City of Ashes - Demo Version

(Instrumental, rain)

Grey skies, with a tinge of darkness
We aren't getting any rest in, regardless
We thought when we got to the city there would be a mosh pit
like it was back when we started, but...
Instead, it's a grim dead visage
Couple dozen homes burned, seeing beds and cots
Endless. The nemesis tread the spot and spread the rot,
leaving this dark dread begot
And now, every step gets harder to take
No farmers in the field or guards at the gate
Too calm, no sign of life, bizarre as a fate
Still a mile out of town and it's dark in the day
But I swallow my fear and make an approach into it
The walls felled, the breeze blowing the wind through it
I can barely begin to imagine the kind of panic they must have felt
Was there even a hint, to it?

Every roof still smoldering slow
Fire can't spread more, there ain't nowhere to go
But the roads and the fields look almost coated,
as though they were covered only in snow
Most of the rubble in the town proper is down farther into the middle
Where the ground's hotter and the ash still hangs in the air
as the earth burns
We're certain that this foul monster must have wrought this days ago
But we never caught word
Meaning nobody survived what had occurred
And it got worse - everything we're seeing on the way in
isn't even close to the drop
There's dried blood mixed in from the clash
in a hundred different trails through the cinders amassed
All through the city streets, we begin to see in through the ash
all the bodies that we missed

and we gasp as the wind lifts the blanket of dust and debris
and I see that underneath it is a blood-covered scene
Twenty town guards obviously rushed in to meet what awaited them
and instantly crushed under feet
In the house beside us,
a family together cramming up against the corner
in a plan to try to weather out the violent attack,
with the table up in front of them
But nothing was enough in this calamity endeavor
In another house, I can see a man tried to run
Crushed under the door, clutching the hand of his son
And I look away fast but the damage is done
Voice in my head telling me "Abandon it, run!"
But it's everywhere, as my feet carry me on through
I see a young couple stuck there clinging onto the back of a wagon
filled up with tools and supplies
Must have been a traveling merchant the people were drawn to

As soon as the attack hit, the only action was to run, hide, or fight
And none of them hacked it
It isn't even clear what was here to attract this
The dragon didn't need a reason, only a tactic
I can't look at it 'cause all I'm seeing is death
I'm seeing hundreds of bodies of people fleeing his breath
Seeing couples under the rubble in puddles of blood,
clutching their loves, hoping their destruction wasn't to come
They've been dead now for days,
heads out and faces twisted in anguish
Bled mouths, agape
Eyes, wide, staring at me, every house, ablaze
Crew's trying to stop me I say "Get out the way!"
Right near the center of it all, is a school
with the roof buckled in, and the walls of it, too
and the long trail of scorches covering the front steps
I already know there's no one left

I run west through the bazaar
Death, ruin, and carnage
Every breath, every step, through the garbage
Every home is a wreck, bones, weapons and armor
scorched black as the threat looming large
Windows broke and walls collapsed
I'm falling fast, I'm running like I'm on a track
There's one thing I keep seeing beyond disaster
and it's making me choke quicker than all the ash
I see artwork hung up on a parchment
staged on every building, every stall, it's all the rage
There's a picture on it like on a comic page of eight heroes
with a caption: "We'll all be saved!"
They believed in us up to this
Put up our pictures everywhere, just to get destroyed
Not one who trusted us was to live
A couple minutes is all that it must have been

I think about home, and the folks there
I bet my family is so scared...
If not for the note that I wrote,
would they know they're the moments I hold dear?
When I imagine this dragon attack in a flash, it's a nightmare
Flames in the sky, my city on fire (this could have been)
My mission, my party
My family, my fault
My god, I'm sorry (and I swear)

on this City of Ashes
And I swear on this City of Ashes
And I swear on this City of Ashes
And I swear on this City of Ashes

And I swear on this City of Ashes
And I swear on this City of Ashes