The situation was dire, there was no hiding from it. Forced to help an abomination to destroy the closest beacon of human civilization, his future certainly looked grim.

His faithful bodyguard had been slain too, and who knew if he would ever be able to bring him back. But now his life was in his new boss's hands, if it even had hands. He had to find a way out of this.

Walking in circles inside what had once been Mountain Glenn's town hall, he tried to regain his calm and think about this fully.

A necromancer could always find a way out. There always was some undiscovered side to magic to be used, a loophole he missed, anything new to add to the equation.

He was a necromancer, cheating death was his profession. This couldn't be that complicated, could it ? There had to be a way to save his body and soul... to bring himself back to life. He knew what he had to do, he just lacked the means to do it. He just lacked his spell book.

As the realization dawned on him, Kieffner began frantically looking around the building, sending papers flying around in his desperate search. Where in the name of gods did he put this damned book !?

Furnitures were being turned around or broken in two in this quest for salvation. Where did he last use it ? He couldn't remember, so many things had happened, his memories felt blurry.

If only his bodyguard had been here, he for one always remembered everything. Kieffner always thought this one was special, ever since he resurrected him... using his manuscript. The cave ! That fucking cave was the key !

Kieffner began a mad dash, quickly exiting the building and soon running on the streets at an unprecedented speed. His body normally wouldn't have been able to support such an effort, but it looked like the recent changes to his internal organs had some positive to it.

He wasn't even out of breath when he reached the cave's entrance, despite it being only a few minutes since he left his lair. His hurry was such that he didn't even think to order his minions to search for the precious book among the debris, and instead started rummaging through those debris himself.

After some time, when his bloodied hand struggled to move and his staff was painted with a mixture of red and grey, he finally found it.

Moving a small rock to the side was enough to render the tome accessible to him. His shaking hand slowly approached the book, before delicately taking it.

Kieffner laid the manuscript down on his knees from his sitting position. Now that his salvation was potentially within hand's reach, he hesitated. A part of him was scared about what it would learn in it. That there wasn't a way out of this, that all this excitement and hope had been for nothing.

He this braced himself before opening the book, and began to skim its content. Page after page he looked for something, anything, to save him. The already dimly lit cave grew darker. The book was nearing its end. And his despair was slowly growing.

He was beginning to resolve to his fate, to accept that there wouldn't be anything here. It was at this moment that something catched his eyes, something that might just get him out of this.

However as he read the page's content, his already pale visage progressively drained of its colors. The realization of the implications, of he what would have to do to escape servitude, it all slowly dawned on him.

To be able to cast the one spell that might save him, he would have to sacrifice almost everything, including his humanity, both literally and figuratively.

The necessary ritual would require a pool of negative energy enough to put Mountain Glenn to shame. Nothing short of the fall of a civilization could birth such a phenomenon.

With a deep sigh Kieffner closed the book and began thinking. Would he be willing to inflict so much pain upon this world that it would create a rift in magic ? And even then, he would have to gamble his very own soul for a chance at cheating death.

Was this really worth it ? His new master would probably force him to do horrible things if he didn't escape its control. It would ask for his assistance in its grand crusade to destroy mankind.

In which scenario would he cause the least amount of deaths and suffering ? Suddenly an idea came to the necromancer, and after re-reading the pages that described the spell he realized that some very important subtlety escaped him. He didn't actually need to be the one creating this rift.

His master was planning to destroy all living beings on this world, and that would undoubtedly create the amount of negativity he needed. However the fact remained that a great deal of people would have to die, which certainly made this plan questionable.

But he hadn't arrived so far by acting selflessly and putting other's lives over his own. Keeping himself alive was undoubtedly more important than saving some random stranger.

The only question that remained was, were would he draw the line ? How many innocents lives were worth his own ? He tried to rationalize it by thinking that most of those unwilling sacrifices would die anyway, so using them wasn't that bad. If he managed to escape his master's clutch he should be able to prevent anyone else's death, he should be able to switch sides on time and end up on the right side of history.

Let it be this way. He will wait, obey, bide his time, and when the time comes, he will make them pay. His thinking was interrupted when he noticed that the small ray of light illuminating the cave suddenly disappeared.

Rising to his feets Kieffner began to head towards the exit. This was probably just another debris that had fallen over the lighting hole. However when the evening sky was made visible to him he realized that the problem was bigger, far, far bigger.

He thought he had seen everything with the airships and giant machines, yet he was once more forced to face his lack of knowledge of this world. Far over him, so far in fact that he couldn't even make out the details on it, floated a massive structure blotting out the sun.

It seemed like it was as far away as Vale, but maybe was just some visual illusion. Taking a better look at it, Kieffner felt that it looked kinda like an arena of some sort.

Light progressively came back as the arena slowly drifted away and towards the nearby city of Vale. The incoming light catched Kieffner off guard and he got temporarily blinded by it. Forced to divert his gaze, it instead landed on a small flying object that seemed minuscule in comparison to the last one.

This new object eventually got near enough for him to recognize it as this world's most common flying vehicles, or bullheads as they called them.

There honestly nothing he or his undeads could do to destroy it in flight, even as it reached his city and began to land. Instead all activity ceased, fires were extinguished, doors were closed, and the city soon became completely silent.

Kieffner himself quickly hid inside a nearby building, inside of which he could observe the new arrivants land in the middle of the street. Three individuals came out of the bullhead and started to look around them. This was feeling eringly similar to his first and last meeting with Velvet's team.

Just as those thoughts crossed his mind he felt his heart skip a beat, causing him to shortly fall to the ground. When he got up and once again stared out the window he saw that the trio had begun to move towards his position, somehow aware that he was there.

Amongst the three intruders he recognized the classy man who had blown his chest open, as well as the woman who held him captive after that, and who seemed to be currently leading the team. The last one was a green-haired woman, with what looked like two pistols hanging on her hips. She was the only one openly armed, the redhead sporting his usual cane, even if it was still damaged from their fight.

They may have been his enemies yesterday, but now they technically were his co-workers or something like that. Knowing that they knew he was there, Kieffner choose to leave his hiding spot to greet the trio.

"Good evening. May I know what you seek in my humble domain ?" Said Kieffner with as much fake politeness as he could muster. "Surely you know that this city isn't exactly safe. It would be a shame if something regrettable happened to you."

The smirk on the group's leader's face only grew larger upon hearing his words. While this made the necromancer feel uneasy, he shook off memories of the last night by reminding himself that this was his territory. His champion might not be there anymore, but he still had a respectably sized army ready to defend him. And that was without taking his own magic into account.

"Oh I am sure you will be able to assure our safety. After all any accident would reflect pretty badly on you. You wouldn't want to disappoint our queen, would you ?"

The thinly veiled threat did little to improve the hostile atmosphere between them. A muffled groan was the only way in which Kieffner dared to answer.

"Well enough beating around the bush. We need this place, as well as your minions."

Kieffner took a deep breath to avoid saying something rash.

"To... To do what exactly ?"

"This city's underground network was once connected with Vale. I have a plan involving using it to destroy our enemies. However this will require to remove all the rubble blocking the way, and quickly. That's where Roman comes in."

The redhead first looked surprised at the sudden invitation to speak, but quickly composed himself and took a step forward.

"For the past few weeks I have been stealing as much dust as I could."

He took a short pause for dramatic effect.

"If this isn't already obvious to you, we're going to blow this shit up."

Kieffner didn't know how to respond. They were going to blow up HIS city, to invade another city. He crossed his arms behind his back to hide his clenched fists as they shaked in anger.

However he had to go with it for now. His life was certainly more important than those caves. Fortresses could be rebuilt, undeads could be brought back to life, but he was only there once.

"I... see. I suppose you need my help to transport all this dust ?"

"Yeah, basically. I just hope your bony friends are more competent than those animals in the White Fang."

Kieffner had long since become used to stop asking questions about things he didn't know. Looking dumb in front of those peoples probably wasn't a good idea as well. The opportunity to learn more would eventually present itself, like it always did.

Despite his efforts his lack of understanding probably showed on his face, judging from the following intervention on the leader's part.

"I guess you're surprised that I managed to make those terrorists work for us. It required some 'aggressive negotiations' but in the end they knew when to submit to the strongest."

This for one could be a good new. Another unwilling participant had been forced to take part in this scheme. It could may a potential ally against his master, he just had to damage the image of strength that the woman before him emitted.

"But enough talking." The woman in question continued.

"The first load should arrive in about ten minutes. Roman will stay here to oversee the operation. I trust you will do your best to accommodate him."

The lady turned around and began to leave before Kieffner even had time to fully comprehend what she said. Accompanied by what he guessed was her bodyguard, she left as quickly as she had arrived.

Now that he was left alone with the man who had tried to kill him yesterday, an awkward atmosphere began to grow. Their respective hostility towards the other was now very apparent to any onlookers, a facade of politeness doing little to hide it.

"Would you like me to show you around ?" Asked the necromancer in an attempt to break the ice.

"I don't believe we have time to do any tourism before the others show up."

Well, at least he tried. The silence continued for around half a minute before Roman broke it.

"I just want to make sure that there's nothing personal about this, or what happened yesterday. I just did what I had to do to stay alive."

"Eh... This feels weird on the part of the guy who attacked me unprovoked."

Roman raised an eyebrow and looked confused for a second.

"You were inside a Bullhead belonging to Beacon, and those guys don't tend to appreciate me very much. It was logical to assume that you were an enemy."

"I mean... you still blew up my heart. God that sounds almost romantic." Said Kieffner with a smile creeping on his face.

"Yeah, you could say I stole your heart." Roman escalated, barely holding back a laugh.

"I felt your touch on my skin and your warmth filled me." Kieffner increased the bid.

This was more than Roman could handle as he bursted into an uncontrolled laughter. A chain reaction ensued which caused Kieffner to join the laughing.

It took a few minutes for the duo to calm down, and by this point the original ten minutes had passed. Roman stared at the sky for a moment, trying to find their reinforcement, only to find nothing on the quickly darkening horizon.

"Those mutts in the White Fang, late as usual. Can't count on them to do anything correctly." Complained Roman.

"You don't seem to like them. What happened between you ?" Asked Kieffner in a bid to glean some information.

"Nothing in particular. We had to work together a few times, and I just can't bear those guys' sheer stupidity. They really must be scraping the barrel to end up with such imbeciles in their ranks."

This approach didn't seem to get him anywhere, it was time to be more direct.

"I'm afraid I don't know a lot about those people, could you help me understand them ? All to facilitate future cooperation of course."

"I may have worked with them but this doesn't mean I know a lot about them, just the usual. A bunch of faunus that got disillusioned by the lack of progress on the issue of equal rights. Now they're basically terrorists."

Terrorists... He heard this word a few times already, and it never sounded very appreciative. They were probably just some kind of rebels.

"Are there things they're good at ?"

"Making things explode I guess. I mean, that's why we need them in the first place."

Suddenly a beeping sound was heard. Roman quickly pulled out his scroll, opened it, and looked at it for a few seconds before putting it away once again.

"They should arrive at any second now." Stated Roman. And truth to his words, the familiar roaring of an airship's engines could soon be heard. Due to the now pitch black sky they were unable to see the arriving airship until the very last second.

Before its motors had time to completely stop Roman headed towards it, meanwhile the necromancer opted to stay in place. Roman was visibly talking to someone inside the vehicle judging from his gesturing. However all he said was drowned by the ruckus coming from the engines.

Eventually those engines quieted at the same time as Roman and his interlocutor. The latter jumped out of the airship, making himself visible to everyone around. It was a tall man, probably around his thirties. His face was hidden by a bone-like white mask, and two horns protruded from his vibrant red hair. At last but not at least, a long sword was hanging on his right hip while the man's right hand rested on the sword's handle.

Kieffner choose this moment to approach what he assumed was the organization's leader. Upon noticing his presence the unknown man stared at the necromancer with a mix of curiosity and mistrust. He took a few steps towards Kieffner, but kept a respectable distance between them.

"I'm Adam Taurus. And you are ?" Asked Adam in a brief tone.

"Kieffner, Kieffner Flemming."

Adam acquiesced with a small nod.

"It's getting late, we should get to work." Suggested Adam after looking at the dark sky.

Reluctantly Kieffner showed them the way through his city, and eventually the underground network itself. During this time he did his best to hide all abnormal activity from them. This took the form of having his minions hurriedly fill some tunnels with rubble, small stones, and other debris.

Roman and Adam may eventually come handy when he decided to break free from his boss, but in the meantime he wasn't taking any risk. The full strength of his army was an information unknown to anyone but him, and he will have it stay that way for as long as possible.

Adam had brought a few goons with him, and Roman's comments about them was made evident the moment they began to unload the initial dust shipment. In an impressive display of unprofessionalism they spent most of their time joking around, all while handling a highly explosive material. It was honestly a miracle that no one died on the way.

Discomfort was apparent on the White Fang leader's face, the source of which was probably being surrounded by either humans or undeads. Despite those difficulties they eventually managed to find the place they were looking for.

Roman explained to them that it had been an old railway liking Mountain Glenn with Vale, while staying in the undergrounds' relative safety. A train was still sitting there, almost ready to be used. However the main issue was the tunnel itself.

A massive amount of rubble was blocking the way, and apparently this wall of debris wasn't the only one on the way.

The goons immediately got to work, soon assisted by a bunch of just as clumsy skeletons. Not quite knowing what to do, Kieffner approached Adam and tried to strike a conversation.

"This looks like it will take a while."

"Time is not an issue for me." Adam replied curtly.

"Does anyone even know what's the point of all this ? Why they want to destroy Vale ?" Asked Roman.

A few seconds passed before Adam proposed an answer.

"I don't know. I don't think anyone but them knows."

"But what I know, is that one day this is gonna end, wether through success or failure. And then, what will happen to us ?"

Silence dropped upon the group. Everyone knew the answer, yet no one dared to say it out loud. To do so would be to accept that they wouldn't be needed anymore, and they could all guess how their boss dealt with useless pawns.

This was the time. They were alone, minus the few White Fang goons currently busy trying not to kill themselves. However he still had to remain subtle, be it only to be able to deflect potential accusations.

"I believe something might be done to improve our condition." Began Kieffner, expressively remaining vague.

The two others turned to look at him, an indescriptible mix of various emotions showing on their faces.

"It would be wise to join our forces and cooperate, so that when this is all over, we will still have enough worth left."

"My dear necromancer, you had my curiosity, but now you have my attention." Said Roman.

"I have a mean, to get rid of my 'unfortunate body condition'. However, it will necessitate that we follow our master's plan. Once I have guaranteed myself some autonomy, I will be able to bring the full force of my army to bear."

"And what's our part in all of this ?" Inquired Adam.

"As you probably know, I am not what you could call a powerful fighter. We will need you to make sure that our enemies won't bother us ever again, in a definitive way if you see what I mean."

"And for Roman, well I hope you don't feel insulted, but we will mainly need your acolyte. She should be able to help us leave what's left of Vale without anyone knowing."

Roman let out a sigh, straightened himself with the help of his cane, and resolutely answered.

"I guess that's understandable. I've long since gotten used to that my peculiar set of skills is only useful in peculiar situation. But there's one point that I felt lacking in this plan of yours. Once we've gotten away from Vale, and got rid of our immediate problem, where are we supposed to go ?"

"I was thinking to simply hold out here, that what my army's for."

"And for how long ? How long are we supposed to stay here while the world is burning ?"

"He's making a point here." Interjected Adam. "I can't afford to abandon my people. Who knows what kind of retribution she might put upon them to punish me."

"Fine ! I was just proposing something. If you want to venture on your own, just do it. I'm not holding any of you back, but don't expect me to protect you if you're on the other side of the world." Kieffner was almost yelling by this point.

"Couldn't you simply resurrect those who will die in Vale ?" Asked Roman, who was the only one to have kept his calm.

"No, it doesn't work like that. I don't expect you to understand the finer parts of my art, just know that I can't always do everything. Many factors come into play, and what is possible today, may not be possible tomorrow."

"I won't risk overstretching my forces. However, if only some amount of dust could be lost around here, who knows what could change." Suggested Kieffner, hoping the thief would get the hint.

Roman scratched his neck for a moment. After a few seconds he took off his hat and began unconsciously cleaning it with an inexistent tissue.

"I... I guess sometimes material is lost. I mean there's nothing I can do to prevent this, it just happens like that. I'm not at fault if anyone finds it or something." He put his hat on once again, and continued in a slightly less nervous tone.

"You can count me in."

Both Kieffner and Roman now turned their heads towards Adam, waiting for his answer. But Adam wasn't looking at them, his gaze was on his underlings. Despite all uncertainties, they still followed him through the gates of hell, and would undoubtedly do so again, for this he was incredibly thankful. They were his people, what he was fighting for, and more importantly, what he had to protect.

His hands raised to his mask, the symbol of his people's humiliation. If an human kingdom in less was the cost of restoring faunus pride, then so be it. Given enough time the saved would outweigh the deaths, and history would remember him as someone willing to do what was necessary.

"Many people will die. We will be seen as villains for the remainder of our lives. Our chances of success are small... What are we waiting for ?"

They shall be the fellowship of the ring.

2 decades old references aside, I'm back with another chapter, like usual. It seems like I really can't keep this weekly update schedule I set some time ago.

On another note, probably the most important exams of my life are tomorrow, so I'm publishing this chapter before hanging myself after taking them. Tbh it should be a piece of cake, it's just that my parents have put very high expectations on me. Just a little bit of added stress you see.

To return to this fic, I feel like I'm maybe going too fast with it. I don't really know if I should worry about it. Maybe I should add some exterior POVs to add some flavor to the consequences of my MC's actions. Maybe just spend half my chapters going into ridiculously precise details about the apparence of my MC's chair.

Anyway, thank you for reading this fic, leave a review if you want to, and until next time.