Ragh passed through the portal. He walked through with his eyes closed. It didn’t feel as if he had done anything special. He waited for some kind of feeling to overtake him, but nothing happened. Then slowly opened his eyes. His surroundings had completely changed. Instead of the dark room of the Worldroot Sanctuary he found himself in a brightly lit area.

He glanced around and noticed the swirling roots behind him that formed the frame of the portal. The blue light of the portal began to slowly fade as the runes died out leaving it once again as a lifeless shell. The portal was at the base of the tower. As he looked up the walls of the massive tower, he realized how massive it truly was. There were roots going all the way to the top, but it seemed like it would be nearly impossible to climb them.

He stood upon cobbles and stone dust from crushed rubble. Buildings surrounded the tower creating narrow alleyways cloaked in shadow. A light breeze blew through the closely packed area. The wind carried with it a yellowed paper which was ripped in half. The paper skittered across the ground before being stuck against the wall of a building.

Gauntleted hands grabbed the paper gingerly. There was writing on the paper which Ragh began to try to read over. It was a piece of some kind of ripped paper, but it was old and had clearly been waterlogged in the past. One thing that was visible was the depiction of the smudged form of a humanoid covered in spikes and wielding an axe. The figure was drawn to be imposing but it was impossible to tell exactly what it was with the smudged black ink.

With the paper folded and put into one of his belt pouches Ragh slowly began to explore the area. While there was mostly nothing but scattered rubble, he did find a hefty branch. It had good weight to it and could be used in combat if the situation was dire. With what he had now though it would be wise not to engage anything.

Whilst picking amongst the rubble a moving shape caught his eye. He glanced up from where he had found the branch. Flying high amongst the skies was the form of a scaled green creature. Its scales were green as emerald leaves. Its wings spread out amongst the clouds it flew with, reflecting the light of the falling sun. Its form was briefly outlined by the brilliant orb before it dipped and raced back down to earth. Even at this distance he could hear its roar as it dipped out of his sight.

There was no mistaking what he had just witnessed. That was a dragon. His hand unconsciously tightened around the branch he held. Hatred welled within him and his jaw tightened, teeth grinding against each other. The intense feeling came out of nowhere and left his with an urge of violence he couldn’t scratch. He was unsure why the feeling came and lingered but the visage of that dragon was imprinted in his mind.

He glanced around himself, looking for any other possible threats. When nothing presented himself, he willed himself to calm down. Then a thought sprang up in the back of his mind. What was he even doing here? He didn’t know anything about himself and now he was going to go explore a demon infested city for the possibility that there might be something out there?

The situation looked helpless but what else was he supposed to do but go forward? He could go back to the tower but Banour was unhelpful and quiet. This was the path that he felt he needed to follow.

With a new focus in his mind Ragh walked into one of the narrow alleyways. Rubble littered the cobbled streets. Dull green ivy hung down from the stone walls of the alleyway, it looked dead but the fact it still clung desperately to the walls proved otherwise. His boots kicked dead leaves up as he walked leaving a trail of displaced leaves.

Ragh ran his hand along one of the walls letting the metal of his gauntlets scrape against it. The stone was still strong but bits crumbled away at his touch. This place was old but it felt oddly familiar. The alleyway soon opened up into a wide road.

Cautiously Ragh peeked his head out of the alleyway. Through the visor of his helmet he saw a road littered with debris. There were overturned wagons, chunks of stone torn from crumbled buildings and broken wooden stalls. He tried to imagine what it used to look like but the disarray of the area had him at a loss. His best guess was some kind of shopping area.

His grip tightened around the heavy branch he held. Then he stepped out onto the road. It was eerily silent, the only sound being produced was that of his boots on the stone floor. It sounded unnaturally loud on the open quiet road. As he walked he noticed an overturned wagon in front of him.

He went to pass the wagon but abruptly stopped when it shifted. Ragh wearily looked at the mess of wood that was once a vehicle, unsure if it was just the wind blowing down the street. It was brittle and dry, it was possible that such a force could cause it to shift. Then contrary to his expectations the wagon shifted again.

Ragh slowly approached the wagon as he came around the side. Then he saw the source of the noise. Pinned underneath the wagon was a withered form. It had the shape of a human but it looked like something much more foul. Its skin was withered dark grey, its nails chipped and dirty. Where eyes should have been empty sockets stared blankly. The thing wore light gambeson in a checkered pattern with blue and white squares. Its hands pushed against the wagon, trying to free itself.

The creature looked up towards him calculatingly. Its mouth opened revealing yellow teeth before closing. Then it gurgled and reached down to its side. It withdrew a short horn and brought it to its lips.

He sprang into action swinging the heavy branch down in a brutal strike. The wood crunched down onto the horn just as it sounded. The face of the creature was turned into a mess of broken teeth and skull as its movements ceased entirely.

Once again it was quiet as death. Then, the sound of boots hitting stone reached Ragh´s ears. Five figures exploded from one of the nearby alleyways and looked around before their eyes locked onto Ragh.

They were more of those creatures, they wore the same checkered gambeson as the previous creature. They wore chainmail coif on their heads. In their hands were short spears and rounded wooden shields reinforced with strips of steel. Painted onto the front of the shield was the image of a silver coiled dragon in profile.

Ragh eyed the oncoming creatures and sprinted the rest of the way across the street. He ducked into one of the alleyways then slipped underneath a fallen wooden post and an overturned garden box. He came across a pile of broken glass and looked up to see a window. Ragh jumped up and grasped towards the windowsill. Gauntlets scraped against the stone edge, his fingers just short of finding a grip. He turned back to look at the mouth of the alleyway where an armored form appeared. Ragh took a deep breath to calm himself then gripped the branch tightly in preparation for a fight.

¨Take my hand!¨ A voice called from the broken window where a gloved hand appeared. Without hesitation Ragh leapt up towards the hand and grabbed on. The person tugged him up as Ragh´s boots scraped against the side of the building trying to find purchase. The person gave him just the extra force he needed to grab the edge of the windowsill where he pulled himself up. Ragh tumbled through, the broken glass scratching against his armor.

Ragh laid there for a moment before standing up and brushing himself off. Standing before him with a young man with long blonde hair brought into a short ponytail. His face was very rough and weathered looking and streaked with blood and dirt. His icy blue eyes glared at the windowsill. He was wearing chainmail with a heavy plate hanging in the center. He wore black leather gloves and boots as well as pants.

¨Help me out here!¨ The man grabbed a heavy crusader greathelm from a chair and placed it over his head before wielding a two handed greatsword that was leaning against a wall.

A creature´s head poked up from the windowsill where Ragh´s heavy branch immediately smashed it. The creature snarled, its helmet saving it from an untimely death as it fell backwards.

The blonde haired man raced towards the window and stabbed downward. The sound of sword meeting flesh and bone came from below as well as a gurgle of blood. Moans and gurgles came from below the windowsill where they quickly faded as the creatures ran back down the alleyway. The man returned, his blade soaked with black blood.

The two were breathing heavily from the short but intense moment and Ragh sat down on the floor to take a breather. He was tempted to lift the visor of his helmet up to get clearer breaths but when he went to do so a nauseous feeling overcame him, it felt so wrong. After a moment of hesitation he left the visor down.

¨Thanks for the help, good sir.¨ Ragh said, his attention still drifting to the window. It was certainly a close call. With just a stick Ragh doubted he would be able to take on that many of those creatures. They didn't seem too strong though.

¨I'm surprised that there was someone else out here still. Seems like I'm the only one in the world as of late...¨ The man´s voice was rough but he still managed to smile as he took off his helmet. ¨The name´s Aster by the way.¨ Aster extended his hand.

¨Ragh.¨ The knight took his hand and they shook. Aster´s grip was strong and surprised Ragh a bit. His choice of weapon, the greatsword, required great strength. That must have been how he got so strong.

Aster stood up and grabbed the blade and reequipped his helmet. Now that Ragh wasn't in a life threatening situation he got the chance to look at the blade. It was well maintained with a blade clean of rust. Yet it was easy to see that the blade was chipped. It was double sided with one side being heavily worn while the other was almost untouched. The pommel was made of all sharp angles and ended with a spike. The cross-guard was beaten from blocking countless blows which had worn through the gilded covering revealing steel underneath.

¨The undead won't give up that easily, they will find another way in.¨ Aster approached the window and looked down. ¨If you can go down and grab that bastard´s weapon it would be better than that stick your using.¨

¨So they are called undead?¨ Ragh nodded and approached the window. Below was the corpse of one of the creatures.

¨How do you not know? Oh, you must have lost your memory huh? Shame. It's more common than you would think around here.¨ Aster said from behind him. ¨Yes, these are undead, cursed to follow their duties in life without discrimination. It would be best to act quickly as they reanimate after some time.¨

Ragh vaulted over the rim of the window and dropped back into the alley below. He felt exposed and quickly looked down the alley in case of something lying in wait. Thankfully there was nothing. He turned to the corpse and grabbed its short spear and stripped the shield from its arm. It was clear that this one had died from the greatsword stab, the bottom of its neck having a sizable hole.

¨Ready?¨ Aster extended a hand down. With his help, Ragh scaled back up to the window and was once again in the room. He inspected his new weapon and shield. The head of the spear was still very sharp and the handle was solid wood. The shield was a bit brittle but the metal bracings more than made up for its age.

¨We should be fine here for some time.¨ Aster relaxed and picked up a fallen wooden chair. He then sat down and released a breath of relief. ¨So, you don't remember anything about your past right?¨