89 The tomb of Tarlakh (1/2)

Ymir could see the eyes of Leilade turning into something inexplicable. They were still as dark as they could possibly be, but he felt that she was … embarrassed? Shaking his head, he reminded himself that she was still after all a monster in a little girl's body, and shouldn't feel such emotions. Unknowingly, he was actually spot on his deduction. She was already thinking about retreating for the moment and call Malakov to deal with such a dangerous location. Both the Viscount and her were already planning to explore it slowly and steadily, even if it took months.

But as expected in this planet, nothing was evident. At this point, she was even feeling a hint of exasperation, since whatever she did always make her feel like an idiot the very next second. Sending an order to the nearest lich, the undead created a very small skeleton, not even taller than Leilade herself. That sudden apparition provoked a huge uproar among the trolls that were still present. But after seeing the white summon not even looking at them, they returned to their calm state.

Controlling the skeleton remotely, she made it enter the tomb. Barely ten seconds after the undead went past the shadows covering the entrance, she lost contact. Sighing, she was glad that her instincts didn't betray her. It was still very dangerous, just that the trolls were either prudent or a bunch of cowards for never scouting the tomb. Because just a skeleton was not enough, she ordered the liches to create more.

Still preserving half of their mana in an emergency case, tens of much stronger undead appeared. They were barely two meters tall, still smaller than Kardel, but their very bones were visually strengthened. Their arms were also ended by a bone scythe, d this time, the trolls didn't react as passively as before.

The chief shouted some words and the entire tribe was once again in a very defensive position. The hunters that were previously looking in awe at the strength of Ymir were scared by the recent influx of undead. The only good thing was the fact that they didn't proactively engage in a fight. Otherwise, the thin patience of Leilade would have been expanded and the trolls would have been all wiped out.

Seeing this, Ymir didn't stand still and began to convince the trolls that they were not dangerous. All he received was dubious stares, who could be fooled by such words when the skeletons were visibly armed to the bone. Feeling that he may have used the wrong words, he explained that they were not dangerous, for them. Because of this, the trolls lowered a bit their weapons and saw that the small army of undead was not looking at them but at the tomb.

Because she was unsure about the strength of her invocations, one of the skeletons tried to hack the sturdy ice wall. His hand, or weapon, in that case, managed to be deeply inserted, about half of its size. Using herself as a test subject, she also punched the wall, but her fist went way deeper than the scythe. However, it was enough for her, and she took control of her army and enter mentally the tomb.

As she was doing this, she paid no notice to the dumbfounded expressions of the trolls. Because the giant Akûl was so big, they were only focusing on him and dismissed the frail little girl and the undead as weaklings. Even when they knew that they were probably stronger because of the usage of magic, they didn't respect them for that. Only sheer strength was proof of power inside the troll tribe, mainly because that was the only way for them to fight.

But seeing something that didn't even reach their waist have such strength was mind-blowing. Some of the dumbest warriors tried to punch the ice wall too, but they only received mild injuries while not even having their full fist digging a hole. Looking at their hand, then Leilade, then their hand again, their brains had a hard time linking the two notions. But in the end, they still acknowledged her strength, not that she truly cared about being recognized by a bunch of trolls.

The dozens of skeleton warriors entered the tomb by pair. Because the entrance was made for a troll, two of them could enter at the same time. The only one that will probably have a hard time would be Ymir, since he was a bit bigger than the crack on the ice wall. The deeper they went inside the tomb, the more Leilade noticed that it wasn't really one. She could more or less see or guess the form surrounding the undead, and it wasn't something made by a race.

It was a completely natural formation, and the path was only leading to a deeper destination, inside the mountains. She could also feel an influx of mana, and the walls were sprinkled with mana stones. At the same time, the threat that ended the previous connection was still nowhere to be seen. Finally reaching the same location where the first skeleton was destroyed, she encountered resistance.

The link between the undead and her was gradually getting thinner and thinner like something was perturbing it. That was highly unusual. She had not reached the stage where she could control undead from hundreds of kilometers, but she was absolute in her ability when the range was less than ten kilometers. Otherwise, she wouldn't have been forced sometimes to personally land on a planet to destroy all their enemies. She could have just stayed on a ship in the orbit of the planet and remotely control everything while staying safe.

So, to be disturbed when the distance was merely hundreds of meters was definitely not natural. For the moment, she could only input that deficiency to the important amount of lingering mana inside the cavern. Something designed and created by the Ancients always created a lot of problems for those not related to them. Thinking about that, she wondered how the few plants and bugs she released were doing. The hope to remove that major obstacle was entirely on their tiny shoulders.

However, for the moment, the skeletons were still responding perfectly to her commands. One began to carefully dig a hole around a mana stone that was big enough to be interesting. At the same time, she realized that those scythes were extremely useless when they were used for such delicate work. Seeing the pathetic attempt at grabbing the stone between its two hands, if it was still called hand in its case, she gave up and ordered to create a more human skeleton.