Kraeven woke up rather early.

He had been feeling rather restless as of late and it wasn’t getting better.

His mind flashed back to the scene where Kalos summoned Saya.

He remembered trembling in awe as their clash threatened to rip the dark realm in twain.

He also remembered feeling strange when Saya tormented Kalos by showing him his loved ones.

Kraeven tried imagining what he would have done to help, but such thoughts were pointless.

He hopped out of his bed before making his way towards the room next to his.

“Kalos,” Kraeven called out as he knocked on the well made wooden door.

“Kalos, may I have a word?” Kraeven asked and it wasn’t long before a giant man open the door.

“What’s up?” Kalos asked as he rubbed his eyes.

Behind him, Kraeven could see a little girl peacefully sleeping, her body buried beneath several blankets.

“There’s conflict going on among the humans. What should we do?” Kraeven asked the titan of a man that was Kalos as he yawned.

“I’m sure they’ll sort it all out on their own,” Kalos said lazily.

“Is that so? And if they don’t?”

“We’ll save the ones we can and have them start over. All I care about is that they keep growing stronger and if that means pitting them against each other, so be it.” Kalos said as he scratched his belly.

Kraeven narrowed his eyes before nodding.

“I see.”

“Anyway, wake us up when someone or something tries to blow up our world,” Kalos said before closing the door.

Kraeven sighed as he made his way to the living room where a beautiful horned woman tidied up the space.

Kraeven plopped down on one of Kalosýni’s well made wooden chairs.

“Is something the matter?” Hima asked.

“It’s the humans. They're fighting each other for some reason and Kalos doesn’t want to stop them.” Kraeven said as he leaned back.

“Do you want to stop them, my lord?” Hima asked.

Kraeven looked up at nothing in particular before standing up and walking back to Kalosýni’s door.

“Hey, I’m going out for a bit.”

“We don’t care!” Kalos yelled, making Kraeven smile ever so slightly.

He then walked out of the house before charging himself with as much darkness as possible.

“Mind if I accompany you, lord Kraeven?” Hima asked as she walked out into the front yard.

Her beautiful blackish-grey horns absorbed almost all of the suns light and her pale grey skin achieve an almost sinister, yet glorious effect.

Her movements were graceful and thanks to the dress she had made thanks to some of Keema’s magic, her overall beauty reached divine levels.

Kraeven didn’t care though.

“Sure.” He said before Hima approached him.

A cloud of darkness engulfed them and they soon found themselves atop a small hill, just south of Eslaf.

“Mmm…” Kraeven droned.

Off in the distance, to the east of Eslaf, Kraeven spotted a gigantic crater.

Within it, countless humans fought, even as magical explosions peppered the crater's interior.

Kraeven then began pacing around.

There was no telling how angry Kalos would get if Kraeven directly aided the humans, but Kraeven didn’t want mankind to be the cause of its own extinction.

Kraeven then thought about Nar' Agrun.

His chest ached a little, but he set aside his feelings and focused on the bigger picture.

Satisfied with his resolve, he squeezed his fists and walked over to Hima's side.

“I’ve made up my mind.” Kraeven declared as a cloud of dark particles surrounded him and Hima.

“What is it that you wish to do?” She asked.

“We’re going to rebel against that negligent god,” Kraeven said with an awkward smile.

The two then rapidly descended into Nar’ Agrun.

They were located at the base of the spire of sin on a platform that overlooked the entire dark realm.

Kraeven walked towards the platform's edge and looked down to see a dark citadel beneath him.

Vanta Fos.

Kraeven and Hima walked towards a gigantic set of stairs, which led into the dark citadel.

Their steps echoed in the newfound silence of the dark realm, but that silence was then broken by strange sounds.

Kraeven and Hima reached the citadel’s streets and walked towards the sounds to find a velzen gnawing on the remains of what looked like a pulae.

The velzen quickly noticed Kraeven’s approach and so it fell to its knees in a rather frantic manner.

This revealed its bald head, making Kraeven smile a little.

“Greetings, my lord. Is there anything this lowly velzen can do for you?” The velzen asked.

“Yes. Go out into the dark realm. Find your brothers and bring them here.” Kraeven ordered and the velzen nodded before standing up and running towards the citadel’s only exit.

A gigantic gate that was surrounded by an equally gigantic wall.

Kraeven offered Hima his hand and she accepted it gracefully.

The two then floated upwards until they completely overlooked the dark citadel.

They watched as darkness flowed throughout Nar' Agrun and he wished that he hadn’t wasted so much of it on trying to kill Kalos.

Kraeven laughed at himself internally as he waited.

.

..

A few hours had passed by and Kraeven witnessed the return of a certain velzen. Except the velzen had brought along some company.

Kraeven and Hima descended back into the citadel to find about fifty velzen waiting for them.

“My lord, I have returned.” The velzen said, but Kraeven’s face did not move.

He looked at the bald, naked, grey beings with disappointed eyes.

He was pretty sure there would be hundreds if not, thousands of them.

“This will have to do,” Kraeven muttered before clearing his throat.

“Listen up, there’s a war going on in the mortal realm and we are going to put an end to it. We shall act as peace bringers of sorts. You shall only kill when I order you to and who you kill will be entirely up to me, understood?” Kraeven asked.

"Yes, my lord.” The velzen said simultaneously.

“Good. Also, create some armour or something. Some humans are extremely skilled light magic users.” Kraeven said as a massive cloud of darkness swallowed the group of velzens.

Their bodies were then covered in a dark organic armour as they emerged from the darkness and walked into the mortal realm.

Kraeven then raised his hand and gestured that they follow him into the crater.

.

..

Danon tightly held his fosblade as another barrage of magical explosions went off near the trench he and Faveen were hidden in.

Their once silver armour had been dyed black with mud and ash.

A familiar face then ran up to then, his eyes wide.

“The gate is opening. The goddesses wrath shall soon fall upon those dogs.” Norn said.

“Good. How are the others?” Faveen asked.

“No injuries to report-"

Norn stopped as he heard screams coming from the west.

Which strange because that’s where the gate was.

Danon, Norn and Faveen exchanged bewildered expressions.

They then broke into a sprint and made their way westward and that’s when they felt it.

An overwhelming magical presence that completely saturated the air.

It was malicious.

Murderous.

Chaotic.

Danon and company eventually arrived at the checkpoint nearest the gate and that’s when they saw it.

A dark red being that towered above all in the battlefield.

Its naked body was covered in scars and its beaming red eyes seemingly burnt whatever their gaze touched.

Its fuzzy red hair and sharp teeth indicated an animalistic nature, but its body was almost exactly human.

A knight stupidly ran up to it while swinging a fosblade, but the red creature simply grabbed the knights head and squashed it, helmet and all.

“What in the world is that?” Norn asked, but before he could even get a reply, Faveen hoped out of the trench.

Danon and Norn followed her lead.

“We must buy time for our men to retreat. Norn, you get these men to safety. We’ll hold this one back-"

Faveen’s eyes widened upon seeing multiple red beings walk across the western side of the crater.

“Run!” She yelled.

Norn did as he was told.

Danon created a fosblade and glared at the giant red being.

“Grab its attention. I’ll look for a weakness or something.” Faveen barked before dashing to the side.

Danon did as instructed.

He dashed in front of the red giant.

“Hey!” He yelled.

The giant looked at him with a mildly amused face.

Danon kept his composure as he gathered light in his left hand.

He then threw a ball of light at the giant, but the ball simply exploded with no real effect on the giant.

Faveen then came up from behind and tried stabbing the creature in the nick, but in what felt like a split second, the creature grabbed her neck and punched her in the face sending tiny pieces of her skull flying everywhere.

Danon let out an animalistic cry as he ran towards the giant.

He tried stabbing it in the leg, but the giant didn’t even flinch.

The giant then dropped Faveen as Danon continuously poured magic into his fosblade.

So much so that his blade had become a continuous jet stream of magic.

The giant grabbed Danon as he screamed.

He hadn’t stopped attacking, but even when his fosblade cut across the giants face, no real damage occurred.

The giant then raised its hand to punch Danon, but a dark great sword pierced the giant's head, stopping its movements.

Danon fell to the ground as the giant's grip on him weakened.

He then frantically searched for his saviour only to find an equally tall, but even darker being standing over him.

It had long silky hair and weary eyes.

[Forlae uldum ic ixion.]

The dark being said as he offered Danon a hand.

Danon accepted it as he stood.

His eyes then turned to the left.

He then ran over to where Faveen’s body was.

He grabbed it and an excruciating amount of pain assaulted his chest.

The dark being walked past him as tears fell from his eyes.

Danon wanted to confront the dark being, but he didn’t want to leave Faveen’s side.

.

..

Kraeven walked across the battlefield.

His target, a strange black platform near the western edge of the crater.

The beings of chaos we pretty easy to deal with when alone, but Kraeven could see a horde of them surrounding the gate which sat atop the black platform.

Kraeven took a deep breath before attempting to channel some power from Nar' Agrun, but the dark realm did not reply.

His shoulders fell for a moment, but a strange sensation crawled up his spine.

He turned around to see a gate with a head sticking out of it.

“Here,” Kalos said.

Kraeven looked down to see a hand offering a half-broken sword.

Well, it was still extremely sharp and its entirety was coated in thick black soot, but nothing could hide its magnificence.

Kraeven accepted the sword and in that moment, he felt an extreme amount of pain in his head.

It got so bad that he fell to his knees as he desperately held the sword.

“That sword once belonged to my father. It still belongs to me, but I’m gonna let you borrow it for today.” Kalos said before disappearing.

Kraeven bit his teeth as he held onto the godly weapon.

He then slowly stood as the light of the morning sun illuminated the battlefield.

Kraeven had long since tossed aside his weapon, only for one of the velzen to pick it up.

“I shall hold onto this for you, my lord.” The velzen said as a massive explosion went off near the platform.

Kraeven looked to find Hima mercilessly incinerating the red giants in her beautiful black flames.

Kraeven raised Reu and dashed towards the platform.

He mercilessly hacked through the chaotic horde before eventually arriving at the platform.

Kraeven quickly realized that the gate was already unstable and would have closed even if he wasn’t there, but chaotic beings would surely continue to emerge until then and so he stabbed at the gate with Reu and forcefully zipped the gate close.

One of the red giants then took advantage of Kraeven’s preoccupation and punched him in the chest.

This led to a chain of attacks from other red giants, who punched, kicked and even bit Kraeven.

The velzen tried to get to him, but he was far too surrounded and since he had lost his ability to endlessly regenerate, meaning that every blow is suffered added onto the stockpile of pain he had already amassed.

Kraeven bit his teeth as he stabbed one of the red giants.

Hima's black flames were getting weaker and weaker the more she used them and even though Reu was extremely sharp, there was a limit to what he could do with it.

Kraeven looked up and tried launching himself into the air, but the red giants all grabbed him and clawed him back to the ground where they continued to beat up him.

His vision darkened as his head continued to receive beatings.

That’s when a mosaic of yells filled the air.

Kraeven caught a glimpse of countless humans rising from the depths of the crater.

Their crests may have differed, but they marched united.