“DUE TO THE UNPREDICTABLE NATURE OF SUCH EVENT…”
“It can’t be… The Evil Dream is also a random event?!” Tristessa thought, as the voice invaded her psyche forcefully, but without causing any harm. “But it happened at the sa ti during those two nights! A coincidence?”
“…AND IN EVERY AREA OF IMPERIAL TERRITORY THAT POSSESSES AN [EVIL-WARDING PILLAR]! I REPEAT, TO ALL CITIZENS…”
In front of her, Sylas Roy Khan had raised his dark gaze to the heavens. Tristessa imitated him, guided by the ethereal ssage. The epheral calm of the blanket of gray clouds that covered the celestial vault was shattered as a dark, blood-red miasma began to appear, devouring the clouds and eroding the stability of existence itself. At arbitrary points, but in untold quantities as far as the horizon could see, spreading like an epidemic that was terminally killing Nekrom itself.
“Do you see them, Tristessa Irandell?” the Wraith murmured, his chilling words expressing respect for an invisible enemy dwelling within that shadowy miasma oversaturated with Discord. “Amidst that veil of malice, the remains of millions of tortured souls.”
As Severus had said before, this event of planetary proportions was a marvel of the most diabolical thaumaturgy imaginable. It was eerie, beautiful… A veil that mixed blood and shadows, falling over their heads and bringing with it a reality that only existed in the mind of the Shadow Queen.
“…DINSIONAL SHIFT EVENT! ESTIMATED TI OF ARRIVAL, FIVE MINUTES!”
Tristessa felt her heart stuck in her throat. Not only did the Evil Dream appear arbitrarily, but its arrival ti on land also varied. Such a dastardly, random event… Like a shower of naless stars falling upon a ruined world, destroyed by the weight of its own sins.
“STAY SAFE, ALL UNITED! FOR THE EMPIRE, ETERNAL SHIELD AGAINST THE NIGHT AND THE DARKNESS!”
“…”
Astoria Silverthorn remained silent, her red eyes fixed on the chaotic heights as she finished listening to the broadcast. Tristessa saw and heard her grip on the hilt of her sword tightly, causing the fingers of her glove to let out a tallic sigh. She couldn't see it in that majestic knightess, but she felt a livid aura surrounding her, turning her into a walking danger.
“Mommy, I'm scared!” Lucahn was higging his mother's right leg, already crying his eyes out. She, with her husband at her side, stared at the bleeding skies with utter anxiety.
The terror of the refugees, with nowhere else to go and no choice but to pray inside their tents. The screams of the soldiers on the walls, getting organized in the wake of the approaching event. The very cloak of sinister darkness that had begun to descend, slowly, but with nothing to stop it.
All of this brought a child as innocent as Lucahn to tears. Soone who had already encountered the Evil Dream, yet would never be able to get used to it or not feel his young soul overco with such terror. No one could, not even the bravest of warriors.
Only a mother's heart could tolerate such approaching evil, enough to give her troubled child a look of serenity.
“Calm down, dear. There are soldiers here ready to face the demons that cos from the dark,” she said, caressing his shoulders and then fixing her icy eyes on Astoria. “Isn't that right, Knightess?”
Of course, Astoria wasn't intimidated by a pregnant woman, compared to a dinsional event descending on them all. But seeing Lucahn's face overwheld with fear, the knightess nodded, giving him a look that combined divine beauty with firmness and perseverance, not allowing even a hint of fear to corrupt her.
“Attention, citizens of Entrana!” From the top of the watchtowers at the four corners of the city, a gruff male voice began broadcasting a ssage from loudspeakers energized by power crystals. “This is the General of the Local Military Forces, Zephyr Malak Nostromos! By authority of Our Lady Aurelia Eramisaptor, I hereby declare the city defenses activated! All civilians are ordered to take shelter in their hos imdiately and not to leave until the dinsional shift event has concluded! Any civilians outside their hos or refugees will be arrested, without exception! This is your last and only warning!”
As the General concluded the ssage, the Shield Against the Darkness on the large black gate split in two. By opening wide, it allowed three rows of Imperial soldiers to go outside.
“We cannot stay here,” Jin warned, aware that they were standing in the middle of the road.
“Co with .”
Astoria led them toward the tents, where families were huddled together in fear, waiting for the worst to happen, whatever their fate might be.
“Hey, where’s the Wraith?” Tristessa looked around, having lost sight of him for a second. “How the hell…?”
“W-well, a Hidden Shadow has to protect the Lord of the Dominion. It’s their duty,” Lucahn explained, still nervous and wiping his nose with the sleeve of his sweater, earning the brief attention of both Tristessa and Astoria. “I-I read it in a book!”
“You’re right, kiddo.” The knightess gave him a small smile that managed to calm Lucahn’s unease to so extent. He received a pat on the head from his worried father, a distraction that allowed the silver-haired woman to warn her parents and Tristessa: “Don't try to escape. It'll be worse for you, understand? For a Wraith to appear in broad daylight, you must know that you're in an extrely delicate situation.”
Jin and Tiara looked at each other, more resigned than hopeful for the future. Tristessa was no stranger to those emotions—her fate was tied to theirs—but she couldn't give up now that they'd co this far. Not even with the Evil Dream approaching.
“He'll co back for us, won't he?” Tristessa asked, only to receive an affirmative nod from Astoria. Cold, disinterested. Just what a friend of the exiled family deserved. “Good. It seems I'll have that audience with the Lady of the Dominion, after all.”
Astoria didn't reply, her attention focused on the small army guarding the south gate, breaking ranks and adopting a rectangular formation as they advanced. This new position extended from near the refugee tents, covering the entire street with black ceramic tiles and extending to within a few ters of the Maturin River. And the further they moved from the great gate, the more the formation opened up, forming two large human walls.
Seeing them up close, Tristessa noticed that the infantryn were wearing full gray armor, the first line ard with spears and large black shields to create a phalanx-like formation. The soldiers in the rear carried spears, and two rows behind them carried rifles with explosive gunpowder ammunition and thaumaturgical catalysts.
An impenetrable defense and a deadly rearguard. They were led by a Commander who stood out from the front, wearing armor identical to Astoria's, only instead of a black cape, he wore a white one with gold trim. The colors of Order, hope, and light.
In his left hand, he carried a saber with thaumaturgical glyphs etched into its surface, and in his right, a large dark steel shield with the faces of Imperial Lords and Ladies engraved with ornants. His presence radiated the magnificence of a true Imperial Knight—those worthy of wearing a white cape—and with a single raise of his saber, he brought the entire battle to a standstill.
“Shields ready!” he ordered, his voice behind the helt amplified by thaumaturgy, so as the entire battalion could hear over the rumble of the thunderous skies.
With that order, he and the defensive line placed their shields in position, effectively creating a wall that divided the periter of the city walls from Feydra’s Plains filled with farmland and houses. Houses where their owners would have to fend for themselves to survive against invisible enemies… Foes that weren't there yet, but it was a matter of ti until they do.
The veil of malice descended with a rapid pace, corrupting reality in its wake and turning the very air one breathes into miasma. Soon it would reach solid ground and cover everything…
But before that, there was one last defense in the city. A definitive barrier against darkness. Making itself known by a conjunction of sleeping voices awakened by the lurking evil.
“What is that?!” Tristessa wondered aloud, attracting the attention of everyone around her. “Ah, m-my…!”
“Tessa!” She heard Jin call her, worried as he saw her staring back at the city with blank eyes. “What’s wrong?!”
She couldn’t respond for the mont. The sensation that dominated her mind was like scraping ice with her nails; chills ran down her arms and converged in the center of her brain, manifested as hundreds of thousands of voices speaking simultaneously in murmurs impossible to understand.
Her [Divinity of Whispers in the Dark] couldn't ignore that continental influence emanating from that giant structure in the center of Entrana.
Massive waves of spiritual energy converged at the base of the Evil-Warding Pillar; so much so that it even began to influence the material plane, manifesting as a glow of pure light that could be clearly seen even above the walls.
“S-so many... voices...” she managed to say, as all that noise pressed against the lid of her skull, squeezing her brain like a sponge.
“Is a Divinity?” Astoria asked, turning to her and placing a hand on her right shoulder. “Do you need help?”
In her stern, fire-red gaze, there were traces of concern. Enough to lt Tristessa's heart in another circumstance, if not for the fact that she had already fallen for that kindness and suffered cruelly due to her naivety.
“...!”
Before she could answer the knightess, Tristessa opened her eyes in surprise, just as a small tremor shook the city's foundations. The light at the base of the Pillar began to creep across its surface, as if gaining montum, and then rose to the heights at a speed that broke the sound barrier.
The light collided with the corrupted skies in a burst, creating the illusion of a second sun appearing to illuminate that dusk plunged into darkness. The defensive magic of the ancient thaumaturges t the malice of the Shadow Queen face to face, in the sa way as they had done for five hundred years.
The Evil-Warding Pillar, the ultimate defense against darkness, had just been activated.
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