The throne room was silent. The whole building made out of black marble with white columns that have red capitals. Near the throne, made out of gold with precious stones, there were two flags, one black with a red undead dragon on it, one with a skeleton in bright silver armour stabbing a pegasus and a greataxe with a red glowing light at the edge of its blade. From the windows, the view was astonishing, the whole Fog Tower was in view, releasing a dark smoke into the air. The ground around it was grey with no vegetation, only rocks and dirt. Skeletons passed from time to time.

“How did this happen?!” a shout came from the outside followed by the a loud sound of doors being shut.

“I do not know, it is in fact worrying.”

“You think?!”

Inside the throne room two undead creatures entered. One looking like human, but bones were showing and his face looked it was slowly melting, the other one looking pale with blonde hair, with sharp ears and long finger nails. Both of them were wearing plate armour, simple, silver coloured with a gem in the middle of it.

“When will he come?” asked the pale one

“Today and the bastard will not be slowed. How the hell does he know?”

“Spies maybe or he just feels when the others are missing.”

“Now explain it to me. Why my master is gone, a damn powerful lich that everyone fears and he isn’t.”

Their discussion was interrupted by the sound of swords clashing and the doors opening violently. Richard entered the room, his sword covered in blood and emanating dark magic.

“You should explain why the fuck I had to fight to get in this room!” he shouted, full of rage

“Slow it Richard. No need to destroy the whole castle. We are suspecting everyone so that is why we are not letting anyone inside.”

“Shut up vampire!” after making the vampire take a step back he looked at the other one with his voice becoming more and more distorted and filled with rage “I know you despise me Salarak, but this, this, takes it off into oblivion. I came here with two intentions: to see if the Soul Stone is where it belongs and if you have information on why your master is gone. I do not expect to be welcomed or for you to join my forces in order to try and find out why they are gone. And noticing the fact that I sent up a message that I am coming here and you still have the audacity to try and kill me?!” 

 Salarak grabbed his greataxe and pointed with it at Richard.

“You, who is the weakest of them all, not fit for the title of Grand Lich, cowering behind others, always trying to talk your way out, before you it was great. We all had something to do, fighting against each other, giving a meaning to this endless life. But no, you grabbed power from your master, killing it by betraying him and then feel sorry and try to make things right by convincing others to ban war? You are the reason we became so weak and now I shall fix this.”

“I did what was right at the time and Forrlorm had gone insane at that time, he had to be killed or he would’ve started a murderous rampage all across Titanicus, but if you wish to die here. So be it.”

With great speed both of them clashed their weapons, Salarak making great swings and trying to disarm Richard of his blade, while Richard was trying to avoid the swings and cut the neck of Salarack. After a few seconds Salarak made a great swing downwards hitting the floor with an incredible strength sending a wave of flames catching Richard off-guard engulfing him, putting him on his knees.

“Look at this, a Grand Lich in knees in front of me. And to think that Ygrasa is following you. Now, any last wor-“

Richard’s sword was inside Salarak’s neck.

“Now I see why you remained a boot-licker. I am surprised Maria took you into service. Next time, finish the damn job and then boast about it. I am no weakling, after all that is why I am called a Grand Lich. Shame, such a shame.”

With those last words, Richard decapitated Salarak and after smashing his head making it a pile of bones and flesh.

“Vampire, in the past days, have you seen any wraiths passing by? I sent them to deliver a message to the other Grand Liches.”

“N-no. We did find strange markings close to the tower, looked like there was a small battle.” his voice was shaking and he feared that Richard might kill him as well

“What do you mean there was a small battle?!”

A bright light interrupted the conversation, it came from the Tower, then an explosion destroyed the building in a second taking  Richard and the vampire in an instant. In a blink of an eye, Richard woke on his throne. Around him were Caleb and Dalak. When they noticed that he moved they kneeled.

“My lord!” they said at the same time

“Stand up. What happened?” he said while shaking his head

“Sir, you died. At Fog Tower, two weeks ago.” said Caleb

“Oh my. Well, fill me in.” he said a bit annoyed that he died again

“The fog around our territory has thinned out after the explosion, the Tower is still standing, but it’s damaged, we can repair it but it will cost us. Most of the Undead that were there died.”

“Wonderful. Do we know why?”

Caleb and Dalak looked at each other. They didn’t dare to look at Richard.

“Well Sir, you see…”

“Our Soul Stone was stolen.”

Richard rose up and he started to walk outside.

“I do not want to be disturbed anymore. We shall discuss tomorrow.”

He didn’t wait for their response. Outside it was day, cloudy, but he could see bits of the sky. Then he looked to the north, fields of nothing touched for mere seconds by the sunlight. Rage started to take him. Lightning started to come out his hands. He looked for a close target, a warehouse, 6 meters tall and 8 meters long. He razed it in a second with a lightning bolt. Then he teleported to an empty field and went all day and night using spells just to clear his rage. Most of his servants just watched from the palace the light show coming from the distance. Rek’Ra was worried about it, while Ygrasa was just annoyed. The next day he met again with Caleb and Dalak to know what happened.

“Our border guards noticed an increased activity from the Bishopry, Nothoria and Arctic Wizards. It appears that after the explosion, everyone has taken an interest. Tomorrow there is a festival in Zalmoxia and rumours are that there will be an offer for a big quest.”

“We should send someone there, I guess they count that being a capital city, it will attract a lot of attention from the adventurers.”

“Yes, yes. And it seems that you are the only Grand Lich not missing.”

“How?”

“We received messages from the liches down south, they said that their Grand Lich is missing as well. Most of them have pledged their loyalty towards you. Except for some characters that still see you as weak.”

“Do they have a big influence?”

“No.”

“Then ignore them, if they bother us, kill them.”

“Understood.”

“Send the following orders: where needed, expand our tunnel systems so that it connects every patch of land under my rule, all movement outside of those tunnels is forbidden except for emergencies, scouting parties and reinforcements if need be. The dragons will not like the most I guess, but they must respect it. We do not need to have more losses to an enemy that we still do not know about.”

“It shall be done.”

“By the way, what was the damage on me?”

Caleb looked at Dalak and Dalak at Richard.

“It looked like radiant damage sir, most likely a spell from an inquisitor or paladin.”

“How the hell did they get inside…”

“We still do not know sir. Also the purple star in the sky. It fell two days ago. Somewhere between Nothoria and Belericus. We didn’t do anything because we wanted for your order.”

“It is fine Dalak. Do no forget to send someone to Zalmoxia, wait. I will go myself.”

“Sir?!”

“I know, I know. But I need to take off this situation off my mind. Do not worry, I will always have a connection to Jal’Roc. And a teleportation spell will be prepared so that I will escape if I am discovered. There is one thing though. Are there still sirens in the Sauldasus River?”

“Y-yes sir. I still object you going alone in the territory.”

“I shall be fine Dalak. Now, about the siren. Send someone good there to negotiate a pact with it. We protect her and she sends us bodies.”

“It shall be done.”

“Then I am off. Remember, those orders are to be followed like your own existence depends on it.” Richard said while leaving the throne room

After a while Caleb chuckled.

“How the hell is he still alive…”

“I guess he is lucky.”

Richard went into the treasury room to look for equipment to use in his travels that will not attract a lot of attention. He saw his old equipment: a shortsword, a spear and bronze armour with a helmet.

“Thinking about the past?” a voice was behind him, calm and familiar

Richard looked behind him and saw a Rek’Ra, but not in his usual form. He looked like a dragonborn, white scales with yellow eyes and two small horns on his nose. He was wearing leather armour with a staff in his right hand.

“Somewhat. Do not tell me you want to join me.”

“I want to. It is my duty after all.”

“Huh.” Richard sighted “I believe you are a sorcerer now?”

“Yes, but with some tricks. I am actually more powerful than most sorcerers.”

“Haha. Do not let it go over your head.”

They both laughed.

“Why are you leaving when they need you the most?”

“I am not leaving Rek. I just thought that I need to see what is beyond that fog and try to make new memories. The old ones already faded away and all that is left is anger and sadness.”

“I see… Then, let us both travel and see how the world has changed in the past- wait. How much has been since your last trip?”

Richard looked him directly in the eye

“Two hundred years.”

“Damn. That is a lot.”

“Indeed. And when you spend most of those years meditating and trying to sleep, I feel that I wasted those years. Not that it matters that much since I live forever, but I could’ve done something. Create, travel, fight, maybe even love something. I mean the only thing that I am still curious is what is beyond the ocean or what lives inside of it. And now I have the chance to move on. And I will not waste it.”

“You did not waste those years. You chased what you wanted the most. Peace. And I think you caught it for a brief period, but you were not satisfied with it, you wanted something more, you can change Richard, even though you are a lich, you still have a soul and a mind. As long those are there, you can live how you want. No one is to judge.”

Richard walked close to the table and tried to feel it like he was alive. To feel something beyond the could touch of his bones.

“I need to change. Peace was just a way to escape the need to change. I believed that if  I do not want anything and I just stay in my place, I will be fine and no one would disturb me, but the world does not care and look where we are.”

Rek looked at him for a bit. Chuckled and grabbed a dagger that was dark in colour.

“Have you ever seen the gods Richard?”

Richard looked surprised at him. He never thought that gods do exist, but before his death he was believing with all his heart that there was someone in the sun or at least the sun was one. After his death in a battle against Ygrasa and some liches, where his faith was shattered when his prayers were not answered even though he was believing with such will and might. That memory is still generating anger against the Faith and from that moment he stopped believing that there were gods.

“No, I do not think there are any.”

“Oh, do not be like that. Ygrasa may remember something about our father Ragnasar. As for me, I haven’t seen them. But I believe they are there for us.”

“Isn’t it accepted that they died in the Elemental War?”

“Yes, but no one said that Ragnasar died then, he is somewhere. After all it is because of him that you are immortal now.”

“I do not know Rek. I’ll talk to Ygrasa. Also, saying that Ragnasar is our father is weird.”

“How would you call him then? He created the Fog Tower and gave the power of necromancy.”

“Our master, our lord.”

“It does not sound well. I shall call him however I want to, while you will call him however you want.”

“Matter settled then.” he grabbed a gold coin “Hah, they still use the old coins, you would think that they will mint more with the face of their Princeps.”

“Well Princeps Vladimir of Belericus is more of a humble person. At leas Jal’Roc claims it.”

“Well, we will find out in our travels. I grabbed around fifty gold coins, should suffice for a period before we can make our own money.”

“How will you look?”

“Most of the time I will wear plate armour to hide my body, but if needed I will change my appearance to look like a middle-aged man with brown hair and with a beard.”

“Alright. Let’s go then.”

“Yeah. Let’s go.”

Both of them left the room at the same time. In charge of things, remained his council and they only wanted to get the job done, the only problem between them was always of how it should be done, that is why most of the times Richard imposed his will on them and took the decision alone. Richard and Rek’Ra were travelling towards Zalmoxia, capital city of Nothoria, to participate at the festival and to see what is the rumour about a major quest where all adventurers were invited to take part of.