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[Hazael]

He doesn't yet. 

[Hazael]

(cont'd)
“Don’t sweat it,” I said, which was an understatement. Rubin looked like he could fill a bucket with all the water he was sweating out.
The fighting had ceased. Our men had emerged from the fight barely scathed. Auzza was the only one who had any cuts or blisters other than Leon, who had a large bump on his head courtesy of his brother, Hale, and that had occurred before the fight had even started.
I grinned, seeing everyone up and ready.
“Alright!” I said. “Any survivors?”
No one said anything. They were all busy eyeing the armor and spoils.
 “Alright, then.” I said. “Take what you need. We’re going ghost-hunting”

Now, when I said “Ghost Hunting,” I literally meant it. There was one haunting Anderhall. Some unlucky people who’d journeyed to The Glowing Night Tavern had never come back. Several sehirian officers had also led their soldiers into the mansion, and none of them had been heard of since. The sehirian general in Anderhall was tired of the haunting, so he arrested several citizens and blamed the loss on them. The citizens agreed to lead the sehirian general, Mavik Olikombachi, to the place where the soldiers had disappeared. Mavik organized a large group of people and went to the mansion. The citizens he’d captured were the only ones to survive. They fled back to Anderhall and told tales of scratching on the walls and zombies coming out of the ground and ghosts moaning in the silences that followed.
So we did the only natural thing. We went to the mansion.

When we arrived, the place was quiet and eerie; much more silent than before. I actually felt like something bad was going to happen, as dark clouds had covered the sun and made it seem like the death of night. There were several footprints in the dark charred ground. A sword lay among the grass. I saw several signs of battle, but nothing would prepare me for what I was about to face.
They came silently at first. I heard moans in the wind. My companions froze. We gathered at the doorstep of the mansion, our swords drawn. The moans ceased.
“After you,” Kyle said with a grin. He seemed to be the only one unaffected by this.
“Kyle, shuttup.”
I stepped inside. The mansion was much the same as before. The walls were as dusty as they had been. The overwatch was as eerie as it was before. The rug was as ripped as it had been. But there was something that wasn’t there before.
It was a dead body, mutilated beyond reorganization. The head had been torn off and ripped apart, its remains scattered around the room. The smell of rotted flesh hit my nostrils, and I coughed silently.
The dampness of this mansion was amazing. The air was so humid it was too hard to breath, and the smell of dead flesh was everywhere.
I felt a chill as I stepped into the room. My companions filed in, taking up positions around the center. I felt like we’d made a bad mistake. Strange how the whole house is still standing, I thought. Even after Orrin had set it on fire…
Then, it hit me. We’d walked right into some kind of magical trap.
“EVERYBODY OUT!” I barked. “NOW!”
But it was too late. Suddenly, I heard a host of wails, as if the whole house was alive. Then I realized that it was. We’d been tricked. It had been some kind of mirage. The whole mansion was suddenly alive. Dead bodies were dropping from the ceiling all of a sudden. The walls crumbled into undead skeletons and spiders.
“NO!” I bellowed, much too late. The ceiling of skeletons and zombies was collapsing on top of us. In a few more seconds, we’d be buried underneath the undead.
“Outside!” Rubin yelled. I ran through the door. Glancing back, I saw the others doing so too, hordes of undead following them.
The house was gone. In its place was a hole in the ground, undead of all kinds crawling out. It was the nest. The nest which Orrin had slaughtered had become a living nightmare of undead. And, in the center of it, was…
“I AM MORIAH HEMMINGWAY!” Bellowed the necromancer; a tall, dark, thin shape against the glare of the inferno raging below. “CONQUERER OF WORLDS! PREPARE TO MEET YOUR DOOM!”
“Yeah,” I muttered. “Nice to meet you too.”
“We’ve got to kill him!” Rubin yelled. “The life forces of all of the creatures are centered on him!”
“Got it,” I said. “Rubin, distract the undead while I deal with Mister Hemming over here.”
The undead were advancing fast. However, they had the brains of animals. Rubin’s adequate swordsmanship easily bested them all, and rendered a few of them into hacked limbs and decapitated heads within seconds. But there were still too many.
I had, however, a close shot at Hemmingway, who was busy displaying his grandeur to the heavens. And, this time, I’d packed a throwing knife. I didn’t think twice before throwing it at his neck, decapitating him instantly.
The undead instantly withered. Within the fraction of a second, we found ourselves facing each other, unscathed, and the remains of a spider nest, probably housing much treasure and spoils waiting for us.
The clouds, for some reason, had also cleared away, bathing us in sunlight and making the whole day seem suddenly less gloomy.

[Loud Whispers]

I'm put off by the large walls of text... But it is a great read nonetheless. CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!!!

[Hazael]

(cont'd)
“No,” I said. “I don’t think this is what he meant by ‘temple ruins.’”
For once in my lifetime, I was right. This massive abandoned palace could in no way be a simple temple ruin. This thing must’ve been over a hundred years old, and yet it still maintained that majestic palace-of-gold look. Trees and bushes were growing all over it, and moss and vines clung to the edges of the great stone walls and pillars. In the center of the “ruin” stood a stone plate; an altar to the deity Inira Lirina, the goddess of wealth and fire. And we were sent here to capture Ecen Cadopuji, a rogue escaped convict who the sehirians were chasing, as she’d always been foiling their plans. Her head was worth already much. From the wanted posters, she was a rather tall, skinny creature with unkempt, raggedy long brown hair and an ambitious and mischievous look in her eyes. She was the type who didn’t care with her looks, and yet managed to look attractive.
Now, personally, I wanted to go after the goddess Inira, because they say that she grants a wish to whoever can detain her for a set amount of time. I was sure I could think of something to keep her, but Orrin would never allow it. So I, of course, agreed with Rubin and decided to go after the smaller fish.
Of course, things weren’t that simple. With goddesses, things never are. We never did meet Ecen. Instead, we met what any mortal foolish enough to enter the realm of the gods would expect to meet.
We’d reached the temple ruins. The sun was still high in the sky, so my plans of a night ambush were smashed underfoot. But we could still improvise.
“Alright gang,” Rubin said. “Here’s what we’re going to do...”
Even after losing his right eye, Rubin held out well as a leader; just as Orrin would’ve done. If anything, his leading and combat abilities increased by a bit. I had a feeling it had to do with the loss of his eye. Excuse me for stating the obvious. It had everything to do with his eye.
See, Rubin’s right eye is his dominant eye. Losing his dominant eye meant having significantly less body to maintain. It meant his other abilities, such as hearing and smelling, increased at least two-fold.
It meant that I was going to have trouble wrestling with him.
When Rubin was done explaining the plan, I headed to my designation. Our plan was simple: the twins would guard the Northern Gate, Auzza and Ussef would tackle the Southern Gate, Rubin and I would go inside the temple to fish Ecen out, and Kyle would just wander aimlessly.
I entered through the Southern Gate. The inner palace was amazingly grand. An entire platform of slated rock with engravings and golden decorations covered the ground of the entrance. The gate itself was a simple iron gate decorated with silver and gold striped objects. Upon further investigation I confirmed that these were fire bolts.
The courtyard was built behind the Southern Entrance. There were quite a few trees and stone tables and benches. There was a small opening to the inner temple. A large grassy field separated the gate from the small opening. I was careful to avoid any potential traps. Luckily, my observations were completely unnecessary and I emerged unscathed.
The opening led to a walkway behind a stage, with a wall of decorations and paintings on iron stands to hide me from whatever was in the center of the room. As for the center, I saw that there was one large stone plate, and I realized that it was identical to the stone one I saw outside the temple. This one must’ve been dedicated to a twin goddess or someone. I didn’t know, but I did know that there was someone else in the room.
A dark figure was seated right next to the altar. I stood up, checking for traps or potential hazards. Realizing that there were none, I stepped towards the center of the room.
“Alright-y, Ecen-was that what it was?” I asked. I could never pronounce names correctly.
But the figure turned to me, so that I could see her face.
“Not Ecen,” The goddess grinned. “But you’re close.”
I was stunned. I knew she was a goddess; the marks on her diadem matched those on the altar. But her eyes were too mischievous and not serious enough. I had trouble believing.
“Hmm,” I said. “Who are you, then?”
“I’m Adrianna!” she said with a giggle. “Goddess of Laughter!”
I should’ve known.
I was about to say something when another girl entered the room. This one was obviously the elder of the two. She had the sparked marks of Inira, the goddess of fire.
“Adrianna!” she yelled. “What are you doing?”
Adrianna giggled again. “Oh, hi, sis!”
“Stupid! Hurry up and finish cleaning your stupid room!” Inira said exasperatedly.
“Room?” I managed.
Adrianna rolled her eyes at me. “Oh, Inira’s just being a control freak. But, yeah, every few years or so we clean this place up.”
“Problem is, you’re always too lazy to get up and help me clean!” Inira complained. “I always do everything by myself.”
“You need to calm yourself down.”
“You need to help me clean!”
Adrianna stuck out her tongue at Inira.
I was laughing. I mean, serious irony going on here. Two goddesses arguing over cleaning chores? You’ve gotta be kidding me, right?
“Adrianna, you’re so childish,” Inira chided. “You need to grow up someday.”
“Says you, miss over-achiever.”
“Ugh, you’re barely doing anything at all! Last summer you told me you’d get the cleaning done! And then, near the end of it, I found you sleeping in daisies and the temple as dusty as before!”
“I was a bit distracted.”
I cleared my throat. “Well, why don’t you leave the cleaning to me?” I offered. “I could get this place less dusty; I’m sure.”
“How very kind of you,” Inira said, still glaring at Adrianna, who was smiling sweetly at me. “But I’m sorry. I can’t let you deprave yourself this way. The five-year-old needs to take her own medicine.”
“No, no really! I said with a laugh, as I saw Inira reach over and grab Adrianna in a chokehold. “I can take it! Really!”
“Well…” Inira’s eyes flickered over to me, hesitantly. “Maybe…”
“I’ll give you a flower and three kisses!” Adrianna giggled.
“Shuttup!”
“No, no, I’ll do it for nothing!” I said with another nervous laugh. “I’m serious!”
“You don’t know what you’re missing…” Adrianna laughed. “Three kisses on the lips-”
“Shut-UP!” Inira growled.
“Actually, I’d prefer it if you both stopped fighting…” I said, not believing what I’d just said.
“Alright,” Inira said. “If you can clean the entire temple, you’ll have my gratitude.”
“And mine, too!” Adrianna said, still choked under her sister’s arm.
“And you’ll stop fighting?” I ventured.
Inira laughed. “Of course!”
“Alright!” I grinned. “You can count on me!”

Three minutes later, both Adrianna and Inira were staring at me in open-mouthed astonishment. I’d cleaned the entire temple. And, here’s how I did it. You remember those trees and bushes growing on the old stones?
Well, I set them on fire.
That might’ve been a stupid thing to do, because everyone knows that you can’t burn moss while it’s still alive. It would let off a lot of smoke.
But I crafted a makeshift torch and ran around the temple, setting everything on fire. The shape of the temple ruins caused the smoke clouds to flow into one massive spiral, which was so thick that it created a vacuum, sucking out only the lightest objects, like dust, into the air. Soon, the fires had cleared, and the dust clouds were gone.
And now both sisters were staring at me in amazement.
I grinned. “No, no, please, you can thank me later.”
Adrianna rolled her eyes. Inira grinned.
“That was smart! Why didn’t I think of that before?”
“Duh. Because there wasn’t enough air in your head to circulate your thoughts!” Adrianna cracked.
“Shuttup, Adrianna.”
Inira looked back at me. “Thank you for cleaning the temple for us! If you need anything, just give us a call!”
“Oooooo, goody,” Adrianna said. “My phone number is 832-456-1201, and you can reach me at hot&ready243@gmail.com! And my-”
“SHUT-UP!” Inira growled, even though I had absolutely no idea what Adrianna was talking about. “We don’t need you or your services, Adrianna.”
“I wasn’t offering him my services!” Adrianna shouted, suddenly angry. “Why don’t you shuttup?”
“Bite me.”
With that, the two goddesses disappeared in a puff of smoke, leaving me and a glowing torch and a large stone table.

“So,” Rubin said. “How was it?”
They were gathered by the edge of the temple ruins. Everyone was there, even Kyle, anxious to hear my experience with the twin goddesses.
“They fight a lot,” I finally said. “That blondie, Adrianna? I like her-she’s about as annoying as Leon is to Hale.”
Rubin nodded. “Yeah, so I heard. The front of the temple was decorated with graffiti…of many random images like turkeys and oranges and pineapples.”
“Pineapples?” Leon asked with a grin. “Sounds like a party! Did you ask her whether we could come too or not?”
“No, but turkeys?”
“Yep,” Rubin said. “For a goddess, Adrianna has a creative mind.”
“Creative my foot. You haven’t seen what random things can come out of her,” I said. “Anyways, Ecen was not present, unfortunately. And my experience with the two sister deities was much…stranger than I expected.”
Rubin nodded. “Our next stop is the village Mooncleft, about an hour’s walk from here. We should be able to recruit five or six more people there.”

Contrary to Rubin’s estimate, we received four more than expected, and came out with a band of fifteen: Rubin, Kyle, Ussef, Leon, Auzza, Hale, and I; and our new members: Matthias, Philip, Julius, Apollo, Damon, Samuel, Liam, Henry, Logan, and Mason.

[Hazael]

(cont'd)
Contrary to Rubin’s estimate, we received four more than expected, and came out with a band of fifteen: Rubin, Kyle, Ussef, Leon, Auzza, Hale, and I; and our new members: Matthias, Philip, Julius, Apollo, Damon, Samuel, Liam, Henry, Logan, and Mason. Now, I won’t bother getting into description with the newcomers, but let’s just say that they were the type whom you couldn’t help but get along with after meeting them. In short, we got off on the right foot.
So, we headed off to Rytha, a large city located in the same region as Roa was. Only, this time, our purpose was not to actually do something in Rytha. It was to be our relief area, as we were going to travel through dangerous uninhabitable territories to get to Rytha. I’d heard of a band of bandits in the area, as well as signs of goblin tribes. Hopefully they weren’t in any kind of organization yet. I never liked the idea of fighting a whole goblin fortress.
We had to stop in the dark forest. We set up camp in a cave on a mountain, high above the treetops of the forest and facing the fading sun. We were a very noisy group. Some of the men made a campfire near the lip of the cave. It wasn’t actually a cave. There was a tunnel that led from the base of the mountain up to the top, but its opening was located where we could guard both the lip of the cave and watch the tunnel opening at the same time.
Now, it was nearing dark, but we still had about two hours. Of course, we couldn’t risk travelling in the woods during night, as goblins and kobolds roamed the woods. I actually saw a few during the day, who were watching us from a distance. Damon and Samuel helped me chase them away.
I, being the knuckle-head I was, decided to go off adventuring in the woods for a while. Rubin decided I had to be out of my mind, so of course he tagged along. Kyle, Logan, and the twins accompanied us into the dark forest.

“This is stupid,” Rubin muttered. “How did I ever get talked into doing this?”
“Quiet, man,” I whispered sharply. “Or I’ll give you a free decapitation.”
“That’s just ridiculous. You can hardly graze me, what with the experience you have.”
“With your blindness, I don’t see how that’ll be a problem.”
We were travelling on a dirt road, which wasn’t a smart idea at all, unless if you were looking for trouble. But Rubin was worried that we’d be the troublemakers and do something ridiculously stupid, which, if you ask me, was exactly what we were about to do.
The skies were getting darker, and I couldn’t see the sun anymore. Then, looking into the sky, I saw something. In the distance, there was a light; almost like a flare, streaking upwards.
Rubin saw it too. “That can’t be good.”
“Oh, boy,” I said with a grin. “Time to have some real fun.”
I heard a clatter of weapons behind me. Turning around, I saw the twins wrestling; fighting over a bronze sword.
“What are you idiots doing?” Logan growled, his beard quivering as if his tone had frightened it.
“I saw it first!” Leon yelled.
“Shuttup!” Hale grumbled. “I’m the one who-”
The howl of a wolf in the distance silenced us all. I felt the hairs on my neck stand on end. Rubin and Logan drew their swords.
“That can’t be good either,” Logan muttered.
“That was the call of a wolf,” I said, my voice shaking. “But there aren’t any wolves in this region.”
Rubin’s eyes widened. “You mean…”
“This is bad,” Leon mumbled. “This is very bad.”
“Werewolves usually hunt in packs,” Rubin continued. “We need to get to higher ground. We’re prone to ambush here.”
“There’s a large grassy field near the lake down there,” Kyle pointed. Sure enough; there it was. Through the trees I could see the shimmering moonlight reflected off of the waters.
I took in a deep breath. “Then we make it down there, and hold our position until all the werewolves have been scattered away.”
“Too late!” I yelled. “There’s one over there!”
Sure enough, a large dark shape appeared on the road, stepping toward us on its hind feet. The twins brandished their weapons, and Kyle pulled out his daggers. The figure stepped closer to us. I pointed my sword at it.
“Come no further-” I started, but my words died in my throat. Because that was no werewolf standing before me.
It was an elf.

“I don’t believe this,” Henry muttered. “Our leader goes off on a monster hunt. And he’s been gone for three hours! And you guys aren’t panicking at all?”
Auzza grinned. “How nice of you to worry for them. But you should be worried more for the poor creatures that they must be bashing in.”
Matthias nodded. “Yes,” he said, and stood up. “Philip, Julius, Mason, and I will go looking for them. Without a doubt, they must be fighting deep in the woods by now and causing quite a racket. It’ll be easy to locate them.”
Henry stood up. “I’ll go too,” he said. “And I’ll take Liam with us. He’s a good tracker.”
“Have fun, boys,” Damon said with a grin. “Would you like me to write your wills before you go?”
But the six were already heading down the tunnel.

“No, no, this is awful,” I muttered to myself. I’d somehow managed to get myself lost in a dark forest.
When the elves had first appeared, I knew our fate was going to be a bad one. Elves were kind, yes, but they were also very overprotective. And, judging by the amount of campfires we’d left in our wake, they probably weren’t feeling too friendly either. So, I did the natural thing. I ran off into the woods. The others followed me for a while, until I slipped and fell deep into the bushes, and found myself completely separated from the others.
The good news was that I’d gotten to the lake. I could see the fields in the distance, and walked around the lake.
And, now, here I was. Alone, lost, and having much more fun then I’d ever wanted to have.

[Hazael]

(cont'd)
And, now, here I was. Alone, lost, and having much more fun then I’d ever wanted to have.
My eyes blinked as I spotted a red light. I walked slowly towards it. It seemed to be in the center of the grassy plain. As I got nearer, I realized that the red orb was floating all by itself suspended in thin air for some reason. My hands were shivering from the sudden cold. The temperature seemed to drop the closer I got to the mysterious orb.
I reached the orb. It seemed to be a simple light floating in midair. I waved my hand above it. Nothing suspending it. I waved my hands below it. Nothing there either. Then, slowly, I reached for the orb, about to touch it when Adrianna appeared out of nowhere and scared the daylights out of me.
“Adrianna!” I yelled, staggering back in disbelief. “How…?”
She rolled her eyes. “I was getting bored at the temple, waiting for my sister to finish doing whatever she was doing. So I decided to follow you!”
“Adrianna, you scared me,” I said, a bit annoyed.
She smiled. “Why thank you!”
Then, I suddenly remembered something.
“That light in the sky…was it you?”
She shook her head. “No, it wasn’t.”
I blinked. “Then, did you happen to see who it was?” I asked.
She smiled again. “Nope!”
“You’re useless.”
She giggled. “Yep!”
“Then did you see any goblins or anything?”
She smiled. “Yes. About forty of them. You’ve got some traitors in your camp.”
I froze. Traitors? But who….oh no.
Kyle. It was him. I should’ve known. The whole time…after all that “wandering around,” pretending to be just a very curious and childish person. Kyle, who’d disappeared off all those times from our camp. It was him. I knew it. He was probably the one who led the goblins here.
But just to make sure…
“Is it Kyle?” I asked. “Is Kyle the traitor?”
Adrianna shook her head. “Not telling. Unless if…”
But I was already running back to the road.

“Well, would you look at that?” Matthias shouted. “Somebody forgot to pull our supplies up into the cave!”
“Don’t worry,” Philip said. “Julius and I’ll haul these things back into the cave. You guys go on ahead and look for the capt’n.”
“Alright,” Matthias said. “Then, let’s get a move on. Mason! What can you see over there?”
“Nothing yet!” Mason shouted back from the treetops. “Wait! Something’s-”
He never finished his sentence. Because, right then, Henry started to run downhill, towards the forest, shouting, “Treasure! Treasure!”
“Damn him!” Matthias muttered. “Stupid treasure hunter; he’ll get himself killed for sure. Let’s mosey!” Mason and Liam followed after him, as they chased Henry into the forest, who was waving his torch around like it was a glow-stone, leaving Philip and Julius to haul the supplies up into the cave.
“Alright,” Philip said. “Let’s get started.”
Julius nodded, and grabbed one end of the barrel. Together, they started to pull the food upwards. They were halfway down the tunnel when Philip stopped suddenly. He began to lower the barrel.
The two set in carefully on the ground. Julius blinked at Philip. “Is something wrong?” he asked.
Philip nodded. “Blast it! I’ve forgotten the keys to this damned thing! Where are they?”
“Oh, I have them!” Julius said, reaching into his back pocket and pulling out a key ring with the rusted iron keys latched onto it. “Here, take-”
He hardly finished his sentence when Philip drove his dagger deep into Julius’s chest. Julius staggered for a second, before collapsing on the ground, his eyes frozen in shock. The keys clattered on the ground. Philip placed his hand on Julius’s nose, to make sure he was dead, and then spat on him.
“Burn in hell,” he muttered, and turned to set the barrel on fire.

“Henry!” Matthias shouted. “Get back here!”
“I can still see his torch,” Mason muttered. “Looks like he’s slowing down.”
It was true. The torch had stopped waving around. But the group was now deep inside the forest. They could still see the cooking fires of the camp on the mountain, but their surroundings seemed to engulf the small light of their torches. The ground was changing as well; before it was dark brown and covered with leaves and grass and shrubs, and now it was covered with red vines and twigs. The trees also seemed to grow larger and more deformed and seemed to grow into one another to form bizarre contraptions.
The light from Henry’s torch had indeed stopped moving around. The men were reaching closer. Henry was just over the next bend.
They stepped into a clearing. Henry’s torch was there, lying on the ground. But Henry himself had disappeared.
Mason picked up his torch. “That’s odd,” he said. “Where could that little bugger have wandered off to?”
“I have no idea,” Matthias said. “But we’d better-”
“Matthias!” Henry shouted from just behind the bushes. “Come over here! Check this out!”
Mason ran through the bushes first. Liam followed, cutting aside the branches with his sword. Matthias hesitated, but stepped slowly through the bushes and into a large field of…
Dead bodies. At least forty of them. And all goblins, too. Their axes and swords lay scattered around them, shining in the moonlight. And sticking out of each one were arrows, made from pure bronze.
Mason was the first to speak. “But how…?”
Matthias picked up an arrow, and then dropped it suddenly. “Elves!” he shouted. “Elves are in the proximity!”
“I know,” said a voice. Matthias turned, wide-eyed, to face Rubin and the twins and Logan.
“Where’s Kyle?” Matthias asked. “And Jason…?”
“Back at the campsite,” Rubin sighed heavily. “We’ve got a traitor in our midst.”

When I saw Kyle at the campsite, I wanted to strangle him immediately. Luckily, Philip held me back.
“Wait, capt’n!” he shouted. “At least let him explain himself!”
I heard the sound of many footsteps behind me. Turning around, I saw Rubin and the others arrive, their expressions grim.
“Yes, keep him there,” Rubin said. “You’ve got a story to tell us, right Kyle?”
“You aren’t Kyle, are you?” I growled. “Who are you, really?”
Kyle hung his head. He nodded.
“It’s true,” he said. “I’m not Kyle.”
“Then who are you?” Matthias asked.
“I’m Salamandastra, former sehirian general.”
I took a step back. “Y-you can’t be Salamandastra!”
Kyle nodded again, looking up at me. “You said you wanted to hear a story right? Well, here’s mine…”
Kyle:
Centuries ago, one of the first deities was named Orion, the King of The Stars. Orion married Nora, the deity of the night, and, through her, had three daughters: Rosalie, Inira, and Adrianna. Rosalie was the goddess of beauty, and also the eldest of the three. Inira was born second, with a brother named Galen. Galen was the father of Oblivion, one of the Seven Kings of Klymaestra. It was Inira who supplied Galen with the wealth necessary to begat a king. Adrianna was born last, with the gift of happiness. The three symbols for the sisters were, respectively, rain, fire, and lightning.
During the battle of the giants, I was third in command to Zenith, one of the Seven Kings. My name was Plague, and, on the day of the battle, I was slain by Oblivion.
However, my conscience was so powerful that it wandered around the world for a while before disappearing into my body in the planes of Oblivion. There I dwelled for a long time, searching for a way to escape back to the land of the living. But it was very near impossible, even for a deity, to accomplish such a feat.
So I lay low. As the years passed, hell’s bonds weakened. Finally, one day, a portal broke from hell’s surface. I instantly threw myself through it, batting away the numerous demons that tried to stop me. And, then, I found myself in the old abandoned mines of Kruta.
Getting out was a difficult thing. I vaguely remember smashing apart numerous dwarven accessories trying to get to the surface. One of my claws was chipped, and a piece of it broke off and was lodged in a cleft in the rock. Of course, my claws were, at that time, made of pure rubies. So, I imagined they would be less durable then my older claws.
As soon as I saw the light of day, I made a vow to never again serve the forces of evil. I vowed to never again follow Zenith. And then, I stepped onto land.
I noticed a neighboring city, and decided to dwell there for a while. The king was a noble man of fine character, and so I decided to join his army. Of course, my combat skills outmatched those of swordsmen all around. And so, I was promoted to General rather quickly. I took on the name of Salamandastra, since; after all, the salamander was my bestial form.
It was only after the invasion of Klymaestra that I realized too late that the kingdom had been corrupted. The sehirians had become an antagonistic empire. I couldn’t serve any longer. When the kingdom of Aria fell, I offered to help the group of were-goblins who were determined not to let the royal line die out. And, so, Escobar was chosen to adopt you. I did all this in secret, using the information provided by my spies to sneak the refugees of Klymaestra and Aria to safety in the neighboring kingdom of Loradon, which was an elvish empire dedicated to the nature goddess Kien.
It was not long after the conquering of Aria that I resigned as General of the Army. They came to kill me, but I escaped to the little hamlet near Anderhall and settled there. And there is where you found me. Of course; the elves new of my exploits and offered to help me. They’d taken note of a large group of rogue goblins headed to ambush your small band. And, so, I asked them to attack the goblins.

“And that flare we saw in the night sky…” I began.
“Yes,” Kyle nodded. “That was the signal for the attack.”
“But I don’t understand,” Rubin said. “Why do the sehirians want to kill you?”
Kyle grimaced. “Eliameka, the sehirian king I was serving under, was the one who’d ordered the portal to be built. It is truly an ancient secret, but it can be done, as Eliameka figured out a way to do it. However, Eliameka was assassinated in his bedroom, and was succeeded by Hazael, who is now currently king of Sehira.”
“So Hazael thinks that you might talk against him and lead the people in revolt?”
Kyle shook his head. “Hazael wants more than that. He believes that if I can escape from hell, then maybe he can enter it.”
“Wait!” I said. “Then that means…”
“Hazael wants to revive Zenith.” Kyle said. “He wants to learn the secret to becoming one of the megabeasts. He wants to conquer the world.”
“But he won’t be able to.” Rubin cut in. “Zenith’s very arrogant. He won’t stand for being second best. He’ll just kill Hazael and take over the world himself.”
“Make no mistake,” Kyle said. “Hazael’s very powerful. He was the one who sent the necromancer and the goblins after you. He probably knows where we are right now...”
“…because someone betrayed us,” I finished. “Where’s Julius? And Philip?”
“Down here!” We heard a voice call. “They’re down here!”
We hurried down the tunnel, and found Mason standing next to a pile of charred wood and a dead body.
“Julius…” Mason trailed off.
I bent over to look at the body. It was Julius, and he had a dagger sticking out of his chest.
“Where’s Philip?” I growled.
“Gone.” Mason said. “He disappeared into the trees.”
“We’ve gotta go after him!” Matthias shouted. “That traitor; I’ll see his guts twisted out!”
“Hold one!” I said, holding him back. “It’s too dangerous. The night has already fallen. We should get some rest.”

[Hugo_The_Dwarf]

no time to read all updates, I shall RETURN!

[The Master]

(compoundoverkillcornbread aka thechosenone456 aka Hazael has been banned.)