“Those are a LOT of undead.” I muttered, looking down into the valley Lenore had guided us to. The valley itself was unremarkable, sparse vegetation, many rocks and nothing that looked like thriving life. But then, given that there were countless figures, all with glowing, ghastly green flames in their eyes, a distinct lack of flesh and blood, all slowly shambling around in the valley, driven by some unknown desire or command, that lack of life became understandable.

I could hear Adra swallow heavily, a sheen of sweat on her brow despite the cold wind flowing around us, high on the mountain-ridge and I had the distinct impression that Olivia was just a little green around her gills. But then, if I had to hazard a guess, there were some fifteen-hundred undead in the valley, stretched out over a mile or two and while individually, they were weak fodder, their sheer mass was… impressive.

“Go with our plan?” Lenore asked, pushing herself out of her Hallow. Looking down, it was obvious that we wouldn’t be able to use our Avatar-Form, not to start things out at least, the duration was simply too limited. No, we needed to do this slow, steady and with a massive ritual that would blanket the whole area, disrupting and destroying the Undead as efficiently as possible.

“Yeah.” I agreed, stepping back from the slope to clear a bit of space to work.

After a deep breath, both for air and to raise my own tension, I started to work, raising my throne in practised motions and taking a seat, my newly created crown resting on my brow. Lenore hopped onto my shoulder, our minds rubbing against each other, as we moved into close communion, ready to do some serious magical heavy-lifting.

The first step was simple, half Ice-Rune Magic, half Wind-Magic, channelled through the Crown of the Northern Wind, giving us a medium and a means to spread it. Sitting on the Throne, I used a curious feature I noticed in the Blades of the Northern Wind, namely their ability to channel Astral Power to draw Ice-runes. Wind-Runes might work, too, but as I didn’t have the mastery and Lenore didn’t work in runes just yet, we couldn’t test it. But for the simple runes of Cold and Mist, it worked, the pair floating on either side above my Throne, forming a Rune-Triangle with Lenore and me as the third point.

As we slowly, carefully channelled Astral Power into the formation, Mist started to billow out, driven forward by Lenore’s Wind-Magic, joining seamlessly into my Rune-Magic thanks to the Crown, allowing us to create something new and interesting. But we weren’t done just yet, it was merely the first step, the opening, so to speak. The mist would billow out driven forward by the wind and down by good, old physics, as heavy, dense things moved downwards.

Done with that first step, we pushed the Magic-Formation into the back of our minds, letting it passively continue the slow drain of Astral Power from our massive reserve, giving us a continuous medium, to which we were still connected.

And that connection was the basis for the second, the real step, a combination of Darkness- and Death-Magic, not even trying to destroy the undead, but only to disrupt and dispel them. Darkness was the Magic of Change and our idea was to Change the Death-Magic inherent to the Undead, using their very existence as their undoing, unbinding the force that held them together and letting them fizzle out, as their changed forms wouldn’t function any longer.

It was a bit of a reach, based on the fiddling I had done with the skeletons earlier but Lenore and I were reasonably certain that it would work. And if not, we could always turn around, run down the hill on the other side into the valley and escape that way. We had spent a couple hours, the entire afternoon, making sure that there was no unpleasant surprise waiting for us, ready to jump out just as we ran. Even now, Rai was keeping an eye on our avenue of escape, soon to be replaced with Adra, who’s eyes were better suited to keeping watch.

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“I command them to fall!” I spoke, my voice soft, the words more directed at myself, as I started channelling Darkness-Magic, joining it with the Death-Magic channelled by Lenore. Sadly, we didn’t have an item similar to the crown for Darkness- and Death, but that only meant we had to do the heavy lifting ourselves, our joined minds carefully guiding the caustic mix of Power into the Mist. The effect was most curious, what had been a white, billowing mist instantly turned darker before settling into a colour of bleached bone, dried and eroded away by the elements over countless years.

Despite the cold wind, I could feel myself starting to sweat, the effort of pulling Astral Power from the Astral River and channelling it into the spellcasting slowly eating away at my stamina. Without the throne, I would likely have faltered under the heavy load, falling to my knees or even passing out. But just sitting on my Throne, in control and command over the Cold and Wind, it gave me the boost needed to keep going.

Around us, the natural wind that swept the mountain-tops got drawn into our spellcasting, shifting ever so slightly as it danced around us, acting as a counterpoint to our spellcasting, the sound a soft, whistling dirge for the lost souls below. But they wouldn’t have to endure for long, for I was coming to set them free, free from this mortal coil, from the endless, dark fate of wandering the valley, lost in the shadows of Death.

Lenore and I could easily feel the moment our mist fell onto the first Undead, the chaotic power holding it together rebelling against the slow, seeping effect of our mist, getting eroded by its caustic nature, the delicate balance necessary to keep an Undead going disrupted. They didn’t fall instantly, but there was an instant effect, their shambling movement even less secure and steady than it normally was. Normally, their march was slow but sure, inevitable like the march of seasons, but now, suddenly winter wasn’t leaving to make way for spring, instead trying to hold on, until it could lead into fall again. Instead of moving the right leg forward, the right arm moved, instead of maintaining balance on it’s skeletal feet, the skeleton was making a fist. Chaos, where normally order ruled, disruption where balance was needed.

Normally, the first skeletons would have reached us within maybe ten minutes, as they made their way up the mountain-side, but now, some thirty minutes after our magic had reached the first skeleton, they hadn’t managed to get half-way up the slope and the damage they were taking was slowly piling up. A minor disruption within the magic holding them together, but with each moment, with each disrupted and confounded command within their spellwork, the damage was mounting.

Not mounting fast enough though, after about an hour, I could hear Sigmir let out an angry grunt, just before the shattering sound of bones assured me that the first skeleton had made it up the slope, only to get punted back down with prejudice. But, taking a moment and a tiny bit of focus, allowed me a quick peek, letting me realise that while the first had made it, that didn’t mean an army was about to run us over. No, it was simply the first that had enough Endurance and Vitality to make it up the mountain, an outlier in toughness that had literally stepped over dozens, maybe hundreds of its brethren. Only to meet Sigmir’s Lok’Nar, with its silvered edge and bone-crushing force behind the swing.

A quick scan of the mist told me that over half of the skeletons had already succumbed, the number rising slowly but steadily, just as the advance of our mist had been.

“What’s that?” I asked Lenore to pull her mind out of the constant, deep focus necessary to keep the magic running at a high level. The short distraction would cost us Astral Power, as we couldn’t replenish without full focus, but we had reserves, hopefully they’d be enough. But the weird vortex that had formed in the middle of the valley, drawing in the mist we had created and even the wind, that required investigation.

“I’m not certain.” she admitted, uncertainty colouring her mental voice.

Before we could discuss the issue, the wind suddenly shifted, a burst of magic and wind blowing out of the valley, forcing away the mist and letting us see. Where before, there had been hundreds of skeletons, there was now only one, not much larger than those who had gone before, but the pressure it let off was on a different level.

“Ooops?” I muttered, looking at the massive monster and realising that it was staring right back at me.