The day was quiet, as the town was peaceful. Farmers worked their fields, the clanging of metal against metal could be heard from the barracks and the local forge, while general labourers ferried goods around to where they were needed. The shouts of children rang loudly through this atmosphere as their parents attempted to calm some of the more raucous ones among them.

A perfect, sunny day of normality.

As such, just like most days, the few guards that made their living here had very little to do and spent their days either keeping up with their training or talking to each other and the people while doing their rounds. After all, being a guard is a life of extremes, very slow when nothing requires them and potentially life-threatening when the worst happens.

But there was no sign of anything happening, so this small farming town just outside the capital and its inhabitants were as relaxed as ever. An army would have to cross the entire lands of the kingdom before getting here, and Monsters rarely attacked settlements of this size.

So then, how do those people that have nothing to do spend their time here?

Well, drinking is an obvious one, so a group of guards was usually found at the local tavern.

Another obvious one is exchanging rumours and gossip, another thing that can be done at a tavern.

And so those are the exact activities they were currently doing.

“So, those Twelve, huh. What’s your take on them?” One of them started the rumour mill regarding the newest trend, the Twelve. A group of Heroes that were specifically selected by the Goddess of Protection. Obviously, they attracted a massive amount of attention from everyone, they were the Heroes summoned to defeat the Demon Invasion after all.

“Well, the King and the Nobles sure coddle them. Not sure if they can actually do anything if they live with that luxury or whatever. I also heard that the place they come from is super peaceful. They don’t even have Monsters, apparently.” The second one complained. Of course, they were not aware of the time the Goddess had given them to train in her Realm, nor of their innate talents. After all, the last time a group of Heroes was summoned was several centuries ago and concrete information rarely made it into rumours.

“Huh. Guess they’ll be more of a moral support than anything then.” Once again, a wrong assumption with understandable origins.

“Ey, Yannick, you’ve been pretty quiet, what do you think? Didn’t you have a friend that works in the palace too?” They began pestering the third of their group, who had only been sipping on his mug all this time.

“What, can’t a guy just quietly drink his beer? Also, it’s my brother, not my friend.” Yannick retorted, only to continue sipping. He didn’t particularly feel like sharing anyway since his friends seemed somewhat set on their opinions.

“Don’t matter who, has he said anything about it?” The first guard insisted, slamming his tankard on to the table and quickly calling over one of the barmaids for a refill.

“Fine. Now, remember, he’s only a gate guard, not some bigshot or whatever. He’s not gonna be training with ‘em, nor will he know exactly what they’re doing.”

“Ye, ye. Stop stalling, spill.”

“Shut up an’ listen ya bastard. Ya want me to spill, then at least listen. And fill me up.” He pointed his tankard at the barmaid that had arrived at their table and the one that urged him begrudgingly, and with a groan, pulled out enough coins for the two drinks.

“Good. Now, his letter actually talked mainly about ‘em. They really are a super big deal o’er there. And let me tell ya. The stories he got, they’re somethin’ else. Ever since they arrived there apparently hasn’t been a single day where he didn’t hear explosion-like sounds from their training grounds.”

“Is that really so special? I mean, isn’t that like standard fare with the Royal Knights or whatever?” The second one noted as stories from Yannick weren’t too unusual to contain a level of combat that they as town guards would never be able to approach.

“I mean, yeah, but it kinda screws over your point about them being ‘too peaceful’. They’re just as muscle headed as their best. Other than that, they are apparently really nice though. Well, most of ‘em.”

He took a quick break from telling his story to down half his beer in one shot. The other two only looked at him expectantly. Obviously, after dropping a bait like that they wouldn’t just let him chicken out now.

“So, there’s that Altair kid. Actually looks like a kid, but the sweetest thing. Talks to ‘em and other people a lot, for no real reason other than to spread fun apparently. Then there’s this big lass, hasn’t gotten ‘er name yet, but she and another one of ‘em regularly go tavern crawling.

“But those are the sociable ones. There’s also that guy, super pompous looking mage-type, my brother has never seen the guy go to the city, only ever holed up. Another one of ‘em is always going around with wolves in tow, he hasn’t heard that gal speak a word yet. But what worries him the most is that, despite being the Twelve, he has only really seen eleven of ‘em.”

“What? But they are the Twelve, right? Like, that’s their big thing?”

“Yup. It’s just that the last one actually never leaves the castle. Dunno if they’re just sheltered or whatever, but the rumours sure ain’t good. Hear this: Some of the maids and butlers say that they have started hearing weird noises from the basement areas. Guess when that started?”

“No fucking way.”

“Yup. It’s creepy as all get out, clacking of bones, weird breezes and a chilly temperature. They think that the last one might be a Demon worshipper. One of my brother’s friends among them even said that he heard the rattling and clacking of teeth, as if skeletons were laughin’.”

“Damn, that’s giving me the creeps. One of the Heroes is a Necromancer? That can’t be right. They’re here to help us not offer us to the Demons themselves.”

“I mean, it is just rumours, isn’t it? No way the Goddess would allow a Necromancer to take up the mantle of Hero, right?”

“Ey, I dunno. You wanted to hear what my brother said, I gave it to ya. But from what else he wrote, I don’ think there’s a need to worry about their ability. They’re plenty able. Unlike you lot, finish up, we need ta get back to our patrol. Break’s over.” He finished his mug, prompted by the tavernkeep waving to him, a sing they have created over time to help them know when their break is, in fact, done.

“Alright, alright. Don’t rush us you workaholic. Not like anything’s happening anyway.” The other two took their sweet time to stand up, absolutely convinced of the peaceful nature of this town.

But Fate is always the jokester.

Bells loudly rang out, the sound easily permeating through the entire room even from outside. The pattern in which they rang was easy to discern, even if they weren’t guards. After all, all citizens are briefed on the meaning of the bell signals, as they were used for town-wide announcements.

The problem here was the meaning, which had all three of them freeze where they stood, in a mix of baffled surprise and hints of terror. This pattern was the most intense of them all. And it properly conveyed the urgency of the situation.

Monsters were storming in.

A Wave was happening.

And it would wash over the town.

***

A woman was calmly drinking a cup of coffee while tapping away at her phone. In the middle of a busy coffee shop, right in the afternoon, it was a familiar and normal sight. One that would become wholly unexplainable for most if they were to realize what the woman was scrolling about.

Of course, none of them would ever know. And those that would, considered something like it normal.

Pages and pages of complex equations with symbols most Humans would never recognize and circles made up of even more complex shapes and symbols. Paragraphs outlining their meaning and how they affect the process and result.

The woman, of course, was browsing through Magic tomes on her phone.

The very moment she finished her cup she chose to swap over from this. After all, with the end of her coffee came the end of her break. Study was to be done in her off-time, now she had to resize her current mission thanks to a few complications.

The most prevalent being the interference of somebody that wasn’t even in their database.

Her eyes, shining an amber light as they always looked for signs of Magic, were now fully focused on the screen and the mission statement on it. She could only sigh as she compared it to her new discoveries. After all, she was only supposed to follow and then eliminate a Necromancer that was threatening order. A bit rarer in the modern day, but not unheard of.

The problem here were two things.

The Necromancer in question did not care one bit about maintaining the order and secret of Magic. They unleashed their Undead in the Material World without worry and did whatever they wanted in general. It was why she was assigned to them in the first place.

But the second problem only began propping up recently.

The investigation had been going well, she had a good idea of where the Necromancer was heading and how they were going about their morbid business. With just another week she would have caught them. But then a new face turned up and began slaughtering the hordes that were created.

Their prowess was impressive, they cut the creatures down without resistance and without notice, then disappeared the very next moment. But this put the target on alert, leading to her current predicament, where she was trying to chase somebody that was actively running away from her.

Even as she put in requests to HQ to try and put a muzzle on him, the only reply that came was that they needed to assess him first as he was a completely unknown factor.

Her hair had lost a lot of its deep-red colour with the stress, and it was unrulier than ever. Although it had been improving over the past week.

After all, the Variable had stopped, for some reason. That was worrying in its own right, but at least she could focus on her own mission as a result. Dealing with that guy was somebody else’s job to be. She still had to find out what Demon contracted the Necromancer anyway. That heavily changed the approach to apprehending them.

But her quiet contemplation couldn’t last long. Her eyes picked up waves in disarray, with slight tinges of black. Whatever was happening, it wasn’t good.

The urgency with which she left the room would have normally alerted people, but she moved into the Magic Realm, where the number of people was considerably lower. And those few she did come across were equally disturbed, likely by the same source. And people she knew the faces of, as they all worked for the same organization.

But it wasn’t the time to worry about that, she had to move quickly to the origin of this disturbance. Simply feeling it for a moment made it clear enough that Demons were involved. Considering what her investigation yielded, and the current state of things at large, it could only be her target.

But it didn’t make sense.

As she ran, her legs carrying her across rooftops with ease, she though about it. The ritual would normally need much longer to set up. If it was done prematurely the risks increased immensely, so there was no way the Necromancer would rush it with no reason. Not to mention, the middle of the day was no time for a Necromancer to be active.

The Variable had been quiet for the past week, so they should have no reason to activate it now, while they should have been taking time to quietly prepare it. This was the plan, wait for it to slowly permeate the area and then trace the minor effects of it to end it in one fell swoop.

And the thought hit her.

The worst-case scenario.

She had fallen completely out of the loop. She was no longer part of this hide-and-seek game. It was only between the Necromancer and the Variable now. And they had been setting traps for each other, testing the waters for a week.

As the ugly feeling she got from the Mana intensified heavily, she knew she had arrived.

And as she looked down onto a park clearing she knew that her worries were correct.

A massive circle, shining a sticky dark light was drawn all across the area, sticking out across the canopy. The epicentre of it was clearly visible within the clearing.

And right there they were.

The Necromancer, surrounded by now thousands of Undead. Skeletons, Zombies, Ghosts and all manner of Creatures ready to go on the offensive but holding back for the moment by their Creator’s command. It was a disgusting sight that would have made most people throw up. It was a frightening sight that would have made most people run away in fear.

And facing this ocean of rotting flesh, bleached bones and chilling groans was the Variable.

His armour reflected the sun light, the hammer in one hand, great sword in the other. Standing completely still, his face hidden by the helmet he wore, it was a grand sight. As a single Hero in shining armour and wielding holy weapons stood against the Undead hordes. He didn’t move at all, as if no fear could make him budge.

Words must have been exchanged, as the Necromancer and the Variable moved their bodies in expressive ways, but they did not carry far enough for her to hear without augmenting her hearing. But she didn’t need to, as the gist was very obvious.

The ocean of Undead got into motion and began sweeping across the park.

The Undead were rushing in.

Like a Wave.

And they would break themselves upon the mountain.