After many days of travel, he questioned how much longer it would take to reach the surviving population from Liall. It became obvious by the stench in the air however, that he was quite close. This particular smell made it unfortunately clear that word of a major battle having taken place around here did in fact occur.
The smell of death wafted through the air swarming around far and wide. Even though the source of this putrid scent had yet to reveal itself, it made itself clear to them as they strode along on their horses. Soon, they would reach it as the smell grew in its intensity the further they strode along.
For those born without the ability to smell, they would be spared of this. He on the other hand had no choice but to grin and bear with it.
They strode up to the top of a hill despite a part of him not wanting to go any further. It would’ve been easier to not confront what lay beyond this hilltop.
For a moment, they all looked at each other. Evelyn chose to hold up a lantern to help spread out the light better. The light caused their shadows to stretch out further than before. As she held up the lantern, the horse went forward and began to reveal the source of the stench.
It was as he expected; horrific and wretched in every way imaginable. Death filled the land on the other side of the hill with mankind and monsters both rotting together.
A part of him had hoped that the rumors of a major battle taking place involving those from Liall were nothing more than pure drivel. This confirmed it, however. There was no denying it at this point.
What upset him, was that these weren’t mere banespawn that chose to attack them. These were instead the monsters that plagued the fifth domain. So they were able to travel to the other side when my own body struggled to do so. How ridiculous.
He balled up a fist knowing he was unable to help fight against them. Perhaps it would’ve done little, but still, maybe more of these people here would still be alive and not merely waste away beside these monsters.
This wasn’t supposed to have happened. Once everyone made it to the other side, the portal was supposed to be closed by Yorais. But due to the way in which magic wasn’t properly working in this domain, she must’ve not been able to close the portal. There was also no way for them to have expected this either at the time.
That was the curse of hindsight. It only worked after the fact, not before.
“What horror,” Aphelia said.
“Come on, we should keep going,” Evelyn yelled back as she kept going forward as he and Aphelia remained atop the hilltop gazing out towards all of the death ahead of them.
Kiran followed her from behind having no choice but to wade through this death.
Even the horses didn’t like having to be here. His likely would’ve liked to go back and not press forward. It did so anyways at his command.
Whatever battle had taken place here had ended thankfully. The portal had to have gone dark eventually on its own. It simply hadn’t done so quickly enough.
“I-I’ve never seen so much death before,” Aphelia said. “All of these people managed to escape, only to end up like this soon after.”
“They would’ve died relatively soon anyways.”
“How can you say that?”
“What? Am I wrong?” Without an immediate reply, Evelyn continued. “I’m not wrong and you know that. It was either this or starve to death slowly but surely.”
Unless there was a way to restore magic. How he or anyone were to do such a thing however was a mystery.
Judging by the state of these dead bodies, they had been rotting for quite some time. It also wasn’t like it had begun a short time ago. He got the impression that quite a bit more time than he might have expected had passed since everyone initially entered the portal to make it here.
Flies buzzed around the bodies and tiny insects burrowed in their flesh. The stench itself grossed him out, but his eyes became grossed out as well making sure to assault every human sense he possessed.
A plentiful amount of arrows stuck out of some monsters laying around. Some had gashes strewn across their bodies. Others were missing appendages.
They motioned by left behind carts full of supplies. Some appeared heavily damaged. One, in particular, had a dead atrocious-looking monster lying flatly atop it with broken crates and barrels underneath it.
After a while of trudging through this war-torn death-filled landscape, they reached the other side with a hill not far up ahead of their current position. Fewer dead bodies littered the ground allowing their horses to move more easily. The putrid stench was just as potent here as it was a few paces back.
Kiran doubted whether he’d ever be free of this stench that was truly indescribable.
As their horses went up the incline, Evelyn caused the lantern to go dark. An orange glow occupied the darkened sky from beyond the hill. They reached the top and spotted a sizable encampment settled near a river several miles away. Tents were strewn up with many fires lit. A makeshift wall made out of wood appeared as well to secure it. He hoped that of the living within this place, the coalition and his beloved friends were in there and not laying out there amongst the large swaths of dead behind them.
In their approach to the encampment, after traveling for a few miles, they stopped near a few dead trees. Evelyn hopped off her horse leading it towards one of the nearby trees. She began to tie the reins around the trunk and urge him to do so similarly to the tree next to it.
His feet landed on the dry cracked ground and he pulled his hood over his head. After tying the horse provided to him to a tree, they walked towards the encampment.
Certain parts of it were being actively patrolled and guarded. Kiran decided that it might be preferable to enter unseen so they wandered around a bit to see whether it might be possible to get inside while avoiding any of the blue cloaks stalking about. Thankfully such a place existed along a misshapen portion of the wall thrown up without enough care being given to it.
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They entered inside finding it unusually quiet. His eyes found the many lit fires surrounded by people hard to look at as well forcing him to squint due to the change in brightness.
While the encampment itself was immensely bright compared to that which lay outside it, the darkness did burrow deep within. It hid within the put-up tents, beneath the wagons and carts. It hid in the many shadows cast all around by the terrified folk who eyed them nervously and those who became spooked by the simplest of sounds.
These people were broken. It didn’t take him long to come to that conclusion by only walking by a few of them. Some muttered gibberish aloud and shook as they lay near a fire. The lucky ones had a person to try to keep them calm but the unlucky ones mumbled to themselves and averted their gaze towards him in particular.
Some had noticeable injuries on their faces, arms and legs. They were the ones caught up in the mess that they previously waded through to get here. The children stayed within the arms of their parents or loved ones. Some poked their heads out from the tents noticing them.
Kiran felt many eyes on him. His hooded cloak hid his face but he could feel their many uneasy gazes even if he didn’t see them.
The few blue-cloaked guards walking by stumbled around from foot to foot. If even they were noticeably drunk, he couldn’t imagine there was much order here.
Near a few tents, a few men pulled off some crates from a wagon. They cracked it open pulling out carefully packaged supplies. They began handing out food to people who barely hung onto life. It was at least good to see that they hadn’t run through everything already. Whatever remained would be gone soon enough however darkening his own thoughts for what will come as a result of this. He supposed they could try and hunt some of the banespawn if any were around these parts, but he questioned whether such creatures ought to be eaten at all. He felt immensely averse to it, but at the same time, hunger would make such a decision easier.
For the most part, the encampment didn’t change all that much. The same miserable faces were strewn throughout and he struggled to find anyone that had a smile or look of hope. In fact, if he were to make a wager, he’d bet on the majority of these people having given up.
Among the gathered masses here, he did not spot anyone familiar. There are only strangers here as far as my eye can see.
The sounds of footsteps behind him suddenly stopped. He twisted his head around his shoulder spotting both Aphelia and Evelyn staring at someone behind. A womanly figure pulled their hood back revealing someone that he finally recognized.
“Kiran?” Silvy Ghaladell stood there in shock and awe. In those battered and weary eyes of hers, it was like the darkness that dwelled in them became full of light. “Kiran!” She pushed by the two maids—who at this time didn’t look like maids at all—to stand a foot away from him with a gleaming smile. “You’re alive? We all assumed…”
“It was a fair assumption to make,” he said. “But yes, I am alive, right here in the flesh.” He gestured towards himself happy to have found her or anyone he knew at long last.
She began to look around and pull her hood over her head again as if afraid someone might recognize her. “You have a lot of explaining to do.”
“I know. But if I may, where exactly is everyone else? Are they still alive?”
“I—” she began to shake her head. “I don’t know. It’s been a real mess ever since we made it over to this domain.”
“Yeah, I saw what happened right to the west of here.” He thought he could still smell all of that death even though he was miles away from there at this point.
“Those of us still here are lucky to be alive. That battle wiped out the majority of the green cloaks and blue cloaks. None of the sorcerers or sorceresses were of any use either making everything even worse for our side.”
“You’ll have to tell me more about it all soon,” he said wanting to change the topic. “Do you know where Lar, Juna, or where anyone else from the coalition are?”
He didn’t think Lar was here since he didn’t sense her presence at all. That didn’t mean others weren’t however.
She shook her head though suggesting otherwise. “As far as I know, they’re all gone having quickly fled after we got here. Grand Master Harold had the stupid idea to try to take his revenge against us thinking all was well once we were all over here, and that’s when the monsters started pouring out of the portal.” She eyed both of the two women near him. “If I may, who exactly are these two with you?”
“That’s Aphelia and that’s Evelyn. They’re responsible for helping me find this heavenly encampment.”
“Heavenly,” she said with a slight chuckle, “I couldn’t imagine a more inappropriate word to describe this place. But where exactly were you that you had to have them bring you here?”
The two sisters began to whisper to each other.
“Well,” Kiran said crossing his arms, “if the coalition isn’t here, do you know which direction they headed towards?”
“Somewhere to the east.”
He sighed knowing he had no choice but to keep traveling. If only they were here his life would be so much easier. They had been forced to flee from what he gathered of the situation. He just hoped they were out there and still alive. From what little he knew, the further to the east was a more troublesome place filled with tons of banespawn and a red serpent familiar that Lady Meredith didn’t seem to like.
“Kiran,” Aphelia said.
“Yes?”
“My sister and I are planning on leaving. Now that we’ve assessed what it is like here and brought you here safely, it is our duty to immediately return to Lady Meredith to inform her of things.”
“I understand,” he said. “I don’t think I’ll be staying here much longer anyways. It sounds like I’ll be going further east. And,” he said eying Silvy, “with you in particular I’d assume.”
She smiled. “Of course.”
“Then let us go return to the horses and then we’ll go our separate ways,” Evelyn said.
They left the encampment the same way they entered. In time, they reached the horses still tied around the trees far enough away from the encampment that he truly struggled to see out there.
Evelyn got up on the horse and Aphelia got up right after hers to ride the same horse. The other horse was left to Kiran on the condition that he returns it one of these days. He knew he’d likely need to make contact with Lady Meredith eventually so he fully planned on doing just that.
“If you two are headed to the east,” Evelyn said, “I’d take heed to our lady’s warnings to you. You’ll be crossing from her territory into Lucias’s.”
“I don’t have much choice. That’s where my friends are apparently.”
“Nonetheless,” Evelyn said interjecting, “it would be wise to not consort with those who live in those lands if you know what’s good for you. Lady Meredith may be willing to trust you, but I am not so trustworthy. Betray her goodwill towards you, and you’ll earn not just hers, but my own ire as well.”
“Please don’t antagonize them,” Aphelia said. Evelyn lifted her chin not caring for him whatsoever. She turned the horse around and began riding away. “Good luck out there,” Aphelia said as they distanced themselves away leaving just Kiran, Silvy, and the horse they would get to ride together.
“That one seems like a real handful.”
“Don’t even get me started with her. In the couple of weeks it took me to make it here, I’ve been about ready to lose my mind.” Even Abigail was nice compared to her. At least she didn’t come across as genuine with her anger or intense personality. Evelyn on the other hand wasn’t quite the same.
He helped her onto the horse and got up himself. He decided that since he still had a fair bit of energy left over, he’d like to make some progress in heading towards the east. He felt somewhat afraid though, that he’d end up lost. Doing nothing wasn’t something he felt like doing though so he had no choice but to hope to find them without encountering the dangers in that territory outside of Lady Meredith’s control.