Necropalypse: The River of Souls

"We need Mioki to come back. We don't stand a chance without her. Unfortunatly this means she can't go help fight the other hordes. But if this castle falls we lose access to the underworld and won't be able to fix the river of souls. We need her more than the others do." She frowned and sighed. Knowing that without mioki the others would have no way of stopping the undead hordes and many would die trying.
She got out of her chair and headed out of the dinning hall. "Come, we need to prepare our defenses to buy us enough time for Mioki to get back."

----

Meanwhile Doomy was in his room still not moving. Inside of his mind Reganya was controlling him to fight off the bandits that had ambushed him.
"Get the brat, see if he has anything worth taking." They laughed.
One of them grabbed the young doomy from behind. "Stay still and this won't hurt, for long."
Reganya made doomy spin around and form a dagger made out of shadows. They stabbed the bandit and he let go of Doomy.
Doomy fell but rolled and quickly got on his feet. Throwing the shadow dagger at another bandit.
This just pissed them off and one of them kicked Doomy in the face. Causing him to hit his head against the wall. Reganya was ejected from his body.

Suddenly she was standing in Doomy's room again. Doomy twitched on his bed but his eyes remained closed. "That one didn't work.." She sighed and sat down on the bed exhausted.

---

Downstairs The Empress had gotten into her armor and met up with Rol again. "You ready?"
She didn't wait for a reply. It didn't matter, ready or not the enemy would be at the gates any time now. "Remember these?" She held up a bunch of mana markers as she headed to the front gate. "We need to plant them around the castle and make another barrier. If we hurry we can set up three layers. That should buy us enough time, I hope." She handed the mana markers to Rol.

"Too bad recordings of sound magic don't carry on the effects." Rol sighed and took an inventory of his weaponry.

When he met up with Val again he nodded. "I'm a shadow bounty hunter, i'm always prepared." He looked at the familiar mana markers then back at Val. "Alright. Where?"

"Well the song is just a trigger for the spell. It wouldn't work that way.. Unless.. If you get a source of mana and something to channel it properly.. Huh.. That's crazy enough that it might actually work. But it'd take years of research and engineering. I should get someone to start working on that.. We need to survive this first though."

She raised an eyebrow. "Always? Interesting."
"Around the castle, three in front of the front gate, another three at each corner and three again at the back gate. Place the three of them in a row pointing towards the castle each time. I'll make three masses of shadow you can tie around them, making three barriers. While you go around I'll prepare the spells, just like last time."
She cast a spell and three masses of shadows formed. She nodded at Rol when she was finished and opened her book of spells. She took a deep breath before starting to chant in demonic again as Rol started placing the markers.

Ten minutes later Rol returns, having finished his task he finds Val still chanting. Her soldiers standing around her, ready to protect their empress. In the distance the generals undead army can be seen approaching through the dead trees. Lightning lits up the sky and the rain starts to pour down.
Val sees Rol approach and connect the last shadows. She closes her eyes to concentrate and finishes the spell. The shadows rise up forming three hexagonal barriers that cover the entire castel. The darkness of the barriers make it hard to see outside of them but the army of undead is large enough to still see it coming.
"Everybody back into the castle."
The Empress and her soldiers retreat into the castle. Rol following behind them.
The barrier keeps out the undead but also keeps the living inside. Keeping both sides from striking at each other, for as long as the barriers are up.


Later the Empress and Rol are standing on the battlements. Looking out they see the undead army arrive and spread out to surround the castle. The barrier keeps them from attacking but for how long?
"Theres more of them than I expected. Well at least we don't have to worry about umbrellas." Empress Valkyria joked as she tried to keep her soldiers from not noticing her fear.
The barrier indeed kept the rain from falling on the castle but it also kept out some light. If it wasn't for the torches it would be very hard to see. Even the lightning didn't make much difference.
"Now we wait."

"Yeah, I actually know next to nothing about magic so i was shooting in the dark, but glad to know that's something to look into."

Rol cracked his neck. "Always." And the bounty hunter went off to set up the barriers.

He returned and fell back to the castle with everyone else. "Pretty intense stuff."

The Empress nods. "Let's hope it doesn't get too intense before Mioki arrives."
All the Empress her soldiers moved into their positions. A dreadfull silence fell, the calm before the storm. Everyone kept their eyes on the movements outside the barriers despite barely being able to see them.
The silence was eventually broken by a loud bang. The undead army outside had started attacking the barrier.

Will the barriers be able to withstand their assault? Will Mioki arrive on time? Will Rol take advantage of this silence and hit on Val? Will the Reathy ship finally sail? Who will make out first? Val and Rol, Ren and Doomy or those two undead soldiers with unresolved sexual tensions outside?
Find out on the next episode of ChaoZ Stories: Necropalypse: The river of souls!

----

In the mean time..

Reganya woke up, lying next to Doomy. She noticed the lack of light the barriers were causing. She lit a lantern next to the bed. Doomy was still in his coma. She took a deep breath and went back in.

Doomy was already running towards the alley chasing the thieving animal that took his food. Reganya managed to catch up to him and possessed him again. This shocked Doomy, he almost stopped because of it but his hunger was too great to let that thief go.
Again he ran into the alley and the bandits surrounded him.
Reganya took control. Dodging the bandit that attempted to grab the boy. She then turned doomy into his shadow form and used this form to slip past the bandits and resumed the chase.
The bandits ran after them shouting threats.

That's when Reathy discovered the alley was a dead end. A wall blocked their progress. and the thief sat on top of that wall. It taunted doomy before jumping away.
"There he is!"
"You can't escape, brat!"
The bandits caught up with them. They advanced towards the boy with weapons in hand.

-----


Start of the next episode:


"That was fast.. there wasn't even a commercial break."
We couldn't find any sponsors that were willing to let us broadcast their things. :/
"Oh, damn.."
We'll have to go with plan B.
"No."
We have no choice Val!
"No way. I'm not doing a photoshoot for a ChaoZ bikini calendar. I'm royalty for fucks sake!"
We'll discuss this later, just start the episode.
"Fine."


Back on the battlements.
The Undead have been relentlessly attacking the outer barrier but so far it is holding up.
Val stands next to Rol, silently watching the movements outside.

"Normally i'd say something dumb to relieve tension, but i'm not feeling it right now."


The bounty hunter watched the barrier closely, hoping to notice any signs of the barrier breaking.

Val sighs. "This could take hours. We can't just keep staring at them the entire time. But if we go back inside we might miss it if they get through sooner than expected..."
The Empress jumped on the edge of the battlements before sitting down on them.
Aside from the undead soldiers banging on the barrier it was eerily quiet. And even that sound eventually faded and became background noise.
Val suddenly turned to face Rol. "All this time you've been trying to get into my royal pants. And yet you've barely told me anything about yourself."


----

Doomy took a step forward. The black sand shifted under his feet and he almost fell. Looking around the place reminded reganya of the inside of the source to the river of souls. But without the monsters.
Doomy wasn't able to escape the bandits earlier but Reganya wasn't ejected back into the real world this time. Instead they moved on to the next memory. Training with Death.
Reganya decided she would first watch before intervening.

Death appeared in front of Doomy. A dark grey robe hid most of her features. Only her glowing green eyes, silver hair and her black lips were not hidden by her hood. Only a small part of her skin was uncovered but enough was visible to see that she was just as pale as Doomy was now that he was undead.
"Ready for your next lesson nephew?"
Doomy hesitantly nodded.

"Better safe than sorry, which is perhaps the most ironic thing for me to say."


Rol chuckled and replied to Val. "Divulging personal information isn't a suggested action in my line of work. But if you're curious. Ask away."

"Lets see.. Where to start.. hmm." Val had to think for a moment. "How about you start by telling me where you are from?"

---

Death had shown Doomy how to form a ball of ectoplasm. But whenever he tried it it turned into a puddle instead. He became more frustrated with each failed attempt.
Reganya decided it was time to intervene and spoke to Doomy.
"Let me help you."
Hearing her voice surprised Doomy. "What? Who.."
"It's Okay, it's me Reganya."
"You? ..How.. You aren't supposed to be here."
"You alright nephew?"
"Huh? Oh yes. I'm fine!"
"Okay, keep practicing then. You'll get it eventually."
"Yes.."
He answered, unconvinced. He let out a sigh.


"She's right. You can do it. You've done it before."
"No I haven't.. well we did but we were fused then and.."
"And how do you think I'm talking to you now?"
"When did you?! How? I'm confused...Then back in the alley that was.."
"I'd explain but that would just make it worse. Just trust me and let me help you."
Doomy hesitated before nodding and trying again.
He held out his hands and gathered his spirit energy. When it began dripping Reganya intervened and helped Doomy turn it into a proper ball of ectoplasm.
"I did it!" Doomy shouted momentarily forgetting Reganya.
"Congratulations!"
"I mean uh... we did it." He said in his thoughts so only reganya would hear it.
"Ready for the next lesson?" Death smiled.

"Ain't that a question? I'm from somewhere high up on a mountain as far as I can tell, or remember." 

Rol shrugged.

"But that's all I have for, 'where i'm from' y'know. It's a long story involving amnesia and copyright infringement. Or are you looking for a summarized origin story?" 

"No, I want a full biographical novel series." Val looked at Rol while pauzing for a second. She attempted to keep a straight face.
After a short silence she let a laugh escape. "Just kidding. I was expecting a simple town name or something, nothing more. Certainly wasn't expecting amnesia though. Sorry about that."
She turned her head to look at the barrier for a moment. Checking to see if they were still holding up.
The undead had not brought down any of the barriers yet. Val turned back to Rol. "Do you ever wonder? About the memories you lost I mean? If it's a sensitive topic you don't have to talk about it, I'm just curious."

"No novels, that would require editors." Rol chuckled.

"My old memories? Rarely. I've been through a lot and I can guarantee I'm not the same as I was before the amnesia. Hell, with the circumstances or my amnesia I can't even be sure I am the me before the amnesia... Okay that probably didn't make too much sense. But whoever I was before is definitely not who I am now, so why ponder?"

"Oh right editors, the second worst kind of evil. Just thinking about them makes me shudder."  Val chuckles.
"I see. I guess that's true. Still I think if I was in your place I would at least be curious about my family I left behind. Then again you wouldn't really have a connection with them beyond your blood." She seemed to ponder for a moment.


"Alright, another question then. You already asked about my love life a while back. With the lack of human royalty and stuff. What about you though? I assume you are currently single because of the attempts to get into the imperial panties. But what about the past? Any crazy exes I would need to warn my guards about?"

---

Doomy was smiling. He only mastered some of his aunts lessons in the past. But now with Reganya's help he could finally do it. Throwing ectoplasm, passing through solid objects, etc.
Just one last lesson remained. Controlling another beings soul.
He could already absorb and summon them. He could also give commands to them but only some were willing to listen. A true soul reaper needs to be able to command all the dead souls.
Especially those unwilling to go over to the underworld.
As a test Death has summoned such a soul. To pass this test Doomy must tame the wild soul and lead it to the underworld to be purified and reincarnated.
As soon as he takes a step forward the spirit flees. "No! Come back!" Doomy cried out as he chased after it.

"Can't say i'm not curious, but putting effort into it?"

Rol yawned a bit before answering Val following question.

"Well, love isn't exactly a thing i've had time for, you know? Finding a way to survive when you can't remember a thing is a much higher priority. And when i did finally have an established role, romance wasn't a thing i was looking for as much as allies."

Rol peaked over at the barrier quickly. "And now, well i can't go dragging innocent ladies into my less than safe existence, not more than i already have anyways. Not too much of a market. Then there's the whole effort aspect of it all..."

"I guess it would take a lot of work to find out anything if you have no memory at all. It would be near impossible without any clues."


"Good thing I'm not an innocent lady then. You say it's too much effort and yet here you are making that effort for me. Why?" Val asked while looking straight at Rol.

Before Rol could answer one of the guards shouted. "They're getting through!"
Looking down the undead were indeed getting through even though the barriers were still up. They were crawling out of a hole near the inner edge of the barriers. They dug a small tunnel underneath the barriers.
"Shit" Val jumped back up and drew her black sword. "Stop them from getting inside the castle! Someone close that hole!"

Ten of the Empress her soldiers stormed out to stop the five undead that made it through. But more of the undead were crawling out of the tunnel one by one.
Val put up her hand and chanted a few demonic words."uhwes Ashun sem"  Three shadow spikes rained down and impaled an undead soldier right after it had gotten out of the hole. The undead couldn't die without Mioki's songs but that one was atleast pinned down for now.

"Yeah, this can wait."

The bounty hunter found his way to the hole. "Chances are there's gonna be a few more of these tunnels."

Rol pushed an undead soldier back into the tunnel with a rod of shadows surrounding his arm.

Just as Rol said that a zombie burst out of the ground near the castle's western tower. More of the Empress her soldiers arrived on the battlefield to stop the undead coming from the new tunnel.
Val chanted another spell. A long shadow sprouted from the castle and formed a bridge with the ground below. Val jumped on it and slid all the way down. Decapitating an undead soldier as she jumped off.
The headless soldier lunged at her, she dodged. One of her soldiers ran his spear through the creature. Another soldier crushed its skull beneath his boot after it rolled against him.
"Rol! Try collapsing the cave with an explosive. We need to stop as many of them from coming through as we can!" Val shouted before slamming the shadow bridge down on two undead.


---

"Got'cha" Doomy finally managed to catch up with the spirit. He grabs it and stops it from flying away. It lunges at him and hits him in the face. Reganya takes control of his hand to make sure he doesn't let go.
Doomy then punches it back a couple of times before grabbing it with both hands. Holding it down and waits for it to calm down and stop flailing around.

Rol nodded at Val and pulled out a few explosives. "Here's to hoping this doesn't damage the barrier." The bounty hunter dropped one of the explosives in the closest tunnel, trying his best to keep the blast radius from not affecting the barrier at all, or at least at a minimum.

The blast caused the tunnel to collapse, burying the undead that were inside. The tunnel was deep enough for the explosion to not affect the barrier.
One of the undead soldiers ran towards Rol, attacking him with a sword.


Val fought her way to the second hole. One of the Undead soldiers was guarding it. The Empress swung her black sword, the undead guard put up his sword to block the attack. But his sword was shattered by the impact.
Val then kicked him back into the hole. "This is sparta!"
She then moved the shadow bridge over the hole, blocking it off.


A soldier on the watchtower shouted. "They're opening another tunnel on the eastern side!"

---

When the spirit calmed down Doomy absorbed it. His aunt appeared in front of him, smiling. "You did it. Time for the final step." Death pointed to the sky. The river of souls flowed above them. With his training complete Doomy was finally able to see it. The souls flowing towards the afterlife. "There's so many of them.."


"Let the wild spirit you tamed join them."
Doomy nodded. He stuck out his hand and released the spirit, guiding it towards the river.
"One day that spirit will be reborn. The cycle of life and death and rebirth. It was my job to keep it going. Now it passes on to you. I'm proud of you."
Death walked over to her nephew. Her hood was down, revealing her long white hair. Her face looked much like Valkyria but paler. She leaned down to kiss Doomy's forehead.
"Now it's time to wake up. The world needs you."
"Wake up? What?"

Death takes a step back. Her robe falls to the ground. Revealing six black wings that spread out. She closes her eyes and starts glowing before slowly dissolving and joining the souls in the river above.
"Aunt no! Wait!" Doomy cries out.
He opens his eyes. Reganya is standing next to his bed. "Where.."

Rol dodged the swing of the sword and clinched the undead, kneeing it, not to much affect of course, but the bounty hunter quickly disengaged and an explosive cold be seen attracted to the head of the undead. "Yeah. Bye." 


He moved himself away for the undead towards the eastern side, just as the explosive went off.

The undead blew up. Leaving the parts that were able to still move to crawl over the ground.




"Did you just walk away from an explosion without looking? I didn't know you were trying to win badass points." Val says as she clears a way towards the new hole. Three undead soldiers are guarding the hole.
When Rol and Val reach the hole another one opens up nearby.
"I hope you've got enough explosives to keep up with them." She says as she stabs an undead soldier in the gut.


---


"You are in your sisters castle. You've been in a coma for a few days we couldn't wake you up until now. I had to get inside your mind to break your memory loop."
"So thats why you were there.."
"Yes. Unfortunatly we don't have time to talk about this. The castle seems to be under attack. We should go help."
"Under attack?! Yes, lets go!" Doomy jumped out of bed.
"You might want to put some clothes on first.."

"They're on a delay, it was hardly bad ass as it was 'i don't want more ear damage'."

The bounty hunter checked his explosives reserve. "Not empty by any means, but certainly not full. Can probably deal with the incoming tunnels assuming I only need one boom."


Rol sighed. "That being said, the bigger issue is the undead that are already in. Hopefully the power of reathy is stronger than a coma."

"The longer these tunnels stay open the more Undead will get in. We need to focus on closing them. Eventually they'll run out places to dig tunnels from.. I hope. But yes, we could really use my brothers help right now."

As if on cue Reathy comes flying out of the wall. They make a three point landing and summon Doomy's shadow scythe into their free hand. Reathy jumps up and swings the scythe around slicing through two ghouls. Putting their hands on the undead's heads before absorbing their souls.
An undead soldier attacks them with its sword. They block with the scythe's handle before reaching in and pulling out the undead's soul. It drops to the ground.
They notice an undead that is about to attack one of the Empress her soldiers and take it out by extending their scythe and slashing it in half.


Reathy's appearance distracted Val for a moment and she didn't see the undead that leapt at her from behind.

Noticing the attacking undead, Rol quickly gathered shadows around his arm into a lance and pierced it through its chest pinning it to the ground. As the shadows disaparated (not a word but fight me) Rol dropped an explosive in the undead's mouth. The bounty hunter bounty hunter picked up the empress. "Sorry about that." And taking a page out of her book brought them away from the explosion and face to face with Reathy, via shadow bridge. He stepped off, put Val down and the shadows returned.  

"Updates and shit friends." Rol said.

Val thanked Rol for saving her. Reathy meanwhile took out another undead by absorbing its soul. "I'm not sure this the right time to talk about that. We need to deal with these undead first."
"We can talk after closing these holes." Just as Val said that another hole opened up on the west side.


"They'll just keep coming. One tunnel closes and two more show up."
"It seems so, we need a new plan then. These barriers aren't as effective as I had hoped. Any ideas?"
An undead leapt at them, Val plunged her sword into it and Reathy pulled out it's soul.
The undead poured out from the holes faster than Reathy could take them out.
"At times like this I wish we still had a squad of wyvern riders. Draconids are always helpfull against undead."