Half of the capital ambled and idled around, listless and desperate. Euphoria had been taken from the streets and just as quickly as it had given bliss, it’s absence delivered a hollow intolerable emptiness. Common residents wandered the city without care and soldiers slumped forlorn against the walls of their posts.
Such issues were solely the realm of the mind, normal healers unable to help and those who could long since gotten rid of. So prevalent was this plague of gloom that the army had stopped punishing or enforcing their usual conduct, for no matter how many were made an example of or how many times they forced paladins to stand on their feet, their only gain was a loss of might and a swift return to the miserable state.
Luther looked out upon the wretched city with a smile on his face. He much preferred to bestow pleasure than deprive it from others but when the stage called he had to answer it, and such nameless characters fell to the background as the stars took the spotlight.
“Oh?” Just as he thought as much, a grim horde started to appearing over the horizon. The curtains were drawn and Luther watched from the balcony of the cathedral, excited as to how it would all play out.
---
“Undead! ” Barnim roared. “Vampires! Rise to your feet, do you want to turn?!”
Panic and some life found the withdrawn paladin he shook fiercely. “N-no!”
“Then man the walls!” The captain shouted to all as he shoved the man over to the battlements.
Addicts, he cursed as he looked over most of his men. Fear and desperation had supplanted their laze at least but they were a shadow of the army once infallible against the forces of the wicked. Still, this was all he had, and he had to make it work. He stopped dead center before the path of the massive horde.
Damnable undead of all kinds in greater numbers than he had ever seen, vampires among them. The King of the Night had finally marched his army on the capital in full force, Barnim assumed without doubt. As perilous their situation might be, he would not despair. He would not yield to the night.
“Hooooh!” An invigorating chant swept over the walls, granting morale and lessening their fears to all paladins. “Archers and mages wait on my orders! We fire on the cursed undead in volleys. Martials combat those who assault the walls!”
Barnim watched as the horde drew near, steady as a rock. “Fire!” Force and elements lit up the sky as the vanguard rows of the undead army were reduced to naught but ash and dust.
“Fire!” The undead recovered their ground in an instant. Barnim had yet to become used to the sheer speed of battle in the Change, but he had adapted to it.
“Fire!” With a concentrated and controlled effort, they would systemically wipe out the horde, row after row. The volleys were proving effective and efficient, the greatest tools to wield in the face of raw numbers.
“Ahhh!” His attention was drawn to a soldier by the wall with his heart pierced and throat ripped out by a vampire noble that lunged from the shadows. More undead all over lunged with it but in the blink of an eye they were slain by the warriors waiting behind. He had lost good paladins, but that was unavoidable. Victory was still within reach.
The soldier he had shaken straight saw the carnage around him, and fell in unsteady breaths of panic. “I don’t want to die!” He cast spell after spell at the horde on nothing but base emotions.
“Hold! Stay in the volley!” But as Barnim said that, more and more started to fire at will.
A bombardment fell on the frontlines of battle as the captain’s words fell on deaf ears. The paladins he saw give into panic were the very same addicts he trusted to prove their worth in this eleventh hour. But fear had grown too strong within them, and swept away their rational thoughts. Panic spread and even the uncompromised paladins fell victim to the atmosphere and joined in.
Barnim watched helplessly as their powerful magic destroyed more ground than monster, and his plan crumbled away. Mana fizzled from the first soldier’s hands and as he tried desperately to cast another spell, his eyes were drawn to a decrepit draugr that scaled the walls, its glowing eyes the last thing he saw as the creature severed his neck.
All around paladins fell in droves as the undead horde started to swarm over the walls in numbers too great. Barnim himself burst into action blade shining silver as he killed three vampires in his path, and held up his sword in haste as the legendary tier death knight he aimed for shifted around and cleaved a jagged blade down on him.
The undead’s weapon recoiled fiercely away as Barnim severed its leg. The death knight swung again as it fell without hesitation and the captain countered again, this time taking its head and caving in its chest with a swift kick, turning it to dust against the wall. He burst again and hit the stone floor. Barnim looked back to see his severed leg behind him, claimed by a scythe wielding robed undead, and the horde fell on him.
“It’s going good~” Ashley reported.
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“Yes.” Kamala watched the battle unfold with the rest of Chariot on a hill in the distance. “Due to someone’s interference…”
“What are you talking about?” Yen asked.
“They had a sound strategy, then fell apart with the only the first assault on the walls.”
“They panicked and got trigger happy, what’s strange about that?”
“...it may be best to head in before this battle concludes. In case there is another party here trying to take advantage.”
“If you say so…”
“Inquisitors.” Basem warned, with some urgency in his voice. From the bird’s eye view of his vantage point, he spotted dozens of blurring figures rushed through the capital and scale the walls in an instant, slaughtering the undead with abandon. “Mythic.”
“That does suck, but I mean, we can deal with that now.”
A small contained explosion detonated at Yen’s side, the trick mine hidden away unable to damage the mythic tier chimeric human but enough to knock it away. With a thought, Yen locked the creature in place with mythic tier Hold long enough for a Dragonfang from Mujin to bore a hole in its chest and soul.
Karla blurred to a second, its attacks twice that of her speed but she deflected them with raw technique. Savagery empowered her strikes as a flurry of blows obliterated every spec of the indestructible creature away before it had time to regenerate. Vines surged from the ground, trapping them all in a straight line in the air as Shin shifted form.
His hair reddened in flowing locks as a golden capped crown donned his head over upright horns. Yellow his eyes and brown the skin of his body below the neck like the hide of a bull. Resonance didn’t change the shape body to match that of his spirits as Invoke did, but altered his appearance while retaining his own shape.
He opened his mouth as plasma swirled within, imbued with black and white flames. The plasma swelled and shot out over the mythic chimeras like a beam, the raw power of his channelled Aurora and the consuming nature of duality reducing the four inquisitors to nothing.
“Hey, don’t waste your mana. We need your overpowered bullshit for the big bad.” Yen said to him as he returned to his normal form.
“It’s fine.”
“It’s annoying how that’s usually right, but still.”
“If there is someone else besides us, they’re probably dealing with this too right?” Donny brought up. “We still changing the plan?”
Kamala glanced over to Basem, who seemed to understand. “...I don’t see anyone.”
“Perhaps it’s internal…”
“Champion.” Chariot shifted their attention to the sudden voice inside all their minds.
“Not just me, right?” Yen asked the group.
“No.”
“Should you really stall here? Odwin marches his army on the vampire king. Thirty thousand strong and twenty high rankers hardened by battle. The city’s thralls will fall easily to them, and they may claim Virgil’s head before you are able. Your plans here will fail, at least now. Choose wisely, Champion.” Johan’s voice left and silence remained only for a short while.
“Is he bluffing?” Yen asked.
“Probably not…” Jean guessed.
“He doesn’t know our skills well enough to risk a lie. If anything, he likely instigated it.” Kamala surmised.
“Even so… It’s the dhampyr that gave Shin some trouble, plus the other ones. It’s not like twenty randoms are gonna beat him. Makes more sense to take out the capital first.”
“No.” Dante disagreed. “It’s not a race, but an opportunity.”
“What?”
The charlatan gestured. “That other theocracy army can be our horde.”
“Ah.” Yen understood. “But are we just gonna give up on this? It’s going well.”
“Killing the patriarch here is probably more impactful than anything else.” Donny offered.
“Let’s go.” Shin decided, unrelated to their conversation.
Kamala thought for but a short moment. “Pull back the undead remaining.”
“Boring~” Ashley complained but did as asked.
“Stash them somewhere for when we come back?”
“No." Kamala already adjusted the plan the second Shin decided their course of action. "Send them east to the Sunlight Fellowship. They are a bigger threat than the aristocracy.”
“Not the Igarashi?” Yen questioned.
“They would have long since assassinated the church leaders if they could. Stalling Chandra’s army is more important.” Kamala glanced at the horde returning from the walls and charging away, then glanced over to Shin. Shin rushed northwest a bit faster than their usual travelling speed and the others followed, Nostravania in their sights.
---
“So Johan has made his move.” Luther calmly watched the undead horde retreat from the walls and the image of Chariot heading away within his crystal ball. “I suppose we should as well.”
“...Is that not too hasty?” Luther’s shadow darkened and stretched as Vestra emerged from it. “The depth of the Pope’s forces are still unknown, and the boy king still lives. We reach for too much too quickly.”
“Well… I have never been accused of lacking ambition.”
Vestra blurred the moment the last word left his lips, severing through his neck. Luther smiled as both body and head burst into red mist, reforming into a curly blonde haired man in medieval attire.
“How did you find out?” Amadeus asked the emotionless assassin, patiently assessing her target. “Ah, he’s made that joke before. A silly mistake.”
Vestra stilled her mind after the unknown man obviously read it, her wary approach deepening as she sensed not a trace of fear nor change in confidence, not in the man’s body language nor the slightest hint in his voice. She could kill him, she was sure, but perhaps at a cost not worth the reward.
“No matter. I’ve had my fun and the stage is set.” Amadeus exclaimed as his body slowly evaporated in the wind. “I would advise you to leave the capital. My influence will shut down all at once.”
Vestra wondered at what point exactly did the switch occur but dispelled such thoughts for a less pressing time. “We’re leaving.”
Over two dozen dark elven women emerged from the shadows and they left without hesitation. Several mythic tier chimeric humans lunged and just as suddenly were slain by the shadowdancer matriarch. Their plans in the capital were no longer possible, but their goal could not be abandoned. Vestra weighed the options before her as the band of assassins disappeared into the night.
---
Blair walked towards Virgil’s throne room with graceful haste. She could just as easily appear in a flash should she desire, but that would be far too disrespectful, whether her king thought so or not. She entered the grand throne room and the sight of her lord gave her some pause. Grace and beauty unparalleled, perfection of body and mind obvious from his unwavering eyes alone.
An enchanting red dress that matched her glowing eyes pronounced her pale fair beauty under the moonlight. She had been an object of desire and envy for many years but any who claimed her the most radiant being in the world, she would call a fool. A frequent thought she kept to herself as she stood before her beloved king.
“An army of the theocracy heads our way. They number 30,000, some among them capable… but the Champion’s party now heads our way as well. Taking them both on at once would be too much, if we are to protect the Grave Circles.” Blair paused for a moment. “I propose something unconventional.”