Dragon Realm Cypress

The Silent Ones broke past the forest line entering the town border of Woadhollow. It took every inch of discipline and fortitude for the divine soldiers not to quake with fear. The haunting journey through the thicket was decisively a highway into the twisting nightmare that would become Woadhollow. A seeping wine colored mist hovered slightly off the ground, disguising the oscillating vessels that wove through the soil and tightened like putrid vines upon the shops and homes.

Avalon eyes twitched in disgust, confusion, and horror. Breathing the fumes of pungent rot that tasted like spoiled vegetables baking for the countless days in the sun. But where was the sun? It was high noon by the time they reached the forest, and although the sky was cloudless, shadows still enveloped the village like a suffocating blanket. No light could escape. However it was the eerier stillness in the air that was the most disturbing. Akin to silence within the eye of a storm. Knowing fully aware that the storm was there, watching, waiting for you. Ready to strike you with its full fury, but helpless to do nothing until it attacks. This was the eye of the storm.

“I don’t like this, Avalon. Where are all the townsfolk?” asked Vada. Her fist wrapped around her hilt until her knuckles broke white.

“Send in the Silent Ones.” It was the only answer Avalon needed to speak. Her body took over within the moment they arrived. Her mind flushed with useless thoughts. Ideas of fear. Concerns. Worries and wishes. The thoughts dragged her mind into a state of mush instead of action. This is where her Black Rabbit training shined. This is what made her a stone cold killer. Throughout her time with prayers and meditation, it would be the rabbit cage locked away in her mind that would open to free the true Avalon once more. “Find where the Night is hiding and cut it down. I want it done without honor or remorse.”

Vada narrowed her eyes and nodded, “Yes, my Silver Wing.”

“And Vada- Make them suffer.”

Andros dismounted besides Avalon. Together they watched as Vada and the rest of the Silent Ones meld into the shadows and fog, vanishing without a sound nor trace.

“I see nothing. Where did they go?” asked Andros

Avalon covered the Gold Wing’s mouth. They may have as well been invisible to the untrained eye, but Avalon followed their movements as clear as a torch in the darkness. She watched as the Silent Ones gathered around a small chapel. “Stay here.” Ordered Avalon.

Avalon crept to Vada’s side, her Silencer drawn. She felt lightheaded, her thoughts more like the mist below, clouded. She fumbled with her words, unsure why. “W-what is your re-report, Vada?”

Vada, likewise dizzy, leaned against another Silent One. “This town… is empty. We h-have yet to check the chapel.”

“This mist..it is like a gas. Cover your mouths.” Avalon raised her violet turtleneck collar over the bridge of her nose. Still dazed, but more confident she could handle the toxic environment; she gave the signal to break into the church.

Avalon, Vada, and twenty odd Silent Ones charged into the chapel startling the community of townsfolk that were discovered inside. The corruption that swallowed the town found its way into the church, as well. However the vines that may have been smaller outside were as thick as oak branches within. They sprawled from a mass growth at the altar of the All-Father. It seemed to breathe, squeezing in and out, squelching juices from pores that coated its body.

At the center of the growth, a single black rose bloomed and radiated a strange, ethereal energy.

“What is this? What is going on here?” demanded Avalon from the, almost catatonic villagers.

Each townsfolk sat upright in the pews, their eyes dark and baggy. Their mouths gaped open, drool stretching down from their mouths. They seemed to be heavily drugged.

Avalon approached the bizarre flower with caution. Her blade, not unlike the other Silencers ebbed a red glow. An indication that the Night was at work.

“Do you like what you see, my child?” A man dressed in the white robes of a preacher slowly pushed from the cancer with the sound of slime releasing from a jar. Grotesque, his face covered in a film of a waxy, pink substance. His body did not completely squeeze out. Part of his spine and arms were allowed to move freely, the rest of himself was still attached to the freakish

abomination. His eyes reflected with a glass-like blackness. As if his eyes were polished steel. “Welcome to our sleepy village.”

“Welcome!” The townsfolk repeated in chilling unison. Their eyes mirrored midnight as well.

Once again Avalon’s instincts pumped through her body before her thoughts could hinder her. Inverting her sword’s grip, she sunk the blade into the skull of the priest. A wave of shock overcame the mindless townsfolk. Then came the laughter. The freakish sound shook the tiny chapel’s floorboards in a sickening mania.

“Avalon, look!” Vada pointed past her Blade Sister at Avalon’s plunged sword. It flared with red fire as a crawling ooze lifted it from the preacher’s wound.

“Bless your efforts, child,” cackled the priest. The sword fell to a clatter on the ground. “My children, welcome our guests, show them the love that our gods hath brought us!”

The Silent Ones backed against the walls as the townsfolk clawed over each other towards them.

“Defend yourselves but don’t kill them!” Avalon called out. She lifted her hand above her sword before the blade returned to her hand as fast as two magnets clicked together. She turned her attention back to the priest. “I want answers! What manner of vile is this? Demonic Infestation? Vampiric Blight? Tell me!”

The priest’s ghastly smile only grew wider, “A gift from the gods.”

Avalon glanced back to Vada fending off mountains of villagers, rushing, tripping over themselves. Cascading as a horde of rats, each struggling to grapple and gnaw the Silent Ones. None fearing for their lives as the templars sliced into the manic villages knowing full well that their wounds were non lethal. Calling the bluff that they won’t be killed, each villager taking their sword wounds with stride.

“Tell them to halt their attack,” hissed Avalon.

“You surrender so easily, Avalon?”

“You know who I am?” Avalon questioned back.

“Did your sister surrender just as easily too”

Avalon’s eyes widened, “What did you say?” Who was this man that knew a secret so secure that Vada, her Blade Sister, did not even know? If he knew who she was, he was from her past,

but to know the fate of her little sister… that was truly impossible! The shock gobbled her defenses like a glutton into a feast.

The priest’s smile vanished, “Did you think you could run away and just forget what you had done to this town.”

“W-what?” stammered Avalon. Her Black Rabbit now faded back to its cage. Her thoughts opened the floodgates, crashing through her mind breaking down any wall she built over the years.”

“These people have suffered so much at your hands. It is time for you to do the suffering.” “Call them off!” Avalon commanded.

“You can not stop the Plague Reach. It grows stronger with the more souls that cultivate it.” “Call them off!” Avalon roared with all the ferocity she could muster.

“Avalon! Help! They are overwhelming us!” cried Vada as the swarm grew too unbearable to fight off.

Avalon took a savage swing at the rose in desperation, it had to be the cause of all of this.

However her sword deflected off an invisible force harmlessly. Screams of anguish from her

Silent Ones drowned the rest of her courage. Avalon collapsed to her knees. “Call them off…”

“Say it, Avalon,” the priest said softly. He grinned at the defeated Silent One. “Say it and this maddening nightmare will end for you once and for all.”

Angry tears streaked down Avalon’s cheeks. “Kill them,” she whispered.” “Again.”

“Kill them,” repeated Avalon, her voice still low.

“Louder!” hissed the preacher.

“Kill them all!” roared Avalon in a booming voice. Like a kill switch, the Silent Ones tore into the townsfolk overcoming their advances in a torrent of blood and gore.

“Well done, my child.” Taunted the priest. His arms open, as if offering Avalon a hug. “You sentenced this town to its death much like you did to your own sister. Once a Black Rabbit, always a Black Rabbit.”

A blood-stained hand calmed Avalon’s shivering shoulder. “He speaks only in lies, Avalon.” It was Vada. “Do not listen to him. It is the chattering of a forsaken demon.”

“Are they?” responded the priest.

“He does not…” Avalon’s lips quivered as she whispered the harsh truth. Avalon stood and shuffled out of the church in a dark stupor. The mocking laugh of the alien monster in the background.

“Avalon, wait!” Vada called out.

The Silent One leader turned back and stared with soulless eyes. “Burn this place to the ground. All of it.”