As an army of men marched in formation through Blackstone Keep's front gates, they were cautious, expecting an enemy at every crook and cranny in the form of the same ravaging monsters they had encountered before.
But what they found instead was an eerie emptiness and a strange, almost sublime normalcy that permeated the luxurious castle interior of silk, velvet, and blackstone. There were no men nor monsters waiting for them here, only a broken array of once-opulent furniture, shattered by a series of battles that had taken place not long ago.
Normally, this would have marked the end of the operation. The castle, and the city as a whole, had been successfully seized, but due to the dire situation, the 'Third Stormtrooper Squadron' was still missing. They continued the search, for no comrade would be left behind, whether alive or dead, it made little difference.
An hour passed, as they searched deeper into the castle, they encountered many curious anomalies.
A hallway filled with poltergeist phenomena, where small objects such as candlesticks, paintings, and books danced through the air like puppets in a haunted carnival.
A series of concealed trapdoors, hidden pathways, and obscured staircases appeared in nearly every room, all interconnected like a web of secret passages, filled with an unexplainable, otherworldly fog.
The castle's chapel, once home to divine light, now lay desecrated. At its center stood an eldritch statue of blackstone resembling a massive, charred tree. Its roots were writhing tentacles covered in eyes, and its branches ended in goat-like hooves, before it lay a black altar, surrounded by tomes and grimoires written in a language as old as time itself, perhaps even older.
The kitchen had been hastily abandoned. The fires still burned, yet all fresh ingredients and prepared food had been taken, not even a single condiment remained. Strangely, however, every pouch of salt had been left untouched.
The living quarters were disturbingly normal. The rooms remained just as they were when the siege began, the only noticeable detail was a set of black leather scabbards, each large enough to hold only a dagger.
Room by room, hallway by hallway, the soldiers pressed deeper into the castle as a crushing atmosphere bore down upon them.
Where were their comrades? Were they alive? Or perhaps already dead?
The questions lingered like a storm cloud over their minds.
Then a trooper shouted, his voice echoing through the halls.
"I found something!" he said, pointed to a hole in the wall hidden behind a massive oil painting of a lone black oak standing in a vibrant green forest, reminiscent of the lands outside 'Vertenville'.
Behind it lay a deep staircase of damp black stone, descending into a hidden chamber far beneath the castle. There, below the black halls, stood a jet-black gate surrounded by layers of awakened eldritch vegetation, their whip-like branches lashed wildly, forming a storm of writhing tendrils that blocked the path forward.
And how would the soldiers pass such an obstacle?
'Gun'
The answer to any problem was, as always, 'Gun'
A furious storm of gunfire erupted. Symphony of Rifles, machine guns, and submachine guns roared through the blackstone halls. The vegetation was blasted into splinters, only to regenerate again and again, meeting a constant barrage that kept it at bay.
"Forward, men! Kill everything that isn't human!" Jane screamed, leading her troops straight toward the ominous gate, Elena and her riflemen followed close behind.
Beyond the gate lay a semi-circular grove.
Every corner was filled with alien flora from beyond the stars, their ethereal leaves swaying like spirits in a ghostly parade, beneath them lay thousands upon thousands of corpses of many origins, including the missing 'Third Stormtrooper Squadron'. Some were still alive and in desperate need of medical care, others were beyond saving.
At the center stood a massive, decaying yet strangely living blackwood tree. Its branches rose like a monarch's crown, and its roots pulsed through the stone floor like breathing lungs, beside it stood a sacrificial altar of blackstone.
And upon it lay a young blonde girl in a pure white dress, gazing around in quiet confusion, like someone seeing the world for the very first time.
Jane approached cautiously, her troops forming a protective line behind her, yet no monster appeared, no attack came, only the girl is there.
"Where's Papa?" she asked.
Maintaining her composed façade as the just and merciful Whitehawk captain, Jane gently lifted the girl into her arms and quickly carried her away from the altar, as medics rushed in to retrieve the wounded, while soldiers continued to destroy the carnivorous plants with gunfire.
As Elena entered the grove, she observed everything with a cold, beautiful yet bale glare, then she raised her hand.
"Burn it!" she ordered, her eyes fixed on the great black tree.
"Especially that fucking tree!!!" she stressed her words.
Her troops readied torches and explosives.
Once everyone was evacuated, fire consumed the grove, followed by a thunderous chain of explosions. The blackwood, the altar, and the alien growths were reduced to ash.
And that was how 'Vertenville' was conquered, with Fire, Steel, and an absolute fuck ton amount of Gunpowder.
At last… 'Vertenville' was our!