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“Yes, it is time,” I say. “Let us begin.”
I wrap my hands around my sword in anticipation of the chaos spell that will send us down. Suddenly the air becomes thick, almost viscous and in my mind’s eyes I see the faces of my beloved animals. I will be back for you.
The magic wraps around my flesh, wild and cold, twisting and twining as if trying to swallow me. There is nothing I can do now. We are on our way to the world below, and I can only hope that I can get the job done so that I may return from it.
I close my eyes as the blackness takes me.
5
CORA
It should be a relief when I am tossed from Gidresu’s lap and discarded like the rubbish they believe us to be, but instead something else creeps in. I can hear the shouting from outside and my chest tightens, sensing that something is not as it should be.
“Show me!” Girescu yells as he strides across the tent and exits. I watch as he disappears, glad to see the back of him, a strange mix of fear and relief coursing through me. There are many elves that I would gladly sink a blade into if I could, and he would be at the top of that list, always.
I inhale deeply, glad for this interruption even though I know something is wrong, and I hear his orders of “Gather the men!” He must see something that signals a threat. Dark elves are known for their strength, their brutality, and from the sounds of it they are ready to put this to good use.
Already I am on high alert. Living as we do, I am vigilant to the extreme, always on the lookout for potential danger. It can be tiring, but it is necessary if we are to survive this world, and everything about this situation is screaming danger.
Adjusting my rumpled shirt I make my way out of the tent, the smell of him still in my nostrils as I try to forget his filthy hands that groped at my skin and the way that he sneered at me. This has been a lucky escape; it does not bear thinking about what he would be doing to me now if his soldier had not burst in.
Outside, the darkness that greets me is far from the bright sunny day I was enjoying before I entered the tent. Clouds in varying shades of gray hang above me, and in the distance, I can make out the threat of a storm the likes of which I haven’t seen before.
But it’s more than that.
"Oh, fuck," I mutter.
The dread that crawls out of my guts can’t be explained, but it’s there, along with magic so dark in the air I can hardly catch my breath. My stomach turns and my mind races, my only thoughts being that of my family and I take off at a sprint desperate to get to them.
We’ve encountered storms before and they have been bad enough, but I’ve never seen a sky like that, one so alive with the promise of death. There are not many options for us in a situation like this, but I need to get to them. We have survived so far, and I will make sure that we do again, whatever is coming our way.
Chest heaving, heart racing, my mind a whir, I am getting closer when out of nowhere I am faced with creatures—all of them terrifying as they appear before and around me.
"What in the name of the gods!" I shout, though no one can hear it over the screams and roars.
They are huge, bigger even than orcs or dark elves, different in appearance, though each of them has a look of nothing but evil about them. Horns, long and curved, grow out of their heads, their bodies even more well-built than the elves.
They continue appearing until there is a small army of them. Their skin color varies, some ebony while others have a gray hue and others are covered with fur. Red and yellow eyes glow, striking the terror of the gods into me. What are these things!
A beast so large it crashes through buildings, destroying them as though they are nothing but sand, roars into the sky. Its body is covered with a thick, impenetrable layer of armor, its wings spanning the width of a building and horns that blaze fire sit on top of its head.
A few smaller of these creatures appear and scatter about the place, great balls of magic emanating from their palms. They quickly take cover behind their larger brethren, their main purpose seeming to be the magic that swirls around them as they strike out at the elves. Their horns are long and thin, and their ears are pointed, almost like the elves themselves and their skin pale.
The creatures leave a trail of destruction, cutting down the elves with swords that seem to be longer than the length of my body. There is nothing that can come close to the strength they display though I thought I had seen it all when it came to elves and orcs.
Magic fills the air—their magic—nothing like that of the elves who now seem to be struggling to summon. This is different to anything I’ve witnessed them use before, a strength and a darkness so potent I can almost feel it touching every cell in my body.
I bend over and throw up the meager contents of my stomach, a heaviness clawing at me as these creatures run rampage across the settlement and beyond. Time itself seems to slow down, the oppressive nature of these beasts and what they bring clinging to everything.
Dark elves assemble, though the nature of this gathering and the way that they scream at each other shows just how little they were prepared for something like this. How could anyone be prepared for such an event—just when it seemed this world could not get any darker?
Terror grips me, my route home blocked by the chaos, as I now find myself in the center of a battlefield. One where elves and monsters fight to the bitter death. The screams of elves are something I would welcome in any other situation, but right now all they do is add to my desperation.
Cries of pain, the thud of large bodies as they hit the ground and the scattering of body parts as they fly through the air and land unceremoniously on the ground assault my senses. Whatever these things are, they are making easy work of the elves whose magic does not seem to be working at all.
Taking cover amongst some crumbled ruins I place my hands over my ears, desperate to feel some relief from this carnage. But I dare not close my eyes, as the horned creatures, at least eight feet tall, stalk across the settlement, their black horns reaching up to an even blacker sky.
Above me it is now dark, the only light coming from the giant forks of it that split the sky, taking ownership of it as it cracks, whipping across the whole sky, reaching out from where I stand to the horizon.
