Prologue
The Nohzan Kingdom was located on the northern continent, separated from the Rhoden Kingdom by the bay of Bordeaux to the east. The two countries enjoyed an amicable relationship and regularly engaged in trade.
Nohzan was surrounded by three other kingdoms: the Delfrent Kingdom to the north, the Salma Kingdom to the south, and the Holy Hilk Kingdom to the west. Over the generations, these kingdoms were constantly uniting, breaking apart, and uniting once more. Their borders were constantly in flux.
Saureah, the capital of the Nohzan Kingdom, was located at the center of the country, among the highlands looking over the relatively flat plains that dominated its landscape. Atop the hill sat a large castle with a town spreading out from its base, followed by two formidable walls to keep out any invaders.
The castle itself bore little in the way of decorative touches, focusing on defensive capabilities rather than aesthetics. It looked more like a military fortress than a castle. However, the royal crests and other accoutrements decorating the halls of the castle would quickly rid the casual observer of this belief. The difference between the stark exterior and beautiful inner halls was like night and day.
Early morning light glinted off the dew accumulating on the carefully manicured lawns of the castle grounds, the only outward source of beauty that hinted at the splendor within.
A young girl, around ten or so, could be seen on the other side of a large window overlooking the garden. Her skin was fair, the color of fine porcelain, and her curly, shoulder-length blonde hair splayed about on the bed where she lay. The canopied bed was massive, despite her small figure, betraying the luxury in which this girl lived.
The day had started with the clanging of distant bells—first with one in a far corner of the town, followed by more and more throughout the streets, until the sound finally reached the castle. This was quite the departure from the girl’s usual morning routine. She scowled at the loud racket that had interrupted her sleep and glanced drowsily around her room.
“Hyaaaaah. I wonder what they’re going on about?”
She propped herself up on an elbow, rubbed the sleep from her eyes with the palm of her hand, and let out a loud, bellowing yawn. If not for her fragile appearance, the sound could easily have been mistaken for one that a man three times her age might make.
After battling with her mussy hair for a bit, trying in vain to bring it to order, she rolled off the bed and made her way to the window to take a look outside. All she could see, however, was the courtyard beyond—there was no clue as to the source of the bells. She gazed across the entire courtyard before sleepily reaching up toward the handle built into the window’s frame.
Right at that moment, a figure came running into the room and called out her name.
“Princess Riel! Excuse my sudden intrusion.”
The young girl—Princess Riel—turned to face the familiar figure and cocked her head in confusion at the woman’s panicked expression.
“What’s all the fuss, Niena? I woke up on time today, I’ll have you know.” Riel clenched her jaw and fought back another yawn.
The brown-skinned, black-eyed woman with long, black hair tied back in a waist-length braid was Niena du Avroah, the daughter of Viscount Avroah. She was dressed in the garb of the royal knights and wore a gleaming sword at her waist. Though a member of the upper crust of Nohzan society, Niena was also a knight and the personal bodyguard of Riel Nohzan Saureah, the young girl before her.
Riel was the third child and youngest daughter of King Asparuh Nohzan Saureah. Ever since the loss of her mother, she had become the king’s pride and joy.
“The castle is under attack! Hurry up and change! I’m taking you to the cellars!”
“What?! Are you sure?” Riel’s eyes went wide in surprise. “Wait a moment. I’ll be ready in a flash. Nmph.”
She tried to toss off her nightgown, only to get it caught around her neck. Riel flapped her arms about wildly in an attempt to free herself. Niena stood dutifully by until the young princess asked for help.
“Could you give me a hand, Niena?”
Niena dropped to a knee and bowed her head.
“Certainly, Your Highness.”
Dressing the princess in one of her many elegant gowns was usually the job of her many servants, so it was more than a bit of a struggle for the inexperienced guard to help Riel into her clothes, but eventually she got the girl into a simple dress.
Riel hurried out of her room and into the hall, where she found a man waiting for her.
“Oh, Zahar’s here, too? We need to go get Papa.”
The young man responded with a curt nod before falling in line with Niena behind the princess.
Zahar Bakharov was around twenty years old and a hulk of a man, towering at an impressive 190 centimeters tall. He wore his light brown hair cropped short and exuded an air of toughness. Though also one of Princess Riel’s bodyguards, like Niena, Zahar had risen up from the ranks of the commoners to assume this role, unlike Niena.
The young girl paid no mind to her two bodyguards as she marched purposefully down the halls toward her father’s study, where he could usually be found. Inside the study she found King Asparuh Nohzan Saureah, along with the other key leaders of the Nohzan Kingdom: Riel’s two older brothers, Prince Terva and Prince Seyval, the prime minister, who oversaw all civil matters in the country, and the generals who managed the kingdom’s military affairs.
The room was filled with an uncomfortable silence, as evidenced by the tense expressions worn by the room’s occupants as they stared down at a map spread out over a large table. Riel spotted multiple wooden tokens placed at various points across the map. Riel didn’t know what to make of the intense look on her father’s face. She was craning her neck to get a better look at the map when a man ran into the room to deliver a report.
“Your Majesty! Large bands of invaders are charging from the forests at the base of the Sobir Mountains, and the numbers piling up at the outer reaches of the capital only continue to increase! They don’t seem to be organized, so we can’t get a clear count, but there are at least several tens of thousands! I’ve never seen so many people at once!”
Several people in the room groaned, the looks of surprise on their faces betraying how dumbfounded they were at this report.
The king spoke up over the other voices to address the messenger.
“Where do the invaders hail from? Only the empire could muster a force of that size, but we don’t share a border. Has one of the neighboring kingdoms fallen as well?”
The young king fixed his stern gaze on the messenger. All eyes focused on the man, awaiting his response. Even Riel’s bodyguards swallowed hard as they waited.
His response, however, took everyone by surprise.
“There’s nothing to indicate where these invaders hail from. In fact, they aren’t even human! Though outfitted in metal armor, they’re all undead! Even their commander is undead!”
“Are you mad?! I’ve never heard of such a vast army of undead, much less one that was fully armed!” The general was absolutely beside himself.
The messenger averted his gaze. “Unfortunately, what I say is true, sir. The expeditionary forces that engaged with the enemy have reported that all they found under the armor of the soldiers they slayed were corpses. The invaders swarmed from the plains and descended upon the capital at daybreak.”
The others in the room swallowed hard at this.
“What’s more, not only are there undead humans, we’ve spotted other freakish creatures as well. There was even one report of a massive human-spider creature that struck down an entire squad all on its own!”
The clanging bells in the distance were the only sounds that interrupted the heavy silence enveloping the room. Everyone present struggled to wrap their minds around what they’d just heard, even if they didn’t understand the true ramifications.
King Asparuh, lord of the entire Nohzan Kingdom, finally broke the silence. He turned to look at each and every person in the room.
“I, too, have seen the oncoming menace with my own eyes from the lookout. Whether human or otherwise, this doesn’t change the fact that our capital is in grave danger.”
The lookout was a tall tower within the castle that gave a commanding view of the surrounding area. It was built to allow anyone to survey all of Saureah. There was always a guard keeping watch, though Riel would occasionally go there to play and look out at the lands surrounding the castle.
“How many men do we have at our disposal?” The king turned his attention to the general.
The other man sputtered for a moment, as if caught off guard. “I, um, well! Counting the resident knights and those serving as castle guards, around 4,000 or so. If we hire mercenaries, we can probably add another thousand to that.”
After looking around to make sure everyone in the room understood what the general had just said, the king nodded gravely. “Fortunately for us, they attacked early in the morning, before we had a chance to open the gates for the day, so we’ll essentially be holding out while under siege, as we’ve done before. Even so, facing several tens of thousands of enemies is no mean feat with what little might we have to bear.”
The king looked up from the map, glanced at his two sons, then turned his gaze on Riel.
“The invaders are coming from the forests at the base of the Sobir Mountains to the southwest, meaning that the capital is not surrounded…at least, not yet. There isn’t enough time to get all of the citizens out. Terva, Seyval, I want you to depart from the east gate. One of you will head north and the other east to summon supplemental forces to come to our aid.”
The princes nodded firmly as they accepted their orders.
Riel looked up at her two much older brothers as she took a step toward her father, feeling the full responsibility of being a member of the royal family. She awaited his orders.
Both brothers glanced at her before turning back to their father inquisitively, as if to ask what should be done with her.
A gentle smile graced the king’s lips as he looked at Riel. “As for you, Riel, I want you to head south and ask for reinforcements from Count Dimo. His soldiers are known for their bravery.”
The other adults in the room exchanged knowing looks.
“Leave it to me, Papa! I, Riel Nohzan Saureah, will fulfill my duties and save our country from this menace!” Riel puffed out her chest and clenched her fist as she spoke, eliciting a smile from the king.
He turned to his beloved daughter’s bodyguards and fixed them with a stern look. “Zahar, Niena…please look after Riel.”
They both nodded firmly, seemingly understanding the weight of their duty.
Though the true meaning of Riel’s assignment was lost on the young princess, everyone else in the room understood that the king was ordering her away for safety.
Count Dimo’s domain had once been located along the southern border of the Nohzan Kingdom. But, due to the Salma Kingdom pushing its borders forward nearly seventy years ago, the count now found himself isolated from the Nohzan Kingdom proper.
Despite being surrounded by a foreign nation, it was a relatively easy journey. Without any sort of clear national borders marking the monster-infested lands, the borders themselves were generally defined by which group the local nobility chose to side with. It would be no great difficulty for a small party to travel through the Salma Kingdom on their way to Count Dimo, though it would be next to impossible for any large force to make the trip back across the kingdom in support of the capital’s defense.
The only way to fight against this kind of massive undead horde would be to bring in a large number of reinforcements. However, the more reinforcements that were brought the slower they would be to come, and the foot soldiers would almost certainly draw attention to themselves as they marched across a foreign land. It would take at least five days by ship to travel from the nearby Clyde Bay down the Morba River to the capital. Even if the count mustered his forces immediately, it would likely be too late.
The king was sending Riel on a mission that could not be completed. However, no one dared point this out. The two princes were grown men, and would fulfill their duties as members of the royal family. Even if Riel felt the same, she was still a young girl of eleven. She was also the apple of the king’s eye, ever since the loss of his wife—a fact everyone in the room was keenly aware of.
There was also the fact that, in the absolute worst-case scenario, the royal line would live on through her.
“We don’t have long. You three better hurry along now. We’ll draw the undead to the west gate to buy you some time. General, I leave the armies to you!”
As soon as the king finished speaking, everyone began hurrying about their business. The king turned to face toward the west, the lines on his face deepening.
He let out a desperate sigh. “And to think this would happen on the very day the cardinal is paying us a visit. Perhaps I should speak with Liberalitas. Perhaps the Holy Hilk Kingdom could spare some templars.”
The prime minister leaned in and spoke in a hushed tone. “Your Majesty, you don’t think that this army of undead could have anything to do with Hades, do you?”
The king’s frown deepened as he turned toward his advisor. “Hades? That’s nothing but a myth passed down by long-dead poets.”
“I’m afraid not, Your Highness. Though it may be denied, this very same thing occurred around a hundred or so years ago in the empire.”
The prime minister’s words left the king temporarily speechless. Though a hundred years might not seem long, in a world where average lifespans were generally quite short, this meant the event had occurred around three generations ago.
The myth of Hades was known to nearly everyone in the land. He’d simply appeared one day without warning and, together with his armies of the dead, destroyed town and village alike, growing his army as he went, until he’d nearly conquered the entire country. With their backs against the wall, the empire had thrown whatever forces they had left at Hades and managed to topple his army.
The story was a well-known myth, often used by adults to scare their children straight. It almost always ended with the same line: “And Hades will rise from the bowels of hell to collect all the bad little boys and girls.”
“According to rumor, the empire requested the aid of the Holy Hilk Kingdom to defeat Hades. Apparently, he was somehow vulnerable against their forces.”
The king let out a heavy sigh and shook his head in despair.
“I don’t suppose we have time to debate this. Not with the very survival of our kingdom on the line.”
***
Deep inside the castle in the capital city of Saureah, the clamor both inside and outside the city walls could be faintly heard. Compared to some of the more spartan quarters that filled the castle, the room reserved for foreign dignitaries was a clear step above the rest. The room offered its occupant a view of the eastern side of the capital.
The black-haired man in this room smiled as he looked out the large window and down at the scene unfolding below, where citizens ran frantically about. He was dressed in elaborate robes—far more decorative than those of a simple priest—and wore a warm smile on his face, an expression that quickly changed to a grimace as he watched the east gate open. Three plumes of dust erupted, taking off in different directions.
“Hmm. Well, it doesn’t look like they’re escaping the capital. Perhaps sending messengers out for reinforcements?”
The man’s name was Cardinal Palurumo Avaritia Liberalitas, one of the seven cardinals that served directly under the pontiff—the Holy King of the Holy Hilk Kingdom, and head of the dominant religion on the northern continent. The cardinal was in this elaborate room in the Nohzan Kingdom to visit various Hilk churches throughout the lands.
The chaos playing out down below, caused by the procession of the undead, was his doing, a task performed at the behest of the pontiff as part of his plan to invade their neighboring countries.
By setting up an army beyond the capital city and placing himself at the center of the whole ordeal, there was no way anyone would be able to guess his true motive.
“Heh heh, maybe we should send out some soldiers to take care of the messengers? Either way, I rather enjoy watching the country fall to ruin around me, its people hoping all the while for reinforcements to come and save the day. It’s quite exhilarating!”
His disturbed smile reflected off the glass.
Underneath his kind exterior, Cardinal Liberalitas was a truly twisted man—some would even say emotionally disturbed—who loved to watch the weak suffer.
“Even if they’re able to muster up reinforcements, they won’t stand a chance against 100,000 undead. I can’t wait to see their faces as they lose all hope!”
After his little outburst, Cardinal Liberalitas pulled himself together and brought the warm, easy smile back to his face. He stroked his chin and raised an eyebrow as his expression clouded over with concern.
“The undead are usually far stronger at night, but also more difficult to control. Worse, the more of them there are, the harder that becomes.”
He let out a snort.
“Well, after I finish up with this matter, perhaps I’ll have a talk with His Holiness about it.”
Turning his gaze back down, he caught sight of the hordes of undead swarming around the east gate. A smile returned to his face.
“But first, I think I’ll enjoy my front row seat in watching the country fall.”
Moments later, Cardinal Palurumo was summoned for an audience with the king.
No Comments Yet
Post a new comment
Register or Login