What's this? What's this?What's this there's chapters everywhere.What's this? We have extra words to spare!What's this? I 't believe my eyesI must be dreaming, wake up, Author, this isn't fair!What's this?

  - Danny Elfman after he reads all my bonus chapters (probably)

  Merry Christmas everyohanks for reading. Enjoy the bonus chapter. There will still be one more on for the week on Sunday, per the new schedule.

  The first thing Tenebroum did when it was in full trol of the dungeon was to add another o the great ring that bound it. This was not something that it did lightly, and rather than inscribe the name of Malzekeen on the inner ring, in the primary circuit that ted the Lich as the owner of this pce, it would be carved oside wall. In theory, that would form a barrier that would bar that creature from ever re-entering this pbsp;

  It didn’t matter that the awful chimera no longer had a hold on Tenebroum’s soul. It would not risk a sed enter when the first had cost it so much. The Lich was just grateful that despite the temptation, it had devoured her Groshian nor the Wolf. Su experiment would have tai forever, and the Worm would have devoured it pletely in those terrible mihat it had used its bond to drain Tenebroum of power and knowledge.

  Still, just because this was about a single name didn’t mean that this ge was not a simple thing that involved only a few letters and could be done in a day. It would take drudges, chisels, and hammers weeks to plete, given the number of symbols involved and how that would affect other existing entments. It would be worth it, though, and so it rioritized over all the other carving that would o be doerward.

  Such a measure was not foolproof, and the Lich was under no illusions that it was. Should that misbegotten chimera break bato its po parts, then they would be able to bypass the wards. Likewise, this measure was not likely to bar any structs or servants the God might create, but Tenebroum wasn’t too ed about that. This was something it had sidered in the case of Siddrim and even Lunaris. However, in the former case, doing so would have disabled the very trap it meant to y, and ier case, it decided that she was uo ever pay him a personal visit.

  Malzekeen, though. It would return. It would wait for the Lich to grow strong, and then it would e bad feast on his strength. It had to, given the desote state of the region.

  Tenebroum did not believe that the beast had a secret key into its soul any longer, but it was unwilling to take the risk, s it pletely was the first order of business. While its drudges sved away, once again perfectly in synch with their master, it could tio pn more plex ws.

  For ck of living mages to torture and kill, it decided to tinue and, indeed, increase the produ of inferior phycteries. However, instead of doing that another dozen or two times, it po do so with every mage that yet remained in its library. It would have liked to create one for every te along the main el of its inner ring, but it cked the heads for that. The great wheel that defi was more than half a mile wide, and it only had just under a hundred mage heads, so it would make do with something closer to fifty feet.

  The precise measurements didn’t matter, only the scale of the thing. It could alter the locations with the nature of the spell to achieve any desired result.

  For so long, the Lich had been bound to a single point, swelling with power. It had never noticed just how strig that vessel had bee or how fi had felt. It had been a serpent in desperate o molt, but it had never questios circumstahese events showed it a fact that it had never questioned. It had simply accepted that its heart was an inviote thing and that it could never be touched. It knew differently now. Albrecht had been a powerful part of its hoard for so long, and even now, it was missed, but growth was alainful.

  Looking back, Tenebroum realized how little it had grown si struck down Siddrim. It had stopped growing, and instead, it had growhing but its own soul. Its nds, armies, and servants had grown in power, but it had remaiagnant. It had accepted its s and spent its time w on toys and trifles. It seemed like the right move at the moment, but irospect, it was a colossal waste. It didn’t need a better, more well-designed body to beat the God or the oer that; it o bee a being of unlimited power, and it had a pn for exactly that.

  That will ge, the Lich promised itself. I only wish that filth’s presence had not required me to think bigger.

  The pn was simple. The Lich had already cimed this pce. It owhis bedrod the nd above it as much as anything could be owned. It owhe dark heart of Bckwater more than Oroza had ever owned her river, and now it was going to turire thing into a phyctery.

  It was su audacious pn. If some od had spoken of such a thing, the Lich would have ughed. Siddrim certainly could have done such a thing if he hadn’t lived a life in stant pursuit of vanity, which sisted of building ever more meaniemples instead of works of are might. Even the All-Father could have built something like this if dwarves hadn’t eschewed magibsp;

  In fact, as the pns blossomed like a dark flower, the Lich thought that more and more that it might be the shattered remnants of the dwarven God’s soul might be to bme in part. The All-Father had certainly inspired it to think bigger every bit as much as the sundering of its phyctery had. It was obvious in so many things. Not only were fual parts of its architecture ging as a result. Now, its lines were more precise, and its artifice was more careful.

  The fewights were very slowly repairing the existing soul web, but more than that, they were repg it one piece at a time with something that could handle more energy. The gilded baroque spiderweb would extend ever further from the ter of its ir to the outer ring, where it would be fused with yet more are talismans when it reached that distant pce, and everywhere its minio, they ed up the mess that had been made.

  Truthfully, the mess was worse than it had feared. For a long time, Tenebroum had kept this pce at a minimum of staffing with undead drudges as the majority of its armies were created in stantinal. That was ing back to haunt it now.

  It was more than just the structs that Tenebroum had designed for its owhat were damaged or destroyed. Half of the drudges that it normally used to carry out the menial funs of the ir, such as gathering fuel or ing, had beeroyed in the havod many of those that existed in pieces would not be rebuilt because they bore marks that indicated the Worm’s toubsp;

  There were parts to struct a few more, of course, but the majority of the repts would e from the bodies of the dead priests and acolytes that had served Tenebroum faithfully for so long. For now, they would not be embalmed because time was of the essence, but that could be done aime ohe stone carving was plete and the wreckage of battle was ed up.

  Ohe dead acolytes were put to work, walls were quickly repced with brick where necessary, and new paths were created. Even its byrinth was to be part of the Lich’s giant phyctery now. The twisted passages would no longer simply fun as a hideously plex defense. Instead, the whole thing would bee a singur multi-yered rune of suplexity that Tenebroum needed dozens of minds and thousands of souls to hold it in its mind’s eye.

  To what end? Well, it had some thoughts there, but now was not the time to focus oure. Tenebroum was hyper-focused on the now. It sent off all of its remaining bck birds to search for The Queen of Thorns and the Voice of Reason. Krulm’venor was in the depths and well out of reach, and its Dark Paragons were hopefully tinuing its war in the far north. Only so much was within its new, more limited reach, but the Lich would find its servants and make certain they uood that they had not bee off their leashes.

  Ohat was do focused on the rgest unexploited resource that yet remaihe bones of Siddrim himself. For a very long time, they had sat there in the dark as the main decoration of a hideous crater where he’d crashed from the heavens.

  The remains were dozens of feet long, marking the Lord of Light as a true giant. There was a time When Tenebroum had po armor the upper torso, fill it with troops, and turn the skull into a terrible sort of fortress before sending it against Rahkin or whatever other city dared to resist it. It could only imagihe thing’s giant arms pulling the monstrosity across open ground, traveling dozens of miles every day.

  With everything else that had happeenebroum was gd those pns had never happened because now the remains would be used for something else. The massive amount of essen those bones would be used to catalyze the great new spell it nning to plete this transformation. The st time it had attempted this, there had been thousands of peasants in and around Bckwater who had fueled its dark transformation with their lifeblood. Now, this was a lifeless pce, but some kind of lifelessness was still quite powerful. This was not the first grave the Lich had robbed, but it would be the most powerful, and the Lich would grind those bones until they were nothing and fill the blood els around the rim so that wheime came, it would have enough fuel to start this terrifying engine.

  That su uaking would take months, or perhaps even years, did not it. Such a task could be pleted even while it fought the wars it had already started. All it needed was to reect with its distant lieutenants and warn them about the hreat of Malkezeen, and all would be right with the world once more.