Majestic, sleek, fearsome. That was what described the zombie horse standing before Calvartem. The horse stood as tall as the Necromancer, and its darkened eyes had an intelligence to them. The horse's body had been streamlined, augmented with what flesh Calvartem had lying around and repaired to make the hide unbroken. But most terrifying was not its size but its fur. Each hair glowed with darkness, making the horse appear as a slightly fuzzy and really solid shadow. This Construct would be Calvartem's steed, and is capable of travelling at enormous speeds, over 100 km/h, given space to accelerate. It could leap great distances and jump rather high. Being undead, it would not grow weary, and flesh wounds would do little to affect it. Despite being blisteringly fast, the horse would fare little better than any ordinary warhorse in combat, but fighting was not the purpose Calvartem had for it.

"Shadowmane, follow me," Calvartem gestured, as he walked outside. While he had the power to take Shadowmane's essence like Breaker, he had little reason to as he would need Shadowmane for travel. Summoning Shadowmane from essence would also require the body of a horse- the fresher the better- which may be harder to acquire than human corpses.

Outside, any light which struck Shadowmane simply vanished into the darkness, making his coat darker than the blackest black. An imp was waiting outside, which looked up at the horse with what seemed to be fear, although it was hard to tell in the featureless face. The comparison was apparent. Both Shadowmane and the imp had similar colouring, of fire so black it could be a sort of anti-light. However, Shadowmane was far more solid and real than the imp, while the imp was ghostly and transparent. Calvartem waved a mote of darkness to the imp- the gift of speech.

"To the south there is another town, far down the road. It is large. Markets, watchmen, farms, many houses. Even a castle. An invasion may be challenging, as they have trained soldiers. This town appears to be subservient. They may soon notice and send an army," the imp reported.

Calvartem looked around at the town he was in. The effects of the spire were beginning to take their toll on the land, with grass and crops showing signs of whithering. However, Calvartem had to admit that this town was small. There must be more people in this world, with greater settlements. He also saw that a spire would not hold off a dedicated invasion. He needed to move on the offensive before they did, for he was much more suited to offence than defence. Waving away the now-unnecessary imp, Calvartem swung onto the back of Shadowmane and, as if by unspoken command, the horse galloped out of the town, quickly gaining speed travelling south down the road.