CHAP.0-5: The last days of the DarknessDays (5)

After Raiden's speech, Garran, who was behind him, sighed slightly.

"He can never help but show his strength," he whispered.

Sylpha and Kaelis, at his side, turned their eyes to him.

"You know... it's Raiden," they answered in unison.

They all started laughing softly. A laugh that chased away fear.

Then Kaelis suddenly stopped, looking a little more serious. He scanned the surroundings with his eyes.

"Hey guys... would one of you have seen Valen? "

The laughter went out immediately. Their smiles too. They looked for him with their eyes, turning slowly. No trace of Valen.

The screams of the soldiers rose in the distance. The agitation was growing.

And suddenly, Raiden raised his sword again. A fluid, assured gesture. He pointed it towards the horizon, straight towards the black forest.

"INGRISSIENS! INGRISSIENNES! ON THE ATTACK! "

At this cry, the sky changed.

Golden glows pierced the red and purple clouds. A rain of light then fell from the heights.

FIIOOOOUUU... FIIOOOOUUU... FIOOUUU...

A cloud of five-pointed stars split the air, and fell violently on the forest, tracing trails of fire in the air, whistling like arrows of light.

Then, the impact.

BOOOOOM... BOOOOOM... BOOOOOM...

Titanic detonations shook the world.

The ground trembled, the air vibrated, and a breath of burning energy spread in successive waves.

The escaped shock waves lifted the capes, dragging with them a large amount of ash. The soldiers, surprised, raised their arms to protect themselves from the gusts, covering their faces so as not to be blinded by the flashes of the explosions. The wind, loaded with dust, whipped everything in its path.

However, four silhouettes remained impassive, straight in the face of explosions, their eyes staring at the horizon in flames.

Raiden, Kaelis, Sylpha and Garran, at the head of the army, did not blink.

The light of the explosions made strange shadows dance on their faces.

Kaelis crossed his arms, jaded. Sylpha shrugged her shoulders with a small sigh. Garran, on the other hand, raised an eyebrow.

"But of course... He did it again." they let go in unison, looking jaded.

The explosions had just devastated the entrance to the forest, erasing a large portion of trees with a single gesture and destroying the hordes of creatures lurking in the shadows.

The soldiers looked up at the sky, stunned.

Floating in the air, Valen, the only magician of the group, stared at the forest with a burning look of confidence. His cape floated slowly, his blond hair waving in the wind. His gaze piercing the horizon, his blue eyes giving off a blue glow, accompanied by a corner smile.

Before anyone understood anything... Without a word, he raised a hand lazily.

A huge magic circle appeared in the skies and a second rain of stars fell on the forest, followed by a new series of explosions.

Magical lightning bolts twisted between the branches of the forest.

"KRAKOOM!"

"BOOOOOOM!"

The trees were mowed down like simple twigs. The ashes flew. The monsters roared before being silenced.

A soldier dazzled watching this whispered:

"It looks like a god..."

At the front of the army, just before the real assault began, a short moment of calm settled. The air vibrated, the forest burned in places, and a strange silence enveloped the front line.

Raiden, still on the front line, went to his companions.

"Ready for the last battle, guys? He said, smiling at the corner of his lips, his eyes staring at the forest like a conqueror.

"We are always ready," Kaelis replied in a calm, impassive tone, his hand already on the knob of his katana.

"Of course we are. It will be our first fight against Yshvar... but I'm hopeful." Sylpha added with a small smile on her lips, while stretching her arms as if she were going to training, not to war.

And then...

Garran hit his fists against each other, making the air tremble.

"We have already crushed legendary dragons, demons, vampires and even kingdoms. "

He sneers.

"So let's explode the trunk of this damn god, and go back to eat good chicken. "

An amused silence followed.

Then Sylpha looked at him, looking incomprehensive.

"Wait... Do you really think about eating chicken at a time like this? "

Garran shrugged his shoulders, looking the most serious in the world.

"Well yeah. Old Tobias promised to make me his famous crispy chicken, if we come back alive. "

Sylpha widened her eyes in surprise and said:

"Huh ? "No, but wait a second... How could old Tobias promise you his famous chicken... And he didn't even tell me about it ?" She asked with a surprised look.

Garran looked at her with a mocking smile and said:

"It makes sense... It's because I'm his favorite." he said in a proud tone.

After that, they began to quarrel for a moment and Raiden, who was behind them, burst out laughing, while Kaelis sighed... but a corner of his mouth rose.

"Damn, we're going to die with children," he said in a calm tone.

"Don't worry my brother, we will all survive and no one will die," Garran replied by patting him on the back, which almost made him stumble.

As they spoke and prepared to load, Valen landed nonchalantly next to them, arms crossed.

"Hey crazy people. It's okay, I did the cleaning. You can now launch the attack. "

Garran then turned to him, and with a forced smile that brought out his veins, he said:

"Say... who did you just call crazy? Do you want me to sink you into the ground, junk mage? "

Valen advanced in front of him, looking at him eye to eye, and with a forced smile that also brought out his veins, he said:

"You can still try, you troll. "

"Can you at least know how to fly? Because last time I saw you trying to attack an aerial opponent, the beating you took was not pretty to see. "

Kaelis, impassive, sighed:

"Hey, you two... stop your childish games and concentrate, otherwise I'll send you both to my domain for ten minutes, and you know what awaits you. "

After his words, Garran and Valen suddenly stopped and immediately calmed down.

Sylpha, laughing, patted them on the shoulder:

"It's okay, make peace. "We have a battle ahead of us. And frankly, I don't want to spend my whole day here", she says calmly.

After that, she clenched her fists tightly and, with a determined look, she said:

"And also... I think I have some small problems to solve with Tobias," she said in a slightly threatening tone.

Then, Raiden smiled slightly and said:

"You're right, Sylpha..." We must first end this damn war. "Then we'll take care of the rest afterwards," he said calmly.

Then, they advanced.

Raiden in the lead, followed by Kaelis, Garran and Sylpha. Their clothes floated in the wind, and their weapons sparkled under the first rays of the sun. Behind them, hundreds of thousands of soldiers screamed, galvanized by the presence of heroes.

And with a leap, they rushed to the vanguard, and Valen, for his part, flew away again to take control of the sky.

The soldiers followed them, galvanized by their audacity. The great human army rushed behind them like a tidal wave of steel and fire.

The Solarian and the Nebulae opened their magic weapons compartments. A mechanical roar split the sky, enchanted projectiles destroyed the woods again.

Valen supported their advances, creating magic circles at crazy speed and bombing with divine precision.

Accompanied by the magical vessels Solorian and Nebulae, whose cannons powered their firepower on the forest.

The first waves of monsters were repelled by fire and light.

When the heroes first crossed the edge of the forest, the darkness was agitated.

A horde of nightmarish monsters emerges from the shadows: claws, covered with scales, eyes, jaws, some even bones.

Others were: gigantic, grotesque, creeping and deformed.

They were born of the darkness of Yshvar.

Kaelis stopped, his purple gaze piercing the shadows.

Darkness stoom from his back, swirling around him.

He planted his katana in the ground and a dark shock wave sprang from the blade.

The earth vibrated.

A shadow tidal wave quickly spread under the feet of the monsters. Arms of shadows emerged, sucking the creatures one by one, crushing them, reducing them to silence.

The battle had barely begun.

Somewhere in the heart of the forest:

In the forgotten depths, where the light had disappeared for years, the very heart of the forest beat to the rhythm of an ancient power. The air was heavy, saturated with suffocating energy. The silence was not natural, it was a silence born of fear. Even the most ferocious creatures did not dare to approach it.

There, at the center of this dark hell, was enthroned Yshvar.

His seat was not made of gold or ivory, but of a block of obsidian, a cursed mineral, black as nothing, streaked with red veins pulsating with a dull beat. It rested on an altar made up of whitened bones and blackened roots, woven by time and dead.

And on this throne, he was there. Immovable. Unfathomable.

Yshvar

His figure was human... in appearance only. His body was black as the abyss, and seemed to absorb the light around him. Thin golden lines, similar to ancient runes, ran along his body, pulsating with primordial energy. His black hair, fluid like a spectral river, floated around him as if animated by a will of its own.

But it was his eyes that imposed silence: two golden orbs, without pupils, bright like dead suns, staring at the horizon with chilling serenity.

Around him, the air waved, distorted by the divine energy he gave off.

The world was curving around him. The trees were leaning.

And in this nothingness, a voice resounded.

Serious. Divine Without echo.

"Finally... they arrive. "

A huge mischievous smile then appeared on his face.

Around him, two shadows stirred.

His disciples, carpeted in his shadow, started.

His creatures, buried in the earth, awoke one by one.

The forest groans and the world trembles.

Old plagues woke up.

One with the appearance of a man was dressed in a white tunic with black patterns. His face was covered with a white mask without a mouth, but pierced with two holes in his eyes, and on his head, above his black hair, whirled a black sphere like a bottomless hole. He was called Rhazak, the corrupt priest.

The other, with the appearance of a woman, her body being completely black except at the face, was completely covered with white stripes, her hair having a bangs descending to her eyebrows, and was divided into two colors: white on the right side and black on the left side. His right eye was blue and his left eye red. She seemed to float in the air and her headbands moved infinitely according to her will. As soon as she came out of the shadows, a mischievous smile appeared on her face, and her mouth uttered incomprehensible words. She was Myrren, the Prophetess of Death.

When his disciples came out of the shadow, Yshvar raised a finger towards the sky, and after this movement, the sky that was purple turned entirely blood red.

"It's time, my children..." "Go have fun," he said with a mischievous smile while resting his head on his hand, posing a contemptuous and indifferent look towards the forest.

After his words, Myrren and Rhazak bowed slightly, before disappearing into a black mist.

TO FOLLOW...