The Whispering Weald was a festering wound on the physical plane. The natural vegetation violently mutated as Lucifer's legion marched deeper into the ancient forest.
The heavy gray fog turned a sickly luminescent green. The massive oak trees bled thick black sap that hissed as it pooled on the dead rotting soil. The air tasted heavy with the stench of open graves and dark magic.
This biome had been completely overtaken by necromantic corruption.
Lucifer walked point. His boots sank slightly into the spongy diseased earth. The Carnage Core pulsed rapidly at his waist. It sensed the overwhelming presence of death magic in the immediate vicinity.
Elara flanked him tightly. Her celestial aura naturally repelled the toxic green mist to create a safe breathable pocket around them.
The five thousand Cryo-Vanguards maintained a flawless staggered diamond formation behind them. They moved through the dense forest completely silently. Their heavy ice-rifles continuously scanned the dark canopy above and the rotting underbrush below.
"The ground is hollow," Elara warned as her starlight eyes narrowed. "I sense hundreds of thousands of dormant life signatures buried exactly three feet beneath the soil. They possess no body heat."
"Rot Walkers," Lucifer confirmed and gripped his broadsword. "Mindless undead infantry. They ambush by pulling targets down into the dirt. Standard military formations usually break entirely when the ground itself starts attacking."
Lucifer had watched an entire royal regiment get dragged screaming into the mud in this exact forest in his previous life.
The soldiers had panicked and broken their shield walls to strike at the dirt. This left their flanks completely exposed.
Lucifer would not make that mistake. He knew exactly how the necromantic hive mind operated. It favored perfectly timed pincer movements.
"Commander," Lucifer spoke. His voice carried back to the Elven leader. "Halt the column. Form a perimeter of an outward-facing hollow square. Lock boots to the earth. Do not fire until the targets have fully breached the surface."
The Vanguard halted instantly. Five thousand heavily armored boots slammed down in unison and locked together. They formed a massive impenetrable blue square in the center of the rotting clearing. They raised their rifles and aimed downward at a forty-five-degree angle.
The forest fell terrifyingly silent.
The ground then violently erupted.
Thousands of rotting skeletal hands violently burst through the muddy soil directly inside and outside the Vanguard's formation.
Decaying corpses clad in rusted ancient armor began forcefully dragging themselves out of the earth. Their jaws snapped wildly and dripped with black bile.
The thick black-barked trees completely surrounding the clearing split open vertically at the same time. Hundreds of bloated fast-moving Ghoul-variants launched themselves from the hollowed trunks.
They screamed as they leaped through the air directly toward the Elven snipers.
"Now," Lucifer commanded.
The Vanguard did not flinch at the horrifying ambush. They executed their orders with cold precision.
The frontline snipers aimed directly downward. They fired a synchronized point-blank volley into the dirt. The absolute zero beams struck the rising Rot Walkers in their chests and skulls.
The devastating sub-zero temperature instantly flash-froze the muddy soil and the undead attempting to rise from it. The force shattered the frozen zombies into harmless decaying ice dust.
The second and third ranks of the Vanguard aimed sharply upward simultaneously. They tracked the leaping Ghouls in mid-air. The whine of recharging arcane batteries screamed.
"Fire!"
Thousands of azure beams laced the green foggy sky. The leaping Ghouls were struck mid-trajectory. They froze solid mid-scream and completely lost all forward momentum.
They dropped from the air like heavy stones and shattered violently upon impact with the frozen ground.
Lucifer stood in the center of the formation. His Carnage Core glowed a blinding crimson as it eagerly devoured the massive influx of death energy.
He tracked the movements in the treeline. The necromancer controlling this zone was trying to pivot the remaining horde to the weaker southern flank.
"Three seconds before they breach the southern tree line," Lucifer shouted. His future tactical knowledge predicted the exact pathing of the undead algorithm. "Rear guard, pivot one hundred and eighty degrees. Maximum wide-spread volley on my mark!"
The rear line of the Vanguard spun simultaneously and dropped to one knee.
A massive condensed tidal wave of heavily armored Rot Walkers burst through the southern trees exactly three seconds later. They charged blindly forward.
"Fire!"
The volley completely eradicated the charge. The absolute zero magic physically carved a frozen tunnel directly through the dense forest. It snapped massive trees in half and turned the entire undead wave into a pulverized glacier.
[Ding!]
[Host has slain Rot Walker (Level 12) x 4,500]
[Host has slain Ghoul (Level 15) x 1,200]
[Apex Multiplier triggered...]
Lucifer felt the massive golden surge of multiplied experience flood his system. His muscles burned and instantly regenerated tighter and stronger. His level forcefully ticked upward. His attributes skyrocketed past the baseline mortal limits.
He did not check his stats. A new sound suddenly cut through the dying shrieks of the undead.
It was faint and muffled by the dense green fog but unmistakable. It was the heavy ringing clash of consecrated steel against bone.
"Holy magic," Elara stated and looked deeply toward the eastern quadrant of the forest. "Faint and failing rapidly. Someone is utilizing celestial barriers, but the structural integrity is completely collapsing."
Lucifer narrowed his eyes. He knew exactly what was out there. This specific location held a heavily fortified outpost belonging to the Lumina Order in his past timeline.
The Lumina Order was the primary religious military force of the human kingdoms. This exact chapel was entirely overrun by the undead during the first week of the Great Integration.
Every paladin and priest inside was slaughtered. Their corpses were added to the plague horde.
He needed the Lumina Order. He did not need them for their faith but for their deep political influence and their monopoly on high-tier healing classes.
Saving this chapel would grant him a massive undeniable leverage over the Church hierarchy in the capital.
"Reform the column," Lucifer commanded and wiped a splatter of black bile from his leather coat. "We push east on double time."
The legion moved aggressively. They crushed the frozen remains of the undead beneath their heavy boots. Lucifer activated the Zephyr's Grace Emblem and darted ahead of the main force. He physically carved a path through the dense rotting vegetation with his broadsword.
They broke through a thick wall of dead thorny vines and stepped out into a massive heavily scarred clearing.
The Lumina Chapel stood in the center of the clearing. It was a beautiful stark white stone structure featuring tall stained-glass windows depicting solar flares. A terrifying sea of shifting moaning corpses currently surrounded it.
A shimmering golden dome of pure holy magic completely encompassed the chapel. The dome was severely flickering.
Deep jagged cracks violently spread across the surface of the barrier as thousands of Rot Walkers relentlessly slammed their bodies against it.
A squad of heavily armored Paladins fought desperately to hold the line on the front steps of the chapel where the barrier had already failed.
They swung glowing golden greatswords. They were exhausted, bleeding, and entirely overwhelmed by the sheer unending numbers.
A tall man wearing ornate gold-trimmed plate armor roared in defiance at the front of the Paladin line. He decapitated a Ghoul before taking a heavy raking claw across his chest plate.
"That barrier fails in thirty seconds," Elara assessed and prepared to launch herself into the fray.
"They do not have thirty seconds," Lucifer said coldly. The ground completely surrounding the chapel began to bulge violently. The necromantic energy in the air spiked to a suffocating degree.
The true threat had not even arrived yet.
"Vanguard," Lucifer shouted and drew his blade. "Lock onto the perimeter of the holy barrier. Exterminate the horde."