The bells outside were tolling in some sort of coded sequence and I as I pushed open the barred window and poked my head of Vance’s office I got a better vantage point on the carnage below. A few buildings out in the fields next to the castle were burning and I saw dark winged shapes darting in and out of the trees nearby.

Entranced by the horrific spectacle, I observed something red, like a streak of fire blaze off the back of one in a red ball and bounce off a glowing barrier that had suddenly begun to form around the keep and its walls. Tiny figures were running for fortified homes around the farms, and I saw smaller globes spring up around them. Then return fire began to streak back at the flying forms as they writhed and spun to dodge what looked like glowing beams of light and fire from defenders.

I leaned on the sill of the narrow window and watched the battle, my stomach twisting in horror. There was a screeching roar from high above, and I saw a gigantic bird the size of a light aircraft slam into one of the winged figures, hurtling it out of the horde attacking the fortified farms and ripping and tearing it with its talons. The bird turned and with the lights of the fire silhouetting it, I saw it had a rider on the bird’s back.

The creature flew towards the keep, dropping its stunned creature prize down right in front of its shielded walls, where it began to get peppered with arrows, and objects that exploded when they hit.

It was blasted apart into tumbling fragments, and I wondered just what the attacking creature had been. More air support began to rally for the defense and I gasped as a massive golden griffin, streaming banners and covered in red livery rise up out of the courtyard, from the stable that I had seen earlier. It was that one with a cleared strip of ground in front of it. I now realized why those stables were so large, they housed these flying creatures.

A horn sounded in the distance, and it was as if the nearby woods seemed to come alive with pinpricks of light as thousands of torches lit deep in the wood, and a wave of screaming creatures flowed towards the castle.

One by one, as precious minutes passed, the little fortified farms began to lose their shields, with waves of power slamming into them. With those globes of power down I saw explosions tearing apart both the defenders and the buildings alike. Trumpets sounded from far below me, and the gates roared open to let out a stream of knights on horseback running to aid the farms. Far below me, I recognized the coat of arms I had seen Vance wearing streaming from a banner on the front of the formation. They slammed into the tide of attackers, and I could hear the screams of battle, clash of weapons from high up above even now.

I stood there, not knowing if I was supposed to help, or what I could do in that maelstrom of death and battle below me. Either way there had to be something I could do. I sprinted out of the office and down the hall. I skidded to a halt as I saw a young page press his hands against a crystal panel. When It slid open, I saw that there was metal pole there that looked suspiciously like those poles you could see in old movies about what fire stations were like back at the twentieth century. I ran over it and watched him disappear down into the bowls of the castle. Then there was a series of slamming clangs as on each floor, a metal grate slid shut, before suddenly the panel in front of me slammed closed. I tried to figure out how the page had opened it, but couldn’t quite understand what he had done.

I touched the crystal I had seen him touch, but nothing happened. “Move aside!” Someone behind me screamed and I felt myself flung to the ground as the ebony skinned woman, Gloria palmed the crystal and disappeared down into the darkness sliding down the pole.

I grabbed the pole and slid down after her, hoping that I wasn’t going to be squished by a closing grate.

Landing at the bottom I had to dive out of the way of another descending person, then I was pushed out of the way again as the guard behind me ran for the parade grounds outside the keep, where a large formation of soldiers began to organize. Weapons and shields were being readied as leaders rallied their men and prepared to march them out to aid the knights. There was a stream of wounded being brought back to the castle on litter bearers. Gloria skidded to a halt next to one and helped lift the litter to the ground where she began tending a wounded knight with bandages and forcing the player to drink potions even as he cursed at her and struggled to get up.

“Not going to drink your damm sleepyjuice woman! They need me back out there!” I heard the player cry right before Gloria have him a hard slap, snapping his head back and dazing him. She then yanked out the wicked looking glowing spear that was stuck between two joints of his plate armor and dumping a potion over the seeping wound.

“Hold still Jeff! Goddamit you ornery sonofabitch!” She snarled as I dashed to the growing cluster of wounded. Reaching for my power, I pulled glowing water out of the air and laid it over the man’s wounds. He gave a sigh as a nasty gash sealed up. My head spun a bit, but I did feel stronger and the power did come more easily to me now.

Gloria seemed to pause for a second, before her eyes widened in shock. “You! Hey what are you doing…” She snarled at me before she blinked and watched in wonder as Jeff tried to struggle to his feet. “I’m fine Gloria! Let me get back out there! We are being overrun! There are too many to handle!” The man stumbled a bit as Gloria helped him stand up and he half ran, half stumbled back towards the gatehouse.

In the distance I heard the sound of trumpets again and the gatehouse rumbled open, and a stream of knights, villagers, and farmers poured into the courtyard flooding over the wounded. The soldiers had already formed up to either side of the gatehouse and as the stream of incoming defenders trailed off, they rushed to cover the last of them before the gates slammed shut.

I didn’t see any sign of Vance. There also seemed to be only about half the number of knights I had seen sally out earlier from my vantage point in Vance’s office.

Gloria rushed to one of the men who was riding double, and I recognized him as Sir. Gregor. He was badly wounded and swaying in his perch on the saddle, before Gloria helped him down where she began to try and rouse him. I didn’t have to wait to be asked as I saw the pleading look in Gloria’s face as she franticly tried to staunch the flow of blood flowing out from under his armor. It looked like his entire chest was nearly caved in by some horrendous blow. She had to cut the armor off of him and then get help to unbind his gambeson to get to the wound.

“They broke my enchantments…” He gasped and Gloria picked up a piece of armor and frowned as she studied it.

“What in the heck…” She poked at black substance covering the armor before her eyes went wide.

“We have underdark out there?!” She stammered and he nodded.

“A horde of them flowing from the south. We had heard rumors of something terrible happening along the coast, but no real confirmation until now. Vance is dead… so is Cecile and Kenny, since Vance died last night, that means he’s stacked three times now…” Gloria nodded at the knight’s words and her face fell.

“At least twelve hours then, and he had the only master com crystal.” She cursed and stood up.

A shuddering blast that sounded like thunder rocked the shield, a dark lance of light howled and burned into it. We all looked up and I gasped as an immense dark shape seemed to float down out of the clouds, deep purple sparks tracing a line between the shield where it had discharged something powerful.

“Airship!” Gloria yelled just as bright beams of searchlights lit up from all the points of the star fort and there were a series of thrums as the odd devices launched projectiles at the airship. The projectiles crossed the distance in an instant, and penetrated the shield around the dark looming form, causing massive explosions and washes of fire.

Even from here we could hear the screams of it’s crew as it rippled with concussive force, then seem to list a bit, debris raining down over the ground under it, along with clouds of falling creatures.

The ship lurched upwards, clawing for the sky, but it looked like it had dropped countless floating figures, like a trail of inky dark behind it. A searchlight fixed on them and I saw that they were falling monsters heading right for the castle.

At the same moment the shield around us flickered and shuttered from another massive hit, this time from the outside of the fort somewhere. “Run for the keep!” Gloria screamed and gathered up one end of a stretcher carrying Gregor, and I grabbed the other. We ran for the narrow stairs of the keep just as the shield flickered and died as it had been a candle snuffed out in a wind. Behind us and above us I could hear the clash of weapons and the howling inhuman roar. Soldiers were streaming into the keep behind us as we entered, fighting a rear guard as hundreds of winged figures poured over the walls like a tide of darkness.

The courtyard was filling with black creatures landing all around us. Streaks of light, and blazing projectiles were arching out from the defenders of the keep, killing anything that tried to get up the narrow stairway along the side, unless it was a retreating friendly defender.

Gloria ran off as soon as we set the stretcher down and I sat down next to Gregor who was fumbling at his shattered armor and trying to remove sections of it. I helped him and he stripped down to a torn padded gambeson that had chainmail in vulnerable spots, like the armpit and other joint locations. He picked up one of the discarded pieces of armor.

“Should have upgraded to that new stuff that the enchanters were working on, supposed to be more resistant to disenchanting.” He winced.

“What happened?” I asked and he shook his head.

“It was a trap. They lured us out and used more breakers that I’ve ever seen to suppress the enchantments on our armor while they used breaker spells on us, then they used their heavy troops to attack the knights.” He winced and pointed upwards.

“Only the second time I’ve seen one of their airships, the last time was during the battle at the capital of Fendwick where they tried to wipe us out with a massive army.”

“Who are these underdark?” I asked. They both looked at me in consternation. He laughed.

“Pretty much the main baddies everywhere these days. They are twisted creatures… don’t get bitten by them by the way.” He trailed off and added the last bit as an afterthought.

The keep shuddered and groaned. I heard fighting all around us and a series of explosions. I could still hear the strange machines firing and fighting outside the keep, so apparently the walls hadn’t quite fallen yet.

More wounded streamed into the barracks and I saw them being loaded into elevators. I jumped onto one and helped heal the soldier being transported. It let out several floors above, seemingly in the very center of the keep. Players and locals in white robes rushed around me, and I saw them tending to the wounded as I stumbled out of the elevator, watching in fascination as they used some sort of bright light from their fingers to help close wounds and repair damage to their patients.

I felt very drained, as I walked through the bedlam. I had really strained my power helping Gloria and had to sit down for a moment. Fishing around in my pocket I pulled out the small statuette of Aegaeon that I had been gifted and wondered just how I was supposed to pray and get some power back.

There wasn’t any moving water in close proximity for me to draw on, so I’d have to make due with a few prayers. It felt odd praying to a fake god in a game but it was what was expected of me. It was just a game, and while I felt silly, it still was quite normal here.

Drawing my feet up to me in a lotus position on the chair I gripped the statuette of Aegaeon tightly in my fingers as I tried to imagine drawing power from it, like I had done with the river. Nothing happened.

Gritting my teeth, I closed my eyes and muttered.

“Oh great Aegaeon… please don’t let me die!” I said with as much conviction and piety as I could muster. Deep within my mind I felt a foreign chuckle before slowly, the statuette warmed in my fingers and a tingle like my fingers, then my arm falling asleep flooded my hands and I felt better, lighter as power flooded into me.

I blinked open my eyes and saw one of the white robed clerics staring at me in horror. “Is that… Aegaeon?” She muttered pointing at my statuette, her eyes wide as she backed away.

“She is one of the dark ones!” She cried and I gave her a puzzled glance as all of white robed healers stopped what they were doing. A player in the same white robes advanced on me.

“I knew there was something off about you the moment I saw you!” He cried and I saw his eyes flash for a second, as he cast a spell with one gesture of his hand. His entire face drained of color as he stared at me with glowing eyes.

“Shes…. she’s the champion of Aegaeon! Kill her!” He screamed and I felt lances of light billow out of their hands and suddenly I was bound in glowing ropes of power and carried to the ground. The man who had cried for my death smiled at me as he advanced on my prone figure.

“You have any idea how much favor I’ll get for killing you? I should thank you, at least if I get overrun and killed, I’ll have something to show for it.” He laughed as he lifted my neck to plunge the dagger into it.