The Dreams are a source of power, a source of remembrance and a source of knowledge, one could dream about something mundane being special and for that dream, believe on such, however this would make that mundane object,ritual or action any special?, for those around him, probably not, but for him and those who believed in him, that mundane thing now would carry power, however, as the Dream can carry one upper to the world, the dreams can also be dragged down by the memories tearing apart the mind. Nalart could still remember on his dreams, his mother, her ambar like eyes, her deep blue hair, how shine her smile was each time they encountered each other after long periods of time and sadly, how each time she looked more and more feeble and weak, how the blessing that many believed make her special was actually a curse ; Her name was Fina, she was't a noble, neither someone from a lineage of warriors or paladins, she was a simple girl on a farm, taught by her parents and the country that she trusted that the gods would aways provide for those in need, Nalart could still remember the history about how a Paladin decided to pass by their farm to try to conscript some of his uncles to the order and how he was surprised that Fina wanted to make her part, he remembered she spoke about how the training regime was specially hard to her, since the Southern Empire have such a vision of woman, he remembered hearing her sobs while she spoke about some of her best friends dying of exhaustion during the training and them only when she was close to quit, the blessing had shown herself, Fina had the strange ability to share her thoughts with others around her, this however always took a great weight on her, as soon as her ability was discovered, many men began to work to see if it was possible to expand its limits and surely it was by using special items she was capable of connecting more them a hundred people in her mind and coordinating them simultaneously in an area of 150.10 Square Miles, it was an impressive feat but it could only last for some minutes a day, when they were lucky seven minutes was the limit, but the average were two minutes, still, Fina was used in the Great Wall to coordinate many countermeasures against enemies and even used as a symbol of 'Southern Superiority', Fina only married Queiroz because she believed that he would put an end to her use, truly it had to stop when she was pregnant, but on the time that she was't she would be sent with him to many places, even to combat rebellions and some religious groups with different views of the gods, so they could be exterminated, he remembered each time seeing her she was more miserable, until one time, she had taken enough, she stopped moving and talking, she could not even put her own clothes alone, even if the body was alive the mind was long gone, her smile was gone, he could still see that dark figure that took place of his mother, aging each year, becoming worse and worse, languish in her bed, while Queiroz, his father, could not care less, only desiring to see if some of his brothers and sisters got the same power as their mother, if only he could put his hands around Queiroz neck, just for an instant.
Nalart woke up, looking the surroundings, he cleaned his eyes after seeing that all was normal on that house, no one was kidnapped for his surprise and now, they are back on the pursue of this mysterious beings, he began to prepare himself, wearing his armor and taking his mace, he waited Vento's prepare herself, he knew that after last night things could be a little tense, but he had to be truthful to her, even if he dislikes, It's more them clear to him that Calca is't fit to rule as the holy queen, she left so many of her people dissapear for a month, no one knows anything about what made it and why and worse of it all, they were lying to their people, Calca bluntly stated that she would 'calm them down' by what Queiroz spoke to him before they decided to go on this mission, he even heard part of the pathetic speech about unity and prosperity and how the problem was already being dealt with, -Yeah, Right. -He ended up speaking out loud, while Vento was now prepared and glazed at him.
-Are you ok? -Vento asked, not concerned, her voice was cold as an ice-storm and her eyes were like daggers penetrating his skull.
The man shaked his thoughts to the depths of his mind and smiled a little. -I'm, thank you for asking, now, what should we do?, you still in command on the situation.
Vento took a deep sigh, closing her eyes and beginning to plan, also putting her thoughts on the back of her mind, so she could focus on the task at hand. -I din't want to separate the army, however I think it would be wise to turn this into a position, the wooden walls still in good state and there are enough supplies here to last at least a week for at least sixty people, being this the case, I will leave fifty here, so at least we can come back here in case things don't go our way. -She explained the plan and apparently was waiting for some insight, approval, disapproval, an opinion in general.
-It's a good plan, I shall separate some of my man to stand here, ten is ok? -Asked Nalart with a slight smile while opening both of his hands.
-Sure, ten is great, I will separate forty of mine them. -She spoke making a small reverence before walking away, with a blunt and cold face.
He surely knew that he might have lost a great ally, he expected her to understand that this would not happen if The Prince was in charge and not Calca, but at last, he had a mission to do, separating ten of his most disposable soldiers to obey orders there, not a big sacrifice in his opinion, Nalart still with time on his hands, took his mace and some oils, giving the proper care for his weapon, he din't want any rust in it before the battle, it would be quite of a bad sight if someone broke his Mace only because he was't taking care of it.
The hours passed as the soldiers were now designated the army began to travel more to the coast, being a small force of five hundred was't bad while on the beach, they could have an immense plain of view and it them they saw it, on the shore of the beach a weird monument awaited, it was absurdly big, a castle?, part of it was apparently inside the rocks of the shore.
Vento could only scream to the gasping man and woman -ASSUME FORMATION! -She screamed waiting them to respond and get out of their impressed state.
The Warriors and Paladins stood upfront while the Archers, Mages and Clerics such herself stood behind, Nalart was in the between, he took his giant mace and waited orders, he dinsn't knew what to think of such construction, it was beautiful. The army followed forward on a march, they were ready for the worse, all of them knew that this castle was not supposed to be there. When the army was approaching one of them noticed something shine on the beach, crystals, many crystals, some soldiers stopped to look and this called attention of an entire group of soldiers, they began to approach it, many thinking on how much those would sell, how rich they would become, one of the soldiers touched the crystal and the entire rock under it began to move, it was't a rock, it was a type of lizard that as soon as it stood up, it began to roll itself,smashing and impaling the soldiers on his crystals, before Vento could give any orders, the most proactive members of the Paladins rapidly began to attack the beast, the creature was similar to a lizardman, having blue crystals around his gray body, he easily was confused by a rock with various rare crystals in it, the scariest part was his size, easily as big, if not bigger them a troll, the paladins relentlessly attacked the creature while the clerics offered quick support, buffing their allies, so they would not end up dead as the small group that discovered such beast, however while the army was now focusing on this beast, they could not see what it was to come, screams from the back lines began while Vento looked behind in horror, seeing a demi-human snake decapitating one of the archers with one swing of his sword, she them saw another shooting a thunder magic on her direction, she din't had time to cast nothing, taken by surprise she could only put her hands in front of the attack with her staff being knocked out by the electricity while her lungs released all the air with one scream.
Nalart was't understanding the entire situation at first, he runned in the direction of the beast, branding his Lion Mace. -HERCULEAN STRENGTH! -He conjured with the red shine coming through his mace while the veins on his arms swollen, he hitted the beast with all his might on the head, making it fall on the floor with his crystal beard breaking it and his blue crystals being now dyed with blood, thanks to the paladins probably it was already weakened.
Now with this solved the warriors focused on trying to save the backlines, seeing the demi-human snakes, Nalart din't thought twice, even with his arms still being numb from the martial art, he still had to fight these monsters with all that he had, bashing the head of one deep in his body, he screamed. -ALL FORCES, RE-GROUP AND RE-DO THE FORMATION!, WE WILL TAKE CARE OF THE WOUNDED LATER! -He spoke while punching one of the demi-human snakes and seeing it trying to penetrate his chest with the sword before falling down, happily his armor was strong enough to resist the blade.
The battle was growing, as the warriors and Paladins now focused on the demi-human snakes, the backline began to make itself once more, giving heavy support to the frontline, the snake demi-humans apparently began to decrease in strength, Nalart was being a commander in the frontlines, trying to locate Vento, even if she was not an ally of the Southern cause, she was still a woman of the gods, once he found her, his heavy steps made the sand lift behind him, charging in her direction.
One of the snake demi-humans seeing the opportunity, charged one of his thunder javelins and threw at him, making Nalart have to try defend himself with his mace, trying to hit the attack away ; The electric current burned through his body, but he was still up, almost din't felt a thing at first, until he noticed the burns on his arm, his pain receptors were fried.
-I din't expect to have to use any of this. -Nalart was being honest, while activating one of his rings, having a small heal charge in it, it was one of the items that his father gave him before the mission, he had a total of three magical items at the beginning of this. The wounds of the battle and the burns of the electric current began to close, while Nalart charged in the direction of the demi-human snake with four arms, he expected to be easy to bash his skull, seeing that none of this demi-humans was using any type of armor, he rose his mace high in the sky. -SMASH! -He screamed using the martial art, waiting to end that mage and go take Vento to safety.
The sand lifted making a cloud of sand all around Nalart as he could feel something holding his mace, looking it better, it was not something, it was someone, a man with long white hair, having strange scales across his face, similar to a line of them and some scales around some areas as neck, cheek and the hand holding the mace, he could also notice the tail coming out of his back and the small crystalline horns on his forehead, four in total, using an armor of blue metal plates in hexagons shape with the border of each hexagon having bronze details, this man had a dead look on his face, soulless, uncanny, something that touched Nalart in a primordial way, he gulped at first, looking at the man. -Din't expect some freak of nature, what are you?, the sacrilegious breed of some wench and one of those snakes? -He mocked the man holding the mace.
-No. -The man spoke glazing upon the big frame of Nalart, with his calm voice piercing the ears of those around him as some otherworldly discomfort. -I'm a man that saw the mistakes of this world, I'm a man who saw the true facade of the gods that I worshiped for so long, I Saw life of beasts beyond my comprehension being created in front of me and noticed how unworthy the gods that I followed were, after all, I can say to you, my god?, Its right there and I'm sure that he can save me if he wants to, now. -The man closed his eyes, opening a devious smile. -Were are your gods when you need them?
With those words the aberration in form of man launched a punch in the direction of Nalrat's chest, he only had one option, letting his mace go, so he could dodge, jumping backwards and reacquiring balance, while looking at that creature, for some reason he felt so weird around it, like it was't even from this world, it was, maddening ; From the lines of the paladins, one man took his sword and slashed to aid Nalart, screaming with a piercing voice while jumping in the air in a cutting spin -EVIL SLASHER! -The blade took the shine of the sun and brought with itself in the direction of the foe at front, this was Fernando, one of the young veteran paladins of the Northern Order.
The Golden slash made contact with the hand of the monster, being possible to see a little bit of blood being spilled between the scales, while the aberration still looked happy, even with those soulless eyes giving chills to any that dared to look eyes at him. He spoke with certain admiration to Fernando -Well, you truly are strong, maybe you could make a good subject for my god, let me introduce myself, I'm the one that once was called Almeida, Almeida Pureza. -He let the sword go from his hand while now glazed upon Fernando. -Nice to meet you.
Fernando was shocked when he heard the name, now seeing better the figure, all the scales were on places that Almeida had his scars, but this creature was taller them Almeida, also way stronger, it was't human, how could this be?, no, he had to put himself together. -LION'S HEART! -Fernando conjured the spell in himself, making the effect of fear vanish for some seconds, before he noticed, it was't completely gone, that uncanny sensation was still there, making his bad knee hurt. -Hey. -Fernando spoke now with his mind more clear. -I'm no match for him, but if we work together, we have a chance. -Fernando took his stance once more.
Nalart was recovering himself, he din't had the versatility of Fernando, but he had to respect that paladin, the man putted his fists together against eachother while the battle around them resumed, the demi-human snakes and the army. -Sure. -His voice lacked confidence,while looking at that aberration, he could not even understand his words, they din't make any sense to him. -Possibility Sense. -He conjured while waiting to see what movements it would make.
-What a shame, you both don't desire to see the way?, tell me, how many times were you desperate?, how many times you asked for a miracle and none came? -Almeida was speaking with a dull voice, looking at the sand. -How many lives have being taken away in their names, so they could never even answer one pray... And them you learn that, the real gods are here, they are tangible, they are unbeatable, and they have more power them entire kingdoms in just one being. -He slowly moved towards Nalart trying to touch his arm.
Nalart din't understand the slow movement of his opponent, he could feel that he had the opportunity to attack but at the same time, he could feel, dread, as if the moment that he was touched he would be killed in a unspeakable way, in that instant he made his decision, jumping away as further as he could go, while on the place that he was before, he could only see what looked like crystal spikes emerging from Almeida's hand, he did well in dodge such extreme way.
Fernando din't lost any time, advancing towards Almeida with a more defensive instance, trying to cut his shoulder. -You speak about your god being real, but you were a paladin Almeida, the faith that we have, the power that we receive, those are the rewards from the gods, so we may turn our dreams reality, the gods already had given you power to choose, to become strong, to surpass your limits, if you failed in doing it, that's not their fault, it is yours.
Almeida's look pierced Fernando's soul with all his killing intent, hastily moving his hand towards Fernando's face and touching it while having the blade of the paladin broken on his shoulder with spills of Almeida's blood now coming out of it, while he held the head of Fernando, his voice was full of hatred. -I had shown them the light, I Fought for them, I Confronted hordes after hordes of enemies in the walls, in the lands, and yet, when a true challenger for their tittle as gods shows, they din't move a finger, so much so as all those around me, that served by my side, THAT SACRIFICED AS MUCH AS I DID FOR THEM, din't dare to move a finger, because they knew the truth, they knew what you will learn now, our gods are dead, and we are only their prolonged suicide letter. -Almeida opened his hand as one sound could be heard by all those around.
SPLAT.