Chapter 18: Numbering Your Days

It became clear to her that she was being summoned by her mother that something was up, she didn't know what it was and decided to go along with the orders. It was right before she even got to get into the Knight Academy, she didn't even take her assessment test if at all. She walked with one of the royal knights meaning something big was happening as of this moment and it needed her presence there. Wynter Grimsvile was the first royal princess but she had refused her destiny and wanted to wielded the blade instead, it was her dream to protect the crown from anyone who wanted to do something to it. However she knew that her ability with the sword was somewhat unremarkable it wasn't enough for her to even protect those she loved the most, her mother and her kid sister who could barely even talk let alone walk. She had determined eyes as one would expect she had the characteristic white hair of her family but she had cut hers short and ruffled it up to make the impression that she was strong but to the ones who saw her it came off as her being a tomboy, her sharp golden eyes were symbols of pride even for her, she was rather tall and she gave off the impression of a finely muscled tomboy who would rather not get into the complexities of wielding a sword and straight up punch and kick her enemies. She carried herself with the pride of a knight however which was why she wanted to hear what her mother had to say, she was really tense and her eyes which were sharp and menacing became even more hostile to others who didn't know what she looked like, her wolf ears perked up to every sound that was surrounding her.

"Your Majesty, I your daughter Wynter Grimsvile has arrived."

"You may enter"

Wynter opened the doors before the knights did and they all seemed to step backwards as if in response to something. She didn't know what it was but there was something different about her mother, she noticed the dragonkin sitting on a table made out of ice whilst playing a game that involved a board she didn't know about, playing at the corner with the furnished heavy weapons of this room were twins who were laughing as they swung at each other, the recognizable and very well known Sage was there talking to her mother the Queen. This was very strange indeed, these were all strange individuals and all of them including the children were stronger than her. Her instincts spoke louder than her brain. She walked forward without fear and it was certain that her heart would be strong where her body wasn't.

"Your Majesty"

She went on one knee in front of her mother, her head bowed waiting for an answer.

"C'mon Wynter you do not have to force yourself to speak like that"

"How can I speak towards Your Majesty in a casual way?!"

"I am your mother first before being your queen"

"......"

"I came to talk about your condition as a knight"

"Is it my lack of swordsmanship skill?"

"Much more than that"

"?"

"Would you like to become the knight for our Gods?"

"What do you mean, Mother?"

"It is as I say, our gods are finally here and are freeing our people as we speak they should be arriving anytime now"

"The tear is about to open"

"Tear?"

Suddenly what appears to be a finely sliced cut in the room appeared and with it came a multicolored space that confused Wynter for a moment. She stared at the space for longer than she expected, suddenly two Fenrirs popped out of the space. She felt the need to bow to them without a doubt and knew that these were the gods that her mother was talking about. But her bestial instincts hit overdrive upon setting sights on the dark elf who had entered through it and closed the tear. She ignored her two gods and abandoned her sword sending her fist towards her way, she obviously dodged her attack but then she had another attack under sleeve that was to kick her gut. She didn't know why she was doing this but she did it anyway, her instincts prompted her to attack even though she didn't want to. She wanted to use her sword but that was discarded immediately when she ran towards her. The kick was blocked too, she leapt into the air about to drop-kick her into oblivion but her leg was caught by the dark elf who smiled at her. Wynter was thrown to the ground and bounced on the ground for a moment before standing up again and racing towards her with sharpened claws, she had abandoned the honor of being a knight and become a feral beast for that moment running on all fours even. Her fangs grew longer, fur appeared all over her body and her body size doubled to that of the Fenrirs in the room she had transformed by some reason. She attacked her with her fangs and claws immediately but the dark elf was blocking all of her attacks which frustrated her even more. The dark elf grabs her and sends something black into her chest she begins to calm her down a bit. She fell down to the ground growling as her body shrunk down in size and the fur receded she was becoming normal once more. She was exhausted for some reason and stared the dark elf who was legions ahead of her in terms of strength.

"Hey Freki, what kind of divine protection did you give her to turn feral like that?"

"It should be normal divine protection"

"It must be bestial instinct mother, a lower being tends to try to fight beings who are strong in comparison. The weak must fight the strong in order to know their place"

"Ah I see"

"So that's what it was"

Wynter had accepted that this was the case, her armor was rendered useless and only her undergarments were left which had survived long enough to cover her important parts. These were her gods, the dark elf turns around to her and offers her hand to her.

"Hey are you alright though?"

"?"

"Nod one once if you are and shake your head if you are not"

She nodded and took her hand still baffled that someone as strong as her was just as kind, she smiled at her even.

"I-I am okay thank you"

"Your status is looking to be on the weak side of things"

"Y-You can read my status?!"

"Yes but its slowly increasing because of the divine protection"

"?!"

"Did you manage to save our people?"

"Easily, I even encouraged them to expect us to free their regions."

She smiled so powerfully and said it with confidence, she knew the regions that she was talking about and had enough power to reassure them that they'll be safe and sound. She walked towards her mother who fell on her knees and began to cry. Was this the beginning of a new age?Was she becoming the legendary knight that she always dreamed of?She walked towards her sword and took it bowing as she did so.

"MASTER PLEASE ALLOW ME TO BECOME YOUR DISCIPLE!!"

"EH?!"

"YOUR STRENGTH IS SO GREAT THAT I WISH TO SERVE YOU ALL MY LIFE!!PLEASE ALLOW ME TO BECOME YOUR SWORD!!"

She shouted out aloud with a heart that knew what it was saying, if she were to follow this person she would certainly become strong enough to protect her homeland. She could feel it in her soul that she could become more than what she was right now.

"Go on"

One of the dragonkin said with an amused tone of voice smiling as she did so placing another piece on the opposite end of the ice board.

"F-Fine"

The dark elf walked up to her and took the sword in her hand placing it on her shoulder.

"I dub you my knight, serve me well"

"Yes, Master"

Wynter's eyes were shining as of right now and she could feel the power coursing through her veins.

☆

There was no word form the extermination force they sent to the dungeon, nothing. It had been a full 2 days without communications. They had gathered up again and sat there in complete silence, their strongest sword was gone and all that was left was shield to protect them from the harm that was to come.

"Staying silent will not help we must address this issue immediately."

Keith said in a solemn tone of voice filled with pain that only the other two could understand.

"It appears the dungeon was a trap to drop our guard just enough to make us forget that we are dealing with an anomaly, we have lost all contact with the knight orders and the elite adventurer parties. We should assume they are all dead"

".......sigh I didn't want to admit that but I am forced to say we were complete fools"

"Oh I know who is definitely responsible for this"

"I-I had nothing to do with this"

"SHUT UP YOU SNOT NOSED BRAT!!"

"Eeeeek!"

"YOUR TIP HAS MADE US WEAKER AND NOW WE ARE GOING TO BE FACING A LARGE ARMY OF FILTHY BEASTS WHO ARE GOING TO CUT OUR THROATS OPEN!!"

"I-I am sorry!!I didn't know that my source was a spy!!"

"Fucking amateur I should have known better, Peterson is there anything we can do"

"No. The Empire will not help us, they are preparing for war as well so it is going to be difficult for them to send their troops over here."

"M-Might I say a word here?"

"DON'T YOU DARE SAY ANOTHER WORD!!KEEP YOUR GARBAGE MOUTH SHUT!!"

"......"

Keith snapped back at Wilfried who decided to sit down and look down at the table. He sat back down with a very tense face and looked like he was about to kill Wilfried if he really did say anything here.

"Firstly we must tell every single noble that they should tighten their security and stay alerted at all times, curfews are going to be applied. We do not know what the beastkin are planning but it will not be good, I am sure it will take them about a month to do whatever they are planning to do"

"Good, if we allow ourselves to be caught off guard again I don't think it will end well for us"

"I have gathered information on the sighted enormous wolves. They are called Fenrirs, mythical beings of awesome power, prophesied wolves who would bring back the Beastkin Empire back"

Wilfried bit his lower lip so hard he began bleeding, the situation was a lot worse than he thought and it was getting worse.

"The dungeon could be said to be their making, if those are gods we are definitely defenseless we cannot go against that"

"What about help from the church"

"They say that we live close to a land of sin so they would never protect us no matter what. Even then they would send their weakest to mock us anyway"

"Goddammit"

"We ought to prepare for a storm for the month ahead, if they attack us we will be ready"

Silence rode the room once more as both Keith and Peterson left the room leaving Wilfried all alone. He begins sobbing in solitude as things are falling apart in such a way that it is terrifying. He began it all and he is afraid that the hell awaiting him would be very very cruel.

☆

"They are going to feel very pressured and just like that they will feel the need to protect the nobles of the region. All we have to do is attack those very same nobles using assassination techniques. Excluding the nobles who were good to their people this way we do not agonize the humans and beastkin who reside in those lands."

"Why would you do that?"

"It earn the respect and love of the humans. They would be grateful their leadership are not usurpers who will purge every leader of the previous leadership which was willing to make them keep the ones who didn't do them harm."

"So when shall this noble purge begin"

"Tonight"

"What....."

"I don't think we can hire that many assassins under one night and in such a short time."

The queen made her statement quite reasonable but who needs assassins when I am here. I puff out my chest with a big smile on my face.

"We don't need them"

"Eh?So how are you going to assassinate the nobility of the regions then?"

"Whilst exploring the capitals I had managed to learn and leave behind skills that could operate as their own individuals"

"You have such skills."

"Yes, I do"

"What do we call this operation then?"

"Heh, Walpurgisnacht. All I need is your word Your Majesty and we are good to go."

"sigh Alright may Operation Walpurgisnacht begin."

The dark matter that I had left behind in the various large cities had woken up and gained a humanoid form that would give them ease to make them look intimidating. The goal was simple, kill the corrupt nobles and send a message to the lords of the regions.

☆

A large command had gone through the telepathic message of the lords of the city states: Nobility should tighten its security because the beastkin were planning to do something. Nothing was specified other than that and it wasn't clear what the beastkin wanted to do, they had obtained the slaves through unnatural pagan means. It was something that scared the lord of the city of Marciagivalis very much, he had seen large wolves instantly take the slaves away in a manner he couldn't fully describe and locked himself away in his room. The knights who had already tightened their security had to make it as airtight as possible, mages were in the skies to make sure nothing was coming in from above, assassins in the secret hallways and finally knights in the courtyard with ballistas ready to shoot down anyone who approached the castle.

"Switch out its already been 3 hours"

"Okay."

One of the knights said with a tired voice as he went off from his post and began to look around before his shift ended. The moon was at its highest and that left many concerns, that night when the slaves were taken was just like this too. They didn't want the same tragedy to happen again.

"Notice anything different?"

"No its all clear, I get the paranoia but this is starting to get ridiculous"

"There is a reason for this"

"Oh really?What is it?I am not in the loop of these kinds of things"

The complaining youngster knight said with a very aggravated voice as he wanted to hear the answers from his senior who was already tired from this interaction with him.

"The knight orders of the Mountain Sword and the Sea Dagger got wiped out when they got sent to a dungeon that housed the filthy slaves so they are on the edge because the dirty beasts have some trick up their sleeve that they don't want us to know about so we are tightening up security just for that"

"Oh. How the fuck do you know that though?"

"My older brother is one of the squires of the knights who knows that information"

"I see, I'll head to bed before replacing you at the dead of night."

He started going down the stairs which began his descent into the resting quarters of the knights, he sees something black in the center of the room which makes him doubt his eyes. It opens up like an eye should and as soon as he blinks it vanishes, he rubs his eyes with his gauntlet covered hand before stopping.

"I really should get a good night's rest after this because now I am seeing shit I shouldn't be normally be seeing."

He groans as he falls onto the bed after removing the center piece of his armor, he was that tired and he knew that he would have to wake up in the morning to continue his shift into the sunrise.

He slept like a log before being woken up by a cluster of screams that shriek out in unison. It was the dead of night as shown by the clock which was beside his bed and he grabs his sword and immediately head up the post to see the headless body of his senior dropping down to the ground as his head has been sliced through by the knife like fingers of a being covered completely in shadows.

"You bastard!!DIIIIIIIEE!!!!"

The thing turns around and smiles at him, it wasn't a person at all. It was a monster whose body was made out of shadows, he ran as fast as he could to fight it but then it simply places its hands on the ground and uses his own shadow to stab him in the legs which causes him to fall down to the ground. He is then lifted up to gaze upon the entrance leading up to the castle which is burning with the knights at the gate screaming as they lay on the ground covered in burnt wounds, from the outside an army of literal darkness enters and begin to slaughter the knights who he knew had done wrong towards the beastkin of this town. His face twists in despair as the monster covered in shadows laughs as it stabs his arms and decapitates him.

☆Wynter

She was teleported to one of the locations by Lady Yukiyo's skills, the attack had already taken place and she was standing in the center of a destroyed gate. She looked like the leader of the beings who were rushing into the castle gates. Immediately entirely on instinct she leapt forward to dodge the sword of the knight that had entered her space to kill her dropkicking the knight crushing his head entirely. It was simple for her she twirled the short swords she was given and cut the throat of the idiots who were right in front of her, using their bodies as shields to block the rush of arrows that was coming towards her way. She rolls to the side before leaping up once more with several arrows in her hands throwing at them to the archers who all drop to the ground. She was apparently given legendary skills that would make her even more stronger, her response time was even more sharper with the divine protection. The sword of a very tall knight was headed her way but she didn't care as she went to her left side to grabbing his sword arm tipping it downwards before sweeping his legs from the ground causing his overall momentum to head into the rest sword which splits his head open. She stares at the knights with a smile on her face, these were the bastards who were causing suffering to her people problems and now she had to deal with them.

"For those who didn't harm the beastkin, I grant you life but those who did, a swift and painful death shall fall upon you"

She uttered in front of the knights who were in front of her with a chuckle as they all rushed towards her like a horde of moths to a flame, the daggers that she was given began to shine in the moonlight as she crouched into a position: her left hand was on the ground whilst her right hand was up in the air, her tail was in line with the rest of her body. Her golden eyes glowed immediately as a blood red aura covered her body, in the blink of an eye she was already high in the air right above them and crashed down onto them scattering them like leaves in the wind. The daggers in her hands had transformed into sharp claw like gloves, she tore at the face of the first knight in her way before ripping her body in half with only but raw strength. Using their shock as an element of surprise she sunders the bodies of the next knight right next to the one she tore apart in clean half. She grabs the arm of the next one tearing it off so she could stick it into the body of the next knight before proceeding to leap off his screaming body which she kicks its head off before leaving many a body without a head. Wynter leaps backwards to dodge the knives were thrown at her and uses her tail to grab them so she could send them to their owners who all have their heads implode from the impact. It was simple for her to slaughter even more, she proceeds to dash on the very walls that were made to protect these knights and the noble inside, with a single leap she manages to arrive at the location of the mages who were about to make a fireball shoot at her, she grabs the glowing orb of the staff and breaks it away leaving it on the ground so she could escape the ensuring explosion that happens.

"THIS IS WONDERFUL!!!"