The Origin Flames burst out of the Black Dragon's scales, neutralizing the mages' barrage of spells and Lith's Primordial Roar.
There was no point in winning if people stopped believing that he was a god and his Harbinger a hero. Winning wasn't enough anymore, he needed to inflict the Kingdom a crushing defeat to restore the loyalty of his followers.
Realizing that the battle was on the precipice of disaster, he took the kids' gloves off and resorted to his contingency plan.
While the Origin Flames shielded him from any kind of attack, Syrook activated one of his bloodline abilities, Nether Gate. A thick layer of darkness magic covered the city of Zeska, making every corpse inside its walls raise as a lesser undead.
The Black Dragon's power granted them part of his magical and combat skills, boosting their combat prowess close to that of sentient undead. Also, it allowed them to make use of the equipment that he had provided them with.
Syrook knew that, until Thrud made her move, he would be alone and that he needed to be able to stand on his own. Part of the weapons that he had collected from the Nestrar region had been used the equip the undead forces spread in the various cities.
"You have an army, but so do I." He said. "Yet while the strength of yours dwindles, mine will never falter or die. The dead will always outnumber the living just like mortals will always bow down to gods!"
The undead emerged from their graves, from the city morgue, and even from the butcher shops. They swarmed the streets, climbing the walls with ease and shielding the wounded Ranger with their bodies.
"What can I say." The Tiamat shrugged. "I couldn't agree more!"
Lith has used that time to conjure his Demons of the Darkness and to fill with mana the corpses that his soldiers had buried overnight so that the quickest souls to answer his call would possess them and become Demons of the Fallen.
The Black Dragon was amused, but not impressed.
He could see with Life Vision that the Demons of Darkness were weaker than those of the Fallen and that none of them could compare with the strength that proper equipment granted to his own undead.
What piqued his curiosity the most was the fact that every Demon had different features. They still retained part of the appearance they had back when they were alive yet the Demons also bore the scales, the upside-down wings, and the multiple eyes of their master.
"Show me what you can do, hatchling!" Syrook flapped his wings, charging at Lith while hurling a jet-stream of violet Origin Flames.
The Tiamat conjured a wall of earth to block the flames and another to intercept the Black Dragon, but neither succeeded.
Syrook noticed the mana with Life Vision and took to the sky while his bloodline ability, Dreadwing, turned the Origin Flames into a mass of darkness magic that passed through the earth wall before reverting them back.
Lith was caught by surprise and took the full hit before he could understand what had happened. The switch between world and elemental energy had been too fast for his Domination to follow.
Syrook didn't miss the opening and dived down from the sky to rain more fire against his helpless enemy. The Tiamat worked through the pain, taking a deep breath and releasing the Origin Flames from his whole body.
He used the explosion caused by the conflicting Flames as a cover to Blink to safety.
'I didn't want to do this, but I have no choice.' Lith thought, seeing that his army of mages and Demons were about to be overpowered by the undead.
On top of that, Quaron was using the reinforcements as meat shields to cover his advance and would soon reach Solus.
His black eye became violet as Lith shared its power with the Demons of Darkness. Their shadow bodies suddenly became ethereal and seeped inside the enchanted protections of their skeletal opponents.
Then, the Demons used Domination to overpower the blood core of their respective prey, replacing Syrook's energy signature with Lith's. Thanks to the black eye, the Demons claimed the mana of the Black Dragon and the corpses as their own.
The new Demons of the Fallen had not only doubled their original strength, but also gained free equipment.
"What have you done to my army!" Syrook screamed in outrage.
Lith ignored him, taking flight with his wings while the Dragon gave chase and threw at him tier five elemental spells non-stop, forcing Lith to Blink forward from time to time to dodge them.
They were too far away for Syrook to exploit the exit points, forcing him to Blink as well just to not fall behind.
'What's the point of this game of tag?' The Black Dragon wondered. 'If he wanted to escape, he would have opened a Steps. Sure, he can use Invigoration to restore his energy but so can I, making this a zero-sum game.'
The Tiamat flew higher and higher until he reached the eye of the thundercloud from which the Dragon had appeared, dissipating it to let the sun shine over the valley.
'That's it?' Syrook was flabbergasted by Lith seemingly wasting so much time and effort for little gain. 'Even a beginner Necromancer knows that lesser undead are unhindered by sunlight.
'Sure, direct exposure makes their blood cores last less but this battle is going to end way before that might matter.'
What he didn't know was that Lith's Demons were more similar to Abominations than to undead. Just like him, they would feed upon sunlight and warmth. Just like the shadows they were born from, the stronger the light, the darker they would get.
Without the thundercloud, the undead would grow weaker by the second whereas the Demons would grow stronger, turning the tide of the battle once again.
Down on the ground, the mages were forced to retreat. They had been sent to deal with a medium-sized city of regular citizens and were ill-prepared to fight an undead squadron.
The Skeletal Knights Syrook had animated were capable of employing several combat techniques that he had passed unto them and to use the first three tiers of darkness magic like true mages.
They were still mindless creatures following a script, but between their equipment and the complexity of the instructions they had received, the Knights were a force to be reckoned with.
The mages, instead, had already used their best spells against the Dragon and the traitorous Ranger. They needed to protect their injured, those who had already exhausted their mana, and needed time to cast new spells.
Only the Captains and a few Demons of the Fallen stood by Solus's side while she dealt with the waves of Knights and with Quaron at the same time.
'By my Mom, there's nothing of this in the script Lith left me.' To save mana, Solus fought using mostly hard-light constructs.
She could reshape them at will based on the circumstances and keeping a single tier five spell required much less energy than casting new ones.
Her shields kept the enemy at bay while letting in only one of them at a time.
"By the Great Mother!" Berion blurted when the treasury turned out to have been emptied as well. "What does this m-"
The dimensional sealing arrays had been activated again, cutting off the transmission.
"Excellent question." Lith thought out loud while putting everything in the office back as he had found it.
'I can get taking out all the weapons in preparation for the war, but why take the money as well?' Solus pondered.
'Aside from the muscle head that attacked me, no one used a decent artifact and even those he had were nothing much.' Lith replied. 'It doesn't make sense unless the nobles are planning to run away while the army invades.'
'I don't think so.' She said. 'If they wanted the gold they would have escaped before the army arrived and those weapons have no value for someone who isn't trained in using them.'
Too many things didn't add up. Now Lith had a clear understanding of the situation inside Zeska, yet he still couldn't find a way to connect all the dots.
He was still considering whether to find the nobles and interrogate them or get out of the city to give the Royals a full report when the decision was taken out of his hands.
A rainbow light flashed through the windows accompanied by the distant sound of multiple explosions. The colored fireballs were the convened signal meaning that Captain Estar needed Lith and that he had to get out of Zeska as soon as he could.
The sun was already low and there wasn't much time left before nightfall. Lith found a broom closet where to hide and waited for dark while using Demon Grasp to further refine his deep violet core.
Then, he opened a Spirit Warp Steps outside the city and then another to get back to his tent. This way, when Lith walked out the dimensional corridor, his second in command saw a common landscape on the other side.
"What's the matter, Captain? I was about to get some answers. This better be important."
"It is. Rudra has followed the messenger to Phresca and is waiting for your instruction. Quaron has to be there." He said.
"I can't break Zeska's siege on a maybe." Lith shook his head. "Give him the people he needs to keep an eye on all the city gates and have them look out for Quaron."
"But, I've already alerted the regiment and we are ready to mobilize at any time. If he's there, all we need to do is to take Phresca down and kill Quaron to take back the entire region!" Estar said.
"First, we are not sure he is actually there. The messenger might have just gone to the last known location. Second, even if Quaron is hiding in Phresca, he just needs to lower the arrays for a second to Warp away and slip past our forces." Lith replied.
"By staying here, we are cornering him. If he gets out of the city we will surround and kill him. If he keeps hiding, he'll lose the support of the people of the Nestrar region. Either way, we win.
"On top of that, I just discovered the presence of another player who manipulates the nobles of Zeska from the shadows. If the same is happening in all the other cities, then this is something bigger than just a traitorous Ranger."
"What do you mean?" Estar was flabbergasted.
"Just stay here and listen." Lith took out his army amulet and called Berion who in turn had the King join the conversation.
"At ease. There is no time for formalities." Meron said to his kneeling subjects, allowing them to stand up. "Major Verhen, tell me everything that you have discovered in Zeska."
Once Lith was done with his report, the King felt the need to sit down.
"I doubt that our enemy is an actual god, but they have gotten their hands on the best artifacts we had granted Zeska, if not on those of all the cities who are taking part in the rebellion." Meron said.
"Are you sure?" Berion asked.
"Judging by the tone of the conversation that Major Verhen overheard, it is clear that the nobles of the various cities are competing to gain the favor of this so-called god. It wouldn't surprise me if all the missing weapons and money have been handed to them." The King replied.
"Your Majesty, if you are right the forces assigned to Verhen might not be enough. If the enemy uses all the stolen weapons at the same time, then even a bunch of city guards can easily take on a regiment of mages.
"We need to send reinforcements." Berion calculated how many soldiers were needed to the task and the answer was appalling.
To guarantee their victory, the Royals had to leave several key areas of the Kingdom exposed, giving the Undead Courts and Thrud an opportunity that, if exploited, might upset the balance.
"That's what the enemy wants so we are going to do the opposite." Meron shook his head. "Major Verhen, we have been dealt terrible cards but if played properly we can still win.
"Your promise to recognize the Nestrar region as a free country was reckless and stupid, yet it gives us the higher ground we need."
"Your Majesty, it was merely a ruse. Captain Estar can confirm you that my plan was to kill Quaron the moment we exposed his location-"
"I don't care what your intentions were, I'm interested only in the results." Meron cut him short. "Quaron has no way to avoid your challenge without losing everything he has built whereas scouring the entire Nestrar region for him would be nothing but a wild goose chase."
"I want you to stay put and wait for him. You are lucky that Quaron didn't arrive while you were absent because it would have meant his victory by default."
"Are you really putting the fate of an entire region on my shoulders?" Lith was flabbergasted.
"Of course not. This is not a bard's tale. In the real world, a ruler that bets the future of his country on something as barbaric as a fight is a delusional idiot. Either you win or lose, I'm going to use all of my power to take Zeska back.
"The only thing that will change is how much blood is spilled and if you will be punished instead of rewarded." Meron said.
"Punished?" Lith echoed.
"Archmage Verhen, I assigned you this task in order to defuse the situation, not to aggravate it. You are smart enough to know that, as the leader of this expedition, you are bound to take credit if you succeed and responsibility if you fail.
"By using the Royal Decree to lay your trap you didn't put only your name on the line but also mine. The people of Zeska heard you and so did our soldiers. Whatever the outcome of the fight, the people will judge us.
"If you win, you'll be considered a hero, but if you lose and go back on your word, then you'll become my scapegoat.
"Not only will your family remain without any security detail, but I'll also revoke all of your privileges within the Kingdom, ask you to pay the Verhen Mansion for its market price, and have you serve the army until you make up to the mess you've made."
