Athena’s archers fitted explosive arrows to their bows and fired. A mile-wide line of arrows, then another, then another, shot out from the Henesian resistance towards the advancing Necrolytes. Some embedded themselves in Necrolyte bodies or heads, causing their victims to explode violently, damaging other nearby Necrolytes. Some merely struck the ground, exploding in a harmless cloud of dirt. But these volleys of arrow bombs halted the Necrolyte advance as surely as a brick wall against a plastic sword.

Again and again the archers fired their devastating projectiles. Within the next hour, a wall of Necrolyte parts could be seen on the horizon, yet still more Necrolytes scaled this wall and were struck down.

“I’VE HAD ENOUGH OF THESE EMPEROR-DAMNED NECROLYTES ON THIS EMPEROR-DAMNED ISLAND!” Athena screamed in frustration, as her forces were running low on arrow bombs. She dashed through the gate to contact the city fletchers, who could get a few thousand more bombs to the front lines in an instant.

Running through the now-deserted streets of the once boisterous town, she suddenly came to a stop, arms wildly flailing as she attempted to regain her balance.

Finding her center of gravity, she decided to investigate what had caused her to stop so suddenly. She dropped her tuna to the ground; her jaw nearly fell as far.

A few feet in front of her burned with emerald-green flames, emitting a massive cloud of dust. And beyond that cloud of dust, she could vaguely see a large, parallelogram-shaped object, with a glowing green crystal at the top.

A Necrolyte monolith.

She heard a deep, rumbling sound and instinctively brought her tuna up to deflect the blast. A beam of emerald light shot from the monolith’s crystal and struck the tuna, reducing it to no-longer-frozen ashes, which fell through her fingers.

As Athena fell to her knees, sobbing for her lost tuna, the next blast sent her into the nether realm.

The monolith emitted a cloud of swirling green gases, and disappeared.

Meanwhile at the northern gate of Henesys, three monoliths appeared behind the front lines.

“A NECROLYTE!” one of the less-intelligent warriors screamed. Unsheathing his Lion’s Fang, he ran two steps from his place at the back of the great hall, and took a mighty leap that brought him crashing down on this new adversary.

At least, it would have if the Necrolyte had not fired a bolt of ice from one of its hands, encasing the warrior in a temporary statis field. This display caused many of the other warriors to ready their weapons and charge. The Necrolyte seemed to have a resigned look on its metallic head. Hefting its staff, it prepared for the onslaught.

“STOP!” Orcus shouted suddenly, and all went still. “Who are you, Thur’Abis, and what do you want here? You know that only death will meet you. And you, warriors, are you not civilized men?” That seemed to strike a nerve, as all of the warriors who had attacked merely grumbled and returned to their places.
“I am one of the original leaders of my people. I require assistance that only you can offer.” Thur’Abis said in a deep, monotonous, and inevitably robotic voice.
“Assistance? Elaborate.”
“My people have been enslaved by a powerful demon. A Balrog, to be exact. The Balrog controls them and uses them for evil purposes. I escaped from my captivity, and I fully wish to destroy this demon. But I cannot do so by myself, for the Balrog can easily enslave me again.”
“And what guarantee do I have that you aren’t lying?”
“None.”
“Well, you’re honest, at least.”
“Perhaps I should explain. My people are the oldest race in existance. Before your race learned to walk, mine had a thriving civilization and technology dwarfing what yours has today. We were on the brink of unlocking the key to flight.”

“Then we were struck down by a strange plague. This plague struck us down at an amazing rate. Within a few weeks, our civilization of millions was reduced to a mere hundred thousand.”

“I and the other leaders were quick to discover a solution. We combined the surviving members of with suits of regenerating metal. This preserved our lives, but we did not foresee the side-effects.”

“Now we could be controlled by any who could speak our language. Knowing this, we erected a great tomb in the center of the continent, and retreated inside to sleep, until the time was right for us to awaken.”

“Our tomb was not defenseless. We constructed it deep, deep underground, deeper than the lava caves in Ossyria. We filled the stairway to the catacombs with powerful creatures that we had created, and shut the door at the surface to prevent anyone wandering in.”

“A few millenia after we began our slumber, the Balrog found our tomb. He entered using teleportation magic, and quickly enslaved us. Then he waited for some fool to open the door, and thus, your empire is now in a state of war.” Thur’Abis finished, just as one of the warriors began snoring.

“Lord Orcus, I request an elite group of adventurers to accompany me to banish the Balrog. When the Balrog dies, my people will cease to attack you. Will you consider my request?”

Eh. Criticism? Random comments? Flames? Please? ._.

Links to previous chapters
Prologue, Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3,