The wind at the gate of Oakhaven cut through bone and marrow. It wasn't just the temperature; the air felt thin, brittle, as if the magic that usually saturated the Northern atmosphere was being sucked away by a vacuum cleaner in the sky.
Valeria stood on the hard-packed snow, her breath pluming in white clouds. Her hand rested on the pommel of her glass rapier, though she knew it would be useless against the monstrosities standing before her.
Lady Lysandra, the Widow of the North, looked less like a conqueror and more like a refugee. Her pristine white furs were stained with grey soot. Her skin, usually the color of cream, was translucent and waxen. Behind her, the two Rhinoceros-Golem hybrids stood motionless, their rune-stitched hides dull. Their eyes, usually glowing with necrotic green fire, were flickering like dying candles.
"A truce," Valeria repeated, testing the word. "You tried to siege this valley two weeks ago. You poisoned the land with Blight. And now you want to come inside?"
"I want to survive," Lysandra said, shivering. It was a jarring sight - a Necromancer feeling the cold. "And unless you are a fool, so do you."
She gestured to the north, toward the jagged, tooth-like peaks of the Frost-Fang range.
"Look at the sky, Duchess."
Valeria looked.
Above the mountains, the sky wasn't blue or grey. It was... wrong. A patch of absolute, static blackness was spreading across the horizon like an oil spill. It didn't reflect light. It seemed to eat it.
"The Void," Ignis whispered, stepping up beside Valeria. He adjusted his goggles, zooming in. "My sensors... they are reading zero mana in that sector. Not low mana. Zero. It is a dead zone."
"It woke up three days ago," Lysandra said. "My forward scouts - Shadow Stalkers, Phantom Class - went into the pass to track a herd of migrating mammoths. They didn't come back. When I tried to scry them, I saw nothing. Just... static."
She signaled to one of her constructs. The massive Golem lumbered forward and dropped a heavy sack onto the snow.
"I went to look myself," Lysandra said. "I found this."
Kael stepped forward, his sword drawn. He used the tip of the blade to flip the sack open.
The contents spilled out.
It was the arm of a Frost Giant. But it wasn't bloody or decaying. It was grey, desiccated, and crumbling like dry sandstone. It looked like it had been aged a thousand years in a second.
"It crumbled when I touched it," Lysandra said grimly. "The mana was drained from the cells so violently that the molecular bonds dissolved. Whatever is up there, it feeds on magic. It feeds on life. And it is moving south."
Valeria looked at the arm. She activated the Merchant's Monocle.
[Item: Husk of a Frost Giant.]
[Cause of Death: Mana-Phage Infestation.]
[Contagion Level: High.]
"Mana-Phages," Valeria whispered.
She opened her System Library. The term triggered a red alert in the Ancient History section.
Mana-Phages: Microscopic, hive-mind entities from the Void Dimension. They consume magical energy until the host turns to dust. They are attracted to high concentrations of mana.
Valeria looked back at Oakhaven. At the glowing World Tree sapling in the center of the valley.
"They are coming here," Valeria realized. "Because we are the brightest light in the dark."
"Exactly," Lysandra said. "Your World Tree is a beacon. It will draw them in like moths to a flame. My army runs on necrotic mana. They will eat my soldiers first, then they will eat you."
She took a step forward. Kael growled, blocking her path.
"I have two hundred undead infantry remaining," Lysandra said, ignoring the Tiger. "I have three siege-class Behemoths. And I have the most powerful defensive wards in the Guild's arsenal. You have food. You have walls. And you have a Spirit Spring that can replenish mana faster than they can drain it."
She held out a hand clad in black lace.
"We combine forces. My dead defend the perimeter. Your living defend the core. If we fight each other, the Phages eat the winner. If we work together... we might see spring."
Valeria looked at the woman who had terrorized the North for a decade. Lysandra was a monster. She recycled corpses and enslaved souls.
But Valeria was a Strategist first.
"Thorne!" Valeria shouted to the gate.
The massive Bear beastman appeared on the battlements, looking down with deep suspicion.
"Open the gate," Valeria ordered. "But keep the archers posted. If a single skeleton raises a weapon, turn them to dust."
Thorne hesitated, then nodded. The heavy timber gates groaned open.
"Welcome to Oakhaven," Valeria said to Lysandra. "Don't make me regret this."
The Meeting of the Council of the Dead and Living
The main farmhouse was crowded.
Valeria sat at the head of the long oak table. To her right sat her husbands—Kael, Ignis, Silas, Caspian, Lucian. To her left sat Lady Lysandra.
The tension in the room was thick enough to choke a horse. Silas was staring at Lysandra with unblinking hostility, his hand twitching near his dagger. Lysandra, for her part, looked perfectly at ease, sipping a cup of hot herbal tea as if she were at a salon, not surrounded by enemies.
"The Phages move in a hive mind," Lysandra explained, using a long, blackened fingernail to draw on the map spread across the table. "They don't have bodies. They possess local wildlife, drain them, and move on. The swarm is currently here, at the Weeping Pass."
"That is twenty miles out," Ignis noted. "If they move at the speed of a walking man, they will be here in two days."
"They move faster," Lysandra corrected. "They jump from host to host. And as they eat, they multiply."
"Fire," Kael rumbled. "Can we burn them?"
"Physical fire does nothing," Lysandra said. "They exist partially in the ethereal plane. Magical fire feeds them. Cast a fireball at a Phage, and it just gets bigger."
"So magic is useless," Ignis said, horrified. "Then how do we fight them?"
"We starve them," Valeria said.
She stood up and walked to the window, looking out at the World Tree. The silver sapling was glowing bravely in the cold twilight, unaware that it was the target.
"The Phages hunt by sensing mana gradients," Valeria explained, pulling knowledge from the Library. "They flow from low concentration to high concentration. Like water flowing downhill."
She turned back to the room.
"Right now, Oakhaven is a lighthouse. The World Tree is pumping out pure Life Mana. We need to mask it."
"Mask a World Tree?" Lysandra scoffed. "You might as well try to hide the sun with a napkin."
"Not hide it," Valeria said. "Invert it."
She looked at the Necromancer.
"Your magic is Necrotic. It is the anti-thesis of Life Mana. It is cold, static, and voids energy signatures."
"You want me to kill the tree?" Lysandra asked, narrowing her eyes.
"No," Valeria said. "I want you to build a dome. A massive Necrotic Shield over the entire valley. If we layer your Death Mana over the Tree's Life Mana, they should cancel each other out on the sensory spectrum. To the Phages, Oakhaven will look like... nothing. Just grey rock."
Ignis's eyes widened behind his goggles. "A Mana-Null Field. Theoretically... it is possible. But mixing Life and Death magic on that scale is volatile. If the balance tips, the reaction could level the valley."
"Then we don't let it tip," Valeria said. "Ignis, you will monitor the Life output. Lysandra, you will modulate the Death shield. You two are going to have to dance without stepping on each other's toes."
Lysandra looked at Ignis. The Dragon looked back, his expression one of distaste.
"I suppose," Lysandra drawled, "I can work with a Scaled One. As long as he doesn't breathe on me."
"And I," Ignis sniffed, "will try not to vomit from the stench of your perfume."
"Good," Valeria said. "That settles the defense. Now, the offense."
She pointed to Kael and Silas.
"The Phages possess bodies. Once they are inside a host—a wolf, a bear, a giant—the host becomes a construct. Physical weapons still work on the meat. Kael, you are in charge of the ground war. Lysandra's undead infantry don't have mana cores for the Phages to eat—they are just animated bones. They are the perfect frontline. You will lead them."
Kael looked at Lysandra. "You want me to command your dead?"
"They obey the strongest will," Lysandra said with a shrug. "If you roar loud enough, little kitty, they might listen."
Kael's jaw tightened, but he nodded. "I will lead them. But if they turn on my men, I will crush them."
"Deal," Valeria said.
The Greenhouse Effect
Later that night, the operation began.
Valeria stood by the World Tree. The spirits of the forest - the stag, the fox, the owl - were agitated. They sensed the Necromancer nearby. The spectral stag pawed the ground, lowering its antlers at Lysandra.
"Control your ghosts," Lysandra muttered, standing ten feet away, clutching her black feather fan. "They are giving me a headache."
"They are protecting their mother," Valeria said, stroking the silver bark of the sapling. "Just as you are protecting your life."
She looked at Ignis, who was setting up a complex array of mana-crystals around the tree's base.
"Ready?" Valeria asked.
"Ready," Ignis said. "Life output is stable."
"Lysandra," Valeria nodded.
The Necromancer raised her hands. Dark, green-grey mist began to seep from her skin. It wasn't the attacking Blight this time; it was a structured weaving of defensive spells.
The mist rose, forming a dome over the greenhouse, then expanding outward to cover the walls, the fields, and the farmhouse.
As the Death Mana rose, the World Tree flared. It tried to fight the darkness.
"Easy," Valeria whispered to the tree, pouring her own intent into it. "It's a blanket. Not a shroud. Go to sleep."
The tree seemed to understand. The silver light dimmed. The pulsing rhythm of its mana slowed.
Outside, the dome clicked into place. From the inside, it looked like a grey fog had descended. From the outside, hopefully, Oakhaven had just disappeared from the magical map.
"It is holding," Ignis said, checking his crystals. "The energy signature is neutral. We are invisible."
Lysandra lowered her hands, swaying slightly. One of her Golems caught her.
"Maintaining this... will be taxing," she wheezed. "I need sustenance."
"Food is in the kitchen," Valeria said. "Real food. Not souls."
Lysandra smirked weakly. "A pity. I hear Bear souls are quite savory."
She walked toward the house, her undead guard trailing her.
Valeria stayed by the tree. Kael walked up to her, his armor clinking softly in the quiet night.
"You trust her?" Kael asked.
"Not for a second," Valeria said. "But she is terrified. And fear makes people predictable."
Kael looked at the grey dome above them.
"We are trapped in a bubble with a Necromancer, waiting for a swarm of invisible monsters."
"Sounds like a typical Tuesday," Valeria joked weakly.
Kael didn't smile. He looked at the north.
"They are here," he rumbled.
Valeria followed his gaze.
Beyond the grey dome, in the darkness of the pass, something was moving. It looked like a wave of static, a distortion in the air. The trees on the ridge didn't just fall; they turned to grey dust and blew away.
The Phages had arrived.
And then, a sound pierced the night. It wasn't a roar. It was a scream. A human scream.
"Help! Open the gate! Please!"
Valeria grabbed the monocle.
Running down the snowy road, pursued by the wall of dissolving reality, was a small group of figures. Refugees. Beastmen refugees.
"They are running for the Sanctuary," Valeria said.
"If we open the gate, we break the seal," Ignis warned from the crystal array. "The Phages will see us."
"If we don't open the gate," Kael said, "they die."
Valeria looked at the refugees. There was a mother carrying a cub. They were stumbling. The grey wave was fifty yards behind them.
"Thorne!" Valeria screamed into the night. "Man the gate! Lysandra! Drop the shield on my mark!"
"Are you insane?" Lysandra's voice shrieked from the porch. "You risk us all for strays?"
"They are citizens of my Duchy!" Valeria shouted back. "And I don't abandon my people! Kael, get the team! We are doing a retrieval run!"
Kael grinned. He pulled his helmet on.
"Finally," the Tiger said. "Something I can hit."