"The residents have been evacuated." Isaac approached Seth Rayn. Seth was near the theme park's northern double gate. A giant-scale version of Slitherland's map made from pure gold decorated it. Behind them, the army was preparing for war. They mounted towers, got all the robots in position, and even received more aircraft from outside the Guild.
"I spoke with Stephen. The skeleton cursed worry me. They aren't like any other cursed race."
"Will I be allowed to fight this time? I have way too many mana points."
"Perhaps. There's a reason I've been having you grow your mana." Seth walked towards the gate and joined the army.
"That's cool, but how will I know when he wants me to attack?"
…
Slitherland's northern neighbour, Tlebla City.
Zephyr Dragos walked through the gate. His army was behind him. Tlebla's reptoid minister was already there, waiting for him, bowing on one knee against the concrete ground. "My king! I didn't expect such a sudden visit!"
"Your orders?" One of the skeleton wizards landed next to Zephyr.
Zephyr blinked slowly. Something else was on his mind.
"Produce more skeletons. Sacrifice this city." He waved his hand.
"Urr… What? A sacrifice?" the minister was baffled. He didn't dare to stand back up.
An unimaginable amount of undead skeletons rushed by him like an infestation of wasps accompanied by their queens. Zephyr quietly walked towards Slitherland. It would take two hours on foot.
He didn't look as the second layer's residents, his people, turned into bones. He didn't flinch when people screamed to death nor when a group of strong humans resisted and killed a few reptoids before being dismembered. He didn't look when a building caught fire. The flames would soon rummage throughout an entire district and burn a hundred thousand people to death.
Something else was bothering him. Someone. 'Stana, darling, where are you? You were supposed to join me. Why have you not been reciprocating my calls?'
A woman jumped down from her office. Her body splattered on impact right next to him. Maybe she had killed herself, or perhaps someone pushed her off. He didn't look at the window where she came from. He didn't see the torn-off curtains the woman had tied into a rope.
Stepping over her corpse, he caught a glimpse of her golden earrings. He paused. His complexion was saddened. "Stana. Are you… dead?"
'No, that can't be.' He smiled and kept on walking.
However, the smile quickly diminished into a blank expression. The Seat's worry was concealed but not appeased.
…
Isaac wasn't sure what was happening behind the gate. A few distinct noises crept through the thick walls and between the gate's small cracks.
"Seth. What's happening?" Isaac asked Seth at the gate.
"See for yourself." Seth handed him radar vision goggles.
Isaac looked through them. He couldn't keep his eyes off the massacre. "They're here!"
"Yes, and they're killing people in their own territory. We can't play defensive anymore."
Seth climbed a small metal staircase attached to the city's concrete border. The soldiers looked up at him.
"There are sixty thousand of us present. We've come from different territories. We have different beliefs. But there is one thing each of us here has in common! It is not bravery, stubbornness, stupidity. No, we have united here before these gates for a mundane reason: to keep the Western Continent!"
Seth looked down at the army, at the towering mounted cannons, at the heavy artillery, and at Isaac right below. "We are not conquerors. We fight to free people! To help the billions of people stuck in the Obscure Guild! To go back to our people without the fear of two nations stabbing us in the back! That is our motive!"
The soldiers cheered him, cheered themselves. But it didn't last long.
He struck his staff against the metal floor. "Get ready! I will open the gate!"
Seth entered a control room inside the wall and typed in the gate's code that Stephen had given him onto a large screen. He looked at the smaller monitors, the cameras. He could see the other side. Some skeletons had arrived. They had already run across the city. They were about ten thousand, accompanied by a skeleton wizard.
When Seth met Isaac, the gate had already opened. A first row of robots was battling against the skeletons. "Remember. Conserve your mana."
…
Zephyr was still an hour's walk away. "What's our next destination again? Slitherland? It's such a beautiful place."
A reptoid in silver armour interrupted his thoughts. "My king! We have an emergency! The Western Army opened Slitherland's gate!"
He chuckled. "This saves us a lot of time then. No matter how many mages or how much gear they have, the Western Army will shiver in front of my army. The half a million skeletons will be enough to win. Don't show them any mercy!"
Zephyr ran towards the gate. His reptoid legs allowed him to go much faster than humans.
…
Isaac obeyed Seth. He didn't fight, letting the other soldiers pass by him. However, there was an ominous feeling in the air. He could sense inexplicable dread. It came from beyond the gate. "What's this feeling? There's something wicked. So many souls… They're being controlled!"
He was too short to see what was going on up front. "Maybe…" Isaac's eyes fixed on a moving tower, a tall missile launcher.
He climbed up a ladder and arrived at the launcher's platform. There was someone else there already. They were petrified.
'What is it?' Isaac looked into Tlebla. He saw the burning buildings far away. The streets were made of blood and flesh. The thousands of skeletons at the gate. His eyes fixed on a floating thing in a dark blue cloak. Only one of the twelve cursed wizards was present, yet it made him step back. "What I've been feeling… they're the skeleton cursed. They're all made from human souls? How many humans has it turned?"
The battle was loud. Explosions were going off everywhere. Long-range mages attacked with everything they had. It worked. The skeletons were dying at a rapid rate.
Suddenly, a female skeleton wizard appeared on the scene. She raised her arm. A blue barrier suddenly formed in front of the pawns. The tide had changed. The missile tower Isaac was on started firing freely, trying to break the defence. The missiles burst without leaving any mark.
"How is that possible?!"
The human army was getting pushed back rapidly. No one could enter the barrier. The people were almost all slaughtered now. Skeletons weren't weak at all. Some could even use magic.
"FALL BACK!" Seth's order echoed through the other soldier's voices.
The master magician touched the ground. He was on the other side of the barrier. A massive shadow surrounded the skeletons. He drained the mana of everything standing in it. The skeleton cursed collapsed all at once.
However, the two wizards weren't affected since they were flying above. It wasn't long before more skeletons appeared from the fallen comrades or as reinforcements.
Isaac looked further away. He saw the neverending swarm of skeletons coming towards them. "It's these liches. They're controlling the skeletons!"
Zephyr lept with his powerful legs and landed a kilometre from the gate. "Ha! You're all dead." His smile had gone up again.