A few hours earlier

POV: Redrick

When I entered the domain, the first thing that I noticed was a sky the color of freshly spilled blood. The sun had faded from a brilliant yellow into a rusted brown framed in darkness. Clouds that were once white were now gray, thunder boomed in the distance, and lightning split the sky.

Crowds of adventurers were clamoring around the dock, whispering to themselves. Some even looked perturbed and angered. But not that it mattered to me. I followed Amari through the throng of people and onto one boat that floated lazily near the dock. The skeletal ferryman froze in place. The darkness of its eyes gazed off listlessly towards greater Asteria. Its hand's clenched around the paddle ever so tightly.

When Amari first appeared in my office, it was a shock. Never had someone of such high rank appeared outside of the domain. Nor had someone slipped through so many adventures and guards as well. If Kharon sent someone off Amari's level to fetch me, something dire must have happened.

I sat down across from the woman, who, as usual, remained silent. Her azure eyes stared towards the mainland. Her hand clenched around the lower part of her uniform, but her face betrayed no emotion. Already, I've badgered her with questions, but by the tenth, only silence reigned from her. So, I sat back and crossed my arms, and gazed across the riv

er.

One that was usually bustling with activity but now was eerie and silent. Not even the sound of water being shifted by the paddle seemed to reach my ears. The fog that permeated this place had vanished, revealing the lonely river and not a single soul in sight. So Asteria put a temporary embargo in place and prohibited any of the adventurers from entering. That was a new move.

As we got closer to the shore, I felt a strange feeling slam into my chest. Sadness sank its fangs into my heart, and my mind was bogged down with the inexorable weight of depression, yet under it all, there was a fiery rage brimming just below the surface, ready to erupt at any time. "Amari, what happened here?" I pulled my gaze away from the mainland and towards the quiet assassin, fully aware that she wouldn't speak to me.

"We were attacked." Her voice split the silence and radiated through the air in a quiet whisper. It was a voice layered with sadness and anger.

It shocked me she finally spoke. All this time, I figured she just didn't. "What do you mean, attacked?" I was confused. We had a treaty in place that dictated what the Adventurers could and couldn't attack, though I wasn't naïve enough to think that everyone would listen to the orders that we lay out for them. Silence came as the only reply as we neared the dock. Leaving me with only my thoughts and the feelings that were pummeling me relentlessly.

We traveled through the outer forest of Asteria, and in our wake were squads of soldiers and adventurers that lay slaughtered like cattle. Man, woman, undead. Even the docks that we just left housed the now fallen corpses of the dozens of adventurers who frequented this place. What she said finally hit me as I realized what had occurred here. This wasn't just an attack. This was a massacre. Who would do something like this? We pushed further into the forest and came across more bodies. This time, it looked like the adventurers were fighting side by side with the undead. But as I slowly connected the dots, I saw a strange corpse. One that shouldn't have been here.

A single dryad lay broken in front of a long dead zombie warrant officer. All at once, the pieces fell into place. This was Velcrest's doing. Those fools would doom us all. "Amari, get me to Kharon, now." The urgency was at my heels like a bloodhound. Those fucking bastards. We had a treaty with this place. We could not afford a war with Asteria. Not with the plans in place and not with the sheer amount of undead that lived here.

We made it to the stronghold in what felt like a blink of an eye. But what greeted us first was devastation. Dozens of dryads were torn apart and littered the ground in front of the stronghold like macabre effigies. A countless amount of dead soldiers were spread across the field, their hands still tightly clasping the weapons they once held in life. Craters dotted the ground from magic, and arrows filled the empty spaces like a pincushion that stretched across the front of the stronghold.

They had the gate propped open, and the undead within scurried out in pairs. In between each was a cloth like a stretcher, and they were rushing out to the battlefield. The ones that were already there were retrieving the bodies of the fallen. Well, the ones that were truly dead. They quickly granted the wounded ones beyond respite mercy and then placed them carefully on the stretcher before taking them back into the stronghold. Even the treeline that sat in front of the domain was not spared from the devastation. In fact, it looked as if a giant sword had cleaved the top half of the trees away in one fell swoop.

I tore my eyes away from the battleground and quickly covered the distance to the gate. But the closer that I got, the more that feeling felt like it was stifling me. I was drowning in a sea of emotion that wasn't my own, and there wasn't any freedom from me. That must be what was irritating the soldiers now. A sense of shared pain.

Inside of the stronghold was bustling with activity. The line of soldiers carrying the fallen went to an open area, where a giant wooden catacomb-like structure was being constructed. One team was carefully cleaning the bodies and fixing uniforms, while another was going through and placing the bodies gently into the spaces that were made for them.

As I watched them, a somber thought crept into my mind. So this is what the Empress meant when she said that death was mercy here.

"Redrick!" Gunther's voice tore me away from the spectacle, and I froze for a second, stunned at hearing my old friend's voice.

"Gunther, what are you doing here? What the hell happened?" I looked at Amari, who looked at me with that same unflinching gaze, but thankfully understood what I was asking and paused.

"I was here to join the crusade. It's been a while since I've fought in a large-scale battle, and the thought alone made my blood boil." He let out a quiet chuckle and ran his hand through his shaved hair.

Ah, old habits die hard, I suppose. "I'm shocked that you would do something like that with the undead. I thought you hated them." As much as I wanted to rush out and hug him, I stood in the same spot, ready to keep moving the second that I could. I needed to get to the Empress and try to fix whatever problems I could before she took it out on the outside world.

"Aye, me too, brother. But after spending some time with them, these ones are not that bad. Being with them reminds me of my time in the military. But Redrick, before you go. I need to warn you. That woman is a monster." His face clenched slightly, and I could clearly see the sweat forming small beads above his eyebrows.

"What do you mean?" I mentally chewed on his words as I tried to figure out who he was talking about. The only woman I could think he was talking about was Alessia, and I knew well that she was a monster.

"Redrick, the Empress appeared out of the blue shortly after the battle had started. The sheer amount of power that she radiated was sickening. In all my years, I've felt nothing like it. But not just that, I watched her kill three greater ents, and a whole swath of dryads by herself." His eyes went wide as he stepped forward. "She's a monster, Redrick, and she was angry. I could feel it; we could all feel it. Just be careful when you see her. Okay?"

I took a step back from Gunther, and my mind reeled slightly from what I heard as more puzzle pieces fell into place. Ents were only made by war druids, but how did Velcrest sneak them in? How the hell did a force large enough to attack the stronghold make it in? Rage blossomed in my chest like a freshly bloomed flower at the thought of a mole in my council. But just as quickly as it blossomed, I shut it off. No, that wasn't my anger. I took a deep breath, steadied myself, and instead focused on the other stuff he told me. While making a mental note to find the traitor and dispose of them.

The empress slew three of them? How did she manage that? More questions than answers sat on my mind as I gave Gunther a curt nod. "Alright, well, stay safe, old friend. I'm going to meet with the Empress and try to run damage control."

He gazed at me for a second before giving me a nod, turned away, and walked back towards a squad of the undead. My gaze lingered for just a moment as I realized how odd that was. I could understand feeling a sense of camaraderie, but it wasn't like him to just change his mind. No, once I was done here, I should talk with him and see if he's really okay. I pulled my gaze away and focused on the main building of the stronghold and swallowed some excess saliva. I was scared to face the Empress, and I was also horrified by the repercussions that I would have to deal with. Damn Velcrest, Damn them all to the deepest pits of the abyss.

The mood in the main building was somber, at least that was what I felt as I walked further into the building and towards the meeting room. It was a crushing sadness, a sadness that I hadn't felt since I lost my father. It sat like a weight in my mind, constantly reminding me of that loss, and no matter what, I couldn't shake it.

It let up slightly when the door closed behind me, and I released a pent-up breath. The room was empty, save an oval table and ten chairs to match. Candles sat around the room in small clusters of three inside scones that hung from the walls. But the lighting here was dim, as darkness seemed to press in from every corner of the room, much like the emotion I felt.

I found a chair and sat down. I took a deep breath as I quickly tried to plan out a way to explain to her that I didn't know how Velcrest got in. Really, there were only two ways that they could have gotten in. The first is a corrupt member of the governing council, and they turned a blind eye. The second is that they were sneaking them in under the guise of an adventurer. Which also told me that there was no telling how long they were planning to attack. Everything I was working on the building was on the verge of falling apart, and I hated it. I hated them. I hated them all with a burning passion.

The clicking of the door pulled me from my thoughts. My heart jumped in my chest, and panic crept into me. Alight Redrick. Just explain to her everything, and try to salvage the situation. The best you can. I took one last deep breath as I calmed my nerves. I turned my head towards the door, and my breath caught in my throat. A woman strode into the room. One I didn't recognize, outside of the blazing green eyes. Her honied brown hair hung in loose waves down her head. Her emerald eyes were framed by the all too familiar dark circles of exhaustion and filled with sadness and bloodshot.

Her flesh was the color of a fresh tan and was flawless until it got to her arms, which were covered in various scars that ran the length of her arms. She wore a strange shirt that glimmered in the faint light like beige silk and danced gently.

Seeing her without a mask came as a shock as I never thought to see the day. But heer presence brought another bout of pressure that threatened to crush me, and I found it harder to breathe. But I suffered through it.

She crossed the room and went to the chair across from me. However, instead of sitting down, she grabbed its back and threw it across the room. It crashed into the back wall and shattered into dozens of pieces that flew across the room, and I found myself pressing against the back of the chair I was sitting in, trying to create some distance.

She leaned forward and slammed her hands into the table, and a low growl escaped from her lips. "What the hell Redrick."