“It seems almost too easy. Did they not have a clear goal when they came to attack? An expeditionary force would not make sense given their size. They must have come knowing there would be a battle.”
The Knightmare mused on the one-sided battle. It brought him great joy seeing their bodies join their ranks and turn against their own. But it bothered him that that they were as much responsible for their losses as his own Undead soldiers.
“The lack of regard for their own kind. The loss of love. Have they lost everything to lose? A pity. We could have showed them that there is much more to gain in an eternal body.”
Another thousand of the opposing force fell. Their heads were split open by clubs. Hearts were pierced by spears. Backs were riddled like the spikes of a porcupine with a hail of arrows.
The other force was not equipped to deal with so many different modes of attacks, much less against arrows since they seemed so shocked to find them on the battlefield. It made the Knightmare laugh.
“What kind of lives did they live if arrows are surprising?” He wondered mockingly.
Suddenly, he felt a disturbance on the battlefield. Another force arrived from the smoke to reinforce the dwindling numbers of the opposing army. However, and through the crimson shimmer seen in the eyes of few of the Pawns, he noticed something odd.
“I thought they were already killed…”
He witnessed identical people murder their Undead selves. Additionally, they returned with a ferocity unlike their previous selves. Another hail of arrows rained down upon them, but this time, they came prepared with wooden shields to defend themselves.
“How could they have known about the arrows so quickly if they did not retreat? That does not make any sense.”
The Blighted Riders became their priority all of a sudden.
“… No. The Crimson Hunger has a similar power. As does Marduk. Could they be replicating!?”
* * *
Indeed. The Repenters were part of a Nexus-owned Replication Cycle.
They arose like undead soldiers from hidden pools of blood behind the smoke.
First, their veins and nerves created a framework of their bodies before bones grew. Muscles quickly filled in the empty spaces before their organs were formed. Their skin and apparel wrapped over them long before their brains and hearts did.
This occurred within an Isolation Sphere to speed up the process in Real Time. Blood Reserivors could be found within the forest, bleeding the Amalgam’s Blood into its crevices.
This was where Souls Anchor were installed, allowing them to be reborn shortly after death. Their soul was tied to the Soul Anchor, and the Blood of the Amalgam – otherwise known as the Forbidden Nectar or Her Mercy – would reconstitute their body according to the blueprint of their soul.
This made them the perfect force to fight the Memento Mori… no, to fight any battle of attrition. Each death made them smarter, stronger, and responsive as they adapted to the Memento Mori’s attacks.
Because unlike the Memento Mori, they had the capacity to change.
It was also through their replication cycles that they could communicate with CogitO, Justica Arms and Time Reverberation all at once regarding their findings.
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
The Blighted Riders stopped flanking and moved to reinforce the Pawns at the front lines.
It was though they were given the simple command of: “Attack the nearest enemy.”, which was detrimental to low-intelligent beings.
Because this meant that they were susceptible to other forms of attacks. If they saw a mage preparing to blow them up, then they would not care. A more robust order of: “Flank the enemy.” Was also flawed.
This opened them up to a one-sided attack. The tides of war changed, and the Repenters trudged through the mud like a tidal wave. The churned bones and bodies of the deceased gave them enough of a footing to take the terrain advantage away from the Memento Mori, allowing them to push through.
The zombies exploded with maggoty gore. The Remembrances were forgotten as quickly as they were felled. It was shockingly surprising that they had the upper hand as an attacker. Usually defenders had the advantage, but the Memento Mori had not erected any traps, nor had used the terrain to their advantage appropriately.
If they did, then they would have waited till the Repenters reached the ruins. It would be much harder for an attacker to beat an entrenched enemy. They did not have magical artillery either.
This was the Memento Mori’s first mistake.
They had reacted rather than properly prepared. They knew that the Iron Stars were in Grandis, and yet, they did nothing to adequately defend themselves. In fact, it was likely that their defenses were closer to the north.
“They’re retreating now. No more reinforcements are coming our way.” A Repenter noticed how the Memento Mori were moving closer towards the multiple towers ahead.
“So they’ve chosen to stay close to that.”
“What is that supposed to be? The Heart?”
“I advise that you keep your distance away from that.”
Someone overstepped their boundaries as this was said. He walked one centimeter over the 500-meter range of the towers, and at once, a beam of green light zapped him until nothing but a single ear and two fingers remained.
“… Minor Arcana Towers…? I couldn’t tell…”
“They’re disguised as lighthouses. This is where our assault stops. The North were notorious for holding many Minor Arcana Towers.”
“Then what do we do…?”
A Repenter pulled out a bulky weapon from their leg. They pointed the weapon into the sky, angled it directly at the azimuth of the towers, and fired a pale orb of burning light. It shone like a star, and it flew beyond the clouds.
“We wait until we receive the next orders. For now… I suggest you close your eyes.”
“Wait, what’s going to happen to us?”
“We’ll get to sleep for a bit more.”
* * *
The Knightmare sent out his Pawns to immediately relay the news of an invasion, though he knew that they must have realized this by now. Their foes were not a band of ordinary mercenaries but were somehow linked to Scarlet Logic.
This was the most likely explanation to him.
“They will come, and they will fall. Garrison every inch of Catacombs. Defend the Minor Arcana Towers… To think they’d betray us.”
Perhaps he did not know what he was saying. In truth, he was looking for a scapegoat as he could not bear the embarrassment of losing against a mere force of 5,000. It was perhaps because of his pride that he overlooked the strategic play of fighting within the Catacombs where it was most advantageous.
But it was too little too late to rely on this tactic now. A bright light was fired into the skies until it disappeared beyond the smoke. The Knightmare – a Memento Mori who had fought in the North where the 2nd Branch was stationed – immediately knew what that light was.
His hands drooped beside him just as he clutched onto the handles of a pair of giant blades by his waist.
It was futile now.
“It’s… It was a method to find us…!? That Apostle… I thought they had abandoned Grandis! Flee! FLEE AT ONCE! THE HEAVENS ARE FALLING!”
He roared at the top of his lungs as particles of glowing startdust fell from the skies.
His hooves clopped as he tried to flee from the tower. He grasped at the walls of the battlements as though it would save him. However, the stardust that fell touched his arm, and it began to dissolve like a cleansing light.
Suddenly, an ultrabright crystal asteroid fell from the heavens. It pierced through the black clouds, parting it temporarily before it obliterated the Catacombs. Debris flew from all sides. The towers exploded by the immense impact alone, and the stored magic within the Minor Arcana Towers produced secondary explosions that further flattened everything in its path.
A great column of light lingered for the next thirty seconds. Everything within a 300-meter radius was partially damaged. But nothing remained within the immediate 50 meters of the Justica Starfall’s impact.
And it did not come alone.
As soon as the first one came crashing down, another twenty Justica Starfalls crashed through the clouds. Rays of light pierced into the nightmarish world. But they did not come as rays of hope.
They were here to deliver only one thing.
Indiscriminate judgement. They were the heralds of Galia’s presence, and the ones that brought her uncontested deliverance in the form of an ordinance.
The first phase was over, and now – the second phase had begun.