The Wise One felled yet another Being in a shower of blood. The sound of the ruined body hitting the floor brought his attention upwards. The first thing he noticed was how few Ancients were still in the fight. He felt the loss like air, which was static around him. An Arcadiniq pushed his spear through a Being's throat, kicking the weapon out of its hands. Another Ancient had her knife to a Being's throat, sawing it open and letting the blood run out.
A Being with a short sword snarled slowly, rising up to its full height, and made to creep up on the Wise One. With a single thought, the Wise One made the Being's skull implode on itself. "Retreat." He murmured, watching the armed black masses swarming his army. The body hit the floor with a hollow thud as the Wise One watched a Nanukiq Ancient bring a creature down with arrows.
The Wise One forced himself to raise his arms, to look at his gauntlets. They were immersed in the blood of his enemy. Everything around him went quiet, the steel cutting through flesh, the shouts. He saw an Unukitiq warrior get run through three times by one of the Beings, before getting his neck snapped. Ancients saw what was going on and did the only thing they could; fight harder. The place was little more than a killing field, pillars of smoke ascending into the skies.
A creature, an arm severed, was crawling across the snowy blood-stained ground, drinking the blood in an attempt to revive itself. The Wise One strode up and with one clean swipe, took its head off its shoulders. Before the head hit the floor, he sprinted into the ranks of enemies approaching, and turned into an Ancient killing machine, felling creatures everywhere.
What felt like years later, the Wise One lowered his blood-stained sword, and dropped it. All the Beings were standing rigid, as if lightning had struck them. They all appeared to be facing the general direction of the Castle. The Wise One felt something pulling at his consciousness and so he sat down in a cross-legged position on the cold ground. He closed his eyes to all the destruction that surrounded him and meditated.
In this consciousness, he could hear a presence talking to them, distorted and in another language not dissimilar to his own. He looked around at the flickering shapes of the Beings and a chill descended upon him: one moment they looked like Ancients, the next they were their true form. He could also feel the entities of the Chosen: Empyrean, Yusai, and Sigil, and all the other Ancients. Had the unspeakable, unseen evil threaded its way through their existence?
The Wise One noticed the creatures were not listening to the Castle, but something directly above it. The air was filled with loss, parasites, blood and death, choking all life beneath it. The presence noticed him and drew away, rescinding its control from the creatures, retreating like a thief into darkness. The Wise One was snapped out of his epiphany by a familiar voice...
...The Wise One's eyes snapped open and he dropped into a crouch position, gripping his sword. He watched as the Beings seemed to turn feral, uncontrolled, dropping their weapons, and tearing apart the body of an Ancient. Empyrean was running down the mountain behind him, beheading, slicing and dicing the creatures. A head rolled down the hill alongside Empyrean as he spoke. "We have to leave now, Wise One."
Yusai jumped over and landed on a Being, cutting its throat with his sharp longsword. A hail of arrows felled the creatures and the winter sun illuminated Sigil, nocking his bow with more arrows. The Wise One rose up, and sprinted up, shouting "Retreat!" to all the remaining Ancients.
A Being dropped down in front of him and two of Sigil's arrows landed in its back. Empyrean and Yusai stopped directly behind him as he raised his sword to the Being. Another arrow punched through the back of it's skull, coming out through the left eye, and blood began to seep out of it, almost like a tear. The Wise One just froze as he looked the Being in both eyes. Were we so different? Seconds turned into a minute of motionless.
The Being snarled and charged him, but the Wise One brought his sword around in a perfect circle and it severed the arm, letting it hit the floor with a thump. The Being looked at the stump of its arm dully, and then at the arm itself. The Wise One moved around the creature, and they sprinted up the mountain to where Sigil stood. As the survivors left, the Wise One gazed at the Castle, thinking. Knowing that it would become little more than a tomb, a prison.
The Wise One and the Chosen got into a Volatauiq camp, now being used as a healing area for the wounded and for those who still believed in unity. The other survivors had fled for their lives, leaving the slaughter behind. The Wise One visited the wounded and healed the ones who had been wounded with weapons, but others had different wounds, almost like bitemarks. The medic explained the situation, his Unukitiq not perfect.
"They were bitten by those creatures down on that battlefield, when the Voice began speaking." The Wise One frowned. He must have been in that trance when that had transpired. "They appear to have untreatable fever. Also, earlier, one of the...Infected. Woke and attacked Ancient. Ancient got dead, but we had to burn Infected. We do not know what to do now, Wise One." He frowned, trying to read the mind of the Infected nearest to him. All he saw were images of blood, death, murder, loss of sanity.
"Do we...eliminate them?" an Ancient nearby asked, concerned. "NO." The Wise One said forcefully. He was about to continue giving orders when a voice spoke over his. The Voice.
"Nekawa, ym stnavres, dna pir trapa lla esoth gnivil ohw evivrus. tsaef nopu rieth daed sesproc."
The Wise One froze, ice going through his veins. Unlike the other Ancients, he could understand the voice, and its owners strategy. Bestow intelligence on the creatures when we are at our strongest, to thin us out. And then, when we are cornered...intelligence disappears like an illusion and we are torn apart by little more than feral creatures.
One of the Infected Ancients suddenly jolted and the medic jumped back, going for his sword. The infected Ancient's eyes snapped open, revealing blind pupils, exactly like those of a Being. A gale force wind seemed to blow through the building as the Infected ascended. The Wise One waved the Ancients away as he slowly pulled out his blood-stained weapon.
Another infected Ancient wrapped her arm around his neck, and tightened like a vice. He tried to fight against her suddenly unnatural strength. Her breath felt cold on his skin. Yusai sprinted into the room, hearing the shouts, and drop-kicked her in the head. She dropped to the floor unconscious, the white illuminations of her eyes dissipating.
The Infected that had awoken first threw down the body of one of the Ancients that had been standing guard. Blood stained his visage as he looked on the Wise One. Their gaze locked and the shouting around him seemed to dissipate into silence. Yusai came in to strike the Infected, but he was flung back into Ancients massed near the door. The Wise One felt a vice tighten like a noose and he dropped to his knees in agony.
Sigil was screaming for the Ancients to move, nocking an arrow to his bow. Empyrean drew a Nanukiq knife and jumped onto the Infected's back, knife to his throat. An invisible fist sent Empyrean into the ceiling, showering rubble over everyone. The edges of the Wise One's vision was going black, every ounce of life he had was draining out of him.
The Infected collapsed to the floor without warning, blood draining from his eyes, and the Wise One breathed in oxygen desperately. Empyrean was brushing himself off and putting his knife away. "What do we do?" Sigil asked.
"Bury the Infected in the Crypt and seal it. If we burn the bodies, the aura controlling them will be released. If we wound the bodies they will hunt you to the edge of the end and kill you, and the Aura will seep out through their wounds." The Wise One said grimly. "The Mindworm's powers are growing uncontrollably."