"Really?! A horde, how big is a horde?!" asked Tad frantically, trying not to lose the calm he had just managed to settle into again.

"Hordes are big, really big numbers, Tad. Much bigger than Bismuth's army, " said Kettle.

Maximilianus's avatar appeared in the Goddess's soulmancy Cathedral. Was this some sort of group soulmancy he wasn't aware of? He needed to find out how these beings kept doing this to him. Gods or no, he has no intention of letting this continue to happen without understanding it.

Maximilianus bowed to Niucrealath, then again to Gweleth, waving his hand.

"A pleasure to meet you, Goddess, and you also Goddess. "

Niucrealath spoke, "We have met before Maximilianus. "

"Why yes, we have. Much appears to have changed since then. For example, there is a horde of undead charging across the dunes tonight. I expect they intend to pay you a visit. "

Maximilianus paused, "Do you mind if I invite a friend? "

Niucrealath rolled her eyes, "Do we have a choice?"

"Not really. " Maximilianus paused for a second, tilting his head to one side, "One second. "

Then Orion, in the negotiator form, appeared.

"Oh, Thaddius, you should move along, " said Maximilianus. Then he waved his hand, and Tad was looking straight at an angry undead Naga. A ball of green magic was forming in front of her.

Damn it! The Goddess was supposed to help him. Tad threw up a shield as Galadinidú spoke to Tad, "Do you wish to smite this creature of evil?"

"Hell's yea I do, " he responded as the green necromancy ball of energy deflected and struck the floor. Wisps of acrid smoke rose around Samathe and Tad in a large radius.

Tad felt Galadinidú pulling energia from him. It was different this time. Previously Galadinidú had used its own stored mana, but the staff was pulling it from Tad this time. Tad fed the staff more, he could sense his mana was running low, but he did it anyway.

Galadinidú started to glow. A deep reddish yellow grew brighter as the white of law energia entered it. Tad could feel the power.

Samathe was casting another spell and saw Galadinidú start to glow.

Tad didn't know what her spell was, but he was not letting her finish it. He sprung across the distance between them. Galadinidú was humming. Both of Samathe's fang daggers swung at Tad as he neared. She was not very fast to Tad's eyes, nor was she as skilled as Lamruil with his two swords.

She was casting a spell and trying to defend herself physically. I wasn't working well for her once Tad closed. She was clearly more a caster than a fighter.

He parried one dagger and dodged the other as the fang he parried flew out of her hand across the room. He brought Galadinidú around, then down as Samathe tried to move to the side. Her spell fizzled, causing green flames to race across one of her hands. Tad hoped to split her in half, but instead, her right two decaying arms exploded off her torso. They burst into flames along with the side of her body where Galadinidú had struck.

She slithered back fast, coiling up. The flames on her right side went out. Samathe was easily forty feet long. She had pulled back the five feet faster than Tad could blink. Then sprung forward, bringing her torso into contact with him as she brought her dagger across in a slash. Tad parried the dagger but missed Samathe's clawed hand slashing across his left shoulder down across his chest. The skin and muscle peeled like wet paper, and the blow slammed him into the ground.

"Bleeding stopped, " said Galadinidú in his mind. Tad didn't have to look down to know he was in trouble. The pain was massive as the cut immediately ached and started to turn green with infection. The ring on Tad's hand pulsed wildly, but it wasn't fixing anything fast enough. He rolled backward between the benches trying to get out of her strike range. Samathe pursued.

"Would you like to Smite this Evil creature? " asked Galadinidú.

What could he smite again? Was this what the Goddess had given him? Damn straight, he wanted to smite again.

Galadinidú burst into rich brown, gold flame again as Tad spun around and onto his feet. Tad brought the staff around in a blind uppercut, hoping Samathe was still behind him. He connected, and again he missed her center. This time he hit her lower left arm at the elbow and her upper left near her shoulder. Both arms flew from her body in flames. The fang dagger still clutched in the lower hand.

He loved this new smite power!

Samathe pulled back again. Tad wasn't waiting, and he dodged right again.

"Would you like to smite this evil creature? " said Galadinidú.

Tad chuckled internally while he said, "Yea."

He never got a chance to see if Galadinidú lit up. A wagon in the form of a reformed giant snake with no fangs hit him. It immediately curled up around him. Squeezing him and pinning both arms to the sides. Tad felt his heart fill with blood, and his chest felt like it would burst under pressure. His sight was covered by rotten flesh and scales. He couldn't breathe as he started to lose consciousness.

Muffled and far away, Tad heard, "He is mine, you slimy bitch."

Then there was heat and fire and pain.

The snake Samathe released him. She convulsed as demon fire raced through the center of her body as she thrashed. Tad opened one eye as he was flung to the floor to see Zanna. Her demon fire covered her as he saw her thrown high into the ceiling so fast that she couldn't open her wings. She hit hard, and Tad heard a crunch. Then she plummeted back down onto the hard stone floor and benches. There was another sickening crunch, and she lay still. Her flames went out.

Samathe continued to thrash as demon fire engulfed her body. She rolled away from them towards the bottom. The flames burned from the center outward. The Naga looked like a chunk of meat that had dropped into a fire. The maggots on her head cooked, melting as the flames engulfed her face.

The stench and smoke gagged him. Tad sat up, his chest in extreme pain. He could hardly move his left arm now as his ring fought the unnatural infection in the wound.

He looked around and called his last lancer hovering above them for light. He managed to find Galadinidú. He grabbed the staff. Tad had little mana remaining. He cast a heal on himself as he half walked and stumbled to Zanna's crumpled form. She was lying half on a bench and across the floor. Her broken wings lay splayed out and busted. He could see a bone where he didn't think it should be. Blood was coming out of her mouth. She wasn't bleeding fire as the demon prince had, but the blood was glowing. She was tough, but not as tough as a regular demon, he thought. He had seen one fall several stories and stand back up as if nothing had happened.

He cast a heal spell on her, and she convulsed, but the bleeding didn't stop. No, not you. He swore he would not lose her. He pulled off the ring of Minor Regeneration and put it on her finger, where it pulsed so fast it glowed solid green. He barely saw any improvement.

Tad's mana was almost gone. He could feel it. He cast again on Zanna, bringing a sharp migraine as his mana emptied. It was as if her demonic form was resisting the heal.

"NO, he shouted. I will not lose you, " shouted Tad in a half sob. His struggles with losing Kettle had crushed him. He wasn't going to have that happen again, and not with her. He knew why and he couldn't tell her. He had held off talking to her because of this whole demon eats your brain thing, but he did love her. He would not let her die.

He gripped Galadinidú hard, "Galadinidú, help me. You told me you could help me sustain a spell, but you also absorb mana and help me do so. Please do that now. I need you to pull it away from the Goddess and let it flow into me. "

Tad held the staff over Zanna lengthwise. He was in his soulmancy tent now. He willed it to happen, but nothing came to him. He could see the blood slowly dripping down Zanna's face. He closed his eyes. Then he sat cross-legged in his tent. He placed the staff on his legs. Calming, breathing, he pulled, he envisioned it, he willed it, this was his place, it will happen. The crystal facets of his soulmancy tent started to light up. Slowly at first, then faster, they shined as mana began to flood into him from Galadinidú. Soon his soulmancy tent was awash in the yellow mana of life. He could see it being pulled from the Goddess's hold on the flow, not all of it, but enough for what he planned. He cast healing through Galadinidú. He envisioned it in his tent space simultaneously. The staff turned a rich yellow as Tad held it against her body as he pushed energia into the spell. He could feel the chaos portion of her being fighting against the healing spell.

"Gweleth, I need you now, " said Tad as he prayed to his new Goddess for help and for hope.

Gweleth responded in his soulmancy space, "I can not help her, Thaddius. She is of Chaos now. "

"You can, and you will. Ask her, " said Tad.

Niucrealath responded, "We can not, Thaddius. "

"ASK HER! " shouted Tad. "Your agreement was to help my friends and me in this valley. She is my friend. ASK HER! "

The Goddess didn't answer.

Tad's voice grew fierce as his eyes teared, "If you do not, I will forsake my oath, and Kettle will burn the creature he holds, " shouted Tad.

There was a long pause before the Goddess answered again.

"Tad, you do not know for what you ask, but we agree. It will be very painful for her, Thaddius. I do not know if she will thank you or hate you for this. " there was a pause, "She has agreed," said Gweleth.

Then a soft glow surrounded Zanna, and she started to lift off the ground. She floated over to the giant statue standing above the platform. Her body settled into the spot that Yevgeny Zajíc's corpse had once occupied. Her form was cupped in both hands of the construct like a child.

Tad had not ordered the giant statue to help him in his fight. He had left it standing guard over Bubbles. Now he ordered it to protect Zanna. Threads appeared around her, forming a cocoon. It wrapped itself around her form.

Tad's body started to glow as the wound on his chest healed. The dark black veins that were crossing his shoulder disappeared with the infection. The massive bruises on his back that he had not noticed before healed. He breathed deeply for the first time in several minutes.

Tad heard the dwarves coming in from the tunnel leading under the lake. They all came through battered, covered in gore, and carrying three of their comrades. The injured were bleeding heavily. One had a necrotic infection of black lines crossing his face and going under his dark braided hair and beard.

Tad could hardly see them as he sent several more lights across the chamber. He stood up to go heal them. Before he took a step, the injured dwarves started to glow. The Goddess was healing his friends in the valley.

Gweleth's voice spoke to him, "Thaddius, you are charged with protecting this valley from the armies waging war on our doorstep. Maximilianus has convinced Orion to help in this fight because of the silly promise you made. You are fortunate to have so many friends in life. If you intend on keeping them, you will need to hurry. "

Tad nodded, waved to the dwarves to follow then went up the stairs.

Kizzac spoke as they reached the top, "We retook the hallway from some nasty undead rat things and sealed the door at the end of the tunnel. They should not be a bother from that tunnel any longer. "

"They are Gretchics, " said Tad.

"That can not be. Gretchics are wee things no bigger than a small scorpion or a child's shoe," said Kizzac.

"Well, they are, Dire Gretchics. Still Gretchics, " said Tad.

"Aye, I see, " said Kizzac. "There are many more of the undead things in the corridors. The place was near overrun by them. "

"We will fix that once we solve the other problems, "

Tad saw that Lamruil and Nico were now in the Cathedral. Several large undead creatures lay on the floor around the wagons. The four Carnival guards stood near the World Egg's wagon. Tad assumed their wives were inside.

"Are those what I think they are?" asked Tad of Nico.

"Yep, Undead Winged Monkeys, " said his friend with a smile.

"Dammit, " yelled Tad.

"Yes, Master?" asked the Imp from his perch on the top of a wagon.

Tad took a deep breath, realizing he had just called the Imp.

"Fly up above and tell me what is going on with that horde of undead and the army of Bismuth. Tell me if there are any more of these undead monkeys out there or anything else with wings. "

Tad intended to join the fight on the dead god's bridge. But if these things were still flying around, he couldn't leave the Carnival members here.

Nico walked near Tad and quietly asked, "Where is Zanna? "

"She is with the goddess in a cocoon, " said Tad.

Nico looked at Lamruil and raised his eyebrows a bit. Lamruil nodded.

"There is one up there high near the ceiling, Tad. It's been sitting there watching us. It acts differently than the ones that attacked us, " projected Lamruil.

Tad looked and reached out with his magical senses. He could feel its presence now. Up there, in the dark corner of a ceiling support, the creature sat. It was watching them, and Tad could feel it. There was something controlling the undead monkey.

Tad didn't give it a chance to react to his soulmancy. This creature was slower than him. A half-second later, Tad was in a battle of soulmancy with whatever was controlling it. His soulscape expanded, and he pulled the will of the creature commanding the undead monkey's controller to him.

In his soulmancy tent now stood a dark shadow of a creature. The black smoke writhed as it tried to escape his hold upon it. The facets of Tad's tent were glowing as he pumped more energia into his hold. The shadow pulled away from the light burned. Tad held it in place. It wasn't very strong in its power. Tad wondered if that was because he stood inside Gweleth's domain, his domain.

Tad spoke, "Why have you come here? Why are you attacking this valley? "

The smoke writhed more and more, ignoring his question, trying to escape his hold on it. The tent's facet's light was getting brighter, and the creature became more frantic.

Then there was hissing like sand across the dunes, "We come for the crystal. We starve. It feeds us. "

Tad stopped growing the light and reduced the energia into his soulmancy space.

"You won't have it. You should leave here, or you will be destroyed, " said Tad. He knew all the magic in the valley was going into the growing form of the Goddess. He didn't know if this creature knew about the gretchics new undead form. It appeared it didn't, or the undead caster would have the crystal by now. Tad suspected the altar shield and its protective spells were all just like the curtain, drained.

Something shifted in the creature before him. It became more powerful, replaced by something else.

"Little mageling, I sense the Goddess in you. She will betray you as she did us. Give us the crystal, and we will leave here," said a new, more powerful female voice.

"And then you will do what with it? " asked Tad. He had no intention of giving this creature a powerful cursed artifact. But he needed to figure out what was going on. How did the Goddess betray the undead?

"We will take it, and we will exist, " said the voice.

"How did the goddess betray you? " asked Tad.

There was no response for several moments, "Tell your Goddess we come for her. We will avenge her betrayal. " Then the creature was gone, and the smoke dissipated.

Tad exited his soulmancy space to hear the screech of an undead monkey flying directly at him from the arches above. Well, it was more of a gorilla than a monkey now that he could make it out clearly.

Tad grabbed his staff from its sling. Then a giant lynx appeared on the back of the undead monkey. Nico clawed through the decayed membrane of its wings and raked its back. He road it into the ground a few feet in front of Tad. There was a heavy crunch of the impact, and the undead monkey stopped moving.

Tad watched Nico jump off the undead creature shaking his paws trying to get the ick out of his claws. He looked like a cat, angry his paws were wet. It would have been funny if it wasn't so disturbing.

"Well, that's one way to do it, " said Tad.

Lamruil projected into Tad's mind, "How did you trap that creature? "

"I do not know. I just willed it. I'm the champion of the Goddess now. Perhaps that had something to do with it. I'm not even sure why I tried it, " replied Tad.

Tad heard a whisper in his mind from Niucrealath, "There is still more to learn, my young Champion." Tad didn't think Lamruil could hear that, but Kettle probably could.

This was getting so confusing. He needed a long talk with Jack. He really missed his friend right then.

"Lamruil, the Goddess, gifted me with a few powers. I'll have to find out more when she is fully awakened if we survive this night," projected Tad.

Tad really wanted to talk to Kettle about his book entries. Right now, he was worried everyone with power could hear him, and he did NOT think giving that bit of information to the Goddess was going to work in his favor. He would have to learn how to block out others, including her if he wanted to talk to his friend.

Tad looked over to the four guards near the wagon that held the World Egg and the caged blue lasso spider. The spider was sitting there in the cage, watching him with its two eyes. Its legs curled up under itself, waiting.

Tad addressed the four human guards stationed around the World Egg. The druid Iliphar stuck his head out of the entrance upon hearing him.

He looked at the tallest guard, "Halko, you are in charge here. I want you to take the others and go inside the World Egg. Kettle will keep the entrance ajar and will hold it that way. Your job is to keep the entrance clear. Do not let anything else into that Artifact. If Kettle has to close the door, he will open it again at dawn when the dust storm hits. " If it hits, he thought, would it now that the gem was not working?

Tad looked at the other three guards," Jaakob, Janna, and Oskar, you are to follow his orders and protect those inside. "

"Kettle, you heard that. Make it happen once they are inside, " projected Tad.

"I will, Tad," said Kettle.

Tad spoke loudly, "Iliphar, I need you out here. You will help Kizzac and his team hold the stairs down into the Temple. The tunnel is the best place to hold them off with creatures flying in the dark. "

Tad looked at Kizzac, "I need you and the rest of the squadron to hold those stairs. There are stones below that you can use to make the entrance smaller. Seal it if you want. Just be ready in case anything tries to fly in. "

Kizzac nodded, then turned to the dwarves behind him, "You heard him! Get to it! I want those blocks in place in ten minutes!"

The dwarves hustled towards the stairway.

Iliphar spoke as he exited the World Egg, "Tad, I do not have any fighting spells. I'm not that kind of druid, and I didn't train to harm things."

"I know Iliphar, but you can heal, and you can entangle. I've seen you grow things out of nothing. Reinforce that wall once they build it and keep them alive. They are your shield and hammer in this. "

The druid nodded, "I'll do my best. I didn't sign up for this, Tad. "

Tad sighed, "I know please do your best. Nobody is going to die if I can help it. You might even get a front row seat to something few people ever see if you are lucky. "

Iliphar was walking away, mumbling, "If I live through it. "

Tad shook his head again. There was little he could do for the old elf right now. But his healing the dwarves will improve their chances if there is a fight. Tad couldn't rely on Gweleth right now, and he didn't think she was paying attention to the outside world with the changes going on inside.

"All right, are you fellows ready to go fight a horde? " asked Tad with a grin.

Lamruil spoke with a chuckle, "No, but when has that ever stopped us. "

"Well, I have dibs on anything that is wearing gold, " said Nico. He was dressed.

Tad took off at a run. Three lights are shooting ahead of him.

At the far end of the bridge, Tad saw the shield wall of constructs still standing where he had commanded them. Maximilianus and Orion's contingent of Automatrons were nowhere to be seen. Tad could hear inhuman screams from the cliffs beyond the city where the ramp went up. He needed to get there and find out what was going on.

He ordered the constructs to fall back and make the exact same shield wall in the entrance to the Cathedral. When they moved, Tad saw they had been standing on the crushed corpse of some undead creature. Tad drew closer, looking at the pale white flesh and a clawed hand. The claws were hooks, and its skull crushed in. He couldn't tell what it was with all the decay.

"That is a ghoul you can tell by the skin and the claws, oh and the stench. Once you fight one, you will never forget that smell, " said Lamruil.

Tad nodded and poked the remains with his staff.

"Galadinidú, how many smites do you have? " projected Tad.

"We have one, Thaddius. You will receive three more at midnight as a gift from your Goddess, " replied Galadinidú. The staff just stated it like it was fact and didn't need any inflection at all.

Four smites? That will be extremely useful. Now, if he just had enough mana to use them all in one fight. Two had drained his energia so low he got a migraine. Well, he had one; for now, he would worry about more later.

"Ok, let's move. We need to keep them out of the valley till the sun comes up," said Tad as he started off at a jog towards the ramps. Three small lit lancers lead the way.

***