The Old Gods

The Blood

"As my sister said, the Christian may have our lands when we perish, when they kill every single one of us, and even then our spirits shall continue to live! With our swords, we are going to defend our gods, our families and our home! Together my brothers and sisters, we shall fight those who dare to even think that they are above us! Together with our axes in our hands, and gods by our side, we shall fight! And we shall win! Let's show the Christians that what they call "hell"!! Have no mercy! Be ruthless! Kill every single one of them!!!" Yaropolk was yelling as the army of of pagans screamed with excitement hitting their shields with axes.

They were ready to fight for their home and die a glorious death in a battle if that is what Gods wished for their destinies to be.

The Christians watched as the pagans prepared for their battle.

"Don't let their uncivilized acts to terrify you, they are nothing more but a fist full of savages, they may be passionate, but that is not enough." Darius said.

"They will fight like an animals." Jonah said.

"Do you wish to die by my hand before the battle even begins?" Darius asked coldly, and his soldiers shivered.

"If you are afraid, leave, but then, do not come back to Walnia." Darius said and looked at the rest of his soldiers.

"With a faith in our God, we can defeat these pagans. Let me lead you into the victory." Darius said as he took the sword in his hand. His vision was damaged, most of what he saw was darkness, but Darius was used to that, his other senses became so much sharper, and he remained a dangerous warrior.

Two of the armies meet on the battlefield, both of them mercilessly killing everyone that came in front of them.

Pagans fought like a feral animals, as their axes sowed death to the Christians. But disciplined and strong soldiers from Walnia fought with all their might as well killing a great number of pagans.

Only difference between them was, that the pagans had no fear of death, because they longed for a noble death in a battle so they could meet their gods.

Zorya felt a different kind of the adrenaline take over her body, not like when she fought a bear, humans were beyond more frightening, but she was passionate in her wish to defend her lands and family.

Soon her axe crushed into the sword of Darius, and she shivered seeing his grey eyes imagining the darkness that was hovering around him. But he could see the pagan princess, her astonishing face covered in blood of Christians, as in her eyes, the fire was raging. She wanted to kill him so badly.

"Hello princess." Darius said.

Zorya ignored his greeting and attacked him with her axe, she was so fast and Darius was barely able to dodge her attacks.

How could someone so fragile, carry such a big axe?

"I would say you aren't bad, but you can't even beat a blind man?" Darius teased her and Zorya attacked once again as the anger mixed with fear slowly consumed her and taking a control over her body.

Zorya didn't want to give him any rest as she continued to attack him as fast as she could, because her speed was her biggest advantage against him.

It wasn't easy for Darius to dodge her attacks, but he managed it and he ended up slightly cutting her hand with his sword, immediately cursing himself for that, he hated when he had to hurt a woman, even if she was a pagan.

Just when Zorya was about to strike again, with a corner of her eye, she saw something that she refused to believe was real. Zorya saw Yaropolk being stabbed by a Christian and falling down on his knees. For a moment, the whole world around her stopped as she started in horror, she could swear that even her heart stopped beating as she watched her eldest brother fall on the ground and bleed.

"No! No! Stop it!" Zorya yelled as she pushed everyone who came on her way and run to her brother, catching him in her arms as he was falling.

"Zorya..." Yaropolk whispered the name of his sister as the tears formed on the corner of her eyes.

"Go sister, fight. I am not afraid." Yaropolk said as he coughed the blood.

"You are not dying!" Zorya said as she pressed his bleeding wound.

"Thank you, for not letting me to die alone. Don't let our land to be taken no matter what." Yaropolk said to his sister as he took the necklace he was wearing and gave it to her, which had a specific symbol of Kolovrat*

"I swear. You may go in peace."

Zorya cried out in pain as she took the necklace from her brother, that just died in her arms.

"Enough!" The voice of Darius echoed through the battlefield as he stood in front of Zorya. Nobody dared to approach her when he done that, the great King decided to protect the broken pagan princess who was holding a body of her dead brother in her arms silently crying and letting herself to show how broken she was.

"The prince have died. We should bury and mourn our dead before we meet on the battlefield again." Darius said.

The battle already ended, soldiers were exhausted and broken from the death of their loved ones.

"No! No! How did this happen?!" Boris asked running toward Zorya when he saw his dead twin. This was hard for Zorya, but Boris felt like the part of him died with Yaropolk, they came together on this world, and they should have left it together as well.

"You are going to pay for this! You are all going to die!" Boris yelled as his heart ached for his dead brother.

Darius said nothing, but he knew the pain of losing someone you love, and so he knew the family of the dead pagan prince will want revenge.

*"Коловрат" - Slavic sun wheel - "kolovrat" means "spinning wheel" which was one of the most respected and most powerful protective pagan symbols and a symbol of the god, Svarog. It represents strength, dignity, sun and fire and the endless cycle of birth and death, each turn of the wheel is a cycle of life in our world.

Hello everyone, here is another chapter of my story! I hope you enjoy reading it! If you like my story, please support me! It means a lot!