Forum novel

[Reaper]

On the next day they immediately began walking again. Silently, as everyone was lost in his own thoughts. Trees and hills were passing by, but nobody was really paying attention. The empty land somehow frightened them.
As time went by, they realized how the trees slowly became less and less and how the ground changed its colour from white to something between brown and grey. Additionally, they got higher and higher.
“Soon we should reach the devastated area around the castle Firend.”, Manji said. No one replied anything, but especially Philus' expression got determined and frozen. Without looking back he increased his walking speed.
As they reached the top of the mountain they were walking on, they finally saw the entire dark land. In front of them, black hills and vales stretched for miles and miles. And near the horizon, far, far away a lonely castle was standing on a cliff, watching over the land.
“Come on, we will soon be there.”
Inspired by the seemingly so near goal, they began to walk even faster. Manji still tried to slow them down to prevent them from getting tired, but it was hopeless. But as they came nearer, a weird feeling caught hold of them. Something was wrong, but they couldn't tell what exactly it was.
Another hour had passed as they suddenly noticed a low voice apparently coming from everywhere. The noise became louder and louder and now they could identify it as an evil laughter. The laughter of...
Suddenly Julian appeared in the air above them, still laughing.
“It was so easy to take possession of this world. Now I can rule over it. Unfortunately I don't have enough time to take care of your death. I will leave it to this world. Happy dying.”
With this words he disappeared, leaving nothing but violet smoke behind.
“What could he have meant with his last words?”
Before anyone could reply, the ground around them began to move. Everywhere around them, earth hulked itself up to creatures made out of rock and death wood, while the last remaining trees used their branches to strike at the fighters.
“Manji!” shouted Cen, “We have to get out of here!”
“Try to stop them. I have to make a new portal.” He screamed back.
As Cen turned to the first giant, he saw Philus already breaking his neck.
“Keep in mind that you can't use any magic!” Manji shouted.
Now Cen also intervened in the fight. Together with Mailliw he knocked out one of the giants. As he fell down, both already headed to one of the demonic trees.
“Oh no! I don't have any tea leaves.” Manji suddenly cursed.
“What?” Philus screamed across his shoulder. “Do you really need that?”
“Yes. Or some kind of mighty magic on the other side to open the portal.”
“So, unless we find a leaf in this land, which I doubt, we have to get to the castle, directly to Julian. Well, thats where we wanted to get anyway, didn't we? Hurry up.” Cen screamed and punched away one of the giants to get a hole into the wall of attackers. Immediately he jumped through it, the others directly behind him. Now they all headed to the castle while more and more giants came out off the ground around them.