Citadel Assault (Seth's task force)

The wagon quietly continued up the road led by its hooded owner. The night had a chill about it that bit at the cheeks, you had to wonder how any undead could function in it considering they had not internal body heat. Arriving at the gates of the citadel the wagon was immediately accosted by a dozen noth guards, each of them heavily armed and a mixture of zombies and skeletons with one vampire who wore a cape indicating his position as an officer. You had to admire the noth for their ability to function like a normal military, most undead were mindless, drooling wrecks.

“Who are you?” The vampire demanded, stepping toward the hooded figure with a scowl on his pale face.

“Supplies from the forward outpost.” The figure replied, indicating the tower that was just barely in view over the ridges in the distance.

The hooded man grinned, flashing two fangs and the vampire visibly relaxed upon seeing them, the idea that a vampire could not be noth was unthinkable to them. He waved the man and his wagon in and they entered through the citadel gates, the portcullis slamming shut behind him which made him turn his head a little in its direction before proceeding into the citadel courtyard with the wagon.

Stopping half-way through the spacious courtyard, he peered up at the main keep of the complex and gave a derisive snort. He hadn’t drawn the attention of the noth garrison yet, so he gave three firm thuds on the side of the wagon with his fist then stepped to one side. Suddenly the cover was flung off and a golden haired man stood up and spread a pair of white wings, suddenly a bright white light filled the courtyard and blinded any undead looking in their direction. The closest of them even burned in the divine light of the angel’s wings, a moment later a young woman with her eyes covered by a black sash leapt from the wagon.

“Eremial, keep up the light display until the portcullis is open.” The man said, pulling his hood away to reveal Seth’ryal. “Sumi, get the portcullis.”

The woman nodded and knocked the metal cap of her shoe on the ground, before setting off rapidly in the direction of the portcullis. She pulled a short, straight blade from a sheathe on her back and cut through several of the undead on her way, then swung the blade with all her might to cut the rope holding the portcullis - pity for the noth they weren’t using a chain to hold it, this might have been more difficult.

With the portcullis open the way into the citadel was clear, Seth’ryal pulled a flare gun from inside his cloak and fired it into the air, signalling the four units in hiding - including those led by Lilly’anna and Altieran. The extermination of the citadel had begun, Eremial stopped shining the light and a golden spear manifested in hand, which he immediately used to impale the vampire who had allowed them into the citadel.

“Eremial, Sumi, on me!” Seth’ryal ordered, making both of them rush to his position to fight the oncoming garrison while they awaited the arrival of their comrades.

Lilly waits with her team patiently for the signal a spear across her back and a blow gun in her hands on her belt are several pouches each containing different types of poison darts. she grins when she sees it and signals her team to move in. The slip almost silently into the open gate her team taking the left wing leaving the right for Alterians team. she lingers behind for a moment to give her husband a kiss on the cheek I cant believe they didn't even check you where right about their intelligence. " she grins then heads off with her team as the fist way of undead start coming out from the buildings.

As they begin fighting the hundred or so noth in the court yard arrows start to pour down from the walls one striking her in the calf she winces in pain then takes a quick glance at the wall She gives a series of three short whistles and she and half her team fly up and begin engaging the fifty or so archers on the wall .Lilly throwing her spear in the the chest of the one that had shot her leg she breaks the shaft of the arrow neat the skin so it doesn't impede her moment but leaves it in her flesh not wanting to have to stop to deal with a bleeding wound. She removes her spear and uses it to fed off a blow from a noth sword smirking as one from her team run it through from behind flinging off the wall onto one of hits allies down below

The Vampire captain marched swiftly down the wide boulevard with a large squad of undead creatures. "I want to know what the hell is going on out there! We'll crush these invaders, for the glory of Noth!" the Vampire roared loudly above the not-too-distant sound of battle. Just then, the sound of someone slurping loudly on a drink drew his attention to a man sitting on a bench to his left. Altieran sat with one leg crossed over the other, his cane resting against the bench beside him, as he sipped on a cup of green tea.

"What's going on, my dear undead thing, is that my nephew and his men are currently decimating your forces, even though they're likely outnumbered at least twenty to one, by my rough estimate. Oh, and you won't crush us, I can assure you of that." he grinned before taking another sip of his tea. The Vampire at first looked dumbstruck, but quickly regained his composure as he laughed and signalled for his troops to attack Altieran. He was swarmed by a dozen of the undead at once, each trying to cut, stab and hack at him, but none of their weapons seemed to have any effect on him. It wasn't until one of them knocked his tea out of his hands that Altieran even showed any sign of noticing them. He grabbed the one who had knocked the cup to the ground by the neck, and immediately it burst into bright emerald flames, falling to the ground screaming in agony. He stood up, and the rest were thrown back by an invisible force, bursting into flames as they flew through the air. He picked up his cane and glared at the leader of the squad of undead. "Attacking me is one thing, but that cup is a priceless antique! You will pay for that."

He held out his cane in front of him, muttering a few indecipherable words as the cane began to glow brightly, growing slowly as it began to form into a large scythe, at least two and a half times as long as Altieran was tall, and burning with the same emerald fire which had reduced the undead assailants to ash. Altieran whistled, and from the sky came swooping down his own squad members, each of them diving headlong into the group of undead as Altieran charged headlong at the vampire captain. The fight was over quickly, and none were left standing. Altieran motioned for his squad to move to regroup with Seth and Lilly.

The fight was going well, not that anyone could have doubted it would. While the fight became heated, Seth slipped away from the battle and made his way through the main doors into the keep. It was a large place, with steps going in all directions, but he walked with purpose toward the main set of stairs and up them. As he did there was a faint yellow starting to rise in his irises, but it was quickly forced back by the natural purple of his eyes as he hissed out a breath.

"Not yet, Azazel, soon." He demanded, speaking of course to the devil within.

Seth entered the main chamber of the keep which consisted of a walkway that led to a plinth, upon which was a single green orb which looked like it carried some kind of sorcerous power. Approaching the orb, he stopped and stared at it for a moment until he could hold Azazel back no longer. The yellow overtook his irises and then spread so that the whites of his eyes were enveloped by it, and his pupils turned to thin slits like those of a serpent. Azazel reached out with Seth's hand and grasped the orb, raising it until a fiery green eye appeared in it.

"Hello, Noth!" Azazel greeted, his voice filled with an unsettling glee at having gotten Noth's attention. "Remember me?"

Azazel stuck his face close to the orb, opening one eye a little more than the other as though this was the source by which Noth would recognise him, the eye in the orb seemed to widen and Azazel leant back cackling insanely at the obvious recognition. He began to walk toward the other end of the hall which led out onto a balcony from where you could see the entire sprawling landscape corrupted by Noth's power over the dead, the land was cracked in places with sickly green light pouring from these scars.

Slowly, Azazel licked his lips and leaned toward the orb again, his sickly smile still plastered on Seth's face. He slowly ran his tongue along the orb, then spat as though disgusted by what he tasted.

"Sorcery, Noth? Really? You fucking sicken me. Me of all people!" Azazel threw his head back and cackled insanely again, before lunging forward to glare coldly at the orb with the smile gone. "You executed my parents, Noth. Cut their heads clean off. Noth, Noth, Nothy, Noth! I'm going to leave you with Noth-ing. GAHAHAHA! GET IT?!"

He turned a little so Noth could see his citadel falling to the Midnight inquisitors, leaning on the balcony with his arm around the orb as though he had it around a close friend, a wistful and deliciously insane smile on his face. Once he'd gotten bored with showing Noth the view, he turned the orb again to face him in his hand while turning back toward the broken landscape beyond the citadel.

"I'm going to take down everything you've built piece by piece, think of you as the spider and me as the cruel child tugging off your legs!" He giggled almost gleefully at the idea, then looked at the orb seriously again. "Then I'm going to come for you, and carve the names of my parents and Seth's mother in your fucking chest. Bye bye, Noth."

With that he gave a coy little wave before smashing the orb on the balcony wall, sending a pullar of green light soaring into the sky. The noth soldiers below noticed the light and cried out, knowing exactly what it meant before turning on their attackers more ferociously than before. Azazel turned from the balcony and walked back through the wall, the walls starting to crumble as he went from the explosion of the orb. His eyes returned to purple, showing that Seth had control again, and as he came out into the courtyard his eye cast upward as a black comet streaked through the skies above leaving an eerie white trail behind it.

With that, he drew his blade and rejoined the battle.

Lilly watches as the noth begin to fight harder as the light flies over head. She didn't stop to look at it though just having noticed it in the corner of her eye. Seth had made short work of that. she thought as she fended off a blow rose into the air just slightly to drive the spear deep into its skull one of her team moving in instantly to fill the spot it had left. Soon the walls where clear though more kept coming up the ramps from deeper in the keep but the bottle neck was easy enough to hold in check that she left half her team up there and took the other half to rejoin the fighting in the court yard.