Arad looked at the sun as people started walking out of the forest, terrified and injured. The growls of Vars's undead vanishing filled the sky with a bone-chilling rumbling as the first soldier lifted his sword.
"Victory!"
Screams of celebration filled the sky as Gojo looked at the clouds, "You could have asked for my help, at least. You know I'm a monster."
Arad approached him, "Each month waited meant hundreds of thousands of deaths. He wanted to finish it as soon as possible. Or so Doma said,"
^Did you know from the start?^ Arad growled inside his head.
^[Not from the start. I knew when I released you from the mind control.]^ Doma replied.
The undead fairies flew down, looking at Zephyr as their bodies disintegrated into dust.
"Tempest queen, It's been an honor to see you one last time," One of them said, bowing deeply.
"Ama, Goten, Ashely, Zolas, Sylvanor, Shylore. Who killed you?" Zephyr asked with a stern face, "Was it that elf?"
Goten smiled, "We're honored you still remember our names, but Vars wasn't the one to kill us. We died in the fey fall to the spirit eaters. He wiped the beast in exchange for our help after death."
"I see. May you rest in peace beneath the world tree." Zephyr saluted the fairies as they turned into ash.
"You knew them?" Aella stared at her.
"They once were my royal guards when I ruled the wind spirits as a queen. Albeit, that changed after I became the wind spirit and retired from my position." Zephyr replied as she stared at the clouds, "That was a few thousand years ago,"
"There is a difference?"
"Fairies expert in controlling wind magic are usually called wind spirits by humanoids. Albeit they should be called wind fairies or pixies, I was their queen before I became the wind spirit." Zephyr explained.
"Really? I knew that strong pixies are called fairies. And that stronger fairies could be called spirits." Aella stared at her with a smile, and Zephyr giggled, "There's more to that,"
****
"What should we do now? The city is in shambles, and Vars's plan seems to have been fake," Arad looked at his brother, and Gojo scratched his head, "Yeah, I doubt the elves even owned that artifact."
"How about the war between them?" Arad looked around at the people celebrating, "If the artifact isn't the reason, then what could it be?"
"I don't know," Gojo sighed, "But for now, let's rest for a while. I didn't get to fight that much, but my head hurts a bit."
"From Vars's betrayal?" Arad looked at him.
"From trying to break out of that prison, it was a headache to deal with." Gojo waved his hand. He wasn't indifferent to Vars's actions, but thinking about them won't solve anything now.
"The prison, how did it work?" Arad asked, and Gojo pulled the cube from his stomach, and let it float in the air.
The cube's prison is a demi-plan ten kilometers wide in each direction enchased in a ten-layered magic barrier enchanted with a reversed gravity field.
When a creature tries to get close to the barriers, they get repelled back as if they and the wall were magnets. Since the demi-plan is an empty sphere, you would be floating in the center without any support to push from toward the walls, making it almost impossible to even try attacking or applying force on it.
"How did you get out?" Arad asked.
"I filled the place with matter from my stomach and exploded it repeatedly until the gases expanded so much it cracked the walls," Gojo replied, and Arad looked at the burning mountains, sweating.
"I wouldn't have gotten out even if I tried," He giggled.
"You probably would expand everything in your stomach and never get out," Gojo waved his hands, "But I now know one thing. This artifact's power is related to Gravity,"
The two turned around, walking toward Jack who was looking over the unconscious Lydia and Eris.
CRACK! The city's gate opened up and everyone stared at it, "Who's there?" Arad growled, taking the front with Gojo. The aura they could sense from behind the gate seemed a bit strange.
From the gate, a bloodied kid walked in, leaning on a wooden sword. His eyes darted around and fixed on Arad, "It's you again," The kid growled, "Are you the one behind this?" He pointed his sword at Arad.
"You're injured," Arad approached him, "Were you hiding outside?"
"Shut up! Villain!" The kid touched his wooden sword, "Roar! Maharaja!" He shouted, sparks of golden lightning flashing from the sword to his body, but they quickly faded.
CRACK! He fell on his knees, bleeding from his ears and nose. His eyes rolled back as he fell face first, unconscious from over-exaggerating his body.
Arad lifted the kid, taking it back to Jack for healing while Gojo went out to see what happened outside the city.
"Arad!" Gojo shouted, "You must see this!"
Arad left the kid with Jack and went to his brother. The moment he got out of the city, his eyes opened wide. "How many are there?"
Hundreds of undead ranging from skeletons to zombies and flesh eats, spread like dead sardines with their skulls crushed.
"Did he kill them all?" Arad stared at Gojo.
"He's probably a warlock. Those are the ones to get most of their power early. The contract nature comes into effect, but that's generally the case." Gojo looked back at the kid, "He did say Maharaja. Vars found some writing about her, a titanic jaguar-like monster capable of leveling the world if she was summoned."
"Even if that was the case, some might have slipped out. Do you think we should go search for surviving undead?" Arad looked around, closing his eyes and trying to sense the thoughts.
"Undead doesn't think most of the time, you won't sense them. But, Vars's undead won't survive for five minutes without him supplying them with mana. It's been a while since he died and I expect they already died too." Gojo turned around, "We better search for survivors,"
Putting his hands together, Gojo disappeared as he started the search and rescue.
"No time to rest," Arad sighed, doing the same. He used his detection though to find surviving civilians and teleport with them to the largest church in the city.
****
Two hours passed.
"Aella, where is Arad?" Isdis rushed in on horseback, seeing Aella helping the nuns in the church.
"He's still out with Gojo searching for survivors," Aella replied, but she quickly gasped, seeing blood on Isdis's left shoulder. "Did you get injured?"
"Got slashed in the shoulder by a war zombie, but it's only a scratch," Isdis tapped her shoulder, "He didn't cut through the bones," She then looked at Aella, "Mira isn't doing well,"
"What! Wasn't she with Kin?" Aella gasped.
Isdis shook her head, "It wasn't a battle injury. Remember that backpack she made to power her new hammer? It exploded on her back as she was fighting undead,"
"Is her injury that severe?" Aella rushed toward Isdis, "She's stable, the healers in the castle managed to reach her in time. But that thing almost blew her spine out."
Aella scratched her head, "We told her magic crystals are dangerous,"
Zephyr flew out from Aella, "They must have overheated. Next time I hope she makes something to cool them off,"
"There won't be a next time," Aella stared at Zephyr. "I will talk with Arad about stopping her from making such dangerous devices."
"It's natural for an artificer, I never heard of one of them that didn't almost die to one of his creations." Zephyr then stared at Isdis, "How much did she kill?"
"Forty-two undead, mostly skeletons and zombies." Isdis replied, "That's honestly an impressive number."
"That's terrifying, for a level three non-fighting class." Aella said with an exhausted stare, "So, then what happened to the rest?"
"Gin protected the royal family while Kin dealt with the undead crustacean that emerged from the sea with the help of a brass dragon. It wasn't a fair fight at all, but they were numerous." Isdis sighed, "The cleanup would be a pain,"
"Undead crustaceans?" Aella looked at Isdis.
"Ten-foot undead lobsters, massive crabs, and shrimps. I even saw an undead whale at some point," Isdis scratched her head, "Just what kind of necromancer summoned all of those?"
"It's, a long story," Aella sighed.
"That demon woman called him Vars," Isdis stared at Aella, "We're currently investigating the situation. But don't worry about it, I will handle the results."
"We're counting on you," Aella giggled with a drop of sweat trailing down her forehead.
"I hope you lots don't cause more troubles in the..." CLACK! As she spoke, an arrow pierced her neck.
Aella blinked, seeing Isdis fall down from the horse, bleeding. "Huh?" She gasped, turning her head aside to see a masked individual running inside the building.
Aella pulled her bow and pointed at the man, but before she could fire, a roar shook the whole city.
Arad roared in rage behind the city's wall.
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