Chapter 01

Talini awoke to the beautiful tolling of elven bells, a frantic rhythm that seemed to spread throughout the city.

It took a few minutes for her sleepy mind to realize what that beautiful sound meant. For the past fifty years, since the day the city's ancient inhabitants were forced to return it to the humans, the bells had never rung.

Unlike the heavy, crude human bells in the center of the city, used to tell the time, or to call an emergency meeting, the delicate Elven bells on the watchtowers were created to warn when the city was under attack.

The euphony of the bells was accompanied by a cacophony of explosions, noises, and cries of despair.

Talini got up from the floor, where she was sleeping, and walked through the dim orange light that flooded her house, to the only window that wasn't boarded up.

The Street below was crowded, people of all ages running desperately to the fortress downtown, fleeing the column of smoke and fire that had become Narakhur's west gate, humanoid shapes larger than the walls stood out against the smoke.

A soldier climbed onto a crate, and put his hand just above his eyes, trying to see the end of the line.

"Hey you!!" He pointed to a merchant dressed in satin pajamas who was staggering as he tried to pull a huge wagon loaded with goods."LEAVE THESE THINGS BEHIND, EVEN IF YOU CAN TAKE THEM TO THE FORTRESS, THERE IS NOT ENOUGH SPACE INSIDE THE WALLS!!"

The merchant ignored the soldier's warning, and continued to pull his wagon. A giant fireball lit up the night sky, and landed on a nearby roof, destroying everything in its path. The merchant dropped his cart, and started running, pushing whoever was in front of him.

Talini backed away from the window, put on her boots, picked up her bag from the floor, and put away the few belongings she had.

The street was filled with an unearthly silence, as if all the people who had been screaming in despair for a few seconds had calmed down at once.

Despite the urgency of the situation, Talini couldn't resist the temptation to go back to the window and find out what was going on.

As if they were a single entity, all the people who a few moments ago were running for their lives, had stopped, and silently stared at what was left of the west gate.

A single black dot floated in front of the smoke, Talini, like all the people in town, knew instinctively that that dot was a person, and that he was responsible for the attack, despite the distance, and the gigantic creature standing just behind him, the man emanated a menacing aura of sheer power, sheer dominance, as if he could wipe out the entire city without much effort.

As if he had never existed, the man disappeared into the smoke, the humanoid shapes bent over, as if they were picking up something on the ground and in perfect synchronization they threw something as high as they could.

White spheres like polished bones took to the sky, reaching the highest possible point, they broke apart in countless white dots, falling towards the city like the first winter snow.

The first white dot, the size of a small carriage, landed gently on the roof of the old church, and split into eight long furry legs, connected to a swollen, yellowish abdomen, which extended into a female humanoid torso, six eyes on each side of its head, pincers that dripped venom in place of its mouth, and long, tangled black hair framing a monstrous face.

Arachnes, the weaver's bloodthirsty daughters

As if waking up from a nightmare, people on the street began screaming with renewed desperation, pushing each other, and trampling those unlucky enough to fall to the ground.

One of the Arachnes fell into the crowd, crushing some people under her body, her black eyes gleaming with cruelty.

The guard in the crate drew his sword, and advanced against the monster, one of Arachne's legs went towards him like a spear, the man blocked with the flat side of the blade, deflecting the leg to the side and continued to advance.

The Arachne's hideous face broke into a terrible grin, revealing countless sharp teeth the leg that the soldier thought he had deflected, bent into one of the knuckles, and impaled him from behind, Arachne brought the still body closer to her face, and tore his head off with a single bite of her pincers, fresh blood spurted over her bare chest.

Talini had two options: she could join the crowd outside, and seek shelter in the fortress, which would likely become a giant slaughterhouse, or try to survive on her own.

She didn't stand a chance outside, and even though her home, the old Elven guard headquarters, with it's terrifying aura, offered her some protection, she knew it wouldn't be long before the Arachne found her.

She grabbed her bag, and ran downstairs, guiding herself through the absolute darkness by memory.

The entire city shuddered, Talini clung to a pillar to keep herself from falling, and waited for the shivering to stop.

A crack appeared in the ceiling, extending to one of the walls, the boards covering the windows came loose, and Talini found herself face to face with an Arachne unlike the others, in addition to being fully dressed, her hair was white like the rest of her. its body, and its eyes gleamed with an intelligence that its sisters lacked, the creature dug its paws through the hole left by the boards, and forced them aside, the mortar began to fall.

Talini ran to one corner of the room and knelt, frantically searching the floor for the hatch that would take her underground.

She looked at the window, the creature had enlarged the hole, and more than half of its body was inside, trying to squeeze the rest through the opening.

Talini felt the icy touch of metal in her hand, and pulled with all her might, but the trapdoor didn't budge.

The arachne broke through the wall, and approached Talini slowly, spit mixed with venom dripping from the corners of her mouth.

The city shuddered again, the ground beneath the arachne's paws cracked in all directions, and before the creature or Talini could do anything, it collapsed.

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Veles had lost count of how many times he'd had that same dream. He had his back to the sacred mountain, the world was on fire, mountains of bodies were burning like a great offering to the god of the underworld.

Veles breathed in the scent of burning flesh, and looked up at the sky, disgusted with himself for getting used to that smell, with the sound of infinite lives being destroyed by his hands.

A bluish light split the wall of crimson flames forming a passage large enough for hundreds of soldiers marching in formation to make it through.

Veles stood up, brushed the dust and ashes off his clothes, and faced his new enemies, he could see the terrified expression of the young elf in the front row, the heavy silver spear trembling in his hands.

Sadness and resignation took over his heart, he would once again take the lives of young warriors, watch the light leave their eyes, as the despair of watching their comrades fall one by one drove them insane, Veles felt a smile form on his face, so insane that the god of war himself would be frightened.

The formation split sideways, trying to encircle him.

He might hate what he was about to do, but a part of him was so used to all the violence that it craved the confrontation, the killing, and he couldn't let them pass, couldn't let anyone else touch the mountain, until everything was over.

Veles moved, and before the young elf with the spear in his hands realized what was happening, he separated the head from the rest of the warrior's body next to him.

Veles awoke to the sound of one stone scraping over another, he looked around his dark cell until he found a small rock, no bigger than a bird's egg.

Pleasure surged through his chest, the small rock having moved half an inch to the right was the first change that had happened in the last fifty years.

In the distance Veles could hear the delicious sound of the elven bells ringing, joining with the desperate screams of the dying, becoming a beautiful melody, he smiled, the same maddened smile he had given on that battlefield, his first smile in the last two centuries.

A cruel laugh rose in his chest, shaking his entire body, and the chains that bound him.

Dust and small rocks broke loose from the ceiling, falling to the ground like snowflakes, a huge crack appeared in the rock, stretching in all directions, until everything came crashing down, tons of rock, wood, mortar and spells fell.

The cell fell into a heavy silence, and for a few minutes nothing happened, until the pile of rubble moved, a young woman with shoulder-length platinum blond hair stood up, brushed the dust off her clothes, and looked around, until her eyes green like the elven forests of the east focused on him.

Veles felt his heart stop, only to start beating again, filled with a hope he didn't even know he was capable of feeling, behind the young woman, an immense creature with skin as white as bone also stood up, its black eyes gleamed with fury, the fangs in its mouth dripping venom.

Finally, someone who could end his suffering.