This one's a little longer than usual. A lot of location changes here, and a little more colourful than usual, I apologise for that. hope you enjoy.

“This is useless. It not that they disappear in sunlight… it’s that the spell connecting them to this realm stops working in the day. This means I can only study them at night when I can capture new specimens again.” Kiefer lamented, observing the 3 empty cages. Despite the cages being completely sealed and dark, the undead samples he had acquired pre-dawn that day had disappeared nonetheless.

“Kii…” (Isana)

“Yes I know Sana. Sorry I got side tracked. I know we came here to gather more information on Drigor, but somehow I have a feeling that these undead are linked to Drigor.” (Kiefer)

“I think it would be easier to ask members of the Fiora Army for information than trying to figure things out by yourself. Every day that we waste trying to figure things out ourselves is a day that Drigor gets stronger.” Isana urged impatiently. She had been worried that they had been spending too much time going at this in a round-about way and was eager to clash with Drigor head on.

Kiefer however, had a different approach and wanted to know as much about Drigor as possible before confronting the titan. He keeps reminding Isana that “Knowing is half the battle won”, but with it being a phrase from Earth, Isana didn’t know what to think of it.

“hmmm, maybe it’ll be faster if we went to see the titan Fiora directly. She’s spent millenniums longer fighting Drigor than the inhabitants of the province, and I doubt they have even seen Drigor himself.” (Kiefer)

“ !!! NO! I mean – umm... you know what, actually, lets study the undead for a little more. The fox tribe should be quite knowledgeable so why don’t we continue with your research? What do you say Kii? Drigor can wait, it’s not like he’s going anywhere right? Right Kii?” Isana yelled out unknowingly, seemingly startled by Kiefer’s suggestion.

Kiefer was just as surprised at Isana’s sudden change of mind. Suspecting something was up, he questioned her. “What’s wrong Sana? Is there something you don’t like about my plan?”

“N- no! O-of course not! It’s - it’s just I think that studying the undead might lead us to knowing more about Drigor.” Isana tried to reason her way out.

“Yes, but like you said, we shouldn’t waste too much time on something that might be a dead-end. So I think the wiser choice is still to go find Titan Fiora and maybe get her to help us. After all, having one more titan by our side fighting Drigor will be greatly beneficial to us.” (Kiefer)

“Nonononononono.. I still think the undead is the way to go. Besides, we don’t even know if Fiora will help us, maybe she’ll even attack you. We can be certain that the fox tribe will be more than willing in helping us study and get rid of the undead. So can we please just forget about Fiora just this time? Please?” Isana was adamant about studying the undead, but Kiefer still could not figure out why.

“Heeheeheee… master, it’s fun to see Sana sis so flustered.” Sher spoke to him telepathically, not letting Isana in on the conversation. “You know, actually Isana has some history with Fiora. All of us titans know that. It’s so funny. But I can’t tell you, or else Sana sis will freeze me and then feed me to her pet wyverns.”

Somewhat getting an unclear picture of the situation, Kiefer decided to respect Isana’s decision and chose not to pry any further into the topic. In the end, they decided to go with the plan of approaching the Fiora Army for assistance in studying the undead legion, hoping that it will shed some light on Drigor’s and Diante’s actions.

[[Fiora Eastern Border Defensive Perimeter]]

“Have ANY of you found out how the 2 humans who managed to get behind our front lines?!? If they came by sea, where is their vessel!!??!” Feni was yelling at the cat-men scout team.

“Sorry Commander Feni! My men claimed that the 2 humans flew in from the horizon over the ocean! They did not come by ship. As our scouts were instructed to lookout for possible diversions by sea, they were concentrating on the ocean looking for sails rather than the skies. As such, they only noticed the 2 humans when it was too late.” (Scout Leader)

“They claim!?! Did they confirm it or was it just their assumption!??! It’s impossible for any human to possess enough mana to get them to fly over such long distances! Get your man to double confirm their sources! Comb the cliff edges for anything that could be used as a means to get across the water! I don’t care if it’s a boat or a piece of driftwood! I want to know everything!” Feni bellowed, clearly still angry that the scouts had failed their jobs and almost cost the entire defensive army their lives.

“Yes Commander! Right away!” The catman replied, then melded into the darkness of the forest and disappeared to do his job.

Feni was still pacing around her tent. The base was concealed deep within the mountain forests, just a kilometer south from the barren land that the Chasm had cut across starting from the mountains and ending in the ocean cliffs. The battle field was littered with the broken bones of former comrade turned skeletal warriors. Rotting flesh and brain were plastered along the far side of the chasm.

The fox tribe, along with the help of the strong lamias, had constructed pillars anchored on their side of the chasm. These pillars had a pulley attached at the top, with chains running down one side and the other side attached to a wide wooden beam. These were the bridges Feni had instructed the army to build and place to make full use of the chasm. After retreating every night, lamias would pull on the chains to lift the draw bridges up, and then surround the anchored pillars to protect the bridges.

Over the years, the necromancers had begun changing their techniques, originally just tossing their undead over the chasm, but now, using the undead as projectiles to take down the bridges. The Lamias would have batting practice every night, sending the flying skeletons back across the chasm to protect the anchor pillars. They could not afford to even allow one bridge to be lowered due to the anchor pillar falling.

Still trying to find a way to counter the 2 mages that were still at large near their base camp, Feni swung her hammers in frustration, crushing the trunk of a large fir tree in one blow. A cat man leapt down from the falling tree, glanced at Feni and moved to another tree top to continue with his surveillance.

“Commander! I have news to report! One of my scouts found a tent hanging from the side of one of the overhanging cliff walls! It is about 60m up the mossy cliff side and we have no way of getting up to it to confirm the interiors! However, he reported that he had yet to see movement and that the 3 captured zombies are nowhere to be found!” (Scout leader)

“That was fast! It’s only been 5 minutes since I gave the order. These cat people work fast.” Feni thought to herself.

“I DON’T care about the undead! I want to know where the 2 mages are!! And if you can’t get up to the tent, shoot it down! I want to know what they brought with them! And keep looking for their boat!” (Feni)

[[Somewhere high in the sky above Fiora]]

“Hmm, its looks like Buffon gave me a map that is incomplete.” Kiefer muttered, just loud enough for Sana and Sher to hear. He was currently standing just below the clouds, overlooking the landscape. They had taken a good 3 hours to climb up to that altitude in order to do some scouting.

It was just after midday, about 8 more hours before sun set. Kiefer could clearly see the mountains, the 2 cities of Fiora, and the cratered plateau surrounded by a moat. He observed the shadows of the clouds moving atop the thick canopy of the forest, some shadows so large they completely envelope the city.

“Buffon?” Isana asked. This was the first time she heard the name.

“It’s a dwarf that helped master a long time ago. He gave master the mithril for his armour!” Sher answered her enthusiastically, proudly showing that she knew more about Kiefer than Isana. She was alright at first when Isana approached Kiefer. But seeing Kiefer’s attitude towards Isana change and seeing the 2 of them becoming closer gave Sher an itching feeling in her chest, a feeling that she didn’t understand, but definitely hated.

Kiefer ignored the 2 quibbling titans and kept thinking to himself. “I could always go to the city and look for books on the undead, but I’m more attracted to the live versions of the undeads at the frontlines.” Kiefer pondered. “However, going there would mean I might come into conflict with the demi-humans since they hate humans so much.”

“For now, I guess I have until nightfall to make my decision. That’s when I can get my hands on them zombies. Even if I chose to go to the city, it will be safer to enter under the darkness of the night.” (Kiefer)

Dissolving his foothold, Kiefer began plummeting to the ground at freefall velocities. However, before going splat on the ground, Kiefer deployed a gravitational field above him that was stronger than that of Aioa, causing him to decelerate and finally come to a floating stop just centimeters above the ground.

Isana and Sher on the other hand, were not fans of the freefall part of his descent, so they chose to casually fly down, catching up with Kiefer moments later. Sher stuffed herself back inside Kiefer’s breastplate just before Kiefer and Isana started their sprint back to their camp.

Within a few minutes, they were staring at their tent sprawled on the rocks soaking up sea water as the waves lapped in and smashed against the cliff side. Their blankets, water canteens, and cooked fishes had been taken. The ropes they used to hang the tent from the underside of the overhanging cliff had been cut, with parts still dangling from the ceiling nailed in by the orihalcom nails Kiefer used.

Retrieving the orihalcom nails and returning them to his shields, Kiefer looked at Isana and smiled, saying, “looks like we have a rat problem. Why don’t we go find the source?” before heading towards the forest along the chasm, teleporting a few hundred meters each time.

Confused, Isana chased after him yelling over the howling wind in their ears, “They are cats you know? Not Rats. The rat-tribe are found on Grandu!”

[[Back at defensive perimeter]]

Feni was staring at the mess of things the catman had brought her. Some half eaten fish, 2 thick high quality blankets, a red metal water canteen and some pots of varying sizes. This was puzzling her. It was almost as if the mages did not have base of operations to attend to and were sent here with a minimum amount of support and resources. Mages are known to be physically weak and are normally accompanied by several knights. Without any news of ships along the shore, it almost seemed like the mages had been abandoned here.

Abruptly, another catman appeared bside the leader and without waiting to catch his breath, he started yammering,” Boss! The- the mage! We saw him in the woods! But he disappeared! We lost sight of him in an instant! We think he is invisi-“ Cutting off mid-word, the cat-man was now staring into the sky and backing away while sliding his bum on the forest ground backwards.

Standing above the small forest clearing were Kiefer and Isana. Feni only saw for a brief moment Isana pointing in her direction before a dreadful feeling overcome her. Quickly grabbing her hammers, she lit them up and faced the 2 hovering mages. Before she could do anything else, the red metal shot forth from the masked mage’s shield and had caged her like a wild animal.

Without hesitating, the soldier upon seeing their commander being kidnapped, started throwing their lances and shot their crossbows at Kiefer, only to watch as the projectiles bounce off.

“DON’T engage you fools!!!” Feni yelled at the top of her lungs. “RUN!! ALL OF YOU RUN NOW!!” she ordered as she began smashing her hammers against the bars of the red cage. While she could barely make a small dent on the bars while using her full strength, the bars would reform within seconds. Soon, with the sound of metals clashing ringing throughout the forest, Kiefer extended one of his mana whips and confiscated both her weapons.

Observing the weapons and the fleeing soldiers, Kiefer simply tossed the 2 large hammers aside, seeing that they had already started to crack under the abuse that the fox-woman had put them through.

Raising the red cage into the air, Kiefer dragged Feni high up into the air behind him, just as he did with the undead samples. The soldiers could only watch as the terrifying realization that their commander had been captured by the enemy set in. The cat scout leader immediately took charge, organizing the disarray and preparing for retreat back towards the city. He had already sent for a messenger to inform the royal family of Feni’s capture.

Feni was watching the view get higher as higher and soon, the air felt cold. With every step that the masked mage and his lady took, the higher up into the air they got. Feni had kept quiet, trying to compose herself and look for any chance of escape. She had been trained on what to do when captured, but never before was she prepared for a situation such as this. Within minutes, the red cage stopped rising and the 2 mages approached the cage, still high up in the air.

“Taking his mask off, Kiefer revealed his face to Feni and then spoke “Hi there. My name is Kiefer. And what might yours be?” Kiefer asked politely.

Feni however, kept her mouth shut. She knew the enemy was trying to get her to open up and trying to pry information out of her. She dreaded what kind of tortures the handsome black haired mage would use. Even worse, was her fear of the unknown, seeing as she absolutely knew nothing of the lady counterpart of her captors. Feni had not seen her use any skill, or speak anything, only that an icy aura seemed to surround her.

Instantly, the red cage disappeared and Feni dropped through the skies. But having dropped not even a metre, a silver rope caught one of her ankles and hung her upside down like some meat about to be butchered. Rising back up into the air, the young man repeated his question. “Now let’s try this again shall we? My name is Kiefer, what is yours?” as the scariest smile formed slowly on the man’s face.

“F-Feni.. Commander of the forward defensive perimeter” Feni replied while stammering, trying to suppress the blood rushing to her head as she hung upside down by her ankles.

Seeing her pale face turn a shade of deep red, Kiefer immediately set her down gently on a mana platform and released her ankle. After waiting for Feni to stand up, Kiefer immediately reduced the size of the mana platform so that it barely covered the feet.

“I’m sorry for all the commotion, but If I were you, I wouldn’t move an inch from where you were standing Feni.” (Kiefer)

Feni looked at her feet, and could barely see the translucent shimmering silver platform under her feet. Immediately coming to an understanding on her situation, Feni just nodded fervently. She was a dead woman anyway; the least she could do was to ensure this mage doesn’t harm her country.

“Now then let’s get on with business shall we? You want your life, and I want information. If you tell me what I want, maybe you’ll get to hold those 2 precious hammers of yours again.” (Kiefer)

Feni was trembling on the spot, afraid that if she trembled even just a little more, she would fall off. Keeping her body rigid and her 5 tails tucked between her legs, she looked like she was about to cry. Seeing this, Isana stepped in and interrupted.

“Don’t be afraid. We are not your enemies. In fact we have a personal grudge against Drigor and if you cooperate, we might just help you out.” Isana reassured her in a gentle soothing voice, green emerald eyes piercing her.

“Now, how long have you been fighting the undead army and what have you learnt from them?” (Kiefer)

Misunderstanding that they were also enemies of Diantes instead of the titan drigor, Feni let up. “I… I was assigned my post… 20 years ago… I’ve been fighting them ever since. I know that the spell the necromancers use has a maximum range of 4km, and is dispelled by day time. We… we only know that the bodies are resurrected through the spell and that… that they are weak against fire and blunt weapons. The bones crushed cannot reform into skeletal warriors and muscles stop working when cooked, so it stops the movements of zombies.” Feni paused, trying to catch her composure that seemed to be on the edge of falling off.

“There are more information back at base… but I think they’ve retreated back towards the 2nd defensive perimeter by now. Most of the information is classified and only I can get them for you.” Feni explained, hoping to give Kiefer a reason to spare her life. “There are even records from the interrogation of necromancers we’ve caught, but I have yet to read those files in details.”

Weighing out his options for a while, Kiefer kept Feni in a dreadful suspense, enjoying the scared stature of the fox. He was happiest when everything was within his control and manipulating people seemed to bring him the most calm. Seeing this and having come to understand Kiefer over the time they’ve spent, Isana moved next to Kiefer and smacked him on the back of his head. Kiefer snapped out of his thought process and looked at Isana quizzically.

“Don’t bully the girl Kii. You are always like that, controlling people. Let her down and maybe we can get what we want without going through all this nonsense of interrogation.” (Isana)

“Right right. Sorry ‘bout that.” Saying so, Kiefer wrapped his mana threads gently around Feni’s waist and shoulders, and then lowered himself and Feni to the ground as Isana followed behind. “Lead the way to your base will you?”

“There’s one thing I need to ask of you though.” Kiefer interrupted while following behind Feni to the 2nd defensive perimeter base. “Tonight and possibly a few more nights from now on, can I request that you do not fight the undead? I want to study them personally. It is crucial that none of them die. Of course I will make sure not a single one reaches your first base.”

Feni hesitated for a while, still having no proof that the 2 mages are her allies as they say they are. She did not want to risk not putting up a defence by trusting him and then have the entire Fiora burned down and turned into Diante’s undead army.

“I’m sorry I can’t let you do that. I will still put up a defensive formation behind the chasm tonight, but anything on the other side of the chasm, you can have. If any of the zombies makes it past the chasm though, I will have my forces kill it without a thought.” Feni replied, knowing it would be bad to reject Kiefer outright but at the same time refusing to forsake her country by trusting a human.

As they approached the 2nd base, reports were already streaming in that Feni was leading the 2 humans to base and the soldiers were already cheering. They had misunderstood and thought that Feni had managed to subdue 2 high ranking human mages and was bringing them back for interrogation.

Unofrtunately for them, as Feni got closer, the scouts confirmed that the mages following her were not chained or restrained in any form and the commander of the 2nd base immediately assembled the soldiers and stopped Feni at the gates.

“FENI you TRAITOR! How could you lead these 2 humans to our base!?! Men! Arrest her for treason!” (Lamia leader)

Upon receiving their orders, 6 lamias slithered forth with polearms in hand and surrounded Feni. However, almost instantly, the polearms were snatched out of their arms and pointed pack at them while being held by 6 silvery ropes extending from the masked mage’s hands.

“Let us through Arte.” Feni spoke calmly. “They are not our enemies. They have come to help us in our quest against Drigor. Their demands are that we let them take as many undead as they can as study materials.”

“And how can you trust them so easily Feni? How can I be sure you are not being manipulated by them right now?” Arte retaliated, still stunned by the 6 polearms that held his 6 men hostage. Lamias are by no means a weak race, and to be able to snatch the weapons out of their arms required tremendous strength.

“Well we don’t really have a choice do we? My life was forfeited the moment he caught me. Now that he’s offering to help me defeat the undead, I can’t really complain much can I?” (Feni)

“Even then, I cannot allow 2 human mages to just walk into my camp without some form of restraints on them. Men cuff them!” (Arte)

Just as 4 more Lamias came forth, Isana stepped forwards in front of Feni and interrupted. “You do not wish to do that. First, there is nothing in this world that can restraint me and my husband. Second, if you are worried about us being humans, and being your enemies, you can stop now.”

Saying that, Isana instantly transformed into her dragon form, causing the entire area to drop to near freezing temperatures. The Lamias, weak against the cold and terrified by the dragon that took her place froze where they stood (Figuratively), unable to comprehend the situation.

Finally coming to his senses, Arte let the trio into the base and they began to prepare for the night that was due in 3 hours.

[[Chasm after sunset]]

Staring out onto the barren land that has become a battlefield every night, Kiefer finally witnessed with his own 2 eyes what he has only seen on the screens on earth. Out of the ground, Skeletons and zombies crawled their way out, having been summoned underground. The ground cracked like eggshells that gave birth to innumerous undeads, with moans filling the night sky.

The horrible stench of rotting meat drifted across the land, into Kiefer and Isana’s nose. Arte and Feni, along with their army were prepared behind the chasm while Kiefer and isana stood floating above.

“It would seem that their movement is limited to walking and dragging. Even though there’s no obstruction and it’s a free road to the chasm, the undead legion is progressing slowly. Looks like it will be a while before they reach here.” (Kiefer)

Waiting for the undead to come closer, Kiefer wanted to make sure the Fiora army saw his might in hopes that they would cooperate with him with more ease in the future. He spotted several skeletons and zombies not in human forms within the mess of walking dead. Some were lamias and werewolves. There were even animals such as foxes and horses included in the mix.

“It would seem the spell isn’t restricted to intelligent species. But there’s way too many to choose from, I better weed out the weaker ones and only experiment on the stronger more durable ones.” (Kiefer)

Kiefer extended his mana as the undead approached the Chasm. The lamias and foxmen shifted nervously, clutching their weapons while Feni had already lit her twin hammers. Then, almost all the zombies and skeletons collapsed on the spot, being crushed by their own weight as Kiefer increased the intensity of his supergravity field that enveloped the entire undead legion.

Having just been shown the spectacle in front of them, Feni and Arte could only let their jaws drop in shock. They had never seen such magic before and nothing so powerful. They watched as Kiefer flew forward, picking up the stronger wolfman zombies and Lamia skeletons that were still able to stand in the supergravity field. And then, something huge caught Feni’s eye – a zombie giant. This was the first time zombie giants had been deployed in this area.

“If Kiefer hadn’t been here tonight, we might all have been dead thanks to the giant” Feni thought, as she watched Kiefer pick up the giant with ease.

I decided against posting my pictures up this time round because i was just so damn embarrassed by my own art. I am a researcher, not an artist. I can draw things I see from under the microscope no problem, but nothing from my imagination. As such, due to my immense embarrassment, they will only be uploaded tomorrow night as part of the bonus chapter this week.