A Guide to Kingdom Building

Lord Prestonheim desperately ran to them. He limped as he carried a knight on his shoulder while his pale blue sword shone brightly albeit shattered in half. The darkness was slowly crawling up to them. The dwarf made another shiv and formed it into a javelin then hurled it again into the crawling shadows.

This time the spear just past right through, not even glowing as the darkness devoured it. The flame was snuff out of its existence and the shadow continued to devour everything in its way.

"M'Lord! Hurry!" The dwarf drew another rune from the ground but this time, he stabbed it with his burning dagger. As the rune glowed, a thin glowing line emerged from the rune and ran towards the retreating knights. The spell activated a few footling behind the Commander. A raging firewall suddenly emerged from the line blocking the path of the black shadow.

They could hear a terrifying shriek as the flames emitted a blinding glow. But the shriek turned into a sinister howling laugh. The Obscuros behind the fog saw no threat to the huge firewall placed in between it and the knights.

They could hear another shriek from the fog as it tried to go beyond the flame once more. The firewall stalled the fog from getting anymore closer to them and got the Commander and the fallen knight inside the barrier just in time.

The dwarf felt the strain of holding the spell for that long. It was only about a hundred counts, but he felt his strength being absorbed by some unknown force. The brightness of the firewall began to dim, and the extreme heat of the flame dwindled into nothing but an obscure warmth.

The dwarf finally released his spell just in time for the barrier to completely activate with everyone already inside. He dropped to ground, left with enough strength to prevent him from falling face first. He walked groggily towards the Commander who sat a few footlings from behind him while trying to revive the limped knight in his hands.

"Wake up, knight!" The Commander took his gloves off and tried to feel a pulse from the unresponsive knight. "Come on! Come on!"

Lord Prestonheim took a potion from his satchel and tried to let the knight drink it. But it was already too late, the knight was cold, and his pulse finally faded. The Commander laid him on the ground and placed his arms clasped each other by his chest.

The dwarf could hear a tremble of sadness from the Commander's voice as he approached.

"Gods of old, hear me, your son. I present to you a soul into your warm embrace. May you welcome him into your loving arms and place him in the stars as his bravery encompassed that of what a human can." Lord Prestonheim sighed as he squeezed the hand of the knight's lifeless body.

"Kiervan? By Oyue's name." The dwarf's shoulders slumped in disbelief. The young knight fell that night at the hands of the dark shadow that loomed over them.

He sat beside the body of the young knight and patted his arm. "Yah brave lad! Yah now rest in yer gods' arms."

The dwarf saw the long crease lines on the Commander's face. The eyes sunk deeper into his face and his disheveled hair revealed an older, tired look. He glanced once again at the darkness beyond the barrier that began to take a form.

The fog molded itself into its humanoid form, but its features were no human. The shadowy body took on a pale face that closely resembled that of Mnemsiel but had grotesque unearthly features. The elongated face, blank cat-shaped eyes and the perpetual smile that reached from ear to ear made the creature eerily unknown.

"Di…na…mo…kaga…wasss…" the creature licked its lips with its snake-like tongue. "Muhh…gah…was…ko…di…ri..." it stepped near the barrier and bared its jagged teeth to them before going near the gate.

The dwarf couldn't understand what the creature blabbered. They watched in horror as the creature tried to step outside into the open. Fortunately for them, the creature began to burn when it tried to go beyond the gate.

"AGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!" The shrill and deafening voice echoed almost cracking the barrier.

The monster laid on the ground rolling in terrible pain. It convulsed in terrible pain, while smoke seemed to come out from it.

The dwarf noticed it too, "Basterd can't go outside, eh?" He asked Lord Prestonheim who was gripping his sword on one hand.

"I-I don't know." He answered. "But whatever it is, I'm relieved that it cannot make it into town!" The Commander added.

The dwarf checked on the elf, "Lass, are yah alright?"

The elf nodded weakly. He knew it was only a matter of time before the barrier crumbles and at that time, he knew they had to be ready.

"M'Lord could yah still fight?" He held the Commanders arm. "Sooner or later we 'ave tah fight it. Lass, can't last much longer."

The Commander looked at the elf who was breathing laboriously as it continued to infuse her exousia into the seal. He took the remaining bottles of potion from his satchel and gave two to the dwarf.

"I only have three of this left, let's share the last potions." He said as he drank the one, he had. "It should give us a bit of a boost." He sighed.

The dwarf nodded to thank the Commander. He went to the elf and gave her the potion letting her drink it, before drinking the remaining bottle for himself. It immediately gave him a little boost. He knew this type of potion was a fast-acting potion and wished it would give them the boost they needed to go against the creature.

The dwarf took a glance at the creature once more. It was still on the ground covering its face and writhing in pain.

"M'Lord," the dwarf quickly asked. "How did yah keep that critter at bay?" He pointed at it.

"I-I can't really tell myself." The Commander sighed. "But as much as I recalled, it hated the light of my blade and that's what I used against it. It hated the light. Any light for that matter and it devours the light."

"In Oyue's name!" The dwarf got confused. "If it eats them light, then why can't it eat this?" He pointed at the barrier.

Lord Prestonheim's mood changed. He went grimly silent, as he tried his best to put his answer into words.

"T-that thing is toying with us." The dwarf heard a slight tremble in the Commander's voice. "He toyed with us inside that fog. He let us see our deepest fears and enjoyed every moment of torturing us with it before he—." Lord Prestonheim gritted his teeth in frustration.

The flaming dagger flickered again. The dwarf looked at it in horror as the light slowly dimmed along the barrier. Their eyes widened as the barrier slowly begin to fade. The elf poured more exousia into the seal, increasing the brightness of the shield.

It shone so bright it, hurt their eyes for a moment—but only for a moment.

As soon as she boosted the shield, her exousia drained further. The shield went back to its dim state as the elf laboriously breathed.

They could hear a choking laughter from beyond the barrier. The creature jerked its shoulders as it laid on the ground. The laughter turned into a frightening cackle as the creature slowly elevated upright. It turned towards them and smiled grotesquely at them, showing its sharp teeth towards them.

It went closer to them taunting them with its gruesome tongue, while spilling venom on the ground. As it floated a fingerling away from the barrier, it opened its large maw, revealing its horrific mouth full of tentacles and teeth.

The creature licked the barrier to their terror. Its tongue touched the shield burning it partially. The creature laughed in agony as it did a few more. Releasing a foul-stench that made their stomachs turn. The monster laughed at their expense.

The dwarf stood up, gripped his flaming dagger making it ablaze. He stood at the opposite side of the monster and showed him he wasn't afraid.

"I ain't afraid of ya," the flames of his dagger extended into a sword.

The creature made a guttural laugh and pointed somewhere inside the barrier. The dwarf slowly glanced at the where it pointed and was surprised to see Kiervan's body was missing. There was a sense of panic rushing into him.

He moved away from the floating creature and looked around only to hear a scream from Lord Prestonheim. He ran to help the Commander, but he was too late.

The dwarf looked and saw Kiervan's pale face latched into the Commander's shoulder. The dead knight opened his mouth, revealing the same maw the Obscuros had. He bit Lord Prestonheim's shoulder, tearing skin and flesh before ramming the elf from the center of the shield completely breaking the barrier.

The dwarf ran to her aid. But was abruptly stopped by a tentacle entangled in his neck. He was forcefully drag away from his comrades leaving them to fend for themselves. The dwarf grabbed the pesky tentacle and cut it with his flaming sword.

"YEEEEKKKKKKK!!" the horrible shriek blasted his ears.

He was left inside a thick dark fog. He tried his best to ran forward using his sword to light his way. He rushed forward into the unknown only to be met with nothing. Strange silhouettes began to stalk him as he walked away from the dark fog.

From the distance, he heard the muffled screams of the elf. He ran towards it but wasn't able to get to where the sound was. Then he heard cracking sounds of bones breaking and Lord Prestonheim's wail, but he couldn't seem to find the source.

Then, it all came back to him, that fateful day. His memory became flooded with the images of his comrades as they screamed in agony while he ran away from the battle. He could remember it as if it was like yesterday.

Their voices rang in his head. Now the silhouettes came closer to him. They stood the way his brethren stood. Their built was a spitting image of his brethren's and finally they revealed themselves. From the shadows, he saw his undead brethren, disemboweled, decapitated, and torn.

He watched in horror as they began to approach him. His light slowly dimmed, and the fiery sword became nothing but burned-out, smoot-ridden dagger.

"T-tis nay true!" He couldn't believe his eyes. "Nay are ya living!" The dwarf did his best to get his dagger burning once more and slashed it across his surrounding undead brethren.

"Fhyr dytyr nhy tryth! (Truth won't be deterred by fear)" He slashed some more, but it didn't cause any damage.

As the darkness finally quelled the fire in him and his dagger, another silhouette came rolling out from nowhere. The dwarf could no longer see anything has the darkness as finally blanketed on him. But he found it terrifying to still see the shadows in front of him, and now the one rolling towards him.

The rolling shadow finally stopped by his feet. It was a head, his dead daughter's head.

"Ryly, Dhdh? Tryth nhy dytyr fhyr? (Really, Dad? Fear won't deter truth?)" The head spoke in his daughter's sweet voice.

As the disembodied head smile, the dwarf could no longer hold the terror he held inside of him.

"AAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!" His screamed echoed in the thick fog, but this time he couldn't run anymore.