The crimson sun dawned sullenly upon the forest's edge, casting all beneath its burning glare in hues stark as fresh-spilled blood. Its light lent an ominous cast to paths once merry with village chatter, now lying silent and forlorn.
Rowan strode ahead alongside Cadmon, senses straining for any disturbance piercing the unnatural hush. Elia followed softly, radiant yet undimmed though shadows gathered heavier with each lifeless homestead passed. Together they picked their way down the rutted track, trepidation mounting with each shutter barred and window dark as empty orbit peering within.
No soul greeted their approach, nor plume of cookfires' breath lifted unto palls shrouding the sun. Their footsteps echoed lone and jarring as any specter's footfall, rousing in each breast a nameless dread swelling with each yard their inward eyes scanned fruitless in quest of answers. What evil had snatched industry, laughter and light all from this place, stealing even echo's solace from its streets?
Rowan's hand lingered tense upon hilt bearing him sure through trials past counting. Instinct screamed of watchers lurking just beyond sight's edge, though no movement stirred crop nor creeping shadow. Elia sent forth invisible feelers questing yet found naught but a void where cheer and industry once rang loud as any hammer's anvil song.
Darkness was coming, and no fire or lantern prospective comforted these eerie lanes. They hastened their step into the deepening shadow of that baleful star, hoping within yet to find some spark kindled against the void descending where all light and warmth once held dominion without stint or fear. As they strode, souls callused yet sensing crawling unseen a nameless dread swelling with each step taken into realms where none dared lightly tread.
As the flagship towers of the village proper rose into view between rows of empty homesteads, an ominous heaviness overcame their company striding in dreadful anticipation. Rowan's senses prickled violently, iron grip tightening upon whetted leather binding hilt and baldric alike.
Before them loomed the settlement's stout timber gates, sole barrier 'tween those within and terrors uncounted lurking beyond mortal ken in shadows' embrace. Yet when their flashing eyes alighted upon oaken panels not a crack showed gaping, nor hasp inviting entrance where solace or answers might await desperate hands.
"All lay sealed as any sepulcher, forbidding as Siberys's own adamant decree separating mortals from mysteries beyond mortal will to withstand." Elia murmured prayers beneath trembling lips as surely as her comrades fingered weapons unseen yet crucial comfort 'against the vast and crowding unknown without. Here was no refuge welcoming nor signal of watchful wardens scrambling to throw bar or bolt against encroaching night and its fallen children.
Only interminable stillness hung heavy as any shroud on nights like these when all outward signs portended violation within soul-snatching talons' compass. Cadmon sent forth a ranging hurtle battering against silence, earning only its echo mocking their plight from cobbled bounds and blind shutters staring their frustration back without lenience or regard for mortal terror summoned to its face. Darkness was deepening amongst them with each breath inhaling hopelessness thickening the shadowed air.... Rowan moved shoulder to oak with fevered insistence, knuckles rapping a relieved staccato summoning aid or comfort against the gullet's press. But naught answered save silence dense as any shroud, muffling sound and rousing more horror with each rap falling into the abyss within unbroken.
All along the cobbled paths they strode with mounting trepidation, seeking with fist and hoarse plea some sign of eyes yet looking from any aperture onto lost folk come to break their solace. Ever was it so - naught greeted desperate query but emptiness ringing louder than any iron's song hurled defiant against terrors creeping with the coming dark.
No glow of hearth nor wisp of smoke lent themselves witness against the gathering pall, thickening dread by minute as panic's green throes twisted necessity in each careworn face seeking answers beyond nightmare's imagining. Even Cadmon's customary bravado wore thin as peel by peel an egg of nameless violations slowly cracked its leavings upon souls grown wan and shivering in the bloody light throwing shadows lengthy and gaunt down lanes swept clean of life or warmth.
Only a tableau of desertion greeted where once fellowship and honest toil thronged thick as honeybees about their sovereign labors. Here industry, hope and joy tangible had been scoured as utterly as dawn sweeps night's demons from skies bathing all in kinder light. In their place reigned a quiet dire as any tomb's marble stillness, pressing bowing heads beneath its leaden writ as darkness gathered mantle and stole even echo's meager solace from these desolate paths. Silent accord passed amongst the desperate trio - here none could bear witness to violation done, yet each soul held staunch was owed some token fragment restoring hope against the pall of violation.
Rowan moved swiftly as any panther along lanes scoured empty, eyes keenly scanning flagstones and walls alike for any portent restoring reason to the chaos enveloping all securely within its shroud. Cadmon disappeared down a twisting alley, hackles risen, and weapons bared against phantoms glimpsed but from the corner of sight.
Elia bent low amidst the creeping gloom; radiance tempered yet holding true against shadow bearing down where all light seemed extinct. With utmost care her hands plied cobbles and shutters for any imprint shining hope where all lay drowned in darkness palpable.
Thus, they split to scour the ghostly lanes, each seeking with body and soul some answer restoring faith amidst void usurping all traces of industry or warmth known to thrive here lately without stint. Rowan prowled like a wolf lashed and ravening, seeking prey behind facade or blind shutter sliding open onto mysteries beyond wisdom or nightmare's remit. Within his breast pounded a promise sworn beyond censure or despair - here would specters stealing light find no purchase where his eyes held dominion.
As they quested into deepening gloom, small flames guttering against the shroud stealing even resolve's spark one by one into its ever-strengthening grasp. Their lights yet remained undimmed, mere threads binding purpose where all signs pointed only into a void without bottom or gleam. Rowan's senses prickled violently as Elia's cry rent the gloom, shattering the sepulchral silence with all the force of a death knell tolling calamity's coming. His blood rushed deafening in ears straining above the shroud's oppression, senses screaming calamity's approach where safeguard and defiance ought stand fast.
With a savage snarl he flew headlong down twisting alleys gone trackless as phantoms' realms, mind wiped clean but for her terror's clarion calling all protective instincts honed by blood and steel to her defense. From shadows deeper yet Cadmon burst hissing steel bared for horrors stealing light and hope's frail sparks in one fell grasp.
Together they raced blind yet true as any hounds of the wilds, hurtling through the spectral settlement with speed outmatching panic's own lick. Elia's fear pierced more sharply than any blade against soul or flesh, tearing Rowan's calm asunder and rousing in its place a fury to level nations should its whetstone glance but sideways from its sole focus: defending the radiance illuminating all paths blasted clean of joy or safety.
Her scream yet echoed down the gullet's twists and turns, summoning them unerring towards a horror stealing sanity's frail footholds one by one. On they flew past shuttered homes and winding lanes scoured clean of solace, doom's surety driving heels fleet as tempests bearing retribution on merciless winds. Naught existed save finding her untouched, no matter the phantoms arrayed against their fury's wild release. As Rowan and Cadmon flew through the deepening gloom, Elia's screams led them true to an alley overhung with shadow. There, ringed in a clutching horde of pallid beasts, she battled with mage craft and magic snap, desperation lending her waning strength.
The creatures threatened to overwhelm - their flesh seemed woven from shuddering mist, yet talons rent as any falchion. Owl-like masks of bone stared blind yet somehow saw her flagging defense with ravenous intent sewn into lambent sockets.
With sinking hearts Rowan and Cadmon witnessed Elia's peril, specters pressing upon her rapidly crumbling guard. But as the first talons slashed steaming through her shield, Rowan's tenuous hold upon himself shattered into pieces.
With a roar tearing from soul-depths, his power broke free in a torrent drowning all reason. Blue flames wreathed his form in an eldritch storm-glow, banishing the creeping shadows with their glory's unquenchable rage.
His first blow rent a shadowy mass asunder, flames meeting no resistance. Movement transformed to a dancer's lethal elegance as each following strike dissolved phantoms assaulting his beloved into vanished mists. Elia gazed on agape, awestruck terror transmuting into wonder at the divine power manifesting to deliver her from a fate worse than any death.
Within moments only silence and Rowan's flickering azure aura remained, all predators returned to the abyss which had birthed their fell hungers. His eyes yet blazed with wild protectiveness meeting hers above piled mist-remains bearing no trace of what had so near snatched her radiance past all mortal ken. Darkness had met its match, and in that moment, Elia saw past all veils into the hero awakened by love's cruelest trial. Rowan moved with inhuman grace and speed in the alley awash with eldritch azure flames. His fists and feet lashed out in a blur of motion, dissolving the encroaching apparitions with each blow.
Where his flaming hands struck, the mist-wraiths dispersed without resistance. Their owl-like visages seemed to scream soundlessly as Rowan's onslaught ripped them asunder.
He flowed between the specters with poised, liquid motions, targeting them with precision borne of instinct beyond mortal craft. The shadows pressed in yet found no purchase against the divine fury emanating from his form.
Elia and Cadmon looked on in awe, barely able to follow Rowan's fluid movements in the dim light. Where countless phantoms had threatened to overwhelm but moments before, now only billowing mists remained in the wake of Rowan's blows.
It was as if he wielded not fists or feet, but the very power of dissolution. Wherever he struck or stepped, the entities protecting the village fell to pieces, banished back to the void from which they came.
Within moments, the last shadow dissipated under Rowan's onslaught. An uncanny stillness fell over the alley, illuminated only by the flickering azure flames wreathing Rowan's stance. Chest heaving, he seemed to glow with an ethereal light, eyes burning with righteous purpose. The strength of a god echoed in his form, fueled by devotion to the radiant woman whose life he had sworn to shield. In this moment, none could doubt that the title 'Sword God' was more than legend - it was the truth of Rowan's destiny awakened. Elia watched Rowan, awe filling her as the last wisps of shadow dispersed into the night. The azure flames illuminated his form, outlining him in a heavenly glow. But it was his eyes that held her transfixed - within their depths burned a power beyond mortal ken.
This was no longer the village youth she knew. Before her stood a divine champion, a guardian awakened to defend all that was good in the world. She understood now why the title 'Sword God' followed him. No ordinary man could command the control of essence that Rowan wielded.
As the flames simmered away, revelation filled Elia's core. All this time, this slumbering deity had walked amongst them, cloaking himself in humbleness. But when called forth by danger, his divine strength blazed forth without restraint. Love for her had unlocked depths even he did not fully comprehend.
Rowan's eyes met hers, flickering back from the otherworldly glow of battle. Within their azure depths she saw only care, commitment - and an awakened legacy now clear as morning. Words were not needed; she had seen into Rowan's soul and understood, at long last, the destiny unfolding around them both. Her heart swelled with pride, knowing she had the love of a protector whose might was beyond any mortal scale. In Rowan, darkness would find no purchase where his light and faithfulness held sway. Their bond was sealed on levels transcending flesh. No shadow could overcome their radiance, burning brightly through whatever challenges fate conjured to test them. Elia knew without doubt, was only the beginning.