There was a piercing shriek far in the distance. It was unnatural and unlike anything from this realm, and its presence enraged me. But I did not dare to follow the voice, even though my rage hungered for it, and every passing moment I felt a weakness course through my bones and muscles.

Then I heard deep and rumbling steps in the distance, which slowly began coming towards where I stood. The ground shook and the rubble around me broke even more. Smoke grew thicker, turning the sky dark and the light dim, and on the walls, I saw dancing shadows of fire. The very air was rank fumes and I found it ever more difficult to breathe.

Amidst the dangerous steps, I heard frenzied shouting. A clash of metal and echoes of dull thumps. Then a gust of wind flew past me and the flames in the distance grew ever taller, engulfing more of the town.

I wanted to know what the commotion was, but I could not perceive it from afar. With a concentrated effort, I pierced the veil of the world with only my thought. Everything I sensed was distorted, like waves in a storm, but nothing clear. Nothing concrete as I expected to be. Then, suddenly, I fell back into the limiting frame of my own mind. This short effort exhausted me, and I grew even more worried. I felt this shouldn't have tired me so much, and I tried again. My mind detached from my body and expanded around me, but this time I saw even less, and I fell back even faster.

Damned it! It was as if my powers were dampened, and when I tried for the third time, I could barely even expand out of my own head.

Then I panicked, and I quickly limped away from the noises. I moved across the square, towards some ruined houses in the distance. Luckily the rumbling steps changed direction and moved away from me and towards the tumult, soon they merged with the mayhem of shouting and clashes. With an increasing amount of effort, I reached the ruined houses. The windows were broken and on the walls and doors, obscene symbols were drawn with dark paint. Merely looking at them enraged me, but I kept moving on.

I felt a fresh and salty breeze ahead, where there was a clearing of houses, and moved that way. The farther I got from the square, the air seemed less dense and the clouds above parted. For some reason, seeing the clear sky excited me excited beyond words and I moved faster. Soon the shouting of men and metal was quiet, but the deep steps were still heard.

Then something caught my eye in a pile of rubble. Amidst some bodies halfway buried in the mud, something was shining bright golden. I felt a pull towards it, but couldn’t explain it. I limped closer and saw that it was a dirty hand clasping a golden medallion, similar to the one I took from the dead back in the square. It was an encircled golden “Y” that was unmarred by the dirt and had caught sunlight only for a moment. That was enough for me to see it.

There was no mistaking the pull, so I approached slowly and with caution. The hand was buried under two naked bodies of wild-looking men, who were cut down in half recently. With some pain in my side, I kneeled and reached for the medallion. The moment I touched the hand, a warmth pulsed through me! The hand was stiff, but the owner of it was not dead, I was sure of it. I felt overjoyed and threw the two bodies into the wall across the street. Glass broke, the wood cracked, and the bodies were buried under the rubble.

From under the debris of wood and stone and broken shield, I saw the faces of a young man and woman. They were covered in dirt and blood, but slowly breathing with closed eyes.

“Hgh!” I croaked, wanting to whisper to them, but I discovered I couldn’t talk. It felt like there was something stuck in my throat. So instead I shook their shoulders, hoping to wake them up. I shook them gently at first, and not so gently after a few tries, while still coughing from the strain of trying to speak.

The man suddenly groaned but kept his eyes shut, and a thin line of blood trickled from the corner of his mouth. He had a tall face, with short messy blond hair and thin lips, but was dirty and scraped bloody in many places. Next to him was a similar-looking young woman. She also had a tall and thin face with dull blonde hair. And when the man groaned again, her eyes shot open!

A pair of grey eyes looked upon me with wonder for a few moments, but then that turned into fear and then terror. She tried to squirm back into the safety of the destroyed house and grabbed a rotten wooden beam to pull herself away. But her legs were stuck under the blond-haired man, and she couldn’t move. The moment she tried to move her legs, she cried out and gave up.

Immediately, I jumped back and held my hands up, hoping to show that I meant no harm.

The young woman then grabbed the man’s arm, but stayed silent in terror and looked at me, defeated. But when she understood I was not aggressive, she looked up and into my eyes. There was a pleading for help there, and much pain and loss. Her fear and tension lessened then, and I felt hope growing. But that was quickly replaced by a sharp pain in her legs.

I kneeled and saw that her right leg was under a massive wooden beam, and the dark blue fabric was soaked through with blood, but there didn’t seem to be active bleeding, at least from what I saw. I set the unconscious young man lying next to her, and off of the damaged leg. As I moved him, he groaned again, stronger this time. The woman then shook his shoulder and started crying. Tears flowed down her cheeks, and I heard a faint sob.

A guidance came from within, and I placed my palms on his chest and… pushed? Not physically, but mentally pushed into his chest. Immediately his eyes shot open and he drew a sharp and panicked gasp of air. Soon he gasped for air again and coughed up blood, which he swiped clean with the hand he held the medallion. The two looked awful - dirty with mud and blood and the broken leg and with a defeated look in their eyes, especially when they looked around them and noticed the destruction. Then they whispered to each other and looked back up at me.

“Th-” the girl said, but was cut short and fell silent. An unnatural silence descended upon us, like a weight, and it muted all sounds around us. I could not hear the raindrops, the wind, nor the silent scream the girl made when she looked left.

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“Flee!” I thought. A dark voice cried in the distance, telling me all hope was lost. That I must flee and leave the two injured behind, and save myself.

And then there was a foul smell in the air, a sour smell mixed with the same death which was all around us, but concentrated.

The hair on my arms rose up, a shiver went down my spine, and my breath got caught up in my throat. I almost collapsed, with many more voices crying to run! To abandon the two in need of help and run for my life.

The girl screeched out in terror and immediately collapsed unconscious, her companion only managed to look up before fainting on top of her and dropping the golden medallion.

I looked to my right.

Far back in the square stood tall, a dark creature, surrounded by his horde of beast-men. It was double as tall as the rest and very slender with impossibly long limbs. His bodily form did not catch light, and he stood shrouded in darkness.

When I looked up at its face, I could not see eyes there, for its entire face was a shadow but for a wide mouth it held in a crooked smile. In both hands, it held long and jagged swords, black and smoldering.

Around it, the troops of beast-men screamed and howled, but they held back and waited for their master. Then the creature stepped forward. As it got so closer, I could smell its stink. It was a sharp stench of sourness and rot that seeped into my skin and my clothes. This creature was a thing not of this world. I knew that with all certainty.

And all that time, there was a loud voice in my head that told me to abandon hope and to surrender. But beside it roared a rage so hot and so powerful, that it drowned out the despair. I couldn’t suppress it even if I wanted to. And the more it roared, the more it gave me focus. I stood tall and proud, not afraid of the fell beast.

It then took another step forward. Its flock of beast-men was in a frenzy now. A hundred half-naked men and women, holding spiked weapons of war dirtied by blood and mud, and their faces and bodies defiled with symbols of lies and false promises. They were shouting and chanting, almost cheering their champion along and many of them were fighting among themselves.

The monster was now a few houses away, and it smiled. The cursed thing smiled and held its thin arms open, pointing the dark swords of shadow at me.

The images of the butchery which had happened here filled my mind. I saw how the shadowed creature walked among the now-dead villagers, towering above them, and slew them in droves. Dozens fell in a single swing of its dark sword. And I saw it through its eyes and felt the same satisfaction.

The creature bragged about what he had done and projected it at me. I understood that this suffering was its goal and what nourished it.

And now it wanted me to die and throw my body into the feral horde.

It stepped forward again, with its long and sharp feet, and smiled. The ground shook and glass broke, and the wind escaped the beast. A rush of panic filled me again, but my rage overcame it the next moment. The creature stopped mid-step, leaned forward, and looked at me like I was a curious case. It closed its mouth, and disappeared into the shadow of its face.

Then it shrieked, ready to pounce. The two swords were almost trembling in anticipation, and I could feel the attack coming.

There was only one minor problem, though, and it was that I had nothing to protect myself with. I turned around to take the wooden beam by the leg of the blonde girl, but it was too heavy, and probably would break.

As soon as I turned, the creature sensed an opening and launched itself forward.

I didn’t even have time to think. Immediately I found a learning which came up from deep within, and I reached my arm out. The air grew heavy and thick. I couldn’t breathe and immense pressure built up around me, along with a pungent, sulfur-like smell.

But the monster was already moving, both swords pointed at me and its mouth half-open in a hungry smirk.

Static filled the air and I saw tiny light-blue sparks around my palm.

The lightless aberration only managed to take a few steps before I released the built-up static. Out through my palm came with a thunderous boom, a single jagged line of bright-blue lightning.

My ears rang and my eyes were blinded. Glass all around me shattered and the rotten-through houses burst apart in a thousand splinters. Mud and puddles shot up and vaporized in the heat.

The bolt hit the creature in the chest, and it fell back into a pile of rubbish with a deep thud.

It then shrieked again while writhing on the ground, but the cry was flimsy and impotent.

The beast tried to get up and leaned against his sword, but it fell from its hand and into the mud. There it hissed, like searing steel in water, and vanished. The second sword fell right after and faded out of the world while hissing and smoldering.

One more time, the shadowed monster screamed, even weaker than before, and then fell to its knees. It wailed and cried in despair and ever withered away into the air. Only moments after, the dark and burnt-out body fell into the mud. Thin smoke rose until that too stopped and the monster was forever gone.

The sense of dread and unease slowly breathed away, and I felt calmer and more in control of my thoughts. The unnatural fear was gone.

Far back in the large square, the pack of beast-men fell into a bloody frenzy. They howled and growled and tore into each other without thought, and I felt their rage as they ripped themselves apart. Blood and flesh and limbs flew until there were only a few left, who then turned and ran.

Everything then dimmed, and I felt sapped from life. The pain in my side pulsed stronger now, and the water in my boot found balance with the mud outside. I staggered next to the two unconscious bodies behind me and fell on a pile of wet debris. There I lay on my good side and looked at the sky. Clouds had parted, and through the grey, I saw the most magnificent sight - the Sun.

It was as if I saw it a lifetime ago.

I admired with awe the brilliance of it. How the golden rays in between the fluffy and heavy clouds shone down on the burning city and reflected off the pillars of smoke.

The day passed into the evening and I felt utterly spent. I had closed my eyes at some point while looking up and probably fell asleep for a short time.

Then, through a deep rest, I heard running and angered voices!

Soon many people were yelling, throwing splintered apart beams here and there, and orders were being commanded. Heavy footsteps reached me, and someone said with a harsh voice: “You! Get back from them! Captain Dion, the Russos are here! And I found one alive. This way!”

I lifted my head up and opened my eyes, but my vision was blurry. Everything blended into a blob of colors and shades, and the pain on my side was too great to ignore and suppress. And whatever I did to the shadowed creature had depleted my energy entirely.

I could not speak, nor even move myself.

“Do not move, you foul beast!” the harsh voice said, towering over me and casting a wide shadow. “This one looks wretched, Captain!”

“Well done, High Warden,” I heard the stern female voice in the distance. “Chain him.”

“Captain, he has magical abilities.”

“Chain and mute him.”

“Yes, Captain. Will we take the savage to Caffria?”

“No. Bring him to Cappesand.”

“It will be done, Captain Dion!”

I was then pulled up by my collar rather harshly, and a set of iron cuffs was put tightly on my wrists. Then someone grabbed my head and turned it up, and another, with some care and attention, lowered a thin metallic wire against my temples.

Immediately the world dimmed, and the sounds of the wind and the rain and the shouting were muted. My shoulders were grabbed and forced down in the mud, and a heavy black sack was put on my head.

I saw nothing and fell into a dreamless sleep.