Scanning the horizon from the top of the fortress, only empty stretches of plains are visible. It is early afternoon, but the sun is muted and a translucent haze lingers in the atmosphere. The Royal Mage Division had set the distant forests surrounding the capital city aflame days ago in the desperate hopes of diminishing the masses of undead slowing advancing into the region but to little effect.

Five years ago, news had reached the kingdom that a new type of undead had begun proliferating on the other edge of the continent. Suppression forces were sent by the various kingdoms near the threat to counter the hordes of zombies, but the few that returned were just tattered remnants of their original size. It was later understood that this type of undead was capable of converting living people into monsters with nothing more than contact with exposed skin. I had been conscripted into the kingdom’s army as a young man amid a war with a neighboring region a little before the discovery of this new type of undead.

It may have been possible to halt their advance early on in a joint effort between the various kings and lords, but our local conflict had continued unabated and other kingdoms had prioritized securing their immediate borders. Now the numbers of undead had become too large to be turned back, and the past few years had been spent learning of different kingdoms across the continent and overseas falling at an increasing pace in the face of this growing tide.

‘We were already doing a fantastic job of killing each other off- we really didn’t need the extra help.’ I think glumly.

I had planned to stay awake through the night, so I return to the stairs leading down into the main fortress to get some rest before dusk. Upon arriving at the bottom, I find one of the garrison’s few mages is still awake in a room reserved for communications, weaving magical symbols near a crystalline artifact.

“Afternoon Seldin- any luck getting through to the capital?” I ask.

The mage pauses mid-cast to look in my direction for a moment and says “Afternoon sergeant Rem, still no response.” before focusing back on his task.

I consider the mage’s haggard expression for a moment. The communications from the capital had gone silent yesterday; not a good sign considering there are multiple offices that should be capable of responding to us. If the capital has fallen, it wouldn’t be out of the question to think our small fortress may be the last hold out on this continent or maybe even the world depending on exactly where this plague had originated.

I briefly rest my hand on his shoulder. “Understood. Try to get some rest if you can, we’ll be needing your long-range detection abilities in the evening, and it may be a long night.”

In reality, if the undead shows up in force at any point, we will be well and truly fucked- detecting their movements in that scenario won’t help much as this small garrison has no meaningful counter to many thousands of undead and nowhere to fall back to, but if smaller groups appear it may be possible to take some actions to stamp them out quickly or lure them away. Either way, having a mage working to the point of exhaustion won’t help anybody, and I'm hoping he'll accept this rationale to rest a little.

Seldin remains focused on his work but responds with a mute nod and I exit to walk along the hallway. After asking a guardsman to wake me before sunset, I return to my cramped room to set my sword near my cot and start removing my armor.

Thinking back to before all of this had started- the regional war, the undead plague, I fondly remember happier times working as a laborer for an organization of mages. The great magics which they could cast included military applications, but many also worked to create grand spells to help us understand our reality.

One such spell had revealed that only a minority of other worlds are visible as stars in the night sky. That they are so great in number, they couldn't be counted with all the grains of sand in all our lands, and the rest were obscured due to the immensely expansive void between worlds. Our precious and simultaneously insignificant world is only a mote of dust floating in a vast abyss.

We were the masters of this realm and well beyond any concerns regarding survival; we could have created a paradise if we had a mind to do so. Instead, we had spent much of our time in bloody conflict. What a deluded people we are to murder each other- all to vainly crow at claiming supremacy over one portion or other of this tiny speck in the universe.

'Stupid animals- is that all we ever were?'

Pondering the answer to that question isn't something I want to do, and I've removed the last parts of my armor, so I collapse onto my cot and descend into an exhausted slumber.

...

From being previously adrift in fragmented thoughts, I slowly become aware I’m transitioning to a recurring dream I’ve been experiencing for the past month. The room I’m in has a little bit of muted light dimly revealing a nondescript interior, and I can make out a dark figure that seems to pull what little light there is into nonexistence around it. From about a dozen paces away, it slowly lurches towards me.

The first time I experienced this, I had immediately felt a flood of terror and believed I was looking at some type of spirit. This wasn’t a presence similar to the waves of undead currently advancing into the kingdom- those were grisly in appearance but they ultimately behaved like wild animals. In encounters with them, the zombies would howl and furiously sprint towards us but could be hacked apart with conventional arms in close combat.

No... this was a visceral manifestation of death in its purest form. The general features were mostly unremarkable, but as it closed the distance, inside the hollowed-out eyes I could see a terrible contradiction. The remnants of something that was once alive returned with an intimate understanding of the finality of death- the crushing darkness and silence that awaited me when I met my end.

As before, the apparition stops very close to me and regards me with an expressionless face. The first instance had been an exercise in barely resisting the impulse to flee from the horrifying attention of this being, but perhaps some level of acceptance in my mortality had made this nightmare tolerable over time. Either that or I was just running out of fucks to give at this point. I wondered if some part of my mind was trying to prepare me for what I was expecting to come soon, or if perhaps this was a magical side effect of the proximity of the undead masses.

Whatever the real cause, I’m soon brought back to consciousness by a member of the watch. I can see through the arrow slit in the wall of my room that there is still some light outside; it would be perhaps half an hour before sunset.

“Sergeant- you should know they’ve arrived in force. They’re currently several thousand paces out from the ditches.” he indicates quietly.

“Thanks for letting me know- I’ll be right up” I intone.

The guardsman responds with a measured salute and exits into the hall. As I don my armor, I can hear his unhurried footfalls receding in the distance. Some might be panicking at this point, but the soldiers in this garrison had thought to calmly allow me to get back in my equipment and prepare myself, for which I’m grateful.

I retrace my path from earlier this afternoon and round the upper section of the stairs. At the top of the outer wall, I can see the captain and a few other guardsmen awash in amber light from the sun disappearing past the mountain range. Beyond them far off in the plains, tens of thousands of undead can be seen slowly advancing; the guardsman wasn’t exaggerating when he indicated they were here in numbers. Walking up to the wall and placing my hands down on the frigid stone, I take everything in and sigh a little.

‘It is a gorgeous sunset I suppose, with our without our visitors.’

I doubt there are any remaining preparations but I should check in with the captain regardless. I’m about to walk over to them when I begin to hear a high-pitched whine, first barely audible but rapidly increasing in volume until it has become a painful, deafening roar. The others around me don't appear to hear anything, but I'm clutching the sides of my head in an attempt to diminish the effects of the sound and they've noticed my distress. As a guardsman reaches toward me, a glowing magic circle a few feet across snaps into life underneath me. The people around me aren't able to breach the boundaries of the circle and stealing a glance at the captain reveals only confusion and alarm on his face.

I close my eyes and sink onto my knees, wilting under the noise piercing my brain. I'm probably only a few moments away from unconsciousness but the small part of me that has managed to remain lucid can't help but think none of this is making any sense. The few times I had ever witnessed a magic circle like this had been when a summoning of some sort was taking place, but that required extremely rare reagents, a team of mages working in concert for hours at the destination and a second-team forging a link at the originating site. If mages in the capital are retrieving the garrison, they would coordinate with us instead of suddenly dragging back one person...

A moment later, everything falls to blackness.

...

Sometime later, I'm aware I've regained consciousness, but different parts of my body are returning to usability at their own sluggish pace. My limbs all feel like they've been weighed down, and my throat is completely dry causing me to emit a hacking cough. Bringing my hands to my face, I can feel the stubble on my jaw that might represent a few days worth of hair growth.

'I've been out for a bit huh? I suppose I'll add it to the list.'

Tilting my head up I squint to look around my surroundings. I'm lying naked on a stone slab with assorted sewn-up incisions in my body and a line of runes imprinted on my chest. The surface I'm on is bordered by raised symbols that are weakly flickering red. There are a few other similar pedestals in the same room each accompanied by what appears to be surgical equipment and magical artifacts. Glowing moss lines the stone walls and softly emit a fair amount of light allowing me to make out a set of double doors on the far wall. Relaxing my neck and closing my eyes again, I take stock of the situation.

'I've been unconscious for a few days- not good.'

'I don't have my equipment and am in fairly poor condition- also not good.'

'It is possible whoever pulled me here has been conducting experiments on me- that doesn't sound good either, and I'd like to know what they were trying to accomplish but mostly, I'd like to know just what the hell I'm looking at...'

In my field of view to my lower right is a block of messages that are maintaining their position, still visible with my eyes closed:

[

The Warrior class is now unlocked.

The Shield Guardian class is now unlocked.

The Elemental Conjurer class is now unlocked.

]

I very much want to understand what this means but I have more pressing issues, so I slowly roll to my side, hang my legs over the edge of the table and unsteadily ease myself into a standing position. Wrapping a sheet around me and grabbing a larger surgical blade, I shuffle to the double doors as quietly as possible. Listening for a few minutes against the door yields no signs of activity I can discern, so I slowly make my way outside to a cavern area. There is a passage to the right, but I can feel air movement toward the left where the cavern becomes wider and head off in that direction hopefully towards an exit.

A short distance later, I come upon the ruins of a large summoning circle. Many of the artifacts surrounding the perimeter are destroyed, and a half dozen thoroughly charred corpses litter the ground. Beyond them a hole in the wall large enough to drive a carriage through is visible. Judging by the singed doors torn off their hinges and blown outside, this had probably been the main exit.

'What were these people trying to accomplish here that they'd be willing to take these kinds of risks?'

If two parties in different locations create both ends of the summoning bridge, people could be brought over reliably but just dragging someone from one end was a terrible idea. Putting aside the high cost in materials and effort, this one-sided summoning approach could fail with catastrophic results such as the subject reappearing dead and mangled, or as in this case it seems, prove a bad idea when something extremely dangerous appears in the summoning circle, overpowers the wards and kills everyone.

The glowing moss is more sparse in this chamber, but I can see well enough to pick my way through the rubble and step outside into the night revealing the edge of an evergreen forest. Even now, the air is considerably warmer than where I had been taken from; I must have been brought quite a distance. I take a breath in and look up, then freeze in place.

There is an additional moon visible in the night sky.

'...quite a distance... That may be an understatement...'