A giant crow with purple glowing eyes and greasy black feathers flew through the sky before noticing a few humans below it. With a surge of purple light in its eyes, the daemon crow dived toward the woman in a chest plate, its large black talons extend forward. Before being promptly shot down with an explosive bolt of mana.

I sighed and closed the window, then disconnected from the Faith System.

Rocyl, “They have a long way to go before the next big historical event.”

I closed the 23rd volume of Records of Creation I was working on and got up from my desk.

Rocyl, “Guess I’ll go have I’ll go try to conceive my 4,444th child. Huahhh….. By the Great One, I feel tired down to my bones. Maybe I’ll take a nap instead….. Nahhh might miss the next big event otherwise. Guess I’ll go eat something.”

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

As the giant crow fell from the sky Catherine walked up and kicked it in the head.

Nun Catherine, “Damn can’t even eat these. Damn Miasma. Hey! Champion what do these taste like your the only one that can eat the damn things, thanks to the Mark of the Hero.”

Dean, “Like chicken!”

Catherine, “Whats chicken?”

Princess Aria, “It’s a species of domestic fowl that went extinct during the fall of the Human Empire. Sorry Champion Dean, but if we are ever able to open a path through the miasma to other surviving kingdoms, they might have some chickens.”

Catherine, “So like ducks then?”

Princess Aria, “Yes like ducks, but they are mainly land-based and I don’t believe they were able to swim.”

Dean, “So chickens are extinct? Damn.”

Princess Aria, “Yes, after chickens went extinct ducks became the primary source of meat in the kingdom. Ducks and geese are the only poultry we have left in our lands and one of our few meat sources. That is if the Daemon army hasn’t eaten them all yet or they haven’t been corrupted…”

Talia says while staring up ahead, “Comrades, we have company…..”

We Look up ahead in the sky and see a huge murder of giant crows flying in a looping pattern in the sky before flying towards us.

Dean, “Prepare for battle!”

Talia unsheathes her sword and equips her shield from her back, Catherine’s hand shine with cyan light, Aria Prays and I unsheathe my blade while my left hand shines yellow, crackling with yellow lightning.

The murder of giant crows dives at us being met with my explosive yellow lightning while Catherine throws up a massive amount of cyan flames burning the center of the flock to ash. It's not enough.

You have gained the skill Uncanny Intellect.

About half the giant crows fly past the flame swarming us, before they can peck and claw us to death though, a cyan semi-see-through dome is thrown up around us shielding us from the giant crows. I glance back and see Talia with her shield in the ground, strange English words glowing on it.

Catherine, “Your Highness! Can you activate Nature’s Wrath?!”

Aria, “No! The miasma has cut off my connection to nature and most of the wildlife is too corrupted to respond to my blessing!”

Dean, “Looks like we have to fight them off without your blessing then! Can projectiles exit the shield?!”

Talia, “No! We’d have to either deactivate it or destroy it!”

Dean, “Can we create holes to shoot out of?!”

Talia, “Yes! But nothing small enough to keep out the daemon crows!!”

Dean, “Shi…..!”

“RRRRRRUUUUUUUUUOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

A Huge Black Bear with four purple eyes, four small vertical horns on its head, with patches of fur missing, that have been replaced with black scales, as well as, giant purple crystals sticking out of its shoulders and hindquarters, rushed out of the trees plowing through the giant crows. Its jaws opening and eating giant crows with a single bite each. I watched in shock and awe as the bear rapidly ate all the giant crows at a maddening pace.

Talia, “….. a mutated Daemon Bear.”

Dean, “A what?!”

Catherine, “A daemon bear and a mutated one at that. It’s a bear that's been completely infected with miasma or corruption and this one is mutating even further. This is going to be difficult. Shit, see those purple crystals on it? Those are giant daemon ticks, I’ve never seen any that big though. If I hit them with mana flames they’ll jump right off and the bear will bleed out, problem is they’ll attack us.”

Dean, “Shit.”

Catherine, “Talia on the count of three, I want you to drop the barrier while it’s still distracted, then we’ll attack. Dean, I want you charging up as much Arc as possible, I’ll distract it with simple mana blades. Ready? 1…”

Aria, “Wait Sister Catherine don’t.”

Catherine, “2…”

Aria, “Catherine! I forbid it!”

Catherine, “3!!!”

Aria, “CATHERINE, NOOO!!!!”

The Magic Shield dropped and Catherine charged out cyan streams of light flowing from her turning into blades. I began channeling arc into my left hand without releasing it, my left hand quickly glowing yellow with the yellow sparks rapidly growing into yellow bolts of lightning. Catherine shoots forward earth kicking up beneath her feet. Her mana blades fly into the daemon bear’s flank. Darting forward she comes within yards of it before it bends down and snaps its jaws shut, only for her to dodge and shoot more mana blades at its face and neck. The beast closes its eyes most of the mana blades bouncing off its eyelids and fur, only one managing to pierce an eye with just the tip. It turns around to face the now still Catherine. Catherine quickly raises her arms towards the bear closing her hand into a fist, the blades stuck in the bear’s flank and eye exploding in a flash of cyan light. With one of its eyes a gaping hole flowing with blood and the other temporarily blinded from the flash, Catherine shouts, “Now!!”

My left hand now engulfed in yellow light and arcs of yellow lightning curling off it scorching the ground and surrounding plants, I release the bolt of Arc just in time for the bear to turn around. The huge bolt of arc hits the bear exploding on impact, destroying and tearing apart the front half of its body, and frying the remaining daemon ticks.

I feel a rush of energy before as notifications sounds in my mind.

Greater Strength has evolved into Ursine Strength.

You have gained the skill Hibernation.

You have gained the skill Battle Cry.

You have gained the skill Sixth Sense.

Catherine, “Great now we just need to find a place to wash off all this blood.”

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………

I stare up at the night sky, the strange river of fire having dimmed into a pale white glow, strange habitable moons behind it visible in the distance, a few dots of light visible on their surface being what I can only assume to be cities, a pale white sun with three rings floating behind the strange moons. Bringing my focus back to the ground, I walk toward what sounds like a bubbling brook, hoping to wash off this dried flaking blood covering my skin in patches.

The journey’s been tough so far we fought a large number of lesser daemon beasts, and with limited rations and no way to resupply off the land due to the miasma-infected environment, it's been rough. Apparently, the miasma-infected plants and animals will drive humans insane and almost rabid, along with every other life-form. Eventually, over many years and a few generations of prolonged exposure to miasma one become a lesser daemon. Luckily it seems I don’t have to worry about that due to the Mark of the Hero, as it seems to refine all energy that enters my body and isolate then expel corruption. Apparently, miasma is a mix of corruption and mana, so weird.

I never thought I’d be stuck in a world like this fighting evil and trying to save a fantasy kingdom. Regardless though, it seems like they need me, at least for now, so I’ll do what I can to help them. I guess I’m just a big ole softy.

Walking past some smaller tree and tearing my gaze away from the absolutely, towering canopy of taller trees blocking out large portions of the sky I push aside some bushes and freeze. Right before me is that bubbling brook I’ve been looking for, however, it seems to be occupied by a way too beautiful woman with navy blue hair and navy blue eyes, her skin fair and her bosom plump cover in a white tube top, her arms rippling with small yet thick muscles as she brushes her hair, her white skirt floating in the water around her. For just a moment my mind stops, almost as if frozen in time. Then she opens her mouth and says, “Well are you going to keep staring or what?”

She turns to face me fully and I recognize her. Catherine.

Dean, “Ah, um, uh, no. Apologies sister Catherine. I’ll take my leave.”

I turn around and speedwalk away to find somewhere else to wash up. All the while hearing Catherine’s laughs.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

We stood on a hill overlooking a river forking in four different directions leading up to a massive mountain range on the horizon with swaths of forest filled with trees as tall as skyscrapers in between us and the mountains. The princess holds a yellowed, cracked, and torn old map of the region in her hands, left of over from the time before the fall of the human empire.

The princess sighs and says in a happy voice, “We finally found it, the Four Pronged River. Now according to this map, all we have to do is follow the easternmost fork in the river and it shall lead us to the Dwarven Capital Apex Mountain. Said to be the highest mountain in all the thirteen worlds.”

From then on we traveled as fast as we could on foot for weeks.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Finally, we arrived. We stood on a hill overlooking a valley surrounded on three sides by mountains, including Mount Apex. On the fourth side was a gap blocked by a wall with enchanted columns topped with glowing cyan cubes with a runic grate on all sides like a cage. Behind the wall stretched rolling hills of forest and fields of golden wheat. A small fortified city stood outside the mountain entrance, the entrance to the inner mountain guarded by great brutalist pillars covered in runes and art too far away to see clearly. Between the pillars stood a stone gate reinforced with runes and steel, a great porticus hanging above it giving off a faint cyan glow.

By what I could only guess to be midday we had made our trek down the hill through the last stretch of miasma-filled forest, through both gates with a guard escort and into the great halls of the mountain, after having left behind our borrowed donkeys at the second gate. We made our way through great stone halls depicting great dwarven battles and historical events. The last one being a mural of a sword falling from the sky and a dwarf using that very sword to kill a dragon, all carved into the very stone.

Dean, “Guess that’s Ethereal’s Blade.”

We walk through the inner city each massive chamber divide by walls made of apartment block style houses and similar pillars holding up the ceiling with the floor covered in markets smithies, and additional housing, with quite a few ramshackle huts. Crowds of beggars roaming the streets, huddling in corners and the ramshackle huts for warmth.

One of the dwarven guards notices me staring at the beggars and speaks up, “We have had a surge of refugees coming in from the daemon-occupied mountains to the east. They’re actually pre”

Another dwarven guard elbows him in the side and shushes him.

The dwarven guard who was speaking then coughs and grunts saying, “Ehem. Forget I said anything.”

I decided for the dwarf’s sake to forget it, otherwise, he might get in trouble with his superiors for whatever reason. However, considering the situation we’ll have to figure out what’s going on from the king. After all, knowledge is power and against the Daemon Empire, we could use all of that we could get.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

“You want me to give you what?!!”

We stood in the throne room of the dwarf king as he shouted out in shock followed by strange foreign cuss words after the Princess told him what we came for. Just when he opened his mouth to say something again, a dwarven guard burst in through the giant doors, huffing and puffing, his forehead sweating he shouted, “We’re under attack its the daemons their laying siege to the outer wall!!!”

The Dwarf King, “Shit. Damn it, here take this!”

He gets up then picks up a sword and scabbard from the side of his throne before throwing at me. I catch it and feel a strange aura emanating from it similar to my arc bolts but far, far stronger along with something else. I unsheathe an inch of the blade and realize it's the same sword from the mural on their walls, Ethereal’s Blade.

The Dwarf King walked down from his thrown passing me and saying, “Just make sure to bring me that guy’s head will ya?” With a smirk before heading out the doors and shouting, “Take them through secret tunnels!” The doors then slam shut as we are ushered toward a doorway that wasn’t there before. Once again fleeing from a falling kingdom.

We rush through the halls led by a guard, torches lighting the way till we come out of the back of the mountain and the guards go back into the passage and slam the door shut behind them.

I look at my companions, strap Ethereal’s Blade to my waist and say, “Welp, here we go again.”