The Secret of Castle Doom Chapter 2: The Celestial Judgements

[Bailey]

Ilgivan runs back over to Shuren and tries to help him stand, but to no avail.

thinking, he looks about, and then he senses something. The undead are still continuing their macabre mental chant, but this time, he feels something odd about the undead. He tugs at their minds with his own, and is surprised to see that one of the lesser creatures simply collapses when he does this, leaving strength behind. The undead are weak, and they are quickly reanimated, but by draining about ten or twelve in a cycle, he is able to transfer some energy into Shuren, finally helping him to stand.
"Tell me when you feel yourself to be back to normal; I wouldn't want to berserk you now after all"
He continues to drain the hordes, slowing their advance, and feeding the energy into Shuren.

That is when he senses an anomly. There is a moving bubble of non-lifeforce within the undead ranks. they do not notice it, but to Ilgivan it seems highly suspect. He begins to keep an eye on it, taking care to not draw attention to the bubble

[PhoenixFlame]

Aeris slowly walked into the undead ranks, trying to get a central location, and being very careful not to bump into any of the monstrosities. Elven arrows continued to rain into the horde, but there were enough bodies to shield her effectively.

She could hear Nezhural's taunt. Fortunately, if he couldn't do anything earlier, he might not be able to do so now...

"Aeris! You've been detected!" Wind's voice faintly alarmed.

"Who!?" She replied, frantically looking around into the undead ranks.

"No way to know."

Aeris accellerated her plan, Unslinging her staff, and hoping she was central enough to hit whatever was controlling the undead, she spins around, gathering her mana for the spell. The undead were confused as they suddenly sensed something where there was once nothing, but never got to react. As soon as Aeris was visible to them, she had already yelled the trigger. "Victoria Stella Crux!" (Victory Star Cross) and thrust her staff into the ground. With a deafening sound, a massive cross of light shot out from the ground in all directions, and the undead within a large radius disentigrated under the force of the positive energy.

"Is it dead?" Aeris thought, desperately

"No! Still there..." Wind replied.

"Dammit! Whoever it is, they know I'm here now!" she cursed aloud, readying for the inevitable counterattack.

[Kildare]

"That....that IDIOT!" Arthus cursed in exasperation at Aeris, who had suddenly walked out unto the battlefield without notice. "What does she think she's doing?"

It was insane......and impossible! Aeris had walked into a rain of deadly arrows and had not even managed to get scratched!

"Get to her!" Arthus cried out to his knights. But before any of them could make a move however, Aeris raised her staff high into the air, and thrust the end of the staff into the ground with great strength. The resulting explosion made Arthus and his knights wince and cover their eyes in pain, temporarily blinding and deafening them from the light and sound.

Soon, however, vision returned to them, and they gasped in surprise. Aeris had single-handed wiped out an entire battalion of undead with a concentrated force of divine energy.

Suddenly, Aeris winced and recoiled, as if attacked by an unseen force. Arthus could feel it's presence too. Whatever it was, the aura of negative energy it released was tremendous. And it was getting nearer to Aeris. Arthus knew that he would not be able to reach her in time before the invisible spectre reached her. He thought of the only possible way that he could save her.

"Distorta!" Arthus shouted out the magical word at the direction of the unseen force. It was a spell he had learned during one of his campaigns in the Great War that could dispel any form of magical protection or spellcasting in an area. Hopefully it would be able to reveal the creature before it is too late.

[Arhra]

The invisible force that had attacked wind stops with Arthus' spell but that only seems to make it change tactics. Wind picks up, circling a center point just a few meters in front of Aeris and the dust and ashes carried on the breeze coalesce into a familiar shape. Nezurahl. It is the horned wizard in a shape formed of air and ash and magic. His cinerous robes flap in the gale as he speaks with a voice of shrieking wind, "You are foolish to have come here. For if you should die, prophecy will become unravelled. Prepare to meet your fate." From all sides, the dead close in as Nezurahl advances on her, wielding a staff of fiery ash.

* * *

Shuren is still not in a very good state, barely conscious as Ilgivan drags him out of the tent. He tries to focus on Ilgivian's words, not really hearing as he feels energy thrust at him and into him. It strengthens him but the energy feels... tainted. It is the stuff of life but it was sustaining a kind of life past death. Thinking more carefully about it he reconsiders. No, it is not inherently tainted, it is life blindly striving to live. Yet that which is sustained by it hates life. Once again he reconsiders, no it is not hatred. It is longing? As he dimly muses on this, he hears a voice. Shuren.

It is familiar for it is the same presence that had spoken to him once before. Once again he can not sense whether it is hostile or friendly. It had gifted magic to him and warned him that the price to be paid for this would be terrible. Could it have come to claim this price? Feeling a little fearful he answers, Yes?

Awaken.

Shuren suddenly seems to go from half-conscious to fully awake in Ilgivan's grip. He tears away from him, form shifting into his wolven shape as he goes. Ilgivan moves to follow as Shuren still seems unsteady, even caught up in a feral rage. That changes when he reaches the first of the undead. Individually he's still more than a match for the zombies. It was being swarmed under that is the true danger. But as Ilgivan watches, Shuren dismembers the first of the undead, his strength considerable even while he's weakened. But to Ilgivian's shock, Shuren drains a part of the power that had sustained the undead creature in a way similar to what Ilgivan had been doing just before. Moving slightly faster, Shuren attacks the next.

OOC: Shuren tends to be a bit of a berserker. And Newb gave me an idea that would allow Shuren to take part in the battle. By the way, is it just me or do we have a lot of inner voices? Now, we need a new thread.

[Kildare]

OOC: Hmm.....that's a good idea. Maybe we could exploit these "inner voices" to the storyline, eh?(If you get my meaning)

[Bailey]

OOC: since there is no link, here it is http://www.nuklearforums.com/showthread.php?t=8864