Journal of Fire: Embers

Chapter 5, The Invasion

Journal of Fire Entry 3 (Atrein Diablon)

Year 0 A.D., The First Day of Winter, Afternoon

The Line of Krotrean, Ertore

The sky darkened under the incoming fire the second after I bellowed my warning. I had foolishly not noticed the darkening of the skies due to my hastiness. Hundreds of massive rocks were only seconds away from raining down upon us. I crossed my arms in an X to create a shield seal, and it repulsed dozens of catapult rounds that would have crushed Craytar and me.

The deadly projectiles sunk into the bubble-shaped shield of soul that I fought furiously to uphold. Then the rocks bounced several yards away as the shield recovered its original shape. My arms shook ever so slightly from every projectile that hit my shield, and I pulled and pushed my forearms together tightly in a desperate bid to survive.

"That was only the first wave to knock out some defenders; hold tight, At-Rein!" yelled the deep voice urgently.

Through the ground, I felt the vibrations from a furious assault of magic slamming against the outer wall. A blinding spread of flames engulfed the perimeter of the outer wall, and the heat was so intense that Craytar and I began to pour sweat, despite being well over two hundred yards away from the flames. The flames scorched the wall for several minutes, and then there was silence. Craytar and I exchanged wild glances, and we were unsure of what to do. There were no magical impacts for the next minute, although there was the occasional catapult project. I decided to play it safe, so I maintained my shield seal. Craytar tilted his head as a look of confusion swept over his face.

"Atrein, is that water?" he asked, dumbfounded.

I followed his eyes to the top of the outer wall, and I shared his moment of confusion. Water was pouring over the outer wall, and it looked like a dam that was about to burst. Cracks began forming across the wall, and water began flowing through hundreds of ruptures.

"We're gonna drown. We're gonna drown!" Craytar yelled frantically. My mind raced as I thought of what to do, but I realized something. Flooding The Line would mean that the Donanians couldn't navigate The Line or even partially conquer it. Plus, they would need rivers' worth of water to do that.

"If you freeze water, does it shrink or expand when it becomes ice?" asked the deep voice calmly.

Before I could answer the question, the Donanian mages began to drop the temperature of the water drastically. As the beautiful white ice began to spread its many tendrils through the thousands of ruptures and crevices created by the first two waves of attacks, the outer wall bent inwards.

The top of the wall slowly began arching towards us as its structure failed. Then, the enemy mages raised the temperature of the water, and the wall crumbled like a cookie that had been thoroughly dipped in warm milk. The ground rumbled as massive mounds of rubble and water fell, and the All Call began to activate from the Grand Temple. The wave of sound from the All Call hit with force unlike any I had ever felt, and I reflected that "ground thunder" was the best description of the siren. The unworldly noise assaulted my sense of hearing, and all I could do was close my eyes and focus on my soul shield, which was now holding up many tons of stone.

I heard the breaking of bones and the wailing of the wounded begin as the wall's destruction neared completion, and then the All-Call ended. I saw hundreds of red souls fading away through my right eye, even though my eyelid covered it. As they died, their souls' red glimmer slowly grew dimmer. The casualties inflicted upon the first, second, and third wave of projectiles and spells was astronomical. Several thousand workers were present in our section of The Line alone.