Chapter 26: Chapter 25 – An Ignominious End for A Nation

"Contrary to what most of their slaves and serfs must have thought, the necromancer kingdoms in southern Ur-Teros were relatively new additions to the scene. The area used to be a lawless land, where hundreds of local gangs and minor warlords vied with one another.

 

Ptolodecca was the first to rise out of the squabble roughly six centuries ago. Triggered by the rise of a large sovereign nation in their midst, Cainte, Antemeia, and Junora also rose within two hundred years. The former two were originally more of bandit kingdoms, and only later in life taken over by necromancers.

 

Now out of the four, only two remain." - Emir ibn Khalif Elam El-Ehr, crown prince of the Assadun Emirate, circa 38 VA.

More and more soul puppets showed themselves and made their attempts as the necromancers in control became more and more flustered at the deteriorating battlefield situation.

 

The cavalry had not charged straight through the hordes of thralls - that would have been nothing but folly that'd get them killed - but swerved back out, gained some distance, and struck again at the disordered thralls.

 

Several soul puppets attempted to leap at the cavalry commanders this time, but those that faced the Wings of Night or the Death Knights only found a forest of sharp lances and spears as their welcome. As for a few who went after the templars, Aideen saw more than one bright beam of light cut through the cloudy skies, likely either her father or brother's work.

 

One daring group even attempted to attack the Bone Lord himself. Aideen saw how the soul puppets climbed the side of the mount - half their number falling to be crushed beneath the behemoth's feet in the attempt - only to be greeted by a sudden jet of black flames once they reached the top. As the soul puppets fell back down, their forms dissolved into fine ashes, scattered by the wind.

 

Quite naturally, several also came for Aoife, but the vast majority failed to make it past Haon, Trí, and Ceathair at the front. Those that did somehow make it through, were disposed of by Dó, who skulked invisibly near Aoife and kept her safe.

 

Aideen and Diarmuid also intercepted and killed a few as they advanced, as the resistance from the thrall hordes started to crumble before the Bone Lord's army.

 

Thralls naturally knew no fear, but the necromancers controlling them were another story altogether, and as many of these lost their courage before the way the Bone Lord's Horde advanced through their thralls, many of their mental orders became a mess, affected by their emotions, and their thralls lost the discipline they had as a result.

 

Before long, Aideen found that they had no more thralls to fight through, and that the way ahead was clear. A portion of the thralls had retreated as fast as their legs could carry them, along with the necromancers of Junora, and the rest were cut loose, turned into rabid animals that just needed to be put down.

 

The cavalry had turned around and helped corral the rabid thralls, while everyone else was busy putting them down for good. It was dirty, horrible, tedious work, as there were at least forty to fifty thousand thralls still, and it took several hours before they finished.

 

After the slaughter was done, and all that was left of the thralls were a field of corpses, the army marched onwards, towards Danna, the capital City of Junora.

 

The Junoran necromancer cabal had a few hours head start, and successfully entered the fortified city first, where they secured the gates and had the remaining thralls man the walls, with all its defenses.

 

Danna was a large city, with tall walls of stone, where most of the elites of Junora lived or at least had a home, well suited for defense against a siege. It was the final home of the Junorans as they prayed that Antemeia would join the fight and save their hides.

 

Unknown to them, the Antemeians had long decided to stay away from the matter, as their first elder had vetoed the proposal to work against the Bone Lord.

 

And more unfortunately for them, the Bone Lord had neither the patience, nor ever planned to siege Danna.

 

The Bone Lord's horde stopped a decent distance away from the Danna. Just outside the range of the defensive engines mounted on Danna's Walls.

 

It had rained in full by now, and as she sat atop a bone beast - the Bone Lord had lent them some to use as mounts for the chase - Aideen wondered what grandpa Aarin intended to do from this distance.

 

She was drenched by the rain, and her torn up tunic, thoroughly soaked with water, clung to her body as a result. That said, the rain was welcome, as it helped rinse off the residue - she refused to think further on just what had composed said residue - she was previously drenched in.

 

Her questions were answered shortly after, when she felt the magical energy gather in a way unlike anything she had ever felt before. It was as if someone siphoned every dreg of mana in the air and accumulated it within them, and she quickly pinpointed the source of the feeling to the top of the behemoth's back.

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Grandpa Aarin… no. The Bone Lord.

 

With the help of a spyglass, she saw frantic movement within the city of Danna. Ballista bolts and large stones were launched in vain as they landed a safe distance in front of the horde. Apparently the necromancers inside also felt the buildup of magical power even from the distance.

 

Ten minutes later, the magic seemed to have stabilized, and Aideen's eyes widened as she saw what appeared to be a gigantic orb of pure jet-black darkness hovering above the undead behemoth.

 

With a motion that looked like a gentle lob of his hand, the Bone Lord unleashed the spell, and the orb of darkness cut a shallow arc through the air, penetrated the wards protecting Danna as if they never existed, and landed right in the center of the city.

 

Then it expanded.

 

The moment after the sphere landed, it became a dark half-globe that completely enveloped Danna in its entirety. Aideen felt herself shiver in dread as she witnessed the sphere, despite her inability to see anything inside it. She felt as if she heard thousands of voices cry out in terror, only to be suddenly silenced.

 

Slowly, the sphere shrunk, and the Bone Lord ordered the army to march forward. When they reached the walls the sphere had shrunk out of sight. Not even the slightest resistance was offered during their march, and the manned engines were now unmanned.

 

When they entered the city proper - the gate was easily broken through by a blast of death magic that left the city in need of new gates - what they found was a scene of utter stillness. Where not a sound was raised, as if the city was devoid of living beings.

 

And that appeared to be the case indeed.

 

Not far from the gate itself, Aideen found pants, boots, tunics, and weapons in several piles on the ground. It was as if whoever had worn them previously suddenly vanished and the items fell where they stood.

 

Similar sights became more and more common as they trekked through the city, and from time to time they found necromancer's robes as well amongst the piles.

 

When the Bone Lord led them into the Junoran palace, where the Spirit Servant made his home, they found at least a couple hundred necromancer's robes in piles, strewn all over, and within the throne room deep in the palace, at least three hundred necromancer robes piled up and covered the marble floors.

 

Above the throne itself, hovered a black sphere, much like the one the Bone Lord had lobbed into the city, but now merely the size of a human head.

 

The Bone Lord reached inside the sphere with one skeletal hand, and dragged out what looked like a horrifying, disgusting amalgam of many, many transparent faces out of it. The transparency made her realize that it was materialized souls that she was seeing, and considering the way the souls seemed thoroughly amalgamated to each other, the soul was likely the Spirit Servant's.

 

Or rather, the soul that took over each Spirit Servant's body, an amalgamation of every Spirit Servant that had ever existed.

 

"I had warned you three hundred years ago that it was the last chance I would have ever given you," said the Bone Lord with terrifyingly frigid tones to the amalgamation of souls in his hand. "Now, the time for mercy and forgiveness is long gone."

 

With a flick of his fingers, what looked like jet-black flames enveloped the souls, and they shrieked. It was not an audible shriek, and yet the cacophony was something Aideen thought echoed within her soul. The souls kept shrieking and wailing with unimaginable pain and agony as the fire slowly shrunk down, and them with it.

 

Thirty minutes later, the last motes of the black flame vanished in a smokeless puff, and with it, ended the existence of the Spirit Servant forevermore.

 

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