You've found an account by one of the lost members of a secret Destroyers of Chaos detachment. Listen carefully to what it says, warrior.
My name is Juntos. I belong to an ancient Magmar clan. As with the nine other warriors, I am a member of an elite Destroyers of Chaos detachment, specially created to undertake a top-secret mission. We were carefully selected and in our group there are Humans and Magmars. We are the best of the best. We were sent to the Isles of Fay-Go to destroy a nest of defilers, to destroy evil at its source. As the organisers found out, these defilers occupy themselves with spreading chaosness. More often than not they look like regular beetles, which have grown to incredible sizes. No one knows about the operation. We were informed early on that in the event of our defeat, our names and details would be committed to oblivion and everything to do with the case would be erased from the pages of history. But for the sake of our great aim, we were ready to sacrifice ourselves. I am the sole survivor from the detachment, but my hours are numbered: a deep wound in my chest is hastening my passage to the world of the dead. I must tell everything as it was, because it's incredible, unbelievable? Here's my story?
We arrived on Fay-Go when Mirrow's rays were beating mercilessly down. It was decided to leave the boat in a quiet cove, away from curious eyes. We moved deep across the island, towards the Black Hole burrow, where it had been calculated by those that sent us that the defilers' lair was located. By our estimations, the journey would not take long, if nothing unforeseen happened. It happened. Evidently, our landing had not gone unnoticed, and we were attacked by surprise by a whole regiment of vicious GunglXOs. Waving their giant hatchets, as if they were covered with clotted blood, the bloodthirsty monsters mercilessly laid into us. Inarticulate noises, like a muffled snarling, made the air tremble. We fought fearlessly, our excellent preparation bearing fruit. Each of us took his place and we assumed a pre-determined formation, allowing us to not only repel the attack, but to go on the offensive ourselves. When the body of the last Gungl crashed down at our feet, deprived of its head, I looked anxiously round. Everyone was in one piece; there were only a few minor injuries and fatigue to deal with. It was decided to have a half-hour rest and then to continue moving towards the target?
Close to midnight, our detachment reached the Black Hole, located by sheer mountain cliffs. Long, three-strand ropes of the toughest Berona tiger fur were capable of holding several warriors. They were knotted at regular intervals to ease our descent and, in case of a successful outcome, our ascent. Tightly securing one end of the line, we let it drop into the burrow and then, one-by-one, with intervals of several minutes, began to descend into the blackening abyss. When the soft leather boots of the last warrior hit the ground at the bottom of the hole we regrouped and began to move through the labyrinthine underground cave, not forgetting to mark the crumbling earth walls. Looking around with dread, each of us tried to find some sort of hook, a detail, along the monotonous passageways to remember, to help us find a way back, if one or other of us were fated to be left alone in the doom-laden vaults. We moved carefully, trying to step silently along. The dim light of our torch barely lit the way, but any brighter and it would have given us away. We edged towards the target and increasingly heard strange rustling sounds and saw giant shadows flitting along the labyrinthine corridors.
Suddenly, a giant beetle blocked out path, appearing out of nowhere, as if it had just arisen from the earth. It was our first meeting with a defiler. Moving its long antennae, it made no effort to attack us and disappeared along a parallel corridor. The defiler moved nimbly and you certainly couldn't call it clumsy.
We moved deeper, but before we'd managed to move a few metres, a cry rang out from Varl, who had been isolated from the rest of the group. We saw a terrible scene: behind us his body disappeared into an earthy funnel, dragged below by some unknown force. It was inconceivable, but it created the impression that it was a trap: the scout beetle had diverted us while the others burrowed away directly beneath us. I felt a troubling vibration beneath my feet. With a gesture, I indicated this to my comrades and we threw ourselves headlong down the gloomy corridor. The earth opened up beneath us and two more warriors disappeared into its bowels. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw lumps of earth and clay flying everywhere behind us and, boring through the earth to the surface climbed the repulsive defiler beetles. In a flash, they had filled all the passages, cutting off all our retreat routes. It would have been pointless to run at random in the darkness and so we lit several more torches.
A narrow passage led us to a vast, open cave with a host of entrances and exits. The torches illuminated the ceiling and we saw a terrifying image! Tiny oblong cocoons hung from all the walls surrounding us and above our heads. An odious slime, giving off a foul stench, fastened them in place. They were like brown pods; the whole cave floor was strewn with pieces of torn cocoons. Then things got worse and from a small opening a sticky larva with a transparent, not-yet-hardened shell, emerged. Where to run? One of us rushed into the opposite corridor but stopped abruptly and began to move back. We were in a trap! All the corridors were full of defilers; they had completely surrounded us.
According to our orders, we were to blow the nest up with a magic bomb, kept in a canvas sack on my back. The nest had been discovered and now was the time to act. Each of us understood that there was no escape and that we would perish with these creatures. Failing the mission was not an option. It was pointless to try and fight the swarms of giants; there were only seven of us left. By now the defiler beetles had encircled us. I dropped my backpack to the ground, untied the cord and took out a heavy vessel made of thick glass. An unbelievably destructive power was held within this capsule which would be more than enough to completely destroy the earthy cocoon store and its guards. I carefully unscrewed the lid and a shining clot of energy hung in the air, like a sparkling balloon. The smallest touch and everything would be finished!
I also had some untouched stores in my bag ? scrolls of teleportation, capable of transporting a Human or a Magmar from one place to another. I had been given these for a special purpose: I should return whatever the outcome to report what happened. It hurt to leave my comrades, but the mission was the more important than anything and much depended on me. They would understand. I took them out and began to slowly read the contents?
I came to in a different cave, the entrance to which was blocked by earth as a result of the explosion. Whether it was chaosness or whether I had not read the scroll to the end, I was still underground. Getting up and putting pressure on a bleeding wound, I noticed something looking at me from the darkness. In the opposite corner, a defiler was observing me with cold contempt. This defiler's size exceeded all the others I had seen earlier! It was the powerful queen, laying eggs, from the cocoons of which emerged the young. The queen was giving birth to the next generation of chaosness distributors! We had destroyed the nest, but not the very beetle that could create tens, hundreds of similar cocoons. The beetles led us into the depository, taking us away from the queen. That which begat evil was still alive and I no longer had the power to destroy it. Had all our efforts really been in vain?! Who would report this information back to the surface?
orrin [12]
Battleking69 [18]
.gif)
Narcissus [5]
