Chương 88: Sancu's Game, Part 6
Whenever I opened a hole in the dome, zombies, ghouls, and mummies would rush in and I would close it quickly, only allowing a few dozen in at a time. Echo and L'Naan could handle those that I let in with Echo focusing on the ghouls and mummies while L'Naan focused on the zombies since she had also developed her own Dark Vision, so she could tell them apart.
For the first two hours, they were able to eliminate a few hundred from the horde, but only zombies, ghouls, and mummies. The physical attacking wraiths never invaded the dome, though the elemental ones continued to attack the dome, along with the liches and death knights. They were eating away at my mana reserves with every attack, but thankfully, I had a giant stockpile of mana crystals that I had built up over the years. If they wanted a battle of attrition, I had the advantage, which they seemed to realize after hour five.
The zombies, ghouls, and mummies retreated from the walls, and the attacks on the dome stopped for a time. Six hours... they still had six hours before daybreak which was more than enough time for them to come up with a new strategy. I knew better than to let down my guard, but Echo and L'Naan needed to rest since they could; they had been fighting nonstop for hours.
One, two, three... five hours passed. Echo and L'Naan meditated, trying to relieve their fatigue, and were nearly back to full strength. The assault came, and it was much more focused than it had been before. The elemental wraiths, tied to the Earth element, fused with the stone dome, ripping away my connection to the rock at the expense of their 'lives'.
They were able to create a giant hole in the dome, which allowed the horde to rush in at full force. To make matters worse, the physical wraiths rushed in from the opposite side. This was their final push, so I called out my Chaos Storm to blanket the inside of the stone dome.
There were so many rushing towards us that I did not hold back my storm, allowing the red lightning to crackle through the outside edge. Many of the wraiths were destroyed by the lightning, but those with physical bodies were able to resist it. The next layer they rushed through was a thick ring of violet fire which finished off any surviving wraiths and significantly slowed the zombies and ghouls while the mummies were the least affected. From there, I had to let Echo and L'Naan focus on killing whatever made it past my two lines of defenses while I focused on stopping the ranged attacks.
They were efficient, that was for sure. With their bows, every arrow found its way into the brain of a flaming zombie or ghoul, or the heart of the mummies. Nyka would weave in and out of the horde, freezing the occasional enemy, if they were not covered in fire. The problem was, despite barrels of arrows for them to use which Echo had stored away in her ring, there were simply too many coming for the bows to be enough to hold them back.
Within ten minutes, they were forced to abandon their bows and switch to their sword or bat'leth. Thankfully, their Weapon-Force was very strong and, with a sack of mana crystals at their waists, they could easily cut their way through the forces. Every attack would kill the undead in front of them, along with several of the surrounding undead. Their attacks did not end with those that they killed outright as many of the horde were maimed by the remaining energy, losing legs, arms, and even heads.
Like this, they were able to hold back the horde of basic undead. Although we were holding out mana wise, all three of us were consuming our Soul Power at a steady rate. L'Naan was the first to collapse, despite her stubbornness. I dragged her next to me and focused my Chaos Storm on the opening while leaving a small buffer around the inside of the entire dome. That turned out to be the best course of action as the elemental wraith charged in, firing their spells at Echo and me.
I ripped apart the spells with my storm and counterattacked the wraiths, but I had to stop attacking the remaining horde since my Soul Power was running out. Echo and Nyka were in a similar state, but managing as well as they could. Surprisingly, they managed to wipe out the zombies, ghouls, and mummies while I destroyed the wraiths without seeing a single lich or death knight.
[What are they waiting for?] Echo asked.
[They are wearing us down. Iseto did the same thing... It's probably to help control the collateral damage that I can cause if I lose control.] I replied while retracting my storm.
"How are you holding up?" Echo asked L'Naan.
"Tired, but I will manage," L'Naan huffed as the mana crystal in her hand was reduced to dust.
"Good because I don't think I'm going to be able to focus on protecting you," I replied grimly, looking at the marching two hundred strong army of death knights and liches which was led by a fancy death knight who was mounted on a skeletal horse.
"A Death Knight General; you truly are facing off against an Elder Lich," Ishu remarked.
"Where would the Elder Lich be?" I asked.
"At the back of the force, boosting the army," he replied.
The general drew a long silver saber from his waist and pointed it towards the sky. The death knights behind him all drew their bows while the liches raised their staves. With the drop of his saber, a hundred bone arrows and Yin arrows were fired simultaneously.
I dropped to my knee and slammed my hands down, creating a thick stone dome around the three of us. The impact came in the next moment and a large section of the front of the dome was blasted apart. Since I had been worried about that exact situation happening, I had retracted my mana as soon as the dome was formed which saved me from receiving a backlash; clearly, turtling up was not an option.
"I'm going to rush their ranks and take on the general. Support each other and don't take any of those attacks lightly," I warned.
"Heghlu'meH QaQ jajvam (Today is a good day to die)," L'Naan said, standing up.
"No one is dying today," I growled before I rushed forward, enhancing my speed with Lightning mana.
I created a few stone barriers as I ran forward, so that they would have places to hide as they approached the army. The death knights readied their bows again along with the liches and their staves, so I called out my Chaos Storm and melded with it before their attacks could land on me. I reformed in the air above the General and summoned a claymore from my ring. Using a gust of wind to further increase the speed of my descent, I slammed my claymore down at the General who parried with his saber. Despite negating some of the force, his arm bent heavily, and he was forced to use a second hand to hold back his weapon while his horse nearly buckled and shifted to the side.
He retreated a few steps while I landed on the ground. Instead of pressing my advantage against him, I turned my blade towards the surrounding death knights and launched a silver band of Weapon-Force which sliced through the first layer. Before I could take another swing, the General launched a band of black Weapon-Force at my back. Instead of countering the attack, I teleported myself into the rows of death knights, allowing the General's attack to crash into more of the death knights.
I sent another blade of Weapon-Force at half a dozen knights while casting a few bolts of Chaos Lightning behind me. After destroying ten of them, I teleported myself closer to the liches before they could react and repeated the process. Once I reached the ranks of the liches, my Weapon-Force blade could take out a dozen if I aimed it properly while I could take out another six with my Chaos Lightning before I teleported to another location. Within a few moments, I had thrown the army into chaos and taken down a quarter of their forces.
Through our connection, I could 'see' what Echo, L'Naan, and Nyka were doing. While I acted as a distraction, they rushed towards one of the ends of the rows of death knights. Nyka, hidden by her illusions, was the first to approach and she unleashed a gale of icy mana which, combined with my Chaos Storm, formed a sheet of ice over five death knights armors. L'Naan fired an arrow at short range which shattered a death knight's breastplate. Echo was right behind her attack with her sword poised and she stabbed out, piercing its crystal core.
L'Naan fired on another death knight, but before Echo could finish off that one, another death knight swung its bastard sword at her side. Charging her sword with Weapon-Force, Echo slashed her sword at its blade, causing the bastard sword to be thrown down to the ground. With savage grace, her sword rebounded upwards and slashed hard against the death knight's breastplate, shattering it. Echo grabbed out with her empty hand and snatched the crystal core out of its chest. She crushed it in her hand while L'Naan hit the core of the one that she had attacked before and destroyed it. While they took down the last two, Nyka frosted another dozen, and they continued their attacks.
They were making quick work of the death knights at their end, but unfortunately, they drew the attention of someone else. The Death Knight General had tried to chase after me, but after my third jump, he turned his attention to the trio. He sent a silent command through the army, splitting them to focus on me and the other half to focus on them.
Echo tried to react, but there were simply too many arrows pointed her way. She deflected a dozen with a swipe of Weapon-Force and dodged a few more, but four arrows pierced her body, though not in a vital spot. Gritting her teeth, she ignored the pain and kept deflecting the swords that she could while L'Naan supported her from behind.
[Keep fighting! I'm fine!]
I could sense her pain, but also her determination. Honoring her wishes, I kept to the backlines, but I stopped holding back my strength, not caring about the rapid usage of my Soul Power. I shredded my way through the liches while destroying their spells with my Chaos Storm. Quickly, I noticed that they were pulling back and bunching up around a specific lich that was slightly taller, and its robes were slightly nicer than the others. Calling out a second claymore, I rushed forward, teleporting myself past their spells, and unleashed a cross-slash of Weapon-Force which shattered all of the liches that threw themselves between the attack and the Elder Lich. Unfortunately, my attack did not reach him, and he was ready for me.
I was hit at point blank range with a black bolt of lightning. I wanted to scream out in pain, but could not as my whole body seized up in that moment. Instead of a burning feeling, an icy feeling spread through my muscles trying to hold me in place.
When a lich was destroyed, their death knight would vanish as well. My killing spree had wiped out most of the knights, but the General was still on the field since the Elder Lich was still 'alive'. He spurred his horse and charged, not at me, but rather, Echo. She was surrounded by five ice-covered knights, which was the only reason why she was managing to hold on as the ice impeded their movements despite L'Naan's support.
Echo did not even notice the danger approaching her, but L'Naan did. She threw aside her bow, grabbing her bat'leth, and rushed forward. Just as the General raised his saber upwards, she knocked Echo aside and swung her bat'leth to meet the General's saber. A burnt sienna blade of Weapon-Force cut upwards while a black blade came crashing down. For a moment, it almost seemed like the burnt sienna blade would push through, but then, it shattered and black blade of Weapon-Force landed heavily on L'Naan, severing her arm at her shoulder.
L'Naan could not help but scream in pain as she fell backwards. Echo caught her and cradled her body, unsure of what to do. The General, with no sympathy, pulled back his saber and swung down, planning to kill the two of them with a single strike.
My body was rooted in place due to the Elder Lich's spell, but my mind was still active, so I saw what had happened. Despite the pain and coldness coursing through my body, trying to hold me in place, I could not let them be killed, I would not let them be killed!
An inhuman roar erupted from my mouth as silver scales started forming across my body. It was similar to my Dusa form, but more of a physical manifestation than the combination of Soul Power and mana. My wings and tail did not appear, nor did the crimson and black silk outfit, but I felt the same swell of power which broke the lich's curse on me.
Instead of lashing out at the Elder Lich, I teleported myself in front of Echo and L'Naan since the attack was already launched. I tried to use the claymores to block the black blade of Weapon-Force, but they were cut through with ease and the blow landed heavily on my chest. Blood splattered as the attack cut into me heavily, but it was not enough to kill me.
Despite the pain, I reshaped the remaining parts of the claymores into short swords and sent slash after slash of Weapon-Force at him. He deflected the first few, but this style emphasized speed versus strength, so the fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth crashed on his armor and shattered it. I did not even need to launch another blade of Weapon-Force as a bolt of crimson lightning fired from the Chaos Storm surrounding us and shattered his crystal core.
The other surrounding death knights did not last more than three strikes before their armor was shattered and I destroyed their cores with lightning from my storm. Blood was pouring from my wound along with my eyes, nose, ears, and mouth as I had greatly exceeded my reserves, but I stepped forward like an Angel of Death for the few remaining liches. I did not even bother with them directly, allowing my storm to lash out at the liches with my fury, leaving only the Elder Lich.
He threw another Yin-lightning spell at me, but my storm ate away at the majority of its strength, and I destroyed the remaining bit with a slash of Weapon-Force. A Yin arrow was fired, but I teleported to the side while the storm ate away at it before it could turn back at me, and I closed the distance between us. He raised his bone staff, but I slashed out with my blades and severed his boney arm before he could cast his spell.
I was on my last breath. My mana and Soul Power was exhausted, but I glared at the Elder Lich like he was my mortal enemy. He tried to build up his mana, but as soon as I felt it, the Chaos Storm attacked him relentlessly without my direction. He could not even put up a fight against the onslaught, and was destroyed within a few minutes. I collapsed to my knees, catching myself with my hands, and gasped heavily, feeling my consciousness waning.
I wanted to collapse, but I knew that there were more important things that I cared about. I turned and crawled my way towards Echo and L'Naan. Thankfully, Ishu appeared at their side and dragged L'Naan towards me, understanding my desire. She was already unconscious from the shock of losing her arm, but she was still bleeding out, so I pressed my hands against her, channeling every ounce of mana that I had left in me into L'Naan to stop her bleeding, ignoring my own wounds.
Blackness closed within my vision along with my mind. I wanted to tell Echo that I loved her, but I was not even sure the thought fully formed before I passed out...
~~~~~~~~~~
Over eighty years, Katye sat in this prison. She had not eaten which meant that she did not need to expel waste, thankfully. Her only moments of break were when she broke a level of the seal that bound her to this place. Things had seemed simple for Rebecca and the others as she did all of the work to keep the undead horde away from the others by the pictures that Katye would get to see, so she kept working.
The seventh seal broke, and Katye's eyes opened. Pictures displayed across the walls, but they were not something that she was expecting. Echo had been hit by multiple arrows, L'Naan had her arm cut from her body, and Rebecca's heart was showing from the cut across her chest.
Despite the years between the last time that she had embraced her loved ones, she could see the danger that they were in, and she rushed at the button. Instead of finding herself back on Voyager as she had imagined, she tumbled into a corridor of an unfamiliar ship. She was on Annorax's ship, but only a small sliver of her mana was being held back.
Before she could get her bearings, two Kremin stepped into the corridor, and they raised their weapons at her. Her eyes turned cold since she did not have time to waste on anyone foolish enough to stand in her way. With the flick of her fingers, two bolts of violet energy manifested over her shoulders and fire at the two Kremin before they could react. The bolts hit them in the chest, charring their uniforms, before they fell backwards, dead.
Casting her Superspeed spell, she rushed through the hallway, trusting her senses to guide her to the largest source of Time mana which she guessed would be the core of the ship. She was just a blur as she moved through the ship and found herself stopped outside a locked door. With no hesitation, she traced a dozen runes in the air then tapped them and next the door. The runes turned into a streak of violet and melded with the door. She snapped her fingers and the spell activated, ripping the door apart with twisting forces.
Alarms started blaring while she calmly stepped through the hole. There were five men in the room, but she thrusted her hand forward and fired multiple mana bolts at all of them. She held out a hand as she gathered a lot of mana and condensed it into a baseball-sized orb that almost seemed solid. Not worrying about the danger that it posed to her, she shot the ball at the temporal core, but instead of the giant explosion that she had been expecting, a transparent shield absorbed the attack.
She frowned, not sure what had happened, so she stepped over to one of the consoles. There was a dampening field protecting the core which could only be shut down from the Bridge, but Katye did not have the patience to find the Bridge and try to figure out how to shut it down properly. Instead, she decided to take a page from Rebecca's book and overcome the shield with brute strength. She transformed into her Dusa form and started drawing out a few hundred runes in a matter of moments.
Two dozen Kremin officers, armed with rifles, rushed into the room, but they were too late. Katye's spell was completed, and her body was cocooned by petals of pure mana. They tried to fire at her, but her Lotus Bloom spell protected her as Katye directed the attack, not at the core, but everything around it. If the shield was going to protect the core, then she would cut the core from the ship itself. A beam of pure mana cut through the ship like it was butter, and Katye carved out the temporal core before turning all of the remaining energy onto the core itself. There was no shielding protecting the core now, so when the beam of mana hit the core, an eruption of Time mana exploded outward engulfing her and the rest of the universe.
With a blink of her eyes, Katye found herself standing in Sick Bay, scanning a bio-bed...
A/N: Sorry for the second delay of the chapter. I got COVID on Tuesday and have been struggling all week to finish the chapter despite being forced to be off work. If that wasn't enough, today, on my first out of isolation, at 1am (my time) I got a call that my grandmother was dying. She passed away at 5:30am with my family all around her, but as you all can imagine, I'm devastated... I already had plans to drive to see my in-laws at the end of this week for the holidays, so I was going to take a break for the holidays since I've finished this mini arc. I should be back with the new year, but I can't promise anything right now because I'm in a very bad place right now. My grandmother all but raised me and it was completely unexpected, so I'm still trying to process my own emotions on this event. I'm not dropping the story, but I may need some time before I can truly get back to writing anything. Thank you for your understanding and patience, readers.
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