Drazdan kept staring at the lifeless body stuck on his weapons, his eyes were shaky, his focus was gone, and his composure had entirely evaporated. He just eliminated his only clue pointing towards his best friend. So he just stood there, motionlessly, as if he was in a world unique to himself alone.

Meanwhile, the fighting died down for a second, the boss of the celestials had unsheathed his blade, his face was a mix between anger and worry. His last minion stood on shaky legs, rapier held loosely as he pointed it towards the druid. Seeing how shaken their teammate was, Xandarr and Marcus walked up past him, weapons at the ready.

The first one to make an action was the boss of the celestials, he cast a spell that they didn’t recognize, it was dark in nature and the words he uttered were incomprehensible. As the spell finished, a black crown of jagged iron took form over the head of the fencer, his corrupted blood flowing out of the cuts made by the crown.

The fencer had dropped his rapier as both of his hands shot up and held his head, he fell to his knees as he seemed to struggle deep cuts formed both on his hands and head. Shortly after, all the struggling he had showed previously died down, and his arms fell down lifelessly. The two men were puzzled by the sight and couldn’t understand why their enemy had just cast a spell like that on his last teammate.

The two men began feeling confident in their victory, seeing as how their enemy just took out its last ally. Marcus could feel the twisted and corrupted energy oozing out of the crown but couldn’t put a finger on what exactly it was, he however knew that it was a paladin’s spell. As for Xandarr, he carelessly shifted his focus from the fencer to the boss, the boss had a wicked yellow smile. The moment he noticed that smile, Xandarr knew something was up and quickly looked back to where the fencer was.

To his surprise, the fencer had already closed half of the distance between them, his movement lacked any of their previous grace, it paid no attention to the terrain, tree branches cracked beneath his feet and low-hanging branches wacked him as he ran for them.

Xandarr was determined to fight on a more advantageous terrain and quickly commanded the spirits to form a campfire on his right, he was holding his staff with both hands now ready to block whatever. Marcus was about to move up to block the fencer, but then he heard those incomprehensible words again.

As he looked over to the caster, that same wicked smile uttered the words eye locked on his, as he finished talking, Marcus could feel the corrupt power building inside him. He began hearing words compelling him to commit terrible acts, he was doing his best to resist them and ignored the voices. He then felt the power grow and burst inside of him, the sudden pain he felt was immense, and it took him wholly off guard.

As Marcus struggled understanding the spell that was just cast upon him, the fencer finally clashed with Xandarr. The fencer had fully lost his form and technique, he was just mindlessly swinging his rapier as if he had never been trained with a sword before.

This made the situation much easier for Xandarr, and he empowered his staff with magical power before blocking a slash from the rapier, pushing the fencer backwards and using the longer reach of his staff to smack him on the head. The hit came from the fencer’s right side, it made contact with the crown and drove it deeper into his head. The hit also destabilized the fencer, and he fell to the left, straight into the campfire created by the spirits.

The moment the fencer made contact with the spirit made fire, a deafening scream was heard, everyone had to block their ears at the sudden piercing scream. The scream shook Drazdan out of his thoughts as he needed to block his ear as well. Not even the celestial boss was spared as he fell on one knee from the sound.

As the fencer burned in the fire, showing no signs of getting back up, his scream kept going. The dark corruption seemed to be fighting the pure power of the spirits, and it was losing. The fencer initially still had a bit of leftover radiance, as his corruption wasn’t completed. That leftover pure holy power seemed invigorated by the spirit flame, and it raged war against the corruption within its vessel.

The dark forest seemed to become clearer and clearer, the darkness seemingly ran away. The campfire seemed brighter than ever before and its light began blinding the party members, the boss of the celestials seemed to be receiving burns from the intense light as dark smoke rose from him.

All of a sudden, the tree branches over head parted and the light from the sun entered the once dark forest. The ray of light illuminated everyone, the boss was now screaming along his minion as he began burning earnestly from the light.

Then a booming voice was heard.

“So this is where you were hiding…” the voice said.

“Ernest, Astralis, Lex and Felix… Where is your light? Why have you become so corrupted?” the voice asked.

Neither of the celestials could answer as they kept screaming in pain.

“Lex and Astralis are dead… Ernest… You are beyond saving… Felix might still have a chance…” the voice boomed, tinged with sadness.

“How could you 4 become like this? You were once the vanguards of my Realm, the brightest and most righteous warriors… This is unbelievable…” the voice mumbled that last part, but with how powerful his voice was, it was understood clearly by all.

It was then that the voice seemed to notice the party, Xandarr and Marcus were unsure whether they should be covering their eyes or their ears by now as both of their senses were overwhelmed. Drazdan had long let go of his weapons and was covering his ears, head pointing downwards as his eye was shut closed as hard as he could.

Marcus could feel the overwhelming holy power coming from the light, he also felt himself burning a little as well. The pain was immense, but he refused to join the other two in screaming.

“Hmm… It seems we have an apostle of Hoar here as well.” the voice boomed, he then shifted his focus, “A Chosen of the forest too? How peculiar, your kind rarely leave your homes. How interesting.” the voice then finally casts his gaze on the rabbit. “Hmm…” the voice went deep in thought.

“You seem familiar, although I have no idea why… You have neither holy nor pure power, you are as bare of any power as a newborn is of clothes. But then why do you seem so familiar…” the voice thought out loud.

The voice cast a scrutinizing look at the Harengon, trying to decipher why he knows the rabbit.

“A heretic? No, even if you were, you would never pose any threat whatsoever… How peculiar…” as the voice looked at the body in front of him, he noticed the curved blade and the hatchet wedged inside Lex.

“You seem skilled with your weapons, Lex has only ever lost once… Wait… Your weapons are a similar make as well, are the Harengon’s of our world prone to using unusual weapons?” the voice asked no one in particular.

“You are also heavily scarred just like Palamin…” the voice pondered, “Your species seems quite adept at surviving mortal injuries it seems. Well, Palamin is unique in that sense, so he doesn’t count.” he said.

“We rarely interfere with the world of the living, and people getting stuck between our conflicts are even more scarce…” the voice said, followed by a few seconds of utter silence.

“Wai~~~t…” the voice said, “That group had 2…” the voice seemed to go silent once again.

All of a sudden, both Ernest and Felix fell silent as bodies went limp. Felix began slowly floating out of the fire, and Ernest began turning into ash. The light also became much dimmer, no longer blinding the group.

“There we go, It is much better like this, no need for all that screaming.” the voice boomed in a satisfied tone.

“Now, then, weren’t you the leader of that mercenary group? You were, weren’t you, how funny. Both you and your right-hand man have gotten mixed up in our affairs twice now.” the voice said, following it with a chuckle.

The group had by now regained their senses and stopped blocking their eyes and ears. They still had trouble adjusting to the situation, but they weren’t blinded and deafened anymore. Drazdan tried to look up at the light only to have to look away from the piercing light.

“No, no. You aren’t allowed to gaze at me just yet, mortal, it is still too early for you.” the voice boomed.

“Then who the heck are you?” Drazdan asked in an irritated tone.

He has heard his best friend's name twice now, and one of them came from the mouth of an enemy.

“Is that any way to talk to a god?” the voice asked scoldingly.

“Why don’t you ask your paladin over there? He should know.” the voice said.

Drazdan looked over at Marcus, who has been kneeling with his head held low this entire time. Without even taking the time to lift his head and looking at his teammate, he answered the question.

“That voice belongs to the God of Combat, Aelstur. He watches over each and every fight in the land, and he invites promising warriors to his Parthenon for further training. Eventually recruiting them into his army of Holy Warriors.” he explained, head still held low.

“That’s a mighty simple summary of me, but it shall suffice. Now answer the question, were you the Leader of the mercenary group called The Soaring Blades?” the voice asked.

Drazdan was frustrated and annoyed at the situation, the man he’s been searching for has seemingly disappeared and joined hands with a god that led them to their current fate. Mere words aren’t enough to express his dislike for all things that relate to the affairs of the gods.

“Yes, yes I am, what of it?” he asked, annoyance clear in his voice.

“That attitude of yours is far from pleasant, but no matter. Now then, seeing as how you managed to beat Lex and nearly won against Astralis, it is my duty to ask you, whether or not you want to…” Aelstur spoke, only to be interrupted.

“Fuck no.” clear as day, Drazdan didn’t hesitate a second to answer.

A moment of silence followed, Marcus was slack jawed at his partner's answer to the god, Xandarr was shocked at the profanity he used in an answer to a god. Aelstur was simply too shocked to realize he was not only rejected, but was also interrupted as he spoke. By a mere mortal of all things.

A hearty laugh sounded through the forest, the party looked over at the source, and they saw a soft light walking towards them from the forest. As it approached, the figure became clearer and clearer, two long ears, one sleeve rolled up to the stump hanging off his left shoulder, a sword strapped to his waist and a peg leg.

“I told you he would refuse.” the second Harengon said as he looked up at the light.

“Pala…?” Drazdan stammered, eye wide open, utterly shocked.

“It’s been a while, old friend.” Palamin greeted.