He looked like a dark god, ready for battle.
As Jason met Riley’s eyes, he saw a mixture of surprise and awe coloring her expression.
“It’s a little heavy, and I can already feel some areas that I need to tweak, but I think it’ll work,” he offered as the others just stared at him. He was able to compensate for the added weight to some extent since his minions dynamically shifted with each movement, but the armor still limited his speed and range of motion.
“It certainly looks impressive,” Riley offered, still staring at him. He could see that the members of the Shadow Council and many of the nearby Kin were doing the same – their eyes wide as they surveyed his new armor.
“Now you finally look like the Lord of Death we all know and love!” Jerry announced, smacking him on the back and wincing slightly as his hand collided with the dense bone.
“We’ll see how it works in practice,” Jason replied noncommittally.
As he spoke, he brought up his Summon Information, fiddling with the menu until it categorized the minions by limb. He had roughly three of the creatures on each leg and arm and four more hooked to his torso, combining to a total of 17 summoned creatures. The mana reserve cost of the minions and his regular Bone Armor shaved off about 2,000 mana, but this seemed reasonable when he factored in the added protection that the layers of defensive spells provided. He shifted this screen to his peripheral vision so that he could keep track of it. With more time, he might be able to redesign the UI to give him better feedback on the remaining health of his minions. However, the basics would do for now.
His preparations complete, Jason returned his full attention to his teammates. “We need to get in position,” he said, focusing on Cecil and Eliza. They both gave a curt nod and then jogged off toward the southern barricade.
“Riley, Jerry, and Grunt, you’re with me,” he reiterated, as he stomped back through the line of Kin toward the center of the courtyard. “I’ll need you to cover my back.”
“Ahh, tell the truth, we’re just your favorites,” Jerry retorted.
“One of us maybe,” Riley said with a raised eyebrow.
Jason was certain he had seen Grunt roll his eyes this time and he stifled a chuckle. Then his attention focused on the southern barricade. In the distance, Jason could see flashes of blue as the undead continued to trigger Eliza’s traps, the explosions of energy growing ever closer. This fact wasn’t lost on the Kin, and his troops shifted nervously, glancing at each other in concern.
Jason hadn’t missed the irony of his situation. Although it felt like an age ago, he had once stood on the other side of the market, watching as his feral zombies crushed the corrupt soldiers and residents of Lux. Now he was on the defending side, holding out against a similar attack from Thorn. But where the previous residents of the city had failed, he intended to succeed. They would not fail today – they couldn’t.
“Kin,” his voice boomed over the market. All eyes turned to the center of the market.
“Today we face our greatest challenge. The enemy isn’t just knocking at our door; it’s threatening to destroy our home. To take our families. To reduce everything that we have built to ash.
“But we won’t let it. Here we stand firm. We will put everything on the line to protect our city. We are the strongest military force this world has seen. We have overcome everything that has been thrown against us. And we will prevail again today!”
He hesitated for a moment, letting this sink in.
“We will show the Order, and the world, what it means to fuck with the Twilight Throne – whether you are human or undead. Have no mercy and hold no fear in your hearts. Death is just the beginning!
“For we are Kin, and we are legion!” he roared. His voice carried over the market and was punctuated by the shouts of the feral undead as they grew closer.
Without warning, Grunt slammed his foot into the ground beside Jason, causing the cobblestones to crack as he maintained a steady rhythm. He released a harsh bellow, his voice drowning out the cries of the ghouls. The remainder of the Kin soon followed Grunt’s lead, stomping their feet and crying out, releasing their rage and fear and hope into the night sky.
Jason’s dark mana pulsed and throbbed in response. Dark tattoos of energy crawled over his armor, and an icy torrent raged through his veins. Even the very clouds above the city seemed to respond to the cries of his people, swirling rapidly while lightning crashed through the murky vapor in a blazing, pyrotechnic display.
As the blue flashes from Eliza’s traps grew closer, the first of the soldiers on the southern wall raised a cry of warning. A mob of the feral undead had made its way through the last of the traps and was now sprinting toward their southern barricade. The troops lining the barricade hoisted their weapons as they prepared for the assault, while curses and bolts of malignant energy erupted from the mages on the wall.
“Archers, prepare to fire!” Riley shouted. The Kin stationed in the interior of the courtyard nocked arrows to their bows in unison, their tips all pointed southward. “Fire!”
A hail of missiles raced into the air, flying swiftly over the southern barricade. The cloud was so dense that it blotted out the sky above the market and an omnipresent whistling drowned out the cries of the ghouls. Then the arrows pelted the front line of undead racing toward the walls, crashing through their bodies. The occasional missile exploded in a nova of dark energy, briefly halting the undead charge. However, only moments later the feral creatures recovered and continued their headlong sprint.
And then they were at the barricade.
The wooden structure trembled under the assault of hundreds of ghouls as the defenders spread out, stabbing down at the creatures with their spears from atop the ramparts. Jason could make out Eliza and Cecil walking the base of the wall. The water mage’s mist glowed an ominous red as she used her spell to heal the defenders.
Faster than Jason expected, he heard shouts go up from their scouts along the eastern and western barricades, the undead circling around the market as they were blocked to the south. He could also make out ivory forms creeping over the tops of the buildings ringing the market before racing across the tiled roofs toward the market itself.
Riley barked orders, splitting her archers. She kept most of her troops focused on maintaining the constant barrage on the southern roadway while assigning the remaining divisions to the eastern and western barricades, reinforcing the troops there. This left the melee troops positioned in the interior courtyard to handle the undead that were coming in over the rooftops. With a shout, the melee line advanced, their spears and swords meeting any of the feral undead that dropped from the buildings ringing the market.
In the center of it all stood Jason, his dark gaze taking in all of this at once. His urge was to rush to the melee line and enter the fray, but that wasn’t the right move. His job was to lead and reinforce weak areas.
He didn’t have to wait long.
A rush of several dozen ghouls made it over the rooftops to the southeast and immediately dropped into the market, threatening to overwhelm the unsuspecting troops waiting below. Acting on instinct, Jason was already moving, sprinting toward the melee line with Riley hot on his heels while Jerry took over directing the archers from the interior of the courtyard.
Jason watched as one of the ghouls dropped onto a soldier. The creature’s claws tore into the Kin’s body before ripping his arm from its socket – congealed blood dripping from the open wound. More of the skeletal creatures followed close behind, and the line of Kin wavered and threatened to break.
In an instant, Jason was there. He swept forward with his staff, channeling Soul Slash a mere second before he struck. The blade of dark energy cleaved a skeleton’s head from its shoulders. Before its lifeless body tumbled to the ground, Jason had already switched targets, swinging his staff with a level of speed and precision he would have thought impossible only a few short weeks ago. A bolt rocketed past him, blasting apart a skeleton that dropped
from above – evidence that Riley had entered the fray. Instantly, they began to work in tandem. The feral undead fell before them in waves, and their troops rallied around the pair, pushing back the creatures.
Once the tide of ghouls slowed, Jason gestured to Riley, and the two retreated further back into the courtyard. In the time it had taken them to reinforce the line, Jason realized that the situation had worsened. The southern barricade was faltering under the endless waves of feral undead. The creatures seemed to have given up on scaling the surface of the wall, the hail of arrows, spears, and occasional explosion of ice managing to keep them at bay. Instead, they seemed to be clawing at the wood of the wall itself and the surrounding buildings – sacrificing themselves in their attempt to carve a hole into the market.
Meanwhile, the rush of undead coming over the rooftops hadn’t slowed, and even more ghouls were pressing against the barricades to the east and west. Their numbers were far greater than Jason had expected after killing so many on the walls ringing the city.
Despite the onslaught, each position was holding – if only barely.
“If we manage to keep this up, we might be okay,” Riley grunted in between firing off Void Arrow after Void Arrow at the nearby rooftops.
Explosions of black energy blasted apart the undead that streamed in over the buildings, giving the defenders in the interior courtyard a momentary respite. The soldiers used the reprieve to down healing potions and drag their wounded out of the way. Eliza had moved back to the center of the courtyard, using her healing mists to aid whole groups of injured Kin. As soon as they regained their feet, they were pushed back into the frontlines.
“You might be rig…” Jason began but stopped short as he heard a strange, choked roar come from the western barricade.
He turned his attention to the west just in time to see something truly massive barrel through the wooden fortification like it was made of tissue paper, pulverizing any of the feral undead in its way and tossing aside the wooden beams with barely any effort. The troops stationed on that flank scrambled to back away, trying vainly to reform their lines. Even more strangely, the monster simply froze in place as soon as it cleared the barricade, allowing him to get a good look at it.
It was a thing of nightmares, its bloated body comprised of layers of decayed flesh that looked like they had been crudely stitched together. Its torso was a bulbous mass of rotten flesh the size of a pick-up truck, and Jason identified at least six arms, the limbs attached at awkward angles. It was an abomination of dark magic that felt out of place amid the ivory bodies of the feral undead.
A quick inspection revealed the following.
Rotten Abomination – Level 315
Health – Unknown
Mana – Unknown
Equipment – Unknown
Resistances – Unknown
Holy shit, was the only thought that crashed through Jason’s skull. He could feel a sinking sensation in his stomach – not just at the loss of the barricade, but at what this creature represented. Someone new had just entered the fray.
Jason and Riley were already dashing toward the western roadway before the dust and debris had fully settled. They needed to keep the Abomination busy – the monster having thrown their defensive line into disarray. The only advantage was that the creature had destroyed an entire wave of feral undead by itself and seemed content to stomp any of the ghouls that wandered too close.
Jason did a double take as he realized that the monster was making no move to attack the Kin. Strangely, it simply stood in the entrance to the western roadway as their soldiers began to regroup. What the hell is going on? he wondered to himself.
He didn’t have to wait long for an answer. Even as Jason and Riley reached the western barricade, two figures stepped calmly through what remained of the wooden fortification. Their faces came into focus a moment later as the debris began to settle.
“Morgan?” Jason muttered in confusion. Their fellow Shadow Council member had finally made her appearance as she strode into the courtyard, her wooden staff thumping against the ground and a familiar smirk curling her lips. Beside her stood none other than Thorn himself, the man’s lips pinched into a grim line and his lone eye trained on Jason’s bone-clad form.
“Hello, boy,” Morgan said, unperturbed by the chaos that filled the market. “Fancy seeing you here.”
Chapter 59 - Devastated
“What, no witty response or inspiring monologue?” Morgan demanded, a single eyebrow arched as she watched Jason’s and Riley’s stunned reactions. “I was at least expecting a simple hello. You’re nearly as entertaining as my mute friend here,” she added, gesturing to Thorn where he stood impassively beside her, his lone eye never leaving Jason.
“What… what are you doing?” Jason finally asked.
Although, the answer to that question was staring him in the face – his mind already racing as it cobbled together the remaining pieces of the puzzle. It was clear now that Thorn had been behind the manipulation of the native undead. They had the “who,” but they had still been missing the “how.” Morgan filled in that hole perfectly. She would have been more than capable of creating the dark magic crystals that Frank had found embedded in the Wraithling nest and the gem that Thorn had first crushed in his hand outside the walls of the Twilight Throne.
“You have been helping him this entire time,” Jason murmured, an ember of anger erupting to life in his chest. That made Morgan responsible for the deaths of countless villagers in the outlying towns and the Kin that had accompanied Frank and Vera. She was also responsible for the attacks on the city – on his people.
She had betrayed them.
“Of course,” Morgan answered glibly. “What did you expect? That I had spent my entire life learning the dark arts, hiding and training in secret – despised by the rest of the humans – only to have some child claim the Dark One’s mantle?
“Did you think I wanted to be a lowly grave keeper when you found me? That I enjoyed living in that single room shack with a handful of books? No. I’ve always dreamed of more – yearned for more, just as you did. Except the difference is that I spent years training my gifts, devoting my life to the Dark One.”
Morgan slammed her staff into the ground with surprising force, her eyes glowing darkly as she summoned her mana. “It should have been me,” she spat with surprising venom. “Instead, you treat me as some glorified librarian? I should have been the one to conquer Lux and lead this city. Someone capable of making the hard decisions. Someone that understands that people are expendable – a means to an end,” she said, gesturing at the Abomination that still loomed beside the pair, it’s body a mishmash of decayed flesh stitched together at haphazard angles.
“Oh, oh my god,” Riley murmured. “Those were the injured Kin…”
Jason’s eyes widened as he stared at the Abomination, yet another piece clicking into place. He could recall Morgan’s words even now. She had managed to “salvage” the situation with the injured Kin – meaning that she had repurposed their bodies into this… this thing. The flames of Jason’s anger burned even hotter as this realization struck him, threatening to break free.
“Yes, my dear stupid girl,” Morgan replied, rolling her eyes. “They have been given a chance to serve a better purpose and so they shall.”
“Enough of this rambling,” Thorn interjected finally, his arms crossed. His lone eye skimmed across the courtyard to the southern and eastern barricades, where the native undead still threatened to overcome the Kin. “We did not come here to talk. We came to finish what we started: the annihilation of the Keeper and this corrupted city. What you choose to do with the remains is of little concern to me.”
Morgan glared at Thorn. “Don’t think to order me around, sycophant. You wouldn’t be here if not for my help.”
Jason saw a possible opening to foster dissent among the pair, and he forcibly shoved down his anger – no matter how badly he wanted to repay Morgan for her betrayal. “Do you thi
nk he will let you go once this over?” Jason asked. “His Order is hellbent on destroying any magic in this world. If I am removed as the Dark One’s avatar, that will just leave a vacancy that needs to be filled. Once we’re gone, you are next.”
Morgan laughed in response, turning her attention back to Jason. “I will take my chances. I am not some novice – some babe in the graveyard who stumbled upon my powers. No, boy. I have been training for decades. Speaking of which, perhaps our prickly friend is right. Perhaps it is time for me to show you what a real Necromancer can do.”
As Morgan finished speaking, she shrugged off the heavy cloak that hung from her shoulders. Underneath, she wore a plain tunic and trousers – not dissimilar to what she had been wearing when Jason first met her in the graveyard outside of Lux. Except now, an extra pair of arms adorned her torso. She had cut ragged holes in her tunic to accommodate the new limbs. Fresh wounds, only partially healed, revealed where they had been stitched to Morgan’s torso. Before Jason could react, her two sets of hands began moving, casting multiple spells as arcane words tumbled from her lips in a torrent.
Dark orbs of energy formed in the air in front of Morgan, condensing almost instantly into beams of obsidian energy that rocketed toward Jason and Riley. Just as the rays neared them, a hulking form dashed in front of the pair, the creature absorbing the blasts and blocking Morgan and Thorn from view. Jason soon recognized the brute as Grunt, throbbing green veins riddling the bulging muscles of his arms and legs. He seemed unshaken by the attack, only slight burns marring his torso.
“Now, now, what is all of this turmoil over here? Can’t you people see we’re busy?” Jerry said to Jason and Riley, appearing next to Grunt and casually leaning against his bodyguard. Then he seemed to notice Morgan and Thorn for the first time, his eyes widening theatrically. “Oh, Morgan, I almost didn’t notice you there. You’re looking well. And it’s lucky that you’re here. I had just been thinking we could use an extra hand or two…”
Awaken Online: Dominion Page 62
