The old man traversed the hallways of his ancient abode. The planks creaked as treaded his way through the walls, lined with ancient mementos, heirloom and pictures of his family. He opened the front door, the chill in the morning shocking his grey beard with a small layer of frost.He pulled his cloak on more tightly and pulled down the cowl of his black hood. He brought out a large shovel and slung it over his back as he walked across the hollowed ground laden with tombstones.
He knelt near a plot with a large tomstone inscribed Julie Grimcloak with a smaller plot beside it reading Abigail Grimcloak."Hello luv." The man said eyes glistening and managing a smile, "How's our litttle angel doing?"
It has been at 2 years since Nethenial's wife and daughter died in the great exodus to Brackenridge. Since then, he drew inward, secluding himself from the everyday hubbub of life in the village. Many thought the old man fled to the cemetery in despair, hoping to find the means of bringing his family back in the dark, dead aura of the cemetery.
But that was far from the truth.Though after a long duration of heart-racking mourning and terrible grievance, Neth was able to come to terms with his loss and acknowledge it as a part of life.Moreover, he learned that the dead, after going through the trials and challenges of life, deserve respite.So to protect his family unlike he was able to before, he moved to the cemetery, as groundskeeper and gravedigger to halt whatever may trespass the hallowed grounds and enact proper burial rituals to let he dead stay dead.
He sniffed the air, the acrid smoke of burning wood hung to the thick morning mist.He stood and faced east, to the sight of the village looming below the high rise of the cemetery.Small glows burned through the thick shroud with penetrating light.He pulled out his shovel and gripped it tightly."Don't worry Julie, I won't let them take our family again." He said resolutely as a figure began loomed in the winding path to reach the grounds."Who goes there!" Neth's demanding voice boomed.
"HELP! VILLAGE IS UNDER ATTAACK! ", the frantic villager screamed as he approached Nethenial.He bent over taking ragged breathes as Neth plant his shovel into the ground and leaned on it."Thank goodness I found you Neth!" Which was strange many people weren't glad to be in the company of the gravemaker.
"What is it, John?", Neth asked in reply, remembering him from last week when he came to bury his aunt.
"You know of Lord Drakeula and his ill, bedridden wife?"
"Yes,"
"Drakeula has gotten desperate for a cure and has enlisted the aid of dark sorcerors. Sadly they can't cure her but they can prevent her dying by turn both of them immortal."
Neth silently muttered a curse, he hated it when people temper things beyond reckoning."Go on."
"So they're harvesting souls, killing people , burning down the village and are coming for the place which has the most souls stored, the souls of the dead, the..."
"Graveyard, " Neth completed as he gazed back at the village,"John, get to safety . I am not standing down. "John did as told and quickly made his way through a back entry in the area.
It was not long after till Drakeula's army arrived, with rows of soldiers cladded in gray armor with a bat emblazoned on the left of their chestplate and carrying banners with the bat sigil. On the front stood rows of a dozen wizards, each cladded in a black robe, wth death runes glowing with an unholy green glow, holding long staffs brandishing skulls or demonic gems and in front of them stood lord Drakeula's tall regal figure.
Neth swung his shovel in a threatening gesture, "Leave now or suffer the consequences! "
Drakeula laughed at the foolish stand of the insolent figure, he had an army of his mightiest warriors and most cunning and powerful sorcerors and this lone groundskeeper thought he could stop him? "Nothing will stand in my way,surrender and I will offer you a quick death."
But Nethenial wasn't one to back down.
Drakeula decided to dispatch of this meager resistance quickly.He ordered his wizard council to dispatch of him quickly.A line of ornamented staffs were risen and glowed with spectral power, as their wielder began chanting and summoning the forsaken powers of undeath.
But nothing happened. They were met with silence and tombstones pulsating with a blue light . Neth formed an insolent smile, angering Drakeula. "The dead, shall remain buried." He challenged.
"Charge! Destroy the tombstones!", Drakeula ordered, as lines of armor-clad warriors filed around the line of sorcerors and charged , swords and shields, maces and cudgels raised to destroy the stones.
But Neth fended them off, killing the oncoming soldiers one by one with ruthless efficiency as he swung his shovel in masterful swipes and strikes preventing them from even scratching the markers. In the heat of battle, Neth heard howls of wolves behind his back as two massive figures took him to the ground. Two wolves, sank their fangs onto his fore-arm and calf, tackling him. He pushed back the wolves, with woulds bleeding at an fatal rate and excruciating pain that would shred a normal man.
He turned and saw the wolves scurry back to a large looming figure, a plated massive brute like those vikings of Nordr, armed with a ferocious pack of wolves and a viciously sharp serrated blade dripping with blood and poison. He swung it with chest-splitting might nearly maiming Neth and the two foes locked into duel.
It was difficult fending of the onslaught of attackers from the tombstones and surviving this behemoth of a brute, but Neth managed...the best that he could anyways. They managed to break some of the inhibiting runed stones and slowly the dark sorcerors managed to recite few necromantic spells and slowly summon the dead into living.
Soon all fire was focused on Neth, as he was bombarded with strikes of steel, flying spears and entropic bursts of fire rendering his flesh and practically peeling it off, it was a miracle he survived all that exposure to death magic and wounds in general
But his end soon followed. He swung too far in with his shovel, leaving himself open . His brutish adversary took his chance and impale him in the stomach. He staggered back as five spears followed, skewering him one after another with the gut-wrenching sound as it smashed through his bones.
Nethenial fell to his knees planting his shovel on the ground and grasping it. His eyes were wide with pain as he saw Drakeula walk to him.The tall lord held Neth by his chin. "You're persistence has made it hell but also interesting. Therefore, I will reward
you with the sight of your own home ... destroyed!"
Then the army smashed all tombstones, defiled the sacred ground as they trampled it their iron-shodden boots and set Neth's home on fire. The dried wood quickly burst into inferno as Neth saw all his work, all of his efforts purged and razed.
The last thing he saw was all the troops, forming together in front of his wife's and daughter's plot as they swung their maces and began dismantling.Then with Drakeula's malicious laugh, his world turned black with the crunch of his crushed skull.
END OF PART 1
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