"Brother… I think something broke" Zola whispered, hidden in darkness, which was nothing but a hiding spot considering what was going to come looking for them, but even if part of the undead king's dominion, dark was rather soothing, one could not see anything, and thus felt like nothing else could see them either.
"Something you say? I almost went deaf for how loud it was! Must have been the barrier… We are all fucked" Saul was not very optimistic, especially after what the brothers had done.
After bearing witness to most suspicious activities, they had wanted to inform someone at first, but their guts told them to shut the hell up, a feeling that only intensified when they noticed unknown people searching for something at night, them they assumed, seemingly sanctioned by the headmaster despite being total strangers, they had taken to empty rooms of the academy and hidden like cowards for a lengthy period of time, even missing out on the call to arms against the undeads, not by choice, they were asleep like logs.
Spent from never sleeping in fear of being caught at their weakest, and so, they had remained behind.
"Saul… We need to do something, we can't just hide until death comes to find us!" standing up, Zola hit his head on some shelf.
"I mean…" Saul thought for a moment.
"...If they breached the barrier, we're all going to die anyways, so might as well look good while doing it…" he had wanted to deny, but he failed to envision a world where he did not end up as either a pile of bones or a rotten husk wandering the badlands, so before meeting his disgraceful, he might was well attempt to look cool and heroic for a split second.
"No Saul, remember our adventuring days? We did not go exploring random woods and huts with the prospect of finding nothing, no matter how obvious it was that nothing of value would be found, we went out with the certainty that we were going to come back richer than the king himself! We are going to go out there, and beat some undead ass!"
He managed to find his way to a door, flinging it open, allowing some of the shine of a nearby crystal to illuminate the room, Saul staring at his brother with a distinct look of confusion.
"What the hell is up with you today? You are getting me fired up as well! Fuck it! Let's go!" running out through the dimly lit hallways, grabbing equipment on their way out, launching themselves out of the academy, the capital set alight with great pyres burning with the volcano witch's flame, Wanneckssa was already under assault.
"Dear gods, the barrier broke just a few minutes ago at most, and how are they here already? Are the other barriers not capable of barring the way to the undeads at all?!"
Indeed, only the outermost barrier had held the power to stop the advantage of the soldiers of eternity, and now that the king's dark dominion was expanding, growing in power as it consumed territory once dominated by life, it impacted upon his followers as well, the servants of oblivion were spreading deep into the territory, the forces of Tamaris could not stop them all, not even close, the living soldiers, the soldiers of Antieeld, they were already submerged, the dead were seeping through the defences and into the entirety of life's last bastion.
And indeed, already were they marching upon the capital, fighting was already breaking out between the guards of the capitals and all soldiers that had remained, spearheaded by the few remaining royal guards, and as they fought to defend the founding city of their kingdom, the palace erupted with debris, the malformed shape of the ghost lord clashing against the furious mechanical might of the last steam knight, burning steam erupted from all over the royal suit of armour, the gravelord meeting blows and weaving in between them, taking the fight atop the castle.
Twisting his body, lifting up in the air, he howled, his cry propagating all over the capital, gripping all with fear, shaking their minds, but soon did they catch themselves and resumed fighting.
Saul and Zola were brought to their knees, gasping for air, simply being around a gravelord was enough to sap them of all their strength.
In the minute or so they remained still, the academy went up in flames, a magical fight breaking out within, they turned, but could not wonder too long about what may be happening, the source, the reason, it did not matter, the academy and capital were the last buildings, they stood at the very end of the capital, up on high hills, and as such, close to the walls.
A singular undead stepped out of the surroundings woods, dressed in ample black clothing, standing with the distinctive poise of a seasoned fighter, already, the brothers swallowed their saliva, a mere undead warrior, and they could feel it, totally outmatched.
A small cloak draped over the shoulders, this undead's facial features were hidden by the veil of a hood overflowing with darkness, only one skeletal hand sticked out of a sleeve, indeed, this eternal soldier was missing the right arm, grasping onto a longsword, of the Tochian style, unsheathing it with finesse, deliberately, dark blade gleaming under the shine of nearby mana crystals, giving it a bluish hue.
Both of the brothers had been trained as spearmen, consolidating their postures, pointing their only recently forged weapons toward the enemy, who was walking toward them without haste, tip of the blade only barely not dragging against the ground.
And then, it stopped, rising their left arm, perfectly straight along the vertical axis, grasp upon the hilt not strong, almost sluggish, holding this pose for one second exactly, most definitely a battle art, but neither of the two living could sense or decipher those, so they simply prepared themselves for impact, moving one foot gracefully, just barely above ground, without momentum, the undead warrior moved forth, blade crashing into the handle of Saul's spear, nearly cleaving it, but they had been taught arts as well, and he had prepared by reinforcing his weapon, still, he was thrown back by the sheer brutal strength held behind this one swift movement.
Kneeling down to take the blow, Saul felt his arms shaking, and that was not all, behind the undead, as it had flown forth, blade of mana were formed by the art as well, Zola thrusted at the undead's back, only to be forced to stop as the blade were all fired at him, the dead, without turning, kicked back at his head.
Zola blocked the strike completely by accident, having not seen it coming at all.
"Dear lord, is this one of those minor lords?!"
"High-Soldier" the corpse responded, hard to tell, but it was most certainly mocking them.
And just as it said this, more undeads emerged from the woods.
"Zola, do you still believe what you said earlier?"
"It was mostly bravado… But you know, getting pieced up by lesser undeads after saying all of this is far from glorious…"
"Yeah, I get what you are saying"
And in this agreement, they both threw their spears and took off running like two cowards, but two very fast cowards, throwing themselves down the rather steep slope that was the entrance into the academy, rolling down without grace, no clue where they were even going, the capital was being invaded from all sides.
"For eternity! Bring oblivion to the heretical living!" the high-soldier spoke in death tongue, raising its blade high.
Passing by, vampiric beasts of Vespertillo took the lead, leaving the others in the dust, sensing and smelling the stench of life still bustling within Wanneckssa.
This would be allowed, no longer.