RinoZ
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B4 - Epilogue (cont)
🕑 Added 2025-01-16 10:47:30 +0000 UTCFeolin watched with horrified fascination as the gates caved in, finally tilting back, blasted off their hinges and collapsing with a dull roar. She hadn’t believed it would be possible, not really, to break into the castle. It seemed impenetrable, an unmoving mountain of stone that by all logic should collapse under its own weight. Yet, somehow…
The Slayers gave a blood thirsty cheer. Weapons raised into the air as they roared and screamed, each pushing to be the first through the gates. MacRielly would be in there somewhere, screaming bloody vengeance as he shoved others aside, trying to be the one to get to the Duke first.
Nearby, Tyron Steelarm watched it all unfold from atop his strange platform, his face expressionless, but his eyes burning. As always, a contingent of his undead remained about him, while others continued to engage in the battle, firing arrows, flinging spells, exchanging fire with the defenders on the walls.
Somehow, the appetite for violence amongst the Slayers still hadn’t abated. They didn’t even need to kill the Duke, for the Emperor surely would, but it didn’t seem to matter.
For her part, Feolin had seen more death and suffering in the past ten days than she had seen in the decade before. The streets were choked with bodies, the noble quarter reeked of blood. She’d seen the Necromancer pick through it all like a crow, going from slaughterhouse to slaughterhouse with his army and dragging away the dead.
It was grim work, but she understood the need for it. However, it was difficult to view the man sympathetically when every time she saw him, even from a distance, he looked as cold as a corpse himself.
“Are you coming?” a voice asked.
It took Feolin a moment to realise that someone was talking to her, and even longer to realise who it was. It was the Necromancer, speaking to her from atop his perch.
She looked back to the gate. She could already hear the screaming and clash of blades, the flare of magick coming from within. No doubt the castle would soon become another charnel house.
“I don’t have any desire to see it,” she replied.
“See what? The worst of our impulses laid bare? The depths of cruelty your fellow Slayers will sink to when they’re no longer bound by the curse? Are you afraid that you will walk in there and start to believe that the Magisters were right all along?”
He didn’t sound impassioned, or upset, he barely sounded curious. Feolin wondered why he was talking to her at all.
“The Magisters are platinum ranked arseholes,” she told him, “but that doesn’t mean I need to see their guts spilling out with my own eyes. I find all of this…” she gestured vaguely toward the city, “... unnecessary.”
“Freedom without vengeance,” Tyron nodded. “Thankfully for me, not many of your fellow gold rankers felt the same way.”
She felt a flush of hot anger at those words.
“Why? Because you couldn’t enact your vengeance without them?”
“Exactly,” he nodded. “Without them I would have no chance of getting inside the castle. Every noble in there is going to die, along with all the men and women who sided with the Duke against us. However, that’s not the only reason I want to get in there. I mean, aren’t you curious? You don’t want to know what is hidden within the bowels of the castle?”
Feolin had a creeping suspicion that she very much didn’t want to know what might be down there.
“Why?” she asked warily, “do you have some idea?”
“Oh, I know,” Tyron said, showing some hint of emotion at last: a quick flash of a smile. “I want someone like you to come with me, someone who isn’t…” he gestured toward the fighting at the gate, “... so enthusiastic. Who knows what they might do when they find what I’m looking for.”
“You want a witness.”
“That’s right. I want a witness.”
The gold slayer thought about it for a long moment as the fighting continued to intensify in the distance.
“Alright, fine,” she eventually agreed, hoping she wouldn’t regret it. She looked up at Tyron. “Why are you up there anyway?”
“I’m standing on a ritual circle,” he explained. “I need to maintain the flow of power. I’m not up here because I think I’m better than everyone.”
She looked down at the skeletons carrying him around on their body shoulders.
“I can admit it doesn’t look good,” he said.
“Fine. Pull me up and I’ll go with you,” she said, walking over and reaching up with one hand.
Tyron looked a little surprised at first, then he reached out to clasp her hand and easily pulled her up onto the platform. Despite not being fighters, their gold ranked strength was enough to perform an act like this without a hint of strain.
Once she was up there, Feolin could see that indeed there was a potent ritual circle carved into the platform, which Tyron remained in contact with at all times, giving him control of the flow of power. It was an interesting spell, and as a mage she found herself drawn to examining it, leaning in to study the sigils and connections.
“It’s a ritual that empowers my horde,” Tyron explained. “Any undead connected to me can also draw power through the circle. In addition, it gives me an enhanced mental connection to each of them.”
“So you can know what each undead under your control is doing?”
“I could already do that, but in a vague way, this ritual gives me a much stronger bond. Are you alright if we start moving?”
“Yes, of course.”
With a lurch, the skeletons below began to march, the platform holding surprisingly steady on their shoulders. From the elevated perch, it was much easier to see what was going on, and she watched as the undead gathered around them, forming a vanguard that began to press toward the breach in the wall.
During the fight, the Slayers had managed to bridge the enormous moat using boulders and huge chunks of stone that they’d thrown in before someone was finally able to tear the drawbridge away. It was still there, half sunk into the bloody waters on its side, a huge hunk of riveted metal, humming with enchantments.
As they drew closer to the fighting, Feolin steeled herself, drawing on her own power in case she needed to defend herself.
The undead marched silently, as always. No fear, hesitation or anxiety in their movements. Among them, the powerful wights, decked out in plated bone armour and wielding potent, enchanted blades walked, along with the massive skeletal giants, smoking swords swinging with each lumbering step.
It was insane to think a single Class was capable of creating an army like this. Beyond the rifts, what a weapon he would be! With this many undead, he could hold a rift by himself for days on end!
As if sensing what she was thinking, Tyron spoke up.
“It’s a shame, isn’t it? When I first got this Class, I wanted to prove that I could do good with it, that I could be a weapon against the kin. If I did that, I’d be accepted, and allowed to serve as a Slayer, just like my parents.”
Hopelessly naive. Feolin tried not to show it in her expression. She failed.
Tyron snorted. “I know,” he said. “Defeating the rifts was never the plan. It was never what they wanted. They need magick to fuel their power, and without the rifts, there would be no magick. No brands, no Classes, no control. When everything is built upon the foundation of a world with arcane energy, when you depend upon it to exist… suddenly a world filled with more and more of the stuff doesn’t seem all that bad.”
“You aren’t talking about the Duke… or even the Emperor… are you?” Feolin asked.
The clash of steel and screams of the dying were so loud now. The Slayers had plunged through the gate and ploughed into the waiting Soldiers like a tide of ravening barbarians. Gold ranked abilities boomed and howled, crushing armour and shattering stone. Overhead, magickal energies clashed in the sky, a series of rolling booms and flashing lights made it seem as if they were fighting in a fierce lightning storm.
Rather than throw the undead directly into the thick of the fighting, Tyron seemed to take a different approach. The undead scattered around the courtyard once they were through the destroyed gate, running for the doors, stairs and towers. Undead mages shielded the rest from harm while they battered at barricades, trying to force their way in.
Once the skeletal giants arrived, they made short work of the barred doors, smashing them in with only a few blows. Just like that, the undead flowed into the castle, swarming over the walls and towers while Tyron stood in the courtyard, atop the platform, eyes flicking rapidly from place to place.
Ahead of them loomed the great fortress in which no doubt the Duke huddled with his few remaining troops and mages. The Necromancer barely gave it a glance.
“Aren’t you going to join the assault on the Duke? You’re undead would be a useful weapon against the nobles?” Feolin asked.
Tyron shook his head.
“I will send undead, but I won’t go myself, not at first. There is something else I need to find.”
His head snapped downward and he grimaced.
‘What?” Feolin asked.
“Ghosts have gotten into the lower levels. We can go down now,” he said.
At once, the skeletons lowered the platform down to the ground, nearly causing Feolin to stumble. The moment it touched the ground, Tyron stepped off, and the light of the ritual faded. She joined him, matching her stride to his and he moved unerringly toward one of the splintered doors.
“We have to go down?” she sighed. “Just how deep does this place go?”
“All the way to hell,” Tyron replied, his tone flat.
Skeletons formed around them, in front and behind, and she knew the others were still combing through the castle, hunting, seeking, killing. Even as he walked down the seemingly endless stone steps.
The two descended far below, down the steps and into the darkness, accompanied by the glowing purple light of the undead. It was eerie, even to Feolin who had experienced great terrors through the rifts.
Soon she realised just where they were. The guards were long gone, fled or recruited to fight, but it was clear the dungeons beneath the castle had been abandoned. Except, not entirely.
Moans, screams and pleas echoed from the damp stone walls as those still locked away, likely without food or water for days cried out at the sound of footsteps. When they saw the undead, the prisoners fell silent, cringing back in their tiny cells, turning their faces away from the light of the skeleton’s eyes.
Row after row of cells, Tyron marched past all of them, Feolin on his heels, until he came to one and stopped. For the first time, she felt she saw a hint of genuine emotion in his face as he gazed at the crumpled old man lying on the floor of the cell.
“You know this man?” she asked.
“That’s Master Willhem,” he replied softly.
“No!” she gasped, turning back to the unfortunate prisoner. She could see some resemblance, but it was difficult to match the esteemed Arcanist she had seen only briefly with this wreck.
“What happened? Why would they bring him here?” she muttered.
“I happened,” Tyron said.
She waited, but got no further response.
“Is he…” she hesitated to continue.
“Not quite, but there isn’t anything to save him now. This place has made his condition worse, but old-age can’t be healed.”
“Is this why you wanted to come here?”
“No.”
Just like that, they were off again, striding through the darkness, rusted metal cages on either side.
“Have you ever wondered what happened to the Slayers who went mad?” Tyron asked over his shoulder. “The ones who couldn’t handle the pressure and went rogue?”
“They were killed,” Feolin said shortly. “I’ve seen it myself.”
“Some of them were killed,” Tyron replied, “the ones they weren’t able to subdue. The rest get hauled away by the Magisters and Marshals. What happens to them?”
“They get tried and executed I imagine.”
What else would they do with them?
“Half right. You know that people who are Slayers tend to have children who are Slayers, right?”
Feolin’s mouth tightened.
“I know,” she said.
“And you know why the brothels are positioned so close to the Golden District?”
“I do.”
“Then the rest is self explanatory.”
“I don’t see how…” a monstrous thought began to creep into her mind. “You aren’t saying…”
“What I’m saying is that every year, dozens of Slayers were brought here, to the underground. The reason doesn’t really matter to me.”
He threw open a door in front of them and Feolin gasped at the sight that lay beyond.
“What matters is that they all died here.”
Bones. So many bones.
*
Comments
Suastes Jiménez Miguel Angel
Now I understood why Tyron needed a witness, so that the other hunters wouldn't kill him for treason.
kp8080
Oh I get it. The nobles can just order them to copulate, then later order them to kill themselves.
Ignacio Fuentes Álvarez
Just further proof of the depravity of the ruling class, the nobles use the slayers as literal cattle to maintain a status quo for their sole benefit. They capture PTSD slayers and force them to reproduce and throw their bodies in a literal prison forgotten for all, bones piling in top of bones
Suastes Jiménez Miguel Angel
I've never understood innuendos so much. What was so serious that Feolin had to witness?
Suastes Jiménez Miguel Angel
This is a valid question
Grey Knight Lord
The children are either raised to be soldiers, slayers or more slayers at orphanages. Some of those children will become Gold and continue the process
Grim TheCat
I'm confused. So they breed the good slayers, but what happened to the children? Are they bastard Nobels turned to magistrates? Are they orphans funneled to be come slayers? What is he trying to imply here?
Andrew
Thank you!
McMax
I like some of the explanation for the bones being there but this seems really convenient
Mislandor
If they did not become slayers - where did all those loyal Solders come from? I would not be surprised if many of those were children of captive slayers. For the crazy level of loyalty and unquestioning obedience to the noble class, I would assume that those Solders were raised to it.
Mislandor
I would love to see this. Raise his old mentor up to keep him around.
Viktor
Master Wilhelm to lich
Darune Albane
Every one mentioned was gold at max .. nobody so far has been platinum
Forint
Bro... Did you even read the chapter? The answer is *literally* right here in this chapter. “The Magisters are platinum ranked arseholes,”
Wandering Agent
Big fan of RinoZ, and plenty of other authors besides. Good to see another friendly name here too.
Gopard
Thanks for the chapter!
Gopard
Wow! You're also here! Interesting to see an author under a different story^^ And I absolutely agree! If Master Wilhelm makes that choice he perhaps most of all deserves another chance in "death" by Tyron!
Wandering Agent
Nothing he can do for him atm, and more important work to get to right now. Also, someone collapsed and wrecked at the floor of a cell is probably not in a state to talk.
Robothaus
lets not forget that one of the old gods is Rot and they might see some purpose in not allowing the remains of the gold ranked slayers succumb to natural decay if only to deny potential resources to the enemy
Grey Knight Lord
Master Wilhem would be a good Demi Lich
Runaway_Cactuar
Well, he's no healer, so what can Ty do to improve his quality of life?
Wensber
Thanks for the chapter!
Melody Haren Anderson
Considering the implications that they feed on the arcane and the power of the Unseen, it's possible they harvest the bodies of these things over time, and the bones give them up slowest.
Wandering Agent
He should do Wilhelm like he did Dove, if he wants it. His teacher deserves that much respect.
CentaureHeart
Well, he needs individuals units for the commanding jobs. I hope we get more precision on the demi-lich later on, we don't know anything beside that there are crystals in their bones and they do magick well
Greyg
It seems like he used the magisters for lichs they get magick crystals, as they’re capable mages so souls are attached too bone or the crystals we don’t know if they get access to the unseen. Wights have green soul flesh getting access to the unseen having a class. I suspect full lich will have both features we need some clarity on their limitations but eventually his legion will be so big it’ll be impossible to care about individual units maybe
Greyg
Need lots of bastard children working as rats at the rifts disposable slayers aplenty. Abortion has existed in our civilization same, as contraceptives has come and gone in many forms with varying efficiency yet bastards and single mothers have always been a thing.
Sean Harper
RinoZ! If master wilhelm does t get brought back we will riot like the gold ranks.
Greyg
Laziness, bureaucracy/paperwork, unknown purpose, maybe the nobles or duke have dark classes/subclasses for fun this was hinted at early in the novel and never expanded upon. Lots of choices have been just to move plot along not making perfect logical sense abyss fast travel was a bit funny at first not giving us those conversations with the big abyss entity just convenient deals handed to him or the sand people giving him golem parchment, but i digress. Perhaps they’re trophies in a sense its vague technically how would the mage following him know those are gold slayer bones as mc has skills for bones she doesn’t its not descriptive enough imo.
Ignacio Fuentes Álvarez
I think the nobility selects from this children to train as soldiers and knights loyals to them, what is essentially orphans from highly leveled combat parents is prime material to make guards with high potential
Bi-Dailey
There's still the question of why the bones were just left there. Maybe with them being gold rankers the death magic they'd give off would see them rise as feral undead pretty quick so a regular grave might have been out of the question, but why not just cremate them?
CentaureHeart
Yeah that's what I was wondering. I'm not sure on that. He called the lich Grand Magister. So, the only liches we've seen so far, we know they got their soul (they trapped them with the stones). But maybe?
Khanalas
Sad Skynut plays
Tesset
Where did Worthy go? I thought he would stick close to Tyron. Also I got the part that implied what they did with the subdued golds but didn’t get what the brothels been close the Gold District was? So that even the “healthy” golds would reproduce more often?
Ignacio Fuentes Álvarez
it's highly likely that you're right, Tyron is long past the point of doubting if rising master Willhem would be rigth, the question is if he will make him a demi-lich for combat or the first of many for the utility/support corps for his army
1FantasyFanatic
TFTC!
Dan K
Could be good to make liches out of. Don’t need souls for those I don’t think.
Tesset
Don’t worry he will get turned into an undead 😄
Koala Man
Omg , gold lvl slayer bones what a treasure haul and heaps of practice before he has a go at his folks bones :)
braeden winstead
I really hope he revived his master as some sort of undead, he could use someone to help his ever increasing need of equipment!
Touch
Edit “You’re” undead would be a useful weapon against the nobles? Your?
Ignacio Fuentes Álvarez
it's so sad to read how deep the revenge flows in Tyron, he didn't act to help his master, i'm rereading the novel and during book 3 he seems genuinely thankfull and caring to master Whillhem, is so sad watching Tyron do this
Brandon14754
Normally he's on a deadline or busy and people try to interupt him while he's working, here it's basically a formality and they have excess time
Lucas Gulick
This won't be the last of we see of the good master. Perks of being a necro
Greyg
High quality slayers are breeding stock then killed for experience in benefit of nobility theres a heritable quality too the classes take for example farmers they produce more farmers georg being so happy not to be a farmer or the MCs parents among many slayers their children have a high chance of high quality/ unique classes besides for noble class bestowed by the divines among select nobility they want their children to be above the rabble of society. Eugenics essentially
Tony Bosworth
They were forcibly used as breeding stock.
Greyg
Tell the living golds after this battle fostering even more hatred towards the emperor she’ll spread the story even among the common people MC needs living people to raise up and fight against an empire same reason he talked to the bard another restricted class lighting the ember of rebellion into an inferno by any means necessary. A Necromancer will struggle until death against an empire united, but people with a rebellious cause and deep hatred can undermine even the strongest empire death by a thousand cuts weakened for the undead. All in pursuit of revenge millions will die, but they will die free
BlackFlame Lord
I don't get it, what was implied that the nobles did to the subdued slayers?
Greyg
Walking right past master Windhelm kinda sad/cold he didn’t even try to speak to him before his last breath that conversation needs to happen. MC too focused on the bones 🦴 💀 i’m guessing the next step is opening the ossuary and start crafting golden wights the duke will hold out till then. Worthy missing would’ve expected him to stay close to his nephew
Runaway_Cactuar
Still not sure why Feolin was invited to the motherlode. Sure, it's poetic to see the skeletons in the Duke's closet literally rise up in rebellion, but what is she supposed to be a witness for?
stubs
that's a lot of prime material, and raising willhelm to serve could be a major asset
CentaureHeart
Would be better if the souls were still there, otherwise it's just a skeleton though. Thanks for the chapter!
Brandon14754
I wonder if the steelarm bloodline orriginates from one of these farms a few generations back?
sri kalyan mulukutla
Wow, oh wow It seems What goes around comes around as undead skeletons 😬
Darune Albane
Not if the gold is killed before the ability to level up
Brandon14754
But you're forgetting, that'd be around one every life time for like 2,000 years, that'd be like 200 platinums
Brandon14754
Awe how thoughtful of the dukes they spent generations building an ossuary of gold bones just for tyron
LurkerFrontCenter
Wow that last little implied bit about forced slayer breeding is dark, reminds me of Arcanum
Buck
Should have seen that coming but did not. Tyron will soon have the bones of a LOT of powerful Slayers to make troops with. I suspect that Master Wilhelm will become Tyron’s first full lich, making enchantments for eternity.
Darune Albane
Yes but i am assuming only 1 person has ever allowed to get to that level so is it really the same progression or is gold the end for how it works currently .. think new kind of energy
Grey Knight Lord
Platinum, we know that already. The rank of his parents.
braeden winstead
Tyrone is strangely chatting this chapter, normally he'd ignore other people so his revenge must have him in a great mood
Darune Albane
OMG .. the number if gold level undead he can create .. i wonder what is past gold?
Grey Knight Lord
Ah, Gold Ranked bones and maybe Ghosts. Ghosts doesn’t seem likely, but maybe.
