Fisher: Empty Saints

Bleak

After leaving Sigil through its massive gates, Philip was confronted by the city's defense system: a massive pit around the entire city designed to keep the shadows out. He directed his horse over the bridge that sealed the gap between the city and the outside world. It was an unsettling walk, as the shadows swarming underneath him constantly reached up to him, desperately grasping with whatever claws, blades or wings they spawned into this world with. Both Philip and his wolf were unnerved, his wolf enough so to hesitate on her path. She stopped dead in her tracks.

"Well, we're not getting out with that attitude, Shia."

He gently tapped Shia with his boot as a reminder that they needed to get going. She moved along in response. Philip smiled for a moment, but it quickly faded. He looked up at the horizon. Covering the blood moon was a massive castle suspended in the sky. The castle itself didn't appear to belong to this world. It seemed almost eldritch, being twisted in different directions. Half of the castle appeared to be flipped upside down. Philip frowned angrily.

Unfortunately, this god forsaken place was Philip's final destination, and also the home of his greatest enemy: Azazel, the empty saint.

The castle itself, appropriately named "Castle Inanis", was far of in the horizon, shrouded by mist and blocked by thick clusters of seemingly demonic and twisted woods. He gave Shia the signal and she began to sprint straight into the forest.

They rode for about half an hour, and Shia eventually hastily slowed down due to the terrain. She walked along carefully, minding the sticks, stones and patches of mud below her paws. Philip signaled her to stop. He looked around cautiously. He quickly looked to his left. A nearby bush was shaking.

He knew they were about to have a problem.

He looked around, cursing under his breath. More bushes were shaking, almost violently so now. Philip grabbed his gun.

"Shia!"

Shia began to ignore the terrain and started to take off. From every direction, several small shadow beasts jumped out at Philip. They looked almost like wolves made of odd flesh and black fire, and something was inexplicably strange about their appearance.

They all snarled simultaneously in the air. Philip ignored his gun for the time being, pulling out his sword as Shia kept going. With one swing, he killed three of the beasts in midair, knocking the others away. Shia desperately tried to outrun the shadows, biting one and knocking it down in the process. Philip drew his gun with his free hand. He pulled the trigger and a pulse of blue light shot out of the barrel. The shadow that was met with the light burned away, painfully denied existence. Philip kept shooting, but more shadows kept jumping out.

At the worst time possible, the terrain got the better of Shia and she tripped and fell, sending Philip careening towards the ground. Different kinds of shadows began pouring into the forest past the trees, the wolfish ones, fallen soldiers and unspeakable monsters.

Priority number one was keeping Shia safe. Philip shot anything that even tried to get close to her. A fallen soldier cackled, drawing two swords. The rest of the shadows formed a hellish din of sounds man was not meant to hear. Philip drew his sword, quickly sidestepping to avoid a soldier's attack behind him. He swung forward, cutting the fallen soldier in front of him in half. It slowly burned away, making a ghastly scream. Philip did his best to not let the sounds of the shadows get to him, but Shia was beginning to panic, whimpering desperately.

Philip swung behind himself, killing a couple of shadows behind him, but not before one of them could swing at him. He tried to dodge as quickly as possible but suffered a huge cut on his arm. The soldiers burned away as they were met with Philip's sword.

"Dammit!"

He shouted. A monstrous shadow stomped on the ground, knocking Philip back. Soldiers and beasts ran to him to kill him while he was down, but he shot some and stood up to greet them with one fell swoop of his sword. Two more large monsters appeared, charging towards Philip, as shadows kept pouring through to his location. He braced himself. As the first monster charged, he dodged to the right and held his sword out, slashing the first monster and killing it immediately. The second monster appeared bat-like and came from above. He jumped off of another monster to knock the bat down to the ground. He killed it before it could get up. The other monster charged at him before Philip could move in time and smashed into Philip. He got off of the ground, considering the possibility he had broken bones. He fell to his knees. The monster opened its jaws, about to send Philip to his horrible doom.

However, it was impaled by an unknown attacker. Philip looked up.

The trees had begun to stab the shadows around them with their huge branches. Philip couldn't believe it. After all that she's been through, Earth was still hanging on. Some of the trees moved aside, making a clear path for Philip. The branches flattens the terrain for him, as well. Philip wasted no time. He mounted Shia, trying to calm her down. She limped at first but pushed through her injury, charging straight into the path the Earth had opened for them.

Had it not been for the planet, neither of them would've survived.