Chapter 9 - THE SIEGE OF CRESTFALL
Gideon slammed the flare against the stone floor. Brilliant red smoke erupted, pouring out through the high dungeon grates into the night sky.
Outside, a deafening horn sounded—a sound that echoed like thunder across the Southern valleys. It was the War-Horn of the Iron Pack.
Suddenly, massive explosions rocked the outer walls of Crestfall. Gideon hadn't just brought a strike team; he had marched the entire Northern Vanguard behind him, hiding them in the mountain passes until the signal was given.
"Fire! KILL THEM!" Bastion screamed in terror, losing his cool completely.
Crossbow bolts rained down, but Varick and the Northern Shadow-Guards raised heavy iron shields, forming an impenetrable dome around Gideon, Adelaide, and Clara.
"Break the portcullis!" Gideon commanded.
Four Northern warriors slammed heavy iron rams against the fallen iron gate, while Gideon himself gripped the iron bars with his bare hands. Veins bulged along his neck and arms as his wolf strength surged. With an inhuman roar, Gideon bent the thick iron bars open, creating a gap wide enough for them to pass through.
"Go! Get to the lower yard!" Gideon ordered, pushing Adelaide and Clara through first.
The dungeon became a battlefield of roaring steel and blood. Gideon charged up the stone stairs like a demon unleashed, his broadsword cutting down Bastion’s guards in terrifying, single strikes.
Adelaide carried Clara through the smoke-filled corridors, heading toward the main courtyard. When they burst through the wooden doors into the open air, the scene was chaos. The massive oak gates of Crestfall had been smashed open by Northern catapults. Hundreds of armored Northern wolves were pouring into the fortress, wiping out the Southern resistance with ruthless efficiency.
In the center of the courtyard stood Lord Bastion, frantically trying to reach his horse to flee.
"BASTION!"
A voice roared through the courtyard like thunder. Bastion turned, his face pale with horror, as Gideon materialized out of the smoke, covered in blood, his golden eyes burning with divine wrath.
Bastion pulled his longsword with trembling hands. "Stay back! I am a Lord of the Realm! You cannot execution-!"
Gideon closed the distance in a split second. He struck Bastion’s sword out of his hand with a single blow, sending the weapon flying into the snow. Gideon grabbed Bastion by the throat, slamming him hard against the stone fountain in the center of the yard.
"You starved her," Gideon growled, his voice vibrating with absolute fury. "You whipped her. You used her as poison. And you called my Queen... disposable."
"Please... mercy... I'll give you gold... land..." Bastion choked out, his eyes bulging in terror.
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"The North does not take silver from monsters," Gideon snarled.
With a final, devastating blow, the tyrant of Crestfall fell lifeless into the stained snow.
