"Hmm, something like this will do."
Having finished the spell, I lowered my arms.
Before me stood a mountain of ice.
It loomed like it was shouldering aside the buildings of the Imperial Capital.
I focused on the area near its summit.
A human figure was trapped within the ice.
It was Dolda, holding an axe.
Dolda was frozen stiff, unable to move.
I could hear faint groans.
He still seemed to be conscious.
Having become undead, he could still function in such a state.
The battle against Dolda, who had become a dullahan, ended in no time at all.
It was true that Dolda possessed formidable strength.
He had skillfully wielded a body reinforcement and thunder magic with higher output than in life, all with the slight remnants of his will.
Becoming undead had removed the need to consider physical strain, and his pure physical strength had increased.
Even injuries that would be fatal to a human, he could move about with indifference.
Compared to his living self, he was an even more formidable opponent.
But in the end, he was just an undead.
Even if he didn't obey orders, he was still under my control.
For one who possessed the authority of the Valley of the Dead, he was an opponent I should have no trouble with.
Since I know his fighting methods as well, all that remains is to methodically corner him with magic.
There is no way I could lose.
I slice just the section containing Dolda from the ice mountain and shift it before me.
He is strangely docile, with no hint of hostility.
Perhaps two defeats have forced him to accept a master-servant relationship.
Good, it would be troublesome if he remained defiant forever.
I do not intend to kill Dolda; I will bring him back to the Royal Capital just as he is.
Though lacking in reason and unfit for command, he is undeniably a powerful asset.
If I charge him into enemy ranks, he should perform splendidly.
I return to the Royal Capital with Dolda and the other undead.
The newly added undead are stored in an unused district of the capital.
Taking only the frozen Dolda, I head for the castle.
There, Grom, sensing my return, immediately comes out to greet me.
"My Lord! Welcome back, sir—?"
Grom freezes mid-sentence.
He is staring intently at Dolda behind me.
Then he begins to tremble violently.
For some reason, he appears deeply shaken.
Grom composes himself with a gesture like clearing his throat.
"…That frozen undead… just who is he?"
" He's the man they call 'Thunderbolt Dolda'—an Imperial general. He bonded with my miasma and became a dullahan."
"Ah, is that so..."
Grom's voice was wavering.
He truly was acting strange.
Could he be unwell? It seemed unlikely for an undead to fall into such a state, but Grom had been born through extraordinary means.
Perhaps there were symptoms unique to him alone.
"Wait—are you saying he's *that* Thunderbolt!?"
A startled voice rang out from beyond.
It belonged to Luciana, who had launched herself from a castle window. She glided down and landed before us, then began patting the frozen Dolda all over.
"Luciana, you knew him?"
"Of course I did. When I served the previous Demon Lord, Dolda's pirate fleet gave me no end of grief. They'd plunder and pillage without a second thought, even against demon folk."
Luciana sighed and shrugged her shoulders.
She was probably recalling those hard times. Even without allegiance to any nation, the fleet Dolda commanded had wielded formidable power. I'd known they'd given even the demon folk trouble, but hearing it spoken aloud like this—the weight in her words was palpable.
"I always thought he was the sort who couldn't be killed no matter what, but I guess he met his match. So, does he still have any consciousness left?"
"More or less. Fragments of it, at least."
I nodded as I answered.
Dolda's act of seeking heads had a clear purpose behind it.
Without self-awareness, it would have become a mindless wanderer like any other undead.
There was no reason for it to disobey my commands in the first place.
I released the ice binding.
The ice melted rapidly, and Dolda emerged from within.
As a precaution, I had placed multiple magical seals using several forbidden spells.
There was no visible change in appearance, but any attempt to cast a spell would cause the contained mana and miasma to dissipate.
With this, Dolda could not exert its true power.
Its combat ability had fallen to that of a common undead.
There was no possibility of it running wild.
"Head... my head..."
Dolda murmured vacantly.
It was indeed calmer than just before the battle.
Somehow, it seemed to have its shoulders slumped in dejection.
At that moment, the head it was carrying tumbled off.
Dolda, now headless, fell silent immediately.
Luciana picked up the severed head and placed it back in position. The blue eyes lit up.
Then the mouth began to move.
"Where... give me... the head..."
"Perhaps you cannot speak without your head?"
"It would appear so."
The vocal mechanisms of the undead remained shrouded in mystery.
There existed those, like myself or Grom, who could converse with only bones.
The ecology of a dullahan was unknown, yet they seemed to possess similarly strange properties.
"Mmm, having a sentient undead underling makes my position feel uncomfortably overlapped..."
Grom, his back turned to me, was muttering in a low grumble.
He appeared to be worried about something.
His recent odd behavior might stem from that very concern.
"Grom, are you alright?"
"Y-yes! I am always in peak condition! As you can see, I am brimming with vitality!"
At the sound of my voice, Grom straightened into a rigid posture to reply.
The flame in his single eye blazed fiercely.
Seeing this, Luciana smiled with a hint of mockery.
"...An undead claiming to be 'brimming with vitality'—what a tremendous joke. It's hysterical."
Mocked, Grom was enveloped in a dark, murderous aura.
He drifted a miasma of miasma as he closed in on Luciana.
"Are you making fun of me again, little girl? It would be no trouble to sew that extra mouth of yours shut, you know."
"Oh my, how frightening. Help me, Demon Lord!"
Luciana pretended to be scared, deliberately overdoing it.
She clung to my arm with glee.
"Release her at once! Don't you dare touch the Lord Demon King with those filthy hands!"
Grom scrambled to pull Luciana away in a panic.
Luciana shook her head in refusal.
It was an exchange that played out daily.
Now it was merely a familiar dance of bickering.
(Well then, shall we proceed to the Demon King's army awaiting orders?)
I mused, putting the two executives aside.
The conflict with the Empire could be considered effectively concluded for the time being.
Aftermath procedures were already underway.
Though an unexpected situation had arisen in the Imperial Capital, we suffered no losses.
With the addition of the formidable fighting force that was Dolda, we could reclaim the territory we had invaded.
The results were more than satisfactory.
"Good grief... to think I've become involved with such an outrageous being."
A weary voice came from behind.
I turned instinctively.
"Where is... my head..."
Dolda muttered in a hollow tone.
He repeated the same words endlessly.
It was by no means an act.
Yet, he lucubrated with fluent ease. (Had his pre-mortem consciousness resurfaced for but an instant?) To regain sanity in this state—what an iron-clad mind this human possessed, truly.