“Fire, use fire against them, tell your men to use torches and flaming arrows, they hate the sun because they only come out at night, so fire is the next best thing. Here we make our stand against the Aberration from the Nightlands and its horde of death.” Koronos commands his captain into action as reanimated skeleton warriors come ambling out of the night mist, gathering around the front gate of the fortress. Something darker than the mist is behind them, something very big with glowing red eyes.
“Y… yes, sir!” The captain has been in many fights and doesn’t fear combat, but this is something else entirely, so he’s having difficulty masking his fear. Some of his men are terrified out of their wits and simply in the fetal position on the ground, weeping, vomiting or pissing themselves. The men that are still standing required copious quantities of liquid bravery in the form of many bottles of wine from the former warden’s private stash to remain semi-functional. Something out there is emanating some kind of fear aura, even Koronos can feel but alcohol seems to dull the fear a little.
“And pray to whatever ancestors or gods you worship.” Koronos adds in as the captain is walking away.
The big thing in the mist is the ‘Aberration from the Nightlands,’ it seems to be commanding or directing the skeletal warriors, this is a new behavior: for thousands of years, it was content to just feed on the occasional prisoner or guard, here and there. The thing is wreathed in black mist, or maybe composed of black mist, and seems to have an upper body, head and arms with long pointy fingers but no legs, only black mist beneath it. There are ancient protection wards on the walls and gate but it’s very ancient and fading; it should otherwise be noted that the creature also has a newfound fervor to get inside. Some of the skeleton zombie warriors are carrying a battering ram and begin smashing it into the front gate.
The creature was originally summoned from the Nightlands to kill The First, and the sword that Koronos now possesses is essentially a shard of her essence; and it hates the sword as much as it hated The First.
On the command of Captain Korvax, the men on top of the wall begin raining flaming arrows down onto the horde. The arrows and bows are compliments of the armory and the former guards, naturally. Some of the men try to shoot at the Aberration but the arrows seem to be ineffective against it. The captain notices this, “don’t waste arrows on that monster, focus on the warriors with the battering ram!” Then he takes another swig from an animal bladder flask containing wine.
Some of the reanimated dead warriors on the battering ram fall, but are quickly replaced, the gate begins to crack as a few of the horde managed to scale the wall and are starting to climb over, grabbing the men on the wall and pulling them over or running them through with decrepit, rusty swords. Kononos springs into action and starts cleaving the zombie warriors on the wall with his sword. When most of them are dispatched, he tries to throw his sword at the Aberration, he hits it right where the heart would normally be, but it didn't seem to hurt it. It grabs the sword, but Koronos calls his sword back to his hand, the monster resists, holding it in its monstrous hand; now it’s a battle of will power, koronos calls it with all his might and power, it finally breaks free of the monster’s grasp and flies through the air returning to his hand. The monster screams and wails in frustration. Okay, throwing the sword is a bad idea, Koronos decides.
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A loud cracking noise comes from the gate below, it has just given way, and the horde starts to enter the courtyard as the men scream and die. This carnage invites the Aberration to move in a little closer, the Sword of the First begins to pulse with energy, calling out to Koronos but only he can hear it calling. So, he shouts to his captain; “Listen to me, captain! I must focus, no matter what happens you must hold the horde off me until I’m ready, you must hold them!”
“Aye, sir!” says Captain Korvax as he kicks a skeletal warrior off the wall. “May Light save us.” The last part was quieter and followed up with a shout to his men, “men, form up around Koronos and make a perimeter!”
Even though they are no longer professional soldiers, their training and experience kicks-in and they follow a command that they do not understand, because that is what a soldier does; hold onto that order in the face of certain annihilation with unwavering trust in their commander. The men do indeed trust Captain Corvax, he was the only thing they had in this awful prison colony to hold onto in their former lives, the only thing that gave them any kind of dignity.
Koronos holds the sword towards the sky and begins channeling all his power into it causing the sword to glow brighter and brighter, pulsating in waves of energy. The horde begins to surround them and the Aberration comes through the gate below and starts grabbing men and ripping them in half or throwing them in the wall or ground as if they were mere toys. This place has majikal wards and spells, it does weaken the creature considerably but it is driven, so it pushes forward with one focus; get to Koronos. Inside the walls, the flaming arrows seem to hurt and slow it but it doesn’t stop its advance.
Captain Korvax feels like giving up but he sees the glowing sword getting brighter and brighter and Koronos standing there like a wall with his eyes closed, fearless even with all the screaming and carnage around him; this inspires the captain to continue on, “hold men, we must hold!” As he smashes down skeletal warriors with fervor and fury with his heavy flaming torch made into a makeshift maul.
The pulsating light gets brighter and more intense that it starts to shred the horde nearest to it, disintegrating them like a handful of dust being blown away. The Aberration is close now, it reaches for Koronos but the captain puts himself between the monster and Koronos; so, it grabs the captain in his monstrous hand and picks him up to look at him with pure hatred from the blackest pit of the Nightlands. It opens its gaping maw and gets ready to bite the captain in half, but the pulsating light of the sword starts to disintegrate half of its face, so it drops him to the ground.
A sonic boom echoes through the night, emanating from above the sword, as a blinding ray of light pierces the gloom in the sky, blowing the clouds and fog away, knocking everyone down and totally obliterating the horde into dust.
With his eyes glowing bright yellow and crackling energy all around him, Koronos says, “I cast you out of my world and back to the Nightlands, from whence you came.” as the sky above him breaks open, to the other side; a rift in space and time to the Nightlands. This rift starts to pull the Aberration apart and into it, the monster screams and roars as the ground shakes. Then it’s gone in a burst of light with the rift closing right afterwards, with a shockwave that blows the rest of the fog away from the valley and the shaking stops, the sword goes quiet, and the light and pulsating stops as well. Koronos falls to one knee, totally drained and exhausted.
The men that are still alive begin to stand, awestruck at what they just witnessed; the impossible. Captain Korvax goes to help Koronos stand up, shouts to the men, “he saved us all, our warlord saved us, let’s hear it men, for Koronos!”
Men cheer and shout, some fall to a knee whilst weeping, and begin worshiping Koronos as a deity.