"Where are we going?" asked Sil rushing with her horse behind Enric.
"First of all, I want to stop by to see an old friend near Grimfell," Enric replied.
"Do you really think someone still lives there?" Sil asked disbelievingly.
"Hah, King of the Green Grove and escape from his city? It's more possible that he would shot himself with a cannon," Enric laughed.
They reached the hill overlooking a small chapel. Dead bodies laid everywhere beneath the hill, it looks like a huge battle took place here. Corpses of men and horses all around.
"By all the Saints, all bodies are burned, some in two pieces... Oh, no!" shouted Marcus, when he took off the dust from one of the shields and saw the sign of a torch.
"Those are..." "Riders," Enric completed Marcuse's sentence.
"They are so many, they must have been from the whole Green Grove... and they are all... dead." Marcus fell to his knees while Sil and Enric tried desperately to find someone alive, but their efforts were fruitless, the riders were dead. The Dark Ones were thorough, the riders who weren't burned had stab wounds on their necks.
Then they headed for the chapel around which laid hundreds of dead bodies, knights, Dark Ones, all left as they died. In the middle of the dead was a mutilated body of a big knight, with several spears stabbed in it.
"That's... Henry, they needed spears to beat him, miserable cowards." Enric knelt in front of his body and closed his eyelids.
"Prince!" Marcus called from the chapel tower, Enric climbed after him.
"There's Grimfell... but..." "Burns," Enric replied when he saw a great dark smoke on the horizon.
All of them ran quickly back to their horses and reached the city beyond the river.
The whole city was in ruins, buildings were burning, and some looked like they were cut into pieces. There were barricades and dead bodies of humans and Dark Ones everywhere.
"Look around! Someone had to survive!" Enric shouted helplessly, while he was running around the city.
The smell of fresh blood mixed with ashes and burns suggested that the massacre happened a while before their arrival.
On the balcony of a long building cut into two pieces, the King of the Green Grove was impaled on a large spear. Green Grove fell with him.
"All Saints unite and save us from the darkness that surrounds us. Help us in our most difficult situation. For it is you who are our inspiration in our darkest hours and the lighthouse to our souls after death," Marcus prayed while kneeling and leaning by his sword.
"Prayers have no use now, Marcus," Enric approached him.
"Did you find someone?" Enric asked.
Marcus raised his head. "They're all dead, sir."
“We have to leave this place. They've gone this way recently, if we hurry up, we could get around them and make our way to Gregorian," Enric said, and all three of them mounted their horses and rode out.
When it was getting dark, they reached the Stonefall Forest, named after the Stonefall river flowing on its western border. They rode the forest path until an arrow flew out of the darkness of the forest and hit Enric's horse. The horse rose to the back legs and fell on the ground, rolling his body over Enric's legs.
A girl in a dark blue hood ran out of the forest with two swords and jumped in front of Enric, the swing of her sword was stopped by Marcus's sword. Then he pushed her away from Enric and they started fighting. Silveria ran up and tried to help Enric, but after a while, she was forced to let him lie down and fight the approaching Dark Ones. After killing several of the Dark Ones, Marcus laid on the ground, and the girl was about to stab him, Sil took the sword of Enric, so she also had two swords, and ran in front of the girl. “Lamelia! Why don't you choose someone with your skills!?" Sil shouted at her. The girl turned to her and her bright red eyes lit up even more. "Sil..." she whispered with a disturbing voice and ran against Silveria, and they began to fight.
Marcus returned to Enric and finally got him from beneath the horse. Enric was forced to take a sword from one of the Dark Ones, while he was almost unable to grasp it, because of it's strange shape of the handle and also, the entire Dark One's sword, and afterwards, he was resisting more approaching Dark Ones.
"Listen to me Lamelia! We can help you out of the curse that they have sent upon you and your people!" Sil shouted to the girl she fought with.
“Haha, a curse? It was a gift, a gift from the Dark lord when we joined him!” the girl replied.
"So you accepted it voluntarily?! You monster!" Sil threw herself at her, the strikes of her sword reflected her anger as she forced the girl to go down on the ground.
"Sil! We must get away, now!" Enric called from his horse, reaching his hand to her as a sign to get on his horse. Sil did so, and all of the three drove away.
The destination of their journey is the northern border of Gregorian, where they are to meet the forces of their allies.
ns 15.158.61.21da2
