"I flew through the skies on the wyvern, which was almost falling apart. Finally, I noticed Arlin and Steorra in the distance, conversing between each other. I landed the wyvern near their position, and let it fall apart.
Slowly gliding in my phase-shift condition, I noticed a huge amount of auras a fair distance from me. Whatever could that be....?
I appeared by the bushes behind my two convoys. They noticed me, and bowed.
-"I trust your trip was uneventful. Now, shall we go?"
The mages silently nodded.
-"Good."
We left the area, and advanced towards the fortress. Just as it came into view, my heart took a dive.
The lizards were everywhere, everywhere. It looked like a giant mass wobbling around the grim fortress. The noise was rather loud, too. So, Retan actually had some military muscle, it seems... Although it was less than perfectly organized. Some lizards were running around in the crowd, stirring up some commotion, something about some High General... I couldn't quite make it out.
-"Steorra, could you run a little check for me?"
-"Of course, my Lord. What do you need?"
-"I want you to prospect the force lines around this fortress."
-"Of course."
She took off the curious glowing gem in her staff, and looked through it, as if a prism. She squinted her eyes, looking up and down at the fortress, then back and forth.
-"Well... there don't seem to be any particularly strong lines... there are just individual points... but I may be mistaken. All those lines extending from you are kind of swamping the view, I can barely see anything through them... Yes, I definately see several very strong points..."
-"Good, that will do. Thank you."
So they didn't have any other active Necromancers in there. That's a relief. Blah, should've made a bit of an amendment to the treaty, denying the practice of Necromancy... oh well. It's not like there are any other practicioners as powerful as myself.
Just to prove my point to myself, I resurrected some bug I just squashed, and blasted a lightning bolt at a nearby tree, setting it ablaze. The troops in front noticed me, and made a general clamor. I advanced towards them.
-"This is Kronos, Marshal of the Kandarinian Sovereignty! I am here by invitation!"
The lizards shuffled aside, letting me through. Well, at least they were disciplined. Me and my convoy crossed the path from the mainland to the actual fortress. The gigantic black gates were closed. Now just to get their attention...
-"Arlin... Is it true that you've had experience in summoning?"
-"Well, yes, my Lord... but all I can summon is a small black drake... and I can only do that once per day, it takes too much energy for me."
-"Why don't you go ahead and summon it?"
-"Of course, my lord."
Arlin turned around, looking towards the sky. He set his hands apart, and his body oddly bent backwards. His eyes were closed, and he was shaking violently. Soon, some static sparks were jumping in between him and the ground, rising him a little bit into the air. Damn, he sure does make one heck of a show for just summoning a drake. I mean, it's a drake! Not even a full dragon!
The skies were even more turbulent than before. A small opening through the black shroud covering the fortress appeared, revealing the white clouds over it. The one particular cloud extended through the hole, slowly taking the shape of a dragon. The newly-formed drake flew circles around the fortress. Arlin slowly lowered himself back down onto the ground.
-"Good job, Arlin."
I waited for the drake to fly around the fortress another circle, all the while charging up a big, powerful lightning blast. Just as the critter was finishing its second revolution about the fortress, just when it was next to a large window, I let go of the lightning, aiming it right at the drake.
The result was truly spectacular. A deafeningly loud thunder rolled down onto the ground towards the forest in the distance. A lot of the lizard men stumbled, nearly falling down. For about ten seconds, a blue shining image of the Kandarinian symbol illuminated the ground beneath, sparking with lightnings. It was nearly a quarter of the fortresses size. If this little doorbell didn't get their attention, I have no idea what will."
--- --- ---
Horus followed Draven, somewhat amazed at the behaviour of the general with his opponent. It was a bit reckless of him, he thought. A finer job done would require complete stealth, at least for that sort of operation. Horus, however, was lacking in the stealth department. All he knew was brute force.
Then again, there was the now-defunct Dark glass cannon. Thinking back to before he was in this cold shell, Horus remembered the hours that he and his team spent on creating the perfect conductive material. They tried all sorts of metals, which, as one would guess, would happen to be the most conductive. However, none of them were nearly as conductive as the goal required. Months were spent trying to synthesize the correct compound in alchemical vats, but all attempts failed.
But eventually, as in many cases, the light came. The team found an entire new compound, which was as mysterious as the quest for the perfect conductor. It was collected painstakingly from rare crystals in the high alps, in such small amounts that it was near impossible to get a usable bunch. They appeared to be in bent formations, as if forming a gigantic circle... it was like whatever was the source of these crystals went out with a big, big bang...
After many more hours of studying the strange material, the team was able to synthesize it in mass amounts. The results were beyond anything thought achievable - the arcane energies flew through the material better than through air. Here, one would ask the obvious question: Why?
The fun thing about that kind of problem is that when you have a good conductor, you can direct arcane at whatever you want. The result was a cannon with sniper accuracy, its power even greater than conventional cannons. Using powerful energy storing crystals, the team was able to assemble a new prototype of weapon, one that required no ammunition.
That is when the raiders struck. After this, Horus' memory was but a blurr of chaotic images, sounds, and feelings. He could make nothing of it, and it did not matter now. The scientific purpose was lost. Now Dark glass was nothing but a means of destruction.
A means of war.
--- --- ---
Ein rubbed his head, and looked at Marshall.
-"Sure, let's go. I do think there is a village nearby, we could go there."
He walked through the dark looming trees, his path illuminated by nothing other than moonlight. In hopes of forgetting, he forcedly thought of Amaya. His heart sank, but he manned through it. Be a man, Ein. You pulled through worse things before. Wait, no, you didn't. But still. Be a man. Just forget about it.
Relieved, Ein saw the lights of the village up ahead. He hurried towards it, finally hoping to see some friendly faces again. In this haze, he tripped on a root and nearly fell down, but that did not stop him. He ran and ran and ran, towards the nearest house, and banged on the door. A tall, sturdy man opened.
-"Hello... you're a new face. Can I help you?"
Tears of relief were running down Ein's cheeks, smudging the dirt that stuck there during the course of the day.
-"Could me and two other folks here spend the night in your house?"
-"Why, of course! My door is always opened to travellers!"
-"Thank you so much, kind sir!"
Ein hurried inside the house. He slightly glanced at a girl sitting nearby, who was eyeing him suspiciously. Probably the guy's daughter... //that means your char, Jenia\\
--- --- ---
Roland's division was on its way of destruction, advancing towards Ugran, bringing doom to the Aspye doorstep. However, a small clamor passed through the zombies - there was a settlement ahead. Hell, if Kronos was taking over Gaian, why not kill two birds with one stone?
He commanded his beast the other way, towards the settlement. The zombies blindly followed. There was a scout tower a small distance before the village, which would undoubtedly rise alarm if Roland's army was noticed. Perhaps they should take down that outpost first...
There were still a few scorpion machines at his disposal, although not too many. While all the other divisions had 200, he barely had 10. On the other hand, while all the other divisions had soldiers who had to deal with morale and health, Roland's army mostly consisted of unfeeling zombies, the supply of which was being constantly replenished.
The lead scorpion set its tail-mounted cannon at the base of the tower and fired, basically ripping the whole thing down. The canopy at the top tumbled to the ground, killing the sentry inside it. His lifeless corpse fell down on the ground, Roland could sense his death. However, he was moving... and Kronos' force lines were nowhere near his location...
Roland hopped off the back of the beast, and approached the corpse. Its hands were shaking, and something was moving inside him. The commander kneeled down before the dead person, taking a closer look. The movement inside of the lifeless shell stopped.
Suddenly, the body jerked upwards, almost to a sitting position, then fell back down.
Again.
And again.
Something was trying to get out of the body!
Just as the thought crossed Roland's mind, the corpse's chest exploded, blinding Roland with blood. He stumbled backwards, cursing and rubbing his eyes. He opened them to find a blurry, but nevertheless very disturbing image.
Before him was standing the dead man's ribcage, on two legs. The... creature? also had two long tails, composed of unused bones. It, making a churning sound, wobbled towards Roland.
Realizing what this may be, Roland quickly glanced at where the body used to be.
If Roland was still alive and still had a stomach, he would throw up. The body was still there, or at least the skin. It still looked like a person, but only a very deflated one. There was a large cut at the place where the creature burst out.
The commander quickly rolled over, dodging the attack from the creature, and yelled out the total assault command. Obviously, the creature had no chance of surviving a speeding cannonball, virtually disappearing in a black blur.
The rest of the army rushed onto the village, tearing down the defences and the defenders. Roland hopped back onto his carrier animal, and began making way towards the village. All around, he still saw these unsettling events - as the villagers fell down, their body began trembling, and soon thereafter a creature burst out of them. Some were the same strange creatures that attacked Roland - the bipedal ribcages with two tails. Others looked like a complete nightmare - a chunk of human-shaped flesh, with no face on its head. Only a mouth. The bony spikes everywhere didn't look too inspiring, either. Oddly enough, his own falled soldiers turned into these fiends as well - exact same procedure, exat same result. These phenomena were creating a big problem for Roland's army. Little groups of these creatures united, and swarmed lone soldiers, ripping them to shreds, only to give birth to more abominations.
Of course, nothing could stop the might of 6,000 Kandarinian warriors. They gunned down the creatures with their spearguns, pinning them to the ground. Strangely enough, once the abomination was shot with a projectile that would kill a normal human, it rapidly whithered away in greenish ashes. On the turn side, one of those things could take as much as 30 normal zombies.
Finally, the army completely brought the settlement to its knees. Roland was personally slitting the throats of the more resistant villagers, while the rest of the soldiers pillaged the houses, scavenging for supplies.
Once finished his grim job, Roland looked around him at the hard 10 minutes' job. Buildings everywhere were splattered with blood, but there were absolutely no corpses. Whatever caused these strange events, they were methodically thorough. They affected every single corpse in and around the village.
-"Hey, Roland! We found this covering in one of the basements!"
Roland turned around. There were two guards dragging a curiously-dressed person, who was violently resisting his captors. The things he wore - most closely described as light armour - was made of thick, black leather. His left hand was wrapped in black leather belts with silver-shining buckles, sporting a tightly fitting glove on the end, while on his right hand resided a bleached white dragon skull, quite small for its species - about the size of an ordinary bucket. The man, who had pale skin and blueish-purple hair, was using the skull to bash his assailants.
-"Wouldn't tell us his name... some weirdo, he is. Had these creepy symbols in his basement, skulls 'n' stuff."
-"Let GO of me, you stupid morons!!!"
In a particularly violent fit, the captive managed to whack the dragon skull at one of the guards' face, while throwing the other one down with his free hand. The guards instantly sprung to their feet, aiming the spearguns at the man's head. Roland stopped them with a movement of his hand.
-"Tell me, do you know what happened to the villagers and my soldiers?"
-"Other than severe cases of mental retardation for both of them, no. What do you mean by that question, anyway?"
-"Well... would you know anything about certain things conveniently bursting out of people's chests and the like?"
The captive's face cleared, as if he finally understood what Roland was talking about.
-"Yeah, I know. What's it to you?"
-"Well, right now, as you can see, you are somewhat at a weakness before me... Perhaps we will spare your life in exchange for this... information..."
The stranger thought for a moment, then looked back at Roland.
-"Okay then. I made them."
In a moment of silence, Roland thought that his eyes were going to fall out of amazement.
-"You mean, it wasn't an object causing all this nonsense?"
-"Nope. I'm a Necromancer, moron. How else do you think I did that?"
Roland stumbled and nearly fell. His head felt uncomfortably light. Another Necromancer? Kronos would probably need to deal with this himself...
-"Tell you what, kid. I'll get you a convoy and a transport to our headquarters, and in exchange, you comply and don't fight back. Is that fine with you?"
-"Heh, the warden is asking favours from the prisoner. Who is your leader, anyway?"
-"Well, let's just say that you and him have a lot in common..."
-"Is he a Necromancer?"
-"Yes."
-"Why couldn't you just say so, idiot?"
Roland growled. Through his gritted teeth, he spat:
-"Just... get... on... the... wyvern..."
-"Fine then. I hope I won't be seeing any of you retards any more. Bai."
He hopped onto the wyvern. The wyvern's "driver" steered it towards the Kandarinian mainland.
