Disjointed defenses by creatures who had never expected or rehearsed how to defend their own home continued to be thrown up, and continued to be taken down. The use of Silver Magic to Dispel and Spellflare was particularly aggravating to them, and Counterspelling their best attack spells annoyed the heck out of them.
Technically they were dead and couldn’t truly feel fear. In reality, the more intelligent found their souls Burning en vivus and were horrified at what was happening to them. No, they weren’t going to endure for all time. No, they weren’t immortal. No, they weren’t gods, or godlings, even if they could gather faith from the hushed prayers of cowed mortals.
They were rotting souls in rotting shells, and vivus returned them to the dust they’d sprung from. They’d not be flitting off to the Netherworld, making new shells there, and returning to irritate anyone.
They weren’t any better than the masses of Damned lesser souls they were sending into the meat-grinder of combat with the Undead Hunters.
The second wave was pressing along the needed fronts as the first waves withdrew into reserve positions to top off their Mana. Briggs didn’t stop until he was right in front of the main passageways to the private chambers of Tezcatlipoca himself, stopping any commands from coming in or out, and blocking the bastard completely off from the rest of the Pyramid.
Me, he sent down, to the great Marshalling Field at the bottom of the place, where both Temples were connected and anchored to the Netherworld beyond, from which a continuous source of undead reinforcements were streaming... except they were running into the main force coming right back in at them.
This was where I was, making damn sure we made headway against basically unlimited numbers of undead.
A volley of my Shards had no problem clearing out the tunnels and halls ahead of us for hundreds of meters, with the troopers clearing out any incidental survivors as they kept advancing, as well as scooping up the Soul Crystals and any Commander-or better Skulls to be tucked away.
The line of troopers looked like they were advancing on level ground, but in reality, they were going around and down, around and down, with stops at several other chambers on the way that hosted large numbers of undead and a Ruler-level something or other to make trouble for us, as well as other passageways... passageways not at all useful as they led to Doors that were completely Sealed off, and there was nothing the undead could do about that.
I was aware of just how many undead were in those tunnels, waiting as their bosses tried to open the Seals from this side, but they were fighting Silver Magic and the Veil, and not making any progress.
They also weren’t really prepared for some Flash Floods of Holy Water to come raging up along said passageways and submerge them in undead-eating Disruptive purity. The ones who didn’t die instantly had a long swim to get to anything resembling safety, waves of Disrupting Light pounding at them the whole way, and not a one of them made it to our lines intact.
Our flanks secure while the troopers kept clearing away the marching reinforcements, we resumed progress forward and down along the large tunnels, constant barrages from the troopers interspersed occasionally with a salvo from me so we’d make faster progress.
---
The Marshalling Field loomed up ahead of us.
The number of Tier-8 Stars I had seemed to restrict the level of Imperial Mana I could command. I was just under a third of the way on the Tempering, and was still restricted to Low Imperial spells, which was the same as Casting seven Sage spells simultaneously.
My Low Imperial Spells could equal that of a High Emperor, however, especially since they used all Seven Primary Elements.
Noble gleamed with Disruptive Light as we drove into the teeth of the undead trying to flood in and reach us, and I raised up the spell.
Tsunami was the Archmage spell for Water, and it made an easy transition to Sagedom as even bigger and more thunderously powerful. I had seen a lot of Emperors throwing around Water spells, and had no problem replicating this rather basic version of what they tossed at one another.
It filled one entire wall of the Marshalling field from top to bottom, side to side, and was scores of yards thick. It was also Holy Water, the rumbles of it crashing were charged with the Thunderheart Formation, and Ice and Fire were feeding one another in its depths.
There was no evading it, there was precious little to even think of stopping it since there were no Emperors among those on the Field, and the Rulers just didn’t have the power to stop something with that much Elemental fury backing it, on top of being an Imperial Spell.
The fact I cast two of them was probably overkill, but what was 35k Mana to me, now?
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The troopers watched in awe as the undead were crushed, Burned, and melted away in the sparkling waters, the roar and Song of the wave making their hearts pound with knowledge that justice was being done and mercy bestowed upon the damned. The Light, The real Light, was shining gloriously throughout the chamber, mortals and undead looked upon it, and saw Hope of something better.
I flitted across to the great Conduit that led to the Underworld, a dark tube that was still trying to gush forth more undead even as the whole Holy Grand Tsunami drained forcibly down it and annihilated everything in transit.
“Secure the far door!” I ordered the lead elements of the main force now racing across the Field on Wind Trails, towing slower people on Mass Disks behind them. “I’ll gather the stones and skulls!”
Zeben was already doing that, a Sage-tier Telekinesis slaved to him, and streams of Crystal Stones and the skulls of powerful undead were dumping into my Pocket in a glittering stream, brought in through the knee-deep white mist and soaked ground of the Marshalling Field.
There were at least a million to harvest, but the largest number were Great Warrior in tier. Perhaps the Netherworld was tired of sending out more elite troops in endless numbers who did not come back?
I erected seven Imperial-powered Elemental Walls of Flame across that Conduit, locking them in place and basically ensuring nothing below an Emperor was going to come through this thing in anything resembling an intact state, especially with the Disruptive energies cycling through the magic and the Veil creaking at the amount of free vivus reinforcing it and putting pressure on the Conduit.
Yeah, none of the undead from below were going to like what was happening up here.
The seven mages tasked with maintaining the Walls set up their Formation around the conduit, moved into Meditation, and could keep it up without any effort. I’d know if an Emperor started making its way up the Conduit, and could tell them to bail if it happened. Anything less I just wasn’t too worried about at this point.
-Briggs, bottom is secured at both egresses and the one ingress,- I /reported to my Monarch and Warlord.
-Alright, everyone,- Briggs’ /voice promptly echoed through the Marks and Allegiance to the men with connections to him, who promptly relayed his words to those around him. -Lady Fae has sealed the connection to the Netherworld. There will be no more reinforcements coming from below from these dead bastards.
-Everything about them ends with us. We sweep each Temple of whatever chooses not to flee, and when they hunker down in their final little bolthole, we give them a special surprise!
-Firewall all passages out of our current positions, move back, hold the chambers, and get into Meditation Formations.
-In eight hours we begin the process of ending them forever.-
The cheers from the mages rang out enthusiastically. The Undead Hunters rapidly broke out into core Seven Elements Formations, spread out around them, and began getting their Mana back with all speed, while those who’d been doing so and were at full Mana moved into guardian positions.
Three-quarters of the Pyramid of the Sun was cleared, including all the lower levels. Briggs was between any Nobles and their Ahaw boss, and an army with Sages was between them and the outside.
I Sang, conducting the Sublime Chord along the rocks and stones of the halls and chambers we had already taken, giving everyone a hand. The Undead forces who heard it trembled in their dead hearts and cold bones, because what was pure and uplifting to humans was a tearing, jagged assault on their minds and souls as the Lovelorn Song assailed them with regrets, guilt, and glimpses of what might have been, and all their failures...
Tomorrow was going to be pretty big.
-------
There were rumblings from below in the Conduit, but that was all they were. Some rote Undead did try to make their way up and out of there, but the Walls fried or Disrupted all of them with no effort.
I had a Lived-Line trail down to here, so I could get down to the Conduit opening in literally an eye-blink as necessary. I left the seven Mages on duty there as I accompanied the main force in a bottoms-up approach to the Temple of the Moon.
Red and the Mick were left as the muscle in cleaning up the Temple of the Sun. Driver Sam came in to stand guard at the Royal Chambers, keeping Tezcatlipoca and his elites all confined in there with layers of Earth and Ice Magic, some subtle disruptions of the Void Magic connecting the entrance, just as I’d taught him, keeping the Ahaw off-balance with constant challenges to its natural control of its domain.
The other members of the KIA team, including Lord Quake, went in with Briggs through the front door, un-Sealing it and opening it in the face of some startled Undead... who were promptly blasted into misting bones with one Heavenly Dragonflame bath.
------
Briggs strode through the packed ranks of Undead Hunters, who spun aside in series to let him pass without giving up their own positions. He moved up to the front, where Swampy, Burt, Glenn, and Big John were gazing out into the chamber beyond.
A throne room. And the throne room was occupied!
A distant Note rang through the stones, raising dust and making the thousands of elite Undead packed around sway as it swept over them. Briggs smiled wolvishly.
“Oh, please tell me that this bastard wants to do what I hope he does,” the Source murmured for everyone to hear.
The skeletal figure on the throne room was a black-boned skeleton with equally flesh-stripped skeletal wings. Spikes more like sweeping ears swung back from a distorted skull that didn’t belong on anything human. The sockets of its eyes burned puke green-yellow, hungry for the life of the living, and black lights flowed over it, touched with ink, yellowed ivory, crimson, and dirty green.
“Air, Poison, Curse, Shadow, and Undead,” muttered Glenn for all of them. “If ever there was a Dark Mage...”
There were some powerful Wards surrounding the Throne and the one who sat upon it, as well as all of the Undead in the room. Even with Disruption and Vivus, it would take them some effort to blow through them.
Briggs stepped forward, and the powerful Wards, Walls, and Barriers in front of him melted out of his path without resistance. He strode through them as if they were nothing to him... and, the mages there realized with a touch of cold thrill, they weren’t.
Neither was the magic of this Undead bastard, but it didn’t need to know that yet, either!