“Will they break into my home to murder my loved ones in their sleep? Been there, done that.” Lith’s voice was filled with rage and contempt at those pleas for mercy.
“I would like to taunt the Undead Courts to do their worst, but they already did. I survived their worst and now I’m here to give you a taste of mine!” A two-handed slash of the still-sheathed blade cut the protections asunder, opening a path for the shadow army.
“Fine.” The woman put her hands behind her head and kneeled. “If you want to kill us, do it. But, please, spare our thralls. They are but innocent kids.”
Lith stopped for a moment, raising his right hand and bringing the Demons to a halt as well. The humans among the undead were indeed young. The oldest was around twenty and the youngest couldn’t be more than sixteen.
“Innocent? You mean like my little brother Aran?” The black and white crystals lit up as Lith weaved the tier zero Chaos spell, Bite, and the tier zero Decay spell, Fast Forward, through the angry blade.
The elements were split from their counterparts, generating Chaos and Decay. Lith had used Ragnarök as a buffer, exploiting the Davross’ natural ability to channel the elements and the crystals to boost its effects.
His hope was that by working through the gemstones, the darkness element generated would shield Ragnarök from the Decay and the light from the Chaos. Also, the blade was supposed to in turn shield Lith’s life force from the consequences of failing to contain the Cursed elements.
Only the last part was a success.
Bite took form, moving faster than a bullet and killing the youth in front of his distraught sire. Yet part of the Chaos and the Decay went awry, opening a hole in the blood sheathe and making the Davross sizzle.
“Like my niece Leria? Like my wife and parents?” With each word a new bolt of Chaos and Decay shot from the angry blade, respectively piercing through a thrall and turning them into mummified corpses.
Lith stopped using Mirror magic only when half of Ragnarök’s scabbard was gone. Any more would leave the blade without the life force necessary to employ its abilities. Also, without it, the Davross would take the full brunt of the failed spells.
“Don’t play coy with me. I knew what you were going to do to my family. You deserve the same mercy you would have granted them. None.”
The Korvak jumped up, launching herself at Lith with a mad howl of grief. A lunge of Ragnarök pierced through her armor and heart, turning the undead into ashes.
“Spare none.” Lith said while the Demons resumed their advance.
***
Blood Desert, City of Quyntan, permanent headquarters of the Undead Courts’ War Room.
It was still night in the Blood Desert so the moment the local branch of Derios was attacked, Shelk Whur, Blood Warlock and Destroyer of the Dusk Court, picked up his amulet and demanded a status report.
“What is it now? Did the Kingdom discover our position or is it more infighting?” He asked.
After failing to both kill Lith and kidnap Zinya’s children, what unity was left between the members of the Courts was falling apart. As more and more elders fell into eternal sleep, the surviving undead were unwilling to continue with Shelk’s plan.
The Courts were split from the inside, with the elders wanting to back down to save their lives and the younger undead pushing them forward to secure their own future. Fights were a daily occurrence and if not for the resilience of undead, there would have been lots of casualties.
“It must be another squabble.” Urma the Nightwalker, representative for the Kingdom, sighed. “There have been no movements of troops and assembling enough forces to take a fortress like the Derios branch would hardly go unnoticed.
“We’ve hidden from the humans for centuries and unless one of our own betrays us, there’s no way someone can discover the G-” His reasoning was correct, but his conclusions were wrong.
The Kingdom had no need to assemble a large number of troops because Lith had his own. Someone had indeed revealed the location of the branch and the proof of it was that more and more runes kept disappearing from his communication amulet as he spoke.
“A squabble my undead ass!” Shelk roared as the runes of the members of Derios’ Court faded from his amulet as well. “This is a massacre. Contact whoever is left from Derios and find out what the heck is happening.
“I’ll summon everyone capable of moving during the day and give the mobilization order. There is not a second to lose.”
“There’s no one left to call either.” Urma looked in shock as the contact runes on his amulet grew in size and rearranged themselves.
The death of so many undead had left lots of free space that the enchantments of the amulets were optimizing.
“How is this possible?” Shelk slammed his fist on his mahogany desk, making the wood crack and bend until the enchantments it was imbued with started to fix the damage. “What kind of elite unit can kill so many undead so quickly?
“Even during the day, it takes more than five minutes to break in and slaughter an entire branch!”
“There’s no point arguing the unknown.” The Nightwalker replied. “I’ll activate our network of spies immediately and inform you as soon as I learn something. Whoever is behind this attack, we must make him pay.
“Our kin are already divided. We can’t afford to lose the trust of our supporters. There’s no point in an army with lots of generals and no soldiers willing to follow orders. We must-”
Another alarm started to sound, this time from the branch located in the city of Zaqua, one of the most important trading hubs of the Distar Marquisate.
“Another one?” Shelk couldn’t believe his own ears and eyes.
Now two sirens were blaring and more runes had started to disappear.
“This is ridiculous!” Urma yelled in outrage. “Even the most incompetent idiot in our ranks can’t have missed two armies of mages and soldiers reaching Derios at the same time. Even if the Royals acted covertly, there’s no way to hide so many people!”
“This is not the Royals’ doing.” The Blood Warlock watched the runes fade from his amulet one after another. “This is Verhen. He’s employing the same strategy he used against Thrud to clean his turf.”
The branches of Derios and Zaqua were the closest to Lutia and without them, any further attempt on the Verhen Mansion would have been impossible
“If you are right, then they have no chance without our help.” The Nightwalker replied. “I’ll inform the others and go save as many people as I can. I don’t know if I can do it alone, though. How long will it take for you to arrive?”
“Soon.” Shelk hung up the call and rushed toward the closest Gate.
The Undead’s dimensional network wasn’t as quick as those of the three Great Countries. Each Gate led to a single destination and to connect all the branches between them it would have taken a whole building.
