RAID INTO THE FORTRESS

Liria began to approach the fortress cautiously, the cries of the creatures were deafening, and before her appeared hounds made of bones that dripped blood from the ill-gotten armor they were wearing, they surrounded her while she protected herself with the aegis behind her back. and sword in hand.

The three creatures lunged at her, but a flash of light created by her shield blinded them, giving them time to jump on her attackers and breaking them in half with a single blow.

Seeing them up close, these monsters are… these armors are like those worn by knights, and these are not bones of animals or monsters, they are human bones! – Liria thought – while her face looked horrified, the bones began to tremble and take shape again, then she crashed her sword against the shield, taking this bright light on the sharp blade with which she once again sliced ​​them before she finished getting up, seeing then the green essence of the corpses disappeared.

This is necromancy! She whispered as she watched the bodies return to normal. Poor people, dying in this abandoned place without pain or glory, fighting for a purpose that perhaps they never knew or followed in their hearts... how fragile the hearts of men are when they allow themselves to be guided by others who, having their lives in their hands, seem to them more insignificant than a coin. My brothers, rest!

A noise was heard among some nearby bushes and a voice murmured from them:

Don't go!... you must not go there, the lord of the fortress has returned, his curse rots this land and raises those horrendous creatures, you must leave – said a voice in the darkness –

Who are you? "Show yourself... if you try to stop me... you will end up like these corpses," Liria said - while she suspiciously grabbed her weapons.

We do not want to harm you, but you should not go there, he has returned... his army... his entourage, someone must banish them from this place before they return completely, but you do not have the strength to stop him light bearer - said the voice in Darkness -

I'm not going to waste my time here anymore, if you're going to fight, leave now or let me go, I'll save the village no matter what it takes – said Liria – as long as you have to turn around to leave.

Over the cliff... - said the voice -

What does the cliff have, what do I have to find there – said Liria – who was already suspicious of those presences that little by little were gathering around her.

His shield illuminated the place and at his feet, no higher than his knee, he saw beings that looked like small people, barely children, some had shells and other animal skins, their ears were pointed and as for their age, they all looked like children. Liria jumped with fright; however, she did not feel any malice from those beings who were obviously not normal children.

But there are spiders on the cliff, if they discover him, he won't make it, you already saw what happened to those gentlemen - said one - but perhaps you are already satisfied, it was a carnage - said another - do you want to send him to commit suicide? even if you manage to reach the fortress, you still have to steal the fragment.

What are they talking about, fragment? What happens up there – Liria said – while she grabbed one of the little ones from her shell.

It is that jewel, green in color, it revives the dead, those traitors cursed by the King are invited to the mortal world again as punishment for the lack of their word, as punishment for having broken their oath, if it is not claimed this entire place will be corrupted – said one of the little ones who seemed to be older than the others – Lindel called me, I am the leader of these little ones, we come to you because there is no one else we can ask, the corruption in this land must be stopped or all being alive including us of course will die.

You can't steal it, there are many of you, maybe together you can... - Liria said with suspicion in her voice -.

Unfortunately, young luminescent, the cursed field of the fortress takes our lives just by touching us. When Lady Gala created us, she made us incorruptible and pure, both malice and this corruption are lethal to us.

Liria, however, did not seem to believe Lindel's words, but once again screams were heard with more intensity from that place, the phosphorescent green that rose to the sky and fell on the forest and spread to the village was increasingly greater, despite Due to his doubts and multiple questions, he had no choice but to try.

Show me the way, if I didn't want to put my life at risk, I wouldn't even have put on this armor in the first place! – Liria said with determination in her eyes –

Please follow us, that light must not see the dawn or terrible things will happen! - said Lindel - as they began to march towards the depths of the darkness.

They began to move further and further away from the fortress, a path of phosphorescent flowers and fireflies was drawn along a huge cliff, it was evident that the further they got from that place, the less corruption there was.

Where they are taking me, we have been walking for a long time and we are getting further and further away from that place – said Liria, dissatisfied and sensing that she was being deceived –

We are heading towards the coast, do not be anxious because the secret passage of the fortress is located at the base of this cliff, thus we have protected it for time immemorial as a promise to those who once were and are no longer, the bearers of the same light that you bring before us today.

This shield is really so important, they have been mentioning my light for a while, but it comes from this shield – Liria said –

It is unmistakable for us, it is the same as when the first bearer appeared before us, the guardian, the one who earned the right to call himself king among all creatures carried the same light – said Lindel –

I would like to hear his story – said Liria –

If you manage to return, I will tell you – said Lindel –

That sounds discouraging, you say it as if you don't believe I'm going to return, you'll have to tell me everything you know when I return, old man – said Liria as she looked at the little old man with great security in her eyes –

By the goddess I hope that the truthfulness of your words materializes in your actions.

As Lindel finished saying this, little by little the fireflies and flowers on the path began to disappear, the salty wind from the sea felt more and more intense, and the overwhelming presence that was getting bigger and bigger began to intimidate Liria.

You can truly feel it, what is there is something that should not exist in these lands, perhaps not even in this world - Lindel said with a gloomy voice - before us are the catacombs of the great Fortress, this place connects with the main courtyard From that place, the fragment responsible for this chaos must reside nearby, we will accompany you as far as we can, we will risk our lives to preserve our home, but you must visit the last place alone.

Liria looked at him and nodded her head, because she had not turned back having reached that point, it was not long before dawn and they had to avoid at all costs that the fragment was touched by sunlight.

Liria was wondering where the entrance was because at the edge of where they were was the end of a large cliff, there was only sand and a resounding wall of rocks, the waves crashed against the great fortification, and then she could hear a great bustle... her His skin crawled as he saw the broken armor of the church knights being swept away by the waves.

Again, he heard another bustle, metal twisting, squeezing, crushing... and he looked up... in the darkness of the night and in a thick fog he could see the luminescent eyes of the spider creatures.

We have to enter, we have to enter now... the entrance... show it or it will be too late, they will see us, and I will not be able to fight all those monsters alone, they will devour us – Liria said in a distressing manner –

Lindel looked at her and said: what's in there is much worse than these creatures.

But he is alone – said Liria –

I'm not sure, but this place has not been open since that day, so I trust that it will be so - Lindel said -

Then let's go in, hopefully whatever's there won't see us – Liria replied –

Lindel took out a horn from her garment and blew it loudly, attracting all the creatures with the immense noise.

Maybe you went crazy, what are you doing, let that go – Liria shouted –

But she had barely finished the sentence when an enormous roar was heard and a huge gate was drawn in the rock wall that began to open, releasing a nauseating and heavy air.

Liria ran into the place that was in complete darkness, the others followed her, closing the door, crushing several spiders in her path.

"That was too close," said Liria.

It was needed to open the entrance, only the guard of this place has the horn to find the doors.

Liria lent light with her shield and a sigh along with chills ran through her body because the place did not have much of a mausoleum appearance, it looked like a mass grave or more than that a mortuary, there were no coffins, there were no tombs, there were no names, just a huge hole full of bones, if you could call it that because they didn't seem to be complete corpses, but rather fragments of different bodies.

Around it there seemed to be scaffolding fortifications that seemed to have been used at some time to make ladders.

Since there was no apparent place to climb, they decided to climb through said wooden structure.

"Now that I think about it, since Tylos used my shield it has acquired the quality of glowing in the dark, I wonder what that guy is, I didn't even have time to question him, although I should properly thank him for saving my life, and the new qualities of the "Shield suits me like a glove, but I had never heard that a shield-weapon acquired qualities just by someone using it" – Liria thought as she ascended the immense wooden scaffolding with the children.

The darkness was imminent and they could barely see a few meters where they were, a situation that intensely affected her companions who seemed to be invaded by fear.

It's too dark, it's like the darkness is trying to devour the light, this darkness surrounds us like a hungry beast, I'm not sure if a normal light could make way for us in this place. Lindel, what the hell is there in here, that mountain of bones that we found down there, this looks more like the lair of a horror than a catacomb – said Liria –

Since the last time, more than two thousand years ago, when the great King and the great city fell, this great fortress that was once home to a great kingdom and a huge people fell into disgrace because the great alliance, the unbreakable pact that Once it was captured in the soul of this town it was broken, the lord of this place once swore to fight alongside the other great lords in favor of the lord of light, however, when the time came to fight, they did nothing, None of them helped, they all turned their backs and remained silent, because the enemy was formidable and none of them wanted to put their people in danger or rather put their lives in danger because they were bad-hearted men and in their own souls greed and greed abounded. the thirst for power, and given the slightest opportunity to obtain it, they did not hesitate to turn their backs on him who, once a simple man, saved this place with his companions.

The enemy not only sought to destroy the great lord, but also to desecrate the Goddess herself and claim this world. No one knows what he was seeking or what his final purpose was, since we were little involved in the affairs of men, but it was clear that this conflict would affect us.

So that the lords would not help the great King, the enemy promised them both power and wealth in his domain, to which greed did nothing but consume the poor human souls, since the desire for what one does not have is as great as an abyss immersed in the same darkness and as unsuspecting as a newborn.

It was clear as day that once his mission was fulfilled, misfortune would fall on this kingdom and the others, since those both men and magical beings who do not keep, their word are destined to bear their mistakes in the most painful ways possible.

We who once lived with them abandoned the mission of helping this people because betrayal and lies go hand in hand with death and misfortune and once it hits the creatures there is no turning back.

Power and wealth never caught our attention and as guardians we simply observed what would come next.

The red-tinged sky was only the first of the omens... when the magnificent kingdom and its ruler fell, we realized that the dark days would not pass quickly.

It was like a great wind that broke the trees, destroying everything in its path like a great hurricane. Then this nauseating smell, we hid in this place, because it was the passage to our lands, to our small town, but it was too late.

The doors of the great fortress thundered and were destroyed with a couple of blows, creatures, abominations and corrupted malformations of magical beings and others that should not even exist manifested in the city when the doors fell, the soldiers fought bravely against the monsters holding them back while people ran for their lives in a hurry.

I remember it as if it had been yesterday, the blood that was spilled that day bathed the streets of this entire kingdom, the knights in a heroic impetus together with the lord of the fortress managed to turn the battle around, but it was barely the beginning, because If her creatures failed to claim the lives of the kingdom, she would claim them in person.

This is how she appeared in the sky, like a solar eclipse, all the light disappeared and with the fury of a hurricane she appeared before the army of the fortress with her black dress and her crimson eyes.

The Lady of the Dark Crimson had arrived!