The Path of Time ★ [3] ✔ (EDITING)

The Drums of War

⏳ --

We could hear it from miles away. It was loud and ominous, deadly and malevolent. The drums of war. A symphony of incoming death.

We stood north of Dead Valley, the battleground of the ages; here and now. We were seven thousand strong; seven thousand of us who never asked for this to happen, who wanted nothing more to live peacefully. But here we were: fighting against our own people alongside mortal heroes of their own times. And this was a battle we had to win.

In the distance was Eon's army, an army thousands stronger than us of Walkers who were forced against their will to fight for a tyrant, for a cause that was completely against our creed, against our way of living. Eon's punishment was death for everything he had done. Imprisonment was unsuccessful last time. Death was the answer and the only answer.

"So this is it," Stark uttered.

"Looks like it," the Star-Lord said. "Wish we had some awesome battle music to go with this."

"Oh, if only."

Gilliam walked to stand in front of our army in full battle armour like most of us. He was a shadow of the man we'd rescued from the Killing Caves. No, this man was the mighty general of the Lord of Time himself appointed to lead his army.

No one spoke. The only sounds in the air was the drums of war ahead, Eon's army marching closer to the battlefield like a black smoke drifting towards us. I could feel the tension among us. I could smell the fear wafting off of those who'd never tasted battle, those who'd never fought in a war. Looking around, I saw expressions of dread and panic. People were going to die. This was going to be a bloodbath, but it was one that had to happen for the Chronos to be free.

"Through time we walk, a road so old." I turned to the harmonic voice. Lily stood nearby, chanting a song that hadn't been sung for a time unfathomably long. "Look to the sky, the dawn will come."

I watched as the chanting grew, the Walkers' singing growing in strength as they prepared themselves for war. It was not long before I joined in, a song that touched us all in different ways. We were singing a dying song.