Night fell and the first steps to the attack began.
The Wraiths moved in first to kill off any guards along the route the Death Knights would be traveling. There were only a few patrolling groups and all were dispatched before they could alert the garrison or the palace of the impending attack. They needed surprise on their side for this attack to work.
Norman, Eugene, and Grobert would not be participating in the mission. Norman was busy back in Ashvale and Eugene needed to be around to run the guard. As for Grobert, he was only in the enemy city to watch over the progress of the plan. And if shit fell apart, to help extract their people or retrieve the dead so they wouldn’t leave behind anything for these bastards to study.
He watched from a shadowed section of roof as the teams moved through the thin alleys and pedestrian areas that ran behind buildings. Say what you will about the Gorfan, but they had a good eye for green space.
The teams were split in two with eight teams on one side and seven on the other so they could assault both entrances into the sprawling estate at the same time. It wouldn’t do to have people escape out the back as they assaulted the front. Grobert watched the soldiers exit the warehouse, and they soon vanished from view. They would be heading for the two houses the Wraiths had secured earlier.
His head whipped around as he heard a scream coming from one side. The voice was quickly silenced but it might still draw attention. He cursed under his breath and teleported in that direction. When he arrived, he saw one of the groups getting ready to dispose of a body.
“Leave it!” he hissed at the four.
They dropped the body and hurried off. And not a moment too soon. A light appeared from the open doorway of the mansion. “Molina? Are you ok? I thought I heard you scream.”
Grobert growled softly and pulled a knife from behind his back. He was only supposed to get involved in an emergency, but this was trouble. He teleported behind the confused man standing in the doorway and eliminated the threat. After the corpse was lowered to the floor, he teleported through the house killing anyone he came across. It wouldn’t do to leave someone behind to raise the alarm. After he finished with the house, he hid the bodies. Nobody would find them for at least a day and by then, they would be long gone.
He flashed around the neighborhood, making sure nobody else was poking their head out to see what the noise was about. But everyone was sound asleep, and all the guards nearby were already dead.
It was almost time for phase two. All of the guards should have their mounts out and ready. Originally, when Norman had brought this plan to him, Grobert had shot it down. It was far too idealistic.
The boy wanted to keep any risk low, and he could respect that. But it was impossible to get into the estate unseen by anyone other than the Wraiths. And there weren’t enough of them to kill off everyone inside before someone noticed what was going on. So it was decided that speed was the key to this part of the mission.
The wraiths would still be involved, but they were mainly in case their targets managed to get to their escape routes or panic rooms.
Out of the nine Wraiths, Grobert had five here for the attack. The rest were keeping track of the Council and the gift Norman had prepared for them. He kind of wished he were there to see their reaction when they received it.
He let those thoughts drop away as he focused on the mission. There was a quiet chirp and thirty-two mounted riders flew out from behind the house he was hiding atop. A similar scene was likely playing out at the other house but even Grobert couldn’t be at two places at once.
It didn’t take long for the speedy terror birds to eat up the half mile to the front gate. Already he could hear sirens going off and see glowing green flashes lighting up the night air. As much as he wanted to join in on the fight, his job was to remain here and see if anyone’s phylactery activated.
After two minutes with nobody appearing, he teleported to the other house. Only two men were loitering around the house. He nodded to them and teleported to where they had attacked. It didn’t take him long to retrieve their bodies and belongings. Then he teleported back to the house and gave them their stuff back.
The two were reequipped and riding back to the fight in less than ten minutes. And oh what a fight it was.
Even from this far away, he could hear the sonic screams from the terror birds tearing through the opulent halls of the massive residence.
And so the rest of the night, Grobert teleported back and forth, retrieving the dead and getting them back into the fight. He hated to admit it, but Eugene had taught them well. Less than ten of the Death Knights fell during the entire battle. And two hours before sunrise, all of them were riding hard out of the city with the garrison hot on their heels.
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With all of the higher-ups being inside the estate, it had taken them far longer to muster a response than normal. Which worked out just fine for them.
There was a secondary teleporter out beyond the city limits that they would escape through. This would leave the one in the warehouse undetected. And with Grobert and one of the earth mage knights sealing it up, nobody would stumble upon it by accident. And he would make sure the fallback one was gone before the enemy arrived.
He watched from a new hiding spot as a few of the town guards rushed into the estate to check on the dead. The rest were attempting to chase the knights. But the regular guards were not as well equipped as the genetically modified gomer. The guns they were equipped with just couldn’t punch through the knight’s armor.
With the main enemy force distracted, Grobert did something he probably shouldn’t be doing. He teleported into the estate, killed the guards who had come to investigate, and snatched up every single corpse on the property. Norman may have overlooked the possibility of their revival, but he hadn’t. Who’s to say the Gorfan were only working with Gail? They could have worked with Vincent, or even Donovan. And if they had, they might have access to revival through them or another Councilor. Removing the bodies wouldn’t completely ensure they couldn’t be revived, but it would make it far harder.
It was too bad they couldn’t set up soul traps for this mission. Then again, if he could finish up here and Norman was fast enough at reviving these people, he could trap them all in Ashvale and that would be that.
***
Donovan walked down the hallway with a slight grin on his face. It had been a month since Gail’s little betrayal. It had been a risk to allow her to go ahead with her plans, but it had worked out far better than even he could have imagined. He fully expected that woman to die in her attempt, but to take J-son and Sharina down with her was icing on the cake.
There were, of course, the perfunctory attempts to resurrect them based on the Council agreement but it came as no surprise when the resurrections had failed. That news sent the Council into an uproar, as he had expected it would. He was able to calm them down with assurances that they would be retrieved once California was secure.
Speaking of the Council, they had to fill the empty seats. With no replacements for Gail or Sharina available, the Council had decided to abdicate the positions of transportation and mind control, dividing their assets and areas of control amongst the surviving Council members. That left J-son’s empty seat. Thankfully fire mages were not exactly rare.
The Council put forward three candidates. All of whom were secretly loyal to Donovan. He knew the Council would vote against whoever he backed so he made sure it didn’t matter. The vote was cast and the new Councilor was chosen. One that had ‘opposing’ views to Donovan’s.
The Council was now one step closer to being a singular entity under his control. And they were not likely to see any direct reprisals from Lord Norman. After studying the man and meeting him in person, Donovan could safely say this. While the man was passionate about his people, he lacked the ruthlessness a leader needed to expand his empire. And so long as Donovan gave him no reason to attack the Council, the man likely never would.
Their relationship going forward would be rocky, but that was an acceptable tradeoff. The entire populace of Normenia numbered less than one hundred thousand. Even without using undead, the Council could field more human soldiers than that if it came to a fight. But that was unlikely. Besides, the man was busy getting revenge on another target.
His spies were already reporting Normenia’s buildup of forces to attack the Gorfan. Unfortunately, they hadn’t been able to get specific details on the plan, just the target of Lord Norman’s ire. He couldn’t risk sending in any more of his spies. Already two had died within one day. He hated not knowing how the first spy died, but he could generally figure out when the second did. Donovan felt it die shortly after he escaped. He would be curious to find out how they breached the Gorfan’s airship shields. That information alone would make their fight against the antagonistic nation much easier. Oh well, he would have to hope Normenia’s attack would weaken them enough to push the advantage.
Donovan switched his thoughts to the present as he paused at the door to the boardroom. It was time to swear in the newest Council member. He nodded to the attendant and the man pushed the door open. He had only taken a single step into the room as a cacophony of sound hit him.
His eyes immediately flashed to the center of the table, where Sharina stood, wailing and jibbering. She was shackled to two disgusting blobs of flesh and bone. Then his eyes flicked to all of the Councilors who were standing as far back from the table as the room would allow.
“What is this?” he asked in a calm tone, even though he was anything but.
One of the Councilors pointed a shaking hand at the blob to Sharina’s left. “They just appeared out of nowhere. I- I think it’s J-son!”
Donovan scoffed and took a closer look at the thing. There was no way anyone could have gotten past all the wards and enchantments they had in place in this room. Yet he saw the evidence right in front of him. Then he saw the face poking out from a fold of skin that looked half melted. He managed to keep his face from showing the disgust and horror that he felt building inside his gut.
J-son, if it was him, was warped and twisted, looking like someone had tossed him into a blender, melted him in acid, and then glued the pieces back together in whatever order they saw fit. If it wasn’t for the familiar face, you wouldn’t even be able to tell it was human.
He moved over to the other mass of warped flesh, ignoring Sharina’s pleading sobs to free her from them. After circling the table, he finally found the face of the second monstrosity. It was Gail. Both she and J-son were gibbering incoherently when they weren’t screaming.
After verifying who they were, he snapped his fingers, and the two twisted abominations were reduced to piles of ash, allowing the chains that secured the three to fall to the ground. Along with it, he saw a letter float down. Donovan made sure to snatch it up before the others spotted it. They were too busy trying to comfort Sharina or were bent over, retching.
He unfolded the message and gave it a quick read, his smile vanishing from his face.
To the Council and D-
You forgot these when you fled. I figured you might want them back.
-Lord Norman
He crumpled up the letter and stuffed it into his pocket as he mentally congratulated the man on this masterful stroke. This move alone would ensure the Council wouldn’t so much as dare to touch him going forward.