Post originally by Character_Lumine Ravenholm


And like water, the Imperial forces hidden in the forest simply poured forth; they outnumbered both Redmont and Alerisian forces by far, quelling Alerion's doubts as to the size of Lumine's empire. However, it wasn't simply from the forest that enemies suddenly arose -- the very horizon had turned dark, and the steady, vibrating hum of aerial craft was enough that it made conversation likely quite difficult. However, it was the order from the Emperor Ravenholm himself that drowned out every other source of noise, and following his proclamation, there was an eerie silence that seemed to haunt the mock battlefield.

"Kill them all! Bring the heads of Alerion and Daphne to me; I will rule the Outlands and Aleris as well!" "Failure shall not be tolerated! Slaughter every last one of them! Make Alerion and Daphne... suffer," the resounding, shrill roar of Lumine's elder half echoed shortly thereafter. The Dreadstorms -- massive airships that had been hidden until now, to prevent the Redmonts from acquiring intelligence about them -- loomed in the skies above. Of the full naval force of nearly three hundred, it was apparent that nearly a hundred had ventured to the continent of Arcajia to destroy the assembled armies of Aleris and Northcrest.

Lumine himself was present upon the flagship of the fleet, the Reaper's Ascension, which unsurprisingly remained hovering above the forests itself while the rest of the ships moved head to secure Northcrest, and the real prize: the Gate that led to Aleris. An amused smile casually graced his angular, defined features; if his mood could've been summed up in a few words, it would've been a tie between miserably gleeful or obnoxiously cheerful. A glass of whiskey was lazily cradled in the palm of one hand, and he rose from his throne to move to the edge of the railing to he could taunt his victims. It wasn't enough that he had played both sides against each other, no. He wanted to gloat, "...and given my imminent Godhood, these incompetents fools truly should be beneath me. Still, there's no score too small to be settled, I always say." His eyes glittered in the dying light of dusk, stark pinpricks of striking emerald barely visible behind the tinted lenses of his glasses. Grinning maniacally, he leaned over the railing of the airship, staring down at the forms of his enemies.

"Alerion! You two-bit failure, look at you! You couldn't even draft an army that knew how to lift a sword! It's... it's like you rounded up all the drooling retards of your 'great' nation and brought them out here!"

"Oh, Alasiah... we must say, you performed admirably. You were too popular to kill, having gone through some kind of life-changing experience after we resurrected you. If you were anything like the old Alastair, I would've let you stay as general of my forces -- but alas, you've gone and chosen to have some pitiful sense of honor. A pity, you'll die with these Alerisians and Redmonts!"

"And as for you... well, Daphne. We know you well... we share the memories of Demetri, and we recall your bitter tears, as we made you break the oh-so-tender vows of fidelity to your husband. Why, if you surrender with your new sidekick, the Brood whore known as Ainsley, we may consider letting both of you live -- as our concubines," Lumine offered. It was unlikely that Leona would approve of such, due to her hatred of Daphne Redmont in particular -- but Lumine didn't care. After all, he was about to be crowned Emperor of two realms, one of them being a link to other realms. The Emperor Ravenholm's laughter boomed across the landscape, and even then, the sound was that of two people laughing in unison -- demonic, and absolutely blood-curdling.

The battle started almost instantly. The Ravenholm forces that had come from the forest to the east of the territory sprang into action without orders; archers took their positions behind a line of gun-toting sentinels, and launched arrows at the nearest targets. The Alerisian forces were cut down in a manner that surpassed brutality; as King Alerion, Marshall Lyseria and the former General Alasiah Bluefield watched, the paratroopers that leaped from the airships above took the time to snipe the confused, passive soldiers that had been rounded up by the defending Redmonts. The fact that they simply stood there, unaware of the danger they were in only made it easier for the Imperial shock troopers. The few men that had been inserted into the Alerisian movement now drew hidden weapons, slitting the throats or gutting the defenseless, soulless men.

The one who had fired the arrow to signal for the Ravenholm Empire to attack now lifted her hands, and her identity became rather familiar. Her features were gaunt, making it clear that she was undead; but, she quite clearly wasn't a vampire. Her skin seemed stretched across the bones of her lithe frame, and though beautiful, there was something haunting about the woman. Dark locks of long hair and gray, lifeless eyes finally made her lineage recognizable to both Alerion and Lyseria, as well as Daphne and Ainsley.

It was Aubrey Ravenholm, the lich who had sworn allegiance to the Ravenholms after Ainsley had possessed her original body. Her new form was still quite familiar; Lumine had done his best to craft it in the image of her original form. The difference happened to be bright, vertical crimson streaks over either of her sunken, hollow eyes; the scars had been left by an earlier encounter with Cassandra Redmont, who had narrowly escaped from Augustgrad with her life and wisely chose to never show her face in Imperial territory again. The lich launched bolts of swirling flame towards the other Alerisian shoulders, who flailed about, their agonizing screams drowning out her laughter as they burned to death. As those charred corpses crumpled upon the ground, the sorceress lifted both hands -- which were glowing with beautiful, bright orange flames that flickered from her fingertips -- and leveled her malicious gaze upon the group of Alerion, Lyseria, Alasiah, Daphne, and most of all... Ainsley, the powerful witch that had stolen her body from her.

"By order of the Ravenholm Empire, I -- Commander Aubrey Ravenholm, of the Imperial Elite Forces, am hereby ordering your executions. Do any of you have any last words? Especially you, Ainsley... you stole my brother and sister from me, and my whole life... I'm going to enjoy enslaving your soul and turning you into my private slut," Lumine's laughter echoed once more after Aubrey announced she intended to execute the five leaders, and though the Redmont forces were valiant fighters... they couldn't hold out forever. Lifting the glass to his lips to take a sip of the expensive whiskey, he shook his head and closed his eyes. A lazy, calm stride brought him back to the throne upon the upper deck of the fleet's flagship, the Reaper's Ascension and he took a seat. A content sigh left his lips, and he gestured for the pilot to begin approaching the Gate, the prize he had been after for nearly ten thousand years. And now, it was at long last... his. "Four of the hundred ships here will remain, as will all of our ground forces. They will destroy the Redmonts, and take control of Northcrest, plus the Gate. The fleet will move through the Gate, and there... we will announce to Aleris that their King was murdered by Redmonts, and we avenged him. His last wish... was for us to take the throne of Aleris." His ecstasy at the success of his scheme was blatantly obvious, even as the fleet began to drift towards the stark red glow of the Gate on the horizon.

"We've won, and there is nobody in all the realms that can stop us now!"

Ainsley had been in enough wars to know when one was lost, and this was one of them. However, despite the hopelessness of the situation she was not about to go down without a fight. She especially did not want to disappoint the ruthless Aubrey Ravenholm. So with quick feet, the Witch took off into the violent storm of Ravenholm troops, not waiting for a command from Daphne or anyone else. Ainsley was not going to allow Aubrey to gain any sort of upper hand. Lumine had crafted Aubrey's new undead body to wield magic, almost as if he had done it to spite Ainsley and give her some sort of counterpart. Ainsley had no idea what Aubrey was capable of right now, only that Lumine had created a puppet he was rather proud of and that she was flinging magic around quite fluidly.

"I will see you in Hell again first before you see me on my knees before you, Aubrey."

If it was fire Aubrey wanted to play with, Ainsley had something that would leave a bad taste in the undead wretch's mouth. Ainsley moved silently, sliding between fighting people and directed her troop where should could. The demonic creatures Ainsley had trained to work with her charged into the now battling crowd and took what troops of Lumine's they could. The Redmont and Alerian forces where vastly outnumbered to the Ravenholm army. At this point, Ainsley was not trying to win, but to buy some time.

The Alerian forces were useless at this point. The men who the Redmonts had rounded up and captured previously were now being slaughtered by whatever Ravenholm was in range. Untying them did no good either, as they just had no idea what to do with themselves being soulless and lost. Ainsley did what she could to protect them, but their lack of response just burdened the already heavy weight on her shoulders.

When Ainsley got a clear line of sight, the witch threw a ball of ice towards the ground. Upon impact with the bloodied battlefield, the ice travelled in a jagged line towards Aubrey and once it came to her feet, the ice exploded, hundreds of crystalized and frigid shard flying into the air. Ainsley didn't look back to see if her target had made it, but if it did Aubrey would find herself momentarily frozen.

Ainsley was moving forward dodging people and flinging small spells where she could. The Witch was making a circle around herself and gaining some space. She looked around for some assistance, but did not see any member of the Redmont family currently. All she saw was bodies falling one by one and Ravenholm soldiers as they still poured out of Lumine's Dreadstorms.

"Someone cover me!" Ainsley shouted, hoping in particular one of her family members had heard her.

This battle was drawing to a close with defeat in their corner and she needed to get as many as she could out; this would not be the last time Lumine saw her family. With two hands held out in front of her, Ainsley closed her eyes and allowed herself to find momentary peace and concentration regardless of the current situation. Once in a while, she would have to pause and move a hand to fend away an attacker with a spell. But surely enough, as ancient and almost melodic words flowed from her quickly moving lips, a flickering portal began to draw out in the air in front of her.

They were getting out of here, though she had no idea where.

Upon Lumine's imposing entrance, Alerion's pressed together into a tight line as he watched the Dreadstorms fill the sky and men jump ship into the fray of battle. So, this was Lumine's plan all along - to draw both sides out on the playing field where he could reap the benefits and slaughter as many helpless people as he could. Damn himself for not seeing through Lumine's nature of conquest.

There was no time to think about how to win in this situation; the Alerians and Redmonts had both been cast aside swiftly to the losing faction. While the Redmonts had stepped into the battle, he dismounted from his horse and drew his sword. Issuing out commands to what able bodied people he had left, Alerion readied himself to fight as well. Normally the king would stay towards the back of the ranks, protected until it was absolutely necessary for him to fight. Well, that time had come.

Alerion nodded solemnly to Lyseria. As one of the Goddesses of Aleris, stepping into the Outlands made her quite vulnerable as she was not on her own land. She was just as mortal as any one of the other Alerians who were dropping to the ground one by one, yet the Deity of Winter fought as valiantly as she could and took her fair share of Ravenholm troops. Wanting to secure Lyseria's safety, Alerion fought his way over to the Commander of the Royal Guard, Medora Desiderio, and covered her back for a moment while he spoke loudly to her. Since Medora was not from Aleris originally, she was not affected by the soul loss.

"Make sure she is not harmed! Protect her at all costs!"

Majority of Medora's Royal Guards had fallen, not by dueling but because of the soul sickness, and so Alerion had chosen the skillful Amazon to watch over Lyseria. It was then that Lyseria noticed she would be flanked by Medora and went to meet the Commander, the two moving together and subduing enemies where they could. It was likely that Lumine would gain control of Aleris and if anything were to happen to Lyseria, their chances for restoring the Alerian Empire would be impossible without all four peices of the deity puzzle.

Briefly, Alerion looked around the battle letting his eyes search for Alasiah Bluefield. He could not find her anywhere and wondered if the Bluefield had turned tail and ran back to the Ravenholms? Or was she out there somewhere, fighting alongside of them? Alerion had no chance to search for her and see who her allegiance was truly with. However, compared to Lumine’s actions, any possible betrayal from Alasiah would be a joke at this point.

Whenever the Redmonts and remaining Alerion forces seemed to be making a dent in the Ravenholm army, Lumine only cast more men out into the ocean of screams and roars, the clang of metal almost deafening. The Dreadstorms seemed to make no move; their steady hum was constantly in the sky with what seemed like an endless supply of forces ready to kill. There was no finality to the wave after wave of soldiers that poured onto the battlefield.

And so it was with great effort that he made his way to the spell casting Witch of the Redmont family, trying to assist her in her call for back up. His sword met its mark many times, but he found himself left with a large gash across his leg now, the cut running nearly from hip to knee. Alerion hissed at the pain, the blood running fresh from beneath his armor, but continued to hold the circle back where the Witch was drawing her portal. Alerion only hoped that the Redmonts, if their escape worked, would allow the left over Alerian forces to withdraw from this Hell also.