End of an Era (Project Chrysalis Book 2) by John Gold (popular books to read .TXT) 📕

raining down around us, but Fem just starts running around shrieking that I’m an idiot. Oh, she’s afraid of insects! I’m going to make her regret calling me what she did, and now I know how.

***

Lazerg Castle was preparing for defense. It was the third time the Golden Hand was preparing to repulse the undead, and all the high-level players were at the portal waiting for the command to port out if another castle was attacked.

Right after the fallen god Talamei stopped by, Leon developed a new strategy. All key castles were upgraded and outfitted with portals. The maximum number of stationary magic defense weapons were set up, and squads of fifty machines each assembled and manned by mages. Tactics were put together for fighting the undead inside the castles.

Under the new strategy, all available forces were supposed to port to the castle that was under attack. High-level players capable of withstanding the undead were assigned to the global operation. That went on for three months. Every thirty days, the undead assaulted one of the clan’s castles.

They weren’t able to fight off the first undead attack, and the Golden Hand lost Serbin, a citadel that simply wasn’t ready for it, overwhelmed by sheer numbers. Normal portals didn’t work. The liches made something like a storm in the astral that blocked them. In the end, the undead razed the castle to the ground.

The second attack was thrown back with the help of the machines and warriors hurrying through the stationary portals. Almost all the castle’s energy went from the shields to transportation.

But the undead then started using complex magic siege rituals, doing their best to take down the castle shields and neutralize their weapons. They weren’t able to do much damage at all because of the thick magic field.

Two lines of defense featuring mages and archers on the outer wall met the first wave of undead. The diversionary groups then joined forces to kill several necromancers heading up the attack, lifting the magic siege. In an instant, the mages reacted to wipe out all the undead dashing up to the walls.

The commandos were killed, but not before they’d carried out their mission, and the mages fell back to the second line of castle walls. Once there, they set up a trap for all the chimeric undead in the second wave, cutting them down once they got over the first ring of walls.

As soon as the chimeric undead got to the second line of defense, secret passageways in the first wall opened to unleash a swarm of close-combat fighters. They split into two equal groups. The first tried to win back the first wall, while the second hit the chimeric undead from the rear. Less than an hour later, the second wave was history.

The third wave was comprised of six raid bosses and twelve squads of local bosses. All were designed specifically for assaulting castles, and they did exactly what they were supposed to do. They moved forward in a wedge covered by the raid bosses. Five minutes later, the gate was broken, and the raid bosses had gotten through the walls. One world-eater climbed over a wall and set to work attacking the machines, mages, and close-combat fighters. Needless to say, the defenders were stunned when undead started pouring out of its body. The raid boss started losing health with each warrior he cut loose, though the attack was a good one.

The warriors inside focused their attention on the first victim, forgetting that it wasn’t their only opponent, however. They weakened the defenses of the first wall to rush the world-eater. In the end, Leon’s paladins had to get involved using the god’s avatar.

Only the avatars and the clan’s strongest fighters were involved in the third attack. Liches encircled the city in the stomachs of their bone dragons, sending curses and using their mounts’ breath of death. Only powerful magic attacks and the god himself were able to shoot the dragons down. Once they were on the ground, the troops were able to take out the liches. Leon was there as a raid leader to coordinate the fighters, though he didn’t kill anyone himself.

After the successful defense of the castle, the undead abandoned the area for a month. Leon’s reputation and glory skyrocketed. Hordes of warriors, farmers, collectors, and life mages rushed to his lands to work on their skills in a much more normal context, gather resources, and grow food. All of that was done under the watchful eye of the Golden Hand.

For the third month straight, the followers of the dark gods were harassed, sent into the mines, and herded onto islands that served as prison colonies. The entire world recognized the danger they posed. Quest after quest appeared, asking players to unmask those in their cults, and these led to new ways of boosting new magic skills and your reputation with the gods. News that the undead invasion would only stop when the fallen gods were destroyed brought humankind one step closer to victory. Knowing your enemy is half the battle, and that’s exactly what the players needed. Only the young gods knew what a daunting task lay ahead.

At the same time, a secret search was on for a boy who hadn’t been heard of for four months. The last time he’d been seen was in Kargan, in the south of Ovidius.

***

Relaxing after a long trip is the best. While there’s time, I decide to see what’s new in the orphanage. They put together a music room for us last month that isn’t even a virtual space; it’s an actual room where we can take lessons if we want. We picked it up from the city administration. After starting off in just the left wing, we’re starting to creep into the central area, where the biggest problem was buying the musical instruments themselves. They ended up costing half a million