Power Awakens
Chapter 26

Grakkor was not happy, if you could apply any type of emotional state to him, which was virtually impossible due to the complete apathy that Grakkor had towards life, you would probably say he was angry.

He was in a state of Sunyata, attempting as he had on many occasion to locate the Nexii in the matrix, he had just managed to locate him when he suddenly seemed to disappear. Just as suddenly three new Nexii points appearing in exactly the same position. He observed these points and although they were clearly Nexii points they only lasted about an hour before they too disappeared. Grakkor was very puzzled by this, had the Nexii split or was it some trick to try and mask his location. Grakkor continued to search for another thirty minutes and then gave up. He knew that the Bhagwati attempt on the Nexii had failed, he had not yet determined why, but he would replace out although it would cost him to do so. Every time he or Precktis had to commune through the Gateway sub matrix it had cost Grakkor many lives, even though these lives meant nothing to him, the Necrolytes that were used were not in-exhaustible and he needed them for the next phase in his plan.

He was conscious that he had used too many the last time he had to break through the gateway, he had used one hundred of them to commune with his contacts on Cromus and this had cost him an extra twelve months in his preparation. It usually took at least twelve months to recruit and train Necrolytes, which to Grakkor, was an annoying inconvenience. A number of children under the age of twelve also supplemented the last expenditure of Necrolytes, and this had only allowed fifteen minutes of commune with his agents on Cromus. Another six months delay on his already tight schedule was just not acceptable, but Grakkor reasoned he had to take every chance to eliminate the Nexii.

Grakkor was now nearly ready to achieve his goal. The build up of personnel and training, was progressing well and he was pushing his Captains as hard as possible to finalize recruitment, but the growth of the Groloth and the Reavers could not be rushed, if they were hatched early they were weak and puny. He was impatient for any delays but he understood the strategic importance of good preparation. If he could express any emotion, he would not be happy. The failure of all previous attempts to kill the Nexii angered him, his plans had to be fulfilled.

Wiping his hook shaped dagger on the dead guard’s tunic and temporarily stated by the life essence of the unfortunate who happened to be near him when he exited his Sunyata, he summoned one of his servants. “Get Precktis now” snarled Grakkor, to the obviously terrified servant.

Precktis entered the dark grim and slightly damp smelling room next to the torture chamber under the keep. It was only five spans in diameter and windowless, and it was totally devoid of all sound, perfect for maintaining Sunyata a state of mind which was akin to a state totally devoid of all nature. Sunyata was the complete opposite to the state of Satori, a state of enlightenment, and was only achieved by the Grande Masters of Necromancy and only Grakkor in the three worlds, was known to have reached Grande Master Level. Precktis was very close in power, but he was not yet a Grande Master.

“Master” said Precktis as he approached Grakkor and bowed.

“The Nexii has disappeared Precktis, I think our enemies have somehow masked him in the LifeMatrix. If we can’t replace him, how can we kill him? You know what the Chaos Chronicles say about the Nexii, one line of the paragraph is very clear unlike the other gibberish in there

’The Four are one and then drop to three,

The Dark of Mortuum Brings the Three To Four,

Shaped by Death and Life and Pain,

The Nexii shall Consume Gronjaa in Fire’

I don’t know what that other rubbish of four are one then three then four again, but I do know what the line ‘The Nexii will consume Gronjaa in Fire’ means. Gronjaa is Krondor in the old tongue, if the Nexii isn’t stopped, my Capital City will be destroyed. That bit is very clear to me. What I want to know is what are you doing about it, you should be working on this as if your life depended on it, because mark me Precktis, it does. You may have the Conduit with Elvan at the moment, but you won’t have it when your head is removed from your body. That blessing will pass to another the moment you take your last breath.”

“Master, I was not aware of the Nexii going missing, Elvan has not communed with me on this event, I don’t yet know what to do about this, but I will replace out. Can we use the Necrolytes once more to speak to our agents?”

“Not again Precktis, I need them ready for the breakthrough, you know this. Take a Full Legion of Krondonian Regulars, get as many Innocents as you can from that flyspeck of a kingdom near the Gateway, it’s been a while since we attempted a penetration into Hayven. Speak to General Halfor, tell him to begin to recruit to replace the Legion. Use whatever of the Legion you need, but get enough innocents for two communes, I want to know what is happening, and then I need to plan and instruct the agents on how to deal with this Nexii.”

“As you command Master, but remember the last time we managed a penetration with two full Legions, only five thousand made it back from the original sixty thousand.”

“You have your instructions Precktis, use them all, and kill them all, what does it matter to me, only the Liphus Crystal matters. I need it. Elvan needs it. You need me to have it.”

“As you command Master” Precktis mumbled as he backed away.

A month later found Precktis outside of the Hayven border. It irked Precktis that the entire world of Xanom, including both of the habitable continents, now belonged to Grakkor and the Necro’s. Only the Kingdom of Hayven, with the White Temple and the Gateway, had not succumbed. Grakkor had lost nearly two million warriors attempting to conquer Hayven. Fortunately, Grakkor had the foresight to send mainly armies populated with warriors from the conquered nations. This left the other nations weaker and more defenceless against the Necro’s, not that they could have done anything against them anyway. Nearly two million, defeated by a mere two hundred thousand warriors, The Hayven warriors were virtually invincible and Necromancy didn’t work around the Gateway, which was the only entrance into Hayven. Unfortunately, Hayven was the only place left on Xanom where the innocents lived. All of the other conquered nations were corrupted by the Death Priests, and for some unknown reason, anyone corrupted or connected to Elvan, were instantly recognized in Hayven and immediately executed. This meant that the Necro’s could not place any agents in Hayven or corrupt any of it’s denizens, as it had before it conquered the other nations of Xanom.

However, even knowing this, Precktis absolutely had to have a source of concentrated life energy, only innocents or hundreds of linked Necrolytes could give him enough power to breakthrough the block the Anglif devils had placed on the Gateway. Although Precktis was powerful, he could only reach out his dark powers to less than fifty spans, this was enough to draw the life energy of just under five hundred humans if they were closely packed together. It was rumoured that Grakkor could reach out to over one thousand humans, but in his lifetime, Precktis had not seen this happen. Any one Innocent captured, gave the same life force as almost ten Necrolytes, as their life energy was pure and they were still attuned to the planets aura, which meant that they drew part of that aura with them when they died. Yes, Precktis desperately needed innocents, otherwise he just couldn’t carry out the commands of his Master. And Precktis wanted to stay alive.