Leaping down from the rooftop, Deacon landed in the middle of the chaos that was happening in front of the Middle Gate of the Inner Wall and did not spend a second longer looking at what was happening between Liam and the angels who were attacking him – favoring the idea of getting back with his Party instead.
He burst forward through the gap his Party had carved, joining them as the undead ranks collided with the human defenders in a wall of metal and bone. Where the street in front of the gate was an ocean of flame, steel, dark purple miasma, flashes of golden light, and screams.
"Yo, Deke! Nice fucking explosions!" Sam shouted over the roar, his voice bright with manic laughter as he jabbed his staff forward with a downward arc that sent a bubbling spear of water that pierced through the chest of a priest before the spell detonated and splashed boiling hot water against the cluster of priests beside the one he'd just killed.
Deacon twisted his blade, deflecting a strike meant for Sam with the flat of Echoform Reliquary's Broadsword form. As steel sparked against Inconel-Tungsten, Deacon's blade glided atop the soldier's blade and punched through the neck of Sam's attacker.
"Thanks," he grunted as he kicked the soldier's body into a nearby knight that was clashing with three zombie spearmen. The impact of the soldier's body colliding with the knight caused the knight to stagger backwards, and in those few seconds of him being staggered, with a single backhand swing, Deacon cleaved through the knight's neck.
"Nice going!" Jass shouted, her glaive flashing from the golden light sparking about as she cleaved through the knights blocking Deacon's path, clearing the way for him to push forward and join her at the front. Side by side, they drove into the enemy line, carving a path through the collapsing formation like a spear as they parried, defended, and attacked the blows that came at them like extensions of death itself.
"Thank you, kindly," Deacon replied, his tone casual despite the slaughter, as for the first time in days, the tightness that had lingered within him over the course of his growing guilt and panic of trying to get to his team finally eased as lips began to curve themselves into a relaxed grin.
"We need to take the third right from here!" Jass shouted, her voice sharp and commanding as she cut down a guard that lunged for her flank.
From behind them, Bonehead's voice rose over the din. "How the hell did you even get an explosion that big!?"
"That's what she said," Esmerelda giggled as wind whirled around the group and, with a flick of her wrist, she conjured and manipulated Gust to form a half-dome barrier atop the five of them that deflected a barrage of holy arrows from the holy human archers within the Inner Wall. With the protection from the archers now present and having deflected a downpour barrage of arrows, Deacon darted from under Esmerelda's barrier and pierced a priest through the stomach before turning his attention to a knight with a great hammer.
"While I was waiting for the poison in the wells to circulate," Deacon shouted back to answer Jass as he parried the knight's swing of his greathammer. Jass slid herself in, sliced her glaive upwards, and sliced off the right arm off the knight's torso, "I decided I needed something to do while waiting for it to spread."
The greathammer wielder barely had time to scream before Deacon's boot slammed into his chest, sending him crashing into a wall with a sickening crunch, where Bonehead tossed a vial of acid at the downed knight's face, killing him in seconds as the acid ate away at the knight's armor and eventually his brain.
Sam stepped up beside him, slamming his staff into the cobblestones beneath his feet and creating a Manashield that flashed into existence just above Deacon's head as Esmerelda was forced to drop the Gust shield to cast a barrage of Ice Spears at the soldiers who were poking their heads out of the crater in the wall.
The Manashield above Deacon's head stopped the descent of a soldier who'd leaped from the crater in the wall and, with a spear in hand, intended to skewer Deacon like a kebab. However, due to Sam's timely intervention, the spear wielder lost all of the inertia he'd gained and, with the call of gravity, fell and landed at Deacon's feet.
"And I wanted to make up for not being there to help you guys kill the general!" Deacon finished, downward cleaving a priest in two and managing to arc his blade to split the head of the fallen soldier that had tried to kebab him.
"Aww, that's adorable!" Bonehead's voice rang out, half a laugh and half a taunt as he hurled a miasma bomb over the line of advancing undead. It exploded in a cloud of black smoke, dissolving the holy wards of a cluster of priests and beginning to cover their skin and innards in necrosis. "Lil ol' Dekey wanted to prove to us that he can sit with the big kids!"
"Guzzle on them," Deacon shot back instantly, not even looking over his shoulder as he flung a throwing knife that split through the visor of a nearby knight and swiftly blocked a strike coming at his left side.
Bonehead barked out a laugh. "That's my boy!"
The undead army pressed behind them, howling in triumph as the Middle Gate's hinges gave way and the iron doors crumpled inward under the combined assault.
Golden light flared from within the Inner Wall as priests kept chanting, knights kept trying to push back the undead and keep them from entering, but it was too late. The undead were already pouring through, flooding into the Upper Bailey like a living tide of rot and fury.
Deacon and his Party led the push, carving their way forward through the chaos.
***
The perfectly cobbled and decorated streets of the Upper Bailey were nowhere to be seen either; the well-smoothened marble plazas and ornate fountains were broken underfoot, splattered red and black with blood and ash. The Ravenlight Party tore through the defenders with a precision that bordered on mechanical, as their movements were like water with how seamlessly they attacked, defended, parried, and monitored each other with ease due to the many years they had fought and trained side by side with one another.
The flare towers and trebuchets thundered from behind, their fiery payloads finally falling where they were meant to – the areas ahead of their army and not on top of them. Each blast hammered through defensive lines and unleashed total devastation onto any barriers and buildings that stood in the way of their undead soldiers.
"Finally!" Deacon shouted between strikes as Echoform Reliquary split a knight's shield clean in two before biting through his chestplate. "Looks like the trebuchet and flare tower operators finally grew a few brain cells and figured out how to use those damn things!"
Flaming boulders hurled from the trebuchets behind the undead army occupying the middle quadrant of the Upper Bailey came crashing down onto the street ahead, obliterating a squadron of knights and priests in a spray of stone, ash, and blood.
"Took them long enough to realize they should hit in front of us instead of behind!" Deacon remarked as he darted forward while using the flat of Echoform Reliquary to block the rubble flying at him.
Jass let out a sharp laugh as her glaive spun in a golden arc, cutting through three soldiers in a single sweep as their blades deflected off her Earthen Armor. "Maybe they stopped letting the goblins aim!"
Sam barked a short, manic laugh of his own, driving his staff into the ground and releasing a barrage of bubbling water spears that exploded on impact upon colliding with a group of priests and drenching them in scalding water, further worsened by Bonehead lobbing bombs of miasma onto them and necrotizing their scalded flesh and actively hindering their ability to manipulate holy mana.
"Wouldn't put it past them!" Deacon replied before ducking beneath a swing from a greataxe wielding knight.
Arcing his blade upwards, Deacon severed his attacker's arm at the elbow and pivoted, using the momentum to impale the knight behind him straight through the chest while a spear of ice whizzed past his head and punched through the head of a knight with their greatsword raised high above their head.
Esmerelda's Ice Spears cut through the air overhead, piercing the visors of knights and freezing their brains solid, while her Manashields protected the Party from stray attacks and arrows from afar.
Above them, the massive cathedral loomed closer with each stride, its golden and white spires cut through the smoke-choked afternoon sky.
"Fifteen hundred meters out!" Deacon barked out as he let loose a blast of Ignis into the face of the person charging at him. "Keep pushing!"
And then—
Twin columns of light and darkness stabbed down from the heavens, slamming into the northeastern edge of the Upper Bailey. The light burned so bright it washed the color from everything and everyone within Dawn's Breath for a heartbeat, leaving only white, heat, and noise.
"Keep going!" Deacon shouted at his team, keeping them from getting distracted like the many others around them as the massive shockwave from the twin beams of light blasted everything backwards – reaching them who were over fifteen kilometers away in seconds.
"...Isn't that the same direction as that Bishop Andre guy?" Deacon muttered, voice low, his grin twitching despite the sweat dripping down his bloodied face as he tore the shield out of the hands of the blubbering knight in front of him. "Great. Just great – I hope that was just his last-ditch attack."
But Deacon no longer dwelt on such thoughts as the Cathedral of Azul was right in front of them, with its massive double doors guarded by a wall of knights and priests who stood shoulder to shoulder, their shields blazing with holy power.
"Ten meters!" Deacon shouted.
"Make way!" Jass barked, thrusting her hands forward.
The ground split beneath their feet, and jagged spears of earth erupted from the cobblestones and shot through the ranks of priests and knights guarding the doors, impaling them mid-chant.
Sam and Esmerelda followed close behind—Sam's sigils flaring blue as he unleashed a barrage of Earth Spears, while Esmerelda swept her wand forward, releasing a shockwave of compressed wind that slammed into the doors like a battering ram, shattering the holy wards protecting them.
"Go! Go! Go!" Deacon roared, charging through the carnage with Bonehead and Sam at his heels.
He and Jass hit the blood-slick steps first. Without a word, they kicked out together—boots crashing into the double doors in perfect sync, blasting them open and unveiling to everyone behind them the Holy Sanctum.
Floor Seven – War of Kingdoms Event 3: The Siege
It has been one hundred and twenty eight days since the war between the Holy Human Kingdom and the Tyrannical Undead Kingdom erupted in its entirety. The once-mighty banners of both kingdoms are now drenched in blood and decorating the grounds of the battlefield along with the corpses of thousands.
The brutal stalemate had finally broken in a pyrrhic victory for the Tyrannical Undead Kingdom at the death of the Holy General Obi.
After the death of their Holy General, the soldiers and knights of the Holy Human Empire have retreated back to their castle, where the Tyrannical Undead Kingdom's forces have begun to lay siege onto the last remaining castle of the Holy Human Kingdom, Dawn's Breath - The home of the Holy Pontiff.
As mercenaries of the Undead Kingdom, it falls upon you to breach the walls of Dawn's Breath and enter the Holy Sanctum.
Floor Completion Criteria:
▸ Breach the walls of Dawn's Breath ✔
▸ Take over 60% of the Upper Bailey ✔
▸ Enter the Holy Sanctum ✔
Rewards: Immediate access to Floor Eight & Affinity Attuned Spell Book (Unique)