The illusion outside the cave kept the majority of the undead at bay. This allowed Deathberry, Seona, and the remaining Survivors and dwarves a temporary reprieve. Everyone quickly set to work healing the injured and preparing for the next attack.

“So how are you going to expand the portal to allow the airships to get through?” Seona asked.

Deathberry indicated towards four metal devices that had been setup around the portal. “Kantala and I worked out some theories regarding these portals and did a bit of testing. It seems that the technology that allows these to work is based on the same principal as the Gears. In laymen’s terms it’s essentially a transference of spirit and matter,” he explained.

She furrowed her eyebrows. “I’m not sure I follow you. The Gears work because our transmitter is attuned to a specific device. But these portals just seem like regular magic to me.”

“Ah, but the portals are based on the same theory. The only difference is that the attunement is based on a proximity to the portal itself. When a person or avatar enters the field of transmittance, they become ‘attuned’ as you say and can then use the portal to transport themselves to the location the portal has been tuned into,” Deathberry said patiently.

Seona shrugged her shoulders. “Still sounds like magic to me but as long as you and Kant know what you’re doing, I’m down,” she replied. “Speaking of which I hope those two are alright.”

“Agreed. Although that also goes for the rest of our guild. I did get a message from Cheezus a few minutes ago that they were about to engage in a large-scale combat within the keep. Hopefully, we can arrive with the cavalry in time to help,” he responded.

The blond-haired woman nodded but said nothing further. They either would be able to get there in time or they wouldn’t. Worrying about anything else other than getting the portal to work wasn’t an optimal use of time. With that, Deathberry got back to work setting up the new mechanisms that he and Kantala had designed. The use of a sophisticated AI had helped in the design of the devices and the factory had been able to crank them out quite quickly. They looked very much like blue orbs you might see in a tarot card shop; however, they were suspended in a fine wire prism and mounted inside of a metal box with various electronics. Sufficiently advanced technology and all that.

Kantala had tested them within an AI simulation and everything had come back green. Of course, Deathberry knew that the difference between theory and actuality were often quite far apart. As such, when he activated the devices he was sure to stand clear of the portal room. A moment later the portal powered up and everything seemed to normalize. They would need a non-critical test subject to step through the portal. There was no way that Deathberry would have asked anyone living to volunteer for such a dangerous task and he had built a small purpose-built Gear to make the maiden journey of the newly modified device.

The massive green and blue portal now filled nearly the entire room which was approximately 100 feet tall by a hundred feet wide. He had measured that part carefully and conferred with Lyan ahead of time to see how large their airships were. Should everything work out the portal would be plenty large enough for even their largest ships. Through the colors of the portal he could make out the forest on the other side.

Seona had actually extended the portal room slightly to ensure there was enough space and was currently working with the earth elementals under her command to tunnel their way to the surface from the room. They hadn’t finished hollowing out the roof of the portal room yet, just in case something went disastrously wrong. In one of Kantala’s earlier calculations she estimated that the portal had a non-trivial chance of exploding outwards (or inwards) should they make a mistake.

Sweating now under the pressure, he commanded the Gear to step into the portal. It shimmered slightly as the tiny robot marched forward and then went translucent as it stepped to the other side. Deathberry let out a breath. Nothing had exploded – yet. He commanded the Gear to return and a similar process happened in reverse.

“Ok, test one complete,” Deathberry announced. Seona set her elementals to finishing their work. He still had a few more tests to do before he would allow any living creature or ship through the newly modified portal but at least the most dangerous part was over.

An hour later they were all standing on the Archeon, Lyan’s flagship as it hovered above the entrance to the cave. “You seem to have quite a propensity to developing new and unusual magics,” the elven leader said as he shook Deathberry’s hand. “Congratulations, a celebration is in order. However, it seems that it will have to wait until we clear out the invading army you have on your doorstep.” Lyan’s features didn’t betray a bit of the humor that was evident in his tone.

“Hopefully, you and your comrades will still be in good humor after you see the extent of what we’re up against,” Deathberry responded with a wry smile. “Fortunately, I did bring a few extra gadgets to make the job a bit easier.” He was referring to the large metal Gears and various parts that now took up about half of the Archeon’s hold. Dwarven engineers were doing the assembly of the massive gun. Occasionally, they would bring parts up from below and ask Deathberry a question about how it worked. Additionally, dwarven warriors stood with their eleven compatriots on each of the ships, ready for battle.

The few remaining Survivors were all aboard the Archeon and looked ready to fight. Some of them shifted their feet and weapons nervously. They were used to having Rygor and Kantala lead them but now both of their guildleaders were missing. Fortunately, after witnessing both the destructive and healing power that Linca wielded, they had taken to her in earnest. She was busy talking with one of the Survivors about the fight to come, no doubt providing encouragement.

Finally, Seona was busy reinforcing her earth elementals as best as she could with what she’d been able to bring onboard. While the ships were all in a docking formation with each other she wanted to distribute her forces as efficiently as possible and still have some extra earth left over for repairs. Once they got into the air more than a few hundred feet she would lose her touch with the earth below.

So far, none of the undead had managed to see past Deathberry’s illusion; however, he hadn’t taken any chances this time. While they had waited for Sylvan’s forces to arrive he had been busy assembling several Gears into more gundams. These were fully automated and would stay behind and defend the cave entrance.

Soon, the preparations were complete and the armada set forth. Drak’s forces spread out beneath them across the Australian desert. “The rail gun is ready,” one of the dwarves reported.

“Excellent, let’s test it out on that group of fat zombies,” Deathberry pointed to a group of the disgusting undead off the starboard side of the Archeon.

A minute later a crack resounded throughout the entire ship. Below and to the right a large cloud of dust mushroomed where Deathberry had pointed and nothing but a crater remained. The new weapon seemed to be working perfectly; however, there was no time for rejoicing. The enemy forces had finally noticed the flotilla of flying ships above them and responded with surprising force to the aerial assault.

Deathberry hadn’t realized that the fat zombies also functioned as highly effective zombie chuckers until they started raining undead on the ship. Hundreds of creatures were suddenly flying towards them and none of them appeared to be in control of their own flight. While many missed the ships, enough hit to make on-deck combat his primary focus for the next few minutes.

Fortunately, the elves and dwarves were ready. “Protect the helm and don’t let them get below,” Lyan’s calm voice echoed loudly over the sound of the wind and clunking of steel on flesh. His voice must have been magically amplified, Deathberry mused. He’d have to see if he could modify a similar spell for their own raid commands. Not everyone could be in raid chat when they had mutants and dwarves fighting on their side.

As he dodged a clumsy attack from one of the zombies he heard Linca shout, “Look out behind you,” as she pointed right next to him. Somehow one of the fat zombies had made it onto the deck. Its claws swiped right where he had been a moment earlier. Linca’s warning had been just in the nick of time. Although close combat wasn’t his favorite, he was hardly defenseless.

Turning to face the disgusting creature that looked like that old Centipede movie, he summoned a large fireball and extended his hands with a single verbal command, “Veritas ignis,” he shouted. The blast engulfed the zombie, blowing it apart instantaneously. Fiery bits of decaying flesh landed on the deck and started to catch. “Shit, I didn’t think about that,” Deathberry muttered. He kicked a few of the burning hunks of zombie until he could smother the flames with his boot.

Looking around he could see the other raiders had joined the battle as well. Seona was sitting atop one of the elementals she commanded as it smashed several smaller skeletons that had managed to make it onto the ship. Behind her, Lyan was cutting a swath through the zombie hordes, his scimitar shining in the morning sun. Finally, Linca looked to be doing the most damage. Her entire body was a glow with holy light. She pumped her arms and hands above her body, wrists up, palms together, as she summoned energy from her core and it pulsed out of her, destroying anything unliving in its path.

Now that their deck was mostly free from the dead, Deathberry took a look around the horizon and saw that most of the other ships had been able to defend themselves from the enemy onslaught. However, one of the ships right behind them was in trouble. He could see the helmsman was under attack and most of the deck was swarming with skeletal warriors who had used their tight formation to break through the defenders. It wouldn’t be long before they lost the ship. “Linca, come with me,” Deathberry pointed towards the vessel under siege. “Seona’s earth elementals will launch us.”

Both the women nodded and soon Deathberry was in the grasp of a giant earthen hand. He barely had time to think about how badly this would turn out if they misjudged the trajectory of the ships before he was flying through the air. Halfway through the top of their parabolic flight, they were directly above the ailing airship. “Now,” he urged. Linca cut their momentum by activating a slow fall spell and they gently descended.

Deathberry didn’t waste any time and started casting. As an unholy sorcorer, all of his spells were naturally either unholy or aligned with darkness. Neither of these types would do much if any damage to the undead mass beneath them. He’d come dangerously close to lighting the Archeon on fire and so didn’t want to risk a fire based attack. His General ability allowed him to choose different spell auras. Ideally, he would have altered his unholy bolt into a holy one; however, the one aura he was not allowed to take was that one since it was diametrically opposing his primary spell focus.

Instead, he chose to take the opposite route and altered his spell type to water. Given enough force, water could be used to bludgeon or even cut the monsters on the ship below, but would not necessarily harm the deck or sails of the airborne vessel. With that decision made, he summoned forth a wall of water and blasted it towards the deck. Dozens of zombies and skeletons were immediately washed over the sides of the ship. Some were able to maintain their footing or even grab hold of the side railing; however, the spell gave them sufficient space to clear back the invading force and give the helmsmen and remaining crew a fighting chance.

Linca had already began a barrage of holy magical attacks on the larger zombies below. Several fat zombies combusted under the force of her holy power. Her Enhanced healing ability had leveled up several times in the previous fights and now she could take down one of the larger zombies with a single hit.

Landing on the deck, Deathberry made his way over to the helmsman and tried to assess the situation. “We’ve still got a situation here, sir,” the young-looking elf said. Deathberry was terrible at guessing elven age and tried not to think of the guy as a kid. Hell, he was probably older than he was. “Skeletal warriors have made their way below deck and if they figure out where the command center is, we’ll be dead in the water.”

“Dead in the air, you mean,” Deathberry corrected with a grim smile. The helmsman just looked at him oddly. “Yeah, bad joke. Ok, we’ll see what we can do.” He motioned for Linca to follow him. If the skeletons made their way that far it was likely that they had done so with explicit directions. Hopefully they weren’t smart enough to figure out how to access the control panel in the command center. If they removed the magical stones from their resting place the airship would plummet from the sky. “Just in case you may want to take us down, helmsman,” Deathberry suggested.

Looking below them they both realized that would be a second worst case scenario. If they touched down it would be in the middle of Drak’s forces and they would likely still die. Death by falling or death by becoming a zombie’s lunch. Neither choice was appealing. “Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that,” the helmsman responded. Nonetheless, he started guiding the airship lower.

He and Linca blasted their way through the bowls of the ship. Around every corner it seemed was another skeleton. The tight quarters and lack of a melee or tank made fighting more difficult for the pair of spellcasters; however, desperation made them force their way through. A minute later they had made their way to the control room. Standing inside the small room covered with magical runes was an orb on a pedestal. Behind that was the fiercest skeleton they had seen thus far, excepting Drak. It was wearing rugged chainmail, a stout steel helm, and carried a wicked looking scimitar. No doubt this was one of Drak’s lieutenants. This intuition was confirmed a moment later as he swore he saw the creature give him a look of pure cunning, its red eyes flashed, recognizing him. Before either he or Linca could react, it’s bony fingers had grasped the orb and pulled.

Images blurred together for Deathberry in those next moments: he was casting; Linca grabbed for the orb trying to seize it from Drak’s henchman; he was floating in darkness; flashes of holy light lit up the lieutenant’s face and Linca screaming in the darkness; the splintering sound of wood all around them; and then finally the entire ship breaking apart upon impact.

Seconds later, he and Linca touched down. The airship was destroyed, its crew scattered like broken kindling, and surrounding them were thousands of withered arms reaching out to embrace them with death.