Norrea had never known true fear before. Not until the skies above her home had turned to fire and shadow, and the light of her sun had been engulfed by darkness of the demon from the sea.

One second she'd been enjoying a peaceful afternoon, and the next her entire world was ending.

All around, the people of her small village cried out, their screams echoing through the great valley as they ran, leaving their homes and farms, their prized possessions and livelihoods, running away from everything they had ever known as the entire world was destroyed by the darkness that'd begun to surround them.

They pushed and shoved, rushing forward in a horde, all desperately trying to escape the great tendrils of darkness that extended from the demon incarnate above. But there were too many people caught at the village gates, the town's new wall serving against it's people. Most would die here. Norrea knew it already, could feel it in her bones.

She clutched her baby tighter, searching desperately amongst the crowd for her husband. Her gut was telling her to leave, to save their child, Merocus be damned, but she couldn’t do it. Although she moved with the crowd, guilt hindered her, made her slow. With the hopelessness of the situation, she justified it to herself. Told herself if she would likely die either way, she did not wish to spend her last moments betraying him. But she didn't know what she believed, and the cries of her baby were only growing louder.

So she kept moving, pressing forwards with the desperate rush of the crowd. The twisting torrent of emotions, fear, guilt, anguish, grief, and panic made it impossible to focus. She had never known such hell. Never seen such fear. It was pure chaos.

The stuff of nightmares borne true. The demons from their folktales were real, but there were no champions here. In reality there were no heroes. But as her child cried, she prayed for them anyway.

Please Gods, she thought. If our faith ever meant anything, please, save us.

[Alert – You are in a grade 19 danger zone. Do not panic. Members of the Yildaric Guard have been sent to deal with the threat.]

Strange words floated across her vision, and in her surprise Norrea stumbled and fell. She clutched her baby tightly as she crashed to the ground, shielding the child with her body as others rushed past her in a terrible stampede. Boots and heels crushed against her legs as she cried out, her baby wailing in the chaos of it all.

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Then some people slowed, even stopped as cries of confusion rang out through the valley. Norrea scrambled out of the mess of bodies and legs, beaten, bleeding and bruised, but alive. She breathed heavily, checking over her unharmed darling before looking to the crowd.

Most had stopped now, and amongst them several pointed up, all with eyes wide in awe.

She looked above as others pointed, searching for the idol of attention. The sky was still shrouded in shadow, the people of the village thrust into the darkness of night, but now - within it - a star had appeared. And then great glowing red portals began to appear, growing in number to the point they littered the sky.

The face of the monster, the skull of darkness in the clouds turned to the portals and roared, the sound of death echoing through the valley. Then, like gods, men fell from the sky.

And with them came a rain of hellfire and magic, a storm of pure power. The Might of the old gods.

It knocked the monster back, erasing half the shadow in an instant, continuing to push it back even further with every passing second. And it did not stop, instead growing in number as light, power and nature itself rained down upon the demon, beating it back to the waters.

The people stared in awe, and then one of the god-men fell from the sky and came to a stop above them floating overhead as her eyes glowed. She wore white armour with an almost oily appearance and a sheen at its edge that glinted with all colours, hinting at more beyond what Norrea could see.

Her silver-white cape fluttered in the wind, and atop her head rested a silver-white band of metal, a crown. Her face was hard, beautiful in appearance, but not expression. Marked by a singular thin scar that ran across her face, from her chin to her brow, the eye it cut across unaffected.

[Do not fear] the woman said, as her silver-white crown glinted in the light of the new day. [We, the Yildaric Guard, have come to defeat this great beast]

Behind her, and in the distance the monster continued to scream, it’s shouts pitiful now, pathetic.

Fire, lightning and more continued to descend from the sky, the god men raining fury upon the dark demon. Unrelenting, they barraged it with magic incomprehensible, and for the last time, the monster screamed.

[Alert – The threat has been defeated.]

Cries of joy and relief swept through. And just as soon as they’d come, the godmen disappeared, back through their red portals, the monster no more.

The woman gave them one final nod before taking back to the sky, disappearing into a portal just like the others. Norrea stared up as the last of the portals disappeared, eyes wide. Just like that, the chaos was over. She and the other villagers found themselves thrust back into day, the sun shining brightly in the blue summer skies.

Suddenly Norrea was hefted off the ground, held tightly in familiar hands as her husband wept tears of joy into her neck. She felt tears come to her too and find herself weeping as her and Merocus sagged to the floor together, holding their baby gratefully.

As the tears faded, they laughed together, wiping at each other’s eyes as relieved laughter echoed out all around them.

“What was that?” Norrea mumbled to herself, looking to the sea, then the sky. “The Yildaric she said... who were they? Gods?”

“No,” her husband whispered as he held their child, smiling. “They were heroes.”