The tome had more to give.
It whispered at night.
Not in words—but in dreams.
Visions of long-lost symbols, unspoken languages, and creatures born before the first empires.
And I was ready to learn.
In the heart of Grimhaven, beneath the bones of cathedrals swallowed by time, I found a sealed chamber—guarded not by locks, but by memory. It only opened when I spoke the name of the first necromancer.
Thalanos.
The air inside the vault was thick, frozen with ancient power. Glyphs pulsed faintly on the stone, and a deep well sat in the center—black, bottomless, and humming with magic not seen in centuries.
I knelt beside it and dipped a single finger into the void.
The darkness welcomed me.
In that moment, knowledge surged through me like fire through dry leaves.
Not spells—but truths.
Necromancy wasn't just about raising the dead. It was about rewriting the contract between life and death. Commanding essence, not flesh. Memory, not just bone.
I saw the forms of creatures long thought to be myth—drakes of bonefire, wraith titans, and the dreaded Eidolon Leviathan, a spirit-beast so massive its shadow had once blanketed a kingdom before it was sealed away.
I wasn't ready for that one. Not yet.
But others... I could call.
I raised my hands and whispered a forgotten incantation. My voice echoed through the vault, shaking the stones.
A circle of runes ignited around me, and from the abyss, something began to rise.
Claws.
Wings.
Eyes that had not blinked in a thousand years.
It shrieked—not in pain, but in joy—as it felt the touch of its new master.
A Bone Hydra.
Each of its five skulls hissed in unison, snapping their fangs like hungry blades.
I reached out and placed a hand against its snout.
"You are mine now," I said. "Serve me, and I will give you purpose again."
It lowered its heads in submission.
Outside the vault, the skies darkened. The winds howled. Magic shifted. I had pulled something impossible into the world again—and the world knew it.
From that day on, I wasn't just a necromancer.
I was a myth reborn.
But I wasn't finished.
There were still deeper spells in the tome—spells I didn't yet dare touch. Ones that could reshape time, reverse memory, or even bring back what the gods themselves had buried.
I would need those soon. I could feel it.
Something was watching me.
Not the Council. Not a rival.
Something older.
I closed the tome and stepped out into the black wind, the Bone Hydra slithering behind me.
And I smiled.
Because whatever was watching…
I wanted it to see me.
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