And like a river, in emergencies, you can flood those pathways with mana greatly boosting your abilities temporarily, without spells, though you’ll suffer damage in the process. Flooding your pathways is not something to do on a whim. But, when you need that edge to survive the next few minutes, then it is worth the pain you’ll be feeling later.”

“And this flood comes from your pool, right?”

“Exactly. That little puddle you’re forming right now will eventually grow into a pool, and, if you’re lucky, an ocean. The deeper your pool, the more you can use it, both for spells and to flood your pathways. It is the reservoir for your Magick. Without it, you are limited to whatever your stream is capable of in the moment.”

Kaori infused magic into where her eyes used to be, allowing her to see the actual flow of magic in the air. “In the other world, anyone that could be shown to touch magic could draw it in, and build their pool. But that did not mean that everyone who could do that was a mage.

“It is, of course, possible to both send your mana to enhance your body, building a strong foundation with mighty pathways, while at the same time learning to channel magic outside you to cast mighty spells. In practice, though, there is only so much training one can do with a mortal life and mortal strengths and weaknesses. Specialization leads to an easier path to power, allowing you to reach greater heights in one field, rather than being barely adequate in all of them.

“And so, the two basic specializations arose, the path of the mage, and that of the warrior. One focused their magic outward, and the other inward. If a person had twenty units of magic, a mage might devote one to strengthening his body, and the rest to his art, and for the warrior it would be the opposite. In this way, a mage might gain an enhanced mind, from the pathways in their brain being particularly robust, while a warrior might be able to use special attacks, like a slash of his sword that cut foes twice again outside the reach of his blade.”

“But there had to be people who tried to mix and match, right?”

“Of course! There were many styles of hybrids, naturally. People who sacrificed the potential to be superb at one path by walking down both part of the way. Paladins, Hexblades, Spellswords, Sword Saints, and more, they were all hybrids, to differing degrees. A Paladin could never match a Priest for pure holy might, nor a warrior for pure martial prowess, but they had the strengths of both, and the weaknesses of neither.”

“So, you were a Necromancer, right? That means you focused on your spells?”

The lich chuckled. “Ah, well, I was a bit of a special case. You see, those comments I made earlier? I made quite certain to say that they applied to mortals. Once I became undead, I was freed from those limitations.

“I have not slept due to weariness in forty years. I can rest, or meditate, or enter a trance-like state if I wish, but I do not need to sleep like a mortal being. And so, I have had plenty of time to walk both paths. Even in the old world, there were only a few dozen creatures that could even wound me, and the number of beings that could pose a true threat I could count on both hands.”

She sighed. “Of course, part of that was thanks to the whole ‘hero’ bit. My growth was accelerated because of the enhanced potential the summoning gave me. In essence, I came to that world with my pathways fully formed, and my pool a lake merely waiting to be filled. We all did. And, once we started training, that natural head start grew accordingly.”

“So, why didn’t undead rule the world, if they were able to surpass mortals? And who, or what, was able to threaten you?”

Kaori sat back on the sofa and sighed, remembering bittersweet times. “Well, the greatest threat to me, on the continent I was on, at least, was Mieserrynth, Lord of Fire, Bane of Cities, Eater of Armies. He was a dragon who lived in the mountains on the far side of the Demon King’s kingdom of Haerth from the Free Kingdoms, but so long as no one entered his domain, he did not interfere with the outside world. This provided an ironclad defense to Haerth’s western border, and made it so that the only way the kingdom could expand was through the Free Kingdoms.

“The old wyrm was ten thousand years old, according to the stories, if he was a day, but even dragons are mortals. Oh, they may not die of old age, and they can go long periods without eating, but they still need to sleep. This does not hurt their power gain, as they continue gathering strength even as they sleep, but it is in the raw, unfocused way. And the older a dragon is, the more they sleep.”

She shook her head. “Anyways, the reason that an undead did not already rule the continent? Simply put, the ones that had a mind to do such things usually overreached, pushing too far, too fast, too soon. Kingdoms may have died in putting them down, but they would get put down. A lich’s army of corpses tended to leave signs as it was ‘recruiting’, and vampires or wights tended to let their diets get the better of them before they could live long enough to be truly powerful.

“And the ones that had the patience to grow? They were usually unconcerned with such things, like the wyrm was. Ancient guardians of tombs, or an archivist cataloguing a repository of ancient knowledge from an ancient civilization, or a ghost bound to haunt the land of their death. Whatever type they were, they were bound, either to a duty, a passion, or a place, and they did not strike against anyone who stayed out of their domain. Even so, many fell when the lands of the Free Kingdoms pushed against theirs.”

Kaori looked over to her sister with a wicked grin. “Tell you what. Would you like to see a sample of what an Archmage Archlich Hero can do? Assuming we can find someplace big enough to contain the light show.”

Chapter 9 – Practical Study

Trust a school with a thaumaturgy program to have a practice space. The university had several, but Eri led the way to one of the outdoor fields (which were separated by thick walls, for safety reasons), where the magic sports teams often practiced. It was open to all students, on a first come, first served basis, but the unwritten rule was that the teams had priority when they were practicing.

At the far end of the field, there was a group of guys practicing ‘magic soccer’ (or mahō no sakkā, as they called it in Japan), which was basically just what it said on the label: soccer with magic added to it. The rules were pretty much the same as with regular soccer, except you could use magic to power up your moves, and the playing field was a three-dimensional box with a forcefield that bounced anything that hit it back in play. It was a game that prioritized fast reactions, magic control, and athleticism. Currently, half the field was blocked off by the forcefields of the box, since they were just practicing.

As we walked onto the other side of the field, Kaori put the players out of her mind, and reached into her pocket dimension to pull out her staff. The core was made of ironbone, which was made from bones that had been infused with iron to the point where they became stronger than steel. Mithral runes were engraved upon the staff, coiling together as they ran along its length, until they reached the skull upon the headpiece, a ram’s skull with onyx eyes that glowed with the same blue flame her own eyes showed, when she was in her true form.

Looking over to Eri, she grinned. “So, what kind of magic would you like me to show off?”

Her sister considered that. “Well, I don’t really know what kind of spells you can do, other than what I saw on TV, but I guess an attack kind of spell? There are some target dummies over there, so that might be a good test?”

Looking across the field, she could see a line of reinforced dummies hanging up, about 120 meters away. “Sure, I can do that. I’ll try and keep the power down, so I don’t have to repair as much of the walls.”

“Wait, repair the walls? I thought you were a necromancer?”

“Oh, Eri. Just because I started as a necromancer doesn’t mean I can’t do other things. It is just like someone who plays the flute. That doesn’t mean they can’t play the clarinet, or the piano, and it doesn’t mean they can’t play basketball. But the further you get from their natural talents, the more difficult things get.”

“So, a mage can learn any kind of spells, but they have specialties that they’re better at.”

“Exactly. Now, training in anything takes time and effort. Mortals have only so much time and effort that they can devote to things, so they tend to gravitate to their specialties. I do not have that problem, naturally, so I’ve had plenty of time to practice other types of spells, and other skills.”

“All right, then some kind of attack spell, I guess.”

Kaori took a breath, and turned to look at the line of five target dummies, spaced three meters apart. She could hit them all with a single spell, of course, but that would be pointless. She wanted to show off a little bit, after all.

Gripping her staff in both hands, she levelled the skull at its head at the center target. In the space of ten seconds, she unleashed five spells from her staff, each of a different type. A red jet of fire struck the center target, and it burst into flames, a charred hole the size of a softball in its torso. Rays of ice and lightning struck to the left, impaling and melting their respective targets, and causing a small fire at the base of the lightning target. A stone spear impaled one of the right-hand targets, and an invisible blade of wind neatly cut the last one in two.

The solid stone wall (clearly made and reinforced by magic) did not emerge unscathed. Though the ice, lightning, and earth spells all restricted their effects to their targets (or at least their immediate area), the fire and air spells continued on. A crater and deep gash now featured prominently on the wall, both going so far as to offer a glimmer of light from the wall’s other side. With an arcing slash of her staff, a stream of water sprayed over the fires, and extinguished them. When the butt of her staff struck the earth, the wall’s wounds shrank, as though healing themselves, until that physical sign of her spellwork was gone, even if the other effects remained.

Eri gaped at me. “How did you do that so fast, and without a CAD? Not just the speed of casting, but the different elements and effect types! And then the water and earth spells at the end!”

Kaori smiled. “Oh, that? That’s nothing, just some basic battle magic. The simplest spells that any new mage first learns when practicing a new element. As for how I did them so quickly, mostly it is down to practice. And I don’t control things as much as your method does.”

“You mentioned something like that before. What do you mean, exactly?”

“Well, like you said, a CAD comes with variables preloaded, so that you can control the size, shape, and intensity of an explosion, right?” Eri nodded. “Well, my spells don’t use that. I just form the magic, and give it strength and direction. So, instead of creating a flame, of a certain size and intensity to engulf a target, I just create a jet of flame, power it to the level I wish, and fire it in the direction I want it to go.”

Eri frowned. “OK, I can see how that would speed your cast time, but surely you lose efficiency like that, right? Without the extra controls, you must end up using more power for the same effect.”

“Yes, but remember what I told you about mana pools, instead of just mana channeling. Your pool allows you to ‘slosh’ the power about more, because you don’t run dry as quickly. My pool is large enough that those spells barely made a dent, and my pool passively refills quickly enough, because of my practice and natural conductivity, that I’ll be full again in a couple minutes, unless I speed it up.”

“Hey! What the hell did you just do?” Kaori turned, and saw that the eleven guys who had been practicing on the other end of the field were now coming up to them. They looked equal parts fascinated and concerned.

“Oh, sorry, did I disrupt your practice?”

The man in the center shook his head. “With those spells, so fast? Yeah, you did. But not in a bad way. I haven’t seen casting like that before. And what is that staff? Some kind of specialized CAD with a custom form factor?”

Kaori chuckled, and said, “Oh, no. It is a focus. It works on different principles than the CADs do.”

One of the other guys’ eyes widened, “Hey, Jack, I know that staff! That lich that was on the Harris show a while back, you know, the Lost Sleeper? She had one just like it!”

Smiling, Kaori turned her attention to the one who spoke. “Oh, you watched my interview? I’m flattered.”

Suddenly, everyone was asking questions all at once. Thankfully, the first guy to speak, Jack, whistled loudly, and clapped his hands, putting a stop to that. “HEY! Stop shouting.” He glared them into submission, before looking back at Kaori. “Sorry, we’re all undergrads in the Thaumaturgy department, so magic is kind of our passion. They get ahead of themselves, though. Would you mind if we asked you some questions?”

Kaori shook her head slowly. “Unfortunately, I’m trying to enjoy some time with my sister, who I only met when I returned, and I promised to show off some of my skills to her. However, I will allow you to watch, and maybe help out some, if you’re respectful.”

There were quick nods from the group, and Kaori nodded. “All right. I want you boys to build me a wall. Stone, iron, steel, whatever you can manage, as thick as you can. I’m going to demonstrate what you can do when you exceed your body’s natural ability.”

One of the guys had a wrist-mounted CAD, and so he quickly went about programming his spell. The ground rumbled, and then a cube of hardened dirt reinforced to the hardness of stone rose up, two meters on a side. Panting, the guy looked over to Kaori, and said, breathlessly, “Will that do?”

Kaori nodded. “Very impressive for someone relying only on channeled energy. Of course, you could have done even more if you had used ritual magic, and combined your ability with your friends. But I doubt anyone’s really taught that kind of thing yet. Now, all of you step back, and I will show you something really cool.”

When everyone else had backed away from the cube, getting five or six meters back, Kaori tossed her staff back into her pocket dimension, and stepped forward. Just before she moved to strike, she heard one of the men call out. Looking his way, she raised an eyebrow, and he held up a phone. “Um, do you mind if we film this? I’d like to post it on my socials.”

With a smile, she nodded once more. “Sure, all of you can film it.” When everyone had their phones out, she said, “Now, first, let me show you human strength.”

Turning to the cube, Kaori pulled her hand back in a fist, and launched a punch, careful to limit her power to human strength. The result was predictable. Nothing happened to the cube, and, if flesh and blood had been that of a weak human, instead of a magical construct, her hand would have been bloody.

“Now, let me show you what happens after years of infusing your body with mana, or magicules, to use this world’s terms.”

She took another breath, even though she didn’t actually need to. It was a bit of theater, perhaps, but it also helped her to focus, as she pulled on all the strength in her undead frame. This time, when her fist slammed into the cube, there was a massive cracking sound. Gasps from the crowd highlighted the fact that a small crater about fifty centimeters across and twenty centimeters deep could be seen now, with cracks spreading across the cube’s face.

“As you can see, when you have a body that is more than simple flesh and bone, reinforced by mana, you are able to do far more than any normal human could. This is something that anyone can do, with enough time, even if they aren’t naturally gifted in magic. But this is not everything. You can go higher, do more, if you know how.”

Turning back to the cube, Kaori focused, and began actively channeling mana through her body. An aura of silver energy, the color of untyped mana, began surrounding her as she concentrated. The mana affected every part of her, including her hair, which broke free of the hair ties binding it, until it became a massive mane nearly touching the ground, silver in color instead of its normal black.

“This is what it looks like when you are able to send your magic everywhere in your body at once. Your power increases beyond that of even a reinforced human, becoming something more, something superhuman. But I haven’t cast any spells yet.”

Now, she began casting. Increase Strength. Iron Hands. Perfect Body. Directed Explosive Punch. Greater Maximize Impact. Each spell layered on top of the others, their effects stacking.

“Now, see what is possible.”

And, with a scream, she punched the cube again, and there was an explosion of light, as her spells discharged, and her supercharged fist slammed into stone. Silver light and red-gold flame blasted out of the disintegrating cube, continuing on and spreading as it did so, until it swept over the target dummies across the field, and blew them away, along with the wall behind them, leaving only a conical gouge in the turf in their wake.

Turning back to look at the cameras and the shocked onlookers, she first allowed the spells to fade, and then eased down on the mana, returning to her ‘normal’ guise. All twelve of her onlookers were stunned. After all, she had shown them something that should have been patently impossible, even in this world of magic.

“Any questions?”

Chapter 10 – A New Home

It was three months after her return. Thanks to the tireless efforts of Lilah and the Wolfram & Hart lawyers, the courts had ruled her as being the person she said she was, and the money from the Sleepers Fund had been released to her. And, now, she was about to set foot in her new home.

Lilah was with her as they drove along the highway. It was a little over an hour from Haneda Airport to the property she’d purchased near the Shirayama Shrine in the Kamitakida area of Minamiboso, in the Chiba Prefecture, but there was plenty of space, and, other than some farms, her two closest ‘neighbors were the shrine, and the ruins of Takida Castle, to the south. With her new home only being accessible by a simple dirt road that was barely large enough for single vehicles to pass between the trees, she was, effectively alone out in nature.

As their car turned onto the dirt road, Lilah began talking about the place. “I know you wanted something closer to Tokyo but, given the regulations on undead, and your desire for privacy, the relators that the firm hired thought this was a good compromise. Because you are far from any major civilian populations, you have a much greater latitude in your security setup, as well.”

“And the utilities?”

“Electrical and plumbing have been run out to the estate, and the aethernet is connected by a fiber line to a main trunk running along some nearby power lines. There’s also a backup generator that runs off ambient magicules, but you’ll have limited power under those circumstances. We also put in a satellite dish for better communications. Oh, and a well on site, in case there’s a disruption.”

“That’s fine, then. And the rules on undead?”

“Yes, bound or created mindless undead, whether spiritual or physical in nature, are allowed on private property, though they may be exorcised if they leave the property line unattended, and their owner is potentially liable for whatever they do. They can be taken off the property so long as they are under the command or control of the necromancer or binder. In those circumstances, the controller assumes all responsibility for the undead’s actions.

“As for intelligent undead, if they are free-willed, then they are treated, legally speaking, like any other being. So, you wouldn’t be under any restrictions that a normal person wouldn’t also be subject to. Also, it is only legal to have intelligent undead bound to serve against their will if you have some kind of court order, or it is a part of their creation, such as with vampires being subject to control from their sires.”

Kaori nodded, “Perfect.” And it was. After all, every undead she had brought back with her had been created by her own magic, so there would be no complaints, legally.

Lilah continued. “Now, getting the construction done so quickly was difficult, but magic helped with the construction process greatly. As you requested, the main house sits in the center of the square kilometer plot of land, and was made with the traditional style in mind, though some modern materials and techniques were used, obviously, and magic, of course. No lingering spellwork, but magic was used to quickly prepare the ground, among other things.”

They broke through the trees, and into a perfectly square clearing, one kilometer on a side, arrayed around a small hill. In the middle of the clearing, there was a castle. Nothing to match the likes of Himeji, of course, but the tenshukaku was a respectable three stories (though being at the top of the hill, it looked like four), with three other buildings of two stories each standing at the corners of the honmaru. Around the base of the hill, the walls of the ninomaru formed a defensive line, four hundred meters from the edge of the clearing.

The materials, as Lilah had said, were common enough. The castle had been built quickly, to get the form there. Any of the builders would have likely thought that it was pure vanity. But Kaori didn’t care. She had plans for this place.

As she stepped forward, towards the outer wall, and its single gate, Kaori allowed the human guise to fall away in flames, revealing her true form. A touch of her ankh, and her business clothes became the regal robes and armor she had been wearing upon her return. Then, she slipped off the ring that was suppressing her aura, and a portion of her power with it. She would need all her power for what was to come. With a wave of her hand, she opened her pocket dimension, and pulled out her staff.

But the portal to her pocket dimension did not close. Instead, out walked seven skeletons, each holding a mage’s staff and wearing robes that clearly had at one time been great, but had clearly witnessed battles that would have been the death of mortal men. Each bore the mark of Risen Athelia upon their brow, engraved by magic. One bore a silver crown upon her head.

These were her Magelords of Athelia. One was the mage who crafted the Slave Collars that had bound her and her friends to the King’s will. The other six were the mages who had conducted the summoning itself, with the crowned mage being the Princess who had led the ritual. All seven were enslaved to her will, trapped in their own minds, unable to resist, just as she had been unable to resist.

Getting the Princess’s soul back from whatever happens after death (there was some question, even in the other world, about whether there was an afterlife, or whether reincarnation awaited the fallen) had not been easy. But she had been willing to pay the price, and so had grabbed her soul, along with twenty others. Nineteen of those souls had been those of her classmates, and she had released them when she deanimated their corpses, so that, whatever happened after death, they would see it in this world, not the other one.

The last soul? That belonged to the Princess’s father, who had ordered the summoning. She had taken great delight, once she had turned him into the first of her death knights, in having him lead her swelling armies against Athelia as she conquered the country, and united its people in death. It was a petty torture, perhaps, but it was the best she could do at the time.

Lilah’s gasp of surprise brought her back to reality. With a thought, she commanded her Magelords. They ran, quickly taking up positions all around the castle. Together with her, they formed the eight points of the compass, both Cardinal and Ordinal.

As one, they began a ritual Magick. This was different from a normal spell. Normal magic influenced the world around you, using magic to change things. Magick, especially ritual Magick, changed things from within. In this case, it was reminding the materials within the castle what they could be.

Together, they formed the circle, and invoked the power of the realm of the Ideal. Her magic stretched out, and reminded the wood of the castle of when it was Wood, the primal, unknown thing, full of Magick and possibility. The stone remembered when it was Stone, and so on. Every inch of the castle was upgraded and enhanced, simply by making it more Real than reality. Even the castle itself was forced to know what it was to be a Castle.

She had actually gone through a process similar to this, when she had gone to the Hie shrine to be purified. She had theorized that Purification was useful against negative energy and the undead because it reminded mortal beings of what it was like to be Real. The negative energy shed when they were Purified? That was the baggage they carried from living in a world where the Real was corrupted by reality.

With that in mind, she theorized that an undead like herself was cleansed and pushed out of reality by Purification because of the Belief, both that of the priest and the undead, that they were unnatural, unreal. That their Real state was death. So, when they were Purified, and the real became Real, that belief helped push them into Death, and whatever came beyond it.

That is where she differed from most undead. She viewed herself as being as close to Real, the way she should be, as it was possible for a living (or unliving) creature of reality to be. If she wasn’t as she was intended to be by reality, then why were the powers given to her by Magick itself when she was summoned to that other world ones that directly led her to this path?

So, purifying herself had not banished her, or sent her to the afterlife, or anything like that. Instead, it had made her more Real, just as it would with anyone. Now, any creature in reality would lose that Real-ness over time, but, while it lasted, they would be more in touch with their power.

Living creatures quickly lost the Real-ness. The very act of living and acting in the world eroded it, as your perceptions of reality changed the Real to fit what they perceived. Because of that, a living person who made themselves more Real would only experience that clarity for a few hours or a few days, a week at most. Their perceptions alter their belief too quickly, which makes them less Real, and more real.

Objects, on the other hand, were different. Depending on the power behind the Purification or Realization, an object could be more Real for years, decades even. Some became so Real that, even when the effect wore off, they kept some of that Realness. That is where the legends of swords which were preternaturally sharp, and yet untouched by any enchantment would come from, for instance. It also made it possible for objects to gain a will of their own, altering the item in interesting ways.

Undead, it seemed, were somewhere in the middle of things. An Undead that survived Purification, due to their Belief forming the core the core of their being as something of the world, despite their being dead, would be moved closer to the Real. Neither living nor objects, that Realness lasted longer. How much longer, she didn’t yet know, but it had been just over two months since she’d been Purified, and she was still feeling the Realness. It had dimmed somewhat, but only to perhaps seventy percent of what it had been before.

That Realness came in handy for her now, as it allowed her to channel power more efficiently, taking in mana from the world more easily, and allowing it to flow through her with less resistance. This gave her only a small boost to her raw power in absolute terms, but it gave her more ‘bang for her buck’, allowing her to get good results with less effort, and not draining her as badly as they would otherwise.

By the time they finished the ritual, night was falling, despite it being midday when they had arrived. The castle looked much the same, except the walls, while made of wood, were now harder than steel, and would take heat greater than it would take to melt steel to catch aflame. The rest of the castle was similarly enhanced, and, with the power she had used, in a ritual designed for this, it would remain so, for at least a hundred years, maybe more.

The Realness of the castle was not the only thing that had changed. The castle’s colors had changed to a rose brown color, with ebony trim. Upon each gate, and the main doors of the tenshukaku itself, the symbol of Risen Athelia was emblazoned in silver.

As the Magelords came back to her side at her mental command, she opened her pocket dimension once again, and ushered them in. Once the last one left, however, a knight upon an undead steed, with horse and rider clad in black armor, rode out of the portal, and infantrymen and archers were at his back, walking in perfect formations.

The undead general, the pointedly crownless former King of Athelia, stopped before the Archlich who commanded his soul. Raising her scepter, she said, “Secure the citadel, and man the walls. Capture those who seek to enter unbidden, so that I might judge them.” She then pointed to Lilah, and said, “This one is to be allowed access to the outer and inner courtyards whenever she comes, until I say differently. Do you understand?”

The undead knight bowed in the saddle. “As you will, your Majesty.” She dismissed him with a wave, and the knight began ordering the troops, setting up for a defense.

Turning to look at Lilah, who was watching in equal parts wonder and shock from the hood of the car, where she had been relaxing while the ritual continued, Kaori slipped her ring back on her finger, dampening her aura once more, before restoring her human guise. “Well, Morgan-san, I am afraid I have kept you overlong. Will you accept my hospitality this evening? I will have food prepared for you, the likes of which you have never eaten, in celebration of this day.”

Lilah nodded dumbly, suddenly very glad she had decided not to bring a driver with her on this trip. Keeping them silent would have been impossible, and she tried to avoid killing people if it could be helped. Too many deaths raised questions, after all.

“I would be honored, Akagawa-san.”

Kaori smiled as she turned back to the castle. It was nothing compared to the palace she had ruled out of in the other world, but that didn’t matter. This was hers. Her new home.

It felt good to be home.

Epilogue – Elsewhere

Four individuals met in a darkened room. No names were shared. Those who knew about this meeting already knew who the other attendees were. There was no need for introductions.

Each individual represented a faction of power. While they were not the nominal heads of their factions, what was decided in this chamber would be carried out. One way or another.

On an unseen signal, the political representative took a breath. “It is now the appointed time. What of the Anomaly? What is being done to contain the potential threat it poses?”

The science representative shook their head. “There is nothing we can do. The Anomaly does not use traditional CADs, and has not undergone any of the routine screening, so we can’t identify any weaknesses. The Anomaly’s abilities appear to function off different rules than the codified, scientific abilities we are familiar with. Until we are certain about the limits of its capabilities, we cannot say for certain that we can contain the Anomaly with our current technology.”

The military representative grunted. “Containment by force is not an option at this time, unless we are willing to commit massive forces against the Anomaly. Such a movement would be very public. Even then, with our current understanding of the Anomaly’s abilities, we could not guarantee success.”

The political representative frowned. “Is this about the attack on the TV show?”

The military representative nodded. “Yes, that, and the demonstration that happened recently at an American university campus.” He looked to the science representative.

A nod. “Yes. We reviewed the footage, including the raw footage of the TV studio attack. There is no evidence of forgery or data manipulation. They can be accepted as real, with 95% certainty.”

The intelligence representative leaned forward. “Regarding the demonstration at the American university. One of our assets was on campus that day, and can attest to the destruction caused by the demonstration, having witnessed it firsthand.”

After a rumble of discontent from the table, the representative continued. “In addition, they witnessed the cleanup of the demonstration. The Anomaly used an unknown type of magic to restore the ground’s condition, and create new stone where the damaged wall was. That demonstration can be considered verified beyond reasonable doubt.”

The military representative shook their head. “Then there is no way to try and contain the Anomaly militarily without putting enough resources into the effort that the public will find out. Even with that kind of outlay, it is doubtful that what we’ve seen is the extent of the Anomaly’s capabilities.”

The intelligence representative cleared their throat. “Just before coming to this meeting, I received some of the latest intelligence. As you know, the Anomaly purchased a piece of land, and had a castle built on the land replicating a Sengoku period design. One of our satellites in geosynchronous orbit over Japan was watching when the Anomaly conducted some kind of ritual, with unknown results, beyond cosmetic changes to the structure itself.

“Following the ritual, satellite observation revealed the presence of several figures moving about the castle, but the resolution and angle were insufficient to get any detail on them. When we sent local assets to investigate, they found surveilling the castle to be impossible without relying on technology, such as cameras. Indeed, our asset was unable to approach the border of the Anomaly’s property without supreme focus, to the expense of all else.

“Drones could view the castle from afar, but whenever they attempted to cross the property line, they were swiftly destroyed, with no warning. We were finally able to have multiple drones in the air simultaneously, and discovered that archers on the walls were, quite literally, shooting down our drones. Given the distances involved, and the fact that on at least one occasion the drone was situated so that an attacker from the castle would be looking directly into the sun, this is an impressive feat for any mortal being.”

Several images were displayed on nearby screens. “As you can see, however, these are not mortal beings of flesh and blood guarding the Anomaly’s castle. These shots were taken with a telephoto lens at long range, but you can clearly see that these undead are standing guard, like soldiers, upon the wall. It was one of these things that disabled our drones.”

The political representative clicked his tongue in annoyance. “These undead are all dressed the same. Some kind of uniform? And what is that image on their chest?”

The intelligence representative sighed. “The livery appears to be the same as the image appearing on the main gate of the compound. A skull with a crown, a rose in its teeth, and a European-style sword and scepter crossed beneath it.

“Unfortunately, we don’t know its heritage for certain. The closest historical match would be various ‘skull and cross-bones’ flags flown by pirates in the Atlantic Ocean during the age of sail. However, that appears to be coincidental.

“It is our working belief that this is the image or flag that the Anomaly used in the ‘other world’. Unfortunately, there is no way to verify this, save by getting confirmation from the Anomaly itself. If that is the case, however, that would suggest that the skeleton soldiers on the wall of the castle would be part of the Anomaly’s army from this ‘other world’.”

The military representative frowned, looking at one of the images. “The weapons and armor they are using appear to be medieval-style. However, with the Anomaly’s magic involved, there is no guarantee that they would not be effective against modern armor, and skeletal undead typically are quite resilient against small arms fire.”

The political representative leaned forward. “Could your forces take the castle?”

“With enough force? Perhaps. The walls appear to be wooden, though the ritual probably strengthened them. The natural terrain precludes the use of heavy vehicles like APCs or tanks unless they come up on the single road which has been carved out of the forest, which is worrisome due to what appears to be a pair of cannons. Normally, I would say that iron or steel cannons would be no match for a main battle tank’s armor, but with magic on this scale involved, I would be a fool to say so with certainty.”

The science representative shook their head. “The shield the Anomaly created during the TV studio attack formed quickly enough to stop bullets, and held up to three semi-automatic rifles firing rounds designed to be more damaging against undead and necrotic energies. And it did this with just a wave of their hand. The chances of a surprise assault with conventional weapons succeeding are statistically nil.”

“And without surprise, the casualties would spike to unacceptable levels.” The military representative shook his head. “And in this picture, it appears that they have some kind of ballista as an anti-aircraft emplacement. Jets at altitude would probably be safe, but helicopters would be vulnerable. And using jets or cruise missiles would raise the visibility substantially, even past the open use of military force.”

The intelligence representative looked at the political representative. “Could we use legal means to remove some of those weapons?”

“Unfortunately, the law firm that the Anomaly hired was particularly thorough. All the weapons shown are, frankly, too old to be covered by the current laws. The cannons are the closest to actionable items, but even they are allowed under the current laws. If they damaged or destroyed anything off the property, however, then there might be some room to argue. But until then…”

The military representative nodded. “Until then, a military response to the Anomaly is not feasible. And given the Anomaly’s situation, it is unlikely that financial or political pressures will make them more pliable to control.”

The political representative sighed. “In that case, have all appropriate divisions keep watch on the Anomaly and their movements, so we can update our projections accordingly. Special focus to be given to any weaknesses that can be found, and exploited.”

Dramatis Personae

Akagawa Family

Akagawa Kaori – The Archlich, the Lord of the Dead, Lich Queen of Risen Athelia, Hopebringer, Demon’s Bane, the Dark Hero. Forcibly summoned to another world along with her class, she became a lich in order to survive an assassination attempt by the Demon King. After the Demon King’s demise, she returned to her world.

Akagawa Teiljo – Kaori’s father. Head of the Akagawa Company. Also father of Tatsuo and Eri.

Akagawa Kanon – Kaori’s mother. Wife of Teiljo. Also mother of Tatsuo and Eri.

Akagawa Tatsuo – Kaori’s younger brother. Currently an executive at the Akagawa Company, and heir apparent to take over. Father of Genjo, Teika, and Kaori (younger).

Akagawa Hiroko – Tatsuo’s wife. Former in-house counsel for the Akagawa company. Mother of Genjo, Teika, and Kaori (younger).

Akagawa Genjo – Nineteen when Kaori returned from the other world. Currently studying in university.

Akagawa Teika – Fifteen when Kaori returned from the other world. Currently attending private school.

Akagawa Kaori (younger) – Five when Kaori returned from the other world.

Akagawa Eri – Kaori’s younger sister. Currently working on her thesis for a Doctorate of Thaumaturgy at the University of Seattle.

Officials

Marcus Fairchild – Captain and commander of the Seattle Police Department’s Magical Containment Unit, which is essentially like a SWAT team for magical threats.

Lilah Morgan – A human turned into a Demon during the Awakening, working for the law firm Wolfram & Hart. She has been retained as Kaori’s attorney.

Holly Gibson – Hired by Lilah Morgan on behalf of Kaori to serve as her PR spokeswoman and coordinator. Based in Seattle, but works for a company with headquarters in Japan.

Further Reading

Be sure to read my published works!

Frozen Soul series (Sci-Fi Supervillain story):

Frozen Soul –

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071R125QT

Tales of the Void Traveler - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06ZZ52G37

Memoirs of a Supervillain - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07R9NWS8J

Rules-Free VRMMO Life (Dark Fantasy GameLit):

Volume 1 - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071VPRNDB

Omnibus 1 - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0774T354X

Complete 1-20 - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07R5CHNNP

Into the Black (Sci-Fi GameLit):

Book I - Game Start https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071LT5WGL

Omnibus I - Books 1-4 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B077X2KR7Y

City of Champions Online (Superhero GameLit):

Issue I - Origin Stories https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075SHXQS1

Lewd Dungeon (Dungeon Core GameLit):

Book 1 - Welcome to the Apocalypse https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07BB34DHF

Omnibus 1 - Books 1-4 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07FBPF6HR

SCI Stories (Dark Supervillain story):

Book 1 - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07RL93VQN

Winterborn (Dark Fantasy LitRPG):

Book 1 - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B082S3S3K8

Dark Fate (Postapocalyptic GameLit):

Book 1 - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B086S35WZ6

The Kalipshae Affair (A First Contact Short Story): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0739V6R6T