Zest - The Fire in the Rain - [part 2]

The aftermath was terror and hysteria. The gigantic meteor struck the front of Crypthin Castle, obliterating its royal gate. The explosion blew off the guard towers and the magical flames quickly spread on stones like it would on woods. The walls were cracked and burnt. The pillars that held the structure of the castle started to collapse one by one. The bells tolled, signaling an attack. The cold night grew hot and the emitted smokes were excess.

Zest was flown by the explosion and he found himself sprawling over a wet soil. The shock numbed his body, and he felt queer ache circulating from his stomach. He heard the screams of a hundred, the tolls of the bells, and the shoutings of the soldiers. Crypthin was alive with anger and shock, fear and dismay. From afar, Zest could hear the enemy's forces horn blowing, melding with the cries and screams of the innocents.

He needed to get up. He needed to get up and fight for his home, his friends, his king. As Zest tried to balance himself, he felt a sharp pain in his ribs. He gritted his teeth and held the pain off. He walked away from the shade of the trees. What he saw was chaos. People were everywhere, running off all around, to safeties, to their friends and families, or to the enemies outside, to fight. All of them was shouting, or screaming, the noises only brought more chaos.

Zest ran. He knew Pearce should have already been with the other soldiers. He wouldn't doubt that swordsman's skills in combat, but the Witch's power was beyond his. Zest ran to his home and found its door opened, his properties raided. The thieves and robbers already did their part in the chaos. Zest couldn't care less, as long as they didn't take his sword, nothing else mattered. He took his old sword from under his bed and gave it a few swings. To his annoyance, his ribs hurt yet again from the littlest of effort.

***

Only moments later, Zest found himself running again. The people were guided to a desperate evacuation to the other side of the city. The screams were almost ceased, now a distant cries rising from the far south side of Crypthin. Only a few people lingered here, those that unable to find themselves their own safety. Zest worried for their lives, but he couldn't help them now. He needed to find Pearce and fight alongside him. As he ran, he could see all around him, homes were left behind in a hurry. In the confusion, the fire had spread on its own, slowly consuming the trees and buildings.

When Zest reached the north side of the city, he could already hear the sounds of the fight: shouts and clashes of swords on swords. Banners of the false queen the Witch stood high amongst the fighting soldiers. A ball of flame, a meteor, red on black. The walls were breached. The rest were already crumbled by the blow of the explosion. To the outside of the wall, Zest saw a glimpse of the enemy archers in the distant, stood in rows above the hills as they fire flaming arrows that brought cruel deaths.

"Zest!" It was Pearce's voice. Zest almost broke his neck as he turned his head to the voice. There he saw his friend. Pearce had donned his armor and it was red with blood. The bodies of the Witch's forces all around him. The other soldiers were still fighting, not that far from him.

Zest unsheathed his sword and ran to him. "You alright?" they asked the same question and nodded in unison. Pearce had an angry face on him, Zest knew why even before asking.

"My father is here," Pearce said, his tone cold. Zest could only show his concerned frown to him. "Sir Burns lead the force himself," Pearce added, "He had entered the castle just now,"

Zest took a look at the castle, its front yard was aflame. "Then we have little time,"

Pearce nodded, "We have to find the King. Let's go."

***

They're deploying catapults.

Zest looked to the cloudy sky and saw them, fireballs launched and soared, flying slowly above, until it fell in shocking speed to crush the city and castle walls below. Crypthin screamed once again, as everything burned to the ground. The earth beneath Zest's feet shook over and over again, and the air got hotter in mere seconds.

This is not a war to take Crypthin, Zest thought as he ran alongside Pearce through the castle halls, avoiding every falling bricks and debris. This is an act of vengeance to destroy Crypthin...

"King Guinn! Your Majesty!" Pearce shouted, but his voice only got muffled by the endless explosions that rained down the whole Kingdom. Amidst them all, a single thunder roared, shattering the night, the loudest one Zest had ever heard. And with it, the storm came.

It was a rainstorm, and soon the downpour overwhelmed the city. The sounds of the storm drowned everything else, and the earth stopped shaking. The fires that burned the villages around and the houses in the city were put off. But the magical flames from the meteor burned still and true, ignoring the rainstorm altogether.

The Witch's flame burns forever.

"There's someone over there," Zest said. He saw a figure at the end of the corridor, a thin small figure. Pearce slowed down, "Is it them?" he whispered. When the lightning flashed, they saw who it was. A girl, and a girl they knew too well.

"Levia?" Pearce called out, as the two of them approached her. Thunder cracked in following, and another one right after it. The girl turned, hers was a scared face but after she saw her friends she almost cried instead. "Pearce! Zest! Are you two okay?" she ran to them.

"Levia, where's the King?" Pearce asked, but Levia only shook her head with the same worry as her two friends. Zest could still hear thunders in the distant, among the loud noise of the storm. "Why are you here? How did you get here?" he asked.

"I was in the castle when the meteor hit. There was a panic then, everyone ran when they heard the bells." She shook her head and sighed, "I was with the other girls, we were preparing for Pearce's knighthood ceremony." She paused, "I've lost them all, we were separated when the enemy got inside." She gritted her teeth and tightened her grip on her short bow.

"Also, your father is here," she had avoided Pearce's gaze when she said that, but the hate was clear on her face.

Pearce had been silent. As if holding his own anger. Zest took a step forward towards the staircase that goes down below, he said, "Let's go," Right after that they heard a shout from the lower levels, the three nodded to each other, and proceeded with haste.