Crown Of Thorns

  The group of brave warriors has just arrived at the walls of Dracula's castle. We had one goal: to open the gates and let the rest of our army in. The obstacle, however, was reaching the other side, despite being inside the enemy's stronghold. Despite this, the Umbra Venatores didn't hesitate to accept the challenge with open arms, and they immediately set to work, not doubting for a second as they ran toward the next battle.

  "The eastern wall! Enemies have infiltrated the east wall!"

  "Send reinforcements to the east wall, we must stop them now!"

  "Don't let any more enemies through!" shouted one of the leading knights upon noticing our arrival.

  More cursed knights came to block our way, trying to protect a narrow staircase that led down to the courtyard. Fighting them would be a costly and exhausting horror, so I decided to act instead. Using my Avalon sword as a shield, I ran and struck with all my might against the three knights blocking the way. My blow was strong enough to knock all three aside and send them to the ground, a mistake that the werewolves behind me took advantage of to defeat them.

  Once we reached the stairs, the battle changed. Now it was uncomfortable, without space, direct. The enemies came one by one because there was no room for anything else. It was a face-to-face duel where no one could retreat. My huge sword was useless in such a confined space; apart from blocking attacks, it would only get in the way. So it was Tiberius Blackthorn, with his enormous hammer, who took on the task of leading the succession of fights until we reached the base. 20 meters turned into minutes of relentless violence as we walked over the bodies of monsters killed just seconds before. During our descent, Lucy suggested using a fire spell to easily clear the stairs, but we immediately stopped her because of the danger. While it would easily clear the stairs of enemies, the flames would soon attempt to rise and kill their summoners. Once we reached the ground, however, it was time for the sorceress to use her knowledge to clear a path to the garden ahead.

  The next obstacle before us was a large garden of red roses, which seemed quite peaceful amidst the surrounding chaos of battle. The defending army did not dare to enter such a place, which could only mean that there was a reason for it.

  "Leaving such a large area unprotected, why give us free passage?" asked the Wolfpack's second-in-command.

  "It's clearly a trap. The magic garden itself is a monster," said the captain of the pack.

  "Not so much a single monster as a collection of them."

  "Probably man-eating plants and stone roses, known for ambushing their prey with surprise attacks."

  "Any idea how to proceed, Inquisitor?" Lucy asked, turning to me.

  "I've seen something like this before. Not the same, but similar."

  "They beat us up that time. The place was a maze and we got separated at the end."

  "There was a... dragon enemy... that attacked with gas and spores to induce hallucinations and make us attack each other."

  "..."

  "Can't we just burn it?" I asked Tamamo.

  "There is a powerful barrier spell over the garden that specifically protects the plants from fire and poison."

  "It seems to be coming from the castle itself. It's quite powerful arcane magic for mortals."

  "I could try to redirect it, but it will take at least a few hours."

  "No, that's too much time we don't have. There's a schedule to keep."

  "We'll just force our way through."

  "Thanks for the warning, Inquisitor, we'll take your advice."

  Tiberius Blackthorn interrupted the conversation sharply, determined to continue, but learning from the tragedy of my past, they took precautions this time and began distributing gas masks among themselves in preparation. Their masks were clearly unique to match their wild animal features, giving them an even more sinister appearance than they already had. But it underscored the group's willingness to have such items on hand in a place like this. They even kindly gave us regular human gas masks.

  Once prepared, we began to move through the garden with some trepidation, but mostly caution. Careful not to be ambushed by our footsteps, the group took up a defensive formation, with each warrior facing one way and trusting his brothers in arms with the others, trying to form a circle as best they could. In the middle were Lucy and Tamamo, whose magic could get us out of trouble in the safest place possible.

  With the doubt that every step we took could be a mistake that our enemies would take advantage of, we continued to advance, each rose representing a potential future attack. It was hard to believe that such a beautiful and well-kept garden could exist in such a cursed place, but it wouldn't be here for nothing. However, it was also hard not to make comparisons to my adventure in Atlantis and what happened to poor Mitsuki, whose sister Sakura was waiting outside, hoping that the gates would be opened along with the other Inquisitors. The aura of a dark and enchanted, yet beautiful place was just like the party Maria had attended; both occasions were similar. Surely she would have liked to be here somehow, to see all this and to say how cool magic is.

  "Attention, forward!" one of the soldiers next to me said, snapping me out of my thoughts.

  Just a few feet ahead of us, a tree loomed menacingly in our path. A massive, dark, leafless tree with a half-naked man lying on its trunk. He seemed asleep despite the crown of thorns and roses on his head, which looked like an ode to the profane. Between its branches, roses and snake heads hung like its only fruit, all turning and roaring in unison with an infernal scream that could freeze the blood. The group stopped dead in their tracks and instinctively closed the circle, protecting Lucy and Tamamo in the center.

  "Get ready for whatever this thing does."

  "It's a trap, there are heads in the bushes too!"

  With lightning speed, the tree attacked mercilessly, its first strike so swift that I barely had time to react. One of the snakes lunged at us with a sharp whistle, its fangs dripping with venom that sizzled as it hit the ground. Tiberius reacted instantly, his huge hammer smashing the snake's head with tremendous force, pushing it back. But Tamamo seized the opportunity to throw her spear, slicing through the serpent's body. To our surprise, that wasn't enough to stop the monster's determination, and it crawled, still trying to attack despite its inevitable doom. Two werewolves used their axes to finish off the loose head.

  Another snake descended from a high branch and aimed directly at Lucy. Before she could react, a dark, fur-covered claw caught the monster. One of the werewolves had leapt forward and slashed at the creature in one swift motion, but not without taking a bite. Almost immediately, the poison began to spread over his arm, blackening his skin and making him roar in pain.

  "Quick, apply the antidote!" Lucy shouted to help her rescuer as she cast some magic on the wound.

  The snake heads continued to attack, one after the other, each faster and more coordinated, as if they shared a collective consciousness. They surrounded us, forcing us to close our defensive formation even more. Tamamo and Lucy worked together, conjuring magical barriers to deflect the deadliest attacks, while Tiberius and the werewolves held the creatures at bay with brute force.

  Taking advantage of a brief respite, Lucy raised her staff and began to cast a spell. A circle of white fire formed around us, creating a temporary shield that kept the snakes at bay. But the flames seemed ineffective against the creatures, as if the magic of the garden had neutralized their destructive power.

  "We can't keep attacking the snakes all day; they're not the real enemy."

  "If we don't destroy the tree, they'll keep regenerating," Tamamo said from the center of the formation.

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  "I know, but the man in front of it gives me a bad feeling."

  "He looks like the typical thing no one expected to be the real boss, the one who will reveal his final form after we defeat the tree," I replied to her.

  "Well, if that's the case, we just have to defeat him first, right?" Tiberius added.

  "Ignis Lux!" Lucy shouted, casting a spell at the tree.

  The fireball shot at our enemy with full force, but the man sitting in front of it raised his hand lazily, as if bored. A burst of dark energy shot out of his palm and flew toward the incoming attack. Its magic easily swallowed theirs and quickly approached us. For a moment, I thought it was going to hit me, so I raised Avalon to block the attack. But the dark ball suddenly changed direction and veered to the right, hitting one of the werewolves and instantly incinerating it in a deadly pillar of black fire, leaving only its lifeless, shattered body to fall.

  The tree's attack never stopped, pinning us down with nowhere to run. Snake heads fell from the branches like living whips, striking and biting with devilish speed. Each bite left a trail of venom sizzling against the rocky ground, threatening to tear apart any defense that wasn't perfect. There was no pause, no room for error.

  "Stay in formation!" Tiberius roared, crushing another snake that tried to descend from a low branch. His hammer left a crater in the ground as the creature's remains writhed in convulsions. But for every one we eliminated, two more took its place, as if the damn tree had no end.

  "This can't go on!" Lucy shouted, trying to find a solution.

  While I and Tamamo were busy with another snakehead at my side, I watched the circle tighten. The Umbra Venatores fought like true demons, each blow of their weapons a display of brutality and precision. But the snake tide seemed endless. One of the wolves staggered after taking a direct bite to the thigh. He barely had time to raise his weapon before another head came at him.

  "Fuck it! I'll just tank it and cut off whatever that thing is!"

  I gripped Avalon's handle tightly and ran straight for the base of the tree. It responded by shaking its branches violently, and a dozen snakeheads descended in unison. But as I ran toward them, expecting the pain of the wounds, two more wolves rushed past my sides and leapt to attack the snakes, trying to protect me and clear the way to defeat the enemy. I could see how they bravely took the wounds and damage, how their anger didn't waver despite the pain, how they trusted in each other's victory.

  With the debt to my comrades to pay, I too positioned myself right in front of the tree. With a final roar, I raised Avalon and channeled my dragon strength into a single blow directly at the trunk of the tree. The impact resounded like thunder, and a glowing crack spread across the dark trunk, as if the sword had pierced the creature's heart. The serpent heads stopped instantly, frozen in mid-air, before disintegrating into a stream of black ash. The man beneath the tree let out a sigh as if he had been waiting for this moment. His body crumbled into withered petals as the entire tree began to collapse in on itself, releasing a wave of dark energy that spread through the air. For a brief moment, the garden was silent, the only sound being our heavy breathing.

  "One less obstacle."

  "But we can't stop to rest, we still have a door to open and a whole damn castle to go through. Get up and march!" said Tiberius, leaning on his hammer as he watched the tree fall.

  Two souls had already been lost in the battle; the other was one of the wolves that had protected me from the last attack of the cursed tree. But there was no time to say goodbye; this was a battlefield, and the mission had to continue at all costs. That was the warriors' motto - spirits would not weep to see their brothers continue on a path they could not complete.

  The group hurried forward after the cursed tree fell, the urgency weighing on us like an invisible chain. We crossed the remains of the garden, now shrouded in ashes and withered fragments that the wind blew toward the horizon. The presence of Dracula's castle, with its towering spires and walls blackened by centuries of curses, grew more oppressive with each step. The feeling of being watched was inescapable. Something or someone was waiting for us. Every step we took toward the machine that controlled the castle's doors felt like a challenge to fate. We knew the enemy wouldn't let us approach without a fight, and that became clear as we crossed a final narrow passage that led to the chamber of the engine that controlled the castle's doors. It was a massive mechanism of gears, chains, and wheels, housed in a cavernous room beneath the east wing. The room was lit by torches that emitted a sickly green light, probably powered by some form of dark magic. In the center, a stone console with arcane inscriptions awaited activation.

  "There it is,"

  "Lucy, you're a mage from the House of Lecarde. Can you get it to work?" said Tiberius, pointing to the mechanism with his gaze.

  Lucy stepped forward, staff in hand, studying the inscriptions and furrowing her brow.

  "This is not ordinary magic."

  "It's a hybrid of engineering and sorcery."

  "Activating it won't be easy, but I can try."

  "But it's not just a simple machine, it's tied to a protective barrier."

  "If we activate it, the whole castle will know we're here!"

  "Then let them know," Tiberius growled, adjusting his grip on his hammer.

  "We're here to open these doors, not hide."

  "The heretics will try to counterattack and stop our mission."

  "Defensive formation, there will be no retreat, this is the will of our Lord!"

  Just as Lucy began to work, a metallic sound echoed through the room. The walls vibrated and a guttural roar filled the air.

  "See! That's what I just told you!" shouted Lucy as she continued to work on deciphering the mechanism.

  Figures in hooded cloaks began to descend from the ceiling, wrapped in dark, liquid, shadow-like fabric. Their faces were animated skulls and their hands held swords wrapped in greenish flames - more castle guards, the infiltrators' group.

  “Keep doing your thing, don’t stop,” I said, raising Avalon to protect her from the attack they launched to stop us.

  Tiberius fought with his characteristic brutality, his hammer crushing enemies with a roar that shook the room. Beside him, the werewolves fought like unleashed beasts, but the ghosts were relentless. Tamamo, on the other hand, fought as best she could with her naginata, but despite her power, she didn't want to reveal her true nature as a goddess, so she tried to do the best she could without using too much magic.

  "This is endless!"

  "The code keeps changing faster than I thought, it's like trying to hack a computer password, but it changes every 30 seconds and it's in something like ancient Aramaic!"

  "I don't know this language, it doesn't seem like a human language."

  "It's really complicated! It's going to take me longer than I thought!"

  Hearing these words, Tamamo couldn't resist stopping what she was doing to look at the machine Lucy was trying to figure out how to use. But after a quick glance, she rushed to my side and tried to speak in secret while pretending to attack the same enemy I was fighting.

  "The machine is written in very strange runes."

  "The last time I saw something like this was near your throne in Atlantis," the goddess said in the most subtle way a deceptive kitsune could manage.

  Hearing what she had just said left me with a tremendous doubt. I couldn't resist stepping away from my position to get a better look at the machine. When I had it in front of me, I couldn't believe it - she was right. In front of me was a tablet written in authentic Atlantean. I stood motionless for a moment, my eyes fixed on the strange runes on the machine, my mind racing. The faint sounds of battle faded around me, as if time had stopped. This was the last place I expected to see something like this. Why did such an event haunt me like my greatest curse? Why couldn't things just stay in the past like they were supposed to? I clenched my teeth, my arm holding Avalon tightly, while my other hand gently traced the inscriptions, searching for something familiar in their irregular shape. The letters were imperfect and their grammar questionable, but you could still see the intent behind the words, and that was what mattered. The tension in the room grew, the roar of the spectral creatures mixed with the heavy blows of Tiberius and the echo of Lucy's magical defenses.

  Time was running out.

  The tablet was made like a seal of the lesser nobility, with the order never to open the gates, nothing that couldn't be completely overwritten by the Imperial Mark. I placed my hand, and the color of the mark caused the magic of the tablet to vanish, giving way to mine. The gears began to turn and rotate at my will, and the massive doors of Dracula's castle slowly began to open. The invading army on the other side of the walls began to rush impatiently towards the smallest crack. In just a few seconds, their numbers began to multiply, and finally our reinforcements began to arrive. One of the wolves in the distance raised a hunting horn and sounded it loudly, the signal that the mission entrusted to the Umbra Venatores had been accomplished.

  "How did you do that?" the young witch asked.

  But I didn't stop looking at the machine. In front of me was the proof that there was more going on in this castle than the typical dark magic expected from Dracula. Now I had another mystery to solve within the walls of this castle, one that no one else knew, and it was probably better that way. They didn't know how dangerous such secrets of the cursed civilization were.

  Tamamo put her hand on my shoulder to wake me from my thoughts. She knew, as I did, the weight of seeing such writing in this place, but she was also there to remind me that we had to go on, no matter what I thought about what lay before me.

  A few minutes later, after resting for a moment, now that we weren't the only soldiers attacking, we met up with the other inquisitors at the main door of the castle. We would be the first to enter; the rest of the warriors would try to keep the rooms we cleared free of enemies. But it would not be easy to face such imposing doors with no idea of the evils that awaited us behind them, only questions and doubts swirling in our minds.