At that moment, outside the windows, darkness rose and covered the light of the stars.
The White-Haired rose from her chair.
"The Dark Lords are attacking the castle," she said.
The sorceress opened the door and led him to the balcony. From there, they had a view of the grim landscape stretching all around. Among the ancient ruins stood three massive dark figures. Impenetrable darkness, nearly 1,000 feet high, surrounded the castle and the land around it, hiding the distant edges of the ancient ruins.
From the darkness came gigantic figures, standing 13 to 16 feet tall. They were dressed in ancient robes. With their hands and other limbs, they carried staffs and spears. Others held unfamiliar objects or weapons. One of them held something resembling scales with two bowls at opposite ends.
The gigantic figures stopped at the border between the darkness and this world and silently waited, watching what was happening.
Meanwhile, one of the three dark figures standing before the castle stepped forward and placed a tall dark metal rod, mounted on a stand, onto the ground. The figure in the hat with black feathers stepped back. The rod began to grow upward, increasing in size until it stood higher than the castle. After that, the space above it began to twist into a vortex, forming a mass of black darkness. It spread farther and farther around it. A growing sense of anxiety and danger seeped into the castle.
"That is the Pale, the Bloodthirsty, and the Diseased-Headed!" the sorceress said. "They have come to test a new stage of their attack on the Dark Castle. But they will not succeed. It is useless. As long as I am the Mistress of this castle."
Meanwhile, the black vortex spread above the castle and hung over it like a fatal omen. But nothing else happened. The unknown magic of the Dark Castle kept the state of reality unchanged.
"Do you see this?" The sorceress turned toward the Cursed. "Come. While they are busy with the assault, we will go to the Bastion of Dusk and seize the superweapon. And then we will finish them while they do not expect it."
They descended into an underground cavern where the carriage they had arrived in stood. The White-Haired raised her right hand, and a new carriage arrived from another cavern.
"It seems she has an organized system of underground tunnels and special carriages for every situation," the Cursed thought, looking at the approaching carriage.
They climbed inside and set off on a dark journey.
At first, they traveled through a long tunnel with stone walls. The mysterious carriage rushed forward, pulled by a team of four black horses, without a driver, guided only by an unknown magical will or by a mysterious purpose awaiting far ahead. Only the white light of the sorceress's eyes illuminated their surroundings. Ahead, the red eyes of the racing horses burned, and their crimson glow was reflected on the walls of the underground tunnel.
Then side passages began to appear in the walls, leading to other parts of the dungeon. The Cursed saw lights there, perhaps belonging to other creatures or to glowing magical objects. But he asked the sorceress nothing about them. He cared only about moving forward, and all his intentions were focused on reaching his goal: saving the All-Seeing and moving deeper into the Kingdom. To the place where the Curse had been driving him from the very beginning.
After some time, the tunnel turned, and then the carriage emerged into a dark, dense forest. They found themselves on an old forest road, with tall ancient trees passing by on both sides. Some of their branches hung low over the passing carriage.
The sorceress opened a hatch and climbed through it to the driver's seat. She gestured for the Cursed to follow her. When he came up beside her, she placed a loaded black crossbow in his hands.
"Be careful. Blood Drinkers live in this forest. They are terrible creatures that fly and drain their victims' blood completely. Their bites are poisonous and deadly to ordinary creatures. They cannot kill Dark Lords or beings like you so easily. It would take too many bites. But we must still remain alert. When they pour out of the forest, I will destroy them with magic strikes, and you will use the crossbow to shoot those who manage to break through."
The terrifying creatures appeared almost immediately. No sooner had the White-Haired's words faded than figures with membranous wings burst out of the forest. They were half the height of a human being. In enormous streams, they rushed toward the speeding carriage, swooping down from the branches of the trees. Ahead, their horned heads, large teeth, and red glowing eyes were flashing in and out of view. Wide flashes of light were piercing the darkness and destroying the terrible creatures as they approached. By the dozens, they were torn apart or fell to the ground as shapeless dead bodies. But their terrible deaths did not stop the others.
The Cursed destroyed those who broke through the sorceress's magical storm with the crossbow. After each bolt was fired, a new one appeared in the crossbow's barrel. This made it possible to fire in bursts, cutting down the enemy without stopping. The crossbow reloaded itself automatically.
Several Blood Drinkers attacked the White-Haired from behind and swarmed over her completely. They sank their long sharp teeth into her neck and began sucking her blood. The others, after a delay, bit through her black outfit and began consuming blood directly from her body. The White-Haired screamed desperately. Black leaves fell from the surrounding trees.
The Cursed formed a long dagger in his left hand and brought it down on several creatures, plunging it into their bodies up to the hilt. Black blood splashed. With his other hand, he pressed the crossbow against the bodies of others and fired the stored energy bolts into them at point-blank range. The terrible creatures fell away from the sorceress with death screams, leaving her wounded but alive and free.
During the mad ride of the carriage rushing along the forest road, she cast a glance at the Cursed with her burning eyes. Her sharp teeth bared in a snarl. The Cursed saw a flicker of gratitude in her gray face. After that, the insane ride continued.
They fought off attacks from the flying creatures again and again along the way.
Ahead, a tall white-stone structure appeared, with towers crowned by sharp spires. The building stood on an island surrounded by the dark waters of a large lake. The island was connected to the shore by a long bridge, also made of white stone.