Note: This story was dynamically reformatted for online reading convenience. Chapter 51: Long Is the Night for the Godless, part XXII The grueling battle continued in the castle's inner ward. The sky had become completely black as if the heavens themselves were averting their eyes from this carnage. But the Nergranian soldiers were far from getting tired. They didn't intend on stopping before every single black-haired woman was killed. The Loogranians didn't have the option to run away or to surrender. Anyone who tried to do so was executed mercilessly. Each and every black-haired soldier had to fight to her death. Even if their faces were tearful and their bodies were covered in dirt and blood, they tried to hurt the enemy as much as possible before they inadvertently were killed. Among the Nergranian troops who entered the inner ward were those who called themselves the White Knights of Vargran. They were considered to be the strongest fighters in the whole Nergranian army. Not only their hair was white, also their shields and armors were polished to such a degree that they reflected the white sunlight. On a usual day, that was. By now, their appearance was quite impaired by the rain, mud and blood that was splattered all over their armor. Still, they were standing upright and were willing to crush the least bit of resistance in this castle. One building that particularly stirred the wrath of the pious White Knights was the castle's temple. From its decorations it was obvious that the goddesses of High Heavens were worshiped here. The knights decided unanimously to raid this temple and kill every priestess of High Heavens who dared to spread the heretic religion in the Vargranian lands. But when the White Knights entered the temple, they soon realized that something was strange here. Apparently, someone had beat them to it. There were dead bodies everywhere. And they were in a horrible shape. Hacked into pieces, mangled and ripped apart, as if some monster had attacked them. The White Knights exchanged worried glances. "Who could have done that... Fel?" They heard an eerie giggle from the stairs that lead down to the catacombs. "Wrong..." All the knights immediately drew their weapons, raised their shields and assumed battle positions. "Who is it that dares to laugh at the White Knights of Vargran?" The horrible being that was slowly climbing up the stairs laughed wholeheartedly. It was both the laughter of a cheerful girl and that of a demon from hell. "It's me... Your princess!" Neyl charged the knights like a lightning bolt from hell. The black sword Enegoth grew even bigger in her hands as she lunged out. Huge thorns grew out of the blade. The metal itself began to blister. Fiendish yellow eyes appeared on the blade and mouths full of shark teeth. It was a weapon straight out of a nightmare. Enegoth hit the White Knights with the force of a tornado. Several of them were ripped into pieces by the horrifying sword. Neither their shields nor their shiny armor could do the slightest thing to protect them against this weapon. Flesh, bones and entrails were shredded into small pieces and scattered all over the room and onto their shocked comrades. Neyl let out a terrifying laughter. As a child she had admired the White Knights. She had always wished to be as strong as one of these women. But now they were nothing but insects compared to her. She could dominate them at will. Neyl could even take her time and play with them. One of the White Knights slashed Neyl's right arm with her sword. It easily cut through her flesh. The hand which yielded Enegoth dropped to the floor, together with the severed arm. Neyl stared at it with an indifferent expression. Then her head was cut off her neck. In a frenzy, the White Knights slashed her until they had cut off all of her limbs. The knights stared at the dismembered body. It really was their princess Neyl who they just had killed. "May... may the goddesses have mercy on your poor soul..." one of them whispered. But all of them had serious doubts whether they would. After a few moments of silence, Neyl's severed head began to giggle horribly. Then it laughed. The knights' faces grew pale. Neyl's blood-smeared face grinned at them. "Goddesses? What goddesses? I can't feel any so-called goddesses' presence..." Long veiny tentacles grew out of her severed body parts. They quickly began to entangle the staggered knights. The slimy tentacles were crawling over their legs and arms, dug into their butt cracks and into their hair. No spot was save from them. For every tentacle the knights managed to cut with their swords, another two came out of Neyl's strange body. While the White Knights were trapped by the dozens of fleshy tentacles, they had to watch in horror as the severed parts of Neyl's body reunited in front of them. Neyl's face became flushed as the tentacle's slimy strands broke through the knights' armor and touched their warm skin. "Mhm... You feel nice... I want to get inside you..." With a sudden jolt, the tentacles grew barbs and penetrated the women's skin, digging into their tender flesh. The White Knights' screaming was quite unlike the image they usually tried to give off. They sounded more like frightened little girls than anything else. More than one of them intensely wished that all of this would turn out to be a bad dream and that they would wake up in their beds soon. Neyl looked at the entangled White Knights just like one would look at a really tasty cake or the spread butthole of a sweet young girl. "How about it..." she said with a seductive voice. "Don't you rather want to become the 'Black Knights of Princess Neyl' instead?" One of the knights glared at her. She had a hard time speaking because right now a particularly thorny tentacle strand was making its way up her ass. "We... would rather... die than becoming that!" Neyl shrugged her shoulders. "That's fine as well." In an instant, all the tentacles turned into daggers that mauled the captured women from inside. Before they even had a chance to realize what happened, the knights' insides were ripped to shreds. A few heartbeats later, they dropped to the floor without any life left in them. Bright red blood sputtered from every orifice of their bodies. Neyl withdrew her tentacles and resumed a form that looked as human as possible. On her face was a slight smirk. She didn't feel any pity for the Nergranian knights she had just slaughtered. On the contrary, this had been very satisfying. She wanted more of that. And there was a whole Nergranian army outside that she could have fun with! Viora felt a shiver running down her spine. She hadn't worn this black leather armor in quite a while. Really, with her thirty-three years of age she was too old to fight. But she would be damned if she let this Nergranian bastards take her castle without first killing as many of them as possible. Strangely enough, the sword Enegoth had been robbed from the castle's vault. So Viora was wielding an inferior blade. The duchess was standing in the castle's throne hall, surrounded by her personal guard. Since it was already dark outside, the hall was lit by several torches. Viora's guard consisted of Loogran's strongest fighters. Of course, the strongest fighter of all had been Viora's daughter Virian. But it had been a long time since Viora had seen her last. The duchess would have felt better if she had known that her daughter was by her side. Then again, this way she had the hope that Virian would be at a safe place right now. Not in a thousand years would she have guessed what Virian was really doing right now... The Nergranians who were first to enter the throne hall called themselves the Vargranian Guard. They were strong-willed and proud elite soldiers, equipped with heavy armor and long halberds. Of course, they immediately recognized the duchess Viora. After they had all entered the throne room, both sides stood still for a few moments and looked at each other. This would be the decisive fight. The leader of the Vargranian Guard spoke up with an agitated voice. "We have come to end your reign, false duchess. Tomorrow, the Vargranian highlands will belong to our leader, Aremie-Valas!" Viora gnashed her teeth. "Then come and take them from me..." It was a fight of incredible intensity. Each of the Nergranian guardswomen wanted to be the one who would take down the duchess of Loogran. But Viora's guards were defending their leader with all they had. Viora realized that her enemies were superior in numbers. If she just stood here and did nothing, her guards would probably lose this fight. Viora cursed the world, spat on the floor, raised her sword and entered the fight. The white-haired guards were quite surprised to find out that the duchess was a splendid fighter herself. Whenever one of them tried to rush her, she cut the woman down mercilessly and splashed her blood all over the throne hall's floor. Over time, both sides got diminished heavily. The floor of the throne hall was filled with slashed corpses. Several torches got knocked off the walls and went out. The fight continued in the twilight until almost everyone was either dead or fatally wounded. Viora was breathing heavily. She had suffered a deep cut in the side of her belly. It was painful, but not life-threatening. On the other hand, she had taken at least six enemies' lives in the preceding battle. The duchess staggered through the dark throne hall. Her shield had gotten smashed, but she still had her hands tightly gripped around her sword's hilt. She could hear the groans and cries from the injured women from all directions. Was there still an enemy left who could have attacked her? It was almost impossible to tell in this darkness. Out of nowhere, a blade slashed Viora's left leg. It easily cut off her shank. The duchess let out a surprised yell and dropped her sword, then she lost her balance and fell on her back. A tall young woman was standing over her. She had short hair, but Viora couldn't tell its color in this darkness. The woman's face was covered in blood and that's why it took the duchess a while to realize who it was. "Virian... my child..." Virian looked at her coldly. Blood dripped from her chin onto her mother's face. "I don't remember being your child, murderer." She put the tip of her blade against Viora's throat. Viora's eyes widened. "No! You can't do that!" With the cold steel against her neck, she hastily unlaced the front of her armor and took it off. Virian's eyes fell on her mother's big naked tits. Viora looked at her with pleading eyes. "These are the breasts with which I fed you!" Virian looked at them for a while. The cold expression remained the same. "I don't remember drinking a murderer's milk." Viora flinched as the blade drew blood from her neck. "Recognize me, child! This..." The amputation wound hurt horribly, but she still managed to turn on her stomach. Then she pulled up her skirt and removed her panties."This... is where the egg was laid from... the egg from which you hatched, my dear child!" Virian looked at her mother's naked butt for a while. "But... wasn't there another girl that hatched from that egg... wasn't there a girl that embraced me in the moment when I was born..." Suddenly, Virian screamed. "Wasn't she your child too? Where is she now? Where is my sister Vielin?" By now not only blood, but also teardrops were dripping from Virian's face. She raised her sword. Viora shook her head. "No! There is something I have to tell you, Virian! You were..." Before the words could have left her mouth, Viora's head was cut off by Virian's sword. Virian tried to wipe the tears off her face. But more of them were soon running over her cheeks. She had no way of stopping them. Finally, Virian had achieved her revenge. She had killed the woman who had taken her sister away from her. But she still felt so awful that she wanted to die. What a fucked up and horrible world it was. Virian left the throne hall and wandered through the castle's empty corridors for a while. She hadn't noticed them during the confrontation with her mother, but now she could feel her wounds hurting terribly. The massive blood-loss made her stagger. Finally, Virian halted and leaned against the cold stone wall. She had spent most of her life in this castle. By tomorrow, this would be nothing but a depopulated ruin. Virian had known it before, but... nothing of this would ever bring her sister back. She would be alone until the day she died. Virian dropped her sword, then she sat down on the side of the corridor and cried miserably. Deli's face still hurt quite badly. Not more than an hour ago, the duchess had hit her with her fist. Deli really had to remember not to speak out of line. Especially in such a tense situation. Otherwise, the thirteen-year-old girl always had been a very good servant to the duchess. That's why she had been chosen as the one who should bring her the heart from the secret catacombs underneath the castle. It was a long way down there. Countlessly many steps in darkness until she finally reached the incredibly scary place where the demigoddess Daeryn was buried. It was a secret that was only known to a few people in Loogran castle. After Daeryn had been slain by Haena, she had been buried outside the old Vargran castle. When Loori had left the old castle, she hadn't wanted her mother's remains to lie in such a place. When they had exhumed Daeryn, they had realized that, although she was dead, the demigoddess' heart hadn't decayed at all. On the contrary, it had been brimming with both divine and demonic energy. No one had dared to use Daeryn's heart in a battle yet. But everyone knew that the result would be earth-shattering. And if anything had ever called for such measures, it was the current situation. The thing that Deli found inside Daeryn's coffin looked like a fresh human heart. But while it looked ordinary, its aura was strong enough to make Deli feel dizzy and sick. She immediately wanted to turn around and get away from it. It felt evil. But she knew that this heart could very well have been the only thing to save Loogran from its demise. She had to be tough and bring this heart to her duchess. Otherwise, this could have ended up being the last day of her life. Deli gathered all her courage and picked up the big red heart. Then she hurried to make her way back up the long stairway. She wanted to give this heart to her duchess so that she could save Loogran. But she also wanted to finally get rid of it. The feeling of this heart's presence was like that of a creeping nightmare. An eerie feeling that could hardly be put into words. It made the whole world around her look a lot more dark and fearsome. When Deli reached the top of the stairway, she was exhausted both physically and mentally. Climbing all the stairs with this horrible thing in her hands had felt like an eternity to her. Soon, she would get the job done. She would be praised, the duchess would take the heart and the nightmare would finally be over... But to Deli's surprise, it wasn't the duchess who awaited her at the top of the stairway. It was a thin girl with ashen hair and hollow eyes. She didn't look at Deli. Only at the heart in her hands. "What you carry there... I want it." Deli shook her head and tightened her grip around the heart. "No! You can't have it! I have to bring this to the duchess Viora!" The gray-haired girl cocked her head. "I want it. I have wanted it for long time. I missed it... It is mine now." Out of the girl's body grew a giant wolf with pitch-black fur. It ate up both Deli and the heart in one big gulp. Finally, the Kapla Wolf thought. Finally it was all coming back.