Chapter 511 - Marshalling Forces (Patreon)

Zeke sat at the head of the long, sturdy table, his head pounding as he listened to everyone argue.  As silent as Silik usually was, he thought nothing of using his immense size to bully the newcomers into submitting to his plan of attack.  However, the undead were undeterred by the physicality he could bring to bear, and they refused to back down from the kobold general.  Instead, they insisted on attacking the expansionist forces their own way.  And given that it was their territory, they were quite adamant that their new allies – Zeke’s army – follow their lead.

Of course, that insistence was met with disdain, largely because the undead needed their help.  Otherwise, they were destined to lose the battle.  If that wasn’t the case, then why had they been forced to take shelter in the inhospitable Cradle of Life? 

Finally, Zeke reached his limit.  He slammed his hand on the surface of the table, shouting, “Enough!” Everyone went silent, and Zeke shifted his gaze from one person to the next.  The kobolds had the grace to wear chastised expressions, casting their eyes downward at the expression of his ire.  However, the undead glared at him defiantly.  He was stronger than them, and they knew it.  But that didn’t mean they were willing to accept his leadership.  Only his help.  In a quieter voice he repeated, “Enough.  No more arguing.  We’ve been going round and round in circles for days, and we’ve gotten nowhere.”

“That’s because these beasts –”

Zeke cut the undead knight off with a glare.  “They are not beasts.  They’re people, same as you or me.  Accept them as equals, or you and I will have a serious problem,” Zeke promised.  He almost wanted the sallow-skinned zombie to refute his claim.  A good fight would have been far preferable to talking in circles as both sides tried to pretend they were infallible.  “Do you understand me?”

“I…I do,” the knight said, sinking back into his chair. 

“Just so I understand everything,” Zeke began.  When he continued, he addressed the undead, “You want to attack overland, challenging the expansionist faction in a direct confrontation.  Is that right?”

“We have right on our side.  Surely, we don’t need to slink around in the shadows and strike from the rear.”

Zeke sighed.  “Right or wrong has nothing to do with it,” he said.  “This is war.  You don’t get bonus points because your cause is just.”

Left unsaid was the fact that, surely, the other side felt they were in the right as well.  That was the problem with morality and justification.  Everyone felt they were on the right side of both. 

“What do you think, Talia?” he asked.

“I think we should follow the general’s plan,” she said, nodding to Silik.  That was unsurprising.  Talia was nothing if not comfortable with attacking from the flank.  She was a realist who understood the benefits of surprise and positioning, and she put very little stock in honorable combat. 

After all, he’d seen her slaughter an entire fortress of defenders, then eat their hearts. 

“Then it’s decided,” Zeke said.  He wasn’t sure if it was the right plan.  There were quite a few others that had been floated during the interminable strategy meetings.  Yet, if there was one thing he knew, it was that a decision needed to be made, one way or the other.  Even if it was the wrong plan, it was better than arguing about it, then doing nothing. 

“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you,” Eveline pointed out.  And she had.  The entire time, she’d advised him to put his foot down and simply dictate what would happen.  Zeke hadn’t taken it that far – adopting Silik’s plan instead of one he made himself – but apparently, it was close enough.  She made that abundantly clear with her smug tone. 

Zeke ignored her statement, and from then on, the discussion turned from what they were going to do to how they intended to do it.  Surprisingly, once their own plan had been shot down, the undead pivoted to the new challenge.  They obviously weren’t happy about their strategy being shot down, but they kept their disappointment – or anger, perhaps – in check while they helped to hammer out the logistics of the situation. 

Meanwhile, Zeke kept the bulk of his focus inward as he contemplated his runecrafting projects.  Not only did he need to upgrade some skills, but he intended to build at least one more as well.  So, he’d resolved to dedicating the bulk of his free time to that endeavor. 

“You call this free time?” asked Eveline.

It was a valid question.  They were on the verge of fighting another war, and the strategy meetings were a necessary evil if the coming battles were going to go their way.  However, Zeke had long since determined that he was no great general.  Certainly, he had a knack for tactics – as he’d proven in the war with the giants as well as in the fight against Adontis – but that didn’t mean he enjoyed the minutiae associated with waging war.

Better to just get out there and do it, rather than sitting around talking about it.

With a sigh, Eveline said, “That’s how you lose wars, you know.”

“I’m aware,” he responded in his thoughts.  “Just because I can acknowledge that I dislike it doesn’t mean I won’t do what’s necessary.”

“You’ll just whine about it.”

“In my own head, yes,” he said.  It would be different if he’d given voice to his complaints, but as far as any of the others knew, he was listening attentively as they droned on and on about contingencies and lines of retreat.

“You have a point.”

“That sounded like it hurt you to admit.”

“It wasn’t pleasant,” she said.  “Sometimes, I forget that I’m seeing your innermost thoughts.  From that perspective, I’m sure that everyone would seem like a bit of a whiner.  Or hypocritical.  Or any number of unpleasant things.  The amount of times I’ve had to listen to you go back and forth on morality issues…ugh.  Even I sometimes want you to just shut up and start swinging that big hammer around.”

Zeke just gave a mental roll of his eyes.  Certainly, he had a habit of engaging in introspection, but surely it wasn’t that bad.

“It is.”

“Noted,” he said.  “But just so you know, I’m not going to change anything.  These are my thoughts.  You’re in my territory, like it or not.”

With that, Zeke went back to runecrafting while keeping his ears open for anything worthwhile.  That was the advantage of his increased power – he could focus on multiple things at once, and only lose a little efficacy of thought in the process. 

In any case, he managed to sit through the entire session, at the end of which was some semblance of a plan.  The others resolved to refine the details when they met again on the following day, giving Zeke a much needed break from everything.  Still, he took the time to meet with a few of his followers, making certain that they felt seen.  Then, he retreated to his manor, where he continued his work. 

By the end of the next day, he felt as close to perfect condition as he had in months.  It was a good thing, too, because the others completed their plan by mid-afternoon.  After that, it was just a matter of another day before it was implemented.  So, during that time, Zeke did his best to relax.  Not an easy thing, given his proclivity for motion.  Still, he forced himself to remain idle until, at last, the beginning of the war dawned.

Soon enough, he found himself leading a contingent of elite soldiers – a group composed of every faction under his banner, including kobolds, undead, centaurs, and beastkin, as well as a couple of former Knights of Adontis – through the sewers.  Normally, the tunnels beneath the Cradle of Life were not connected to the city’s system, but the kobolds had been hard at work since Zeke had entered the dungeon, and the results of their efforts were laid bare when the small force easily passed into the city proper. 

In most cases, the undead would have sensed something going on, but the burgeoning force of enchanters among the beastkin and kobolds had spent weeks carving runes of obstruction into the tunnels.  Those masked the presence of the small army, letting them plunge deep behind enemy lines. 

Meanwhile, the rest of Zeke’s people – alongside most of the undead – amassed at the line of demarcation between Darukar proper and the Cradle of Life.  They were meant to be a distraction, with Zeke and his force being the dagger in the back. 

Sasha was the ace in the hole, though everyone who had seen her power hoped that it wouldn’t be necessary.  Her spells weren’t quite as destructive as something like [Wrath of Annihilation], but given enough time, she could come very close.  And she’d had more than a month to work on something for Darukar, which suggested that if she was needed, there probably wouldn’t be much left of the undead city when she was finished.

Regardless, Zeke pushed ahead, and when the time came, he and his people erupted from the sewers and charged toward the city’s center, where they hoped to catch the expansionists leadership by surprise.  However, it wasn’t long before Zeke discovered their error. 

Thousands of undead fighters ringed the Deathguard headquarters.  It was a large, imposing building composed of black stone and bearing the same red trim as most of the rest of the city, which made it seem a bit ludicrous that they’d abandoned the defenses it promised in favor of an open confrontation. 

“Never mind the fact that they seemed to know we were coming,” Eveline pointed out.

“Traitors?”

“Probably,” she said.  “But I’d be more worried about everything else.”

“Like what?” Zeke asked, studying the undead arrayed before him.  The square separating him from that force was a couple hundred yards wide, and his people were hidden in a series of alleys, so they had yet to be seen.  That gave him leave to observe the enemy.  And what he saw wasn’t encouraging.  “They’re not moving.”

Indeed, the undead stood as still as statues, staring straight ahead with unseeing eyes.  Zeke would have thought they were, indeed, a series of lifelike sculptures if it wasn’t for the mana swirling all around them. 

“They’ll move the moment they find an enemy.  Of all people, you should recognize what you’re looking at.”

Zeke narrowed his eyes.  Then, it dawned on him.  The creatures across that square weren’t sapient beings.  Not anymore.  He could feel that in his very core.  But if that was true, then what were they?  He feared the answer. 

Not because he was afraid of the creatures themselves.  Rather, because of the implications associated with it. 

“You’re dancing around it.  Say it.  Acknowledge what you’re looking at.”

“It’s not an army.  It’s a horde.  Just like back in the Radiant Isles.  But how?  I went through this city only a month or so ago.  I talked to these people.  They were sapient.  I know they were.”

“I agree.  So, what could have changed them?  Again, I think you know the answer here.  What could enforce its will upon undead?”

“A necromancer.”

“Necromancers,” Eveline corrected.  “Plural.”

That made some sense.  While there was no upper limit on a necromancer’s horde – Zeke had seen that with his own eyes – it took time to build.  So, if that many undead had already been converted, then it stood to reason that it was the result of multiple necromancers’ efforts.  And that was terrifying.

“This isn’t good,” Zeke said, glancing back the way they’d come.  A full quarter of his own force was comprised of undead.  Would they be vulnerable?  “We should retreat.”

“If we do, the bulk of the army will be destroyed.  A few of the most powerful will make it, but…”

“Shit,” Zeke muttered.  Then, he turned to one of the kobold assassins that had become his constant shadows.  “Tell our people to watch the undead for any issues.  They might not be on our side.”

The assassin hissed, “Yess…”

Then, he disappeared completely, slipping through the shadows as he departed on his mission.  Zeke waited a few more minutes before he gave the signal for attack.  Soon, his force flooded out of the alleys, intent on slaughtering the undead arrayed against them.  For their part, the unthinking minions were quick to respond, silently surging forward to meet the charge. 

Zeke held back, watching and waiting for some indication of the necromancer’s location.  In the Mortal Realm, he’d fought against plenty of other undead, but back then, he’d been completely incapable of seeing beneath the surface.  Now, though, he could sense the flows of mana all around, and now that he knew what to look for, he saw the controlling bands wrapped around the horde. 

More importantly, Zeke could see where they were going.

Those flows came together, merging into a single river of mana that went straight into the headquarters.  More importantly, there were others streams of mana that branched out across the city, clearly indicating that there were other hordes under this particular necromancer’s control.

“If I kill the necromancer, will these undead be freed?” he asked Eveline.  In the realm of control, she was the best source of information he was likely to get.

“I don’t know.  Perhaps.  Necromancers are strange.  They don’t just control their minions.  They alter them.  They raise them.  It depends on how long these have been under this necromancer’s thumb.”

Zeke nodded inwardly, then said, “Then let’s hope it’s a new development.  Otherwise, we’re going to have some issues.”

“It would be smarter just to destroy the city now and get it over with.”

“I’m not going to do that,” Zeke said.  Then, he amended, “Unless it’s absolutely necessary.”

“It will be.  Mark my words.”

“Maybe,” Zeke acknowledged.  After all, he’d chosen to abandon the Radiant Isles because it was overrun with undead.  He knew good and well just how quickly things could grow out of hand.  “But maybe not.”

With that, he used [Titan] and strode forth, ready to kill a necromancer.