Chapter 4: The Great Wall
A black knight slashed his sword as a four-armed demon tried to punch him, cutting off two arms in the process. The demon howled and broke into a charge. The black knight scoffed and created spikes of earth on the ground slanted toward the demon. The demon cried but was unable to stop its momentum and impaled itself on the spikes.
"Ten years and you finally reached the seventh stage of the Metal Realm. Not bad," Gregor said.
In Dakarok, cultivation was determined by soul fire since the destruction of the Venos Empire. Life on Dajarok gained access to the power of their soul, allowing many more people to cultivate elemental energy. Soul fire embodied the soul and is fueled by elemental energy. However, those who did not cultivate had their life force burned by the soul fire. It explained the aging process and the world discovered how to be immortal from lifespans and the ravages of time. Cultivation was the key.
In cultivation, there are several steps to ascension. There are five realms of cultivation, each of them divided with their own requirements. The first realm is the Metal Realm, consisting of nine stages. It is the easiest realm of cultivation. The body represented metal and the higher the metal, the stronger the soul fire had to be to burn. The stronger the body, the more elemental energy one could contain and the faster the cultivation.
It was also where people were scrutinized the most. Spirits determined the power of a cultivator, but the body represented the latent talent. Metal was ranked copper, bronze, steel, silver, gold, black gold, diamond, and mithril. The higher the metal, the faster one's cultivation was.
The second was the Flame Realm, that realm and all others decided by four stages: initial, middle, late, and peak stage. The body transforms and begins the path of ascension, the lifespan of the being extended if applicable. Flight was also possible. You are now able to manifest your spirit to fight alongside you or wield it depending on what it was. For undead, they could fuse with their beast spirits until they ran out of elemental energy. Undead were truly terrifying then.
The third was the Obsidian Realm. It required the warrior or mage to condense their elemental energy into a lake of lava. The amount of elemental energy one possessed would far outstrip those at the Flame Realm. They could finally use immortal ranked magical treasures in battle. Cultivation began fusing the soul fire into the lake. The cultivator would begin creating spires of obsidian, one for each of elemental affinity. For Timber, those elements were water, darkness, earth, and destruction. Everyone is supposed to have affinity for fire, but some lifeforms had mutated soul fire. For Timber, his soul fire was black and green fire because of the destruction element. Timber considered it chaos fire.
Creation of the spires did not use elemental essence of those elements and required complex methods. It can be said that those who reach this realm were true prodigies and monsters. All five spires must be made to reach the peak of that realm. Also the metal ranked body determined whether or not one would progress further. All cultivators with a metal rank of steel and below could not cultivate past the Obsidian Realm. That is a fact proven since the eight thousand year old discovery.
"What's after the Obsidian Realm?" Timber asked.
"Heh. Worry about that when you get there," Yiazig laughed. Even Baron Caius is only at the late stage of the Obsidian Realm. That just reveals how powerful the ten generals of the Demon King are."
"You have a Black Gold rank body and are at the seventh stage of the Metal Realm. The strongest of you captains is at the ninth stage of the Metal Realm, having a body of the Diamond rank. Now, here is your control rod," Lyle praised as the lich handed Timber a blue diamond rod with grey runes along its sides.
"Where did it go?" Timber asked as it disappeared when he bound it to his soul.
"Look inside your Realm of Soul Fire. You should see tiny bars of black gold used as wood to fuel your tiny ember of soul fire. There should be streaks of grey. Why? It is because golem control rods empower your soul with that of the golems. You have the might of three souls! Just imagine how powerful the young master and the baron is. This is why the Golden Army is unstoppable. Golems cannot be destroyed because their masters' souls contain their own souls," Lyle answered.
"So that is why my soul fire is bigger. It's the size of a fist now," Timber noted. Timber was taken outside the dark abyss he lived in for ten years. He had killed countless demons and undead and devoured many pieces of their soul fire. His armor had repaired itself and he was at the strength that he could kill the poltergeist with ease.
"Congratulations to all one hundred and eight of you," Devin said as the new captains of his forces arrived in his throne room. "You will now march with my army to the merchant city of Quentican. It is a city in a valley surrounded by dangerous mountains, all of which contain magical beasts. The only entrance into the valley, by foot, is protected by a thousand foot high and hundred foot thick wall twenty three miles long. The humans call it the Great Wall. Your mission is to take that wall down. You are the vanguard of my forces and other batches of one hundred and eight captains will fight alongside you. You are just the most powerful or the ones with the most potential."
"So there are others," Timber muttered as all the captains murmured about what Devin said.
"Once the Great Wall falls, we march into the city and slaughter them all. Leave the elite forces to my lieutenants. You should recognize them as they were the ones who trained you. We march in four hours. An hour before sunset, we strike!" Devin roared, the one hundred and eight captains inspired by his words.
"You heading out soon?" Clay asked as Timber entered his room, the room he awoke in and stayed in before his sudden training.
"Yeah, to the Great Wall. Aren't you coming?" Timber asked.
"Most of the lieutenants are at guard duty in the castle or the fortresses by the baron's borders. We can't let the other barons take the land of Baron Caius during the conquest. I'm stuck here," Clay shrugged.
"Any advice? I never fought in a siege as a knight," Timber asked.
"Right. Mages stayed at the back and did those area of effect spells, according to the ancient records of the Venos Empire. The most powerful human empire ever seen in history, controlling almost all known human lands at the time before the empire destroyed itself with the forbidden summoning magic," Clay nodded. "Let the eager idiots charge first. Watch how the defenders react and target the less guarded area. If you can't scale the wall, break it. Concentrate your ice and earth magic to soften a concentrated area and destroy it with your sword and darkness element. You don't want to reveal your affinity to destruction until you start attacking the city."
"I...have to kill humans then," Timber said silently.
"Yeah, that won't be hard. You went on sieges as a mage, right? Think of the humans as the enemy you fought before. Show them mercy and you'll die like many other captains. That city has a force of one hundred thousand soldiers and a few dozen thousand members of a sect. You all number two hundred and fifty thousand. If it gets tough, group up," Clay said as he turned to leave. "You are a tough undead to kill. You survived that hellish ten years of training. Have faith in that. Humans are weaker than you think, and by no small margin. As a knight captain of the vanguard, you have to break through the enemy lines for the rest of the forces. You got that imp and two armored golems, right?"
"He is right, master," the imp said as it appeared in the room with a flash of black light.
"Listen to the stone masked imp. Have it follow you in its spirit form. Imps are unique in that only their thrall master can see or hear them while they are in their spirit form. The draw back is that they must be within a hundred feet of their master or the spirit form fails. Best to not let other members of the vanguard know you have a thrall already," Clay warned. "Good luck in the siege of the Great Wall. Many powerful humans guard that wall and are sure to target you and the other captains to neutralize the threat of the golems."
"We march!" Devin cried and legions of undead and demons marched to the east, golems of rock and armor in their wake.
Timber's golems were armored golems. They were seven feet high with massive armor with giant gauntlets. They were walking juggernauts with sparks of lightning crackling over their golden armor. The ground was marked with every step they made. After three hours, they arrived two hours before sunset on the top of five hills with a giant white wall in the distance.
Timber could see the humans frantically run into the small gates of the giant wall. The gates were not even one tenth the size of the wall, barely fifteen feet high. No doubt it would be the focus of the battle besides trying to pass over the wall. However, ladders were much too short for this high a wall. One thousand feet. That was an extremely high number and for humans to make a wall that high, it seems magic really is scorned. A very powerful mage could easily blast that wall apart back in his days.
"Sir Timber?" a skeleton in black armor asked as it appeared behind him. "You have orders from Master Devin. You are to board one of the ten siege towers that will roll up to the gate and take it."
"Siege towers?" Timber cried, impressed. Siege towers were moving towers of wood several hundred feet higher than any ladder. An army usually used siege towers against kingdoms that lacked the explosive range and damage of a mage. Since humans scorned all but light magic, siege towers would be their greatest fears in any assault by the demons and undead.
"Master," the imp began in its spirit form. "I will have to stay on your shoulder while cramped in this tower.
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"Yeah," Timber agreed, communicating with the imp through his mental link as its master.
"Why chose the fourteenth floor? The fifteenth floor is the top of the siege tower," the imp asked as the battle begun. The two of them could see gold golems marching with all kinds of demons and undead.
Timber's skin crawled as he looked at some of them. During his ten year training, most of his body regenerated due to killing so many demons. No bones were replaced as he saw no interesting demons or undead with neat abilities that he could consider useful. He only looked undead by his skull as it was the only part of his body without any flesh, skin, or hair.
He didn't regenerate his head because Lyle warned him not to. He and Lyle planned to leave the Twilight Realm behind. Some undead or demons might recognize them if they regenerated completely. Timber didn't like the undead and demon lands. His hellish training was a major factor in his decision to leave. He was also free to leave anyway. He would leave when the demons and undead nearly take the city.
When he had taken lessons under Lyle on magic, he learned about the lich society and their plots to takeover the world from the shadows. They already had eyes and ears among the demons and undead, whispering lies and deceits to influence them to move as desired. He was even more shocked when he found out Bones true identity: an Elder Lich! He also found out, through Lyle's ring connection to one worn by Bones, that his father, mother, and little sister had already resurrected and that he was the last of the first generation of undead to resurrect. Like him, they were skeleton undead but only his father was a half lich with magic. His mother and sister were both lich and long since escaped to the human lands.
"This Great Wall is all that stands in my way from escaping to the human lands and finding my family," Timber said.
"Betraying the demon army in the midst of a war. Hehehe. So much mischief to spread. Master is the best," the imp said, the lesser demon mischievous by nature. As his thrall, part of its soul fire was taken into his own. Naturally, it gained some of his memories and became more powerful as a result.
"How fun. Living in a land where everyone will want to kill you when your identity is uncovered. Hehehehe. What are you going to do with your father? Freeze him? Bury him in the earth? Rip him apart with claws of darkness. Oh, I know! Why don't you have eaten by vultures and make them rest while he regenerates to repeat it in an endless cycle? Undead have fast regeneration anyway," the imp giggled.
"You're very wicked. The thought does amuse me, but I want to know who fed him those lies. What that voice in his head was. Did he lose his mind or was he manipulated? I need to know the truth before I make such a decision," Timber said as the siege tower stopped moving as some arrows pierced through the wooden walls.
"You should consider erotic punishment by fucking his second wife in front of him. Technically, you two are no longer related by blood anymore. Hehehe. That will make a nice expression of horror on his face. You slept with his second wife, a concubine before. She used aphrodisiac and you were both the same age," the imp roared with laughter until it started crying in pain as its crimson thrall runes shined.
"I know you got some of my memories while I got some of your own. It would be wise not to speak of some of them," Timber warned as the siege tower slammed into the wall and a platform smashed onto the top of the wall, the Golden Army racing up the siege tower. "Be sure to keep an eye out for anyone who might follow us. My escape must not fail."
"Don't worry, master," the imp said as two gold golems appeared beside Timber as he raced out. "I, Ignu, am the most mischievous imp of my family. Hehehe. Any followers will suffer an unfortunate accident with a few burned limps by black demon fire."
"The Trouble Maker of Slaughter," Timber muttered aloud, remembering some of the imp's past as he drew Twilight and charged at the humans frantically guarding the stairs leading to the gate from the top of the wall.
"We can't let the monsters use the chain mechanism!" a guard roared as he and his men protected the two towers at the wall over the gate, each one with a machination that controls the chains to lift the gate. Besides the large timbers that reinforced the back of the gate, there was a black metal bar made of immortal rank metal that couldn't be broken by those below the Flame Realm. Even golems were limited to the strength of their masters.
"Die!" a human said and struck his spear toward Timber. Timber stared at the human and caught the spear with his left hand after covering it in a claw of darkness. Timber broke the spear head off and stabbed the human in the heart with his Twilight sword.
"I...I...," the guard rasped as he chocked on his blood, disbelief in his eyes.
"Another soul, devoured by the master. Hehehe. I'll store his magic bag in your shadow. Looting and counting treasures is fun," Ignus giggled.
"Attack and kill all humans in that tower. Throw any humans in your way off the wall," Timber said. He needed the wall taken to go to the Quentican City and make his escape there.
"We'll meet in the large pavilion with the green tile roof," Lyle told Timber, using the black jade ring with the tiger insignia on Timber's left hand to talk to him. Timber also had the Witch Ring he looted from the poltergeist leader and wore it on his right hand. He was still unable to unlock its power.
"Right," Timer nodded as he headed to the left tower while Lyle headed to the right.
"Die, monster! We won't let our families be killed! Charge them!" several guards roared as they followed one who was at the fifth fourth stage. Some of the captains struggled while the elite few killed with ease. The knight squad cried out in pain and terror as Timber's two golems rammed through them like a juggernaut, their bodies flying over both sides of the wall as their bodies broke and burst with blood after impact.
"Fuck undead! Fuck demons!" a knight cried as he killed a captain who as at the third stage. "C'mon! C'mon!"
Timber paused a moment as he stared at the slaughter. Arms were flying in the air. Heads rolled and wings burst. The wall was littered with bodies strewn all over the floor with a few dozen golems inanimate as their masters died. Still, the humans were losing control of the wall. Some captains saw others enter the tower and proceeded down the stairs, to the gate.
"Reinforcements! Where are those sect disciples?" a guard captain roared.
"Sir, they are tasked with evacuating the city," a guard cried before a demon appeared out of nowhere and slit a dagger across his throat.
"Then the Great Wall has fallen," the guard captain trembled as most demon and undead captains ran around him and focused on killing his men. He frantically tried to save them, but their numbers and golems overwhelmed the guards and they were slaughtered.
"Why? Why do this?" the guard cried with anguish as he saw a black armored knight with a crimson cape walked forward, black and green fire burning on his undamaged armor as aura. "May the light guide my blade to vanquish my enemy!"
Timber stared at the blood covered white knight as he charged forward, light wrapping around his blade. A shock wave blasted as the guard's sword slashed against Twilight, the guard's eyes widening as Timber was unfazed and easily blocked it.
The guard attempted to bash his shield at Timber, but Timber jumped back and stomped on the floor, a trail fo tiny earth spikes heading in his direction. As the guard bashed his shield on the ground to block it, Timber's feet landed on the ground and he blurred as he appeared at the exposed left side of the knight. The knight tried to swing his left arm outward to bash TImber with the shield's edge, but Timber grabbed the shield with a hand covered in frost essence.
"What devilry is this? It's a mage and a knight?" the guard cried as Timber shattered his shield into shards of frozen metal. The guard could only cry out in defiance as Timber's sword cut him from the shoulder down. Blood sprayed at Timber as the guard's corpse fell onto the ground, his soul fire vanishing into oblivion as a piece went into Timber like all the others killed by undead. Only deaths by magic did not allow the undead to gain a piece of his victim's soul fire. Whether the victim turned into an undead depended on the species of undead.
"Brother! No! I can;t let you be one of them!...No, Stay back! Stay ba~," a guard cried as flesh eating zombies jumped at him and tore his armor apart as they bit into him. Timber narrowed his eyes and turned away as the four golems of the zombies guarded them as they feasted on the guard as he desperately tried to push them off.
"We brought the end of the world, my world," Timber said as he gazed down as his golems returned, the gate opening to allow hordes of demons, undead, and golems to break through and join the slaughter.
"To Quentican City! The Great Wall has fallen! All hail the glory of Master Devin!" an undead, four-armed zombie with black fur cried out, waving a black flag with three crimson spears and purple roses in the air as it knocked down the human flags.
"The Great Wall has fallen," Timber alerted Lyle who was at the back of the horde with the lieutenants as they charged toward the open gate.
"Good. Proceed as planned. Two lich infiltrators will fully regenerated human bodies will be awaiting us in the eastern entrance of the pavilion. I will meet you there. Try to fake your death by then and change your armor. Make sure you kill enough humans to regenerate a human head," Lyle replied and the Golden Army charged past the giant white wall and approached the city, leaving the massacre of the wall guards in their wake.