Necropalypse: The River of Souls

"Kk" Doomy nodded and walked ahead. Marking the walls as he progressed through the hallways.


"If you have the explosives ready I can put them in and make the timer. And then we can get out of here before the popsicle stand goes boom."

"Them explosives are ready."

Rol handed over the explosives to Ren, after doing a quick once over to make sure he didn't fuck up.

Herst meanwhile, proceeds to tail Doomy carrying the robot, yawning even.

"Okay, thanks." She puts the explosives in what was once Scott's leg. Closed it and set the timer. "Let's get the hel out of here. I set the timer to fifteen minutes in case we get lost."

----
Doomy walks ahead, marking his path. "If we keep going in the same general direction, we'll eventually find a way out, right?"

((Since I can see it's kinda hard to reply here I'll fast forward to a more interesting part, the explosion.))

+/-15 minutes later:

Everyone and an unconscious scott reach the abandoned village again.
"Think we're far enough?"
"We'll find out in about.. 5."
"Five?"
"..4,3,2,1.."
"Oh shit!"

Behind them the pyramid blasts apart. A bright blue ball of fire expands and rises above where the pyramid once stood. The shockwave blows away the houses around the group And they all die.
The group is blasted off their feet but is otherwise unharmed. Above them they see a gigantic mushroom cloud above a crater the size of what was once the marsh. An afterglow of Mana residue lights up the area slightly.

The moon slowly loses its green color and returns to normal now that the pyramid is no longer directing the soul river at it. Reganya is the first to get back up. "Everyone okay?"

Considering that Herst wasn't knockdown in the first place, he never had to get up, but was shaking his head from either the bright light, dust having flown into his face or both. 

"Knew I should have thrown a barrier up..."

He muttered annoyed.

"WHY DO I ALWAYS GET DIRTY?"

Rol yelled, while brushing dust off himself, or maybe it was sand, or leftover undead powder. OR COCAINE.

"Jeez. Someone should have thrown a barrier up" The bounty hunter started saying before Stranger danger/Herst made the same compliant.

Herst tilted his head in what may be confusion, though he can not be blamed. The one called Roltharus had said "showed" where a "should" would have been, thus ruining his sentence.

"Ugh..That was not fun. Let's not do that again. Wait.. Why is everything blue?"


"That's just the Mana fallout. It's not as dangerous as it's name would make you think."


"No.. I mean like I only see in shades of blue.. "


"You looked towards the explosion didn't you?" She sighed.


"..yes..."


"Figures, It'll wear off in a few hours.. or days. More importantly we still have a job to do. We might have destroyed the pyramid but according to what we read, we still need to find the source of the river of souls and reboot it. Guess it's time for Doomy's family reunion."


"Dammit my name isn't.. ugh whatever I give up."


"It'll go faster with a vehicle so let's get back to the Inn first."

Herst seemingly gave everyone a blank look.

"Considering I just finished my job to the fullest capacity, I'd normally leave. Yet... Something... Compels me to not leave you..."

Herst seemed out of it, before sharply bringing out a journal and opening it up, only to stash it away again in a few seconds of reading something.

"Nay, it appears this will mark a new chapter for me. I ask you all a favor, and that is to allow me to journey with you for a time."


Herst then knelt on one knee as a knight would and awaits answer with his head bowed.

"Something tells me it's Ren's responsibility to answer that question."

The bounty hunter looked at Herst doing his kneeling thingy. He whispered to Scott's unconscious body, well not so much an actually whisper, but a yelling whisper.

"Man, what is with this guy? He's strange. I'm stranger. But he's strange.. OH NOW I GET WHY I CALLED HIM STRANGER DANGER."

"Not sure why it would be my responsibility. Then again I'm probably the only one here with any sense of responsibility... Sure, we could use all the help we can get."


"Is this guy seriously kneeling?.."


"Let's get back to the Inn we can drop off the robot there while we're at it. And then hope there's a vehicle available."

The party gets a new member and they travel back to the Inn. When they get there they see Kiro (like I said, Kenichi is too japanese for a name. Kiro could be anything. So Yeah, changed my characters name.) watching over a construction crew while they slowly rebuild the Inn. He really stood out with his white fur and tail. Some of the workers seemed to be scared of him. Mostly because he looked like an albino blood wolf. But those don't exist, even Kiro himself wasn't sure what he was.
He seemed to be the only member at the Inn today.


"Kiro, we need a vehicle to get to Valkyrea."


"Valkyrea?"


"Doomy has relatives there who might know how to stop a third undead plague."

Reganya told him about everything that happened. Including the scott bomb and stranger danger. "Figured that explosion I heard was you guys.. My ears are still ringing from that." He wiggled his ears.
"Luckily we still have an ornithopter for you guys. I can't fly it though, I need to stay here and make sure this construction crew does it's job. Any of you know how to fly that thing?"


"Don't worry about that, I can get us there."


"Alright, just leave scott with me and get going. And Herst was it? Nice meeting you."
Kiro turned his atention back to the workers and the Inn. Reganya then walked over to the ornithopter and opened the door. "No time to waste. Let's get going." Doomy nodded and got inside. "You sure you can fly this thing?"


"Doomy I can fly anything. You don't remember the times where I flew you?"


".. shuddup.. That's not the same thing anyway."


"Isn't it?" Reganya said before possessing the Ornithopter and starting the engine.


"..how the .."

"Damn Deathy, not satisfying your women so she resorts to machines and toys. Jeez."

Rol started to enter the vehicle before stopping himself and turning towards Deahty.

"Would it be rude if I entered your girlfriend before you did?" The bounty hunter asked, not wanting to be offensive.

Herst stood there awkwardly to the side.

"I'm just gonna go by foot. I'm... I never enjoyed flight without actual wings..."

"Roltharus, I know you're trying to say something but all I'm hearing from you is 'Would you please punch me in the face, Dreadfyul?'."

Dreadfyul/Doomy said before going into the ornithopter and sitting down.



"..Herst you've never seen an ornithopter it seems.."
Reganya then activated the wings and two bird like wings popped out. They flapped once and the vehicle lifted a few inches off the ground. It hovered right there in place.
"Going on foot would take days, we don't have the time for that."

(It looks something like this:
But with bird wings instead of insect ones. And bigger.)(I might have to make my own concept art of this one day.. since I don't like the design of the above one much. The other pic wouldn't work so..)

Herst seemed disappointed, hard to tell with the hood and all, but his voice confirmed it.

"You really lumping me as a normal person that it takes days to travel on foot? Despite seeing otherwise? Merely 3 small spells will ensure I get there by nightfall a best."

The moon is still up there in the sky, not green anymore but still there. "... It's already night.. Well almost morning but still."

"omg stop gommodding, jeez herst l2p"

The bounty hunter spewed out his normal idiotic gibberish before stepping into the ornithopter.

"FOLLOW THE YELLOW BRICK ROAD!"


Rol yelled. pointing forward.

"I have no idea what that meant Rol, but I agree. I understand if you're afraid of flying in vehicles, Herst but I assure you, I know what I'm doing."


"Gommoding? L2p? Now you're just making up words."

Somehow they managed to get Herst to come along and Six hours later they arrive at the emperial castle in Valkyrea. It is almost noon but the clouds are blocking out the sun, so it's still as dark as it was when they left. The only difference is the lack of moon.

The castle  towers above them as the Ornithopter lands. Reganya folds up the wings and opens the doors. The castle is heavily fortified and well guarded. Dead tree stumps cover the area around the castle.


"I think we should first ask if we can enter. Wouldn't make a good impression to sneak in."


(Luckily, I CAN godmod here. I'm sure nobody wanted to argue for that long so again, timeskip. )

"Y'know. We're gonna have to sneak in anyways. Strangers showing up at someone's estate outta nowhere, asking for assistance. That's exactly something I would let happen, so I'm pretty normal people wouldn't.."

Rol stepped of the orthinopter thing and looked at the castle.

"Damn, that is a great track of land."

Herst wasn't afraid of heights. He didn't want to board the flying contraption because vehicles made him not travel sick, but unable to use magic for a length of time due to headaches. Something about movement at speeds whilst he himself remained un moving or something.

Either way, while his movements seemed normal, he wasn't speaking. He didn't want to. 

Likely because he knew that he would lash out verbally unwarranted. Now was not the time for such antics. So he remained quiet and observed.

"...Let's at least give it a try. It wouldn't be too weird for a guild to be recieved by royalty. Sure it's normally them that ask us for help but there's no reason the situation can't be reversed."

Royalty in Centrea had hit an all time low. Most of the royal famillies had been lost in the last great war and the undead plague that followed it. Only three families that survived were nowhere as powerful as they once were. One didn't even have their lands anymore and the other has a questionable claim at best. The Empress Valkyria might be the only Royal with any political power worth mentioning.
It was the Guilds that had the political power these days, along with the neutral DCGF mercenaries. And ChaoZ was both a guild and had ties with the DCGF.


"I doubt the empress would turn away a potential ally like us. If what I've heard is true then she's running low on those."
"That being said... I doubt the guards will react friendly to a faceless woman. So Doomy.. I'm gonna have to hitch a ride again."


"What?! NO!" His eyes widen and he turns around to run.
"Stop moving Doomy! I can't enter you if you keep running!"
Reganya chases after him.
"THATS WHY I'M RUNNING!"

"Man, Deathy. Playing hard to get doesn't normally work for the guy, c'mon"

The bounty hunter shook his head.

"Deathy's sister lives here right? I hope Deathy's family doesn't have some weird backwoods relationship history, could you imagine the tension if Deathy's sis wanted to bang 'em with Ren around maaaaan."

"... I may have a spare plain mask to tie an illusion onto for a face."

Herst gritted his teeth. Truthfully, he had masks already enchanted for work related purposes, but they still had to be refined to taste. 

"And wouldn't the dead one need to hide his face if we are visiting his family? Are we sure they would be okay with seeing someone they knew that died alive in a fashion again? Aside from the power I sense from him, he is basically still an undead."

His points were delivered in a tone that indicates that fooling around was grinding his mood the wrong way. 

After speaking, he took a flask from one of his many pockets and drained it, dropping the flask as he seemed to wipe his mouth. Then, taking a blank white mask out, he put it on his face and fell to his knees as if in pain. Minutes later, he removed his hood and revealed a face.

Brown hair that was looked as if it would resist grooming, blue eyes that seemed sharp from experience, a youthful face that made him look under the age of 20 but only just. His nose, ear, mouth and other related features didn't really stand out, but none would really notice with the eyes of a bright deep blue that pierced where their gaze laid.

Herst pulls out other masks and offers them to the group, even for Rol.

"Eww, Rol.. just eww."
"...I have no idea how to respond to that. I really don't."

Reganya turned to Herst and took one of the masks. "... I wonder." She shrugged and put on the mask. Her face markings swirled around much faster than they normally do. She clutched her head as if she had gotten a sudden migraine.
She then put her hands down and revealed her new face. "..How do I look?"
"What the.."
Her face was now a smiley. Her mouth was a line and her eyes were two black dots, there was no sign of a nose.
Doomy tried to continue speaking but there were no words that he could think of.
".. Figures, last time I tried to get a face it didn't work either. Too bad, I miss having a face."


"Anyway, as for Doomy being undead.. I'm pretty sure we mentioned this before but he's Death's nephew. Which makes the Empress Death's niece. So I'm pretty sure they're used to undead people hanging around. Then again, the undead are a controversial subject maybe Herst is right."


"I-I don't want to lie... This is my first time meeting my real family aside from my Aunt. If aunt told her about me.. And I show up wearing a mask.. She won't trust me. "


"Either way, the Empress must know that only Death herself could turn someone into a soul reaper like Doomy is. She might not believe us but Doomy is right. It would be a horrible first impression. ..A tough choice.

Also, Herst, these masks do come off easily, right? This isn't exactly the face I wanted, it might even be worse than my lack of face. You never know what the side effects are with these magical things."