Inside the Citadel walls.

Duchy soldiers formed ranks in preparation for the oncoming undead, however, with only a few Sargent's left to command it was left to the squad captains to give orders, they managed to get the soldiers into ranks like they were trained, but they didn’t have the foresight to move their armies forward and block the breach.

The undead shambled through the breach unobstructed and started trying to run once they saw the living. They couldn’t go fast, those that did fell over and were crushed by the hoard behind them. Instead they moved at an awkward pace between running and jogging.

In one area just before impact the soldiers leveled their spears towards the undead and braced their shields for impact. Muffled groans sounded as the undead willingly impaled themselves on the spears.

Some of these undead still had intact armor on and pushed past the spears, the few remaining skeletons ignored the spears entirely and just walked through the spike wall, but once the undead got to the shields the soldiers switched their spear grips closer to the spear point and stabbed away at the fearless undead.

Those that were risen recently still had flesh and the spears made short work of their barely functioning brains. The skeletons fared better because a spear could only end them if it destroyed the skull which usually took a few thrusts, but they were unarmed and found little success reaching past the shields for their prey.

Meanwhile another duchy held their battle line against the undead.

They were the climbers and didn’t carry shields or spears, they were forced to attack with their daggers and climbing tools, while a few more experienced climbers had short swords they looted during other wars.

An undead would come into range and one or two soldiers would dash forward and use their superior agility to get close and stab it to death.

However, this only worked well at the start of the battle, as the undead continued increasing the space they had to maneuver decreased. before a man could fake out an attack from an undead and circle round to its undefended side to attack, now they either ran into an ally or another undead.

Once a soldier misstepped and got grabbed it was over for him, undead didn’t let go of something unless they were destroyed and those precious seconds were enough for a pick wielding undead to get a solid hit.

Meanwhile the religious faction was having the easiest time. Each of their front-line soldiers had blessing of light which coated their weapons in light magic, while this was normally a useless enchantment during the day it doubled their weapons effectiveness against undead.

Every swung of their swords cut cleanly through the normal undead and simply disintegrated the skeletons skulls on impact. The only problem was that every so often their hidden mages would suddenly die along with the sound of thunder. Soon there wouldn’t be enough people cast the enchantments and they would have to fight like the other duchies.

Overall the undead weren’t doing much, some of the soldiers were already picking up the fallen’s equipment, they scavenged whatever would be useful in fighting the duchies men. The climbers ditched their climbing spikes and picked up swords, spears and shields.

BOOM, an explosion suddenly went off near the religious front-line catching everyone attention, “the fuk happened” someone said before, BOOM! OOM! BOOM!. Several more explosions shook the citadel ground.

The religious front-line was broken, in its place were half a dozen smoking craters lined with red and surrounded by body parts, mutilated corpses and they dying.

But this didn’t stop the undead, they continued forward as if nothing happened and only stopped to end some pitiful soul that managed to barely survive. The shook soldiers regrouped and prepared to fight, however, most of them would have to wait to get a light enchantment.

They didn’t have to wait long before someone yelled, “GET BACK ITS CARRYING A--” BOOM!, another explosion tore through their front-line.

The other Duchies didn’t know what was happening over there they could only continue to fight. The diggers were already taking the most casualties when a soldier noticed something behind him, he saw a black flood coming over the wall behind his army. “GIANT ANTS ON OUR FLANK!!”

The noise was too loud for the whole army to hear, but that didn’t matter because the backline heard and turned around to look. What they saw was a wave of giant ants swarming towards them and strangely they only went after their army and not the other Duchies.

The back-line were the ones who had the most time to scavenge good gear, but there was only so many swords and spears in this part of the battlefield. So when the wave of ants smashed into the armies flank the damage was devastating.

Mana enhanced attacks with short blades worked well against humans, but not against swarms of armored ants. The ants jumped onto the lightly armored climbers and pinned them down as they tore them apart.

Almost an hour past by and the remaining undead and ants were dead. The climbers were almost completely wiped out and the religious faction didn’t fare much better, they only had a third of their army remaining.

The Duchies finally had time to rest. Several groups wanted to chase the Swadian army down but didn’t move without orders.

Cautiously the ranked men converged together while crouching low, there was only 3 Sargents remaining which was pitiful for commanding an army of such size. They would only be able to give the most basic commands, and that too hinged on the cooperation of the survivors.

Another 30 minutes passed as they quietly argued amongst themselves about the best course of action, they could take the keep and hole up there until backup arrived.

However, the problem was that the keep wasn’t designed for an army their size to stay in for long periods, so they either had to choose to leave some people out, possibly starve, or use small raids into the city for supplies.

Atop a tower.

Lucifer sat comfortably in his chair as he observed, “it seems they chose to take the keep”

“it will be down in an hour at most, then they will fortify their position and it will be impossible to get them out. I should have ordered my men to attack the breach after the undead instead of retreating to the second wall”

Lucifer ignored Arthus’ glare and said, “give me some of your blood”

“what” he questioned.

“I need to get past those doors which requires your blood” Lucifer explained.

“are you going to use mana gems again, just how many of those do you have”

“Several hundred a week, 200 300, I stopped counting” Lucifer lied, saying roughly half the real amount.

“s-several hundred a week…”

suddenly Arthus heard footsteps from the stairwell and stood up, “relax, their mine” said Lucifer.

Arthus grabbed a wooden beam and agilely swung from the roof into the top floor. Lucifer just stood up, lifted his chair above his head and stomped through the roof.

Arthus looked at Lucifer strangely, but Lucifer just shrugged his shoulders and said, “I switch bodies so often I can never get such fine control over my body”

Arthus’ eyebrows rose at the unexpected information, but he turned his head toward the opening door, a large woman with almost more muscle than him stepped through the threshold with a smile on her face and greeted Lucifer, “Lucifer, did I do a good job”

“better than I could have expected” Lucifer replied causing the muscled woman to smile brightly sending shivers down Arthus’ spine.

A few breaths later her followers made it up the stairs and the first man said between gasps of air, “Ell- Ellor-- sir you forgot yo-- your weapon”. He handed her a long black stick with what Arthus could tell was a telescope on top.

‘were these the weapons Lucifer was using’ Arthus thought as his gaze sharpened, he then noticed the rest of the group were each wearing different duchy uniforms under their gray cloaks. His first instinct was to simply order the woman to hand over the weapon so he could inspect it, however, he held back knowing that it wasn’t his place to order Lucifer's men, especially when he was right in-front of him.

Lucifer glared at Ellora, he thought that she was smart enough to not bring their secret weapons infront of anyone, he even installed a destruction switch on the rifles, if you are going to be captured or break the weapon, you can simply crack the crystal button on the side of the stock and it would explode after a delay.

Ellora suddenly paled when she realized what she had done, she was a warrior first and the only reason she was used as a spy was because it wouldn’t look odd if she claimed to be an adventurer going to a dungeon city.

Lucifer thought for a moment before saying, “considering your results I can ignore your mistake, so what do you want for a reward”

Ellora breathed a sigh of relief before she looked back up and saw Lucifer's meaningful look, her mind ran at a million miles a second and she cleared her throat and thanked Lucifer profusely to gain some extra time, ‘what does he want me to say’ she thought, she saw Arthus standing to the side staring intently at their weapons and she had a spark of inspiration.

She bowed slightly and humbly asked, “Lucifer, I would like for you to repair my body so I can be strong”, the corner of Lucifer's lips lifted, ‘the word “repair” was a wise one considering she knows I would remake her body’ thought Lucifer as he looked to the side and saw Arthus’ shocked expression.

“granted, go back to the dungeon and wait for my return” Lucifer replied. Ellora smiled even brighter than before and practically skipped out the door, her men look between the door and Lucifer and he understood their hesitation.

“normally I would leave rewarding you to her, however, considering your achievements I can make an exception, what do you desire” said Lucifer.

One of the men stepped forward kneeled down and asked, “Lord Lucifer, I cannot begin to thank you for what you have done for me, I can only offer myself as one of your many knights if you will have me”

Several others quickly kneeled down and said something similar only leaving a few standing. Lucifer replied, “although I didn’t plan to call my first willing servants knights I think its quite fitting. Return back to my dungeon, after my victory I will make you Dungeon knights, you are no longer under Ellora’s command but mine and mine alone, if you do well you will be rewarded well, if not… remember this, once you become my dungeon knight I will demand absolute obedience, so think about this choice on your way back”

The kneeling men stood up and started to leave, the few remaining men hesitated, the others asked to be servants for a reward what could they ask for and not sound greedy.

Several awkward moments past by until one man stepped forward and quietly asked, “I want to be free”

Lucifer looked at the men and saw their eyes subtly shifting around, it seems they wanted this too but were going to wait for Lucifer to grant or deny this man first. Lucifer almost sighed, apparently his people didn’t trust him enough to say what was on their minds yet.

“is that what you wish for too,” he asked and saw the men jump a tiny bit

“y-yes” another man finally replied.

Lucifer waited until they all confirmed it before asking, “and what will you do once your ‘free”

…

“I want to move back to my village”

…

He continued staring at them one at a time until they answered.

“I want to become an adventurer again”

“A – merchant”

“fisherman” the last min simply replied.

“Hmm” Lucifer pondered, Arthus could almost feel the tension in the men's bodies from several meters away. Lucifer made up his mind and said, “simply being set free doesn’t fit those accomplishments, becoming proficient in those weapons in such a short time and putting your lives on the line for me deserves more.

So the fisherman, I will grant you access to the dungeons waters, as long as you don’t attack anything or pick any plants nothing will attack you in the dungeon.

The merchant, I don’t have anyone to sell my dungeon items right now, you can run the shop I open in the future or I can sell my items at a discount to you in the future.

The adventurer, I won’t open my dungeon to you to raid as you please, however, I will mark you so that some of the more “unfair” things wont kill you in my dungeon, this will mean the only way you will die there is stupidity or lack of skill. I will also alter your body slightly so its more powerful in whatever attribute you chose.

Hmmm, the villager, what would benefit your life”

The man that said he wanted to become a villager struggled to come up with something useful, money is almost useless in a remote village, dungeon access also wasn’t useful either, nor is running a shop or selling dungeon goods.

He opened his mouth after several minutes of thinking, “Lord Lucifer, I can only ask for a strong body like the adventurer, with that I can work the fields easier and protect the village if its attacked”

“so be it” said Lucifer, “go back to the dungeon and await my return”

They filed out the tower and Lucifer stretched out then sat back down on his chair, “seems they already have the keep”

Arthus didn’t care about that and started a conversation, “you seem to reward your followers well”

Lucifer gave him a glance then continued observing the duchies enter the citadel keep. Arthus kept talking about ruling and how he understood Lucifer's intent in heavily rewarding the first few loyal men, it was something he had done at the start of his career too.

Lucifer just ignored him and waited for him to get to the point and it didn’t take long before “healing” came up, specifically Arthus asked, “the muscle woman said you could repair her body… does that mean...” and trailed off.

Lucifer sighed and simply replied, “if you become more powerful It would put me in an disadvantaged position, you can understand that”

“BUT.. but we are allies” Arthus argued.

Lucifer leaned forward in interest, “you seem rather desperate to heal an old injury, your a king you don’t have to personally fight anymore”

Arthus began, “the Duchi--”

“The Duchies aren’t going to be a problem much longer, just look forward and you can see, their army is only half a size bigger than ours”

Arthus argued, “’we’ haven't won yet, and that’s still a big number advantage, every second soldier would have to beat two enemies for us to decisively win.

“fine, if you want me to heal you then I will. After I bind your soul”

…

Arthus glared at Lucifer, but remained silent. Lucifer chuckled and added, “your more desperate than I thought if you are actually thinking about it”

“isn’t there any other way, something you want” Arthus asked.

“I’m a dungeon, anything I want I can create myself, everything else I can buy myself” Lucifer replied.

“and if you suddenly found it hard to buy those things”

“then I would go without them because as I said I’m a dungeon” Lucifer countered with a glare.

… … …

Lucifer stood up and said, “enough talk about this, give me your blood so we can ambush the enemies from behind”

Arthus jumped out the tower, “I’ll go myself”

In the secret underground tunnel system.

Arthus ran through each section and pressed a bloody thumb on a rune opening up the doors one by one. Behind him a flood of giant ants followed him closely with mana gems in their pincers. There was enough of them that it even made Arthus nervous.

Creak thum thump, the final door opened and Arthus stood there as the ants swarmed past him into the keep.

Several men were looking inside boxes in the room when the door that they couldn’t open suddenly flung open and spilled giant ants out, the men drew their weapons, but were quickly overwhelmed by the ants not carrying anything.

The room quickly flooded with ants and they tore apart the door and pushed into the other rooms. Those inside started hearing the commotion and groups of soldiers moved forward to investigate.

The commotion only got louder and the idea that it was some residual resistance from the keep vanished. The few remaining people of rank ordered people to swarm that section of the keep until they could figure out what was happening and re-adjust their plans.

BOOM- BOOM, explosions sounded out and multiple walls crumbled. Ants with the gems flooded through the holes and crawled across the roof of the keep.

Soldiers with bows managed to shoot down a few, but that was mostly because the ants were so packed together rather than any skill.

“THEY ARE HOLDING MANA GEMS WATCH WHERE YOUR SHOOTING!”

A noticeable sense of panic filled the air as the exits suddenly became quashed full of soldiers trying to leave the keep. Several people yelled for order as the crowd surged and crushed forward, anyone who fell down were unable to get up and their armor didn’t do much to stop them from being stomped to death.

Suddenly the ants on the high roof started dropping. Crack, BOOOOOM, a larger chain reaction went off as several hundred mana crystals let loose their violent energies in an instant.

Underground.

Arthus felt the tunnel floor violently shake, “Fucking fuck, wait for me to get out first would you” he directed towards the walls which he hoped wouldn’t cave in. “I don’t want to be moneyed to death you crazy bastard”

Meanwhile in the tower Lucifer casually replied even though no one could hear him, “then move faster you dope, do you think the mana gems were a gift for the enemy”

The entire keep started to rumble and collapsed taking a large part of the army with it,

Over the next three days the scattered survivors tried to escape the city while Arthus’ disciplined army and Lucifer's ants went to slaughter. Right after the keep collapse they remaining survivors made a last ditch effort to break through the breach, but they only made it to the third wall before Swadian crossbowman routed them.

At that point it wasn’t a fight anymore, anytime the Duchy soldiers got near wall stairwells to fight, the Swadian soldiers would go down the other side of the wall using the very same siege equipment the duchy soldiers used to get into the walls. The Duchy soldiers never made it past the third wall.

Eventually the Duchy soldiers split up into small groups and scattered, however, the giant ants easily ran down such small groups.