Chương 30: Futile Fight Against Death Itself
Silvia was joined by Gael, Gary, and Grayson, three members of the Gerolt bloodline as well as Zion and Zander from the Zaehed bloodline; they were all stocky young men that were stronger and faster than she was. If they needed to carry the older members of the leadership they would be able to with ease. Silvia led the charge to the town hall and saw the Elders hiding under their desks. Stewart was the first elder to raise his head to see who entered the building.
"Grandad!" Silvia yelled. "You are alright!"
Silvia ran around the desk and helped him up to his feet. He was easily the oldest member of the Elders.
"What are you doing here child?" Stewart said as he hugged Silvia. "You have to leave at once."
"We came here to get all of you out of here!" Gael stated as he skimmed the room for his grandmother Grechid. "We will carry anyone that can't run."
"What happened with Willy and his team?" Zachery asked as he stood up.
"I don't know," Zion stated. "Silvia is the one that got everyone off their asses and escaping the town."
"I see, thank you miss Silvia," Zachery stated. "We can not miss this opportunity while they are holding back the hellhounds."
"What, no!" Gael exclaimed. "Coming here to save the elders was my idea!"
"What are you talking about?" Zion asked.
"She was following me." Gael continued. "How could a second rate town merchant come up with an idea like this?"
"Yeah, this was Gaels plan before she even got all lovey-dovey with that outta town guy on the road." Gary stated.
"Yeah!" Greyson agreed.
"As expected from my grandson." Grechid mused. "I'd expect nothing less!"
Gael walked over to Silvia and pushed her out of the way with his bodyweight as he walked over to Grechid. No one was buying his little display but now was not the time to play Grechid and her family's games. The most important thing was getting out of the situation safely which would become increasingly harder as time went on.
"It doesn't matter who did what." Silvia stated. "We have to go now! We need to get to the forest line as soon as possible."
"You are not in charge here, child." Grechid said. "The safest place will be the temple. It has magic protections that will keep us safe."
"Are you listening to yourself?" Silvia asked. "If you go to the temple you will be stuck there until the heat kills you. There is nowhere safe in the village. That is if you even make it. You will be exposed the whole way and I doubt you can outrun one of those things."
"You'd have us try to outrun them in the forest?" Grechid asked but with an accusatory tone. "I think you are the daft one. You have a futile fight against death itself and I will not be a part of it."
"That is enough!" Paisley stated. "Make your own decision, Grechid, I am going to follow Miss Silvia's plan."
Collecting the elders was a simple task of the six of them; only three of them were incapable of running due to their age. Those three being Stewart who was being carried by Zander easily the strongest of the five young men that came along, then there was Juel being carried by Zion and finally Grechid being carried by Gael.
Grechid convinced her grandson's Gael, Greyson and Gary that going to the temple would be far safer. She did not want to concede the point so their group split from Silvia's and headed in the direction of the temple. The path to the temple was not very far from the town hall but the journey up the hill was about fifty meters and would leave them completely visible to the hellhounds most of the journey. The hope that Willy's team was still distracting the beast was poorly placed and the hellhounds were licking their teeth clean of the blood and gore from the corpses of the deceased Argonauts.
The hellhounds picked up on the motion of Grechid's running grandchildren like a radar. They hadn't been alerted to the larger group fleeing the settlement having done so in secret. The hellhounds took off with incredible speed after Grechid's group. Even though Gael, Greyson, Gary and Grechid were far closer to the temple than the hellhounds where to them the rate the hellhounds closed the distance between them was much faster.
"Damn damn damn!" Gael stated as he pushed himself to run faster.
"I don't want to die!" Greyson yelled.
Greyson started to run around Gael who was slower since he was carrying Grechid. Suddenly however, Grechid's feeble arm reached out with her cane and tripped the boy up causing him to tumble to the ground in panic. Gary, who was the fastest of them, was already at the door to the temple and did not see her do it. Gael was about to turn around to help his cousin when Grechid reached up and pushed his face forward to keep on course.
"Don't you dare stop, boy!" Grechid's hard voice rang out.
"You tripped hi…" Gael started
"Shut your mouth and run, boy. Unless you want us to end up like him." Grechid yelled.
It didn't take long before the sound of a panicked Grayson turned into screams as the hellhounds caught up to him before he could get back up to his feet. Grayson didn't struggle long as one of the beasts snapped down at his neck as the others each crashed down on limbs and flesh. In moments the young man was unrecognizable little more than a pile of blood, gore and exposed bone.
The hellhounds then turned their attention to the remaining prey but it was too late. Gary, Grechid and Gael were already inside boarding up the massive ornate but sturdy door. The hellhounds scratched and sniffed the door inquisitively. Then they ran around the large building a few times testing various surfaces for entry points. They did not understand the structure due to their low intelligence; they believed that the building was essentially a massive rock.
Inside was alive with color as massive ornate stained glass windows sparkled the otherwise dim interior with a light in a beautiful array of color. The inside was much cooler than the outside due to complex magic protections on the building which were powered by lesser magic crystals which would not hold out against the bombardment of heat much longer. The temple's clergy were not natives and would only be at the location on worship days which luckily was not that day. The grounds keepers were residents of Kilverstead but had also fled knowing the temple would not fare well if the hellhounds were serious about entering the premises if the heat didn't breach the protections first.
"Where is Grayson?" Gary asked Gael and Grechid.
Gael looked over to Grechid who was staring daggers into him.
"He didn't make it." Gael said in a defeated tone. "He tripped on a rock or something and… you saw those things."
Grechid let a smirk flash across her lips as she then settled her expression on Gary.
"He will be missed." Grechid said as she walked towards her grandson. "As will all of the poor souls that we lost today. But we will be safe under the protection of the Gods here. So be strong we will need strong men like you when we rebuild this town."
"What about the hellhounds outside? They will be able to break in if they try." Gael stated.
"The hellhounds have good eyesight especially if they followed us to the top of the hill," Grechid stated as she turned and walked with her cane towards the altar so her grandsons could not see the smile stretch mincingly across her face. "Let us offer prayer to anyone that may still be running outside. Unfortunately, I suspect they may also offer us some salvation in their sacrifice."
Gael went pale upon the realization of the full machinations of his grandmother. They ran up here to get the hellhounds attention so they would be able to see the fleeing elders. This was all a ruse to kill off the competition in ruling the town. Gael always secretly feared his grandmother but this was another level of deviousness he did not think her capable. Gael turned to Gary who didn't understand the undertones of Grechid's words; he was too shaken in grief. Gael knew he was too deep in his grandmother's plans to back out now even if he could, the hellhounds would soon turn on the only ones that he could turn too.
"You all are being very loud for this to be some kind of temple." A male voice cut through the temple like a dagger. "We are kind of in the middle of something here."
In the panic and subsequent grief and realizations no one had noticed the two figures standing at the far end of the temple. They were standing behind the altar which obscured their forms until they made their presence known. The man that spoke was not someone that Grechid or her grandsons had ever seen before. He was in full plate armor with a cloak that largely hid his form. He was standing hand in hand with a young elven woman covered in dark robes.
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