Chapter 11: The Dark Knight Rises
Everything had gone according to plan. The gullible boy had sworn himself to him, Nabe had acknowledged that she had been acting like an idiot, they had acquired a mine from which his undead workers had already mined out 40 pounds worth of steel, there were no incidents on the trip back to E-Rantel, Hamsuke had been registered with the adventurers guild, and Momon had a good start to his career as an adventurer. So if everything had worked out, you might be asking yourself why the hell Momon, Nabe, and Hamsuke ended up hiding in an alleyway while guards were running all over the city and people were screaming?
Momon entered the Bareare Pharmacy with Nabe and Nfirea's grandmother, Lizzie Bareare. It was clear to Momon that something was wrong the moment the entered the building. It was dark and quiet even though Nfirea and the Swords of Darkness should've been waiting here for them.
"Nfirea! Nfirea!" the old woman called out. "Where is that boy?"
"Be quiet," Momon ordered, his tone making Lizzie realize something was wrong. Nabe placed her hand on the handle of her blade as Momon drew one of the blades from his back. As quietly as they could, they creeped into the next room. There was blood everywhere. The corpses of the Swords of Darkness were strewn about on the floor. As he approached the corpses, they started to get up. Anyone else might've thought that they were alive, but anyone wouldn't have been able to sense their lack of a heartbeat, and that could mean only one thing.
"Zombies," Momon muttered as he thrust his sword, slicing through all three of the walking dead with a single stroke. The ability to use [Raise Dead] required being adept with 3rd-Tier Magic. This was important for sure, but they needed more information. "Nabe, check the corpses. We need to find out what happened here," he ordered. He and Nabe examined the corpses while Lizzie ran around the house screaming for Nfirea. Ninya had taken the most beating and was also the only one that hadn't been turned into a Lesser Zombie. One thing they noticed was that their Adventurers' Plates had been taken, most likely as trophies. Momon sniffed the air and, with his vampiric senses, identified the scent of female perspiration, and it wasn't Ninya's. Suddenly, Lizzie burst back into the room.
"Nfirea is gone! My grandson is gone!" she cried, clearly hysterical.
"Yes and since his body isn't here it stands to reason that he was kidnapped," Momon stated calmly. Lizzie, who wasn't happy with Momon's calm demeanor, turned her attention to the corpses. Momon wasn't showing it, but on the inside he was absolutely furious. He didn't care about the Swords of Darkness, but he was furious about Nfirea.
After all the work I put in to get him on my side, some BITCH just comes in and TAKES HIM!? Oh, heads are gonna roll! TONIGHT is the NIGHT that BITCHES DIE!
"Were these your friends?" she asked sympathetically.
"We were associates who took a job together, but not friends. No," Momon said coldly.
"Oh…. I see," Lizzie wasn't quite sure how to respond to such coldness. She then turned her gaze to the words written in blood near Ninya's body. "Sewers 2-8? What does this mean!? Has Nfirea been taken into the sewers?"
"No, it is a red herring. A trick," Momon declared. "They didn't bother to hide the bodies and instead they used 3rd –Tier-Magic to create the zombies. A Necromancer was involved in addition to the woman. They either don't care about being exposed or were confident in their ability to escape. My guess is that they wanted to utilize Nfirea's ability to achieve some goal and that's why they took him."
"Wh-what do we do?" Lizzie stammered.
"I don't have to do anything. You should think about hiring an adventurer capable of taking care of this problem," Momon said, drawing out the "I" and the "You". "You are quite fortunate Lizzie, before you stands the strongest adventurer in the city and the only one capable of bringing the boy back alive." It finally dawned on Lizzie what Momon was saying. "My price will be steep, seeing as I know how difficult a task this will be," he continued on coldly. Lizzie knew he was strong so there was no argument. He had tamed the Wise King of the Forest, created the [Blood of God] potion, and she had seen the way he killed those zombies as if it was child's play.
"How much? How much do you want?" she demanded grumpily. Momon hid his evil grin under his helmet.
"Everything," he said clearly. As he said that, Lizzie thought she saw two red lights shine brightly through his helmet for a moment. "I want your everything." Lizzie backed away as she felt like she was being frozen by this man's cold, lifeless heart (little did she know).
"You don't want money or potions," she spat. "I used to hear stories when I was a little girl about how the devil would grant any wish in exchange for a human's soul. Is that what you are? Are you the devil?" Momon slightly lifted his helmet to show his mouth and upper lip. He wasn't using his Momon face or even his usual face as Lucifer Dracul. He was giving Lizzie a glimpse of his true face. Much like how Shaltear had her True Form, Lucifer had his own as well. Lizzie was horrified. His skin was like a window into the deepest, darkest pit of hell. Glaring, soulless eyes, mouths filled with sharp teeth, and grotesque faces that either seemed grinning psychotically or looked like they were suffering unimaginable pain. Tendrils moved about like they lives of their own and there was horrible fanged grin.
"Does it matter?" came a terrifying voice. As this…. Monster among monsters opened its mouth, there were other sound coming out, quieter than that voice dripping with malice, but still clear enough to be heard. There were the sounds dogs barking, but Lizzie had never heard dogs that sounded so evil, as well demonic laughter and worst of all: the sound of a million souls crying out in never-ending agony. Even Nabe looked terrified. After what seemed like an eternity, Momon put his helmet back on and the noises were silenced. By this point, Lizzie had turned as white as a corpse.
"A-anything. Anything for Nfirea," was all she managed to say before she fainted.
"That was fun," Momon said with a chuckle as he turned to Nabe. "Wouldn't you agree Nabe?" Nabe, with her eyes wide having a haunted look to them, slowly nodded her head. After moving Lizzie's unconscious form out of the way, the two so-called adventurers cool laid out a map on a table. It was unlikely another player was involved in this mess, but Lucifer decided to air on the side of caution. Nabe, as ordered by her lord, used [False Cover], [Counter Detect], [Locate Object], [Clairvoyance], and [Crystal Screen]. Through the combination of these spells, they Nfirea wearing come crown that looked a spider web and surround by an army of the undead marching from the graveyard right towards E-Rantel.
"What are your orders my lord?" Nabe inquired. Momon grinned as plan quickly formed in his head.
"Follow my, lead."
And that's what brought them to their current situation. Momon had his arms crossed and was leaning against Hamsuke, Nabe was pacing, and Hamsuke just kind of sat there since there wasn't much space in the alleyway. Additionally, Momon had used illusion magic to make sure they weren't seen.
"My lord what exactly are we doing?" Nabe asked.
"That army of the undead is marching towards the city from the North," Momon said. "It will only be a matter of time before the guard are overwhelmed and the undead swarm the city. When they do, we will wait a few minutes, let the undead slaughter any residents they come across, and then when things seem hopeless we will join the battle and lead the counter-attack against the undead and become this city's heroes. I have ordered several Shadow Demons to keep an eye on what's going on at the E-Rantel Cemetery that they will alert me should the enemy move from that spot so there is a very small chance that they will escape while we play hero and, from what the Shadow Demons have told me, the enemy doesn't plan to move anytime soon."
"I understand my lord. Forgive this foolish one, but why do we not simply charge into battle right now?" Nabe asked.
"Although what is happening was not in my plans, it does work to our advantage for our ultimate goal. Although stopping a potential catastrophe before it happens will grant us exceptional praise and prestige, saving a city that's on the brink of destruction will gives us much more," Momon said in a cold voice. Gone was his false compassion for humanity. This was who really was, a cold, heartless, bitter man who, out of pure spite towards those he had once called his friends and the world he was born in, had decided to conquer the world and mold it into something that contradicted the moral values of his old world. They were silent a while longer. Eventually, thanks to his enhanced hearing, Momon heard people screaming over on the North side of the city. Still, he decided to wat a little longer, give the undead the chance kill some more guards and civilians. As the fighting reached the middle of the city, Momon mounted Hamsuke and Nabe started to run towards the Adventurer's Guild to acquire reinforcements. It was time for E-Rantel to meet their messiah.
The Captain of the Guard had been in bad situations before, but never anything like this. The guards who worked under him were good boys. They lacked combat experience, but they were brave and willing to their duty for the Re-Estize Kingdom. As a grizzled veteran of three wars with the Empire, his men took to calling him "Pops". They looked up to him, they depended on him, and tonight he had let so many of them down. How many? He didn't want to know so he stopped counting after 50. He and his men had been pushed back to the market district, the very center of E-Rantel, by hordes of the undead. For every one he cut down, three more took its place. They had set up barricades in an attempt to hold the back. Wagons, carts, stalls, trash, even the bodies of their fallen, they added everything they could to the barricade to the keep the monsters back and it still hadn't been enough. Skeletons eventually swarmed them and they now had their backs against the wall of the Mayor's home.
"Any ideas, Pops?" one of his remaining men called out as he forcefully stomped on a skull, crushing it.
"Here's one! Say your prayers to whatever gods you believe in, boys!" Pops roared at as he cut down another walking corpse with his sword. "You'll likely be seeing them soon since I don't see a way outta this one!"
"We'll all go together then!" one young man proclaimed as he whacked one of the undead with his mace.
"Hell yeah! I ain't going out like a bitch!" another one shouted as he bashed one of the creatures with his shield. Pops grinned, proud of his men for facing death like this. After another few minutes spent fighting endless waves of undead, they heard a roar and saw an approaching Skeleton Giant, which generally between level 15-20.
"It's been honor to serve with you men," he declared, expecting it to be the last thing he ever said. Suddenly, an unidentified furry object jumped over their heads and as it approached the ground, it turned in midair and started rolling over the horde, crushing them under its weight. It completely cleared out all the enemies that had crossed the barricade other than the Skeleton Giant. When the creature stopped rolling and stood up, a man in black armor, who only the gods know how he had hung onto the rolling beast much less survived, jumped down from it and unsheathed the two massive swords on his back. He jumped incredibly high and swung his swords at the Skeleton Giant with superhuman strength. Pops and his men couldn't see what happened as an enormous dust cloud covered the area when the two collided, but shortly they did hear loud noises like something had fallen. When the dust cleared, the dark warrior stood triumphantly with his swords at his sides, atop the Skeleton Giant's skull, which had been separated from the rest of its body which was currently in several pieces. The man jumped down from the skull to the front of the makeshift barricade.
"Hamsuke, take the left side of the barricade! You guards take the right side! I'll take the center! Move!" their savior commanded in a loud yet calm and commanding voice.
"You heard the man!" Pops shouted after deciding nothing good would come from arguing over who was in charge. The beast, who was now identified as Hamsuke, lashed out every creature it saw with its tail and smashed any that got too close with its paws. Pops and his men managed to hold the line and kill everything that came at them. Then there was the dark hero leading them. He was magnificent. Every single last goddamn monstrosity that got too close to him was blown apart be the sheer force at which he swung his blades. Nothing got past him. What Pops didn't know was that, because it was night, the hero's status as a Dracula granted him +15 to all his stats including his swordsmanship which, as a magic caster, was usually at 0. Suddenly, Pops felt movement behind him and spun around, worried the undead were going to attack from behind, but instead saw a small army of adventurers rushing to help turn the tide of battle while being led by a the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.
"Glad you could join us Nabe!" the dark hero shouted to the woman with a small laugh.
"Pleasure to be of service," was all she said before casting [Fly] and flying over the undead horde. Once she was in position she used another spell. "[Twin Maximize Magic: Chain Lightning]!" she shouted as a shower of sparks enveloped the monsters.
That's 3rd-Tier-Magic!
The other adventurers had caught up by now and rallied behind the dark hero. After another few minutes of defending the barricade, he cut down one more skeleton before pointing at the undead army with one of his massive swords.
"CHARGE!" he roared as he led the other adventurers over the barricade and into the horde. He was a whirlwind. Everything that got near him was obliterated as cut a swathe of death and destruction right through the middle of the horde. The rest of the adventurers attacked the few dozen who remained of the dark warrior had finished with them. Pops could only watch in amazement.
He must be stronger than Gazef Stronoff! He could easily kill everyone in the city without taking a scratch. Thank the gods he's on our side.
The dark hero mounted Hamsuke and sheathed one of his weapons so he could the beast's reigns in his left hand while his right hand continued its death grip on the other sword.
"Nabe and I are heading to the graveyard to kill the necromancer responsible for this!" he informed Pops. "Hold this position!" Pops grimaced. Going to the graveyard in this situation was like jumping out of the frying pan and into the fryer. But if anyone could the bucket of water that would put out that bitch of a fire, it was this man.
"Wait!" Pops called out. "You really saved our asses back there. Who are you?" The dark hero turned his head to look at Pops.
"I am Momon," he said proudly. Nothing more needed to be said and so he galloped off on Hamsuke, closely followed by Nabe. Pops turned to look at his men. They were tired and some were injured, but they were alive, grinning, and their eyes were full of determination.
"Remember this day well, boys," Pops said. "We just saw a hero- no, a legend in the making. The Dark Knight. The Slayer of Death itself. Momon."
Alright I'm done for the night. I meant to have a scene with Pandora's Actor and Jigsaw acting like a couple of maniacs but when I wrote it just didn't come out right. As usual...
HAIL AND KILL!