Unlike the World of Warcraft, where magic is based on the Weave, in the Nasuverse magic is rooted in ley lines.
Ley lines are the currents through which the earth's mana flows, functioning much like the Weave itself.
The Weave has crucial nodes, points where mana converges. At these nodes, mages can draw upon power far more abundantly, which is why wizard towers are often built there.
In Azeroth, Dalaran, Karazhan, Silvermoon, and the Sunwell were all deliberately built atop powerful Weave nodes, transforming them into sanctuaries for mages.
Ley lines work the same way.
Perhaps in the age of the gods, when magic was overflowing, ley lines were not so vital.
But once that divine age ended, magi of later generations always sought ley-rich places to construct their workshops.
Even the Holy Grail War must be held atop a ley line, otherwise the Servants summoned would be too weak.
In other words, Azeroth's Weave and the Nasuverse's ley lines are almost equivalent existences.
…
As Alaric expected, Sisyphus had gotten himself into trouble again.
Having angered Zeus, the king of gods ordered the Lord of the Underworld to consign the man who exposed his debauchery to Tartarus.
But Hades of Olympus was not like the Mesopotamian goddess of the underworld, Ereshkigal, who worked diligently.
Though he bore the title of Underworld's ruler, Hades left all matters of death to his servants: Thanatos, god of death, and Hypnos, god of sleep.
Hypnos, however, preferred slumber, so the burdens of work always fell on the unfortunate Thanatos.
This time was no exception.
As a death god, Thanatos was not truly a powerful deity. He was merely a son of Nyx, goddess of night, a divine child without much divinity of his own.
His only strength came from the authority Hades bestowed upon him, something akin to a priest wielding death magic.
He had always remained in the underworld, handling the souls of those who died naturally.
But this time, his task was to send a man who had not died into the underworld. That was far more troublesome.
In such a case, he had no choice but to walk the earth himself.
Yet Sisyphus was no ordinary mortal. Even great heroes were helpless before the authority of death, but Sisyphus was a mage.
Compared to warrior-heroes of Greece, a mage could do far more.
When faced with Thanatos, Sisyphus did not think of direct resistance.
He remembered the teachings of his theology tutor, Pandora: no magical shield of his could withstand the authority of death. So he chose cunning instead.
Thanatos, while a god of death, was not strong himself. Sisyphus secretly cast a Feeblemind spell upon him, reducing his intellect to foolishness.
Then, pretending curiosity, he asked the god to demonstrate how his chains bound a victim.
With his wit dulled, Thanatos stupidly agreed. The result, he was bound fast by his own divine chains.
These chains were no mere shackles. Once trapped, Thanatos lost all his powers, unable even to use death magic. Thus the god of death became Sisyphus's prisoner.
Now death itself had fallen into mortal hands. Though Thanatos could not wield the full might of Hades's divine office, the authority still resided within him, and now, bound in chains, it remained on earth.
The result: no one could die.
But the truth remained, if a man is killed, he dies. That is eternal.
Bodies could not endure beyond their natural limits. Souls of the slain lingered within their corpses, leaving them neither alive nor dead, restless shades trapped in rotting flesh.
On Colchis Isle, Alaric noticed nothing, until his experimental creatures began turning into undead.
So he left Colchis and journeyed into Greece to investigate.
His first destination: the battlefield of Thebes.
Thebes was wracked by civil strife, princes warring for the throne, enacting the drama of the Seven Against Thebes.
But now the battlefield was utter chaos.
Both sides, the defenders upon the city walls and the attackers beneath, were scattering in panic. And chasing them…
…was a horde of zombies.
The walking corpses were covered in wounds and blood, some missing limbs, clearly slain soldiers of war.
Yet they had not found rest. Instead, like beasts, they hunted and devoured the living, friend and foe alike.
For a moment, Alaric thought Resident Evil had invaded this world. After all, he had already encountered Daedalus from Heaven's Lost Property not long ago…
But after examining the zombies, he understood.
These were simply bodies whose souls had failed to depart. Denied passage into the underworld, trapped within dead flesh, they became undead.
But how had this come to be?
Alaric cast True Seeing, seeking an answer.
As a mage who had achieved unprecedented legendary mastery across all schools of magic, it took him little time to uncover it.
Even prophecy could not reveal the full truth, but it showed him one image: the face of his student, Sisyphus.
That was enough.
Others might not know, but Alaric knew well the deeds Sisyphus performed in myth.
The god of death imprisoned on earth, this story ended with the god of war intervening.
Without death, war could not yield results. Deprived of his greatest joy, Ares resolved the matter himself: he freed Thanatos and consigned Sisyphus to the underworld.
But a question lingered. The mortal world was in chaos without death, why was it the war god who acted?
Where was Thanatos's master, Hades? Where was Zeus? Even Ares acted only because he had lost his entertainment.
Myths were myths, but Alaric knew enough to believe such a situation possible.
First, according to Aphrodite and others, most Olympians had grown terribly slothful. It was hardly impossible that none of them noticed the mortal world's plight for several days.
Second, with Thanatos bound, mortals were not truly immortal, but instead plagued by a zombie apocalypse.
To Ares, this was no better. War was meant to be fought between men, not against undead.
Though this chaos had nothing to do with Mistral Academy, Alaric saw in it…
…an opportunity.
An opportunity to execute the plan he had long dreamed of.
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