Screams and shouts echoed through the air, and black clouds of smoke rose from the burning buildings around Cruxia. She couldn't believe that this was happening again. Only months ago, the Anxoyal had set half of the buildings in the settlement on fire. Her people hadn't gotten the chanceto rebuild all those burned to ashes yet. And now it was happening again.
Cruxia looked around in panic, searching for other Yxals. She spotted a woman with short blue hair not far away from her. Around her, several corpses, separated body parts, weapons and armour parts were scattered all over the blood-soaked ground. She didn't hesitate to approach the other woman. "What is going on?"
"We are under attack," the woman answered.
"Under attack? By who?"
"I have no idea...They came so quickly. Everything was fine, and then huge missiles crashed down on us and set our buildings on fire."
"It can only be another clan attacking us," Cruxia concluded. "Where is my father?"
"I have no doubt he is in the throne room," the blue-haired woman responded.
Cruxia put a hand on the woman's shoulder and stared into her green eyes, whose sclerae were black. "I need you to rally our warriors. We need to defend our home by any means."
"I will."
"What's your name?"
"Octavia."
"I rely on you, Octavia."
"I won't disappoint you."
"Good. Now go."
Octavia hurried away, and Cruxia set herself in motion, sprinting to the Hall of Power, where her father most likely was. It was one of the few buildings that did not burn because of the material they were made of. Cruxia wished all buildings were made of stone, but they weren't. She had to make sure that the builders would use stone and not wood the next time they would get rebuilt. If her clan would get the chance to rebuild anything. It was not foreseeable how many of her people would survive this attack. If all three clans attacked them, the chance that none would survive was high.
She had to speak to her father, find out what was happening, and then develop a plan. There were no guards in front of the main entrance, which would be odd usually, but in this situation, it was understandable that the guards were not at their post. She did not doubt that her father had called them to protect him.
Cruxia rushed through the first corridor and came to the next, and her eyes widened when she spotted two bodies lying in a massive puddle of blood. Despite her fear, she could still move and reach the bodies. She feared that something terrible had happened to her father.
She squatted down and examined the bodies closer, finding that one belonged to her clan, but the other didn't. The other Yxal looked much different from her clan members. Judging by their physique, she assumed it was a male.
His face didn't look similar to the faces of her clan. It had more in common with the face of a beast than with her face or the face of any other member of her clan. It reminded her of her father's face, the only member of their clan that didn't look like the others. But she knew the reason for that. Dark magic and the overuse of the artefact had altered his appearance for the worse. But it had not only changed his appearance.
Cruxia wondered if the other clan members of this Yxal looked similar to him or if he was just an exception like her father. Following the corridor course, she discovered that the dead Yxal was not the only one with monstrous facial features. There were many other dead bodies with similar facial features. Cruxia knew that the clans were different from each other in many aspects, even in appearance.
She had known of minor differences, but she had not thought there would be a clan so different from hers. The faces of those were not the only body parts that were beastly. They also had big claws with long fingernails as hands and tails came out of their backs, right above their rears. Scales partly covered their skin. For Cruxia, they looked like a mixture between a Yxal and a reptile.
A fight had happened in these corridors; the blood was fresh, just like the corpses. It had happened not long ago. Cruxia was wondering why no one had informed her about the attack or why she hadn't heard anything while she had been in the prison to visit the prisoners. She should have heard something, but she didn't for some reason. If only she would know the reasons for that.
But she didn't have the time to figure out what went wrong. She had to look for her father. She hoped he was alright. She had yet to learn how many clans came and how many fighters they brought. It was very likely that more than one clan was attacking them.
She ran as fast as she could without stumbling over one of the dead bodies, eventually arriving in the throne room. Her eyes widened when she saw the scene in front of her. Lots of dead bodies and separated body parts were scattered all over the floor, which was covered in blood. She could recognise members of her clan, the other clan, and clans she hadn't seen before. It seemed that two more clans were involved in this massacre, and she did not doubt that the three clans that were attacking them were the same clans that had killed her father's ambassadors.
The Bonebreaker, the Skullcrusher and the Man-Eater Clan.
Her father was in the middle of the massacre. He sat on his knees; his nose was broken, and blood was flowing out of several wounds that covered his body. He looked beaten; his left hand was missing, his sword hand. It lay not far from him; the sword's hilt was still tightly clutched.
Three creatures stood beside him, and one pressed a sword against his throat. It was a female as tall as Cruxia's father. Her skin was pitch-black, and her horns were bent like the horns of a billy goat. The armour she wore was as black as her skin, and her eyes were crimson red. She had a beautiful face and pure, short white hair contrasting her skin colour.
The male on her left belonged to the clan that had similarities with reptiles. He was pretty muscular, and his face was as ugly as the faces of the other clan members Cruxia had seen so far. He didn't wear any suit of armour because thick bronze scales covered his entire body, offering him excellent protection against sharp objects or projectiles.
The last of the three was smaller and thinner than the other two, and his appearance wasn't extraordinary compared to the others. He looked similar to the members of Cruxia's clan. The only visible difference was his ears. While the members of Cruxia's clan had long, pointed ears, the man's ears were neither long nor pointed. He had tiny round outer ears, similar to the ears of Keristians. He had short brunette hair and a crooked nose.
Cruxia drew her mace from her back as she thought about rushing to them and attacking them, but she decided against that idea when she spotted the numerous warriors around her that didn't belong to her clan. The three Yxals next to her father, who Cruxia guessed to be the leaders of the three clans, turned their heads and looked at her.
"Look who we have here," the woman said as she took a closer look at Cruxia.
"Just another piece of trash," the man to her left responded.
"Another body for the gutter," the brunette man replied.
"Leave him alone," Cruxia spat. "Withdraw your troops, and we will forget about this incident."
The three broke out in uproarious laughter. "Nice try, kid," the reptile Yxal replied.
"Why should we leave? We don't have any reason, do we?" asked the brunette man. Cruxia recognised the form of his belt buckle. It was a skull that was split into several fragments. It was the symbol of the Skullcrusher Clan.
She also knew the name of the leader of the Bonebreaker Clan. Cestra. It was a female name, so the dark-skinned woman who pressed her sword against her father's throat must be the leader of that clan. That meant that the reptile-looking Yxal was the leader of the Man-Eater Clan.
"We shouldn't go to war with each other while the Anxoyal and Keristians conspire against our kind. They want to exterminate us. If we want to prevent that, we must work together," Cruxia replied.
"That's cheap coming from you," Cestra replied.
Cruxia raised a brow. "What do you mean?"
"First, you extinguished the Corpse-Speaker Clan, and now you plead that we shouldn't fight each other? That's quite a double standard, isn't it? What do you think, Macs?" Cestra asked, looking at the leader of the Man-Eater Clan.
"I agree," Macs replied. "Killing every single clan member of a rival clan but then complaining when another clan is about to do the same. Doesn't make sense to me."
Cruxia bit her bottom lip, not knowing what to say in return. Cestra and Macs were right. Her father annihilated a whole clan, and other clans want to punish him for that. It was somehow justified. An eye for an eye.
There was nothing she could say to make them change their minds. The three clans had just looked for a reason to eliminate Cruxia's clan. All the clans were different in one way or another, but they were very similar at their core. All Yxals hungered for power and territories. It was safe to say that the motivation of the clans was not to avenge the Corpse-Speaker Clan. They wanted to make their competition smaller and gain more territories, resources and, most importantly, power.
"You want resources and territories, don't you? We can pay you. Gold, silver or other rare materials. We have slaves, weapons and much more. We can give you half of our territory and pay you every year from now on. Over the years, you will gain more than you gain if you wipe us out now and take everything we have. It will be more profitable for you in the long run," Cruxia said to them.
"That sounds like a promising offer," commented the brunette Yxal.
"I will never give up any of my territories, nor will I hand you any of my resources voluntarily," Broxa spat. His voice was full of hatred.
Cruxia's gaze fell on her father; worry appeared in her eyes. His response didn't surprise her at all. Her father had always been power-hungry; he had never been anything else. He had once been the first herald of the Sinister Sin of Greed. Thousands of years ago, when the Seven Sinister Sins spread chaos and fear in Xevas. Even though the Sin of Greed no longer influenced him, he still hungered for power, resources and many other things. He had never stopped being greedy.
Cestra chuckled, and a wide grin appeared on her lips. "I knew you would say that."
Broxa regarded her with narrowed eyes. "I would rather die than give you a single coin."
"We can arrange that," Cestra replied, leaving a cut on Broxa's neck.
"Father!" Cruxia exclaimed. "They will kill you if you do not surrender and give them everything they want!"
"They are killing me no matter what I do!" Broxa hissed. "How can you be so naive? They decided to kill me the moment they set foot in my settlement.
"He's right," Macs confirmed, his gaze fell on Cruxia. "So you are one of his many children, I see. You don't look like him at all."
"I take that as a compliment," Cruxia replied. Her voice was monotonous, and her eyes were narrowed and rested on Macs.
"We could make use of a woman with such good looks, what you think, Yart?" Macs asked the brunette Yxal.
"I will not be one of your slaves, used by your soldiers to satisfy their base needs!" hissed Cruxia.
"You figure out soon that you won't have any choice in this matter," Yart replied with a mischievous grin on his pale lips.
Cruxia's eyes narrowed to slits. "Over my dead body."
"Be careful what you wish for."
"Go fuck yourself."
Soft laughter escaped Yart's lips. "So mean. I wonder if you will still behave the same way when I'm done with you."
"Come at me, and I will crush your ugly head with my mace," Cruxia spat.
"If you fight us, I will kill your father," Cestra threatened. "Best for you is to surrender and become our slave."
"Never!" Her gaze fell on her father again, whose face reflected anger.
"Run, you fool!" he spat. A moment later, his head rolled off his shoulders. Cestra stopped it from rolling further by putting her foot on it. But she didn't intend to stop it. She crushed the head with her massive hoof so that blood and organs splattered across the ground.
Cruxia had no time to mourn her father. Soldiers were walking towards her, wanting to attack her. She couldn't fight them, so she had no choice but to run. Tears formed in the corners of her eyes as she hurriedly left the room. She heard loud voices behind her, but she didn't stop running.
It didn't shock her that more buildings than before were burning as she left the Hall of Power. More corpses and body parts were scattered around her. Another blood bath had happened in the meantime. She spotted several Yxals fighting. There were by far more enemies than allies. They were outnumbered. It was only a matter of time until the last would fall.
Everything was going down the tub. Cruxia's father was dead; her settlement was burning, and too many members of her clan were dead already. She knew they didn't stand a chance against the forces of the Skullcrusher, Bonebreaker and Man-Eater Clan. They might have been able to defend the settlement against one clan, but they didn't have the slightest chance against three clans simultaneously. The battle had already been lost before it had started. The odds were not in their favour.
Celeste had few options. Fighting would lead to her death. The settlement was lost, and all she could do was rally as many inhabitants as possible and flee somehow. She picked up the horn of a fallen soldier of her clan and blew it, signalling her people that they should flee. She put the horn on her belt and ran away to the rest, noticing the warriors that came out of the Hall of Power that she had just left a few moments ago. They were hot on her trail. She had no choice but to run as fast as she could, which was not easy while wearing armour and holding a heavy mace. Nevertheless, she was faster than her pursuers for some reason.
She ran around the prison, running into a member of the Man-Eater Clan, whom she knocked over by accident. The woman landed on her back and intended to get up, but Cruxia didn't give her the chance to do that. She had pulled her mace from her back and taken a swing before the woman could realise what was happening. She crushed the woman's skull with the heavy mace head, ignoring the blood that splattered on her face.
She had no time to regard the corpse any longer; she had to continue moving. She hoped that enough members of her clan had heard the horn. She hoped they would stop fighting and flee as long as they could. That was the only chance for her clan to survive. She didn't want her clan to end like the Corpse-Speaker Clan. Completely obliterated.
She doubted she could escape through the gate. It was most likely heavily guarded by enemy warriors. She could climb the walls and jump down, but it was not without risk. The walls were pretty high, so the chance she would get hurt in the process was not too low. There was a secret tunnel that led out of the settlement. Her father had it built years ago for such a scenario. Only a few people knew about it—only her father and her siblings, to be exact.
The tunnel was less risky than jumping off the walls, but reaching it wouldn't be easy. The tunnel started in the cellar of the Hall of Power, which was inhabited by dozens of warriors. Reaching it without getting seen was very unlikely. But not impossible. She had to make a choice between climbing the walls or fighting her way to the tunnel. She would most likely end dead if she tried to reach the tunnel, so she decided to climb the walls.
She rushed to the west, getting closer and closer to the west wall. On her way, she met a few intruders, but they were no match for her. She didn't kill all of them; some were heavily injured and left behind with shattered bones. She didn't have the time to finish off all of them. She had to get out of the settlement as fast as possible.
The moment the staircase to the top of the walls came into her sight, she stopped moving. Over a dozen warriors stood either on top of that section of the wall or on the staircase. There was no way she could get up there without a fight that she couldn't take because there were too many warriors. That was a fight she couldn't win.
She cursed under her breath as she regarded the wall section for a few more moments before turning around. Fortunately, no one was approaching her at this very moment. Jumping down the walls was no longer an option, so she had no other choice than to go through the tunnel if she didn't want to die or end up as a slave.
The best way to reach the tunnels was to distract the invaders. But how?
Cruxia thought about it while she walked the way back. An idea popped into her mind when the prison came into her sight. She had hoped that free-moving prisoners would catch the attention of the invaders. Especially if these prisoners were not ordinary ones. Not many Yxal Clans could say that they had Keristians and Anxoyal prisoners. She was sure the other clans would want them alive to find out what they knew. Setting them free was her best chance to get out alive.
She had to act fast before people would discover what she was up to. She made her way to the prison and ran around it. She found no enemy soldiers there, so she entered it without hesitation and went to the cellar. She picked up the bunch of keys hanging on a nail in the wall, rushing to the first cell. Celeste's cell.
The blonde woman looked at her, a mix of worry and curiosity on her face. "What is going on?" she asked. It was obvious she must have heard noises from outside.
Cruxia didn't answer her, knowing she didn't have the time to give her a proper explanation. She unlocked the cell door and stepped inside, approaching Celeste. She squatted down and jerked her wrists up, putting one of the keys into the keyhole. She turned it around until she could hear a clicking sound, pulling the key out of the hole.
"What is going on?" Celeste asked again, sounding more insistent.
Cruxia refused to answer her and put her hands on Celeste's shoulders, pushing her forward. But Celeste resisted with all her power, making it much harder for Cruxia to get her out of the cell. "I won't stop resisting until you tell me what is happening outside. I heard screams and war cries."
Cruxia groaned. "We are getting attacked." A small amount of hope could be seen in Celeste's eyes, but the hope immediately vanished when Cruxia added something. "Your people are not the ones attacking. No one is going to rescue you, girl. If you want to live, you better come with me. Unless you want the other clans to do unspeakable things to you. You might think we are evil, but we are not as evil as the clans attacking us. Trust me, they are much worse. And they treat their prisoners much worse than we do."
"It could be worse? Didn't think that is possible," Celeste responded sarcastically.
The Yxal huffed. "You rather want to die than become their prisoner, believe me or not. They will use you. So, either you come with me, or you wait here and let them take you as their prisoners. They will break your will, turn you into their toy and do much worse things to you. The choice is yours."
Celeste was silent.
"Listen, we do not have the time for a discussion. Either you come with me, or you stay here and let the other clans defile you," Cruxia said as she stepped away from Celeste. "I'm going to free the others in the meantime."
She left the cell and went to the next, unlocking the door. She went inside, and a few moments later, Marcent and Marceile stormed out of the cell, not even looking at her as they ran towards the exit as soon as their hurt bodies allowed them.
She was about to say something to them when a hand grabbed her by the right shoulder and dragged her out of the cell. It was a creature whose face was partly covered by scales. Celeste had no doubt it was a male judging by its body proportions. He held a long knife in his left hand, and a sinister expression was visible on his face. He had nothing good in mind; Celeste was sure of that.
She managed to free herself from the grip of the Yxal, who extended his arm towards her and tried to grab her again. She stepped to the side, avoided his grabbing attack and ducked beneath his knife swing at the very last moment. He cut off a few inches of her hair, which was no longer exclusively blonde. Her original black hair colour was showing on the top of her head. Her hair had grown during the past months of captivity.
The Yxal prepared another attack, but before he could execute it, a vast mace crushed his head, causing blood to splatter; some splashes even landed on Celeste's face and upper body. "You can thank me later for saving your useless ass. We need to get out of here before more of these bastards arrive," Cruxia spat.
The Yxal grabbed Celeste by the shoulder and dragged her out of the cell district. "We can't leave the others behind," Celeste protested. She tried to fight the other woman, but she was too strong. There was nothing Celeste could do in her weakened state to stop her. Months of malnutrition, torture and lack of movement didn't do her any good.
"They can follow us if they want, but it seems they don't. I cannot force them to go with us."
"You are forcing me to go with you. Why do you even care about me? Why don't you walk away without me and save you the trouble."
Cruxia didn't reply to Celeste. She continued to shove her through the corridor, noticing that Celeste's resistance became weaker the more distance they left behind. She could understand why they didn't want to come with a Yxal. She couldn't hold against them that they left the building at the first opportunity. She would have done the same if the horned woman had not insisted on bringing her with her.
She didn't trust Cruxia, but she had no doubt she was speaking the truth. That scaled Yxal looked too different from Cruxia's people, not to mention the battle sounds she had heard. She assumed a fight was happening outside, and when they finally left the prison, she realised she was right. Cruxia had spoken the truth when she had told her that the settlement was under attack.
There were corpses everywhere. Blood and innards covered the ground, weapons and armour pieces were scattered all over it. "We don't have time. We need to reach the Hall of Power before it is too late," Cruxia said, pointing towards the north.
"What do we do once we reach it?" Celeste asked. She had no idea how Cruxia planned to escape this slaughter.
"There is a secret tunnel that will lead us out," Cruxia replied, shoving the other woman further north.
"How many know about this tunnel?"
"Not many. That's the reason why it's called a secret tunnel. Now, keep moving before someone finds us."
Celeste obeyed and followed the Yxal to the Hall of Power. Surprisingly, only two creatures guarded it. She had expected more to guard this building, and so had Cruxia. Fortunately for them, the leaders of the clans didn't prioritise it.
The two guards came for them; Cruxia went for the first and killed him quickly, while Celeste kept the other busy long enough for Cruxia to smash their head from behind. After weeks of imprisonment, Celeste wasn't as agile as she used to be. Her muscles were tired, but that was only natural after being forced to sit in a corner for most of the day for over two months. Her muscles hurt, and so did her back and legs. The circumstances were not in her favour, but she could defend herself at least and prevent the Yxal from killing her.
Celeste turned her head and looked behind her, spotting prisoners running away from the prison. She couldn't recognise them from afar, so she had no idea if the other members of her group were among them.
She had no idea how many prisoners the clan had. She could only hope that they would find a way to escape. She didn't want any of them to die or get captured again. She wished she could help them, but there was nothing she could do for them. She was too weak to fight or to summon her wings and fly away.
Following Cruxia was the only option she had. She was too weak to escape on her own; she was dependent on the Yxal, who wanted to help her escape for whatever reason. She was wondering why Cruxia took her with her. Did she need her for something? She was sure there was a reason Cruxia wanted her to survive. There must be a particular reason. She assumed that Cruxia was not a person who cared about people who didn't belong to her clan. Maybe she wanted her as reinsurance. It was not impossible.
"Keep moving," Cruxia hissed as she shoved her through the entrance. Celeste's eyes widened as she spotted the blood and the corpses on the floor.
"Oh my...what happened there?" Celeste muttered.
"A blood bath," Cruxia replied quietly, leading her away from the main corridor and bringing her to a side corridor. They followed the side corridor until Cruxia stopped suddenly. She made sure that no one else was around them before she put her hand on a particular spot on the left wall and muttered a few words. Celeste was nearly frightened by the hidden door that opened suddenly next to her.
"We don't have much time," Cruxia said as she pushed Celeste through the door and followed her, closing the door by pulling a lever built into the wall not far behind the door.
The corridor was so narrow that they had to walk one behind the other. Cruxia's hand rested on Celeste's shoulder as she dragged her through the corridor, not caring that her tight grip was unpleasant. They came to a room that was so dark that not even Cruxia could recognise much. Nevertheless, she found a torch in a holder attached to the wall. She took the torch from the holder and quickly dragged the tip over the wall, igniting it. The flame was not too big, but at least they could see a little of their surroundings.
Celeste explored the room carefully, eventually finding a trapdoor on the floor. She went down on her knees to open it as she noticed the thick lock on it. "Dammit. There must be a key somewhere. We have to find it," she hissed.
She started looking for the key. She didn't find it yet, but another torch in a holder instead. She ignited the torch and handed it to Celeste, who took it and started looking as well. Cruxia continued to search, finding old books, rusty knives, and damaged dishes but no key.
"I found a key," Celeste announced after a while. She held the key above her head and waved her hand. Suddenly, she felt cold steel against her neck. "Stay away, or she dies," a voice said, not to her but to Cruxia. Celeste couldn't see the creature because they were behind her, but she was certain she had heard that voice before; she couldn't remember to whom it belonged.
Celeste's gaze was directed at Cruxia, whose eyes narrowed. It seemed as if she recognised the person. "What are you doing, Karilla?" the pink-skinned Yxal asked.
"I saw you drag this piece of shit through the roads, so I decided to follow you. Why do you help her escape? You should have killed her, she only slows you down.
"She can be useful for us," Cruxia argued.
"Useful? For what? As your sex slave? I don't think this poultry is useful for anything. We should have killed her the moment she refused to give us any information."
"Killing her will get us nowhere, Karilla."
"That might be true, but I still want to kill her. She will only slow us down. Not to mention I enjoy killing whores like her."
Cruxia shook her head. "I can't let you do that."
Karilla pressed the tip of her knife against Celeste's neck. "There is not much you can do in this situation. If you make a move, I will slit her throat."
Cruxia tilted her head a little. "Why are you doing this?"
"Why shouldn't I? It seems you have already forgotten that she is our enemy. She and her unit stole the artefact that protected us. They are the reason why we are under attack and that our father is dead. I don't see any reason why we should keep that bitch alive."
"We will find a use for her, promised. She will be useful to us in one way or another. Just don't kill her, please."
"I doubt she will."
"Do you trust me?" Cruxia asked.
"No, I don't."
Cruxia tilted her head even further; a confused expression appeared on her face.
"What is that supposed to mean?"
"I never trusted you, sister. You were never like us; you have always been different. You don't belong to us. You belong to another clan, and I do not doubt that you were the one who opened the gate and let the three clans in."
Cruxia puffed. "I would never do that, and you know it."
Karilla shrugged. "Who else was it then? It can only be you."
"This is bullshit! I would never betray our father and our people. Until this very moment, I didn't even know that the gates were opened by one of us. No one I met told me that, not even when I asked them what happened. Those I talked to didn't know how they got inside our settlement so easily. You are the only one who knows that one of us opened the gates. And I wonder how you know it..."
The expression on Karilla's face told her everything she needed to know. She bit her bottom lip, her eyes narrowed, and her face showed an upset expression. She had said too much. "Dammit, Cruxia...Why did you have me say this? Now I have to kill you as well, and I don't want to do that."
"So, it's true that you were the one who betrayed us?"
"I must not answer to you. You are not my warlord," Karilla spat.
Cruxia shook her head in disbelief, disappointment evident in her eyes. "I would have never thought that you would be the one who has our people and our father on their conscience."
Karilla's eyes narrowed even further. "As much as I hate it, I must get rid of you. Then I will slowly kill the slut you wanted to smuggle out." She removed the knife from Celeste's throat, who had not said a word in the meantime, and pulled her by the hair, causing a painful cry to escape her lips. Before Celeste could figure out what Karilla was going to do, an immense amount of pain went through her head and spread out through her entire body. The pain became stronger, and everything around her became dark.