Whittham finishes the final preparations, he walks through the walls and checks in personally with his soldiers along with general Durkins.
A party of scouts enter through the gate and are taken to their ruler. The leader of said group introduces himself and reports,
"My lord, it is as speculated. The abyss demons are biding their time in the valley.
Whittham looks at his options and turns to the scout,
"How many are there, soldier?
The soldier hesitates,
"At least a hundred thousand…sir." His voice shakes.
The rest of the soldiers look at each other. They can scarcely believe that a great host of a hundred thousand demons will soon approach their very doorstep. Whittham points to the tower, which is part of the castle. It has been transformed into a large cannon. Whittham turns to them and explains,
"This cannon uses the power of the green crystals of the abyss. It can cripple almost any being that comes across its path."
Durkins still appears doubtful,
"I hope Jervaintus comes back in time. If we lost this battle, humanity will forever be lost."
Sirena bolsters their courage,
"He will come. He will save us again."
The skies grow into the darkest. The winds let out a terrifying howl across the plains. A thunderstorm rumbles in the distance.
Whittham orders his soldiers to go into battle positions. He turns to Durkins,
"I will go man the cannon. Can you handle the defense?"
He nods and accepts it, even cracking a smile,
"May God help us all."
The great demon army marches forward to the city. They emerge from the valley by the thousands with each second passed. Old and new breeds of them mixed together combine to create a deadly force.
The demon knights form a shield wall, their siege demons rip off great trees by their roots, the juggernauts plow through the weaker demons and are itching to charge straight ahead.
The tension in the upcoming battle starts to become heavy. It's as if the very world was put on the shoulders of every one of the soldiers. Fight or die, that is their only choice.
The demon horde starts banging their war drums. The horrifying sound sings a song of doom across the city. Each pounding on the drums made of human flesh sets the fear inside each and every one of the soldiers.
General Durkins rallies the soldiers together,
"Stand your ground and stand proud! You are the soldiers of this great kingdom! Will we allow these wretched demons to just walk in and take it on a whim?"
The soldiers collectively shout "No!" and regain their composure. The artillery squads man their cannons. Archers form ranks from behind the walls.
The demons scream profanities in their language to the humans. Their general, a knight in extravagant black armor riding a war horse comes forth. He draws his sword and readies the charge.
Sirena joins in with the other riflemen as they load up their weapons. She stares off into the field, the demons are ready now. She closes and does a silent prayer.
The demon leader signals the charge, the demons eagerly run with reckless abandon. They raise their weapons like wild creatures with the purpose of pure destruction.
As the demon army closes in, a great flash of light engulfs the field and a green fireball crashes down, wiping out the middle of the army.
Two beings emerge from the flames, it is Jervaintus and Luscenda, backs against each other, their swords ready. The demon leader is shocked,
"Slay the traitor and the abyss walker! Slay them now!" He commands.
The human forces are startled by this show of power. Jervaintus beckons the demons to come at them. Luscenda readies her blade.
The demons attempt to close in on them but they get pushed back to the extreme by the sheer savagery of the two abyss walkers. Heads start to roll like the thunder in the skies above them. This reinvigorates the soldiers of Agnaum: their hope has arrived.
Sirena stands eagerly on the wall, wanting to get into the mix but she realizes she would only hinder them. Durkins redirects the ranged combatants to provide the abyss walkers cover fire. Cannons fire off into the massive hordes, temporarily leaving holes in their armies before the demons converge again. Durkins surverys the battlefield,
"It's as if the entirety of the abyss has been emptied upon us. Their God grows desperate."
Jervaintus and Luscenda split up, taking the raging demon hordes by themselves. No demon can handle their powers, let alone touch them in combat. Jervaintus unleashes his sword's energies and wipes out a third of the field. This however, takes a lot out of him.
Durkins receives word from a soldier that he can signal the soldiers to charge. The demons start to ignore Jervaintus and Luscenda and starts charging at the city. The front line gets formed in front of the gate.
They will have a better chance fighting them at a choke point, Durkins thinks. The wyvern descends from the skies and helps Jervaintus and Luscenda regroup with the human forces. They get approached by Durkins.
Luscenda takes off her helmet to have a breather. The men gasp as they see such beauty. Sirena joins in with them and notices she and Jervaintus share the same eyes,
"So, you really are mother and son?"
Luscenda nods and the men collectively are in shock from this. Luscenda looks at Sirena,
"You're my son's friend?"
She nods.
"Thank you for taking care of him while I was away." She smiles at her.
Jervaintus breaks them up,
"If you guys are done, we have the entire demon army on our doorstep."
Durkins agrees,
"We will hold them for as long as it takes and then fight them in the city."
The choke point will help them beat the numbers. Whittham approaches the group,
"I shall partake in this battle as well."
The soldiers' courage gets boosted in the presence of their ruler. He explains to them,
"The cannon is primed and ready to fire."
Durkins turns and asks him,
"Won't we get hit in the crossfire?"
Whittham points towards the gate, there is some sort of gem near the very top of it. He tells everyone to duck down, and they do.
The cannon finishes up gathering energy and unleashes a miniscule beam of light firing off into the gem. Jervaintus looks at Whittham,
"Is that supposed to be our super secret weapon to--"
As the light crosses the gem, it gets amplified into a wave of massive destruction against the demons. The blast becomes powerful, it lit up the entire field for a moment. Whittham calls forth the soldiers on the wall,
"Any survivors?"
The soldier takes a good, long look and turns back at him,
"Just a few stragglers, sir! Most of them are gone."
Whittham turns to Jervaintus,
"Yes, that is our super secret weapon." He smiles.
An eeriness surrounds them still. Jervaintus looks at the battlefield from the wall. Luscenda shortly joins him,
"You feel it too, don't you?" She turns to him.
The skies turn into a mixture of orange and red, a great flaming portal rips the clouds apart forcefully. Godfrey descends once more, this time in a more powerful form. He is accompanied by a small but elite host of monsters. They are nothing like the abyss demons and yet so much more.
Durkins looks on with horror,
"God help us…" He rallies the soldiers into a defensive formation.
Godfrey draws his flaming blade and points at the abyss walker,
"I will end you, bastard! As soon as I finish your mother!" He trembles in rage, his flames become intense, it burns the ground he walks on.
Jervaintus feels the power shift, the pressure is started to get to him. His mother holds onto his shoulder, bringing a calm feeling across his body. She leans in and whispers,
"Hold steady, my son. He will not gain victory this day."
The monsters are equipped in crude, dark grey metals and searing hot chains. They are a big, hulking mass of pure hatred. They slay upon the gates with such intensity, the timber starts breaking upon and the iron starts being disfigured.
The soldiers bust out of the gate and charge with ferocity matching that of these monsters. If they will fall, they will fall with their honor. Godfrey has enough of this nonsense and personally takes on the bulk of their army himself.
Before he could even reach the humans, the wyvern, with Jervaintus and Luscenda, picks him off with his mouth and leads them away from the fight. The creature drops Godfrey as Jervaintus jumps and stabs him deep into the ground. Luscenda follows suit.
Godfrey shoves Jervaintus away from him,
"You troublesome child, get out of my way--"
Luscenda catches him off guard with several slices across his chest. Godfrey swings his flaming sword, inflicting several burns on her. Jervaintus strikes him from the back, only to be punched into the ground. He prepares to strike the abyss walker with his sword.
Luscenda stops him from doing so by hitting his face with the pommel of her sword. Sirena slowly sneaks from a safe distance, trying to take a look at the fight. The two on one fight is taking a toll on the demigod.
"Curse you for giving birth to that thing, woman!" Godfrey swears at Luscenda.
Luscenda grins and slashes him across the throat which causes him to wince in pain. The flames around him starts to die out. He lets out a roar and they grow hot once more.
Jervaintus gives a swift kick to Godfrey's nether regions. His slash gets blocked and he gets his head bashed onto a boulder. Luscenda engages Godfrey's sword with hers,
"You revealed what kind of man you truly were when you begged for your life to be spared that day."
Godfrey scoffs and retorts,
"No man will be able to defeat the Abyss God."
Luscenda raises her eyebrow,
"And yet this one has nearly crippled the Abyss almost single handedly." She tilts her head to Jervaintus.
Godfrey breaks off and attempts to stab her, she turns into her shadow form and phases through his attack. Jervaintus re-enters the battle and slashes very hard against the demigod's neck.
Godfrey channels his flames and his temperature becomes intense, it forces the other two away. He is visibly shaken from this assault and tries to escape.
He tries to jump off the cliff near them but Luscenda stops him from doing so. Jervaintus assists her, he wrestles Godfrey into the ground attempted to choke him out. Godfrey grins as he unleashes his most powerful flame aura.
Jervaintus screams in pain, the intensity of the flames were strong enough to melt the strongest of metals. He is incapacitated temporarily. Godfrey and Luscenda have their one last dance together.
Their duel lasts for a better part of an hour. Godfrey starts to slow down, the battle is taking a big hit on his stamina. He starts to play defensive against Luscenda. She keeps her assault, her speed never wavering. Godfrey tries to think of some way to get out of this predicament.
He gives a strong strike against Luscenda, knocking her into the ground. Godfrey approaches the recovering Jervaintus, his sword glows its brightest. He prepares to strike Jervaintus,
"End of the line, you wannabe hero."
Luscenda steps in front of him, absorbing the blow. The sword burns through her heart. Her blade is disintegrated as it tried to block it. Jervaintus looks up and gets shocked by the scene in front of him.
Godfrey kicks her dying body off him him, and looks at her with a disgusted look. He looks back to Jervaintus who is now in a different form.
Jervaintus becomes the very personification of vengeance itself. He is cloaked with an armor of pure darkness, his eyes glow with an intense shade of green. Godfrey slowly steps back and mutters under his breath,
"The avatar of vengeance…"
The final straw was seeing the mother he wanted to bond with taken away from him. His father's selfishness caused the world to be in the state that it's in. His consciousness fades as his vengeance takes over him.
Godfrey panics and swings his sword at him. Jervaintus blocks him easily and the sword's flames completely die out. This shocks the demigod as he tries to retreat.
He kicks the dirt in an attempt to blind Jervaintus and escape. This barely dazes the avatar of vengeance, he grabs Godfrey from the back, stabbing through his heart with the sword. This angers Godfrey,
"I…I will not let you get the victory here, Jervaintus!"
He grabs Jervaintus and falls off into the ocean. He takes off a necklace and activates its power. Sirena rushes to the edge of the cliff and the two are nowhere to be found. Only two lights sinking into the depths of the seas.
The battle is eventually won by the humans, who outlasted the monstrosities brought by Godfrey. Whittham and Durkins assesses the damages. They see Sirena by the cliffs on her knees.
Durkins reaches her first and kneels beside her,
"What happened, girl. Where's the Abyss Walker?"
She slowly turns and could not contain her tears any longer. This was enough to tell Durkins what happened. Whittham observes the ocean below,
"The battle may have been won, but the war is far from over. The Abyss God still lives."
Months have passed since that day, the kingdom of Agnaum has been rebuilt back to its former strength. The survivors of the other kingdoms however are still scattered throughout the land, still fighting against the remnants of the abyss demons.
Some of the mages explain to Whittham that the Abyss has fully become unstable, the demon threat has been halted for now. Sirena sits nearby, unmoving and still mourning the loss of Jervaintus.
Sirena regrets not telling him the feelings she had for him. She punished herself every day for not being there when he needed her. She just stays in the same place of the castle recollecting those events.
A young soldier enters the castle and seeks an audience with Whittham. The girl runs out of breath from her excitement. He comforts her,
"Breathe, girl. What news do you have for me?"
She collects her breath,
"My lord, I believe I may have found the Abyss Walker."
- Volume End -