CHAPTER 5 – THE FALL OF DEATH

Sanguine Necropolis – The Shattered Remains of the Unhallowed – Erebus

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Gideon and company spent about ten minutes in the Temple’s back line getting healed up and waiting for their resources to work their self back to the green before with violence and vengeance still percolating in the back of their minds unleashed themselves to the front lines. They all wanted a part of the remaining Vampires and Revenants and implementing the lethal punishment of their choices.

Freeborn looked like they had emptied out their entire Settlement which to Gideon seemed foolhardy especially in context that the Sanctum were somewhere in the area though somewhat mitigated with that so was the Wild Tribes and he believed their portals were linked. He believed Frostholme was within three hundred miles to the southwest or so. Still, it would have not been something he would have chosen to do though that had more to do with proximity than anything. If Umbra Mortem was only a hundred or so miles away from Sanguine Necropolis he might have been tempted to come in force though with the same plan in place, bringing in a small team to infiltrate and rescue first what. Exactly it looked like the New Yorker had done and planned. It wasn’t a coincidence they had appeared in force only after Gideon and company had rescued L’Sana and Ari. He wouldn’t put it past them to have access to someone with a Class that gave them some kind of scrying Ability.

None of that took away the debt they now owed the Angelic Scion and Giovanni and through them, the Temple. More importantly he would have to send a thank you note to that Old Priest he’d met what seemed like ages ago. His word had been truth and reluctantly he had to give the same to the Secret Goddess. The Shadow Conclave through the Gunslinger and Nuri had done no less and in reality for far longer, from the beginning. Soon he would have to organize a meet with the Secret Lady, possibly through the Shadowborn.

It took four hours to clear the Settlement, a good many foes hightailing it into the surrounding hills. They were weak. Their forces actually still outnumbered theirs by double but with most of their Elites killed in the explosion and having rested on their Bloodlines and arrogance and overwhelming force in enslaving all the local villages in the beginning of the first Challenge, they chose to cower and flee, some even dropping to knees and begging for mercy. There was none to be found.

When they were faced with hardened warriors and the controlled lethal violence of Gideon and his and the New Yorker and Angelic Scion and their own Elites, they folded like wet tissue paper. Numerous Notifications filtered in his side vision and they’d even picked up a quest, an earlier Notification he’d ignored but his Uncle whom he’d given temporary Party Control to had smartly accepted it. Who would have thought the asshole System would have given them a Quest to save someone. Marcus was quick to sling the leadership role back to L’Sana where it belonged. Mistress of Loot. Gideon smiled. That seemed so long ago now. He pulled it up.

Quest Alert – To Punish the Wicked

The Leader of the Unhallowed on Erebus from his throne in the Settlement of Sanguine Necropolis decided to take what is yours with impunity. It is time to teach your foes the lesson of their arrogance. Take back what has been stolen and kill at least one of the three Elites of the Unhallowed. Bonus exp and rewards if you break the strength of the Unhallowed presence on your world and remove one more impediment to your rise.

Elites Killed 1/3

Bonus – Settlement Broken – 1/1

Rewards – Loot Box Equivalent to Recipient.

Bonus Reward – Loot Box Equivalent to Recipient.

Not really worded as saving anyone but a lot closer than he would have ever thought the System would get. Once most of the enemies had either fled or were killed the Quest completed itself and everyone had received their Loot Boxes and he knew this cause L’Sana who had been standing right next to him when it happened screamed shrilly in his ear like a five year old girl who just got the doll she’d been wanting. It might have been a rout but still the Temple had lost quite a few in taking the place. He hadn’t asked for the numbers but they themselves had seen people killed. Even his own party had picked up some injuries but Ari while not back to peak still brought her healing to the party.

He’d been impressed with everything he’d witnessed in watching how the Temple forces had gone about the sacking of the Settlement. Many of their losses and heavy injuries had been in doing their best to not only protect but to keep the slaves out of the scrum.

Even now they were having their healers attending to not only their own injured but all the slaves and they were falling short by the sheer mass of suffering slaves. Ari even after her own torturing experience was doing her best to help while keeping an ongoing back and forth on TV and Film with Freddie in his new doggie form which seemed to be Ari’s favorite after he showed her his three go-to shapes. Gideon hadn’t actually had time to investigate whether that was the only shapes he could do or the real dynamics of it all. It wasn’t currently on the high priority list.

He, his Uncle and Danny, were all back at the temporary base the Temple had put together by taking over a warehouse near the Settlement gates. The New Yorker sauntered up after the Angelic Scion whose name Gideon couldn’t remember took off once more with a pack of fighters in her wake and a giddy L’Sana who had been invited by the woman to join her. They went to do a last clear through of the place to make sure they had no assholes still hiding somewhere within the place. She’d written a message saying she’d be back in twenty.

The Angelic Scion reminded him a lot of L’Sana. The woman was a battle fanatic and both her and the Mob Enforcer were both formidable to say the least. L’Sana absolutely idolized the woman. She’d been some legendary figure on their home world, a slave who became a Champion of the gladiator pits then turned into a rebel leader fighting against the Nobles and their use of slavery. Gideon gave her kudos for that and could understand with L’Sana’s history or at least the small glimpses she’d given him why she was so enamored with the woman. Her and the New Yorker together were dangerous. There was no other word to describe it.

He’d watched them in two different dust-ups where they fought in the same area and the New Yorker had something strange going on, more than just a high Perception. He knew where every enemy coming at him existed. The man was never surprised by anything and would turn and strike in an instant with either his gun or his blade at enemies he had no right in sensing. He also had a constant running dialogue as he fought and called the way he trucked through enemies as ‘Fuck you’ fighting which was ridiculous but did make Gideon smile. And damn did the man fight dirty as hell, nut kicking, head butting, biting even. ‘Fuck you’ was an apt name for his fighting style. It was like someone took down and dirty street fighting and added a sci-fi gun and big jagged sword into it combined with some strange mind magic. His fighting certainly wasn’t pretty but was damn effective.

The Woman on the other hand was a bit more straight up with speed and high skill and a judicious application of gold/red flames and those wings of hers that she seemed to manifest in small doses. They were probably a resource hog. L’Sana had kept watching the woman like a fan girl at a Justin Bieber concert so Gideon was happy that the woman had included her in their foray and she would have a chance to talk to her hero. Ari sat next to them laying on top of a lounging Freddie in his dog form. She was kaput after everything she’d been through and expending herself even more attempting to heal a bunch of the slaves. The Temple was going to be taking them back with them to Freeborn, allowing those who wanted to join them to do so or doing their best to help them find any family if they still lived if that was what they wanted.

Currently Gideon’s cloak was pulling the closing evening’s darkness to heal up a fractured forearm he’d received towards the end of the fighting when some Graveborn Martial oriented man had hit from the side with some blitz Ability that had him slamming forward at super speed with a giant mace in hand. It had blasted Gideon through a wall. It hurt and was embarrassing as when he’d finally crawled out the New Yorker had put the offender down and had been smirking in his direction. It would be easy to hate the man’s cockiness but something about the man had just had Gideon smiling back and shaking his head. He could have gotten one of the Temple’s healers to fix it but they had more on their plate then they could even deal with and he was perfectly capable of healing himself and Ari was snoozing on top of Freddie exhausted.

He watched the New Yorker slowly moving closer after stopping several times to chit chat with different groups of his fighters. Each time the squad would take off on some mission. Gideon would say soldiers but that was not what they were whether through discipline or the way they fought. These were a bunch of individual combatants that just fought under the banner of the Temple. They were effective, that he could not argue. They had an aggressive style that very much replicated what he saw from their Boss. The same smarmy cock sure confidence came out of the New Yorker as he stepped up and nodded towards Danny and his Uncle his violent eyes shifting to land on Gideon with a wink.

“You know what Slick? You might not be as much as a pansy as I thought you were. That’s some big old inflated nuts to infiltrate this place with just a few of you and not only get in but get your people out and level their Fortress as a goodbye kiss. You was kinda fucked at that point and you would’ve all been corpses if we hadn’t decided to take a trip up north and clear out the trash but still, balls. And if it’s one thing I can respect, it’s big brassy balls, well that and a woman with curves and some bite to her.”

He heard the chuckles of Danny and his Uncle behind him and he did his best to keep a smile off his lips. This man was certainly a character. The New Yorker seeing he wasn’t going to get the response he wanted, huffed and kept rolling.

“Alright pal. Looks like this cemented our brotherhood as they say in the hood. Nothing like some good bloodletting to bond over, huh? I did warn everyone what would happen if they fucked with you. Would have probably been better if you hadn’t scooted your asses out as soon as you dropped in. We could have and would have told you our plans and been a bit more organized with the whole shin dig but what ya gonna do? Right? Am I right?

Sometimes you got to just come from the hip and get shit done. So here’s a heads up for ya on that note. We’re moving out soon. I’m gonna go yank the City Stone right out of that pile of rubble you made and feed it to our own. We need to catch up to your whole Prime Settlement shit right? Am I right? Can’t be having some big ole Indie Franchise be looking better than the Multi-Versal Faction of kick-assery that’s the Temple can we? Nope, no sir-ee Bob.”

Gideon took in most of that but when Giovanni got to the taking the City Stone a veneer of confusion and revelation rocked his head. He voiced his confusion to make sure he heard the New Yorker right?

“Did you just say feed the City stone to your own? You can do that?”

Giovanni smiled like he had the last cookie in the jar.

“Damn, looks like we got one up on the infamous War Crow and the top of the Faction heap Umbra Mortem.”

He threw a wink then slapped his own ass with a big roar that had his people looking their way for a moment but it seemed like they were all used to his shit and quickly went back to what they were doing when they saw who was making all the noise. That wasn’t the case thought with Ari who had woken up from laying on her robot dog pillow and gave him a hard stare for interrupting her beauty nap. He laughed and bowed his head her direction.

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“Sorry Princess. You been busting your rump and deserve your nappy time. I’ll keep it on the low bones of a whisper, promise.”

Ari threw a tired thumbs up then laid her head back down on top of Freddie’s resting dog noggin though Gideon was pretty sure he didn’t need to sleep but looked like he was bathing in Heaven’s waters having Ari using him as a pillow so Gideon would leave it alone and not tease him. The New Yorker moved closer and sat on the makeshift chairs they’d set up made of storage crates of common weapons they’d found in the warehouse. He leaned over like he was sharing the nuclear codes.

“We got thrown that tidbit of info from off an old Kung Fu Goldy Dragon Man I happened to be the Champion of. Kinda funny story that but I’ll tell ya another time over a shot of whiskey cause it’s a doozy. Here I am of the Eldritch Boo-ya tricky shit place and a God of the Celestial Pillar makes me their Champion. Doesn’t make a lick of fucking sense to this old mook but I’ll take it any day and twice on Sunday. Anywho, what he told us had to do with the remaining Dens we was putting down.

We had to clear quite a few that were hanging around our home sweet home and instead of destroying them you can actually pull them and feed’em like a Micky ‘D’s’ cheeseburger to your City Stone. When we decided to come saunter over and take this place on your backside he sent a little birdy to whisper in my ear we could do the same with a City Stone. And this shit hole being City Rank should give our ole’ homestead a big ass kick in the rear. Now you owe us twice big bad War Crow.”

He threw his shoulder into Gideon and though he was a good 4 or 5 inches shorter he was a mass of muscle and almost knocked him off his perch which had him attempting to stifle a chuckle as the Enforcer eyed the sleeping Ari like she’d claw his eyes out. Gideon’s lips couldn’t keep a slight smile off his lips. He spoke soft leaning into Giovanni. He wasn’t big on irritating Ari either.

“We do owe you. You saved us out there and I truly appreciate it more then I can ever say. As soon as I get back home I will have Unra, our Administrator, send you the design plans for automated heavy crossbows and designs for gun-chairs where you can have people remotely control the crossbows as well. They are a bit quicker and more accurate that way rather then being put on automated function. I’m sure if you have some crafters or people that can play with runes you can probably shift the Umbral design and spin it to Celestial.”

Giovanni had a hungry grin on that.

“Damn, so like m60 emplacements almost. Hot diggity dog War crow. I’ll take that shit on the ham sandwich hard cause who doesn’t like a ham sandwich with some mayo slapped on well unless you’re Momma Cass I guess.”

The Enforcer slapped his own thigh on that one while Gideon was lost with the reference. He quickly got quiet when Ari opened one evil-looking eye. The Ex-Mob Enforcer got whisper soft and continued.

“We could use some boosting in the weapon department. We might have gotten one place filled with gutter trash taken care of but we still got another somewhere around with that fuck stain the Iron Lord and he’s on a whole nother level then these Vamps. We also got to get some Dungeons taken down which will require our best to get done. A whole Italian dinner sitting on our plate taking hours to eat and a whole lot of jabbering of the jaws to get it finished. These crossbow shit will be a breath in the lungs knowing we got the added protection while our Elites are on the hoof. It gonna do a lot to pull some weight off the shoulders.

Enough Willy Wonking though, huh? This is officially break over as soon as I get my hands on that City Stone. If it goes like when we pulled the Den ones all these buildings, wall etc gonna start crumbling on a deep dive. My Kung Fu Goldy guy, Sugar Daddy? Huh, who would have ever thought someone like me would pull a Sugar Daddy, am I right? Anywho, he said it will take hours for the System energy to pull out of the buildings causing them to crumble but we gonna head out as soon as we get it. No need to fuck with shit. Luckily your lady, Unra you called her, nice old broad. When we talked to her, after you did a dipsy-do as soon as you came through the portal, and she gave us the design for the portable portal thingie minus the big boom part. Our City Stone ain’t advanced enough to make it on our own but with the design in our fingers we were able to make one. We gonna bring it up now and start shuffling people through.”

He stood up and started walking away when he turned back and spoke still in a hissed whisper.

“You saw the Quest same as I and since I killed the Arcane fuck that means somehow the Spider Whore and the Bloody Cocksucker are still breathing? I assume they were in the Fortress when you blew it?”

Gideon’s thoughts had already been chewing on that exact thing wondering how the hell they had survived. He nodded to the New Yorker.

“They were both there and messed up pretty badly last I had eyes on them, the Blood King just this side of death when I tossed my gift to them. I have no clue how they survived?”

Giovanni Marcos nodded, grim but then laughed.

“Well fuck’em, without their City Stone and most of their forces either dead or scattered they got shit in the pot hard staring up at’em. My guess is they will join up with someone else. City Stones don’t grow on trees and we haven’t cleared an Iron Dungeon yet and they might be able to pull another from there or one of the Bronze ones but I don’t think no one ready to tackle one of those yet, not even the high and mighty Iron Lord and to be hard facting it those fuckers got to be messed up and I’m making a bet the best of the best they had took a nose dive in that building. My people said they saw a lot of corpses in the rubble when they took a peek-a-boo earlier.”

Giovanni Marcus seriously liked to talk shooting out words falling over each other to get the next swinging but he did lighten the mood when he was around. Gideon gritted his teeth as he stood and his cloak lifted Skald to his hand a couple flicks of electricity gliding up and down its shaft. The Enforcer’s eyes checked the cloak’s independent movements and the electricity.

“Damn War Crow you certainly got some tricks don’t ya?”

He winked and put his hands on his holstered gun and the hilt of his falchion.

“Mine are better but still, impressive as a high priced escort all dolled up to blow, and I mean that literally, some of the finest ass in the world and always read to blow if you know what I mean.”

He laughed as he walked away and Gideon seriously had no idea how to take that guy. His Uncle cemented that fact.

“That man is a strange strange character and that’s saying a lot in the middle of the Apocalypse.”

Danny giggled.

“I like him. He’s a bit dense and smutty but he’s funny and can seriously whoop some ass.”

That was a peculiar statement, the dense part. He didn’t come across as stupid, just direct.

“Why do you say he’s dense?”

She laughed harder at the question.

“You two are peas in a pod in that arena Gideon. L’Sana told me about you alls meeting and all the confusing and slow as hell mating process you went through to get to where you are.”

That confused him for a moment before he recalled the way the Angelic Scion’s eyes always followed the New Yorker where ever he went and then it clicked and he didn’t even need [Investigation] and [Intuition] to bring it together though he might of gotten there a bit quicker if he had. He internally chuckled, dense, yea, that about covers it. What she said about his own stumbling was pretty spot on.

His mind pulled again the image of the Angelic Woman staring at Giovanni right after he’d cratered the Arcane Scion and done his little speech on the roof, the gaze of a predator as she floated in the air on her wings of light and flame. Yep, definitely felt sorry for the man. He sighed as his mind went from light to heavy. It’s called responsibility Gideon as his thoughts drifted back to analyzing the threat level of the Blood King and Spider Mage.

Even though they survived somehow the judgment of the New Yorker was spot on. At least for the moment their threat level was almost non-existent. Without a Settlement and half their forces dead and the rest running for the hills, he imagined they’d be just worrying about not dying. Now either their Bloodline Soul Stone was destroyed or possibly they somehow grabbed it on their way out but knowing how injured they’d been he was hard pressed to think they had the forethought to grab anything but even if they had, they were so far behind the eight ball with their army and Settlement puffed up in smoke..? Yes, for now, not a threat.

Giovanni could attempt to take it if it was still in the rubble but he didn’t really come across as the thief sneaky type. If he found it and wanted to take it he would announce it proud and loud. Hmm.

“Everyone up and on me.”

He gave them props, his Uncle and Danny were quickly up on their feet and even Ari didn’t bitch though part of that was she’d seemed to have found a new steed. She stayed in lazy mode and Gideon refrained from smiling as her words slithered out to an unwitting Freddie.

“Up steed, tally forth with your Royal Princess.”

Freddie had a pure doggie grin loving every moment as he stood and with an intense look of concentration he seemed to spurt out a few more inches in mass now definitely looking more murder pitbull than Snoopy. He strutted, chest out as he fell in behind Gideon and the rest. He led them towards the rubble.

Several blocks and a few miles later they were back at the scene of the crime and the New Yorker hadn’t been wrong even from a half a block away Gideon could see all the bodies strewn amongst the broken rubble. The explosion had done a heavy and heady number on the place. The foundation was pretty much still intact but all three floors above had collapsed down on it. He felt a tinge of guilt at not only the slaves they’d seen cleaning on the main floor but all the ones that had been chained to the tables though with the latter he’d probably done them a favor. Hindsight was not only a bitch but worthless. Had they known that the Temple forces had been outside yes he might have made a different choice or choices leading up to that one and he had to take the fault for that square on the chin. If he had waited and connected with the Angelic Scion and the New Yorker when he’d exited instead of heading straight for L’Sana and Ari they might have made a much better plan but if wishes were fishes.

Let it go, learn, move on. He hadn’t been in his right mind with those he cared about on the line. The lesson here was even in that scenario he had to keep his strategic mind to the fore. Easier said then done but something to at least keep in mind. Giovanni was supervising some of his brawnier people, several Beastkin among them, shifting and moving big slabs of stone. Gideon stopped a couple hundred yards out. He wanted to lay claim to the Bloodline Stone if it wasn’t destroyed or taken by the Blood King. After a few moments of watching Danny stepped close and whispered a foot away from him.

“Uhm. I was gonna wait till we got back home but if we’re standing here for what I think we’re standing here for then no need. I took the Soul Stone on the way out the window.”

And the Golden Goose just landed. He turned back to her with shock and even more as she’d removed her mask which you usually only did when they were at home. She threw him a wink and a grin and he could tell she was certainly picking up shit from L’Sana and Ari with that move. He nodded at her with a smile to his lips. It made him double down now on wanting to fiddle with her Mask and make it more.

The Soul Stone was of limited use if it could only create Graveborn Bloodlines and mostly Revenants as he had no want or desire to have a bunch of those running around especially if the Bloodline brought a hungering for flesh or Vampires with a need for blood but he had a feeling he could tinker with it, utilize all his new tools to make it something different and if he couldn’t he could use it as a big paperweight. If he was being honest with himself he had no idea what the Stone actually gave or it’s limitations. The one in the Elite Tutorial was considered one of the rarest artifacts in the entire Multi-Verse so he highly doubted this thing was anywhere near that almost limitless power.

Gideon tossed a whisper to Danny.

“Keep the knowledge of the Soul Stone to yourself for now. These are our allies but I do not envy having to argue with the New Yorker over it. They get the City Stone, we get the limited Soul Stone. Sounds an even trade to me.”

His Uncle nodded as did Danny with another wink. Ari on top of Freddie opened one eye as she was still slipping sleepy time on her new steed and gave a claw thumbs up. With that out of the way all they had to do was wait for L’Sana and head back home. He could already see the energy emissions flashing above the city near the warehouses they’d set up the camp and the hospice they’d just come from letting him know the portal was up and active. They’d have to wait till they got back home to go over their Loot Boxes and Levels. Even with this place scuttled and the Angelic Scion and L’Sana out and about doing one last clear he didn’t trust the area to put himself or his team into vulnerable mode while they were going over their goodies.

A few minutes later a big powerful roar slammed out through the area as Giovanni held an enormous slab of stone in one hand over his head and a slightly emanating City bling in the other. He then preceded to toss the stone off his hand almost hitting two of his own people who leapt out of the way followed by him dropping into some kind of ridiculous dance. Reminded Gideon of the jig Bruce Willis did on the bridge in that one film whose name was eluding him with Daman Wayans.

Thirty minutes later with them sitting on the makeshift crate chairs a hundred yards from the open portal, L’Sana strolled up literally bathed in blood, bits of flesh with the biggest smile he’d ever seen on her face. She also had a gash across her cheek, was limping, and her armor looked like it had been through a meat grinder, pieces of the bone over the chest plate altogether gone and the dark umbral steel underneath dented in several places.

Ari snapped awake in a blink and darted off her robot pillow like an arrow, claws covered in virulent silver energy. She tried to swat her Familiar away but after a few growls from Ari and some heated words whispered she stopped and allowed the attention her smile jumping back to her fanged lips. Her husky voice blasted out bubbling with excitement.

“A group of tough Revenants tried to ambush us, well they did ambush us but we put the fuckers down!!!”

She jumped up and down her claws sliding in and out and almost nicking Ari as she tried to heal her. Gideon had never seen her this amped up with anything but loot.

“Gideon!!!!! I got to fight back to back with the fucking ‘Beast of the Sands’!!!! It was fucking awesome!!!!!! FUCKING AWESOME!!!!! Did you hear me?!!!! ‘The Beast of the Fucking Sands!!!!’ and she said she was impressed with my fighting skills, my skillz!!!!!!”

And on that note they headed home L’Sana blistering out a play by play of the fight where she’d fought beside her hero.