The Castle in the middle of nowhere.

Captain Nathaniel Drake looked in shock at the letter from the capital and read the orders for the fifth time, hoping this time they would somehow change. But no. The fact no one cared to check who the city commander was, however, was the least of his concerns now.

To: Garrison Commander, Town of Girsion

From: King General Korkas

The entire Girison garrison, ten-thousand strong, is to move to the village of Parnma and join the 6th army immediately.

He looked at his wife preparing the very late evening meal before turning his gaze towards the doors to the room where their seven years old son was sleeping. He felt so weak that he had to cover his eyes. According to the scouts who dared to check the nearby forests, they were full of winter beasts. If Nathaniel complied and they moved as they were ordered, Girsion would be destroyed and his family would die. He angrily crumpled up the letter and threw it into the fireplace, trying to hold back the tears of powerlessness that started forming in his eyes.

"Fuck this!" He yelled, turning his resignation into anger. It was enough to scare his wife, but he quickly stood up, took his coat and sword, and left his home without explaining anything.

He slammed the doors and lit a torch. On his way to the garrison building, he was swearing profoundly, but that wasn't enough to calm him down. Girsion was an important city, and Nathaniel couldn't understand why the Queen ordered them to leave it defenceless. He passed the well-maintained buildings, where people that trusted him with their lives were awaiting another spring and the relative safety it would bring. He thought about the poorer buildings, just a few streets away, made of badly plastered wood. They spewed dark clouds of smelly and choking smoke when their inhabitants burned anything flammable to warm themselves just a little. Nathaniel passed near them as well, trying to formulate any plan in his head to fulfil this insane order, but at the same time leave the city well-defended.

So far, he had failed.

His home was located in the wealthy district in the south of the city, where the wind blew more often, pushing away the stench of the city. However, the garrison building was located in the northwest, and the fastest way there was to use one of three main 'gate roads'. Nathaniel was so tired from the latest nonsense orders he received this past month that he himself was on the brink of mutiny. The constant training, equipment inspections, and pointless patrols in the deep snow surrounding the area had exhausted all the soldiers under his command. And now this. The order to leave the city and everyone they loved behind, without leaving even a single company. That was too much...

*WHUUUUMP* *BAM!*

The low and menacing sound that ended with a deafening crash shook the ground.

"Gods! THE GATE! EVERYONE TO THE GATE!" Nathaniel yelled and rushed towards the south gatehouse which he was nearby. "By Zeus! Ring the alarm bells! Why are they silent?!"

After crossing the corner, he stopped in fear and shock, seeing the south gate shattered into pieces. In front of him, the sparse and dimmed lights of the city couldn't disperse the darkness, leaving the opening as if it was some dark portal to the shadow land. Nathaniel swore one more time, feeling the cold sweat on his back despite the cold of winter. Behind him, a few more soldiers arrived and started forming a line, but when he looked at them, he could see their fear. Something terrible happened with the alarm bells and Nathaniel understood that most of his soldiers were already sleeping, too tired to pay attention to anything if the alarm bells were silent.

"Where is the gatehouse?!" someone yelled from the second line.

"It's destroyed, you idiot!" Nathaniel yelled, pointing at the youngest guard. "You! Run to the garrison and tell them we are under attack! Then go and check what happened with the alarms! The rest of you, advance!"

•••

Galahad looked at the effect of the concentrated bombardment from the catapults and nodded with satisfaction. According to Sebastian, the garrison of the city of Girsion was going to be used as the bulwark of one of the armies that would attack Avalon. Legio Ferrata completely surrounded the city under the cover of the darkness over the course of the last bleak and dark day. For the people of this world, it was already a late night. In the meantime, Arani was leading Legio Fulminata towards Fort Crissna, where the main Cridian forces in this province were stationed. Galahad had just a few hours to take Girsion, and he was not going to waste any more time.

"Advance!" He ordered calmly, making the legion move.

According to the orders he received, and the code he followed, Galahad wanted to keep civilian losses to the minimum. That's why he used catapults only to level down one of three gatehouses and ceased further bombardment of the city. Four cohorts began their rapid approach towards the city with no single light that could have betrayed their positions. The rest of Legio Ferrata's cohorts either cut off other gates or prepared to follow the initial assault, but Galahad knew they had already won. Now it was time to pay the price for this victory.

Three bright flashes of white light in the nearby forest marked the location where regrouping winter beasts tried to reorganise after legion Hussars had decimated their previous horde. The chaos spawns were absolutely and utterly unprepared for what had come; death under the lances of Hussars or being trampled to death by their large war horses. Then there was the death that rained from above in relentless waves of arrows. And in the end, a solitary fairy mage, brimming with incomprehensible amounts of magic, simply erased any survivors from existence.

Oh yes, his King was right. The winter beasts were dangerous, but they were the apex predator for so long they forgot about caution. As cunning and dangerous as they were, there was nothing they could do now against the wrath of Avalon and its unleashed legions. Except for one thing. They could die. The strongest of the captured beasts told them they had underestimated Avalon and its master before it died. The fact the chaos spawns could talk was very diligently documented in reports. But the monster wasn't wrong. A month ago, Avalon was still ill-prepared for a massive siege from an enemy as powerful as the winter beasts. But the beasts expected that everyone in this land would cower in fear before them. King Theon, however, never planned to play by anyone else's rules.

And that's why, when winter beasts expected to fight against the shield wall of the legion as they did before, they were surprised to be greeted with lances and hooves instead. When the beasts expected to encounter light archers, they were met by the fury of fairies that were flying above them, flooding them with fire that never stopped burning. When they finally found the archers, they were heavy troops that shot blessed arrows whose mere touch meant death for the chaos spawns. The massacre was too swift for the winter beasts to understand what was happening and hundreds of them died, thinking that some new, terrible opponent must have revealed itself.

Galahad entered the city, whose sparse defenders tried to barricade the streets in the vain hope of stalling attackers. Avalon’s forces caught them completely off-guard. The downright shocked garrison facing the surprised attack was unable to put up any serious resistance. The barricades burned, illuminating the streets of the doomed city and the occasional terrified face in the window. Galahad walked slowly, analysing each step in his King's plan and how and what he could learn from it. Behind him, ten Praetorians scanned the area for any enemy, but the still resisting Cridian's forces were in front. The plaza behind the once very rudimentary and now non-existing gate was under Avalon's control. Galahad looked at the stunned and tied down Cridian soldiers, who looked around in shock.

"Who are you, people?!" The angry voice of one of the captured soldiers clearly addressed him. "Why are you doing this?!"

Galahad looked around and noticed one soldier with a bit different uniform than the rest near him. He took a few steps towards the man, taking out a page of paper which contained a detailed portrait of the only person worth talking to in the entire city.

"Nathaniel Drake? Commander of Girsion?" Galahad would smile if he could, but being a skeleton terribly reduced his available facial expressions. The short, unintended nod confirmed the identity of his interlocutor. "I am Galahad of Avalon, the Scion of The Righteous Dungeon."

The anger changed into terror when the man understood they were all doomed. The soldiers near him started to scream in panic, trying to break free from ropes or chains.

"Can you please shut the fuck up? We don't want to harm you. Think. If we wanted you dead, this entire city would have already drowned in your blood." Galahad couldn't help but sigh.

"So what do you want?" Captain Drake looked at Galahad with fearful respect, only reserved for the immortal servants of the dungeons.

"I offer you, and your people, salvation."

•••

The bright fairies' lights turned the darkness into the day. Nathaniel Drake was sitting in the wagon in chains and near him was sitting his wife, cuddling their son with fear in her eyes. Half an hour ago, Nathaniel betrayed the Cridian Kingdom and surrendered the garrison city of Girsion. He was one of just around nineteen thousand prisoners that surrendered given the choice. Surrender or die. The fifteen hundred soldiers who managed to reach the garrison refused to surrender and were now fully encircled. They barricaded themselves inside and awaited for the relief forces that were never going to arrive in time. All the messenger pigeons were hunted down by the eagles of Avalon. Nathaniel cursed himself, but when the black knights dragged his wife and son in front of him, he couldn't risk their lives. When he signalled to surrender, other soldiers cursed him as well, but in truth, they were no better than him. After all, almost all of them also surrendered.

"You can trust the word given by my King, Captain." The soft female voice broke Nathaniel's stupor.

"Who are you?" Nathaniel looked into the eyes of a fellow mortal.

The Half-Elf woman who looked at him with compassion in her purple eyes was wearing incredible armour. Nathaniel gasped in disbelief when she must have allowed herself to be identified. A level ninety? Her level must have been faked! But the longer he looked at her, the more he was sure it was not a bluff.

"Who are you?" He repeated himself. Everyone in the cart was looking at the woman in disbelief.

"I am Lady Iris Silverblade, a resident of the Righteous Dungeon."

"I don't believe it!" Nathaniel yelled, only arousing the laughter of a Half-Elf beauty.

"We couldn't believe it either. But here we are!" She laughed as she took the reins. "Better hold on. There will be no stops during this trip. If any of you think about running away, remember you have no chance in the darkness and nowhere to go."

•••

Galahad shook his head in disbelief when an insanely large wagon tabor left Girsion, headed towards Avalon. The wagons that normally served two legions were used in this daring plan. Every single wagon and draft horse unassigned to other legions in Avalon was committed to this mission. The special wooden road laid directly on the thick, magically reinforced ice cover was constructed quickly, completely depleting Avalon's wood storage. It was a really simple idea; long and wide wooden planks were frozen tight to the magic ice, providing a straight and even road. After this one use, the wooden planks would be burned away and the remaining ash would be scattered on the wind or would turn into mud with the spring thaw, leaving no trace behind. Galahad was sure that the King must have been preparing for something like that. Wood was an infinite resource and can be easily replaced, but the people of Girsion were not. These people were going to see the full glory of Avalon, they would see the prosperity of its people, they would be fed and allowed to live in the comforts and safety of Avalon. A truly simple plan...

Galahad turned his gaze upon the last pocket of resistance in Girsion after receiving confirmation that everything was ready. He immediately signalled to begin the final push. Catapults fired and their stone payloads crashed into the reinforced walls of the garrison building. The inner city fort held for a moment, but it was never designed or even intended to withstand that kind of punishment. The ancient magic barriers designed to stop magic projectiles were powerless to stop a solid rock. The fort walls began to crack and fall apart, burying most of the defenders under the rubble. The general of Avalon gave a sign to enter and eliminate anyone inside the ruins.

There was no epic battle, no glorious last stands.

Girsion was conquered in less than four hours. The city, with a population of a bit over twenty thousand people, of which ten thousand were soldiers, turned out to be ill-prepared. But Galahad hardly could blame Captain Nathaniel for it. Sebastian's slime agents infiltrated the city a long time ago, sabotaging most of its functions- from messing with the simplest things like trash collection or relocating the food supplies between the warehouses, to changing garrison orders, making them march in circles around the city. The slimes, however, allowed most of the original orders to reach the overworked captain. For the last month, the lives of the soldiers of Grision changed into an overworked spiral of never-ending odd jobs that dulled their senses and lowered their readiness. They barely could rest and were physically and mentally exhausted when Legio Ferrata knocked upon their gates. And on top of that, as the last goodbye, the slime spies ate every single alarm bell in the city.

"The City is empty, my Lord!" The legion legate reported.

"Very well. Proceed with the plan." Galahad nodded. "What losses have we suffered?"

"Minor, my Lord. Barely one hundred dead and all wounded are already fully healed." The legate checked his notes.

"Very well. We are still ahead of schedule, so hopefully, we will catch up with Arani faster."

Galahad looked around him before focusing on the Legionnaires, who started demolishing buildings to simulate heavy fighting in the city. One of the storm eagles landed on the rooftop near Galahad.

"We couldn't find any observers." She informed him.

"We are fortunate then. In one hour but no longer than two hours, we are going to advance towards Legio Fulminata’s positions and Fort Crissna. Begin scouting. Start construction of the ice road."

"As you wish, Scion Galahad!" With a respectful bow, the storm eagle flew away to join the other aerial scouts.

Behind Galahad, a few Legionaries delivered two intact winter beast corpses along with some bodies of past slavers that had been excavated from Avalon’s cemetery. The slaver corpses were deposited in strategic locations so that when the Cridian investigation team would inevitably arrive to investigate, they would find only the few hidden bodies intentionally left behind. The entire scene found in the Girsion would be clear for the investigators, providing strong evidence that the winning side, consisting of the slavers and winter beasts, hastly cleaned up after the assault, only leaving some of their own behind as well as the corpses in the collapsed fort.

Other evidence was also arranged. All messenger pigeons were made to look like they died from pierced arrows and were scattered in various places. With the carefully fabricated pieces of evidence, no one should suspect Avalon’s involvement. Whatever conclusions would be made, they would be wrong, pointing to entirely different courses of actions than the ones that took place here.

With everything done, all traces of evidence suggested that a large joint raid was conducted by the slavers and the winter beasts. Legio Ferrata then left the ruins of Girsion.

The wooden road to Avalon was slowly burning with the magic fire, leaving behind only dust over rock-hard magic ice that started melting soon after; the ice magic would hold just for a few hours. But even these short-lived traces of melted snow mixed with ashes were soon covered by the fresh snowfall. The Fairies used magic ice to create a road over the frozen waterway, allowing Galahad's forces to quickly disappear behind the cover of the nearby forest. Legio Ferrata quickly moved forward towards its next battle which would prove much more difficult.

The dead silence and darkness fell over the place where, not so long ago, the garrison city of Girsion once stood.