Chapter Eight; The Battle Of The Great Wall Of Alexandria

After the riders camped outside Thrace, they mount and kick horses to travel across Damascus and Israel reaching an ancient city of Alexandria, the city was founded originally in the vicinity of Egyptian settlement, surrounded by walls close to sea, "Rhacotis" Alexandria became the Egyptian quarter of the city it retained this status for almost a millennium through the period of circa Vikings and roman age. The city is highly secured because it has a light house which is one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, it also has a library which is the biggest in the then world; the travelers were set to conquer any kind of battle to reach their treasures and here they are near the sea of Alexandria.

The city of Alexandria has suffers multiple attacks from the army of the sea, who in their tradition consider to be the people that were buried in or bunt and their ashes were thrown in the sea as some of their ancient were practicing before their recent age of local civilization, they believed that when it winter and the weather is so cold, the army of the sea are freezing which makes them to be out of the sea to seek shelter on a highland and they will not be able to live with normal humans that is why they have to kill people in the nearby land to stay until the winter ends, more over in Alexandria they open the gate to the sea only during summer and as long as winter started they close it until the summer is back. So the travelers reached the wall at a wrong time because the Alexandrians already closed their gates and already started preparing to fight the army of the sea, unknowingly to the fighters that they will fight real humans before facing the army of the sea. The travelers reached the gate in mass and camped somewhere near the walls and the knights of the wall of Alexandria already sighted fire and heard the crowed of men, immediately that night the king of Alexandria was alarmed about the presence of the army of the sea and they told him that their number now is more than that of every year, after calling on one of prophets and old Alexandrians, he gave a prophecy to them that the army multiplies because all other land near the threshold of the sea is considered caused and they want to take full control of Alexandria, of course they believed in his prophecy but it is a scam or a bluff, however one of king Alfred advisors and commandant of the knight levy de benzoin told king Alfred that he didn't believe in this man's prophecy and is willing to go outside the gate and check it himself because army of the sea were never sighted with fire and he has a strong belief that the people outside the wall may be travelers or marketers from a far place seeking shelter for the cold; however king Alfred was blinded by the prophecy and the only thing he sense is the truth in the prophecy and he removed levy de benzoin from the wall so that he can distance him from emotion and second thought on his orders.

In the morning flota observed that the winter is clouded and woke everyone up and told them that they have to proceed to the wall or else this cloud will spread everywhere In the next few hours, inside the wall they already planned on killing anyone sighted close to the gate with an arrow, the Norwegians scrabble to reach the gate but were not able to because arrow is fired from every direction and 20 of their men were martyred and 7 were injured including one of their commanding warriors, nevertheless they weren't demoralized they flagged up white which symbolizes peace but it didn't work out, in fact they fired a fire arrow into the white flag and their tents which made the travelers so furious and invented a way of breaking into the gates; they throes into the gate using a renew energy and a different tactics, knowing that the walls were made up of woods, they fired oily arrows and fired fire arrows to start burning the gate but the gate could not catch fire because the people were pouring water on the gate and its already wet so fire might not be the best option for now; from the inside king Alfred was so scarred which made him demanded reinforcement from his diplomats and neighboring cities which he shares a strong diplomatic ties with, from the outside the Vikings were cutting long ocean trees to build a long breach longer than the gate so that they can have access to kill the knights on the gate, while they were making this effort the other party are just getting another huge forces coming for their aid and the travelers were so wise to invent a breaching tactics knowing that they are outnumbered, they kept the Alexandrians busy while on the other side of their plan they are digging a tunnel to reach the city at a convenient time, they are excavating by digging through the earth between a shaft to ensure that the tunnel did not deviate from it set trajectory, while the opponent attention is being shifted they are making progress in their tunnel.

Fight of arrows for over two hours and a set of strategy, the internals discovered that the outsiders were using bridge method to fight the battle, they decided to fire stones on the wood knowing that the Vikings will not have the same weapon to fight back, they succeeded in hitting and damaging some part of the bridge but unfortunately the Vikings were so creative and considerable so they show the Vikings a way of fighting back, instead of rebuilding the bridge they decided to use the wood to invent the same machine the insiders used in firing the stone for the fact that they have over 50 stones fired by their opponent and that can help them to break the gate while tunnel strategy is still going on; on the other arena the army of the sea already started resurrecting themselves and were set to raise and come out to earth surface in four days, one of the pagan among the Vikings went so close to the sea and saw a dead body lying down with blood in his body and the water couldn't wash the blood, that's strange, is it possible for something like that to happen, he thought of it quite a while and was able to tell some of his fellow warriors what he saw, they went forward to check it but its ghosted and started laughing at him that he started foreseeing his ancestors, that's quite a coincidence but more over one the warriors that laughed also saw a soldier in blood standing at the sea shore and told flota about that but flota didn't see anything like that and was also thinking that his soldiers were tired that is why they see what is invisible. The fight continues while flota was so observant to see anything that will make him be sure of what his soldiers were saying but unfortunately the army of the sea weren't visible for flota; king Alfred and his prophet came to the gate after climbing a night post the prophet noticed that he was totally wrong in his prophecy and the characteristics of this people has nothing in similar and was willing to tell the truth to king Alfred of Alexandria but before doing that king Alfred spoke first saying " father I saw them differently this time and they look like us, but I never doubted you and I believed everything you ever said" the prophet became so pompous and his ego knowing the king's believe on him couldn't allow him to say the truth and save those souls in the dead zone, he told the king that "they want us to believe that they are human so they can have easier access to our city, some of them might have been inside the city by now I foresee that" king Alfred decided to implement a curfew all over the city until necessary investigations are done, but however the prophet has to make the king believe with solid fact, after announcing the curfew the prophet called upon some of his trusted associate and told them that ones the king disbelieved in their prophecy they will lose all fortune they accumulated and they will never do all the lavish things they are used to, as the prophet thought levy de benzoin told the king that they can't just go on curfew without any proper reason and a solid fact and king Alfred summoned the prophet in the absence of levy and asked him about the sign that will indicate the presence of the army of the sea inside Alexandria and the prophet said " they will start attacking people to eat their heart and lungs only and they will leave no trace of them" the king agreed and created check post all over the city; the prophet and his council men decided to attack people and remove their hearts and lungs just to prove their lies. In the morning levy de benzoin was going to the palace and came across two dead women stripped and without heart and lungs and he immediately told king Alfred that that's not the work of the army of the sea that's the work of some people trying to use your believe, while saying that the prophet was there and king Alfred was furious about levy's accusation on the prophet and levy added that "have you ever heard in history or folk tales where a ghost raped a lady, the stripped dead ladies I saw today were all rapped and I'm certain that is the work of some people but brother I will allow you to discover it for yourself" the prophet was getting furious but have to control himself in the presence of the king and told king Alfred that he will take his leave and the king was pleading with him that he shouldn't consider what levy says and he told the king that he will rather pray for levy than to be angry and that he know levy will also believe in his prophecy soon and he left. On the other hand levy was setting his own personal squad to investigate on the happenings and watch carefully to know who is behind all this dead, the prophet on the other side was moving fast to reach to his council to know who is behind the rape, and he found out that it's his brother who raped the two ladies before killing them and wanted but couldn't punish his brother for putting their work at a stake now suspicions are all over the city, knowing that levy must do something to find out he decided to do the killing himself so as to avoid the rape, so he went out that night and was sighted by one the levy's team though the soldier couldn't identify him and he followed him but the prophet escaped and the soldier told levy that its factual that there is nothing like army of the sea inside this walls and that he followed the man and the man ran away had it been its army of the sea he could have stand to kill him knowing that he is ten time stronger, and there was no any rape case today? Levy also agreed with a words from his soldier and implement more tactics of finding out the truth by telling the soldier that he should pretend that he saw the prophet and should go straight to the council of prophecies, they will try to warn him to stand out of their way or else they will do whatever necessary to take him out; as levy predicted when the soldier reached the council they warned him and told him that his family will be the one to pay the price if he ever came their way, though it was the words of the prophet brother but the prophet was aware of that and the soldier shows sign of understanding and obedience to their word by saying " I promise not to do night watch around this council but I thought prophets don't fall in love, yesterday you want to go and see you hoe right? So prophets also know the sweetness of underpants? And what difference do we have then" the prophet was attentive to what the soldier says and was happy to know that his own suspicions is that of having affairs not treachery and he came out to the spot of discussion was shouting on his brother " why are you such an irresponsible man? What have you done? Are you having an affair with a lady while you know it's forbidden? You are grounded for three month until god permit me to bring you out to the sun and you shall be punished for what you have done" the prophet use polite words for the soldier not knowing that everything the soldier was doing is planned by levy de benzoin. The soldier went to levy and told him about what happened and levy decided to use the same soldier to explore more until he have solid fact about what is really happening and the soldier went to the palace so as he can meet the prophet, after they met at the palace gate the soldier told the prophet that he will come for prayers and he want engage more with god since he can see the prophets integrity and prophecies coming true, the prophet was amazed to know that and told him to come to the council todays evening for prayers and at the process of engaging with god he need to bring a kilo of gold and a cooked poke for sacrifice to please god, the prophet did that to know whether the soldier can do anything or he is just lying about loyalty, however during the evening levy de benzoin gave the soldier gold and a cooked poke and he was there at the palace and the prophet asked him where he got all this being an ordinary soldier, well told the prophet that he bought the poke and stole the gold; now the prophet know that he can do anything and he can be used for anything without objection and the prophet told the soldier that stealing it's a capital offence and god can only forgive that after a very hard work has been done for god, and the soldier asked the prophet what will he do so that god will be pleased, the prophets says " you have to help Alexandria by spying on some activities of some prominent people and informing god about it" the soldier said "but you told me that god knows what's on the mind" the prophet replied "of course god knows that why he want to give you this so that he can forgive you" he told to soldier to spy of levy de benzoin so that HE can know all the plans of levy and his team so he can distance levy from the kingdom of Alexandria.

After the soldier told levy de benzoin about what the demand of the prophet, levy decided to allow the plan flow and planned on how he can be sent as fist to army of the sea and he ordered the soldier to inform the prophet about a plan to attack the council tonight and the prophet told king Alfred about the plan of levy and team to attack the council of prophecy and the king was there that night to see for himself and levy and team attacked after seeing the king they surrendered and the king ordered soldiers to jail them, though the prophet has a plan for them but he allow the king to jail them first.

The travelers outside the wall continue seeing mysteries and unusual activity around the sea and flota also had a dream about the army of the sea and told his friends i.e. the two commandant and the closest blood to king Sigurdsson about his dream and they agreed with him because all of them witnessed something unusual but because of their bravery they were able to resist their fear and proceeded with their tunnel with no second thought on that. It's just two days remaining before the army of the sea can come out to start killing any soul they came across and the tunnel isn't complete and inside the city of Alexandria is on curfew, levy de benzoin and team were locked in. the prophets came to the king to tell him that he had a dream last night that god asked him to tell the king that levy is cursed and he has to be sacrificed by giving him out alive and unharmed to the army of the sea, if the king obeyed that Alexandria is will win the war and the army of the sea will never return to Alexandria again. The king was quite convinced but was thinking about the fact that levy benzoin is his closest friend and a warrior that won many battles for him and who he took as a brother or even more closer than that, but unfortunately he has no option if he is to act on behalf of Alexandria and he went to the prison which levy was locked in and told levy that he has to sacrifice him because the god says that, though he is in tears but has to do the needful and levy also agreed that they should sacrifice him but at least they should allow him hold a sword so that as a warrior he can fight till dead; unfortunately the king didn't know that they are operating on the plan of levy de benzoin and levy was prepared to be sent out of the wall along with other two soldiers of his choosing and they were dropped off using a rope tight to a wooden flats and the travelers army were present and the king was watching from the wall and the travelers were so surprise of the drop and levy was surrendering, at that moment in time the prophet know that he is doomed and he plans on another person's plans, he dig his grave himself and was thinking about his next movement, the king was confused and was thinking why will levy surrender to the army of the sea and on what account, the Vikings came forward to arrest levy along with other two soldiers.