King Valar probably thought he was being clever by putting Milo and his people in danger but what he didn’t know was that the time limit on this whole assault was nearly up. Milo was more than happy to take the rightmost siege tower while the elves took the other.

  The towers had barely started moving before the defenders switched their focus to this new threat. To combat this Milo had placed his only three elementalists at the top of the tower with orders to shield it. They weren’t able to completely protect the huge tower but they blocked enough spells that the defenders soon started focusing on the leftmost siege tower. The elves erected wooden screens but their shields simply didn’t have the same coverage as those made by his own elementalists. Still they served their role as a distraction and managed to keep the enemy’s attention until Milo’s siege tower reached the wall.

  “Alright listen up! Their altar will be somewhere inside the keep, our objective is to clear a path to the keep, now let’s go!”

  As soon as he gave the signal the ramp crashed down onto the wall. Milo had already activated his metamorphosis spell and lead the charge. Shadow spells struck him from every angle and washed over him without any effect. A few of the enemy casters switched to death spells but by that time Milo was already engaged with their own troops, meaning they’d have to fire on their own soldiers to hit him.

  The defenders turned out to be of far better quality than he had expected. Over half their number were made up Rostrian’s pale and gaunt race. They’d formed a formidable shield wall around the siege tower once they realised it couldn’t be stopped. And despite Milo wrecking his way trough their ranks his bodyguard was dwindling with each passing moment. It didn’t take a genius to realise that he would never make it to the keep.

  “For king Valar!”

  Milo finished off his opponent and turned towards the shout. He was surprised to see the elven king himself leading a force of elves into the battle. Clearly the king wasn’t willing to risk losing the battle by completely sacrificing Milo and his small force. As soon as the elves joined the battle the lines stabilised. The elves and Rostrian’s people looked about evenly matched in physical combat. Milo pulled his people back as soon as the elves pushed past him. Only 33 now remained alive.

  “Form wedge!”

  The hybrids did as ordered and Milo turned to the four elementalists at the back of the group. They’d been duelling the enemy elementalists to a standstill, but for this battle a standstill would mean a loss.

  “Clear us a path to keep!”

  The elementalists dropped their shields and then started casting fire spells in a direct line towards the keep. Two of them went down to enemy spells but not before they’d cleared a path.

  “Charge!”

  Milo and his wedge rushed into the open path even as the enemy tried to close ranks again. They proved too slow but by the time Milo’s little force arrived at the keep only 9 hybrids were left. Victory was so close Milo could practically taste it, of course that’s when everything went wrong.

  “Ha ha hahahaaaaa, I have risen!”

  A white vortex suddenly formed in the middle of the square, moments later Rostrian was standing there. The man didn’t waste any time and soon the square was filled with undead and more of his people. Rostrian somehow picked out Milo from across the square and their eyes met. The man’s face twisted into a smile and a few seconds later a vortex enveloped half the cavern.

  It had been a while since Milo had last watched a Godzilla movie, yet he felt fairly certain that the giant bone monstrosity he was now looking up at would’ve been a worthy foe for the fictional lizard monster.

  The bone monster had giant tattered wings and carried a scythe the length of a large ship. Green light shone beneath it’s bony body and the creature radiated death magic. A few of the elves unlucky enough to be close to the monster when it arrived simply fell dead.

  “That lunatic… he actually summoned a faction prime…”

  Milo looked at Ivy.

  “A what?”

  “Remember the summoning list for our faction? There was one entry which cost significantly more than the rest.”

  Milo pulled up the list and saw what she meant.

  Ancient demon 0/1 – 1 000 000 spirit essence.

  “Each faction has a faction prime, they are the first creation of every god, immortal beings who draw their power from the very elements of their god’s domain.”

  The undead monstrosity swung its scythe and a hundred elves were reduced to smears of blood on the ground.

  “Why didn’t you tell me about this sooner? These creatures are obviously a win condition, had I known I could summon something like this I would’ve started saving up.”

  Ivy shook her head.

  “I didn’t tell you about it because faction primes are a double-edged sword. Their creators can barely control them, and it takes all their will to do so.”

  The bone monstrosity turned, and its scythe obliterated a few hundred undead and a huge chunk of the fortress wall. Milo was starting to understand, this creature was an unstoppable force and Rostrian had just let it loose inside his own base, the man really was insane.

  This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.

  Milo turned and cast flame sword, then he hacked the closed door of the keep apart. The hole was barely big enough for him to pass and already he could see a force of Rostrians people heading for them. Once inside what remained of his bodyguard stayed behind to guard the breech. He felt sort of guilty that he didn’t know any of their names since they were about to sacrifice themselves to buy him time.

  Some part of Milo had hoped that the internal architecture of Rostrian’s fortress would be identical to Emberstone’s castle. Unfortunately, that proved not to be the case. The first room they arrived at was the empty throne room. They kept going and found the kitchen, some sort of library and a bedchamber suitable for am emperor. They were just about to leave the bedchamber when Milo noticed marks on the floor near the rear wall. He walked over and bent down to study the marks, then he ran his hand up the wall until one of the stones sunk into the wall. There was a handhold just beyond the sunken stone and Milo pulled with all his strength. A section of the wall swung outwards, perfectly matching the marks on the ground.

  The secret passage revealed a deep dark tunnel. They could hear shouting somewhere behind them and Milo knew they didn’t have long before Rostrian’s forces caught up with them. They rushed down the tunnel heedless of any potential traps. The tunnel ended at another door which was guarded by pair of men in black plate armour. Milo engaged them and was holding both at bay until Ivy used shadow blink to get behind. She punched her dagger trough the back of one enemy’s throat and Milo cut down the second one.

  Once again, he cast flame sword and tried to destroy the sealed door. He was barely able to dent the door and had to resort to casting metamorphosis again. He knew he only had a few minutes left of the spell before mental exhaustion would set in. It took him nearly a minute to create a hole big enough for them to enter and by that time the shouting was coming closer. As soon as they climbed trough the hole Ivy took up a guard position.

  “Go, I’ll hold them back.”

  Milo nodded and ran into the middle of the chamber. The room was surrounded by giant bone sculptures, and he searched frantically for the altar he knew had to be there. His eyes had just settled on a giant skull with emerald eyes when the bone sculptures suddenly moved. He took an involuntary step back as ten giant skeletons wielding scythes converged on him from every direction.

  He knew at once that there was no chance in hell he’d be able to defeat the giant skeletons in combat, so instead he tried to break trough to the altar. The skeletons realised what he was doing at once and veered off to form a wall around the altar. Milo tried to break trough but all it earned him was a short flight into the wall. His metamorphosis spell ran out just as he got back to his feet. They were going to fail, he was certain of it, his priority shifted at once and he was about to call for Ivy to escape without him when he saw that she was gone. A pop of shadow magic drew his attention to behind the skeletons. Ivy roared and her body changed into a nearly perfect copy of Lilith’s true metamorphosis form. Shadow magic surrounded her clawed hand as she plunged it into the skull with the emerald eyes.

  “Ivy!”

  Milo screamed as the skull exploded in a wave of death magic and bone shrapnel. Ivy rolled across the floor and came to a stop right in front of one of the giant skeletons. The skeleton raised a giant axe but then froze mid motion, the green light in its eyes went out and the skeleton collapsed into a pile of bones. The same thing happened to all the other skeletons, furthermore the shouting coming from the tunnel beyond had completely stopped.

  Milo ran forward and bent down to inspect Ivy, she was back in her hybrid form and aside from a nose blood and bloodshot eyes she looked intact. She groaned with pain.

  “I can only hold my metamorphosis form for ten seconds, I got lucky that the explosion hit me before it ran out.”

  Milo helped her to her feet and grinned at her.

  “You did it, you saved us.”

  She grinned back, although he could tell she was one weak shove away from collapse.

  “Good thing we had two champions, eh?”

  They both started laughing, they were still enjoying the moment when a field of translucent red text appeared in his vision.

  Congratulations, for destroying another faction you are rewarded with the following:

  250 000 spirit essence.

  One death faction reward of your choice.

  As soon as he finished reading it a small green vortex appeared. He tapped the vortex, and another field of translucent text appeared he read it out loud:

  Choose one of the following rewards:

  Name: The blighted lady

  Description: This storied ship is the flagship of the death god’s armada. This ship is a floating fortress with enough room to carry a whole army. Its undead crew is made up of dead sailors from every race who will never tire and are blindly obedient to their captain.

  This ship is soulbound to Milo Harper and can only be commanded and summoned by him.

  Cooldown on summoning: 7 days.

  Having his own personal ghost ship which he could summon anywhere on planet did sound quite useful. Especially now that Ferdor was within his grasp, still he read on curious about the other options on offer.

  Name: Seppirox the undying

  Description: Seppirox the undying is the faction prime of the death faction. This ancient being wields death and shadow in its endless hunger for the destruction of all life. This reward will add Seppirox to your summoning list at half its usual cost. It also comes with a ring of command which will allow you to control Seppirox for half an hour each day.

  “Oh hell no! I’ve seen enough of that monster for a lifetime!”

  Ivy was in total agreement, and he kept reading.

  Name: Deathbringer

  Description: This lichsteel greatsword was forged by Enox the god of death for his only son, Kalifor. This weapon has been enchanted to steal the souls and life energy of those it slays. The wearer of this sword may call upon the stored souls and energy within to empower their spells and body.

  This sword is soulbound to Milo Harper and may only be summoned and used by him.

  He had barely finished reading when Ivy shouted.

  “That’s it!”

  He looked at her.

  “What?”

  “That sword, you need to choose that sword.”

  Ivy was the last person he would’ve expected to choose a sword over a giant ghost ship which could be summoned anywhere on the planet. He felt like an explanation was in order.

  “Why are you so insistent?”

  “Kalifor is legendary, even among other factions like our own he is widely recognised as the most powerful mortal to ever live. He is known to have slain entire armies and there is even a rumour that he slew several gods in personal combat. He was only brought down when a dozen factions allied and invaded the death realm, even then he was nearly victorious. That sword is the most powerful weapon you will ever see, it’s more powerful my mother’s spear.”

  Milo looked back up at the description of the sword and then frowned.

  “All it does is steal the souls and ‘life energy’ of whoever I kill, it hardly sounds like the earth-shattering object you’re making it out to be.”

  “That’s because the description is wrong!”

  “How can a description be wrong?”

  “The descriptions are clearly written by the concordium, but this one is out of date. You see lichsteel is a metal that feeds on souls and life energy, but what most people don’t know is that the metal can evolve beyond its initial properties if it is sufficiently fed. Deathbringer was Kalifor’s sword when he killed gods! There’s no way it didn’t evolve.”

  “Seems like a bit of a gamble, but seeing as how you’re the one who destroyed the altar…”

  He selected the sword and a few seconds later it fell into his waiting hands. Milo groaned as he studied the blade. The blade was made out of some sort of green metal with a grey serrated edge. Runes of some sort ran down the blade to a skull shaped hilt. The sword was beautiful to be sure, but it was far too ornate for his tastes.

  He lifted the sword and was studying it at an angle when he felt something brush against his mind. He shook his head to clear it and whatever it had been vanished, a few seconds later it returned, only this time it was far more insistent. Milo felt something try to access his mind. It was only thanks to his eyes of command ability that he realised what was happening, because this felt like the inverse of whatever he did when he accessed that ability.

  His hand clutched at his head and Ivy gripped his shoulders.

  “What’s wrong?!”

  Milo screamed and threw every bit of mental power he had left at the intruder. He felt the intruder shatter into a thousand pieces as it was obliterated. His headache vanished along with the mysterious presence. When he opened his eyes he frowned down at the sword, there was now that had been a coincidence.

  “I think the sword is infected somehow, something tried to seize control of my mind as soon as I held it.”

  Ivy looked worried, but it also confirmed what she had claimed.

  “You see, that description is wrong, who knows what abilities that sword is hiding.”

  Milo hoped whatever other abilities it was hiding were of a more beneficial nature. He was about to say as much when a group of elves stormed into the chamber. Their armour was covered in blood and several were wounded, yet they were looking at him as if he were a peasant.

  “Come with us, the king wants to see you at once!”

  It did not sound like a request.