After stabilizing the situation in Mirima, Seero made her way to the Ocean’s Wrath. As she approached, the calm seas began to grow rough. Water mana churned the ocean around it, creating tall waves that shouldn’t have been possible under the environmental conditions. Seero then stretched out her mana to the dungeon’s for a remote subjugation.

But this time didn’t go as predicted.

The dungeon mana recoiled from her as the Living Cyclone’s had at first. But where the Living Cyclone had subsequently established diplomatic contact…the Ocean’s Wrath counterattacked. The dungeon’s mana surged against the intrusion, trying to push her away. Seero attempted to push onward and subjugate it by force…but progress was slow. Since she was pushing against the dungeon’s mana, the dungeon could subsequently resist her with all of its power, which normally wouldn’t be applied directly like this. It was a fight Seero could win, her mana quantity and density continued to grow as the Primary Home Base expanded and more and more dungeons joined her network, but it would take time. Potentially more time than it would take for her to reach the core room the normal way.

So that is what she would do.

She traveled as the waves grew more and more rough, until she found a large whirlpool at the center of the storm, with a dungeon entrance at the bottom. Seero dove down into the entrance and the force of gravity reversed itself. Instead of flying down, she was now flying up from the bottom of a pool of water. She burst through the surface to find herself in a small cove, leading out to what appeared as open ocean. Though, Seero’s scans revealed the area was more limited in size than it appeared…and full of monsters.

But Holy Beams pierced the water as easily as the air, and so none approached her as she began to Blink towards the first floor’s exit.

The subjugation of the Ocean’s Wrath had begun.

Meanwhile, Amulius’s group flew over the Southern Sea towards the Banshee’s cove. As they approached, their sensors detected fewer and fewer creatures in the water below, save for a final port on one of the last islands standing guard. Even the seagulls broke off and avoided the area, and the seas turned dark. Black kelp obscured the water below as sharp and jagged rocks broke the surface. Clouds of mist and fog floated in and out of the area, occasionally revealing a shipwreck that had failed to navigate the treacherous path.

Eventually, they came to the shores. The gigantic jaws of some primordial shark monster guarded the entrance to the Pale Harbor, the city that held the Pale Academy. To the side, a massive sea-wall surrounded a cove surrounded by jagged, black rock, sealing off the Banshee’s Cove from the outside world.

The Southern Realms were simultaneously more and less tolerant of necromancy, largely because each client nation had its own approach. In some, it was treated like any other high-risk school of magic, with even fewer restrictions on its use than the Imperial Necrotorum. In others, even possession of the relevant skills was grounds for execution…or death at the hands of a mob. The Pale Harbor was formed by those who wished to practice their arts without supervision and as a refuge for those fleeing from persecution. Soon, it became infamous as a haven for thieves, pirates, and darker arts.

At least until the Empire arrived in the area. The Imperial navy arrived in force, backed by the full might of the Imperial Necrotorum. But a war of the dead was in no one’s best interest, and so an agreement was eventually struck. The Pale Academy would retain its independence and gain authority over all necromancers who did not join the Necrotorum, but the Legion and the Imperial Necrotorum would set up in the Pale Harbor to keep watch. The Pale Academy thus did not need to fight for its survival, while the Empire could keep track of the necromancers in the South, including those from realms that were not nominally under the Emperor’s authority.

It was a stormy relationship, with much conflict and maneuvering over the years.

But not today.Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

Today, the free necromancers of the Pale Academy and the disciplined death mages of the Necrotorum stood side by side on the sea-wall facing the Banshee’s cove. Imperial warships and zombified sea-monsters dueled with floating sea-wrecks with literal skeleton crews, wailing ghosts were met with Imperial counterspells and pale green banefire, Imperial legionaries and a motley assortment of adventurers and rogues from the Pale Harbor worked together against zombie sailors scaling the walls.

Two women fought side by side at the center of the defense. One was a human in black Legion armor adorned by a tree with black roots, the symbol of the Necrotorum. Lampronia Vitalina, Magister Mortalitus of the Imperial Necrotorum, swore as she saw black fins break through the water.

“Another pod of Dread Orca!”

The other woman wore an enchanted silk dress with a fur coat made from a Felix Ignus’s pelt. This was Vassenia Andronica, the current Pale Lady of the Pale Academy. Instead of a head, she had a skull covered in green flames. She cursed as she sent tendrils of green fire towards a zombie kraken entangled with three ghost ships. The fire latched onto holes in the kraken’s rotting skin, sowing the flesh back together.

“And?! What do you want me to do about it?!”

Lampronia grit her teeth as she finished a magic circle, launching several counterspells towards a wave of approaching ghosts. The opposing Death Magic unraveled the magical structures holding the creatures together. They wailed as the mana comprising their bodies leaked away and faded.

“You’re the vampire! Can’t you steal their blood or something, you shapeshifting hag?! Those Dread Orca will paralyze half of your so-called guards with one cry!”

Vassenia scowled as she shot a Bane Fireball.

“For the LAST time, I’m a Soucouyant and I don’t see what that has to do with anything! And thanks to some hardheaded Imperial dog with a stick up her butt, I haven’t used my magic on anything alive in decades! And now you expect me to ‘terrorize the living,’ as you warned me many, many times to never even think about doing?!”

Lampronia ducked as a ghost ship fired a ballistae bolt over her head. Imperial ballistae retaliated, but the Imperial bolts pierced right through the decaying ship without hitting anything of note. Lampronia attempted a counterspell, but the magic holding the ship together was much more powerful than that of the ghosts.

“Well someone has to do something or we’re all going to die and reanimate! You’re telling me in all these years you haven’t found some way to cheat on the regulations?!”

Vassenia pulled her hair as she commanded her kraken to smash the offending ship with a free tentacle.

“YES! That's EXACTLY what I'm saying! I was there when your predecessor purged the Pale Lord before me! I made absolutely certain to keep my act completely clean! Haven’t you seen me run myself ragged trying to keep the idiots in the Academy from doing something stupidly illegal?! What do you think I’ve been doing this whole time?!”

But time had run out. The Dread Orcas weaved and dove between the flailing tentacles of the zombie kraken, bypassing the creature to swim straight for the walls. Lampronia created a Decay Field, but the Dread Orcas’ Dark Magic aura shielded the creatures as they passed through it. Vassenia launched a volley of Bane Fireballs, but the Pale Lady was not used to fighting personally and so the Dread Orcas dodged with ease. The two women grimaced as the Dread Orca’s cry sounded over the wall. The Pale Harbor’s defenders and even some of the legionaries dropped their weapons and covered their ears, screaming and shouting as the fear and curses gripped their hearts.

Until a shining light illuminated the sky. Golden and silver light filled every person’s heart with warmth. The panicking soldiers paused and turned their gaze up.

An armored girl descended from the sky on metal wings with feathers of light. She took a bow and pulled it back. Dozens of arrows of Holy and Light mana rained down on the battlefield, vaporizing ghosts and skeletons alike. A barrage of the arrows pierced deep into a ghost ship and then exploded. The ship flaked away as Holy Explosions purified it from the inside.

Lampronia and Vassenia turned to look at one another. Vassenia gulped.

“So, um, that’s an Aesdes, right? Should I, um, repent of my evil ways, or should I just run and hope she doesn’t notice?”

Lampronia gulped.

“I, um, don’t know.”

Vassenia gaped at her.

“You don’t know?! Aren’t you the Magister of the Imperial Necrotorum?! Don’t you have to read the Imperial doctrine or whatever at every meal and every night before bed?!”

Lampronia glared at her.

“The doctrine says the Aesdes don’t just show up, so I have no idea what to do in this situation! I’m a necromancer too, you know, so if she doesn’t like you then I’m in the same boat! And no, I don’t spend every waking moment reading the rules! I need my breaks too, you know!”

As the two continued to bicker, Ateia flew over to the wall, along with her companions. She frowned.

“Um…should we interrupt?”

Taog and Agedia shrugged. Amulius loudly cleared his throat. The two women glanced at him, and then noticed the flying group gathered around them. Vassenia’s eyes widened, and then she began to tremble, and then she fainted. Lampronia glanced at her with envy before turning to face the Aesdes in the sky before her…