Chapter 143 - Continuing the Siege (Will still post the extra chap before the normal weekend one!)

Chapter 143 - Continuing the Siege

[One of the Infernal Crowns: Tilukt, Bringer of Plagues – has administered the map-wide miracle ‘Call to Arms’ on behalf of House Okt. All undead will experience 15% bonuses to all stats, and House Okt will receive an additional 3000 vampiric mercenary soldiers from planet Drushei in the Labyrinth.]

“WE’RE UNDER ATTACK!”

The vetteresie’s voice box was annihilated along with half his chest a moment later and the ground was ripped from out underneath him as a focused blast of chaotic energy rippled through the air and touched down directly to his left. Pieces of his green tinted armor were flung every which way as the vampires used the cover of night made a mad rush for the encampment further up the hill.

Snarl, bloodthirsty screeches and hundreds of glowing, light-blue eyes rushed up in a frenzied wave to meet the entrenched forces of The Cult of Elekir as House Okt made the first real move of the siege.

Trey groaned, coming to his senses and pushing Nothel, Rivia and Ezdeath off of him as the huge four-armed figure of Sithis stomped into the tent. The rather young abyssal devil folded his wings in on himself and he had to duck to enter, quickly backhanding a vampire rogue who attempted to slip in underneath his tail and sending the bloodied corpse spinning violently end over end to bounce along the ground with a snort.

“Trey, you need to get up. House Okt has somehow received reinforcements and they’re making a move.”

Trey rapidly blinked while frowning at his good friend, examining the smiling, dagger-like grin that was ever set there underneath the devil’s horns and reminded himself very much of the mask he always wore with ‘Aspect of the Devil.’ He yawned, nodded, and reflexively batted away a stray arrow with a spider limb that ripped out of his back before it came into contact with Rivia.

Now that… that made him mad.

He glanced down the priestess and made sure she was ok as she too began to wake up, internally sighing with relief as the clash of metal on metal outside started to grow higher in pitch. Then, admiring his new spidery appendage, he nodded and got up out of the bed. “Alright ladies, time to get up! Looks like the party has come to us.”

He gave each of them a kiss to wake up with, Nothel holding hers a particularly long time, and he ended with Ezdeath to ruffle her hair. “Keep the other two safe for me and escort them both through the battle.”

Ezdeath nodded drearily, putting her two bare feet on the tent’s floor and clasping the amulet around her chest to activate it as a myriad of lights encompassed her – instantaneously applying her hadean armor set and halberd as she stood. “It will be done.”

Leaving the tent with Sithis quickly following behind, Trey saw the two armies clashing on the field. The vampires were attacking from a single side and were utilizing their much greater numbers to try and overwhelm his forces, and had even risked the uphill battle they were currently losing to do this. The line of vetteresie holy warriors and Trey’s other allies were fighting valiantly to stave off the tide, but they were fighting a comparable sea of enemies that was numbering around 3700 compared to their number at less than three hundred. Yastiel stood alongside Lueth at the forefront of her heavily armored warriors to slash, hack and send out strings of chain lightning while intercepting magical attacks of enemies with holy barriers

However, if it hadn’t been for his demonic servants… the vetteresies would already have been long dead. Far overhead and out of the range of most enemy attacks, Boxamoth and Atharost were raining down fire in torrents of orange and reds that exploded to kill dozens of enemies with every large blast that lit up the night. Piggy, to his gawking amazement, was tearing through dozens of them at a time with her bare hands as the once-elf-now-demoness glowed green along swirling tattooed runes inked into her body and ripped through their weapons, armor and bodies with her bare hands like they were butter while laughing like a crazed woman. Napoleon was right along side her, a blurring black figure too small for most to make out before they were decapitated or burned alive in cursed flames. Julia was there too – in the midst of a sea of enemies, laughing with a giggle-fit as her warhammer crushed one enemy after the others. The wounds she sustained would quickly heal up as the vampires hissed, shrieked and launched themselves at her – only to find that any wounds they sustained were quickly drained as their blood was ripped out of them to fly towards the swirling orb of crimson liquid over Juila’s head. She was fighting alongside Ashe’s three hulking minotaurs in a way that reminded Trey of back in Teretog when he had minotaurs of his own, and Taen’s three hulking, even larger flesh golems (along with their smaller and more numerous zombie comrades) also contributed to aid her as Ashe and Taen all stayed in the backline to cast varieties of blasting dark and death magics.

Maltetious was nearby, and she in particular was able to contribute to the fireworks and solidify her status as a numen as bright lights of swirling storms and celestial fires tore into enemies by the many dozens. Her eyes glowed white and her hair along with her usual white Sunday dress shimmered with rippling power that left the oncoming vampires screaming and dissolving away into nothingness while plowing through the battlefield with a huge and beautiful claymore as tall as she was. Chris and Michael, her paladins, were on either side of her and blurred back and forth with ease in a combination of moves that were testaments to how often they fought together – often finishing one another’s opponents off in conjunction with combo attacks that could only be utilized by more than one person.

“There are so many of them…” A woman on Trey’s right said, and he turned to see it was the Japanese girl named Aiko that was one of Maltetious’ cronies. She was standing there, gawking with the African man named Itunu who he’d only met once or twice before.

He shrugged and gave the other two non-combat Earthborn a confident smile as he cleared his throat. “I wouldn’t worry about it too much. We’ll be fine. Sithis? Can you toss me that way?”

Trey summoned Talsh’Noc’Un in a flare of shadow magic as the sword hissed its excitement, runes pulsing, and he pointed over the edge of their defensive line and down the hill to where even more of the enemies were making that one-sided attack. He could see the commanders sitting in the backline even from here, and was relatively sure that’s where Lord and Lady Okt were now. “They’re oh so confident… So confident that they didn’t bother making a real plan and just marched everyone up the hill when they could have surrounded us and hit us all with a barrage. The idiots will pay for the mistake with their lives.”

Another explosion of Atharost’s flames sent dozens more of the vampires skyborne as burn crisps amidst the magically emphasized shouts and commands from Yastiel while her legionnaires responded to push back and reform the line.

Sithis gave him a skeptical, but amused look. “You want me to just… toss you over the army?”

“Yup!” Trey said confidently, smacking the amulet on his chest that still glowed swirling blues and reds within the gemstone of Dadik’s Heart. “I have… way, way more health, mana and stamina that I used to. I shouldn’t need too much help. But, you know what… It’s been a while since we fought side by side. How about you come with me? We can just dive bomb them and take out their leadership together!”

Sithis’ grin widened, and he let out a loud demonic laugh as his wings spread out to either side – and he gave a vigorous nod. “I’ve missed fighting alongside you, master. We used to be one, and I sometimes miss the days that we struggled together back in Oblivion. I would be honored to join you in slaughtering the leadership.”

A pang of sadness and regret coursed through Trey at that moment. He’d really been neglecting his relationships due to the quest in Zekul… and although he’d intended to make amends for it, he still couldn’t help but realize he’d really missed Sithis as well. He put a hand on the Devil’s shoulder, squeezed, and choked back the knot growing in his throat as he awkwardly stared at what was one of his best friends, and possibly even his very best friend. “We’re going to have a boy’s night out when all this calms down. Just you, me, Napoleon, Talshy, and Atharost. We’ll get high and drunk and have a jolly good time, you hear me!? We can even go bowling or something like that.”

“Isn’t bowling where you roll a ball down a court and try to knock pins over?”

“Yup!”

“It is fascinating what mortals find to be fun. However, I would highly enjoy the activity regardless of what it was as long as I got to crush Atharost’s attempts at winning!”

Trey chuckled, forgetting how Sithis and the ifrit had a kind of mano-e-mano competitive nature with one another. “Sounds good! Now hoist me, bitch!”

*CLANG-CLANG-BAP-BAP-BAP-BAP-BAP-BAP*

The sound of magically enhanced gatling guns began SCREECHING to life as Izumi’s mech crashed into view through the tents.

Trey’d seen it before, but not in action, and the way its body unfolded to create an even far larger creation than what he’d anticipated really gave him the shock of his life in that instance. It looked NOTHING like it had in its inert state. Jealousy again swept through him and he guffawed at the magnificence of the creation Izumi and Telipe had created together, swearing to himself that he’d get one of his own the next instant.

It was made from various steels, obsidian and had numerous runic symbols carved into had four spider-like legs to hold up the core of the body, each leg having thrusters that burned neon blue with mana crystals that could fluidly redirect the course of the mech on a dime’s edge. It had a humanoid center and two cockpits – one in the center of the body and one further up where the head should have been – were encased in enchanted glass and metal cases. Off the humanoid upper body two arms extending down ended in the gatling guns Trey now saw – blurring in their rotations and turning hot red from the heat as they emptied a barrage into hundreds of the enemies with barrier-piercing bullets and sprays of body parts. Two mounted sniper cannons on the back folded up and forward, the ones specifically controlled by Telipe, and were kicking out blooming explosions of blue fire that domed and burst into the thick of the crowded army with little more effort than it would take to squash a bug.  Thick purple plasma shields enveloped  the mech at various angles, interlocking with one another like plates or links in chainmail that shifted to condense in on one another when the mech or the pilots saw larger incoming return fire in the form of lightning bolts or blood magics.

“How did they manage to put all that together?” Trey asked, flabbergasted at the destruction of the mech, watching it step over Yastiel’s forces to the gasps of her men and stomp down onto the front lines of enemyes while its thrusters turned offensive and began letting out swaths of flames as it walked down the hill. “And can we make more of these?”

Sithis cackled, then gestured up to where Atharost was till raining down fire. “We’ll need to learn how to replicate that cube you bought Izumi in Teretog, it’s how they’re powering it and it’ll likely take a lot of research because of how complex the technology is – but after that, probably. Atharost and I did most of the heavy lifting for construction. To be fair though, Telipe was able to negate much of the weight through gravitational magic after talking to Taen on the theory he’d learned from Maltetious. The demihuman girl may actually be some kind of enchanting genius… at first when working with her she would always make the excuse that she needed others to channel through her, but that’s not entirely accurate. She was just scared that she’d mess up, and ever since Izumi became her friend and encouraged her to go the extra mile – Telipe has done wonderous things that even Alkir is impressed with. Now, off we go little runtling!”

“RUNTLING?!”

With that, the devil grabbed Trey’ by the arm, pumped his wings and launched them both into the dark, clouded sky.

The battle below them grew smaller as Sithis gained height and circled around, sharing a minion-master mind link with Trey as they both looked for Lord and Lady Okt.

Part of Trey wanted to head to the castle and secure the throne room now, but doing that may result in the unnecessary deaths of his allies or maybe even close friends just to get this even over with faster – so he dismissed the thought as soon as he had it. Not only that, but those electric towers were still in effect and he didn’t know how much of a punch they packed.

“There.” Trey pointed, his red eyes narrowing as the wind rushed them by. “There be the bitches now!”

Far below them and exactly where he thought they’d be were indeed Lord and Lady Okt. They were standing with a few of their more elite guards, along with their closer family members and a very prominently armored man Trey’d never seen before.

***

Lady Okt glowered at her husband, before turning to address the rather pompous idiot they’d summoned by the grace of Tilukt. Tilukt had certainly done them a favor by allowing them to use the call during an All Spirit event, but the person that’d answered that call was less than savory.

Jegrakus was a mercenary warlord from Drushei, a planet within the Labyrinth that had already been entirely conquered by the undead legions many millenia ago and was overly eager to expand his family’s influence outside their planet by partaking in this event. He’d had the credentials, the raw power, manpower, the skill, and the experience leading soldiers that Lady Okt had required. However, after only being here for less than two hours it was apparent that Jegrakus was going to be a very big problem if they did succeed in killing Eleknar’s Heir.

The seven-foot tall vampire was a pureblood, with bright red eyes and pale skin similar to that of Nothel after Lady Okt had regnozed the traitorous bitch when she’d walked in with Trey prior to the All Spirit event. He wore heavy, red plate mail armor with numerous black spikes protruding from the pauldrons and helmet – along with a long black cape swishing out behind him in the shockwaves of the magical blasts of battle. He carried a large battle axe that looked ridiculously heavy and was made of chisled stone, and his own personal guards carried themselves with similar attire.

“I expect a conference with your… numen… What was her name again?” Jegrakus said with a sour edge to his words as he glanced with disgust over the Okt coven like they were nothing more than worms. “Aktovan?”

Lord Okt nodded hesitantly, pressing out the wrinkles from his clothes and absentmindedly palming the sword hilt at his side. “Yes, her name is Aktovan.”

Jegrakus snorted in derision. “I see. Well as I am likely saving your pathetic city from the likes of a monster of legend, I’m sure taking her as my bride will be low on the list of demands I will have. She is not the first numen I have wed, so I am sure she will find herself more than accommodated to her needs.”

The outrageous difference in level from Jegrakus to the others kept everyone else’s mouths shut, even though the obvious sacrilege would have been met with bloody violence had anyone else said such a thing.

Lady Okt hesitantly glanced up the hill at the ongoing battle. True, they did have a massive numeric advantage – but that advantage was quickly being whittled away. Already the forces Jegrakus had brought with him from his home world had lost many hundreds with no end in sight, and in the meantime – the enemy had only suffered a few dozen at most. On top of that, Jegrakus had only brought frontline soldiers and offensive mages – completely lacking any kind of healing units and relying entirely on the healers House Okt already had, which were few in number. This meant the maimed were as good as counted dead as soon as the injury was sustained, while many of the holy warriors holding the hill were often injured and sent back into battle by their comrades.

There were also the more… prominent figures in the battle.

Lady Okt was frankly horrified by the sheer power and ferocity some of their enemies were showing up with. She had heard of Yastiel before, the mouthpiece of Agnude was famous for her battle prowess… but many of the others there were going toe to toe with her in keeping up the kill count. She didn’t know who the woman in the white dress wielding the claymore was, what in the seven hells that death machine was, or who the numerous demons scattered within the ranks of the enemy army were, but she was growing increasingly nervous after having taken the gamble at Jegrakus’ demands to strike them during the night from outside the safety of the fortress walls.

“So…” Jegrakus said skeptically, looking around the battlefield himself as he caught Lady Okt’s gaze. “Where is this Heir of Eleknar that the All Spirit kept talking about when getting here? I wish to use his hide as a comforter to sleep in.”

The level 409 pureblooded vampire made a show of spitting and grinding his spit into the dirt with a red plated boot to the laughter of his guards. “Demons need to know their place… The undead hordes will be victorious in this war across the eons. One day, they will serve our kind en masse… The forefathers have already seen it in their visions. For the glory of the undead realms.”

“FOR THE GLORY OF THE UNDEAD REALMS!” His guards chanted in unison.

Jegrakus looked about at them proudly, his chest puffing up in pride, when he jolted his gaze upwards upon a new sensation filling the air.

Lady Okt felt it too – the tingling of incredible amounts of mana forming overhead in the sky as something, or someone, plummeted down towards them through the clouds.

Her eyes went wide as the clouds of the heavens opened up to reveal a swirling ball of red and black chaos energy barreling down towards them like a comet of destruction. It grew bigger, faster, and more lethal as the power continued to build – and her mouth fell open in absolute shock when she saw who was in the middle of that energy field.

It was the traitorous Trey, being carried by a devil… but instead of the Trey she knew, it was a devilish version of himself with a wicked grin.

And he was coming right at her.