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HMJ - Chapter 6
🕑 Added 2024-06-03 14:50:08 +0000 UTCSigorn Magnar POV
‘Why have the Old Gods abandoned us? Are our sacrifices worth nothing?’ Sigorn, the Head of House Magnar, asked himself as he observed the darkness surrounding the wooden walls he was standing on. Fear crept down his spine as he heard growls and rustling out in the dark. House Magnar was the strongest and oldest of the three houses on Skagos.
They could trace their ancestry back to Ibben, when their people first arrived on these shores. And now here he was, the head of such an old house that had braved so many threats during the last millennia, cowering behind his walls.
He was hoping that they would protect them from the evil that was coming for them. It all started over half a year ago, when more and more hunting parties began to disappear around the Ancient Mountains. Never to be seen again.
They believed that some vicious beast had made its lair and killed all the hunters entering its territory. But the situation had changed again. During the Nights, the people in different villages had heard and seen things no one could explain. Steps where no one was. Supplies that were disappearing.
Voices without an origin. Flashes of colored lights. Then people began to disappear. The strongest of their men were gone without any trace. The whole night, patrols were gone. No one had seen them leave.
It was as if they had been swallowed by the Earth itself. No steps or tracks. Nothing. The Elders called it the thing that came in the night, an ancient evil from the Nightfort that awoke on Skagos, now haunting and hunting their people.
And nothing they did worked. No matter how many guards they had, how many torches, or which walls The thing that came, no matter what came in the night, always managed to get them.
And all of that had been just the beginning.
The beginning of the end for Skagos. One month, the true end was initiated. It started one night when a whole village disappeared. Then another. And another. The inhabitants of one settlement after the other disappeared.
Hiding helped nothing.
A few reports talked about shadows grabbing the people and bringing them away. Others say everyone in a village disappeared at once. And again, others talked about fights, the reanimated undead slaves of the Others attacking the villages, and the people joining their Legions. But things got even scarier for the people of Skagos.
A few days after the people of the first village disappeared, a part of them suddenly returned. None of them could answer what had happened to them or who the rest of the people were.
A good third of the village was missing. The same thing repeated itself with the other villages. While other villages disappeared, a part of the missing population reappeared and acted as if nothing was wrong. While everyone else was scared, the returned people simply lived their lives. None of them reacted to the orders of their lords.
None of them joined the host Sigorn had gathered at his wooden fort in order to face the darkness haunting their land. They didn’t acknowledge his orders at all. If he survived whatever was coming, they would all pay dearly.
They were next; his family seat, the Kingshouse, was the last settlement of his land, not targeted by the unknown threat.
Sigorn and his men would face the Wights, the Others, or whatever the thing that comes in the night is.
They would stand tall, like his ancestors did during the last millennia. In his hopelessness, he had even tried to send men to contact the Starks and other Northern Houses. What was their pride against such an enemy?
But it was hopeless. The men he had sent out never reached the oceans. Any boat they possessed disappeared after that.
And here they were, in the midst of the night, standing on the wooden walls of the kinghouse, waiting for the enemy.
The light of their torches illuminated the inner parts of the wooden fort but was unable to spread outside of it.
Night had swallowed the surrounding land. Sigorn could clearly make out Movement in the Dark, as if an army were encircling them. But how could the enemy see in the dark?
There were no torches. What foul magics were these? And suddenly, everything went so fast.
“Grrroaan!” Sigorn heard it from overhead. Before he could realize what had happened, something landed on the walls. Bodies. The enemy had somehow catapulted a bundle of bodies onto their walls.
‘Are these our people? Is this an intimidation tactic? As if that would work, just some meat for the men.' Sigorn scoffed in contempt as he watched the corpses splatter all over the fort. This lasted only for a moment.
Once he realized that these Corpses were actually moving he froze in Terror.
Fear gripped his whole being. The Enemy. The living death had already broken through their Fortifications.
“The—“ Sigorn attempted to shout, in order rally his men for the fight. But before a Word even properly went over his Lips, he was overshadowed by a resounding booming noice.
Wood and debris of the Gate flew all over the Area. Some of his Men were hit, others were already jumped at by the Living Dead already inside the Wall. And more came.
Thousands of Running Corpses rushed through the destroyed Gate. Sigorn could see it. His Men had already lost the Will to fight.
The Sight of the foe, that overpowering and unnatural strength had broken them.
“Fight, Maggots!” He cried out as he brandished his sword and rushed at the incoming Horde running up the stairs towards their heightened position, “Are you not men enough to face these deaths with pride? Let’s show these stinking corpses how powerful we Skagosi are.”
And there was the first one, a rotting Man with his face half destroyed. Sigorn could have sworn he had seen him before, but before he could think more about it, the walking Corpse was already upon him.
With a swish of a sword he cut the Head cleanly off from the Torso, and was already ready to face the next one. Only the Corpse didn’t stop. It continued to attack him and jumped onto him sending him down the Wall into the Mass of walking Corpses.
‘This is my end.’ He realized, as he impacted the ground amongst these Corpses who all began to claw at him. But instead of ripping him apart they grabbed him and dragged him somewhere outside the Wall through the mass of Corpses.
It didn’t take long until they stopped asking, ‘What’s happening?’ He wondered when he heard a voice. “Ah, Sigorn, head of House Magnar! What a surprise for you to be the first one brought in front of me.” A smooth male voice said.
Sigorn got pulled up by the Undead, still tightly held, and faced whoever had spoken. It was a young man. I have not even reached adulthood yet. The boy resembled more one of these Southern Cunts he had seen while visiting Eastwatch for Trade than a proper Northman.
He had wild-night black hair and a thin but handsome face, and there were traces of a scar on his forehead. But his most outstanding feature was his glowing, deep emerald eyes.
“Are you the leader of these fights?" What is this folly? Are you trying to deceive me, White Walker?” Sigorn questioned him, not letting his fear rule him.
"A White Walker? One of those others?" The young man said with a sly smirk, "No, I am not one of the legendary others!”
“What do you want? Why are you attacking my people?" Sigorn asked scornfully.
“Good question. I want Skagos,” the boy answered simply.
“You think the Skagosi will kneel in front of you? Are you mad? You may be powerful, but we still have our pride!” shouted Sigorn as he spat on the floor.
"Harmond, the Head of House Stane, said something similar last night. In the end, he chose to join my army,” laughed the boy, as Sigorn realized where he had seen that Undead that he had beheaded, “Anyway, like anyone else on Skagos, you get the choice. You can join my Army of the Dead; it’s grown quite a bit. Or you can sign this.”
With a slight glow, paper appeared in the boy's hand. It looked like a contract with an empty spot at the bottom for him to sign.
Sigorn didn’t even need to read it before he shouted, “As if I would sign any of your foul sorcery! You hear me. I may die and become a pawn in your vile army. But I curse you, boy. You wretched devil, I curse you!”
“Too bad,” the boy muttered before he heard words in a language he didn’t know: “Avada Kedavra!”
The last thing he saw was a bright green light flying at him.
———
Harry Potter POV
[ Level Up! ]
[ Conquest Successful: Skagos and Skane have become your territories.]
[ The faction and territory screens are now available. ]
The moment the body of Sigorn of House Magnar fell to the ground, he received these notifications. He had finally gained his own territory. He pointed his wand at the dead body with wide, open eyes on the ground.
And a runic circle began to appear around it. When his ‘Create Inferius’ skill was at a lower level, he literally had to carve every rune by himself. Which had been a pain in the ass to repeat a few hundred times.
It was good that at Skill Level 25, the Runic Circle became simpler, and at Level 50, it became completely automatic.
A short, dark, ugly green glow later, the body of Sigurn was raised from the dead and joined his army of Inferi. It was maddening that he had to offer the choice another few hundred times today. But fortunately, this was the last settlement on Skagos.
"Faction,” Harry said with clear intent to open the window, and a completely unfamiliar screen appeared.
[ Faction: Harry Potter’s Faction (Temporary Name)]
Number of Members: 51,362 Total (35,384 Human (32,319 Enslaved, 3,065 Young Children), 15,978 Inferi)
Locations: Skagos and Skane (21 villages, 4 towns, 3 forts (Kingshouse, Deepdown, Driftwood Hall))
Buildings: None Noteworthy (see Details)
Funds: 3,192 Gold Dragons
Troops: 15,978 Inferi ]
This system was quite useful. Not only did it summarize all the necessary information about his territory and people, he could even use it to manage it. Well, at least his Inferi could be controlled through it. Humans had to be ordered regularly.
Harry had pretty much used the power of his contracts to enslave the current population of Skagos. That skill had one weakness: the contract had to be signed out of free will. Free will, as in not under the Imperius Curse, and blackmail like ‘Sign it or die’ were valid methods.
This had been a massive task during the last month. He would use every night to capture the whole population of a settlement, bring them to his cave, and use the days to either force them to sign an extremely tight slavery contract or kill them and add them to his Inferior army.
He started with the smaller settlements and worked his way up to the bigger ones since his Army of Inferi was constantly growing.
The ones with a palisade around them were a bit harder to crack, but he became very creative in his Inferius usage. Throwing them over the walls was fun. In the end, usually about a third of the population was too proud to sign a contract and directly became an Inferior.
But he also ensured to read the minds of the enslaved with legitimacy, killed the greatest scum amongst them, and added them to his Inferior army.
Which had another advantage. The contracts created with his skill were extremely powerful and absolute. Not only do they enforce a collection of strict clauses, like don’t share information about him without permission with anyone, follow his every command and law, and so on.
The true masterstroke he added was the Death Clause, which said he would inherit anything they owned. Which includes their knowledge. Every time one of them died, he would, for example, get their different weapon masteries, knowledge, language skills, and so on in the form of consumable essences.
One disappointment the whole thing had was that he didn’t receive their remaining lifespan and body strength. Apparently killing them directly set it to 0. Which makes sense. How strong can a dead person be, or how long can their life be?
Was reading their minds an excuse to kill some contracted ones? Of course, they were absolutely bound to his rules through the contract and couldn’t disobey him. But getting some essences filled with knowledge was nice. He could use them as goods in the future.
This had been an extremely busy month last month. During the night, he spent his time conquering, and during the day, he handled groups of people at once. Forcing them into slavery or eternal servitude.
In the end, Skagos and Skane were his. Now he had to make sure he could keep it.
