"I... I don't know if I can keep doing this," Exbin, a middle-aged soldier in Flaur's army, said as he looked to his comrade to the right.
They were stationed at the first point of the defensive strait, they've been repelling waves of peasants attacking them for days now. With the high heat and arid air, his royal armor was more of a burden than protection; he wanted to give up.
He was far away from home, his province being in the east closer to the sea. He had been on duty for a long time now, and chances for off-duty were becoming slimmer and slimmer; especially now.
His father was a royal soldier of Ars Goetia, serving the late King before Flaur's coronation for nearly forty years. After he had died in a battle against Aurum around ten years ago, Exbin swore to take up his mantle; to serve the country faithfully.
But, with how things have been lately, and the fact that the royal corps has been diminished to their handful and the little left at the capital; doubt was heavy on his mind.
"Don't give up, we can't... they'll stop, they have to stop eventually," It was Reeskris who spoke to him, his comrade-in-arms at the frontline.
With the addition of five more troops from the camp, the frontline was replenished at twenty strong. Royal soldiers are trained to handle even Aurum's paladins if necessary, but for them to focus entirely on non-lethal combat; it was adding a strain to their already weakening morale. Reeskris knew this better than anybody, as he was nearing his limit as well.
"Hold fast! More are coming!!" Reeskris cried as the other men in the half-rut on the road readied their weapons, dull-side facing forward.
From the road came a horde of peasants, some battered from previous skirmishes and other fresh-faced; ready for the battle frenzy. They came with pitchforks, scythes, shovels, and axes. Some even came unarmed, no matter what they had, they all shared the same fervor for battle as they rushed forward like a torrent towards the frontline.
"Hyaahhh! Glory to the Pure!" Some screamed as they hurled themselves against the readied shields of the guards.
Clang, clang, clang, went the shields as they repelled the amateur strikes of the farmhands. For the royal guards, this was nothing but childs-play. And so it was for the first day of the attack, the peasants were broken easily that day as they retreated. But, as the days grew long, and the skirmishes grew with each subsequent day; cracks were beginning to form in the defensive.
"Watch out!" Shouted Exbin as he deflected a scythe swing from connecting with his comrade's exposed leg.
"T-There's too many this time! The line is going to fail!" His comrade cried as he shuffled back, struggling to bring himself up from his fall.
Exbin saw as the others in the defensive strait were also beginning to waver back, as the horde grew twice in size.
"If... if it weren't for this damned rule," Exbin cursed as he thought back to the order given to them by the Demon Queen.
"Do not kill the Quellians, they are citizens of the state." She decreed on the first day.
There had already been dissent in the royal guard overhearing the Demon Queen give them such an impossible task, to be mindful of the enemy no less.
If his father were still alive... he wouldn't follow such a fool of a monarch.
Then, it happened in a blink of an eye.
"G-Guh..." Exbin felt a searing heat pierce his gut.
It wasn't a farmer's tool that had ripped his armor asunder, but the cruelly gnarled pinpoint of a large cane that churned his intestines into a mass of black flame.
"N-No!!" Exbin cried, but he soon fell dead as the black flame engulfed him whole.
"Today is the day we take that whore's head," Ervwin snickered as he ripped the cane away from Exbin's scorched body.
"The line is broken! FALL BACK!!!" Reeskris commanded as he rallied the defensive retreat with the others.
"Massacre the infidels! Do not relent my flock, they must pay for their sinful existence!!" Ervwin shouted to the Quellians as he raised his staff into the air triumphantly.
With their leader claiming the first life, the rabid Quellians made chase as they assailed the broken line.
Reeskris felt numb as he gazed at Exbin's scorched corpse. He had known him since the coronation of the Demon Queen, and they had been brothers-in-arms ever since.
Reeskris looked at his blade, all he had to do was use it the way it was meant to be used.
As he saw his comrades begin to be pushed to the brink, he gave a silent prayer.
'Forgive me, your Majesty' he thought as he raised his sword skyward.
"KILL THEM ALL--" Reeskris screamed with a lionheart, but his command was washed out as from the peak of the hill behind the royal guard came the rolling thunder of the Obsidian steeds.
"T-The Demon Queen!?" His comrades shouted as they saw the royal carriage barrel forward, it gaining incredulous speed.
And at the head of the carriage was a robed figure--
he was aiming the carriage right in Ervwin's path.
"Hahaha! Finally, you've come to meet your end!" Ervwin cackled as he raised his staff, pointing it at the carriage.
The royal guard watched the carriage run straight for Ervwin, and then--
It veered around him last second; narrowly missing his cane.
"Nooo..." Reeskris felt his heart sink as he saw the black carriage begin to run away.
They were trying to make a break for it, abandoning everyone in the chaos.
"My flock! Follow that accursed black witch!!" Ervwin commanded as from his cane, a swirling black fireball began to form.
"You will not escape," He growled as he lifted his cane up, and like a trebuchet, launched the fireball from its end; it sailed into the air, a black hellfire.
Everyone watched as the hurtling flame arced in the air and made its purchase as it struck the rear of the carriage; dismantling it into a black flame vortex.
The carriage dismantled itself at the edge of the forest as it capsized on its right side, the black flame engulfing it whole as the chained horses narrowly escaped the inferno.
Reeskris and the royal guard watched as their Demon Queen carriage became a bonfire.
This was the end; they had lost.
---
"HAHAHAHA!" Ervwin laughed joyfully as he approached the afflamed carriage with his flock in tow.
The black fire that he had used was a special magic that he had spent the entirety of his life mastering. A forbidden art, it had originated from the depths of the Dragonspine, it a remnant ember of Drakenflame of the Lost Age.
He carried a special animosity against the Demon Queen, as she had barred him from furthering his research of the black flame when she had come to power.
Claims of an ancient rot, that it would corrupt those who would use its power. In that regard, she was right, there was a force of corruption that came from studying the black fire. But Ervwin wasn't afraid of this rot, no, he had his faith of being one of the Pure.
The Pure are those born of direct lineage to the original seventy-two of the Lost Age. Highbornes who're given vestige to the world, a birthright to rule and control their own destiny. As Ervwin is a direct descendant of Forneus, this claim to destiny was nothing but a given.
And as the sole surviving member of this Great House, Ervwin had every right to forge a path forward for himself; and to rebuild his lineage through this righteous rebellion.
Quell was only one step in his path and with the ascension of the throne at hand by Lord Valefor; House Forneus will be the zenith of glory time immemorial.
As Ervwin finally got to the foot of the carriage, with the swift twirl of his cane, the black fire ceased from its flame; revealing the blackened remains of the vehicle.
It was nothing but a heaping pile of ash and rubble. Nothing remained of the austere craftsmanship of the carriage, this Obsidian masterwork. With the brushing of his cane, Ervwin searched for the remains of the Demon Queen and of her thornful dog, Stergos.
"There you are," Ervwin smiled as with the sweeping of his cane, a scorched body revealed itself under the ash.
It crumbled away effortlessly in the air, revealing a golden crown.
"At long last, the Queen is dead," Ervwin said as he lifted the crown up with his hand; reveling in its golden hue under the sunlight.
"And so is her dog, too," Ervwin sneered triumphantly as from where the head of the carriage was, a scorched body also revealed itself; and with it, a broken Morningstar.
Lifting the crown into the air, Ervwin cheered.
"Heed me my faithful Flock, the pretender is dead. She was doomed to this inglorious death, as was prophesized by our rightful heir, Lord Valefor,"
The Quellians cheered in their shared glory.
"Death to the unpure, death to the unpure!" They cried.
"Hahaha, yes, death to them all," Ervwin peered off back to the scattering of royal guard in the distance.
But, before he could reissue a command, a voice spoke into his ear.
"Ervwin," It said with a regal gravitas.
Hearing his name, Ervwin knelt down to one knee as he listened.
"My Lord, you have called upon me at the most triumphant of times. The whore is dead, her crown is in my possession,"
"...is that so?" Valefor said with a strange tone in his voice.
"How unbecoming, after that attack on the castle, I had expected more of her,"
"No matter, if it as you say, she is dead. Well done, comrade,"
Ervwin felt joy hearing Lord Valefor commend him for his victory.
"My Lord, I must return to the battlefield, the remaining royal guard still live,"
"Do not bother with such trivialities, they will come unto our fold given time; as they always do,"
"But my Lord--"
"Silence,"
It was as if Ervwin had felt his head rupture, a deafening pain that ran shrill into his ears as he staggered to the forest floor.
"I-I beg forgiveness for speaking out of turn!" Ervwin begged as the pain continued.
"You have grown bold in your absence from the castle, growing the flock in Quell, Ervwin,"
"Do not forget who you are serving,"
"Of course my Lord!" Ervwin said as he bowed his head, the pain had finally stopped.
"Come, take your flock and return to Vongart. With the death of the Demon Queen, we must commence the next phase of our plan--
To lay siege to that accursed city, Ars Goetia." Valefor said, then cutting his connection to Ervwin.