Chapter 61: Chapter 61
Vergil
The Kingdom of Howard
“They did not hold back” Vergil muttered in anger as he cleaned his blade, he had just dispatched a squad of monsters that slaughtered a small village in the outskirts of the kingdom. There were barely any survivors, the captain of the royal guard, Vergil of the torrential ocean stood unscathed yet he felt shame and anger at how these monsters had treated the poor citizens.
There were huge bite marks out of the dead bodies, one corpse had been cut in half and his innards were apparently gobbled up by these hungry brutes. His still open eyes showed fear and terror as he was probably eaten alive.
The women were naked, there were wounds on their orifices, their necks bore bite marks where large chunks of flesh had been bitten off. They had been violated before they were killed.
The children, Vergil was shaken to the core as he saw the dead children, there were barely any of them left. There was little to bury, they had been devoured gratuitously by these monsters and right in front of their family as there were adult corpses near them.
Blood was splattered all over the walls and houses, these beasts had been wanton in their slaughter. There was no honor in this, there was no mercy. It was a straight up genocide.
“They will pay” Vergil said darkly, helping a survivor up to his feet, “Find shelter in the forests, over the years we have prepared various hideouts for cases like these. I apologize that I did not arrive earlier.”
The forlorn Ecanus gave him their thanks and solemnly walked off, many were crying at the loss of their friends, lovers and family.
“I wonder what is going on—” Vergil wondered, then a huge shockwave hit them. Many of the survivors were thrown to the ground, groaning and crying in pain. “The palace!” Vergil thought worriedly and looked towards the palace walls and the capital, it was set ablaze in a cursed fire and for the first time in his life, being the veteran warrior that he is, he felt pure fear.
“Do not fly, you will be easy targets for them” Vergil warned the survivors, who were still making their way to the promised haven that the captain told them about, he then focused his energy and leapt, soaring into the air with amazing agility and dexterity.
“I need to get there at once!” Vergil said to himself, cursing his own self at not being in the heart of the kingdom at this moment. There were a flock of vultures flying close by and he met them head on.
“Perish!” he shouted and unsheathed his curved sword with furious strength, he had injected some of his magic into that slash and countless blades of water darted towards the vultures. They noticed this too late and more than a half of them were ruthlessly cut into pieces by the blades of water Vergil had conjured. They now turned their attention to him, realizing that he was of the royal guard.
“Come then, beasts. Let my blade be the last thing you see as you pass into the depths of the underworld!”
They sped towards him, furious at the loss of their comrades but also hungry for his flesh. One tried to gouge Vergil’s eye out with their claws, but he managed to block it with the sheathe of his sword. As the vulture’s posture was broken by this graceful parry, Vergil twirled around, unsheathing his sword and slamming it straight into the failed attacker. It was quick and painless. The vulture fell to the earth in two pieces, followed by blood and feathers.
“I have to take care of these beasts immediately” Vergil warned himself, barely deflecting the next attack as his worry overpowered his battle instincts.
Realizing that there were better things to take care of, the vultures retreated while Vergil sped off towards the direction of the Capital.
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Avenicus
The Kingdom of Howard
“Hold the line!” the vice-captain of the royal guard, Fulton, roared as they tried to push back the beasts that were advancing on the capital. It was a grisly sight, these invaders had easily taken the weakest part of the city, Ecanus who had the most fragile of homes were easily burned to the ground. The dwellers were slaughtered brutally, some of these monsters even used their intestines to decorate the kingdom’s walls.
Avenicus, a member of the royal guard, the youngest of them witnessed these horrors first hand. In a rage, he had charged towards these monsters as they ate children alive. Yet, as he managed to finish off these attackers, more poured out from the gate. He had made a hasty retreat, taking with him survivors of the attack that would be traumatized forever.
Now Avenicus was helping the royal guard maintain their formation, struggling to hold back the onslaught of beasts who were pushing against their shields. One of the beast’s spears found a weakness in their shield wall and it went through, impaling one of the royal guards in the head. He had fallen dead immediately, and someone from behind him hurriedly filled the space he left. It was a bloody sight, there was no time to grieve, they expected deaths and they needed to hold these monsters back.
“Fuck, we can’t hold much longer!” a royal guard from the left shouted as they struggled further against the Havocc creatures, “They are slowly breaching our defenses!” Another spear found another weakness, which meant that another royal guard had fallen.
“Alain!” someone screamed, it was probably their friend, there was then a roar of rage as someone had broken formation and charged towards the beasts, he was immediately met with arrows and slashes. His armor, well adorned as it may be, could not hold against such attacks. His limbs fell into the ground as they were severed from his torso, a spear had found its way into his throat, making him emit a horrible gurgling sound as he slowly choked from his own blood. It was this carelessness that made them lose ground, a beast larger than any they have seen so far, stepped out of the horde. It grabbed the remains of the royal guard who charged forward and hurled the mutilated body into their shields. There was a sickening splatter as the former royal guard exploded on impact, showering them with gore, viscera and innards.
Avenicus trembled, this violence and carnage was unprecedented, he felt like he was about to vomit but then he felt the tide change.
It was a gaggle of ordinary citizens armed with nothing more but pitch forks, blunt swords, hammers and other tools you would see in a workshop, they let out a cry and charged towards the side of the horde that was pushing the royal guard back.
In that instance, he suddenly heard the vice-captain bark out a command “Vanguard position! Offensive march!”
The royal guards grunted in unison, they all took a step back and suddenly thrust their shields forward, the beasts who were distracted by the common folk were put off balance at the sudden impact of the shields.
“Skewer!” the vice-captain ordered, as the enemies tried to regain their posture, a number of spears shot through the shield wall, impaling many of them. They were instantly withdrawn and the shield wall reformed once more. It was a tactic that Avenicus and his fellow royal guard had practiced long ago, they were to use their shields as a blunt weapon that would knock their foes down, and while they recovered from being knocked down, other royal guards who were not in the shield wall would use the openings to impale their foe. It was aptly called the ‘Vanguard’ position.
Yet, the chaos would not stop, the citizens, who were simply normal people with tools, never properly trained for combat, were starting to lose ground. The beasts were regaining the advantage after their surprise attack and the slaughter was beginning again.
The large beast who had flung a dead body at them suddenly broke ranks and charged through the shield wall, it broke their formation immediately at the amount of force it had given. Many of the royal guard were flung backwards, while others were stepped on.
Avenicus was dazed, but he groggily tried to find his weapon, it was just within his fingertip’s reach. He stared around and saw that the vice-captain was readily fighting off seven attackers with one royal guard at his side. The others were recovering, trying to get their weapons to fight off the flurry of beasts that had now broken through their formation. It was chaos indeed. The stench of death was everywhere. There were screams of pain, both Ecanus and beast screamed in agony as the fight ensued.
The large beast that looked like a minotaur stared intently at Avenicus, he was unable to reach for his spear so he had drawn his sword, and faced the beast.
“Idiot Ecanus. You are outmatched” the minotaur like beast taunted him, “I shall snack on your bones when I am through with you”
“You only outnumber us, pitiful creatures.” Avenicus spat back, proud and afraid at the same time, “But you will never outclass us.”
The minotaur charged towards him and Avenicus was barely able to dodge it. His horn had only grazed his armor, but it managed to punch a hole into it nonetheless. He felt his blood spill from the side wound and almost lost his balance. The minotaur charged again and this time Avenicus parried the horns, he swung his sword down hard at it but it only knocked him back with the impact, he had almost let go of his own weapon.
“We’re all going to die…” a royal guard groaned, distraught and stressed out by the nonstop violence around them as he watched Avenicus be grabbed by the minotaur.
He felt the creature’s hands crush his armor, his ribs had been shattered and was puncturing his lungs as the minotaur squeezed him, “Hope prevails!” he screamed out proudly as he felt his vision fade.
“Hope?” The minotaur snorted, “Hope dies today. Watch as I slaughter your friend with his own blade!” It then grabbed at Avenicus’ sword and made a motion to impale him.
“Hope…prevails.” Avenicus muttered as the minotaur pushed his own sword towards him, but there was a sudden boom of energy and the minotaur froze.
“Hope indeed prevails.” A familiar voice answered, it was Captain of the Royal Guard, Vergil. He had joined the fray at last. He landed on top of the minotaur’s head and stabbed his sword straight into its brains. His grip on Avernicus loosened and he felt himself slip onto the ground, he landed with a dull thud while the minotaur fell with a loud crunch.
“Captain…” Avernicus spoke weakly, blood was gushing out of his mouth nonstop, his armor was crudely dented now, “Thank heavens you are still alive. Only you can turn this battle around…”
Vergil moved towards the dying royal guard and knelt beside him, “I fear I have come too late” he said darkly, there was sorrow in his voice as he had scanned the area around him, he saw what Avernicus had seen, chaos and death.
“It’s never too late captain. Please… defend the… kingdom” Avernicus felt his vision slowly dimming, as he uttered his last words to the Captain of the Royal Guard. The youngest of the royal guard had fallen in battle, and Vergil took it personally. Every death here, he took personally.
“For every death in this kingdom, you fucking monsters will repay for it a thousandfold!” he had roared in pure anger as his aura burst along with his rage.
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King Malik
The Royal Palace, Kingdom of Howard
“Father, we must assist them!” Gian had shouted as he watched the outside go into ruin, Malik agreed at once but as they started to move towards the door, the ceiling burst into fiery rubble that showered with rocks.
“Those birds again!” Gian shouted in anger and charged towards them, as the vultures entered the palace.
“Gian!” Malik called out after his son, thinking about Regina’s safety as well, “To hell with this” he shouted and joined his son in fighting off the attackers.
It was a harried battle, the vultures had them outnumbered, Malik was skilled but he had already aged. Gian was always pampered and thus his battle skills were not up to par.
“Leave my kingdom!” Malik shouted at one attacker, who he managed to slash with his sword, the vulture gave a raspy cry as they shapeshifted into Ecanus like them, to even out the battlefield.
Gian felt his whole arm shake as he barely managed to block a simultaneous attack from two shapeshifted vultures.
“I thought you wanted the prince dead” the vulture taunted him, reminding Gian of his sins against the kingdom and Gian roared in defiance as he fought them back.
Suddenly, the palace doors erupted into flames as it was blown off its hinges. Two figures stood there; they were demonic in nature. Malik immediately finished off his foe with a single slash and rushed over to where Regina was, still weakened by her barrier being broken immediately.
He recognized one of them immediately, “Dyron” Malik uttered with pure venom seeping into his voice, “You monster!”
There was almost a total silence in the chamber, the only sounds to be heard was Gian’s defiant roars against two attackers.
Dyron ignored Malik and motioned for his companion to step forward, as this figure stepped out of the dust and smoke, Dyron barked a command: “Colter. You know what to do.”
Malik’s heart stopped, Regina groaned in pain as she heard her son’s name, this other figure could not be Colter, they thought in panic. Even Gian stopped his battle to look at what was going on. In this man’s eyes was pure rage. There was a hateful aura enveloping him, his mouth was fixated in an ominous grin as he stared at his former family.
“Hello” he said in a demonic voice, “I’m home.”