Jacke's POV
We got home just as the first few trucks were arriving with Alex at the head of her pack, not too surprising, and she started ordering her people on how to get started building. Her people started re-building the buildings from their pack on our grounds, and as more and more of the trucks arrived, my people started joining them. Making adjustments to the foundations, changing the angling of the ceilings, and more to make the buildings more stable and enduring against storms that come in. Alex joined up with the rest of us, and we introduced her to M and the two kids from the church. Not surprisingly, she wasn't too trusting of M at first, but after a bit of explanation, and words of wisdom, he was able to assure her that he wasn't here to cause harm.
"Jacke and his people brought me here, and I worked with them as best I could to get them ready for this war, but your foe is strong-willed and unpredictable; Worse off, she's got a reasonable motive for waging this war, but she made a drastic mistake. She sees her soldiers as autonomous things to be used to her own ends, if that's how she sees them, then we've already won this war. Lady Muerte guaranteed it for you, didn't she, Jacke?" M said cluing us in that he knew about the thing we did in the basement with Jake's bones, and I nodded my head.
"Her exact words were something along the lines of 'You shall best her once more in my name, and this time, she will have no remains to reconstitute herself with.' Assuring us that we would know the taste of victory again and that our tower will be rebuilt, stronger than ever before."
"Almost sounds like a Tarot reading if I didn't know where it came from, in order to best her we either wait for her to strike, or we take the fight to her. While risky, the latter would prove more fruitful as she believes Necropolis to be her realm, we know this to be false. She simply stole it from the true ruler," M said, and as he did he turned to watch the men and women working to rebuild their home. He looked distant and depressed like there was something that was troubling him but didn't dare speak of it; I didn't know what could be troubling him if he was able to duel us without worrying about it, but it wasn't my business so I didn't press him on it.
"While they're building our home here, should we try and assist them, or do we need to focus on the task at hand?"
"As much as I would like to help your people with rebuilding, Jacke, I think the matter at hand takes priority here. We can't blindly charge into her realm without a plan, even if it's not hers, she's methodically claimed it as hers. This isn't going to be easy, we're going to need to form some kind of plan, even if it's just the blueprints for it. Make a plan, execute the plan, expect the plan to go south, and improvise."
M grabbed a sheet of paper from a bag, placed it on a table we'd brought out, and drew out the details he remembered from the Necropolis, with careful tweaks from Damien for accuracy. They drew out everything they could remember, to show in precise detail the layout of where we were heading, and how we would have to go about this. It was indeed a dreadful place, the living dead walking the lands as if they owned it by birthright, but it wasn't their realm; They were inhibiting these lands, stolen from Lady Muerte, this wasn't going to be a simple war to wage. This was going to get ugly, fast, we needed to take the essentials and only the essentials. Failure was no longer an option at all, so we needed to make sure we accounted for everything we could.
"She's got hundreds of thousands of soldiers at her call, but they're basically just shambling corpses, you put a well-placed shot between the eyes, burn the remains and she has nothing to bring back. Don't underestimate them though, they don't feel pain, they don't feel remorse."
"So, basically Nazi Vampires?"
"There's a reference there, but yes. The difference is that these guys are slow, they may hit hard, but they aren't very accurate; They more or less just swing wildly and eventually hit something, which is why you need to make sure you hit your shots."
Damien explained in detail how these corpses were all that remained of the lost souls of the damned, and in killing them, we were releasing them from La Bruja's service. Her army may seem unending, but it was painfully obvious to us that they only served her because like Jake once did, they didn't have a choice.
"So, she's basically controlling their bodies, but because she has no control over their spirits, she has to supplement that with her own energy?"
"Exactly; She thinks that she has an infinite supply of soldiers, simply because the source of her energy is unyielding, but that couldn't be further from the truth. The more soldiers she creates, the more it takes out of her. She has no bond between her and her soldiers, as so that she wouldn't feel the pain of loss, but that's a bigger problem for her than it is for us. If we need to, I can potentially twist her energy back against her, sending her forces against her. It wouldn't last long, but it would get us enough time to move in closer and best her," M said, Jacke grabbed a few sodas from his mini-fridge and passed them out, handing two to M, he'd never had one so we were hoping he'd like it. He chugged the first one and smiled before setting it down and turning his focus back to the map on the table.
"We're going to need to hit her with everything we've got, all at once, and not give her the time of day to rebuild. She's got an army at her back, but they only serve her as they've no choice but to. Jameson, how bright can you burn?"
We all looked at Jamie, only to see his eyes twinkle a bright white, and when I tell you that the grin on the Golden Child's face looked sinister; I mean every word, he looked as if this were a war he had been waging for years, and only now had the opportunity to end. Alex looked at me with a worried look, she didn't like this at all, but we didn't have much of a choice. In order for us to live on, La Bruja had to be slain, once and for all. She may not know the history between me and her that well, but I swore, then and there, that once all this was said and done that I would answer any and all questions Alex had to ask. Damien took the pen from M's hand and jotted down some things he remembered from his time there, and brought up the dread feeling there.
"There's something bigger at work in that realm, It rightfully belongs to Lady Muerte, but there's some other being down there. There's no possible way that La Bruja alone would be able to raise a legion that strong, what could be down there?" Damien asked, sincerely worried about this, if he was worried about something down there then we had to know what it was or we would be just as blind as he had been. All eyes on M, he sighed, and it seemed like he knew the answer but dared not to say it.
"You all focus on the Witch, whatever's down there is my fight, not yours; If I'm right, it's no enemy you can face and win, I may have the chance to; Yet only if he dares to show his face, and if he does, remember the story of Medusa: There are fates worse than death."