Hours Later — Inside the Fortress, Lower Tunnels
The stench hit first. Rotted blood and ancient decay clung to the stone like mould. We moved through the tunnel single-file, our lights enchanted to cast only a faint purple glow. The walls were slick. The ceiling low. Each footstep echoed as though the place was breathing.
"Gods," Kael muttered. "This is worse than I remember."
Karl led the way, whispering directions. "Left turn here. Then three doors. The middle one has the sigil. That's the family cell."
"Where are the guards?" Felix asked under his breath.
"I don't know," Karl whispered. "There were always guards..."
A shriek echoed down the tunnel. Something not human. We froze.
Then I heard it—whispers. Thousands of them. Slithering through the cracks in the wall.
"Trap," Kael hissed. "It's a trap."
I raised a fist. "Form up! Defensive circle!"
Suddenly, the corridor exploded in shrieking darkness. Shadow beasts lunged from the walls—things made of bone, sinew, and screaming void. They struck like serpents.
The battle was chaos.
Felix decapitated one with a clean strike, his sword glowing silver. Karl stabbed a beast through the eye as another tore at his arm. I slashed through three, the purple glow of my magic sword lighting the entire tunnel in strobe flashes of violet gore.
"DIRK!" Kael shouted as a beast tackled him into the wall.
I turned and hurled my blade—it spun through the air and lodged in the beast's chest, exploding in purple flames.
"We're outnumbered!" Felix shouted, backing into formation. "They knew we were coming!"
"Push through!" I yelled. "They're trying to delay us!"
We carved through the rest of them, leaving twitching corpses behind. Breathless, blood-splattered, and bruised, we staggered to the third iron door.
Karl slammed his hand against the sigil. "Come on, come on..."
The magic flickered—then the door opened with a groan.
Inside, a dim crystal lit a small cell. Karl's mother and sister were there—thin, exhausted, but alive. The sister screamed and ran to Karl, nearly knocking him over. "I told you," Karl gasped, hugging her tight. "I told you I'd come."
We helped them both up. Felix covered the hallway. "We've got five minutes, max."
"No," I said grimly. "Now we give the Duke a reason to regret everything."
Meanwhile — The Duke's Throne Room
Duke Veranos Vaelreth sat in his throne, the walls shaking from distant blasts. He stood slowly, his eyes wide. "They're here already?! The guards said the gates hadn't even opened!"
A bloodied servant stumbled in. "M-my lord... the main tunnels were breached. There's purple fire... it burns magic!"
"DIRK!" the Duke spat. He turned to a massive summoning circle, pouring black mana into it. "Let him come. Let him witness the strength of real darkness!" Behind him, the mirror flickered. It showed my face—bloodied, sword glowing purple, walking toward the central tower with 300 warriors at my back.
Veranos paled.
Duke Veranos Vaelreth's Stronghold — One Hour Before Dawn
The gates shattered beneath our charge. Our trucks roared like beasts of war, crashing through the Duke's front barricades. Three HUMVEEs mounted with mana-pulsed turrets tore through the first lines of enemy soldiers. The air cracked with rifle fire and the thrum of mana-enhanced bullets. "Formation Alpha!" I shouted from the lead truck. "Archers and guns high ground—NOW!"
My warriors, dressed in deep grey cloaks with shimmering black armour, spilt out of the vehicles like a tide of vengeance. Earth-forged swords glinted with system enchantments. The bows and guns strung with mana-infused sinew sang through the smoke-filled sky.
The Duke's forces—at least three thousand strong—were already waiting. Their front frontline consisted of berserkers, dark-magic mercenaries, and mounted necro-knights riding skeletal steeds.
It didn't matter. We moved like wolves among sheep.
"Engage!" Felix barked, his dual swords a blur of silver and red as he launched forward, cutting through the first dozen enemies like paper.
Gunfire erupted—dozens of my riflemen in three parallel lines opened fire. Explosive bullets exploded into limbs, torsos, and heads. Screams echoed as the front line collapsed under a hailstorm of precision death.
An enemy commander raised his staff. "Ward the sky! Form the barrier!"
But Kael was faster. "DISPEL!"
A blast of blue mana burst from his hand and shattered their aerial warding shield. "Snipe them!"
From the cliffs above, my bowmen let loose a volley of arrows that shimmered with lightning. The sky rained down death.
Their mages screamed as they were nailed to the ground, twitching as electricity cooked them alive.
I stepped onto the field, my own sword humming with legendary purple light, and lifted my hand. "Activate Heavy Burst." From the truck, a mana launcher fired—a shell the size of a watermelon crashed into the enemy's left flank and exploded in a dome of violet fire. Fifty soldiers were vaporised.
Bodies flew like ragdolls. Blood soaked the earth, mixing with ash. Still, they kept coming. Like mindless drones.
A necro-knight galloped toward me with a raised axe, screeching some cursed incantation. I met him halfway.
His axe slammed down. I caught it mid-swing with my blade and sliced him clean from his undead mount in a spinning strike. The corpse screamed mid-air before it exploded in purple flame.
Karl and Kael flanked me.
"They're trying to swarm our rear lines!" Karl shouted, pointing toward the south ridge.
"Let them try." Kael grinned, lifting a small vial from his belt and hurling it into the valley. It shattered—and a fog of silver gas enveloped the invaders. Moments later, agonised shrieks rang out. Skin melted. Eyes boiled. Only a bone remained. "My own formula," Kael said darkly.
Meanwhile, our motorbikes raced through the battlefield, mounted warriors slashing and firing on the move. They dropped firebombs into enemy encampments, incinerating supply lines and barracks.
The Duke's central field—once a garden of twisted banners—was now a graveyard of the fallen.
Hours Later — Duke's Tower in Sight.
We pressed forward. Only a thousand enemy soldiers remained.
They fought like desperate madmen. Mages hurled blood spells. Archers fired into the smoke hoping to hit anything. The rest screamed curses at our advance. But we didn't stop.
Felix charged their last battalion head-on with twenty warriors. I saw him take three arrows in the chest—his armour held. He grinned and threw a grenade made from Divine Tree essence.
It exploded in radiant green fire.
"FALL BACK!" one of the Duke's captains screamed. "THEY'RE—THEY'RE MONSTERS!"
I watched them break, screamed, cried and ran away.
Bodies were everywhere. Heads, limbs, intestines. The ground was soggy with blood. But not ours.
My warriors, many bruised and bloodied, still stood.
300 against 3,000. And we stood.
******Duke Veranos Vaelreth watched from his tower.
He trembled, afraid; he wasn't expecting such a sight. It was carnage, dead bodies scattered on the ground like garbage. How could this happen? He was sure to win. He had dark mages, powerful killers and assassins. He had everything planned from the start. He was supposed to be laughing.
He stared down at his once-mighty army—slaughtered, broken, and scattered like leaves in the wind. His spires bled fire. His walls cracked with arcane strain.
"How..." he whispered. "They weren't supposed to win." Then the mirror flared.
I, the baron of a small town, Dirk Robinson Jr, stood at the edge of Duke's shattered gate, his men's corpses behind me, my purple sword resting on my shoulder.
I smiled coldly. "We're coming," I said. The mirror shattered.
*****
Outside the Duke's Tower
The skies above the Duke's tower swirled with ominous, enchanted clouds. Bolts of unnatural lightning cracked in the distance, the air thick with tension and the stench of magic and blood. Smoke drifted from the broken remains of the stronghold's outer walls. Our banners—simple black with a silver crest—now fluttered above the corpse-laden battlefield.
We'd reached the heart of the beast.
"Only two lost," I whispered, glancing at the stretchers being carried behind us. "Fifty wounded. They'll live."
Kael grunted, bruised but alert. "They gave their lives with pride. They died protecting this world."
Karl, blood on his cheek, still stood despite his injuries. "We find my family now."
Felix reloaded his mana rifle and checked his two swords, nodding in grim agreement. "Let's finish this."
As we approached the grand gate, a thundering roar split the night sky.
"Shit," Elgar muttered beside me, his gun raised.
The stone floor cracked.
From the depth of the tower's courtyard, a monstrous figure erupted upward, smashing the reinforced gate as it crawled through. A three-headed goblin monstrosity, each head bearing its own snarling expression—rage, hunger, and bloodlust. The creature stood twelve feet tall, rippling with unnatural muscle, its green flesh marked with black runes, glowing with cursed mana. Its six arms each held a different weapon: an axe, a sword, a spiked club, a halberd, and two human bones fashioned into daggers.
"This is the Champion of the Duke," Kael whispered. "A twisted abomination made from hundreds of corpses."
"I call dibs," I muttered, my blade pulsing in my hand. It was a monster from a scary horror movie.
The beast charged, its roar deafening. It moved like a freight train, tearing apart the scorched tiles beneath its feet.
I didn't back down. At the last second, I sidestepped and drove my sword up beneath its right arm, cutting deep into corrupted flesh. It howled as purple lightning exploded from my blade, tearing through its nerves.
"Get clear!" I roared.
My warriors scattered, giving me space. The left head snapped at me, fangs gnashing—but I spun, slicing off its lower jaw with surgical precision. Blood sprayed across the courtyard. It responded with fury, smashing its halberd down. I blocked it with both hands, the force slamming me to one knee. My bones groaned. My armour cracked.
"Felix!" I shouted.
He leapt from the ruined tower balcony, his blades spinning in midair. He stabbed into the middle head's eye, blinding it as he backflipped off its shoulder.
Karl and Kael struck from behind. Karl hurled a lightning dagger that struck the creature's spine, paralysing its lower body. Kael launched a stream of fire-infused wind, burning the outer layer of the beast's grotesque skin.
The creature screamed with all three heads, its arms flailing wildly. I leapt up, twisting in the air, and plunged my sword directly into the chest of the main body—where the rune core glowed.
The beast froze. The runes cracked.
Then—BOOM.