Zalia stared wide-eyed at the demon, flashes of memory passing through her mind. Torture as her body was decayed and healed in a constant cycle, their fights, the loss of hope she had felt. The death of Delphi. Now that creature was here to stop them from freeing the capital.
The smaller flying demons pulled back for a moment to stop the spread of her cursed flame.
She initiated mental communication with General Faian below.
“There is a group of higher-ranked demons gathering. We might need to pull Hildebrandt to respond to them once they get here.”
All she got was a simple acknowledgement before the lower-ranked Tin and Iron demons began their attack again.
Bow in hand, she shot several arrows in quick succession. Each shot cut down three or four of the low-ranked demons, piercing with enough power to continue onwards. It wasn’t long before she had to switch to her sword once more, the sheer number of demons overwhelming them.
They got low enough that Hildebrandt’s aura began to burn away at the demon's flesh, giving Zalia and the two flying units a little room to breathe. At the city walls, the obsidian-skinned demon began to fly towards the army. Zalia hoped Faian would have some response to it.
Far overhead, Nateysta bit onto one of the Thousand-eyed one’s wings with his beak and ripped it off. The large flaming wing scorched his face before Nateysta whipped his head around, throwing it into the air. Their fight became a spiralling descent as the Thousand-eyed one dropped. One of its spiked limbs pierced through one of Nateysta’s trunk legs, dragging him down with it.
Another explosion rocked the field below them as Hildebrandt continued her devastating attacks, dirt, stone and flesh raining down across the battlefield.
Zalia didn’t want to use Nature’s Wrath just yet but had no choice as they began to get overwhelmed by the flying demons. She activated it and two wind elementals formed by her sides. Down below, a large chunk of the undead stopped as they were grasped by barbed roots growing from the ground. Moving above the rest of the flying soldiers, she summoned a whirlwind of air, slowly filling it with fire until a firestorm raged above, pulling in the low-ranked demons and scorching them to ash. It grew stronger as Zalia funnelled power into it and she only stopped once her mana began to drop low.
The horde of Tin and Iron-ranked flying demons were now thinned out and the remainder of the creatures began to flee as the effects of Hildebrandt’s aura and Zalia’s wrath became too much for them.
Unfortunately, the group of higher-ranked ones had arrived.
“Watch out!” she screamed.
But it was too late as they teleported amongst the flying soldiers all at once, many of the men and women not responding quickly enough as swords, daggers and claws found spines, throats and heads. Many of the soldiers died immediately.
Zalia found herself face to face with a Bronze demon as she spun about and attacked. She was used to this strategy, having faced it many times.
She parried a strike, using the burst of speed to strike back immediately. Her attack, filled with the power of the stars, struck and slashed through the demon's arm, then continued halfway through its torso. It flailed at her with its other arm, flying backwards to pull itself off of her blade, but she continued the attack. With a flap of her wispy air wings, she lunged forward and skewered it through the throat.
It made a gurgling sound as she drew the blade out, letting it drop from the sky.
A quick check on the rest of the flying soldiers found them in chaos. Any sense of formation had been lost as everyone engaged in one-on-one or one-on-two fights. Arrows and magic flew up from the army below, evening the odds for the outnumbered soldiers.
Without a second to waste, Zalia pushed into the fray. She saved a soldier by stabbing the demon he was fighting in the back, just as it was about to rip out his throat. He died a moment later to a dagger straight through to his heart. There was no chance to save him, the anti-death measure of Healing Presence having been used long ago at the start of the battle.
The dagger the demon wielded left it at a disadvantage to Zalia and she avenged the man, cutting down his killer with three quick, brutal strikes.
Looking for her next opponent, one found her as the obsidian skin demon dropped down at her from above. She managed to swerve out of the way at the last moment, deflecting its clawed hand and striking back, scoring a thin line down its shoulder.
It made a hissing sound at her, and she hissed back.
Obsidian grew from its shoulders and ripped off, forming four, floating jagged spikes. She watched them warily, then flew backwards as quickly as she could. They sped after her, controlled by the demon.
She flew past a few battling duos before grabbing a demon from behind and spinning it around to face the oncoming spikes. One of them impaled the demon, getting stuck halfway through its body.
Zalia teleported away in the same instant, watching for the spikes. She saw them, three still chasing her as they dodged around other fights. With a quick check to her mana, she could see that she was almost out. She would need to drop down to the ground to allow it to recharge, the constant drain of flight quickly depleting it.
Without any other choice, she was about to fly down to the ground when a power radiated across the field originating from Faian. It wasn’t warm and comforting like her own healing, rather it felt like pure energy. Resolve filled her body and her mana recharged. She felt fresh again as if the fight had just begun.
It wasn’t a moment too soon as the three obsidian spikes found her again. Rather than dodge them, she activated Protection of the Wilds. She chose Zephyr as the enhancing effect to the shields and every member of the army was covered in an ethereal shield enhanced with the power of wind. It felt as if a whirlwind had whipped up around the army, yet none of their members were affected.
She used the moment to launch her own attack on the obsidian skin demon. Ignoring the spikes that left three deep grooves in her new shield, she sped up to it and struck. Each of her blows were blocked easily but she didn’t give up.
Nearby, Nateysta and the Thousand-eyed one crashed to the ground with a deafening boom, crushing thousands of undead beneath them. Their struggle for supremacy continued, wings beating, spiked limbs stabbing and bodies rolling about over the earth, crushing even more undead. Zalia only hoped the colossal fight didn’t roll over the army.
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In short moments, her shield was broken by the Silver-ranked demon. It grabbed her arm and kicked her in the chest, ripping the arm from its socket as she tumbled away through the air, screaming in pain.
She could see the fervor and excitement on its face. It had enjoyed torturing her before but wasn’t going to let her live this time.
The smirk vanished as the demon was blasted into mist by a bolt of power sent from below.
There Hildebrandt stood, facing upwards as she sent bolts smashing through the demons above. She ignored the undead for a short time as Zalia’s protective shield kept each member of the vanguard safe from the undead.
Zalia felt a morbid sense of satisfaction at seeing the obsidian skin demon vanish like that.
A pained screech resounded across the battlefield as Nateysta summoned more vines that stabbed through the Thousand-eyed one's body. Dark flames rolled across the battlefield, scorching Nateysta and the undead alike but he didn’t let go, summoning more vines as his beak closed on one of the creature's legs. He tore that off too, clawing at the demon's body with his large jagged root claws.
The Thousand-eyed one screamed, struggling in pain as it did whatever it could to survive. The battlefield set alight, the army thankfully just out of reach, as its three remaining legs stabbed at Nateysta. Its one wing flapped in desperation trying to get it off the floor beneath the stronger nature spirit.
Despite the flame and sharp legs of the Thousand-eyed one, Nateysta didn’t let up. He tore at it with vine, claw and beak until its mad scramble for survival finally stopped.
The corrupting aura that was laid across the land slowly faded away, replaced by Nateysta’s own.
Nature had reclaimed its rightful place in this world.
The undead across the battlefield, still streaming out of the city, dropped dead to the ground, the power that had kept them animated no longer present. The rest of the demons tried to flee, but were quickly blasted away by Hildebrandt as she threw bolts of power from the ground.
Just like that, the battle was over.
Zalia dropped from the air and found her way to Boreal. It looked like the flanking units had left the walls to fight the undead once more when she had activated Protection of the Wilds and Boreal had a long gash down her side. Zalia focused all of her healing on Boreal and herself, as the gash healed over and her own arm regrew.
She dropped down and hugged Boreal tightly. They had survived the battle. There was a lot to do still, to help Endaria rebuild, to take the fight to the Astar and Cormaine but for now, they had survived.
As tempted as she was to just open up her vault and go pass out, Zalia felt surprisingly fresh. Whatever ability Faian had used was quite powerful, something she should have expected from a general.
Soon enough, Faian had the army mobilised once more.
They marched their way past the countless bodies and to the city gates. They had to spend a while clearing out a passage there as the number of undead that had been squashed up against the walls trying to get through the gates could be described as nothing other than horrific. It was a pile, tens of thousands crushed into one large mass of bodies.
They managed to get through and into the city eventually, greeted by the sight of more undead, the smell of rot and disease filling the air. Despite all that, it was silent.
The silence was somehow more disturbing than the undead. This was the capital of a kingdom and as such it should have been noisy, filled with the sounds and smells of life. Only death and its accomplices waited for them here.
They advanced cautiously through the city, the vanguard at the fore and scouts roaming through the buildings and streets nearby. Faian called a halt as they heard a scream of fear and pain from the direction one of the scouts went. She quickly gestured for a unit of legionnaires to investigate and they ran towards the screams.
Sounds of battle quickly followed before the legionnaires came back, dragging the body of a feline-like demon, the same type that had killed Aylie's family.
General Ballast got one of the army's telepaths to inform the other scouts of the danger but it was too late as they started hearing other sounds of battle amongst the narrow streets and tall buildings. Zalia poked Boreal to get her attention and told Faian she was going out there, then the two of them sprinted off amongst the maze-like city. It didn't take long for them to find some of the demons.
They ambushed one together, Boreal jumping it from behind and grabbing its neck in her powerful jaws. Zalia shot it in the head just as Boreal twisted, a savage snap resounding in the alleyway. They continued onward quickly, finding more and more of the creatures.
They battled through the city, almost always finding the demons roaming by themselves like solitary hunters.
They ran across a group of legionnaires who were doing the same thing and both went their separate ways after killing two of the demons that attacked them. Unfortunately, one of the legionnaires went down in the attack.
Zalia and Boreal found less and less of the demons and eventually decided to go back. They sped up again when they got close enough to hear the sounds of battle coming from the army's location. They arrived to chaos.
The army had found the human garrison of the city, the maddened soldiers. They were fighting in the main road with skirmishes happening throughout the adjacent alleys and streets. The bulk of the army was under constant attack from the feline demons as they made ambushing attacks from house doors, windows, roofs, streets and alleys. No avenue of entry was safe.
On the rooftops near the enemy army were archers raining chaos down amongst Faian's people who were desperately trying to erect any kind of barriers they could.
Zalia cast her flight ritual and then ran through a wall using her armour's incorporeal ability. She flew straight up through the roof and unleashed three arrows in quick succession, dropping three enemy archers. Each shot gave her invisibility and a boost in speed as she flickered in and out through the air, sending off more arrows towards more archers. Most of them turned their attention to her and she was soon having to dodge more than she could shoot. A quick ritual using Zephyr major and Dodge-vine minor gave her a powerful shield against ranged attacks. The arrows shot in her direction were pushed away from her body, though some still hit. A few of the arrows simply passed through her due to her incorporeal nature when wearing the armour but some of them were obviously magically imbued as they were deflected by her armour.
She twisted in the air, dropping another two archers with arrows to the head, an arrow from return fire striking her shoulderplate and shattering.
Boreal jumped from the shadows and ripped that archer from the rooftops.
The battle down below was going better now, the earth mages amongst the army having managed to close off a lot of the entry points the feline demons were using.
As the flying units in the army realised Zalia was taking down a lot of the archers, they flew up to join her in finishing the job. It wasn't long before they now had the high ground, pelting the enemy army with arrows and spells from above.
The army began to take ground, pushing the enemy up the hill with earth mages blocking side entries as they advanced. A few of the enemy soldiers began to flee and soon the rest of them broke. Only a few stayed to the last, dying with sword in hand.
They marched up to the castle at the top of the hill. There, the large gardens out the front of the castle had been crushed beneath the weight of the Thousand-eyed one. With both Zalia and Nateysta as he joined them there though, the land began to thrive once more. A wilder garden grew from the remains of the old.
They left most of the army there as they began constructing hasty fortifications. There were still enemies in the city, even if they had been severely cut in number. A few of them went inside, the smaller Nateysta, still scorched and covered in wounds, Zalia, Boreal, Hildebrandt, Larel, the generals and some advisors, including Indis.
They went to the throne room, where the skeleton of the king, crown upon his head, sat on his throne. There was no unlife in the body, only the peaceful rest of the dead. Nearby, Zalia found the body of Darren, Juniper's son. She didn’t know if he had any part in the events leading up to this, but thought he deserved a better fate. Juniper had been lost in her own grief and had done things others would not have because of it. Darren had still been young though, without much experience of life.
What was done was done, though. Now they had to look to the future.
Zalia stood up from where his body lay and moved over to where Indis knelt on the floor, tears streaming down her face as she looked at the body of the king. The man she had done so much for, the man she should have married had the demons not invaded.
Zalia shook her head, then went back outside. Looking over the horizon, she could feel where Ember, and Aylie who was with her, were waiting.
She had her own family that needed her.