A few minutes ago... Many of the knights who deserted the battle were preparing to leave, taking horses and wagons as soon as they could from the village. As the villagers were in a deep sleep, the occasion was perfect to take everything without retaliation.
They soon assembled a makeshift caravan and headed into the forest to continue fleeing south towards the big city.
Their growing remorse drove some of them back to defend the defenseless people in the village. As soon as they entered the village, they heard a great rumbling as if it was a great avalanche crunching the trees in its path and destroying much of the forest in its onslaught, it was the monsters approaching the village from many directions.
Those who remained in the name of their oath began to fight hopelessly clinging to the words that the knight had said, for in their minds and especially in their consciences they remembered those days when they dreamed of becoming knights and being the heroes who would protect their people from calamity.
RUN, CLOSE THE ROADS, WE WILL DEFEND ALL THE FLANKS!
shouted one of them as he felt a roar approaching in all directions towards the place. This only filled their chests with hesitation, causing some to vomit through their helmets and others clinging to the doors with wooden logs could not stop shaking.
And it was not long in coming, for the silence was broken by the shouts of those knights trying to flee towards the great city. The torches went out in the forest and so did the screams.
THE CARNAGE HAD BEEN COMPLETED...
A herd was heard approaching... as if it was a stampede of animals, the trees shuddered as they fell one after another and from the darkness came out huge spheres made of corpses that crashed against the doors scattering nightmarish creatures in all directions leaving them quite damaged pulling the knights backwards making them retreat abruptly. Some monsters began to pass through while others slowly destroyed the gates.
The resistance of the knights could barely contain the monstrosities that crashed one after another against the gates and the flimsy walls that barely resisted the robust spheres of corpses that upon collision split into all kinds of grafts with multiple limbs and heads that surrounded the entire wall trying to cross while screaming deafeningly filling with fear the faint heart of the poor men.
In a place where time does not pass, where darkness covers endless dunes like a great mantle, the great bastion rises on the inhospitable sands of a place that no one knows, in a space that no one alive has ever stepped on.
Within it lie those who are neither alive nor dead, trapped in eternity, as observers of what was once their home.
To them everything that happens outside is visible for they are everywhere and nowhere at once.
I'M GOING OUT! said a voice.
- I know what you're thinking, but we shouldn't interfere! -replied another, more serious one.
Both shadows were standing at the colossal gates of the fortification watching the horizon closely, seeing something beyond the darkness.
- You have rung the bell! Those who want to go, follow me! said the smaller silhouette.
- I sense a faint presence, but I don't think it's him... yet you will go? Replied the deep voice as he sat down on the ground.
- I have to be sure it's not him. She said.
Soon four warriors wearing plate armor gathered and knelt down presenting their colossal weapons on the ground saying: WE ARE READY MY LADY!
She moved towards the steps and at the sound of the bells dropped her weapon charged in electricity, seeing now that they were standing on top of the battlefield where Liria stood.
He then turned his gaze towards them saying "GO!"
Whereupon he proceeded to drop from the great bastion straight towards the battlefield following his spear.
For an instant the sky was illuminated as if it were daylight by the light of the storm coming from the falling spear, and then behind it were seen as flashes falling, the knights at his command.
In an instant each of them fell into the town in front of the gate of each entrance, walking step by step radiating an immense aura of electricity that cracked the ground and structures in their path as they dragged colossal weapons.
To the north with a great leap one of them appeared. He carried a huge two-handed axe with a long, thin handle that seemed difficult to wield. With a huge charge he charged at the monsters, cutting them in a brutal way, scattering their entrails with each slash, finishing them all in an instant. With a slight movement he turned to see the knights lying on the ground without moving a muscle and continued walking to continue annihilating the beasts outside the wall.
To the east with a rather large triangular-shaped shield and a long sword, moving with speed and amazing weapon handling. Holding his shield, he was knocking down the monsters with his tackles that sent them flying into each other, leaving them stunned as he hacked them to pieces with his sword.
To the west a warrior with a colossal halberd even faster than his companions with blows that reached much farther than a novice knight's sense of sight could see, he just seemed to teleport from one position to another, while heads were falling everywhere.
To the south appeared the most unreal of them was not as large as the others, in fact, his build looked a bit thin, he was dragging a rapier much larger than his size, about eight feet and perhaps the width of a foot or more.
The church knights gathered there watched in amazement and transfixed as this warrior walked towards the horde of monsters that had amassed and were about to break through the door.
CRACK!
It was the sound of the gates creaking as they broke and the corpse-like creatures overflowed into the village.
A clean slash was drawn across the door before it fell, in a motion that left a crack in the floor as it advanced with tremendous force, accompanied by the dry sound of bones being cut with overwhelming force. The force with which he sent flying the pieces of monster that he cut in his path was something that left the knights frozen, for at each door, each of the knights present witnessed how four subjects had turned the situation around with a unilateral annihilation of the monsters that appeared without ceasing.
Relentless, as if they barely showed any effort in combat they moved into the darkness, looking like brief and powerful flashes of light. Little by little they moved away from the place, giving chase to the monsters. Not a single word came out of those dark armors, and just as they arrived, again they left, taking with them the thanks of the few knights who kept their honor, but who could not say a single word to them, for when they came to themselves from the shock, they were already out of sight, for it had only been a few sighs for them.
At that moment the sound of the immense bells began to ring again making them look at the sky in a hypnotic way to focus their gaze on how that colossal structure disappeared like ashes dragged by the wind at the same time that the first rays of dawn were glimpsed.
Under the shadow of the arch that guarded the entrance to the bastion, a large man was waiting in the shadows, with his arms crossed at his chest, looking at the horizon as if his gaze was lost, watching something until he heard the clanking of armor on the steps.
-Welcome," he said," you brought a strange gift, what is it supposed to be? -
Step by step they climbed the stairs while again the gloomy landscape was drawn behind them, that desolate place with a horizon full of darkness.
Barely a faint reflection illuminated the bloody armor of the four warriors who accompanied the girl who was seen with astonishment by the big man since he returned without his helmet.
-They call it "concept" its energy is unstable, and corrupted, it worries me, we should investigate what it is about," she said while she put back on the helmet that appeared little by little in her hands.
-Oh, it's unusual to see you without your helmet on, Kaelestis," said the big man as he left his comfortable position and walked to meet the girl, stopping and looking at her with a bit of astonishment.
-It was only deliberate Eidos," said the girl, as she looked at the now visible man who looked more like a giant because of his large size, his colossal armor and a prominent white beard that accompanied his hair woven in braids of the same color.
-I may be missing an eye, but I can still see the wounds clearly -who was able to hurt you? - Eidos said as he slowly lifted Kaelestis' helmet.
She rather surprised she placed her left hand on his cheek touching it with concern and realizing that there was certainly a small scratch on it, it was barely like the graze of a needle.
She smiled and said, "Not bad," as she remembered with a laugh Liria's trembling body as she attacked her.
-She must have been terrified," she said, while Eidos waited uncertainly for her to tell him what had happened.
-It's nothing big guy, I'm sure I'll see the girl who did it again," said Kaelestis smiling. It had been many years since Eidos had seen her laugh like that, so he turned to look questioningly at the warriors behind him, but they turned their heads as a sign that they had no idea what he was talking about.
-Next time I'll have to go out and have some fun too," said Eidos throwing his arm around Kaelestis as they walked inside the bastion.
-You're too heavy, old man.
-Hahaha, come on, just like in the old days," said Eidos as she jumped on his shoulder, getting lost behind the bastion's doors.