47 Megalomania (2/2)

”...Huh? Uh.” Zyron seemed a bit out of it, but finally notices Nikolai. ”The fuck? Yeah, whatthe hell is he doing here at the gates by himself?” Zyron replied, a bit disgruntled.

”This is pretty dodgy if you ask me.” Solitaire mentioned, glancing to Zyron. ”You seem pretty zonked out, Poppet. You sure you're alright?”

”Y-Yeah. I'm fine.” Zyron replied, seeming more nervous than usual.

Nikolai caught notice of them, floating over. ”Nyghtmare est post tergum eorum portae, Sentio periculo!”

”Ughh... How many times do I have to tell you, I don't understand monster?” Zyron grumbled.

Suddenly, Inkers left his position and was proceeding their way with his scythe in an aggressive position. ”Et nemo ex vobis intermixti, Nicolaus!” Inkers shouted angrily as he swung his scythe at the smaller reaper.

Nikolai wasn't quick enough to turn around and summon his scythe, Inkers was already right on top of him. The scythe came at Nikolai, but just before it could connect with him another scythe obstructed it's line of descent. Solitaire was standing right behind the small reaper, with her bladed arms formed to protect the fiend. This invoked the others' attention, preparing their weapons for combat.

”Even if you're a weird chap who's bloody creepy, you're still one of us, mate.” Solitaire spoke to Nikolai, with a smirk.

”Gratias tibi.” Nikolai replied, softly.

There was still that ominous force lingering as if observing every movement and action. That however, didn't seem to be noticed by the combatants. Arrows shot off at Inkers, going right through the black ooze without even causing the ink reaper to flinch. Solitaire came rushing his way as she slid back from his previous attack; slashing through his ink substance with it immediately retracting back to it's original form. It was as if the ink was indestructible to their melee attacks. Their attack kept coming like a barrage, but to no avail. There was a reason this fiend was stationed here, and they needed to unravel his weakness so they could take him down. Zyron attempted to cast fire, but as it struck Inkers, the fiend grew in size as did the flames within his gut. Zyron was astonished, but took notice of the effect that he had just witnessed.

”Fire makes it grow?” He muttered, thinking for a moment as the others continued to strike with their scythes and arrows hopelessly. ”Ice maybe?”

Zyron quickly decided to shift elements, casting an ice based spell at Inkers, but this time the ink froze for a brief moment before quickly melting from the severe heat. He was shocked, unable to comprehend how hot that ink must be to withstand ice.

”The fuck...” Zyron stammered, but then realized the ice had turned to water.

At the base of the reaper, the water was hardening over where the flames were, like how magma would react with contact of water. This gave him an idea. Zyron decided to cast ice again, but this time he followed up instantly with a fire incantation, striking the ice just as it neared contact with Inkers. Water immediately splattered onto the ink, steaming up as it hardened the reaper's body and turned it to a twisted statue-like structure. Then solitaire's already incoming attack came, shattering the form like it was nothing.

The group were panting in exhaustion as the rubble began disintegrating off into the air. They were catching their breath, but noticed Nikolai heading for the gates with urgency. They decided to follow after, knowing something had to be wrong for him to act the way he had and to rush for Wynorex. Whatever had been looming to this point decided now was the time to intercept their prey. Wings flapped heavily as monstrous equine with three snake heads for a tail blocked their path. Blood magic had been coated over it's bony-wings that splattered off upon landing. Blue smoke was emanating from it's jaws, with what seemed to be an eerie face within.

Scattering of arachnids began to appear from the darkness, as more hordes of those blood spiders began to descend along the walls, and from the ceiling on glimmering red strings of blood webbing.

”Bloody hell! Are those S-S-S-S-Spiders!?” Solitaire shrieked, getting close to Zyron in fear.

Slow applauds came from behind them, in a mocking manner that caused Solitaire's group to notice they had an audience. Heels clicked up the steps, as the clapping drew closer. Standing there was Titania, the Queen's advisor.

”I must applaud your efforts to reaching this point, as well as destroying what we deemed as an indestructible reaper. Truly marvelous.” Titania stated, her expression was quite serious, and cold.

”No surprise that there's more of them...” Minerva grumbled, keeping her bow at ready.

”Smashing, ain't it? Not as if we haven't been pretty jammy up until now.” Solitaire agreed, in a sarcastic manner. Her eyes nervously eyed the spiders, shivering anxiously at those legs creeping closer to them.

”Such hostility, and yet so afraid.” Titania smirked, as she drew closer, to unsheathe her sword. ”Are you confident enough that you believe you can defeat me? O~Hohoho.. As far as I see it, none of you managed to fell any of the riders. It was your 'friends' that had those victories, wasn't it?” Titania's lips curled up with a snake-like grin. ”You however...” Her eyes peered to Zyron. ”Were the one to kill Weaver, as well as Inferna.” Her eyes grew intense.

The four of them were ready to fight back, each with their weapon drawn. They were complelty on edge, the power coming from this woman was much more intense than others they went up against down here.

”Please allow me to formally introduce myself...” She began in an eerie tone, staring to them like a snake. ”I am the Queen's advisor, Titania Spyders, or better known as Arachnophobia. I was also given the privilege to become the fifth rider, Calamity.” She chuckled, motioning to the demonic stallion behind them.

As their attention turned to the equine, Titania stuck her sword into the ground, dropping the belts from her long dress. She gripped to the bottom corners of it, pulling the cloth between her legs and wrapped it around her waist to fasten it, before pulling her sword from the ground as their attention returned to her.

”However, I am far superior to those Generals, as well as to you brutish things.” Her sword shifted posture, preparing to engage. ”I will be the one to kill you and your friends, in the name of my beloved!!” She exclaimed,

Without hesitation, Titania rushed at them with great speed, as if she was flying. Her sword came whirling around with rapid fire swings, and blocked incoming strikes from Solitaire's scythe and even Minerva's arrows with a blood shield that formed over her free hand's arm. Her speed was so intense and her power behind each blow was savagely accurate. She had such intensity for a woman in a dress, but she clearly knew exactly what she was doing. Zyron attempted to cast spells from afar to try to get some of the heat off Solitaire, but Titania spun around to knock the incoming projectiles back at the user with the blade of her sword. It bounced back, colliding with Zyron to ignite his clothing on fire. He quickly withdrew a moment, to cast ice to the flames in attempt to extinguish them.

Minerva kept the arrows coming, seeing that Solitaire was struggling to keep Titania back. The shots kept being ricocheted away from that shield, but Solitaire at least managed to gain some distance. Zyron resumed spell casting in attempt to help Solitaire, and Nikolai joined the conflict as well with his scythe. Titania grinned again, however this time used a blood spell to form four extra blood arms on her body, while seeming to replicate her sword into each of them. She quickly countered again, to cut the incoming spell in half like it was nothing, then proceeded to knock Nikolai away as well. Solitaire came charging with more blades formed as the two resumed their swords dance. Nikolai wasn't far behind, lending his scythe support once he caught himself from falling.

Zyron could tell his lady was struggling and he was more on edge than usual, recalling what Solitaire said about being with child. ”(I have to protect her! Not just because I'm going to be a father! She's the most important person in the world to me!)” Zyron thought, as his mind grew frantic.

Zyron got to Solitaire's side, preparing a point-blank range spell on Titania. Arachnophobia however caught notice of this, knocking Solitaire backwards as she gripped to Zyron's neck with one of her blood hands.It began to string along him like spider webs, quickly ensnaring him with the blood magic. It was tight and crushing, making it seemingly impossible to breach. Zyron couldn't get loose, feeling himself strung up to the ceiling by the many giant blood spiders flooded the cavern walls above him. He could only helplessly watch as Titania resumed conflict with Solitaire.

Minerva's arrows kept flying, which seemed to have grown bothersome to Titania. She quickly cast out a blast of blood magic to her, knocking Minerva back into the edge of the chamber, as blood webbing locked her against the cavern's wall. Now it was just Solitaire and Nikolai left.

”My spiders told me a little secret about you.” Titania said, still continuing this clash with the Morphious.

”Quit yakking about the damn spiders!” Solitaire snapped, clearly uncomfortable about the topic.

”They told me what you did to my brother, Jehxal. Like pulling legs off a spider, wasn't it?” Titania provoked, clearly up to something.

”Oy, knock it off you dodgy, wonky arse wanker!! Y-You ought to bunk out of here, before y-you brass me off!” Solitaire retorted with an obvious stammer, as she was shaking uneasily.

”You're trembling. I can feel your terror, that fear. O~Hohoho!” Titania laughed, watching as her blood spiders began climbing all over Solitaire.

”EEEEEEKKKKKKK!!!!!!!!!!!!” Solitaire shrieked, falling back to the ground as the spiders crawled all over her to secure her body to the ground.

”Solitaire!!” Zyron shouted, trying to get loose from his bindings.

”Struggle all you like, mutt. My blood bindings aren't so easy to escape from.” Titania mocked, twirling her swords around as her eyes lingered over to Nikolai. ”Now for the fiend that fails to obey.”

She charged at Nikolai, who could only deflect her incoming strikes due to how many swords were coming his way. Suddenly, flames rushed along the ground like the crashing of a wave. It caused Titania and Nikolai to scatter to opposite sides of the flames path, but also drawing the attention of six armed swordswoman. Her yellow eyes reflected a bust of flames igniting into armor as the long crimson hair of Ashewyn waved into the air from the heat rising. Behind him was Miles, with his katana already drawn for combat.

”It appears that the Calvary has arrived. Excellent. I was growing bored.” Titania smirked, immediately shifting target to Ashewyn, with their blades clashing instantly.

Miles followed up behind him, lending support to his companion, before Titania kicked him backwards into incoming spiders that leapt from the ceiling. Solitaire was frozen in fear under those bindings as many spiders continued to hold her down, and block her line of sight to the ongoing confrontation of swords. Miles was quickly getting over run by spiders, but miraculously Minerva managed to get her arms free, firing some arrows to get the spiders off Miles. More spiders began flocking to Miles to replace the ones that fell and turned into puddles of blood. This gave opportunity to Zyron, allowing him to cast an ice spell to free himself from the blood webs, dropping him to the ground. He urgently made his way to assist Solitaire, from where she was trapped.

Miles was being overrun again, drawing Nikolai to get to his aid to help fend off the arachnids with his scythe. Ashewyn was keeping up with Titania's attack, countering every strike with both in a stalemate of combat. Miles managed to break through the horde, as Zyron lent ice support before he took out the surrounding blood spiders to reach his lady. After his ice shattered the foes and webbing, he quickly scooped the terrified Solitaire into his arms. He caught notice of Miles rushing to Minerva, pulling at the blood in attempt of releasing her. Then the blood gave out, causing her to fall on top of him.

”Oh, hey beautiful!~ Come here often?” Miles teased in a flirty manner, making a face like he was going to kiss her, but only to see her quickly fire off shots at spiders rushing their way.

He was a bit surprised as he felt her push off him to get to her feet to fire more shots. As the targets fell, she extended her hand to pull him to his feet. She forced his body against hers as she drew another arrow.

”Now's not the time, Miles. Don't move.” She instructed, aiming to what seemed to be more of Koron's forces arriving to join the battle. Miles did as she asked, clearly distracted by how close his face was to her breasts.

Without warning, the ground and cavern around them began to rumble wildly, knocking most of the fighters off their feet or causing them to loose balance. It wasn't letting up either, causing the violence to halt.

”What the FUCK is THAT!?” Zyron growled, holding tightly to Solitaire to protect her.

Around the throne room, Nye had finally managed to get a strike in, knocking Koron's sword from her grasp. It was flung, vanishing before it could collide with the throne. Koron seemed displeased, as she held her hands out, the room began to rumble uncontrollably. The skeletons continued to pin Nye down, but Koron seemed intense. Her massive masked beast, decided to approach with Koron shifting to climb onto it's back. She sat sideways to face Nye with the top of her hand to her chin, as her confident demeanor rose once again.

”Tsk tsk. Poor little thing.” Koron teased. ”Your power is nothing compared to mine, and I haven't even scratched the surface yet. Hmhmhm.” She smiled, devilishly. ”Diostrate, if you would.”

”As you wish, mi'lady Koron.” Diostrate replied, leaping to the far end of the room, where the entrance was, as the room continued to shake.

Then Koron held both her hands high into the sky, speaking a witch type incantation.”I invoke the foreboding darkness of the night, lend me your grim power. Rise Gashadokuro, I beckon thee!”

The ground rumbled further, quaking even harder than before, as a massive skeleton, that was at least fifteen times taller than an average one, blasted out from the soil of the planet. It's massive head crashed into the ceiling, tearing open the earth to escape into the outside grassy plains located above Wynorex. The smaller skeletons scattered, as the massive hand clasped onto Nye to thrust her high into the air.

Nye felt her body rushing far through the clouds of the dusk sky, with the surface growing smaller by the second. It felt like slow motion to her as she squinted her eyes from the intense pressure, moments before she formed her wings to catch herself in the sky. Some tears in her wingspan were caused by the speed of her ascent, but notenough to cause her to lose flight. She hovered there a moment, watching the massive Gashadokuro climb out of Koron's throne room to reach the upper ground, urgently followed by Koron on top her demon wolf fiend, Diostrate.

The rocks around the surface of the ground above the city, suddenly started to crack and break, caving into the underground sanctuary of life within Wynorex. If felt catastrophic, crushing all the city and people living within. Koron seemed stunned, but she shrugged it off to leapt from her mount to soar after Nye at high speed.

The cavern's within Wynorex continued to shakeviolently, with the ceilings and caves rumbling with debris as it started to crash inward around. The combatants deciding to abandon their fight, to rush out the falling rubble to make a break for the surface. Even deeper in the caverns, Jackyn was intercepted by a manticore, but due to the tremors occurring, her abandoned his fight as the beast was crushed under massive rocks collapsing inward. He ran, avoiding more caving in points of the deep roads before he encountered Adam, who was trapped under some debris.

Against his better judgement, Jackyn helped his allied fiend escape, and the two proceeded for the nearest exit, as they some how regrouped with their allies and all the others of Koron's surviving army rushing to the surface. They were all forced to scale the mountains of damage covering the buildings and corpses within the destruction to reach the surface where somehow the vast majority arrived safely. Their attention turned to the sky, witnessing Koron and Nye clash once again midair with their swords.

Nye took notice of everyone reaching the surface safely, as she continued to parry Koron's incoming blows. However, something in the distance caught her eye. The sight of it made her uneasy.

”Cease this bloodshed, Koron!” Nye demanded, with urgency.

”Why should I!? This is all your fault!” Koron shouted, growing more angry. ”Your people should have been mine!!”

”Listen to me!” Nye exclaimed. ”Look to the East, the Templar and their forces are nearly upon us!”

Koron hesitated, but noticed what Nye had seen. In the distance was several Rhyme and Terra flying their direction, along with Pegasus and dragon riders. That was only the air forces, upon the ground was many cavaliers, and other mounted forces along with a trebuchet, a few ballistas and soldiers on foot.Their army was gigantic in comparison. Koron had the look of terror in her eyes, nearly dropping her sword.

”......” Koron couldn't even manage to force out a syllable. ”How... How did they find us so quickly?”

”I know you despise me, and have had your forces do some terrible things... but we're still half sisters... and our goals are one in the same. We want to break this chain those Templar have placed upon on and the other races sided with us. I don't have any desire to claim your title, I just want to be free... as do the others.” Nye tried to reason with her.”There will be another genocide if we don't join forces and fight them together! Otherwise, all of those deaths will be in vain!”

”...” Koron looked to Nye, seeming to be regaining her focus. ”As much as I hate the idea of this... You're right. There's no way we could win this alone...” Koron begrudgingly admitted, her attention shifting to her forces that seemed ready to make battle with Nye's allies. ”Cult of Ghestro!” She shouted, drawing their attention to stop. ”From this point onward we're working together with these... Freedom Crusaders. Cease conflict and focus to the true threat!” Her eyes focused to the incoming army. ”The Templar are preparing to engage us!”

This explanation was enough instruction to convince everyone on the ground below, and they were soon joined by a plethora of zombies and skeletons from Koron's undead army. The final battle was coming, and there was nothing they could do to stop it.