Rise Of Pandora

Rise of Pandora: V. The Fallen

"Never had I been so afraid of a dying man."

-Pandora

II. Maddened

Maddard's heart nearly leaped from his chest, his shaky ribs were hardly able to contain the soft red muscle. Every sensation in his being was overtaken by a ghastly amalgam of confusion and horror.

A black suit of armor of Herculean proportion consumed utterly in hellfire and black fumes careened through the blazing forest behind their home and with a mighty leap, its mountainous body soared several yards. Maddard stood stupefied. There was not a word coursing through his mind that could rationalize what he was seeing. It was so large he could hardly make out its face. The mere sight of it caused him to stand paralyzed with fear. His mind was screaming for him to run, but his body was mute.

To witness such a beast existing in the same plane, the same world, as himself was enough to steal his sense of significance and surrogate it with an unfatiguing, never-ending, and perverse sense of inferiority that was never again to leave his side until he was no drier and emptier than those old bones which lied dormant just beneath his numbing flesh.

Maddard noticed that this beast was traveling at such a phenomenal pace in the direction of their home. He desperately looked at his homestead and then back at the raging beast. It was behind their home and it took another leap forward.

Before Maddard could even act, in one mighty bound, its titanic foot hovered over his small stone home and crushed it under its fiery heel. The impact sent hundreds of debris hurdling in several directions. Maddard, just far enough to avoid being crushed by the large beast's enormous foot, was carried away by the force.

Maddard became covered with snow and rubble. His teeth were chattering and his body was icy to the touch. He pushed the snow and pieces of stone from off of his body angrily, and forcing himself to endure the awful shaking of his body, he hobbled to the ruins of what was once his home.

That deadening sound of clanking armor resonated in the distance. That flaming behemoth was already far away from Maddard, each of its strides spanned dozens of yards. It kept running into the large, distant trees that surrounded that pasture, causing ruin and havoc to those trees and woodland life as well.

While rushing back to his ruined home, he called out his wife's name several times, his voice breaking every time.

III. Vikings, In front of the Mesfirian Shire's walls

Tenniss stood patiently, waiting to hear the ring of the death bell he told Darian to ring some minutes ago. He was beginning to feel afraid, fearing that they may not have made it to the bell. But, he had faith so he waited in the dim light of the main room. He sighed a deep breath and then suddenly he heard the death bell. It was loud and blaring, ringing out a morbid tune across for all to hear.

Once the sound of the death bell rang, the soldiers and Gate Bearers who still drew breath, retreated with haste. They fled the wall within moments of hearing the morbid tune, stepping over the fallen and lifeless bodies spread all across the curtain wall. They all knew what the tune meant. They hurtled out of the walls, down the belfries, and finally to the ground where they ran together past the two screen walls that were built behind the curtain wall. 

After running past the veil screens, the town was found to be quiet. Many of the townspeople were already at Brynhilld for the festival and the people who stayed were already evacuated.

Hearing his men fleeing brought a great relief to Tenniss's heart. But he did not take any action yet, other than confining himself to the darkness of the main room, a bit of his sanity escaping him with every passing second. He still had difficulty understanding what his enemies were. The Deathknights were essentially just suits of armor with flames bursting from their innards, so water would likely be their downfall, that much he knew and the water we poured upon them proved this to him.