The chamber deep beneath the capital’s palace was dimly lit, its walls lined with intricate runes that pulsed faintly with magical energy. Razen stood at the center of the ritual circle, his hands clasped behind his back as he observed the preparations. Around him, thirty sorcerers moved with precise coordination, chanting incantations and inscribing sigils on the cold stone floor.
The air was thick with power, the oppressive weight of the summoning ritual pressing down on everyone present. At the far end of the chamber, thirty prisoners knelt in a line, their expressions a mixture of terror and resignation. Shackles bound their hands and feet, glowing faintly with enchantnts designed to suppress any resistance.
Razen’s gaze flicked over them briefly, his face devoid of emotion. They were tools, nothing more, vessels for the energy required to bridge the gap between worlds.
“Ensure the containnt wards remain stable,” he said, his voice cutting through the low hum of chanting. “I won’t tolerate any failure.”
“Yes, Master Razen,” one of the sorcerers replied, bowing deeply before returning to his task.
Razen turned his attention to the central glyph, a massive symbol etched into the floor with painstaking precision. Its lines shimred with a dark, otherworldly light, pulsating in ti with the chants. Everything was progressing as it should, but Razen’s mind was far from at ease.
This summoning was critical to Falmuth’s plans. However, the king was clouded in his judgent in wanting to summon more otherworlders just a year after the previous summons. Then there was that construct. Sothing was in the kingdom and he didn't know what. 'A predicant indeed.'
As he reviewed the enchantnts woven into the chamber, a flicker of disruption caught his attention. A faint tremor rippled through the magical field, so subtle that none of the other sorcerers seed to notice.
Razen narrowed his eyes, his focus sharpening. He extended a hand, his fingers tracing the threads of magicules that wove through the capital.
There.
One of the enchantnts tied to the prison’s containnt wards had suddenly vanished.
“Stop,” Razen commanded, his voice sharp and commanding. The chanting ceased imdiately, the chamber falling into an uneasy silence as the sorcerers turned to him in confusion.
“Master Razen?” one of them ventured cautiously.
Razen’s expression darkened, his brows furrowing as he delved deeper into the magicule field. The vanished enchantnt wasn’t a fluctuation or a mistake, it was a deliberate disruption.
“Sothing has compromised the prison,” he said, his tone laced with irritation. “One of the suppression wards has been destroyed.”
Murmurs rippled through the sorcerers, their unease palpable.
“Is it sabotage?” one of them asked hesitantly.
“Possibly,” Razen replied, his mind racing. He extended his senses further, searching for additional anomalies. The prison was heavily fortified, its wards layered to prevent any escape or external interference. For one to vanish so abruptly…
Multiple ripples of disturbance flared through the magic field. Razen’s eyes widened slightly as he realized what it ant.
"The prisoners." He called out. "Soone is attempting to free the prisoners-"
BOOM!
A sudden tremor accompanied multiple explosions and sent the various sorcerers into a panic. "We're under attack!" "Is it the church?" "I knew we couldn't trust them!" "Lord Razen! "Master Razen what do we do?"
////
Daren tightened his grip on his spear as he stood on the southern wall of Falmuth's capital, gazing out into the quiet night. It had been an uneventful shift, the city sprawling peacefully behind him with its streets bathed in faint lantern light.
The first sign of trouble ca as a faint hum, carried on the breeze like an ominous whisper. Daren frowned, glancing at the soldier next to him.
“Do you hear that?” he asked, his voice low.
The younger soldier nodded, his eyes narrowing as he scanned the dark forest beyond the city’s walls. “It’s probably just,"
A blinding flash tore across the sky, cutting him off mid-sentence. Daren stumbled back, shielding his eyes as a second, and then a third explosion of light erupted, illuminating the capital as if it were midday.
“Sound the alarm!” Daren shouted, his voice cracking with urgency. Around him, soldiers scrambled to action, their shouts of confusion blending with the blaring horns that soon echoed through the city.
From his vantage point, Daren could see flashes of strobe lights and clouds of thick, rolling smoke spilling over walls.
“What in the hells is going on?” a sergeant bellowed as he joined Daren at the wall.
Before Daren could respond, a deafening screech tore through the air, making him wince. He dropped to one knee, clutching his ears as the sound seed to dig into his skull. Around him, soldiers fell, their weapons clattering to the stone as they writhed in pain.
The noise stopped as abruptly as it had started, leaving an eerie silence in its wake. Daren forced himself to his feet, his heart pounding. Below him, the streets were alive with chaos. Civilians stumbled out of their hos, their faces pale and fearful as they tried to make sense of the sudden attack.
“Look!” soone shouted, pointing toward the central district.
Daren followed the gesture, his stomach dropping as he saw sleek, tallic birds unlike anything he’d ever encountered swarming through the capital. They moved with terrifying precision, weaving between buildings as they unleashed bursts of blobs that crackled with unnatural light.
One of the birds descended on the main barracks, releasing a pulse of energy that sent guards scrambling for cover. Another targeted the city’s magical communication tower, its light blasting through the runes that powered the system.
“What are those things!” the soldier barked, his face pale. "Where the hell are our sorcerers—”
He was interrupted by a series of explosions in the rchant district. Daren turned in ti to see firelight bloom against the night sky, smoke billowing as the drones targeted key supply depots.
The city was falling apart, and Daren couldn’t even see the enemy.
“What are we dealing with?” one of the recruits whispered, his voice trembling.
Daren didn’t have an answer. His hands shook as he gripped his spear tighter, his eyes darting between the chaos in the city and the eerie calm of the forest beyond the walls.
"They're headed this way!" A shout from a soldier, alerted Daren to the group of three tal birds a few ters away.
"Scatter, don't form up or risk being taken out all at once!" He yelled at the already forming group of guards. After hearing his words, they imdiately scattered. "Explosion spells are powerful, but they cost just as much as they give, with so many targets, they're bound to run out eventually."
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Daren only saw a flash of light before three soldiers to his right crumpled to the floor. His instincts blared and he ducked just in ti as the ground behind him scattered from a sudden impact. On looking at the tiny crater on the floor, he saw, "A marble?"
Daren gritted his teeth, staring at the marble embedded in the dirt. Its orange glow fading into inertness. Whatever it was, it was far beyond anything he had ever seen, and the thought sent a chill down his spine.
A cry from one of the scattered soldiers nearby snapped him back to reality. He turned to see a young man, barely older than a recruit, clutching his leg, blood pooling beneath him where another marble had struck.
“Hold on!” Daren shouted, crawling toward the injured soldier. He grabbed the man by the armor and began dragging him toward the cover of a crumbled section of the wall. The soldier groaned, his voice shaking. “What… what are those things?”
“Stay quiet and stay low,” Daren hissed, scanning the sky for the tallic birds. They hovered with a predatory grace, their sleek forms glinting ominously in the moonlight. One turned sharply, its underside glowing faintly as it unleashed another volley of projectiles.
The impact sent shards of stone flying as the ground trembled. Daren ducked instinctively, shielding the injured soldier with his body. Dust filled the air, making it hard to breathe, and the acrid sll of burning wood stung his nose.
“Get to the barracks!” soone yelled nearby. Daren looked up to see a group of three soldiers rushing down the cobbled street, their armor clinking with every step. Before they could make it far, a drone descended silently above them.
The hum grew louder, and before Daren could shout a warning, it released a burst of what looked like wind but sounded like a banshee's screech. The soldiers collapsed mid-step, their bodies twitching.
Daren’s stomach churned as he looked away, the sound of their groans and spasms cutting deep.
---
A few streets over, a trio of sorcerers crouched behind an overturned cart, their robes smudged with soot and ash. One of them, a grizzled man with a long scar running down his face, was frantically tracing runes into the air with glowing fingers.
“Did you start with the containnt wards yet?” the youngest among them demanded, her voice high-pitched with panic.
“Forget the wards!” the scarred man snapped. “We need to deal with these things before they take the whole city apart!”
He finished his incantation, and a glowing barrier materialized above them just as a drone fired another volley of marbles. The projectiles struck the shield with a sharp ping, leaving cracks along its surface.
“Barrier won’t hold for long,” the third sorcerer muttered, his hands shaking as he clutched a staff. “Should we call for reinforcents?”
The scarred man’s expression darkened. “Reinforcents? From where? We're in the fucking capital. Half the damn soldiers are either dead or running scared.”
Before the younger sorcerer could respond, a drone swooped down, its thrusters whirring. It hovered just above their barrier, a thin beam of light emanating from its underside.
“It’s analyzing the shield!” the youngest sorcerer scread, scrambling backward.
The scarred man cursed, his hands flying through a series of desperate gestures. “Not on my watch.” A bolt of fire erupted from his palm, arcing toward the drone. It struck true, engulfing the machine in flas.
For a brief mont, the sorcerers dared to hope. But as the fire dissipated, the drone remained intact, its tallic shell scorched but unhard. It tilted slightly, almost mockingly, before retaliating with a blinding flash of light.
Blinded by the brightness, the sorcerer holding the barrier lost his focus and the barrier shattered with a deafening crack.
A sonic pulse and the sorcerers were thrown back by the force. The scarred man hit the ground hard, the wind knocked from his lungs. He blinked up at the sky, his vision swimming, and saw the drone turning its attention toward them once more.
---
Daren flinched as another explosion rocked the city, this one closer than before. He pulled the injured soldier further into the shadows, his mind racing. 'We can’t fight these things. We don’t even know what they are.'
The faint sound of footsteps caught his attention, and he turned to see a figure darting toward him. It was one of the otherworlders he had seen training in the yard. "No freaking way! Is that what I think it is? Drones? Now soone's got style. So aweso!" He leaped into the air towards one of the birds that Daren hadn't yet noticed.
BOOM!
A single punch, and the bird was sent crashing down into an explosion.
More footsteps had Daren turning, and the sight of the holy templars brought an incredible amount of joy into his heart.
"Spread out!" The one in charge yelled as she drew her sword while blocking whizzing projectiles with a CLANG! "We must purge these drone demons at once in the na of our lord Luminous!" A resounding 'Yes ma'am' echoed in the streets. "The rest of you, focus on rescue and healing the soldiers."
Daren watched in awe as the otherworlder (his na eluded him, but his reputation did not) landed on the shattered cobblestones, surrounded by the wreckage of the fallen 'demon drone'. "Alright! I'm interested. Bet if I smash a lot of these tin cans, I'll find the person behind them. Sounds like fun! [Berserker]"
Daren, still crouched in the shadows with the injured soldier, felt a surge of hope as the otherworlder and the templars began to push back against the demon drones. Their discipline and skill were a stark contrast to the chaos that had consud the city just minutes earlier. But even as he watched their progress, he couldn’t shake the unease that gnawed at him.
The recruit groaned in pain, pulling Daren’s attention back to the imdiate crisis. “Hang on,” he said, tearing a strip of cloth from his tunic to create a makeshift tourniquet. “You’re going to be okay.”
Above them, another drone descended, its targeting beam locking onto their position. Daren’s pulse quickened as he reached for his spear, knowing he wouldn’t be fast enough to stop it.
Before the drone could fire, a streak of light shot through the air, striking the machine dead center. The drone exploded in a shower of sparks, and Daren turned to see the leader of the templars approaching, her blade still glowing from the divine spell she had cast.
“Are you hurt?” she asked, her voice calm but firm as she assessed the situation.
“Just him,” Daren replied, nodding toward the recruit. “Thank you. If you hadn’t,"
“No ti for gratitude,” the templar interrupted, kneeling to examine the injured soldier. “We’ve got more of these demons coming. Can you fight?”
Daren nodded, tightening his grip on his spear. “I’ll do what I can.”
---
Still crouched behind the prison walls, Kaede perked up at the sound of hurried footsteps. A relieved smile tugged at her lips as Kirara erged from the structure, her expression a mix of pride and nervous energy.
“You did it!” Kaede smiled.
Kirara offered a sheepish grin, brushing a stray lock of hair behind her ear. “Like, it wasn’t that hard. My skill started working again, though I’ve got no clue why.”
Kaede’s smile faded slightly, her mind briefly flickering to earlier. “We’ll talk about it later,” she said, dismissing the thought for now. “Right now, we need to get these people to the sewers before—”
A thunderous BOOM echoed through the air, cutting her off. The ground beneath them trembled faintly, the shockwave sending a faint ripple through the atmosphere.
Kirara flinched, blinking at the distant plus of smoke rising into the night sky. “Whoa, Kaede. Like, that is so distraction.”
Kaede glanced back toward the source of the explosion, her expression calm but focused. “It’ll buy us ti, but not much,” she said, turning her attention back to the group of frightened prisoners behind them. “The drones aren’t built for actual combat. They’ll only last a few minutes before soone figures out they're not that dangerous. Harmless”
Kirara raised an eyebrow, skepticism evident in her voice. “You call that harmless?”
Kaede began leading the group through a narrow, dimly lit street, her movents purposeful and efficient. “Relatively speaking, yes,” she replied. “Most of the drones are loaded with non-lethal gear, flashbangs, sound grenades, smoke bombs, and so harmless shrapnel for show. They’re ant to create chaos, not casualties.”
Kirara cast a glance back toward the chaos-filled skyline, where tallic drones darted between buildings, their flashes of light illuminating the destruction below. Another explosion sent a fireball surging into the air, and she gave Kaede a sideways look. “Sure, Kaede,” she drawled, her tone dripping with disbelief. “Whatever you say.”
Kaede allowed herself the briefest smirk but said nothing, her focus already returning to the path ahead.
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