Chapter 4 – Lionheart with a Burning Soul
Senium, the Prince of Decay, comes up with a plan to destroy all of Fornax.
“Because they draw power from the sun, we will blot it out,” he says to his minions.
He creates a dark cloud that constantly covers the sun. An army of hollowed men and animals assault the kingdom’s walls once the sun is fully covered. The knights and guards at the walls try to hold off the army while the kings and generals come up with a plan. They talk about moving civilians out of the city so they don’t get caught up in the fighting, but the kingdom is completely surrounded. Though the sun is blocked by a cloud, they can still fight against the hollowed army, but then again, there’s too many as the lands around Fornax is littered with hollows as if all of them are here today. The kings and generals try to mix these two plans together to come up with a solution but can’t manage to come up with something that won’t cost the lives of hundreds of thousands to succeed.
Before they can decide, a messenger comes in to tell them that the walls surrounding the city have fallen. Everyone in the meeting room says a prayer before getting their weapons and fighting alongside their troops. Cinis and Favilla are among the troops inside the kingdom fighting against the decay until they realize that they are outnumbered. Favilla as already tried to shoot an arrow at the cloud to try to remove it, but nothing happened. They tried to combine Cinis’ sword together, but that didn’t work either. The couple takes a quiet moment to reflect and come to an answer that requires faith.
They say together, “The fire within our souls burn brighter and hotter than the sun, therefore, we light our weapons with it.”
Cinis and Favilla pierce their chest with their weapons and the weapons along with their bodies light up not only with fire but also with Holy Light.
They then say, “Put your faith in Sanctor and let Him fight alongside us.”
When Cinis swipes his swords the light and flames reach beyond the blade. Favilla no longer needs to use her arrows because she can conjure arrows of light and fire from the bow itself. The arrows reach a far distance and hail upon the enemy when she fires them up into the air. Their light and fire dispel the rot and decay that infests the town and rapidly spreads throughout the town. The army of hollows retreats as the fire and light come alive to turn them to dust. Cinis and Favilla lead the charge as the army of Fornax is reinvigorated and are given the same blessings the couple has. Once they reach the destroyed gates of the kingdom, Cinis and Favilla put all they have in their next attack.
As they charge their attack, they say in unison, “Darkness can never overcome the light nor can evil overcome good. Let us light up the world as Sanctor lit up the universe with one, singular action.”
Cinis sticks both of his blades into the earth, which lights up the land as bright as the sun while Favilla unleashes a barrage of arrows that rain down from the stars. This dispels the remaining hollows in the area and once everything settles, the dust of the hollows creates flowers and plant life where there was once death. The kingdom thinks it has achieved victory until a gray, skeletal, serpent dragon of decay comes out of the cloud that was blocking the sun.
“There’s always more,” Cinis says.
“And we’ve always got more than they do,” Favilla says as they ready themselves.
“I’m positive you have more than they do.”
“I’m not talking about my collections of gifts you gave me.”
“I know.”
Favilla shoots a barrage of arrows at the dragon while Cinis slashes waves of burning light at it. It dodges the barrage and lifts the couple into the air. They land on the dragon as it comes for them. Favilla is almost eaten by it but managed to use her legs to catch herself at the tip of the dragon’s mouth. Cinis lands on the body and cuts off its wings. Favilla shoots three arrows into the dragon’s mouth, which makes its skeletal inside burst with light. Cinis and Favilla fall from the dragon with Cinis holding Favilla as they fall to the earth. Since the fall wasn’t that high, Cinis and Favilla are mostly unharmed when they land though Cinis’ armor is damaged.
The dark cloud disappears from the sky and the sun shines brightly once again. Senium is outraged and starts another plan from scratch. Cinis and Favilla are given crowns as they have achieved the highest honor imaginable through their recent heroics. What were once embers then fire is now a blazing light that rivals the sun.
After the crowning ceremony is done, Favilla asks Cinis, “Now that we’ve gotten these positions, do you think we can cause trouble without getting in trouble with our parents?”
“We should be able to,” he says as both of them deviously grin.
The two then try to pull a few pranks on the people at the celebration and be jokers but are quickly reprimanded by their parents who slap them upside the head. They are reminded this night that their parents will always have some kind of power over them despite their position of power in the world.
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