The approaching dwarves were covered in the armor of Agorak. Red and gold accents covering the otherwise black armor. There was no doubt in their eyes. No nervousness. They dearly wanted to kill me, a fact buoyed by the King Slayer title I’d recently earned.

Big problem with living underground though, the sly assholes couldn’t fly. They could send plenty of attacks up at us, and they were competent at protecting themselves with shields from the attacks we rained down, though they had no answer to my Ethereal attacks which cut through their shields with ease.  

Every time I managed to drop one of their shields, Danivra and Sania rained down on the opening with their own projectiles. The Baravats which had returned, weren’t focused on me as the Dwarves were and the airborne Malatians were making short work of the comparably weak bat creatures.

As more Dwarves and Aragites arrived, it was only a matter of time before we were completely overwhelmed and when the flight abilities of Danivra, Ewan and Grigor were spent and they all had to return to the ground it was looking even more likely and there was nothing I could do about it.

Karius, clearly sensing the same thing, ordered his men down from the skies, shortly after and signaled for our slow, fighting retreat to begin. Dropping back down to the ground at the head of the under pressure, Malatian fighting line, he roared. “Let them see the Nephilim!”

Six Malatians began to grow rapidly.  At the same time, Danivra morphed into her Dokala form and Wind of the Wild increased their size to provide that first line of protection to the soldiers behind.

I wished I could adopt my Nephilim From and join in the melee abuse they were giving the front ranks of our enemy because, while powers were amazing and I knew how lucky I was to have them, there was nothing more satisfying than punching your enemy into paste.

Still, I was far more effective from above and continued to soften them up while keeping watch as more of their army arrived. There were much larger creatures on the horizon now. The creepy fungi creatures, most notable. I wasn’t too concerned yet. As to my direct North I could also see our own army arriving. Pounding over the barren land, the old and infirm, slipping from the backs of the Nanook’s around half a mile away to make their way to the east while those who could fight kept coming straight at us.

Our Goblins remained mounted, firing their newly acquired spicy balls, at least from those who had made Cleric. Once the Nanooks and Nystiobek crashed into the side of the enemy line, the goblins jumped off and began to fight. Many of them were now of the hobgoblin evolution after the hard trip south. Not one of our people who had made the trip were unaffected by the constant battle we had seen and I really hoped we didn’t have to lose any more before I managed to get that portal home.

The Nanooks made the most obvious difference, with their speed and ferocity. The dwarven death toll on that flank increased dramatically. And as the Nanooks drove deep into the side of their lines, the Wultr came and prevented them from being surrounded, forming a new line in front of us, though more fluid than the Malatian lines. The Dokalfar and Drengalfar came in next, adding width to our line with the Fensalfar behind them providing cover with their arrows.

As the momentum of our army's charge was finally ground to a halt, I called them all back to join our ranks. Once we regained a decent formation, we began to fall back in an orderly fashion with the Drengalfar, creating an impressive battle shield that protected our full front line from direct attack.

The frustration on the faces of the dwarves was evident to see as they made their best efforts to surge around.

We managed to hold our line all the way back into the Forsaken land. Heading back to where Karius had picked out for us. In the dying light of the day, I knew as soon as I saw the area he was talking about that it would be an excellent place to defend, though I wasn’t convinced it would be enough to hold on for the last hour against the growing horde we faced.

Before we even made it Erimu, who I’d all but forgotten about because I barely ever saw the Saleels, now jumped up from the rocky ground shouting and waving his arms. “Great worms! At least ten, coming up from deep.”

 While their arrival was to be expected, it was the last thing we needed. We might control the air in this battle, but Darkness controlled the ground under our feet and it appeared he was going to throw everything at us in a last ditch attempt to stop us escaping.

Our army had made the hills as Sania and I watched from above in horror as the surface bulged under a group of Dokalfar and the first of many Greatworms broke free of the ground in a shower of debris. They tried to escape, but such was the crush of bodies they had no chance.

I swooped down as fast as I could to try and rescue those caught within its open mouth, reaching them as the jaws came snapping shut. I was unable to fire as I’d end up killing my own people, so with no other genius Ideas popping to mind, I flew into its mouth attempting to stop the jaws closing with my body instead. Two sharp teeth punctured my left foot, such was the strength of the beast. My right foot luckily landed on its stinking black tongue. My Immortal shell arm outstretched above remained perfectly undamaged, though the pressure was causing my spine to compress painfully. Thankfully, my body held out long enough for the still uninjured Dokalfar to jump free. As the last of them left, and I considered the options for my own escape the head of the worm suddenly jerked. I continued to hold my position as it moved violently, I guessed trying to dislodge me, until light came from its throat. The giant head suddenly falling away from the rest of the body with me still inside.

I flew out to see Galota and two other Nanooks, moving away from the worm heading to another that had surfaced. There were three rearing their ugly lizard-like heads from the ground and I received a number of heartrending notifications as followers died. While I was able to revive a great number of others, it didn’t soften the blow as our numbers diminished.

I saw Sania and the other Amaroks tearing another Greatworm to shreds, and so I picked my next target. All the while, the Malatians and the rest of our army attempted to keep Darkness’s forces at bay. In other words, it was utter chaos.

I had no choice but to focus on killing Greatworms, reviving followers and counting down the clock to escape. Though I was conscious that if we didn’t clear Far Reach quickly, I’d never get my Sphere of Influence up in time to stop this army appearing and wiping out our town.

 As the last Greatworms fell, I returned my focus to the rest of our enemy. They were relentless in trying to destroy us completely, and judging by our numbers, I suspected we’d lost perhaps another thousand people in the battle so far, a little over half of that number looked to be Malatians, but I had to hand it to them. This group were strong. If it was these guys that first came to Far Reach led by Karius, we’d have been screwed.

As I fired off blast after blast, into the writhing masses in the twilight, Darkness fell over them. For a moment, all went deathly silent. The air became cold and heavy. Seeming to carry fear in its essence.

Casting my eyes over our people. They all looked terrified apart from Sania who hovered next to me back in human form, looking deeply concerned.

“How long left?” she said, her voice almost a whisper.

“Fifteen minutes,” I replied, thinking that was sixteen minutes too long for whatever was about to happen.

From the center of the darkness, five dwarven figures emerged. They were flying, which was a new and not comforting development. It took a few moments to recognize who they were. The leader was a face I knew oh so well, Grimstrom. Egard was beside him. The other Dwarves I didn’t know personally, but there was something decidedly wrong about them all. As they moved ever closer, the soldiers beneath them cheering their passage, I could finally make out their identifiers. Both Egard and Grimstrom’s had changed by a disconcerting margin, with Grimstrom also collecting an extra title or two.

 

Grimstrom Level 283: King of Nuinaer, Chosen of Darkness. Nidarak. (Dwarf IV)

 

 

Egar was level 284 but worse than that, there was a dwarf with a much higher level than the others.

 

Esktrom Level 310: Paladin of Darkness Champion of Agorak, Chosen of Darkness. Nidarak Dwarf (III)

 

“If anyone wants to pray to me,” I said across all of my bonds. “Now would be a really good time!” Then to Grimstrom I smiled confidently. “Big moves directly interfering with Falritas. I reckon your god’s overstepped the mark big time here.”

“As long as you’re dead it won’t matter. Falritas is changing, and we will be at the forefront of that change. You can already see Darkness is the most powerful god in the land and soon the whole of the North will be under our Dominion. The other gods will have to fall in line, or they will be crushed. The same ultimatum you were given Clive and you have chosen to be crushed.”

“Hmm, big words for such a little prick. Seems a bit risky, too, if I’m honest. And how the hell did you level up so high? Is this more direct intervention from your lying shit of a god? I swear, I thought my own planet was full of creepy lying pricks, but this place… next level, man! Look at you. Supposed to be my friend and you chop my fucking limbs off! Either way, the other Gods are gonna smash you for breaking the rules like he has,” I said, blurting out anything that came to my mind in an attempt to stall.

“You realize Justice was the first to break the rules? When you fought them last, the power they used?” he said shaking his head with mock disappointment.”

“It is true,” Devotion said, surprising the shit out of me as the world came to a halt. “The others can’t act against Darkness without also moving against Justice who began this.”

“Well that’s some god level fuckery right there. These guys are going to slaughter us. Have you seen their damn levels! Can you not lend a hand? Beef up some of your guys?”  

“I…do not know. I suppose it would be in support of my people  against  Darkness’s direct involvement. It feels strange to even consider it after so long.”

“Fuck suppose! Darkness has just powered up his people to kill yours. Let’s rip these guys new arseholes!”

“But in truth, they are here for you Clive. Not my soldiers.”

She kinda had a point if we were playing by the book. And she well might be, but I sure as hell wasn’t. “Nah, they’re here to stomp us all, Devotion. If not directly you at this point the result of this battle still directly affects you and your ability to hold the borders, right? You heard the wanker. They’re taking Falritas.”

It felt as though a breeze was blowing around my head as Devotion sighed. “I will try. Though even if I can, remember I am not as strong as Darkness.”

“Doesn’t matter. We’ll take whatever help you can give us.” We have like fourteen minutes to survive. Get us over that hurdle and we can get home and do the Sphere of Influence thingy.”

“I will see what I can do. But it will take time and come at a cost.”

“We’ll pay it together,” I replied, looking at Grimstrom’s frozen form come back to life as Devotion left. I had to try and remember where we were up to the conversation, and continue stalling.

“Soooooo. You still hoping to convince me to become a bonded servant of your corrupt god?”

“Absolutely not,” he replied as Egard broke in after him. “You’ve served your purpose and that opportunity has long since passed you arrogant scum.”

“We’re her to finish you once and for all, Clive.” Grimstrom said flatly. “You’ve been too difficult to manage, and your power is growing far too quickly. You can tell your that bitch of a goddess you’ve befriended that Darkness will be coming for her on Onnekus, for this little stunt she’s played by bonding with you.”

I suddenly felt bad for the safety of Devotions home, but there wasn’t much I could do about it at the minute. I attempted to formulate a witty reply when Grimstrom and the other four dwarves suddenly screamed deep, primal screams. I thought they were some kind of buff for the army below them, and they might well have been, but that’s not what held my attention.

They all began to grow, muscles swelling and contorting in an ugly fashion. As their skin turned as black as my demon skin, protruding veins bulged and throbbed, purple and red. Their pupils turned a glowing red as iris and sclera merged into pure black. They were also damn near the size of me now, topping out at around twenty feet tall, though it was hard to judge, hovering in the air like they were.

Grimstrom grinned at me and held out a hand. Black energy condensed there, forming into the shape of a sword, though whereas all the soul bound weapons I’d seen in the past were the weapon coated in energy, this remained pure energy. I felt my ass twitching at the sight of it. It’s like a fucked-up scene out of power rangers, I muttered to myself as I built an ethereal blast in preparation for what I was certain was going to painful.

  “Finally, I can put you out of my misery,” Grimstrom snarled at me.

“Yep. When I kill you, you’ll never have to think about me again, because I bet you didn’t get an Ethereal Stage for becoming a Nidarak. Your god’s not that stupid is he?” I laughed, barely having to fake my confidence at all.

I really didn’t appreciate the sneer he replied with, nor how fast he moved toward me.