Elira sat in the dark, hugging her knees, until a deep, resonant horn blasted through the fortress.

  Booooooom.

  The sound vibrated in her chest, jarring her from her thoughts. Elira jumped, recognizing the signal Yevan had told her about.

  She stood up, hands shaking as she buttoned the oversized uniform, then pushed open the heavy metal door to step into the chaos outside.

  The assembly ground had become a sea of gray uniforms. Thousands of soldiers moved in organized panic, shouting orders and checking gear. Elira slipped behind a line of infantry, trying to shrink into her collar and disappear.

  But there was no hiding.

  Major Viktor marched through the crowd, the soldiers parting around him like water. He walked straight to Elira and, without a word, grabbed the back of her collar. He lifted her off the ground and tossed her into a different formation.

  "That is your group."

  Elira hit the hard dirt. No one moved to catch her.

  Scrambling up, she dusted herself off to look at her new unit. There were only about fifty of them, standing apart from the main army.

  Some of them twitched. Some stared at the sky with hollow eyes. Others sharpened their weapons. They didn't look like soldiers.

  "Listen up!" Viktor’s voice boomed, amplified by magic. "The Holy Kingdom has breached the outer perimeter. Your orders are simple. Hold the line. If you retreat, you die by my hand. If you advance, you might live."

  He looked down at the small group of fifty.

  "Disperse."

  The battlefield was a frozen wasteland of mud and craters.

  Standing at the very front, Elira glanced back. The massive black wall loomed behind her, while hundreds of yards back, the regular soldiers manned the trenches. In the distance, she spotted Yevan fumbling with a cannon shell, his face pale.

  Between the regular army and Elira's group lay a strip of land filled with mines, spikes, and barbed wire.

  Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  There was no retreat.

  Elira looked forward as a sea of white appeared on the horizon.

  Knights in gleaming, polished armor and mages in pristine robes marched beneath banners depicting a golden sun. They were blinding to look at, and they were loud.

  They were singing.

  Thousands of voices rose in a unified hymn, a song of worship and cleansing.

  The sound was beautiful, yet terrifying.

  As Elira stood frozen, the others rushed forward. They didn't scream or sing. There was no glory in their charge, just the sound of boots crunching on frozen mud as the white sea crashed into them.

  Slash.

  Crunch.

  Deafening screams tore through the air. The smell of copper and iron overwhelmed the senses as intestines steamed in the cold air.

  It was familiar. Too familiar.

  A knight in shining armor towered over her, raising a massive battle axe. He sang as he swung it down, aiming to split her skull.

  Elira sat down in the mud and hugged her knees.

  A monstrous black hand burst from the earth, catching the axe blade mid-swing. The knight stopped singing as black tentacles erupted from the ground, wrapping around his limbs.

  Rip.

  He was torn into pieces, warm blood splashing onto Elira’s face.

  The singing stopped. Only deafening silence left.

  Major Viktor hovered in the sky, observing the battlefield with narrowed eyes.

  Below him, the front line had turned into a nightmare. A dome of darkness, almost half a mile wide, had consumed the fight.

  Monsters made of shadow and flesh ran amok, tentacles lashing out from the earth to drag knights down into the abyss. The soldiers scrambled to get out of range, terrified of their own ally.

  Viktor watched as a battalion of Holy Knights disintegrated into red mist.

  "To think that a little girl is the cause of this…"

  The fight stopped. The shining army retreated.

  Elira sat still in the center of the carnage, the ground around her soaked red.

  Thud.

  Thud.

  The ground trembled rhythmically until a giant finger nudged her shoulder gently.

  "Can you walk, kid?"

  Elira looked up to see a giant man crouching beside her. He was covered in blood. His eyes were wild, but his voice was surprisingly soft.

  Elira tried to speak, but her voice was gone.

  The giant sighed, scooping her up with one hand to place her on his shoulder.

  "Wow, girl. You totally got us fooled."

  Elira looked to her left, where a woman sat on the giant's other shoulder.

  "That is Brand Magic, isn't it? At your age? What did you do to make them send such a talent to this graveyard?"

  Elira remained silent.

  Her eyes were fixed on the sea of corpses stretching to the horizon.