A beautiful golden sword was being lifted, the armored hands of crimson knights in their bulky plate armor kneeling before a stage, with a red carpet underneath them, inside a large room of marble, gemstones, and diamonds. Rising from a Queen sized bed, two busty Maids pull the sheets on its canopy of Bronze and Silver. Revealing a long sparkling golden blonde hair. “Your Majesty, the Queen. As requested, we present to you the weapon of the first Knight of Man. Gram." The ornate sword of gold and blue sapphire was a true spectacle to behold, capable of emitting its own holy aura, its polish enough to blind an unsuspecting man.
“Hmmm… haaaaa…”
Echoes of the voice of a deep womanly voice fill the room as the blankets turn over and to the sight of the Knight was their Queen, without a single cloth to cover her body as she slowly crawls on all fours towards the front of her bed. The Crimson Warriors lifted it closer to her as they lowered their heads even more. Her slender fingers slowly caressing its pommel, sensually reaching its hilt as she violently takes it from them.
“Ah, a sword worthy of dosts’ beauty. Tell’eth me, Knight.”
“Yes, Your Majesty, the Queen!”
“Have thou ever challenged a Hero of man?”
“I’ve yet to experience such glory in battle, Your Majesty, the Queen!”
“Then, are thee prepareth to follow one to the depths of mankind's futility? Where they can rise against all odds?”
“For three years we’ve subjected the Kingdoms of Man, Elf, and Demon under the fist of the Vampires. The Heroes of Man shall not be victorious against us, not with us the Crimson Knights of Her Beauty!”
“Good. Leaveth me, my Knights. Tell your peasants, your weapon bearers and grunts to assemble tonight. Victoria, Lara. Give me the purple one.”
Black. Without a single thing for one to see, the images fade to none as a new is ushered in. Beholden infront of her, inside her Kingdom. The Kingdom that was supposed to last forever, now burning and in ruins. As she, the last standing Noble of the Vampires stood before a human man. Brimming with confidence, his eyes full of hope, wisdom and love. Though his face was bloodied, ashened and bruised. He and his party from all the sentient races of Threa faced her.
Laying infront of the woman was the corpse of the King of Vampires, his body mangled and burned. Even as she looked, the carcass of the man she spent a thousand years with faithfully now lay smoking and oozing with flames.
“QUEEN OF THE VAMPIRES! I’VE COME TO END YOUR TERROR!”
“Ahhhhh…. Ahhhhhh….” her face was flushed, but not with fury or anger. But with lust and pleasure as the world around her falls into ruin. “Man… Man and its struggle, Man and its weaknesses, Man and its uselessness, Man and its emptiness. Tell me Human, after you’ve killed all Vampires, just as the Kingdoms before you tried over and over again, what will you do?”
“I don’t intend to do that!”
Appearing behind the Hero was the Houses of her Kingdom, wearing there most luxurious ensembles, looking as lavish as ever as they kneeled to her.
“Ahhhhh… how pitiful I’ve become. To think the very Lords that me and my King shared our blood with now turned their backs to the Kingdom they built from the ground up. The Minuits, Dreyfus, Voltaires, and Charlemagnes… Charlemagnes… how… insolent of thee to turn thou’s back to the very King that created your House and gave you free reign to enter the Houses of Lords.”
One of the Vampires wearing a blue and gold Nobleman's attire stood up from his kneeled position.
“Your Majesty, My Queen. I apologize, truly. But the dream must end, we know you wanted to better us, give us the ability to reproduce without needing to bite the flesh of a Non Vampire. But look around you, it has bought us nothing but ruin. We share your sorrow, your sadness, and loneliness to the situation of our species. But as Sir Brownley has said, we cannot fall into anything lower than this.”
“Hah…?” her head tilts in an unusual way, enough to break the neck of a normal person as she grabs her sword from the throne. “Should I start with you? I can easily kill this Human. I am suprised he hasn’t even castrated himself in the sight of my beauty.”
“As if! You might be beautiful, but your soul is as dirty as the mud outside! Full of blood and limbs of the warriors that fought and died against you and your tyrannical reign!”
“Then… cometh at me. After I am done with you, I shall make sure the only Humans that remain on this land are the ones bred for food and pleasure.”
Faded. Her vision was clouded once again as she could see a faint image of a stone coffin and a hand rising from it. With green flames surrounding it, she was then placed once again somewhere. Cramped and dark, she could hear machines audibly working. Soon, footsteps came and it surrounded her as clicks of a camera were orbiting the enclosed space she was in.
“It’s here!”
“Woah! Look at all this art!”
“Is that English?! That’s English!”
She then felt being moved to the surface as gunfire and the whizz of the rotors of aircraft was coming by at all sides.
“THE WEREWOLVES ARE ATTACKING! GET ALL OF THE ARTIFACTS INTO THE CHOPPERS! WE’LL SORT OUT EVERYTHING LATER!”
“SIR!”
“SERGEANT.”
“The Scientists had told us to leave this one.”
“What?! Then why the fuck did we waste an hour bringing it topside?! Put it in one of the storage rooms and put a marker on it.”
“SIR YES SIR!”
But she ever heard anyone putting anything on the surface that was right in front of her. Soon she felt the air getting lighter as the constant whim of the interior of a helicopter engulfed her. Before she knew it, a ray of shine hit her face. Though unable to move as her body has long gone its sensual beauty, but what remains was a blackish cadaver of a once curvy and immaculate body. A purple dress that has long gone its fashion and style, and all it was is a smelly corpse of a dead woman.
An attractive blonde woman in full plate armor then hovers over her. “I apologize. I know you do not want to return, but you have a role in all this. My name is not important, I know you will find out anyway. I shall offer you the blood of a Hero.” She then sees a helicopter flying over the rattling floor without a ceiling that they were on. The tall beauty turned to look at it and her hands clenched in fists. “If only they knew, if only the Gods would let me.” She then slices her palm and squeezes it. Blood oozed from it.
The small batch full of pure and unadulterated power was enough to make her return to herself. Without even taking a single moment, she tries to grab the woman's neck but she dodges it and the woman then turns to face a man. A Death Knight with his Greatsword out.
Even though the slits of the Death Knights helmet completely hid his eyes, she could see a familiar sight as the eyes of the strange man turned to face her. Hinted with fear, it was also overflowing with confidence and strength.
“I could use him as a base for your dead husband, Queen Elizabeth.”
Her vision then returns. A city tainted with red as she locked eyes with Jackson inside the Police Department.
“Elizabeth?”
“O-Oh, I apologize, My Lord. I seem to be reminiscing.”
“No worries. You've been fighting for so long. Do you need to drink my blood?”
“Nay. It’s not that. I just… remembered.”
“Hm?” The General then faces away from the table. Immediately walking to her and sitting next to the woman. His Colonels and Yamaoka ignored his absence, continuing to talk tactics and strategy as the windows were further boarded up, blocking out the red tint emitting from outside. “You remembered? What about it?”
“Nothing. Just odd things, really. Nothing that matters.”
“Is that so? Well, if you need me. I’m always here.”
She turns to face her Lord and her vision of him suddenly shifts to a blonde man with blue eyes. Pale and handsome, the warm smile hit her very heart as she turned to the window and stared at it.
“Are you sure you're fine?”
“Y-Yes. I feel odd though, I feel like something is tempering with me. This is unusual.”
“Hm? A Psychic attack?”
“I do not know. It's strange, this never happened to me before. Why… why do I see his image in you?”
“Who? King Charles?”
The Officers and Yamaoka turned to face the two. After a second, they all looked up to the ceiling and back to the table. Each of them giving winks to one another and slight nods and expressions of discontent.
“Yes, My Lord.”
“Don’t you just miss him? It could be something as simple as that.”
“It’s impossible. For a Vampire of my age, missing is but a trifle. I may think of it, but I may dismiss of it as if a passing thought.”
“You did spend a long time with him, you might just be under extreme stress in the situation we’re in that you started maybe remembering. He was afterall a purebred primordial vampire like you.”
Elizabeth then faces him and her gloved hands lifting his cheeks.
“My Lord, if you’ve lived as long as I have. Of kin or purity, it no longer matters. What matters is the companionship, the compatibility between us. Do you think I would’ve ever agreed to becoming your subordinate if it weren’t from what I saw in you?”
“I meansh, yoush mightsh besh havingsh a traumash ofshh shorts…”
“Nay. That is not the answer.”
Yamaoka with a paper in hand then walks over to Jackson.
“These are the things we’ll need in the Central District.”
He then looks at the beautiful Queen, even at the messy command room inside the Police Department, where the flooring, covered with a tarp over it, was full of marks from their boots, dust and bits of debris from the ceiling everywhere. She was clean, pure, untouched, and angelic in her very being. It made Thomas blush as he coughed.
“Could it be that you just can’t get over your husband?”
“If that was so, then I would’ve broken the fealty of the contract and I must disappear from this world.”
She said it with such a straight face Jackson had to intervene.
“WAIT, WAIT, WAIT. Let’s… let’s not go that far, alright? Let’s all calm down and logically think this through.”
“But it is true, My Lord. If a married Vampire was to become the subordinate of another, be it Vampire or Non. Their marriage is null and no longer bound. Hence the stories of Husbands going to the main continents to retake their beloved. As to be under another by Contract of Blood means our very being, soul, and power is up to you now.”
“Well let’s not get ahead of ourselves.”
“If this is true, My Lord. After this, may I peacefully be laid to rest in a forest? Though I know I am not worthy of such a burial-”
“NUH UH.” The General breathes a long sigh as he puts his hand on her exposed shoulder. Seeing his eyes made her visibly blush. It made Yamaoka’s eyes widen at the sight of the woman oozing with beauty and danger, seemingly fleeting and tamed. “Didn’t I tell you? To live as you wish? That you have the right to live happily and move on from your past? We’ll figure this out. Don’t think too much about it. Right now, what’s important is the task at hand. Can you fight?”
“As always, My Lord.”
“Good. That’s all I need and hope for. Don’t let something like this to cloud your mind.”
“I apologize, My Lord. I just couldn’t help it after the idea of infidelity was told.”
“Infidelity? Noooo…”
“Well Jackson, there is a thing called Emotional Infidelity.”
“YAMAOKA, SHUT.”
“Ahem. Yes sir.”
“Now. Elizabeth, I want you to get your head out of the gutter and into the game. Whatever your thinking, it's not the normal you. This has to be an external thing. Someone somewhere is manipulating you. I trust you, and will always do till my last breath. Don’t even think for a second that I’ll treat you differently just because of something this small.”
The woman smiles and takes him by the hand. Pulling him into the couch she was on and immediately rested her perfect white face into the befouled uniform of the man. Not caring of the state of his clothing.
“Yes, My Lord.”
“Ahahahahaha… But I’m very dirty right now Elizabeth. Your cheeks are so white even a hint of the soot on my uniform would stand out.”
“As if something that small is gonna make me act differently to you, My Lord.”
Yamaoka visibly had a wide smile on his face. “Dang, we have a name for people like her in Japan whose smoothness more than matches her beauty. Sumūzuna hanashite.”
“Instead, how about someone give me an update on the two Dragons! Have they defeated whatever that thing was?!”
Swimming underneath the ocean, Mars and Bahamut sees what it was. A massive Eel with a streamlined spiky body was making its way to a lone Destroyer a few nautical miles off the city's Docks where it could freely fire anti air rockets without any threat of danger as the Vulcan cannons on it tore apart any Flying Swords and Gargoyles trying to get close while its missiles fire at targets within the city, helping out the players on the ground in keeping the skies clear for them.
Mars quickly takes the initiative, overtaking Bahamut and speeding up to reach its head while the Black Dragon grabs its tail with her powerful jaws and opens her wings underwater. Suddenly gaining buoyancy, the Dragon starts to gain altitude, reaching the surface at a fast pace while her jaws are biting into the tail of the cosmic sea creature, bending its rubbery skin inwards as it glows a strange purple from its body. It then started to violently shake and tremble and the Dragon’s eyes squinted and saw Mars' smoother spine heading straight towards her out of the ocean mist.
Bahamut lets go of her grip and dodges Mars whose neck was being completely bitten by the giant maw of the creature, holding thousands of sharp teeth, each having the size of a small sedan. Unable to crack the armor of the Dragon God, the giant Eel with its six eyes and its extremely armored frontal body just kept pushing the Red Dragon. Using her frontal legs, Mars forcibly frees herself and breathes fire onto its direction while underwater. Onboard the Destroyer named Siegman, a sudden plume of steam appears and on their Sonar, all they could see is one big long creature that’s far wider than their Arleigh Burke Class Destroyer and longer than four kilometers spinning around against two blips labeled Dragons. Alarms then blared and an announcement came.
“BRACE! BRACE!” Everyone grabs onto whatever they can as a huge body of a Cosmic Eel with thick concrete like rubbery scales on its body appears next to the Destroyer, the height of its towering size rolling over their ship. Its body defies the very logic of physics as it spun around the Destroyer like a twisting helix as another face appears.
This one, the Black head of Bahamut and her huge horns swimming towards them and then going underwater and reappearing on the other side where she then spreads her wings fully. The wake it created listed the ship violently as she took off and hovered above the sea giant, constantly spinning like a drill on the surface of the water, its body looping on top and below the Destroyer. The Dragon then continued to watch over its head, Mars creeping on its side as if the two were a Pack of Wolves waiting for the chance to perform the kill.
It then stopped looping, its head going deep underwater as a laser beam was emitted, Bahamut was fast even with her size, making it graze her as the purple and red laser bounced off her neck armor, changing it from one large beam to multiple smaller ones. Angered, the Dragon dives head straight to it, violently biting the Cosmic creatures’ face as her wings hit the water from how big and long it was. The huge metallic tail of the Black Dragon was splashing just as chaotically and mere meters from hitting the mast of the Destroyer as the rest of it disappeared into the white smoke.
Mars then appears, her crimson red Dragon head slithering to the middle section as Bahamut continued to gain altitude as the Eel continued to trash about. Its body is now fully seen by everyone.
With a dark tone and oil seemingly oozing from its orifices the moment it got out of water, the creature was of another realm. With long aerials on its body and three large eyes on each side of its head, brightly coloured gold and its sails of a pure white color, enough that not even the red tint covering the city was enough to overpower its brightness.
“My good man, do you see that disgusting sea creature warring about?”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
“It's been giving My Lord a headache. I do not want to see it any longer.”
“I concur, Your Highness!”
Standing next to Elizabeth, the player holds up the radio mic and screams “FIRE!” and on the seaside lookout, aligned like an execution squad, tanks open fire into the body of the eel that’s being lifted from the seas by the Dragons. The high explosive rounds make the open wounds from the sharp fangs of the two massive Dragons worse and Mars takes advantage of this. Whooshing from below the seas and biting the giant armored eel in half.
“YAY! GOOD HITS!”
“Indubitably. Let us return to the streets, let those two have their fun, Colonel Henry.”
“Of course, Your Highness!”
Inside the Barracks in the middle of the city, smack in the middle of the park where a makeshift tent city was built. Resting players have pitted two skeleton soldiers against each other. Wielding a Targe and a Mop. The soldiers place their bets on their boney compatriots. Silently sitting on another corpse on all fours, acting as their horse.
“I bet on Skelly boy!”
“Ten on No Skin!”
“Twenty on Skelly!”
The door to their hardened tent then swings open and on the other side was General Jackson. Everyone immediately dropped what they had, even the two skeletons and saluted the man.
“What the…”
“SIR!”
His eyes just flicked multiple times at the sight he was beholden to and the man catches his breath as he loosens the straps of his vest. He sniffed it a bit and could smell a certain sweet but spicy aroma coming from it, compared to the rest of his body, having a burnt scent.
“I need multiple volunteers. All of you are commanding seven skeletons each so I require at least three squads to be up on the roofs and protect a resupply point. We have a package that’ll be arriving soon from Woodstock.”
All of them stood up and faced the General. “Who here was the longest to rest?” multiple of them continued to stand up and he pointed his finger at three random soldiers and then to the exit. Without hesitation, they packed their gear and wore their vest and helmets. Checking their rifles and jogging outside to catch up with the high ranking officer, now in the sea of men wearing Multicams and wearing the same set up as the rest of his own grunts. The only thing denoting Jackson's rank was the epaulets on his shoulder, the Five silver stars proudly flashing their cleanliness. In stark contrast to his battered uniform and face. “Grab your skeletons and get over there now.”
The soldiers ran to the other section of the city park FoB and grabbed their skeleton soldiers standing at ease inside an empty barracks that had no furniture aside from a single light bulb. Like robots coming to life, the skeletons sprang into action. Following their squad leaders as they loaded up on trucks and delivered to Central, the heart of the city and where its sprawling skyscrapers draped every corner of your eye. The once prosperous part of the city was now in a sad state. With broken windows and scattered glass in all parts of the road and bullet holes marking every corner of the streets with the road now in a pitiful state. If you were to walk bare feet, you wouldn’t even be able to reach a meter before your soles would be full of debris and shards.
High above them, two giant Dragons orbit around the city. Celestial birds of prey watching over a corpse being defiled further by predators. Breathing fire into two of the three portals that opened above Central, Downtown and Uptown. Chaos was everywhere and the ground rumbled once again and a new sound emanated from the portals. Roars of something deep and even more dangerous. Soldiers posted around the ground zero of where the demons would appear from look up and their eyes squint at the sight of large burly humanoids with green skins. “ORCS! WE GOT ORCS!” Everyone looked up at the same time to see the seven foot tall fat and muscle with armor drop around them with fangs coming out of their bottom jaws from their large lips and started swinging their Great Cleavers at the skeleton soldiers and players. Demolishing their kevlar armor and ripping them in half.
The armored vehicles with their explosive weaponry unable to intervene as the players got into the mixture of the greenskins. Many were forced to use their swords and sidearms but the size and amount of flesh on the Orcs made it hard for them to go down with a few mere shots. Many needed half of their magazines to even physically damage one enough and the Downtown and Uptown portals had started to drop them and the already ensuing violence only tripled by the original of a sentient enemy. Even the Officers, being of higher level than your usual grunt was unable to win over them in a close quarter battle, the green skins in proper armor and equipment able to throw and play around with their bodies, there abilities far surpassing even known Orcs in Dark World as they made a mess of any human or humanoid that they came across.
In the midst of the new chaos, a large warhorse in gleaming blackish armor with purple glowing eyes with a rider glad in a mysterious demonic armor lands on the Central Portal. Looking over to the corpses of the skeletons and the bodies of the players turning into golden dust. One of the Orcs comes up to him holding an M4A1 assault rifle and an RPG-7 with a thermobaric warhead.
“My Lord, these are the weapons these strangers from another world wield. It has done great damage to my Legion.”
With an eloquent voice, befit of a high born man. The Orc wearing a full set of plate armor hands it over to the mysterious person in demon armor. The person grabs its sling and with its free hands, with sharp armored fingers on its gauntlet, the person curiously handles the gun as it then presses the trigger. Shooting itself. The bullet merely flings off its armor. “Huh.” The muffled voice of a male could be heard and it returns the weapon to the Orc as it swipes its long black cape and the person looks to the top and sees the two giant Dragons dancing about the reddish skies of the city.
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“Wonderful… two Dragon Gods… my visions didn’t lie to me… they were the ones that visited my awakening.”
“I do not know why they haven’t just laid waste to this wretched place. I assume it is due to its importance, My Lord.”
“Indeed. Sir Harbert. Assemble your Legions and reach out to the large forest in the middle. This is only the beginning.”
“They have a base there. Their swirly birds of metal would land and take off from that area. Their concentration is far to high for us-”
A Black Crow with shiny fur then lands on its shoulder. The greenskin tries to shrug it off but the mysterious armored humanoid holds his wrist, preventing him from swiping it off as the ground shakes and Bahamut flies over them. “Let it speak. Crows are envoys of the dead and those who represent it.” it then tilted its head and calmly observed the armored man. “Lady Death, Mors Letum. I could see that Crows are still in your fashion.”
“Tell your Gods that we shall prevail. Look to the skies and know the Dragons rule.”
“Ah, interesting. Yet your divinity is akin to that of the Goddess of Death. I do hope Lady Death approves your leasing of her bones.”
The Crow then takes off into the sky as the spiky tail of Bahamut disappears through the sky high buildings and the armored man looks around to see abandoned armored vehicles and the Orcs ripping out the barrels with their own hands. His head then turns to the intersection and a T-90M with M113s and Bradleys behind it arrives. Pulling the reins, he faces the main battle tank and medium armor arriving, as they disembark the infantry onboard them. They quickly took cover behind the debris and hid behind the armor. With only a handful being players and the rest, mindless skeleton soldiers. He gestures for the Orcs and they all turn to look at the tank far away from them. Before they could even start their march, the modern armored machines started opening fire and they all cut down the burly green skinned men prompting him to unsheathe his sword and point it to the skies.
“King Vitas, be sure to prepare for the main course when it arrives.”
A bright red beam is then emitted and it hits the portals which then makes it enlarge by a few meters and Demons have started to appear alongside a mist coming down into the city. The armored formation alongside the soldiers with them looks above and the reddish skies was then clouded by the gray of coating coming above from the hellish cavity that broke through time and space itself to snare the city from another world.
The gunner inside the T-90M tracks the target the Commander gave him and lets out a High Explosive shell as a mist comes down from above them and he switches to Thermals and his eyes flickered at the sight before him.
“Jas, my man, are you seeing this?”
“Uhhhhh… that’s odd… switch to target three. The FCS should still be able to lead…”
“Negative sir, I’m blind.”
“Wait one on that, Taxi, do you copy me?”
“I copy you Bear. We’re having slight problems with our sights right now.”
“We’re having the same problem here. I think we should retreat-”
A swirling fire comes into view, removing the mist and giving the soldiers and the armor some chance to see the Orcs that have already closed the range between them and were nearly about to whack the soldiers. The commander of the tank pops out of the hatch and turns around to see a humvee has arrived and a Mage with a staff has both of his arms fully extended and his eyes closed and his mouth on a frown.
“Good shit!”
“I’m trying hard to focus right now! Don’t make me scream the chant and expose my position!”
The man on the driver seat of the Humvee with an eagle on his shoulders then runs to him. Climbing onto the tank and kneeling beside the commander.
“S-Sir?! What’re you doing here?”
“They took down the antenna. These fucks are learning fast. Retreat now, we lost our comms here and it's breaking down fast. It’s only been two days and they already closed our air support and made our thermals crap.”
“Where to?”
“Rally Point Bravo near the Central Bank.”
“Roger.”
The commander looks forward and sees that the situation has been controlled, the Orcs have retreated into cover and he immediately returns to his position and orders their own retreat. The soldiers then started to slowly return to their vehicles One by one, they didn’t lose composure and returned to their armor and left a reinforcement skeleton platoon to defend the sector as the mist engulfs the entire city. Bahamut and Mars occasionally flew around certain areas and using their downwash from their massive wings in hover, would push the mist away on surrounded troops and reveal the Orcs wielding bascinet helmets with red lenses that’d emit steam when in contact with the mist.
Their plate armor was complete with chainmail underneath it and a belt that contained two potions and a knife. Alongside it was another strap on their legs, either holding a small ax or an extra shortsword. With their front plate having an extra layer of an unknown metal, capable of resisting bullets to a certain degree.
On top of the high rise building’s helipad surrounded by three squads worth of soldiers, Yamaoka and Jackson are met by a Blackhawk landing. Its doors slide open and a player hands them over a briefcase. The 5 Star General opens it and his face goes dim upon the sight.
“Jesus, this is the one Rostock gave us back in Eldwood.”
“High Command heard you never got the chance to use it.”
“Well yeah, why would we? It’s supposed to be a back up plan in case Breznick and Libertus would overrun us and we’d lose everything. Might as well test it.”
“Congrats with the job then. Since High cannot let this place become a part of Hell, they’d rather blow it all up.”
The two Generals had their faces tarnished with oil and debris and their combat uniforms showing the age and battle they had been through and their disappointed expression only added to the slug they were going through. While the soldier High Command sent was in a squeaky clean uniform with a Blackhawk that was seemingly painted yesterday. Paul takes the briefcase and salutes the player which quickly returns the gesture and into the chopper and out of the city. Dodging the Gargoyles and Winged Swords flying about as it disappears into the horizon of red.
Jackson then opens the briefcase once again and observes the interior of it. With a code ready and set, and a red button for launch. He makes a deep sigh upon the face of it.
“Chotto, what is that?”
Yamaoka then takes a small piece of paper that’s oddly shiny. Jackson’s face lit up upon seeing it and took it from his hand immediately. “Oy!”
“This is an Assassins paper. They communicate by either jumbling words sent through the air or by this, an enchanted parchment capable of giving the user a pre recorded message.”
“Ehhhhh… and who is the Assassin in your group then?”
“Only one. We’re all Knights except Hassan himself.”
“What… you mean that Arabic leader of yours?”
“Yup, his original class is Assassin. That’s how he can sneak up to people without them noticing.”
Yamaoka’s face was full of confusion as he remembers seeing Hassan in Iron Mountain, usually in the form of a malnourished old man with a big white beard and brown skin whose body is wrinkled and aged to an extremely late stage of maturity.
“Ehhhhhhh… he usually takes the form of an Oji. How?”
“That’s the old man for you. But have you ever seen him in armor?”
“There was that one photo. He has this strange skull head and stood at about seven and a half meters tall. Wore the King Death Armor Set with an Assassins cape.”
“Oh will you look at that, someone actually managed to photograph him in armor. Yeah, when you see him in armor. You better run.”
“It's odd though, your leader wields a Greatsword and a tower shield even though he is an Assassin.”
“He doesn’t need to hide when everyone who sees him in that form dies. Not even Elizadeath was safe from him. She was already hailed as the community Hero and was given the Hero buff. Yet all he did was teleport behind her and beheaded the woman without care.”
“Ehhh…. That is scary.”
“Mhm. So let me see what the honcho has to say.”
Jackson then closes his eyes and concentrates. His dark vision was then filled by fire as heavy footsteps came around the darkness and to him. It was his leader, the commander of the Death Knights of Eldwood in his armor. Towering over the man.
“PilotMan, or should I say, Jackson. Do not let the fatal orders of our friends in the UN overtake what you think is right. Do what must be willed when it must be willed, the battle can be won through many ways, and absolute devastation which only leads to absolute depravity should need to be the last option, or never the option.”
His vision then returns and the man smiles.
“What did you see?”
“Just the old man being himself. Sergeant.”
One of the soldiers then comes running to him and salutes.
“SIR!”
“Take this briefcase and hide it in the airbase.”
“SIR YES SIR!”
He then walks over to the railing and looks down on the city. Its streets are all covered with the mist as faint muzzle flashes and magic could be seen from nearly all streets and the three huge portals emitting the clouds from their gaping holes. The two giant Dragons doing their best alongside whatever aircraft pilot had the balls to keep flying at the situation at hand in supporting as many players as they could.
“Can we make it, Jackson?”
“We have to. We’ve already modified the plan. The three armies that will come to aid us should be able to delay them further, maybe an extra week, at least.”
“Are you sure she’s gonna come? Even with the target behind her back?”
“Doesn’t even need to be her. The blondie Prince can also come and save this shitshow from becoming worse. What Bahamut said… it might be solved since the Gods favor the Heroes.”
“The Heroes… I don’t know if I should be happy that I don't have the responsibility of carrying such a title or wish to be like them and have all the power in the world.”
“Whichever it is, I just want to go home and lay my back on my bed… this is gonna give me gray hairs before I reach fifty.”
“How long do we have to hold out? Jackson, if this keeps coming. We’ll have to retreat to the Airbase. It's only been two days and they're already bringing out so much against us.”
Down below them, a roar comes from a Giant that got taken down by a tank. A gaping rod sized hole in between its eyes as its body crushes its mangled helmet that’s been dented and broken with large calibers beyond belief. The players simply jog past its corpse, the nearby Mages flinging their assault rifles to their backs as they emit fire from their hands and balls of flames linger around the street, clearing the mist and revealing the five formations of undead grunts with their metallic shields approaching them.
A slight draft hits the two Generals on top of the tallest building in the city as their soldiers fight tooth and nail below them.
“As long as it takes. I will stand by my promise. I won’t let the city fall, and your right anyways Thomas.”
“Hm?”
“What better are we to them if we end up just destroying what we’re supposed to protect?”
The Sergeant with the briefcase then walks up to them.
“Sir, I’ve called for a chopper. It's heading here. But I need a high ranking officer to come with me to the bunker sir. I do not have the password.
Jackson takes it and then hands the steel briefcase to the lower ranking General.
“Give this to Colonel Henry. Have them keep this in the small bunker under the Airbase. He should be done clearing up the waterfront with Elizabeth.”
“Roger that.”
“Before that, let’s talk to our Dragonic friends. If our theory is correct, then the entire dynamic changes completely.”
After handing the case over to his lower ranking subordinate, the General breathes in and then yells out with all his might. “BAHAMUT!” The Dragon far away quickly turned around and started heading for the two. “Should I call Mars?” he merely nods and Yamaoka also calls for his Dragon to come along to him. Red and Black, the two flying ancient lizards got smaller and smaller as they approached the top of the glass building and when they finally reached the helipad, their size was that of a house cat.
“Yes Master?”
“Can you remove the mist?”
“I can Master, but I’ll have to increase the ambient temperature to near boiling levels.”
“Yamaoka?”
“It’s definitely possible. But I fear doing so will set off the explosive gasses all around the city. Mars, can you do anything about it?”
“Hmmmmm… I can use my magic to contain the explosions. But that will mean we won’t be able to go around and help your troops for a few minutes.”
“What about it Jackson?”
“If we lose our Dragon air support in a short time, we’ll have to rely on our aircrafts fully…” as if his mind did fifty calculations at once, the General nods. “Do it. Give me an hour and a half and we’ll cover the skies with our birds.”
The two Dragons lowered their heads and took off. The General then turns his head to the Captain next to him busy on the phone. Grabbing his vest to pull him closer.
“Get everything that can fly, I don’t care if it's someone in a broom or a griffin, jet, chopper, or an enchanted trash can with wings. If it can do damage, make it fly.”
“SIR YES SIR!”
“Now, Bahamut.”
“Yes, Master?”
“Tell me, how many Gods do you need to close the portals?”
“Five extra more, Master.”
“Could the Gods send their power through one person and it would be the same?”
“... … Master, don’t tell me your planning…”
“I am. That Priest, Hendrix. I think what we’re seeing is the Known Gods at work. I can’t even wrap my head around how they did this or just the cosmic powers they hold. But if I’m seeing the obvious, the solution will come to us.”
“I hope it isn’t the one I do not like. Master, if I burn that woman…”
“You have to hold it in when it comes to that, Bahamut. I’d love to put a bullet between her head myself, but not now. Any help is acceptable.”
“Grrrrrr… the Gods of this world are playing us for fools.”
“Calm down.” Mars voice removed the angry aura of the atmosphere.
“I am here because I want to help TomTom. Bahamut, if you pick a fight against them, I will stand against you. We will not win.”
“Tsk! I’ve done it before! I can do it again!”
“At what cause? Bahamut, do not forget you aren’t fighting for your own now. Do you want to cause pain to your Master who you love so much?”
“Gah! I shall hold it in. But I will never forgive that woman for what she did to Master. I never want to experience just grief and dread in my life ever again.”
As she yapped on, Paul grabs the little dragon and hugs it tightly. Wrapping his arms around it and ignoring the spiky spine she has as he slowly swayed. Resting his cheeks on her small ones.
“Haaaaaa… Bahamut. It still hurts you to this day huh?”
“It does, Master. To see you bleeding so profusely, your lips losing its redness, your breath shortened. I never had so much pain without even getting physically hurt. I do not think I am capable of experiencing something like that again. My soul would shatter.”
“Don’t worry.”
“Last time you said that Master, you got a Divine arrow cursing you.”
“But not this time. Remember, we’re here to protect. Leave our past for now. Even I have to hold it in. So you better wish it's the Prince.”
“Haaaa… one of these days Master. You’ll give me a heart attack.”
“If I could give a Dragon a heart attack, then that’s an achievement.”
Back down below, Elizabeth helps around the makeshift hospital. Getting wounded players hurt by enchanted weapons to their necessary places. In between the gurney’s would be machine gun positions with already spent casings around the sandbag covers meant to protect them. The Doctors worked around the clock, with both military and civilian ambulances bringing in players inflicted with soul bound curses and wounds. Making them unable to heal from it after death.
The lone Vampire’s ears twitch and she runs back outside and intercepts a bunch of grunts going around the flanks of the hospital around the alleyways that surround it. Even with the mist that now severe the sight of a common man. With the Vampires heightened senses, even without the need to see, she could feel the grunts and with a stylish landing. The woman’s heels echo through the alley.
“For a bunch of corpses, you sure do put up a good fight.”
Six bangs were heard and skeletons fell to the ground alongside their Daggers and Stilettos. She then turns around with her eyes small and her slits for pupils fully dilated as a silver sword makes contact with her pistols. The massive armored war horse roars as its rider mockingly laughs.
“It truly excites me… the soul of a million people in one.”
“A Demon Legion Commander?!”
“The Gods of the Unknown have long awaited for you, Vampire Queen. But you live up to your reputation of being unkillable.”
She immediately tries to shoot the man with her AutoMag Vs and follows it with her ancient Vampire sword. The Demon Commander didn’t even flinch, nor was his armor dented. She then uses the blood from the dead Orcs around her as a weapon, turning it into the shape of blade thinner than the atoms, but it all didn’t even damage it as the towering figure of the Knight stood completely still.
“Heh. Good to know my name rings to even the vials of the Underworld.”
“Yes, yes it does. Only one person has done the damage you did in such a short amount of time, the Genocider of Elves, Beadot. You are a one of a kind woman, one with such a pure soul tainted by the tarnished blood of the Primordial Vampire… you would make for a good General for the Legions of Hell.”
“Sorry, but I’ve long retired. I’m sure there’s a million other women ready for that role. I’ve done enough massacres and killing, I prefer to use my power for good.”
“Pfffftt… you jest even when you're facing me. Ahhhh, but that is the power of a Vampire of your caliber. You can even lie to a being like me just as if one was breathing.”
Even though the rider's voice was muffled through his intimidating helmet. Elizabeth’s keen ears could clearly hear his deep and commanding tone.
“I have a lot of requirements, you and your Gods do not meet any of them.”
“In the Underworld, we can supply you with endless blood and endless bodies to feed on. What’s not to like for a Vampire like you? Don’t you want to be with the man you spent a thousand years with? He awaits you.”
“Things changed, and I was never that type of woman in the first place.”
“Ah, do not lie to yourself, Bartley. You might have a good upbringing, born from good blood and blessed with amazing looks and of sound mind. But your soul, deep down, held the monster you truly are. Vampirism merely revealed what cretin hid in the vowels of your soul.”
“Your wrong Rider of Hell. I never accepted that part of me and never will.”
“Tell that to the corpses you’ve piled. Now revelling with pure angst and jealousy. Why me? Why my blood? I have so much to live for. To this day, they still scream for your soul, for your demise. Your husband to this day cries in Hell, in his sparkly armor of gallantry and heroism, in pain and suffering. Would you not want to be reunited with him?”
“Tell them they can wail all they want. I won’t go anywhere. My husband has long died. I do not want to show him my face, the face of the woman that devastated his humanity that he held onto for so long.”
“Ahhhhh… such fleeting love… a love meant to truly last for eternity. Gripped by the truest form of violence that encroaches every bit of Lunaris. Oh, they call it Threa now.”
“The visions you gave me, what was that about?”
“A mere proposition. I take the body of that human and I can place the soul of your husband in it. But in exchange, you shall work for us.”
“Pfft. As if I am going to accept just a ridiculous offer, dost really think’eth that I will be unfaithful? Even in my worst, when thy’s sanity was goneth. I never thought of leaving My King.”
“I am not jesting nor putting any other caveat to this deal, I could fully revive your husband back from the dead in his peak form and power.”
“Nay, leave me be. I have a new life now, one detached from that version of me. I will through My Lords words.”
“That human? What’s the word of a sad beast like a Human will give to a flower that ever dries up like you?”
“I have the right to live on and be happy, move on from my past and be a better person.”
“What makes you think that after all this that you can live peacefully? After all you’ve done? Even to this day, lingers the anger of the people against your tyranny. When he dies, will you be able to live without being hunted down? Without having to drink the blood of those you whom?”
“... … I will and I can. For that is what he had told me.” Elizabeth then looks up to the skies, its red color hiding her light skin tone but her golden blonde hair shining through the tint that has taken over everything. “I realized something… after he told me those words one year ago. That I was merely looking for someone to tell me to stop, to tell me I could still live even after my crimes ballooned out of proportion. I started with slaves, ended up with entire nations to find a solution to my people, to my kin. I forsake of my love to my King, forsake my People, and the Soil we built our Kingdom upon.” She then looks straight into the Demon Commander’s eyes hidden behind the lenses on the slits of its hemet.
“But when he told me that with the same earnest, pure love of humans, I couldn’t look away. I plan to live, move on and forget. I shall carry with me the story of My Lord and his Heroics and I will sing of his words and wisdom till my last breath. Whenever that may be.”
“Then, I wonder if the Dragons would…”
The rider looks up, even though the mist has covered everything. The outline of the massive Dragon as they breathed fire from the skies and down to the roads below shows.
“When will the Gods know that their ambitions should sometimes be put to rest? To revive my dead husband. Pfft, such jesting. Do they think I am an easy woman just because of my bit of insanity back then? This is me when I am sane, the true me.”
“Hmmmm…?”
Even though the slits of his helmet completely covered his eyes, Elizabeth could clearly feel his stare go to her. The imposing stature of the spectacular Knight was of another world, a presence no being on Threa could ever replicate as it even made her senses tingle. A first for many eons.
“You dare… defy the Six Outer Gods?”
“I do… but I’ll leave it up to the Dragons to do something about it. They are the ones best known to question the order of the world and of nature itself.”
“I do like a good fight. Prepare! Tell your puny human friends and lovers that the Legions of Hell shall come in full! Be afraid, pray to your Gods and Goddesses and watch us burn the world once more! We will bring balance to this world full of peace and harmony, bring chaos and pain back to the lands they once belonged to! Balance that gives life and removes life! A world without pain and suffering is a world that is dead! Castrate yourselves when the Demon Lord arrives!”
The Rider then pulls the reins of his large war horse and the rattle of its hooves disappear into the mist as Elizabeth was left in the alley.
In the airfield, MiG, Sukhois, Lockheed, and Boeing military aircrafts are all preparing for take off. Artillery could be heard echoing nonstop in the horizon. Not a second past when you wouldn’t hear a shell being flung into the direction of the city as a large defensive network of barbie wires, tank traps, and bunkers was laid on the entire borderline to the city. Using the empty canal as a killzone where in some sections, the bodies of the Gargoyles, Zombies, and Skeletons and Giants have piled so high it's as if their corpses will soon replace the water that formerly flowed through it.
A battered Elven Captain with his face covered with ash and debris looks above to see the reddish skies and down to the city with the white mist covering it. Only the muzzle flashes of cannons and guns being seen. He walks over to the radio and grabs it. Bringing it along him as sirens are heard and players and skeletons run back to their positions. “WE GOT ANOTHER HORDE COMING!” “SOMEONE BRING ME MORE FORTY MIKE MIKES!” “I NEED ANOTHER BOX HERE!” mud doused his already dirty uniform as his men ran to their positions and the ground rumbled. Giants with huge tower shields were now in the frontlines while behind them were thousands of skeletons and zombies.
“TAKE COOOVVERRR!!!”
The Captain simply continued walking as he tried to adjust the knob and get a good volume on what was being told to him whilst flaming and poisoned arrows landed around the trench. Some flinging off the armor of the tanks and almost hitting the soldiers. Fireballs then came and then lightning. Many of it hitting empty sections of the trenches but collapsing entire pathways and entrances. He stops and looks down on the radio he was carrying and starts adjusting it as gun and cannon fire starts. “THIS IS TRENCH LINE DELTA, REQUESTING FIRE MISSION. SIX LINE TO FOLLOW.” “WARHOSE, WARHORSE, THIS IS ROSEWOOD REQUESTING GUN RUN AT POINT TRUCK.” he then ducks without even looking as a huge bolt landed right where his head was supposed to be. “MAGES! SHIELDS UP!” The Mages in the backline sprung into action, raising their staff. The players emit a translucent wall that flings off oncoming fire.
The Captain then smiles as he smacks the radio multiple times and he could then clearly hear the transmission. “To all units in the defense of the city, we’ll be popping off in an hour. Bahamut will raise the temperature of the city. Everyone is tasked to hide inside a building and check for any explosive gasses that might be set off. After so, twenty four hour air cover will return for the defenders inside the city but at the cost of our Dragon support. Be advised, over.” he then shifts his attention to a player wielding an AK-74M. Blindly shooting from behind cover as bodies pile the empty river.
“Lieutenant.”
“S-sir!”
“What’s the status of the trenches comms?”
“Ah, it's good so far, sir. Burying the lines underground has been a great idea.”
“The first, second, and third. Correct?”
“Yes sir.”
“Good. If the explosions are too powerful. We’ll retreat to the main trench?”
“Wait, what did you just say, sir?”
“Prepare for my signal for everyone to duck. It might get saucy.”
Inside Airbase Shadilay, bomb trolleys are being delivered left and right. GBUs and FABs were being loaded onto aircrafts as unguided rockets and large caliber rounds were prepared in the thousands for the nearly one hundred helicopters about to take off. Fuel trucks lined up on the tarmac as a massive air assault was brewing on the airbase.
Everyone was rushing to pre flight the fighter jets as inside the main buildings, Pilots are briefed for there flight ops for the day.
“Roger that sir. All of our air power will be concentrated there.”
“...”
“They’ll be here tomorrow sir. The three armies are right above us and they should come in either tonight at twelve or tomorrow at six, sir.”
“...”
“Yes sir, General Yamaoka arrived a few minutes ago and had delivered the Football to us.”
“...”
“Copy sir, we’re just doing the last briefings to the Pilots. We’re going to be ready in a while.”
“...”
“Yes sir, thank you sir.”
The High ranking Colonel stands up as he sets down the phone and rests both of his hands on his desk and stares at his pilots.
“That was the big man. He told me the mission has been given a green lit. Ask your questions now before we fly into Hell itself.”
One Elf raises his hand.
“Yes, Captain. Speak.”
“Sir, looking at the charts you’ve given me.”
The maps on their room were full of markings and reminders, many on how to dodge Gargoyles and the Flying Swords. Giving the players a bit of a trivia with their turn time and speed, though a far cry from their fighter jets and helicopters, their numbers and the armor they wore were more than enough to pose a problem in numbers.
A huge chart of the city was placed in the middle, between the whiteboards. With three divisions, Central had the most markings on them, with Downtown being second and Uptown having the least, with most of the markings located on the bridge that goes to it.
“This seems like the enemy is everywhere and nowhere at the same time. Can we really freely drop bombs into the city?”
“Yes. Yamaoka has signed off on it too. But this is only going to be a one off thing. The main priority is to disrupt the Orcish Army before they could muster a large enough force to penetrate through out defenses. There Giants has also been posing a large threat but I left that job to the Rotorcrafts.”
“Thank you sir.”
Another Elven player raises his hands, though this one wearing silver tinted Aviators and a stick in his mouth.
“Sir, permission to ask.”
“Ask.”
“If that we’re facing is an Orc Army, then could this be the Demon Army?”
“Nope. We have no reasons to believe that this is the Demon Army. What we do know is that they're sending Zombies, Skeletons, and Green Skins against us as platters. Basically to weaken our defenses before their main group arrives. So far, their plans have been sporadic, but organized. We’ve been seeing a lot of attempts for regrouping as they are still not accustomed to our long range capabilities, but when they do start doing it. Our defenses are assured to fall.”
“I see and sir.”
“Hm?”
“What’s the order when the proper Demon Army arrives?”
“No idea. Don’t hope for it and don’t think about it. We’ll deal with that when it arrives, right now, the objective is to break the enemies back for even an hour at least with a sheer overwhelming air attack in tandem with the Dragons flames. When that happens, our Spotters down below using birds and whatever familiar they have will be sending coordinates for all of you to pick and strike.”
“Copy sir.”
“Anyone else?”
Another player raises his hand. This time, one of the few humans in the room.
“Yes, Lieutenant.”
“Sir, about the Wings sent for this Op. My Wing will be the one spearheading it. Should we veer off at Point Alpha?”
“That’s to your discretion, Lieutenant.”
“And can we get a final say on the conditions sir?”
“Negatory on that. Our sensors and even our own senses aren’t really telling much. We cannot rely on instruments still, but as usual. Use VFR for your routines and everything should go smoothly. Don’t overdo it and crash, we have no means on replacing your aircraft as a reminder.”
“Roger that sir.”
“Is that all?”
The room of Pilots was silent and no one raised there hands as they all sat quietly, intently waiting for the final call.
“Good.”
The Air Marshal then goes to his phone once again and holds One.
“Hello, Colonel Riles? How's' the situation?”
“All green. Wait for the signal, sir.”
“Copy.”
After a while, alarms blared and the doors to the Pilots rooms burst open as everyone got into gear.
“Captains and Lieutenants. Prepare for the signal. Board your aircrafts and spool up. We’re about to unleash hell on them. Remember, your job is to do as much damage as you can in the span of time we’ve been given by the Dragons. Prevent any build up of enemy forces and lay waste on everything that stands against us. That is all, dismissed!” Everyone ran to the tarmac and got onto trucks that delivered them to their aircrafts. The neatly aligned planes spanned from F-16s, Su-25s, A-10s, Su-35s and even a rare F-14 in the back of the line.
Boarding their cockpits, two players wearing helicopter pilot uniforms opened a hangar, revealing a Tu-160 fully armed and ready for combat. The skeletons perform checks on it as they walk to its back and they smile at each other. Hopping into a broom with wings of an F-15 and markings of the Ervtes Air Forces. Underneath it is a fake cardboard 30mm chain gun of a smaller size. They then taxi into the tarmac. The entire kilometer long runway was full of Hinds, Havocs, Apaches, and armed Blackhawks with four pylons. All lined up as air defense opened fire on a bunch of Gargoyles and Troglodytes that got through the line of defense.
Flying Swords tried to break through the forest line but the Trenches that defended the outskirts of the city dwindled their numbers down enough for the CIWS to clean them up fast.
“This is Broomstick One, we’re ready for take off. Engines and weapons are green.”
“Copy Broomstick One. Mothership will be giving everyone the signal in thirty minutes.”
As the foreign sun that has its rays look as if tentacles encroaching upon them slowly seeps into the ocean, where red covered all and the atmosphere as hostile to anything living as to the dead, Bahamut whose size could be seen even from the airbase comes down from the Heavens and speaks.
“Cha’goft Wundos!”
A violent whirlwind of fire and brimstone comes from the skies and into the mist. Lighting up the entire city as every molecule of the cloud that blanketed the city was sparked alit and propane tanks and gas lines on the restaurants, houses, and the Industrial sector exploded. Mars hovered above the Park in the middle of the city and looked at the explosions coming from the ground and from the buildings.
“Lee’Goft Wund!”
As if she pressed paused on a game. The explosions suddenly stopped midway.
“Wundos Unnd’rt Sleeslh’ft!”
They then flew into a small ball of energy above her which she then uses her tail to smack and throw it into the Central Portal. Causing a shockwave to be emitted from it. The entire walls, glasses, roads, and everything in the city was steaming hot as it revealed the Legions of Hell fully and the soldiers deviantly smiled at the fact that their cover had been destroyed. A Sergeant on the frontline breathed in and stared down the Orcish Army upon his Intersection Checkpoint. “LAY IT ON ‘EM!” A symphony of gunfire was then emitted, the city once again devolving into chaos deeper and deeper as the ecstatic players were finally able to pick their enemies off at a distance. Albeit harder, the mounted machine guns were still able to cut down their enemies at speed.
At the Downtown Police Station, General Jackson and Yamaoka stared at each other with devious intent. “Do it.”
“Broomstick One, you're all cleared for take off. Let ‘er rip.”