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Chapter 9: The Land of the Dead
Demiurge was sitting in front of a section of skin like tissue that was acting as a wall, and observed as something within started to put pressure on it, as if trying to break out. Suddenly, as if hatching, a humanoid creature emerged from the material. It was completely hairless, like a newborn, but unlike a newborn, it was completely hideous, a oversize nose on a slender face with massive ears to boot on extremely dark skin, but there were patches scaly skin all over his body, all wrapped up in a five foot tall package densely packed with muscle tissue. Several minions went about helping the gasping for air creature stand up and led it down a hallway into a armory. This was one of the prototype hybrid soldiers that Demiurge had proposed earlier on, through hybridization of Elf, Dwarf and Dragonkin traits it is his hope to produce something that he estimates possessed strength thirty times that of a normal human, fifteen times that of the Shining justice's elf warriors. This was one of the first prototypes, the process would need refinement in the months to come, injection dragon stem cells into the womb envitro was viable on the prototype level, but the matter of real concern was splicing together the dwelf/elf dwarf hybrid genes and dragon genes, no more lopsided distribution of cells resulting in unpredictable and awkwardly uncoordinated muscle mass.
"Delays. Delays. Delays." Demiurge felt dissatisfied with his lack of progress.
The longer it took them to build this army, the longer it would be before they could chase the Shining Justice and their gold plague out of their homelands. As one of the guardians of the Overlord of Evil he and the others naturally wanted to hunt these abominations down and exterminate them like the blighted creatures they were. Koriander however took the liberty of demonstrating the effects of the golden, Albedo's feathered wings were proof of that, a brief hold over from when Koriander accidentally spread the golden plague to her and turned her into a angel, at best they could only turn her into a fallen succubus hybrid. Thus in order to avoid that same fate, they needed to produce warriors that would not fall to the influence of the Golden. Not that he would be able to continue his experiments for a while, dragons mating cycle was every couple of months, and they already used up their last dose of dragon sperm on producing drakes, which were unfortunately infertile.
"There's still the matter of the phoenix too." Demiurge stated as he folded his hands together. Thus far he had yet to succeed in fusing together the Phoenix and dragon into a superior life form, which in turn could be used to manufacture a more powerful soldier for the war with the golden. "Not to mention, this 'Slane Theocracy.'"
That country of religious lunatics was destroyed, but not beaten, it's people were flooding out of the country and taking refuge around the continent, stronger now that the ingrates had been enhanced by his mistress's magic. As a group of beings that had deluded themselves into thinking that humans were the most superior form of life on the continent, only their existence he could and would not tolerate.
"Hmm. I wonder if my mistress would mind if I have some fun with her undead?" Demiurge asked no one in particular as he pulled up a seeing stone, commonly used to control a large number of undead.
The Slane Theocracy was in a ruined stated, a massive amount of their population had been turned into undead, and they couldn't be brought back to life, and thanks to all of the necromantic energies in the air whenever they did put down the undead they would just come back to 'life', either as some manner of mangled undead variant, or as a fusion of several undead into a larger specimen. The buildings were also ruined, four giant undead ripping apart the country was a big part of that, and the prided artifacts of the six great gods were trapped beneath the rubble, and it was too dangerous to dig them out with all the undead around. Not to mention, it was also too dangerous to try to evacuate the citizenry with the demi-human army flooding the country. For the captain of the black Scripture, the most elite unit within the Slane Theocracy, he was in a rather nasty bind. The captain slicked his hair back as he looked at the hoard of the beast men, he saw Buri Un Ogres, Vah Un Ogres, Naga Raja Snake men, Spriggans, Orthrous Spinx and the Sheep like Magelos. On the other side of the city, reports were coming in that the elves had launched their own attack on the country, they were of significantly less concern on the surface, but each of those elves were a relative of the Elf King, father to Zesshi the secret weapon of the Slane Theocracy, these undead had a bad habit of dramatically increasing or drawing one's stats when they rose more of their kind, if they awoke the power of the Elf King that dwelt in their bodies, then it meant that they would become a huge threat.
"Zesshi." The Captain asked looking to his side at the black and white haired half elf leisurely lounging about with her oversize war scythe. "What do you make of this situation?"
"Me? I'm just waiting right now." Zesshi replied in her usual non-chalant don't give a damn attitude.
"For what?" The Captain asked cocking a brow suspiciously.
"Take a look down there." Zesshi pointed to the streets below.
Currently the undead were organized into packs, Buri Un, Vah Un, Naga Raja, Human and Magelos Elder liches were leading squads of Buri Un, Vah Un, Orthrous, Human and Spriggan Death knights, Raja Naga and Human Rippers, Orthrous and Human/horse Dullahans, there was no such thing as low tier undead in this country any longer.
"What happened to all the Skeletons and Zombies?" Was the conclusion the Captain reached after observing the hoards of undead going through the city. Indeed, most of the people killed during the assault by those Giant undead were simple civilians with no magical or military training, not even strong enough to survive a Resurrection. With that in mind, the human low tier undead should outnumber the higher tier human undead at least fifty to one. And yet they were no where in sight.
"They're closing Ranks." Zesshi stated a smirk on her face. "They can't maintain massive army of undead, so instead they're going with what they can maintain by disposing of useless garbage."
"That's troubling, we should try and find a way to evacuate the civilians as soon as possible." The Captain stated closing his eyes and scratching at his chin with his hand.
"There's more though." Looking up from his musings the Captain cocked a suspicious look to Zesshi. "There is such thing as composite undead, formed from combining the bodies of numerous smaller undead together into one being, so perhaps they're doing that." The truth that Zesshi had come to terrified the Captain as his eyes went wide with shock. "Maybe we'll see one of those giant undead again soon." Zesshi smirked as the thought entered her mind.
"Let's not find out, but if another of those super undead are going to appear soon, then we should use it as a distraction to evacuate the populous."
Indeed, the appearance of a being of mighty power would be enough to keep the Demi human army busy long enough to escape. Of course the Captain had one such being that he could count on. In fact she was sitting right across from him having a conversation with him. However he could not use Zesshi. During the first attack Kaire was turned into a Elder Lich, and her World tier Item Downfall of Castle and Country with perfect mind control power was integrated into her body. If that perfect mind control power which could even take control of a monstrous Undead like that was turned on Zesshi humanities greatest protector, it would well and truly mean the down fall of the kingdom of Man.
"I'm going to stay behind for a while." Zesshi stated a smirk on her face. "If something of that power does show up, then we should endeavor to put it down shouldn't we no?"
"Battle Crazed lunatic." The captain muttered in displeasure. "Do whatever you like, the part of the theocracy where the Elves are gathering is likely the area of least resistance. Come over there once you are done playing around."
The Demi-humans were clashing against their kin who had been turned against them, The Buri Un Ogres with their natural affinity for Earth magics were summoning large golems to aid in the fight, the Vah Un Ogres with their water magic were creating Aquatic Serpents to slash through the enemy, the Raja Naga were using magical bombardment as they nimbly weaved through the enemies strikes, only the Orthrous were actively engaging in close quarters combat. But the most important members of the battle were the Magelos, who were using revival magics on the enemy restoring them to leaving breathing specimens, and then using transport magic to send them away. This army had come with intent to conquer, but through these battles they realized that they were growing in power, not only gaining XP from constantly clashing with the enemy, but also the enhancements they received from being turned into undead by the enemies magics and then revived. However that only worked once, twice if brought back as different kind of undead, and further revivals would only result in a continuous loss of XP. In other words, once enhanced, they needed to be taken off the front lines until they could fully recover. Conquering this nation of the dead, was a fools dream, but for those who sought power, it had become like a paradise.
Suddenly, something like a embodiment of power had dropped in front of the group. At first they thought it might be some kind of super undead, they saw the silhouette of something massive through the smoke. A single swing of a scythe cleared the dust cloud away and it was replaced by the Lithe form of a Half elf hefting a massive war scythe.
"What the...?" Both Demi Humans and undead looked confused by the appearance of the new individual, safely confirming that neither party were associated with the new player.
"Ah good a elder lich." Zesshi stated smiling happily. "That means I won't need the rest of you." With a single swing of her scythe, Zesshi cleaved away both the demi humans and the other undead aside from the Elder lich leader.
"You're not very smart are you little girl?" All she had done was provide him with more bodies to resurrect, and with a single wave of a bony hand most of the bodies present were turned into Elder lichs, they in turn raised more of the Undead to fight for them. Zesshi only smiled as with a single wave of her scythe all of the newly raised undead mages were bisected once more.
"Well come on then, bring them back to life." Zesshi stated a eager look on her face. The Elder lich wasn't that stupid, he only had a limited number of times that he could raise undead, and then he would be defenseless against Zesshi, not that he wasn't already defenseless anyway, anything he could raise would be instantly cut down by Zesshi, as it had been already a few times now.
"What do you want?" And yet, in spite of the sweeping strikes that killed enemy and ally alike Zesshi hadn't hit him even once.
"Take me to your leader." Zesshi stated the look on her face that of someone who finally got to say a particular line that they had been hoping an occasion for.
There were three factions of undead in the country working together, the first was the undead spawned from the beasts that suddenly appeared within the city, the second was Zuranon, a cult who worshiped the last of six gods, God of Death Suranon, and the third was under the control of a unknown force, spawned from the Dark Child that was briefly put under Kaire's control before it killed her. Zesshi right now was being brought before the leaders of these factions. The former council chambers of the six scriptures was one of the best kept buildings in the entire country, of course that largely had to do with the fact that the undead had use for it as a meeting place between the three leaders.
"So you are the ace of the Slane Theocracy?" One of the Undead asked, from the looks of things he looked to be the weakest of the three, based on the amount of power coming off of one of the others and the fact that a third was wearing Downfall of Castle and Country, in other words she was most likely Kaire. "I really must thank you for playing such a vital roll in the creation of this, Undead Paradise."
"Your welcome. Now I believe that you are in the middle of trying to build another giant undead like the ones that attacked our home and native land in the first place. Please take me to it." Zesshi stated in perhaps a little too eager tone of voice.
"You are in no place to make demands of us child." The weakest of the three undead, likely the leader of Zuranon, snapped pointing a bony finger accusingly towards Zesshi. "Use the world tier item on her, she has no defense against it!" Thusly, the undead formerly known as Kaire stood up and aimed her hand palm up towards Zesshi, the golden pattern on her dress lighting up and hit Zesshi with a beam of light. Soon after, the light had died down, and Zesshi stood unmoving in the meeting hall. "Perfect, once we transform her into one of us, the Undead will secure our rightful place once and for all as..." Zesshi threw her scythe through the air and eliminated the two undead that were not Kaire.
Demiurge was admittedly caught by surprise by Zesshi's actions, as he understood it the item that Kaire was wearing was a world tier item, based on it's ability to take over the minds of the undead, so Zesshi's ability to shrug it off could only logically mean one thing, that she too possessed a world tier item. Indeed if she had lost it in the confusion and only now regained it then that would explain why she no longer feared a face to face meeting. As a result of his lack of foresight the High-tier undead Koriander had created to oversee the ruined country had been slayed and they were on the verge of loosing their grip on the country itself.
"Mags. Go and inform Lady Koriander that we may have a situation in the Slane Theocracy." Demiurge stated to one of the blue minions.
After eliminating the other two, Zesshi made use of a scroll from her pocket to revive Kaire. The light of revival disappeared after a few moments and soon there was a old woman in a ill fitting dress where there was a emancipated skeleton mere moments earlier.
"Zesshi?" Kaire asked looking around the room. "What's going on?"
"So you don't know eh?" Zesshi asked in a disappointed tone of voice.
"Know what?" Zesshi asked still looking confused.
After Zesshi filled the old woman in on what was going on, Kaire had her undead lead them to the former coliseum, now it was a pit where large amounts of undead were being thrown in and where necromancers were fusing their bodies together.
"Now what is going on here I wonder?" Zesshi asked smiling deviously at the large mass of bones that was being gathered at the center of the arena.
"I've seen this before, it looks like they're trying to build something out of the bones." Kaire stated scratching her chin.
Suddenly, something within the bone pile stirred, to be more accurate, the pile itself was stirring, assembling itself into the rough shape of a large western dragon, with several magical runes going across it's body.
"A bone dragon? Well that's disappointing." Zesshi stated pouting at the sight.
"You may jest, but that is a powerful undead to a normal person, immune to most forms of magic." Most forms, aside from six and up spells that Zesshi could use as Kaire had learned over the years.
"Aha. Sure. But what do you think those runes on it are for?" Zesshi understood that animals could learn up eight different kinds of spells, which this undead could technically be classified as, if the number of magic symbols on it's body was any indication, then this one had already learned all eight of them.
"I get the feeling we don't want to find out. So are you going to go down there and kill it, or am I going to have to take it over?" Kaire asked looking Zesshi in the eye.
"Don't you want to see what it will do?" Zesshi asked smirking smugly down at the undead.
"No not really. All that I do know that they are going through a great deal of trouble to make it, that's reason enough to break it." While Zesshi and Kaire argued the shifting mass of bones activated one of it's magic runes and took off into the air, a fly spell.
"One down, seven left to go." Zesshi stated in a somewhat disappointed tone of voice.
The giant mass of dragon shaped bone circled around the sky several times creating something that looked like a storm as the second of it's eight runes activated.
"Rain?" Kaire questioned holding out her hand and watching it beaten with the water droplets. A third of the eight runes on the dragon's body activated, and the water turned green, the liquid burnt the skin of Kaire before the two raised a barrier in the style of a umbrella.
"Poison?" Zesshi asked cocking a confused brow at the situation.
"Poison's like healing potions to the undead." Kaire explained looking angry. "Those bastards intend to make the undead invincible."
"Well I guess that's my cue." Zesshi jumped into the air and made use of a fly spell, zooming at the skeleton dragon and guillotining the undead weather manipulator with her war scythe. The skeleton dragon crashed into a pool of the poison, the healing effects went to work and the dragon's body was put back together magically, followed shortly thereafter by shaking excess poison off of it before looking hatefully up into the air at Zesshi. "Let's put a end to this farce shall we?" Zesshi holstered her scythe onto her back and followed shortly thereafter by clapping her hands together, pointing her fingers down at the dragon, and fired off a huge bolt of lightning shaped like a dragon, and instantly blew the giant mass of bone to pieces. "Well that was fun. Now, for the rest of them."
Demiurge was ashamed of himself. Here, his master, taking a day for rest after weeks of tireless work in the name of Nazarick, and here he was, informing her of his failure to prevent the hold on the Slane Theocracy from being broken.
"So, the Slane Theocracy is getting back on it's feet eh?" Koriander stated looking up to the ceiling and smirking deeply. "Then everything, is going to plan."
Review Section:
Helkil: She doesn't so much think, as she moans in pleasure and leaks lewd fluids.
Pervy Sage Chuck: Whatever you say you selfish, greedy impatient bastard. Come back and read them again in five years.
BMS: Thank you.
