Jonathan and Eliza emerged in the center of a war torn battlefield, devoid of all life. Bodies lay strewn around in the tens, or perhaps even hundreds of thousands. The entire world seemed tinged red with blood, with even the skies above a slight crimson in hue. The mud beneath was churned through with viscera, and the entire vista stank like an abattoir.
“Damn,” Eliza said, holding her nose. “This place smells terrible. Worse than the pigpen in summer.”
Jonathan merely peered off into the distance, spotting movement. A shadowy mass of something could be seen skirting the horizon. As his vision adjusted, Jonathan could make out the vague shape of an army, one that numbered in the tens of millions. It was the largest gathering of fighters that he had ever seen in one place, dwarfing every other force Jonathan had encountered. Their feet rose and fell in unison, and the clanking of armor was just about audible.
“Maybe this realm will finally give the lower level soldiers something to do,” Jonathan mused. “Those aren’t monsters up there. They’re people.”
“So no Circle Lord boost for them. Interesting. Any idea why that might be?” Eliza asked.
Jonathan shrugged. “If I had to guess, they must not be directly in the service of the Circle Lord. Armies of that size don’t just wander around without anyone to fight. There’s something else at play here. A rebellion, perhaps?”
“That would make our job a lot easier,” Eliza said. Then she frowned. “Well, not that much easier. We still have to deal with a Lesser God Circle Lord.”
Jonathan quirked an eyebrow. “Those might be the most terrifying four words you ever said in one sentence.”
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Eliza’s face creased into a wide smile. “You’re the man who’s killing them all. I think they should be terrified of you.”
“Perhaps.”
The two headed off across the battlefield. Jonathan and Eliza flew over the corpses, not wanting to wade through a sticky morass of blood, bone and mud. At higher altitude, it was easier to make out just how many warriors had fallen here. Easily a million, if not more. It was hard to tell, given that many had been eviscerated. Bits and pieces lay everywhere, some of them beyond any sort of cursory recognition, burned into ash. To Jonathan’s best ability to determine, it looked like some had died prior to a single, devastating strike that took out the rest.
“This really puts the Hells into perspective,” Eliza observed as they flew side by side. “This is just a fraction of the size of the army on the horizon. Whatever battle produced this wasn’t all that large.”
“Yeah, I’m quite curious about what this circle is all about. It seems pretty different from the others.”
The scene beneath them continued to change, but not by much. The bodies vanished after a bit, replaced by a gravely plain, interspersed with somber copses of gnarled trees. The trees weren’t dead, unlike in Mire, with yellowish leaves and small flowers growing from them. Only when Jonathan looked closer did he see the massive, bulging roots crawling slowly over the ground, heading towards a few corpses. It looked like they hadn’t actually reached the edge of the battlefield. Instead, the trees were cleaning up after the fight, gorging themselves on the fallen.
One of the roots reached a battered corpse, and rose up above it like a striking cobra. With a sharp crack, it slammed down into the body, before burrowing into it. Tiny roots spread through the flesh over the course of a second, before exploding outwards. A small tree burst out of the corpse’s torso, adding to the grove. Its growth slowed, but was still visible as it strove to reach the height of its fellows.
“How… charming,” Eliza deadpanned.
“The Hells really are something, aren’t they?” Jonathan said. “So full of filth, rot and evil. Yet there’s still good left as long as one person struggles against the dying of the light.”
“I think the light died long ago. We’re just trying to rekindle it.”
