Dave walked along the tens of thousands of undead. They steadily marched forward in an organized and disciplined manner.
Though the undead doesn"t fear, some had their "breath" held when they walked near the sleeping t.i.tan.
The t.i.tan didn"t move, nor bother with the marching army, he already made a deal with Dave to let the army pa.s.s if they do not disturb it.
The burning pillar in the far distance served as a marker for the Burning Heights. An enormous land filled with similar looking pillars burning all over the place.
"Do you know what is the significance of these pillars Du"Raza?" asked Dave.
"It is said that these Pillars serve as tombstones for the fallen knights of the Ash-King. The Ash-King is a powerful ent.i.ty and I can say that his power is comparable to our king. But due to our kin"s ability to raise the dead, the Ash-King used these pillars to act as both a tombstone and deterrent against necromancy.
"How so?" asked Dave
"Whenever a powerful ent.i.ty of the Ash-King falls, this pillar will manifest as a protection against the necromancy of us Liches we cannot resurrect them to our ranks," said Du-Raza
Looking at the numerous pillars in the distance Dave understood that great battles must have occurred here.
"The Undead Legion attempted to invade this place before I presume?" asked Dave.
"Yes, this was long ago, when our Undead-King was much more powerful, it was here where the king was betrayed by his closest. If the king managed to obtain this land, the whole underworld could have been his. But a despicable traitor acted against us, used the aide of the Black-Skull order and informed the Ash-King of the invasion, so they prepared for us, and we suffered great defeat at the hand of the Ash-King."
"Looking at the number of the pillars here I say that you didn"t go down without a fight."
"Ha! Indeed, who do you think we are! We are the undead, NEVER HUNGER! NEVER TIRE! NEVER FEAR!"
The moment he said that the whole army shouted at once!
"NEVER HUNGER! NEVER TIRE! NEVER FEAR!"
The voice made Dave"s heart tremble. The army reciting the Undead"s Pa.s.sive as their catch-phrase made the hair on his body stand.
"True, the undead fear nothing, even in face of defeat they will fight to the last breath, they are already dead, what is the worse that could happen to them"
Dave had a smile on his face, he was glad he was amongst the undead. The most loathed race in any VRMMORPG he ever played, are now his kin, and his brothers. He is one of them and will do all for them.
As of now, all the undead held respect toward Dave, he was but a low-ranked undead, yet they all gave him a lot of credit, for saving many of their superiors, for being the one that helped capture the Undead-Frontier, and for having convinced an ancient t.i.tan to make way for them.
This was Dave"s all, it was…his family.
The warmth of a family was something Dave never had the chance to experience, and now something like a small seed started blossoming in his heart. A feeling of affiliation. Members.h.i.+p, and understanding.
Dave smiled and walked in confident steps along the army of the dead.
They pa.s.sed pillars by pillars, which noticeably increased in numbers, and at the far distance atop a great hill, almost the size of a small mountain stood a red fortress. The fortress had four spiral towers, one in each corner.
These towers were linked with high and st.u.r.dy looking walls. And behind the fortress was an immense active volcano acting as a barrier preventing attacks from behind it.
The hill had a natural moat of lava flowing around it, protecting the fortress.
"Wow, this is not going to be easy," said Dave as he noticed that the bridge of the fortress was pulled up.
The sound of bells sounded in the distance and the four towers at the corners of the fortress all lit up with a blazing flame.
"They signaled the alarm," said Du"Raza with a mild expression.
"How are you planning to cross the moat? Asked Dave.
"Eh, well, simply walk over the lava. A lot of our brethren will die, but their bodies will make a for a temporary bridge, using my ice magic I can make it stable for a while for us to directly walk on and attack the gate. Once the gate is down we can destroy them from within." Said Du"Razaha in a manner-of-factly.
Dave turned to look at the Abyssal Knight Dagla with a questioning gaze.
The Abyssal Knight didn"t look the least disturbed when hearing Du"Raza"s plan, so he probably already knew about.
"Won"t that be a huge loss of troops? Don"t you have any siege weapons? Or long planks and ladders? That can be used to cross the moat?" asked Dave.
Du"raza looked embarra.s.singly at Dave and said.
"We didn"t bring any of those…"
Dave facepalmed as he thought, "these guys…if I didn"t show up, and they decided to go through the t.i.tan they would probably have less than half their current forces, and forcing a good amount of them to die to make a path for the rest to attack the fortress would even further reduce their numbers. What the h.e.l.l are they thinking! This was their plan? The undead sure have a lot of numbers but what the heck is wrong with them wasting that numerical advantage over poorly planned attacks and siege methods. I am surprised they still remain in the Underworld!"
"Lad, do you have a better plan?" asked the Abyssal Knight.
Dave was about to shake his head when a shadow appeared in between him, Du"Raza and the Abyssal Knight.
"Lord Samael!" said Dave as his eyes perked at the appearance of the Ghoul that showed up.
"You are here. Interesting, So Dagla, why is the wait, you should be on your way to attack the fortress, they already sounded the alarm and I believe we have few hours before the information reaches the ears of the army seigeing the Undead-Frontier. If that army returns, this mission will be a failure."
"I know Samael, then let us attack!" he said yet before he issued the command Dave interrupted!
"Wait! I have an idea!" Dave said.
"What is it?" asked Samael and the Abyssal Knight Dagla at the same time.
Dave"s eyes wandered as he stroke his beared before he answered then a smile plastered on his face.
"Lord Samael, do you still have those Frozen Souls?"
"Hmm? Yes, but they won"t be of use against the walls of the fortress, those walls are imbued with magic that will nullify the effect of the Frozen souls once they are in contact."
"No, we are not attacking the walls of the fortress with those," said Dave with a smirk
"Do you see the volcano over there? Asked Dave.
The trio looked up.
"What about it?" asked Samael.
"How long would it take you to get there?"
"I can get there in less than half an hour. But why?"
"Then can you do this for me…" said Dave as he gave instruction to Samael privately.
After hearing Dave"s say, Samael became puzzled.
"I don"t see how doing that would help…" said Samael
"Just trust me on this one."
"Alright," said Samael and disappeared from sight.
"What did you tell him?" Asked Du"Raza.
"You will see, Lord Dagla, can I ask you to halt your army"s advance for 30 minutes?"
"That Samael has respect for you, then so be it! Du"Raza let the army rest for a while. We shall resume our attack in 30 minutes!"
Time slowly pa.s.sed by while Dave"s gaze didn"t lock away from the mountain.
Du"Raza was still puzzled over the task that Dave gave Samael, but didn"t ask more questions and just waited.
An explosion soon echoed in the far distance, and Dave"s had a wide smile on his face.
"It should begin now," Dave said
Moments later, the lava moat that was surrounding the fortress started turning darker and darker by the minute and the flow of lava slowed down significantly.
"What is happening?" asked Dagla as he noticed the change.
"Simply put, I asked Samael to use the frozen souls to redirect the lava flow coming from the volcano. Once the flow is redirected, the magma around the fortress will cool off and we can walk over it, no need to sacrifice unnecessary lives in doing so. Lord Dagla, you can now issue the attack command,"
Lord Dagla had a wide smile on his face when he roared, "LEGION OF THE UNDEAD! IT IS TIME TO RECLAIM THE LAND THAT WAS DESTINED TO US! MARCH FORWARD!"
The steady sound of the Undead rose, and Dave knew that once the undead reached the gate of the fortress a wholesale slaughter will enact. He couldn"t be more excited even if he wanted.