The entire battlefield was littered with broken bones as William's Legion decimated the Skeletal Army. Although they were lower in numbers, their fighting strength was overwhelming. It was an epic example of a battle between quality versus quantity.
After the Death Knight and the Bone Dragon were defeated, there was no one in the enemy's forces that could oppose the rampage of William's Elite warriors.
Of course, there had also been several casualties and serious injuries on William's side, all the Rainbow Birds had died in battle, and the Trollhounds suffered serious injuries from their enemies, and most of them were hacked until their limbs were severed from their bodies.
Fortunately, the Rainbow Birds would start respawning after a day, and the Trollhounds could regrow their limbs due to their strong regeneration ability. The Cercopes Monkeys were injured as well, but all of their injuries were not fatal.
The goats were mostly unharmed and only received flesh wounds during their charge into the enemy's ranks.
"Mass First Aid," William said softly as he healed his herd. He cast the spell five times to ensure that his forces had recovered from their injuries..
After making sure that everyone had been treated, William glanced at the gates of the Fortress.
"Dave, Conrad, scout the interior of the fortress," William ordered.
""Yes, Sir!""
Dave and Conrad urged their mounts to fly over the wall of the fortress. William didn't know if there were any other forces waiting for them inside the fortress, so he ordered his most mobile fighters to investigate to see if there was anyone waiting to ambush them from inside.
The two knights circled the fortress three times to ensure that they didn't miss anything. After making sure that the area was safe, they waved their hands to William to tell him that the coast was clear.
"Let's go," William ordered as he walked towards the fortress. Fenrir and the Trollhounds took the lead, while the War Ibexes and the Cercopes Monkeys walked on the Half-Elf's left and right sides, protecting him.
Right after William's Legion entered the interior of the fortress, the giant gates immediately shut themselves, trapping them inside.
Moments later, a hoarse and contemptuous voice welcomed the guests that had entered one of the last surviving fortresses of Humanity that had been built during the Era of the Gods.
"Wel… come... to Ava… lon," the hoarse voice said in greeting.
The contempt and the ridicule within the speaker's voice were not lost to William. However, he didn't mind it one bit.
William ignored the voice and led his legion to explore the fortress.
Although he was dealing with a Pseudo-Demigod, it was currently imprisoned and as long as William didn't do anything stupid, the restriction that bound his adversary would keep it in place.
Right now, William held the Relic of the Oathkeeper in his hands. Anyone that had this relic in their possession was given the title of Steward of Avalon.
Their duty was to keep the Pseudo-Demigod in place and prevent it from escaping its ancient prison. After thousands of years, the power of the seal was gradually weakening.
Fortunately, it wasn't to the extent where the captive would be able to break free from its bindings. Even so, it was only a matter of time before the ancient runes would lose their power and set the Eternal Harbinger, Malakai, free to terrorize the world once more.
Takam had told William that Malakai was an ancient being who had cheated death. Originally, he was one of the original dragons that first roamed the world, since time immemorial.
However, its fear of death made it pursue the unholy arts, which had given birth to an abomination that was stripped of its former nobility, and given eternal life at the expense of damnation.
He was Malacai, the Eternal Dracolich who ruled the undead, who had been sealed inside the fortress of Avalon.
William had already asked the System to map the interior of Avalon. He wanted to know where Malacai was located, so that he could prevent anyone from mindlessly wandering to its location.
According to Takam, the seal that bound the Dracolich would still be in place for two to three more years. The best it could do was create undead creatures from the corpses that once thrived within the Undying Lands.
Yes, the Undying Lands was once a thriving land where Humans and beasts lived together. However, after Malacai finished his transformation, everything went South and the lives of all those who lived there had been extinguished, forever to accompany him through Eternity, unless their souls could escape the Domain and return to the Cycle of Reincarnation.
< Host, I have finished mapping the interior of the fortress. I also labeled everything to make things easier for you. >
'Thank you,' William replied. 'Please, show it to me.'
< Understood. >
A map of Avalon appeared inside William's status page. The Half-Elf was surprised because it was bigger than he originally thought it was. William's gaze focused on the red dot at the center of the Fortress. The Dracolich was sealed in the[delete underground] basement of the fortress, but that didn't stop it from gathering the Dark Energy that had accumulated inside the Domain for thousands of years.
This was how it attacked William when the latter was trying to merge the Hidden Valley with the Thousand Beast Domain.
Malacai thought that it was being sealed away again, so it used the available Dark Energy within the fortress to prevent William from having his way.
William looked at the blinking red dot for half a minute before he shifted his attention to another place. The Pseudo-Demigod was not going anywhere, so it would be best to take the things he needed first.
"Follow me," William ordered.
"Where are we going?" Ashe asked William through telepathy. "Are we going to fight with the Pseudo-Demigod?"
William shook his head, "We can't possibly beat it now. There is a place we needed to visit first. However, it's not going to be easy.
The Half-Elf stared at the countless orange dots that were currently headed in their direction. Just as he expected, Malacai intended to play with them and sap their strength through continuous battles.
Takam had warned him that dealing with Malacai wasn't going to be easy because it could infinitely reanimate the skeletal army no matter how many times they broke apart.
Even now, the undead army outside of the fortress, that William and his legion defeated, was starting to reform again. As long as they were inside the Undying Lands, the forces that Malacai had at its disposal were infinite.
This was a battle of attrition that William had no way of winning. Fortunately, he didn't come here to fight the Dracolich in a straightforward manner. His purpose for coming inside Avalon was to gather some precious items that would help him deal with Malacai at a later time.
William only hoped that he and his legion would be strong enough to retrieve these items before they were overwhelmed by the Skeletal Horde that numbered in the hundreds of thousands.