Wholly Undead

No matter how much the three consorts continued to ask, Jack would not elaborate about having lungs previous or flesh in general. Leslie knew that Jack's younger body was a skeleton before he took on his current body, also a skeleton, before whatever grand and terrifying magic twisted it into his current half living body...

So at what point did he have lungs...?

*******

As Jack approached the large double doors of the Court leading to the outside of the Holy Palace, the doors opened with his intentions. Passing through the threshold, Jack was followed by his three consorts, Leslie, Emily, and Eris, along with his first Militus Obitus, Obitus Tornface.

Jack stood at the first step leading down to the courtyard which housed the monument of shame, a pile of skulls and heads of the slain corrupted officials.

Inhaling deeply, Jack released another sigh, "Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa~"

Leslie frowned, as Jack's common sigh had no taken on another cryptic note...

[I'm going to grill him later...] Leslie thought to herself, as she gazed upon his broad back.

Jack turned his head to look over his shoulder, "Let's meet My forces..."

He then held out his arms to his sides with his palms facing upward, as he began to ascend into the air. Soon a force surrounded the three consorts and Obitus Tornface, as they started to rise into the air.

Leslie was surprised but felt accustomed to the sensation of floating in her Banshee form. Eris had experience at being able to fly, though her ability to do so was gifted and limited in duration. She let the force do with her as it pleased, as she smiled softly behind Jack.

"What the hell?!" Emily flailed in the air as she tumbled.

"I've got you," Jack spoke with his back to them as the party gained altitude.

"...Please let me know when you are going to do such things again..."

"My sweetest ghouly girl, you're also a god, so I expect soon you should be able to fly, as well... But... I can't promise I will tell you before sweeping you off your feet, in the future." Jack spoke with a touch of humor and softness from his cold voice adding a paradoxical tone to his words.

"..." Emily blushed as eyes darted away from Jack's back, but Leslie noticed the edges of Emily's mouth curved upward ever so slightly.

Obitus Tornface remained quiet through the process, as he dealt with his own issues. The feeling of floating was lost on him in the face of his torment, as he remained conscious.

Heading to the north of the City and with a bat's eye view, Jack and his consorts were able to see the formations of the Legions outside of Saigunrai.

Jack could make out, in the dim light of the Underworld, five columns of warriors standing proudly among the Underwheat fields. This was Jack's first real glimpse at the surrounding farmlands of Saigunrai.

Not that he hadn't seen them, but never before had he paid close attention. In the twilight of the Glowstone torches, he saw these crops withered. Searching his mind as chaotic as it had become, a stale memory surfaced from some far-flung corner of his brain... This Underwheat only grew near places of light. Next to lava flows, volcanoes, glowstone, glowmoss, and... The Skull of the Sun God.

Jack shook his head. He felt the skull was more than just a symbol. It was the lively hood and source of food for his people that required it. After this campaign, it would be time to collect it, as he had promised so long ago!

Searching the Legions over, he found at the head of the columns was a make-shift platform. Jack descended to that platform, where surrounding it stood familiar faces.

Landing upon the rotten wood planks, they squealed as they bowed under the weight of the God-King and his Consorts.

"Our fearless leader finally graces us with his presence..." Mark adjusted his monocle, as it glinted in the light of the Glowstone torches that let the area.

"...So, I do..." Jack grimly smiled at Mark who stood below the platform.

Many hissing sounds echoed within the skull of Mark, as Joan slithered up behind Mark, as she whispered to Mark, "Don't think I don't realize how powerful you are... Even if you were a god, yourself, I'll break your bones and wed your spouse... F.u.c.k with my God, and find out... Test me, boy... Please test me."

It seemed Joan's voice almost pleaded with Mark.

Mark dusted his vestments, as he spoke, "It's quite alright, for you to think such. I only ask that my wife be taken care of..."

"Oh???" Joan was caught slightly off guard by Mark's comment, she whispered back, "If you choose not to antagonize my god, I can see We can be friends, boy." Joan patted Mark gently on the back, as she turned and sauntered back to Julia Verruca, now General, of the Warbreakers.

[The Butcherer indeed unlives to the stories of old.] Mark thought within his mind as he calculated his next move.

This show played out before Jack and his Consorts. Jack nodded slightly, while Leslie frowned.

"Oh mightly "God-King," why don't you enlighten those of us who are less knowledgeable... How is it that We will save this daughter of death in three days if We are to move armies?" Mark finally commented, after adjusting his mental state.

Jack raised his brow, ever so slightly, "That's true... Normally that would be an issue of extreme inconvenience. Until I have developed a new method, my memories of the distant past will serve me. It seems that part of them have returned with this flesh I was gifted." Jack looked down at his hands, as he flexed them.

Many of the audience, Consorts included, wanted to know what this meant exactly, but they choose to remain silent.

"Many here may know of the distant past's "Lich King." It was said that he had his Sorcerors build terrible and horrific engines of destruction that defied the ground and soar through the endless night of the Underworld and even into the distant Overworld."

Many nodded in the audience, while Mark snorted in discontentment.

"I tell you this because only one such engine survived his fall. It was buried in these very lands under the feet of those that continued their unlives in solace, no longer afflicted by his malicious intent for revenge and anger... His purposes are irrelevant, but what is relevant is that this engine has one last flight left within it."

Uncontent to stay silent any longer, Mark voiced his feelings, "Many historians believe this tell! I, chief among them, have searched for the relics of the Lich King, and know for a fact it isn't here!"

Jack turned to face Mark, as he looked down on top of his skull from his platform, "You let your passions grow wild, Former-Marquis Mark... How... Unlike you. Well, be that as it may, dear friend. Let me ask you... Do you think my father was so stupid as to build a city on top of a floating fortress???"

"..." Mark folded his arms, and many of the Legions grew restless. Leslie inquisitively gazed upon Jack's back. Emily took heard many stories of the Lich King and listened with great intent. Eris savored the taste that lingered upon her tongue of her god... She wondered how long it would be before she could slake her thirst for his blood again.

Jack turned again to face the north, closing his eyes, as he attempted to remember the long past. He, for some forsaken reason, knew that the knowledge of this floating fortress was available to his mind through the fleshy parts of his brain. How this worked, he didn't understand, but he wanted to ask Yoggi... Or more specifically his wife, Shub.

Jack massaged his left temple, as the memories flashed in fragments within his mind as if he was excavating some long-buried treasure or better said best-forgotten curse.

His eyes flashed open, as he raised his right palm to the darkened roof of the Underworld, "X GWE KIRT O' DEAGOTH XOYARD MOU GO NISE!!! RISE FLOATING FORTRESS: LAST KISS!!!"

"CRACK"

The Underworld rumbled, as the ground shuddered. The Warmarshals, the Consorts, Mark, the Clergy, and the Legions of Deagoth looked to their right to the north, as they attempted to keep their balance as the land g.r.o.a.n.e.d in protest.

It was at this time, that the crowning spires of the floating fortress, Last Kiss, the legacy of the Lich King, pierced the ground and began it's rise into the eternal night of the Underworld, heeding the call of its master once more.