The Eternal War: The Dragon's Valkyrie

The March of Death

Screams of bliss escaped the queen's lips. Gallos rammed himself into her with strong thrusts, gripping her hips as she gripped the sheets.

"Yes... Give me a child!"

"As you wish, my queen," Gallos said between grunts.

The queen turned her head to smile at Dante who stood patiently against the wall. His red eyes were glinting through the transparent black veil that surrounded Casteil's bed.

"How does it feel, slave? To see the body sculpted by the dark god's vision being pleasured by another, knowing you'll never taste the intimacy of my flesh?"

Casteil pushed Gallos off her and slammed his back into the bed, swinging her leg over him and continuing her carnal tryst. Her hips ground against his as she placed his hands on her breasts.

Dante just stared at them as he was ordered to do when they began. His was gaze ever emotionless.

"If your mother wasn't a human bitch, you might have been able to put your seed in me instead. Such perfection wasted by spoiled blood."

Gallos' grunts turned to moans as he thrust his pelvis upwards, arching his back. The queen snapped her head back to Gallos as her lips grew thin across her teeth.

"Yes, spill yourself into me! Give me an heir worthy of taking my rule!"

"As... you... wish... my queen!" Gallos yelled as he came to his climax.

His body fell back against the sheets as he sucked in air, wiping the sweat from his brow. The queen dismounted him and grabbed a robe that hung over the foot of the bed. She donned the black silk, walking toward a door in the room.

"Come, Dante, it's time I address my people."

She threw the door open and Dante followed her out onto a small balcony. A dull red gloom permeated Reich. The red cloud of miasma that hung forever overhead shone like blood, turning the sun its own shade of scarlet. Down below, in the courtyard preceding the palace, tens of thousands of oni clad in black armor scrambled to get into formation. Leaders barked orders to them to stand up straight, to tighten up a rank, and others.

"My fellow oni!" the queen bellowed from her chest. "It is with a heavy heart that I look upon you each day," she paused. "Knowing that your stomach pains for food, food that rots in the ground before harvest! And, it is with each passing day that I see children's faces less because our children die in our wombs before every seeing the light! We cannot live like this any longer! I cannot watch my people slowly fade from this world! So I say too long have we been confined to The Abyss, promised the world by the God of Death, Kayate! Too long have we waited to take the world promised to us!" 

She brought her hands up as the oni cheered. "Today, I present you with great news!"

"The goddess will finally bring us the world?" one of the many oni below shouted.

The queen's eyes narrowed, and her hands fell back to her sides as his superior pulled him from the ranks. The oni was clad in heavy mail instead of the common leather coats the rest were issued. He kicked the backs of the insubordinate oni's knees from him, then grabbed his head and shoved him down to all fours.

"The next one to speak to the queen without being called upon will suffer far worse than this fool's merciful death!" the oni shouted at the troops.

He raised his crescent-bladed glaive, and with a twirl, took the oni's head in one clean slice.

The queen cleared her throat: "The goddess is more interested in destroying her sister to bother with us. She is not one of the dark gods, so she understands not what was promised! However, she has given us a gift, and we will show her our worth!"

The crowd cheered, and the queen raised her hand to silence them.

"Come, Dante," she said, turning her head to him. "My people, she has graced us with a weapon to use in our conquest! Gather your slaves for the vanguard! We march to tear the stain that is the town of Edge from our skyline!"

The army of oni rejoiced, pounding their spears into the ground. The queen turned and disappeared through her door once more followed closely by her weapon.

"Will you march with us, my queen?" Gallos asked as he finished donning his coat.

"I will not set foot onto the battlefield for such trivial matters, fool! I will lead the charge against those who've forsaken the true path, however. It will be a joy to watch Le'Dria burn with my own eyes." Her crimson eyes sparkled as she envisioned the city on fire from atop the crater that encircled it.

"Indeed. I would love to witness it myself."

"Bring me the head of Edge's dignishal and I'll consider allowing you by my side when I lay waste to it, Gallos."

"You flatter me with your kindness, my queen."

"I've been trapped in this pit far too long, watching as our once great race dwindle into dust, left to be forgotten along with the Great Dragons, and only spoken of in ghost stories meant to scare children." The queen picked up her bloody crown of severed hands from a nightstand next to her bed. "I will spread the miasma across the world and watch it choke. I will rape this land for all its bountiful life and turn it into the garden of Godrik, not Angril! Death will grow wild among its many soils, and I will take my rightful place among the gods, elevated by the goddess. I will no longer be The Wolf Queen, but the Goddess of Demons!"

"Of that, I have no doubt, my queen," Gallos said as he bowed deeply.

Casteil walked over to a large mirror. Like the rest of the décor in the palace, the mirror boasted an intricate dark metal filigree design that encased the silver reflective pool. The whole thing stood the same height as the queen—tailored especially to her likeness.

She stared at herself in vanity. Admiring the pinkish silver lochs—stained by the blood of the crown—that flowed like silk in large waves over her shoulders. Two pointed ears were the only thing that disrupted them. Her rosy skin shimmered in the torch light with beads of sweat from earlier still. Her sharp crimson eyes darted around as she admired her self-inflated perfection until they fell upon a black tattoo in the center of her chest.

Three circles with spikes enclosed on each other with a fourth crescent shaped staff that extended up to her collarbone and down to the bottom of her bosom. This tattoo was the mark all harbingers of the oni wore, those chosen by the dark gods to lead the oni. Casteil had made it more than that, however. She'd placed it as the eye of a wolf on her banners that now marched from the Dread Keep. It was the first time in Tallenheim's history that the oni spread across the realm like a black plague.

"Gallos! Fetch me a hawk! I must call upon Yrden again. We'll have need of his necromancy. I won't take any chances in allowing the rest of the realm to repel our assault!"

"As you command, my queen."