Zoe stepped through the portal with the others. It closed behind them after the mage followed. She looked around and saw the landscape of the hills and forests in the distance. Below them lay the gnome’s capital city. She turned to look at the gnome officials that had come to greet them.

“Hello senior officials, may I finally greet you formally and meet you. We have returned to assist you as requested,” said Zoe with a curt nod.

“You seem to be missing some people and the golem does not look as described. What happened? Speak up,” said the official in the front.

“We sadly don’t have all our fighters here and are missing two. One is on her way to get treatment as we speak while the other, her sister, is assisting her. I hope that they both may rejoin us in the future, but for now, they are heading towards my homeland. Whatever current trouble you may be facing does not need the two of them. If they are needed then I will pick up the slack or will have those who can do the tasks brought here as needed. As for the golem, it is perfectly serviceable and will be the killing machine you need.”

“It seems that you have replaced the old golem. I hope that this one is as hopeful as the last one. I will let the king grumble about this himself. You have much to catch up on. I will have these people show you to your residence and then we will have our meeting in an hour.”

The group was led away by one of the stewards towards their residence. They were brought to the large mansion that Ethan had stayed in weeks prior. They looked out over the edge of the stone surface before entering. No one was inside to greet them, and they were the only current residents. Lucas and Andre brought their luggage inside and up the stairs to separate rooms. Zoe had Edward her golem carry her stuff in and bring it to one of the rooms on the first floor. Once the golem was finished with its task it froze up and stood silently in a corner of the open living room.

The three of them relaxed for the next hour happy to be free of traveling for now at least, but at the same time worried about what had happened. The undead had started pushing into the territory of the outposts. How many of them had to be evacuated? How many citizens left their homes? How many outposts were already destroyed?

The same steward as before knocked on their door and escorted the three of them and the golem towards the palace. They all had taken the time to change up their attire and come prepared for this upcoming meeting. Zoe held a stoic face as she passed through the palace gates. Lucas wore his emotion more so on his face. His worry of the news to come clear.

They walked up the steps and followed their guide through the halls. They passed many other stewards on their way, busy with their tasks. They came to a door and the steward knocked three times.

“Come in,” said a loud voice through the door.

The steward opened the door quickly and ushed the group of four in. They followed quickly. The steward closed the door behind them while stepping out. There was silence except for the creak of the closing door.

“Welcome. Come and sit with us. I am sure you have quite a tale to tell. Why don’t you start Sir Lucas, our kingdom’s very own dragon slayer,” said the gnome king.

A few officials sat around an oval table with the king sitting furthest from them. They hurried to find three seats. The golem moved itself to the side out of the way of the door. Once Lucas was seated with the other he began speaking.

“Well, I can say that the journey there and back was almost as exciting as our time in the dwarf’s kingdom. There was a lot of nervousness and focus on preparation put while we travel by boat. The sailors were good, and we made our journey there quickly. The dwarven hospital was acceptable but they are lacking in great food options while having endless amounts of liquor which tasted great. Once we arrived Miss Zoe was able to rejoin us and gift us with the help of the king some new weaponry and tools to assist us. They were all exquisitely made. We then set off for the next few days on a hunt for the dragon. Let me tell you now that it was one of the scariest beings I have ever encountered. It towered above us all. Even I was scared despite situating myself further away so I could get off shots from my bow. The dragon was fierce and took my shots in stride. With it injured the creature continued to take damage until it dealt with my friend Kendra who was injured. From there, the dragon dealt with me and Arthur and Ronny the dwarf that joined us. I was afraid we wouldn’t kill it, but Zoe stepped in and assisted us and helped kill it while Arthur healed what wounds he could.”

“Interesting. Where is this Arthur now and how did you kill the dragon with this golem when the other failed?” asked the king to Zoe.

“I am sorry that I have failed you in some of my actions. I thought that the first golem Arthur would have been capable of dealing with the dragon. I thought its power would be enough, but I had to bring in this second golem to finish the job. I now see where I failed and have found that this setup is optimal. This version two golem exchanges some of the intelligence and individuality for more power. Instead of a golem free to make independent action this one named Edward is controlled through me and takes action without pause.”

“And what happened to the first golem? Will it be a problem?”

“Not at all. Sadly, it was to be left with the dwarves, but it has broken. It is unrepairable and can no longer be restored to its pre dragon fight state. I suspect that the dwarfs are working on dealing with it as we speak. It will never leave the continental island that it is on because it doesn’t have the power needed to leave and never will.”

“As long as this new golem can do everything the old could and more than I will be happy, and it has already done so. By killing the dragon when its predecessor couldn’t then its potential has been shown. It will be deployed to the front lines soon. But first, before you hear about the war situation I would like to hear from you, Andre. You always have had a calm mind and intuitive sense from your years as a scholar. What do you make of the situation up until you arrived here?”

“It is ultimately a disappointment that our initial plan failed but we should be glad that this second one accomplished the goals set out,” said Andre, “It is yet to be seen how the removal of Arthur and introduction of Edward will affect things, but I am hoping for the best. I would hope that Edward can fulfill the role of Arthur and I hope that the twins will be safe. They were an important part of the greater plan, and they will be difficult to replace as time goes on. They are needed and few can fill the role that Aria holds. When we need them and how soon will depend on how your forces are doing and how we can remedy things in the short term with the arrival of Edward. The enemy forces have been preparing something to counter Arthur since we left on the boat. There is no doubt about it. The only question is whether Edward can effectively face that which wished to destroy it and how effective their forces will be against Edward.”

“Well said. Thank you for indulging me in your tales. Now this man to my right will explain our current situation and goals in the military more eloquently than I.”

The king waved to the general on his right and he stood up before going into his prepared speech.

“The attacks so far within the borders of our kingdom have been contained so far but things have escalated. So far five outposts have fallen. So far none of them have had civilians within them during the fall. We have always worked on relocating as many of the people and items there as quickly and efficiently as we can. Our main issue right now is and has always been the spirits and other incorporeal enemies. We just aren’t well equipped to deal with them, and we hoped that Aria could assist us, but Edward will have to do it all. Beyond the spirits, there has been an increased amount of revenant undead attacking. The necromancers have seemed to have found a rhythm of assaulting the shields with the spirits and occupying our ground forces with powerful mages whether they be revenants or something else.”

“Based on the troop growth we suspect the necromancers' abilities to create their undead forces will continue to grow for some time before leveling off to a constant rate until aren’t supplied with fresh bodies. Our current tactics have involved stalling and complete removal of outposts when necessary if it means that the undead is slowed and dealt significant blows. We have regularly been using the terrain to our advantage in slowing them and influencing the mana beasts in the area to assist us. We have no clear total for their troops beyond estimated amounts based on census information. They may have lost about ten thousand of various troop types in the past weeks, but hundreds of thousands may follow still. For our current losses, we are likely to be up to five thousand by the end of the week when the reports come in and the sixth outpost falls.”

“What are our next steps then? I assume you want us on the front lines. Which outpost do you need us at and we will be there,” said Zoe.

“There are two things we need you to do in the immediate. Our troops need a morale boost. Despite not losing too many per outposts this fight is disheartening. We have been pulling back from several outposts just because it is not beneficial to hold it. Not be we couldn’t. Your first mission will be to resecure the two most recent outposts lost and reclaim their land. I don’t care if you must burn the land to unlivable standards if required. The undead can’t be allowed to be so close to the capital now and we need to give them the pushback they so deserve. If we can push them back until the point they are back into human territory then we can begin winning this war truly. If we don’t push them until we can see the fallen cities then the necromancer’s undead factories will be able to continue to churn out enemies for us to face. If we can push them back fast enough we may also find out what other projects they are preparing and what trump cards they hold including how they intend to deal with the golem.”

“The second thing we need you to do is somewhat connected to reclaiming the outposts. We are sorry to say that we have not had contact with your former teammate Ethan and his current crew for a few days. They were out of the outposts, and we don’t know where they have gone. We have no reason to believe he is dead currently, but his life may be in peril. Beyond that, we don’t know much else. He just disappeared with a few other humans and a half-dwarf a day before the outpost they were at was sacked. Less than half of the humans that were at the outpost survived. We need to know what happened. Start by reclaiming the outposts until you reach the one they were at and start investigating.”