Lionhearts ||Skephalo||

44

As the screams died away, Assu can feel the ground shudder beneath her feet.
It's as though an earthquake had shaken the fortress, but it lasted for less than a second. The piglin sow leans on the wall, balancing herself again.

The air is filled with sparks of emerald light, and without hesitation, she bolts down the hallway, skidding to a stop in front of the cell where the mage was being held— or had been held, rather.
Horror fills her as she beholds the pile of half alive, dead, and agonized guards in the entry, and feels her fine fur stand on end as it has only once before.
Her gaze shifts, looking past the sickening sight for a moment.

A wall of bright light barricades her vision from fully seeing whatever has happened to Bad. A few brief moments allow her glimpses of a winged, ebony body, strewn over the floor and ringed in green glyphs for words she's never seen before, but yet, they feel familiar.

She kneels down to the side of one of the injured guards, helping him up as she looks over his snapped legs.

"What happened?" She asks him, and he goes pale, shaking his head. When he can't seem to get an answer out, she calls down the hall for help, drawing other guards to assist in carrying the surviving victims of whatever assault had left them in such a state.

She asks each one desperately, over and over, for what happened— but most of them can't seem to recall or are too shaken to explain.

After helping to carry out the bodies of the dead and laying them out for their funeral rites, she drifts back to the infirmary, to one of her acquaintance's bedside.

"Isku, wasn't it?" She murmurs gently, so as not to startle the dazed sow. Her lashes flutter for a moment, and her white eyes drift in the direction of the sound.

"Assu? That's you, right?" She asks, her voice quavering. "I can't— I can't see anything, there's just this green. There's only green."

Assu gently takes her hand, and softly reassures her,

"It'll be okay. What happened to you, Isku?"

The injured warrior draws in a sharp breath.

"I— It's fuzzy," she admits, "It's like a blur of pure terror."

"That's alright, anything you know will help me, since nobody can get inside the room right now."

Assu explains, and then waits, seeing how Isku searches for some way to explain what she does recall.

"I heard Korlam scream," she says slowly, "And something snap. He was guarding the cell. And Meorki went over to check on him, but they're dead, I think. So I went to check, and then it gets blurry."

Assu glances at the lower half of the bed, knowing Isku's legs are snapped almost cleaning in two.

"I remember a lot of pain. I think I screamed." Her voice is raw, supporting that memory.

"Did you see the person in the cell?" Assu prompts gently, and Isku's eyes go wide.

"I did, I did— it was just before I stopped being able to see!" She gasps, and her hand tightens around Assu's. "He— I saw a demon, Assu. I don't know what else it could've been. He had glowing green eyes, and horns, and a tail—"

"What about the human they were keeping in there?" Assu knows her voice is desperate, but she needs to know what became of Bad...Darryl. "Did you see him?"

"...I saw blood on the floor," Isku's voice becomes faint, distant, "Horrible patches of blood, like something had been torn apart. And the demon. I saw the demon. And I saw bodies in the doorway, and then there was light and then nothing. Then I couldn't see anything at all. My eyes went green and white. They're still green and white."