Chapter 5

Maddened.

Maddard's heart nearly leaped from his chest, his shaky ribs were hardly able to contain the soft red muscle. Every sensation in his being was overtaken by a ghastly amalgam of confusion and horror.

A black suit of armor of Herculean proportion consumed utterly in hellfire and black fumes careened through the blazing forest behind their home and with a mighty leap, its mountainous body soared several yards. Maddard stood stupefied. There was not a word coursing through his mind that could rationalize what he was seeing. It was so large he could hardly make out its face. The mere sight of it caused him to stand paralyzed with fear. His mind was screaming for him to run, but his body was mute.

To witness such a beast existing in the same plane, the same world, as himself was enough to steal his sense of significance and surrogate it with an unfatiguing, never-ending, and perverse sense of inferiority that was never again to leave his side until he was no drier and emptier than those old bones which lied dormant just beneath his numbing flesh.

Maddard noticed that this beast was traveling at such a phenomenal pace in the direction of their home. He desperately looked at his homestead and then back at the raging beast. It was behind their home and it took another leap forward.

Before Maddard could even act, in one mighty bound, its titanic foot hovered over his small stone home and crushed it under its fiery heel. The impact sent hundreds of debris hurdling in several directions. Maddard, just far enough to avoid being crushed by the large beast's enormous foot, was carried away by the force.

Maddard became covered with snow and rubble. His teeth were chattering and his body was icy to the touch. He pushed the snow and pieces of stone from off of his body angrily, and forcing himself to endure the awful shaking of his body, he hobbled to the ruins of what was once his home.

That deadening sound of clanking armor resonated in the distance. That flaming behemoth was already far away from Maddard, each of its strides spanned dozens of yards. It kept running into the large, distant trees that surrounded that pasture, causing ruin and havoc to those trees and woodland life as well.

While rushing back to his ruined home, he called out his wife's name several times, his voice breaking every time.

III. Vikings, In front of the Mesfirian Shire's walls

Tenniss stood patiently, waiting to hear the ring of the death bell he told Darian to ring some minutes ago. He was beginning to feel afraid, fearing that they may not have made it to the bell. But, he had faith so he waited in the dim light of the main room. He sighed a deep breath and then suddenly he heard the death bell. It was loud and blaring, ringing out a morbid tune across for all to hear.

Once the sound of the death bell rang, the soldiers and Gate Bearers who still drew breath, retreated with haste. They fled the wall within moments of hearing the morbid tune, stepping over the fallen and lifeless bodies spread all across the curtain wall. They all knew what the tune meant. They hurtled out of the walls, down the belfries, and finally to the ground where they ran together past the two screen walls that were built behind the curtain wall.

After running past the veil screens, the town was found to be quiet. Many of the townspeople were already at Brynhilld for the festival and the people who stayed were already evacuated.

Hearing his men fleeing brought a great relief to Tenniss's heart. But he did not take any action yet, other than confining himself to the darkness of the main room, a bit of his sanity escaping him with every passing second. He still had difficulty understanding what his enemies were. The Deathknights were essentially just suits of armor with flames bursting from their innards, so water would likely be their downfall, that much he knew and the water we poured upon them proved this to him.

But, when it came to the Shadowbirds...he was utterly lost. Those large and terrifying birds were beyond him. Some were as large as buildings, some were even larger than towers, and some-and it terrified Everwood the most, one Shadowbird that he saw appeared as large as a small city. They were frightening creatures those Shadowbirds. They made the Deathknights appear like a lesser threat. Confining himself to the room, Tenniss was stalling long enough until he felt every Gate Bearer and soldier had run far enough from the curtain wall and so he used this time to ponder but it was difficult to. The entire time he was waiting and thinking, those incessant thuds were growing louder.

With his focus proving impossible to maintain, Tenniss ran from out of the room and toward a belfry and for minutes he watched Gate Bearers evacuate past the veil screens and towards the other end of the small shire, letting out a saddened facial expression in the process. He maneuvered back around into the rampart, his arms chilled and legs suffering an insatiable shaking. He was now sure that they were all far from here.

His eyes were weary and dragged by the heavy bags below his eyelids. Tenniss looked down at his feet and then wept as he rushed into the main room, stepping over the massive debris and bodies. He trembled as his chapped lips shuttered frantically and his pungent tears cascaded down his rosy cheeks, slithering into his open mouth. Snot seeped onto his beard as his tears intermixed. He groaned as his heartbeat surged. Those thuds were now louder than they had ever been before.

He made it back inside the main room and hurriedly removed the leather vest he had been wearing. He saw the ax on the floor. He scrambled to pick it up as he threw his vest aside.

With the ax now in hand, he stared at one panel in particular. It had the symbol of a small blue ember on its glass casing.

"Perhaps now..." Tenniss muttered in angst. He then became frustrated, for the constant rumbling did not cease; instead, it worsened.

He paced angrily back and forth and then decided to leave the unit room.

He realized the Freeland fires have emerged to greater lengths, his heart weighing heavier as he ogled longer into the distant forest.

He leaped back into the main room, his body drenched in cold, nervous sweat. He peaked through the square holes again. He surveyed the area. He first observed the myriad of Shadowbirds in the sky. Then onto the Deathknights down below, and then lastly at the raging fires in the Colossal Snowpeak Woods in the Freelands. He did not know how to deal with the Shadowbirds, truly there was nothing he could do. The Deathknights were lax and some stood by the wall. He noticed that they were arranged in an odd way, as well. They were behaving oddly. They did not fire or attack as they had been doing. He found it to be very strange and his body was crawling with awful feelings. There was a large column of space they had left between them. He was curious as to why they were doing this but was powerless to intervene. He was alone. And they were far plenty in number and far more powerful in stature than he or even a thousand Gate Bearers could surpress.

Demented, he watched the growing fires which spread throughout parts Colossal Snowpeak Woods that were visible to him. The rumbles felt closer and louder now.

In the midst of the burning trees, a large behemoth engulfed in flames emerged from the vast wildfire.

"How can this be! Is-is that a Deathknight? Gods...help us."

Tenniss had to force himself to stand, but it was becoming increasingly difficult to do so. His body had nearly collapsed and his mind was pushed closer and closer to madness. None of this felt real to him, like he was caught in a nightmare to which he could not find the strength wake up from. It was like he retreated inside of his mind. These were things of nightmares to him. He never felt so helpless and defeated like today. His body shivered sporadically, his eyes watered and his stomach upheaved causing him to vomit on the floor. He felt weezy and weak.

His body nearly went limp. He fought every urge to faint, keeping his soul afloat when his body had drowned under this unconquerable sea of gloom.

He wrapped his fingers around the ax tightly to the point where his fingers were straining. His entire body was overwhelmed by foul sweat and never was there a moment since this conflict that he was now trembling.

"What the fuck is this now?" In a perplexed fit, Tenniss shrieked uncontrollably whilst swearing profusely. Tenniss struggled hard to keep his shivering legs from collapsing under the weight of his fear.

The Deathknight of grandiose proportions which had emerged from the woods in a ball of smoke and fire lugged its massive weight into the open field, rumbling and shaking everything around it. It was sprinting down the column of space left between the several thousand Deathknights. It took enormous steps all while swaying and motioning its massive build towards curtain wall. Everything that touched the smoldering surface of its armor lit up in massive flames until they were dark cinders.

The protective coverings that surrounded the creature emitted a tenebrous radiance that replaced the sunlight. The hellish flames within the beast screamed a wrathful fury with its reddened madness.

With each footstep, the beast deposited upon the surface of the ground, the remaining hope that was invested in Tenniss's weary heart would weaken until it was bleaker than the darkness cast upon the land. His eyes were dark red. His muscles contracted tightly and his throat swelled immensely, making it nearly impossible to swallow down the thick saliva building in his mouth.

Feeling, a tense pain in his left hand, Tenniss removed his glove. He had not even realized it until now but one of his fingers were broken, with a bone sticking out of it. He grunted as the pain grew more unbearable. But, he did not have time to tend to his wound, nor did he believe he had reason to. He fought desperately to remain focused and strong. But those thunderous booms slapped across his ears as he witnessed that ghastly manifestation of fury in the form of a nearly one hundred foot tall Deathknight stormed towards him.

Abruptly, hysteria in the form of a passion of small seas burst from the wall and flooded the land. Tenniss had just cut loose another rope. He rushed over to another panel with the water symbol and cut the rope. There were two more panels like those ones and who rushed over and did the same to the two panels. He quickly sprinted over to the square holes to see the affect of what he had done. He watched the burning waters wash over the fleets of Deathknights, consuming hundreds.

The behemoth of a Deathknight, who had now made it so close to the wall with every step it took.

The water was not massive enough to engulf the large Deathknight, it only made it up to its heel. The water that did touch it bursted into bodies of dispersing steam. The flurry of hot water did not do away with this one as it had done away with the several other smaller Deathknights. This worried Tenniss. The beast did not seem intimidated or even affected as he would have wished. It was fighting through the water.

Watching the giant rush towards the curtain wall, Tenniss could not help but frown miserably. "As to thialo," he screamed, feeling defeated!

The large Deathknight appeared far more wrathful than it had earlier, the fire in the sockets of its eyes were burning more intensely than before.

Left without words, he ogled helplessly at the Deathknight who inexorably resisted and endured those boiling tides. The Deathknights, who were not caught under the water, surrounded the large Deathknight. The burly creature then unleashed a mighty bellow with flames erupting out of its mouth. It pained Tenniss's ears. Its arms were locked and its sight were focused on the battered curtain wall with its body hurtling faster and faster. With the burly beast now just before the wall, Tenniss quickly tried rushing to one panel in particular, one with a flame symbol on the glass.

Tears which leaked from his eyes were whisked away by the persuading winds. The fire began to spark more intensively. With clenched fists, the beast slouched down while charging for the gate. This panel was not to be used unless it was of absolutely necessary. This panel would blow open this section of the wall in the event that enemies of large numbers would break through the gate just below. So he dashed and sprinted with all of his remaining strength to the panel...but he was too late.

The behemoth, with all of its dynamic momentum and its back hunched down low, hurdled its entire body. The gate and part of the curtain wall was utterly shattered and wrecked into hundreds of flying fragments. An enormous hole was all that was left of the wall.

The base of the curtain wall was shattered.

The nearby gate was destroyed.

And all became silent.