Sitting cross-legged on a small stool in the heart of a misty dungeon deep within the earth of Vallmora: A girl with red and pink hair muttered mindlessly to herself as she shook a beaker of crimson liquid.
Squinting her eyes, she tilted the beaker.
Pop!
"Hm..." She tilted her head, adjusting her glasses with a confused look on her normally quite perplexed expression.
"Lichy, I don't think I can make skin incineration potions..." She shrugged with the slant of her lips.
The robed figure on the other side of the dungeon frowned... Or would have if the skin on his face had not decayed long ago.
And so his rotten teeth clattered against each other while the green energy resting in his empty eye sockets narrowly squinted.
"You should not be so carefree in times such as these, girl..." The Lich warned, looking down at a shattered catalyst resting on his poorly lit desk.
"How come? This world is so dull sometimes! Everybody is always trying to kill each other, I mean how long have we been stuck in this dungeon!?" She groaned jerking the beaker back and splattering herself with what was supposed to be a fatal potion... However, all it did was convert the color of her pale skin to that of a bright pink.
"Gods forbid we lighten up a little!" She huffed, tossing the beaker aside, kicking her feet up on her desk, and wistfully whistling at the ceiling. A cycle that had gone on for at least two decades now...
"You are not bound here-" The Lich started, only to be cut off with a groan.
"I said we were in this together did I not!? Besides, I've already fulfilled all of my wishes anyway..." Her voice trailed off.
The Lich sighed, looking down at his rotting skeleton...
"A talented Alchemist from The Golden Era is rare these days I presume... You could make a good life for yourself-" He tried suggesting only to be cut off by the girl once more.
"You really don't get it? My home is gone... Same as yours... Orion sacrificed that much already. Why would I want to spend the rest of my days living a lie? And why should you suffer alone down here?" She now looked visibly angry, her pink eyes twitching as she tapped the bottom of her shoes against the desk repeatedly.
"Carna... Lilith did not bound you here... You are free to leave whenever... You do not have to throw your life away for my sake..." The Lich lowered his head, a deep sadness festering in the core of his being.
"You defied Hell itself, and I helped... I deserve just as much of it as you do, and who knows... Maybe she will come back one day... But... It's best not to dwell on it. Come on! Let's play cards! We've been arguing for the last five-hundred days after all!" She pulled out a deck of cards, tossing it on the table with a thud.
...
Standing atop a windy tower, an old man draped in fine robes watched as the sea drove into the shore... Blocks of ice drifting astray from the continent known as Vallmora, crashed and quickly melted once they hit the hot sand...
The boy sitting behind the old man tilted his head.
"Why are you staring at the sea, Gramps?" He asked, peering his strange blue eyes up at the white-bearded man.
The man looked down at him, pondering deeply about all sorts of intricate threads of thought around the boy and his origin.
But he knew that there was no point in worrying, after all... It was the only way...
"Arcon... Promise me something boy..." The old man demanded, his ancient dark green eyes studying the very soul of the boy with ancient hexes carved into his eyes...
Arcon tilted his head, unable to even comprehend what the old man who had raised him was saying.
"Uh... Sure." He nodded, and so the several books he was holding up with his telekinesis- crashed to the ground leaving only silence between the ancient and wise and the young and innocent.
"You must protect the borders of this world... No matter what... You must keep the Mage craft of Avalon alive, and do everything in your power to isolate this world from all others..." The man looked away, his eyes drifting back towards the sea... Where a thick mist had begun to overtake the entire sea...
...
Deep within the Onyx halls of an overgrown temple trimmed with crimson... Two high-ranking mercenaries knelt before their lord... And by lord...
They knelt to the shadows of the temple... Quaking and grumbling as the shadows pondered.
The first soldier known by the codename: Yumi, spoke up.
"I actually would like to interject, My Lord..." He shrugged his silver-armored shoulders.
The shadows groaned in protest but did not deny.
"I have been putting quite the work into my espionage, I just think that you should try and put me to the test is all... My Lord..." His voice wavered for only a moment at the end, causing the shadows to snicker...
A grotesque and sinister voice hissed with humor... "Very well then, Yumi... Luckily for you... It appears we will have some visitors in the coming months... You shall prove your worth when that time comes... As for you..." The shadows highlighted the other Mercenary, leaving him in the only light within the temple...
His grotesque armor made of hardened blood shimmered wickedly under the lone light... While his blood-tipped black hair hung shaggily over his jagged crimson eyes...
"A band of merchants have just crossed the Northern border... Slaughter them... Loco..." The shadows spoke the name with reverence... Even bowing to the strength of the psychotic figure that knelt before them.
"Muy bien Maestro..." He chuckled, his blood-stained lips shimmering into a grin before the mighty force that stood over it... Even Yumi shivered from the sight, although he had grown quite used to the rivalry between student and master...
...
Natalia walked alone and hooded through the back alleys of Seh Jenah, doing everything in her power to get out of the city before all hell broke loose.
Her breath was ragged and drained, and her mutated Catalyst was on the very brink of its own destruction. And she did not wish to break her own oath by destroying such a powerful vessel...
Without looking back, she sped up her movements fearful that Veximus would come drag her back for the final battle... Or worst...
Suddenly... Out of the corner of her eyes... She watched as a disgusting humanoid being skewered several panicked Civilians...
That person...
Was severely corrupted...
A tear formed on the corner of Natalia's eye, but she dismissed it turning her back on her city and rushing down the sidewalk and towards the exit.
'I'm so close...' She thought, feeling the paranoia truly creep in... She nearly hesitated but realized that nothing was going to happen...
"Help!" A woman screamed.
"Please!" A child followed, darting behind a man who was wielding a broom.
"Get back!" He demanded, slamming the broom into the monster's grotesque skull... Only for it to snap in half upon contact.
"Lenny!" The woman screamed in horror as the beast launched at him, reeling back with his slashed up arm and-
CLAAAANGGGGG!!!
Tremble...
"Erk!" Natalia grit her teeth in agony as she braced the full force of what was once the mighty General Rayan of House Mayhem...
Her blade rattled against his corruption, unable to hold for much longer as she locked eyes with what was very clearly... No longer Rayan.
'What am I doing?' She thought, hardly able to bare the sight of Rayan in this state... Completely overtaken by madness... His corpse reduced to just another puppet of that damned hivemind...
'I should have left... No! I still can!' Suddenly the memory of her battle with Chase came flooding back... The pure rage in the man's voice, all for a people that weren't his... No... They were his...
Natalia let out a low growl, slowly pushing back the force of Rayan as a sinister and arrogant voice began to escape from his lips...
"Interesting... Although this body is quite forgiving... I am but an insignificant fraction of what I once was... Nevertheless, I can still kill a Paladin..." Rayan's lips twisted into a terrible smile, causing Natalia to immediately lose her composure and be sent flying into a shop's windows... A look of horror behind a stream of blood rested upon her face...
...
Civilians screamed in terror as countless eruptions happened at once.
It was an impossible situation, those able to act tried... And the guards stopped them, slaughtering several innocent people where they stood.
It was an atrocity... And a war crime at that, no... What King Phillip was trying to do... Was pure taboo... A crime against all of sacred law...
A young boy frantically searched for his parents through the dust and debris, unable to even hear his own screams through the agonizing ringing in his ears.
His knees nearly buckled... Or at least that is what he assumed, but when he took another step... Only to realize that the ground below him had completely collapsed into a deep chasm below...
He began to fall, and in doing so began to shut his eyes... Accepting the fact that he was not going to get to open them again... Accepting the fact that he would never see his parents again...
"I'VE GOT YOU!" A young girl screamed, grabbing the boy's arm and hooking her leg to a hanging metal rod sticking out of the ledge.
The boy opened his eyes, and the image of a young girl around his age came into view. Her vibrant hair hidden beneath a ragged hood, and two dog-like ears that just barely stuck out from her hood.
She pulled the boy up, being careful not to scratch him with her claws.
"Th-" The boy tried to speak, only to cough up dust in a terrible fit of pain.
"Don't mention it!" She yelled over the sound of explosions, pulling her hood over her face and braving the unknown within the storm of dust.
"Wait!" He cried out, outstretching a hand before she could vanish into the chaos.
"What's your name!?" He asked, causing the girl to cease in her tracks.
She turned, her vibrant eyes shimmering as she instilled hope into the young boy.
"Sable..." She grinned, vanishing before anymore words could be exchanged as she ventured deeper into the heart of the plaza in order to save more lives...
Just as they did for her...