A/N: Back where it all began.

-x-X-x-

They make good time to Alether. Better time than they made fleeing it in the first place, that’s for sure. But then in all fairness, while they were a much smaller party back then, they’d utilized the flexibility offered by that fact to lose any trackers that the Supreme King might have sent after them. The weeks they’d spent in the woods doubling back on themselves and purposefully going in circles had set them back quite a bit.

This time around, they had no reason to hesitate, no reason to dally. It was a straight shot to Alether and there was nothing truly holding them back save for their numbers. Mikael had to admit, he had mixed feelings on that front. On the one hand, Foss Sangrey had to be stopped. On the other hand, a part of Mikael wanted to just take his precious people and run even now.

But no… that wasn’t an option. In fact, that was probably never an option. The Supreme King had made it clear time and time again that he was willing to hunt Avina down to the ends of Vaclatora if it proved necessary. More than that though, Mikael knew Avina was done running. She’d been in hiding for a long, long time only to find out that her family’s killer had been keeping tabs on her all along.

In the end, Avina’s past had caught up to her. In the end, she couldn’t ignore her parents’ and siblings’ murderer any longer. Not when he also had all of the citizens of her kingdom under his thumb as well. The responsibility of being royalty, of being the last remaining royal of Ocreatha… it seemed like it’d finally caught up to her.

Even as they arrive outside of Alether with their armies, with the Order of the Rose side by side with the Children of Syl, Mikael ponders whether whatever Avina saw in the Truth Above All had anything to do with the sense of responsibility she now felt towards her people. Wanting revenge against Foss was one thing, but this was more than that. This was duty. This was commitment.

Never mind that though. Avina would tell him when and if she was ever ready to tell him. Shaking such thoughts from his head, Mikael takes in the state of their forces and finds them to not be all that wanting. Let it not be said that the Order of the Rose is truly the least of their allies by this point. The losses that the Knightly Order had taken were great, that was undeniable… but as they’d moved, reinforcements had arrived.

The majority of Zuveria’s military was still tied up with the Savage Lands. Some had been pulled back to the Imperial Capital, likely be officious toadies and bureaucrats who were scrambling for power now that the Imperial Family was dead. But those who were sworn to the Order of the Rose… they’d finally arrived in force after double-timing it in order to catch up to the rear of their army.

Rows and rows of golden, gleaming Knights of the Rose sit atop mounts dressed in finery and armor of their own, their backs ramrod straight and their eyes peering out from their helmets at the walls of Alether. At their front, Knight-Superior Timothal Dawnguard wears a new set of armor and sits upon a new amount as he waits, ready to lead his forces into battle.

And then there’s the Children of Syl, a lot less unified or uniform in their own formations, with Bula at their head. To call the two armies a match made in heaven would be a downright falsehood… but they were a match all the same. The Order of the Rose might be uneasy about the strange bedfellows they find themselves relying upon, but at the end of the day, their purpose was as one. They had all come to Alether for one reason and one reason only… to stop the Supreme King once and for all.

“You… all of you, like lambs to the slaughter.”

Speak of the devil and he shall appear. Literally, in this case. Mikael stiffens and can feel a general freeze go through all of their forces as Foss Sangrey projects himself before them all, the same larger-than-life projection he’d used all those weeks ago when he’d first been approaching the city he now holed up in. Although… he’s certainly seen better days.

Back then, Mikael remembered comparing the man to Santa Claus at the time. Jolly, grandfatherly, and all around kind in his expression and demeanor. That, needless to say, is no longer the case.

Whether it was Mikael forcing him to destroy that soul fragment or whether it’s just the toll that controlling this many undead for so long is taking on him… Foss Sangrey looks to be reaching the end of his rope. His eyes have sunken into his skull and his features have taken on a ghoulish look. His beard is unkempt and filthy, even as he strokes it with skeletal fingers and sneers at the lot of them.

Then, his gaze finally finds Avina in particular and he suddenly changes tact. He still looks as ugly and grotesque as before, but his sneer abruptly transforms into a truly terrifying grin as he reaches for her with one large, flickering hand.

“Ah… Princess. Home at last. I’m so glad to see you here. So glad to see that you’ve come.”

Gritting her teeth, hands balled into fists at her side, Avina shouts at the projection.

“I’ve come to see you dead, Foss! One way or another, this ends NOW!”

Mikael isn’t even sure she’ll be heard… but after a moment, Foss laughs and shakes his head.

“My dear, dear Princess. Please… see reason. Join me willingly, and together we shall be more powerful than anyone in your entire family line has ever been. We shall be the most powerful beings in this entire world.”

Snarling, Avina shakes her head right back.

“You’re a monster, Foss! I’ll NEVER join you!”

Still amused, Foss just hums.

“A monster I might be. But… never say never. You came, Princess. Meaning that your little pet relayed my message. The plight of Alether spoke to you. Fear for your people brought you back to me. If you will not join me willingly… allow me to offer you another reason to surrender yourself to my power.”

There’s a sudden CRACK from behind Alether’s walls and then-

“TREBUCHET! TAKE COVER!”

A large projectile is launched from a trebuchet behind the city walls, sailing through the air as everyone tracks its path and makes sure to get out of its way. In the end though, it doesn’t actually reach their lines. Probably because it’s not a rock or boulder… it’s not stone at all. Rather, it’s a mass of corpses. Writhing, wriggling, clawing corpses.

The mass of undead roped and strung together impact the ground a few hundred feet away from their lines… and then crawl and claw their way up out of the ensuing crater, pulling free of the rope that loosely tied them all together and shambling in the direction of their forces. Knights of the Rose and Children of Syl move forward at the same time. Not quite in unison, but still with concerted purpose as they quickly put down the undead before they can cause any damage.

Not that any damage was likely. These undead that Foss has just flung at them are not summoned heroes. They aren’t wearing enchanted armor or even wielding weapons. They aren’t even soldiers. Men, women, and children… corpses one and all, with the Knights of the Rose and the Children of Syl forced to put them down and tear them to pieces before they would stop fighting.

“Surrender, Princess.”

Just as the last undead dies, Foss Sangrey’s voice splits the silence yet again. His tone is… lofty. Confident. Arrogant, really.

“Surrender or every last man, woman, and child left alive in Alether will be converted into undead fodder. To be loaded into my trebuchets. You can tell them why you let them die while they groan and moan and try to tear your allies to shreds.”

For a moment, Avina wavers. Mikael can see that she’s considering it. But… only for a moment. Then she looks to Mikael. Having been waiting for such a thing, he shakes his head in response, mutely giving her the only answer that she needed.

Foss thought he was clever. And to be fair, he was a lot smarter than Zadicus Quinn had been. A lot more monstrous too. Still, where Zadicus Quinn had been a short-sighted idiot who didn’t even truly realize how good he had it or the things he was missing out on… Foss Sangrey was a different sort of fool. He was the overconfident sort of fool.

He still didn’t fully understand what Mikael was capable of, even after all this time. Nor could he possibly know how much Mikael had grown, along with Avina’s Soul Engine. Eyes blazing with teal light, Mikael has been gazing upon the City of Alether all this time. Even while the Knights and Beasts were tearing the undead thrown into their midst to shreds, Mikael had stayed out of the fight, his gaze searching Alether for… anything. Even just one survivor.

Alas, there was no one. Well, not quite. There was no one of Alether’s original population left alive in the city. But Mikael’s soul sight could see ONE soul. All the way up at the top of the Lord’s Tower, overlooking the city and their armies from afar… Mikael sees a tainted, blackened soul. At first he’d been worried it was another flickering soul fragment, but no… while the distance is great, he can tell even from this far away that Foss Sangrey is up in that fucking tower. The man is the only living being left in all of Alether.

All of this, Mikael conveys to Avina with a single shake of his head. They’d discussed this ahead of time, after all. The possibility that nobody in Alether would be left. Hell, given that Foss never intended to wait for their arrival, it was possible that the entire population of Alether had been converted into undead even back before they’d pushed him back with the timely arrival of the Children of Syl.

That many undead… Foss would have to be physically present to keep control of them all. No more soul fragments for the Supreme King. No more puppets to hide behind.

“Well, Princess? I’m waiting. Don’t make me lose my patience now, girl.”

A single tear tracks down Avina’s cheek at the knowledge that she’d already failed an entire city of her people. But only the one. Standing tall, the Princess of Ocreatha snarls up at Foss Sangrey’s waiting projection.

“They’re all already dead. Do you think I’m an idiot, Foss? You slaughtered the people of Alether long before I arrived.”

Avina’s words are as much for their allies as they are for the self-titled Supreme King. Perhaps back before he’d lost his soul fragment, Foss could have shrugged that accusation off and bluffed his way into sewing dissention in their ranks. Some of the Knights of the Rose might have even balked at the idea of not trying to rescue the hostages that the bastard of a necromancer claimed to have.

But Foss Sangrey is not nearly as put together as he was the last time they saw him. He flinches back, his sunken eyes shrinking to pinpricks as he gazes down at Avina. His sickening smile finally drops and he sneers at her.

“How could you possibly know, girl? Tch, no matter.”

With that, the man has confirmed to all those listening that their path is clear. There’s no one left in Alether to save. Only undead waiting to be purge… and the bastard hiding behind them. But Avina isn’t done quite yet.

“Upon my name as Avina Reyalis, Princess of Ocreatha… I SWEAR I will put you down, Foss Sangrey! No matter what it takes!”

Foss just sneers at that, waving a hand. His projection vanishes and a moment later, the cracks of multiple trebuchets can be heard from behind Alether’s walls, even as balls of writhing, wriggling undead civilians fill the air, coming down to splat on the ground before their lines.

Avina glances at him for a moment… and then past him, over to Bula sitting astride her own massive, hulking mount. Every inch of the half-orc’s being is pulled taut like a bowstring, waiting as she stares back at Avina. Until finally… the Princess nods.

Bula grins and thrusts her battle-axe into the air, letting out a loud roar of challenge before pointing the head of her weapon towards Alether. Rising up around her, reaching near-deafening levels, are the bestial roars and cries of the Children of Syl in response. A moment later and they’re all charging forward, a tidal wave of massive monsters that race across the ground separating them from the walls of Alether.

Armored figures appear on the battlements with bows and arrows, likely the Summoned Heroes that Foss Sangrey has left to him after his previous defeat. But there’s only so much that even they can do to delay the humungous beasts born of the incredibly harsh Sylian Woods. As Bula and her army race up to the walls and leap up onto the battlements, Avina comes to Mikael’s side and grabs him by the arm. He turns to his Soul Mechanic, giving her his full attention as she in turn gives him an intense look.

“You know where he is?”

Mikael nods decisively at that.

“The Tower. At the top.”

Avina lets out a shuddering breath at that, along with a little laugh.

“Of course.”

As they talk, Mikael hears Timothal shout out to his men and women as well, yelling ‘Forward!’. The Order of the Rose doesn’t charge quite as fast as the Children of Syl did… in fact, they move much slower, mostly because they have to deal with each glob of undead being thrown from behind the walls of Alether as they advanced. If they didn’t, they risked being routed from behind, or even from within their formations.

At the same time, Thayla comes up beside him and Avina, looking concerned. She’s been glued to his side ever since they came back from the woods. Mikael can’t blame her… he missed her too. Still, in this moment his attention is solely on Avina. The pale young woman looks at Alether, at the battle taking shape right before their eyes, and bites her lip for a moment in thought.

Finally, she looks to him.

“I need to reach Foss. That’s the only way to end this once and for all.”

Thayla is the first to respond to that, furrowing her brow.

“But… if we take you to him, isn’t that giving him exactly what he wants?”

Avina’s eyes never leave Mikael’s, even as she shakes her head.

“But by the same logic, I’m the only one who can be sure he dies here and now. That he doesn’t… linger. It has to be me, Mikael.”

Mikael. Not Mikael and Thayla, just Mikael. Because at the end of the day, Avina is asking for his help above all else. Asking for HIS faith.

… Was it ever any question? Giving his Soul Mechanic a smile, Mikael nods sharply.

“Okay.”

And that’s that. Thayla falls in line of course. Avina smiles in relief. And together, the three of them join up with the Order of the Rose in taking advantage of the hole that the Children of Syl soon have established in Alether’s walls. Soon enough… they’re venturing into the city itself.

-x-X-x-

A/N: The battle begins! Shit gets real!

Be sure to let me know what you think!