Prologue

"They're coming!"

The alarm sounded, a deep, resonating gong that echoed throughout the city. Screams and yells were heard as families flew away with their white, angelic wings. Angels, for that is what they were, flew down from the fortress in the distance, armed for battle.

The threat soon showed itself. In the distance, the golden light that filtered through the area began to dim, and then darken, and then turn black. A wave of darkness was coming to the city, corrupting everything that it passed over. As it came, white lights flashed behind the army, angels dressed in white robes appearing. They immediately raised up their hands, closing their eyes, palms forward to the coming darkness. They began to chant in a deep, ancient voice together, the air shifting with the power that began to gather.

As the darkness came closer, screeches and wails were heard within it as many glowing eyes of assorted colors appeared. Creatures shot out of the darkness in many shapes and sizes. They had fangs, claws, wings, tentacles even, all sorts of things meant to render flesh and break bone. They rushed toward the army, screeching in excitement at the sight of food.

Suddenly all the white robed angels' eyes opened at once. Their hands glowed white as a wall of light shot form the ground before the army and spread across the ground, sealing off the city from the oncoming darkness. The creatures rushed at it only to disappear in a blinding flash of light. The ones who saw this stopped their rush, screeching at the army in fury at food lost. Then all together they fell silent, looking behind them at the darkness that continued to come.

All fell still. The are went silent, not a single noise heard. Then, out of the darkness shot a bolt of darkness, too quick to see what had cause it. It struck the light with a flash of dark light that seemed to absorb the wall of light and eat it whole before disappearing. At once all the white robed angels fell to the ground, dead. The army of angels, clad in their shining armor and their gleaming swords, readied for the battle.

And it came. The dark creatures came at them, tackling them with full force. They ripped heads, tore off arms, ate the angels. There were simply too many of them and too little of the angels. Within minutes the angels were gone, in their place a bloody mess. The creatures cackled and submerged themselves once more in the darkness as it moved over the city, the buildings crumbling to the ground as it did. They moved ever closer to the castle.
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The alarm gong sounded in the castle, alerting the inhabitants to the arrival of the darkness that had killed so many and destroyed so much. In a room at the top of one of the towers, there stood a single angel. He was old, even for an angel, with a long white beard and hair, wearing regal robes. He held a bundle in his arms, wrapped in white silk. Before him was a stone gateway, etched with glowing runes. He looked to the bundle and sighed, touching something within it. He looked to the gateway and reached out with a gnarled, wrinkled old hand and touched it gently. There was a flash of silver light and a swirling vortex formed within the gateway.

The door to the tower cracked. The creatures were trying to break through. He gave it a glance before looking to the gateway. He hobbled over to it and looked to the bundle again. He spoke in a frail, ancient voice.

"Goodbye, dear. Save everyone, and bring peace again. Farewell."

He gently put his hands and the bundle into the portal. They disappeared within. After a moment he pulled them back, without the bundle. It was gone. The gateway cracked and crumbled to the ground, the portal disappearing. He turned to the door just as it broke and the creatures rushed in. He spoke one last thing before he was enveloped in darkness.

"Farewell, my daughter."