The edge of my sword cut through the air with all the strength my body could gather in that moment. The strike came down violently toward Agramor's chest, driven by the mixture of rage, desperation, and stubborn resolve that had begun burning inside me from the moment we set foot in that valley. But the blade never reached him. Something invisible stood between us. There was no sound, no visible impact, only a sudden sensation, as if my sword had struck a wall made of hardened air. The force of the collision ran up my arm to my shoulder and stopped the blow dead in its path, leaving the steel suspended just a few inches from the Devil's body. Agramor observed the scene with a calmness that was profoundly irritating. For a second no one spoke. Then he smiled.
—I admire your spirit, Captain.
He made no dramatic gesture. He did not even raise his hands. And yet, in the next instant, something changed in the world. I felt my feet leave the surface of the bridge. First a few inches. Then a meter. Then several more. Gravity ceased to exist. My body rose slowly into the air, and at the same time I saw the same thing happening to the rest of the group. Aldric, Serah, and Maelor were torn from the stone with absurd ease, as if all of us had suddenly become nothing more than feathers caught in an invisible current. Only Eldran remained on the ground. His body still lay upon the stones, unmoving, the black blood spreading slowly around the open wound in his side. We rose several meters above the bridge. The sensation was deeply unnatural. There was no wind, no push, no falling. We simply floated there, suspended in the air while the dark river continued its course beneath us with a murmur that now sounded much farther away. Agramor walked calmly until he stood directly beneath us. He lifted his gaze.
—This is what happens when you fail to understand your place.
Aldric tried to move. The effort was useless. His body remained completely motionless in the air.
—Put me down from here —he growled.
Agramor looked at him with an expression that was almost amused.
—I'm afraid that decision does not belong to you —his eyes returned to me —. I told you before, Captain, and now I will repeat it with a clarity that even a man as stubborn as you might understand.
He paused, as if savoring the silence he had created. Behind him the river crashed angrily against the pillars of the bridge.
—You cannot defeat me. Many men have tried. Men wiser than you. More powerful. Men who spent entire decades studying ways to destroy me.
He clasped his hands behind his back. His gaze darkened slightly.
—There was a rebellion once. An entire army rose against my presence in this valley. Peasants, soldiers, knights, and mercenaries marched together convinced that the strength of numbers could bend the will of the Devil —a small smile crossed his face —. It was an interesting spectacle.
Serah shifted slightly in the air.
—What did you do to them?
Agramor lifted his gaze toward her.
—Nothing they had not already brought upon themselves. Nothing they had not done to me —he paused —. There was also a man who believed he had better chances. A wizard. The one they called Whispers.
The wind began to blow harder around the bridge. Agramor started walking toward Eldran.
—For years he studied this place. Learned its secrets. Explored every corner of the valley until he believed he had discovered a way to break my dominion —he paused beside Eldran's body —. He even managed to wound me. Yet even the most brilliant men make mistakes when they confront something they do not fully understand.
He slowly closed his hand.
—He could not defeat me either, Captain.
At that moment the invisible force holding us vanished. We fell. The fall was not long. But it was brutal. It felt as if some violent emptiness had suddenly claimed us from the center of the earth. My back struck the stone of the bridge with a force that forced the air from my lungs in a rough grunt.Aldric crashed down near me, rolling over his shoulders before stopping himself. Serah hit the ground hard, cutting one of her eyebrows against the cobblestones. Maelor, however, landed dangerously close to the edge of the bridge. The ancient stones were slick with the river's mist. And the impact had been strong enough to leave all of us stunned. Then I heard a shout.
—Maelor!
I turned my head. The man of rings had slipped across the wet surface and now hung from the edge of the bridge, held only by one hand gripping a crack between the stones. Below him the dark river rushed violently. Aldric reacted first. He dragged himself across the stone, ignoring the pain of the fall, and threw himself toward the edge. His hands closed around Maelor's arm just as the other man's fingers began to slip. For several seconds they fought against weight and gravity. Finally Aldric managed to pull him back onto the bridge. Both men collapsed on the stone, breathing heavily. When I looked up again, Agramor was passing a hand slowly across Eldran's chest.
—I always enjoy these little encounters —his voice carried that same unbearable calm —. I love spending time with friends. They remind me how entertaining this place can be when new players arrive.
Serah pushed herself up to her knees.
—You're insane… this isn't over.
Agramor looked at her with a gentle smile.
—On the contrary —he straightened up and, leaving Eldran's body behind, began walking toward the mist that covered the road beyond the bridge —. This is only the beginning, my dear. I'm sure we will see each other again.
He gave a small nod of farewell and the mist slowly swallowed him. Within seconds his figure disappeared into the shadows of the valley. The silence he left behind was heavy. For several moments no one moved. Pain from the fall ran through every part of my body. But something else began to be heard. Wings. Many wings. At first only a few clumsy flaps. Then dozens. Shapes began emerging from both ends of the bridge. Birds. Or what had once been birds. Their bodies were covered with broken feathers, torn wings, and dark stains that looked like diseases time had failed to cure. Their eyes were lifeless. Yet their movements were awkward and erratic. Which somehow made them even more disturbing.
—Minions —Aldric muttered as he struggled to his feet.
Serah raised her weapon.
—Then we fight.
And we did. Despite the pain from the fall. Despite the blood. Despite the fact that every movement demanded too much from our battered bodies. The first creatures came flapping across the bridge, striking with monstrous beaks. Aldric blocked the first attack with his shield and answered with a slash that split his opponent in two. Serah spun aside from a pair of claws before tearing through one wing with a savage cut. Maelor, still gasping from the fall, raised his ring-covered hands and unleashed a brutal bolt of lightning that shattered several minions in an instant. I moved toward the center of the bridge. My sword moved again. One fell. Then another. But they kept coming. From the mist. From the distant gray skies. From the banks of the river. The bridge began to fill with flapping shapes advancing in disturbing waves. And then another sound appeared. Different. The creaking of wheels over stone. We all heard it at the same time. From the road leading to the bridge, a small old carriage approached slowly, pulled by a thin, dust-covered horse. The driver was a man. He wore simple traveler's clothes and carried a long staff resting against his shoulder. When he saw the battle unfolding on the bridge, he stopped the cart. He watched for several seconds in astonishment. His face showed a completely foreign expression. Then, without stepping down from his seat, with absolute calm, he slowly raised the staff toward the sky. The light appeared suddenly. Not an explosion. Not lightning. More like an expansion.A white radiance opened from the tip of the staff as if the very air had decided to illuminate itself from within. The light crossed the bridge. Crossed the mist. Crossed the creatures. And the moment it touched their bodies, something began to happen. The darkness sustaining them began to evaporate. As if that light were drying the very essence of the valley. The minions began to align themselves and circle in the air. One after another. The bridge stood frozen beneath the growing radiance. And all of us stared at the man with the staff while the light continued expanding across the valley... until it left us completely blind.