“A natural defense, despite its power it cannot force itself through it.” Vukosava pushes the wheel to the right.

  “Are you trying to kill us?”

  “Hesitation is the end of conviction.” Amber says. “We cannot dey any longer. The currents will carry us onwards.”

  With no option left, John drives headlong onto the docks. He slows down to a crawl, the ptform groaning beneath the weight of his vehicle. There’s no peace, there is a horrifically loud scream that rips across the ground, tearing out the fence, lifting the houses from their foundations. Metal screeching, bricks breaking, wood and gss exploding fragment by fragment. The mist is starting to tear the physical world apart piece by piece, a dark hole turning into a viciously expanding force, to consume their light.

  One by one, Vukosava, John, James, Nathen and Harley plunge into the cold depths as the world above plunges into the void. They continue for a while, swimming together side by side, only emerging upwards to steal a breath. Each time is more terrifying than the st – there are monsters, sick and grotesque. Survive or perish, the knight said, this is the next hurdle, will they live to see one more day?

  After swimming for what feels like hours, they emerge, dragging themselves onto another dock. Vukosava drags herself onto it, the others soon join her, breathing heavily from exertion.

  “We need to keep moving.” Vukosava helps Harley up. “Come on.”

  “Are you serious, we’ve been going for ages. What use is it if we’re tired as shit?” Harley manages to splutter. Despite taking in water, she’s still got plenty of bark in her.

  “Death.” Amber is swimming through the air, with six rge canvases spreading outwards from her back. Three on her left and right side. “That is a future we must prevail against.”

  “Our phones have been made into chips for a pool table. What are we going to do now?” John is flicking his hair back irritably with his left hand.

  “Do you have equipment at your pce?” Vukosava asks.

  “Yeah, I did.”

  The group looks back. The new stations have a nightmare on their hands. The whole region is a ruin; everything is dust and ash blowing upon the fickle wind. It’s like a typhoon ran rampant, picking up everything a couple meters from the ground before sending it down with full force. That isn’t hunger, Vukosava thought, it’s rage.

  “We have to go back in there, don’t we?” Nathen is struggling to take off his shirt to wring it out. Harley helps him.

  “Yeah, considering how much shit is hitting the fan already. It’s clogged by now.” Harley hands Nathen his shirt. “If one thing is working in our favor, it’s that people aren’t us. They’re not running back towards the problem like us. We’re the dumbasses.”

  “It’s not something I’d take pride in. Especially now.” James replies hollowly. “So, we can count on the authorities doing their bit – regution, rules, all that stuff. Are we going to go back in?”

  “If hesitation is found in us – then the mist shall follow. We are a part of the bounty that it wants to cim.” Amber looks at each of them with fire in her eyes. “It is our obligation to stop the spread.”

  “It reduced all of that to a fucking ruin. Like freaking Pompeii.” Harley folds her arms, before nodding slowly. “I guess we’re the unlucky ones.”

  “If we’re turning our luck around, how are we going to do it?” John inquires.

  “You go back to your house, gather chalk, candles and a Ouija board.” Vukosava takes him by the arm. “We’ll try to distract that thing. Keep any idiots from running in. Do you have another car?”

  “You really think my dad’s got these damn things growing on trees? Yeah, I’ll dig a bigger hole for myself.” John pces a hand on her shoulder. “You got an idea for a signal?”

  “We’re not the only ones trying to stop it.” Vukosava turns back to the group. “We got the knight and the painter on our side.”

  “I will be able to light your way through the suffocating darkness. For the fire that consumed me shall not be overwhelmed.” Amber decries firmly.

  “Well, I guess that’s better than nothing. Try not to die on me guys.” John takes off.

  “It’s time for us to go.” Vukosava instructs the group. “We got a job to do.”

  “I guess we do.” Amber inclines her head.

  Vukosava, Harley, Amber, Nathen and James look at one another. Before nodding – they’re the dumbasses. That will run in there, to buy some time.

  “If your Queen is intent on actioning her brand of justice, surely you can’t approve of that.” Vukosava directs towards Charles Derhert. “This world is full of people, good and bad, if this crusade of hers goes ahead, innocence will be caught in the crossfire.”

  Amber looks over to Vukosava with a tear streaming down her face.

  “I know that good people suffered because of the prince, they didn’t deserve it. But if we do that to everyone without exception. If everyone in a prison is marked as vile – they’re all the worst. Then what is that? Is that justice or cruelty?” Vukosava presses on despite the pain on Amber’s face.

  “I don’t want people to suffer. Not like this.” Amber and Charles speak in perfect unison.

  “You have to speak to that Red woman, make her see reason.” Harley snaps.

  Everyone is adding their own bits of confirmation.

  “I have. I have pleaded with her to reconsider. To understand the path that she intends to walk.”

  “So, that’s it? That big and powerful bitch is going to walk on in – after we’re done doing her dirty work.” Harley is going at his throat; Nathen is folding onto her as tightly as he can. “We’re dealing with that mist bitch, and we’re helping you and that knight get things back to normal – nice and comfy. For the same thing to happen anyway.”

  “Can you tell us anything, Charles?” Vukosava asks. “What is her final goal?”

  -

  “The dogs were worth more than you. It’s fitting that filth only attracts more filth.” Sir Victor Alberius is on the prowl. There are monsters that are human too and he doesn’t have the patience to have them unlock tent power – there are those that will sink to depths barely imaginable. “Cleaning the scum from this city – it needs to be cruel. For justice is blind if it allows the corrupt to linger.”

  It didn’t take long to find such a lowlife consorting with one of the entities. Now, with the dark power flowing through his veins, he sought to hurt others. Especially the little children.

  There’s so many of them, he could sense the corruption spreading as fast as the mist.

  “Have mercy – I never id a hand on any of those kids.”

  “You think not committing the act is virtuous? You still intended to hurt them all the same.” The dark knight stands over the wretch. “I seek to end all corruption – and you are merely another waste of living flesh.”

  “Please.” The man raises his arm.

  Sir Victor Alberius cuts off his wayward arm easily. “It is humanity’s shadow that I deal with now. I should know well – I became a shadow encased in a new cage. The nature of lesser life is to take on falsehood like a fucking shield. You are absolute in your vile deeds.”

  The creature is bleeding out quickly – but if the monster is desperate for a host, it will cauterize the wound. A slow and agonising death if he keeps going. “I’ve taken out so many, perhaps I should thank this world for exposing itself so completely. I am the cure, fucker, to all diseases.”

  His screams of pain fill the air as his desire to live starts to burn around his wound, sealing it shut. “I have id waste to your kind – and now, I will finish my duties to the one who shall summon the greatest fire of them all.”

  He pnts his bde into the man’s neck. Without hesitation, he sends the man’s head careening off the window, spttering like a rotten tomato. Mental and psychological corruption is easy to find these days – the bckhearted couldn’t hide. Their bastardry and hedonism is painfully obvious to one with his senses.

  Sir Victor Alberius is a diligent worker, the houses of the wicked have been cleansed. Yet there is still so much more to do. The justice system and the ws of order will be thrown into the Red Queen’s great fire, the nd will be rebuilt upon the bones and blood of the righteously sin. She will become a ruler of a new age. The Crimson Court will extend into the world of the living, as will her reign. He pauses for a moment, turning his gaze back towards the mist – he wonders, did they survive?

  -

  “So, that’s what she will do. Inflict the same punishment on everyone else?” Harley is leading the charge back into the misty nd. “Will she fucking stop?”

  “Her intentions are to deliver ends.” Amber replies, floating alongside them. “Her justice will know no bounds.”

  “I guess that clears things up.” Vukosava says sarcastically.

  “I do not wish for the people to suffer such wanton brutality. For that is what my teacher and I suffered so many years ago.”

  “Here’s the pn, guys, we need to open and seal this portal properly. If we do this right – we can force the entity back into its own world. And if we’re lucky it won’t be able to go back through the same seal we opened at the ancient city.” Vukosava is looking around nervously.

  “What exactly are we doing now?” Nathen asks.

  “Deying it. I have a theory. Not a very good one though.”

  “We’re open to anything at this point. Spill it out, Vic.” James strains against his sodden shirt.

  “If this thing is capable of rage, then maybe there’s more ways we can pull on it.” Vukosava turns towards Amber. “I don’t want to force you to do anything, if you say no. I will never hold it against you.”

  “No, I’m done running. What am I doing?” Amber looks Vukosava dead in the eye.

  “Recreating old memories. She was chasing after the killer – maybe that’s still a core memory it has.”

  “I will not force you; I can find a different body to inhabit.”

  “No.” Amber refuses the offer. “We’re doing this side by side. And this time, we’ll succeed in stopping a disaster.”

  “You truly have such a remarkable spirit, you are more precious than you know. When we succeed, I will show you the story of my life.” Charles Derhert says passionately. “Let us begin this great struggle.”

  Folklore Files:

  The Knight that fell into Corruption

  Sir Victor Alberius is the personification of a corrupted knight – with a belief in a false, romantic love and code of honor. To save and protect the helpless. Idealistic to a fault. After being raised as a lesser man amongst the beggars, thieves, drunks and washerwomen of his humble vilge, Victor wanted to escape a life that he despised. He went off to fight – to earn coin and glory. He rose through the ranks, going on to serve royalty – and in the end betrayed them. For this act, he was condemned and his body started to darken and fade within his suit of armour. He lost everything – his valor and honour. He became a terror to those around him, seen as a dark knight that hid his face and body from god and men.

  He decided to join a militia eager to prove himself on the battlefield. Despite his low birth he was taken on as a squire by a local knight, learning the way of the sword and chivalric code. However, with his ambition to climb higher, he decided to join the “Dogmen”, formerly and properly known as “The Righteous Company”. On the outside, they seemed to be good people, noble even for a pack of mercenaries and bdes-for-hire. But this was an illusion, a trick they picked up to take in new, unsuspecting recruits.

  There was one contract they took on that he would curse until the end of his days. They were sworn to an unruly lord and dy, a King and Queen – that demanded justice for the death of their father who was assassinated according to evidence they had gathered. They raised their honorary retinue and were prepared to meet the conspirators with bdes in hand. To put the treacherous nobles back in order. Captain Rath had other ideas, seeing an opportunity to further his own ambitions and avoid unnecessary casualties for his men. He decided to betray the confidence of the young king. Sir Victor Alberius fell under a curse, as the breaking of an oath or contract was considered to bcken the soul. Despite his loyalty to the company, he decided to try and warn the young king and queen, but by then it was too te. He was seen as an enemy that threatened the safety of the kingdom. After fighting the loyal household guard, Sir Victor Alberius went after the Queen who after a bitter confrontation fell from the tower. The young king insulted Sir Victor and nded a strike with his bde, before the dogmen took him down.

  A single wound damned Sir Victor Alberius forever, a bde that didn’t speak of betrayal. It was only after the events unfolded that he saw what “The Righteous Company” really were – a bunch of lecherous, hedonistic bastards that sought satisfaction to their bestial urges. Despite the guilt he felt, he believed that the two of them dying was a better end to their lives than being tortured.

  He decided to stand beside the next in line to the throne - which would be the usurper, King Harald Vestris and his dynasty. Sir Victor Alberius returned home to help his family one st time, giving them his cut from the st war he was involved in. At the Capital, he served on the City Watch. By this point he was starting to fade, his essence turning dark. A couple years ter, a new tragedy occurred, a blood painting done by the heir to the Kingdom of Avaron to procim his love and admiration for Catherine Mallory. For their involvement in this vile act, the Righteous Company were condemned to a painful death for this abhorrent deed and many others besides. It should’ve ended there, but disappearances kept happening night after night. Sir Victor Alberius wrote down the names of the dead, and those that were taken - hoping to find the culprit. It might’ve been his wish to redeem himself for everything that happened in his past, perhaps he wanted to find meaning before his own painful death.

  There were those that suspected he was involved in the disappearances due to the writing down of names. It wasn’t long before the knight in dark armour, was brought to his end. By a council of judges and priests that saw him as a monster. At the end when he was brought back, he appeared in bck armour, the weapons that were driven into him by the people were gone, back in those days they believed that horrific figures could rise from the grave. The best method to keep them down - pinning them to the earth.

  To the masses who scorn his name, they call him the Betrayer of Royalty. The Betrayer of Moral Life.