Chapter 516 - War of the Dead (Patreon)

Zeke emerged from the castle just in time to avoid being buried beneath a pile of black rubble.  Even as it collapsed behind him, he was nudged forward by the powerful shockwave created by the enchantment breaking.  His stumble took him down the steps and into the plaza abutting the castle. 

Or, in retrospect, what was left of the building.

He straightened to his feet and glanced backward at the ruins.  “One day, I’m going to end a fight, and everything won’t be torn to pieces,” he muttered to himself. 

“It’s important to have goals,” Eveline remarked.

“I agree.”

“Even if they’re kind of impossible to reach,” she added.

Zeke could only sigh.  His propensity for destruction was no secret.  In fact, it was such a prevalent part of his nature that it had been codified into his status via his Path of Arcane Destruction.  But could he overcome that nature?  Perhaps.  But the real question was whether or not he’d be willing to pay the price to do so.  After all, avoiding destruction was easiest if he simply refused to fight, if he retired somewhere nice to reap the benefits of his long labors.

Was that him, though?  Could he stomach that much peace?

“You know you can’t,” Eveline stated.  “So, why even think about it?  You don’t want peace.  You want a purpose.  You want victory.  You want a good fight.  That’s what drives you, and you know it.  Why fight something you can never hope to overcome?  Just steer into it.”

“Like you did?” he asked.

“What do you mean?” she asked innocently.  “Are you implying that I’m manipulative by nature?  And that is why I became a coercive demoness?”

“If the shoe fits.”

“I do not wear shoes, and you know it,” she said.  “But you might be surprised to discover that I was quite an innocent before my death.  A perpetual victim, even.  The only reason I ended up in Hell was because of one lapse of judgement.”

“That doesn’t seem right,” Zeke responded.  Indeed, one event was not enough to condemn someone to demonhood.  If it was, then he’d have been reborn there as well.  So would most people.

“It was quite a large lapse in judgement,” she said.  “Tens of thousands died.  Is that evil enough for you to justify my condemnation to centuries of torment?”  

“Maybe.”

“You were supposed to say no.”

“Okay?  Doesn’t mean I believe it.  I don’t have enough information to make a judgement.  But for what it’s worth, I don’t think you’re evil.  A little annoying, maybe.  And very manipulative.  But not evil.”

“Your assessment fills me with joy,” Eveline deadpanned.

“Whatever.”

With that, Zeke scanned his surroundings.  The aftermath of the battle was clear, with the remains of undead everywhere.  There were plenty of bodies belonging to his army as well, though they were in the clear minority.  Perhaps he should have stayed and fought with them, but he felt certain that, if he’d chosen that route, Catherine would have made things much worse.  So, he wasn’t in a position to second guess his actions. 

Once he was reassured that there were no survivors, he set off toward the location where his undead allies were supposed to be fighting against the expansionist faction.  However, he had a suspicion that he wouldn’t be happy with what he’d inevitably find. 

Sure enough, after rushing through the abandoned city, Zeke found the aftermath of incredible carnage.  It was clear that a battle had been fought, but it was on the scale of nothing he’d ever seen before.  Tens of thousands of bodies – belonging to undead, it seemed – decorated the line of demarcation between the Cradle of Life and the city proper.  But there weren’t just soldiers in evidence.  Few of the bodies wore armor.  Most were unarmed.  And from the remnants of mana in the area, Zeke concluded that they hadn’t been high level, either. 

“Civilians,” Eveline pointed out.  “Likely under control of a necromancer, if Catherine’s promise was true.”

Zeke frowned as he surveyed the mounds of the dead.  So many lives lost, and for so little point.  El’kireth had been peaceful, from what Talia had said.  They were content to live their undead lives secluded from the rest of the world.  And then, everything had changed after she had discovered some plot perpetrated by Adontis.  But the moment that threat had been neutralized, another had taken its place. 

The replacement had proved much more dangerous, too. 

Now, it seemed that the expansionist plot might have been a mask for something even more nefarious.  There had been at least one necromancer, and it was unclear how long Catherine had influenced the events in Darukar.  Had she been at it for months?  Years?  Longer?  It was a daunting prospect, especially considering that she clearly hadn’t been alone. 

As she’d said, there were more necromancers afoot, including someone she’d called her master. 

“What should we do?” he wondered.

“Follow the trail,” Eveline suggested.  “Or pick up everything and flee.  We’ll be out of this realm before it affects us.”

Zeke shook his head.  He’d tried that once before, and thought that decision hadn’t exactly haunted him, he still wasn’t entirely happy about how his time in the Mortal Realm  had ended.  Much of his choice to leave had been based on a desire to move past his failed relationship with Abby.  Even at the time, that motivation had been clear, and yet, he’d chosen to leave anyway. 

Because of that decision, millions had likely died. 

He would not make that same mistake again.  So, he said, “We need to take care of these necromancers once and for all.  If that means destroying the entire Kingdom of El’kireth, then that’s what we’re going to do.”

It wasn’t his first option, though.  Instead, he would need to take stock of the situation, then act accordingly.  As he walked through the battlefield, his thoughts settled on Talia.  Was she vulnerable to a necromancer’s commands?  Would he soon find himself facing off with some altered version of his friend?  While confronting the rest of Catherine’s creations, he’d kept those ideas in the back of his mind.  Now, though, he had nothing else to occupy his thoughts.  And those notions did not make for pleasant company, especially surrounded as he was by so much death.

After a while, he passed into the vitality-infused Cradle of Life, but he didn’t leave the aftermath of the battle behind for another quarter of a mile.  Clearly, the zombies were not as averse to exposure to life as they had been before coming under the control of necromancers. 

It was not a good sign for what was to come.

Still, Zeke tried to keep his spirits up, especially when the presence of the bodies trickled down to nothing.  And when he finally reached the entry to the sewers, he was relieved to see the sapient undead guarding the gates.  More, there were a few kobolds there, too, though the ones Zeke saw sported injuries. 

He passed through without hesitation, letting his titanic form fade away so he could more easily traverse the tunnels.  He felt oddly vulnerable in his more natural cambion body, but he supposed that was inevitable.  After all, the level of power he could bring to bear under the influence of [Titan] was incomparable to how strong he was without that skill. 

And as with all power, it was addictive. 

As he passed through the tunnels, Zeke saw more evidence of the battle.  Most of the undead were even more injured than the kobolds, though that didn’t mean the latter had escaped unscathed.  Rather, it just meant that the wounds the unliving had sustained were quite grievous. 

Finally, Zeke reached the central chamber, where he found Talia rushing to and fro as she tried to be everywhere at once.  She was clearly manic, and she didn’t stop until Zeke planted himself in her path. 

“Calm down.  What happened?” he asked. 

“I don’t know.  The whole city turned against us,” she said.  “They were unthinking.  Unheeding of their own vulnerability.  My soldiers hesitated, and by the time they realized their mistake, the others were on top of them.  It was a massacre.”

“I think I know a little more than you,” Zeke responded.  “Come with me.  We need to make plans.”

With that, the pair headed through the gate and into the tower.  It wasn’t long after that that Zeke led Talia to the Pillar, and then into the headquarters.  There, they found the rest of the tower’s leadership.  Silik was there.  So was Kianma.  Jasper had made an appearance, and Pudge had returned as well.  Even Sasha was there. 

Zeke approached, and after exchanging greetings, he said, “There are necromancers in Darukar.  I killed one at the Deathguard headquarters.  She was controlling everyone there, and what’s more, she’d transformed them, too.  Even the Death Warden had been molded into something horrifying.”

He went on to explain what Catherine had claimed about not being alone, ending with, “And she mentioned a master.  I don’t know if she was telling the truth.”

“You got pretty chatty with her, huh?” said Baruk, who’d joined midway through Zeke’s explanation. 

“She liked to talk,” was his only response. 

Adriel, who’d come with him, said, “We must kill these necromancers at all costs.  What they are doing to our people is unconscionable.  There is not a single undead who wouldn’t rather die than endure what you described.”

“I agree,” Talia stated.

“Good,” Zeke said.  “Because that’s precisely what I intend.  But I need help.  I don’t know this city.  I don’t know where they might be holed up.  We need to find them before we can kill them.”

Left unsaid was the fact that they had no idea how many necromancers there were, aside from the certainty that there was at least one more out there.  When would they know they’d finished the job? 

After a few minutes’ worth of discussion, the natives of Darukar came up with a half-dozen likely places where a necromancer might have set up shop, but none were more likely than the old catacombs on the other side of the city.

“They were here before the undead, before the Pillar of Life came into being,” Adriel said.  “And they’re the most potent source of death-attuned energy in the city.  If I were a necromancer, that’s where I’d have started.”

“Then that’s where we’ll start our investigation,” Zeke said.  “But first, we need to make certain that everyone is at their best.  So, rest and recover.  We’ll set out in the morning.”

“We should go now,” Talia insisted.

“No.  It’s too dangerous.  The whole city is infested with zombies by now,” Zeke argued.  “We can’t afford to miss with this.  When we hit the necromancer, they have to die.  We won’t let them escape.  If we do, this situation might never end.”

With that statement, everyone went silent. 

Then, Zeke said, “I’ve seen where this goes.  So has Talia.  I watched an entire continent get overrun in the span of a couple of years.  It can happen here, too.  We won’t allow the necromancers to win because if we do, then the whole world is gone.  Living, undead – it doesn’t matter.  We’re all in this together.  Remember that as you prepare.  Get your troops ready, because tomorrow morning, we’ll sweep through Darukar and slaughter everything in our way.”

Left unsaid was that there was no way to bring the converted undead back from the necromancer’s control.  They were gone.  Now, the only option was to exterminate the threat.  Zeke was prepared for that, and he could only hope that everyone else was, too. 

So, having said what he thought needed to be said, Zeke retreated from the Pillar and headed to the Crimson Spring.  Once there, he settled in for a long and rejuvenating soak.  There were lots of others there, so it wasn’t a relaxing experience.  Still, after a few hours, he climbed out of the pool and went to his manor, where he took a few more hours to rest. 

That was much more relaxing. 

And when morning finally did come, he was ready to continue his campaign against the undead and the necromancers who controlled them. 

So was everyone else, he soon learned upon finding an army that had been amassed in the Entry Hall.  The bulk of the force was composed of kobolds, but a host of other races were represented as well.  There were thousands of beastkin, a few armored humans, and hundreds of centaurs.  In addition, quite a lot of undead had joined, sending the numbers skyrocketing well past the bounds of any other army Zeke had seen.

Zeke approached the leadership, looked from one steely-eyed face to the next before asking, “Are we ready?”

They all confirmed that they were.

So, without further hesitation, Zeke stepped through the gate and into the sewers.  Without pausing, he continued forward upon the predesignated route, passing undead guardsmen along the way to the surface.  And when he finally reached the exit, which abutted the line of demarcation between the Cradle of Life and the undead city of Darukar, he paused only long enough for the rest of his army to catch up.

Then, with thousands of people following, he set  off into the city on a mission to rid the world of necromantic influence.