Reyra was back home, enjoying Kawu's caressing, relaxing in his big arms, lying on his naked chest. They had been like that for hours by now, saying nothing, just enjoying each other's company, when Reyra's whole body shook.
"What happened?" Kawu asked, his hand stopping the stroking of her back.
"Something is coming!" She sat up at once, hurriedly climbing off him, starting to dress up. "Get into full alert! Send out the message; it's happening sooner than we expected!"
Kawu was worried, knowing what this meant, but he didn't hesitate. Putting on clothes, he simply nodded at his wife, seeing her fly out of the window, spurting golden wings and disappearing on the horizon.
At a different place on Meriath, above the giant lake of Azurat, the sky was distorting constantly, turning deep, dark green, visible from hundreds of kilometers away. The people who saw it were petrified, their bodies and souls shaking as if an invisible force was trying to rip it out of their bodies. Soon cracks appeared, and an otherworldly, ghostly hand stretched out of it, pulling apart the fabric of the Realm, letting black miasma flood the air. On the other end, No-Space was visible before being obscured by the miasma that rushed into the Realm.
"The air has changed so much." A voice said as a young woman stepped out of it, standing in the air, wearing an immaculate white robe.
Her white hair was reaching down to her shoulders while her green eyes scanned the scenery below her. The crack was slowly healing behind her, receding, but its presence caused great panic in the region, even if people couldn't see the lone woman in the sky. If the Misfits were here, looking at her, even with the changes to her body, they could realize it was Palvina's body that returned in the form of an Undead. Nothing remained of the old lover of Olivia, as her soul was destroyed by Lia's blue fire when they fought the body of Azurat. Right now, the one who was housed inside the body was Loonah. The damage that was done to it previously had been already repaired, and her miasma didn't require the energy channels used for spells. She only needed a body that once housed a soul similar to her own in temperament, desires, and thoughts.
"Fast…" Loonah looked to the north, seeing a blinding light heading towards her. With a wave of her hand, she raised a wall of energy, blocking the attack before it could land on her.
The sound of the attack arrived a few seconds later when it was already blocked and separated into multiple smaller beams, scattering around the horizon, tearing up the trees, mountains, and the lake itself.
"Sharp…" Reyra thought, covering the energy sniper in her hand, letting it dissipate, before flying closer, examining the Undead in the air.
"You must be the current leader of the Fleshbounds, yes?" Loonah asked, unperturbed, examining her body, determining if she could be used as a puppet later on. "You are strong… But you are bound to lose. It is not late to join us and survive what is coming."
"It is not too late to destroy yourself and escape the suffering of your soul being torn to shreds."
"Oh… and who would do it? You?" Loonah tilted her head, smirking.
"Exactly."
Reyra had nothing more to say; she was just stalling for time to build up her next spell. With a burst of light, darkness arrived over the land. The sky disappeared behind a grey veil as if being seen through a fogged-up window. Loonah couldn't look farther than a few meters as the world was swallowed up by the unnatural fog of grey light that not even her eyes could see through, and she lost track of the little girl in front of her.
"Are you trying to imprison me?" She laughed, waving her hand, sending an arc of green light into the greyness, but it got swallowed up like nothing, disappearing in its entirety. Loonah was somewhat surprised as she tracked her own energy, but then she was cut off after a certain point and could no longer detect it. "Is this…?"
She realized the problem. This was a spell made out of the perfect mix of two elements. She fought many times with the so-called Legendri of the Fleshbounds, mages at the 9th Tier of Magic… She even killed one… but… She knew very well what it meant to face the one who could mix opposing elements. They tried to kill him multiple times and never attacked him one-on-one, always using their superior numbers and ambushes. The only one who could stand up to him was the direct disciple of their Sect Master, Che.
"This is not a prison… but your coffin." Reyra's voice echoed around her, coming from all directions before a dark, black, clawed hand reached out from beyond the grave, clasping down on Loonah.
"Hmph!" With raised hands, she fought back, surrounding herself with her miasma, forming a green energy ball, and pushing back against it.
From the outside, it looked like a demonic hand was trying to crush a jade ball in its anger. Looking at the cracks appearing on Loonah's defenses, it was working, and a moment later, with a bang, it shattered like glass, making the hand grasp onto her body. Now a second one appeared, coming from the opposite direction, holding onto Loonah's body and pulling, tearing her into two.
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"You think it will be this easy?" Loonah asked while the two halves of her body exuded her unnatural energies, reforming the missing parts as now there were two of them standing there, grabbing against the black claws, prying them off her body before getting away.
"No, but this is just the beginning!"
With a roar, more hands came forth from the greyness; some were black, some were golden, shining blindingly, trying to catch the bodies of Loonah that kept on multiplying any time it was torn apart or injured. In the end, almost a hundred of her were in the sky, laughing and speaking simultaneously.
"You are an amateur!" Loonah cackled mockingly, "You fail to realize your prison can't hold me? Can't kill me? You are just wasting your time! Show yourself!"
"I wasn't wasting my time… you big, dumb bitch." Reyra replied with her own laugh, and the grey 'prison' receded, revealing the blue sky, "I was waiting for my people to catch up!"
Loonah felt her eyes twitch, turning serious at once as she was surrounded. Her bodies were nothing but simple clones, replicas, and she had to spread out her powers to create and maintain them… but it gave her much better survivability in a prolonged fight.
"Mom… let's kill her already!" Razael said with a grin, licking his lip and waiting for Reyra's order, who shone brightly above them all.
Below her, surrounding the multitude of bodies of Loonah, stood all of the Three Ri stage mages of House Amarin. Nobody was missing, all of them converging on this one place, surrounding the biggest threat in the Realm.
"You should have stayed wherever the fuck you lot hide at…" Reyra pointed at Loonah with a savage smile, "Now you just made sure you get fucked… ANNIHILATE HER!"
The moment the order left her throat, all the present Amarins raised their hands, casting their strongest, most potent spell. The air was filled with the crackling, sizzling of mana, displaying all the eight elements known to men, all aiming at the Undead woman, resulting in a catastrophic explosion that even tore against the fabric of the Realm itself.
…
….
……
The moment Loonah stepped into Meriath, multiple hidden sub-realms opened up, thousands of Undead flooding the continent at different locations. Some were close to established cities and kingdoms, throwing them into panic and turmoil but not into complete chaos. While the strongest Amarins were facing the Supreme Elder, the rest of their forces, with Parthorn and Kawu's lead, were ready to face those enemies they could fight back against.
The same thing was happening with all the other Houses, all reacting in an organized way, heading to the closest outbreak of Undead, focusing on what they could fight and stop and not what was happening on Reyra's end. They very quickly came face-to-face with Loonah's generals, the Grand Elders, who posed strength that was on par with being in the Realm of Three Ri. Luckily, 4000 years was enough for the Houses to have their own experts. They were awoken from their frozen sleep precisely to meet them head-on. It wasn't different on Lia's end. The Misfits were just arriving, ready to explore the place that Melody led them to, when Lakhmu shuddered, his gaze penetrating the deep jungle.
"Into defensive formation!" He roared, and the Misfits, with Lia's lead, did as ordered.
Standing in the jungle, looking through the trees and the thick shrubs, they didn't see anything but none of them doubted the words of Lakhmu. A second later, Lia felt it, then it spread to the rest… Undead.... and a lot of them.
"Don't break the line!" Lakhmu's voice echoed, shaking everyone back to reality as the first wave of Undead bodies appeared amongst the trees. Unlike what Lia and the rest met before, all of them looked focused, surrounded by an armor of miasma and wielding weapons from the same origin.
It was Lakhmu who jumped in first, with one swing of his fist, leveling multiple dozen trees and Undead, burning them to ash, doing as he said he would. With him in the front, drawing the bulk of the incoming horrors to himself, he became a wave breaker, only letting dozens of them slip through instead of the hundreds they were facing.
"Misfits!" Lia shouted, "Water and Earth division create pitfalls and mud-traps! Trap them! Metal, Air, and Darkness division, dismember them! Light and Nature division, take care of the injured, the exhausted, and our back lines! Fire division!" She raised one of her swords, "With me!"
And with a battle cry echoed by her followers, she was rushing forth, aiming at the closest, trapped Undeads, their legs stuck in the muddy earth created by Koa and her husbands, burning their bodies into ash. She saw from the corner of her eyes as the ground opened up, swallowing trees and Undead alike. She saw Keily jump over it, sending a blazing tornado down, burning them away before dodging a slash from an Undead warrior. His attacker didn't last long as Aurora arrived, slicing it up into multiple pieces and tossing them into the burning pit.
Even though this was the first time many of the misfits faced an army of the Undead, their training didn't go to waste, and they worked seamlessly as a team. The different divisions synergized with each other well, and Lia felt pride watching them work. Ceiline was commanding her peashooters, aiding and defending their lines from that Undead who reached close, killing them with her own hands, tearing one apart with her claws. Raufon transformed into his beast form, along with others of his kind, dismantling those who got through and reached the lines of spellcasters, focusing on turning the terrain into a trapline.
With Lakhmu fighting at the forefront, swatting away and killing Undead with every move of his, it seemed like they would be able to hold out and whittle the enemy down until none remained, but then a much stronger aura washed over them. It came from an undead, floating above them, watching Lakhmu, ignoring the rest. Lia could feel that the newcomer's power was something she couldn't match, and suddenly, she realized they were in grave danger.
"All of you… fall back!" Lakhmu said, glancing at the youngsters, knowing things just turned from bad to worse. He had no choice but to kick out and fly up, meeting the new Undead, who exchanged blow-to-blow with him, resulting in loud, thundering explosions.
"Misfits! Spread out and retreat to our fortress!" Ordered Lia, drawing out her second sword, "Fire division! Bring up the rear!" Her voice traveled through the air with authority, facing the unending horde while above them, Lakhmu was in a life-or-death battle against the Grand Elder of the Undead, named Kidlat.