Chapter 326: A Loaded Crossbow

Darion walked toward the main table, his eyes scanning the sheer volume of information. There were markers placed across the maps—small wooden pieces representing armies, outposts, and supply lines.

Then he found the documents.

Military records. Warrior counts. Food inventories. Weapon stockpiles. Armor. Horses. Grain. Meat. Iron. Everything Vrethka had been stockpiling for its campaigns.

Darion picked up a ledger, flipping through the pages. His expression slowly changed.

’This wasn’t just a warrior settlement.’

Vrethka had resources. A lot of them. Far more than he expected. Dross hadn’t just been preparing to attack Percvale; he had been building a war machine. There was enough food here to feed an army for months. Enough iron to forge hundreds of swords. Enough grain to survive a siege.

He looked toward Seren. "This place is richer than I thought."

Seren walked over, looking down at the documents. She picked up a sheet of parchment, her eyes scanning the numbers. She quickly realized what he was seeing. Vrethka had spent years preparing for war, hoarding everything they could. And all of those resources had just fallen into Darion’s hands.

Darion looked around the war room again. A moment ago, he had been thinking about how difficult it would be to control Vrethka from a distance. Now, he was starting to realize something else. This territory could actually strengthen Percvale.

It had soldiers. Resources. Weapons. Food. Strategic positions. And most importantly, it was already built for war. If he could integrate Vrethka’s military into Percvale’s, he wouldn’t just be ruling a dying barony anymore. He would be commanding a regional power.

Darion looked down at the maps. His eyes settled on the surrounding territories. For the first time, he began to understand the true value of what he had conquered. He didn’t just take a settlement. He had taken a military territory. And Dross had left behind everything Darion needed to understand exactly what he now controlled.

Darion’s fingers slowly moved across one of the maps, tracing the lines of trade routes and border lines. He was looking for Percvale, mapping out the distance. It was far, but not impossibly so.

Then he noticed something.

A location marked deeper into the surrounding territory. A place near the eastern mountains. It wasn’t a settlement. It wasn’t a trade route. It was marked with a specific, dark red symbol that Darion didn’t recognize. It had been circled multiple times, with lines connecting it to Vrethka and the surrounding regions.

Something he hadn’t expected to see.

He leaned closer, his brow furrowing.

Seren noticed his expression change. "What is it?"

Darion didn’t answer immediately. He kept staring at the map. Whatever this location was, Dross considered it important enough to mark specifically on his war map. It wasn’t a town. It wasn’t an enemy stronghold. It was something else.

Darion’s eyes narrowed as he read the small, scrawled text next to the red symbol.

He couldn’t make it out. The handwriting was messy, frantic.

But the symbol itself... he had seen it before. Or at least, he had seen a variation of it in a system notification just hours ago.

The location was the Kulidii.

Darion’s blood ran cold.

It was right there. Marked on the map. The place that Vrethka had been preparing to visit. The place that held the magic capable of neutralizing him. Dross had known exactly where it was. He had planned to go there. And now, Darion was staring at its location.

But there was something else. The way the map was drawn, the lines connecting the Kulidii to other locations... it wasn’t just a destination. It was a protected site. A place with its own defenses.

Darion slowly straightened up. His mind was racing.

’They were going to find it. And if I leave now, someone else will.’

He looked toward Seren, his expression hardening.

"We have a problem."

Seren stepped closer, her eyes scanning the frantic scribbles and the dark red symbol on the map. "What is it? What’s wrong?"

Darion didn’t look away from the parchment. He tapped the red mark with his finger. "This. It’s the Kulidii."

Seren frowned. "The what?"

"It’s a being—or a thing—that grants magic capable of neutralizing Necromancer abilities." Darion’s voice was low, tight. "Vrethka was preparing to go there before they marched on Percvale. Dross wanted to strip me of my power before the war even started."

He stared at the lines connecting the Kulidii’s location to Vrethka’s territory, his mind racing through the terrifying possibilities.

’If I leave this alone, I’m leaving a loaded crossbow aimed right at my head.’ Someone who wanted revenge for Dross, or a surviving loyalist from Caef’s ranks, would eventually find this map. They would make the journey to the Kulidii. And then, they would come for him.

Darion swallowed hard, the weight of the thought settling into his chest like a stone. ’What am I without my Necromancer ability?’ The answer was immediate and brutal. He was just a man. A young man with a sword, yes, but he wasn’t a master swordsman.

His entire hold over Percvale, and now Vrethka and Harrowhold, was built on the backs of his undead. His power, his authority, his ability to protect his people... all of it rested on his summons. If the Kulidii neutralized that, his empire would collapse overnight. He would be helpless.

But as he stared at the map, a new, colder thought entered his mind. Something didn’t add up.

Dross had been a proud man. A man who relied on armies, steel, and raw brute force. Why would he rely on some ancient, magical entity to fight his battles? Why not just send a legion of assassins after Darion in the middle of the night?

The answer was that the Kulidii was proven and way easier.

He looked at the frantic handwriting.

What exactly was a Kulidii? Was it a person? A beast? A god? Or something else entirely?

He didn’t know what it was. But he knew one thing for certain.

If he wanted to keep his empire, and his life, he needed to find out before someone else did.