"O Great Goddess of life, creator of every living thing, provider of life and breath, source of all existence, supreme energy of the universe.
I stand at the threshold where the torchlight of the city fades into the ancient shadow of the wood. Here, I recognize the true order: not the ink of kings, but the law of the root and the claw. Great Goddess, guide my feet upon the needle-strewn paths, and grant me the sight to see the rot before it takes the whole grove. I am the boundary, the living wall between the hearth-fire and the howling storm. I seek only the balance that was here before us and will remain long after we are dust. Keep me sharp, keep me wild, and keep me true to the silent oath I have sworn to the soil."
After Hope said her prayer the life energy within her that was glowing faintly like a smoldering wick started glowing brighter and Hope was restored to her former glory, the dark marks faded into oblivion, her wine hair changed to beautiful shade of fiery red, her malnourished body returned to a state of nourishment thereby making her beauty return in startling grace.
Although it seemed Hope had undergo a full transformation she was still kidnapped, bound with chains on her neck, arms and ankles but Hope had a bright expression on her face due to her faith in the Goddess of life.
***
While Hope was undergoing a complete makeover, a few skeletons that had finished absorbing the cursed energy in the atmosphere observed her with keen eyes trying to understand the source of her life energy, they wondered why she looked pitiful a few moments earlier if she could just heal all her ailments like that, they even cursed softly because they felt pity towards her.
Only one figure had a neutral expression on his face, Diego seemed to know Hope would be alright even though she was at the brink of death a few moments earlier. He sighed softly as he continued to face the distance trying to remember how the motherland was a few hundred years ago when he was just a mere low class soul being, the atmosphere of Darkovia wasn't just a purple haze, instead they lived in a beautiful world where everything was a combination of light and darkness not just a purple haze as it was now.
At that time, light combined with darkness as if it was meant to be, then, the elders weren't fake legends that called themselves vampires who hadn't attained true knowledge only an imitation and then deciding to stop learning, instead the motherland was ruled by true legends who lead armies into war, lived for war, became legends after gaining true knowledge and were celebrated for conquering other nations around them.
Every 100 years, 5 legends were appointed to lead soul beings into the path of knowledge, that was until one of the legends, Death, betrayed the other legends thus in turn betraying the people. Death was banished not only for his insane practices or his experiments with the ignorant children of the Goddess of Life but because his practices brought doom to the motherland, the whole planet was slowly corrupting, darkness filled the land while also swallowing up the ever present light that provided nourishment for the land.
Everyone was in panic, trying to understand how they could save their home, in their times of despair they turned to the heralds of true wisdom - The Legends. Hearing the nation's plight the legends provided a solution although at the cost of their lives. They meditated for a decade slowly absorbing the darkness that was growing at an exponential rate on the land, although they were able to absorb the darkness, the force of darkness was too strong for their bodies to handle.
They addressed the Darkovians one last time, emphasizing the need for true knowledge while also appointing a vampire that was a little rough around the edges to lead the people. The legends floated upwards towards the peak of one of the largest mountain in Darkovia, exploding into a purple haze.
The newly appointed legend sent some of the best researchers, scholars and sages to find out what the purple haze was but they returned with no credible information concerning what it was. The soul beings in Darkovia continued their every day lifes slowly ignoring the ever present little cloud of purple haze, a year passed before they discovered what was going in Darkovia.
Over the months of the past year, little purple clouds were slowly gathering to form a huge purple cloud that lay above the city, it was both a curse and a blessing, they then started to slowly evacuate to other parts of their planet that wasn't plagued with cursed clouds until they had to find a new planet to reside in.
But now, Diego had a strong conviction and believe that the creature of life would bring light back into this cursed land and then they would live as true Darkovians.
Burning with conviction, Diego shouted:
[We depart at dawn!]
A few skeletons glanced sideways, others checked their weapons, others practiced using their skills and attributes and after all these were done they continued to slowly absorb cursed energy.
Dawn came and Diego's party started moving alongside Diego to the point he was directing them to.
They traversed many kilometers while taking short breaks to restore their bodies from the terrible curse that filled the land. A few skeletons were murmuring about how their journey would have been faster if they had just rode the bone wyvern to their destination, a skeleton jokingly said that Master Diego didn't know the exact location for where they were going and that was why they had to get down from the bone wyvern to study the forgotten terrains of Darkovia another one said sarcastically that Diego missed being surrounded by cursed energy and that if the others watched closely they would discover that his aura was growing darker and wider, the skeleton knights let their guard down and cackled together with the skeleton liches.
The skeleton pilot then approached them and told them the reason why the bone wyvern was not used to travel, he said that they had only one energy bar left so if they used it, it would be swiftly consumed for no substantial reason whatsoever and they would in turn have no way to go home. A few skeletons had a grim expression on their face when they heard the substantial reason the pilot gave while the skeleton knights were ashamed of themselves.
Fortunately for them Diego didn't hear them fooling around as he was busy basking in the old glory days.
Hope was busy enjoying the jokes the skeletons gave, under other circumstances she would join the skeletons in laughing but at this moment she was looking for every opportunity she could use to escape the morbid soul beings, it was because she was alert that she was the first to notice it.
Near a large boulder a few kilometers ahead a ghostly figure was slowly materializing before drawing nearer to the group. It took a while before the other skeletons sensed the intruder. They assumed battle formations while keeping their eye sockets on the ghostly figure.
Someone said the word:
[Wraith!]
Although Hope couldn't hear what the skeleton was saying but she still had a grim expression on her face.