“What is that structure? Why is it in the middle of nowhere?” Riou jumped down immediately to check it, the pipes were big enough that he could crawl inside of them if he wished to. The large slate above them seemed impermeable and had holes, funneled into the pipes through many small connections. The scent of blood was strong and the metal coating inside the pipes was enchanted with some Argonian runes that run through its extension.

“What is this thing?” He jumped back at the top and looked towards the direction the pipes seemed to go. “South, right beneath the fortress” Riou nodded and turned to the captain “Ok… did you know about that thing down there?” he pointed at the pipes.

The captain was very surprised. “This is the first time I’m seeing such a thing.”

“Captain! In the sky!” shouted the soldiers nearby alerting Riou and the Captain.

A large being suddenly descended at great speed on the other side of the fissure, stopping right above the ground, throwing a violent gust of dust and wind.

A beetle-like mount, larger than a horse, and with a dark shiny carapace. It’s insect legs and wings were folding and retracting as it landed on the ground.

Someone was riding on its back with strings on its hands attached to the insect head “Who did this? Which one of you barbarians did this to our sacred grounds?” Said the man in the beast tongue, quite angered and very displeased to be even talking to them.

“Who are you!?” shouted the captain.

“Beast! For your knowledge, I’m Berzerath of Fras, one of the Death Knights of the order of the White Lilly. Mark my name well, mongrel, for I will be the last you hear before I sacrifice you to my god!”

The death knight then jumps down his mount and walks calmly forward to the hole “Now, who opened this hole on our collector? The person shall pay the price with a hundred years of torment, his soul will be torn apart day after day until the end of his sentence when he will finally be sacrificed!”

“So it’s a collector?” said Riou, not too impressed with the threats.

“Oh, a human… So it was you who did this? It must’ve been.” said the Death Knight putting his hand out to the sky, a dark spear moved from a sheath on his beetle and flew to his hand. The knight aimed it at Riou. “The beastmen would never think of doing something like this, it must have been you”

He pulled the spear back, preparing to launch it at Riou, its tip glinted in a green color for a quick moment.

The captain unsheathed his sword Kill the Argon…” before he could even finish his phrase, he was instantly pierced by the death knights spear. The weapon flew at such speed that even Riou was caught off guard, impaling the captain on the ground.

It pierced his chest and then the ground, his body was now held up by the spear.

“Do not interrupt me, beast!” he flicked his hand and the spear moved on its own once again. Abruptly moving out and ripping the captain’s body before returning to the knight's hand without a drop of blood on it.

Riou rushed to the captain, but the damage was severe, the blood was pouring into the black ground and quickly disappearing, absorbed by the black sands.

“Critical Heal, Troll’s Regeneration!” Luckily, the captain was a beastmen, his fortitude was very high and even a wound like that would take a few more moments to kill a man like him. Those moments allowed Riou’s spell to work, it gave it time enough for it to take effect and take him out of his critical state.

The wound began to close and the muscles and organs began to regenerate. “Take him back! Everyone! Leave this battlefield, now!” shouted Riou to the soldiers behind, a few of them rushed to help the captain

Riou stood up and glanced at the hole again, the broken pipes began to leak a red liquid into the ground. Suddenly, the image of the blood well at the Longart Graveyard came to his mind.

He turned to the death knight as he noticed that he was once again making a move. He took off his cape revealing a light plate armor, black with small green glyphs written on his chest, shoulders, and arms. The armor was perfectly crafted to his body, with great attention to detail and finesse.

The death knight once again prepared to launch his spear at Riou.

Riou glanced back, most of the beastmen were not moving as he ordered “Get the fuck back! You are dismissed from this battle! Regroup and fortify the camp position! Whatever you do, do not fight the enemy on top of this black ground!”

The beastmen were confused, they looked at each other not knowing what to do.

Riou was getting angered with the lack of response, that was not the moment for doubt on the beastmen minds. He focused his mana touching his scarf for a moment “Get the fuck out of here!” a mana shockwave rushed through the beastmen, so menacing that all beastmen froze in place for a moment, some others even became pale, shivering. While most of them began to run away from it.

As some started to run back, it triggered the whole army to run away back to their camp.

“What did you do? How dare you scare away our sacrifices? Now I will have to gather them again!” complained the Death Knight, he suddenly looked up as if searching for something “I hope my lord Dahmer hasn’t seen this blunder.”

“Lord Dahmer?”

“Don’t say his holy name, heretic! Someone like you is forbidden to speak any of the names of the sacred descendants!”

“Sacred descendants? You seem to know a lot about the high ups of Argos. Why don’t you tell me more about them?”

“I’d tell you all about the gospel of the 12 descendants of the living god of death, but I’m afraid there isn’t time for it, after all, you will die now” The death Knight threw the spear at Riou with the green magic applied to it.

But this time Riou was aware of its incredible speed. He immediately moved his arm forming a barrier. The spear hit it and the spells reacted violently. Riou’s barrier shattered and the spear was sent flying into the sky. The death Knight squinted his eyes “You blocked it? It seems I have underestimated you.”

“To be honest, that’s the first time that my barrier was done for so quickly”

“Oh, you’ve seen nothing yet” suddenly Riou noticed a glint on the corner of his eye followed by a strange wind cutting sound.

He moved out of reflex, jumping and twisting to the side, barely avoiding a deadly attack from the spear.

“Amazing! Are you a human or a monkey?”

A mana surge erupted high from the sidelines of the battlefield in the distance, right where Eileen and Leona should be waiting for him.

When Riou realized it, concern immediately filled his mind “Eileen!” he rushed at full speed towards them. The death knight, seeing him leaving, casually jumped back on his mount and ordered his spear to return before taking flight.

Riou quickly gained ground, but a green glint was approaching fast from his side caught his attention, forcing him to change his direction in an instant.

BOOM The spear hit the ground with force, exploding everything around it, the blast was so great that it even managed to throw him away from it with its blast. It would have been a direct hit if he didn’t move in time.

Forced to stop he looked up and saw the death knight riding his flying mount close by.

“You are fast… but my Scarab is faster. Just give up, there is no escape from me”

Riou ignored him completely and continued on his way, rushing to where the girls were supposed to wait.

“You damn heretic! How dare you leave me talking to myself!” the knight followed after him.

“Eileen! Leona!” he shouts but no one responds. The ground was burnt, a great explosion happened there, the grass and the trees at the center of it were gone. The few that remained around it were charred, cut in half, or even burning from a green flame.

“I’m not used to being ignored, heretic,” said the death knight calmly landing close by, he was rather pleased to see the distress in Riou’s face and jumped off his mount, walking towards him.

Riou immediately turned to face him.

“What happened here? Where are they” Riou put his hand on his back and pulled his dagger from the hidden sheath.

“Are you getting serious now? Very well, let’s see what you have”

Riou immediately pointed his left palm at the death knight, without a word the Argonian suddenly felt his movements getting restricted. A pressure coming from all around holding him still.

As he could not move anymore, his armor runes shined brightly in a golden color, fighting the strange spell that was trying to get a hold of him. Still, despite the large amount of mana that his armor was released, it didn’t seem able to counter the strange spell constricting him.

“Where… are… them? I won’t ask you a third time!” Riou was menacingly threatening the knight.

The death knight was very surprised but the power displayed but smiled at him. “Look around you, it seems lord Dahmer has taken an interest in your friends.”

“Where?!”

“They might be in a cage, tortured or maybe even having their soul extracted...” said the pleased Knight. But before he even finished his phrase, Riou was already at him with the dagger ready to slash his neck open.

The blade was about to touch his skin. The runes at his chest suddenly turned red, and a great mana burst was released in all directions from the knight. So powerful and so unexpected that it even threw Riou away in the air. He turned in the air to land on his feet a few meters from the death knight.

The black armor of the knight was now pearlescent with a dark green shade, the mana seemed to be moving inside the metal, all his runes went from the green and golden to a completely active state and a reddish glint.

“You! How dare you trigger my armor's defenses! A heretic like you should not have the power to do so! This is a disgrace to my name! How will I face the order of Lilly now?” The knight looked at his armor, not believing at the sight.

Once again, for the knight's surprise, Riou was not willing to wait, without any fear or restraint, Riou rushed at him once again.

He pointed his hand at the knight, flashing a bright light that blinded the knight momentarily as he approached, Riou turned to his side and swung the dagger to the knight’s side of the torso.

As the dagger was about to pierce it, the knight/s body faded and instantly floated far backward as if something unseen was pulling him away from harm.

“You… you won’t stop embarrassing me! I will eviscerate you! I will bath in your blood to cleanse me from this shame!” he grabbed into the spear and began speaking to it in Argonian tongue. The spear shone even brighter in a green color.

Riou was very serious, “Awake, Shadowbringer” The shadows instantly covered the skies, turning the day into night, the black and purple flame danced within the blade.

The knight looked around and smiled “Ha! These child’s tricks won’t scare me!” He then commanded the spear into the air. It began to spin in great velocity while imbued with the green mana. With a thought of the knight, it moved to attack Riou. The spear was being controlled precisely by him. Riou was fast as well, dodging and moving about, avoiding it at all costs. Still, the spear gave him no breathing room, he was unable to attack as it was following Riou’s pattern and movements closely and getting closer and closer to him at each attempt.

And as it got closer enough, the spear moved for a certain hit. Riou smirked and dodged it with an uncanny and unexpected movement against his momentum, he jumped, turned and twisted his body over the spear with the help of a wind spell that pushed him in the opposed direction.

As the spear was passing by, he was ready to strike it with his dagger.

The impact threw the spear of balance and into the ground, giving Riou enough time to rush at the death knight once again.

The knight didn’t lose time and once again commanded his spear to return to the chase.

As Riou approached the knight and was about to strike him, Riou suddenly stepped to the side, dodging the spear in the precise moment it was about to hit him. He then continued his motion, attacking the enemy’s body.

The black dagger went to pierce the knight’s stomach. But once again he faded into an ethereal image and quickly floated farther back, coming back to form as if nothing had happened to him.

“You… you are not like them! To be able to activate my armor defenses and avoid my attacks like this. Who are you?”

“It doesn’t matter who am I. Just bring the girls back right now or I will end your miserable life”

The death knight smiled and laughed “How refreshing, you want to save your friends! But what you do not understand is that even if you manage to elude my chase and go towards the fortress, Lord Dahmer will see you coming from a mile away. Nobody can hide from him.”

“I don’t care”

“You should be glad that someone so illustrious as he has taken an interest in your friends. I advise you to forget about them and concern yourself with your fate for now. You will be tormented for eternity if it depends on me”

Riou closed his eyes trying to feel of the necklace “I'm sure she is alive. Nemesis is not even activated yet.” He then looked at this palm, the arrow pointed to the fortress nearby.

“I don’t understand, why would this lord want to capture them? How did he even find them?”

“Lord Dahmer is a genius that has a power beyond your imagination, mere mortals like us cannot fathom his intellect nor his sight!” The Death knight prepared with his spear that returned to this hand once again, casting a different spell on it.

4 more green spears appeared, floating in the air, made of pure green mana. They looked sharp and nothing ordinary.

“Then tell me something else, the blood… why do you need so much of it?”

“A heretic like you would never understand the effort needed for our great cause”

“The cause? The land above the great desert?”

“Land? No, this broken world is already ours. We do not seek land as you might believe, we seek something much greater. Once we achieve it, this world will be whole again!”

“The world?”

“I told you that you wouldn’t understand, your stupid mind can’t conceive the magnitude of the Argonian Crusade”

“And for that, you need the blood of the beastmen.”

“We need sacrifices and these ignorant fools are perfect. They have no clue or interest in understanding the world around them. They are easily manipulated, eager to fight and very quick to reproduce… they are perfect for this role, don’t you agree?”

“I know that you can draw some power from these blood pools of yours, I’ve seen one before, but what could require this much blood?”

“So there is a thinking mind inside that heretic soul of yours? Fine… I will bring you some light, something for you to think while you are tormented. After all, it’s no secret, there is only one thing we Argonians seek, our holy crusade aims to bring our god to this world. Imagine how much power is necessary to manifest our lord physically into this world… to bring a living god to a pitiful realm like this?”

“Living god? Are you talking about your death god?”

“Yes… he will take the empty seats of this realm and recreate it to his image! Everyone will bow to his will. This godless and shattered world will finally be reborn and made whole again under his rule!”

“That story of yours makes no sense… if that’s your goal, then you could just keep harvesting blood here. There was never any need to make a move on Allard and the Norse. There was no need to ally with the twilight council or use the Endher forest! If that’s your end goal, why do all that nonsensical stuff if you are just after blood power?”

The death knight frowned “Spouting nonsense, as usual, a heretic like you fails to see through our ways. You lack the intelligence to see the grandiosity of our god! We do not need anyone or anything else but him!”

Riou nodded “It’s about time to put an end to this, I have somewhere else to be right now”

“That we shall see…” Riou jumped forward to attack the death knight at an incredible speed, he pointed his hand at the knight shooting lightning-fast energy beams that pierced the ground and everything close to the knight.

But the knight once again became ethereal by the time the spells reached him and moved safely back, as Riou expected. He touched the ground and instantly moved to where the knight was reappearing, ready to strike him with his dagger. But the death knight once again became ethereal form until Riou was no longer a threat.

“So there is no delay in between activation? That’s a very cowardly way of defense, isn’t it?”

“Taunt me all you want, the fact you can’t reach me remains, it’s only a matter of time until one of my spears reach you!”

All spears were launched against Riou at great speed.

He blocked the main spear and dodged the energy ones with great dexterity. But they kept coming, spinning and flying at him, one after the other moving from different directions, giving him no time to rest.

In between each of their attacks, Riou was slowly positioning himself to face the enemy knight, he was gathering his mana on his hand. All he needed was an opportunity.

The attack continued, one after the other the spears came trying to hit him.

“Your stamina will deplete soon, it’s just a matter of time for you to be pierced!”

Riou began to notice their pattern of attack and waited for the moment that the 4 spears converged, he jumped towards them at the precise moment and with his hand he blasted all the spears away in one go.

But only the real one was pushed away, the three made of mana just let the energy pass through and continued on their way to attack.

Caught by surprise, the three spears managed to slash through his front and back as he desperately tried to avoid a killing blow.

He fell to the ground bleeding, luckily the wounds were not that deep, but he noticed that the bleeding was strangely quick, he shouldn’t be bleeding that fast for those wounds.

Riou glanced at the spears, he saw the green light emanating from their tips.

“Heal… regeneration” The bleeding stop and the wounds began to close

“Impressive healing abilities, it can even suppress my spell. I suppose I will have to do something about that” the death knight called the spears back and began to recite another Argonian chant, the spears began turning from the green color to a violet color.

“Let’s see if you can deal with them now”

Riou smiled and stood up pointing his dagger at the knight. “Let’s see if you can deal with this as well”

“You know it’s useless to attack me, and yet you keep on trying… how foolish” the four spears gathered above the knight and were quickly sent to attack Riou.

“First Born’s Breath!” a black flame erupted from the dagger in a large cone of destruction, amidst the black fire, purple flames appeared in between them. The fire went on, engulfing and consuming everything in its path towards the Death knight.

As the fire was coming, the knight became ethereal, the flame reached him and engulfed him.

But once again, he floated away from it, emerging from the fire in his ethereal form and floating into safety.

But Riou smiled at the knight as he stopped. Ready to fade back into his physical self but something seemed wrong, he wasn’t returning to normal. The spell wasn’t stopping like before.

The Death Knight looked down and noticed the purple and black flame on his armor, burning and consuming it.

Shouting at Riou “Impossible!” He tried to put the flames out with his hands, but all he did was to spread the flames on his gauntlets and even more towards his armor that was being consumed.

Desperate, the knight suddenly took a strange pose, with his chest out and his arm on his waist. The armor suddenly detached from his body, all pieces at once falling to the ground nearby, finally returning the knight to the physical world once again.

“My armor, my ethereal form… how!? A black flame could never reach me! What did you do?”

Riou smiled at the Knight. “It worked better than I anticipated, I should have used it from the get-go” he showed the dagger and the purple flame bursting from it together with the black flame.

“You… you are a menace. No heretic should have this kind of power! Who are you? Are you one of those dissidents? Why are you here!”

“You’ve seen nothing yet. So I suggest you to open one of those portals of yours and bring my people back here, right now”

The death knight laughed “And if I deny that request?”

Riou got dead serious looking at him “Then I will kill you and go get them myself. And you better pray to your God that they are fine or I will not stop with just you”

“Hahaha! What could you possibly do? You are strong, I give you that, but you are not nearly enough to face the Argonian Mightiest heroes! And I, I’m not done with you yet” said the death knight, finding the threat amusing.

“We will see about that”

“Such big words for a heretic! You can’t possibly be thinking that I’m done just because I’m without my armor? Oh no, you couldn't be more mistaken! Our fight is just starting! I will now show you the true power of my spears!” the spears ignited in a violet color, once again floating to the knight, hanging above him.

He spoke a few Argonian words and the spears began to multiply, over and over until over a hundred spears were ready to rain down on Riou.

The knight saw the strange man smiling and he frowned “You could barely escape 4 of my spears, what will you do against this many!? They will reach you now!”

“Let me ask you something, can you control these many spears and also instantly cast your ethereal shift spell?”

“Damn you!” the knight shot the spears at his enemy. Some pierced Riou while others exploded on contact with the ground. The moment the dust went down, the knight realized there was nobody amidst his spears.

“An illusion?” he asked himself as he felt a sharp pain and a burning sensation on his back followed by the strange man’s voice from behind him.

“Seems like you couldn’t. You cannot do both spells at once without the armor? Or maybe the armor was your saving grace and all that talk was just a bluff. Well, I bet you never thought you’d ever had to fight without your precious armor, am I right?”

“You, damn heretic. Putting my name through such a shame! I will never forgive you” the pain was increasing and the heat coming from his back was getting intense.

Riou took off the dagger from his back and the black flame erupted from the wound.

“I lost too much time with you, just burn already” the flames increased and consumed the knight’s body completely in a moment while it screamed desperately.

Drawn by the screams, a man appears and stops nearby the screaming knight. He was holding a large sword in his hand stained with dried blood and rotten flesh. He turns to Riou for a moment and then to the burning man.

Riou notices the wolf traits, just like Leona. But the man was quite old, filled with scars on his face and arms and a long black hair.

The knight stopped screaming, the mana spears disappeared and only the real one remains on the ground.

Riou stared at the black wolf for a moment. And judging by his appearance, he was fighting the undead army just now.

The black wolf notices the knights armor beside the body of the death knight. Some were ashes while a few of the dark plates were burning away.

The black wolf nodded to himself and looked at Riou “You did this?”

“Yeah” and pulled the orange crystal.

“Eileen? Please respond! Anyone there?” said Riou as he began to move towards the fortress. The black wolf glanced at the death knight's body and quickly went after him.

“Master? You are early, are you done with the mission already?” Arthas voice came through, but nothing from Eileen or Leona.

“Arthas! Use the portal right now! Open it and get Eileen and Leona back!” A moment of silence from Arthas.

“The portal… it does not open master. What happened?” asked Arthas

“Damn!”

“What happened?” Therese asks, very concerned from the crystal as well.

“Eileen and Leona were captured and taken to the fortress. I’m going after them.”

Arthas gave a moment, he could tell by Riou’s tone how serious the situation was. “Your orders?”

“Rescue takes priority. I will get them back”

“Understood, we will be ready if you need us”

“What do we have here? What is this that I’m seeing?” A man in a high fancy robe holding a scepter made of bones and a dark rock appears out of nowhere, right beside Eileen. One of his eyes quickly grabbed their attention. Bloodshot red with a very dark vertical pupil. A stream of blood ran from it down his cheek as he smiled staring at Eileen. He cleaned the blood with a dark tissue.

Startled, Eileen moved back, Leona unsheathed her sword.

“Such magnificent mana! I’ve never seen anything like this before. This color, this bright, contained in such a small recipient” he closed his good eye leaving just the red one open. It glowed briefly and the man nodded cleaning once again the blood coming from it.

“Remarkable… truly remarkable. I’ve never seen an artifact able to hold so much before. My eye can’t even see its whole recipient!”

Leona took poise, ready to defend them.

The smiling man turned to her “What an exquisite alloy you both have there. Marvelous work! It caught my eye instantly, I knew I’d find something good if I followed that strong light!” He then looked at Eileen “You two can rest easy. I don’t plan on killing you just now I will bring you two to my humble fortress, just so we can talk more calmly about it, I wish to know everything about these artifacts”

Eileen pulled her sword as well “We are not going anywhere!”

The man looked confused at her “I’m sorry, this language is quite barbaric. Did it sound like it was a request?” he tapped the ground with his scepter once. A large bone encased in a dark rock with a claw at it’s top holding a dark obsidian stone. The moment he touched the ground a small crystal emerged from the obsidian as if it was made of liquid.

Leona wouldn’t wait for the mage to cast any spell. She quickly went to attack, her sword was fast and deadly aimed at the stranger’s neck.

“Foolish!” He taps the ground with his scepter causing a massive mana explosion, a green mana shockwave expands and throws Eileen and Leona back. He then raises the scepter once again “You dare to oppose me? I could kill you in an instant and take your corpses!” he taps the ground once again and the vegetation starts to die and catch on fire, a green flame that expands on a large area around him.

“Do you understand? Then be a good subject and stand still for a moment” he passes his hand on top of the crystal that appeared on his scepter.

Eileen and Leona were just standing up from the impact of the shockwave, but before they realized it, a portal appeared beneath them. Without footing, both fell through their portal holes on the ground.

Both landed in a different place, a large and dark laboratory. Leona immediately got up and tried to move away from the portal above her. But as she gave a couple of steps, she hit an invisible barrier that zapped her back into position.

The portal vanished and a circle of magic appeared on the ceiling.

“I wouldn’t do that again if I were you. The effect increases greatly on the second time. Now…” He calmly sat down on a chair, he pulled up a book from his robes and a metallic pen. “Let’s start with that necklace, how did you come into its possession?”

Eileen was standing up, looking at the barrier and the circle of magic beneath her “Who are you?” she asked.

The mage took a deep breath calming down “Amenities… amenities… fine, I’m Lord Dahmer, second son of the second family of the descendants of the death god. Now, my questions, you’d do well to reply properly and thoroughly”

Eileen feels the necklace trying to react but holds it in her hand, the man watches her actions carefully. “Did the necklace react on its own just now? Or was it you that tried to activate it?”

He shook his head and hands “No, no, don’t tell me. We must not skip steps, we must follow the process of discovery properly. Before functionality, comes origin!” He writes down something in the book “So? What can you tell about its origins? Did you find it, bought it, gained it?”

Eileen remained silent.

The mage wrote down his notes and then spoke “Given the subject appearance and demeanor, the item was most likely given as a gift. Interesting to think someone would part with something so formidable” he looks at Eileen for a moment pondering. “Perhaps the owner didn’t know about its full capabilities?”

But Eileen didn’t respond again.

“Whose mana is imbued in the necklace? Do you even know the owner? It’s not yours.” his red eye widened and another blood tear dropped from it. “It’s so big and bright it hurts my eye, I’m sorry about this unsightly view...” he wipes off the blood once again. “Such mana must have belonged to one of those old mages I’ve heard so much about. Maybe even an elder elf? I’d love to meet one, the things I would ask.”

Eileen tries to attack the invisible barrier with her sword. A jolt of electricity sparks on the metal forcing her to drop it. The necklace vibrated even strongly.

The mage smiled “I told you it wouldn’t activate. Nothing you do will work in there, that barrier prevents any mana to react. That means your necklace as well, no matter how hard you try, you won’t be able to activate it. But don’t worry, once you are properly trained and obedient, I will let you show me how to operate it” and then he began to write in his book avidly.

Eileen puts her hand back at her bag and glances at Leona. The wolf nods, she pulls her sword and swings it against the barrier. Eileen takes a deep breath and sneakily puts her hand on her back pouch. Grabbing the orange and the portal stone.

“Riou! Can you hear me!” She quickly pulls the orange stone and talks to it. But there was no response. The same happened with the portal, it didn’t react to her mana at all.

“Don’t you understand what I said? It’s useless… nothing will work in there” said the mage without even looking at them, still writing in his book.

Leona kept swinging at the barrier but even her sword seemed to have any effect on it.

He sighed, stopping his writing “The mana circle and this barrier are a creation of mine, it nullifies all effects of magic and mana. Be it items, spells, enchantments, or artifacts, no matter how special they might be, they are useless inside of that barrier” he snapped his fingers and the orange stone and the gate stone were pulled up to the ceiling from Eileen’s hand and pouch.

“Now…” the mage looks at Eileen in deep thinking for a moment “Both sword and necklace possess the same alloy as base… given a few discrepancies, but mostly they seemed to be made of the same metals. Are they part of some set? Are these different substances on the necklace that allows it to have that tremendous mana pool stored on it?”

Eileen didn’t want to reply, but by her reaction, the mage could understand that she had no idea what that answer might be.

He watched Eileen with attention for a moment and sighed, writing on his book “Subject does not seem to have any prior knowledge of the artifact. Simple questions like its origins and material remains unanswered for now”

From the far door in the back, an old fat man begins to walk quickly inside “Lord Dahmer! My lord!”

“Yes, Gehar” said the mage without even turning to him, very annoyed by his presence.

“I have a message for you lordship” he hands an orange stone to Lord Dahmer “It’s the Emperor, he wishes to talk to you”

“Harmon? What does he want now? I’m busy… Give it to Berzerath, he’d be thrilled to talk to the Emperor.”

“Master Fras has yet to return from the field”

“Oh yes? The battle seems over, why haven’t he returned yet? I hope he reached the quota” He turned to Eileen and Leona “How impolite of me, just a moment and I will be right back with you” He takes the stone and speaks to it “Brother? To what do I owe the pleasure of talking to you after so long?”

An angry voice comes from the stone “What are you doing in the forward fortress? I didn’t send you there, return at once!”

“What? Isn’t it obvious? After I heard of our many losses here, especially the premature death of our Immortal defender. I felt obligated to come and check upon the fortress that was conferred to me. How could I leave it unattended and without proper defenses? What would the nobles say about me otherwise.”

“The immortal died?” Harmon was pleasantly surprised.

“Yes, didn’t you know? I heard a rumor that you had ordered him to help some nonbelievers. Is that true, brother?” Dahmer was quite surprised by the emperor’s reaction and decided to press on the subject.

“I’ve given some pawns a taste of Argonian power and that’s all” Dahmer could tell his brother was smiling on the other side of the communication by his tone, the death of the Immortal came as good news to him and Dahmer couldn’t understand why.

“So you are helping heretics now? Well, you always did have a strange sense of humor”

“You know me too well, Dahmer.”

“Is that so? I doubt that, because I cannot see why you would even need these pawns in the first place, much less help them or throw my dear friend Francis to his death.”

“Your dear friend Francis died serving his emperor, there is no better death than that.”

“Indeed brother, indeed, still… why indulge the heretics?”

“How can I put it? It was a necessary evil”

Dahmer smiled to himself “You know you can’t lie to me dear brother, what did you gain from his death? From putting our fortress in this dreaded state? We even lost our mining camp to the south! What was your goal helping them?”

“Did we, now? I didn’t think that was even a possibility. Perhaps I miscalculated it, because of course, I’d tell you, dear brother, if it was something important. After all, I know how you hate trivialities. Now, to the point of my calling. Return immediately to the old capital. I want you in charge of taking care of the dissidents there, I need you to crush them once again”

“Me? You flatter me dear brother with such an honorable job, but why do I have the impression that you just want me away from these lands? After all, our family is big and many of our siblings would gladly take the position.”

“I just think you are the most qualified and trustworthy of all our brothers and sisters… but if you think otherwise, I could send someone else”

Dahmer forced a smile “I would not dare to go against my emperors orders. But I can’t depart just now, I need to prepare before leaving this fortress.”

“Why can’t you leave now?”

“I have found a new study subject, it requires a very special containment. I don’t have it ready at the old capital. So I need to prepare the location there before moving them”

“What have you found now, Dahmer?”

“Do you wish to see? Then take a look at this” the mage touched the orange stone on his scepter and the image of the Emperor Harmon appeared in full inside the room. He looked at Leona and then at Eileen and immediately opened a smile. “Dahmer, I like what I see, send these two to me, immediately.”

“I beg your pardon?” Dahmer turned the image to face him “Harmon, these are my study subjects”

“Not anymore, send them to my chambers”

“But Harmon, I told you they require special containment, there is a”

“A very large mana pool, yes! I know all about it, I’ve been aware of its existence for a while now. So send them to me, or better, your laboratory here at the new capital. That place is prepared to hold them, isn’t it? I will be there shortly”

“But Harmon, these are my subjects of study! I won’t just give them to you! You can’t take them from me like this!”

Harmor turned to his brother and smiled very angered at him “Now Dahmer! Now!” and the image closes.

Lord Dahmer looked at Gehar with anger and blasted the old man away, he flew through the whole room, hitting the wall with enormous force before falling to the ground.

“Thank you, master Dahmer, that was a very powerful attack, sorry for having disturbed you,” said Gehar standing up as if nothing happened.

Dahmer looked at Eileen and Leona. “Dammit! I should have kept quiet, but no, I had to brag about this to him. I should've known better!” he sighed calming down “And I had so much planned… so many tests… so many questions yet to be answered.” he looked at them with pity.

“But I guess this wasn’t supposed to be. I’m sorry for you two, Harmon is not nearly as educated as I am. His methods are more, how do you say it? Crude.” He taps the scepter on the ground. “You will die very soon, goodbye and good death” A portal appears below Eileen and Leona making both of them fall through it.

Riou reached the fortress wall, without any caution or preparation he just jumped on top of it Landing right beside one of the red alarm crystals, the red stone began to shine and levitate with his presence.

After Riou, the black wolf arrived quite tired. “You fool! The alarm will bring Red eyes here! You just gave away your position! I tried to warn you, you could sneak inside by...”

At that moment, two large, strong-looking undead were landing by the crystal’s position, both undead with bright red eyes and very sturdy bodies with armors and weapons in hand.

The moment their feet touched the ground of the wall, Riou was already pointing his palm at the two. A tremendous energy blast was released from his hand, reducing to dust everything the blast radius, leaving just their legs behind and untouched.

The Black wolf swallowed hard and stayed still for a moment, staring at the legs of the undead that remained there.

“Why are you following me?” Riou asked while looking at the undead gathering down, in the middle of the open ground close to the wall where he was.

“I knew you’d be storming this place and since you manage to destroy that black armor, I thought you could manage to open the metal doors to the inner chambers as well. If that happens I can destroy the crystal machine”

Riou suddenly jumped right in the middle of the many undead below. As he fell, a fire began to form around him, and as he landed, a wave of fire took form consuming everything like a wave.

It expanded and burned everything to a crisp in a large area, destroying all undead there at once and even setting some smaller buildings ablaze.

The wolf shook his head, recovering his senses after another effortless display of power and quickly jumped after him “If you wish to destroy this place you need to go to the underground first, it’s there where the real fortress lies” he said, moving quickly after Riou.

“I’m here to find prisoners, destroying the place is not my priority”

The wolf nodded understanding it. He then pointed to a small entrance to the north of them, a small but reinforced building. “There, those black metallic doors, it will take us down! From that entrance, we can reach the prisoners! They keep the important ones in the underground chambers.”

Riou began moving towards it “And how do you know this?”

“I was once a prisoner here, many years ago,” said the wolf, quickly moving after Riou “The problem is these doors. No matter how many times I try, I can't get past them. They are indestructible! And they are always closed shut”

Riou made 4 quick movements with his finger forming a diamond shape, 4 lines of a bright blue flame were launched at the door, slicing it up instantly making the metal slab fall to the ground.

The wolf watched perplexed as the red hot color was leaving the metal.

“What on the elements are you?” asked the wolf, not understanding how that kind of fire was even possible, no weapons, no chanting or spells, he wondered if humans just could command fire at will, or was it that this man was not human “Are you Ragnis’ son?” he asked.

“I see two paths ahead” Said Riou quickly entering and moving towards the split in the corridor while looking at his palm to see where the blue arrow was pointing at.

“To the right, it will lead you to the laboratories and prison. I will go to the left, to the crystal machine and the underground pipeline, if I destroy that thing, I can put an end to the Argonian control over the beastmen.”

The arrow indeed pointed to the right, Eileen was close by.

---------------- Few moments Later

“Not this again, where are we now? Are you alright Eileen?” Leona looked around as they fell into another room, she could tell they were again inside that strange barrier as the same magic circle appeared on the ceiling as the portal vanished.

Another laboratory, very similar to the previous one but much smaller and much older.

“Yes… I’m fine. But I’m tired of being thrown from place to place like that” She opened the locket on the necklace and a smaller blue arrow appeared. “We were sent farther away. Southeast from where we were, probably at the Argonian city closer to the desert”

“Then it might take a while for him to reach us now, we need to find a way out of here before someone comes”

The doors open with a loud cracking sound, a man with short black hair enters the room with a very pompous military uniform covered by a white cape. He takes off his cape and lays it on a chair nearby as he approaches.

“I must say, I wasn’t expecting this,” he said in a very joyous tone. “The illustrious Princess Eileen Strongheart of Allard, it is so good to finally meet you. I heard wonderful things about you, and I’m very glad to see that you are even bolder than your reputation states!”

“How do you know me?”

“I told you, even here your reputation precedes you. I know all about the lands of the north and Allard. So how could I not know about the warrior princess who chose the path of the Maiden of the North? And especially, the one to carry of my artifact”

“Your artifact?”

“Yes, I’m the one who studied the spheres, calculated the conjunctions, and planned its summon on a very precise time and day. Since I ordered it, isn’t it logical to assume that it belongs to me? I agree that it just took me a while to find it. Or better, to have it found for me. But now it’s finally here. I congratulate Princess, you managed to hide it very well during this whole time. Oh well, it couldn't have been too difficult to trick those morons from the twilight council once or twice, wasn’t it?”

“So, it was you that sent them to attack us, you were behind all their actions? That explains how an Argonian army attacked the lion’s Villa”

“In a sense, yes. But I just provided the means to it, I didn’t command it you see. Or I ensure you, the results would have been very different.”

He approached the barriers and looked at Eileen’s necklace.

“But I have to say. After constant failures and disappointments, it seems those imbeciles managed to do something right. They managed to identify my artifact and even lured you to Dahmer. I must confess, I was believing they were completely and utterly useless by now, but seems luck favors the stupid sometimes. They finally managed to do something right”

He pulled the gloves from his hand and laid them on the table near the barriers.

“You two are very lucky that I found you so quickly, I’d hate to see you both ending up as his experiments.”

“At least that way you wouldn’t have found us!” replied Leona harshly.

“On the contrary, I know my brother very well, once he’d grow tired of your uncooperativeness, he’d turn you into his undead, probing your mind for any information he could about this artifact. And once you could not answer all his questions, he would eventually turn to me for answers. You see? Destiny dictates that this artifact ends in my hands.”

Eileen remained silent while grabbing the necklace.

“You did well hiding it during all this time. But now, you ended up overestimating its power, didn’t you? Imagine my surprise just now when I saw you trapped by my brother’s barrier. Unfortunately, even that artifact won’t do you no good while in there. One thing my brother knows how to do is these prison barriers”

“If he is your brother, then you must be Harmon Skaralt, the leader of the Argonian forces”

“Where are my manners? Of course, call me Harmon, and yes, I’m a direct descendant of the living god of death and ruler of Argos, a great pleasure to be able to finally meet you, Allardian Princess.”

He extended his hand to the table nearby. On top of it, many sets of small metal levers could be seen around a single orb. He put his hand on top of the orb closest to Eileen. A small portal appeared on the table and another one appeared inside the barrier with Eileen. “Now please, give me the necklace” He waited, but Eileen didn’t move.

Harmon sighed “I expected you wouldn’t part ways with such a gift so easily” he moved his hand to another set of levers, these were on another set and were positioned closer to Leona. “My memory is not that good, I pray to choose a good one this time” And randomly chose one lever to pull down. Another portal appeared by the ceiling of Leona’s barrier and water began to fill the barrier very quickly.

“Ha! I knew it would be a good one! Luck is on my side today! Now, your turn princess, give me the necklace and save your friend or we can watch her drown.”

Eileen watched as the water quickly filled the small barrier where Leona was.

The princess put the hand on the necklace desperately trying to activate it. “Nemesis if you can hear me, please, this is the time to do something, please help Leona!”

The necklace vibrated violently and emanated a white smoke that quickly moved through the small portal created by Harmon. Outside of the barrier, the smoke began to form Eileen’s image.

Harmon sees a copy of Eileen wearing a white dress, looking at him with a serious face and steps back with a smile on his face “This is incredible! You managed to activate this thing even inside those runes? Outstanding power and very smart of you to command it to go through my portal to escape that cage. I didn’t think that could be possible!” Harmon watched carefully that strange being looking at him “This is more than I anticipated, I can even feel the power emanating from this thing. What an outstanding mana pool, exactly what I require!”

“Quickly! Save Leona!” shouted Eileen to her image, as the water was reaching Leona’s neck.

Nemesis just moved her arm towards the barrier, her hand cut a large hole on it so the water could flow out, giving the wolf room to breath.

“What a mess, my boots got wet” Harmon turned off the lever closing the portal and the water flow. His feet were soaked because of that hole. “Nothing less than I expected, to be able to destroy this level of barrier so effortlessly, even being from the outside still is a truly magnificent display of power! Let’s see how is it’s defensive capabilities”

Harmon raised his hand at Eileen’s image and immediately gathered mana in a sphere shape, violet and violently moving, he then released the sphere that floated towards Nemesis and expanded, destroying all it touched, even part of the floor and ceiling, hitting Nemesis directly.

Eileen’s image took the energy head-on, and to his surprise, emerged from it with no damage.

Harmon's smile became forced one, he then gathered more of his mana “Has’jeh!” a large mana skeleton made of death energy began to form in front of him coming from the ground. Just the top half of his body could be seen and it was holding a huge scythe.

As it formed completely, it looked at Nemesis and swung it with incredible speed and power against her. Nemesis stood still, and with her left-hand hand, she held the scythe in place, stopping the attack.

Harmon nodded and then smiled satisfied. “Now perish”

Her hand that was touching the scythe began to wither, the effect was spreading to the whole arm. The skin fell and the muscle became dust, only the bones remained.

But his satisfaction was short-lived, Nemesis looked at her decomposing arm. Throwing the scythe away she also made the skeleton to disappear.

Her bony arm suddenly was involved in a white fog, which restored it completely to its normal state.

Harmon squinted his eyes “It seems that this being is even stronger than I anticipated. It’s almost if it’s raw energy. I will have to get serious after all” from his waist he pulled a sword out of thin air, it appeared as he was pulling it from an unseen space, the blade burned in a deathly violet flame as it appeared completely.

The sword had a black blade with bones and skulls on its grip and guard. “Kror Mhot Relam’er” the sword shines brightly in its violet flame that is quickly extinguished, the blade then loses its light, a darkness takes over it and even spreads a bit from the blade. A new deathly energy begins to emanate from it, bright deathly energy around the darkness, like an aura holding together the darkness that wished to escape the blade.

Harmon swings the sword sending a wave of that dark and deathly energy against the guardian. Nemesis creates a sword of her own and quickly cuts down the incoming dark energy in half.

The darkness hits the walls behind her, the stones affected instantly turned into dust.

“Hahahaha! It created a weapon able to withstand my attack? Outstanding, I confess that I would have trouble if I had to subdue this being. But luckily for me, I only need its mana!”

Harmon puts his sword to the side and he looks at Eileen with a smile. “Bardiam En Gerdar” a massive magic circle activates on the ceiling and a large barrier forms around the whole room.

“Gerhest!” the barrier quickly began to shrink, passing through everything and everyone until only the guardian remained inside of it.

“Lai’erhon” the barrier began to create more layers around itself, reinforcing its power.

“Now, what will you do?” asked Harmon, looking at Nemesis as it became more and more trapped inside the layered barrier that had formed around her. Harmon nodded to himself satisfied once again “Bardiam Empiris!” The whole ceiling lit up with many runes that began to power the newly formed barrier, strengthening it even more.

Nemesis didn’t seem to bother by it and Harmon chuckled at it “Is this not enough to impress you? Then how about this. Adere Bariem” he spoke out loud once again. Two different magic circles formed, one on top of the ones that were already on the ceiling and another beneath Nemesis.

The layered barrier began to constrict itself, losing its cylindrical shape to become round like a sphere with a very thick barrier.

Eileen’s image touched the barrier with her hand as if feeling it.

“I admit, my brother was right, the containment was indeed a necessity. But luckily, Dahmer had prepared this place very well. This whole room was designed to restrict any being. He used to boast that not even the gods of the Empyrean realm nor the nightmares of the Abyss could escape this cage of his” he then ignores Nemesis and begins to walk towards the Princess Eileen.

“Now… Let’s try this again, shall we?” He walked back to the table nearby and looked at Eileen. “You know what to do…” and pulled another lever. A jolt of electricity began to run through Leona’s barrier and shocked her viciously and continuously.

“Another good one! Been ages since I last saw this spell. You see, this it’s especially effective against uncooperative individuals, the downside is its unpredictable nature. Some withstand it for hours, while others can’t take it for more than a minute”

Harmon places his hand on the orb of Eileen’s levers and creates the small portal again “I’d hurry if I were you, all wet like that, who knows how long she can sustain that damage”

Eileen looks at Nemesis, she was completely trapped on her barrier now. She glances at Leona suffering with that spell and quickly takes off the Necklace.

Nemesis instantly changed demeanor, the calm looking and passive image seemed to transform in an angered form. She frowned and began to punch the wall of her barrier with great force. Over and over, each hit was very loud and resounds on the whole room.

“That’s cute,” he says glancing at the efforts of Nemesis “But time is running out princess, your friend here is about to pass out” advised Harmon.

Eileen quickly throws the necklace through the small portal. “Stop it!”

Harmon picks it up immediately as it falls on the table, he looks at it with a great sense of accomplishment.

“Stop that spell on Leona! I gave you the Necklace! You gave your word!”

He sighed “Don’t worry, an emperor wouldn’t break his word with a princess.” he sets the lever back into position, stopping the jolts on the wolf.

Leona was out of breath, smoke was appearing all over her body “Ah… ah… I’m fine Eileen, you shouldn’t have given it to him. How will he be able to find you now?” Leona was not fine, she was fighting to remain conscious.

Another punch on the barrier got everyone’s attention, it was much stronger this time around.

“What?” Harmon turns confused to see that the image was still there.

Another punch and then another one, each stronger than the one before, so strong that small cracks begin to form on the perfect barrier.

Harmon widens his eyes in surprise “This can’t be, why is that thing still there? Why is it still fighting? I have the necklace now!” he looks at Eileen for answers but she just smiles in relief.

He then quickly opens the locket and begins to look at the writings inside.

He turns to Eileen once again “What kind of language is this? It does not belong to any of the ancient tongues, I can’t understand what it says? How is that possible?” He was quite distressed by the discovery. He hears another punch at the barrier followed by more cracking sounds. Not only the guardian didn’t disappear when he got a hold of the necklace but it seemed to have got even stronger. Strong enough to break free from its cage.

Harmon realized he was out of options, he tried to apply his mana to the necklace, use the runes in some way but nothing seemed to affect the guardian “How do you stop it? How do you control it?” he asked Eileen very seriously, threatening to pull a lever once again.

“The thing is, it can’t be controlled like that,” she says plainly.

He squinted his eyes taking a deep breath, calming his nerves “We will see about that!” He pulls a thin metallic pen from his pocket and pours his mana in it. The color changes instantly and a violet glow appears on its tip.

He then begins to scratch the necklace inside using the tool, specifically on the runes and mana circuits at the center of the right locket where the word Nemesis was written.

But the alloy seemed very hard to work with and showed a hard resistance to his tool. But with enough power, he was able to change the runes and pathways a bit.

As he manages to alter a couple runes somehow.

Nemesis suddenly stops. “Good, good, we are getting somewhere now” He then switches to the left piece of the locket, and forces the pen tip through the small gap between the stones there. “If this follows the same pattern, underneath this protection must be the core of this guardian”

As the pen begins to open a path, Nemesis wobbles a bit and looks at her hand that begins to fade into a white fog.

Harmon smiles “Aha! I was right, I understand how this works now! This guardian will be undone in no time and this mana pool will be all mine!” he continued forcing his way with the stones as Eileen observed the guardian get weaker by the moment.

One of the stones was open and Nemesis lost her balance inside the barrier, with it, a dense white fog emerged, covering everything inside that prison. Nothing could be seen inside of it anymore.

“I’ve done it! Now, just a bit more to be sure” Harmon forced one more of the four stones out of its center, but to his surprise, it suddenly moved on its own.

All the four stones on the right locket suddenly moved as well and covered the name of Nemesis, surprising Harmon.

“What is this now?” said Harmon, noticing a dim red glint coming from beneath the remaining two stones on the left locket.

But suddenly, something else caught his eyes. A dark silhouette was forming within the center of the cage where Nemesis was, its shape was blurred by the dense white fog, but he could see a humanoid form with dark wings, horns. Whatever that was, it was not human, a monstrous creature without a doubt.

CRACK Suddenly, a dark metallic hand hits the barrier with enormous force, piercing through it revealing itself towards Harmon.

“What was that Eileen? What happened?” Leona could not see anything from her position.

“I don’t know, seems the barrier was broken somehow,” said Eileen, not too sure as well.

Harmon watches the hand returning inside the barrier, very slowly while more of that white fog quickly escapes the barrier through the hole with great pressure. Soon the whole room was covered by the white dense fog.

“What is this?” the lord was confused, not understanding what was going on. “The guardian was undone! I won! So what is this now?”

He looks towards where Eileen and Leona would be, but he can only see the white fog, it's so dense that he can barely see a step in front of him.

Another concerning sound reaches his ears, the barrier was being cracked up, ripped apart as if someone was using its bare hands to force it open.

Harmon swung his sword, launching the dark energy attack blindly at the sound origin. But nothing happened, not even the sound of the walls and stones being destroyed.

The lord of Argos became even more focused, his senses were sharpened as he was looking for the enemy that was now loose. As he searched around, he noticed that the whole room seemed to be getting darker and darker at every passing moment.

It was getting even harder to see anything now. But Harmon could feel a presence, lurking about, way too close for his comfort.

A low but nerve-racking laugh is heard by the lord, it came from behind him, very close by. Harmon turns swinging towards it, certain to hit whatever was there. But the sword finds nothing as it was nothing there.

Suddenly, Harmon feels a sharp cut on his back. He put his hand back and felt that his armor had been shredded in an instant, the wound was deep and he could feel the blood running down his back. At that moment, he realized that the necklace was gone from his hand and he could not find it anywhere nearby.

“I’m a descendant of the god of death! You do not scare me!” shouted Harmon bracing himself.

A cold sensation assaulted the lord, it penetrated his clothes as if crawling through the fibers, going deep within his body to reach his skin, and from there, to his very bone. He shivers and finally notices something amidst the dark fog, smiling red eyes staring at him from a distance.

“Monster! Show yourself, I promise you a swift death and a deep grave!” Harmon focused his mana, his whole body burned in a violet deathly flame as he positioned his sword ready to attack the strange being.

But before he could launch his devastating spell, the eyes moved forward in such an eerie manner that startled the emperor for a moment. A man suddenly emerged from the fog in a black armor. His face was covered by a black hood, Harmon could see the bright red eyes beneath the hood and in his hand, a black dagger with purple flame dancing within the metal.

The stranger gets even closer to Harmon in an instant, slashing Harmon’s stomach open.

His armor was useless, his protection runes didn’t even activate. Desperate, he looks down to see his guts fall on the floor.

The red-eyed man then puts the dagger on the lord’s neck, slowly cutting it open as Harmon stands there doing nothing. The warm flood of blood covers his neck and his body, spreading through the floor. Harmon feels the heat and the blood gushing sensation of life escaping him. He falls to the side as the sensation of death embraces him.

But then, suddenly, Harmon blinks, assaulted by the lights of the runes at the ceiling. He finds himself standing up at the same place as before, close to the table, Eileen and Leona are still trapped.

He looks down at his body, touching it a couple times as if trying to make sure of its state. Eileen and Leona observed him confused about what he was doing.

The fog was completely gone by that moment and the round barrier was all twisted and deformed, whatever was inside of it. Certainly had broken free.

Harmon looked at the twisted barrier in cold sweat. He glanced around with his eyes only as if searching for something or someone that he didn’t want to find.

The lord seemed completely out of himself now, Eileen and Leona watched him carefully, and for their surprise, he let the necklace fall from his hand to the ground as if he had forgotten he was even carrying it. Harmon then quickly shakes his head and leaves the room in silence in a very fast manner.

“Eileen? What just happened?” asked Leona.

“I don't know, he just left?”

“It seems so, but why? And what happened to that barrier?”

“I think Nemesis managed to break free and he got scared by it”

“Whatever happened, he seemed terrified by it,“ said Leona.

Eileen nodded and looked at the rupture on Leona’s barrier “Can you use the sword to break free through that hole?”

“I can try” Leona lodged the sword in the hole, forcing it open.

With Harmon gone, the runes of the whole room started to shut off. And when the last one disappeared, both barriers disappeared as well.

Freed, Eileen quickly grabbed the necklace on the ground and looked inside of the locket. A few letters from Nemesis were distorted and she could see no other damage on it. The left locket seems fine, the four stones were in place as they always were.

And the blue arrow was still pointing in the same direction.

“Let’s get out of here before someone else comes!” said Leona leading the way with the sword in hand.

--------------------------------- Somewhere deep within the Spirit World

From deep within the earth, in a fortress sculpted in the stone on the humongous spirit world. A spell suddenly sparks, lightning up a triangular crystal that vibrates creating a shimmering sound. It’s humming echos through a dark corridor lighting up torches and braziers, extending everywhere.

Some the torches light up a large room, showing scribings and runes at the wall forming a small door. As the runes light up, the stone door falls forward revealing a sarcophagus like a chamber made of a glass screen. Inside of it, a dried body wearing a dark old robe. It had no eyes or nose. All its soft tissue had vanished or became a mesh of dried strings within its body.

inside its empty eye sockets, a light appeared and the glass was opened on its own.

The decrepit body stepped out of his sleeping chamber. Walked down the hallway and then through a very old and very dusty corridor.

Just the sound of its steps and the flame of the braziers could be heard on that empty fortress. It finally entered another room where a large crystal was shimmering. It touches it and images start to appear in front of it.

It shows Harmon Skaralt being stared down by a cloaked man under a dark hood with a dagger in his hand. Around it, a dense white fog. The cloaked man then steps back into the fog and disappears, Harmon remains still for a few moments as the fog quickly vanishes, before moving again, he drops something from his hand and leaves the room in a hurry.

The one watching the images waves its hand back and the image replays. He then freezes it on the mysterious cloaked man with the dagger for a moment.

The head of the cloaked man then slightly turns, looking directly at the onlooker with piercing red eyes and a wicked smile appears under the shadows of the hood.

The watcher quickly turned the image off, pondering for a moment in silence. He then turns it on once again and the smiling cloaked man appears, slowly stepping back into the dense fog, disappearing with it.

The watcher then moves his hand slowly through the crystal, the image shifts once again. It was now showing Dahmer talking to someone inside a barrier, a man in merchant clothes.

The watcher quickly shuts the crystal off and begins to walk down another corridor. As he moves he passes through several large red pillars. As he passes by them, he absorbs energy from them that regenerates his body and clothes.

He was a man in his 50 with dark hair and eyes, he kept walking until he reached a room with a massive portal sculpted on the rock. Around its large arc, many runes were drawn.

In Front of the structure, a pedestal with a dial with similar runes as the ones shown in the portal. Connected to it, a metallic cable that moved to the wall. From there it went all the way up to the surface where it was connected to a central black stone that had several other wires there. Each leading to a single, massive black obelisk.

These black stone obelisks were receiving mana from a larger structure above them. On its center, three black rings were spinning one within the other, inside of all rings was a golden fiery sphere. Siphoning the skylake, a silver twirl formed from it and went towards the moving rings.

The structure seemed to be converting it to raw mana and distributing it into the massive obelisks to store it.

The mage walked to the pedestal and touched it, an image of the many obelisks appeared, they were half faded away and half completed and a number appeared on the bottom: 3762.

-------------------------------- moments earlier, when Riou reached the Lab.

Riou ran quickly past many doors and rooms going down the long corridor. Glimpsing inside the open doors, he could see the remnants of beastmen bodies conserved in large tubes filled with an orange liquid. They were everywhere down there.

Some of them had whole bodies of females, stripped from their clothes, and cut open to show their wombs. A vast quantity of surgical and torture tools could be seen close by many iron beds with leather straps.

Riou’s concern grew larger, he hastened his pace.

Finally, he reached the inner laboratory where he found a man gathering his things as if preparing to leave the place.

He looked around but couldn’t see Eileen or Leona.

The strange man noticed the presence and looked at Riou. The Argonian mage stood still, staring at Riou for a moment as Riou approached searching around. The mage had different colored eyes and one of them began to bleed profusely while looking at him. “You? This mana… You are the source of it?!” he said immediately tapping the scepter on the ground lighting many runes in the room.

Riou approached the man and noticed that the strange eye had a vertical pupil. The red color and that shape reminded him of someone’s else’s eyes.

But as he couldn’t see Eileen anywhere he looked at his palm and noticed the blue arrow pointing southeast, it was smaller than before.

“Dammit! I must have just missed them! They were here weren’t they? Bring them back immediately!”

“You can even tell that? What a wondrous power, I can only imagine the vast knowledge stored in that mind of yours” the man put his hand on the obsidian crystal ball on top of his scepter “But I’m afraid that won’t help you now. You made the terrible mistake of stepping into my domain” a green light lit the floor, the walls and the ceiling, runes of all kinds and types appeared everywhere and a cylindrical barrier formed around Riou.

“I don’t have time for this, you will bring them over right now” He touched the barrier with his hand and focused his mana to breach it.

But nothing happened, his mana was unable to take form outside his hand while inside of that barrier.

Riou looked at his hand and tried again with more power. Barely, a needle-like line of blue mana appeared within his hand. It seems while inside that barrier, no mana could be used.

“You are the first to achieve that much result! Still, not nearly enough to help you break free, isn’t it? Do you realize it now? Have you finally made peace with your fate? Because as powerful you might be, you are still human, so if I take away your mana, it doesn’t matter how much of it you have, you become just regular person under a regular prison”

Riou pondered for a moment looking at him “Your eye, it’s a dragon eye, isn’t it? That's how you knew about me so quickly even though I was wearing this” he touches his scarf

“You can even tell that? I’m impressed, indeed it is. Luckily I acted quickly enough. Otherwise, it could have been troublesome.”

“If you have the eye of a dragon, I guess you know about the dragon’s nest too”

“Oh my, you even know about that old, hidden place? But how? It is so far away from here, how could you…” Dahmer just shook his head “Marvelous knowledge indeed. I can’t wait to discover how you acquired it. I guess I will have my study subject after all, and this time, I will make sure to keep you all to myself”

“Before I break out of this and break every bone from your body, answer me this, was you that stole a black fire from the dragons a long time ago?”

The mage became even more surprised. Dahmer smiled and shook his head “No, but I know who did, the black fire is a very interesting flame, but nothing to be proud of if you ask me. The eye, on the other hand, it’s truly one of a kind. I managed to acquire it from a malformed egg. It was abandoned and I managed to grow it large enough so the eye would fit me.”

Riou nodded and looked around the runes creating the barrier. “Yeah, something only a madman would do.”

“Madman? You haven’t seen anything yet, wait until I’m inside your mind. I will dispose of your body and keep your head alive for years to come so I can explore every cranny of your memories, it’s a lot of work, but for you, I will gladly do it”

Riou sighed and shook his head “Enough of this conversation already. Bring the girls back and I might spare you and this place, for now,”

“Hahahaha! So you are after those two? Is it because of that necklace? But you can't escape this barrier! No matter how knowledgeable you are, how powerful you are, this barrier is designed to hold the gods themselves. You are mine now, stop bluffing and resign to your fate already, none of your words will change anything.”

Riou tried to use a spell on his hand once again but it failed to form “If I’m not able to interact with the barrier nor use any spells, then maybe the necklace wouldn’t be either, so that’s why that it didn’t activate so far?”

Dahmer smiled and approached the barrier. “That necklace, I thought that was the real treasure. It glowed so much that attracted me from a far distance. But now I know why I couldn’t see you out there, you hide yourself behind these enchantments of yours. Luckily for me, they are useless at this distance.” Dahmer narrowed his eyes at Riou “Why are you so calm? For someone in your situation, I’d expect you to be more concerned.”

“I’m thinking a way out”

“Hum, I see, for someone with such a vast knowledge I thought you’d be a smarter man. You fail to accept your fate and still believe that you can break out of my barrier” The mage observed Riou for a moment quite disappointed.

“Last chance… bring them back, right now, this is my last warning”

“And now again with the threats… how disappointing. I have studied for centuries the Empyrean deities and their powers to design and create this perfect prison, yet you think you can escape from it? Something I designed to hold even a primordial power? The gods themselves would pale before this creation! Maybe you need a lesson to understand where you are at” Said Dahmer looking at Riou.

Riou smiled “A lesson you say?” Suddenly Riou felt the pull of mana from Eileen’s necklace that was activating. He releases the mana to go to her immediately. But unlike the first time it activated, the mana demanded was much more than he expected this time around. Luckily, the barrier did not interfere with the realm fold connection between him and the necklace.

Dahmer was very close to the barrier, “Yes, a lesson!” He aimed the scepter tip at Riou and trusted it against the barrier it moved through without issue.

Riou was not able to command his body at will as he was feeling the withdrawn effects of the mana loss. His balance was debilitated at that very moment.

The scepter went straight through the barrier aimed at his body.

Riou made a huge effort to dodge it as best as possible, but the bone scepter still managed to follow after him nonetheless. It effortlessly scratched him on the right part of his lower torso.

“The barrier is not my only creation, let’s see if you remain calm now”

Riou put the hand on the wound, it was a small scratch, but soon he realized it was increasing in size very quickly, the small bleeding turned into a big bleeding very fast.

He tried to use a healing spell, but it would just not activate inside that barrier.

Quick thinking, he changed his approach, since the mana couldn’t leave his body, he managed to use the spell from within, directly on the wound by gathering the required mana there and transforming it into the spell. It was a much difficult process, only possible for his knowledge of cells and how they regenerated. Luckily, a simple healing spell worked.

The wound was closing, he then began to feel a numbing effect on his body as his head became lighter. “Poison too?” he whispered to himself, quickly directing the mana to his whole body searching for the toxin. A purple smoke oozed out of his body as the cleanse spell neutralized and ejected the poison from his body.

“Incredible! To manage to use spells directly from within the body. You sure know how to control mana! I’m excited to find out how you do it when I’m inside your mind in a couple of weeks.”

Riou felt an acute pain in the wound area again, it was starting to open and grow once again just as bad as before, blood once again began to flow out.

“Didn’t I tell you that this was also a curse? No matter how much you heal it, the wound will return. Now be a good subject and lose consciousness as you are supposed to, I need to cut you up and put your head on an empty tank to preserve that brain of yours alive and then I can subdue your mind into submission”

Riou tried with the rejuvenation spell, that way he could constantly be healing the damage. Lord Dahmer laughed “Your efforts are commendable, but this curse, as another creation of mine, can’t be stopped. Not only that, it will only grow stronger as you resist it, and as time goes by.”

Slowly, the wound began to open once again, the regeneration was losing to the speed of the curse.

Riou felt the pain once again and looked quite angered at the mage.

“Yes! Those are the eyes I wanted to see! Now you finally realized it! Even if you are more powerful, even if you are the one with the bigger knowledge! You still lost this fight! Hahaha! Yes, don’t you see? Your healing spell will only feed my curse and you will fall, be it by your mana depletion or by your stamina because of the blood loss, there is no escape from me!” Dahmer looked with his dragon eye at Riou once again “And I can see that you already spent a lot of your mana! At this pace, it won’t take long”

Riou quickly applied more mana to the constant healing, trying to keep it closed.

“Didn’t you hear what I said? It’s useless, you are powerless before me, just accept it and let's be done with it” Dahmer shakes his head in mockery as Riou was still trying to win over the wound.

“Can’t you just shut up?”

“Am I bothering you? Hahaha, you must be still trying to figure a way out, aren’t you? You still fail to understand it. What advantage does your massive mana pool confer in this situation? Despite your enormous knowledge, when faced with something completely new, something truly ingenious? Don’t you realize that one’s superior intellect will always prevail over another's raw knowledge! The rogue can swindle even the wisest of sages with his guise! Hahahaha! And this just proves it!”

Riou closed his eyes and took a deep breath trying to calm himself down to think straight “Shut the fuck up already.” Riou was trying to sense the source of the curse, it was hidden right within the wound, masked by the pain.

Riou smiled as he found the source of it, but unfortunately, he would not be able to gather enough mana to dispel it like that. He still needed to get out of the barrier for that. So there was one course of action for him to take now.

“Just out of curiosity, you said this barrier could even contain a god, but did you ever get one to test it? I never heard about gods in this place, all I hear about is the elements this, the elements that”

“Hahaha, you know nothing of the gods and the 9 realms? Do you? Well, I can tell you that they are nowhere to be found in this wretched and broken world. There were never any gods in here for me to test it!”

“A simple no would suffice, goddamn you like to talk, no wonder you are full of shit” Riou began to focus his mana on his finger until the needle-like mana appeared on it.

Dahmer got angered “Then show me, mighty one, and I let me rejoice over your failure!”

Riou eyes shined in a blue color briefly “I can use reinforcement magic here. So if Nemesis can materialize somehow, she also should be able to break through this barrier somehow too.” He smiled a bit more relieved and touched the barrier with his finger and the blue mana needle.

Light sparks and a loud scratching noise echoed from the contact. Lightnings and flashes erupted from inside and the outside of the barrier where the needle touched.

It seemed to be rotating at great speed and thinning while increasing its power by the instant.

Slowly but surely, the barrier began to bend around it, the pressure from the mana needle was becoming too much and was forcing the barrier out until it finally broke under its immense pressure and friction.

Riou’s finger and arm passed through the hole in the barrier and the whole thing collapsed afterward. Riou stepped forward completely freed.

“What? How have you done it?! That’s impossible! With a single finger and that meager amount of mana? How did you break through my perfect barrier?”

“Well, you should know that the smaller the area, the greater the pressure under force, it’s simple physics, well, not quite since it was magically made, but the principle seemed to apply very well”

“You! Don’t think I’m done here, this barrier is just a sample of what I can do! I will…” as the mage began moving his scepter once again, Riou acted. He rushed towards the mage, grabbing the scepter with one hand and blasting the mage away with the other palm, Dahmer flew against the far wall on the other side of the room.

Riou wobbled and fell to his knees, suddenly, another surge of mana was taken from him towards the necklace.

“Twice? Damm, what’s happening Eileen? Shit, I have to hurry and get to her” Riou stands up with some difficulty.

Lord Dahmer emerges from the broken wall “That was unexpectedly fast and powerful…” he stops and looks at Riou with care, his dragon eye bleeds and he smiles “What happened to your mana? Did breaking out of my barrier and attacking me with that spell consumed that much? Good, you will fall before me in no time now!”

The wound on the side of his stomach was bothering him again, the constant healing was making less and less of an effect on it.

“Cleanse curse!” Riou tried a quick spell with a little bit of mana but it didn’t seem to have any effect. “Just any spell won’t do it, damn, I don’t have much to spare right now but I need to fix this bleeding or I won’t last much longer”

“Haha! Good! Even if you are out, you still can’t get rid of my curse! Your fate is sealed!”

“Yeah, yeah… sure” he began focusing and gathering more and more of his remaining mana on his hand forming a golden sphere of light. He then put it above the wound “Holy Grail” he said as the light shone from the golden sphere into the wound and floated above it.

The golden sphere then turned into a golden liquid and poured down into the wound, washing down the wound to the floor. Amidst the golden liquid, a dark smudge was pulled away from the wound and slid down to the ground, vanishing completely afterward. The wound was completely healed.

Dahmer shook his head “What kind of spell is this?! I never heard or seen anything that could remove a curse of this level before! That should be impossible! What kind of attribute was that?”

“It’s something I created based on a legend, you can say it’s a holy attribute”

Dahmer went silent for a moment “Holy? That shouldn’t be possible in this realm! What are you? How can you remove a curse that you have never seen before?”

Riou began walking towards the mage.

But Dahmer smiled “You may look fierce, but your mana is going away very quickly. Even now I can see it being drained. I should be impressed that you are even standing by now.”

“I still have plenty of mana left”

Dahmer smiled “So many secrets, but I think you are bluffing, perhaps a bit of effort will be enough to drain you out” Dahmer's eyes shined brightly in red and the walls of the fortress shined brightly in response for a moment. The light revealed skeletons sculpted within the walls of the laboratory.

“I believe that’s mine…” he put his arm forward and the scepter that Riou was holding left his grasp and quickly flew to the mage’s hand once again. “This is my fortress, I command everything inside of it! Rejoice, for you are the first to see this special creation of mine! Skeletons created from metal and runes, no spells or physical attacks can stop them!”

The skeletons began to step out of the walls all around and walk towards Riou. They were artificial looking but well crafted. Some held swords, some swords and shields, some had heavy armor while others wore robes and staffs.

Riou immediately blasted a couple of them that got close while sparing all the mana he could, but they took the blast and just stood up after falling.

He quickly realized that regular spells would not take any effect on those things.

“Yes, spend more mana… show me your spells! Exhaust yourself against an unbreakable enemy”

“I’m getting tired of this” he put his hand behind his back and pulled his dagger. Riou pointed it towards the mage.

Lord Dahmer squinted his eyes looking at it, his dragon eye suddenly bled profusely once again.

“Awake Shadowbringer!”

A black and purple flame erupted from the dagger towards where it was pointing.

Dahmer chuckled “A black flame? I was surprised for a moment, but it’s just a black flame, how ridiculous” but he quickly noticed the skeletons engulfed by the fire were being dissolved very quickly. Without thinking he just put up a strong barrier in front of himself as the flame approached him.

The fire that erupted from the dagger raged against the defensive barrier and went on until it hit the walls far behind him. The fire was relentless, like massive waves against the cliff at a revolting sea.

Dahmer barrier was barely resisting the black flame the dagger was spitting.

“What is this wretched thing? Is it not the black flame of the dragons? How can you use such a destructive spell with this little mana remaining!?”

“I’m barely starting” He points the dagger to Dahmer “First Born’s Breath!” from the tip of the dagger a massive, pure purple flame erupted going after the black flame.

Like the fire breath of a massively large dragon, the purple flame was pure and it went straight at Dahmer’s weakened barrier. The impact shook the whole room and shattered the barrier as it collided. The flames continued forward until they hit the wall at the end of the laboratory and destroyed it completely.

Lord Dahmer suddenly appeared far away from the fire in a safe location. The mage forced a smile “You were less predictable than I imagined… good, this will keep things interesting. I will give you the victory this time, but be sure to know that I will be better prepared for our next encounter. I will be looking forward to it” a violet flame burned on the ground and consumed the lord Dahmer’s image in an instant, making him disappear completely in thin air.

“Motherfucker! Stay and fight if you have the courage!” But he was already gone.

The purple flame burnt through a large portion of the walls and the dirt revealing another room through the hole.

Riou panted out of breath “Damn, I’m in a worse shape than I anticipated, been a while that I used this much mana” He glanced at the hole and saw the black wolf fallen to the ground, close to him was an old man standing with a horrified look in his face towards the massive hole in the walls.

“Who did this to my beautiful walls!?” he screamed.

“There ain’t no rest? For fuck sakes, I hate this place, I couldn’t catch a break since I got here” he takes a deep breath and began to move towards the hole to have a better vision of the new room.

At the far back, he sees a massive pink crystal in a diamond shape. It was held by giant chains on the ceiling. Below it, two large green stones attached to some metallic device that ran with metallic tubes filled by runes and connected to a large stone altar.

On top of the altar, there was a half body of an undead man. His body was attached to the stone and his arms strapped to metallic rods as his hands were nailed to them.

Constant energy was passing through the rods and the body.

“What the fuck is this?” Riou looked astonished by the sheer size of that strange thing. He put the hand on the wound and began to walk towards the new room through the hole.

On the other side of that strange machine, he could see the room continued. Countless of those green pipes were converging into a single, massive one.

“Did lord Dahmer have left you to me, he is such a benevolent lord” The old man was very calm looking at Riou approaching him.

“And who the fuck are you now?” Riou asked out without any patience left in him after everything that happened.

“I’m Gehar, the keeper of this fortress. For centuries I’ve been the one in charge of keeping this place running perfectly”

Riou looked at the giant apparatus there “I see, so this works similarly to the crystal thing I’ve seen in the mining camp. Something this big must affect a really large area”

“The whole plains and a bit more. The beastmen are already predisposed to behavioral restructuring. After a few tests and experiments, it was easy to develop this machine”

“It’s all coming together now… Let me guess, centuries ago you caught the wolves for your test subjects but a few escaped somehow and their descendants are somehow resistant to this thing”

“Intriguing, how did you know?”

“Lucky guess”

Gehar squinted his eyes “You do know our history. Yes, it’s true. The Fox clan managed to invade our fortress once. They were far smarter than the usual beastmen and managed to free some of the prisoners a long time ago.”

“The foxes hum?”

“Yes, a mistake they will never commit again since the foxes are no more and soon the wolves will follow.”

“I get it now, the hatred and prejudice against the wolves. It was Argos that planted that seed, isn’t it? A way to make sure a wolf doesn't get to power and goes against your interests, your war. You were manipulating everything behind the scenes, selecting only the most aggressive and battle-ready of them to be in command.” Riou nodded to himself “That explains Zegrath and the long-living king warlike manners”

“I’m impressed, that’s very clever of you to reach this conclusion so easily”

Riou nodded “Makes sense, the only way Zegrath would get a weapon like that was if you guys gave it to him, he was to be the next king, wasn’t it?”

“You sure are a quick learner, I see why Master Dahmer gave you to me, I will feast for days upon your mind”

Riou sighed “Another crazy one? What’s up with you Argonians and this fetish for someone else's mind?”

“Enough! I’m hungry!” the old man’s eyes became completely black and much larger, many pairs of insect-like legs began to erupt from his body as he grew larger. Two larger pincer fangs came out of his mouth.

“What an ugly bastard, which insect are you supposed to be?”

Gehar jumped high and into the ceiling, a large body began to unwrap from his humanoid form

“A centipede? Great, I just came out of a tough fight you know, I don’t have time for you”

Gehar attacked, he jumped at Riou at incredible speed with his fangs aimed at him.

“Goddam, just Burn!” a black and purple fireball was shot from the dagger at Gehar, he was hit directly in its large body and fell in flames, contorting and withering until he disappeared completely and only ashes remained.

Riou walked at the black wolf body, he kicked him on the side of the body “Hey, are you alive? Stand up, you were useless, you know that?”

The wolf began to move and sat down, he was pale and a bit purple on the lips, on his shoulder there were bite marks.

“For fuck sakes, you let that old man bite you?, shit cleanse poison” from his body, the purple smoke oozed out and he recovered his health and senses.

“What? How, what happened?” The wolf recovered and looked around not seeing the old man anymore.

“Go do something useful, destroy that damn thing” Riou pointed to the large crystal machine and sat down on the ground quite tired.

The wolf was very confused but nodded, he grabbed his sword and quickly went towards it.

Riou took a deep breath and laid down on the ground. He closed his eyes for a moment, and looked at his hand to see the blue arrow “What is going on over there Eileen?”

The black wolf stood still in front of the undead on the altar and lowered his head for a few moments. He then prepared his sword and in a clean-cut broke the chains and nails holding the undead on the altar. As the undead fell, the energy ceased moving and everything started to shut down.

The black wolf then moved towards a contraption that was holding the pink crystal, he put his sword on a hole with the chains holding the crystals up and broke something. The chains started to run out, moving away quickly as the green rods began to fall and shatter.

The wolf moved to the back and cut down the last chain, the pink crystal then fell and exploded in a million pieces the moment it touched the ground.

Riou glanced at the destruction and pulled the orange crystal. “Arthas… are you there?” Riou was exhausted.

“Master, your voice, what happened?”

“I was too late. They’re gone again Arthas, I wasn’t fast enough”

Arthas remained silent.

“I’m going after them right away, I didn’t manage to get a portal to where they are so I will go by land, they are at the main city to the southeast of here”

“Wait for us master, you are tired, we can gather everyone and move together”

“The guardian has been active for a while now at Arthas and it consumed a lot of my mana. They might be fighting someone very strong, I can’t wait, I have to go right away.”

“What's the plan?”

“I will follow the necklace”

“And what are your orders for us?”

Riou pondered for a moment “It’s war now, I want these motherfuckers out of these lands. Destroy all camps and everything you find on your way to the main city. But wait for my signal once you get there”

“Been a while we don’t purge a city” Riou could tell Arthas was smiling speaking those words. “We will be ready and waiting for your command”

Riou put the orange crystal away and looked at the wolf that was approaching him now the work was completed.

Arthas took a deep breath and spoke to himself “You are a lucky one Oyran, your wish came sooner than I thought” he then looked at Attia and Bellica “Gather all the gray, blue, and green cloaks. We are at war again”

Attia and Bellica looked at each other and became dead serious before nodding at him and disappearing to fulfill their orders.

Therese approached him “Did I hear right? War?”

Arthas nodded “We will erase all Argonian presence from these lands and then join master at their main city by the south”

She was very surprised “How big of an army will you bring? The Beastmen had thousands of soldiers but never managed to gain a good foothold over Argos in the plains all over these years”

“About 70”

“70? Just these few will be able to take out all the remaining Argonian forces? There must be thousands of them scattered on the plains. Even with the fortress gone, there are still a lot of soldiers and undead remaining.”

Arthas smiled “They will be more than enough, let’s prepare, we will be departing right away”