Mateo wakes in a panic. Beads of sweat pour down his face as he pants frantically. He freezes at the sensation of a rough coarse tongue lapping up the salty sweat off his cheek.

  “Stitches, what the hell!” He yells.

  She moves back rubbing her neck embarrassed.

  “Sorry, I like the salt, and you are very salty,” she replies in a nervous blunder.

  “Where is Serenity?”

  “She’s downstairs washing off the blood, I mean, bathing,” Stitches says with an innocent smile.

  Mateo rejoins his companions in the Brilliant Hare. A popular tavern in Heroldin that employs beastman with rabbit-like features. Rick and Beatrice seem to have taken their leave for some other pressing matter. Okami is entertaining Chrissima’s sister Medusa, though he doesn’t seem to have any interest in her. Terror and Jade are drawing on the floor. Both seem novice artists, but their murals are not unwanted. Depictions of great battles and the all-encompassing power of the broodmother make for epic murals in the land of Gottes.

  The tavern doors burst open, and a familiar dark-haired woman stumbles in dragging a large blade soaked in blood. The dulled edge of the gored blade scrapes across the wooden floor as she approaches Mateo’s party. Mateo notices the girl and hurries to her.

  “Juliana?”

  Blue eyes resembling full moons peer up at him with an unbreakable resolve. The dark-haired woman falls to one knee her massive blade clanking against the floor as she loses her grip on it.

  Main Quest updated: Defend the fair maiden and Heroldin from the Hellbent onslaught.

  “You’re here, I prayed it would be so, not to the gods, but to lady Heroldin herself, after your healer helped my father and you saved me, I knew I could be more than just a scared girl cowering in weakness so I took up the sword, there are no gates to hold them, our only hope is the heroes that reside within,” she says.

  Mateo bolts forward catching her blood-stained body in his arms as she collapses from exhaustion. Several soldiers barge in behind her with weapons raised.

  “Any who can raise arms, the enemy is at our doorstep, this isn’t a drill, an overwhelming force has come to take Heroldin!”

  “Stitches, see to Juliana, then meet us on the front, everyone else, prepare yourself for battle,” Mateo yells.

  “What about Rick and Beatrice?” Okami asks.

  “Ranger and Balli are already on the battlefield along with a band of bards,” one of the soldiers replies.

  “Then we join them,” Mateo says extending his dagger.

  Torchlight gives a dull glow to the streets of Heroldin. Dark clouds cover the moon casting an ominous shadow over the screams of the innocent. Hellbent force their way through a makeshift gate bursting it into an explosion of splintered wood and steel. Mateo’s group meet them head on clashing fists, blades, and claws.

  The sound of music tolls through the air like an ominous bell. Mateo turns toward the band of bards curiously as a melody he knows as “For whom the bell tolls” by ‘Metallica’, a band from his world plays. His questions of how they know the song are drowned in the screams of the innocent as hellbent flood into the city.

  Terror makes quick work of the grunts crushing them under the gruesome power of his fists. Okami claws them apart, but the Hellbent seem unending. No matter how many are dispatched more take their place. Mateo expends half his mana vaporizing a large number of them with his void storm. It hardly puts a dent in their numbers though.

  Yetsu’s words blanket the area as he cries out a beckoning spell.

  “Hears the silence so loud, crack of dawn all is gone except the will to be!”

  Spell activated: Silence of the lambs. Effect- Enemies in a wide area are cut off from their mana pool and thus are unable to use their mana.

  The hellbent pull crude blades and blunt instruments charging into the frey more violently than before. Cut off from their spells they turn to ravenous beasts filled with prejudice and hate.

  “Blackened roar, massive roar fills the crumbling sky!”

  Spell activated: Call of the dragon. Effect- Summon the greater beast of an ally. This spell increases summoned beast’s attack and defense by twenty percent and grants one stack of enrage. Enrage causes an enemy to target said user.

  Rayo enters the field plowing through Hellbent like an unstoppable force until he meets another unstoppable force. An undead dragon lead by the Hellbent challenges him. He lets out a massive roar enraging the opposing dragon. The two massive dragons take to the sky to duel amongst the heavens.

  This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

  An innumerable foe pushes Mateo and his companions to the center of Heroldin. The statue of Heroldin stands firm as do the defenders of it. Unwilling to back down Mateo fends off an unrelenting assault with the aid of Heroldin’s protectors. To no avail.

  Spread apart Mateo’s party can do little to protect the city. If they abandon their posts to regroup their section of the city will be lost. Their only hope is to hold out long enough for a miracle. Stitches joins Mateo at the fountain of Heroldin hoping to aid him. Juliana does the same raising her massive sword.

  “Juliana, are you sure you’re fit for battle?” Mateo asks.

  “No, but if I don’t fight,” she pauses turning her gaze toward Mateo, “who will?”

  Two hellbent charge Mateo and he takes a short breathe void stepping behind them. His extended dagger, Drako’s razor, slashes into their spines at the base of their skulls. The hellbent fall to their knees before slumping onto the ground dead.

  Juliana pummels her way through a small group of enemies more bashing them with her blade than slicing. She twirls the massive instrument of death turning herself into a man sized meat grinder. Blood and extremities shower the streets as her barbaric attacks turn her opponents to mulch.

  An unsettling aura fills the air as Stitches casts a spell. She raises her staff and the scythe unfolds glowing in a faint violet hue.

  “Harvester of gore, reanimate the fallen, I cast, Gore golem abomination!”

  Chunks of flesh alone with severed parts to create unsettling insentient abominations. The creature have only the desire to follow the orders of their creator until they are returned to the grave. Stitches sends the grotesque masses of flesh into the battle.

  The earth quakes as Terror uses his abilities pounding his enemies into the dirt. Rick and Beatrice struggle to hold a broken front line as enemies pour into the city. Serenity cuts down as many foes as she can from the shadows. Juliana twirls her massive blade cutting through foes without remorse. Blood and the stench of death fill the air as clouds part giving way to the cold glow of a falling moon. Carnage fills the streets of Heroldin as its defenders fight desperately to protect it.

  Slipping through blood Mateo vaporizes a few Hellbent with void lighting before taking a knee. Rayo, nearly spent, crushes the opposing undead dragon under heal, only to have another appear before him.

  Juliana’s massive blade careens past Mateo as she slides across the blood-soaked ground. In the light of the moon Mateo void steps between Juliana and a Hellbent meant to spear her through the heart, only to have his own heart pierced by their blade. Rayo cries out in agony collapsing. Juliana peers up at him seeing his sacrifice and splits her would be assailant in half with one swing. She claps her hands together in prayer as tears run down her cheeks.

  Main quest failed: Defend the fair maiden and Heroldin from the Hellbent onslaught.

  You have died.

  Your pixie has thirty seconds to use Pixie’s Kiss and revive you.

  “Mateo!” Natalia screams.

  Your pixie has fifteen seconds to use Pixie’s kiss and revive you.

  Natalia appears beside him, but a Hellbent catches her in some kind of mana trap. She struggles against it unable to fly to his aid.

  Your pixie has five seconds to use Pixie’s Kiss and revive you.

  “Mateo, no!” Natalia screams pounding her fist against the small ward surrounding her.

  Pixie’s Kiss has expired. Your soul now belongs to Lady Death.

  Juliana closes her eyes taking a deep breath.

  “Heroldin, herald of the eternal dawn, as a citizen of Heroldin, I pray for your protection, and your mercy that you spare the soul that has sought to protect your lands in your absence,” Juliana prays.

  Hellbent combatants freeze as the sky splits open and a beam of light penetrates the ground covering Mateo in a golden glow. His bloodied corpse rises from the grave taking the hand of an angelic figure adorned in golden armor. Angelic wings flap at her flank holding her aloft as they float in the air.

  “The game is not yet over, you still have cards in your hand, I deliver you from loss, and declare that your enemies cannot win, for I am the light that breaks the darkness.”

  Life grips Mateo pulling him from the cold embrace of death. He opens his eyes to a figure that resembles the statue decorating the center of Heroldin.

  “You’re Heroldin, the one they named this city after?” Mateo asks.

  “Indeed, my name is Heroldin.”

  Mateo grips the feminine figure’s hand and several messages flash across his periphery.

  Immortal ability activated Eternal Dawn: Eternal Dawn- when activated the subject of this ability can neither die, nor can their attacker triumph over them as long as they are under the protection of Heroldin.

  Main quest updated: Assist Heroldin in liberating Heroldin from an unstoppable Hellbent onslaught.

  Ability acquired: Heroldin’s blessing. You have gained the blessing of Heroldin. Your resilience against possession has been increased. Your resilience against the taint of greater beings has been increased. Heroldin’s blessing- in your darkest hour the light of a new dawn will protect you. Heroldin’s blessing- as a champion of Heroldin you may lend beings that are bonded to your soul your power.

  Soul bond abilities.

  Natalia Starbreaker- Your pixie can initiate ‘pixie’s cut’. This ability forms a shallow wound that inflicts your enemy with spirit drain. This drains your enemies spirit energy replenishing yours.

  Rayo Ryusane- Anima dragon, void dragon ability. “However far away, I will always love you.” Upon your death your Anima dragon can trade his soul to lady death in exchange for yours, becoming ‘the cure’ for death.

  Sapphire Slime- Your seductive slime can subsume your target turning them to ‘chocolate’. She can digest this ‘chocolate’ using it to replenish your mana and stamina.

  “So, what now?” Mateo asks.

  “Now I show you the power of the Eternal Dawn.”

  Light pierces the heavens ravaging the sky as it takes hold of it. The Hellbent look upward as the moon falls below the horizon and the life-giving glow of the sun turns to a force of cleansing annihilation purging their souls from existence. Without a spec of blood, the Hellbent army evaporates from the realm of the living.

  Mateo and Heroldin land before the central statue of Heroldin their hands still intertwined.

  “You gave everything for this land, for my land, I give you in return, life, and with it, my blessing,” Heroldin states her voice both empowering and slightly arousing.

  The sky darkens and a rift opens up behind Mateo and Heroldin.

  “Hold on a minute, those are my souls you’re stealing!” An angry voice blunders across the blood soaked streets of Heroldin.

  “Gods be damned, it’s lady death,” Heroldin says rolling her eyes.

  “Um, lady Death?” Mateo asks.

  “Don’t worry, we’re good friends,” Heroldin replies a playful smile teasing her soft lips.