Dead Nerds Society: What Do You Mean My Guild Was Also Isekaid?-Chapter 67: Before the Storm

"This data... the readings are all wrong. What’s going on?"

Taal’ith’s body had abandoned the more humanlike form. Instead, he was now a smooth black sphere speckled with golden circuits. From the sphere, several tentacles were spreading out.

He was in what looked like a cockpit, with several curved screens around him in all directions. The screens were showing several graphs, tables, and all kinds of data. Some were showing a few scenes, like live cameras.

There were several keyboard-like apparels below the screens, and all the tentacles were furiously typing in them, at a speed almost too fast to follow with the naked eye.

"The last ten reincarnators are stranded. But what happened? And where are all those other souls coming from? There shouldn’t be that many!"

His voice had a pitch higher than at any other moment, and the smooth sphere sometimes showed signs of wavering and trembling.

"This has to go through. If the last batch doesn’t reincarnate properly..."

:::

Cecilia had just finished talking with Aelindra and was trying to process the information when another message came, this time from Martin.

[Hi, Cecilia! How are things on your side? There have been some weird mana fluctuations coming from Drakestadt.]

[Oh, Martin! Things are bad. I’m at the old Eclipse Sanctuary. It’s a long story, but the third batch of players is stranded. Or, better, their souls are stranded here. I’m going to do a ritual here to try to help them, but an undead army spawned in Drakenhof.]

[Wait, wait. What do you mean stranded? And how the hell did an undead army spawn?]

[I told you, it’s a long story. I can handle things here with the souls. Helen is among them. But that means I can’t help the capital. Can you go there?]

[Right. I’ll be there soon. But later I want a full report.]

[Sure thing. Thanks, Leader!]

Cecilia closed the chat, feeling relieved. With her guild leader protecting the capital, she could focus on the ritual properly.

She instructed Mina about the things she should bring for the ritual and sent her on her way.

"I would usually do the ritual inside the sanctuary’s inner chamber, but Aenoth was attracting the souls to this cave here, so I think that it will be better if I do it here. Because of that, create your rune to come back on the outside so its mana doesn’t conflict with the ritual."

:::

"Your Majesty, the Oracle of the Cycle is here and wants to talk to you."

"Let her in."

Aelindra was standing at the side of the map where officers were constantly updating the positions of the army, looking apprehensive.

A few moments later, a woman entered the room. She was tall and a bit gloomy, wearing a purple-black, high-collared mantle that looked like a veil. It was long, splitting into two long tapered panels that reached the ground.

The woman bowed deeply.

"Your Majesty. I heard you summoned me here."

"Yes, Lady Thalen, Oracle of the Cycle. I don’t know how much you’ve heard about it, but the fact is that the city is being besieged by undead as we speak."

The woman who currently wielded the highest position within Ephemerys’ church gasped audibly. It was obvious that she wasn’t aware of the fact.

"An undead army? H-how? And how many?"

"Eighty thousand. Can I have the help of your church?"

"Of course. The kingdom of Drakestadt can always count on us, Wise Queen Aelindra. I’ll dispatch all priests we have to the battle. Where do I rally them?"

"Send one group to each gate and tell them to the captain there."

"Understood, Your Majesty."

After a curt bow, Lady Thalen hurried out of the hall. Nobody had any leeway to show the usual courtesy.

:::

Martin was at the top of one of the towers of the Obsidian Keep. It was a secret room only he knew existed. The walls had windows that were only visible from the inside.

He was by a window, staring outside at the already visible undead army.

"I’ve never seen an army this big. But it’s understandable. The scale of the world has grown since the time of the game. Now... how do I help the people here without being seen...?"

A tremor ran down the tower’s ancient stones.

He straightened, rolling his shoulders once. He joined his hands together, cracking his knuckles.

He tore his gaze from the window and crossed the chamber. The walls here were covered in chalk sigils he had updated after his return. Those were wards, anchors, and other defense mechanisms. The air tingled when he brushed his fingers over them.

"I’ll have to use the long route..."

He opened a compartment hidden beneath a loose stone. Four narrow tablets lay within, each etched with filigree too delicate for mortal hands. He selected an obsidian-inlaid rectangle no larger than a bookmark and pressed his thumb to it.

The glyphs awakened instantly, spiraling like silver vines.

Shadows in the room thickened, rising like curtains.

Martin inhaled sharply, steadying himself before the tablet’s power folded around him.

"Let’s hope Cecilia doesn’t overdo it and tear a hole through half the Sanctuary... again."

He allowed himself one small, exasperated smile.

Then the shadows consumed him, and Martin vanished without a sound.

:::

Far below, unaware of the unseen guardian moving through folded space, the undead tide continued its slow, dreadful march toward Drakestadt.

The capital’s bells began to toll.

Meanwhile, in the dim cavern of the Eclipsed Sanctuary, Cecilia knelt among flickering candles, unaware that the threads of fate were tightening around all of them, drawing inexorably toward a single turning point in the Cycle.

Throughout the kingdom, high in the sky, storm clouds gathered unnaturally fast. Those weren’t rain-bearing clouds, but the thin, oily kind birthed by ruptured mana currents.

They coiled over the skyline like bruises in the sky, swallowing sunlight until Drakestadt lay beneath a sickly violet cast.

The people everywhere shivered and stopped their activities, looking at the heavens. A strange sense of uneasiness spread like wildfire in the hearts of the general population.

In Aberswan, Gertrude was praying to the players and to Ephemerys, wishing for Marya’s safety.

Something was coming.

Something that pulled at the seams of the world, hungry, patient, inevitable.