Chapter 502: The Wrath Of The Righteous [Part 1]
The three Goliaths, Monstrous Skeleton Sovereign, Giant Slaying Draugr, and Nuckelavee, towered beside William. They simply stood there, like three tall mountains, but that was more than enough to make the expressions of the Elves turn pale.
The portals above William’s head, and in front of him, were still active as hundreds of thousands undead soldiers marched forward. Like the System had told him before, they numbered over twenty million. A number that had exceeded the army of the Elves, and to a certain extent, the army of the Kraetor Empire as well.
“I call upon the heroes, whose names have been forgotten,” William said softly as the undead warriors all raised their weapons in recognition of his words. “In an Era where hope was scarce, and many were saddened.”
“When all hopes were lost, and victory was out of sight.
That was the time when humanity showed its true might.”
Hundreds of thousands of lights shot out from William’s chest as they landed on the battlefield. All the members of the Minotaur Tribe that had died in the battle, and those that he had recalled inside his thousand Beast Domain, once again appeared on the battlefield.
Similar to Erchitu, all of them had dark-blue skin. Their eyes, and parts of their body, flared with eerie bluish flames, as they stared at their adversaries that had taken their lives.
Surprisingly, it was not only the Minotaurs that appeared. Elves, and humans were there as well. They had turned into undead revenants, and shared the same features as the Minotaur race.
The Elves shivered as they recognized some of their fallen comrades had once again risen up from where they had fallen. Only this time, they were fighting on the side of Humans.
Williams’ words rang loudly in the surroundings as he raised the dead from their slumber in order to fight for his side.
“Come, brave warriors of old,” William ordered. “Monsters abound, and war behold.”
“Show them the might of those that were forgotten.
Make them see the error of the path they have trodden.”
William waved his Scepter once and all the undead took a fighting stance.
“Kill!” William ordered. “Send these foul elves and their guardians to the afterlife! Show them the Wrath of the Righteous!”
Nuckelavee roared and charged forward. The Giant Skeleton and Draugur ran behind it and the ground trembled in their wake.
The Arcane Spectral Lich urged his Dragon and it stood between Drakon Nalzrig and Dia. The Lich gave Est a sidelong glance before facing the Guardian Beast in front of him.
“Is it fun to bully children?” The First King of the Hellan Kingdom asked. “You don’t need to answer. I’ll chop your body apart and use it as an ingredient for my experiments.”
Although he had turned into a Lich after touching Malacai’s staff, and had been inside the Undying Lands since then, he still held strong feelings toward the Kingdom that he had founded.
Drakon Nalzrig felt an unprecedented danger come from the Arcane Spectral Lich whose hatred for him was evident. However, he also understood that they were at war and it was only natural that the Lich didn’t like him.
“I don’t mind killing you twice, Lich,” Nalzrig replied. “I’ll grind your bones and use it as fertilizer.”
The Lich chuckled as it raised its magic staff. Talk was cheap, it was now time to take action.
Several Dark Rays shot out its staff like laser beams. The King of the Winged Serpents cast a magical barrier to protect himself from the attack, but to his surprise, the Dark Rays passed through his barrier, and caught him completely off guard.
A pained cry erupted from Nalzrig’s lips as the Lich’s Undead Magic tore off his draconic scales and dissolved his flesh. This was the first time that he had experienced something like this, and he immediately retreated to a safe distance in order to heal his injuries.
“Just like an earthworm that has been sprinkled with a bit of salt,” the Lich teased. “Does it hurt? Don’t worry. There’s more where that came from.”
The Undead Dragon flapped its wings and gave chase. The Arcane Spectral Lich had already confirmed Est’s identity and because of this, he wouldn’t allow anyone to hurt him.
—–
Drauum’s body crashed heavily towards the Elven Formation, severely injuring the Elves that were unlucky enough to be on the same spot where he landed.
Nuckelavee’s horse neighed in contempt as it charged towards the Pseudo-Demigod whom it wanted to crush under its heels.
Kasogonaga, who had been fighting alongside Psoglav gazed at the Devil of the Sea with genuine surprise.
“It really is Nuckelavee!” Kasogonaga gasped as the giant abomination rampaged within the disorderly Elven Army.
After the surprise passed, a devilish smile appeared on Kasogonaga’s face. There were several instances when it had fought side by side with Nuckelavee during the Era of the Gods.
The rainbow-colored Anteater knew how strong it was, so it had a smug expression on its face as he once again turned into a spiky rainbow-colored-wreckingball that was out for blood.
Psoglav sneered at the Elves that had lost their composure. Its Doppelganger was keeping up with Kasogonaga to ensure that the Anteater would not delve too deep into the enemy’s ranks again.
After the Incident with Erchitu, Kasogonaga had learned its lesson and stayed within reasonable bounds.
Just as the three were engaging multiple enemies, a Bronze Dragon swept down from the sky. Its target were the two beasts that were creating a lot of casualties due to their teamwork.
The Bronze Dragon opened up its mouth and unleashed a Dragon Breath at the Demonic Dog who had just finished killing two elves in succession.
“Sh*t!” Kasogonaga cursed loudly. It braced itself for the impact because the Dragon had attacked him from his blindspot. He was unable to dodge, nor cast a protective barrier because there was no time for it.
Right before the Dragon Breath hit the Demonic Dog, a giant shadow covered it. Searing flames streaked past Psoglav’s side as a Giant Ox stood in front of it, protecting it from one of the Dragon’s strongest moves.
Erchitu stood tall as blue flames erupted from its mouth, colliding with the Dragon’s Breath. The two attacks cancelled each other out.
The Bronze Dragon was about to soar towards the sky in order to flee, but a Giant Axe flew in the air and partially cut the base of its wings, preventing it from flying away.
The Dragon screamed in pain as it tried to stabilize its body from the air, but Erchitu didn’t give it that opportunity. The Giant Ox summoned his axe back and threw it once again. This time, it cut off the Bronze’s Dragon’s wing completely, sending it crashing towards the ground.
Erchitu once again summoned his axe as it ran towards the fallen Dragon. Once near, Erchitu jumped into the air and body slammed the Dragon with all its might.
The Bronze’s Dragon’s body was sturdy, so it didn’t take much damage from Erchitu’s attack. However, the Giant Ox’s true motive was to pin the dragon down, as his weapon… hacked it to pieces!
The Adamantium Axe descended with fury at the Dragon’s neck, sending sparks flying in every direction. The Dragon roared in pain as the Adamantium Axe embedded its blade a few inches into its neck.
Erchitu didn’t relent in his attack and continued to slash his axe, with the intention of cutting the dragon’s head off completely.
When the Dragon’s head was finally cut off from its body, a whip of darkness wrapped around it. Psoglav pulled the head towards him and happily stored it inside his storage ring. The Dragon’s Millennial Core was located in its head, so Psoglav had no intention of letting it go.
“Erchitu is that really you?” Psoglav asked as it looked at the disgruntled Giant Ox in front of it.
‘Yes,’ Erchitu replied through telepathy.
Psoglav didn’t know why, but it felt relieved after hearing its friend’s confirmation. It thought that the Giant Ox in front of it was only an empty husk that William had reanimated using Undead Magic.
Knowing that his friend was alive… rather, dead, but alive, the Demonic Dog’s anger decreased significantly as it ran towards its Doppelganger, and the rainbow-colored Anteater, who was laughing crazily as it slaughtered as many Elves as it could.
The scary part was that, everytime an Elf died, they would immediately rise up as undead warriors.
This unholy practice unnerved the Elves and made them feel despair.
Elandorr knew that it was only a matter of time before the place where he was would be overrun, so he decisively gave the order to retreat.
“Vanguards! Hold them back!” Elandorr ordered. “Rearguards prepare to cover our retreat!”
Little by little, the Elven Army got pushed back. It didn’t even take half an hour before all of them had completely left the vicinity of the city.
Ezkalor and Zyphon no longer spectated as they did their best to cover the Elves’ retreat. Unfortunately, the Grim Nightmare Revenant, and Diabolical Death Knight engaged them in one-on-one combat, giving the two Giants, The Monstrous Skeleton Sovereign, and the Giant Slaying Draugr free reign to massacre the elves as they pleased.
Eneru was currently locked in a battle with Jekyll, and this time, it was Jekyll that had the upper hand. He was unable to catch the Qilin during their earlier battle because the latter had used ranged attacks to bombard him with lightning bolts.
The Qilin that had lost a good chunk of his power had opted for ranged combat. Eneru knew that he couldn’t beat Jekyll at close range, so he used cheap shots to harass the Taotie from afar.
All of that ended when William and his undead army appeared.
For some reason, the Qilin was unable to use his incredible speed to escape, and only flew at his normal speed.
Eneru glared hatefully at William because he knew that this powerful suppression was coming from him. The Half-Elf noticed that the Qilin was glaring at him, so he did what he had to do and waved back at Eneru with a smile.
The Qilin almost spat blood at the shamelessness of the Half-Elf who had interfered with his fight against Jekyll. Due to the slight loss of concentration, a massive tail slapped the side of its head, and sent it crashing towards the houses near the Eastern part of the city.
King Minos had already received treatment from William and had re-joined the battle against the Qilins and Dragons that posed a threat to the Minotaur Race. Although he felt disgruntled that Nuckelavee had taken his prey, he also didn’t want to mess with the Devil of the Sea.
He had seen with a single glance that he was not the Devil’s match. Since that was the case, he then focused his attention on the other threats of the battlefield and plucked their lives one by one.
For every Qilin and Dragon that fell, the sneer on William’s face widened. With a wave of his scepter, these magical beasts were revived and bared their fangs at the Elven Army.
Every minute that passed, thousands died.
Every minute later, thousands of undead were born.
The Staff of Malacai glowed eerily in William’s hands as he stood on the back of a Bone Dragon.
William’s Beast Legion wanted to join the battle, but William prevented them from doing so. Only King Minos, the Minotaur Revenants, Kasogonaga, and Psoglav had been given the permission to continue to fight.
(A/N: Minotaur Revenants are the MInotaur Races that William had once again brought back to life in order to fight for his side. Erchitu is one of them.)
The Half-Elf didn’t want to see any members of his Legion to risk their lives now that the Undead Army was under his command. Although he could bring them back to life as an undead, William knew that they wouldn’t be the same as when they were alive.
Besides, even if the Skeleton Soldiers were smashed to bits, as long as he held Malacai’s Scepter, those broken bones would re-attach themselves and continue to fight.
Simply put, there was no need for William’s Herd and Legion to risk their lives in a battle that was dominated by the Undead, whose numbers were steadily increasing, as the life of Elves, and their Magical Beasts, were culled like grasses on the open plains.