Evening came to the Henjuk Mountains on another late autumn day. As the sun went into its final decent of sunset the sky became painted by deep shades of red and orange. With the dying of the light the limited warmth went as well leaving the world as cold as the grave. The pine trees filtered the colors of the setting sun through their prickly needles as the other trees were left bare as skeletons with no leaves to sway in the winds.
These were the conditions I found myself in as I stood at the edge of a small village on the far south-west of the mountain range. They were far from civilization and even further on the outskirts of the kingdom than even Doovlin. The village didn't even have a proper name as so few people lived here, living off the land like the crazed mountain men they were. It was pretty much just a half dozen families that all made their homes here far from the reach of kings or taxes.
Why was I here in the first place? Well while they hadn't heard of me specifically these people apparently still honored the concept of goddesses with no particular name in mind. Because of this I had received prayers from them, though it had been very fuzzy like a mismatched radio signal. It was interesting for sure, kind of like when I first arrived in this world with Miya's prayers being to no goddess in particular and me picking up on it.
What were theses prayers? An undead attack. The werewolves weren't the only ones under threat from the undead it seemed, though apparently only those on the fringes of civilization were in any real danger. Whatever was causing these pockets of undead seemed to only affect places far outside populated areas. I mean I knew Neske had done at least the werewolf incident but wither she was in responsible for this as well I had no idea.
It's not like the undead here were attacking with any real direction so I was inclined to believe the vampire had no involvement this time. Still, the fact there were undead running around at all was highly disturbing. With no souls they were almost impossible to see in goddess vision on my map as they were just moving objects. This made tracking or finding the source of them, if any really existed, hugely problematic. Plus the further out into the wilderness I went, though my powers were freely usable without the worshiper restriction, they were very muted.
So here I stood at the very edge of the village, the dying daylight painting the world in crimson while I watched the treeline in front of me. My outfit was once again a cute winter getup with a furry coat and long soft pants underneath my skirt. At the moment I was even wearing a hat again, this time a coonskin hat made with magic not animals. My boots were also bigger as well.
I lifted my hands to my mouth and blew into them out of habit, not that my body actually got cold. My body stayed the same temperature no matter the temperature outside. I then put my hands in my coat pocket and stood there looking out at the forest as one of the men from the villages walked up behind me.
“Goddess Jenna.” He said bowing deeply.
I kept staring out at the treeline without looking around at him. He was a man named Jason. Tall, coconut hair, orange eyes. Pretty average father for these villages.
“Yes?” I answered. “What is it?”
Jason stood up again and then walked closer to me, ending up at my side as he looked out into the wilderness with me.
“Are there really more of those things out there Goddess Jenna?”
My eyes stared out into the wild, not really looking at anything in particular. It was my mind's eye that was truly surveying the landscape out there. Using my map I was able to just barely track the movement of quite a large number of undead creatures. There were probably fifty altogether: mostly zombies but with some skeletons mixed in.
Their slow movement made it difficult to watch them and I had decided to wait here at the village for them instead of going out there to fight them. After all should some slip through while I was away the villagers would be in big trouble. The initial wave of a half dozen or so zombies had already been taken care of when I first arrived so now I waited for the rest to appear.
They were truly grotesque things. Seeing skeletons and zombies in movies or games was one thing, but actually being there in person with them shambling in front of you was on a while new level of disturbing. Twisted simulacrums of the human form with decaying meat clinging to their frames in horrific displays of gore. One couldn't forget the smell either. Rotting flesh or musty rot that assailed the lungs and would definitely be poisonous to mortals if breathed in. The skeletons weren't that much better. What foul magic held them together I didn't know, but their grinding bones were disturbing to behold.
I sighed and tapped my left foot on the ground, still not looking away from the forest edge as I answered the human's question.
“Yes there are. They'll be here very soon.”
Jason gulped nervously and tightly gripped the hatchet he had been carrying.
“Will we have to fight those... Those things?”
Finally I turned to him and smiled warmly, my eyes still not focused on what was directly in front of them as my true sight lay elsewhere.
“No you wont.” I replied in a reassuring tone. “I'll handle it from here.”
I turned back to the trees and returned to my thoughts. The idea of reviving the undead was out of the question. Resurrection wasn't possible even in this fantasy world, I just knew this without knowing how I did. Thankfully the lack of souls inside the undead meant they were at least not real people suffering. It was just fell magic animating corpses to act upon instinct, or perhaps the orders of whoever raised them. I'm sure if zombie bites were infections here I could heal that easily though.
Another man jogged up behind us and called out. A middle aged man named Redde who acted as a sort of leader for the people here. He had nice long black hair and deep blue eyes. He came to a stop several feet directly behind me.
“Goddess Jenna! Jason!” He almost shouted. “The people are getting nervous. How much longer until those things arrive?”
I glance over my right shoulder out of the corner of my eye. My voice in a serious tone for my reply.
“They're here. Now watch me.”
With a flourish I flicked out my left hand and summoned a crowbar in my fist. It was a typical one made of simple wrought iron that had nicely curved and sharp ends. With confidence I held it out beside me and then lifted it up over my shoulder.
“I'll show you how to fight these things properly. Being bitten by the zombies in particular is a big no-no you need to avoid.”
The sound of crunching twigs and rustling bushes could be faintly heard across the five-hundred feet gap between village and forest. We all looked over towards the sound and confirmed what I already knew. The undead were here in tandem with the last rays of daylight.
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There at the edge of the trees in the scant light of dusk the first of the zombies had shuffled out of the foliage and were now trudging across the open ground towards the village. Mixed between them were a skeleton or two, though thankfully none of them had weapons. The most unsettling thing of all was the lack of sound as none of them made any besides their footsteps.
Inside the village everyone had already gone into hiding, their windows and doors closed and locked. Only the two men that currently stood behind me were outside as I wanted to show them these combat techniques. I'd seen enough zombie movies to know how to fight the undead after all.
In the fading light my hair began to glow more brightly and in the minutes to follow as darkness fell it would shine brightly in the night. With a single shout to serve as a battle cry I dashed forward into the oncoming dead. The two men and any other humans around just watching with rapt attention.
Even though I could travel well close to the speed of light I kept myself to human speeds as I dashed across the open field, reaching the first zombie in a matter of seconds. It was the bloated and rotting corpse of an old woman that stood much taller than me. Whoever it had been in life their body deserved more than this.
With one deft step I dodged the zombie's lunging grab and then responded with a swing of my own. The crowbar swished through the air as I gave it an overhead swing. It came down on the torso with a sickly crunch as the metal cut through rotten flesh and smashed aged bones.
The zombie crumpled over but was still moving, its arms grasping for my legs. Another swing of my crowbar however smashed its right arm rendering it useless. Then it was only a matter of avoiding the left arm as one final overhead swing of my crowbar finished it off. I let out a short cry as the metal caved in the thing's skull, splattering brain and blood onto the ground. It stopped moving forevermore.
There was no time to rest however as a pair of zombies came in on both my right and my left. They were the front runners of the horde that now pushed its way out of the forest and it was first come first serve. Even in the body of a child I'd make no easy prey.
With another quick foot shuffle I avoided the lunges of both of them, the two unthinking corpses stumbling forward as their grasping lunges missed. One fell over and was swiftly finished off with a blow to the brains while the other steadied itself.
In a display of tactics I swung out with the curved end of my crowbar and caught the remaining zombie in the legs. The bones cracked and the thing fell over on its back and then before it could right itself I moved in for the kill. A quick strike to the side of the head painted the dirt in gore and left the body motionless at my feet.
I swung the crowbar to send the mess on it spattering on the ground before turning back to the two men who were watching me. By now night had fallen and the pale light of the moon barely illuminated the landscape. The only reason they could see what was going on near me at all was because of the light from my hair.
In an instant I was standing in front of them again, my crowbar hanging down at my left side while I cocked my hips to the same side. My right hand was on my hip as I looked up at the two men.
“Well that's how you fight zombies safely.” I said with a slight frown due to focus. “You'd be out of breath I'm sure from that unlike me. Don't blame me because I'm a goddess.”
Redde looked down at the little girl before him and gulped slightly nervous. He had just met me after all and seeing someone as small as me fight like that was surely surprising.
“Of course Goddess Jenna.” He said with wide eyes.
I lifted the crowbar and held it out for him to take.
“Here you can keep this. Just remember any weapon works as long as you go for the brain. These things will keep going no matter what damage you do until you take out their brains.”
Redde nodded and took the crowbar in both hands. He looked down at it and stared as if it was some kind of holy weapon I was gifting him. When he responded it was distracted as he was clearly thinking about what I had said.
“Yes Goddess Jenna.”
Now that the lessons had been finished it was time to finish off the undead and take my leave of this place. I did have other things to do after all. So with a disappointed look on my face I turned around and summoned two earth golems. The two hulking things rose up from the earth in front of me and the two men gasped in fear.
I walked between the two golems and gave them orders without even looking at them.
“Guard this village until morning light and then return to the earth.”
I then stopped walking for a moment and paused. Then I addressed the humans with a quick look over my shoulder.
“Oh I'll be getting pretty big for a moment here. No need to fear. Also I expect ya'll to leave this village and move somewhere closer to other human settlements. Its just not safe out in these mountains at the moment.”
Redde looked at me in shock.
“Abandon our homes?” He looked at the still approaching undead horde with fear. “But you're taking care of this aren't you?”
I shrugged and returned my gaze to the oncoming undead.
“I don't know when or where another batch of these things will show up again. I'd rather keep all the people as close together as possible so I don't have to travel all over the kingdom. At least until this situation is resolved I expect you to obey me. You leave in the morning got it?”
The man could only look down in defeat as he couldn't refuse me. Especially not when I made so much sense.
“Yes Goddess Jenna.” Redde responded dejected. “Your will be done.”
A small but joyless smile came over my face as I started walking again.
“Good. Now excuse me. I have some smiting to do.”
Now that my orders were clearly delivered to both golem and human I once again approached the horde of corpses. They were halfway across the open field now and their tireless advance showed no signs of stopping. It was time to end this. I started rising into the air with my arms lifted to my sides, my hair glowing brightly alongside my eyes.
“Oh cleansing fire. Oh purifying light. Come visit ruin upon evil.”
As I finished speaking a brilliant aura of warm light burst forth from my body and surrounded me like the halo of a star. The dark of the night was banished as I grew to my full size, my body looming over the undead as they crawled like insects upon the ground at my feet. The world in the immediate vicinity became as daylight as my light banished darkness. Alongside the illumination came warmth as well and one would swear it was a spring day if not for the reality of the season.
With my left hand I pointed with my index finger at the unholy creatures below. They were already frozen as if stunned from my light but now it was time to remove them from this world. My voice boomed out over the forest and village alike as I pronounced my judgment.
“Rest in peace bodies of old.”
Suddenly a beam of even more intense light shot out from my fingertip and engulfed a pair of zombies in the crowed. The bodies could be barely seen within the brilliant beam engulfed in a raging inferno of flames. When it faded there was nothing left where they had stood except a pile of ashes.
Then I held out my arms to my sides and even more beams of holy light shot out from all around my body as if coming from the aura itself. They arced out along the ground like the lasers from a science fiction movie leaving naught but destruction in their wake. All consuming fire raged the undead the light struck, their bodies burning into dust including the very bones.
What did the villagers who were watching this think of me now? The thought barely crossed my mind and I dismissed it just as quickly as it had popped in there. It didn't matter what they thought of me, they were seeing my power and would know to obey my commands. Maybe it was a bit of Sub-chan peering through but I didn't care if they feared me. In this moment all that mattered was the cleansing of these undead and the safety of the humans, even if they had to fear my wrath to obey my orders.
When the last of the undead were consumed in radiant light I changed back to my human size, shrinking into the air as I was left floating a hundred of feet above the ground. Down below the fires faded out as if suddenly deprived of oxygen with no lasting damage to the landscape. The darkness and chill of the night had returned as well as my hair was now back to its usual glow. My eyes were also back to normal as I surveyed the forest one last time for any remaining undead.
My scans were thorough and came up with no more moving corpses. Thus my work here came to an end. I would leave the rest of the night to my golems should any other threats arrive but come morning I expected my orders to be obeyed. For now I would leave this place and return to whence I came. I'd have to find my champion as well as someone needed to go out and explore the mountains and find the source of the undead plague.
With one final look to the village below I opened a portal to the capital city, the magical circle of the portal a ring in the dark night sky. Then I sank into it and vanished from the view of those villagers below, my display of power surely never to be forgotten. They now knew the might of a goddess and that their devotion to me would not be misplaced.