I didn’t have to wait long. Three minutes later, Mogwai realized how pointless their attacks were.
“Enough!”
Criterror, after firing one more arrow at me after the order, put his bow away and shook his head in his leather helmet.
“Nah, it’s not working. Seems we can’t kill the Threat ourselves, Mo. Shame. The problem isn’t our abilities. We just can’t damage him.”
“My Predator did,” the hunter Cray argued.
True, his pet, a Two-headed Vulture, had dealt me miserly damage and then died from Reflection… I mentally laughed.
All the legates put their weapons away and the mages stopped casting spells. The attacks ceased.
“Predator could damage him because he isn’t undead…” Mogwai said. “What if…”
He instantly pulled out some spell-scroll and used it. A long golden arrow sparkled and span as it flew through my chest, dealt no damage and disappeared.
“Idiotic mechanics!” Mogwai grimaced. “No internal PvP in the faction. We can’t kill each other!”
“Life is death, Legates…” I chuckled.
“What?” the druid asked, not understanding. He frowned. “It doesn’t matter, scrub. This is easily solved. I told you, we’ll meet again! What’s wrong, Scyth, you upset? You lost your exclusive access to Immortality, and now you’ve been demoted to boot. You’re my underling now, did you know that?”
“Screw you!” I said and took a step to the side. Then I was caught, my body melted away and red text appeared before my eyes:
Call of the Supreme Legate!
The painful teleport to Mogwai took longer than walking would have been, but the realization that I was stuck hit me far worse. If that bastard could drag me around wherever he wanted…
The Elites laughed. Liam was almost doubled over, pointing at me.
“You’re in my hands, Scyth, get it?” Mogwai asked, smiling. “You have none of your prior invulnerability when we’re nearby. The only problem we have is that we can’t kill you personally. Although what I can do…”
I shook, couldn’t move—the Supreme Legate drained my supply of plague energy dry. A hundred yards away, on the border where the influence of the Stronghold of the Destroying Plague ended and sand began, players had formed a crowd.
“Aren’t you worried those guys will destroy the stronghold?” I asked, regaining control of my body.
“The environment here is dangerous to them,” Biancanova condescended to answer. “The Devouring Plague is deadly to the living. The Nucleus…”
“Quiet!” Mogwai snapped at her. “You’re talking too much.”
There was silence for a while. They pierced me with their eyes. I was waiting for Crash, galloping toward us at the speed of an airtrain through his underground tunnels from the temple.
Judging by their behavior, the Elites were in control of their characters, but I still asked:
“So that’s you, Fen?”
“What do you mean?” Mogwai asked, eyes narrowing. Realizing that I didn’t plan to run, and that he couldn’t kill me then and there, he crossed his arms and spoke: “Fen! For you, I am Mr. Xiaoguang himself, scrub! No respect for your betters. It’s obvious what kind of pit you crawled out of!”
“And the rest of you too?” I asked, ignoring his insult and glancing at the other legates. “Uhm… Mr. Xiaoguang?”
“Everyone who chose the undead appeared in Dis at the same time,” Mogwai answered with a smirk. “We got offers to become legates of the Destroying Plague almost immediately. Obviously, no one refused. We were taken to the Nucleus. We spoke while you were absent, and you know what? The Nucleus is very disappointed in you. We believe that you’re taking up a position that should belong to one of my friends. So what did you mean?”
“The Nucleus takes control of characters… but obviously, that’s changed, since you guys are you.”
“Oh, really?” Liam snorted, frowning in distrust. “So how did you manage to avoid it?”
“My kung-fu was stronger. Correct me if I’m wrong—you guys are Threats now too?”
The Elites bared rotten teeth, exchanged glances.
“That’s none of your concern,” Mogwai snapped. “Your status will be gone in minutes. We’re waiting for our living friends. They’ll help us beat the crap out of you, and then…”
“Goodbye, Scyyythie!” Laneiran laughed.
“You see, the other side of the fact that we can’t harm you is that you can’t harm us!” Criterror said. “Poor Scyth. I feel for you, I do.”
“A pathetic end to a boy from the slums who thought himself a god!” Biancanova sneered, triumph gleaming in her eyes.
Angel giggled next to her.
“You can’t do shit now,” Mogwai nodded. “My Call of the Supreme Legate has no cooldown, and doesn’t even cost plague energy. Shame I can’t take away your minions… Real sha…”
“Not to me.” I rushed at him, calling my pets as I ran. Crash was about to arrive.
Liam died just as he stood, with an idiotic smirk on his face, when the plague slime exploded in a fountain beneath his feet. The earth roiled and the colossal body of the Diamond Worm emerged from underground.
Mogwai started to suspect something an instant before Crash’s attack and began to retreat, transforming into a bear. Iggy immobilized him and the others with Deadly Chirp, which activated the druid’s Equanimity timer. I didn’t run the final steps—I flew straight at the now fully transformed Mogwai with my arms outstretched. I grabbed the bear’s skin and held on with a death grip as his stun ended, then flew straight up at sixty miles an hour, or around that. In seconds,
