Stepping outside of the shop, Grizz stopped and listened for a while. Wondering what the matter is, Orou slithered next to him and listened. The loudest thing was the rhythmic drum beat, but besides that, Orou could hear shouting and screaming. The barrier was still up, so Orou didn’t think that the army had gotten here, but Grizz thought otherwise. He started quickly moving to the north, looking around for something or other. After going a considerable distance from the shop, he found a simple stone building. The only thing unique about it was that it was much taller than the rest of the buildings around it and that was exactly what Grizz was looking for.

Grizz started quickly and proficiently climbing up the house, using all of his ape instincts to their fullest. Orou followed suit and although he didn’t have much experience in climbing, using his full length of twenty-three meters, he could easily climb on top of this building. Upon reaching the top, Orou could see what Grizz was looking for. Although there wasn’t a full blown riot yet, there were several people protesting and shouting for the king to step down, and a few more people, not so peacefully destroying several establishments belonging to the crown and marching towards the palace with weapons in hand. The alleyways were practically infested with spies and beastmen wanting to make the best out of the current situation, waiting to see how the battle turns out and who will prevail in the end.

When the protestors reached the palace, it was like they had provoked a hornet’s nest. The twenty guards in black armor that stood there immediately jumped into the crowd and started decapitating beastmen without a single care in the world. Several more guards and soldiers came pouring out from the palace, aiding the black armored beastman in battle. More and more beastman exited the palace, to the point where Orou thought there was some sort of magic involved. The palace simply couldn’t fit that many soldiers, hundreds, if not thousands were pouring out from the palace, stepping through the pile of bodies. All of the protesting beastmen had been slaughtered without exception and the soldiers had already started killing the beastmen, that were simply standing there with signs in their hands.

As more and more blood was shed, the beat of the drums got louder and clearer and his heart started beating along with the drum. The two rhythms merged, making Orou experience intense bloodlust together with a strange emotion, devotion. Even though he this wasn’t his home and he had nothing to defend here, his entire being was screaming that this was the right thing to do and that he should devote his everything to the cause. Resisting the urge and turning his head to look at Grizz, Orou saw that Grizz had gripped one of his short swords to the point of making his hand bleed, but he seemed to overcome the strange urge that came with the beat.

As the soldiers were slaughtering the screaming and pleading beastmen, several strange beastmen, dressed in various animal skins and bird feathers came marching out of the palace. They held green, wooden staves in their hands, though not a single crystal could be seen on top of the staves. The beastmen tried the best to form some sort of formation, but each of them was too arrogant or wild, doing what they pleased instead of falling in line.

After trampling hundreds of bodies underneath their feet, the soldiers in black and red armor started forming up, creating several neat and organized lines. Soon after, Orou saw a man emerge from the palace. His armor was reflecting the sunlight around him, the gold blinding everyone that looked at him. A serpent, made entirely of gold was motionlessly lying on his shoulders, its fangs bared at everyone who dared to look at the man. In his left hand, he was wielding a golden shield, emblazoned on the shield, a head of a ferocious lion. In his right hand, he was holding a multicolored sword, made entirely out of crystals. Without a doubt, this sword was capable of cutting everything that stood in its way. It was the king in all of his glory, shining and glowing like the sun.

Following behind him was a beastman in strange, red robes that drew in all attention and made one dizzy at the same time. In his hands, he was holding a twisted, black sceptre that looked as if it was alive, squirming in the feathered beastman’s hands. As he stepped outside of the palace, his head slowly turned in Orou’s direction and, looking both of them directly in their eyes, he smirked. Orou was still slightly stunned from the beastman’s gaze, his heart and, alongside with it, the rhythm of the beat sped up. His body got ready to attack at any moment, but besides the glance, he didn’t do anything else. Of course, this was the king’s shaman whom they had stolen the black cube from and Orou didn’t believe that the shaman didn’t hold a grudge against them.

Making his way to the front of the army, the king lifted up his sword and pointed it towards the western part of the barrier. With a loud voice that held authority and demanded respect, he addressed the army: “You’re here because of one thing and that is to defend the kingdom. I’m demanding you to fight against the enemies of our kingdom who plan on disrupting our peace and break the laws that have been here ever since the creation of Solus. You will take up your swords and for each one of you that falls, you must take down at least five of the opposing army.”

The king wasn’t making a speech, nor was he rallying the troops to fight better. He spoke as if he didn’t even consider the possibility of anything besides what he said. He wasn’t asking for the soldiers to fight, instead, he demanded them to fight, knowing that they had no other choice, but strangely, his words and his presence inspired the soldiers. Although the common citizen might be fearful and even condescending of the king, the soldiers that stared at him held nothing but respect in their eyes.

“The enemy will do his best to attack, but this barrier has held on for hundreds of years and today is not the day it will fall. They will employ several strange and unusual methods, and knowing him, they will find a way into the city. As soon as their leader falls, their morale will crumble and the battle will be won. Now, go out there and perform your ancestral duty of defending the city, feel the beat of the Syrnis and let it pulse through your bodies, let it take over and guide you to victory,” following those words, the army started marching towards the western barrier, following each and every of the king’s orders.

Without wasting an extra second, Grizz hopped down the building and dashed between the buildings in the direction of the army, looking for any good places of vantage. Finding another tall building which looked to be a mansion of sorts, Grizz and Orou scaled it and finally looked through the barrier. The barrier was gray and it was hard to see through it, especially considering that Orou had to ignore the spirits in the barrier and the black strands in the clouds and in the ground, but the two of them finally saw what was approaching the capital. Several beastmen wearing chainmail and holding simple steel swords in their hands were approaching the capital, but the strangest thing about the army were the beastmen, or rather, their skin.

Although the beastmen were wearing armor, the patches of exposed skin that Orou saw had black lines running both underneath and through the skin, completely deforming the beastmen before him. For some reason, some of the beastmen at the far end of the army weren’t dressed in armor and Orou could fully see the horror that was the beastmen in front of them. They didn’t even resemble beastmen at this point, several large and thick lines were running through their heads, arms and legs and Orou even saw a few beastmen with black lines sticking out of them like spears, impaling the beastmen.

At the front of the army was a beastman unaffected by the black lines, a beastman that stood five meters tall, with a black, wooden cane that twisted like a serpent and fur that was a mixture of gold and darkness. It was Vaar, the beastman who was freed by Orou, breaking a barrier very similar to this one, the beastman who swore revenge on his brother, the current king of Solus, who had cast him out for being feral.