How did things end up like this? I thought to myself as twenty nine others and I marched into a large reddish-black portal that eerily hung below a dark arch stone that was marked with various red symbols and runes.

One by one, the others disappeared into the portal as I watched in fear. I took one last look back and was greeted by the glare of several old men who looked down at me from elevated stone platforms, their faces hidden under dark red hoods.

I really didn’t want to get in the portal, but for a squire like myself, saying no was not an option. I slowly walked into the portal and felt a shiver run up my spine as the experience of entering the portal was like being submerged in cool water. I desperately closed my eyes hoping to avoid seeing whatever horrors awaited me on the other side.

“What are you doing? Open your eye’s, Rom!” I heard a rumbly deep voice call out to me.

Romulus Xormae was my full name, but everyone called me Rom because it was easier.

I separate my eyelids, revealing that the others and I were in a large chamber made from what looked like black glass. I had once heard talk about an extremely rare material known as obsidian.

“Oi! Get over here. I need my sword.” The man known as Eeol Malgrun said to me with his voice echoing in the large and numbingly silent chamber. I offered him his rather large sword, which had been encased within its sheath and wrapped in a durable cloth.

My job- nay. My duty was to serve as Sir Eeol’s squire and I honestly didn’t mind.

What I did mind was the fact that he didn’t hesitate to pick me for the group of men who were headed into Nar' Agrun.

I sighed at my uselessness and cursed the day I was born as the men and women around me readied their gear.

I wasn’t the only squire there but the others were from different parts of Faacri and served different knights so I had no reason to socialize with any of them. All I had to do was to patiently await Sir Eeol's orders.

Speaking of which, one of those orders was that I carry all of his food and other equipment, not that I’m complaining.

“Wow.”

“Would you look at that?”

“Amazing!”

“This is evil in its purest form.”

“Such detail… it’s quite impressive.”

I heard many people say, prompting me to take a closer look at my surroundings.

I then realised that the chamber was almost perfectly round, excluding what looked like the door that led out of it and the indentations caused by various markings and symbols that were etched into the walls and floors.

I looked even closer and realised that the markings were seemingly made of gold.

I knelt and traced the symbols, hoping to make something of them, but then I accidentally bumbed into someone.

“Watch your footing squire, lest we feed your corpse to the dark ones.” A wrinkly old man known as Zorvan Breetus snapped. I quickly walked away from him and continued my investigation.

I then realised that all of the symbols in the room encircled a smaller blank circle in the centre of the chamber. It was the only place in the room that wasn’t covered in golden symbols.

There were, however, tiny and impossibly straight lines that darted its surface.

I also noticed that a certain set of symbols were shown repeatedly throughout the chamber.

I had no idea what they meant, but I had a hunch they served some important purpose.

“Alright people! Make sure you have all of your rations and equipment.” Eeol said as he turned towards what we all assumed was the exit.

Then we heard it.

The soft pitter-patter of feet. It was as though someone or some people were approaching the chamber

Everyone, excluding the squires and old man Zorvan, unsheathed their mighty swords and prepared for battle.

Time seemingly slowed to a crawl as we awaited whatever approached from the chambers only entrance, then we were met by a sight that shook me to my core.

Two beings of equal height revealed themselves. Their heads came first revealing that the path they took was made of stairs.

My heart stopped upon realizing that their eyes were entirely pitch black. They walked into the chamber in perfect unison.

I then witnessed the rest of their dark forms.

Two fluffy antennae-like things stuck out of the top of their heads, they had heads that were covered in proud black horns adorned with long silky hair, they had nightmarishly grey bodies that vaguely resembled our own, only theirs were covered in black bony structures.

“Halt! We are here in the name of emperor Pleetus Yel Run. We have come to conquer this realm in the name of the emperor. Certain death awaits you, should you impede our progress.” Eeol said as though he had rehearsed that line a thousand times, which he had.

The creatures comically looked at each other in confusion.

One of the knights walked up to the creatures while casually swinging his sword.

“Come on, sir Eeol. They’re mindless beasts, let’s just kill them and get this over with-"

“Halt!” Everyone in the chamber fell silent as it seemed like one of the creatures had said something.

“Emperor.”

“Duty.”

“Death.”

The two creatures said, seemingly at random. However, their voices were so beautiful it was as though they sang as they spoke. The one to the left had a lower smoother voice while the one to the right sounded like a choir on its own.

Everyone stared in disbelief as the creatures learnt our language before our very eyes. I had a bad feeling about all this so I slowly backed away.

The knight from before walked closer to the creatures.

“Hey! Can you hear the words that I’m saying?” He asked loudly, causing the antennae atop the creatures heads to flutter.

They seemed to be in pain and I had a feeling the young knight's taunts weren’t helping.

“What? What’s wrong with these things?” The knight asked.

“Hehe, maybe they're shy.” Another knight said.

“Try touching those things on their heads.”

“Yeah!”

Egged on by his comrades, the knight reached out to touch the fluffy antennae of the left creature.

Then in a flash, it happened.

My eyes hadn’t managed to catch how it happened, but the knight's arm was missing.

Everyone froze.

I looked at the left creature and saw that it had an armoured arm in its hand. The knight's face went pale as he and everyone realised what had just happened.

“Aaahhhh!” The young knight let out a scream that seemingly angered the creatures even more.

“Ready your arms men! They’re dangerous.” Eeol yelled, prompting all of the knights to charge towards the creatures.

The knights surrounded the creatures with their swords raised while we, the squires and Zorvan stood back. Zorvan had ordered two squires to stand between him and the brewing battle which was completely understandable considering the circumstances. But I found it strange that one of the highest-ranking members of our order was cowering behind mere squires.

I turned my head as soon as I heard a sharp sound coming from where the knights were.

Apparently, one knight had tried to attack the creature, but his attack was perfectly deflected, not that I could see much of what was happening.

Knights and some greater dark beings moved at a speed at which normal humans, like myself, weren’t able to keep up with. To make things worse, even if one were to catch a glimpse of said movements, the mind would still need time to process everything.

Eeol was up next. He took his large sword and executed his attack in a flash, but to everyone’s surprise, the middle of his sword snapped in two, sending the top half across the chamber extremely quickly.

The piece loudly embedded itself inside the walls of the chamber.

I then heard a gurgling sound. Everyone looked around cautiously for its source to find that two knights had their heads missing. Their bodies fell over with an echoing thud.

Angered by the loss of their comrade, the knights then charged at the dark beings at the same time.

Loud noises pierced the air as the battle escalated. Eeol slowly walked around the creatures and his comrades. I assumed he was looking for an opening of some sort, but the creatures were surrounded yet it was our side that sustained all of the battles injuries.

Arms, along with several other limbs, flew off their respective bodies as the chamber became a blood bath. The other squires, Zorvan and I could only watch as the creatures moved in blurry movements.

It was at this point that I named the dark beings Saepenar. Beings of such pure cruelty and violence could only be referred to as such as the word could loosely be translated to cruelty.

My focus then shifted to Eeol who patiently circled the fight. He watched as many of his men fell at the hands of the saepenar, then in a fraction of a second he disappeared and so did one of the saepenar.

I then heard a loud thud to my right and saw that Eeol had tackled the creature and was mercilessly slashing at its exoskeleton with his broken sword. This served him well, as its shorter length made it ideal for his situation. That and its blunt tip chipped away at the sharpener's exoskeleton.

A loud crack seemingly reinvigorated Eeol as his slashes and other attacks increased in speed and ferocity. But his brave and rather well-executed plan came at a cost. The saepenar had also managed to get a few hits in and was slashing at his abdomen.

I panicked and ran over to the two fighting opponents and grabbed the saepenar’s hands, preventing it from injuring Eeol any further. One millisecond off and I’d have lost my fingers, but luckily the creature had already suffered a lethal blow. Eeol had completely destroyed what looked like its external ribcage, revealing the creature's organs. He then made quick work of the creature’s insides and looked back at his men, who were still in a losing battle although they had managed to do some damage to the other Saepenar’s exoskeleton.

One knight, in particular, was doing rather impressive. Her name was Zoey Weeven and she was the second strongest knight in the entire order, following closely behind Eeol.

She had used her hammer to inflict large amounts of damage to the saepenar but it was still way too fast and was too strong to pin down. She was then forced to go on the defensive as the saepenar dished out a barrage of attacks I couldn’t see.

I looked at Eeol and saw that he was in no condition to assist his comrades, but then Eeol flipped my assumption on its head and disappeared from my sight, only to reappear in front of the saepenar. He kicked it, I assume, square in the face sending it flying across the room. This allowed Zoey to take all of her strength, put it all in one swing and smash the saepenar’s face.

The creature let out an gurgled cry that before every knight still standing pounced it.

Eeol and Zoey were particularly vicious as they attacked it. Ripping apart its limbs and gouging out its organs coating their already blood-soaked armour in red and black blood. They looked more like death bringers instead of knights who stood for hope and faith.

Nonetheless, they worked seamlessly and with perfect coordination to swiftly kill the saepenar.

The battle, or rather, the massacre had come to an end and it took a moment for the knights had cool off.

Our group, which originally consisted of thirty people, had been reduced to about fifteen.

Ten of which were actually still fit for battle and that’s if we count Eeol who I was attending.

I checked his belly and saw that he had been pierced many times by the creatures sharp claws, but he insisted that he was fine so I left it at that. I applied the necessary medicine around his wounds and wrapped them in some clean cloth.

Eeol stood up and walked towards his fellow knights who had collected all of the body parts of the fallen and lined them up.

The carcasses of the two saepenar’s were tossed aside and were being examined by Zorvan who insisted that a knight remain by his side as he worked.

Meanwhile, the knights mourned the loss of their comrades as their still fresh wounds ached.

However, no tears were shed. They were- we were all prepared to lose our lives when we signed up for this. Well… I was forced by Eeol, but still.

Silence hung within the chamber and no one dared utter a word.

That is until the strangest thing happened.

Black smoke began rising from the bodies of the fallen. Everyone readied their weapons and even Zorvan, who was deeply invested in the corpse of the saepenar, turned to look.

The dark fumes continued to rise, then suddenly-

The fumes were sucked into the floor.

Everyone’s guard was raised to its highest as silence once again filled the chamber.

“Look!” One of the knights gasped as blueish white streaks of light began ascending into the ceiling from each of the bodies.

“Eirini bless us, those are their souls.”

“Their ascending to Nesrafaar.”

Gasps of the like escaped the mouths of those who witnessed this grand occasion.

“Do you see this, men? Eirini is watching over us. She sends us her blessings even in death. Mourn not the loss of our brothers, but celebrate for they now serve even closer by her side.” Eeol said, igniting a fire inside the hearts of everyone who listened, even me.

We then spent the rest of the day cremating the dead. After properly sending off the dead, we set off for the next leg of our journey.