The Last of the Anointed

Prologue

Thrennek stood atop a dirty, blood-stained, ashen hill. Around him, the sounds and cries of war rang out, and the smell of death pervaded the air. The enemy had well past overwhelmed them; the battlefield was full of the opposing force. Already, most of the Holy Army was slain around him. Even he, one of the Anointed, was one of the last. The monsters had gotten so powerful that they'd come to murder most of his brothers and sisters. Thrennek felt his heart pound in his chest as he guided his squad along their retreat. The battle was lost; they'd failed. Their only hope now was to use the backup plan the Holy One had left them. That meant a hasty retreat.

Would he have to be the one? Thrennek hoped not. The power the Holy One had left for them was to be unlocked by one of the Anointed, yes, but Thrennek had never imagined that he would have to use it. But things were certainly looking dire. Most of his squad was down, and looking about the battlefield, he found he could spot only one or two of the Anointed left.

Atop a distant hill, while Thrennek led his squad away, Ollius, another Anointed, let fire a blast of heavenly light. The flash was blinding, and it took out a good hundred or so of the opposing force. Thrennek felt hope well up in his heart; if Ollius, always considered to be one of the greatest of the Anointed, could muster the courage and the resolve to keep on fighting, then so should he. He would not be a coward!

Ollius was quickly slain, a volley of arrows finding him as their marks before his corpse was ravaged by the monsters.

"Captain!" One of Thrennek's squad members yelled amidst the sounds of war. "We need to retreat quicker! This battle is lost! The longer we stay, the closer we come to dying! At least we can try to make a swift getaway now!"

The other squad members nodded their heads in agreement. Even they had given up?

But Thrennek had to reluctantly agree. Their chances of winning the battle as it was were slowly dwindling. It had, unfortunately, come time to implement the Holy One's backup plan. Were there even any Anointed remaining? Thrennek did not know. He couldn't risk letting himself die now. If it turned out he had been the last of the Anointed, and he perished before he could make it...he'd be a disgrace to the Holy One.

"Run, men!" Thrennek cried. "To the Grand Hill!"

Thrennek's squad instantly began to run, still keeping their shields up and their heads low. The remaining Barrier Ventis in Thrennek's group acted as the shield for the squad as they ran. He would eventually fall with enough arrows, but for now he would do a good job protecting Thrennek's men. It was a sorry sight, to only have one Barrier Ventis to protect his squad, but Thrennek supposed that with all of the losses the rest of his men had taken, it all balanced out. Their shield would do fine with what remained of the squad.

The Grand Hill loomed in the distance, once a safe haven, now the headquarters for the Holy One's military force. Thrennek had once thought of this place as the one place that would last forever, even when the war had started. But the enemy had proven more dangerous than they'd anticipated. Now even the Grand Hill was going to be overwhelmed.

Thrennek had to make it there before that happened.

An explosion erupted to the squad's left, blowing a couple of soldiers from a different squad to pieces. Thrennek grimaced, but didn't falter, continuing to encourage his men. He had seen too much death, brought too much of it, for the sight of flying, disembodied limbs to disturb him. All the same, he gave the soldiers a quick prayer, while he could. It was the least he could do.