Chapter 204 - The Dead Walk

Day 2 in the Forbidden Battlefield . Night fell over the ruins of the old fortress.

There was no more sunlight – it had faded and disappeared behind the distant mountain. The forbidden battlefield was bathed by the silvery light of the moon. It shone in the night sky as a single big eye watching everything. There was only a small number of stars in the sky – maybe they also did not want to be seen by those horrible things.

All royal knights had set camp in the vicinity of the ruined fortress.

Fires were burning in between the broken stones. Flames flickered and danced with some kind of strange rhythm. Orange glow struggled with darkness trying to repel it, but only slightly.

Horses stood nearby, lowering their heads and flicking their ears.

Weapons were easily accessible – everybody could get them any moment when needed.

It was not good.

This battlefield was too quiet. Too silent. Too quiet for the place which witnessed one of the most bloody battles in the history of this world.

The air was thick with the atmosphere full of memories which refused to go.

Jennie was sitting beside the campfire, gazing into the flames. Silvery locks of her hair shone in the firelight which was reflected in her eyes.

Roxy was sitting opposite to her and hugging her knees. Her ears were twitching nervous and her eyes were darting around the darkening area beyond the camp.

Snow was lying beside the fire. White color of his fur was shining slightly in the moonlight. His eyes were half-closed, but his ears were listening attentively.

Lucas was standing several meters away with several royal knights, checking the perimeter of the camp.

Hand of Lucas was resting on his sword while his eyes were scanning the surrounding darkness.

Everything seemed peaceful.

But...

Footsteps echoed in the darkness.

Step.

Step.

Step.

Lucas instantly lifted his head. His hand clenched on his sword.

Knights started reaching for their weapons. Sounds of steel scraping against leather could be heard.

"Have you heard that?"

One more sound was heard from the darkness.

Step.

Step.

Step.

Roxy started getting to her feet. Her voice was barely a whisper.

"Please tell me that this is one of the knights."

Nobody responded.

Ears of Snow suddenly lifted. His eyes narrowed and growling started resonating inside of his chest.

"Something is coming."

Roxy swallowed. "Something?"

Snow got up. His fur started bristling and his tail lowered.

"Several somethings."

Royal knights formed a defensive line. Their shields connected with each other forming one whole and their spears pointed outward.

Lucas drew his sword. Blade rang while he was taking it out of the scabbard.

"Stay alert, everyone."

Jennie was sitting on her place.

She was staring into the darkness. Her face was calm...too calm, as if she expected this all the time.

One more step. Then another.

Figure appeared between the ruins of the stone wall.

Armored soldier.

His armor was very old – it was rusty and damaged. Pieces of tattered cloth hung from his shoulder plates like wings of some kind of bird. Dark purple veins of magic corruption covered his armor like cracks, glowing weakly and faintly. Helmet covered his face, but below the helmet there were points of dim light in the places where eyes should be.

This figure started moving toward the camp.

And behind him...

Second figure appeared.

Third.

Fifth.

Tenth.

Roxy paled. She pointed at them, her hand shaking.

"Those are..."

She swallowed hard.

"Dead people."

More figures started appearing from the darkness. Scores. Then hundreds. Soldiers of ancient times slowly were crossing the battlefield, making jerking and strange steps. Some of them had rusty swords in their hands. Others had spears. Some of them had arrows sticking from their armors. And some of them had even half of the armor missing, showing darkness below the armor.

Their bodies were covered by the strange magic corruption. Purple veins were pulsing with some strange rhythm, like the heart beat which did not want to stop.

Knights tightened their grips on the weapons. One knight whispered quietly: "Undead."

Roxy instantly hid behind Jennie. Her voice was high from fear.

"Why there are so many?!"

Snow growled. "These are not ordinary undead."

Lucas turned his gaze at him. "What do you mean?"

Tail of Snow slowly spread behind him and he lowered his eyes.

There was no aura of death.

Lucas frowned. "Then what are they?"

Snow was staring at the approaching figures. His voice was very quiet.

"These are memories."

Everybody fell silent.

Roxy blinked. "Memories?"

Snow nodded. "This battlefield remembers all people who died here."

Soldiers continued to move forward. They did not attack anybody. They just moved. Slowly. Aimlessly. As if they were searching for something they had lost long ago.

Finally Jennie got up.

She carefully looked at the soldiers. Her eyes softened – not because of fear, but because of understanding. Because of recognition.

"They are not here to fight."

Lucas quickly glanced at her. "Raven ?"

She started walking forward. Several knights instantly tried to stop her.

"Raven, wait!"

Lucas raised his hand. "Let her."

Jennie continued walking forward. The nearest soldier froze. Its head slowly turned to her. For a second there was nothing in the helmet of this soldier. But then...

The voice came from within the ruins of the fortress. It was barely heard, like a faint whisper in the wind.

"Where...?"

Jennie hesitated.

The voice repeated itself.

"Where is my unit?"

A second soldier asked. "Where is my Captain?"

"Is the battle over?" - whispered the third soldier.

Jennie's gaze changed. The army wasn't attacking, they were searching for something. Or rather, for someone.

Someone who hadn't come back.

Roxy cautiously approached Jennie.

"Jennie..."

Jennie looked around. Around her, on the battlefield, there were hundreds of spirits. Some of them were rummaging through the ground, some looked up at the broken fortress, some wandered between the broken weapons. None of them knew where they were.

"They are trapped." - whispered Jennie.

Lucas looked at her. "Trapped?"

"In the last moments of their lives."

Jennie looked at the old spirits.

"They died here, but their memories wouldn't accept it."

A soldier dropped to his knees and started shivering.

"My brother..."

His voice trembled.

"I can't find him!"

Another soldier passed next to him.

"Move on!"

The third one yelled into the darkness.

"Don't leave me!"

The cry reverberated through the entire battlefield. Roxy's eyes became wet.

"This is how they've been doing this for a thousand years?"

Snow bent down his head.

"The curse kept their memories alive."

Lucas looked at the spirits.

"So, can we destroy the curse?"

Jennie shook her head.

"If we attack them, we'll just destroy the memories."

Lucas realized it.

"So, what are we supposed to do?"

Jennie took the hairpin and looked down at Excalibur. The ancient sword was still in its hairpin form. For a moment, she recalled another battlefield. Another night. Another thousand years ago.

She remembered wandering among the dying soldiers. She remembered their last words. She remembered promising herself that no one who died beside her would be forgotten.

Jennie closed her eyes and whispered.

"I will speak with them."

Roxy looked at her. "Speak with them?"

Jennie nodded.

She took the hairpin out of her hair. The light started gathering around it and Excalibur appeared in her hands. In the very moment when the Divine Sword took its form...

The entire battlefield became silent.

All of the dead soldiers stopped moving. Hundreds of helmets turned their heads towards Jennie. Excalibur started glowing. But not with any incredible power. Not with the desire to kill. It was warm. Gentle. It was like sunlight.

The soldiers slowly lowered their weapons.

Jennie lifted Excalibur up.

"I am sorry."

Her voice echoed through the entire battlefield.

"You've been waiting here for a long time."

No answer.

Jennie took another step.

"You don't have to keep searching."

The soldiers watched her.

"I know why you are searching."

One of them slowly raised his head.

"Comrades..."

Jennie nodded.

"You were fighting together."

She looked at the battlefield.

"You protected each other."

Her voice became even softer.

"And when the battle was over..."

She paused.

"... you couldn't leave them."

The soldiers started trembling. One of them dropped his sword. Another one kneeled. The third took off his helmet.

For the first time, Jennie saw his face. He was very young. Too young to die. His eyes were full of confusion.

"We won, right?"

Jennie looked at him.

"No."

The soldier bent down his head.

"Then..."

He looked around.

"Why are we still here?"

Jennie put Excalibur close to her chest.

"Because you haven't said good-bye."

Silence.

The wind moved through the battlefield. The flames of the campfire flickered.

Jennie stepped forward.

"You don't have to fight anymore."

The soldier looked at her.

"Can we return home?"

Tears started appearing in Jennie's eyes.

"Yes."

She smiled.

"You can return home."

A golden light started spreading from Excalibur. It flowed across the entire battlefield like a wave, flooding all of the dead soldiers. One by one they started glowing.

The magical corruption started vanishing from their armors. Dark veins disappeared. Broken armor became transparent.

The soldiers started looking at each other. For the first time, they weren't searching anything. They were looking at each other.

A soldier suddenly laughed.

"I found you! My King!"

The second one looked at him.

"You idiot."

The first one smiled.

"You took too much time."

Several spirits started disappearing. Not violently. Not pain fully. Peacefully. One by one. Their bodies turned into particles of light.

Some of them smiled. Some bowed. Some just closed their eyes.

One soldier stopped in front of Jennie. He looked at Excalibur and then at Jennie.

"You remind me of somebody."

Jennie's heart started to tighten.

"Who?"

The soldier smiled faintly.

"Our King."

Jennie froze.

This soldier obviously didn't recognize her. His memory was starting to fade.

"He told us..."

His voice became softer.

"... that no soldier will be forgotten."

Jennie bent her eyes down.

"I think he kept his promise."

The soldier smiled.

"Good."

And then he disappeared.

Another spirit approached. This one was an old knight. He laid his hand on his chest.

"My Captain..."

Jennie looked at him.

"He is waiting."

The knight looked at the distant horizon. Then he smiled.

"I knew he would."

And he disappeared.

The battlefield slowly became silent. Endless footsteps ceased. The voices disappeared. The soldiers were gone. All of them.

The corruption started disappearing from the ground. The cold pressure which filled the air finally vanished. Only the moon remained.

Roxy stood there absolutely immovable. She wiped her eyes.

"I thought we had to fight them."

Snow sat down next to her.

"They weren't our enemies."

Lucas looked at Jennie. She was still holding Excalibur. The sword's light slowly disappeared.

Lucas looked at her. There was something unusual in what he had seen just now. Not the sword. Not the magic.

Jennie.

The way she was speaking with the dead. The way she was understanding them. The way she was looking at the battlefield.

For a moment, Lucas felt this strange sensation again. The same one that he used to feel when he was watching Jennie sleeping. A memory. A little girl. Silver-white hair. Small hands holding his.

Someone calling his name.

"Lucas."

His heart constricted. He looked at Jennie.

"Jennie..."

She turned around. His mind went blank. Shook his head.

"I didn't say anything."

Her lips curved slightly. "You all right?"

He turned toward the battlefield, void of its inhabitants. "Yeah."

After a moment he added in a low tone, "In some way, even after their death people remember their love one."

Her smile dimmed slightly. "Probably."

"What?" asked Lucas.

She looked towards the moon. "Sometimes..."

She gripped Excalibur tighter.

"...people love people around them even when people don't remember and just wait like a ghost."

Lucas stared at her. Didn't understand what she said. But for some reason...

Those words sounded so familiar.

Snow suddenly lifted his head behind them. His ears twitched.

"Roxy," he said. "What is it?"

Snow looked towards the center of the battlefield. "The curse is gone."

"That's good, isn't it?" she asked.

His face remained serious. "Mostly."

"Mostly?" repeated Jennie, turning towards him.

Snow stared into the darkness. "The dead left."

Silence.

"But something else awakened."

A metallic sound came from the earth beneath them.

Clang.

Jennie narrowed her eyes. Excalibur immediately vibrated in her hands.

"...Gram," Eclipse said beneath her cloak.

She looked towards the center of the battlefield.

The earth started to shake. A crack formed on it. Red lights started to seep from underneath the earth and pulsed like an unhealing wound.

Lucas drew his sword at once. Knights armed themselves.

Roxy swallowed. "Please tell me that's not another army coming."

Jennie smiled slowly. It wasn't a smile of warmth.

"No."

She looked at the crack.

"A sword," she said.

A sound echoed through the battlefield again.

Clang.

Clang.

Clang.

Something was awakening beneath the earth.

And that something was angry.