Decimus

  Decimus burned through the crowd of monsters with the Sword of Light. They surrounded a rock where the former scribe was standing. The monsters looked like pale goblins, crouched on the ground with long lop ears. Even hunched to the limit of their spines, they were taller than an adult male (and Decimus was shorter than an adult male). The Sword was the only source of light in the darkness, constantly illuminating different parts of the storming mass of enemies.

  Despite the fact that the pale goblins wore rags for clothing and used sticks with stones or fragments of the jaws of some large alms stuck on the ends, they were not very intelligent: when the first row of climbing monsters was burned out by the ray of light, a next row would squeeze out new suiciders. And fortunately for the former scribe, their development process hadn't yet reached long-range weapons.

  There were so many enemies that Decimus couldn't count them (which is a little embarrassing for someone who has spent most of his life counting). His remaining grey curls swayed in the wind, and his glasses were fogged with sweat. He was no longer young for situations like this.

  But at least he now understood how his sword worked. The stream of light appeared when an innocent person was in mortal danger nearby. But perhaps Decimus was jumping to conclusions about innocence too quickly.

  "Deci, come on!" a female voice of support sounded from behind. "Come on, Deci! Burn them!”

  The girl threw daggers at the goblin monsters at first, but they quickly ran out, and she switched to words of encouragement.

  Decimus tried not to look at her. The fact that she was wearing it made him feel stunned and a little panicked. Panic stun. A metal bra, metal armbands, metal boots and (most indecently) a metal loincloth. The rest of the girl's appearance was a gift from nature. This is not how a young lady should dress! In fact, no lady should!

  "Young lady, as soon as I've finished this nasty business, I'll buy you some proper clothes!" the Sword Wielder burned a dozen more monsters with a flick of his hand.

  "Ah, Deci, you're so innocent. This armour is the source of my power. I committed the Covering of Valkali's heroine, and now I'm a heroine too," the indecent girl explained to him.

  "Covering, lady? Do you mean you are covered now? And before that... Oh, I'm afraid I don't quite understand the new youth words."

  "Never change, Deci. It means I've portrayed someone enough for the world to believe. This is how they created false gods before the Break. A client of mine told me about it when he was drunk."

  "So you're an actress, lady?"

  "You could say that. Acting, roleplaying. Theatre, brothel. The essence is the same. So don't call me lady."

  "No, you deserve even more of my respect. You are a strong lady. You've been through so much hardship and yet you remain so cheerful."

  The lady watched for a few seconds as the little man worked diligently to burn the monsters. The back rows were already visible in the flickering light of the Sword.

  "Shall I lie down and hug your leg? Men like that, don't they?" she finally suggested.

  "Lady..." Decimus adjusted his glasses in embarrassment.

  Snip-Snip

  Snip-Snip ran into the smoke-filled den and shouted happily:

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  "Great news, everyone! The big war is coming soon!"

  Everyone looked at him dumbfounded. Lubber took advantage of the situation and switched some playing cards.

  "What great is that, fool? The last war tore the world apart. And how do you know that?" Marquis asked in a short break from the neck of the bottle.

  Snip-Snip kicked someone's legs out of the chair roughly and sat down in the vacant seat:

  "I went to the mushroom oracle..."

  "Stop wasting your loot on nonsense. Spend it on the right things: booze, women and games."

  Snip-Snip just waved it off and continued excitedly:

  "He said the united North is flying to the West. I don't understand why it 'flying', but you know the oracle, he says everything allegorically. In the South, too, the local confrontation will soon be over, and where do you think they will send the freed-up military resources? Will all the warriors just lay down their weapons and take what they have? Digging sticks? And in the West, the weepers are at war with the madmen."

  "And in the East?" Marquis finished the bottle and wiped his mouth on his sleeve.

  "They'll figure something out there, too. Do you think they'll just watch the fun from the sidelines?" Snip-Snip mockingly decided the fate of the East.

  "What's so good about it?" Jacob asked.

  "So when the big misters and madams are happily clobbering each other, they won't be distracted by small gangs like ours. We just have to use this opportunity properly. We'll take a few villages, and when the dust settles, no one will care. Wounds will be licked and burial mound cities built. And there won't be enough energy left to do anything about our gang. Maybe we'll even become nobles.”

  "I like it," Marquis jumped up and swept drinks, money, cards and a woman off the table.

  "Why did you do it, Marquis?" Lubber asked resentfully, still holding the winning combination.

  "We have to think bigger," Marquis chuckled. "Our time has come."

  Sanguine

  Sanguine adjusted his conical, wide-brimmed hat. It was made of metal, though, so it was more of a helmet than a hat. But its wide brim (and it was really just the wide brim, there was nothing else in it) was meant to protect from the light of Dayorb, not from weapons. So it's still a hat.

  The hilt of the two-handed sword on his back is constantly touching the edges of the hat, so he will have to change the hat or cut a hole for the hilt. But it will look terrible. And it doesn't go well with Sanguine's western armour and tattered scarf.

  Coloured bubbles that look like they are made of leather fly nearby. Alms? On the horizon, huge sharp rocks confronted each other. It's like this all over the new continent.

  Giant snakes began to crawl out of the many holes in the high rock. They had hands, so they were Nagas. Or maybe they have another name now. After the Break, everyone started making up a bunch of new words. Well, probably to reflect the changes in the physical world. What a semantic morning I am having.

  Meanwhile, the Nagas began to do something with mirror crystals that had been placed around the area. This caused the crystals to burn brightly. Sanguine pulled his hat down over his face.

  The crystals warm the Nagas. They have cold blood. Ugh, that's disgusting. Sanguine shivered. Strange movement for a vampire. But apart from the other cold-bloods, it was the vampire who could understand them, for they were all blood-slaves in a way.

  The snake folk went about their business of growing plants and feeding some scaly chickens. Oh no, probably some scalywings. Where can I find a dictionary of new words? In the cycles of the vampire knight, the languages also changed, but not so dramatically.

  Sometimes the Nagas would look at Sanguine and hissper to each other. The holes in the sides of their heads served as ears, but probably worse.

  These cold-blooded people were of no interest to the vampire, and he was about to leave when a huge humanoid creature emerged from behind a rock. It had a bull's head and sharp horns that almost touched the top of they head. His (or her. Things are less clear now) clothing was of fur and scaly belts. Touched by magerot? Such a race? They look (relatively) intelligent, so the Break didn't change them much.

  The Nagas fell into the mud at the sight of the new guest, and they began to shake the spear in displeasure.

  Sanguine started to leave, as it was none of his business. He looked back at the startled creatures who had returned to their crawling ways. At the scaly parts of the clothing, obviously made from the skins of Nagas (it couldn't have been that bad, snakes shed their skin? Right?). Obviously this wasn't their first meeting. None of my business. The bull hit a Naga with their spear. Not mine.

  Another blow and the Nagas are cowering helplessly in the mud. But the bull clearly has warm blood. And it wouldn't be out of place to maintain the legend that I'm a noble vampire hunter. The little snakes go about their business, and this bull calf is a clear aggressor.

  "I want you to tell everyone how noble I am!" Sanguine held up his hat with one hand and drew his greatsword from his shoulder with the other.

  I wanted to move these interludes further into the text, but decided to leave them here. The Snip-Snip interlude was supposed to be a teaser for the third book, but I used his gang for this one. And I came up with a better teaser.

  Finally, the armour bikini! I couldn't ignore that cliche. But the only person I could give it to was Valkali, and she is the mother of the main character, and that would be a bit weird. Her metal breastplate with straps is scandalous enough. But those are the laws of the genre, I didn't make them up. I just listen and obey.

  I don't know if I can write an epic fantasy with lots of intertwining lines in the style of a feuilleton novel. After all, I need to go back and re-write and add.

  Hissper is whisper and hiss in one word. The original is better, but I decided not to deprive English speakers of such splendour.