Never Die Twice

The battle was going well, and Tye couldn’t allow that.

Between the summoned creatures providing a helpful buffer, the magical artillery barrage, and the defenders' discipline, Lyonesse’s forces managed to repel the invaders on this front. The giants hadn’t even reached the ramparts yet. Meanwhile, a glance at the fires near the city’s gates told him the defense of the bridge faced a dangerous battle.

A decent outcome, but an unsatisfactory one. So, as he took a potion to replenish his SP, the necromancer mentally commanded one of his minions to move towards his position, and with explicit orders to kill everyone there but himself, Lady Yseult, and Annie.

Having already slaughtered Morgane’s group, his [Infernal Ice Elemental] smashed through a house and moved towards Lady Yseult’s team of summoners, trampling a wyvern and crushing it below its mightier body. The creature’s surprise appearance disrupted the mages’ formation, and even Annie and her team interrupted their magical barrage.

Most importantly, they had stopped summoning allies.

Lady Yseult, in the middle of conjuring another [Winged Daughter of Balder], had her spell disrupted and almost found herself crushed by the rampaging creature. “Get down!” Tye shouted with false surprise.

Subtly and mentally guiding his servant, the necromancer ‘heroically’ rushed toward the priestess and seized by the waist. Before she could gather her thoughts, Tye forced both of them on the ground, ‘narrowingly’ dodging a spike aiming for the lady’s head.

Cliche rescue successful!

In truth, the monster wouldn’t have harmed her, but having an excuse not to cast spells himself could only help Tye’s plans.

“Get away from them!” Annie, ever the willful witch, turned towards the creature and unleashed a mighty thunderbolt; that smart girl, she had guessed whoever had summoned the creature would ward it against [Fire]. The attack staggered the elemental but also drove it to attack Annie’s unit…

Just as ordered.

Tye used the engineered opportunity to drag Lady Yseult away to safety, before helping her back to her feet. “Are you alright?” the necromancer asked the flustered priestess.

“Yes, thank you, my friend,” she said, regaining her composure and immediately firing a ray of light at her icy attacker. Tye assisted by casting basic buffs on her, so he could have an excuse not to summon additional support.

The [Infernal Ice Elemental] slaughtered adventurers and defenders alike, disrupting the magical artillery barrage. Bolstered by diabolical energies, the creature had transformed from a neutral force of nature into a cruel killing machine. The corpses hanging from the icicles on its body formed a macabre shield, inspiring terror in all those who looked at it.

Yet, having explicit orders not to harm Annie, the elemental found itself pushed back by her barrage of spells.

It was a delicate balance to maintain. Tye didn’t intend for the giants to raze Lyonesse, but he didn’t want a clean victory for the defenders either. Any servant of the princess or the Jarl that died today was one he wouldn’t have to kill later. The necromancer hoped for a pyrrhic victory, with his own forces intact and all opposition too weakened to take him on.

Alone and targeted with spells from both Annie and Yseult, the monster eventually exploded into ice shards and snowflakes, but the damage had been done. Without magical support to keep them away, the giants had closed in.

One of them managed to put his two hands on the rampart, crushing one archer too unlucky to run in time, and raised his head over the fortification. Takeru immediately shot him in the eye, making him collapse, but more attempted to break in.

“This is getting out of hand,” Lady Yseult said, switching from summoning to blasting invaders with bright rays of light. Annie and her units’ survivors, meanwhile, returned to showering the giants with comets and other spells. “I worry for Her Highness and your own protegee.”

Tye, not so much.

In fact, his servant soon returned to him, alongside Morgane. It didn’t take him long to guess what happened, and the smile of relief on his face was genuine. “We survived,” Laufey said, with false exhaustion. “We barely survived that… that monster.”

“Laufey saved me,” ‘Morgane’ said, massaging her back where a scar had just closed. While she seemed in genuine pain, the necromancer noticed a hint of warped pleasure in her eyes. “I closed the wound with magic, but I need healing.”

“There, take it,” Tye handed her a potion from his belt, taking the time to glance at the girl’s shadow. It briefly flickered, revealing wings, before quickly returning to normal. The witch greedily drank the potion as if it was the first drink she ever had, confirming his thoughts.

The experiment had succeeded.

And beyond his wildest expectations! She didn’t combust under the sun, and didn’t give any hint of her true undead nature away! Tye had wondered how a soulless, vampiric vessel and an incorporeal shadow fiend would interact, but his theory had proved correct. The binding successfully fused both into a perfect whole.

But he would have all the time to study his new creation, after surviving this battle.

“We have to reinforce the main gate,” Lady Yseult declared, as explosions in that area resonated across the city. “We cannot let them get a foothold inside.”

“I will go,” Tye declared, casting the [Hasten] spell on himself to increase his speed. “Laufey, Morgane, you manage the area, protect Annie and Lady Yseult.”

The only people he liked enough to spare from the invasion.

“My friend, you cannot go there alone!” Lady Yseult protested.

“I can summon help,” he said, before brashly running toward the second battlefront. The priestess called him but found herself forced to return back on killing giants. Laufey and ‘Morgane’, meanwhile, gave him a malicious grin out of the others’ sight. “I will help the princess!”

As in, he would help her die faster.

As he rushed through the deserted street, the civilians had run towards the few castles inside the city itself, Tye regretted having to maintain his disguise. If he could showcase his true level, he would have flown over the battlefield with magic and rained death on everyone.

Now, he had to run, and Agility had always been his weakest stat.

When he reached the other battlefront, he found a much more grim situation than the one he left behind.

As expected, the giants had breached through the main gate. Although Lyonesse’s watch had pulled down the bridge below water, one of the giant witches had frozen part of the lake solid, creating a pathway of ice for troops to walk over; and while it was too small for more than one giant to enter at once, trolls and ice goblins had come pouring through. The city watch, Percy among them, heroically held their position thanks to barricades, but the trolls kept getting back up, again and again.

Worse yet, the giants’ leader had entered Lyonesse and carved a path of destruction through it. He had now engaged defenders in combat near the market district.

…

His shop! His experiments!

At this moment, nothing else mattered. Not the princess, not the battle, not the city. Tye’s mind focused entirely on saving his shop from destruction.

Climbing atop a house, the necromancer ran on the city’s roofs to avoid the barricades, the corpses littering the pavement, and the goblins chewing through them. He quickly reached the market district, or what had survived the giant’s rampage.

Stopping at the edge of a house still standing, close to his shop.

The good news, his home was intact.

The bad news, the princess still lived, and she fought the giant leader nearby alongside elite warriors. Tye noticed a silver spear-wielding knight in golden plate armor, whom he assumed to be the Jarl, a masked sorceress, and other warriors radiating strength and experience. His instinct told him most had levels in their 40s.

They mostly focused on blasting the giant leader with spells or fending off the ice trolls who followed him, while the titan attempted to smash the princess with a warhammer. The royal had traded her clothes for sleek silver armor and a single sword of light, moving with uncanny speed and agility.

From his observation, the situation looked deceptively simple. The giant, perhaps having singled out the princess as the enemy leader, focused entirely on her. He tried to stomp her under his foot, rained down destruction with his warhammer, and demolished nearby buildings in an attempt to squash her like a bug. Put on the defensive, the princess moved around the larger creature, trying to exploit his natural slowness and the lack of open space to disorient him.

While most of his forces fended off the trolls, the Jarl supported the princess by bombarding the giant with spears of light. He mainly targeted the chinks in the titan’s legs, in an attempt to bring him down; but his [Light] magic failed to damage the monster’s enchanted ice armor, turning the situation into a tense lockdown. Archers attempted to support their lord’s efforts, but their projectiles bounced off harmlessly against the giant.

And he was growing steadily restless.

“Fear the wrath of Utgard, lord of the Jotun!” the giant leader roared in his native tongue, which only his men and Tye could understand. “The root of Yggdrasil is mine, tiny people! It is mine by right! In the name of Hyrm!”

This made the alchemist pause.

Hyrm, one of the five calamities prophesied to bring about Ragnarok, and the would-be conqueror of Jotunheim. The giant queen of winter. Had she ordered that invasion with a goal beyond pillaging? Could the Convergence truly be a natural hazard?

Tye promised himself to investigate after winning.

“[Ice Bomb].” The giant raised his warhammer, and his body propelled spikes of ice in all directions, devastating houses, shredding people to ribbons, and ruining the pavement. Even the giant’s goblinoid thralls weren’t spared. The giant’s intent was clear: create more open space to manoeuver while damaging the ‘smaller insects’ too quick for his weapon. Since his trolls regenerated from their wounds, they could always get back up.

While the Jarl managed to create a light barrier to protect his allies, the princess simply dodged, running around the giant’s ankle and cutting through his armor with her blade. While annoyed, the titan didn’t seem wounded. He attempted to squash her in retaliation, his weapon shattering houses and nearby warriors, yet failing to hit his main target.

Level twenty nothing! She had lied about her true strength, that distrustful woman! She had to be level thirty at the very least!

No matter. From his position, Tye had the perfect angle to shoot her in the back. A fireball gone wrong, a distraction at a critical moment. Focusing his powers, the necromancer prepared to deliver the coup de grâce.

“[Muspelflame],” he spoke, his magic condensing into a tight sphere of lava and burning fire in the palm of his hands. He just had to aim right and—

The princess moved right in front of Tye’s establishment, and the giant leader raised his warhammer to smash them both.

His shop!

Moving entirely on instinct, the necromancer hastily switched targets and shot Utgard the Jotun right in the face.

His fireball smashed his helmet of ice from the side, blowing up the giant’s head in a rain of ice, brain matter, and colorful blood. The sheer power of the blast sent the colossus tumbling backward, crashing on his own troops with a terrible noise.

Tye remained speechless for a second, as he realized what he had done.

Almost immediately afterward, the cracks of the Convergence stopped expanding, and in fact, began to shrink. The trolls howled in fear and shock at the sudden death of their leader and broke formation, running away from the spells and weapons of the defenders.

The necromancer glanced at the princess, who looked at the giant, then at Tye himself, seemingly recognizing him. “You… you killed it…”

Tye couldn't believe that he blew his chance to kill her either.

“You!” The armored knight waved his fist at Tye, in a show of prideful brotherhood. “You saved us all!”

… no.

No, no, no!

“That’s Tye!” Worse, a spellcaster who had often shopped at his Boiling Cauldron recognized him. “Tye the alchemist!”

Now they had seen him, recognized him, he wouldn’t have the opportunity to kill the princess discreetly!

Yggdrasil Quest: Jotunheim Convergence, completed.

Bonus objective: Personally slay [Utgard the Jotun], fulfilled.

You earned 273000 exp + 30000 bonus exp + [Horn of Jotunheim].

You unlocked a new class, and earned three levels to assign!

A calling horn of pure ice manifested in Tye’s empty hands, a testament to his failure.

“Tye! Tye! Tye!”

The defenders’ cheers made him want to puke in shame.

After their leader’s gruesome demise and the end of the Convergence, the Jotun war effort had completely collapsed. Some giants hurriedly retreated before the cracks could close, while others, like the trolls, simply fell into disarray. When royal forces arrived to rescue the Lyonesse, they found the city victorious, and only stragglers left to kill. The eldest giant witch had been killed by one of Annie’s [Comet], while the youngest had fled with a few survivors to the forest of Brocéliande. The day was won.

And instead of dying a martyr, princess Gwenhyfar lived a hero.

As a magnanimous royal, she had gathered everyone on the city’s main plaza to deliver honors left and right. As he stood in line with the heroes of the day before a crowd of cheering citizens, Tye noticed Laufey grinning at him among the supporters, ‘Morgane’ at her side.

She knew, that cursed elf. She knew how he had messed up, that he hated it, and she found it hilarious.

“You must be so glad she survived,” Annie said at his side, her cheery smile making him ease up somewhat. The young witch had achieved the highest kill count in the battle by far, with Takeru a close second. The necromancer hoped she had gained a few levels out of it.

On Tye’s other side, Percy rejoiced with a smile of his own. “I’m just glad there weren’t too many casualties,” he said, his own defense of the gate having earned him more respect than he ever gained as an adventurer.

“I wish Morgane had died,” Takeru grunted at Annie’s side, the witch decking him in the shoulder. “What? She’s an arrogant nuisance.”

Tye couldn’t have agreed more but with a demon at the helm, the redhead's behavior could only improve.

The princess finally approached them, Lady Yseult and the armored Jarl backing her up. She started by putting a golden pin on Takeru, praising his disciplined defense of the ramparts, which the Japanese man took with stoic acceptance. She then moved to Annie, both women exchanging a bright smile as Her Royal Highness put a shiny pin on her coat too.

After Princess Gwenhyfar finished with Annie, she faced Tye.

“And, last but not least, Walter Tye.” While the woman’s words were soft, the crowd’s claps couldn’t get louder. “You have proven your valor, killing the vile Utgard and saving Lyonesse from destruction… and my life as well.”

“For saving this city, and His Highness,” the Jarl said with a strong, firm voice. “Know that the Kingdom of Avalon is forever grateful.”

“I was just trying to save my shop,” Tye bluntly replied. Annie and the crowd exploded into laughter, as they mistook his words for a joke. Even Lady Yseult smiled.

The princess, though, remained serious as ever. Her face was like a pristine mask, as if any show of emotion betrayed a weakness. Still, she put the golden pin on his shirt. “I may have need of your service soon,” she said, low enough that only he could hear her.

People clapped at Tye, as the princess moved to decorate Percy next. But most in the crowd only had eyes for the necromancer, the hero of the day.

And he hated it. Fame meant scrutiny, and the end of his quiet, well-oiled routine of a life.

Still, as his eyes set on Morgane, the necromancer remembered that he still had an ace up his sleeve.

The day was over, and a long night would soon follow.