At the mausoleum, the adventurers stayed to fight the remaining undead. Corbin was losing his patience over the two flesh golems. They know how to overcome the half-orc with coordinated attacks. Unlike other undead, they can think for themselves. Calma recited several powerful divine spells. He revives the unconscious troops, purified the captured citizens and reinvigorated their strength. Rez and Brindles were in a defensive position. They took quick shots against the skeletons and ghouls. Solus attempted to follow Randor to the portal while catching his breath.
“We’ll take over here, follow the prince.” Milas made an opening for Solus. She threw a flurry of punches against the undead blocking the portal. Each accurate punch mashed the undead.
“Thank you, adventurers.” Solus jumped to the portal towards Capital City.
“The rest of the citizens are purified by now. Go and escort them away from the mausoleum!” Calma dropped down and sat on the floor. He was extremely exhausted to move at all and his knees were trembling.
“It’s not the right time to rest, kid! Go, get up!” Brindles ran towards Calma and carried him. Rez defended both the dwarf and cleric from the surrounding undead.
“Playtime’s over!”
Corbin snarled and charged forward to a flesh golem. He rammed it by using his sword’s wide fuller. Cornering the flesh golem to a wall, Corbin made furious sword swipes. He swung left and right. The sword dented the flesh golem’s armor and eventually broke it. The other flesh golem grabbed Corbin from his back and wrestles against him. Milas noticed it and she tackled the flesh golem. She used her shoulders and charged with full might. Before the third flesh golem could react, Rez hurled an explosive. Its explosion threw the flesh golem out of balance again. While attempting to stand up. Rez made a perfect headshot with an enchanted bullet, destroying the flesh golem.
The other adventurers, city guards, and clergymen hurried up and escorted the dazed citizens. The clergymen used their divine magecraft to restore the undead citizens to living ones. On their way to the mausoleum’s exit, the skeletons reassembled and try to prevent them from escaping. The city guards took the lead and pushed the skeletons away. The other adventures and clergymen used ranged attacks to assist the city guards. They followed the path that Calma and others paved earlier.
“We follow later.” Corbin ensured the others that they will take care of the rest.
At the Capital City, Milders reached the northwest city district. Randor and the city guards chased Milders, but he summoned a wall of flesh and bones. The wall barricaded the streets, preventing the city guards from following Milders. He planned to destroy the northwestern gate, and bring the rest of the undead to the city. Raising his staff to the sky, Milders called all the undead inside Capital City to destroy the northwestern gate.
“You are forgetting somebody.” Randor faces Milders at the top of a tower. He prepared to lunge at the necromancer.
“I didn’t come here unprepared!” Milders called a fleet of gargoyles from the graveyard. The statues in the graveyard were actually gargoyles in disguise, waiting for their master’s command. The gargoyles dived towards Randor but Solus arrives on time.
“Don’t you dare lay your filthy hands on the young master!” Solus aimed a long firearm and makes a thundering shot. His shot’ crumbled the gargoyles back to stone. More gargoyles charged but Randor avoided them with ease.
“Rats! You are ruining my plans! My undead thralls, I command you to converge into a mighty being!” Milders rose his staff, commanding the last gargoyle to carry him. The gargoyle zoomed to a farther place away from Randor and Solus. Solus tried to snipe at the necromancer but he was too fast.
The waves of undead stopped attacking the city guards and Arche’s allies. They began to congregate in the northwest district. The city guards and Arche’s allies thought they had won the battle. One by one, the skeletons disassembled and form an enormous humanoid form. The walking corpses and ghouls exploded to pieces. Their remains floated and combined with the skeletons. The undead merged together into a colossal flesh golem. The flesh golem roared and Milders perched on the undead giant’s shoulder.
“BEHOLD MY MAGNUM OPUS!”
“May the rays of Solne have mercy on us!” The senior city guard looked at the colossal flesh golem in fear. He knelt and bowed down, preparing a short prayer. His fellow city guards stood their ground and made a defensive formation.
“We're gonna die!” Patricio shrieked at Brian while he covered his ears.
“Thanks, mister obvious! We should be escaping right now while they’re distracted.” Brian slapped Patricio’s head and the two are about to skedaddle.
“Not on my watch!” Another senior city guard prevented Brian and Patricio from running away. He called the other city guards to push them back at the battle.
“What’s the meaning of this?!” The other adventurers cried in terror. Some fled indoors for safety.
“I never expected that to happen.” Fuji exhaled after slaying the undead at the adventurer’s lodge.
“Soldiers, in position!” The Jagganatha military force refused to surrender. They encouraged the elven soldiers and goblin troopers to charge at the undead giant. The forest shaman and militia decided to attend to the injured allies since that’s what they can only do for now.
“That wretched necromancer managed to bring most of the undead to Capital City!” Brindles shouted at the remaining adventurers.
“We’re quite busy here, we can’t abandon the mausoleum.” Milas wrestled the flesh golem who regained its composure again. They grappled each other, hand to hand. The flesh golem almost towered Milas who was getting dragged backwards. Using the momentum, Milas crouched, causing the flesh golem to tumble. She clasped both of her hands, stood up, and bashed the flesh golem’s tiny head.
“How to stop him?” Corbin dragged his sword upwards, ripping the flesh golem staggered on the wall. The flesh golem fizzled into an ooze, leaving the broken armor behind.
“If we cut off the source of his necromancy, he can’t control the undead. Necromancers are very dependent on the land they occupy. Without the mausoleum, Milders is powerless.” Calma remembered the fundamentals of heresy.
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“I have an idea, I’ll destroy the mausoleum from top to bottom,” Brindles suggested to the group.
“I got a few explosives left. Not enough to decimate the whole structure.” Rez counted all of his explosives remaining inside his satchel.”
“I’ve done this during the war. I can do it again!”
“What are you planning, Father Brindles? Don’t do something crazy!” Calma looked worried at Brindles who began reciting a lengthy prayer. His muscles bulge and a faint light gleamed around him. Surges of electricity crawled at his feet.
“I volunteer to stay. Somebody else has to watch the old dwarf do his job.” Rez gunned down a walking corpse who attempted to sabotage Brindles’s ritual.
“But Rez, you won’t be able to escape. He intends to pulverize the whole graveyard!” Milas convinced Rez to escape.
“Would you kids keep quiet, I’m concentrating! Besides, I’ve been living for too long! Two hundred years is long enough for me!” Brindles resumed his lengthy chanting. His veins popped up and sweated profusely.
“Let’s trust them, they will be alright..” Corbin patted Milas’s shoulder. He brought her towards the portal.
“Hey you two, come back safely! Otherwise, I won't bring gifts to your graves!” Milas acted tough but sadly went with Corbin.
“We pray for your safety, good luck.” Calma thanked the two who volunteered to stay behind.
Brindles resumed to conjure a massive divine hammer from the sky. From the darkness of the night, a ray of sunlight shined. The sky opened and the divine hammer began to form. Its massive size almost covered the whole graveyard. Everybody can hear the sky roaring and trembling. Outside the graveyard, the other adventurers, city guards, clergymen, and citizens witnessed the pillar of light. They haven’t seen one in their lifetime.
“Father Brindles is about to destroy this place, hurry up!” Everybody ran away from the graveyard and retreated to the camp. The sunlight from the sky burned any remaining undead in the graveyard. The novice clergymen and neophyte city guards noticed the troops running forwards at them. They packed up everything from the temporary altar to the camp. They don’t want to be obliterated by the divine hammer.
The Capital City of Arche was still in chaos. The colossal flesh golem trampled everything in sight. It ignores any incoming bullets, cannons, arrows and divine bolts. The Jagganatha military force and elven soldiers got trampled by the colossal flesh golem.
“Worthless, worthless, worthless!” Milders bragged while ordering the colossal flesh golem to punch the buildings.
Randor and Solus maneuvered from the rooftops to avoid getting crushed. While leaping, Solus hatched a plan. Maybe subduing the necromancer would stop the colossal flesh golem.
“Young master, I suggest taking a higher ground and climbing at the undead giant’s body.”
“Let’s grab some equidae from the stables and try your plan.” Randor and Solus went down from the rooftops back to the busy streets. The two sprinted to the nearest stables. After having a quick skirmish against the remaining undead, they liberated the stables. They acquired two nimble equidae as their steeds and rode towards the soldiers.
Corbin, Milas, and Calma arrived at the abandoned city center. The streets were empty, but they notice the colossal flesh golem still rumbling.
“Are we too late?” Milas was surprised at the giant’s presence.
“Look, the rest are fending off that massive thing.” Calma looked at the battle through the northwest district.
“Let’s go!” Corbin watched the colossal flesh golem wreaking havoc but decided to go in its direction. Milas and Calma followed with no hesitation.
Back at the mausoleum, the throne room was crumbling. The intense aura of the divine hammer slowly broke the unholy grounds. Any traces of undead aura and miasma began to dissipate. The undead who were assaulting Rez and Brindles weakened.
“This is quite anticlimactic.” Rez kicked one of the walking corpses into dust.
“You gotta go kid, your friends are waiting for you.”
“Remember what we promised to Milas? We must get out here and alive.”
“I’m too old for this taurus paste. You should take the chance to escape.”
“And you take all the glory? Let me have a piece of it.”
“You’re really an ambitious scoundrel, Rez. This is my penance for being cruel to your kind.”
“My ancestors did horrible stuff too and I’m carrying their sins.”
“Don’t try acting like a martyr kid. That doesn't fit you!”
“Why try being so kind to me at the last moment? I thought you loathed our kind?”
“You look like you have a bright future ahead of you. It’s my fault for letting my judgment blind me. Your orc friend is quite right, despite what happened during the war, I should not let it affect me.”
“That sounds very touching, Brindles.”
“Don’t you have to say anything else important? Leave me be.”
“Just in case you leave, take this pack of dynamite. You might have to dig yourself out of the mausoleum. “
“A parting gift eh, do you want me to do an explosive ending?!” Brindles lost his concentration upon seeing Rez handing out his last explosives.
“I think you might need these. See you on the other side, Brindles.” Rez dashed away from the throne room back to the tunnels.
Everybody has evacuated from the graveyard and camp. The divine hammer’s impact would obliterate everything in its wake. A few undead try to crawl and grab Rez but he was very nimble enough. He found the same path they took earlier back to the mausoleum’s entrance.
“By the grace of Solne, I offer you my body and life!” Brindles clasped his hands.
The throne room got enveloped by light. The sky above the mausoleum shined brighter, and the divine hammer slowly descended. The atmosphere shook and became very heavy. Just as Rez stepped out of the graveyard, the divine hammer dropped. Its mighty impact threw Rez in the air and he landed flat near the escaping troops.
Randor and Solus raced back to the city guards. Their equidae galloped in the busy streets of the Capital City.
“The prince is here. Please take the lead!” The city guards and Arche’s allies stood up in formation. They anticipated the prince’s orders.
“We previously fought a similarly massive enemy from the graveyard. Aim at its knees, restrict its arms and legs, and we’ll deal with the necromancer.” Randor and Solus left the soldiers to prepare themselves.
“Soldiers, retrieve the halberds and ropes!”
The other adventurers and city guards pushed the colossal flesh golem to the northwestern walls. They were diminutive compared to the undead giant’s domineering height. It bypasses the city walls and slams at nearby buildings. The goblin troopers and clergymen cooperated in aiming at the undead giant’s weak point. The other adventurers who used spears, firearms, arrows, and magecraft shot at the colossal flesh golem’s knees. They focused fire at the giant’s unprotected knees. The forest militia formed a wall, preparing to trip down the colossal flesh golem. Their combined might caused the flesh golem lose its balance and knelt on the ground. Nearby soldiers ensnared the undead giant and impaled its hands and feet to the ground. Their progress was slow but steady but made way for Randor and Solus.
“Let me go, you meddling pests!” Milders angrily commanded the colossal flesh golem to shake off the surrounding enemies. It was wailing in pain and trying to stand up again.
“Charge!” Randor and Solus throttled the undead giant’s impaled hands. They climbed through the impaled arms, but the colossal flesh golem’s other arm attempted to smack them. The two separated in opposite directions, leaped from their equidae, and proceeded to stride at the massive arms. The arm rested at a diagonal position so it was easy for Randor and Solus to sprint upwards.
“Don’t you dare get closer to me!” Milders summoned blobs of undead from the colossal flesh golem’s skin. The disfigured undead tried to block Randor and Solus in their path, but they simply dodged them. Randor cut them down while Solus blew them with his firearm. While Milders was busy defending himself, the three adventurers surprised him.
“There’s no escape!” Calma fired a divine bolt and lands it on Milder’s ankle.
The necromancer lost his balance and began to plummet from the undead giant’s shoulders. He screamed while falling. The gargoyle tried catching its master, but out of a distance, a sharp sword flew towards the gargoyle. Corbin hurled his sword by turning around and making a steady aim. His sword lands on the gargoyle’s head, crumbling back to stone.
“I’ll take him!” Milas prepared to catch the falling necromancer. She raised her arm and takes him to the ground. She pinned his arm and kicks away his staff. Milders tried to reach his staff but Calma steps on it, destroying the embedded skull. Corbin retrieved his sword from the rubble and followed Milas.
“NO, NO, NO! THIS CAN’T BE HAPPENING! I SHOULD HAVE WON!”