The Beginning Of The End

The night had passed as it would any ordinary night, the animals had come out and sung their usual songs, the soldiers had fallen asleep and dreamt of erotic nights and victorious battles. However as the sun finally rose again all the soldiers felt it, the feeling that soldiers always felt before battle.

As though it was their last day to live, they were going to prepare like any usual day, get suited up and armed. Eat breakfast and march out to their probably deaths, that was no ordinary thing, it left a very strange shadow over every soldier, affecting them in different ways.

Some soldiers felt honour, they felt honoured that they would die on the battlefield rather than in bed dying peacefully or in bed dying of some lethal malady. Some soldiers felt that wether they died at a sword or in bed, they would still be dead in the end and death scared them, but that fear would drive them to fight at their best.

When an animal was cornered and wounded it was more defiant than ever, humanity was just another of the violent species of animals and they were now cornered. They had no horses, horses would have been a great advantage but they could not have transported enough horses for the entire army, they would fight on their feet.

As all the soldiers suited up Queen Tania came to give her final speech, dressed in a red battle dress with chain mail under and red leather dress on top, she may have been old but she still looked very good. With her beautiful flowing brown hair, although it did not have the brightness of Jolene’s youthful hair it was evident where she got her good looks.

As she got up on the elevated ground the soldiers watched her with awe, she emanated and authority and youthfulness they had never seen when she sat at her throne. " Soldiers, Humans and dwarves alike, today is a glorious day! Today we go to war for what we believe in, a free world! Lets not waste any more time, lets march to the battlefield!"

The Royal Kingdom cheered wildly, all suited up they followed as she led them to the battlefield. The dwarves stayed behind, Horusian simple yelled, " What you waiting for you lazy bunch of lards! Time to go die!"

Dwarves were not much for optimism, but they were not a depressed people either. They did not fear death, they worshipped a god of some sort but no one other than the dwarves really knew what god, it had the head of a jackal but that was all they knew.

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They awaited at the battlefield as the Royal Kingdom finally began to approach, the soldiers had not needed rest having the excitement of the battle feeding them with enough energy. They’d remained their all night, examining their surroundings they had covered all the possible ambush spots.

Constatino had a good feeling about this battle, although the Royal Kingdom was far more numerous they were not but humans and dwarves. Constatino had vampires, dark elves, battle hardened Coronian troops and hoppers. That was not their true name but he simply hated saying that long name, hopper would provide.

Both armies finally faced each other, they were far more numerous than Constatino had anticipated but that was just a minor set back, they were still considerably weaker. Walking to the middle of the beautiful glade that was now a battlefield Kromilius, Okrinus and himself awaited for the enemy leaders.

Walking from the opposite side, to all their surprises was only one person. The Queen herself garbed in battle armour with the two flambard swords, she walked with a confidence Constatino had seen in few. And by few he meant Ares, Dominic and himself. The sort of confidence one had when they were certain of victory.

Smiling at the sight of her Constatino said tauntingly, " Your majesty, what are your doing out of your throne room, turn yourself and your army around and we won’t hurt you." Adding to this Kromilius said, " But stay and we will slaughter every one of your soldiers, and delivered their heads to their families."

The Queen smiled with an equally taunting expression, " You may not respect us, but we will not back down from this fight. The world will be saved, your army will fall under our numbers and Adonis will be successful."

Having nothing further to discuss she turned and walked back to her side, turning to face the army Constatino and Kromilius slowly turned and walked back to their army. These two great forces, separated by nothing but air and distance, both waiting to rush forward and spill some blood for their cause.

Constatino smiled, rather than giving an order he simply pointed his hand right at the army and fired a powerful beam of darkness, dark tendrils grabbed five soldiers, covering their heads they suffocated to death. With these first kills the armies charged at each other, hoppers jumping ahead on the enemies.

Swords and axes clashed as the furious battle began, the hoppers growled using their mighty claws to puncture the Royal armour, swords cut through their tough hides. The atmosphere was pure malicious excitement, blood shed was what animals were best at.

Tania moved through the ranks with incredible ease, slicing through the guards, decapitating the vampires and parrying the numerous attacks. It was a pure fray, complete chaos and destruction. No catapults, metal to metal, if a soldier dropped a sword he jumped on his foe and strangled him and took his weapon.

As Tania fought she only hoped that Tyronis and his bunch would make all this blood shed worth while, she hated killing remembering why she had stopped being a soldier in the first place. When she began she thirsted for more blood, she loved the feeling of her blade slicing another to death, in battle she felt like the monster she truly was.

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They had finally reached the cove, a large black hole in the side of the mountain, how far or deep it went no one could be certain. Cyranos walked ahead of the group, tail swinging back and forth he turned to the group, " Looks like you were wrong Tyronis, why are you even here anyway? Your not one of us."

A sinister voice came from inside the cove, " Of course he isn’t, but he’s invited nonetheless. Your late." Walking out of the darkness came Loki, Jolene and Dominic, arms crossed they stood backs to the mountain wall. " Looks like you were wrong Cyronis, the temple is deep down inside the cove, you do all realise we have but a few hours remaining."

Adonis wanted to go talk to his sister, as they walked down into the cove descending down a perfect set of stairs Adonis walked beside her, " Sister, long time no see. I still owe you a dinner, fancy dinner at that fancy restaurant with all those extra utensils. Remember that, remember our old lives."

Jolene chuckled at this, " You speak as though we are old, I know you did not kill mother now, and I realise that it was for the best, for both of us. We would have been farmers for the rest of our lives, I would be the town whore and you would be the hopeless romantic to scared to propose. We will have that dinner someday."

Dominic walked right behind them, " You sure you two are twins? Why the hell do twins never look the same, you have Ares and Tyro, they’re twins and they look completely different. Of course the curse changed Ares a lot, but Tyronis the oldest by one minute still looked different than Ares when they were normal."

Slowing her pace so Dominic now stood in between them Adonis asked, " Why did you do it? Why did you save me all those times, teach me magic, insist on the importance of the prophecy and then just turn on us?"

He did not answer immediately, they all stopped as Ares stood in front of them, only more sinister than usual. He grinned, showing his four sharp rows of teeth and said, " Welcome to the temple, we will make sure everything runs smoothly."

Disappearing without warning they continued, a little shocked Dominic said in an amused tone, " That guy never stops changing, he just can’t handle being the same person for too long, first he gets himself cursed and then his father experiments with demons and he’s the first in line to volunteer, and now this."

Jolene smiled at this, the more Ares changed the more powerful he became. Whatever he was now, she liked him very much, he was truly a being of power unlike all these hybrids he did not live for money, but for power. He had taught her everything he knew about smashing moral walls and combat tactics.

Dominic continued, " And to answer your question Adonis, I don’t have a bloody side. You should know by now that nothing is at it seems, there’s only two ways things can go today, we win and the world changes for good or Tyro wins and this whole cycle will happen all over again some point in the future. Good can’t always prevail, that’s only in kid stories."

They finally reached it, they now stood on flat ground and the temple loomed over them. Tyronis felt like he was facing the tower of memories all over again, part of him wanted to run away but he had to face this, they all had to face this or the world would simply come to an end.

The temple was of simple design, a large building made of silver and gold in the shape of a large dome. Along it were lit torches, reflecting off the metal of the temple this underground place was like no place they had seen before.

They were in a small jungle filled with strange three tailed monkeys, blue apples and all kinds of unnatural things of the sort, but they were not there to explore the jungle, they began the walk to the temple.

All of a sudden they were all paralysed, feeling a pressure on them as though invisible hands had grabbed them all and were holding them back. They heard the loud noise of high heels hitting the golden stairs as the hostess of the temple, the one that had trapped them approached them.

She wore a beautiful strapless black dress that left her whole back bare, kept up by a loop that went around her neck. Her walk was tantalizingly seductive, her hips moving in a perfect fashion to get all the mens’ eyes and even Jolene’s.

Her long straight black hair partially covered her pale skin, looking them over with her cold eyes she said, " You’re right on time, I am the guardian of the temple, I have many names but you call all call me the dark fairy. I could kill you at any moment, now that you are all here you will want an explanation."

" The seven halves prophecy was of greater importance than you all knew, now this might hurt a bit." A staff materialising in her hand all their demon essences were sucked out of them, leaving them in their natural states once more. She let them fall to the ground, " You will still have your demonic power, fear not. But now you are pure, you don’t need to stay here anymore. I simply needed the energy."

Without explaining she turned and fired the collected energy in a powerful beam at the giant orb over the temple entrance. The orb absorbed the power, chamber filling with a golden hue the temple doors slid open. Turning to Adonis and Jolene she said, " You two can come with me, the rest of you must stay behind now, the fate of the world rests on their shoulders."

With that they walked into the temple, following the mysterious dark fairy into the unknown Ares clapped his hands from behind, as they all got back to their feet he said, " Bravo, now lets see who prevails. Will Adonis save the world or change the world, we think you have a battle to join gents, we know we're going there, we love a good battle."

As he was suddenly gone both sides separated once more, it was strange how the presence of the demons was gone but they still felt the power inside of them. They were enemies once again, Tyronis said, " Good luck then foes, I just hope we’re not all going way over our heads here."