Necropalypse: The River of Souls

(guize if herst is gone temporarely and Rol is taking a nap.. THEN WHO IS PLAYING THE RP. I'm the gm so I don't count. Jeez.)


"Yes he does.. Reminds me of Archon but at least this guy announces when he leaves. Archon just dozes off in the middle of battle and sleepwalks away."


"I don't get how he's still alive.. Archon I mean."
"Me neither."


"You guys are even more odd than the rumors say.."
The Empress turns to Rol. "Didn't you want to join in on the torture session?"
"This is no time to nap Rol."

Meanwhile Doomy was frozen with fear. That wasn't the way he wanted to be introduced to his sister. Why did Rol do that? Why does he have to ruin everything like this? Why did Reganya not try to calm the situation like she normally does. Why did he not introduce himself to make sure this didn't happen. And why in the names of the gods was Valkyria acting like she didn't hear that part?!


"Uh, you ok Doomy?"

Doomy twitched.

Herst quickly fades back in, seemingly pulling Rol back as well..

"Erhm, Your Highness? I'd like to know where your spymaster is... I have need to... erhm... I'm a foreigner in these lands so... information... exchange... is how I get around. Custom of my land when visiting a new city that no one in this continent follows." Herst awkwardly asks. Well, seems to from the sound of it. His hood is back on and hides his face again. 

While he asks, Herst is speaking with Rol. Manipulating perception is advance World Manipulation, something lost to this land for they have too many holes in their history. It's not common magic but something one's talent must be born with.

While he seemingly asks the Empress his question, he is in fact playing a 3 headed demon. One head innocently asking for a favor as the other two act independently. Another Herst stands by Rol, mischief in his voice before fading as if he were a trick of the mind. Only Rol knew of this but Herst made sure to manipulate Rol's chaotic thought pattern to avoid voicing anything about it.

"If you leave, how will the situation progress into the grand vision you have for them?" That was all that Herst said.


3 headed Demon in that he is doing the same with Doomy, not that he knew he was speaking with Rol as well or vice versa. But by manipulating Doomy's sense of time, he can say more to him than the others as Doomy feels that time has slowed for him. Never mind he is seeing Herst grandly bow before the Empress over a simple question.

"From your look, I can tell Rol has said something that can lead to a setback on this, so I'm breaking a sweat and using more power than I used in that battle just now. As a member of a royal family, alive or dead, you must keep your head held high. This battle is different. It's one of wits, and this time it's yours that must play all the roles of battle. Know this. Whatever happens, it's from you that the story can only be told from. So tell it like it is, don't skimp on it or polish it. After all, you will take the mantle of Death, thou that does not discriminate in bringing those to their rest. You are not the cause, but the result. You are not human, but understand better than anything else. I can give you the courage for this battle, but you must supply the words."

With this, this Herst faded as his manipulated Doomy to dispel the fear and imbue him with the courage to act, while also maintaining and ensuring that Doomy doesn't give away what has taken place. 

The last Herst gets up from his bow, only to bow again more plainly before again, fading away, no one noticing the bitter smile under the hood.

Rol continued, seemingly ignoring the others who tried to convince him that napping was a no go. Naps are an integral part of the bounty hunters lifestyle and he would have none of that. Until Herst came a knocking. 

"I haven't got any sort of plan envisioned...  But an attractive lady asking me to watch people getting harmed for information, I must oblige."

The bounty hunter reasoned and second guessed himself. "Damn it Herst, you're doing something magic and shit I bet."  He cursed under his breath.


"FIINNNNE. Torture time." He returned to the group, yawning. 

Herst's intervention seemed to have calmed Doomy down. He gathered his courage and began to speak. "Empress Valkyria, I-I have to tell you something. Death was my aunt as well." The empress turned towards Doomy as he was talking. She raised an eyebrow but remained silent and listened.


"I didn't find out about it until I died and she came to me. I was taken from my.. Our parents during the war. I was still a baby at the time so I don't remember anything. I ended up in the care of a farmer and his wife in south Centrea. They were nice to me until I turned twelve. That was when I started showing signs of my powers. Magic users were not very well liked in South centrea because of the war. They still aren't but it was worse back then. The order of light still held some influence there.
The farmer alerted one of the groups that had split off from the order. They were going to take me away so.. I ran." Doomy paused, these memories were hard to talk about for him.


"I survived on the streets of a nearby city for I don't know how long. It was at least a few years. I survived by stealing food and used my shadow powers to stay hidden. But one day I got caught when stealing from a bunch of thugs. They cornered me in a back alley and stabbed me repeatedly. I bled to death in that alley.
That's where Death found me. She recognized my soul and told me who my real parents were. The emperor of the blackshroud empire and the old empress. She told me how they had died only a few months before she found me. And that my sister was going to run the empire."


"Earlier you mentioned something about our aunt giving up her search for a replacement. She said the same but said I was family so I'd be different from the others. She trained me and I became a soul reaper. But.. I turned out to be just another failure. I couldn't master passing through matter and never learned how to manipulate ectoplasm. No matter how hard I tried.
She gave up on teaching me after years of trying. She was patient but she realized I wasn't going to master the art of soul reaping no matter what. So she dropped me of with ChaoZ."Doomy sighed.

"I'm sorry for not telling you this earlier.but I was afraid you wouldn't believe me. Or worse..So I stayed quiet."

The Empress stood silently for a moment before smiling. "I know."
"I di-.. Wait what?"
"The minute I saw you I knew you were my brother. You look exactly like our mother, except shorter hair. And slightly more masculine.. slightly." She grinned.
"Your Shadow scythe and soul reaper robe were a dead give away too. I'm an empress, if I didn't notice such details like that I wouldn't be a very good one. I stayed quiet because I wanted to hear it from you. Same reason I ignored the Bounty hunter's remark earlier for."
"I.."

"Welcome home, brother."
"Thank you, sister."
They both smiled. Doomy did his best to hold back his tears of joy. It worked, for the most part. "Anyway, we can talk more later. We have a guest to torture first."
Doomy nodded and followed his sister to the dungeons.


Everyone gathered inside the dungeon cell. The general's brother had been stripped of his armor and chained to the wall. Even without his armor he was still a giant man who looked very threatening. He was also very hairy.
Valkyria handed a feather to Rol. "The honor is yours bounty hunter."
The general's brother looked very confused.
"This should prove to be entertaining."

"Ah, thanks."

Rol looked at the feather for a couple of seconds, then dropped it. Instead, creating several shadow tendrils in the shape of the feather with the same, or at least similar texture. 

"This is going to get really weird, those who are weak in the stomach may wish to leave the room, victim not included. Shall we begin?" The bounty hunter asked the General's brother before send the tendrils to do their work.

"Alright, let's start." The empress sat down on a chair in front of the victim.
"Your brother still has an army, where is it."
The General's brother remained silent. The empress nodded to Rol to start tickling.
The man looked confused as the feather tendrils aproached. Once the tickling started he started twitching trying not to laugh.
"Where is your brother?"
The giant man grunted and shook his head. Valkyria nodded to rol to increase the tickling. He burst out a laugh before containing it again. "Your brother was planning something."
"I'm not telling you anyhaha- anything. You B-hahahaa itch."
"He said he had an itch Scratch it for him."


"I said b-bwhahahaaha." The generals brother was trashing and trying to get out of his chains. "Sto-grahaahaa oh gods dam haahahaa stop this!"
"Sure, if you tell us where your brother is keeping his army and where he's planning on marching with it."
"I'll nev-ahaahhaaahah noo!" The giant man squealed like a little girl and trashed about. If the chains weren't as strong as they were they might have broken.
"Where."
"North! ohahaahahhahoo His camp is no-ooohahahoo- orth of heee-eehee-ere."
"Why is he there."
"Heeeheehaahohee he was going toohoohooo atta-aahah-ck from the back of the caaahahstle while my-iiiheehehaha army was attackieeheheing the front. The batlle was suuhoohahaposed to take much longeehheehr."
"So he was just going to storm the castle and hope he managed to break through? He must have a big army then. Where did he get this army? Last I knew he only had 3000 soldiers and that was before our last battle. Betting on an army of that size to seize the castle.. Either he's getting desperate or he has something else planned."


"I'm not saying another word."
"I disagree." She nodded to Rol again to intensify the tickling.
"You will tell us, how big is his army?"
"I woohoohon't saahahaay ahaha ok ok he hasahahah had 4ahah thousahahaand but you wiiiihieeheeped out half of it eahahaarlieeheer please stop this madneeheeahhahass"
"What was he planning to do if he couldn't win?"
"Ahaaahaah ohohoh no I wohohon't teheeeheel"
"Yes, you will. We can do this all day."
"Ohohoh please no" The giant man was crying from his laughter.
"Assaaahhahassins. He was going to ahhaaha sneak in ahaahhah a small hahohoohahoo team of assasseeeehns. please stoohp I've told you everything please stoohp."
"Okay, thank you for this talk. You can stop the torture bounty hunter.. for now."

The general's brother sighed with relief until he heard the "for now". He hung his head down in shame of what had just happened.
"Assassins, I knew he was planning something. He could have already slipped in one or two of them during the last battle. Brother, could you and umm your lover? Go find them please?"
"My what? Nonono! She's not.. Godsdamn you Rol."
"My apologies, your highness. The Bounty hunter has some screws loose in his head."
"That's the understatement of the year."
"My relationship with your brother is purely professional."
"Aww, but you two look so cute together."
"..what?.." Doomy facepalmed.
"Uh.. We'll go look for those assassins, if they're here we'll find them."
"Thank you."

Doomy and Reganya left the room.
"Good job with the torture. If you hadn't come up with this idea we would never have found out about the assassins. Thank you, bounty h- ..umm what was your name?"

Rol continued playing with the tendrils, forming them to whatever while the empress was assigning task to her 'brother' and 'his lover'. Rol shaped a couple tendrils into a heart around his vision of the two 'lovebirds' and yelled after them "See I'm not the only that sees the power of Reathy!"

The bounty hunter nodded at the Empress. "Well, thanks, but he broke real easy. That's unfortunate. Or he lied which is also unfortunate, let's hope for the former. Oh, name. Uh.. It's Rol. Which is short for Roltharus, which probably isn't my real name at all, but it's what I got." The bounty hunter rambled on.

"We'll find out if he told the truth or not when my scouts return. And if he did lie..
we can always try again."
The general's brother's eyes widened but he remained silent. Although he was obviously in discomfort.


"I don't plan on letting him go any time soon. So we'll have something to do when we get bored. And hopefully we'll catch his brother too." The Empress got up from her chair."And maybe some of his officers. Then we'd have a whole dungeon full to play with. You know, after we fix the river of souls. Anyway, all this fun has made me hungry."

She called one of her servants and told them to go to the kitchen for food. She turned back to Rol. "If you're hungry I'll have them get you something too. Maybe my brother and his lover could use something to eat too. Hmm, we should go to the dinning hall. This dungeon cell isn't really the best place to eat."

"I feel slight discomfort referring to other males as toys but it is outweighed by the fact the tickle torture is funny as shit and the prospect of more of it is magic."

"But eating in front of him might be hilarious." Rol pointed at the general's brother. "But, I suppose you're the Empress, so your word goes."


The bounty hunter moved himself from near the generals brother and closer to Val. "But how large is your dining hall?"

"There might be females in there too. Who knows. Besides this torture method might be the most humane slash effective method of getting information out of a person ever. Certainly the most amusing."


"Eating in front of him would be a more common form of torture. But it's more fun when they're actually hungry. The general's brother seems to have eaten recently. So maybe tomorow."


"Too large. It used to be used for feasts and such but with all remaining royalty either missing or hostile.. We don't recieve many guests. So it always feels.. empty."

She walked out the dungeon cell and told the guard to close the door once Rol followed her out. "I'm afraid it's a bit of a walk to get from here to the dining hall. The dungeons can smell sometimes so it's on the opposite side of the castle. Dungeon smell doesn't go well with breakfast unfortunatly."

"That's true." The bounty hunter said in reply to Val's point on the possibility of gender variety amongst the general's officers. "Guess I assumed he would be some old-fashioned patriarchal dude." 


"Well, you got your brother now, so it can be less empty."

Rol followed the Empress out of the dungeon, high-fiving the guard for whatever reason. Probably motivation. 

"So, ever try to fix the lack of royalty thing by pro-creating with some suitor?" Rol asked, his tone not implying anything, but the question still being quite intrusive. "Or does having Death's blood kinda freak people out?"

"The general takes anyone who can fight. He doesn't have much of a choice. There aren't that many knights and soldiers left. Sure he took half of my army when he left but most of them didn't survive our first twenty battles. I'm guessing most of his army is made out of mercenaries. I'll give him that.. He's got a way to find funds easily." Valkyra shrugged as they walked down the dark hallways. 


"Ah, yes my brother. He'll have other responsibilities soon. If anyone can fix the river of souls it's him. And his lover. After that he'll probably take over the mantle of Death, at least I hope.. And our Aunt was a busy woman. Val is a big place where someone is always dying. I didn't see her much at the castle. I assume it'll be the same for my brother."

The Empress raised an eyebrow as they walked up the stairs. "Hah. No, I haven't had time for that. The general's been a pain in my ass ever since he marched out of this castle. And before that too actually.
In between running what's left of my Empire and defending myself from his attacks.. I barely have any time to sit down. Let alone find a suitor. Not that there aren't candidates. But most of them seem to be in it to become emperor. As soon as I would get married they'd attempt to lock me up instead of knocking me up. All though with most of them neither of those sound very tempting. And all the other ones would get mad and possibly do stupid things like starting another war."
She laughed.
"Oh, don't tell anyone I said stuff like 'a pain in my ass,' and 'Knocking me up'. Not that anyone would believe you but just in case. I have a reputation to maintain."
She laughed again as the door to the dining hall opened in front of them.

The dining hall was indeed quite large. It could easily hold five hundred people, more if needed. Most of it as empty now. Only three long tabbles stood in the center. Each with fifty seats. A larger round table stood at the end of the room. It was placed higher than the other tables and the chairs looked more like thrones. Two of them were obviously meant for the emperor and empress. even though there was no emperor anymore.

The Empress sat down in it. "My father's chair. It's slightly less comfortable than my mothers but I prefer this one. Gives a better view."

"Hmm, maybe he prostitutes himself to make ends meet, which now that I think about it is a hilarious pun." Rol mused the ridiculous idea. "Or he does hired work, real easy way to make a buck. But that's much less amusing."


"Who knows, from what I can tell Deathy isn't exactly the prodigal son but maybe his talents lie in some other shit like teaching or instilling loyalty, he could have an army of soul reapers to do his bidding. Plus I mean, he's a little insecure and as much as Ren can try she's not gonna be able to single-handedly lift him out of his funk, which rhymes with junk and that gives me horrible mental pictures, the only one who could was seemingly your aunt and that responsibility may just now fall on you." Rol wasn't exactly a Deathy expert but you have to know a bit about a person to get under their skin.


Rol nearly tripped up the stairs forgetting the difference between level and lifted ground. "uh, shit." He mumbled, while Val was ranting. "See, I never understood that 'i'll become the ruler' edge. Seriously. Like in your case their rationalization is what? 'let's get married to the hella hot empress, lock her in the dungeon and then in her place I will have ALL OF THE RESPONSIBILITY. muwhahwaha.'? Sounds like the worst possible trade off to me." The bounty hunter yawned.

"No worries about that. Like you said not likely anyone would believe me. I'm a little crazy to be taken seriously, which is surprisingly useful as that information makes it easy for me to gather information from people who won't believe anything I say could be accountable and equally as impossible to take information from. I would be a force to be reckoned with were I slightly competent!" Roltharus threw his arms up in what was, possibly a celebration or potential pride? God damn this guy has his narrator confused.

Rol entered the dining hall behind the Empress and let out a little burst of air. "My oh my. I swear this hall is larger than Timothy's entire Castle thing. You could throw some wicked ass parties here." The bounty hunter continued looking around, whilst following the Empress until they reached the 'thrones'. Val sat on her father's throne and taking no heed to social graces he sat on the empress's chair, horizontally, his feet hanging over one side of the chair, his head leaning on the arm rest next to Val. The chair really was conformtable but a rare moment of mental clarity hit Rol and he asked. "Whoa, I just realized how this could be offensive, am I stepping on any boundaries I normally ignore but for whatever reason am now conscious of?" 

"Hah. Now that's a mental picture I'd rather not have imagined." The Empress let out a small giggle.


"Those mental pictures neither." She laughed.
"I can help him a bit and so can his lover but there is only so much we can do. In the end my brother will have to overcome his own insecurities. I had to do the same when I became an Empress.


My brother seems to think our aunt gave up on him. But she never did anything without a reason. If she had actually given up on him she would have told him to his face. She was honest like that. No, she still believed in him, I'm sure of it. And or me that's enough for me to believe in him too. Well that and if he fails we're all doomed." She laughed again.


"I believe in their case it was more a.. 'I'll become Emperor and then everyone will bend to my will!' kinda thing. If they even realize about the responsibilities then they'd probably dump that on some other guy while they get drunk and spend their newfound money. Also did you just call an empress hella hot right in her face?"
She turned quiet and glared at Rol while raising an eyebrow before suddenly bursting into laughter.



"Unless ofcourse someone realized some of the information you give could actually be useful." She grinned before throwing her hands in the air too.
"With your crazyness and my competence we could rule the world!" She then let her arms back down and let out another giggle. "Then again, probably not."


"Oh but I do throw wicked ass parties all the time. I just don't ever invite anyone."

She raised both eyebrows at the last comment. "Trust me you didn't step over any boundaries. You've already trampled all over them this entire time really." Again she laughed.
"Now if you did these things in public.. " She shot a glare down at Rol that implied a multitude of bad things would happen if he did indeed do everything/anything he did in the past half hour. (The entire time they've been alone +/-)
Followed by another laugh once the glare was over.

The empress looked at the empty table in front of them. "Why are there still no drinks on this table? Food takes a while but drinks should have been here before we were." She sighed. "It's so hard to find good servants these days."

Just as she said that two servants came rushing through the door. One with drinks and another with a message. "Your highness, the scouts have returned."
"Tell them to come here to report."

"It seems like Deathy is kinda stuck on 'being' your guy's aunt, and by that I don't mean he has an identity crisis where he feels he is an older women but like he has to emulate his teacher's method one hundred percent. I dunno about soul reaping but having your own take on what your taught is normally a lot better than just coping/pasting. Or maybe I'm entirely wrong, but that's not new." 

"Don't they know anything? Great power = great responsibility. Why do people think comic books are useless with information like that? Yeah, at least I'm pretty sure I did. I'm also pretty sure that is one of the less offensive things I've said in earshot of you."

"Conquering the world would be a looooot of work. Also, suitor business times ten. Would it even be worth it?"
Rol contemplated the pros and cons of world domination before concluding it would be a bad idea, but mentally.

"Okay, no that's not cool. Invite me to your wicked ass parties. I never get to go to wicked ass parties." The bounty hunter whined a bit.

"See, that's how I know I'm doomed. That was a threat but now I'm probably eighty times more likely to hit on you. I constant battle people who are less crazy than me but more evil and cause explosions that are literally right on top of me. But no, it'll be my hormones that fucking gib me." Rol sighed, then shook his head and let out a chuckle.

"Oh, hell to the ya, consumable liquid." Talking made Rol thirsty, yo.

"That sounds exactly like a reason she would have dropped him off at ChaoZ for. Who else would be better at teaching him how to find his own way? At least that's what I think from the little bits I've heard about you guys. What I've seen so far also confirms it.
My aunt knew exactly what she was doing, as always. Unfortunatly he'll have to learn faster now that she's gone."


"I guess some of them really are that dumb that they don't realize simple stuff like that. Honestly I myself never got those kind of people. Sure power can be fun at times but sometimes I'd rather not have it. All this fighting gets tiring after a while. And the politics are even worse. But if I give up.. who know what would happen to the people living here? Sometimes the lack of royalty seems like a blessing. The guilds are easier to communicate with. All the royalty I've met so far, outside of my family, were always a pain to deal with. Especially those high elves. Royalty tends to think they're better than others, so you can imagine how much that's amplified in high elven royalty." She sighed.
"Quite true. Luckily for you I'm not easily offended."


"Well I didn't mean it literally. I already have my hands full with what remains of this empire. All I want to do is stabilize it. Conquering the world comes after." She giggles some more.


"Okay, okay, next time I throw a wicked ass party I'll invite you." She laughed some more.


"Well isn't that the case with most super powered men? Facing all the villains of the world with ease but then a pair of tits comes along and boom. Royal tits count ten times as much." She says while pointing at the armor that covers her chest.
"I swear if I was smart I would stop saying these things and throw you in a dungeon. An empress isn't supposed to act this way. But hey I'm the last one left so I make the rules on being an empress now I guess."

The servant poured some drinks into a bunch of glasses. One for the empress and 4 others for the ChaoZ members. One extra in case Herst came back before they left the dining room. "The empress picked up a glass and drank from it." Ah, that's beter."
At that moment the doors swung open again and doomy and reganya stepped through. "We found no trace of any assassins your highness."
"Then does that mean the General's brother was lying or did we defeat him before they could sneak in?"
"Maybe we just didn't look hard enou- ROL WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO MY SISTER!"
"Oops. It seems I'll have to kill you now Roltharus. Figures, the one time I was having fun." She laughs. "Just kidding. My brother and his lover don't count as being in public."
"WHAT IS EVEN GOING ON HERE?!?"

Behind them a scout came walking in. "Your highness we've found the general and his army, they're up north ten miles."
"Seems our prisoner wasn't lying after all."
"WHY WON'T ANYONE ANSWER ME?!"


(It's like hashbrown all over again in here.)

"Well, I'm sure he'll manage, but priorities first. He needs to make Reathy official, seriously. Like, taking on the mantle of death is swell and all but good lord does the boy like to play coy. Tsk." The bounty hunter shook his head.

"Elves.. Huh? I feel like that's foreshadowing.. But I have no idea what for.." Rol scratched his head. "I'm surprised really, normally 'luckily' is not involved in my case."

"When you do conquer the world, make naps mandatory. That would be even better than like, world peace." He yawned. Still sitting on the throne in his horizontal way, he stretched his arms out which based on Rol's sitting position would have found themselves in Val's personal space bubble.

"Wicked party food is the best food. Or so I've heard."  

"Daaamnn. I swear I almost blushed." Which was a lie, he totally did. But can you blame him? Royal tits.

Rol sat up normally just after Deathy and Ren came into the hall and he grabbed a drink.

"Kill me? Aww, Well.." He shrugged. "If I have to go this would be the best way.."


He put is drink down as the scout came in.


"So we know where they are at. What do we do? Attack lay traps? Rap battle?"

"I'll see what I can do. They're adorable together." She giggled.


"Is that why you're trying so hard to get lucky?" She laughed more.
"Don't forget, I'm an empress. So obviously you'll have to work a lot harder. Like I said before, I have a reputation to uphold. Although I'm not doing a very good job at that right now."


"Mandatory naps might actually lead to world peace. When my empire becomes more peaceful I can at least make naps mandatory in Valkyrea. It isn't the world but it's something."



"Talking about food.. where is ours?"


"No, no. I'm pretty sure there's better ways to go." She winked at Rol.


"I really have no idea why you're reacting like this brother. Roltharus isn't doing anything to me. There's no way he'd get his hands on these royal tits this fast."


"ROYAL WHAT?!"


"Tits." She pointed at her chest armor again.
"Is my brother always like.. this?" She turned to Reganya.
"Uh, most of the time your highness."


"I see. Then I guess there are things that our aunt didn't teach him about. Maybe she assumed he already knew? Or it was just too awkward. Guess that means that responsibility is now yours."
"WHAT'S GOING ON HERE?!"
"Your highness? I.. I've told you this before. My relationship with your brother is.."
"Totally adorable?"
".. No! Purely professional!"
"We'll need to fix that then."
"STOP THIS!"


"There's no need to yell brother."
"YES THERE IS!"



"Scout, what is the general doing? Is he marching towards us? Retreating? Taking a piss? I can't decide what to do unless I know what he's planning next."


"He's not doing any of those things your highness. He's being attacked."
"Attacked? By who?.."
"A horde of undead creatures your highness."
"The undead?..Then the soul of rivers situation is worse than we thought.."
"Unless.. could you tell if these undead were wild or were they being controlled?"
"I don't know, your highness. They didn't seem very organized though."
"This.. complicates things.."


"How is the general holding up against the undead?"
"He's barricaded himself and what remains of his army in a nearby town. It's gates seem to be holding the undead back, for now."

"Ten miles north in a town.. That's..So he's holding up in the town he grew up in. Which means he knows how to defend it."
"It seems that way your higness. But the undead.. They don't seem to be going down. No matter what they do they keep rising back up."
"It's the same as with those mummies we faced. If that's the case then.. we can't stop them until we fix the river of souls."
"Herst could stop them .."
"He's not here though."

It was then, at probably the worst (or best, depending on how you look at things.) time, that the Empress her servants walked through the kitchen door with glorious amounts of food.

"I know, right?" Rol said, exasperated.


"Well hey, every dog has his day. Cliches etc." He shrugged. "Try harder? Yes ma'am." The bounty hunter mocked a salute.


"NO ONE CAN DO ANYTHING HORRIBLE IF THEY ARE ASLEEP. It is a master plan."


This time Rol raised his eyebrow at The Empress' comment, not picking up on the innuendo at first... But then it hit him. "Ooh. Exhaustion. Wow." He had actually whispered the last part.


Rol finally addressed Deathy directly. "Champ, I am both quite happy and severely disappointed to say your sister is not easy. Nu-uh."


Picking up his drink for a second time and removing his facemask thingy, so that he could actually take a sip this time he allowed The Empress, Deathy and Ren to talk without interruption from himself. He then turned his attention to the scout. 


"As cool as it is that the undead are going to rip through the guy who wants to attack here.. Doesn't that mean those undead will head here next?" The bounty hunter asked, ignoring the food that just came in.


"Because unless Herst is around or we fix that flow thing. That's bad. And if we base the general's army on the performance of the one that attacked here.. They aren't going to even last long enough to be an obstacle on the undead's rampage of gross rampage towards here." 

"They could very well do exactly that. Once they run out of prey they'll seek out new ones. Or even worse they might be drawn to the source of the river of souls. Let's hope that's not the case because then every undead creature in northern centrea is heading here."


"...You've gotta be kidding me.."


"There's no evidence for this though. So let's hope my hunch is wrong and we only have to deal with the ones attacking the general. Either way we're in for quite a battle."


"So we need to fix the river of souls as soon as possible."


"If we could somehow deal with the undead in the north before attempting to fix it that'd be better though. Even if those undead don't head here they will still roam my empire and hunt my people. A ruler who doesn't protect their people isn't fit to be a ruler.. That's what my father always told me.

And if you guys are busy with the river of souls and those undead reach the castle.. "


"But we can't hurt them without Herst and when the river is fixed then the undead will be able to die again."


"No. I will not sit back and let a horde of undead plague my people. If Herst isn't back in time we just need to trap the undead somehow. Keep them from moving to other towns. And then we can deal with the river of souls."


"She's right.. we have no idea how long it will take to fix the river of souls. We have to atleast try to protect the people first."


"But.. how can we trap them though?"

A silence filled the dining room. The empress was struggling to come up with a way to trap the undead. And everyone else didn't quite know what to say.

"A REALLY BIG BOX." 

The bounty hunter suggested. The idea, of course being ridiculous.

"Wow, I'm drawing a blank."

Rol sighed. 

"I'm guessing one of us should go north and do something while the rest of us stay to fix the thing, to buy time for the fix, or Herst?"

"Shit. That's a twofer. If my lucks going this well I can guarantee I'll die a horrifying death while setting up the barrier. Karmic balance and all."

Putting his drink down and getting off the throne he was sitting on, Rol cracked his neck then pulled his face mask back on.

"Good call with the Reathy pairing, their love will only make them stronger." He pulled his closed fist towards his heart as a gestural tribute to the pairing.

"Also, be careful of the assassins, they still may be here... If they're real. I dunno." He said this to Deathy and Ren, but he had an intent to remind the Empress that she still had to be somewhat focused on her own safety and not just the threat the undead posed to her people.

"Well you can't really die as long as the river of souls isn't fixed. So even if you get torn to pieces we can always put you back together." Valkyria giggled.
"But then you'd be a mindless zombie and that's no fun. Guess we'll have to be very carefull then."



"STOP WITH THE FRIGGING SHIPPING! Love has nothing to do with this!" Doomy reacted to Rol's gestural tribute."


"Oh but it has everything to do with this. Making ectoplasm requires Mana and Mana requires feelings. When you two fuse your feelings for each other obviously generate enough Mana to make ectoplasm. It's a slimy kind of love."

Reganya sighed. Seemingly giving up on arguing with the two shippers. Doomy on the other hand was twitching again.


"The possibility of assassins being nearby is troubling. I'll have my soldiers keep on the look out for them. But First we should at least eat a bit. I have a feeling that this will be a very long day. We'll need our strenght. AND it'd be a shame to waste all this food."


"..Yeah, I haven't eaten since we went to investigate that town.."
Doomy's stomache grumbled. (Even the undead need to eat. Otherwise rigor mortis sets in.. or something.)


"Well then, I claim the sushi."


"Hey that's not fair! How do you even eat?"
"Wouldn't you like to know?"
"Yes that's why I asked..?"
That one went completely over Doomy's head. (Actually that one confuses me too. How does she eat? o.O I should know this.)


On the table were all kinds of food. Sushi on one side and a roasted pig on the other.
"Well then, dig in."

"Do people test your food? For poison. Because, that would be the shittiest way to go really. And with all the talk on assassins, I am suspicious."

Rol eyed the food, as if he identify any dangers in it.

"Okay, well that is not an ability I have." The bounty hunter sighed then walked towards the table to see what looked like the least likely to murder him.