Chapter 1. Waiting for the End to come
Lines upon lines of soldiers marched across the plains. The earth shook under the heavy steps of their armoured boots. Their views fixated on the dark fortress lying ahead the soldiers let out roars and various banners wafted as they sped up. The sun burnt down on them mercilessly and made each step swirl up little clouds of dust.
From the fortress a multitude of towers raised their roofs towards the sky like claws trying to grasp for the sun. Additionally the fortress didn`t only consist of a main body, but a network of walls led towards smaller towers and little outposts further away, forming a labyrinth that would split approaching armies and allow for ambushes as soldiers would advance onto the fortress in the middle.
A figure clad in a dark robe stood at a window, saturated near the top of the dark fortress. It`s gaze swept across the nearing armies and back to the masses that started pouring out of the various smaller outposts and towers, readying themselves for battle. He could see necromancers commanding groups of unread towards the front, ogres lifting their unformly clubs, lower demons clench their claws, masses of goblins pull out all kinds of war instruments and dozens of other races. It didn`t matter. The armies of the liberated human, elven and dwarven kingdoms outnumbered them gravely. If he ordered his armies to drag out of the fights into the smaller corridors in the fortress and ambush the advancing troops he could maybe win another week, but in the end his troops would still loose. He didn`t care. Today was the day his fate would finally come to an end, where the hero and his friends would come to him in his throne room and end his dark reign. After all, this was what would happen to a villain, wasn`t it ?
For a bit over two years he had heard stories of the hero. Being the only survivor of a small village from the outskirts of a human kingdom in the west he had picked up his sword fought for the freedom his the people which were under the reign of the dark magus.
A faint grin formed on the face of the hooded figure. He had known that something like this would happen when he had given the commando of that human kingdom to Zepqezal, a demon general infamous for his brutality. The grin faded away quickly though, he had never taken particular pleasure in what he had done to those humans- or to the elves, the dwarves, the ... .
But that was what villains do, wasn`t it ?
He kind of wondered what the world would look like after the triumph of the hero and his group. Would he crown himself as an emperor ? After all there was his vast empire which wouldn`t go back to the territories of the kingdoms. Would the races exist in peace after his death, unified through the common struggle against him ?
He felt a bit of regret, knowing that he would never get to see that new world they would form.
Turning his back to the window he slowly walked over to the throne situated at the end of the hall. Twelve great pillars supported the ceiling which was so high up that the shine of the torches didn`t quite reach them. Made of the same gigantic black basalt blocks as the rest of the fortress the torches light seemed to be absorbed by their surroundings, forming deep shadows which seemed to come alive when looked at from the corner of one's eye.
Sitting down on the dark throne he prepared himself to wait for the hero and his group to storm through those great wooden doors at the end of the hall. He wondered what he looked like. He had only heard about him so far and not much, considering that not many returned from a fight with the hero's group to tell the tale.
He looked forward to that fight. Fighting was one of the things which he, Zareph, took pleasure in, so long as it was a challenging one ...
About two hours after sunset a dark elven messenger reported that a small group of enemies had broken through the front lines and was running amok through the inner fortress. He merely waved the messenger away who looked close break down in panic -
"But mylord, we are loosing ground by the minute. We aren`t able to withstand their forces much longer !".
From under the robe two eyes glowed up with a violet shine and the messenger swallowed hard.
"Tell general Chamura to send the remaining reserves to the front. Deploy the heavy infantry to the front. Collapse those corridors and tunnels that can`t be sufficiently defended."
"Understood"
The messenger bowed and turned around. leaving Zareph alone again.
"So the hero and his group has broken through, huh ? I wonder how long it will take them to find their way here ~.
Come hero, come and bring me one last fight to enjoy, then follow your fate as I did !"
Zareph laid back on the throne and continued his wait.
Three more hours and two more messengers later the heavy wooden doors were blown away by a magical attack. Dented and burning they slid across the floor as a group of five emerged from the smoke. A giant of a man walking in the front, clad in an iron plate armour, wielding a massive shield in his left hand that could well be used as a battle ram and had small metal spikes on the front. In his right he had a sword which was almost absurdly large. Being over 170cm long most men would find it difficult to wear it even with two hands, but that giant seemed to not even feel the weight. Behind him a female elf in dark brown leather armour followed, wielding two narrow swords with no guards. Unlike the giant she didn`t wear a helmet and wore her long blonde hair back, revealing the characteristically long ears. On both of them Zareph could make out splatters of blood from almost any species within his legions, which was proof to their talent in battle. Behind the elve two female humans came through the smoke, both wielding long wooden staffs. One was wearing white garments with golden ornaments and kept coughing due to the heavy smoke, the other one was wearing a blue robe and on top of her black hair an evenly black wizard hat which was heavily leaning to one side. Finally the last figure to come into vision was a male elf, like the other elf clad in dark brown leather this one was wearing a longbow and had two quivers with him. One bound to his back and a smaller one to his right leg.
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Two eyes lit up with a violet shine from under Zareph`s hood as he rose from the throne. In anticipation he spread his arms to welcome the hero's group.
"So you finally made it here"
The faint moonlight that fell through the windows and the torches at the walls illuminated a wide grin on a pale face. Walking down the few steps leading up to the throne it became clear that except for the human girl in white everyone present was taller than him. Magical energies started surging through him, violet runes lit up on his robe and the fingertips of his extended hands became engulfed in small black flames.
"Yes, finally you will pay for the atrocities you committed !"
The female elve shouted, her face twisted in hatred.
For just a moment time itself seemed to stand still.
Then hell broke loose.
The girl in white mumbled something, pointing her staff forward and a faint glow extended from the other members of her group.
The male elf drew three arrows and fired them in such quick succession that the movement of his arm became invisible to the human eye.
Both the female elf and the giant knight stormed forwards, leaving a gap in between them to allow for a clear sight for the archer and to encircle Zareph.
Right before the first of the arrows would have hit him shadows came flying like smoke from all around Zareph and he disappeared, reappearing in a burst of more shadows on the backrest of the throne.
His right palm extended towards the knight a stream of black flames burst forward which were blocked by the gigantic shield.
His left palm made a swiping motion and a wall of black flames extended towards the female elf whose eyes went wide.
From the forward motion she jumped high into the air and evade the flames just barely.
Finishing a recitation the girl in black opened her eyes
[Ice Bolts]
A hail of icicles formed in the air around her and flew in the direction she pointed her staff - forwards.
Teleporting through the room Zareph dodged them together with the non-ending stream of arrows.
Reappearing under the roof and falling down a dark sphere formed in his left hand. The group looked around confused. Just a moment later he hit the ground next to the archer.
The archer jumped backwards just as Zareph`s palm thrusted forward, the dark sphere pointed at the archers upper body.
Missing him by a hairs length Zareph followed up with a step forward, ducking under the sword of the female elve.
[Shadow Bolt]
A lance of condensed darkness flew from his right hand and pierced the archers chest sending him falling towards the ground.
"ELREATH NO !" the girl in white panicked.
Just as Zareph turned around a wall of spiky metalness filled his field of view. As the knight crashed into Zareph he sent him flying several meters across the room. Crashing into a pillar close to the entrance he collapsed to the ground. Bleeding from various wounds due to the shields spikes Zareph`s robes turned crimson red all over the right half of his body.
[Explosion]
A spark came flying from the girl mage at lightning speed towards Zareph.
A moment before it hit the pillar, disintegrating it and everything around it in a radius of five meters Zareph again disappeared into the shadows.
Reappearing on the throne`s steps he splattered drops of blood around him as he dropped down breathing heavily.
The archer seemed to have passed out, but the girl in white was already kneeling next to him mumbling and giving of a golden glow.
Zareph judged the distance to both the female elve and the knight far enough to tend to his own wounds before they could attack him again.
Closing his eyes the runes on his robe glowed up in violet light again.
[greater close wounds]
Broken bones rearranged themselves and the grave wounds started closing, stopping most of the bleeding.
Opening his eyes again he saw a narrow blade closing in on his neck at an unhealthy speed.
Throwing himself backwards shadows started pouring from his right hand like smoke. Drawing his hand sidewards a trail of smoke stayed, suddenly condensing into a blade that seemed to swallow light itself.
Blocking the first strike just centimetres before his throat the elf`s second blade immediately followed up, driving Zareph with his back against the throne.
The third attack thrust through a cloud of shadows into the throne`s stone where Zareph`s chest was just a moment ago.
Reappearing across the room again, next to the girl in white Zareph started
[Shadow -
[Magic Chains]
The girl in black grinned wide as golden chains materialized from the ground and bound Zareph`s arms and legs.
- Bolt]
The lance of darkness missed the girl in white and instead pierced a window to her left.
The knight who had waited next to the priestess and the archer now swung down his gigantic sword.
Still bound by the magical chains Zareph shouted
[Barrier]
and a blue dome formed around him.
The knights gigantic sword crashed into it, resulting in small lightning running across the dome.
[Break Magic]
[Break Magic]
The girl in black and Zareph chanted at the same time and both the dome and the chains fell apart.
Sidestepping a sword thrust Zareph extended his hand towards the girl in white, black fires lighting up on his fingertips.
[Holy Nova]
She shouted, thrusting her staff towards the ground.
A pillar of white fire crashed downwards, engulfing Zareph and extinguishing his black flames.
Blinded the knight lowered his eyes which gave the smoking Zareph time to take a few steps backwards.
Raw mana flew like blue water across his figure and started quickly dissipating. Chunks of his robe were burnt to ashes, including the hood, revealing all of his pale face on which dark lines had started to form.
Making a ripping motion pointed at the girl in white he whispered
[Grasp Heart]
With dull eyes the girl collapsed like a puppet whose strings had been cut.