The airspace over New Xinjia lay choked with debris and the dead. The initial assault by the Sauridius proved extremely successful, seeing the necromantic host tear through the less than adequate Brotherhood of Man defense suite. Automated turrets, mines, and picket ships offered token resistance as the undead fleet tore through and ground the Brotherhood defense fleet underfoot.

The orbital defeat came so quickly that even the Sauridius were a little surprised, spending an extra hour in orbit in hesitation, expecting the shoe that never fell. Once they had absolute control over the situation; they descended like vultures. Ravaging cities and defense strongholds while working their way towards the defense capital.

The cities fared only marginally better than the orbital assets. The populace, most of which descended from Old Terran nations and states that valued martial proficiency and weapons, meant that the necromancer’s hordes fared poorer than they’d been used to in Federation colonies, but the difference was minimal. Most citizens found themselves victims eventually when ammunition dried up, or hordes gathered in uncontrollable mobs.

Now, several days into the invasion, it was becoming obvious that New Xinjia was going to fall. The only question left now was how hard humanity would go out swinging while the undead swarmed over them. With so much of the Brotherhood’s standard infrastructure knocked out, it did not surprise the crew of the Cadaver Crasher that when it emerged from an Umbral Plane portal in the moon’s shadow, that no friendlies remained in orbit. Akamori and his squad were no strangers to arriving at the scene of a bloodbath.

“My gods…” Fenix drawled as Akamori helped the battleship free of the umbral aperture.

“There are no gods here.” Akamori growled. “Not until now, at least.”

The polished gold and silver controls of his console frosted over as his void magic pulsed with his anger, but there was something else buried deep in him now. A furnace of rage that was slowly being stoked as he took stock of the situation.

“Bets on how much of that mess is an ambush waiting to be triggered?”

“I’m no gamblin man, but you won’t catch me takin’ that wager,” Sirsir said.

Akamori wove a fire and mind rune combo to cast a missive spell. “Cenine, deploy your people. We’re making our push.”

He waited until the sleek gold Talons deployed from the Crasher’s hanger and then nudged the aging battleship forward. Sirsir, Yasiin and Sala were manning the other control consoles. As the battleship gained speed, the fighters surged away from it easily crossing the expanse of the void to reach New Xinjia airspace. Sure enough, dead dragons hiding among the debris stirred in pursuit of the fighters.

“Gotcha.” Akamori said.

Akamori filled the primary spell cannon with a large amount of fire and void, hurling his own disintegrate spell from the cannon unassisted. The shot cored an undead dragon through the chest and lower jaw. Its body unraveled at the atomic level as the golden talon it was chasing banked hard and assist its wing mates. Akamori frowned. The Crasher was too big to attack nimble targets with reasonable success rates. He needed his own fighter. Better still, he needed his own dragon.

“Helios, join me on the hangar deck in dragon form.”

“You wish to join the melee?”

“Yeah.”

Helios unstrapped his safety harness and made for the corridor. Akamori undid his own and stood. “Sergeant, the ship is yours. Throw cover fire where you can. Helios and I are going to even this fight out. Don’t take any big risks. This is our ride out, after all.”

When Akamori got to the hangar, He found a large void dragon awaiting him. As he walked, he drew Thanaton from behind his back. The blade thrummed eagerly for violence. Using his air magic, Akamori flew to Helios’ back, pointing the Nodachi towards the fight.

“Let’s go say hello.”

The dragon accelerated hard out of the hanger like a black and purple reptilian missile. Akamori blured into a blue and red streak through the void as he and Helios raced to join the fight ahead of the crasher. Helios aimed them at the next largest draconic zombie. A thunderclap of air that went unheard in the void issued from Helios’ back and Akamori shot forward like a divine bullet for the offending dragon. Thanaton cleaved through a bone wing that was leveled to block a second too slow. Gore froze in the vacuum as Akamori blasted through. The zombie dragon snapped at him but lurched backwards as Helios clawed and slashed at its back.

“Knock knock bitches!” Akamori shouted. Even though he spoke into the void, it carried his words with divine magic.

Air blasted from his feet as if he’d just kicked off a ball of compressed air and shot back into the fight. He needed a bigger body. Something dragon sized. That would make this an even match.

You need my body. Bahumet rumbled from deep within his soul. Even though the seal between them was lesser now, it still separated them as soul shards. Giving them both individuality instead of slowly merging them.

“Wait, you still have a body?” Akamori said back.

I split my soul from body. It currently lives within my tomb, safe from the System.

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A soul bolt zipped out after Akamori but he slashed it apart with a void coated Thanaton who thrummed with glee. It had nothing to contribute so long as they were in combat.

“Where is this tomb at?”

Not now. We will be going soon. For now, focus on your foe.

A boney spiked tail coated with noxious poisons lunged for his face. It stoked the furnace in his chest. Embers smoldered into a small flame. Steam roiled off of him. Gone was the frigid cold he’d been carrying. Now he was simmering. He felt his strength surge with it. Another blast of air hurled him at the draconic zombie. A rotten hand came about to claw him, but Thanaton cleanly removed the fingers at the base of the knuckles.

A bone and gore coated fist swirled around, but Akamori stopped the attack with an open palmed block. He could feel them below. All the humans and their suffering. Slowly being snuffed out. Hundreds of zero magnitude auras winked out every minute. He didn’t have time to dick around undead dragons stonewalling him.

His soul gauge had enough charge that he triggered his reaper form. Black void cloak covering him and Thanaton transformed into its scythe form. He let his aura blast out as the fire in chest raged, growing larger. Spinning in place, the scythe cleanly removed the dragon zombie’s head at its shoulders. Ichor froze as it slowly oozed free of the body. He felt a soul trapped within it, and pulse his aura, shoving it free of the body.

“Return to the system.” He said grimly before turning his attention to the remaining air space. The fighters had broken off after dispatching a few of the other undead dragons. Soon after, a portal opened, and they were gone. He sighed, and the air froze as it left his nostrils.

“Uh, sir, the fighters all just left.” Sirsir said through the earpiece he was wearing.

“We have control of the skies. That’s all we needed them for. Anymore, and they’d just get in the way. Use the Crasher to deploy to the surface. Helios, to me.”

His void cloak dropped, dissolving away to reveal his blue gi and coat. Helios swooped under him, boots planted on the dragon’s obsidian scales, covering its shoulders again as the pair hit the upper atmosphere of New Xinjia. They didn’t even finish reentry before scattered spirits rose to stop them. Akamori dispatched them easily with quick clean slashes from Thanaton.

When the fire of reentry cleared away and the cool lower atmosphere greeted him, Akamori’s grip on his blade tightened as his eyes took in the slow murder of an entire planet before him. His skin heated up, and he felt like a star was being born within his chest.

Use it. Thanaton and Bahumet both said.

Akamori roared. Divine raw power traverse his voice and the entire world knew he’d arrived, and he was pissed. Everything fell still for a moment as everything that could see him stopped to look up, and anything that couldn’t turn its attention in his direction.

Where Akamori had once stood on Helios’ back now stood a man wreathed in flame. Angry red fire danced along his body like he was a star molded to the shape of a man. His hair was just one large wildfire that billowed in an astral wind. His eyes piercing red orbs of divine flame. His aura writhed with power and strength as it billowed out to blanket an entire continent, then multiple continents before eventually the world.

“People of New Xinjia. I am Akamori Shinjo, and I’ve come to save you. If you seek my aid, pray to me. Pray and I will purge every last undead from your world. I will teach the Sauridius not to fuck with mankind.”

He could feel it, all the worship. It thundered into him like a wave of aether that threatened to drown him. It suffused his entire being. Made him feel like he was made of raw power incarnate.

Because you are. Bahumet counseled. This will be explained to you in time. But for now? Focus on your enemy.

A human shaped comet exploded from Helios’ back like he was fired from a canon. A wave of spirits rose like a sickly green wave made of souls. Reaching up to claim him. But Akamori was rage, and wrath, and power incarnate. His will was more dominant, and he blasted through the ethereal forces like a sabot round fired through a soft target until he smashed into the ground.

Revenants, Banshees, Phantasms, Specters, Zombies and more all turned to him, seeking to devour him. But that would never happen. A beat later, Sirsir, Sala, and Yasiin landed in rough formation around him. Sala’s golden aura erupted around him as his skin turned gray like stone and cracked here and there. Yasin lifted his rifle, a small cloud of darkness obscuring him like smoke that clung to his form. Only the barrel of his spell rifle ever stuck out. Sirsir for his part hefted the spell cannon up, racking a round into the breach to fire.

“I’ll say this Eltee. Better to be behind you than in front of you.” Sirsir said, trying to make a joke to cut the tension.

Akamori turned back partially to see him. A faint grin creased his lips, and he nodded. His bonfire hair waving like it was under water behind him. “They have no idea how fucked they are.”

Of course, they all knew it was bluster. This planet probably would devour them. Their only goal was to make it take as long as possible, and make the assholes running this murder show to feel it as long as they could. Akamori put Thanaton to his back. He wanted to do this with his own hands. The blade shimmered out of reality as it went to his astral storage pocket.

The ground thundered and a thunderclap of air whooshed out behind them as Helios landed and shifted to his human form. A pair of black one handed battle axes in hand as he strode next to Akamori. He gave Akamori he was trembling with both the power and the rage at once over before nodding approvingly.

“Some legends were wrong. Perhaps there’s hope yet.”

The tension grew for a beat or two longer before a necromancer gave the unspoken word. Both forces gave their war cries. Spell fire erupted from Sirsir and Yasin as Sala, Helios, and Akamori crashed into the enemy ranks.

Was it a hopeless situation? Of course it was. Did they care? Not a single fuck was found among the bodies.

‎