The Momentary Dreadlord
A Dreadlord is below an overlord. A Draugr reaching this level of power hasn’t happened for the last eight months. Undead Plagues are not unusual in the lanes and outside of Changye; the difference is the Draugr who managed to evolve beyond the usual. From a Wight to a Scourge, and finally into a Dreadlord.
The Undead has a rite to usurp the body of another. Especially one it has made a thrall. Usually, it’s just for another limb. Undead have this manner of procuring multiple limbs and Casters, who use spells, prefer to have many limbs. They conjure spectral limbs to perform the gestures and hand movements while their free hands are using a conduit.
The WRETCHED of the Undead performs a rite that ‘consumes’ the body of the thrall and they make use of the body to elevate themselves. In this case the Dreadlord is using the body of the concrete anomaly as sustenance; an unnatural abomination used as a conduit to perform the abilities of the concrete man by sharing its mind together. You have to understand the Undead is already dangerous. But an abomination capable of usurping the body of an anomaly requires EXTREME action to justify the deadly force.
CHANGYE is a place where the Otherside Bureau thrives. Where the Church Union assists them in the judgment and the assessment of the threat. Further inspection, and appropriate judgment of the threat is based on how much damage is calculated – on which the occurrence of loss is far greater than the threat itself.
Our deployment here is meant to negate the loss and capture the anomaly and the monster within considerable loss. We are assets who are a dozen and can be replaced. So when there is a threat considered to be so menacing. Enough to level a pillar and increase the miasmic aura of the lanes. We can only report it to the Bureau and the Church for further actions.
Miasma causes diseases and induces vulnerability to the mind. Each wound is infected with a necrotic aura and raising the dead is easier to do when there is a constant aura of miasma in the air. And it looks like our discovery has made the Dread Lord of the Lanes progress its plans faster than he had intended. The increase in miasma. The legion of the undead production. And the raised soldiers who are armed and ready to fight.
Unable to destroy the Dread Lord. We wisely thought of retreat. Eta wanted to try, but the sight of the ten-foot tall flesh golems in concrete armor and great clubs made her courage wither away. Slaughtering our way from the vantage point to a retreat outpost where our associates are holding back the wave of undead.
I saw one of them strike down an orb of flesh firing tendrils in one blow.
“Ah, you three the ones who sent that data? We were planning to hold for more, but this ain’t good.”
Kei taps her teleforce cane on the ground and shoulders it.
“Name’s Kei, this is Eta, and our Assistant. Yes, we reported the Dread Lord’s appearance.”
“Name is Flores. Nice to meet y’all. We can finally get out of this shithole after this.”
With the Dread Lord roaming in this area. We know for sure the OB and the TCU aren't going to let it stay for too long. A Dreadlord isn’t going to be left alive in the vicinity of the Changye.
“Now you three are here. We better move.”
He issues the command to retreat on the radio. All of our associates started to abandon their lines and made a firing retreat to the center. The artillery and mortar team held a blasting line while we did. Preventing the large chunks of the undead from catching up.
The sight never really gets old. On both sides of the tenements I’m seeing the undead jumping from the side and diving towards us. The fall usually breaks them, but when they hit an associate, with an average human weight hitting you from 14-story high and is enough to stagger you. The undead are throwing themselves at us. It also doesn’t help that the undead have learned how to make use of the flesh pits under the misery lanes. The sight of rotten biomass skewering our associates left and right. Dodging the concrete-tipped tendrils made anyone who didn’t wear protection of any kind too wounded and slow.
Following Flores was a boon. The man is fast and his strikes are lethal. His team aren’t pushovers as well. They are able to keep up with him and because we stayed close to this man we are able to reach a blessed area.
The sight of the Neo Crusaders charging at the Undead screaming ‘Deus Vult’ on the top of their lungs was a sight I never thought I’d be more happy to see. The Neo Crusaders butchered the undead coming our way and because they are able to hold the undead, we were able to reach the battered center where the only thing you can smell is the fumes of the flamethrower and aroma of the chrism oil permeating in the air. The thurible-carrying acolytes of the Church are purifying the air, however the miasma is too thick to be contained and not even the holy protection of the church can easily withstand it without the incense burning all the time.
“Well, glad that is over. See you around, you three!”
Flores and his team left. I followed Kei and Eta to our usual spot in the center and sat down, catching our breaths and nursing any wound sustained while a church acolyte is holding a gun ‘just in case’ we need a rather more grave treatment.
“Are we all good now?”
The acolyte smiles at us as if relieved we aren’t turning into an undead and left to the next team. The Church has an understandable zero-tolerance when it comes to the Undead. And although there are individuals who didn’t deserve it to have been condemned to death because of it. We cannot allow the undead to prosper, and let the abominations live. It may sound fanatical and tyrannical, but it’s how the world flourishes now.
When the world is cruel, we respond through cruelty as well. Only those who are so strong and above can be kind and merciful. The weak do not have the ability to show mercy, while the strong can.
We are all weak and thus we are cruel.
***
With the Bureau and the Church holding a conference in the middle of an undead incursion. The Associates gathered here under their command have been tasked to defend the CENTER while the Bureau deploys the Graded Agents to do their bidding.
It took fifty testimonies from the associates to call for the conference. And ten more to confirm the appearance of the Dreadlord. Bureaucracy is an ever-sore mistress for all of us. But without it we’ll be in chaos, disorganized, and without any structure of command.
Of course, it also works because our transmitters receive cash which makes us obedient. The conference is basically a reading of a report and the expression of opinion from the Commanders, and the Association Leaders who showed their assessment to the Bureau and the Church.
“A fascinating assessment.”
The Bishop of Changye turns to Sato who is representing the Shichinin no Ken.
“My associates have observed the rapid changes. We deemed the MONSTER dangerous for its natural ability to use concrete. It can bend concrete to its will. It has no form of magic. No system and it is certainly not one we’ve learned. We believe the consumption of the ‘concrete man’ anomaly my associates have been tracking made it more possible.”
Sato explains the anomalies curtly, while curiously marketing we have the information regarding Anomalies and possibly more. Kei’s face did not look good, but I can tell she didn’t hate the idea of having rumors thrown at her. It means more money and business.
“Then we can assume that this threat needs immediate execution?”
Bishop Augustus leaned back on his throne. The Bishop’s stole radiates with divinity and one can tell he was chosen by the Pope, who has been mandated by Heavens. One would expect the Bishop to be an old man who is frail and weak, but not this one.
Bishop Augustus is an old man who has lived the ages. A perpetual servant of God that has lived ever since the broadcast of the moon and has been alive since then. You could say he’s an anomaly himself, but the way people see it. He is a man who has been blessed by God and has been appointed as its guardian. Everyone feels better if he really is and no one wants to think otherwise. If the Bishop wasn't here, Changye would have been a much more soulless place. There is so little you could do about Changye and one man isn’t enough to fix it all.
“I see. Then it shall be done. I thank all for your services and your sacrifices. All associates will be paid their due and be compensated for their actions.”
Commander Arthur, the one leading the Bureau in Changye checks the data again before answering the Bishop in earnest.
“I agree. We shall send Agents to this point. I hope the Bishop can redirect its forces to protect the pillars that hold Changye together.”
The Bishop agrees. The conference ends with the death sentence of the Anomaly.
“Guess the misery lanes won’t be inhabited for a month or two after this.”
“How long has it been? Since the misery lane got purged like this.”
“Twenty years ago, I think.”
Eta answers, she is nursing her arms.
“Been a while then, guess after this they’ll try to do those megatowers they have been pushing.”
“Wasn’t it on the net? How did they want it in the first place?”
Eta sits close. Kei removes her filter and takes a smoke while trying hard to enjoy her cigarette.
“Maybe? But I doubt this is planned. The Draugr might be, but the anomaly, I don’t think so.”
Kei snorts and takes a long drag of her cigarette. Her face looks bad. I wonder if she doesn’t give a shit about the miasma right now.
“Who knows? At this point, I just want this done, get back to my apartment, get some shower, and sleep without worrying about the undead trying to kill us.”
Eta nods curtly, applying an injection on her augments to cool it down. Honestly, her arms look like it’s bruising underneath.
“You got a point there.”
I lowered my guard down for a moment. I looked at my gauntlet. It’s been wrecked and the grappling unit is smashed. It was a good purchase, but being wrecked too much made it unusable.
I tossed it and kept the battery unit.
Outside of the CENTER, up above the tenements the Bureau VTOLS are skirting the sky and yet it only brings Dread. It didn’t take long for the lanes to change. One look at the drone footage and we can see the EX Graded Agents, slaughtering their way to the Dreadlord.
Three of them butchered their way to the Dreadlord. The Dreadlord only became aware of their existence after 5 seconds of breaking the sound barrier, was able to sever through multiple bones with the thin blade of theirs and nearly bisected the Dreadlord cleanly in half. In response, the Dreadlord recovers its bones, connecting it within 3 seconds. Then watched a man sprint away at 80 miles per hour, towards one of his thralls. Not a second after the thrall was cut in two, the Dreadlord witnessed the thralls it raised decapitated, as the augmented superhumans butchering his thralls casually dodged 3 thralls he raised firing their weapons nearly point blank at them as if they were just shouldering through a moving crowd. When a shot finally connected, the bullet crumpled on their skin, falling away without them noticing. The Dreadlord moved his limbs twice, and defended against four cuts and then used the concrete below to slow them down and yet it meant nothing as they forced their legs out of the concrete and continued cutting. The entire ordeal took less than a minute and before long the fight that most of the Associates couldn’t follow began earnestly.
The top dogs of the planet have come to execute another monster.
The Momentary Dreadlord
A Dreadlord is below an overlord. A Draugr reaching this level of power hasn’t happened for the last eight months. Undead Plagues are not unusual in the lanes and outside of Changye; the difference is the Draugr who managed to evolve beyond the usual. From a Wight to a Scourge, and finally into a Dreadlord.
The Undead has a rite to usurp the body of another. Especially one it has made a thrall. Usually, it’s just for another limb. Undead have this manner of procuring multiple limbs and Casters, who use spells, prefer to have many limbs. They conjure spectral limbs to perform the gestures and hand movements while their free hands are using a conduit.
The WRETCHED of the Undead performs a rite that ‘consumes’ the body of the thrall and they make use of the body to elevate themselves. In this case the Dreadlord is using the body of the concrete anomaly as sustenance; an unnatural abomination used as a conduit to perform the abilities of the concrete man by sharing its mind together. You have to understand the Undead is already dangerous. But an abomination capable of usurping the body of an anomaly requires EXTREME action to justify the deadly force.
CHANGYE is a place where the Otherside Bureau thrives. Where the Church Union assists them in the judgment and the assessment of the threat. Further inspection, and appropriate judgment of the threat is based on how much damage is calculated – on which the occurrence of loss is far greater than the threat itself.
Our deployment here is meant to negate the loss and capture the anomaly and the monster within considerable loss. We are assets who are a dozen and can be replaced. So when there is a threat considered to be so menacing. Enough to level a pillar and increase the miasmic aura of the lanes. We can only report it to the Bureau and the Church for further actions.
Miasma causes diseases and induces vulnerability to the mind. Each wound is infected with a necrotic aura and raising the dead is easier to do when there is a constant aura of miasma in the air. And it looks like our discovery has made the Dread Lord of the Lanes progress its plans faster than he had intended. The increase in miasma. The legion of the undead production. And the raised soldiers who are armed and ready to fight.
Unable to destroy the Dread Lord. We wisely thought of retreat. Eta wanted to try, but the sight of the ten-foot tall flesh golems in concrete armor and great clubs made her courage wither away. Slaughtering our way from the vantage point to a retreat outpost where our associates are holding back the wave of undead.
I saw one of them strike down an orb of flesh firing tendrils in one blow.
“Ah, you three the ones who sent that data? We were planning to hold for more, but this ain’t good.”
Kei taps her teleforce cane on the ground and shoulders it.
“Name’s Kei, this is Eta, and our Assistant. Yes, we reported the Dread Lord’s appearance.”
“Name is Flores. Nice to meet y’all. We can finally get out of this shithole after this.”
With the Dread Lord roaming in this area. We know for sure the OB and the TCU aren't going to let it stay for too long. A Dreadlord isn’t going to be left alive in the vicinity of the Changye.
“Now you three are here. We better move.”
He issues the command to retreat on the radio. All of our associates started to abandon their lines and made a firing retreat to the center. The artillery and mortar team held a blasting line while we did. Preventing the large chunks of the undead from catching up.
The sight never really gets old. On both sides of the tenements I’m seeing the undead jumping from the side and diving towards us. The fall usually breaks them, but when they hit an associate, with an average human weight hitting you from 14-story high and is enough to stagger you. The undead are throwing themselves at us. It also doesn’t help that the undead have learned how to make use of the flesh pits under the misery lanes. The sight of rotten biomass skewering our associates left and right. Dodging the concrete-tipped tendrils made anyone who didn’t wear protection of any kind too wounded and slow.
Following Flores was a boon. The man is fast and his strikes are lethal. His team aren’t pushovers as well. They are able to keep up with him and because we stayed close to this man we are able to reach a blessed area.
The sight of the Neo Crusaders charging at the Undead screaming ‘Deus Vult’ on the top of their lungs was a sight I never thought I’d be more happy to see. The Neo Crusaders butchered the undead coming our way and because they are able to hold the undead, we were able to reach the battered center where the only thing you can smell is the fumes of the flamethrower and aroma of the chrism oil permeating in the air. The thurible-carrying acolytes of the Church are purifying the air, however the miasma is too thick to be contained and not even the holy protection of the church can easily withstand it without the incense burning all the time.
“Well, glad that is over. See you around, you three!”
Flores and his team left. I followed Kei and Eta to our usual spot in the center and sat down, catching our breaths and nursing any wound sustained while a church acolyte is holding a gun ‘just in case’ we need a rather more grave treatment.
“Are we all good now?”
The acolyte smiles at us as if relieved we aren’t turning into an undead and left to the next team. The Church has an understandable zero-tolerance when it comes to the Undead. And although there are individuals who didn’t deserve it to have been condemned to death because of it. We cannot allow the undead to prosper, and let the abominations live. It may sound fanatical and tyrannical, but it’s how the world flourishes now.
When the world is cruel, we respond through cruelty as well. Only those who are so strong and above can be kind and merciful. The weak do not have the ability to show mercy, while the strong can.
We are all weak and thus we are cruel.
***
With the Bureau and the Church holding a conference in the middle of an undead incursion. The Associates gathered here under their command have been tasked to defend the CENTER while the Bureau deploys the Graded Agents to do their bidding.
It took fifty testimonies from the associates to call for the conference. And ten more to confirm the appearance of the Dreadlord. Bureaucracy is an ever-sore mistress for all of us. But without it we’ll be in chaos, disorganized, and without any structure of command.
Of course, it also works because our transmitters receive cash which makes us obedient. The conference is basically a reading of a report and the expression of opinion from the Commanders, and the Association Leaders who showed their assessment to the Bureau and the Church.
“A fascinating assessment.”
The Bishop of Changye turns to Sato who is representing the Shichinin no Ken.
“My associates have observed the rapid changes. We deemed the MONSTER dangerous for its natural ability to use concrete. It can bend concrete to its will. It has no form of magic. No system and it is certainly not one we’ve learned. We believe the consumption of the ‘concrete man’ anomaly my associates have been tracking made it more possible.”
Sato explains the anomalies curtly, while curiously marketing we have the information regarding Anomalies and possibly more. Kei’s face did not look good, but I can tell she didn’t hate the idea of having rumors thrown at her. It means more money and business.
“Then we can assume that this threat needs immediate execution?”
Bishop Augustus leaned back on his throne. The Bishop’s stole radiates with divinity and one can tell he was chosen by the Pope, who has been mandated by Heavens. One would expect the Bishop to be an old man who is frail and weak, but not this one.
Bishop Augustus is an old man who has lived the ages. A perpetual servant of God that has lived ever since the broadcast of the moon and has been alive since then. You could say he’s an anomaly himself, but the way people see it. He is a man who has been blessed by God and has been appointed as its guardian. Everyone feels better if he really is and no one wants to think otherwise. If the Bishop wasn't here, Changye would have been a much more soulless place. There is so little you could do about Changye and one man isn’t enough to fix it all.
“I see. Then it shall be done. I thank all for your services and your sacrifices. All associates will be paid their due and be compensated for their actions.”
Commander Arthur, the one leading the Bureau in Changye checks the data again before answering the Bishop in earnest.
“I agree. We shall send Agents to this point. I hope the Bishop can redirect its forces to protect the pillars that hold Changye together.”
The Bishop agrees. The conference ends with the death sentence of the Anomaly.
“Guess the misery lanes won’t be inhabited for a month or two after this.”
“How long has it been? Since the misery lane got purged like this.”
“Twenty years ago, I think.”
Eta answers, she is nursing her arms.
“Been a while then, guess after this they’ll try to do those megatowers they have been pushing.”
“Wasn’t it on the net? How did they want it in the first place?”
Eta sits close. Kei removes her filter and takes a smoke while trying hard to enjoy her cigarette.
“Maybe? But I doubt this is planned. The Draugr might be, but the anomaly, I don’t think so.”
Kei snorts and takes a long drag of her cigarette. Her face looks bad. I wonder if she doesn’t give a shit about the miasma right now.
“Who knows? At this point, I just want this done, get back to my apartment, get some shower, and sleep without worrying about the undead trying to kill us.”
Eta nods curtly, applying an injection on her augments to cool it down. Honestly, her arms look like it’s bruising underneath.
“You got a point there.”
I lowered my guard down for a moment. I looked at my gauntlet. It’s been wrecked and the grappling unit is smashed. It was a good purchase, but being wrecked too much made it unusable.
I tossed it and kept the battery unit.
Outside of the CENTER, up above the tenements the Bureau VTOLS are skirting the sky and yet it only brings Dread. It didn’t take long for the lanes to change. One look at the drone footage and we can see the EX Graded Agents, slaughtering their way to the Dreadlord.
Three of them butchered their way to the Dreadlord. The Dreadlord only became aware of their existence after 5 seconds of breaking the sound barrier, was able to sever through multiple bones with the thin blade of theirs and nearly bisected the Dreadlord cleanly in half. In response, the Dreadlord recovers its bones, connecting it within 3 seconds. Then watched a man sprint away at 80 miles per hour, towards one of his thralls. Not a second after the thrall was cut in two, the Dreadlord witnessed the thralls it raised decapitated, as the augmented superhumans butchering his thralls casually dodged 3 thralls he raised firing their weapons nearly point blank at them as if they were just shouldering through a moving crowd. When a shot finally connected, the bullet crumpled on their skin, falling away without them noticing. The Dreadlord moved his limbs twice, and defended against four cuts and then used the concrete below to slow them down and yet it meant nothing as they forced their legs out of the concrete and continued cutting. The entire ordeal took less than a minute and before long the fight that most of the Associates couldn’t follow began earnestly.
The top dogs of the planet have come to execute another monster.
