Back to the Present

"... a little thing called magic, bitch" John replies, hoping he sounded like an action movie hero. He then follows up his words by drawing his sword.

Imoga just looks at him, that steel gaze burning into his soul with her piercing red eyes with seemingly no end. Her remaining skin barely drapes over the black muscle and tendons in her arms with the bone almost sticking out as she moves her fingers, making her hand glow a slowly increasing red

But nothing that Imoga does makes John feel as uneasy and scared as the cold laughter that escapes her purple lips.

"Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah!"

John feels the fear building within his entire being but keeps it hidden as he prepares for what she is about to do.

Imoga's laughter eventually subsides before she purses her lips to begin to speak...

"You worm! You insignificant, idiotic, pitiful worm! Do you really think that you and your little sword can beat the QUEEN OF NECROMANCY?!".

John is a little shook from the outburst and so his defensive mechanism comes into play as he says, "Well, I sure fucking hope so... otherwise this would be a very short story".

"There shall be no story to tell, cretin! You are merely dirt beneath my feet! I shall eradicate you and your little friends, then bring you back to **** you for all eternity!".

John is stunned by Imoga's threat because he actually believes it however he keeps his spirit steeled. John then tries to go back to his action movie self and as he readies his sword once again, he says, "Well... i'm standing right here".

Imoga's face boils in fury as she points her claw-like finger and commands her soldier, "Tear him apart!".

The undead charge forward, looking to feast on Imoga's target. They snarl and growl while running forward but as they get within a dozen feet of John, a mixture of crossbow bolts and magic disperse the beasts with ease.

Imoga nearly roars with anger, seeing John remain with that shit-eating grin returning even bigger than before.

"Is that all you got?" John asks with cocky attitude.

Imoga looks at him with pure hatred, scowling with intense fury burning within her, "You want more?! Oh, I'll give you more!".

Imoga then whips her hand around, before she puts her left hand over the right and begins incanting.

"Fill mo pháistí! Fill ar do chruthaitheoir!".

Imoga's voice suddenly booms all around, as if the incantation magnified her voice at least a hundred fold. The sky itself seemed to quake as voice shook the clouds above.

Suddenly, it's as if the entirety of Reduna'z Gaze stood still as a freezing wind just washed over the entire town.

John looks around at his still hidden friends, worried about what's going to happen. They all return stares of equal worry but even with the freezing air chilling everyone to the bone, Imoga's next words are the coldest thing...

"My children are coming...".

John's eyes go wide as Imoga's words are followed by the harrowing, collective roars of the incoming undead.

John is completely frozen, unsure of what to do but he is no longer alone as most of the group now stand beside him, all apart from Sylus, Daffy and Lani.

"Question; How well do those runes work?" Parlo asks.

"I believe you are about to see..." Cidal simply replies as the howls of the running undead get even louder.

The thundering steps all around get to their collective crescendos as the horde of undead turn the corners and begin to run toward the group.

The undead just get to the rune and as they get within those few key metres, the blue flames begin to burst forth.

The howls of burning undead echo throughout the square as they turn to ash upon touching the flame.

Imoga looks around in intense shock and anger. Her creations, all being decimated by this magic that she recognises, "The old magic?!".

Imoga then growls in fury but it quickly subsides as part of the humongous horde arrives behind her. The smile then creeps back onto Imoga's face as she then looks to Ivellise before saying, "My daughter... you must lead them. Get your **** on those who stole your life!".

Ivellise snarls in response which makes Imoga's grin even larger, "Good... now end these pathetic fools!".

Ivellise then turns her head and roars, commanding the troops behind her before they rush forward towards the group.

The group all ready their weapons, seeing at least thirty of the undead running toward them with a familiar face at the front of the pack.

"Well, at least i'll get to kill the slut a second time!" Amilia spits out before they begin to fight the undead.

Singing steel and slashed flesh go hand-in-hand as the living cut down the undead. Blood splatters all around like abstract art on the cobblestone below with formerly undead bodies following right after.

The living are making a good dent in Ivellise's group with most of them falling. The undead Ivellise however is still fighting, slashing her claws at Amilia who quickly dodges before attempting to counter-attack with her daggers.

The stalemate of the two quick fighters grows more and more with neither getting any closer to victory. That quickly changes however as Amilia takes one step backward without looking and trips over one of the slain undead.

Amilia lands hard and awkwardly, seething in pain as she lands on the cold stone below. Ivellise simply sees this and snarls, even with her being undead, she still has a creepy, toothy grin on her face. The former lizard queen licks around the outside of her mouth as she stalks closer to her pray.

Amilia sees this and quickly looks for her daggers that lay beside her. Ami grabs them, ready to fend off Ivellise when all of a sudden...

*SCHING*

Amilia looks up at Ivellise who now stands still, wondering what just happened but she wouldn't wait long for her answer.

A wet thud caused by none other than the decapitated head of Ivellise. The lizard's eyes roll around in her head as her tongue hangs at the side of her mouth.

The rest of the body follows, dropping onto the cobblestone with black ichor pouring from the hole where Ivellise's head was.

Standing above the body however is John with sword in hand. He looks down at Amilia before saying, "Well, I guess we're even now huh?".

Amilia is simply stunned before saying, "Yeah.. I guess so".

John simply chuckles before extending his hand to Amilia which she takes and is helped up to her feet.

The last of the Ivellise's group are quickly dealt with by the others who all stand triumphantly as they all group back up before looking toward Imoga.

The Queen of the Dead looks at the group, shocked at how they're still alive but she then sees it...

The body of her daughter without her head.

Intense fury builds with the necromancer as she simply stares on. No words leave her lips, her entire body stands still, even the undead seem to come to a complete stop.

After a few eerie moments of nothing, Imoga's eyes begin to glow brighter than ever before, her hands then follow suit. The next to glow is her neck, like a flame has been lit inside her throat but that fire wouldn't stay inside for long as one moment later, an ear-shattering scream rings out.

The group cover their ears as quickly as they can but it only dampens the scream a little. The scream is so powerful that all of the windows around the square all simultaneously shatter.

The undead all turn their heads upon hearing the scream, all of them looking at Imoga before they quickly disperse from all sides.

The glass-shattering scream eventually draws to a close with the burning eyes of Imoga firmly placed on the group.

A thundering silence encases the entire square with the group looking amongst one another with Radvar asking, "Did we win?".

Just as the words leave Radvar's mouth, a huge rumbling of footsteps and roars echo, and soon, the remaining undead horde shows up behind Imoga.

The entire group are terrified about the seemingly unified 50 or so undead.

Imoga then begins to slowly walk forward with her legion of undead surrounding and following her every step but never moving more then six feet from her.

Imoga keeps walking forth, eyes glued to exactly where she wants to go. After a few more steps forward, she stops and looks down at the body of her daughter.

Imoga kneels down beside Ivellise, staring at the decapitated corpse of the "lizard queen" before looking over to Ivellise's head. Imoga's arms stretch forward before she picks up the head and brings it a little closer to herself.

Imoga looks at the head of her daughter with no emotion showing on her face, she just simply... stares.

Just then, Imoga lets out a blood curdling cry of agony and anguish for her daughter before furiously shouting, "You listen to me John Doe! I promise you this... I will make sure that your **** is the most excruciating pain in all of existence! I will carve every inch of your flesh and peel it off bit by bit! I will pull the muscle from your bones before crushing them into dust! MARAIGH IAD GO LÉIR! ACH FÁG AN TÉ A MHARAIGH M’INÍON!".

The undead all let out a collective roar of acknowledgement as the go to follow Imoga's command. The horde then begin to move forward, almost surrounding the group who are all prepared to fight...