All right, moving on again. As you probably read in the last chapter, Elsa had helped Daniel in a pretty big situation, when she helped him beat his evil doppelganger, created by that strange cloaked figure. So I assume you probably know, but if you don't, sorry for the spoiler, the story of the battle of light and darkness Daniel told, it did happen. Anyhow, if you're wondering why I call this one "The Undead Army" You'll find out why soon.
A few hours after the battle with Daniel against his evil clone, he, Elsa and King Adgar rode down the mountain, and back to the castle.
Once back, they met up with Anna, Kristoff and Queen Idun who'd all been standing in front of the palace gates.
Daniel stopped his horse, Blaze, dismounted, then he patted her on the back. "Go on, girl. Take a rest."
His horse turned around, then walked off. She whinnied loudly, and then slowly vanished into thin air, until she could be seen no more.
"How'd you do that?" asked Queen Idun.
"She's enchanted," Daniel replied. "But like my book, she was left for me, and I don't know where you came from."
"We saw something shocking while we were up there," Elsa spoke up.
"What do you mean?" asked Queen Idun.
"We'd better discuss this inside," King Adgar chimed in.
And they all walked inside, and went straight to the library, where Daniel began to explain what had happened with his evil clone, to Queen Idun, Anna and Kristoff.
"An evil doppelganger?!" Queen Idun exclaimed in disbelief.
"What am I speaking a foreign language? Yes, an evil me," Daniel stated.
"Here I though you were crazy before." Queen Idun arose from her chair.
"Mother," Anna said a little sternly.
"What? You believe all this? An evil clone of your new friend here. He's making this up."
"He's telling the truth, Idun," King Adgar stood up. "We saw it. We watched him fight his evil looking self."
"All I know is whenever he's around, disaster happens. He probably had that all set up."
"All right that's it," Daniel got up. "The whole time I've been here, I've tried to protect you all from these disasters that have been occurring, and you've been nothing but cruel to me."
"Because I can see right through you. I know you had that all set up. Making it so someone would look like you, and you facing him," Queen Idun walked towards him.
"You think I set that up? There's no way I could've pulled that off! He looked exactly like me. Every detail of me. The armor, the iron arm, even all my powers and abilities. He had it all."
"How do I know you didn't just create a clone of yourself? You showed us your magic, you have the power to create clones of yourself."
"He tried to kill me. Do you think if this had really been a scheme, I'd have let my clone win. If not for Elsa, I'd be dead by now."
"Elsa?" Queen Idun asked confused.
"I helped him fight," Elsa stepped up next to Daniel. "Together we defeated that monster. I get the feeling we're somehow compatible in a way."
"Well, I'm not convinced," Queen Idun turned her back.
"Forget this," Daniel also turned his back and walked off, then left the library.
The next day, Daniel was now even more concerned than before, for the situations that had been occurring for weeks now, had just been getting worse.
He was in the library, looking through all the books, and seemed to be searching for something.
And then Elsa and King Adgar walked in, and saw him searching through the books, left and right.
"Are you looking for something?" Elsa asked.
"Yes. I remember a few weeks ago, I'd been looking through the books here, trying to find some entertainment, when I read an interesting book."
"What kind of book?" asked King Adgar.
"Something about a cursed army. I think that it may be of some help to us. Whatever's happening around here, it's just getting worse, and we need help. Because I have this strange feeling, that something very bad is going to occur."
"If you're looking for something about armies and things that fall under that kind of category with that, then I think you'll want to try and look up there," King Adgar said pointing to one of the top shelves.
Daniel followed his finger and looked to the top left area. He quickly moved the ladder over there, climbed up and searched through the books. "All right I think we're making progress. Got it." He pulled a dark blue book.
He climbed down the ladder, and he went over and sat at the table, then began going through the book.
Elsa and King Adgar came up to him and looked over it as well.
Daniel was flipping through the pages, looking for his answer, then stopped near the end of the book. "Here it is. It says here, that exactly 800 years ago, to this day, there were these people, who'd been dubbed the bravest of all warriors for their outstanding bravery, and their deeds to people across the globe. They were the strongest and bravest army who ever lived."
"But if this was 800 years ago, then wouldn't they have died a long time ago?" Elsa chimed in.
"That's just it. See these people existed around the same time the master of darkness did. They'd settled and built themselves not only a fortress, but a home, on a small island, so that they could always be aware of what was going on. They'd have spies monitoring areas for trouble around different countries and islands, to keep people all over safe. But it says here, that one night when all was calm, some unknown stranger had infiltrated their area, and set to destroy them all."
"The master of darkness," King Adgar realized.
"Yes. This stranger who'd arrived was a powerful one. Using a strange magic, he created an army of soldiers, with armor black as a night sky, and no matter how hard these soldiers fought, they were no match for this powerful being. When they were all defeated, he'd used his magic to curse them, and trapped their souls their. To this day, that island is known as the Isle of the Dead. Nothing there lives, and nothing grows. But there's a legend behind this. If you follow the whispering voices of the fallen ones, they'll lead you to a cave where their souls remain trapped."
"So how is this supposed to help us?" Elsa asked again.
"Within that cave, the walls are marked with magic runes. Legend has it, should one speak the chant, and translate those runes, the souls of the army will rise from the underworld, and they'll do the bidding of they who have set them free. I think if we go there I can read those runes, and set them free. They have some of the inscriptions here in this book."
King Adgar pulled out a pair of reading glasses, put them on, then he looked closer to the book. On it, there was a black and white picture of a stone wall, with strange looking runes. "Bless my soul. You're right."
"I've been able to understand what some of it says, though it is a little dim. Like right here, it reads, 'The fallen souls of the brave shall be unleashed, should one read the inscriptions and the dead shall be saved."
"Where is this place?" asked King Adgar while taking off his glasses.
"I looked at a map a few days ago, and saw that place's name on it. I think it should be around, 500 miles east of this place. But even I'm not sure about this. What do you both think?"
"I think we should do it," Elsa suggested.
"She's right," King Adgar agreed. "If there's a chance we can get help to fight these evil forces, we have to do what we can. How long would it take to get there?"
"Well, if we were to leave around now by ship, tomorrow night."
"That would take too long," said Elsa. "Is there another way."
Daniel arose from his chair. "As a matter of fact there is. I can get us there in seconds."
"How?" King Adgar asked.
"I have a teleportation spell in my spell book. It can get you places in just a matter of seconds."
"Let me go tell Idun and the others real quick," King Adgar then walked out of the library.
"So, do you know any more spells yet?" Elsa asked Daniel.
"A few. But I think that I've discovered another ability, a few years ago. Somehow whenever I read something in another language, I can understand it fully, as if were written in English. No matter what it is, French, Spanish. You name it. I guess that's why I can understand everything else I've read."
"Interesting. So, listen. Do you remember the day first we met and I saw the inscriptions in your book, and could understand them?"
"How could I forget?"
"Well, I was wondering, seeing as how I seem to be one of pure heart, do you think you could teach me some of this magic?"
"I don't see why not. Is this a sudden interest because of what you've seen me do?"
"Actually I've been very interested for a while now. When I saw the things you were capable of doing. Reviving the dead, growing plants instantly, turning objects to solid gold, cloning yourself," Elsa said with a giggle.
"That's actually one of my favorites."
"When I saw your magic, I'd been wanting to ask you to teach me for so long, but I just couldn't get around to it."
"And why's that?"
"Because that night in the ballroom, when you and I danced for both our first times, I felt something with you."
"Then I wasn't the only one. I felt something that was stronger than probably all our magic powers and abilities combined."
"I felt the exact same way."
Daniel then held out his right hand, and Elsa took his hand with her left hand.
"Take off your glove," Elsa said to him.
"Are you sure? My metal arm?"
"It's one of the things I like about you."
Daniel then let go of her hand, then took off his glove then put it into his pocket. Afterwards, they both took each other's hands.
They both stared into each other's eyes, and the next thing that happened came as shock to both of them; They both had a glowing aura shining on them. Elsa's was icy blue and Daniel's was fiery red.
They both joined together again; Elsa put her hands on the back of Daniel's neck, and Daniel wrapped his arms around Elsa's waist.
And then they moved closer, preparing to share a kiss.
"All right, we're set."
They both quickly pulled away from each other, and the glowing aura's around them faded.
King Adgar then walked back into the room, carrying his gold handled sword in his right hand. "I told Idun, and she still thinks this is a joke, but I don't think she cares if we go or not. And I'm bringing this, just in case we run into any kind of danger," He said hooking his sword onto his belt. "So what do we need to do, Daniel?"
"Um, okay." Daniel nervously said putting his glove back on. "First, gather around."
Both Elsa and King Adgar did as he said and walked over to him.
"So what needs to be done first?" Elsa asked.
"Well, I've used this spell like a thousand times. It's how I've been getting around, from place to place. There's a chant I have to speak, which I know by heart. So I think if we joined together, we'll all teleport together. First, we join hands."
They both nodded and King Adgar gave Elsa his left hand, who took it with her right hand.
Elsa then looked to Daniel, who held out his right hand, then they joined.
As soon as she grabbed his hand, he became so nervous on the inside, but he managed to keep it inside.
Daniel then looked to King Adgar and took his right hand, with his left, gloved hand.
"All right. Ready for this? Because it can feel a little weird," Daniel asked them both.
"We're ready. Let's do it," said Elsa.
"Right. Say the chant, when ready, son."
And then Daniel spoke, in a strange other language, like how he had when he revived the king and queen. As he was speaking, a gold aura shined on him, then he passed over to King Adgar and Elsa.
The next thing they both knew, was that a gold light flashed around them, then they'd entered a strange portal like place, with gold light shining all around as they were flying up, still holding onto each other.
Then a brighter golden light flashed, so that they saw nothing but light all around. The light faded as soon as it shined, and they were no longer in the Arendelle castle; They were now on an old island, where there were gray, stone buildings wooden houses and dead, leafless trees, but the buildings and houses were all wrecked.
The stone buildings were smashed to pieces, and rock and rubble lay everywhere.
The houses had the roofs and walls torn off, and along with that, there were also skeletons laying on the grounds, on most of the areas.
"This place is even creepier than it sounded in the book," Daniel spoke up.
"So where is the place where the army's souls were trapped?" asked Elsa.
"I think they're in an underground cave somewhere. We'll have to move forward to find it. So let's get this over with. The less time we spend here, the better." And Daniel started walking forward.
"I second that," King Adgar said as he and Elsa also followed.
The trio trekked through the ruins of the island, ignoring the creepiness of what was all around, and avoided stepping on any of the skeletons.
They'd went past the area they were in and moved onto another area where there were no houses or buildings, but instead there was an old meadow of yellow, wilted grass, and dead plants everywhere.
Daniel looked forward, and saw that on top of a tall hill, were at least 5 tall, gray rocks, making a circle. "I think we might've found something. Let's try searching there. I have a feeling that's where we'll find the cave that conceals their souls is."
And they continued trekking through the dead island, making their way to where those rocks were.
It'd only taken them a little more than a minute to get there, because it wasn't a long distance at all. When they'd gotten there they looked around where the rocks were, and in the middle of the circle forming rocks, was a hole in the ground, with a path leading underground.
"This must be it," said Daniel. "If the legend is true, then the cave where the army's souls are sealed is just down here."
"But how will we see?" Elsa stepped up next to him. "It's dark looking down there."
Daniel looked down and saw a stick on the ground. He picked it up, then snapped the fingers on his right hand, making his thumb light like a match, like when he helped King Adgar light his cigar.
He put his lit thumb on the stick, and it set fire to it. "All right. Now we'll be able to see. Let's go." And Daniel made his way down the trail, with Elsa and King Adgar following close behind him.
Down in the hole, so far there was nothing but gray stone walls to be seen. And none of them were marked with ancient runes or symbols.
The path seemed to go on forever, because they'd been following it for at least 10 to 15 minutes.
"I don't see any strange markings on these walls anywhere," King Adgar said while looking to the walls. "Are you sure we're in the right place?" He asked Daniel.
"Of course I'm sure. The pictures I'd seen in that book, looked exactly like this," Daniel replied without looking back.
"But what if there is no undead army?" Elsa asked. "What if it was just a tale someone made up about this place, to scare people away?"
"I hope you're wrong about that. If the legend is true, this army may be our only hope."
And then they saw the trail had come to and end. It all stopped where the stone walls made a circle around a bigger area of the place, but still they saw no markings on the walls, or anything. Nothing was seen but gray stone.
"Well, we've made it to the end, but still there's no markings or symbols on the walls," King Adgar spoke up.
"I don't understand," Daniel said confused. "This place looking exactly like it did in the book, but there's no symbols anywhere."
"Daniel," Elsa walked over to him. "Face the truth. The legend isn't true. This place is probably just an old mine. People probably just carved those markings into the walls to make up their own king of ghost story."
"No. No, I don't believe that. I know there has to be a ghost army. The answer is here somewhere," Daniel ranted on and started to search the walls. "Look for anything that might be written on the walls. There may be a key to revealing those runes or something."
"Daniel," King Adgar tried to reason with him.
Daniel sighed with a saddened expression. "Maybe you're right. Maybe there is no ghost army."
He walked over to the king and Elsa, and King Adgar put his hand on Daniel's back.
"I'm sorry, son. But I guess that legend was just a hoax."
Daniel looked and saw the fire was going out in his torch. He tossed it aside, and it hit a rock.
"Come on. Let's go home," Elsa suggested.
And the trio began to walk towards the exit, but then they'd heard the sound of whispering voices.
Daniel looked to where he threw the torch, and saw something gold illuminating through the dust on the rock. "What is that?" He walked over to the rock, and wiped off the dust. He then stared at a few gold glowing symbols and inscriptions, similar to the ones in his book. "This must be the key to revealing the runes."
"What does it say?" asked King Adgar.
"It says 'To refresh the symbols of the ghost army, the blood and/or flesh, by two mortals as a toll.' It means two of us have to offer up a sample of our blood as a payment. Whoever locked these people away didn't make it easy to unleash them. I'm sorry to ask this of you, but one of you is also gonna have to give your blood as payment."
"I'll do it," King Adgar stepped forward.
"Are you sure about that?" Daniel asked him.
"It's like you said, unlocking this army may be our only hope. I have to do it."
Daniel reached into his left boot, then pulled out a knife. He took it in his left hand, then cut his right palm open, while grunting slightly in pain. After doing so, he put his hand on the top of the rock, then moved it all the way down, offering his blood for the toll.
He then handed the knife to king Adgar.
King Adgar took the knife, and did what Daniel did, but he cut open his left palm, then rubbed it on the rock. He gave Daniel back his knife, and then Daniel grabbed hold of his left wrist.
"These cuts are nothing my healing spell can't fix," Daniel then spoke a chant, making a gold light shine from his left palm, like how he'd done when he healed himself after he lost his real left arm.
He shined the gold light on King Adgar's palm while chanting his spell, and his hand slowly stopped the blood flow, then his cut vanished.
After fixing King Adgar's hand, Daniel shined the light on his hand, healing his own cut.
And then, the rock which they wiped their blood on, began to crumble, fall apart and turn to black mist, which dissolved into thin air. After which, around the walls, appeared gold glowing runes, extremely similar to the ones in Daniel's book.
"This is it. These runes match the ones in the book. But the funny thing is, they look similar to the ones in my spell book."
"I wonder if whoever gave you that book, has a connection with all this," King Adgar suggested.
"I was just thinking the same thing. Now, if legend is true, if I read these runes, then the army's spirits will be unleashed into the Earth realm."
"Go ahead, son. Read."
Daniel looked to the runes and stared straight at them, focusing his full attention on them. And then, as he did when he used the spell to revive the king and queen, he started to chant in a foreign language, and his ocean blue eyes started to glow electric blue.
As he chanted, reading the runes, they slowly started to turn from gold to sea green.
Daniel had continued to chant, looking over the runes, and they kept changing color, until they were all turned green.
The next thing they all knew, when Daniel had finally stopped chanting, a mist in the same color as the runes had appeared from thin air, and was forming together all around them.
Within that mist, shadows started to form, taking the forms of men. And like how Daniel's horse did, they came out of the mist and into sight.
Once it was done, they were surrounded by hundreds of sea green glowing skeletons, wearing armor and wielding weapons. Though they were skeletons, they had hair on their heads and faces and eyes in their sockets.
One of them, who seemed to be their leader stepped up in front of Daniel. He had long hair, and a long beard that went past his chest. He was wearing a trench coat over his armor, and he had two swords on his back.
"Are you guys the undead army?" asked Daniel.
"Aye," the leader replied in a Scottish accent. "What brings ye here, laddie?"
"A war, that I fear is about to take place. An epic one that might determine the fate of the world, just as it did over 800 years ago."
"I might know what ye be speaking, lad. But I shall need more information. What do ye know about this war?"
"Well, as I just said, it's one that occurred over 8 centuries ago. A devastating battle caused by the master of darkness. I think that he-"
"Stop right there, laddie. Did ye say, master of darkness?"
"Yes. I fear that the legends and tales I've heard are true, and that he may be on the verge of returning to finish what he began all those years ago."
"It would seem that way, now wouldn't it. After all, he is the reason this curse remains upon us. It was 800 years ago to this day, we'd not faced a foe in months, and tis was a calm night. All was quiet, and we were all ready for anything that could happen. But what had happened, we were not prepared for, for we could never have seen or known what was gonna happen that night."
"Who came?" King Adgar stepped forward.
"Tis was a man, who seemed like any other being. But he was cloaked, and concealed himself within a black robe. Ordered him we did, and told him to state his business in our home, or leave before we acted in our battle ways."
"What did he say?" Daniel asked.
"He said that he'd heard about us, and that he came to rid us of this world. We couldn't help but all laugh at his ridiculous comment, but then around his whole being, appeared shrouds of shadows, and with that he created a strange army. A group of black skinned soldiers, their eyes glowing red as blood, and all armed with swords and axes. With his own shadow army, he attacked. We were forced to call in everyone to battle. His soldiers were easy, but any of us who got to that man, never stood a chance."
"What happened in the battle?" Daniel asked again.
"We tried and gave everything we had, but this man was strange in so many ways. I watched as he used a strange magic on my men. He'd blasted them all out with a stream of black and purple flames. I was the last to fall, and when I did, I saw he did more than just kill us, somehow he trapped us here, and sealed them in this cave. He put upon us a terrible curse, our souls trapped by an evil spell, and our home destroyed. And that's the way it's been for 800 years. We waited centuries for someone to come and free us, and now it would seem our prayers have been answered. Seeing as how you've come here and unleashed our spirits, lad, I assume you know the tale."
"Yes," Daniel replied. "I read about you and came here for your help. I think if we can defeat the master of darkness, then we can finally free your souls. If the legends are true, then will you help."
"Aye. You have freed us, after centuries of being trapped, laddie. You have our aid."
"Good. Then let's get a move on. We're running out of time."
"Lads, move out!" the undead general ordered.
Daniel, Elsa and King Adgar all began to leave the cave, and the army followed them behind; Their glow lit the way, so they could all see where they were going.
They'd gotten out of the cave with the army, in about the same amount of time they got in. They went to the exit, and headed straight, but then they ran into trouble.
"Ah, give me a break. Just once, I'd like to not experience these guys, wherever I go," Daniel said in frustration.
In front of them, stood at least 200 goblins, all armed with their weapons, and ready to fight.
"Look on the bright side," King Adgar said drawing his gold handled sword. "This time we have an army of our own to help fight."
I guess that's true," Daniel replied, then conjured a wall of fire from underneath him, in which he'd used to change into his armor.
The undead army had turned to streams of green mist, then reappeared behind the trio, and now that they were out of the dark, they were no longer glowing sea green, but instead they were gray skeletons, all wearing rusted gray armor.
The general came near Daniel, and now he could be seen wearing a dark red trench coat. Like his soldiers, he also wore a rusted gray armor, the hair on his head and his beard was black turning gray, and he had pale green eyes, in the skull sockets. "All right, lads. Let's show these monstrosities what we're made of." The general drew his sword.
All the others drew their swords, shields, spears and axes, and readied themselves to fight.
"I think you'll also have three more of us helping you fight," Daniel said to the General, and gestured to Elsa and King Adgar.
"Can ya fight well, laddie?"
"I've dealt with hundreds of these guys. The only thing I lost to them was an arm, but nothing more."
"What about them?" He looked to Elsa and King Adgar,
"She has magical powers over ice, he'd wanted to be a solider, and has pretty good experience and I do know a few magic tricks of my own."
"Then let's put all that to use. Lads, attack those monsters!"
Then the undead warriors charged at the goblins, and at the same time, the goblins ran towards the opposing army.
As soon as both sides clashed, they broke out into battle.
Daniel and King Adgar also ran to the army, joining in to help fight the goblins off, while Elsa stood where she was, and she's used her magic to freeze any goblins that came near her.
"Seems you can do some good, lass," the undead general said to her.
"Well, if that's a compliment, I accept it," Elsa replied.
"Archers!" the general called to his men while drawing a bow.
And then multiple warriors of the undead army backed away a good distance, then armed themselves with bows. After they each had their bows in one hand, they made green glowing arrows appear in the other from thin air.
The archers all knocked the arrows into their bows and took their aim.
"Ready? Fire!" the general yelled, firing the first arrow.
And they took his command, then fired their green glowing arrows.
The arrows that made it, hit the goblins, and went straight through their armor without even making a dent or a scratch in them, but the goblins that got hit still dropped dead. After the arrows hit, they evaporated, by turning into a green mist.
"What are those?" Elsa asked the general.
"Spirit arrows. They pass right through an opposing enemies' armor, and pierce through their bodies. We picked up a few things, when locked away. We had to fight off many creatures where we were. The unspeakable horror and disaster it was. We suffered badly, but we couldn't die."
Daniel and King Adgar were both side by side into battle, fighting off and killing all the goblins. They'd slashed and stabbed them left and right.
"This is one of the weirdest battles I've ever fought," Daniel said to the king. "We're fighting alongside a group of skeleton warriors."
"I always wanted to be a solider, but who knew I'd end up fighting enemies like this?" King Adgar replied.
While fighting, Daniel looked and saw though they were getting hit easily by goblins, the undead warriors had fought like they felt nothing.
For instance, one of the undead men had been stabbed in the ribcage, and multiple bones were shattered when he was stabbed, but he had just chopped the goblin's head off with his sword, and moved on fighting.
"Wow. These guys may really be of great use."
After a few more minutes of all the fighting going on, they'd finally beaten all the goblins back, and killed them all.
"Well, that's it for this fight," Daniel said triumphantly.
"That one was too easy, lad," the general walked towards Daniel. "8 centuries of being locked away, we'd faced more devastating battles than this."
"I noticed that your warriors continued to fight, even while being attacked."
"We're dead already, laddie. We can hurt them, but they can't hurt us."
"Then you'll prove to be very helpful when the war begins."
"Me and my men love a good war. We'd faced hundreds where our souls were locked away."
"Hundreds?" Daniel questioned.
"Our souls had been trapped on neither alive nor the dead. And along with all of us, we had faced many opposing enemies."
"So you're saying the master of darkness trapped your souls in limbo? Meaning you were locked in the afterlife?"
"Aye. And in the afterlife, were hundreds of evil beasts and enemies."
"Let's discuss more when we get back to my kingdom," King Adgar interrupted. "Do you know where Arendelle Norway is?"
"Aye. Now that we're free, we can appear anywhere, anytime."
"Then let's go. Meet us there, and we'll discuss what needs to be done," Daniel suggested.
"Right. Men clear out of here, and head for Arendelle Norway!" the general commanded his men, then his body turned sea green again, and in a poof of green mist, he vanished.
The rest of the soldiers did as they were told, then all did the same and vanished.
"Now let's get out of here, before more goblins show up," Daniel said to Elsa and King Adgar.
They joined together again, then Daniel chanted his spell for them to teleport, and like before, they had a gold aura surround them all, and in a flash of light, they'd vanished.
All right. That'll do for this one. Now you know why I called this the undead army. An army who fought against the master of darkness himself, but sadly, until this curse of theirs is lifted, they' can't pass on, and they're souls aren't free just yet. But will they be free in the end, or will everyone fall at the hands of the master of darkness? Please read, review and enjoy.