The battle across streets and buildings still raged. Midori couldn't afford to do more than just passively do what he could to direct the flow of traffic even as Damala's heir sent skeletons into the fray. He couldn't afford to ignore how coordinated they were, or that even though their magical units only knew one spell, they seemed terrifyingly inventive with it.

He could not afford to ignore the magi hurling witch-fire into his formations. Nor could he ignore the spiders that seemed intent on crisscrossing as much territory as their legs could cover with silk thread.

There was a moment where an ogre under his command lifted up a braided silk cable, leaving Midori to wonder what its purpose was, as it hadn't been placed to trip or entangle. If anything it had been placed to avoid these things happening.

Such ponderances were set aside, for Midori could not ignore, above all else,

The skeleton in his basement.

He saw Bonehead step out of the simple coffin that served as his spawner and look about the nearly pitch black room.

"Hello?" Bonehead called out. "Anyone else down here?"

A few murmurs from others that had been recently infected. Those damniable automita and armors that detonated themselves rather than turn mid-battle. All of them sat, huddled in small clusters. Trying to let their minds drift empty and formless, to buy themselves more time before they were fully under Midori's command.

What got their attention was Bonehead smashing his spawner to splinters. This drew Midori's attention more fully, having been unaware that creatures could do this.

One of the armors turned its head as disbelief rang through its hollow voice, "I... what? We can do that?"

"Well, I just did." Bonehead stated as he looked about. "Alright. I have a half-idea. Maybe a quarter thought really. We're all dead anyway."

That got several nods. Then a goblin spoke. The speaker was hairless and wore a work smock of rough fabric. "Whatcha got in mind?"

Bonehead gave a low chuckle. "We must proceed as if we are being watched. So understand that any retaliation will be swift."

As he said this Midori expended mana to rebuild his spawner. Which promptly got smashed again.

"That proves it. Midori. You are watching. You are listening." Bonehead's voice was calm. I want you to do both very carefully."

That i was addressed directly got the attention of others. Bonehead spoke again. "I need the majority of you with me at the door. Four or five of you need to stay to keep smashing spawners, and get any new arrivals on board. Then when you get replacements you join us."

Join? Midori's laughter reverberated through the room, echoing against high vaulted ceilings.

Bonehead joined in the laughter for a time. Even as more creatures appeared. Even as spawners were being smashed and remade. Midori's confusion grew. Why was this creature laughing?

"Genlemen. Ladies. Those that ascribe to neither." Bonehead's voice was calm even as Midori spent mana to try silencing him. Instead only causing his left hand to tremble slightly.

"We are all Dead. If not by what I am about to do, then by the thing that is eating away at our minds, eroding our will. Leaving us prisoners in our own bodies." He punctuated the statement by drawing his blade and slicing through a goblin's spawner.

"I have memories of being in this situation before." Again, Midori's attempt at making him stop were only rewarded by a tremor. "Oh the details weren't the same, and technically I failed because ..."

The skeletal archer waved a hand dismissively.

Midori tried to take control of one of the suits of armor, one of the big ones. There was a tremor as it stepped towards Bonehead. Then another step. There wasn't enough growth there for complete control.

"Point is," Bonehead looked directly at the armor being puppeted, as if he were looking at Midori himself. "I know what this is. this is you thinking you've won. I'm in your carefully lain out trap, in a box with a poison that will kill me."

Several others, skeleton, elf, dwarf, and even another armor, got between the armor that was moving and Bonehead.

"Now here is the neat part." Bonehead bounced on his feet, clapping his hands together while walking towards the door. At a glance it looked like a solid metal door wit ha tiny barred window. He rapped a bony knuckle against it. peered through the window, and made a show of pulling at the bars.

The armor Midori had tried puppeting slumped. Next Midori attempted to take control of a goblin. This ended with a pair of armors picking the goblin up and holding it off the ground.

Bonehead nodded at the pair and smiled to the creature Midori took control of. "Yep that's a nice solid door. It's leading out into a hallway of Death the likes that would make even a kaizo mario run look like a walk in the park."

The Goblin sagged, and a skeleton grabbed Bonehead's shoulder. Midori spoke then. "Even if you could open that door, which you can't. It's been tested against the best thieves and picks. Let's say you can. You're still stuck here. Give up. You had your little victory by smashing the spawners."

That point was punctuated by more spawners being smashed in. This time by an Ogre. The giant's head was bowed, its shoulders slumped. Yet it had set about to ensuring death for everyone here would be final.

Laughter. It didn't come from Bonehead, who merely looked into the Skeleton's eye sockets. The laughter came from another there.

Shinji spoke then as he got to his feet. "Twice now have I died following this man. Once to a thing that wanted to eat and remake Creation in its own image. Now to a petty tyrant wanting to tie strings and make us dance to its tune."

Gently, almost tenderly, Shinji's skeletal fingers pulled the hand off of Bonehead's shoulder. "Sir. It's OK."

Bonehead tilted his head down, shoulders slumped. For that moment he could not meet Shinji's gaze. "Still. I'm sorry. You're my friend You'd been there to help me hold things together."

"I know," SHinji clasped forearms with Bonehead. "Let me do that here at the last. Do what you need to."

He glanced to the wider room before looking back to Bonehead. "I've got this."

A deep breath from Bonehead as he squared his shoulders. Vaguely in the background he could hear Shinji. Yet he could not afford to pay it any more attention than that. Nor could he pay attention to Midori's continued attempts at sending others to stop him. Shinji had his back, and Midori could not control everyone. Those that were not being directly controlled stopped those that were.

He pulled from his quiver an arrow. Most of his were plain affairs. Bleached wood polished to look like bone fletched with crow feathers with a variety of tips that varied from blunt to bodkin, though personally he preferred the simple elegance of the broadhead.

This arrow was gifted to him just before he fell, just after Lutz attacked him. It was a declaration of trust then. That she had trusted that nothing would ever make him use that arrow to hurt her or their friends.

Now, as he nocked the star-metal shaft, it was a promise. He could feel power gather. From where he could not say. From Her? No. There was no directionality to the tug. From himself? How? In the gifting did it decide he was its rightful holder?

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

In his hand was power Building. It was Waiting.

Unknown to him Midori's attempt to stop him intensified.

Unknown to him this caused Midori's advance on the library to falter, to allow allies space to breath and act.

His mind was focused on the singular point of infinity building in his hand. A swirling infinity that was yoked and shaped by will. He had all the magical potential of a stone. Yet, as Midori was the latest to find out, Will was something he had an overflowing abundance of.

"Here me now." His voice was a soft whisper. Something one would whisper in the ear of a lover.

"I have been made a liar." He breathed slow. Letting the roar of what was behind him fade away.

"I will die far from home surrounded by enemies." His stance widened as he took careful aim.

From somewhere. There was screaming. It was an unearthly wail that came from everywhere all at once. Perhaps it was the result of the power Bonehead held in his hand. Perhaps it was an attempt at taking the nerve from him or making his aim unsteady.

He did not notice as light was drunken by the arrow in his hand, its shaft turning from brilliant gleaming to vantablack dark.

Dimly Bonehead was aware of Shinji shouting to the others that when it was clear, go for Midori's spawners. Fan out. Cause as much mayhem as possible.

"I entrust everything to you now." Bonehead's eyes wouldh ave closed were he able to. "As I send forward my Black Lance."

The arrow loosed. Power that had been stored there released and was shaped by willpower. There was no sound.

The door vanished. Gone. The traps. Gone. The shaped charge of all consuming destruction burrowed deeply into Midori's sanctum fortress. The core of his holdings.

As Bonehead steadied himself. The horrors from Midori's tomb boiled out into his very heart.

As Bonehead began hunting for his quarry he could hear Shinji's laughter. "Come one you Apes! Do you want to live forever?"

----------

Bonehead watched as the hordes of the captured, dispossessed, and Damned boiled out of the hole Midori had thrown them in. He hid in shadow provided by architecture and blown out torches as he surveyed the damage wrought by his friend's last gift to him.

The Devastation was, in his opinion, magnificent. Yet it was not enough on its own.

The murder-hall and the stone slabs that had meant to drop at the far end to keep everything contained as a last measure were thoroughly destroyed. Several rooms were split in two, allowing impromptu access to what looked like an armory, a barracks, and several other rooms he could not clearly see for the chaos that was unfolding.

Around him, he heard orders shouted. Shinji directed traffic and impromptu structure organized within the mob as they split off into groups of four as they fanned out.

Bonehead himself stuck to the shadows, staying at the edges of rooms, sticking to corners. He saw Opposition. Great ruddy monstrosities that might have been Ogre, Mud-Golem, or some other something at one stage. All were covered in fungal growths. None had eyes.

One of them shrieked just before its head turned to him, and was rewarded with an arrow thorugh the throat.

Bonehead frowned when he noticed it hadn't gone clean through and the monster charged. He took a breath as he fired again, this time at the spot between where its eyes should be. Then his Bow was discarded for his sword.

It clearly out-massed him and had strength advantages over him. Yet its swings were wild and wide. All ferocity and no finesse. He danced and darted, yet his blade only sliced the fungal armor.

A quartet of his companions set upon the great beast. A goblin, Armor, and two skeletons announced their presence by way of shield between Bonehead and the monstrosity. He didn't need to hear one of them shriek for him to run as he had already taken his bow, and ran.

This story played out again and again. Stealth broken by clicks and snarls of the creatures of this place. Each time Bonehead surviving not through brute strength, but skill and speed.

Yet each time his movements slowed just a little. His mind grew fuzzy.

"Give up." He heard whispered by a spider-like thing. All twisty limbs and too-pale flesh. "Lay your sword down."

He responded by slicing its legs apart and moving on. There was no breath in him for wit, or charm.

Where would he put his core in a place like this?

He heard a guttural howl, and saw the ragged hairless form of a lupine before him. Milky white eyes now had too-pale growths covering them. His scabbard empty, and there was more black crisscrossing his body than not.

It snatched his arrow out of the air with its teeth and shattered the shaft. "My pack is gone. I cannot smell them anymore."

Bonehead brought his sword up to guard as it charged him.

"I cannot hear their song anymore." The beast whined as it attempted to rake its clawed hand against Bonehead's chest, only managing to shred part of his coat.

Bonehead stabbed it in the chest. Yet the creature did not die. Instead, it tore the gauntlet from Bonehead's hand and laughed.

"I am already dead, for my Pack is gone." Its voice bitter as more of Bonehead's coat was shredded. "Yet I am not allowed to die."

It leapt again, pinning Bonehead to the ground. Though his remaining gauntlet was shredded through, Bonehead kept the snapping jaws at bay as the pair wrestled. His left hand reached, pulling at the hilt of his blade.

The creature twisted, causing the blade to snap. Its laughter cut short as the stump of Bonehead's blade was rammed into its throat. Once it fell back, dissolving,

Bonehead bowed his head. He lacked the strength to speak. Yet even though this was the creature that had taken his friend from him. He could not hold hate in his heart.

"Requiescat in pace, canis fidelis. Proximus herus tua fide dignus sit."

One last glance to where his enemy fell, and the pieces to his sword lay. Then he walked forward. He could feel it now. Words were less heard and more felt. Yet it gave him a direction.

'End this.' One voice screamed.

'We are Endless!' another shrieked.

He saw Shinji there at the thick of it in a great hall. His men lay around him dead and fading. He had a short spear in one hand, a buckler on his other arm, and three opponents. None of whom were able to land a single blow as he practically danced through their ranks.

For a moment he looked to Bonehead, then with a tilt of his head gestured to the mounded mass before him.

Bonehead limped more than walked into the room. His head bowed. His shoulders were slumped as Shinji and others came to him.

A pair of armors began slicing open the mass and everyone in the room to recoil be they truly alive, undead, automita it mattered not. The smell alone would have killed, or at the least left delvers on the floor heaving.

Yet here was the root of it all. An orb the size of a soccer ball covered in growths that even now attempted to cling to it jealously.

Bonehead nodded weakly, not caring for whomever had the supposed 'honor' of destroying it. Yet none there could leave a mark on its surface. All those who lay hands to smash it, steal its essence, or make any other harm could not.

There was laughter. A mad giggle.

"You rebel. You fight. Yet you are one and all Mine. You cannot harm me."

The growths renewed their efforts to seal the orb away. Then one of the goblins tried attacking Shinji. Then an automiton.

Bonehead slumped to the floor, too tired to stand. How long would it take for reinforcements to get here?

'Rest now, my warrior.' The words now were soft, almost tender. It was hard to ignore. He was so bloody tired.

There, though, he saw others come. Both ally and enemy. Then ally became enemy as his head drooped. He could feel himself being drug. Weakly he tried to push them away.

"I have an idea man." Shinji's voice. "You aren't going to like it, but maybe it has to be you."

Bonehead stared blankly at his second in command. His empty eye sockets met Shinji's.

"We might all be its minions now," Shinji elaborated as he drug Bonehead towards the core, "But you've got a connection to another core none of us have."

"I'm just memories spun out into a new body," Bonehead protested weakly even as Shinji used his shield to block a dagger aimed at his head.

"It has to be more than that, or we're all dead and it'll win anyway." Shinji lifted, picking Bonehead up by his armpits.

Bonehead saw the sword, tried to move.

Instead Shinji pushed him out of the way even as the hairles lupine was cut to ribbons by two suits of armor.

Bonehead saw Shinji dissolve even as he started crawling up the fungal mass surrounding Midori's core.

This couldn't be how it ends.

Again, the voice spoke. It was almost tender almost gentle as it sang to him. 'Rest now. Your hardship is over.'

It would have been easy to do. Just tell himself that he had done all he could, his friends had gained the breathing room they needed. They would finish this. That thought. The turning over in his head of his friends was that initial spark of defiance.

'Wake up.' Another voice. He wasn't sure if it was real. Her voice.

He started to move as other voices joined in. No grand speeches. No motivational words. Just those two words. Some pleading. Others demanding. 'Wake up!'

'Listen carefully. This will be my last order to you.' Another voice. His voice, but not his own speaking to him now.

Bonehead rolled onto his stomach as Lonely Hill spoke to him. ' Wake up. Get up.'

He groaned weakly in protest as his arms twitched at his sides. "I cannot... I have no strength in my legs. My arms won't work."

'I know your body is wrecked, but you must move.' Lonely Hill's voice was soft. Encouraging, yet there was an underlying desperation to that command. 'Even if you cannot stand, you must move.'

Bonehead crawled forward. One hand reaching, then pulling. Then the other hand.

'Go now.'

There was no power there. No upwell of strength. Bonehead simply moved. Even when a hammer blow smashed his left leg. he continued to crawl until his hand felt something smooth. Warm. At this point he could not see, but he knew what it was.

"Got you." The play of light from the room, witchfire being thrown about, and Midori's own glow made it seem for one last time that Bonehead smiled.

Thought shaped by Willpower. That is what it took for Cronos to breech Lonely Hill's core. He opened himself up even as he focused on piercing through the armor between Here and There.

When his eyes opened he was there, inside whatever world Midori had constructed for himself. Here he was flesh and blood. Here he again was strong.

As he started running, reaching for the blade he knew would be at his side one thought propelled him forward.

'I am Coming'