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The Last Exodus - The Full Story.

Bartooliinii

An Alteran Bard
Patron
Retired Staff
Pronouns
He/Him
Slimy_Froggy
Slimy_Froggy
Patron
This 'book' consists of 22 chapters from a much bigger book. I'm currently writing a book about Altera, which is going to be quite long, it has got over 50 pages already, without images. I am planning to publish this book when it is done, but this will probably take me a year or more to finish.

Who is in it?
@Legion as General Legion @Naelwyn as Naelwyn @Michcat as Queen Leminth @Seth_Jenkins as Dwarf King Seth @Ced as ranger Ced @Lemarc as Lemarc @ACU20 as commander of the black Salts @Azur_Deathblade as Audric @Valonyx as General Arcturus @james_power as General Grimar Ironheart @Queen Grief as queen Grief @Cubey as Tavish @MRPolo13 as Nameless @bettemus99 as Katherina / Sarah @jakp25 as Greyling @Man5791 as Barroes @ForestRose as Skye @Warwolf as Kharn Sicarus @MaelstromPuddle as Alphos. (If I forgot someone, please let me know :) )

Now let's get to the point. This thread here is the part from the book describing The End of Days events. It is a draft. So criticism is very welcome, as long as it is constructive. It describes our struggle to survive while constantly fleeing for queen grief, and how we struck back and defeated her. Enjoy ! It will probably take you much less time to read, than for me to write it ! :)

And don't forget to put something up like this:


End of days - Prequel.
Many have assembled, for the Town Criers have screamed. The Exodus is now, the Exodus is NOW! Messengers ran from house to house to tell the news and everyone gathers in the Merry Mead where The Queen speaks to the crowd from above a staircase…

“May these words be repeated, spread… I entrust my scribes to ensure this tale is spread! Let the people of Altera know… The Exodus is upon us! Nay, the FINAL Exodus is here!” All of the sudden, nobody dears to talk anymore, not even a whisper. An utter silence fills the room. “For in these days, we shall fight as never before. This day, we strike against the force of terror… A blow seen not in years before! Yet, those of Altera must be ready… They MUST be STRONG!” The crowd moves impatient on their feet as their hearts beat faster and faster. “For us together, we shall not stop with this strike, nay- Do you hear me people of Altera?!” The crowd cheers and everyone raises their fist in the air. The Queen looks a bit amused “Do you… understand…? The Corruption SHALL be defeated. Prepare! For our enemy will not rest! All those may go to Crown offices, to ensure what they have is not lost. For the Exodus is upon us, and now… we fight… THE FINAL WAR!” The crowd goes wild as they shout and together they chant: “ALL HAIL QUEEN LEMINTH! HAIL QUEEN LEMINTH!” She then smiles ever so faintly and adds “I expect all who heard to be ready… For if the people of Altera are to overcome this challenge, the must be… prepared.” There is a silence… “and we will ensure they are.” She adds as she slings her bow over her shoulder and walks back…

End of days - Book one.
Chapter One.
Waterday, the 13th of Fogwater, 2259. The Season of Harvest… The horns of war resound in the Royal Library of Port Silver. It is a call to arms. Anyone who wants to live, will have to fight. And for our next generations to live, we might have to die. Again the crafters of Altera must face their biggest fears; corruption, grief and death. I lay down my work and stop sorting books. It is time to see what this old Caparii has left of its race’s glorious warrior nature…

No drums sound as I approach the war-camp… No pipes ring out to increase the morale of those who join… Just this deep and lengthy war horn that calls to all that can hear. There is no reason. It is not one fight that will decide the faith of our children, our lands, our homes. No, Alterans have been fighting for weeks now. We are getting tired. The attacks of Queen Grief have never been so relentless in Alteran History. Questions and whispers, “does it never end?”

I hear my hooves tick on the wooden planks that have been laid down to prevent the war-camp becoming too muddy. I walk towards the storage, where I meet Dwarf King Seth. His golden crown proudly on top of his big Dwarven head. He greets me with a smile from underneath his braided beard. Also his hair is decorated with war-braids. His golden armor is engraved with numerous runes in different sizes, forming lines in Horgaahn I cannot understand. I nod to him and grab some chainmail armor from one of the chests. It doesn’t fit… “I could have guessed that they would not have Caparii Armor.” “Oh but we do, especially for you, Rahm.” It is Queen Leminth’s voice. I’ve grown fond of the sound of her voice, charismatic and wise. I look up and see her standing in full war-outfit. A silver war-crown on top of her head with elegant spikes, pointing to the skies. Her silver-white hair perfectly brushed, falling down over her amazingly crafted armor. Who knows who made this for her? A dwarf smith or is it Elven made? She kicks against a chest at her feet. “In here! We don’t want to lose our scribes. I made sure you have some armor.” I raise my eyebrows with a slight grin and walk up to the chest. Upon opening it I see the contents slowly revealed. White as snow is the chainmail that lies within. The chains incredibly tiny and tightly woven. “Treat it well!” She tells me and gives me an encouraging pat on my shoulder before she walks off. Seth walks with her.

I arrive at the first gate, dressed in my white Caparii armor. It molds to the body like a second skin. The Queen has just commanded scouts to explore the area and points to me. I have to go with them. We rush through the grass and before we reach the narrow streets of Port Silver. There stands a man. It is General Arcturus, he limbs towards us, bleeding. “Harlaus… They are coming… from Harlaus!” he manages to say. The Queen is notified and rushes towards him. “There are many portals… They are streaming.. streaming out!” He says to her. Queen Leminth of Arduin kneels and narrows her eyes as she hears him whisper. “Generals.” She looks at General Grimar. “Shall we march to war?” Adrenaline rushes through my body. Another portal, another wave of monsters from the fiery chasms of nether, another victory if fighting by the side of such leaders! Grimar nods. “WE MARCH!” General Arcturus falls to his knees because of the injuries, “Get him to the medical tent! Quickly! We move… To Harlaus!” The Queen shouts…

Chapter Two
Many boats leave from Port Silver, packed with legions of Alterans ready to fight. We approach Harlaus and see the red tentacles of corruption smashing the city to ruins. Even the huge Earthspawn from the Pakgu family drops his jaw at the sight of the huge tentacles above our ships. We hit the shore and rally in formation behind our Queen and general Grimar Ironheart. “Troops! Gather at my bow and Ironhearts blade!” She shouts after which she eyes the lands with distaste. Grimar draws his blade. “Clean the demon hordes from this land!” He shouts and he sprints forward into the city. A detachment of troops by his side. They slay the monsters and zombies which have already infested these lands. Grimar moves as a solid foe towards the zombies, looking over his sword, then kneeling on one knee while he swings the sword above his head and so cuts the zombie in half. We move into the city, fighting what comes on our path, yet there is no sign of a portal. The queen sends out scouts and while the troops hack and slash into the netherspawn, the queen talks to the general. “I don’t like the looks of this…” She says while eyeing the direction in which the scouts have left. “I don’t like the look of any battle, your grace.” “No I-,” The Queen thinks and then says “Did you recognize the Arcturus’ gear? His armor?” The general replies in denial, saying it was not Arcturus’ made… The face of the Queen goes straight. The earth shakes, my hooves slide over the stone as it moves underneath me, I struggle to stay standing. The sound of bricks being smashed together fills the air. Some fall to their knees while others grab anything to support themselves. The queen falls to one knee and then looks up cautiously. “it’s a trap…” She whispers. “That was a portal. Troops! FORM UP BEHIND ME!” The scouts come running back shouting. Barroes, one of the scouts, reaches the queen and speaks. “The portal! We’ve spotted it, it’s dead ahead!” The Greyling scout shouts as well “Straights aheads!” Barroes catches his breath “The City Square, your grace.” His head drops between his shoulders as thunder breaks the skies…

It rains… “Form up in line with the Queenz!” The huge Earthspawn shouts. Everyone obeys his order. It is simple, the archers shoot the monsters from afar and the warriors keep their ground. We strike the hardest blows with a cannon. We stand in front of the portal, ready to fight, yet all we hear is the rain falling on our armor. “Come Grief, Your creatures will die upon my blade like they did thousands of years ago” Lord Axex Hawklight whispers, as if he stood face to face with Queen Grief herself. Nothing happens. Not a single creature comes out of the portal. The men look at each other, not knowing what is going on. Then it happens, another thunder and in the light of the bolt, we see creatures swarm out from the portal, running in all directions. Whither skeletons run right past the arrows of our archers, towering above us and mowing our troops away like a bunch of ants. The Earthspawns are the only ones big enough to face them and bash their skulls from their bodies. More monsters are summoned forth from the pits of Nether, Zombies crawl out, slowly marching towards us while catching a rain of fire. These meat shields served their goal, as now the spiders run from behind them and lunge at our first line of soldiers. They try to hit us with their venomous jaws while Elves and Dwarves stand back to back defending themselves from zombie hordes and offensively drive the monsters back. A loud noise disturbs the battlefield and shoots exploding bombs towards the portal. The Greyling that fired the cannon looks at the bomb coursing towards the portal. It breaks… “I dids it! I saveds us!” The Greyling cheers happily. But Queen Leminth is skeptical. “This was easy… Too easy.” The sound of Queen Grief’s voice we all hear in our minds. “How… Dare all of you… Destroy… My portal!” She screams in our minds, confusing and scattering our ranks. People pray and curse to every god I’ve ever heard of. “Sons of Korog.” “By Kilrox’s toenails.” “We need the luck of Jax.” “And the might of Rahas.” “Theodra keep our bows steady…” When the shock is over, the Queen tells us what to do. “There has to be more than this one portal…” She orders our troops to follow her and to tend to the injured. “I cans eats the injureds?” The Greyling notes. The Dwarf King silences him. “Shur’ up Greylin’!”

On our way back to the boat we run into Alphos. The queen raises her hand slightly “HALT!” She asks him what he is doing here and why he is not at the war camp. “Duke Arcturus… Killed… Smoke.” He then replies. A shock goes through the surrounding crowd that could hear his words. “I was there.” He says. The Queen hesitates and then realizes her presumption was true. It was a trap, a distraction. “Port Silver.. NOW! Everyone MARCH!” “March, Double time!” Grimar Ironheart shouts to the troops. On our way back she explains her presumption. “The man we saw earlier was not General Arcturus. His gear was not Arcturan… It must have been a demon taking the shape of Arcturus. I want you, Rahm, to use those Caparii legs of yours as soon as we hit shore and run to the War Camp as fast as you can. Find Duke Arcturus and bring him to me.” She orders me and so as soon as we hit shore, I run off…

Chapter Three
General Arcturus reacts thunderstruck. He is offended that we want to escort him to the Queen. “I just arrived with reinforcements, I did not kill Smoke. You- OBEY ME!” He arrives at the Queen. “Griffin.” She says. “Did you come stumbling from Port Silver just a moment ago, with odd make armor and a tale of an attack on Harlaus?” She asks to test her theory. “Come stublin- What? I was in our lands of Novus. I just came back with reinforcements.” He goes on, protesting. “The Demons can disguise as us!” The queen now shouts. “General Ironheart?” “The Demon can take our shape?!” He replies. “Spread the news…” She says calmly.

Before midnight, we all know about the demon’s ability. Unrest now spreads through the camp, as some think we cannot longer trust each other or our leaders. This unrest is increased when we hear a distant howl, as if from a terrifying beast. “we’re gonna need ae bigger wall” The Dwarf king states sarcastically… Not long after the howl, a horde of zombies walk towards the wall. The men in front of the walls are trying to hold them off and I come to their aid. The zombies aren’t a mighty foe, but they are with many. The sword that was given to me I swing above my head and cleave a zombie with it. I circle while twirling the sword as well, hacking off limbs as I go. Every man has to face three zombies at least. It feels like we are being overrun. In a moment of brief rest, I look up. The Queen knows she has to do something, I can read it from her face. “we must…” She doubts, it is the strongest Airship Altera has ever known. “We must bring in the Stormbringer.” She then states undoubtedly. General Arcturus looks at her with unbelief. You can tell he’s questioning her reason, to bring in the ship of Kharn Sicarus, but he does not show it to the Queen… More troops come to our aid and we manage to hold the weak rotting walking carcasses off. We return within the wall. Scouts are send out to reveal what is making the terrifying howling noises…

Unrest breaks loose again as the scouts are taking far too long and the howling in the distance continues to grow louder. General Grimar states “Your majesty, I do not like the sound of this.” Yet the Queen remains calm, even with the soulshaking howls from the dark horizon. “We wait for the scouts.” Another eternity goes by waiting. Now Dwarf King Seth questions her. “Are ‘te gates strong ‘nough? ‘ave we gor any explosive defences?” She raises her blade and says. “We wait for the scouts.” The waiting is an agony and Grimar tries it again. “Your majesty, with all due respect. We don’t have the time…” And Arcturus nervously adds a question “When does the Stormbringer arrive?” But the faith that our Queen has in the battle-plan and her scouts is unshaken, solid. “What part of ‘We wait for the scouts’ did y- … Did I stutter or something?!” The Generals now retreat, seemingly respecting her words. They wait. Grimar mutters “By the sound of that it’s coming close.” But Leminth answers surely “We are not going to run in blind…” Grimar refuses and heads out of the gates to meet the scouts on their way back to camp. As Queen Leminth grabs her bow, a soft rain falls on her skin. Refreshing her. Making her think even clearer than before. She eyes the rain and looks through it. Looks in her memory and then she knows…

Queen Leminth of Arduin has read about this before... The Howling in the Distance… Books of Yore mention a fear that could not be named. An enormous monster with a size it could use the entire Royal Palace as a mere chair… She knows what malice this beast can bring and what power it requires to summon it forth from its lava-lit caves of the Nether…

The scouts return, panting. “We barely made it out” Barroes tells the Queen. “Tendrils… everywhere. Portals…” He breathes Heavily. “and?” The Queen asks shortly. Audric, another scout, takes over. “Aaaand that thing!” “Bloody Nether” Barroes adds. “Thing.” Leminth states, skeptical. “Aye.” Audric replies shortly in between his breathes. “Speak quick Barroes.” General Grimar orders him. “Give me sizes.” The Queen adds. Skye, another scout, now continues. “… Nether it… Near the palace… He could probably use the palace as a bath” “By Korigon’s Blade” Dwarf King Seth curses. Leminth’s face goes straight. Very straight. All the muscles in her body seems to tighten while the muscles in her face relax. It is terrifying to see a leader so charismatic, proud and fearless look so stressed. “Where? Exact location.” “By the old Palace, across from it. Across the bridge.” Audric speaks with his last breath and then sits down, panting still. “LET’S MOVE, TROOPS!” The Queen shouts, her voice skips… She runs past Audric and the heavily breathing scouts. “TO THE READY MEN! MARCH!” General Arcturus adds. “MAAAARCH!” Shouts General Grimar Ironheart.

Chapter Four
Audric gets up to his feet again as the troops pass and manages to catch up with the queen before they reach the gate in front of the Silver Palace. “We are going towards that thing?” He asks. “Yes, yes we are.” Queen Leminth replies assuredly. We reach the gates of Port Silver. “Anyone that doesn’t stay behind me I’ll take for a demon.” The Queen shouts sharply as she prepares her bow. “Your majesty, I suggest we move with extreme prudence.” General Arcturus whispers. We carefully, silently walk into the square. Every soul in our party is wary, ready to react to the slightest of threat. “Your majesty, she told us to come back… Her surprise…” The scout Skye tells her. Leminth merely grimaces. “Skye. She is not the only one with a surprise.” The voice of Queen Grief dwells through our minds again… “You… Come… to us…” and then all goes silent again. Like the silence before a storm, for all of the sudden giant cubes of magma and slime fall out of ball-shaped portals that appeared in the sky as Queen Grief spoke to our minds. As these fiery slimes fall down, lava and magma spats in every direction, burning our troops. Again we form up and move towards the threat that has surrounded us. In a great circle we fight, on the very square in front of our Royal Palace, our last defense…

A circle of 5 men thick and over fifty men around. Side by side Elves, Earthspawns, Nakam, Greylings, Dwarves, Men, Caparii and even Halflings, fight. Our quarrels be forgotten, old enemies now protecting each other and watching each other’s backs. The cubes of magma splut and splat, squash and burn. We cut them in half, but the halves just continue going. We cut them again in half and again and again! It is to no avail. The ground is literally littered with hot burning magma. Men that fall down in the fight are burnt alive. Hope seems lost, when suddenly! Rain. It pours down as if Shalheranna herself is by our side. The monsters of Queen Grief taste defeat. Nobody cheers, for we know the foe we have to face is mightier yet. This time the Gods have helped us in our time of need, but will they also do so when we face the beast of the nether?

We move up through the palace and make way to the bridge. While we run over the bridge to face the biggest enemy Altera has ever seen, we hear it howl and smash. The foul laugh of Queen Grief flies through the air. “There’s the corruption! Charge! Leave NOTHING STANDING!” General Arcturus roars as his mouth reveals his teeth, aggressively running towards the huge tentacles that now come in our view. Many zombies walk around us, attacking us with their rotten claws. Many blazes fly around us, shooting balls of fire at the center of our detachments. “Kill the demon hordes!” General Grimar screams. The scout Barroes shouts as we approach “The portal is ahead!” We look in the direction the scout is pointing and then all of us stop running. Stunned by what we see, all knowing we all think the same thing: “Oh… bloody nether…” The laugh of Queen Grief seems to darken our hearts, after she stops laughing it is silent. Then she says a mere: “Surprise…”

What once was sea, now lava lights the night sky. From it, something rises. Something enormous slowly seems to walk over the bottom of the lake of lava. He ascends the side of the lake, his head now very slowly coming up above the surface of the heat. We are stunned, the gigantic monster freezes us in our place. All of us, but one. Nameless shouts to all of us “Fight on, brave men of Altera! Hold on for your lives’ sake! We will survive this war, and ANY OTHER!” He raises his weapon in the air. He rids us of the fear and we become alert again. Moving, running, hacking, slashing, dying, jumping, living... We fight the netherspawn on the hills, while the titan moves further and further out of the lava lake. His head is now completely above the surface showing his grotesque blood-red teeth and his awful burning eyes. So this is the face of corruption… Grimar Ironheart grits his teeth, staring at the monster “Demon scum!” This giant is beyond any size. “Shoot into its eyes and mouth!” Bronn Arcturus shouts, commanding a detachment of archers. They shoot at the titan, some actually hit his face. The giant retracts his face as if bothered by a fly and then roars. He raises his foul hands above the surface of the lava and as he makes a fist of his one hand, the land underneath the archers is instantly corrupted. Not knowing what this corruption will do to them, they anxiously run off the corrupted ground. The Nether titan roars more and shoots thousands of balls of fire from his mouth as he roars scarily. Does it end like this…?

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Chapter Five
A strange hum comes from the distance, we do not know what it is. Axes are swung at zombie faces, Othrandos swings his warhammer into the body of a spider, killing it instantly. All these small victories count for nothing when a vast army of skeletons appears at the top of a nearby hill. More and more come and I stumble backwards in fear. They prepare their bows and nock awfully made arrows. We know we will be doomed when this horde of skeletons fire their ammunition. Queen Grief laughs over the battlefield once again. “Shall I… let them?” She plays with us, the skeletons await her command. She enjoys the terrified screams of our soldiers. “Rain down… upon them…” Queen Grief then says and the arrows block out the light of every single star. I brace for impact, knowing I will be hit by the arrows like everyone else. But then, the arrows do not fall. All of us look up and see the sky is still invisible. The light of the stars still blocked… “THE STORMBRINGER!” An Elf shouts and everyone looks at the clouded sky in hope. A flash of light comes from the cloud, which shows us that it is indeed the enormous airship of Kharn Sicarus, that has come in the time we most needed it. The most powerful Airship Altera has ever known took all the arrows from the skeletons in its hull. Suddenly we hear an explosion and we see other lights flash and more explosions are heard. Bombs are fired into the horde of skeletons, defeating them within seconds. We cheer and shout “Kharn Sicarus! Hail Kharn Sicarus! Hail Queen Leminth!” We laugh…

The airship now throws out ladders and I move up along with other soldiers to man the many cannons the ship has got. The titan roars ferociously and shoots fireballs at the ship, making parts of it catch fire and ladders burn down, making the men fall to their death. The titan of the Nether raises his body above the surface until his breast. He claws with his long arms at The Stormbringer, but he cannot reach it. He falls back down…

Inside the airship we carry bombs, load the cannons, aim the cannons and light the fuses. There is no rest on board, we have to keep firing. We fire charge after charge. Queen Grief shouts a scream of despair as we blow holes in the titan’s hands and arms. Queen Grief screams in our minds, but we do not stop. Loading the cannons, firing the cannons. No rest, it’s a dangerous job. Until someone makes a mistake… The man that used the cannon to my right loads the cannon wrongly, causing the charge to explode while it is still in the cannon. The cannon bursts apart, shooting iron shards through the ship. An explosion louder than any before fills my ears and makes me hear nothing more than a very high pitched tone. I’m bashed into the wall when something hits the right side of my face and a surge of pain goes through my right cheek and horn. My vision blurs and I see nothing but blackness. I lose consciousness…

Chapter Six
I wake up very dizzy. With blurred vision I see this room is white. My head aches as if it’s crushed by a hammer. Every movement makes it hurt more. I touch the place where it hurts and feel my skin. It feels very hard as if burned and touching it hurts. I see my right horn lay next to me on a white bed. My pillow is blood red. I lose consciousness again…

Later, when I recovered, Lemarc tells me what has happened on the ship.
“You got hit by an iron shard from the cannon that exploded. It drove a hole in your face, but you’re lucky. If you would not have had your Caparii horns to protect you, then you would have been dead. Right after the cannon exploded on the ship, the Titan lost its balance and seemed very vulnerable. Kharn Sicarus made use of this and aimed his biggest cannon at the skull of this Ancient malice. An explosion rocked the skies as his cannon fired. The Titan was hit in the skull, the entire left half of his head broken to bits. He stood there, out of balance. He shuddered and slowly fell to splash into the lava, the evil menace was defeated. This angered Queen Grief beyond compare and she swore to take The Stormbringer as compensation for her loss. Many corruption-tentacles flung towards the ship and all of us had to jump down into the water to flee. If it wasn’t for Lord Syr, you would have gone down with the ship. He carried you to the stairs and there he yelled at me. “Help me carry this Caparii! He’s still alive!” We carried you out to the hole in the ship from where we could jump into the water. We threw you down and dived after you. I then pulled you out of the water and brought you to the medical tent.” “But what happened to the stormbringer?” I ask him, feeling a severe pain in my mouth, that cause me to say these words in a very peculiar way. “Kharn Sicarus jammed the wheel onto a course out of that hellish place. “I hope it will glide long enough to reach safety…” Kharn said to us. The grief he had for losing his proud and powerful ship was unbelievable. He seemed to have lost all will to live, this captain that loved and cared for his ship… I dragged you onto the path and looked down on you. You looked horrible, the awful spike of iron sticking out from your face. I managed to get myself together enough to jerk out the spike, but it caused something I did not foresee…

You began to bleed. A lot. A river of blood streamed down the path and in it, some of your teeth drifted. I was terrified and looked around. I heard almost nothing, just the vague sound of groaning men, crying soldiers and dying Alterans. Queen Leminth then spoke “Search for injured… We fought a Titan today, and we WON!” But her speech did not sound very convincing. I know she must have felt the same. We lost so many today, our brothers and sisters, our friends, our morale, our airship… I took you to the medical tent and there Patrician Alphos tended to your wounds. He tried to stop the bleeding but he couldn’t do it with a mere cloth and medicine. So…” Lemarc sighs, finding it hard to explain. “So he burnt your wound shut. Your face is a mess Rahm… You are lucky to be alive and that your jaw is still in one piece, but your upper skull and skin, it’s all torn and burnt together again. While Alphos was trying to tend to you, you coughed up blood and teeth, only when he burnt it shut were you able to breathe without gurgling. I was sitting next to your bed when Alphos was done with you, when Leminth came in. “I want you all to prepare.” She said. “This was not the last. Let us tend to our wounded and sharpen our blades.” She said plainly, heartlessly, drivingly. She felt like we all did. Queen Grief is relentless.” Lemarc sighs again. But I haven’t heard enough. “What did- Queen.. Say?” I manage to say, pain surging through my head. Lemarc replies while he hands me some water. “Queen Leminth, I heard her talk to the men outside the tent. A speech. “We lost a mighty airship, the Stormbringer… But we brought down a mighty demon roughly twice the size of the Stormbringer… Before it could stand tall! Aye men! We brought down the force of the Nether and the might of Queen Grief!” She shouted to the men, and they cheered. Even the injured that weren’t unconscious made cheering sounds inside or clapped their hands.” Lemarc grins a bit. I can see he has hope. If a captain like Lemarc has hope, then so have I…

The end of days they call these days… Well, maybe it’s the other way around. Maybe the day it will end is closing in… The day that Queen Grief will end and her menace with her!
 
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Bartooliinii

An Alteran Bard
Patron
Retired Staff
Pronouns
He/Him
Slimy_Froggy
Slimy_Froggy
Patron
End of Days - Book two.

Chapter One
Queen Grief does not wait. She does not offer respite or mercy. It is Fireday, the 14th of Fogwater of the year 2259. The Season of Harvest. Only one day has gone by since the fight with the Nether Titan and an army of strong warriors, crippled soldiers and injured farmers stand at the gates of the portal to the old world, to fight again. I have to be strong not to burst out in tears of despair. This is no army, it’s a gathering…

I seek out Leminth, our most true Queen, and tell her I wish to fight. She sends me back to the medical bay immediately… My mood has changed, I feel all hope is lost for Altera to survive. Never have Alterans stood so close to defeat, but then again, never have we punched back into the face of Queen Grief harder than yesterday. I stand leaning on my walking cane and watch the crowd gather at the gate. From a distance I see a detachment of fresh soldiers marching energetically towards the gate. General Legion goes in front. General Arcturus turns around and faces the crowd and the newly gathered troops. “Men! We will soon march onto Wintermourne. This battle must be won, at all costs! We fight to the last man here, or we lose the war. FOR ALTERA!” Some cheer, some look frightened. So much for morale… Queen Leminth of Arduin smiles a bit grimly, then pulls her gloves over her hands, making ready for the fight. “Then let us march.” She says, eyeing the generals. They nod. “Form ranks! To the old world!” General Arcturus shouts. All these years we have fled for corruption, leaving our homes and making new ones in new worlds. This time, we made our base in a new world and this time we come back through the portal, instead of Queen Grief coming our way. We strike back at our foe, a thing rarely done before in our History. I see them leave and return to the medical tent…

Time goes by twice slower when you have to wait, and ten times slower when you wait for the outcome of a battle that determines the faith of the world as we know it. My mind cannot stop making up stories of what might be happening out there. In the meantime I also rest, but my dreams bring me nothing but images of dying men, horror from the nether and fiery eyes of the Nether Titan. It has been a long, very long day when I hear the first cries for help from outside the tent. The healers run out and carry wounded soldiers inside. My luck brings one of the Queen’s guards in the bed next to me. He has a few cuts in his arms and legs, nothing severe, but still painful and bad. He tells me what has happened in Wintermourne…

Chapter Two
The moment the troops went through the portal, they hurried to the third wall to regroup. From there they made way to the Silver Fleet and depart from the old Port Silver. On the boat Legion tells his plan of action and what the fighting men and women of Altera might find on the other side of the sea. “The corruption has come to Wintermourne, because they seek something. The thing they seek is in the waters in which we will arrive. It will take them time to dismantle it, so in order for Queen Grief to succeed, she will have to hold that place for a long time. If we can make it to the citadel, we can make us a makeshift stronghold, giving us an area of operation. From here, we will have to take out the portal Queen Grief has set up and then fight our way back to our primary location to protect what she has come to destroy, the Cherigon. Remember, the city itself lies between us and the citadel. Move in groups, walking alone will increase your chance drastically to get killed. Now understand me, we fight till the last man here, or we will lose the war!” The plan is clear. The troops will have to move through the city to the other side to take out the portals from which the minions of Queen Grief spawn. When this is done, the troops have to fight their way back through the city to where they docked, in order to protect the thing that the general is acting so secretly about. The thing he calls the Cherigon. The boat hits the shore and the men run out to form up…

“General Legion?” Queen Leminth calls. “yes?” “This is your turf.” “True.” He states while he gives a quick nod and the queen and generals look at everyone. “After the command of General Legion!” Queen Leminth screams towards them. “Lead, General Legion. My men are at your order as well. Remain vigilant.” General Arcturus adds. Suddenly everyone feels scared and then they find out why. Queen Grief has broken into their minds again, talking to everyone at the same time. “I… hear… Crafters…” She says with her foul tongue and wicked voice. “I… have discovered… something…” General Legion knew this. “We are here… already… before you. I… have send… my minions to… deal with you…” Now it is silent. Nobody speaks or dares to breath, again frozen by fear. When suddenly a battle-cry resounds and echoes through the city and over the hills. The strong Earkzian words vibrate through the hearts of Men and Dwarf alike. They all know what it means, they can feel it. “FOR ALTERA” Shouts Queen Leminth. “Altera!” Shout others. “FOR ZUK’THAR!” Shouts the Earthspawn. “TO THE DEATH!” The troops flood into the city like water, flushing away all opposing enemies. They move through the streets, they climb up the stairs, they seem like a swarm of bees, angrily defending their home. “Face… me… DIE… ALL OF YOU!!!”

The angry horde of Alterans rushes through the city, finding not one, but three portals on the other side. “Majesty! We need artillery.” Calls General Arcturus from over his shoulder as he rushes towards a skeleton to knock its skull off its spine. “Cannons incoming!” She shouts back while she slashes the legs from underneath a zombie. “General Arcturus! Can you handle the portals?” General Legion shouts, while kicking a spider into its eyes. Arcturus nods “I’m going to take six men and secure the citadel!” Legion informs him. They separate, moving through the battlefield. “The sky… it is… DARK!” Queen Grief shouts over the battlefield, like a wind blowing into the ears of all the soldiers. Suddenly, noon turns to midnight, the world is upside down… But this sorcery no longer tricks the brave Alterans. They have fought for so many days already and will not back down for a mere change of light. Instead, they light torches. They use them to burn their enemies and light the cannons that now break down the first portal. A scream of agony is heard from the skies. “NOOOOO!!”

Chapter Three
“You think to challenge us? Mongrel dogs! Licking fetid blood from the floor…” A voice is heard. Not the one from Queen Grief… A minion has come, a demon from the netherworld. Foul as all others, yet stronger and even more mad. It is Oblivion. “DESTROY!” Queen Grief commands him.

While strong Dwarves push the cannons into place under the command of Queen Leminth of Arduin, Humans light the fuses. With thundering blasts the cannons shoot all at once, simultaneously hitting the portal. The second one is down. But the hope of humans is easily awoken, while the Elves remain sharp. Within a blink of an eye, three human soldiers are mowed down by the foul, corrupting, cleaving axe of Oblivion. “You have not come here to fight, you have come to pay your debts, your souls! Die now, wretched Crafters, before the throne of Queen Grief is the last place you will kneel!” He shouts at the soldiers, his foul screams scaring away all morale. He is a force to be reckoned with. Leminth sends out a special force to fight him, under the leadership of General Legion, while she points to the new portal. “Blasted! It’s on a hill! What do we do now, my queen?” “To the east! You push them up!” She orders as she joins the Dwarves to push the heavy cannons up the slope… The cannons are pushed up the hill and placed right next to the portal “Alright… Now self-destruct it! Just use explosives. MORE EXPLOSIVES!” The Queen shouts as she joins the crew to carry the explosives and push the cannons as close to the gate as possible.

A true queen. She did not let others do the work, or look down, or cowardly stand at the end of the ranks. No, she was there, in the first line of fire, in the heat of battle, carrying heavy bombs… Noble and just.

“Light the fuse!” She screams as she and other Dwarves run down the hill. The fast humans light the fuse and run off as well. The cannons explode in such an enormous blast, that in a circle around it the earth is blasted off and rains down on the hordes of fighting monsters and Alterans. The portal is blasted and starts to shut down. A glorious feat… “Oh no.. NOOOOOO!” The scream of Queen Grief fades as the portal shuts tight. A final rage of a hundred lightning bolts rushes down to where the portal once stood, killing everyone that was close to it. “Curse you, mortals! FOOLS! You know not what you do!” Oblivion screams.

General Arcturus turns around and looks up at the demon, floating in the air. Arcturus grins, almost as if he enjoys the moment and he speaks calmly. “Bring him down, men.” Then he shouts while punching his fist in the air. “SHOOT AT HIM!” The arrows shoot straight at the Demon while he floats in the sky. He is forced to descend to the ground and there, a furious, aggressive, infuriated General Legion runs towards him, taking the hugest steps a human has ever made. “HE… IS… MIIINE!!!” He shouts. Oblivion looks at the man that runs towards him. The demon’s eyes widen and he almost looks scared. “no! Defend me! Minions!” He screams and tries to get out of danger. “Catch the fleeing demon!” Queen Leminth shouts over the battlefield, while Legion and Oblivion run out of sight. With a battle-cry of over a hundred Alterans, the whole army moves through the bottle-neck streets of Wintermourne, slaughtering all that comes in their path…

But when in war, one must always expect the unexpected. Victory is never easy. Within these small streets, now packed with Alterans, Oblivion has summoned a wither from the depths of his Evilness. The Wither Beast shoots at the Alterans, causing tens of men to die in the explosion. It topples buildings, crushing the troops in the narrow streets. Many die an inglorious death in Wintermourne…

Queen Leminth runs into the city, everywhere around her she hears screams. Screams as battle-songs, screams as horror-fears. Dying men, women, Nakam… She sees bodies of Dwarves crushed beneath rubble of buildings and paths that are blocked… She smells the iron scent of blood and the filthy stench of rotting zombie-flesh… She feels, she feels… An unmatched sense of revenge. Another Beast, first the Titan and now a Wither… She hurries through the streets and then she sees it. The wither is slowly floating, searching for victims. Leminth hides behind a door as the wither comes her way. With a furious and loud battle-cry she slams the door and runs towards a big pile of rubble, climbing it with a few light steps and then jumping from it, reaching eye-level with the Wither, she slashes her blade horizontally. With this, she slices off all three heads of the horrific monster. Then while still in the air she turns herself and her blade cuts diagonally through the rib-case of the beast. She lands with a thud on the ground. The wither falls to pieces behind her, she has slain it…

Chapter Four
“RHAAAAAAA!!!” A furious roar comes from Legions lungs. Oblivion laughs and mimics him and calls. “Pain! Hate!” Then he turns scared again. “No! I cannot return, I cannot fail my Queen!” Suddenly Legion trips and falls down, while Barroes and General Arcturus see the demon hurry past a side-street. They follow the beast and hack and slash into him at every opportunity they get. Legion gets back on his feet to find himself surrounded by zombies, skeletons and other netherspawn. Pigmen run towards him, using their blades clumsily. Legion quickly finishes off three pigmen and then twirls to slash two zombies in one blow. He then punches the skull off a skeletons body and runs out of the group of enemies, in the direction he saw his comrades leave. Barroes and Arcturus have caught up with the demon and brought him down, but the demon laughs. Oblivion is wounded severely but he seems not to care. “You know not how to kill me! Only wound me!” He laughs even harder, scaring the hearts of any common soldier that hears it. Legion finds Arcturus and Barroes at the demon, while Arcturus holds Oblivion’s Axe. “I have the axe!” He shouts to Legion, who approaches them from the back of the Demon. Oblivion then looks from over his shoulder, anxious he spies Legion walking up to him. “Give it here, quickly! He can use it to re-manifest!” Legion shouts and jumps towards the extended arm of Arcturus, which is holding the axe. Oblivion tries to prevent Legion from touching his axe, but he’s too late and Barroes holds the demon down. In a quick move of grabbing the axe, Legion swings it to the neck of Oblivion and thus decapitates the demon. After this he destroys the axe and in this way rids Altera from the demon for once and for all. The body of the demon turns to ashes silently…

The crowd stands around General Legion. Arcturus looks at him, Leminth looks at him, Everyone looks at him. He smirks almost evilly. “In two-thousand years you would think Queen Grief would have figured it out by now…” Leminth looks at him blankly. “Never to fight me on my own damn turf!” She chuckles softly. “FOR ALTERA” General Arcturus shouts. The crowd goes wild of enthusiasm as one of their leaders just made fun of their worst enemy. “Now let’s secure the docks, I got something to show all of you, follow me!” Legion says and he marches off. All of them arrive at the docks and walk a bit further down the shore. There it lays and there Legion says. “A warship clad in Arcane armor! Enchanted to turn back the corruption itself!” “Fascinating…” The Queen marbles as she eyes the ship with great awe. “Powered by fire itself and with the single largest cannon Altera has ever seen.” He continues. “It is almost finished. When it is done, we will use it to strike at Grief.” He gives a sigh of relief. “And we will have a real chance.” He is silent then, as if he ponders about something in the future and then he comes back to his senses. “Soldiers, you did wondrously! If this were another time, I would have been proud to call you members of Altera’s First. I will not lie to you, this ship will not solve all our problems, but it will give us a fighting chance!” The crowd is amazed by this development. The Queen smiles wryly. “Alright forces of Altera! The ship Cherigon is safe. Let us find our wounded, back to warcamp!” she states...

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“And so all of us got back and now we are here” The Queen’s guard ends his story to me. I’m amazed and await the Queen’s return with great expectations. All the time I’m asked whether I’m doing well and if I’m tended to. Probably because of all the new wounded people, they think I’m new too. So I stand up from my bed to make space for others, also because I’ve had enough care. I walk down the stairs and when I’m halfway there, I see Queen Leminth in the entrance. She talks loudly to all injured and those who stayed behind. “We secured the Cherigon, the iron ship of hope!” I hear the healers and wounded cheer and yell. She hushes us with a big smile. “The honor was not in slaying the demon Oblivion…” She continues, while people start cheering again. Shouting their amazement over this incredible feat. Smiling the Queen goes on “But the honor was in saving our brothers! And our sisters!” More cheers, also from outside, the warriors and soldiers cheer. Then again the screams of those being tended to. Wounds burnt shut and being attached with needle and thread. The queen hears it too. “We must tend to our wounded.” She says calmly. The smile disappears as she straightens her face. “There i-“ she pauses and looks pained for a moment. I fear for her safety, but before I can think of what might be going on she continues talking. “Let us ensure we are in the best of health. The Cherigon is almost finished. The forces of Altera-… The forces of Altera have fought hard and brave! Those beside me-… This war will be finished and soon. And we-… we will be ready.” She steps back, before limping out of the tent.

“…We won…” I hear the man next to me say, as if he thought it was impossible. But I shake my head in thought.

What will happen if we win this war, but lose our Queen? The one that has lead us through all of this… Our hope and all we look up to. Who will take the power of Altera. We must not risk her life, even for the sake of victory…
 

Bartooliinii

An Alteran Bard
Patron
Retired Staff
Pronouns
He/Him
Slimy_Froggy
Slimy_Froggy
Patron
End of Days - Book three.

Chapter One
Waterday, the 20th of Fogwater in the year 2259 of our era. A week has gone by and we have had no attacks from Queen Grief at all. She did not need to, for she left a stain on all of us. The deaths of the former battles weigh heavy on Alteran hearts. They were no mere soldiers, they were friends, family or faces one might have seen regularly in the streets of Port Silver. We have lost them. Even though the grief for them is still fresh, we cannot mourn for them and do nothing. If we would, their death would be in vain. We must stand tall just a little longer and fight, so their sacrifice is worth it in the end. In Port Silver I slowly walk past the harbor. The wind from the sea is rough and blows against my face, my hair is almost horizontally in the wind. The wound on my face has healed enough for it to be a lot less painful. Of course, it will forever disfigure my face, but I am still standing, I’m not dead. The hard sea-wind brings the smell of salt in the air, I turn towards the sea to face the wind. My heart jumps at the force of nature. Shalheranna must be with us today. I turn around and walk towards the stables, pondering. I arrive and stand still, only to stare at one of the horses. If this horse was free, what would it have done? Would it roam through the delta’s near Tahkul-Rimtar, or would it prefer to run through the Highlands near Hound-Ru? It is silly to think about this, for it has no choice, just like us. We have no choice until the threat that lurks behind us, in the old world, is destroyed. My faith in Shalheranna tells me not to take any random horse. Only when one has a true bond with an animal, may they connect in a way like a rider does with its horse. This is my belief, so I walk up to my own horse and ride towards the war-camp…

Moments before I arrive in the camp, I can already hear the shouts of an army making ready. I hear the smith hammering on his iron, making new weapons for the armies of Altera. I can hear the horses neighing, while they are clad in armor by the stable-masters. I arrive and see people running from tent to tent, carrying messages, weapons, food, equipment… I grimace faintly. Yes, we are getting ready. Ready to defeat our foe forever or die trying. The horse I ride I tie to a piece of fence and I enter the tent where I have left my Caparii battle outfit. It’s old and worn and belonged to my father, who fought with it at the battle of Ascension Heights. It may be old, but it is still an honor to wear it. I take the pieces of cloth out of the chest and sit on top of it. I bend my head forwards and tie the blue ribbon around my horns and make a knot between them at my neck. I tie the other four blue ribbons around my knees and upper arms. The last, bigger piece of cloth, I tie around my waste. The last piece in the chest is some clay, dyed blue. I put my finger in it and draw lines underneath my eyes with it. Now I am ready as well, I walk out of the tent…

Everyone is running towards the gates in front of the tall portal, where the generals and our queen await, for the army to gather and form up. The queen steps up on a large wooden chest and speaks to us. “For too long, we have ran. For too long we have watched our brothers and sisters fall before Grief. So very long ago, I pledged to fight against the terror that haunts our lands. Now we have marched to war against our most hated enemy!” She pauses. “We still stand.” She looks around, eyeing the crowd. “Do you, People of Altera, wish to run? To run and cower under a terror of eternal night?” We look at each other, shaking our heads and then some shout. “Nay!” Queen Leminth continues. “Without seeking the dawn?” More people shout as the crowd is feeling rushed. “No! Never!” She then steps off of the chest. She gave us a memory, what we were here for. For what we came to fight. “The light will rise, defenders of Altera. Have faith!” General Arcturus gives us hope. With hope and a goal to achieve, we feel more ready for war than ever. “We MARCH! We take back our land! We take back our people! People of Altera!” She hypes us mentally, making the adrenaline rush through everyone’s body like the power of the sea-wind. “ARE YOU READY?!” She screams towards us. Her charisma influencing everyone that can hear her call. “YES!” The soldiers call. “For our queen!” They shout. “FOR ALTERA!” General Grimar roars, overruling everyone. Then the shouts grow louder and everyone stamps their feet, drumming their weapons on their shields. From miles around the camp the birds are flying away, frightened by this sound. The silent night is disturbed by the war song of many, no, all Alterans. “For our salvation!” General Arcturus punches his sword in the air and twirls it. “We march!” He points towards the portal that leads to the old world and General Grimar Ironheart runs through it, sword sheathed, he disappears. The queen then jumps on another crate and shouts, as all Alterans flush through the portal. “THIS DAY… This day we attack the headquarters of Grief!” She beckons us to run into the portal and jumps off the crate, running with us.

Chapter Two
In the old world we take airships and land a few miles off of the Castle of Doom. We march towards a small camp, surrounded by a stone wall. We enter it and man the gates and walls. In the distance, we see three gigantic portals block our way towards the Castle of Doom. Their size is beyond compare, the hugest of monsters can be summoned forth from such a thing. The middle one is big enough to summon a titan… Not long after we have arrived, the portals shudder and warp. The army of Grief comes forth. Out of each portal an army sets foot on our lands. The monsters walk out in tight formation of fifteen wide. They keep coming, holding their swords straight in front of them. They march so perfectly, as if they are afraid to be whipped when breaking ranks. They keep on walking out of the portals, rows and rows of monsters as far as the eye can see, in perfect formation.

Slowly, from a distance behind the portals, from the Castle of Doom, Things are moving our way. Huge Siege-towers roll in between the formations, towering above them and casting their shadows over the army. They fear me. This evil machinery must be packed with armies from the Nether. Built out of stone and nether brick, these heavy machines hold multiple layers for soldiers to wait in. wait until they reach target… In the top, cauldrons of lava light the tower, which will most likely be used to set fire to the arrows of our enemies. In front of the armies, two riders move towards our camp. It are demons, sitting on undead horses. They come with a message…

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While the demons of Grief and her armies were coming forth from the evil portals, the Queen and the generals were going through the battle-plan one last time, in the war-tent. “I suppose this is it then.” Grimar states grimly. “Are you all here generals?” The queen asks. The leaders of different races are present, from Dwarven king to Greyling chieftain… When she is sure that everyone assembled, she rehearses the plan again. “We shall begin a frontal assault to take down those portals and engage the enemy troops. I want the archers on the wall, moving forward when the cannons do. I need you all to make sure everyone sticks together. Am I understood?” The generals nod. “Yes, your majesty.” “The seven of you will get war-horses. Greyling, you get a pony. All of you, come with me!” She rushes out of the tent and moves towards the horses, mounting one herself. The war-horses are equipped with golden armor and blue saddles. The armor makes almost no sound when the horses move, as if made by the most gifted smith of Altera. The gold shines even in the moonlight. They move toward the gate…

“Demons?! What is this?” Queen Leminth asks sharply, narrowing her eyes and readying her bow as she stands below the gate on her horse. “We come, that you may know you will taste defeat here. You are outmatched by the superior armies of Queen Grief. She does not offer you a possibility to surrender, for you have offended her many times. She will have you as her slaves and you, who calls herself Queen of Arduin, you will be making weapons for her armies.” The demon that speaks grins, showing his rotten, green sharp teeth. “You will be forging your own destruction.” Tavish the Demon laughs loud and awful at the other Demon’s twisted remark. The Nether creatures yell and cheer. Then Tavish the Demon shouts at them in Nether Language, silencing them. His foul words somehow also effecting us, making us feel small and meaningless. If death and suffering would have sounds, they will sound like this evil language. But the Queen is not affected. She spits from her horse on the ground towards the demons with a disgusted face. “Bah! We shall bring your castle to the ground!” She says, her horse stamping its feet. Now she directs herself to Altera’s army. “Let us show them how to call for WAR! Alterans!” She yells at us. We yell back… all of us cry our battle-song and smash our weapons on our armor and shields. We stamp our feet and scream to the opposing army till our lungs are empty. “We shall destroy all of you!” Tavish the demon shouts. “Muir!” He calls at the other demon as he turns his horse. Muir the demon, the voice of Queen Grief, turns his horse as well, while looking at Leminth. “I look forward to meeting you in the field…” He says, grimacing and he rides after Tavish. Then Tavish raises his sword in the air and gives his undead horse the spores. “You will touch my people no longer, demon!” Our Queen replies…

She lets her horse walk sideways and she faces us. “People of altera!” She shouts only, while the demons Tavish and Muir also speak to their army.
“READY?” Tavish shouts at his forces. The enemy roars, thousands of monsters make the ground shake while they march forwards slowly. “FOR GRIEF!” Tavish shouts.
Queen Leminth of Arduin pulls up her horse. “FOR ALTERA!” she shouts to the armies of Altera, while she nocks an arrow. All Alterans scream and yell, they shout and roar back at the enemy. Thousands of men and women from every race stand to fight off this ancient foe. “Archers at the ready!” Leminth calls to the walls, before spurring her horse. “MARCH!”

Chapter Three
The Queen rides in front, the generals behind her. The breeze of the filthy lands in which the Castle of Doom lies makes her silver hair flow like waves of moonlit water. The white horse underneath her breathes heavily through its nostrils while it gallops towards the enemy. The queen narrows her eyes, bending over the horse. She looks at the forward rushing horde of monsters, guided by the Demons. She is stone-cold, lethal, deathly. She points her bow and shoots right between the eyes of the horse Tavish is riding on. It falls and slides over the stone, while Tavish is overrun by his own army. Leminth makes a large turn with her horse to join the next ranks. A good start… The long line of hundreds of archers on the wall of the camp await the clash of the armies… General Arcturus rides in front. “Charge, Soldier of Altera! Let none survive!” His horse jumps into the first line of zombies and Arcturus makes it run around, stamping its hooves into the flesh of its enemy, while he decapitates them one by one. The soldiers run into the monsters, pushing them with their shields. They slash limbs off and pierce through the rotten flesh of the stinking creatures. “Stabbing is to no avail! Hack and slash through these undead creatures!” General Grimar shouts to the ranks closest to him. The battlefield resounds with the screams of fighting men and women. Elves gracefully move through the enemy ranks, slaying and slicing throats as they go. Dwarves crush bones with their heavy hammers and war-axes. Dwarf King Seth rides a horse while bringing down his pole-axe on the enemies, cutting their limbs as he goes. He roars and curses in Horgaahn. He is as fearsome as the enemy... Caparii jump up from the battlefield now and then, coming down upon the enemy again with great impact. Nakam run around, scratching and slicing the guts out of the netherspawn. The zombies are too slow to react. Unable to think, the first wave of the army of Queen Grief is soon defeated, while skeletons now rush towards us, mixing with the remaining zombies. Men kick the spines from their bodies, punching off the skulls of their victims. The archers now shoot their first salvo of arrows into the night sky, making them rain down on the Armies of Naught. A ranger named Ced speaks to the archers, pointing his nocked bow at the battlefield. “Someone has got to look after the swordsmen, and tonight it looks like it’s us. Good job men, now keep firing!” A party of Whither-skeletons now run into the core of the battlefield, decapitating Elves and Human alike. Earthspawn run up to them, using their self-made weapons, they crush all who oppose them. Their maces whistle through the air, crushing skulls and bones. Out of reach, within the enemy army, the siege towers move…

Their huge wheels make terrible noise as they slowly move closer to the edge where the two armies have clashed into an epic fight. From the four closest towers, fiery arrows pierce the air and set our men ablaze. The screams of burning men sounds louder than any noise on the battle. Now the cannons from the camp rumble as they begin to move, pushed by strong soldiers. The Black Salts, a band of loyal mercenaries surround and protect the cannons from the nether monsters. The cannons move into the battle, away from the wall. Robert Senatoor, the leader of these mercenaries, commands them. “Show them no mercy, for we will not receive it from them! Slay them, let them not move closer!” The mercenaries use special techniques and fight valiantly. General Arcturus leads the cannons into battle. When they are set at the right point, they aim at the closest tower. Arcturus rides back and forth behind the cannons. “Shoot the towers down! Fire at will, men!”

General Grimar Ironheart runs amongst the other soldiers, telling them what to do. Most are engaged in combat, yet Grimar orders them to push the enemy back even further. “Keep moving! Do not lose ground!” The cannons, back at war-camp, shoot two towers down. Then a fiery arrow from one of the remaining nether towers hits a charge and explodes the cannon. On both sides the siege-machines are decreasing… The Alteran army moves on and the cannons destroy yet another tower. “Form up behind the cannons and shoot over our armies, on the army of Queen Grief!” the ranger Ced tells the archers. They walk with the cannons, onto the fourth siege tower. They shoot a charge of hundreds of arrows in the air once more. It doesn’t take the cannons long to take out the tower and Arcturus looks slightly satisfied. “Fight strong and Grief will be smitten down!” He yells. “Strike at the portals! NOW!” General Grimar sees the siege towers are taken down and uses this opportune moment. “We will not give an inch! Drive the hordes of naught back to make space for the cannons!” He screams. The rumble of ballistae sounds as out of the gate they come. They are quickly set up by the engineers and start firing from the last ranks all the way to the first portal. It takes four rounds of explosives before the first of three portals to shuts down…

Chapter Four
A war horn sounds in the camp. We retreat and regroup at the gate. I see the queen’s armor is stained with blood, but by the way she moves, it looks like it is not her blood. Our ranks have thinned, but not many have died, bless the gods. Wounded are carried inside and most of our men are still out in the battle, keeping the swarm of monsters at bay. We stand in formation again, several detachments lead by several generals. “Let’s move! At my blade!” The queen shouts to her detachment and they run off into the battlefield again. One by one, the armies leave to head back into the chaos. Just before we reach the enemy lines, a heavy tap comes from the middle portal…

Looking up to it, I see an enormous device coming through the warping portal. “A Nether Crawler! MARCH towards it!” Queen Leminth shouts. Obviously not threatened by the huge machine. It looks like an enormous bug, with a huge head, zombies try to protect it as it crawls our way. It has got many legs and the head looks like a wolf’s head. The Queen sends her party to the front legs of the beast-machine. They hack into the legs and then move away again, cutting through the zombies standing around. “Prepare the artillery!” General Arcturus shouts. The Earthspawns push the heavy cannons into place while the Dwarf engineers once again aim the ballistae. They fire at the Nether Crawler and take down one of its many legs. One leg… with so many artillery. The queen and her army march through underneath the nether crawler again. Hacking into the now damaged legs from the cannon-fire. They break another two and then stay out of range of the cannons, killing skeletons as they move through the chaos. “FIRE AT WILL!” Arcturus shouts, after the queen is out of range. Several cannons shoot their charge. The ranger Ced stands behind the cannons. “Kharn, we need the projectiles higher!” He shouts over the sounds of the shooting cannons. They adjust the cannons to shoot in the mouth of the huge nether crawler. The nether crawler shoots its first charge, the cannon in the head. It destroys two cannons at once and damages several others. “Bring more cannons, engineers! This monstrosity can sustain heavy fire!” Arcturus yells over his shoulder, back to the war-camp. The engineers push the heavy cannons in place while the ballistae keep firing at the six legs which are left. Another leg breaks!

“Load the cannon again, whelps!” The Demon Muir shouts at the slaves inside the nether crawler. “Crawl right through them, smash them with the legs of our Nether Cannon.” He says to the monster engineer that is operating the machine. The slaves are slow and clumsy in loading the cannon and the demon whips them for their disobedience. “Load the cannon, I said! You mongrel dogs!” He hits one of them with his claw-like hand. “For Altera!” The demon hears Grimar scream from outside the Crawler. He looks through the jaws of the beast-machine and sees explosives fly through the sky, towards the legs of the crawler. They destroy two and the Nether crawler begins to lurch. “Fire it, slaves! FIRE IT!” Muir screams while they load the last charge in order for the cannon to fire. But it is too late. They light the fuse and the nether crawler tips forward, its head crushing into the stone. It fires its last charge into the ground, making the head explode, with the Demon in it. “sweet nether…” Leminth curses.

General Grimar whispers. “It’s not over yet.” Kharn hurries and jumps on a broken cannon to oversee the army around him. “To the portals! Take them out, before more crawlers come!” Queen Leminth beckons to all who can see it. “To the rightmost portal! Regroup there!” She runs off. The engineers take down the ballistae again and move them in parts towards the next portal. “Get out of the way of the Ballistae!” The cannons are pushed by the mighty Earthspawn and soon the artillery stands ready to shoot. Constantly the Black Salts have to hold the evil nether hordes back. Archers shoot charge after charge up in the air to rain down on the armies of Queen Grief, but they just keep coming. A perfect line, an Elven formation, stands as a wall before the cannons. The Wither-skeletons come running towards them but with a few quick strikes are diminished to a pile of bones. Arcturus stands with the cannons again. “We will have victory! FOR ALTERA!” He points to the portal with his blade. “Fire at will!” Grimar and his troops get out of the way of the firing cannons and watch them shoot at the portal. “End this once and for all.” He says. The cannons shoot relentlessly. An unending roar of cannon-fire. Explosion after explosion and only then the portal gives in. “It’s down!” Leminth shouts. “To the last portal!” People cheer and shout , seeing that finally the armies of naught give in. Now that they only have one portal left to get reinforcements from, they seem to decrease. Now, finally, it gives hope when someone kills a foe, for this time they stay away. They are killed faster than they can replenish. Explosives roll onto the field from the war-camp. The cannons are filled again, so are the ballistae. They fire at will at the portal. Suddenly, explosives fly out of the portal. They were fired from within the portal, now coursing towards the cannons…

The ranger Ced gets off the cannon just in time, before an explosives tear it to bits. “STAND BACK!” Arcturus shouts. The explosives are destroying a ballista and several cannons. Slowly, from behind the portal, two siege towers roll up onto the battlefield. Enemy troops spill out of them like ants from their nest, defending their fortress. The towers rain fire arrows upon our ranks. “More siege weapons! Regroup men!” The morale of the army decreases drastically with this new development. While first they were rejoicing to have one portal left to destroy, now they fear the wrath of Queen Grief. Giant spiders try to get through the line of Alterans who are defending the cannons, but they are smashed down by the hammers of Dwarves. The cannons fire, having dealt with four towers before, they soon destroy both of the remaining siege towers. “The towers are down! Aim for the portal again!” The destruction of the last portal comes in a blinding, deafening flash of simultaneous explosions as Arcturus gives the order to fire. “We will bring peace to Altera this day, defenders of the innocent!” He shouts laughing...
 

Bartooliinii

An Alteran Bard
Patron
Retired Staff
Pronouns
He/Him
Slimy_Froggy
Slimy_Froggy
Patron
Chapter Five
Queen Leminth is wary. “It is not yet over… This is Queen Grief we are fighting.” She says. The only sound in the battlefield are the shouts of men fighting the remaining monsters in front of the portal. It is way too silent. Out of nothing Queen Grief’s voice sweeps over the battlefield. “Foolish Crafters!” Her voice sounds hollow and angry. “Do you think… you can stop… my portals… here?” “FORM RANKS!” Queen Leminth shouts scared, as she starts preparing her army to what is to come. “It is never over, form up men!” Yells Grimar Ironheart. Suddenly with a tremendous wind coming from the castle of doom, all three portals switch back on and warp as the restoration of the portals complete. The moment the middle portal is activated again, it shoots a giant salvo of explosions onto the battlefield. “Stand back!” Arcturus shouts. Queen Leminth stands looking at the portals blankly. She feels like she has no control at all on what is happening on the battlefield anymore, stunned by the power of Queen Grief…

We scatter and run to get out of range of the explosions from the central portal. After the sound of three war-horns, we regroup at the middle portal. Leminth has recovered and explains a new battle-plan. “Grimar, you take the left portal. Seth, the middle one, I’m taking the right portal. Divide the army in three and move! MOVE!” “To the left!” Grimar shouts as he beckons the troops to follow him. The queen rushes off to the right, a horde of Alterans running after her. “Stay aware, keep away frem t’e holes!” Dwarf king Seth tells his remaining troops. The Dwarves of Thraall stand by his side. They form a small group of 25 short lads, clad in heavy armor and wielding battle-axes and war-hammers. Amongst Seth’s army are also humans, but not a single Elf. It seems when the races get to choose, even against a common enemy they separate. “Form up around t’e center. Stay alert!” “Corruption!” Arcturus shouts as giant tentacles come shooting from the ground and sweeps the battlefield. A heavy tap comes from the central nether-portal “Not again!” Kharn Sicarus shouts. Another Nether Crawler crawls out of the abyss of Nether at the other side of the portal. He emerges at high speed. “Prepare yerselves!” King Seth shouts to his Dwarves…

At the left portal smaller cannons are put into place very fast. They roll onto the battlefield, but corruption blocks the path of Acrturus’ cannons. They try to get closer to the portals, while the Alteran troops hold the enemy back and slash at the tentacles.
At the right portal, the pole-axe troops and I stab and cut into the tentacles, making them shiver. Some shoot back into the earth and come out of the earth somewhere else, shooting tens of troops into the air and making them fall to their death. I hear their cries for help soften and then grow louder again as they near the hard stone floor. A tentacle bangs into the troops that stand near the cannons. I fear to be crushed under one of those huge tentacles as well. I take my sword with two hands and hack into the tentacle with all my might. Together with the pole-axe troops we hack huge cuts into the corrupted flesh of the tentacle. We manage to cut one down and it topples over and damages the portal severely, making it shut down.
At the left portal, the path is cleared, the cannons shoot. “Fire at will! The portal will fall to our might!” Arcturus shouts, while he punches his sword in the air, aiming at the portal. “Stand strong! May the Gods of Order be with you, men of Light!” He shouts over the roaring cannons. Arcturus has always talked in such a spiritual way. He encourages his men, even though their morale is sunk by the deafening explosions of the cannons and the sight of monstrously huge tentacles sweeping through the air. The explosives hit their target and the portal flickers, after which it de-activates.

“Keep out t’e holes!” The crawler comes closer very fast and Seth has trouble to focus on the tentacles, the crawler, the enemy monsters and his own troops at the same time. The nether crawler walks straight over his predecessor, beating the distance the former one has managed to go. “Korog be blown! We need ter keep tha’ thing back!” He shouts to his troops. “We need ae ballista!” A few fast humans run off to the camp, informing the engineers. Then General Arcturus comes running towards Seth, his troops following. “Move to the middle men, march!” He shouts as he nears the crawler. “General Arcturus reporting for duty, sir. What do you need doing?” He asks Seth. The Dwarf king looks over the shoulder of Arcturus and sees the left portal has been de-activated. He then looks over the battlefield, from left to right. The Alteran army has decreased in size severely. Where there once were thousands of men, now only around a few hundred remain. He notices the right portal is shut down as well. Of all enemy troops, only the Nether Crawler remains. “Ye need ter shoot at tha’ bladdy mechanic!” He tells Arcturus, concluding the stocktaking of the battlefield…

I run with the armies of Queen Leminth of Arduin. We run towards the crawler and start hacking into its back legs. In the front, explosives are fired at the enormous machine-creature. General Grimar joins the fight and commands all troops that are scattered to regroup. “Attack the legs! Take the legs out!” Seth warns the troops to get away from the legs now. “Ballistae inbound!” The troops move off, standing near the cannons and ballistae to protect them from any harm. They fire their charges but the crawler seems to take little damage. It crawls up further and reaches the war-camp. Nameless stands on the wall, I hear him shout. “Focus on one leg at a time, focus your fire!” He calls to the closest cannons. The engineers nod and load the cannon. Then they aim for a single leg and shoot to take it down. Two ballistae shoot at the same time, one shooting an explosive straight into the mouth of the monstrosity. It explodes inside and the head of the crawler falls off, yet the crawler moves on and on. “Keep at it, hack into its legs!” Grimar roars furiously. The Crawler seems to loose balance, it starts to walk slower on its remaining legs, going past the war-camp now. Given hope by this recent development, Grimar shouts at his troops. “Cut it down!” They cut at the legs that are nearest to the wall. They give out from underneath the crawler and it topples straight to the wall. The archers on the wall jump down and try to get out of its way. It falls into the wall, smashing it while rubble strews about…

Chapter Six
A horn sounds, our queen is gathering all troops back at the war camp, near the airships. It is a tactical retreat, counting the troops that are left. To tend the wounded before going back into the battle. Nameless shouts at the troops retreating. “We can hold the wall! Come back! We just need to secure this breach and we can easily hold the damned wall!” But the troops do not listen, not one stops to aid Nameless. They all run back in despair. They are tired and their muscles ache. Just a few who have been ordered to do so, remain on the wall to keep watch. Arcturus stands near Queen Leminth, like he always does, keeping watch over her. “What is the next part of the plan, your majesty?” “The next part? The Cherigon, first we smash the portal the crawler came through. General Arcturus, lead the men to that portal and BRING IT DOWN. The Cherigon is on its way.” Arcturus beckons his troops. “To the portal, men. bring it down! We must bring the fight to them!” They run off out of the war-camp. Making a counter offensive, also Seth joins the army that rushes towards the portal. “We need ter keep t’e line till it arrives.” Some stay behind, but General Grimar is dragging them back to the battlefield as well. “You heard your queen, move it! To the portal, take it down once more!”

The last ballista is rolled onto the battlefield. “Man the ballista! Take that portal down!” Nameless shouts. “Keep alert and form up ‘round t’e ballista!” The Dwarf shouts at his kin. This attack goes coordinated and swiftly. The last few cannons are rolled into place as well. “Fire the artillery, engineers!” Arcturus shouts and gives a sign with his arm to fire at will. They shoot simultaneously and with another great roar of cannon-fire the portal shuts down. “We have taken it down! Glory to our cause!” Shouts Arcturus, cheering. The day finally brakes as soon as the last portal was shut down and it starts to rain. The rain washes dirt and dust out of the wounds of the men and gives them refreshment after the sweaty battle. It feels like a blessing from the gods themselves. “Jax blesses us.” Grimar states. Suddenly on top of the de-activated portal, Muir the Demon appears. So he is still alive… Muir taunts us, he stands on top of the enormous portal and his voice sounds like the roar of a storm. “But you know… You know it never ends… No matter how long you struggle, we will have you… Enjoy your day of respite, when the night comes, you are ours!” He disappears as quickly as he appeared. He made our hearts sunk in our chests. “You and your brethren will fall, demon! You cannot oppose our might, the gods are with us!” Arcturus shouts into the rain.

We use the day to eat, drink and gather everyone. We search the battlefield for wounded, guided by the cries for help and the screams of pain. Many are found in the holes of the explosions, missing limbs or severely burnt. The few healers that came with us have their hands full to tend to the wounded. We take off our armor for a while and rest. Right after noon the rain stops and the war-horns sound again. We gather at the side of the camp. Queen Leminth keeps it short. “We must defend the portal… OUR portal, until the cherigon arrives.” People wonder at her words. A portal of our own making… In reply, the queen grins. “I’m sure you all know our General Legion?” “Of course.” Grimar states undoubtedly. “Well, let’s say Queen Grief is not the only one with great power.” Arcturus walks up to her slowly, his armor shines like it’s new again. “The army has regrouped, your majesty.” “Good! Form up!” We stand in tight lines. A few hundred men left, ready to do what the generals ask them to. The queen nods and spurs her horse. Grimar asks the troops. “Are you ready?” The troops barely react. He now shouts. “I said ARE YOU READY?!” The troops yell and punch their armor with their fists once. “Remember, we come to protect the portal, to keep it safe. No harm can be done to it, the arrival of the Cherigon hinges on this and our missiles MUST arrive.” We march once again. We arrive at our portal. It is of odd make. I never saw something similar to it. It is the same circular thing that we saw in front of the Cherigon back at Wintermourne. A white circular shape with red arrows pointing to its core. The sun sets…

Chapter Seven
“AT MY BOW!” Shouts Leminth. “Form up before the portal, keep Grief away at all costs!” “We stand by your side, majesty!” A portal flickers back on. From far away, drums sound. Deep and powerful, they wave a trembling bass over the battlefield. Slowly they start, with pauses. Then they grow louder and start to go faster. With a giant warp three withers are summoned from the Nether. They fly over us, screeching and causing havoc. Quickly the armies of Altera react, shooting arrows at them and two withers are taken down by the jumping Caparii, mowing their blades straight through the wither’s bodies. I lose sight of the last wither, but I see an army of witches crawl out of the portal, looking around malicious, holding small pouches of poison. They slowly cross the long distance between their portal and our portal. Queen Grief must be desperate, sending now her finest of troops into the battlefield. Then suddenly Muir speaks to us, amongst all the chaos of the battlefield. “Do you know what else makes its home in the our realms of fire?” We hear a terrifying roar from within the portal. Chains breaking loose and a wind surges from out of the portal. It warps and waves, then a huge warp sends a ray of purple light on the battlefield and it comes out. A black cloud, a huge beast of the nether. Its claws sharp and its eyes deep purple. Evil resounds in its roar and its skin is as black as the heart of Queen Grief herself. From her deepest dungeon, Queen Grief has summoned forth this beast. It flies around and shoots fiery balls onto the battlefield, setting both the ground as our men ablaze. We scatter, running around to flee for this terror from the abyss of nether. The fiery chasms of hell. “DRAGOOON!” The dragon flies closely over us, roaring like it’s been caged for far too long. Finally it is able to release its hate on the world. “Form up! Stay tergether!” The Dwarf king shouts, but to no avail. General Arcturus and Grimar shout to their archers. “Bring the dragon down! Take it out!” The archers shoot at it, they aim and fire their arrows in the leathery skin of the beast. It flies around, arrows protruding from it. “ARCHERS! FIRE!” Shouts Arcturus. The dragon is bothered by the piercing arrows and moves to aim for the archers. It shoots a ray of fire over the archers, taking out half of the army, over fifty men. It roars and flies lower again, grabbing Alterans with his sharp claws as he goes. The havoc he causes amongst the Alteran ranks is unmatched. The ranger Ced focusses, aiming only on the armpits, eyes and mouth. He shoots and hits target. His arrow clips in the wing-joint of the dragon, making it coursing down to earth. The dragon shoves over the floor very fast and takes a long time to slow down. Its horrible head stops right before our queen when it finally closes its eyes. She blinks, terrified. A man runs up to the dragon. He takes his blade in two hands and hacks into its neck. He hits it five times, ten times, fifteen times! Finally he cuts straight through the last piece of leathery skin and severs the head from the body…

2013-09-20_23.23.05.png

During this fight, the witches of Queen Grief have not sat still and are now approaching our army. They throw deathly potions at us, the gas that comes from the potion makes us choke and cough. They cackle their awful laughs. They spit at us and throw more potions at us, the glass breaks and the gas that comes out make the soldier fall down, weakened. “End their lives!” Grimar shouts as he runs up to a witch and slices her head off. Immediately several witches watch him and throw their horrific poison at him. He dives away out of danger. “Shoot the witches!” Queen Leminth tells us. The witches aren’t fast enough to dodge arrows and are soon defeated, yet they did have enough time to cause severe injuries to our troops. A quarter of the troops we had left are either coughing blood or dead already. I crouch at one of them, giving him water to drink, in the hope it would neutralize the poison. A rumble comes from our portal. “Brace fer impact!” The Dwarf shouts. Within a few seconds the Cherigon bashes through the portal with great noise, scraping the stone. There it lies for a while, making a humming sound and clouds of smoke coming from above it. Naelwyn and General Legion step off from the ‘ship’. Sarah Katherina stands next to me and looks as much in awe as I do. “This is great power…” she says to herself. “Horrifying, but great, just like… Queen Grief.” Suddenly the humming grows louder and louder. I cover my ears and a huge blast is fired from the main cannon. It shoots at the enemy portal and destroys it instantly, shredding it to bits. This is a portal that will never activate again, for sure. “This is the end of Queen Grief!” Grimar shouts. “To victory!”

Chapter Eight
The Cherigon then makes a terrifying screaking sound as it drives its hull into the stone. Its arcane power-source makes it shoot through the stone like through water. It is incredibly fast and leaves a huge ditch behind, an enormous hole in the stone. It sails through the stone, heading straight through the ruined portal and onto the Castle of Doom. “Nooooo… Pleeeeaaaasssseeeee…” We hear Queen Grief cry. The Cherigon grinds across the bridge, barging into the Castle of Doom. “NOOOooo!!” There is a terrible scraping sound as the Cherigon barges itself a way into the true nether portal inside the Castle of Doom. “Hoooowww?!” The voice of Grief screams desperately. Queen Grief goes mental. “Nooo.. NO!.. NOOOO!” She shouts, as apparently the Cherigon made its way into the home of Queen Grief in the Nether. A very loud, mortal sounding explosion sounds from the Castle of Doom. Everyone is knocked back by the blast and starts to run back to the war camp. “RUUN!” the generals shout. “RUN! This is not far enough!” We run back into the war camp. “TO THE AIRSHIPS! We got to get out of here!” Queen Leminth shouts, her voice skips. An earth wrenching screeching sound of stone and metal, as the Castle of Doom starts to fall to ruin. We board the airships, taking our wounded with us. Some found the time to take some dead as well. We depart. A calamitous crashing and a thunderous detonation… Our queen rubs her ears, one eye closed. General Legion smirks. In an uproarious shout “I hope you like the taste of cold iron!” Legion yells…

Queen Grief yells. She calls for Tavish. It is like Tavish is killed by the impact of the Cherigon. “NOOOOO!” She screeches. “CRAAAAFTEEERS! HOW DAAAARE YOU!” The airships hang in the air, but Queen Leminth orders them to get back down. “We are not done yet, listen to the words and keep your blades ready!” She yells. “My people! Not agaaaain, noooo! If I…. have to myself…” Queen Grief seems to calm down. This is more terrifying then when she was angry. The Cherigon destroyed her world and now she comes to take ours. She appears before us, an enormous ball-shaped portal clouds every light from the sky. She comes to us. Everyone panics, even the queen and the generals shout against each other. Trying to comprehend what is happening. Queen Leminth orders General Legion and Naelwyn to do something about this horror, but they do not know how. The earth shakes and an enormous hole opens up before the war camp. Kharn shouts to Legion. “How long do we have?!” But Legion does not know. “I cannot stop this…” He just says. “The Kings were supposed to guard for things like this…” The minds of the soldiers are overloaded. They scream of fear. General Grimar goes silent in awe and Arcturus keeps asking what terror might come out of such a huge portal. Legion replies that the intention of such a portal might be for Queen Grief to come through herself. Somehow she managed to get passed the Cherigon. “Damn it! We had her cornered!” Legion shouts. “Stop that thing!” Leminth yells, but neither Naelwyn nor legion knows how to. “I don’t… I don’t think I can close this portal.” Legion whispers. Giant tentacles now shoot up from the hole that was formed in front of the camp. The hugest, thickest tentacles of corruption I have ever seen. The two tentacles keep growing and growing, thicker and wider, longer and heavier. “We need to get as many people out of here as possible!” Shouts the ranger Ced. He starts lifting the terrified soldiers up to guide them to the airships.

Chapter Nine
“Then we are in accord… It must be done?” A deep, commanding voice sounds through the air, overruling the screams of agony the soldiers cry. The tentacles of corruption seem to freeze. “I am in accord…” Another voice sounds, more tender, yet charismatic. The queen’s head snaps up to the skies. The soldiers go silent all of the sudden, glancing up the sky. “I am in accord…” The third voice says, deeper and thunderous. Dwarf King Seth looks up amazed. “Never woul’ ae believe ae’d live ter see this.” He bows his head. General Arcturus folds his hands and kneels. Others, not knowing what is going on, follow his example and kneel as well. “What in god’s name…” Grimar whispers while he stands and looks up to the skies. “I am in accord.” Sounds a tender and important fourth voice. Kharn now understands as well and kneels as much as a man can kneel. Then a fifth voice says “Sarah… I’m sorry. I am in accord.” The voice is sad, yet powerful.

Sarah… That was the name Queen Grief used to have before she went mad with grief for what faith had decided to put onto her. Small bands of light wrap around the corruption tentacles, causing the corruption to be purged from them, leaving a hollow skeleton behind. The bands of light also wrap around the huge ball-shaped portal… People all scream in wonder of what is happening and talk amongst themselves about the former name of Queen Grief, when suddenly. “SILENCE!” Queen Leminth shouts, angry. “Silence for THE IMMORTAL KINGS!”

They speak to us. “This is the first time you have exposed enough vulnerability, expended enough strength. I am sorry that we have not come earlier. The oaths, first and foremost, are to the people.” The bands of light wrap around the breach, the hole in the ground, pulling it further and further closed. “It’s for the best. We must. It’s time for this madness to end, despite any price to ourselves. The dimensional prison is binding, yet we still have power to continue. Do we end it?” The voice asks. Another voice, a powerful one, answers. “Yes…” Then there is an unearthly rumbling. An alien, loud, disharmonious humming. Everyone grabs their ears with their hands, hoping it will decrease the noise. The earth trembles and the sky seems to warp and shake, the sunset bending. As the sun crests the horizon, a small green flash spreads over the sky and all is silent. The people slowly lower their hands while eyeing the horizon. “Was that it…?”

The Queen quietly kneels, pulling her silver crown off her head. “The monsters are gone…” She says, then she rises, pulling the crown back on her head. “Did what I think just happened?” She asks Naelwyn. “yes, it did…” She looks more shocked than ever. “it is over… It’s done… It’s..” A grin slowly spreads across her face. Grimar shouts “It is over!” He smiles and spreads his arms, looking at the remaining soldiers. They cheer and shout. We are rid from Queen Grief, once and for all. She is not bound in a cage, nay, she is destroyed! Annihilated. Leminth takes a shaky breath. Everyone cheers and yells “Time for Ale!” Songs are sung. “Oh, to the graceless void with it, I don’t have to care anymore.” Naelwyn says. Leminth looks at him “what-“ and then… He grabs her and kisses her. The people that see it look shocked, awaiting the queen’s reaction. She slightly pushes him back and laughs gaily. Now everyone cheers even louder. “You dog.” She shakes her head a bit, smiling softly… The shouts grow louder and everyone sings and jumps. “Ale! Mead! We must party!” They shout. “We must hold a celebration in Riddleport!” Grimar shouts.

And so we have defeated our worst enemy. We have gained knowledge that the immortal kings still live. They appeared to us in our time of need, when nothing else could have saved us. Nothing else, but the gods. Why did the gods leave us to the terror and revenge of Queen Sarah Grief?
 
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Bartooliinii

An Alteran Bard
Patron
Retired Staff
Pronouns
He/Him
Slimy_Froggy
Slimy_Froggy
Patron
End of days - sequel.
General Legion falls to the ground. He has lost all his purpose to live. His purpose, for over 2000 years, was to defeat Queen Grief and protect Altera from her. What is he supposed to do now? He sheds his armor and walks off, purposely to a certain point. A bunch of people, including Naelwyn and Queen Leminth follow him. He gets about fifty yards before collapsing again, he closes his eyes. His purpose… It’s all gone, what would he live for now? He opens his eyes again and frowns. “what do I do now?” He says softly. A breeze making his hair go in his face, but he seems not to care. He repeats even more quietly “what.. do I do… now?” Seth looks at Legion and then back at the armor that lays where Legion has pulled it off. “There is still more to be done, General” Naelwyn says to Legion. “Such as..?” He says, without power left in his voice. “Still ills in the world that need fixing, still many things that need healed.” “So what? 2100 years and I haven’t earned a damned rest?” “Just remember that there is still a point to things.” “Of course there is… I know there is a point to things, they just aren’t really relevant for me anymore.” Legion sighs and sits back. Then he starts frowning. “Something… Something is wrong. Something is terribly wrong!” He shouts at Naelwyn. Naelwyn looks at him in surprise. Legion locks his eyes on Naelwyn, grabbing him by the collars of his shirt with both hands. “What do you talk of, Legion?” He asks desperately. “The oracle stone gone dead, it blacked out, I’m blocked!” Naelwyn adds. “How can… HOW DARE!” “Can you identify this damn thing you are talking about?!” Naelwyn says. Legion is jerking at the collars of Naelwyn. “Selfish foolish evil bastards!” The queen narrows her eyes. “How do we stop them?!” He shouts in Naelwyn’s face. “What are you talking about?” Naelwyn replies. Then Naelwyn realizes. “This is bad… Very bad.” He says. Legion gets less infuriated and loosens his grip on Naelwyns collars. “They will never know… They planned this all along and they never saw it coming.” He gets his hands off of the collar of Naelwyn. “I am going to annihilate them.” Legion says. He walks off, retrieves his sword and armor and then gets on an airship, leaving the Queen and Naelwyn behind. She looks solemnly after Legion and then turns to Naelwyn. “What is this new threat we face? Be clear about it!” She orders Naelwyn to speak…

Naelwyn finds it hard to speak. He looks desperate and sweat drips down from his forehead “..I..” He manages to say. “Spit it out!” The queen orders him. He stands straight and in one breath tells her his thoughts…

I see Queen Leminth of Arduin enter the War-camp, where everyone is gathered in or in front of the medical bay. The medical bay is stacked with wounded, I see now that more people survived the war than I thought initially. “People of Altera!” She drives our attention to herself by pausing. She looks at the rising sun solemnly. Like she is talking to the sun itself, instead of us, she continues. The sun puts an orange glow over her face and armor. She twitches her mouth into a slight smile. “It is done…” She starts. “Grief is gone. We have fallen an enemy untouchable for over two-thousand years. Yet we did not work alone. We worked together with friends, family, even enemies beside us… And the support of being, I cannot comprehend, let alone describe! This struggle, it is done… With the immortal kings’ power, our people are…” She pauses, as if she is unsure. “..safe.” She looks down, her small smile runs away from her face and her mouth grows grim. “Something has happened, with the movement of the great ones that have ultimately ended this war. Something that will be a struggle in itself. There are changes taking place within the Divines. Something I dare not speak of before we know exactly why this tragedy is coming to take place.” She stops for a long time now, looking away from the sun, at Naelwyn and then back to us. “The gods are fighting…” She pauses again, looking as if it pains her. “Fighting the immortal kings…”

The end of the end of days.
 

Bartooliinii

An Alteran Bard
Patron
Retired Staff
Pronouns
He/Him
Slimy_Froggy
Slimy_Froggy
Patron
There you have it :) The full story! @Michcat can you put it at the exodus campaign section of the forum and delete the other threads of the story in fragments, please?
 

Valonyx

Lord of Altera
Might want to check the part where the portals come back alive and mich separes the army in three parts, t'was actually general arcturus on the left side, general grimar on the right side and mich + seth on the middle.

Other then that, pretty epic! :)
 

MRPolo13

The Arbiter of the Gods
Sweet Mary mother of God that is a lot of writing... o-o

Shame you didn't include how I slain a demon or how we captured another demon thanks to me :p
 
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Lannis

You've yeed your last haw
Staff member
Admin
Events Staff
In-Game Tech Staff
Lore Staff
Server Outreach
Server Owner
Shadow Owner
*Sits and purrs quietly, stroking the letters* the different combinations of 24 letters sure is marvelous~
...24? ;P
Certainly is marvelous, though
 

Ced

Mountain Bum
Merchant
Retired Staff
MossyMorel
MossyMorel
Merchant
I almost cried with pride when Ced shot that Dragon down :heart:
 

ACU20

Legend of Altera
Oh nice i was in the story! just saying a pretty funny thing i was under the dragon while fighting it! :D

And then i had to stab it in the stomach and then dig my way through it.....yum.
 
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Bartooliinii

An Alteran Bard
Patron
Retired Staff
Pronouns
He/Him
Slimy_Froggy
Slimy_Froggy
Patron
Sometimes the battle was hard to follow, because I went out of range of several roleplay chats. I'm glad you guys correct the story so that the ones who weren't there know a bit more. Writing this took me over 12 hours, you can understand why I adore the replies given to the story :)
 
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