Das couldn't comprehend what laid before his eyes.
He stared at the seemingly lifeless bodies of the villagers stand as if carried by some unholy and unseen force. The stranger, the self-proclaimed phantom king, hovered above them like a spectral vision from the beyond.
"Drachen..." He whispered to her companion that was close by "...What is this?" he asked without looking away from the unreal view.
"I do not know, Das" The fairy confessed in an almost frightened away, shrinking in size and landing on his shoulder like a parrot "I have never seen anything like this"
He shook his head in disbelief.
"That is impossible, you are thousand of years old aren't you?" He asked her, taking a cautionary step back.
"I am, but I have no memory of ever crossing paths or hearing of such a twisted art in my life...be careful with what you do next, Das" She cautioned while returning to her fairy form.
"Ah...I see you too have a teacher" The multiple voices of the phantom spoke without him opening his mouth.
"Too?" Das asked out loud, squinting his eyes at the ghost.
"Well-"The voices stop as the phantom turned his eyes somewhere behind Das, far away in the distance.
"Das, people are coming! and this willpower...Freund is with them!" Drachen announced looking in the same direction the phantom had.
A sense of relief washed over him as he heard that name. Freund was among the strongest of the kingdom's men, so even if this new enemy proved too powerful he wouldn't fight alone.
"That is irritating, I was hoping this moment wouldn't be spoiled by anyone but it seems I can't be given that little ray of joy" The phantom's many voices spoke as he returned his eyes to the archmage "It was truly delightful to hold a conversation with you, Archmage, but the time to chat is over"
The phantom raised his right spectral arm and a longsword manifested from the palm of his hand. As ghostly as its owner.
Meanwhile, the undead kneeled and grabbed any nearby weapon scattered around from the bandits Das had scorched when he first reached the plaza, their low moaning increasing in number as they seemed to prepare to fight.
Das, already anticipating this, hit the end of his staff on the ground and began levitating.
"Listen, recovering your strength and healing your body, adding up the mana burned when I had to come here. I'm depleted, so I can't do that again." The fairy told Das telepathically as she hid inside his hood once again "Fight with your brain and do NOT rely on your emotions. When we return to the palace you and I have some talking to do regarding that"
Das nods, fully aware of the incoming talk since the moment his mind had regained control. But right at that moment, there were bigger matters in hand.
"I have seen you fight with the power of your primal self, Das." The phantom lowered his arm back to his side as his body quickly turned more and more akin to a corporeal cloud of mist " Dance with me, Archmage!"
The phantom then propelled himself wheezing at an impressive speed, his whole body turning into a cloud, only distinguished by the furiously growing red orbs of his eyes. The archmage raised his barrier tackling the ghost's spectral sword that bends the magical shield droning as the mana seems to break like glass at the strength of the assault.
But rather than worried, Das smirked as his white eyes burned with mana.
"BIND!" He yells in his many voices and a magic circle appears from beneath them.
The magic chains shoot upwards and once again trap the ghost. He vaguely recovers his humanoid shape and stares at Das as if he found his attempt amusing just before turning into a cloud and simply slipping through the tiny holes in the chains.
"That trick won't work twice, Archmage. Do better!" He said as his body joined together and once again attacked Das.
While his smirk has vanished, Das doesn't look deterred as he points his staff at the incoming ghost, a magical circle appearing in front of it right before a series of fireballs are launch with killing intent.
However, the cloud with red eyes dodges every single one of them with apparent ease.
"You are weak, Archmage, do better~!" The phantom teases him right before reaching Das and slashing with his sword at the barrier for a second time. The cracks growing in size as it bends under his might.
"Don't underestimate me!" Das yelled in anger as he raised his glowing staff.
Suddenly, lightning falls from the sky and pierces through the ghost. Who floats away and around the mage cackling in his many voices.
"You don't get don't you?" The cloud returns to its humanoid shape "You can't harm me"
The phantom then multiplies as if there were many shades of him, darker like black smoke, surrounding the archmage and charging at him from all directions with their spectral blades.
This time Das is unprepared for such a barrage of attacks and holds the staff with both hands, making the cracks on his barrier vanish and increasing its size and strength.
The copies slash and try to pierce through the barrier, notably much weaker than the original who stands behind them watching the performance play in front of him. Always floating slightly above the archmage.
Das shivered as the pressure from the attacks became stronger and quicker. Creating cracks in multiple places too fast for him to erase all before new ones were made, slowly breaking the barrier and shrinking its size.
"We have to do something!" Drachen said, who stretched her arms forward, mana lightly flowing through her hands as she too tried to keep the barrier standing.
Then she felt the dark energy coursing through her veins, infecting her and slowly turning her eyes and hair red. She turned to face Das, a mixture of anger and concern in her face.
"Don't! You can't give in twice in a row! The damage from the curse will only grow larger if you do!" Drachen struggled to speak as the red mana consumed her thoughts.
Das bared his teeth once again as his eyes turned red. But then his anger turned to surprise as he stared at the disappointed phantom watching him once again give in to his wrath.
"So this is as far as the great archmage's power goes? A simple-minded beast when cornered?" The many voices of the phantom spoke as he slowly got closer to the archmage "Such a pity, I think I overestimated you"
Das stared at the phantom with widened eyes "Overestimated me?" He thinks, his forehead furrowed in anger, the orb of his staff turning red "I will show him" He thought "I WILL SHOW THEM ALL!" He pointed his staff at the ghost.
But then the weight of his companion growling near his ear made him snap out of it. He turned to see her slightly and felt his heart sink when he noticed the pained expression on Drachen's face despite her apparent anger. Tears filling her reddened eyes.
He had forgotten how painful it was for her when the red mana began taking hold of him.
It was at that moment that an idea popped up in his head. He turned to face the phantom that was merely a few meters away from him.
Drachen returned to normal and held herself from Das's hair to avoid falling. The shock leaving her more exhausted than she already was. Her eyes focused on the orb from the staff that returned to its usual white.
She then looked at Das, whose eyes too returned to a powerful white. Making her smile at the sight of the young man who still holds on to his humanity.
The archmage cleaned the sweat off his face with his left hand and realized just how much smaller had the barrier become with the constant attacks from the phantom's shades unrelenting strikes. The cracks are about to cover the entire surface of it.
It's at that moment that with his open hand the archmage focuses all his attention on the phantom, who slightly raises his eyebrows, curious to what will Das attempt next. But he doesn't take risks and immediately returns to his cloud form.
"Show me your power, Archmage" He whispers in his many voices, smiling right before his face disappears. Replaced only by smoke and the red glowing orbs of light.
Das then raises his hand at the sky, taking the phantom by surprise. A beam of light pierces through the thick smoke and showers the ghost. His cloud form vanishes returning him to a more physical appearance, his face in surprise once it returns as well.
The phantom then moves away from the beam of light, his body smoking just like a potato would when taken out of the boiling water.
"It worked!" Das thought, smiling in excitement and relief "The healing light had the opposite effect on it!"
The phantom looked at his right hand, trying to force it into going ethereal without success. It flickered from its dark color to its mist-like form but returned somewhere in between as soon as he stopped focusing on it.
Das prepared to strike now that he was distracted but the sound of hooves on the stone made him turned around.
From one of the streets, Fred appeared with his scouts.
"Uncle!" Das shouted as soon as he noticed the crest and war hammer on the knight leading the charge.
"Das!" Fred shouted back, he then halted his advance to assess the situation. Looking first at the floating stranger and then at the crowd of shambling villagers quickly jogging towards him with their weapons raised.
Sensing his hesitance at the approaching corpses, Das yelled at Fred.
"They are already dead! He is controlling them!" Das pointed at the phantom, who gave him a wide thin smile "Don't hold back!"
"You heard him! They are not people anymore, just puppets! Aid the archmage!" Fred ordered throwing his war hammer like a boomerang that droned as it flew and crushed the head of one man sending its blackened guts to the ground as it loudly collapsed soon after.
"For the Kingdom!" One of the cavalrymen shouted and soon the plaza was filled with the war cries of the charging men holding spears.
"I did underestimate you, archmage" The phantom spoke forcing Das to focus once again on him.
The ghost puffed his chest and clenched his fist, immediately three undead screeched as red energy was sucked out from them and consumed by him. Making them go limp and fall on the spot while his body turned back to its ghostly appearance except for his glowing and flame-like hair and eyes.
"I will not make that mistake again, the music is not over yet!" The many voices sounded now deep and malign while multiple tentacle-like mist appendages appeared from the phantom's back.
The Phantom King and the Archmage launched at each other while Fred and its cavalry faced the undead.
Das launched beams of light from his staff while summoning the same beams from the sky, forcing the phantom to dexterously dodge each attack but as soon as he got within strike distance, Das made light blast out in all directions making the phantom fly far away from him. Then resuming his attacks.
Beneath them, the flesh was pierced by the cavalry lances but did little to stop the undead. Who pushed their bodies deeper into the lances forcing the scouts to pull out their swords and defend their bodies.
One of those men pierced an undead through the head, only for the corpse to drop its weapon and throw the man out of his horse by pulling the spear to the side.
The man was quickly surrounded by half a dozen of undead who viciously pierced and slashed at him multiple times with their weapons.
Fred turned to see the scene after hearing the ear-piercing sound of pleads and screams mixed with the gurgling of the blood. He frowned and launched its war hammer forward blasting three of them and making them fly several meters away.
But he soon noticed that they simply stood up again, their necks broken and heads open.
"AHHH!!" Nett's scream made him turned behind him.
His horse screamed as its neck was cut open by the dead, making it collapse and sending Nett crashing on the ground not too far away. Fred quickly galloped his way to him and with his war hammer saved the life of the young boy, extending his hand and helping him to get on top of his horse.
Right then yet another scream forced him to immediately turn around, it was another of his men but as he raised his arm to throw his war hammer his face turned to horror as he saw what was his men fighting against.
A child had gotten on top of his horse and was digging a dagger multiple times through the crevice of his armor.
Fred swallowed hard and gritted his teeth, throwing the war hammer anyways and crushing the undead with enough strength to tear its body in half.
The men he just saved held his wounded shoulder as he looked at the corpse on the ground, mortified when he saw the child dragging his upper half to the bloody dagger on the ground. The scout then opened his helm and vomited on the spot.
More screams could be heard all around and Fred looked at his men slowly get overwhelmed by the torn bodies of the undead that keep rising from the ground.
He held a hand on his head, thinking about a way to fight them. It was then that he saw the undead he had decapitated with his war hammer.
It seemed incapable of seeing or hearing, so it just wandered around swinging its ax. Soon walking up to the pyre of bodies burning in the middle of the plaza and catching themselves on fire.
"That's it!" Fred yelled his orders "Aim for the eyes and push them away with the blunt end of your spears!"
He galloped around the plaza repeating his orders while helping those he saw in need. Soon everyone had heard and begun doing exactly what they were told.
His plan was successful as soon half of the undead were aimlessly walking around, moaning and swinging without direction while being pushed away by the scouts.
Returning his attention to the headless corpse he smiled with relief when he saw it burning on the ground, without moving.
"Once you blind them throw them into the fire!" He ordered.
Meanwhile, above them.
The two men kept on the deadly encounter, the phantom getting eventually hit by the beams of light. Forcing him to make distance and suck out the mana of some of his undead so he could keep fighting.
But Das was each passing second more and more exhausted. Summoning so many rays of healing was rapidly depleting his mana and it was showing.
"How long can you keep this going, archmage?" The many voices of the phantom spoke as it dodges the beams with increasing ease "You are growing weak, clumsy"
Das noticed too late that he had gotten too close, unable to blast him away he raised his barrier once again to tackle his attack.
"While I grow stronger!" The phantom then pierced the barrier instead of slashing it, bending it enough to hit Das in the stomach. Pushing the air out of him.
The archmage was pushed to the ground crashing and creating a small sinkhole on the stone ground. The phantom broke the barrier and made the shocked Das use his left hand glowing with mana to hold the blade inches from his stomach.
"You cannot defeat me, Archmage," The phantom said moving his mouth this time, the many voices vanishing until only his remained and his cloud form returning to a semi-corporeal one.
Then, from his back, the tentacles appeared and joined the spot the blade was targeting. Making Das throw his staff away to utilize both hands in keeping the tip of the blade and four tentacles away from his flesh.
Drachen flew out of his hood and joined Das in his struggle, giving him just the necessary amount of extra strength to slowly grow the gap between the blade and his body.
"You are spoiling the moment, fly" The phantom spoke with his welcoming smile as he looked up at Drachen, gently blowing what looked like red mana at her, making her scream in pain and collapse on top of Das's chest.
"You, BASTARD!"Das had enough and his eyes turned red.
But it was then that the phantom's smile disappeared as he looked to his side, reacting barely fast enough to dodge Fred's war hammer. Making a large distance between him and Das.
"This ends here, demon," Fred said stopping his horse right in front of Das, the war hammer returning to his hand.
The phantom turned his attention to the plaza and saw how all his undead were either burning on the ground or burning while walking around. Collapsing one by one.
"I guess it is over..." The phantom said with a disappointed sigh, his smile returning to his face once he turned back to meet the archmage's fiery stare "...for now" His body turned completely into mist except for his red eyes as the war hammer pierced through him with ease "Until we meet again, Das."
With that, the phantom flies up and disappears inside the clouds of smoke.
"No! I won't let you!" Das exclaims calling his staff back to his hands and taking the flight to pursue him.
Yet, once he too pierces the smoke all he is greeted with is the large forest, no sight of the phantom. His redden eyes burn stronger than ever, but stop as soon as he notices the fire is now spreading out from the village and into the forest itself.
He takes a deep breath and relaxes his brow. His eyes turn back to white and he holds his staff with both hands in front of him.
Closing his eyes he focuses on the little mana he has left and a gigantic magic circle appears beneath him, covering the entire village.
"Burn out!" He shouts opening his eyes as the circle glows and sucks all the fire below it for several seconds until there is no more.
When it's all over, Das is left breathing heavily and sweaty. his hands tremble and it is difficult to hold his staff. Knowing he risks falling to a very anti-climatic death in his current state, he takes a deep breath and begins his descent.
The phantom is gone. He failed.