Xander wakes up feeling of empty inside. He sees everyone else still unconscious in the dirt. Everything that just happened suddenly comes back to him. Tears run down his face as he silently stares at the dirt.

The others wake up and see the state Xander is in.

“You need to pull yourself together. We don’t have time to look back, we need to be here right now and assess our situation,” Drakthar tells him. Xander ignores his words, expression unchanging as his eyes remain fixed on the ground.

“Let the lad cry. Getting over a good woman is never easy, I would know the feeling,” Jorge advises Drakthar, seeing his efforts are futile.

“Where are we exactly?” Alcaeus directs his question at the priest who came through the portal with them.

“I have no clue, we could be anywhere,” the priest responds, not having an idea of where the portal led.

“I know where we are,” they all look over at Xander.

“Wait, we wake up in some random dirt pile surrounded by trees and you expect me to believe you know where we are?” Alcaeus doesn’t believe Xander assertion.

“This is near where my village used to be before it was destroyed. If we follow the ridge towards the plains we will come across a military outpost of the Sacrosanct Empire,” Xander shakily replies while getting back on his feet. His tears glisten on his face as the sunlight strikes them.

The priest squints as he notices Xander’s eyes turn a bright shade of purple when exposed to the light. He blinks a couple of times and they return to their regular blue. He decides he must have imagined it.

After they get to the bottom of the ridge, Xander gives his cloak to Kayde in order to hide his face from the Sacrosanct, not wanting Kayde’s appearance to cause them any trouble.

After silently walking they eventually see the military outpost off in the distance.

“Holy shit, ya were right lad,” Jorge almost spills his rum when he sees it. A soldier heads out of the base to meet them.

“We can take him if he tries to attack, there is only one of them,” Drakthar gets the others ready in case this interaction goes south.

“Where did you guys come from?” The soldier asks them; he appears to be surprised rather than wary.

“We came from the mountains,” Alcaeus responds like it’s not a big deal.

The soldier’s shock grows, “No way. No one has been in the mountains since the incident two years ago”.

Alcaeus has never heard of such a thing so he asks, “what incident?”

“When the Silent Brotherhood attacked the tower in the mountains and the giant monster appeared,” the soldier explains, baffled they have never heard of it.

“Wait, that happened two years ago?” Alcaeus is now the one in shock.

“Yeah, what is wrong with you guys?” The soldier asks, finding it odd they are so uninformed.

Xander ignores his question and asks with the faintest of hope, “do you know if there were any survivors of that incident?”

“I believe everyone in the Silent Brotherhood was completely wiped out, or at least that’s what everyone says,” the soldier responds solemnly. Xander lowers his head trying as hard as he can to stop the tears from returning.

“You guys seem behind on what is going on. We have a guy here at the base that has a thing for recorded history. Why don’t you guys talk to him so you can get up to speed?” The soldier suggests.

They follow him into the base. Xander has found this entire interaction odd. Usually the Sacrosanct would show more animosity or at least a little distrust to outsiders, but these soldiers were welcoming. Something must have changed in the last two years to cause this.

“Hey, Jim, these guys don’t remember anything from the last two years, do you mind filling them in?” The soldier asks a middle-aged looking man standing next to a table full of books.

“Two years you say? If I were them, I would have blocked them out too. I guess if you poor souls really want to know what has happened to this place since then, I can enlighten you,” Jim begins.

“A new Empire is now in control of the world. It is known as the Black Sun Empire, but if you forgot the last two years you might as well call them the Cult of Chaos. They kind of rebranded themselves when they started conquering most of the world,” Jim tells them ominously.

“I guess he failed,” Kayde mumbles to himself referring to the Scientist and his mission.

Xander starts to get angry, “That misguided idiot. He ended up causing the thing he went back to prevent. If he had just slowed down and looked around once he would have noticed this was happening before it was too late”.

“Anyway here is the map of the world as it stands now,” Jim spreads out a map over the books on the table. All of the Sacrosanct Empire’s land in the west is now apart of the Black Sun Empire and the color has changed from green to white.

“The whole land has frozen over?” Xander asks knowing white indicates snow on a map.

“Yes, the only two places we have left under Sacrosanct control are right here and the old island that used to be in the middle of the ocean, but half the ocean has frozen over so it’s not so much an island anymore,” Jim describes how the land has changed.

“What about the desert tribes? From the map it looks like nothing has changed,” Alcaeus eagerly puts his finger on the part of the map displaying the desert.

“The desert is overrun by these fire creatures. The people there are constantly on the move trying any way they can to avoid them and survive,” Jim explains how the situation in the desert has changed.

“If all of this is happening to everyone, is there any plan to fight back against the Black Sun Empire?” Drakthar asks, looking to join a fight.

“As of right now no. I shouldn’t tell outsiders this, but ever since the king died, the archbishop has taken over. He is a very scared man who is content to hide behind the island cities’ walls. The general in charge of the military there wants to do something, but can’t because of the archbishop’s cowardice,” Jim vehemently explains with clear disgust towards the archbishop.

“Is there any way you can get us in touch with this general? We wish to fight,” Drakthar declares, not willing to live with things the way they are.

“There is a ship headed to the island city that heads out tonight. Now listen, the general is trying to find some sort of excuse to… how do you say, get the archbishop out of the way? I am going to send you over with a note explaining to him that you all could be his excuse if you understand what I am getting at?” Jim asks them in a hushed tone.

“We do, and we’ll be on the boat,” Kayde agrees, keen to off the archbishop.

“I’ll get you in touch with the captain of the boat and tell him you will be aboard,” Jim walks off.

They head to the port and see a line of soldiers loading supplies onto a ship.

As they approach them, a man who looks to be in charge stops them, “you the boys Jim was talking about?” Drakthar nods.

“Then get on board, I’ll have one of my men show you below deck where you can stay,” the captain ushers them aboard.

They are informed that they will arrive at their destination the next morning. Once they get to the cargo hold, Xander goes off to sit in the corner. Drakthar notices him brooding over there by himself, “I know the guy said there were no survivors, but Gwendolyn is tough. You need to stop thinking she is dead. She is a mighty warrior, so much so I considered fighting her to the death. She can take care of herself”.

“I cannot believe you telling me you wanted to kill my girlfriend is actually making me feel better,” Xander jokes, trying to lighten the mood the best he can.

Alcaeus, who was listening in on their conversation, laughs, “it doesn’t matter if she is alive or not. The way you are now you never would have got anywhere with her anyway”. Xander considers correcting Alcaeus that he did get somewhere, but instead gets up and leaves the room; he is not the kind of person to kiss and tell.

“You know, you could be less of a dick,” Kayde suggests to Alcaeus after Xander has left.

“I’m just helping him change, he isn’t manly enough right now,” Alcaeus explains, showing that, in his own sick way, he cares.

“He is more of a man than a coward who runs from a fight,” Drakthar interjects, defending his friend.

“Hey I only run from fights I know I’m going to lose, there is no point in fighting if I’ll die from it,” Alcaeus reasons.

“It’s like I said, he is more of a man than a coward who runs from a fight,” Drakthar reaffirms his statement after hearing Alcaeus’s explanation.

“He’s got ya there lad,” Jorge agrees with Drakthar after finishing off a bottle of whiskey. The Cult of Chaos priest sits against the wall silently taking in every little thing they are saying.

The others fall asleep while Xander remains on deck. He stands by the railing of the ship peering out at the moon’s reflection in the ocean. This will be the first time he returns to the Sacrosanct since he was ousted, a thought that weighs heavily on his mind. If the archbishop is still in charge, then nothing has really changed about hierarchy within the Empire.

This new Black Sun Empire might be the most formidable foe at the moment, but Xander’s true enemy will always be the Purity. Nothing can be done to change that. So if he can assassinate the archbishop and aid in the military rising to power, he will be more than content.

No matter how hard Xander tries to stop it, his mind keeps wandering back to Gwendolyn. He remembers the promise he made to her, and how he was unable to keep it.

His dark thoughts are interrupted as the boat suddenly begins to rock violently from side to side. Sailors rush up on deck to discover the source of the disturbance. Towards the port side of the vessel, a monstrous creature surfaces from beneath the sea. The entirety of it is not completely visible, its grey skin shimmers in the moonlight as it lets out a piercing roar, through jagged teeth, the beast’s long neck pointed upwards as it does. It looks down at the boat, its piercing yellow eyes focusing on its prey.

“No way… it exists! But it was supposed to be a rumor,” one of the soldiers shouts as he looks at the monster’s massive form approaching and cowers in terror.

“Calm down men, get to your stations, we are going to fight the beast!” The captain calls out to his men. He is holding a gigantic harpoon launcher. Xander has never seen anything quite like it; steam emanates from vents along the contraption as the captain readies it to fire.

The beast starts to rapidly swim towards the ship, its neck swaying from side to side as it approaches. The men on board freeze in fear as they look into the creature’s eyes full of bloodlust. The captain steadies the harpoon and launches it directly at the beast’s heart. The beast turns to avoid the oncoming harpoon causing the waves to shift, rocking the boat, but it cannot avoid the harpoon entirely and it leaves a gash in the monster’s skin right by its heart. It screams out in pain before continuing towards the ship.

Xander can see the beast’s skin is peeling down where its injury is, leaving one of its organs visible. Inspired, he throws a bell onto the ship and switches it with the organ. A fleshy blob suddenly appears on deck and the beast lets out one last cry before dying. Its corpse floats in the ocean, turning the dark blue waters to a shade of rusty red with gallons of its blood.

“Who are you?” The sailors start to stare at Xander in awe. Xander shrugs his shoulders and walks below deck.

“Ew! what is this thing?” One of the sailors reacts to the monster’s organ on the boat.

“Doesn’t matter what it is, the beast is dead. Now clean it up, I don’t want my ship to stink,” the captain orders.