Chapter 742: Corpse

Thepes pressed his torn palm against the blood beneath him. Fresh blood ran from the wound and spread through the pool.

Alex brought his hammer down before he could rise. Thepes rolled aside, leaving a strip of flesh on the broken stone as the blow struck the edge of the crater.

Blood shot through the cracks in the floor.

"Stop it from reaching the bodies," Alex said.

Mingyue’s sword flashed.

Purple ice cut across the nearest stream, freezing it before it reached a dead vampire beside the pit.

Alex sent green fire after another.

Both streams broke apart, but more came from beneath the rubble.

Thepes had already filled the ground around him with blood.

The shallow crater made by Alex’s last attack had opened cracks through the broken floor, and the blood spread through them before rising farther away.

Alex could burn some of them.

But he cannot keep it up fast enough to open a path to attack.

A corpse beside the far wall jerked. Its eyes opened red.

Another pushed an old chain off its chest.

The metal scraped across the ground as the body sat up, then stood without looking at the wound where the chain had been.

Thepes lifted his head.

"Meet the new vampire race," he laughed madly."

He looked toward the dead vampires scattered through the chamber.

More bodies began moving.

Alex remembered how many he had passed while searching for survivors. Some had been left beside the ritual. Others had fallen under broken platforms or remained chained near the walls.

Thepes hadn’t used all of them the first time.

Several bodies remained still even when the blood reached them. It gathered in the corpses that still held the strongest power, just as it had when he raised the first followers.

A dead Sovereign rose from the edge of the pit, its neck bending at an angle no living person could have endured. Red light spread beneath the skin. The neck straightened as the damaged bones pulled together.

It opened its mouth and roared.

An answering roar came from behind Dorian’s line. Alex turned toward it.

A corpse beneath a fallen section of the upper platform had begun dragging itself free. Its arms pulled against the stone until the rubble shifted. The soldiers nearest it were still facing the first attackers.

"Behind you!" Alex shouted.

Dorian struck the rising body before it cleared the stone and drove it back down. The vampire caught his weapon with both hands, pulling itself closer instead of trying to protect its chest.

Two soldiers joined him, one cutting at the gripping arms while the other drove a blade through the neck. Dorian pulled his weapon free and struck again, destroying the head before the body could recover.

"Turn the rear line!" he ordered. "Break their heads before they take one of ours!"

The defenders turned, leaving gaps at the front that the first red-eyed force pressed into. Selene moved away from the wounded far enough to stop the nearest attacker, then returned before another could reach Marcell.

The numbers were changing too quickly.

Bodies rose on both sides of the pit and climbed from the ruins behind the platforms. They filled the space Dorian had kept clear around his people, until Alex could barely distinguish the first wave among them.

Alex reached for the runes around Thepes.

Thepes drove both hands into the floor and pushed himself up. His crushed chest had not fully recovered, but blood thickened over the damaged area, holding it together as he faced them.

Alex’s hammer hit that protection.

BOOM!

The blood split under the blow. Thepes staggered, but he caught Alex’s arm before the hammer could come back.

Mingyue cut between them. Thepes released his grip rather than lose another part of his body, then kicked against the broken floor and threw himself out of the crater.

He passed through the gap the pair had used in Alex’s fire circle.

Alex turned the flames toward him, but Thepes had already reached the blood near the pit.

Mingyue followed.

Their blades met above the dark liquid. Ice spread from her swords into his blood weapons, forcing him to discard the frozen parts and form them again.

Alex went around the crater to attack from the other side.

Thepes kept moving along the edge of the pit. He no longer stood in the same place while the pair chose their angles.

Behind him, more dead vampires climbed to their feet.

Dorian’s voice rose above the fighting.

"Stay together! Don’t chase them!"

A group of his soldiers had pushed several attackers away from the upper platform. Before they could follow, new red-eyed bodies came between them and the wounded.

The soldiers turned back before they could be cut off. Red-eyed bodies filled the ground they had just given up.

Even when Dorian’s soldiers killed an attacker, another took its place before they could advance. His people had to protect one another. Thepes’s followers only needed to keep reaching for them.

"Vesa," Alex said. "Help Selene move the wounded farther from the pit."

Vesa was already beside the ice supporting Marcell.

The recovering Sovereign had forced himself onto one elbow. His eyes followed the dead coming toward them.

"They were waiting for us," he said.

Selene blocked a reaching hand, cut it away, and drove the attacker back. "Keep recovering."

Marcell’s expression tightened.

Alex could understand why Marcell was trying to rise. These bodies belonged to his former companions, and now they were attacking the ones who had survived. But he could barely support his own weight. If one of them reached him, Thepes would have another victim.

Vesa hovered above Marcell, then pointed toward a section of wall that still stood.

"Behind there. Keep him on the ice."

Selene ordered her guards to lift the ice supports and carry the wounded. Vesa flew ahead, her four wings carrying her over the broken stone, and directed them into the space behind the wall. Selene followed with the last guard, leaving Dorian room to pull the fighting line back.

Dorian’s soldiers could defend the new position, but they had given up much of the chamber to reach it.

They had only just secured the wounded, and already they were being driven back.