Dawning Skye

609 Decimation(Part One)

***WARNING: LANGUAGE, GORE, VIOLENCE, AND MASS DEATH***

Celestia, Aero, Nicolas, and Maevis all ran for the balcony branch to see what was coming. They could already see the faint glow from the beginnings of a fire along the edge of the boundaries to their sanctuary, but that wasn’t the part that made them worry..

A massive machine that was taller than most of the trees was cutting a line straight through the forest, and heading for the heart of their settlement. Oversized arms with gigantic rotating saws cut down tens of trees at a time as the monstrosity slowly made it’s way towards them. As it came closer, Nicolas sent a mental message to Hugo to fly over.

When the falcon was above the destruction, he could see that the machine was spraying something from it’s arms. Five hoses stretched out whenever the arms bent, and sprayed oil several feet passed the reach of it’s blades. The soldiers following behind shot flaming arrows as they went, making sure that the forest would be decimated in their wake.

Fae scattered in every direction as panic spread, and their fear urged them to flee. The ones too slow or stubborn to run were they first to be slaughtered. As Hugo climbed higher to avoid the smoke and being seen, he warned of a massive force slowly trailing behind the machine..

“The gods have mercy, it’s already chaos out there,” Nicolas commented as he glanced at the guardians below them, readying themselves for battle.

Celestia looked at her husband, whom seemed frozen in place. He was no doubt re-living the night that he had lost him family in his mind’s eye, all those decades ago. After softly placing her hand on top of his, Aero snapped out of his memories, and looked to his worried wife.

“I’ll be alright, my love. But you need to start issuing orders.”

Seeing that he was back, Celestia entrusted Aero with command of their defensives. He had commanded armies in the Fae Nation for her mother, and knew that he would put saving lives as a higher priority over fighting. Defending instead of engaging was what she needed for her plan to work, and Celestia knew that she could trust Aero without needing to explain it to him.

.....

Maevis, Nicolas, and the rest of the council were to go out into the settlement, and gather the Fae as best as they could. Maevis and Nicolas agreed to do as they were told without question. But a few of the councilors were angry that they were being ordered to go outside of the protection of the tree palace, and ‘risk their lives’.

As they complained, Celestia lost her temper at them for wasting time; “As the heads of your families and clans, it is your Responsibility to get out there, and lead them! Have you no sense of duty to those that trust you?! I will not say this again: do as your positions command, as Your Queen Commands, or I will Replace you myself! Am I Clear?!”

Celestia was known to have a quiet and gentle nature, but this was a true demonstration of who she really was: a Queen. The arguments had instantly stopped as the Fae practically fell over themselves to leave, and carry out their given orders. Had the situation not been so dire, then Mae and Nic would’ve burst out in laughter from the sight of it.

Once the doorway was clear, the two bid the the royals a temporary farewell, and left. Their flight through the tree palace alone showed them a glimpse of the awaiting chaos. Every manner of Fae ran about like the world was ending, which wasn’t that far off from the truth of their situation..

When they first fluttered outside, they could instantly smell the fire spreading in the woods. The winds were light, but constant, which was helping to drive the flames to devour everything they could reach. The snow barely did anything to slow them as the machine spurted oil out as it went.

The grinding noise was growing louder and louder as it drew ever closer. Maevis and Nicolas had started to shout out to the Fae that Celestia herself had ordered everyone to gather in front of the palace. Many wanted to flee while they had the chance, but trusted their Queen, so they began to congregate.

There were a few thousand Fae inside of the sanctuary, so the more that showed up, then more compact everyone became. Maevis was directing everyone when she noticed that Nic had frozen in place, with a dire expression covering his features. She immediately flew over to him, and asked what was wrong..

“That’s....That’s impossible.. How-where?! Where did they all come from?!”

Maevis could feel the terror rising up in the back of her throat as she lightly shook him; “Make sense, Nic! This is NO time for being cryptic! Where did all of what come from?!”

Nic slowly turned to look at her as he replied; “Dead.. There’s so many of them. Men, Fae.. Hundreds, no-thousands of them! They’re coming this way. Behind the Manic’s machine....If they reach here, we’ll never survive.”

The absolute fear in her friend’s eyes sent a shiver down Mae’s spine. They had been in some pretty dire straits before, yet she had never seen Nicolas look so frightened. Not in all of the millennias that she’d known him.

Clan after clan, and family after family arrived in the square outside of the palace. Everyone was yelling, crying, or panicking as thousands of Fae were crammed together. The flames from the forest fire were now visible from where they were, shimmering against the metallic surface of the machine as it neared.

Centaurs, minotaurs, dwarves, and any Fae that could fight stood between their families, and the approaching destruction. Aero took to the skies with the griffins and other flyers, and readied themselves for battle. As the enemy army drew closer, Celestia finally emerged from the tree palace..

A mixture of fear-filled shouts, prayers, and pleas to save them erupted from the crowds as the soldiers emerged into the settlement’s partial clearing. Rotting flesh, bone, and patches of black showed anywhere armor didn’t cover. A few had even caught on fire as they had marched around the machine, and emerged completely unfazed.

As soon as they saw the gathered Fae, the dead soldiers started to run at them with their weapons brandished. The guardians met them head-on in an all-out battle to protect their families. As they clashed, Celestia emerged from the tree palace..

“Everyone! Follow me! The Empress and I have a way to escape!”

As the Queen called out to her people, two minotaurs carrying an enormous mirror stepped out of the palace. Without a word, they followed behind the Queen, taking care to handle the mirror as delicately as possible. Once they had reached the farthest northeast side of the settlement, Celestia had the crowds stop, and had the Minotaurs step forward.

They could hear the mayhem coming closer, and the crowds began to panic again. Children cried while adults shouted to know what the Queen planned to do. Maevis started to yell back at a few who’s comments were borderline treasonous, but the pointless arguing only lasted a few seconds.

Instead of answering them, Celestia showed them..

With a bright flash, Celestia tapped into her Light magic, and began to funnel it into the mirror. At first, all it did was reflect her image back. When it started to glow on it’s own, Celestia called out to the guards holding it; “Do it NOW!”

With a snort of understanding, the two minotaurs lifted up the now-iridescent mirror, and threw it against the ground as hard as they could. The scattering shards looked like a firework exploding before the spark-like pieces froze in place, then pulled together like an imploding star.

A blinding flash caused everyone but Celestia to turn away. When they looked back, what towered before them was almost indescribable. It was like a mirror twice the size of the original that was made of liquid, but it didn’t show a reflection..

“Hello, my dear children.. Please, step through the portal quickly,” came a sweet and familiar voice from the other side.

Every Fae there had instantly known who was speaking: their Empress, Titania. Her voice was like a warm embrace, and it had instantly calmed the ones in full-blown panic. Trusting her completely, the Fae had automatically begun to organize into a steady stream as they went through the portal.

Celestia maintained the connection to Warrick Forest while her mother manifested and stabilized the portal. It had only been meant for her and Aero, but Celestia had argued with her mother over allowing everyone to use it to escape. It was the reason it had taken her so long to emerge from the palace, but her mother had a good reason not to want to use it so heavily.

The portal took an enormous amount of magic to create, and even more to maintain. Not only that, but an anchor had to be made on both sides for it to stay open. Which meant that Celestia had to be the last one through it.

It was a dangerous gamble, but one the Queen of Warrick Forest had to take to save her people. Titania had seemed both proud, and saddened when she’d agreed to her daughter’s request, but Celestia couldn’t think on it now.. ‘There’s too many lives at stake..’

A deep dread had crept into her gut due to her mother’s unusual response, but she’d continued on. With the portal established and her people steadily going in, Celestia’s attention turned to her husband. As she glanced up at the sky, her heart ached with worry..

************

Aero had started the attack as soon as the dead army had crossed the tree line. They moved on instinct alone, like rabid animals in search of a meal. The regular humans were slow, and easily stopped by taking out their legs. Although they didn’t actually die until one destroyed their brain and heart.

It was annoying to Aero, considering the zombies he’d fought before went down by just destroying their heads. A necromancer once attacked the Fae Nation, claiming that he should be named their Emperor due to his power, then ‘demonstrated’ it.

He’d sent in an army of undead, but they weren’t anything like the ones they were fighting against now. The necromancer’s soldiers had had a small amount of intelligence to them. But the dead attacking them now had absolutely none, and on top of that; the strange black spots all over them radiated Dark and Ether magic.

Even if he hadn’t of heard of Marco’s plan from Nicolas and Maevis, Aero would’ve still figured out that it was his doing regardless. There was no mistaking that aura, or the intent behind it.. ‘Marco means to slaughter everyone here..’

Gripping the griffin’s feathers with fury in his eyes, Aero urged his ride to dive towards the dead while he yelled to his troops; “Don’t let a single one of those things through!”