by Mario Routi
The forces of Good hit the oncoming enemy like a tornado. The Princess was an inspiring vision, flying everywhere, urging her warriors on to ever greater feats of bravery and fighting skill. She, too, fought, thrashing every opponent who dared come near her.
The powers of Darkness were alarmed to see such a small force wreaking such devastation and a temporary panic overwhelmed them. They were cowardly creatures when not in a position of protected power and they scurried back and forth in several directions at once, as they tried to muster their courage. Against all odds, the army of Utopia was smashing the enemy and exulting in the task. The defenders had turned into the attackers by sheer strength of will and the retreat of the Orizons was transformed into a ferocious counterstrike like nothing anyone had ever seen before. As the hours passed, they continued to fight without a break and the great plain became covered with the corpses of demons, the air thick with the stench of their blood and spilled guts.
Although she could see that the enemy was being pushed back for the time being, Felicia knew that it wouldn’t be long before new forces emerged from the darkness of Domus. Eventually, she ordered a retreat so that her warriors could rest in preparation for greater battles to come. They also needed a chance to tally their losses, redeploy the army and generally weigh up the whole situation in order to come up with a new strategic plan.
As they re-entered through the gate, a loud cheer rose from the crowd gathered inside. Despite their victory, however, they had also suffered many losses and the air of celebration was tinged with grief.
Even though Utopia had undoubtedly won this battle, in reality it was still besieged and surrounded by an enemy who was preparing to strike again with a force large enough to destroy everyone within the fortress many times over.
“We don’t know how long it will be before Turgoth manages to gather an army to support us,” Leiko told Felicia as they stared out at the dark line of the forest. “But the demons have spread throughout Domus and blocked all access points towards the fortress. So, even if the forces of Beast are already on their way, it will still be difficult for them to break through the enemy lines in order to reach us.”
***
The night passed slowly for the guards on the walls as they listened to the sounds of the enemy shouting to one another and singing at the top of their lungs as they regained their power and mustered their numbers. In the darkness, it was impossible to gauge exactly how large these numbers were and the noise they made was deliberately designed to intimidate any listeners.
As the crack of dawn allowed a low light to spread across the plain, it revealed a scene of growing horror. Under the cover of darkness, the forces of Evil had crept forward from the forest like an unstoppable tide in a terrible black ocean, filling the plain which had been the scene of such carnage the day before with a seething, insect-like mass of forces preparing to attack. Evil sprang up all round the besieged fortress like the seeds of a terrible plague.
As the light grew stronger, it became possible to see the demons preparing their war machines for the next wave of attacks. Giant catapults rose up from the ground and began hurling a continual barrage of rocks against the walls.
For a while, the forces of Good watched these efforts with amusement, knowing that the Great Walls of Utopia were built to withstand anything being thrown at them. The enemy, however, soon realised the futility of their efforts and re-set the angle of the catapults so that the missiles would fly above the walls and rain down on the castle’s courtyard beyond them.
Once they had gotten their aim right, they started to shoot flaming rocks which burned with an intense heat as they flew through the air and hit the buildings inside like exploding thunderbolts. Within minutes, fires were raging inside the fortress and everyone was distracted from their battle plans as they ran in circles attempting to smother the flames before they could spread too far. No sooner had they put out one fire, however, and three more would break out.
Exhausted by their seemingly hopeless efforts, the confidence of many within the fortress started to crumble and an air of panic overwhelmed Utopia for the first time in history.
Just when their spirits were at their lowest, they heard the hate-filled screams of approaching flying demons as they joined in the battle. The battalions of demons flew in great black circles above the castle like flocks of vultures awaiting the chance to swoop down and feast on the bodies of their enemies. They flew so high that they were beyond the range of the Amazons’ arrows. Their war cries ripped the wind in two and as they swirled round and round over the castle, they mercilessly showered down arrows on the crowds below as they ran around fighting an ever-increasing number of fires. Even the bravest hearts in Utopia were now fearful of how the day would end, but still none gave up their determination to protect the Flame and to be victorious or their will to resist and fight till the end.
“We are in grave danger,” Felicia heard someone say and, within a matter of minutes, she could hear the phrase repeated everywhere. She realised that this was a crucial moment. She had to raise the confidence of her troops before she could hope to defend the fortress.
She strode along the walls, declaiming her message to all who laboured to save Utopia, both on the walls and inside them.
“I am aware of your worries,” she assured them, “but we must turn these worries into plans if we do not want to be forced to grieve more losses. We need to unite and fight as one - shoulder to shoulder - as fierce as any victorious army has to be. Reinforcements will arrive soon enough for us to overwhelm and vanquish the enemy forever. Together, we are bound to triumph because we have no alternative. Defeat is impossible for us. We have faced far worse fights than this and we have always won. The enemy knows that and this is why they are scared!”
Seeing that their Princess was able to conquer her own fears so completely, the Orizons felt their hope spring back to life in their hearts. A huge cheer rose in their throats, echoing round the fortress and carrying over the walls to the assembled enemy outside, making their heads turn and their lips curl and sneer.
As Felicia strode through the last defences of the fortress, the cheering followed her and for a while she, too, forgot the seriousness of the siege they were facing and imagined the victory that must inevitably come to them. Tirelessly, she moved around from one wing to another, from inside the fortress to the courtyards, from the courtyards to the gate, then to the walls, with Bull and Leiko striding beside her.
As the day went by and night approached once more, however, their spirits began to sink again. Everyone knew that demons fought better during the night and the sound of the rabble preparing itself outside the walls was growing louder and more frightening.
Fires sprang to life again across the plain under the nervous eyes of the guards on the fortress walls.
It was General Hunter who ran to Felicia with the first bad news of the night.
“Princess,” he said, “the west wing is burning and we do not know how long it will be before it totally collapses. Our western troops were forced to retreat and the wall is unprotected. If they manage to break through and enter the fortress from there, it will be hard to stop them.”
“Nothing can defeat us,” Felicia said with deliberate calmness, “as long as the enemy is kept outside the walls. Send reinforcement and try to extinguish the fire. Also, send the Amazons.”
Once Hunter had left to carry out her instructions, Felicia passed through the east wing of the besieged Utopia and entered the darkness that lay over the fortress’s yard. An intimidating, reddish cloud hung from the sky above. She went under the theatre and stopped in front of the Wise Tree, where the sounds of the enemy forces and the attacks to the west seemed so muted that the trickling water of the small nearby stream could be heard above them, like the sound of tears.
“What is the situation of the battle, my child?” the Wise Tree asked.
“The reinforcements will arrive soon,” the Tree assured her. “Try to hold out for as long as you can.”
Felicia caressed its ancient bark for a moment, taking comfort in the serenity that surrounded it. She wanted to believe that its wisdom was infallible and that the reinforcements would arrive as it predicted, but she was finding it harder and harder to hold on to that hope.
The attack was still raging on as she returned to the fray. The war cries of the enemy as it battered the walls were relentless and chilling - enough to drive those who were forced to listen for hour upon hour out of their minds. Still, the warriors were struggling to hold them off. Felicia could see that the amount of effort they were putting in was unsustainable and she couldn’t imagine that they would be able to keep it up for much longer.
Meanwhile on the battlefield, a new kind of wild monster had emerged within the ranks of the demon forces. These untamed beasts tore into everything they came upon as they stampeded along the small paths and slipped through the flames and around the legs of the massive war machines. They seemed so filled with gibbering excitement at the mere acts of war and destruction that they didn’t care whether they lived or died any more than their leaders did. This made them a terrifying enemy, willing to take any number of risks unbothered by the consequences to themselves or their enemies. Creating death and havoc seemed to be their only goals.
By continually attacking on all fronts, the Leader of the Demons was testing the defense skills of Utopia in all directions. His ultimate goal was to breach the impregnable gate, but until that moment he intended to continue hurling his forces against every side of the fortress, wearing the enemy’s strength down.
The din of war grew louder as the night wore on and the warriors became wearier. Fires burst constantly to life as the enemy brought more catapults forward, rolling them across the battlefield closer and closer, the troops screaming with demonic glee as they loaded the flaming rocks and sent them spinning over the walls.
Resistance around the main gate remained powerful, with all the greatest warriors of Utopia standing ready and sending down a continual wall of arrows on any enemy who tried to draw close.
Under the main wall of the fortress, the piles of dead demon bodies grew higher, as wave after wave clambered over those who had fallen ahead of them to meet the same fate. Still, the Leader kept sending more.
Their Leader, cloaked in black, was now clearly visible to the guards on the wall as he moved forward on his horse. No arrow or spear seemed able to stop him. He passed through the flames as if he was made of steel, his horse’s hooves trampling over the corpses of his own warriors, churning them into mud. As he progressed, he hurled fire around him, setting any remaining trees alight and illuminating the gruesome scene that surrounded him, revelling in the mayhem and destruction.
The hearts of the people of Utopia could not help but pound with anxiety as they watched this dark, evil figure approach. Suddenly, he stopped and raised his jagged, bloody sword above his head, letting out a war cry of such ferocity that every one of the defenders of the fortress froze for a second and the rain of arrows ceased.
As he approached the gate he grabbed a bow and an arrow hammered by Cronus, himself, the Lord of the Titans in Tartarus, and fired an arrow with enormous speed. There was a terrifying crash and the earth trembled as the arrow struck the gate, but still it held.
Filled with fury, the dark Leader stood up high in his stirrups and shot another cursed arrow at the gate. Again, the crash shook everyone, but, again, the gate remained closed.
Two more arrows hit the gate in swift succession and the reverberations within the earth below started to build. From a rumble, they became a roar and the walls began to quake, sending many of the defenders tumbling to their deaths. As the ground below moved, opened and ruptured, an immense light appeared all around the gate, shaking it until cracks formed and, with one final explosion of light and splinters, it disintegrated into a thousand pieces, as if it were made of sugar.
His appetite for violence temporarily satisfied, the Leader grunted with approval and spurred his horse forward, wading through the blood and wreckage past the shattered gate and into the yard, a dark and looming figure.
Many of the defenders fell back in awe of the frightful sight, leaving the Princess of Utopia, Felicia, standing calmly in its path.
“Creature of darkness,” she cried. “Whoever you are, whatever you may be, return to where you belong and I shall let you live!”
The mysterious figure paused for a moment before raising a gloved hand and pushing back the hood that had been shading its face. A gasp of horror went up from the surrounding crowd and even Felicia was unable to stop her hand from flying to her mouth in shock.
“Claudia!” she exclaimed, but it was not exactly Claudia. She had been demonised and the rare beauty that she had once possessed made this new version of her all the more frightening.
47
Felicia remained still and calm, simply gazing at the face of her former friend and ally as the trumpets of Utopia blared from the walls above, signalling that the reinforcements from Beast had finally arrived. The sound of the trumpets seemed to re-fill everyone on the side of Good with confidence and a fighting spirit; it was almost as if they all grew several inches at once, lifting their weapons once more and finding new reserves of energy within their exhausted bodies.
“We will tear you apart, Felicia,” Claudia growled, her voice now a menacing rumble. “Death has come to your door. First, you will see everything you love being crushed and killed. Then, I will torture you slowly to death with my own hands. Turgoth will suffer the same fate because he betrayed me. Let’s see how he likes his beloved Rebecca when that pretty head has been severed from her shoulders. The time for the Titans to rule has finally come!”
Claudia pressed her spurs deep into her horse’s flanks and Felicia drew her sword in preparation to defend herself. Instead of attacking Felicia, however, Claudia’s horse reared up, spun round on its hind legs and galloped out of the fortress.
Claudia, too, had heard the trumpets sound and guessed that it signalled the arrival of Turgoth’s forces. As any competent leader would do, she left to redeploy her army and mastermind the final attack.
Leiko, who had watched and heard the whole scene, was boiling with anger and wanted to give chase so that he could personally kill the creature that dared to threaten his love, but Claudia had already disappeared into the blackness outside.
Utopia was now filling with thousands of Sharkans, Porth and Cyclopes as they carved a path through from the rear of the surprised and confused demon army and headed for the gates and their waiting allies. All the forces of Good were now joined and each military unit had its own structured plans and orders.
As soon as he returned, Turgoth rode straight to the hospital, choosing to sit next to Rebecca rather than participate in any further fighting. He intended to stand guard over his love in case even a single demon managed to break through to the hospital and decided to strike the easy target of a sleeping girl. He had been assured that nothing would happen to her but he had heard about Claudia’s threats and knew what she was capable of. He had no intention of leaving Rebecca alone with only Doctor Afterland, her parents and grandparents, until she had fully recovered and was able to protect herself.
Felicia and her advisors were now adjusting their strategy from the defensive to the offensive. She would leave many warriors inside the fortress in case the enemy
managed to infiltrate during the battles to come, but the main military body would now be marching out in a synchronized counterattack.
There was a full update from the specially-trained Orizon spies who had flown high to map out the extent of the enemy’s army and from others, who had managed to sneak in to the enemy’s military camp and overhear their plans. Felicia listened to their reports and pored with her close cadre of advisors over their maps.
An air of excitement and optimism had returned to Utopia, but this time they knew better than to take anything for granted. The enemy had come too close to destroying them, for them to allow themselves to become overly confident. They now knew that not only did their enemies have enormous numbers on their side, but they also had a great leader, one who understood exactly how they thought and fought. The next battle would determine the future of the worlds, so there was no room for errors of any sort and no room for any mention of defeat.
They knew that Claudia was planning her strategy for the final attack on the Fortress of Utopia with the aim of completely destroying it and stealing the Flame. They were sure that the leader of Evil would expect the forces of Good to fight a defensive battle, because that was what they always did, so they knew that Claudia’s strategy would be based on this knowledge. If they were clever about it, they could turn this around and make it the basis of her destruction. They planned a well organized counterattack from every direction with the intention of utterly surprising the enemy.
“We must act with haste,” Felicia said, “before Claudia launches her final attack. Otherwise, we will lose our greatest potential advantage - the element of surprise.”
The commanders hurried with their specific orders to their respective troops and organised them fast, waiting for the signal to attack.
The Princess, followed by Bull and Leiko, visited each troop for a final check and a speedy debriefing of the leaders. Felicia gave short, fierce speeches to the warriors, instilling fresh courage in every heart she touched with her words. After a while, and having gathered a comprehensive picture of the situation, she was satisfied that they were ready to strike.
