Chapter 4 Raise Them

Rhen scrambled backward, heart slamming against his ribs. "Stay back! Who are you? What are you?"

The soldier rose unsteadily, joints cracking like old hinges. Blood still leaked from the massive wound across his torso, but he moved anyway. His eyes, cloudy yet focused, locked onto Rhen. "Captain... it's me, Garrick. Why does it still hurt? I died. I felt myself die. But I'm still screaming inside."

"Garrick?" Rhen's voice cracked. He remembered the man, solid spearman, always complaining about the rations but never missing a watch. "Gods, sit down. Don't move. This isn't right."

[Claim the battlefield,] the System flashed coldly in his vision. [Raise the fallen. Command them.]

"I said no!" Rhen shouted at the empty air, then turned back to Garrick. "What do you mean you're still screaming? Talk to me."

Garrick's head twitched. He took a shaky step closer, leaving a trail of dark blood. "It won't stop, Captain. The Light... it keeps pulling. Like hooks in my chest. I can hear the others too. All of us. Trapped. Hurting." His voice dropped to a broken whisper. "Why did you leave us there?"

The words hit Rhen like a spear to the gut. He staggered, grabbing his own head. "I didn't leave you! I fought! I tried to reach Aldric, I held him while he..." His throat closed up. Tears burned hot down his filthy cheeks.

[Emotional resistance suboptimal. Claiming grants purpose. Raises loyalty protocols. They suffer without command.]

"Shut your mouth!" Rhen snarled at the interface. He stepped toward Garrick, hands outstretched but hesitant to touch. "Garrick, listen. If I leave you like this... what happens?"

The dead soldier's face twisted. "We stay here. Feeling it. Over and over. The burning. The pulling. Captain, you always said we'd never leave a brother behind. Never."

Rhen dropped to one knee, fists buried in the mud. Around him, more faint sounds started. Twitches. Soft groans. Fingers scraping against armor. The field was waking up, piece by piece, and every small movement drove the knife deeper.

"I can't do this," he whispered. "Turning you into... monsters? Using your bodies for my revenge? That's not honor. That's worse than what they did."

Garrick knelt slowly in front of him, stiff and unnatural. "It already hurts worse than dying, sir. At least give us purpose. Let us follow you again. Even like this." His cloudy eyes seemed to plead. "Don't abandon us twice."

Rhen's breath came in short, painful gasps. He looked around at the sea of warm bodies beginning to stir. Tomas. Mira. Jarek. Aldric. All of them trapped, aware, suffering because he survived.

[Command required. Raise legion. Rebuild.]

"Damn you," Rhen muttered, but this time it wasn't clear who he meant. The System. The king. The Light. Himself. "You were my family. I was supposed to protect you."

He pushed to his feet, legs shaking. Garrick stayed on his knees, watching. Waiting. More bodies shifted nearby. A low collective moan rose, hundreds of voices overlapping in quiet agony.

Rhen walked a few steps, then turned back. "If I do this... you follow my orders? No matter what?"

"Yes, Captain," Garrick answered immediately. "We always did. We still will."

Rhen swallowed hard. His hands clenched and unclenched. The grief sat like a stone in his chest, crushing everything else. Morality, horror, disgust, all of it drowned under the weight of their pain and his failure.

He raised his head to the blood-red sky.

"System," he said, voice rough and low. "I claim this battlefield."

[Territory claimed. Undead legion protocol activated.]

Rhen closed his eyes for one heartbeat. Then opened them.

"Raise them."

The command left his lips and the field answered.

Every single body surged upward at once. Hundreds. Thousands. The sound was horrifying, wet flesh tearing free from mud, armor clanking, bones popping back into place. They rose in eerie unison, turning toward him with jerky but purposeful movements. Faces he knew. Faces he loved. All of them staring at him with dead eyes that somehow still held recognition.

For one brief moment, silence fell.

Then the memories hit.

A thousand dying screams exploded inside Rhen's skull at the same time. Phantom pain ripped through his body as he felt every wound, every betrayal, every final terrified thought. Tomas's fear for his mother. Mira's rage at the blocked retreat. Jarek's bitter curse at the king. Aldric's last words about his sister. They all poured into him at once, raw and endless.

Rhen dropped to both knees, clutching his head, mouth open in a silent scream. His vision flashed with their final moments. The Light. The pulling. The endless pain.

Every single one of them died again inside him.