Captive

Sir Koelhar ran off to the external battlements of the stronghold and headed towards the Chambers of the Sun God.

Dwenson stronghold was a uniquely designed fortress of stone bricks and solid slate build on top of a mountain.

The stronghold had nearly no open areas and was roofed with layers of stone bricks in order to block against the sun during the Wath of the Sun God and survive endless blizzard during the months of Ice.

The fortress was practically a massive mess of geometric stone structures with a massive pillar spewing flames surrounded by other smaller pillars with smoke coming out the top.

This was the marvel of the stronghold.

The pillars of fire were called as the Altar of the Sun God.

The pillar held a cluster of Flair cores harvested from Sun Shallows, the season when the planet is extremely close to the sun to the point where gravity shifts and mana starts to pool between the world and the Sun. During this season, the crystallized mana absorbs the fire essence from the sun and becomes a Flair Stone.

Flair stones burn when they are in contact with air and could burn for 5 years and a half at the least, slowly dipersing all the mana stored inside the crystal.

These flair stones fall from the Sun Shallows and into the land when the Wrath of the sun God has subsided and are the reason why lands become burnt and desolate since they can literally fall from anywhere given that the sun shines in that area and the Sun God decided to drop the hundreds of thousands of Flair cores

With Dwenson Stronghold being the Southernmost territory in Wyndfall Kingdom, they had access to the Scorching desert where Flair Cores fall most often, turning the land into a flaming inferno all the time

Dwenson stronghold are the main harvesters of such precious materials.

One might think that the importance of these crystals for Dwenson stronghold are too far overrated but these cores are literally responsible for providing air for the 28,000 residents in the stronghold.

The so called Altars of the Sun God burn air from the Stronghold and keep the air flowing from the base of the mountain towards the residential area.

Because of this, an artificial airflow is created where the holes they dug at the bottom of the mountain are the entry points for air and the top of the Altar of the Sun God was the exit for the air.

There was a solid gate that could be used to shut off the airflow flowing towards the altar of the Sun God in case that there were pressure differentials that happened and the flames start blowing the wrong way around.

This was an automatic process under normal circumstances.

Under 'normal' circumstances.

"On the authority bestowed upon me by the almighty Sun God." One of the priests of the Church chanted. "Bless these men with the power of Holy Fire!"

The men in front of the gate gathered towards the massive flaming ram and kept ramming it against the Airlock gate.

"Sir, we cannot override the control from the Gate Control Tower." Sir Gunther spoke to him with downcast eyes. "At this rate, we only have about an hour and a half of air, even if we overclock the auxiliary altars then..."

Koelhar just stared at the gate with hatred.

Not only did the filthy peasants manage to take a solid foothold inside the fortress and sieze their supplies, fortifications, and locked down their main entryways in one swift move, they even managed to force the soldiers to leave their positions to try and open the airlock gate, lest they all suffocate together.

This was absolutlely intolerable for the Knights.

'To think that those, filthy, dumb, uncultured sons of whores managed to make a fool of the entire stronghold...'

Koelhar could not control the seething fire in his chest.

He just wanted to rip apart the person who was responsible for all this and keep him alive and torture him everyday.

"Sir..." Sir Gunther snapped him out of his trance. "Duke Claris would like to see you."

Sir Koelhar immediately snapped out of it and replied.

"Yes, Sir Gunther." Koelhar grit his teeth to quell his anger. "Take me to him."

Koelhar took one last glance of the two legions of men trying to take down the huge iron airlock with no signs of progress and spat bitterly.

"Lets go, Sir Gunther."

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Duke Rimmenwolfe had been waiting for Koelhar in front of the porch overlooking the residential area of Dwenson Stronghold.

Before Koelhar could kneel and beg for forgiveness, the Duke spoke without facing him.

"Koelhar..." The Duke spoke with melancholy. "Has the Church insisted on their participation in unlocking the airlock?"

"Y-Yes, your Lordship." Koelhar spoke.

"Those idiots..." The Duke audibly sighed. "We are running out of air and they are insisting on using fire."

Koelhar kept his silence and let the Duke speak out his frustrations.

"We could have avoided all this if the Church did not insist in using violence in the recruitment campaign." The Duke turned to look at Koelhar. "What do you think we should do now, Koelhar. Three dungeons have been compromised, the fourth one under siege, the gates have been shut on us and our air is running out."

Koelhar had a surge of pride as the Duke had asked his advice, of all the other people, in the stronghold.

Koelhar was about to answer the Duke when he was at a loss of words on what to say.

Koelhar tried to fumble for words but ultimately failed.

He realized that he did not have an answer to the Duke's question

"OH GREAT AND WISE RULER OF THE STRONGHOLD!" A loud, screetching voice was heard together with the arrival of the archbishop of the Sun God. "THIS HUMBLE SERVANT HAS COME TO BRING YOU GREAT NEWS!"

"Calm down Archbishop Weissner." Duke Rimmenwolfe walked towards him. "You do not need to scream."

"YOUR LORDSHIP! I DO NOT DARE!" The Archbishop was still nearly screaming.

"What is this news you speak of, Archbishop?" The Duke asked.

"THE MERCIFUL EYES OF THE GREAT SUN GOD HAS SEEN OUR SUFFERING AND HAS SENT AN ENVOY OF HOLY FLAME TO BRING UPON US THE GLORY OF..."

Koelhar glanced at the Duke who was acting as if he was paying close attention to the Archbishop.

"THE SUN GOD HAS WOVEN THE FATE OF MAN BEFORE THE STARS IN A FLAWLESS PLAN FOR THE GLORY OF HIS CREATION AND AS THE CHILDREN OF THE SUN GOD WE MUST BRING CERTAINTY TO..."

Koelhar's eyes went round. The Archbishop was apparently still not done yet.

"BY THE POWER OF THE HOLY FIRE THAT LIGHTS THE WAY OF THE FUTURE AND BRINGS PURGE ON THE HERETICS THAT CAST THE BLIGHTFUL SHADOW OF DARKNESS ACROSS THE LAND AND CAUSES THE EARTH TO TREMBLE IN..."

'When does this idiot end...' Koelhar took a glance at the Duke.

The Duke wore a stiff, forced smile as if he was about to maul the Archbishop.

Koelhar needed to provide him with assistance.

"THE PRIDE OF THE BELIEVERS OF THE SUN GOD STAND ABOVE THOSE OF-"

"GLORY TO THE SUN GOD! GLORY TO THE CHURCH!" Koelhar cut him off.

The Archbishop was about to reprimand him when the Duke did a follow up.

"What exactly do you have in store for me, oh great Archbishop Weissner?" The Duke asked with a stiff smile.

"We have managed to intercept a heretic hiding among the believers of the great Sun God." The Archbishop stopped screaming.

"I believe he was the one they called 'Rowan'."