Fort Peremoha, Fallen Achisia
The witch simply smirked, seeing that once proud knight lying on the ground, broken and defeated. Yes, this was it.. this was the fate that awaited all of them, whether they wanted it or not. They were all going to pay for the crime of having risen up against and for having dared to kill the Mage-Emperor, the greatest human to ever live....the Emperor's faithful servants were still here however, and they were all going to be sure that the banner of the Eternal Flame and Serpent was going to fly high above all of the mortal lands.. just as their master had desired. This was the only way in which peace could be achieved, by rejecting the lies of the so called light, by rejecting the cruel and unfair tyranny of the Faith's false idols...the mortal races were going to join them, either willingly why they were still alive, or bound by chains before they could pass through the river of death. That was to be the fate of all.
But of course, they were always going to be some fools who would refuse to give up on their faint hope, who would refuse to reject their false overlords and to accept their fate. Her arrows were stopped by the a barrier of light created by that dumb servant of Aurora, and with all his fancy light magic turned on once again, the knight threw spears of blue fire at her as he started to close in.. how foolish of him. The witch snapped her fingers, using that faint sound to cover her even fainter whisper of a magical word - and a shield of dark energy appeared between her and those lances, although - the shield appeared a moment too late, as the lance to pierce her thigh..
And the witch looked with so much hate and anger at Arthur at that moment that it could have made his blood curdle. The lance of light started to disappear as the witch drew her bow yet again - launching another wave of black arrows of death at the knight..but even if she probably among the most powerful witches that Arthur had ever faced..
She was still an archer, and he was a swordsman.. and so, she left herself open for a couple of moments..
All while the soldiers of the fort were running away, pushing through the lines of Achisian peasants, led by nothing else but fear and terror..
The border between the Kingdom of Duivene and the Fallen Achisia
The black armor wearing twin of Alexis still seemed to be unable to take the fight seriously, giggling and teasing Eric from time to time while never really seeming to pay too much attention to the duel, to the metal of Eric's sword hitting her lance or her blade. It was as if she was playing around with him, like a predator taunting its prey..or like a child having fun with a toy...and she seemed to take a lot of pleasure in the fact that she had managed to annoy her opponent, even a little... but that was also her mistake. She nearly effortlessly parried his first attacks, and then she tried to hit him with the sword and the tip of her spear at the same time - a move that was brimming with overconfidence.. only for him to deflect her sword, and to push her back, taking her by surprise enough for her to lose her balance for a few precious moments - just as she tried to hit him with her spear. That's where Eric's long experience and great skill in swordfighting proved their value, as the knight hit the twin's hand with his sword - not enough to wound her but enough to make her involuntarily drop her spear - and then he hit her nose with his sword's pommel, forcing her back with a small cry of pain. As Eric kicked the spear away, and as black blood started to flow from her nose.. the twin looked at him with what was now clearly hate in her sickly yellowish eyes. She seemed to want to say something, but she never managed to - as before she was even able to open her mouth, a cry of "Men of Duievene, rally to your princess!", was heard in the distance, and a charging knight thrust his lance at her torso. And a few things happened in a quick sequence.
The silver tip of the lance managed to pierce through an armor that would have been unbreakable otherwise, and it presumably also pierced through her skin and flesh - judging by the black blood that gushed out and by her cry of pain that was provoked by the burning sensation of that piece of holy metal. However, the tip of the spear lodged itself there and because of how fast Peter was moving, the wooden shaft of the lance broke. The evil princess reacted almost immediately, shouting a spell which led to three spears of shadow piercing directly into the chest and torso of Peter's horse - causing the poor animal to die almost instantly and to fall, throwing the knight who was riding on the ground rather violently.
Having dealt with the first issue, the twin looked immediately back at Eric, not even giving him a chance to react properly, her style of fighting seeming to have changed completely from just a few minutes ago. Fast and deadly, she pushed forward with her sword, forcing the knight to use all of his focus and strength just to defend himself and to parry or deflect her hits and slashes, as she quickly changed the targets of her onslaught. She attacked with a speed that was just barely even human anymore, and step by step, she pushed him back. And just as her offensive flurry seemed to calm down for a moment, giving Eric a moment of breathing, she suddenly grabbed Eric's sword by the blade, and pulled it to the side with a nearly superhuman strength - giving her enough of an opening to thrust her sword forward - and her black blade pierced through Eric's armor and left upper arm, right next to the bone. With a smirk on her face, the light blonde haired girl pulled back her sword and let go of Eric's, clearly enjoying all of this.
"Good swordsman or not, you are still just a little human, little knight.", the twin told Eric, giggling. "You are a human getting involved in a battle of gods and magic..and because of that, no matter what, you will fail.. you will fail, you will lose, and you will die.. your heroes are weak and false idols, and you are going to die defending a princess who can not even defend those that she cares about.. a princess that can not even defend herself." A whisper in the wind.. and a spear of shadow suddenly appeared next to Eric, being thrown directly at the poor Alexis, who was still shivering and shaking, doing her best just to stand up, with the help of her lance. Before she was able to react, the spear's tip pierced through her shoulder, the force of the hit throwing her back and on the ground. And once again, the princess' flag and her lance fell on the muddy ground, and the flag's disappeared led to another wave of fear and pure despair among the soldiers... if their princess was gone, if their hero was gone, if her light was no more.. who was going to protect them, who was going to lead them?
If their hero was gone, all hope was lost. And in the mud, Alexis seemed to be so drained of energy, so pale and weak that she couldn't even cry..
"But you know something? I like your determination, this stubbornness and spirit of yours.. I have a friend who will be more than able to chain that soul of yours after you die.. what would you think about having to serve me for all eternity?" You will learn to enjoy it, in time...", and smirking again, the evil twin gripped the handle of her sword even tighter, ready to attack again. "Or will you try to stop me?"
The undead forces had lost their momentum when their own princess had been wounded, but when Alexis fell and when her flag disappeared, with her light gone, most of the soldiers and the knights of Duivene lost their hope, fear taking over them. Their formations started to break, while some of them even started to drop their weapons and to try to run away.... their terror filled minds failing to realize that the undead horde was everywhere, surrounding them.. there was no way out, no way to run away..
Just as the dragon was preparing to jump into the air again however, it noticed that someone was charging at it.. what a small and insolent fool. Wasting no time, the dragon opened all three of its mouths, and launched a breath of black fire directly at Yakr...
Somewhere
The border between Wyzkia and the Ecclesiarchy
"Alina.. there is.. there is nothing that you have to be sorry about..", Rafal tried to say, his voice soft, sad and yet glad at the same time. It was heartbreaking to see her like that, crying so hard..but he was glad.. he was oh so glad that he had managed to find her before it was too late..it hurt to think that he had failed to protect her, even after he had promised her that, that because of his own weakness, he had failed to protect his liege and he had also failed to keep her safe from such vile people as the Faith Keepers.. but he was glad that from now on, this was over. With his blade and bonded grfiffin.. he was much stronger now, strong enough to defend her.. strong enough to save her. "Just wait for a little bit more, alright? I will take care of them, and then I will save you, for sure.."
The same knight who had spoken so roughly to Alina was however taking none of it, as he made a step forward, tightly gripping his sword. "What are you trying to do, little paladin? Attacking a group of Faith Keepers? This is a sacrilege. The Faith's Judgement will have your head for this! And why do you even care about her anyway? Are you just trying to act a knight in shining armor?", he shouted, spitting venom. And Rafal just took a deep breath. "I... I promised that I would protect her...and.. and.." A short moment of silence followed, and even if it wasn't exactly noticeable because of the distance and because of his armor, the green eyed boy blushed a little. "And I care about her... do I need any other reasons? The Paladins don't recognize the authority of your corrupted Faith's Judgement anyway.. and if it's for her, if it's for saving her, then I really don't care.. I will save her even if I have to fight the Paladins, even if I have to fight the entire Faith..it doesn't matter..", and the boy smiled sadly. But the knight didn't seem to care. "We have been ordered to bring this girl to Sedia by one of the Decidors.. and our Priestess has found some sort of a dark, corrupting power inside of her... who knows what sort of a wicked demon or cursed monster she really is! You can never know, with all of those monstrosities being able to masquerade as humans.. and even if she really is human to begin with, then this just means that she is just a little whore who accepted a demon's power, abandoning her gods.. she deserves to burn at the stake.."
And Rafal's entire attitude changed in a moment. "You.. should not have said that..", he whispered, in a voice as cold as ice.. and a heartbeat later, Rafal suddenly threw the huge lance that he was holding, the lance that was meant for thrusting and certainly not for throwing, directly at the knight - and with an incredible precision, aided by the griffin's magic, most likely, the lance pierced through the knight's right thigh, breaking the bone as if it was a small twig. And the knight screamed. The griffin cried again, a blood curling shriek and several of the Faith Keepers simply dropped their weapons, turning around and starting to run away. With the light of the sun causing his armor to shine, riding on top of such a majestic and powerful beast, with those wings on his back.. Rafal truly looked like a Paladin, like a warrior of the ages of old.. like a true hero.
The green eyed boy jumped from the griffin's back, and the false wings on his back slowed his fall - allowing him to softly land on the muddy ground beneath. Two of the younger Faith Keepers, probably also the most foolish ones, one armed with an axe and one armed with a spear rushed forward, trying to attack him before he could fight back.. but in one swift move, Rafal unsheathed his sword, blocking the axe with its jagged blade and punching the first Faith Keeper in the face. The second one hesitated, and the blade cut through his spear's wooden shaft. Left without a weapon, the second Keeper screamed, turning around and running away. This short and quick display of power and skill was more than enough to frighten the others. The band of Faith Keepers scattered in the wind, disappearing through the forest around them.. except for three of them. The wounded knight, the scarred girl, and the priestess. The knight was unable to walk, shocked and in pain, curled up in a near fetal position on the ground, and the two girls looked at Rafal hesitantly.
"You can take him away.. as bad as his soul his, he doesn't deserve to die..", he told them calmly, and the scarred girl silently nodded, looking once again at Alina for a few moment before jumping out of the wagon, and a few moments later, both Faith Keepers disappeared among the trees, dragging the wounded knight with them. Rafal had already scouted the forest with the griffin, so he knew that there were no other dangers between them and the Ecclesiarchy's border.. and killing them like that was just not like him.
All that mattered was her.
Rafal started to run, and a few moments later, he was in the wagon, looking at her with a mess of feelings reflected in his expression. He gently took her hands into his left hand, and used the sword's edge to hit the handcuffs once, breaking the magical markings that were on them, and they just turned into dust.. Dropping his sword, Rafal just hugged her as tightly as he could, tears rolling down his cheeks. "i'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm just so sorry..", he tried to say.. "I n-nearly.. n-nearly l-lost you.. I n-nearly b-broke my p-promise.. I'm sorry.. I'm sorry, but I'm.. I'm here n-now.. and everything is alright.. I'm here now, and you're s-safe.."
.....................................................................................................................................................................................
A couple of minutes later, Wulf also managed to get off from the griffin's back - the little boy hesitating for quite a while to jump like Rafal had just done, only for his own little wings to ease his fall like that. The griffin distanced itself from the others a little, seeming to be quite interested in the weapons that the Faith Keepers had left behind, and with Wulf remaining sort of alone like that.. he suddenly felt someone grabbing him by the neck from behind, a man in the white robes of a Faith Keeper... "This doesn't end here, you sinners!", he whispered, taking out a knife..
Somewhere
A village
The night arrived pretty quickly, but in that short period of time.. the entire village changed its appearance. From the peaceful but sort of slumbering place that had been there when the two of them had arrived, the atmosphere changed into one of celebration, of happiness and of excitement - of true gratitude. Candles with colored fire had been placed nearly everywhere, bringing the glowing colors of the rainbow on all the streets and in front of and inside of all the houses. Flowers had been quickly enchanted into wonderful forms and decorations, small altars had been prepared for all of the gods, and the scent of fresh flowers and grass, of bread and food was spreading throughout the small town. The most effort had however been made to decorate the town's small square - and that's where most of the villagers and the two visiters were just as the sun had disappeared beneath the horizon - darkness kept away by small cozy and colored fires. Minstrels were singing, people were dancing and talking and having fun - celebrating their hero.
Celio.
Of course, the poor boy was unable any of it, and part of him still refused to believe that something like this could be happening, while another side of him was clearly embarassed by all the positive attention that he was getting - the way in which he was blushing, even more obvious because of just how pale his skin has made his embarassment all too clear - and the poor boy nearly seemed to be on the point of fainting when the old lady had congratulated himself in front of the entire village that had gathered in the square... but deep inside.. he was happy. He was enjoying this, and that was rather obvious because of his constant smile - so different from the melancholic, sad smile that the boy used to have on his face during his previous meetings with Julie. He had been craving for the feeling of being liked and appreciated by the people around him, him, the poor boy that was hated and despised by just so many... so for him.. this was almost like a dream come true...
As Celio was still surrounded by the villagers, Julie was now standing more towards the edge of the square, away from the large crowd - and seeing her there, the old lady from before approached her, stopping right next to her with a glass of wine in her hand. "Your friend is really, really shy..", the nice lady said, with a smile on her face. "He really seems to be embarassed by all of this attention, and in a way, I feel sorry for him, but we owe him a debt that can not be possibly paid back.. so this celebration is the least that we can do.." And then, the woman hesitated for a few moments. "Judging by just how embarasseed and confused he seems to be, and by how you reacted to it.. it would be safe to assume that he's never told you about this, right? He doesn't seem to be the type to brag about it.. even if he truly is a hero." And the lady smiled again. "The war was horrible.. but we managed to get through msot of it without any harm being done to our little town. We are sort of isolated, and even if we had to send some of our men to the war back when it all started.. the rest of it was pretty peaceful.. until when that bloody massacre happened in the forest next to our village. We all avoid it now, the blood stained forest as we call it.. you might have noticed it because of the crater if you came from that direction - it's a place that the few travellers that come to our village always avoid. There was this big battle over there, a lot of magic, a lot of soldiers, a lot of monsters.. and a lot of death. That forest is cursed to this day because of how much death and pain and suffering happened there... but the worst came after the end of the battle. Mercenaries suddenly appeared around our village, bastards and evil people from that corrupted place called Anselm.. oh, we had heard about them, about how they destroyed so many villages and cities, killing, looting, raping and torturing everything in their way.. we were so afraid.. so terrified.. the few of us who could use some magic gathered at the entrance, trying to hold them back, but.. what could we do? I t was horrible, the thought that they would do all of that to our village, to our families, to our friends, to our neighbors.."
And the woman sighed. "But before they were able to do anything.. he arrived. We had actually heard some rumors about him - one of the men had returned home without both legs a year or two before, and he had told us about this Achisian necromancer who was somehow also kind - giving him a heatlh that had helped him survived, but we had never believed that.. there couldn't be such a thing as a kind necromancer, right? I felt his aura when he appeared, so powerful, so strong, we had no chance against him, so I was ready to give up..aura reading is one of the few fields of magic that I am good at.. but there was also just so much pain, so much suffering, so much sadness and loathing in there it... it overwhelmed me for a few moments, and when I saw his relic, a scythe.. I knew that all hope was lost.. but instead of attacking us, instead of leading those mercenaries and violating and ruining our village.. he turned around and looked at them." She smiled..as her eyes started to get a little teary. "He argued with them, he told them that our village was under our protection, and that no attack was going to happen that day.. and of course, the mercenaries wouldn't listen. They tried to ignore him, they tried to advance onto the village, and one of them grabbed one of our girls by the hand... and that's when he stepped in between, punching that soldier.. and he fought against them, one boy against an entire group of hardened mercenaries, criminals, and mages..he turned against them for us, in order to protect us, the people of a village that he had never seen before.. and he saved us from the horrors of the war.. before he disappeared again."
And then, the lady looked at Celio, who was surrounded by a bunch of girls. "If not for him, we wouldn't have been here right now.. we would have been dead, broken, or enslaved, and our village would have been razed to the ground..we were never able to thank him properly, and we probably never will be able to pay back that debt.. but in that war of chaos and brutality and so many evil things..who cares about those arrogant Heroes in the big cities?. A necromancer like him saved us.. he is our hero, there is no doubt about it.."
The girls were seemingly all trying to get Celio to dance with them, and it was probably only partially because of his "hero" status. It was normally not exactly easy to notice, due to the way in which he was dressed and due to how he was nearly always trying to at least partially hide his face.. and then again, most of the when the two of them had met poor Celio had been on the verge of death.. but he was actually a pretty good looking boy, beautiful - even if his pale skin and crimson eyes made his beauty a bit more.. supranatural than the beauty of princes like Auguste or Ekaitz. With him not swinging a scythe around, terrorizing people, the girls in the village clearly liked him a lot, with some of them already acting as if they were head over heels in love with him - which the old lady quickly noticed. In a few steps - she entered their group, taking Celio by his hand and dragging a very confused black haired boy right next to Julie, where he also took her by the hand- dragging them both in the middle of the square, where some people were already dancing on the music that was being played by a group of minsterls. And like that, Julie and Celio ended up in front of each other, with the lady letting go of their hands. "Why don't you two dance? This shy boy over here has been rejecting girl after girl back there, trying to think of ways of invinting you to dance, so I thought that he might need a little help!.." And a Celio that was blushing harder by the moment looked hesitantly at the blue eyed girl in front of him, as if he was desperately trying to say the most difficult words of his entire life. "Would you.. would you.. would you like.. to... d-dance w-with m-me?..", he tried to ask, the last few words almost a whisper, holding out his hand...
And when she said yes, his entire face brigthened up, smiling as Julie took his hand. And they started to dance.. of course, Celio had no idea how to actually dance, since dancing courses weren't included in the Cult of Sins training, and most of his previous memories were gone.. so they just moved in the rhythm of the music, with Celio seeming to blush even harder, if that was even possible. And yet.. he tried to take a few deep breaths to calm himself down. "I just.. I just wanted to say..", he started talking, looking down for a few moments before he looked back, directly at Julie. "That..this is probably.. the happiest I've ever been... so....thank you.. thank you so much.."
