Chapter 290 The Sleeping Ones
A withered voice spoke up, speaking a dialect of Alcraynian long forgotten. “Why have you awakened us?” It rasped. “Have the Nilfan returned?” It questioned, its red primordial eyes weighed upon Malon with ancient wisdom. Even hollow as the voice was, it still carried with it a sense of dread that only something with overwhelming authority through sheer power could wield.
“Give the youngin some room to speak my old friend…” A thin and gnarled corpse said, wearing clothing a millenia out of date on its emancipated body. “Your aura is suffocating the poor fellow.”
The first one frowned and did its best to retract as much of its power as possible. “Have our descendents grown weak and complacent since last we walked the earth?” It asked of no one in particular with some disgust.
“Patience my friend. I’m sure we’ll get the story soon.” The second turned to Malon with questioning yet grandmotherly eyes. “Tell us young blood… Why have you woken us up from our sleep?”
Malong swallowed. For the first time in a long time he felt unsafe, as if he was surrounded by predators on all sides. The feeling only grew as more and more of the sleeping ones woke from their coffins and got out.
“I have t-terrible news.” He was surprised by the fact he stumbled over his words and took a second to right himself before continuing again, bowing a little to show his sincerity. “I have bad news ancestors. I’m sorry to inform you, but the city is on the brink of collapse. A wave of monsters has invaded, the size and likes of which has never been seen in recorded history. Not only here but in several border towns and cities all up and down the great wall. It is with great remorse that I woke you up from your well deserved rest in the hopes you would aid us.” He bowed even deeper now in the hopes of getting his sincere intentions through.
“Now now, no need for all that groveling. You are a city lord, have some pride!” The second said then hesitated. “You are the city lord… Correct?”
“Y-yes… I am.” Malon nodded, standing straight once more.
“PFT!” The first snarled. “This better not be a small wind blown up into a hurricane! Otherwise I will find it distasteful to have been woken up for no reason.” His eyes glaring into Malon.
The second patted the first on the shoulder. “We shall see old friend. We shall see.”
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General Sarja ordered the full retreat of the third wall. The roaches had already breached through several places and it was pointless now to stem the tide of destruction headed their way unless they moved back to the fourth and fifth walls. At the rate things were going, they wouldn’t be able to survive until general Alexia finally arrived with the much needed troops. In fact she was beginning to wonder if even the reinforcements would do anything in this situation. Not even the new land destroyer was able to stop the titanic monster from simply bulldozing its way through the many walls. It now lay shattered, barely even slowly down the horde of bugs and worse that swarmed into the once beautiful city.
“General Sarja! Orders from lord Malon! He asks you to make sure that those on this list are evacuated at all cost!” The messenger handed out the papers for Sarja to read.
Giving it a quick look over she frowned but accepted the orders from above. She turned to one of her aids and ordered her to find Devi. “Tell Devi she is dismissed effective immediately. She is to leave the city post haste. And while you are at it make sure we get anyone heavily injured out of the city as well.” She turned back to the messenger seeing as she was still there and waited for what other news was brought.
The messenger straightened her back. “I’m also to inform you that Malon has ordered that everyone retreat to the fifth and sixth wall. And that the mages are ready to unleash their spell!”
Sarja’s frown deepened, wondering why they were giving up an entire layer of wall without a fight. Especially considering there were still civilians to evacuate. She could only hope that whatever the reason, Malon had a good one.
With a deep sigh she nodded. “Fine…” She then turned to her fellow commanders and subordinates. “Pack it up! We’re retreating to the fifth and sixth wall! You have thirty minutes! Then the spell goes off!”
Everyone paled at that order and began to scramble all over the place. Picking things up and running with them to their new destination as fast as they could go. Soldiers left and right frantically moved gear around and set up traps and mines as quickly as they could. While the necromancers worked with what they could, using some of their own allies' corpses in the hopes of slowing down the roach swarm while they fled the wall.
“General! We have a problem!” One of the soldiers yelled, bringing forth a girl who was struggling against her and another soldier. Once in front of the general they flung the student in front of Sarja.
The general frowned, wondering what else was going wrong. “What is your name girl…”
The student hesitantly looked up. “Z-Zariel…”
“Well Zariel, you are not even a senior and yet here you are fighting the roaches? Did you not hear the warning I gave that any student still fighting will be dishonorably discharged?” Raising a brow and wondering if the girl had heard the news.
Zariel hesitated before giving a glare at the general. “I am Zariel Moroi Draculesti! I will not run from a fight! Even if it costs me my life!”
Sarja was just about to admonish the student when a chill ran down her spine as an old wither voice spoke from behind her. She turned, drawing her blade, ready to fight and froze at what she saw.
“Well said my descendant.” An emaciated corpse wearing out of date clothing said. “Though perhaps not wise considering the time and place. I see my bloodline at least has remained true and strong throughout all these years… It brings a smile to this old corpse…” Then gave a small chuckle.
Everyone froze, unable to move as waves of barely contained power wafted from the being that suddenly appeared amongst them. None dared to move for fear that they would simply die outright just from a simple gesture from this overpowering creature.
The being in general seemed not to pay them much mind and looked up at the spell and the titanic creature lumbering its way towards the heart of the city. It then turned its aged eyes to the general and the other soldiers. “New orders from your city lord… Abandon the city post haste. We old ones will take it from here…”
The corpse then slowly began to rise into the air on a silent wind, everyone staring up agape unsure of what to do.
With a lazy gesture as if it was reaching out towards the spell matrix in the sky, it motioned as if grabbing it then flexed its finger pointing them towards the titan. The spell flickered and sputtered before changing into a deep violent red so deep and bright it hurt the eyes to see. It then angled itself towards the titan…
General Sarja’s eyes widened when she realized what was going to happen next and began yelling at her troops. “DROP EVERYTHING! EVERYONE GET OUT OF THE CITY! MOVE! MOVE! MOVE!” She whipped her soldiers into a frenzy, abandoning everything they had in their hands as they scattered like chickens without heads, only following a sense of direction thanks in part to the general who kept them pointed where they needed to go.
Zariel was bodily grabbed and hulled away, alongside thousands of other injured. Weapons and equipment that couldn’t be easily carried were abandoned. Entire fortunes worth of materials left behind.
---
The corpse waited a few minutes to allow the youngins to flee. It was a little disappointed with how slow they were going, wondering if the training had laxed over the centuries. But then was reminded of its descendent and smile, glad that at least her bloodline was still strong in some ways.
After a while it felt like it waited long enough and began charging up the spell it now held control over. “These youngins, it's as if they never experienced a war before… Ah well… That is why we fought. To make it so that they didn’t have to die needlessly… Though they could have at least kept up with their training instead of relying on their toys.” Looking down on the land ship that was destroyed. “At least they improved spellcraft a bit. Is that a new magical spell matrix? It looks far more efficient than the ones we used to use back in the day.”
Admiring how technology at least seemed to have progressed while it was asleep. “How many thousands of years have I been asleep for I wonder?” It then shook its head. “Ah, no matter.” Shrugging with a yawn. “I’ll clean this up and go bad to bed.”
With a flick of its wrist the spell matrix began to supercharge creating a ball of dense magical energy at its center.
The titan though seemed to have taken notice of that and reared its head up and began to draw in the surrounding energy.
“Oh?”
With a blast it fired a beam of malevolent purple energy at the spell matrix in the sky.
But with another flick of the wrist from the corpse the spell matrix fired back with greater force. The two beams met in the air and clashed, sending waves of destruction destroying any building that was to close. Roaches and people were sent flying alongside debris flung up from the clash of the two beams.
But despite all its power the titan was slowly being pushed back until it was blasted by the bloody red beam. An explosion ensued, greatly injuring it. But it roared in rage and began to stampede forward, trying to look for whoever hurt it. A deep gash on the side of its body.
“Ho-Ho!” The corpse said out loud with some interest. “No wonder the youngins were having so much trouble with this one.” A small smirk playing on its lips.
“Will you stop playing around!” Another corpse demanded.
“Ah, there you are old friend. I was wondering when you would arrive.”
“Don’t give me that! I had to stay behind to help the others awaken and here you are playing without us!” The old friend complained.
The corpse chuckled. “Of course of course, you're right, I'm terribly sorry. Please, have a go at it.” Moving aside for the other corpse.
“Hmph!” Then turned to its thousands of friends behind it. “Let's show these youngins how a war is really waged!”
A hoarse cheer rose up as the army of old and ancient vampires flew through the skies and charged at the titan. Who by now sensing the power levels of its enemies was slowly beginning to regret every coming to this city.
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What happened after was an epic battle for the history books. Or at least it would have if it wasn’t so one sided… The titan barely lasted ten minutes before it was completely destroyed by the sleeping ones. And the clean up barely took twenty after that as the old vampires used their ancient magics to obliterate any roach in sight and even a few not in their sight…
By the end of it all about thirty percent of the city was destroyed. With about ninety percent of the people having been evacuated in time. The army though had the worst of it, as half of its forces were lost in the battle.
Slowly though everything began to go back to normal. Though there were a few eccentric old timey vampires now joining the streets…
Yet out of everything that happened. The story that got the most traction out of this nightmare was…
Where was Vanris Vransolis?
