Lysander glared through the storm. The sky had brightened the barest amount, but the clouds and snow were so intense that it could well be midday and he would not be able to tell. Hugi's large steps took them both through the riverbed and around the city wall.
The man didn't like being in the grip of the giant, but there was no faster way for him to travel. He wasn't even sure he'd be able to hang on through the buffeting winds, and was oddly grateful that he didn't have to try.
It was hard to see through the snow, but ahead, there was… something.
Hugi's steps slowed.
"Hey!" He shouted, almost flinging Lysander to the ground. The man's stomach lurched at the movement, barely keeping his last meal contained.
"What??" Lysander cried, covering his ears. "What is it?"
"They're shooting at me!" Hugi complained, raising his opposite fist. "I'll squish 'em good, and eat 'em for dinner!"
"Who? The goblins??" Lysander tried to see what was happening, but his disorientation at Hugi's original flailing left him a little off kilter.
"No, them people!" Hugi said petulantly, swiping aside a volley of arrows that headed for his face.
"Don't squish people! Put me down and let me go explain!!" Lysander called in earnest. What was happening? Were the Cetoan reinforcements not informed about the alliance with the giants?
Hugi reluctantly deposited Lysander on the ground, pointing him in the correct direction. The giant's enormous eyes must be far better for seeing through the blizzard.
"Stop! Don't shoot!!" He called at the top of his lungs as he ran forward. The wind was at his back and he traveled quickly.
"You can't shoot, the giants are–" He stopped in his tracks as the new army came into view.
"--on our side." He finished the sentence in a whisper before raising his voice again. "Haf? You made it back??"
"Lysander!" The Commodore seemed surprised to see a man, any man, outside the wall. "We have come to defend the city from the giants' attack. The strange little man convinced me to do so instead of bringing my men home."
"I told ya, stop calling me that!" An irritated voice interjected. "And I didn't convince you of nuthin. Just mentioned what was happenin', got all your folks home to their own world, and happened to know where we arrived. I wanted to get home, and they followed me. None o' my business, none of it."
"As you wish. Jimmy, here," Haf emphasized the name with sarcasm, "planted the suggestion that we should be grateful to Roland and go to Klain to render aid in case the giants arrived to attack. I must admit the climate is far colder than we expected, but at least we already had shoes."
Lysander blinked in confusion. "All of you made it back, through a portal so soon? Roland thought…"
"That busybody don't know everythin'. Now, what's what? You said the giants are on people's side now?" Jimmy directed his attention back to the business at hand.
"Yes, now the goblins and gargoyles are attacking." Lysander explained.
"That's too many G's," Jimmy put in.
"Pardon?" Lysander asked in confusion.
"Giants. Gargoyles. Goblins. Next monsters that want to attack, name 'em something better." Jimmy spat, but his spittle was partially frozen before it hit the ground.
"We'll let you name the next thing we discover." Haf assured the grumpy man.
"That's all I ask." Jimmy hitched a shoulder as if it were the least they could do.
Lysander shook his head in confusion. "Let me signal them to open the gates. The fighting is fierce, and entirely within the city. We could use the reinforcements."
Before they could take a step closer, the ground shook.
"Oh, no. No, I don't think I can allow you to do that." A voice on the wind made Lysander's heart shudder.
The men's swords came up, but the black-clad figure that stepped out of the blizzard merely chuckled.
"Leave this world! You do not belong!" Lysander shouted. The Cetoan men shifted uneasily at the sight of the handsome white-haired man who wore formal black Rhone clothing and an onyx amulet.
"I don't quite think you're in authority over that. Over nothing, actually, anymore. Not a Provider, not much of a man, even." The Void smiled cruelly.
"Get into the city." Lysander said over his shoulder to Haf.
"Oh, dear." The Void tutted. "I must not have made it abundantly clear to you. That. Will. Not. Happen."
________
Roland leapt from Judah's back when they managed to break completely through the lines of the goblins attacking City Hall.
The gap they had forged in the mob of screeching evil closed almost immediately behind him. More goblins were streaming closer, from seemingly everywhere in the city.
The gargoyles continued their assault, and Roland wondered whether he should have washed off before luring so many to this place. However, Klain's archers began thinning the swarm. One fewer gargoyle each time to inhabit the world.
His world.
With a battle cry to rally the troops, Roland speared another goblin through the heart before backing up behind the front lines. He had a mission, after all. Protect or destroy the items.
To do that, he first needed to make sure they were currently safe. He spotted Riley, and was relieved to see the man was alive and, for now, well.
The slightly younger man clapped him on the shoulder, then grimaced when his glove came away sticky with half-frozen blood.
"Simply revolting, Roland. Easily the most nauseating entrance I've ever seen you make."
"Thanks. I worked hard to impress." Roland's mouth twisted slightly. It felt weird to make jokes amidst the carnage, but somehow Riley made it seem commonplace.
"The gargoyles are all after you." The Klain captain continued, glancing overhead. "I had no idea you were a woman."
The quip almost made Roland laugh in spite of himself.
"It's the blood." He shrugged.
"Blood… from a woman." Riley made the statement, though a question was clearly underneath it. He lifted his sword to deflect a swooping enemy.
"A giant, yes." Roland's spear joined Riley's blade to bring the creature down and end its life.
"Blood from a wound, I hope?" The captain's eyes widened with concern.
"What do you mean, you hope? Where else would the blood be…" Roland gasped as Riley's inappropriate grin broke through. "Really?? In the middle of all this, you're going to make that kind of a jest?"
"You're too serious, Roland." Riley shrugged.
"People are dying. I think it's a good time to be serious." He lowered his voice. "Do you know what happened to that box that I sent out of the tunnels?"
"As far as I know, it got to the General. He's up there if you want to talk to him… Though if you can stand the cold, you might want to leave your blood-soaked coat down here so the gargoyles don't run up with you." Riley's eyes glanced up and down Roland's dubious appearance.
"That's not a terrible idea, and you're probably quite used to being covered in blood, what with your heroic soldierliness and all." Roland quipped.
"You're the doctor, not me." Riley retorted. "You've had far more blood on your hands than I have… at least, literally speaking."
An uneasy silence between the two men lasted only a few seconds as Riley cringed. Roland sighed. His efforts to save lives seemed to be failing, but he had to continue on. Without another word, he shrugged out of the coat and handed it to the warrior.
Riley put a hand on his arm. "Roland… stay safe."
"You too, Riley." Roland replied.
"Finn, she's…?" He didn't know how to ask, and understandably. The last time he had seen Roland's wife, she'd been in a terrible state.
"Safe, and recovering. For now." The prince smiled faintly, and the soldier nodded. The two men parted.
There was work to do.
Roland ran up the steps of city hall two at a time. The men at the top looked about to stop him, but the General commanded them to stand down.
"The box," Roland didn't waste any words. "Finn's box, where is it?"
"Inside, in the vault." The General responded. "What is it?"
Roland turned so that his back wasn't to the carnage in front of the building. Gore littered the square, dark lumps of flesh beneath a veil of swirling snow. Though Klain fought valiantly, its troops were dispersed throughout the city, too thinly to make a concentrated effort.
The citizenry couldn't be abandoned for the sake of the building. It was only a matter of time before the soldiers were overwhelmed by the poisonous goblins, and the Void got what it wanted.
He had taken this decision away from Finn to keep her from bearing the guilt of it on her shoulders, should it wind up being the wrong choice, but it was a needless distinction. At this point, it was his only choice. Roland took a deep breath.
"I need to destroy it, and its contents."