Corvus felt the controls on Kreat and Py get smashed to tatters, a strike with no finesse just pure brute power. Then crushing force slammed into his group, his shield formed a golden dome over him as he was driven to his knees. His Fae who had followed him and believed in a better future fared worse and were crushed into the ground as their shields failed.

Kreat and Py looked at him with identical looks of gloating hatred just before they fell, truly lifeless again. At least the failsafe worked, the only bright moment in this, his total and utter defeat.

“Now farewell to you and your rebellious followers. I would say you’ll be remembered. But you won’t, not by anyone who matters.”

Thin lines of dull grey Death energy lashed out and touched every single one of his Fae and he himself, his followers died instantly.

Corvus’ shield held.

Ireen’s voice was startled, “What!? How!?”

Corvus’ shield flared brighter and he groaned under the strain as a circle was pressed deep into the ground with him at it’s centre and the thin line of Death Realm energy thickened to a solid looking bar.

And still his shield held, glowing brightly enough to leave afterimages.

Screaming balls of chaos, potent enough to change the air around them into a multitude of random things slammed into his golden shield, and sand, small creatures, water, stones, gems, and other things fell to the ground.

Still his shield held.

Ireen’s face was now concerned, it passed into outright shock and more than a little fear as Corvus slowly brought himself to his feet in spite of the driving pressure of the magic pressing down on him.

Through gritted teeth Corvus gasped out, “I will see you and yours dead.”

Knowing he had bare moments before Ireen come up with something that could break his shield Corvus ignored all safeguards and started working with likely lethal amounts of Death and Life Realm energy.

A cloud of dull grey fog rose around him, the simple death cloud spell all users of death magic knew, soon it changed taking on a green glow as he worked free life magic into it to make it living, self-sustaining and able to grow. Using his necromancy he gave it the same soul framework he usually gave to the dead to make it animated and finally using order realm magics he gave it a set and ordered shape.

Sagging to the ground in exhaustion with closed eyes he prepared himself for death.

Slowly the sounds he was hearing filtered into his consciousness, screams of raw terror from throats already damaged and a strange rumbling growl. Looking around dazed, confused and very surprised he still lived he saw bodies scattered all over the place, fallen where they’d stood.

In front of him even Fordromonouse’s body lay crumpled and looking small where he’d fallen.

At the furthest camp a vaguely horse shaped cloud of dull grey shot through with brilliant green lightning, outlined in a thin golden line was tearing through the last few of the Fae who vainly tried to keep it away from Uykless. Corvus idly wondered how many he’d killed and how many had got away, unfortunately it looked like Ireen was among them because his body wasn’t here.

His creation finished off the last of the Fae between it and Uykless, it slammed into the Fae Chanar leaving his rigid corpse on the ground then started wandering aimlessly.

Where it walked all things died even the grass.

He reached out and unsummoned it, or tired to.

Looking at the soul framework he’d used, he found the animating strings intending to cut them. They were there, he could see them, but he couldn’t touch them.

Oh, oh, oh no! He had created life and his necromancy couldn’t touch the animating threads of a living being. He’d made a fundamental and terrible mistake, he’d given his creation a soul energy framework, then empowered it with life, an Order charged soul framework. In doing so he’d created life from the lifeless, life that had no other purpose than to kill everything it encountered other than him.

He was suddenly glad he’d limited it to staying close to him, if it was free to roam it would depopulate the entire land and possibly the Realm. This had killed most of Valard’s Fae but he couldn’t count it a failure because Fae Chanar had died and died in large numbers, seven were dead that he knew of for sure and it had been twelve thousand turnings since the last Fae Chanar had died. The one before had been thirty thousand turnings earlier. This would show the Oruc, the Dwaris and the Fae the Fae Chanar were not invulnerable, they could be beaten, they could be killed.

But that was for later, what in the name of the Unmentioned was he going to do with this living death cloud?

His gaze drifted to the Tower, the tower with it’s wards intact and he smiled. Well that was something to do, wasn’t it? Killing Valard could only be a good thing.

Smiling with anticipatory glee Corvus reached out to tug at the command structures in the cloud of living death. They responded, but much more slowly and with much greater difficulty than they would with a true undead. Still, he could suggest that it attack the tower and he did.

He stood and trembling with exhaustion followed it, he didn’t want to miss Valard’s death.

When the Horse shaped cloud hit the wards there was a screaming siren-like wail and a flash of light lit the morning sky. He froze, terrifed, something had just gone very wrong. He could feel it.

The wards were visible, not just visible they were almost blinding and a low rumbling hum vibrated the air as the wail built. The glare from the wards was enough to throw shadows in the bright morning sunlight and small arcs of magic lashed out from them and grounded themselves into the horse shaped cloud.

The cloud pushed into the wards harder and the low rumbling hum started to rattle his teeth and the wail built higher until it was a shriek as the small arcs of magic became branching lightning that blasted into the cloud and lit it from within. Until now Corvus had never known that the dull grey of the Death Realm could glow. But it was.

He reached out and ordered it to stop. Nothing. He could see the command structures but it was pointless, he couldn’t touch them.

Horrified he watched as more and more magic poured into the horse shaped cloud and it began to pulse, bulging oddly within it’s outline of golden Order then shrinking back in but on every pulse it shrank back less.

The shriek was now past the bounds of hearing and could only be felt in the bones and as a pressure within his head and ears. He was surprised the wards had lasted this long, most of them were his work and they weren’t that strong. Maybe Valard had reinforced them.

He was trying to distract himself from the looming disaster because the cloud no longer pulsed it just kept growing, bulging horribly around the cage of Order.

The wards vanished and everything stopped, it felt like even the world was holding it’s breath.

Then the horse exploded.

Corvus was knocked off his feet as a solid wave of Death energy hurtled away from the Tower, killing everything.

Every bird, every plant, every insect, every animal, every living thing the wave touched died.

Other than Corvus himself.

As he stood up carefully it was unnaturally quiet and still, even the air smelled wrong, it was dull and lifeless. As far as the eye could see everything was lifeless and a dull grey haze of Death hung heavy in the air, who knew how far it extended.

Corvus was still peering through the mist when he heard a voice behind him, “Oh of course. Of all the people I might see after this disaster it had to be you.”

Sword rasping out of it’s scabbard Corvus spun and saw Valard standing there leaning heavily on his staff, he said, “Disaster? I count it a win more Fae Chanar died today than have in thousands of turnings.”

“Your ‘victory’ is hollow, that wave of death washed against the mountains that ring this land and now nothing lives within. But well done, congratulations, you have successfully rebelled and killed some Fae Chanar. All you’ve done is kill every adult Fae in the entire Realm, you’ve proven that there are dangerous Fae showing up again. This isn’t the first time not by far, the Scritus Fae were an early Fae race alongside you Fae. The rat faced bastards rebelled, they killed and ate a dozen Fae Chanar ninety-five thousand turnings ago and now they are not even a memory. We will kill every single threatening Fae there is, oh not me personally you’ve killed me well enough. This mist will beat my protections probably within days at most. By the by it looks like I should have killed you as a baby as we do with the strong Fae like you but I let you live because I wanted a Fae Chanar to experiment on. That was a mistake.”

Corvus said, “What! I’m no Fae Chanar.”

“Where do you think the Fae Chanar came from? We were Fae under brutal masters who are long dead. Fae who were capable of gaining more power than any mortal should hold. So you are what you hate because I saved you and had you raised. Enjoy that knowledge.”

Corvus frowned, thinking hard. Then he shrugged and with golden light sheathing his sword lopped Valard’s head off, as it spun to a stop near his foot he said, “You may be speaking the truth but there is one thing I can be absolutely certain of, whatever the future holds you will have no part in it.”

Sheathing his sword Corvus wandered into the Tower.