Hordes of Dark Soldiers, monsters armed with rusted black armor and swords, rushed out of the Death Emperor's opened gate.

  Their white skull heads, enveloped in black-and-white flames, absorbed all light around them, fading into the night with their ghastly aura.

  Archers rushed out of the forest and launched a volley of arrows high into the air.

  A small group of Mages in black hoods raised their glowing red staffs at the flying arrows. The arrows caught fire as they dropped down onto the charging dark hordes.

  The flaming arrows sparked a reaction with the dark beings' flaming heads, causing them to scream as their heads exploded.

  Richard charged forward on horseback with the Hero Blade high above him.

  "Charge!"

  The allied forces let out a war cry as they followed Richard's lead. The Heroes' forces and the Death Emperor's dark army clashed with an explosion of metal and fury.

  Richard sent out a flurry of energy slashes and thrusts at the enemies blocking his way forward, dicing them into pieces.

  He stopped his charge when dark clouds with tints of red rose out of the back of the Death Emperor's castle before the black clouds suddenly scattered and disappeared into the night.

  "Warren! We got airborne Cerubi!" Richard shouted as he ordered his horse onward. He thrusted his sword forward to skewer Dark Soldiers with a lance of white energy.

  Warren stood on top of his horse as he aimed his massive white bow at the Cerubi hiding in the dark night sky.

  His party of dark elves used their bows to rapidly shoot down enemies approaching in the distance.

  Warren's senior party members slashed through anyone getting too close to Warren as he pulled back a massive arrow of red Mana.

  The red arrow shot into the air before breaking off into red bolts of lightning that exploded into a show of light in the sky upon impact with the Cerubi that barely had enough time to yelp before being vaporized.

  Richard slashed through more Dark Soldiers as the open main gate came into view. He came within feet of the gate when he suddenly ordered his horse to stop as a heavy mace crushed the ground in front of him.

  A black, nine-foot minotaur lumbered out of the open gate as a nasty green hue flowed off its body. He roared and then swiped at Richard once more.

  Richard thrusted his sword forward at the incoming mace, sending a blast of white energy to smack the mace out of the minotaur's hand.

  The minotaur regained his footing before cocking his fist. Purple streams on Mana covered his fist as he threw a punch at Richard.

  A green Mana circle formed above Richard and then blocked the minotaur's punch.

  Raul rode up to Richard's side with his right hand outstretched. His white gauntlets shimmered with green light as the Mana shield above Richard continued to block consecutive punches from the raging minotaur.

  The minotaur lurched to the side and screamed as a metallic whip burrowed through his head.

  The whip retracted back to reform the spearhead of the Spear Hero Helen's weapon.

  "Stop playing around, Richard. I know you could have turned that minotaur into beef ages ago. We don't have time for this," Helen said as she stared Richard in the eye.

  Richard looked back at the raging battle behind him between the allied forces and the Death Emperor's Dark Soldiers.

  "Sorry, I got distracted. I was too busy wondering why the welcoming committee was so small at the actual gate. It was way worse last time."

  The ground began to shake, spooking their horses, as a black skull burst from the ground amid the battle between the allied forces and the Dark Soldiers.

  A horseman of the allied army looked at the black skull in horror before turning his horse around.

  "Fall back!"

  Two hands shot out of the ground to help the black skull pull itself out of the shifting earth. Soldiers darted away from the cracking earth as a deep droning sound emitted from the skeleton.

  A group of Mages from the allied army gathered together with thick brown tomes in their hands. They began to recite words from the tomes in unison, forming a triangular collection of purple electricity above their heads.

  A bolt of purple electricity zapped the skeleton monster's chest, lighting it up. It screamed with its deep voice before turning to the Mages and shooting two green fireballs at them from its eyes.

  The Mages attempted to run but were instantly turned into ashes, leaving the Heroes in shock.

  "A Mega Lich? The Mana costs for that thing have to be astronomical. Those Mages had no chance.…" Helen said, gripping her spear.

  "We have to kill that thing before it obliterates our forces," Richard said as he turned his horse towards the struggling allied forces.

  "Wait, don't be hasty. Fighting that thing will be costly for our Mana reserves. We can't afford to waste the Mana we need to fight the Death Emperor," Raul said before an explosion blew away a concentrated group of Dark Soldiers.

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  The Dark Soldiers flew into the air as the old, axe-wielding dwarf Nurk tore through them like a tornado to open up a path for Alister.

  Alister rode his horse like a madman while mowing down every enemy in front of him and Nurk with rapid shots from the Honor Rod, lighting up the night with flashing lights.

  "Move or die, plebs!" Alister shouted with allied forces jumping out of the way of both Alister's rapid bullets of light and his black horse as he steamrolled everything in sight.

  Alister leaned to the side of his horse and unleashed a flurry of rapid shots at the feet of the Mega Lich, which growled deeply.

  A large ball of light formed at the end of the Honor Rod as the Mega Lich turned its attention to the approaching Alister.

  The ball of light blasted off and sailed toward the Lich.

  It suddenly grew twice its size before smashing through the Lich's head and crashing into the Death Emperor's castle, where it deteriorated into particles of light.

  Warren rode up next to the stumbling Mega Lich and formed three yellow arrows of light on his bow.

  He shot three arrows into the monster's hip, knee, and chest, causing explosions at each impact site.

  Warren rode away as the Mega Lich fell to its knees and crumbled to ashes.

  Alister went back to mowing everything down in front of him until he rode up to the other Heroes with a huge grin.

  "You can thank me now or later. I bet the three of you were paralyzed on killing that thing because you didn't want to waste your puny Mana, right? Well, I don't have such problems since my Mana reserves are the highest amongst the Heroes," Alister said as he rested the Honor Rod on his shoulder. Helen turned away in annoyance.

  "What a reckless use of Mana. Your attack endangered some of our warriors. Can't you shoot that crude weapon with more control?" Helen said as she looked at the Honor Rod. Alister frowned as he rolled his eyes.

  "You're just like my mother and father. Nothing satisfies you. All of your people would've been dead if I hadn't blown that thing up. I should have just ignored that Lich if you're going to be like this. Fighting that monster was boring anyway," Alister said as he looked back to see the allied forces starting their battle against the Dark Soldiers again.

  A soldier ran past the ashen remains of the Mega Lich when he suddenly began to cough up green flames until he burst into green flames.

  A figure lifted out of the Mega Lich's ashes and levitated into the sky.

  Ashes fell from the figure, revealing the form of a woman with flaming green eyes.

  Heavy tears fell from her burning eyes, causing steam to flow off her face.

  "Alister Black, you jerk! Why did you blast me? That hurt! Now I have a headache!" the woman screamed, pointing her pale finger at Alister.

  "You've got to be kidding me. The Death Emperor hired Velcci the Lich? This might be a problem," Alister said with an annoyed expression as he mowed down some Dark Soldiers trying to approach him.

  "You know this woman?" Richard said as he drew his sword.

  "Nope, not personally, but she's known as a pouty Black Mage who's a level or two below us. Our little army is finished if she gets serious."

  "Raul, she's charging up a Skill!"

  Velcci created two flaming green orbs of Mana in the palms of her hands, causing Raul to take a defensive stance with his arms raised and a green shield of Mana in front of the Heroes.

  Both the allied forces and the dark army of the Death Emperor scurried away as a stream of ghastly green fire scorched everything in its path until it reached the Heroes.

  Raul's shield intercepted Velcci's green flamethrower with his Mana shield.

  The green flames lit up the night, covering everything in a green hue as Raul blocked the blistering Skill.

  From a distance, Warren shot off two arrows of light blue Mana into the ground between Raul and Velcci.

  A blast of blue light exploded from the arrows before jagged pillars of ice shot up to counter Velcci's green flames.

  Warren rode on towards the Lich while notching back three red arrows and shooting them.

  The Mana arrows curved around allied forces and vaporized enemies with red lightning as the trio of projectiles flew towards Velcci.

  She avoided the sparking red arrows by flying away from each bolt with extreme speed.

  Warren lowered his bow and raised his hand to create a series of silver circles and dots. Small silver balls with spinning rings materialized on the side of each Hero near the gate.

  "Go on without me. I'll join you as soon as I'm done here. We can't afford to leave this woman rampaging and possibly coming up behind us while fighting the Death Emperor," Warren said as Velcci shot a barrage of small flaming orbs at Warren's party, which were blocked by a green arrow of light that turned into a shield.

  "But War, we need all of the Heroes to defeat the Death Emperor," Helen said as she created her own series of silver circles and dots.

  "Now's not the time to doubt ourselves, Helen. The four of you together are near unstoppable and will play a more important role than mine against the Death Emperor. The Druids who summoned us told me that I'm auxiliary anyway. You four were the ones who were summoned to kill the Death Emperor."

  Richard formed his own silver orb as he pulled his horse forward in front of the other Heroes. He looked straight at Warren, holding off Velcci with rapid arrow strikes from his horse.

  "War, you are not an auxiliary Hero, no matter what anyone says. But we'll leave the Lich to you because we trust you. This can't be our last battle tonight."

  Richard turned his horse around and rushed through the gate. Alister created his own speaking orb.

  "Don't die on me, War. You still owe me some serious coin."

  "Ignore him, Warren. Stay safe, and join us when you're done with that monster."

  Raul nodded to Warren before the three of them followed Richard through the open gate of the Death Emperor's castle.

  "Hey! Where are you going? I'm not done with you!" Velcci shouted as she watched the Heroes escape into the Death Emperor's castle. She produced another flaming orb but had to fly away to dodge two yellow arrows of Mana. She grimaced at Warren, who now stood on top of his galloping horse with a yellow arrow nocked back.

  "Stay focused, Lich. Look away, and you might just die."

  ***

  Dark soldiers rushed throughout the castle halls as they ran towards the gate where the allied forces were trying to break into the Death Emperor's castle.

  Izick and the small team of Scouts clung to the walls of the Death Emperor's castle with their knives, looking down at the Dark Soldiers rushing below them.

  They were heading for the main entrance they had opened earlier. The Scouts waited for the last wave to pass by before dropping to the cracking marble floor.

  They ran down the halls and turned a corner with Bersi leading the way. Radiant green light bore down on Bersi's face as she looked ahead in terror.

  A black metal door, similar in size to the castle's gate, loomed over the Scouts.

  Green lines of fire streaked from the edge of the door into its center, where a giant green flaming eye was set. The open area in front of the door basked in the ghastly green light.

  Izick pulled out his Long Book.

  { Point of interest: Possible location of the Death Emperor's throne room. Sending location }