For the Hate of God

How are we going to get out of here alive?

Malleteagan’s POV

-one week after the fall of Damnarynth-

After we defeated Damnon and what had left of his army, we continued to advance towards the end of the clearing where smidgens of amber flakes of magic were fused in a border. It formed a shield which separated Damnarynth and Morsburg’s dungeons and fortress. Faes and dwarves, with Thersar and Nexelex, were leading the warriors. When they got close to the armoury border, fae and dwarves started to stick the chthonic weaponry in the shield while Thersar and Nexelex rose their arms high in the air and invoked enchantment. Every attempt to break through was blocked and deflected. Warriors who tried to penetrate the shield just fell down through the ground, and then they would disappear. Where are they? The ground swallowed every single warrior who attempted to attack the shield. Nexelex and Thersar vanished before my very eyes.

Kandreah and I exchanged hesitant looks and nodded to each other in unspoken understanding and silent agreement. Well f**k it!!!

“Charge!!!” We roared in unison at the remainder of the warriors while swarming to the armour. As soon as we made the step forward, the abyss opened in front of us and sucked us all in. We ended up in a dark void that seemed to have no end. Kandreah and I gawked all around, and we couldn’t see anything apart from caliginous, murky, ceaseless void space. Our soldiers started reappearing out of darkness, roaming and gadding about while ogling their surroundings in the hope of assessing where they were and what to take of this situation. Most of us were gathered now together. Low-ranked warriors were frantically staring into the gloom in dismay. Their fear was palpable.

I pointed to a dark void before us and a mind-linked small group of omegas with a barking command to move forward. They obediently galloped regardless of the reluctance I read in their eyes as they were compelled to submit to my Alpha command. Then, out of the sheer darkness, concrete walls rigged in front of my Omega warriors with an array of rusted metal spikes which flashed left, right and centre, stabbing my Omegas across their bodies. The walls smashed into Omegas, squashing them with an ear-piercing creak, stabbing the myriad of spikes across their bodies. Omegas tried to run away from the spiked wall, but even with their Lycan speed, they were too slow.

As walls slowly retracted back to an unknown place in the darkness where they emerged from, slain soldiers that were still hanging on spikes were dragged along with retreating walls. Their brain matter spilt across the surface of spiked walls along with their guts and blood. Each of them had so many stabbing wounds that it would be impossible to count them even in the daylight. Their blood was dripping as they were dragged away with the wall, leaving a dreadful blood trail on the floor. So, is this wall sensitive to motion?

All of us looked at the scene with horror. The only difference is that Kandreah, Nexelex, Thersar and myself had cogs turning in our heads. We need a strategy, and we need it quickly. Thersar clicked with his fingers, and our surroundings became slightly more illuminated.

Well, it’d be better if it weren’t.

We are surrounded by the same walls as the one that crashed my omegas a few moments ago. The walls are ten times bigger than us. How are we going to advance? No, even better, how will we get out of here alive?

Thersar sent a few faes to repeat the movement and to advance. I could see by their auras that they were lesser faes. The hesitant look in their eyes revealed that they were compelled by Thersar’s command. Their look mirrored the one that my slain Omegas held just a few moments ago, when I sent them to a certain death. As soon as they made the step forward, the same walls showed from the left and right side, ramming the spikes that still held the corpses of omegas into the bodies of faes and slaughtering them on the spot, the same way as my omegas were slaughtered.

Thersar, Nexelex, Kandreah and I exchanged a glance over. We then looked at the wall that drifted away back to the old position, carrying new victims that found the same fate as my omegas. Four of us assessed the floor splayed in front of us. It seemed like an old pavement made of little stone blocks. It was now soaked with the blood of our fallen soldiers.

When I had a better glance at the pavement, I saw it. There is a pattern. Some of the blocks were exuding dribs and drabs of faint black smoke and dust. The smoke became more intense in the places that were covered with the blood of warriors. Given the dark in here and the subtlety of the smoke, if not very focused, one could easily miss it.

“What is that black smoke there?” I looked at Kandreah. I know that he possessed some necromancy and black magic abilities, although I am not quite sure of its full nature and extent. He looked at me with a look that says that he was ready to slap himself mentally. Then he spared another glance over at the pavement.

“Oh f**k, how did I miss that?” he murmured under the breath with a barely audible whisper, but I managed to catch it.

He raised his hand and opened his palm towards the pavement. Slivers of the black smoke rippled to him and syphoned in him. His eyes became dark dust and smoke, matching the one that once filled the pavement. His eyes were completely obsidian and exuding the smoke.

Okay, it’s official-the bat is a creeper. He then turned around to his leeches, looking possessed, and babbled something in some foreign language. The smoke emanated out of his eyes and lingered in the dark of the shitty abyss we were in. Then, the few leeches, obviously mind-linked by Kandreah, advanced forward, passing through the spikey wall trap smoothly and with no issues. This time round, the walls didn’t move, but the pavement did. Thersar directed the light towards the pavement, and we saw blocks reshuffling and revealing the pentagram that burnt in fire and the ember. The smoke from the pentagram slivered towards Kandreah, writhing and craving for him.

While he sucked in the smoke, he looked as if he was experiencing some freaky orgasmic experience; his eyes rolled in the back of his head. I poked Thersar, who was next to me: “So, what do you reckon, should we call an exorcist?” Thersar smirked and mimicked Kandreah’s movement. The same thing happened. The black dust swirled into Thersar, and his eyes became hazy and filled with the same smokey substance that emanated from the pavement. I internally facepalmed myself. I forgot they are twins, and although Thersar is not a leech as Kandreah, they both have necromancy in their veins. Now I remember the story, Kandreah wasn’t the bloodsucker since the day he was born, but he was turned into one when he pissed off Noosha. Well, anyway, that aside, Kandreah is a bigger creeper than Thersar, that’s for sure. Regardless, the annual award for cringe-worthy brothers of the year goes to these two, that’s certain.