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Chapter 10: Raid Defenders (A Record of the Past)
Night crept over Transvine like a shadow spreading ink across parchment. The last streaks of daylight bled into the horizon, and the ruins seemed to inhale the darkness, holding its breath in anticipation.
Silvia and I had set up our makeshift camp in what looked like the collapsed upper floor of an old watchtower. Cracked walls leaned like tired soldiers, and the ground was littered with ancient weapon shards. My sword lay across my lap, polished and ready. She was seated across from me, flipping through the loot we'd collected earlier. That's when she found it — the book.
It was thick, bound in black leather that looked older than the ruins themselves. Strange blue runes shimmered faintly across the cover, rearranging themselves like living script.
"What is that?" I asked, leaning forward.
"No title. No author." She tilted it toward me. "But the runes feel… warm. Almost like they're reacting to us."
I brushed my fingers over the cover, and the runes flared in a bright flash. Before I could react, the world around me dissolved.
The tower, the ruins, even Silvia vanished — replaced by a cold wind and the scent of smoke. I was no longer in my body. Instead, I felt heavy armor weighing down my limbs, a spear in my right hand, and the steady thud of my own heartbeat pounding through my ears.
I stood atop Transvine's wall, staring down at a nightmare.
From this vantage, I saw the outer fields awash with movement — hundreds of monsters swarming toward the gates. The ground trembled under their charge. Massive hulking beasts with jagged horns, swarms of shadow-wolves with ember eyes, and winged horrors blotted out parts of the sky. In the distance, fires had already taken the northern farmlands, painting the smoke an angry red.
"Defenders! Hold the line!" a voice barked to my left. It wasn't my voice — this body's voice belonged to someone else, deep and gravelly.
All along the wall, archers nocked arrows tipped with glowing runes. Mages raised staffs crackling with elemental light. A massive steel horn bellowed, signaling the beginning of the defense.
The first wave hit like a storm.
I watched as boulders, hurled by unseen giants, smashed into the walls, sending chunks of stone raining down on the streets below. The archers loosed a volley; the arrows found their marks, pinning shadow-wolves mid-leap. Fire mages unleashed burning lines of destruction, scorching the first ranks of beasts, but for every monster felled, three more took its place.
I gripped the spear tighter. This wasn't some vision I could just watch — I felt the weight of the weapon, the chill in my breath, the sting of sweat in my eyes.
The wall shook under a tremendous impact to my right. I turned in time to see a Verdant Horror slam its vine-limbs against the battlements. Up close, it was far worse than I'd imagined — its bark-like skin writhed with tiny, thorn-covered tendrils, and its red sap dripped like blood. Soldiers jabbed at it with halberds, but the thing moved with impossible flexibility, curling over the wall and yanking a screaming defender into its thorny embrace.
Something inside me snapped. My body lunged forward on instinct, driving the spear through the base of the Horror's twisting mass. It screeched — a sound like grinding wood — before recoiling and vanishing into the swarm below.
But there was no time to breathe.
A sudden, unnatural cold swept over the wall. Looking left, I saw the source — a figure robed in tattered black, hovering just above the enemy ranks. Its face was hidden behind a bone-white mask, and in its hands, it held a staff topped with a shard of deep blue crystal.
Every instinct screamed mage. And not the friendly kind.
The figure raised its staff, and the crystal pulsed. All at once, a circle of silver ice erupted beneath the monsters, and from it, new creatures clawed their way out — grotesque hybrids of bone and shadow, eyes glowing with unnatural hunger.
Summoned troops.
"Cut them down before they reach the gates!" I shouted — though the voice was still not my own.
The battle dragged on for what felt like hours, though the sun had long since vanished and the moon glared down like a pale eye. Our forces were thinning. The walls were scarred. The ground outside was piled high with bodies — both monster and human.
And yet, through the chaos, my borrowed eyes caught sight of something strange.
At the base of the southern tower, hidden in shadow, was a small stone altar. It didn't belong — too clean, too deliberate. A faint blue light pulsed from it in time with the enemy mage's crystal.
The realization hit me like a hammer. That altar was feeding the summoning. It was the heart of the attack.
But I couldn't reach it. The enemy lines were too thick, the tower too far. All I could do was lock its location in my mind and pray someone would survive to see the dawn and find it.
The memory began to blur.
Voices faded. The smell of smoke vanished. The cold wind was gone, replaced by the sound of crackling fire in our camp.
I gasped and jerked upright, back in my own body. Silvia was leaning over me, her face pale.
"What happened? You just froze,passed out and started muttering."
I took a shaky breath. "Not froze… saw. I was there, Sil. On these walls. I saw the raid on Transvine — the night they fell."
Her eyes widened. "A vision?"
"More than that." I picked up the book, which now lay open in my lap. Its pages were blank again, the runes faint and still. "It showed me the altar — where it was hidden during the attack. And I think…" I hesitated, feeling the weight of the memory, "…I think it's still here."
The words barely left my mouth before the tower shuddered. Distant roars rolled through the night air, growing louder.
Silvia stood, her book snapping shut. "Looks like we're about to have our own raid to worry about."
I grinned despite the tension, gripping my sword. "Trouble? Nah… just a warm-up."
But deep down, I knew this wasn't just a random monster wave. Something — or someone — was pulling the strings again.
And this time, we'd be ready.
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AN: thanks for your support guys the next 1p chapters will be as a thank you for your patience and will be published one every day