Marcellus POV I can feel it all. But I cannot move an inch. I am trapped within my own body. It feels like being buried alive. Well, serves me right for trusting the little vixen. For the first time since the death of my mother, I lowered my guard. And to the spawn of my mother's killer, nonetheless. So, every figment of torture that Noosha put me through, gosh, I have well deserved it. I have betrayed my mother. After a gut-wrenching and harrowing torture she endured to keep me alive, after giving up on her life for me to live, what did I do with the chance given? I tossed it all. For whom? Fucking moron, that’s what I am. When I get hold of them, I will burn them all. And this dickhead Conrad is first on my list. I mean, after Noosha, of course. He demeaned my father to a position of a cuckold and an idiot whose wife was fucking around before his eyes. And this is just one of his minor sins.As soon as those thoughts came across my mind, motherfuckers boot merged with my face as he
Malleteagan’s POVWe are slowly but surely advancing down through ill-dimmed, sewer-like channels that separate Oribus from Damnarynth, the next circle of Wengarthria. Now I understand why they call it the way they do. It is a damn labyrinth, although I was told that it got its name from all the damned souls that are built within it. This level of Wengarthria seems like an underworld maze. It is laid out so complexly that it almost reminds of a large underworld ant heap. Ghouls of lost souls loitering around, screeching and beginning for mercy. Arachnoid warriors are protruding and attacking us left, right and centre as we advance through stinky swamp sewage of Damnarynth that reaches my waist, soaking our clothes with gooey, yucky and sticky substance. Gah, this is disgusting—the pungent, retch-inducing stench of the swampy channels cluttered with the foul odour of damned souls. The stench does more damage to us than arachnoids. The arachnoids are just pesky spider-like creatures fu
Malleteagan’s POV -one week after the fall of Damnarynth-After we defeated Damnon and what had left of his army, we continued to advance towards the end of the clearing where smidgens of amber flakes of magic were fused in a border. It formed a shield which separated Damnarynth and Morsburg’s dungeons and fortress. Faes and dwarves, with Thersar and Nexelex, were leading the warriors. When they got close to the armoury border, fae and dwarves started to stick the chthonic weaponry in the shield while Thersar and Nexelex rose their arms high in the air and invoked enchantment. Every attempt to break through was blocked and deflected. Warriors who tried to penetrate the shield just fell down through the ground, and then they would disappear. Where are they? The ground swallowed every single warrior who attempted to attack the shield. Nexelex and Thersar vanished before my very eyes.Kandreah and I exchanged hesitant looks and nodded to each other in unspoken understanding and silent a
Malleteagan’s POVThersar looked as if he was in the same thrill that Kandreah was a few moments ago. I forgot that he is a necromancer fae elder, too. A few vampires sent to pass the pavement waved to us from the other side. They seemed safe and sound. As soon as they passed, smoke on the pavement ebbed, pentagrams reshuffled to their initial, indecipherable position on pavement and fire and flames of pentagram dimmed and disappeared. We would be in the dark again if Thersar hadn’t provided us with the flame from his fingers. Kandreah got back to his…well…I wouldn’t say normal…but to his usual self. “Those are necromancy spikes on the walls. They suck the life away from the victim and the victim’s soul. They can’t do anything to vampiric faes as we are undead, but we are also not alive technically. Smoke is the essence of the living souls, their life hopes and dreams that were harvested along with their lives. If a living soul passes throughout, pavement slabs activate the walls; wa
Malleteagan’s POV With our gazes cast down, we were butchering through in skirmish with Veltalas, chopping their skulls off with chthonic axes and advancing through the vast space of the main Morsburg dungeon. Without the ability to see and use eyesight as a lead in the fight, we had to rely on our other senses entirely. I have lost a few more omegas, and Thersar lost a few lesser faes. Nexelex lost a few warriors, too, while Kandreah lost none. When we finally managed to break through and get to the dungeon's exit, we ended up in an enormous space in front of Morsburg's central dungeon. We were breaking through the town of Morsburg now.I finally lifted my gaze. Darkness and chaos that heavily saturated the interior of Morsburg dungeons were grazed and broken by purple and neon crimson lightning hues wrapped in the all-present purple fog of Wengarthria. The broad front entrance of the Morsburg encampment was closed off with smaller dungeon-like derelict towers on the left and right.
Meena’s POV Something’s wrong. I felt the strong call of the mate bond and overpowered Aralyn for control. My mate is unwell. Aralyn rightfully holds a grudge against him. She was the one who suffered most by his hand when I still wasn’t awakened. Marcellus and I did have some fallouts, don’t get me wrong. Especially during those times when he used telepathic abilities to torture her. But unlike Aralyn, I could understand the reasons for his bitterness, to an extent, I guess. The fact that he projected his thoughts, memories and emotions to us speaks volumes. I understood that he went through a lot. And many of his wrongdoings and plight are linked to our maternal family. That does not justify what he did, not at all, but gives some reason and explanation for his behaviour. Unlike Aralyn, I can see beyond his past wrongdoings. I can see that he, in the end, changed the course of his actions and tried to right his wrongs. I can see beyond the bitter, revenge-seeking, lonely boy who
Nethanaiah’s POVI remembered the last time I saw him, some centuries ago, his eyes were of eerie steel grey colour. And now, when his eyes opened widely in a sudden and sharp spasm, his irises combusted in neon lava, no traces of his usual steel grey colour that I remembered. He was gasping for air while bouts of what looked like an ichor blood exploded from his mouth. This ichor-like blood started to trickle down his nose while he managed to breathe through whatever internal shock he went through and to grit and scream “nun” over and over again. This lasted for several hours. Three of us barely managed to contain him on the bed when his body began to spasm and shudder violently, and then he was crushed by some unknown force as if he were hit by something or someone. After a few hours of fighting with the demon prince of Wengarthria, he fell into a deep coma-like sleep, and we all fell on the floor, exhausted. He looked like he had died. The only signs of life were his shallow but s
Kandreah’s POV We haven’t yet passed the Mortherra, the bridge between Morsburg and Waltherra. No, more precisely, we haven’t moved an inch from where we were after Morsanctu was defeated. We are seriously struggling to advance as Azabrahs are wreaking havoc amongst our soldiers without even laying a finger on our fighting forces. Thersar, Malleteagan and I merged our powers to make a protective cloak around us, Nexelex and ranked warriors of our allied forces. If it were any different situation than this, I would say that our cloak was spectacular, merging Thersar’s dark magic and mine, together with Malletegan moonlight haze tendrils of power in one magnificent armour. However, there was no time for gloating and admiring the armour. Our low-ranked warriors were taking the greatest brunt of Azabrah’s silent and motionless attack. The four of us stood there in what would seem as a stoic and static observation of Azabrah's clash with our warriors. But we were actually assessing and st
Kandreah’s POV While standing helplessly in front of the Macabantran gates, I went through all the stages of grief in the blink of an eye. I went through denial when I managed to work through my pain and drag myself while being pain-stricken with Thersar’s torment in front of the Macabantran gate. I was appalled with horror in front of my eyes. As Thersar’s demise-ridden pain wrecked through every nerve of my body, I watched his last moments with disbelief. Just when I thought that this was the final blow, which would be my undoing, the closeness of my soldiers who died in the battle started to shatter my body inside out, gnawing at my mind and soul. The death of every single soldier in my army was a new blow to my already broken body and heart. After initial shock, denial and disbelief, uncontrollable rage erupted from me. I screamed and tried many ways to break in and barge into the castle, but nothing worked. Even what it meant to be an attention-seeking roar of rage came
Kandreah’s POV We were passing through this infamous shortcut, which was more like a sewage-like labyrinth if you ask me, when I bent over and stumbled with an unwilling groan before I fell on my knees and stubbed my hands into the dirt and mud of Wengarthria. I felt so weak and dizzy, as if I was just seconds away from collapsing. The high-pitched, blaring sound grated through my ears, threatening to split my head in half. It reminded me of the ringing of life-supporting machines when someone dies, but as if someone put amplifiers on them. Beads of sweat protruded along with searing pain, the ache like no other which surged through me, piercing and rippling through my body. Every drop of blood in my body felt like it was scorching, sizzling, and as if it was about to combust in flames before turning to ashes. The agony was unbearable. It felt like I was dying. Only once before, I felt the pain like this, when I lost my soulmate. Regardless of the severed bond between
Erzelus’s POV But it looked like someone in the background had greater control over the forsaken Lycans than I did because drums rattled again in the next moment, along with a command rumbling to forsaken Lycans to attack. It overpowered and overrode the natural inclination of forsaken Lycans to submit to their Alpha. I am not their Alpha anymore. They do not answer to me anymore. They are not part of our pack anymore, and if there was even a smidgen of doubt in their logic, reasoning and where their loyalty now lies, it all became clear when they started attacking Lycan troops. My Lycans were over-excited with my comeback, and this idling is not something we can afford. This can cost us battles and lives; we have no time for this. Because, on the other side of the castle, dwarves, Fae, and witches were still in the ruckus of the battle against Wengarthrians. I stepped in while handholding Lev and roared: “Drop the fucking formalities! Lycans, regroup! Flank the Allies! Shield the
Erzelus’s POV The interior of the encampment was a vast, oval-shaped, dark and massive hall the size of a coliseum. Instead of walls, the encampment was enclosed with grand window-like structures, which seemed impenetrable. These window-like walls didn’t allow even a figment of light to protrude. Each window was adorned with vile and despicable frescoes depicting the destruction, apocalyptic violence and scenes from the underworld. In every corner of this eerie city-sized castle, there seemed to be an attempt at creating a macabre amphitheatre. It was as if a disturbed and malevolent architect had deliberately sought to challenge, mock, distort, and contrast every conventional thought, philosophy, aesthetic, and norms in rational thought, art, architecture, and culture, transforming them into something dark, ominous, and bizarre. This colossal castle seemed like an erratic response of a sinister rebel in architecture, a hub for defying the traditional building. Every corn
Erzelus’s POV Mark's contorted body serves as a testament to his tragic death and grim fate, symbolising just one of too many lives that have been and will continue to be lost in this relentless battle. The weight of lives lost became heavier as I scanned through limbless, scavenged, deformed and mutilated remnants of warriors from both sides, which hung from the ceilings. The cadavers blanketed the grotesque frescoes and icons of the Macabantran encampment. Bodies were strewn everywhere, suspended from ceilings and windows, littering the ground— that is the grave extent of casualties that this battle yielded. And many more are to yet die before the battle finishes. The windows were sprayed with blood and innards of diverse creatures who lost their lives, looking like someone had a paintball battle with leftovers of burnt shepherd pie. Corpses and bodies of soldiers from every walk of life were flailing across the Macabantran fort; mush and gore were everywhere, littering th
Erzelus’s POV The racketing pounds of the gatekeeper demon’s drums became faster with each second. When we finally stepped into the gloom and darkness of the main encampment of Macabantran fortress, the grounds were soaked with a soggy mush of supernatural innards and well stocked with their scattered corpses. Bones of cadavers were cracking as we crushed them on our way. Their flesh was squelching and producing squealing sounds under our feet as we trampled over them. A chaotic blend of whooshing sounds of magic, which was bursting from Wengarthrian mages, clashed with the magic of our witches and mixed with clanks of weapons, and rumbling thuds of fistfights, death rattles, and last exhales of those warriors who were losing the battle. Manic cackles of Wengarthrians who were attacking and fighting from every corner were adding to the clamour and havoc of this place. Macabantrans drubbed our warriors because they failed to see Macabantrans's fighting tactics. Macabantrans
Erzelus’s POV We crept and crawled like sodding spiders through these long-forgotten, dusty, stinky, dirty passageways. The stench of dampness and decay was making my eyes bleed. Being a big bad wolf and a burly bloke trying to squeeze myself into these was a job and a half and now even a greater slog as I am holding this little scrawny child in my arms, trying to lug around with him. Initially muffled and distant, echoes of soldiers defeated in the battle of the main Macabantran Fort grew louder as we funnelled and snaked our way through narrow passages which led from dungeons to the main encampment. Sounds of destruction and the desperate battle between the two armies became more intense and louder as we neared the encampment. It almost felt like the noise and ruckus were palpable. The strange creatures, which reminded me of some demonic, infernal rat mutation, lurked from every corner and occasionally scurried past us as we were breaking through. We'd bump into them every now
Erzelus POV “Remind me, why are we following the scythe-wielding demon and his cult of wannabe Sherwood bandits like a pile of little ducklings?” the bat king kept screeching and whinging in the background. “Could you explain to Dracula’s wank-off that this is because I know the shortcut from dungeons to the main Macabantran castle? The shortcut where the vampiric little gnat will not cross the paths with Macabantran soldiers from the main castle.” Norgarth said, seemingly talking to me but actually responding to Kandreah without sparing a look at him. These two will need to find a way to work together. “You don’t want to fight them until we join the forces with your army, as far as I understand. Or maybe you, oh, the great king of Vampiric Fae, had a change of heart, and now you think that handful of us fighting against the flurry of Macabantran demons from the main castle is a good idea? That much about your great skills in war tactics,” Norgarth spat as he roll
Erzelus’s POV “Now you listen to me, you feisty little demon fucker. You are the warrior, and I am a king; you will not talk like that with me If you wish to live. If you had at least one functioning brain cell in that Sasquatch head of yours, you would see that a handful of us here are not standing a chance against the Lacrimavlian army. So you will not free the son of Hades even if we go there now without back up of the remainder of the alliance army. And you know why? Because we will all die. You and your king included. They will outnumber us, you demonic moron. To go there, we first need to go back and overtake the main Macabantran castle to merge with our army, gather, plan and regroup before we attack Lacrimavliah. I will not risk my life and the life of my soldiers for a battle which is lost before it began only because you are dumb as fuck, stubborn as a mule and have no idea about war tactics or strategies. I will not allow your stupidity to expose me and my army to