The wind howled through the Northern Bastion, driving heavy snow into every crack in the stone. In the courtyard, soldiers grunted as their iron shovels scraped harshly on the frozen roads.

  Inside the keep, a fire crackled in the hearth, yet the infirmary remained suffocatingly cold. Ren lay on a narrow bed, unconscious. Thick white bandages covered half her face. Blood and yellow fluid seeped through the linen, leaving gaps that exposed glimpses of wet, shattered bone and ruined flesh. It was a gruesome sight. Waking up would only bring her unimaginable agony.

  "Poor child."

  An old nurse sat next to the bed, carefully inspecting Ren’s injuries. Her frail fingers gently brushed Ren’s uninjured hair. The deep wrinkles on the nurse's face softened slightly as she looked at the young girl. Even in a deep coma, Ren's body twitched, unable to find peace.

  "Her condition has stabilized, yet the damage to her head is beyond my capabilities. My apologies, Marshal. I cannot do anything further."

  The nurse turned to face the man standing behind her. Marshal Hochkreuz. The great iron wall of the north. One of God's strongest soldiers, and currently, one of His greatest sinners. His spine remained perfectly straight. His broad shoulders sat firm. Yet, he could not hide the dark, heavy bags under his eyes. The whites of his eyes were spiderwebbed with red veins.

  The Marshal gave her a slow nod.

  "Thank you for your service. You may go now."

  The nurse bowed and slowly walked out of the room. She paused at the threshold.

  "May God bless you."

  The heavy wooden door clicked shut.

  Hochkreuz let out a self-deprecating sigh. "I do not deserve a blessing."

  He walked toward Ren. His large, calloused hand moved toward her in a gesture of comfort, only to halt and then return to his side. She looked nothing like Liesel, yet the broken girl on the bed reminded him entirely of his own dead daughter. He was a failed father. Now, he was a failed Marshal.

  The saplings were the future of the Church. They were the most talented generation in decades, wielding power that could rival seasoned Paladins. They had been protected by the best. Yet they were slaughtered like livestock.

  A sharp footstep echoed in the hollow room.

  The air rippled. A woman stepped out of the empty space, her arrival entirely silent until her boot touched the stone floor. She wore a heavy black dress that brushed the ground. A thin, gray veil covered the upper half of her face. The cloth obscured her eyes. Only her unnaturally pale skin and dark pink lips remained visible.

  "You came earlier than I thought. Mother."

  Hochkreuz stood perfectly still. He kept his gaze fixed on the injured girl, refusing to turn toward the Head Inquisitor.

  "My premonitions have been warning me, but it seems I was still too late," Mother said.

  She walked toward him. Her steps were slow and weightless. She stopped next to the bed and raised a hand to caress Ren's cheek. Thin linen gloves covered her fingers. Her touch lingered just above the bloodied bandages, never actually applying pressure.

  "It was my fault," Hochkreuz sighed, his voice thick with exhaustion. "I thought putting them near the front would help them grow."

  Mother disrupted his mourning.

  "It was our fault. We all underestimated the Empire. If only I had supported your decision to launch an all-out war after the funeral of your wife, this tragedy might not have happened."

  Hochkreuz closed his eyes. He said nothing. Mother remained quiet. They just stood there in the freezing room, carrying the weight of the dead.

  The heavy silence shattered with a deafening explosion.

  Outside the Northern Bastion, the blizzard raged.

  Elira raised her head to look at the massive, ancient stone wall. The snowstorm had grown violent. Ice crystals slapped against her cheeks, biting her skin. The wind howled like a dying beast. She threw her chewed-up cigar butt into the snow. It sizzled and died before her eyes. Her hand moved into her pocket to grab another one, but she only brushed against empty lint.

  She was out of cigars.

  Next to her, the Death Squad stood ready. Nyx fiddled with a brass communication device. Somehow, despite her erratic and psychotic attitude, Major Viktor always trusted the tiny assassin with the comms.

  "Hey baldy, we reached the place. Now what?" Nyx yelled over the wind.

  "Affirmative. Start the operation right away. Do what you do best. Cause chaos." Viktor’s voice buzzed through the speaker, flat and monotonous.

  "Finally." Nyx grinned, her shark-like teeth gleaming in the gray light.

  Oren patted the wooden body of his lute. His gaunt face remained completely blank. Beside him, Mira pulled her hood back, revealing her scaled jaw. Elira shoved her hands deep into her coat pockets. It was just another chore.

  Garrick sighed heavily.

  If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

  His body began to change. Veins bulged thick and black against his neck. His skin stretched and tore with a wet, sickening sound. Muscles expanded rapidly, multiplying and knitting together into massive slabs of raw, steaming meat. He grew taller, wider, losing the shape of a man and becoming a towering mountain of flesh.

  Sera jumped up, landing smoothly on Garrick’s expanding shoulder.

  Garrick let out a guttural roar and charged the wall.

  The impact shook the earth. The reinforced stone gate buckled inward, groaning under the sheer kinetic force of the meat-juggernaut. Mortar cracked. Iron hinges snapped like dry twigs. The gate collapsed, crushing the guards stationed behind it.

  The courtyard erupted into chaos.

  "Open fire!" a commander screamed from the high battlements.

  Oren stepped into the breach. He strummed a heavy chord on his lute and opened his mouth. The Paladins clutched their heads, their bodies twisting, falling one by one. The formation broke. Oren continued his walk.

  Nyx vanished. A second later, she reappeared among the staggered defenders. Her daggers moved in a silver blur. Throats opened. Limbs fell away. Blood sprayed across the pristine snow.

  Mira walked through the broken gate. She reached up with trembling fingers and pulled her cloth blindfold down to her neck. She kept her head tilted slightly down, terrified of letting her gaze sweep across Garrick or Oren. She locked her reptilian eyes strictly on the charging Holy Kingdom soldiers.

  The front line of soldiers stopped. Their momentum died instantly. Hearts ceased beating. Blood stopped flowing. The screaming died in their throats.

  But the Holy Kingdom did not fall so easily.

  "Hold the line! For the Light!"

  A coordinated roar echoed from the inner courtyard. A phalanx of heavily armored Paladins slammed their massive tower shields together, forming an impenetrable wall of steel. Blinding holy light erupted from their formation, pushing back the gloom of the blizzard.

  Nyx slashed at the shield but couldn’t cut it.

  Garrick charged the shield wall. A dozen glowing spears thrust outward, piercing his thick flesh. He roared and pulled his hand back. Blood spewed out, but he didn’t stop. Garrick punched the barrier with his other hand, quaking the earth with immense force. The barrier cracked, but the Paladins held firm.

  Oren frowned. He stepped back to avoid an arrow coming from behind the barrier. His song couldn’t penetrate the holy wall.

  Mira raised her head, looking at the barrier. It ceased to exist. The soldiers behind it froze into statues. The chaos continued.

  Then, the heavy inner doors of the keep swung open.

  Two figures walked out into the courtyard. An old man gripping a massive, rune-inscribed greatsword, and a woman dressed in severe black and gray.

  Sera froze on Garrick's shoulder. Her breath hitched in her throat. Her glowing hands dropped to her sides.

  "Mother," she whispered.

  The woman stopped. She surveyed the carnage, the struggling monsters, the blood. Then her hidden eyes locked onto the girl perched on the giant's shoulder.

  "Seraphine," Mother said. Her voice bypassed the chaotic noise of the battlefield entirely, echoing directly into their minds. "How low have you fallen."

  "I found a way!" Sera shouted back. "I could have brought them back! Why couldn't you see that?!"

  "Death is God's domain," Mother replied, her voice heavy with sorrow. "You defied Him. And now, you stand with the murderers of your brothers and sisters."

  Hochkreuz stepped forward. Runes flared to life along the length of his greatsword, casting a harsh golden light over the snow.

  "Heretic," the Marshal growled.

  He surged forward with terrifying speed. Garrick roared, swinging an arm the size of a tree trunk at the Marshal. Hochkreuz ducked under the blow. The greatsword flashed. A massive chunk of Garrick’s arm fell to the ground, slapping wetly against the stone.

  Garrick ignored the strike. The meat bubbled and rapidly stitched itself back together, replacing the lost limb in seconds. He launched another attack before the healing could even finish.

  Mother walked forward, her steps perfectly measured.

  Nyx threw three daggers straight at her chest. Mother tilted her shoulder a fraction of an inch. The blades passed harmlessly through the empty space. Sera fired a volley of green, searing soul-fire.

  Mira lunged forward, her blindfold secured tight. Relying entirely on her raw chimera strength, she swung a heavy, clumsy punch at the Inquisitor. Mother easily parried the wild strike. She touched Mira's forehead, and the girl dropped like a broken doll.

  Mother raised her gloved hand. She caught Sera's ethereal flames, crushing them into sparks, and shattered the incoming debris with a pulse of telekinetic force.

  Elira watched from the back. The shadows stretching across the courtyard bubbled and rose, and monsters swarmed up. They rushed toward Mother.

  Mother frowned. She moved with impossible grace, dodging most of the attacks, but there were too many monsters surrounding her.

  Nyx emerged from the shadows and pulled Mira away from the fight.

  Far away, Oren was holding the Paladins back. Beads of sweat dropped from his forehead. He recognized the woman, and his eyes flickered around to form an escape plan.

  Mother glanced at Oren and frowned. She disappeared inside Elira's domain, her figure reappearing right next to him. But before she could reach Oren, Nyx jumped out of his shadow.

  "Dodge this!"

  She swung her hand. The movement was so fast it caused a small explosion. The wind turned into blades and rushed at Mother. But they flew past her as if she wasn’t even there. Mother looked at Nyx, and her frown deepened.

  "What a disgusting creation."

  Nyx pulled Oren into her shadow and rushed away.

  Mother was about to catch up to her, but Elira's monsters had surrounded her again.

  "Troublesome."

  She rushed toward the girl in the center of the domain. She couldn’t stay in this state for long. Tentacles slapped at her, and monsters lunged at her, but they all faded through her flesh.

  The Head Inquisitor stopped right in front of her.

  Elira tried to step back, but her limbs felt heavy. Mother looked past the uniform, past the shadow magic, straight into the core of Elira's soul. Elira raised her head, looking back at her.

  "Will you kill me?"

  "Fall, lost soul," was her response.

  Holy magic radiated from Mother's fingertips, warm and inviting. Elira felt the pressure against her mind. She exhaled. Her eyelids fluttered. Her knees buckled. She collapsed forward.

  She hit the ground, but the stone did not catch her.

  Darkness devoured her. She slipped straight through the solid courtyard. The black puddle beneath her began to expand, spreading outward like spilled ink. It moved violently. It swallowed the cobblestones. It swallowed the blood.

  Then, it swallowed the light. They couldn’t see, couldn’t hear, couldn’t smell, couldn’t taste. All of their senses were stripped away.

  The sky above the Northern Bastion turned pitch black. The golden glow of the Marshal's sword sputtered and died instantly. The torches on the walls snuffed out. Absolute, physical darkness slammed down on the fortress.

  A deep, grinding vibration shook the earth.