Personal agendas

While Master Pelana was trying to destroy Clinton's giant golem, back in the rear, away from the front lines, Lidia was entering a campaign tent by herself.

'What have you found?' she asked one of the wind magicians of the dark court.

'I have found Clinton,' said the magician, his body covered from head to toe with his enchanted clothes. 'He came straight to me and gave me this.'

The magician took out some ill-treated papers and handed them over to Lydia, who reviewed them without further delay. Her face turned pale.

'Impossible!'

Lydia sat down in one of the chairs that occupied the tent and re-examined the documents carefully.

'Call the other magicians of the dark court, except those on the battle front.'

As the wind magician retreated, Lydia re-checked the papers. She was not the most expert in arcane magic in the court, but her knowledge was not something to scoff at.

'How is it possible?' she kept wondering as she read.

A few minutes later, several members of the court entered the tent. Lidia showed them the documents that had been sent by Clinton.

'Then, what do you think?'

'It checks out, in theory, though I am not fully convinced yet,' replied one of the hooded warlocks.

'According to this, he has achieved everything. He has control of the miasma and its armies, he can move them at will without the need to extend the miasma' commented another warlock.

'Imagine what we could do with a whole army of miasma creatures. We could subdue all the kingdoms and even extend the dynasty beyond the sea.'

Lydia turned toward the wind magician, who had brought the information.

'Go back to Miasma; contact Clinton; we'll see if we can actually be allies.'

"This is a great opportunity. The situation is critical now that the dynasty has only one titled magician. The neighboring kingdoms have saved part of their army for a future battle against us. We know that Veldat has an agreement with the Nu Empire to invade the dynasty when this war is over.'

A messenger entered the tent.

'Your excellency, master Pelana's golem has fallen. The enemy golem has received much damage but still remains active. Captain Van Casting asks the warlocks to give it the final attack and finish it.'

'Denied. Tell master Emeral, Telman, and the other masters of all the academies to join in an attack against the golem' ordered Lydia.

A few minutes later, Astrid entered the tent.

'Lydia, have you gone insane?'

'That's what I should ask you. Mind your tone with me, little girl,' replied Lydia with a frown on her face.

'We have a unique opportunity. The De Vonder are attacking the golem, but it is starting to recover. The masters aren't strong enough to make a difference. At best, they will manage to keep it in a weak state, but their absence from other areas of the battlefield will weaken our lines. Clinton's witchcraft has distorted the elements so much that only elite magicians can fight; the knights can't face all of this on their own,' Astrid replied.

'I know! But we have new information that can be very useful; besides, you are forgetting a detail; we don't know if Clinton can create another golem,' Lidia explained.

'New information?'

'I can't give you any details yet; we're confirming its accuracy; it'll take us a couple of hours.'

'We don't have a couple of hours,' replied Astrid.

'I have made my decision; obey your orders, captain.'

Astrid left the tent and met Gerald a few minutes later.

'Open your eyes; something is wrong.'

'I have noticed,' said Gerald. 'The dark court warlocks have been approaching the masters and talking to them, except for Pelana and Telman.'

"I have a bad feeling," thought Astrid, looking at the battle that had reached a stalemate.

A few minutes later, Lydia and several of her lackeys discreetly entered the miasma, beyond the sight of Astrid and some others.

'Clinton Van Ferra, I didn't think I'd see you again,' said Lydia.

'Neither did I think I would survive,' answered Clinton.

He was covered in black clothes, as he used to wear during his stay in the royal palace, though he looked a lot more dirty. His voice was gutural and raspy, like that of someone with an inflamed and dry throat.

'We have received the information you sent. At first, I didn't believe it, but seeing how the zombies obey you, including that dragon, we have to admit that your claims are the truth.'

Clinton moved his hand, and the reanimated corpse of a huge dragon on his right approached and lay next to him, placing his head on Clinton's right in a docile manner.

'Can you move the dragons out of the miasma as you do with the rest of the undead?' asked Lydia.

'No problem. Although that requires a bit of arcane magic. Unfortunately, there are not many living things in the miasma. If I get the ingredients, I can make an army of undead travel over the battlefield of any kingdom,' Clinton replied, making Lydia smile. "I know what you want"

'Excellent, I think we have a basis for cooperation,' confirmed Lidia.

'But first, we have a small problem.' Clinton raised his right hand, lifting one finger.

'Astrid and the de Vonders.'

'Ah! Excellency, you are a woman of extraordinary deduction,' Clinton praised.

'We will take care of them,' assured Lydia.

'If you don't mind, I'd prefer to do it myself. If the warlocks of the court help me a little, I can restore my golem and capture them by surprise. They're like miniature dragons; they could be excellent soldiers to invade other realms'

'How do we know that this is not a trap?' asked one of Lydia's men.

'Please!' answered Clinton in a sarcastic voice. 'I have been in the royal palace and the dark court; I never wanted to start this war. I had to do all this in the shadows because Mable and the court would never approve my experiments. But now that I have succeeded, the whole dynasty could benefit.'

'And what do you gain with this?' asked Lydia.

Clinton laughed; there was a slight tone of madness in his unbridled laughter. 'Fame, fortune, wealth, power, social position. My own statue next to that of Liev in the tower: We will conquer the whole continent and maybe the world. My name will go down in history as the most powerful magician in the world. More than Liev, than Van Vatnik, and more than all the current and previous titled magicians, I am immortal!'

"Another madman consumed by vanity," thought Lydia with a smile. 'Well, you got a deal, Clinton. What are you planning?'

Clinton approached Lidia and handed her a paper in poor condition, but with a diagram and runes perfectly readable.

'The sacrifices of the carriages. They'll be enough to get my golem back in shape; I'll take care of the rest.'

'Okay,' replied Lydia.

They left the miasma and returned to the rear. Meanwhile, Clinton turned and looked west, toward the remains of the grandfather.

'Who are you?' asked Clinton.

The zombies surrounding him remained still and silent. Outside the miasma, on the battlefield, Lydia's men passed information to Emeral and other magicians and knights. Astrid had been called to the rear. When she entered Lydia's tent, a long dagger stabbed her in the back. Her killer did his job skillfully; the long dagger reached the heart. The air came out of her lungs as her face of surprise turned to pain.

"How could I be this stupid?"

As she fell to the ground, a small spear of ice attacked Lydia. One of the court magicians snapped his fingers, the ice spear evaporated, the magician moved his hand, and Astrid's body began to burn. The magician controlled his magic in such a way that only the captain's body was affected by the flames.

'Now we only have the de Vonder's left; it is a pity; the de Vonder's are very powerful, but they are dragons; we cannot trust them,' said Lydia.

The mages and warlocks around her nodded.

'But I still don't understand what arcane magic trick Clinton used to mock our detection. We couldn't even come close to detecting his magical, vital, or any kind of energy' said the magician, who had burned Astrid's body while pulling a locator-like object out of his pocket, but this item had a blue glass.

'We'll need to figure out his tricks. We will need some defense against that in the palace,' Lydia agreed.

On the battle front, the magicians and the de Vonders fought to prevent the regeneration of the fallen golem. The worlocks from the court were given the signal to take action. The magicians and the de Vonder stopped their attack.

'Velna estero leguia no Ferra'

'Nal canto a faw'

'Est del nerla vila let'

The elemental energy deteriorated even further; the miasma traveled towards the carriages, crossing the fabrics covering their contents. Cries were heard throughout the battlefield. The miasma came out of the carriages again and entered the giant golem. Two dragons rose from within the miasma; one of them carried a man in black clothes on his shoulder.

'Meneol,' said Temma, recognizing the greatest of the two dragons.

Although his body had deteriorated by becoming a corpse, it still retained some of its ancient magnificence.

The man came down from the dragon and set foot on the golem's torso. The miasma began to enter the man, who sank into the rock as if it were mud.

'We were betrayed,' cried Gerald.

'Too late.' The flames of Emeral attacked the de Vonders. The master had her enchanted clothes activated. In the distance, some of the knights of the dynasty used the giant crossbows to attack the dragons of the de Vonders. Gerald was the victim of the attacks of the elite magicians. The surprise attack was effective. Two of the three dragons suffered lethal wounds.

'What is going on?' Telman was confused. From his point of view, members of the Allied army had begun to kill each other. The master tried to activate his enchanted clothes without success. The warlocks of the court used their arcane magic to interfere with the master clothes.

The master was preparing to attack the sorcerers with his ice magic, but the breath of the other zombie dragon covered him with miasma. The members of the army of the other kingdoms were confused; Clinton's zombies ignored the members of the dynasty's army, which were easy to identify by their clothing and armor, and attacked the armies of other kingdoms.

'We have control of the armies in the miasma; the other kingdoms are our enemies,' shouted Emeral.

Most of the dynasty's army was aware of the situation. Lydia and her men had already informed their intermediate commanders of the change of strategy.

Meanwhile, the de Vonders fought the golem that was getting up, Meneol's zombie form, several mages, warlocks, and a titled master. Moger and Temma fought on the ground while Uruk, riding on the back of the last surviving dragon, tried to avoid enemy attacks in the air, be they magician attacks or giant steel arrows.

'I got you now!' yelled Emeral, throwing as much fire as her magic could allow her from a distance. The warlocks and Meneol's resurrected body served as her shield.

Clinton's giant golem moved differently; now that he controlled it directly, its patterns and movements were more varied, smooth, and precise. Moger and Temma managed to evade the giant's stone arms by centimeters, thanks to their great physical speed. However, the ents that formed part of the giant golem and had recovered thanks to arcane magic managed to catch Moger. The branches, now filled with sharp thorns, managed to penetrate the hard blue skin of the salamander. Temma went to his rescue, and pulling from him, he managed to get him out of the vines that were beginning to cover him. Moger lost an arm and a leg due to the branches. Temma also suffered a lot of damage during the rescue. Several magic attacks fell on him; ice spears had left wounds on his back; and Emeral's fire had burned his skin.

Moger nodded; one glance was enough to understand. They were outnumbered and outmatched; the elemental energy was greatly deteriorated; and, with the wounds they had, their physical strength was limited. They were done for.

Temma threw the partially dismembered Moger with all his strength towards Emeral. She was taken by surprise, so she used her fire magic to attack. A calcined Moger passed through the flames; his right hand, with those sharp claws, punched through the master's chest, Moger hand was holding her still beating heart behind her back.

"I didn't expect this," thought the master as she saw the arm passing through her chest.

Moger closed his hand, crushing the master's heart. Other masters, warlocks, and elite magicians were preparing to attack Moger. His burned face smiled. Even with the disarray of the elements caused by arcane magic, the elemental energy of fire began to concentrate in Moger's chest as he fell to the ground next to Emeral's body. A slight crackling sound like rock was breaking was heard, then it was preceded by a great explosion that blew up several warlocks and magicians. At the place where the bodies of Moger and Emeral had fallen, only one crater was visible.

Meanwhile, Temma had jumped towards the mouth of Meneol's resurrected body. The subsequent explosion evaporated most of the zombie's body, leaving only parts of the back legs and tail. Many magicians and witches were involved in the explosion, and even Clinton's golem was damaged. One arm of the golem and part of his torso had been destroyed in the explosion, leaving Clinton exposed. His clothes had also been destroyed.

'Damn it!' Clinton complained.

His image caught everyone's attention.

'He is an undead!' cried Gaelion, pointing to Clinton.

The center of the golem's torso was occupied by a gray, dry, dead body; part of his face had been destroyed, exposing the jaw, frontal, and temporal bones on the right side. It lacked lips; its yellowish teeth were exposed; its nose was absent, leaving visible the nasal cavities of the skull; its eye sockets were empty, leaving just two holes, as dark as the miasma surrounding the golem, and other undeads.

One of the wind magicians at Lydia's service moved like a shadow and went to inform his superior. While Uruk flew on his dragon as high as he could to avoid enemy attacks, with tears in his eyes.

'What? An undead?'

'Yes, maam,' replied the magician, who carried the message.

'That explains everything.'

'What are we doing, excelency?'

'Nothing; Clinton managed to keep his mind and rationality; apparently only his body is dead. This may be useful in the future; when we have no further use for him, we have a reason to kill him' Lydia replied with a smile.

Meanwhile, on the battle front, the golem covered his chest with its remaining arm to protect Clinton, who had remained frozen and inactive, with his head turned in the direction where the Great Father's remains were located.