“Hmm, so that's what it is.”
After finishing the spell, I lowered my arms.
There was a mountain of ice in front of me.
It towered over the houses of the Imperial City, pushing them aside.
I look at its summit.
There was a figure trapped inside the ice.
It was Doldar, holding an axe.
Doldar was frozen, unable to move.
I could hear him groaning faintly.
He seemed to still be conscious.As an undead, he was able to act even in such a situation.
The fight with Doldar, who had transformed into Dullahan, was over in no time at all.
He had skillfully used what remained of his ego to enhance his body reinforcement and lightning magic to a greater extent than when he was alive.
Being an undead however, he no longer had to take the burdens of his flesh into account, and his pure physical strength had improved.
Even with injuries that would have been fatal to a human, he could easily move.
It can be said that he was even more formidable now than when he was alive.
However, he is still an undead.
Even though he didn't listen to my orders, he was still under my control.
As a person who possessed the powers of the Valley of the Dead, he was an opponent that I should have no difficulty fighting.
Since I knew his fighting style, all I had to do was to steadily hunt them down with magic.
There was no reason why I wouldn't be a match for him.
I cut out the part of the mountain of ice where Doldar was and moved it in front of me.
He was strangely quiet, and I didn't sense any hostility from him.
I wondered if he had developed a master-servant relationship after being defeated twice.
I'm glad he's not planning on being rebellious forever.
I'm not going to kill him, and instead I'm going to bring him back to the capital as is.
While I can't leave him in charge of things because he lacks reason, there was no doubt that he was a force to reckon with.
I'm sure he'll be a great asset if we send him into the enemy camp.
I returned to the capital with Doldar and the other undead.
I stored the new undead in an unused section of the capital.
I headed back to the castle, taking only the frozen Doldar with me.
When I did, Grom, who sensed my return, immediately came to greet me.
“My Lord! Welcome ba…ck?”
Grom stopped in the middle of his words.
He was staring at Doldar behind me.1
He continued to shake and tremble.
For some reason, he seemed to be upset.
Grom pretended to clear his throat to regain his composure.
“…Who is this frozen undead?”
“He's called ‘Doldar the Thunderbolt,' and he's a general of the Empire. Well he was a general of the empire. He became a Dullahan after being exposed to my miasma.”
“I-I see…”
Grom's voice grew shrill.
He really seemed strange.
Is he perhaps unwell?
It's hard to imagine an undead being in such a state, but Grom was an individual who was born in a special way.
There may be some conditions that only he can have.
“What, is it that ‘Thunderbolt’ by any chance!?”
A surprised voice came from the other side.
It was Luciana, who had jumped out of the castle window.
She glided down and landed in front of us, and started to feel around the frozen Doldar.
“Does Luciana know of him?”
“Of course I do. When I was in the service of the previous Demon Lord, I was repeatedly troubled by Doldar's pirates. They’d plunder without batting an eyelid, even if the other side was a demon.”
Luciana shrugged her shoulders with a sigh.
Perhaps she was reminded of the hardships of the past.
Although it was an organization that was not affiliated to any country, the pirates led by Doldar were quite powerful.
I knew that even the demons had a hard time with them, but this is the first time I've actually heard them talk like this.
I could feel the weight of her words.
“I thought he was a man who wouldn't die even if you killed him, but it looks like he was outclassed. So, does he still have an ego?”
“He still has one, sort of. It's just a fragment though.”
I nodded and answered.
The act of Doldar asking for the head had a clear sense of purpose.
Without his ego, he would just be roaming like the rest of the undead.
He wouldn't have had to violate my orders in the first place.
I released the ice restraining him.
The ice melted rapidly, and Doldar emerged from within.
As a precaution, I applied a magical seal with multiple forbidden spells.
There was no significant change in his appearance, but the magic and miasma contained within him were designed to dissipate the moment he tried to use any kind of magic.
This prevented Doldar from using his true power.
His fighting ability has been reduced to the level of a mere undead.
It would be impossible for him to rampage now.
“Head…my…head…”
Doldar muttered in a hollow voice.
As expected he was even calmer than before our battle.
For some reason, his shoulders seemed to slump.
At that moment, the head placed on him, fell down.
The headless Doldar instantly fell silent.
When Luciana picked up the fallen head and put it back in place, his blue eyes lit up.
And his mouth started to move.
“Where is it…head, give it to me…”
“ Perhaps, he can’t talk without a head?”
“It seems so.”
The vocal chords of the undead were shrouded in mystery.
Some, like me and Grom, can speak with only bones.
The anatomy of the Dullahan is unknown, but it seemed to have similarly strange properties.
“Hnng, an undead that possesses an ego, does he intend to steal my position…”
Grom, who has his back to us, was grumbling and groaning.
He seemed to be worried about something.
The reason why he has been acting strangely since a while ago might be because of his worry.
“Grom, are you alright?”
“Yes, I am! I'm always fine! As you can see, I'm very much alive and kicking!”2
Grom responded to my voice by standing with his spine taut.
The flame in one of his eyes was burning roaringly.
Luciana, seeing this, laughed sarcastically.
“An undead speaking of being alive…that’s a good joke. It's hilarious.”
Being mocked, Grom was wrapped in a dark bloodlust.
Cloaked in miasma, he cornered Luciana with his miasma.
“You are taunting me again, young lass. I can have that mouth of yours sewn shut if you like.”
“Oh no, I'm scared. Help me, Demon Lord!”
Luciana tried to look deliberately scared.
She happily hugged my arm.
“You! Let go! Don't touch the Demon Lord with your filthy hands!”
Grom rushed to pull Luciana away from me.
Luciana shook her head in refusal.
This was an everyday exchange.
It’s nothing more than friendly banter at this point.
Now, let's go greet the Demon Lord’s army that is waiting.
I thought about it, ignoring my two sparring leaders.
The war with the empire had come to an end for the time being.
We were already moving into dealing with the aftermath.
The imperial capital was hit by an unforeseen incident, but we suffered no damage.
With the addition of Doldar, an excellent fighting force, we were also able to take the territory that we invaded.
It was a good result.
“Geez, I've gotten involved with an outrageous existence.”
A voice behind me said with a hint of dismay.
I turned my head.
“My head…where…?”
Doldar muttered in a blank tone.
He was repeating the same words over and over again.
It was definitely not an act.
But he blurted that sentence out in a fluent manner.
Did his consciousness from when he was alive surface for a moment?
He was a man with a strong will, to be able to come to his senses in this state.