Everyone has evacuated into the mines. The bells still ringing albeit faintly at the heart of the village. Whispered calls and cries of children bounce off the walls of the cavern, effectively filling this once solemn spot. My hand clenches against the solid iron doors that sit still open as townsfolk and their families pour in one by one. Each bringing either less than they should or all that they had. Town guards stand at a uniform line a handful of meters away from the entrance. These few brave men and women wearing fine light iron armor and helms over their tunics and dresses while equipped with spears, swords, and a variety of shields ranging from bucklers to kite shields. I have never really seen them in action, mainly because of the fact that they are more like militia than actually trained guards. These brave souls standing at the perimeter of this evacuation zone were not so different from those fleeing behind the gates of the Mines and judging from their stances, their hands trembling at each ring of the bell and their chests rising and falling with each heavy breath they let out, it was clear that they wanted to join them in doing so. Honestly? I don't blame them...
My feet feel like they are melting into pools. My slate skin shifting like it wishes to slide off my own body and return to the soil. The energies within beating as fast as my own heart. My nerves are a wreck, and hearing the fearful cries of the people cowering behind me do not help. The only thing helping my stance was my grip against the doors and the thought of the day that comes after. My breathing hitches and hastens itself against the feeling of panic welling up at the back of my mind, yet I steel myself. I promised my father I would. I promised my mother too...
"TORIN!" A yell, echoing from below the ridge of the hill that leads to the mine. I snap out of my delusions and turn towards the familiar voice. I turn towards the other male handing the other side of the door and nod. Gesturing to the man to take care of the gates for me as I start running over to assist Micah who is now stumbling over himself as he makes it over the hill.
Kneeling beside him, my arms reach out to help the man stand, or at least stay upright. My eyes immediately wander over to his body, checking it for any scars or injuries. None that I can see so far. Micah takes deep breaths as he tries to speak in between them but to no avail. He had to take a rest, but whatever he wanted to say, he wanted it out immediately.
"Take your time Micah, what happened?" I asked, turning over to the Town Guard and gesturing for help. Some did break away from their formation to try and assist Micah to the doors.
"Torin...Oscar-" Micah speaks through tired pants as he points back to the slight view of the town we could perceive from this angle.
"Your father too..." He adds, and suddenly I feel this familiar chill shoot down my spine. Whispers and Visions of that dream returning before I take a few deep breaths to shut the sharp pains back down. My mind panics for a moment as my body works on instinct. My feet immediately start moving back towards the gates as I turn and reach for the unnamed pickaxe I rested at the wall before running back towards town. The town guard yelling at me to stop yet their voices fade, their calls reaching nowhere as I bound down back towards town. I am scared of the dark that comes, but I fear for something worse.
Speeding through the space that continues to become darker as time goes by, my eyes dart around town, checking every corner and commonplace where they could have been, searching for any source of light they could have been using. This is stupid, why did they stay? He promised. Theypromised.
I should have dragged my father away yet I didn't. I should have known he couldn't let it be. Oscar too. Yet at the same time, I completely understood why they chose to stay. That very same choice was something I wished upon myself during that moment. We all wished to exact revenge on the looming darkness. As the Eclipse was the one that took my mother away from me. Took Oscar's father and sister too.
The Eclipse was once a story to us children of the town. We once believed it was just a mere legend to keep us young ones behaved as it was impossible to believe that once at an unknown time, the twin moons that dance in the sky every night would halt. How the once beautifully vibrant twin sisters of the solemn night would cry tears of blood, turning their vibrant ethereal glow into a dreadful crimson red before shying away under a blanket of darkness. It is said that without the light of the twin sisters, the land would be blanketed in Stygion, the Primal Energy of Dark; and upon this pitch-dark, creatures would snatch the unruly, never to be seen again.
Although it had worked on children, those who had grown up hearing the story would think of it as simply myth, or legend. Forgetting about it as they toiled on the daily stresses of life. At least that was what the people who had not experienced the Eclipse would believe. However, those who had and lived to tell the tale, often called as the Umbra, were left broken. Their minds refusing to recover from the horrors of their reality. Even the ever stubborn mages that are the Vael Arcanists could not decipher the broken shards left within the Umbra, nor would they even try. Some were too afraid to even think or mention anything about the Eclipse. Some were to broken to even function. Some, like Oscar and my father, wished to break the boundary of Mortal and Immortal to enact revenge for those who they had lost.
My mind refuses to remember that time, but my body remembers. Those chilling nightmares that refuse to leave me. I can still feel the cold touch of the dark wrapping itself around my body. No, my very soul and this feeling is coming back. More real than ever in this current time.
Sweat rolls down my face as my heart races ever faster. All I can hear is my increasing breaths, becoming louder and louder as I turn corner after corner and into the different streets and alleys of town, searching for any source of light that could lead me to where these two could have gone. As I continued to search, in a blink of an eye, the sky turns red. The crimson now covering the surroundings. I was running out of time. Perhaps I was already out of it.
It didn't matter, all I cared for now was to at least save the two and my eyes dart around before I caught a glimpse at the sight of torchlight sitting by the edge of the forest close to the edge of town. That must have been them.
I dart over as fast as I could, going as far as to break through weak fences, catching splinters in between my slate plates and scarring what little showing of skin I had. Whatever pain or scar I felt at this moment is dwarfed by the thought of losing more of those I care about. I had to save them. I had to get them to the mines.
Leaving the edges of where the buildings ended, as my foot started to touch the grass of the fields in front of me, a sudden rumble shook the very ground beneath me, almost as if the Land of Enes itself shook in fear as to what was to come. Soon, I could see what it was.
The darkness had come, a wave of thick black fog rolled in and immediately blanketed the area in a pitch black darkness. I couldn't see. I lost sight of them. I had no idea of where my bearings are. Was I still facing the direction of the forest? Was I still at the edge of town? All I could see is the looming darkness that surrounds me and the grass beneath my feet. Bodyless whispers chant from the veil of darkness, as if a sudden crowd had formed around me. Undecipherable words flood my ears as I try to move forward, continuing my search for the two.
The trembling feeling of my legs beginning to sap my strength as I stumble over my own feet in simply walking forward. The cold snap of my spine can no longer be ignored. I am afraid. I wished to go home. My mind fogs with words of panic, thoughts of dread, and feelings of misery. My stomach coils around this feeling and my throat dries up from my breath alone. Void of light, I am at my loneliest. Yet I press on.
"Da...DAAAAD?" I yelled out, testing if my father could even hear my voice from this far.
"OSCAR? WHERE ARE YOU GUYS?" My voice breaks at the pain of screaming at the top of my lungs. My hand shakes as I reached out, trying to feel whatever could be in front of me to halt myself from hitting anything. So far, it was nothing but plains.
I called out once more, only to be responded with the whispers from the void once more. The cold of the night now piercing itself against my skin as I let out breaths that I could see. My arms wrapping themselves around each other as I tried to keep myself warm. My eyes dart around the unending darkness as I stare off into the distance, squinting to see if I could catch something, anything.
Light...
From the distance, I could see the faintest source of light. The same torchlight from before. A smile draws in between my cheeks as I take those careful steps over before speeding into a jog, and eventually into a run. "Oscar? Dad? Come on! We need to go!" I called out as I reached over, slowly closing the distance between myself and the dance of the torchlight in front of me. The winds of the darkness seemingly picking up as I cover my face from the blasting winds that is bringing dust into my eyes. With what little visibility I could muster, I extended my pickaxe forward, channeling slight bits of energy to cause the gem to glow a little, emitting a light dimmer than that of a mere torchlight, but it was enough for me to see what was in front of me.
As I did so, I traced the line. Seeing an old broken fence in front of me, I turned to where the light was, only to see the source of it. A torch, stuck on the corner between the post and wood, singing and maybe even burning it to a brighter light. That could have been the reason as to why I could see it through that darkness. However, the position this torch as found itself on was strange. I traced my light over to the handle as I walked around the fence to see the very same wood it was burning on but with a slight shimmer to it. Blood. My light lowers a little before my eyes could see what I did not expect. An arm. It did not look like it was cut. It was torn off by whatever force was strong enough to snap the arm at the ball of the elbow. As the dread wells up from the core of my chest, I could feel a cold grip wrap itself around the base of my ankle.
In a moment of panic, I turned to try and swing against the hand before realizing it was Oscar. He was scarred. Blood ran across his face and body with deep cuts scattered across his person. Cuts that no other creature native in this area could have ever done. Skin at these cuts were torn asunder, making way for the muscle and some parts of bone to show. How he was still alive was a miracle in of itself. His left arm was torn from his elbow, the shredded part of his skin shows the shattered bone with muscles dirtied and bleeding into the grass. His other arm held on to my foot with a deathly grip, at least as much as he could despite the layer of blood in his palm.
My whole body freezes up. I tried to speak but my voice refuses to come out. My vision begins to darken, even more so than it could as the howling winds fade at the back of my head and all I could hear at this moment was my own breath, heartbeat, and the voice that came out of Oscar who seemed to be choking on his own blood.
"Torin...Run!" Oscar stares up at me with a fearful look in his eyes before black tar covers the lower half of his body and drags him away.
I stumble backwards as Oscar loses his grip after I had fallen to the dirt. My pickaxe falling not too far from my side as I recovered and stared at the distance. More darkness as I take deep breaths to myself, trying to rationalize what I had just seen. Am I dreaming right now? Surely I am in a nightmare? However, my questions were soon realized as I hear the roar of an unknown creature in the dark. A voice that sounded like a cacophony of various screams of pain and despair. A sound that immediately locks up my own body. My mind screams to run, but the cold chill that surrounds my own muscles refuses to do so. As I leaned against the rotting wooden pole, I could see. From behind the flashes of light of thunder and lighting was the silhouette of a beast, towering over anything I could ever imagine, surrounded by a swirling storm of undead. The echoes of its roar almost matching in symphony before the explosive rain of fire that illuminates its maddening shape. Every figure that swirls and wails, covered in the darkness. Like a cloak that covers whatever face hides behind it.
This is the truth behind the Eclipse. These are the creatures that spawn from the deathly darkness that follows. The Calamity that has brought the Kingdom of Ironkiln to its knees. The Cloaked.