Five knights sat mounted atop mighty dragon unicorns, beasts that looked half dragon, half horse, twisted and serrated plate armor grown into their skin, their size larger than the largest horses. The knights were of the Schwarzwind, Siegfried's old small mercenary group of elite german warriors and these five were among the top six most powerful and trusted soldiers of Siegfried's. But they were no longer human, after Siegfried had become Nightmare, he changed them with a simple touch, they turned into monsters, dark knights, their armor similar to Nightmare's yet not the same.

Darxyde was second in command, under Nightmare, but he was no longer among them. Zyklon, third in command, his helm high, shaped in fashion of the popes, his eye slits so small it was a wonder he could see out of them. He held an overly huge and strange looking weapon that looked somewhat like an enormous straight iron boomerang called a sciff, he was now leading what was left of the BlackStorm. A long black cape covered his shoulders and the back of his unicorn.

"Warriors," He spoke with an inhuman voice, "They come..." In the distance, a cavalry of a hundred came galloping toward them. They were centaurs, a super warrior race, they had come to stop the knights from entering their lands. The ground shook as their heavy hooves rumbled across its grassy surface, they hated the darkness, and the dark knights were of the dark.

Zyklon lowered his helm, his red eyes staring at the centaur's leader, he held the flag of their kingdom. Zyklon's unicorn reared up on its back legs, roaring it charged forward. The other knights followed, holding their primary weapons above their heads, their steeds at full gallop, their giant hooves stampeding toward the menacing centaurs. They spread out, each of them about to take on twenty of the centaurs head on each. Their methods were unorthodox, instead of prowess and finesse, they used brute force to overcome their enemies, and their weapons showed it.

Zyklon charged down the middle, the centaurs lowering their halberds, ready to stab into the oncoming knight. His unicorn leapt up, its front hooves crashing down on their leader, his bones cracking, the unicorn trampling the once powerful centaur. The other centaurs thrust their weapons, yet they made no significant damage as the knight's armor deflected their blades easily.

Zyklon steered the unicorn left, raising his sciff, he sliced the upper body of one of the centaurs from his body, he screamed, clenching at the blade of the sciff, Zyklon lifting him into the air and slamming him down into the dirt.

They made short work of the rest of the centaurs, the essence of SoulEdge had given them incredible strength and power. Zyklon stopped his unicorn, two halberd blades were stuck into a crevasse of its neck armor and blood was seeping out. He dismounted and pulled them out as the other knights rode up, they had suffered minimal wounds.

"More are sure to come," A distorted woman's voice asked ,"Do you still wish to go forward?" Zyklon spread his hand over the wound in his unicorn's neck, his energy healing the wound, he answered, "We must keep going, these rumors of Nightmare's return must not be ignored." Another knight spoke, his voice almost indistinguishable ,"They can not be true, we saw his remains...do you not remember?"

Zyklon lowered his head, he remembered. That last battle, their vast legions of lizardmen warring against the united armies of elves, humans and other races. But this man, Victorian in dress had come to take SoulEdge from Nightmare, and he had seemingly succeeded. They had found his decimated armor, SoulEdge had been taken and their army soon disbanded after that.

Darxyde had disappeared also, the blackstorm had died that day, and they were all that was left. But the rumors...the rumors came back, even in the dark confines of fallen castles. Though they didn't believe them at first, a sorcerer had come and informed them that the rumors were true. Zasalamel was what he said his name was, he told them Nightmare had been reincarnated but he wasn't as strong as he once was, his true body had escaped and now he searches.

Zyklon didn't know what this meant, his "true" body escaping,yet, he felt he must find him. Nightmare was their master and brother and they so wanted to be under his command once again. "Zyklon, we must move." The knight said. Zyklon looked up, the daylight was coming and they needed to stay hidden, even though the centaurs knew they were there, they must reach the south as soon as possible, without anymore delays.

"Take the souls, we must leave now." He remounted his unicorn, he thrust his sciff into the air, the souls and energies of the dead swirling into its blade. They still retained their ability to drain souls from the fallen, everytime they did they grew stronger. They consumed the rest of the souls and moved off into the south, their destination, the Three Nations, where the rumors were coming from.