Night Terror

Warning: random person POV, vague post-apocalyptic setting, corruption, implied BDSM (blood, destruction, slaughter, massacre)

AU: Captive Knight

 

 

The night is unnaturally dark, as it always been since then. The only thing adorning the inky black sky is the blood-red moon looming over them, like an all-seeing eye. No matter where they ran off to, they cannot escape its sight.

Wonder how long has it been? Time no longer feel as real as it used to. Even in daylight, the bright sun is blocked by the ever-present dark clouds, tinting the ground in grey tones. Maybe it wasn't that long ago at all, it's just that time had flowed too fast for them mortal souls struggling to live on this no longer familiar lands.

The once peaceful and striving land is now overrun by Horrors; active even in daytime. The rate at which they happen is too fast for them to be able to handle properly, more so with their thinning man power.

An explosion echoes in the distance followed by sounds of frantic yelling and panicked footsteps. It's here! Another explosion, closer than the first one. He quickly dashed out of his previous cover.

Horror is not the only threat to their lives now. Since the great fall, another threat came to existence. Stronger, more dangerous than any of the man-eating monsters that they have been hunting all their lives (probably, with the exception of one).

Death is imminent. Not even hundreds of them are enough against the sole blood-hound - so they had come to call them. So far, they had identified one, and that is enough to drive them to the brink of extinction.

More explosions. The ground shook with the impact of the consecutive attacks. Those are most likely bombardments spells from the priests nearby the area. In between the aggressive Horror attacks and the Blood-hound hunting them down, they now work in groups as opposed to how they used to back then.

The structure of the community had fallen apart some time ago; partially caused by the enemy, and partially caused by themselves. There was quite a number that got possessed then too. Their situation is that dire. It's not like they didn't understand, only that they chose to prioritise their duty more than themselves. That said, the rest of them don't fare that much better than the ones who don't.

Even with these many of them working together, their survival rate doesn't improve by a great margin.

Tremors; fine cracks appear on the covering structure.

At least with the Horrors, they know how to counter them. But with the other one...-

They hardly know how they even looked like. Too dark to see, too fast to catch. The moment you realised it, you're already dead. And that's why he's placed further than the rest; in hopes of leaving at least one witness.

The knights are all out in the front with the priests covering for them. The explosions are even closer now; he can feel it reverberating through his body. The Horrors popping out of the next corners hardly registers to him anymore with the strong blasts and the thick bloodlust permeating the air. He reacted just in time to shoot some off before a knight came running in and made a quick work of the rest of them.

"They're coming!" The man said to him in obvious panic. The others must've sent the man over to help him. He immediately pulls the man over and put up a cloaking spell around both of them.

The following explosion was close enough to partly destroy the structure around them. He tightens his grip on his brush to curb the tremors. They both collectively jumps in shock when a nearby scream was abruptly cut short.

For a moment, silence falls, with only the barest sound of winds blowing can be heard. Then the soft sound of sands crunching underfoot slowly grows closer.

A shadow appears at the broken entrance of the structure; it's silhouette casted by the dim moonlight appears fuzzy from within the thick dusts floating in the air. The figure moves with the sound of each step lightly echoes in the partially closed space.

A bright glint of a blade. Then suddenly the figure stops right a distance away from them, seemingly looking for something. Did it notice?

He vaguely registers the feeling of his company's hand on his shoulder trying to keep him steady.

A gust of wind swept through the place, pushing the dusts away, and at the same time reveals the appearance of the figure currently standing with their back to him.

Fairly tall male, dressed in blood-red shirt, carrying what seemed to them a soul-metal blade. A knight? It can't be--

He almost jumped out of his own skin when the figure turned around facing their way, somewhat pinning them under its glowing golden gaze.

Then it looked off elsewhere shortly after before walking away. The following silence was both empty and heavy; like a crushing void. He remembered escaping the site not too long after that, with hurried steps while steadfastly keeping the cloaking spell on.

 

 

*

 

 

Luckily a few others survived beside them, although just barely holding on. The casualty is always unreasonably high.

Following the fall of their community, they had taken to forming groups under their respective regions High Priests in order to preserve some of the previous order. Their current place of refuge is maintained and protected by Ryume-sama whose barrier helps ward off the onslaught of Horrors. That being said, with the mounting casualty, this place had also effectively turned into a med bay.

It took him quite a while to calm his nerves down before he can properly explain what they had seen. Never before he had experience fear to this extent. The knight that escaped with him seems to be doing better though he's undeniably shaken, albeit in slightly different way than him.

"Are you feeling better now?" The soothing tone of Ryume-sama's voice reached him. He looked up to see her peering down on him in concern.

"I have...somewhat. More than that, there is something I need to tell you."

Her expression took an alarmed edge then. "Did you see it?"

It was so vivid it almost felt like a lucid dream. But it was no dream. They know that, painfully so. And it was their duty to report what they have witnessed.

 

 

 

 

"The enemy was the missing Golden knight."