The day was cheerful, the wind was tame, and the sun bathed the land in glorious light. The forest was calm and quiet as the soft winds blew the branches slightly. The castle close to the forest bustled with life, and one could even hear people talking in the market. The walls separated the forest from the city and there was a road from the city that ran into the forest down south.

    A woman sat on a thick tree branch in a tree, using the trunk as a support for her back. She had an apple in her hand, which bore a very obvious bite mark. She occasionally looked to the left and right of her, then continued eating her apple. She wore a green tunic and brown chausses, her tunic had a hood which she occasionally liked to put up, she also wore black hunter boots. She had brown hair and diamond blue eyes which were constantly looking around. Her ear twitched as she heard a disturbance, leaves crunching. 

She slowly moved her head to see where the voice was coming from. She saw an elk standing near a tree next to the one the woman was in. The elk was grazing the long grass by the tree. It looked up and saw an apple and tried to find a way to eat it. All the while, the woman slowly grabbed her bow. The bow was completely wooden and the string was made from spider webbing. She grabbed an arrow out of her quiver, also wooden, and put it on the bow. She pulled the string and took aim at the elk who was still trying to reach the apple high in the tree. Suddenly, the tree which the elk was by, moved it’s branch to slam the ground. With a loud THUD! The elk got frightened and ran off, the woman loosened her aim and sighed. 

“Sage?” The woman said. She was very annoyed that she just lost her hunt. The tree’s branch erected back into place and the tree shook as it turned into a small pale girl. She wore an elven, green tunic which reached down to her knees. She had long green braided hair and hazel eyes. When she landed on the ground she curled up and rolled into a ball into the tree.

“Maaaybe?” Sage innocently said. The woman hopped out of the tree and turned to face Sage. 

“I thought I told you not to disturb me while I was hunting,” the woman questioned. Sage got up off the ground and faced the woman who was very tall compared to her.

“It was just one elk Aquis, I thought you bagged bigger than that,” Sage said. She jumped up and grabbed the branch of the tree and started swinging back and forward like a pendulum.

“Do you know how rare it is to see an elk? I was going to use this elk to finally find the ancient albino elk!” Aquis dramatically said. Sage dropped off the branch but didn’t touch the ground. She floated in the air slightly above it.

“Psshhh! The ‘ancient albino elk’, that’s just a myth,” Sage said. Aquis started walking toward the road and Sage followed her. 

“I’ve seen it before, it can’t be a myth!” Aquis said. Sage slapped her shoulder and floated in front of her to stop her from walking further.

“Honey, I’m a nature spirit, meaning I should know everything that belongs to nature. There is no such thing as an ancient albino elk,” Sage said. Aquis looked at her with a furrowed brow, then punched Sage’s shoulder. “Ow!” Sage rubbed her hand on the punched shoulder, and Aquis pushed her to the left as she kept walking. Sage floated next to Aquis as they walked on.

“First off, I saw it. Do I need to tell you how and when I saw it again?” Aquis asked. Sage rolled around in the air like a dog.

“UHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHGGGGGGGGGG!!!! That story is so boring, and it’s the only one you have as well! Like seriously, get out more girl!” Sage responded. Aquis ignored her and continued.

“Secondly, it’s called ‘ancient’ for a reason. Maybe it even preludes you and escapes from other eyes,” she thought.

“Nuh-uh, no way. It would be impossible for an elk, of any stature, to go unnoticed in any woods. The ents love to talk about them and even if they’re trying to be quiet, a tree can only be so quiet,” Sage responded again.

“Third . . . DON’T STOP ME FROM HUNTING!!” She yelled. It wasn’t harsh but it wasn’t entirely playful. Sage mimicked her on her left hand.

“Oh, I’m going to make friends with the nature spirit who protects the forest critters. But you know what, I’m going to become a hunter just to spite her. Why not? Wouldn’t that be fun? Killing harmless animals and skinning them . . . and eating them-” She paused and grabbed her stomach. “Merciful Kun, even talking about it causes me pain.”

“You make it sound more dramatic than it actually is.”

“No I don’t, it’s just as horrifying,” Sage said. They walked near more trees when a face popped out. She had the same green hair as Sage but her tunic was brown and her face was darker. “Hi there Merryweather!!” Sage yelled as she waved at the other spirit. Merryweather slowly came out of the cover of the tree and floated towards them.

“Hi-i Sage, I just heard you talking but apparently you're already accompanied,” she shyly stated.

“You’re fine to join us, you wouldn’t be interrupting anything,” Artemis proposed. When she spoke to Merryweather, she blushed and avoided eye contact with her. She also scratched her cheek.

“Oh . . . Aquis, di-didn’t realize you were here. You look nice . . . and cute-” She abruptly paused and glanced at her as she fiddled with her long hair. “Okay bye now.” She ran behind the tree and they didn’t see her again.

Aquis looked at Sage with questioning eyes. “What was that?”

“Don’t mind her, she’s shy around everyone. Well, more shy around women who are cuter than her because she gets jealous in a better manner than the other spirits. Woo! Fire spirits can get feisty, especially the girls,” Sage commented.

“Oh, weird,” Aquis said before realizing what she had said. “Wait . . . is she jealous of me or you?” Sage stopped floating and she stopped walking in return.

Sage held out her hands and said, “who do you think? She complimented you and addressed you directly! All without saying thanks.”

“She didn’t exactly give me a chance,” Aquis said and looked at the tree. “Well that’s nice of her, even if my hair is a tangled mess.” She dug through her hair to try and straighten it but she pulled out three dark green leaves. “And there’s leaves in it.”

“Ain’t nothing wrong with a few leaves, if you get enough you can tie it up to make a bun or braid it or . . . ummm, or a ponytail. Yeah! You’d look cute in one of those!” Sage eagerly said. Aquis shot her a glance and looked around. Trees flanked them from every direction but off in the distance she could see a break in the trees. She turned toward that direction and walked, Sage following her.

“You will not braid, bun, put it into a ponytail or any other form of hair manipulation. Do you know how many times my hair gets in a mess?” Aquis said. 

“So? Do you see how many leaves are in my hair?” Aquis looked and didn’t see any, making her frown.

“No, I don’t. Even the nature spirit has cleaner hair than me and you take baths with fauns!”

“As a faun! Still feels good to take a bath with those dirty goatmen . . . when’s the last time you took a bath?” Sage asked. Aquis kept silent as she looked for an answer. “See! You can’t complain about cleanliness if you haven’t kept clean!”

“I’m thinking! Just give me a minute,” Aquis requested. “Last week?” Sage floated away from her but kept up with her, just from a safe distance. 

“Gross! You haven’t even jumped in a pond or a river? No wonder you’re still single, you probably smell awful right now,” Sage said. Aquis blushed slightly and turned her head away from her.

“You could at least tell me something useful instead of just being mean,” she said. 

“Well the next time I see you out here, I’ll make sure to give you some of my extra Ironskin shampoo.”

“Ironskin? My skin’s fine, the smell isn’t.”

“Oh, that’s right,” Sage told herself. “You might smell awful but at least your skin’s tough.”

“Okay, you know what. I’m going to find a river, take a bath, and then go to the Citadel to get some cleaning supplies.”

“I’ve heard that Tulip Twilight is popular right now.”

“What’s it smell like?”

“I have no idea, they say it smells like ancient mystical trees surrounded by the finest smelling tulips. A broad way to define it but I guess it’s hard to define a smell to someone who can’t,” Sage admitted. 

“Then I’ll go with that,” Aquis stated, glad that she would try to fit in even if it was through shampoo. The clearing that she saw earlier turned into a dirt road ahead of them. After her comment, they walked in silence for a little bit. Examining the surroundings as the chirping of birds filled the conversation with some noise.

“Can I ask you a question?” Sage asked. She appeared hesitant to ask it and there was still some anxiety afterwards. 

“If you ask it again, I will kick you,” Aquis simply yet aggressively stated. A frown sneakily fell on her face and she didn’t even notice it.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Sage asked, some concern and compassion filled her voice.

“No, I’d rather us not have this conversation.”

“But we’re both girls, there ain’t no boys around. It can just be us girls talking somewhat privately about our problems,” she advised. Aquis paused instead of retorting something back immediately. They reached the road and she stopped walking.

“I know but my problem is something you never had to worry about, you can’t help me,” she said, trying to hide the hopelessness she felt.

“I have experience though, I can help-” Sage offered but was stopped. They saw something in the distance approaching them. As the thing got closer, they saw that it was someone on horseback. Aquis readied her bow, but Sage made her put it down. The person on the horse got closer and they saw that he was not armed. Aquis put away her bow and waited for the man to reach them. Sage dashed off into the woods and hid in a bush to avoid being seen. When he came closer, he stopped his horse.

“It is grand that I have fou-” He abruptly stopped and held his nose, attempting to prevent any audible disgust from being revealed. “What is that smell? Have the fauns been excreting in the bushes again?” Aquis only slightly frowned as she told him.

“No . . . that would be me,” she admitted. She could hear Sage quietly giggling in a bush and she grew more flustered. The man looked at her with unjudging eyes.

“No means to pry but have you considered purchasing Tulip Twilight shampoo? It’s popular with women and smells lovely as well. Sure to overpower whatever you rolled in to smell like that,” he said, not trying to offend her but doing so immensely in the process. She hid her embarrassment and anger very well, all things considered.

“Thanks for the tip,” she seethed. “Is that all you came here to say?” Anger slightly showing. He waved his hands up in defense.

“No, no, no intent to offend. I came in search of you because the prince has requested you and I came to find you,” he said. “He wants you back right away, no dilly-dally.” He nodded his head and whipped his horse in the opposite direction, back to the castle. 

Sage looked up from the bushes and gave her a confused look, but Aquis waved that the man already left. Sage flew out of the bushes and floated beside Aquis as they looked where the rider was going.

“What does the prince want now?” Sage asked.

“I don’t know, but I’m guessing you shouldn’t come,” Aquis said. Sage looked at her and frowned.

“But why, can’t I join one of your conversations?” She asked.

“No, I don’t want Charles to know we are friends with a spirit. Otherwise he’d find a way to use you for the war,” Aquis said. Sage put up a finger then placed it down in defeat. She shrugged, and shook lightly as she replaced herself with a faun. Her beautiful female features were replaced with an ugly goat man who immediately smelled. He gave a thumbs up and hopped away. Aquis looked at where Sage ran off to, then back at the road and she started to walk towards the Citadel. 

“What are we waiting for?” Someone said. There were two people sitting on tree branches of adjacent trees. They were both wearing red tunics with some light metal armor on it but there was a green and brown sheet on top of them, acting as camouflage. 

“Have you any idea if these sheets will work? What are the chances they actually buy this disguise?” The other guy said. They both were carrying spears, which they put on the branch so no one could see the spearhead in the light. 

“It worked for everyone else, didn’t it Vivus?” The first guy said. “And you didn’t answer my question, what are we waiting for?” 

“We’re supposed to watch the Citadel’s southern road and report back to Pantheon if we find something, didn’t you listen to him Cicero?” Vivus said.

“Is that something newsworthy?” Cicero said. Vivus looked at Cicero, who was looking and pointing at something on the road. They both saw a confrontation between someone on horseback, a female hunter. The woman and the horseman had a discussion which they couldn’t hear and then the horse raced off. A nature spirit walked out of the bushes, briefly talked to the huntress, turned into a faun, and hopped off. The woman continued to walk down the road, toward the Citadel.

“Who is that?” Vivus asked.

“You don’t know? That’s Aquis, the Freemen’s best hunter, what’s she doing though?” Cicero said. 

“Do you think we’re able to ambush her and take her?” 

“No, she’s the best hunter in their land. I doubt we’ll do anything but expose our position and our camp,” Cicero said. They moved from tree to tree to follow her movement.

“Is it just me, or is she more attractive than most of their entire population?”

“I… no… I also thought that, I heard that she was a deadly foe, but not a pretty one.” 

“But look at her,” Vivus said and they did. “If we did capture her, she’d make a great gift for Pantheon.”

“You think he’d want her as a wife?”

“Well yeah, but he’s the only centurion without a wife, captured or not.”

“He hasn’t changed his mind yet and we won’t make him, and he’d be happier if we didn’t lose our position here. Should we tell him that Aquis is going into their capital?”

“Why would that matter?” Vivus asked.

“Because if she’s a hunter, then she would spend most of her time in the woods, wouldn’t she? She’d only go into the capital if the prince needed something from her,” Cicero explained.

“Or she could be shopping for something, remember how we can hear the market from a hundred meters away?” 

“Shopping or talking to the prince, we just can’t stay here,” Cicero advised. “So we either go back or chase after her.” Vivus didn’t immediately answer and pondered the question. But only for three seconds.

“We should go report it to Pantheon,” Vivus stated. They stopped following her and jumped from branch to branch back to their camp. Luckily for them, the trees weren’t that far apart. When they were far enough away from the Citadel and the road to the Citadel, they got off the trees and quickly ran on foot. They soon approached a very dense part of the forest with some thorn bushes between most of the trees, they had to climb up a tree and around several branches to get to an opening in the midst of the forest, which was where their camp was set. 

There were a few tents set up and a bigger tent for the centurion, there was an open field for running and gatherings and some targets set up by the open field where the soldiers practiced their fighting. They hopped down off the trees and walked towards the centurion’s tent, but were greeted by him on the way. He wore a silver metal centurion helmet, and wore similar armor to them, but it appeared a little thinner. He also had shoulder guards and metal armor around his left arm, he could move it similar to his right, although a little slow. It was very hard to see his hair since it was covered by the helmet. He carried a spear in his right hand and had a gladius on his belt, in case the spear broke. 

“Status report!” Pantheon said and the two stopped and saluted.

“Ave, ad imperatorem!” They said.

“Cease!” Pantheon sternly said and they both stopped saluting. “What have you two found?” 

“The roads have been relatively quiet, except for Aquis, who is walking to the Citadel as we speak,” Vivus said. Pantheon looked around to see if anyone was close by or could be listening to their conversation.

“Follow me to my tent,” He quietly said. He walked over to his centurion tent and opened the flap and the two went inside, Pantheon closed it and patted two chairs which were by a table. Vivus and Cicero sat down in the chairs and Pantheon leaned against the table. “What is this about the female bowhunter?” Vivus and Cicero looked at each, somewhat afraid to speak.

“There was a messenger on horseback who rode to her and gave her a message.” Vivus said.

“We assumed that he told her to go see the prince, since she wouldn’t be bothered by a courier otherwise . . . being she a hunter,” Cicero said.

“Yes, then when the messenger left, he talked to a spirit friend and she hopped off into the forest,” Vivus said. They stopped talking and looked at Pantheon, who was thinking.

“What did the nature spirit turn into when she ran back into the forest?” He asked.

“A faun, sir.” Vivus said. Pantheon nodded his head then turned his attention back to them.

“Tell me this, why do you think Aquis was needed by the prince?” Pantheon asked. Both Vivus and Cicero knew he was testing them, he always asked questions if they should have paid attention to something. He loved to test his own soldiers, it made them more vigilant and pay much more attention.

“Maybe Charles knows of the attack on the village that Aries will make and they plan to counterattack?” Vivus said.

“And both she and William are there to aid their troops?” Cicero said. Pantheon nodded some more.

“Indeed, if that were the case, then our plan has worked. We will ambush their counterattack and Aries will join us,” Pantheon said, but he paused and looked away. “If both Aquis and William were to split up into groups, whose should we attack?” They looked at each other again.

“I’d say Aquis because she wouldn’t perform very well at close range, along with the rest of her archer friends. But that doesn’t mean some of them don’t hide in the forest,” Cicero said.

“Aries will want to fight William, he always does. I agree with Cicero on this,” Vivus said.

“Your scouting has been a success then. However your jobs are not over, I need you two to go into the Citadel and find out where they are going with their troops. Aries invades from the west and expects them to come from the east, but if they come from the north or south he would be easily surrounded. When you find out where they are deploying, come to me immediately. I do not want you to do anything in the city except for that,” Pantheon said. Vivus and Cicero got up from their chairs and headed for the flap. But Pantheon snapped his fingers, which made them stop.

“One more question, why did you two take so long to get back here? I highly doubt that the confrontation between the man on the horse and Aquis took a while, so why are you later than expected?” Pantheon said. Cicero and Vivus looked at each with a twinge or worry in their eyes.

“Well, me and Vivus were arguing whether we should attempt to capture her or not,” Cicero said, and Pantheon’s eyebrow raised. 

“She would be great for information, but surely you know how good she is?” Pantheon asked, confused by the prospect.

“Not just information, but maybe a wife as well?” Vivus said. Pantheon lowered his eyebrow. “Since you’re the only centurion without one.” Pantheon nodded at that last one.

“That is true, but do you know why?” Pantheon said, and they both shook their heads. “Because as Aries said, ‘I am too caring’, I care for each and everyone of the legionaries and also you frumentarii, you are all very important to my mission,” Pantheon leaned off of the table and walked behind the desk. He looked up, then back at them. “Why would Aquis be a good wife?” 

“Because she’s one of the most beautiful women I think the Freemen have,” Vivus said.

“A beautiful woman for a wonderful centurion,” Cicero said, trying to sell their idea to him. Pantheon put his hands on the table and smiled. 

“You two quit dreaming! Tell the venator to find any and all fauns and bring them here, I want that spirit!” Pantheon yelled and banged his fist against the table. Vivus and Cicero didn’t move. “DISMISSED!” They both ran out at that. Pantheon pushed away from the table and walked to the chairs. “They will dream but nothing will change as such is fate.”

Before Aquis reached the walls of the city, she could hear the marketplace bustling with life. Soon the trees on both sides of her vanished and there were plains on both sides of her, it was actually farmland but the plants haven’t popped up yet. When she reached the walls, there was a large metal gate which was closed when she got there. There were two pikemen on each side of the door, both were heavily armored. On the walls of the castle, there were two archers looking down at her, there were more archers to the left and the right, but they were looking in different directions. Aquis got to the gate and both the pikemen looked at her.

“You’re Aquis, right?” The left one said. She nodded and they both nodded as well. The left one banged on the gate three times with the pike and they stepped aside. The gate slowly opened to reveal the marketplace. People were walking around, stopping by the markets, dragging their mules across the street. It looked very crowded. She walked in and the gate closed on her way in. On her way in she could hear one of the guards muttering something to the other guard. She walked to the market street and attempted to walk through the crowd. The actual markets were on the sides of the street, but that didn’t mean that people stood in the middle lane for absolutely no reason.

“Get your bread! Full loaves of bread for sale!” A baker yelled, holding up two loaves of perfectly spongy bread. The baker’s bread was always doughy, which was why Aquis bought only his bread to eat whenever she got tired of eating meat and plants. 

“Armors! Full plates of armor for sale! Silver or black, whatever color you want!” The smithy shouted above the crowd. The smithy’s family was half-Dwarf and half-Human, mainly because Papa Smithy (Smith was his actual name) was good friends with the Dwarves and even married a Dwarf woman. Being related to the Dwarves was a blessing because they always got the best metals, which is good considering they’re armor and weaponsmiths. No one actually knows where they keep getting their Dwarvish iron, copper, and some even say they have draxite (a rare ore the Draxus had named and found while in the mountains. It is said to be more powerful than some magics).

People from all over Freemen territory came to the Citadel solely to trade their goods, because the Citadel merchants and traders always had the best product. Even some Wastelanders come to the Citadel to acquire their wares. With this being the case, Aquis had a rough time pushing through the crowd. She was surrounded by people bringing their livestock, tools, and some even had ores they wanted melted. The sellers shouted their wares as she tried to merge peacefully with the sea of people but she still had to push her way through. Apologizing as she moved them. 

 She finally pushed her way through the marketplace and walked to the keep.  There were houses on both sides of her which were also alive and half as full as the marketplace, people were putting up laundry, talking to neighbors, and kids were playing in the streets. Aquis was the only one walking down the paved road and the kids looked up to see her walking down the very street they played on everyday. They looked up as she approached and they all stopped what they were doing, the kids directly in front of her backed up out of the way and gaped in awe. Aquis was well known throughout both Freemen and Roman lands for being the only woman hunter, which broke most norms, but no one actually cared that much. She was incredibly good at hunting and had vast knowledge of the forest and it’s secrets, as such it was a sight to actually see her in any town or city. 

“Is that Aquis?” A boy said.

“The greatest hunter of all time?” Another boy said.

“I want to be like her when I grow up.” A girl said. She chuckled at these comments and waved at them, who waved back. She wasn’t used to so many positive comments because of her self-isolation in the woods. She stopped walking and looked up at the top of the keep, its size still astounded her. Twice as large as the walls and even more glorious. Banners of the prince’s emblem, a sword and a staff behind a shield. She approached the door to the keep, which were two large wooden doors. It was also guarded with pikemen, except there were four of them. She continued walking and one of the pikemen hit the door, causing it to open before she even approached them. She went in the keep and the door closed behind her.

When she entered, she saw that there was a red rug that led right to the throne. The rug was made of the finest silks and even had a touch of Twilight spider webbing in it, which gave it a light glow. Atop the throne, the Freemen prince sat there and smiled at his guest. Charles had pure, gold, medium-long blonde hair and his royal robes on, which were blue and silver. He had a golden crown on his head and the crown had three jewels in it which were all red. To his left, there was William in his full suit of armor, he held his sword with both hands so it’s blade was facing the ground. William’s armor was silver with some wear and tear to it, his helmet was a great helm, which made it impossible to see his face. He was standing perfectly still and didn’t budge an inch. William was the Paladin commander of the entire Freemen force, the only person who had more military authority than him was Charles.

“I didn’t expect the courier to come back so soon, but not fifteen minutes later, here you are,” Charles said. Aquis walked closer until she got to the steps of the throne and stopped.

“I was headed back here anyway, fate would happen that you need me as well,” Aquis said. Charles put his hand on his knee and bent down to speak to her level. 

“Do you know why I called you here?” He asked.

“Knowing you, it’s regarding the Romans,” She replied. Charles nodded his head. 

“We have gotten word that they plan on raiding the village, Ancient Crossing, the one closest to the mountains, meaning they had to go through the Krag Mountain valleys. This should mean their force isn’t as large as the original, but knowing Aries, he probably killed all the Krag himself,” Charles said. Aquis’s eyes widened.

“How long do we have until he invades the village?” She asked.

“I have no idea, Aries is waiting by the mountains and set up camp there. No doubt he intends to keep that path clear of Krag so they can march easier. Their forces have to move south and they will probably try to avoid Zealot's Circle since they do rituals this time of the day,” Charles said.

“Do we have any defences at Ancient Crossing?” Aquis said.

“There are some, unfortunately most of our old retired soldiers reside there, which earns the name. If Aries attacks and he wins, the deaths of many veterans will dishearten most of our troops and the lighthearted may be led to desertion,” William said.

“That village is also our biggest supplier of cotton, we don’t want him to take this village or destroy it. Why cotton of all crops?” Charles said. Charles’s clothes were all made of silk, but the royal bannisters that decorated the halls in the keep and many other decorations were made of cotton.

“I assume you have a plan though?” Aquis asked. Both him and William nodded.

“Of course, I require that you and William make haste to Ancient Crossing. Your squads will already be there, they will have come from a village to the south. You two just need to get there, there’s no telling when Aries will make his move,” Charles said. 

“How many?” William asked.

“At least thirty per squad,” Charles said. “I’m afraid I can’t supply you with horses, so you’ll have to walk. Too many of my calvary are trying to take back the northern woods from the Tribals.” William started to walk down the steps and stopped where Aquis was and turned to face Charles. “Godspeed to you both!” Charles and Aquis made their way to the door and it opened up, they both walked out and the door closed.

“It’s been a while, hasn’t it?” Aquis asked.

“A month, I’ve been away for a month,” William said. They got to the residential area and the kids avoided the road entirely, not out of fear, but out of respect. Most of the women airing their laundry opened their windows to see them walking. 

“Oh, our Paladin in shining armor!” A woman said. She whistled at him and several others followed suit, like wolves against the moon.

“How does that hunk of a man fit in such armor?” Another said. He turned to look at them and gave them a thumbs up, some fainted. He chuckled a bit, but it was hard to pick up on account of the helmet. 

“I see that the ladies still love you,” Aquis said. They crossed the marketplace and they got separated. Most people parted the way for William, most ignored Aquis.

“Hey William!” The smithy shouted. “How ‘bout you wear some of this armor, it’s made from Dwarvish iron and forged by Dwarf hands! A lot better than Human hands!” William looked toward the smithy and walked to his stand. He was holding up a grey chestplate, it looked about his size. “Looks like ya need a bit of an upgrade!” He said and punched William’s chest. William grabbed his helm and pulled it up to reveal a sea of black hair pouring out. He pulled the helm completely off and swished his hair around to go completely behind his head. Not many people had seen William without his helmet off, but those who did knew he had extremely long hair. The smithy was dazed by how long his hair was and kept his mouth wide open.

“Da, your mouth’s agape again,” his son shouted from the forge. The smithy shook himself back to reality and stared at William’s hair. 

“I never knew you had such long, luscious hair,” the smithy said, still dazed by it. He slapped his cheek and shook his head. “Ya do need some new armor though, the old one’s gonna bust at any time now.” William turned his helm around to see the front of it and saw several bruises on it, and even some cuts in it.

“Thanks for the offer Jorge, but I’m doing just fine. I’ve grown pretty attached to my suit,” William said. Jorge put down the chestplate, smiled, and shrugged.

“That’s what they all say ya know, I’m expecting you back here though,” Jorge said. William smiled back at him and put his helm back on, stuffing all his hair back in there. William stepped away from the stand and walked toward the front gate of the Citadel, where Aquis was waiting. Through a gap of people he saw Aquis waiting by the gate, talking to an archer on the wall. He broke through the crowd and approached her. When she saw he was approaching, she turned toward him.

“What took you so long?” She asked. 

“Jorge wanted me to buy some of his wares,” He stated, however Aquis did not understand anything he said because of his helmet. She just pretended she understood him. They looked up at the wall doors, which opened up. William took off his helmet and attached it to the side of his legs, allowing him to talk to her freely.

“What did you say at the houses?” William asked. They crossed the gateway and out of the castle, the door closed on their way out. They walked on the road that Aquis was on and followed it.

“I said, ‘I see that the ladies still love you’.” Aquis jokingly said. He shook his head.

“They sure do, and so do many others. I don’t actually know if they are joking or not though.” He said.

“When you were gone for that month, what were you doing? I was beginning to worry,” Aquis asked.

He chuckled and looked at her. “You have no need to worry, I can handle myself.” He paused. “There were some problems that the prince was experiencing so he asked for my help.”

“You were an errand boy?” She asked.

“He would never have me running errands, I’m too important to him,” William said.

“Hoo! Finally! I thought you would never stop being so modest around him and everyone else for that matter.”

“It’s just my nature, I’d rather be modest and respectful than hot-headed and rude,” he said and eyed her. 

“I’m not rude! I just like to speak my mind,” she retorted.

“And often rude when you speak your mind,” he said and took a right and walked off the road, Aquis didn’t expect that and kept walking on the road but heard the clinking of the armor go away from her, and followed him toward the west. 

“Why didn’t we go out of the western gates if we have to go west?” Aquis asked. 

“There should be someone up ahead who can lend us his horses.” William said as they walked off the path.

“So what did you do then?” She asked. 

“I had to travel to Rotwood and the coast of the Mariana Ocean,” he said. 

“You had to go to Rotwood?!” She almost screamed. He didn’t react as she looked up at him with worried eyes.

“Yes,” he calmly started. “Some of the centaurs left the woods and were harassing local villages. It was odd though, they didn’t try to kill anyone, they only wanted to destroy farmland and surrounding woodlands.”

“Did they succeed?” She asked.

“They destroyed a field of corn and that’s about it, another field was damaged but it was salvageable. Even thinking about it now, it still feels odd.”

“And what happened to them?”

“Had to save them the only way they could be saved,” he briefly mentioned.

“Oh,” she whispered.

“Unfortunately, the coast was worse than Rotwood’s Shadow has ever been. Even if its shadow spreads like a disease, the Piscgem have been getting braver and braver and attacking more often.” Aquis shuddered at the mention of their name. The fish folk have been targeting coastside villages since time began.

“I’m just glad I made it in time, I doubt they would have made it much longer without me,” he admitted, then she realized something that he was saying.

“Wait . . . are you saying you went alone to fight them?”

“I had to, Charles had the rest of the troops elsewhere. I was the only one who could make it.”

“You need to stop doing things alone, what if you fail?” He stopped and looked her dead in the eyes, spreading fear in her.

“I will not fail nor will I ever, I’m the most reliable person he has at his disposal and I do not need anyone else,” he stated and continued to walk. They walked in silence for a while until he asked, “what did you do for a month?” 

“Hunted the ancient albino elk.” 

“I thought that was a myth?” He asked, she playfully frowned and punched his shoulder.

“It’s. Not. A. MYTH! I saw it, I swear!” She said, he chuckled and so did she.

“Didn’t Sage say that it was a myth?”

“She did, but I don’t believe her. I saw it, I know I did!” 

“Or you took the wrong medicine again. That nightshade has some magical properties which might still be hidden from us,” he warned. She suddenly looked at the nearby trees. William took notice and looked at her looking around. “Do you know where she is?” She looked back at him.

“No, I don’t know where Sage is. She said that’d she regroup with us once I left the castle, where could she be?” Aquis said.

“Probably preparing to prank us,” He said.

“That’s a possibility, but she would have pranked us by now.” 

“Did she go faun when she went in the woods?”

“Yeah, she did, why does that matter?” 

“Maybe she went to one of those faun parties, I’ve noticed that they happen at the oddest times,” he said, but he wasn’t certain. Aquis looked around some more but was unable to see anything out of the ordinary.

“If she doesn’t show her face soon, then we have to assume something happened to her,” she said.

“She should be fine, she’s over nine hundred years old for a reason,” He said. The woods began to dense up and they quickly lost sight of the castle walls.

The camp was in a tizzy, legionaries were leading frightened fauns into the center of a field. The fauns in the field were lined up in a straight line and there were guards watching them. The fauns were nervous and kept talking to each other, but the Romans let them talk, for they had every right to be afraid. A man in silver armor and a metal left arm walked up to them and looked at them all, the centurion, Pantheon. He walked towards a venator.

“I need you to quiet them,” he whispered in his ear. The venator reached to his belt and pulled out a whip, he took off the cord that kept the whip together and whipped the air. A loud crack was heard and all the fauns stopped talking and looked straight at Pantheon. The venator put the cord back on his whip and put it on his belt. Pantheon walked into the center of the field and looked at all the fauns.

“I have gathered you all here today because one of you is a fake,” he said, the fauns all looked at each other. “I know that you fauns are good friends with the nature spirits, you would know who’s a fake!” They continued looking at each other.

“We’re not that good friends with them, you must be thinking of the pixies or fairies,” a faun said. Pantheon walked to where he was and looked at him.

“You are not the centaurs, who find the spirits to be nothing more than tricksters. THEY despise them, and find them very annoying, but you . . . goats like to party with them,” He stated.

“Don’t you call us goats now!” A faun said. Pantheon looked at the source of the noise while backing away from the first faun. He saw a faun with a long brown beard and wrinkles on his face walk toward him, two of the legionaries pointed their spears at him, but Pantheon shooed them away. They put their spears back and stepped aside so the old faun could walk toward Pantheon. The old faun had a wooden cane that looked very similar to a snake, but it was around the size of him. “Goats are no more than our babbling inferiors, Kun made us evolve from them like centaurs from horses. So don’t compare us to goats unless I can compare you to a . . . a . . . I don’t know, something humanoid!” He walked right up to Pantheon and poked his armor with his cane. Pantheon moved the cane down to the ground with his spear.

“I have never seen a faun with a beard before, but I have read about you. However my memory fades me, care to remind me why the beard?” He asked, disregarding whatever the old faun shouted at him. 

“Well, well, well, look at the centurion asking such a question. I thought you only cared about taking slaves,” he retorted. Pantheon frowned slightly as he looked at him.

“If you must know, I am genuinely curious. And if you don’t answer, I’ll make sure you watch as all of them die,” he said. That got his attention as he looked at the others, they were scared and shaking at his response.

“Very well, centurion. I’m the elder here, I guide these numbskulls around to make sure they don’t party too hard or kill themselves,” the elder said and looked at the other fauns. They shifted their feet and avoided eye contact with anyone, some of the legionaries chuckled.

“How do you guide them?” 

“Not everyone likes us fauns and they tend to attack rather than talk, and I ain’t planning on giving that up!” He yelled and put up his fists. Pantheon shook his head and cracked a smile.

“I don’t actually plan on killing you or your faun friends, that would take too long and it’d be quite annoying too boot. All I need is to know who the nature spirit is,” Pantheon said and the elder tilted his head.

“Why do you need this spirit? What did it ever do to you?” 

“I need it for information, the war commences and we are at a standstill. This nature spirit is a friend to two of the enemy generals and I need the information to end this stalemate,” Pantheon stated. The elder turned his back to him and waved at him with his cane.

“You humans and your civil wars, why do you keep fighting one another? We have seen this war of yours and some of us even take bets on who is going to win in a battle. It’s pretty fun actually, too bad we don’t have much to bet on other than fruits or jewelry we steal,” the elder said. Immediately, the legionaries checked their pockets and everything else on their person. The elder walked back in line and faced Pantheon.

“So do you know which one is the spirit?” Pantheon politely asked. His patience grew thin as the answer he wanted didn’t come to him as easily as he had hoped. 

“I’m not going to say, I’m no snitch,” the elder said and shrugged. Pantheon grew impatient with this old coot, he threw his spear into the ground and brought out his gladius.

“YOU WILL ALL TELL ME WHICH OF YOU IS THE NATURE SPIRIT...or…” He yelled, and looked around at them. “I will burn this damned forest to the ground, WITH YOU IN IT!” The fauns got nervous and some of them had a twitch in their legs. On the far right, there was a faun who was looking away, at the tents. Pantheon took notice of this and smiled a bit. He walked over to the faun and all the others went silent, the rightmost faun looked at him and Pantheon went down to his level. 

“You think I’m the spirit?” The faun asked.

“Maybe, but it sure is odd that you’re counting the number of tents we have up,” he said and pointed at them with his gladius.

“No I’m not.”

“Yes you were, you were also counting how many legionaries there were, because you were hoping to take us on if there weren’t enough of us,” he said with a smile, the faun began to sweat. 

“Maybe the others were looking around, why take notice to me?” The faun said. Pantheon’s smile widened and he poked the faun’s goat leg with his gladius, and it stopped shaking.

“Your right leg was slightly shaking the whole time, the nerve that you’d get caught, or the guilt that you’d get your friends killed?” He pointed to a legionary behind him. “That man is actually a frumentarii, not the normal legionary, and he’s been looking for hints on who was the spirit. And you . . . fill everything out.” The faun began to smile as well.

“I didn’t think that you centurions were that smart, but I’m kind of surprised,” the faun said. Then he quickly turned back into its spirit form. It turned into a small, pale girl with a green tunic that reached to the knees. She had long braided hair and hazel eyes. When she transformed, Pantheon got back up and stood back. All of the legionaries readied their weapons. 

“Let the fauns go,” Pantheon said to the two guards, and they nodded their heads. “I’ve got what I wanted.” The guards stood in front of all of them and yelled at them to leave, the fauns happily hopped away. 

“You wanna talk or kill me?” She asked as she started to float in the air. The fact that she didn’t seem scared irked him a tad bit.

“You have no use to anyone if you’re dead, so we’ll talk. Unless someone wants you dead, but I don’t know,” Pantheon said, he snapped his fingers and a legionary brought out a chair and Pantheon sat down. Another legionary brought out a chair for her, but she conjured up a chair made of grass and sat down in it. The legionary looked at the chair she made and the chair he was holding and walked away with his head held low. “What’s your name?” The spirit raised an eyebrow when he asked this. 

“Sage . . . why so friendly?” She said.

“My name is Pantheon, and I’m a centurion in the Roman army. It’s nice to meet you,” he said, and extended his hand. Sage looked around and shook it, they both brought their hands back.

“You didn’t answer my question, I thought you Romans were the worst humans alive. So how come you’re so friendly? I know you just want information,” she confidently said. 

“The Outcasts are the ‘worst humans’, followed closely by the Tribals. I do want information, but that doesn’t mean we can’t be friends,” he said. She rolled her eyes. 

“Pssssshhhhh, you’d only make friends to use them,” she stated. She was smart, much smarter than the fauns but Pantheon had experience with interrogations. 

“Do you not trust me because you side with the Freemen?” 

“I am neutral,” she said with her arms folded, very confident in her answer.

“Of course, the spirit is neutral, but are William and Aquis neutral?” Pantheon said, she looked at him as if he shouldn’t know that.

“How do you know that?” She said, acting very hostile. He pointed to the frumentarii.

“We have spies and scouts everywhere, in fact, we have two scouts following your friends right now,” he said, she covered her mouth in alarm. “Do not worry, I do not plan to hurt them, I just want them to reach their destination.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“Do you want something to drink, tea or milk?” He said, attempting to break the tension and redirect the talk. 

“I… uh… t-tea?” She asked.

“Any specific kind?”

“Clover and bitter root,” Sage said, and he looked confused. He had never heard of this combination of tea before.

“Combined?” 

“Yeah . . . Aquis said I was weird for that,” she said and Pantheon snapped his fingers.

“While we wait for your beverage I wanted to ask you something,” Pantheon said and she raised an eyebrow in response. “Rumor around here has it that you are a good pickpocket and thief, is this true?” A smile cracked across her face.

“I am pretty good at stealing, I’ve stolen a lot in my time.”

“How old are you?”

“Nine hundred and ninety years old.” Sage said and he nodded with his hands together.

“I never thought that spirits could live for so long, you do not look that old.” He said, and she began to blush slightly.

“Oh, we live with the nature. So basically forever,” she proudly said.

“You looked young, but I didn’t know you looked cute because of your immortality,” he said with a smile, and she blushed even more. A legionary brought out a small cup of tea and gave it to Sage, who looked over at Pantheon. He nodded and Sage began to drink. “Do you like it?” She nodded.

“Yeah, it’s really good, some of the best I’ve ever had actually. It’s a lot better than when William made it, that’s for sure. He can’t cook to save his life,” she said with some surprise. Pantheon got up, went around his chair, and supported himself on it.

“Now that you’re done with your tea, do you wish to leave?” Pantheon asked and motioned for the woods. She blinked at him several times, then realized what he said.

“Wait . . . what? Let me go?” She asked, not believing what he said. He slowly nodded his head.

“That’s what I said, I can’t possibly get any more information out of you I’m afraid,” he lied. She raised an eyebrow and looked around. She got up from her chair and it disappeared into the grass, the frumentarii walked up to him.

“Are you sure sir, this seems like a bad decision,” he whispered.

“Don’t question my technique, she is allowed to leave,” Pantheon sternly whispered back. Sage looked at him and tilted her head, Pantheon waved his hand towards the woods, indicating that she could go. Sage floated up and dashed off into the woods. All the legionaries looked, most with questioning eyes, and the venators were mad because it was not easy catching a faun and they let them all go.

“What was that about sir, you just . . . let her go?” The frumentarii asked. Pantheon looked at him.

“I did that on purpose, the flirtation was to drop her guard. I like to be nice when I introduce myself, which also seemed to catch her off guard. I only need one thing from her, and I got that almost instantly,” Pantheon said. The frumentarii still seemed confused by his choice.

“What did you need from her, how she’s friends with William and Aquis?” He asked and Pantheon shook his head.

“No no, nothing too complex. I just needed to buy time, we know where to go to reach Aries, which is where William and Aquis are going. She won’t, they would have gone too far already for her to find out where they are going. Now it will be a fair fight. Aries can fight William, and I will fight Aquis,” Pantheon said, and began walking back to his tent. “Start packing up, we move out in fifteen minutes.” He stated. He walked between the other tents and opened his tent flap to step inside it. He sighed and took off his helmet, his dirt brown hair rushed out of the helmet. He walked towards the table and set the helmet on the table. Then put his hands through his hair and put his hands on the table.

“Am I really comfortable fighting a woman?” He asked himself. He put his hand on his chin and then clasped his hands together in prayer. “Dear Caesar, I pray to you that you make our battle victorious against the Freemen. I also pray that my fight with Aquis is swift, may one blow knock her out . . . then I can just tell Aries that she died and I put her unconscious body somewhere . . . probably in a house. Anyway, Caesar, please help me in my endeavors, thank you and amen,” he said, and put his hands back on the table. 

He sighed very loudly and looked up at the top of the tent. “Aries might be fine with burning a village to the ground and killing everyone inside, but I can’t even think about harming a woman? He would be so disappointed,” he said and shook his head.

“Have you ever seen Livius?” Aquis asked. William and her continued walking in the woods, but the trees were more spread apart then when they were first walking. William talked to a farmer not far from the Citadel and borrowed horses from him, they already set the horses loose. The farmer claimed that they would come back to him, William protested and said he would have walked them to a different village, but the farmer was stubborn. The ground was soft from the rain that just happened, however it was brief and stopped five minutes ago. The leaves from the trees still occasionally dropped water on them, surprising or annoying them. The clouds in the sky remain dark, but the area west looked to have not been hit by rain. 

“No I haven’t, and Charles has avoided talking to me about him. I assume it’s on purpose,” William said. He was carrying his sword in his right hand and had it over his shoulder, on his armor. He looked at his sword, then his left hand. “I forgot my shield,” he said, not out of concern but of annoyance.

“I’m sure the reinforcements have some you can use,” Aquis said, attempting to cheer him up.

“I know, but it’s not my shield, it’d probably be wooden. I prefer a metal one, but they’d probably have the wooden ones because they don’t have as much money for metal ones,” he said, attempting to not sound like he was complaining, but Aquis could tell he was. Aquis looked around the woods again.

“Did we decide that Sage was at a party or doing something else?” Aquis asked.

“I thought we decided she was at a party, it’s something she would realistically do,” William replied. They walked through the woods some more and noticed the trees were even more spread apart now, and they finally saw a road.

“You want to tell a story?” Aquis asked. William looked at her, and ran into a tree because he wasn’t looking where he was going. He fell down on the ground on his butt. “Ha! You okay?” She asked and reached out a hand. He took it and got back up.

“What kind of story?” 

“I don’t know, something to waste the remaining time away,” she said, asking more than saying.

“Why don’t you tell a story, I’m sure your huntress experience has brought you many stories.”

“Okay-” She said and paused for a while. “Have you ever fought any Orcs or Twilight Elves or even . . . Trolls?” They both shuddered when she said Trolls. Humans had never actually seen a Troll before, but their minds raced in rumor and suspicion of the monster.

“Surprisingly no, have you?” He asked. She shook her head.

“No, I was just asking because Sage said she did once,” she said. “Um, a story . . . what would be a good story?” She paused again.

“Take your time,” William jokingly said. They finally reached the road and looked around, they saw a divide and a sign in between them, the sign said that they had to move southwest to reach their destination. While the other village was northwest. It didn’t say how far away it was, so they shrugged and started walking that way.

“I’ve encountered a group of Elves once,” she started. William jerked his head to face her which surprised her. He then nodded his head, making her know he was listening. “As I was saying, I met a group of Elves once. It was north of Rotwood, that’s all I remember about the location.

“Why were Elves here?” William asked.

“I’m going to tell the story, be patient!” She said. “I was in a tree, waiting for an elk to show up, when I heard some people talking. I hid in the tree and waited for them to come out. I saw four pale people come by with pointed ears, which made me realize they were Elves. They were going to walk past me, until one of them looked up to where I was and got his friends attention. ‘If you were attempting to ambush us, I must say that you have failed,’ He said to me. The others saw me as well and I stopped attempting to hide. I hopped out of the tree and two of them readied their weapons, they grabbed their knives, their blades glowed from their goddess’s blessing. ‘I’m not going to hurt you, I was hunting an elk,’ I said. They looked at each other and the two put their blades away. ‘Why an elk?’ They asked. I told them about the ancient albino elk and they looked confused. They had no idea what it was,” she said and paused, catching her breath to continue her tale. 

“After I told them about the albino elk, they leaned up against trees and motioned for me too as well. I was kind of surprised by their friendliness, when I asked them about this, they said ‘we never meet a human who’s been so kind, everyone questions us. Don’t you have your own planet? They ask, and it gets so annoying, but you? No questions, just a huntress, hunting. We’ve also never encountered a Human huntress before.’ So I assumed that they had some respect for me. They even asked if I wanted to go back to their homeworld, I politely declined, but they weren’t too surprised by that. I asked what they were doing here and they told me they were going to hunt a rare type of Krag, which seemed odd to me because of their natural armor against arrows, but I didn’t protest. They wouldn’t tell me about that type of Krag though, I assume they didn’t want to lose it to other hunters. They bid me farewell and walked on,” Aquis finished, she looked over at him, who was looking at her. 

“Did they find that Krag?” He asked, he had a curious sound to his voice.

“I don’t know, I haven’t found them since. I assume so, they know how to hunt,” she replied.

“What an odd circumstance, since you’ve seen Elves, how about any Dwarves?” He asked.

“No, I haven’t seen them, except for the textbooks. I expected to only learn about the Human body in anatomy, not Elf and Dwarf,” Aquis said.

“Anatomy taught you which parts of the body are the weakest on each creature which you may eventually come across,” William retorted. “A very important class for those who planned on killing later in life.” He stared down at her.

“That’s exactly what the teacher said . . . what was his name?”

“Theo?”

“That’s right, he was a very odd teacher wasn’t he?” She said. The road turned a bend and they saw the western arch of the village. They looked at each other, then back at the village, then each other, and began to run. Aquis rushed by him and ran to the village, she got to the arch and supported herself on the wall. She looked at William and saw him right beside her, also on the wall. “How did you catch up to me?” He put his index finger up and took off his helmet, he was gasping for breath. His chocolate black hair rushed out of his helmet once more, covering his hazel eyes and mouth.

“I . . . traine . . . d myself . . . to run . . . run . . . with armor,” he said between each breath. “You’re . . . pretty fast yourself.” She chuckled.

“Of course, I gotta be fast to catch up with the animals I’m hunting,” she said and they laughed for a bit. Aquis’s smile faded as she moved her eyes around rapidly without moving her head. 

“What is it?” William asked. She looked around some more.

“Do you hear that?” She asked, he fell silent as he listened. There was a slight breeze in the air that could be heard, other than that, it was silent.

“No, my hearing isn't as good as yours, no need to brag,” He said, matter of factly.

“Exactly, why is it so quiet?” Aquis said, ignoring his statement. They looked at each other with wide eyes and looked beyond the arch. They didn’t see anything except for houses and a town hall. William put on his helmet and Aquis readied her bow, they slowly walked in. They looked around and saw the houses, silent, alone, dead. 

“Where are the reinforcements?” She asked. 

“He waits for you,” a voice said. They drew their weapons and pointed them at where they heard the voice, but they saw nothing.

“Your rival, he grows . . . impatient,” another voice said and began to laugh maniacally. They looked again, and no dice. They looked at each with worry.

“Am I imagining things?” Aquis asked. William shook his head.

“No, someone’s here,” he said. They walked some more and found the village campfire, where they saw several dead soldier bodies, Freemen and Roman alike. They saw a man at the fireplace, his sword in the body of a Freemen swordsman. He pulled it out with much force and looked at William. He wore a finely made metal helmet which covered the entire face. There were red feathers on the top of the helm that were similar to a centurion’s. Unlike any other helmet, there were horns poking out of each side facing an angle of both upward and forward. The helm contained two eye holes which he could see through, but they couldn’t see his eyes. The mouth was a small frown which had a small metal moustache over it and a large metal beard under it. This was rumored to be what his actual appearance was, and wanted the helm made in his image.

He smiled when he looked at William. He had makeshift, yellowish, metal armor on his entire body. He had shoulder, arm, and leg guards which protected him further. Beneath these guards, he had a red tunic, but most people would notice the armor first. He also had a long, red cape which was shortened because he used to trip on it constantly, but it made him look more menacing. The shoulder, leg, and arm guards were filled with tiny spikes which were very sharp. He wore gloves which looked metal and had little bumps on each of the knuckles. 

“It’s about time you got here, your allies did little to satisfy my wrath,” the man said. He picked up his sword and approached a swordsman who was attempting to crawl away. He brought the sword down with both hands and split the skull open, killing him instantly. “They weren’t even good practice,” he claimed as he brought his sword out of the man’s head.

“Where’s the rest of your army, Legate?” William said snarkily. He walked closer and the man walked back to the campfire. William stopped where the logs were, this was where the villagers sat. Both generals were at least five meters apart.

“Dispatching the rest of your soldiers, I wanted to fight you directly but I was terribly disappointed,” he said.

“I don’t mean to disappoint, I was waiting to fight you as well. Looks like I don’t have to waste my time finding you and that stupid mask,” William said. Aquis walked closer, but he put out his hand, and she stopped. “Don’t worry about this thing, I can take care of it.” The man smiled more.

“Oh don’t worry about her, she won’t interfere at all,” he smirked. William looked back at her and saw a centurion punch her in the chest with a metal arm, she flew back behind a house and the centurion followed her. William looked at where she was, then back at him. He cracked his bones and brought out his sword, pointing it at the man.

“You and that centurion will pay for that!” He angrily said.

“Going to have to kill me first!” The man retorted.

“Aries! God of not being able to kill me! Have at you!” He said and walked closer to him. Aries frowned and picked up his sword with both hands, it was much larger than William’s and was made for two hands. He slashed a nearby sitting log in half and kicked it aside.

“Prepare to face the might of the LEGATE!!” Aries yelled. They both charged at one another, swords pointing at each other. They reached the campfire and swung their swords at each other, which bounced off and made a bright spark. They brought up their swords as Aries raised it above his head and brought it down, Will held his sword in a defensive position. When the steel combined, sparks flew and William struggled to keep his sword up as Aries attempted to bring his sword down on him. Their faces didn’t get closer than a foot away, when William pushed Aries sword away. The size of the sword made Aries back up until he stabbed it into the ground, William gathered his bearings and looked around. He was right next to a dead swordsman and saw a small metal shield and grabbed it. 

“That’s not going to save you, didn’t save them!” Aries shouted as he pointed his sword at a dead Freemen. 

“Yeah, but you haven’t killed me yet, have you?!” William shouted in response. That irked him and he kicked one of the cut in half logs at William and it barreled towards him. He jumped over it as another log approached him, which he jumped over as well. Aries looked at his sword and brought it over his head, and charged at him. William readied himself, but when Aries got close he switched the stance of the sword to his side and slashed at him. William barely had enough time to react, he moved his sword to block and it flew away upon collision. William looked at his empty hand in bewilderment, then he could feel Aries grinning and kicked his hand in retaliation. Aries dropped his sword, and punched the shield out of William’s hand, which resulted in more bewilderment and he staggered away. Both of them were unarmed and their weapons were beside them. Aries ran at William and swung at him, but William stepped to the side and dodged it. He picked up the shield and blocked another swing that Aries made. Aries punched the shield again, which dented it, but William pushed the shield and Aries staggered back. 

“Once again at a standstill, just like this war,” William said. Aries cracked his knuckle and felt his hands.

“You will die and this standstill will end, but no, I’m not going to kill you like that . . . too easy,” Aries said. They were walking in a circle around each other, waiting for someone to make the first move. “I’m going to keep you barely alive just to watch as we kill Charles and that damn pixie of yours! Then you’re going to watch as we torture your girly friend over there, she will make a great wife to one of the centurions,” Aries taunted. William’s eyes flared and Aries knew how mad he became at that comment. William charged at him with his shield and Aries smiled, he moved aside and put his leg out and William realized his mistake. William tripped over Aries leg and fell on the ground, throwing the shield to the side. Aries ran up to where he dropped and readied his leg to kick him, but Will moved his legs fast enough so he could trip him. Aries tripped and flew over where William lay. They both look at each other on the ground, but didn’t try to get up.

“Even with that big sword of your, you can’t kill me. Why do you even try?” William asked. Aries lifted up his arms against the ground and got up.

“I will win eventually, I just have to remain patient,” he said. William also got up off of the ground. They stared at each other, armed only with their fists and their actual weapons were on the ground, far away.

“And how long have you stated that. Admit it, you can’t kill me, you love the thrill of the fight too much to end it so suddenly,” William stated. Aries brought his hands together and cracked his knuckles. 

“You speak of lies and deception! I will kill you here and now, for Livius!” Aries said, and looked at his gloves. “I’ll even kill you with my bare hands!” He started to run at William.

“I can’t wait to beat your burnt face into the ground!” William said, and ran to Aries. Both of their fists were prepared to hit the other, just waiting until they crossed the space between them.

Aquis looked at William as he talked to Aries, they would fight with words first, then steel. She had planned to help him, but William put out his hand. He always wanted to fight him alone. He then looked at Aries for something, who looked back at her. She looked confused then quickly looked to her right as she got punched in the stomach by someone and barreled to the left, when she got her bearings William was blocked by a house. All she could see or wanted to see at the moment, was a centurion running towards her, getting ready for another punch. She looked to her left and saw her bow, she picked it up and the centurion picked up the pace. She got out an arrow from her quiver, put it in the bow, and fired it. The arrow was aimed toward the centurion’s face, but his armored left hand smacked the arrow out of the air, before it hit his face. 

“Who are you?” Aquis asked as she loaded another arrow in her bow. The arrow flew through the air and he blocked it again. 

“Not your concern right now!” The centurion said as he swung at her again, but she moved out of the way and tripped him. The man, while falling down, grabbed Aquis’s hair and she came down too. They both lay down on the ground and looked at each other, then got back up. Aquis noticed the man had metal covering his left arm. There was only one man who had a metal left arm and attacked from the shadows.

“Pantheon!” She said, now she realized who she was fighting, which made him smile.

“Correct, Aries wanted me to ambush your force, however you were too late. So I’ll just kill you myself,” Pantheon said. They didn’t move and instead, stood still, looking at each other. Aquis’s bow lay too far away from her, and for some reason, Pantheon didn’t have his infamous spear. 

“Where is your spear, if you attempt to kill me? Not so smart of a centurion?” She mocked. 

“Do you really think that’s my only weapon?” Pantheon snarkily said. Aquis looked at his belt and saw a gladius, he got out the weapon and charged at her with it. He slashed the air in front of her as she narrowly dodged the swipes and she kicked him in the right leg in response. He winced and slashed at her again, but she could easily dodge it this time. She tried to kick his right hand, which contained the gladius, but he caught her foot with his left hand. She looked at him with worry and he lifted her foot higher so she eventually lost balance and he kicked her in the stomach, which made her fall down to the ground. She grabbed her stomach and moaned with pain, getting kicked with a metal boot wasn’t exactly healthy. 

“Low blow, even for a Roman,” she moaned out. 

“Silence yourself woman!” Pantheon said as he came down on her, with his gladius coming toward her throat. She picked up a nearby wooden plank and used it to prevent the gladius from cutting her. Aquis was on her back with a wooden plank in both hands, while Pantheon was on her and was forcing the blade onto her wooden plank, trying to cut her throat. Pantheon didn’t want to kill her, but it looked near impossible to simply knock her out. Pantheon’s blade grew closer to cutting the wooden plank in half. Until, something odd happened. They looked at each other while trying to kill each other, but Pantheon saw something in her eyes. What was in her eyes? Scaredness, determination? 

No, he saw something in her no enemy of his ever saw, respect. Not only respect, but he saw beauty in her eyes and the smoothness of her face. He stared into her eyes, which made Aquis noticed, and she also looked into his eyes. She saw undying loyalty and a want to be appreciated, which confused her. She looked into his milky chocolate colored eyes and his rough skin, from all the battles he’s endured. She stopped frowning and they looked at each without actually doing anything. Pantheon wasn’t attempting to kill her and Aquis weakened her support of the plank. They both blinked at the same time, then Aquis saw her opportunity and kicked him off of her. She ran to grab her bow and put an arrow in it and aimed at him, but he was nowhere to be seen. She looked around and didn’t see any trace of him, which made her release her grip of the string and sigh heavily. She put her bow down and looked around some more.

“Where did he go?” She questioned and walked toward where she was originally hit. “What . . . happened back there anyway?”

“Can we talk before we fight some more?” William asked as he sat on a log, by the campfire. Aries stopped moving and looked as he sat down. He groaned and also sat down, on the opposite side of him. Aries sighed and looked at him.

“Very well, my fist grows tired of punching you,” Aries said, and looked at his hand. William did the same and nodded.

“Why do you fight for Livius?”

“Why do you fight for Charles?” Aries retaliated, which made William sigh loudly. 

“I fight for the Lord, Charles also leads for Him. I fight for him, who fights for God almighty,” William said and Aries snickered.

“You say you fight for God, then why do you kill your fellow man? What did we do to upset Him?” 

“I don’t know, I dare not question the Lord. Why do you serve?” William asked, very curious but just wanting to stall.

“I fight for him not because of his ideology, but because he is the best leader for me, the best warrior. I was not originally Roman you know, I was founded by an old man long ago. I fought my way to the highest position, and I reside there now,” Aries said.

“If you weren’t Roman, what were you?” William asked, still curious. Aries looked at him, smiled, then looked at him very seriously.

“That’s a story for another day,” Aries said, and stood up, grabbing his two-handed sword. William stood up as well and grabbed his sword and the replacement shield. They readied into a battle position but looked over to find Aquis limping toward them. William immediately rushed over to support her and she almost collapsed into him.

“Are you okay?” He asked.

“Yeah, I’ll be fine,” she said. They looked over at Aries, who was already looking at them.

“Pantheon lies dead, or he didn’t kill you?” Aries asked. They both stared at him.

“I have no idea, kicked him off me, then I didn’t see him again,” She stated. He looked around them then at the ground with the bodies.

“Odd . . . very well. I will draw back our forces. You win this day William,” Aries said, and turned his back to them, cape dramatically waving in the wind. He walked away and William and Aquis looked at each other. William walked her over to the logs and she sat on them, clutching her stomach. 

“Are you sure you’re fine?” William asked. He didn’t know anything about medicine, but wanted to help somehow.

“You need to know when a girl can handle herself, and *grunts* . . . actually, can you find some nightshade?” She asked.

“Isn’t that poisonous?”

“Yeah, but I know a way around it, please find it!” She begged, William took off his helmet and went to a nearby house. He knew that nightshade was a lovely plant to have in a pot, and most citizens had them. He knocked on the door and no one answered. He knocked again, but there was still nothing. He decided he needed to get in there immediately, so he slowly opened the door.

“Hello, my name’s William, I just need some nightshade so I’m coming in. You didn’t answer but I need the plant,” he said as he came in the house. He looked around and saw that he was in a kitchen and saw the nightshade in a pot on a counter. He grabbed it, but noticed something on the floor. He saw some blood on the floor to his left and followed it. The blood continued and turned into trail, as if someone was dragged away. The blood trail stopped at another door, he would have investigated further, but he had to give the nightshade to Aquis. He went out the house and approached her with the nightshade in his hand.

“Good, you got it, give it to me,” she said and grabbed the nightshade as soon as he got close. She picked off a petal and put it in her mouth and tossed the plant on the ground, she put it on her tongue and moved it so the nightshade petal was sandwiched between the tongue and cheek. Aquis put her hand down her tunic, making William quickly look away, and felt for something. She grabbed something and pulled it out. She grabbed a tiny vial of green liquid and opened it, she took a tiny drink and spat out the nightshade. She felt her own chest and stood up, William tried to help, but she stood up on her own.

“Are you feeling better now?” William asked.

“Yeah, I might need to see a doctor, but for now I’m fine,” she said, but all was not over yet. She sniffed the air and noticed a smell. “Do you smell smoke?” William smelled the air too, and also smelled it.

“Yeah . . . wait a minute,” William said, then slowly looked at Aquis. They started to run to where the battlefield was. When they ran past the eastern arch, they saw the source of the fire and it wasn’t the crops. They saw a large pile of bodies in the middle of the field, burning. William approached it, but Aquis stopped and had to support herself on the wooden wall right next to the arch and her. She heaved a bit and grabbed her stomach. Being kicked in the stomach and then seeing this many corpses sickened her a lot more than she thought she would be. William got close to the fire, but it was large and roaring and he still had his armor on, so he had to look quickly. He looked at the grass around it, most of it was burnt but there were red trails leading to the pile, very similar to the one in the house. 

“William, did you *vomits*did you find out something *heaves*?” Aquis said, swiping her mouth to get rid of the vomit residue. William closely looked at a body, it wasn’t a soldier, rather a peasant. He looked closely into the fire and looked and saw some legionaries along with some Freemen soldiers. He then saw an old lady, and an old man, and many more civilians. He quickly backed up in horror and walked back to Aquis.

“They killed all of the people here, and burned their bodies with theirs as well,” William said in disgust and anger. Aquis leaned off of the gate, but still clenched her stomach. 

“Did you find any . . . children's bodies?” Aquis said very uncomfortably. He looked back at the pile and looked at her. 

“No, they won’t kill children, they capture them and turn them into legionaries . . . at least the guys. I’m afraid the girls have it much . . . worse . . . ” William trailed off. “There are only old people and middle aged men in that pile, they took all the young women,” he stated. Aquis covered her mouth, in horror, then furrowed her brow.

“We have to rescue them!” She said. William nodded, but he didn’t seem too optimistic.

“They’d be across the Krag mountains by now, we need a horse to even have a chance,” he said. They both looked at the burning fire and the loud crackling the fire made, but there was a clomping noise getting louder behind.

“Or a centaur!” A voice said and they turned to face it. Sage burst out of the woods and turned into a centaur when she got close to them.

“It’s about time!” Aquis said. 

“Where were you?” William asked.

“No time to explain, get on my back and I’ll talk as we get there,” she said. William hopped on her back first. He had experience riding horses, however, Aquis never rode a horse in her life. She had trouble getting on the back and fell off her first attempt, eventually William extended his hand and she took it. He threw her up on Sage and Aquis quickly hugged William for support.

“Have you ever rode a horse before?” He asked. She shook her head. “You will now!” Sage started to gallop off, chasing Aries.

The Orcs had been done setting up their main camp for the longest time, but they always needed to expand it whenever more Orcs from the spawn pits arose. Naz'gar was growing impatient, he needed to send some Orcs to Puer to start his beginning assault. He had been waiting for four powerful human commanders who were going to be gathered together, away from a castle, perfect for an ambush and ripe for the pickings. This would be the beginning of his war, the death of four threats which he hoped to end before they caused trouble. He was sitting in his leather chair, reading a book. This book was about necromancy, Naz'gar was a well-known necromancer, but he didn’t know of a good way how to teach the Outcasts this. Some Outcasts were magicians, but none were necromancers. He was deep into his book when he heard some Orcs arguing, which reminded him that he should send them to Puer. 

“Vex!” He yelled and he could hear the claws of his faithful bodyguard approaching.

“What is it boss?” He asked, he was growing bored and wanted to do something . . . anything. He was also getting hungry, so his tongue escaped his mouth a majority of the time and occasionally some drool hit the floor. 

“I need you to gather some Orcs, preferably armed,” he said. Vex put his claws on his ‘neck’ and looked around, Naz'gar knew that Vex was hiding something, “What is it Vex?”

“Well, the Orcs haven’t made much armor yet, or even weapons for that matta,” Vex said. Naz'gar put down his book and raised his eyebrow. 

“How haven’t they made any weapons or armor yet, don’t they have clubs?” He asked.

“They do, but they're making better, metal weapons instead of using their wooden clubs. They’re also arguing about whether shields should be wooden or iron,” Vex said. He could tell that his boss was getting annoyed.

“How about the wargs? Have they started breeding those yet, or catching, or doing whatever they do to get wargs?” He asked, hopeful. Vex looked out the balcony.

“They have started getting more wargs, but they won’t let any Orc ride them, only experienced riders may ride a warg,” Vex said, trying to sound hopeful but Naz'gar wasn’t buying it.

“So . . . when will they be ready for a large-scale attack of truefully skilled Orcs?” He said.

“One month,” he says, this took the boss off guard.

“Hmm” He disappointingly said. “I would have wanted them to be ready in a week, not a month. Is there anyway to speed them up?” 

“If you promise them manflesh I’m certain that they’d work harder. You should know how to make them work harder, you’re one of them.” Vex said. Naz’gar’s any semblance of happiness faded.

“Do not mention my Orc heritage, I am nothing like those idiots.”

“But you says-”

“Go now! Gather some hundred Orcs and send them my way,” Naz'gar said, and Vex walked away. Vex opened the door to the outside and stepped out. Unfortunately, Vex didn’t know where to get a hundred combat-ready Orcs. He knew that Orcs loved to fight, he had to study them while he was working for Naz'gar, so it wouldn’t be hard getting them to fight. All he had to do was find a large group of Orcs that weren’t doing anything. He walked into the Orc camp and quickly saw how crowded it was, Orcs were moving cuts of wood, minerals, and animals of odd sorts. Vex had to fight himself from taking a raccoon from a little Orc, carrying it around like a trophy. All of the Orcs he came across avoided him, they feared him for his size and that large warhammer he carried. He walked to an open area and saw some Orcs discussing something. 

“When are we gonna kill somethin, I’m gettin bored,” an Orc said.

“If yur gettin bored, cut down a tree or make a sword. You need it for tha next battle,” Another Orc said.

“Do not worry brother, a bloody and brutal battle will approach you soon,” an Orc with red tribal tattoos said. Vex knew that those tribal tattoos meant they were shamans, they were much easier to talk to then their brutish Orc brethren. 

“Are you guys not doin anything right now?” Vex asked, which got the attention of all the Orcs.

“No, we ain’t, got a job?” An Orc asked, semi-curious.

“Yeah, boss wants all available Orcs to go to him. He wants to send you guys to Puer, to kill some Human captains,” Vex said, this got all the Orcs attention.

“It’s about time, c’mon lads! We got some man-flesh to kill!” A larger Orc said, the rest cheered and they gathered their weapons, mostly clubs. The larger Orc had a sword and wore a crude metal helmet. They walked toward the black tower.

“Go see the boss!” Vex yelled, unknowing if they actually heard or not. All of the nearby Orcs left, except for the shaman. “What’s your deal voodoo man?” The shaman shook his head.

“I don’t dabble in that haunted black magic. I’m here to heal them of their wounds if they get injured, but still live. Which they always do,” the shaman said. Vex chuckled, but felt his stomach grumble.

“Did you guys pollute the Troll mountain river yet? I need to go hunting,” He asked, the shaman shuddered and pointed to the mountains. There was a river below the mountains which was pure from corruption, but was right below to the Troll mountain range. Vex took off in that direction, certain that Naz'gar wouldn’t care about this expedition. Luckily for him, the mountains weren’t that far off from the tower, so he walked toward them. The camp was still crowded, but when he left, he felt free. He was on an open plain of dirt, nothing grew here except for weeds. To the right, there was a path down the cliff to go to the forest, where the Twilight Elves resided. To the left, there was a forest populated by the treants and other evil woodland creatures, where the Orcs obtained their wood. It was very easy to see where the mountain started and the cliff ended because he was soon stepping in grass. He went down a small hill and saw the river, which acted as a moat to the mountain. He could see it glistening in the light of day and set his hammer on the grass. He walked in it, there wasn’t much of a current, so he was fine.

“Time to eat,” he said to himself, completely submerged in water. He was tall enough to stand on the rocky bottom of the river and he stood still enough that his face looked like a rock. He waited. He saw some deer take a drink of the water, but didn’t want to chase them down, that would tire him too much. Through time and patience, he saw a school of red salmon approaching him. He had to wait for the right moment so he could catch as many of them as he could. When they were at least a meter away from him, he lunged into the river towards them. They were frightened and tried to swim away, but Vex was faster. He caught five in his mouth and two in each hand, a good meal.

 He triumphantly walked out of the river and sat on the grass, right by his warhammer. He set the fish down and waited until they suffocated and they eventually stopped flopping. After the fish he caught in his mouth were devoured, he put one of them in his mouth. He liked to enjoy his food so he chewed it and licked it with his long tongue until it dissolved in his mouth. He liked cooked food as much as raw, but he didn’t have the patience or knowhow of cooking. He enjoyed the fish, but heard movement nearby. He sat still, and slowly turned his head. To his right, he saw a blue Troll, just staring at him. The Troll had tusks by the mouth and a very coarse face, he was slightly smaller than Vex, but not more than a foot. He was carrying a large club and wore little clothing. The troll sat down right next to him. Vex backed away from it, fearing for himself, but the Troll didn’t move towards him anymore. 

“Hoar yo?” The Troll asked. Vex stopped moving away from it and looked at it. It didn’t act like a threat nor try to kill him . . . yet. However, he didn’t know the Troll dialect, so he didn’t know what to do.

“Ya speak English?” He asked. The Troll looked at him oddly, then opened his mouth.

“English?” The troll asked. “Noi do.” He said this with affirmation, like he knew that he didn’t speak the language. Vex offered him a fish, but the troll shook his head.

“I thought you Trolls loved fish?” He asked. The troll shrugged and stood back up, he pointed to the mountain, where there was a path up it. Vex looked there. “You want me to go up with you?” He still had no idea if he could understand him. The troll nodded. “I can’t, I can’t handle the cold like you guys can, I’m all scales and hide.” The troll nodded again and walked away, he crossed the river by going into and he shook his fur, and walked up the mountainside. 

“Huh, that was odd,” Vex said to himself, and tossed another fish in his mouth.

“So you said that Pantheon captured you, but didn’t actually torture you?” Aquis asked, she and William were still on Sage’s centaur back. They were blazing through the woods, attempting to catch up to Aries. Aquis had loosened her grip on William after they rode for a while, getting the hang of riding a horse, or a centaur. 

“Yeah, that’s what I just said. He captured a bunch of us fauns, and then when he found out I was one of them, had me answer some questions . . . and that was it,” she said. Both William and Aquis looked at her with scepticism, but Sage couldn’t see their looks because she would crash otherwise. “How far is Aries ahead of us?”

“He shouldn’t be that far ahead, he is at least twenty minutes ahead of us. We’re on horseback and he would be walking with the prisoners,” William said. 

“Why would Pantheon capture you just to ask you questions and let you go?” Aquis asked, the concept confused her greatly. Sage just shrugged, but William turned to look at her.

“From what I gathered about Pantheon, he is a centurion who strikes from the shadows and uses his knowledge to surprise, confuse, and get any information he wants,” he said. “He’s about surprise tactics, that’s how he got the jump on you.” Aquis looked at the ground speeding behind them. They all saw an opening in the treeline ahead of them and soon crossed into a field. The sun hid behind clouds and Aquis took notice of this, she saw many large clouds moving to where the sun was, an omen. There was a peak which they couldn’t see across and tried to look around it. Sage jumped over the peak and saw Aries, legionaries, and many prisoners. Aries heard the footprints and alerted his men. 

“Let go of those people!” William cried as Sage turned so they could get off, they both jumped off and Sage assumed her normal form. Legionaries with giant shields were lining up in front of Aries, creating a wall of steel. They moved aside as Aries walked toward the Freemen, he and William were at least twenty meters apart. 

“These are my trophies, you lost the battle, I reap the rewards!” Aries yelled. Aquis readied her bow, and the Roman princeps readied their spears to be flung. 

“What should I turn into?” Sage whispered to Aquis.

“Ent,” She said firmly, she knew the Romans carried no fire on them. 

“I’m going to ask you once again, release those people!” William bellowed out. Aries slashed his sword into the ground, then looked at it and smiled at William.

“Your numbers are pitiful, three against . . . half a legion?” Aries said, sounding smugger than his mask made out to be.

“Numbers do not matter when quality outweighs it,” William said, his mask remained unchanged but they could feel him become slightly angry.

“Confident of your nature spirit are you?” Aries said, pointing the sword at Sage. “Trickery will get you far, but I prefer brute force.” William was going to speak, but Aries kept talking. “Pantheon is a great centurion, but I do not agree with his ways of getting things done. Fighting from the shadows is a coward's way to fight, it might be efficient for him, but I see him no better than the Freemen.” William and Aquis looked at one another and then at him. 

“You done talking?” Aquis asked. Aries pointed his sword at her.

“Quiet girl! When I am through with him, you will be a trophy for all to see!” Aries boasted and the entire legion laughed with him, which upset Aquis a little as she looked at the ground in shame. 

“Are you sure we can take them on?” She whispered to William. He turned to her and raised an eyebrow.

“Do you not trust me?” 

“I do, but I think you boast too much around him.”

“Boast, me? I thought you knew me better than that.”

“I don’t know Will, you do boast when you and Aries are about to fight,” Sage confirmed. William looked at her, then at Aquis.

“Do I really boast?” He asked, very sincerely. They both nodded. “Disappointing to say the least.” Aries took a step forward and they all readied themselves again. William took a step forward as well. Aries grabbed his sword with both hands and stared intensely at his rival. William moved his sword closer to his face and looked at Aries. The wind broke the silence as it howled and thunder could be heard. They charged each other and both the legion and Sage and Aquis stood by. They were about to clash swords together when they heard a noise. They stopped in their tracks and looked around, very confused.

“Is this your doing?” William asked.

“Intriguing, I was going to ask the same thing,” Aries said, they listened and the noise got louder, it sounded like a person. The legionaries lowered their shields and the princeps put their spears back in their quivers, Aquis put down her bow and Sage looked around as well. As the noise got louder, they realized it was coming from the treeline to the east. A man broke through it, wearing legionnaire clothing and running straight for them. 

“ORCS!” He yelled as he collapsed on the ground. As he fell, it was revealed that there was a hatchet in his back. William and Aries looked at each with perplexing gazes. 

“Did he just say, Orcs?” William asked. Then, as if they heard, Orcs burst through the treeline, charging them. There were lots of them, with clubs, axes, and other objects alike. They wore no armor but their thick green hide was tough enough to resist many things. They were larger beings than a human and much more vicious, more muscle mass and less brain mass.

“Temporary alliance against these Orcs?” William asked, and Aries turned to look at him.

“Indeed,” he answered, everyone turned to face the oncoming Orc horde. Aquis readied her bow and fired one, the shot was true and hit an Orc in the head, killing it instantly. William ran towards them and Aries did too, Sage turned into an ent and walked towards the Orcs. The legionaries stood still, then slowly started to back away from the battlefield. William met an Orc and slashed it before its club could reach his armor. It collapsed, but another took its place. An Orc attempted to tackle him, but he ducked and it fell over him. It layed on the ground trying to get up, when he put the sword through its body. Two Orcs ran towards him and William cleaved one in twain, but the other one started attacking him. The Orc had a measly club and beat it against his armor, which slightly dented that part. He pushed the Orc and stuck his sword in it. To his right, there were four Orcs about to reach him, when a tree branch slapped them all aside. He turned to look and saw Sage in ent form walking toward the Orc charge. There was a second Orc wave coming that they were preparing for.

“Brothas!” An Orc bellowed and all the Orcs stopped moving and attacking and turned to look at the voice, his voice deep and confident. William, Aquis, Sage, and Aries turned to look at the voice as well. A larger Orc with a metal helmet and shoulder guards appeared on the peak to the north, he was carrying a sword that he held in one hand. The Orc raised up his sword and all the Orcs ran to him and formed somewhat of a line. The Orcs kept moving around and jumping, waiting for combat, but the lone Orc stood still, making the others go silent. He lowered his sword and started to beat his chest with his other fist. 

Thump! Thump! Thump! 

He was starting a beat, and the others joined him with it. Then he started chanting.

 “Hooh! Hooh! Hooh! Ah! Ah! Ah!” He said, making the others join as well. Soon, only the sounds of Orcs would be heard.

“Kill the meatbags!” The Orc bellowed and all his brethren charged as one force. The humans barely made a dent when they were scattered, but now that they were organized, it seemed impossible. Sage advanced a little farther ahead of the rest and slapped several Orcs aside when they got close enough. Their numbers were great though, and each blow Sage delivered wasn’t always lethal, making some of them get up after getting knocked down. The clubs and blunt weapons bounced off the bark, but anything sharp pierced it, making Sage yell in entish agony. The Orcs started to climb her roots and slash at the trunk of the tree. The tree suddenly disappeared, making some Orcs collapse on the ground, and soon a pixie zipped out of the chaos. The Orcs realized the ent disappeared and then looked at William, since he was closer.

“Shoot!” Aquis said, realizing they would soon overwhelm him. She readied an arrow, and fired it at the Orc captain who was moving behind his brothers. The arrow flew through the air and time seemed to slow down as it closed in on the Orc’s face. The arrow hit the metal helmet, which made him stumble back and feel his helmet. He felt the dent that he arrow had made and stepped back and tried to find out who fired it. He saw Aquis notching another arrow. He bolted to reach her, trying to pass his brethren. William swung his sword at two Orcs which cut them deeply and they fell to the ground. Like a hydra, multitudes replaced those that were lost. Four Orcs soon came upon him and he successfully killed two and kicked another, but the other one was slashing his armor. Realizing that his sword would take too long to swing at this one Orc, he punched it in the face and it fell backward. He looked over at his rival to see how he was fairing. 

Aries’s sword was too big to handle small amounts of Orcs, so he swung it completely around himself. This action cut all Orcs who came close to him in two, others jumped to avoid it but he headbutted them with his metal helm. William looked around and saw the lines thinning as he cut up another Orc, but then something caught his eye. He noticed the Orc captain that had rallied the Orcs charge through the lines and missed them. In a second, he noticed a dent on the Orcs helm that hadn’t been there prior, someone shot an arrow at him. 

“Aquis,” he muttered under his breath. The captain was going after her and he wanted to help her, but another Orc attacked him. He could only look at his friend as the captain charged her.

Aquis saw the Orc captain break the line and continue charging, he was after her. She loosed an arrow at him and it bounced off his shoulder guard. She would only have time for one more arrow to fire, so she had to aim wisely. She took aim at the Orc’s chest, breathed in, and exhaled, which loosed the arrow. It’s mark was true, but Orc hide was thick and it didn’t react that much. He reached her and she dropped her bow to grab a knife. He took a wide swing at her, she ducked and slashed his leg, but he didn’t take much notice of it. He swung again and she narrowly dodged the blade, nearly cutting her hair. She slashed the Orc three times in the chest which left obvious slash wounds. He stopped attacking and put his hand there, then out of nowhere slapped her aside. The slap was in the chest and she flew backward until she dug her feet into the ground to stop moving back. She felt the top part of her chest, where she got hit, and they both met their eyes.

“Prepare to taste my blade!” The Orc bellowed. He pointed the sword at her and laughed. 

“As will you!” She said and brought up her knife. The Orc captain grinned just enough for her to see his sharp, crooked, cracked teeth. The bottom teeth of an Orc were always the biggest and usually escaped their mouths even when their mouths were closed. Making them look like an upside down vampire’s mouth.

 The Orc yelled and ran to her, she readied her knife and ran at him as well. They met and the Orc swung, while Aquis slid on her knees and slashed at the Orc’s stomach, and they passed each other. They turned around to face one another and the Orc put a hand on his side and stomach, he moved his hand and his intestines began to start falling out. He fell over with his intestines out of his body. She slowly walked close to it and kicked it, the body didn’t move. 

William kicked the last Orc and chopped its head off, he then looked around. Orc bodies littered the field and their blood covered the battlefield. He turned around to see Aquis, who was running at him. She slowed down and collapsed in his arms, hugging him very tightly. He comforted her and noticed that a drop of water was running down his armor, a tear. 

“It’s okay, they are all gone,” he said and looked around again. He saw the Orc bodies, but didn’t see Aries. “Including Aries, and the prisoners he took,” he grimaced. She looked up at him, her face was wet with tears and dirty with mud and Orc blood.

“Why was that so . . . terrifying?” She said more to herself but William knew what she meant. 

“You haven’t fought something that matches an Orc in strength before, have you?” He said, and she shook her head and buried her face in his shoulder armor. “You’re fine,” he said. He kept comforting her and started to feel sorry for her. This was her first encounter with an Orc and she fought against an Orc captain, who aren’t exactly novice fighters. He pulled her face up off his shoulder and looked at her. “We need to find Sage, she retreated somewhere.” Aquis wiped her face and smiled. 

“I saw her fly into the woods right of here, where the Orcs came from,” she said and continued to wipe the tears and dirt away. They started walking towards the woods. “Have you fought Orcs before?” She asked, because he fought with an unwavering attitude. Not being scared of them at all.

“Like I said before, no, but I have fought Krag. Those things are monsters even worse than Orcs. Orcs are stupid but brutal, the Krag . . . ” He said. “The Krag are much more mysterious than the Orcs, not even the Draxus messed with them.” They walked in the beginning part of the woods and looked around. They didn’t know if Sage turned into her normal form or remained being a pixie. 

“It’s fine, I know what I’m doing,” a familiar male voice said. They walked towards where they heard the voice. “Can you please stop moving? I can’t put this on if you don’t stop moving!”

“Ow!” Sage said. They thought she was in trouble and rushed to where they heard her. They ran through the trees, jumped over a log, and passed some brush to find Sage sitting on the ground leaning against a tree. Pantheon was putting gauze on Sage’s side and both of them readied their weapons. Pantheon didn’t notice them until he saw both with their weapons out, pointing at him. He jumped up, fell down, and backed up all at the same time. Pantheon got back up and picked up his spear, but didn’t point it at them, he just rolled his eyes.

“Really? I help your friend and this is how I’m repaid?” He said, and pointed to Sage. They looked and saw her getting up with the help of the tree beside her, there was a slash in her tunic which had a gauze pad beneath it. 

“Don’t worry guys, he’s . . . fine,” Sage said, pointing her thumb at him. Both Aquis and William raised an eyebrow when she said that Pantheon was fine.

“Isn’t he the guy who took you captive, and you say he’s fine?” William asked, not knowing if Sage was being serious or was hit in the head hard enough.

“We’ve been at war with the Romans for ten years, and you decide to trust him?” Aquis said, glaring at him. Pantheon shrugged and nodded toward Sage.

“Go ahead, tell them what happened,” he said and all eyes were pointed toward Sage. She looked at her friends and sighed.

“When I left the battle because my wounds were growing too numerous, I made a beeline somewhere. I guess I headed northeast because I hid beside a tree and an Orc found me and attacked me. I would’ve died if he hadn’t killed the Orc before he smashed my head in,” she said. “I couldn’t have fought back, I was lucky enough that he came along and he even bandaged my wounds.” Aquis and William turned to face Pantheon now.

“What’s your deal then?” William asked, pointing his sword at him. Pantheon put his spear down on the ground, as an attempt to gain their trust. 

“I’ll tell you, but I need both of you to put down your weapons. It doesn’t have to be on the ground like I did, just not pointed toward me,” he said. Aquis and William looked at one another and then back at him.

“Alright, fair enough,” Aquis said and put her bow on her back. William shrugged and lowered his sword.

“Good, now that we are on similar accords, I take it you took care of those Orcs?” He asked.

“Yeah, did those come from you?” Aquis asked. Pantheon raised his right eyebrow and looked at her, as if he was disappointed with her answer. 

“From the intel that we have gathered, I thought you were smarter than that,” Pantheon bluntly said, making her frown. “I still assume you’re smart, but no, I did not summon those Orcs. I don’t even know how they got here, I thought I sent a legionary to spread the word that Orcs were coming? Then again . . . he was injured by one.”

“Yeah, he yelled about the Orcs, then he died. But your men were taking care of some of them?” William asked.

“Yeah, we got ambushed by a large amount of them, but we managed to run off and only attracted a small amount towards us. After we killed them I sent my remaining legionaries across Krag Mountains, so I didn’t cause any more casualties,” Pantheon said.

“Then . . . where did they come from?” Sage asked. William looked at Aquis, who looked at Pantheon, who looked at Sage, who looked at William, creating a square of them looking at each other.

“They came to the north when we were attacked,” Pantheon asked.

“What’s to the north?” Aquis asked. Pantheon and William looked at each other with confused gazes.

“The Tribals?” They both said. Sage walked towards the middle and pointed to the north.

“The Outcasts, they possess the magic that could bring Orcs to Puer. A portal to Dragonis has been opened,” she said and they looked at her in confusion. “I thought it was just a rumor, a pixie claimed she saw a band of Orcs leave Ousland. No one believed her but I guess she was right.” They all looked at each other with worried glances.

“Why are Orcs coming here though? They don’t know magic,” Aquis asked Sage. 

“As I said, she said she saw Orcs but that’s all she saw. She must have been too astonished to have just seen Orcs here. I don’t blame her, I’d do it too,” Sage said. 

“I hate to say it, but I don’t think one wave of Orcs is all we should expect,” Aquis said.

“I agree, so we should take care of this issue,” William said. Aquis and Sage nodded in agreement until they truly realized what he said.

“What?! Are you saying-” Aquis said.

“Yes,” William interrupted.

“That’s suicide!” Sage said. Pantheon stepped in the middle, trying to break the tension.

“I must agree with William on this one, my people will not be able to aid in getting rid of the Outcasts or their portal. We are too stubborn with tradition, maybe the Freemen will help, but if not . . . it’s just us,” Pantheon stated.

“And who said that you’re coming with us?” William said. “We’re still at war and if I recall, didn’t you attack her just an hour ago? Why should we ever trust you?”

“Now hold up a minute. Yes, he did attack me but he also helped out Sage with her wounds. AND he didn’t even lay a finger on her when he captured her,” Aquis said and turned to look at him for an answer.

“You are correct,” he said.

“So I’d say that checks him out . . . I mean he checks out,” she said and hid her blushing from embarrassment. “As far as I’m concerned, the good cancels out the bad at this point.”

“Why would you help us? What’s your real reason? I find it hard that someone, from the bottom of their heart, wants to help their nation's enemy,” William approached Pantheon and towered over him. “I. Don’t. Believe. You . . . yet,” he added. Pantheon looked at him without fear but also lacked complete and utter confidence.

“I do not blame you but I am afraid I would be your only Roman ally. As far as I can tell, my people hate you as much as you hate them. They would seek no alliance from you, only victory. If you wish to have three for a party against an army of Orcs and other creatures, I will not stop you. However, if you seek assistance, I will join you and help however I can. Then, maybe when this is done, it can be shown that our two nations can work together,” Pantheon answered. Aquis dragged William back as he took all the information in.

“Don’t be stubborn Will, we need him,” Sage said. William glanced at her and lowered his head.

“You may join us, but if you wish for an alliance, I will not see Aries free as you are now. He must be put on trial and condemned for what he did back in that village,” he replied. Pantheon scratched his helmet, by accident, then scratched his neck.

“What? What did he do?”

“You don’t know? He killed every old person in that village and took everyone else captive,” Aquis told him. Pantheon clenched his teeth and bit his tongue, only slightly showing his anger.

“He wasn’t supposed to do that. He’s never supposed to kill the rest,” Pantheon whispered and held his head. “I apologize and promise that he will seek judgement for doing that.” William nodded and held out his hand. Pantheon looked at it for a short while and shook it, nodding as well. 

“Alright, good answer. There’s a village to the north of here where we can get more supplies,” William said. “Hopefully this won’t escalate into anything too ridiculous.”

Within an hour they reached a northern Freemen town, it was one of the bigger towns with a marketplace, militia station, and even a governor. They were all going to enter the city, but the local guard wouldn’t let Pantheon enter the city for understandable reasons. William and Aquis even tried explaining what happened to the guard, who didn’t believe him about the Orcs. William, still untrusting of him, left Aquis to watch him in case he tried something. Pantheon didn’t mind the suspicion. Even if William didn’t agree though, he would have followed them. William and Sage entered the town to try and procure a place to stay for the night and hopefully some equipment for their journey. Pantheon and Aquis waited outside the town, away from the guards. The sun was setting and darkness was approaching them, the trees blocked some of the sunlight and infected the land with more shadows. 

“Were you honest when talking about an alliance?” Aquis broke the awkward silence.

“Yes,” he quickly said.

“How can I believe you?”

“That’s the problem, you can’t. I’d love to show all of you but it’s simply impossible for now,” he replied.

“Okay then, why?”

“Why what?”

“Why the alliance idea? Why did you help Sage and be so nice to her? You don’t sound like how a normal centurion acts,” she said.

“And you don’t look like a normal hunter,” he stated and smirked. 

“Ah- . . . very well, keep your secrets,” she said with a smile. They ended the conversation there and stood in silence.

“Psst, boss!” Someone whispered behind them. He realized who was talking and looked at Aquis, who didn’t hear the voice.

“Hey, can you ask about the food situation? It is approaching dinner,” he asked her.

“Sure thing,” she answered and walked toward the gate. Pantheon then turned around to see two people wearing dark green overcoats, which made their faces hard to see. They unveiled their hoods to reveal two men with dirty blonde hair and each lacked facial hair.

“What is it, Cicero and Vivus?” Pantheon asked impatiently, even though he wasn’t doing anything else. 

“We got kind of sidetracked from the original mission you sent us to,” Cicero said.

“But, but, but! We did find something else while we were sidetracked,” Vivus said, they were talking as if they were both saying one paragraph. 

“We found . . . umm . . . what did we . . . WAIT! That’s right, we found an Outcast!” 

“Indeed, we didn’t know what she was doing, so we followed her.”

“For quite a while might I add.”

“But she eventually crossed into the Tribal Jungle. And we . . . reluctantly followed her,” Vivus said. Pantheon hit his spear against the dirt, silencing them.

“Are you here to tell me a story or something important!” He yelled. They both timidly looked at one another.

“Yeah, we followed her to their base and we watched her from a peak as she entered a black tower. It was huge, at least five stories!” Vivus said.

“Probably more, we were far away,” Cicero added.

“Anyway, after we saw her go inside, we saw the guards change and that gave us an idea.”

“So we recorded the guard times . . . or at least some of them,” Cicero said and handed Pantheon a paper. The paper contained a rough map of the place and times when the guards switched. He looked at the paper and nodded at them.

“Good work you two, I’m very impressed. But I am not done with you yet. We plan to go to the Outcasts and travel through a portal to reach Dragonis,” Pantheon said. They looked at each other questionably. 

“We?” They both questioned at the same time. Pantheon pointed to Aquis who had walked away, looking at the town. She was still talking to the guard about his question.

“Me, her, William and the spirit will be going to Dragonis,” he said. They both slowly looked at each, and both cracked a smile. “What?”

“Nice, good thinking boss,” Vivus said.

“Gonna look like a real knight in shining armor,” Cicero said and elbowed his compatriot. Both of them chuckled softly but Pantheon was doing the polar opposite of that.

“I haven’t the slightest clue as to what you’re referring to,” He said plainly. That made them laugh slightly louder but not loud enough to alert Aquis.

“Doesn’t know what we’re talking about? Yeah right,” Cicero said.

“We kept giving you clues to get a wife, I don’t know how much more obvious this one can get,” Vivus whispered in his ear. Pantheon looked at them, then her, then at them again.

“Quiet! I don’t want you to speak to me about this again! That is a choice for me to make, and I will make it when it seems most convenient.” Pantheon stared them both down, which made them shut up. “Now, I need you two to find a safe path for us to cross the jungle. I prefer to be free of those Tribals. They worry me.” The two looked at each other, nodded, put on their hood, and ran off into the forest. He shook his head and looked back. Aquis was talking to William and Sage. They looked at him, and Pantheon walked over to them.

“We got two different rooms for us to sleep in, me and you in one. And Aquis and Sage in the other,” William said.

“They’re really cozy. I tried the beds, and they’re sooo soft!” Sage said.

“I can’t go in the town, the guards won’t let me. I think I know of a place to go,” He said.

“Are you sure? We can probably get them to let you in,” Aquis offered. 

“No, it’s fine. I have experience in the woods,” Pantheon said and he walked away. “I’ll be by the entrance around eight o’clock.” He started to walk in the woods.

“Okay, but come find us if it isn’t working out!” Sage said. The three of them then walked into town. The day was coming to a close and darkness was enveloping the land and Pantheon could tell. Walking through the woods was hard because there wasn’t much light around. The trees were clear to see, but the ground was difficult to see. Several times the ground changed height slightly and he almost fell. He hit his foot against a large root and he tripped. He was prepared to hit the ground fast after tripping, but he didn’t. Instead he rolled down into something. 

“Ow! OW!” He said as he barreled down. After a second, he hit something and stopped rolling. He was lying on the ground and noticed it was pitch black, so he felt the ground with his hands, making sure he wouldn’t fall down again. He kept feeling the floor as he got on his two feet. Once on his feet, he used his hands to feel for a wall. He slowly walked, making sure there were no holes. With another hand he felt the air. He felt something coarse and loose with his right hand and put his other hand on it, he pushed on it to make sure it wasn’t something that could be pushed over. He walked towards it and soon his whole body was touching the dirt wall. Except that the dirt didn’t crumble whenever he touched it or grabbed it, it was actually firm in its place. He began moving to his left, feeling the wall and the ground at the same time. Suddenly he heard a creaking noise behind him, and he stopped moving. 

“What are you doing?” A voice said, it was a young male voice, but not a boy’s. It was calm and relaxing, not intimidating, which made Pantheon wary. 

“Who are you?” Pantheon asked, still not moving.

“Someone watching you try to make his way through a pitch dark cave, how ‘bout you?” The voice said. He didn’t seem too serious.

“Are you able to see in the dark?” He asked, and slowly walked away from the wall.

“Yes...and no.”

“What does that mean?” Pantheon said. He hit something with his left ankle, which hurt a lot. “OW!” He felt it with his hands and felt wood, he concluded it might be a desk or table. He felt around the table and kept walking. 

“Do you need a light?” The voice said.

“If you have one that would be much appreciated,” Pantheon said and he stopped moving. His eyes darted around, waiting for something to flicker. One light shone behind him, he had never seen anything like it. Soon the whole cave filled with lights, all were torches and or technology he didn’t know. The torches were on the walls while the unknown technologies were on desks, piles of dirt, and even on the bed. He got away from a desk he was by and walked towards the first light and looked around. He didn’t see the man who was talking to him. He looked down at the table which he moved away from, the table was littered with a lot of notes and papers. There were some drawings of people in Freemen armor and Roman armor, some were of Tribals and others looked like Outcasts.

The drawings looked expertly drawn, as if by an experienced artist. On these drawings there were sidenotes that stated numerous things, some were questions which appeared to remain unanswered. Others were known facts about that species, like how Freemen armor looked like . . . old armor from England? Pantheon knew of no place called England. On the Roman notes, one of the biggest questions was ‘why are they also called Roman? What’s the reasoning...Draxus?’ He looked away from the notes and looked around the room, searching for the being. 

“Where are you? Are you a demon?” 

“Well wouldn’t you like to know. If I said I was, you’d run and flee. If I didn’t, you wouldn’t believe me,” the voice said but it’s voice changed. It sounded like a ghost, becoming quiet whenever he pleased and it could be thrown around the room easily. The voice came from behind him and he quickly turned around to see nothing.

“Whatever tricks you are playing won’t work on me!” Pantheon said confidently.

“Are enchanted with magic that protect yourself from such? Interesting,” It asked. The voice appeared to be right in front of him, but he didn’t see anything.

“My name is Pantheon of the Romans, to whom do you show allegiance to?” He asked. The voice sighed from the ceiling.

“Allegiance? I show allegiance to myself,” it said below him, he looked between his feet and saw a blob of shadow, then it fled.

“What. Are. You?” Pantheon slowly said, becoming more scared as the time elongated. A two dimensional shadow of a man appeared on the wall in front of him, it walked as if it was an actual person. The face of the man turned to look at Pantheon and the man's right hand started to shake. The right hand suddenly burst out of the wall, causing a cesspool of black to be formed below it. The hand dripped a black ooze and was also pure black, like a shadow. His left arm escaped the wall as well, soon the ground below both of the hands turned into a pool of black liquid. The head and chest escaped the walls, then the entire body, making the man fall to the ground. He slowly stood up and looked at Pantheon, the shadow man was about his height, and Pantheon gave him a look of horror. The man was completely covered black, he looked humanoid but contained no human characteristics, other than his body structure. His entire body dripped black ooze that hit the floor, then raced back to connect to him again.

“I . . . am-.” The man started and he extended his hand for a shake. However, Pantheon looked at the man in pure terror and passed out. “That’s unfortunate, I was wishing for one of them to come down here, and then they faint,” the man said to himself and looked over Pantheon’s unconscious body. He tilted his head to look at him, then shrugged. “I guess I’ll just tag along for the ride then.” The man began melting down into the pool of black below him. The man vanished completely and the shadow pool slowly moved toward Pantheon and started to join his shadow. The man soon was completely enveloped in Pantheon’s shadow. “Here’s to hoping he doesn’t die in the first fifteen minutes.” Two hands left his shadow and high-fived each other.

Vex opened the doors to the black tower and began to walk inside, his feast on the fish was satisfying. He got inside just to see Naz’gar, waiting for him. He was waiting next to a bookshelf, reading a book.

“How did the Orc attack go?” Vex asked. The doors closed behind him very loudly.

“Probably died, hopefully killed some people. I don’t really care,” Naz’gar said, glancing up from his book. Vex gave him an odd look. 

“How many did you send?” Vex said. Naz’gar closed the book and put it back on the bookshelf. 

“Hundred some.” 

“Hundred? Shouldn’t that be able to take out a whole town? Or even multiple for that matter?” 

“Yes, but that wasn’t the plan,” Naz’gar said, he started walking away. Vex followed him, they walked up the stairs and into the cauldron room. “I had two plans for the Orcs, one was to spread fear among the Humans. If they find out that Orcs were on their planet, they will get scared and do the things all Humans do . . . panic.” He walked around the cauldron and moved to the table, he grabbed some powder of some sort and moved back to the cauldron. He tossed it into the cauldron, which made it bubble. The liquid in the cauldron started to swirl around and soon a picture appeared in the middle. The picture showed a knight in silver armor, a woman with a bow, a girl nature spirit, and a centurion. “I need to get rid of these people as soon as possible, they are the only thing that can threaten my plan.” Vex looked at him with another confusing glance.

“Four people are going to destroy your master plan? They’re not even of the same faction,” Vex said. Naz’gar looked at him and shook his head.

“It’s not the number that counts, it’s their ideals, thoughts, and all that other crud. For some odd reason, they haven’t been killed yet by anything that’s been thrown at them. They are also fine with working with each other, something that the captain of the Roman army is not good for. They have the power of their ‘Gods’ with them, which would completely conflict with the whole ‘Dark Lord’ thing. I know of an enemy when I see one,” Naz’gar said, he grabbed the giant wooden spoon by the cauldron and smacked the image so it disappeared which also splashed Vex. He grabbed the warhammer off his shoulder and started hitting the hammerhead with his other hand.

“Do you want me to take them out then? I’m sure they aren’t that hard to kill,” Vex said, quite sure of his power.

“No, not yet. I need you for later, the Tribals will take care of them. They are known for their fierce behavior to their own species, a powerful asset,” Naz’gar said. That fact made Vex shudder.

“I’ve read about them Tribals, I don’t want to get mixed up with ‘em. I know the jungle terrain is best suited for me but . . . they’re monsters,” Vex said, Naz’gar nodded to this and smiled.

“It is good you know your strengths and weaknesses, that is why you sit out of this one,” Naz’gar said, moving away from the cauldron. 

“What were you reading down there?” Vex asked as his master walked into a different room.

“It has been a while and I have forgotten how to summon my Naz’guards. If the Orcs ever fail, I will need them for basic operations,” he yelled in the other room. He walked out of the room carrying a sandwich in one hand, Vex looked at it in confusion, which made Naz’gar look at him. “What?” 

“What type of sandwich is that?” Vex asked.

“A cheese sandwich,” he said plainly and sat down on his chair.

“Is there anything else on it?”

“Mayonnaise and cheese. Those are the only ingredients,” he said and took a bite out of it.

“Ew, no meat?” Vex said. Naz’gar put the sandwich on a nightstand close to the chair.

“I like cheese okay? There’s nothing wrong with a cheese sandwich,” he defended, still chewing on the sandwich. Vex shrugged and started to walk away. “Ooh wait!” Vex stopped. “Can you talk to the Twilight Elves about the mission, there’s a paper downstairs on the bookshelf where I took that book from that will explain what you have to do.”

“Sure thing boss,” Vex said and made his way downstairs.

Pantheon opened his eyes, the lights were still on and his eyes looked around to scout out the area and that man. He didn’t see anything so he started to get up, he put his hand on the table and arose. He got on both of his feet and looked around. He saw that he was standing by a table and a bookshelf, which only had two books. There was a bed by the bookshelf and a nightstand by the bed, yet the man wasn’t there anymore.

“Was I dreaming?” He asked himself. He looked behind him and saw an incline which led to a different source of light, he hoped it was the sun. He walked towards the light and looked back at the cave. Whatever happened was really odd, he hoped he never came back to this place. He climbed up and his left hand felt the grass, he threw his other hand up and felt wood. He moved his entire body up and felt what the wood thing was, it was the root he tripped over. “Dumb piece of tree.” He used the root to climb up out of the cave. He got on the ground and looked around, the sun was on the horizon, but he couldn’t tell what specific time it was. He blinked a few times and made his way towards the town.  

“Where is he?” Aquis asked. They were standing by the entrance of the town, waiting for Pantheon. It was nearing eight o’clock, and they didn’t see him anywhere. 

“Did he abandon us?” Sage said, still not knowing that much about Pantheon.

“No, he joined us for a reason, and we haven’t revealed that much about ourselves,” William said. 

“He told me more about himself than I did.” Aquis said. William and Sage looked at her with confused eyes. 

“When did you talk to him?” Sage asked.

“Privately . . . why?” Aquis said, noticing their gazes upon her.

“What did you say to him?” William said slowly.

“I didn’t tell him anything about us or me, it was just a short conversation, there’s no need to be on my back,” Aquis said, quite perplexed. 

“We don’t entirely know if he is on our side, for all we know he could try and stab us in the back,” William said. “He is known for his sneaky tactics.”

“I think you need to be more trusting,” Aquis said matter of factly.

“I think you need to be more cautious,” William said, and soon they glared at each other. Which turned into facing each other and getting close enough to see their souls through the eyes. 

“Why would anyone trust someone they just met? I tell you that this is your bane,” William said.

“You can’t trust everyone, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to trust them,” Aquis said, still staring into his eyes. 

“I think you two need to relax a bit,” Sage said, getting in between them. They stepped back and Aquis folded her arms. “I know the stress of going on a journey, but we shouldn’t be at each other’s throats.” They heard rustling beside them.

“We shouldn’t be at each other’s throats until after we passed Tribal Jungle,” Pantheon said, getting out of the treeline.

“What took you so long?” William said. Pantheon reached them and brushed off some foliage from his armor. 

“Fell in a cave, got some sleep, but didn’t know where I was,” he said. Sage snickered.

“How deep was it?” She asked. Pantheon glared at her, then smiled.

“Not deep enough to kill me, I’ll tell you that much,” he answered. Pantheon and Sage laughed, William and Aquis didn’t. Aquis just realized what Pantheon said a little bit ago.

“Did you say . . . Tribal Jungle?” Aquis asked, nervous for an answer.

“Yes, I thought we discussed this earlier. In order to reach the Outcasts, we have to pass the Tribals,” Pantheon said, which made Aquis shudder. 

“Can we go around, isn’t there some way to do that?” She shakily said, which made them all take notice.

“Are you scared of the Tribals?” William questioned. Aquis nodded, William and Sage looked at each other confused. Pantheon raised an eyebrow.

“They’re not that bad, they’re human, which means they aren’t as bad as Orcs. But they eat people, alive I think. They also have weird magic, I’ve heard they can control you with a doll, pretty weird,” Sage said and Aquis froze. William punched Sage in the shoulder. “OW!”

“Not helping,” William said beneath his teeth.

“I’m sure there might be a way around, I have some people looking at the jungle right now.” Pantheon said.

“Who?” William asked, becoming more wary of Pantheon.

“My frumentarii are scouting the region ahead of us, they will notify me if they find anything funny,” he said, he felt around in his pocket and took out a piece of paper. “They also found out the guard times at the Outcasts base.” He handed the paper to William, who took it and inspected it.

“How reliable are these spies of yours?” William skeptically asked.

“Very, all the information they’ve given me so far hasn’t been false,” he said, confident in his men. They all looked back at Aquis who was slightly shaking, and Sage floated to her and hugged her.

“It’s gonna be fine, we’re not gonna let anything happen to you in there,” Sage said, Aquis looked over at William and Pantheon, who nodded in support.

“This will be good practice for us, if we plan on fighting more hordes of Orcs the jungle will be a good place to make sure we can handle them,” William stated.

“I’m not sure if I agree with that but we’ll be together and as long as we’re quiet, they won’t know we’re there,” Pantheon said.

“Thanks for the reassurance and . . . yeah, that makes some sense,” Aquis said and brushed off her clothing. “Hoo! I’m ready now!”

“Great! Well, we shouldn’t dilly-dally!” Sage said. They exchanged looks and nodded, then Pantheon’s stomach rumbled.

“I know we aren’t ‘friends’ yet, but do you have any food?” He asked. Aquis rolled her eyes.

“I’ll go get something, you guys go ahead and make your way there,” she said and started to run off into the forest.

“How will you know where we are?” William yelled.

“I’ll know, just trust me!” She yelled back and disappeared into the dense foliage.

“Will she be able to find us?” Pantheon asked. 

“Yeah, she’s the best . . . only huntress I know. She’ll find us before we know she’s even there,” William said. They stared awkwardly at each other.

“What are we waiting for?” Sage questioned.

“Wait, I think you need to get rid of your armor,” Pantheon said. William only raised an eyebrow in question. “There are swamps and dense foliage in the jungle and it will only slow you down.” William put up his hand in protest, then put it down. He walked over to the guard outside the town, and soon took off his chestplate, shoulder guards, arm guards, and his leg guards. He gave them to the guard and he walked off. William walked back to them, wearing chainmail above a brown shirt and baggy pants. 

Pantheon noticed how dark his hair was, it was also longer than usual and stared at it for an uncomfortably long time. “What’s with the long hair?” He asked. William gave a questioned look and felt his hair but didn’t answer.

They began walking off the dirt path that went into the town, and headed right. Ahead them was a wooden fence that blocked off a grassland which they couldn’t see the end of. They passed the trees and made it to the fence, then looked to the left and the right, and climbed over it. When Pantheon hopped off the fence, he noticed the grass was longer than he thought it would be. It was up to his knees, and he looked at William and Sage who didn’t take notice, especially Sage since she floated over the fence and the grass. The grassland bore no trees and it looked barren and peaceful. Sage smiled and floated down to the ground, she disappeared and William and Pantheon heard a hissing move away from them. Pantheon was greatly perplexed from what just happened.

“What...did she turn into-?” He asked.

“A snake? Yeah, she does that whenever we pass through long grass,” William said. They saw a trail through the grass as Sage slid through it. They walked through the grass and they looked around. There were no trees ahead of them or anywhere near the sides of them, they could easily see the Krag Mountains to the west and the sky was as clear as the day is long. They started moving up and went upon a knoll. The knoll proved a great lookout spot. They looked ahead of them and saw the beginning of a woods far away and another forest to their left. To William’s surprise, they saw breaks in the grass that looked like feet, but they were too large to be human feet.

“Hey! Are you seeing this?” He asked Pantheon and beckoned him to come closer to him. 

“Orc tracks, too bad we didn’t find these before fighting them,” Pantheon said. He furrowed his brow and looked south. “Why was the town not attacked, yet they came down from the north? Wouldn’t they have found that town first?” He asked. William looked towards the south as well.

“I...don’t know. Maybe they didn’t see the town, or maybe they lost direction then got back on track? Orcs are not the smartest creatures,” He told himself. Pantheon shrugged, there was no point in questioning his question any further. The grass waved in the wind, which cooled them both down. Soon the sun was blocked by numerous pockets of clouds, but the skies didn’t appear too dark. 

“I didn’t think the jungle would be that far away,” Pantheon said, his armor making him sweat. William looked at all his armor, then at him again.

“Why didn’t you take off your armor? If it’s swampy, wouldn’t it benefit you too if you took it off?” William asked. 

“Mine’s not as thick as yours, also I can climb in this. I made it lighter so I could be sneakier,” he said and William continued to stare at it. 

“How thick is it then? You need it to be thick enough to stop a blade,” he questioned.

“I have no idea,” Pantheon replied. William looked away from Pantheon’s armor and towards the jungle. They both didn’t know what to say to continue the conversation, so they remained silent. The wind had died down a bit, but the clouds were still blocking the sun. Which was to the relief of both of them. “How long is it going to be until Aquis gets something?”

“Not long.” William paused and looked back south. “Unless she’s trying to find the ancient albino elk,” he joked.

“The what?” Pantheon asked. William chuckled and shook his head. 

“It’s a beast which Aquis claims is real, Sage says it isn’t but Aquis says she saw it,” William said.

“Do you believe her?” Pantheon asked.

“I . . . don’t know,” he said. Another awkward break of silence took place. They heard a rustling behind them and slowly turned around, William was confident it was Sage. However it was Aquis right behind them, holding a bone with meat on it. She also had a satchel on the right side of her body. She extended the bone to Pantheon.

“You do eat meat . . . right?” She asked. Still extending the meat towards him. His mouth salivated as he looked and could smell the food. His hand lunged out and grabbed it. He took a large bite out of it and rolled his head back in relief. “Do you like it?”

“Best thing I’ve had all day . . . I guess that’s not much of a compliment. But yeah, it tastes good,” he said and took another large bite out of it. Aquis’ face flared and she put her hand on her cheek to block it.

“Thanks, I’m not that much of an experienced cook but I want to be. Ooh! But that’s not all I brought,” She said and chuckled a little bit. William looked at the satchel she had.

“Where’d you get the satchel?” He asked.

“I found a hunter while I was out hunting, funny how small the world is. I was bringing the deer back when he beckoned me. He told me that he was stuck with jerky of a variety of animals which he hated, and wanted to trade all the jerky he had for the deer I had,” She said and pulled out strips of salted meat. “Needless to say I took the deal, but I did kill a rabbit on the way which is what you’re eating.” Pantheon just shrugged and took another bite. 

“He gave you the satchel too?” William asked. 

“Yeah, I can’t carry all this jerky by myself,” Aquis said. She looked at both of them, then around them. 

“Where’s Sage?” She asked. 

“Where do you think?” William said, almost sarcastically. 

“Snake?” 

“Snake,” He confirmed with the nodding of his head. Aquis looked to where they were headed, and saw the jungle wasn’t that far ahead of them. 

“I guess we should trek on,” Pantheon said. He began walking to the jungle but the others stayed behind him, ready to talk without him listening to their conversation. 

“Do you think Sage is already in the jungle?” William asked. Aquis turned to look at him, then she noticed his chainmail armor. 

“You going to tell me what’s with your lack of armor?” She asked. William looked down at his chainmail armor and felt it. Light as a wood plank and sturdy as actual armor, although he wished it was made from Elvish or Dwarvish hands.

“Pantheon told me that the jungle is full of swamps and places where heavy armor is a huge hindrance. I trusted him since I never went into the jungle before.” 

“Oh now you’re trusting him?” Aquis stated. William rolled his eyes and looked at her.

“For now, I still don’t know his true intentions yet . . . neither do you, might I add!” He told her. She was the one to roll her eyes this time and she chuckled. She looked down at his chainmail then north to where Pantheon was.

“If you were to leave your armor behind, then why does he have his armor?” Aquis asked.

“Very observant aren’t you?” William said, and she slugged him in the arm, which caused him to laugh. “Ha ha ha! I tease you but you no find joke funny.” He said in a thick Dwarvish accent. William was really good at accents, which always made Aquis laugh. Ever since William was a boy he could mimic sounds pretty well, which mostly resulted him getting in trouble because his teachers didn’t like them mimicking them or other races, like Dwarves and Elves. He never stopped mimicking voices or accents and liked to practice when he was alone, unfortunately for him being alone wasn’t that common because of his ‘Paladin’ status.

“Why don’t you do something with your comedic skill?” She said in between chuckles. Their friendship actually started with William mimicking the teacher and both of them laughing, resulting in them being forced outside for the rest of the day, but that was just the beginning of their friendship.

“I’m no jester, this is just a pastime,” he answered and started to walk to their destination again. She followed suit. They saw Pantheon in the distance, closing distance on the jungle.

“Where did you put your armor?” She asked.

“I gave it to the guard and told him to put it in the armory.” William said.

Pantheon walked ahead of the other two so that they could talk with each other freely. He liked to walk by himself though, it was peaceful and quiet for him. He missed the quiet a lot, in Roman territory there never is much of a moment of downtime.

“Do you trust these people?” A voice said. Pantheon stopped for a second and looked around, but not behind. He didn’t see anyone so he continued to walk on.

“Probably the wind,” he thought.

“It isn’t,” the same voice replied. Pantheon shuddered immensely but didn’t stop moving, he didn’t want the others to think something was wrong. He looked around once more but had yet to find anyone. 

“Who are you that is in my thoughts?” He thought to the voice.

“I was going to introduce myself to you back there but you passed out,” it responded. Pantheon briefly stopped himself then continued walking.

“So, you weren’t just a dream then,” he realized.

“Nope.”

“Where are you? I can hear you but I am unable to see you,” he said. 

“You don’t need to see me, all you need to do is hear me and listen to what I have to say,” the voice said.

“I don’t find it comforting that I don’t need to see you and that I have to listen to you,” he told the voice. 

“Don’t blame you, I’d be skeptical about this too,” the voice said. There was a brief silence as Pantheon walked. “If you want to see me, look down.” He immediately looked down and saw his shadow. It didn’t seem strange to him until he looked up and saw the sun. He looked back down and saw how his shadow wasn’t in the right place. He watched as his shadow’s right hand waved to him.

“Are you . . . in my shadow?” He asked out loud.

“No, I am your shadow,” the voice replied. Chills were sent down Pantheon’s spine as he looked at his shadow. “You know, you seem very calm about this scenario. Like, way too calm.”

“I do not want to alert the others, but may I ask you something?” He asked the creature.

“Sure, go ahead.”

“Are you going to kill me?” He coldly asked. His shadow fled back to its original position.

“Being honest, I have no idea. That depends on you, but I will make sure you don’t die. Think of it as a symbiotic relationship,” the shadow said.

“A what?” He asked. But the voice did not respond and Pantheon walked in silence until they reached the jungle.

Vex was walking beside the trees which were claimed by the Twilight Elves, they grew white bark with beautiful greenish-blue leaves. Twilight trees were the most beautiful trees ever to be found and not even the Silvian Elves denied it. It seemed funny to Vex that the Twilight Elves resembled the trees in looks, except for the hair, which differed drastically from Elf to Elf. Vex had no need to fear them, even though everyone else did. The Draxus and both factions of Elves were good friends, so they made a vow only to attack them out of self-defense. If they were to attack however, he would have to be worried because he was out of his element. He walked on the grass and around the trees and looked around, the grass was a dark green which blended well with his scaly color. He had hoped to be greeted immediately after entering the forest, but no luck. He had no idea where their main town or village or whatever they reside in was, so he just kept walking. He hoped someone would see him and talk to him, he didn’t want to get lost in the woods. That would just be annoying and a complete time waster. He also had no idea what animals resided in the woods that he could eat if he were to get lost.

    “Where are they, am I in the wrong woods?” Vex asked himself. The width from tree to tree changed in odd intervals, sometimes there would be mad clusters and other times there would be three meters between each tree. He would occasionally hear branches shaking and leaves crunching which weren’t by his own feet. 

    “Wrong woods? No my good friend, you seek the Twilight Elves?” A voice above said, an odd Silvian accent. He looked up and saw a pale Elf standing in a tree, using the trunk as a support. He wore dark purple clothes which seemed too large for him. He had silver hair which complemented his skin and attire. He also appeared to be tall, but it was hard to tell from him being higher than Vex was. 

“Who are you . . . and don’t say a Twilight Elf, I can tell by yer skin,” Vex said. The man jumped down with a frontflip and bowed dramatically to his one man audience. 

“My name is Eldritch, prince of the Twilight,” he said and bowed. Vex crossed his arms and tapped his right foot in wait.

“I’ve never met any Twilight Elf before, but I’m pretty sure they aren’t like this,” Vex said. Eldritch dashed to Vex and put a finger against his mouth.

“Shh, no need to say Twilight Elf. Just call us, Twilight,” he said, and quickly backed away before Vex could snap at his hand. Vex tried and failed to catch him.

“Yer pretty quick, ain’t ya?” Vex said and unfolded his arms. He looked around Eldritch and himself and saw only trees. “If yer the prince of Twilight, why are you alone?” Vex looked behind him to make sure there was no one and turned back to see that Eldritch wasn’t there. He rapidly looked around, only to hear a tapping on his shoulder. He slowly looked up and saw Eldritch laying on him. After all, Vex was a giant alligator. 

“My good sir, I thought you were educated enough to know what eldritch means?” He questioned. Vex reached back and tried to grab him, but missed. He tried to see his own back, which caused him to turn around many times in the process. He eventually hit a tree, groaned, and fell down. He felt dizzy and had a minor headache, and he looked down to not worsen the headache. He slowly looked up to find Eldritch staring at him, crouched down to his level. “That wasn’t very nice.” 

“You’re acting like a pixie and it’s gettin on ma nerves,” Vex said, still trying to swipe at him with no success. 

“I’m not trying to be annoying, you just aren’t willing to learn,” Eldritch said. Vex stood up with the help of the tree and he glared at Eldritch, who did not glare back. “I take it you are here to see my mother?” 

“The queen,” Vex reinstated.

“Yeah, my mom. I’m the prince, remember?”

“Sure . . . yer ‘mother’,” Vex said and leaned against the tree. “Care to take me there, your highness?” He said sarcastically and bowed to him. Eldritch put his hand on his chest and looked up to the sky. 

“Why thank you for treating me as royalty, let me show you where she is,” Eldritch said and quickly climbed up a tree, Vex walked over to it and looked up the branches to not find him.

“I can’t follow you if I can’t find you!” Vex shouted into the tree. He suddenly felt something on his shoulder and he looked back to find Eldritch sitting on his back and he sighed. “Why you on ma back again?” He asked.

“I’ve always wanted to ride on the back of one of you, now I have my opportunity!” Eldritch said with a big grin. “Don’t worry, you won’t even feel me, I’m light as a feather.” Vex shook his head.

“Fine . . . which direction?” Vex asked. 

“Keep going forward until I tell you not to,” Eldritch directed. Vex sighed loudly and mumbled something under his breath then walked off.

William, Aquis, and Pantheon stood outside of the Tribal Jungle, looking at the size of it. The trees were the biggest they’ve ever seen and they couldn’t see past a few layers of the trees. They looked at their other options, the mountains or a long detour. Sage slithered up from behind and turned back into her natural form. Aquis started to back away, but William turned to look at her and raised an eyebrow.

“I thought you said you were fine?” William asked.

“I said that before we actually reached the jungle, now that I’m here . . . it looks a lot more menacing,” Aquis said. Sage embraced her once more.

“I thought you were the best huntress of all time, there’s no need to be in fear of the woods,” Sage said in a baby voice.

“It’s not the woods, it’s them,” She emphasized. Pantheon looked at her, then back at the jungle.

“I have an idea,” Pantheon proposed. “What if I were to go first and scout out the area ahead? That way, we can’t be surprised.” Without anyone saying otherwise, he lept into the jungle and they lost sight of him.

“That . . . works?” Sage said and let go of Aquis.

“See, with him as our scout we’ll know what’s coming. Unless he dies, then he’s just plain useless to us,” William said and he set a foot in the jungle. Aquis did not and he turned around to see that she stood completely still. “Do I have to hold your hand?”

“No . . . I’ll hold hers,” Aquis said and squeezed Sage’s hand. She tried to squirm her hand out of it.

“Aquis deary, can you . . . loosen your grip?” She asked. Aquis looked at Sage’s hand, which had started to turn a different color and loosened her grip. With that, they walked into the jungle. William was a few meters ahead of them, both females were taking the rear, and Pantheon was somewhere in the treetops.

The jungle was especially thick and had too many trees and branches to easily move through it and find the path. Pantheon had to get to a certain height where he hoped he wouldn’t get noticed by Tribals on the ground, but he also had to see the ground. Vines were everywhere and the leaves on the branches proved troublesome, but he couldn’t get rid of them because the Tribals might hear. He eventually found a good balance and stayed there and moved from tree to tree. The best thing about the jungle was that the trees and branches were so close that he could walk onto a different tree’s branches with no trouble. The path which he thought the others would walk on was a simple dirt path which was easy to distinguish from the grass on the sides of the path. 

“If I do stumble upon a group of Tribals, how would I get rid of them without arousing the attention of others?” He thought to himself as he walked from branch to branch. He noticed that there was a break in the treeline and looked down. He saw that there was a break in the path, two different ways to go. He wasn’t a mind reader, so he’d have to do something so they could tell that he was going one way, and not the other. “But what if one path is a dead end?” He looked down both paths to the best of his abilities, and then back where he came from. He couldn’t hear them, but maybe that was because they were keeping silent, hopefully. Since he was closest to the right path, he thought it’d be easier to go that way, so how would he make them know he was going right? He looked around but couldn’t see that well because of the vines, which gave him an idea. He grabbed a vine and broke it off from the source, he saw the immense size of it and lowered it slowly to the ground. He lowered it on the path and took the final bit he had and turned it into an arrow, pointing toward the right. He dropped it on the ground, but it landed so it pointed towards the left. He was going to slap his head in disgust with himself when he heard a noise on the ground. 

He stood still and looked down, the sound came from the left path. He heard another twig snap, but it was closer. Then he heard whispering of something and he stopped breathing. He saw something move closer to where he was and noticed a wooden mask, then a Tribal. The only amount of clothing he had was his cloth covering his groin and the mask which seemed bigger than the head. It was rectangular and covered the face completely from top to bottom, but some skin could be seen from both left and right sides. The mask had markings of a variety of colors, like red, purple, blue, green, and black. Pantheon assumed it was blood, but he didn’t know what the other colors were. He carried a crude pointed spear that still looked sharp.. The Tribal approached the vine he dropped on the ground and examined it, this allowed Pantheon to get a back view of the Tribal head, which was hairy and dirty and he couldn’t see much skin. The Tribal looked up and back down the path, he banged his spear against the ground and grunted something. Another Tribal came into view, he looked very similar to the first one, just with different markings on the face.

However, someone different approached the vine. It was a woman who was scantily clad with two piece grass clothing. She didn’t wear a mask, but her hair was long enough to cover most of the face. She was a very dirty brunette, and carried a spear that bore no damage and even glinted occasionally. The spear did have some vines wrapped around it. The woman kneeled by the vine and lifted it to her face, she took a long sniff and stood back up. She sniffed more and started walking around, eventually stopping right beneath Pantheon. She looked straight up and he looked down at her, he was uncertain if she could see him. 

She dropped her spear and took a vine from it. She brought all of it out and started lassoing then threw it into the trees. Pantheon saw the vine reach his foot and wrap around it.

“Uh-oh,” he whispered and the woman pulled as hard as she could and he plummeted to the ground. He hit the ground very hard and tried to get up, but the woman put her foot on his chestplate. The two men walked over to him and pointed their spears at him. “This might look bad, but I can explain.” The men didn’t move their heads, but the woman got her foot off him and walked toward her spear on the ground. Pantheon saw the opportunity, quickly grabbed his gladius, and chucked it at one of the Tribals. It hit his mask and he put his hands on his face, stepping backward in the process. He tried to remove it, but it was lodged in very well. The other Tribal was completely surprised by this and was distracted, so Pantheon smacked his legs with his spear. The Tribal fell over and Pantheon got up, using his spear as a support. He lunged his spear into the Tribal.

“Ahhh!” The woman screamed. Pantheon forgot about her. He turned to face her and saw that her spear was flying through the air, toward him. He didn’t have enough time to move, so the spear hit him. However the tip of the spear broke and bounced off his armor. The woman looked at the destroyed spear then at him with a stunned look. 

“My turn,” Pantheon said. He threw his own spear at her and when it hit her, she fell back with the spear in her. He walked over to her, she was trying to remove the spear. She turned to face him when he approached. She was twitching and gasping for breath, blood escaping her mouth. She was grasping the spear and looked at Pantheon with fear in her eyes. “May you go in peace,” Pantheon whispered so she could hear it. She began crying, but then she started to smile. Her crying turned into vicious, bloody laughter.

“Shaki! Shaki! Shaki!” She screamed as she continued blood laughing. Pantheon looked around with wide eyes and pushed the spear deeper into her, silencing her. She died with a creepy smile on her face, and blood running down her neck. He moved her hair aside so he could see her eyes. Brown eyes that matched her hair. He closed her eyes, he would kiss her forehead but it was covered with so much dirt and the hair was incredibly messy. He felt the scabbard on his side and realized it was empty. 

“Where’d it go?” He asked himself. He walked over to where he thought the Tribals body would be, but only saw blood. He saw his gladius stuck in the ground and pulled it out. It was covered with blood and dirt, yet he saw no Tribal. He looked around and saw a trail of blood heading to the path on the right. Which was the path he wanted the group to walk on. 

“What was that?” William asked. Pantheon turned around and saw the rest of the group. Aquis was investigating the body of the woman and Sage was messing with the body of the other Tribal.

“That damn woman found out where I was and attacked me,” Pantheon said and pointed to her.

“An amazon? I thought they resided in the Wasteland?” Aquis quesioned. She got away from the body and walked toward William and Pantheon. 

“I have some bad news as well . . . one of them got away,” Pantheon said. William turned to him and picked him up by his armor, which surprised him. Aquis and Sage turned to look at what was happening.

“How could you let one escape, now they know we’re here!” William said. He shook Pantheon a bit and Aquis ran over to William.

“Set him down Will! It was probably an accident,” Aquis said. William looked at her then back at him.

“I needn’t remind you of your fear of them, and this man just made sure they come to us! Three people! That’s all! Maybe one of them was better, but you killed her!” William began yelling. Pantheon rolled his eyes and kicked William in his chest, which made him drop Pantheon. He brought out his spear and pointed it at William and William did the same with his sword. Aquis tried to get in between them, but Pantheon pushed her aside with his spear. 

“Rude!” She said, hands on her hips. Both men stared into the others eyes and saw their souls. William blinked twice, looked at the ground, and shook his head.

“No . . . no . . . no! This is what they want, we’re being tricked into fighting each other!” William said and lowered his sword. Pantheon raised an eyebrow, looked at the ground, and lowered his spear as well. 

“By Caesar you’re right! Some voodoo or other magic is happening, that’s turning us against each other,” Pantheon said. He looked to the side, then at William. “I get that we aren’t friends yet or anything like that, but we should at least be working together . . . for now.” He extended a hand. William looked at it and nodded, shaking his hand. 

“I apologize for my paranoia, we should at least try to work together,” William said.

“Agreed,” Pantheon said and looked down the path the Tribal ran down. “We should probably start moving, I’m sure that Tribal reached their village by now.” He walked away without any more continuation to the conversation. Sage stopped poking the bodies and floated by her friends. 

“He’s very . . . interesting. That is for sure. I’ve never seen another Roman so kind, or so wise,” William said. He was watching Pantheon walk down the path, dragging his spear in the dirt. Aquis got in front of him and he turned his attention to her.

“Was that supposed to be an apology?” Aquis asked, her hands on her hips again. She had been used to his distrust of others but now it was starting to get on her nerves.  

“Yeah, the first thing I said was ‘I apologize’. How was that not an apology?” William asked.

“You picked him up and shook him like a child! You should probably apologize for that!” Aquis said, more annoyed by him. Her eyesight then went to her arms. “I didn’t know you were so strong, by the way.” 

“Is that your attempt at an apology for accusing me of such a thing? Besides, why do you care? Didn’t he punch you in the stomach so hard you had to eat nightshade to get better?” William said. He had his hands on his hips, mocking her.  Aquis backed up and cleared her throat.

“Well . . . yea- . . . we need as many people as we can . . . we need him because he’s experienced! None of us know how to navigate this jungle! Also, I didn’t eat the nightshade, I spat it out. I needed it’s poison along with the elixir to heal the wound,” She matter of factly said then realized what she said. “Because he . . . hit me.”

“Basically the same thing,” William said with some bark in his voice. Sage, who was standing far enough away from the conversation, rolled her entire head and floated towards them. She got close to William and slapped him, then she slapped Aquis.

“Ow! What was that for?” They both asked at the same time. Sage pointed toward the path on the left.

“Don’t you remember what you just said? The Tribals are tricking us into tearing each other apart, that’s what they're great at. They have their voodoo and shamans and all that other magic stuff,” Sage said. William looked down the path that Pantheon walked down.

“We should probably catch up to him,” he said. They started jogging through the jungle and Sage turned into a pixie to lie on his shoulder. 

Pantheon walked on the dirt trail, which was most likely made from the Tribals. He was taught that they were filthy savages who attacked people on sight, from that interaction there was some truth to those words. Yet, he still felt bad for killing that amazon, self-defense or not. He stopped dragging his spear and held it properly. There would be no point in sneaking through the jungles anymore, the Tribals knew they were there. He was keeping a watchful eye ahead and around him, they could pop out at any time. He heard something similar to someone smacking their lips inside his head.

“*Yawn* What’d I miss?” The voice asked. Pantheon jumped up and pointed his spear into the woods. Then he lowered it once he realized who it was.

“You penetrate my mind and don’t state who or what you are, and you think it is a good idea to surprise me like that?” He asked and continued walking. The voice stayed silent for a bit.

“How far in the Jungle are you?” He asked, ignoring his statement. Pantheon looked back down the path he traveled. 

“If you must know, not far,” Pantheon said.

“Well do you guys ne-.” 

“SKRAA!” A voice screeched above him. He looked up and saw a Tribal falling toward him, spear in hand.

“You probably got this,” The voice said and stopped talking. Pantheon backed up quick enough to avoid the spear from piercing his skull and the Tribal landed on the ground with ease. He tried to take the spear out of the ground, but it was stuck. Pantheon ran over and kicked him in the chest, causing him to fall over. He readied his spear and thrust it, but that was when he realized something. The Tribal was smaller than most adults he’d seen and the other Tribals, it was a kid. It was too late however, the spear hit him in the throat and it stuck there. The kid lay gasping for breath as his lungs filled with blood, drowning him. Pantheon backed away in horror, the spear still in his neck. He covered his mouth and shook his head slowly.

“No . . . no,” he muttered. He grabbed his spear and walked away from the scene. He couldn’t mourn the kid, otherwise more would appear and more blood would be shed.

“Was that a kid? Did you just kill a kid?” The voice asked with concern.

“Shut up,” Pantheon said as he picked up the pace.

“Holy crap! You just killed a child!” The voice replied. 

“SHUT UP!!” Pantheon screamed. He could feel sweat falling down his face as he realized he was now running. Yet he didn’t stop. He knew he was running and how afraid he was but he didn’t stop. The voice did, however.

Pantheon walked down the path, which started to incline. At first, the incline was slight, but then he started to notice how steep he was walking up. He couldn’t look to see why there was an incline because of the trees, but up ahead there was a part where it looked like the peak. He ran faster until he reached the apex and stopped. He saw ahead of him was a river and the water ran toward his right, so he walked toward it. He looked past the river and saw more jungle, but without a path. He looked to the right and saw the land and river suddenly ended, meaning there was a waterfall there. He looked to his left and saw a path in the woods across the river, but no way to cross it. There was a destroyed bridge that reached one-fourth of the river, but they would have to jump or cross it somehow and the rapids were raging. The rushing sound he heard earlier was apparent now that he was by the river, but curiosity drove him to see the actual waterfall. He walked to his right and saw that the trees to his right and across the river ended. He arrived to where the river turned into a waterfall and looked out.

“How did we not see this?” Pantheon asked aloud, his voice muffled. There was a pond below which glistened brightly in the day. He would’ve liked to take in more of the scenery, but the waterfall was so loud he couldn’t hear himself think. It was beautiful however, the trees blocked most of the scenery but beyond the trees he saw the lands. The wavering grass seemed like a sea of green, waving in the wind and he could see the snow on the Krag Mountains, which also glistened. He was going to move away from the waterfall because of the loud crashing sound it made, but suddenly it ceased. He looked at the waterfall and saw that it was still flowing. He hit his ears just to make sure he didn’t go deaf all of a sudden.

“Too loud,” He heard someone say behind him in a hushed voice. He turned around and saw a Tribal with purple marks on the mask. The Tribal had a satchel, which was similar to Aquis’s, and carried a doll in one hand. There were two amazons on each side of him. Pantheon looked at the doll, then pointed back at the waterfall.

“You did that?” He asked. The Tribal nodded.

“Yes, too loud for questions,” the Tribal stated. Pantheon raised his brow and looked around. He didn’t know if there was more, waiting for him beyond the falls.

“Why shouldn’t I just kill you, the rest of your people have thought about doing just that,” Pantheon said. The Tribal raised up the doll and reached into the satchel to get something. He pulled out some embers and with one just breath, they grew into small flames. The Tribal didn’t seem to be hurt from the fire in his hand. He lowered the doll down into the fire headfirst, until the head was touching the burning embers. When that happened, Pantheon felt a burning on his head and tried to pat it out, but it didn’t stop. The pain worsened when the Tribal pushed the doll down further, which made his brain feel like it was on fire.

“AH! Stop doing that! What . . . ? STOP! STOP!” Pantheon pleaded with his hands on his head, trying to pat out the imaginary fire. The Tribal slowly pulled out the doll from the fire, and Pantheon’s head felt better. He got his hands off his head and looked at the Tribal with wonder and confusement. “What was that?” He asked.

“Voodoo is powerful art, not mess physically,” the Voodoo man said and pointed to himself in the chest then pointed at his head. “Mess mentally.” One of the amazons looked at the man.

“Sha?” She asked.

“Sha,” he confirmed. The amazons began to slowly walk toward Pantheon, with spears pointed at him and Pantheon readied himself. The Voodoo man blew away the embers and put his hand in the satchel again. This time he pulled out a thin metal needle and jammed it into the doll’s chest. Pantheon felt a sharp pain in his chest and backed up.

“Ah!” He yelped out in response. He backed up until one of his feet didn’t feel the ground anymore and quickly jumped forward. He moved forward toward the amazons to make sure he didn’t back up and fall by accident like he almost did. One of the amazons lunged at him and he dodged the spear, slamming it into the ground. He raised his boot to kick the spear and hopefully destroy it, but there was a sharp sudden pain there and he quickly slammed his foot to the ground away from the spear. “Damn it!” He muttered. “How can I fight this?”

He looked at the Voodoo man and saw him holding the doll high in the air, mocking him. To the left he saw a quick glimmer of light. He didn’t know what it was but when an arrow lunged out of the woods, it hit the doll and it flew across the river. “Aquis,” he muttered before the doll was hit. It landed in the grass by a tree and the Voodoo man looked at his empty hand in confusion. When the arrow hit the doll, Pantheon felt a sharp pain hit him in the side and he fell to the ground, clutching his chest. He fell at the right moment, because an amazon jabbed at him but missed. The Voodoo man looked at his empty hand and shook his head in disbelief, not believing that the doll vanished. He looked into the woods where he thought the source of the doll’s disappearance was, and his mask was hit with an arrow. It didn’t pierce, but it did bounce off him and made him stagger. William charged out of the woods and ran for the amazons, who readied themselves for him. The Voodoo man got up, but was immediately met with a giant, green bear.

He saw Sage, as a bear, charge him and he rolled out of the way. Sage turned around and ran to the area before the Voodoo man was and stopped. She slashed at him with her claws but he grabbed the paw and brought it to the ground, climbing on her back in the process. That enraged her and she tried to buck him off her back. The man held on with one hand and had his other in the satchel. He grabbed a small, oddly bladed knife from it and started to stab her back. The knife pierced her hide and she roared in pain. She tried to kick him off again but was unsuccessful. Then she rolled around and forced all her mass where the Tribal was and got back on all fours. She saw that the Tribal was gasping for breath and seemed to be stuck in the dirt. 

William charged both amazons with his sword and they readied their spears again. Pantheon laid on the ground next to them, hands clutching his stomach and side. When William got close he slashed at them and they both ducked and tripped him which caused him to toss his sword to the side, they chuckled. He quickly crawled to close distance so he could grab his sword and the amazons threw their spears at him. One was completely off, but the other one missed his head by a centimeter. That made him get up, then he picked up the spear, and chucked it at one of the amazons. They easily dodged it and saw where it went. 

William quickly ran to the other spear and threw it at them while they were still looking at the missed spear. They both looked back at him just in time for the spear to hit the rightmost amazon and send her in the river. She tried to fight back the waves but eventually fell down the waterfall, which angered the other one. It didn’t matter though since William thought it would be better to just kick her in. He ran up to her and hit her with the bottom of his boot and she also went in the river, the quieted waterfall couldn’t cover their screams of terror as they plummeted off. He looked back at Sage, who had the Voodoo man’s arm in her mouth with the Voodoo man in it. He was still alive, but obviously hurt from being bitten in the arm. He tried to resist, but no one could fight off a bear that easily. She approached the edge and threw him off, yet he didn’t scream. He tried to reach in his bag for something, but hit the ground before he found anything. When he died, the waterfall’s sound sprang back to life. That’s how they could tell he was actually dead, along with the tiny blood pool gathering around the body.

“Who was that?” William asked. Bear Sage turned back to normal and licked her lips a bit. 

“What!” She yelled.

“LET’S MOVE AWAY FROM HERE!” He yelled and pointed to where they appeared from. They ran back to where they started the ambush and saw Aquis, still sitting in a bush. 

“Why are you still here?” William asked. 

“Hey, I did my job, you can’t complain about me sticking behind,” she stated.

“You didn’t want to mess with that purple masked man, I’m guessing.” 

“Voodoo Artist . . . like I was going to tell you,” Sage corrected. 

“I’ve heard stories about those Voodoo men, glad I stayed back here,” she said. She got up from the bushes and looked around. “Where’s Pantheon?” William and Sage looked at each other.

“You didn’t grab him?” Sage said, appalled at this act. She talked as if she obviously knew that she was supposed to pick her up. William was taken aback by this.

“You were a BEAR! You could have picked him up easily!” William said, doing the same thing Sage was.

“Yet you were closer, you handled those amazons faster than I did that Voodoo Artist.” She said. 

“I was distracted by you throwing that man off the edge, besides I was counting on your superior strength.”

“Superior strength? You picked him up easily last time with no problems whatsoever!” She said. They both looked over at Aquis, who was not there. They took a double take to realize that she was gone. 

“Where’d she go?” William asked. They turned and saw her kneel down to Pantheon.

“Over there,” Sage said. He began walking toward her, but Sage pulled him down into the bushes.

“Why’d you do tha-!” He exclaimed, but she quickly shut his mouth. 

“Don’t ruin the moment,” she said. They peeped through the bushes to see Aquis and Pantheon. 

Aquis left the bickering William and Sage because she knew that they were joking, but Pantheon being hurt wasn’t a joke. She approached him and saw that he was still clutching his side, she squatted down to his level.

“Are you okay?” She asked. Pantheon turned over to face her. 

“No I am not OKAY! It feels like there is an arrow in the side of me!” He exclaimed. He looked her in the eyes, then painfully turned over to see the doll, then back at her. “ Wait a minute . . . YOU SHOT ME!!!” 

“I didn’t shoot you, I shot the doll,” she explained.

“The doll is linked to me, voodoo artists use dolls that link to someone and if something happens to the doll, it happens to the person.” Pantheon said. “The pain isn’t real . . . I know it isn’t, but it hurts . . . a lot!” Aquis fell down on her butt and sat next to him. She looked at the part that he was covering and slowly extended her hand towards it. Pantheon looked at her moving her hand with worry, they looked into each others eyes, and Pantheon moved his hand away. She touched the side of his armor, and raised her other hand up. Out of nowhere, she slugged Pantheon in the thigh, his least protected part, and he yelped like a dog and grabbed it.

“WHAT DID YOU DO THAT FOR!?” Pantheon yelled in pain. She got away from him and smiled.

“Do you feel the pain in your side now?” Aquis asked. Pantheon looked at his side, then at his thigh. 

“I don’t really know, now it feels like everything hurts,” Pantheon admitted. He began to chuckle. “I’ll admit it doesn’t hurt that bad anymore.” His chuckling grew a little louder and he looked at her, she joined in the laughter. They began laughing together and soon, Pantheon didn’t feel any pain at all. 

Sage giggled as she watched them, William did not. She turned into a fairy, flew across the river, and located the doll. It still had the arrow piercing the side. “Bippity boppity, get the arrow out his . . . property?” She said as she used her fairy magic to move it. It was an unfortunate circumstance that all fairy magic has to rhyme. No one even knew why this was the case, but the downfall of many a fairy was because they weren’t able to rhyme in time and were killed, or eaten which happened a lot more than they like to admit. The arrow was pulled out of the doll and tossed into the river, she then flew back into the bushes and became normal. 

“I was wondering when you were going to do that,” William said.

“I wonder if he’ll notice,” Sage said.

Pantheon felt a sudden pain in his back, then it was gone. He felt it and stopped laughing, Aquis stopped laughing when he did.

“Hey, the pain stopped,” he said. He got up and looked at the doll across the river and saw it contained no arrow. He looked and felt his side again and looked back at the doll. “Ha ha ha!” He felt his entire body and the side that hurt the most and was overjoyed by the fact that the pain didn’t linger.

“Yeah, I thought I couldn’t let a rabid dog suffer,” Sage said as she emerged from the woods, William followed. Pantheon turned to them and Aquis got off the ground. 

“I don’t know, I felt like I was going feral,” Pantheon joked. He smiled and looked back at the river. “Soooo . . . how are we going to cross?” He looked at the river and saw the destroyed bridge.

“Like this,” Sage said. She transformed into an ent and grabbed all three of them with seperate branches. William and Aquis opened themselves to it, Pantheon was not ready. As her branches extended over the river, Pantheon squirmed and tried to escape her grasp. “Stop squirming or I will drop you!” Sage said. Pantheon reluctantly stopped moving and they were set down on the other side, except for Pantheon, whom she dropped purposefully. Sage turned into a fairy and floated to the other side, then turned back into her normal self. They saw a trail to their left and they went that direction. Everyone but Aquis started moving toward the trail, but she stayed behind to grab the doll and she put it in her satchel. She ran to catch up with them and when they got on the path, they saw that it lead downward.

“We shouldn’t be far now, the end of this jungle should be just a kilometer,” Pantheon said and led the pack. He started walking down the hill and didn’t notice much trouble with the terrain, it was slightly steep but completely passable. William wore boots which allowed him to climb anything, so he had little trouble. Sage merely floated down the path. However, Aquis had some trouble. Not two steps down the path, she tripped on a root and went barreling down. William tried to grab her, but missed, and Sage grabbed her boot, but was kicked by the other one. They both saw that she was headed straight for Pantheon, but they couldn’t yell otherwise the Tribals would hear them. 

Pantheon heard some odd noise behind him, but decided that it was just simply some noise. When it got louder he got curious enough to actually turn around, and that was when he saw Aquis barreling down the path. He didn’t have enough time to move, so he ended up joining her. She crashed into him and he fell backwards and kept falling. They tumbled down the path together as William and Sage stood helpless, unable to do anything. “Damn it!” He said. They occasionally hit each other as their bodies flailed. Their rolling slowed when the hill stopped it’s decline and they finally did stop a short while afterward. They sat on the ground, heads dizzy from the endeavor. Pantheon tried to get up, but fell on the ground.

“How . . . did you . . . fall?” He asked her very dizzily. 

“I’m clumsy . . . alright?” She explained. Pantheon got on one knee and took a deep breath. He then shakily got on both legs and stood up. He knew he wasn’t one hundred percent ready to stand, but he extended his hand to Aquis so she could get up. She took it and almost pulled him down to the ground, but he held firm. She got up on both feet and fell right into Pantheon, but got back up. 

“I don’t think . . . being clumsy . . . is an-” He said, before clutching his stomach and moving to a tree. He used his hand as a support and keeled over, grabbing his stomach. He coughed a lot and then started heaving, then he threw up the beef jerky he had earlier. Aquis saw this and threw up on the spot. Pantheon got away from the tree and wiped his mouth and he saw Aquis standing in front of a pile of vomit. Her body swayed back and forward and she began to fall forward, right into the vomit. Pantheon’s shadow quickly moved closer and grabbed her with several black hands before she could fall into it. The shadow brought her body over to Pantheon and he picked her up and put her in a fireman’s carry. He turned around to find William and Sage finally catching up to them. 

“What happened to you?” Sage asked.

“What happened to her?” William asked. Pantheon pointed at himself and then the tree where he threw up.

“I threw up over . . . by that tree. I am also . . . still kinda dizzy,” he said and motioned to her. “She threw up there . . . and I think passed out.” They looked at each of them, as one lone leaf fell down from the treetops. It’s descent was slow as gravity barely affected it, causing them to see the leaf slowly fall towards the ground. When it hit the ground, they looked up at the treetops, then back at the path that they took.

“We should get going, the Tribals would have heard us by now,” William said. 

“We need to start running . . . look!” Sage said and pointed behind them. They all turned around to see large Tribals with red markings on their masks, followed by regular Tribals, amazons, voodoo artists, and some others walking towards them. Pantheon immediately turned around and ran. His running made them easily noticeable, so the Tribals began running and yelling something in their language. “Now we should really run!” Both William and Sage made a beeline towards Pantheon. They both noticed that Pantheon wasn’t running straight and would occasionally go to the left or right. Pantheon was still a little dizzy, but he was getting better. Some of the Tribals were throwing their spears at William and Sage, because they were closer. They didn’t get hit from the spears, but they did come close. Pantheon ran as if his life and someone else’s depended on it, which it did. The world around him looked blurry and he began sidestepping. He was going to fall over on his right, but he got some sudden support. He looked down at the sudden support and saw a pure black arm reach out of his body and hold him upright.

“Don’t be alarmed kid, this is totally natural. Let me take over . . . this isn’t creepy if it’s a guy by the way,” the voice in his head said. Then Pantheon lost consciousness, but he kept running and his eyes turned black. 

William saw Pantheon up ahead waver from dizzy to non-dizzy, then somehow, he started running even faster.

“How is he running even faster?” Sage said, also noticing this. William kept silent and kept running. They saw an opening in the jungle ahead and Pantheon pointed.

“The exit is up ahead, almost there!” He shouted, but something in his voice didn’t sound the same. There was a wavering to his voice and it sounded deeper, and both of them noticed this. Before Pantheon reached the exit, a large Tribal with red markings on their mask jumped out of the trees in front of him, but Pantheon just grinned 

Pantheon threw Aquis in the air, above the Tribal, which made him look up at her. He swept at the Tribals feet, tripped him, and shot a long, sharp black spear out of his hand, piercing the mask and blood poured out. Pantheon ran forward and grabbed Aquis out of the air, which woke her up. She looked wildly around and checked out where she was, she saw that she was being held by Pantheon then passed out again. Pantheon just thought her head turned because he caught her out of the air. He saw the light ahead and passed the final trees of the jungle. The trees ahead were less collected and much more spread out. They arrived in a plain and he set Aquis gently down but collapsed on the ground, his eyes returned to their normal color. 

“Don’t worry, I saved you and your . . . lady friend. Relax,” the told him. He was expecting an answer from Pantheon, but realized that he was passed out. “Nevermind, my dialogue means nothing I guess. Why do I even have these conversations anyway? It’s not like I can . . . nevermind.” the voice rambled on. Aquis got up off the ground, and rubbed her eyes, hoping she wouldn’t pass out again.

“Where . . . what happened?” She asked. She thought Pantheon would answer but saw him on the ground. She moved over to him and put her ear to his mouth, he was breathing, just not conscious. She looked in the jungle and saw William and Sage running toward her, followed by many Tribals. She wanted to get up, but she felt so tired and weak. 

William and Sage finally reached the end of the jungle and immediately turned around to face the threat that was coming closer. But the Tribals stopped before they touched the outside of the jungle and stared at them, some attempted to put their feet over the side, but they retracted them immediately. The red masked Tribals shook their heads vigorously and walked back and forward, the regular Tribals and Amazons walked away, and the voodoo artists, blue, and green masked Tribals waved their staffs to make the red masked Tribals follow suit. William sighed and Sage wiped some sweat off her brow. Both of them fist bumped each other and chuckled a bit. They turned back to look at their weathered companions, Pantheon was lying on the ground and Aquis was sitting. They walked over to them and William shook his head.

“Have you ever thought of training your agility so this kind of thing doesn’t happen?” He asked her. She got up and looked at him with a guilty look.

“I’m sorry I’m clumsy, I really can’t help it,” she said and put her hand on her head. “What happened after . . . I think I threw up and then . . . I can’t remember anything else.” William looked at Pantheon, still lying on the ground. Aquis looked at him as well.

“He carried you all the way out, and then . . . did something that probably defied all laws of physics,” William said and shuddered. Before Aquis could show any visible confusion, Sage walked over to her.

“Allow me to explain. One of the red masked Tribals got in front of him, and then he somehow threw you up in the air, tripped the Tribal, killed him, caught you, and escaped all in a few minutes,” Sage said. She scratched her head while looking at him. “It certainly wasn’t . . . natural.” William stopped looking at Pantheon and looked ahead at the new environment ahead of them.

“We should probably find a place to shelter for the night. This is unmarked territory so we should be extremely cautious, we don’t know what the Outcast’s policy for trespassers,” William said. He knelt down to grab Pantheon and set him on his back. Aquis pointed somewhere by a tree.

“I see a little shack we can rest in,” she said and started walking towards it. William nodded and followed her. Sage looked back at the jungle, then where Pantheon was and saw something peculiar. There was a spot of black goo which seemed to soak in the ground, she tried to grab it but it vanished before she could do anything. 

“That Roman isn’t normal,” she said to herself. She looked at where her friends were and quickly flew to them.

Vex had followed Eldritch’s directions to, what he called, the “Mother Twilight Tree”. The Twilight Elves were always shrouded with mystery, and Eldritch didn’t help to make them any less mysterious. 

“How can you tell these trees apart, they all look the bloody same to me!” Vex said out of anger. He was getting lost and confused as to where he was going, and Eldritch wasn’t being much help not being cryptic. 

“These trees are our lifeblood, they allow us to harness the moon’s power and use it for our own purpose. The moon is a powerful weapon, and even greater tool. It has blessed these trees with a beautiful white color and allowed them to resist the bugs and diseases that normal trees would suffer,” Eldritch explained. “It is common knowledge for all Twilight to know each Twilight tree, they are like our babies.” Vex could care less about the history of the dumb trees that looked the exact same.

Eldritch was still on Vex’s back, Vex couldn’t feel him because of (a.) how big Vex was and (b.) how light Eldritch was. Eldritch pointed ahead toward something. “There it is! The Mother Tree!” He exclaimed. Vex looked ahead at what he was pointing at and saw a large Twilight Tree. It was larger than any other tree in the forest, the only other tree that he could actually tell was different. 

A Twilight Elf appeared from behind a tree and walked toward them, he carried only a sword and looked similar in appearance to Eldritch. This new Elf wore a purple warrior tunic that saw no battle scars . . . yet. 

“Eldritch, why are you on top of a lizard?” The Elf asked. Vex got mad at this and put his warhammer on the ground, he cracked his knuckles and gave him a stare. The Elf took a step back, but reached for something on his belt.

“What was that you called me, Elf? You sayin’ I’m lesser?” Vex questioned. Eldritch got off of him and walked toward the Elf. 

“He is Naz’gar’s personal bodyguard and he wishes to seek audience with Syllia. You wouldn’t want to keep him waiting . . . now would you?” Eldritch pointed to Vex. The Elf shakily nodded his head and let them through, but not before Eldritch climbed on Vex’s back. Vex walked past the guard and saw that the nearby trees were arranged in a circle, with the Mother Tree at the end of it. Vex looked to the left and saw several Twilight Elves peep out of the trees or houses by the trees to see who was approaching. He looked to the right to see Twilight children quickly run into a house, with the mother giving Vex the stink eye. The Mother Tree was up ahead, but Vex couldn’t see a door hole they could go through to enter the tree. Vex stopped when he was right in front of the tree and Eldritch got off of him and leaned against it.

“Oh . . . that’s right, you aren’t a Twilight believer. There actually is hole which you can go through to get to the inside, it’s just invisible to anyone who doesn’t follow the Twilight. Like this,” Eldritch said. He went into the tree and vanished. Vex tilted his head and moved his hand to the spot where he disappeared and pressed against it. Sure enough, he couldn’t press on anything and he began walking forward. He kept walking forward with his hand out until he hit his head on the top of the doorframe. He put his hand on his head, ducked, and moved forward. When he got inside, the first thing he noticed was that the inside wasn’t similar to a tree at all. The interior seemed like the inside of a human castle, the walls were made of bricks and there were purple banners hanging the walls. The inside also seemed to be much bigger than the tree itself, up ahead was a main throne where Syllia sat and there were two chairs on each side. There were pews before the thrones that some hooded figures sat in, praying. 

Vex approached the throne and saw Syllia for the first time. She was pale like her people, but she had pure black hair and greenish-blue eyes. Which was unlike any other Twilight Elf he ever saw. She was as beautiful when he saw her statue. She was holding her head up with her hand before Vex approached her, but he intrigued her enough to not look bored. 

“What brings Naz’gar’s bodyguard here?” She asked. Vex kneeled down on one knee.

“Your highness, the Dark Lord requests yer help in the takeover of Puer.” Vex said. He paused and looked at the ground, he forgot what he was on the list. He reached into his armor to grab the paper and grabbed it with his claws. He unfolded it and looked at it. He blinked several times, coughed, and put the letter back. “His legions of Orcs won’t be enough to handle the humans if the Sylvian Elves and Dwarves help ‘em out.” She stood up from her chair and grabbed her staff.

“We bear no quarrel with the humans, so do not expect us to slaughter them willingly,” she stated. Vex stood up from one knee and set down his warhammer.

“Don’t worry ‘bout that, neither do I. Naz’gar will only need you if the Sylvian Elves come to the human’s aid. You are to deal with them, that’s all,” Vex said. Syllia put her hand on her chin and looked down at him.

“What makes Naz’gar think that he will be able to succeed this time? The Dark Lords before him have tried and failed,” Syllia asked. She wanted to make sure her investment was worth it this time, unlike the countless other times that they have failed.

“Naz’gar attempts to get rid of some people who could possibly threaten his plan, that way his plan can continue without a hitch,” Vex said. Syllia however, wasn’t convinced by this and raised an eyebrow when he finished his statement. “There also stands the civil war between the Humans that weakens them with their division, with this they won’t be able to ally quickly enough to fight against the Dark Lord.” Syllia looked away when he presented this fact. It was true and Humans were known for their paranoia and stubbornness, if Naz’gar acted fast enough, he could strike before they had a chance to form one singular, strong force. With that reminder, a proper investment could be made.

“Very well, I will most likely accept this, but let me talk to my children. I will send an elite harasser to the Dark Lord’s tower when I have decided,” he said and sat down.

“Don’t disappoint Naz’gar, he wouldn’t like it,” Vex warned. He picked up his warhammer and walked out. Syllia looked at where Vex left and then back at the pews. 

“An interesting fellow, isn’t he?” Syllia said. Eldritch appeared behind her and hung onto the throne.

“Quite. Mother, what else do you think of him?” He asked. Syllia looked at her son and dragged her hand through his hair. 

“That Draxus seems to bear more manners than the Dark Lord, he is a wonder to be sure,” she said. “Get your sister, we need to have a family talk.” Eldritch ran to the right of the throne, the Queen’s right. Syllia looked at a hooded figure who was still praying in the pews, he’d been there for nearly an hour.

“Why do you keep praying? I assure you, the Twilight blesses you,” she said. The hooded figure looked up at her.

“Oh, I bless not for myself, Mother of the Twilight! I bless our soldiers in the coming battle, may the Sylvian Elves’ blood drip from their holiest of places!” He said, knees on the ground and arms in the air. Syllia tossed her hand, telling him to leave. The man nodded and left. Syllia bit her lip a little at the zealot’s response.

“What is it mother? I’m almost done reading and I finally got to the interesting part,” her daughter said. Syllia turned to her right and saw her daughter, followed by Eldritch. When Syllia birthed her, she saw her beauty immediately and named her after the most beautiful thing, Luna. She looked similar to all Twilight with the hair and the eyes, but her skin was gorgeous. Soft as sheep’s wool and it shined like the sun across a lake. She might have looked mature but she acted like a teenager, like her brother.

“She was probably just doing her hair again, no need to worry,” Eldritch said. Luna looked at him with furrowed brows.

“No! I already did my hair! I was reading my book!” She said in anger. Syllia banged her staff against the ground and they looked at her.

“Enough you two! Something serious has arisen that I wish wouldn’t have yet, not with you two being so young,” She said with her head hanging. They looked at each other with worry and confusion.

“What’s wrong mother?” Luna asked.

“The Dark Lord has requested us to join him in his conquest of Puer,” She said. Luna had read a lot of books while in her room, she has read books on the Humans, Dwarves, Orcs, Dark Lords, and many other things. But one thing she didn’t understand from her reading, is why her people sided with the Dark Lord every time.

“Can we just . . . not do what he says?” Luna asked.

“Naz’gar is a powerful foe, sister. He is the most powerful necromancer that has ever existed, he also commands legions of Orcs who can easily overwhelm us,” Eldritch said and Syllia nodded.

“Your brother is right, Naz’gar is too powerful for anyone to handle. If he gets his way, we will be fighting the Sylvian Elves again.” 

“Why do we need to fight the Sylvian if he wants to take over Puer?” Luna asked. 

“The humans will rely upon their allies once they realize that Naz’gar is a threat to them. We can’t handle the Dwarves and their infernal machines, but we can match against our old brethren,” Eldritch said, Syllia nodded once again.

“That is the case, and I need you two to stay here, away from the conflict. I may have to go fight the Sylvian myself, but you both can’t join me, understand?” Syllia sternly said. Luna and Eldritch looked at each other, then nodded. “Good, with that out of the way. Eldritch, I need you to get one elite harasser and send them to Naz’gar, telling him we accept his proposal.” Eldritch dashed out as soon as she finished her sentence. Luna looked at her mother with her sullen face.

“You don’t want to do this, do you?” Luna asked and Syllia shook her head.

“No, my beautiful moon. I enjoy this peaceful life and I love seeing my people enjoying the peace,” she replied. Luna walked back to her room and Syllia looked at the pews. “Why should we obey him?"

William, Aquis, Pantheon, and Sage took shelter for the night in a small wooden shack. It was breaking down and there were multiple holes in the roof, but there were some beds and it was right next to a tree. The tree provided some cover from the sky, but not all. The beds still had cotton blankets on them, however they appeared very old and smelled moldy. Pantheon was set down in one of the beds immediately, and William and Sage took the others. Aquis volunteered to sleep in the tree, because there weren’t any more beds.

William woke up with sunlight in his eyes and also someone humming something. He sat up and saw Pantheon still sleeping and Sage not in her bed. He looked around and stood up. He walked out of the shack and saw a faun by the jungle. He knew it was Sage but he didn’t know what she was doing. 

The arrow, it flies

The deer, which dies

Gets eaten by the hunter

Or taken by the cur

Be quick, be quick, and grab the feast

Be quick, be quick, and slay that beast

Make the deal

For the meal

And we’ll forget their cries

Which fill . . . the skies

    William looked up and saw Aquis finishing the last words to her song, a hunter song. It wasn’t that long but apparently it was a common song for hunters to know. Aquis always had a great singing voice, but just like his comedic skill, she kept it kind of secret.

    “You have a wonderful voice,” he stated. She looked down and saw him looking up at her. She rolled her eyes and chuckled. She had an apple in her right hand.

    “I know . . . too bad that’s the only song I know, and it’s really short as well,” Aquis said in her tree. “She’s peeing, in case you were wondering.” She took another bite from her apple.

“Why does she always turn into a faun when she needs to go?” William asked.

“She says it’s easier to aim,” Aquis said, not batting an eye. She took another bite from the apple. William shook his head.

“Easier to aim . . . that’s Sage for you,” He said. He looked up and saw the half-eaten apple. “Where’d you get that?” She knocked on the tree.

“Bet ya didn’t think this tree *gulp* was a apple tree,” she said. She stood up on the branch, grabbed an apple, and chucked it at William. William caught it and took a great big bite out of it. It tasted a lot better than war rations he would have to eat whenever he was out fighting which basically consisted of jerky.

“An apple, by the way,” William said, taking another bite out of the apple. She glared at him, because she did not like it when he corrected her on grammatical errors. “But thank you for the apple.” The faun turned back into Sage and she flew back towards them.

“Good morning William, how’d ya sleep?” She energetically asked. William waved his hand in a wishiwashi manner.

“Moldy beds aren’t good beds, at least it’s not as bad as the floor.” He said. “Do you want an apple?” She shook her head.

“Naw. Already ate some grass, I’m good . . . as a faun I mean,” She explained. William turned around and looked ahead of him, there were no roads and barely any cover. 

“I think we need to start formulating a real plan,” William said to the others. Aquis leaped down from the tree and stood beside him. 

“Good idea especially since everyone is here now,” Pantheon sleepily said. They all turned around and saw Pantheon standing behind them, with an insane bed head. Aquis put her hand to her mouth, to try and stop from laughing, and looked at the ground. William raised an eyebrow and Sage pointed at his monstrous hairdo. “What? . . . what’s wrong?” 

“What’s wrong with your hair?” Sage asked. Pantheon patted his hair and felt it.

“I can’t see what you are seeing,” he said. Aquis reached in her satchel and pulled out a small hand-held mirror and gave it to Pantheon. He took it and looked at it. His hair was going in multiple directions but was not flat. He moved and combed his hair to make it look more appealing, and it mostly worked. He gave the mirror back to Aquis, who put it back in her satchel

“So are you going to explain what happened yesterday?” William asked. Pantheon raised an eyebrow and shrugged. 

“What are you talking about?” He asked. Sage floated beside him.

“You don’t know? Yesterday while we were escaping the jungle you carried Aquis and was attacked by one of the Blood Tribals. You threw her up in the air, tripped the Tribal, killed him, caught her, and kept running,” Sage said. Pantheon didn’t know what to say, he was dumbfounded. 

“How would you not remember that?” Aquis asked. Pantheon gave them a blank stare, until he felt a prick in his ear.

“Don’t be a snitch! I saved you and the girl,” the voice told him. Pantheon looked at the jungle, then back at them.

“Maybe adrenaline? You do odd things in those kinds of scenarios,” he explained.

“I guess, adrenaline is an odd thing for the human body.” she said.

“Well anyway, we need to formulate a plan,” William said. They got in a line and looked out on the horizon, looking at the terrain ahead.

“I thought we already had a plan? Find out where the Orcs were coming from?” Pantheon asked.

“Do you know about the lands ahead of us?” 

“...No.”

“Then shut up, we are in foreign lands. The Outcasts know this place better than us, we don’t even know where the Orcs are coming from,” William stated.

“Their main home is a fortress they call Ousland.” Sage said. “There are some ents who live by the city who send word to the other woodland creatures and spirits . . . we’ve never trusted them.” 

“Is there any way we can talk to these ents?” Aquis asked. Sage pointed forty-five degrees to the left. Where she pointed there were trees by Ousland that appeared to be suffering from some sort of decay. 

“They are in that area, by the fortress. However, we shouldn’t talk to them, because they are too close to the Krag Mountains. They even told us that Krag go by them sometimes,” she said. William shuddered and looked at the ground. 

“How big is this fortress?” He asked. She shrugged and looked at him.

“I don’t know, they didn’t tell us much of anything regarding the fortress itself, only about who exits and enters. There is a cliff to the right of the fortress which we can easily look down into,” she said.

“Then that’s where we’ll go,” William said. He pointed forty-five degrees right, toward another forest which seemed to suffer the same amount of decay. “We can use the trees as cover, hopefully that will allow us to avoid the other Outcast villages and towns.” They all nodded and looked to where he was pointing. 

“Let me get ready first,” Pantheon said and walked back towards the shack. William was used to sleeping in his armor and chainmail. Pantheon always stripped his armor off before he went to bed, because it made him uncomfortable in any bedding. 

“Alright, don’t take too long. We should get to Ousland as soon as possible,” William stated. Pantheon waved his hand around as he entered the shack.

“Yeah yeah, give me a minute,” he groggily confirmed. He went to the bed he slept on and grabbed his torso armor, he sat down and put it on. Then he put on his helmet and knee and right arm guard. He looked at his metal left hand and looked back at his own hand. 

“What’s with the hand? Wanna splain that?” The voice asked. His passing out had almost made him forget about the being residing in his body. 

“Oh so now you’re talking,” Pantheon replied.

“Yeah, I’ve been talking for a while. No need to be weird about it,” the voice said.

“I’m not the weird one, I still have no idea what you are and you’re in my mind and you can control my shadows. Care to explain that, then I’ll explain my arm,” Pantheon said. The voice remained silent as he saw his shadow leave and move to the opposing bed. The shadows rose to form a humanoid. It had the features of a human but was completely black with no genitals, hair, nose, or other extremities. 

“Very well, I have been awfully rude,” the shadow said. “I am not from here.”

“Thanks for informing me.” The shadow looked at him and he could tell that it was annoyed. 

“Yes . . . I’m not from this world. I won’t explain where I’m from, just know I’m not from here. I know of a place similar to this, with the humans and the terrain. I can’t explain it but I came here in search of this place, this specific planet,” the shadow stated. Pantheon’s gaze never changed as he listened to its story. 

“I do not believe you. Maybe you are a shadow creature that has lost their memory,” Pantheon replied.

“I do not blame you, but you have to believe me. That’s the truth . . . what will make you believe me?” It asked. Pantheon didn’t even need to think twice for a question.

“How many stars are in the sky?”

“Infinite, there are an unlimited amount of stars,” it said. He scratched his chin and nodded slowly.

“You must have been hit pretty hard, there are only five hundred and forty-two stars in the sky,” he corrected.

“No, there’s a lot more. The entire universe isn’t surrounding you, you’re barely a dot on the galactic map.”

“I do not know what that means . . . fine, another question. What are the Krag?”

“Rock monsters, they don’t have any necks and are very territorial.” Pantheon nodded. “Let me show you that I really am foreign. Do you want to know more about . . . Aquis?” His eyes perked up a bit and a slight smile appeared. 

“What do you know?” He hopefully asked.

“Several things; I know she secretly likes to walk through Rotwood, she’s scared of the Piscgem along with the Tribals, and she can’t say statistics correctly,” it said.

“How am I supposed to know you’re telling me the truth? You could have made all of those up.” He saw the shadow formed a mouth just for it to frown.

“You know what? You don’t want to believe me, go ahead. I know the truth and that’s good enough for me,” it replied and the shadowy form returned back to his shadow. Pantheon looked at his shadow and sighed. Then he turned to his metal arm and put it on.

“It’s about time, took you long enough,” William said. They were waiting just as he left them, beside the tree overlooking Outcast territory.

“Sorry, I couldn’t find my helmet,” he said. William rolled his eyes.

“Alright whatever, let’s just head out already,” he said. They walked in the direction that William pointed to and came upon the forest. Before they approached the forest, Pantheon pulled Aquis aside.

“This might sound odd but can I ask you a question?” He asked.

“Sure,” she said.

“How do you say statistics?” Aquis opened her mouth but nothing came out. She licked her lips and looked away from him.

“Uhmmmm . . . okay . . . stasisics . . . stasisscs . . . I can’t say it,” she said sadly.

“It’s fine, just wanted to test something,” Pantheon said. Aquis gave him an odd look but he wasn’t paying attention to her at the time. 

“Told you,” the voice said as they approached the woods. The trees darkened the surrounding area more than the jungle. The trees weren’t even that far away, and the leaves on the trees were more numerous than normal trees. They entered a forest and immediately felt like they were blanketed with something.

“I don’t like this, something feels . . . wrong,” Aquis stated.

“I feel like there is a shadow over me, a darkness dominating me,” Pantheon said.

“Badum tss,” the voice said. Sage floated over to a tree and put her hand on it, she quickly pulled it away and felt her hand.

“These trees used to be ents, but now they can’t do anything,” she said. William looked back at his other companions, then looked ahead. He looked at the treetops and their dark leaves. 

“Evil lives here, the woods have been cursed with a dark magic,” he stated.

“What makes you say that? What do you know about magic,” Aquis asked.

“I am acquainted with magic but not in its use. These woods feel unnatural and unnatural means magic,” he said. “Dark magic.” Sage floated right beside him.

“Why or how do you know so much about dark magic?” She asked. He looked down at her.

“Long ago, I ran into an Outcast. The one that brags about the Dark Lord and how well they serve him. I think he used some form of magic but I didn’t feel anything. Needless to say that Outcast isn’t alive anymore,” he said.

“When was this?”

“About two years ago . . . I think,” he said.

“So that’s all, no more to the story?” Sage asked, and he shook his head. She slowly floated back with the others, sad that she didn’t get a better story. 

“Wait, an acolyte for the Dark Lord? Who’s the Dark Lord?” Aquis asked.

“There hasn’t been a Dark Lord in fifteen years. They must have been one of those people who fought for their master even though they were already dead,” Pantheon explained.

“The last Dark Lord was Malik, the demon lord. I remember him fondly, but not good fondly, I just remember him well. He had a thing against fey creatures . . . what a bigot,” Sage said. William turned back toward them and began walking backwards.

“Since we are on the discussion, do you think that a new Dark Lord has sent the Orcs?” William said. 

“I don’t know,” Sage said, not believing the statement.

“If that’s the case, shouldn’t we tell Charles?” Aquis exclaimed, completely believing him.  

“We don’t know yet, I said it’s just an assumption. Those Orcs could have been a random band of Orcs,” William said and shrugged.

“That specifically targeted us? I doubt it. It seems odd that they missed the village to go after us,” Pantheon said. 

“Perhaps we are just a tiny nuisance and he wanted to rid of us quickly,” William said. He turned back around and began walking normally again.

“What if it’s a her?” Aquis asked.

“There hasn’t been a female Dark Lord to ever exist, except for maybe the Krag Talker, even then no one knew what their identity was,” Sage said. William raised up an ear and stopped moving, he heard something moving and ran behind a tree. He motioned for the others to do the same and they did, hiding behind trees that were closest to them. Except for Sage, who turned into a tree out of panic. 

William looked back at what he saw and saw people in pure black cloaks approaching them. William climbed the tree to make sure he wasn’t seen, hoping the others would follow. Pantheon and Aquis saw this and began climbing their respective trees. William looked at the advancing cloaked figures and saw they were simply walking in the woods, they had bows on their backs with a quiver full of arrows, but they weren’t actively hunting. They passed under him and moved along without noticing him. Both Aquis and Pantheon were in trees that weren’t close to the cloaked figures. The first cloaked figure stopped when it reached Sage.

“This tree wasn’t here last time,” he said.

“Must be a new treant tree, they sprout in odd places,” another said.

“Or it’s an ent attempting to spy on us,” a woman said and pulled out a dagger.

“Impossible, these ents would become corrupt almost instantly if they came here. Rotwood’s Shadow corrupts all fey creatures, no exceptions,” the first man stated. “Also what’s a dagger going to do against an ent? Their trunk is thicker than an Orc’s hide. If that tiny thing can’t puncture an Orc, what chance does it have of hurting an ent?” The woman put away her dagger. 

“This will screw up our patrol, we won’t be making a perfect circle anymore,” the woman said.

“We don’t need to tell them about this, they should know about new treants,” a man said. “We should keep moving, I want to be on time.” They moved around the tree and kept walking. William climbed down the tree and Aquis and Pantheon followed suit. Sage stayed as a tree until she thought they were far enough away, then she turned back into her normal self. 

“What was that about ents turning evil?” Aquis asked.

“The dark magic in these woods must turn woodland creatures evil,” William said and looked at Sage. “We should get out of here before you succumb to this.” 

“I’ll meet you at the cliff edge,” She said. She turned into a pixie and flew into the treetops. William led the rest of the group ahead.

“Who were those people?” Aquis asked.

“Judging by the bows on their backs, archers of some sort,” Pantheon said. Aquis rolled her eyes.

“I have eyes you know. I was wondering why they were wearing those black cloaks,” she stated.

“We will find out soon enough, or hopefully never,” William said. “He said that we are in Rotwood’s Shadow . . . I should have guessed that earlier.” Pantheon slowed down his walk to be right beside Aquis, and away from William’s earshot. 

“Do you even know what we’re walking into?” He asked. She turned her attention to him.

“No not really, but why do you ask?” She said.

“Because Sage and William seem to know a lot more than we do, but aren’t telling us.” 

“I don’t think so, I’ve been trusting William and Sage for a long time and they’ve told me everything that they’ve been told.”

“Sage is nine hundred and ninety years old, and you don’t think she ever went over to the Outcasts at any point to investigate them, or even travel to the other worlds? She has the time to do it,” Pantheon said. Aquis turned silent and looked at the ground to her left.

“I . . . maybe she knows something that burdens her, and she doesn’t want us to share the same fate?” She asked, not entirely believing herself. “Why are you saying this anyway?”

“Because I, for one, have never fought an Orc, except back there. Nor have I ever been to the Outcasts land, meaning I don’t know anything. I’m pretty sure you’re the same, you’re a hunter, why leave the woods you know so well?” He said. He got close to her ear. “We don’t know if William or Sage are telling the truth, for all we know, they’ve been to other planets.” Aquis bit her lip and looked down.

“I . . . it . . . William has been on more journeys, there is a chance that he had been to the other worlds, same as Sage. But why does that matter?” She said.

“First of all, we’re going on a quest to a different planet to find out who’s sending Orcs to Puer and maybe even finding out if there’s a Dark Lord on Dragonis as well. In order to complete such a task we should know each other as best as we can considering that each of us aren’t the enemy, they are,” he said. “Second, shouldn’t friends tell each other about their gains? Shouldn’t they tell you about any dangers ahead, any worries ahead? Why do they act so cryptic?” Aquis stopped walking, and Pantheon did too. 

“I understand the concern, but why now? Why to me?” She asked, hair covering her eyes and looking away from him. She was frustrated with all these thoughts invading her mind, conflicting with one another and not telling a true story. Pantheon brought her face up with his hand, and moved her hair so he could see her dazzling blue eyes. 

“Because we are allies now, meaning we have to understand one another. We were enemies, but there is a larger threat at hand. I’m not leading this expedition, nor do I want to. But I’ll be damned if we destroy ourselves with infighting first,” he said. Her cheeks began turning red. He could feel the heat, so he moved his hand away.

“S-sorry, I should have asked before I touched,” he said and backed away from her. She felt her own cheek and smiled.

“No, I was oblivious to what they were doing. I was so busy with the hunt that I never thought about anything else . . . thank you,” she said. His face started to flush but he fought the red.

“We should probably join them, I don’t trust this place any more than I need to,” he said and they continued to walk through the forest. 

“Nice,” something said from afar. He watched the centurion and huntress talking in the woods. He was leaning against a tree and silently watched their exchange. He made sure to hide behind a tree but was close enough to hear them. “They’d make a cute couple, wouldn’t they?”

“An odd one but perfectly fine with what’s happening,” another lighter voice said. “Although we should not play matchmaker.”

“It’d be even funnier if we messed with them further. The man doesn’t question us as we have anticipated, but the woman would do something dire,” a deeper voice added.

“We will not intervene more than is needed, we are a neutral party. Not good nor evil,” the original voice said. 

“You say that, yet we follow them and guide the man. I saved them.”

“And you got your feast, we will not kill if we don’t need to.”

“You’re no fun, I don’t come out anymore because you claim the violence has stopped. It has never stopped, it will never stop, and you will need me again. Mark my words, I will gain control again.”

“You will try and you will fail. As you have for years but your use has never ceased, it is just unnecessary for now. And for now, we will peacefully help them. I won’t let it happen again . . . I can’t,” the man said. He looked at the two and saw that they were walking away, their conversation through. “Back into the shadows we go.” He watched them walking away as he shrinked into the ground, into the shadows.

Sage sat at the cliff side, looking over the large fortress ahead of them. She was waiting for the rest of her party, and took a nap in the meantime. When she woke up, all three of them were standing over her, waiting for her to wake up.

“You guys were taking forever okay? I can get tired,” she said in defence. 

“That’s fine, I’m sure the Shadow took a toll on you,” William said. She got up and joined them in examining the fortress. Just by quickly glancing at Ousland, they could see that the walls were high and the layout was circular. There were four tall, main towers behind the fortress walls. They could see ballistas in each of the towers but were unable to see anyone manning them. The northern part of the fortress was by the ocean, using it as a defensive barrier. There was a large, black tower in the middle, surrounded by several homes and shops. There were two black cloaked archers in each tower, and three on the walls between each tower. The only entrance (other than the seaport entrance that they didn’t know about) was on the southmost part of the wall, there was a very large gate which stayed shut until a patrol showed up, then it opened. The walls themselves were black and spiked in some places. 

“Sooo . . . how are we going to get in there?” Sage asked. 

“We’d have to sneak in there by cover of nightfall. That wall is the real challenge,” Aquis said and pointed to it. Pantheon examined the wall closely.

“How steep is that wall, you think?” He asked. William turned to look at him.

“Most likely ninety degrees, like all walls,” He bluntly stated. Pantheon nodded his head in approval and smiled.

“I can climb it, but I don’t think any of you can. There are enough ledges for me to get up there,” Pantheon said. William nodded his head as well.

“How quietly can you dispatch the archers?” Aquis asked. 

“Very, do not forget that I specialize in these tactics. I’m in my field,” Pantheon said. He pointed to the archers in the towers. “I won’t get anywhere close to that wall with those archers there.” He looked at Aquis. “You’re the only one who can take them out.” Aquis examined the tower archers, and saw two more come up the tower to join the others. It appeared that they were talking, then the original archers left.

“They take shifts every hour on the dot, the wall archers take shifts the same but at the thirty minute mark.” She said. “We’d have to take them out at fourty-five or fifteen, that way the old archers can’t help them.” 

“But can you kill the archers on the tower?” Sage asked and Aquis nodded with confirmation.

“What are you going to do when all the archers are gone, how are we going to get in?” William asked. Pantheon looked at the wall, the gate, and the tower, then back at them.

“Do we have any rope?” He asked. Aquis put her hand in her satchel and felt all of its contents. Sage felt on and in her tunic and William felt his pants for anything that could be used as rope. 

“Unless you have any, no,” she said. Pantheon stepped back and put his hand on her chin in thought.

“I can’t open the gate, that’d be too noisy. I can’t destroy part of it, also too noisy,” he said to himself.

“Don’t you think there would be rope somewhere over by the innards of the walls?” The inside voice questioned.

“Where would the rope be?” He thought to the voice. 

“Inside the walls, they contain emergency equipment in case of an invasion and they are unprepared. Rope will be there, or you would have to travel to the armoury, which is always guarded,” it said.

“How do you know this?”

“Call it a hypothesis, I have been to places like this,” it said.

“You sound awfully sure, what if these walls have different places for rope compared to the ones you know?” He asked.

“That could be the case, but you needn’t worry about that now, you’re ‘friends’ need you right now,” it said. Pantheon nodded and turned back to the others.

“Do you have a plan yet?” William asked.

“Yeah. I’m assuming they have an emergency rope on the innards of the wall which I can use to bring you all up the wall. If not, then I can tie their cloaks together to hopefully make it long enough,” he said.

“What makes you say there is a rope on the other side?” Aquis questioned. Pantheon smirked.

“Call it a hypothesis, at least I have a back-up plan in case that fails,” he said. 

“We have a plan to get in there, but where do we go from there?” Sage asked. They all glanced at the fortress innards to find where the Orcs were coming from. None of them knew where the Orcs could be coming from, the Outcasts could have grown the Orcs here or on Dragonis, which made them ask even more questions. How would the Orcs get from Draconis to Puer? Aquis saw a glint in the distance and jerked her head towards it, she saw a reddish-green light appear on top of the black tower in the middle.

“Hey! Do any of you see that?” She asked, and pointed to the light. They all looked to where she was pointing and saw what she was seeing. After a few seconds, the light quickly closed itself, vanishing from their sight. “What is that?” 

“A green and red light, that’s very peculiar. Have any of you seen that kind of light before?” 

“No,” Sage said.

“No,” Aquis said.

“No,” Pantheon said.

“I have seen a lot of things, but nothing like that. You guys wouldn’t happen to have a Santa on this planet, would you?” The voice asked. 

“Why would the light start and stop like that? What could do that?” Aquis asked. The archers on the towers looked in the fortress. The wall archers did the same, and one took aim. Another one put their hands on the bow and gently pushed it down. There were some roars in the fortress, along with some metal clanging. There was some more shouting as the gate opened up which made them pay more attention.

 The first thing that came out of the gate was a man clad in pure black armor that covered him entirely, it looked thick, heavy, and uncomfortable. The man stood beside the gate as the next thing came out of the gate, it was a large green thing with a crude metal helmet, shoulder guards, wooden chest armor, and a hatchet. Then another one came that looked very similar to the first, then some more came. By the time the gate closed, there were fifteen of those things.

“Orcs! That is where they are coming from, that light at the top of the tower!” William exclaimed. 

“That is where we need to go then, to stop those Orcs from coming through before they can ravage this land,” Pantheon said. William couldn’t take his gaze off of the Orcs.

“We can’t leave them alive, we have to do something,” he asked. They started to look at the Orcs as well.

“We have to, there’s no way the villages can face against a force like that,” Aquis agreed.

“Four against fifteen Orcs, who have an army of Outcasts not far from them? I’m not so sure about this,” Sage said. Pantheon didn’t know what to think, William was right to worry about the villagers, but Sage was right about them dying as soon as they attacked them.

“You should know what to do, I ain’t helping with this. Too much drama for me,” the voice said.

“We can’t run to the Orcs, they are too far. The villagers will have to fend for themselves.” Pantheon said.

“So you’re saying we let them die? They didn’t expect an Orc attack, they won’t survive, neither will the next village!” William said in outrage.

“They have a straight path through the jungle, we don’t. They can easily get through there, we can’t. We’ll get to the village, once it’s destroyed,” he said. William began to walk towards him, but Aquis put her hand on his chainmail.

“He’s right, we can’t do anything about it now. But we can save more people by going through that portal as soon as possible, and closing it,” she said. He looked at her, then at Pantheon, and backed up.

“Perhaps . . . you are right. We do need to stop that portal. To prevent any more death,” he muttered. He sat on the ground and laid down, looking at the sky as the sun descended into the land. The sky began to darken as night approached. Sage sat right next to a rock that acted like a pillow, she didn’t mind how hard the rock was. Pantheon laid down beside the peak of the cliff, and Aquis stayed standing, observing Ousland. She noticed that the city seemed very similar to the Citadel, it was circular, there was a marketplace near the center, and the main point of interest was near the middle. She also saw boats on the water way in the distance approach the city and vanish behind the thick black walls. 

“Are you not going to lie down and relax?” Pantheon asked. She looked down at him, he was smiling and looking right into her eyes.

“No, we need someone to keep watch. Don’t want them getting the jump on us,” she responded. 

“Wouldn’t they have a harder time of getting the jump on us, if there wasn’t someone watching their fortress over a cliff?” He asked. She looked up at the sky, then back at him, who was still smiling. She kicked him in the side and he grabbed it.

“Ow, why must violence be your answer to everything?” He said. She sat down right next to him and smiled with him.

“I only hurt you because you prove me wrong, so many times.” She playfully said. He took his hands away from his side and used them as a pillow, since the ground was hard.

“Maybe you should just know more things, I thought you were a hunter? Don’t they usually know about a lot of things?” He questioned. She moved her hand back into a fist as if she was going to punch him. “Okay, okay! You just know different things that I do,” he said. She put her fist back to the ground in satisfaction. “You’re a violent little thing, aren’t you?” She slugged him in the shoulder.

“I’m not little! I’m the height of a normal woman, I’ve checked!” She confidently said. He just chuckled and looked at the sky. It grew even darker and the sun was beyond the horizon. The stars had yet to form in the sky, but it was almost time for the silent invasion. The moon was full, Pantheon shivered when he saw it. A full moon was a bad omen because it was common thought that the Twilight Elves manipulated it to their purpose. Humans feared the Elves of both races, they could not be killed easily.

“You get mad over weird things, why?” He asked. She looked up in the sky as well, then back at him. 

“I don’t know . . . I guess I just don’t like to be wrong or made fun of,” she admitted.

“No one likes to be made fun of but I was just joking about you being little. You are violent though,” he said. She rolled her eyes this time instead of hitting him. Both of them heard a snapping and jerked their heads to the noise. William stood up and snapped his fingers to get their attention. 

“The hour is ripe, you need to go climb that wall,” he said. Pantheon stood up and looked at the fortress walls. He looked down at Aquis and extended his hand to help her get back up. She took it and got up on her feet. 

“I’ll climb the wall when those tower archers are dead, that will be the signal to go,” he stated and ran off to the walls. Aquis grabbed her bow from off her back and reached for an arrow. She looked at the arrow she grabbed, a perfect wooden shaft with a more perfect iron arrow point. Then she looked at the tower. She could see the two archers on the tower and would only have one shot at killing both of them quietly. She would have to fire an arrow, quickly grab the next one and fire it as well. Thankfully for her, the moon’s light helped her sight. She looked down and saw Pantheon waving his hand, signaling her to fire the volley. She exhaled and took aim at the closest archer, no more than one hundred meters away.

She loosed that arrow and immediately grabbed another and pulled the string back to fire it. The first arrow flew through the air and hit the archer in the chest, he went down, but not before the other one heard the body fall. The other archer turned around and walked toward the body. Aquis exhaled again and loosed the second arrow. The archer looked down at his fellow archer, then the second arrow hit him in the face, and he fell as well. She smiled and exhaled in relief, putting her bow on her back.

Pantheon saw the arrows hit their marks and set his spear in the bushes. Then he crouched down to prevent himself from being seen. He reached the wall and looked up at it, from his position it was taller than he thought. But he didn’t doubt his climbing ability. 

“I can help you with this ya know,” the voice said. Pantheon shook his head and grabbed a part of the wall.

“I can do this by myself, I have experience in climbing,” he thought to the voice.

“How are you planning on killing these three without the others noticing?” The voice asked.

“Stab them all with my gladius, do you have any better ideas?”

“Yeah, you kill one, I kill the other two. They’ll never see it coming,” the voice said. Pantheon climbed another part of the wall, the person who designed the walls added large spikes for some reason.

“How will you do that? It better be quick and quiet,” he said.

“It will be quicker and quieter then you expect. You will just trust me on this one.”

“You know, you never told me your name,” Pantheon stated. He jumped off the spike and grabbed another part of the wall. 

“Yep, and I won’t . . . yet. My name is something that is not important to you,” the voice said. Pantheon grabbed the top ledge of the wall, but not the part where the archers could see his hand. 

“Are you ready then?” Pantheon asked.

“Ready as ever bucko,” it told him. Pantheon looked up at the moon, then climbed up the rest of the wall. He quickly moved to the walkway and hid in the shadows, the archers hadn’t noticed him yet. He approached the closest one and he saw that his shadow was rapidly moving away from him, toward the farthest archers. Pantheon closed distance on the archer and slit his throat, preventing him from yelling out. He looked to his right and saw the other archers react. The farthest archer got decapitated and the middlemost archer turned to look at his fallan ally. The shadow quickly moved over to him and turned into a giant hammer and fell down on him. That archer simply vanished, his body not there anymore. The shadow dipped into the ground and approached him, his shadow returned to normal. “I was thinking about how I should kill them when you killed the first one, so I panicked on both of them,” it explained. Pantheon looked at both bodies, and the head. 

“Should we dump them over the walls?” Pantheon asked.

“No, we need to find a rope . . . I’ll go find it,” it said, and his shadow left him again. The shadow went to the edge of the walkway and disappeared, seemingly going beneath it. Pantheon signaled the others to come closer to the wall, but they were already in the bushes where he hid. They began running toward the wall, but Aquis ran back when she forgot to grab his spear. 

“The rope is to your left, on the ground . . . obviously,” the voice said. Pantheon looked to the left and saw the rope, so he grabbed it. He unraveled the rope and threw it over the wall. The rope touched the ground and he tied the other end to the spike heads on the wall. He looked down at the ground below the wall and saw them reach it and start to climb. 

“We don’t have much time to get in that tower before they find the bodies,” Pantheon said.

“You must hurry, you also need to figure out how to open that portal again,” the voice said. A hand grabbed the outside of the wall and Pantheon looked over and saw it was William, he helped him up and waited for the others. He saw that Sage was also climbing the rope.

“Why is Sage climbing, can’t she fly up?” Pantheon asked William, who shook his head.

“No, the dark magic here is a nullifier. Her fey magic is useless . . . meaning she’s just like you and me,” William said. Another hand came over the wall and Pantheon grabbed it and helped the person, Aquis revealed her face and climbed up the remaining way herself. When Sage’s hand appeared, William grabbed it and yanked it up. She flew over the wall and was dangerously set down on the walkway. They were all on the walkway looking into the fortress at the large black tower in the center. William looked down at Sage, who was poking the archer body that Pantheon had killed. 

“Without your magic, you are much slower than your floating, get on my back,” William said. Sage agreed and climbed on his back, like a man getting on the back of an alligator. 

“We have to hurry, towards the tower! Who knows how long we have before we are discovered!” Pantheon whispered and leaped down from the walkway. Aquis jumped down as well and stayed close to him, William made sure to take up the rear and stay back far enough to see any danger the others wouldn’t. Pantheon and Aquis were trying to move as fast as they could without being seen, luckily the tower archers and the ones on the walkway were looking outward. But it wasn’t long in their pursuit of the tower when they heard a voice they didn’t want to.

“What the . . ?” A man said on the archer tower. Pantheon and Aquis looked at one another with fright.

“We have to run,” he stated.

“Go ahead!” She urged, and he began to run toward the tower. Aquis followed closely behind with the running. William didn’t expect them to bolt like that, so he stood still until he realized what happened.

“Sound the alarm!” Another man said.

“INTRUDERS!” The first man screamed. The archers on the walkway and the towers looked at the man who said that.

“INTRUDERS!” They all began yelling. An archer ran over to a weird contraption and blew into it. A horn blared loudly into the dead night, waking everyone up and alerting the guards, but no one knew where the invaders truly were. Lights started to appear from every household as they were looking for them. 

“At arms men!” They heard a man with a muffled voice. Pantheon turned a corner to the right, but Aquis wasn’t expecting it, so she had to go back and run toward him. Pantheon looked behind and saw that she was lagging behind.

“She will get lost unless you lead her directly,” the voice told him. When Aquis got close to Pantheon, he reached his hand behind him.

“Grab it!” He said. She grabbed his hand and was almost dragged behind him. Pantheon kept looking left for an opening, but every building on his left was connected with each other, preventing them from going further towards the tower.

“How much farther?” She questioned.

“They’re around here somewhere!” A guard said.

“THERE THEY ARE!” An archer yelled. He was up on one of the towers, and let loose an arrow. It missed Pantheon’s right leg and hit a wooden bucket, but the group were now aware that the enemy knew where they were. 

“Stop right the- *thunk*!” A guard said behind them, before getting hit. They both turned around and saw William running behind them, he punched the man unconscious. 

“Your friend is very strong,” Pantheon stated.

“Not now Pantheon! We have to reach the tower!” She exclaimed. Pantheon saw an opening to the left and ran towards it, it was away from the houses and workplaces. It seemed to be a common area with a fireplace and towers of wood around the fire that had markings that resembled Tribal masks as tall as a one-story building. The black tower was ahead of them, but the guards knew where they were going and met them there. There were dark plated knights standing in front of the tower, but in the middle, between all of the dark knights was a large man wearing even thicker armor and he carried a very large sword. 

“What is your purpose here intruder?” The middleman bellowed.

“I have studied them before, he is a bloodseeker. A man damned to that armor,” the voice shakily said. He didn’t fear for his own life, rather for the life of the man he controlled.

“We are here to find out where the Orcs are coming from and put a stop to it,” William stated. The bloodseeker let his sword pierce the dirt, which shook the ground.. 

“Your journey here is wasted, you will die here and so will your people!” The bloodseeker yelled, and the dark knights began walking toward them. They weren’t moving that fast, they only seemed to be walking. They looked around and saw that guards were preventing their escape, but they weren’t approaching them. They were going to watch them get butchered. 

“You can’t take on ten of these guys! According to your memory you guys killed a lot of Orcs. But these are experienced, heavily armored knights,” the voice exclaimed.

“What do you want me to do?” Pantheon thought.

“Let me take care of them, and that bloodseeker,” he stated.

“I thought you didn’t want them to know who or what you were yet?” Pantheon asked. The dark knights were at the fireplace now and William and Aquis were looking behind and trying to back up, but the other guards poked at them with spears if they got too close. 

“They don’t have to know, in fact, they won’t,” it said, and with that, Pantheon’s shadow left him. Sage and the bloodseeker were the only ones who noticed Pantheon lose his shadow. The dark knights were getting even closer by passing the fireplace. The fire was suddenly snuffed out and the dark knights turned back toward it to see what happened.

“Was that planned?” One of them said to the others. Out of the fireplace there leaked a black tar-like substance that kept growing until something started to arise out of it. At first it appeared to be a blob of black, but the further it grew, the more details got added to it. After it grew to be five meters tall, two hands poked out of the sides, causing a cesspool of black to explode from there. The hands grew faster than the body and turned into normal human hands when it finished. 

The dark knights backed up and the guards on the sides were pointing their weapons and looking at it. Aquis was staring wide-eyed at it, frozen in place. William backed up in horror, but Sage looked at Pantheon, then the beast. Her suspicions about Pantheon seemed to be true, so far at least.

“What is that?” Aquis shrieked. The black beast stopped growing when it formed a humanoid face, two infernal red eyes popped into the head along with a mouth that stayed open, spilling black drool into the shadow. It must have been ten meters (thirty-three feet, but the people of the Four Worlds use the metric system) tall before it stopped growing. It looked at the dark knights with a frown.

“I don’t like this,” one of them said. The beast took one of its hands and smacked all ten dark knights away, as if they were flies. Their bodies scattered like a shotgun and many hit buildings while others hit the guards, only one body missed them, and that was because the guards had stepped back far enough when the beast appeared. 

“You will perish for interfering with the Outcasts!” The bloodseeker yelled at the creature. They actually didn’t mind being called Outcasts because they thought it was a cool name and didn’t want to go through the process of making their own name. The bloodseeker charged at the beast. He was actually able to run, unlike the lesser dark knights. 

“Let’s get inside the tower while we still have the chance!” Pantheon said and began to run toward the tower.

“That thing will kill you!” Aquis yelled but Pantheon kept on running. She looked at this dark demon and then at Pantheon, and ran after him.

“Follow them!” Sage yelled. William nodded his head and ran after the others. The bloodseeker swung his sword at the beast, but it swiped through it like butter and seemed to have no effect. The beast smacked at the area where the bloodseeker was, but he rolled out of the way as the hand hit the ground. He dropped his sword when he rolled, but the beast took its attention towards the three people running toward the tower. It took its left hand and extended it until it hit the wall of the tower, right before Pantheon. He stopped just fast enough to avoid being hit, he looked at the arm and saw that it led up to the beast.

“What is he doing? I thought he was on our side?” He thought in his head but remembered that the voice was no longer there to answer his question. Since the beast was the one to attack him. The beast took back the hand and Pantheon ran forward and opened the door of the tower. The bloodseeker watched him open the door and turned to face the guards on the sides, watching all of this. 

“What are doing? STOP THEM!” He yelled at them. They did not listen to him and stood still, shaking in their boots. The beast looked toward Aquis and spat out a giant glob of blackness. It flew through the air toward her, closing in on her and going to devour her if she didn’t move.

“NO! Not her! She is not who we should kill!” The voice said while still in the beast.

“You do not truly know them, you only perceive them from the man. I will judge them,” another voice said.

“You are unfit to judge them, we are unfit to judge them,” a third voice said. The glob was a mere second away from hitting her, when the beast quickly extended out a hand and hit the glob, swallowing it back into the shadow pool.

“Damn you,” the second voice simply said.

“We will speak of this later, for now . . . kill that armored guy,” the first voice said. The beast looked down at the bloodseeker, who was looking at his cowering comrades. The bloodseeker looked up at it as the beast grabbed him and brought him to his face, so the bloodseeker could get one last glimpse of it.

“What . . . are you?” The bloodseeker fearfully said. A giant grin appeared on the beast and it revealed it’s teeth, pure black and dripping. 

“A shadow,” it calmly said, and threw the bloodseeker in its mouth. The bloodseeker didn’t need to be chewed to die, it was covered by shadows instantly and vanished. The beast looked at the guards around him, who were shaking in fear, and it roared. Blackness spewing from its mouth and splotches landing near the guards. The guards ran away as fast as they could away and the beast turned back into a puddle and approached the tower. 

The door behind them slammed shut, it would have alerted the Outcasts regardless of their sneaking ability, but they didn’t know that then. Sage hopped off of William’s back and walked around.

“What was that thing?” Aquis asked.

“A demon, to be sure,” William stated.

“Something made of the shadows, it appeared out of nowhere,” Pantheon said. Sage looked at Pantheon with unease, she saw the shadow leave him and become that thing, she did not trust him in his statement. 

“Alright, that thing . . . was weird, but we’re here now. Regardless of that thing, we need to get to that portal,” Sage said. She pointed to the stairs on the far side of the corridor they were in. Pantheon looked down and saw that his shadow was back. They all walked over to the stairs and looked up. 

“What in Caesar’s name was that?” Pantheon exclaimed to the voice. 

“Sorry, there was a minor hiccup in that plan. I at least saved Aquis before I . . . would have killed her,” the voice realized.

“I don’t know why I still trust you, but don’t do that again,” he begged.

“Yeah don’t worry, I don’t plan on doing that anytime soon.” 

“How many flights are there?” Aquis asked. William looked up at the stairwell and counted. 

“There seems to be at least five, and we might have to worry. I don’t know if that beast is going to attack us when he is done with that bloodseeker,” William said. 

“We shouldn’t waste anymore time, we’re almost there, I know it!” Sage said, and started to run up the stairs as fast as her little feet could take her. 

“We don’t know if there are any Outcasts in here, wait up!” William yelled at Sage and ran to her. Aquis looked over at Pantheon, who was looking up the stairs. 

“I don’t want to run anymore, running here was enough for me,” Pantheon stated. She smiled and looked around, there were two doors on each side of the hallway with a bookcase by the door on the left side. 

“I would like to see what is behind those doors, but we should probably make it to the portal before something happens,” she said. Pantheon looked at the bookcase.

“I would want to read those books, surely the Outcasts have something useful here,” he said. They both looked up the stairwell again, then back at each other. 

“Let’s find out where those Orcs are coming from!” Pantheon proudly stated, and began running up the stairs. Aquis was worried that she almost died from something she had never seen or heard before, but Pantheon made her feel a warmness in her heart, she felt confident and unafraid. She smiled proudly.

“Yes, let us,” she said and followed the stairs upward.

William, Aquis, Sage, and Pantheon reached the top of the black tower and stood in front of the portal. It was a long trek from their lands to here, but their journey was finally at the conclusion. Once they would enter the portal, they would hope to find the source of the Orcs and get rid of it. However, each of them thought that wasn’t the likely scenario to happen. The portal before them shined red and green, swirling around as if it was liquid. 

“When we enter, we may not exit,” William stated, looking at the portal. He turned to his friends to make sure they realized his statement. William had never entered a portal before, especially one that led to a different planet and he wanted to make sure he and his friends didn’t go on a suicide mission for nothing.

“If we are stuck on a planet of Orcs, I’d rather no other companions,” Aquis said, she looked around at her best friends and her new friend.

“We can find a way to prevail, we haven’t died yet,” Sage said.

“An alliance between man to fight an Orc invasion? I see no better alternative,” Pantheon said. They carried their weapons proudly and were ready to use them as soon as they walked through the portal. Pantheon gripped his spear and had his other hand near his gladius. Aquis held her bow and was ready to notch an arrow. Sage couldn’t do anything yet, but she was hoping she could use her magic when they reached the other side. Maybe she would transform into a bear, or maybe another ent, she didn’t know what to choose. William held his sword and shield, he happened to find the shield in the tower on their way up. It didn’t match his silver apparel, but protection that didn’t match was better than none. 

“Not even I know what awaits you, this will be a surprise for both of us,” the voice said. They stood before the portal, attempting to comprehend their soon to come fates. 

“No turning back now,” William said, shrugged, and walked through the portal. His body parts vanished as soon as they touched the portal, until he was consumed entirely. Sage moved even closer to the portal and stuck her hand in it. She looked confused as she looked in the portal.

“I can’t feel it anymore,” she said and put the rest of her body in it. It was just Aquis and Pantheon who were standing near the portal. They looked at each other, both with confirmation and determination in their eyes. Pantheon extended his hand.

“Shall we do this together? Venture into a new land?” He said. She looked at him, then his hand, and grabbed it. It felt dirtier than how her hand usually was, but he was fine with that. After all, they traveled farther north than they had ever before.

“Let’s go through,” she said. They began walking forward and their feet were the first to be consumed. Their bodies were second and the last thing touched by the portal were both of their hands, holding on to each other.

They entered the portal and blinked, they weren’t looking at the portal anymore, but rather a whole new land in front of them. They let go of each other’s hands and looked at the land ahead. There were mountains where they were facing, tall and snowy. Beneath the mountains was a river which flowed, it looked clean and pure. They looked to their right and saw a valley filled with white trees with leaves of green and blue. The trees’ area of influence was long as it passed beyond the horizon. They walked to the edge and they looked below them and saw an Orc camp, but it was very large. Many tents were pitched up and buildings crudely constructed by stupid Orc brains. Orcs were walking all over the camp, carrying supplies, meat, or weapons. To the left of the portal were the remains of a forest, ravaged by the Orcs. 

“Get over here!” Sage said. They both looked over to the right and saw Sage’s head peak out of a stairwell. They moved over to her and started walking down the stairs. “William went on ahead to scout the area.” As they went down a flight, they noticed the layout of this tower was very similar to the one they just escaped from. 

“Is this the same tower?” Pantheon asked.

“I don’t think so, the lands around the tower are different, and everywhere in general,” Aquis said. They saw William leaving a room on the floor they were at. 

“This floor is safe, at least,” he stated. They met each other halfway.

“Where are we?” Aquis asked. William looked at the rooms on both sides of the hallway, then back at them.

“It appears we are on Dragonis, there’s only one planet with the Twilight Woods on it,.” he said. Pantheon and Aquis looked at each other with worry.

“So we were right, the Orcs were coming from here. But now . . . who is sending them to Puer?” Pantheon asked with his hand on his chin, deep in thought.

“We’ll probably find that ou-,” Sage was saying before someone began talking.

“Are you in need of more Orcs? Is that why you’re here?” A man yelled from downstairs. They looked at the stairs, but didn’t hear anyone coming up the stairs.

“They must think we’re Outcasts,” William said.

“We should be getting ready for a fight, with our luck we have to fight some Twilight Elves, or even the Trolls,” William said. They got their weapons ready again and approached the stairs. Sage peeked down the stairs and quickly moved her head back, causing her to float and do a backflip.

“Oh . . . I can float again,” she commented.

“Did you see how many flights there are?” Pantheon asked. Sage looked at him, looked back at the stairwell, then back at him.

“I’m pretty sure it’s five flights again,” She said. Before they started to go down the stairs, William got in front of them.

“Before we find that man, we should remain as quiet as we possibly can and see if we can hear which level he is on,” William stated.

“Second,” William and Pantheon said at the same time. They both raised an eyebrow and looked at one another.

“Good hearing?” They both said again. William put his finger against both of their mouths.

“Then we will meet them on the second level, now SHH!” He whispered, and he began his flight down the stairs. Followed by Sage, Pantheon, and Aquis. They walked down to the fourth floor and saw many paintings hanging on the walls, they were all pictures of Orcs in various positions. Whoever painted the paintings must have been very good, because they were all very gory, mainly because all of the paintings were of Orcs killing something. One picture had an Orc holding the head of a human in triumph, surrounded by his brothers. Aquis and William shuddered at the concept of the art, but Pantheon and Sage were curious about them. They had no idea who painted these paintings, it couldn’t be an Orc, but who else could have painted these other than the Dark Lord? They walked down to the third floor which contained one lonely statue on the other side of the hallway. It was a statue of a Twilight Elf woman.

“Syllia?” Pantheon whispered. They all looked at him and the statue with confusion. “The Twilight Queen, mother of the Twilight.” They continued walking down the stairs without asking any more questions. The second floor contained a room on the other side, the only room in both towers to do such. They stayed on that floor and assumed that’s where the voice came from.

“Dark Lord, the Twilight Elves have decided to assist you in your conquest,” an Elf said. They approached the room and readied their weapons, they had no idea who they would be facing. Other than an Elf, whom they assumed was Twilight.

“Excellent, the plan is almost complete. Syllia will explain the plan once I have explained it to her,” the man said. The group stopped moving and looked at each other, reassuring themselves and bringing out the courage they would need. They walked into the doorway of the room and the Twilight Elf immediately looked at them, but did not attack or bring out a weapon. He wore purple armor with arm blades on both arms, he had silver hair and black eyes. He tilted his head in confusion because he had never seen a Human with armor like what they were wearing.

“I assume it’s the Outcasts,” the man said, he wore a black robe that covered him entirely. He turned around and saw them with their weapons out and realized who they were. But he had to rub his eyes to make sure what he was seeing was true, and not a figment of imagination. When he made sure that they were who he thought they were, he smiled.

“Who are you?” William asked, pointing his sword at the robed man. The man was a light green and his eyes were constantly changing colors, which weirded them out. He carried a staff with a red gem on the tip of it. The Twilight Elf, sensing the conflict, stood in front of the man to protect him. However the man pushed the Elf aside so he wasn’t completely in the way.

“I could ask you the same question, William, Aquis, Sage, and Pantheon,” he said, pointing to each one as he stated their names. 

“How do you know our names?” Aquis asked and the man smiled even wider in response.

“Because I have been watching you all, ever since I sent those Orcs to bring you all together. I do so wish that Aries would have joined you, but I guess I can kill you four and worry about the others,” the man said and the staff head’s red gem began to shine even brighter. Pantheon stepped forward with his spear pointed at the man. 

“Who do you think you are?” He asked. The man seemed unfazed by the weapon, but the Elf readied his arm blades.

“I am Naz’gar the Necromancer, the new Dark Lord. Now bow down before me, unless you prefer to become one with my undead army,” he said. The Humans widened their eyes, but Pantheon still pointed his spear at him. 

“Naz’gar . . . but . . . you’re dead,” William stated. Naz’gar looked at him and shrugged.

“I was but now I am not, I can raise the dead and I can raise myself,” he said. Pantheon grabbed his spear even tighter.

“Don’t do it,” the Elf said. Naz’gar put his hand up.

“Let the child decide, I’m . . . curious.” Naz’gar said with a smile. Pantheon’s spear started to shake, he wasn’t sure what to do. 

“Don’t do it kid, he’s bluffing, you can’t kill him,” the voice in his head said, but he didn’t hear it. He was only thinking about killing the one threat to humanity. He slightly pulled back his spear so he could jam it forward, but they both noticed this. Without Naz’gar even moving a finger, the Twilight Elf cracked the spear in half with his right arm blade and used the broken stick to close distance and slashed him in the chest with the left arm blade. 

“Pantheon!” Aquis yelled and ran to him, but she stopped when she saw something odd. Pantheon held his chest where he was slashed, but a black ooze began pouring out. The Twilight Elf widened his eyes and stepped back, Pantheon looked at his friends who were also wide eyed. The liquid began pouring out even more and began to cover the floor in black. Naz’gar looked confused and looked at the Elf.

“Did you do this?” He asked but the Twilight Elf shook his head.

“No, this is something dark. We don’t dabble in dark magic,” the Elf said. Pantheon looked at his hand and wound and saw that the liquid stopped pouring out, but he was starting to bleed. He fell backward from shock and Aquis raced over and caught him.

“Are you okay?” She asked him. He looked at her, then back at the black liquid on the ground.

“Yeah-” He said but passed out. The liquid began to arise into a being. A humanoid body formed from the black ooze. It looked human, but was covered in a black tar looking liquid. There was a slash on its chest that stayed there and wasn’t covered up by the black goop, which seemed to be the same as Pantheon’s wound. It grew red eyes and a mouth, with sharp, black, oozing teeth. It faced Naz’gar, who was still not moved by the creature.

“What are you?” Naz’gar said. The creature’s head was moving back and forward to examine Naz’gar, but stopped moving when it looked at the Elf. A blunt arm suddenly extended from the body and smacked the Elf, causing him to barrel off of the balcony. Naz’gar stepped back and the gem on his staff began to glow even brighter. The creature turned around toward the humans and two arms began to form. They stood completely still in shock. The arms formed hands which made a rectangle with the fingers, and expanded it. Behind the Humans, a portal appeared. They looked at the portal before them. The portal wasn’t like the one upstairs, but rather it showed what was on the other side of the portal. There was grass and trees and a small part of a road at the bottom of it. They turned to look back at the creature. 

The Humans didn’t know what to do and stood there doing nothing. The creature got tired of waiting and four different black hands extended from the body and rapidly pushed them into the portal, their bodies vanishing when it touched the portal entrance. The creature turned back to face Naz’gar.

“Fool! This was my prime opportunity to kill them, but you will have to suffice,” he said. A red bolt left the gem and raced toward the creature, but a hole appeared where the bolt was going to hit and it missed. The hole was quickly filled once the bolt hit the wall. Naz’gar looked at the staff’s gem, then where he missed. The creature had another hand extend from his chest, but Naz’gar banged his staff against the ground and a green bubble appeared around him, causing the arm to bounce off. The creature moved around the bubble with the pool of black below him, the humanoid body melted into the pool and it slowly approached the bubble. Naz’gar raised an eyebrow as the shadow pool touched the base of the bubble, but didn’t move forward. Blackness suddenly sprung from the pool and completely covered the bubble, several teeth appeared in the shadow pool and started to gnaw on the bubble. Naz’gar touched the barrier with his staff and the green sent out a wave of red which shocked the shadow and sent it crawling back on the ground. The creature appeared from the pool again as the shadow went away from the bubble. Naz’gar waved his staff to the left and the bubble vanished. They stared into each other’s eyes while they walked around the room, waiting for the other to make a move. 

The creature roared and a sharp arm rapidly extended from its body toward Naz’gar, but he shot out a bolt of red energy from the crystal. Both met and the hand exploded and black goo shot everywhere. The creature screeched and was attempting to look at the hand that exploded. Naz’gar saw this as his opportunity and banged his staff against the floor, causing it to turn green. A dim green light escaped the gem and floated toward the balcony and dipped downward. 

“What sorcery is this?” The creature growled. It’s puddle absorbed into its body and now the creature more resembled a man, with human-like characteristics, except he was shorter than Naz’gar. 

“You have never seen magic before?” Naz’gar asked as they exchanged glances. The creature shook its head and growled a little bit. “Good, then you will die by it!” The creature shot out three more arms towards him, but he quickly shot three bolts which destroyed them. With every arm that got destroyed, the creature would shriek and cry out in pain. 

“If you haven’t seen normal magic before, you haven’t seen MY magic!” Naz’gar exclaimed. The creature appeared confused by this, but his confusion was shortly answered when a hand appeared on the balcony. It was pale white and purple armor began showing as the being climbed further up, the face appeared in his vision and it was the Twilight Elf. However, there was blood running down his face and it tainted his silver hair. The Elf’s eyes were an evil green, the same green as the staff before it turned red again. The Twilight Elf leapt up from the balcony and turned to face the creature.

“Necromancy?” The creature growled and backed away. The Twilight Elf roared (which they never actually do) and sprinted towards the creature. The creature turned one of its hands into a large shield which blocked most of his body. The Elf ran to him and began slicing rapidly at the shield, which began to start bleeding and tearing. Several slash marks covered the shield and blackness swept out of the slashes. The creature grew more in pain with every slash and an even bigger blunt arm came from the shield to punch the Elf. The Elf flew across the room into the wall, but immediately got up and ran towards him again. The creature glared at Naz’gar.

“This is not over! We will be back!” It said and ran into the portal, causing it to vanish. Naz’gar looked at where the portal disappeared and then looked at the dead Elf who was staring blindly at where the portal once stood. 

Naz’gar walked back into the room and set his staff against the wall. He rubbed his head with his hands and pushed over a chalkboard. It fell to the ground with a mighty crack. “AAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!” He yelled. He removed the hood from his head and dug his fingers deep in his scalp. He raked his fingers through it and looked at his bloodied hands, staining against the green skin. He looked at the blood and closed his eyes. When he opened them again he wasn’t in his tower.

He was where he last remembered, before he reemerged. He saw a field of dead grass, trampled by thousands of feet. Bodies littered the background but they were mostly his brothers. He laid on the ground, a shattered knee and arm prevented him from moving far. He tried to crawl away but his sight remained on the bodies. He saw the whites in their eyes, the hopelessness of his endeavor. The ones who weren’t dead had given up, they might as well have died on the spot. He felt a sharp pain in his arm as he was raised off the ground. His vision blurred as he sluggishly looked at his extended hand. He blinked to regain his eyesight and saw a man. The man. The one who had ended him. Then he closed his eyes.

He was brought back to his tower and he felt his head. The scratch marks were gone but the blood remained. He heard claws scratching the floor rapidly approaching him. He turned to the noise and saw Vex bolt in the room.

“Boss!” He yelled and ran to him. He put his hand on his shoulders and examined his body. “You kay? What happened?” Vex closed his eyes harder and was brought back to the battle. A frown, sadness. Ever growing, anger. Hands clawing at his own flesh, rage. He opened his eyes and Vex saw his eyes turn a deep red. Naz’gar slowly pushed him away and walked to the balcony.

“I. Am. Fine,” he stated. “There was a . . . miscalculation to my plan. An unknown variable that I had never counted on. They would be dead at my feet if not for, a shadow.”

“A shadow?”

“Yes!” Vex cried out in anger. “A man bathed in shadows, hiding behind it like a mask! He forced them out of here and I never got the chance to kill one of them! My entire plan . . .” He stopped and turned to look at Vex. “Nay, not my entire plan, just a part. I will make another, I will make countless others. Just because I was unable to kill them now, it doesn’t mean I won’t kill them later. I will have to study, to better myself. I will need to make sure that I can fight that shadow.” His frown suddenly turned to a smile. “And I have been misusing my greatest asset. Vex, how would you like to go to Puer?”

Prince Charles grew anxious for he didn’t get an answer or reply from Artemis or Charles within a day. He sent a courier out when the night was upon the kingdom the previous day. He had hoped that they were just taking their time but those two were never known to be late, especially not his own Paladin. The courier approached the town on horseback in the dead of the night, the moon was almost full, that would be in two days. He didn’t see or hear anyone in the town, so he got off his horse in caution. He tied it up to the gate and got out his sword in case there were remaining legionaries. 

    He walked to the center of the town and almost tripped over something. He looked down and saw a swordsman’s rotting body, with Freemen armor. He looked around and saw other bodies, they were both Roman and Freemen. He didn’t notice the smell of the bodies even though they have been rotting in the sun for the entire day. It must have been from him taking a shortcut through Rotwood’s Shadow, that place always reeked of death and decay. He walked around the bodies and toward the western gate. He reached the wooden gate and smelled something smoky, but he was unable to see any fire. In the moonlight, he saw a pile of something in the field and approached it out of curiosity. The smoky smell grew stronger as he approached the pile. He was not one meter away when he stopped walking, the moonlight could help with seeing things in the dark, but it was still nighttime. He still couldn’t clearly see what the pile was made of, so he put his sword in the ground and pressed into the pile with his right hand. The thing he pressed upon was soft, but he couldn’t determine what it was, so he took off his glove and pressed again. He felt soft flesh this time and moved his hand back as soon as it touched. He looked around the pile and realized that it was full of bodies, not just soldiers, but also normal men and women. He grabbed his sword and backed away, the smell of smoke grew too strong for him. 

    He highly doubted that Artemis and William would have died and their bodies were thrown into the pile, but he had no other leads as to where they could be. He backed up until his foot fell farther than before, he looked to where his right foot was and saw a horseshoe print. He looked to where it kept going and saw it led towards Zealot’s Circle. The Romans didn’t use horses that often, so why would this be an exception? He had to assume that the two chased down Aries . . . for some reason. He ran back to his horse, he occasionally accidentally kicked a few bodies, but he couldn’t let that stop him from running down the rabbit hole. He put his sword back in the sheath and climbed up the horse. 

    “HYAH!” He yelled at the horse as it galloped out of the village and toward the forest. Luckily the journey from Ancient Crossing to the circle wasn’t that long, but he needed to get there as fast he could so he wouldn’t lose the trail, if he had any. They ran through the trees like lightning and soon made it to a knoll. He slowed down the horse and stood on top of the knoll. He looked down toward a battlefield, bodies strewn everywhere. They covered the battlefield like a thin blanket. Except these bodies looked different then the bodies he’d seen from earlier, at least from his perspective. He rode his horse closer to the battlefield and slowed down when the bodies were getting closer. He hopped off his horse and dragged it with him because there was nowhere close he could tie it to. He walked closer to the bodies to examine them and the horse began fighting him, pulling back away from him and trying to stay away from something, presumably the bodies. The horse let out a loud “nyeh” and kept trying to fight him, but he pulled his horse closer. The horse continued to fight but eased itself when the courier approached the bodies. He walked right next to the body and saw the lack of armor, the size, and the fact that it was green.

    “Orcs?” The man asked himself. He heard the huffing of a horse to his west and drew his sword and faced the noise.

“Did your prince send you?” A man said as he was also dragging his horse along to go see the bodies.

“Of course, did yours?” The courier said. The man nodded his head and the courier put his sword away. Since both of them were couriers, no combat would take place. 

“Leonidas never returned. Livius didn’t want to assume anything so he made me come here,” the Roman courier said. He got close enough to the bodies that he could kick them. “Orcs?” The Freemen courier nodded.

“Yes. However, it appears that these are all Orc bodies,” the Freemen courier said and kicked another Orc body, that one actually had a helmet and a sword instead of just a club. The Freemen courier picked up the blade and examined it in the moonlight. It was very crude, but sharp to the touch as he put his finger along the edge and it bled quickly. He put the Orc sword on his belt opposite of his actual sword.

“Indeed, are you looking for William and Artemis then?”

“Yes. But where are they?” The Freemen courier asked. Both of them followed the stream of Orc bodies that littered the battlefield until they reached a line of trees.

“Knowing Leonidas, he would have followed the Orcs.” 

“I don’t know if William would have followed the trail as well.”

“What’s to say they haven’t allied together?” The Roman courier said. They stood silently until the other courier snickered.

“I’m pretty sure there are no alliances between our people.”

“Not yet at least,” he said. They hopped on their horses and looked at each other then the tree line. 

“Should we continue north until we find them?”

“Perhaps. Maybe they stopped at the town up ahead?” The Freemen courier suggested. They both shrugged and raced off into the treeline.

By taking some turns and realizing they were headed too close to the Krag Mountains, they headed east, where they hit a village. They both approached the main gate and saw a guard standing on duty, readying his spear for them.

“We are but couriers seeking knowledge of something,” the Freemen courier stated. The guard relaxed and stood in his normal position. They approached him and stopped their horses.

“Have William and Artemis passed through here, perchance?” The Freemen courier asked.

“Yes they have, along with Leonidas and a nature spirit . . . supposedly. I don’t know precisely, I wasn’t there on guard duty, that was Frank,” the guard said. He pointed in the town at a larger building. “William gave us his armor to keep in storage, it still lies there now.” The couriers looked at each other with raised eyebrows.

“So Leonidas traveled with William and Artemis, but was he captive?” The Roman courier said. The guard shook his head and looked up at him.

“Frank told the rest of us that William and Artemis came through with a Roman centurion who wasn’t a prisoner or in chains. Which baffled all of us, along with the nature spirit, but she wasn’t as surprising as Leonidas,” the guard said.

“Why would William leave his armor here?” The Freemen courier asked. The guard didn’t have an answer and simply shrugged.

“The Tribal Jungle?” The Roman courier said but he was uncertain and questioned his answer himself.

“Why would he go . . . there . . . ” he trailed off. He looked north toward the Tribal Jungle and then looked back at the other courier. “We should tell our superiors.” The other courier nodded and turned his horse west, toward the Krag Mountains and the mountain passage between them. 

“Very well, that is a good decision. I wish you luck in getting there,” the Roman courier said and raced off toward the west.

“As well for you,” he said and turned his horse southeast and raced off towards the Citadel.

The Freemen courier reached the walls of the Citadel and heard the eerie silence inside the walls, the marketplace was as alive as Rotwood’s Shadow. The two pikemen on both sides banged against the gate for it to open as soon as the courier was seen coming out of the woods. The gate opened completely as the courier passed through it and it closed with a loud creak and slam. The courier looked forward toward the keep and the marketplace, he walked through it and looked around. The clacking of hoofprints was the only sound other than his breathing. He looked around at the silent houses, their wooden structures and beams looking like some Krag monster which has been rumored to exist. He shuddered and continued riding to the keep. The four pikemen banged the gate when they heard the clacking of hoofprints. 

The creaking of the gate startled the courier and he accidentally drew his sword, he looked ahead and saw that the gate to the keep was opening and he put his sword away. He got off the horse when he got close to the keep and he gave the leash to one of the pikemen. The pikemen took it, but looked at him and the horse weirdly.

“Horses . . . or animals in general aren’t really my forte,” the pikemen said. He had never handled a horse before, he knew how to use his pike and that’s it.

“Don’t worry about it that much, he’s fine as long as you don’t spook him. If he gets jumpy, feed him an apple. He loves apples,” the courier said. He entered the keep and the gate behind slammed shut.

Charles was still sitting on the throne in his royal robes, but his eyes were closed and his head was faced upward. The courier looked around and saw that the lights were dimmed and there were no guards, especially since one of them was William. He approached the throne, waiting for the prince to say something with every step he took. It was almost as silent as the marketplace, but Charles’s snoring prevented that from happening. The courier got to the stairs and stopped moving, he looked up at the throne and fully realized that Charles was asleep.

“Your highness?” He whispered. The prince did not react and snored loudly. The courier looked around to make sure there were no guards and gulped. “Sir?” He said a little louder. The prince stirred a little in the throne but he did not wake up. “Prince?” He said at the volume of a normal conversation. The prince actually frowned and stirred some more, but did not seem to wake up. The courier rolled his eyes. “Sir!” He raised his voice a little, but not that much. The prince stirred once again in his sleep. “Oh come on now.” He looked around one last time and sighed. “Your highness!” He yelled. The prince woke up and jumped out of his throne. He pulled a dagger on the right side of his body and pointed it at the courier, who didn’t do anything but stare at the prince. Charles shook his head and put the dagger away.

“I must have fallen *yawns* asleep,” he said and extended his arms as far as he could as he yawned. “Did you find them?” He was hopeful that he found them, but the lack of William and Artemis made him suspect otherwise. 

“No, however I have found something else,” the courier said. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a fragment of an iron sword and showed it to Charles. Charles didn’t know what was presented to him and gave a look of confusion.

“What is this, part of a sword?” He said and grabbed the fragment. It felt cold in his hand and not well made, it was coarse and had a few bumps and ridges. Charles knew what it was as soon as he felt it’s coarseness and tossed it to the ground in front of him. He backed up and pointed at it, his finger shaking all the while. “H-how do you have an Orcish blade?”

“That is what my message is. In Zealot’s Circle, there lay one hundred some Orcs. All slain by human hands,” the courier said. Prince Charles shakily went to pick up the broken Orc blade. When he picked it up, the blade shook with his hands. 

“My father made me handle an Orc blade when I was young, it was from his adventures as king. He told me that he wished I would never have to pick up another weapon like this . . . it looks like that time has ended.” 

“What are you to do now?”

“I-I don’t know,” Charles said. He was still shaking with the blade in his hand. “Where are William and Artemis?”

“I am afraid that I was unable to find them, however, I can safely assume that they made their way to the Tribal Jungle,” the courier said. Charles widened his eyes in worry and shock.

“What are they doing there, don’t they know how . . . dangerous . . . it . . . is?” He trailed off. “They went to Dragonis to try and stop the Orcs from coming here,” he realized and dropped the blade once more and fell back into his throne. He looked around widely, at the floor, ceiling, the courier and he even took off his crown and looked at it. The courier had never seen the prince like this before, and grew worried.

“Sir, are you okay?” He asked. Charles put his hands on his face and rubbed his face a little. He brought his hands down, straightened himself out on the throne, put his crown neatly on his head, and put his hands on his thighs. 

“No . . . no I am not. But the citizens needn’t know about that. First, Orcs have been as far as Zealot’s Circle, but luckily slain. But now Artemis and my own Paladin leave me and travel to Dragonis,” Charles distraughtly said. 

“Uhm, actually sir, there were more than two who went towards the Tribal Jungles,” the courier peeped out. Charles raised an eyebrow and stared at him.

“Who else joined? Oh please tell me it wasn’t Gwain! He’s too important to leave here,” Charles pleaded. The courier shook his head and Charles was relieved. 

“Actually, surprisingly, Leonidas and a nature spirit have joined the party. Making them four strong . . . against Tribals, Orcs, and maybe even Outcasts,” The courier said. Charles did not react to the new party members or the odds they’d be facing, all he did was blink several times.

“Leonidas . . . as in the Roman centurion?” 

“Yes, that Leonidas. There is no other,” the courier said. Charles looked slowly to the right and slowly to the left.

“Why is Leonidas, a Roman, joining two Freemen and a . . . nature spirit?” He said while clenching his own fist and stood up. The fact that his friends and commanders would work with a Roman insulted him. The courier noticed this and put both his hands out and tried to think of a good explanation.

“Well uhmm . . . what do you know of Leonidas that would make him do such a thing?” He asked. Charles released his clenched fist and slowly inhaled and exhaled, calming himself down.

“If I can recall correctly, Leonidas is the only centurion to use guerilla warfare and sneaky tactics to win the day,” Charles stated. He turned to the left and walked to where the elevation ended, then he turned around and walked until the rightward elevation ended. He was pacing. “But throughout all the reports he has never harmed a woman or even captured one, or anyone for that matter. But what does that mean?” He said and looked at the courier while pacing. The courier looked down at the ground in thought and thought of something that could explain this and looked up at the pacing prince.

“Maybe he does not like this war and thought that allying with Artemis and William would help bring peace?” The courier proposed. But he himself didn’t entirely believe that statement. Charles stopped pacing and looked down at him.

“Peace?” He said and looked down as well in thought. “No Roman would think of peace and no Freemen would think of one either.” He sighed heavily. “There is so much going on I don’t think I can take much more. Orcs on Puer and a chance to end this war, one of them could be good.” 

“Like I said earlier, your highness, what are you going to do?” The courier intently asked. He was waiting for an answer, his own anxiety grew by the second. Charles looked at him and sat down in his chair. He rummaged his hands through his pure blonde hair and sighed.

“Early in the morn, send out you and other couriers to every village and warn them of an Orc invasion. Also if they were to find William and Artemis, tell them to direct them directly to the Citadel and me,” Charles said. The courier nodded and ran out of the keep, the doors slamming shut shortly after. He stood up and looked upward. “I will not waver under a new Dark Lord, so have at you!”

William got pushed out of the portal along with the rest of the group, but since William was first the others fell on top of him. William originally stood on cool concrete, but soon found that he was lying in the grass. He was perplexed by this sudden change in scenery, but he knew that he wasn’t far from the Citadel. He wanted to get up but sudden weight prevented that. However, the thing was extremely light and bounced off of him to reveal that it was Sage who landed on him then rolled off. He was going to chuckle, but then two bodies landed on him. They did weigh more this time.

“Get off me! You weigh a lot!” He said and moved his body to the left to allow them to slide off. He looked to his left and saw Artemis comforting Leonidas, who was still wounded. William got up and looked at his companions. Leonidas was groaning and Artemis forced him to hold his hand to where the Twilight Elf slashed his chest because Leonidas was still passed out. Artemis was holding down the spot where Leonidas was slashed. Sage was sitting with her legs pointing to the left of her and holding her head, her head was moving a little bit as well. Sage was very dizzy, she tried to stand up but fell back down. 

William looked back at the portal, which was still open. It was different from Naz’gar’s portal. The portal they went through to get to Dragonis was swirling around colors of both red and green. He assumed that was because of his necromancy powers being green and his staff head was a red gem, which caused them to form a combination. The portal that the black creature had created showed the place they were back on Dragonis. The room with the cauldron in the middle and two chalkboards on the sides of it, but he didn’t see Naz’gar or the creature. He looked back at the three of them and saw that they were in not good shape, except for Artemis who was fine.

“Wake him up,” William instructed. She looked at Leonidas’ unconscious body and flicked his forehead.

“Hey, wake up,” she whispered. She smacked his head with her palm, causing a very obvious mark and Leonidas to blink. He blinked three times in total and raced to his feet, but Artemis kept him down. “Calm down, you passed out and just woke up,” she said. He looked up at her and saw her diamond blue eyes, he smiled. 

“Fine, but let me go. I need to stand up, my legs are asleep,” he said. Artemis crawled away with her hands and arose. Leonidas felt his legs and smacked each of them twice, an attempt to wake them up. He felt up his body until he hit his chest, he felt the slash in the armor and skin and looked down at it. It was red but wasn’t bleeding anymore. 

He put his index finger right against the wound and pressed upon it, he only felt slight pain and recoiled. He felt his legs again and he was able to feel them so he thought that it was time to try and stand up. He planted his hands firmly against the ground and used them as the main support as he brought up his legs. His legs wobbled as if he was on a high ledge and he rapidly pushed his hands off the ground to stand up. He stepped back and Artemis walked behind him in case he walked back too far, but he stopped right before she could stop him. He waved both arms in the air attempting to balance himself out and stopped moving. He looked at Artemis and William who were both standing up and turned to look at Sage who was still on the ground. Artemis walked over to Sage and extended a hand and Sage took it to get back on her feet. Her head felt fuzzy as she held her hands to her head. She was confused as to what was happening and shook her head. 

“We might want to Sage on the sidelines for now,” William stated as they were all looking at her struggling to exist. 

“I’m fine . . . I’m fine,” She stated with her hand in the air to protest their statement. To add a second protest to their statement, she thought that it would be a good idea to turn into a creature to show that she was combat ready. She turned into the fiercest thing she could think, or she would have if she hadn’t already turned into a tiny little pixie. She was floating around, not staying in one place and flying around like a . . . fly.

“Should we help her?” Leonidas whispered to the others. Both of them shook their heads.

“No, we just have to wait fifteen some minutes until she gets her head back,” William said. They watched as she was quickly flying around the surrounding area and stopped moving around in the middle of the road. “Okay maybe we should do something.” William walked over to the tiny pixie and grabbed her.

“Hey I’m fine, I swear!” She stated. He put his hand with the pixie in it over his right shoulder. He opened his hand and she floated down onto his shoulder, grabbing his chainmail armor. 

“You’re safer this way,” he said. He looked back at the portal and saw his sword and the shield right beside it. He walked over to both of them and picked up the sword first, examining the edge and seeing if it was dented or not. He picked up the pure black shield and looked at it. It wasn’t dented in any way, shape, or form and appeared to shine in the light of day. “I might have to repaint you,” he told it and backed away from the portal. He walked a few meters away and held up his sword and shield defensively. Artemis walked closer to William and stopped where he did, she was on his left and grabbed her bow from her back. She grabbed an arrow with her right hand and notched it in the bow, waiting to fire it. Leonidas went up to William and stopped where he was on his right, he grabbed the remnants of his spear and looked at it. The pointed end looked more like a knife, so he just threw them on the ground.

They heard some noise from the portal as it began to reverberate. The picture in the portal wiggled a bit from top to bottom, like a ripple in a body of water. “Get ready!” Leonidas said. Artemis brought up her bow and pulled back on the string. William moved closer to the portal and Leonidas stood still.

A black being escaped the portal as it suddenly closed. The light aura around the portal ceased and there was only the being in shadowy blackness before them. They had no time to think, only act. Artemis loosed the arrow and the being didn’t even move as the arrow hit him in the chest and was swallowed into the blackness. William lunged forward and swiped at the being, attempting to cut him in half. The blade got stuck in the stomach and William frantically tried to pull it out. He pulled back the sword and the shadow around the sword absorbed into a different part of the body and William fell down as he pulled the sword away too hard. Leonidas didn’t do anything. The being extended both of his hands in an attempt to stop them from attacking him. Leonidas moved over to William and helped him get up. William instinctively backed away as quickly as he could.

“Just wait a moment,” Leonidas said to his companions and went back over to them. The creature crooked it’s head side to side and used an arm to scratch the top of it’s head. When its hand left the head, blackness swarmed away from that area and some hair could be seen. The shadowy blackness was racing towards his feet as more human features could be seen. When the blackness escaped the human, they all stood in awe, they didn’t know what to think or say or do. 

The person in front of them was a boy, no older than eighteen. He had pure black hair and blue eyes. He wore a black t-shirt that said “Are you saying I’m sarcastic? What really, no way!” There was a picture of a person with their hand to their mouth in shock, like what they were all in. He wore shorts that descended to his knees and no further. They were gray and there was a small hole in the left side. He had black shoes that looked like none of theirs, in fact all of his clothes were very alien to them. They all backed away from him at the same time upon seeing who he really was.

“You gonna try and kill me now?” He snarkily said. He sounded like a young adult, not snotty or arrogant, just sarcastically snarky. William dropped his sword and shield at the same time and kneeled. Which caught both Artemis and Leonidas off guard. 

“I-I’m so sorry for trying to kill, I had no idea you were a child!” He stammered. He was flustered and incredibly embarrassed that he just tried to kill a child, his first instinct was to kneel and attempt to apologize. Leonidas took out his gladius and threw it upon the ground, to show that he meant no harm. Artemis put her bow back on her back and put her hands up. The boy smiled and shook his head slowly. 

“Well thanks for the apology, you can stand up now,” he said. William obeyed and rose.

“If you don’t mind me asking, who are you?” William said, still flustered from his attack. 

“Do you remember the beast when you were approaching the tower?” He asked. William and Aquis lowered their mouths but Sage pointed at him.

“Ah-ha! I knew it! I knew there was something wrong!” She turned to look at Pantheon. “You did . . . you contained . . . you . . . HE WAS HIDING IN YOU!!!” She exclaimed. The boy clapped his hands very slowly and all attention turned to him but he paid attention to Sage.

“Yep, you figured it out. I’m glad someone was paying attention, and to that I say, thank you,” he told her. Her satisfaction in her discovery only increased. 

“But, you’re just a kid. How did you do that?” Aquis asked.

“I’m not just some normal kid, I can also control the shadows,” he said.

“So you can use shadow magic?”

“No, it’s mu-”

“Then how can you become the shadow?” Pantheon questioned.

“Because I ca-” He got interrupted again.

“Are you some sort of demon?” Sage asked. The boy silently looked at them with an annoyed face.

“I have been waiting to explain this for two days . . . so can I please have the time to explain?” he slowly said.  The others put their hands up in realization and motioned to him.

“Sorry, please go ahead,” William said.

“You can all sit down, this might take a while to explain. Actually, it will take a long time to explain,” he said and they did, looking at him. “I have been latched to Pantheon’s shadow for the past two days. While in that time, I have helped you all and examined the areas where you have been. That’s how he was able to do that insane stunt back in the jungle, I helped. But anyway, I was only revealed when that Elf hit him . . .” He paused and looked away. “I don’t know how that happened, something like that has never happened before.” He looked down at his chest and the slash wound was still there. Unlike Pantheon’s, a light blue essence radiated off of the wound. He touched and was met with a pain he had never felt before. He winced and gnashed his teeth. 

“Are you okay?” Sage asked.

“I don’t know, this is new to me,” he said and felt his chest once more. He placed his hand on the wound and didn’t remove it. “Of course, I had to kill him then get you all to safety. I battled Naz’gar and here we are now.”

“You didn’t explain anything, you just summarized what just happened,” Pantheon noticed.

“I’M GETTING THERE!” He yelled, which shut him up. “I joined you when he fell down the hole that one night. I never expected him to come down there since I was going to steal one of your shadows that night, but he was right there for me.”

“What were the notes I saw down there?” He asked.

“I was just getting to that,” the boy said and dramatically inhaled. “I came here from another part of the galaxy.”

“The what?” 

“The galaxy.”

“Yeah, but what’s that?”

“It’s where you reside.”

“No, we live on Puer. You must be thinking of a different planet,” Sage tried to explain. 

“You’re not wrong but you’re not right,” he told her and a disappointed and confused frown appeared. “You live on a planet, the planets live in a solar system, and the solar systems live in a galaxy.”

“That’s impossible, only four planets exist,” William stated.

“Can you really say that after you just met me? You’ve never even seen someone with powers like mine, have you?” William shook his head. He then realized what that meant and sunk his head low.

“So, you are a foreigner?” He asked.

“Yeah . . . I guess that’s one way to put it, needless to say I’m not from here. I actually came here on a mission to find planets like yours,” he stated. That made the others skeptical and a little bit afraid.

“So, what does that mean?” Pantheon asked.

“Nothing, not now at least. I’d love to have you guys join us but this whole thing with that Naz’gar guy has to get cleared up first. If he and the other bad guys attack the worlds, they’ll blame your planet. So you need to solve that problem first,” he said.

“Why are you saying that?” Sage asked. “You make it sound like you won’t be here.”

“I won’t, I have to get back to my people because I’ve been gone for so long,” he stated. They still didn’t entirely believe that he was a foreigner, but they acted like they did. He did, after all, save them numerous times so he at least deserved that. “There’s also a rule that prevents me from directly helping strangers. They can be really annoying with that rule.”

“Oh, that’s a shame,” Aquis simply said. 

“Yeah, but before I go, I might as well help you all with a plan,” he said.

“I don’t see why not,” William said. He meant that and thought that they should at least hear what he has to say. They’ll probably change the strategy when he left but at least he’d feel like he was helping.

“Well, what do you plan on doing next?” He questioned. They did not immediately know an answer. They were only thinking about reaching Dragonis and had nothing else planned. They didn’t even know what to do when they actually got there. So it took them a while to actually think of a proper answer, but Pantheon proposed another a few short seconds later. 

“We could go back to our superiors with this information. We know Naz’gar is the new Dark Lord but that is about it. They should know of what to do then,” he stated. The boy nodded his head in agreement and through his thumb at him.

“That’s pretty good. What about after that? What if they say something that you don’t agree with?” He proposed.

“Then we go along with their plan and if we don’t agree, we do what we think is right,” Pantheon said.

“I’m not disobeying Charles’ orders, especially if it’s for the good of the Freemen,” William said. 

“We may not have a choice,” Pantheon stated. They looked at each other with rivalry but kept it between themselves. 

“You’ve actually had an encounter with him and his army . . . well at least a part of it, from what you said. So you’d be able to make the right calls from your experience,” the boy stated. 

“That sounds about right,” Aquis said. The boy clapped his hands and rubbed them together.

“Perfect, so you guys have a plan then. That’s extraordinary.” He looked up at the red sky and saw the sun start to cover the lands. “The day is beginning, you should take advantage of it. The Citadel is that way and shouldn’t be that far,” he said and pointed north. They couldn’t see the castle walls, but Aquis and William could sense that they were close. They got off of the ground.

“Thank you for all your help, I couldn’t possibly ask you to help us more and if you were to return, I shall attempt to help you in return,” he said and took a knee, which made Pantheon roll his eyes. 

“Of course, I aim to please. Now go! Continue your quest!” He dramatically said and pointed north. William arose and turned to walk in that direction.

“Thank you so much! We wouldn’t have made it without your silent help,” Aquis said.

“I don’t know if I can claim that, but I appreciate the compliment,” he confirmed with a simple nod. She also turned around and walked with William. Pantheon walked closer to him.

“Thank you, but if you ever take over my body again, I will somehow hurt you,” he said.

“Yeah, I’m sure you will. Now go on cupid kid.” Pantheon raised an eyebrow and turned around. Now there was only the boy and Sage. “Are you gonna say something corny too?”

“I’m not about thank yous. But I do have a question,” she said.

“Go ahead.”

“How old are you?”

“Seventeen,” he instantly said.

“Oh,” she distraughtly said.

“What? Do you have something against kids? You look like one yourself,” he commented. She innocently looked at him and twinkled her eyes, making him realize what she was talking about. “Ooooh! Well if you’re referring to that, I’m actually like six hundred years old.” A slight, sly smile arose on her face. 

“Six hundred years old you say? I’m nine hundred and ninety, looks like I got some years on you,” she coyly stated. 

“Maybe of age, but how about experience?” He said. With that, her gaze turned to something more sinister and she lunged at him, tackling him to the ground.

Naz’gar walked through the white forests he had grown to admire and despise at the same time. When he looked from the balcony or from the tower top they looked beautiful and majestic. The ghost white and green/blue leaves made a combination of colors which he would occasionally grow jealous of. He looked at his own skin and saw the ugly green which all Orcs had and would wish to change his color to that. From a distance, he could see the trees sparkle in the moonlight. He wasn’t one to stay up too late but often he would look out of his balcony and he’d walk around the camp.

He had grown to despise the trees as he was walking through their domain. It was a quick hate, but one nonetheless. He stopped beside one of them and looked up. The leaves retained the sparkles he saw from far away but they only stayed in the trees. He lifted his staff in the air and a wave of magic escaped and floated up. It swirled around the leaves and the sparkly essense escaped the leaves and started to fall. He held his hands out and felt them shower down on him. He felt his skin tingle as he saw tiny blue dots touch his skin. As soon as it did, they evaporated and the tingling left.

Then he saw his skin changing. Splotches of blue infected his skin and quickly grew influence. He didn’t appear concerned and scratched at it. As he had thought, the blue went away and showed his normal green. Illusionary magic was something he always despised. While he thought himself better and smarter than his brothers, his mind was just an enlarged Orc brain. He was suspicious of Elvish magic and doubted it was nothing more than illusions, no one could be that beautiful.

He walked past the tree with the dead Twilight Elf by his side. It was nothing more than a corpse so it wouldn’t act like one while he was on the trip. It would occasionally trip on a loose root and groan as it fell. He shook his head and watched it slowly rise again. It would give him a blank stare with his mouth open and he would continue the walk. With enough time and his dwindling patience, he reached the Twilight Tree. Naz’gar saw a lone Twilight Elf by one of the trees. He looked at the Orc and was confused at first but that emotion left him when he saw the corpse. He did not realize it was one until Naz’gar directly said it.

“Do not rejoice, he is nothing but a corpse now,” he mentioned as he walked beside him. He saw Elves walk near the trees and they watched him. He didn’t mind the watching and continued his march and walked directly in the Twilight Tree. He knew of the illusion but of course, the corpse did not. He had to grab it by the shoulders and guide it through the door. When they made it through, he saw the queen’s surprised expression. It amused him but he made sure to hide it.

“Naz’gar, I was not expecting you. What are you doing here?” She innocently asked. He could see through the facade and continued to walk up to the throne.

“I was not expecting this either, but things change,” he said as he approached the stairs. He pointed the staff to the corpse. “I am glad to report that he told me about our alliance, but something . . . happened,” he said while gritting his teeth. Syllia looked at her subject and stood up when she saw the green in his eyes.

“What happened?” She cried out.

“The Humans attacked me after I received the news. He tried to protect me but they had a demon with them,” he stated. She approached the corpse and put her hands on his dead face. Naz’gar would have been disgusted if he weren’t so accustomed to corpses. Her eyes looked deep into the dead Elves’. 

“A demon?” She asked without looking away from it.

“Something made of shadows, I was not planning on them having that thing.”

“Who is them?”

“Humans I have been watching for a while now, they seem to be competent enough to put their differences aside. I was hoping they would be stupid enough to find out where the Orcs came from, they were. I was planning on killing them there, if not for that thing. It let them escape,” he said. She remained silent as she kept caressing the corpse. That irked him slightly and he used his staff to separate them.

“I know you do not trust me, woman. You did not trust me the first time and I can sense your distrust now. This corpse is a reminder that the Humans need to be destroyed. They killed him without a second thought and would do the same if they came here,” he stated and she looked at him.

“He had a name-”

“I don’t care! Do not you see of the danger I’m trying to save you from!? How would your kind treat you differently or the Dwarves if they came here? They’d ravage the trees and destroy your lives! I’m ahead of the chaos and have planned for it,” he approached her and their foreheads were touching. “I only need you to buy me time, time to wipe out the Humans. Then you may go back to your pointless lives.” He turned away and began to walk back.

He only stopped when he added, “if you do not help me and provide resistance against me, I will make sure you all become like him.” He snapped his fingers and left, the corpse dropped to the ground. Losing the green in his eyes. Syllia looked at the door and then kneeled down to the corpse. 

“Mother! What happened?” She heard Eldritch say. She felt his arms on her shoulders as she felt the body, it was truly dead.

“I made a mistake, my child. A terrible mistake,” was all she could mutter. Eldritch looked behind and saw his sister peering behind the door, worry covering her face. He could only nod to her while comforting their mother.

“William, there is something we need to discuss before we reach the Citadel,” Pantheon stated. They walked the north of the southern road to reach their destination. They were able to see the walls when the trees’ shadows no longer covered them. 

“What is that? The plan seemed plausible, is there something wrong with it?” He asked. They were now walking side-by-side while Aquis was behind them, minding herself and lost in thought.

“You’re right, the problem is where we’re going,” he tried to discreetly say. William glanced at him.

“What do you mean?” Pantheon looked at him, then at himself, then at the castle walls. “Oh, you mean-?”

“Yes, and I doubt that a change of clothing will fool them. I’m darker than all of you,” he said.

“That is true, that is true indeed,” William said. 

“I will not make it far before I am apprehended and taken away.”

“They won’t do that, they have to have a proper reason.”

“My home is a reason, we’ve been at war for ten years. They despise us and we despise them, that’s how it’s always been. This won’t be an exception, we won’t even make it past the gate,” Pantheon stated. William stared at the walls in silence. Pantheon looked back at Aquis, who wasn’t paying attention. He smiled at her but she didn’t return the favor. 

“They wouldn’t disobey an order of a Paladin,” William concurred.

“A what? What’s that?” He asked.

“A Paladin?”

“Yeah, I’ve never heard of that word before.”

“It’s what I am, it means I’m a warrior of the Lord. I fight for him and all that is holy,” he stated. Pantheon looked away and avoided any eye contact with William. Although they were “friends”, they still did not agree about their gods. They never had a full blown discussion about it, but he knew they would fight about it. And he didn’t want that to happen, so he remained silent. 

“How much weight does that rank carry?”

“What is Aries rank?”

“He’s a Legate.”

“And does that mean the same thing?” William asked. He was fine with talking about their religions. Pantheon grew more awkward with the questions. 

“No, it just means ‘ruler of armies’. While Livius is ruler of the nation, he runs everything with the military,” he said. 

“I will be able to get you in. Don’t worry, they won’t argue with me,” he went back to the original subject. 

“I hope so,” he said and looked away. William’s gaze still lay on the walls as they grew ever close but he was looking away from it. He was looking at the woods, the roads, back at Aquis, and even the sky. In the silence, William turned back to Aquis.

“Do you know where Sage is?” He asked her. Aquis didn’t answer and blankly stared at the ground. “Aquis?” No answer. He cupped his hands around his mouth and violently yelled, “HEY!!!” She jerked to life and held up her fists, stopping herself. They stopped walking as well and her face grew angry. 

“What?” She yelled back. William and Pantheon defensively looked at her and glanced at each other. 

“Are you okay?” William asked her. Her anger faded as she looked at their worried faces. 

“Sorry, I was just thinking about something. Wasn’t expecting you to interrupt my thoughts,” she answered.

“Those must have been some intense thoughts you were having,” Pantheon noted. Aquis immediately flushed, her entire face turned a light red and she turned away from them. Pantheon was confused by her face change. William knew exactly what was happening. Needless to say, there was more silence on the way back then expected. 

“No,” a guard said. They had watched the group walk up the Citadel. However, they had expected William to say anything but “we need to see Charles”.

“What do you mean . . . no?” He asked.

“William, you know full well why I’m saying this. We’re at war with the Romans and here you are, with a centurion. I do not even see him in chains,” the other guard said. 

“We just need to get through,” Aquis said.

“Lady, do you not understand what’s going on?” The other one said. Pantheon walked between the guards and her.

“Do you not know who she is or what we’ve done?” He almost yelled at them. “We’ve fought against Orcs, traveled north of your lands to the Tribal Jungle, fought the Tribals, walked through Rotwood’s Shadow, barely escaped from Ousland, and fought Naz’gar! So let us . . . in!” He gradually increased his volume as he continued to talk. He had expected them to actually listen to him when he said how much he went through. He knew they’d be skeptical but William could clear it up.

His plan backfired spectacularly. 

The guards dropped their weapons and began looking at Pantheon, then looked at William. “This Roman has to be speaking lies. If there were Orcs, we’d have heard about it . . . right?” William slowly turned to look at the Roman centurion.

“You just had to tell them? You couldn’t say something else that was emotional and heartwarming? You had to talk about the Orcs,” he said. They looked at the awestruck guards and heard clanking sounds to their left and right. Aquis turned her head and saw broken wooden bows on the ground. She looked up and saw awestruck archers staring down at them. 

“Yes, it’s true,” she told them. They looked at her and rubbed their eyes, closing their mouths. “Soooo . . . new news to you guys, huh?”

“You need to see the prince right away,” one of the guards said and smacked the door. 

As the door slowly opened the other guard whispered, “just keep him in line and don’t tell anyone else of anything we talked about.” As they watched the doors open up the market, William put his hand on Pantheon’s shoulder. 

“Just in case, I’m putting my hand on your shoulder to show that you are ‘pacified’. I also need to take your spear, don’t need you to seem like a threat,” he advised. 

“Wise decision, here you go,” he said and handed him the spear that he put on his back. Those two then began walking into the Citadel. Aquis walked in as well but heard something behind her. She turned to see a green wolf running toward them.

“What is that?” A guard asked. Aquis was surprised to hear that they didn’t seem shocked or surprised. All that seemed to be drained from them with the reveal of the Orcs. The wolf rapidly approached them and turned into Sage when she got closer to them.

“Just my friend,” she said. Sage smiled at them, then fell over. Aquis walked over to help her but Sage rapidly stood back up. Her legs shook as she remained standing. 

“I’m not getting paid enough to deal with this,” one of the guards said.

“I’m glad I wasn’t the only one thinking that. First the Orcs, now I’m staring at a spirit. This is too much,” the other one said. They shook their heads and walked into the city, abandoning their positions. Aquis then noticed how fiercely Sage’s legs were shaking.

“Are you okay? Do you need help?” She asked. Sage looked at her own legs and put her hands on her knees to try and stop them. 

“No, I’m fine. It’s just, I’m a little tired right now. It’s been a long day and we haven’t gotten proper sleep in a while,” she said and faked a yawn. Aquis noticed this and lowered her eyelids in doubt. 

“Sage, there’s no need to lie. We both know how you can’t actually get tired, you’re immortal . . . did you forget?”

“. . . . . . . . . . . . no? I had hoped you would forget and now I feel somewhat awkward,” she said as her face slightly blushed. 

“What did you do?” Her friend asked.

“Not what, but who,” she chimed in. Aquis looked at her with confusion then immediately realized what she meant and put her hand on her head. She physically recoiled in disgust.

“You . . . didn’t,” she realized. Sage nodded her head with a sly smile and Aquis took a step back. 

“If you’re referring to what I think you are, then yes!” She proudly stated and fell down, her legs still shaking. Aquis, still disgusted and slightly angry, marched to her body. “You seem angry,” she commented. Aquis grabbed Sage by the arm and yanked her up. They were looking at each other’s faces; Sage innocent and sly, Aquis angry and disgusted.

“Are you telling me, you-”

“You don’t need to say it, we both know it,” Sage said with a finger to her lip, she also noticed how furious Aquis appeared. However, she also noticed something else in her face. “Oh, you’re not mad.” Then her smile turned sinister. “You’re just jealous.” Aquis dropped her.

“I am not jealous! I would not be jealous of . . . bumping uglies with a child,” she declared. 

“(A.) He’s actually like five hundred years and (B.) I’ve seen the way you look at him,” she emphasized. Aquis looked away from her while still fuming mad but for a different reason now.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she lied and folded her arms, still looking away. Sage slowly got up from the ground, legs still shaking, and floated toward her friend. She put her hand on her shoulder.

“I’m sorry,” she said and Aquis turned to look at her, decreasing her anger. “I shouldn’t have said those things, I know that they’re a touchy subject around you. But you need to realize that you can’t run away or pretend that stuff doesn’t exist, you have to live up to it. And just because I can and you haven’t yet, that doesn’t mean you won’t,” she said and looked away, then she chuckled to herself. “Huh, so that’s what William was talking about.” Aquis chuckled as well and the anger completely vanished.

“Leadership speeches?”

“Yeah, he’s always talked about them but I’ve never been able to replicate his style. It feels really good,” she said and took her hand off the shoulder. “We should go now.”

“Yeah, I can’t wait to see Charles’ face when he sees an actual Roman in his court.”

“I just can’t wait to see Charles, in general,” Sage said. They turned to look in the city and already saw the damage that had been done.

“EXPLAIN YOURSELF IMMEDIATELY WILLIAM!!” Charles belted. They had forced the inner guards easier than the last ones and marched directly to Charles. There were noblemen and women on either side as they barged in and interrupted the meeting. Charles didn’t even let them walk in that far before he belted that. 

“I will, when have I disappointed?” He announced to the crowd as he continued to walk along. He had kept his shoulder on Pantheon and it seemed to pacify them enough but he could see the confusion and fear in their eyes. He walked before the stairs and presented himself and the Roman centurion. “We have come across something startling-”

“Even more so than him being here?” A nobleman cried out. The others nodded and murmured to themselves in agreement.

“Indeed, if Aquis was here as well she could vow for my statements. But it is just me and Pantheon,” William said and walked up the stairs. He dropped his spear and sword as he passed Pantheon. “I was skeptical as you are right now, seeing your own Paladin would have truly confused you and it did to me as well. We would not be together if not for something that we never expected, something worse than this war we have.” With that, William pulled something out of his pants and presented it to the audience. They gasped at the reveal of the object.

It was a book, a book of necromancy.

A few fainted right away, landing in each other's arms. Charles walked up to him and snagged the book from him and examined it himself. “We have been to Dragonis and discovered that another Dark Lord lives there now but he is an old foe. He is Naz’gar, the necromancer!” More fainted and the others dropped their mouths. 

“What blasphemy and untruths are you speaking of?” Another man shouted from the crowd. This time, the crowd began agreeing angrily and giving disgusting looks at William. 

“I do not lie,” he said with a raised hand. “In the name of the Lord’s name, I DO DECLARE NAZ’GAR TO BE ALIVE AND PREPARING FOR WAR!!” He shouted. The anger and hatred began to melt as fear and denial appeared on their faces. He waved Pantheon to join him and he walked up to him. “And we have made friends with a Roman on our quest! We would not be alive today without his advice and knowledge and I am proud to announce him as my ally!” William had expected more shock and awe but they remained silent as he was pushed aside by Charles. He looked at William with slight anger and completely avoided looking at Pantheon, then he looked at the crowd.

“It is true. Two days ago, a courier retrieved an Orc sword from Zealot’s Circle. There, one hundred Orcs have been slain and their bodies thrown into the ocean to prevent and worry. I had been hoping to bring this information to the public slowly, to not bring panic. But it appears that everyone needs to know right now,” Charles explained. They saw as the doors opened to reveal Sage and Aquis, who were trying to sneak in. “You may go about your business and bring the terrible news around, but I ask that you not bring a panic. That will help no one,” he said and waved them away. They stared at him in awestruck silence for a second and quickly left, walking around Sage and Aquis. 

When everyone was out of the room, Charles pushed William down the stairs. He fell quickly and his chainmail clinked as they hit the metal. “William!” Aquis cried and both women rushed to him. At the same time, Pantheon picked up the prince.

“Why did you do that?” He yelled. Charles rolled his eyes and punched him in the nose, dropping him and stepping back. He then kicked Pantheon and he fell down at the top of the stairs. 

“What are you doing Charles?” Aquis yelled as they reached William.

“WHAT AM I DOING?! I’m keeping order in this nation! I’m trying to prevent us from panicking about the coming of the Dark Lord! I had a plan and you all ruined it! Not only was I worried about your disappearance, I also heard rumors of you bringing a filthy Roman into your employ,” he said as he looked at Pantheon, who was weakly looking at him. He walked over to him and put his boot on his wound, which made him grimace. “Why shouldn’t I kill you now, centurion dog?”

“He didn’t do anything wrong, he’s only helped us!” Aquis yelled as she helped William back up. She marched up to him and looked him in the eyes. “If you weren’t caught up with this stupid war, maybe you could see him for who he is and not where he lived!” Charles glared at her and simply walked away and off of Pantheon, she knelt down to help him.

“What would make my friends, the one allies I could truly trust, turn against me? We have been at war for ten years, you have not questioned it. You have followed my orders, you have not questioned them. You have followed my advice, you have not questioned it. Yet you question me now, all because of Roman trickery.”

“Or because of your bigotry,” Sage put in. He turned to look at her and raised an eyebrow.

“Who is she? Another one of your new ‘friends’, someone else who’s fought against us before?” He asked. 

“I am a friend, but I’m of a neutral standing,” she said, her legs still slightly shaking. “And I don’t care for how you’ve treated your own friends. You treat them like nothing more than tools for your war machine. I’ve watched the death and destruction of this war and I’ve despised it. But do you know what I’d despise more than that? A war with the Dark Lord. While you’ve been feuding with your brother, Naz’gar has been gathering strength and resources all while this stupid war has taken place.” She walked up to him and poked him in the chest. “By all that Kun graces, you must stop your war before Naz’gar does it himself.” Charles looked down at her.

“I will not cause a ceasefire, I am not working with them,” he said. “Too much has happened for one silly little event to stop all that.”

“One silly event?” Aquis asked. “The Dark Lord is back and you think he won’t do anything? We’ve seen the Orc camps that have been built. Rotwood has been torn down and we saw the Twilight Elves agreeing to help him. He’s planning on invading this land, the Orc bodies should be proof enough!”

“Charles, you can not lie to us now. Naz’gar is the biggest threat right now, some petty feud should not stand in the way of our survival,” William chimed in and Pantheon stood up.

“I don’t know if my thoughts are valid here, but our withered forces would not last long against an Orc invasion,” he piped in. Charles looked at all of them, William, Sage, Aquis, and now Pantheon. He tried to think of an argument but their facts proved effective. He gnashed his teeth as he thought of the only solution.

“Very well, let’s say that we need to work together. Would my brother agree with me in a ceasefire? It must be agreed by both parties, after all,” he said. They turned to look at the only Roman in the room.

“I do not truly know, I have only seen him once. I hope so but I do not truly know,” he stated.

“Well that chance is still a chance we have to take, regardless of probability,” said William 

“Now that that’s all settled . . . get out of my throne room and talk to my idiot brother!” Charles yelled at them. They begrudgingly walked away, grabbing their weapons along the way, and exited the room. Prince Charles looked around the empty room and put his hands on his hips, sighing greatly.

Vex had never been to Puer before. He had learned about it from books he had read, but he was never able to experience it physically. He didn’t truly want to want to go there, his home was Dragonis and he knew it. His ancestors were born there and a few of them remained. He never saw them but he could feel their presence whenever he moved close to the mountains. He immediately lost the feeling when he went to Puer. 

He was met with another feeling, confusion. When he appeared at the top of the tower, the terrain was slightly different. He was able to see mountains and forests and could also see the jungle, something he had never seen before. But it just looked like a bigger forest. He wanted to explore as soon as he appeared but he had a mission, find the Krag. 

His journey to the mountains was odd. He had asked around and it turned out, there were only two passages that allowed someone to go further in the mountains. Both of those passages were deep in Human territory. The problem with them is that they haven’t seen a Draxus in a long while and his species was also feared by them. His way through the Outcast territory was easy and completely uneventful. Even the jungle was fine because he blended in with the swamps in the western part.

However, all easiness came to an end when he saw the field ahead. He hadn’t seen anything like it. It wasn’t ruined or burnt or destroyed, it was just a field of wheat. Something he had never seen before, something not destroyed. But there was something else with the field, it was open. He looked around and saw that the only cover was a line of trees to the east and he couldn’t climb the mountains. So he began his trek through the field. It actually tickled him slightly as he walked through it, he had never even touched fauna like wheat before. 

As he walked, he looked behind and saw his tracks. They had completely crushed the wheat and his body made a large trail but as he walked, he saw other tracks. They were tiny compared to his feet. “Humans,” he said and realized. “It was them, those Humans he was talking about. These are the only footprints here, it had to have been them.” He walked with the footprints and noticed larger footprints by the smaller ones. “Orcs . . . they followed the Orc tracks. They’s smart.”

It was then that he realized how much wheat there was. He compared it to the river but bigger, like the oceans he heard of. Looking down, the wheat was up to his thighs. He knelt down and got on his claws, blending in with the wheat. It had been quite a while since he had crawled around. He had prefered to walk on his feet because he enjoyed using his hammer. But if he had to, he could run on all fours like his reptilian inferiors. So he did, he scampered through the field fairly quickly on all fours. Vex closed his eyes as he brushed against the wheat.

“Bleh! Bloody hate this grass! There’s too much of it,” he commented as he continued to crawl through the field. He didn’t know it, but his tail was peaking out of the grass. As he crawled through the field, he thought to himself and some things. At first he thought about equipment. Specifically, equipment for himself.

Vex’s only form of armor was a leather chestplate that hugged him rather tightly. He always found it somewhat uncomfortable. The best comparison he could make was that it was more grabbing than an undersized bra made of crude leather. He knew he didn’t even need it but he was always used to wearing it, Draxus hide is known for its toughness. He had thought of adding something else to his outfit, like goggles. “If I had those, I’d be able to do this with my eyes open,” he thought aloud. 

He then thought of the Humans, he had the thought from his earlier comparison with his armor. He was always confused by them. Naz’gar once told him, “humans are nothing but fleshy meat sacks with a brain smaller than my brothers and emotions that control them like a puppet master.” He didn’t completely believe his boss on that but agreed whenever he said something that related to them. In secret, he collected as many books about them and read them religiously. Unfortunately, there were only five books. Most of them talked about how inferior they were to the other species but one book, only one book seemed fair to them; Humans: A Proper Analysis. The book was by Terrance Rent but Naz’gar called him “T-rent”. As Vex thought to himself, he came out of the field and walked through the forest.

He fell in love with that book, if love was what he thought it was. He learned of emotions through that book; anger, hate, joy, and the oddest one, love. An entire chapter was dedicated to the matter. He had bookmarked that chapter because he still didn’t understand it. It talked about the definition and how Humans most commonly used it. One of the definitions was a more intense form of liking something while the other was a sexual form of liking. He knew of the first definition but not the second. He had refrained himself from asking his boss and instead looked deeper in the book. He wanted to ask one of them about love but he didn’t know what a good way to start since they feared him. 

His mind thought about the weird words when he left the woods and felt rocks beneath his feet. He looked down and saw that he was in the mountain range but it just looked like someone cut out a part of the mountain to make a path. The ground ahead was rocky and the terrain flanking him rose up in height. “Welp, is probably up there,” he said as he grabbed the face of a rock. He lunged himself upward and looked up, more rocks to climb. He grabbed another ledge and did the same. After the second climb, he noticed that there appeared to be a cave to his left. Looking there, the climbing path was difficult and the ledges were far apart. “Have to do all your physical work, don’t I?” He muttered and grabbed another ledge. 

Eventually, he reached the cave and looked in, complete and utter darkness. He patted himself down for anything useful and didn’t feel anything. “Ya just had to forget a torch, didn’t you?” With a growl and a look back at the sun, he entered the cave. With every step, the sunlight tapered off and darkness replaced it. When he pressed his foot into the blackness, he shuddered and took it back. He looked back at the cave entrance then slowly put his foot back in the darkness. He moved his entire body to the black and he couldn’t see a thing.

Except he could.

When he blinked, he was able to see the cave ahead of him. It was long, winding, and cramped. The cave was darkened but he wasn’t blinded by the shadows. He blinked again and squinted. “What? . . . How can I see?” He questioned himself. He looked down at the ground and saw where he would step next, an unimportant piece of cave. He slowly raised his foot and then slowly put it down at the same spot and saw his leg moving the whole time. His foot hit the ground and he saw the dust rise and fall. He could see in the dark, which was news to him. He didn’t have time to be fascinated over this new fact, he needed to complete his assignment. 

Something that he hated about Naz’gar, was that he had a tendency to poorly explain his plans. He told Vex to find the Krag on Puer since Dragonis had the Trolls and Coaers had the Dwarves. No one on Puer took advantage of the mountains because of the Krag, thus the name. Of course, Naz’gar never told him where to go or how far in the mountain. So he assumed that he would just keep walking until he met them, which was something he utterly dreaded. He would journey the Krag Mountains until he found them. 

The caves were weird and foreign to him, the complete opposite of the fauna and river he had known. His claws would scrape against the rocks and he’d wince every time it happened because of the awful noise it made. The same path turned and twisted in many ways but never seemed to end. He occasionally heard rocks and water droplets falling, uneasing him more. However, the path eventually ended and he was led into a large chamber. It was a vast room with a high roof and columns coming out of the ground. They looked like pillars but seemed natural. Beside the pillars, he saw them. Even though he hadn’t seen them in person, he knew they were Krag.

They were crouched or sitting down, minding their business until he entered. They methodically rose up and faced him. They were humanoid rock monsters with no head or neck, having their faces on the hump. Some had stumps for hand and others had a singular spike as an arm. They didn’t move as they watched Vex advance toward them. He looked at them and then glanced at the satchel that Naz’gar gave him. He opened it and took something out. It was a potion that contained a red liquid, it looked like blood but not in the darkness.

“Let’s see if this works,” he said as he opened up the bottle and slugged it down. He looked at the Krag and they started to approach him. Their rock feet clunked against the rock floor as they made their advance. Vex reached for his hammer when they suddenly stopped. Their bodies twitched as they grabbed parts of them. Then the twitching stopped and they stared at Vex. They didn’t move as he stared at them as well. “Oh . . . uhmmm, sit?” He commanded.

And they obeyed.

Act II: The Dark Lord's Return

“It has been a while since we have met, brother,” Charles said. They were standing in a secluded shack where the only furniture was a large, wooden desk. The only people in the shack where him and his brother, both of their guards were standing outside. The shack was moldy and the corners were completely soaked, only adding to the mold. The part where they stood had been cleaned but was still dirty to the royalty. 

“Indeed it has, brother. You did not even bother to visit me, instead you sent a ragtag group of people asking for a ceasefire. Very bold of you to send them,” Livius said. He had the same facial features as his brother; both had blonde hair, brown eyes, and were extremely handsome. A chiseled chin and smooth voice would do that to you. The only difference was their clothing. Livius wore red and gold garments while Charles wore blue and gold. 

“It was very bold of you to send Pantheon with my people,” Charles retorted. Livius gave him an odd glance. 

“I did not send him, he did that by himself.”

“He did? So they joined forces to find Naz’gar?”

“Most likely, they would not have known it was him however-”

“They would have just followed the Orc trail,” Charles finished. They looked at each other and chuckled. 

“It has been too long since we have talked,” Livius said.

“More than ten years, weren’t we sixteen when we declared war?” 

“Yes! Well, I was seventeen at the time but we both declared war on each other!”

“You are older no more than a week, no reason to brag. Beside, we can’t talk about our childhood when we’re facing another war,” Charles said and they glanced at the desk. There were maps of their lands that had drawings on them depicting major battles and destroyed territory. There were also charts and pages with numbers galore. 

“What is the plan then? What have you concocted?” His brother questioned.

“By the calculations of the mages, we appear to be winning but only slightly. We would have achieved victory already but Naz’gar has forced the Dwarves and Elves to stall on help,” Charles said and pointed at the maps of the Elvish and Dwarven lands. “You sent Aries to Coaers and I sent William to Arandul. The last report I got from William was from a week ago, did you get anything from Aries?”

“Yes, but it was two weeks ago. He hasn’t sent me anything else but he did say they were able to beat back the Krag to a lower part of the mines. So that’s good news but the Piscgem have gotten more aggressive and destroyed any supply caravans they send. Locking down the mountain folk from food and water.”

“How long will they last?”

“Without more supplies, two months. I hope your news is better,” Livius said with some hope.

“The Twilight Elves are brutal but they appear to be able to win most of the fights. William reports that Syllia’s daughter leads them on, he also claims that if he could ‘get rid of her’, they’d break and leave the war entirely.”

“What do you mean, ‘get rid of her’?” Livius questioned.

“I asked him that myself and he said he wouldn’t kill her, he wouldn’t even harm her. He would just kidnap her and force her people to surrender,” Charles stated.

“That could work but that’d be a lot to gamble on, we better hope that he can do it or we’re in for another six months.”

“We can’t make it to a year, our supplies would be too far stretched. We have to finish this soon.” Charles said and they put their heads down in thought.

“How are the others doing, have you kept in contact with them?”

“Only Sage, whom I forced to talk to me on a weekly basis. She’s gathering up the other fey creatures to fight against Rotwood, which tries to spread as the war commences.”

“Where are the others?”

“I was going to ask you that.”

“The last conversation I had with Pantheon was one month ago.”

“Do you know where they are?”

“He said they were here, on Puer . . . I mean.”

“What was he doing?”

“They,” Livius commented. Charles looked at him, confused. “You know who I’m talking about.”

“She’s with him?”

“Oh, dear brother, haven’t you noticed? They have been inseparable for the longest time,” Livius said.

“And what are they doing then?”

“You just completely ignored what you said, did you even hear me?”

“I did, but we don’t need to be concerned with stuff like that now. We’re in a war,” Charles said as he looked at the map. 

“Do you ship it?” Charles looked away from the map and at his brother, who was smiling.

“Ship . . . it?”

“Yeah, it’s something I heard a while back. It basically means do you agree with the relationship?”

“I don’t care, we need to start being serious here. We’re in the middle of war and you’re here playing matchmaker,” Charles said.

“You need to lighten up little brother, how many wars with the Dark Lord have we been through?”

“None.”

“I mean our race, we have survived ages of torment from them and we’ve always come out on top.”

“Except we’ve never faced one who’s already been a Dark Lord once, now have we?” 

“True, but we’re working together now. With our people in one basket, we can fight Naz’gar easily.”

“I hope so . . . so where was he when you called him?”

“North, they’ve been trying to stop Orc invasions for a while or at least warn the incoming villages,” Livius said. “Say, how are your mages doing?”

“I wish there were more adepts out there but I didn’t have a need for them so I didn’t search for them. There’s one mage per city which helps with the defense, so we’re unable to train any right now. Except Gwain, he’s training a few while in the Citadel.”

“So we can’t overly rely on them-” Charles remembered something and pulled up the map of their planet. He pointed to one spot and looked at his brother.

“I don’t know if you’ve heard but the jungle has been burned down,” he said. Livius moved around the table and looked at the map, the jungle was crossed off.

“What happened?”

“The Orcs burned it down when the Tribals became aggressive. So far, no survivors. The only thing that did survive was the waterfall attached to the mountain. Otherwise, there is nothing where the trees once stood.”

“That’s not good, it took them a while to go through the jungle. Now they can reach us faster.” They shook their heads in unison while looking at the map.

“Naz’gar always seems to be one step ahead of us, he knew we would call the Elves and Dwarves for assistance and he found a way to keep them occupied. Now he burned down the jungle so he could move through it faster. How does he know?” He asked.

“He has the experience, remember brother, he’s done this before.” Charles chuckled. 

“Do you think father would be proud of us? Working together for once, fighting a Dark Lord, doing things that he did?”

“He’d be proud of us when we defeat him,” Livius stated and punched his brother in the shoulder. 

“So . . . care to tell me what’s going on between Pantheon and Aquis?” He asked.

“You are so blind to girls, my brother. Let me tell you about them, after all, I want to become an uncle one day.”

“I am not blind, Livius. But since we are royalty, shouldn’t we go for the prettiest?”

“That is a fool’s way to think of it, a real man cares not for that. He cares about this,” he said and poked Charles’ chest. 

“Well then tell me, there doesn’t appear to be anything else we can talk about. We haven’t been able to act like brothers for a long, long time,” he said. They chuckled and began talking about things they were probably too old for. They didn’t care, they felt like kids and more importantly, brothers, once again.

Rotwood was gone. It used to be a large neighbor to the tower but now it didn’t exist. There were no trees, no fauna, no animals, there were not even any stumps. The Orcs had gotten rid of those as well. It was not the only Rotwood nor would it be the last, but it no longer existed on Dragonis. Meanwhile, the Orc camp crept into Rotwood and soon overcame it. Crude shacks, tents, and huts were surrounding the pristine tower like the poor amongst the rich. 

Naz’gar did not mind it, he actually enjoyed the company. He never let the Orcs in, they would ruin everything that made his tower unique. Only he and Vex would be allowed to walk the halls and read the books, sometimes admire the art. They were the only ones who were capable of it, normal Orcs were stupid, he was the only exception. He would walk through the halls regularly while the war commenced, he had ambitious plans. He was in his lab regularly, at least half of the day he toiled over his plans and their counterattacks. He’d look in the cauldron at the action and write down notes on the chalkboard. 

On the seventh day of the sixth month of the war, he noticed something. It was something he should have figured out sooner because it was obvious then. “Vex! Report! What is the latest battle report?” He yelled at him. Vex walked in the room.

“Still not good, boss. The Orcs can’t even take over a town. Deaths are pretty good though, town guards can’t handle ‘em that well,” he stated.

“No, but something has been taking out my hordes,” he said and stood up. “I don’t understand! Their allies are occupied, the Outcasts are on our side, and I even burned down that damn jungle! What is interfering with my plans?” He wiped his forehead and looked down at the table. Papers overflowed the table and stacked on each other. 

“Have you gotten the Outcasts to help you with the fighting?” Vex proposed. “That might help.”

“No, they are stubborn with that. It would help immensely but they don’t want to openly declare war on them, even though they basically have already.” Vex put his hand on his snout.

“How about . . . I don’t know, boss. What have you thought of?” He asked. Vex had expected the war to go his way quickly, but the Humans were very resilient somehow. Naz’gar dug through his notes, sheets falling to the floor. He pulled out a piece of paper and slammed it on the table. Vex moved closer in curiosity. It was a simple sheet with a numbered list, Naz’gar’s writing was poor and he couldn’t clearly see the words. 

“I have a list, actually,” Naz’gar said. He pointed to the first item. “Number one; the five. That’s what I called them, they are the five whom I tried to get rid of six months ago. I think my suspicions about them were true, they are causing problems for me now. It might be slight though, I’m not entirely sure.”

“Boss,” Vex said and Naz’gar turned to him. He pulled out his warhammer and pointed at it. “Just send me to one of them already, they’s split up so they can’t rely on each other. I’ll get rid of ‘em one by one and then boom! No more problems.”

“No,” he simply said and turned back to the notes. Vex looked at his warhammer, he knew how strong he was but Naz’gar didn’t seem to notice how better he was than the humans. 

“Why not?” Vex asked.

Naz’gar answered him without even turning to face him. “Because you aren’t ready.”

“Not ready? What do you mean I’m not ready? I’ve been under your employ for as long as I could remember, I’ve been training every day with this hammer. I’m a Draxus for my sake and an alligator, if my inferiors can kill them easily then why can’t I?” He demanded an answer from him. Naz’gar sighed and looked at him. Vex didn’t know it then but his claws were digging into his armor and his tongue escaped his mouth. 

“It’s not that I don’t trust you, I do. If I didn’t trust you as well as I do, I wouldn’t have had you test out my experiment or do my other tasks. You’re reliable, that’s something I can count on. However, these Humans just aren’t normal. They’re tougher than the others, especially the captains. They slayed hundreds of my Orcs by themselves, that isn’t natural-” He suddenly silenced himself and turned away from Vex. He had cooled down a little and wasn’t clawing his armor. “They might be dangerous, but the others aren’t . . . of course! You’re a genius!” He praised himself and turned back. “Maybe you can’t take on two of them, that doesn’t mean you can take on the others!”

“Yeah, I just heard you say-”

“I don’t know where that nature spirit is but I have enough intelligence to know where the huntress and the centurion are. I am certain you can take them off the list,” he said with a smile. “You have my permission to go back to Puer and to kill those two.” Vex rolled his eyes. “One of my scouts spotted them in Outcast territory, they are hiding somewhere and have been taking out Orc parties . . . so you can join the next one. Make sure you aren’t spotted when they attack, I doubt they will reveal themselves with a Draxus in the mix.”

“Sure thing, boss. I’ll round ‘em up and go get those two,” he said and began to walk out.

“Don’t disappoint me, you still haven’t killed anyone yet. Prove that you can,” his boss said as he left the room. Vex frowned at that comment because he was right, he had never killed anyone before. But he was sure of himself that he wouldn’t let his boss down so he left the tower, leaving Naz’gar alone once more.

“Number two,” he started and looked at where Vex once stood. “Damn it! I should have waited to tell him that after. Whatever, guess I’ll tell myself the plan that I made and know.” He looked at the list. “Number two; Rotwood. Right now, Rotwood’s influence spreads even faster and corrupts more of the creatures. If I can spread it faster then they will have to pay attention to that as well.” He looked below the table and saw his guinea pig in the cage. “I will tell my plan to you, Wiggles.” He grabbed the cage and gently set it down on the table, on the notes. His pet stared at him. “You want to hear my plans, don’t you Wiggles? Hear my genius scheme? Yes you do, yes you do,” he said while petting the creature with his long, bony finger. Wiggles didn’t seem to mind and liked the petting, moving closer to the cage to be petted further. 

“Back to my plan my beloved pet. Number three; Piscgem. Those fish men have been modest with their part of the invasion. They have only attacked the Dwarves, even then they have only hit caravans. It has proven effective actually, but they still need to target Human towns as well. I will need something to coerce them with something to get the invasion moving.” Naz’gar looked off the balcony and saw the Twilight Woods. “Not them.” He glanced down at his pet, who moved to the far side of the cage to eat. “What do you think? What will make them more aggressive?” Wiggles consumed some food and looked at him, he walked to him until he hit the cage. “Of course! You’re a genius, Wiggles!” He petted the guinea pig and smiled in thought. “I do not know how much will be there, but it is worth a try. If I haven’t figured out anything else to do, I will complete that plan.” He pointed to the next item on the list.

“Number four; the Orcs. As strong, resilient, and deadly they are, they are no doubt stupid. I still do not understand how my army gets wiped out so easily. They have much better armor and weapons than before. They have the wargs, what else do they need? What am I missing?” He stomped his foot in anger. Wiggles backed away in fear but he heard something behind him. He turned around and saw his staff glowing. He walked to it, grabbed it, and walked back. “What do you want? Why did you glow?” When he said it, the green turned to a crimson red and flashed dully three times. “I know you are trying to tell me something, but what is it?” It brightened up and shined three times again. “What is it with magic and three items? . . . magic,” he muttered and looked at his staff. It didn’t glow again. 

“YOU IDIOT!!” He yelled at himself. “The Humans have magic! Of course the Orcs are dying so quickly! Their flesh would never protect them from that arcane magic,” he realized. He put the staff on the table, behind the cage, and brought out a pencil. He circled ‘number four’ several times and slammed it on the table, scaring the critter. 

“But how do you counter magic? What material could absorb it?” He thought and he thought and he thought, pacing around the table and pinching his forehead in thought. “There is no material, maybe the Twilight trees, but I’m not certain.” He stopped pacing and looked at his notes. “You know Wiggles, if someone is using magic, it is best to use magic yourself. A sword would be useless against a fireball or getting polymorphed.” He slammed his hands against the table. “But I can’t teach them magic right now! It’s too far in the war and they are too stupid!” He paused and looked at his bony hands. “How am I a necromancer then? I am an Orc, yet I use magic.” He tapped his fingers against the desk as he delved further into thought. “Perhaps I don’t have to teach them, maybe I can make them magic. Maybe, I can speed the process along.” He looked at the cauldron behind him and saw the red liquid, then he looked at his staff. “Would it work . . . it wouldn’t hurt to try. What’s one Orc to one billion?” He joked to himself as he walked out to the balcony. 

He looked at the expanded Orc camp. The buildings close to the tower were larger than the others and were mostly armories or forges. He looked down to find any Orcs and he found one carrying a sword. “You!” He called out. The Orc looked up. “Yes, you! Drop the sword and come up here, I have something to give you!” Excitement flooded the clueless Orc’s face as he rushed to the door. He heard the door open and walked in the room. The squeaking of the Orc’s grimy feet could be heard as he ran to Naz’gar. He watched the Orc run as fast as he could down the hallway and abruptly stopped when he reached the room.

“Wha’s you need, boss?” He said. Naz’gar walked over to the table and grabbed his staff. He walked in front of the Orc and stared him in the eyes. 

“I need you to stand very still, I’m experimenting something,” he said. He didn’t know exactly what he was doing. He wanted to force magic into the Orc, but he had no idea how to do that without killing him. He waved his staff around and a red light escaped it and flowed to the Orc. Then the gem turned green and it flowed out as well. The lights combined and flowed around the Orc, forming rings around him. The Orc looked at the rings but didn’t seem to question it. Naz’gar pointed the staff at the Orc and the rings ran into it, disappearing. 

At first, nothing happened. The Orc closed its eyes and looked around to not see the rings. Then he began convulsing, his skin began to bubble and boil and his arms twitched violently. The Orc remained standing, refusing to disobey his orders. Then a green mist began pouring out of the Orc and enveloped him. The Orc couldn’t take the pain and began violently screaming. Naz’gar took one step closer but stopped himself from walking any closer. He heard the Orc’s body hit the floor then he stopped screaming. There was some silence as he waited for the cloud to dissipate. A few seconds later, it started to fade. Naz’gar moved closer to examine what happened and was stunned at the results.

The Orc’s skin was black. 

His mouth fell to the floor as he stood aghast at his creation. The Orc looked up to see Naz’gar staring at him, mouth agape. “What’s wrong? What’d I do?” He asked. He no longer had an Orcish accent, rather it was a blend of Orc and Elf (gruff British, calm and pristine yet angry and strong at the same time). 

“You didn’t do anything wrong, you passed all my expectations,” Naz’gar said, mouth still agape. The Orc got back up and looked at him. He took one quick glance at his skin and backed up, almost falling back down again.

“What happened?! What’d you do to me?!” He yelled in confusing rage. 

“I put my magic in you, try it out,” Naz’gar persuaded. The Orc looked at his hands then looked back at him. 

“How? I’ve never even touched magic . . . how does it even work?” He asked. To Naz’gar, it seemed like his personality changed along with the skin. 

“Look at your hands,” he said and the Orc did. “Do you feel the magic running through you, through your hands?” The Orc closed his eyes.

“I feel something, I’m not sure it’s the magic. I think it might be my Orcish rage,” he said. Naz’gar was surprised he knew of that, only he knew that fact.

“Is it anger?”

“No, it’s . . . powerful.”

“Good, try and harness it through your fingers,” Naz’gar said. The Orc squinted while his eyes were closed and his fingers shook. 

“I feel . . . something . . . moving through my fingers.” Suddenly, a bolt of electricity left his fingers. It was small and short, but it was there. Naz’gar backed up in amazement and so did the Orc.

“You . . . you did it!” He proclaimed. “You harnessed the magic!” Naz’gar was certainly happy, but he noticed something odd with it. It wasn’t his magic, he professed in necromancy and death magic. Lightning was something he couldn’t conjure yet the Orc could. 

“I did it?” The Orc said and opened his eyes. He tried it again and a small bolt escaped again. “I did it! That was magic!”

“It was,” Naz’gar commented. He looked at the Orc and smiled at his new plan. “Go and gather other Orcs, it would be cruel to keep this magic to just you. Your brothers will be blessed just like you!” The Orc nodded and ran out of the room and down the stairs without creating a single mess on the floor.

“Perfect, just perfect. Orcs that will act like me, finally someone who will be synced with my intelligence.” He walked out to the balcony. “Go my Orc, bring me more subjects and let me enhance them. The Humans won’t last against my magic. Go my . . . Black Orc!”

Ever since the war began, rainstorms and cloudy days infected the lands of Puer. No place seemed safe, no matter how far north or south one went. Everything was wet and there was no hope of it drying up, except for the few pyromancers who helped with that. It dampened the people’s spirits at first, but then they thought of it more as an annoyance than everything. The farmers were having a bad time as well, some of the crops drowned in the rain but some had the healthiest crops in the land. 

Pantheon and Aquis only ambushed the Orcs on cloudy days. They had tried every time they saw them but the mud betrayed them numerous times. They couldn’t climb in the rain, much less jump out of wet tree branches and hope they didn’t slip. On those cloudy days, they were very successful. So successful in fact, that the Outcasts had to periodically escort them beyond the jungle. They couldn’t take on the Outcasts so they left them alone and messaged the towns of an attack. They had ambushed the parties of Orcs by themselves and without permission from any royalty but they didn’t care, or at least, Aquis didn’t. She had plans that needed to be fulfilled in their isolation. 

Their first base was in the shack by the jungle but they had to move when the jungle burned down. They acted like nomads after that, moving all over their territory and killing any Orcs they see. They even hid in towns to get some supplies but eventually had to go back to Freemen territory for more arrows or food. Needless to say, they were successful in their mission.

Pantheon laid prone in a bush, next to a tree, in a forest, where they stayed in a cabin. The bush was surprisingly dry considering it rained two days ago but the ground was still damp. His armor couldn’t get wet but his trousers absorbed some of it. He was watching a trail in the forest, Aquis claimed it was a secret trail and the newest Orc party would certainly walk it. He would wait and see but he wouldn’t act, not without her. 

“Where is she?” He asked himself. “That party could get here any second and I can’t take them on alone . . . where is that woman?” He nudged himself closer to the edge of the bush to get a better view. He could only see a certain angle to his left and right and figured moving forward would help with that problem. Normally he relied on her to initiate the conflicts, but he didn’t know where she was. 

“Did you eat yet?” A voice said behind him. He sighed and didn’t bother to look at it.

“No, I’ll eat afterward. Get in position! They should get here any second now! There’s still enough time to get in a tree or bush,” Pantheon said. 

“Is that bush big enough?” She asked.

“Yeah probably,” he said. He heard and felt the bush shake, the leaves rustling against his body. He felt a warmness against his legs, then his shoulders. He looked over to see her right next to him, uncomfortably close. “You’re kind of close.”

“There’s not much room but it’s fine.”

“Then get in a bush . . . or a tree. There’s one right next to me, in fact-” He said and kicked the tree. “It’s right there, right next to me. Same as you, just on the opposite side.” He was trying to make the problem obvious, but it didn’t appear to work. 

“It’s fine,” she repeated. Pantheon wasn’t looking, but she blushed as she said that. Her hands snaked down to her satchel and began opening it. “I got some food right here, if you’re feeling hungry.” He looked down as she pulled out a handful of jerky.

“Is that? . . . Is that the jerky from six months ago?” He whispered. She pulled out a strip and bit off a piece.

“Yeah *chew chew*, nice of you to notice,” she said. Pantheon disgustingly looked at the old jerky entering her mouth.

“Get that out of your mouth! Food poisoning won’t help us,” he said and looked away.

“You can’t *chew chew . . . gulp* get poisoned from jerky. This can last forever . . . at least I think it can,” she said and looked at the other jerky. “It doesn’t taste bad, here try it.” She brought the food closer to his face, he turned to look at it.

“I’m fine, I’m not having jerky for breakfast. It doesn’t make a good breakfast food, better for a snack. As I said, I will eat later,” he explained. She sadly removed the jerky from his face and put it back in the satchel. They watched the path in silence for a short while, then Pantheon broke the silence with a chuckle. Aquis turned to look at the laughter.

“My apologies, I was just thinking of something,” he said and looked at her. “Do you remember when this all started? Back in Zealot’s Circle?”

“Yes . . . fondly,” she quietly said, trying to hide her true emotions. 

“I remember when the Orcs attacked, they charged out of those woods recklessly. They attacked William and Sage without any survival instinct, then the captain came out and rallied them. It reminded me of what I was, a centurion to the Romans. Gathering the forces after a route . . . those were the good days,” he dreamily said and looked at Aquis, who wasn’t as thrilled. “I mean, this is better but it’s just not as . . . fun? Would that be a good word?”

“You don’t think this is-” 

“Sorry, I interrupted myself. When the captain controlled the Orcs, he charged them at you. William and Sage were able to take them on easily, something that surprises me to this day. Then, the captain charged you. He ran at you with a ferocity I’d never seen before, but you stayed cool. I watched you slay the beast, then you fell into William’s shoulder. When you lifted your face . . . I was surprised to see tears,” he stopped and looked at her again. She was tearing up and turned away from her in shame. “Are you okay?”

“I’m . . . fine *sniffle*,” she said, still turned away. 

“No, you’re not. If you aren’t going to tell the truth to yourself, fine by me. But you certainly aren’t going to lie to me if something is wrong,” he said with some fire in his voice. Red flushed back to her face for a quick second. When it faded, she looked at him.

“I . . . *sniffle* I was crying because I was scared, I had never fought anything I thought would get the better of me. After years of hunting the same animals, I was used to the ease. Fighting Orcs? That was . . . something entirely different. I could see the rage in their eyes, unrelenting and even when they died it lingered.” She paused and looked at the ground. “Even now, after months of fighting them, I can’t help but fear them.” She turned to look at him. “What if we don’t succeed? Against the Outcasts, they would jail us or execute us. Against the Orcs? Who knows what they’d do?” Pantheon saw the sadness rush back to her and put his hand on her back to comfort her. He didn’t know it then but it worked immediately.

“I won’t let that happen, we’ve been doing this for a while and we haven’t failed yet. If we do, then I will make sure you get away safely,” he said.

“What will happen of you then? I can’t let the same thing happen,” she stated.

“You’re more important, besides, you still have to find that ancient albino elk,” he said with a smirk. She smirked as well and they looked at the path.

“Speaking of Lucifer, I hear something,” she said. They silenced themselves and waited. She was able to hear the ground tremble before he could. Fifteen seconds later, he heard them as well. However, he heard the talking instead. Something they figured out quickly about Orcs, they weren’t quiet creatures. Like Sage every single day, they were loud and cheerfully bragging about what they were going to do. 

“Thems meatbags won’t expect us coming this way,” an Orc said. Pantheon snickered and Aquis slapped her hand on his mouth, it lingered there for an uncomfortably long time. He moved her hand away himself. The Orcs grew louder as time advanced, along with their stomping. The smell was also a clear reminder that Orcs had no hygiene. 

“How long’s it take to get there?” Another one said. They were getting louder.

“We’re getting there soon, just hush up an’ stay to the path,” one of them instructed. “Did he just give us a direction or did he say to go to X town?” 

“Don’t matta’ much, we just gotta kill ‘em,” one of the Orcs stated. They could then see Orc feet. They were barefoot and the feet were massive as they stomped through the forest. In the middle of the crowd, they were unable to see feet and saw a black robe instead. Aquis tapped her fist against the ground three times, getting Pantheon’s attention. They made eye contact and nodded, then he led the charge. 

He quickly arose from the bush and leapt into the path, holding his spear up at them. Aquis simply stood up and aimed her bow at the party. They turned to look at them but didn’t do anything to provoke a fight. Pantheon didn’t do anything as well and just stared at them.

“So it’s just you two then?” The cloaked figure asked, losing the Orc accent he imitated. The Orcs around him moved away so the important characters could face off. 

“So what if it is? We’ve take out dozens of your bands and today won’t be any different,” Pantheon said as he thrust his spear at the hooded figure. The figure turned to him and grabbed the spear in the air, revealing talons and scaly skin. He grabbed the hood of his robe and flung it off him, revealing a creature they had only seen in books. They looked at him in horror as he snapped the spear in half like it was nothing. 

“D-d-d-d-d-d-dra-draxus?” Aquis stuttered, immobilized in fear. The gigantic lizard grinned at them both and turned his snout to look at the Orcs.

“Go ahead boys! I’ll take these guys on, have fun with the ravaging you’ve so intently talked about,” he half sarcastically stated. The Orcs ran away from the conflict, leaving only them. 

“No!” Pantheon said. He tried to run after them. He succeeded in grabbing the broken part of his spear with the blade but the Draxus grabbed him by the collar of his armor. 

“Don’t worry ‘bout them now, you won’t interfere with Naz’gar’s plans for much longer now,” he said while gazing at Pantheon. Aquis pulled an arrow out of the quiver and put it in her bow. 

“Put him down . . . now,” she calmly demanded. Her fear subsided momentarily and was replaced with anger. 

“You better do it, she’s really good with that thing,” Pantheon supported. Vex just smiled and looked at her. 

“Oh I know, I know about you two. That’s why I’m here, after all,” he said and switched gazes. “I wasn’t there when you escaped Naz’gar’s grasp and he’s been haunted by his failure ever since. I’m here to quell part of the problem so he can silence the entire one soon.”

“Silence this!” Aquis said and loosed an arrow. It quickly left the bow and entered his shoulder. However, he didn’t react, he only looked at her. He flung Pantheon into the ground and looked at the arrow. He grabbed the arrow and pulled it out of his scales, he flinched as he did it and looked at her. 

“Is that the best you can do?” He questioned. She shrunk down in fear again and looked at her bow. 

“Silence this!” Pantheon yelled. Vex looked down as he stabbed his spear into his thigh. Vex roared and jumped away, grabbing his wound. Pantheon got up on his legs and grabbed the other broken part of the spear. Aquis stepped out of the bush as they watched the Draxus pull out the spear. He aggressively ripped it out and looked at it.

“Oh, I was gonna take it easy on ya. In regard of the fact that you’ve never seen me before, but you just had to stab me,” he said. 

“So the Draxus are working with Naz’gar?” Aquis asked. 

“Just me, I’m the last one left,” he admitted. Not even Naz’gar knew that truth.

“How do you know?” 

“I have a sense, something with ma lizard blood. The intelligents of my kind no longer reside on Dragonis but I know the drakes do. I can feel their lust of treasure in ma veins as well,” he said.

“You . . . don’t tend to keep secrets, do you?” Pantheon realized. He was the most talkative foe they met and they didn’t even know his name yet.

“No need, I don’t have any secrets. Besides, it’s not like you two are gonna live much longer.”

“I don’t care if you are a Draxus, you’ll go down just like the rest of them,” Pantheon announced.

“Then it will be a fair fight, I haven’t had one of those in years,” he said and walked toward them. His tail wagged as he approached them. Aquis took aim again and loosed another arrow. It hit his leather armor and he didn’t feel anything that time. He raced to them and readied his hands. He swiped at Pantheon but he dodged it. He kicked Vex’s legs three times and crawled between his legs. Vex looked and tried to grab him again but he missed again. For once, his size was betraying him.

Another arrow hit him in his armor, he didn’t know if it was on purpose or if her aim was that bad. Maybe she was just stupid and didn’t know that was actually armor. He felt his body move forward as Pantheon put his entire body into a kick. Vex fell to the ground but swung his tail around in retaliation. Pantheon tripped on the tail and Vex got back up. An arrow hit his arm and it recoiled. He grabbed it out as Pantheon got up. He growled and looked at Aquis, then he charged.

“Look out!” Pantheon warned her. She watched as the lizard ran to her, so she was ready. She dashed to her left but he was one step ahead and slapped in that direction. She was hit by the large hand and immediately fell to the ground. Vex grabbed her and turned around to face the centurion. Pantheon pointed his spear at Vex as she held up Aquis. She was struggling to get out of his grasp but it was useless. “Put. Her. Down,” he said.

“What makes she so special to ya?” Vex asked as she looked at her struggling. “Last time I checked, you were on opposing sides in that stupid civil war y’all were having. In fact, didn’t you two fight before you came to my planet?”

“How do you know that?” He asked, remaining unnerved and still pointed the spear at him. He moved forward slightly and aimed it at his face. 

“Don’t you know? He’s been watching you for a long time, all of you,” Vex said and brought his claws to her neck. Aquis stopped struggling and felt the sharp claw drag across her neck. “So tell me, why don’t I end her? What does she mean to you?” Vex wasn’t entirely sure why he said that part. He had wanted to intimidate them to run away but they refused to do so. 

Pantheon looked at Aquis, helpless and one slash away from death. He bit his tongue at his first answer, he didn’t want to say that. He had to think of something so she could escape. “A friend, something that you probably don’t have,” he mocked. Unbeknownst to him, that was a true arrow to the gator’s heart. He shook off the comment momentarily and scratched her neck to make it bleed slightly. But midway, he stopped and thought about it. 

It was then that Vex suddenly calmed himself while looking at him. He forced his claws away from her throat. A look of confusion appeared on Pantheon’s face but he didn’t know why. He tossed her at Pantheon and looked at them both. He saw him help her up and saw sincerity and friendliness on their faces. Something he knew he had never seen before and something he never experienced before. The only one who looked at him like that was Eldritch, but he just seemed like a chipper person in general. In his confusion of emotions he heard Aquis whisper, “seems like you struck a nerve” and they both chuckled. Vex’s mixed bag of emotions was lost as he was filled with anger. An anger he had never experienced before, a hatred. A hatred for mocking him, but more importantly, reminding him of the unfortunate truth. 

“Ah shit! Duck!” Pantheon yelled. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the alligator running at them. Aquis turned to look at what he was talking about but she was too late. In an instant, Vex pulled out his warhammer and slammed it into her side. Her body bent with the hammerhead and she plunged into a tree.

“Makin’ fun of me, have fun laughin’ with cracked ribs!” he taunted. 

“I’ll kill you!” Pantheon yelled. Vex couldn’t turn around in time and felt Pantheon climb his back. He felt the spear blade entering his back, his shoulder, and even his arm. He roared in pain and attempted to grab the pest off his back but he was elusive. He then tried to punch him off but he could only punch himself. “You. Don’t. Lay. A. Finger. On. Her!” He yelled with every stab. 

“Get off me!” Vex said as he moved around in a circle, still trying to grab/slash/punch him. While walking around and getting stabbed, his foot fell on the other broken part of the spear and he slipped. Vex fell on his back and got back up, realizing that Pantheon was back there. He looked at the ground and saw that he was clutching his stomach. Vex looked over his flattened body and Pantheon frightfully looked at him.

“No . . . no . . . no,” he muttered as he tried to crawl. Vex noticed he wasn’t crawling away, toward the road or even away from him. He was trying to reach the woman. He was greatly confused by Pantheon’s actions and grabbed him by the armor, lifting him up. He forcefully threw him against her and she jutted back to life. She looked at Pantheon’s unconscious body and groggily looked at Vex approaching them. He grabbed his warhammer and dragged it through the dirt as he looked at them. They were completely and utterly helpless. He was disappointed at how easily he had beat them. He was expecting a challenge from both of them but their emotions got the better of them. 

“Please . . . don’t,” Aquis begged. She coughed up blood on Pantheon’s body and wiped her mouth. “Don’t . . . hurt him anymore . . . I beg you.” Vex was standing above them and slammed his hammer down near his head. 

“Why?” Vex asked. “This isn’t anything personal, it really ain’t. You seem like good folks, we’s just on opposite sides.” Aquis looked at Pantheon, his eyes closed and her blood covered his armor. She looked at the Draxus who had defeated them, mighty and intimidating but not what she expected. She gulped and stared at him.

“I love him,” she whispered. Vex’s heart dropped and any anger or hostility he had vanished. He glared at her and saw the truth in her eyes. She said the one word he did not know, the one word he was most curious about. He knew he had an opportunity but he figured something else out. If he asked her, he wouldn’t be able to live with himself with them dead.

“What is it . . . love?” He asked. Aquis thought she was mocking him and spit at him but it only reached his feet. He brushed his feet against the grass in disgust.

“Don’t mock . . . me, it might seem stupid but I do. So if you’re going to kill me, just . . . do it. Just . . . please spare him,” she said. Vex brought up his hammer and looked at her. He saw immense sadness in her eyes but when she looked down at him, she smiled and happiness coincided with the sadness. Vex’s hands shook as he watched her emotions change so easily. 

“AH!!” He yelled as he brought his warhammer down.

William had never seen Elves before, not actually. In classes, they had learned of the Elves, Dwarves, and the like, but he never had the chance to see them in real life. Same thing with Dwarves but he wasn’t as amazed with them as he was Elves. Sure, the Dwarves were smart and were able to make metal become alive but he was always fascinated by magic. Which is something the Elves used regularly. While being a Paladin under Charles, he had never once magic. He had wanted to, immensely, but no matter where he was sent, there was no magic.

He had to hide his emotions really well when Charles told him to go to Arandul. Inside, he was screaming with excitement and anticipation. Outside, he simply said “at once, my liege”. When he left the Citadel, he almost burst with excitement. He simply couldn’t contain it any longer. He found an opportunity to yell out in joy when he was riding to his destination. He was riding to Zealot’s Circle, that was where a secret portal to the other worlds remained. Charles had only told him that much regarding it. He was told that the “zealots” would open the portal. Sure enough, he found a group of five black robed figures in the middle of the circle. He walked closely to them and poked one of them on the shoulder, yet they all turned to him.

“Into the circle. You shall go, William. The Elves need much help. You will slay their threats,” they all monotonically stated. He was creeped out by them but didn’t want to waste any time. He walked into the center of the circle and watched the zealots link arms and chant, “dra kia unu kiim”. As they repeated the phrase over and over again, a dark circle appeared at his feet. It circled around him as the chanting got louder and faster, then a blinding light erupted from the ground and consumed him. 

He opened his eyes and rubbed them, the bright light lingered with him. After enough rubbing, he was amazed. It worked, it actually worked. He was on Arandul now. He could tell by the glorious marble flooring he was on, the patterns on the marble were also a clue. The patterns from before were in the marble but looked much better.

“You must be William,” someone said. He looked up to see an Elf in simple yet extravagant garments before him. He had golden blonde hair, pale skin, and dark brown eyes. The Elf was polite and stood straight with his hands behind his back.

“I am,” he simply said with a nod. 

“I will need you to follow me then, she has been waiting for your arrival,” the Elf said and turned around. William followed the guide as they walked up the stairs, even the stair handrails were expertly carved. His mouth dropped when they reached the top of the stairs. He hoped heaven was just as beautiful as what he saw. The city glowed with some magnificence that initially blinded him, but he was so determined that he got over it quickly. On the sides of the roads, there were pillars with rose bushes between them. There were buildings of different shapes and sizes that were made of marble. As he walked behind the guide, he saw how green the grass was. He also noticed that other Elves were looking at him, they smiled and showed him the backs of their hands. He didn’t know how to respond and nodded in response. 

“In order to properly meet our queen, there are some requirements that you Humans don’t know,” the guide said without turning to him. “First, you may not look directly at her unless she has given permission. Second, when we approach her, you must fall on both of your knees. That is the best way to show respect to her with being an Elf.” It was then clear to William that maybe the Elves were different than the ones he had read about. “Third, you are not to speak to her unless she gives you permission. Fourth, you are to address her only by ‘your Holiness’. Additionally, it has been a while since we have had a Human visitor so it is advised to not make direct eye contact with any of the women. We do not need any more hybrids and do not dare mention them along with the . . . Twilight Elves,” he muttered. 

“You have a lot of rules here, not even Prince Charles has that many,” William said. They passed some buildings and he avoided eye contact with the passing women, even though he could tell they were looking at him. He even heard some of them talking about him.

“Of course, but those rules aren’t for us. We have no need to follow them because we already treat her with the respect she deserves. They are for you Humans,” he said. 

“What about the Dwarves?” He questioned. The Elf stopped for a moment then continued to walk. He noticed they were walking towards a garden. It looked more like a park with the trees, bushes, and multitudes of domesticated food plants.

“That is none of your concern, your only concern is meeting with her,” he said and continued walking. They passed into the garden and William noticed the fauna. It appeared to be the exact opposite of Rotwood, everything was pure and the fruits appeared ripe. Speaking of fruit, upon passing under a tree, an apple hit the top of his helmet. He looked up and saw someone’s feet but only for a second before they dived into the leaves. “Do not mind the children, they are playful with foreigners. Do not think of eating the apples, you will not like them.” He had grown to dislike the first Elf he met. 

“Is that her?” He asked. William looked ahead and saw a woman sitting on a marble bench. She was wearing a white dress that glowed and had pale skin that glowed with the dress. She had very contrasting light brown hair. There were guards in shining white armor, they looked like marble statues. In front of the woman, there were a group of seven children. They were sitting down, looking at her.

“What did I say? You are not to look at her,” the guide reminded. 

“I just saw her . . . glow, that’s all,” he defensively stated and lowered his head to avoid eye contact. They walked closer to the woman and stopped. William peeked up to see that they were next to the children.

“This is the delegate that the Humans have-” The guide started.

“And I assume the delegate has a name, please state it now,” she said. Her voice was heavenly and there seemed to be an echo. The guide looked at William and back at her.

“I-I . . . uh . . . I-I didn’t g-get his name when he came,” he sheepishly said. 

“You may go back to your post and next time, get their names,” she said with slight annoyance. He saw the Elf walk back the path and heard the children snicker. William realized that he was alone in a crowd of children and the queen so he quickly fell to his feet. Except, he fell on one knee instead of two. “Did he tell you to kneel when you met me?”

“Yes he did, your Holiness,” William said and the woman lightly chuckled.

“Those were old traditions, he hasn’t changed his ways. Still, he does a good job,” she said. “You can stand up now and you can look at me.”

“Yes, your Holiness,” he said and the kids giggled. He stood up, looked at her, and his mouth dropped. She was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. Her face looked as soft as the Krag were hard. Her brown hair flowed elegantly down to her waist and appeared just as soft. Her smile warmed him up and there were no flaws with her face.

“You don’t need to call me that, you can just call me Sylvia, Queen Silvia of the Elves,” she said. One of the kids raised their hands and they both looked at the kid.

“What is it?” She asked.

“Can I touch him?” He asked. Immediately, other hands were raised as well and they all blurted out their questions.

“Can I talk to him?”

“I want to see the Human!”

“Do you know him?” The garden filled with their clamoring and questions. She smiled at their questions and held up her hands.

“Children, you can ask those questions later. Right now, I need to talk to him,” she said. The children got up and touched his armor as they passed William. 

He could hear them whisper, “it’s cold” or “it’s real metal”. They waited for the children to pass by before their conversation would continue. William noticed that the guards really looked like marble statues, they didn’t move at all. 

“Before we begin, what is your name?” She asked.

“William,” he said. 

“William, are you the only one joining us or are you just an example of the Human armies?” She asked.

“I am the only . . . Queen Silvia,” he admitted. She nodded and rose from the bench. She walked up to him and stopped when they were close to another. She placed her hands on his helmet. “May I?”

“Yes,” William said. Silvia grabbed the sides of the helmet and lifted it off his head. When his helmet left the armor, his hair began to reveal itself. She pulled it completely off him and his hair flooded his face, covering it up.

“Oh my!” Silvia reclaimed, very surprised. She looked at the immense amount of black hair that covered his face. 

“My apologies-”

“No . . . don’t,” she said and felt his hair. “A wonder, I thought you Human males kept it short.”

“We do,” he said and forced his hair behind him. She was able to see his face. “I like to keep it long.” She put her hand on his cheek and he looked down at it. 

“Your skin is rough, have you been in that many fights?” She pondered. 

“I have and those scars were my fault. I refused to wear my helmet for the first days of the war . . . learned the hard way why that was a good idea,” he said as he looked at the helmet. 

“Impressive, maybe this is possible with only you after all,” she said and realized her hand was still on his face and she brought it back. “My apologies, I have never seen a Human so strong.”

“You haven’t seen me in combat yet. How would you know?”

“We can tell many things off of minor interactions, like how you have been waiting to meet us for years,” she revealed. His face turned red as they looked at each other.

“I can not lie, I have always wanted to come here. I’ve had a fascination of your people for as long as I can remember,” he admitted. She chuckled and grabbed his gauntlets. 

“Well now is the time. Besides, I need to show you your quarters and where you will go tomorrow.”

“But the day is still fresh, surely you need me to do something today?” He questioned but she smiled more. It would have creeped him out how he only saw him smile, if not for the fact that he was loving every moment of the interaction.

“You are not the only one who will have questions and I must show you around,” she said and pulled him away from the bench. He quickly reached down to grab his helmet and followed wherever she was dragging him. 

Silvia forced him to take a tour of their capital, Wilderling. It was a large place, larger than the Citadel itself. He noticed that the homes were built into trees and the marble buildings were government or workplaces. There were no forges so he heard no clanging of metal. However, he did see one lonely anvil near a body of water. It was silver rather than iron but had no instruments of forgery and no weapons nearby. He made sure to bring those details to attention.

“Odd,” he said and stopped to look at the anvil. 

“What is it?” She asked.

“That is the first anvil I’ve seen here. I’ve never seen one of that color,” he noticed.

“All weapons forged here are on that anvil.”

“Who uses it?”

“I do,” she said with a light smile.

“You do? But you’re the queen, wouldn’t that job belong to someone else?” He questioned. She chuckled and took his arm, walking to it.

“That’s exactly why I work it, only the queen’s magic can properly forge the blades.”

“What kind of blades can be forged by only you?” He asked. She walked up to the anvil and held out her hand. “May I see your blade?” William unsheathed his sword and willingly gave it to her. She grabbed the hilt and laid it gently on the anvil. She reached around it and pulled out an anvil. Compared the Elvish objects he had seen so far, the hammer she pulled out didn’t look it. Runes were inscribed on the head but the hammer wasn’t silver or white. It was a dark black with a gray handle. 

“We would have never gotten far in life without the Dwarves. They are skilled with crafting tools and helped us with them. That’s why everything is made of marble, it being the best looking mineral. They gave us weapons but we didn’t want to rely on them so they gave us this.” She held up the hammer. “Forged by Dwarves, enchanted by Elves. A hammer that can enhance any blade with any magic,” she explained. She lifted the hammer as high as she could and slammed it against the blade. William watched, awestruck, as it glowed when struck then it dulled. Silvia put the hammer back and walked away, nudging toward the blade. William picked it up and looked at it.

“T-thank you,” he stammered and stopped himself from bowing to her. She didn’t like it when he kneeled so he had to resist the temptation at every point. 

“I feel it is fair for what you are getting yourself into,” she said and her smile died suddenly. “My sister will not fight fair and you have no experience against her Elves. My magic will help you,” she scowled.

“What does it do?”

“It makes the sword indestructible, not even an ent’s bark can break the blade. It is good against those who actively use magic . . ,” she stopped and bit her lip. “Able to slash it out of the air. Have you ever destroyed a fireball with a glaive? Let me tell you, it gives you an adrenaline rush like nothing else. Additionally, it will glow around evil magic. I can’t explain what is specifically evil, but you will know when it glows.”

“Thank you, Queen Silvia,” he said as he looked at the blade. 

“Now come, the sun begins to fall and we haven’t even eaten yet. You will like what we have ‘cooked’ up,” she said with a smile. 

Four months had passed after William arrived in Arandul. He had begun to grow used to the foreign terrain, how there were no mountains and only hills or flat lands. There were large elevations, but the Elves called them plateaus, not mountains. The plateaus had snow and were rocky like mountains but he didn’t try to correct them. He did not visit the plateaus or even see them. 

When the Twilight Elves invaded from the north, Silvia requested that he stay within the city walls and improve morale, he disagreed. Silvia then requested that he would act as a guard to the city, he disagreed. Silvia then requested he go to a nearby town, he faltered. He said he wanted to go further away to get closer to any action. She replied that they could come anywhere at any time but he didn’t falter. She didn’t see any point in trying to change his view and let him go.

William went to a “border” town by the ocean they called the “Goddess’ Touch”. It was a small town with a little less than one hundred citizens and only four guards. It was close to where the Twilight Elves were but not too close. He mocked them at first but was quickly shown how skilled they were. They all beat him in a fight with nothing but a large stick. They were lax and patient compared to him. They stood by the walls of the town only three hours for every guard. Meanwhile, William stood outside for eighteen hours and kept a greater watch. He refused to look away from the woods or the ocean so he could see the enemies coming. But they didn’t come, not yet. 

“William,” someone called out. His eyes remained on the forest, ignoring the call. 

“William!” The voice called out louder. His glance turned to the entrance but flicked back to the woods. 

“You can halt your watch for a little while,” one of the guards said. He was tall, they all were to William. He was wearing simple clothes but carried a short sword on his belt. Like all the other Elves, he had pure blonde hair and a handsome face.

“Very well, take over my watch,” he said and walked to the entrance. The Elf looked at him as they passed.

“I-I . . . but,” he tried to argue. William walked to the dirt road and followed the call. He didn’t have to walk far when he saw a group of children. They were surrounding something and he heard someone crying so he picked up the pace.

“What happened?” He asked. The children looked at him and moved around from the nexus of attention, a little girl. Her hands were covering her eyes as she sniffed and sobbed. She wiped her tears away and looked at him.

“M-my fairy r-r-ran away!” She said and burst into tears. William kneeled down to her level and put his enormous hand on her shoulder.

“Where did you see . . . it go?” He asked. The other children pointed behind William and she did as well.

“O-over there, it went i-in the woods,” she said, the waterworks calming slightly. He stood up and looked where they pointed. He had never ventured those woods but he watched them intently. 

“It’s okay, I’ll get it back,” he said and nodded. She nodded back and smiled, the tears fading into her skin. He walked away from them and heard one of them say “he’s the best”, he smiled at that. He passed the guard he talked to earlier and they quickly exchanged words.

“What was that about?”

“Kid lost her fairy, I’m going to get it.”

“Oh, don’t take too long. Mother’s making mushroom pie again and it runs out quickly.”

“I will do my best but I won’t return without it.”

“Good luck,” he said as William passed into the woods. As he walked by the trees, he felt at peace. He was perplexed by the feeling until he thought of why, Aquis. He hadn’t seen her or Sage in seven months and actually grew sad because of it. He didn’t show his emotions but they would always linger while he was alone. He wanted to see them, badly. He wanted to joke with them, mock Aquis’ obsession with the ancient albino elk, and eat some of Sage’s awful cooking. He chuckled at the thought of them. But his smile faded slightly when he thought about Pantheon.

He hadn’t trusted the Roman at first, yet he was completely fine with that fact. Something that perplexed him further but he kept quiet for his friends’ sake. He never trusted how friendly he was, especially around the others. He also didn’t trust him because he kept that shadow child thing a secret from them. Something ticked at the back of his mind while thinking of the Roman. He had gotten awfully friendly with Aquis awfully fast. He gnashed his teeth when he thought how flirtatious he had acted around her. Pantheon tried to hide it from William, but he knew. He could tell by Aquis’ actions and how she responded to him. He did not approve one bit. 

He could feel that he was taking advantage of her. Using her innocence and her weakness for his own goals. It worked for him so far, he had gotten on both of their good sides immediately. Only William, the man, remained unchanged of his opinion. He had to intervene but his “isolation” had prevented him from doing so. He did have the communicator William gave him but he had no idea if Aquis had one. He also didn’t know if Pantheon would hear their conversation. If he didn’t intervene soon, he feared for the worst. Either they would start to date or he would take advantage of her.

Thinking of that made him unknowingly take out his sword and slash a tree. It cut the tree deep, the magic Silvia put on it was effective and true. He hands bit into the leather hilt as his anger increased with every second he thought of it. He knew she would be delighted for such an occasion, she had to. She had no lovers in her life and she had grown depressed because of it, that’s why they never talked about. Then, conveniently, a Roman who is polite, kind, and thoughtful shows up and starts being nice to her. He slashed at another tree in anger, which caused him to look around. He saw that, to his left, the ground was quickly falling off, exposing a field of grass down below. He made sure to walk away from the ledge that was approaching him. 

He was about to think about Pantheon again when he noticed something strange. The woods he was in weren’t normal, they were ashen white with blue and green leaves. He realized he had accidentally wandered too far into Twilight territory. He also noticed that a large spider web was in front of him. It was weaved between two trees and had things wrapped up in it. As he was about to touch it, a large spider crawled down the tree and onto the web. William backed up as the spider looked at him and hissed. He backed up away more then it moved away, toward its prey. He took one step in the opposite direction when he heard, “Twill? Are you out there?” It was of an Elvish accent and he assumed it was a Twilight Elf. He hid behind the tree and waited.

“Where are you? You can’t go this far, the Twilight hasn’t expanded that much yet!” A woman cried out. William poked his head out to look at the spider and he raised an eyebrow.

“Is she talking about you?” He asked it and ducked his head back. He waited behind the tree for the woman to approach him. He held his sword in his right hand and reached for his shield, on his back, with the other. 

“There you are! You can’t go crawling away and making a nest somewhere else! Do you know where you are right now? You’re at the border, we don’t go to the border,” she said. Her voice was close, near the webbing. He could hear the spider crawling down the tree and heard its legs hit the grass. “Aw! Who’s the best spider, you are! And the naughtiest,” she playfully said. The spider chirped something. “What’s that?” It chirped and tapped the tree he was behind. “Did you catch something big and you want to show me?” He figured she would walk around and see him, so he decided to surprise her. He lept from behind the web and with one clean cut, slashed it down. “AH!” She yelled. They both looked at each other for only a second.

“You!” They both cried. William looked at the Twilight Elf woman and immediately recognized her. She was Luna and was leading the Twilight invasion of Arandul. He never faced her before but Silvia talked about her. How she was malicious with her enemies and a great tactician. Silvia said she also used magic, especially dark magic. He initially hated her because of that fact but she was truly astonished to see how beautiful she was. If he thought Silvia looked well for her age, Luna looked as beautiful as moonlight. Somehow, her facial features were more beautiful than he thought was possible. Her long hair was an attractive silver that matched her purple armor. 

Luna watched a man in silver armor slash through her pet’s webbing and surprise her. She recognized the man, he was William. She had never seen him yet, but she made her scouts prioritize him for information after an entire party was wiped out because of him. She hated him for killing her family so easily, as if mocking her. But as she looked at him, she was in awe. He was big, huge to her standards. An Elf might be tall but they weren’t as built as the man before her. He was clad in the armor with a sword in his right hand and a shield on his back. 

“What are you doing here?” She asked. The spider crawled behind her and hissed at him.

“I could say the same thing for you, especially since you’re royalty,” he replied. “Seems like you’re far from your home.”

“You are too, considering there’s a Human on this planet. A planet that should be where Elves reside,” she emphasized.

“No, I meant that you were calling out to your pet . . . meaning we’re all alone . . . aren’t we?” He said with a sinister smile that she couldn’t see. She looked behind her and back at him, her eyes flicking back to the trees. 

“N-no of course not, you think the Twilight princess would travel alone in the middle of a war?” She said and tried to not to stammer.

“Princess? I didn’t know that, maybe that explains her hatred of you. Silvia probably wouldn’t have wanted to fight her niece,” he taunted.

“I-I . . . you . . . damn it,” she muttered. “You wouldn’t do what I think you’re eluding too.”

“I don’t have much of a choice princess, if I knock you out of this thing then maybe this war can end faster. I don’t want to do this believe me, I don’t. I only wanted to find a child’s fairy and then this happens. I can assure you, I will only bring you to your aunt, I will do nothing to you physically,” he promised. Luna took a step back, so did the spider.

“No! You won’t!” She yelled. She swept her hand and a dark force knocked him down. “I came here to stall my race from helping your race, and I’m going to make sure it stays that way. No knight in shining armor is going to stop me from doing so!” William leapt up from the ground and faced her again. 

“So it is true, you do use dark magic,” he said.

“It doesn’t matter what magic I use, as long as it works!” She said. She held her hand out to him and black veils darted out, targeting him. He dashed to the side and slashed some of the veils, destroying them entirely. He made sure to dash to his right, he had an idea. She frowned and showed him her palm, more veils came out. He dashed around but one of them hit him and wrapped around his arm. He tried to pull it off but another one wrapped around his leg. Then another to his other arm, leg, and his entire chest. The veils forced him to his knees and he dropped his sword.

“I haven’t been able to see who you are yet. Might as well since you’re not going to last that much longer,” she said as she approached him. He tried to pull on the veils but they were stubborn and he was unable to move anything. She grabbed his head but he shook free of her grasp.

“Don’t do it,” he said. She twirled her finger around another veil and it grabbed his throat.

“And how are you going to stop me?” She asked as she tried to do it again. She grabbed the helmet and yanked it off his head, releasing the flood of hair. She gasped and closed her first, destroying the veils by accident. She looked as long, silky, black hair poured out of the helmet and covered his face. She was taken aback, physically as she looked at him. She quickly moved to him to remove the hair from his face but William realized that he was free and lunged at her. He grabbed her by the armor and pulled her to the ground, rolling around in the process. He came out on top of her, still grabbing the armor. 

“That’s how I’ll stop you,” he said, hair still in his face. He blew some of it away so she got a peak of his rough skin, but it came back to cover him up. Luna looked around for an advantage. She was on the ground, William was on top of her, preventing any escape, and he pinned her arms down as well. She looked to the left and noticed that the ledge was very close to them, she smiled in thought.

“And this is how I will counter!” She said and kicked him off. It took all of her energy, but she was able to buck him off her. William flipped into the air and grabbed her armor once more as they fell down the cliff. Lucky for them, there was a seventy degree dirt ramp down to the bottom. They tumbled down the ramp, he was still holding onto her armor, she was flailing to hit him. 

“Ah!” He yelled.

“Ooof!” She cried out.

“How *bump* steep *bump* is *bump* this *bump* thing?” He asked as they continued. They continued to yell and cry out pains they experienced along the way down. When they finally hit the bottom, William let go of her and they landed away from each other. Both of them groaned with numerous dull pains covering their bodies. William lunged back upright and ran to Luna, who was still on the ground. He grabbed her, once again for the third time, and lifted her off the ground. She was surprisingly light for how tall and how thick the armor looked. 

“Don’t . . .“ she said and passed out, head falling to her shoulder. He scoffed and almost threw her to the ground, then realized he wasn’t that cruel and set her down. She looked peaceful in her knocked out sleep even with the dirt and grime on her face and in her hair. He shook his head and reached into his pocket. He grabbed a circular “chrome” device, the middle of it was lower than the sides and there were seven bronze slits in the middle. It was the communicator, old Draxus technology. 

“Prince Charles,” he said into the device. A green rectangle appeared from it and displayed three dots, he was trying to reach him. Each dot brightened and dulled while he waited. It disappeared and he saw Charles’ face.

“William! It has been a while since I have had contact with you! What happened? Where are you? Has your mission been a success?” He asked. He seemed very happy to see William. 

“It has been a while and I apologize for my lack of communication. The Elves have proven more friendly than I thought they would but my concern isn’t that. I have come to tell you I have found and knocked out Luna,” he reported. Charles’ eyes widened at the report.

“You have?! William! That’s extraordinary! Do you know what this means?” He exclaimed.

“Yeah, this-”

“It means we can get valuable information out of her. Where the Twilight Elves came from, how Naz’gar is getting them to help, how the Krag are attacking at the same time as them. This is wonderful news! Go back to Queen Silvia and report your success!” He instructed and abruptly ended the call. William tried to say one last thing but the rectangle vanished. 

“Damn,” he whispered. He looked at her body and back up to where they fell. “Oh, that’s what she meant by plateaus.” He grabbed her unconscious body and set it on his shoulder. “Where do I go now?” He pondered to himself.

He traveled the entire day in that valley, looking for a way to get back up. No matter how long he hugged the cliff, there was no place that he could climb or walk up. It was truly a plateau. Walking next to it, he noticed that he couldn’t see any trees. He was in a field, much like the one he walked through when it all started but it wasn’t as tall. When the darkness began to approach them, he looked around for a spot for them to rest. Additionally, he needed to find something to bind her with. He didn’t want to deal with her magic again.

As he continued to walk, he made out a place where they could rest. An old abandoned, grass roofed shack. He walked slightly faster to the destination and set her gently in the grass. The windows were lightless but he knocked on the door regardless. “Hello?” He called out. He waited only once to barge in. The shack was dark and dusty, spiders crawled back to their places when he exposed the place to light. There was nothing in the shack except for a bed and a cabinet. He rushed to the cabinet and pulled out all the drawers. He was unable to clearly see what was in them so he pilfered through each one for something specific. In the first one he heard metal meet metal and looked closely, that entire drawer was filled with scissors. He felt the second one and grabbed some rectangular. He pulled it out and saw what it was, matches. “Yes!” He said and rushed out of the building. He threw them next to the fireplace and smiled.

It was dark when he saw her move. It was slight at first, only her hand twitched. He ignored it at first and pulled out some jerky, Aquis gave him a small satchel before he left. He bit into it and gnawed on it, he enjoyed how chewy it was. He saw her twitch again out of the corner of his eye, her lips moved. He bit into it again and watched her stir. She opened her eyes slightly and saw William looking at her. She opened them more and clearly saw he was there. She tried to move her hands but was unable to. Looking down, she realized she was in binds. 

“What happened?” She barked at him.

“What do you mean, what happened? You kicked me down the plateau, and you joined me,” he stated.

“How did you surpass my magic? I had you in chains, you were helpless!” She exclaimed. 

“You let go of it when you took off my helmet. I didn’t realize it either until I did and was able to reverse the roles,” he said with a smile. 

“Where is it?” She asked.

“What?”

“Your helmet? Where did it go?” She asked. He noticed that her aggression was suppressed by curiosity. 

“It’s gone, along with my sword. I wasn’t able to pick it back up when you kicked me off. So it’s gone forever,” he scowled.

“I’m sorry,” she mumbled. He glared at her and set down his food.

“No you’re not. Don’t lie to me and don’t appear to be helpless. You’re just saying that because you’re the ones in chains.” He stood up and walked over to her. “I am not as stupid as your kind perceives us to be. Don’t think I haven’t noticed how the Elves treat Humans like children!” He yelled at her. She looked away from him but he grabbed her head and turned it to him. “Don’t look away from me! Don’t look away from the truth!” She shook her head out of his grasp. 

“Stop . . . just stop,” she begged. He released his grasp and walked back to his spot on the opposite side of the campfire. He sat down and gazed at her, he put another piece in his mouth. “You don’t think I know? The way you said ‘royalty’ says enough, you don’t respect me because I’m the queen’s daughter. Is that it?” She nearly yelled at him. William calmed down from his episode as he listened to her.

“You don’t know me,” he said.

“I do though, just because I have royal blood doesn’t mean I act like one,” she stated. He lifted his eyes in response. “Did you really expect that you would find the princess of the Twilight today? Did you think she’d be the captain of the army?”

“No, but how do I know if this isn’t an exception?” He said.

“I-I,” she said and looked away. “I can’t prove it to you . . . I can’t prove anything to you.” She looked down at herself and began crying. She started subtle at first, trying to conceal the sound over the fire. But as she thought about what happened, her cries became louder and she started to weep. William looked over at her to see her looking down, hair covering her face. He could hear her crying loudly and he just rolled his eyes. 

“What are you crying about now?” He asked. 

“I’m such a failure. This whole invasion has gone terribly because of me and I couldn’t even defeat you in a battle. Me! The Twilight princess couldn’t surpass some knight,” she cried out. Suppressing her tears whenever she talked. 

“To be fair, I’m not a knight. I’m a Paladin,” he said with another bite. She rubbed her face on her shoulders.

“A . . . Paladin? What’s that?” She asked. 

“A religious warrior, I’m the only one and that’s because I’m the best. If you were to beat me, you’d feel better than being a princess,” he explained and she stopped crying.

“I guess that would be the only good explanation for it but I am still a failure,” she sadly stated.

“You aren’t a failure, you just lost. There’s no shame in losing.”

“There is!” She exclaimed. “My mother’s life and my people are relying on this and I completely failed them!” That got his attention more than the other things she said.

“Woah, woah, woah, what’s that about your mother’s life?” He asked.

“I might as well tell you because at least you seem reasonable,” she started. “The only reason why we’re doing this is because Naz’gar threatened us. His minion went directly to her and told us that Naz’gar needed us to be a distraction and that we shouldn’t disappoint him. Then he came directly to our home after some Humans attacked and directly threatened her.” She looked up and her eyes began to tear up.

“Now it is my turn to be sorry, we were the ones who attacked him,” he said. William expected her to fill with rage but she only appeared surprised.

“You did that? Why did you think that was a good idea?”

“We didn’t, we were attacked by Orcs and we assumed they came from Dragonis so we went there. We were not expecting a new Dark Lord to be there.”

“Huh, I guess I do feel better now. If you can survive against Naz’gar, mine must pale in comparison,” she realized.

“On the contrary, you completely took me by surprise. We wouldn’t be here right now if I was still in those binds,” William said with a smile. Then it faded when he realized what he said. “Say, why did you release me?” Her pale face filled with red as she looked at him. She was able to see his face and smiled when she saw it.

“I didn’t mean to . . . I was distracted looking at . . . “

“Looking at my hair? Yeah, I’m not offended by that . . . anymore. I know it’s a strange thing for men to have long hair but I like it long. Think what you like but I like it this way,” he stated. 

“I think you- it looks fine. Yeah, the hair was distracting,” she overly emphasized. Luna continued to look at him but turned his attention to the jerky he was still eating. “What is that?” He lifted it up so she could see it.

“This?” She nodded. “It’s jerky.” She gave an obvious look of confusion. “It’s a dried salted piece of meat. It’s supposed to be eaten as a snack but I don’t have any other food.” She eyed the food greedily and he noticed. “You haven’t eaten anything since we dropped down here, have you?” She shook her head, still eyeing the food. “Very well.” He got up and approached her with the food. He kneeled down and presented it. She looked at it, saliva escaping her mouth but she turned to his face.

“Can . . . can you bring me closer to you? I don’t like being so far away from someone in the dark,” she explained. William looked at her, she appeared to be telling the truth and she did seem young. 

“Very well,” he said. He put the jerky back in his pocket and crouched down to her. He grabbed her waist and lifted her onto his shoulder.

“Oh,” she muttered, astonished by his ease of lifting her. She had conflicting feelings about being even more helpless because not only was she completely bound, she was also easy to carry for her captor. But on the other hand, William was shockingly handsome and nice to her for being the enemy. William walked beside the fire, back to his spot, and hugged her waist to set her down. He saw her smiling for some reason.

“What?” He asked. 

“Oh . . . nothing, I was just thinking of something,” she lied. He shrugged and tossed a stick of jerky at her and sat down. She looked at it and moved her hands, realizing they were still bound. “I can’t get it.”

“You can’t . . . oh, my bad,” he realized. He grabbed the stick and moved it to her mouth, she opened and he put it in. She bit down and he pulled the food back. She licked her lips as she chewed on it. She chewed it deliberately, slowly to get the taste of the food. Her facial patterns changed rapidly as the foreign food attacked her taste buds. “This tastes . . . weird.”

“Better than-”

“It’s salty and chewy but . . . I can see why it’s a snack. It doesn’t seem like something that’s good for rampant consumption,” she said. 

“So it’s good?”

“Yeah . . . it’s pretty good, better than starving,” she said.

“Never pleasing royalty, is there?” He stated. She chuckled and looked at him, he paid attention to the fire instead. He was staring intently into it, he had been thinking of something unfortunate. He frowned as she reminded him of the fact. “I wouldn’t be smiling if I was you,” he said, serious in the matter.

“What do you mean?”

“In the morning, I’m going to take you to Silvia directly,” he said. The smile on her face died.

“No.”

“I don’t know if I can reach Wilderling tomorrow, being in this valley really dampens that idea but I’m sure I can reach there in a few days at most,” he tried to reassure her.

“No,” she said louder. 

“That’s how things work princess, I wasn’t expecting to take you captive but here we are. I assure you, nothing bad will happen to you . . . as long as you talk,” he said.

“Nothing bad will happen?” She (accidentally) shrieked in fear. “You don’t know us if you think that is the truth!”

“Silvia seemed nice, I’m sure-”

“She seemed nice, that’s the problem with her, she only appears nice. You wouldn’t know the hatred we feel for each other, even speaking about her wants to make me spit on the ground,” she explained. 

“Actually, I do,” he said and looked at her. “You probably don’t know, but we’ve had a war with our own kind as well.”

“Vex did mention that there was a civil war between the Humans, that’s the whole reason why Naz’gar was acting to attack.”

“Yeah, so I do know what it’s like,” he said. They thought the other one would continue the conversation but they didn’t so they awkwardly looked at each other in the light of the fire. 

“Do you . . . do you hate it?” She asked. 

“Do I hate the Romans . . .” He said and thought about it. “Do I . . . hate the Romans?” He said that to himself. William wasn’t entirely sure himself and had to actively think about it. “I used to, I fought against them so many times. In the end though? I think my judgement of them was misplaced.” He didn’t notice, but Luna was slowly nudging herself closer to him. “I was surprised how easily we banded together against Naz’gar, do you feel the same?”

“No, not in the slightest,” she instantly retorted.

“Why?”

“Because they’re different and they believe falsely,” she stated. He raised his eye with a slight smile.

“That sounds like something I would have said before this war. Do you really believe what you’re saying? Just because they’re different and believe in a different god, you hate them?”

“Do you truly like them, the . . . Romans you fought against for many years? Can you forgive that easily?”

“I know I can’t and I will not attempt to deny it. I don’t believe in their belief but I try not to let it perturb me too much. We do not have much of a choice, either we fight each other and die or we live together.”

“You have a very optimistic view about your situation,” she said.

“So do you, thinking you can weasel yourself out of this situation. By the way, don’t even try to get those binds off you. I was trained how to tie knots very well,” he said with a sly smile and stood up to face her. “Don’t think I haven’t noticed you crawling towards me.” He picked her up again and walked to the shack. 

“W-what are you going to do to me?” Luna questioned. She noticed that he was very bipolar to her in their time together. 

“I’m sending you to bed, you’re trying to trick me to let you go and I won’t have it.” William stepped in the shack and walked to the bed. “You should feel lucky, you’re actually going to sleep in a bed.”

“S-s-so are you still going to deliver me to my aunt? Please, you can’t! She’ll torture me the first chance she gets. I won’t make it one day with her!” She begged and pleaded. She tried to kick herself off of him but it proved fruitless as she flopped like a noodle. 

“You’re overreacting, I thought the same thing of the Romans when I hated them. You have nothing to worry about unless you make sure you’re a problem,” he said and set her down in the bed. He made sure he was as gentle as possible with her. She laid in the bed with her binds but he knew she would need more. He walked to the corner and picked up twine. That’s what she was trapped in, an insane amount of twine. William didn’t know why someone needed so much twine, but it was there. 

“Please don’t do this! Y-you have to reconsider!” She started to cry. He walked back to her and wrapped her up in a twine blanket, but the blanket was trapping her. 

“We’re not going to get there tomorrow, we’re still too far. So please, stop crying and go to sleep. We have a long day tomorrow and I have to carry you the entire way,” he said and walked to the door.

“William please!” She cried out. But he shut the door and soon, the fire died and she was covered in darkness.

He hated his newest plan. In truth, he knew it would help immensely but he hated where he had to go. He didn’t know it when he conceived it but after a day of thought into it, he realized what he did to himself. After he left he swore to never return and even made sure he kept his own silent promise. It was too much of a reminder like how his scarred nose reminded him of his loss. Naz’gar would have to travel back home.

He was tempted to order some of the Orcs to retrieve the bodies but he doubted they would succeed. With much reluctance, he left the cozy confines of his tower and walked through the Orc path. He walked through the immense Orc camp and they bowed before him when he walked past them, then returned to their duties. He walked through the (lack of) remains of Rotwood. He despised how his people destroyed it, Rotwood was his one reliable ally. At least he didn’t have to walk through the dense forest anymore. 

His journey back home was long and boring. He made it only four hours before regretting sending Vex out to kill Aquis and Pantheon. He had wished that his friend would tell him interesting stories along the way or at least give him a ride. His staff clicked against the broken ground as he entered his home. He looked up to see it. He wasn’t surprised to see how it didn’t change one bit, he hated and liked that fact. His home both didn’t and needed to change. He was standing on a cliff, overlooking the Valley of the Damned. His home, he was home once again. 

He was never told why it was a valley but he could tell why it was damned. When he spawned, he was the only one to despise living in the cracks of the planet. Everyone else seemed content and rather chipper about being born and living in a literal pit. He used to escape atop the plateaus and look down onward, cracked and dry ground infected the valley. Naz’gar dismissed the thoughts from his mind and banged his staff against the ground. The remained green as a transparent bridge grew from the ledge and traveled downward toward a plateau. He walked along as it expanded.

His feet hit cracked ground and he instantly shuddered, memories flushed back to him. He grabbed his head and shook around as he was trying to defeat them all. His first practice at magic, what happened when the others discovered his magic, where he needed to go; all of those painful memories swarmed to him. He shook off the pain and looked ahead, his destination wasn’t far. Each step brought another memory back and he winced with each one. “This place truly is damned,” he muttered as he walked on. 

He found a staff hidden behind some rocks.

“No.”

It was wooden and cut against his skin as he grabbed, reminding him how weak he really was. 

“Stop.”

He looked at it with wonder, he never laid his hands on a weapon but he could tell he would like the staff. It felt . . . right in his hands, he felt like he could belong with the others now.

“Don’t.”

He showed it to them, they just laughed.

“Stop it!”

They pushed him around.

“No!”

They bullied him for years and he never once stood up to them, but he had a weapon now. One that felt better than any sword or axe could.

“No, no, NO!”

He hit one of them in the legs. It did nothing to him.

“Stop reminding me!” He begged.

The Orc grabbed it and pointed it at him, he boasted to his brothers about how they should cull the weak and they all looked at him. No would be there to save him.

“STOP! STOP!” Naz’gar stopped and waved his staff around.

The Orc waved the staff around, trying to intimidate him. The others approached and surrounded Naz’gar. 

“STOP IT!” PLEASE!!” Tears began to fall. 

Naz’gar waved his hand out and they stopped their advance.

“Don’t do THIS!”

He watched green particles fly out of his hand and pierce the Orcs. They looked at themselves to see where they went. Then they collapsed. 

“ENOUGH!” He demanded and banged his staff against the ground. One last thought infiltrated his mind. They weren’t the first to suffer his accidental wrath. Hundreds of images popped in his mind, all of them were the last frightened faces of his family. The reminders died and he had to catch his breath. He looked up to see he was at his destination. A graveyard. 

It was as he remembered, hundreds of makeshift graves. Each had a splinter of the staff to indicate which were graves. But something was foreign and impossible. There was a tree in the middle of the graveyard. It was blackened and dead, no leaves but there was someone standing beside the tree. The person was wearing a black robe that covered their entire body. Naz’gar walked into the graveyard, beside the graves. He could feel the dead beneath his feet, they were angry. He walked up to the robed figure but didn’t approach any further.

“I wasn’t expecting you here,” he said. 

“You should have,” the figure retorted. It had a deep voice that rattled Naz’gar’s bones.

“What do you want? If you know that I would come here then you know what I am after,” Naz’gar said.

“You know why I have approached you in this way.”

“Then you know that I will raise them back up, no matter what you say.”

“You will rob them from me, as you have the others.”

“I did not rob them from you, they are but husks of their normal selves. Not a single bit of their soul remains,” he stated as he looked over the graves. 

“She has already asked me to stop your plans, I have had to remind her that I can’t interfere,” the robed figure bellowed. 

“Good, you know your job and I know mine.”

“You chose yours, I did not. You chose to become a Dark Lord, that was entirely your choice.”

“You two did not expect for me to succeed like I will, that is why you are here. Tell me I am wrong,” he stated. The figure paused and turned its head to look at him.

“You have not succeeded yet, nor will you. The Humans have defeated Dark Lords for ages, you would not be any different. I have seen the most powerful and smartest Dark Lords fall. You are neither,” it said. 

“Then why are you here? She wants you to talk to me, to test me. Assure your lover that she will not find any happiness on Puer when I take it over. My Black Orcs have already been sent, Vex has murdered Aquis and Pantheon by now, my plan is complete and nothing can stop me.”

“Except for . . . him,” the figure mentioned. 

“Who?”

“The visitor, the one I can not touch. The one who has danced with my beloved. The one who saved the Humans,” it said. Naz’gar’s eyes flared and he banged his staff against the ground in anger. 

“If he comes back I will be sure to make an example of him!” He shouted in pure anger. “You have stalled me long enough! When I return to my tower with my tribute for the Piscgem, the war will be shortened drastically.” He could hear the dead rising behind him and breaking the ground. “If you or her try to interfere, I will make life hell for both of you and I will thoroughly enjoy it,” he threatened. 

“Bold of you to threaten me, Naz’gar the Necromancer, slayer of the innocent,” the figure said and turned into a black mist which disappeared shortly after. Naz’gar turned away in disgust and looked at the rising bodies. They were trying as hard as they could to break the ground and bust out of their graves. 

“My family, how nice of you to join me once more,” he said with a smile. Everything was going according to plan.

“How was your sleep?” William asked. He was carrying Luna on his shoulder once more. 

“How did you know I was awake?” She asked and yawned.

“You twitch when you’re about to wake up.”

“That’s creepy.”

“Says the prisoner. Besides, you make it very apparent. It’s hard to not look at you as you wake up. It’s like your whole body is shaking to wake you up.” She yawned again and blinked rapidly to fight the drowsiness.

“How long have you been carrying me?” She asked. She only asked because she was unable to see the shack.

“I . . . don’t know, I’ve just been walking,” he simply stated. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the communicator. “Time.” Nothing happened. “Display time.” Nothing happened. “Display walking time.” A screen popped up and displayed a very large number. He counted four commas and it said minutes. “Well that’s not right. Display walking time for today,” he ordered. The screen flashed and displayed a different number, it was much smaller but still displayed it in minutes. “Well princess, I’ve been carrying you for . . . two and half hours? Whatever one hundred forty minutes is in hours.”

“Mother of the Moon!” She exclaimed. “How did I not wake up yet? Did you knock me out?!” She started to kick him again.

“No, but I can if you don’t stop kicking me,” he commented. She stopped kicking after that. “Good, you never answered my question. How was your sleep?” He asked again.

“Absolutely awful thanks to you, I wasn’t able to move and the bed smelled terrible,” she stated.

“At least you got to sleep on a bed, I could have just thrown you on the ground, out by the fire, in complete and utter darkness.”

“I hate you,” she growled. 

“I’m being as nice as I can be and with you, that’s really hard. I’ve been trying to restrain myself from doing something like last night. So you should be grateful,” he said. Luna mentally folded her arms in annoyance but noticed something else. There was something she hadn’t done in a long while and it came to her very quickly.

“William,” she muttered as silently as possible.

“What now?”

“I . . . uhmm . . . I have to use the restroom,” she mumbled.

“I couldn’t catch that, could you speak louder?” He asked. She sighed and thought about saying it louder.

“I . . . have to use the restroom,” she said, defeated. William stopped and looked at her. 

“Very well,” he said and set her on her feet. “Go over there and be quick.” She looked at her twine chains and looked back at him.

“Are you serious? I’m still tied, I can’t . . . you know,” she said. 

“Yeah right, as soon as I untie you, you’ll bolt or use your magic on me. I’m not stupid.”

“Well I can’t do it otherwise, you need to trust me,” she said. William put his hand on his chin.

“Fine,” he said. He pulled off his gauntlets and threw them on the ground then he fanagled with the twine. With enough time, her bondage dropped to the ground. She was free but he was quick. He grabbed her wrists with one hand and tied some twine around her wrists. He wrapped it around seven or eight times and looked at her. She lifted up her new bondage and looked at it. 

“Really?” She asked. “Is this necessary?”

“Yes, you can still use your hands. Go and do your . . . business. I won’t look,” he said. William turned away from her and looked at the lands. Luna watched him turn around and walked away from him. When she was far enough she did her stuff. William could hear her removing her clothes and put his hands over his ears. He had good ears and never thought of it as a curse until that happened. Luna pulled her clothes back up and saw that William had his ears covered, she smiled. She brought out her hands but nothing happened. She looked at them and sighed so she ran at him.

William was not expecting to be kicked and leapt forward slightly in response. He turned around to see Luna readying another kick. He expected to take it easily but she knocked him to the ground. “Why you-” he said and quickly rose back up. She turned her hands into fists and conjoined them together. When he was completely risen, she slugged him in the face. “AH!” He covered his face and felt a harsh burn on his cheek. He clawed and rubbed it repeatedly but it only worsened. It was like his skin was on fire but he couldn’t put it out so it only grew in intensity. “My cheek! It burns!” He lowered his hand and looked at her. “Damn you and your dark magic!”

“Your strength won’t save you now!” Luna taunted. She prepared for another strike as he continued to cover his face. She ran to him and slapped his armor, expecting it to melt onto him. However, she recoiled her hands in immense pain and put her mouth to them. “AHHHHH!” She shrieked. William heard her shriek and lowered one of his hands. He saw that she was on the ground digging her hands into the dirt. He saw his chance and kicked her. “AH!” She fell on the ground but stuck her hands back in the dirt. She bit her lip in pain as she watched him step on her. “Wha-? What is your armor made of?”

“Oh this? Just some draxite, a Dwarf made it for me just for an occasion like this. I can’t believe I said it wouldn’t work,” he said with a smile as he thought about it. “And I can’t believe I trusted you. I was an absolute faun for thinking you wouldn’t try to escape. I would have let you walk alongside me if you could do this one simple task but no, you had to resist. So now I have to do this,” he stated in frustration. He picked her up with one hand and forced her on her feet, she was still holding her pained hands. He quickly turned her around and put her in a choke hold.

“William *gasp* . . . what are you doing?” She strained to say. He didn’t answer as she clawed his armor. When she realized that wasn’t doing anything, she scratched at his exposed hands. “Will- *gasp* stop . . . please *gasp*” He looked away so he couldn’t hear her struggling. 

“I’m sorry,” he said.

“I *gasp* won’t *gasp* do-” She wasn’t able to finish. Her body slumped over and he caught it. He did the same song and dance to carry her and looked at his gauntlets. He wished he wore them so her scratch marks wouldn’t remind him of what he did. He picked them up and walked on the “trail”, he wanted to get rid of her as soon as possible.

Was he in Hell? He thought that and several other things as he walked through the grass. No matter how far he walked, no matter how fast he walked, no matter how much ground he thought he gained, the terrain was the same. An impossible cliff face to his left and an unending sea of grass that had no right being there. What sort of place had grass that was short yet had no sort of towns near it? Who cut the grass? Was there one lonely person out there who cut the grass? With every step, his will broke. William’s iron will, how he was able to remain so calm in so many tense situations, was faltering.

He licked his lips to moisturize them. He hadn’t drank anything in an entire day and he wasn’t feeling right. His brain thumped and pulsed and attacked his skull. His steps weren’t certain and he could feel his legs shaking. Every step felt like his last but he persisted. His walking slowed down immensely to make sure he didn’t fall down. A diet of jerky didn’t help him as well, his body was weakening and would soon shut down yet he moved on. Every step brought him closer but it didn’t look like it. Everything was the same until his sanity wavered as well.

“William,” a voice said. He turned to it as he continued to walk, Aquis was walking beside him. 

“Aquis?” He drearily asked. She smiled at him while nodding.

“Of course it’s me, what other girl wears hunting clothing?”

“What are you doing here?”

“You don’t need to worry about that now, who is she?” She said and pointed at Luna’s limp body.

“Luna, princess of the Twilight Elves, I’m bringing her to Silvia so we can try and finally end this war,” he stated and looked back to where he was walking.

“How will she do that?”

“By using her as a bargaining chip to stop the Twilight Elves from attacking.”

“And you think that Silvia will do that? Even with what Luna told you?” She asked. William looked at Aquis in confusement.

“W-what . . . how did you know what she told . . . me,” he said. “You’re not real, you’re just a figment of my imagination.”

“Of course she is silly, we can’t teleport that easily,” another voice said. He turned to the other side and saw Sage, floating beside him. “Hi Will!”

“You’re not real . . . but why can I hear you?”

“Because you want to hear us,” Aquis stated.

“You should rest Will, you don’t look too good,” Sage commented.

“I can’t, I have to keep moving. If I don’t keep moving, then the war continues and more lives are wasted. The sooner I get to Wilderling, the better for mankind,” he told them.

“But you are just one man, a strong man to be sure, but not strong enough to fight Fate herself,” another voice pitched in. He turned to Aquis and saw Pantheon standing beside him. 

“You won’t stop me Pantheon, you can’t stop me. You’re not real.” William almost tumbled to the right but stopped to regain his balance.

“You’re correct, as always. But this is real,” he said and grabbed Aquis’ waist. He pulled her in and they kissed. William turned away from them and grimaced.

“No! It isn’t, you are lies! Incorrect images to . . . I don’t know, I assume you are here to tortue me!”

“We are here to make you realize the truth, and the truth is-” Pantheon locked lips with Aquis again. “She’s a great kisser and even better in-” He wasn’t able to finish. William used all of his strength to punch him, but he dissipated before a blow could land. William fell to the ground and dropped Luna, she laid away from him. He looked at her and was able to get on one knee before a stick was slammed in front of him. He looked up to see the last person he wanted to hallucinate.

“Hello there, William,” Naz’gar said with a smile. William’s face filled itself with shock and horror. “It is nice of you to bow down to me already, maybe I will let you live after all.”

“Naz’ . . . gar,” he said. 

“You are strong William, stronger than any Human could possibly be,” he said and walked over to Luna. William stood on another knee in desperation. 

“Don’t . . . don’t do it,” he said and reached to him. Naz’gar stood over Luna’s body and looked back at William, smirking. 

“What does she mean to you?”

“The end of the war, the end of . . . you.” Naz’gar chuckled, which made William uncomfortable. 

“Is that the lie you told yourself? Holier than thou William, doing what was best for his kind? Ha ha ha, how pathetic,” he said and raised his staff above her head. William, with one last bout of energy, lunged at him. “So the dog has some bite in him yet? I will make sure that you are properly neutered.” He waved his staff and the environment around him changed. He wasn’t in a field anymore, he was standing in the walls of the Citadel, but it was wrong.

Buildings were lit up like candles and people were running. He couldn’t see what until an Orc ran into him, he turned around to see an army of Orcs run into the city. He watched in horror as they slaughtered everyone they came across, no man, woman or child was spared. He tried to move, tried to stop them but something was keeping him chained to that one place. He saw Naz’gar walk out of a building, dragging Aquis by her hair.

“Let go of her!” He yelled. Naz’gar looked up at him with that creepy smile of his.

“Gladly,” he said and let go of her hair. Her head hit the ground and he saw blood. He turned to look at the necromancer.

“This is a lie! I know you are just messing with me! This won’t happen, your plan will fail!” He yelled out. Naz’gar simply looked around.

“You are mistaken William, I have succeeded already. You just don’t know it.” Naz’gar snapped his fingers and William saw some Orcs dragging people to him. They were trying to fight but their faces were bloody and they looked worn out. Then he saw who they were. “You, William, are the one person who has foiled my plans. Even without that shadow creature, you would have found a way out. So, when the time comes, I will destroy that which is most dearest to you.” The Orcs forced the people on the ground and he moved to the first one. 

“Sage, the forest spirit, she found a way to fight against Rotwood’s creatures. Even though she should have joined their ranks. My solution? I’ll strap her to Rotwood’s heart directly so she turns into the evil that you dread so much,” he said and pointed at the gates. The Orc dragged her away but she tried to fight back.

“William! Help me! You have to do something, I don’t want to be evil!” She cried out but he wasn’t able to do anything. Naz’gar approached the second person.

“Aquis, the huntress.” He turned to the third person as well. “And Pantheon, the centurion. I feel like these two belong together, isn’t that right William. Isn’t their love so precious?” He mocked. 

“Stop it Naz’gar! He’s already defeated, you have nothing else to gain,” Pantheon begged. Naz’gar’s smile widened as he looked at him. 

“Oh, I have everything to gain. Observe!” He grabbed a dagger from his cloak and in one swift motion, slit his throat. The Orc let go of him as Pantheon grabbed his neck and fell to the ground.

“NO!!! PANTHEON!!!” Aquis shrieked. She tried to fight but the other Orc restrained her as well. 

“The best way to torture one, is to torture the other,” he said and turned to face her. “He was the only one who loved and look at him now! He is nothing but a corpse for my army but you shan’t receive the same fate-”

“Enough Naz’gar! This isn’t real, these are my worst fears but they aren’t real!” Naz’gar walked up to William and slapped him.

“Your mind is gone William, all because you thought you were the hero. You tried to save your kind and look at what is happening now. You’re imagining your worst fears, what happens if you fail. And you will fail, otherwise you wouldn’t be seeing this right now . . . would you?” He taunted. Naz’gar turned back to Aquis and waved the Orcs away. 

“You will be imprisoned until you die of old age, never to be loved again!” He laughed as Aquis bawled as she was dragged away. 

“William!! You can’t allow this! You’re the strongest person I know! How did you fail?” She yelled out. Naz’gar walked to the fourth and final person.

“And finally, I saved the best for last. Luna, the Twilight princess. So obsessed with beauty but look at you now, how ugly you’ve become,” he commented. Luna held her head low and avoided eye contact with William. William looked at Naz’gar with pure hatred.

“Naz’gar! Look at me!” He said. The necromancer rolled his eyes as he turned to look at him.

“What is it now? You’re defeated, your loved ones are dead, and you will be too,” he stated.

“Only in my worst fears I am, but this is still my mind! And there’s still one thing that I remember that is an outlier,” he said with a smile. Naz’gar’s own smile faded away as he looked around.

“What are you talking about?” Naz’gar asked but he figured it out when William’s shadow escaped him.

“Don’t . . . don’t do it,” William said. Luna groaned and opened her eyes. She was lying on the ground, facing the cliff face. She didn’t move at first because she thought William was testing her. She slowly rolled herself over to the other side and saw William on both of his knees, looking over her. She looked to where he was looking but didn’t see anything. “The end of the war . . . the end of you,” he bouted. She looked back behind her but didn’t see anything but dirt.

“William?” She asked and saw him lunge at her. “AH!” She briefly shrieked and closed her eyes in terror. When she didn’t feel him on her, her eyes slowly opened. William was lying on the ground next to her, his hand reaching out above her. She looked once more, still nothing. “William?” She asked again but his only response was his face hitting the dirt. Her eyes widened and she stood to rush to his body. “William? William!” She yelled while shaking him. His face continued to twitch and attempted to resist the sleep. She rose and looked around, it was the same terrain she had seen before. 

She looked at bound hands and with one swift motion, broke them. She felt her wrists and looked down at him. “I’m free,” she realized. She smiled and looked around again. “I’m free!” She was free of William, she could go back home. “Wait . . . oh no,” she said as she looked around. There truly was no way to get back on the plateau yet. It was too steep and there was no way she could climb up it. “No, this is bad!” She realized. Without William to help across the endless plains, she would never even reach the top. She would never have the strength to make it up without him. She looked at his body and how it twitched.

“William!” She shouted. He didn’t respond. She kneeled against him and cupped her hands. “William!” She shouted louder, still no response. “Wake up! What’s wrong with you?” She shook him more violently. “W-what can I do? What happened to you?” She looked at him and thought of what she could do. “I could carry you, but not for long. No . . . too heavy,” she thought aloud. She put her fingers on his neck and felt the veins moving. “That’s good, that’s good, you’re not dead.” She rubbed her hands through her hair and sighed loudly. “This isn’t what I thought would happen. In all the books I read, aren’t I supposed to be locked away in a tower already? How is this worse than isolation and imprisonment?” She laid down next to him. “To think, my captor would also be the knight? Both the hero and the villain? . . . This would be creepy if he was the captor . . . I wonder wha-”

“AH!” William yelled. He jolted upright and startled Luna. He jerked his head to look at her and she backed up slightly. “Oh thank the Lord, you’re okay!” He pulled her in and they hugged. Luna, confused, went along with it and patted him on the back as well. She didn’t mean to, it just felt right at that moment. 

“I’m fine,“ she said. “What . . . happened?” He let go of the hug and grabbed her pauldrons to look at her in the eyes.

“I-I don’t know, at first I started to feel tired then I started to hallucinate-” He started.

“You . . . hallucinated? What caused you to- . . . why did you- . . . I don’t know what to start with.” He let go of her shoulders and tried to stand up but he could only get on his knees. 

“I’m not-” He paused and looked at her hands, they were no longer bound. “Your hands . . . you cut them free.”

“You didn’t think I was going to keep them on while you were knocked out, did you?”

“I guess *grunt* I guess you’re right,” he said. “Why did you stay? You could have ran as far as you could, I wouldn’t have been able to catch up.” She sighed and looked at him awkwardly.

“I . . . can’t get up there without you. I’m not as physically strong as you and my legs would probably give out long before I find a place to get up. So, I had to stay here,” she said.

“Thanks for staying behind, even if it was for your own good. But we can’t move on.”

“Why not? You still haven’t talked about what happened.”

“My body is failing me, I haven’t drinken anything in an entire day and all I’ve had to eat is jerky. That’s why I began to hallucinate . . . we’re stuck here,” he said. 

“But . . . your body is failing? So what does that mean, why are we stuck?”

“I can’t move. Well, I can but I wouldn’t last very long. I need water or something else to eat so I could do something.”

“What happened in your hallucinations?” She asked. She was trying to forget the fact that they were stuck. 

“That’s not important, we have to get up there . . . “ He paused, looking at her closely. His choices were limited now and according to what she said, her life was in his hands. “I truly hate to go back on my word, but can you get us back to your people?” Her eyes lit up and a hopeful smile appeared on her face. 

“So you aren’t going to take me to my aunt?” She asked. He drearily shook his head.

“I can’t anyways. Besides, if what you said was true, I wouldn’t be able to live with myself.”

“So you do believe me?”

“No entirely, but there seemed to be genuine fear in your voice. And I can’t let people suffer for something I did, which is why we have to get back to your mother,” he said. She lunged at him and embraced him, he was knocked over and a twang of pain was felt over his body.

“Oh thank you! I knew you weren’t a bad person!” She excitedly said.

“You seemed fairly calm about the whole situation yourself,” he said with a chuckle. Luna embraced him for an awkward time and only he noticed. “Can you get off me now?” She leapt off him.

“Sorry, I’m just . . . I’m just glad that you were reasonable,” she said.

“I’m glad we had this discussion but I feel like I’m dying so let me ask you again, can you get us to your people?” He asked.

“It would have been easier yesterday because we would have been closer to where we fell,” she said. 

“Can’t you use your dark magic? You seemed fairly adept using . . . that,” he said. 

“Dark magic can’t solve everything . . . hold on, well . . . there’s a way to go from one place to another with it. But I’ve only tried it twice and one of those times it failed completely,” she said. 

“What needs to happen?”

“I need a conduit-”

“Like something that can conduct electricity?”

“No . . . well it could be but that’s not the point. The conduit has to be a powerful or enhanced object. There’s one in the Twilight Tree but we need one for here.”

“What else do we need?”

“Someone who uses dark magic, me, and two people, us I guess.” She chuckled. “It’s pretty fortunate that I practiced this with my brother to know how many people are needed.”

“So we just need a conduit . . . how powerful does it have to be?”

“Well . . . how do I say this? There’s no exact reason why an object is powerful other than that it appears powerful to people. For example, the other conduit is a book of dark magic. I experimented for days to try and find a ‘powerful’ object, I even tried it on my mother . . . and brother. It only worked on the book, I’ve found only one other conduit and I doubt you have anything belonging to the Draxus,” she said with a sigh. His eyes lit up this time and she looked at him in confusion. “Do you?”

“Yes, I do.” He dug in his pocket and pulled out the communicator. “This is how I contacted Charles the other day. It’s old Draxus technology, it’s how they talked to one another. Apparently, they gave some to each of the races as a parting gift or so Charles says.”

“Perfect! We can do it then!” She said and stood up. She grabbed the device and dropped it on the ground and walked to the opposite side of it. 

“Can you stand up?” She asked.

“Do you need two people, is it absolutely necessary for two people or can it be done with one?” He responded. 

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, if I can’t do this, can you go back alone?”

“That won’t happen,” she said and looked away, trying to think of the exact spell. 

“Luna, can it be done?” He asked again.

“You don’t need to worry about that, the spell doesn’t take that long. It takes, at most, a minute.”

“Luna, look at me,” he softly said. That caught her attention and she respected his request. “If I can’t do it, you have to go by yourself. I don’t care what you need to do, one of us has to make it back to your mother and you're my priority right now,” he said.

“Are you dying?” She accidentally whispered.

“Not yet, but I have never felt this bad before. I struggle to not go unconscious once more. My life isn’t on a thread but I feel it will be soon without proper treatment,” he said. Her smile faded and her eyes darted around him, not wanting to address the issue directly.

“I-I think there was a way for only one person to teleport but that . . . that required a sacrifice. A person’s body to be the conduit, a vessel,” she quietly told him.

“Then if it comes to that, use my body to save yourself-”

“No! That won’t happen, we can do something else-”

“I wasn’t finished,” he said. “If that happens, you need to tell your mother to cease your war with the Silvian Elves. When I had the hallucination, Naz’gar seemed to invade and provide a glimpse in the future. One where the Humans are wiped off of Puer and where you die as well,” he explained. Her eyes widened in horror and she covered her mouth. 

“It’s . . . it’s just a hallucination though, it wasn’t real,” she said.

“It was, then it turned into a vision. Naz’gar had no right to be there. So Luna, look me in the eyes and tell me you will get your mother to stop the war,” he requested. She nodded.

“I can do that, but that won’t happen. Stand up and let’s get this over with.” William slowly and painfully stood up and faced the opposite of her. “Okay, in order for it to work, we have to walk around the device while I chant. Can you walk? We can do it slowly but it will take-”

“I can walk as fast as needed, you set the pace *grunt* I’ll match it.” She nodded again and started to walk.

“Cha neid fra,” she started the chanting. William grunted and winced in pain, she briefly paused but he waved her on. “Kar jra’bu ni,” she picked up the pace and walked faster. He did the same but his feet hurt more with each step and his resolve weakened. “Shreikop’fow quxna zaxyv!” She shouted and blinding blackness enveloped them like shadows.

Aquis and Pantheon would have laid against that tree until they died of thirst or their internal injuries. Nobody would have found them for some time and Vex’s strength did a number on their insides, he was both a brutal and kind-hearted alligator. He slammed his warhammer into the ground and Aquis looked at him with a mixture of confusion and relief. “I can’t,” he defeatedly stated. “You two seems like good folk.” Aquis coughed up more blood and looked at him.

“Do- *cough* don’t toy with me,” she responded. “If I learned . . . one thing from Will, it’s to not *cough* trust some people. And there’s no way I can trust *cough* you. You did this to him,” she whispered and looked at the unconscious body of Pantheon. 

“I know, and now I’m sorry,” he said and she glared at him. “Believe me or not, Naz’gar told me ta kill ya so I went. Figured it’d be easy, and it was . . . no offense.”

“You’re a giant . . . giant alligator, we couldn’t win” she said. 

“Yeah, so Naz’gar says to do this and I does it. Something I’ve always done for as long as I can remember. Figured y’all deserved it, you did foil his first plan and pissed him off greatly. But . . . uhmm, even though you two is completely helpless, I can’t make myself end it. There’s something nagging at my heart . . . I don’t know what it is, but I can’t raise my hammer with you right there,” he explained and sighed. “I don’t understand, I’ve never felt like this before. Was there something wrong with me?”

Aquis’ glare vanished and she looked at Pantheon, his body peaceful and quiet. “Not unless you can . . . experience emotions?” She offered.

“Of course I can, what does that have to do with my weakness? I should have been able to squash ya, but I can’t do it,” he said. She looked up and smiled at him, the smile was for Pantheon but he didn’t know that. 

“It’s not weakness *cough cough* it’s compassion.”

“Compassion? Niceness and all that stuff? Why would I have that?” She just shrugged and leaned her head against the tree.

“I . . . don’t . . . know,” she sighed out. Her eyes closed and her body went limp, her hands connecting with his. Vex approached them and flicked her in the head.

“Hey . . . you good?” He asked. No response was made and she remained limp. “Ah shit.” He looked at their limp bodies and frowned. He saw no joy in seeing them unconscious. Naz’gar told him that pleasing the Dark Lord, him, was the most rewarding experience one could get. So far, he was right. It had been pretty fun for him but looking at two Human lovers almost dead by his hands did not make him feel good. It made him feel terrible.

He felt awful and a wretched feeling infiltrated his gut. His mind told him it was wrong, that this shouldn’t happen. He shouldn’t have hurt them so much. He tried to shrug off the feeling but it persisted. It was like a migraine, attacking his brain directly and he could feel his stomach churning. “Bloody . . . Hell,” he muttered as he looked at them. “C’mon Vex, he told you to come here to do this an’ then you catch feelins’ for ‘em? They’s nothing but stinkin’ Humans! They’re weak! They’re stupid! They’re . . . they’re . . .” He continued to stare at them peacefully sleeping, fingers interlocked. “They’re nothing like he said,” he realized. “Emotions isn’t a weakness . . . is it?” 

He then realized that he was talking to two unconscious bodies. 

“Dang, I can’t ask you these questions, y’all knocked out.” He looked around the woods. The Orcs were long gone and no other Humans would save them. “Guess I gotta save you maself,” he stated and picked both of them up. It wasn’t hard, they were heavier than Eldritch but still, pretty light to him. He looked around again and saw nothing but trees. “Trees, trees! Always with the damn trees!” He muttered and wandered to where the Orcs were going. 

She looked up and stared at the ceiling. It was certainly not the sky that she was staring at prior nor the large alligator which had kicked the crap out of them. It was a ceiling, something she hadn’t seen in a long while. She wanted to move her head but a pain in her neck prevented her from doing so. She tried to move her arms but the same thing happened. Something was preventing her from moving her legs. She tried to shake them but they remained still. At first she assumed she was captured, that alligator knocked them out, confused her, and took them back. She was scared for the both of them, there was no telling what Naz’gar would do to them. As she looked at the ceiling, her nerves were calmed as she realized that it was too white. It was too shiny, pristine, not evil to be from the Dark Lord. 

“Pantheon?” She croaked out. She tried to cover her mouth, but failed. Her voice had never croaked before and it felt wrong, not feminine of her. “Pantheon?” She whispered, not croaking this time. She didn’t get a response and eyed to the left, she could see a clean, white, empty bed. The blanket was neatly arranged with no wrinkles. Straining her vision further, she didn’t see anyone else in the other beds. She eyed to the right and saw Pantheon lying in the bed next to her. She could only see the top of his body and face but she couldn’t forget his ruffled hair when not maintained. “Pantheon?” She whispered again. 

“Aq- . . .” He mumbled. 

“Yes?!” She excitedly croaked. She, once again, tried to cover her mouth. Her gaze remained on him as his face began to twitch slightly. He always did that while waking up, she watched him both fall asleep and wake up. She claimed it wasn’t creepy because her excuse was “she didn’t know if he would wake up”. She was just lying to herself. 

“Aq- . . . Aquis?” He asked and opened his eyes. He tried to move his body as well and his face strained as he tried to fight it. “Why can’t I move?”

“Don’t! I can’t either, I think it’s something with our injuries,” she whispered. His eyes turned to her and he smiled.

“Are you okay?”

“Now I am . . . I mean, it still hurts but I don’t think there’s anything permanent,” she stated. 

“Good . . . where are we?” He questioned.

“I don’t know.”

“Why are you whispering?”

“My throat hurts, are you okay?”

“Same thing as you, nothing that I haven’t felt already,” he said and his eyes turned to the ceiling. “Do you know what happened? The last thing I remember is that I crawled to you and then we ended up here.”

“I don’t know if you’ll believe me, I have a hard time believing it myself,” Aquis said and did the same thing. 

“At this point, there’s nothing you could say that would make me call you a liar.” She giggled. “You can tell me,” he said.

“Okay, you fell unconscious but I was barely awake as I saw the Draxus walk towards us. He raises up his warhammer and slams it into the ground in front of us,” she whispered and paused, clearing her throat. “He then told me how he couldn’t do it. I thought he was just toying with me but now . . . I don’t think he was. He didn’t even know why he couldn’t do it, I told him it was compassion and he thought it was a weakness.” Pantheon turned his eyes to look at her and their eyes met once more. 

“Did he say anything else?”

“He made it . . . he made it seem like Naz’gar taught him, like he was a servant,” she said with a frown, he frowned as well.

“Poor Draxus, I don’t think he had a good teacher. Emotions as a weakness? Only a Dark Lord would believe such things,” he said and attempted to shake his head. It had middling success. 

“So . . . that’s what happened. I think he had to get us here for us to be here, the only other Humans that were close were Outcasts.”

“I don’t mean to offend because he did hurt you more than me, but I hope that he figures his life out. You made it seem like his life was a lie and nobody should live that way,” he said.

“I’ve never seen you turn the other cheek before, why with a Draxus who almost killed us?”

“You and William have opposing ideologies, you are more forgiving while he tends to remember the bad things. Those aren’t inherently bad things to think, but the extremes that both of you suffer are awful,” he said and glared at her. She blushed but continued her gaze. “I try to find a middle ground between the two extremes, as I do all things.”

“Is that why you got rid of the arm thing?” She commented.

“It was a metal arm attachment meant to increase the strength of my right arm. But no, I got rid of that because I didn’t need it anymore.”

“Are you saying your arms are equal in strongness now . . . strength, I mean strength,” she said and mentally face palmed herself.

“No, not even close. I got rid of it because it became a hazard. If it were to fail me during an event like that, I wouldn’t be able to help you and that’s not something I can stand for,” he stated with confirmation. She blushed significantly harder as she thought of something she still had to do. She cleared her throat and looked at him. 

“Pantheon, I need to te-”

“Oh goody! You two are up!” An unfamiliar happy voice said. They were confused by the interruption and looked to where they heard the doors open. They saw a large man in a white robe shuffling to them. His entire body was covered by the cloak except for his white as snow beard and long white hair. He had a round face with rosy red cheeks. He walked between them and smiled at both of them. His smile made them feel better.

“Who are you?” Pantheon asked.

“I am Gwain, but I am not the concern. How are you two feeling right now?”

“Everything hurts,” Aquis said.

“Eh, I’ve felt worse,” Pantheon said.

“There’s no need to try to hide your pain, you two have been the worst cases I’ve seen. Truly, if you were somewhere even an hour away, you would be lost already,” he said.

“Wait, worst cases? I thought you were a mage not a doctor?” Aquis said. 

“I’m both dear, my magic involves healing. It is very useful, unfortunately it takes a while for me to cast on cases like yours.”

“Do you know what’s wrong with us? Like with our organs I mean,” Pantheon asked.

“It’s quite disturbing, are you sure you wish to hear it?”

“Tell us,” they both said.

“Very well,” he said and turned to Pantheon. “Your injuries weren’t as bad, although your organs did appear to be flattened. They were compressed more than they should have been, at least it wasn’t fatal. That was fortunate.” He turned to Aquis. “You however, were much worse.” She gulped. “Seven of your ribs are cracked and piercing your left lung, intestines, and one was awfully close to your esophagus. Something very powerful must have hit you to cause a wound like that. Wha-”

“ARE?! My ribs are still hitting my organs?” She cried out.

“No no no, I didn’t mean that . . . well yes. It is still happening but I folded the tissue around the bones so you aren’t bleeding anymore. I should be able to heal you now, yours had the longer waiting period so let me clean you both up,” he said. He closed his eyes and raised his hands above their bodies. He swirled them around and opened his eyes to reveal they were now blue. A blue light escaped from his hands and fell to them. When it touched them, they felt something inside of them change and contort. Aquis felt her ribs reattach and Pantheon felt his organs increase in size. Gwain’s eyes returned to normal and he stopped moving his hands. “Do you two feel any better now?”

“I do actually, I’ve never felt my ribs before nor do I ever want to again,” Aquis said. They then felt the pain in their necks and legs stop as well. “My neck!”

“Yeah, I can move now,” Pantheon said and moved his legs.

“Yes you can but I advise you to restrain your movements, at least for now. You need to have another night’s rest before you start walking. The body doesn’t take magic modification too well and . . . it tries to fight it the best way it can,” Gwain admitted. His smile never faded as he talked to them. “Now I must ask, what caused these injuries?”

“Would you believe me if I said a Draxus?” Aquis said.

“No, I would not. Are you embarrassed about what did this to you?” He stated.

“No . . . she’s right, a Draxus did do this. He serves Naz’gar and came to specifically kill us,” Pantheon said. His smile immediately faded as he looked at them.

“You are not joking, are you?”

“No.”

“You battled a Draxus?” He asked, serious this time. 

“We did, he was huge. He was an alligator at least three meters tall and he had a giant warhammer with him,” Aquis said. 

“How did you live?” He asked.

“I don’t know, he refused to kill us and questioned the thought of killing us . . . then we passed out.”

“How did we get here?” Pantheon asked.

“The city guards found your bodies close to the walls and brought them in. They just found them,” Gwain said.

“Thanks for that information and getting us back in good health,” Pantheon said. “We need to get new equipment and go back up north.” Gwain’s face fell further, which concerned them greatly. “What’s . . . wrong?”

“You don’t know, do you?”

“Know what? You’re making me anxious!” Aquis said.

“You’ve been out for almost a week,” he admitted.

“A week!!!!” They screamed. He was taken back by the surprise and looked at them with much concern. 

“Indeed, my magic took longer for the wounds were worse but that’s not the main concern. Something very bad happened while you were out,” he gravely said. 

“TELL US!!” Aquis anxiously asked. 

“We’re losing the war.”

“How?!” Pantheon asked. They were both very close to yelling but their voices were starting to crack.

“I know you are surprised of this news but please stop yelling, you will only hurt your voice,” he said and purposefully paused. “Good, back to bad news. We have been able to fight off the Orcs but now, for some reason, they can use magic.”

“Magic?” 

“Yes, you heard that correctly, magic. According to survivors, their skin is a dark, coal-like black with the same body features but they are able to use magic.”

“Survivors?”

“Yes. I’m afraid that they don’t take prisoners when they destroy the towns.”

“TOWNS??” They both said. The news was only getting worse for them as he talked on. It was something like their worst nightmares. 

“Yes, all northern towns were lost and the Romans have the worst of it.” Pantheon’s face grew sullen. With a heavy sigh, Gwain said, “Livius and Charles have decided to issue an evacuation to the Citadel.”

“What? . . . How? . . . How did this happen so quickly? We had backup plans and everything, this wasn’t supposed to happen!” Pantheon said. 

“The Orcs were only the beginning, the Krag came down from the mountains and ravished every town they came across. Looking into it, Naz’gar found a way to control them. Dark magic drives them to leave their home. That’s why the evacuation was made, the Citadel is the most fortified city. We will make our last stand.”

“There has to be some good news . . . right? W-where’s William? How is he with the Elves? How is Aries with the Dwarves?” Aquis asked. His face lightened slightly but he was still forlorn.

“Aries didn’t make it-”

“How?”

“According to the Dwarves, he died defeating a titan. In their words, “an’ he lept up with his blade and slashed at the beast’s leg, dismembering it. We rejoiced and cheered as it lost balance but we realized too late that the titan would fall on it. It was both a sad day and a happy one, we are now free of the Krag attack but the Piscgem are still a problem. Songs will be made of him.” That was a mix of good and bad,” Gwain admitted. “William, however, is better. He managed to get the Twilight Elves out of the war. The Elves are sending warriors to us as we speak to help us.”

“Is he here?”

“Yes, he’s waiting in the lobby as we speak. He came as soon as he heard the news but I told him you needed to rest. He has stayed for a few days now. Is it okay if he comes in? I know that you are still so-”

“No, let him in,” Aquis requested. Gwain simply nodded at them.

“I hope you both feel better soon but I must advise that you don’t endanger yourselves like that again,” he asked. 

“Thanks for this,” Pantheon said.

“And thank you for helping in the war, you two have helped so much and we all appreciate it,” he said and walked away. They watched him walk through the doors and they were alone once more. They moved their limbs around and twisted their heads, enjoying their newfound movement. Pantheon sat up on the bed and faced Aquis.

“I’m sorry.”

“No, don’t apologize,” she quickly retorted.

“But I didn-”

“I know what you’re going to say. You’re going to say how this was all your fault and if you were better or did something a different way we wouldn’t be here right now. But, I hate to basically quote Will, but the past is in the past. It happened and there’s nothing we can do about it now. We have to look forward, not back in these trying times.” Pantheon kept silent after her comment and she sat up on the bed as well.

“I-,” he stopped himself. “You’re right.”

“Besides, it’s better this way. We didn’t have to deal with those . . . magic Orcs,” she stated and shivered. 

“A last stand . . . we were winning one week ago, how did one new thing change the outcome so much?”

“We could barely handle them regularly, the warg riders were able to take out dozens of us with ease. I think that magic would only make them stronger.”

“I know, but one week? And the Krag as well? Why now of all times? Why . . .” He paused and looked her dead in the eyes. “Naz’gar knew we would be out of commission, he sent the Draxus to kill us and planned on entirely on that fact. Without our help, he could swarm the lands with Krag . . . however he had commanded them.” They looked at each in silence as they waited for William to show up.

“This is beginning to worry me, what if-” And she was interrupted once more with the opening of doors. William barged into the room and stopped to look at them. 

“Oh thank the Lord, you’re okay,” he said and walked over to Aquis. They embraced in a long and much needed hug. 

“Yeah, we’re fine now,” she said. William had to escape the hug and he turned to look at both of them. 

“Gwain told me how the guards found you by the walls and how bad your wounds were but he didn’t know what happened. I was so worried, I shouldn’t have left.”

“You couldn’t have stopped it,” Pantheon said. “But hey! You got the Twilight Elves to back out, or so Gwain told me. That’s great news!”

“Yeah, how did you manage to do that?” Aquis asked.

“Uhhgg, it was awful . . . at first. I managed to capture Luna-”

“The Twilight Princess?” Pantheon explained. He glared at him and folded his arms with a frown.

“You have a problem with interrupting.”

“William.” He turned to look at her. “Continue the story.”

“I managed to capture her and I had to spend two days with her on my shoulder. I got tired of her complaining and the arrogance of who she was really fast. She also begged me not to hand her over to Silvia because she said her aunt would just torture her. I didn’t believe her at first but with enough begging, I noticed her sincerity. I even asked Silvia and she admitted it after some convincing.” He looked at them both and realized he just explained what happened, not how he did the important thing. “Long story short, I coaxed Syllia to cease the war to preserve humanity. Now tell me what happened.”

“Do you want to say it?” Aquis asked Pantheon.

“I was thinking you would, you were conscious longer,” he replied.

“If you insist,” she said and took a deep breath. “We fought a Draxus . . . and lost.”

“Miserably,” he added. William’s expression only changed slightly, his smile wasn’t completely gone but it was borderline a frown. 

“A . . . . . . . . . . Draxus? . . . . . . . . . . . . Damn it,” he muttered. 

“W-why do you say that?” Aquis questioned his tone. “William? . . . What’s going on in your head right now?”

“Was he named, Vex?”

“We didn’t get his name . . . you met him, didn’t you?” Pantheon realized. William nodded and sighed. 

“I knew there was something wrong with him, he had that guilty look on him when he saw me. His snout turned towards me whenever we talked so he wouldn’t look at me directly . . . I shouldn’t have trusted that lizard.”

“Why was he there? You were with the Twilight Elves right?” Pantheon questioned.

“He went to talk to them about something, he wouldn’t reveal that information publicly. One more reason why I shouldn’t trust him. So he caused this?”

“Yes, but he couldn’t kill us. Something with his conscience,” she said. They silently, and very awkwardly, looked at each other as the time slowly ticked by. They ran out of conversation quickly but Aquis thought of something. “William, we shouldn’t keep you here. We need to rest and recover but you’re still healthy and we’re losing the war. You need to get on the frontlines.”

“But I waited just to see if you were okay-”

“And we’re grateful but our failure caused the enemy to advance further than expected. We need someone to impede their progress until we can all counterattack,” she said. William stood in stunned silence of her sudden strategic prowess and gave a quiet nod.

“I will leave you to rest then, you are right however. My home is the battlefield and yours is the bed, for now at least,” he said and walked out. They were alone once, once again.

“Why’d you chase him off? He’s your best friend and after a traumatic event like that, wouldn’t you want to be closer to him?” Aquis took a deep breath and looked at him with clenched fists.

“Because, after that happened, it made me realize something, something important. That our lives could end at any second and anything we wanted to say or do, we just couldn’t do it anymore. Our one chance on this planet is gone,” she said.

“What are you getting at?”

“I’m saying . . .” She took a longer, more deliberate breath. She could feel her palms growing wet with sweat and shaking from anticipation. “There’s something I need to tell you before we are forced into a last stand. Something that I’ve been meaning to tell you for a long, long time.”

“You know me well enough, if there’s something you need to admit, I will not judge you,” he stated. She chuckled and released her grip of her hands and grabbed the sheets of the bed instead. 

“I- . . . okay,” she said and took another deep breath. “Here it goes,” she said, delaying the inevitable. She took one last breath, the longest and deepest she could muster. “I love you,” she told him. She winced but opened her eyes when he answered.

“I love you too,” he replied.

“No, not in that way-”

“Yes . . . in that way,” he interrupted. Her downward gaze turned upward towards him, he was smiling at the truths they both admitted.

“Do you mean it?” She squeaked. He raised his hand to his chest and stared at her.

“I mean it, with all that Caesar blesses he so blesses my words with truth.”

Happiness, joy, and other enjoying emotions flooded into Aquis’ mind at the same time. It finally happened, the thing she failed to say for half a year was out there and the recipient didn’t mock nor deject her. She was as happy as the word itself. She wanted to jump up and down, flip the beds, run a marathon, tackle him and do something she had fantasized but she restrained herself. She took a breath of relief and nodded.

“I-I was so worried about telling you. I was so used to failure and rejection with this sort of thing that I thought . . . I thought you would do the same. I’m speechless!” She exclaimed.

“Maybe this can make up for your torment,” he said and got up. With one finger, he lifted up her chin and they kissed for the first time.

Naz’gar’s plan started out poorly. The Humans were more resilient about his invasion than he anticipated. They had managed to set aside their idiotic differences and banded together to fight him. He was completely baffled and angered by that fact, the two sides had been fighting each other for ten years and they somehow worked together when he came to power. If those four Humans hadn’t come to Dragonis, he would have surprised them and easily taken over. He expected the war to last only one month but it dragged for eight months. Eight months of failure but that time had come to an end.

His Black Orcs had surpassed all expectations, they single handedly brought the war back to his favor. Vex helped as well, he helped the most in fact. His trustworthy friend took out two of the threatening Humans that impeded his progress the most. With them gone, both magic and normal Orcs could travel freely. He also made the Krag attack as well. With a double assault from both types of Orcs and Krag, they were hopeless. Every mission was reported a critical success which pleased him greatly. However, tragedy happened with the Krag. The Dwarves managed to kill the titan so he lost any control he had on them there. They were still loyal on Puer but the Dwarves were one step closer to being able to help their allies. Thankfully, the bodies he sacrificed made the Piscgem hungrier and more ruthless. The Elves, on the other hand, became a problem.

It was always with William, he was a nasty problem. A constant thorn in Naz’gar’s backside. His Orc’s stood no chance against him, he could cut them in half with ease like butter to a sword. He had mixed feelings when William was sent to help the Elves. On one hand, he couldn’t kill Orcs anymore. On the other hand, the Twilight Elves had to deal with him. Syllia sent him constant messages about how he needed to help them. Her army completely avoided where he was stationed. It was starting to get on his nerves how much of a pest William was. Then something terrible happened, another thing he never thought was possible.

It happened when Naz’gar invaded his mind. He was weak physically and was weak enough mentally that he could mess with him. Apparently, William was already hallucinating of his friends except for Pantheon, whom he didn’t like. Naz’gar actually chuckled how his view of Pantheon was bad with his relationship to the huntress. It was then that he made his appearance, William thought he was a hallucination and he went along with the gag. He managed to torture William in his own mind and Naz’gar was loving every minute of it. But William was crafty in his dream state. He was able to summon the demon who had stopped him previously. He managed to hit William with a bolt from his staff before he was tackled, then he ended the nightmare. He thought that would finally kill William, his body was failing him and he was stuck. Like all things, however, there was an unexpected factor, Luna.

She managed to save him by bringing him back to their Twilight Woods. Naz’gar was pleased by this, until they let him go back to Puer. Utter bafflement took him over as he received the news. Maybe they implanted him with some Twilight, to infect Puer? Or maybe heal him short term but weaken him later? The answer was neither, he found out that the Twilight Elves backed out of the war entirely. Retreating their entire army off of Arandul and bringing them back to the Twilight Woods. “TRAITORS!!” He cried out in front of his scout. The lonely Orc shrunk down as Naz’gar raised his arm in anger. “They stopped William’s death and they backed out of my war?!” He turned away in rage. “Syllia has failed me for the last time . . . she will be an example. Yes, to show everyone how I am not to be trifled. I am not to be BETRAYED!!” He turned back to the Orc scout. “Gather as many Orcs as you can, both normal and magic. Bring as much fire as they can carry. They are to gather under the tower and not do anything else! GOT IT??!!” He yelled. The Orc fightfully nodded and raced off, making sure to escape Naz’gar’s rage. He turned towards the balcony and walked towards it.

“Why would they do such a thing? We are winning, my army will surround the Humans nigh in one month,” he said and reached the balcony ledge, where he thought of the answer. “William,” he muttered. He watched as Orcs around the large camp ran towards the tower, like hungry creatures to food. They would feast all right, either on the defeat or literal blood of the Twilight Elves. He had enough of their failure. The first failure was ignorable, all the Dark Lords have lost in the past. Not the Twilight Elves though, sometimes they would win but with no Dark Lord to back them, they had to retreat. But two, no, THREE failures? Nay, he could not ignore her idiocy any longer. She was a liability now, what if she planned to attack him to bring back his forces from Puer? No, no, no, he wasn’t risking that. He looked down and saw a large collection of Orcs. They were armed with a multitude of weapons but one out of four of them had torches. He grabbed his staff and walked out of the room.

When he walked out, he was immediately met with a black Orc. “Boss, what’s happening? We were just told to meet up here with . . . torches?” One of them asked and looked at his idiotic brothers with torches. 

“Yes, well you see . . . you know what? I’ll just announce it,” he said and snapped his fingers. The Orcs quieted down and looked at him. “I have gathered you here today because the Twilight Elves have betrayed us! They have rescued a Human I tried to kill and have backed out of the war. There is no place for traitors in my new world. We are so close to getting rid of the Humans on Puer . . . at least on the mainland . . . but the Twilight Elves think they can stop our progress. Tell me my brothers, can those idiotic perfectionists stop Orcish blades from cutting them?!”

“NO!!” They yelled.

“Can they stop our mutilation and slaughter of the Humans?!”

“NO!!!” They yelled louder.

“THEN WE WILL STOP THEM!! NOTHING WILL STAND IN MY WAY, NOT EVEN THE BETRAYAL OF MY ALLIES!!” He howled. The Orcs loudly cheered and raised their weapons in pride. “THEN FOLLOW ME!” He walked past them. “One, two, three, four,” he whispered in a song. He could feel the beat of music in their marching. A song was about to commence.

Prepare for the slaughter

Prepare for the FUN!!

Prepare for the death

Don’t stop me ‘till it’s done!

That is the song that we Orcs sing

When we are to kill their King!

Break their ankles

Break their backs!

Break their spirit

With an Axe!

Or with a sword

I won’t get bored

Or with a club

To git some grub!

That is the song that we Orcs sing

When we are to kill their King!

As the Orcs continued the third verse, he saw Vex join him in the front. “Wha’s going on boss? We makin’ the final push against the Humans?”

“No, I am afraid not yet.”

“Then what are we doing?” Naz’gar chuckled and looked at his faithful companion.

“You’ll know when we get there,” he said with a smile. Vex didn’t bother questioning it, Naz’gar would just repeat his answer. For Vex, walking through the Orc camp wasn’t anything special. He had walked through it several times already. Naz’gar, on the other hand, had only been down there two other times. One of those was also for confronting the Twilight. While the Orcs continued the song, he looked at the buildings. He saw how makeshift and disorderly the construction was. The huts were nothing more than wood planks brought together to make a cube. It didn’t disturb him, but it slightly upset him that his kind lived in this squalor. 

“Is there a portal by the Twilight Woods?” Vex asked. Naz’gar didn’t answer and Vex didn’t bother repeating. He looked back at the army of Orcs and saw the torches, his curiosity increased but he didn’t say anything. He hadn’t seen the Orcs carry torches in a long time, not since they burnt down the jungle. They walked down the plateau down to the valley of trees, Naz’gar stopped before they touched the grass.

“Torchbearers! Your time has come to spread the flame once more! Just like you have burned the jungle, we will burn down their woods!” He paused for a second and thought of something critical. “But burn the trees behind us, I don’t want to have any burning branches fall on me. It would ruin our appearance.” The torchbearers victoriously shouted and began to run past the other Orcs. “WHAT DID I JUST SAY!?!” Naz’gar yelled at them. They stopped and lowered their torches. “Good, now follow me. I have a very important meeting and I don’t have all day.” With that, he started the charge and Vex, hesitantly, joined him. 

“Boss . . . why you burning down their trees?” He asked as he saw the torchbearers lighting up the first trees. 

“That was the surprise Vex, the Twilight Elves have betrayed us,” he simply said. He watched as a few others caught on fire. 

“What? How have they betrayed you?”

“Not me, us, Vex. All the work we have done, and they try to stop all of it. All of the months we have waited, sacrificed. And they want to stop us,” he said.

“Why would they want to do that? They’ve been supporting the Dark Lord for as long as the Dark Lords existed,” Vex said, knowing full well why they did what they did. 

“Their first crime was helping William. I finally had him! He was weak, he was helpless, then that damn princess brought him back and without any hesitation, they brought him back to health.” The torchbearers stopped lighting up trees, the ones behind them were spreading fast enough as it was. “Then they decided to back out of the war. We were making such good progress, you were able to kill off Aquis and Pantheon which allowed me to send the useful Orcs in. The Humans are running from my army and the Twilight Elves have the audacity to leave my war? She will pay for such treachery.” Vex frowned while looking at the smoldering foliage behind them. 

“Are you sure this is a wise choice? Burning down these trees will only upset them,” he stated.

“Then they will be charging to their deaths, speaking of which,” he told him. Naz’gar and Vex watched as Elves were surrounding them, holding out their spears but not actually attacking.

“What are you doing Naz’gar? Our trees are not to be toiled with!” One of them shouted. 

“I am burning down this blight of a forest, it has always been a sore sight for my old eyes. But you should not have toiled with our alliance, I will hold nothing back . . . CHARGE!!!” He bellowed. The Orcs, with no thought or hesitation, did as they were told and charged. All of them charged, Black Orcs, normal Orcs, torchbearers, and warg riders. They watched as the first wave of Elves were easily beaten back. “Spread out and conquer this forest. No Twilight Elf will be left alive but do not touch the royalty, they are mine to deal with.” Vex was beginning to question his decisions.

“Kill them all? Not just make an example out of a few?”

“And then the others would try and kill me in revenge? No,” he stated as they walked through the burning forest. They were alone and Vex knew that Naz’gar was walking directly to the Mother Twilight Tree. “You see Vex, when I was revived, I realized something. We Dark Lords are stupid.” Vex was surprised at the sudden reveal and looked at him. “We suffer from tunnel vision, all of us. We think that we can beat the races with our different abilities or magic, but we always fail. We get too cocky, we think we’ve won even though we haven’t. I have learned from my past mistakes Vex, our past mistakes. You have never failed me, it is me who has failed you as a Dark Lord. Unable to bring your race out of hiding and bring the Humans to their knees. But as you can see, times are different. I’ve made my army better, almost taken out all of my biggest threats, and now? I’ll set an example out of these traitors, to show why no one should betray a Dark Lord,” he stated. 

“But killing an entire race? Don’t you think this is a bit much?” Vex questioned, trying to calm him down. 

“I understand that this may feel different than anything you’ve had to do, but do not forget that the Elves wiped out the Goblins from the Four Worlds. Twice! Not a single one remains, completely extinct. They would do the same again to us Orcs if they got the chance.” Vex watched the Orcs attacking any Elf they saw. No man, woman, or child was spared. It was then that Vex felt something familiar, something he felt back when he talked to the huntress. He thought he should have felt good about the death, Naz’gar was right they did betray him. But seeing the excess violence only made him sick. He was disgusted. The pleading of the helpless and the fruitless attempt of the others made him feel something else. An emotion he had gotten used to, but it was aimed at the other side. 

“You mean to kill all of them, even-”

“Yes, not even the royal family will be safe. Now stop questioning me, we are approaching the tree,” he said with an evil smile. Vex saw the guard’s body slumped against a tree, the one who was the first to insult him. Other bodies were on the ground in the circle, each staining the grass with a deep red. They stopped in the middle as they heard shouting. 

“Let go of me!”

“What are you brutes doing!”

“What does Naz’gar think he is-” Syllia started to say before she saw him. They were being dragged out by Black Orcs. They forcefully threw them to the ground in front of Naz’gar and he could only smile. “What is the meaning of this?!”

“You know what this is for, you betrayed me!” He shouted at her and kicked her in the stomach, she fell to the ground.

“Mother!” Luna cried out and turned to him. “You will pay for that!”

“No, I won’t. Enough justice will be made today,” Naz’gar said and crouched down to see Syllia’s face. “You backed out of the war, I was just going to kill you for that. But then you healed William back to full health. I was close to killing him but then you halted my plans, now he is alive and the one threat to them. But even then, he couldn’t stop my legions.” He spat in her hair and stood back up.

“It wasn’t her who healed him-”

“Luna, shut up,” Eldritch advised.

“I-I was the one who brought him back, and I made mother stop the needless war. William made me realize-”

“OH SHUT IT!” Naz’gar yelled at her, she was on the verge of tears at that point. “William this and William that! Maybe I should keep you alive so I could torture him in front of you, since you admire him so much!! But that would be foolish of me, YOU are the one who betrayed me and your race.” He grabbed her by the arm and she retaliated by scratching his cheek. “ACK!” He backed away and felt the wound, it was wet. “Another scar,” he said aloud. “Another reminder . . . but not of my failure.” He looked at her and she appeared confident. Naz’gar brought back his hand and slapped her across the face. She fell to the ground and Eldritch lunged at him but one of the Black Orcs shot a ray of ice at his leg, he went down and felt it.

“Eldritch!” Syllia yelled.

“Don’t touch . . . my sister,” he managed to groan out. An Orc grabbed him by the collar and made him kneel again. Naz’gar rolled his eyes and grabbed her arm, she did not fight back this time. 

“She was an idiot for betraying me, now she will pay for it! Then she had to give me this,” he said and made her kneel in front of Vex. Tears were streaming down her face as she looked at him, making him very uncomfortable. 

“Vex, please do something! I know you have a heart-”

“Do I have to kick you too?” Naz’gar yelled. She shrunk down and shook her head. “Good, but that does give me an idea.” His face turned to Vex. “This has taken more time than I would like and I need to plan out my final assault, I’ll trust that you can take care of them.” Vex didn’t respond. “Vex?” He jolted his head to his boss. “Can you kill them for me?” He slowly, without much thought, nodded his head.

He looked at her on the ground, defenseless . . . defeated. His gaze turned to the others as theirs did the same. “Vex! Don’t do this, please!” Eldritch begged. “If this is for me being rude to you at first I’m sorry! I-I just like to joke around and I didn’t mean to offend!” Vex’s face remained straight and unmoving but he would be frowning.

“Don’t take all day Vex, enjoy the kill but be back at some time,” Naz’gar said and turned away from the scene. He began to walk away. Vex raised his warhammer and Luna’s eyes were filled with utter fear. If fear could materialize, it would be in her eyes. Her face was bruised and wet, soaked with makeup and tears but the eyes were untouched and her mouth amplified the fear she was in. 

“P-p-please Vex, you know us. You d-don’t have to do this. We-we-we . . . please don’t kill me,” she begged. Vex’s grip tightened as his weapon was raised above his head. His claws bit into his hand as he looked at her. His eyes grew angry, wounds appeared in his hands, and he gnashed his teeth.

“No,” he muttered and lowered his weapon. Naz’gar stopped walking away but didn’t turn around.

“What did you say?” He questioned. He thought he heard something that Vex would never say but that would never happen. 

“I said, no,” he replied and smashed his hammer into the ground, leaving the handle in the air, ready for him to grab. Naz’gar turned around and looked at Vex, who was still defeatedly looking at Luna.

“What do you mean . . . no?” Naz’gar questioned once more. Vex turned to face him, as well as the Elves.

“I mean I won’t kill them, I can’t. I won’t have no hand in their deaths, they’re ma friends,” he said and extended a hand to Luna. She grabbed it and stood up, hiding behind the giant lizard. 

“You would betray me? After everything I’ve done for you?!”

“Done for me? You’ve done all of this for youself, to stroke yer ego. Yet the one who became Dark Lord.”

“I raised you while I was the Dark Lord! I found you when you were but an egg and this is the thanks I get?! Betrayal?”

“You raised me wrong, ya only taught me evil things. Saying that killin’ was okay and that emotions were weak. I LIVED A LIE!!” Vex yelled. 

“You lived the best life possible, the Draxus left you on my doorstep as an egg! They gave you to me for a reason! Where do you think you’d be otherwise, people are afraid of you. You’re a giant alligator, you’d never make it out in the wild,” Naz’gar calmly told him.

“That’s just what you wants me to think! That I’m worthless without your help, your “guidance”. I know betta’ now, them two Humans taught me more than you ever had.”

“Aquis and Pantheon-?”

“I neva’ killed ‘em, I was close but I saved them. Brought ‘em back to health just like she did to William.” Naz’gar gnashed his teeth in rage and clenched his hands. 

“You never . . . ?! You’re just as bad as them! We were so close, with them gone, the finality of our plans could finally be put in motion. You’ve jeopardized everything!” 

“There is no “we” Naz’gar, not anymore,” Vex retorted. He reached down and grabbed his hammer and they glared at each other. 

“Don’t do this, you can’t beat me,” Naz’gar warned. 

“I don’t plan on killing you, I’ve learned that killing is wrong and I learned that on my own. I also learned that you are cruel and vindictive and evil! Something I should have realized long ago!” Vex said. 

“Fine then! If this is Life’s way of getting her revenge, then so be it. Once I finish you and the rest of the damn Elves, I’ll make sure to pay both of them a visit,” he taunted. With his hammer to his side and tail behind him, Vex charged Naz’gar.

Naz’gar banged his staff against the burnt grass and a green bubble warped around him as the warhammer slammed against it. It immediately bounced off and Vex looked at it in annoyance. He swung again, towards the side this time, and it bounced off again. The shield absorbed any blows the hammer tried to make, unmoved with every strike. Vex attacked the same spot but the same thing happened.

“Step away from the boss, traitor gator,” an Orc said. Vex turned around to see that the three Black Orcs surrounded him, their hands pointed at him. 

“And none of you agree with me?” The Orcs remained unmoved. “Then all of your kind is lost.” Vex stepped away from the bubble with his hands raised. 

“Drop the hammer,” one of them said. 

“Gladly,” Vex said with a smile. He grabbed his hammer with both hands and threw it at the leftmost Orc. He knew that one was able to use ice magic so he prioritized him. His throw was quick and unexpected, their looks quickly changed as the hammer soared through the air. The other two looked as the hammerhead made impact with the Orc’s face, completely smashing the front side. The hammer remained in him as he fell over. The two jerked over to Vex, who was charging them, and unleashed their magic. Lightning bolts and small streams of fire were expelled out of their hands at Vex, but he kept charging. He could feel his body stutter and shake with every lightning blast that hit him, so he ran after that Orc. He closed ground quickly and came in close proximity. 

The Orc swung his fist and was able to hit his arm, it did nothing to him. Vex tackled the Orc to the ground and clawed at him. Vex didn’t give the Orc a chance to resist, soon his corpse was clawed away. He turned to the other Orc and charged on all fours once more. The Orc backed away as he threw as much fire as he could to little effect. Vex continued the charge. He lunged to the Orc and tackled him to the ground. With his snout aimed downward and jaw opened, he reached out and closed his jaw around the Orc’s throat. He had no chance, Vex could feel blood pouring in his mouth along with some pieces of flesh. He got back up and saw that the neck was completely gone, he had eaten it. He licked his lips of the blood and looked at Naz’gar. 

“Such a hypocrite, didn’t you say that you weren’t going to kill?” He taunted. 

“I’m protectin’ maself.”

“So you lie to yourself, you enjoyed it . . . didn’t you?” Naz’gar stated. Vex looked behind him, Syllia was helping her children up. She was supporting both of them and looked at him. Her face and clothes, dirtied and bloodied but her expression was the opposite, friendly. She smiled at him and he nodded. 

“Yeah, I did. But tha’s cuz they ain’t innocent, they’s were gonna murder ma friends. I can’t stand for that,” he said. 

“You don’t have friends, you’ve never needed friends, and you’ll die thinking your right. Normally I wouldn’t allow that, but this is an exception.” Naz’gar lowered his bubble and raised his staff, Vex walked over to pick up his hammer. The gem lit up a deep red and it pulsated, releasing a fast bolt of energy. Vex, with little time to react, threw his hammer. They knew each other too well, they knew they couldn’t dodge each other’s attacks, so they accepted them. Naz’gar held up his hands in triumph while Vex held his over his chest, defending himself. The Elves watched as both weapons combined and they exploded. The force of the explosion knocked them over, but their will made them rise up to see the victor. They didn’t need the cloud to clear to see someone, they saw Victor limping towards them.

“Vex!” Eldritch cried out and limped over to him. It was a slow process, but they met up and looked at one another. 

“I’m fine . . .” He firmly held his chest. His arms were charred and blackened from the blast. Eldritch looked at them in worry. “I said . . . I’m fine,” he reinstated. Vex watched the others walk over to him as well. When Syllia reached him, she bowed to him. 

“Thank you for protecting my daughter-” Vex picked her up and set her on her feet.

“Queen’s don’t bow, ‘sides, I need to get y’all out of here.” They looked around, the forest was burning down and the screams overpowered the blaze of the fire. 

“There’s nowhere to go, the woods were our only home,” Syllia said. 

“We go north,” Vex announced. 

“There’s nothing north but the mountains,” Eldritch said.

“Exactly,” Vex said. Their facial expressions changed to show their worry and doubt, along with their bafflement. 

“But the Trolls-”

“The Trolls ain’t that bad, I mets one of ‘em when the war started. They’s not the monsters we make ‘em out to be,” he turned to look behind him, the cloud was still there. “We need to go there now, his army will be afta’ us.”

“But-”

“No buts! There isn’t much time.” Vex picked up Eldritch and put him on his back. “We need the rest of your people to get outta’ here.”

“I-I can do that . . . we’re going to the mountains?” Syllia questioned.

“Yes, now les go!” He said. He made sure Syllia and Luna were ahead of him so he could keep track of them. The Elves turned to look at the Great Twilight Tree burning down, burning branches began to make their descent. He could hear Luna sobbing softly. 

“Vex!” He heard Naz’gar call out. They stopped and their heads turned to the noise, concern returning to the Elves.

“Go on ahead, gather yer people . . . I has to hear what he has to say,” he said. Syllia nodded and they walked deeper into the forest. Vex turned around and watched the cloud fade away, revealing Naz’gar on the ground. 

“Vex! Don’t leave! They don’t deserve you!” He called out as he crawled closer.

“And neither did you, yet I stuck around. If you din’t brainwash me, then I’d have left sooner.” Vex pitifully looked at his old boss. “Goodbye Naz’gar,” he said and turned back around. 

He continued to walk as he heard Naz’gar yell, “you were like a son to me! A goddamn son! And you throw that away for these Elves? You could have ruled with me! But you let the Humans manipulate you with their emotions! WE COULD HAVE BEEN GODS!!!”

And that was the last he ever heard of his old master, his old boss, his old . . . father.

William had failed. A thought that passively remained in his mind while looking outward. He could hear the wagons, horses, and hushed whispers of the refugees behind him but he wasn’t paying attention to them. He was on the side of the road, watching the woods. Watching for ambushes. His eyes shifted from left to right, trying to notice any significant differences. If a tree branch fell or if a bush moved the slightest he would know. Anything that would warn them of an Orc attack, something he couldn’t let happen.

William had failed. His brain thumped with every thought of those words but he remained sturdy. He was assaulted by headaches everyday, usually they would last for a few hours. They started out light, nothing more than tremors in his head. But as his failure increased, so did the power of the headaches. But he never allowed them to perturb him, he couldn’t allow it. Those people’s lives rested in him and him alone. He could hear children talking amongst themselves behind him. 

William had failed. He wasn’t able to stop Naz’gar, he could only stall him. He should have stayed on Puer, to protect his people. He might have been able to save the Elves from their own destruction from the war, he couldn’t save his people. His own race was suffering from his mistake. If he had been on the frontlines, he could have stopped the endless Orc armies. Aquis and Pantheon were doing a good job but Vex took them out of the fight. He should have never trusted that gator, any genuine friend of the Twilight Elves spoke trouble. Although he was grateful that they were reasonable people, even if they were stereotypical obnoxious examples of royalty.

It seemed impossible to him, the fact that in the matter of a month they lost too much ground. And in another, they had to retreat to the Citadel. His kind was suffering physically and mentally. Families were taken away or destroyed outright and the people knew this would be their last stand. William knew that Naz’gar would send everything he had at them. He wanted to finish them off there, they were trapped like mice in a corn barrel. William knew they would never be able to survive in the Wastelands, it was called that for a reason. Half of them would die on the first day, the others would starve. 

He looked up to the sky, the foliage still in sight, and closed his eyes. For the first time in his life, he prayed in fear. “Dear God, I beg that you stop Naz’gar from wiping us out. I have relied on your benevolence for longer than I can remember and I need your help once more. Please . . . just please don’t make this our last stand. If you have to sacrifice me to save my kind, then I will gladly take that offer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Amen.” He opened his eyes and lowered his head to look at the woods. He then thought of an addition to the prayer but he didn’t close his eyes or weld his hands together. “If you can send that shadow creature in our direction once more, we will all be grateful.”

Aquis looked over the wall, the forest had not managed to change. She was stationed on the northern walls of the Citadel. It was a very boring job for her. She was the only one stationed on that section. The first reason was that she was the best person with a bow but the other reason was that the other archers had to protect the roads. Engineers were able to quickly make watchtowers by the roads for the archers to watch them and warn the others. She was jealous and not jealous at the same time. She was jealous because they were closer to the action, the problem was that the action was against Orcs. The rise of Naz’gar’s Black Orcs didn’t omit her fear of them, it only amplified. 

She sat on a wooden chair watching the road in front of her. Her arm was resting on the battlements with her head resting on the hand, bored out of her mind. Her bow was off to the side on the ground. If something happened, she could easily reach it but she knew that would never happen. At least not yet, Naz’gar’s army was taking their time. They had to wrap around the Citadel and destroy the other towns but by that time those people had evacuated. That didn’t stop the Orcs from attacking the roads, however. 

“Are you still bored?” Aquis whipped her head around and saw Pantheon. A smile appeared on her face as she looked at him.

“Not anymore, what are you doing here?” She asked. He walked to her and sat down beside her bow. 

“Folks said that you were guarding this wall all by your lonesome, so I figured I had to come here to keep you occupied,” he said.

“But you’re supposed to be guarding the south gate! You can’t just abandon your duties to see me!”

“Okay fine then, I guess I’ll be going,” he said with a shrug and started to stand up. She put her hand on his forehead and pushed him down. 

“No! . . . y-you can stay,” she said. 

“As I thought and don’t worry about the southern gate. Three of the newest arrivals were guards so they take my job over.”

“Then where are you going to be stationed?” She asked.

“Right here, beside you,” he said and fell into her thigh. She pushed him away and chuckled. 

“I’d love it if you did, I truly would. But Charles and Livius have told us three times already that we can’t be together while the sun is out,” she complained. He lightly grabbed her thigh and pulled himself to it, leaning once more. 

“They don’t have to know,” he said with a smile. “Out of all the things that Livius has said, that is the one thing I must disagree with.”

“What about the war?” He looked up at her.

“That was a different time.” He relaxed his head into her thigh and sighed (that almost rhymed). 

“Is it?” He looked up to see her questioning expression. 

“What do you mean?” She sighed heavily as she looked beyond the walls.

“I know that this war made us stop the last one, but what happens after?”

“We live together in peace? I don’t exactly know what you’re meaning to say.”

“I’m saying that people still aren’t too swell about our people being together like nothing happened.”

“Surely they must realize that their fears are misplaced?”

“No, if anything they’re only more paranoid,” she said and looked down at him. “I can’t go anywhere without some Roman giving me a dirty look. I even heard a couple of people calling you a traitor and something to the effect of ‘how could he fall for such a succubus?’. The hate only seems to have grown,” she said with a sigh. He let go of her thigh and pulled her head down to his, their hair tangling together. 

“Don’t think about that, everyone’s just worried. Nothing like this has ever happened in our history. A Dark Lord has never come this close to their goal and those people just have different ways to express their emotions of the situation,” he explained. She giggled and nudged against his head. 

“You always know what to say to get me to stop worrying.”

“Well, you’re not as cute when you’re worried,” he said and caressed her face. She did the same as they looked over the wall, uncertain of what would happen next but happy nonetheless.

Vex looked across the water, from what he could tell none of the Orcs had followed them. The smoke from the woods was still there but he couldn’t hear them so he thought they were safe. While trying to escort the remaining Twilight Elves to the mountains, he had to act as a boat because none of them knew how to swim. It seemed odd to him at first until he realized they never strayed from the woods. One by one, he carried them across the river. He wasn’t able to swim across which would have shaved off more time but he made due. The Twilight Elves continued to pour out of the forest, looking for sanctuary yet the Orcs were not behind them. Vex never even saw an Orc chasing any of the Elves. 

Syllia, Luna, and Eldritch were the last ones to be carried across. They waited for the rest of the Elves to go first. When they were across, Vex waited on their side. “Vex! Come on!” Eldritch yelled. He turned around and saw the two siblings standing in the snow yet they did not appear to be overly cold. Luna was shuddering but that was the only sign. 

“I can’t, y’all go on ahead. I’ll keep watch down here, make sure none of ‘em try and sneak up on ya,” he said.

“We’re not going to leave you!” Eldritch called out. 

“I can’t go up there, I wouldn’t make it that far,” he said and looked at himself. “Ma Draxus blood wasn’t made for the cold. Lizards are cold-blooded, we can only survive where the sun shines.” He pointed further up the mountain. “An’ the sun don’t shine up there.”

“There has to be something we can do! You saved us and we can’t even repay the debt?” Luna yelled. 

“I cleared my debt by doin’ this, now my heart don’t hurt as much. Just go! If I have to go up there, I will. But I’m not moving ‘till y’all get outta’ ma sight!” He yelled back at them. Eldritch raised his finger in protest. “No! Now get going! You’ll worry yer mum.” With a look of regret in their eyes, they nodded and walked up the mountain, Vex lost sight of them in the snowstorm. 

He would remain down there for as long as he needed to be. He didn’t know how much Naz’gar would pursue them currently but he was certain he would when the Humans were wiped out. When that time would come, he had to be prepared. He knew that his relatives, the drakes, resided in these mountains but he had no idea where their caves were. But he didn’t have to worry about that, he only had to worry about any incoming Orcs. 

Pantheon looked down at his hand, there lay a letter. It was a simple white letter with no add-ons other than “Pantheon” on the front. He looked around, the room he was in was empty because it was their room. One of his people was given the letter and it managed to make it all the way to Pantheon. He had no idea what it was about, it only said his name and the handwriting wasn’t a deadringer either. He looked at the room once more, Aquis wouldn’t get back for another hour so he had time to look at it in secret. He brought out his gladius and used it as a letter opener.

The gladius managed to cut through the seal and the letter opened. He reached into it and picked up a folded piece of paper. He let the letter hit the ground as he unfolded the paper. Before he read it, the writing was crude but readable. It had to be a man’s writing, no woman could write that bad. But he read it all the same.

To Pantheon,

Hey! It’s been a while since we last talked . . . it’s us by the way, Cicero and Vivus. We weren’t able to help out in the war that much, not compared to you at least. We’re heard how you took on patrols of Orcs with you and your “lady friend”, you know the one. By the way, we told you! While you were doing that, we were infiltrating Outcast towns. We were able to sabotage them by destroying their equipment. They had planned to help the Orcs invade the Freemen towns but without weapons, they couldn’t. 

Cicero told me the bad news that you and the huntress were wounded by a Draxus? We didn’t entirely believe it but suddenly the Orcs were making progress so SOMETHING had to happen. When that happened, we tried to make it back to Roman territory but the Orcs beat us to it. I’m afraid to say that neither ours nor your parents made it. We got back to the capital too late, on behalf of both of us, we’re sorry we couldn’t help. We managed to get all of our parents into a grave but that doomed us. The Orcs managed to block off both mountain trails and we were trapped.

When you get this letter, we will be in the Wasteland. Don’t worry for us, we have experience and we can make do. We’re sorry we can’t help anymore but those Black Orcs are scary and more perceptive, our disguises wouldn’t work. Our plan is to try and get some mercs to help out. So at least we can help a little bit, but not as much as you did. We hope you’re able to survive against Naz’gar while we’re gone. We’re counting on you, centurion.

Sincerely,

Cicero and Vivus

P.S: If you don’t treat that woman right, when we get back, we’ll slap you. And by slap, I mean slap you with the non-bladed edge of our swords. 

Pantheon dropped the message and rubbed his hands through his hair. He sighed with much relief and cracked a smile. “They’re alive . . . they’re alive,” he said. He was happy about that news but tears soon came when he realized the other part. His parents were dead, the only people who accepted and loved him were now dead. That’s what he thought for only a second, but he shook that out of his head. He realized that Cicero and Vivus were basically his best friends, they helped him so much along the way. And then there was Aquis, she was something special. He picked up the message and looked at the end again. He chuckled at it and thought of her, his smile growing wider with hope. 

Naz’gar stood on his balcony for the last time. He was looking over the remaining ashes of the Twilight Forest, a powerful reminder. Not a single tree was left, only the blackened corpses of them, not even the Great Twilight Tree was spared. Although it did take the longest to burn. He was proud of his achievement but only halfway. He had swiftly punished the traitorous Twilight Elves but he had lost his only company, Vex. The tower was a lonely place now, he yearned for his odd accent or the sound of his claws against the floor. But what happened happened, Vex was now a traitor to him as well. 

He looked below him and looked upon his army. Rows of hundreds of Orcs were gathered below the balcony. For once in their life, they were orderly. For once in their life, they would win. For once in his life, he was proud of them. Night black armor covered their chest and an equally black helmet protected their heads. They held large crude, one-sided, Orcish swords. They had no needs for shields, their bodies were the meat shields. His black Orcs refused to wear the armor, partly because their magic would destroy it almost instantaneously. 

The time was nigh. 

But he would wait. He knew that the Humans were still evacuating and both sides knew that this was their last stand. He wanted to make sure that they were ready, ready to fall under the might of Naz’gar the Necromancer. So he looked at his legion of Orcs. His unstoppable machine of war. A smile emerged from his face as he looked at them. He had done it, he had actually done it. He would destroy the Humans and prove himself to the others that he was the true Dark Lord. The only Human to accomplish their goal. 

And soon, the time would be right.

It was time, the Humans could feel it in their blood. They could feel it rushing through their veins and arteries, doing their jobs but stressing about the situation to come. When they arose from their slumber, they knew something was off. They didn’t feel right and when they went outside they saw the sun. That fiery ball of energy managed to hide behind the clouds for nine months and then suddenly, it appeared. All of them were perplexed, not even Gwain could explain the phenomenon. Yet they enjoyed it, the heat of the sun was a warm welcome to the numerous cold and windy days they had to suffer through. By that day, everyone who could be evacuated was. The Citadel was crowded with people, most citizens had to let others sleep in their homes. The less fortunate had to sleep outside. But William and Gwain made sure they received proper bedding supplies. 

William was standing atop the northern wall, arms behind his back and sword in its sheath. He had slept like the rest of the citizens but he woke up the soonest, making sure he could at least warn the guards if anything was happening. Much to his surprise, he heard footsteps behind him. “William, what are you doing up so early?” Charles asked. The prince walked up to him and looked over the walls as well. 

“I received a disturbing report but I wasn’t entirely sure of it’s truth,” he stated.

“Are you going to tell me what it is?”

“It is better if I show you,” William said and took off his helmet. His black hair poured out and he dug in it. He managed to pull out the communicator that Charles had given him so long ago. He held it in his hand in between both of them. “Show today’s message,” he said into it. The green rectangle showed up and a picture of Luna’s face appeared. 

“William, I have dreadful news. Naz’gar wasn’t too happy about me saving you so he burned down the entirety of the Twilight Forest and killed most of us off. We’re fine now, we’re taking shelter in the mountains. It’s not as cold as I thought it would be but it can still get awfully chilly . . .” She looked away from the device and both of them could hear someone else talking but couldn’t make out any of the words. “I’m getting to it!” She shouted at the person and looked back at them. “That wasn’t my main point though, Eldritch came running up the mountain and said that his entire army was moving out yesterday night. He says that the earliest they could arrive would be later this morning, the latest would be tonight. I know we’re still not on good accords, but I can’t have him wipe out your race like he tried to do with mine. Hopefully you’re able to do something with this information . . . also we were able to find these in a wooden crate hidden in a cave. There were dozens of them, but this is the only one that seems to work. If you are able to fight off Naz’gar, tell me at once so we and our allies can plan for a counterattack. Good luck, and may Luna protect you.” The recording closed and so did the rectangle. 

“So, it is today then?” Charles asked.

“So it would seem,” William confirmed. He pointed out at the horizon where they saw a quick and sudden change of scenery. “There they are.”

“The time has come then, stay here just in case. I will alert everyone else,” Charles said and ran off. He heard his shoes clumping rapidly down the ladder and shortly after he heard, “battle positions! Everyone get ready for battle! Naz’gar’s army will be here any minute now!” Then he heard the doors opening and initial panic. Without turning around, he knew what was happening. Parents were waking up their kids and telling them the bad news, dads were hugging their children and wives and heading out to grab their equipment, they would stand by the door and wave goodbye to them or cry. He had never seen something like that actually happen, but he read it in a book. A book about this sort of thing, if the Dark Lord were to win. It was in the fiction section, but now it seemed more like a reality. Even if that were the case, no one would be alive to put that book in the nonfiction section. 

He watched the trees fall and could hear the crashing down. Soon he would be able to see them, the true magnitude of their situation. As he waited for his worst fears to come true, he did something he never did, he thought about his life. He did not show it, but deep down he was scared. Nothing in their history had ever compared to this and he was living it, acting as the last line of defense. It was true that if they were wiped out, the Human race was still alive, but not the good kind. The Outcasts were traitors and the Wastelanders . . . well, they were undesirable miscreants who lived in a continental graveyard. 

His life seemed so pointless compared to what was happening. He fought his fellow man for ten years, and he didn’t even know the real reason. They did believe in different gods, but Aquis was Pagan and Sage didn’t believe in anything so that couldn’t have been a reason. Maybe if the war never existed, this wouldn’t be happening. It was much too ponder, more trees fell in the distance, coming closer to him. 

He thought about his job, Paladin. A religious warrior meant to protect the ways of God and his people. He felt it was better used in this instance than during the old war. He was one of the only people who could fell dozens of Orcs with ease, he had done it in the beginning and he expected to do the same now. But with that title came the greatest curse, no relationships. Specifically, the romantic variety. 

He was never the romantic type to begin with. He knew how handsome he appeared to girls in his early age, but he never paid them any attention. He was always focused in his work, his work had to come first. Be it in the beginning as a manager for the armory, then a Rotwood guardian, then a knight, then Charles’ first ever Paladin. His work was his life and he knew how a relationship could impede with that. But as a Paladin, it was illegal for him to be in a relationship. God and country had to come first and he was okay with it at first. Even three days ago, he was fine with that fact, but now? He had begun to regret it. No one he could specifically love and care for, no one person he could specifically please and be a true gentleman too, and what was to come further cemented that. The first line of Orcs managed to break the treeline.

“Damn,” Sage muttered beside him. He turned his head to her and chuckled, she was followed by Aquis and Pantheon.

“I was worried you wouldn’t show up,” he said to her.

“I wanted to, I didn’t believe the other fairies when they said how many were coming. If I survive this, I’m going to owe them a lot of money,” she said as the army advanced. Four more rows of Orcs poured out of the forest, they were in an organized line all heading in one direction. 

“This is it . . . isn’t it?” Aquis said. 

“Not if we have anything to say about it,” Pantheon. Just as he said that, Naz’gar came into view. He was in the fifth row of Orcs and blended in with moderate success. His hood covered his head but they knew it was him. “And if we win this, the Dark Lord will be no more once again.”

“We got Piscgem!” A voice shouted to their right. They all turned to it and Sage pointed in that direction.

“I’ll go check it out,” she stated and flew off in that direction. The others turned back to the main army. Eight rows of Orcs were now showing their ugly faces. 

“There’s so many of them,” Aquis murmured. The Orcs marched through the fields, destroying the crops that were growing. The fifteenth row was the end of the armored Orcs and the Black Orcs showed their faces. They wore no armor and only wore their normal clothing. They heard Sage fly back to them and turned to her.

“What happened?” Pantheon asked. She blankly looked at him with her mouth slightly agape. “Sage?” She shook herself back awake.

“I’ve never seen the Piscgem before, now I’m terrified of them like Aquis to Orcs.”

“Hey!”

“It’s true sister,” she said.

“What are you talking about?” William asked.

“The Piscgem, the fish folk, they’re crawling out of the lake to the east and heading here. They’re straight out of nightmares, I tell you. Huge fish bodies, the size of us, using mangled and awkward limbs to crawl and walk about. Slime periodically caking whatever they touch. Huge bulbous eyes on the sides of their heads with sharp teeth to gulp you down. And that’s just the little ones, the bigger bass are twice as large and exposing their mouths as if they’re proud of it. Looking at it, it’s like an endless abyss.”

“Multiple sides . . . that’s not good,” William said. “We’ll have to split up to-”

“Humans of both Freemen and Roman origin, it is I, Naz’gar the Necromancer!” He shouted to them. William, Sage, Pantheon, and Sage turned their attention to him. Naz’gar walked through his army and presented himself in front of them by lowering his hood. “I have come to you as the newest Dark Lord and the one who will soon achieve victory, but for once in my life, I will be benevolent. I will all of you to leave your lands and isolate yourselves in the Wastelands. I will only make this offer once.”

“And what’s to stop you from slaughtering us when we are on the road?” William quickly replied. Naz’gar looked up at him and pinched the bridge of his nose. 

“Do you- . . . do you have to be so perceptive? You ruin all of my fun!” He looked at the last defense the Humans have made. “So no one will take my offer?”

“NO!!” They all shouted. Naz’gar actually felt the wave of their volume hit him, it made his hood fly back. 

“Very well then,” he said and looked at their defense again. “I was hoping for something more dramatic. This is the first time this has happened, after all. I feel like I should be rewarded before and afterhand . . . no? Just me? Then I guess this conflict should begin.” He held his hand to his mouth for only a second, then pointed at the gate. “CHARGE!!” With no further words, the Orcs ran past him. 

“FIRE!!” William shouted. Just like how the Orcs charged, the Humans fired all they had at the invasion. Arrows were flung from bows, bolts were shot from crossbows, and bigger bolts were expelled from ballistas. The arrows bounced off of the helmets and only a few managed to find a target. Some Orcs were hit in the shoulder or arm, ever fewer were hit in the face. The bolts made more of an impact, penetrating armor and stunning those it hit for a second. It tore through unprotected flesh like it was nothing, but the Orcs continued the charge. Nothing would stop them this day. Not even the ballista bolts destroying both armor and flesh would stop them. The bolts went through their entire bodies, stacking them like sausages on a fork. Some of the archers tried to fire on Naz’gar but he was lost in the charge. The Orcs were able to make it to the walls.

Most of them funneled in front of the gate, trying to destroy it while others were trying to climb the walls with no way of reasonably doing so. The Orcs in front of the large wooden front gate slashed at it without anyway for the archers to stop them. William ran to the innards and looked down. Soldiers armed with swords and spears alike were preparing themselves for the horde. “Get ready for them to bust the gate open!” He yelled at them. They looked up and nodded at his comment.

“You can count on us!” They shouted back. William ran back to where the others were. The normal Orcs were pressed against the wall and the gate, the Black Orcs right behind them. He looked at the gate and saw that their attempts to barge in weren’t working. Their swords could slash at the gate but that was all that happened. 

“Am I the only one who’s going to help?” Aquis said as she loosed an arrow.

“We can’t do anything right now, unless you suggest that we jump off and fight off a thousand Orcs,” Pantheon said. “Besides Aquis, it’s going fine right now. There’s nothing to worry about yet.” Just as he said that, they heard shouting to the east and the three of them turned to see what was happening. 

The Piscgem were able to scale the walls. They didn’t know how, but the fish folk actually managed to get on the walls. The archers fled to the north wall, where they were, while the more armored and close combat focused soldiers went to take care of the problem. Sage was right about them, they were terrifying to look at. Their grey scales seemed to cover whatever they touched in an ooze and their jaws appeared sharper than most of their blades. 

“What happened?” Aquis asked as one of her arrows hit an Orc in the face. 

“The Piscgem scaled the walls,” Sage said.

“You just had to say that, ‘it’s going to be fine’. You didn’t even knock on wood at all,” she said. 

“It’s all right, I’ll take care of it. Sage, come with me,” he said and ran off.

“Go nothing better to do,” she said and floated away. William watched them run to the east wall and fight off the Piscgem. Pantheon’s reforged spear was able to skewer the fish and Sage just pushed them off the walls or on the ground. Apparently they had no way to get back up if they fell over, so they were easy targets. Then suddenly, an intense heat flew above his head. He instinctively ducked and looked over the wall. The Black Orcs were close enough to start throwing their magic at them. But it wasn’t them they were aiming for, it was the door. 

Bolts of lighting and balls of fire attacked the door and made it buckle back with every blast. He could hear the soldiers behind him readying for a fight. William ran to the ladder and climbed down, he joined up with the other soldiers and held the line. “Get ready men!” The door recoiled every time it was hit with magic, which caused the soldiers to express their concern. “Aquis! Aim for the Black Orcs for heaven’s sake!” He yelled at her. 

“We’re trying, they keep . . . oh no,” she replied. 

Then the gate exploded.

Splinters of wood and bits of metal flew at the defenders, raising up their shields in defense. The gate didn’t exist anymore, it was now just pieces of wood and steel. William looked up and saw the archers jumping on buildings or facing the interior of the castle, including Aquis who stood in front of him on the wall. The Orcs did not hesitate with the destruction, they walked on in. They didn’t know why they weren’t running, until they saw Naz’gar lead the band of Orcs. Someone shot an arrow at him and he blasted it out of the air. 

“Once I’m done with the problem, I expect this place to be burned to the ground, got it?” He asked the Orcs and they greedily nodded at the thought of the city destroyed. Before Aquis and William had a chance to think about what he said, Naz’gar waved his staff in the air and everything went black.

William forced his eyes to open and saw that he was in a foreign land. A place that was the opposite of Puer, a broken place. The ground before him was cracked and dry and in the distance he could see the marks of valleys cut into the ground. The ground probably hadn’t seen water in years, no ground he knew suffered from such fate. He looked around for anyone else and saw Aquis, Pantheon, and Sage taking in the change of scenery as well. Behind him, there was a graveyard with a dead tree in the center and makeshift graves guarding it. Beside the tree stood Naz’gar, staring at them. 

“Naz’gar! Where have you taken us!” William yelled. That made the others turn around and face their foe.

“A place where I figured this would take place. Large open landscape, large drops to one’s demise, and a dead tree. It only made sense to put it here,” he said.

“It? What’s it?” William asked. 

“The final battle, the actual final battle. A place where we may fight, just the five of us, alone.”

“Why?” Aquis asked.

“Because you four have been a pain in my rear for the last nine months. Constantly thwarting my plans and saving your race from my wrath. If not for you four, your kind would not have found out about me until it was too late. And then on, nothing but failure but look at me now! I have you trapped like mice and there’s no escape but just in case you thought there was any, we’re going to battle in here. That way you would never have the chance to save everyone if you did manage to win, my Orcs will have ravaged your people.”

“We’ve battled your armies for months and have fought them back. We will escape this place and fight off the rest of your army,” Pantheon boasted.

“Oh, someone feels high and mighty, doesn’t he? Well you should know, that’s not the rest of my army. I shouldn’t spoil it however, that would ruin the fun.” William pointed his sword at Naz’gar.

“You will pay for what you did to my race and the Twilight Elves! Luna told me what you did to her home and her people and I will make sure justice falls unto you like a hammer!” Naz’gar furrowed his brow and looked at them. 

“They were traitors because of you! They let you go and you coerced them to abandon the war, something I could not allow. No one is allowed to betray the Dark Lord and get away with it!”

“Vex did the exact same thing for us, is that he isn’t here?” Pantheon questioned. Naz’gar’s expression turned sour.

“He betrayed me by refusing to kill the Twilight royalty but since I see you two standing here, he also failed to kill you. You made him betray me as well! Your petty talks about emotions and morality confused him and because of that, he confused himself and had the audacity to think of betrayal.” He briefly paused and a smile creeped on his face. “And you will pay for making him my enemy. I will make sure of that! HE WAS MY FRIEND, AND YOU MADE HIM STAB ME IN THE BACK!!” He held his staff above his hand and pointed at them. “The time for talk has ended, it is time for you to FINALLY DIE!!!!” He shouted and slammed his staff onto the ground. The ground trembled beneath them as the ground opened in several spots. Hands reached out of their graves and pulled themselves up. They all looked in horror as to what was happening. 

“Yes! Look upon your dead brethren, your dead allies, their rotting corpses nothing more than soldiers in my army!” Naz’gar proclaimed. He was right, not all the bodies were the same. Stubby Dwarf corpses struggled to get out of the hole, nimble Elf bodies leapt to their feet and faced the group, rotten fish carcasses got on all fours, and Human bodies showed their grey skin to the non deceased. “My powers have finally returned to me and I fully intend on using them to turn you into my army!” He waved his finger at the corpses and the bodies ran at them. William unsheathed his sword, Pantheon tightened his grip on his spear, Aquis notched an arrow, and Sage turned into a bear. 

“No retreat!” Pantheon proclaimed.

“No surrender!” Aquis yelled.

“Only death!” Sage cried.

“For our offender!” William belted and they ran at the corpses. They didn’t have that much ground to cover but they needed to start the confrontation somehow. They counted three dozen corpses in total, all of them were between the Humans and Naz’gar. Aquis needn’t take a step forward to engage, she only needed to aim. She picked her first target quickly, the first undead she could see. She let loose an arrow and it was a direct hit in the head, it fell to the ground before it could do much of anything. The others paid no mind to this as they shuffled to the others. Much like the undead to Naz’gar, her friends were a shield. She pulled out another arrow and fired, another direct hit. One more arrow, direct hit. Her aim was flawless against them and she allowed the others to continue the charge. 

Pantheon was the one that led the charge, being the first one to run up to the corpses. With the anger and raw intensity he felt when he first tried to kill Naz’gar, he attacked the undead. He didn’t simply attack them, he massacred all that stood in his way. The undead tried to divert themselves to equally attack them, but that only helped him out. They attacked him one at a time, but they never even had a chance. His spear would slash through them and he’d use the corpse to pole vault to the others. Naz’gar looked in surprise and disbelief at what he was witnessing.

William and Sage were running the same pace due to the fact that Sage had to tackle the undead. William, can in fact, not outrun a bear but he could slice through his enemies better than one. To his blade, they stood no chance. With one swipe, an entire body part was separated or the body in general. He had to look away from the Elvish and Human bodies because he would have felt guiltier looking at them while ending their suffering. Sage, on the other hand, was having a blast. She knocked the undead down and mauled them, it didn’t taste that good but it wasn’t the worst meal she had. 

Aquis fired an arrow into the last undead, leaving Naz’gar defenseless. They ran at him with all of their willpower and raised their weapons, ready to deliver the decisive blow. But his face worried them, he didn’t appear worried, he had a slight smile. Pantheon jumped up and held his spear above his head, preparing to strike at Naz’gar’s heart. But, as always, Naz’gar was ready for that. He banged his staff against the ground and a bubble surrounded him. Pantheon fell into it and bounced off, falling to the ground. Sage and William striked it and their weapons bounced off. Aquis rushed to Pantheon’s aid as Naz’gar laughed maniacally. 

“Mwahahaha! Did you forget that I could do this? You can’t possibly get me now!” He boasted. William glared at him.

“Lower that shield and fight us like a real Dark Lord would. The ones I read about wouldn’t hide so cowardly,” he taunted back. Naz’gar simply smiled at the taunt and rolled his eyes. 

“You think I will be that stupid? Why do you think I’m succeeding right now? How do you think I’ve got you in my grasp? I’ve learned from their failures and improved on my last rule as well. You Humans are at the breaking point all because of ME! I will eradicate your species from this planet, then move on to the Dwarves and Elves. I WILL BE UNSTOPPABLE!!”

“Yet you hide from us,” Aquis piped in, standing very close to Pantheon. 

“We all have our strengths and weaknesses, unlike the Dark Lords before me I know this. I can’t take you all by myself . . . but they can,” he said. Naz’gar flipped his staff around and forced the gem into the dirt. His smile widened as he turned it slightly, turning the ground around it green. Then the green filled the cracks around it and continued to expand. It ran beneath their legs and went all the way to the tree. “Last time, I used my necromancy more often but unfortunately with the revival, I forgot how to use it.” Four individual green, strong hands burst out of the ground near Naz’gar. “But now, I’ve unlocked my potential once more and with that, my magnum opus.” The other hands burst out and grabbed the ground.“My diamond in the rough, the ace of my sleeves, the . . . the . . . other words for my masterpiece.” The hands used the ground as leverage to arise out of their graves. The ground fell around them as their bodies came out. They were slow to get out but that only made it scarier for the group. Their heads were covered in night black helmets, it was professionally made with no crude cuts or edges. The helmet connected to armor of the same armor and quality, there were juts that fell downward on the armor. It was thick and combined with the other sets. They noticed that the arms were protected as well but it didn’t appear as thick. The legs were the last and exposed the entire body. The undead were covered in thick armor with swords and shields they had never seen. The swords had blades on both sides of the hilt while the shields were rectangular with two sharp extensions on the bottom. “Behold! My Naz’guards!” He yelled. “Kill them my guards! Appease your master with their blood!” The undead jerked their heads to each of them and ran. 

To say they ran would be hard to justify, they did something that seemed like running but in a method that wasn’t normal. Their running was uncanny, their strides were random, long, short, long, long, short, long, long, short, short, it’s like they didn’t know how to move properly. They swung their arms as they ran, as if to balance their broken movement out. If they could have walked on all fours, they probably would have. Each of them chose a target and ran to them. 

None of them were prepared for the creepy movements and backed up as they were approached by the creatures. Pantheon was the first to fight one of them. He jabbed his spear at it but it blocked with the spear. He jabbed at a different angle but it was blocked again. He tried again but the creature was quick, metal clashed against metal. The creature retaliated after the third strike. It brought the shield back and swiped with the top blade then twisted its hand to swipe with the bottom blade. Pantheon dodged both strikes by hopping back a step, the creature took a step toward him and swiped again. Again he hopped back and again the creature stepped forward. When it attacked for the third time, he faked the hop and lunged instead. His shoulder dived into its chest but he bounced back. The Naz’gar staggered back but wasn’t knocked to the ground. It raised up its shield and charged at him. He hopped to the side and jabbed while it was in front of him. Then it did something he didn’t predict. It stopped suddenly and slammed the shield into Pantheon. He fell to the ground and his spear went to the side. Before he had the chance to move, the Naz’guard stood on his armor and cut his arm. It wasn’t like the cut took off the entire arm, but it did damage it. “Ahh!” Pantheon painfully yelled.

Sage charged at the creature and they met very quickly. Sage leapt onto it and took it to the ground, making it drop both of its weapons. She brought out her claws and started to slash at its face as it tried to struggle. It tried to claw at her, punch her, and mindlessly flail its limbs around. Her claws scratched at the metal and made an awful noise that made her wince but she ignored the awful noise to continue the assault. It then occurred to her that she had the mouth of a bear and if her claws weren’t going to work, certainly her teeth would. She stopped clawing at it and opened her mouth wide. Her tongue slapped against the interior of her mouth as she brought her mouth down on its head. She was able to get its entire head inside and she began to turn and twist her mouth. She heard cracking and clanging of bone and metal. Then she jerked up and closed her mouth, the helmet fell to the ground with its head inside. The creature stopped struggling and she turned to Naz’gar. 

William prepared himself for the creature. It’s movements creeped him out but he was undeterred otherwise. He defensively held up his sword and shield as their weapons met. The Naz’guard strck first. Twin blades rapidly striking at his shield caused him to back up. His feet dug into the ground and he quickly retaliated. Making fast swipes with his sword, all met with its shield but it too staggered. Then he held up his shield for its retaliation and it delivered. The Naz’guard twisted its hand in impossible ways to ensure both blades struck right after the other. However, it did not stop. William never had the chance to counterattack because the Naz’guard never stopped attacking. Every second, a blade clanged against his shield and soon he was beginning to struggle to hold it. It was also able to strike harder with every slash, forcing him to use more strength. Then the Naz’guard lifted its blade and struck from the left, William’s shield flew out of his hand and stuck in the coarse dirt. He wasn’t able to think of what just happened because it attacked from the other side and his sword flew out as well, striking the ground. William was weaponless but not defenseless. With no weapons and no time to think, he punched. His right fist met the shield but his left punched its chest and it staggered. His gauntlets protected him from the fact that he was punching metal, but not completely. The Naz’guard appeared surprised at what happened and was met with another set of punches. It was able to block the left fist but the right one hit the shield arm, making it shake in his hand. William’s counterattack was short lived however, the creature brought back its head and headbutt him. William took a step back and protected his face but he felt a force hit his chest and he was on the ground. 

Unlike everyone else, Aquis didn’t put up much of a fight and honestly who can blame her? She had no armor and wasn’t skilled in close quarters combat so she didn’t even stand a chance. She was also terrified of its movements and stood still like a statue. One punch to the gut forced her on her knees. A kick to the stomach forced her on the ground, defenseless. 

Sage glared at Naz’gar as he lowered the bubble. “So it would appear that one of you is able to fight them off . . . I’ll take those odds,” he said. Sage charged at Naz’gar and he shook his head. “Even if you won, you are too stubborn to realize-” He interrupted himself when he pointed the staff at her and a red beam of light hit her. It only lasted a second but it forced her out of bear form, making her tumble in front of him. When she was hit with it, she felt queasy and odd and then she saw that she was sitting in front of him. 

“What?” She said and stood up to face him. “How’d you . . . that don’t matter! I’ll still take you on!” She proclaimed and punched his thigh.

“Ack! Enough!” He said and kicked her to the ground. She tumbled on the ground and turned to look at the others. They were in the same boat but the Naz’guards were standing on top of them, making sure they couldn’t do anything. “You, nature spirit, have somehow managed to pacify Rotwood and you effectively made it useless. As much as I hate William for his meddling in my plan, you have been as annoying as him.” He turned to the closest Naz’guard. “Give me your weapons . . . you all have done what you needed, join the dirt.” Without looking, the creature tossed his blade at Naz’gar and he caught it with his left hand. When that happened, the Naz’guards stood off of the others and they fell to the ground. Lifeless. Even though they were gone, the group was too wounded to stand up immediately. “My torture begins you with Sage! You stupid . . . mischievous . . . dumb . . . young . . . meddling . . . horny nature spirit!” He yelled and threw the blade at her, Sage closed her eyes and held up her hands in defense. 

When she opened them, she saw the blade sticking out of her body. It pierced her chest and hit her heart. “NO!!!” Aquis screamed. Sage started to breathe heavily when she realized what would happen. Her eyes widened as she looked at her friends, Aquis was crying and William and Pantheon expressed themselves with anger rather than sadness. 

“Will-” Then she turned to dust. It wasn’t a slow process, one second she was laying on the ground, the next she was a pile of dust. In fact, Naz’gar backed up in surprise. 

“Ughh, that’s what happens to fey creatures? No wonder I don’t see their remains . . . haha haHaHAHAHA!” He laughed as he continued to look at the pile of dust. “Finally! One of them is dead! All that I have suffered through . . . it actually means something!!! I WAS ABLE TO GET MY REVENGE!!! . . . but not all of it,” he said and turned to the others. Pantheon and William were on their feet but Aquis was on her knees, covering her face. The two men were struggling to stay up, but they remained standing. 

“You . . . will die for that! She didn’t do . . . anything to you, it was me you wanted!” William angrily yelled at him. 

“Indeed, and I will get to you still. The best way to get to someone is to toy with their emotions, killing that waste of space was only the start. And don’t worry William, you won’t die. I’ll make you watch as I torture these other two . . . death was her only torture,” he said and flicked his staff at the pile. 

“For all that is go- . . . good in this world, you will die for your crimes. Then . . . then you will be the last, I will . . . I will make sure of it!” Pantheon said and raised his spear. But once again, Naz’gar smiled and looked at him. 

“You don’t want to do that . . . trust me,” he said.

“Kill him Panth *sob sob* strike him down,” Aquis said as she stood off, wiping away the tears. She didn’t have as much trouble standing up.

“You shouldn’t say that, if William was taunting me then I’d just retort but you two? There’s something else up my sleeve,” he said with a devious smile. 

“What . . . what nonsense are you speaking of?” Pantheon said. 

“Some nonsense called love,” he said and reached into his robe. He continued to gaze at them as he pulled out a glass bottle. It was filled with a pink liquid and he sloshed it around with a smile. 

“W-what’s that?” Aquis asked. 

“Whatever trickery that is . . . it won’t work. Killing Sage just put you in the grave and we’ll make sure to put you there ourselves!” William said. 

“Oh, but it will work!” He said and pointed at Pantheon and Aquis with separate fingers. “Certainly you must know of their love affair by now?” Aquis blushed and William gnashed his teeth. 

“What does that have to do with anything?” William said. 

“Because it’s fake,” he stated. Aquis and Pantheon simultaneously shook their heads and didn’t believe him in the slightest. 

“You don’t . . . know what you’re talking about! It isn’t fake, we love each other and there’s nothing fake about that!” Pantheon said. 

“Yeah. Besides, our love had to have been real after-” Aquis said. Naz’gar raised his hands and shook them in prevention.

“Don’t . . . don’t bloody tell me, I already get sick when I’m exposed to too many Human emotions . . . that’s right, the whole “fake love” thing,” he said and walked around them. “You know how I was there from the start, you impeded on my plans after all. But as always, I was one step ahead.” He pointed at Aquis. “Weaknesses are easy to exploit.” He pointed at Pantheon. “All they need are a catalyst, something to help it out.” He brought both hands together. “Her loneliness and her desire for someone to love her combined with a . . . “handsome” man of the same age from the opposing side. I believe it’s called “love at first sight”, which is a load of shit,” he said. 

“You can’t make false emotions like that! Emotions are something . . . they’re . . . untangleable, untouchable-”

“But able to be manipulated,” he said as he walked back to his original position. 

“B-but magic can’t falsify emotions like what you just described,” Aquis said. “You’re just trying to get us to worry over nothing! My love for Pantheon is stronger than your armies would ever be!” Naz’gar gagged and held his stomach, William did something similar. 

“Gross, you are blinded by your love . . . which will only hurt more. Let me propose this, why would a man from the opposing side of war suddenly be so friendly? William was right to judge Pantheon at first and I thought that he’d see what was happening, but Aquis was stupidly blind with her love that she dove for him,” he explained and he held up the bottle. “And this? This is the opposite of that spell, it will revert all those changes . . . bring you back as if none of this happened.” Aquis’ mouth quivered at what he said and Pantheon just shook his head. William looked at both of them, then Naz’gar. 

“Even if that’s the case . . . we’ll still kill you,” he said. 

“Will you?” He simply asked. “If I were to drop this bottle, we would be consumed in its cloud and all that happened between Pantheon and Aquis will be lost. She will go back to her lonely, unloveable self and he will be a Roman, enemy of the Freemen.” His smile grew in size and he exposed his teeth in excitement. “But William is right, it wouldn’t-”

“Don’t!” Aquis cried out. All eyes turned to her as she looked at them. “Don’t do that . . . please.” She lowered her head in defeat and Naz’gar confidentiality looked at her. 

“Aquis . . .” William said and he sighed, looking at Naz’gar with a defeated look. “Why are you saying this?”

“Because as I am soon to be victorious, I’ve grown sad. I didn’t know why but then I realized something, if I were to end all of you here and your race . . . my purpose would be shortened. The cat would have caught the mouse . . . but now what? So it’s simple, the mouse will have a chance to escape and the cat will continue his pursuit.”

“You fiend! You’d threaten Aquis by bringing back her loneliness just so you wouldn’t get bored?” William yelled. 

“William!” Aquis said in shock, even though it was the truth it was something she never liked to talk about. 

“You are right, that is what will happen,” he said and shook the bottle. “So I propose to you this, you three live and retreat to the Wasteland. I will not pursue you until the end of the year, then I will destroy your race. That gives you three months to make another “final” stand. Maybe then, I will not realize that I’ll get bored.”

“And how are we to believe you?” Pantheon asked. He shook the bottle in response. 

“William wouldn’t want her best friend to become sad and lonely again, would he? Isn’t that what best friends do? Protect their loved ones?”

“That’s . . . that’s unbelievably grotesque Naz’gar!”

“I’m the Dark Lord, William. I use everything to my advantage, no matter what,” he stated and looked at them. “So, do we have a deal or do I need to break a woman’s heart?” William and Aquis looked at each other, her eyes were filled with the most sadness he had ever seen and that coaxed him enough. They both looked at Pantheon but he wasn’t looking back. 

“Naz’gar!” Pantheon yelled. He turned to look at the one who called his name. “What you’ve proposed is sick and should have never been done in the first place. If I were to die, I’d make sure I go to Hell just to torture you for all eternity!”

“Is that a yes but you're still mad?” Naz’gar confusedly asked. He wasn’t sure of what Pantheon was talking about. Pantheon turned back to Aquis, their eyes met. Her face, covered in dirt, tears, and some blood still appeared beautiful to him. Her eyes allowed him to see her soul, innocent and free. He gripped his spear harder and bit his lip in anger, he could taste blood on his teeth. 

“I love you with all my heart Aquis, I truly do and never think otherwise. That’s why I’m sorry for this,” he said.

“So is that a yes-” Naz’gar was unaware as Pantheon threw his spear at him. He saw the spear flying to him and he lifted his staff but he was too slow. He watched as the spear pierced his hand and took it off of his arm. He screamed in intense pain as his hand released the bottle and it dropped to the ground, releasing its contents and covering everything up. But instead of being covered in pink, everything went black once more. 

Just like last time, William forced his eyes to open. He saw that he was still covered by the mist and rushed out of it to see that they were back in the Citadel but it was different than he last saw it. Numerous buildings were covered with fire, others were falling apart, and some were outright destroyed. His mouth was widened as he looked around, his home was destroyed. As he looked around, he couldn’t see anyone but he could hear their screams. “William!” A voice cried out. He turned to it and saw a child, the same child that had saved them at the beginning.

“Y-you! What are you doing here?” He asked. “Wait wait! Where’s everyone else? Where’s my people?”

“Relax, I’m doing my job. You’re “people” are safe and sound, I got them through the portal but we have to hurry. It’s never been able to transport so many people at once,” he said and looked at the courtyard. There stood a portal, like he made to make the group escape in the Dark Lord’s tower, people were running through with guards to make sure they were protected. “Get out of here Will! I have to make sure you make it.”

“Where’s Aquis . . . and Pantheon?” He asked and looked at the cloud. “I can’t leave without them!” He said and rushed in the cloud for them.

“Hurry!” The boy said. William ran back into the cloud, it more resembled fog than anything else. 

He walked and looked all around him to ensure that he didn’t miss them, then he heard, “Pantheon!!” He jerked his head to the voice and rushed to it. “Pantheon! Where are you?”

“Aquis!” He called out. 

“Panth!” She cried out and he saw her. She was calling out to the unknown, trying to find her lover. He ran to her and grabbed her shoulder, making her turn to him. 

“We have to get out of here!” He said.

“I’m not leaving without him!” She said and turned away from him. “Pantheon! Where are you?” He ran in front of her and grabbed her face, forcing her to look at him.

“If what Naz’gar said was true, then he’s gone. He doesn’t love you anymore, he’s back to the old Roman ways. We have to accept out losses-”

“I’m not leaving without him!” She yelled at him and pushed him away. “Panth? . . . Pantheon? . . . PANTHEON!!” She, literally, cried out. She covered her face and felt her body being lifted.

“I’ve already lost one friend today, I can’t afford to lose two,” he stated and began to run. He felt her punching his armor and trying to get out of his grasp. 

“Let me go! I have to find him!” She yelled.

“And I have to keep you safe, I’m not letting you chase another fantasy . . . not anymore,” he said and they escaped the cloud. He saw the child standing near the portal, he was the only one near it.

“Is that all?” He yelled.

“Yes, close it when we get through!” He responded.

“No! We can’t leave yet!” She interjected. The child looked at them with a puzzled face as William closed distance.

“What does-”

“There’s no time, just be prepared to-”

“STOP!!!” A voice bellowed. Their blood chilled and William stopped running. He was only a few meters away from the portal but he couldn’t make himself get in, he had to stop. He turned around to see who yelled at them. Naz’gar walked out of the cloud clutching his handless arm. His expression was that of great anguish and anger, molding into a terrifying appearance. He was biting his teeth as he looked at them. “You might be able to escape my wrath but know this Human, Naz’gar the Necromancer has won. I have won!! Even if you are able to escape, I will find you! I don’t care how long it takes! I will track you down and murder everyone and everything you hold dear!”

“Well you know what Naz’gar?” The kid asked. Naz’gar turned to look at the kid and his expression added a hint of realization. “PHHHBBLLTTT!!” He spat at him and hopped in the portal. William ran into the portal with Aquis on his shoulder, then the portal was shut. 

The war was now over. The last stand hadn’t failed but it hadn’t succeeded as they had hoped. The Humans had survived Naz’gar’s assault but they lost their world in the process. The Homeland would now be home to the Orcs and Outcasts. But what ever happened to them? The original owners of the Homeland, where did the child take them? Naz’gar did not know, at least they were out of his lack of hair. He did not know where Pantheon was as well, he suddenly disappeared from the battlefield. He wasn’t with the others but one thing was for certain as William, Aquis, and the child entered the portal . . . Naz’gar had won.