After pushing back the Zao intruders past the shield wall, Lord Eddingar was unable to keep his calm. His guests were made to stay, many of them exposed their weapons ready to fight. The Queen rose to her feet grabbed a spear from one of the guards. It was nothing fancy. "This is boring me, don't bore me. Open the door." She watched eagerly as the main door was hoisted back open, its screeched as it dragged along the floor, deep groves from its many uses were carved into the stone.
"No. I have underlings for this, If they advance past the shield that is a different matter. Till then, they are but insects." Eddingar kept his cool, he didn't care if his soldiers and slaves died, emotional concern over them was almost non-existent. They were tools. "I will not abandon the City, this kingdom. It took us Centuries to produce, forget it. Its out of the question. If they breach the shield, we fight. Nir, bring me my armor."
A Ghastly phantom of a child, an Elven child that wept as he spoke appeared with a set of armor. he was quiet otherwise, which left a lot of time for crying. "Master, your armor." He assisted him with donning the armor, then flickered away.
"the Child always weeps.. always with the weeping, when will he ever fucking stop!" Eddingar was losing his sanity, a side effect of his armor. He yelled to the side, "JUST KILL THE BASTARDS!" and bit down on his lip. His eyes grew a blood purple and focused on the battleground outside of the shield barrier. 'These stupid maggots.. they are ruining my day, ruining my event, ruining my day... my day... my. day.' He vanished.
Reappearing next to shield, he tore the heart from his zealot and stepped through the shield. As the blood fell from his fingertips, he rubbed his face with it. "Mmm.. he was just a boy." Lord Eddingar pulled a pair of great axes from his storage and spat on them. "Blood Curse."
The words left his mouth and a fountain of blood and rust flowed from beneath his feet, showering him in it. His power rose.
"Shapeless" The Pair of Greataxes swayed like they had become limp noodles.
-{"*****"} A curse word, it came from Ferser. The Great Axes Snapped at the handles and Zhan plowed into Vampire Lord Eddingar. He bit down, tearing at his chest, beating wildly.
"You're not enough." Eddingar laughed and watched as his body regenerated. Pinned under Zhan's wailing fists, he smiled, exposing his own fangs and bit at Zhan's waist. There was a metallic sound, and then a spike came from above. As it was impaling Lord Eddingar, he shifted like the entire encounter had been a lie.
Zhan switched from being on the ground, leapt into the air and let out a Ice breath attack. It was laced with a corrosive venom that acted like acid on the guests.
Lord Eddingar cringed and put up a blood shield between them, the fountain of blood directed itself to form a bubble around the guests that remained. Another dark figure came over Zhan's back and fired a golden beam. It instantly burst the bubble and tore across the throne room.
Khan Ni moved out of the way with Zhan, their reinforcements were arriving.
The Queen was furious, the guests that had come to honor her had been slain in front of her very eyes. The blood fountain erupted and broke the stones from the floor, an enormous bloodspawn rose from its red mass.
'Kill the uninvited guests..' She commanded it telepathically, a gift from her body.
-{"!$(^%&^%*&)(*)_^#%!}" An inaudible sound came from the Bloodspawn, it sounded like a recognition of some sort and it spat a putrid substance in every direction. Lord Eddingar was covered, he felt refreshed. Everything else it touched started to sag and distort, melting under its effects.
"Don't let that stuff touch you, Onmyoji, take formation." Kuzunoha directed the ground troops along with Genba and Ibuwere. Quickly a spell formation went up, then a few walls. Made from the same material as the ship, the corrosive fluid had little effect.
When it stopped spewing, they returned fire. Surrounded, the Queen flashed next to Lord Eddingar and pulled him to the throne. "You've ruined this day for me, I will never forgive you." She grabbed a silver crystal, it stood atop the throne itself, molded to it.
"I will not forget this." She started to channel.
"Give me back my Daughter!" Zhan flew, faster than he had ever flown before.
When her face came into view, he faltered. It was Xue. "Xue?" The word came from his mouth, but the Queen was gone along with Lord Eddingar, a collapse of dust showed their method.
"No. No. No. No. ^#$!!$" Zhan thrashed about, tearing apart the throne room in a fit of anger.
Khan Ni pulled out the Compass, it didn't move. 'maybe we can't use it inside?' She thought.
She watched as the Onmyoji fought against the bloodspawn, after a few minutes it had died, popping like a broken egg at the end.
"Love. We can find her again." Khan Ni tried to console Zhan's fury, but it only worsened it.
"The Compass." Zhan held out his hand. Wu Hai nodded.
"Okay." She handed it over to Zhan. "It won't work inside, we have to go back outside. We can track her again."
Zhan gripped the compass, he knew he could shatter it and stayed his hand. "I don't want to waste time or let them prepare for our next offensive. We should go immediately."
The Emperor agreed. "Gather anything of value, you have ten minutes then meet me outside." Wu Hai flew outside, got his bearings and teleported to the Tower City. As he prepared to move it, he checked on the research team. They were not at the entrance.
A while later he found them, they were bottling the sludge. It had calmed itself greatly after being broken apart. "No time guys, grab whatever you want and lets get the hell out of here. You have 30 seconds and we're moving." When they all exited, he kicked a stone and shut the portal down; no one would be able to escape.
Sending them inside Tower City, he stored it away and rejoined the troops at Nir's Entrance. "Lets move." Wu Hai pointed the compasses together and got their heading. The pull of the compass was strong, they were not far away.
As they flew, Zhan's rage showed on his face. He flew fast, but he didn't leave Khan Ni behind. "I don't understand why she looks so much older and why did she run away?" Zhan asked.
"Vampires can mesmerize, they can even do it to each other. A trait long since developed from the Elves, though we commune with nature with it." Khan Ni looked ashamed as she spoke of Vampires, a shame of the Elves. "If she's been taken, turned, what then?"
"She's my daughter.. She's still my daughter." Zhan reassured himself, his brief absentmindedness gave the rest of the force time to catch up.
There was a Tower in the distance. It had a stench that was inundating the air dozens of kilometers away.
The Smell of the Dead.