The sun was about to rise on the fourth day. Vidian paced in front of the men and women who were willing to fight for the village. Helena and Killian stood watching the top of the hill. The archers were standing on the walls of the town, protected to be able to complete their task of killing as many troops as they could. His armor formed around him as his horns created his helmet. His arms morphed into the beast arms. Horns rang out through the air. It wasn't the alarm horns, it was coming from the Gorge of the deep. He looked up towards the higher point of the hill and saw troops begin to emerge from the Gorge of the Deep. Hundreds of men began lining up in rows on the hill. Vidian stood still as he prepared himself for the battle. He lifted his arm and Helena and Killian moved behind the wall of men that held massive shields, "You cannot defeat a shield wall," He mumbled as they walked forwards, spears held between the gaps of the shields and several more rows behind them, "Are you ready to fight?" He shouted, "Are you ready to die?" Everyone in the shield wall responded, "Good, now, get ready to fight," The black horse broke into vision, Halvard sat atop it, with a round shield and a steel sword. He wasn't wearing the same armor, this one was larger, with large spikes on the shoulders and on the joints, his helmet had two horns that went forwards then curved back above his helmet. His troops' roars echoed down to where Vidian was standing, and with the sound of war horns, they roared as they charged down towards where the village troops were holding out, "21 to 1, I'm liking the odds," He said as the troops seemed to keep flowing from the entrance of the Gorge of the Deep, "Loose the arrows!" He shouted as arrows rained down towards the incoming, charging troops. Katie stood with Killian and Helena behind the shield wall as Vidian signaled that the wall should move forwards. They did as he said, taking what seemed like small steps each time.
Vidian prepared himself to fight as the troops broke onto the flat land that lead to the village. The first troops were arriving towards his position. He slashed through the first that tried to attack him, slicing him completely in half as his body retained its about-to-strike position. He spun under a swipe and drove his claws through the next's head, entering the front of the man's head, through his eyes, and leaving through the back of the man's helmet, coating his claws in blood.
The first, wildly charging troops slammed into the shield wall, nearly bouncing off before getting stabbed by the spear men, "Hold strong!" Killian spoke with a shout of encouragement as more and more troops neared the wall, hitting them and then getting impaled by the spears, some of them snapping at several men hit them, nearly at once, but quickly being replaced by either a new spear or a new spear man. Katie stood behind the wall, waiting to use her magic.
Vidian kept pushing forwards, out pacing the shield wall, slicing through the chain, steel and leather armor, with his claws slashing right through their soft flesh after the claws broke their protective layer. Arrows rained around him, hitting some of the men before they even broke onto the flat. Halvard the Dark was standing atop the hill, still, staring down as the troops kept coming, rushing down and charging blindly into the battle. They just kept coming, and coming, and coming, more and more men killing themselves on the shields and spears of the shield wall. He looked up as clouds gathered above the battlefield, black, dark clouds, as Halvard the Dark began walking down, slowly, as his men continued to fight. Vidian stared at him as he hacked through the men that were attacking him. They found each other's sigh as Vidian's claws sliced through a man's head. They were only several paces away from each other. A laugh came from Halvard's mask as fire encircled them both, creating an arena, for a duel.
"Move the wall forward!" Helena shouted as the warriors began moving forwards once more, double tapping the fallen men from Halvard's army as they walked over the fallen men, nearly all dead already. Arrows continued to find their marks on the troops that arrived near the shield walls.
Halvard drew his sword and pointed it at Vidian, "Get ready to die, and your resistance will be crushed."
"I don't count on dying."
"But I count on killing you," He leapt forwards and his blade barely missed Vidian, slamming into the ground, "You seem faster than I thought," Vidian tackled him as he turned to taunt him and slammed his, now human fist, into his mask, denting it. Halvard shoved him off with one hand and then got to his feet, he picked up his fallen sword and spun it in his hand. Vidian got to his feet as Halvard hurled his sword at him. He blocked it with his armor but it was a big enough distraction for Halvard to close the distance with him. He grabbed Vidian by the neck and lifted him in the air. Squeezing his throat, "I am better than you, I was counting on killing you, and therefore, I will."
"Fuck, you," Vidian said as he kicked Halvard in the side, he didn't react. Vidian was quickly losing breath. Halvard put his right hand out and the sword he had hurled at Vidian returned to his hand. He swung it back. Katie saw what was happening behind the wall of flames. Water gathered in the air as a blue aura formed around her hands.
"Vidian!" The blade swung towards the middle of his head. The blade barely touched his hair. Vidian was nearly unconscious, "Vidian! Please! Fight!" Her voice lit something inside of him.
"Katie," He mumbled as his vision began fading. He somehow found energy and his body lit up with markings and, this time, Halvard felt the impact of his kick, losing his grip and getting launched out of the fire arena. The flames died down as Halvard began getting up. Vidian grabbed his sword and it crumbled. He noticed the ball of water Katie had made before it dissipated into the air, he smiled and then got back to glaring at Halvard the Dark as he began to get up. Vidian charged at him and slammed his horns right through the armor's chest piece. He tossed him in the air and pushed off of the ground with his armor deforming. He grabbed Halvard in the air and moved his wings to make him spin as they fell to the floor. He held Halvard and himself head down as he brought them down, slamming Halvard's head first, but this attack was a double edged sword, making him hit the floor as well. He got up weakly as he noticed a blade of water save him from one of Halvard's troops and an arrow hit another one. He created two large beast claws and jammed the massive, wedge claws into Halvard's broken armor. He was nearly completely out of energy. He slammed Halvard into his knee, bending him completely over it. Halvard slammed his fist into Vidian's helmet as if nothing had affected him. Halvard removed his helmet as he began laughing.
"This armor sealed my powers, but now, I am unleashed!" The troops that had been leaving the Gorge turned tail and ran as Halvard laughed, but only to be cut down by some unknown and unseen attacker. All of their bodies disappeared from the ground as souls were sucked into Halvard.
"Helena! Killian! Get out of here, he will kill all of you before he kills me, he needs souls to gain power! Get to safety, I'll deal with him!"
"We trust you with this!" The troops began backing up and soon dispersed out of the battlefield, "We hope you make it."
"I will," Halvard's face was completely dark, as if it was a dark cave with two glowing red eyes seeming to be floating. His body was hidden by a black cloak but his hands were bones and his legs had a weird looking armor on them. He blinked in front of Vidian and slammed his bone fist into his helmet, projecting him back, before appearing above Vidian while he was still in the air and hitting him to the floor, cratering the ground. He blinked back and seemed to force Vidian's body to stand. He laughed again and blinked in front of Vidian once more, but instead of hitting his front, he blinked behind Vidian and grabbed his waist and slammed his shoulders behind him on the ground, before hurling him, by the legs, into a boulder on the battlefield. Vidian had barely enough time to form his armor as his body shattered the boulder. He coughed violently as he looked up, just in time to see Halvard landing on him and cratering the ground once more. He grabbed Vidian by the ankle and hurled his body once more, like a rag-doll, before blinking in front of Vidian's path and slamming his shoulder into him, stopping him dead in his tracks, and making him fall the other way.
"Vidian!" Halvard turned his head and laughed, "You can't die on me!"
"Katie," Vidian barely had enough energy to even speak, "Don't do this," Halvard began walking towards her. Vidian's blessing of nature began shining as the ground crackled and massive roots pinned Halvard where he was. This gave Vidian enough time to get to his feet and taunt Halvard and gesturing for Halvard to hit him again. Halvard broke out of the roots as if it was nothing and blinked in front of Vidian, who ducked as if he was going to tackle him, dodging the blink attack behind him. A massive spear of water slammed through Halvard's chest before wrapping around his entire body, "Nice one, Katie," Vidian's body lit up with markings as he charged at Halvard, driving his helmet right into Halvard's chest, which was followed by the sound of breaking bones. Vidian created a blade with his right forearm and slammed it down, piercing through the pitch blackness of his head. He twisted the blade and Halvard let out a scream of agony as he hurled Vidian off of him and got up, grabbing around his body, seemingly in pain. He screamed as light began breaking through the pitch black clouds and blue light began eating away at his body. He screamed in pain as his body began fading, "How could I be defeated by some human?"
"I am not some human," He paused and smiled, "I am Vidian of the Great Desert, Eternum's Trusted, and this was my work, the Work of War, and now, the one who falls, in't me, it's you," Halvard the Dark vanished from the realm as the sun broke through the pitch black clouds. Vidian fell to his knees, coughing blood, he rolled onto his back and looked up to the sky, "I might have just failed my quest."
"Vidian!" It was Katie's voice, she was next to him, kneeling down, "Vidian, answer me please, just respond," She was on the edge of tears, his arm weakly moved up and held her arm as the sun began to hit his spread wings, "Vidian?"
"Leave me, h-," He couldn't finish his sentence, "Leave me, for a wh-."
"I can't let you die, Vidian, I can't let you die on me, I wouldn't be able to live with myself, you can't leave me!" She began sobbing, grabbing his hand.
"Not what I meant."
"What did you mean then?" She looked confused, he gestured to the sky as the clouds began parting, "What about the sky?"
"Let my wings feel the sun," She nodded as the sun slowly inched towards him, "I will have enough energy to walk, I hope, but my body will not have recovered, totally," The sun began to shine over his open wings, "It will take a little bit of time, I think, I am beat."
"If you don't die on me, I will be fine, I can wait here forever."
"Thank you, thank you Katie, how did you stop him?" He coughed.
"I don't know, I don't even know."
"I know what it was, at least, I think," He said looking up at her, "Lord Inventaariy, when I was training you, told me that I could make you gain power with strong emotional events, love, life or death, things like that, so showing you how I kinda felt, so I kissed you, and then now, when I was fighting, I guess you were scared about me dying, and you gained massive power."
"Really?" She began talking to herself, "Does that mean I actually love him?"
"What was that? I didn't catch that."
"Nothing, nothing," She was blushing brightly, "I love you, Vidian."
"I know, so do I."
"Are you really, Eternum's Trusted?"
"Yes, I am, I am Eternum's Trusted, that is why I collect blessings, that is why, I am here, and why I put my life on the line."
"Is that the only reason?"
"No, I had another reason, more important than being Eternum's Trusted, do you want to hear it?"
"Yes, I do, I would want to hear it."
"You were my reason, the reason I suffered this much to defend the village, to defend you."
"You are adorable, why do you love me?"
"I don't know, I just do."
"Vidian, I want you."
"Say what?"
"I want to bear your child."
"What?"
"Don't make me embarrass myself this much."
"I can't do that for you, right, now, I have to recover, but are you sure?"
"I would want to give my life to you, unless you don't want me to."
"You know I can't stay here with you, and we have only known each other for, for 5 days."
"I have thought of it," She sighed, "But, I still, want to."
"Okay, once I am better, I will think about it," The sun began beaming over his entire wingspan, "Thank you for caring for me, and helping me."
"Of course, I would never let you down, or just leave you alone," She hesitated then blushed as she spoke, "Can I kiss you?"
"Of course."
"Thank you," Her lips pressed against his as his arms moved behind her and held her down. She had her eyes closed, Vidian decided to do the same, still holding her on his body.