In the north on the snow-covered Pyrenees mountains, a great battle was being fought between humans and rats.
High up in the sky through the clouds, from a top, a flying hippogriffen a French Duke and his fellow hippogriffen riders watched the battle beneath them.
To him, it seemed as if two swarms of different colored ants swarming all over the mountainside. One side was mostly made up of two distinct colors, that being blue and red. Blue represented the French while red was represented by the Iberians.
While the other larger swarm was quite bland and dark. Only gray and black colors could be seen there as the rats wore only rags or black armour. The blandness of their army was also not helped by the fact that the majority of rats had gray or black fur, there were though some exceptions.
The two sides had already clashed with one another and formed a long battle line that stretched throughout the mountainside. But at some places, the line got dented and cracked as massive Rat-ogres charged into the humans breaking their line. They viciously tore through the humans light armour and soft flesh, sending many to the afterlife. Weak men hesitated and cowered In front of these monsters while some bare and foolish men threw themselves at the creatures without hesitation. Brave men died in the hundreds while weak men fled.
Seeing this desperate situation the French Duke lifted his lance high and yelled a battle cry. " Longue vie au roi! Vive la Nation! Charge! "
Like hawks swooping down to catch their prey the 18 hippogriffs swooped down with great speed and force into the tightly packed dark swarm of ratmen.
Instantly on contact rats were crushed into meat paste, while others were sent flying for tens of meters. Then hippogriffen claws like 10 swords started to cut countless rats into severed pieces of rat flesh.
From a top the hippogriffs the riders skewered rats with their mighty lances and used crossbows to pick off ranged targets.
Rat-ogres fought back but were quickly ripped to shreds by hippogriffen claws and beaks, while the riders gave support from their backs.
Though the assault was bloody and vicious the rat's soon rallied and started to swarm the hippogriffs with sheer force of numbers.
Quickly the hippogriffs retreated into the sky and soon repeated the action jet again. Each assault was short but bloody and with each attack the white snow slowly started to turn more and more red from blood.
The hippogriffs using their sharp claws proceeded to cut the rats into pieces killing tens of them with each strike again and again. And then before the rats could overwhelm them they flew into the sky and made their escape jet again. As this action was repeated over and over again, the rat swarm was bloodied but hardly affected. Despite the hippogriffen riders valiant efforts, the rat numbers were too great and theirs were too few, for such minor actions to mean much in a battle consisting of tens of thousands of men and many more rats.
On the front lines of battle shields held the rats at bay as swords cut them down. From the back peasants with long weapons supported the shieldmen by striking their weapons over their bodies into the incoming rats. From the back atop rocks and boulders ranged units shot their muskets and other ranged weapons into the rat swarm.
Like this, the humans managed to stabilize the line and slowly the rat bodies started to mount up literally, as did the humans except in smaller numbers.
As the French and Iberians fought side by side bravely on the mountain slope the rats struck from down below. Deep under the earth giant moles guided by rats slowly dug through the hard mountainside, creating endless tunnels under the humans.
Then from amidst the human army, small sinkholes emerged swallowing up a few unlucky souls as they appeared. Then From the sinkholes, swarms of rats and moles emerged into the midst of the human army.
Just like that the tide turned once again as the humans started to die in greater numbers. Blind moles ripped through human armour with their long sharp claws and dug into the soft flesh underneath the armour with their disgusting mole teeth. From behind the moles rats wielding small daggers and a mixture of unconventional weapons emerged. Fiercely without any fear or hesitation, the rats charged into the surprised humans.
In only a few minutes hundreds of rats and moles had emerged from each individual hole and started to slaughter the surrounding humans.
But the humans didn't falter or waiver and bravely held their ground and continued fighting until their last breath. It was as if these humans had gone mad and forgotten their previous fear of death. For but a moment ago they seemed scared of the mighty Rat-ogres.
Soon the rats were halted as a strong line of men had formed. When one man fell another would gladly and without hesitation take his place. Now the rats coming from the holes found themselves surrounded. No longer was the surprise of their attack on their side as the humans started to push them back into their holes.
From the front line, a battle cry could be heard as a big burly man encouraged his men to fight. " Show no quarter men, push forward! For God Sighard and his chosen son Jesus! Push! "
Despite this the rats fought on yelling their own battle cry as they did. " Kill all man things! For the Underhive! For the 3 mothers! "
In the front lines as time went on the body count quickly grew. Now the once white snow and rock-covered ground was filled with bodies and blood. Men and rats had to climb over mountains of bodies in order to reach their hated enemy.
In the middle, amidst the rat lines a massive mountain of bodies had formed with a creater in the middle. Slowly It had started to resemble an active volcano with magma occasionally spewing out of it. But instead of magma, it was rat bodies and blood that flew out.
In the center of the crater made up of bodies, in a waist-high pool of blood, Jesus held his ground. Using his new glowing hammer he smashed all the incoming vile rats in his way. Each swing of the heavy hammer smashed rat bones and twisted rat limbs. Like hitting baseball's with a bat, he sent many rats flying. While other rats were simply just crushed under his heavy hammer blows and turned into meatpaste.
During the bloody battle of Bone Mountain, Jesus had gotten inspired by King Uther's bravery and wanted to honor his memory somehow. So seeing as his own armor was destroyed and in need of replacing. Plus nobody was left to take care of the kings body, Jesus had decided to do it himself.
Luckily for him, Uther had only gotten his head smashed in, leaving his armor completely intact. So after seeing this he said a few prayers and proceeded to undress the king.
After undressing the king with a smashed head out of his armor and clothes. Jesus had buried him by dropping a massive boulder a top of his headless corpse. Since there was no soft soil on the mountain that he could use to bury the king and the green liquid flowing out of the rats had started to make him feel sick. This was the quickest and easiest solution he had come up with.
The boulder caused the king's body and the ones under him to crack and blow up in a bloody explosion. Now covered in the kings and other soldiers blood and guts, Jesus said his farewells. With the king's and his soldiers blood, he wrote the time of the day and the name of the king onto the boulder.
After which he put on the kings clothes and armour. Then after equipping his armour and grabbing his massive golden hammer. Jesus noticed that the runes and carvings on the hammer had started to glow.
Somehow he immediately felt spiritually connected to the hammer, as if the hammer was truly meant for him to wield. Maybe it was a side effect of Sighards blessing that seemed to still linger in his body. Or maybe all of this was a part of God Sighards grand design, he did not know.
But now after months of battling and hours of fighting on this battlefield. His once golden-coloured armor had turned red and his once handsome, bearded face was now completely red also. Only his eyes could be distinguished from the blood-colored mess that he now was.
Fighting up the corpse pile Jesus felt good. With a hammer in two hands, he crushed every rat and mole in his way with a smile. The hammer felt light in his hands and using it felt easy. He felt as if the hammer was nothing but a mere extension of his body.
As Jesus advanced the French and Iberian soldiers followed further behind with Bragi in the middle, encouraging the men forward.
Coming up a top of the corpse hill Jesus heard loud cheers behind him from the allied human army and then from the front, he heard a rat voice call out to him in a challenge. " Man thing! You have ended many of my hives number! But no more! I swarmlord Gagrag will end you and avenge all my fallen brothers! "
Looking down the hill of corpses and into the front lines of battle, to the source of the voice, Jesus could see a big gray ratman. It was dressed in a black armor similar to it's elite comrades. It also was covered from head to toe in human blood and guts. Most likely it's massive two-handed glaive had ended many lives already.
Seeing this made his hammer glow and blood boil as an evil grin came onto his face. Then with an eager tone of voice, he yelled. " Bring it on ratman! Let me crush your body into a bloody end! "
Running through the swarm crushing bodies and smashing lives Jesus charged towards the large Ratman.
Seeing his fearsome charge the rats made way for him and scattered leaving Gagrag to face Jesus alone.
As the two of them changed and their weapons collided, it sent a loud shockwave all around. Under Jesus hammer, Gagrags glaive Cracked, bent and shattered into a hundred pieces like a grenade exploding.
Shards of metal flew into Gagrags face blinding him and causing heavy damage. But before he could even scream the hammer fell on his head, crushing his helmet and blowing up his head like a watermelon.
" How disappointing. You rat's ought to learn your place in this world and just stay tucked away underground where you belong! The surface belongs to humanity! " Yelling these words out loud the rats around Jesus started to release the musk of fear and falter.
Then from the top of the corpse hill Bragi and the soldiers following him started to chant. " For Humanity! For Jesus! "
Then like a great tidal wave they ran down the hill and crashed into the shaking rat swarm. Like wave's hitting grains of rice the rats moved and broke under the human charge.
Led by Jesus they moved forward and slaughtered everything in their way. Little by little fear spread amongst the rat swarm and broke their will to resist.
Encouraged by this the humans all over the mountain steeled their resolves and pushed forward. With every passing hour, thousands of rats died and even more scattered or ran.
Then after a few days of constant fighting the rats finally completely broke, as Jesus managed to strike down their highest-ranking leader. A hiverlord who called itself Razrich the Golden. It was the one who had first decided to come and face Jesus by challenging him to a duel. " Man thing! Come come and let me add yu yu pretty head to my collection! "
It wore a beautiful golden heavy armor set that looked glorious. But with it's green glowing fur, 4 yellow eyes and pox-covered skin all that Jesus could feel towards it was disgust.
After a fierce fight that consisted of Razrich using his subordinates as meat shields, lots of bribery and the use of some wand that sent golden balls at Jesus, he finally managed to smash its head in. After smashing it's body into a bloody mess, Jesus was horrified to see that it like the other large and strange-looking mutated creatures of its kind, bled green glowing blood instead of red like the normal rats.
There was something truly repulsive about the green blood. So much so that It sent shivers through his body. But for some reason, other regular soldiers didn't seem to notice it. He and Bragi were the only ones who seemed to be able to feel the dangerous energy emitting from the green glow.
Thinking of all this made Jesus feel sick and woke him up from his sleep. It had already been a few days since the battle and now inside his tent, Jesus was puking on the ground as a voice called out to him from behind the tent entrance.
" Captain Jesus a message has arrived for you. "
Hearing this Jesus wiped away the puke from his lips and walked to the entrance. Peeking outside to see who it was, Jesus could see Zegre, one of his still alive loyal Jesuit followers. He still even after all this time was wearing the same old armor that Marino had gifted them all those months ago. In his hand, he was holding a letter with his house signia.
Extending his hand forward Zegre handed Jesus the letter and said. " A letter from your family most likely. We all just got ours from a passing courier on his way to deliver a message up north somewhere. "
Holding the letter in hand Jesus held it affectionately and commented.
" Just how long has it been since we last heard of our families and saw them? To get this all the way out here through the beastmen and bandit-infested countryside is truly a miracle. "
Hearing his Captains and masters words Zegre commented with a smile. " I do believe this is the second letter we have gotten since we left Segres over 6 months ago. "
Jesus frowned upon hearing this and said with a sigh. " Indeed it has truly been a long time since I last heard of my family. Well, I thank you soldier for giving me this letter. But if you'd excuse me, I must see what my family has to say. "
Bowing to Jesus the soldier named Zegre said. " Of course captain. " Then he left.
Walking back inside Jesus sat on his sleeping bag letter in hand. Admiring the letter in hand for a while Jesus finally after a while decided to open it.
The letter read as follows.
"Hello my Love, I feel I must write you again although I know you are awfully busy and there must be a lot on your mind as it is. But to tell you the truth I feel that this is something I must write. And no it has nothing to do with the business or our and Lara's Baby's. In fact, our pregnancies are coming along quite fine. By the look of our bellies, I expect us to be delivering the babies in a month's time or so. And I do wish that you and Marino could be there to see it and help give our babies good names.
On the other hand in the business side of things, Lara has been quite busy recently designing things for the babies. I suspect that Marino had something to do with her new Inspirations since I have never seen or heard of such things. Now she's making called soft toys, which are different kinds of cute animal designs that are meant for kids.
But this is where the good news ends my love. A few weeks ago I found Lara crying her eyes out in the garden as she hugged the sheep's. She had stormed there with a letter in hand to find comfort from the sheep I suppose. I tried to ask her what was wrong but she refused to say. But as I sat down next to her to try and comfort her, I managed to take the letter from her hands.
The letter supposedly being the reason for Lara's sadness contained no name only an apology about what happened to Lara's family years ago. In the letter, the writer confessed to being the one who murdered her family. He talked about it being an accident and wanted to ask for forgiveness for the killings. My love was a word frequently used in the letter, implying that it might have been a letter from Marino but I suspect that Lara has a stalker out there somewhere. This has caused a lot of worry in my heart.
If that stalker is truly still out there somewhere we are completely defenseless here. With most of the men gone and you both away from home I fear for our safety.
There are rumors going about of a bandit group hiding out in the hills close to the nearby town of Salema raiding it's outer farms. I fear that they might be coming here soon as well.
But do not worry too much my love for the lord has and his few men still remain in the town. Just do what you need to do in order to end this cruel war and be sure to come back home safely as soon as possible.
If only you and Marino were here to protect our home my heart could rest in complete safety. I will be sure to pray that this war will end and we will be together again soon my love. It will come true one day I suppose. But I hope it will be soon as I so wish to see you soon.
Your love Mary. "
Confused by this letter Jesus read it a few times more as he pondered on his wife's words. He had always suspected Marino of doing something the night of the Lopes farm massacre. But he had always thought it to be impossible. For how could a mere boy do such a thing, physically or mentally?
He would definitely have to hear Marino confess to the letter before he could make any clear judgment on the situation.
And the news of the bandits being so close to his family and there being no men in the house worried him to no end.
More than anything he wished that this war could just end. But without Xixi to guide them they were wandering blindly in the mountain's not knowing where to strike next. So far they had only managed to find and close small underground entrances. But the rats had managed to elude them and had hidden their base of operations somewhere.
Also, he had no idea how many rats there even were. Their numbers were always great and seemed endless. It was hard to say if there were more or less of them after each battle.
At this rate, they could be stuck fighting the rats for years or even more. Jesus didn't know.
But as he thought of this he finally decided on a course of action and stood up. Fearing for his family's safety and wanting to hear answers from Marino, he had started to pack up his things.
However, he knew that this was wrong and he was letting his emotions cloud his judgment. Jesus was still human and he hadn't yet been able to let go of his mortal attachments to this world.
As if god was angered by this decision, a heavy snowstorm had started to rage outside. The sky darkened and the wind blew hard. Then lighting struck the mountain tops.
Standing up wearing his full set of armor, covered by a cloak and carrying a small bag on his back and his hammer in hand. Jesus exited his tent with a stone-cold expression and then walked forward leaving his tent behind. Deciding to only take the bare minimum he started to make his way as home as fast as possible.
Walking past other tent's through the snow and down the mountain he gathered a lot of attention. People watched in confusion and started to whisper amongst themselves. Then came a shout from Behind. " Master, where are you going? If it is a battle you head to then Wait for us, we will join you! "
Looking behind himself up the mountain slope he could see Bragi walking towards him followed by the other 6 remaining Jesuits.
Even after all the losses and death that had occurred along the way his men still followed him. Not a single one of them had returned home or abandoned him. He was truly touched to see such loyalty in his men still. With a bitter smile on his face, Jesus yelled to them. " Stop! Do not follow me! This time I will go do this alone! There truly is no need for you to follow me! "
Hearing his words the Jesuits stopped and were stunned. Then Bragi asked angered and confused. What do you mean master? What could be more important than the battle here? We face creatures that threaten to kill us all, to end humanity! You cannot leave us now! Without you, the men will lose hope! We cannot do this without you, Jesus! "
Then Jesus said calmly. " Enough Bragi! Do not let your emotions cloud your judgment! Believe in yourself and the teachings I have bestowed upon you over the years! As I said this is something I must do alone! And I am but one man, you will do fine without me! Whatever I can do, you will also be able to do! For are we all not men, capable of doing whatever we set our minds to? Just believe in yourselves and god, then you will be victorious! For we are all followers of Sighard! "
All around them in the camp men watched this scene with mixed expressions. Silence loomed over the camp as men pondered on Jesus words. Then he continued. " Bragi I do apologize for my actions but I feel this is something I must do alone, for it is a personal matter I must attend to! From now on I am leaving you in command now. Take care of the men and keep them safe! Once my mission is done I swear to you that I will return! "
With a heavy heart and a feeling of regret, Jesus turned around and started to walk away, leaving his loyal men behind confused.
As Jesus frame disappeared into the snowstorm, back south 6 battered and burned ships emerged over the horizon.