Chapter 8: The Battle of the Forgotten Keep

The cursed forest loomed behind them like the memory of a nightmare, but Kael and his allies had no time to dwell on what they had overcome. Before them, shrouded in the fog of war and decay, stood the Forgotten Keep. The fortress was ancient, its stone walls cracked with time yet still imposing. Even now, the air was thick with the metallic scent of battle, and distant cries of war rang out as Malgath's forces prepared to defend their stronghold.

Kael clenched the hilt of Eternity, feeling its pulsing warmth through his gloves. The sword had carried them through the perils of the Shadowed Forest, and now it would serve them in the carnage to come. He turned to his companions, their expressions grim but resolute.

"This is it," Kael said. "We break through, cut down their defenses, and find out what Malgath is hiding inside."

Brom smirked, rolling his broad shoulders. "Been itching for a good fight."

Seraphine, her robes already crackling with latent magic, gave a sharp nod. "Let's make this count."

From the crumbling ramparts, a horn blared—a deep, guttural sound that sent shivers through the air. The enemy had spotted them. Shadows shifted atop the battlements, and within moments, dark-cloaked soldiers began to pour from the Keep's gates, their weapons gleaming with an eerie, malevolent glow. Malgath's forces had been waiting.

Then, the battle began.

Kael led the charge, Eternity flashing with radiant energy as he met the first wave of attackers. The enchanted steel cleaved through dark armor and corrupted flesh alike, each strike sending echoes of defiance into the night. The enemy soldiers fought like wraiths, unnervingly silent except for the sharp ring of their weapons against Kael's blade.

Beside him, Brom fought with the fury of a tempest, his axe carving a path through the horde. He knocked aside two enemies with a single sweep, then drove his weapon into the chest of a monstrous construct—an amalgamation of twisted metal and dark magic. Sparks flew as the creature crumbled under the force of his blows.

Seraphine unleashed her magic with calculated precision. Bolts of lightning arced through the battlefield, striking down sorcerers before they could summon reinforcements. Flames roared to life as she wove fire into devastating blasts, incinerating the shadow-beasts that lunged at them from the smoke.

The battlefield was chaos.

Screams of agony and the clamor of steel against steel filled the air. Kael ducked beneath a sweeping blade, countering with a slash that sent his enemy sprawling. A piercing howl signaled the arrival of monstrous warhounds—hulking beasts with obsidian eyes and slavering maws. They bounded toward the group, their claws raking deep into the ground.

"Hold the line!" Kael shouted, barely dodging as a warhound lunged at him. He pivoted, bringing Eternity down in a radiant arc, splitting the beast in two.

Brom roared, hurling his axe into the skull of another warhound before retrieving it from its collapsing corpse. "There's no end to them!" he growled.

Seraphine's magic flared as she summoned a ring of fire around them, briefly forcing the enemy back. "We need to get inside before we're overwhelmed!"

Kael scanned the battlefield. Through the smoke and bloodshed, he saw a breach—an old, partially collapsed wall where the Keep's defenses were weakest. "There!" he pointed. "We make for that opening!"

They fought their way toward the breach, cutting through opposition with unrelenting determination. As they neared the crumbling wall, a deep, reverberating laugh rolled across the battlefield.

"Fools," a voice boomed.

A figure emerged from the Keep's entrance, clad in ornate black armor laced with crimson runes. His presence alone seemed to sap the air of warmth. Malgath's general—a towering, nightmarish warrior known as Veydrak the Forsworn—strode forward, a wickedly curved blade in his grasp.

"You think to challenge the darkness?" Veydrak sneered. "You are but embers in a storm."

Kael felt the weight of the moment settle over him. The battle had just begun, and now they faced an enemy unlike any they had encountered before.

But he would not falter.

With a defiant glare, he raised Eternity. "We don't fear the storm. We are the fire that will burn through it."

Veydrak's lips curled into a cruel smile. "Then let's see how brightly you burn."

And with that, the true battle for the Forgotten Keep began.