Elsewhere

Duke continued his rapid climb as he watched the bombs fall. This was one thing that had taken a lot of getting used to – he could orient himself in any direction regardless of his direction of flight. Being so used to flying in a cockpit, he had naturally oriented himself in the direction of his flight to start. In this case, he was oriented towards the ground while rapidly gaining altitude. This gave him the opportunity to watch the bombs hit.

The first bombs to hit were the ones he had sent towards the castle which simply bounced off the castle’s barrier to ultimately explode on the ground. Duke was confused as to why they didn’t explode upon impact with the barrier but was quickly distracted as the bombs started hitting the ground among the undead. The explosions were spectacular. He had no idea what Baslin had done to make them so effective but was glad for it nonetheless.

Wherever a bomb hit, the explosion expanded almost entirely horizontally rather than the 360-degree explosion that Duke was accustomed to seeing. The explosions were powerful enough to vaporize flesh and stone alike. And they did – undead of all sorts were simply erased. Where there had been an army of tens of thousands of monsters, bare handfuls remained and those that remained were disorganized and confused. Apparently, they had lost direction from whatever was controlling them and started fighting amongst themselves.

Duke paused in the air and laughed at the scene. The castle’s barrier was flickering with the barest of life and the noble districts around it had been completely leveled. I can fix all that. At least I think I can. Now to get Chopie. But first, I have a message to send. He retrieved his long-range Jewel of Whispers from his INVENTORY that was now functioning. He was not sure if it was because he was out of range of the suppression effect or if the runes powering it had been destroyed. The reason didn’t matter at the moment. He had traveled so far up in his haste that he was kilometers away, so he sent his message and began to descend.

“Aurelia, send the Legion. Chopie is holed up in his castle and his undead army…well, his second, um, third undead army has been all but destroyed. Expect a fourth because this guy is just that big of an asshole. Keep the magical barriers ready because I doubt he’s run out of tricks.”

Moments later he received a response. “Acknowledged. And thanks for the warning about the ambush. Spelling it out with stones was clever and effective, even if the ambush never happened.”

Duke could see when the Legion marched out of the passages to the surface. Their FORMATION Ability was collectively shaking the walls of the rest of the city’s buildings. When it was being used in this active form, the leveling it had collectively undergone during the march became evident. The harmonic vibration of the thousands of booted feet striking in synchrony shook the ground, causing walls to tumble, streets to crack, and knocking the few remaining undead from their feet.

“Fuck yeah!” Duke celebrated as the castle’s barrier shuddered and finally winked out. He began descending much more slowly than he had risen. He knew Chopie’s forces were on the back foot and the king had to be running out of surprises, but he was still somewhat cautious as he could not see where the lich was hiding. Duke activated his DUNGEON SENSE to try and rectify that, but he was still a few kilometers too far away from the castle to see inside it. He continued to descend as the Legion marched into position in the approach to the castle.

Aurelia stood at the front of the Legion resplendent in her golden armor. It had been fully RESTORED before the fighting began and the dust that had fallen on her from when the bombs exploded had been shaken loose due to the Legion’s FORMATION Ability. She raised her sword into the air and called out with her COMMAND VOICE echoing across the city, “Your armies are defeated. Surrender and face judgement, Lich King!” The Legion roared in response, raising shields and weapons in their enthusiasm.

Duke continued his descent, allowing Aurelia to bask in the glow of victory. He could not hear what she said but began to slowly and carefully push his DUNGEON SIGHT out towards its full nine-kilometer range. Normally, this would overwhelm his senses but since the area he was expanding his senses through was simple air, there was little to no strain.

Aurelia waited for a response, her patience wearing thin. She stood perhaps 70 meters outside the castle gates, hands on her hips with the left resting on the hilt of her sword. Duke continued his casual descent, reaching outwards with his DUNGEON SENSE and keeping an eye out for the suppression field. Finally, his senses started to reach the castle. He was still at least three kilometers up and Aurelia had received no response yet.

Aurelia turned to her Legionnaires, glowing with delight at finally being able to lead them into battle – against a lich king no less! “It seems he wants us to take him the old-fashioned way. Guess we’re going to have to tear that castle down around his ears.” Duke, being too far away, did not hear what she said but it was easy enough to figure out as he saw a battering ram that was being pieced together from sections pulled out of various magical storage devices.

Duke smiled as he felt the Legion was finally getting their due, slowing his descent even further to both give them time to act and to keep his vantage point over the castle and the city. There could be more surprises coming and he wanted to be ready for them.

His senses had just reached the level where they were starting to sense the upper reaches of the castle. He strained to push his senses deeper trying to locate the king before the legion could get there. The layout of the upper tower was odd to Duke’s sight. The floors themselves seem to form a runic pattern that was beyond Duke's comprehension as he had no skill or affinity in that area.

As he watched, still descending slowly, his DUNGEON SENSE picked up some energy gathering in the runic patterns and alarm rushed through his mind. He prepared himself to act but was still unsure just what it meant. A moment's thought had the Jewel of Whispers back in his hand. He reached out to Aurelia to warn her that something was happening. She acknowledged his message but continued helping the legion get the battering ram in place – she had a job to do. His next message went to Baslin and from him he did get a response.

“Can you describe the runes to me Duke?”

“The runes encompass most of the floor and are arranged in some sort of ringlike pattern. I think Chopie is standing in the center of the rings.”

Baslin’s response was urgent. “Do you remember when the Magi Argentus attacked my tower? It is the same sort of thing. You must stop him immediately!”

Duke flashed downward at full speed, shattering the sound barrier as he accelerated downward. He covered the first two kilometers in about five seconds. His senses blurred as COMBAT SENSE took over, stretching his perception of time.

On the ground, Aurelia stood several meters behind the battering ram as it continued to pound on the castle gates. She rose her COMMAND VOICE once again. “Legion, march in place and focus your FORMATION resonance on the castle gates! The response was immediate as the ram started to swing faster, practically launching the Legionnaires holding it at the gates. With a tremendous hum, the gates began to shudder with the resonance of the collective Ability. It only took a few more strikes before even the enchanted wood began to splinter and the magically-forged hinges began to warp from the strain.

Duke strained to descend faster, pulling his tonfa from his INVENTORY and pointing them in front of himself as he dove like a living missile on a strike mission. His stretched sense of time did not stop him from seeing that it was indeed Chopie on the top of the tower and there was a ball of energy forming over his head. Duke pushed himself faster, trying to get to Chopie before he could finish whatever it was that he was casting.

The gates buckled and nearly collapsed, a hole the size of a horse forming as a section of the left gate collapsed. As the ram pulled back and the opening revealed itself, a torrent of bat-like creatures burst forth to attack the Legionnaires. Shield met wing, sword met fang, and the fight was quickly on. The Legionnaires closed ranks around Aurelia, intent on protecting their General within their ranks.

Duke closed in on the top of the tower at reckless speed. Just as he impacted a now shimmering barrier covering the tower, Chopie finished casting his working with a single word shouted with a lifetime of malice, “DIE!” The barrier bowed inwards for a split second before shattering under the sheer kinetic energy of Duke’s attack, barely slowing his descent. He sped towards Chopie, burning the air with his passage. But he was too late. The spell fired an instant before he hit the lich’s personal barrier.

A sickeningly purple beam erupted from the top of the tower and blasted the ground before the castle gates. Below, Legionnaires’ lifeless bodies were thrown into the air with limbs missing. Above, Duke slammed into Chopie’s personal barrier. The barrier absorbed fully half of the energy Duke’s attack had left, but it also folded, allowing Duke to unleash the rest on the lich’s head. Chopie’s skull easily split splattering black, decayed gore across the room. Duke’s momentum carried him through the rest of the lich and impacted heavily on the floor of the tower which remarkably held together.

Duke knew the bones in his arms and shoulders were pulverized and the only thing keeping him together was the tension of his ARMOR SKIN and his REGENERATION working feverishly to repair the damage he inflicted on himself. He managed to flop onto his back and saw an insubstantial figure vaguely resembling the once living king floating over him.

The figure spoke. “You lose, Duke. You only just barely managed to destroy this temporary shell. Now, I’ll simply return to my phylactery and form a new body to kill the rest of your loved ones before I kill you.”

Duke, still dazed from the impact simply responded with attitude. “Go for it, asshole.”

The figure moved in a circle before screaming, “My phylactery! Where is my phylactery!” The figure started to become even more insubstantial. “No! This cannot be! Negron attend me!” The voice got smaller and smaller as the figure faded out of existence.

*** You have a very important announcement to read but we suppressed it for you…for now. Take care of your business. ***

Duke rose into the air using his FLIGHT, not trusting his reforming bones to bear his weight. He watched as the figure finally winked out of existence. “Goodbye, asshole.” A moment later, his head cleared enough for him to finally process what Chopie had said. He said kill the rest of my loved ones. That beam. Aurelia!

Duke flashed out of the tower and towards the ground. What he saw chilled his soul. More undead had poured out of the castle’s gates and the Legion was fully engaged. With the Legion’s Mage Corps making liberal use of the Hold Undead spell that Baslin had developed, things were easily going the Legion’s way. But what caused his heart to pause was the sight of the blasted area and the bodies thrown away from the impact point of the blast. In the blast crater, he could only see a pair of disembodied legs clad in golden armor. There was nothing else but ash filling the depression.