Death: Genesis

Mindless undead barreled forward, heedless of their own safety. Many were cut down by Zeke’s army, but some were far too powerful to easily fall. It was a striking state of affairs, knowing that some of them had once been pillars of El’kireth. Now, they were feral zombies, incapable of thinking for themselves. Instead, they only knew aggression and whatever dictates their master had passed onto them.

Still, they were strong – far more powerful, in fact, than the hordes from Zeke’s memories – and they were more than capable of bringing that strength to bear against his army. So, Zeke stepped in, using his twin domains as well as [Storm of Hammers], conjuring a whirlwind of blunt force among the horde. His own people were unaffected by the skill, and the spectral hammers passed right through anyone loyal to him.

That was one of the factors he hadn’t expected.

Normally, his skills were just as dangerous to his people as they were to his enemies. Yet, [Storm of Hammers] was clearly different. He had no idea how it determined the difference between allies and foes, but its decision making in that regard seemed largely infallible. That gave Zeke the freedom to wade into the fray, completely secure that he wasn’t going to end up hurting his own forces.

His hammer arced out, destroying a swath of weaker zombies. They all wore armor – remnants of their past lives that suggested that they’d only recently been turned – but for the most part, that protection was insufficient to the task of stopping one of Zeke’s mighty swings. He tore through them with ease. The other members of his force weren’t so fortunate, and their attacks were blunted by that sturdy armor. That factor proved just how dangerous the horde was.

Zombies were bad enough on their own. Not only were they relentless, feeling no pain and enduring well past the point a more sapient creature would have given in, but they could also spread their disease with every bite. As such, they represented an exponential threat that could overwhelm the world in a matter of years. Finally, zombies weren’t constricted by vital mana. They could – and would – exist well outside the boundaries of El’kireth. Zeke wasn’t sure why that was, but he’d seen it in action back in the Mortal Realm.

Add durable armor to the mix, and the danger levels grew even more prominent.

No – with the zombies’ inclusion, the war against the expansionists had become something far more primal. It was no longer a conflict of ideology. Instead, it had turned into one of survival. If they didn’t stop the zombies, then the entire world would suffer. Despite the fact that he was no white knight, Zeke couldn’t stomach the idea of letting that happen.

Again.

Before, he’d abandoned the Radiant Isles because he knew he couldn’t stop the undead menace. This time, though, he found himself at ground zero. He could stop it before it ever got started.

So, he strode into the fray, swinging his hammer as he carved a path through the horde and, hopefully, to the necromancer who was responsible for the mass of zombies.

All around him, the battle raged. His [Storm of Hammers] surged across the square, killing weaker zombies while the stronger specimens were only slowed. If it weren’t for the deadly stakes, Zeke would have considered the battle a perfect opportunity to gauge the efficacy of his new skill. After all, some of the zombies were beyond the level seventy-five threshold, and as such, they were quite mighty. Certainly, the loss of control had robbed them of some of their power – chiefly, that they didn’t even use skills – but their bodies were more than durable.

Alone, none of them could stand up to Zeke.

But that was the thing about zombie hordes – they were never alone. They fought in hordes, and through some strange amalgamation of instinct and direction from their necromancer, they complimented one another, becoming more than the sum of their rotten parts.

So, even Zeke was pressed by their surging might, taking more than a few wounds along the way. He could have used [Hell Geyser], [Unleash Momentum], or [Wrath of Annihilation] to make quick work of the horde, but that would have also destroyed his own people as well as the infrastructure of the town. On top of that, he had no idea if there were innocents about, so he refrained from employing his most destructive skills.

Still, with the advantage of [Titan] as well as his twin domain skills, he was more than capable of wreaking havoc among the horde. On top of that, any damage the managed to inflict – which was more than he might have expected – was quickly counteracted by [Touch of Divinity]. Finally, he let a trickle of his Will flow into each swing of his hammer. It wasn’t enough to damage his body, but it added a significant level of extra power to every attack he brought to bear.

Then, just as he was getting into a rhythm, Zeke caught sight of something out of the corner of his eye. He barely managed to brace himself before he was knocked from his feet by an unbelievable amount of force. He flew through collection of amassed zombies, splattering more than a few of them – as well as a couple of kobolds who hadn’t reacted quickly enough to get out of the way – before hitting the ground in a tumble that took him all the way to the edge of the square. He only stopped there because he crashed into a building.

He lay there for a moment before the creak of crumbling stones announced that the collision had robbed the building of stability. It came down a second later, burying Zeke under tons of rubble.

More distressingly, he felt a gaping wound in his side. Whatever had hit him had done so with enough force to rip through his titanic body, stopping only when it hit his spine. And even that was damaged.

Zeke pulsed [Touch of Divinity], dragging mana from all around him as he channeled it into healing the wound. The rubble wasn’t an issue. He could withstand tons of pressure without being injured. But the wound in his side represented an urgent need, largely because it resisted even his powerful healing skill. The metallic flesh mended easily enough, but there was something else buried within it. A skill, perhaps? Some sort of spreading disease? It might’ve even been the source of zombification. Whatever the case, Zeke knew he couldn’t allow it to fester, so he flared the skill as powerfully as he could manage.

It was like fighting a war against a rising tide, but instead of swinging a hammer, Zeke was armed only with his willpower.

That was when he realized he was going about it all wrong. Before, he’d used his Path of Arcane Destruction to rid his body of unwanted contaminants. Why did this have to be any different? So, he laced [Touch of Divinity] with a wisp of his Will, then shoved it toward the tidal wave of contamination. At first, it did more damage than the skill could counteract, weakening him significantly. However, after only a few more moments, Zeke started to see results.

Sure, the addition of his Will was detrimental to his body. He knew that. But it was just as bad for the disease trying to overtake him. Soon enough, that disease started to break down, and at last, dissipated into motes of mana. Even that felt contaminated, though it only lasted for a few seconds before disappearing altogether.

Then, once his wound was entirely healed, he used [Shifting Sands], descending into the earth and rocketing out from beneath the rubble. He merged in an explosion of hellfire, only to see that the battle had turned, largely because of the arrival of three powerful zombies.

Zeke didn’t really get a good look at any of them, they moved so quickly. However, he could see enough to know that they were trouble. They all had long, thin arms and wicked claws, but other than that, they looked little different from any other zombie in the square. He finally got [Inspect] to take hold:

Undead Ravager – Level 88

It was telling that the things no longer had names. The Framework truly considered them monsters, now. Such a waste. Moreover, it was terrifying on an existential level to know that someone with the right skills could completely take over one’s mind and fundamentally change who they were.

But those sorts of concerns were secondary, especially considering that his emergence had garnered the attention of all three ravagers. They raced in his direction, their claws glistening with malicious intent. They covered the ground in a split second, but this time, Zeke was ready for them, so the results were quite different than before.

He stomped on the ground, using [Hell Geyser]. However, in this instance, he didn’t aim for some distant target. Instead, he let the power of the skill explode from directly beneath him, bathing his titanic body in corrupted fire. Yet, after his efforts had inoculation, he had few issues enduring such an onslaught.

The same could not be said for the ravagers.

They never even slowed. Instead, the trio ripped through the skill, aiming graceless attacks at Zeke. But he was already gone, once again using [Shifting Sands] to slow down time and slip into the earth. Normally, he couldn’t use the skill again in such quick succession, but with levels came a little more flexibility. Still, he wouldn’t be using [Shifting Sands] a third time for at least a few more hours.

It was worth it, though. The corrupted flames took hold, burning through withered flesh without issue, and by the time the creatures emerged from the other side of the pillar of flame, they’d been burned down to the bone. More importantly, their armor had been compromised, leaving them much more vulnerable.

Zeke aimed [Center of Gravity] at one, yanking it in his direction. It tried to resist, but the thing was no less mindless than its fellows. As a result, it was incapable of adjusting so quickly, and so it fell toward Zeke. He met it with the head of his hammer, sending it sailing away in a long, lazy arc that wouldn’t reach its terminus for another half mile.

It didn’t die, though.

The thing was far too durable for that. But for now, it was out of the picture. That would have to be enough.

Zeke followed that up with a backhanded swing accompanied by Voromir’s ability. A projection of the hammer – giant and bloodred – crashed into the remaining two ravagers, knocking them aside and sending them to crash into a nearby building.

Knowing he needed to keep them off-balance, Zeke leaped forward, covering almost a hundred yards with a single bound before bringing his hammer down in a vicious, overhand attack that harnessed every point of Strength he possessed.

And that was a considerable amount.

His hammer hit its target – the ravager’s head – with thunderous force, exploding the weakened skull and splattering its brains across the square. But the momentum didn’t end there. It kept going, carving a sizable crater in the ground. The shockwave took hold of the other ravager, sending it cartwheeling across the square to collide with another building.

Zeke used [Center of Gravity] again, yanking that monster back into range before hammering it into the ground with a sledgehammer strike that obliterated its torso. For good measure, he stomped on the ground and used [Hell Geyser] again. Before it erupted, he leaped away, taking only a little damage from the corrupted flames before he cleared the pillar of destructive force.

That left only one, and Zeke felt as much as saw the thing careening toward him like an out-of-control car. One of its legs was clearly broken, so it moved with a limp. However, because of its ridiculous attributes, it still covered quite a lot of ground in a hurry.

But it wasn’t fast enough.

Now that Zeke knew it was coming, and with that small dip in speed, he had no issues with meeting it head-on. It died almost as quickly as the first two, but because it wasn’t quite as off-balance, it managed to delay the inevitable for a few extra seconds. Zeke ended it by stomping on the monster’s good leg, then knocking it to the ground with a shoulder tackle. Then, he rammed his fist into its chest cavity, grabbed hold of its spine, and ripped it free.

Only then did Zeke look around at the rest of the battle.

And what he saw wasn’t good.

His people had been driven back. The kobolds were putting up a good fight, using their advanced tactics and formations to form a fighting retreat. However, they were on the verge of being overwhelmed by the zombies, which seemed even more numerous than before.

“Where are they all coming from?” he wondered aloud.

“Follow the mana,” Eveline said, indicating that Zeke should look up.

Once again, he saw dozens of flows of mana, all merging into a river of energy that led to the headquarters.

“That’s where the necromancer is,” he said. He’d thought the same in the very beginning, but he’d been distracted by the battle as well as the trio of ravagers. Now, though, it seemed that he had no choice. If he wanted to keep his people alive, he would need to destroy the source.

That meant going into the headquarters and killing the necromancer.

“I think I can do that,” he said.

“Be careful.”

As he strode forward, Zeke remarked, “I didn’t know you cared.”

“I don’t. It’s all self-preservation. If you die, so do I.”

Zeke didn’t believe that for a second, but he didn’t make a big deal of it. Instead, he climbed the steps toward the huge, black-and-red building, hoping he could find the necromancer in time to save his army from total annihilation.