Chapter 202 - The Road to the Forbidden Battlefield ( Part 2 )

The convoy proceeded towards the border.

As they approached the place, silence reigned everywhere around them.

No chirping of the birds. No buzzing of the insects. No sound of the animals.

Only the sound of the wagons' wheels.

Creak…

Creak…

The royal knights started to look around nervously. One of the knights said quietly to another knight.

"Why is it so silent?"

The other replied quietly, his face pale. "It is silent because there is no life there."

Lucas caught the conversation, his voice sharp. "Concentrate."

"Yes, Commander."

Jennie sat in the wagon, her eyes shut. She sensed Eclipse through her cloak—the sword was unusually silent, almost imperceptible.

Finally, Jennie asked. "You know this place."

Eclipse replied in her mind, her voice ancient and tired. Yes.

"You fought here?"

I watched this land burn. I watched thousands die. I watched the sky turn black with ash and the ground turn red with blood.

Jennie opened her eyes. "War..."

Eclipse was silent.

Jennie looked down at her hands clasped in her lap. The memories were getting stronger—fragments of a life she never lived, a war she never fought.

She could almost remember the battlefield. The armies. The Demon Generals. The countless soldiers who followed her former self.

But there was something different.

This wasn't just a memory.

The very land itself was remembering.

Suddenly—

BOOM!

The carriage shook violently. The horses screamed, raising themselves off the ground against their reins. The knights yelled and drew their swords.

Lucas immediately ordered. "Formation!"

Jennie leaped out of the carriage, grasping Eclipse. "What's going on?"

Lucas pointed straight ahead.

A crack ran across the road—a massive fissure splitting the earth like a wound. Dark energy seeped out from under it, creating black smoke that twisted and writhed in strange shapes.

Roxy pointed at the crack with her staff. "That's not magic."

Snow snarled, bristling his fur. "No."

He fixed his amber eyes on the distant land. "It's older. Far older."

Jennie stepped closer, crunching the cracked earth underfoot. The knights tried to hold her back.

"Raven—"

Lucas grabbed her arm. "Wait."

"I'm fine," Jennie told him.

"I know."

"Then let go."

"No."

Jennie looked at him with her violet eyes.

Lucas sighed, loosening his grip a little. "You're impossible."

"And you're annoying."

Jennie almost smiled.

But then she felt it again.

That anger. That hatred. This time it was more powerful, a wave that crashed into her mind. Not from one person but from the entire battlefield.

Thousands of souls. Thousands of deaths. Thousands of regrets left unfinished.

Jennie's face grew serious. "We shouldn't remain here."

Lucas nodded. "Agreed."

He turned to the knights, issuing orders in his commanding voice. "Get us ready for camp by sunset. Double the watch. No one approaches the battlefield without my order."

The knights started preparing, still uneasy despite their efficiency.

But Jennie kept staring at the battlefield. Something was pulling her not with a voice or even sound but with feeling. A feeling of a familiar presence.

Jennie took a step forward.

Eclipse suddenly spoke to her in a sharp voice inside her mind. Jennie.

She stopped. "What?"

For the first time since accepting her, the sword sounded afraid.

Do not confuse this place with ruins.

"What do you mean?" Jennie asked.

The sword answered with a voice barely above a whisper.

It remembers.

The cold wind blew across the battlefield, carrying the smell of ashes and blood. Jennie's silver hair and her cloak fluttered in the wind.

She looked out at the endless wasteland.

And for a brief second...

She saw them.

Thousands of soldiers. Standing in the distance. Watching her.

Their armor was destroyed by weapons and by time. Their faces were pale and hollow, with their eyes being empty voids. Their weapons were smeared in blood—ancient blood that never dried.

Jennie's breathing stopped.

Then they disappeared like mist in grey light.

Roxy ran to her side. "Jennie!"

"I'm fine."

"You look like you saw a ghost."

Jennie looked at the battlefield, her voice devoid of emotion. "I did."

Snow's ears drooped, and he growled. "Something is waking up."

Lucas turned his gaze to them and laid his hand on his sword. "What?"

Jennie didn't answer.

She couldn't.

Because deep underneath the earth... she heard something.

A metallic sound.

Clang.

Again.

Clang.

A sword. Someone was moving under the battlefield, dragging a blade against stone and bones.

Jennie's gaze grew hard. "Eclipse..."

The Divine Sword was silent.

Then finally, her voice heavy with ancient dread:

Another Divine Sword is here.

"Which one?" Jennie asked hurriedly.

Silence.

Then finally, Eclipse answered.

Gram.

The Blade of Wrath.

Jennie stared into the darkness, her blood turning cold.

Somewhere under the Forbidden Battlefield... the corrupted Divine Sword was waiting.

After a thousand years... it had finally felt its next master.

The sun started to set and the grey sky was tinted with hues of blood and darkness. The knights managed to set up their camp, where they surrounded the supply wagons with tents in a protective manner. Flames lit up in the camps, providing a feeble shield against the darkness surrounding them.

Jennie was standing outside the camp perimeter, her gaze locked at the battlefield. The crack had halted its growth, but the dark energy was still oozing out of the hole, just like smoke coming out of a dying fire.

Roxy came up to her, her tone of voice very calm. "You should get some rest."

"I can't."

"Why?"

Jennie did not reply.

Because she could still hear the noise.

Clang.

Clang.

Sound of a sword scraping along the earth. Gradually moving closer.

And in the midst of the darkness... someone was smiling.

Finally.

After a thousand years.

I have found you.

A thousand years ago.

Fire was everywhere.

The sky was red, not red of the sunset, but red of bloody flames. Smoke rose from hundred burning villages. People cried out in agony as they burned alive.

Thousands of soldiers marched on the battlefield. They were covered with sweat, scratches and blood stains on their faces and armor, but they kept marching because they had to.

Leonis stood at the top of the hill, holding Excalibur. His silver hair was soaked in blood – his own, or enemies' he had killed. Golden eyes were now filled with cold determination.

Below him...

there was Demon armies.

Countless shadowy beings with eyes like burning embers. There were too many of them – they spread in the valley like a sea of nightmares.

He knew that place well.

The mountain.

The valley.

The ruined fort.

Everywhere she looked, memories popped up.

That stone tower – a defensive position before, now it was destroyed place where dozens of soldiers were making their last stand.

That bridge – it was destroyed by Demon General attack and sent hundreds of people to their deaths in the abyss below.

That huge crater – it was made by Leonis himself, when he used full strength of Excalibur to destroy legion of demons.

Black stones that marked the mass graves where fallen heroes have been buried.

Jennie slowly turned her head. She knew what happened in every place.

That tower was a defensive position before.

That bridge – it was destroyed during Demon General attack.

That crater...

She remembered its creation.

Jennie's grip on Excalibur's hidden handle tightened.

I was there.

She looked at the distant valley.

I was fighting there.

Another memory flashed.

Leonis walking through battlefield after battle. He was covered in blood – so much of it that it was dripping from his armor. His sword was damaged – its blade was chipped after numerous hits.

His surroundings were surrounded with corpses. Of humans, elves, dwarves, beastfolk and any other race that could be there. Corpses of his allies whom he led to their deaths.

He remembered the sounds of cries coming from those corpses – the soldier crying for his mother, another for water, third praying to gods who have long left them.

Leonis wanted to help them.

But there were too many. So many.

He couldn't save everybody.

Jennie's chest tightened. Pain was physical – sharp ache in her chest that made her hard to breathe.

She closed her eyes.

I remember.

"Raven?"

Lucas voice brought her back. She opened her eyes – the past vanished to the grey present. Lucas stood next to her, his face showing concern.

"You have been looking at that place for a while."

Jennie looked at the ruined hill. Then she turned her head and Lucas followed her gaze.

"Do you recognize it?"

Jennie remained silent.

Her memories were still burning inside her – pieces of life she had lived, death she had died, war she had fought. She remembered fighting there, bleeding there, seeing her friends dying there.

But Lucas couldn't know that. Nobody could. Not yet.

He looked at her again. "Have you been there before?"

Jennie slowly turned her head toward him. Just for half a second, just for half a second, she was ready to tell him everything.

Yes, I fought there, I died there, I was Leonis.

But she swallowed that words. Her face calmed down.

"No."

Lucas stared at her. Something was strange about her answer – not that he suspected her of lying, but her eyes weren't eyes of person who saw battlefield for the first time.

They were eyes of person who was remembering it.

Lucas eventually nodded. "Okay."

He didn't want to press further. Before he walked away he took another look at her, and strange feeling came into his heart. He remembered this expression somewhere. Long ago.

A little girl standing next to him. Looking at something only she remembers.

The knights started to move forward.

While moving on the battlefield, their steps sounded weird. Step. Step. Step. It sounded like heartbeats in the wasteland, absorbed by silence that surrounded them.

Broken weapons littered the ground – rust-covered swords, cracked shields, spears stuck in the ground, pieces of armor. Some of them were so old that they fell apart when touched.

Knight picked up one of the broken swords. "It has been here for centuries."

Another knight looked around. "How many people died here?"

Nobody answered.

But then they realized the formations – ancient magical circles buried beneath the soil. Some were hard to see – their lines faded and almost invisible. But others were still shining weakly with remaining power.

Roxy crouched next to one. Her fingers traced lines in the earth.

"These are not ordinary formations."

Jennie glanced at it. Her voice was quiet. "No."

Roxy looked at her. "You know what they are?"

Jennie paused. She almost answered – almost explained that they were binding circles, that were used to keep demonic energy inside. That they were created by mages who had sacrificed themselves to keep them working.

But she shook her head. "Old battlefield magic."

Roxy frowned. "You sound very sure."

Jennie smiled awkwardly. "I'm reading a lot."

Snow looked at her. He knew better. But he said nothing.

The group continued their movement.

After some time they found themselves in the huge field of broken armor. Hundred of helmets were scattered all over the place – some still had noble house symbols on them, some were plain.

Knight slowly took off his helmet. "Gods..."

Another knight whispered: "There are thousands."

Lucas looked around him. His voice was full of respect. "Historical records said that the final battle here lasted for seven days."

Jennie's heart tightened.

Seven days.

She remembered. Seven days of fighting. Seven days without sleep. Seven days against Demon armies.

And in the end...

Leonis had faced Seventh Demon General alone.

Jennie gazed at the horizon. Slowly, her hand reached for the sword under her coat.

Eclipse.

Silent blade. But Jennie knew its power; an icy presence which could remember every killing, every scream and every moment of anguish.

And she wondered how many years did the pain have to be kept inside that sword?

But then a knight shouted, "Commander!"

Lucas turned around. "What is it?"

The knight pointed to the ground. Big footprint, obviously belonging to something much larger than a person; its claws leaving deep furrows in the ground.

"Recent." - said Roxy, looking at it with concern in her face.

"Very recent." - Snow added.

Jennie bent down, touching the soil. It was cold. The magical residue was small, but present. Something huge and powerful was there recently.

Jennie stood up. "We need to hurry."

Lucas nodded. "Everyone, stay alert."

Knights became more cautious.

Suddenly, the wind stopped blowing and silence fell upon the battlefield.

A thick and heavy silence.

Jennie looked forward. For a short time, she saw a silhouette standing on the hill. A man with long silver hair. Excalibur in hand. Covered with blood.

Leonis.

Her former self.

The man turned his head. And their eyes met.

And the vision vanished.

Jennie stood motionless. Lucas noticed that. "Jennie?"

She looked at him. "Yeah?"

"Everything alright?"

Jennie smiled faintly. "Just tired."

Lucas nodded. "Then keep close to me."

He started moving forward. Jennie watched him, sadness appearing in her eyes.

"Already seen." - she whispered so quietly that no one else could hear her.

She gazed at the battlefield. "Just not as Jennie."

Deep underground...

someone answered.

Clang.

Jennie's smile faded away. The Blade of Wrath heard her.