Turn

Some of the soldiers turned immediately and charged at the Void, while many hesitated, torn between hope and fear.

The hope had spawned and been murmured amongst them after arrows had made their way into the battalions of troops, miraculously hitting no one or else glancing off of their leather armor. They had dutifully returned fire, only realizing afterwards that Klain's arrows must have been intentionally shot poorly to avoid casualties. Messages in Duncan's handwriting tied to the shafts were circulated subtly from man to man.

If The Void had suspected the flurry of projectiles each had messages tied to their shafts, she would have quickly quashed whatever hope it put into the men. Once the messages were read, they were silently handed around the missives with significant glances. The Void either was too occupied by its assault on the barrier or ignored what appeared to be mere gossip amongst the men.

The notes had laid the foundation for a revolt against the Void, and their instructions had crept like vines of ivy through the Rhone. Though it had not fully reached the edges, the spread of its influence was substantial.

The collective mentality of the soldiers was strong, and once the first few turned to attack, most followed. They had been instilled with the values of unity as the primary factor in survival. Out of the army that remained at the breach, only a few froze in cowardice. A lifetime of training could not prepare one to face a creature such as this.

Ezra ran after his master, trying to rally those who hesitated. "Attack! Banish the creature!" He called before another tentacle of darkness flashed out and snatched him from the fray. His cry was cut off as the Void silenced him forever. Finn's heart wept as she saw the young man's lifeless body tossed carelessly to the ground.

Though she had no weapon, she ran towards the dark cloud, swept up in the valor of the Rhone they had collected along the way. The sea of men nearest to the Void was cast aside in one blow, many killed and many more injured, causing one or two to turn and flee in fear, but the tide of humanity pushing them forward still.

"How dare you mortals try to defy me!" It squeezed Roland tighter, and he wondered as his mind raced why she didn't just kill him as she'd mercilessly killed his young aide. Maybe the slaughter of the Rhone distracted her, or maybe she needed him for something. He couldn't be entirely sure.

"Follow me! Attack it!" He urged again, and the tentacle raised him in the air and then plunged him into the cold water of the river to drown his voice, and maybe him as well. He struggled valiantly against the current and the hold the tentacle had on him. His hands grasped no weapons, and he decided to go limp.

He let go all the tension in his body as dead weight, feigning a loss of consciousness. Truthfully, he was not far from it. The sleeplessness combined with the stress and shock of being plunged into the icy water were an assault on his conscious mind, pulling it into the numb senselessness of forced sleep. He remained still and relaxed, balancing the full release of his body's efforts against redoubling his mind's struggle to stay awake.

After a few excruciating moments, he was released to the river's strong pull to be not openly martyred for his cause, but taken away so that none could follow his orders anymore. With no body and no confirmation of his death, there would be no rallying cry or outrage. He would merely slip away and disappear while the Void continued to wreak havoc.

As soon as he was released, he jerked back to action and swam as hard as he could to the shore. It was a grueling effort; the rubble near the breach had made the river's current less predictable and stable than it was before.

He silently thanked Captain Grayson for the swimming lessons he'd endured in training as he reached the bank of the river and crawled out, coughing and panting. He was a short way from where the battle raged now, but he stood and ran back towards it.

The Void was like a wrecking ball, but flinching as it seemed to feel the waning loyalty of the few soldiers too cowardly to turn against it.

"Klain must DIE!" It shrieked. Withdrawing from the breach, it suddenly seemed to take flight, racing around the edge of the barrier like lightning and up, up, the cliffs around the back of Klain, and began a savage assault not on the people, but on the cliffs themselves.

Up on top of the wall, Duncan gasped as he watched the display.

"It must be desperate. Crushing the city was suggested long ago, but that would have made it much more arduous to dig out the roots of the mountain."

"The cliffs have been carved in such a way to make any rockslides fall harmlessly to the side," The General replied dubiously. That had been done over a hundred years ago. Had the topography held well enough to withstand a creature like this attempting to hurl rocks down upon the city?

Outside the wall, Finn desperately called to the men. She had lost sight of Roland but could not let that separation distract her from the Void.

"Put your faith in the prince! Do not obey the Void! It is your enemy! Take heart and resist it! Help each other!" She yelled from amongst the troops. She was so out of place amongst them, a woman with no weapon, no uniform, and not even Rhone, that she garnered more attention than she expected. Men turned to their comrades and shook those whose courage seemed weak.

High on the cliff, the Void's cries increased into terrifying screeches that shook the very ground underneath them all like a mighty earthquake. People fell to their knees, and small rocks began to break loose from the face of the cliffs.

A horn blew, blaring urgently for the citizens of Klain to take shelter immediately. Few were on the streets, and those that were looked up to see the horror that might imminently fall upon their heads.

It would be catastrophic for the cliffs to give way. Small stones would be deflected by the roofs of the buildings, but anything much larger than that would begin to weaken the structural integrity of the homes and shops. Though many had stood for hundreds of years, there was only so much protection that man-made constructs could offer to their occupants.

There was little time to get people into the tunnels that had not collapsed, and they might easily become a tomb for those that chose to take shelter in their depths. A large rockslide would be even more ground-shaking than the explosion from the day before, and the Void's unending screeches were already dislodging any loose pebbles.

Finn spared only a glance for the disaster that awaited Klain, and instead focused on the faces of the Rhone.

"We can end this! Do not obey or follow the Void! Give your loyalty to your Princes!" She scanned the soldiers as she moved through them, searching for doubt, fear, anything that might be tethering the Void to this world.

Duncan's voice rose from the wall, his stately face and strong words reaching his men now that the Void had taken up attacking the cliff.

"Rally to me! Protect the City! Think of your families and banish the Void to the Darkness! The curse is broken, be free!"

A cheer rose up from the Rhone. They raised their spears and swords in a show of unity to their prince. A mostly silent people, the freedom and will to raise such a sound stirred the hearts of even the weakest-willed among them.

"For Rhone!" Duncan thrust a borrowed spear into the air, and the soldiers echoed his words. "For Peace! For Light! For Freedom!!"

The final deafening roar of voices rose from the soldiers like a mighty tide. Held together by a sense of family, the last heart among them turned from Darkness and embraced the freedom offered.

The answering screech from the Void overwhelmed the cheers of the people, but was cut into pieces in a strobing, vacillating series of disturbing wails. As the screams oscillated, so did the appearance of the Void. Though the sun was drawing close to its evening resting place, its efforts to pierce the darkness seemed to double.

Or perhaps the Darkness could no longer make war on the light without the power of its followers. With a final strike at the cliff it clung to, The Void was suddenly gone. Light flooded the city in waves of comforting glow, the battle for supremacy over the darkness finally won.

A moment of stunned relief at the Void's banishment turned to a mighty cheer of victory. The Rhone stared into each other's new, bright eyes in disbelief. Freedom had finally found them at last.

Finn turned to search the crowd for Roland, desperate to find her husband, when a mighty crack echoed through the air.

She looked over her shoulder in horror as half the cliff sheared away from the mountain and plunged towards the city.