Year 80

“So you’re really going to do it?” Cassandra asks while lying in bed next to you.
“That was sort of the point of going to Mortos in the first place.” You answer.
“True I suppose. I really hated it there. I mean killing and capturing svelk was about the only thing that was remotely enjoyable. I was pretty glad you eventually sent all the Eyes back home.”

You get up out of bed to get your day started.

“Ah, shit.” You say feeling an ache in your back.
“Are you alright? I thought you…um…replenished yourself recently.”
“If by replenished you mean drained the lives of twenty of my citizens last month then yes I did, but as I’ve told you before, it doesn’t last long and it wears out quicker as the years have gone on. Not to mention humans don’t exactly have the most sustaining life forces to begin with so it takes more of them just to turn back the clock a few decades.”

As you look in the mirror at yourself trying to determine if you need to “recharge” today, Cassandra doesn’t pursue that line of questioning anymore. She knows that elves being long-lived creatures would probably require less effort on your part and sustain you longer. In fact that’s probably why she started to show “attraction” towards you a few years ago. She’d never admit it, but she fears that you’ll suddenly start rounding up elves and draining them instead.

While it definitely had occurred to you to do so, you tended to limit it to just a few since they still don’t have the largest of populations and you had no idea how long you’d have to “ration out” the lives of your citizens before you could unlock all the secrets of the book. Cassandra probably believes she’s “swaying” you through sex though.

Gnomes probably REALLY feared being rounded up, but fortunately for them you still respect their engineering skills and you don’t have a gnome fetish like Casimir did. Besides, ever since your human engineer losses in Mortos and Elam dying last year (Another rarity via natural causes), you need all the skilled engineers you can get.

As for your “relationship” with Cassandra you have no love for her, a mild fondness, a respect for her abilities and her usefulness, but nothing more. You’re fairly certain Cassandra has no true love for you either. Respect and loyalty sure, a desire to place herself in a higher and “safer” position, most definitely, but she does not love you.

Part of you has wondered if you reciprocated her advances in the first place was because she was an elf. Besides the natural attractiveness common to their race, she very faintly reminds you of Semra. Not in personality or even looks, but she’s an elf and it’s close enough.

“I am seriously fucked up.” You mumble to yourself as you think about that again.
“What did you say?” Cassandra asks.
“Nothing, just thinking about something. You better get dressed, I’m going to need you and the Eyes on full alert for this thing.” You say which stirs Cassandra to get up and follow your lead in getting dressed.

“Emperor, the…subjects are currently all being held at the ritual pyramid in the Usksha Desert, all ten thousand of them are still alive and restrained. I know I’ve told you this before, but Empire citizens’ have not been calm about this. Most don’t even know exactly what you’re planning, but they’re already coming up with stories and most of which are not too far off from the truth. The Eyes have been working overtime in keeping the peace, but I fear that a rebellion of some sort will be inevitable. Most likely in Rask and Nakol province, perhaps even in the Tral province.”
“The citizens’ would like it even less if I continued to just drain random people at a greater rate eventually exceeding ten thousand. This ritual is going to prevent having to do that anymore. After it’s done, we can deal with the civil unrest and in time Dokkrus as well.”

Cassandra smiles a bit when she hears that, you know she’s probably been eager to go kill more svelk again.

“I always meant to ask, but why is this to be performed in Usksha?” Cassandra says.
“No major settlements nearby and it isn’t like the usksha nomads are a problem anymore. Haven’t even had a sandworm pop up in decades. I thought about the plains of Tor, since there was nice flat land there to build the pyramid, but the Usksha desert works just as well. Besides, this is only going to be necessary once. No need to have the pyramid any more afterwards and it’ll be cheaper to just let the sands consume everything rather than having to tear it down and having crews to dispose of all the bodies.”
“Couldn’t you just animate them to walk into the ocean or something?”
“Hah, I’m sure a dead march to the ocean is just what the already agitated citizens’ would want to see.” You chuckle.

“No, this is a better way. To be honest raising the dead takes a great deal of willpower and I find it to be a waste of the time and energy. I mean I did it to a limited degree in Mortos with the fallen Eternals because it bolstered the ranks and using the dead negated some of the advantages the necromancers had. Personally though I’d rather just cast a rain of fire down or chain lightning to directly harm my enemies. I don’t need unreliable rotting corpses to do my work.” You say.

Cassandra nods at your answer and the pair of you are off to the Usksha Desert.

Even before your carriage reaches the desert the black pyramid is visible from the Nalin border. The closer you get the more it looms ominously.

There are grim deeds going to be performed this day and night and well…until the ritual is complete.

The necromancers of Mortos didn’t need as many sacrifices when they attempted this ritual since there were a lot more of them to perform it and support each other’s magical energy. They were also more skilled. You are just one man that has tried to shove as much necromantic knowledge into your head in just a few years. You sometimes wonder if this is indeed a fool’s errand.

But you’ve gone over the rites, you’ve gone over the symbols, the steps, made allowances for your unique situation, and of course had a big ass pyramid built just to accomplish all this. You don’t think you could be any more ready.

When you arrive at the ritual pyramid, several Eternals stand ready for your commands. There are so few of them left now and they’re all fourth gens. It wasn’t but a decade ago that together with the third gens, Eternals were nearly two thousand strong. When this is all over, you really need to get that project back on track again. Too bad Elam isn’t still around to carry out some of his theories, but maybe he left some notes in that now abandoned workshop of his.

“The sacrifices are inside the pyramid, my Emperor. All we await is you to take your place and begin.” An Eternal says when you exit the carriage.
“Very good, we will begin soon.” You reply as you shield your eyes to look up at the pyramid which does look pretty impressive this close up.”

Cassandra begins to leave the carriage, but you stop her from doing so.

“Cassandra, why don’t you head back. I don’t think you’re going to want to be here for this. Not because I don’t think you can’t handle it, but because it’s going to take awhile and I’d rather have you keeping a check on the potential civil unrest situation you’ve been concerned about. I mean other than my Eternals here, you’re about the only person I can truly trust and rely on anymore.”
“Very well, and thank you my Emperor.” Cassandra says and kisses you before getting back inside the carriage.

With Cassandra on her way back, you begin to make the long climb up the pyramid feeling the aches the entire time. You’ll be glad to put an end to that soon. When you finally get to the top, you take a short breather and accept the water that a nearby Eternal hands you.

“Shit, that sun is a killer. Maybe I should’ve had this built on the Tor plains after all. (Whew) All right then let’s get on with this. Bring out the first sacrifice.” You say and a couple of your Eternals nod and go through the entryway to carry out your orders.

While you wait you place the ritual book on a nearby stone podium and examine the sacrificial altar and the symbols you had etched into it. The altar itself was designed to be sturdy, but also has a slight elegance to it. The craftsman really put some artistic touches to it. You aren’t normally one to admire something like that, but in this case you do.

As the screams of your first sacrifice get closer you draw out your mithril dagger. Ah this dagger has certainly been with you a long time. Saved your life more than a few times too.

Still, you only keep it for one reason. As a reminder to end Semra’s life with it one day. (Yet another thing on the to do list after achieving immortality)

Your Eternals bring out your first sacrifice. A young elven girl. She’s terrified, crying and begging for her life.

“Well, it’s a good thing I sent Cassandra home. Pretty sure she wouldn’t have wanted to see this. How many elves are there in there anyway?” you ask one of the Eternals ignoring the girl’s screams.
“Apologies, but I’m not exactly sure my Emperor. I know we brought in a lot, but we’re not sure how many the Eyes brought in.”
“They most likely didn’t bring in any. Probably primarily stuck to humans. So…who do we have in there anyway?”
“Mostly humans as you might expect. They’re from all over the Empire. Some elves, some kobolds, some orcs, some usksha, I know we even dragged a few ogres down here. All of them are of varying ages, colors, occupations and gender. You said the more variety from walks of life the better.”
“That’s true. For some reason this will work better with more variety of life. Not exactly sure why, but I’m following the instructions. Just out curiosity, any gnomes?”
“We did get a few. Tried to limit them to criminals though.”
“As long as we got a few, okay throw her on the altar and let’s get started.” You say.

As the girl continues to scream for her life, your Eternals place her on the altar.

“Did you want us to gag these people in the future?” one of your Eternals asks.
“No, apparently the terror and fear they outwardly display helps this ritual too, again don’t ask me why, I’m just following what was in this book…shhhh…I’ll make this quick.” You say and then chant as you bring the dagger down.

When the deed is done and the girl’s life has indeed been exstinguished, her body is thrown down the steps on the left side of the pyramid. That pile is going to get very big before this over.

Time passes from day and night as one by one people are dragged for you to kill. You have to take breaks every so often and after a few days of this you even resort to draining the life of some of your Eternals just to keep your strength up.

You know its working though, you can feel it. By the time you’ve passed the five thousand mark the daytime sky no has a sun beating down on you and a constant overcast hangs in the air. A sandstorm whips up and at one point it even begins to rain, which it practically never does in this desert.

You preserve through the sand and the rain as you did with the sun. The closer you get, the more you can feel your success. Eventually you don’t even begin feeling tired after killing a few hundred people, you’re starting to feel energized by it. Eventually you stop taking breaks and start dragging victims out yourself since your Eternals are certainly tired.

By the time you hit over nine thousand your surrounding area is in a permanent state of unnatural darkness. A blackness has covered a wide area of the desert and you’re not even seeing the stars at this point, its just black like a void.

And then finally the last victim is brought out. A miserable looking malnourished kobold who looks like he’s on his last legs anyway. He’s so weak that one of your Eternals picks him up by one hand and places him on the altar.

You speak the last parts of the spell and bring down the knife ending the kobold’s life instantly and that’s when it happens.

You feel a surge of energy like you’ve never felt before. It’s like when you drain the life of someone, but this is different, like a feeling of completeness. You believe its working. You don’t have a mirror handy, but your hands are certainly deprived of wrinkles now and you don’t have any aches or pains from age anymore.

“I feel it! It’s working! It’s…” you shout and then suddenly you fall to the ground and a large rumbling sound from above is heard almost to the point to it being deafening.

You are helped up by your Eternals, who begin to ask you what to do next. You look up and see several ghostly forms screaming out of the black void above. They don’t attack, they just seem to hang there and float around, but that doesn’t mean they won’t soon.

“Emperor! Watch out!” an Eternal shouts and hacks down the kobold you just killed.

Just as Nicodemus told you what the necromancers did, just as Semra warned you, you’ve opened up a gate to the Realm of the Dead.
> You run down the pyramid steps
Realizing the immediate danger you’re in, you waste no time in running down the steps of the pyramid. The ghostly forms begin to mock you.

“Why do you fear death mortal? Did you not ssssummon it here?” one of the ghosts says nearly causing you to lose your footing on the steps when it suddenly floats in front of you.

You blast the ghost with a magic bolt and then proceed to do the same thing to others that fly near you. Several of them dissipate instantly.

“Undead bastards! You won’t….AGH!” you start to say when all of a sudden you begin to feel very weak. It’s not just you either; it’s your Eternals too. The feeling is similar to the draining effect by undead creatures or the negative zones of Mortos. You might not be aging, but you definitely don’t feel well, in fact you feel like you’re going to die and given how close to death you’ve been on several occasions, you’re very familiar with what that feels like. In fact, you’re reminded of the time when Cyrus nearly killed you. Feels like that.

And unfortunately due to this sudden weakness you do lose your footing on the pyramid steps, as do a couple of your Eternals. You end up tumbling down the rest of the steps smacking your head against the hard stone several times. By the time you hit the bottom you have most certainly broken your neck. You aren’t dead, but you’re definitely not in a good position.

Having little option you attempt to mend your broken neck through healing magic. It’s requiring all your focus which is already weak due to the negative energy in the area. The spell is working, but it’s going much slower than normal.

In the meantime more spirits and the like pour out of the black void above the pyramid and the pile of bodies that were one dead have now begun to shuffle around their original area to the other side where you are currently at. Your Eternals that didn’t manage to kill themselves falling down the pyramid try to slow down the horde, but ultimately they fall before the sheer numbers and the unnatural magic affecting them.

Soon it is only you who are left and your broken neck still isn’t quite mended, you only manage to sit up just in time for the newly risen bodies of your sacrificial victims to eat you alive.


Year 75

The longer you spend in this place, the more you’re starting to like it and that is somewhat of a worrying thought to you, because it certainly isn’t a thought shared by anyone under your command. The last five years have probably been a nightmare to most.

You’ve had to rotate your “normal” military personnel fairly regularly. Most of them can only handle the psychological impact of the powerful undead horrors the necromancers have unleashed a limited amount of times before they become more of a liability rather than an asset. You can only imagine how full the asylums are getting back home. For the most part you’ve regulated most of your military to defend Evigrus since the svelk in last two years have tried to open up a new front by transporting groups of elite via portals. They’ve been relatively unsuccessful and even less so when they attempted to do the same thing on Nyttrus where your kobolds easily overwhelmed them and used the land to their advantage. The svelk for the most part have seemingly pulled out of Mortos though altogether.

You’ve had to pull back your Eyes as well. Well trained they may be, most of them are still human and with that they suffer the same failings of the mind. It’s just as well, since things are starting to get a little unstable back home. It’s probably a combination of several things (Some of which might be all the new asylum patients) so Cassandra and the Eyes are back to their primary job of maintaining order.

Even the Eternals are starting to get weary of this war and most of them have aged several years than normal. Still, they are Eternals, and whether they are third or fourth generation, they stand by your side…even in death.

Since your time here, you’ve learned how to use the necromancer’s magic against them. You’ve managed to unlock the secrets of necromancy. You’re no master at it, and it takes great concentration on your part, but its come in handy at times. The odd thing is you seem to only be able to maintain control over fallen Eternals. Attempting to raise others has only resulted in them eventually turning against you. You wonder if its because of the way Eternals are “made” or their conditioned loyaty from birth, or maybe a combination of both that seems to result in their dedication to you and resist the overpowering will of the necromancers.

As far as your own concerns about your state of mind you’ve been trying to hold it together. You sometimes think you’re living on borrowed time and that if you don’t achieve your goal soon, this place will eventually consume you. Maybe that’s why you’re starting to like it here, because you feel so close to death and this place is basically a home to the dead.

But you’re not dying here if you can help it; in fact the whole point to this is so you don’t die at all. You’ve already begun to unlock the talents of the necromantic arts by yourself. As soon as you get that book, you KNOW you’ll be able to master them completely and become immortal.

And that goal is now closer than ever because you’ve finally tracked it down.

You stand on a slightly elevated bit of land with what remains of your army of Eternals (both living and dead) and a few juggernauts filled with crews of half mad engineers. In the distance a ruined fortress lies before you. It is a non-descript thing and has no real defenses since its walls are mostly broken or gone completely, but THAT is where your goal lies. Inside it somewhere.

And that is also where Nicodemus must be.

You need to attack now, because you know it’ll be only a matter of time before reinforcements to help him show up. There are ALWAYS undead, no matter how many you put down in this place.

“General Damon, today the Empire assures its mastery over death itself.” You say.
“We are all prepared my Emperor, we just await your word.”

You nod and for a moment there is complete silence.

“ATTACK!” you shout and then in unison, you and your Eternals advance towards the target. You lead from the front, just like the old days…

Your juggernauts rumble past the sides of your army and then that’s when you finally hear him in your head…

“This will not end well for you, Eternal. Turn back from this path now, or suffer the same fate as your father Casimir.”

Naturally you ignore this pitiful attempt at stopping you, so Nicodemus finally unleashes his defenses.

Several undead rise up out of the ground. Not just the normal type either, these are the remains of some sort of long dead gigantic beasts that must’ve once roamed this island. They are accompanied by the appearance of several ghostly forms. Wraiths and spectres with their ability to drain life with a mere touch.

To your far left and far right, hordes of skeletons and zombies come popping up out of the ground. Nicodemus probably believes that you’ve foolishly walked into an obvious trap, but honestly you knew something like this would happen. Your goal here is to get the book at all costs.

“Death will not stop us today! But then some of you personally already know that! Destroy these abominations and take the fortress!” you shout.

One of your juggernauts is already moving far ahead of your army and firing off its canon, blowing away bits of the gigantic bone horrors. Under the right circumstances you believe it would easily finish up the task, but it isn’t those undead giants that are the problem, the problem lies with the wraiths and spectres who easily glide through the machine and turning it into a steel coffin by killing the crew within.

Your other juggernaut decides not to engage such ghostly creatures and instead turns off to fend off the approaching undead horde to your left. Hopefully it can destroy a good chunk of them.

The undead giants still intact begin to lumber forward to meet your army while throwing large pieces of stone lying nearby. You cast a barrier in front of your army to protect against the projectiles and then throw your own projectiles in the form of fire at the giants while your army opens fire at their legs until the bone and rotting flesh that are allowing them to still stand is finally severed to a degree that the rest of their bulk goes crashing to the ground. Most of them splinter into pieces from the fall, but other continue to come at you, dragging themselves toward you with their arms. These are dispatched with a few well places magic bolts and more gunfire.

With the giants mostly taken care of, you notice the spectres and wraiths steadily approaching. You immediately drop the barrier and redirect your energy to cast an enchantment over your soldiers’ hand weapons. Guns are useless against things like spectres and wraiths, but with some skill they can still be overcome by an enchanted melee weapon.

“Prepare for melee and don’t let them touch you!” you shout.

The unearthly howls and shrieks by the ghostly assaliants fill your ears as you blast them with your magic bolts. Your dead Eternals come in very handy here as they directly engage the spectres and wraiths and try to shield their living brethren (and you) from being touched. It isn’t without some casualties though and the problems increase when the horde on your right finally reaches you. Fortunately the left side seems to be preoccupied with overwhelming the juggernaut, which has now resorted to its inside mounted repeater rifles, and just trying to run them over though its wheels are starting to get jammed with body parts.

“FIGHT THROUGH THESE ROTTING BAGS, WE’RE NEARLY THERE!” you shout just in time to see several necromancers appear on the battlements and begin doing some sort of chant.

Suddenly there’s an aura of death around you, and it isn’t just becase you’re surrounded by zombies. You feel like you just walked into one of those negative zones, except this one is being forced on you.

You’re old enough as it is, you can’t afford to age anymore. You have to do something now because you won’t even make it to the broken fortress gates at this point.

You call your Eternals to surround you and you begin to cast a spell of your own. Your living Eternals are suffering the affects of the necromancers’ spell, but trying to cancel their spell through your willpower isn’t going to help because they’re too strong collectively.

So you rely on your traditional blast everything in the nearby area and hope it kills everything.

You bring down an inferno on not just your enemies, but you and your people as well. Though you attempt to protect some with a surrounding barrier, but you just don’t have the strength to protect everyone.

Most of the horde to your right are incinerated as are most of your people. There isn’t even much left to “raise.”

To your left, there is a similar sight with a pile of burned undead no longer in any condition to pose a threat, though the juggernaut sits still and completely blackened by the rain of fire. The crew inside has no doubt cooked to death.

Most importantly are the effects you see in front of you. You no longer see the row of necromancers and no longer feel the effects of their spell. The ruined fortess is also partially on fire, but it being made of stone it isn’t doing much more than cracking the already damaged structure.

You’re incredibly drained however. This battle has really taken it out of you and you’ve still got Nicodemus and who knows what else to deal with. General Damon still by your side helps you from falling down. The Eternals that are still alive are finishing up putting down the undead that managed to survive by being within your protective barrier when you cast it.

“Come on, my Emperor. As you said, we’re almost there.” He says.

There are other necromantic arts that you’ve learned besides raising your Eternals, though you haven’t really pondered using them since there wasn’t any need or you still didn’t really have mastery over them.

One of these was emulating the life drain of some of the undead here.

And suddenly you’re actually pondering draining your own Eternals of their lifeforce to sustain your own. The thought does not give you any pleasure to do so, but you just aren’t sure if you’re going to make it otherwise.
> You continue onward
You can’t do it. While you’ve sacrificed many in several different ways, you’re not going to start draining the life force of your own Eternals like some undead horror. You’ve crossed many lines and all its done is brought you to this ruined state.

You struggle towards the fortress, but even with Damon helping you, you don’t think you’re going to make it, let alone have the strength to face Nicodemus.

“Take…take me back home…” you order Damon. You don’t even need to tell him twice, he sees how pale and weak you are and all of you are making a hasty retreat.

Unfortunately between your age, your wounds, your exhaustion and the general negative energy in Mortos, you don’t make back home alive and you unceremoniously pass away just before you get to the home portal.


Year 62

“The transport airships have made their test run to the outskirts of Dokkrus and returned. They’re ready for the real mission now, my Emperor.” Elam remarks.
“Good, because we’re sending them and a couple of the upgraded regular airships.” You say.

This is a major step closer to your goals. Cassandra, Galen and the rest have managed to locate and hold a fairly intact portal for you. The base around it has already been dug out for easier lifting and they haven’t suffered many svelk attacks, well not many concentrated svelk attack at least. The svelk that are attacking are just the regular xenophobic type that doesn’t want outsiders on their territory. They have no real grasp of the greater plans that are going on.

Semra’s actions have been surprisingly minimal though apparently she’s been too busy defending her own territory (and portal and mines) from not just your sabotage attempts (Which unfortunately haven’t been too successful), but from other svelk warbands. It would seem that Cassandra and your Eyes have at least successfully managed to keep up the ongoing chaos there.

Won’t be long now.

“Emperor, may I accompany you on this mission?” Zana asks.
“Huh?” you say being interrupted by your private thoughts.
“May I accompany you on this mission, my Emperor? I know I sounded a little afraid the last time Dokkrus was mentioned, but I admit part of me still wanted to go. I’d like to join you on this mission. Besides, I did have a hand in building these airships, it might be best if someone with that knowledge came along.”
“I imagine Klemto might have some objections to that.” You say.
“I love him, but he’s too over protective. Besides, you’re the Emperor if you want me to come with you then he has no choice but to comply right?” Zana says almost in a flirtatious way. You’re not exactly sure how to take that, but Elam definitely looks surprised. Maybe even a little jealous.

“Well, that is correct…okay fine you can come with me.”
“This will be a great honor my Emperor! I’m looking forward to this!” Zana says.
“You will be accompanying me aboard the Storm III.” You say.
“You’re going to be on the Storm III?”
“That was the plan given that it’s the flagship, why where did you think I was going to be?” you ask.
“Well I assumed that you’d want to be aboard one of the transport airships to better oversee the process as well as to better defend it from attack in case the svelk try something.”
“That’s sort of why I have the Storm III and company going with them. They will be defending against possible svelk attacks, though barring Semra’s meddling; I don’t see any major threat to any of the airships themselves. The svelk are remarkably still stuck in the dark ages when it comes to weaponry.”
“True, but I know you have the ability to cast those large barriers for defense. I dunno I just don’t see your own extra protection on a transport airship as such a bad idea. It would allow the escorts to focus a little more on protecting the other.”
“Hrm. Never hurts to be sure I guess. Duly noted, I’ll think about it.”

With Zana’s brief suggestion she excuses herself to get her things prepared for the mission, leaving you alone with Elam who realizes his glances of faint jealousy have caught your attention and he is now trying to not make eye contact.

“Elam you’re acting like a teenager. I’m not remotely interested in your woman so you can stop worrying that I’m going to start fucking her on the airship.” You blurt out.
“Uh…um…thank you my Emperor…I uh…” Elam stutters a bit at a lost for how to respond.
“How long have you two been an item anyway? It doesn’t really show much when you two are together.”
“We try to keep it professional my Emperor. Human women here aren’t in big supply here in New Dessel and I can’t identify with any of the Eyes, but Zana…she’s something special…never have I encountered a woman with such a magnificent intellect for science!”
“Mm, I’m sure that the only thing…” you smirk.
“Well her physical attributes are nice as well.’ Elam says.

Elam goes on to ask if he can discuss his desire to work more in the medical and biology field when you return. You tell him that he may continue his experiments as usual, but you’re going to need his help with the portal when it’s brought back most likely.

Your don’t bother talking with Klemto about Zana. You figure she can tell him herself, assuming she even bothers and decides to just make it a surprise for him.

You do take the opportunity to look at the new airships. It’s odd, but as many times as you’ve seen them up close this will be the first time you’ll actually be on one of these things. Even on your return trip from Nyttrus you went by boat rather than waiting for another airship.

When the day arrives Klemto approaches you. You’re guessing he must’ve heard the news by now. He comes to you hat in hand looking pitiful.

“Emperor…I understand my daughter is going with you…I just beg of one thing and that’s that you see that she’s safe.”
“You make a lot of demands of your Emperor…(sigh) She’ll be fine Klemto, you worry too much. I doubt if the svelk are even going to be able hit us if they even attack. Besides, she’s going to be aboard the Storm III and given that it’s the heaviest armed airship we have right now, she’ll be one of the safest people there.”
“Well that’s good to hear. At least she’ll be close to you.”
“Not necessarily. I might be flying on one of the transports. Zana suggested that it might be best if I was aboard one to better defend it in case the unexpected should happen.”

As Klemto’s mind fills with worry again, you wonder if you should take Zana’s advice or not.
> You board one of the transports
Zana had a good idea; the transports could use a little extra protection so you decide to get on one of them.

After about a half hour you finally get used to the idea of being so high in the air and less paranoid. You didn’t think it possible for you to be, but somewhere in the back of your mind, you had the concern of this thing falling out of the sky which is probably why you haven’t stayed in one place on the ship for very long and have felt the need to pace about it.

Just as you’re getting used to the long flight over the ocean, you are suddenly in for something extremely unexpected.

The a few of the Storm III’s cannons suddenly fire upon your transport ship! The transport you’re on is hit severely and is set ablaze along with several of the crew killed. More than that though is from this distance you can also see the Storm III suffering its own explosions in several places. You have no idea what is going on, but it’s obvious some sort of treachery has occurred. The only other thing you see is a figure jumping off the Storm and then a large odd piece of what you guess is white fabric comes out of the figure that jumped, slowing the descent.

Meanwhile your ship slowly starts veering towards the other transport while continuing to burn around you. Between the collision, the fire and the other explosions going on aboard the ship you are caught in this disaster and even your magic can’t save you. One explosion knocks you unconscious and you aren’t awake when the wreckage finally hits the ocean.


Year 60

“Well, looks like we’ve lost the Tornado.” Warrick says as the pair of you see through in the near distance a multi-colored dragon unleash a gout of flame from its mouth, which engulfs the airship. Already heavily damaged the flying fortress can’t take anymore and begins to explode. Minor ones at first, then one large one. Flaming pieces of the machine fall from the sky.

“It’s all right. It’s all right. The Storm II is still there and hopefully it’ll kill that damn thing or at least wound it enough for us to do so. Either way that flying lizard dies today. This war will be all but won with its death. It’s the last one and I’m glad it’s finally decided to come to us this time, because I’m sick of chasing it all over this damn continent. I want to get the invasion of Dokkrus underway properly and I can’t very well do that if I’m stuck in this damn jungle continent.” You say preparing for the large group of Iznac approaching Fort Canopy.

“Hrm. Certainly is a lot of them. Better get on with this.” Warrick says and orders the cannons to fire upon the multitude, which puts a dent in their numbers, but doesn’t stop their advancing.

You look over the battlements and see several Iznacs climbing the walls of the fort like an army of ants. They aren’t even using ladders, they’re just scaling the fort with their bare hands. It’s actually rather impressive, until you unleash a chain of lightning to zap all of them. The shock is enough to at least cause most of them to fall off if not outright kill them immediately.

“Slaughter the four armed spider eyed bastards! Make them realize that their domination of this continent has passed! This is the time of the Empire!” you shout to the Eternals defending the fort.

Your people are doing their best though they can’t stop every Iznac from scaling the fort. Soon the gunfire is replaced by sounds of close combat weaponry. No matter how far the advances in technology, it always eventually comes down to looking your opponent in the eye and feeling their blood splatter as you end their life.

While you’re busy hacking off the limbs of an Iznac warrior, another loud explosion in the distance is heard followed by a bright flash in the sky. It’s not lightning from the storm, but rather the demise of your Storm. The Storm II joins the Tornado in crashing to the ground after losing its skirmish with the dragon. Hopefully the rain is making the jungle wet enough or else the flames from the wreckage of these downed airships are going to cause an inferno throughout the jungle.

“Damn! The Iznac brought their little frog slaves and the remainder of those orc traitors!” Warrick says and cuts down several Glip before helping the rest of the soldiers fend off the orcs smashing through the fortress’ gates.

It doesn’t matter in the scheme of things because even with overwhelming odds, your Eternals are still holding their own against all attackers. You then hear a roaring sound getting closer to your position and the sounds of great wings flapping.

You shout a general command for the still working cannons to be pointed towards the dragon and to prepare to fire when the beast is in range. In the meantime you and Warrick try to keep that side of the fort relatively free of invading forces.

“Hey, you think maybe I can get the chance to kill the dragon this time? I know you’re the Emperor and all, but you don’t need to prove your superiority all the damn time.” Warrick jokes.
“Yeah? Well maybe you’ll get your chance if you aren’t as slow like you were the last two times.” You retort.
“Slow? Well excuse me Mr. lightning fingers, but we all don’t have the ability to blast something out of the sky with a thought.”
“Well that’s why I’m the Emperor.” You snicker.

The dragon gets closer and you give the order to fire and unleash your own magic bolts at the creature. It’s definitely wounded from its ordeal with the two airships, but given your experience with the other two dragons, you know it’s far from being out the fight.

In fact it’s so determined that it doesn’t distinguish friend from foe when it blasts its flame breath on the fort. You manage to protect most of your people with a magic barrier, but for those outside its protection, most are set on fire if not incinerated immediately. On the positive side, it reduces your enemies, on the negative it ignites the gunpowder barrels for the cannons causing a massive explosion and completely destroying one side of the fort.

While the barrier still protects you and everyone within initially, its still a lot of strain on your energy and you begin to feel the fatigue setting in.

“No! Damnit! Fight through it!” you mutter to yourself hating your weakness.

While you’re busily trying to fight through your fatigue, you don’t notice where Warrick went and that was to the highest point he could get to on the fort and some how JUMPING on the damn dragon when it made its pass!

You almost can’t believe your eyes as you see the dragon flying away from the fort with Warrick desperately trying to hold on to one of its legs. You can see him hacking at the dragon’s underbelly. The dragon bellows in pain and begins to turn to make a second pass, but Warrick’s assault makes another attack on the fort a non-priority for it.

You see the beast twist and squirm in an effort to shake Warrick free and then eventually the beast makes another loud screech and the both of them go crashing into the jungle no doubt destroying several trees in the process. You can still hear the dragon in the distance, so you know it isn’t dead yet (Though probably badly wounded), but who knows about Warrick’s fate.

In the meantime Fort Canopy isn’t immediately being attacked anymore as most of the Iznac have fled or been killed at this point. You quickly order your remaining troops to secure the fort and take a small group with you to head towards the dragon’s roaring noises.

Fortunately the jungle isn’t thick here and the noises make tracking pretty easy, though by the time you reach your target, you see the severely wounded dragon with Warrick in its mouth and shaking its head from side to side. Then with one more shake, Warrick goes flying out of the dragon’s mouth and slams into a nearby tree. You can’t quite make out all the damage, but it looks like he’s missing an arm at this point. Who knows what other grievous wounds he’s suffered.

In any case the dragon has now turned its attention towards your direction, but its not exactly in the best condition itself. It makes a coughing noise and a pitifully short burst of flame and a large amount of blood emanates from its mouth. It even tries to flap its wings perhaps in an attempt to escape, but one wing is so torn up that it can’t lift off even if it had the strength to do so.
> You order your troops to do it and help Warrick
You can’t let Warrick die, not with how much he’s helped you. You’d almost be at a loss on how to tell Brenda if it happened.

“Kill the dragon!” you shout at your troops and run over Warrick’s bloody body.

Ignoring everything else, you quickly turn Warrick over who isn’t even conscious. He’s still alive, because you can see his heart still beating from the open wound in his chest.

“Hang on, you’re not dying today!” you say and begin to focus on healing Warrick’s fatla wounds.

In the meantime your soldiers are doing a fairly good job at combating the dragon, which is distracted with them. Had this been the only obstacle, you probably would’ve been able to save Warrick’s life. Unfortunately there are enemies in this jungle other than wounded dragons.

Several Iznac who retreated from the fort earlier were lurking nearby and taking advantage of your soldier’s preoccupation with the dragon and your preoccupation with healing Warrick one of them throws a spear right into your back. The force is such that the head of it actually protrudes a bit from your abdomen.

Losing complete concentration you yell out in pain and your own body slumps over Warrick’s. You struggle to crawl to a safer location and attempt to heal yourself, but the ambushing Iznac manage to cut you down before you are able.


Year 56

You enter Brenda’s office where upon she smiles briefly at you, though with everything you have on your mind, you don’t return the gesture instead you just nod.

“Hello Brenda, I trust you and Warrick are still enjoying your new marital status.” You say guessing that what’s put her in better spirits as of late.
“Yes, Emperor. I’m happier than I’ve been in a long time. Thank you for performing the wedding personally.”
“Think nothing of it. Though I didn’t think you’d ever remarry, let alone Warrick. But if you two are happy then that’s good. You should hold on to that as long as possible for one never knows when it will suddenly be taken away from you.”
“Um…of course my Emperor. We certainly do cherish our time together.” Brenda responds at your rather grim comment.

“Anyway, I came here to let you know that the new Eternals have been released from their tanks. You’ll be training them soon.” You say.
“I’ll be looking forward to it. I trust they met with your standards?”
“Yes, most of them seem to be very much like the third generation though perhaps with signs of displaying higher intelligence overall. Under your guidance, I have no doubt that they’ll be just as effective as the third gens.” You reply with a sigh.
“Is there something wrong my Emperor?” Brenda asks.

“Yes, it’s Nyttrus. The place is becoming a pain in my side that I don’t want to be bothered with, but I find that it might become necessary to step in personally soon. We’ve got more than a few strongholds there now, but the Iznac are far from being beaten, unfortunately most of the humans there are sick or dead due to disease and Iznac magic. Flog’s also dead and the orcs have become slightly less disciplined as of late without his calmer leadership. There have been a few reports of deserters running off into the jungles and forming their own communities. Just glad Snilkez’ka is still alive and the kobolds are holding down the forts there until the third gens arrive.”
“Couldn’t you send airships to bomb Nyttrus to speed things up?
“They don’t really have the range to travel across the vast oceans yet though Elam’s working on fixing that with the gnomes. In any event if they did have that sort of range I might be inclined to have them try to find Dokkrus first since that’s my real goal.”

Brenda tries to give you some words of encouragement, but they don’t improve your mood. Instead you just leave Brenda, once again wishing her well on her new happy marriage.

You spend a few days wondering whether or not you should head to Nyttrus with the third gens. Ultimately you decide not to as you’re still hoping to hear something soon about Dokkrus. As soon as you get word about that, you want to be on the next ship going there. You don’t want to be in the middle of a conflict that you know you’ll be compelled to complete if you directly get involved.

In the meantime you go back to more mundane matters such as ensuring that the rebuilding of the new Nakol province remains on schedule. You also take time to hone your magic abilities; in fact since your “intimate” mind connection with Semra, you actually feel a little more powerful or rather you gained a brief insight into spells she never taught you during training.

A few weeks pass and still no word about Dokkrus, however you do get bothersome news about Nyttrus again.

You’re informed of the latest problems on Nyttrus by Kivan who received a message about it in the middle of the night. The Iznac have apparently unleashed a powerful “secret weapon” in the form of three very large flying lizards. And these aren’t wyverns either. They are creatures that Casimir once told you were rare even back in his day. They’re dragons and apparently they’ve already destroyed one of your forts on the continent.

This isn’t news you wanted to hear. Now you’re going to have no choice, but to go over there.

You still can’t do all this alone though, you still want to wrap this war up as quick as you can and you’ll need some competent tacticians and strategists to do that. Snilkez’ka has her way of doing things you’re sure, but they probably work best with other kobolds she commands.

The third gens are good warriors, and a select few of them are indeed leaders, but most of them are rather…well unimaginative sometimes. You don’t think that’s the fault of Brenda’s training, but perhaps just a tendency towards conformity due to their creation. In fact you can’t even think of a single one that has stood out to you during the war with Nakol. Hopefully the fourth won’t have that problem when they’re ready.

So you make up your mind that General Flevas should accompany you. The elf is pretty much the best one you have right now and you believe his vast scouting skills should come in handy. Given that all the orcs ran off and rebelled, you also won’t have to worry about Flevas not being respected as a leader. The third gens and kobolds seem fairly neutral towards him.

You go back and forth on whether or not to bring Galen. His magic would most certainly help against the dragons, but you’re wondering if you want to put up with his tendency to complain. True he’s much better at not doing it, but he always manages to find a way.

Who you really wish you had is Decena. She would’ve been perfect for this mission since she already worked well with the third gens. Just another reminder of your loss.

Maybe though you just need another Eternal. An Eternal who always likes “vacations” away from his usual duties, namely Warrick.

He certainly commands respect amongst the Eyes and besides you he’s probably the next most feared name in the Empire. As Sightmaster he’s also skilled in less traditional forms of warfare, which will come in handy in the jungle filled continent. Of course the only concern with bringing him is that leaves the “mainland” of the Empire, relatively… well the word isn’t undefended, but without a major figure to oversee any possible problems that may crop up. You suppose Brenda and Kivan can handle things if something really gets out of hand.

Which brings you to another problem and that’s taking Warrick into a war in the first place. Warrick’s job at one time was probably a bit more dangerous, but as you’ve established order over the continent, stomped out dissension and all of those other necessary things, it’s become even more like a “desk job.” Warrick still keeps up on his training and such, and you know if you called for him to assist he’d jump at the chance not just out of loyalty, but because he always has a bit of desire to get in the middle of things again.

He could very well get killed and a better head of internal security, as far as you’re concerned there is none. His loss would be even greater than Decena’s you believe. Though it’s the more “moral” problem that surprisingly has you rethinking this.

Warrick just married Brenda, the pair of them don’t see each other every day, but they’re able to do so when they can. It’s the happiest Brenda’s been since she was married to Roldan. If Warrick was to die, well you can only imagine what that might do to her. So if you lost Warrick, you might be “losing” Brenda as well.

Of course that’s all speculation. You don’t intend on losing Warrick at all, but you have to prepare for that possibility and the repercussions of such things.
> You leave Warrick behind
Warrick is possibly the closest thing now you have to a “right hand” anymore. True there is still Brenda, but if Warrick died, what were her state of mind be? It took her a long time to get over Roldan’s death. You don’t think she’d be able to handle another great loss, which is another reason why you’ll leave Warrick here.

Besides, with him overseeing things here you won’t have to be concerned about the homeland getting out of hand while you’re away.

Leaving Warrick in charge you finish preparing for your trip to Nyttrus and soon leave with several hundred third generation Eternals and Flevas. (But not Galen since you don’t feel he’ll be necessary)

When you eventually do arrive in Nyttrus the place does indeed remind you a bit of Delerg though even hotter. The kobold leader Snilkez’ka is the first one to greet you and exclaim that now that you’re here, the war will go much quicker and victory should come swiftly.

The first few weeks are indeed very successful ones, and it does appear that victory will come quickly if the Iznac are falling as quickly as they do, but as always not everything is so clear cut when you have dragons involved. You first encounter with one of the great beasts results in you losing half your company at the time and the dragon flying away.

After this experience you fall back a bit on the advance and regroup realizing that the conquest of this continent is going to take a lot longer than anticipated.

Year 60

“We’ll hold the line at Fort Canopy and Fort Tangle, then after they’ve expended all their energy on this massive assault of theirs, we can make our own advance and wipe them out for good.” You say and then promptly stagger a bit away from the table in pain.

General Flevas and Captain Snilkez’ka move towards you and ask if you need help, but you of course decline. Though the truth is, you could use some help, just not in the way they are offering.

Ever since the dragons reared their ugly heads this campaign has been one struggle after another and taken a great toll on your body. While you’ve managed to kill two of the giant lizards already, it’s almost been at the cost of your own life. Your last battle with one of the creatures practically cost you half of the left side of your face given that you’re missing an eye and an ear now. You’re even missing part of your non-dominant hand. While healing magic is powerful, even you can’t regenerate completely lost limbs or other organs and you’ve been pushing it to the limit as it is. You might be holding off death in the in the short term, but you’ve probably been shortening your life span just by using it as much as you have.

You’ve been in contact with Warrick who has been giving the occasional updates via letters on what’s been going on in Evigrus since your absence and the general reports are always fairly boring. The only thing that has been of major importance is the discovery of Dokkrus. Warrick says he’s already sent Eyes there to spy on things as you requested, but not to engage yet.

Quite honestly, sometimes you question if you’re even going to survive this campaign and even if you do win, how many years do you really have left anymore? You need to speed this up if you intend on invading Dokkrus and reaching Mortos.

You dismiss Flevas and Snikez’ka and tell them you’ll be fine defending Fort Canopy by yourself and that they should focus on Fort Tangle’s defenses and with any luck the airships will take out the dragon.

Days pass and you and your troops prepare for the inevitable assault, which comes in excessive force just as predicted. Perhaps even a little more.

You look over the battlements and see several Iznacs climbing the walls of the fort like an army of ants. They aren’t even using ladders, they’re just scaling the fort with their bare hands. It’s actually rather impressive, until you unleash a chain of lightning to zap all of them. The shock is enough to at least cause most of them to fall off if not outright kill them immediately.

Your people are doing their best though they can’t stop every Iznac from scaling the fort. Soon the gunfire is replaced by sounds of close combat weaponry. No matter how far the advances in technology, it always eventually comes down to looking your opponent in the eye and feeling their blood splatter as you end their life.

While you’re busy hacking off the limbs of an Iznac warrior, another loud explosion in the distance is heard followed by a bright flash in the sky. It’s the destruction of your last airship from the dragon. Flaming wreckage crashes down in the distance. Won’t be long before the dragon turns its attention towards one of the forts.

Iznac, glip and orcs all attack the fort and while it’s a brutal affair, your Eternals are holding their own in the face of overwhelming odds.

You then hear a roaring sound getting closer and the sounds of great wings approaching.

You shout a general command for the still working cannons to be pointed towards the dragon and to prepare to fire when the beast is in range. In the meantime you try to keep that side of the fort relatively free of invading forces.

The dragon gets closer and you give the order to fire and unleash your own magic bolts at the creature. It’s definitely wounded from its ordeal with the airships, but given your experience with the other two dragons, you know it’s far from being out the fight.

In fact it’s so determined that it doesn’t distinguish friend from foe when it blasts its flame breath on the fort. You manage to protect most of your people with a magic barrier, but for those outside its protection, most are set on fire if not incinerated immediately. On the positive side, it reduces your enemies, on the negative it ignites the gunpowder barrels for the cannons causing a massive explosion and completely destroying one side of the fort.

While the barrier still protects you and everyone within initially, it’s still a lot of strain on your energy and you begin to feel the fatigue setting in. and you can’t hold out any longer…

Your strength falters and the barrier goes down and the flames envelop you and several of your troops.

In the last moments of your flesh melting off your bones you only regret that this fort will fall.


Year 54

Nakol’s existence as a nation is coming to an end. You’ve seized most of its territory. Its armies have practically been wiped out, and you’ve even eliminated most of Mortimer’s allies.

The only major objective that’s left is Dequilet, the capital and currently the only thing saving it is a large magical barrier completely surrounding the city. So far it’s proven impenetrable to conventional means, which means you’re going to have to resort to magical ones, which unfortunately despite your own best efforts you’ve failed to bring it down, though you feel as if you’ve gotten close.

You doubt if Mortimer is doing it himself, you imagine that Semra is probably helping him upkeep the barrier. He might even have a couple of satyr mages still left, though you doubt it. In any case, he’s got help and you’re probably going to have to resort to a bit of help as well if you want to bring the barrier down.

“Galen’s a given, as are the Eye mages, but I’m going to have to take mages off overseeing the Eternal tanks for this project as well. Don’t want to, but it’ll be necessary.” You say while explaining the next course of action in your command tent to Decena.
“We’re going to have to wait for those mages to come here, that’s at least a few days. I hate this sitting around, is it truly the only way?” Decena asks.
“Unfortunately. Last time I tried to bring it down, I nearly fell unconscious. With enough magic energy though I’m certain it can be brought down, as soon as it is, I want you and rest to blow apart those walls and rush in as quick as you can. Don’t worry I won’t be far behind no matter how woozy I feel afterwards.”

Just as Decena is about to acknowledge your plan, that old familiar voice is heard.

“You know none of that is necessary if you listen to my plan.” Semra remarks.

The instant Decena sees Semra she raises her voice and attempts to attack her, though you hold her back from doing so.

“Don’t bother Decena, she’s not really there. It’s an illusionary image. Right on time too. You’re starting to get predictable Semra.” You say.
“Semra? Is this that svelk bitch you’ve told me about?” Decena asks.
“Oh so he did talk about me to you. I’m not surprised. Never could get me completely out of his mind…”
“Fuck you svelk! He told me about all the hell you put him through!”

Semra does her usual gleeful smile at Decena’s anger.

“My, she IS the aggressively territorial one. Isn’t she? Almost sad that her feelings for you are so strong when your own for her are…limited. Trust me dear, he can’t ever love you back. How could he? You’re not even young looking anymore…”

At this point you have to restrain Decena again.

“Decena, don’t pay attention to her. She’s just enjoying making you miserable. It’s what she does. Semra, what the hell do you want? Shouldn’t you be making plans to escape or something?”
“Who said I wasn’t? But right now I’m actually here for you. Need your help in killing Mortimer, well what’s left of him anyway. It’s getting harder to figure out when he’s completely all there or not. Zelvix is starting to gain mental control over him due to his shattered confidence and willpower. This war has been very stressful on him as you might expect.”

Decena asks what she’s talking about and you quickly mention about the supposed demon army that will be unleashed when Mortimer dies, though with the way Semra’s telling it, it sounds like this Zelvix is already getting loose…assuming she’s telling the truth.

“Semra, didn’t YOU claim that it would take you about a decade to properly banish this demon?” you ask.
“Well with you rushing head long into attacking Nakol, I had to step up my research now didn’t I? Don’t worry though, as I said, I’ve got it figured out, just need your help in doing so. Remember how we linked our energy together when we were extinguishing all those little gnome souls? Well we need to do something like that again, but this is going to require a slightly deeper connection. Namely we’d have to link our very minds together so as to make the magical connection strong enough to face the demon.”

“Here we go…” You think.

“You can’t seriously trust this woman!” Decena shouts.
“He most certainly should trust me considering how many times I’ve warned him about shit and indirectly AND directly saved his life. After all if he’d trusted me all those years ago, he might’ve saved himself a lot of bother on a certain island. Y’know you still have never told me how you exactly came out of Mortos relatively unscathed. Perhaps you can after we take care of this mess?” Semra remarks.

You don’t answer immediately. You’ve been put in this position several times before and it’s the same old thing. Semra tells you something, you distrust her, you usually follow her advice against your better judgment and while things don’t necessarily go entirely your way, you can never deny that had you not acted things would be much worse.

But on the other hand… it’s the same old thing. You know she’s not telling you the whole truth and something about this demon situation seems even more suspicious especially since she’s actually encouraging a linking of your minds. Even if she’s telling the entire truth about the demon and this being the only way she feels is the way to defeat it, would it really be a victory if Semra had magical access to your mind? Who the hell knows what she might be able to do.

“All of this is pointless anyway, we can’t get in unless that barrier goes down.” You say.
“Oh that thing? I can make a small opening in it for a small period of time. Of course when I do so, Mortimer will probably instantly know I’m working against him and it’s possible he’ll completely lose himself to Zelvix, but we should have enough time to do what we have to do.” Semra remarks.
“Or I could just wait for my mages to help me bring the barrier down. Then when I do get that barrier down, I assault the city with so much firepower that nothing of this world or another is going to survive it. I don’t care how powerful this demon is.” You say.

“Optimistic that you believe that, but I tell you sincerely that won’t be enough to stop Zelvix. He’s in a weakened state now due to his long imprisonment, but as soon as Mortimer’s dead, it won’t take him long to regain his full strength and when that happens, count on several magical gates opening up. Now MAYBE you’ll be able to even repel the demons that will undoubtedly come screaming out of said gates, but quite frankly, YOU are not the young Eternal you used to be and your odds will not be good. And your Empire’s odds if you should fall in battle? Even worse. You already survived one trip that you very well shouldn’t have…actually you’ve survived many things you probably shouldn’t have, but those days are becoming more unlikely as you approach your twilight years. I understand that you’d rather die a warrior’s death, however I doubt very seriously that you wish to die a fool’s death. It is one thing to die in a battle that has been properly planned. It’s entirely another when you die because you purposely ignore all your information and don’t take advantage of the tools and resources that allow you to win efficiently. I’M giving you this chance to win this war now in the most efficient way possible.”

You continue to listen.

“We’ve been in this all too familiar position before Eternal. Why take the chance of making the same mistake twice?” Semra asks.

Decena looks at you as you seriously begin to consider Semra’s offer.

“Emperor?” she asks.
> You carry out your original plan
Semra’s agendas have never always been completely clear with you, but you’re sure that whenever it is that you do listen to her, it somehow advances them to an end that will ultimately be no good for you in the long run.

This is one of those times where she’s going to have fall back to her plan “b” because you’re not helping her in this instance.

“Sorry Semra, I’m going with my own agenda this time. And you’re seriously underestimating my abilities if this so called demon invasion does take place. True, I might not be young anymore, but I guarantee I’ll be able to handle whatever is going to come next after we destroy Dequilet which is probably nothing anyway.”
“Then you’re a damn fool. A stubborn old fool who just doesn’t want to look weak in front of his devoted…” Semra starts to say, but Decena suddenly cuts her off.
“Shut the fuck up, svelk cunt! You’ve spun enough of your bullshit lies today! You got your fucking answer from the Emperor, now scuttle back to whatever fucking hole you’ll hide in before I hunt you down and I slice that venomous tongue out and shove it up your ass!”

Semra merely smirks at Decena’s threat.

“And you used to kiss him with that mouth? Okay, I can see my efforts are going to wasted here. I hoped for a different way, but perhaps this will still work out. Goodbye Eternal, I don’t think we’ll meet again.”
“You said that before.” You answer.
“So I did…well perhaps you’ll surprise me again. You always did have that special way about you.”

With those final words, Semra’s image disappears and you can get back to your original plan. Decena is certainly happier about the situation. You execute the order to have mages sent here to help bring down the barrier. You can imagine how upset Galen will be when he’s been taken away from whatever less dangerous task he’s doing at the moment.

In a few days, your mages arrive and you all focus to bring the barrier down. You tell your army as soon as it’s down, to bombard with every catapult, cannon, lightning gun, ballista, and trebuchet they’ve got and the airships nearby have the same orders to open fire.

When everyone is in place you begin the spell to break down the barrier. It’s similar to the time you were focusing on casting the continual firestorm on the dryad forest, but this is actually taking even more focus and energy. It’s apparent that Mortimer or possibly the demon inside him doesn’t want you getting in.

At some point during the spell, Galen flips out and starts babbling about hearing a voice inside his head. It’s enough to cause a temporary break in focus and you try to calm him down, but he exclaims that bringing the barrier down is going to unleash something worse. You have no patience for this and he begins to worry the other mages. You blast him with a lightning bolt while he’s in mid-babble and have his body removed from your sight.

“Now then, I want the rest of you to FOCUS! That so-called sorcerer in there is just playing mind tricks in order to save his worthless hide! Whatever voice any of you may hear is just a mere parlor trick and the only voice you should be concerned about is mine and what command it is giving!” you say to the remaining mages.

Going back to the spell there are no more interruptions, but as to be expected a couple of your weaker mages also collapse from the strain of the spell. The barrier however is definitely gone and the bombardment of Dequilet starts immediately.

The utter destruction of Dequilet is loud and full of explosions. You continue to have it bombarded until you’re satisfied that nothing is going to be left alive. Eventually though you do call a stop to it.

“Alright, that will do for now. We’ll let the fires die down a bit and then send in some squads to rummage through the ruins of that place. I’m fairly certain we killed everything, but never hurts to be sure.” You say.
“Hopefully that svelk bitch was in there too.” Decena remarks.
“We could only hope, but my guess is she probably fled when she realized I wasn’t going to help her.”
“I’m glad you didn’t. Are you okay though?”
“Me? Yeah, just need to rest a bit. (Whew) Bringing that barrier took it out of me a little. More than I expected I guess. That needn’t have been the case had Galen not lost his shit. Bah, no matter. The man did nothing but complain anyway.” You remark.

Just as Decena is about to respond, you suddenly feel a change in the air. One brimming with magical energy and a malevolent presence.

A large portal opens up just above the ruins of Dequilet and a red flying creature comes out and then another, and another, and then…

While seemingly hordes of demons are pouring out of this one portal, another portal opens up nearby and then another, and then another and then…

While your army is shocked and scrambling to prepare for this unexpected attack, you just curse silently to yourself.

“Damnit…she was fucking right…AGAIN…” you say.
“Emperor! There are demons everywhere! What are your orders?!” Decena asks in between telling nearby officers to adopt a defensive position.

Your orders are of course to fall back because right now you’re starting to become heavily outnumbered as more and more demons come pouring out of the portals. Unfortunately you’re also starting to become surrounded. It doesn’t help that most of your siege machine ammunition is gone due to your bombardment of Dequilet. The airships are still functioning fortunately, but a good number of flying demons are already making their way to try to solve that situation.

“We’re going to have to fight our way of this mess and regroup at the nearest fortress! In the meantime kill anything red with hooves and horns!” you shout. You really wish you weren’t as tired as you are, but you’re going to have to just fight through it.

A few minutes in and the retreat is definitely looking grim. You got separated from Decena and you have no idea if your other general Flevas is even still alive. Your Eternals are doing their best as always, but the rest of your troops are suffering from a severe drop in morale and mostly screaming in terror desperately trying to get away rather than an organized defensive retreat. You don’t know if it’s due to fighting otherworldly beings and a seemingly endless supply of them, or if its some sort of unnatural fear aura that the demons themselves are causing. Probably a bit of both.

Your kobold troops however are ever resourceful and in the middle of slicing off the head of a demon, a single kobold tugs at your scabbard. You almost kill him thinking him another attacker before he holds up his arms in panic.

“No! No! Emp! Emp! Help! Hole! Over here here! Scape scape!” the kobold says and points to a hole that one of his people have no doubt made.

Escaping through the tunnel would probably be a good idea since its starting to look like the demons are attempting to cut off your path of retreat, but then you are also concerned about Decena’s whereabouts. If your next war is going to be against these otherworldly monsters, you’re going to need all the skilled leaders you can get.
> You go with the kobolds
Decena’s a big girl and can handle herself Chances are she’s already making a path towards the nearest fort. You’re sure she’s fine…well you hope she is.

In any event, you aren’t going to be much good if you don’t survive this assault so you follow the kobold soldier down the hole.

The tunnel as you expect is smaller than the average human size, but you’re able to walk even if you do have to crouch a bit and keep your head down. Several kobolds enter the tunnel after you in an effort to keep the back of you better protected just in case some demons come wandering down.

The kobold who lead you here in the first place continues to runs just a bit ahead of you and repeat directions of where he’s heading next. You have to cast a dark vision spell just so you can see since its pitch black.

You follow the tunnels for a bit and there aren’t even any demon attacks from behind (or ahead for that matter) and you begin to think that this was probably the best idea, but unfortunately events take an unexpected turn.

With the battle still raging above ground, the tunnels do suffer from minor damage as bits of dirt periodically fall from the ceiling of them. It doesn’t get bad until one of your airships which had been destroyed by the demon onslaught comes crashing down right above the tunnels you’re in right now.

You hear a loud crash from above and then a louder rumble as massive amounts of dirt fall around and upon you. The kobolds you’re travelling with yelp in panic and try to get away either by retreating back the way you came or forward to where you’re going. You however can’t move quite as fast in the cramped tunnels and you become buried alive under rock and dirt.

Not even a glorious warriors death, just a convenient burial.


Semra’s agendas have never always been completely clear with you, but you’re sure that whenever it is that you do listen to her, it somehow advances them to an end that will ultimately be no good for you in the long run.

This is one of those times where she’s going to have fall back to her plan “b” because you’re not helping her in this instance.

“Sorry Semra, I’m going with my own agenda this time. And you’re seriously underestimating my abilities if this so called demon invasion does take place. True, I might not be young anymore, but I guarantee I’ll be able to handle whatever is going to come next after we destroy Dequilet which is probably nothing anyway.”
“Then you’re a damn fool. A stubborn old fool who just doesn’t want to look weak in front of his devoted…” Semra starts to say, but Decena suddenly cuts her off.
“Shut the fuck up, svelk cunt! You’ve spun enough of your bullshit lies today! You got your fucking answer from the Emperor, now scuttle back to whatever fucking hole you’ll hide in before I hunt you down and I slice that venomous tongue out and shove it up your ass!”

Semra merely smirks at Decena’s threat.

“And you used to kiss him with that mouth? Okay, I can see my efforts are going to wasted here. I hoped for a different way, but perhaps this will still work out. Goodbye Eternal, I don’t think we’ll meet again.”
“You said that before.” You answer.
“So I did…well perhaps you’ll surprise me again. You always did have that special way about you.”

With those final words, Semra’s image disappears and you can get back to your original plan. Decena is certainly happier about the situation. You execute the order to have mages sent here to help bring down the barrier. You can imagine how upset Galen will be when he’s been taken away from whatever less dangerous task he’s doing at the moment.

In a few days, your mages arrive and you all focus to bring the barrier down. You tell your army as soon as it’s down, to bombard with every catapult, cannon, lightning gun, ballista, and trebuchet they’ve got and the airships nearby have the same orders to open fire.

When everyone is in place you begin the spell to break down the barrier. It’s similar to the time you were focusing on casting the continual firestorm on the dryad forest, but this is actually taking even more focus and energy. It’s apparent that Mortimer or possibly the demon inside him doesn’t want you getting in.

At some point during the spell, Galen flips out and starts babbling about hearing a voice inside his head. It’s enough to cause a temporary break in focus and you try to calm him down, but he exclaims that bringing the barrier down is going to unleash something worse. You have no patience for this and he begins to worry the other mages. You blast him with a lightning bolt while he’s in mid-babble and have his body removed from your sight.

“Now then, I want the rest of you to FOCUS! That so-called sorcerer in there is just playing mind tricks in order to save his worthless hide! Whatever voice any of you may hear is just a mere parlor trick and the only voice you should be concerned about is mine and what command it is giving!” you say to the remaining mages.

Going back to the spell there are no more interruptions, but as to be expected a couple of your weaker mages also collapse from the strain of the spell. The barrier however is definitely gone and the bombardment of Dequilet starts immediately.

The utter destruction of Dequilet is loud and full of explosions. You continue to have it bombarded until you’re satisfied that nothing is going to be left alive. Eventually though you do call a stop to it.

“Alright, that will do for now. We’ll let the fires die down a bit and then send in some squads to rummage through the ruins of that place. I’m fairly certain we killed everything, but never hurts to be sure.” You say.
“Hopefully that svelk bitch was in there too.” Decena remarks.
“We could only hope, but my guess is she probably fled when she realized I wasn’t going to help her.”
“I’m glad you didn’t. Are you okay though?”
“Me? Yeah, just need to rest a bit. (Whew) Bringing that barrier took it out of me a little. More than I expected I guess. That needn’t have been the case had Galen not lost his shit. Bah, no matter. The man did nothing but complain anyway.” You remark.

Just as Decena is about to respond, you suddenly feel a change in the air. One brimming with magical energy and a malevolent presence.

A large portal opens up just above the ruins of Dequilet and a red flying creature comes out and then another, and another, and then…

While seemingly hordes of demons are pouring out of this one portal, another portal opens up nearby and then another, and then another and then…

While your army is shocked and scrambling to prepare for this unexpected attack, you just curse silently to yourself.

“Damnit…she was fucking right…AGAIN…” you say.
“Emperor! There are demons everywhere! What are your orders?!” Decena asks in between telling nearby officers to adopt a defensive position.

Your orders are of course to fall back because right now you’re starting to become heavily outnumbered as more and more demons come pouring out of the portals. Unfortunately you’re also starting to become surrounded. It doesn’t help that most of your siege machine ammunition is gone due to your bombardment of Dequilet. The airships are still functioning fortunately, but a good number of flying demons are already making their way to try to solve that situation.

“We’re going to have to fight our way of this mess and regroup at the nearest fortress! In the meantime kill anything red with hooves and horns!” you shout. You really wish you weren’t as tired as you are, but you’re going to have to just fight through it.

A few minutes in and the retreat is definitely looking grim. You got separated from Decena and you have no idea if your other general Flevas is even still alive. Your Eternals are doing their best as always, but the rest of your troops are suffering from a severe drop in morale and mostly screaming in terror desperately trying to get away rather than an organized defensive retreat. You don’t know if it’s due to fighting otherworldly beings and a seemingly endless supply of them, or if its some sort of unnatural fear aura that the demons themselves are causing. Probably a bit of both.

Your kobold troops however are ever resourceful and in the middle of slicing off the head of a demon, a single kobold tugs at your scabbard. You almost kill him thinking him another attacker before he holds up his arms in panic.

“No! No! Emp! Emp! Help! Hole! Over here here! Scape scape!” the kobold says and points to a hole that one of his people have no doubt made.

Escaping through the tunnel would probably be a good idea since its starting to look like the demons are attempting to cut off your path of retreat, but then you are also concerned about Decena’s whereabouts. If your next war is going to be against these otherworldly monsters, you’re going to need all the skilled leaders you can get.
> You seek out Decena
You’re not leaving Decena behind. In fact with the way things are looking, you’re not even sure you’re going to be able to escape anyway. The demons have already started cutting off your escape paths and getting stuck in a cramped tunnel is going to make you a perfect target if they wander down there. Hell they might just try to collapse the tunnel on you from above.

If this is going to be the day you die, better that it be in battle than buried alive.

You tell the kobolds to escape on their own if they wish, but you need to stay and at least see if Decena’s still alive. The kobold tries to convince you to leave again, but sees that you are unconvinced, so he wishes you luck and runs off.

“Pfft. Scaly little bastard could’ve at least offered to stay.” You mumble, and start your search for Decena admist all this chaos.

While you’re starting to search several explosions from above catch your attention. It’s your airships. They’ve finally been overrun and destroyed to the point where flaming wreckage will be hitting the ground at any moment. You hastily move to a point where you’ll at least be far enough away from the next explosion when they land.

You cut and zap your way through more demons and then you hear the voice you were hoping for.

“EMPEROR! Over here!” Decena shouts and you see her with several eternals and Flevas trying to hold their ground surrounded by a growing pile of demon bodies. You run over to help with a cone of cold freezing several demons in place. Decena and the rest follow up by smashing their frozen bodies and giving all of you a temporary breather in the middle of the battle.

“I’m so glad to see you!” Decena exclaims. “But why haven’t you escaped?! These portals are just continually spitting out more demons! You were right, we have to fall back!”
“Because I was thinking about it and I was wrong. What we need to do is go chop off that demon lord’s head Zelvix, or whatever the hell Semra called him. Because the sooner we end him, the sooner this invasion ends.” You say.
“Demon lord? Wait? Is that what caused this? I didn’t know anything about a demon lord.” Flevas says.
“Well you do now and if you’re lucky enough you’ll get to be involved in killing him as well.” You say.
“I don’t think I have much of a choice at this point given that the demons have surrounded us from escape. So where is he?” Flevas asks.
“My guess is somewhere within the ruins of the city, let’s get going now!”

You, Decena, Flevas and only four of the new Eternals make your way towards the ruins of Dequilet. Surprisingly the demon count is a lot lower the closer you, but then that’s probably because most of them are focused on slaughtering your retreating army and rampaging across the countryside. Not much fun to be had in a city where everyone is already dead.

The flames, rubble and wandering demons all make your search more lively, but eventually you find what you believe to be Zelvix. He looks like the typical demon from all the stories you’ve ever heard and indeed probably most have heard. Great big wings, cloven hooves, furry lower half, muscular upper body, redish skin tone and two large horns on his head. He’s the biggest thing in the city and he’s certainly bigger than any of those minotaurs or chimeras you fought during the Tor War.

When you make your noisy arrival by killing his immediate underlings, he still doesn’t move from his position, which seems to be one of concentration. Only when you cast several ice bolts at him does he move. He raises his hand and absorbs the bolts and turns his attention to you.

“And now you’ve gone and broke my concentration. Do you realize that keeping these portals open to my home isn’t as easy as I make it look? (Sigh) No matter, so I imagine you must be the Eternal that Semra has mentioned in the past…hrm I thought you’d be taller. I hardly see how she expected you to defeat me.”
“I’m not here because of Semra and honestly I don’t give a shit what sort of dispute you and her had. I’m here on my own to kill you, because NOBODY threatens my Empire!” you say and advance upon Zelvix who doesn’t move from his spot, he doesn’t even react.

“Ah how I love mortal arrogance. Really I could use someone like you on my side, why not join me? Why not all of you join me?” Zelvix’s deep voice exclaims which seems to penetrate your mind. The presence is strong. Stronger than you were expecting really. It’s even worse than the time you had to listen to hundreds of gnome souls all at once.

And you aren’t the only one, a quick glance to your left and right shows that your companions have stopped in their tracks as well and are holding on to their heads trying to fight Zelvix’s mental attack.

The deep voice of “Join me.” continues to echo throughout your own mind and despite your best efforts you can’t block it out.

And that when you feel an arrow go into your side. You barely manage to block the second one with a force shield. Flevas is gone, he’s given in completely and he’s not the only one. Two of the Eternals have turned and already killed one of their siblings. The last one is one the ground screaming for Zelvix’s voice to get out of his head.

Flevas attacks you again with his bow, but you manage to keep up your protection. You return fire with a blast of magical energy. Flevas stands no chance against it and falls dead. It’s enough to make you collapse though. The combination of your expended energy, your wounds and Zelvix’s mental assault is becoming overwhelming.

“Why are you fighting me Eternal? If you just join me, you can expand your Empire to the entire world! All I require is a tribute. Why, we could even track down Semra together and have our way with her. Doesn’t that sound fun Eternal? Wouldn’t you like that? Just JOIN ME…”

The tone, the voice is so convincing…part of you just wants to give in…

You feel a blade go into the upper left side of your back. One of the Eternals has attacked you while you’re struggling to retain your mind. The second one would probably land the killing blow, but you’re saved by someone who loves you so much that turning against you is completely unthinkable to her.

“NO!” Decena yells and cuts down both of the Eternals attacking you. The third Eternal who had finally succumbed to the mind control makes a half hearted attack, but Decena takes care of him as well.

“Now this one shows promise!” Zelvix says and suddenly more demon reinforcements arrive to defend their master.

Decena holds her own against the demons that attack her, though some of them attack you instead, believing that you’re an easier target. While it’s true you’re in a more weakened state, you’re far from being an easy target.

“Tch. Tch. Can’t having you help her, wouldn’t be fair now would it?” you hear Zelvix say and see the big demon lord standing over you. You feel a smashing blow to your face by his fist, which sends you falling back to the ground. The inside of your face feels like every bone in it has been broken and the exterior feels like its on fire.

Spitting out a few bloody teeth, you cast an enchantment on your weapon and try to strike at Zelvix’s leg, but he dodges and manages to step on your sword breaking it with his cloven hoof.

“That was pathetic, did you really think…”

Zelvix’s taunt is interrupted by the fact that he wasn’t paying attention to the attack that you were really planning. A stream of lightning hits Zelvix in the chest and you don’t let up even though you’re feeling the effects of such a strong spell at this close range.

Zelvix roars in pain and the spell has definitely had an effect, but Zelvix is made of stronger stuff and bulls his way through and kicks you in the body breaking several ribs and causing you to fly into a nearby pile of rubble. You smack your head against several jagged rocks adding an open head wound to your list of injuries.

Zelvix attempts to finish you off by breathing fire at you, but you still have enough energy to block it with a force shield. You don’t think you can keep it up, but fortunately you don’t have to when Decena steps in and runs one sword into Zelvix’s back and cuts through one of his wings with another one. Zelvix feels the damage but it still isn’t enough to stop this monster. He swings around and backhands Decena to the ground. He then picks her up and smashes her entire body several times to the ground again. Her body battered, she hangs limply as he picks her up by one arm.

“Bitch! You think your pathetic love for this fool will save either one of you?! I’ve destroyed greater beings with less effort! You both should’ve joined me when you had the chance, but that time has passed. Time to die! Who wants to watch first?”

Zelvix is definitely more powerful than either one of you, but his weakness is he talks way too much. While he’s pontificating on who to kill first, you summon all the energy you have and cast a concentrated frost ray at Zelvix’s feet. It’s enough to startle the demon and drop Decena.

“Still wanting to play eh? Fine, you’re first then!” Zelvix says and throws a fireball at you. You’re hit full force and the flames engulf you, but you refuse to die. You flesh burns, but you’re expending so much energy into your frost beam, that your body is actually growing colder and forms frost, which is enough to keep you from burning to death.

Meanwhile Zelvix realizes his own body isn’t just being encased in ice, its actually starting to become ice.

“DECENA ATTACK HIS LEGS! NOW!”

You didn’t even need to give the word though, Decena was already on it. Seizing the biggest rock she could grab and wield effectively. She smashes it into one of Zelvix’s legs causing it to shatter. An unearthly wail eminates from the demon lord as he falls to the ground, which in turn snaps off his other leg.

With Zelvix on the ground, you continue your freezing assault on him, only this time his position allows you to aim straight for his face. You see your hands going blue and starting to age. You’re not going to survive this, but someone else needs to because someone else has to lead the Empire…

Zelvix desperately tries to crawl in an attempt to reach you, but eventually he’s frozen to a point where he’s barely moving at all.

“Decena…finish…it…” you say and you at last run out of energy of any and all kind. You collapse backwards and begin to drift in and out of consciousness.

You don’t see it, but Decena does indeed manage to take advantage of the situation and smashes Zelvix’s frozen head into several pieces. The demon lord’s body convulses and tries to move (and even attack) but death is certain.

With Zelvix dead, it seems like the portals have closed as well as there haven’t been anymore demons attacking you or Decena, though it can safely be guessed that the ones that are already scattered and causing havok will still need to be dealt with.

Decena comes over to your dying body and holds you in her arms. You can imagine how cold you must feel to her, but it’s not going to deter Decena.

“Did…did we win?” you ask.
“Yes…we won my Emperor.” Decena says.
“Good…good…(wheeze) but you’re the Emperor now…”
“Emperor don’t…”
“It’s done. I’m not making this one…(wheeze) just be a strong ruler. The ruler…I always knew you could be. I’m so proud…of you…”

Decena at this point doesn’t answer. She’s desperately trying not to cry. Maybe it’s a little late, but in these final moments you realize that you could’ve probably had a real relationship with Decena. She proved that she was more than a worthy mate for you. She had long since grown from being just your student with a crush. She is a true warrior and will be a worthy successor.

“Decena…I…love you...” you whisper to her as your final words.

As your vision goes dark you sense a brief kiss on your lips, which is the last bit of warmth you ever feel.

And then you feel nothing at all.