KEEL THE DEMONSLAYER

7 - The Ice Warrior

When I unexpectedly found love...

I missed my family. I wondered if my sister and my children would be well. I also missed seeing friends like Helmut and Raastad. I had been many years since our last encounter.

The news I got from Helmut was that after the loss of his axe in Drexa, he went on a personal journey to get it back. Rumors said that the axe was now possessed by Duke Zimbros. Devian's brother, Prince Nöl was helping Helmut in this quest. The Scarlet-Bright Staff was now with Nöl. He was not beloved by his father, the great king Öfinnel Prístimos, as his deceased brother Devian. That's because Nöl had married a Vetmös woman called Chira. The marriage between Holmös and Vetmös was seen as something awful in the society of men. Both cultures were very close in the past but they had serious disagreements and now they hated each other. Not to mention that the Vetmös are the ones to blame for bringing the demons into our world.

Raastad was also having a hard time recovering from the loss of his dragon, Hel. He retired from the front lines establishing himself as Force Commander at Nish.

The triplet's weapons were apart from each other since our deadly confrontation with Lord Grevos. I acted now as general of one the four remaining elven armies. I commanded the ground troops to repel the most tough and brutal hordes led by the fearsome Duke Vetzla.

Increasingly, we understood the hordes' organization and features. The hordes held a similar chain of command and power structures. Below the powerful Dukes of the abyssal hells, four Lords took positions according to their age, power and number of souls they consumed, controlled or dominated. Below each of these Lords, four powerful demons, which we called general demons, commanded hundreds of smaller hordes. The demon captains commanded smaller hordes of hundreds of demons from the larval stage until the stronger and vicious ones we called lieutenants. The top boss was the high lord of abyssal planes known by many names, among them Arcanael.

The lands we defended were beyond the mountain range northeast of the Sacred Valley, from where we had driven the hordes of the hideous Duke Zimbros. Our army was small compared to Öfinnel's. He was called the king without a kingdom. Despite our successful campaign in the sacred valley, nothing remained of his kingdom but ruins. I had the opportunity to hear him say: "My kingdom are my men. Where we gather to fight, there'll be my kingdom".

Little is known about the involvement of the Gods in the millennial war, but one fact was noteworthy, they had the courage to penetrate Arcanael's infernal dimensions to obtain a rare metal that inflicted weakness and submission on many demons. News about a small amount of this metal obtained, enough to forge a single weapon, raised the morale of the troops. Those who saw the green metal said the sight of its brightness couldn't be forgotten.

However, the good news brought unwanted side effects. Enraged by the incident, the supreme commander of the hordes commanded fierce attacks across the world. An ambush was upon my troops. Duke Marlak, Duke Zimbros and Duke Vetzla joined forces to destroy our army and capture me and the Balcatemi.

"General there is no hope. It is impossible for us to withdraw" said one of the officers taken by despair.

I watched the chaos of that battle, certainly the worst battle I have been in. Our army was decimated by the hordes. They came by land and air with numbers ten to fifteen times higher than ours. The Balcatemi was pulsing in my hands and unlike the officer, I felt that somehow, we could still win.

Small groups with less than twenty fighters resisted the attack gathering their last resources but death was coming fast.

"General, fast, a wall of fire!" asked Fherziir an experienced spell caster.