Chapter 34: Colossus

It looked like a scene from the end times.

A tide of thousands of skeletal soldiers had flooded the forest, and although the forest itself tried to stand against them, there was nothing its inhabitants could do against the relentless waves of bone and rusted metal.

“Where did this army of undead come from?!”

Avelle stood there, devastated, as the unstoppable tide before her threatened to swallow every corner of her forest.

“Lady Avelle! Our sisters can’t hold out any longer! They’re starting to flee!”

“The dryads are deserting?! And the fauns and the black elk cavalry?!”

“Ever since they slammed into the wall of spears, we haven’t seen much movement on that flank…”

Avelle felt herself begin to stagger. Her entire kingdom was crumbling around her.

“The Elderbark… The Elderbark! If they don’t help us, their part of the forest will be destroyed too!”

At that moment, another dryad came rushing in with such momentum that she tripped over a root and fell right in front of Avelle.

“Lady… Lady Avelle… the Elderbark… They’re done for!”

“Wha… What do you mean by that?! The Elderbark are primordial spirits of the forest! They are older than I am!”

The dryad who had tripped got back up as best she could. Her face was pale, and she looked as though she had come face-to-face with death itself.

“It’s… horrible… Horrible!”

“Ho-horrible?”

“It’s a being as red as blood… It carries a long weapon with a gigantic, sharp, completely black curved blade… Nothing cut by it grows back!”

“It doesn’t… grow back…? Then the regenerative abilities of forest spirits are useless?!”

“That… that isn’t all…” The dryad swallowed. “When the being spins that weapon around, it creates whirlwinds of fire! It leaves everything charred in its wake! The Elderbark couldn’t do anything…”

Avelle fell to her knees.

“This… this is the end…”

But the light soon returned to the lime-green eyes of the lady of the flower throne.

“No… not yet… There is still one possibility…”

The dryads exchanged worried looks, until finally, one of them stepped forward.

“Lady Avelle… you cannot mean…”

“We have to awaken the colossus.”

“Lady Avelle?! The colossus?!”

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“But that…! It is a spirit thousands and thousands of years old! It was born with Eryndea!”

“Once it is done with the enemy, it will turn its wrath on us!”

“We can only hope they destroy each other…”

***

[Servants]

> [Cerys]

> [Visiare of the Last Valley]

>> [Ilyra]

>>> [Location]