Lich reborn as a magic school student - 17: Necropolis

—————————————————[Kashra’s Pov]

I watch over the council members until I believe they have gotten a grasp of their training, and then I sit down. Pulling out a magical tome, I browse through the pages, landing on a very special spell. [Necropolis], one of the grandest necromantic magics. Only surpassed by the profane ritual of archlichdom.

A Necropolis is the ultimate step of a lich wanting world domination. A city of death and decay that builds an undead army for the lich to take into battle. While there are general parts that are common across all necropolises, nearly all liches redesign the spell into their own preferred form.

The only statements that ring true for all necropolises are: All necromantic magics are empowered within the necropolis. The death energies of the city are channeled towards the caster, and finally the lich is nigh omniscient within the necropolis. More common additions to these effects are ones that damage the living or automatically raise the dead, but I will not use such effects as I wish to create a necropolis of pure observation.

I do not need a mindless hoard of weak skeletons and zombies, nor do I have a lack of death energies. Rather, for me, it is more important that the necropolis is not noticeable to the untrained eye. With those thoughts, I inscribe magical scrolls which will serve as the foundation of the necropolis spell.

The first step to create a necropolis is the foundation of an energy barrier around the city, this is done through many connected runes along the perimeter of the city. These runes will together serve as a connected web trapping the death energies within the city. The scrolls I am writing now will serve as those runes.

After the creation of the energy barrier, the next step would be to create pylons that will focus the energy towards a central nexus, usually an immortal throne or with some less mobile liches their own phylactery. However, I do not need to do it for such a reason as I have an abundance of death energies. Instead, I will create the connected web so that I can have total surveillance of the city.

After finishing inscribing enough scrolls to create a stable subdivision of the barrier, I stand up and look around. Happy, Midas, and Cottonmouth are resting after their harsh training. Warden has collapsed after plentiful bouts, and Bluefang is barely holding on to his transformation. Formless seems to still be fully focused on his research.

Seeing that everyone is doing well, I cast another [Gate] spell, taking myself to my apartment. I switch out of my school uniform into more casual attire, and then walk towards the edge of the city. I enjoy the subtle breeze as my slow steps take me to my destination. There in I cast [Invisibility], [Teleport], and [Fly] to observe the city from the sky. With a mental mark, I decide upon the locations of the runes for a stable subdivision of the barrier.

The first of the runes I place on the statue of a war-hero from this country’s history. The scroll burns up with mana and a small glowing orange rune symbolizing ‘Protection’ and ‘Integrity’ appears at the base of the statue. Then, after some moments, it fades as if it was never there.

I fly back up into the sky and locate the next target. A pillar holding up a large bridge that crosses the river northeast of the city. Like before, the rune appears with a light, and then fades away, signifying its permanence. The third rune goes on the wall of a run-down apartment building, and as those three runes are placed, I can feel the triangle subdivision of the barrier activate.

Now I just need to repeat the same for the entire city. However, before that, I cast various divination spells to find ways that can detect the barrier, and I cannot achieve such a feat with a spell below the sixth tier. This should be good enough. There are few mages of the seventh tier, and even amongst those, what’s the chance they studied divination.

With the confirmation that this form of necropolis is possible, I retract my three spells and start walking towards my apartment. I do not need to finish the necropolis right away. It was good enough that I could ensure its feasibility. The bustling sound of the city, the life of the people, is like music to my ears. Not corrupted by Azurfar’s heart, I can once again enjoy this lively sound of humanity.

But my enjoyment is not eternal as my steps take me to my apartment, and by my door I see a sight I did not expect. Kaede, the girl from my class who took care of me, is knocking on my door. I intentionally take a louder step to make my arrival known, and she notices me.

“Hello, did you need something?”

“I wanted to ask whether you had eaten today?”

“I have not.”

“I have some leftovers if you would like to eat that.” With those words, she hands a plastic container with some chicken and vegetables to me.

“Thank you.” I receive the container.

“You should take care of yourself more. It makes me worried.”

“Why does it make you worried?”

Dodging my question, she says, “Right, are you seriously going to take six majors?”

“If I only need to pass a test, then it doesn’t really matter.”

“If so, why didn’t you take all of them?”

“Haha, I wanted to mess with the teachers.”

“Are you really going to pass all of them, though?”

“Did I not create a spell that surpassed any you had seen before?”

“Right… Oh, and my friends seemed interested in you. You spoke so suddenly that they had a lot of questions.”

“Questions? What would they have questions about?”

“Well, they asked about why you suddenly spoke after staying silent so long, and whether we knew each other. Then they kept trying to pry more information out of me, but I tried to keep quiet.”

“Why did you try to keep quiet?”

“Wouldn’t it be bothersome for you?”

“Why would it?”

“Right, you’re like that. Anyway, I have to get back to studying. I chose two majors and, unlike you, I actually have to put in effort to pass.”

“Yes, good luck with your studies, and if you have questions, you can ask for help.”

“You’re talking too much like a teacher when you should be a student. Goodnight.”

“Goodnight.”

With those words, she turns around and walks to her apartment. I head into my apartment as well, and place the container on the dining table. Grabbing a plate and utensils with [Telekinesis], I sit down at the table. The container lid opens by my thought and, creating a flame in the air, I reheat the food. Finally, the food arrives on my plate, and I can enjoy the dinner.