Northwest of Ethen, on its charred and barren land there was fortified human stronghold called Sol ,large alabaster stone walls that reached great heights of eight meters surrounded this stronghold, the walls were made from a mystical rock called divine granite which was a very rare and scarce ancient stone that was romoured to have fallen from the mythical castle of an ancient deity.
This ancient stone was renowned to be indestructible and no one had ever doubted its endurance until today. May thirteenth in the thirty eight century a large contigence of fallens had broken through the walls of Sol invading the stronghold and killing its inhabitants in the process.
The defenders of this stronghold had tried their best to fight back against these harrowing monsters but the contigence was just too much for them to bear, so they perished in the end, and when the defenders had perished the ordinary citizens living inside were left with no protection.
Within mere hours of the invasion, an entire population of eight thousand humans had been wiped out and the fortified stronghold was now teaming with horrid creatures.
After the word of the invasion was out the other nearby forces of humanity had sent help in hopes of rescuing their fellow kin who might have survived the dreadful attack.
Several forces of humanity marched towards the fallen stronghold from different places, armed from flesh to teeth and with a deadly resolve of rescuing and avenging their fellow humans.
The forces consisted of elite hunters which were led by veterain generals, which from human perspective was a force to be reckoned with.
On the west side of the fallen stronghold, a legion of hunters dressed in dark light armours were marching the barren land and were finally approaching the fortified settlement.
These warriors were the shadow saints, a force of hunters that belonged to the temple of Night and currently they were being led by their leader, a veterian hunter called general Raven Morris, who was a shadow warrior renowned for his great strength.
The temple of Night was the closest force to the stronghold of Sol so it was to be expected for them to reach the stronghold first.
General Morris was a middle aged man with gray white hair, he was donning a well crafted silver armor that glistened even in the darkness, beside him was a skinny man also donning a silver armor, he had curly brown hair and dull brown eyes ,this man was the deputy general of the shadow saints Genrick Stark.
The shadow saints halted their march the moment they were near the stronghold and now general Morris and his deputy general were currently at the front peering inside the deep crack that was visible on the great walls of Sol, the shadow saints waited anxiously behind their two leaders ready to act on their command.
As the general peered into the crack between the walls of Sol, a deep frown suddenly made its way upon his face, before his eyes he could see large swarms of creatures populating the entire settlement.
The general hesitated for a moment before deciding to resume their charge into the stronghold, he had evaluated the possible dangers inside the fallen stronghold and later deemed it safe for him to proceed.
The warriors of the shadows approached the walls stealthily without attracting the the attention of the fallens.
The warriors were well trained in both terms of stealth and combat, and within mere seconds of their arrival, the shadow saints had silently infiltrated the stronghold, they killed about a hundred of fallens in a blink of an eye and that was without breaking a sweat.
Most of the creatures that were at edge of the settlement were of low rank so the hunters did not have much trouble fighting through them.
After seeing how weak the fallens were the group of warriors were suddenly puzzled, they couldn't fathom the reason why this minor stronghold of Sol would fall under the attack of such a weak contingent.
"l dont understand, if this is the strength of the contigent then the forces of Sol would have not perished under such a weak attack", voiced out Genrick.
"Its too early to judge their strength, maybe the strong ones are located near the center of the settlement or perhaps there is fallen dracul out there", said general Raven.
"A fallen dracul! ,....do you really think that such an entity is present here", blurted out the vice captain of the shadow saints.
"Although l am not that sure, l have been sensing a powerful corruption source around this place ever since we arrived, and from what I know only high ranked fallens close to the dracul stage can release such profound corruption", said the general.
Lieutenant Genrick was silent for a moment, then he said,
"A Dracul class fallen would explain the fall of the stronghold,....but if what you say is true then wouldn't it be wise for us to wait for reinforcements instead".
"Mmmm that will be wise, but remember if we wait for reinforcements then we might not be able to finish the mission and l doubt the other forces will just let us do as we please".
"So should we proceed then?", cautiously asked Genrick.
"Yes we should proceed, as for the fallen dracul if we encounter it l am confident in being capable of holding it off long enough for everyone to retreat and thats if there is a dracul to encounter", said the General.
With that the group began to advance further into the settlement, they stealthily moved in the shadows masking their presence from the wandering fallens that were ruthless devouring the dead corpses of the settlers of the stronghold.
As the group kept advancing further their hope of finding survivors began to diminish, the numerous number of fallens that were populating the fallen settlement was too large to fathom, there had to be about forty thousands of these creatures present and that was just counting those populating the outer layers of the settlement.
As this realization dawned on the shadow saints they were not disheartened, for saving the survivors was not their goal during this mission,instead unlike other forces their goal was more inclined to the extinction of all survivors.
The group kept moving through the shadows and so far they had not attracted the attention of single fallen, but all of that changed the moment they reached the inner layers of the settlement.
As the shadow saints were stealthily moving in the shadows with a fast pace, they were finally noticed by a certain fallen, alas a very powerful fallen.
The creature was seven meters tall with dark thick skin and it had a humanoid appearance, its two arms were the longest limps on its body and a pair of two crimson eyes stared at the shadows with malice.
The creature had released a powerful roar the moment it had noticed the intruders.
The shadow saints halted their movements the moment they were noticed and around them numerous creatures were currently inching closer and surrounding them from all sides to prevent them from running, not that the warriors had an intention of running in the first place.
The shadow saints were warriors renowned for their stealth and their quick fast attacks, while other hunters focused on their strength and endurance forsaking their speed, the shadow saints were opposed to this path, they believed that speed was the basis of all strength, after all how can you kill your prey if you couldn't catch them.
The moment the creatures were near the warriors, they had suddenly vanished and now loud wailing growls were reverberating throughout the place.
Within mere seconds the streets that had been populated by hundreds of fallens was now empty with only a group of two hundred warriors and a single fallen left.
The tall fallen then released an enraged roar upon seeing its fellow kin eradicated, with speed greater than that of the elite hunters, the creature moved towards one of the closest hunters near it, its long limps were swung in the air in a swift motion and then smashed onto twelve elite hunters killing them on the spot.
The attack was too fast and too sudden for the twelve hunters to move, so in the end they were killed.
The other elite warriors upon seeing the startling speed of the fallen began to distance themselves as far they could, but it was to no avail for the beast had locked on to its next prey, in a blink of an eye twenty other hunters were suddenly dead.
The creature scanned its surroundings with a hostile gaze preparing to locate its next prey, the hunters that were trying to run were no longer distancing themselves from the creature, instead now they were firmly clutching their weapons with an unwavering resolve of attacking.
Although the beast was strong the warriors knew that they had the advantage of numbers.
Before the fallen could attack its next prey the hunters had suddenly moved before it, with synchronizing movements they attacked the creature from all angles, confusing the beast in the process.
The tall fallen tried its best to fight back against the hunters and sometimes it would manage to kill some few unfortunate hunters with its arms but in the end the humans were too many for it to defeat.
After several minutes of being slashed,poked and bashed the tall beast began to show signs of slowing down and a moment later it had finally fallen to the ground with a resounding thud raising a cloud of dust in the process.
The shadow saints had emerged from the fight with few minor wounds on them and with a death of about fifty warriors.
The two leaders of the shadow saints had been at the back watching the fight unfold, the deputy general Genrick Stark who had been closely watching the fight then made a remark,
"Fifty death against a fallen Gothic is not so bad, it seems this group is a bit talented".
"Yes it seems they are talented indeed", replied General Morris.
Before the hunters could catch a breath from the straining fight, the deep voice of the general suddenly rang out,
"Shadows! Its time to advance".
The warriors did not linger for too long after the order was given, the one hundred fifty warriors left quickly, retreating to the deep shadows of the settlement to continue their advancement.
Just when the warriors were about to advance something suddenly moved from a nearby alley. The sound had attracted the attention of the warriors and when they went to look at the source of the noise they could not believe what they were seeing.
Infront of the them was a small pale white skinned boy with black short black hair, crimson red eyes and dressed up in tattered dark clothes, the boy was smeared in blood giving him a sinister appearance.
The Shadow Saints were not shocked by the sudden appearance of this young survivor nor were they surprised by his strange appearance, instead they were surprised by the harrowing scene that surrounded the boy, at the cold ground of the fallen stronghold layed different types of corpses ranging from humans to fallens,the corpses numbered to thousands and when one tried to examine them they could see fresh wounds on the corpses attesting that they had just died recently.
The warriors stood there with dread as they tried to comprehend what caused this massacre, an incomprehensible conclusion came to their minds and yet they were reluctant to believe it.
One of the warriors then stepped forward as he pointed a pitch black sword at the bloody stained boy who appeared to be in his teens, the warrior with a shaky voice then asked,
"Wha- what caused this mess?".
The boy who was staring back at warriors with a hostile gaze then curled his lips in a creepy manner. From his body gray fog began to seep out slowly, clouding the entire area with a dark mist and from his back six hands of darkness suddenly sprouted out, a chilling and grafting ancient voice escaped from the boy's mouth forming two words only,
"Victor Carnage".