While all the powers on the continent fought their political struggles, something lurking in the shadows of the realm was bubbling at the surface. Trying to break a thin barrier that separated its horrors from the land of the living. It could only do so much. The creature watched through the veil as it set its plan in motion. The human infighting would be their demise.

It was a quiet day in the Capital city, Belmont, of the Dil Republic. There were no clouds in the sky, and the weather was springlike despite being close to the end of fall. There was a group running through the Capitals slums dressed in black with hoods covering their faces. Anyone who saw them would think they were up to no good. They appeared to be criminals on their way to committing some crime as they sprinted through the muddy streets.

If one were to take a closer look one would notice that these criminals in particular were wearing new high-quality shoes. The hilts of their swords shined silver designating their value and worth. They also looked coordinated as all of them wore the same black mantle.

The criminal-looking group went straight through an open channel leading into the sewers basin. The sewers went underground with wide open channels held together by fortified stone and earth.

“Prepare yourselves, we will reach our destination soon!” The man in the middle of the group whispered.

“Captain, to the left there is a big passage. There are over a hundred people there.”

“Draw your weapons and prepare your spells, we are going in!”

The group whispered various chants before rushing into the large underground chamber.

The captain yelled at the gathered crowd with a strong commanding voice, “Everyone, get down on the ground! If you don’t want to die, don’t make any sudden moves!”

They did not comply.

The captain roared, “Attack!”

The captain started the attack, and the group of five dressed in black started a battle with over a hundred enemies.

“Fuck! They’ve got mages!” A wall of earth erupted from the ground as one of the men in black pushed his hand together.

The captain of the group issued out a series of commands before launching spells at the mages in the back of the group.“Get information! Jones, Aaron handle the front! Ethan, Reinad! Handle defense! I’ll take the mages!” His casting speed was fast even for chantless mages as he unleashed a bombardment on over a dozen mages. Two of the men in black went to the front and confronted the onslaught of warriors using spells and swordplay to systematically cut them down one by one. The black-robed men they confronted in the sewers foamed at the mouth before dying.

The two knights in the back used earth and wind magic to defend against spells and unavoidable attacks while the captain was distracting the mages that would be difficult to deal with. The men in black slowly pushed forward, it didn’t take long before the gathering of enemies was pushed back.

“Don’t run! Kill them now! They are running out of mana. They can’t cast magic indefinitely, you fools!”

One of the mages in the back tried to regain control of the black-robed group, but when the group lost over half their members whatever magic was used to control them faded, and chaos began. There were inevitably a group of defectors amongst the black-robed sewer people.

“Fuck this! Let’s run!” The discord didn’t last long eventually they began to flee, and the men in black took out as many as they could while they ran.

There were ten mages left. In the center of the ten mages was a devilish-looking magic circle painted on the floor with blood. Lying in the center of that circle was a small unconscious chile. The mage in the back continued chanting something.

“Shit! Those fools! Evil fucking bastards! Everyone hit them with everything you’ve got, don’t let them complete whatever the hell they are trying to do!”

“Go into attack formation!” The captain changed his tactics his group was running out of mana, but they couldn't let this continue. Whatever evil these morons were trying to bring here he had to stop it now or the consequences couldn't even begin to be imagined. The knights in black rushed forward using magic offensively while swinging their swords at the now apparent cultists.

“Fuck! Kill them!” The leader of the evil mages grew desperate, letting a stone bullet hit him as he launched a desperate attack.

Ethan, one of the knights in black in charge of defense, rushed forward using a stone shield to block the ice spear. It pierced through the spear and went through Ethan's shoulder pinning him to the ground. “Ethan!” The captain screamed, but he didn’t run to help him, he closed the distance to the leader and swung his sword. The leader used a wind spell to desperately dodge the sword, his body flew backward as his back slammed against the wall.

“Fuck fuck! Fuck fuck! I can’t die here! I won’t die here! I must complete the ritual” The mage pulled out a knife from his pocket before pointing it at the child. “Stop him!” The captain roared as he used his remaining mana to set a wall of earth around the child. “The mage leader pointed the enchanted knife forward

and launched a powerful fireball at the wall in front of him. The fireball exploded blowing the wall up into thousands of sharp rocks shooting in every direction.

The mage leader and the captain were blown in two different directions. A few of the mages were caught up in the blast as well. The air in the immediate surroundings was sucked into the flames as both the mages and knights were stunned. Most of the combatant's ears were ringing, however, the knights were well-trained, and they were able to recover their senses faster than the mages and charged forward despite temporarily losing their hearing.

The group of shady-looking knights quickly ran to their captain, who had taken a powerful attack at point-blank range. He had lost consciousness but was alive. Shrapnel dug into his armor, and he had lost his ring finger and his pinky finger on his right hand, but he'd be fine.

Jones picked up the captain while the rest looked at the leader of the mages. He was unrecognizable, the blast from the explosion hit him with no defense coming from his side. The enchanted knife might have protected him somewhat from the flames, but the explosion and flying rocks pierced his body every which way. His face and body looked like swiss cheese as a result. Reinad took the enchanted knight and the unconscious child and checked the rest of the bodies before they left.

“Let’s go! We need to report the situation back to the Master! Captain Rhiner needs treatment right away. We need to get him to a healer in case his condition worsens.” Reinad seemed to be the second in command as he led the rest out of the tunnel. A quick and deadly battle was finished in just a few minutes.

There was a clear winner of the battle, but it was not won easily. The men in black, knights of Lord Alex sent to investigate strange happenings near the sewer. It turned out that had they not come here some horror they couldn't imagine would have happened in the middle of Belmont.

More men would be needed to explore the underground tunnels and find more cultists hiding in the sewers below, but for now, they had found a gathering place.

Their group had slain over a hundred cultists, but only managed to capture one alive and save a small child to be used as a sacrifice.

“Those troops weren’t ordinary thugs 12 mages, and trained troops isn’t something you’ll find in a normal gang.”

“I know Jones keep it to yourself, for now, we’ll give as accurate of an account as we can to the Lord when we get back, for now, let’s focus on survival and healing our captain!”

The group made haste as they ran through the slums.

In the shadows and depths of the forest around the city of Belmont, a small child in a red hood danced as she swung a lantern singing, "Red is the color of the blood in my veins. Red is the color of roses. Red is the color of blood in your veins. Red is the color of the dead of that which decomposes!" Her voice was soft and giddy as she would break out into giggles periodically. If someone were to stop the girl and turn her around they'd notice her eyes were completely black with no other color in view.