The air, palpable and moisture smelled of a meld of copper and dirt. This was so because of the hundreds that had been injured or died during the clash. Their blood coated the ground like natural polish, except it wasn't natural.
The noses of those concentrated on the performance of violence were unaware of this smell but the people who did not actively participate noticed this awful odour; truth be told, they noticed many things: the lightning that flashed, illuminating the place that was now a battleground, the cries of surrounder from some and the lone vampires who would stick their formidable fangs into their victims only to suck them dry, revenants and wolves who'd bite the flesh off the bones of their victims. These things were prevalent, a perpetual cycle that proved to have no end as yet.
The blackened sky they fought beneath was consumed by the smoke of the burning bodies, trees, earth and even some of the buildings within the estate and as it rained soot smudged their faces. The burst of the rain did not come as a surprise so many were not fazed by the black droplets that fell, bashing against the anger-filled people, showing to them just how damaging their battle and that of the heavens was, but did it stop them? No. They were too busy sawing the heads off their enemies from their bodies, ramming spears into partially armoured sides, tossing four-legged and two-legged beings across the sky like toys, spitting arrows into the air like toothpicks; Colette descried this and it was why she tried incessantly to get her family out of the danger.
Moments after Adira and the Councilwoman left, Hans, Felix, her family and several other revenants showed up and with them came unsolicited company. And like a third wave, bringing a harsher hit of disaster and turmoil with them, a plethora of beings once again marched onto the estate wielding a variety of weapons.
At the encouragement of the revenants and Aksel, the brunette took her family and Lottie into what was left of the manor, which was an insignificant portion, to hide them. There were several tunnels beneath the land, and from what she could've remembered, a prison-like room they'd kept Petra in at the start of the dilemma that could've rendered safety and housing for them until the violence passed or so she thought.
Steadily walking down the hall, torch in hand due to the power outage that overtook the manor, the brisk footsteps of several people filled the vicinity as Colette led the way down the narrow pathway.
"It stinks in here. It smells like rats and old water," confided her little sister, Chloe.
"Yeah, well it's the bottom of an archaic building, Chlo it's supposed to stink," responded the brunette. Her voice was ladened with stress, and even as she led the way with the torch, her hands shook violently despite convincing herself that she was capable of being brave.
How could she not be troubled though? The sounds of war were heard although muffled. So much so that it further traumatized her; she'd never heard wolves howl so aggressively before, nor had she ever heard a giant's war cry but in that hour, she heard it all.
"Here-" the brunette paused when she was almost close to the room. Her feet were suddenly consumed by ankle-high water and she looked down quickly.
Pointing the torch outward, Colette gasped. Water bubbled to the surface of the hall, muddied and somewhat pungent. She panicked, dragging her feet through it as she came upon the door, pushing it open afterwards. Once again she discovered the water was there, just as unclear and pungent of the earth. That probably happened due to the giants smashing themselves into the place. The underground pipes probably couldn't handle the pressure.
"Jesus Christ, is this what we have to stay in?" Questioned Christa.
"No, um." Fumbled Colette. She turned to Hans and the young man was just as confused as she was. If the room was flooded, the tunnels probably were too but she didn't want to tell them that just yet, no she couldn't bring herself to say it. It was scary enough that they were attacked before they showed up there, she didn't want to squeeze more fear into their veins by letting them know they were probably fucked.
"I think it's raining outside," Hans said and Colette swallowed hard.
When did the rain come? She knew the sky was abnormally dark but when did the rain come? Was it because the voices of the people were so loud it blocked out the downpour? That could be why water filled the place she thought, the rain was flooding the estate. Additionally, she was never aware that the manor flooded that easily before but anything was possible at that moment, nothing was impenetrable or rigid to this.
"It doesn't matter, my family can't stay here,"
"I don't know where else they could go..half this place is nothing but piles of rubble anyway," answered Hans. Lottie then whined at his feet. The poor dog was just as traumatized as her humans for she too was stressed by the number of unknown faces she'd seen for the night.
A loud bang then filled the vicinity as the people stood quietly among one another and it caused everyone to cover their ears. The walls and ceiling shook, dust spilt onto each of them. There was no way for them to see what caused such a thing but it was large enough to shake the whole building they were in and frightening enough to detour them from going any further.
"I don't want to stay here, this whole place is about to collapse," said Christian. It was the first time Colette had ever seen her brother display so much fear and she didn't blame him. She was afraid too, she felt awful for not being able to protect them the way she wanted.
"If only I could get someone to take you guys away," her voice trembled as she fought back tears. "I thought you would be safe here and I see now just how fucked up of a thought that was."
"That's virtually impossible, no one's safe not even us," replied Felix.
"Maybe you guys can do it. Maybe I can move all this water away and you guys can crawl through the tunnels, that was also a plan. Access to the tunnels is inside the ceremonial chambers," said the girl as she sniffed. "I could-"
"Say we do that, how are you going to get rid of all this water?" Interjected the mother.
"I'm sure you guys see what's happening outside: the giants, vampires, orcs, elves, fucking trolls, werewolves, the revenants? Creatures we were told about as kids to scare us have shown themselves to be real. It's not a secret anymore,"
"What does that have to do with you?" The girl's mother inquired with confusion and fear.
"We don't have time for me to go over the details but just know that I can. I can hold the water back and long enough for you guys to go,"
"No one's doing that. We're not leaving like that." Stated Christa.
"Please, guys. It's only a matter of time before this place blows up or someone learns we're here-"
Colette paused unexpectedly, a tingle or something close to a bolt of electricity ran up and down her spine and it immobilized her for several seconds. Almost as if this tingle had woken something in the girl, she stood, her mind elsewhere as vivid imagery of things flashed before her mind.
She saw people, a magnitude of them as they breeched the burning, crumbling walls of the manor, and insert themselves in the most inconspicuous of ways and they were incredible. Water bathed the land as they charged through it, the rain fell in their faces, beating onto their unaccustomed flesh like tiny pellets. They were fast and precise as they wielded weapons she'd never seen before.
These people were fueled by something much stronger than hate, for it showed on their foreign faces. And amid this swarm of incredible people dominating the land was her, pictures Colette. She was safe among them, she was their influencer, their guidance. They looked to her for orders, and such a revelation overwhelmed her.
Turning from her family without so much as a warning, the girl walked out of the room, her wet feet left prints against the dried part of the floor.
Of course, they trudged behind as she followed this urge. The people with her needed the light to manoeuvre their way around in the dark, so they had no other choice but to give chase.
"What are you doing?!"
"Colette, stop!" Harshly whispered Hans.
He tried to grab her arm to detour her from doing whatever she did but the girl was unmovable— her mind was so intent on following this hum that sounded in her body. It was the song the Avalon hummed that once in her dream, it was a call. She knew her family and her two friends did not hear it and it was why they wouldn't understand her need, her curiosity in following this hum but she needed to follow it.
Unconsciously, Colette led them all to the ceremonial chamber and upon reaching the door, with just a simple touch the girl was able to get it open. Usually, it took more than that for Adira to get in but at that point, it felt like it was just waiting for her to open it.
And the people stood in quietude. They discovered a room filled with obscure fixtures, a solid concrete table in the centre, a chair that sat high, many upon many containers that they did not know what laid in them.
Water consumed every inch of the floor, quite like the room they were in and they realized it was because these two places were the lowest point of the building. But the strange thing about the existence of this chamber, beside the water, was that one door that led into the tunnels was ajar and a person stood in the entryway.
Colette studied the barely lit place and at the corner of where she stood, a torch fixed into the wall. She took the fire she held and placed it against this torch, causing more light to stream into the room once it was lit. Immediately her tattoos lit up at the sight of this tall, slender figure who glared at them and her family gasped in horror. They stepped away from her as if they'd seen a mutant, an anomaly.
"Oh god," Christa covered her mouth while her youngest clung to her. "Are you sick, like those things?"
This being that stood in the water had eyes that glowed that wonderful hue as Colette's tattoos, and once more her family was taken aback, too frightened to even look.
The careful flicker of the torches illuminated his face and the people stared in wonder at his feature. Eyes slanted at the ends but wide as the moon stared them. Hair as black as the night was pulled back into a loose bun. Skin as tanned as the sand on a beach reflected, glinted almost as if scales were there. This man was like a painting, but a painting of a strange being that shouldn't exist to be that beautiful.
"Regina mea?" He questioned in an accent unlike what the people had ever heard before and the closer Colette crept to him the more she realized he wasn't an ordinary man. Gills on either side of his cheek contracted and expanded until they disappeared, leaving behind sharp cheekbones. Bands of gold sat around his wrists and waist. Tattoos about his naked chest and arm, similar to hers told a tale of something profound.
Colette's heart fluttered in her chest. It was as if she'd seen the face of a friend but one she hadn't met before and oh how glorious that was. Fear and shock slowly dissipated the longer she observed this man and he the same.
Something incited her to point the flickering torch down his body, and the moment she did, the people saw scales at his feet and the formation of legs inside a thin, skin-like pocket made them all stare in reverence.
The man fell to his knees upon the sight of the glowing tattoos on Colette, and the dark brown hair on her head for it was revealed to them that she was the one who possessed the spirit of the resting Avalon. It was she who would guide them in the physical world.
At the man falling to his knees, the girl's family and friends were startled.
"What is he doing?"
"Shhh!!" Felix shushed the curious girl and they all observed the man with the wet hair and odd features.
"Regina mea," he said again in Latin. "We have answered your call," he uttered in English. His chest rapidly rose and fell at the excitement that flooded through him.
"Who is we?" Questioned Felix
"Nevermind that," his boyfriend said, his hand wound tightly around Lottie's leash. "How did they know she'd be here?"
Footsteps and loud splashes in the water behind the door leading into the tunnel echoed until the sight of other similar beings appeared.
They were just as tall and aquatic-esque. They were curious, so astonished to be in the room for many of them had never seen the land nor dwelled on it before. Their laughter was evidence of this, their wide, lambent eyes were also signs of this. Their expressions of excitement and relief when they noticed the stunned girl was also difficult to miss. And quite like the first man, they all bowed as they filled the room pairs at a time.
"Holy shit," whispered Hans when more and more of these people piled into the chamber.
×
The instigators of this war, the chaotic brothers themselves did not partake in the fight like the rest of their loyal and humble followers, no. They decided to fly around the burning site supervising and taking in the violence all while cackling and feeling accomplished over what they had done in the name of appeasing their masters.
They had no plans for this place unlike what they said to the ones who believed in them. Their only mission was to stir up confusion just as they did in the heavens. Their task was to sabotage the creators' divine invention and once that task was completed, they'd disappear into the celestial city.
It was invigorating to say the least, watching their puppets fight, thinking it was for a greater cause other than the genocide of the people and beings on earth. The one who fought the most as if there was a reward to it was Edas.
The man felt like the star of the show wielding his custom made sword gifted to him by the divine brothers. He swung the tall blade, cutting down the stumbling blocks in his rise to wealth and importance.
He behaved like a king, he had his entourage, the best of the best on his team dashing across the damp earth like demons, slaughtering the enemies he tethered to himself. And they were the fastest people besides Adira, they slew a group of sorcerers Aksel summoned to help in a matter of seconds, adding more of that coppery substance to become fertilizer for the grass and weed to come.
The site became an unholy one due to this, a discovery good enough to turn one's stomach sour with bile. There were so many pieces of people mismatched and trampled into the ground, adding to this. The oddest and most gruesome was the heart of a werewolf. The beast's blood-pumping organ was stabbed clean from its body when it sprang onto Edas' blade. Almost as big as a football, the thing beat its way into death before being trampled by the vampires that also disregarded its body.
And this perpetuated for the longest while: obscure pieces of people were stomped into the mud, hair ripped from the scalp, teeth knocked out by fists or other forces, men and women laid helpless or charged with just one foot, some bodies even laid without arms, how sickening.
The revenant queen in her state of profound anger and hatred saw this yet still moved through the magnitude of people like the wind trying her best to dwindle the numbers in which her friends and subjects fell. Some people were lucky enough to see that, the devil queen move light lightning. Some weren't that lucky because they were the ones in her way.
She was the force they tried to take down the most but failed miserably. She was just too strong for them and too quick on her feet. And when the woman realized her twin daggers weren't enough to slow down the people who once again circled her, she conjured an axe.
This piece of weaponry had the blade extending on both sides so either way, she swung, it would've done its job. And it did do its job for bodies was then cut in half, intestines fell to the feet of those unfortunate enough to be in her way.
Adira inevitably flung the axe into the back of one, and as it struck him, going through and through his chest, he shat himself. Distracted by the string of faeces that left this man, a blade ran across her arm, causing her to wince sharply.
A black substance clung to her wound, burning it immensely and the queen couldn't help but groan, her coarse cries starling the people around.
Wild amber eyes found their way to the person who had done this and to her surprise it was the elder who represented the vampires, the traitor, the enemy.
Fully clothed in the finest armour that protected his torso, Victor bore a weapon, a sword made from the finest steel known to this place, however, it still wasn't enough to protect him despite it being blended with this thing said to leave a sting on Adira and he realized. The glare she tossed his way revealed a promise of death and a death so severe, it would be remembered for millennia.
Attempting to flee from her, the white-haired man was in a state of panic when Adira sprinted full force after him. They both knocked people out of their way and before long, she had caught up to him, snatching him by the hair and incessantly dragging him until she had taken him outside the perimeter, away from the fight where it was quiet. She would deal with him without disturbance she thought.
The grip her majesty had on Victor was so strong, he needed to use both hands to pry her palm from around his grey locs yet it did not open. Adira simply took her free hand and placed it over his face and slowly start to squeeze him as she lifts him off his feet. He dangled like an ornament, his limbs flailed as he still attempted to pry himself away.
"You plotted against me," she spoke, wanting him to know how she felt.
Tears misted up in her fiery eyes and there was nothing like it. The hail of amber rain that shone down at the man as he did the unthinkable and gazed upon the face of the horrid creature who was no longer Adira was a sight to behold.
"You planned and you met in secret to make me the laughing stock, to embarrass me all because of greed."
The silver rings on her finger started to burn against his flesh but he did not show that he felt agony. No, he took his chiding, his second death like the brave man he was for even thinking such crimes against Adira would work was absurd.
"You plotted and you executed and by doing so you took someone from you, just to gain what?”
Closing his eyes at the sting of the rings continued, her majesty witnessed this and with a frown on her dark face, she threw the man to the ground and the moment his eyes popped open from the suddenness she stomped her foot to his chest. Victor didn't die at the blow, but it was enough to stun him.
Incessantly, Adira lifted and stomped her feet into the metal armour around the man's chest until she penetrated. Bones snapped at the weight of her body crashing down onto him. And she did this until the light in the older man's eyes extinguished, she did this until his protruding fangs no longer grew, until his face had stopped twitching.
Startled by the sound of a gunshot, the beast of a woman spun around, averting her gaze until she came across the source of such.
Away from the chaos, Adira spotted a familiar face combing through the woods putting bullets in the hearts and heads of those who tried to flee. Her majesty paused, her brows drawing down at the woman with the wonderful braids in her hair. Her sweet smell blessed the vicinity and unbeknownst to her, Adira kept watching.
Petra moved through the trees like a silent killer, her eyes and gun pointed towards her kind, the ones who clamoured their way through Adira's home and she killed them, quietly.
A myriad of emotions struck the queen as she witnessed this unexpected yet profound moment. Petra hadn't seen her yet nor did the woman want to be seen but it was inevitable. Adira stood like an anthropological wonder in the woods: massive horns, glowing embers for eyes, a presence so sinister yet beautiful, even the animals hid from her; she was hard to miss and rightfully so. So, it didn't surprise her when the vixen looked in her direction, her expression a mixture of shock and embarrassment.
Petra saw the body at the woman's feet and the sight of the dead Victor did stir something inside of her being. Was it regret? Hatred? Gratification? Whatever it was, the woman swallowed it down. She tried to leave the vicinity, but Adira sprinted after her, grabbing her by the throat and slamming her into a tree.
Leaves fell around them, the birds who hid in the tree squawked and aggressively flew away.
Their faces at this point were so close, the heat emitting from the queen's nose fanned into the vampire's face, causing small blisters to appear.
"You." That was what Adira mumbled, her fingers still wound tightly around the vampire's neck.
She didn't intend to kill her, or did she?
What the queen knew was that she was angry, she was heated and rightfully so but why? Staring down into the woman's face as she squeezed and squeezed, Adira tried to find a reason to quietly kill Petra too. For Colette, she thought. For her trying to kill Colette, or for her being disobedient, for her choosing to be complicit with her kind when she could've sided with them for not coming sooner.
Adira gritted her teeth as she squeezed the light out of Petra's eyes but then she abruptly let's go, stepping back as she watched the woman stumble to the rugged ground.
"I should kill you, but that would make me something I would never want to be towards you. Even though I have so many reasons to do it, I won't,"
"I completely understand."
"You started this," tossed Adira. "You were the opportunity they used to execute this thing,"
"I'm sorry," Petra kept her eyes to the ground. She puts a hand around her neck, tears threatened as she held the blisters.
"I showed up though, I didn't entirely turn my back on you,"
Adira fumed. The queen wanted to implode on the younger woman but chose not to. She bit back the anger because even she saw that Petra had changed. The fact that she was there was proof. She could've been anywhere in the world right now with her lover, she could've evaded the fight but she chose to come, and she chose to risk her life without anyone knowing she fought against her kind and their allies.
What should she do with this girl? The woman questioned. What could she possibly do with Petra at a time like this?
"I will deal with you after this ends," Adira quietly spat and before she sprinted off again, she lifted the seal that she'd bound to the woman because she knew why she was there.
Petra felt this, the alleviation of that pressure in the centre of her back and at its absence, her eyes misted up again. But quickly she scrambled to her feet, fixing herself and checking her gun before moving through the trees as she headed towards the big clash.