A force unlike anything I had ever felt before crashed down from above.
I barely had time to register the weight before my knees buckled.
My vision blurred.
My lungs emptied as if the very air had been ripped from them.
The city screamed.
The wall collapsed, Buildings crumbled into dust, streets split apart like fragile glass, and the awakened, those who were freezed, those who had been fighting, even those who had already fallen, were all struck by the same, inescapable force.
Beth’s cry was lost in the chaos as she was slammed into the ground.
Edward... I couldn’t even see him.
I tried to resist, to push back, but it was like trying to hold back the sky itself.
My entire body was pinned, my bones feeling as if they would snap under the sheer force pressing down on me.
And yet...
The orc lord stood untouched.
He hadn’t moved.
Not even a single inch.
As if the destruction around him was nothing more than a gust of wind.
I gasped for breath, my vision darkening at the edges.
My arms trembled as I struggled to push myself up, but the weight kept pressing, crushing, suffocating.
For the first time since this fight began, I felt something creeping in.
A feeling I refused to acknowledge.
Despair.
Darkness swallowed me whole
There was no pain, no sound, just a vast, empty void.
My body felt weightless, drifting in an abyss where time had no meaning.
Was I dead?
Can I die?
Was this my end?
Then, suddenly, air.
A ragged gasp tore from my throat as my eyes snapped open.
Pain rushed in all at once, a sharp, unbearable agony coursing through every inch of my body.
My limbs felt like they had been torn apart and stitched back together the wrong way.
My chest ached, each breath labored and shallow.
What... happened?
I tried to move, but my body refused.
The ground beneath me was cracked and uneven, coated in dust and debris.
The scent of blood and burning wood filled the air, thick and suffocating.
Then I heard it, screams.
Not just one, but many.
The distant wails of people in agony, the panicked cries of those desperately fighting for their lives.
My vision cleared just enough to see the city, or what was left of it.
Smoke billowed into the sky, twisting and curling like black serpents.
Buildings had been reduced to rubble, the streets littered with bodies, some moving, some disturbingly still.
And through the chaos, a familiar, guttural sound reached my ears.
Goblins.
Dozens of them.
No, Millions.
They swarmed through the broken city like a disease, their grotesque, twisted bodies darting between collapsed structures, tearing into anyone too weak to fight back.
Their eyes gleamed with manic hunger, their jagged weapons dripping with fresh blood.
Panic surged through me.
No, no. Not the people.
Edward. Beth.
I turned my head sharply, ignoring the sharp pain that lanced through my skull.
They were right beside me.
And they weren’t moving.
My breath caught in my throat.
Edward’s body was twisted unnaturally, his arms sprawled lifelessly at his sides, his suit dented and cracked beyond recognition.
Beth’s condition was no better, her face was bloodied, her once-pristine gear now in tatters, her chest barely rising with shallow, uneven breaths.
No. No, no, no.
I forced myself up, my arms shaking under my own weight.
My head swam, my vision blurring at the edges, but I couldn’t stop.
I reached for Beth first, pressing two trembling fingers against her neck.
A pulse.
Weak, but there.
Edward, same.
Relief washed over me, but it was fleeting.
They were alive, but barely.
And I wasn’t even sure for how much longer.
I scanned the battlefield, looking for the others, but what I found only made the pit in my stomach deepen.
The awakened, the soldiers, those who had once stood with us, now scattered across the ruins, their bodies broken, their spirits shattered.
Some groaned in pain, struggling to rise, while others...
Others wouldn’t be getting up at all.
Despair clawed at my chest, but I shoved it down.
Not now.
I didn’t have time to mourn.
I didn’t have time to rest.
Because the goblins were still coming.
And if I don’t heal them now, they wouldn’t even have the luxury of dying in peace.
Footsteps.
Heavy, deliberate, unhurried.
Each one sent a tremor through the broken ground beneath me, a steady rhythm that echoed in my bones.
The air around me was thick, suffocating, drenched in the stench of blood, smoke, and something else.
Something ancient.
Through the haze of dust and pain, I saw him.
The orc lord.
He walked towards me, his towering frame untouched by the carnage around him.
His armor gleamed under the dim, dying light, no longer bearing the strain of our battle.
His face, twisted in amusement, his tusked grin splitting his monstrous face, sent a fresh wave of rage surging through my veins.
I tried to move.
Pain shot through my body, pinning me to the shattered ground.
My muscles refused to obey, my limbs trembling under an unknown weight.
My breath came in short, ragged gasps, but I forced myself to meet his gaze.
That damn grin of his.
I hated it.
"I’ll kill you," I spat, my voice hoarse, but unwavering. "I swear it. I’ll make your life miserable. I’ll rip you apart, piece by piece, mark my words."
His grin widened.
"You?" He let out a deep, rumbling chuckle, his glowing eyes filled with something between amusement and pity. "You cannot do that. You will never be able to."
His presence was suffocating, an unbearable weight pressing down on me, making every breath a struggle.
Yet I refused to look away.
"I will, I can," I growled.
The orc lord tilted his head, regarding me like one might a stubborn child.
Then, to my surprise, he let out a sigh, low, almost thoughtful.
"I will admit... you almost got me."
His voice held no fear, no regret.
Just a simple, undeniable truth.
I clenched my fists.
That word burned more than any of my wounds.
Then he did something that made my blood run cold.
He smiled, genuinely.
"I will remember you."
His words weren’t mocking.
They weren’t laced with condescension or cruelty.
They were a recognition.
"Stand proud," he said, his deep voice carrying across the ruinous battlefield. "You were strong."
The world tilted.
My vision darkened at the edges, the last remnants of my strength slipping away like sand through my fingers.
No.
Not yet.
I tried to hold on, to fight the pull of unconsciousness.
But my body betrayed me.
The last thing I saw was that infuriating grin.
For all the innocent lives you have wasted...
I will get stronger, and come back to kill you.
With that all I saw next was...
Darkness.