A Tale of Two Knights

Chapter 26

Chapter 26

The night at Boltongate citadel was one of the coldest ever recorded in Gilgatrox. The cold breeze stunned everyone in the city, urging all residents to rush inside their houses to warm up by the fireplace. Gilgatrox was by far the biggest city in the new world, with likely tens of thousands if not more.

The Boltongate citadel was unusually quiet at this time, it was approximately midnight, and the guards would usually switch shifts around this time. The citadel was one of the most highly protected and important assets to Volnairia. It was recently built, finished only 6 years ago, equipped with the best cannons and soldiers, as well as mana, incredible amounts of mana that has been distributed across the citadel, providing an invisible shield of sorts.

The night was deathly silent, however Draven became increasingly stressed as he rushed through the hallways and corridors of the stronghold, passing through multiple rooms.

Draven walked past the dining hall and went for the hallway, the citadel had many hallways, with a red carpet tapered on each floor, and paintings nailed into each room.

Draven reached two wooden doors and breathed a sigh of relief. He pushed the doors open and walked inside.

Inside the room seemed to be a normal library, with some chests containing books. Draven searched through the drawers of the bookshelves and pulled out a paper manuscript.

He will return when the sun and moon both come together and join as the goddess of death and destruction kisses the tree of eternity...

Sweat beaded on Dravens face. The goddess of death and destruction? Who could that possibly be... Why would the tree of eternity have anything to do with his return?

Dravens face turned pale as he heard footsteps behind him. He stopped and remained completely still, almost holding his breath.

"He has already returned." The voice from behind echoed.

"You were foolish to think that your ultimate plan would work against him. You spent so much time attempting to bring everyone against me. The-

In a split second Draven unsheathed his greatsword and lunged at the voice behind, slicing thin air apart as the sound of the slash echoed through the room.

The thing that he had slashed had vanished in a split second, Draven didn't see the figure at all. He only saw pure darkness in a void as he had turned around. The thing that was behind him vanished suddenly without a trace.

Suddenly, Draven heard maniacal laughter coming from inside his head. He dropped his greatsword and put his hands on his head, squeezing hard as the sounds only deepened and tortured him even more. Draven screamed at the top of his lungs as the voice inside his head loudened and began to impair his hearing.

Suddenly, the voice stopped and Draven layed on the floor, with tears streaming out of his face.

All of a sudden the door behind him busted open and the head guard quickly scurried to Draven, panting as if he had run many miles.

"Sir, we have recently got news of an undead army that had destroyed small towns in Fabril. In total the casualties number perhaps over a thousand."

Draven went white as snow as what he had feared had already come.

He had returned.

Ludo had broken his sword. The only sword he had owned for the last decade. It was a sword forged out of quality iron, only made for the best qualified of knights. The sword could channel magic, absorb mana and keep talismans in to absorb power. The only swords that could be better than the one he had were legendary weapons of myth, shrouded in mystery. For any knight, Ludo's sword was as good as it could get.

"Well... We should probably get going." Faron said "No point in wasting time here."

"Erenstin is probably some miles from here." Thramor replied. "If we are fast we could make it. The city has the best inns and taverns in all of Estolia."

Erenstin was the self proclaimed capital of the skylands. Before the war it was under Estolian rule, and even now Volnairia was still unable to capture all of the skylands because of the defensive capabilities that they had.

Ludo remembered Erenstin, and how the city had surprised him with the sheer mass and beauty of it, however it also gave memories of Sully, which suddenly turned Ludo sour.

"Don't mention anything about what happened today," he said sternly.

"What's wrong Ludo?" Faron chuckled. "Cheer up a bit. At least we aren't stuck in that god forsaken hellhole."

Ludo grunted and walked away, Faron and Thramor shrugged, and followed.

Sully awoke from his deep cumbersome sleep, drowsy eyes and tired, he could barely make out his surroundings. He had faint memories of what happened before he became unconscious, all he remembered was Ludo. Ludo and the Lich. He remembered running from tarragons, and the skeleton warrior that had fought Ludo. Besides that, every other memory was forgotten.

He shook his hand and felt chains rattling. He was chained up by both hands, the room started brightening as he awoke from sleep, What he saw was a massive room, dimly lit with candles that had blue fire. He was in the middle of the room, chained with chains that connected to massive pillars on the sides of the room.

Some stairs lead up to the platform where Sully was located, and various patterns and designs were etched into the dark stone that he lay on. The main source of light in the room were 4 fireplaces that were on stone pedestals which spewed blue fire. It was mana fire. Fire that was controlled not by heat but by mana, which when filled with mana, lasted for centuries without needing more mana to last.

Footsteps were heard as a shadow of a figure appeared through one of the dark entrances to the great room. The figure was at least 8 feet tall and was massive, bigger than any human that Sully had ever seen. Quickly after they entered another figure appeared.

The blue light was dim but bright enough to show that it was Yadaran and the Lich. Warm tears started rushing through Sullys face as he was reminded of his kidnapping.

"Of course the army would take Fabril in a week. Who do you think he is? Some sort of puff pastry general?" The lich laughed as he spoke.

"That's if all the soldiers and undead are hungry and bloodlusted, Father. After all, they do get distracted by almost anything."

Yadaran then pulled his massive red greatsword out, shining through the room like stars out at midnight. Without any warning, he plunged it inside a hole in the ground, and red light started radiating from the sword to Sully, the light traveling through the designs and patterns on the floor before eventually reaching him.

Sully gasped in pain as he felt his energy levels weaken. His vision started darkening as mana began draining from his body, the mana ran through the patterns in the ground again and eventually lit up a massive square structure, which had a black ball levitating on top, the mana seeping into the structure and into nothingness.

"Our armies will be unstoppable with this much mana."

That was the last thing Sully heard before going back into the darkened state he was once in, his eyes closed and he went back into a deep sleep.