"Shit. Run!" Derek called out, and started to climb down from his chair... before he heard a low laugh... and the devil glanced at him.


    "No. Change of plans; the sentient undead might complicate things. Just kill as many as you can. Priestess, handle any stragglers." The chain devil hopped over the barricade, a heavy flail held out in each arm... and as he started to stalk towards the oncoming mob, the group hesitated... and then Terra responded first; calling down that rolling orb of fire that had done so well at cleaning the cave, right on top of a mass of zombies, setting dozens of them aflame...


    Derek nodded, and, picking a different spot, called down his Magma Sprite; the molten orb starting to splatter zombies as it avoided their charge...


    Kylie simple braced herself, hoping she wasn''t about to be over-run...


    And the devil simply charged into the thickest part of the swarm, lasing out with both flails; the heavy spiked balls impacting a single creature, causing a strange burst of white light, and passing through it to hit another, and another; each swing of the heavy weapons crushing several zombies at once. As he began an odd sort of dance; moving to ensure he stayed with the thickest part of the swarm, constantly crushing and shattering zombies, placing a careful foot to stomp on the skull of one that was still wriggling about... the armored figure focused on the devil.


    Another shriek.


    The ones which had been heading for the barricade turned.. and simply charged, joining the group swarming onto the devil, packing in so tightly that the magma sprite and the fire orb couldn''t help but keep killing zombies by the dozen; as the spinning chains of the flails worked like a windmill, grinding the zombies apart as they moved towards the center.


    The display was as impressive as it was horrifying; by the end, the chain devil was standing atop a mound of broken corpses, and Derek bade his magma sprite chase after the armored glowing undead; which... summoned a nearby rock to its hand, and threw it; the glowing projectile instantly crushing the summoned beast.


    Derek frowned; and aimed one of his arc lightning rays at the creature; an audible snap, a jolt of power; and the creature''s armor was cracked over one shoulder. It shrieked again, and charged towards the devil and the pile of bodies; even as Terra blasted it with fire, as well.


    It reached out, more stones flying to it as it ran; and leapt, its body glowing a bright white, even as a blow from a flail tore off one armored leg... and slammed both rocks onto the devil''s shoulder.


    One moment, the devil was standing, an unstoppable knight of darkness; the next... his left arm was missing, a great gouge into his torso, lying amidst the pile, blood splattering everywhere... and he looked down at the missing limb, confused... before collapsing onto the pile.


    Derek was horrified; he thought the devil an unbeatable monster; or, at least, by anything reasonable; and kept pumping electricity into the crippled undead... alongside bolts of flame from Terra... and it shortly stopped moving, just a few feet from the devil.


    ***


    Terra ran forward, unaware of the tears streaming down her face as she hopped over the pile of dried-out, dessicated bodies to reach her grandfather''s armored form.


    He was laying there, limp, unmoving, his blood; more black than red; oozing down onto the pile. "No... No, don''t... don''t die like this... mom said you were immortal.." She immediately withdrew a healing potion... only to notice... the bloodflow had stopped. He was still breathing. He... would hopefully recover? She looked down at the severed arm. What did you do with these, and things that healed? Did you... She picked up the arm with a bit of disgust... and pressed the bloody stump against the shoulder, leaving the broken armor on the pile.


    She watched, hoping... and decided on impulse to pour the healing potion on the spot where the limbs touched. They only worked if drank, or poured into open wounds. This definitely counted.


    She held it there, watching... and sure enough, the grey-blue skin seemed to start stitching together. After a minute, maybe two, by which point Kylie and Derek were both standing over her, watching... the limb was reattached; albeit looking weak.


    Kylie gave a slow nod... and stepped close, placing a hand on the bare flesh... and after a few moments, a golden glow flowed through her, into the devil... for just a moment, she admired the impressive muscle tone; a lean, powerful arm.... especially at the shoulders.


    He jolted awake.... looking around for a moment... and then down at the figure of the armored zombie. "That.... that was..." He placed a hand on his shoulder. "That was a holy smite. What the hell kind of zombie has a holy smite?"


    Terra wrapped her arms around him; the tears seemed to have stopped, though she hadn''t noticed. "Goddess, grandpa, you had me worried."


    A low chuckle; that powerful arm wrapped around her. "I''ve survived worse. But..... the creatures are gone. They probably aren''t zombies, but either way... they''ve been cleaned out." He studied the armor sleeve and gauntlet that was lying on the ground. "...I need to fix that. Where''s that Bart person? I need a forge before we do anything else; it''ll take hours before it gets hot enough to do any good."


    Terra laughed. "There''s a smithy right over there, grandpa. You need some fire to get it started?"


    "I can make some fire. More won''t hurt, though. Come on. I can show you the basics of armor repair; you should get some, yourself. It''ll take time to learn how to use magic properly in it, but everyone can benefit from a good suit of armor. We''ll let them chat with the locals."


    This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    ***


    Kylie rapped on the door a few times, and called out. "This is Kylie Eastwatch, priestess of the Light! We just cleared out the zombies, you''re free to leave!"


    After a moment, she could hear a hammering sound. A low creak. More hammering. She studied the door; clearly quite a bit of effort had been made to barricade and secure it. Derek stepped up beside her, looking the temple over; like most dedicated to the goddess of darkness, it was made from the darkest wood they could find, and painted black-blue when possible; though right now numerous nailed-on bits of wood covered everything.


    Finally, the door creaked open; and the smell was... terrible. In fact, it made her wonder why the zombies didn''t smell so bad, but all looked pale and dessicated.. a man stepped clear; looking likely a half-elf, wearing dirty, ragged clothes, thin, pale, his dark hair ragged and oily, he looked around the area... stopped when he saw the armored undead down... and looked back inside. "Cleared for today! Get what you can, make sure to be back before tomorow''s dawn! We''ll be reinforcing it all day and start sealing the door just after midnight!"


    People started to swarm out of the building, scurrying; they all smelled absolutely awful, and from the hundreds that came pouring out, it was clear that they''d managed to save most of the town; but trapped them all; from the ongoing crowd it must be hundreds of people; inside one single medium-sized structure. No wonder it smelled so bad.


    "..Reinforcing the door again? The things are gone. You can just go back to your lives." Kylie studied the man in confusion. Was he mad?


    He chuckled. "If only it were that simple. No... Every sunset, they vanish. Every sunrise, they re-emerge... and a few minutes after the dawn, they''re back, trying to kill us all. All of them are people who died here... and if they kill anyone, thats just more that appear the next day."


    He looked down at the pile of bodies. "We had twelve guards, and over a hundred volunteer militia, the first day. We lost a few people, but we were okay. The second, there were more of them, and more of us had to fight, and three of the guards had died. After that... we''ve been barricading ourselves in during the day, grabbing whatever food and supplies are left, and hiding. We''ve sent messengers to nearby towns... did one of them get you?"


    Kylie stared at the bodies herself. Were they... illusions? That would just come again with the next dawn? "..Yes. We were on the way to Rockdale, when Bart got us. We can go to get help, but... we need to either figure this out and stop it, or evacuate the town, even if we did get backup."


    The man blinked. "Figure it out? What is there to figure out? We need to get help; a group of knights, and heroes, and carts, to help us and protect the citizens while we evacuate!"


    She sighed. "Obviously something is causing this. Maybe we can just fix it, and you won''t have to evacuate at all. Did anything happen before this started?"


    "Look. I appreciate the interest. But this is too important for some two-bit priestess to handle. We need the Baron involved, and we need real help. Why don''t you and your friends just run along and dispatch a message from Rockdale? All of the nobles can message each other, the Lord there should be able to notify the Baron immediately."


    Kylie frowned. "You''re not a noble?"


    "Of course not. Just a mayor. Oh. I never introduced myself... Mayor Brentley, at your service. Lord Rockson has charge of these lands, on behalf of Baron South Reach. That''s who we really need. The Baron."


    He turned, and walked past Kylie; starting to direct townsfolk to gathering up supplies... even as the smell grew worse, and a heap of chamber-pots started to be piled up outside the door, as the consequences... and smells... of hundreds of people trapped in a single building grew more obvious.


    She watched him leave, frowning. He didn''t want a real solution. Was he crazy? Or... was the cause of the problem something he already knew? Did... he cause this somehow? She needed to ask someone else. Perhaps..... someone who hadn''t been hiding with the others. That basement that had the handful of zombies at it, with a living person inside.... perhaps they would know. She glanced at Derek; who was carefully studying the dessicated corpse of the armored zombie; and stepped up closer.


    "The mayor is hiding something. Did you hear all of that?"


    He glanced up at her, and gave a nod. "Of course. And this.. is no zombie. Not an illusion either, Its real... we gained power from destroying them... quite a bit, actually, I suspect if we stayed here a few days and repeated this cycle our friendly Devil would be released from his bargain... but... there''s no necromancy involved, I can feel it. And..." He showed what he''d found on the corpse; a holy symbol, of the goddess of light. "No weapons... but while its a bit banged up, this looks like the armor of a Paladin of your order. A woman. Which... considering it used a holy smite on our devil friend, makes an odd sort of sense."


    Kylie shook her head. "This whole thing stinks worse than that temple they''ve all been hiding in. I''ve been thinking; we should go find the survivors that first pack of zombies was trying to get to. They aren''t hiding with the others... maybe there''s a reason for it. They might know something."


    Derek gave a slow nod. "Of course. These are likely an odd form of revenant; something holy, rather than unholy. Which means there''s something evil here they''re trying to destroy. If we meet them again... without the devil... we should try just walking by. I bet they''d ignore us if we didn''t attack them first."


    Kylie sighed. "No, no. If that were the case, they wouldn''t be going after whatever civilians were in the basement. Come on. We''ll grab the devil and go check it out. If it''ll take hours for the forge to heat up anyway, might as well come along; not like they''d want to waste the whole time staring at a fire."


    As they turned for the smithy they''d seen, and that the devil and his granddaughter had headed for, they walked over at a casual pace; taking hold of Derek''s hand, thinking about what they''d be doing if they hadn''t made this absurd bargain in a bid to get stronger, faster; she caught a glimpse of the devil; currently shirtless, a powerfully built blue-grey torso with a handful of scars here and there; one likely brand new from the recent zombie incident. She admired it for a moment, wishing Derek looked like that... then looked at him walking beside her; a smile back that sent her heart racing, wishing for some privacy. Would she trade that mind for more muscle? Of course not. Didn''t mean she didn''t like looking at it, though.


    The devil seemed to be showing his granddaughter something; holding up a hammer, and two broken pieces of armor. They''d started a fire going; and even as they approached, the tiefling girl fired another bolt of flame into it, jumpstarting it a bit further.


    Kylie frowned. If they could make it faster, they might not want to go investigate... "Ahem. There''s something suspicious going on here. I''ve been wanting to go check out the folks in the first house the zombies were at, ask them some questions... or perhaps some of these who were hiding in the temple. Would you care to come along?"


    The devil glanced at her. "...Place should be safe enough, for now. You go ahead. It shouldn''t take as long as I''d feared for this, and I may just question a few of them myself."


    He smiled; his face took on the strange, disturbing look, as if she were looking into an endless abyss; the momentary attraction fled, replaced by horror, and fear. "I''m generally fairly good at interrogating, as you might expect."