"Well... fuck..." Laz said, running forward with the legion while urging the living civilians to stay inside.

Walking to the grand door, they followed the scout to an upper platform where the could view the situation in town without being seen themselves.

"Holy fuck, that’s a lot of them," Blake said, looking out at the massive wave that had overtaken the village. There was no way to escape as the entire town was engulfed in the wave.

"How did they catch up so fast?" Seven asked.

"I’m, not sure. If this is the same beast wave, they should still be attacking the fortress right? For them to have gotten here almost right behind us? We spent what? A night in the basement?" Two asked, looking around.

"I... don’t think so..." said Sixteen, looking around.

"Why do you say that?" Laz asked.

"The leaves... on those trees over there? We were in the ending throws of summer when we arrived here. I know that with the snow up north it was hard to tell, but now the leaves are showing signs of color change.... We might have been down in that basement for far longer than we thought...." Sixteen, who had been a tracker back in the day, noticed the differences immediately.

"An experience with a divine can warp the very fabric of time..." Laz said, thinking back to a random quote he had read in a book a long time ago that stuck with him.

"So how long were we down there?" Two asked Sixteen.

"I’d say almost two months?" Sixteen replied after thinking about it.

"So what do we do?" Two asked, watching as several large beasts approached the bridge leading to the main doors.

"Close the doors. We will hold up in here for now," Laz said, sighing. While hiding wasn’t his normal way of going about things, trying to rush into a swarm of beasts with a bunch of civilians was asking for death.

The legion quickly got the massive front gate closed back up and barred, locking the gate into place. While they had trouble getting in, they didn’t know if the beasts would far any better. But since the castle was built on a cliff, unless they were to climb the walls or fly in, this was the best way to keep them out.

As for the rest, Laz and Two worked with some of the villagers who had deep knowledge of the castle to set up patrols as they did need to worry about attacks from the air.

Laz spent his time on the ramparts, looking over the beast wave and watching as the beasts stood at the end of the bridge, seemingly hesitating about charging in. Even when the village was razed to the ground and the beasts stopped for the night, they didn’t move on the dark castle.

Wagons were brought through the lines and things thrown on the ground, taking the beasts attention away from the bridge.

Laz looked closely and had to hold back a gag once he saw what was being fed to the beasts.

Two, Seven and Sixteen had joined him on his vigil and had the same reaction. When Blake joined them though, he couldn’t do the same and began to throw up after running back inside, making sure he wasn’t noticed even with his stomach turning so.

"They are feeding them human bodies..." He said when he returned.

"Yep," was the only response he got back from this startling revelation.

"You don’t seem surprised?" Blake seemed agitated at this.

"Assuming they took the castle and got here not too long again, they would be the most nourishing food around. Even if they wanted to hunt, I doubt they will find enough game in the area to satisfy such a large force. So no... I’m not surprised," Two responded.

"Everyone either got out of here when the mayor went mad, died or is inside the building at the moment. So there is nothing more you can do for your home town than you’ve already done, Blake. Some things are just out of our hands," Laz explained.

"You knew?" Blake asked.

"It’s not hard to guess," Laz said, wondering if he really thought he was hiding it.

"So what do we do now?" Blake asked, looking at the devastation outside.

"Stay here. I feel like there is something even stranger about this place than we have seen so far," Laz said looking out.

Even as the night darkened into the twilight hours, it seemed like the beasts were hesitant to approach it, not even willing to step foot on to the bridge.

As it was getting late and everyone was tired, at some point they started falling asleep, one after another. But at some point, a cold shiver ran down Laz’s back and he awoke, staring off into the town.

Beasts no longer stalked the end of the bridge as it looked like they had all vanished. But even then, something felt off.

With a feeling like being suffocated overcoming him, Laz saw a massive creature walk up and stand on the bridge itself. It’s scales were pitch black while it’s long, reptilian neck swayed the head side to side as though it was investigating. It suddenly snapped it’s head up and looked straight ahead, eyes locking with Laz even while he was hidden behind the bulwark.

*I know you’re there boy!* It suddenly said into Laz’s head.

Knowing he had been discovered, Laz didn’t hesitate to stand and walk out, staring back at the beast in turn.

*So the guard dog can speak? I’m surprised!* Laz said with a smirk, trying his hardest to keep his thoughts level.

*Heh. I’m curious as to why your not dead, but that doesn’t really matter now. Why don’t you come out here and have a chat with me?*

*Can’t do. My legs are a bit tired. How about you come over here and we can chat?*

*Listen here you little bastard...*

*What exactly are you trying to accomplish with destroying this realm? Hmm? I didn’t think a big lizard like yourself would have such a lofty goal?*

*GGRRRRRR* Laz didn’t know it, but it was a sore spot to be called a lizard for a dragon such as itself.

*That’s what I thought. Anyway, I’m going to take a nap so... have fun? I guess?*

Laz then turned back down and dunked behind the bulwarks, leaving the shadow dragon fuming.

It paced around the entrance to the bridge several times, looking around and sniffing, but it never once set it’s massively clawed foot on the bridge.

’It’s scared...’ Laz finally realized. While there might have been something to the lesser beasts being afraid, it gave Laz a different feeling knowing that even the Shadow Dragon that could make the Emperor run wouldn’t approach this place, leading Laz to believe there was a lot more to this castle that he had originally thought.

Since the beasts were still rampaging outside, Laz decided to go on a walk, letting his instincts guide him were they would.

At some points, he ran into patrols and talking with them for a bit, got the layout of the section he was walking in.

It was only a long time later that he arrived in a grand library.

Picking up a random book, he noticed that the words were in a language he couldn’t understand.

’Then again, it’s not like I can understand what the words are in this world anyway. But even then this looks different,’ Laz thought, putting the book down and picking up another.

Once again, no luck.

Considering the writing is different from this world’s language, I’m guessing I’m not the only one who can’t read anything.

Despite that, Laz felt like there was something here, he just needed to find it.

After wandering around for over an hour with no luck, Laz was drawn to a book sitting on a lecturn that seemed different from all the others. The characters were obscure, but they seemed to click in his head.

"The Fall of a Divine," Laz said as suddenly the title made sense to him.

"Hmm? This isn’t English... So... how?" Laz thought, before picking up the book and moving to the nearby empty chair. Taking a drink out of his ring, Laz took a deep swig before opening the cover of the book.

A scene appeared in his mind of a time long past and a great serpent that looked like a giant ball of scales, sleeping in the universe. It’s body was constantly in motion although it’s eyes were closed. What’s more, if one looked really closely, one would see that the body was actually wrapped around a massive planet, as though it was choking off all life within the planet. Strangely though, it’s body gave off a kind of unique and pure energy, like a divine presence. And while the body was wrapped around the planet, it was more like a mirage than anything else as sunlight still made it through the body of the black serpent. giving the needed heat and energy to the people living upon the planet.

A group suddenly appeared in the space around the planet, waking the serpent from it’s sleep.

As it noticed the group, it opened it’s large mouth and hissed, it’s body suddenly agitated. The group then pulled out their weapons and all Laz saw was a massive flash of light, causing his head to burst into pain.

Just as the light began to fade, he saw the snake had been killed and chopped into many pieces, several of them being handed to one man who then using some sort of weird hand gestures, twisted and and bent the pieces of the body until a massive building was sitting there, floating in space.

From the outside, it looked strangely like the castle they were currently residing it, only much, much bigger. And it gave off the same divine energy as the beast it was formed from, something the much smaller castle was lacking.