Written By: Epicstu Wyyvernwriter

“Target destroyed. Mission accomplished,” the resounding voices of hundreds upon thousands of Fennec Foxes of the Northlands cheering aboard the massive fleet of Avisern ships welcomed the announcement with enthusiasm.

“No it isn’t,” Sarah Iron’s voice was nonchalant with a hint of disappointment and it quieted her army’s cheers instantly. After a brief moment of silence the sound of the skull of the officer who had made the victorious announcement slowly crackling came through the loudspeakers accompanied by his cries of pain until silence returned with one final crack and crumble. “They escaped, and now they have his Wyyvern of Undeath. You have failed me. You have all failed Mountianhiem.” 

“Calm yourself Sarah, most loyal of my Multiverse,” Drak said softly as he appeared on board her ship directly behind her. He caressed his fingers over her head and up her large fluffy fennec ears to their tips, “we have already won. Time is nearing. Pull everything back to The First Facility,” and with that, he disappeared.

“Pull everything back to The First Facility,” Sarah commanded. “Nothing gets in Drak’s way.”

*          *

The ground they awoke upon was murky and rancid. Dead trees, twisted and jagged, stood around them rising from the muck. Thick clouds of whisps choked the already damp and stale air. Coughing and wheezing until all the necrotic swamp water had been cleared from her throat, “this is not a place where living things dwell,” Nid said with a final cough and then took a deep breath of the rotting excuse for air before coughing again.

“Maggie! Where are you!?” Noah violently coughed out his question.

Choking as she coughed up accidentally breathed in whisps, Maggie crawled through the morbid sludge toward a half submerged saber tooth skull. Unable to breath any longer, she collapsed with their last hope just out of reach as the very tip of her finger slid off its oily black surface.

A great gust wafted inward pulling in all murk, the whisps, and the rotting air from around them into the skull as it and the skeleton attached to it rose from the waters. Flesh materialized from bone, fur grew from flesh, and tattered robes adorned by heavy chains manifested over it all. An explosion of emerald green light cleared the air and with every bone in his dead body cracking as he stretched, the Nekolich yawned, “if I could feel anything besides cold, I’d probably be very sore right now.” He cracked his neck and rolled his shoulders, “it is good to be free,” he sighed and then looked around at the dry barren plain he levitated over, “but who has released me from my cramped constraints?” Then he heard a cough that made him turn around.

Noah crawled across the coarse dry ground toward his daughter’s limp corpse and held her in his arms, “Maggie? Maggie, wake up,” he shook her lifeless body in a futile effort to wake her up. “Please,” he held her close, sobbing into her ginger hair, “no.” Suddenly she was lifted from his arms into the air. 

Noah tried to hold her down, but Nid put a hand on his shoulders and said, “let her go,” so, reluctantly, he did.

Forward curved 9-inch daggers riddled with necrotic carvings sprang forth from the Nekolich’s forearms and slotted into each individual finger like a Northlandish Fennec’s claws. Beams of emerald green light streamed from the dagger’s tips into Maggie’s body as with a somber look in his pupiless eyes, the Nekolich flooded her with his light. As he had finished she floated down, like a feather, back into her father’s arms and then gasped for air as it returned to her lungs, “Dad?” she couldn’t believe she was back. Noah held her close one more time before helping her to her feet and turning his attention to the Nekolich. “I don’t know how to thank you.”

“Drak has taken everything from me,” as the Nekolich spoke, a second gust wafted to be absorbed by him. “He fed my Wyyvern of Life to The Devourer and has been using me to defend his dire schemes,” the raging gust gradually increased its velocity with the Nekolich’s growing anger as he called all Undead and Underrealms into his being until all of him had been reclaimed. “Kill him,” he replied. “Kill Drak for me and we will call it even.”

“I know where he will be, but I’m not sure how we will get to him,” Nid replied.

“I still have the portal gun, but it was damaged by the explosion that sent us here,” said Noah. “Even with the Flufonium, we’ll only get one use out of it.”

“No need,” the Nekolich replied. “I’ll get you to him. Now, which one of you is the best driver?” he smiled under his question.

“Drive what?” Maggie questioned.