Chapter 10
Death's Moribund Assault
"What?" Gregor stared wide-eyed at the general, who was now quickly ushering the trio into the armory. "What do you mean 'Death is attacking'?" he asked as he struggled against the general's attempts to move him.
"What I just said! Death is attacking!" the general groaned. "Look, what does it matter who is attacking us? We are still under attack. So get your armor and move!" he ordered threateningly.
"It's alright, yeesh." Matt rolled his eyes. "We have our own armor. Much more stylish than the ones you're wearing anyway." He scoffed as he twisted Sam, initiating his armor sequence. The general raised an eyebrow in evident surprise, but other than that, he did not seem impressed.
"Ah, yes. Lord Henry did mention that." The general sniffed. "But he has insisted on requiring you all to use the armor made by the House of D instead of your own."
"What? Why?" Rachel looked up at the general in confusion. "What difference does it make? Our armor might actually be better than yours in terms of-"
"Enough!" the general shouted. "Do not question orders. You may be students of High Lord Headwind, but you hold no authority just because you have obtained such positions." He growled.
Gregor blinked in surprise. News apparently spread quite fast in the House of D. He could hear something in the general's voice, but he couldn't quite place it. Was it grudging respect? Jealousy? Condescension? Maybe all three. He was about to comment further when he heard Leonardo gently nudging his mind.
"It is probably best for you to do this, anyway." Leonardo muttered in his mind. "After all, the House of D will probably recognize your armor from the Joining Ceremony, no?"
Gregor did a double take. That's right! If he initiated his armor and weapons here, Henry could recognize him as the perpetrator of the wedding crashing. He had completely forgotten about that. If Leonardo wasn't here… Gregor shuddered. He didn't even want to think about it.
"Thanks." Gregor quickly answered Leonardo before nodding to the general.
"Alright then. Let's just go in, guys. We can talk about this later." He motioned to Matt and Rachel, who seemed quite riled up enough to start an argument. But when they saw Gregor's serious face, they reluctantly slowly followed Gregor into the armory, but not before pulling faces at the general's back when he wasn't looking. Gregor chuckled in amusement softly and headed in.
The armory, despite all the chaos going around with soldiers frantically reaching for their things, was quite neat and organized. Instead of being the dreary, castle-like building Gregor thought it would be, it was a nicely decorated hall. On the sides of the hall were several racks of various weapons. Spears, bows, hammers, and various swords hung from them, glinting in anticipation. While the trio could tell that these weapons were certainly not as good as the ones given to them by Death, they couldn't help but admire them.
"Man, would you look at this..." Matt breathed. He turned and walked up to a rack holding katanas.
"Yeah, really. It's better than I thought." Gregor gazed around the hall, taking in the various weapons.
"Eh, not really my type. But they're okay." Sam smirked while Matt continued looking around the rack.
"They even got stuff for me." Rachel looked around in amazement and approached the bow's section, examining them carefully.
"Oh no, I do not think so." Arja exclaimed as Rachel seemed dazzled by one of the bows. "Have you SEEN the horrid quality of these?"
"Do not touch the weapons unless we have chosen them for you." The general scolded Matt, who was inches away from pulling a sword off the rack. He frowned stubbornly, but he let his hand drop to his side as the general led them further down the hall. The general was still stolid, but he seemed somewhat pleased that the trio found the place interesting. As they walked down the hall, Matt pulled Gregor and Rachel together and whispered urgently.
"Anyone have any idea why the hell Death is attacking us?" he murmured, quickly glancing at the general walking ahead of them. Luckily, the general didn't seem to pay them any attention.
"Well he couldn't be attacking us, right? I mean, I thought we were his last hope for maintaining power." Gregor scrunched his eyes together in fierce thought. "Why would he attack the people he sent to help him?"
"Maybe that's it." Rachel suddenly piped up. "Maybe since he's losing control, more and more dead creatures are leaving Death?"
"That is certainly a possibility. Death has not responded to any messages I have sent him so far." Leonardo resonated.
"Okay, maybe that's it." Gregor shrugged. "But then why would they attack the House of D? I mean, wouldn't that mean they're on the side of the House?"
"They have to be a group that has a very strong leader. I doubt many dead humans are in this assault, since Headwind was the only strong leader who could lead the humans out. It must be some other group of creatures with a fierce leader" Arja pondered. "Perhaps the gnawers are the ones who have escaped this time. Or maybe some cutters."
"Wait, so you're telling me that if other things like us humans die, they can't escape Death like these other creatures have unless they have a leader?" Gregor looked perplexed.
"Precisely." Leonardo answered. "This is why casualties still matters for you humans. And if you have escaped Death once, you cannot do so again. If Headwind were to die again, he would fall into oblivion since he has broken Death's laws."
"What is oblivion, anyway?" Gregor inquired.
"You cease to exist. Even memories of you from other people will no longer exist. It will be as if you never even came into life itself."
"Well that's just great." Matt groaned as Sam relayed what Leo just said to him.
"Who is Headwind exactly?" Rachel asked suddenly. "I mean, if he was able to lead the humans out, then he must've been a strong leader in the past, right?"
"Did Death not tell you?" Leonardo asked in surprise.
"No. And I'm starting to believe he doesn't tell us anything important." Gregor rolled his eyes.
Gregor was about to pester Leo to tell them who Headwind was when the general in front of them stopped in front of them and opened an iron door.
"Alright, here is the armor room. Hurry up and get in there and get your armor ready." He grunted as he turned and started walking back the way they came. "When you are finished, meet me at the front gate and await orders."
"Roger that, Captain Obnoxious." Matt muttered under his breath as they walked through the door.
It was quiet and nothing seemed to move. It was as if time had stopped. If one were to examine the situation at the Fount based on sound, they would say that either it was at peacetime or that everyone was dead. At the gate of the Fount, York stood in front of his army on his flier, searching for the smallest sign of an attack. The soldiers behind him gripped their weapons tightly, making sure not to make much movement. Then, in the distance, a flier came zipping back towards York.
"They are coming!" the scout on top of the flier shouted before landing next to York. York nodded and quickly raised his fist to notify the other soldiers. They grunted in anticipation and waited. Soon everything would give in to chaos. Soon things like discomforts and nervousness would be obsolete. They tensed, bracing for the arrival.
They didn't have to wait long.
After a long, agonizing moment of silence, they heard a rumble. It started out very quietly, like a low hum, but gradually, it grew louder and louder until it became deafening. Soldiers started to grit their teeth and some tried to cover their ears. Suddenly, a horde of gnawers appeared in the distance. King Gorger, who was wailing the loudest, paused for a moment. Then, without warning, he uttered a roar and charged down the hill towards the Fount. York, grimacing from the terrible cacophony, quickly pulled out his sword and raised it high in the air.
Immediately, three fliers rose in the air and flew high in the sky and soared towards the group of gnawers. Their riders threw multiple torches into the air while their fliers dropped buckets of oil on the ground below. The soft thump of the torches landing on the ground was soon followed by cries of dissolving black gnawers and the crackles of fire; however, this did little to faze the gnawers and the intimidating line of gnawers continued to march towards the Fount with Gorger still roaring.
Elsewhere, Luxa, Ripred, and the rest of the Regalian army stood in wait, searching for the signal York promised them. Luxa then noticed the bright light of the fire and promptly signaled her army. The fire was there. That was the signal. Multitudes of fliers then rose into the air behind Aurora and together, they all flew down towards the black mass.
"Alright, this is it!" York bellowed when he saw Luxa's army starting the assault on the flank. "ATTACK!" he roared as he again thrust his sword in the air and started sprinting towards the mass of gnawers. The soldiers behind him shouted in encouragement and followed without hesitation.
The war began.
Half of the Regalian army, including Luxa and Ripred, landed and joined the frontal assault with York's group while their fliers picked off gnawers by picking them up and dropping them to their demise. The others remained on their fliers, occasionally diving and slicing through several gnawers before quickly lifting off again. After a while, they flew back to the base camp to get more torches and oil to drop on the gnawers.
"HAHA!" Ripred cried as he sprinted towards the line of gnawers. "Looks like you're all out of shape!" the rat smirked as he jumped into a group of unsuspecting gnawers. As soon as he landed, he started to spin in an impossible speed, slicing at anything that came into range. He became a blender of death, spraying what looked like black blood in every direction. Other gnawers allied with the Regalians dropped in next to Ripred, immediately striking all the gnawers in their respective range.
Luxa pulled her sword out of an unlucky gnawer who took her for an easy mark and back-flipped as three gnawers suddenly swiped at her, enraged at their comrade's demise. While she was still in mid-air, Aurora came speeding down out of nowhere and picked up a gnawer before taking off with a war cry. Luxa then swiped down on the two remaining gnawers, caught off-guard by Aurora's intervention. Luxa easily cut through them and they gurgled into the ground.
York bashed through several gnawers with brute strength and smashed another on the head with the butt of his sword before driving his sword through it.
Soldiers to his left and right seemed to share his energy and were letting out various cries of victory with each kill they managed to rake in. Occasionally, much to York's sadness, a soldier did fall with a solemn groan, but he did not do so before taking out at least ten gnawers.
Despite the morbid atmosphere, York began to grin. They could win this. It wasn't a hopeless cause after all.
Then he heard the first flier cry out. He promptly snapped his attention to the source of the sound and what he saw left him wide-eyed. The flier had spiraled down to the ground, its rider thrown off into the middle of some gnawers. York saw that in the flier's wing, a large hole gaped. How…? His question was answered when drew his attention to King Gorger, who was managing to subdue multiple soldiers.
After stabbing another soldier in the heart with his razor sharp tail, King Gorger snapped his paw outward towards another flier. A shrouded arrow of blackness protruded from his paw and hit the flier, tearing through its wing, causing it fall to the ground in agony with a cry.
York wasn't the only one who noticed. Luxa and Ripred momentarily stopped fighting for a few moments as they stared in shock. They came to the same realization: they no longer had complete air superiority. The other soldiers flinched in surprise and suddenly there was a huge drop in energy and vigor as the soldiers realized that the casualty count was going to be much higher than expected.
"York! Ripred!" Luxa cried out as she fended off another gnawer. "We need to get rid of Gorger, NOW!" she spun and stabbed another gnawer in the eye. Another flier cried out as it fluttered pathetically to the ground.
York and Ripred nodded after finishing off their opponents. The three of them then gradually fought their way to King Gorger, who was still crushing all the soldiers who tried to attack him. Eventually, the trio managed to reach the giant gnawer. When they did, he turned and appeared amused at the sight of them cautiously approaching him.
"Ah, so you are all here." He licked his lips in anticipation. "The queen, the traitor, and the Fount's pathetic leader."
"And here you are." Ripred smirked. "Obese and groveling in your so sad death many years ago."
Gorger glowered at Ripred. "You are a fool for betraying us gnawers. You and your corrupted followers will never be successful in keeping peace with the Regalians." He spat. "Gnawers and Humans are meant to be enemies for life!" he roared as he swiped a paw at Ripred, shooting a large wave of black smoke at him.
Ripred jumped to the side as the blackness swarmed past him. "Hmmm." He glanced back at Gorger. "Looks like obese has some tricks after all." He smirked. Ripred was about to charge towards Gorger when he heard Luxa cry out.
"Behind you!" she yelled.
In the corner of his eye, he saw the black smoke coming back. He nimbly dodged again, but this time, he couldn't completely dodge the shot.
"ARGH!" he grunted as the tip of blackness sliced at his shoulder. He gripped it with his paw and staggered back. His shoulder felt as if it were being eaten. Consumed. The gnawer reluctantly glanced at it and saw that the blackness still there, eating at him. He quickly batted at it until it dissipated.
"These are not just 'tricks', traitor." Gorger cackled as he pointed a claw at each of them. Ripred threw Gorger an exasperated glare. Luxa grimaced and York tightened his grip on his sword as Gorger continued. "These are the powers of the dead. Only strong willed creatures such as I can obtain such powers." He grinned evilly as he flexed his paw before turning to face them again. "Prepare to be annihilated."
"Bah, you may have power, but you're still the weakest gnawer I know." York spat. "Once we kill you, this little play time of yours will be over."
"Even if you do manage to destroy me here, there will still be someone who will take my troops into battle." Gorger guffawed. Before Luxa, York, or Ripred could express any surprise at his words, Gorger's eyes glinted in glee. "You didn't think I was the only leader of the dead gnawers, now did you?" he smiled a wicked smile. "Oh no. I am not the leader. Another gnawer is here to make sure all the humans are destroyed."
"Impossible…" Ripred breathed.
"Oh yes." Gorger smiled in glee.
"It's the Bane."
"None of these fit." Gregor groaned. He was trying on various pieces of armor, but none of the armor pieces seemed to like Gregor. They all were either too big or too small. Rachel and Matt managed to find an armor of their size easy enough, much to Gregor's agitation.
"You know what, just screw it." Matt chuckled. "Just use your own armor, man. I don't care what that general said."
"Neither do I, but I can't." Gregor face palmed. He explained how he had crashed the wedding in the same armor and how Henry and some others would recognize the armor.
"I warned him not to do it; however, he went against my advice and did it anyway."Leonardo said with an exaggerated sigh.
"Oh shush, Leo." Gregor groaned. "Now what do I do?"
"Maybe Death could change the armor for you?" Rachel asked tentatively, jokingly.
"Right, ask him to walk over to his closet of armor sets and see which ones you like best." Matt laughed. Despite the hilarity of it, Matt tried to be serious. "You could try." He tried to stifle another wave of laughs as Rachel started to giggle.
"Yeah right. I'm not that desperate." Gregor smirked and joined in their laughter. Meanwhile, he secretly nudged Leonardo in his mind.
"I shall try sending him a message." Leonardo muttered in Gregor's mind.
"Yeah you do that." Gregor sighed in his head. He was that desperate.
Suddenly, an unfamiliar voice echoed in the room. "Don't bother." It wheezed. "I'll do it right now."
The trio turned around frantically. Who was that? Where was it coming from? Just as they were about to call out, a figure limped out of the shadows of a corner in the room.
A battered raincoat hung limply on the figure's shoulders and a tattered mask of darkness was loosely hanging on the figure's face as he slowly made his way to them. He looked like he was in intense pain and was severely injured. It was Death.
"Holy crap…" Matt stared at the figure. "What happened to you?" Rachel ran up to help Death sit down.
"Are you alright?" she asked urgently.
"Haha…" Death choked out a laugh. "Two gnawers and human of incredible power are simply too much for me. Without my scythe I cannot even take one of them down. Ah…" he sighed. "And now they run amock in the Underland causing trouble."
The trio looked at each other. Gnawers and humans? This didn't sound good.
"And yet, the House of D continues to blame me." Death gave an amused chortle. "Regardless, I shall be fine, so do not worry." He gave the three worried warriors a smile. "It is amusing how you three worry about me even though I threw you into this mess."
"Well, you're our ticket out of here, so of course we'll worry." Matt sniffed.
"Very true." Death chuckled. "I was expecting too much, I suppose."
"What's happening in the realm of Death?" Rachel asked urgently. "Everyone thinks you're the one behind this assault."
"Ah yes…" Death sighed. "After sending you two with Gregor my power dropped immensely. Then two rats leading a horde of gnawers and a human leading a band of humans attacked me. They managed to usurp me. I can't even kill things anymore."
"Wait, if you're not in charge, then what happens to people when they die?" Gregor asked.
"I'm afraid they are placed in a state of comatose in purgatory until I receive my scythe and sort them out. As for those who have escaped me, they will fall into oblivion, never to be heard of again. I am sure your bracelets have told you."
"Master, are you going to change the armor now?"Leonardo pressed gently. "I am sorry, but we simply do not have time."
"Ah, of course!" he shook his head and placed a hand on Gregor's bracelet. "I should have foreseen this…" he muttered. "But then again, I did not know you would go so far as to crash a Joining Ceremony." He laughed softly.
Gregor turned red and avoided looking at Death. He was never going to hear the end of that, was he?
"There." Death finally stated after a while. "It is done. Your armor and weapon has been changed." He let go of Gregor's bracelet and turned back towards the corner and started to walk towards it.
"Wait!" Gregor called out. "We need to ask you some questions. Who's Headwind? He must have been an important leader here, right? That's how he was able to lead all those people out from your control, right?"
Death stopped for a moment, evidently surprised at the question. "It is none of your concern." He stated darkly before continuing his stride. "All you need to know is that Headwind most likely has my scythe. Get it back for me."
"Why won't you tell us?" Rachel called out. "It could be important!"
"However I must hate to admit it, Headwind can teach you something useful. Learn from him, if you must. Gain his trust." Death continued to walk, ignoring Rachel's plea.
"Does Headwind have something in mind for the scythe?" Matt called out, trying to stall Death.
"This shall be the last time I visit you in this realm." Death continued to ignore their questions as he limped towards the darkness. "The next time we meet again is either when you have accomplished your mission or when you have failed. Do not fail me."
With that, Death walked into the corner and disappeared.
AN: Started writing this at 3 am while listening to some epic music by "Two Steps from Hell" because I was afraid I was going to forget some of the ideas in the morning. Well that was a pretty long chapter... well it was normal compared to my recent chapters huh? I took a look at the reviews and I was surprised! A lot of you have some good ideas. I would do shout outs but most of them were anonymous so... yeah. If you want to know how far this is from the end, I'll tell you it's not that close. I'm planning to make this a bit long, so that could either be a good thing or a bad thing... but it's what I'm going to do. I finally finished my SAT studies at my SAT preparation classes for now (although I am self studying now) so I should be able to write a bit faster. Anyway, as always, review!
Seriously. I am hungry for reviews. Nom.