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I HUNCHED DOWN over Mare’s body and stared into her face. Her glassy dark green eyes with vertical pupils were open wide and staring into the sky. Her expression contained so much resentment it seemed like Mare had not died at all, only laid down for a moment to regain her composure.
Sharp facial features, white skin, a fragile constitution. If I hadn’t watched my warriors die to her blade, I never would have believed this was the bloodthirsty Mare. The cursed Demon of the Night.
A message that appeared suddenly before my eyes forced me to shudder. In it the Great System was offering to let me bring this primordial back to life. To do so I would need the heart and three drops of primordial blood. Essentially, the system was suggesting I return Mare’s heart and blood to her from my backpack.
No thank you! I chuckled and refused. I have to destroy this brute’s body before someone else brings her back to life again.
“We should go through her pockets,” I heard the ever-present Wheeze. “Someone like her probably has stuff worth taking.”
I shook my head. Everyone has their thing. Wheeze’s is loot.
My gaze landed on the blade still gripped tightly by Mare’s dead hand. The very same Demon of the Night’s Sword I had gotten as loot.
While the artifact’s description closer, I almost didn’t notice Wheeze reaching out and nearly touching the blade.
I managed to grab his wrist at the last second. I could read fear and surprise on the foxman’s face.
“Apologies, Great One,” he burbled out. “Bug have confused me.”
“Fool,” I shook my head and stood to my full height. “Before grabbing onto whatever you see, read the description first.”
“Yeah, I pretty much did,” the fox said, perplexed.
I frowned. Then I realized. Wheeze doesn’t have enough Mind to see the whole description.
“It has a short but very important part you can’t read,” I nodded at the sword. “It says that only followers of Darkness may use the sword. If anyone else takes that sword into their hands... Basically, it will do exactly what this brute was doing to our troops. In other words, you’d be lying next to her right now as a neat little pile of ash.”
The fur on the back of Wheeze’s neck stood on end. He jumped sharply back from the cursed knife but, quickly getting a handle on his fear, asked:
“And what, is there nothing to be done? As far as I can tell, that is not the only artifact.”
“Indeed, it is not,” I agreed. “But somehow I don’t much want to go looking for more. You’re the commander of our loot brigade. The cards are in your hand.”
Wheeze shook his head vigorously.
“Uh... no. If all her junk is like that, leave it lie. The smart way thing to do would actually be to give Coal a command to turn this beast into ash along with her stuff.”
I laughed and patted the clever fox on the shoulder.
“Now there I recognize our Wheeze. And as for the ash... Don’t get ahead of yourself. Let’s just leave her here for now. We’ll deal with her later. We have bigger things on our plate.”
After saying that, I nodded at the wall. Behind it, we could hear the sounds of battle.
As if confirming my words, we heard troops shouting:
“Necromorphs! They’re necromorphs!”
Though Udun had shut his trap, the assault was still ongoing. In fact, the pressure had increased if anything.
“Time to cool this freak’s jets,” I muttered and activated the whipsnake summoning amulets.
The foxfolk greeted the appearance of the snakes with a unified roar.
“Your turn!” I shouted to Coal.
And he looked to have been waiting only for this. Quickly slithering over the wall, which looked like a rickety wattle fence compared to his massive body, Coal stopped opposite the necromorphs racing his way. The archers stopped shooting.
Twenty steps... fifteen... Ten... The necromorphs ranged in level from thirty to fifty. Their bodies had changed so much one could no longer tell exactly what creatures had been used as a basis for creating them. The beasts raced forward in a solid wall.
And a strange message appeared before my eyes:
― Attention! Shield of Light has blocked the spell Whisper of Darkness.
― Would you like to remove the block?
I chuckled. So that’s what spell Udun was using to talk to me and the others. All that remained to figure out was how he was able to see everything so well. Though I had my guesses...
I considered it for a second and removed the block. Let him talk. Maybe he has something interesting to say.
“Little hunter, you’ve managed to catch me by surprise again!”
I smiled.
“Is it just me or do I hear notes of fear in your voice?”
“Oh, don’t flatter yourself.” Udun responded a bit too hastily. “Yes, you managed to defeat Mare... Though I still can’t figure out how you did it... But that doesn’t mean a thing yet! If you’re counting on your beasties helping you stop my army, you’re deeply mistaken! I’m quite sure those were your final trump cards! Better just submit to me!”
Hm... So, he knew about the whipsnakes. There was no point in hiding them now. Alright, let’s let it ride. To my eye, we still had too much time left before the end of this hand.
“And yet I can sense your fear,” I repeated.
“Foolish little hunter!” Udun broke down laughing. “What do you know about fear?! Better think about how to save your beasty. You don’t think you’ll regret losing him?”
“I really hope you’re somewhere on the edge of the forest right now,” I muttered and gave a command to the whipsnake.
“What do you mean...?”
Udun didn’t finish that thought. At that exact moment, Coal gave a quick flick of his tail, and a giant wall of fire covered the running necromorphs. The foxfolk standing up on the wall staggered back from the wave of heat. A few even covered their faces with their elbows.
The wave of fire rolled off toward the forest, turning everything in its path to ash without mercy. The bodies of the necromorphs went up like torches and burned up instantly.
The wave of fire rolled to the edge of the forest and hit the wall of trees. The giant trunks burst into flame with loud cracks in the unbearable heat.
“It’s like the gates of the Abyss have opened,” Wheeze whispered out, standing next to me dumbfounded.
The foxfolk waved their weapons in celebration. Menacing cries and aggrieved insults went flying toward our enemy.
Udun’s speech cut off midsentence. Maybe he got hit by the whipsnake’s spell after all? I hurriedly started running through the victory messages and rewards but, alas, none of them mentioned a necromancer by that name. As a matter of fact, the creep didn’t even get hit.
As if reading my thoughts, Udun spoke up.
“Flea-ridden rodent!” he barked. “You just wiped out years’ worth of labor! You cannot even imagine how much energy it took to create this whole herd! You little scumbag!”
Udun’s voice was shivering in rage and hatred.
“You better hope I don’t get my hands on you alive! I’ll disembowel you with my bare hands...”
“Block,” I commanded the system, and the stream of curing came to an end.
Udun was beside himself with rage. And that was exactly what I wanted to achieve.
“Get ready!” I barked to my troops. “Coal, back!”
The whipsnake obediently crawled back over the wall.
Just in the nick of time. The burning trees were covered with dark fog and the flame went out instantly. And out from the fog began to jump giant level-one-hundred spiders at least as big as Gorgie. They overcame the thirty-pace distance in a matter of moments.
Sparky was just preparing to activate her killer spell when several big, huge dark balls started flying our way. When they were still just a few yards from the wall, the first ball suddenly grew larger and transformed into an energy spiderweb. A second later, a dark sticky substance was covering the left edge of the wall along with its defenders.
A deafening cracking sound came from a few points in the wall. The sound of weapons, yelps of the dying ― it all blended together into a fearsome gravestone roar. And that’s just one spiderweb! Look how many of them are flying in!
― Attention! Shield of Light has blocked the spell Whisper of Darkness.
― Would you like to remove the block?
Udun wanted to chat. To the abyss with you, vile necromancer!
Finally, Sparky cast a Thunderstorm at the spiders, which swallowed up the dark balls flying our way as well as a large number of the eight-legged monsters. The lightning ripped through the beasts like ragdolls. Their black blood went spraying every direction. The earth started to shake from the thunder and powerful impacts. The frequent flashes were blinding.
Finally, the thunderstorm settled down, leaving behind nothing but smoking heaps of battered bodies mixed up with dirt and rocks.
Udun didn’t try to talk to me again. He responded in a different way though. The dark fog wisped together on the edge of the forest then slowly but surely came crawling our direction. Something was constantly moving around in the loose but viscous mass. Fireballs and balls of lightning went flying into it. That was the whipsnakes. The fog responded with a deafening chirr and hiss but kept moving.
Seeing that the snakes’ attacks were doing nothing, I ordered them to stop wasting mana and, getting up on the edge of the wall, removed shield of light’s block.
“It’s over, little hunter!” Udun slid in with an acrid comment. “As I said, your trump cards are all on the table. It’s a shame I had to sacrifice so many servants, but you’ve made me very mad, little weasel! Surrender now like a nice boy and I’ll have mercy on you!”
“You know,” I said, looking at the inexorably approaching fog. “For the last few days, I’ve been busting my brains looking for the answer to a question.”
“You think I care about that?” Udun laughed. “You’d be better off considering my offer, foolish boy.”
“I didn’t realize right away that you sensed the death of the spirit and closing of the portal. But I should have seen it coming. Then my scouts told us they managed to escape a wraith.”
Udun burst into laughter.
“Naive.”
“Yes, that was my second mistake. But then you, as if mocking us, sent an advance party of orc drifters to the Bridge of Bones. And that was your first mistake.”
“Sarkhaat, the dolt!” Udun came angrily. “Those orcs were constantly up to something. All they’re good for is taking defenseless prisoners. If not for that, I’d have made them into necromorphs long ago.”
I chuckled.
“So, Sarkhaat survived the opening of the portal?”
“He is the only shaman still alive. If he had not brought the other shamans to us to feed to the portal, it all could have ended for him... he-he... less fortuitously.”
I chuckled.
“You’re two peas in a pod. A couple of traitors. One betrayed his older brother, the other... Well, that’s a story for another time.”
“By the way, Sarkhaat is hell bent on taking revenge on you for murdering his grandson.”
“Don’t worry about that,” I waved a hand lazily. “I’ll get to him, too.”
“Ha-ha! You’re funny! You still think you can get away scot-free? You know, I can offer you a deal. Surrender the city and all your warriors to me, and then I promise you will become my senior slave!”
“Basically,” I continued, ignoring the necromancer’s laughter and taunting. “You made a mistake, and we realized that you somehow knew what was happening in our city and the surrounding area.”
“Sure, big problem,” Udun snorted. “Did you think a low-level alarm system could stop someone like Mare? Only a blind man could get caught in your web.”
“I suspected something like that,” I agreed. “And it wouldn’t matter except you suddenly started talking to me. Whisper of Darkness, is that right?”
“What a smart little hunter,” Udun seemed to be really enjoying our conversation. It was clearly soothing the necromancer’s ego.
“You started speaking to me,” I repeated. “And that was your mistake.”
“Is that so?” the necromancer came mockingly.
“This reminds me of a game my father and I used to play. We called it ‘pull the threads.’ Bit by bit, we’d unravel a riddle by pulling at the threads.”
“Kid, you’re just stalling,” the necromancer chuckled. “Look at what is coming toward your city. Soon It will swallow up you and your servants.”
Paying no mind to Udun’s words, I continued:
“Meanwhile you were the one that gave me the little piece of thread I started pulling at.”
“You’re losing your mind. I can sense your fear, little hunter.”
“When we killed your girlfriend, you could see everything perfectly. And here I thought you were somewhere in the forest. But then, before dying, without suspecting it herself, Mare gave me the final clue. When she was begging you for help, she kept looking up. And when I looked into her dead eyes, reflecting bits of clouds, I asked myself a question. How often had we raised our heads and looked up at the sky? I knew the answer right away ― we were constantly looking around expecting an attack from the forest. And we totally forgot to look up!”
I raised my head and smiled ravenously.
“Another thing I remembered is that you are King Nidas’ brother. Solenholm, Darta, the Guardians of the Wind and their golden gryphons! As a member of the royal family, you must have had your own golden gryphon. Is that right? And you probably turned that golden gryphon into one of your nefarious beasts! And now, I assume you are flying on it, hiding with some spell that’s making it impossible for others to see you!”
“Bravo, little hunter!” I heard a shout from up above. Almost right over my head. “Your mind is like a steel trap. The only problem is the mechanism is just a tiny bit stiff!”
I gave a malevolent smile. I’ve got you now, creep!
“And speaking of your brother!” I said. “I wanted to send you his regards!”
After I said that, I activated King Nidas’ legendary spell ― Ravisher of Darkness.
The no-man’s-land between the forest and the city was instantly covered in a beam of the Great Light. It swallowed up everything in a hundred-yard radius. The black fog moving on the city ceased to exist in a matter of seconds. A bright column of light stretched down from the clouds and hit the chatty necromancer.
A drawn-out aquiline cry made everyone look up. A winged creature fell down from the sky right onto the no-man’s-land, clumsily spinning circles. I was right. It had nothing in common with a golden gryphon. The monster, a ghastly mixture of bat and crocodile, carried a rider waving his arms impotently, trying to exert some degree of control over his horror pet.
An instant later, the flying freak, flailing its wings and bones, fell to the ground. Its master was not so lucky. The brute fell on its back, pinning the rider down with its whole powerful body.
The Great System quickly reported the death of the flying necromorph. Its creator was still alive, though.
Activating avatar of chaos, I hopped down from the wall and headed over to the dying man.
Right before my eyes, the body of his beast was gradually smoldering to ash. The Great Light had relentlessly destroyed the Death-magic spawned creature.
Udun was wriggling around in the pile of burnt flesh like a maggot in a chunk of rotten meat. Despite his unenviable position, the necromancer was struggling doggedly against the hostile magic. And he was doing a decent job. You’re strong, creep! The fearsome burns on his pale skin started to slowly heal over and scar.
I quickened my pace. I could not allow this monster to survive my spell.
Udun noticed me and bared his teeth. And suddenly, I distantly considered that the Prince of Darta had once been a stately and handsome man. But Death magic always took its toll. Although perhaps Udun was a head-sick bastard before.
“You’ve outplayed me, little hunter,” he rasped out.
“You were too talkative,” I shrugged and threw a handful of mites and blots at his chest. The hunter magic immediately started draining all the magic energy out of the necromancer.
Udun began hissing and launched a large dark ball at me. But to his misfortune, my body was protected by the shield of light, so it absorbed all the damage with ease. I didn’t even flinch.
The final attack plus my spheres had sapped all the necromancer’s energy. The scars on his body stopped healing over. His pale skin started to smoke, and in a few places turn black and charred.
Udun squealed in pain.
“Little flea-ridden brute!” he rasped. “You... You...”
I hunched over the dying man, and we met eyes.
“You’ve lived a long and worthless life. You are a crazed murderer, who has tortured thousands of innocent souls. You betrayed your family. And what’s worse ― you betrayed your very world, becoming the lackey of otherworldly invaders. I am glad you’re dying from a spell your brother created.”
“But... how... did... you... get... it...?” every word Udun squeezed out came at an enormous cost.
“When you finished exterminating all light mages, you and the Steel King committed a fatal error,” I shrugged. “I believe you upset the balance of this world. And its lord, the Great System, does not much care for imbalance.”
Udun wanted to say something, but he didn’t get the chance. His body flickered and disappeared instantly into thin air. And before my eyes flashed messages about loot for defeating yet another Primordial.