FENRER

"Your faith is a lie. Praying doesn't get things done. Action does," Yuven complained at the door to the shrine. Incense smoke burnt with carrion when he rushed out of the palace and into the crimson-strewn courtyard. Wails rocked through his ears, the dead and dying calling out for the Ancient's fallacious deliverance. Mist smashed into the world as he ran up to the closest Storm Warden, climbing up the ladder onto the bannister. Archer's took up posts, but he leaned over the wall and tried not to vomit out his soul. Crimson ripples wrapped around the city, a maelstrom of terror and depravity as the cardinal bells tolled out their warning. Despair birthed bulbous tumors along the walls of Azahama, and the spire's beacon's glow dimmed in an effort to spread out their attraction. Glyphs spread out in front of him, he peered through the focal points. People ran through the cities, scrambling over each-other as smaller Derelicts broke through the defenses. Magick burst from side streets, splattering blood across the pavement.

"Warden Suke!" another called from the outside, waving their crescent blade as the Warden beside him snapped their head up from their own glyph and leaned forward. "Captain Yusari got through the southern gate! She's going to be setting up several golden walls between here and the navy spire but it's bad! She wants every able-bodied Warden at the first line to hold the Derelicts back, but wants information on what transpired here before we can advance!"

Fenrer opened his mouth, but the ground shuddered beneath him. Auras bled into torment, and he lifted his head to the northern area of Azahama. Darkness pulsated, thicker than clouds. He glanced back at the crimson-stained palace, where the multitudes of dead filled the courtyard and those who still had their lives burned them to release their magick back to the flow. Aurus sent wayward spirits, but his head pulsed with so many questions. What's... on the other side? He dug his fingers into his palm, then brought himself to the Warden called Suke. "I'll act as a messenger," he said. "Besides... I know exactly what happened. You just make sure this place holds." Fenrer gave the other Warden no time to argue before sliding down the ladder, racing into the armory within the guardhouse.

He unhooked a Dyrenji recurve bow, sending his magick through the carved wooden runes to strengthen its limbs and string. Quiver hooked on his other side to free up space for his blades, he counted his arrows and rushed out when the Wardens opened the gate for him. Another rumble tore through the crust of the world, and he steadied himself at the unnatural moan which rang through the air. He bit on his lip when the northern darkness pulsated, dripping ooze from far ahead. Large spheres crashed into houses, and people screamed.

"Captain Yusari should have set up the first wall by now, but it'll be weak until we can get reinforcements," the young Warden explained through quick breaths.

Stop their advance.

Fenrer drove his teeth into his lips until he tasted the blood decaying in the air. "Reinforce the palace," he instructed, though he held no authority to make such a demand of the young Warden. No time to lose, he ran down the slope, bow in his hands as he listened to the silence which fell within the city, though the distant cries shattered any sense of relaxation. It was a loaded quiet; teeth in the shadows as he kept the navy spire in his view. Captain Yusari's setting the line close to the Warden Lodge... that'll be the first anchor point... but the Derelicts will be attracted to the bloodshed at the palace, like a feast. Fenrer slowed to a stop at what he left behind, allowing himself to turn back to the lies. Underneath the shadows of supposed deities, he winced at Yuven's constant chittering, his faith was a shield, a lie. All of it had been a single lie.

He knew... and didn't tell me.

Fenrer huffed and sent his heel into the ground before rushing forward to put distance between him and them. He broke between the alleys and into the circle of Warden buildings. The standard went still in the odd calm; the wyvern distorted, the star cracked in its claws. Several Wardens dragged out boxes of weapons, but he followed the movement to Captain Yusari, who threw Shield Expanders down and the foundation for the Warden's wall built up with no time against the crimson tide. Others came forward, pressing their hands together before venting out their magick through the circuitry within. It's not going to hold...

"Captain Yusari." Fenrer came up behind her.

"Fenrer?" she asked, readying her own expanders. Mist escaped through them with a hiss and locked tighter against her forearms. "You're supposed to be at the palace."

"You wanted to know what happened there?" Fenrer broke. "The Derelicts came from inside, but—" But for a moment... they looked... no, I was seeing things. He came closer to her as Warden archer's hung back near the spire, casting their arrowheads into flames. Golden spirals wrapped around the metal, but they waited for the call to loose the barrage. "Sovereign Hirishi and a lot of others have perished. Captain, those Derelicts are going to go straight for the palace with how much magickae blood got spilled, the first wall isn't going to hold. There's something—" Fenrer winced when the unnatural moan turned into a roar of clarity. "Something big is being attracted by the horde in the northern part of the city. If we're to have any hope of cutting this attack off, we need to get into that bulb and strike the source. Azahama is going to be overrun if we don't."

Yusari drew her hand back with a frown, and she swung her attention back down the largest street where the Wardens set up several chained ballistas behind spiked cover. "There are still people trapped in the outer bounds of Azahama," she explained when a wave of darkness pulsed across the street. "I can only hope they've taken shelter in bunkers... dammit." Her own teeth drove into her lip. "We hold the line here, then! Bring all the Shieldbearer's forward to face the northern sector! If that's where the Derelicts want to come from, we'll meet them head on." Her hand motioned at one of the archer's, who nodded and gave a retreat. "Warden Pyren, how confident are you in finding the head of this damned snake if I give you a couple of Wardens to go around the first waves of the horde?"

Glyphs broke from underneath the street. Hungry screeches rang out as a Derelict fought against the set trap, its mandible splitting to swallow the blood in the air. Its tongue dragged across the pavement and wrapped around pillars, and it slid itself off the spike with a groan, slavering, slobbering. "I can find it," he said when he dared cast his glance over to the church in the spire's shadow, where the likenesses of the Ancient's stood upon the pillars. "Two others, or else we'll attract them. We can pick off some as we move," he told her and tore himself from the shield of faithful mendacity. "I'll... make sure they don't get here to pierce through the wall. Just..." Tears ran down his cheeks. "Make sure they don't get to the palace."

Yusari studied him, then barked, "Chito! Fuma! Get your asses over here!" Two Warden's broke from the reinforcements at the ready to strengthen the wall, one a woman about Kemal's age with short, cropped brown hair, the other, a man who took off his expanders to toss to another who passed. "Fenrer Pyren can find the heart of the horde. Make sure he gets there. We'll hold them off for as long as possible. Destroy whatever is at the center of it and run. Got it?"

"Understood, Captain," the man said.

Captain Yusari huffed. "Then I wish you all luck, Warden Chito." Her bow went to the man. "Warden Fuma... we shall see you on the other side." It switched to the woman, who shuffled and her aura tightened with anxiety at the foe they faced. "We'll hold the line... or die trying." Fenrer took a step back when her hand punched into his shoulder. "Go around, the residents of Azahama are evacuating on our west flank. I have some Wardens stationed to keep the path clear, so take the east. I wouldn't mind if you pull some Derelicts' attention with magick bombs — the safety of innocents comes first and the less of those monsters on our western side the better their chances." Captain Yusari unhooked a thin cylinder. "I'll send up glyphic flares to give you an idea of where the walls stand. Gold for we're standing strong. Red for struggling. Black for assume the worst and we're in trouble." She shoved another glyphic flare into Fuma's hands. "Do the same on your end."

"Got it." Fuma hooked it on her belt beside her crescent blade.

"Then go," Captain Yusari snapped when the roar deafened their voices. "Go while there's still time! Listen to Warden Fenrer... he's the one that'll guide you to it!"

It cracked through the air and sizzled with unnatural red sparks. Fenrer nodded at the two and led them to the eastern flank. Boxes piled up high to add to the barricades, and he used it to climb up onto the roof with the other two behind him. Shingles shattered underneath his boot, but he used the flat peaks to traverse into the red pitch of darkness. Tendrils slid into windows with a screech, bursting apart glass shards below him. Squelches sounded nearby, and he swung one foot to the edge, nocking an arrow full of his embered rage as he aimed it down the throat of the beasts. One snapped open its jaw, leaping upwards to try and take a bite out of his leg, but he loosed it and scowled when it screeched, burning into morning ash below him.

Prickles swept down his skin at the empty aura around him and the lost souls of recent death. Closeby, the swirl of thick dark clouds upon the ground, a tumultuous pot of Derelicts choosing their breeding grounds within the city limits. Teeth ground in his ears, the entire bulb rippling, threatening to give birth to the brood. Warden Chito came forward, tossing a magick bomb into the sidestreets. Any Derelict closeby trampled for it, screeching in delight at their false prize.

"We only have so much time, Pyren," Warden Chito said to him with a nod at the growing heart of the storm. "There?"

"Yes." Fenrer pushed his foot off the roof and slid himself onto the other one. Stomach against the shingles, he peeked over the peak of the roof. "They're writhing inside... but—" He listened to the hum deep within, a twisted song, deeper in contrast to the high-pitched squealing around it. "We need to break the core before a Goliath forms, or worse."

"If a Goliath forms the wall by the spire won't hold," Warden Fuma whispered against her own roof.

Derelicts crawled out from the stretchy bubble and splattered into houses. Arm through the commandered bow, he got on his knees with a nod to the two on either side of him. With the streets made of mangled jaws and snapping bones, Fenrer hopped from roof to roof, using his glyphs to propel him forward to his goal. His boots broke some shingles at the last roof with the formless tumor in arm's reach. He sliced an opening with the hook of his crescent blade, reeling from the visceral stench which wafted from within. Fenrer pushed himself inside with the other two behind them. Sinew closed up the wound he left, and the silence deafened.

A red sheen permeated through the air, the fountain in the small square shattered to pieces with blood oozing out of the mouth of the amphithere. In his blood, the venom ripped through his veins and he kept himself at the ready. Search for the thickest part of the bulb and strike into it with the golden light... but... He squinted at the lack of aura, a colorless despair from his own heart. Hand outstretched, his own glyph muted in color when he tried to tug at the flow and bring the Derelicts closer, but he scowled at the quiet when Chito and Fuma joined him in the square the Derelicts made into their womb. "I can't get a good idea of where the center is," Fenrer admitted, keeping his crescent blade loose at his side.

"Did we get here in time to disrupt the formation?" Fuma asked, dragging her own crescent blade through the air. Stars followed the motion, and Fenrer frowned at the crinkle of light and the soft, constant convulsion of the stones below him. Rot swirled into his senses and brought bile from his stomach straight into his nose, the wafted air disorienting his senses and spreading the colorless auras apart.

Red orbs curled in the black carapace until they all blinked away.

Vermilion radiance coiled above him, and he raised his head and arm to cover his brow from the light. Teeth surrounded a pitch black irides, the bones ground together. His own Runic Expanders steamed out his magick when he poured it in with no time to react when the pupil opened its maw.

Agonistic affliction tore through his mind when he cracked the Expanders together to release the pressure. Giant claws dug into the barrier and the stones below him cracked underneath the weight he bore. It clashed with a screech. Chito drew out his crescent blade while Fuma gasped with a shiver. Fenrer held it from slithering into their world in full, but the pressure of images flowed into his mind, and he snapped, "Clear this and find cover, I can't hold it up forever!"

"Are you mad, Pyren?" Chito demanded with a hesitant step. Cascades of red mist fell across his barrier. Over a veil of knowledge, the temptation to great, Fenrer switched his attention off the eye he covered with the barrier. "If you let go you'll get turned into paste when that thing gets through the break!"

I so desperately want to believe.

It burned in his mind and his knees quaked underneath him. Jade smoke fell into morning embers and vented in a constant stream out of his expanders.

The sun rose with a scream out of his own mouth when the dull throb turned into a sharp knife straight into his own eyes. Particles burst when the force of its ascension sent him flying back into a pile of wood splinters. One piece jabbed into his leg, slicing through his skin, but the world spun. Flames steamed the carapace until the stars twinkled above his head.

Onto his stomach with a groan, he bore witness to the desolation of the light.

The Goliath screeched, half-formed as it shambled out into the main street, cut off from its power source as it left slug-trails of crimson in its wake. Fires brought ruin to the houses all around the square, sinking in the supports and cracking the roofs from the heated shockwave. Huh...?

Fenrer slumped to the ground as the patches of flames upon the ground chewed at the dark.

"We are not finished yet, my pyretic flame."