Chapter 49 - The Divine Wind

“You have to be fecking kidding me,” grumbled the Dark Overlord as he glared down at the contraption.  

“What was that,” asked TriBlade as Grebthar poked at the remains of the flying device.  The detection spell he perfected centuries ago leading to one terrible conclusion.    

“The false Mayor has a Precursor tricked into working with him,” said Grebthar.  

“And you tried for over a century to find one,” said TriBlade, causing Grebthar to wince.  “Perhaps we can explain to them that the Mayor they follow is false.”

“I do not believe she will agree,” said Grebthar.  “No, I have found other allies.”

TriBlade nodded, “Of course, and the forces you’ve gathered should be sufficient.”  There were countless thousands behind them now.  Each one seemingly tireless in their support of the true mayor.  TriBlade was impressed, to say the least.  

“The trick to building up a massive army was to hit all the small villages along the way,” said Grebthar.  TriBladed nodded, he wouldn’t have believed that even his lord could manage to gather so many troops.  It appeared that every single person they had encountered on the way here from Filly had joined the army and were even now marching.  Every able bodied adult, every youth, every grandparent and child wanted to fight for the mayor.  

 The great Western Wall was already growing in the distance.  Grebthar had personally ordered it built against an attack from the Dark Overlord, and now it stood against him and the hero’s that marched at his side.  The Dark Overlord was particularly cruel.

“We discussed this some time ago,” said TriBlade.  “I believe we can force our way through with sufficient cover from the top.”

“Good,” said Grebthar before pausing, “Discussed with whom?”

“Why Han So, of course.  He was always trying to ensure that your plans would go off successfully.  After hours of discussion, a simultaneous attack on the top and gate were the only way we thought it might be breached,” stated TriBlade.  “Where is Han So?”

Grebthar’s expression spoke volumes.  Han So was one of the first people Grebthar had discovered during his quest to defeat the Dark Overlord.  The powerful swordsmaster was supposed to be invincible in combat, and his sigil of a Snake eating its own tail was so prevalent that it had become the defacto symbol for those who claimed skill with a blade. 

“Perhaps Leia knows where he is,” said TriBlade, trying to change the subject.

“The Dark Overlord killed them both,” said Grebthar sadly.

TriBlade’s mighty hand trembled.  So many times had their group slain the Dark Overlord he had grown confident in the notion that they were invincible.  Han So and Leia, both slain.  No wonder the Mayor was so off his form.  It would take a true monster to feel nothing at the death of his best friend and lover.  

“Truely, this is a dark day,” said TriBlade.  “But we will avenge them.  Only the true Mayor can defeat the Dark Overlord.  Let us hope that this axiom is still true.”

Grebthar snorted.  

***

Julia realized that Jim chose well with Fenris.  He was independent enough, but when push came to shove he didn’t question anything Jim asked of him.  Unlike her chief servant.

“This isn’t secure,” said Ashe, watching everything all at once.  She wasn’t quite as bad as Jim, but it was a close thing.  Ashe had a point though; the top of the western gate fortress was just broad and flat.  

Most of the family and it seemed every archer of any degree of skill was up here.  There were advantages to being above your target, but the wall took it to extremes.  It was nearly 70 logs tall, by her estimation based on the number of stairs, and was enchanted to allow easier targeting of things below.  

“I could probably use a bow fairly well from up here,” said Ashe.  It was the kind of idle statement made by someone desperate to focus on anything else.  

Julia watched the dark army approach.  They looked like a storm ready to smash into the wall.  This was not like the stories where the proud heroine saved her people through the force of her personality.  It was going to be a bloodbath.    

“Well, I am a banner to my people, so I can’t really run and hide,” said Julia, straightening her spine and adjusting her magical weapon, which didn’t look ridiculous at all.   

SueLeeta ran past her, cradling Scorpow 2.0 in her hands.  That weapon looked positively amazing.  The kind of weapon that someone who was one of the companions of the Mayor should be wielding.  

Jim hadn’t fundamentally improved the firing mechanism, but what he did was more impressive.  He allowed SueLeeta to load up significantly larger ammunition.  The Ranger’s quiver was stuffed full of everything her stepdaughters could think of as a lethal implement.  Julia wondered how she talked the girls into doing that, until she realized who SueLeeta would be defending above all others.  

Sir Dalton stepped on top of the wall, looking like something right out of the storybooks.  He spoke briefly with the legendary Fillidlphia Badgington like they were old friends.  Ashe stared at her father as he spoke to several of the guards.  Rose and Batista both stood with their units, and Dalton beamed at both of them.  

A normal father might have tried to send his loved ones away, but not here.  This was going to be the season finale.  If they did not win here, there wasn’t going to be any place safe to retreat too.  

It was from the stories, she realized looking at the enchanted bulwarks designed to allow archers to fire accurately from even this high up.  There was even the spot where someone’s voice could be amplified across the entire field, where Grebthar called out the Dark Overlord for battle.  When she was a child, she dreamed of this nightmare. 

Her ‘niece and nephew’ were here now, with their honor guards.  There had been just enough time to get support from Windfall here.  This was virtually every adventurer in the whole world, excluding the elves whom were supposed to support Jim but hadn’t bothered to show up yet.  Still, there were hundreds of adventurers, all getting ready for her nightmare.  .   

The Windfallians were dealing with the news of the appearance of the Dark Overlord like champions.  They were in perfect formation below, with the Dashing Dandies in somehow even more perfect dress.  

The Falconian army behind them looked far less confident fighting the Dark Overlord.  Their oath was to the Falconian Union, and to Crest and King, but the first sentence of that Oath was to stand against the Dark Overlord.  They knew that they could be called for this battle their entire lives, and yet when it came they quailed.  

There was no doubt Jim was Mayor, of course it would have been nice if he was here because the enemy was preparing.  

***

“Killing the Sphinx was probably a bad idea,” thought Charles as he walked to the head of his army.  He managed to fuck this up badly.  There were too many regular undead and not enough champions.  

And now the dragon was too full to fly.  

TriBlade was looking at him, and Grebthar sighed.  No chance to avoid it, should have realized the problem earlier.  Well, what an army can’t manage I have spells for.

Grebthar walked to the head of the Army of the Dark Overlord.  The Divine Wind that shook the heavens.  The undead smelled, if one cared about breathing.  He did not, so he simply stopped breathing around them unless he had to talk.  

At least the formation looked large and impressive.  He never bothered to max out Great General, of course, but you did learn a thing or two over the centuries and there was a whole tree on the Undead.  A Hero was probably supposed to take the ‘defeat the undead’ portion of the tree, but Charles learned by the ninth time he killed the Dark Overlord forever that being a hero was stupid.  

He maxed out the entire undead section of the tree.  It made keeping the undead active a lot easier, and with magic he could raise so many more of them besides.  Better still, if he found any dead adventurers, he could convert them into undead champions capable of at least temporarily standing against adventures.  At any point in the combat, he could only directly command a few thousand undead, but as reserves were nice he recruited way more than strictly necessary.

By killing everyone, or raising the corpses of those killed by monsters, he managed to raise over thirty thousand undead.  Add in a sprinkling of dead adventurers and this might even work.  

Fecking overengineered wall.

Still, he had an image to maintain.  Sucking in a lungful of putrid, fly filled air, Charles  stared at the wall and began.

***

“I am Grebthar the Grebtharian, the rightful Mayor.  Open the gate and let me in, or I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll blow my way in.”

Julia nearly collapsed.  If ever in the history of the world had words been so perfectly crafted to shatter their morale, it was that phrase, known as the Wolf’s Lament for some reason.  

The effect on everyone was devastating, but it could have been worse.  Since everyone was warned by Sir Dalton, they all ‘knew’ that Grebthar was the Dark Overlord now so this revelation wasn’t the kind of shock to the soul it would have been.  It was just impossibly bad.  

Several archers did jump to their deaths from the tall wall, and the forces on the ground were openly weeping.  The Duke and Duchess and their royal guards looked shaken, and that was enough to worry her.  Her former Uncle had many flaws, but he was rock solid. 

The only thing that saved everyone, she thought, was the massive undisguised army of undead following him.  Such a mass of undead could only be here to kill everyone.  She was sure Grebthar could have come up with something to disguise his forces, but with so many divine classes on their side that would have amounted to nothing.  The power signatures of some of those undead were troubling though.  

Their average level was effectively pushing into the 30’s, with some of the undead showing up even higher and there were so many.  Lorraine told her of the battle Jim led against the undead and at the time it seemed impossible.  That army wasn’t a split compared to this.

Armies of thirty thousand just were not something that you actually saw on Ordinal.  The cost of leveling up so many soldiers to 30 was incredible, and she would know she just paid to have more equipment brought into Windfall to increase the effective level of multiple units of soldiers.  

The terror was increasing on her side, she realized.  That was too many, it was impossible to defeat a force of that size even with this many adventurers.  The world would die and all of her hopes would come to naught.  Her forces were going to break and run before they even got into the fight.  Someone needed to do something.

Then she noticed Fillidelphia Badgington smiling at her and giving her a thumbs up, like she was supposed to do something.  Because she was, Fenris was down below and she the only one who could speak for all the adventurers, for all of Falcon.  For the Mayor.  

Her Mayor.  

She stepped over to Grebthar’s spot, staring over the field of battle like he had in centuries past.  This was the spot, the sacred spot where Grebthar, Badgelor and Toomen stood against the Dark Overlord all those years ago.  

She was unworthy, but she was all they had.  Looking to her right, she spotted Ashe, nodding at her in support.  To her left, Sir Dalton glared fiercely down at the foe.  

‘I am a banner to my people,’ thought Julia as she held aloft her weapon and replied in the old way, the only way one could possibly reply to the wolf’s lament. “No! No! No! Not by the hairs on my … chinny chin chin.” Each chin she thrust out her weapon, showing all of Windfall that they would not be stopped, not by this asshole.

***

“Is that a golden…,” asked Grebthar examining her weapon.  “I hate this place.  “  

TriBlade looked at him oddly, and Charles realized how little he cared at this point.  

“Your orders,” asked TriBlade.

Grebthar drew Mojinir and held it aloft, “Prepare the gate attack, I’ll deal with the Falconians.”  Of course, they were a bit more prepared than he anticipated.  

You screwed up.  

“I’ll show them some real magic for once,” said Grebthar as he brought up his menus and started looking at spell configurations.  He wanted to melt off the top of the mountain, obliterate Jim, go all Bowser on the Princess.  

Normal stuff for a Dark Overlord.

***

“That is an impressive vortex of power, it looks like it will blot the sun,” said Sir Dalton casually.  “I assume you have a way of dealing with it?”

Julia rotated her head over to Dalton like a periscope.  Did she have a way to deal with it?  That was magic from the god of magic.  That was Grebthar.  It was outright impossible.  It would take the whole Royal family to stand up against…

Except every high level member of the family was here.  They were here in preparation for the fight with the Dark Overlord.  Most of them were on the wall with her at this very moment ready for this very battle. 

It had to be enough.  

“Everyone, Barriers,” yelled Julia.

“But that’s Grebthar,” whispered the Duchess, the most devout Grebtharian Julia knew. The Duchess was a cleric of Logan now and needed to get over her former beau, but it was hard.  Like the perfect ex, no one here was actually over Grebthar which was going to make this challenging.  She needed a symbol.  

I am a banner to my people.  

Julia immediately dismissed that terrible idea.  That level of arrogance would only get everyone pissed off and arguing.  She needed an uncontroversial symbol.  Likewise, Jim was named after a Curious Puppy and had managed to piss off the whole family, repeatedly.  She considered using her weapon as a symbol, it was after all more powerful than the Treasures of Rule.  

“No,” said Ashe.  

Princess Julia of Falcon needed something every single Falconian could get behind and push.  Then she spotted Fillidelphia and it struck her, for some reason.  

“For Badgelor,” screamed Julia, generating a massive barrier.  

***

“Oh that c…” began Grebthar.

“Language,” stated TriBlade, horrified.  Charles used a thread of mana to push TriBlade’s eye back into the socket.    

“Crazy woman,” said Grebthar.  He could hear everything she said because that was what the enchantment where she stood did.  He wanted to make sure everyone could hear him.  

The cheer that followed her declaration was enough to curdle his blood.  Everyone always loved Badgelor, because why wouldn’t they.  Badgelor got to do all the fun stuff, and was always there when you needed him to be.  And wouldn’t ever let you down.  And always saw the best parts of you even when you couldn’t. 

You’re going to have to kill him.

Growling, Charles continued to prepare a spell until TriBlade cleared his throat.

“What,” hissed the Dark Overlord.

“You could always just use the hammer,” said TriBlade.

“I am a god of Magic, I’m going to magic this open,” growled Grebthar, letting the hammer fall to the ground next to him.  

Charles focused, now was not the time.  He channeled his mana and finally forged a link to a ley line.  That wasn’t strictly necessary for power, but even with limitless mana his mana network had limits.

Summoning a fire node bypassed that problem because all mana fed into it converted into fire aspect mana.  That meant the fireball he was preparing was about to be the single most impressive fireball in the history of Ordinal.

***

The second sun glowed brightly over the battlefield and Fenris ordered the slit windows at the gate shut.  It was so bright you couldn't see anything anyway.  His honor guard stood at the fore, a half dozen adventurers that SueLeeta had found while scouting.  Dalton vouched for them, and they waited.    

Behind him the Dashing Dandies were arrayed like champions of lore.  Zorlando looked far more capable than the steely eyed mercenary commander Fenris first met.  Perhaps it was because he had more to lose now.  

AvaSophia and the children were back in Windfall now, preparing to hold the town in case the unimaginable happened.  He had promised her he would return, and Fenris intended to keep his word.  

“Now?” asked Zorlando.

“If we need Jim now, we don't stand a chance,” said Fenris softly.