Asheron's Fall: The Power of Ten, Book Six

“I believe the shades under Bael’Zharon were, too,” Princess Kristie said thoughtfully. “I’m sure they noticed any forces of that size moving in the Direlands, and probably have sent someone to observe… especially if it concerns the Halls.”

I just nodded. “I will make a passage to the surface from here, exiting at a safe distance, and scan the area before making any moves.” I could almost feel the Rose of Celdon on my finger itching to display its power.

“At your discretion,” Briggs nodded, completely confident in my ability to handle the undead or a group of non-Tou Tou shades.

-------

I came out on the side of the peak to the north of the Halls, about fifty feet above the ground and so well beyond mundane abilities to reach me, if not from spells.

Kris was right. There were more than the Dericost undead here.

I didn’t see any shades, but they could have been watching from the distance, around the ridgelines, and I was fairly sure they were. Still, a thousand each Undead, Skeletons, and Mu-miyahs had gathered around the Halls, the latter two backing up the first one, which I found kind of interesting. Normally, both types were considered lesser creatures to the Dericostan Undead, and should have been spearheading the assault while they waited behind to assist with magic.

Yet there was not a mu-miyah or skeleton within fifty yards of the Halls proper, which was passing strange.

An Illusionary Wall covered the passage I’d made, while Improved Invisibility and Flight did their things for me. I didn’t expect them to cover me too much while the fighting went on, but for getting into position for a surprise attack, it was fine.

I reflected that if Gareana was the source for this attack, there was a small problem in that he didn’t know who we were, or what we were actually capable of. In particular, I hadn’t shown anything but the most bog standard support mage magic anywhere he could see me.

So, these undead had been sent out without knowing that I was present.

The fighting men of our forces knew better than to talk wildly about what we were capable of magically, but there was equally no doubt that the Undead had spies among us who passed on tidbits of who and what was happening, and stories had a way of spreading.

The Undead leadership might know how utterly devastating I was against undead, but more likely they would consider what I had done just outgrowths of the company I’d been keeping, and that Kris and Briggs, two very unknown factors, were incredibly dangerous against their kind.

That was true, and the men had been instructed not to boast about me and what I could do, taking the credit for themselves and their comrades to puff up their reps against the undead.

The fact that with the Lost Light in their Weapons they could Infuse in Undead, Shade, and Skeleton Slayers also meant they were indeed going to be very dangerous against the undead.

Briggs and Kris were waiting behind a very thin stone facade at ground level, ready to charge out once I got rid of the chaff.

Eighty percent Summons again, predominantly the weaker sorts. Well enough, they wouldn’t be coming back to serve, any more than the real walking corpses would. Vivus was going to take them all.

I led off with the Interdiction, snapping out a big sphere of No-Dimensional-Hijinks-You-Rotters. The Undead and their minions couldn’t Teleport around willy-nilly nor erect Portals anymore, but they were definitely still capable of tying to a position of magical significance and Recalling to it and away from us in an emergency.

No, I wasn’t letting any of them get away today.

I opened my Masspack, and with Minor TK lifted out a bag of vials of Holy Water, ready to use them to power all of my spells.

Contrary to normal Summons, these undead had all engaged in some protective Buffing, particularly against fire.

I doubted they had anything to protect against Sanctified Acid, i.e. Holy Water damage.

My Arakne Arms folded out from my hips, grabbed the first two vials, and I let fly.

I was coming in behind a regiment of skeletons, who had divided up into four sections, inter-spaced with the mu-miyah. So, 250 of them. Paired Shards + Fastcast Shards, 13 each, Chaining to an additional 25, was just under one thousand different targets.

The Shards went out, blew into the rear of the motionlessly, endlessly patient undead there, and sliced through them like water through dust.

The skeletons and two regiments of mu-miyah basically sloughed off into Burning, misting goo as the Kickers did their things. Then all the Shards converged on the one unit of undead and repeated the fun for their bosses before petering out, leaving only a bare handful of stunned and surprised Undead unaffected.

I shifted sideways as the whole ambushing force turned in shock, seeing their comrades Burning, dissolving, eaten away by energies they had no resistance against whatsoever.

Then the second salvo came out, these ones Paired Admixtured and Fastcast Paired, i.e. six sets of Shards.

Briggs burst through the stone covering and led the charge of the new Knights of the Lost Light down into the flank of the undead, who were all looking the wrong way as over half of their numbers had been obliterated.

There was one regiment of each type that still was untouched, shocked and uncertain of what to do as their comrades screamed and melted away in Burning goo all around them. My last salvo reached them just ahead of Briggs and the others, clearing away all the chaff and leaving the most powerful of them, who hadn’t died to the magic, for the tender mercies of the Lost Light.

Of which there was none, of course.

-------

“'Ware magic!” a startled voice called out, a spot rapidly clearing in the numbers of the Knights who were playing clean-up. There were a lot of Elemental Weapons and moderately enchanted Armor to be claimed from the silty ooze and dusted remains of the ‘real’ members of this fighting force, and the men had been energetically heaping them onto Disks to start the process of breaking them down.

Now they were backing away from a swirling phantom that was gathering together in their midst, their newly blessed Blades out and pointed as the image resolved into that of a well-preserved female corpse, even having rather shockingly red hair and fairly smooth skin, although her eyes were still the black orbs and chilling white lights of the Undead.

Before she could speak, the Mick piped up, “Bless my soul an’ call me a shreth, if it ain’t the dear Lady Aerefalle herself, come t’ check up on her minions an’ see how they are doing. How’re ye been doing, yer luvverly undeadness? I think ye’ve added a couple furrows since the last time I saw ye down there under yer palace.”

Naturally she spun around on him, her placid face showing the beginnings of irritation as she stared at him.

“One of the rats who came scavenging into my home so many times. A wonder that you’ve not been eaten by a passing reedshark,” she sniffed regally.

“Aw, Yer Highnessness, yer hurtin’ me tender an’ delicate feelings now,” the Mick replied jovially, hefting a certain head and its ornate helm. “Ye be looking fer this fine fellow, among others? He’s passed on permanent-like now, but he be leaving his head behind for us mortals to make use of as we needs. Generous soul, he was, loyal an’ faithful t’ the very end. Only tried to Recall away two or three times in total panic, I be happy t’ report true t’ ye.”

“I see.” Her image turned to survey all the swirling Swords and other Weapons held in her direction, although none of them were making to attack what was clearly an illusion. “Your newest recruits to that order of fools seem to have acquitted themselves well, perhaps even better than their forebears. My congratulations on your accomplishments,” she said dryly, although the rage deep in her eyes belied her polite words.

“Aw, now yer making me blush, Yer Top-Windiness. Ye can gift us some rewards fer our performance by sending a few more thousand o’ these fellows on over t’ meet their comrades in the fine hereafter. We be looking for ‘em now!”

“You seem confident of your power and abilities, little rat.” Her eyes seemed to darken and draw back as power began to gather in the area. “One wonders if-”

Poof!

Briggs negligently backhanded Endure through the Projected Image, and it went away instantly, disrupted by the foundation purity of a Source. With it went the gathering spell, dissipating even more rapidly than it had gathered.

“I could have Spellflared her and really pissed her off,” I sniffed, but it had no force to it. I didn’t need her knowing I could do that to her, yet.

“She was nice enough to let us know she was watching and doesn’t think well of the fact we’re bringing the Order back,” Princess Kristie said grimly. “I think that’s by far the finest endorsement that we’re doing the right thing that I could think of here.”

“The leader of the Dericost faction of the undead is indeed a powerful and worthy enemy for any order of knighthood,” King Borelean smiled, earning hard smiles and nods from the surrounding warriors. “As she said, we shall simply have to become more dangerous than our predecessors to deal with them!”

“There were no greater foes of the undead or the Shaded than the Order of the Lost Light. Their actions here today only prove that is true,” Kristie went on. “We are indeed going to have to organize and institute a training regimen specifically geared at being able to fight both of them.

“I will take charge of this regimen. The first order of business is simple: we are going to wipe and vivisize every single undead creature on the landscape we see on the way back to Candeth Keep. We need not Seal their Summons points as yet, so pull them away from such, but that will be your mandate: kill the undead and the Shaded when you see them.

“We know that their numbers are vast, as Tou-Tou proved to us, and the sheer weight of time to accrue numbers has been on their side.

“We also know that those numbers are finite, and that sooner or later, the well of souls slaved to the System will run dry, and they will have no more Summoned armies to call upon.

“To do this, all we need to is relentlessly and continually kill the undead and shades upon the landscape, until they simply do not appear any more.

“The numbers involved may well enter into the millions. The Dericost undead spanned entire worlds at one time, their culture wide-flung and dispersed across many worlds… and then, they returned here. Not to wherever their long-lost homeworld was, but to here. Dereth. This island, this world.

“I expect all of you to rapidly accrue kill counts of undead and shades in the thousands, if not tens of thousands. You will know how to fight them and learn as no other force has in history, and I will be showing you ways to kill them further, faster, and harder.”

Kristie pointed back towards Candeth Keep. “First lesson: they’re going to be coming at you in the dark and at night, so we have to learn how to confront them there. We’re heading home, we’re not camping overnight here.

“Remember, every undead and shade we see. Anything else is as you like.”

“Yes, sir!” the knights a-borning shouted out.

“Five minutes!” Briggs bellowed in counterpoint. “Get the looting done, we’re not staying here to be ambushed by some other hidden force!”

Weapons were sheathed, and the eager men returned to their looting of Armor and Weapons, all to be Burned down and reduced to mana crystals they could use to improve their own Gear. The wealth of the ‘real’ Dericostans was not small in goldweight, at least…