Chapter 262 - C262.Countermeasures

In the vast stillness of the enchanting eastern region of the Darknar forest, the ground beneath the vines and snow vibrated as a large number of powerful undead creatures accompanied by half humanoid half serpentine beings came marching through an open path of the forest without facing any resistance along the way.

This was because the path ahead had already been cleared of any obstacles by an undead regiment consisting of around 3,500 undead of varying types. Who had marched ahead of the special unit along with nine other regiments that took different paths towards the same location? 

As the night went on, the various regiments had made considerable progress through the eastern parts of darknar forest and more and more of them began to exit the forest at the same time.

However, it didn't matter when they exited or from which direction or location, as long as they left the protection of the forest, they were instantly ambushed by different teams of demihumans led by incredibly strong individuals. 

So far, none of the units that had been ambushed had survived to tell the tale and it was being to be a cause for concern. 

'Who are they?'

Zerahut thought as he say leisure on his throne made entirely out of bones and was being carried slowly across the forest by Black Knights of hos creation and protected by Doom Knights.

Naturally seated on a large wooden throne next to him were the Queen of the south, Daenerys, and her entourage of Lamias and Minotaurs that carried her throne across the forest as well. 

Although Zerahut's special unit was stationed at the back of the army, they were currently only a few hours away from exiting the forest themselves. Meaning, quite a number of his Undead Units had reached the exit and should be regrouping while awaiting his arrival. 

Yet, that was not the case as he could sense his army being destroyed one after the other and was beginning to get annoyed.

At first, he hadn't cared about one or two units being ambushed as the battle and death would generate more negative energy for the orb of death while the corpses from the battle would only serve to become his strength. 

However, that was not the case as there hadn't been a single casualty from any of the ambushers' forces. From what he had gotten from his connection with Raziril before he was destroyed, the enemy possessed powerful beings that had surpassed mortal limits, in essence, demigods. 

Zerahut was a bit concerned by this as he had never heard of such powerhouses residing in the darknar region before this.

These were demigods they were talking about. They were not being that grew on trees and thus were incredibly rare and highly sort after. 

The fact that his forces had encountered two of such beings that were not summoned or created with Magic was concerning and the only conclusion he could come to was the Seven Primordial Behemoths.

As one who had once been the demon noble, Adelt Wilderbelt, he was well aware of the seven primordials which was why he had agreed to work with Mammon, a relatively new primordial behemoth. 

However, it would seem that decision had its flaws as he could no longer take the world by surprise as the primordials must've been keeping an eye on Mammon and had learned of their plans and were now standing against them. 

The chances that the Great Five were now aware of him was incredibly high but they should still be underestimating him so he should have some Leeway to fix this.

'How troublesome.'

Thinking that Zerahut took out the orb of death from within his robe as he raised it, the air surrounding the orb shifted and got heavier as it emoted a faint evil glow of death aura that even gave the undead chills. 

He then took out a pure black and tattered scroll from his robe and activated it. The scroll burnet in a purple haze that was absorbed by the orb of death until its glow shimmer brighter in the moonless night. 

"Conjure Celestial - Grim Reaper!"

The moment the words left his mouth, the orb's glow disappeared as the night got even darker as even the undead who could see clearly in the dark had lost their vision for a moment, bringing his entire unit to a halt. 

This only lasted a moment as their sight was restored and before them, was a massive illusionary figure of death itself. It was the personification of death in the form of a cloaked skeleton wielding a large blood-red scythe that glimmered even in the moonless night. 

"Grim Reaper, locate and destroy every living demigod up ahead!" 

At his command, the massive illusionary figure of the reaper disappeared as the looming presence of death moved rapidly away from them. 

He had only ordered the Grim reaper to attack living demigods for various reasons. He also had demigods in his army thanks to Mammon so he didn't want the Grim reaper to mistake his minions for targets.

This was because he had little to no control over the embodiment of death itself and could only give it one order. What he had done was conjure a physical manifestation of the conceptual being known as death. 

Basically, he had conjured a portion of the powers of a true god. Such a being was capable of easily dispatching a few measly demigods no matter how or where they chose to hide.

He had hoped on saving this ability as a trump card against Mammon if he chose to betray him but he couldn't let his army fall before he ascended and becomes an ArchLich himself. 

"Is something the matter?" 

"What on Neron could you mean?"

At Daenerys question, Zerahut presented not to understand what she was talking about as he answered her with a question of his own which brought a slight frown on her beautiful features. 

*Hiss... "Are you by chance trying to hide something? Why did you just summon such a terrifying being all of a sudden."

Although her expression had returned to normal, her eyes told a different story that made Zerahut concede a little as he tried to dismiss her worries. 

"Oh meant that. No need to worry about it. Just needed to deal with some pest attempting to stand in my way."

"Pest? Did someone by a chance attack?"

His attempt to dismiss the topic casually had instead garnered her curiosity as a mischievous smile crept across her face. It seems he had been played by her which immediately began to irritate him. 

"Do drop the act, Queen Daenerys. I'm aware you have spies monitoring every regiment, and while I cannot intercept your communications network, I can still sense it. So do not insult my intelligence." 

At his confident declaration, the smile on her supple lips grew slightly as spoke in a playful tone that left many rooms for interpretations.

*Hiss... "is that right. You've become more impressive than you look, boy. Still, you're still too short-sighted to grasp the bigger picture even after all these years. If you're not careful, even the ground you walk on may swallow you."

"You Dare! What do you mean by that!" 

Angered by her suggestive sentence, Zerahut snapped at her but that only serve to amuse her more which irritated him to his very core. 

"There's no point in just telling you. It would do you no good at this point."

Zerahut glared at Daenerys for a while but ultimately chose to remain quiet as he could not kill her just yet. There were many reasons why he needed her alive and not as an undead. 

He had already reached the maximum number of intelligent undead he could create as that took a massive amount of negative energy and summoning the grim reaper and using his trump card also required a ridiculous amount of negative energy so he couldn't afford to waste it. 

His alliance with her was keeping the King of the North at bay for now but as soon as he had achieved his goal, he would no longer have a need for her as he intended to turn the world undead anyway. 

••••••••••

••••••••••

As the Darknar region was no longer a region governed by any recognized law as it was currently a deserted region. The concept of war ethics would be disregarded in the clash of any two powers at odds here.

With that in mind, there would be no laws to govern the rights or wrongs in a war, and, anything goes. It was also safe to say the war had officially begun the moment one of the ten regiments of the undead army was destroyed. 

In the next hour, three other units had also been completely destroyed by the much smaller force of demons and Demi-humans without them suffering a single casualty. 

The first unit to be destroyed was Unit 8, led by the Doom Lord, Oval who had been summoned for the specific purpose of leading his regiment in battle. His unit fell at the hands of the ArchLich Emrys. 

Next was Unit 1, led by the Boneclaw, Raziril, and destroyed by the demoness noble Liz and the Dark elf Rain. Soon after that, the ArchLich Emrys appeared before another regiment designated as Unit 7 and completely annihilated them in an instant. 

Thirty minutes after that, the Demon noble Z and the undead rogue Nessi, appeared before Feverant, the General of the second unit and with the help of a little over 300 hobgoblins and Kobolds, they attain the fourth flawless victory of the night. 

As the undead army traveled through different routes of varying lengths, complexity, and difficulty, it took the rest of the army a considerable while to exit the forest, and the next regiment to come out through the Greyad plains, was Unit 6. 

Led by a Wight named Lo, the army of 3,000 plus undead marched out of the woods and were met by an army of around 400 hobgoblins alongside about 30 red ogres and beastmen. Standing ahead of them was exactly 20 Undead Black Knights and Liches created personally by Tyler. 

There were more than 180 undead night terrors and 40 plus low-level undead that had been left behind as they were not suitable for combat against other undead and thus, remained in the underground labyrinth.

Leading this odd group was Jarret who was currently clad in Adamantine inlaid leather armor and wielding a Duranium coated long sword. Assisting him were Nadine and Kela who was also clad in high-quality equipment and weapons. 

As he had no experience in managing such a large group himself, he had assigned Hart and Talen to command the undead Black Knights and Hobgoblins warriors as their Vanguards and heavy infantry with Lora commanding the mages, a unit that included the undead Liches and hobgoblins Magic casters. 

Gail took command of the rangers with Jin and Raz aiding her while Jarret commanded the rest of the forces with Nadine being their wild card that was free to roam across the battlefield as she deemed fit. It wasn't that Jarret didn't think she could work in a team but rather the opposite.

Roaming freely across the battle didn't mean she could just attack wildly not minding her allies but rather, she had to observe the flow of the battle and choose when to interfere and who to aid. 

According to the scouting report from one of their master's shadow rogues, the unit they were about to face had no demigods hidden within them which is why they were chosen for this. 

Lo, the 5th Tier Wight was an undead creature given a semblance of life after experiencing a life of violence and hatred. It could drain the life energy out of his victims by touch, turning them into new wights upon death.

As Wights generally appeared as weird and twisted reflections of the forms they had in life, Lo was a male dark elf who was clad in decaying light metal armor and wielded a curved blade. His mummified flesh covered his twisted skeleton, his teeth were sharp and jagged like needles and his eyes glowed like white-hot embers. 

"Attack!"

The moment Lo's unit left the forest, Jarret promptly commanded his forces to attack and Hart and Talen complied as they roared, activating various skills as they led the Black knights and Hobgoblins straight ahead until they clashed with the undead army with staggering intensity.