Chapter 47

Back on track, Salem has decided to take on the Nazgul himself in his primary fortress. Actually the main reason is to skip ahead to the main story. As for the warchiefs, Salem may have eaten them or dominated them. It's up to your imagination.

Any who, Salem has gathered a large force outside the fortress where the Nazgul, Helm Hammerhead, is residing over his Uruk underlings and a few monsters under his control. For this battle, Helm Hammerhead has gathered a large force of Slaughter Tribe Uruks and Olog-Hai in the fort along with many strong and powerful creatures by his side. These include Dire Caragors, Legendary Graugs, Wretched Graugs, Ghuls, and Drakes. While Salem has assemble a force of thralls; Blue, Green, and Brown Minions; Uruks of the Feral Tribe, some Drakes of her own, Greater Bears, Frost Giants, Greater Sabertooths, Icy Graugs, and Werehyenas. Salem also has Tock, Hazel, and Adam ready to fight against this Nazgul.

Salem raises her black sword as she screams out, "CHAAAARRRGGGEE!"

Everyone on Salem's faction charge at the gates to face their opposition. Adam charges up his semblance as Helm's troops fire flaming boulders at them. When he is done, he uses his moonslice semblance to cut down the gate to pieces. Salem's army charges in and started killing every Uruk and beasts that they can find in this icy fortress. Tock rushes in with her semblance and starts killing as many of the enemy Uruks as she can before her minute is up. That is when Hazel charges in and started knocking some heads. Even beating the living hell out of a Legendary Graug by ripping out one of its horn and stabbed it in the brain with the horn. Some of the Greens stay hidden in the shadows in order to strike down the archers. The Browns do what they do best: smashing and killing everything in sight. A few Greater Sabertooths (or is it Saberteeth?) manage to bring down a Legendary Graug while a few Ghuls feast on one of Salem's Icy Graugs.

Salem keeps on walking forward with all the chaos and fighting around her as her troops secure some of the key locations. Every other beings are either too busy with the people or monsters they are fighting or completely ignoring her. She just walk her way through the carnage while looking like she is hovering through the chaos. Then she finally reaches the tower where her true enemy is. She gives off a fangy smirk as she enters into the building.

Once in, she made her way to the throne room of this fortress where she sees an empty throne. Salem wonders why the Nazgul isn't on his thrown as she approaches it. But then, the room got dark with a tint of green as Helm Hammerhead finally shows his face.

"So," he says while pulling out his signature warhammer, "you've made it this far. Tell me, what is it that you hope to gain? Power? Revenge? Domination? Whatever you plan to do, you are loosing yourself closer to a dark and forbidden place deep in your soul." Helm Hammerhand preps his weapon "Allow me to put you out of your misery. Once that is done, you will become a new ringwraith that will serve Lord Sauron once he arrives on this new world."

Salem just lunges at the Nazgul and uses her ring. But instead of trying to dominate him, she absorbs whatever there is left of Helm Hammerhand's soul into her gauntlet with his ring's power transfer to her own ring. The ring the Nazgul had gets shattered into metal pieces as he disappears and the shadows dissipate. Salem has become victorious as some of the Uruks that were ready to ambush her come out and bow to their new dark mistress. In the end, the Slaughter Tribe get to keep their fortress yet get a new overlord.

After the battle and declaring the entire Seregost Region (along with doing the same thing that you do in Shadow of War when a fortress is conquered), she made her way back to her tower deep below to look at the Abyss. She raises her gauntlet hand and started to use the soul of Helm Hammerhead in her gauntlet. With it, she created her own Wraith Reaper from his very soul.

Salem smiles as she shows the warhammer, "Welcome back, Helm Hammerhead. This time, you are my wraith."

The reaper form of the former Nazgul takes the warhammer from Salem.

Gnarl approaches Salem. "Mistress." he says, "I've located the last Minion Hive. The Red Minion Hive. Over at what is called, the Gorgoroth Region. A fitting place for our lost Reds. A dark, fiery hellhole for all manners of dastardly monsters. Yet that area is controlled by the Witch-King himself and members of the Mystic Tribe. However, I did found out that there is some sort of small armed forces heading back towards your small kingdom in the Exiled Lands. Yet I also detect another Uruk tribe to the eastern desert, the Marauder Tribe. Along with some human mercenaries." Gnarl then starts to smile, "And lots and lots of gold!"

Back over at the Exiled Lands, Nonan and a few of his fellow followers through the sands and almost made it to the Land of Exiles. He and his remaining comrades cross the blistering sands to return home when they found out that Caesar's Legion have claimed the Scorched Earth area. They took whatever they had left with resources dwindling by the day before reaching home.

However, they got ambushed when they approach what used to be the ghost fence (or cursed wall) that is no longer in service. Some of Salem's thralls ambush Nonan's remaining forces with demon-fire barrages in front of them. Some of Nonan's remaining forces use what is left of their water orbs to put the fires out along with some of the water in the morellatopses before they get killed off by greater shalebacks and some archers that were hiding in the sands. When the barrages and arrows stopped, Nonan and his forces have surrendered. They all dropped to their knees and raise their hands over their heads.

Arthur Watts approach the defeated warrior with two serpentmen thralls by his side as bodyguards. "What do we have here?" he asks with a smile. "Looks like I'll be working over time again."

Tyrian went ahead and scout out the Gorgoroth Region to investigate the region. It is a dark and fiery region like Gnarl said yet kept his distance because he spots members of the Mystic Tribe and the Machine Tribe working together. Members of the Machine Tribe seem to be digging deep into the ground, creating a big hole close to a lava flow. Members of the Mystic Tribe seem to try to get ready for a ritual while being led by a necromancer name, Zog. They seem to be planning something with the Nazgul, Isildur, looking over the operation.

Tyrian does his signature creepy smile before pulling out his crystal ball report what he is seeing. "My Lady." he says to the ball, "I have found something interesting."

Back at the Nurn Region, Tock enjoys her time fishing at the Sea of Nurnen to get away from the cold and snowy Seregost. She waits patiently for a fish to bite while enjoying the rays of the sun.

Then Adam shows up with his own rod, "Mind if I join you?"

Tock looks at Adam and smiles, "Not at all."

Adam sits next to Tock a few inches away and throws his line out into the sea (or lake depending on how you look at it).

"So how's the plan going?" Tock asks.

"The Albain Brothers are heading back to do some work on the hornet craft in order to accommodate the weight of all six of us."

"But what about a second craft? Could they find another one of those hornets?"

"They would try, but it is rare in these parts. Advance technology like that is hard to come by so we have to make do with what we've got."

"I really think we should leave right now." Tock looks a little worried.

"Not yet." Adam says in a reassured voice. "We need to wait until Salem's guard is down. Once that happens, we will get out and head towards the ruins."

"If you say so." Tock is a bit unsure about the whole thing but has to go with it. "But what about the Belladonna's? Didn't you say you had a history with them?"

"I did."

Tock looks at Adam, "But what are you gonna do when you meet them."

"Well I have-" Before Adam can finish, he got a bite. "Hold on!" Adam does his best to reel it in as he struggles to catch the fish. He keeps on gripping the rod tight as he yells along with getting the fish to surface. "Got it!"

The fish he caught...isn't really all that good looking. The thing has black scales and a skull-looking face with some sort of beak and making a howling noise. Seeing how disgusting it is, he tossed it back into the water. Right before they get attacked by the Watcher. Tock and Adam just drop their rods and retreat back inland to avoid the black, multi-tentacled monster with a strange face on it as it tries to get its next meal.

"Keep running!" Adam shouts as he and Tock run further away from the large creature.

Tock tripped on a rock before Adam got her on her feet again. Then the creature went back into the water to stay hydrated. Both of them try to catch their breath as they see the creature returning back into the water.

Adam proclaimed, "I hate this place."

"We need to get out as soon as we can."

Now, for comedy. Featuring Team SSSN and after watching the clip from Penny. Oh and it is Goosh Goosh not Gush Gush, my bad on the spelling.

Three of the members were screaming with Scarlet sitting on the couch with blood streaming down his cheeks and a horrified expression.

Sun is rolling on the floor covering his eyes screaming, "OH GOD I'M BLIND!"

Sage screams out with blood coming out of his eyes, "IT'S NOT THERE ANYMORE BUT I CAN STILL SEE IT!"

Neptune is sitting facing the corner while rocking back and forth, "Mommy! Please help me! I want my childhood back! I don't want to be an adult anymore! Please make the image go away!" Then starts sobbing uncontrollably.

Penny looks at the mess she has made and says, "Maybe I should stop showing this to everyone. I think I can figure it out on my own." Then she looks at the laptop and tries to erase the video and discovers a new video called, 2 girls and 1 cup. "What's this one?" Then watches the video with Team SSSN.

One video later.

All four members of Team SSSN are sitting on their couch with the same blood tear eyes yet look like they are completely traumatized. Penny just takes the laptop and makes a note while Team SSSN are stupified...and hopefully not dead.

At a guard tower, Carolina looks out into the lands beyond the safety of the walls and defenses in order to keep an eye out for trouble. Everything is quiet as she looks out over the horizon and she enjoys it. No zombies of any kind, no skeletal dinos in sight, and no sign of anything that is considered a threat. But that is when Church appears...Epsilon Church.

"Hey, you got a sec?"

Carolina looks at the little hologram of her AI companion. "Sure."

"Well, I've been doing some numbers and probabilities on how to get out of this bizarre rock we're in. While doing so, I detected some sort of communication frequency and some form of teleportation energy. The energy trace is faint but they seem to be from the same origin point. Plus I did found away to turn off the security systems that prevents us from leaving yet will disable all of our teleporters. But I did found away to get one of those portal gates to open where we need to be. Plus with Raven's portal ability-"

"Stop." Carolina stops Epsilon. "Can it wait?"

"Why, what's the matter?"

"Well one, can it wait until after Halloween and Ruby's birthday? Because we need it as a morale booster since Penny Polendina is testing a few videos to psychologically torture anyone that maybe an enemy."

"Jesus fucking Christ. Why Ironwood think it is a good idea, I will never understand. And I don't think that testing them on us is a good idea either."

"Agree. Second, your condition."

"I'll be fine." Epsilon reassures Carolina. "As long as we don't run the equipment all at once, I'll be golden. Unless we come across some high-end technological security system that might erase one of the fragments."

"That's...oddly specific."

"Yeah, but it is a fact. But is there a third?"

"Third, we have to protect this place until the end of Halloween. If this is some sort of holiday event, then it should end when the holiday has passed."

"For that, I have to agree. But we should tell the General about our idea."

"Got it."

Night has fallen over at one of Salem's fortresses in the Seregost Region as she sits upon a throne while waiting for any news. But then an Uruk dressed in Butcher Tribe Warchief attire came in.

"My Mistress. We found something." The Uruk pulls a chain he is holding and drags in a very peculiar creature that is skin and bone with nasty looks about it. "We found this thing here skulking about."

"Bring it."

The Uruk pulls the creature close to Salem as it chokes, "Gollum! Gollum!" Then tosses the creature close to Salem.

The creature looks at Salem with its blue-gray eyes. He looks frustrated while going, "Where is the Precious!? Wheres is it!?" The creature gives off a very hostile personality towards everyone around them.

"What do you mean?" Salem questions.

Then the creature switches personality and sounds a little more gentle and frightened, "The Precious. Our birthday present." Then switches personality and looks away, "Shut it! Don't tell it anything, Precious." Then switches to the nicer personality, "But maybe she can help us! Find the Precious yes!" "Shut up! It may take the Precious for itself!" "But maybe she may help." "NO." "YES." "NO!" "YES!"

"Interesting." Salem says while gazing at the creature. "Two different personalities." She leans forward from her throne with her fingers gripping the armchairs. "Who are you?"

The creature looks at her gauntlet hand and sees the ring. The nicer personality shouts, "THE PRECIOUS!" He points at the ring, "THE PRECIOUS THE PRECIOUS THE PRECIOUS!" Then changes personality, "Give it back to us! It is ours! Gollum! Gollum!"

Salem raises her gauntlet hand which causes some Grimm-like tentacles to appear. The creature stands there terrified while being surrounded.

"I actually like this creature." Salem says with a smirk. "I could use a new pet."

BICORN: Progression of Project: ARES Phase 3: 45%

Progression of Project: PHOENIX: On hold

Should we worry about the Project: PHOENIX subjects finding a way to get here?

ADMIN: Not to worry.

?

ADMIN: I have a new Project in the works when it does happen.