ADAS KALLIG

"Ah, sweet scent of the dark side, how much I have missed you" I exclaimed, overjoyed to feel it after such a long time. The place with the most dark side energy I was able to visit so far was the Chancellor's office and It was the energy of another Sith, not a natural source of it, so it didn't really count.

Dathomir was different though. The dark side was everywhere: rocks, ground and even air, permeating everything on the planet. It made me think of Korriban, which was quite an accomplishment. All in all, I really liked this planet.

We landed there not long ago, hoping to find a mysterious coven of witches. I didn't know much about them, as Leila only knew about them through unconfirmed rumors, but they sounded interesting, so I decided to look for them. Vague rumors never failed me before, as they always led to something interesting. Or annoying like order of Zildrog, but mostly interesting.

That's why I was travelling through Dathomir with my followers, confident, eager and ready for anything. Well, I was. I didn't know about Raksh, as he was quite hard to read with his atypical face, but Leila and Satine looked quite stressed, constantly tense, reacting to slightest noise with alarm.

It might have been connected to the fact that we were able to see three enormous rancors so far, but who knows, maybe they just didn't like the everpresent corruption and sense of danger in the air. It was quite pleasant to me, but people have different tastes.

"Can we rest for a moment?" Asked Satine, clearly tired of walking. It was quite surprising to me, given that she was a former Mandalore, which meant that she was a great warrior, but it was possible she was trained to spend her stamina in short bursts instead of pacing herself to last as long as possible. Or she was so deadly that she didn't have the opportunity to exhaust herself before, ending things long before she would be able to get tired. I really hoped that it was the second option.

"Well, we could, but there is no reason to, as we are not that far from our target. I can feel dark energy concentrating that way" I said, pointing to the west. From what I was able to sense, there was something really strong there, which meant my trip wasn't in vain. Another clue that we were close was that the path we were taking was full of corpses, laying around us. It was a clear sign of civilization lying ahead. There was another reason for not taking a break though.

"Also, you clearly need to get back into shape. These years of ruling clearly haven't served you well. Thank the force that I was able to get you out of there" I said. Ruling was fun and it had many benefits, but it also made you complacent. Fortunately I was able to help Satine before it was too late for her.

"...Yes, I am very thankful," said Satine through gritted teeth. She was really not fond of training, wasn't she? Too bad, I expected my followers to be at their best, so there would be no slacking in my group.

She didn't say anything else, instead deciding to continue walking quietly. With nothing else to talk about, we resumed our travel. I decided to just enjoy the journey, breathing clean, corrupted air and watching mountains in the distance. We weren't able to go very far though before something catched Leila's attention.

"My lord" she exclaimed, making our entire group focus on her. After seeing that I reacted to her shout, she pointed at distant rocks before us. "Look!"

After following her finger, I was able to see some people standing there, watching us from afar. They were too far for me to see details, but the fact that they were humanoids bode well. It meant we were close to our destination.

"ENEMIES. KILL?" Asked Raksh. Damn, I thought I was able to teach him that violence wasn't supposed to be the first option, but I guess the dark side in the air didn't make it easy for him to think straight, huh? Not that I would blame him. Dark side can almost act as alcohol to young acolytes, just starting their magical journey with the dark side. I still remembered my own escapades under influence. good times.

"No, we are here to recruit them, remember?" I said patiently. "We will just have to approach them and..."
As I was saying that, I noticed two things. First, the closer we were to the source of the dark side, the more corpses would lay on our path. Now we reached the point when the amount of them was the biggest, with almost no corpses lying ahead, as if no one was able to go further so far. Second, I felt the change in the force, as someone ahead of us was casting some sort of spell.

I had a hunch that these two things were somehow connected.

I was proven right as corpses around us started to twitch. Leila and Satine screamed as still rotting corpses and old, weathered skeletons started to rise from the ground. It didn't take long before we were surrounded by the horde of undead.

They were dead bodies resurrected by dark side magick, ready to rip apart the intruders who dared to come too close to the lair of their master.

I felt myself shaking, unable to keep my composure. My heart was beating faster and faster in response to the powerful emotion I was feeling while looking at undead. I just couldn't help it.

I was just so...

"...so cool" I whispered without even meaning to. Because how could I not. Raising the dead was like one of the coolest dark side powers. It was just so great to see its effects. Army of the living dead, fueled by the dark energy reanimating them, sent to slaughter the living. You can't find any cooler use of the dark side than that.

Okay, it was decided now. I had to recruit people responsible for this!

LEILA

Since joining her lord in his noble quest, she thought herself to be the happiest woman in the entire galaxy. She would spend most of her time tending to Lord Kallig, doing her best to be useful to him and enjoying every second of it.

She accompanied him to Mandalore, helping him with the coup. She wasn't able to do much, as her lord was too mighty to ever need her help, so she wanted to be useful to him in some other way. That was why she told her Lord about Dathomir, hoping it would show him that she was his most competent servant, even more than his sacred beast called Raksh, who accompanied him for thousands of years.

She knew it from holy scriptures, passed down from shepherd to shepherd. The beast was previously called Khem Val, but after Lord Kallig's return it chose to change its name for some reason. She didn't pry why though, as such holy matters were probably beyond her comprehension.

All she cared about was proving herself useful to her Lord. Dathomir was supposed to prove that.

She was no longer sure it was a good idea though.

"Stay away! Stay away! Stay away!" She screamed as the undead started to run in her direction. She was shooting them desperately, trying to stop them from reaching her. When shooting corpses proved to be ineffective, because of them being, well, corpses, she holstered her blaster and took an old spear lying on the ground. She used it to strike any undead coming close, her fear and adrenaline giving her enough strength to keep them away for now.

She started looking around, desperately searching for her Lord, hoping he would save her.

She didn't see much, as there was too much undead around Lord Kallig to be sure, but from what she was able to see, he was destroying undead around him with ease, constantly laughing, apparently taking pleasure in this battle. She again realized that her Lord was beyond her understanding, as she didn't know how someone could take pleasure in such a scary situation.

The sacred beast was not far from her lord, using its heavy durasteel greatsword to smash its enemies into pieces. It then roared and ran into the group of skeletons, obliterating them with its powerful body. After doing that, the beast returned to destroying undead with its sword, acting as if the entire situation was normal. It spent decades travelling with Lord Kallig, so it was probably used to something like this. Knowing that it would be able to handle itself, she turned to the last member of their party.

When her Lord decided to take Satine Kryze with them, she had her doubts. Even disregarding the fact that she was a leader of their enemies and she would probably try to sabotage them, she didn't look very competent. Leila wasn't a warrior, but she would be able to take care of herself, thanks to years of hiding and fighting for food she had to endure before finding the light of her lord.. Satine Kryze looked like she didn't have even that kind of experience, living in luxury all her life, similar to one of those damn hutts.

So yes, Leila didn't like Satine and she didn't believe she would be able to take care of herself, undoubtedly inconveniencing her Lord in a situation like this.

That's why she was extremely surprised by what she saw.

Satine was destroying undead by dozens, constantly throwing grenades and burning corpses with her flamethrower. If one got too close for her to do that, she would bludgeon it with her armored fists, destroying rotten heads and limbs.

She was fighting like a wild animal, dealing furious strikes at her opponents. She was constantly screaming while doing that, as if completely terrified, but a number of destroyed undead told Leila that it wasn't fear. It must have been some sort of berserker state, where she would turn into a beast, roaring and madly attacking her targets without caution.

She didn't have much time to contemplate that though, as more undead rushed in her direction. She decided to deal with her own problems for the moment.

"Stay away! Stay away! Please stay away!" She started to scream again, not for the last time during this fight.

ADAS KALLIG

It took some time to destroy all undead, but we did it. I could have destroyed them with some spell or just taken control away from the necromancer, but then we wouldn't be able to have so much fun destroying these things. And there is nothing better than fighting an undead army. Except maybe leading that army.

Well, anyway, now that the fun was over, it was time to visit our mysterious attackers and thank them for giving us this amazing adventure.

I was about to start walking, when I saw that Satine was still fighting. Well, fighting was a wrong word as her opponent was already destroyed. She was sitting on one of the former undead and was hitting it continuously with her fists. She didn't seem to notice that it was no longer moving, completely focused on turning it into dust.

She must have fallen into some sort of battle trance. I knew she was a formidable warrior, especially after seeing her destroy so many undead, so it made sense.

I approached her and put my hand on her shoulder to get her attention. It made her stop in the middle of the punch, fist still hovering in the air. She raised her head, then slowly looked at her raised hand, covered in the remains of her enemies. She was looking at it, as if not recognizing it belonged to her. Then she turned her head to me. We were staring at each other for a minute. I was about to say something when she hurriedly got up from the corpse she was sitting on and started to walk towards the location of our attackers, not even waiting for the rest of us to do the same.

I decided to not say anything. It wouldn't be right to make fun of one of her berserker episodes. Everyone had it once a while. It was completely normal. Still funny though.

After an hour of walking, we reached our target, which appeared to be some sort of village. We weren't able to enter it though, as we were greeted by the sight of numerous zabraks, obviously attuned to the dark side of the force and fully prepared for a fight. Male zabraks, obviously warriors, kept their weapons raised while females, stronger in the force than men and trained in dark sorcery, were gathering energy, ready to cast spells at our group. They were led by the old zabrak woman. She was tall, clothed in an exquisite robe. She emmanated power, obviously powerful in the force and ready to prove it. She was watching me quietly, ready to attack at any sign of aggression.

Fuck, they were so cool. I had to have them!

Deciding my next course of action, I walked to Satine. Before she was able to do anything, I pushed her, making her stand in front of the group, facing zabraks alone.

"Now is your chance to shine, miss diplomat. Convince them to work for me!" I told her happily, deciding to give her something fun to do, so she would be able to relax after a heated battle. She deserved it.

She turned to me. I couldn't see her face under helmet, but I am sure there was a huge smile under it.