An hour later, and it was time for the daily Lighting. The Lighting, which had occurred every day since the beginning of time, performed by the faithful, harbinger of hope and peace everywhere.
Teltibane fell like a stone. Straight out of the sky, in the thick of battle. He dropped eighty feet before recovering. Quickly, he levitated himself towards Green's command center behind the higher wall of ruvedaz.
"What is it?" Yionaffe asked. He saw the worry and fear etched on Teltibane's face. Fear and trepidation emanated from the core of his being.
"I sense something, something terrible. Something is amiss."
"What? What is wrong?" Green asked urgently.
Teltibane grabbed the front of Green's cloak.
"I fear that it has to do with the Light! Something is horribly, horribly wrong, with the Light!" Teltibane practically shouted. "No. This cannot be. How can this be?! Oh! treachery. This is betrayal of the worst kind."
Teltibane sank to the floor, head in his hands.
The head of the Light Archers rushed into the room, looking very distraught.
"What is wrong, Shanwii? Tell me, quickly!" Green yelled.
"It's our Light arrows. They aren't working! They aren't piercing like they should."
Then the head of the Light infantry ran into the room.
"What is it, Varnon?" Green asked.
"Our Light swords are useless! They are blunt. They do not work at all without the power of the Light. And the Light is gone today! We can all feel it!"
King Green was stunned. It took him a full minute to recover and react. "Blue has killed the Priests of the Light and hasn't raised the Blue Crystal today. Without all the Colors, the Light cannot form properly. Have every Light soldier called back to the fortress immediately! Have them discard their Light weapons. They are useless now. Have them armed with whatever weapons you can find! Take from the dissolved if you must."
The Light commanders left to do Green's bidding.
"They will still be missing the aid of the Light," said Yantry.
"They will. But it's the best we can do, given the circumstances. Blue was planning this all along, and he struck at the most vital moment. The Light has shined in an unbroken chain of days, months, and years for millennia. He has broken the chain in his arrogance, cast down the virtue of Men. Vallidius will pay for this. He will pay for this dearly," Green vowed.
It was a Lightless day. A dark day. A day of no joy, a day of no hope. It was a day in which hope, joy, and optimism were nearly pronounced dead. Their heartbeat slowed, and all but stopped.
Man looked to the heavens for enlightenment, but had only darkness for an answer.
It was a day where Darkness reigned, and Darkness prevailed.
Slowly, with Green bereft of the aid of the enhanced Light soldiers, Blue's forces, the forces of Darkness, began to triumph. The tide of battle turned in favor of the mighty ocean of Blue.
The Light archers could not use their unique weapons anymore to combat Blue's massive air strikes. In fact, their weapons were dull and blunt, for they relied on the magic of the Light alone, which was today nonexistent.
A steady hail of Blue paratroopers rained down beyond the walls of the ruvedaz fortress. Teltibane's power was severely reduced without the Light to aid him. The Light archers and their all-piercing arrows were no more. And the Forklant riders just weren't enough to stop the skilled, pistol armed, heli-flyers on their own.
Blue was taking the mighty fortress. And Green was powerless to stop him. And when Green lost the fortress, the battle on the ground would soon follow.
Blue's air attack was relentless. For every heli-soldier that was shot down, two more took its place. Blue's paratroopers had by now established a sustainable beachhead on the far end of the fortress rampart. The fall of the stronghold was imminent.
King Green looked out onto the battlefield and understood that this battle was lost. It was time to move out, and move on. "Open the lower doors, and sound the retreat signal. We must make haste for the town of Regdlin, five miles north west of here, on Qawars Hill. There we will set up fortifications once more."
The great doors on the outside wall were opened, and signal for retreat sounded. Green's army abandoned the fortress entirely and hurried to the path at its rear, towards the nearby Green town of Regdlin. The first battle went to Blue.
"They give me green skies, I give them Dark Skies," smirked King Blue to his assistant Gleef, in reference to Edomal Blaize's plan to color the skies of major mortal cities green, an idea which Blue mistakenly thought originated with King Yionaffe Green. "Eye for an eye."
"Stunning. Stunning move, master."
Blue pushed his long blue locks from his eyes and grinned. "Indeed."