As the fog slowly lifted, the true horror of the situation they were in was made apparent. Lacking not only overwhelming numbers but also superior or equivalent technology and backup, the living tide of Teutonian Spearmen began to recede. As the push-back from the undead continued to increase in force, the numbers of men in the unshielded and poorly equipped Spearmen ‘formations’ steadily dropped. The fact that their ‘formations’ were not regulation size meant that there were indeed more bodies on the Teutonian side than there would normally be, but even this was not enough to hold back the advancing undead.

The final straw and what began a full chain-rout was the rear charge into the living by the Zombies that had dismantled Arschloch’s cronies. As the few Spearmen who didn’t rout, either due to courage, nationalistic zeal or plain stupidity, cursed their fleeing comrades, the Horde descended upon those too slow, stupid, brave or injured to get away. The ‘Living Tide’ that Arschloch had claimed was unbeatable was slowly erased beneath a much larger and better equipped tide of Skeletons and shambling corpses.

However, the terror was not yet over for those who fled from combat. The Dire Wolves and Fel Bats that made up the pseudo-cavalry of Kain’s armies pursued the living, lowering the number of survivors ever further with every minute that passed. Like a terrible industrial harvesting machine, Kain’s undead scoured the Gallows Woods of any fool who dared not follow the Abominable King, with the exception being the humans who followed Erwin Krueger. While it was regrettable, a quite small portion of Krueger’s remaining men decided to take their chances and refused to go to Necrograd. As was to be expected from the single-minded undead, the Dire Wolves and Fel Bats tore them to shreds long before they managed to make an escape.

Meanwhile, another ‘passenger’ had been added to the cart pulled by Alistaira’s Zombies and was making its way to the South Gate of Necrograd. As the pilfered carriage that carried Alexis and Alistaira led the procession down the cobblestone road that reached out towards the Gallows Woods, the two within steadily grew more anxious. Despite Alistaira’s confidence and assurances to Alexis that they would emerge from the reunion with Kain mostly untouched, both of them seriously wondered how the Dark Emperor of Darksol would respond to the news they brought. They could only hope that the ‘trophies’ that they brought back were enough to placate their liege, but even then, they still wondered if the two ‘gifts’ were even enough.

As the meagre procession neared the gates, trumpets sounded, and the drawbridge lowered. The portcullis rose up and the gates swung open and the pathway to the castle in the center of the city opened up, all of the civilians moving aside to make way for the Empress and current Court Mage. As the people watched the less than massive parade, they saw the enchanted coffin and some wrongly assumed that either Alexis or Alistaira had fallen in battle. Fully anticipating this response, Alexis and Alistaira lowered the windows of their stolen carriage and waved to the concerned mob. At the sight of their still ‘living’ Empress and Court Mage, sighs of relief swept the streets and the atmosphere turned from somber to cheerful as the rumors of either Alexis’ and/ or Alistaira’s death were quickly put down.

Kain himself ventured out from the castle and welcomed his protégé and wife back to the city. Although concerned about the lack of military presence accompanying the two, as the ten armies that had been dispatched to go alongside them should have been more than enough, Kain was still quite happy that the two were back and in one piece. What was more important to him than victory over Anglond was that Alexis and Alistaira were fine, although he did want to hear what exactly had happened that resulted in them returning in such a state. He was also quite curious as to the contents of the enchanted coffin as well as the bound and gagged ball of lard that quivered in terror.

The carriage stopped in front of Kain and his wife and his protégé emerged from within. Although he was unsure, mostly due to the time the two had spent apart, Kain had a suspicion that Alexis was weightier than she had been before setting out to attack Anglond. The Abominable King had not even the slightest notion that an undead could become pregnant, and thus was blissfully unaware of what was behind Alexis’ sudden growth.

“My loving wife, am I to assume that things did not exactly work out in our favor?”

Alexis and Alistaira were immediately downcast and Kain understood (or thought he understood) exactly what had transpired to result in them returning in such a poor shape.

“We ran into… complications… Were it not for a single foe we would have been able to return as victors. Had we known that one of Them was still alive we might have been able to put up a better fight, but…”

“Oh…. Oh, my…”

Kain was speechless. He had assumed that the last of the interlopers had long since vanished from the planet. Now he knew what was inside the box, and while has unhappy that the invasion was unsuccessful, he was overjoyed that he would be able to mess with one of the damnable Otherworlders who had been responsible for so much destruction and defeat in ages past.

Kain began to chuckle and let a smile creep across his face, which surprised everyone present.

“Well done! Not the kind of success that I expected, but a success nonetheless! Even IF we didn’t annex Anglond, we now have the corpse of one of the only people capable of giving us trouble. So, who is it? Who survived? How did they manage to live so long? Unlife? Magic? A Perfect Diet mixed with Exercise and more? Do tell me, I do look forward to the story.”

Relief filled the faces of Alexis and Alistaira as the two of them exchanged glances. The coffin was taken inside towards the throne room while the tubby Teutonian was merely sent directly to jail.

The Living Ice Age was about to be given a rather rude awakening.