"Magic, it is the despicable and corrupting force on the soul of Man, its practitioners bring forth only chaos, ruin and calamity on the once pure earth that they stomp upon! O hear all faithful, thy must eradicate all who twist our Aspect Citranus great gift, thinking themselves betters their maleficent action turn our people against the light using promises of magnanimous power and falsehoods. Raise thy weapon for holy light, We are the warriors of our faith, let your mind be a citadel of faith in our Aspect Citranus and a bulwark against all who discredit the teaching of his Sacred Temple, this is our SACROSANCT!"

                                                                                                           -Extract from the Book of Alithea.

 

---

  

  Havdan, the captain of the flagship of Yorg-Berg during the expedition "Jormangonder", was observing the calm waters of the southern strait on their second day of the voyage, the sight captivated the venerable captain with feeling that even in his many years of being a sailor, he has never experienced. The strait appeared to be doused with blackish ink as if someone had spilled a vial of writing ink on its once blue surface.

 

"Captain, it's very cold outside, would you like something?"

 

"Tea would be appreciated" Havdan spoke to his attendant Vragi, who quickly disappeared into the depths of the ship. 

  

  Upon returning with the captain's drink from the south, Vragi handed the beverage to the captain and upon being signalled to sit beside the grey-haired, mountain of a man, Vragi spoke something that many of the soldiers of the entire expedition wondered.

 

"Captain, I was thinking what do you think we will find out there?"

 

The venerable sailor gazed at the sea-pup.

 

"What do you hope we will find?" 

 

"Well..Mm...Some gold would be nice or a great beast so I can make my old man proud," Answered Vragi scratching the back of his head from the unexpected question.

 

"Mhh...I am sure he will but I do not share your enthusiasm to do that out there" Captain smirked at the expected answer but quickly his face turned back to being a focus on something that the young warrior did not see in the dark waters in front of the ship. "Do you hear why the continent is called Forbidden"

 

"Is it like the Southerner thing, they are always scared of something or another?" Vragi said while digging something out of his teeth with his nail.

 

"The land out there is filled with horrors and undead, forgotten by the ancestors, forgotten by Heroes, forgotten by the gods themselves." Spoke the Captain in a slow but deep voice. Vragi looked at the Captain with a hint of fear that if he would to die on the southern continent he could not venture to the Great Longhouse. "HAHAHA... Oh, how I love the look on your face, come on now how can gods lose an entire continent, that stupid bard got me a good laugh when he sang me that tale, he was almost as convincing as the one talking about Beowulf and his adventures around the world." Havdan stood up from his chair and gave Vragi a slap on the back and smiled at either the attendant face or the saga that he just mentioned. "But going back to your question we will probably find Cyclopean treasures maybe even some living wyverns heard they lay their egg in the south, and even if we get nothing impressive this is paid by the dumb southerners so enjoy the sights," Captain told after he gulped the entire mug of the tea.

 

  The two started to have a chat and as soon as the sun rose high enough to illuminate the horizon, the distant image could not be mistaken, it was their destination but too far to see any details. Havdan ordered the crew to be rose from their slumber and to go on the top deck. After all the Nordlings stumbled onto the deck their captain started to give a speech.

 

"Alright, you land dwellers! You see that, that is our destiny we are gonna show those southerners true warriors and that WE ARE NOT A WEAK LAND DWELLERS, back home they will sing about our journey we will show that dam Beawolf how to conquer now LET ME HEAR YOUR WARCRY!"

 

"WAAAAAAGH!!!!!"

 

  The commotion on the "Jormangonder" caused the flaking ships of the Nordling to also start chanting.

 

 

---

POV Change

 

"Those animals always find a way to aggravate me, I wish they would desist their actions." Spoke Horatio, a Di'arch of the Oriripol forces in the joined crusade with Havenfall theocracy, idly sipping on wine. 

 

"Would you like more wine, Master." A girl with a silver tray asked. She was wearing a collar around her neck and a very revealing outfit that barely covered any part of her body.

 

"No there is no need for more." The young Di'arch said while idly tracing the girl's jawline with one finger.

 

  The girl looks at him with those murky azure eyes devoid of any spark of understanding or even sentience, she stepped back and went to her previous  position. He adored the sight and feeling of dominating a person so completely that they would do anything to please him. Horatio looked away from the girl and looked at nothing in particular but he chose to think way by the Aspect of Faith why was that relic of a human, Joseph picked as his fellow Di'arch, Horatio knew that the Geni'i in all their time spent reading their tomes, manuscripts and trying to comprehend the incomprehensible, they still possessed considerable amount of power in the Conclave but still why did they choose Joseph to be his equal. He had to spend a considerable amount of his political power to be put on the list of potential candidates, his own father the leader of the noble faction had to intervene behind the scenes to make Horatio the Di'arch of the Oriripol forces. Horatio knew in his heart of hearts that someone was working against him, how could anyone even think of this, he was the first son of the house of Rikass and a student and excellent scion of the most well know magicians in Edor. He could not be wrong he, in fact, he was always right all the failures were invariably the fact of incompetency or blatant sabotage on the behave of his father's enemies.

 

  Yes, that was obviously the truth but Horatio had to know who did all those monstrous acts on his person. While the chants of the Nordling beast long died down Horatio finally found his answer using his infallible intellect. 

 

"The Geni'i..." He uttered the name of the accursed enemies constantly putting logs... No, mountains under his feet. Horatio then understood their intentions they were scared of the great power he possessed but he couldn't eliminate Joseph now. He will use him to open the ancient vaults and seize the artefacts for himself and show the old mages who really wielded power before humiliating him before his father and the entire conclave.

 

"Master is everything alright." spoke the girl in a monotonous voice.

 

He realized that he was laughing more and more, over the cause of his continual discovery of Geni's plot. He stood up and grabbed the girl's hands and pull her into his hands while putting his lips on hers, caressing her breast with his free hand.

 

"Mmm I guess I can indulge a bit... after all, no one now can ruin my plan now."

 

---

POV Change

 

  An entire day has passed since the Yorg-Berg ships had spotted the land but when they arrived late at night they could not disembark the ships during such late hours without the moon to illuminate the surroundings for the risk of possible dangers hiding both below water and above. Iris had stepped out of the rowboat onto the sight of a busy building site of the crusading outpost a good distance from the beach. Iris looked at the sight beholding the mountains that were no more than three kilometres away from the shore appearing to be a solid stone wall that had encountered many attempts to breach it at the top of each mountain was what appeared to be a flat area as if someone has cut the peaks of as some sort of a joke and adoring each mountain was a crown of light-grey fog which was creating an imitation of a waterfall. Iris was compelled by her curiosity to go to a better spot to observe the scenery. She did not venture far from the outpost finding a large hill to observe from.

 

  The elf sat down and made herself comfortable. She did not worry about the repercussions of her not being at the outpost, she was far to weak to be of any use for the humans. As she sat her mind wished the humans below to be all  mauled by a terrible beast or torn to shreds by undead but at the same time she cowered at the thought of an undead freeing her from her shackles, she was scared, scared of the dark, the void, the uncertainty of death, scared of being alone. Iris did not notice when she began to cry but she did. She allowed herself to succumb to her built-up emotions over her life where she was treated more as an animal or an item than a sentient being.

 

"You bitch, What have you done!" 

 

  That's what Iris heard after being kicked in the back after spending who knows how long there.

 

"Answer or I will kill you! Bitch!" said a man in a Theocracy uniform 

 

"I-I don't know, I didn't do anythi-" 

 

*SLAP*

 

"You are lucky that you belong to the hero elf! Or I would already make short work of you!" the man roared at her but quickly looked toward the woods in front of him.

 

 After a moment Iris gazed in the same direction as the man and she saw something that would cause any living being to shiver. From the fog that lingered inside of the woods dozen of undead stumbled out of.