A couple weeks of training pass by as they all waited for the news of the war beginning, during these two weeks more and more elves have been disappearing, off to prepare for the first conflict of this massive war. The mages especially have been leaving the institution and Sunhale alongside Norilas have not been seen for a while now. Yorun wakes in the morning and something feels different in the air, he gets up looking around and grabs the others in the room teleporting outside, Vinak was there.
"Something happening Vinak?" Yorun asked
"The first conflict of the war has begun, the Relantheta Wilds will likely have a hard time recovering" Vinak said rather sadly
"That's just past Gantoral" Yorun said
"Gantoral was originally going to be the first target but well plans change" Vinak said
"We shouldn't train today Vinak, you go rest and pray to your gods that it goes well" Yorun said
"Indeed" Vinak said before leaving
"So the Relantheta Wilds, we need to get there once the battle is over" Golanier said
A total of 8 undead mages make their way over one of them is Captain Forinas undead body, Yorun and Golanier begin to give their magic to them until they are all powered up.
"Start grabbing groups of our soldiers, teleport them to Gantoral, it will be our staging ground" Yorun said
Forina and the other mages begin to teleport groups of undead away from the institution to Gantoral while Yorun and Golanier do the same, once they get there with their own groups which include, Lykor, Koralin and Onarin they pause for a moment.
"Koralin, head to the battle keep an eye so I can know when the battle is over" Yorun said
Koralin caws and flies off towards the Relantheta Wilds, Yorun looks at Onarin.
"This is going to be an insane day" Yorun said
"Master, the coming battle will not be easy, are you sure the fortress should be our first target?" Onarin asked
"I am not sure of anything Onarin, I am no military commander but I have to believe this will work" Yorun said
The mages, Forina, Golanier and Yorun continue to teleport their forces to the ruined Gantoral and they wait, from the walls even though it is a fair distance away they can see the lightshow from the battle, the magics being unleashed there can be seen and felt, Yorun knows he cannot contend with that kind of magic. Nearly a full day passes as this massive battle continues, even from where Yorun stands he can see the destruction caused from the battle, forests around the area are dying, the sky above the area is full of mages that fly and clouds of rain and lightning pour down onto the battlefield, great walls of fire erupting from the ground but eventually all of this grows quiet and the mages who were clearly alive in the sky begin to descend. Yorun looks through Koralins eyes and sees the battle finally ending in what seems an elven victory, they're taking prisoners of those who didn't get away with the mages who teleported. Yorun gets up and looks back at Onarin and Golanier.
"Alright lets make our entrance, lets try and teleport all of us that way none of them will stop us " Yorun said getting only a nod from both of them in return
The undead mages gather and after Yorun mounts Lykor they do soon enough alongside, Forina, Golanier and Yorun himself teleport every undead into the forest just next to the battlefield. Yorun and the undead mages walk out of the forest, Yorun is atop Lykor however. The elves as well as the humans who were captured look over confused, seeing at first only the humans such as Yorun and most of the mages the humans rejoice thinking they're about to be saved but everyone quickly notices the likes of Forina and Golanier as well as the injuries that are on a few of them. Soon enough throughout the sea of bodies both elven and human eyes either open glowing green slightly or begin to glow if their eyes were not closed, much to the living elves and humans surprise and horror those same bodies begin to rise and walk over to Yorun and as they do so more bodies begin to do the same. The elves who are still able to fight begin to run towards Yorun hoping to maybe save their dead to be returned to their families but they're stopped by arrow fire and more of the undead who accompanied Yorun walking out of the forest to stop them.
"What the fuck is going on!?" One of the captive humans shouted
The elves seemingly shout something though none understand the language they assume its the same message. Yorun takes little note of the shouts and confusion from the groups as he and the others continue to raise the bodies. Soon however Yorun notes a pair of familiar presences teleport to the elves, it is Sunhale and Norilas and they quickly get Infront of the elves to look at Yorun and his forces.
"What the fuck Raeknar!?" Norilas shouted
"I need an army to do my job, thanks for providing it" Yorun said rather coldly
"You can't just do this we need to bring these peoples families the bodies!" Norilas shouted rather angered by the response
"The bodies alone will not bring them respite from the grief trust me on that. I am going to fight the Fiernian imperial family so either get out of my way or keep helping me" Yorun said as he continued to raise more bodies
Norilas looked even more angered but before she could do anything Sunhale walked over to Yorun.
"Then it seems I'll at least help you, no doubt Golanier here can help militaristically but I have knowledge of the Fiernian Empire in this age that can help" Sunhale said
"That mean you're coming with?" Yorun asked
"Guess it does" Sunhale said
"Sunhale, get back here! This is an afront to our empire!" Norilas shouted
"And this man here is backed by a god of his own and do you see his god of death and justice telling him this is unjust? That it's wrong? Or do you see Irankar here? Who are we to argue with a god of any pantheon?" Sunhale asked quieting Norilas who just turned away letting them continue
"Good job" Yorun said
"No problem, I better not regret this" Sunhale said
"I'll try and make sure you don't. Our target once all of these bodies are raised is the Kolakinta Mountains Fortress" Yorun said
"Damn, hell of a one to start with" Sunhale said
"Since you've got magic Sunhale help teleport undead to the bottom of the mountains and should you need it the undead will listen to you" Yorun said getting a nod from Sunhale
After a short while all the bodies have been raised and at that point the undead army begins to be teleported to the bottom of the Kolakinta Mountains, with Sunhales help the process is far faster due to his training and far larger supply of magic. Yorun is the last to leave and before he does, he turns to the elves and the captive humans then walks over making the scythe appear in his right hand but as a result the elves quickly draw blades but Yorun looks directly at the humans walks to them confusing the elves while terrifying the humans.
"I am going to free you for one singular purpose. You will return to the imperial family and take this message right to Emperor Durinkal. Raeknar is coming for him" Yorun said as he uses the scythe to cut their bonds, the soldiers immediately flee
"Didn't say you could do that" Norilas said
"Respectfully? I do not care" Yorun said as he teleported away
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Norilas smirks after he leaves knowing she still thinks he's alright despite the afront to Woorail, she then begins to organise the elves that are there. Meanwhile Yorun has teleported to his new army and looks at a huge army now under his control, with this many he can feel his magic expanding more than before even if it is still very small amounts. Yorun looks at his army and he points his scythe up the mountain and his forces march, the undead mages put up barriers above the army to try and protect as many of them as possible from what comes next.
"The armies marching, I'll get up to the head of our horde" Golanier said before flying to the front of the army
"This isn't going to be easy you know" Sunhale said
"I know, help with the barriers Sunhale we'll need that help" Yorun said as he added his own magic to the barriers and followed the army on Lykor
Sunhale added his own strength and soon enough despite how far they have to go the magical defences of the fortress begin to fend off the coming assault, the mountains quake as balls of lava begin to shoot from the mountains themselves at the undead army, coinciding with that spectral humans begin to appear throughout the mountains that begin to fire similarly spectral bows right at the army. The barriers stop as much of the lava as possible while the undead just take the arrows unflinchingly, the path up to the fortress changes to that of ice slowing down the undeads march but Golanier smirks as he takes flight then he laughs before using a combination of his magic and greatsword he strikes one of the balls of lava and the lava gets absorbed into the blade making it glow red from the heat, he then throws the red hot blade directly onto the icy path burying the blade up to the hilt into the ground and the lava which had been stored within the blade is expelled within the ground reversing the freezing ice magic all the way along the path to the fortress. Golanier uses telekinesis to call his blade back to his hand as he lands before the undead army, the shaking of the mountains gets worse and two of them begin to change in shape becoming the upper halves of golems, they continue to fire balls of lava from the top of their heads but now with the giant rocky arms they begin to slam their arms along the path, their size makes the attacks slow but devastating nonetheless as large swathes of the undead not under a barrier are crushed.
"Fuck! Didn't expect that!" Yorun shouted
"Oh these humans are fun!" Golanier shouted as he took flight and made his way over to Yorun
"Any ideas you two?" Yorun asked
"These giant things are going to crush us and the barriers won't hold out against them for long, get the horde to charge as fast as it can, Golanier I imagine you have an idea for the threat itself" Sunhale said
"Oh indeed, we'll want to keep those things intact for our own use so due to your training Yorun I can do one thing but I'll need to do it during this whole thing so you won't have me or my undead mages" Golanier said
"We mainly needed them for the actual raising and now for other things we have Sunhale so do it" Yorun said commandingly
Golanier nodded and flew up taking all of his magic back from his mages which drops a good few barriers and then he lands down in the middle of the army where the two mountains arms are crashing down and Golanier makes two giant skeletal arms sprout from the ground catching the mountains arms and trapping them while holding them up, the strain on Golanier is clear to them all but Yorun feels its a magical strain due to the limited magic still at his disposal. The undead army begins to charge up the path still taking arrows and many of the undead are hit with the balls of lava, yet the army begins to get in sight of the fortress at the top of the mountains, the speed of their ascent impossible for a living army due to the undead having no fear and not caring of any injury. The lava balls now only target the further back parts of the undead army while the humans in the fortress begin their defence of it, the magical defences of the fortress unleash a torrent of water a veritable tsunami down towards the undead army and then shooting lightning at it not only sweeping undead away but shocking them too but Sunhale quickly uses ice magic to stop the waters advance by making an ice wall that funnels the water down some separate parts of the mountain range.
"Mages do as I do!" Yorun shouted
Yorun begins to telekinetically lift multiple undead much like he did once back in Gantoral and he launches them past the ice wall and the electrified water towards the wall, they land on the battlements impaling a couple soldiers with their blades as they land on them, more undead land seconds after from the mages throwing them, the process still strains Yorun much but the undead mages do it again and again. The undead soldiers landing on the battlements sends the human soldiers into a panic as they begin to fight back the sounds of swords clashing fills the air. More and more undead are launched over the walls but soon enough Sunhale teleports onto the walls of the fortress himself, he fights his way through some soldiers, showing his years of training in how he swiftly dodges attacks while delivering his own final blows. Sunhale scans the fortress and he soon enough finds where the room the magical defences get charged and activated from, he quickly gets some undead to follow him and they begin to attack the soldiers there, the soldiers are woefully unprepared for this force, they kill a few undead by taking off their heads but overall they only kill relatively few until they themselves fall. Sunhale gets into the room and uses his magic on the magical conduit for the defences and shuts it down and while that stops all the defences that were being used outside, reverting them to their neutral state.
"The defences are down! Charge the gates and get in there!" Yorun shouted to his army
The undead army charges towards the fortress gates they begin to charge into the gate while more and more of the undead pile up at the walls climbing each other until they begin to get over the walls getting more allies into the fortress this way until after a short while much to the horror of the living soldiers still inside the gates crash open and the undead flood in. With the gates broken open and the outer defences down a new set of defences start up, soldiers made entirely of stone begin to come out of the walls, leaving the walls entirely intact as if they never came from them, multiple waves of them come from the walls while the flesh and blood soldiers retreat further into the fortress and as this happens what look like cylinders with holes in them come from the walls and fire begins to spew from them completely ignored by both the stone soldiers and undead but the undead will fall to the flames eventually.
"Golanier! Get over and into the fight! Get the inner defences down!" Yorun shouted
"On it!" Golanier shouted back
Golanier flew right past Yorun into the fortress while Yorun got to work on raising some of the fortresses soldiers bodies, Golanier flew straight into the inner gate of the fortress crashing through it as if he were launched by a trebuchet, landing inside he rolled with his momentum and with quick movement he used the roll to slice downward through a soldier within. The soldiers quickly rush him as he begins to stand and he merely smirks as he lets them stab and slash his body where his old armour no longer protects making use of his undead bodies resistance to pain. Golanier lets his soul detach from his body and allows his body to fight the soldiers while he searches for the inner defence conduit and he has to search a few rooms till he finds it heavily guarded by the stone soldiers and some mages. Golanier returns to his body now that he has found it and he goes back into the body, the undead version of himself had taken down those soldiers and was fighting more as Golanier joined his soul with the body once more.
"See you all later" Golanier said with a smirk as he teleported to Yorun
"Found it?" Yorun asked
"Indeed, come on let's take control" Golanier said as he grabbed a hold of Yorun and teleported to the room
Yorun upon appearing there with Golanier lights his scythe on fire creating the usual black flames and he sliced through the stone soldiers leaving them as mere rubble. The mages quickly go to attack and Golanier stands in front of Yorun blocking the lightning the mages shoot at them, Yorun tosses the scythe to the side and uses telekinesis to control it making it spin towards the mages who don't see it coming until it's too late and they get sliced through. Yorun calls the scythe back to his hand and he along with Golanier go into the room and within is the magical conduit, Yorun walks up to it.
"Charge it with your magic, do it with authority" Golanier said
Yorun puts his hand onto the conduit and as he does so he begins to send his magic into the conduit charging it with all of his magic he has access to, the magic within the conduit already pushes back but Yoruns resolve cannot be challenged at this point and he forces his magic through. While he does this the stone soldiers begin to slow down and the flames begin to stop. The stone soldiers throughout the fortress stop moving for a moment and then suddenly begin to move again but this time they turn to search for the living soldiers who were once the owners of the fortress and the necromantic magic having been channelled into the fortress begins to raise all the dead throughout the fortress recuperating some of the losses. Yorun falls to his knees and Golanier puts his hand on his shoulder.
"Well we did it, a fortress under our command and the defences should be intact" Golanier said
"Good, just need to clear out the remaining enemy soldiers be it killing them or taking them prisoner" Yorun said
"Prisoners? What use do we have for them right now?" Golanier asked
"Simple, information despite our success there's things about this fortress we won't be able to find out just from the building or any documents in here itself and it's not like I can make that curse of yours yet" Yorun said
"Fine then but regardless the day is ours" Golanier said
Yorun nodded and he walks out of the building and heads outside and heads towards where he feels the undead still fighting, he finds a final group of soldiers still there trying to hold out against the undead and stone soldiers, they see Yorun walk in with the scythe and cloak of Raeknar making them feel fear despite none seemingly knowing their true nature.
"Surrender, now or you will join the others in my army" Yorun said
The soldiers immediately throw down their weapons now that they know surrender is even an option, the stone soldiers grab ahold of the enemy soldiers and place them against the nearby walls which seemingly wrap around their wrists and ankles to confine them all. Yorun looks at the soldiers and walks away leaving them to be imprisoned for a while as he heads to the conduit for the outer defences and takes control of it as well reactivating them in case they get attacked. Now despite the fact none know the outcome save for those in the fortress a necromancer for the first time in 1000 years has conquered a fortress and prepared for war...