"Will you join us, Malice Selene?" Biyu asked as she hopped off the platform. The Marshal, his command staff, and noble scions watched as she headed toward the undead army.

  "Of course, Lady Bringer," the woman said. Where Biyu hopped, she skipped, and her steps were and elegant glide that nonetheless matched Biyu's quick strides.

  "You're joining the rearguard?" Marshal Kenneth called out after her.

  "No. I will find their commanders, and take their souls to Judgment." She gestured at the undead horde. "Most of them are animated corpses. Magically animated, with no soul of their own. I will strike at the head, so the body may rot."

  No one commented on her mangling of the old military aphorism. Instead, Marshal Kenneth saluted her with a fist over his heart. His aides joined him, followed by the bewildered youths.

  May trotted up to them, her hand moving to their shoulders, and took them away with a single step. They arrived amid the flesh automatons. Probing the enemy with her divine senses and [Wizard Eye], Biyu drew her sword and dagger. May had her long sword out, but she was relaxed as she looked at the army marching past them.

  "How do they move without souls?" Malice Selene asked conversationally. Her eyes were wary of the shuffling corpses only just noticing them.

  "Spirits," Biyu said. "Soulless magical minds."

  Malice Selene's brow furrowed as she considered the words. Then, her face brightened. "Ah, you mean elementals. That's what I see, too. Allow me, Lady Bringer."

  Malice Selene's daggers drew themselves, six in total. They danced among the undead, dropping one with each glancing strike. With [Wizard Eye] Biyu saw the magic holding the daggers as long arms extending from Malice Selene's body. The edges of the blades were coated with a magic that hurt Biyu's eyes to gaze on. She was forced to turn away before she formed a headache.

  Soon all the undead near them save one was cleared away. It was a crystalline skeletal thing with ropy, slimy muscles. Malice Selene frowned as it charged her, but May stepped between them and rebuffed it with a strike. Despite its lack of lungs, it let out a screech, its flickering red eyes flaring at them.

  This one had a soul. With a year's experience seeing into the netherworld, Biyu saw more than just the lamplight of the soul emanating from within the things breast. There were also the thin tendrils snaking out to the surrounding undead. Without the motive spirit of a soul, undead were little more than puppets that did as they were instructed. True undead had their own desires and goals. The tendrils provided them with a glimmer of their own soul. One would think a corpse told to attack and a corpse that chose to attack would be much the same. That was not true. The latter had passion. It looked for ways to hurt or injure you to accomplish its goal. Animated undead were sometimes surprising, but never creative.

  That was why Biyu had talked of severing the head. She attacked the skeleton from the side while relying on May to protect her back. Her sword stabbed the creature, plunging into stinking flesh. Through that physical connection she wrenched at the thing's soul. It did not budge. At first, she thought it had fought her off, but her divine senses told her otherwise. The soul was not bound solely by magic, but by a god's blessing. She reached out to crush the blessing, as she had 'Saint Goodbrother', but whatever blessed the undead was able to rebuff her.

  May swept by, striking the undead hard enough to throw it off its feet and into the air, before cracking with another strike to slam it onto the ground. Its crystalline bones did not fracture under her strike. Biyu straddled its back and went to work prying at its spine with her sword. The blade rang and sparked against the bone while the screeching undead bucked beneath her. More corpses moved towards them, more than Malice Selene and her dancing blades could fend off. Biyu and her companions withdrew, leaving the true undead behind.

  "They have a petty god," Biyu informed them. "A necromancer. Most likely a lich. Malice Selene, can you slay it?"

  The pretty woman pursed her lips. "I can't promise I can. Depends on what kind of domain it has."

  "The domain matters." It was almost a question, but Biyu was too distracted for the proper inflection.

  "Of course. I study my targets before I slay them. You do realize I'm more of an assassin than a warrior?"

  Neither May nor Biyu could afford to give her the look she deserved for her comment, but she tittered as though they had.

  Malice Selene dropped more of the animate dead with her dancing knives. With the influx of animate dead came more of the true undead. One was a dried out corpse, its flesh leathery and cracked, hauling a massive sword it swung about as though it weighed no more than a child playing soldier with a stick.

  Another undead, an abomination built from stitched together bodies, roared its challenge. Unlike the others, it had a semblance of life. That was, if one ignored the stitchwork, its sheer size, or the strange fluids that wept from its seams.

  There was an animate carapace of a giant spider, filled with some strange glowing goo that splattered and burned from its wounds. The noxious fumes of the liquid burned the eyes and throat even without contact, driving May from her engagement with it.

  Biyu kept her distance from horde, inspecting the bonds that kept the souls bound to their rotting prisons. Magic was at the core of the binding. The magic binding the soul to the body was by necessity provided by a formation. Magic dissipated over time, and what good were soldiers that drained away your resources to keep them moving?

  The crystalline skeleton she inspected had a formation bound up within a gem. Again, that was expected. Gems made excellent resources for inscribing formations, as they allowed for expressing the formation in three dimensions rather than two. The third dimension allowed for creating complex formations that took a fraction of the size it would if etched in two. They were also more expensive to acquire, and nigh impossible to repair compared to good stone, so they were rarely used outside of technique libraries.

  Yet, magic alone could not prevent her from taking the souls. Nor could the false life of the undead, which was far too weak to fend off her grip. Biyu was about to call out her findings to Malice Selene, May knew when she did, when a cold dread crawled up her spine. Her head whipped around, looking in the direction of Shadow Gate.

  "May, we have to go—"

  "Biyu, no," May shouted in command and chastisement.

  Biyu stared at her, eyes wide. "They are in danger!" she shouted back desperately. More quietly she added, "Anya is in danger."

  "You left them protection," May said gently. She rebuffed the large spider, parrying away its legs and fangs before booting the rearing spider away. "They will be protected. Your duty is here."

  "I cannot fail again," Biyu said. Despite her distraction, she fended off the crystalline skeleton, who had been rushing towards her the whole time. It clattered its jaw at her, teeth inches from her face. Biyu stuffed her dagger into the mouth, and the thing backed off while trying to dislodge the blade. It was a strange reaction, for there was nothing the dagger could do to harm it. Biyu let the skeleton have her dagger, replacing it with the knife Indu had gifted her.

  "They are protected," May reiterated. Biyu nodded sharply, her eyes looking east one last time before she turned her focus fully on the opponent before her.

  "What's happening?" Malice Selene asked. Her smile had disappeared, her brow creased and wet with seat. She had joined the dance of her blades, dodging and stepping through the silent dead and leaving a trail of motionless corpses behind her. The stitched one hounded her, but it hesitated to commit to strikes that would damage the animate dead she passed through, even though she left them broken behind her.

  "My family is being attacked," Biyu said. She pressed the fight against the crystalline skeleton, her eyes on the soul gem lodged in its rib cage. Where her sword chipped battering against the ribs, her enchanted knife managed small gashes.

  Biyu landed cuts while it threw wild swings at her with its fists. One cut after another scarred the ribs, while Biyu moved around and through its strikes. May acted as a one woman skirmish line, moving from one foe to another, granting Biyu and Malice Selene the room to focus on their tasks.

  Satisfied with the damage she had inflicted, Biyu dove out of the way. May appeared in her place, landing a hard crash of her sword against the compromised ribs. With a loud cracking sound, a patch of ribs broke away, caving into the hollow chest. The gem, more fragile than the bones, was shattered by the impact. The crystalline skeleton collapsed.

  Reaching for the freed soul, Biyu struggled against the necromancer's hold. Mustering her domain, dominion over Lost Souls, she pried at the necromancer's grip. Her body strained as she struck out, attacking the other god. It howled and withdrew, leaving Biyu to claim her prize.

  Victory was rewarded with pain, a backlash of using that much of her Divinity in her all too mortal body. She was sluggish as she dodged the leathery behemoth and its massive sword. The strike missed, but the shrapnel from hitting the ground did not. Her face was protected by the living mask she rarely remembered she wore, but it still rocked her head back.

  May rescued her, pulling her away from the giant to a place she could recover, before returning to the fight. Once more, May acted as an entire skirmish line on her own. Every step took her somewhere else, and the undead became too wary to harry Biyu.

  Malice Selene joined her, animate dead no longer heading in their direction. The remaining few near them, no longer under the skeleton's influence, either assaulted their fellow undead, or stood impassively.

  "We're not enough," Malice Selene said. Her voice was still light, despite the dire statement. She waved a hand at the army marching past them. A few larger forms, more true undead large enough to be seen over the horde, moved toward them. "I can probably destroy a couple of the true ones myself, but that'd put me out of the fight. And, well, taking out the elementals is already sapping my reserves."

  Biyu shook off her injuries, and considered the armies. If only she could deploy her Immortal Legion, then this fight would be a simple affair. They could easily crush this force, with the support of their Captains. There would be risk to the guardian spirits with an enemy necromancer. Just as she had purified them from curse spirits, the lich might corrupt them once more. Even if it could not, a guardian spirit was still a soul, like those of her mortal soldiers. Fodder for a lich to make new minions.

  The first step, Biyu decided, was to take control of the battlefield. Fog rose up as Biyu called upon her domain. It spilled out of her, the world slowly warping so that they stood on the border between the two. May's eyes lit up as the world around them began to shift and change. The undead she fought against, already wary from her repeated assaults, became disoriented as the geometry of the world around them twisted.

  Biyu did something with her domain she had not before. Typically, when she extended her domain, she thinned the veil. A place where the two worlds, still separate, existed and interacted. Like hands touching through a sheet. This time, she tore open a hole between the world of the living and Lost Souls.

  The dead who stumbled into the tear found themselves within the netherworld. They looked up in shock at the shrieking winds to see a sun that stared back at them. Shambling leaves rustled and pulse through the air, alive and turning against the wind that carried them to the curious sight.

  In the netherworld, the souls of the true undead were made visible. These were not the simple ghost lights of most Lost Souls. They had twisted forms, eye searing shapes, and colors without name. A visible show of the corruption being undead brought to Lost Souls. Biyu felt anger as she saw them without her divine senses.

  Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

  If they had emotions, none had faces that could be read to know them. Their bodies ambled and shuffled uncertainly. Taking a chance, with the true undead on the other side of the fissure between worlds, she shut the tear she had made. That was far easier than gripping the skeleton's soul. They were still there, on the other side, viewing them as phantoms. Biyu dismissed her domain. The vapors of the netherworld dispersed, and the enemy undead were cast away.

  The remaining animate undead were unaffected by the casting away of the lieutenants. They ambled and moved as they had before, the bond that allowed the lieutenants to share their souls not severed. Biyu had not expected it would, but her goal to deny the army some of their stronger fighters was achieved.

  "I… did not expect that," Malice Selene said. Biyu was not sure awe was what she wanted to hear from the woman.

  "It is not a problem solved, but a problem delayed," Biyu said.

  Malice Selene gave her a sharp look.

  "For me. They will need to be destroyed eventually."

  Malice Selene nodded. "Can you do that again?"

  "Yes," Biyu said, looking at the thousands of undead still making their way to the army. The rearguard was only just engaging the undead. They were fresh, their magic untapped and their techniques powerful. The animated undead fell easily, though many were damaged rather than fallen. Yet, the crawling corpses impeded those that could still walk, and as they were cut down they formed a barricade of flesh to slow the numbers behind. "It will cost me, but I will do this."

  Thus, they waded once more into the horde. May and Malice Selene reserved themselves, escorting Biyu through the ranks so Biyu could find the next lieutenant to banish to the netherworld.

  They only banished a few more true undead before they began to flee. Animate undead rushed at them, seeking to slow their hunt. An ineffective tactic, as May simply took them through the press of undead to the true undead fleeing beyond them. May began to flag, despite being a minor god in her own right, as they found and removed the commanders.

  The animated dead continued to strive toward the rear of the Imperial army, but without the more powerful true undead, the arrayed army was easily able to keep them at bay.

  That was when a true undead appeared to bar their path. It was dressed in cloth of gold robes, an elaborate headdress studded with gems, adorning a skeleton leafed in gold. The teeth were replaced by gems, and the fire in its eyes was a blue that imitated a human eye except for the barely perceivable flickers.

  "You are the lich," Biyu stated.

  "I am." The voice was a rich baritone that had no business coming from the gaudy skeleton. "Ernest Lynch Lichking. I assume you are the Bringer of Judgment. And you are one of the Empire's godkillers." His eyes turned to May. "My apologies, but I have no idea whom you are."

  "You may call me Lady Illwind."

  "Very well," Lichking said. He looked around at the twice slain corpses littered around them, then where the undead they had banished should be. "I propose a compromise."

  "A compromise?" Malice Selene asked, her brows arched in disbelief. "I rather think I should slay you instead."

  "Can you, Malice? Can you?" Lichking waved a hand negligently towards Biyu. "With this young woman here?" When Malice Selene did not promptly respond, he smiled. How he did so without flesh Biyu could not say, yet he did. "As I thought."

  He turned back to Biyu. "I propose this to you: cast me into the netherworld, as you have my creations. In recompense, I shall surrender this army to you." He lifted a finger to emphasize his next words. "Including those you have already cast into the netherworld."

  Biyu stared at the petty god, her mind working. He was weaker than her, but he was still a god. Fighting him here would not be like the fight in Lonely Knoll. She did not know the powers of the lich, but enough was known about lichs that she could make an educated guess what they would be. That he showed himself openly suggested he was confident he could fight her.

  Were he not what he was, she would easily agree to his deal. The problem was, she knew why he would seek exile to the netherworld. Biyu may have been able to cross it easily, but there was a distance that was hard to breech between the netherworld and the world of the living. That was part of her domain. What was for them was a peephole in a wall was for her a door. Beyond it was the desire of necromancers: Lost Souls aplenty to harvest.

  He would be trapped in the netherworld, but that would not matter to him. His magic would preserve his body there as here, and he was a petty god. He could gift his worshipers Lost Souls to fuel their experiments, or help them transition into their own undead vessels. He would be beyond the reach of the Spellbreakers, but within the reach of his worshipers.

  That was not something she could abide. Malice Selene stalked to and fro in agitation. Such openly predatory behavior looked unnatural on the woman. To give herself time to think, Biyu asked, "Are you offering to betray your ally?"

  Lichking shrugged, nonchalant. "An ally of convenience. Really, he's more a threat than a… ah, wait, you mean the Goblins? No, they are no allies of mine. An ally of an al— No, he's not really an ally. What to call him? Maybe I shall call him an extortionist. Far scarier than you Lady Bringer. Perhaps not as scary as our friend Malice, though."

  Malice Selene scowled, her eyes turning to Biyu with expectation.

  Biyu weighed her options. Victory today, but… no, she could not do it. Her domain rejected the offer as she considered it. Casting the undead into the netherworld was allowable. Lost Souls belonged there. Lichking was a petty god of necromancers. Even if he were only a lich, an undead necromancer, she would not cast them into the netherworld without first stripping them of their body.

  "I cannot," Biyu answered honestly.

  With those words, Malice Selene struck. The world around Biyu shuddered. Something the woman did changed the world. It sent her senses awash. Panic rose in her as she felt herself losing her body. May cursed, stepping in to ferry her to safety, but whatever had been done had affected her too. Her step did not carry her far, and she stumbled at the far end.

  The lich, too, stumbled. The gold leaf flaked away, revealing blackened, rotted bone. The lich cried out in pain as Malice Selene repeated whatever she had done. May and Biyu felt their domains, unexpressed, challenged. They failed the challenge. May fled carrying Biyu, leaving Malice Selene to challenge the power of a god alone.

  They returned to the army, where May stumbled while delivering Biyu to where the healers, Awakened or not, treated the wounded. They gave the petite woman a place to recuperate, while May made a report to Marshal Kenneth. He swore at learning that they had a petty god. His own forces had entered the city, and were even now fighting street to street to clear them of Goblins.

  The Goblin King had shown himself, appearing at a weak spot in their flank, stalling their forward momentum as their second line did their best to shore up the hole. The Goblins still fell one for every soldier, and numbers uncounted for each Knight. With the undead legion behind them slowed, Marshal Kenneth was certain they would win the day eventually. So long as Malice Selene finished her opponent.

  Selene felt a little bad for what she had done to Lady Bringer and Lady Illwind. While she hadn't spent much time with either, she was of the opinion that the Empire should leave any petty god the Dragon Gods endorsed alone. Indeed, she knew Lord Malevolent himself supported the woman. Who was the Emperor to question them? Well, the Emperor. Besides, regardless of the truth of the matter, he was by law considered a god in his own right. Respected as one, as well. Just, not really worshiped.

  Selene forced herself to concentrate on the fight at hand. Lichking was struggling under her 'attack'. It was their greatest secret. It was also a simple thing. The obvious name for the 'technique' would be [Domain Breaking], but that was not what it was called. Instead, they called it [Integrity].

  Petty gods fought through the strength of arms, their worshipers, and their domains. They attempted to claim territory from their opponent, and used expressions of their domain, what they represented, to attack the other god. Some domains naturally defeated others. Yet, it was rare that one domain so overwhelmed another. Many assumed that water would quench fire. In truth, fire turned water to steam, so that the two domains would strive against each other. The one that depleted the other would win. Perhaps one or the other might have an advantage over steam, but steam was both fire and water. Thus, they would struggle, maneuver, and trick each other.

  Neither Malice Selene nor any Grudge or Scorn, had a domain. What they had was a blessing that conferred a domain. Calling upon their god, it would impose his domain upon the world. The domain of integrity: a world that denied all influences. Not the changes wrought by magic. Not gods or their domains. A world that denied the existence of gods was a terrifying place for a petty god to be.

  Malice Selene did not clash with Lichking's domain. [Integrity] denied the domain could exist, so it did not. The denial extended to her own magic, leaving her as mortal as a common peasant farmer. Her blades had been returned to their sheaths, except for those she held in her hands. This was fine, because what made petty gods petty was their mortality. A petty god, no matter its form, could be slain. The Spellbreaker family trained relentlessly in all the arts of killing. Malice Selene knew the secrets of killing men, beasts, plants, and esoteric things like the very air. No matter the form her opponent took, she was confident she knew of a way to kill them.

  Lichs were just another form of true undead. Their soul was bound to an anchor, often a gem. The gem need not be bound to their mortal bodies. Wise lichs animated their bodies with a formation bound to their soul vessel. Often this was a gem, and destroying that gem was the way to slay them.

  But, it didn't need to be a gem. There had been one enterprising individual who had scribed his formation onto his very bones. She shuddered to think how he had accomplished it while still alive.

  This lich had his soul with him. Perhaps it was necessary for the process he used to become a lich, or maybe he'd wagered Lady Bringer would banish him as he asked. Maybe it was an effect of encroaching on godhood. Whatever it was, he instinctively projected his domain, attempting to claim the space they fought in.

  Selene receded her domain, inviting him to show her what he could do. Lichking's power raised the nearby dead she had dispatched. No longer did they need bindings buried in their bodies to animate them. His very will did the deed. Yet, they were paltry things. Flesh puppets stumbling under the command of a poor puppeteer.

  "A pitiable domain," Selene commented. Selene did not bother fighting the undead he spawned. None of them posed her much of a threat. Instead, she choked his domain with that of her god. The corpses collapsed, their strings once more cut. Denied his soldiers, Lichking came at Selene even as she attempted to strangle the life out of it with just her domain.

  The battle was hard and long. Selene accepted blows to deliver her own. The flickering eyes of the lich turned to flames. The trappings of mortality were cut away, showing his bare skeleton. Lichking chided her for fighting him, showing not the least concern as her attacks bounced off his body. His soul hardened against her domain, keeping her from simply overwhelming and dispelling him.

  Yet, he had forgotten the Spellbreaker's most well known skill. Or, perhaps he just didn't think she could use it within the domain. That was true, which was why she dropped the domain long enough to strike. With the strike, she disrupted the magic that allowed his soul to command his body. Stunned, the body collapsed. It was the work of moments to shatter a few of his rotten bones, no longer strengthened by magic. A leg and arm were broken and useless when Lichking regained his footing. He screamed at her, all his noble posturing abandoned in his rage.

  His lieutenants and soldiers turned from the army toward her en masse. Pointless, as only the lieutenants could enter her domain without being instantly dispelled. The lieutenants, protected by a petty god's blessing, came for her. Yet, she was a better fighter than any of them. They struck each other more often than her, now no longer restrained from causing collateral damage to each other.

  Selene reveled in the chaos of the battlefield, her breath coming out quickly as her mind slipped away. There was nothing but action as she moved through the creatures. Her magic struck quick and true, her mana barely expressed as she disrupted the magic of the true undead. The flickering of her domain disoriented the undead. A few of the true undead fell, the flickering domain disrupting them more than [Dispel].

  The lich was her target, but she ignored him. He would grow complacent if it looked as though she was flagging. All she had to do was await the right moment before she struck him again.

  In the distance, she heard the bellow of the Goblin King. She disengaged. Taking stock, she saw that the Imperial Army had turned, their attention fully on the army of the undead now. Lichking noticed too, and he screamed once more in rage. One of his creations, an indescribable creature that looked like a bundle of antlers glued together, ran to retrieve its master.

  Not willing to let the petty god flee, Selene ran for him. She did not miss the lumbering behemoth coming at her from the side. Ducking under its lunge, she was past it before its legs could kick her. Vaulting the skeleton of a massive snake, the creature too uncoordinated to strike her with its fangs, she was upon the antlered creature. Her daggers, held by hand, clattered against the Lichking's bones.

  Selene felt the moment the Lichking realized it would not survive. This was the most dangerous moment. It turned to her, and all the fury was gone. Selene continued with her assassination, knowing what was coming.

  "I curse you, Malice. May your blood and bones rot as you live." His voice was steady, commanding. The thing before her started to break apart, as her dagger pressed down upon the gem that bound its soul. It cracked under her blade, even as she felt the curse permeating her flesh. The domain fought it, but what attacked her was not a god. It was not magic. A soul made curse was infecting her flesh.

  The gem shattered. Selene dropped her domain, no longer needing it. The army fell into disarray, whatever means the lich had for controlling it broken. The body was dead. The petty god was dead.

  Ghostly figures appeared around her. She felt their strength as they attacked the curse, battering it in a way she could not. They were Lady Bringer's guardian spirits. The poisonous curse set into her body receded, as they drew it out and captured the curse spirit.

  Selene took stock of the world around her. The dead had turned on each other, those who still could. They ripped and tore, while the Imperial Army made its march on them. The guardian spirits, three of them, kept sentry around her as she took a moment to rest. Her mana was low, now. Lord Malevolent's domain was a gift from her god. She would send a message to the family, notifying them of her deed and the need to worship. A week of ceremonial worship from every member of the Spellbreaker family available would be observed. Pragmatism kept her from joining, devout though she was. Her god gave her the power to slay gods. It was the very least she could do.

  Lady Illwind appeared, and the guardian spirits faded from sight. She was picked up in Lady Illwind's arms, and she almost tried to flirt with the woman.

  "I'll guess: we aren't supposed to know what you did?"

  Selene considered. The answer was usually 'yes', but… "Lord Malevolent doesn't mind if you know."

  Lady Illwind lifted a brow. "I'm thinking I won't ask. Not our business, y'know? You alright?"

  "Nothing a healer and rest won't fix." She wriggled a bit. Traveling as the wind was a strange thing. Kind of exciting.