The troops made towards the hill, taking occaisonal glances backwards at the ruined city of Bolstar. Near everyone had been killed in the silent siege, and these men and women were the very last of them. This kept all of them in a very depressed mood. "Well... lets look at it this way..." Aidan said, with a dark smile. "Everyone's dead, so they say, so why will we be looked for?" He said, and Kyren shrugged. "Perhaps... you have a point... but... we kinda failed what we enlisted for; to protect the city." Kyren said.
"But you know, sweetheart, we gave it a shot, and did a great job... what more could you ask?"Lysalia said, from behind him, backsaddling. Kitch was walking with Keith, trying to make small talk, but Keith was busy dwelling on the bloodshed he and Hiyo had caused, killing those archers from the shadow... it was horrible... yet it satisfied him, strangely. Hiyo was behind him, staring at the rust orange sky of the morning, sun just beginning to rise over the ruined city. Kyren sighed. They began closing in towards the great tree of Bolstar, which was dead as well, exactly as the old tale went.
"When Bolstar's fate is decided and fated to doom, the leaves will shrivel and die with it's inhabitants. Only the hope left behind by it's seedlings will carry on it's legacy." Sin said, as they approached it, and as he said, there were small saplings springing from the base of the tree. "...Maybe... We can rebuild Bolstar one day, once we kill Erish, and avenge all those deaths..." Kyren said, and the troop looked hopefull. "Yeah, we won't let any of those deaths go to waste, we'll avenge them." Lysalia said, and they all began cheering.
"...That is, if you can get past the second commander of the seige force. Sin, it's been a long time, I was wondering why your abilities were so familiar, when you protected your pansy Commander from me." A familiar voice said, and from within the morning shade of the large tree, stepped Xakaryus.
"Do I know you?"Sin asked, looking at him, trying to find a similiarity. "And what do you mean, second commander?" Kyren said. "...Erish mentioned a second Commander..." Kyren said, and Xakaryus clapped. "Very clever, now that you've figured that out, try and guess how I killed off everyone at the camp?" He said with a devilish smile. "You bastard!" Hannah exclaimed. "No, my parents had me when I was married, and I kill them when I was about seven... but thats another story. I'll give you three guesses to figure it out..." But then he had to quickly evade two arrow shots, and he sighed. "Wrong answer! Two more tries!" He said, and Michael lunged at him, slashing quickly.
"Please, you're outdated." Xakaryus said, as he backflipped over the stab, bringing his boot under Michaels chin and lifting him off the ground and backwards. "All of you are too weak for me." He said, his playful smile fading. "No more playing around... Don't you remember me, Sin? I mustve hit you too quick the first time for you to realize who I was... You remember Erish though, don't you?" He said,and at his name, Sin trembled. Xakaryus laughed, thrusting a hand at Sin, a blast of darkness pushing everyone away from him, as a barrier of black surrounded the two. Suddenly, in a burst of dark energy, a black ornate katana sheathe appeared on his belt. His hand began glowing black, and Sin began shaking. He knew exactly what Xakaryus was talking about before.
"Oh god, fuck me! You two won't leave me be! Stop following me!" He said, and he stumbled backwards and tripped over a root. He was to terrified to get up, as the lost memories flooded back to him. Xakaryus' eye's began to morph to that of what looked like dragons, and his teeth began to warp and become pointed. Suddenly, though, a drop of blood dripped onto his forehead. "...I...do not... save people... to let them... die." He said, most of his arms soaked in blood, his chest penetrated at multiple places, and bleeding heavily.
Xakayrus looked up, in terror, at Terror. "...Erish, is... strong... but..." He said, pausing, laughing, spewing blood down, "... You, are not Erish." He said, jumping down. "The General, may... have fallen... barring Erish's... path... but he anticipated... you, Xakaryus." Terror began laughing again, spewing blood everywhere. "You, cannot... summon... the puppets like he can... your soul... wasn't strong enough..." He said, walking forward, dragging his blades, cinging the grass, where the life-stealing blades trailed. "...And even now... enveloped... in darkness... it cannot... contend with... a soul in purgatory..." He said, laughing more. Xakaryus looked visually shooken.
"It's true! You're really a dead man!" Xakaryus questioned, trembling. Terror laughed, tilting his head to the left. "Yes... the body is... dead... but the soul... remains..." He said. "Watch... what... a soul too... stubborn to leave and... exposed to death... for... so long... can do." Terror said, snapping bloodied fingers, as a portal appeared behind him, and Terror tackled him at blazing speeds almost too fast to catch, and they both flew into the portal, and it shut quickly once they entered. "...Stay...Alive..." Terror said, voice echoing.
Everyone looked to Sin, who promptly fainted. Heresy looked at him, laying on the ground. "This git has got everyone trying to kill all of us..." He said, nudging him with his foot. "But we can't just leave him, you know." Lysalia said to Heresy. He rolled his eyes. "It'd be better to leave him to the vultures, no offense to him as a person... but I mean... look at those two guys, from Bolstar. Sacraficing themselves for us, where this kid's gonna get us murdered?" Kyren nodded at this sentiment. "It seems logical..." He said, but he got off his horse, and lifted Sin up, over his shoulder.
"...But my father would never do such a thing." He said, hefting him onto Balhd's horse. "Regardless of what dangers any of us present to one another, we have to stick together, die together, live together. My father taught me that." He said, and they all nodded. "Where to then?" Kitch asked. Kyren frowned. "To... Alsterea, I guess... one of the eight countries that's nuetral..." He said, as they started down the hill. But to their dismay, stood Xakaryus' battalion, from the Army of Bolstar. Apparantly, after he killed all the units with food poison, he took his own men, who he had spared, in return for their loyalty.
"Perfect... just, perfect." Kyren said, as they charged their position, and everyone braced themselves for battle.