Master Of None

Making it over the massive dune brought everyone to a sight to behold. A true sight that showed off the strength of nature and the forces that were trying to resist it. Naturally, the forces were always the intelligent races that tried to create their own places against nature. While this protected them, it also seemed to challenge the very flow of the elemental world.

The entire army took formation but witnessed the sand tornado colliding with many partially uncovered stone structures. The stones seemed to have been carved and assembled like puzzle pieces. They fit together in ways that would cause many people to wonder how they had even been carved. The race that did it definitely took many years to properly assemble it.

This way of building had made it last years and years though. The uncovered stone temples and other buildings were perfectly resisting the high winds and sands as the storm burned itself out atop it. The winds were pushing the sands to break away the weakened layers of stone yet also allowing the entire army to see the depths of the city uncovered.

The massive dunes on either side were also being built up. It showed that not only had nature made this area like this, but also that the race had purposefully made these structures to redirect sands brought by sand storms and sand tornados alike. It required a lot of careful thought and years of understanding when it came to the ways of the desert storms.

Furthermore, the storm had drawn attention to another dune as well. On top of it were many soldiers preparing for battle. This was when the Fel angels saw them and began to move towards them. Ethan made it known that those were the soldiers stationed here to fight the undead that emerged. They had come out to see the storm pass over and become trapped in the unnatural structuring of the city. But they seemed not to worry at all. Apparently, this was not the first storm that had ever come to collide with the city while they were there.

The movements to meet the other forces of the Fel empire made everyone refocus where they were looking. However, this did not stop Walker from taking another look at the city. The uncovered ruins seemed to have been cut away and even repaired in places. While the winds broke some of the spots down, he still used his all around appraisal to understand what might be hiding within.

’Death’s marrow ruins

These ruins were from a unique race of lizardkin. The lizard kin were somewhat peaceful until radical ideals began to grow during a famine. This famine pushed the beliefs toward the darker side of things and also brought about multiple theories that were only founded by those that desired power over all else.

The small amount of dragon blood in their veins had long separated them from the average lizardman, unfortunately, they would never be dragonkin and were stuck in between without wings. Their worship of death caused many necromancy related experiments. The death mana was not easily controlled and caused many unique undead to form.

Through these experiments, the blood was forced to crystallize within the bones becoming a crystal marrow of condensed life and death energies. Therefore, more undead were born in this unique way further encouraging the growth of their ideals. The city slumbered for many years before the mana within finally resurfaced. The race had sealed itself to be able to survive and reawaken after a certain time.

Cheating the natural flow of existence is foolish. The city and all the lands around were cursed to cause the beings never to awaken. Unfortunately, there were other forces that still caused some to awaken. This had caused the current growth of curses, death mana, undead monsters, and further issues.

There are many other creatures born within the depths that still slumber. If the ruins are properly uncovered, then the worship rituals of a false death god will continue causing more to awaken. Forced of over ten thousand undead slumber within the depths of the city ruins…’

While there was much more, Walker was caught up for a moment trying to understand the little he had just been able to read. He couldn’t believe that the famine had caused such a drastic change in a society. There wasn’t even evidence that he could appraise from where he stood that they had ever worshiped a goddess of life or harvest at all. They had completely altered everything about their culture.

While the loss of food was drastic, it seemed that there was some sense to save the people. By putting themes asleep, they could have managed to save some. Yet, they had chosen to go through the use of necromancy to make undead. A system type that was naturally hated because many resorted to evil means when using it. That didn’t mean there weren’t good necromancers. There was bad and good in every side of everything. It just depended on the being using such methods.

What truly hit Walker, was the sheer number of undead that were underneath the ruins. The entire population of ten thousand that had once grown to live in this place were put to slumber as undead here. That meant there would be more of the undead mummified worshippers and worse. It also went to say that the other undead monstrosities that were created would show themselves. There wouldn’t only be the screeching evil things Walker had already seen once.

There was also the fact that these were another instance of having a small amount of dragon blood. While it was rough being less than a dragonkin but more than a lizard man, the only reason it seemed that this was used was because those that worshiped death had used it to pursue their goals. So much so that they had forcefully condensed all the blood in bodies to become crystals. A disgusting a brutal thing. But it created undead that could reform and recover from being crushed or broken. That was the monstrosities that Walker came to think about.

Looking toward the others, Walker showed everything he felt on his face. His anger and disgust were clear for his party and the royal dragons to see. It didn’t take them long to come to him and hear every word of the all around appraisal he was able to do on the city. While the ruins were one thing to look at and wonder about, the information as an entirely new thing.

As Rise recoiled hearing about everything done here, Mordant looked ready to unleash his own wrath. He hated that some race had fallen so far. That they had latched on to the small amount of dragon relation they had to create even worse creatures. Ignus wanted to just burn away everything while Ventus hoped that the increase in the sand tornado caused even more damage.

”If this is going to be a losing battle, we need to get deeper in to that ruin and get rid of the source or defeat the sleeping undead.” Su understood that beating them while they were not a threat would be the key here.

”That’s why Midnight, Onyx, and Mordant are going to scout through those ruins. Right? Ventus just has to send a little power to break that tornado. It’s already slowing.” Gil was able to sense the lacking wind mana around. The sand tornado was being forced to a stop because of the intricate stone structures. But it would still be a while before the storm could dissipate due to the wind currents an added boost from Ventus that caused it to grow even more.

”Who cares about scouting, we should just charge in during the day and break it all down to nothing. Those demons will get here if we don’t break it all first. Then we can wait and set a nice trap for that slime breeding bastard!” Remey was thinking a little differently. She wanted to get everything crushed here so that they could turn around and capture their original goal.

While it wasn’t a bad thought process, it would not be able to get them where they needed to be. ”We can’t rush this. We have to carefully eradicate everything here. We have no idea if other ruins are here either. The crushing we need is not a kind that destroys it all. Instead, we need to crush the sources of it all with purification. With pure light.” Rise was speaking more now that she knew where their enemy was. It also made everyone feel that they were a righteous force defeating evil. It was a unique trait that Rise seemed to have.

”No, we need to meet the other Fel empire forces. They don’t know us and need to be in on a plan. Let’s take it slow.” Walker and Su spoke the same things. They wanted to guarantee a win here under every circumstance.

….

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