A few hours after upon arriving at the Whispering Forest using the Gate, the group has finally reached the main camp of the army beastmen, currently serving as their temporary headquarter during this entire campaign. Everyone back at the camp has anxiously been waiting for news from the messenger’s party for days now. Truthfully, things haven’t been looking good for them. During Viviana’s absence, the beastmen have been fighting a losing war with them presently focusing only on defense. That wouldn’t normally be the case if they were against normal enemies but those monsters were an entire different story. It would take thirty strong men just to take one down and even in that case, the losses would be considerable for their side.

And then there was the issue of refugees. Ever since the series of mass disappearance started, all the smaller tribes, helpless on their own and unable to fight, have been trying to migrate to the military camps seeking sanctuary. By all means, Zen could not turn them away but by taking them in, it caused a shortage of supplies to sustain the army. With their empty stomach and low morale combined with the fact that they had no way to deal with the monsters, it seemed that the beastmen were at the end of the rope.

The group entered the camp, passing through many tents filled with injured soldiers. The medics rushed from left to right, dark circle under their eyes. It has been days since they couldn’t take a moment of rest as the number of wounded just kept stacking up.

“The Champion has returned.” An old woman uttered upon spotting Viviana.

Hearing that, others raised their heads and stared at her as they walked toward the center at the camp. The eyes of many followed wherever they went. Why did they come back alone? Where was the army from Zagon? Where was the reinforcement? Did the negotiation fail? And who were those two strangers?

“Lord Zen, we have returned”

“Ah Viviana. Just the person I want to meet. So how was the negotiation? Did it work?” Upon hearing about his Champion’s return, Zen’s dejected face brightened.

“In a way, the negotiation has been a success. Empress Morrigan has promised us her troops and they are currently on their way here. I will give you a detailed report later but now may I present to you: prince Alastor, heir to the Zagon throne and his ….wife Ikarus.”

“Greetings, gentlemen! As the representative of Zagon in this alliance, I look forward for our cooperation.” The boy put his hand on his chest and bowed to Zen.

“What is this? Sending a kid to represent an entire country? Are they underestimating us just because we are in a difficult situation?” Zen fumed. Sending an army or not, this kind of act may seem like Zagon was undermining the entire alliance, seeing it as nothing important or even mocking it. At least, that was how Zen saw it.

And his reaction was understandable. Thankfully, Viviana immediately tried to explain that Alastor was in no means just a simple kid. She told Zen how the boy singlehandedly beat both Lucas and Enti with ease. Of course, she didn’t want to say that she too might have lost against him. Zen sent them to demonstrate their power to Zagon, to show them that the beastmen were not to be trifled with. Yet, they were crushed like bugs by an eleven years old child. That kind of news would be unnecessary, demotivating to the already low morale and would only destabilize the hard-earned alliance right now. Maybe she would tell Zen about it but later, when things were calm.

“I see. If you are indeed like Viviana said, then your help would be greatly appreciated. As much as I want to give you a better welcome, the situation requires our immediate attention so if you don’t mind, I would like us to go straight to business.” Zen stated.

“Of course! I have no intention of idling around anyway. Please show me where these strange creatures are!” Alastor asked.

“Now, now, don’t be hasty! You may be stronger than Enti and Lucas but that doesn’t mean you can take on these beasts by yourself! Not only are they incredibly powerful, these mindless creatures are brutal. In addition, there is the matter of their poison which makes us unable to even approach them.” Zen tried to convince the boy, thinking it would be suicide to go confront those creatures without a plan.

“Poison? I haven’t heard any of these. What kind of poison?” Viviana baffled.

“That is because they have only started to use it recently, after you went to Zagon.” Chief Loo joined the conversation. “And it isn’t just any poison but the mythical Black Mist: Miasma.”

“Miasma?” asked Alastor.

“Miasma’s origin and nature are obscure to say the very least. In our research, we found that it has made its appearance several times in history, each time leaving behind only desolated lands and death. According to the old records, miasma comes from an unknown world, one that is not destined for the living, unlike Astora. Before creating the Primes when Astora was young and devoid of life, miasma existed everywhere. But then the Gods banished miasma to another realm and sealed it away to make sure that it would never reach this world ever again.

No one knows how it found its way back into our world right now but we know that miasma is different from all poison.

Unlike any other poison, you only need to be in its vicinity for it to affect you. We have tried many ways that would normally counter all type of poison: from mask, antidote to magic but none of them worked against it. This mist has the ability to suck both our life essence and mana, making it incredibly dangerous.

Yet for some reasons, the monsters out there are completely unharmed by the mist. What is even weirder is that wherever they go, the mist would follow them, making their attack even more destructive as we have no way to counter it but to run.” Loo explained.

If what Loo said was accurate, then this thing was truly terrifying. You didn’t need to breathe it in for it to kill you. And the ability to absorb life and mana…something like that would prove to be deadly even for Alastor. If anyone else heard about it, they would do anything to stay as far away as possible from it. But Alastor wasn’t just anyone. Curiosity has taken hold of him.

“Can you bring me to one of the infected site? I need to investigate this mist in order to find a way to counteract it.” Alastor’s response shocked everyone around him.

“Didn’t you hear what I just said? If you go, there you will die. Just being near it would kill anyone so how do you expect to come close to it?”

“Well you sure as hell wouldn’t solve anything if you stay here. Either you guide me there or I will find the way myself.”

“You….fine! But don’t blame me if you die out there!”

…..

Alastor has managed to convince chief Loo to lead him and Ikarus to one of the sites infected with miasma. From the high ground, on the overhang of a hill, the boy looked down at the once beautiful valley which used to serve as the settlement for a colony of more than a thousand persons. It was once filled with a field of beaming flowers and grass, green trees that had last for centuries.

Now the soil has begrimed into a dark color. The trees and vegetation have lost their color, decaying and turned to dust just from a gentle breeze. The foul stench of decomposing corpses came from those who didn’t escape in time. Their eyes were still open wide, all with a horrified expression on their face. They weren’t killed by the monsters. The mist killed them. At the entrance of the settlement, the body of a beast woman lied trapped under the debris of a house. Next to her was the corpse of a child holding on to his mother’s hands. It seemed that he was trying to get her out of the debris but ended up being killed by the mist.

“Oh god, this is terrible!” Ikarus uttered, shocked by the horrific site in front of her.

While Alastor often claimed that he didn’t care for anyone outside his family and wouldn’t lift a finger for anything that didn’t concern him, he was no monster. True, he could be rather merciless and even brutal with his way but as long as you didn’t do anything to him, everything would be fine. Yet even he was disturbed by this scenery. What was even worse was the thought that he might be responsible for this, for letting Odium roaming freely outside his control. He knew she was cruel and ruthless in her method. He could tell just from their brief meeting but he didn’t expect her to go this far.

Alas, hatred could be considered the strongest emotion. And when a person only knew of hatred, they lost their humanity, everything that once defined them as people. Even the gentlest of heart could turn in the darkest being and most people could not escape from that fate, to fall in the pit of despair. But for Odium, a being who was born of pure hatred, her concept of morality has been twisted by Alastor’s own ideas at the time. Was it possible that Odium’s existence was foreshadowing Alastor’s future? That Alastor could become someone like her? A portion of her hatred came from him after all. And that thought made Alastor dread about his own existence.

He has ignored his duty as a father for far too long. Late it may be, now was the time to start resuming it before something even worse could happen. What he created, he must end it, one way or another.

Alastor started to come closer to the valley. He needed to solve this.

“Wait, don’t come any closer or it will affect you!” Loo shouted.

“ALASTOR!” Ikarus called out to the boy. She was prepared to go with him.

“STAY THERE!” the boy shouted back. “I will be back shortly.”

“But….”

“It’s alright, Ikarus. This thing can’t harm me.”

And that was the last thing he said before disappearing into the dark mist, leaving Ikarus and Loo dismayed above the valley.

Something has been bothering him ever since he was up there with the others. This place of carnage, of death…why did it seem so familiar to him? The smell of the air, aside from the decomposing corpses, had a distinguishing flavour, something Alastor knew about, from somewhere far far away yet very close. A cold and dark world, yet strangely calming.

“I was wondering why I felt like home at this place even though I have never been here. Now I am sure of it. The miasma, this dark mist, is the same as the mist inside the Abyss.”

The fact that the mist didn’t harm Alastor was the proof he needed. Being a demon lord, he was able to traverse through the Abyss without being harmed by it for several hours. He has always wondered what exactly made the Abyss so dangerous. The answer was this mist. It killed all living beings except for demon lords, making it the perfect defence against intruders.

Loo said that according to the legends, miasma was banished and sealed away by the Gods inside a different realm. Could that realm be the Abyss? If the story was true, then Magnus wasn’t the one who created the Abyss. Then what was his connection to that world and how did he end up there? More and more mysteries just kept coming.

However, the question right now was how did it get here? The Abyss and Astora were supposed to be separated from each other with no means of traveling in between. And that wasn’t the only thing weird in this place. In fact, much outlandish things were happening around Alastor.

In addition to his discovery, Alastor noticed something else: his vision of the surrounding area was getting distorted, as if space was warping itself. From time to time, little tiny black rifts opened up and quickly vanished as silently as when they first came to be, taking everything they touched with them. Sometimes, faint silhouettes of people walking around appeared and disappeared like illusions, almost ghost like. Alastor tried to touch one of them but his hand passed right through. It was like they were there but at the same time they weren’t. In additions, some of these shadows, their shapes, seemed…familiar. The most bizarre thing was when he tried to get to the other end of the valley; he ended up finding himself at the very entrance where he entered, even though he swore that he was walking in a straight line.

“What the hell is going on around here?”

As Alastor walked around and pondered these questions, he heard a cracking noise under his feet. He has stepped on something. Raising his feet to check what it was, he found a few tiny pieces of some kind of black crystal shard sticking on the back of his shoe. Unfortunately, it was already completely shattered to pieces so it was impossible to determinate what the object once was. But that dark glass reminded Alastor of the black gem on his chest. They had the same colour and felt like the same material. Of course the once he stepped on must have been much smaller considering the number and size of the pieces.

Suddenly a thought came through his mind. His conversation with Odium, what she told her about her plan…it all became clear now.

“The gem serves as a connection that traces back to the Abyss. That much I am sure. But what would happen if one was broken….Like an opened door, the Abyss will be released!!! This entire place is becoming one with the Abyss.

If that is the case, then things are far worse than I thought it would be. This entire war..no this entire land is just one enormous sacrificial ritual. The more deads there are, the weaker the barrier between the two worlds. Odium is trying to open a door to the Abyss and unleashing miasma upon the world.”

That was why Odium wanted to have Alastor’s permission to access the Abyss. So that she could mimic those gems. And these tiny shards were just the first step. She has also told him about something else, the thing he had to retrieve from her at all cost. In any case, Odium must be stopped.

“This stupid daughter of mine…Damn it! I am no better for letting her do what she wants. I guess I have to go all out then.

Time to use those guys again!”

* * *

DING DING DING

The sound of the bell tolled throughout the entire encampment. It came from the watchtower where one of the scouts was stationed. From there, he has spotted the enemies. A black mist was seen rising from afar together with trees falling one after another: the monsters were here.

“All troops, prepare for battle! Women and children, fall back to northern area! Those who can fight, take up your arms and join me! We won’t go down without a fight!” Zen roared. The beastmen could no longer afford to run away. This place was their last stronghold. If they lost it, the war would be over. Zen had made up his mind. Even if he died here, he could at least buy some time for the civilians to escape. Taking out his greatsword, he marched to the entrance of the camp. Garrick silently followed his chief from behind.

But others were already there before him. The three clan leaders Loo, San and Gon together with Viviana, Lucas and the three contestants of the tournament have formed a line before him.

“Surely you didn’t think that we will let you facing them alone?” Loo said.

“Take the words right out of my mouth, chief Loo. We have known each other for a long time. It would be an honour to fight by your side for the last time.” Said San.

“Huh, I have no intention to die here so you better do the same. We can’t let the King die a few weeks after his coronation.” Gon asserted.

“But what about you Viviana, Lucas? Your people have already been evacuated. You no longer have any obligation to stay in this place anymore.” Zen spoke.

“Perhaps but if you think I can turn a blind eye to this and run away for my life then you are greatly mistaken, Beast King! We may be apprentice heroes but heroes nonetheless. And that’s our final decision!” Viviana proclaimed.

“You guys…you have my deepest thanks! We may have not been born on the same day but we will die on the same day. Let’s go!”

“Somehow that doesn’t sound that encouraging at all…..” Lucas whispered.

“It’s a beastman custom. It means he respects you as an individual and an honour to die by your side!” Enti smiled.

“Still….”

“By the way, where is Alastor? Didn’t he go with you to investigate the poison mist?” asked Zen.

“Hum about that….” Loo uttered. However, he was interrupted by the shout of a soldier.

“Here they come!”