Necropalypse: The River of Souls

Rol jumped back to avoid the shield. but the force from the general pushing and the jump back from rol caused the end of the rope to fly back and hit Rol in the face.

"Wow, fuck. As comical as that was I did not want that to happen at all."


He rubbed his cheek. "New plan." Rol emptied his clips against the general's shield. "And by new plan I mean let me think of one, alright?"

The general laughed. "Oh man, sorry for laughing but you're right that was comical."
He shrugged. "Alright, take your time. Just means more time for my army to attack the castle."


Reathy and Vesbàoth clashed their weapons against each other and try to push each other back. But neither gave up any ground. Then Reathy phased through the archmage and struck him from behind but the mage put up a small barrier to stop the attack. The barrier exploded in Reathy's face.

Vesbàoth jumped back, aimed his bone staff and shot a beam of ice magic at Reathy. They became incorpereal again and fell into ground to avoid the beam.
They resurfaced and flanked him, shooting an ectoplasm blast that blew up in his face.

"I'm almost entirely sure your forces are easy clean up to be honest, but if I get rid of you, moral will be low (maybe) and it should be easier."


Rol put his guns in to there holsters. "Time to go all out I suppose?"


He dashed towards the general, gathering shadows around his foot and kicking the general\s shield, a tatic which thus far has been somewhat effective. Simultaneously dropping several explosives, using them as catalysts to have shadows to manipulate closer to the general. The explosive's shadows became spikes that grew to try and pierce the general's body. The explosives themselves would explode later, whenever Rol decided.

"Maybe. But that's assuming you manage to take care of me before my forces reach the empress."


"I'd do the 'come on' sign with my hand but I'm having trouble moving it." The general shrugs and braces himself behind his shield as Rol approaches.
Rol's kick impacted the shield and made another dent with his shadows. As the general noticed the shadow spikes coming at him his eyes started glowing cyan again and he looked straight at Rol.


Meanwhile Archon was flying around firing energy arrows at the giants. Polyphemus tried swatting him out of the sky but was too slow. But then Archon got too close and the cyclopse grabbed him. Archon grunted as the cyclopse's enormous strenght began to squeeze Archons armor.
But this gave him the perfect shot at the enormous eye, Archon fired his arrow and blinded the cyclopse. This allowed him to escape his grasp only to be hit by a flailing arm.
Archon was sent hurtling towards the ground.

He managed to fire off another arrow before crash landing. The arrow caused the blinded polyphemus to stumble back and trip. The cyclpose fell on one of the catapults and destroyed it.
The other catapult just fired and a giant stone rock came hurtling down at the castle.

Rol sighed


"Time for a gamble."

He aimed his guns at the generals eyes as he went to land after his kick. He prepped his shadows to create 'armor' to prevent the laser eyes from murdering him. Hopefully shooting the general's eyes.

The general shot the energy beams out of his eyes. They hit the shadow armor and exploded. Breaking the shadow armor and sending Rol flying backwards. Causing his aim to go off. Only one bullet hits one of the generals eyes by chance. The other completely misses.
The general stumbles back and falls down. "Aaagh, my eye!"


Rols missed bullet instead hits a wyverns eye causing it to crash down.
Riaden jumps past it and kills its rider. He then uses another wyverns tail to swing around. Throwing off the wyverns balance and launching himself towards the two headed wyvern plunging down from the sky at him.

He dodged its poisonous breath and held on to one of its horns. The other head snapped at him and forced him to let go. The rider of the double headed wyvern shot an arrow at Riaden but he deflected it with his dagger and fell on top of a passing wyvern.

"One eye down one -coughs- to go." Rol hit the ground, hard. He got up and groaned.

"Why do my gambles have to be so painful." The bounty hunter approached the general again. "Alright, I really need to finish this." Once again Rol jumps up and shadow kicks the general's shield aiming for where a dent already is.

The generals eyes glow orange.

Rol hits the shield again and the dent becomes bigger.

But while Rol's foot is still in contact with the shield the general throws it to the left. The fast motion makes Rol spin through the air and fall to the ground.
The shield lands a few meters away.

The general leaps forward and grabs Rol by the neck and lifts him up. His eyes glow green and Rol feels his life force very slowly draining out of him. The generals eye and arm begin to slowly heal.


Back at the castle the soldiers are forced to retreat inside. They close the gates.

As the Rock thrown by the catapult is about to crash down on the castle a mass of shadows blocks it. Val then lets the rock fall on the undead soldiers.

The undead start climbing up the walls again.

Reaver in his ornithopter turns around and tries to shoot down as many as he can before they reach the top.
He doesn't see the catapult behind him firing a rock straight at him.

Rol's shadows quickly moved up to the bounty hunter's neck, covering it, then pushing against the undead's grip.

"Hey man, no healing." He shoot at the general's eyes, again.

The giant rock smashes into the ornithopter. Reaver loses control and crashes in the middle of the undead army, taking out several enemies as the vehicle rams into them.

Another Rock is launched at the castle. But then an energy arrow drills through one of the giants skull.

The other giant notices Archon kneeling on the ground aiming his bow. He charges at him.

Archon tries to fire another arrow but winces from the pain. He was still hurt from when Polyphemus grabbed him.

Just then Riaden passes through on a wyvern and throws a dagger straight into the giants neck.
The double headed wyvern still on his tail.
The giant topples over and smashes the last catapult.


When the general notices Rol lifting his guns to aim at his eyes again he throws him to the ground. One bullet hits the same eye again but the other hits the generals nose instead.
He almost falls over but supports himself on a large rock.


Reathy and Vesbàoth keep exchanging blows until a blow from Reathy's scythe blows through the bone armor.

Vesbàoth leps back and shoots an ice bolt at Reathy. They get hit and are blown back.

Reathy gets back up slowly, both of them exhausted.


Back at the castle the undead manage to get back on the battlements. One of them grabs a soldier by the face and throws him over the wall. Plunging down into the horde of undead.
Val tries to cut dow as many as possible with her black sword. But she's out of mana so she can't use her magic.

Mioki tries to help by switching up her songs and use her musical magic to transfer her mana to the empress. Luckily her previous song's effect wouldn't wear off immediatly.

That's when the giant rock smashes into the castle. It breaks part of the wall and the undead pour into the castle.

Val and Mioki are forced to run as the undead overwhelm the soldiers.

"Oh man. Stupid endless numbers."


Rol threw several explosives at the general and then haphazardly shot behind him as he ran towards the castle. 

"Gotta do the thing, I hate having to do the thing."

The general tries to shield himself from the explosives but is blown back. The bullets that don't miss don't seem to affect the undead general much.

A group of undead tries to grab Rol as he rushes towards the castle. But they are shot down by Reaver as he emerges from the crashed ornithopter. "Die already ya bloody zombies!"
Allowing Rol to pass freely.

Riaden flies by on a wyvern but his wyvern is shot down by one of the undead mages. Riaden leaps off before it crashes. And lands in the middle of a group of undead soldiers. He sighs.


Meanwhile up on the battlements Cole attempts to hold back the undead. Allowing Mioki and Val to run but their path is blocked by the giant rock from the catapult.
That's when Rol arrived.

"You're back!" The Empress hugged Rol.
"This battle is going terrible. We have nowhere to retreat to. If we don't go to fix the river of souls now we won't survive long enough to do it later."


"Mioki doesn't want to die!!" Mioki said.


"We should signal my brother. We can't go in without him."

"Thanks Fever."

Rol waved at the angry pilot as he ran past him, finally reaching the battlements and Val and Mioki.

"I am back and just as clueless as what to do as anyone else." He said as he arrived. "Oh, intimate physical contact. I am okay with this, I am not okay with the setting it is occurring. Would a large explosion blowing up a boulder work as a signal?" He asked

"Doubtfull. Try it anyway." The empress said.


"Mioki agrees. The rock should go boom.~" Mioki said, half singing the sentence. Once she starts singing mioki seems to take a while to fully stop.
---
Reathy readies their shadow scythe again and prepares to attack Vesbàoth again. But then boom.
An explosion from the castle. Reathy shrugs, it's a battlefield. Explosions are expected.
They charge at their oppenent.
---

"They're running the wrong way.~" Mioki says while watching Reathy attack the archmage.


"Atleast the rock is gone. We should go. Rol can you make a shadow bridge over the hole in my castle? We need to get to the other side."


The double headed wyvern lands where Rol left the general. It's rider helps the weakened general up on the saddle. The draconic mount roars before flying off with the general and it's rider. The general collapses and falls off the wyvern. But it catches him in its claws. The rider gives the retreat signal.

Vesbàoth struggles to repel Reathy's attacks. But then hears the retreat horn. He blasts Reathy and orders his mages to retreat. They all teleport away.

The remaining wyverns regroup and fly away with the general.
The undead soldiers and most normal undead follow them into the forest of dead trees.

Only the undead already in or on the castle remain. They keep fighting the soldiers of the empress.

When Reathy gets back up they notice the mages are gone and the undead are also marching away. When they notice straggler undead on the battlements they fly over to help out there.

They see Val, Rol and Mioki standing near the hole in the castle and join them. "What's happening?"


"They're retreating?" Val answers confused.
She then turns to Rol. "You must have beaten the general pretty hard."

"The only think I remember beating pretty hard was his shield, he could do a weird healing thing with his eyes, or eye at the time I guess."

Rol yawned. "Should we clean up? Or just straight into the deathflow?"

"Must not have been very effective healing then."

"We Clean up. After that battle we're in no state to go charging in to that place again. We need rest first." Reathy said.


"Agreed. We can't leave the undead wandering around anyway."

--

A while later the last undead are taken care of and everyone sits down in the dinning hall to eat and recover. They were all slouched over and tired. Except Reaver and Riaden.
Reaver was too focused on the food and Riaden stood silently in the corner as always.
Archon was probably AFK again.


"That battle was a close one."


"It was."


"We should get down to the source of the river as soon as we're rested. The longer we wait the more time the general has to prepare a second attack."


"You think he will attack again so soon?"


"Yes. We're weakened now. And he knows it."


"Mioki's throat is soar from all that singing. No more encores pleez."

"So we're racing against the clock? Predictable cliches, I can deal with it."


Rol yawned. "Faster the better, I need a nap. How are things with the other group that went around? They didn't have Mioki with 'em. Do we know?"

"We haven't heard from them yet. They didn't have Mioki but they have a Herst. So they'll be fine." Val says.


"We haven't seen the army Mioki told us was marching this way. Thats probably a good sign." Reganya agreed.


"Let's get this whole mess over with then." Val got up from her chair.
Reganya and Doomy followed.
"Riaden, Reaver, Archon and Mioki we need you to stay up here to defend the castle if needed. The rest of us are gonna end this undead invasion."

Archon had just come back from being AFK and nodded. Riaden and Reaver nodded too.
Mioki struck a pose. "Mioki believes in you!"

---

Val, Doomy, Reganya and Rol made their way to the elevator and went down. The long ride down was a silent one. Everyone mentally prepared for what was lying ahead.
They eventually reached the bottom and headed into the room with the source.

The dark orb still floated exactly where they left it. It seemed to have calmed down but a pattern rippled across its surface. And a dark green glow radiated from it.


"It looks different.."
"It's making me feel uneasy."

The corpses of the strange creature they had fought before still lay on the ground. Partially decomposed.

The group stood in the room. The orb was giving off bad vibes and they hesitated.
Doomy stepped forward. "We need to do this."
Reganya nodded and merged with him again. Val readied her sword and they all walked the stairs to the orb.

Reathy touched it with the palm of their hand. They all took a deep breath.
Reathy stepped in first. Once they were in they reached out two hands for Val and Rol to take.
Val looked at Rol, nodded and tookone of Reathy's hands.
The other waited for Rol.

"Well, Herst can probably clean up, yeah."


---

Rol looked at the deathflow. "Greeeaaattt, this with be greeaattt."

He grabbed the other one of Reathy's hands "We're off to see the wizard, the wonderful wizard of Oz."

Roltharus wrote:

He grabbed the other one of Reathy's hands "We're off to see the wizard, the wonderful wizard of--

Before Rol could finish his sentence Reathy pulled him and Val through.


Beneath their feet was the same black sand as last time. But in front of them was something entirely different. A crater as large as the eye could see. And the group was standing on the edge of that crater.
At the bottom of the crater seemed to be a hole leading to a void of darkness.

The sky was filled with the green glowing river of souls. The green energy twisted and turned wildly above them. Making it appear more like a whirlpool of souls.

In between the void and the energy vortex above were chunks of black glass floating up and down. Some the size of a fist others the size of small islands. All of them rotating around the center along with the flow of the vortex above.

And in the center of it all the largest glass island of all. With a single beam of the former soul of rivers going up into the vortex, or coming down from it. It wasn't clear which.

"Was it like this the last time you were here?" Val asked.

"No. It was completely different." Reathy said.
They paused. "We need to get to that middle island. Whatever is causing this is down there."
They took a step forward and the sand whimpered beneath their feet.

"We better not have to close a big dark hole, I am sick of that."

Rol whined, looking around.

"I don't think we'll need to go anywhere near that hole. Also did you guys hear that? Since when does sand whimper?" Val asked.


"We assume the laws of our reality don't apply here." Reathy answered.


"Right. Does gravity apply here? Because if it doesn't it would make getting over there a lot easier."
Val looked around as well. Trying to find a possible path across.


"Not sure. We could fly and carry you two over there?" Reathy shrugged.


"Well you two you could try to jump to an island. If you fall you can fly back up. If not, me and Rol can jump after you."


"We can do that."
Reathy braced themselves and leapt. The sand whimpered again as they jumped off the ledge. They landed on an Island that floated by. "There's some gravity alright. But you should be able to jump across."


"Alright but you two better catch us if we fall."


"We'll fly around, just in case."
Reathy took off into the air.

Val took a deep breath and waited for the next island to drift by. "Alright, here goes nothing."
She leapt across and managed to land safely on the island made of black glass. She turned around and signaled Rol to follow. "Quick before the island floats too far away."

"Kay."

Rol took a few steps back than bolted, jumping to the black glass island, landing on his face.

"..."

Nobody commented on Rol's fail.
Val helped him back up and they continued on. Jumping to the next floating island and to the next and the next and..

After a while of leaping from island from island they take a moment to rest. "This is taking a lot longer than I thought it would." Despite having been jumping for a while they didn't seem to be getting very close to the middle island.


"Space and distance also work differently in here it seems."
Reathy shrugged.


"Great. Let's just keep going."
Reathy nods.

They jump to the next Island safely. But when they prepare for the next jump the island suddenly tilts to the side a bit. "What was that?"
A hand with long thin fingers reaches up to the edge. Followed by two holes in a giant hed filled with green lights.


"One of these things again. Apparently you missed some last time."
Reathy frowns and quickle dives down. They remove the creatures tail and absorb the soul. Its lifeless body falls into the crater.

But it doesn't take long for more of them to appear. Climbing up the glass island and the others floating around it. Val readies her sword.

"That won't help. We can't fight these things on these small islands. We need to hurry to the center." Reathy points.
Val nods.

"How effectively can I shadow manipulate here again? That might help."

Rol focused on trying to make a shadow platform, to see how difficult it was. Mostly ignoring the lemures, like the dumbass he is.