Chapter 24: Chapter 23: Bloodbath

Captain Trace was where many never thought him to be. Born in a simple smithing family he, as the forth son, did not have many options. As he was not the first he wouldn't take over the family buisness, so as a young man he was often called a drifter changing jobs and living space almost every month. Until he eventually joined the army and there he was to stay.

He was stationed at Fort Lag near the Southland Dessert an area known for it's peace and prosperity through trade with the Southland people, however not this time, since only after three weeks of his arrival a group of people now know as the Marels conquered their way through the Southland Dessert and even started to raid the kingdoms lands, including a siege of Fort Lag.

It was during this siege that Trace proved both his natural talent for both swordsmanship and leadership, as his squads captain died through an unlucky arrow to the head it was him who took the handles of leadership, despite being the youngest and most inexperienced.

His tactics were unorthodox to say the least but through his charisma, selflessness and bravery he inspired his squad mates and against all odds they made it work, resulting in countless Marel casualties and they eventually broke off the siege. This was his first battle and his most famous.

over the next years he rose through the ranks during the Marles war during which the Marel people tried again and again to invade the kingdom, according to most Trace only lost a single battle during this time and he was nicknamed 'The wall of the south'. A few claim he never lost a single battle and he bested the Marles 'God warrior' in combat, causing the Marel people to call him 'The God shattering star.'

Trace himself never gave conformation on any of these claims, but if they there true or not didn’t matter as no one ever disputed his leadership skills and soon neither did the king. He was summoned before king and archived what no one else ever did, he was the first commoner to be appointed Captain of the Royal security unit, in charge of royal protection.

In retrospect that meant he got a ceremonial golden armor and a feather on his helmet instead of his normal one and that he wouldn’t take part in most battles anymore. The Royal Security unit hadn’t seen proper fighting in over 30 years after all, that didn’t mean the position wasn’t important and Trace gave his new responsibilities as much of his vigor as he had his older ones.

These responsibilities were often nothing more then being the bodyguard of one of the royals, such as right now as he and three of his subordinates were escorting the young princess Fraya through the city and towards the tower of justice, much to the horror of both her parents.

According to some reports of of the City guard there was an attack on the Tower only a few hours ago and all people present had been slaughtered, then shortly after there was a report that the Necromancer Vex, who they had allowed to work as part of the justice system, had escaped her solitary confinement, a necessary measure to ensure that the Necromancer didn’t go on a mad spree.

Princess Fraya had the unique ability to see past events, which she would archive using an convoluted and long ritual, and she had offered to go to the tower and find out what exactly happened. Her parents were against this, as the risk of the murderers still being there was in there eyes to high and furthermore they disapproved of the ritual, as it would damage Fraya‘s eyes whenever she took part in it and the princess already struggled with her sight.

But in the end she convinced her parents, as such a huge loss of life could not go unanswered, they needed to know the truth and so in the end the king and queen relented, but they made sure security measures would be taken to the highest level. The entire section of the city was cleared of all civilians and over two thirds of the guards were stationed around the area. No one could come in unseen and no one was ever allowed in except for the princess, her guards and her partner in the ritual, Julia Kuntery.

The Young heir to the family of Kuntery had been friends with the princess since childhood and they stayed in contact even after both reached the age of responsibility, with Julia succeeding her mother as the First Lady of Kuntery she had a lot of responsibilities to shoulder and although Fraya wasn’t the heir to the throne, that would be her older brother, she still was of royal blood and therefore had responsibilities of her people.

However tragedy struck and Julia got gravely injured during the hunt for the Dark Margenko who suddenly appeared and terrorised the kingdom, as Julia had lost an eye to the beast and possibly even her life had it not been for the Church of Light being able to cure her of the beast potent poison that had entered her body.

But although they were able to save her life they weren’t able to save her of all the consequences and she grew frail, falling ill more often and severely hampering her body’s physical abilities. That is how Julia, who always looked up to her mother who was an esteemed hunter and who‘s footsteps she wanted to follow, turned into a fanatic student of the magical arts and even though it has barley been a month she was learning quickly, far more quickly then anyone else ever did.

“Are you sure you want to do this Julia, you already only have a single eye, why risk damaging your sight further." Fraya asked her friend while they had gathered all the necessary parts for the ritual, Julia replied with a grin.

"You said it yourself, I already lost one, one more would be catastrophic for myself, however I feel like, as a noble, I have a responsibility to the people to find the answer to this tragedy and if it means I have to lose my sight to do it, I will gladly do it, much like how our soldiers risk their lives to defend us." Fraya didn’t answer, but simply smiled at her friend, she truly admired Julia‘s determination and devotion to the people, she was truly a good person and a better friend.

It was under these circumstances that the three, Fraya, Julia and Trace reached the gate to the walled off  Tower of Justice and just standing outside the gates one could smell the iron in the air, the iconic smell of blood, Trace knew it better then anyone else present. He asked the two nobles to stay behind as he and his men opened the gate and secured the entrance, the woman nodded and Trace gave his man their orders.

They opened the gate and what they saw, was something out of a literal nightmare world.

Multiple bodies lay on the floor with all of their limbs not attached to their bodies anymore, investigations of the wounds showed clear signs that there was no cutting involved, the limbs were quite literally torn from the bodies. Further into the courtyard of the tower were the gallows from one of which a single body hung, a bag had been put over the person‘s head and it was stripped of all clothes, after they removed the bag an eyeless face stared back at them.

They all felt sick at the sights but they prevailed and carried out their mission just as they were told to and once all places were checked and no one alive was found they deemed it save enough for the two nobles to walk in, the two of them weren’t quite as strong in the stomach then the men were and they had to stop multiple times during their walk through the site, but in the end they two prevailed and entered the courtyard with the gallows where they would prepare the ritual.

As the women prepared the ritual, Trace and two of his men decided to check the tower proper, as this was still a prison and they needed to know what happened to the multiple criminals that had been locked up inside of it, if some escaped for example there was a high chance all had escaped, which was a highly dangerous prospect, as this tower hosted some of the most dangerous criminals of the kingdom.

The horror They found inside the Tower was even worse then outside, on the ground, hanging from the wall, windows and furniture, were all the missing limbs of the bodies outside on multiple of the arms and legs were crude carvings made onto the flesh showing smiling faces or the word 'happy'.

As they ascended the tower, they passed the cells of the various criminals and luckily they were all still inside their respective cells, unluckily however was the fact that most of them were dead, having been slaughtered in the similar fashion the guards had been and at first they thought that all of them were simply killed, but as they climbed higher and higher that changed and unfortunately it didn’t get better, it got worse.

The inmates of the prison were starting to be still alive, but they clearly wanted not to be, those still alive were either completely still looking at the ceiling or floor with dead eyes and not moving or reacting to anything, at first Trace thought they were dead as well, until he got closer to one of them and heard the extremely quite and shallow breathing of the inmate. Others who were still alive were the opposite, they were sitting or standing either rocking back and forth or walking back and forth, their expressions full of fear and dread and they mumbled about something, about someone and how they could still hear the screams of the tortured.

Trace and his men ignored them as they wouldn’t be able to keep multiple ex criminals in line alone, especially if they suffered from such serve trauma, they had to wait for further help to arrive, soon they reached the very top of the tower where only one cell was located and it was the one outlier in This world of horror and death, since it was completely empty.

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One one of the walls were was a bit of writing and of course it was written in blood, but at that point the men were used to the sight of the substance that this barley raised an eyebrow, after they read the writing however that changed.

'You don’t take what rightfully belongs to me! Remember this and if you ever take what is mine ever again? My rampage would make this look like a everyday petty crime.

-The Rippers'

 

 

Meanwhile downstairs the two noble women had finished all the preparations for their ritual, the candles were placed and lit, the goblet was filled, all what‘s left to do was to speak the incantation. Fraya looked nervously at her friend, she was truly worried about her friends well being, this was definitely not something she should be doing. Once Julia noticed the concerned look of her friend she simply smiled a soft smile at her.

Fraya sighed lightly, Julia wouldn’t back down would she? Fraya wasn’t sure if such bravery for her people would be admirable or self destructive and stupid. Nether the less she turned her attention towards the goblet in front of her, she took a deep breath and smelled  the liquid inside, it smelled metallic and yet sweet at the same time, a truly bizarre experience she didn’t get used to, no matter how often she smelled it.

She closed her eyes and began the incantation, besides her she could hear Julia start to Mutter the same words she did.

"Oh great beyond, you are not out of our reach and yet you never cease to be so far away, we implore you to come to us, so we may see what caused these souls to leave our plain, we offer our sight so we may see what transpired once in the past on this very plain."

Fraya opened her eyes and she saw smoke coming from the goblet in front of her a clear sign the ritual worked, she took a long breath, looked at Julia one last time and put her head over the steaming goblet, at first nothing happened, but slowly the world around her changed, it all turned into a monotonous grey and her movements became slow, like she was swimming through butter that had yet to be churned and her hearing was as though she stuffed her ears with wax.

It was then that the smoke disappeared to reveal the courtyard once more but now it was full of life, Fraya observed how the ten or so guards walked through the courtyard, attending to their respective duties with outmost care and diligence.

Then suddenly there was a crash, even with her muffled hearing Fraya flinched at the sound, she couldn’t imagine how it had sounded in reality. She turned to the source of the sound and what she found was a man lying on the floor, in a puddle of his own blood and a top of him was… a child?!

Fraya squinted at the figure, it was definitely as tall as a child would be, but as she looked closer she could see multiple things that definitely did not belong to a young human child. There was a tail, cat like ears and sharp claws on each of her hands, one of these hands was also clearly stained with some kind of liquid, Fraya didn’t have to guess what it was.

What Fraya witnessed next was something she would never be able to forget, as she watched the small monster tear through the guards like sword would through warmed butter, like the armor was nothing but a cheap decoration to her, she slashed and slashed over and over again, each swipe taking a life and spluttering blood onto the ground.

Fraya tried and tried to look away from the massacre from all the suffering and malice, but try as she might she couldn’t turn her head or move her legs, which felt like they could collapse at any moment.

Through her muffled hearing she could her the screams of pain and anger as the monster made its way through the courtyard and towards the tower from which ever more guards poured out, only to meet a swift end by the red stained claws of a monster, this show of madness and evil continued for a few more minutes until suddenly there was silence, complete and utter silence.

The monster stood in the middle of a lake of blood and bodies taking long and heavy breaths, clearly exhausted and it trembled a bit, Fraya noticed multiple wounds around the body of the monster, multiple stab wounds in her upper body and arms, as well as some of her legs, much to Fraya‘s horror The monster completely ignored them and showed no signs of pain as its blood dripped to the floor as well, mixing with the rest.

Then suddenly there was loud screaming inside Fraya‘s very mind it was not muffled like all other sound she had heard the last couple of minutes and it took her a few moments to even comprehend what exactly was happening, once she did however there was shiver going up her spine and despite all the horrors she had just witnessed, it was this what shocked her the most, as it was Julia screaming in her mind.

"No! NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO!!!!!! IT‘S HER IT‘S HER! SHE CAME BACK!! I DON‘T WANT TO DIE PLEASE LEAVE ME ALONE!!"

With a gasp of air, Fraya was back in the real world, normally it would take a moment or two for her senses to get used again to the real world, but not this time as she looked to the side to find Trace and his men restraining Julia who looked positively mad, screeching and trying desperately to get out of the men‘s grip, she looked like a wild animal caught by a hunter.

"PLEASE LET ME GO I CAN‘T DO IT AGAIN PLEASE PLEASE WE HAVE TO GO SHE WILL KILL US ALL!!!!"

At that point Fraya‘s world began to spin, it was all coming to her right at this very moment, her world spun at alarming rates, she doubled over and released all her stomachs contents on the floor, after that she remembers seeing two concerned men running towards her as her vision blurred and darkened and just as she was about to lose consciousness she heard one last mad screech from Julia, then it all turned black and she heard nothing more.

 

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