Galus got up as the onslaught ended, the discs shifted around him to accommodate. He hopped onto one of his discs and raised his hands to his side, two of them shrunk down and he grabbed them walking onto the rampart seeing more of those corrupted albinaurics climbing onto the ramparts, by some long ladders. He had a pair of the larger discs fly past him and in opposite directions, they started severing the ladders in half. though not before a group of albinaurics and a pair of combat medics managed to get up onto the rampart and they started to surround him, he got into a fighting position with his makeshift warfans and got ready to fight, his last large discut at his back protecting him from the second g oup of albinaurics and the other medic.

The albinaurics charged and he waited, the first albinauric charged forward and he side stepped bringing his discus through it's side and spun bringing the second through it's neck, another cartwheeled toward him with many of those blood crystals protruding out of it's body, he backed up and increased the size of the disc in his hand and held it out watching as it cartwheeled to it's death as it rolled into the end and cut it's body in half, he watched it's upper body tumble across the flat end of the disc. He tilted it to the side and the body slid off into the battlefield below. He shrunk it back down and resumed his stance. A pair of them this time one with a scimitar another with a what looked to be a reverse scythe, ducked the sword and slashed at the creatures comparatively small legs to it's blubbery body, it fell over and the threw his disc at a third that was charging at him, he grabbed there scimitar and stabbed the second as it swung it's odd polearm at him, it knocked him in the helmet and he saw stars for a second. But a cursory check showed his helmet wasn't damaged save for a scrape. He grabbed it weird polearm and tested it's weight, it light like the scimitar. He swung it and it collided with another albinauric who recognized as a rippleblade, hooker the reversed scythes blade into one of the six blades of the rippleblade, wrenching it out of their hand before catching it and slamming the blades into it's chest before ripping it downward disemboweling the poor thing, he round house kicked it and it tumbled off the side and into the city below. He looked at the rippleblade and and tossed it aside. He ripped his sword from it's scabbard and grinned. The medic rushed him his stiletto in hand, and Galus used his large curved sword like an Odachi stepping forward and stabbing overhead down toward their neck, though they dodged and aimed a stab toward the underside of his chest plate, the thin needle-like blade of the black stiletto would punch right through his chainmail coat beneath his chest plate. He dodged and swung, but they dodged backward throwing a pot and the subsequent buzzing from inside told him it was filled with insects, it shattered and the rancid stench of blood and shit and the angry flies that flew after him basically confirmed it. he leapt backwards and swept his blade through the cloud of insects cutting a line of them in half, another swing and nother and the swarm got smaller, he recalled the discs he'd sent to cut the ladders and they flew at the at the medic in almost a tent formation both diagonally facing the bottoms spread out and the tops inward. He was pretty sure they were dead as a dodo bird, but the albinauric who's leg he cut off earlier pulled the lucky bastard down between the pair of discs though the albinauric was cut down the middle for it's efforts.

Galus shook his head and hound stepped forward after the medic got up, the medic found a long sword skewered through his chest at high speed, which had the accidental but not unwelcome effect of him being thrown off the blade as Galus stopped, but the medic kept going straight into and through the discus'. the he realized there was an entire group on the other side of the discus barrier he put up. But as soon as he looked back he heard a horn and massive ghostly skeleton rose from the floor of the wall, he recalled his discs and made a barrier from and tried to make himself as small as possible as a beam of concentrated spirit flame blasted into the barriers. He was lucky he'd talked to Miquella before this damn invasion, Miquella had told him that his summoning abilities had other uses, and explained one of them. He pressed his palm onto the ground and a line of golden glow spread on the rampart and below his shield, and from it a line of spears shot out of the ground similar to what Malenia's clean rot knights could do. he heard a pained yell at the other side of the barrier. "Did the spears hit the medic over there?" He pondered out loud, though he could barely hear his own voice over the bellow of the skeleton as it poured spirit fire into his shield.

Galus glared. He was all but trapped, but then suddenly the beam stopped. He peaked past the barrier and saw an albinauric that had a massive heavily damaged axe that had cut him in half, he watched as Godfrey made his way up onto the rampart, and ripped his axe from the ground and held it up, it looked like his assumption was also right a white masked man lay in a pool of his own blood and holes pocked his body. Godfrey brought the massive axe down on the skeletons skull and a gout of ghostly white flames came out of the wounds. Galus watched as the skeleton turned and swung it's massive arm at them, Godfrey blocked it's blow with his forearm, he stomped his foot into the ground and Galus felt the shockwave from where he was, he punched it in the jaw and Galus watched it crack and hang from one hinge, it looked at him and a glowing ball started to form and Godfrey grabbed it by the back of the skull and the jaw and forced it's head to turn and it blasted them with the spirit flames. and then ripped it's jaw off as the last albinauric died and brought it's jaw down on it's head and it exploded in white flames. Godfrey walked out of the flames covered in frost crystals.

Galus looked down at the battlefield and saw there was still a lot of enemies storming through the gates and back toward the city they were marching through the streets, omen bellowed as they fought but the more they killed the more creatures exploded and the more they were wounded and one by one fell, omen were strong and durable but these zombies seemed to have been custom made to beat people who fought like that. He rubbed the bridge of his nose. "The city is lost, we need to retreat-" he was cut off by a damn roar. He looked up to the sky and watched as a damn dragon started raining lightning and nine new types of fresh hell over the creatures in the streets. He didn't recognize it until it stopped int the middle of the sky and raised a massive glaive of lightning and swung the massive glaive down and waves of lightning rippled through the wet streets destroying swaths of enemies, she landed on Granssax' giant lightning bolt and more lightning rained around it.

Galus gawked at the display of Lanssax ripping through the army. He shook his head and stepped onto a discus of light and flew down started slashing through their ranks of the army as well, Godfrey joined him down on the ground and brought his axe to bare, Lattena fired from the rooftops, though he realized she had someone on Lobo's back. He smiled, they might actually win this shit... Atleast that was until he felt the migraine hit him in the face while riding a freight train, he brought his disc over to a house and he tumbled off of it as it disappeared. He landed groaning next to Lobo and Lattena.

She looked at him. "Godfrey's beard are you okay?!"

Galus groaned. "Anyone have an Excedrin?" He asked, not expecting anyone to answer.

She shook her head digging into her bag and came up with what looked like blue berries. "Rimed rowa, you'll be fine after you eat some of this, it could atleast give you something else to focus on other than the pain."

Galus held up a thumbs up and took it eating the Rowa, didn't do crap for the pain, most it actually did was make him feel like he ate a pile of frozen blueberries which funnily enough it actually tasted like, only here it had a strange minty coldness to it.

Galus looked over toward her to thank her for the fruit, but noticed the swelling in her hand, shit he'd seen images of stings of those Japanese giant hornets, and it looked eerily similar, especially with the flesh seemingly decaying around the initial sting. "Sweet and spicy Christ on a stick! are you alright?"

Lattena raised an eyebrow then realized he was looking at her hand. "Galus, I found her, that is all that matters."

Galus shook his head, then winced as his vision flashed white and he blinked the stars out of his eyes. "I need you, to go get treated, find Lyrina, get your hand fixed up... I'll just take a nap here." He said his head throbbing with his heats beats.

She looked at him. "Last time I saw her she was sobbing in an alleyway."

Galus groaned. "Fuuuuuuuuuck... That's probably my fault..."

She shook her head. "You're not exactly a subtle person are you?"

Galus gave a light chuckle. "Nope..."

She rode off without another word. and Galus watched the dragon destroy the remnants of the army before going to sleep.

--------------

Galus opened his eyes seeing a field of flowers as per usual. He looked over at Miquella, who was... Being chased around by a massive mastiff. he stood there, trying to process what the actual hell was going on. He looked at the skewered Korne with a that said 'you seeing this?'

Miquella ran up behind him and the massive dog tried to tackle Galus to get at Miquella. Nothing can prepare you for a quarter ton of muscle, blubber, fur, and teeth ramming into you at twenty five miles an hour. He was promptly thrown onto his back and nearly crushed the kiddo behind him, though he did get out of the way in time. Galus looked up at the dog, it's irises glowed a fiery orangish red it's pupils a deep black. He looked at the dog and he felt like he knew the black giant mastiff, only problem was he never even met any Tibetan mastiffs aside from pictures he'd seen. "Ow..."

Miquella looked down at Galus and then Galus looked over the boys shoulder and saw Trina half way up a tree. "The hell happened in here? And why is this thing crushing me?"

Miquella gave a slight glare, as if this was his fault. "That thing, is a manifestation of your rage, and it has been chasing us for nearly an hour."

Galus heaved but the happy panting giant beast must have weighed nearly three hundred pounds. "What? Why didn't this thing show up sooner I'm a very angry perso-" he was cut off by a young the size of a shampoo bottle sliding over his face leaving trails of stringy saliva all over his face.

Galus cringed as the slimy flesh rag went in for a second helping. Miquella's glare softened a smidge. "You accepted your rage as a part of yourself, you embraced it and it's loyal to you."

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Trina hung an arm and leg down from the tree limb like a damn panther. "And evidently you alone."

Galus looked at the hound. "Yeah, I never liked authority figures when I was younger and often would try to kill my teachers, principals, hell, one time I beat the living hell out of the chief after I found out he turned a blind eye to my friends murder, apparently the criminal was a ci, that got me fired from the police force, luckily he didn't press charges, and it all ended in me working and dying in a gas station."

Miquella shook his head. "What are you doing here, you're in the middle of a siege."

Galus shifted to the side and then as soon as the hound shifted to the side to compensate he swiftly rolled to the other side, the hound was thrown off and Galus got up. "I had a headache."

Miquella sighed. "You really overdid it this time, you've stuck to three discs for a reason, I recommend you keep it that way." He chastised.

Galus sighed. "Alright alright, I'll cut down on the magic usage, why was the headache delayed though? It usually builds up to a crescendo."

Miquella sighed. "There are two types of magic consumption, the first can slowly build up over time, but the second you can suppress it but tax still builds up, and the more you build up the more pain it'll cause when the due comes, it can end up killing you, hell, I'm pretty sure your nose is bleeding right now. We lost someone before you because he replied on that too heavily."

Galus raised an eyebrow. "And uh, how many have there been before me?"

He sighed. "Seventy two, you're seventy three."

Galus gave a low whistle. "And uh, most of them died on the first day?"

Trina nodded from her perch. "We don't control where they arrive, one poor man I think his name was Ethan arrived in the middle of Caelid and didn't last a single minute. Another Jacob arrived in nokron and couldn't find food, eventually he tried eating the mimic tears and ended up getting mercury poisoning."

Galus winced. "Yeah, how many of them ran around like headless chickens on their first day?"

"All of them" the pair spoke in unison.

Miquella spoke with a shake of his hesd. "Some people went to sleep and never woke up."

Galus raised an eyebrow. "Why?"

Miquella hesitated but Trina spoke. "Because of that." She pointed at Galus' new best friend which was gnawing on a stick. "People could manifest nearly anything in here, this is in their minds after all. One guy just made a chair and a box that showed moving pictures and used a thing to control the pictures, he died of dehydration three days later."

Galus gave it a try, and imagined something, and before his eyes he watched as some walls of logs appeared, he imagined them moving and stroked his beard. "I'm gonna design my dream house..." He shifted the logs and roofing tiles around until he had it, a quaint cabin with a stone tiled roof, he opened the door and nodded, a taxidermied rune bear head here, a fireplace there, a pair of chairs in front of the mantle, kitchen with a box for ice some stone countertops. Maybe a room here for a bed, maybe some furs for blankets. He smiled when it was complete, a nice little medieval log cabin. "Alright, that should do it." He then imagined the consecrates snowfields shrunk it into a miniature form and shrug the house and placed it right next to Ordina Liturgical village, he moved it around until he just said fuck it and put it up on a hill across the frozen river. "Alright, that looks good to me."

Miquella frowned. "What are you..."

Galus leaned over the three dimensional map his hand brushing on the tiny snow, it was actually cold and powdery. "Planning my future."

Miquella frowned. "This map is almost correct... But Ordina looks..."

Galus finished his sentence. "Like an army of rune bears tore through it?" Miquella nodded, so Galus continued. "Yeah, I don't know what happened here either, but my guess would be a sea side storm, maybe a hurricane, hell, even the bridge to the Haligtree was knocked down."

Trina gingerly came down from the limb of the three, and cautiously approached the map eying the dog warily. It gave a chuff and Galus casually waved a hand causing a chain to appear around an iron collar and into a large metal stake in the ground, it looked at him giving him puppy dog eyes which looked hilarious coming from this beast, though it's glowing irises made it look weird as well.

Trina looked to Galus. "Okay, so, you seem to know the state of things given that this is based on memory."

Galus felt like tony stark when he was screwing with holograms, he swept his hand over across the the bridge and onto open sew for a bit, a black void forming where he assumed bridge to be, but since he never actually seen the rest of it he guessed that part wouldn't show, eventually they came over the Haligtree and Miquella gasped at the sight of the massive rotting tree. "What the..."

Galus shook his head. "Your sister, unfortunately, I planned to kill the results of her extended stay there, those include..." He raised a hand and the corpses of a giant ant and a pest appeared, he was getting damn good at this. "Giant ants and pests, these little things are the results of scarlet rot, these can be found here at the Haligtree and other underground areas like Ainsel river or even the roots of the erd tree... Well, there's nothing scarlet about that rot it's just concentrated death root."

Miquella looked concerned. "Galus... What you mean to tell me is that-"

Galus nodded. "The Haligtree is dying, I recommend we get Malenia out of there, and exterminate the creatures that have spawned from her presence." He says and as if on queue the mastiff tore the head off of the giant ants corpse.

Miquella sat down his throne appearing behind him and his hands up in front of him in thought. "The scarlet rot, is a very hard weed to uproot, once it takes place in your garden it's nearly impossible to get rid of it unless you kill it early. I'm afraid I'll have to burn it down and start again..."

Galus raised his eyebrows. "Burn it down and start again?"

Miquella nodded. "Yeah, we might have to burn the Haligtree so a new one can thrive, we won't know what we will have to do until you get there and I can get a first person view of the situation."

Galus blinked. "What about the people in the Haligtree?"

Miquella looked slightly offended. "What kind of monster do you take me for? You think we're going to burn them alive? No, evacuate them, Marika's beard, what makes you think I'm such a psychopath that I'd be willing to not just watch my own people burn, much less set the fire myself?"

Galus looked embarrassed. "Well, you do brainwash said people into following your desired path."

Miquella looked a little more offended. "I do no such thing James, in fact that's the ability I passed off to you, I just nudge people's emotions into wanting to help me, I don't make people do anything they don't want to."

Galus sighed, he knew when Miquella used his birth name he was getting mad, he might need a subject change. "I just realized that I'm working for a tiny Galadriel..."

Trina stuck out her tongue at him.

Miquella groaned. "Not again..."

Galus frowned. "What?"

Trina sighed. "One of the dreamers we told you about, would basically watch and Reenact scenes from something called lord of the rings and Miquella was compared to Galadriel a lot by him, frankly it's almost a trigger word for him."

Miquella closed his eyes. "Unfortunate really, Eli was our first, we picked him because he showed an aptitude for our world, and was a decent archer, but once he realized that it wasn't all swords and dragons and that he was essentially homeless, he retreated to his sleep and died when a particular bald man found him sleeping under a bridge and slit his throat and ran off with his stuff."

Galus groaned. "Fucking Patches... wait, why was I picked by the way?"

Miquella answered by pointing at the dog that was chewing at the large ants thorax, Galus noticed the chain was broken. "Your rage, it's why we sought you out. Your absolute hatred of corrupt authority and unfairness to those who are different."

Galus frowned, he felt like Miquella was leaving something out, he evidently saw that in Galus' expression, or maybe it was just the fact Miquella was in his mind. Regardless he said. "We can't take just anyone, there's a criteria that needs to be filled, one, they need to die, two, they need to line up with our goals, and three, they need to long for something greater in life, only then will we be able to grab them before they leave for the great beyond and bring them to this world, we give them a body, and something to help get them started."

Galus sat back. "And uh, what do you think we should do after we leave Leyndell?"

Miquella looked at him. "Castle Sol, I gave the castle lord an impossible task to do to earn a spot in the Haligtree, reason I didn't just let them in was because they clearly captured and tortured albinaurics."

Galus closed his eyes and sighed. "Well, not much I can do about the lord he's long gone but the commander I will probably have to kill him, doubt he will be convinced to let us pass without a fight."

Miquella nodded. "You should probably wake up, I think someone's kicking you in the ribs."

Galus nodded, and walked off disappearing in a cloud of golden sparks.

---------------

Galus opened his eyes to see what looked like a blond priestess nudging him with her boot. He sat up shoving her foot away. "Can I help you?" He asked.

She glared at him and he thought he smelled burning pennies. "You can start by telling me why you lead an army to our door step and let Morgott get captured."

Galus leaned forward, his elbows resting on his knees. "Remind me, my memory is a bit short, who the hell are you?"

She looked at him. "I'm Lanssax."

Galus snapped his fingers. "Riiiight, I forgot that you have a human form, Never seen it before."

She glowered at him. "You know, the only reason you're not dead right now is because Godfrey said he'd cut my head off if I killed you, you massacred my followers today. So you better get out of this damn city before I weigh pros and cons of frying your brain." She emphasized the point by summoning a massive red lightning glove that crackled in her hand and brought it down onto the roof next to him.

He winced at the bright light but he stood, he felt a bit of a charge in the gold plated roof. He closed his eyes and took a deep calming breath and considered his own pros and cons, pro, he'd love nothing more than to deck the smarmy tool, con, she'd turn into a dragon and kill him instantly, pro, he could tell her Vykes fate and piss her off, con, she'd turn into a dragon and kill him slowly, he supposed that they kind of tied in the middle somewhere there. "Fine, we're going."

Galus walked away, hopping down the roof and onto the bloodied and lightning scorched streets of Leyndell. He walked around the city eventually finding out via a stray omen sitting in the streets that Lattena her friend and Godfrey in the perfumers clinic where they were being treated, when he got there he saw Nepheli sitting outside in the pouring rain, he sat down next to her taking off his white leather cape and tossing it over her, he realized for the first time that it had a fur lined hood. "We're going to the mountains in a while, you'll need to dress 'a lot' warmer than you are now, in fact you're look like you're gonna get a cold sitting out in the rain like this."

She looked at him. "You really can't see that I'm going through right now can you..."

Galus looked at her his mirth gone. "I can imagine it's something along the lines of 'i killed so many albinaurics just like my foster father, dear God I'm just like him.' How'd eye do in archery terms?"

She looked down, and spoke with a quiver in her voice. "Right on the mark damn."

Galus nodded. "Yeah, I know, I kinda went through a similar experience, you see at one point in my old life, one might call it a past life, a good friend of mine was killed, murdered actually, the law protected the man, so I... I side stepped the law, killed the bastard who killed my best friend, then went into hiding, new identity everything, but I felt exactly like you do, I felt like I was just like the fucker who killed my friend, coming to think of it, I was caught in a loop, he killed my friend I killed him, then who I am assuming was his friend killed me after I killed his other friend, coming to think of it I think I heard gun shots when I died, the point of this is, those were traitors, not even albinaurics anymore, they were corrupted by that creature Mohg, if that helps at all, cool, but I'm gonna need you to get your head on your shoulders, so chin up alright? We're counting on you."

She nodded, a bit of fire returning to her eyes. "You're horrible at pep talks you know that?"

Galus ignored the comment getting, a smile playing on his face as he stood up. "You're gonna go far kid, now go find, buy, or make some warm clothes, actually, I just remembered I have some firemonk coats, go get one of those, I'll be wanting that cape back."

She nodded, walking off. "See you later."

Galus nodded as he walked inside, what he saw made him blink in surprise. "Godfrey? Are you okay?"

Godfrey was laying on a matt on the floor, a whole bucket of red crystal spikes and small thorns floated in the blood inside of the bucket, and Godfrey was also covered in many bloodied bandages. "Turns out I accumulated quite a few wounds while fighting... Flew into a rage and Serosh had a hard time getting me under control." He grunted as the perfumer pulled a particularly big spear out of his arm. Galus sensed a particular... Depression in Godfrey, apparently Morgott got captured if Lanssax was to be believed though he'd not seen them captured himself, he hasn't seen them around the city either. he seemed damn well broken as a result of this.

Galus sighed. "We're heading off tomorrow, assuming Lattena is in good shape to ride." As he spoke he looked around and saw Lattena and her friend laying side by side, Lattena looked alright, her friend however, she was missing her eyes, and had so many stings on her face and especially around the eyes and mouth, she was also missing patches of skin where it seems to have been eaten. Galus turned and vomited in the bucket with Godfrey's blood and spikes in it. He felt seriously sick at the sight. He turned viciously on Godfrey, his single remaining iris flashing a fiery orangish red. "What the FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?! That is inhumane!"

Godfrey looked at him. "Don't yell, this is a hospital."

Galus brought his fist back into a marble pillar, and some small muffled part of him that was his cool and reasonable self was surprised when it actually cracked, but the rest of him couldn't care less. "You've oppressed them, treated them as less than human! And you will find that consequences will catch up with you, if not by me then someone else, your kingdom disgusts me, I hope you're proud of this shit show you call a kingdom because I suppose someone needs to be."

Galus felt himself calming down and his eye returned to it's icy blue color, he walked over to the pair of albinaurics but Galus heard Godfrey whisper. "This isn't what I wanted to create..."