Everlast Online

What the fuck... She repeated to herself over and over as she floated in the blackness that came with death.

Her punishment, besides the loss of stats and activation of a skill, was the waiting. A penalty of five minutes was given and yet it felt like years passed with each ticking second. She simply floated and thought about what had happened to her.

After raising her second death knight, a record speed for most necromancers gathering such powerful servants, she was ambushed by cloaked figures using magic she had not yet come across; magic that completely neutralised not only her undead, but also her [Voodooist] skill. She had only survived thanks to having put more focus into her END that increased her vitality, having just barely survived the first attack that hit her.

"It didn't even seem like a powerful attack." Liz sighed, remembering the speed at which it had manifested. The only clues Liz had to the nature of the attack and identity of the attackers was Eren; having seemed to have recognised the magic.

"It's probably something like sacred or holy magic." Liz pondered, feeling it was the only logical answer, "Something with the ability to purify the undead - hence why my skill didn't work."

Liz simply let out a sigh, unsure of how to proceed. She didn't know how those people had found her or their purpose in that area, only that they were likely from the Empire given their hatred for undead and necromancers.

Time ticked down and Liz simply waited, nothing to do but float weightlessly in preparation for her return to life.

"Ah! I'm gonna need to send all my things back to the dungeon!" Liz exclaimed, feeling annoyed at how inconvenient death was, even more so when she remembered her puppets, "And I'm gonna need to reconnect to all of my dolls!"

Her anger rose once again and she fumed as time ticked down, only to notice something from the corner of her eyes. She was rooted to the spot, unable to move even her head, and yet something bright was in the distance - if only she could reach it.

What about [Soul String]? She thought, it had some low level soul manipulation capabilities; perhaps she could use that to her advantage. But am I a soul right now? Can I use skills like this?

There was nothing in Liz's vision other than the system message telling her she had died, she could recognise a soul with [Soul Sight] but could not see anything to begin with. Her focus came to activating that skill then, if she could see herself as a soul then she would get the answer to both of her questions.

She thought she may have to strain herself, force every last iota of her mind into activating the skill, but instead she felt the skill activated much easier than it would normally. It was like the difference between wading through water and running on land - she felt her sight change instantly and she saw as one would when looking at souls.

She again could not move her head, but the ghostly, green light of souls was clear - even more strangely though was that it was not as she had come to recognise souls. In her sight was a full body: Her body; her human, Earth body. Furthermore, it was not as solid as souls she found in living bodies were, more like a flame with wisps of light blowing in the wind despite lacking that environment.

I shouldn't think about it. She thought to herself, seeing the time ticking down and wanting to look further into the strange light in the distance. She once again put her mind to her skills, activating [Soul String] with relative ease, a strand of soul extending from the tip of her ghostly finger.

The slight ticking in the back of her head, though she currently lacked one, told her the skill was improving.

Further improvement came as she found that with only the slightest strain she could sense the surroundings from anywhere on her soul - something she had not entirely expected, and yet a benefit from death.

Perhaps I should thank the Empire for giving me this chance. Liz thought, sending her soul towards the distant light; only to begin feeling a suction as she came closer like a blackhole pulling anything in around it. 

With the combined efforts of the attraction and Liz's movements it did not take long for her to discover the light in full. It was not a simple light, but a whirlpool of spectral colours, like thousands of souls stacked upon each other and thousands more being sucked in around it. From all directions Liz could see more and more souls being pulled in - those recognisable as living beings and those as mere wisps of energy.

"The hell is this?" Liz mumbled, entranced by a paradoxical beauty; there was no order to its nature and yet she found it so enticing that she struggled not to allow herself to fall in. It was as these temptations reached their apex that the timer hit zero and in an instant Elizabeth inhabited a physical body, no longer in a distant abyss or stood before a mass of souls.

She had returned to Galdrash, more specifically to the old bedroom of her mansion - one she had not yet entered - that was covered in dust and broken furniture. What was in front of her however was a system message that she had not expected; one she had desired, but not seen - until now:

"But I was already dead..." Liz muttered as she looked over the conditions, the confusing nature guiding her towards something she could not fully understand, leaving her with no choice but to accept its abnormality and live with doubts forever, "I'm also gonna need to look into miasma, but first..."

Turning her attention away she first summoned Eren, Gloria, Luthor and her two death knights. However, before she could say anything Demeter lunged at Eren - multiple blades ready to cut through her if not for Gloria's intervention.

"You traitors!" Demeter cried, once again attacking Gloria; Eren prepared an attack while increasing Gloria's strength with her buffs and both Ustad and Luthor took a step back to evade any collateral damage, "You allowed her to die!"

"QUIET!" Liz screamed, her voice cutting through the clashes of metal, forcing all three women to go silent, "What the hell are you doing?"

Her anger was directed at Demeter, who looked shocked as she had believed her queen would see the soulbounds for the traitors they were after having let her die as she had.

"But, your majesty- " She began, only to be cut off by Elizabeth who seemed more irritated than angry.

"Why are you attacking them?" She said, her voice returning to its usual volume with an eerie coldness. Demeter felt a chill along her undead body, calming herself to speak rationally and without any excess anger.

"They have allowed you to die, your majesty." She explained, "Soulbound cannot be trusted. They are not truly under your command and could turn against you as that lowly saintess already has! You must remove them immediately!"

"I did nothing- " Eren called out, shut down by an icey glance from Liz.

"So, you believed Eren deliberately allowed me to be killed." Liz asked, her tone even as she calmed down slightly.

"Yes, your majesty." Demeter nodded, feeling her queen had come around to her side.

"Now, Eren. What is your opinion on this?" Liz asked, turning to the beautiful dullahan. Demeter was slightly shocked, but more impressed with her queen's fairness in allowing such a rogue to speak.

"They surprised me." Eren began, "With no support I didn't have time to protect you against holy magic; and since you hadn't encountered it yet, you did not know how to fight against it - I was trying to help, but could not."

Demeter scoffed, but Liz stood silently.

So it was holy magic then. Liz thought to herself. I'm going to need to find some countermeasures for that if it's so damn dangerous for me.

"Haah." Liz sighed, falling backwards onto the bed she had woken up on, "So Demeter thinks soulbounds can't be trusted because they're not really my undead and Eren disagrees?"

Both women nodded and Liz shook her head.

"I'm gonna have to side with Eren here." Liz decided, causing great shock to Demeter who sputtered in an attempt to change her liege's mind, only for Liz to continue explaining, "Honestly, even if they are dangerous traitors I can always just..."

With a simple thought both Gloria and Eren disappeared, the process even more easy than removing her other undead as that required first summoning the [Book of Damned Souls]. They returned a few moments later.

"Send them back with no issue. They're not dangerous and if they ever become it I can get rid of them with a thought." Liz finished, Demeter hanging her head low in defeat, but still finding her queen's intelligence to be staggering as she had already deduced a way to fully neutralise possible threats, Demeter quickly kneeled.

"I apologise for my outburst then." Demeter said, hanging her head low before begrudgingly doing the same to Eren - who looked rather smug as the death knight apologised.

"Now then, with everything I was going to ask sorted..." Liz said, having already discovered why she had been so easy, "All I need to do is restore all of my puppets and undead and strategize for both holy magic and the coming war."

If she wasn't a doll made of felt and cotton Liz would have likely gotten a headache.

"Perhaps I can assist with that, My Lady?" Luthor spoke up, lightly brushing his facial hair with his hand, "If you only summon them I can fully recall where each undead were placed. I'm certain it would take far less time than you'd imagine if I assist."

Liz offered thanks and they began doing so. It took a couple hours, but eventually everything had returned to how it was before she was dead; Luthor had returned to overseeing the construction of the walls and the puppets that had been disconnected had been replaced and collected.

There was not much left that required Liz to take immediate action and so she decided to act upon the most pressing matter.

"Eren, you seem to know about holy magic." She said, the conversation having been moved to the office, "How could we properly defend against it?"

"That is difficult." Eren said, troubled, "Holy magic is the natural weakness of undead, most races would completely evaporate under it. The higher ranked undead would have some resistance - death knights for example - but most units would be destroyed instantly."

"That is troubling..." Liz sighed, but Eren did offer some useful information.

"However, there are some countermeasures." Liz smiled at that, but as Eren continued she found they were quite rare, "Firstly, some of the living dead races have higher resistance, which is why I had tried to get you to summon Gloria. Even then though, this does not extend to all living dead as most are just as susceptible, like vampires of ghouls."

"The best option would be to find skills or items that gave resistance against holy magic; however, those are quite rare and can often not be worn or used by undead - instead created for the demonic races." Eren said with a sigh, "Ultimately, it comes down to how powerful the undead is."

"Damn." Liz cursed, finding that she could have an incredibly exploitable weakness. If that were to be used regularly she would drop in power at record speeds; especially since purification caused even more loss in levels, "We'll have to look into it later since that stuff is rare. Ustad I didn't get the chance before, but I need to know about your abilities."

"Of course, Iron Chief..." Ustad began speaking of the abilities he had, Liz's grin widening at the good news.

He was a capable fighter, one who remembered commanding a battalion of dwarf soldiers before the humans had wiped them out; not only was he strong physically he was also adept with earth magic and while not especially talented with metal magic as some other dwarves he did have a special ability that had been kept from his life: Golems.

As a death knight he could create up to ten golems, a specific type of golem known as [Squire Golems]. They had some, but not much, combat ability as their purpose was to assist their master in whatever they desired and Ustad had remembered mostly using them for things like chores or helping in the smithy. In life he had mastery over a number of golem types, but as an undead he could only use squire golems - but this was still amazing for Liz as he was exactly as he was needed.

He's still a craftsman! Liz cheered internally, Ustad having assured her he was as excellent as any dwarf would be when creating things. He specialised in weapons, having created the axe he used himself, but was more than capable at other types of work.

It was clear he was not as powerful as Demeter, but he didn't need to be. Demeter was purely a power-type unit, she was fast and deadly; the kind of undead that could change the tides of a battle alone. Ustad was not this, he was closer to an all-rounder. A stable and reliable unit that could fight on the front lines while still capable of hanging back and assisting Liz's army from the rear - someone who would fulfil any task given to him perfectly.

A powerful combination of units for her first two death knights.

"This is perfect." Liz grinned, "Ustad, I'm currently building a city... A fortress that will grant me not only safety but profit."

Ustad's ghostly eyes shone brightly at the mention of work, his instincts as a dwarf leading him despite already being dead.

"And below that is an impossibly large mineshaft full of magic steel and possibly other magical metals." Liz could feel the excitement radiating off of the dwarf, his desire to create making his skeletal hands clenched tightly, "But the problem remains I have little experience with architecture and no way to process metal ores... At least, I didn't"

"I would be most honoured to build a city in your name and forge weapons that your army may use to storm the lands and claim what you desire." He cheered, falling to a knee and instantly losing the composed atmosphere he had developed; reminding Liz of the time she had made Piper a stuffed animal for one of her birthdays, giving the same child-like glee as he imagined putting his hands to work.

I guess dwarves will be dwarves, regardless of how not-alive they are. Was the general thought running through everyone present's mind. He rushed off excitedly, not even remembering to be dismissed - though Liz didn't really care either - and headed to where he was needed.

Liz sent a quick word to Luthor, who chuckled in response. He was more than happy to allow Ustad to oversee the construction, only having taken the role himself due to his managerial abilities.

"All that's left is to plan for the guild war now." Liz mumbled, looking at the trio of undead women with her in the office.

It had been decided that Magnus would be responsible for the [Equaliser] round, him and Gloria both desiring the event and while Gloria was clearly a superior choice she was not capable of entering the event. It was unclear why as she could individually enter the [Duel] event with no problem, as a result Magnus took the position as he had actual experience in fighting with his hands. With equal stats he felt confident in winning.

That left the other two events and deciding how they would be handled.

Thankfully, or perhaps unfortunately, the [Collapsing Castles] event forced all guild members to take part; it was not a matter of choosing and while they did not know the nature of the event, it likely had some relation to base defence. Liz did worry that her guild would be at a disadvantage with their enemy having not only more members, but more members are at higher levels.

Liz herself, Gloria and Nina were the best options they had, but Nina had explained she was involved in a quest. Liz didn't care enough about the war to force her, but it did leave her in a troubling position.

During a break from ELO she had seen Valkyries express sympathy for Liz's situation; making her consider reaching out, but the post was far too formal for Liz to fully trust.

"You should find strong members to join your guild." Demeter offered, Liz having explained the problem with the war, but Liz was against this idea. Golden Monarch had attempted to kidnap her sister and she worried spies would cause chaos if she did not properly vet her members.

"Why not look for an alliance?" Gloria asked, "Not from one of these mega guilds you speak of, but a small and still reputable one. Like mercenaries."

This was Liz's idea also, but Wolf Fang were one of the largest and most powerful mercenary guilds in games; not many mercs would be willing to stand up to them when doing so could make them a target if Wolf Fang ever decided to monopolise the market on mercenaries.

As the girls began throwing ideas back and forth, Liz's focus changed - a ping of items appearing in the guild vault bringing a smile to her face. From the storage she pulled out two items, scrolls of magical paper and read their descriptions happily:

[Bone Shaping (0%) (A): Teaches the art of bone moulding, allowing the alteration of bones as though they were clay using magic]

[Flesh Stitching (0%) (A): Teaches the art of body construction, allowing the user to build new bodies from other parts; magically connecting them such that they function as intended. May also be used to heal the user by replacing damaged parts]

(A/N: Last part italic since not applicable to Liz. [Flesh Stitching] only works on flesh and so can't be used on an [Abandoned Doll])

"Looks like it's time to level back up!"