Days passed in a craze. How many I would not be able to tell. There was something alluring and intoxicating about changing the very fabric of reality with the wave of a finger. Skills, paths, classes...it had been the cornerstone of human existence for as long as writers had kept the history. The system preceded human civilization so long, it had always been presumed to just be.

And I was playing with it as if it was clay and I the sculptor, as sloppy and experimental as my first steps were.

I was a bottle cast off the side of a ship, dancing on the waves, victim to nature and fate, and yet suddenly...had reached a point where I was changing the laws of existence itself.

Learning to play the forge, learning the language of Skills and the way to manipulate them was one of those easy to learn but hard to master situations. I was relying on the knowledge of the forge itself, guiding me and making the small decision for me I had no way of influencing, but soon I began to read the patterns and notice the nuances of what the spirit did. So far he seemed to work in my best interest.

Combining [Airwalk] and [Cutting Winds] had been a failure, initially. Or had it? There was something there, I could see it. I just had to tweak it a bit more. It had been just a test, a way to experiment and explore the limits of the forge and my own capabilities, after all. Unlike the Skills I had properly woven, the broken and tinkered with approximations I had lying around were very much not on the forefront of my mind.

Skills felt that way, like the simple movement of your limbs, you knew you could activate them as easy as taking a breath. The new combined Skills on the other hand had to be searched for. They were hidden, you had to open a door in your mind and consciously remember how to use them. There was some polishing missing, something to finalize them. I had not achieved a forged Skill like that, but it was easy to imagine that a Skill might be forged that would not have those problems, as seamlessly working for me like all the others.

What I truly needed was a way to combat the Weirderbeast. A mountain of flesh that seemed unsurmountable. An amalgamation of creatures so large, it was all but futile to even start hacking at it with steel alone.

I needed a solution to cause widespread and sustained damage. I only had a couple of Skills fitting the bill: [Cutting Winds] was a force multiplier for a sword cut of mine, but used wrongly it was just a strong wind. [Ghost Strike] doubled a hit of mine with an added cold effect. Lastly, the Skill all my hopes were riding on was [Cleanse Corruption].

In my conversions with the Mad King, I had learned that the Nightmares had been shaped out of both life and darkness in equal parts. Purging the corruption of the darkness out of the creature might have beneficial effects. Would the darkness the creatures lived off of be the glue holding the Weirderbeast together?

My idea, as wild as it was at first glance, was to use [Murder of Crows] to...I don‘t know...deliver the cleansing?

As far as I had deciphered the fractals of the Skill, [Murder of Crows] had three parts: Open a gate to the realm of souls in my Demesne, give a body for them to use in reality, and provide an area for them to work in. The rest was relying on the souls themselves. They were angry by nature, but nothing in the Skill forced them to do anything.

What if we...what if we added a weapon for them to use? What if we just put the cleansing effect on top of it all? It might be just the thing to spread the cleansing through the miles and miles of corrupted flesh waiting for me.

So I sat a the Skillforge, listening to the monotone voice of it instructing me, while I tinkered and played with the fractals of the Skills, coercing them in ever more seamless fitting new ways of combining the core features of the Skills I had laid bare. Finally, once I thought I had something, I memorized the image of the Skill and went ontop the Raven‘s Nest for a test.

I had learned my lesson, the last time I had been catapulted out over Shipwreck Bay, and I was not short on security measures this time. I was armed, alert, and armored and secured to the mast with a rope as well.

A deep breath later, I invoked the ramshackle Skill, and felt the familiar rising of cawing and the beating of countless wings in my mind. The shadows wrought into crows exploded out of my cape, as I would have expected rising normally, drowning out even the noise of the waterfalls.

Then, the cleansing activated.

In a rain of ash, every last crow exploded. Sudden silence reigned, where a cacophony had died, the waterfall pounding in my ears.

“No.“ I whispered. “Noo!“ I finally yelled.

I frantically searched for the flock, where I had felt their anger as mine, but there was just a deep hole of nothingness in my heart.

I entered my Demesne as fast as I could, flying up to the silvery tree where the lights of the soul were resting normally.

They were there. Their lights dimmed, but still there.

“Souls are not that easily destroyed.“ Lily said softly, as I sunk to the ground with relief flooding all my systems. “But you definitely purged the constructs of the crows with [Cleanse Corruption]. And is that not a thought worth thinking about?“

I looked at her, the jolly little blue ball of light, and thought about it. “I guess it is a matter of perspective.“ I finally said. “What the Mad King called corruption, others would call something else. We have known that I wield forces of darkness. The intent is what matters, right?“

Lily bobbed up and down. “Right! Nothing wrong with beating fire with fire. But you have to change that Skill, I guess.“

Sighing, I stood up and went back to the Skillforge, a long night ahead of me. As all nights had been for a long time.

I had worked a long time on the constructs on the crows, looking for a way to maybe....change the sort of energy it was made out of. I had nothing at my disposal, I could hardly make crows out of freedom, after all, but I was not affiliated with the darkness either.

I looked through my other Skills for indications on how to isolate the kind of element it would affect reality later. The easiest to see was in the Skill [Stonehide]. The Skill basically just changed your skin to the very element of stone.

But that was a ridiculous thought. Crows made out of stone, that is. I was looking at the element of wind out of [Cutting Winds], the ghostly force of [Ghost Strike], and the force of life of [Reinvigoration]. All of them seemed to be promising, although they did not create the energy like [Stonehide] did, they manipulated something existing to add their element on top of. Or maybe I was onto something?

“Send me back.“ a croaking voice cut through my music, interrupting me, almost making me jump, so deep had I been in my thoughts.

„What are you doing here?“ I heard the slightly panicked voice of Lily, before I turned and run back to the tree.

There sat a knight, clad in worn armor and wielding a chipped sword, almost not being here for real. An image of a knight, his memory perhaps. A tattered cloak was slung on his back, and his rusted breastplate was cut open by claws and teeth. I knew this man. I had knighted him myself.

The third knight to ever be knighted in Ravenport, a man named Roan. He had been too young to die.

“What are you doing here?“ I asked, mirroring Lily‘s question.

“I died, my Lord. In battle. I awoke here.“ The knight scratched his head, the metallic scraping from gauntlet on the helmet grinding through the silence. “Can you send me back? My brothers and sisters need me.“

“What...?“ I still was confused.

“Oh no, the afterlife!“ Lily shouted. “You prayed to the Raven, did you not?“

The worn-out knight nodded. “Of course, I did. We all did. We know what he is. We rever him for what he has done for us. We are his for life and death, we made the vow and meant it.“ The helm screeched around, dented in all the wrong places, until the slits where the eyes were hidden behind, were looking directly at me. “It was a pleasure serving you, Raven.“

Sadness bloomed in my heart, once again, as one of those that trusted me and looked up to me had died in my service. That never would not sting. „No, I thank you, Roan.“ I swallowed hard. „Ravenport is in your debt.“

“Then repay it by sending me back. I am not done fighting the beast.“ The knight implored with a fire that had been missing so far. This soul clang to life and was not ready to go.

I threw a helpless look at Lily, but only stunned silence answered me.

The first thing that came into my mind - because I had worked for hours on it - were...

“Would you embrace the darkness to fight the darkness for as long as your vow holds true?“ I asked the man.

“Nothing matters to me than to fight the beast and defend my brothers, Raven. I will do what I have to.“ He bowed to me.

I looked to the tree above us, its silvery bark, glittering leaves, and the orange and blue lights in between. And to the souls, waiting, sleeping.

“What about you?“ I asked the tree. As one, the blue, cold lights of the former members of the Ravenguard stirred and began to float around their branches.

“Did you need to ask?“ The Betrayer asked as he came to stand beside us. “The Ravenguard has sacrificed their soul and chance of peace in the afterlife to follow me into the darkness and the eternal crusade. They will pounce at the chance to fight again.“

I nodded as ideas began to form in my head, and I ran over to the forge to speak with the library of knowledge hidden within. There was much to be done.

The system had an option for that. Familiars were common, after all. All I had to do was to form the body of the Ravens out of the shadows I knew, slightly changing them to the bigger bird, imbue the power into the representation of the Order, the statue of the weathered knight in the Valley of Swords.

This night, I stood atop the Raven‘s Neste and watched as twenty-odd Ravens, Souls of Knights and Ravenguard all, wielding forces of cold and dark, descended into the darkness to head for the Knights of the free Order of the Wyld, to take their place in the battle once more, as true friends, companions, and familiars.

I had bought every knight the Skill [Raven Companion] after the System had accepted the small but significant changes I had made to the original. First and foremost among them the fact that the Knight had to ask for help and a soul in my Demesne had to answer the call to arms. making attaining a companion significantly more difficult, but the power and more importantly experience of the soul much deeper.

Without me meddling, the Knights had chosen to serve Ravenport, and me, even after death.

It was too much for me to bear, and my heart grew heavy as I watched them disappear.