[NightHawk]: 105.NightHawk's Poetry Index.The Battle of the Tw

The Battle of the Twilight Army
A ballad as told by esteemed bard Kelart Belath

So this, then, my friends, is the tale
Of a long, bloody battle in a vale
Where peace one reigned in a beautiful land
But now is naught but a sea of sand.

Once long ago, when morals held sway,
One could look up to the sky and say
That this was an excellent day to live
For life had so much to give.

A king ruled the land with justice and peace
It seemed that prosperity would never cease
Until the day of the dark omen:
The day the portals to Hell were opened.

Demons spewed forth, their bodies raging with flame,
They came to the earth to kill and to maim.
Their unholy stench filled the sweet air,
While they ravaged and burned without a care.

The king, he sent his knights to war,
And, though they were frightened to their cores,
The holy knights attacked the fierce beasts
Backed by their kingdom's most powerful priests.

Steel clashed on steel, magic against spell
As they fought the terrible hordes of Hell.
But the knights fell to the power of evil
And the day seemed won by the raging devils.

But the armies of myth rose in the knights' stead,
Instilling in both sides a feeling of dread.
Soldiers long-dead drew their mystic blades,
Incorporeal forms not seen for decades.

And they battled the thick cloud of Hell's spawn,
Fought and killed 'til the night was gone.
Then back to mist, as they were at dusk,
Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.

And so ends this epic tale of old times,
Their mysteries hidden in ruined shrines,
Forgotten, crumbling, begging relesase,
But as for home, our land knows peace.