A crossroads, four different paths leading to vastly different places. Starting from where Erik stood, slowly turning around as he faced each path in turn.

Red & brass, black & pink, green & yellow and finally blue and purple were the defining colours of each path.

Erik slowly came to a halt, but his vision had become fourfold as he gazed intently down each path.

‘Join us! Fighting without end, strong opponents innumerable and blood to slake the thirst that parches your being!’ – Came one voice, coarse and rugged, grating like coarse sand.

‘Come to us! Wallow in unearthly pleasures, taste the most forbidden delicacies and do as you wish to whomever, wherever, whatever!’ – Another voice, soft like silk and sensual as to melt one’s bones.

‘Why make such great efforts? All will come in due time and all that’s needed is to wait. Wait with patience and all is well. Why waste effort on things meant to be?’ – A third voice, deep and languid.

‘Caw! Your ways are many and changes great! We wish to debate, plot and plan, to play the truest game with you!’ – A final voice, shrill like a bird’s, made itself known.

Each voice spoke at once in unison, each making different promises if Erik only took a step towards them.

Time passed infinitely slowly, yet Erik was sure an eternity must have passed in this strange place.

‘Who am I? Where is this place? What am I doing and what should I do?” – He pondered silently, his thoughts screaming away into the surrounding void.

“Who you are is irrelevant, this place is fake until it isn’t and what you will do is only yours to decide, or you will be bound as a slave for eternity.” – A fifth voice came, a small tremor travelling through space at the unexpected interloper’s presence.

The crossroads changed and a fifth path opened up, though which path bordered which continued to wriggle and shift.

At the end of this fifth path, there were no grand promises for easy power or pleasure. A deep darkness dwelt there, with naught but the promise of war and Ruin.

Erik saw a clear, single eye glowing in the dark and slowly a figure approached.

Clad in all black, a grand horned helmet covered in glowing runes with a prominent eight-pointed star fastened to the black cuirass astride a nightmarish horse equal in size to Al-Gheist, the figure stretched out its empty hands to Erik.

“The Four are powerful but their promises hollow, offering endlessly but never contentedly, only to be discarded once your usefulness is over.

I have nothing to offer but my Word, a promise to reward and respect, an Oath bound by our being as well as a future of hardship. And finally, a challenge.

For naught but a King can stand with the Everchosen and a King you yet are not.

Now, return. And make your choice through your actions, rather than impulse in this fever dream.”

“””Return, return… the Champion must return and choose””” – The voices echoed as Erik’s vision faded into blackness.

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All Erik heard was the sound of waves crashing on the sand and a wailing wind lashing them on.

Uncomfortable, he stirred before sitting upright. Sand and sea salt crusts cracked on his skin and his eyes were glued together with the coarse mix as well as he carefully peeled at them with gritty fingers.

When the muck on his eyes was gone, Erik opened them only slightly, enough to see what he was doing as he took out a skin of fresh water, using it to wash off yet more muck and regain a bit of clarity.

He felt like he dreamt for a long time, yet his memories were hazy and disturbed while a pounding headache made itself known in full force.

“Storm, swept away, not-quite shipwrecked, but washed up on shore. Okay, I can go from there.” – Erik softly muttered as he ignored his pounding head.

Stripping naked, Erik then performed a freaky ability that came with the levelled up Regeneration. He could now activate it without the presence of an actual wound, allowing Erik to moult his old skin for a new one, getting rid of all the sand that got stuck in his body’s crevices and all the other grime his quick face-wash didn’t remove.

Even the hair came off but quickly regrew after Erik devoured almost 10kg of salted fish to regain the exerted energy.

Refreshed and after incinerating the creepy skin-husk, Erik took a good look around.

To the north and east the ocean stretched out into the horizon.

Towards the south and along the eastern coast, dead trees stood eerily in puffing swamps where ghost lights flickered amidst the fog.

Finally the west and along the coast to the north there was lush vegetation in the form of giant trees gathering together to form a vast jungle.

And right now on the beach, a few broken pieces of wood from wrecked ships as well as numerous Norscan corpses littered the silver & black sand. Already rotting and stinking as various body parts began to bloat up from compressed gas.

“Fuck. Well, at least I know for sure I’m in Lustria now…”

Erik went to check the corpses, sighing in relief when he didn’t see anyone he recognised and confirming his hope that it was just him that got swept overboard.

Rising back up from checking the last corpse, Erik reasoned through his next steps.

“Okay, so judging from the swamp that screams ‘death, zombies, vampires’ and the jungle promises dinosaurs and hostile natives, I’m pretty damned far south of Skellige.

No idea exactly how far south, but a definite couple of thousand kilometres at least. And I’ve got to go north into the jungle to boot… Damned fucking shit. I should have more than enough provisions stored, but I really don’t fancy running into hordes of Skinks or a legion of Saurus.

Eh?”

Feeling a tug on his leg, Erik looked down and watched in surprise as the corpse grabbed hold of his leg and tried to take a bite, only to not be able to sink its teeth into the steel-like skin and refusing to let go.

“Okaaay then, dead bodies near a Death-energy infested magic swamp creates zombies. Noted.”

Freeing his leg from the newly-turned zombie’s hold Erik then finished it off by stomping on its head, squashing it like an overly ripe melon.

Seeing as the other corpses also began to stir, Erik spent the next ten minutes putting an end to their unlife before preparing to set out.

Without being held back by companions or a need to not damage his surroundings, Erik could fully unleash his physical ability and began to move at a brisk pace. He didn’t run, as per his own perception, but where a horse in full gallop would inevitably tire out and need to rest, Erik simply paused to have a drink of fresh water and a small snack before setting out again.

By nightfall and after some hours of travel, Erik reached the edge of the true jungle and was faced with a wall of green leaves and brown timber. The beach and swamps were left far behind, though he made sure to follow the coastline until this point.

“Following the coast will be tricky with the jungle this dense and I don’t know if the roof of this green hell will allow me to use the sun as a bearing point. Not to mention, I’m pretty sure I’m now on the south hemisphere, so ‘south’ is ‘north’ and ‘east’ is ‘west’. Don’t want to get confused with directions….

Now, where do I rest my head for the night? I think I saw a few nasty crawlies around and I don’t fancy a night visit from those things.”

In the end, Erik didn’t sleep that night. He allowed his body to rest and even closed his eyes to come as close to a sleep-like state as possible without losing awareness of the surroundings.

Good thing too, since he was repeatedly startled into action when a giant anaconda or cat-sized ants approached his resting place. Each new slain beast issuing another warning to the lesser monsters, but also drawing in the next tier as the night wore on.

When the sun heralded the coming of dawn, Erik had fought close to a dozen encounters of increasingly strong jungle creatures, but none were yet of any real threat. Nothing more than larger and stronger versions of the regular Amazonian creatures he knew.

But finding creatures like this on the outskirts of the danger zone that is the Jungles of Lustria made abundantly clear just how terrifying the true apex monsters within must be. As well as the civilisations that dwelt and thrived among them.

Putting away some of the beast bits he deemed useful, Erik took one final look behind him before diving into the gloomy dark of the Jungle, unaware of the spying eyes locked on his figure.