The Palace Beast

At the siege camp the following day, Ares was seated in a council meeting with other fighting gods when Zeus' herald arrived riding on horseback. The herald quickly jumped down from his horse and headed straight into the tent where the council meeting was held.

On seeing him walk into the tent, Ares cast a searing gaze at him. "What brings you here?"

"My lord, lord Zeus has instructed me to tell you he wants to hear the news of victory. That you should begin your attack on the castle," said the herald as he slightly lowered his head as an act of reverence.

The herald is not a god but a mortal who was captured by Zeus on the first day he crashed to the earth when he left the sky drawing other gods with him. He picked interest in this very mortal and made him his slave. Having seen he's trustworthy, he made him free and declared him his herald.

On hearing the news the herald has brought, Ares draws out his sword, raising it up; he let out a war cry as the rest of the fighting gods cheered joyfully. They draw out their swords too and raise them above their heads. "Let's bring down the castle!" Ares yelled in excitement.

...Inside warlocks' castle...

"Why are they sounding as if they have won the battle?"

Ozenzo was hearing the cheering and yelling coming from outside the castle. He thought to himself that their enemies are already celebrating victory when the battle is yet to be over yet to determine the victor.

As he was pondering in his heart, one of the warlocks rushed in. "My lord!" cried out the warlock. "What's the matter?"

"They're making their way to us with ladders."

On hearing this, Ozenzo rushed outside. He headed straight to the 'Battlement,' which is the top of the castle walls, a protective, tooth-shaped parapet often with a wall walk behind it for the soldiers to stand on. The defenders could fire arrows through gaps known as crenels. The raised sections, called merlons, helped to shelter the defenders during an enemy attack.

Ozenzo getting to the Battlement looked down from the merlons. He saw the fighting gods running towards the castle with ladders. He turned towards the warlocks and instructed them not to let their attackers succeed in getting into the castle.

Ladders were used by those attacking a castle to climb over the walls and fight the castle inhabitants within the castle walls. However, ladders had the disadvantage of leaving the man climbing the ladder subject to attack by an arrow, boiling water or oil, or by being thrown to the ground if the ladder was pushed away from the wall.

As the first set of the fighting gods placed their ladder on the castle walls, merlons, and crenel arrows were fired at them. These arrows were designed and spelled by Neena herself and are meant to kill any immortal.

Also from the 'Machicolations' of the castle, warlocks began to drop stones and boiled oil on their attackers. The 'machicolations' are stone boxes that projected from the walls of the castle and had holes in the floors for dropping stones or boiling oil on attackers.

"Yeah!" Ozenzo yelled in excitement seeing the effectiveness of their plans. "Keep it up and don't let them succeed!"

He then moved from the merlon to the round tower. The warlocks' castle is heavily fortified that it's harder even for any god to breach through its walls. The round tower is quite different from any square tower any castle can build. Unlike the square towers, they had no corners, which collapse if holes were dug underneath the foundations.

The round tower has arrow loops. These provided a safer means of firing arrows on the attackers of the castle. Seeing his warlocks consistently firing arrows on their attackers from the arrow loops, Ozenzo was pleased and he said to them, "Keep it up... Let them all burn!"

The ancient warlocks took their time in building a fortified castle. It has never been breached before and Ozenzo is doing all he could to make sure it's not done in his time. A spike metal barrier, called portcullis, helped protect the doors from fire and battering. It was lowered by chains from a chamber above the gateway.

Many believe that the entrance gate of a castle was always its weakest point. But this was not so for the warlocks' castle. Their defense line is heavily fortified by the ancient warlocks that build the castle making the main gate of the castle thick, iron-studded wooden door, that was hard to breakthrough.

...At the Wood...

John didn't give up on the search for Bonnie. He embraced himself and continued his search. As he was still scouting the woods, he caught a glimpse of a log cabin, a small house built of logs notched at the ends, and laid one upon another with the spaces filled with plaster, moss, mortar, mud, or dried manure.

He quickly headed towards the log cabin. Without delay, he kicked open the door and started yelling Bonnie's name. "Bonnie!"

"Please tell me you are here," he mutters below his breath and fell to his feet at the entrance of the log cabin.

"You're trespassing and I hate it when someone trespasses on my property," said a voice from inside the cabin.

John recognizes the voice as he quickly lifted his head to see whose voice he heard. "Oh hell no!" he exclaimed. Slowly he picked himself up and started working into the log cabin and towards the man whose voice he heard.