The Falling of Hell's Army

~The Rescue~

Leo almost began to give up hope, he was afraid of what was to come next. He thought for sure that he was going to die. He even contemplated what life would be like if he were imprisoned and even tried to think about the positives that would come from it, but before his last flicker of hope had been blown out like a three day old candle, he had seen the arrow pass his face, right next to it. It was the arrow that would give birth to a roaring forest fire of hope that would never go out. Although in this case the arrow did stand for more than just hope, it stood for an attack, an attack on his capturers. The arrow that had passed his face had slammed into the Warden's chest and he was crippled to the floor. Before the guards could think of what to do next, a fleet of arrows flew right by and began to stick into the flesh of the other guards and while they were all writhing in pain, men came bursting from the trees in the forest that they had walked into. They came bursting into battle with their swords swinging high in the air to intimidate the already injured guards. Soon a massive sword fight had broken out, one that had left Leo in an almost shocked state. He had felt the fear coursing through his own veins and was unsure of what to do. He was no stranger when it came to blood, gore, and violence, but something about this fight had shocked him. It was the first battle he had been in, and a small one at that. He knew that once he had gotten used to it, he would be unaffected, and he began to move.

The ground began to feel less like jello and more like cement. He leaped away from the Warden. Looking back on the battlefield, Leo witnessed a sight not seen by most, a battle between fellow human beings. Leo didn’t realize that this kind of stuff would happen in a world where the human race was facing extinction from demons. He couldn’t stand this sight and ran to the fight and picked up a blade from the ground from a fallen soldier and began to slice open the men that were planning to transport him. Eventually all that remained was the warden.

Leo walked up to him and smiled, “So I guess this was a turn of events that you just weren’t expecting, huh?”

The warden laughed as he began to cough up blood. “Please, if you really think that this if over then you really are as crazy as you seem. Don’t you realize that we will not stop here? We have been fighting demons for centuries and now that you’re here, we finally have a breakthrough in ending this war. We just don’t know a hundred percent what that is, but don’t you worry, once you’re captured and poked and prodded, we will find out, and you will lose.”

The commander of the platoon that freed Leo walked up and sneered, “Listening to you is a bore. All you do is spin the same track, you really do need to be more aware of your surroundings. You lost, you’re at our mercy now and believe me when I tell you that that’s not a good thing. You will die here today. Men, I order you to- “

Leo shook his head and interrupted him, “Hold off on that!” Everyone including the warden seemed stunned by this sudden outburst. “I know how badly you want to kill him, believe me I do too, but there’s something more important here at stake than just his life and ours. It’s the entire human race that counts and I am not endangering everyone just so I can get the last laugh. I may not know you but like it or not, we need him alive. He will be delivering a message to his leader. If we ever want to win this war, we need to join forces. You say that this war has been going on for centuries, well that only means that every day the demons grow stronger, and we get weaker. We can no longer afford to fight each other and hell’s army, we must join together if we all want to live.”

The leader of the platoon smiled and looked at Leo, “You really are something else aren’t you? You might be our way out, but you really don’t have any idea about the world you’re living do you?”

Leo looked confused, but he then understood what the man was driving at and shook his head. “Yeah I guess you’re right, but would you be willing to educate me?”

He shook his head, “We don’t have time, we must go now and regroup with the others. I will fill you in on the details later. All that I can say now is that my name is Aster and I am the last noble knight in my clan to lead all that’s left of the resistance.”

Leo smiled, “Hey, sounds good to me.” He turned to the warden and smiled, “Listen warden, I don’t know your name or frankly anything about you. But I’m entrusting you to deliver this message to your leader in exchange for your life. Tell him that I’m not running and that when the time is right, I will be coming for him. Not to kill him, but to talk with him. If he really wants to end this war, then he will see me, and listen to what I have to say.”

Aster ordered his men to clear out and Leo followed. They cut through the woods and Leo thought that they had gone into a jungle. Aster turned to Leo as they walked, “So, do you know if you’re our savior or are you just as clueless as the rest of us?”

Leo laughed, “Well I don’t know about clueless, at least not anymore. I have sort of an idea what I’m doing here, and what’s going on.”

Aster smiled, “So, care to fill me in?”

Leo sighed, “Eh, I don’t know. I mean there are still a lot of remaining questions that I have that have yet to be answered.”

Aster nodded his head, “I would expect nothing else, but you must know one thing, everything you think you know about this world is wrong.”

Aster walked away leaving Leo with that thought and he tried to think about it for a while. Finally, the seemingly endless jungle began to come to an end and on the other side was a group of men facing a giant lake. Aster ordered his men to board the ship that was anchored in the water. Leo was taken back, the ship was huge. It had to be a hundred yards long and thirty yards wide. Men were loading crates full of resources into the bottom of the boat and Aster made his way to the top.

He pulled out a giant horn and when he spoke into it, his voice was amplified ten fold. “Listen to me all hands on deck, we must depart from this place, we have the special cargo we came for and more than enough natural resources to survive these next upcoming weeks and we must leave before we are discovered.”

Men came running from the bottom and they pulled all of the anchors out from the bottom, then they raised the flags and set sail. Leo took a minute to explore the ship. The crew on board were always staying busy. There was always a floor for them to clean or cargo for them to organize or anchors to be washed and scrubbed. He went and talked to them all to find out where they were going, but no one would give him a straight answer. Eventually Leo just gave up and waited for the ship to reach its destination. Not long after it finally had. It came up to a big dock area and the crew dropped the anchors into the water and lowered the sails. Then they all grabbed a barrel from the jungle and they brought it to the land. Once Leo had stepped onto the ground he noticed the military fortress.