Army of the Damned

VOLUME 17 Chapter 10

The flight back to the Portal was quiet. Jackson, without his helmet on mostly sat on top of Bahamut's head with Alana and Elizabeth by his side. With his arms wrapped around them, the man just enjoyed the company of the two Vampires in silence. The foreign Sun was on the horizon, sinking slowly in the haze of the calm afternoon. The Sword Saint with Sir Anthony were both just looking at the passing clouds as they had their backs resting on the Dragons spiky spine. Admiring the blissful colors that have once again come to embrace them. The Queen's assassins were further in the back, mostly tending to themselves and checking their perimeter.

An apparent air of peace floating around the planet at the time. There weren't any hostilities nor fighting for that single moment, just the vibrant colorful forests below, bountiful and lively as animals began to come out of hiding and all the disagreements, big or small, had been paused for the time being as the world came to process what just occurred. Breaking through the clouds, Bahamut lowers her head down a bit, giving her riders a view of the Portal Fortress.

Outside it, the hundreds of thousands of Natives that the Player Guilds let in had taken over the Demon Army camp outside. Painting over or ripping apart the vile symbols on the banners and tents of a once formidable army, it has completely shifted into a refugee camp as Elven Blimps floated over the Portal Fortress and the remnants of the Demon Army were grouped up in a special location, with the Dark Elves having there own special place, just made for them. "Huh, they've been pretty busy." standing up, he looms over the city whose sole purpose was defense and violence and the Elves didn't dare walk in as the ashen corpses of the Demons still lingered and standing over one of the ledges was a player in this sparkling late game armor. "KING GOLD?!"

Looking up, the first ever Guild Leader and player of Dark World waves his hand. With his golden hair and red eyes, the young teenage man in sparkling golden armor laughed audibly. "AHAHAHA! Look at the Heroes from Earth! You all made me wait! I will demand some offerings from your Guilds for this untidy schedule! You've all impressed me!" Bahamut then circles around the Outer Layer, observing a bunch of white bearded Monks in white robes lined with blue etchings of Deus Vrax's symbols.

With incense, they blessed the streets and the soil, cleansing and burning the putrid influence of the Cosmic Gods. Blooming from the corpses of the soil-eating parasite was a bountiful grassland and before landing gently on top of the hardened concrete buildings inside the Inner Layer. The flags of the Major Guilds that used them were still there, waving proudly as the players last reminder of their once great and short presence in the world.

As they landed, Jackson went and began folding the one closest to him. "Master, we might need to head down and power up the facility again." with a sigh, he packs the flag of Eldwood and nods. King Gold on the other hand just stood on the platform next to the Portal, his head following them as they rode Bahamut down to the tunnels.

"Elizadeath, come up here. I wanna have a chat with you and Sir Anthony." The Streamer with her Elven player friend both looked at each other and walked towards the Portal scaffolding as King Gold still had his arms crossed as the Native Armies began walking into the Inner Layer to check on the Dragon that just landed with the Holy See leading coming in from the West and the Elven Empire coming in from multiple different entrances.

Down below, Jackson's party was passing the first floor and the many gigantic steel bunker gates that now leads to dead and abandoned portals, taking the service elevator down to the second floor that once housed the many players of Geraldia were empty and on the third, the offices of the Joint Armies were left barren, with almost all of the cabinets ransacked and the papers either burned or taken back home.

Following the blue line, they reach the Main Command Room where Jackson looks at the massive screen that's shut off. His hand flew above the numerous consoles, the office chairs left in their untidy places as the three females with him all looked in different areas, patrolling the seven rows of computers. "Oh! M'Lord!" Alana then pulls a lever that's placed in between the console screens. "Emergency Shut Off Valve has been disabled." The orange emergency lights then bloomed open as fog lights illuminated the dark room.