Daylight vanished as heavy clouds consumed the sky, driven by howling winds that tore across the landscape.
Within the dead centre of these chaotic currents lay a dark, thunderous storm—a massive glowing black dome that protruded from the earth and spiralled upward in violent rotations. The supernatural tempest made the winds outside even more violent and unpredictable.
This phenomenon was triggered by the sheer concentration of undead in one location, creating dense mana pollution that sparked a localized chaotic mana storm. The 3,750 wisps swirling at incredible speeds only accelerated the process, disturbing the natural order and allowing void spirits to abandon their vessels and join the aerial dance.
The longer the storm persisted, the more it expanded outward—mystifying, supernova-like mist flickering with points of light resembling distant stars. Lighting sparked sporadically, within the ethereal fog as it crept slowly along the ground.
All these entities danced around the storm they had collectively created.
—Inside the storm's heart, the scene transformed completely.
While the outer layer raged with violence, the inner sanctum appeared almost beautiful—like deep space filled with flickering stars against an endless cosmic backdrop.
The ground had turned to shadows the colour of ink, covering every blade of grass in absolute darkness. Within this shadow-realm, countless anonymous white eyes blinked ominously.
Drogger's lurked everywhere, their forms completely shrouded in the ink-black shadows. They thrived in areas of high magical pollution—this was their natural habitat. Their white, predatory eyes blinked like mysterious entities dwelling in the void itself.
Legions of various undead lay slumped across the shadowed ground, all of their souls revelling in this void-touched environment.
And at the very heart of the storm lay Zero, surrounded by a background that appeared glassy and translucent, like looking through space itself.
He stood holding his staff.
In front of a polished skull lord, he was now just 20 feet tall, his bones were white, and he had received his shoulder claws again. With three heads again which sat on his shoulders. And a third pair of arms on his torso. He is much thinner this time.
He stood crouched listening to Zero
Augustus, Arcaeus and Alana on either side of skull lord too
"Ok so there's three cities, each with one warden but recently I got word that they have left.... Augustus, any insight?"
"That would be there check up with the council sir" Augustus swiftly answered
"Continue" Zero listened attentively
"They have it every 4 months to make sure each city is doing alright" he continued
"Do you know how long they will be there?"
"Yes, it usually lasts a week"
"ha-ha that's brilliant, well let's get straight to the action."
"Augustus, you will be attacking the west city, along with this spirit."
Augustus looked around in confusion.
"Who are you talking about?" Alana interjected
"Thats right, I never introduced you guys"
He gestured toward it "This is our new addition!"
The spirit manifested from thin air, its deep purple wisp-like form blazing.
A waving hand forms from its spiritual body above.
"It's a shadow wisp like me but it looks different…What did you do Zero…" Alana asked.
"I can't say much right now. But it will be very useful if anything happens. Just make sure it doesn't get too intense for the thing, ok Augustus?"
Augustus nodded silently, taking note in his mind.
"Anyway, Alana, you and Skull lord will take the north city. There's no plan we are going for are full on assault simultaneously. We have too many favourable factors at the moment for them to be able to withstand us."
"Each of you should sort out about 6000 undead each, and head out immediately. Once you arrive, wait until night begins, start your attack. We have 2 days of travel ahead of us. Get a move on!"
They all left, to gather their respective armies.
Zero stood waiting.
Two bone walkers approached on either side of him.
Bone walker two carried a sword at its side and a spear on his back, both secured with thin leather straps.
Bone walker one wore a leather belt with two daggers holstered there, small satchels on either side of its belt, and a tightly fastened but wide quiver full of arrows. In its hands it gripped a normal, banged-up bow.
Bone walker two held a captive—one hand gripping the man's upper arm, the other forcing his head down into a bent position as they walked past Zero. They continued to a distance, then turned around to face him. The captive grunts but remains silent.
Zero walked toward them. Bone walker one followed.
Bone walker Two forced the captive to his knees.
As Zero approached with bonewalker one, he stared down at the captive who kept his head low, a chair of chaotic darkness manifested beneath Zero.
Bone walker One stood just behind the chair. Zero sat down, bone walker Two lifted the captive's head up to face Zero.
The captive snarled at Zero.
"What do you want, you monster? I did what you said—just let me go!"
"Heh. You did—`what I said` " Zero asked.
Zero's voice dropped low, full of seriousness.
"YES, I DID! WHY DO YOU THINK YOU WON THE BATTLE? IT WAS BECAUSE OF M—"
Bone walker two squeezed his head.
"AH! TELL IT TO STOP! OW!"
Zero, unchanged, just glanced up at the bone walker. It instantly loosened its grip.
Looking back at the captive: "So, as I was saying... if you really did what I said, why is your body spasming slightly?"
"Wha—I have no idea what you're talking about!"
"Along with that," Zero continued coldly.
Zero raised his hand. The man flinched, closing his eyes in fear.
He simply touched the back of his hand to the captive's forehead, as if checking his temperature.
The man opened his eyes, confused.
"Your mana is quite unstable."
"I don't understand what you're saying."
Retracting his hand: "These are all signs of minor mana backlash."
The captive, realizing: "Oh yeah! It was just because I'd done a lot of fighting before that. You see, some of your minions attacked me and I had to fight back."
No hesitation in his reply.
"Interesting. But that's not where these two found you. They found you in a basement, sleeping soundly—not a scratch on you."
Bone walker one, grew restless.
"DAMMIT, IT WASN'T MY FAULT! THE PEOPLE IN THE TOWN FORCED ME! THEY DID! THEY FORCED ME TO TELL THEM!"
"Our vow was a Vow of Promise, we made a mutual contract, and whoever breaks it suffers a minor backlash of mana."
"Your end was to never speak of what happened in that village. Mine was that I couldn't kill you. But the thing is, with this vow you can break it multiple times. Until we both mutually agree to break it, it will never truly be broken."
"Unless dispelled, of course. You'll continue to be hit with minor backlash. And clearly you ran your mouth, because backlash usually only lasts a few seconds to a few minutes. But you kept speaking about it, which kept stacking it up. Makes sense why you didn't say anything while getting dragged here—you were trying to grapple with the pain."
The man's face grew terrified, speechless at Zero's words.
Bone walker one behind Zero turned around and walked further back, gripping its bow tight, growing more restless with each controlled stride.
The captive then smirked.
"HA! YOU CAN'T KILL ME! I JUST WON'T AGREE!"
"That's true. The gravity of someone's promise affects how severe the backlash is, so my mana backlash might be slightly increased. But then again, I wouldn't mind a little mana backlash—it would make for a good nap."
Tension filled the large space.
"JUST GET TO THE POINT! ARE YOU GOING TO LET ME GO?!"
"First, let me repeat what my side of the vow was..."
Zero stood up, as the chair dematerialized.
Bone walker two lifted the man to his feet.
"What are you doing?"
Zero turned, walking back. The further he walked, the more bone walker one became visible with its bow aimed directly at the captive.
"My side was that I—myself—couldn't kill you."
Standing beside the bone walker, an arrow aimed directly for a kill shot.
"I never said..."
He turned slightly, his back still facing the captive, Zero's eyes lit up with malicious intent, along with a devious grin.
"Someone else couldn't." His tone hissed venomously.
"NO! NO! PLEASE, NO! LET ME GO!"
He squirmed, but bone walker two didn't let go—its grip was firm, squeezing the man's skull between skeletal fingers.
"Fire." Zero's voice cut through the frantic cries.
Bone walker one fired the bow.
The arrow pierced straight through his head, protruding out the back of his skull and staying lodged there.
Bone walker two threw him to the side.
The Droggers pounced on the captive's body, devouring it and feasting on his flesh like ravenous hyenas. His body was soon consumed by the blackened Droggers.
Bone walker two—spear holstered on its back, sword holstered at its side—walked up to the other two.
Bone walker one lowered its bow, calm now.
"You two will be joining Augustus's army, so shuffle yourselves in there. If he asks questions, just say I sent you."
Zero kept his back turned to them "Open your hands" opened their skeletal palms as two vials of venom floated into them
"Here—these are for you. They can be your greatest allies or your greatest enemies, so be careful."
He walked off.
Both looked at the small vials in their hands. Bone walker two glanced at bone walker one, but bone walker one is still inspecting its vial and doesn't notice. Bone walker two simply placed its vial into bone walker one's palm and walked off.
Bone walker one noticed the second vial, then looked at bone walker two walking away. It looked back at the vials. Then back at bone walker two getting further away.
It shrugged. Tucking both vials into a small brown pouch on its waist belt, it clipped the pouch closed. Then it ran to catch up to bone walker two.
Three armies left each with around 6,019 undead. Each time one army left, the storm dome got smaller, and when they travelled the wisps were able to thinly coat the armies in a black mist making them hard to see in day and almost invisible at night.
Left first Alana and skull lord for the north city of Meridia – Population & Army: 30,637 and 7,659
Then
Augustus and Arcaeus for thewestcity ofcrertin – Population & Army: 21,519 and 5,379
Then finally
Zero left for the east city of Galela – Population & Army: 41,488 and 10,372