Chapter 474: The Shade Wall Part 2
…The New Moon… Dusk Valley… Hollow Shade’s outskirts…
Caligo glanced to the back of his army, where giant wagons, each pulled by dozens of centaurs, carried massive cages covered in leather canopies. “The world has forgotten the dragonbane. The mortals have forgotten what fear truly is. It’s time we remind them.”
With but a single ancient word, he bade the children of Unildyr to awaken. The cages began to shake uncontrollably and the wagons broke underneath the weight. A deep grumble like an ancient deity’s roar echoed outwards. The centaurs tried to run in terror, but their chains held them in place.
Sharp black claws tore through one of the leather canopies and a large pale hand jutted out. With a powerful rumble, the dragonbane ripped through the metal cage and leather canopy like twigs snapping underneath its feet. The beast emerged from the shattered wagon and walked out on all fours.
Even hunched over the dragonbane stood thrice as tall as the centaurs. His leathery wings were folded against his wide back. His sleek hide was semi-translucent, revealing the grey muscles underneath, only to grow more opaque at the joints. A long tail swayed low to the ground, black spikes on the end dragging across the dirt.
Two sets of black horns protruded from his skull, one set far larger than the other. Rows of needle-like black teeth peeked out from his partly open mouth. His eyes were jet-black eyes orbs, there were no white sclera, pupils, nor irises, only darkness, and yet as he slowly turned his head, the soldiers had a disturbing feeling the creature was looking at them, peering into them, as if their vulnerable souls were laid bare in front of a hungry monsters.
The other wagons abruptly ripped open and over a dozen more dragonbanes emerged. The centaurs, free from the broken wagons’ shackles, ran for their lives. The dragonbanes’ tails lashed out like the crack of a whip and ripped them apart, their black spikes tearing through the soft flesh. In the blink of an eye, the ground was soaked with blood and viscera.
The soldiers stumbled backward and cried out in fear at the horrid sight. Caligo smiled warmly. His voice suddenly changed intonations and he spoke in an otherworldly language. The dragonbanes stopped their feeding and lumbered over, each heavy step shaking the ground underneath.
One dragonbane, almost twice as large as the rest, pushed forward and stopped in front of Caligo. Though the beast had never met its creator, it recognized Unildyr’s heir nonetheless. The dragonbane lowered its head in fealty.
“Hello, Vorphyrux,” Caligo spoke in the tongue of the void. He placed his hand on the beast’s snout and leaned close. “The time has finally come. You need not feed on these scraps. You may gorge yourselves on a feast like no other. Thousands of souls cursed and sealed into the magestone wall are yours for the taking, as are the countless more that hide behind those walls.”
Vorphyrux grumbled in a mixture of excitement and rage.
Caligo’s smile widened. Unlike the others, so full of hunger, Vorphyrux had been born with a trace more of its creator’s essence. Far more powerful than its siblings and with a shadow of hatred that stretched beyond its conception, Vorphyrux carried its creator’s disdain for these people, for this chromatic blight.
Caligo placed his head on its snout and whispered, “It is time. Destroy them. Destroy them all.”
Vorphyrux pulled back, its thick corded muscles rippling with each movement. Its wings unfurled, black spikes at their tips, and stretched to their full span. Its 15 siblings followed suit and with a mighty beat of their wings, shot up into the sky like a raging storm.
~~~
Hollow Shade… The Western Wall…
From the safety of the Ebon Tower’s dome and the shade walls, War Master, Krall Katag, and the other commanders watched in tense anticipation as their trebuchets fired in a simultaneous wave of flames. As the fiery boulders hurled through the air, Caligo took to the sky and destroyed them with but a wave of his hands and a pulse of power.
“How can we fight against that sort of magic?” muttered one of Krall’s sons.
Krall glared at him with silent anger, shaming his son into silence.
“Your boy is right,” Elzri Noir noted. “Our trebuchets are useless if we cannot deal with that man.”
“We cannot kill him, he is not a man, he is a god.” Krall turned to Holo, “Or is that not what you said?”
“Unfortunately, you’re both right,” Holo said grimly. “Fortunately, you both are somewhat wrong too.”
Elzri furrowed his brow. “What are you saying?”
“Caligo may be the God of the Deep Earth, but he is not all-powerful,” said Holo.
“Are you saying we can kill him?” Krall said with a trace of hope.
“I’m saying even he cannot stop our trebuchet volleys forever. Our goal is to weaken him. Continue the trebuchet fire and do not stop. And have Bulwark Commander Stonehand fire his trebuchets from the southern wall as well. Focus all the attacks on the foremost section of enemy soldiers. Force Caligo to spend his mana defending them.”
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Krall nodded in understanding and turned to one of his messengers. “You heard her, inform Commander Stonehand.”
“Right away, my lord!” The messenger sprinted off.
“Load the trebuchets, prepare to fire!” Krall shouted.
A deep roar echoed outward from the enemy lines. Faint silhouettes took to the night sky and disappeared in the clouds.
“What was that?” Elzri asked.
Holo narrowed her eyes. “The dragonbane.”
Krall didn’t waste a moment. “Archers!”
The hundreds of archers standing on the battlements pulled their bows back and aimed towards the sky. They squinted and tried their best to spot the beasts, but it was too dark. The wind howled in the hushed silence of the battlements. The archers could hear their own heartbeats thrumming in their ears. They swallowed nervously and tried their best to keep their hands steady.
A sudden roar broke through the sky above and the dragonbane descended from the clouds like dark comets. The air bent around them in a chaotic swirl, forming a squall of void energy. The soldiers on the wall cried out in horror.
“FIRE!” Krall’s scream broke through the panic.
The archers released their arrows in a concentrated volley. The hail of arrows crashed into the swirling void storm, many were caught in the winds and broken. Few arrows found their marks. The steel arrowheads were blunted against the dragonbanes’ hide and their shafts shattered, none able to draw a scratch, let alone blood.
The dragonbane roared in anger and fell down on the dome and the wall. The dome flared with purple light as the void energy crashed into it, sending cracks all across the dome. The dragonbanes’ claws and spiked tails slashed at the dome with a furious fervor. The Ebon Tower’s ghostly light flared brightly and the cracks began to repair themselves quicker than the monsters could make them.
A horrid shriek pierced the battlements. Like an all-encompassing tidal wave, an army of shades rose from the wall and swept the dragonbanes away. The dragonbanes roared in defiance, but the sheer overwhelming thousands of cursed souls swallowed them whole in a black swarm.
The shades tried to bury themselves into the beasts as they had to their victims countless times before, but they found themselves unable to bury past the dragonbanes’ translucent hide. The shades’ ethereal forms crashed into the void beasts’ hide, combusting into flares of black energy as the beasts broke down their very essence. Yet the void monsters howled in pain as the shades burned their bodies.
Hundreds of shades crashed into them, combusted in an explosion of black energy, and fizzled away. Each explosion burned at their skin, faster than the void beasts could regenerate.
“What’s happening?” Elzri muttered.
“I knew it!” Holo yelled triumphantly. “The dragonbanes aren’t entirely immune to chromatic magic! Their resistances are extraordinary but against thousands of shades even their bodies are overwhelmed!”
“But our shades are dying by the hundreds each second,” Elzri said worriedly.
“That’s Caligo’s plan,” said Holo in realization. “He wants us to expend all our shades on those monsters so that he can draw close to the wall.”
“We have to do something!” Krall interjected.
“Mundane weapons seem useless against them,” Elzri noted. “And I can’t attack the dragonbanes from here without destroying countless shades in the process.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Holo slowly smiled. “Caligo thinks he has won, but he underestimated our city’s lust for death. He has no idea how many souls have truly been sacrificed to the wall over the last three centuries.” She raised her hand and a black sigil flared to life in her palm.
The wall vibrated underneath them and thousands of more shades suddenly emerged from the wall. They shrieked in pain from their awakening and flew straight to the cloud of shades swarming the dragonbanes.
The explosions had burned through the dragonbanes’ hide and had begun eating at their muscles. The once terrifying creatures were left massive charred husks. Their wings ripped apart with scorched holes.
Vorphyrux curled into a fetal position, trying its best to weather the infernal storm eating away at its body. As the shades exploded apart all around it, tearing at its flesh, its pitch-black eyes began to glow with an inner light. Vorphyrux’s blackened charred flesh peeled off and new grey strands of muscle fibers formed.
The shades shrieked angrily and attacked more relentlessly, but the wounds began to heal more quickly than they could harm. The glow within Vorphyrux’s eyes brightened until its eyes burned with searing light. The shades' dying explosions seared less and less until their dying efforts burned harmlessly on Vorphyrux’s flesh. Soon, the other dragonbanes began to exhibit similar results.
“What… what are they doing…?” Holo whispered. “The dragonbanes aren’t dying? They're growing stronger…? No… It can’t be…” Her eyes widened in horror. “The dragonbanes aren’t resistant to chromatic mana, they feed off it! They’re feeding off the shades’ souls! They’re growing stronger!”
Holo used the sigil in her palm to draw the shades away, but it was too late. The shades were in a hunger frenzy and nothing would stop them from trying to consume their prey. Thousands of shades fell apart as the dragonbanes consumed their souls and still, the few hundred remaining kept attacking futilely.
The dragonbanes flew in the middle of the shade swarm unharmed. They opened their wings wide and took a deep breath. Their rib cages swelled and the air grew cold. The soldiers on the battlements fell to their knees and even Elzri and Krall began to feel lightheaded.
“My mana…” Elzri stared at his trembling hand. “It’s being drained…”
The shades screamed in pain and their swarm broke apart in hysteria. Vorphyrux met Holo’s gaze and it pulled its short snout back in a snarl, sharpened black teeth glistening in the darkness. The dragonbanes’ rib cages swelled even more until their bodies were almost twice as large. They opened their mouths and a burning white light surfaced from the back of their throats. Black streaks swirled around the light as it grew until the light was blinding.
“TAKE COVER!!” Holo shouted and pulled Elzri and Krall to the ground.
Vorphyrux roared and the void flame burst from his mouth in a whirling pillar of black and white. Incinerating any shades in its path and crashing into the city’s dome. The Ebon Tower’s sigils flared and the dome’s violet hue grew deeper around the void flames.
The other dragonbanes roared in unison and their void flames erupted in a swirling pattern of pillars. The black and white flames formed around Vorphyrux’s flames and battered down on the dome.
The Ebon Tower’s sigils flared brightly and the dome shook uncontrollably. Its dark violet hues were overwhelmed by the brightness of the flames and the dome shattered in a burst of echoing energy. The pillars of void fire slammed into the shade wall. Void mana surged into the magestone, fracturing it and sending thousands of splinters throughout the stone. The void flames scorched the magestone and the section of the wall fell apart in a molten mass; sending all the soldiers standing above it to their deaths. They screamed in terror as they were consumed by the flames or their bodies devoured by the molten stone.
The Ebon Tower’s light faded away. The thousand or so remaining shades screeched in agony and dissipated into wisps of smoke as their vessel, the wall itself, was broken. As the wall’s enchantments fell apart, the black mana swirling within seeped away into the air, leaving the shade wall a frosty-translucent white.
Holo stared in disbelief at the destroyed section of the wall, now a waterfall of molten magestone. She tried to stand but she fell to her knees. A tear slipped down her cheek. “The shade wall… has fallen.”
The dragonbanes, the glow in their eyes now but a small glimmer, hungrily turned to the remaining soldiers on the battlements.