Chapter Twenty-Six: The Storm Comes
Two weeks later, the armies of the coalition had finally converged in a plain just a mile away from Du Stenr Welden, the stone spires visible from their camps. Some of the most superstitious people though that was a sign that the gods favored them and that they should press forward toward Uru'Baen itself. The Dwarves boasted that it had been Helzvog himself, to destroy Dras-Leona, as he was the great god of Stone and thus it stood to reason that it was im who did that. On the other hands humans refused to believe that as they had their own god of Stone and thus religious debates could be heard every night around the campfire, well until Saphira threatened to roast everybody who spoke of any gods nearby her or her brethren, this proclamation was also supported by Firnen and Thorn who had just started to breathe fire and were very happy to show that off.
Currently Murtagh, Harry, Eragon, Aria and Roran were staying around a campfire, the three Dragons having gone hunting in the nearby plains. Murtagh was lying in the grass looking at the sky, finally at peace with himself because he had finally found his true name when Eragon, Harry and Roran had gone to rescue Katherine. Aria was sitting in Eragon's lap, talking with Eragon about her people and experiences during her time as the ambassador of the Elves. Harry was reading a worn book, while from time to time he looked upon the stars as if wanting to uncover a secret hidden in them. Roran was lying in the grass, on Murtagh's side, - exhausted from his training from Harry, to whip him into a formidable warrior.
What really bothered Harry was what he discovered a few days ago when he entered the astral realm of this universe, it was empty except for the life forms on the planet where Alagaesia was situated. That should be impossible unless some really powerful cataclysm happened or in the worst case scenario a being of untold power destroyed all life. The only problem with the second scenario would be that if a being was powerful enough to do that, then why stop in Alagaesia? The Omnipotent beings who created single Multi-verses, rarely interfered in the workings of the mortal races for there were rules that even them had to obey and they had more important things to do that micro-managing mortal races, so that an Originator would have stopped it wasn't a possibility so that would rule the second possibility out. So right now he was trying to understand what kind of cataclysm would have caused that much widespread destruction of all life forms, the cataclysm wasn't irreversible as he felt some life forms beginning to grow back in different part of that Universe but still it was a good riddle and he loved a good riddle.
They were interrupted from their thoughts when a large shadow flew overhead and everybody grabbed their weapons and the three Dragon Riders had spells at the tips of their tongues, well except Harry who continued to read his worn book. The moment they looked overhead they lowered their weapons as the recognized the gigantic frame of Glaedr, his metallic prosthesis softly glowing in the darkness of the night, with a faint silvery color. Before Glaedr could fully touch the ground, Oromis jumped from the Dragon's back and into the ground, with his newly returned elfic physical capacities.
"Greetings, young ones" greeted Oromis.
"Greetings, Ebrethil" said the three Dragon Riders at once.
"What's up, Old Man?" asked Hary finally lifting his head from his book.
"You should show respect to your elders" said Oromis chucking lightly.
"But then I wouldn't be Harry Potter, anymore" said Harry innocently.
"I suppose" said Oromis, sitting cross-legged near the campfire.
"Why didn't Glaedr tell us you would be coming here earlier?" asked Eragon.
"I need to keep you on your toes" replied Oromis.
"Meaning that you wanted to play a prank on us" said Harry.
"That is just a bonus" said Glaedr.
"Seriously, you guys must have learned by now not to start a prank war with me" said Harry raising an eyebrow, causing everybody's face to contort in horror at the memory of their own prank wars with Harry.
"It was meant for the others, we knew you would have sensed us, empathic and all that" defended Glaedr.
"Nice, save" commented Harry, back to reading his book "so what took you so long?"
"Rebellions" replied Oromis.
"I think that after the first two, they would have got it that rebellions against people that can take on a hundred men on their own, are kind of foolish" said Eragon.
"You'd be surprised at how charismatic Galbatorix can be when he is not in his demented state" said Murtagh.
"You forgot brilliant" said Harry.
"Unfortunately he is, I trust Harry has already broken through the illusions that Galbatorix's has cast upon his army" said Oromis.
"Yes a week ago, he is getting better, it had been a long time since I fought somebody so adaptable" commented Harry.
"We have seen his army, seventy thousand strong of which we suspect at least five thousand are of his near immortal warriors" said Aria.
"Meaning that our numerical superiority is useless against people who can't die unless they are stabbed in the brain or are decapitated" commented Murtagh.
"We do have a company especially designed to fight them" said Roran.
"That would be eight hundred against five thousand, kind of unfair" countered Murtagh.
"Numbers don't win a battle" replied Roran
"But they sure do help" replied Murtagh.
"You guys forgot one important fact" said Harry.
"What?" asked Murtagh.
"A single strike from Willbreaker or Lazarus and they're dead, magic spell or not" said Harry.
"And you can fight off five thousand immortal warriors?" asked Murtagh sarcastically.
"I have faced worse" replied Harry.
"Yeah, like what?" asked Murtagh sarcastically.
"Have I ever told you of this Demon Lord, Argus if I remember correctly, attempt of escaping his prison? No, well he brought two hundred thousand demon soldiers, I went against them and it suffices to say that none made it through" stated Harry calmly.
"Your powers are severely limited here" pointed out Eragon.
"True but still they'll rely too much on their immortality so they won't even try to doge Lazarus, not that that will matter much" said Harry making everybody cringe at the memory of the sickening noises that the bodies of Kulls made when hit by Lazarus.
"You're still one man, and some are bound to get through" commented Glaedr.
"True but eight hundred men armed with weapons that can kill them will be enough to clean up what escape my onslaught" replied Harry.
"That is enough for me" said Eragon and when he noticed the looks Roran was giving him, he added "when he says he'll do something he usually does no matter how crazy it may sound"
"So how did you do that?" asked Oromis pointing at the stone spires of the Du Stern Welden.
"What makes you think I did it?" asked Harry innocently.
"When impossible things happen, I'm inclined to believe it is your hand behind it" replied Oromis
"I have lost my touch then, if people discover my secrets so easily "said Harry.
Afterwards Harry began explaining the workings of the spell/ritual he performed in Dras-Leona and Oromis and Galedr became more and more amazed at the complexity of the spell and the way it was executed, after all it was the most complex spell/ritual since the Grey people gave the Ancient Language its properties.
The two armies were arrayed against each other in the massive plains right beside the newly christened Du Stern Welden in fact the right sides of the two armies could actually touch the stone spires by simply reaching for it with their hands. On one side stood the Imperial army, seventy thousand soldiers, twenty thousand on horseback the rest were infantry, their grey armors looking even duller in the dim light that penetrated through the blanket of clouds that covered the sky, - above them towering the various flags, decorated with the standards of the noble houses which had contributet with soldiers in the army. Among the grey sea of armors stood out a large group of soldiers wearing black armors and carrying the personal standards of Galbatorix's, they were the "Laughing Dead", Galbatorix's own personal forces,- soldiers that could only die by decapitation or massive organ damage.
On the other side of the plain stood the combined armies of the Vardens, Surdans, Dwarves and the Elves, plus a small contingent of were-cats but they were still in their cat forms. The Varden and Surdan soldiers wore the same armor colors and held the same banners, colored brown and gold, - as a show of the unification of human factions against Galbatorix's rule. The Dwarves armors colored, silver glinted even in the dim light of that day, fourteen spears carrying fourteen flags rose from their ranks. Thirteen flags held the standards of the thirteen clans and the fourteenth flag held the standard of the King of Dwarves, the king's standard stood ten centimeters taller than the clan's standars symbolizing the Kings final authority over all dwarves. The elves side on the other hand was multi-colored and only one color was the same, the brown color of their leather armor as very few elves chose to wear metallic armors as it impeded their agility from being used at its fullest. Only one flag came from the side of the elves and even it was nothing more than a branch of dried wood enchanted to serve as a spear of sorts, upon it stood the official standard of the elven kingdom and no noble families standards could be seen in their ranks, as a show of total respect and obedience toward their ruler.
None of the two armies had brought any siege engines because in a battle between multiple Dragon Riders of great power, they more of an encumbrance than any help, as you had to post at least a magician to protect them from magical attacks and a Dragon could easily skip past all soldiers and burn it down thus killing the magician posted there by draining his/her energy through attacking the wards. Of course against a single young Dragon, it was quite effective as you simply focused fire on the area where the Dragon was and one projectile was bound to hit it sooner or later but against four, it would be virtually impossible to even coming close to hitting one. Shruikan was far from young and Galbatorix had used magic to increase his growth rate and right now it was even large than Glaedr himself, thus no one brought any siege engines.
From the sky above them, the sound of a pair of massive wings beating came and the wings parted in a rush to reveal the titanic frame of Shruikan, sitting atop him stood Galbatorix, wearing a golden armor, though every experienced soldier on both armies, that it was a steel armor coated in a thin layer of gold for appearances sake. The gigantic Dragon neared further to the ground, enough to cause the flags to wave harder by the strong currents of winds generated by Shruikan's wings beating,- but still far enough for no arrow to reach him or any magical attack to be fully effective for that matter.
"Come on little Riders, I don't bite" taunted the voice of Galbatorix's reverberating through the entire plain, causing a part of the Imperial soldiers to laugh at his jibe.
"Why don't you come down here or are you afraid of four little Riders?" asked Eragon tauntingly using a similar method to make his voice heard through the entire plain.
"I just don't feel like touching the ground to talk with the little insects that call themselves kings and leaders when we are the true Kings, rulers of the everything we wish to" replied Galbatorix, his voice calm though the spell made it possible to be heard through the entire plain.
"Those insects have conquered half of your mighty Empire" said Eragon.
"No, their armies did, you did, but those who call themselves leaders have no power of their own" said Galbatorix's calmly "How do they even know that their thoughts are their own?"
"The can protect their minds, genius" replied Eragon.
"Don't make me laugh, we both know a skilled magician can break through mental defenses and make you his puppet without one even realizing it" said Gallbatorix laughing.
"Magicians aren't all the power hungry monsters you make them out to be" said Eragon.
"Some aren't but the majority are, hadn't I defeated the Dragon Riders and killed a great deal of the magicians of that era, the entire Alagaesia would have fallen to utter chaos as magician's fought each other for power and not even the old fools could have stopped them but if I makes you feel better keep believing fairytales" taunted Galbatorix.
"Whatever lets you sleep at night" said Eragon.
"Nice strategy, undermining the authority of the rulers and the credibility of all magicians but raising you prestige for later on" said Harry.
"A double edged blade, if we win" said Oromis.
"Not truly, he sowed discontent about magicians and whichever way this ends stability will be brought but magicians will be always subject to blind fear and harassment " said Harry "Brilliant if you ask me"
"He always was smart, a bit amoral during his training but bright, in fact there were talks that if he hadn't lost his Dragon in two or three hundred years Vrael would have stepped down in his favor" reminisced Oromis.
"So Vrael trained him personally didn't he?" asked Eragon.
"Yes, he did, we're lucky he wasn't patient enough to fully complete his training with Vrael" answered Oromis
"Very true and that would also explain why Vrael hesitated in the duel against them" said Murtagh shuddering at the though that Galbatorix would know how to absorb energy from his sorroundings or to use non-verbal magic.
"We should go" said Eragon.
"We'd be playing his game" commented Murtagh.
"If we don't people will say that we were only interested in fighting and not negotiating…" said Aria.
"Which will be a cause for further rebellions in the future" added Eragon completing Aria's reasoning.
"You two are kind of creepy when you do that" said Harry laughing.
"It's your fault" Eragon pointed out.
"True, I've created a monster" replied Harry laughing.
"So are we going to leave or not?" asked Oromis saddling Glaedr.
"Hell, yes, let's go talk with the crazy bastard" said Murtagh grinning as he saddled Thorn.
"Is that guy bipolar or what? One moment he is against it and all broody the next he is grinning and totally accepting it" asked Harry as he started levitating.
"I ask myself that all the time" replied Eragonas he saddled Saphira.
"Let's go" said Oromis as all the four Dragon Riders launched themselves into the air toward Shruikan's titanic frame.
"What are you terms?" asked Aria once all the five of them were at the same height as Galbatorix's and Shruikan.
"Unconditional surrender, the Elves, Surdan and Dwaves must join the rest of the Empire and stop this idiotic rebellion" said Galbatorix's calmly.
"Anything else, our souls perhaps?" asked Murtagh sarcastically.
"Murtagh, what a big surprise, ohh, wait it isn't "said Galbatorix's mockingly.
"What are you talking about?" asked Murtagh.
"Why did you think I kept you in Uru'Baen all those years?" asked Galbatorix "I saw in you the potential of a Dragon Rider"
"He is the son of another Dragon Rider and that coupled with his strong personality makes him a perfect candidate for one of the eggs to hatch for him" said Eragon "that isn't exactly hard to figure"
"Eragon, such a powerful name, even before the elves came to Alagaesia" said Galbatorix's "I guess I'll have to test the power of such a name today"
"You know, if you abdicate peacefully, we can avoid all the sensless bloodshed and go straight to the part where we win" said Harry with a bored tone.
"So you are supposed to be the Conqueror of Uru'Baen?" asked Galbatorix's.
"Nope my name is Harry Potter not Conqueror, however I did burn your palace a bit" said Harry with a shit-eating grin.
"You made me order a new throne" said Galbtorix with an annoyed tone.
"It was a bit old-fashioned" replied Harry grinning.
"I guess" said Galbatorix shrugging.
"So will you do it?" asked Harry.
"Do what?" asked Galbatorix innocently though from the glint in his eyes he knew exactly what.
"Abdicate, I mean" said Harry.
"Why should I do it?" asked Galbatorix's tauntingly.
"I don't know, so that a better form of rule can come along" answered Harry.
"You have guts alongside brains but still the five of you won't be enough to defeat me, it's a fact" said Galbatorix calmly.
"Because of the Eldunari you have, raw power isn't everything" said Oromis.
"Oromis, long time no see" said Galbatorix; in the same way one would great an old friend.
"You have grown more insane I see" said Oromis.
"It depends on your definition of insanity" replied Galbatorix.
"To define it into a single word, you" said Oromis.
"Then, yes, I'm a bit more insane" said Galbatorix laughing.
"No, shit Sherlock" said Harry.
"Watch your tongue child, when your betters are talking" snarled Galbatorix's.
"My betters, where" said Harry making a show of looking around for someone.
"By the end of the day, you'll know your betters child" said Galbatorix, back in his calmer demeanor.
"I do recognize them and still I don't see anyone who is my better here" said Harry as he approached Shruikan's eye.
"His wards won't allow any magic to be performed on him and this wards I won't give you a chance to bring them down" boasted Galbatorix.
"I don't want to cast any magic on him, I'm just seing if your insanity has seeped into him too" said Harry looking eyes with Shruikan and after a while he turned to his previous position and said "Yep, he is as insane as him, such a shame"
'I see you have come here to mock my vision of a better future" said Galbatorix.
"Which one, the one where everybody is your slave?" asked Eragon sarcastically.
"The one in which magicians aren't free to harm anyone they want just because fate decided they could access magic, one in which Elves don't get to act superior on any other race because they have more magicians or are immortal, where all races and beings have equal rights' said Galbatorix with such a passion that it left no doubt that he truly believed it.
"Even the Urgals?" asked Eragon.
"Even them, if I truly wanted them destroyed I could have destroyed them a long time ago, they are no Elves or Dwarves, they have the least magicians of all races and they would have been no match for me and Shruikan" explained Galbatorix.
"Still your rule sucked" said Murtagh.
"I was a bit busy" replied Galbatorix.
"Yes, controlling the Eldunari, that isn't exactly a great excuse" said Aria.
"What would you know elf, I was also cleaning up the mess made by your race" said Galbatorix's, disdain for the elves dripping from his voice.
"What do you mean?" asked Aria surprised at this information.
"You wouldn't understand, return to you allies and prepare to meet the end" said Galbatorix as he flew toward his army.
"A storm is coming" said Harry.
"I only hope that we will make it out of it, the same beings we were before it" said Oromis as he Galedr went toward the ground.
"The Laughing Dead", were the first to move as they went toward the elves, faster than any human being could run. Their special regiment, meant to specifically kill "The Laughing Dead" tried to intercept them but were stopped by Harry, which with a wave of his wand replaced the swords of eight hundred elves, with the violet-glowing swords of the special regiment. With the sound of waves crashing against a cliff, "the Laughing Dead" clashed against the elfic army momentarily pushing them back but the elves recovered and the special weapons that Harry transported to them were put to great use, though it wasn't the normal massacre because the new version of "The Laughing Dead" were almost as fast and strong as the elves themselves.
Next came the cavalry, though this time it was the Allies cavalry that moved intending to strike at the flanks of the army. The left flank of the Imperial army suffered devastating losses in the initial charge of the cavalry but the intervention of archers and cavalry moved from the center of the Imperial army, least they lost the left flank completely, - stopped their advance. The right flank was another matter altogether as the infantry, using their proximity with the stone spires maneuvered the cavalry into fighting in a closed space and thus the infantry had the upper hand as knights were dismounted from their horses and killed easily by the infantry.
The entire infantry of the Allies, not engaged already moved to help their cavalry; this move was mimicked by the Imperial army which wanted to further reduce the mobility of the enemy cavalry while the rest of their cavalry engaged in the left flank. Both armies clashed right next to the stone spires, many archers from both sides climbing them for a better shot at the enemy's forces, the fight quickly degenerating into a battle between archers, trying to kill each-other with arrows while also stopping the enemy's soldiers from climbing the spires and thus killing them.
Two hundred elves made it out of the lock with "the Laughing Dead", as Harry plunged in their ranks, swinging Lazarus around and cutting a swath into them. The Elves quickly joined the Allies cavalry which was by that time outnumbered and was slowly being decimated by the superior numbers of the Imperial cavalry and infantry. Their arrival was stealthy as they intended to neutralize the archers and succeeded into eliminating a large portion of them before they were noticed. The remaining archers focused their fire on the newly arrived elves, well they tried at least as fifty of them took the bows of the fallen Imperial archers and with the accuracy that their elfic nature gave them, they began killing the immobile human archers as they themselves run across the fields in a seemingly disorganized pattern, though they never got in each other's way. The rest of the elves, who weren't using arrows to cause mayhem quickly, took on the Imperial infantry and a few occasional knights, lifting the overwhelming pressure from the Allies cavalry blocked there.
Harry cut through the ranks of "the Laughing Dead" with ease, not as easy as he had foreseen but still easily for him. The elves were relieved of the pressure of holding back an army made of five thousands nigh-immortals by themselves. Ironically it were the elfic archers that had done the greatest damage in this battle and not the swordsman, with whom they prided themselves as making them the most formidable army. The elves had the advantage of nigh-perfect accuracy and "The Laughing Deads" learned that the hard way as their arrows pierced their brains thus killing them immediately. The sound of Lazarus connecting with flesh soon filled their own isolated pocket of the battle, as Harry's swings became faster and faster to the point where it seemed as it was raining broken human bodies.
From the Imperial army's rear, Shruikan rose with a defiant roar which was matched by the roar of four other Dragons as they took the skies. Internally laughing at the fact that he had now officially removed every advantage the so called coalition had, he urged Shruikan to head toward the center of the Du Stern Welden and the four Dragons followed him. The four Dragons unleashed their flaming breath at the same time, once they were near enough to Shruikan's form,- their four torrents merging into a single white torrent of flames that melted te stone spires nearby partially revealing what was left of the ruined building of Dras-Leona. Shruikan turned around and spit out a massive column of orange-colored fire that clashed against the white fire column forcing it into a stand still. That continued for at least ten minutes before the Dragons stopped spitting fire and broke their formation and started circling around Shruikan waiting for an opening.
Seeing a possibility, Galbatorix whispered a spell that casued the rock spires all around them in a hundred meters radius to be broken in smaller pieces and then propelled toward the four Dragons. As the four Dragons tried to avoid the rubble, Shruikan speed toward Galedr intending to split him in two with a strike of his claws but Galedr avoided it into the last moment, Oromis recovering from the surprise within a second used his sword to give a small cut into Shruikan's paw but Glaedr was still sent crashing into the ground by a blow of Shruikan's tail.
The wound didn't have the time to bled more than two drops of blood before it healed. The other three Dragons attacked Shruikan and forced it to move further away from Galedr, until Shruikan turned on them and began striking with lightening fast strikes of his claws. The three Dragons achived to dodge Shruikan's claws for a full two minutes before he finally managed to hit Firnen across the chest, ripping his armor, giving him three deep slashes across the chest and sending him crushin into the ground, breaking a few more stone spires. While Firnen was crashing through stone spires, - Glaedr had managed to flank Shruikan and proceeded to cover him in golden flames. Shruikan emerged from the flames with a few minor burns before he spit more of his fire toward Galedr who dodged the column of fire before joining the two young Dragons who were still airborne,- in their assault on Shruikan.
The battle had moved toward where the right flanks of the armies stood. The knights had abandoned their horses, the closed space making them an encumbrance, - and had began to fight on foot. The battle of archers was still going on though; it was right now tipping on the side of the alliance as a group of were-cats led by Grimmr had scaled the spires in their cat forms and had then proceeded to kill all the archers posted there. The spires had also become a fighting place for normal infantry as some of them were low enough that some soldiers made it up there and began to fight there and quickly the lower spires had been tinted red by the blood of soldiers on both sides dying on there, most of their bodies falling between the spires, slowly filling the empty space between them, allowing for more people to go up there.
The left flank had been masterfully maneuvered toward the tight space of the stone spire by Jormundur, forcing them to abandond their horses and thus giving the advantage to them as the elves had an even easier time cutting through the soldiers on foot while the elfic archers while firing slower now that they were so tightly interwined, though they still didn't miss a single shot. The fight against "The Laughing Deads" had degenerated into a stalemate as none of the two sides could cause enough damage, fast enough to the other side for them to be of any help against the other part of the enemy army. Harry' s attacks having been restricted as they had become to intertwined with the elves forcing Harry to switch back to Willbreaker least he harmed his own allies.
Shruikan was picking them apart, easily pushing them back; Saphira's body was covere in wounds, Thorn wasn't faring any beter as apart the dozens of claw wounds one of his legs had been broken by a swing of Shruikan's tail, Firnen's shoulder was ripped by the claw it he had taken in the beginning and while Aria had tried to heal it Galbatorix and Shruikan hadn't given them any time to do that, Glaedr was the one faring the best only having a few minor claw wounds. Shruikan was undwounded, don't get it wrong they had wounded him plenty of times but Galbatorix healed him immediately. Deciding he didn't have a choice, Eragon jumped from Saphira, using his elfic strength and magic, - to land on Shruikan's back.
As soon as he landed Galbatorix turned around and rushed at him with Vrangr in his hands. It was only his training with people like Eorr and Harry that enabled him to avoid the swipe Galbatorix sent toward him and lock their blades together. Eragon found that Galbatorix was even stronger than him, physically as he threw him away toward the ground and it was a quick use of the Du Blothr abr Andlat to transform into something Harry called a parachute that stopped him from becoming a red splatter on the remains of one of the buildings of Dras-Leona. He got up immediately to find Galbatorix waiting for him with a smile and in his hands Vrangr was dyed in blood as across the building laid the prone form of Oromis as he laid there dying.