(Five Months Later)
The past five months had been hectic, although surprisingly little of that hecticness had involved me directly.
The city had practically built itself, or, more accurately, my undead and infernal summons had built it while I remained inside my fortress, studying magic and occasionally pointing at a map whenever someone needed to know where to place something. It was amazing how quickly construction progressed when none of your workers needed to eat, sleep, take breaks, complain about their wages, or worry about having a stone block crush their legs.
If a zombie lost an arm while carrying lumber, it simply picked the arm up and continued working.
If a skeleton was buried beneath a collapsing wall, the others dug it out eventually.
If a ghoul fell from the top of a tower and shattered every bone in its body, one of the necromancers repaired it before sending it straight back to work.
Undead labor might have been horrifying from the perspective of a normal person, but it was incredibly efficient.
What had once been a lonely fortress surrounded by dead ground had become the center of a functional city. Thick stone roads spread out from the fortress in every direction, connecting barracks, workshops, warehouses, farms, summoning grounds, and residential areas. A fortified wall surrounded the inner city, while several towers containing magical siege weapons had been built at regular intervals along its surface.
Two smaller towns had also been completed outside the city, and a third was currently being built along one of the main trade routes. The towns were primarily occupied by merchants, craftsmen, farmers, and some of the living people who had willingly entered my territory after realizing that my lands were safer than most of the surrounding kingdoms.
Apparently, people were willing to overlook the undead guards when those same guards kept bandits, monsters, and corrupt nobles from stealing everything they owned.
Personally, I considered that a fair trade.
The city's population had grown quickly enough that Vera had completed most of the requirements connected to establishing her territory. She handled the boring administrative shit while Zaric managed the military, the intelligence network, and the more complicated parts of expanding our influence into neighboring lands.
I mostly provided an overwhelming magical force and occasionally threatened people.
It was a good system.
Vera and I had also leveled up significantly after I discovered a rather obvious loophole in the challenge. I could summon hostile monsters, beasts, undead, and infernal creatures, and nothing prevented either of us from killing them afterward.
Once I realized that, I established several reinforced training grounds outside the city.
Every few days, I would summon waves of increasingly powerful monsters, and Vera and I would slaughter them. Sometimes Zaric or my other intelligent summons joined us, but most of the experience went to Vera and me. It felt a little like farming mobs in a video game, except the mobs screamed, bled, and occasionally tried to tear my face off.
The screams made it more immersive.
Vera had also given birth during those five months.
Lindsey Silver was a healthy baby girl with pale skin, soft blonde hair, and faint golden eyes. She had inherited traces of Vera's humanity along with enough of my bloodline that the System classified her as a Half-Devil rather than a human.
I had stared down at her after the birth, waiting for something to happen.
Love.
Joy.
Protectiveness.
Anything that would make me feel like the parents in books who looked at their newborn child and immediately decided that the squirming little potato was the most important thing in existence.
Instead, I felt mild satisfaction.
Vera had successfully produced a healthy child. Lindsey possessed a powerful bloodline, showed no signs of illness or deformation, and had the potential to become extremely strong once she grew older.
That was all.
There had been no sudden rush of maternal love. No overwhelming desire to hold her. No need to cry or promise that I would protect her from the entire world.
I understood that I should have felt those things. I remembered enough of my old life to know that my reaction was abnormal, even for someone who had never particularly wanted children.
However, knowing I should feel something and actually feeling it were two completely different things.
I named her Lindsey Silver before handing her to a Flesh Mimic and two Hellhound Mistresses I had summoned specifically to act as caretakers and guards. The Flesh Mimic could alter its body to provide warmth, milk, or whatever else Lindsey needed, while the Hellhound Mistresses would slaughter anything that approached her nursery with hostile intentions.
Lindsey was probably one of the most heavily protected babies in this entire world.
I visited her occasionally.
Not because I missed her, but because I understood that ignoring her completely would be irresponsible. I made sure she was healthy, that the caretakers were performing their duties, and that the wards surrounding her nursery were working correctly. Sometimes I stood beside her crib and watched her sleep while trying to force myself to feel something more substantial than distant appreciation.
It never worked.
I suspected my missing humanity, or whatever remained of it, was responsible. My transformation into a Lich Queen had stripped away most of the emotional responses I once considered normal. Humans looked temporary now, their lives appearing so short and fragile that it was difficult to view them as anything more than resources, subjects, or possible threats.
Even Vera, despite spending almost every day beside me, remained something closer to a favored possession than a person.
A very useful, extremely attractive possession/sex toy.
Maybe merging this body with the one I had left behind in the other world would repair some of the damage. My original body still possessed my Half-Succubus bloodline, my living magical core, and whatever human emotions had survived five hundred years in the Abyss.
Maybe once the two bodies became one, I would look at Lindsey and feel what I was supposed to feel.
Until then, she was safe, healthy, and protected.
That would have to be enough.
While my summons expanded the city, I spent most of my time studying the magic that had been forcibly implanted into my mind when I became a Lich Queen. Necromancy alone contained hundreds of different branches, ranging from basic corpse animation to soul manipulation, death curses, bone shaping, plague creation, spirit binding, and the construction of entirely new undead species.
Then there was Infernal Magic, Demonic Summoning, Phantom Fire, Necrotic Magic, Soul Magic, Gravity Magic, and every other form of magic I had gained since arriving in this world.
The amount of information had shattered my original Mind Palace.
Not metaphorically, either.
The instant the System forced centuries of magical knowledge into my mind, the library I had spent months constructing cracked apart. Shelves collapsed, memory books scattered into the Abyss surrounding the palace, and the Ley Line replica forming the ceiling broke into thousands of glowing fragments.
Rebuilding it had taken most of the five months.
One of my parallel minds focused almost entirely on reconstruction, reorganizing the new information into separate wings of the library. Necromancy occupied an entire underground level filled with black stone shelves. Infernal Magic was stored inside a crimson tower that extended above the original structure, while Soul Magic had been placed inside a sealed chamber surrounded by enough mental wards to imprison a god.
I also created a separate section for memories involving my old humanity.
Those memories felt increasingly distant, like scenes from a movie I had watched centuries ago instead of events I had personally experienced. I preserved them anyway. I didn't trust my current mind enough to decide which parts of my old self were worth throwing away.
During those months, I also worked on suppressing my instinctive apathy toward humans.
I hadn't suddenly developed compassion. I still didn't care about strangers, and my Thralls certainly weren't included in the small amount of consideration I was trying to recover. However, I understood that I would eventually return to the Harry Potter world, where I would be forced to live among or at least near humans for centuries.
I couldn't dismiss every human as an insect if I wanted allies, servants, business partners, or even friends.
The thought of having friends still felt strange.
Zaric was probably the closest thing I currently had to one. He was technically my summon and absolutely loyal to me, but he possessed his own personality, opinions, and sense of humor. I valued his company and often asked for his advice even when I didn't need it.
That had to count for something.
At the very least, I was making progress.
(Present Day)
"Sigh… Vera, as much as I enjoy what you're doing, I think it's time for you to sleep before I accidentally kill you again."
I reached beneath my workbench and patted the blonde head resting between my thighs. Vera had been keeping herself occupied by using her throat as a cockwarmer, while I studied a complicated series of runes engraved across the Mythril spear lying on the table above her.
She made a disappointed sound but immediately obeyed.
A wet popping noise echoed through the workshop as she pulled away, followed by a desperate gasp when she remembered that breathing was something human bodies needed to do. She managed one deep inhale before her eyes rolled backward and her body collapsed onto the stone floor.
The thump barely made me glance away from my work.
"That was slightly dramatic."
Vera didn't respond.
I nudged her with my foot to make sure she was still alive, then rested my feet on her boobs. Her milk jugs made a surprisingly comfortable footrest, and she would be perfectly fine once she woke up.
Probably.
I could always resurrect her again if she wasn't.
Returning my attention to the spear, I carefully adjusted the final Soul Rune near the base of the weapon. The rune was only slightly larger than my fingernail, but one incorrect line could cause the spear to target me instead of whatever soul frequency I assigned to it.
That would be inconvenient.
Three of my minds worked simultaneously. My primary consciousness guided the engraving tool, the second monitored the compressed Necrotic Magic sealed inside the spearhead, and the third adjusted the Gravity Runes running along the shaft.
The moment I completed the final line, every rune covering the spear ignited.
Black, blue, silver, and violet light spread across the polished Mythril. Lightning snapped between the runes while the air surrounding the spearhead distorted under the pressure of the Gravity Magic contained within it.
A golden window appeared above the weapon.
|Congratulations! You have created a new Runic Scheme.|
|Notice: This is the twelfth original Runic Scheme you have created. It has been added to your Runic Library.|
|Notice: You have gained 2,000 XP and 20 AP.|
|Congratulations! You have reached Level 100.|
|Notice: Your Skill, Parallel Minds, has leveled up.|
|Parallel Minds: Level 3/?|
Pain exploded through my skull.
"Oh, motherfucking son of a fuck!"
I nearly fell out of my chair as a new stream of consciousness tore itself into existence. It felt like someone had shoved a burning metal rod through my temple before stirring my brain with it.
Clutching my head, I stumbled away from the workbench and accidentally stepped on Vera's vagina, my foot easily sliding into her gaping cunt. I had really wrecked it this morning, and it was still healing.
She moaned in pleasure but remained unconscious.
I decided to leave it inside of her as it was giving me a nice foot massage with her vaginal muscles.
Another golden window appeared.
|General Skill: Parallel Minds|
|This skill allows your consciousness to maintain multiple independent thought processes simultaneously. Each parallel mind can think, plan, calculate, study, or monitor a task without interfering with your primary consciousness.|
|Parallel Minds evolves at every one-hundred-level interval, adding an additional mind at Levels 100, 200, 300, and beyond.|
|Each active mind provides +100 INT.|
The pain faded almost as quickly as it had appeared, leaving behind another presence inside my head.
It wasn't another personality. It didn't possess separate desires or emotions. It was still me, but it was a me capable of focusing on an entirely separate subject without distracting the rest of my mind.
'Damn. That is such an overpowered skill.'
I immediately directed the new mind to begin reviewing every rune I had learned in the Harry Potter world. Its first task was to design improved versions that could be activated without visible inscriptions or large preparation areas.
The mind accepted the task, then disappeared into the reconstructed runic wing of my Mind Palace.
Another mind continued monitoring the spear.
The third resumed planning what I would do after returning to the Forbidden Forest.
That particular subject was much less enjoyable.
The slaughter array I had constructed around the Ley Line had killed several Centaur Elders, a unicorn, and thousands of magical creatures before I understood how powerful it was. At the time, I barely cared. They entered my territory, the array killed them, and I received experience.
Simple.
Now that I had recovered a small amount of my ability to think beyond immediate personal benefit, I recognized that returning to the forest might be slightly complicated.
The centaur tribes probably remembered the mysterious Death Circle that had slaughtered their Elders. The Centaurs had most definitely marked it as a death trap or avoid at all cost or something on their maps.
I would need to explain myself eventually.
'I'll figure something out when I get back. I should be leaving this world within a few weeks anyway, assuming the spear works.'
My eyes returned to the weapon resting on the table.
The spear was nearly seven feet long, with a shaft forged entirely from enchanted Mythril. Thousands of microscopic runes covered its surface, each one connected to several larger runic clusters. The spearhead contained so much compressed Necrotic Magic and Phantom Fire that the surrounding air had begun to smell like ash, ozone, and freshly opened graves.
The System examined it for several seconds before another window appeared.
|SS-Ranked Runic Mythril Spear|
|Creator: Valentine Silver, Lich Queen|
|This spear has been forged and enchanted to contain highly compressed Necrotic Magic and Phantom Fire. Its surface has been engraved with Lightning, Gravity, Tracking, and Soul Runes.|
|Once activated, the weapon will lock onto a soul frequency or compatible magical signature selected by its master.|
|Upon being thrown, the Lightning and Gravity Runes will accelerate the spear to extreme speeds while guiding it toward the designated target.|
|When the spear strikes its target, the primary enchantments will ensure immediate destruction. The secondary enchantments will then release the compressed Necrotic Magic and Phantom Fire, annihilating living organisms and spreading through any connected magical structures.|
|The resulting magical fallout may render the surrounding territory uninhabitable to living creatures for several decades. However, the affected region will become highly suitable for undead habitation.|
I slowly read the description twice.
Then I smiled.
The spear had originally been intended to kill a single powerful target. A king, perhaps, or whatever magical creature ruled one of the nearby territories.
However, once I began experimenting with Soul Runes, I realized that magical kingdoms often connected their citizens, buildings, defenses, and territories through large ward networks. If I could obtain the correct magical frequency, the spear wouldn't have to recognize every person in the Kingdom individually.
It could recognize the Kingdom itself as the target.
|Notice: Congratulations! You have created an SS-Ranked Magical Artifact capable of mass destruction.|
|You have gained the Title: Master Artificer.|
|Master Artificer: Magical constructs designed or created by you have a 20% increased chance of successful completion. Your ability to diagnose structural and magical flaws in artifacts has significantly increased.|
"Finally."
I dismissed the windows and reached down to lift the spear. The weapon hummed beneath my fingers, and thin arcs of lightning crawled across my hand without harming me.
All I needed now was a soul frequency or magical signature connected to one of the nearby kingdoms. Once the spear had something to track, I could complete the final two requirements of the challenge.
Kill ten thousand sentient beings.
Destroy an entire Kingdom.
They were technically two separate requirements, but there was no rule saying I couldn't complete them with the same attack.
Sometimes efficiency was beautiful.
I stored the spear inside my inventory before removing my foot from Vera's cunt. She immediately moaned while making a cute whining sound. Amazingly, she was still deeply unconscious as well.
Standing from my chair, I stretched my legs and wings before walking toward the workshop doors. Zaric would probably know the easiest way to obtain a Kingdom's magical frequency.
Knowing him, he might have already anticipated what I needed.
He was useful like that.
I stepped over the unconscious Vera, opened the doors, and walked out into my city to find him.
It was finally time to destroy a Kingdom.