Year 5515...Day 20...Southern Alfheim Continent...Ocean Border…

The wind howled as the sea turned from green to blue below the wings of the Sapphire Dragon, Dahaka.

The beast’s rider, Ahzi, turned his head to behold the world due east of him, which had become nothing more than a wall of spiralling storm spanning half a continent wide.

He sat down as his armour crumbled away. One shard, two shards, three. Cracks covered everything until his face was laid bare before the open air.

His skin and hair were pale as snow, his eyes glowing crimson red. He had attractive features, but the paleness of his face would certainly deter people from taking note of them.

He sighed and let the wind wash over him. The beat of his heart was loud and heavy, but he could not hear it for the storm.

The winds roared. The man took pause, he urged Dahaka to take its distance. The beast heeded his order and then snarled towards the storm in anger...and terror.

Crimson light disrupted the storm, the walls of wind were rent asunder, blasted apart even, by the casual movements of a man in a red coat. Ahzi raised his hand to calm Dahaka down. Even the detained Fafnir sniffed the air and opened its eyes. Regardless of whether they be Behemoths, Wyverns, Leviathans or even True Dragons, all of wyrm kind detested Grimnir to their very cores, and that sentiment burned no less when aimed at the crimson destroyer’s army of Einherjar either.

The crimson cloaked man, one of Grimnir’s tens of thousands of Einherjar, ignored the snarls of the beasts before him. He met eyes with Ahzi for a time, yet there was only indifference in his eyes. The Einherjar turned away, he faded in the wind. Ahzi turned to look upon the north, where a light red glare shone over the horizon. He calmed his beating heart and continued on.

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The distant shores came into view, a port side city loomed on the distant horizon. Dahaka’s wings rode the wind, they would arrive in but a few minutes to that place. Yet the aged general’s heart did not quiet one bit.

He was pondering something, something that had been bugging him for a while now. He stared towards the black dragon, towards Fafnir, and creased his brow. Suddenly a rumble shook the sea below. Like a distant thunder, yet beneath the deep sea, a sound echoed out.

Ahzi panicked, he ordered Dahaka to rise higher, far higher than now. They had to get away from the ocean below. They flew upwards as a great wave rocked the world. Tremendous amounts of water were displaced in the next moment as a titanic object arose from below. That object seemed to move slowly, but only relative to its terrifying size.

The reality was that it crossed miles as men would cross meters, it was faster than life as it rose. That thing was revealed soon after, countless torrents of water fell back down into the sea. Scarlet as blood, with a sphere at the very edge, it was a tail, and naturally the beast to whom said tail belonged rose next.

Its head emerged, shaped like a pin, water fell from its crown long before the face could be seen. So many eyes, enough to be countless, covered that crown. The back emerged next, covered in a hide not far removed from a scorpion’s spine. Great towers, tall as mountains, displaced tsunamis as they emerged, yet all that came forth was the elbows of the beast, eight of them in total.

Ahzi stared awestruck at the sight. That creature was no different from the Einherjar before, only stronger, for it was closer to its master. The creature had the form of Grimnir himself, but two thousand years prior.

The man stared down towards the portside towns. Their ships, titanic Skithblathnir pulled by Leviathans, rode the monstrous waves unharmed. Walls and structures built in the ideal shape to resist, cut up and then redirect the water back towards the sea spared them any loss of life or, for that matter, even minor inconvenience.

Ahzi sighed, stared again at the walking, scorpion-shaped titan, and then he pressed on.

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The Nidhogg Empire was not divided up into Settlements per say, at least not the same way that the Centurion Kingdom was. They were divided instead into Houses.

The settlement’s class, from Bronze to Platinum, was ranked according to its strongest House, and since the beginning there had only been but ten Platinum Class Houses.

That number, sadly, had been halved over the years, but the traditions of the Empire held those five in high regard. These Five Platinum Class Houses naturally brought to their cities the same rank, and so the Empire was home to five Platinum Class Settlements that some would say were all Jupiter’s equal.

Ahzi passed many of these on his way to the distant capital. Days passed by quickly on the wind. He peered forward as the air rumbled. The figure he was crossing paths with now was a titan many times greater than that comparatively puny scorpion. With four wings and four arms, a pin-shaped head and a gigantic floating orb for legs, it scoured the land.

This Einherjar marked that he was now about halfway to the Empire’s capital from its shoreline. There were six such entities in the current Alfheim Continent, all of them retained the appearance of their master as he appeared a thousand years ago. They prowled the land, not caring for the plights of men, solely sucking up the Ash of any living thing that died within their sphere of influence.

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The days continued on, a crimson light covered all in sight. Ahzi raised his head in silent awe. He had seen the sight a million and one times, yet never could he grow accustomed to it.

There was a massive sphere hovering high above the mountain ranges due east of the capital. Within that sphere was a body turned up, wingless, armless, but still bearing a pin shaped head and long serpentine tail. The figure within had grown horns upon its crown causing it to resemble more closely than before a mighty dragon in form.

That was Grimnir’s main body, a Vanir on the verge of completion. Once complete, he would recall his Einherjar. Once complete, he would ascend into the heavens...and he would never return. Grimnir would soon go the way that Alfod had before him.

Unknown to Ahzi, but still key, was this reality. Rognir had been pressed to action because of this fact, for without Grimnir none could match Asagrim’s strength, none could keep in check the maddest of their kin. Ahzi marvelled, despite knowing none of this, none at all, he too felt pressed to haste...for once Grimnir leaves, their Empire would quickly, very quickly, crumble.

“We must conquer those savages before then,” He muttered to himself as the Sapphire Dragon spread wide its wing. They descended downward into the capital below, where their Emperor, where Sigurd, awaited them.