《Being Human (Completed)》


 Being a social shut-in (Prologue)

    Scrolling...Click...Click...Scrolling


    A lone figure sits in the darkness, the only dim light coming from two monitors in front of him. The person sighs, head in his palm as he stares into one of the screens "Idiotic hacking groups...server''s down again...Guess I''ll switch over to some anime...while I wait." He sits back into his arm charm.


    Click....scroll....Click


    William smith age 21,short black messy hair with brown eyes and average height. Staring intently into the screen in front of him, as if looking for every single mistake within his entertainment media. "Power of friendship bullshit, it''s all plot armour...." he sighs , even though he scrutinises it deep inside he wishes it was his world. Not the one he currently lives in, being above working age he is unemployed and out of college. He lives with his father''s aunt, who only gives him the minimal amount for food and bills for water and electricity.


    Click


    William pauses his anime "Damn..bathroom.." with an annoyed tone he gets up and heads towards one of the two doors to his basement room.


    Click........


    "Huh?" he turns around, to look at his equipment. He thought he heard something but both mouse and keyboard lay unattended. "Must be losing it..." he turns around again.


    Click..Click. Click Click Click


    He quickly turns back only for his vision to be flooded by a white light, source being unknown "What the hell!?" He moves backwards only to feel something tripping him, he fully loses consciousness midway to the floor.


    ----------------------


    Basically no time has passed, William starts to wake and feels the ground under him. It feels...different, the ground feels incredibly warm and studded. The fall might have also injured his head a bit."Fuckk! that hurts! Shit!, what the hell is this? Where am I?" Once he opens his eyes he finds himself surrounded by darkness, he is unable to see anything and starts to feel a little bit of nausea.The lights turn on and a bright cyan light engulfs the room, he looks around to find himself in a huge hall of sorts. Grey studded floor with a four storey high roof that seems to be the same as the floor, the walls a bright shade of green with six horizontal parallel blue lines emitting the cyan light. He is in the very centre of the hall surrounded by 2 large steps approximately 4 feet apart of elevated stands where creatures curiously stared at him. The creatures had a long slender build with long stretched limbs and neck with light greyish skin, long fingers with ball like bulges at each joint but a normal finger at the end, their faces differentiated from one to another similar to humans except for the nose being flat to the face with no facial hair,eyebrows, no hair in general.Their eyes were also larger than humans, about 1/2 wider in width and height with a great variety in colours and a whitish horizontal slit for pupil. They seemed to have horns bulging out of their forehead that varied in size and shape but only having a single colour being light-blue among them.From their backs grew bat-like wings which spanned when open to three times their own width per wing.


    They looked on as William sat there in the middle, staring, sweating, trembling, almost crying in fear of this incredible sight. One of these creatures flew down next to William making him jump up and quickly move backwards three steps, the creature prolonged its hand towards William and spoke. " Ahx rukzel niklar!..."The creature turns around and looks up towards a floating platform where three other creatures where behind what looked like a control station and speaks "God fucking dammit Reisn we even rehearsed this! Oh...It''s working now..." The creature turns and looks back at William who is now utterly confused and has currently wet himself. The creature extends an arm again "Please ignore my previous statement, we had some technical issues. Anyhow let me introduce myself and my race. I am Leisfol, the rest of my name is unspeakable in your lowly developed language so you may use that puny human." One of the creatures from the platform shouts down at Leisfol making it turn and shout back "What do you mean I''m being a condescending cun...Oh" Leisfol turns back with a strange look on its face and sighs, only to continue were he left  "We are, in your language, known as Atlantians. We have been watching over your race since it''s beginning and gave a helping hand in your start, remembered as Goddesses and Gods we literally grew you and your kind from the insignificant beings you started out as. It is a complicated topic as to what we did and how so we shall skip it,the important part is why you are here?"


    William still confused and trying to pull down his shirt to hide his leak,musters what little courage he has and speaks "Aren''t you supposed to tell me that?..." he questions the alien in a confused tone while shuffling away from him. Leisfol responds right after another sigh "Yes I am, the translation mechanism has a hard time sometimes with punctuation, we call it the author for a reason." William seems perplexed at the naming "Author? wha.." Leisfol cuts off William.


    "Many a millennia ago your race was not alone on your world, your numbers being an uncalculable fraction of what it is now, Humans lived with other races and beings that could manipulate a resource invisible and undetectable to you, a resource you today have ironically many names for but is most commonly known as Magic. These races beasts and monstrosities lived in your galaxy you call the milkyway on different planets but most commonly on your main planet, Earth. The centre of life in your galaxy and the beginning for your race, you were a weak race still evolving and was being highly effected genetically by an orcic race known as goblins as your race and theirs lived closely to each other and aided each other in growing and surviving being very similar to each other and as unadvanced.


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    Though unlike your green friends the other races took pity on you being not as grotesque looking as the goblins they helped your race learn for some years giving you key skills in thinking for yourselves, but after some time these races eventually started seeing you differently.Not as a fellow race who needed aid in evolving but as a lower race, a slave race. They did not see you as low as goblins who where regarded as monsters or even pets but you where at most seen as slaves, organic machines as workers who only needed the very basic things to survive such as; air, food, water and sleeping quarters. We knew your potential, we knew that you could strive for a much more incredible future than these races who enslaved you. So we decided that it would be for the best to separate your race from the rest. The basis we used for this separation was on magic as your race had little to no connection with the plane of magic, your only connection being a very thin line to spirits. And so we took those who did, and sent them to another plane of existence."


    At this William''s eyes opened wide, almost shimmering with curiosity "Another dimension?" Leisfol grins "Yes young one, I see that I''ve gained your full attention now. We have picked you for a very special purpose, you see your race as you might know is on the path of suicide, your world is dieing." William''s expression darkens "So you''ve picked some of the most prominent humans as survivors to go to the other dimension and abandon the rest...Sounds like a manga I read somewhere...or a movie I watched?"


    the sarcasm goes unnoticed by the alien "No no, you have been picked to be sent to the other dimension yes, but our goal is different. We are using you, one of the "weakest" we could calculate from the rest, on the basis that if the weakest can survive than so can the rest of humanity.." at this William''s shoulders decline, but Leisfol continues "You have been picked to survive and socialise with the other world that was separated from yours, it is humanity''s last chance and the Earth''s only chance at regaining it''s magical balance. You solely have been picked because if we were to show the best of humanity has to offer to the other races they would then have to deal with the worst later, not knowing how bad it is. Your fragile personality and weak heart have earned you this role to play for your kind, the other races have seen many kinds of personalities like your world has; Murderers, Thieves, Scammers and such. But they have yet to understand the meaning of giving up on everything, they don''t understand this as they do not have the free time your kind has earned itself, they strive to live up to their ideals and honour their houses and names. These things your kind has come close to forgetting.If this is not done, imagine the catastrophic events that would follow if even one of the races would feel above yours in anyway...War, something we deeply wish to avoid."


    William thinks to himself(Weakest huh?...Not very surprising but still depressing to hear...) William''s eyes drop to his feet, he knew it all along that he was weak, difficult to socialise with and over all a coward. In college he tried to make friends, but nobody was interested in speaking to him, some did not even notice he was there at times and when the lecturer would take names they''d commonly skip his as they do not notice him sitting in the classroom. He hated it, and never understood why he was like this and he had tried everything except going full punk crazy on personality and clothes as he had some inkling of self-respect left after all. He broke off from everyone, never really tried to accomplish anything and always got average grades and ended up failing college, being a drop out he found it difficult to not only find a job but to also keep it due to his now depressing personality and ghost like existence.In the end he gave up and became a full time shut-in living with his aunt who at first scolded him for more than a year but as he lied and told her about how could make money online and had many things he had to accomplish on the net he was sheltered by her as she had little to no understanding of technology and modern society.


    Leisfold speaks breaking William out of his thoughts "Your goal ,is to successfully immerse yourself in that world''s society. Learn, grow, make connections and finally live a life worth of your ideals, prove to us that humanity as it is now can live alongside these races and magic itself. William Smith, as we run out of time you will now be transported to the main city of that world, as this technology is millennia old their may be complications but we will make sure you arrive to that realm unharmed. Farewell human and that you might somehow meet our expectations." William looks up as if to argue "Wai...!" A bright beam of light engulfs him  as he is slowly merges with it. The beam dissipates, William being nowhere to be seen. "I hope, that you can grow to our expectations...It is yours and our only hope...Oi Rlhius turn off th... Kjulko Re....."


    ---


    Author: Rewriting.

 The intended destination?

    Tall trees in the thousands burnt to the bark, ground scorched and hardened this rain forest is devoid of life and ominously quiet.A beam of bright light falls upon the land shaking the dark trees making some fall to the ground, once the light dissipates a single figure stands in the middle of the forest. "do you mean...Well fuck me."  as William looks around the wind picks up (Where am I? Wasn''t I supposed to arrive at some city? Do they live in the trees?) confused he looks up at the tree barks who seem burnt to the very core "If something actually built on these I commend them..."


    He looks around more but the forest is too thick to see in any direction. A sound echoes throughout the eerie forest, a roar so powerful the very ground shakes with pressure forcing William to the ground. Face in the burnt soil he tries to look up into the sky above, clouds start to cover the sky he thought but after the "cloud" picked up speed revealing a serpent like tail at one end, the figure disappeared from his line of sight. Another roar, the ground shakes and the trees are blown away into the sky as William holds on to boulder he was sent flying into only three feet away with great force. A majestic yet terrifying sight presents itself for him, a serpent with large hind legs large wings for arms like a bat''s with grey and green scales that seem to devour all light and colour, the creature landed in front of the now crying William,standing itself on its wings like they were front legs or even arms. The creature being approximately 10 feet tall it towered over William baring its full set of razor sharp teeth and six fangs, four on the top and two on the bottom jaw. William noticed at the end of the wings long talon like claws emerged with a greenish tint at the pointy end, when ever the green touched anything smoke emerged as the green liquid like substance ate away at it. William then makes his final mistake as he looks straight into the beasts eyes, Pitch black eyes with green cross pupils and a fiery green aura emerging from them.


    He couldn''t move. His body did not permit him to, he could barely think. (I''m dead...I''m so dead) Is all he could think of. Paralysed by fear William stood there as the creature''s head back up like a snake''s ready to strike. Midway to William the creature is suddenly thrown backwards by what looked like an explosion of smoke, on the ground lay what could only be described as an arrow shaft with no arrow head but instead a gem who''s light dimmed out like a light bulb being turned off.(Wha... what? Who?..)


    William gets up and looks behind the boulder, he swears he almost wet himself again.A large black tiger almost the size of the serpent stood behind the boulder, it had red stripes and ferocious blue eyes. The beast moved towards William then turned and circled around him towards the serpent, on the back of the tiger a saddle was fastened and atop the saddle two women sat. One with short brown hair and red eyes had a slender body wearing a brown and green leather jacket with a similarly coloured skirt and a long blue bow in hand with a quiver of arrows that varied in colour on her back.The other who jumped off the tiger had long dark blueish hair with matching blue eyes, having a more built body and a tad revealing blue chestpiece and blue black platelegs with two long scimitars with a black edge and fiery purple inscriptions on the blade. The warrior looking woman charged the serpent who had recovered from the blow and had bared its fangs once again but this time striking forward to bite. The warrior who was mid leap towards the serpent''s head twisted her body dodging the serpents fangs ending up to the left of its face, her blades slashed at the serpents neck cutting it''s head clean off.She backed off from the beheaded serpent as its body twitched and flayed in all directions in a frenzy for a couple seconds, then falling to the ground dead still.


    "I''ll dispose of the head" The warrior moved in on the tiger and grabbed a large leather bag then motioned towards the serpent''s head. The ranger nodded back and responded"Sure leave the socialising with this young man to me dear...Not that he looks in any state to converse tho." William now blankly staring at the dead serpent is shook back into reality by the ranger who tapped his shoulder."Wha...Who are you? Where am I?..What was that damn thing!?" He expels a a load of questions, she simply tilts her head "Awful lot of strange questions for a child in these parts, you''re in the burnt forest. Did your parents never tell you to not play around in here? You could have...No... You almost died. As for that" she gestures at the serpent "Is a Void Wyvern, quite common in here. I''m surprised you don''t know, you should be the age to have already gone through beasts and monsters clas...What''s with your ears?" William surprised by her statement notices some peculiar things.The women are a foot taller than him even though looking around his age and their ears...They were longer with a pointed end...


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    "You''re no elf..."


    "You''re not human..."


    What the hell is a human? Does it taste good?"


    The two of them look at the warrior in disbelief. "What?! What you looking at?..." She starts blushing and gets slightly angry.


    "It''s nothing Leya" the ranger sighs.


    "As if you know what a human is either Rel" Leya throws the now full bag to the side


    "Of course I do, you''re the only one who sleeps at every briefing by your uncle, Leya." Rel smirks and postures her body and hands as if to mock Leya.


    "Fine, what ever you say mighty know it all." Leya abandons the argument.


    William is currently very confused and started eyeing the tiger wondering why it''s been intently staring at him as if hungry.Rel turns her attention back to him. "You the human... what a problem. The priests must be in a frenzy right now...You were supposed to appear at the cathedral of Zuess"


    William looks lost "Zuess?...what?"


    Rel sighs"How much have the Gods told you? human?"


    "Gods?...Oh,I am to prove to them that my race and yours can live together?" says William with a questioning tone.


    Rel nods "Close, you are to prove that our society will accept humans and that magic can still effect your race. I do not know all the details so it is better that we take you back to Rosevalt"


    William tenses "Rosevalt?Is that the main city I was told about?"


    "Yes, Rosevalt is the centre of the Elvin community and a prime centre of trade,diplomacy and magic for this world." She looks back at Leya who is arranging their inventory. "How much longer do we have to stay here? I''m getting bored and Rax is getting hungry, he might eat this boy up" Leya seems amused.


    William jolts backwards "Eat?!" He steps back and falls to the ground. Leya starts to laugh and William''s face turns a bright red.


    "He''s had enough of a terrifying experience Leya, cut him some slack." Rel scolds


    Leya sighs and moves forward to help William back up.


    "Since this is a special kind of problem we are allowed to use the warp crystal, faster way of transport than simply walking back" Rel takes out a pink crystal from one of her pockets which seems to have some kind of hologram inside, the sight of a beautiful city.


    "Just remember, was your call. Not taking the blame this time." Leya raises both hands


    "Oh how sweet, not that it wasn''t your fault last time anyway." Rel mocks


    Leya''s shoulders seem to slump down"That spider threw spider pods full of army spiders at us! I AM NOT GOING THROUGH THAT AGAIN!" She shouts and her words seem to echo throughout the forest.


    Multiple loud roars are heard.


    William''s face loses all colour


    Rel backs away "As I was saying, get on Rax and fast"


    The three of them get on Rax(William needs to be helped by Leya as Rax started to turn and smell him) then Rel speaks a short incantation and the pink crystal shines brightly, green inscriptions appear out of the crystal and rotate around them at great speed. They disappear as the inscriptions fall to the ground also disappearing.


    ---


    Author: Thanks for reading and remember to rate :D

 A new world, A new city

    Rosevalt, not quite a city and not quite a single stretch of land. You see this "city" is actually multiple floating islands connected together by ethereal roads made with magic, each island represents a house, a family. The larger the island the more power the family holds, but at the centre of it all lay three families who''s roots run deep in the ground of Rosevalt, a large castle stands in the middle of these islands. The castle is owned by the three royal elven families, currently uninhabited as each family is at their homeland preparing for the Human Ambassador''s arrival.


    As William warps in with the rest he feels strange, different, energy running all throughout his body making him feel slightly sick. "Is this...Ughh....Some kind of after effects of using a warp?.."


    Rel looks at him and inquires "What do you mean?"


    He grabs hold of his collar "I feel horribly sick..."


    Leya just shrugs it off "Must be a first timer''s thing?"


    Rel sighs and inspects William''s face"No it shouldn''t effect you in that way...Well it might just be a human thing as this magic was never tested on your kind before.We should take you to my father and the priests quickly, maybe he can fix you with some medicine."


    William starts to look a bit green "Lead the way..."


    Leya grimaces "Try not to puke on poor old Rax"


    "No promises" William starts looking around


    They made their way through the fields they appeared in and towards a large marble mansion, as they get close to the mansion William notices something, he sees the islands floating around in the sky.


    William stares, unable to believe his own eyes "And how does that work exactly?...Shouldn''t those islands... you know.. fall?"


    Rel seems thrilled to explain"They are being held up by magic, it makes it harder for monsters to sneak into our households. We''re on one right now actually"


    William "That makes me feel even more sick..."


    "Oh get over yourself wimp" Leya shakes him slightly


    "Yeap...Definet.....Ughh" William bends to the side as a stream of rainbows showers the grass


    "Woah woah away from the boots! AWAY from my boots!" Leya starts to freak out as she is sitting behind William and starts to move more to the back.


    Rax is annoyed at this and starts jumping around, Leya and Rel successfully hold on but William was not so lucky. In a comical sight, he is thrown off and lands right in a certain puddle...


    William rises into a sitting position "You gotta be fucking shitting me..." he''s splattered with multicoloured patches of....liquid....with bits...


    Both girls are laughing at this sight


    Leya taps Rax''s back "Ni...Nice going Rax"


    "I''m sorry... I can''t stop..." Rel tries to hold a laugh in from escaping.


    William is annoyed and deliberately climbs back up on Rax without trying to clean some of it off, Rax does not notice but Leya and Rel make it a point for him to keep distance.They arrive at the entrance of the mansion and hop off Rax.


    Leya grabs on to Rax "I''ll take Rax to the back"


    Rel nods and turns to William."Alright, Let''s go...Oh right your name, what should we call you?"


    William:(Right... things went so fast I almost forgot)


    Before William could introduce himself an Elf comes out of the mansion looking very worried and frustrated


    Rel jumps slightly "Father?"


    The new Elf looks exhausted "Oh my why...How? What are you doing here human? We thought your arrival was delayed!"


    "Oh..Uhh...I was transported to the..." William tries to explain but is eventually cut off by Rel


    "Burnt rain forest, we found him their being attacked by a Void Wyvern. Warped back here to come speak to you quickly."


    "Warped? Oh my you must feel terrible right now...Rel you exposed him to magic and unlocked his mana" The man seems slightly disappointed


    Rel glances at William "That would explain the vomiting..."


    The man turns to the door only to turn around again"Ah yes....vomit...Come on in let''s get you cleaned up my boy. Oh right what may be your name?"


    "I''m William Smith,sir?"


    "Loke Runewalker, High elf diplomat to the Magi Alliance, I shall be your guide throughout your journey." Loke gives a bow


    "Magi Alliance?" William questions


    Loke ponders for a second "Yes yes, everything has it''s time, I shall explain once we''ve gotten you cleaned up. Oh right and this is my daughter Rel Runewalker and that over there taking Rax is Leya Stesfal, who should be home training. Your brother''s been worried"


    Leya shrugs"Ah he''ll be alright, ain''t the first time I ditched him to hunt."


    Loke urges them inside"Hmm..Anyhow let''s go inside"


    He shows William to what looks like a bathing room, brings him a change of clothes and turns on a crystal that starts to fill the tub. After William has cleaned himself up and changed he comes out of the room where Loke and Rel have been waiting for him, they show him to an other room which looks to be a living room with large glass panes all over one of the walls giving a great view of the field and islands, they sit at a circular couch and Loke starts to speak.


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    "I''m sure the Gods have explained some things to you correct?" He sits at the edge of his seat


    William starts to become anxious at the prospect of answers "Yes.. I have been chosen to prove whether or not our races can co-operate and live together as one community"


    Loke does a gesture with both hands, as in preparation for a lecture"Basically yes but it is a tad more complicated, you were chosen not only for your average physic which is a minimal requirement for surviving in our dangerous world but also for your unorthodox personality and life choices. I would love to speak to you as to how and why you have decided to literally do nothing with your life but that''s a discussion for another time... "


    "Ok.." William shifts uncomfortably in his seat


    "Do you have any knowledge on our world''s geography, nationals and racial alliances?" Loke brings out a book, seemingly mostly images.


    William is also on the edge of his seat now"No I have not been told anything about all that"


    Loke starts showing William some pages of the book as he explains "Ah, very well we shall continue from there then. You see our world is about ten times larger than yours but only has four mega continents and no known islands or other small continents, each continent has grown and become it''s own nation, a single territory.The four continents use to have names but are now simply referred by the nation that owns them, those empires being;The Elvin Empire, The Orc Horde, The Drakon Empire and the Dwarven Empire. Each empire is mainly controlled by a prime race who holds most of the resources but shares those resources with the other races that live on the continent making an alliance with those races, there are three alliances; Our Magi Alliance who''s member races are; Elves(Dark Elves, High Elves, Wood Elves),Giants(Giants, Rock Giants, Treants), Faes(Fairies and Sprites) and WereBeasts(Weremen and SpiritBeasts). The Monstra Alliance has; Orcics(Orcs, Goblins,Trolls), Drakons(Drakelings and Gorgons),Mers(Mermen and Fishmen) and the Aracnids. The final alliance is the Trade and Commerce Alliance who''s members are; Dwarfs(Stone Dwarfs, Elder Dwarfs and Mountain Dwarfs), Demons(Imps, Elemental Demons and Abyssals) and Avians(Furies)"


    "So what kind of Elf are you two?" William asks wide eyed


    Rel is the one to respond tho "We are High Elves, the most noticeable difference is our height compared to Wood Elves who are approximately your height and Dark Elves who''s skin is different shades of Blue, purple and grey."


    Loke continues after her "Although we also differentiate in magic as well, each race holds its own specialised magic, High Elves have Spirit and Summoning, Wood Elves have Nature Magic, Dark Elves have Rune tempering and inscribing. Although all races have access to all magic types it is impossible to learn them all, it is common practice to only learn two to three different types of magic and having your specialised or racial magic as one of them is the smartest thing to do."


    William is basically off his seat with excitement now "So what is our racial magic? Do we even have one?"


    Loke:"The Gods have told us that your race''s magic although untrained has diverted towards Spiritual Magic and Elemental Magic, Spiritual Magic is the power to connect with the spirit world and to be loaned the power of which ever spirit you contract with. Elemental magic is exactly what it sounds like, each individual has an elemental connection, rarely two. Would you like to see what is your connection?"


    "You can teach me magic?" William asks, fidgeting with his hands


    Loke opens his arms wide"Well yes of course, it is one of my duties, to ascertain how strong a magical connection your race currently has as it will aid in the balancing of your world. "


    William nods "Alright, what do I do?"


    "Rel dear, bring me a scribing stone"Loke turns to Rel


    She gets up and goes out of the room, after minute or so she returns with a flat circular crystal, with different sections being coloured differently like a pie chart


    "Since your mana was already unlocked all you need to do is put your hands above the stone and pour your mana into it, picture it, your very being flowing into your palms and out into the stone."


    William eyes the stone "Will this make me sick again?"


    Loke chuckles "Worry not, that was temporary due to the unprotected unsealing of your mana ley lines, they are basically veins which reside in the spirit world and flow mana from your spirit into your body"


    William reaches for the stone, still unsure"Well... Here we go then.."


    William places the stone on his lap and hovers his hands on top of it. He starts to feel it, his mana flowing through his body as if he was tapping into a lake from an other plane of reality, he let''s it pour into the stone.


    The stone starts to vibrate, and his mana becomes visible to the naked eye, flowing into the stone. The stone starts to shine brightly and starts to float and spin uncontrollably.


    "By the Gods...William..."


    ---


    Author: Hope the explanation of the world was sufficient for now :), wonder why that stone is going nuts? Find out next time :D.

 Unexpected power and Unexpected guests

    Priest Keil Young an Elf with a long blonde beard and hair,greens eyes and a long pointy nose, is one of the High priests within Rosevalt, he with the two other high priests have sensed unusual magic and along with seven Elven High Templars have warped into close proximity of the magic, being the mansion of Keil''s old time friend Loke. The templars tense up as they sense the presence of highly condensed mana, as such is usually the sign of a void portal being opened or a certain legend that has not been whispered about for generations.


    Priest Keil knocks on the door and awaits a response, his Templars ready to knock the door down. Instead, inside quick movement is heard as Loke a shorter Elf with whitening brown hair opens the door and welcomes his guests in.


    Loke:"Ah Keil perfect timing, maybe you can explain this situation in better detail than this old oaf can"


    Keil enters the room ordering his Templars to await outside while the other two priests follow him. Inside he finds Loke''s daughter Rel and a younger man with peculiar pitch black short hair,brown eyes and...Different ears.


    Keil:"By the Gods Loke, is that the human ambassador I see here?"


    Loke:"Yes my daughter and her comrade found him and saved him from the burnt rain forest to the south"


    Keil notices a scribing stone in the human boy''s hands


    Keil:"Have you scribed his elemental connection already?"


    Loke:"As keen as always old friend, indeed I have and the most peculiar thing has happened, something I''ve never seen before. The stone couldn''t take in all the mana the boy put in and the mana itself became visible to the eye, also the stone did not scribe any element what so ever"


    Keil:"Boy, what may be your name?"


    William:"William Smith,sir"


    Keil:"Please, scribe again"


    William starts to focus again pouring his mana into the stone, this time quicker as if he had already gotten used to it.Again the stone starts to hover and spins at great speed,shines brightly in every colour it contains. The mana starts to become visible also.


    Keil:"My..."


    Loke:"Could it be he is keen to all elements?"


    Keil:"Impossible my dear friend, that would destroy his body. What you see here is something of legend, the boy is a manamancer"


    Loke:"Truely you jest?He isn''t even a century old!"


    Keil:"Unless our eyes show us an illusion, it is truth."


    William now confused asks:"What is a manamancer?"


    Keil and Loke look at eachother, sharing a silent conversation. Loke then speaks:"He is too young, there is no way his mind would be able to keep up with the toll!"


    Keil:"He is not an Elf, his mind processes emotions much more quickly than us. It will make it much easier on his mind, it should be possible."


    William still looking at Keil turns to look at Rel hoping for an answer to his question, but Rel simply looks at him and gestures that she has no idea either.


    Keil:"William, for me to explain what a manamancer is, I will have to explain the basics of magic first." Keil looks at William as if waiting for permission.


    William responds respectfully:"But of course..."


    Keil:"Magic has a multitude of categories, where each race has an advantage to one or two. Your race as we were told by the Gods are specialised towards Elemental and Spiritual magic making most of your kind fall under three mage classes, Mancer, Summoner or Spiritualist. Mancers bend their mana into the element they have affinity to, some have affinity to two elements. Summoners as the name implies summon spirits to aide them while Spiritualists instead of bringing the spirits themselves only take the power of the spirit and temporarily fuses it into their own body, by doing this the Spiritualist permanently gives some of their mana capacity over to the spirit and shortening their life span. You see though, those are forms of magic that were made through millennia of perfectioning incantations, as words can aide in the bending of magic. Manamancers do not use incantations at all, as they have the incredibly rare ability to bend mana itself."


    William:"What is mana exactly?"


    Loke:"Ah yes, I haven''t explained that fully yet. Keil may I take over from here? It is my duty after all"


    Keil:"Oh yes my friend, I shall not impose"


    Loke:"You see my boy, mana is the source of energy almost everything in the world relies on. Even your world relies on mana and due to the corruption your kind has spread it has been shaken to the core, unbalancing your world. Mana itself, simply put is like blood that flows within your soul not your body. Your soul and body are connected to each other even though they exist in different planes of existence. That though is not enough for mana to flow from soul to body, when one is within the womb the spirit extends the mana through realities digging its way to the body. If ones mana is too weak it is unable to reach the body and ends up digging a cove in the middle, this cove grows and grows over the years until its corner finally reaches the body sending a tremendous wave of mana through that burns the body from the toll, killing the being."


    You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.


    William:"*Gulp*...So that is why you were worried when you heard my mana was...what did you mean by unlocked also?"


    Loke:"When the Gods separated our kinds, they locked away your mana with their magic, preventing your kind from using magic. We have a ritual that unlocks your mana, also the same ritual used on those who do not have enough mana on birth to use magic, aiding their mana to their body. When your body was influenced by magic,alas mana, your body too started digging towards your spirit with mana. The seal made only blocked from spirit to body and once the mana from body to spirit reached the seal it destroyed it, connecting your mana streams."


    William:"Oh, so that is why I fealt that large flow of energy when I warped...But then why did I not feel that when the...uhh..Gods warped me in?"


    Loke:"They probably used technology that did not utilise magic, the same technology they used to divide our races."


    William:"So I can bend mana huh?..."


    Keil:"Indeed, your ability to bend mana makes you a great candidate for crafting magics, as it allows you to enchant and enhance at the very core of existence.The last manamancer ever recorded was an abomination of races; Elf, demon and drakeling. They in the end destroyed their mind and lost their sanity as it is recorded in the drakeling''s sacred texts."


    William:"Will that happen to me also?"


    Keil:"Your minds are much more fragile than ours or his, but that is because your emotions are quick to react therefore giving you a better flow of emotion in the mind. It makes you weaker to mental attacks but broadens your space for improvement if one is capable and wanting."


    William:"And how do I improve my mind?"(That just sounds weird)


    Keil:"Meditation of course, the art of emptying your mind and focusing on single things or simply emptiness."


    William:(Basically what I do when I can''t sleep or when I use to slack off in my hidden spot at school...)


    Keil:"I am not completely versed in what you can do with your abilities but I know that it is similar to element bending like fire with Pyromancers or water with Auqamancers. Focus on what you wish to create then bend it with your mind and let it flow with your body"


    William followed his instructions as he focused on the mana surging throughout his body and imagined a blade, a long straight double edged blade. He straightened his arm towards a corner nobody was at and let his mana flow, a purple blade of energy forms from his knuckle forwards slowly condensing into a sharp blade. William moves his arm to confirm the blade is solid and not incorporeal like an illusion,the blade seems to whistle as it cuts through the air.


    Keil:"Incredible, to be able to form something so delicate in such little time...You are truely a prodigy at mancing." He says as his eyes open wide while Loke, Rel and the other two priests are left with gaping mouths and wide open eyes as if someone slapped them stupid.


    Loke:"I can only imagine how formidable a power it would be at enhancing objects, and the detail in enchantment..."


    William:(While they muse about what this can do in utility, how well could it do in battle? In my many years of experience in MMORPGs, ARPGs and MOBAs I''ve never seen such a power. I knew what mana basically is but I wanted a more detailed explanation which I got. At least now my safety is slowly being guarantied with this power, as I feel I could do much more.)


    Loke:"Well then enough gaping at this discovery, if we do not hurry to the carriage the Elven Royals will be insulted if we are late."


    William:"Late for what?"


    Loke:"As I explained earlier, I am to be your guide in your journey throughout the kingdoms. Did you expect a couple hours of inspection and be done with it?" Loke asks as he is presented with a dumbfounded William staring blankly at him. "My boy this will take several months, transportation takes hours from city to city and days from continent to continent, sometimes a full week"


    William whispers to himself:"Ten times as large...."


    ---


    Author: Hope the magic lecture was interesting, I put my...as the mc put it... Many years of experience with MMORGPS, ARPGs and MOBAs to the test :D

 Not a chapter: Races, Alliances and Important Characters so far.

    Being human alliances and races:


    Magi Alliance;


    ¡¤       Elves; Dark elves, High Elves and Wood elves.


    ¡¤       Giants; Giants, Rock Giants and Treants.


    ¡¤       Faes; Fairies and Sprites.


    ¡¤       Werebeasts; Weremen and Spirit Beasts


    Monstra Alliance;


    ¡¤       Orcics; Orcs, Goblins and Trolls


    ¡¤       Drakons; Drakelings and Gorgons


    ¡¤       Mers; Mermen and Fishmen.


    ¡¤       Aracnids


    Trade and commerce Alliance;


    Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.¡¤       Dwarfs; Stone dwarfs, Elder dwarfs and mountain dwarfs


    ¡¤       Demons; Imps, Elemental demons and Abyssals


    ¡¤       Avians; Furies


    Characters:


    William Smith: Short Black hair, brown eyes; Main character, slightly negative and reserved personality, naturally suspects everything.


    Loke Runewalker : Short Brown hair, red eyes; Main-Sub character, Guide and teacher to maincharacter,High Elf, inquisitive, nicknamed(Family House-hold); RuneLord.


    Rel Runewalker: Medium Brown hair, red eyes; Main-Sub character, Daughter to Loke, Next to inherit the long line of Runewalker house-hold magic, High Elf, reserved and overconfident(Tsundere :P).


    Leya Stesfal: Long Dark blue hair, Blue eyes; Daughter to the princess of WoodElves, Wood Elf, Occasional airhead, Bloodthirsty warrior, Nicknamed; Berzerker Elf.


    Rax: Black fur, red stripes, blue eyes; Spirit Beast, Tame, Mastered by Leya, Nicknamed; Behemoth.


    Priest Keil Young: Long blonde beard and medium hair, green eyes; 1st High priest, High Elf, Attendant and old time friend to Ambassador Loke Runewalker.

 His journey begins with an abrupt stop

    William, Loke, Rel and Keil are currently waiting on the edge of Loke''s island, waiting for their transportation to arrive.


    William:"So what will transport us to the High Elf city?"


    Rel:"You''ll see, I''m not one to ruin surprises, also call it by its name Heaven''s Gaze."


    Loke:"Ah, here it comes."


    Off in the distance a figure could be seen coming towards the island.Closer and closer, the more visible it became. A white carriage with gold and silver designs, pulled by four beautiful Pegasi all of white fur.


    William:"Is that a Pegasus? Incredible" William stared on as the mighty beasts precisely and majestically landed in front of him.


    The Pegasi were quite large, much larger than any stallion, the carriage itself was also quite large with enough room to house twenty people on four rows of five seats having a small table in between each set of two seats that were facing each other with the middle seats being back to back.Inside around ten Elves in leather armour sat on the back seats and one Elf on the front who exited on arrival.


    Loke:"This is Left General Teskol, Him and his Elite Guard will be accompanying us throughout the journey."


    The General, was clad in White and Golden armour, edged on the guards and shoulders giving it a noble flair. The Elf himself had short blonde hair, blue eyes and many a scar on his face giving him almost a brutish look.It was obvious this Elf had seen Battle.


    William:(This much security? For what?)"Why so many guards?"


    Teskol:"You''re an important person Ambassador, I''m sure the dwarves would love to have you unprotected"


    Loke:"Watch your mouth Teskol, we have no proof!"


    William:"Loke, I must know" William gives a resilient look at Loke


    Loke:"Hhmm...*Sigh*...As you wish Ambassador. " Loke bows down his head in defeat "Back before the separation, The Dwarven Empire was the largest of us all, spanning most of the galaxy. The other races always held jealousy towards their grandness, the Dwarves''s selfish actions and iron grip on the market did not help that."


    William:"Why would that have anything to do with me?"


    Loke:"After the separation,us races aided each other with resources and rebuilding, most races except the dwarves and demons. It was ignorant, but at the time we all thought their arrogance made them worthy of that treatment. In the end the Dwarves stopped looking for our assistance and instead allied with the demons who were regarded as unholy and corrupted by our Magi Alliance. The Dwarves though did not blame us, as they knew it was their fault for their arrogant behaviour and they simply could not blame the Gods either."


    William:"So they picked to aim their hatred towards my race...The cause of the separation" William''s face darkened, annoyed at this revelation.


    Loke:"Indeed..."


    William:(So selfishness isn''t locked only to my kind....) He sighs


    Teskol:"Dwarves aren''t the only possible danger either sir, Bandits and Thieves still roam the lands as no society in war can hold a balanced community."


    William:"What war? Who are you fighting?"


    Teskol:"The void, we are at war with another invading realm. Over the recent millennia the void has been suppressed from our world, not counting certain weak species living with their counterparts."


    Rel:"Like the Void wyverns, they live just like other wyverns but hold the element of chaos that is a joint element; Fire and Darkness."


    Teskol:"Indeed, and as long as the portals remain protected the Void Hive mind cannot control them."


    William:(So as long as the races hold the portals they can stop the Void creatures from coming into their realm huh...Block the enemy gates and the enemy is no more?... Foolish strategy but effective for some time...To buy time that is...)


    Teskol:"Well enough dillydallying I believe, shall we go Ambassadors? "


    Loke:"Yes, let''s go William, Rel. Keil send my regards to the rest, I''ll be away for a while my friend."


    Keil who was standing in prayer at the mention of the Void responds to Loke.


    Keil:"That the Gods watch over you my old friend."


    The four of them climb into the front seats of the carriage, the Elf on the front holding the reins signals the Pegasi and the carriage flies off the island heading towards the south.


    William:"Sir Teskol, about the Void, why not attack their realm? Surely if you can keep them at bay you can push them back?"


    Teskol:"Young one...We did..." Teskol gives a sad look at William, then turns and looks at Loke


    Loke:"Two thousand years ago every race sent an army through each portal at once, we pushed the voidlings back in their home realm, on arrival we saw something even more terrifying. The sky was littered with portals taking to Gods know how many other realms, each portal taking into its each deserted land or corrupted landscape. We could sometimes even see cities completely deserted through the portals in the sky, a depressing view indeed. For some time we setup temporary lines on the other side of the portals, Fortresses stopping anything that would try to pass, but we were foolish.Only five years after we had setup the fortresses, it appeared, The hive mind. The monstrosity broke the ground beneath our feet, showing a large gaping mouth in the ravine that opened and swallowed all that fell into it, we knew that day that the land we stood on was no land at all. The planet itself was alive, breathing, eating and giving birth to billions of voidlings. Some like my father survived that apocalypse, escaping through the portal. Many died trying to escape and made others were forced to stay on that side of the portal keeping the voidlings back, while on this side the portals were sealed."


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    Teskol:"I wasn''t even born yet, and I still hear stories of the destruction....We stood no chance from the start to pushing them back, the Hive Mind...It had killed so many other realms it was nothing but a daily regiment for it...."


    William:"But isn''t the hive mind just a collection of lesser beings all connected mentally?"


    Loke:"Not exactly, A Hive mind is a collection of minds yes, but it is a mind still in the end. And that being... The Void Hive mind... Is no lesser being...No if anything it is on par with the Gods themselves."


    William:(On par with the Gods...Portals...Terrif...) William''s thoughts were stopped as an explosion was felt on the front of the carriage.


    The carriage was hit and two of the Pegasi were injured, forcing the carriage to crash land into the deep forest beneath.Everyone holding on to something or someone screamed and shouted as the carriage fell then crashed.


    Loke:"Is everyone alright?!"Shouts Loke as everyone gets out of the rubble."I was able to shield our landing, can''t say much for the carriage and the Pegasi though..."


    Teskol:"We will think of that when we come to it, right now we have other problems Ambassador. COME OUT AND SHOW YOURSELVES USELESS EXCREMENTS!" He raises his sword and shouts at the top of his lungs towards the forest and foliage.


    Out of the trees and bushes and assortment of Elves, Weremen(Were-wolves,Were-bears,Were-foxes and Were-cats) and a single Giant come out. The bandits outnumbered them three to one, surrounded them and aimed their palms and gun looking weapons towards them.


    Teskol:"Steamguns...Cowards...Ambassador, have any fight left in you?"


    Loke:"I used most of my mana to shield our landing...My daughter is unconscious from the crash..."


    Teskol:"Sergeant report..."


    Sergeant:"Three unconscious Sir...Uninjured"


    Teskol:"Well wake them up!"


    Were-Bear Bandit:"Aqa General, no sudden movements now, I wouldn''t want that pretty armour of yours full of holes..."


    Soldier:"How were these scoundrels able to procure these weapons?..."


    Teskol:"No matter now, without magical support we stand little chance...That said, men...ENGAGE!"


    The General and his Elite Guard raise their shields and advance in each direction, each shield taking multiple shots to penetrate the thick shields. All around William the battle raged for a couple minutes, every soldier taking with them one or two bandits while the general and his sergeant fought the giant who rose about 12 feet bashing the ground were the two had just moved from. William spots a bandit aiming at the general as he is distracted.


    William:"General behind you!"


    Teskol:"What?!"


    A single screeching sound ends the fight as the general falls to the ground blood splattered around him as the wound spills more. The remaining four guards stand in place looking at their fearless leader, dead on the ground.


    Bandit:"Round them up!"


    The bandits having lost around thirteen of their members round up the remaining guards, Loke, Rel and William. Having killed the unconscious guards during the fight and the sergeant who got crushed by the giant as he refused to stop fighting.


    Bandit:"Yo boss what do we do with the extras?!"


    The Were-bear with the other weremen shrink to human size with their features becoming less animalistic and speaks.


    Were-Bear:"Kill the three guards and the mage, the girl leave her. She will warm my bed" He smirks at the last comment.


    Loke:"No please! Spare my daughter! I''m a diplomat for the Magi Alliance! We have worth!"


    Were-Bear:"We know who you are Ambassador Loke the RuneLord, we do not plan to fight you at full mana however."


    Loke who was still holding the unconcsious Rel, puts her down and stands up.


    Loke:"You w...."


    *Schreeecchh* *Steam sizzling*


    The Were-Bear has shot Loke in the chest, then proceeds to shooting the remaining three guards.William sat in horror next to Rel, as the execution proceeded.


    William:"You monsters...."


    Were-Bear:"Oh please, I have a name. Call me Yog kid, we have a long walk ahead of us so might as well know each other''s name right? "


    William was trembling, fear and anger ran through him like wildfire. He wanted to get up, he wanted to fight but his mind was too shaken by the killings.He feels something touching his hand, energy coursing through it. He looks and sees Rel sending her calm energy through to him, calming his nerves and letting him think more clearly.


    Rel:"William...please....avenge them..." She speaks weakly, fresh blood still on her forehead.


    William stands up and looks around... The dead bodies of twelve men littered the area...The ten guards...The general...Loke...He would be called a liar if he said he was no longer scared, he was very much still afraid but, most of all he was angry.


    Yog:"Pissed off at me human? Come now, you want a fist fight?" The Were-bear shouts at William as he moves face to face with him, spitting in his face.


    William wipes off the spit:"You got close...Your last mistake..."


    ---


    Author: Next an epic battle!, hope you''ve enjoyed so far. Please don''t forget to leave a rating and comment :D, only way I can tell if and what I need to change :/.

 A reason, to live

    A shock wave of mana, Yog is sent flying back. Purple energy forming all over William''s body, pure mana engulfing him. He forms a sphere of energy around himself and Rel.


    Yog get''s up rubbing his head:"Hah! No matter if you''re a mage! What can you two do alone?!"


    William looks around and counts, seventeen bandits remained in total, one giant with five possible mages and the rest gunmen.He senses mana bending behind him and turns quickly.


    Loke:"They are not alone..."


    Rel:"Father!"


    William:"Loke!?"


    Loke:"Hahahaa...I may be old but even this Elf has some tricks up his sleeve..." He says as he takes out a cracked talisman, at the same time the dead Loke starts to disappear.


    Yog:"Illusion magic? Hah! You have one extra deadbeat mage without mana! I see no difference."


    Loke:"Hold them off as long as you can William..." He winks at William


    William understands what Loke is trying to say:(He called for re-enforcement...)


    Yog:"Hold us off?...Mages, Blast him"


    On Yog''s orders five mages start blasting fire, earth and water magic at William''s barrier.


    Yog:"What the hell?!"


    The barrier absorbed every attack, even William seems slightly confused and looks back at Loke.


    Loke:"Pure mana, it has no elemental weakness and absorbed the attacks''s mana."


    William:"But I still feel my mana draining..."


    Loke:"Ofcourse it takes mana over time to keep it up... You have no training in regard to mana consumption, your drain is probably massive."


    William:"So staying on the defensive is not a choice..."


    Yog:"Stop shitting me you brat! You stand no chance! Your master their is out of mana and that girl went back to sleep, you''re alone. Surrender now, we don''t have to make this ugly."


    William slightly lowers his head, hiding his expression (He''s right...Even if re enforcements are comming, how long will it take them to arrive? My barrier won''t last longer than ten more minutes...It''s over...I should surrender and wait for them to come, maybe leave some kind of tracks behind?...No but then they will kill Loke...I cannot lower the barrier and I cannot take them on on my own...I''m just one guy...What could I possibly do?...I''m useless, weak...)


    William lowers the barrier, falling on his knees.


    Yog gains an evil smirk, and starts to move towards William with his steamgun held from the barrel:"We were told to take you alive...Not conscious..."


    William:"Told?...." At this William realises something (They were hired...Someone purposely is after me...All those lives...lost because of me...) Flash backs occur as he remembers the general''s words.


    *Teskol:"You''re an important person ambassador..."*


    Yog is now a foot away from William, readying to bash William''s head with the steamgun.


    William:"He was right..." William sends fort another shock wave, sending Yog flying backwards again.


    Yog:"GOD FUCKING DAMNIT KIT! STOP THAT SHIT! Stop fighting and maybe we''ll leave your friends alive!"


    William:"No...I''m done giving up...For the first time in my entire life...I have worth... I have people who risked their LIVES FOR ME..." William starts to tear up "Enough of this....For once...I have a reason to live... I have a reason to FIGHT"


    William stands up, opening his arms wide. Raw mana surging fort from his body surrounding him completely, enhancing his body. The ground starts to tremble, and shatter, stones start to float upwards. The bandits break in a cold sweat and start shooting everything they got at William.


    After the smoke has cleared from magic and projectile hitting raw mana, a figure comes out. Still William, but slightly different.


    His hair turned white with strands of purple, his eyes light grey with a fiery purple aura. His body full of glowing purple rune like inscriptions from his forehead all the way down to his arms and feet.


    Yog being the only bandit able to speak after this appearance:"What in the four kingdoms are you!?"


    William:"My name, is William Smith...I am a good for nothing gamer, NEET and above all... A fucking human." At this statement William leaps forward his arms bathed in raw mana, he punches Yog so hard the cracking bones can be heard all over the forest opening, Yog is sent flying into two trees as his body was ripped in half from the force exerted.


    The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    Loke:"William hurry! You won''t be able to keep that form for too long!"


    William leaps again towards the giant grabbing his leg and throwing him over six other bandits, crushing them to death. He then proceeds to throwing bandit to bandit left and right until only five bandits remain. The bandits terrified from the raging demon in front of them drop anything they were holding and run for it.


    William shouts, his expression the meaning of pissed off:"YOU''RE GOING NO WHER....!!" The purple aura surrounding William disappears, his eyes close and his body goes ragdoll as he falls to the ground face first. He tries to open his eyes one last time...blinking two last images...The paws of a beast moving towards him...a couple more sets of legs standing in front of the beast...Darkness, William has passed out.


    -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


    Back in Rosevalt, a couple minutes before the assault on the carriage. Leya with Rax heading back to their island using the ethereal paths connecting the islands. Instead of a mansion, a large and very wide tree was located at the centre of the island, a tree with a white bark and silver leaves. Holes for windows and a door were on the bark, some benches on the outside and on one of them two Elven men sat. Leya got off Rax and was going to move to the other side of the tree when a voice called.


    Eltaor Daeo:"And where do you think you are going Miss?"One of the men called, getting up from the bench with a wide smile.


    Leya:"Ahh....Eltaor....I was just taking Rax to his grounds...."


    Alinar:"You worried me sister, weren''t we supposed to train today?" The second man got up, an annoyed expression on his face.


    Leya:"About that...I kind of forgot..."


    Alinar:"Still a child as ever I see..."


    Leya:"I''m 210!"


    Alinar:"Still a child. You''re a princess Leya, second branch true but still royalty after all. What would mother think of this?"


    Leya:"Don''t bring her into this..."


    Alinar:"And what if grandfather found out his favourite granchild was off hunting voidsters?"


    Leya:"As if you never went to hunt Alinar...."


    Alinar:"I was only a century old, and I went with father not with some random elf, not to mention the other six guards?"


    Leya:"I was with Rel! And Rax was with us! We were fine brother, we had a warp crystal with us."


    Alinar:"You didn''t waste another one...Father was not pleased last time, warp crystals are a rare resource."


    Leya:"It wasn''t wasted! It was an emergency!"


    Alinar:"Emergency? What ha....That mana..what is this power I sense?.."


    Leya:"This burst of mana...William!?"


    Alinar''s eyes light up with curiosity and he moves closer to his sister:"A male name...Who may that be my young sister?"


    Leya:"Oh calm down you''re as overprotective as father!"


    Alinar:"For good reason."


    Leya:"*Sigh* He is the human that was supposed to arrive at Priest Keil''s island, we found him and took him to Loke''s household."


    Alinar:"Eltaor?"


    Eltaor:"I can confirm sir, the mana presence is coming from Sir Runewalker''s quaters."


    Alinar:"Such mana capacity...Well then let''s go Leya, Eltaor call the carriage."


    Leya:"Where are we going brother? Alinar?"


    Alinar:"Home, sister. We have been called back to WillowHeart. The dragon carriage has been assigned to us for faster travel. Eltaor?"


    Eltaor has his eyes closed in apparent meditation:"The carriage will be ready in two minutes sir, there seems to have been an order mishap"


    Alinar:"Verywell... Tell them we shall wait at the Runewalker''s residence, I wish to meet with this William"


    Leya:"Hurry now or you''ll miss your prey brother..."


    Alinar walks off his eyes dark and an evil grin, with his noble attire, the two did not go well together.


    ---


    Author: Tried my best at making William''s fight give him the spotlight, they are simple bandits after all, shouldn''t have expected much from them... Hope you''ve enjoyed so far :D please leave a comment or a rating :). Also I''d like to ask, is this length appropriate or would it be better if each chapter was longer? I was thinking about it.... but my beloved cliff hangers....:)

 The contract.

    Eltaor:"It seem we are late Sir"


    Alinar, Leya and their servant Eltaor have arrived at Loke''s island, couple minutes after William, Loke, Rel and the Guards left.


    Alinar whisper''s under his breath:"Damnation,You live another day human..."


    Eltaor:"Sir!"


    Leya:"What is it ?"


    Eltaor:"An emergency signal was sent...The carriage...An attack..."


    Alinar:"Who would dare attack a transport so close to the city?!"


    Leya''s eyes open wide:"Rel....William..." She whistles , a few moments later Rax comes running.


    Alinar also whistle, another SpiritBeast follows Rax.


    Eltaor:"Sir? Miss?.."


    Alinar:"Inform my Father that we shall be late."


    Eltaor:"But sir surely the city guard will aide them?"


    Alinar:"They aren''t as fast as Rax and Kyl"


    The two WoodElves on their SpiritBeasts leap off the island


    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


    Before William proceeded to throwing Yog again.


    -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


    William:(I''m useless...weak...)


    An unknown force has connected to William''s mind, bending his vision inwardly.


    William:"Wha...Where am I?!"


    Darkness as far as the eye can see, except a large cage too dark to see what lies within.


    Voice:"Within your self, this is your mind human..."


    William turns and faces the cage:"Who...who are you?"


    A large beast grabs the bars, reptilian in nature, jet black scales with spikes giving it terrifying look. Eyes pure white making it impossible to tell where its looking, three jaws giving it two mouths with long and sharp fangs making up its jawlines.


    Raaoq:"I am know as Raaoq, the devourrer of souls and minds...I smelt your fear...your pain...your anguish...You wish for power...I can provide..."


    William:"Power?.....For what cost monster?"


    Raaoq lets out a foul laugh with his two mouths making a double effect:"A simple contract...Some of your mana...Your life time...And I shall loan you some of my power..."


    William:"My life time?...You want to make a spirit contract?...." William ponders for a bit on this offer (If I accept this my life span will be shortened as Loke and Keil said...Is it worth it?...Power for this once?....No...)


    William stops trembling, raises his gaze to the beast , his expression of one that is about to make a bet with the devil:"No monster, I will not give you my mana. Instead I have a deal for you, give me all your power and you will leave this place safely..."


    Raaoq gives out another laugh, this time dryer than the previous as if faked:"You wish my power for free human?! Amusing but a wasted effort none the less... and that threat...You shall wish you had the power to back up your empty words!"


    William:"Oh my words are not empty, you giant fool."


    Raaoq gives a confused stare at William...as confused as his reptilian features allowed him to make. Then a *thump* as Raaoq hits the ground and is unable to move.


    Raaoq:"What is this!? You cannot bind me!!"


    William:"As you previously said, this is my mind...My world...As long as we are in here...I am God"


    Raaoq:"Fore a mere human...to have this much mental power?!No human could survive the emotional scars it would take for this mental integrity without going mad!"


    William:"Yet here I stand...You wish to know my past beast? Let me show you..."


    Images flash by...A father robbed and killed in front of his young five year old son...An alcoholic mother hitting her crying daughter with a bottle while the son watches from the sofa, beaten...A school boy surrounded by his classmates, his clothes ripped while the others laughed and pushed him around like a ball...worst of all...A thirteen year old, holding a bloody knife...His mother dead on the floor, his expression full of tears...Yet a wide smile lay on his face...One full of happiness.


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    Raaoq:"What do these mean!? What are these visions!" The beast roars in pain, unable to understand the emotions being sent to it.


    William:"These are my memories, monster. How does it feel? Feeling the emotions from a human perspective? I wonder if you can comprehend them..."


    Raaoq:"Enough! Stop this!"


    William:"There is only a single way out, beast. Accept my offer, and you shall be free of my anguish..."


    Raaoq:"YOU WILL PA....PAY FOR THIS....I RAAOQ...THE BLACK DEVIL DRAGON...I...Bind our contract...."


    Raaoq''s body starts to scatter into millions of red sparks of mana, those sparks travel towards and into William. He falls to his knees...Tears falling "Finally he let up...I don''t think I could have lasted another second..."


    The dark world disappears.


    -----------------------------------------------------------------------------


    After the battle, when William passes out.


    -----------------------------------------------------------------------------


    William:"YOU''RE GOING NO WHER....!"


    Loke:"William!...Alinar!?"


    Alinar and Leya on Rax and Kyl run out of the forest just as William starts to pass out.


    Alinar looks at the several dead guards and bandits:"What has inspired here Runewalker!?"


    Loke:"The carriage! We were assaulted by bandits...The General..."


    Leya gasps :"Teskol!?"


    Alinar gets off Kyl and checks for the general''s pulse:"He is dead..."


    Leya:"No...William! What about him?"


    Loke:"He should be alright... I sensed a spirit contract being made... it seems to have been too much a toll for his untrained body."


    Rel:"Father...I..."


    Loke:"No my dear, rest now.. you''re still injured from the crash" Loke rushes back over to Rel.


    Alinar:"Kyl, Rax! Stand guard, Leya we shall watch over them while we wait for the city guard to arrive"


    Loke:"Some of the bandits, they ran off."


    Alinar:"It is too dangerous to give chase, let them go for now." he bends down over the top halve of Yog''s corpse. "What did this?..."


    Loke:"It was William, he entered a joint state with his spirit and fed it his raw mana."


    Alinar:"Raw mana? You have a lot to explain Loke...Fill us in while we wait for the guard"


    Leya goes down to Rel and starts to tend to her injury.


    Loke:"Ah...where to start..."


    After Loke fills in Alinar and Leya on William''s magic and what transpired here to the best of his knowledge, the city guard arrive with Eltaor on a carriage pulled by silver dragons.


    Eltaor bows:"The carriage has arrived sir."


    Alinar:"I can see that Eltaor, help Loke carry Rel into the carriage. Guards get that one" He points at William "Into the carriage aswell."


    Eltaor:"Sir their destination is different than ours."


    Alinar:"We can take a different carriage Eltaor, their arrival is much more important."


    Eltaor:"As you command." he takes another bow and goes on to help Loke with carrying Rel.


    Guard Commander:"We will carry the dead Elite too, they deserve a proper send off..."


    Alinar:"Agreed, I shall help with the carrying."


    The guards load the dead Elite into the back of the carriage covering them with their own capes. They then stack the bandit corpses and warp them back to Rosevalt for inspection as there is too many and the giant is too heavy to carry. Alinar and Leya with Eltaor and the guards walk back to Rosevalt while the dragon carriage flies away.


    Rel:"Father...this was..."


    Loke:"I know Rel.. a horrible experience.. I cannot imagine how it effected William... Human minds are too fragile..."


    Alas he didn''t know...Human minds may be fragile..but even one as broke as William''s can be kept together...with sheer willpower as glue.


    ---


    Author: Sorry for all the mishmash, I wanted the previous chapter''s ending to be a bit mysterious :D... Also to clarify as I know some may ask the question, at the start of the story the woman who called out to William for dinner was his adoptive parent, Not his actual mother.

 First destination: Heavens Gaze

    Rel:"William!...."


    William:(Wha...who''s that vioice?...)


    Rel:"Wake up!"


    William gets up, shaken by Rel and falls off the seat onto the floor.


    William:"What....where?..."


    Loke:"You''re in a carriage my boy, we''re almost at Heaven''s Gaze"


    William gets up and looks around, the carriage is very large. Sitting inside are Rel and Loke along with twelve armoured guards and seven mages.


    Loke:"Rosevalt sent some extra guard to get us to Heaven''s Gaze safely"


    William:"The General? The other guards?"


    Loke sighs:"They''re gone William, the corpses are on the back for burial."


    William:"I saw feet before I..."


    Rel:"Passed out like a lady in distress?"


    Loke:"Leya and her brother arrived before the city guard"


    An Elf walks into the carriage room from the front"We have arrived Sirs and Madam" after the announcement he gives a court bow then walks back out.


    Loke:"Look out the window, you should be able to get a clear view"


    William looks out the window to see the city. A fantasy like sight presents itself, long walls surround the city, made of marble bricks with silver linings. In the middle of the many buildings lay a tall white tower like castle with three spires around it, each spire connected to the castle with a bridge at a different elevation.


    Rel:"Welcome to Heaven''s Gaze, our centre of magic."


    The dragon carriage lands outside the city walls, in an area designed for carriages.William, Rel and Loke exit the carriage and follow Loke to the entrance.


    William:"Grey dragons?" He curiously eyes the dragons


    Rel:"Silver drakes, a medium tier dragon."


    William:"Medium tier?"


    Loke:"Each beast is ranked by tiers here, Dragons have five. First is the low tier Wyverns, then the medium tier Drakes, Medium High Tier Dragons after that followed by High Tier Titan Dragons, The highest Tier is then Legendary."


    William:"What are Legendary Dragons called?"


    Loke:"Devourers, Nobody has ever seen one. It is simply a legend but, some have seen it appropriate to include them since all other beasts have five ranks. Anyhow each tier is divided by titles, Low is Bronze, Medium is Silver, Medium High is Iron, High is Royal and Highest is Legendary. Since some dragons can be as weak as a wyvern or drakes as strong as an actual dragon their rank may change but the previous list is the average rank of those dragon races."


    William:"I see..So a young dragon is ranked bronze?"


    Loke:"Correct. I must ask now though, how are you feeling? You must be quite shaken up..."


    William:"I''m fine...Just tired honestly"


    Loke eyes him, not believing his words:"Indeed you must be, the amount of mana you used up contracting with a spirit and right after using their power? No wonder you slept for three hours."


    William:"Three hours?"


    Rel:"You would have kept sleeping if we hadn''t woke you up."


    William:"Wait, how did you know I contracted with a.... spirit?"


    Loke:"Such a powerful bond can be felt being done William and the spirit you contracted with, we felt it quite strongly."


    William:"Yeah it looks terrifying...What did it call itself again? R..."


    Loke:"Stop there William"


    William:"Huh?"


    Loke:"The name of a Spirit is very important to them, you should not share it so easily. It holds great magical power and can be used against you, soon your spirit should contact you again asking for a new name. Once you choose that name you''ll be able to train to give said spirit a physical embodiment."


    William:"Like summoning?"


    Loke:"Yes like summoning them, ah here we are."


    The three arrive at the Gate entrance and are stopped by an Elven guard.


    Guard:"Halt, state your presence and documentation." The guard eyes William as if he finds him suspicious.


    Loke takes out a crystal and opens his palm at the guard, the crystal floats out of his hand and into the guard''s palm. It faintly glows and shows some information.


    Loke:"We''re here as agreed by the Magi Alliance representatives."


    Guard:"You''re clear to pass" The guard signals to the guards on the walls.


    The three enter through the opening gate, the guards still looking curiously at William.


    William whispers:"Do they find me suspicious?..."


    Loke laughs a bit:"They''ve never seen a human before, I''m sure they are curious."


    William:"Curiosity killed the cat as we say back home."


    Loke:"Hm, intriguing saying"


    They walk into the streets of the city, which is littered with elves, beastmen of all kinds and small flashes of light flying by. Most of the people walking about seem to be holding crystals in their hands or connected to something on their head, giving off a light in front of their eyes.


    William:"What are all those people holding? Those crystals?"


    Rel:"Those are CCs, communicative crystals. They hold and share information between them, only the holder can see what is being shown."


    William:(So they are like Iphones or tablets....some companies would kill for that magic...)


    As William looks around he is a bit disappointed, the fantasy world he expected was more advanced than he thought. Technology was at an all time high in this world too, using magic he couldn''t even start to imagine what these races made.


    William:"I didn''t expect for everything to be so....advanced.." As he looked more around he saw some shops with a more variety of crystals in different shapes and sizes, including some strange devices that looked almost like computers and monitors. At another shop he saw other strange gadgets that resembled the steamgun tech.


    Loke:"Each race has had millennia to advance, we have been told of your race''s advances in technology also. I must say tho, your race is quite hypocritical when it comes to governing."


    William:"Why?"


    Loke:"You cannot hide anything from the Gods, they know what your governments hide from the populace. They simply do not intervene."


    William:"Why not?"


    Loke:"Because William, can you imagine the pace our races would advance if we had the full support of theirs? We wouldn''t be able to keep up with our own technology. The Gods want us to grow at our own pace, the reason they divided us and you is because we were impeding you from growing at all."


    William agreed fully with Loke, his race has made many mistakes in the past and he couldn''t start to imagine the disasters they could have created if given the technology.


    William:"So what is today''s plan?"


    Loke:"We are headed for the palace, there you will be greeted by the guards and given a room to get cleaned and changed. After that we shall dine with the royals, they are very...enthusiastic to meet you"


    Rel:"Also so there are no communicative difficulties..." She words the last two words as best as she can "Us Elves age much differently than you humans, look around. Those you may see as children, are actually much older than you think."


    Indeed as William looks around at the Elves, the younger ones seem to be as put together as the adults, no crying, whining or childish fits.


    William:"Then how old can an Elf grow?"


    Rel:"Our average lifespan is around 1500 years, some grow older if they spend their time correctly."


    William:"1500!?" he shouts this, some people stop to stare at the strange white and purple haired individual.


    Loke:"Keep moving...they''ll stop staring..."


    William:"My bad...."


    Rel:"Honestly, your kind is the strange one. To live barely a hundred years? what a bore... In our race you''re considered an adult at the age of 200."


    William:"Woah....I don''t mean to be rude but...how old are the two of you then?...


    Loke:"I am 1105 as of last month, Rel is..."


    Rel:"Ahem!..209"


    William:"Unbelievable...Loke you look in your 40s... and Rel you look slightly older than me...well not counting the height.."


    Loke:"Yes hmm, I believe Elvish to Human age is .... new born to ten is the same... human age from ten to thirty is elvish ten to three hundred, after that elves retain their looks up till seven hundred...Then to a thousand and two hundred when we age like a human in their sixties..."


    William:"Ok ok...I understand..."


    Loke is slightly annoyed at his lecture being interrupted:"We''re almost there.."


    William looks ahead to see the castle, they were still halve way through the city and still had some more to walk. The city and the castle were divided by a lake surrounding the castle, connected by a marble bridge. The bridge was being used by multiple carriages that seemed to hover, underneath crystals could be seen.


    The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    William:"Why aren''t we using one of those?"


    Loke:"Thought you''d prefer walking and seeing the city, was I wrong?"


    William:"No you weren''t, I''m just a bit out of sh..."William notices something strange, he''s been walking for almost an hours and normally he''d already be out of breath. He never was the sportive type and spent most of his days on his computer, but he was barely tired.


    Loke:"Something the matter?"


    William:"Maybe...I don''t remember feeling this fit.."


    Loke:"Must have finally dawned on you, the Gods tinkered with your body to give you the physical strength and stamina for this journey."


    The idea of aliens messing with his body made William feel slightly sick. They walk for another hour, finally arriving at the castle entrance.The guards bow at them as they enter, leaving many noble looking figures outside in the garden looking at them with disdain.


    Loke sees William looking back at the nobles:"Pay them no mind, the power has gone to their heads."


    William:"Don''t worry...*sigh*.. I''m used to their kind."


    After a short corridor they wait in front of a large door, two more corridors lined with doors on each side. One of the doors opens and from it a young female Elf with multiple attendants comes out.Rel and Loke bow low, William follows their lead.


    Loke:"Greetings your grace, I''m proud to present the Human Ambassador William Smith."


    Princess:"Strange, I was told humans dye their hair in unorthodox ways. It''s my pleasure to meet you William, I am Arryn Yesventis."


    Loke and Rel straighten up to look at the princess, William follows. The princess looks the same age as Rel, with long silver hair and ember eyes wearing a long blue dress with silver linings and frills. William though is lost in her eyes.


    William:"I...Uh..."


    Rel:"The ambassador seems to be tired your grace, we were expecting someone to show us to our quarters."


    Arryn:"Ah..Yes, I asked my father for me to take care of your arrival. My attendant here shall show you to your rooms. Jyl." She waves for her attendant and Jyl moves forward, bows and gestures for them to follow."My father asked me to inform you, the banquet shall be at noon. We expect your presence there." She eyes William up with a slight smile.


    Loke:"Thank your grace, we shall see you there."


    Rel, Loke and William bow once more and follow the attendant to their rooms. Each got their own room, William decided to shower and change clothes, he asked the attendant if there was anything for him to change into and she showed him how to operate the blue crystal in the room, which gave a holographic window of sorts and shows a list of clothing he can select and automatically appear on him. Once the attendant left the room he plays with the gadget for a couple minutes changing clothes, he finally gives up on a brown shirt and plain black pants and decides to ask Rel for help. He knocks on her door and waits for a response.


    Rel:"Yes? Who is it?" She opens the door, fully dressed in a yellow short dress with orange ribbons around her waist and hair.


    William:"I was wonder if you could"


    Rel:"What in the four kingdoms are you wearing?!"


    William:"Yes well... I wanted to ask you if you could help me select an outfit to wear... clothes... never my thing..." He is slightly embarrassed at this and gives a shamed grind.


    Rel:"Ahh...yes..."


    Loke opens the door hearing the conversation outside:"Well then let''s get to it!"


    William:"Huh? what?"


    Loke:"Picking out your clothes of course!" (I''ll be damned if I leave my daughter alone in a room with another man!) He grabs onto William''s shoulder and guides him back to his room.


    William:"Ah yeah..."


    Rel follows, trying to hold back a laugh. After multiple suits William settles on a buttonless black suit with a plain dark violet undershirt.


    Rel:"That suits you well."


    William cringes slightly at the bad pun:(Was that a pun or?...)"Thanks..."


    Loke:"Let''s go then, we shouldn''t keep royalty waiting."


    William:"Oh its time already..."


    They head out of William''s room, down the corridor then down the stairs and through another corridor till they reached a large door with two guards on each side and Arryn''s attendant Jyl waiting for them.


    Jyl:"The banquet has almost started Ambassadors, they are still waiting on you, the third prince and Lord Daeleth"


    Loke scoffs at the name:"So the high lords will also be present..."


    Jyl opens the door and announces them. They enter to find a large dining room lined with crystals for light and flat plate like crystals on the table for each chair.


    King Virion Yesventis:"Welcome to my kingdom!" The king opens his arms wide as he stands up from his seat at the end of the table. The king himself looks quite menacing, medium silver hair and ember eyes with his muscular body make him look like a dangerous foe. He is not lined with jewels and gold as William expected but instead a simple white suit with white undershirt, the only jewellery being his silver crown lined with orange crystals.


    Virion:"Ahh! Loke my old friend!" He moves on to shake Loke''s hand, the poor thin Elf is under the king''s full grip and it looks like Virion is doing all the shaking.


    Loke:"Your majesty it has been so long..."


    Virion:"It has my dear friend, Ah and Rel, You''ve grown quite beautiful yourself. Anymore and you''ll beat my gorgeous looks! Hahah!" After he is done joking around with Loke and Rel he turns to face William, a serious face as if he is entering a business meeting."So you are the human boy the Gods sent to us, I must apologies for the unfortunate attack on your transportation" He starts to raise his voice "I thought I made it quite clear to someone that the security should be tight, but alas it seems I have not been clear enough." One Elf sitting at the table puts down his cup, obviously was incharge of the security.


    William:"The general and his men..."


    Virion:"They will be given a proper burial as it is in our culture, the bandits have been sent for inspection. I promise you, you will be safe here and the next guard will be selected by me personally.Now sit and let me introduce you to everyone!"


    At the table sat twelve male Elves and five female.The king goes back to his seat and Jyl shows William, Rel and Loke their seats which are on the other side of the rectangular table from the king, William directly facing the king himself.


    Virion:"As we wait for the final two arrivals I shall introduce my family and the court, Here are my two twin sons. First prince Aien and Second prince Ivsaar" Two Twins next to the king stand up and bow courtly towards William"I believe you met Arryn. Next to her are my daughters First princess Verrona and Second princess Solana"The three princesses stand up and bow in unison". And that who is late, is my third son prince Kolvar" An Elf enters the room, courtly bows and proceeds to go sit next to his brothers, behind him another Elf comes in."Akkar, good of you to join us."


    Akkar Daeleth:"Please excuse me your majesty, I had to plan the burial for General Teskol with his family."


    Virion:"Yes, right...Take a seat." The nobleman sits to the left where other noble figures sat close to each other."Now let us continue, this here next to me is my wife, Lorelei"


    Lorelei:"A pleasure to meet you William." She gracefully bows and sits back down.


    Virion:"Over to my left are the five lords, who watch over the nobles in the city, Lord Daeleth is their overseer." four men and a woman stand up ,the man who came late one of them, they courtly bow to William."And here to the right are the two left generals, three right generals and my good friends High General Loak and High General Wyrran, the commanders of our military."The seven men stand up and bow.


    Loak:"It is a shame about Teskol, he was a great warrior and leader."The general gives a nasty look towards one of the Lords.


    Virion:"Now that the introductions are done, let us feast and talk!"


    ---


    Author: I made the decision, chapters will be getting longer from now on. Sometimes even longer than this one :).

 The benevolent demon, teacher?

    Loke:"I have been meaning to ask your majesty, but who shall take over the boy''s training?"


    William:"Uh umm... training?"


    Virion:"But of course you''re required to master your magic Human, how else will you survive this world''s "diplomacy". Loak will take over the boy''s training, I saw it fit as elemental magic and spiritual magic are his speciality odd as it may seem."


    Loke:"I see.. I''m not one to pry into other''s life but, General why did you specialise in elemental mastery and not our respectful art of summoning? I personally only mastered runes as a 3rd speciality, but you only have those two?"


    Loak:"Battle requires a differentiation of options RuneLord, summoning and spiritual magic are too similar while mastering an element gives you an advantage on certain other mages."


    Loke:"Quite true, that is if you only use your elemental magic on those with the elemental disadvantage."


    William:"Umm, by elemental disadvantage do you mean each element has a disadvantage and advantage to different elements?what may those be if I may ask?..."


    Loke:"Ah now I''ll leave the teaching to Loak"


    Loak:"Now''s not the time for lecturing boy, unlike how Runewalker here loves to speak of all the time this is not the place. Later I will walk you through everything you need to know."


    William:"Ah..apologies.."


    Virion:"Do not apologies so easily human, you''re among equals. Remember, you hold no political standing yet within any of our communities therefore you might as well have the title of king."


    Arryn:"But father, a king should also have an army. This boy only has himself" She says while still eyeing William curiously making him feel uncomfortable.


    Virion:"A king only needs an army to defend his people daughter, One is a king when the people see them as such. Power is given by the people, People aren''t ruled by the powerful."


    Aien:"Indeed, that would not be proper ruling but instead would be tyranny, sister."


    Virion:"Exactly, and this boy may not have a crown or a kingdom, but he has people. And not to mention he was chosen by the Gods themselves, what more a proper king can he be?" He laughs full heartedly


    William:"Me?...A king?...I''m...Not suited for such a position....anyhow my people prefer a democracy with little exceptions..."


    Virion:"Ah.. yes I have been told about such a system...truly ruled by the people, and interesting thought."


    William:"In reality it''s not that good either...still as easily corruptible.."


    Virion:"Do you believe your leaders are corrupt boy?"


    William:"I..The officials of my world can be split in many...some think for themselves...others think for the people... I believe that keeps it balanced but..."


    Virion:"Balanced doesn''t mean prosperous."


    William:"Yeah..."


    The crystals on the table start to glow faintly.


    Virion:"Ah it is time to eat, I presume you have no inkling of how to use our devices?"


    William:"Not really..."


    Rel:"Ahem...pour your mana into the device William, images will then appear and you can bend the light to select what you wish to eat. It''s similar to the blue crystal in our rooms."


    William does so and scrolls through the selections in front of him. He has no idea what any of these foods are, if they even are food. He picks something that looks like meat. Everyone starts to eat and converse about different topics, the princes and princesses ask William some questions about human life, clothing, diplomacy and such.


    Loak:"Well you majesty, I shall be taking my leave along with my pupils. Normally I''d set training for early morning."


    Virion:"Ah yes, Arryn go easy on the boy."


    Arryn:"Yes father" She gets up and walks after Loak with a sly grin.


    William:"Wait? Huh?"


    Loak:"Oh yes of course, I forgot to mention. Princess Arryn is my current pupil , she will be training with us."


    William:"Oh..." (It''d be bad if I lost control again...I''ll have to keep that power in check...I hope I don''t...I couldn''t even hold back against those bandits...)William feels slightly sick at the though of his massacre with the bandits.


    Loak:"Well then follow me."


    He follows Loak and Arryn to an indoor training ground. Multiple young Elves are training physical combat, on their arrival they stop and bow to Loak then head to the stands to watch. Arryn goes through another room to get changed, Loak tells William to do so as well.He enters the male changing room and finds multiple outfits of different sizes and colours, he picks a black and grey one. The outfits themselves are leather pants and top with an unknown material at each limb intersection making it very flexible and great to move in. He exits the room to find Loak and Arryn waiting, Arryn wearing a similar outfit but blue.


    Loak:"Very well,firstly I need to see what you are currently capable of."


    William:(He''s gonna ask me to fight him?)


    Loak:"So I shall sit at the observer seats and you will fight Arryn."


    William:(Wait...what?!) He was not ready for this and is currently looking at Loak dumbfounded.


    Arryn:"What is it human? Do you believe me incapable of combat?"


    William:"Nothing like that miss but...I do not have full control over my magic yet, I do not wish to injure you."


    Arryn:"Oh how kind of you, well then let''s begin." She chants a short sentence and leaps at him.


    William:"Huh? what?"


    Loak leaps out of the way landing next to the other students, Arryn summons a torrent of water and unleashes it onto poor William while displaying a wide grin. William is sent flying to one side of the training grounds, when he hits the edge of the marked area a barrier stops him from flying further.


    William:"So this is serious huh?..Very well then I shall also.."


    She gave him little time to breath and is already on top of him again, unleashing more blows of whip like water attacks. William is thrown around for several attacks before he regains his footing.


    William:"Enough!"


    His hair and eyes regain the purple aura he previously displayed against the bandits. Arryn is not amused and continues her flurry of attacks, but William grabs hold of heir water whips and dispels them right after touching them.


    Arryn:"Wh??What is this?" She is surprised at her magic disappearing and chants once more.


    William:"No you wont." He runs to her and grabs her arms, sending fourth his mana to engulf her.


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    Arryn:"Huh?" Arryn is paralysed by the raw mana surrounding her body, she is under his full control.


    William:"It''s over."


    Loak:"No it''s not."


    Arryn''s smile widens as two Wolves made of water appear behind William, grabbing him in their fangs and throwing him in the air. Arryn chants another spell and her wolves multiply, all four pouncing onto William for the kill.


    William:"Shit!" He sends out his mana once more shaping blades all around him and at the same time uses more mana to make himself spin, he shreds the wolves a crashes into the ground fist first, cracking it. His aura disappears and he collapses, but remains conscious.


    Loak:"Interesting, I must say I have never heard of your mastery. What is it called William?"


    William breaths heavily and tries to sit up, landing back on his back in defeat:"I...I was told i.....its manamancer.."


    Loak:"One of the legendary masteries? Fitting I must say, the Gods play an intriguing game. You have the general understanding of your mastery but lack the very basics, your form wasn''t half bad either but will still require sharpening. Arryn! You also have a long way, you should have summoned your lake wolves before he caught you. If he were more experienced he could have chanted your connection out, winning the fight."


    Arryn respectfully bows to her teacher. Loak turns back to William and looks at his hair and eyes.


    Loak:"William, tell me. Is your hair pigmented?"


    William:"Huh?..no...I was told it became this way after I lost control and fought the bandits..."


    Loak:(This young boy...the world is a dreadful place.)"Arryn continue your chanting practice, William meditation is in course for you."


    Arryn:"As you ask respectful teacher." She takes a bow and heads towards the stands, the other students return to their sparring.


    William:"Meditation?"He looks at Loak, looking for an answer.


    Loak:"You lack control over your mana usage and as of such have injured your mana pores"


    William:"Mana pores? the connection between my body and spirit?"


    Loak:"Yes, your wild consumption of mana and usage has most definitely been injured. Meditation will relax those pores and you will learn to flow your mana more safely and at more manageable amounts. Go on the stands and take a relaxing sitting position, then focus your mana solely on your mind, the centre of information. The rest is up to you since visualisation differs from one to another but, try and visualise a flow of water, you control the speed and amount and must regulate it. Now go."


    William:"For how long though?..."


    Loak:"I''d say in two week''s time your pores should have healed, and you should have managed to understand mana control."


    William:"Two weeks?!...Alright..." William heads over to the stands and does as instructed, he feels sharp pains in places he cannot pinpoint while doing so. As if his spirit itself is injured.


    William goes about doing this same regiment for three consecutive days. Meditates until Loak tells him to, showers, dines and sleeps, starting all over again the day after.Having only two hours of freedom to do as he wishes he simply roamed the palace until it was time to sleep. Today though his regiment went different, he has just exited the dining hall where he ate with the royal family every day along with Loke and Rel. Usually he''d just roam around but this time he was stopped right outside the dining hall.


    Arryn:"William, will you join me for a stroll in the garden?"


    William:"Ah.. miss Arryn.. I was just about to..uhh.."


    Arryn:"Now now a little stroll has never hurt anybody?"


    He follows her, defeated by her argument. Someone else exits the room once they leave.


    Aien:"What is that child up to now..." The prince eyes them as they walk down the corridor towards the palace garden. Smiling sarcastically.


    The two arrive at an open garden lined with pillars inscribed with runes at the very edge of each side.


    Arryn:"The garden as the whole castle is protected by a barrier, making it a separate resort from the other side.If you squint a bit you can see the barrier slightly."


    William squints to see a liquid like sphere around the whole garden.The garden itself was a good forty meters wide, with blue crystals hovering in the air lighting up the afternoon. The two walked around the garden till they reached the edge, a view into the lake.


    Arryn:"Are you considered of age in your culture William?"


    William is surprised by her question:"Ahh, yes I am...At 18 most of my race are considered of age, I am 19 and will be 20 soon.."


    Arryn:"I have just become of age myself, couple months ago. It is tradition for us to choose a mate between 200 and 250, I was wondering though..." She moves in on William, laying on his side and whispers in his ear "It may be a good thing to...join our two races... what would you say if...We''d do so?...By marriage?..."


    Arryn expected a confused answer, or an empty excuse. But got neither.


    William takes her hand and turns to whisper back in her ear:"Third princess and Sixth Heir to the throne, must be quite the disappointment to be born so late..."


    Arryn is surprised and quickly backs off:"Wha?.."


    William:"You stand no chance to be throned, and as such will most probably be married off to a lord or a diplomat from another race I presume. But then I arrived, a young ambassador from a distant land that has no understanding of this world. You saw your chance at power, your chance to inherit something as your father and mother. But I must warn you Princess, I will be chained down by no one. I will be owned by no one. I will be controlled by no one. You''re greatly mistaken if you think due to my young age I have no understanding of the world, I very much know the deepest scars one can inflict on another. I''ve seen....I''ve lived through events you''d call nightmares. I shall give you one last advice." He looks into her eyes and she looks into his, she starts to slightly tremble "Do not underestimate me."


    He walks away, calm as if nothing happened. She stands there, trembling. A growing smile on her face.


    Arryn:"You''re as dense as any other man...William."


    ---


    Author: I''LL MAKE A MAN OUT OF YO.....Oh sorry, had that playing on loop while I wrote the training part, :P more to come on that in the next chapter. As for Arryn... hey I can leave some things to the imagination xD. Thank you for reading :).

 Resolve, Weakness, Wrath.

    As William makes it through the corridors and into his room, he feels a piercing sensation.


    William:(That you talk alot?)


    Raaoq:(Indeed it is,terrified rat.)


    William looks down at his trembling hands, also sweating uncontrollably:(Is that how you treat your master?)


    Raaoq:(I shall not whine, as the fault falls on me for contacting someone so broken and desperate through the mind. But you truly need to get a hold of yourself, always in such a sorry state and can only hide it. I may have been slumbering but I could feel it, every time you''re alone, you fall apart.)


    It is true. Every night William would break down in fear, unable to withstand the high amount of power he senses around him. He learned to hide his emotions from an early age, but always broke down when he was alone to vent them out.From uncontrollable shaking, sweating and sometimes even crying, he wouldn''t unlock room till his meltdown passed. But this time he felt worse, he felt more in danger as the princess made a move on him and he interpreted it as a puppeteer trying to tie strings on a puppet.


    Raaoq:(I require a new name, "master". It must be a name that connects to my original self or the contract will not accept it.)


    William:(I..I''ll think on it...for now, leave me be.)


    Raaoq:(As you wish.)


    Raaoq returns to its slumber. But the night is still young, and others lurk in this moon''s shadows. Everyone is in their room, resting or already asleep, but some are moving about at high speed and silence. They await outside his room, hiding, lying in wait of for him to fall asleep. They smell his fear, they hear his trembling. Silence, William fell asleep.


    -------------------------------------------------


    He slowly peaks out in the darkness, barely able to open his eyes. He doesn''t know where he is, or why, all he knows is that he is on his knees with his arms behind him bound in metal chains. The only light comes from the door behind him that is closed shut. He hears some voices.


    Male Voice 1:"The client requires him to be well trained, there is no room for error in this contract. Understand?"


    Female Voice 2:"Yes master."


    Male Voice 3:"Yes, master."


    Male Voice 1:"Open the door, I wish to see what this "Human" looks like."


    The lock is undone, the door creeks open. Light engulfs the room, filled with strange tools and machines. Three figures walk out from behind him. Two elves and a Weremen, the two elves have dark skin and purplish hair while the Weremen is a black Weretiger with grey stripes.


    Weretiger:"So you''re what they call a human, I give you my Greetings, my name is Birse BlackHand. And you, William. You are within my stronghold."


    William is trembling in fear, unable to speak or move he stares on at the three.


    Female Elf:"No words boy?"


    Male Elf:"Kid looks like he''s gonna shit himself."


    Birse:"Wade, Vert. You know the treatment, empty him up and fill him with our....special therapy. Break him." He grins evilly at William then walks back out of the room.


    Vert:"Worry not, this will hurt."


    Wade:"It will hurt alot."


    Both grin happily as if enjoying this. Vert grabs some herbs and other items and starts to brew something while Wade writes marks on William''s body, they look like runes. William still confused starts to gain his false composure.


    William:"Wha....AHHHHHH!!" A shock passes through his body from each and every rune, giving him considerable pain.


    Wade:"Walla! They work!"


    Vert finishes her brew and walks over to the teared up William:"Now now dear, you can''t break so soon. We''ve only just begun"


    They both laugh maniacally as vert forces William to gulp the brew. They stand on either side of him and start to chant, roots start to grow from around his feet and move up to the back of his neck, piercing it with thorns. The runes start to glow a dark red and spread all over his body as if alive, covering any plain parts. Extreme pain surges forward through his body, at the same time he starts to see images of his past; His father shot dead, His sister murdered at childhood, His mother beating him, Him murdering his mother in cold blood, Being taken to a foster home, Bullied harshly by his classmates, A girl he was infatuated with raped in front of his bloody and beaten body, His only friend throwing himself off a bridge right in front of him. The images flow in front of him like a sick movie, repeating itself over and over.


    Vert:"Quite the childhood I must say, are all humans this cruel?"


    Wade:"Nah, this kid''s had it rough but I doubt they''re all like that. Last two are the most fucked up ones."


    William screams in agony, crying and shivering without stop. A weak presence reaches out to him.


    If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.


    Raaoq:(Mast...!!)


    Gone, he''s all alone again.


    -------------------------------------------------


    It''s been days since they started, they never stopped for longer than an hour. He thinks he knows exactly how many days it''s been, since each day a memory disappears. Or does he? Does he remember how many memories have disappeared now? He''s not sure, all he knows for sure is he''s growing accustomed to the pain. The memories no longer faze him, but instead he rejoices every time he seems a familiar face and even the ones of his captors.


    Wade:"He''s ready for the final faze I think."


    Vert:"You think? Look at him, he''s a smiling idiot. He''s ready."


    They remove the restraints and the roots around his neck, they give him one more brew and then leave the room, shutting the door behind them. Utter darkness, they sealed the door completely leaving no light to pass through. He lay there face up, or face down? He honestly didn''t know, all he had was darkness in his vision and mind. He didn''t even remember his name. What was he again? He doesn''t know. A familiar sensation reaches out to him, a voice.


    Raaoq:(Pitiful, to let them kidnap and torture you. I''m a failure as a contracted spirit. They''ve turned you into a vegetable, but I shall amend this. Our contract may not be complete but I have a certain control still. I will restore your memories but your emotions will clash with what you felt through this ordeal. But it is all up to you, reach out to me! Master! Reach out and let me aide you!)


    He didn''t understand what the voice meant, he didn''t know why it told him to reach out, he just wanted to lay there on the comfy floor and sleep. He just wanted to rest, but he also felt something was wrong. Another sensation within his very being, it first rippled then quaked through his mind and body. He needed to get up, he didn''t know why but he needed to do as the voice said.


    -------------------------------------------------


    Wade:"Nine days of torture and four of pure darkness to let the corruption sink in. I always hated this."


    Vert:"Don''t lie, you love it."


    Wade:"Hah! You know I do!"


    They unlock the door, awaiting to find an obedient dog ready to teach a few tricks to.


    Birse:"Wait, something is wrong. What is this mana?...GET BACK FOOLS!"


    Wade opens the door and is immediately blasted by a wave of pressure, squashing him into a pool of blood on the floor.


    Vert:"Wha...What the hell!?"


    Birse squints his eyes to look into the darkness of the room, he smiles and disappears in a cloud of black smoke:"You''ve failed."


    Vert:"Huh? w...."


    Vert is frozen, trembling, babbling empty words as he walks out. White hair with purple clumps randomly spread around, a grey left eye and a purple right eye, ghastly white skin and a purple aura radiating a certain emotion. It wasn''t simply anger, it wasn''t cold hate, nor was it sly annoyance. Pure rage radiated from his body, pure uncontrollable rage.His eyes gleamed in the darkness.


    William:"Out of my way, pest." His eyes gleam more brightly and he touches her forehead with his palm ever so slightly.


    Vert is sent flying into the wall with a shock wave of raw mana, her halfway inside the wall,limp and lifeless. He looks upward and crouches, the very ground trembling beneath the pressure. One leap and he crashes through multiple floors and layer of ground until he breaches to the sky. He is still in Heaven''s Gaze, staring directly at the castle.


    He smiles, gazing at the towering building while hovering in mid air, emitting a bright purple glow.


    Raaoq:(Is it time, master?)


    William:"Indeed, it is." (I name you, demon. I name you, dragon. I name you,devourer. I name you.... Erza ShadowBreath)


    Raaoq''s form momentarily appears only for William in the night sky.First a large black and grey dragon with two mouths and red gleaming eyes, then starts to misconfigure, bend and retake shape. This time a different form, a young woman with long black hair and gleaming red eyes appears in front of William. She kneels in mid air and speaks.


    Erza:"What is your bidding, master."


    William:"They celebrate while I wake, they dine while I hunger, they live while I rebirth. I wish for revenge, I thirst for justice, a bloodbath awaits. We shall do right those who have done me wrong, without reason. And this world, shall know the depths of my wrath. And those wanna''be "Gods", shall know retribution for their unactions, for their lies and deception."


    As the once manamancer awakens from his torture, the story, truly begins here.


    ---


    Author:Sorry for all the build up, the story really starts here. So far I''ve been building it up to this very chapter, setting the characters and the terrain for this game of brutal "chess" to be played.

 A new ruler rises.

    William landed next to the crater he created with his focused mana aura, debris had flew for miles in every direction. He looked around, he was standing in a prison on the very edge of the city. The barrier of the prison rose and multiple mages and elven guards surrounded him.


    Erza:"Should I take care of them master?"


    William:"They have done us no wrong, we move on."


    Erza focused mana in her palm and blasted the barrier in the sky with black flames. The barrier shattered like glass, while the guards cowered in fear of the two monsters that came from beneath. While William rested in those dark days, Raaoq healed his mind forcing his consiousness outward, letting it flow wherever he wished. While in his ethereal form William moved around the city, if he focused enough he could feel a path to the person he focused on. He had visited each person he knew in the city and discovered what had happened and who was to blame. The fly upwards and out of the prison, heading towards the castle.


    Erza:"What have you seen and heard while travelling, master?"


    William:"The king and queen are dead, assassinated. Arryn was found at fault when the assassins where captured and interrogated. Loke and Rel where also incarcerated as her allies, who planned to grow me into a weapon for their use. That is at least, what the populace was told."


    Erza had start to burn bright at the mention of her master being used:"Then what is the truth?"


    They arrive at the castle but do not stop, crashing into the side and breaking a hole straight into the throne room. It is a vast room, taking the whole third floor. Inside prince Kolvar was sitting on his father''s throne, The high lords kneeling before him, Akkar Daeleth standing next to him.


    Kolvar:"William?! You''re alive?"


    William:"I have heard all that has happened, why are you the throned prince Kolvar and not prince Aien?"


    Kolvar is sent aback by his question:"The youngest is normally throned in our culture William...My wall..."


    William closes his eyes:"I see..it all fits perfectly together now..."


    Akkar is shaking and sweating:"You dare break down the castle walls and enter the throne room unannounced human!?"


    William gives him a fiery gaze, his purple eye lights up with magic:"Silence you rodent!" Akkar shuts his mouth, sweating more than ever."Your majesty, the ones who killed your parents are not the ones currently imprisoned. Akkar and the lords plotted against your family and had me kidnapped and tortured. It is all their plan" William stared at the prince, waiting for a response.


    Kolvar''s expression darkens:"So you''ve found us out...no matter how, now you''re in the way. Guards!"


    Eight mages walk in and start casting restraining spells while the balconies filled with archers.


    William is unfazed "So you''re also in on this plan...The difficulty on this little game has risen a bit.."  He grins, his purple eye''s aura intensifies. "Erza."


    Erza flies in from the hole William made, blasting the unprotected mages with black flames. The archers let lose their arrows, but William doesn''t move except for his left arm which he aims upward, palm open. A shockwave of mana blasts fort from his palm, destroying the arrows and the balconies.


    Kolvar:"You...you fiend!"


    William:"Your schemes end here, Erza warp them in."


    She is done as told and starts to chant, three circles of runes appear on the ground. Within those circles Rel, Loke and Princess Arryn along with another Erza appear, the three new erza''s lose their form and flow as a black smoke into the original.


    Arryn:"I''ve been told you have been a bad boy Kolvar."


    Kolvar:"You!..You were found for treason and high murder!Guards! GUARDS!"


    Arryn:"The soldiers will not follow you Kolvar, all those that stand here except us are your loyalists. The rest follow me. I had planned to start a co''up but it seems I have fallen under someone else''s move." She smiles at William.


    Loke:"William! Are you alright? we where told by your spirit what had happened to you, I can''t believe this atrocity! Akkar you serpent! To kidnap the ambassador!"


    William:"Worry not Loke, I''m fine. They haven''t harmed me."(A lie, but they need not know)


    Rel:"You sound..different.."


    William ignores her:"Kolvar, you reign ends as quick as it started. Surrender now, and give up your five lords to me, then I shall show you mercy."


    Kolvar:"N..Never! This is my kingdom! My right to rule! If it wasn''t for that sly bitch being born!"


    William:"Then let those be your final words." William''s purple eye loses its aura and stops to glow, his grey one gains a blue aura and glows. He clenches his fist and leaps towards Akkar, punching him into the wall, a bloody corpse remains of him.


    Kolvar is trembling in fear, lines of tears falling down his face:"M...Mon..."


    William grabs the prince by his head and lifts him up, his purple eye gains its aura again.


    Kolvar:"Let me go! Aya do something about this!"


    The female Lord casts earth magic at William but he intercepts it with blades of wind magic that shred the flowing earth.


    Aya:"Impossible!....with the elemental disadvantage..."


    William''s grin grows wider as he throws the prince onto his lords, making them fall over. The ground under the five then lifts up, squashing them into the roof.


    William:"It is done, your majesty. The traitors have been eliminated"He looks at Arryn who is showing some signs of sadness at her brother''s death.


    Arryn:"Damn fool...I knew he hated me but..to murder our parents and blame it on me...William you have done us a great service, and I wish I could say, that you are now safe...But it seems this kingdom is corrupt to the core."


    William walks over to the princess, standing face to face with her. He is about half a foot shorter then her and about 170 years younger but, they look the same age.


    William:"Then I propose your previous deal, princess."Arryn shifts her head to the left, unable to understand him. "I was a fool, I misinterpreted your actions and I am very sorry for that. But I believe this kingdom requires a ruler, which is you. But I also believe our two worlds require a new high ruler, and I plan that to be me."


    Arryn:"Worlds?..." She smiles at this concept, and starts to laugh. "And you''re more of a fool than my brother! To stand against the Gods themselves! I like it. I accept."


    The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    Rel is highly confused:"What just happened?..."


    Erza:"My master has killed the traitors to your kingdom and announced himself God."


    Rel looks at Erza:"Who are you again?"


    Erza and Loke facepalm.


    --------------------------------------------------


    After the ordeal in the throne room, the High generals with many guards arrived, the rest of the royal family a little afterwards. Arryn explain to them what had happened and to stop their plans, the war ended faster than it started. They had planned to start a co''up in the garrison, move to the castle and release the princess. Now there was no need and the priests continued to prepare for the crowning ceremony, but for a different ruler.


    Loak looks on at the hole in the wall, being repaired by mages:"You could have used the front door, my pupil."


    William:"I can blow it off it''s hinges now if you wish, teacher."


    Loak laughs:"I can feel it oozing from you, your power has improved. What happened to you while you were imprisoned? Reports say you blew that hole OUT of the underground market. We''ve been searching for it for years."


    William:"Three kept me down there, two are dead the other was never there to begin with. He called himself Birse BlackHand"


    Loak''s expression hardens:"BlackHand?..He''s the leader of an underground mercenary outfit.But he also runs many other groups from the shadows."


    William:"How dangerous is he?"


    Loak:"Power wise he''s on par with me and the other military leaders on this continent. But with his hidden legions, he can be  far more deadly. Oh I remember now that I have not taught you ability ranks."


    William:"You''ve told me about the elemental advantages, monster ranks and magic types but..No I do not believe you told me anything about that."


    Loak:"Has Loke taught you the difference between sentient races and monster races?"


    William:"Yes, I was surprised goblins and Orcs are seen as sentient.."


    Loak:"Hah! I''m surprised demons let them be! Anyhow, ability rank is how sentient races are ranked in power. Like the monster ranks there is 5 but with more tiers within each one. It goes; Bronze E, Bronze C, Bronze B, Bronze A, Bronze S.  Silver E, Silver C, Silver B, Silver A, Silver S.  Iron E, Iron C, Iron B, Iron A, Iron S. Royal E, Royal C, Royal B, Royal A, Royal S. And finally legendary, which has no known tiers as no one was ever able to achieve it."


    William:"And how are these rank''s calculated?"


    Loak:"We use a ranking crystal, here one of the mages should have one" He asks a mage for one but an other hands him it.


    William inspects the crystal,its long and white with thorn like bumps coming out.


    Wiliam:"Sharp?.."


    Loak:"It''s supposed to be, it is activated with blood and then using it''s bound illusion magic shows your rank. Here let me try first, last I remember I was Iron S." He strongly grasps the crystal as it pokes into his skin, he winces. The crystal glows and a window appears with his full name, title and rank.


    Loak:"Well looks like I''ve ranked up, Wyrran will be quite annoyed" He laughs a little. "Here your turn." He hands over the crystal, no blood can be seen as if it absorbed it all.


    William:"What do you think I was when I first arrived here?"


    Loak:"I presume a Silver like most of our military. The generals are a Iron E while me and Wyrran Iron S, well Royal E for me now."


    William grasps the crystal strongly, it digs into his skin and a window pops up.


    Loak gasps in surprise.


    William:"Interesting,why all the unknown? "


    Loak:"The crystal works on a system built around the leylines, the same system the CCs work on.Since your race is not know to our world it has not be inscribed into the system yet and while your presence here is known to everyone your information is not.Royal C though? What truly happened to you boy?"


    William:"Nothing of importance" He makes a gesture signalling he doesn''t wish to speak about it.


    Loak still suspicious of something:"Well let us prepare, the crowning is about to take place." his expression darkens again, he was good friends with the king and queen.


    William:"What shall become of me? I killed a prince and the five High lords."


    Loak:"That is for the king or queen to decide, as we do not either princess Arryn will once she is crowned.You could either be ruled a murderer or a hero, it depends on her."


    William:(So she could lock me up? Well she could try...And if only he knew about the rest...) William forms a light smile, and follows Loak facing the throne where the priests were preparing. The room was filled with nobles after mages fixed it, the hole still being repaired as the princess put haste on the arrangements. William joined Loke and Rel who were waiting at the front of the crowd, Loak joined the other generals next to the throne.


    Rel:"It starts"


    Loke:"I have a lot to explain to the council..."


    William:"I leave that to you, Ambassador"


    Loke sighs and the ceremony starts. Arryn walks in with the royal garb and cape around her, accompanied by two priestesses. The High Priest starts to chant some sealing magic on the crown, Arryn kneels before him and he lays the crown on her head.


    Priest:"I name you, in front of the Gods. I name you, Princess Arryn Yesventis. I name you, Queen of the High Elf Empire."


    Everyone kneels, including the royal family and the generals. She walks over to the throne but does not sit, the priests look confused as well as everyone else.


    Arryn:"As my first command, I name William Smith the hero who saved our people from a traitor. As my second command I name him my husband and therefore, King."


    Everyone gasps and looks around in confusion, the priest falls off his pedestal and tries to get back up, Loak looks at William and starts to laugh under his breath, some of the royal family get up and look at their sister in horror. William simply walks over to the throne and sits cross legged on it.


    William:"This is going to be a fun journey indeed." an evil grin on his face.

 A glimpse into insanity.

    As Arryn walked down the corridors she was followed by her two older sisters and the High priest, all three asking her about the marriage arrangements, the priest about event and the sisters about why, how and when.


    Arryn sighs:"Dear sisters, I am my own now. I can decide and take care of myself just as you two can, when and how do not matter, as for why. That is for me to know. Priest Joar, I shall leave the occasion under your supervision."


    The priest bows in respect and leaves, her two sisters remain and watch her walk away, wondering when she matured so fast.The Queen was headed to her chambers where her soon to be husband was last seen entering, she wanted to speak to him about his travels. She arrived at the room and found it to be locked, as she was crowned she had access to any room, locked or not. She pressed her palm on the door as the royal seal appeared, unlocking it. She entered the room to find him sitting on the bedside, looking outside the window.


    William:(No...Not now...)


    Arryn:"William, I need to speak with you."


    William:"What is it."


    Arryn is taken aback by his tone:"I..I wanted to speak to you about your journey, will you follow the routes that were set for you? Will you even continue it?"


    William:(Please...Go away...Not now...)


    William stands up his back still towards her:"Of course I will, I will show them I do not fear them! I will go to each and every leader on this world and bend them to my will! Nothing shall stand in my path..!" He turns around, his eyes wide with madness.


    Arryn:"Wha...You cannot behave like that! You will start conflict with the other races! I will not condone war!" She is surprised at his attitude, why was he being like this?


    William moves towards her and grabs her arm:"You will do as I say, you will move as I say and you will speak as I say" His eyes focused solely on hers, she could see the insanity eating away at him.


    Arryn slaps him with her free hand:"Is this what you plan to become!? After what you told me, you will let insanity take a hold of you?Will you let madness control you!?"


    ---


    Author: It gets emotion from here >.>, for you readers here''s some music I found was appropriate ; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYoH7BpVrnA</a>


    >:)


    ---


    William starts to shake, his mask quickly falling apart:"No I..." He takes a step back and falls sitting on the bed "Please no...I..." Tears start to fall down his face, his shaking turns into trembling. His fear wide open for her to see.


    Arryn:"You.." She sees it now, it was all an act. "I see.." She sits by him, and gently pulls his head on her lap. He is trembling and sweating uncontrollably,tears gushing down his face. "It''s okay now...You''re not alone...I''m here..."


    After a couple minutes he falls asleep, still gripping tightly at her dress.


    Arryn:"He''s like child..." she muses to herself "So much fear...what have they done to you in those weeks you disappeared?"


    Erza appears out of the shadows.


    Arryn:"You..Can you explain to me?"


    Erza:"That is not for me to say...though in his condition he will not tell anyone anyway..."


    Arryn:"Please..I have to know..How else am I supposed to help him!?"


    Erza looks at Arryn, deep in thought for a bit. She sighs:"Do you really wish to know mortal?"


    Arryn:"Yes! I need to know! Why is he like this!? Why does he lie about this?! He cannot possibly take this on on his own!"


    Erza:"But he has, for years he''s felt like this, lied like this to himself, then broke down like this every night. I can see it in his memories vividly, his losses, his pain and anguish, his betrayal. The torture those bandits did only made it worse."


    Arryn:"Torture?!" Her eyes gleamed a bit, as tears started to form


    Erza:"I had to aggressively heal his mind, but my power in that category is very limited."


    Arryn puts her hand on his forehead:"I must know his pain.. to be able to heal it."


    Erza:"Then it is best to simply show you. Are you ready?"


    Arryn nods, Erza kneels in front of them and puts her hand on Arryn''s which is on his forehead. Arryn is shown William''s memories, his thoughts, his torture of a life. His mind on the verge of breaking. She feels her consciousness being pulled into his, she opens her eyes. Darkness as far as the eye can see, she can move around, but her body feels too light. She turns around and sees, a graveyard, a child sitting in the middle of it. Tens of graves littered the square patch of dried land, the boy sitting on the floor in the very middle. She moved forward towards the boy, She couldn''t tell his age as he was obviously not Elf, but he was very young.With short black hair that looked unkept for a long time, brown eyes swollen from crying, wide open with madness. When she got close enough the boy looked up to her, a wide smile full of insanity. Her heart dropped as she realised who it was.


    Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.


    Arryn:"William?..."


    Child William:"I lost them..I lost them all...I was too weak.. It''s my fault...I couldn''t help them...I couldn''t save them..."


    Arryn kneels down in front of him as tears started gushing down his cheeks:"Stupid fool...You have to save yourself first..." She hugged him tightly. Erza appearing behind them, her hand on William''s shoulder.


    -------------------------------------------


    A new day had begun a couple hours ago, the new rules still in their chamber. Arryn held William tightly under the sheets, he was still asleep. Her hand moving gently, bending water with her magic, carrassing his skin. She breathed heavily, her face red with weariness.


    William:"Arryn..."


    Arryn:"It''s okay...I''m here.."


    She had spent all night and morning healing his fragile mind, using her water magic to relax him by passing it over his forehead.She was tired, very tired, it had taken all her mana to help him recover but she knew it wasn''t going to be enough. She had to be there for him as he could break any day still. William sits up, he notices he wasn''t wearing anything. He was still groggy.


    William:"Huh?...were are my cl..." He turns to his left to witness Arryn, naked only covered by the sheets. He is surprised, his face reddening as he freaks out and falls off the bed.


    Arryn:"Huh!? William!?"


    William:"I''m not ready for this!" he says as he rushes to the blue crystal, picks something in haste and rushes out of the room.


    Arryn:"....Idiot..." she smiles as she gets up.


    Arryn dresses herself and leaves the room, sighing. Down the corridor she sees her elder sister Verrona walking towards her.


    Verrona:"Have you already scared your mate out of the bedroom? And I thought only Solana turned that way..." she giggles.


    Arryn''s face turns slightly red:" Sister..No he..It is complicated" she sighs.


    Verrona:"Everything seems to be with that man."


    -------------------------------------------


    William is walking down the corridors of the castle aimlessly, freaking out to himself:(Ahhh!! I can''t remember! I don''t remember! What happened!? Why was she...she..she..) His face turns pale and his eyes open wide"I didn''t get her pregnant did I?"


    Erza appears behind him, slapping the back of his head:"No you dolt, she was healing your mind.You can still feel it don''t you? the effect of her magic."


    William rubs the back of his head:"Yeah...I feel her presence...within my own mana..." his purple eye starts to gleam "What did she do?.."


    Erza:"She made a connection between you two, your minds aren''t one persay but are connected. In short, she decided to shoulder some of your pain. Now you can think more clearly."


    William:"She...I see..No...I feel it.." He could feel a slight connection to something, he felt being pulled in a direction. As if he knew exactly where she was.


    Erza:"Do not forget to correctly outfit yourself, master. Not only do you look like a commoner in that outfit and your hair is unkept but you should also shave."


    William feels his chin, she was right. He had almost forgotten how long he''s been here, he could feel hair growing on his chin and under his nose.


    Erza:"You should prepare yourself correctly, the ceremony is to be tonight."


    William sighs and walks away:"Yes Mom."


    Erza is caught off guard, her form loses its shape turning into black smoke"Wha...Wha?!"


    ---


    Author:This was more of a slice of life chapter...Hope that certain scene wasn''t...too erotic ;P...Dirty bastards....xD. Thank you for reading.

 Uninvited guest.

    Its night time, the crescent moon high up in the sky. The garden is highly decorated with a multitude of guests, nobles, royals and visitors from other nations. A long blue carpet has be set in the middle leading to a large silver tree, where the two to be united say their vows. William is at the beginning of the path as it is customary, waiting for his queen. He is wearing a white suit with a black undershirt and white pants, Loke is standing next to him wearing an...interesting green and yellow patterned suit with a top hat using the same colours.


    William:"I presume you will be meeting with your colleagues soon, there is a lot to explain after all."


    Loke sighs:"Yes I must, I''m unsure how they will take it but after all we are simply your guides. Your choices are for you to make, even the Gods have vowed to not interfere. I wonder how much you have angered them already..."


    William:"Let them be, I have my reasons to which many of you would not agree with. It may only be a theory...But with all I have backing it up so far...It would destroy your way of life."


    Loke:"Then I beg that you leave me out of it" He laughs lightly, making a begging gesture with his hands.


    Loke had already walked him through the ceremony, first the two walked towards the tree hand in hand, by the tree they would say their vows.The priests and priestesses would summon the magic of the Gods from the tree,then it all depends on the two, different things can happen as this is as well magic. There was still a couple minutes of waiting while the bride prepared herself, it was also customary for the husband to welcome the guests, he had already gone through many of them from a list Loke was holding on to, only three foreigners where still expected to arrive.


    Loke:"Two ambassadors and the prince of Draktha..." Loke gives a worried look.


    William notices:"What is it?"


    Loke:"The two ambassadors are from the Trade and commerce Alliance, so is the prince. The two ambassadors are a Dwarf by the name of Joltax StormForge and an Avian, Vistra SteepHill. The prince is of the demon race, Prince Zeaxar Hellborn. What worries me is that there is still some discord between our community and demon kind...after all they did not aid much in the war against the void.."


    William:"Well hold your breath then, there they are."


    From the entrance a commotion can be heard, a very loud dwarf. He seems to be annoyed at something. The two walk over to figure out what has happened.The Dwarf is about 4 feet tall, a well kept brown beard, green eyes and a very uncomfortable looking suit.


    Loke:"Is something the matter Ambassador StormForge?"


    Dwarf:"Jerr transport is shit,Runewalker! That''s the matter you long eared twat!"


    Loke is taken aback by the aggressiveness:"Ahh..I forgot.."


    Vistra walks in:"Dwarves hate flight,then again they also hate the sea. Would you have preferred warping master forge?" The Avian is exactly what you''d think, a human with bird wings for arms, long slender bird legs with feathers and feathers along the sides of her head. Her long hair and feathers where bright green along with her orange eyes, instead of hands she also had bird like features with long sharp talons on each finger similar to her feet.


    Joltax''s face loses all colour:"I''d much rather not..Damn things make me feel like my beard''s gonna fall off!"


    Loke:"Well we couldn''t have gotten you to.."


    Joltax cuts Loke off:"Oh no excuses now you twig!"


    Zeaxar looks quite tired:"I''ve had to deal with this damned loud dwarf for days..." The demon is slightly taller than William, with reddish skin, black hair, black eyes with a white pupil. Three long black horns bulging out of his head.He was wearing a black and red suit.


    William:"Well I welcome you to Heaven''s Gaze..."


    The three look at the human as if they just noticed...


    Vistra lick''s her lips:"Interesting.."


    Joltax:"Taller than I figured..."


    Zeaxar:"Oh? So this is what a human looks like. But your just a shorter Elf? Oh your ears are round."


    William feels offended, he clenches his fist:"Look y.."


    Loke grabs a hold of his shoulder:"Please follow me ambassadors, we have a lot to talk about."


    The two ambassadors follow Loke, the dwarf seems to have a lot of steam to let off.


    The demon bows to William respectfully and moves on to talk with some lord''s daughter. William stands there, feeling ignored.


    William:(Isn''t this supposed to be my wedding?...Heh can''t be helped I guess...Arryn is the crowned one after all. Wait, does that make me the queen in this relationship? .....)


    Erza:"Stand straight, she is coming." she appeared out of the shadows, making him jump a bit...wearing a dress that is a tad bit revealing.


    From the entrance two priestesses walk out throwing petals from their baskets onto the viewers, behind them Arryn walked out. She is wearing a long blue dress with silver and ember gems, her hair braided with the crown on her head. She walks up to William grabs hold onto his arm. Her plenty full bust pushing on his arm, William turns slightly red.


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    Arryn smiles at him:"Shall we?"


    William:"Yeah..."


    They walk down the path, towards the tree where the High priest waited for them. The other priests and priestesses started their incantations. The tree starts to glow in a silver light. They arrive in front of the High priest.


    Priest:"You may start your vows."


    They both nod and turn to face each other.


    Arryn:"William, I may be crowned, but I know I can never give you your wish. Your dream is something I can only slightly help you with. I do how ever promise, what ever is within my reach, what ever I can..shoulder for you. I will do my utmost."


    William:"Arryn, you''ve shouldered so much for me already...You took on my anguish when you had just lost your loved ones, you helped me at my lowest. I promise I will treat you with pride and never let you get hurt. I will protect you with everything I have."


    The tree glows more brightly, engulfing them.


    William:"What''s this?"


    Arryn:"The tree has accepted our vows, we''re alone in its realm right now. It wants us to share the rest in privacy. I''ve already met your contracted spirit, but you haven''t met mine have you?" She raises her arms, two wolves appear next to her "These are romulus and remus, they tell me they where from your world once. Ever since I met them I wondered, what was your world like? What was your kind like? Then I met you.. At first I thought you were strong..independent and alone...I was intrigued by your actions and your speech..I could never have known your pain if it wasn''t for your spirit...As I have already said..I promise..I will help you shoulder it. This bond I''ve made with you."(If we concentrate on each other enough, can you hear me?)


    William is surprised by the voice in his head:(Yes...I can...)


    Arryn:(We''re running out of time) She smiles "We''re being taken back to the garden"


    The light around them dims, they find themselves back at the garden. William felt it, something was off. When he turns around he see something he wasn''t expecting at all. Behind the priest sat on a wooden chair, Birse BlackHand. He turned to the viewers and behind each one standed a hooded figure holding a knife to their neck. He turns back to Birse, who is looking at him with an amused smirk.


    Birse:"Well well well, congratulations I believe are in order" He starts to slow clap."The warrior princess and the ambassador from another world. How fantasy like, you two thought it was all over? After you trashed my client? Well let it be heard by all." He stands up throwing the chair in the sky, shattering the barrier. The barrier''s energy falls like shards of glass, showering everyone."You''ve started this my boy, you''ve pissed off the sleeping dragon. You should have just bent over to my control, it''s not like you can cut off the strings I''ve put on everyone anyhow..." Four shadows form around them, then take shape of four hooded figures holding blades to their necks. Birse walks closer to them."My organisation has this continent in its tight grip, I''ll be damned if I let a snot nosed brat ruin that." He''s face to face with William now "So I forward you a decision, kid. Bend the knee, swear your loyalty to me. Or every single person here will have quite the problem breathing..."


    William:"Bold..showing yourself in front of me...Have you forgotten what I did to your colleagues?." He pours his mana into the ground, the earth bends and grows towards Birse at great speed forming spikes, the spikes go through him.


    Birse isn''t fazed, the spots the spikes hit are covered in black smoke:"Kekekeke, Why would I come in person? You''re not that important, kid. Now choose, or would you like to see how many you can save before their throats are cut?"


    William is shaking, this being has him beat. He couldn''t possibly save everyone in the garden, he had no choice but to bend to his will.He drops to the ground, kneeling:"Please...have mercy on these innocents..I''m the one you want..."


    Arryn:"William!"


    Birse laughs his arms raised:"Here is your king! Here are your rulers!. Remember, you may have that shiny crown, but this continent is mine. Every single one of you lives because I cannot be bothered to kill you myself. Now then, kill them all."


    William is taken aback, he hadn''t thought he''d be so rash. He jumps backwards to protect Arryn, he wouldn''t make it in time. Right before the blades hit her throat, the assassins disappear in black smoke. All around the garden, they simply disappear.


    A distant laughter can be heard.

 The March

    William:(They weren''t just illusions...The barrier...it really did break...His power...it transcends mine...How can I protect them? How can I even protect myself?)


    These thoughts floated in his mind for six days, after the wedding security was at an all time high in Heaven''s Gaze, but he knew it wasn''t enough. That man, he could split himself into multiple beings, that''s how powerful his illusion magic was. William had decided to leave to continue his journey around this world, but he only allowed Loke to accompany him. He didn''t want to put Arryn in any more danger, neither did Loke for Rel. They were preparing to leave for WillowHeart, the kingdom of the Wood Elves.


    Loke:"I leave my daughter in your hands, your majesty" Loke bows respectfully.


    Arryn:"And I leave my king in yours, RuneLord Loke." She turns to William "Are you sure you don''t want any guards to accompany you?" worry showing on her face.


    William shakes his head:"No, they would only get in the way. I would go alone but...Not even I can force Loke around..." He sighs as Loke gives a wink to them both and enters the dragon carriage.


    Arryn closes her eyes:(I will be waiting for you.)


    William grabs a hold of her arms:(You won''t have to wait long.) He lets go, walking into the carriage.


    The carriage plaza was awfully full today, the entire populace were watching their new king leave for his journey, the guards gave special permission for even the top of the walls to be used for onlookers. A the dragons pulled the carriage into the sky, the shouts of the citizens of Heaven''s Gaze got quieter. After a couple


    Loke:"So it starts..." Loke holds his walking stick in one hand while keeping his top hat on with his other.


    William:"Indeed."


    Loke:"Are you sure about not letting Arryn come along? She is quite powerful herself."


    William:"She has a country to lead, her people need her more than me."


    Loke:"What about her needs?" he looks at William.


    William sighs:"I have no other choice. What''s to come, will be bloody."


    Officially they are going to WillowHeart to continue building alliances with the other races. But in actuality William asked Loke to bend some strings, telling the WoodElves he''d be another couple weeks away. William had done this because he wanted to get rid of a very real threat, BlackHand. Honestly, he didn''t know if his plan would work. All he knew was that, he had to face him.


    William:"When will your friends join us?"


    Loke:"Oh, but they''re already here." Loke flicks his fingers


    Reality seems to distort as a veil falls within the carriage, uncovering four others.


    Loke:"Let me present you my dear old friends from the void war. This is William Smith, the human you''ve all heard so much about."


    Within the carriage along William and Loke sat four others, A male dwarf with ginger hair,beard and grey eyes, A female Werewolf with white fur and blue eyes, A male Wood Elf with short dark green hair and blue eyes, lastly a male Drakeling with grey scales and red eyes.


    Loke:"William, these are my brothers and sister at arms.Master Dwarf Kalus Highsung"The dwarf nods "Chief Ranger Yorick Stesfal" The Wood Elf makes a gesture with his hands, fist in the other palm. "Alpha Kateera from the north pack." The Werewolf simply stares on at William "And lastly Nexiet Wreath, Leader of the Dragon Rider guild." The Drakeling shakes hands with William. "I leave it to you now."


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    William nods:"I apologise for rallying you all on such short notice, I wish we had more time but..Time is precious for this operation. You all know of the corruption within these lands, you''ve all seen and felt the control this man holds." Kateera growls "Birse BlackHand has too strong a grip on this continent for anyone to oppose him and even all of us put together, we cannot beat him by force."


    Kateera loses her wolf form, turning down into a woman with long white hair and blue eyes but keeping her wolf ears and tail:"Then what would you suggest? Human."


    William:"We have no choice but to make a deal with him."


    Kalus:"A deal? With that blasted devil? You outa your rockers laddie?"


    Loke:"Kal, please let him speak." The dwarf snorts and calms down.


    William:"The deal will not concern any of you, so you have nothing to worry. All I need from you is to open a path for me to meet him face to face, I''m tired of speaking to illusions and clones."


    Nexiet:"Gain the enemies attention first...At the very least, he''d see you as a larger ant than the others. But I must warn you human, if any of us gets the chance at his neck..." His grip on his sword grows stronger, his eyes almost on fire "We shall slay him where he stands."


    William:"I do not doubt your strength, and if you get the chance I will not stop you. But I will make this clear, once the negotiations start...You will not step in no matter what." William eyes each one of them. "With your aid we will penetrate his main stronghold were he himself is supposedly at."


    Loke:"Once the attack starts we''ll break up into two teams, the distraction team made of Nexiet, Kalus and Kateera and the forward team made of me, William and Yorick."


    Yorick:"I can ascertain whether it is him, I''m the only one here that has actually felt his true presence."


    Loke:"Indeed, which is why we need you and your rangers with us."


    Kalus:"Simple enough, how longer till we get to bash some bandit buffoons?"


    ---


    author: To add to the atmosphere...


    Music: https://youtu.be/ojL5Y5HvOlE?t=12s</a>


    ---


    Yorick:"At this pace I estimate arrival in a couple hours, calm yourself master dwarf."


    Kalus:"Calm myself!? You beautiful glorified botanist! MY WAR MACHINES ARE THE ONES THAT CANNOT CALM THEMSELVES!" He laughs.


    All around the carriage, the wind quakes as hundreds of wyverns and drakes litter the sky, Drakelings and Elves Saddling them. On the ground the trees make no move but underneath the canopies elves and weremen riding spirit beasts traverse the forest as the ground shakes behind them, on the path large dwarven war constructs crush the ground beneath them as they move.


    War was upon them.


    William''s smile grows as he looks out the window:"This world has not seen war between sentients for decades, mine has been engulfed by it for that long. Sit there in your cosy seat, Birse. I''ll come to you instead."


    ---


    Author: A shorter chapter introducing the next one. It''s war next chapter, gear up. This will get dirty and bloody. :)

 Seige

    Darkglade, a worn out fortress built in ancient times to hold off voidlings, the portal had closed up a long time ago though.Now it is owned by the largest mercenary group in the four continents, Edge Alpha. This group was owned by one of the wealthiest men on the continent, also holding a lot of diplomatic power. Birse BlackHand is an oddity as many rumours and mysteries surround his rise in power, most of which end up being muted. He owns many other small groups on other continents and is also infamous for his black market, although the dominant nations can do nothing about it as he owns enough military force by himself to fight any of them on equal ground.


    Surrounding the fortress were high mountains with only two passages to it, both heavily guarded by large gates and barriers surrounding them.William''s forces though held a vantage point most would ignore, as the fortress was made to fight off the horrors of the Void ballistas and mages is all it needed to fight off flying threats and as such had no defences set upon the mountains and high hills encasing the crater looking area. They had successfully trekked up one of the mountains and were now staring down at the fortress.


    Kalus:"Blimey is that a drop if I ever saw one. How''d you reckon we getting all heavy equipment down?"


    William chuckled at the dwarf''s question:"We don''t. Well not everything, the wheelers can roll down the side of the mountain drop, it is a steep drop after all, not exactly straight. Do the cannons have effective range from up here?"


    Kalus:"Can shoot much further but can''t say for accuracy."


    William:"No need for that, a barrage will do quite nicely. As for the troops" He looks at Yorick, Kateera and Nexiet.


    Yorick:"Rangers will have no problem leaping down, the spirit beasts''s magic will do."


    Nexiet:"The riders obviously won''t have any trouble either but what about your pack Kateera?"


    Kateera:"If a distraction is all you want from us, we''ll also need someone to stay up here and defend these contraptions. We''ll stalk the woods behind here, take out any forces that try to pincer from behind."


    Loke:"Then we are ready for the assault?"


    William nods:"Master dwarf, if you may."


    Kalus''s expression can now only be described in one word, insane:"My pleasure laddie!"


    From down below one couldn''t see the six figures atop the cliff, until the large figures started to appear next to them. Mechanical goliaths stood next to the six towering ten times their size, made of steel and crystal the large mechs looked like a mad mixture of magical and futuristic with six cannons on each shoulder, steam gushing out of the back, these were called Sparts, Steam Powered Artillery Rigged Titans. Towering twice their size but only numbering four in total were the Wheelers, two large rectangular steel boxes on each side of a smaller metal wheel lined with blades and filled with explosives set to blow on manual command from the control station on top, not that they couldn''t without that is. Behind the siege weapons rested over two hundred drakes and wyverns with their riders and even more spirit beasts with rangers, among them several hundred armoured Weremen sat or stood around makeshift camps.


    The fortress was large enough to house a city, walls so high like someone was trying to keep out a dragon...or worse. Mercenaries strolled around the city fort, training, patrolling,resting at their bunks or simply lazying around in a pub. The gate was just as impressive as the walls that held it, being several storeys in height and width, this monster gate was lined with large bars of steel etched with thousands of runic inscriptions giving it magical properties and enhancing its resistance.


    ---


    Author: Might be time for some music...


    Here''s my personal choices:


    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZjUMbyxczM</a>


    or


    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYQTbm2Hn40</a>


    ^_^


    ---


    An explosion is heard, the very ground shakes. The mercenaries start to rush for equipment as another explosion hit the gate. From the cliff two giant wheels can be seen spinning down, hitting the ground and with massive power continue to spin propelling it forward yet again and straight into the gate, blowing it wide open with massive explosions. Hundreds of roars can be heard along with loud screeching sounds and miniature explosions as the Sparts barraged the city fort and the dragon riders took flight, professionally dodging falling shells and engulfing the streets in flaming breath and the occasional arrow. Again from the cliff hundreds of figures can be seen leaping off with bright magic barriers beneath each one, as the spirit beasts landed ferociously on the ground breaking it beneath them. They start for the open gate as many other smaller stone gates open every meter of the wall high and low, from them come out a mixture of gryphon riders, Trolls, Mercenaries riding horses and some foot soldiers. Before the rangers with their spirit beasts clashed with the mercenary army Sparts could be seen descending the side of the cliff as the crazier dwarfs got impatient for battle, amazingly only two blew up or crashed from the eight that went down. The battle spanned all around the open field surrounding the fortress for about two miles before the cliffs ended it, Rangers and Mercenaries clashing while the occasional Troll was blasted dead by organised Sparts. In the air the gryphon riders where having a hard time with the dragon riders due to the rangers shotgunning with them, skillfully bowing them down, with some larger drakes simply snagging a bite at the much smaller birds.


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    Now standing above the cliff, a giant beast roared down at the battle below. The dragon was pitch black with two mouths lined with ferocious fangs, its red eyes wide open with bloodlust. It leaped down taking flight, its two sets of beating wings swallowing any other sound as it descended on the fortress and gripping to the side of the main building. It roared once more and breath flames of pure darkness into the building, then simply disappeared in an explosion of black smoke that seemed to be sucked into the fortress. The battle raged on outside, progressing inside the walls.


    So far the plan went perfectly except for the couple maniac dwarfs including Kalus jumping off the side of the cliff with their god damn mechs. William along with Loke and Yorick were taken inside the fortress main building by Erza, Yorick was very wary of the dragon woman next to him.


    William:"That crazy ass dwarf costed us two gunda...I mean Sparts"


    Loke:"He always was impatient..."


    Yorick:"Agreed, but here we are heading straight into the devil''s lair."


    The four of them head up multiple flights of stairs, following Yorick who followed a trail of very particular mana. They arrived at a double door, locked. William''s grey eye burst alight with a blue aura as he punched the doors in. They entered the room, before they could comprehend what had just happened Loke and Yorick hit the ground face first, crushing the pavement. A large grey Werewolf stood on top of them holding them down, William and Erza leapt out of his reach into the room. The Werewolf was wearing black plated armour body, legs, boots and gauntlets with spiked shoulder pads. William took a look behind him, another door, then a look at Yorick. Yorick nods, Loke grows a grin. William and Erza dash for the door and close it behind them.


    Loke:"Ah.. would you mind getting off this old man''s BACK" Loke sends fort a blast of magic from his walking stick, forcing the Werewolf off them and down the corridor a couple meters. "Now.. what would be your name?"


    The Werewolf stands up unfazed,smoke rising from the area he was blasted at, looking straight into Loke''s eyes:"Kurt Zerk, may I have my opponents''s names?"


    Loke:"Loke Runwalker" he gets up and aims his stick at him.


    Yorick:"Yorick Stesfal" he draws his double edged twin short swords.


    Kurt growls:"Hm, a mage and a ranger." He eyes down their equipment, snarling at the sight and smell of a sheathed silver dagger on the ranger. His eyes alight with bloodlust and his fur standing up to the rush of adrenaline "Entertain me, Elves" Kurt raises his right hand as darkness engulfs it and grows into a large black pole axe with a jagged edge.


    --------------------------------


    William and Erza follow them plan, if they were to meet resistance outside the targets area, Yorick and Loke would deal with it. He only wished it hadn''t had to be a damned Werewolf of that size. After they entered the room the door forced itself closed behind them. The room was dimly lit but enough to see, it was a bed chamber with a large round bed in the middle. Within the sheets a man smiled at them, the Weretiger obviously amused by their actions, two women also lay at each side of him.


    Birse:"Now isn''t that a rude entry? Haven''t your parents taught you to knock first?"


    William clenched his fists as he readied himself to make a deal with the devil.


    ---


    Author: Do you like cliffhangers? I sure do :D , thanks for reading!

 Deal with the devil

    William and Birse looked at each other. One felt fear and anger building up, the other simply watched on in amusement with a condescending glare.


    Birse:"So, to what do I owe this rude entry? King William?" He grabs a goblet of wine from his desk and takes a sip.


    William:"You very well know why.." William expression grew into a wide sneer "Prince Zeaxar HellBorn" Around his arm grows a blade of mana, he grabs the blade with his other hand, injuring himself.


    Zeaxar throws a fit of coughing as he spits out the wine, which turns into loud laughter:"Well well well! Injuring your self to undo my Illusion? Never thought of that before!" The demon stares on in amusement as the ant he once saw grew into a clever rat.


    Zeaxar gets up from the bed, facing William. The two women behind him leap out, transforming into succubi with long talons, they lash out at William.


    William:"Erza!"


    Erza raises both arms, they grow into black smoke pinning the demons to the walls. Zeaxar is unfazed and starts walking forward, the smoke ripping in front of him.


    Erza struggles:"I cannot hold him down master."


    William looks at her:"Take the other two out of here."


    Erza nods and pulls the two succubi into the window, shadows rushing out behind them as Erza herself flies out. A loud dragon''s roar.


    Zeaxar:"So it''s just me and you now, think you stand a chance kid?"


    William:"No, in truth I do not."


    Zeaxar''s amusement grows into a wide mad grin "So what is the point of all this then? Your army may kill most of these useless shits but once I head out, the battle is as good as over."


    William:"My army? You seem to misunderstand. I don''t lead those forces, the Magi Alliance does. They simply gave me a ride here."


    Zeaxar''s amused expression turns into annoyance:"You dare lie to my face?"


    William:"I''m not lieing, my only affiliation with this attack is me knowing the commanders and that is it."


    Zeaxar:"Oh, so you deny having a hand in all this. Very well but tell me, why should I not kill you where you stand? I do not need a reason to do so."


    William:"Because, I''ve sent multiple messengers to your father, King Kerxes HellBorn. If I do not contact their agency back at Heaven''s Gaze the information of your standing as Birse BlackHand will leak to him. I wonder how the royal selection will go after that? Your brothers would be very appreciative of me.You do want to take over after your father don''t you?"


    Zeaxar''s anger is very obvious on his face:"You.." He raises a hand, eight shadowy figures appear around William with blades of pure darkness aimed at him. "What do you want."


    William is delighted, he''s got this man at his finger tips:"I propose a deal, I keep the information about your...Shadowy life under tabs."


    Zeaxar grows impatient:"And?"


    William:"And you keep out of my way, you shall not lay a single hand on me or anybody I ever come in contact with. You will have nobody follow me or my companions."


    Zeaxar''s expression is dumbfounded:"Boy...I''m quite literally the richest on this continent, I own legions of mercenaries and diplomatic power on par with a king. And that is all you ask for?" He starts to laugh hysterically.


    William''s grin grows wider:"I''m not done talking." Zeaxar stops laughing "Lastly, you will hand over command of the EA mercenaries to me."


    Zeaxar sits back down, he expected something like that. He ponders on it for a bit:(These shits are the largest group under my command...Though they only number half the military power of all the rest put together..Hmm) He looks at William, looking for signs of faltering "You think you can earn the respect needed to lead these morans? Be my guest. Their commander is right out there." he says with an amused smirk.


    A loud crash is heard outside the room followed by a howl.


    Zeaxar:"Also, how''d you find out?"


    William:"Your identity? It was no simple task fortunately for you. I knew there was no way you weren''t inside the garden to be able to summon your shadows, which I concluded weren''t illusions due to what you did to the barrier with the chair. As you might now know, I have the ability to sense and differentiate mana signatures. When ever someone uses magic they leave traces behind them, I followed those traces and then questions the guards to match the pattern of movement with the guests. Then I matched the other mana signatures of each guest as they left. That left me with three guests that left before I could match them, as none of those I matched came up positive. The last three were you and two of the ambassadors, The avian and the dwarf. I knew Dark elemental magic was not very powerful for dwarves, avians and weremen which is why I was suspicious in the first place."


    Zeaxar:"I see, my mistake for choosing that mask then."


    William:"If you had chosen to take a demonic, orcish or dark elf. I would never had been able to even think of investigating your identity."


    Zeaxar sighs:"Indeed. Oh and remember boy, if word ever gets out to my father. You''ll be the first to lose their head." Him and his shadows disappear in a explosion of black mist.


    William grins:"Guess it''s time to find out why he was talking about respect." He turns for the door.


    ----------------------------------


    Loke and Yorick are having a hard time with this Werewolf.


    Yorick:"Damn furball keeps leaping from wall to fucking wall! Keep him still!" He roll dodges as a poleaxe lands where he stood.


    Loke:"You think its easy casting while on the move damnit!?" He''s hit by the butt of the pole and sent flying down the corridor.


    Kurt:"Stand still you thin fucks! I''ma carve my claws into you soon enough!" he howls loudly, stunning them both.


    Yorick sees the Werewolf comming down on him with his poleaxe, he dodge rolls to the side next to the room. Kurt leaps forward holding his poleaxe ready to bash it down again, but yorick rolls into the room. Kurt grabs hold of the wall, destroying part of it and turning his leap into the room. Yorick drops his swords and runs under the werewolf, grabbing him by the waste trying to keep him still.


    Kurt looks down at the puny elf, enraged:"And what do you think your doing?" He muses to himself as the elf is open for kurt to cut him down.


    Suddenly a seal appears around them both, runes spinning in a circle around them. Green ethereal chains flow out of the seal, binding the werewolf.


    Yorick lets go and takes a couple steps back, grabbing his blades and sheathing them :"Took you long enough."


    Loke comes walking into the room:"Strong sealing spells take time to cast dear old friend."


    Kurt:"Strong? Don''t make me laugh" His form changes, looking like a human with wolf ears and tail.The chains are too slow to rebind his smaller form, he kicks Loke into the wall and gets ready to pounce on Yorick. The door behind Yorick opens, revealing William walking out.


    Kurt notices that there is no one else inside the room, he takes a couple seconds to sniff for his client''s scent:"Where is BlackHand?" he growls at the William.


    William:"He left, your services were no longer needed by him. I''m now your commander."


    Kurt is taken aback: (Why would Zeaxar do that?) "Even if that sly bastard sold us off, you don''t seem to understand how things work around here. To take command of our group BlackHand had to defeat me and my lieutenants on his own, which he did. A runt like you couldn''t even take me on." he growls at him again.


    William:"Then I shall take this test, Loke, Yorick. Tell the others to retreat."


    Yorick:"We''re not leaving without Birse''s head! That was the deal, after you''ve spoken with him he was ours to do as we wish."


    William:"He''s already left, what ever plan you had to kill him should apparently have had some way to hold him within the fortress."


    Yorick closes his eyes, sensing his surroundings:"That son of bitch...Loke, I''m leaving. The others need to know."


    Loke:"Will you give him chase?"


    Yorick nods and leaves the room at great speed.


    Kurt looks confused:"Wait wait, so Birse actually sold us off? The hells!?"


    William:"Yeap, you should tell your men to back off as well. He isn''t your client anymore and there is no need for more bloodshed."


    Kurt glares at William in annoyance, He''d lost his best paying client who was also his old friend. (Ohh...when I find him...) he clenched his fist: "Cover your ears."


    Loke and William cover their ears, half confused. Kurt takes Werewolf form again, and howls with all his might, the very ground shakes at his roar like howl.


    -----------------------


    Outside the battle had come to a stand still as the mercenaries set lines of defence by the gate, erecting barriers against the barrage from the Sparts. The lieutenants had gotten everyone organised but their air force was losing badly. Suddenly the large dragon grew out of the main building again, roaring and flying around the city. A couple minutes after that an Elf jumped out of a window and scaled down onto the roof of another building, a wyvern landed to pick him up. The wyvern flew around the invading forces, as they started to retreat back. A loud howl is heard from the building, signalling the battle was over, the mercenaries started to relax their weapons. The dragon riders grabbed hold of the rangers and their spirit beasts flying them back up the hill, the larger drakes grabbing to the Sparts on the ground as very angry dwarves shook their fists in the air and swore loudly, only to fall back in their seat feeling sick. The battle was over, neither side won. Down the street came walking their commander Kurt, they fell in line behind the lieutenants. Two others walked behind him.


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    Kurt:"Jax, Report." A tall drakeling stepped forward.


    Jax:"The enemy has retreaded, we''ve had several losses in air power and some militia. All the trolls are dead."


    Kurt:"Fucking crazy ass dwarfs and their contraptions" He looks around at the many buildings that were grounded from the artillery."Seyl, get the men to start repairs on the gate. Jax start the reconstruction of the damn buildings. Karl...Recover the equipment from the trolls. BlackHand has run off, the mixxed invaders agreed to dismiss their attack. Everyone is dismissed, get to work." barked commands at his lieutenants. "We will hold a meeting once everyone has their job going, I want all lieutenants there by nine that is."


    The mercenaries reluctantly did as told, being still confused at this attack. Rumours started flying around that BlackHand had finally pissed off the Magi Alliance and other whispers joined it. After the lieutenants had set everyone to reconstruction they headed for the main building where Kurt, Loke and William waited for them in the meeting room. Every one sat down as Kurt started to explain the situation.


    Seyl:"So that cunt finally threw us into the dirt." the dark elf slammed her hand on the table "I refuse to follow some random runt who could pay enough to amuse that fucker, employer or not!" The rest of the lieutenants agreed with nods and their own two cents.


    Kurt:"Calm down, you all know the drill. He may have bought the guild rights but he still has to prove himself." He looks at William "You brave enough for the challenge?"


    William stands up:"Heh, bring it on."


    The lieutenants gaze at the human, obviously insulted. But Kurt simply laughs in amusement.


    Kurt:"Alright then, you''ve got till tomorrow morning to run with your tail between your legs boy. Tomorrow we''ll be waiting at the arena, I''ll send someone to fetch you. Everyone back to their stations!"


    The meeting is adjourned, the lieutenants head back out to watch over the repairs. Kurt sends William and Loke with a mercenary to one of the empty barrack''s bunk rooms. They settle down on the bunks, getting ready for some rest.


    William:"Well didn''t expect them to take it so well."


    Loke snorts:"Boy you''ve surprised me a multitude of times now, are you sure you can take them?"


    William seems to be in deep thought:"What do you reckon is their ability rank?"


    Loke puts his chin on his fists, thinking:"The lieutenants I do not know, but the Werewolf? As far as I could tell he''s around royal E. He would have had an easier time killing Yorick in close quarters if he was a C."


    William:"How much difference is there between royal ranks?"


    Loke:"A large one. Unlike the previous ranks Royal E and upwards is like the scale all over again, two royal E still will have problems against a C. Are you sure you don''t want to leave now? We got what we wanted didn''t we?"


    William gives a short laugh:"You need to be more ambitious Loke!, even though I never had much myself. Having control of this group will aid me in my goal greatly."


    Loke sighs:"You''ll do it even if I strongly begged you not to. Well I''ll take my leave for the night, sleep well." Loke gets off his chair and heads out of the room "It''s been ages since I lived in a barracks" he muses to himself as he left.


    -----------------------------


    The next morning William is woken by a knock on the door, a mercenary had come for them. He puts on his clothes and gets out, finding Loke and a very annoyed imp staring up at him.


    Imp:"Well, I must say I''m surprised you haven''t run off yet." he chuckles. "Follow me, this is gonna be a blast."


    They follow the imp out of the barracks and to the other side of the fort city, to a large building with a lot of mercenaries entering. Once inside they found themselves surrounded by stands full of mercenaries, the building was an arena. Spanning about thirty meters wide, the arena''s ground was sand with a fence on the edge with some space to walk around it. On the other side of the arena Kurt and his lieutenants were waiting for him.


    Imp:"Boss said once you enter the arena its on, No rules and you can use what ever weapon you wish. No dwarven shit tho.You''ll first be taking on the lieutenants all together and then the Boss. Got that?"


    William:"Yeah, I got it."


    The imp snorts and flies up to the stands.


    Loke:"You sure about this? You might get killed."


    William nods:(Arryn, It''s time.) He had been talking to her using their bond.


    Arryn:(Don''t get killed...)


    Loke raises a brow:"You talking with her I presume?"


    William:"Yeah, I''m going."


    Loke:"That the Gods watch over you, not that you want them to." He smiles.


    William enters the arena.


    ---


    Author: Let''s do this! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bwi1p2q6wqc</a>


    ---


    The second his feet hit the sand, the lieutenants clenched their weapons and rushed at him. There were three of them, Jax the drakeling with his dual axes, Seyl the darkelf with her bow and Karl the Orc with his... bare knuckles? They attacked in unison, Jax swinging both is axes from the left, Karl punching from the right, Seyl shooting three arrows from the middle. All three attacks gained their own aura, Jax''s green, Seyl''s blue and Karl''s red. William''s eyes flared up, blue and purple aura engulfed him as a rush of mana surged around him, pushing back his attackers. The arrows pierced through his shock wave, aiming for his head, shoulder and chest. With insane speed he dodged to the side, clenching his fist as he punched Karl in the gut and sent him spiralling into the wall beneath the stands. Jax backs up next to Seyl, William beams a grin at them. Jax takes the bait, he rushes fort and spirals in front of William slashing the ground sending a wall of sand between them. He jumps and lands his axes down. Gone, William leaped up the second the wall of sand was made. He comes back down crashing his fist into Jax''s head, sending him face first into the ground. Seyl starts to panic and circles William, loosing arrows. William rushes after her, dodging the arrows.He cuts her off, but she athletically leaps over him and lands behind him dagger in hand. He rolls forward dodging her stab. She wields her bow again sending fort another four arrows, William dodges them except for one that scars his left cheek. Seyl smirks insultingly, losing her bow and quiver re wielding her dagger and a short sword. A series of slashes and stabs from Seyl followed by dodges and side steps from William later, grabs a hold of her sword hand and throws her in the air. She spins around in mid air ready to land but William is faster. He leaps after her and higher, kicking her hard in the chest. She is sent flying to the other side of the arena, landing next to Kurt unconscious. William lands and faces Kurt, breathing heavily.


    ---


    Author: Cliff hangerss!!!!! <33...


    Chill the fuck down I''m just kidding.


    Battle music: https://youtu.be/aWxBrI0g1kE?t=21s</a>


    :D


    ---


    Kurt looked at his beaten subordinates:"Weak fucks" he takes a couple steps towards William, his form growing into a large Werewolf "Guess its my turn."


    William wastes no time, mana surges to his arms forming blades as he rushes to the werewolf. Kurt sidesteps, punching William in the gut. William coughs blood as he retreats back, he needs to rethink his attack plan. Kurt had other ideas though, he rushes fort with massive power claws out to slash the man in front of him to pieces. William meets the werewolf''s charge with his own, his grey eye flaring brighter. They clash, hand to hand trying to wrestle the other backwards as a shock wave sends sand flying all around them, Kurt snarling at William''s face. They both back off, Kurt''s right arm is shrouded in black smoke that grows into a large black and red war hammer. Kurt leaps, crashing down his hammer as William dodge rolls to the side. The hammer hits send up a pillar of sand, William takes this chance to attack engulfing his legs in mana as he kicks the Werewolf in the back. Kurt is growls painfully and grabs William''s leg with his free arm, throwing him into the ground and raising his hammer once more. Kurt howls as his hammer comes crashing down again with another pillar of sand, twice the size of the last one. As the sand cleared, Kurt is seen holding his hammer trying to push it down. William stopped the hammer with both his hands, the raw mana surrounding them visible. William falls back again, holding his left shoulder. Kurt lets his hammer drop to his side, out of breath.


    Kurt:"Lets end this, pipsqueek"


    William:"Yeah, let''s"


    William''s eyes shine bright purple, his hair wild with the pressure he''s amassing. He opens his arms wide, Kurt raises his hammer for one last strike. The sand shifts beneath them as suddenly a mass of stone bashes into Kurt sending him flying out of the arena and into the side of the main building. William falls to his knees, breathing heavily.


    ---


    Author: Hope you''ve enjoyed, I''m really proud of the battle :D. Bet none of you expected the comical ending to it xD, read the tags damit :P

 Refined strength

    William had succeeded into three steps, one he wasn''t expecting to list. He gained a foothold in this world''s politics, gained a secondary military force and successfully bribed a monster into ignoring his movements. For the first, he planned to increase his influence all over the continent and ultimately "rule" over it. He didn''t plan to personally watch over each of the kingdoms himself as that would be impossible with his abilities but instead on selecting others to rule in his stead and follow his command, for Heaven''s Gaze it was Arryn who ruled the kingdom for him, even though she was the crowned one it served as deterrent for unwanted questions by the populace, he wasn''t High Elf after all. For the second, the military force of Heaven''s Gaze numbered around 12,000. His mercenary group only numbering around 7,000, which in total he had a bit under 20,000 under his command. This pleased him of course but not so for others, the kingdoms of WillowHeart, Remora and Destora, moved to have diplomatic meetings with the new shift in military power. Even the kingdoms from other continents shifted in unease at this quick change, nobody expected for a single being to shift so much power in his direction so fast. Many questioned the sanity of the High Elf Queen Arryn but where quickly silenced by others insulted at the speeches of interracial ruling. The Magi Alliance was in turmoil chasing down Birse BlackHand and his colleagues for the many years of black market and banditry they had done, unfortunately for them neither were on the continent anymore. Their allies from the Monstra Alliance and TACA returned to their home lands after it was ruled that their assistance was no longer required. Birse on the other hand simply swore and retreated his assets, keeping only the most hidden roots in place.


    Now was time for the next step, William decided his current power wasn''t enough. After the tiring fight to take over the EA mercs, he retired himself to training for several days. Erza kept watch over the entrance to the arena, so that nobody disturbed him. Loke had left the fort and headed back to Rosevalt to arrange some diplomatic issues, basically calming the Magi Alliance representatives and telling them William wished not for war but neutrality. Even though they had been completely used and tricked by the human they had no choice but to sit and watch, due to Loke''s persistence and Arryn''s speeches at meetings. Kurt and his lieutenants were tasked with keeping the mercenaries trained and out on jobs by the guild. The guild was a global group that passed information, bounties and quests for mercenary groups and other smaller adventurer parties.


    ----------------------------


    William:"I need to get stronger...I need to surpass myself...No more suppressing it..." He was standing in the middle of the arena for the 4th day in a row, trying to improve his new found powers. William''s magic was the very basic of all magic, mana bending. Every mage knew how to do it, but William was special, he could bend it in large quantities, sense it around him and bend that as well. The very first step in learning magic was understanding, feeling and using mana, he had accomplished that and had since used those basics to bend raw mana as kinetic energy or enhancing his own body. Some times he even gave it form such as a blade or barrier but that was too problematic as it used up his mana fast and without his own mana supply bending the mana of his surroundings was too much of a toll on his body. So he decided to advance, the next step was to reform his mana, giving it shape was the simplest of this but he wanted to go further. The next choice was giving the mana an attribute, an element. Every single race had specific elemental attributes, forcing them to utilise that element for highest efficiency. But William was neither of these races and didn''t know which element he had an attribute to, so he did the sanest thing and tried to learn them all. No, he did not succeed. He was able to learn Wind,Water,Earth and Fire and was locked to the very most basic of spells but with his insane control and mana capacity these basic spells turned into castings of mass destruction.


    William clenched his fists, raising them to align with his shoulders in front of him:"Here we go." He takes a deep breath, after a series of dramatic and dance like movements, mana surged around him, first forming a storm of wind then a whirlwind of water which suddenly crashed into the sand turning into shifting earth that burst into a hurricane of fire. He releases his fists and breaths out."Good, I have the basics down correctly.." He ponders on something for a bit. "Let''s try something different.." He closes his eyes to focus. "Each element has a weakness and if I do not think of defensive spells I''ll leave myself open... Loke said defensive spells are stronger if they have a medium to act from as they are faster to cast without needing incantation or cast time, like an amulet or a chest plate." He smiles "Got it, I have to look intimidating somehow anyway." He kneels and focuses his mana into the ground. "Let''s see, hopefully.. somewhere...Aha, gotcha." He sends fort massive heat into the ground for a couple minutes, turning the sand into glass. "Now to get it out." This time using earth magic he bends the ground around his target, encasing it and forcing it upward. A large steaming boulder comes out from beneath the sand, he starts to shape it, giving it human like features and then focuses his magic on the inside of it. "Hmm...cooling at this rate will take too long...Forcing it will damage it though...Oh right I''ll just do this." He forces some of the earth off the shell, making it thinner, then uses water magic to engulf it in water and keeps it moving around the statue constantly, the water bubbled and evaporated fast so he had to supply it with constant mana. He stood there for hours, waiting. Once he was done, Erza could hear him laughing like a maniac from the entrance. She got worried and decided to go check if her master had finally gone insane.


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    ---


    Author: Kekekekekeke...SURPRISE MUSIC https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tChbvW-l5Ao</a>


    ---


    She carefully stepped into the arena entrance and walked down the long corridor, as she reached the gate she felt it. Multiple mana signatures engulfing her master, what could possibly it be for her to sense it so distinctively? She sensed four elements in total, so condensed she couldn''t make out what was in the middle. She stepped out into the arena to get a good view, she saw only a single figure in the very middle as it should have been...but...


    Erza:"What has...How did..." she opened her eyes wide as an explosion of mana happened right in front of her.


    William:"I might have...over done it a bit..." He was surrounded by four unnatural disasters, one corner was ablaze, one was completely frozen, one was in a frenzy of typhoons and the last was engulfed in rocky spikes. The outcome of his creation was completely unexpected. He used ores he sensed under ground to form into armour, then forged his own mana into the armour using rune inscriptions. The outcome was truly amazing, the armour set held within it eight spells, two per element. He had to supply it with mana to activate the spell but it was far stronger than the rings he was given by Loke. The armour was of a delicate dark design, similar to Kurt''s it had multiple protrusions on the shoulders,gauntlets and legs along with being plated on the chest and legs. Each piece was full of runic inscriptions glowing purple, along with the dark grey colour of the armour it looked quite intimidating.


    William turned to face Erza:"What do you think?"


    Erza:"Flashy, if you wanted all daggers and arrows aimed at your back consider it accomplished. Then again with that werewolf''s rash personality he''ll have all eyes on his hammer before that. How''d he even get to lead this many warriors?..."


    William:"He''s stronger than he makes us think, I can tell. He went easy on me during our fight."


    Erza sighs:"What was the point of the trial then?"


    William:"I think it was less a test of strength and more a test of wits and willpower."


    Erza:"When men talk with their fists I guess...."


    ----------------------------------


    Estria, from afar this dwarven marvel looks like a huge machine of rotating mechanisms and complicated rune inscriptions along with power crystals. Steam flows out of the city left and right giving it an eerie feel. Deep underground, the darkness was having a meeting with the shadows.


    Voice:"Seems like your exploits in the north have not gone unnoticed Birse..."


    Birse snorts:"You think? Won''t stop me though, I''ve got more time to live than that runt."


    Voice 2:"What even did make you retreat though? I''m very curious to know."


    Birse glares at the speaker:"Information you do not require to know."


    Voice 3:"Indeed, if the member does not wish to share they have every right not to. This group was founded on secrecy, it is our primary principle after all."


    Voice:"Well let us get started, since our occupation of the north will take longer than expected we should prepare. There must be no more complications, once we unite all the continents our plan will finally take fruition." In front of them a sphere like crystal shows images of machinery being built, mages and alchemists at work and as well as soldiers lining up.


    Birse:"We''re so close, nothing can stop us now."


    The tension in the room grows as the lights go off.


    ---


    Author: Another short chapter xP sorry. I promise next one will be longer :D

 Puzzle pieces

    William had decided he couldn''t continue his training without proper knowledge of what he was dealing with, Loke and the other mages in the EA couldn''t aid him as his type of magic was, to say the least, different.


    William:"I''ve asked every mage in the group while Arryn had her assistants look up things in the royal archive for me...Nothing, the only thing close was the name of the only other manamancer that has ever been recorded. Krat Velga."


    Loke:"That is indeed him, I''ve heard he had Elf blood along with his drakeling and demon origins. There are many other rumours about his parental origins but those were the main three recorded at the Great Archive in Rosevalt. You have some more free time before we must head for WillowHeart, why not pass by Rosevalt? The Great Archive has in it stored all the collective information the Magi Alliance has recorded along with other information the other alliances sold us over the decades. Also I have special permission to most sectors of it, you can use that to your advantage."


    William''s eyes shine for a moment, he takes Loke''s shoulder:"Well what are we waiting for! You could have told me that before hand!" he says in a cheery mood.


    They were strolling through the streets of DarkGlade, it was only noon and William had made up his mind to go to this Great Archive. He called up a meeting with the mercenary platoon leaders, it took them two hours to drop their work and assemble.


    Kurt:"Well boss? What do you need us for now?" He grumbles and growls in his humanoid form "Do you need EVERY single mage, summoner, spiritualist and runecrafter assembled again? If you do, I hope your pockets are deep because I''m dealing with the blasted dwarves and their market right now."


    William:"Nothing of the sort, I simply wish us to make agreements on an escort for me and Loke. We are heading for Rosevalt to give a visit to the Great Archive to further my research."


    Seyl:"How many do you think you''ll need?"


    Jax:"Two hundred? Three?"


    William:"A hundred will be enough, I want this to be quick so we have time to organise the larger escort to WillowHeart."


    Kurt:"A show of force you said? I still agree with your words but is one fourth of our forces seriously a good idea?That is a lot more men mobilising than we are used to."


    William:"Two thousand will be a deterrent for any bandit groups from attack our caravans and will also show the alliances we are not afraid of moving numbers. As far as I''ve collected each race holds military power of around ten thousand militia at their citadel, population wise each race is in the billions. A couple thousand mercenaries won''t bother the populace but will be noticed by their councils."


    Karl grunts:"Force too small, bigger numbers better? I not here last talk."


    William:"If we move with too great a force we''ll leave this fort undefended and also gain too much attention by the populace."


    Kurt:"We''ll get things worked on our side, Jax will prepare the first hundred or so escort for Rosevalt."


    William:"How long will it take? I wish to leave as soon as possible."


    Jax:"The bastards are always ready to move, I''ll call up the squad leaders and send them your way once their done preparing the gryphons, should take them only an hour or so."


    William:"Very well, also Kurt. I need your condensing magic, I have some armour I wish bound to an amulet. Can it be done?"


    Kurt:"Hah! I can condense a mountain if you want!"


    Seyl sighs:"Remember the hydra?..."


    Kurt looks like he''s about to puke:"Never mind...Show me the armour."


    They all leave to prepare, Seyl and Karl start forming the main escort for WillowHeart but contacting their best squads while Jax sets up the smaller escort to Rosevalt with the gryphons. Kurt uses his magic to condense William''s armour into an amulet Loke gave him for storage.


    Kurt:"I''m still impressed you were able to make this, runic armour is rare and takes a lot of mages along with blacksmiths to forge."


    Erza:"My master can do anything if he wishes for it."


    Kurt:"Pfft! I wonder how much mana he used up." he grins.


    Erza:"Same amount he used to set that earthen trap back then for you."


    Kurt growls:"You wanna fight bitch!?"


    Erza snarls, black smoke steaming out of her mouth:"Bring it guard dog."


    Loke:"By the gods, stop before you two bring the whole fort down on our heads!"


    William just sits on a chair holding his stomach, laughing. Erza stops to stare at him.


    William notices her doing this:"What?" he asks in confusion.


    Erza:"Nothing, just never seen that face on you before." she smiles.


    *Kurt still grumbling in the background* Loke tries to calm him down.


    Kurt:"Stop ignoring me you...." Loke put a mute spell on him.


    After finishing up, Jax informs William that the escort is ready. Being only about a hundred men and women the escort will fly by gryphon to Rosevalt and setup camp inside at the main Inn. The journey takes four hours and is eventless, except for William marvelling at how horrible a sense of direction his own gryphon had. They land at the edge of the city, the islands floating up above gracefully.


    Loke:"I''ve informed Keil of our arrival. He''ll be waiting at the main scholar island."


    William nods:"Squad leaders, go turn in at the Inn. I''ll leave the gryphons to be taken to the roost to you also." a couple nods come from the group.


    William and Loke walk over to a warp crystal, Loke starts to speak the incantation for their select destination. After warping in, William takes in the scene. A large marble structure stands on this island, he was told it is an open school for magic users with one of the largest library like buildings in this world. Keil is waiting for them with his usual guard escort.


    Keil:"Loke! Back so soon my friend?" they shake hands


    Loke:"No scholar can be kept away from this place" he jokes.


    Keil:"Indeed so!...My...William what has happened to you?" Keil takes in William''s appearance, his white hair and his differently colour eyes.


    Loke:"After his awakening, it seems his body went through a slight mutation due to the surge of mana. I do not know the cause for his hair but his eyes seem to each hold control over certain seals he subconsciously set for himself"


    William looks at Loke, a tad confused:"I did?"


    Loke:"Have you never noticed?Your purple eye seems to flare when you use your arcane magic or elemental magic while your grey eye does so when you use mana to enhance your body."


    William pouts:"Well that''s...A dead giveaway..."


    Loke:"It only shows activate of mana flow, not much for you to worry about."


    Keil:"Interesting, I wonder if this also happens to other humans...Anyhow I''ve informed the keepers, they''ve kept a operator open at the Archive for you to use William."


    William:"Operator...They''re the machines used to "search" for the information correct? But what are these keepers?"


    They start to walk towards the left entrance, The Archive.


    Loke:"The keepers are the guardians of the Archive, they watch over and interpret the information into multiple languages and search for inconsistencies."


    William:(The internet could use some of those...) "Well here we are, do we just go in or knock?"


    Loke "It is a public space, we can just stroll in."


    They push open the door and walk in, William feels slight nostalgia as he takes everything in. The hall they reside in is very large in height but much more in length. It is a long hall with lines and lines of what look like computers with many different races operating them while others in uniform robes walk about watching or stand at attention at what looks to be a reception. On each side the wall is a screen with lists of words slowly scrolling down.


    Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.


    William:"This is...Beautiful.."


    Loke:"Haha! Indeed it is my boy. The machines in the middle are operators, they utilise crystals embedded with illusion magic and runes, the ones on the walls show additions and changes being done by the keepers, each list is a different section. Here let us ask the keepers for your assigned operator."


    They walk over to the reception where William is asked to hover his hand on a crystal, his identity confirmed a keeper walks him and Loke to one of the crystal operators. The "machine" is a flat blue crystal screen with runic inscriptions on the back and smooth plain surface on the front. On the table three more square ones sit next to each other looking like some sort of keyboard.


    Keeper:"Would you wish for an explanation on use?" she asks William who is curiously eyeing the operator.


    Loke:"It is alright, I know how"


    The keeper takes a bow and leaves, Loke and William take seats in front of the operator.


    Loke:"The crystal up top is what you consider a monitor" he starts to explain "The left crystal on the table is to enter characters, the middle is to set objects for scanning and the right one is to set the configurations of the operator. Here let me set those to Elven so you can understand."


    William:"I don''t speak Elven?..."


    Loke looks at William:"You are doing so right now William..."


    They both stare at each other for a couple seconds...


    William:"Aliens...I mean..Gods...language differences..." he sighs and slightly shivers at the thought.


    Loke:"I understand...The Gods must have settled that their own way...Well no matter, you can speak and understand Elven now... and as I''ve seen many of the other languages from when you spoke to Joltax and Kateera. Must mean you can speak them all without actually knowing them?"


    William:"To me you''re all speaking english...my main language..."


    Loke ponders on that for a couple seconds:"What ever the matter, you should be able to read this." The crystals flash and William is able to read the english characters on the monitor."Simply use your hands to select a category on the monitor then insert the characters using the left crystal to make words to search the archive for what ever you are looking for."


    William nods:"I understand, I guess firstly let''s see if their is anything on manamancers." He enters the word and a list of three entries appears on the monitor."Not much here...Krat Velga records...simple information on him...inconclusive manamancer study..Nothing I don''t already know...wait.." he opens the Krat Velga records again and stays stuck on a certain sentence. He quickly goes back to the manamancer study and starts to enter another character to search.


    Loke:"What is it? Why are you searching for Void?"


    William:"Krat Velga was a soldier in the Void wars, he was one of the many that died on the other side."


    Loke:"That is interesting but why does that have anything to do with your magic?"


    William:"It was written that he wasn''t recruited by the army but he himself begged to join."


    Loke:"He must have been curious about the Void, he wasn''t said to be the studious type tho."


    William:"He was searching for something....." He scrolls through the thousands of entries about the void."Is there any way to limit the search for Void that have his name in it?"


    Loke:"Yes..." He messes with the configurations and enters a search, a single entry pops up."It''s just an unofficial study on the Void...By Varge Lakt. Hmm, Lakt is a demon house..."


    William reads through the record:"This...It''s a hand written journal of someone who was on the other side!..Wait...Varge Lakt...Loke! Arrange the name!" he quickly turns at Loke who seems to still be pondering on the house name.


    Loke:"Arrange?"


    William:"It is common practise when hiding something to arrange the keyword into something else, in this case he used his own name! Varge Lakt, using the same characters with the same amount you can spell out Krat Velga! Krat Velga is a fake name he made for himself to join the invasion! His fake name was used to record his origins and nobody noticed! His real name Varge Lakt was never connected to the manamancer who revealed his powers around the time of the Void wars! It''s all hear! His study on his powers.. Dammit its minimal!"


    Loke:"Indeed..all these puzzles for barely any information...What was he hiding?"


    William:"This journal is written all around what he saw in the Void, there is barely anything at all about manamancy except for the occasional "mana surge" he mentions...I know what he means...I feel it too, "uncontrollable shivers", "Large mana signatures". I sometimes too get those together but they disappear quickly, he mentions they are constant while he was in the Void."


    Loke:"When have you felt these?"


    William:"Mostly while we were at DarkGlade, I felt it once both here at Rosevalt and once at Heaven''s Gaze."


    Loke:"Check the last entry."


    William moves the screen to the last entry on the journal."Journal recovered from Void beast...This is not one of his entries, some one recovered the actual journal from a Void beast..."


    Loke:"Probably the one that devoured him..."


    William starts reading backwards."Here! this is his last entry." He reads from the top;


    Entry 152: Void forward invasion,Year 5, Month 1, Day 49.


    The usual scout party, being only a squire I was commanded to follow the party and record anything out of the ordinary.


    The squad leader is going over the usual route on the map they draw up of the landscape.


    I''ve been here for only a month and I can already feel it, this sensation, it grows worse by the day.


    The earth started to shake, Void creatures swarming by the millions in the sky and on the ground.


    We are surrounded, the squad leader and half the group got killed while we made a break for a cavern. The void creatures haven''t noticed me and three others in this damn hole yet.


    I feel it, it''s like my whole body vibrating with fear. They are all dead, jake went mad and ran out of the cave. Jarl and Kess..I woke up to them being dead still.. there is no food or water here.. we had no provisions.


    It''s out there...I hear it...This cave...It''s the den of a beast...I


    William:"Eerie..."


    Loke:"His last written words..."


    William:"The feeling he wrote about...the swarming Void...It was the day the invasion army was pushed back out of the portals...He could feel it! Like I..."


    Loke and William turn to each other, wide eyed. Putting the puzzle together.


    Loke:"You don''t think? With your sensory?..."


    William:"Manamancers have heightened sensing of the mana around them. Varge was the same as me, if his sensation grew stronger the longer he spent in the Void and went mad as soon as the Void struck back. We can sense them, we can sense the Void."


    Loke:"If that is true... then you sensed the portal at Darkglade... and a portal here and Heaven''s Gaze?"


    William:"Yeah...I had my suspicions but this confirms it."


    Loke:"Confirms what I say?"


    William:"The atlantians, The Gods. They lied."


    Loke still staring blankly at William grows more confused:"About what? Why?"


    William:"About my choosing, about my kind''s separation from the rest. And worst of all, about their own intentions."


    ---


    Author: The plot thickens!!

 The slumbering ones.

    Loke followed the stampeding William out of the Archive, he was having some trouble keeping up with the raging demon. Suddenly William stopped at the edge of the island and stared at the sky.


    William roared, pure rage and mana streaming out of his body aimed upwards:"You dare call me weak!? You hide from your enemies and bend our desires to fight them for you! I made myself clear before! NOBODY CONTROLS ME!"


    Loke tried to approach the erupting volcano of mana that is William, with no success:"William calm down my boy!? What did you find!?"


    William turned to Loke, still rampaging at the sky:"The Go!...The Atlantians! They are involved with the void in some kind of conflict! Why else would they act all god like and do nothing about them!? They fear the void just like you all do! They cannot beat it alone and decided to raise our races to fight the void for them! Why else would they send your races into a world already plagued by its portals!? The races that already where here aren''t all originally of this realm either! And then there is my race! They kept us away from the void unlike you all. Why? Because they knew how we''d grow! They knew we could sense it! They knew we could sense the void!"


    Loke''s eyes opened wide and his jaw seemed to fall open alone:"So that your kind could grow uninhibited by us, but why not just force us to nurture you then?"


    William:"I do not know..But I intend to find out!" He turns back to look at the sky once more, many figures started to come out of the school and stare at what was happening. "Speak to me you cowards! COME TO ME OR TAKE ME TO YOU! OR I SWEAR I WILL SCAR THIS WORLD SO BADLY N...." His vision went dark, as a hasty teleportation was made on him.


    ---


    William stood yet again surrounded by the beings that had introduced him to the other realm, yet this time a barrier seemed to be placed around him. But that wasn''t the only difference, all around him the expressions of curiosity were no more, in their stead were expressions full of horror, fear and sometimes annoyance. One such annoyed expression was the single alien that stood on the inside of the circle of stands with William, outside his barrier cage. William turned to the being, smoke rising from his body, his eyes full of rage and his fists clenched. The alien didn''t waver, it simply stared at him annoyed which in turn annoyed William. His grey eye glowed and so did his amulet, making his armour appear around him. The alien''s expression turned to concern as it occasionally glanced upward at the control station. Suddenly and quickly William''s fist was on the barrier wall with a powerful gust like shock wave sent fort all around, the alien unconsciously took a step back.William''s grimace turned into a wide grin. The barrier faded and William unclenched his fists, staring daggers into the alien as his eyes no longer bore rage but instead cold and calculating hatred.


    William:"Tell me."


    Leisfol:"You wouldn''t understand."


    William took a step closer to the barrier, it started to shake erratically trying to contain his mana :"I don''t care. TELL ME!"


    Leisfol took another step back and looked around the room, the atlantians on the top seats all nodded and he did so back.:"Before the other races were even a single cell, at the beginning of this realm. Two powers constantly pushed at each other in a very restricted plain of existence, finally a third power grew angered and pushed at the other two. In the middle the third tried to slumber but was finally awakened and pushed in all directions. These four powers are the four greats of existence. Darkness and Corruption constantly fought as Light watched and Chaos slumbered. Light grew annoyed and also fought back, in the middle of the battle Chaos was awakened and the three incurred its wrath. That is what your race titled the Big Bang, the battle and explosion that NOT created this world but expanded it, all other realms and forced them all to expand further at increasing speeds."


    William:"I did not ask for a history lesson on the creation of everything."


    Leisfol:"You wish to know the truth do you not? This is essential. " after William stayed quiet for a couple more moments he continued "Each of the powers had suddenly more space to call their own and bend to their will, but due to the explosion they were mingled and squashed their influence together, where on was so was the other but they all four still remained their own existence. Darkness sprinkled things into existence making what you call particles which it joined to make more intricate things such as stone, making the element of Earth. Light dispersed itself creating other powers, other elements. From within itself it sprouted nature, erupted fire, surged water and blew wind. Corruption copied its brethren and created beings of its very essence, it created the Void in a different realm set to completely take it over.Chaos simply went back to slumber as its outburst drained it and made it weary. As every creation grew and changed galaxies started forming from the bodies of earth, water, fire and wind. Nature soon followed neatly picking which bodies to take residence in.At quicker speed, the Void spread and grew, hungering for more and more. As nature finally set itself on a system, beings we call races started to sprout on certain bodies called planets. Most of these races did not survive and died out, but some thrived and grew. Our race was one of the first seven sentients and one of the first to encounter the Void. At the peak of our existence, it surged out of its tunnels and shook our societies to the very core. Wiping out with tremendous force almost all our civilisations, our race survived by escaping further and further away. After a long journey we discovered other younger, sentient races and began to study them. We found many had the ability to tap into creation itself and surge forth the great powers. This is called magic as the great powers and everything else is indeed mana. We concluded that their aptitude for magic was higher than our own even though they lacked many traits to travel or even communicate with us. So we waited, for long decades we waited. At one point we noticed that a couple new sentient races were sprouting as well, your race was one of them. Humans caught our attention the most as in their most primal sentient forms seemed to be attracted to weakest spots of this realm, more precisely the spots closer to the realm of the Void. Our research concluded that nature and corruption along with another great power took part in your creation, we celebrated. Your existence meant a chance against the horrific forces of the Void. We were blinded by the possibilities!"


    William eyes both glowed now:"No, you were blinded by fear. You took advantage of the other races and sent them to another realm that the Void had currently moled into, to keep its attention while you raised my kind to be your soldiers. Since the Void is attracted to mana and condensed magic like civilisation, you blocked our mana hoping the Void would be unable to detect us at all making us the perfect assassins with the ability to detect its presence. But also, most of all. You were jealous of us, your hate for the void, your fear of the void added with that jealousy. You chose to sacrifice all these races for your own goals, for your own survival." The ground shook and the barrier dissipated "But you made one grave mistake in your calculations." He moved towards the atlantian who in turn moved back, suddenly its back hit the wall of the stands behind it, William leaped forward crashing his fist into the wall behind the being. Their eyes now mere centimetres apart "You underestimated Human kind. You underestimated our intelligence and perceptiveness. But worst of all"  a crunching noise could be heard as William crushed debree in his clenching fist. His other arm slowly moving towards the atlantian''s neck, as if trying to grasp it."You underestimated and insulted me. You bent my frustration at my society and aimed it back at myself, you tried to control me, to bind me. But no more, your assistance is no longer needed." He walked back into the centre."Stay here! Cower before what I shall do next! Sit here in your own fear and piss as I reach the greatness you all can''t even comprehend!" The shadowy figure of Erza appears behind him holding on to his shoulder."Erza, take me back home."


    This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    While William was searching from document to document in the Archive he questioned Erza if she knew anything or knew anything that could tell him of his magic''s origins and more about the void. She explained that as she was a Devourer Dragon she very old but was still considered of the new generation of Devourers that started to appear after the separation of races. The ones before her were never moved and remained in his realm, some on planet earth. These had been given a different name by her kind and were completely forgotten by the other sentient races. She had limited power due to the contract but long range teleportation was doable, and she did so. She took him back to his planet, back to Earth from the atlantians. Specifically he asked her to take him as close as safely possible to one of her older kin.


    Erza:"We are here, this is it''s lair."


    William opened his eyes to find one of his defensive amulets had activated, a dense sphere of air surrounded him protecting him.He was within a very well lit and enormous cavern, it stretched for such a great distance he couldn''t see the other side. The roof was fairly high also but within leaping height, he could reach it if he tried at full strength. The cavern roof was covered in stalagmites which were covered in different gems and ores. But what was most unnerving was the floor, they stood on a platform stuck to the wall that was elevated a couple feet from the floor. The floor itself, was a searing hot pool of magma for as far as the eye could see. The ocean of magma seemed to move in streams towards different directions, a couple hundred or so meters away the magma bubbled. Then he felt it as his knees buckled from beneath him, the dense and crushing force of mana that was ascending from the magma. He had felt this feeling many times before, dread ate away at him while fear crushed him from all over. He started to waver, fear eating away at his very being.


    Arryn:(Calm, William. I''m here) her soothing voice in his head lifted his spirits. They were still connected.


    William:(This power..It''s not even ancient..It is straight primal...)


    Arryn:(You must remain calm, collect your self. I can feel your emotions in disarray, you will not be able to continue like this!) concern clear in her tone.


    William urged himself up, slightly slung downwards as he stood:(T..Thank you...I''m...Alright now..)


    He stared forward, into the ocean of magma. He poured his mana forward to gain its attention, it barely reached. Suddenly magma erupted from where the bubbles were growing. From underneath the flowing flames a beast forgotten by even legends surged out. With reptilian features, red scales of different shades, blazing emerald eyes with slits beaming with intelligence. The Elder Dragon rose, glaring at the measly pest that awakened it from it''s beauty sleep. All around the majestic beast, tendrils of magma formed upwards dancing at it''s noble presence then suddenly turning into pillars of liquid fire that surged upwards. The beasts head took most of William''s vision, half the head was still under the magma. It''s eyes bore aeons of knowledge and history, it''s eyes solely focused on their position. And then it spoke.


    Elder Dragon:"Who awakens me. I see a pest and a youngling that requires discipline."


    Erza''s form changed, taking her original:"Ohh Primal one! We ask for your forgiveness..for disturbing your peace! We simply require knowledge that solely you hold! We beg for your compliance!" Her tone was full of pride and respect but yet engulfed in fear. As she kneeled her form seemed to shudder.


    William followed her lead and also bent the knee.


    Elder Dragon:"Amusing, your quite the strange party now aren''t you?"It said as it inspected the two." Mostly you, human pup. I can sense the mana within you and its affinity. Truly I could have never imagined the decade, one such as yourself to appear. You have my undivided attention." It stared at the two of them regally.


    William rose, still somewhat dangling from the pure pressure being emitted."I ask for your knowledge on my power! And its connection to the Void!"


    Elder Dragon:"Hmmm, of course you must know about the existence of mana. Well mana is divided, into affinities. Each affinity represents a great power, Fire, Water, Earth, Nature,Wind, Dark, Light, Chaos and Corruption. Every being has only one of these attributed mana types within them, for example I am aligned to Fire. I can use other attributes but they are highly weakened as my mana is not of their attribute and it would take a larger amount to make use of. You my interesting human, are aligned with Chaos. You are completely unable to use any of the other primal powers such as Light, Dark and Corruption, but can tap into Earth, Water, Wind and Nature. This is due to the being of those three powers, Light and Dark form balance while Corruption requires intricate and concise precision. Both of which are complete opposites of Chaos which dwells in miscomprehension, unbalance and pure randomness. Your connection with the Void on the other hand is due to the constant hunger Corruption surrounds itself in, you can sense the corrupt being''s chaotic trashing and lust. You''re lusting to combat it. And as it stands the Void will soon break into another realm completely and engulf it in its corrupt hunger, starving that realm of other attributes. You child, your race is the sole creation that can stop the Void''s raging hunger and devourment of realms. As such I will bestow some knowledge onto you." It raised its large arm out of the magma, pointing it''s claw at William.


    William''s knees yet again buckled as primal knowledge rushed fort into his mind, teachings of long dead races surged into him. Long forgotten languages and magiks were precisely forming in his mind. Ancient incantations and spells, digging into him. It took a couple minutes of fist clenching pain but it finally ended. He fell on the ground, slightly hovering off it due to his amulet, unconscious.


    Erza''s form retracted back and rushed to his side:"Thank you, Elder Pharioa."


    Pharioa:"Speak not my name young one, it pulls unneeded attention from the others. Now go, I can only hope that he succeeds. Our kind may be old and powerful, but the Void is something we yearn to never see again. What happened to Xer was proof enough that we cannot contain our lust for its power, I pray to the powers that she has long decayed." The Elder Dragon declined back into the ocean of magma, at the same time speaking an incantation of an unknown language that shook the whole cavern.


    Once the incantation was done, Erza and William were no where to be seen.


    ---


    Author: Do you love dragons?! I love dragons! Thank you for reading and please remember to rate :D. No need to write anything just pick a star rating and send away :D!

 Thank you for your feedback.

    This is literally the first story I''ve ever written and it is supposed to be a test to myself of how well I can do, I am not sorry about how the story is turning out as I am doing my best. I will not stop writing till the very ending I assure you of that and I am very thankful to those in the comments pointing things out for me.Once the story is complete I will either go through it again and rewrite as some have suggested, or write a new story completely. That has yet to be decided. Again thank you all for reading and commenting :).

 Old desires, new quest!

    William came to feeling slightly sick and very exhausted, he woke up in a bed surrounded by Erza, Loke and Keil. It seems Erza had filled them in as Loke looked ecstatic and Keil worried,sweating a fountain. His encounter with the beast forgotten by legend, the Elder Dragon, left him weak and tired. His enormous use of mana for the long range teleportation left him with slight mana sickness, restricting some of his magic.


    William clenches his stomach:"How long will this last?.."


    Loke:"Ha....Twenty four hours? Maybe a tad more?"


    William sighs:"I don''t have time for this, how long have I been out of it?"


    Loke:"You were gone for about an hour and have been down for five."


    William looks out the window finding it to be late noon already:"I guess it will be morning when we arrive then."


    Loke:"Arrive where?"


    William:"We''re heading back to Heaven''s Gaze, I want you to inform The Magi Alliance that I wish to hold a meeting with them and diplomats from all the other alliances. They may not take me seriously at first, but I think I may have a way to persuade them to join me." He grabs on to Loke''s arm and looks up at him "We can''t lose anymore time, I can only detect the portals I can''t tell how long till they rip into this realm. And this time it won''t be a war, it will be a massacre."


    Keil''s face twitches between fear and worry:"What are we to do about it then? Do you have a plan!?"


    William:"I do not as of yet, there is still so much we don''t know about the Void. I will tell Arryn of our arrival and to prepare the troops, I will also have Kurt barricade the fort. If I am right, the portals will not open in the vicinity but INSIDE the cities themselves."


    Loke:"Inside?! How are we to hold them!? The citizens will have to be evacuated and much of the cities will be destroyed!"


    William:"We have no choice, the Void has been preparing this invasion for yeas. The Void war was simply a scout regiment, they know your weapons and abilities. And have kept themselves updated with the constant raids from smaller portals around your world. They will strike soon and we must be ready, if even one race falls. We''re all doomed."


    Loke and Keil stare and ponder on William''s words for a couple seconds, then scramble to get things prepared.


    William closes his eyes to focus:(Arryn, I''m coming home.)


    A couple moments pass and she answers


    Arryn:(You sound tired...I was worried after you didn''t answer for hours...)


    William:(The dragon...It told and showed me what the Void is capable of, and some of what it''s planning. Keep the city on high alert, portals have been set to open within each city. War is upon us.)


    Arryn:(War...What will you do?)


    William:(I''ve asked Loke to call a meeting with all the alliances, this regards everyone and we must decide together.)


    Arryn:(I''ll order the arrangement of the main hall then, where are you now?)


    William:(Rosevalt, we''re leaving immediately.) He get''s up and gets dressed. (I''ll see you soon.)


    Arryn:(May your travels be safe...)


    William exits the room:"Loke! How does it go?"


    Loke sigh:"I''ve contacted the other representatives, they will contact the other two alliances and call for a emergency meeting. I''ve told them to set the spot to Heaven''s Gaze. We should arrive just as my colleagues do, the others should arrive a day at least later."


    William:"Dam, a day? Let''s hope nothing happens before then...Let''s go" He follows Loke out of the house and to the warp crystal, they warp to the roost island.


    At the roost some mercenaries were left to look after the gryphons, William ordered them to gather everyone and within minutes all the mercenaries and gryphons where ready. William, Loke and a small escort of thirty mercenaries would head for Heaven''s Gaze while the others back to Dark Glade and inform Kurt of what is to come. The two groups parted ways and left Rosevalt, William looked back at the sky city, hoping he would get to see it again. The journey from Rosevalt to Heaven''s Gaze would take a couple hours longer than to Dark Glade, the gryphons had rested but needed another short stop to recover their stamina. They set up a small campfire in a clearing in the forest while they rested the gryphons.


    William:"Damn, more time wasted!" he stomped around the campfire


    Loke:"Nothing we can do about it, there is no way you can use Erza to long range teleport again. Not for a couple more days. Even if you could you wouldn''t be able to take anybody else with you."


    William:"I know I know. But each minute we waste the closer we come to those portals opening. Rejk are the gryphons rested ye!..." He stopped talking suddenly and stood still, he sensed magic being casted. "Shit! Everyone to the floor!"


    All the mercenaries dropped to the ground as a shock wave of wind was sent fort from the trees and brush, arrows following it. William summoned his armour and stood, both his eyes glowing. He caught an arrow as it flew towards him, dropping his arm he broke it and let it fall. The barrage stopped and a large platoon of around forty bandits ran out of the woods, charging at their campsite.


    William:"We don''t have time for this!"


    He charged the bandits at great speed, fire spiralling and whipping wildly around him hitting multiple bandits. He stopped while in the middle of the charge with all the bandits taking stances facing him.


    William shouts:"Arrows ready! High shots!" He slammed his fist into the ground, mana surged into the earth and small quakes left the spot towards every single bandit, the mercenaries grabbed their bows, crossbows or steam guns and took aim. Pillars of earth shot from beneath each bandit throwing them flailing into the air as arrows, bolts and other projectiles pierced their bodies. Most died but some where left alive and fell to the ground or on the pillars with a crunching sound. The mercenaries moved forward to kill the survivors. "We''re leaving! Now!"


    This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    They all get back on the gryphons and start heading for Heaven''s Gaze again, corpses of bandits littered the forest opening. William was breathing heavily.


    Loke noticed his heavy breathing:" Don''t over work yourself! Your still mana sick!"


    William:"I won''t! But if it means saving time and lives, I won''t hold back!"


    Loke sighed, seeing William''s determination:"As you wish."


    Another hour and a half of flight later they arrived at Heaven''s Gaze, William noticed a large campsite in the farmland away from the city, lines of its citizens being moved to the camp site. They headed straight for the castle grounds, William ordered the mercs to aid the army in the evacuation.


    Arryn:"William! Loke!" she greeted them along with Rel and her advisers at the front of the castle.


    William landed his gryphon frantically, he wasn''t used to the bird brains yet:"How many have arrived yet?" he hopped off and walked towards her.


    Arryn:"Now that loke is here, all Magi Alliance diplomats have arrived. The Monstra Alliance have just warped in, none from the TACA have arrived yet."


    Loke:"I''d be amazed if they did! That is a long ride even by dragon carriage."


    William headed for the main hall where the meeting was supposed to start, he stopped by the door. "Loke I''ll leave the ones that have arrived with you for now, I have to contact Kurt and the lieutenants." Loke nodded and entered, some shouts of annoyance could be heard before the doors closed.


    Arryn:"Come with me, we can use a com sphere."


    William raised an eyebrow:"A what?" he followed her down two corridors and into another room, Rel followed them.


    The room was well lit and all around lay tables full of magical equipment, Verrona turned away from her project.


    Verrona:"Arryn? William? And?....." she ignored Rel "What is going on?"


    Arryn:"We need to use a com crystal, can you go check on the evacuation?"


    Verrona:"Certainly" She got up and unpacked a jumble of crystals connected to a screen by its bottom edge. She put it down on a table and walked out.


    Arryn:"Put your hands on the view and picture the person you wish to contact, I will chant the magic." she grabbed hold of his left arm and started chanting.


    William nodded and set his palm on the screen, picturing the mercenary commander. It wasn''t very difficult, he could never forget the lumbering giant of a wolf crashing his hammer down on him. Suddenly the crystals lit up in blue, green and red. The image of a werewolf in their humanoid form appeared on the screen, torturing his underlings into working faster.


    William:"Kurt!"


    Kurt''s ears and tail suddenly flair up with hair and he turns :"Fucking hell you scared me to death!" he explained with a shocked expression.


    William:"How are the preparations going?"


    Kurt:"We''ve set up the men to engage anything that appears, when the portal opens it will suck in anything in close vicinity so we will all be on the walls at first. Also I have tasked a mage with visionary magic, we will be able to cast the attack onto what ever view you wish of reasonable size."


    William:"Good, the fortress will probably be one of the first to have a portal open. Be ready as quick as possible!"


    Kurt:"Hah! And they say I''m a slave driver!" He clenches his fist and slams in to his chest, a mercenary salute. William does the same.


    ----------


    The vision of his new director flashes quickly and vanishes, Kurt turns back to the men and women rushing around with barricades, weapons and...Kegs of ale?


    Kurt:"Drop the fucking drinks! We can always get more you damned fools!" He shouts, making many kegs of ale drop, as well as some very sad expressions."I''ll be damned if I''m to die to what this fort was made to defend against!"


    Seyl shouts from the top of a balcony:"I''m also too young for that!" as she is pulled back by Jax to help him carry.


    Jax:"YOUR A THOUSAND FUCKING YEARS OLD! MOVE YOUR ASS HAG!"


    Seyl slaps the shit outa Jax. Kurt raises his hand to hold his face :"Why me..."


    Karl walks up behind Kurt holding up a cannon, he looks up at the two then at Kurt :"We doomed."


    The mercenaries prepare cannons along the walls aimed to the inside of the fort, the gryphon riders waited for a signal outside the walls, the ground troops hugged the wall at the bottom. Kurt stood atop the walls while Seyl and Karl stood at the bottom with the ground troops and Jax with the gryphon riders.


    Kurt:"What I''d give to have some dwarf contraptions right now." he sighed.


    They waited for several hours, every hour or so Karl found it necessary to ask;


    Karl:"They hear yet?!"


    while Seyl shouted back :"NO!"


    Kurt:"Maybe William was too hasty? We don''t even know how close they are to ripping into this realm..." He looked around, the troops were starting to relax. He had to keep many of the mercenaries on his side of the wall at full attention, passing commands in a line around the wall to make sure everyone was paying attention. Somehow on the other side of the fort kegs of ale had been snuck up,and someone had also somehow misinterpretted his orders to start drinking.


    The twelve or so mercs merrily drank to their last day, not even groggy yet they saw something shimmer in the sky above. Heading their way at great speed, they ducked out of the way as a giant black hammer landed at their previous position crushing most of the kegs. Many of the surrounding mercs started laughing at the drunkards.


    Thunder clapped in the air, everyone looked around confused. There were no clouds in the sky, suddenly lightening flashed tens of times as reality itself seemed to rip open. A large rift opened a couple meters above the main building, figures dropping out of it.


    ---


    Author: Large scale battle ahead! Roll in the heavy metal! :D Thank you for reading!

 The ferocious battle for Dark Glade. Pt 1

    Dark Glade, a city fort built for the sole reason to train mercenaries to clear the area around it that used to be infested with Void monsters. Today the land around the mountain the fort defensively resides in, has long been cleared of the Void. The portal that resided in the plains on the side of the mountain that didn''t face the cities, was sealed. For this to happen, it took many many lives as well as countless permanently injured or mentally unstable... But the mercenary group continued on, setting their sights with the adventurer guild to take on the more perilous quests with sheer numbers and strategy. Their four greatest accomplishments were what granted the commander and the three lieutenants their positions, the four of five Royal A quests ever issued by the Guild. The first was Karl Sheakre, Exiled war general to the Orcs. Along with his now deceased Tundra Mammoth Jerl, they brought down a Pure Earth Elemental, A being regarded as an Earth Demi God. The second was Seyl Rejin, leading a squad of only five mercenaries she exterminated the Thieve''s League, the last of the old age Dark Guilds. Third was Jax Meister, who was at first considered dead in action after taking on a quest to hunt down a pack of Deya Lamia, deadly serpent warriors with four arms and the ability to learn a different style of combat for each one, he was found at the brink of death weeks later wandering the desert by travellers. The last but most impressive was Kurt Zerk, the last weremen of a long line of Berserker Combat Mages. After hearing of his older brother taking on a Royal A quest to slay a Void Titan Dragon along with four of his comrades, all four who he considered also family. Followed them to the town aiding them in carrying the gear required to traverse the volcanic plains,only to be left behind by them at the inn after one morning waking up to a note that he was too inexperienced by his brother. It is unknown to this day why or how, but after news that his brother''s party was massacred after it was found that there was actually two of the beasts. He left alone and disappeared for months, only to appear back at the town after thirteen months. Riddled with wounds and soaked in blood he walked into the town dragging behind him two Void titan dragon heads , tied up with rope and planks. He never spoke a word of the encounters , remaining dead silent whenever asked.


    All four gained titles by the Guild for their services. Now, Karl Earth Shaker, Seyl Shadow Queen, Jax Weapon Lord and Kurt Void Titan Slayer. Waited for the second battle for their lives to commence.


    After seeing the first vile creature emerge from the rift, Kurt grimaced. Portals were one thing, stable networks between realms that could go both ways and could, after tedious spells and days of chanting, be closed. Rifts were a whole different story, they could only be traversed one way, and the only two ways to close one was either to massacre any and all beings that pass through. As each being made a connection with the rift once it passed through it, but if the void monsters kept coming through without end, the rift would never close as a couple hours had to pass for the rift to collapse on itself. Or, forcing it to collapse on itself. Which required someone with large mana capacity and great ability power to cast their strongest attack or attacks within the seconds of passing through the rift. That is, if you could hold back the waves of monsters raining out of it.


    Kurt straightens up:"Cannons! Barrage!" loudly howling out commands that are passed down the wall.


    The cannons take aim, and barrage the landing areas of the void monsters with blasts of elemental energy, stunning shockwaves and mid air scatter shots. The weaker beasts died almost immediately, but the tougher ones made it into the city streets as large buildings collapsed around them.


    Kurt:"Karl! Set up perimeter! Seyl! Set sharpshooter spots with the mages and rangers!" he barked commands down the wall at the ground troops.


    Karl move up the streets with the heavy armoured mercenaries setting up lines around the city to keep the monsters at the very centre, cutting down any that got too close. While Seyl positioned archers, mages and occasional traps around the city to gun down the monsters from range and prepare in case Karl''s wall of men crumbles somewhere. The shrieks, roars, howls and occasional battle cry from battle resonated throughout the whole mountain clearing, giving little room for communication. All in all the mercenaries stood their ground, keeping the battle from being ushered into chaos where the void beasts excelled at with precise hive mind cohesion and group movement. The void monsters though were not holding back, Karl''s wall was holding but as to signal the seriousness of the situation multiple loud roars are heard from the rift as airborne void monsters also started to scatter about.


    Kurt watched the battle while aiding the cannoneers with their barrage, finally turning his cannon upwards and firing a signal flair. This indicated the gryphon platoon to take to the skies, with Jax in charge of gryphon riding spear wielding air force. The air platoon''s job was to keep the air beasts from attacking the cannons or the ground troops, the rangers and mages could easily deal with incoming aerial attacks with their range. The battle was currently in the mercenaries''s favour, they were too used to dealing with the void. The void beasts were being barraged by enchanted arrows, elemental magic, coordinated gryphon attacks and being held in place by a wall of enhanced runic shields and spears. But it was far from over, four loud roars could be heard above everything else. One by one, Void Dragons glided out of the rift. The four beasts were all a dark green with grey wings, towering over buildings that where three storeys tall by another storey. Magic did nothing to them, arrows simply bounced off their scales and cannons were nothing more than an annoying slight burn. They roared in defiance of the barrage, in unison they turned to each direction and walked to the wall of men.


    Kurt:"Shit, dragons!" as preorganised Karl and the ground troops retreated to face the south dragon, Seyl went over to the east dragon, Jax landed to face the north dragon and Kurt ran on the wall towards the western dragon. The cannons all switched to stunning and movement impairing projectiles. The four mercenary leaders stood their ground, facing the lumbering beasts. While the men retreated around them, the dragons took their chances and in unison stopped. They stressed their jaws wide open, letting out a dark grey breath that engulfed everything it touched in blazing grey flames. Elves, Weremen, Orcs, Drakelings and buildings alike burned, swallowed by the grim inferno.


    Almost everything died in the flames, except any mercenary that made it passed their leaders. Barriers of different kinds blocked the flames from passing further down the streets, each leader waiting for the men to fall back far enough and set up the perimeter again. After a couple more moments of relief from the mercenaries that the dragons didn''t follow but instead glared at the single being in front of them, the void army charged forward ignoring each leader as if knowing fully well they''d be little more than annoyances to these four beings.


    ---


    QUADRUPLE BOSS FIGHT!!


    Music suggested by author : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAGZ7c8V9SM</a>


    :D (Surprisingly perfect lyrics for these four....*cough*...*cough*....what! Don''t look at me like that!)


    ---


    As such to not confuse everyone by merging all four fights I will write each perspective one by one.


    ---


    Each mercenary leader turned and raised both arms in salute to their comrades and mock to the void. One left fist clenched to the heart and one right fist clenched to the sky.


    Seyl,Jax,Karl and Kurt roar with a trained and memorised battle cry :"FIGHT! ONWARD!"


    Each suddenly turn facing the dragon ahead of them, raising their aura and activating their magic.


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    Seyl''s bow blazing a dark blue , Jax''s dual axes a calm green, Karl''s gauntlets a fiery red and Kurt''s whole body growing to full size, smoke rising from all over him. Each charged the towering beasts with determination, fear and madly grinning from ear to ear.


    ---


    Karl''s perspective. music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZiiW2tLxEU</a>


    The red aura engulfed his whole body as it also increased in size doubling. Rushing forward with tremendous power like a Minotaur at max speed, he leaps up to the dragon''s neck. He grabs the neck of the beast, at first looking silly due to the massive size difference but then suddenly crashing the beast down by its neck into a building to its right. He leaps backwards crashing into the ground making a trail with his powerful legs trying to stop his backward movement. The dragon shrieks angrily as it rose back up, ready to breath fire again. Karl rushed to the dragon''s tail, scaling the dragon''s body then jumping from the start of its long neck towards its head spiralling mid air and kicking the dragon''s head downward into the ground at the same time shutting its mouth shut as fire was expelled from between its fangs. Then punching backwards as if having a solid wall behind him he crashes down on the dragon''s head with both fists, hammering the head down deeper into the ground, punch after punch, deeper and deeper, cracking several scales and probably bone. The dragon clenched its front claws and pushed upwards, taking into the sky and sending Karl flying even higher up. The dragon spun and slammed its tail into Karl''s body sending him crashing into the next road over, bouncing off the road several times before coming to a stop face to the ground. Karl started to slowly rise back but the dragon flew down on him crashing its right front foot on top of him then slamming it down several more times, until Karl rose in between slams and grabbed hold of its leg. It became a battle of raw strength and unfortunately the dragon was heavier, stronger and had gravity on its side. It rose up on its hind legs and slammed its other front foot on top of the other. Karl was yet again hammered into the ground, he staggered away from the beast as it prepared its breath attack. At the last moment, after the grey flames burst forth, Karl leaped to the left turning mid leap and landed inside the building through the window. After crashing into a bed he got up and barged through every door as fast as possible, sometimes just straight up bashing the door into splinters. The dragon turned and shot a steady stream of grey blaze into the building windows following Karl''s movement through it. Karl reached the furthest room and aimed for the window, grabbing the edge to turn and leaping to the back of the dragon, landing straight on its back as it turned to breath fire on him. The dragon continued to follow his tracks  as he raced up its neck, it shrieked in pain as it burned its own torso and ending the stream of flames. Karl continued his run up the neck all the way to the back of its head and used its horns to propel himself into the air above it with his arms. He flew upwards about six meters and started to turn to look downwards, as he levelled off he grabbed his left arm with his right hand. The red aura focused solely on his left open palm, he kicked off into empty air behind him somehow propelling him downward at incredible speed. He let go of his left arm as he grabbed onto the dragon''s head and crashed it downward into the ground once again with a resonating crunch.


    He got up into a crouching position next to the dragon''s head, it wasn''t dead yet. He grabbed hold of his left arm again, this time clenching a fist. He stood up toward the dragon and punched into the side of its skull with all his might, send fort a shock wave that pushed the dragons head away from his outstretched fist by half a meter. The dragon was dead, green blood flowing out of its ear holes, eyes, mouth and nostrils. Karl looked at the corpse.


    Karl speaks with deep breaths in between:"Fat...smelly...bastard."


    ---


    Seyl''s perspective. music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RCZJIzNtc0</a>


    She disappears, appearing on the roofs to the left of the dragon firing arrow after arrow, each arrow exploding with black lightning at the dragon''s legs. The dragon turns and breathes a grey flood of fire at the roof tops where Seyl once was, she now stands on the opposite roofs still loosing arrows. The dragon gets annoyed, it lowers its head and stances itself strangely but Seyl notices it''s movements. It spins around in a whirlwind of green, grey and fire, destroying all buildings around it. When satisfied with its destruction it flies upward to scan the area, four arrows bring it down shrieking in anger. Seyl appeared midair on top of the dragon charging up a massive magical circle underneath her aimed at the dragon then disappeared again, only to appear facing the dragon collapsing back down to the ground. The dragon tries to get up but was barraged by hail of arrows each exploding in more black lightning waves, now surging all over the dragon''s body. Seyl looks at the beast helplessly trying to move, the stunning effects of her attacks finally sinking in.


    Seyl:"Your hundreds of years to young to face me." she gracefully walks towards the dragon bow in hand, three arrows ready and two remaining in her quiver.


    Sheer anger and hatred could be seen in the dragon''s green and black eyes, its mouth searing with grey smoke and its jaws struggling to open to bare its fangs. Seyl looses the three arrows in her hand in a triangle around the dragon, the arrows abruptly stop and hover in place while ethereal chains burst out of them and bind the dragon. Seyl readies another arrow, taking aim at the dragon''s head. Five pentagons of runes appear in a line between Seyl and the dragon, each dark blue in colour. Tendrils of blue mana spiral behind the arrow shot by Seyl, while tendrils of a lighter blue spiral from the tip. Every pentagon hit by the arrow enchanted the arrow with a different effect, one gave it piercing, one gave it scatter, one gave it poison , one gave it lightening blast and the final propelled it further at greater force. The arrow took a green hue as it scattered into another thirty, gaining in speed and doubling the tendrils spiralling around. Each arrow pierced through scale and chain alike, destroying the bindings and filling the dragon''s body full of holes. The dragon was on the brink of death but pure hatred kept it going, its eyes turning white due to the poison, blood spilling out of each hole and terrifying speed. It hunched back a bit then raised its head , at the same time Seyl readied her final arrow. Three magic circles appeared in front of Seyl, a piercing enhancement, a lighting blast enhancement and a propelling one at the end again. The dragon let out a breath of grey and black flames that rushed forward to Seyl, she loosed the arrow. Unlike the previous attack each enhancement was drastically visible, first gave it a massive spiral of blue and black tendrils, second a shock wave of black and yellow surging from the tip backwards and the third a burst in speed so great the whistling of the arrow resonated all throughout the surrounding buildings. At first it seemed like the arrow and the flames where equal forces of destruction but the arrow quickly pierced through the flames and made a path between the dragon''s eyes all the way out to the back. The dragon suddenly stopped breathing fire and slowly fell sideways and onto the ground, laying dead still.


    Seyl exhaled heavily, bring down her bow :"Head shot..."


    ---


    Author: I think my adrenaline while writing broke.....hope you''ve enjoyed and thanks for reading :P!

 The ferocious battle for Dark Glade. Pt 2

    Jax''s perspective music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ut0DFMclk54</a>


    Jax and the terror of the void size each other up, the dragon then roars in challenge.


    Jax grins while still moving towards the dragon:"You vile corrupted beast, I will cleanse your existence from my namesake!"


    Jax throws both axes with enhanced strength and accuracy, both nailing the dragon''s eyes followed with a pained shriek. As if out of thin air a stave appears in his hands, he uses it to propel himself into the dragon''s face with a spin to his leap. Landing the hit on the dragon''s jaw, the stave shatters and the dragon slams Jax back into the ground with its head. It sniffs the air and pinpoints Jax''s position, giving him no time the dragon hunches back and opens its mouth sending fort an inferno of grey that engulfed Jax. It keeps this up for a good half a minute, to waver a bit midway and then stop. It could no longer see, so it decided to listen and smell. It smelled a lot of things roasted, and crackling flames all around the area. And also, it heard loud and deranged laughter.


    Jax:"I''m Fireproof you void cur!" his clothes completely burned off, the now naked drakeling laughed full heartedly. The dragon underestimated him, it allowed him to blind it as it couldn''t range his strength and didn''t try to avoid it. Not that it could.


    The dragon let out a roar of anger, green blood lined its eye sockets all the way down to its neck. It opened its wings wide, clenched the ground beneath it and leapt forward at full speed. Jax tried to dodge but the dragon''s claws carried him along as they both crashed through the battle going on at the walls, void beasts and mercenaries alike were simply thrown out of the way as the dragon crashed into them to only stop once it dove headfirst into the wall. It left a large dent in the walls, making even more a mess as it trashed to raise itself.


    Jax walked out of the rubble, dazed and still bare naked:"Fucking crazy monster...Wait where did my clot..." he never finished his sentence.


    The dragon heard his lamenting and leaped at his position, clawing the ground Jax stood on multiple times. A loud "Shit" was heard as a figure was thrown into the barracks. The dragon heard the crash and sniffed the air to acquire its target again, once it did it flew upwards for a couple meters then charged downwards haphazardly at the barracks, Jax barely dodged out of the way as the giant beast raised the building to the ground. It shrieked yet again in pain as pillars of metal broke some of its bones, leaving it moving with a limp from its front left leg.


    Jax looked at the creature:"You''re one crazy mother fucker, I''ll give you that" as he grimaced at the dragon that yet again charged forward.


    This time the dragon''s intent was to stomp Jax flat, but was soon left even more angered as it didn''t feel the drakeling crushed underneath its claws. It immediately stopped after noticing the missing drakeling pancake, it sniffed the air and then snarled at multiple directions. It had lost Jax''s position. Suddenly it sensed something behind it, it wasn''t smell, it wasn''t sound and it definitely wasn''t visual. It sensed strong magic being activated behind it.


    Jax :"Any more hits and I''d be dead without a single intact scale" he sighed "I''ve absorbed enough of your attacks, let''s see if you can survive your own power in your current state."


    An ember flame engulfed his whole body as he charged forward with a stave. He met the dragon head on as they clashed in mid air with brute strength, his stave shattered once again but this time something was different. His undamaged body started to grow wounds and bruises at a rapid pace, as if the damage dealt by the dragon was finally sinking into reality. With a half roar half shriek of pain the dragon was propelled backwards down the street at massive speed, making it crash into the main buildings last standing floor. The beast was dead, a jumble of lifeless limbs lay in its place.


    Jax stood for one last remark :"Guess you coul..dn''t handle it...huh?.." He limply fell forward crashing into the floor in front of him, unconscious. His magic strained him too much.


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    ---


    Kurt''s perspective music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXu55weXiZk</a>


    Kurt ran above the wall, slowing to a jog then coming to a full stop. He looked down at the beast that chased his subordinates, it was a waste of his time but the others where preoccupied and his men weren''t strong enough. He decided to go full out from the start, to end this quickly before more lives were lost.


    Kurt he gave the rift one last glance:"Time to end this charade, that thing is too dangerous to leave open." as more and more void beasts rained out of the rift as if to mock him. He leaped off the wall, hands wide open. He was in full werewolf form, but his form started to grow even larger.


    You see, Weremen such as Werewolves were special. They possessed a different ancestry than other weremen, their origins was a specific type of spirit beast long forgotten by even its own kind. The transformation from wereman, to werewolf was only 1/3rd of their existence. The stronger werewolves could go further and become a Dire Werewolf which was Kurt''s main combat form normally. But when faced with the impossible, when brought to into a corner. Rarely...their true and ancient form unfolded. Kurt''s form increased in size dramatically, towering over even the Void Titan Dragon. His form, that of a wolf that actually stood on four legs. With saber tooth twin fangs, long pointed furry ears twice the size they would proportionately be, a dark black mane from his chest adorning his neck to the top of his back and two long and thick tails instead of one. The beast glared at the dragon, as even it stopped in its tracks to look up at the terrifying Lycan standing another storey and a half taller than it.


    The dragon snarled at the new hulking giant and prepared to breath flames, but it was too slow. With impossible speed for his size, Kurt beheaded the dragon in one toothy bite. After the burst of speed smoke rose in large amounts from his Lycan body, shrouding most of it. He raised his head as an ear wrecking howl engulfed the whole battlefield, power radiated forward from his howl sending legions of void beasts spiralling forward and forcing mercenaries to duck and hold on to something for dear life as more flew over their heads. The howl lasted for about twenty seconds after which Kurt leaped forward twice, easily shortening the distance between him and the rift. His left paw climbed the rubble of the main building first, his right paw followed resting on a dragon''s corpse until he came to an abrupt stop. He looked around, thousands of void beasts littered the roads and with them hundreds of mercenaries, some he himself had trained for years. He looked on with a glint of sadness in his eyes as he saw subordinates on their bloody backs, comrades limp on the ground, friends that took their final breath. In the distance he saw the three he cherished the most, brothers and sister in arms for years. He took another step forward towards the Rift, thoughts flowing through his mind.


    Rifts can only be closed in two ways, waiting for it to collapse on itself or forcing it to collapse. Once open the first direction taken is permanent, others from the opening used to move between realms could keep using it resetting the collapse. Those on the side receiving the travellers could not pass to through. No....They could...But never make it to the other side in one piece.


    He leaped forward, with his size and strength easily going through the gaping rift in the sky.


    At first, darkness. Then spiralling green and black, tearing at his body. He focused, he forced all his power, all his will, all his might into one final battle cry. A white aura surrounded his body, as he tilted his head upwards for one final howl.


    ---


    Author: Sorry I didn''t post this earlier with Pt 1 xP, Pokemon Go has me in its clutches!....I''m hooked...Send help....Thanks for reading xD.....ZUBATS!

 Rewrite gank INC from jungle!

    Yes I know I fucked up. Truth be told, I got tired of writing this story when I noticed how badly the writing was received. I thought I had a whole story to rewrite or abandon, but I was looking at it incorrectly. I have MY story to rewrite or abandon, my story that I spent days thinking, wondering and writing. This was only supposed to be a test for me and my writing/imagination to grow but I HAVE grown attached to these characters that I created and I hope some of you have too. It is unfair for me to you, the readers, to simply abandon this here. Therefore I shall not. Starting with the first chapter today right after this post, the whole story dialogue will be arranged accordingly while the story itself will probably also change a bit. The ending definitely needs to change.


    This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.


    Apologies, Sly Wolf~


    -Edit


    The story over all will not change except for the final three chapters. I did not make somethings clear enough which caused some misinterpretations. The ending will however be completely change although it will take me time to think over how I will write it as that ending was indeed rushed.

 The war council

    William stared on at the crystal screen even long after it stopped streaming, he was shocked. He lost his strongest warrior, he had expected a couple deaths but to lose Kurt is detrimental. He is the commander of the EA, the others will have a hard time without him. He slumps his head down, staring at his own hands "To sacrifice yourself...why...I never thought..."


    Arryn tries to comfort him "He''s a hero now, he will be remembered for his sacrifice."


    He turns to face her "Yes...but at what cost...Our resources are spread thin as they are...I just hope my plan works.."


    Arryn grabs hold of his shoulders, smiling "It will... believe in yourself, without you we don''t stand many chances."


    William grimaces "I wouldn''t know about that...I''m just another pawn being moved by higher beings in their game...." he clenches his fists "I''ll go rest a bit, could you tell me when all the diplomats have arrived?"


    Arryn nods "I will wake you." she continues to give a reassuring smile, giving him no choice but to smile back weakly


    William goes to his chambers and ponders on some things for a bit, some guards could be seen going back and fro reporting in while he gave out some orders. He didn''t know when and where the next attack will happen, but he had to be ready for anything.


    ----------------


    Once the castle received reports on the last diplomats arriving, Arryn went to wake William up. But he wasn''t asleep, he simply sat at a desk head in his palms.


    Arryn fully opens the door and speaks "They''re here, soon to arrive at the meeting room"


    William turns to look at her "Let''s not keep them waiting then..." he stands up from his chair and walks out of the room behind Arryn. She grabs on to his arm and unlike before he doesn''t react shyly but simply accepts the contact as a gesture of affection, as it is. They walk down the corridors until they arrive at two large double doors, from within constant arguing can be heard. William inhales and straightens up, his expression loses all anxiousness. He summons fort his armour while his eyes gain their distinct auras, he pushes open the doors. The room is the same hall that was used for dining, now containing a large square table instead of the long rectangular one. Sitting on three faces of the square table are representatives from all three alliances from around the globe, High ranking officials. They eye him up suspiciously, no trust what so ever in their eyes. William looks around the table, then moves toward a seat next to Loke. Arryn follows him as he speaks."Dwarves, Demons, Drakelings, High Elves, Wood Elves, Dark Elves, Weremen, Faes, Mers, Giants, Orcs,Aracnids, Aviants." every step constituted a word, he finally arrives at his seat but doesn''t sit down. "I thank each and every race for accepting my invitation. As you all have been briefed by my guide" he gestures towards Loke "War is upon us." many shift uncomfortably around the table, some speak out.


    "Blasphemy, that is calling war against the gods themselves." The Dark Elf says


    "Who would dare attack who?" Asks the Wereman


    "Fill our blanks, human. What in the hells could be so important to get me out of my forge?!" says a very annoyed dwarf.


    William gestures for Arryn to start the recording crystal and turns back to address the whole table "The void, you may not know this but. My kind has the ability to sense the void, I''ve sensed a portal at each city I''ve been at, alas that may only be two but I have my suspicions that all cities are being directly targeted from within." From gaping mouths, to wide spread eyes off to agitated fidgeting. The table had it all, as his words sunk in. Behind William on the wall lay a large crystal screen which Arryn had finished connecting the recording crystal to. "What you are about to witness is an event that started merely hours ago, A rift opened at the old Dark Glade fortress city. Where my mercenary group the Edge Alpha reside, due to its position instead of abandoning and due to the calamity it would produce if it falls. The fort was held successfully, but the result...Well it is best of you see for yourselves." William gestures for Arryn to start the recording and so she does. For the next hour or so 3rd person recording of Dark Glade from above is shown to the diplomats, most of which sat with deathly pale expressions. "The causalities count up to two thousand or more, one of them as you can now see. Is Mercenary Commander Kurt Zerk Ruzk" he eyes each one of them, trying to read their expressions.


    "Zerk Ruzk? The Void Titan slayer?!" the wereman, or more specifically werewoman. A half human half tigress stares in shock at the screen.


    "That was a rift, he had no other choice..." The Dark elf adds grimly.


    "What was the original head count for the mercenary group? I see around six? seven thousand?" The Wood Elf asks William with a glare


    William responds"Seven thousand is correct, all parties were called back so they fully numbered their seven thousand."


    The diplomats converse with their colleagues, some still seem sceptical. William decides to pull out his next resource "Also, may I add that the strongest voidling the rift let through were those three titan dragons. What will you do alone, when an army of Titan class monsters swarm your cities? Your weapons will not stand a chance without a vanguards to guard them, your armies will not stand a chance without siege to back it up, the void hive mind is not ignorant and also is not wasteful. It knows what each race specialises in, it will send accordingly to counter."


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    One of the diplomats that had stayed quiet this whole time now speaks up "And what would you suggest we do? Give up hope?" The avian man looks at William, occasionally glancing at the others.


    "Hardly, I suggest a simple plan. We merge our resources and divide them equally, the differentiation in arms and weapons will block any counter measures to each race the hive mind has prepared. No matter how much of one unit you may own, you simply cannot win a war without differentiation in your army. Just as a single cannon can wipe out platoons of ground troops, a single cavalry can wipe out a squad of archers by using the right paths"


    The diplomats once again converse with each other, until one side rises up "As before, the Magi Alliance stands behind you. Some of us... have bones to pick with you, but this war indeed requires every race." the werewoman announces.


    Then another side rises "The Monstra Alliance has some doubts, how can you ensure we will even have the numbers to defend each of our people?" the Orc points out something very significant, which William had already thought of.


    "It is true that 80% of each race population is made of non combatants, I urge you all to push your people to arms as we will need all the numbers we can get. But also, I have some insurance...for some more numbers to be added. Anytime now someone else is supposed to join us, please...refrain from cutting his head off. As much as everyone here will wish to, I promise you aren''t alone in wanting so." William''s anxiousness seems to come back at him, as seconds pass. Then minutes, until he starts questioning his own plan.


    "Kekekekekeke...Am I late for the party?" two cloaked figures appear behind each person in the room, as Birse walks in from the front door. Chaos ensues as each diplomat starts to curse and point fingers.


    "Calm yourselves! He is not here to fight, I assure you. Or have you declined my offer? BlackHand?" William gets the attention of the panicking diplomats as he turns to speak with Zaexar, currently wearing his illusional disguise.


    "You''ve got some bravery son, I''ll give you that much. Yes I have only come here to listen to your deal, as long as your offer still stands." Birse moves to the side and lays back into a chair next to the door.


    "What offer? What did you offer this monster?!" The Wood Elf, Yorick slams his hand on the table as his other lay on the hilt of one of his blades.


    "Something only I can offer, VIP trade with my kind. I may not be a diplomat back home, but being the first human to discover these lands and under our laws I have the rights to do so. In exchange Birse will join us with his resources."


    "Kekeke, I had my own plans but...If the others here wish to co-operate then so shall I." Birse looks around the table with an amused expression.


    Many mechanical nods appear from around the table, Yorick is the one to speak up"If it is for the good of my people, I will put up with this maniac. But I swear that if you are to betray us, you will have nowhere and no one to hide behind." he glares at Birse who glares back.


    "I will equally spread my men to each region, you may leave the outer village and forts to receive reinforcements by us. Also I ask for the human ambassador''s aid in a certain spell of my construction. With the..."aid" of many mages we have created a spell that will shut down all current void portals open by forcefully opening an unstable rift within them using the human''s detection powers as co ordinates. You will have to do nothing but focus on a single portal, my mages will do the rest." he turns to glare back at Yorick, slightly amused.


    "That will surely be useful but, at what cost?" Yorick seems suspicious


    "The mages''s own lives. I care not if you do not accept this truth, but many will die. That is fact and sacrificing yourself for your people is as heroic as these scum will ever get." Birse diverges his glare from Yorick to William.


    "I will not question your methods, I understand that many more lives will be lost." William sighs


    Birse stands up "Then I guess this ends our negotiations for today, I look forward to my wagons reaching your doors someday human."


    He disappears along with his lackeys, the room goes quiet.


    ---


    Author: Wrote this in between edits of previous chapters :D. Please remember to rate! It helps a lot!


    I did decide to take the story a completely different path that still focuses on the Void, this time a more....understandable one? Both parties (Goverment and Underground groups) want the survival of their people, they simply needed a push to join together...or in this case a plotting will :D(Hehehehe.....)

 Preparations

    Author: Yeahh......I got bored and tired of correcting the dialogue on other chapters >_<....It''s too damn hard since the dialogue is already written so I have to either rewrite each sentence to match or make it weird D:....or not :D....I''m just gonna continue the story from here and leave the other chapters as they are for now...if I find time I will edit the dialogue but for now.... Enjoy ^_^.


    ---


    No more portals opened the day of the council and the day after, confirming William''s theory of rifts being used for scouting. From the information he uncovered back at the archive he''s formed a plan and has thought out how the void will invade. The first invasion the void war, was similar. Two rifts opened around the strongest fighters of that generation, if the rifts failed to bring them down portals would open more frequently around them. William would abuse this system, he called for the strongest of each race to form a party under his command. It was difficult to get the approval of their government and themselves, also with the impeding danger of a rift opening at any time while he did this. But he was successful at getting their assistance, currently he was travelling to WillowHeart to meet all of them and then to travel with them to DarkGlade.


    "I do hope you know what your doing William, rallying our strongest together will weaken every army and their confidence." Yorick who awkwardly agreed to William''s request to travel to WillowHeart was giving out his complaints within the dragon carriage. "Also isn''t this a bit too dangerous? Shouldn''t we be meeting directly at DarkGlade and not a populated city such as WillowHeart?!"


    "That is true, but there is something I wish to make sure of. If a rift does open while we are WillowHeart that would mean the Void can easily open as many as they wish at great speed, if one doesn''t that means all openings have been pre set. Depending on which happens our strategy will form." William calmly explains from behind the crystal device where he was currently noting things down.


    Yorick''s eyes burn with anger as his mouth gapes open"You bastard...Don''t use my people as test subjects!"


    "Calm yourself Ranger, even if a rift were to open. The strongest of each continent will be rallied there, your people are as safe as they can possibly be." William frantically tries to calm the Wood Elf down, who has reached for both his swords.


    Yorick sits back down, releasing his blades back into their sheaths "Very well then..." he sighs heavily.


    They''ve been flying for five hours, William going through his notes while Loke kept in contact with Rosevalt in case of further news. Yorick being Chief Ranger and one of the "strongest" of this world, accompanied them to WillowHeart. As they neared the city William moved away from his device and looked outside. He expected another castle, large walls and houses. He was gravely wrong, as the city of the forest neared. A massive willow tree towered over the rest of the forest around it, multiple blue lights covering every couple meters of its thick branches.


    Yorick stands up and starts gathering his gear "Welcome to WillowHeart, home to the Wood Elves."


    The forest canopy surrounding the giant willow was too thick to see anything at all of what happened underneath, but it abruptly ends completely when the roots of the willow tree start.


    Yorick starts to explain "The tree itself rose six hundred meters into the sky, its trunk a hundred meters thick with twenty meter thick branches in all directions that further branch off into more 10 meter thick branches. The tree''s canopy....I''d average it covers seven hundred meters in all directions. It is called the Hollow Heart, as its inside is hollow and where the main families reside. It holds seventy percent of our people, the rest who are not Wood Elf or are mixed families reside under its canopy where some of its older roots have been turned into similar housing as the branches."


    William stares at the tree amazed "It''s that large and its hollow? How does it stand?!"


    Yorick gestures to it''s roots "The tree itself absorbs mana of all kind from the planet, using it as a medium to enhance itself. The mana is then released as its own magic from the end of its branches, enhancing the magic of us Wood Elves. In return we assign keepers and caretakers for it, they study and take care of the tree''s health."He turns to look at Loke "We have arrived, come Loke"


    Loke stands and sighs, stretching his arms "We need to find a communicator...I am not used to doing this long term..." He has been using a form of communication magic to keep in contact with Rosevalt''s officials, also giving them details of William''s each move as agreed beforehand.


    The dragon carriage swiftly lands on the elevated ground next to the roots of the Hollow Heart "You''re fine Loke, you two head over to the meetin..." William almost trips down the steps off the carriage, both Yorick and Loke catch him before he falls to the ground.


    "Was it really worth it? Letting that shady bastard drain your mana?" Yorick scowls as he pulls William back, straightening him on the steps of the carriage.


    "It was either that or me being there for every single cast of the spell, which would not have been efficient. I may feel drained for some time but I''ll be fine." William sighs as he descends the last step "As I was saying go meet up with our guests then lead them to the arranged spot, Loke the men are already on their way to DarkGlade correct?"


    "Yes, each army has sent their extras towards DarkGlade. With our current numbers there, I estimate a total of thirty thousand men." Loke descends the steps after Yorick and William.


    "Good good, I''ll be on my way then. If some are late send the ones that already arrived, we don''t want a rift to appear in the middle of town." He looks around the "city", large roots ascend from the ground all coming from a single tree who''s canopy covered the sky entirely from where they stood. He breaks off from Loke and Yorick and heads towards the forest, following a path of gravel. On his way to the forest he sees what Yorick was talking about, some of the roots were hollow and houselike. Doors and windows on roots that seemed large enough to house four, with two floors. The streets were made to flow around each root house or not, as in preparation for when the tree abandons that root. No lights were needed on the streets as the tree''s roots themselves gave off the occasional white light from rune like inscriptions that lay on them, giving off enough light to illuminate the grass around the roots and the roads as well.


    After he was done observing the city streets, he arrived at the start of the forest path. The forest itself was quite thick except for the single path snaking its way within, he followed this path for a couple minutes. He met nobody along the path since Yorick ordered for no one to be on that side of the forest, even when he arrived at the meeting area he saw nobody at all. The place they decided on was a large opening in the forest where a short hill of stone blocked trees from growing, the area itself wasn''t huge but large enough for his plan. He started with his preparations before the others arrived, setting down crystals previously charged with his mana and someone else''s runes. As he set the last crystal which was no larger than a fist, he saw a group moving out of the forest path and onto the slightly elevated rocky hill. With his armour summoned William thought he looked a bit menacing, so he released it back into its amulet. Now wearing his casual long black pants and grey plain T shirt, he started walking towards the new arrivals.


    The group of thirteen stopped in front of William, only Loke and Yorick moved to stand beside him. William cleared his throat to speak "Everyone I welcome you to WillowHeart and thank you for accepting the invitation. My name is William Smith as you all must know by now, I am the human ambassador chosen by your "gods" to follow through with their test. Truly I care not for what you may believe about me, I am not holy nor am I a chosen hero. I''m simply put, a test subject for the atlantians to confirm their theories. My kind for long have been under their "protection" as they studied and messed with us, that is because of a single very important ability we hold. We can sense the void and its movements." He glances around the group for their reactions. Some stare intrigued while others glare annoyed. "But unfortunately due to a certain turn of events, my original goal has been set aside. I will cut to the chase, the void is invading your world and will bring forth untold destruction on your people. I have gotten the approval of your leaders to go through with my plans while they prepare to defend your homes, you all have been called here for two reasons. One of the three reasons I am here." He frowns as he turns to look at the sky behind him "The first reason is for us to introduce ourselves to each other properly, Yorick will go through with this." William doesn''t turn back but gestures for Yorick to continue.


    The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.


    Yorick takes a step forward and begins "My name is Yorick Stesfal, Chief Ranger and 2nd prince. The one to my left is Loke Runewalker, ambassador of the High Elves for the Magi Alliance. Starting from the right you will introduce yourselves to your squad leader, William." William turns to look at the group with a bored expression.


    A ginger dwarf takes a step forward from the group, giving off an amused grin "Kalus Highsung at your service, looking forward to blowing more things up for you."


    He is followed by a High Elf also already familiar to William "Wyrran Kaehic, Right High General to the High Elves and Cavalry Commander." Wyrran puts his poleblade on his back and gives a bow.


    The ground slightly shakes as a looming giant steps forward, standing four meters high with a bald head and clean shaven chin. The giant strokes his fu manchu mustashe as he speaks "Grakt Elheim, the pleasure is mine." The giant heaves down a large shield along with a mace to match.


    From behind the giant a small glowing ball of light flutters upfront, everyone has to squint to look through the blue glow to see the little fae "Elin Lakeside, Fairy 10th Legion commander." he gives a mid air bow then flutters closer to William "I also need to ask, Kurt. Is he truly dead?" a series of glances are sent towards the fairy, seemingly also interested in the answer to that question.


    "He sacrificed himself to stop a premature invasion on our lands, you all must know the requirements to closing a rift. Thanks to his actions we''ve had time to breath and plot." William answers and looks around the group, many of which look down in thought. The fairy nods and backs up, standing....hovering next to the giant.


    "I guess it is my turn then..." A large Bearman takes a step forward "My name is Isaac Bulk, Eastern Pack Alpha. I may have just gained my title of "strongest" within my race, but I forward my strength to you." He places his greatsword into the ground in front of him and kneels momentarily, standing up he resheaths his sword.


    Following the wereman, two twin mers step forward "We are Kyla and Ryle of the south Mermen tribe." she gestures to the mer next to her "Me and my brother have been chosen by our father the king to represent our people." The two looked human in form, but the similarities ended there. With light blueish skin and patches of scales covering their body, they stood at average human height. Their hands and feet looked normal except for the net of skin between each finger and toe, like a makeshift fin. Instead of ears they had fins on the side of their heads with gills behind them, between the fin and gills four holes lined down which connected to their sound sensory organs. They also didn''t have normal hair, instead thick tentacles grew out and down behind them looking like hair.


    Next to the mer twins a reddish woman moves to introduce herself, the Abyssal gives a bow as she speaks "Xaria Hellborn, my cousin King Zeaxar has sent me in his stead."


    William scowls "Tch...Guess he''s too busy to come himself."


    "Musstt be me nexsst.." A large spider walks forward, the aracnid being full human down till the hips...where the spider starts. "I am Kesa Sekt, my queen ssendss me for thiss quesst.." She bows down with her spider legs, making for an awkward sight.


    Finally the last of the group steps forward, a white avian female "I am Weiss Tundra, Arcane Archer Lieutenant." she unhinges her bow as an expression of fear grows on her face.


    William nods at the last introductee and turns back to look behind him, not so much the sky but the air under it. "The second reason of us being here today is to confirm a certain theory I have. Back in the void war the first rifts and portals to appear all formed around two of the main cities, at the time a tournament was going on at one of them where warriors of the Monstra Alliance and Magi Alliance competed, rounding up the strongest of two communities...Now if I am correct, the rift that appeared was not pre planned but a deviation for the void. They hunger for mana therefore target large communities, but what else would be a better meal than thousands of small bites?"


    Many turn to look at him in horror "A large meal of minimal bites" someone adds, with a horrified expression from the group. A rift now opening only ten meters behind William.


    William fully turns to look at his theory being confirmed, smiling from ear to ear "Exactly..."


    Kalus shouts, fully entertained "But you could have told me! That a party was about to occur here human! I forgot to bring a present! Hahahaha!!" he brings forth from behind him a large cannon, seemingly too big for a dwarf to hold alone. He steps forward grinning madly.


    Yorick by now is completely panicking "What do we do!? Its a rift! We can''t seal that! William you bastard!" he grabs William by the collar.


    "Calm yourself, I''ve got it under control. Take care of any voidlings that come through, I will close this." at William''s words the whole group moves forward and takes different stances. Grakt, Elin, Isaac, Ryle, Yorick, Xaria and Wyrran acting as vanguard while Kyla, Kesa and Weiss support with ranged. Each warrior takes arms as they face the first wave of voidlings, the creatures roar and shriek as a blinding purple glow forms all around the hill. Behind the group William stands with his hands open and his aura in full effect, mana surges from the crystals he previously set to surround the hill. The mana forms tendrils that lash out at the rift and enter it momentarily, the rift seems to bend and swirl as seemingly another opens within it. Both rifts swirl and spin around each other in a mangled dance, right before they merge and "collapse" shrinking into nothingness while shrieks of pain and anguish escape. The crystals around the hill shine brightly one last time before shattering, right then and there the voidlings leap forward to attack.


    Grakt is the first to move, bashing his shield into five voidlings and smashes them to the ground with a squeamish sound. From behind him Kyla and Kesa cast water and earth magic forming a wave of mud that covers half the voidlings, suffocating them or burying them alive. Ryle, Xaria and Wyrran leap forward into their midst, slashing and cutting down their numbers while Grakt and Isaac back up to stop any voidlings from reaching their ranged fighters.


    "Aight mates back off! Its ready to blow!" Kalus shouts above his lungs, signalling his attack. The three back off behind Grakt as the first volley is fired. "Take my load you blasted beasts!" from his cannon a a volley of smoking projectiles rain onto the remaining voidlings, each projectile upon contact explodes in a green flame.


    Upon the death of the last voidling, William steps forward "Well then let''s not keep everyone waiting, time to head for DarkGlade." everyone turns to glare daggers at him.


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    Author: Thanks for reading and remember to rate ;D

 Finale~ Not the hero.

    Author: As to make up for the previously rushed fuck up, this chapter will be extra long with a pleasant surprise at the end. :) Enjoy.


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    The group immediately set out for DarkGlade, any time wasted is time the Void spent digging towards them. With his theory confirmed William thoroughly explained everything during their dragon carriage ride "As you''ve just seen.." he takes a couple steady breaths due to having to run to the carriage to not waste any precious time "Rifts can be opened within minutes, with that confirmed it also tells us that portals are the same and that the voidlings have not been digging all this time but only amassing numbers waiting for the right amount before starting to dig. The first few rifts are assassination attempts while the later portals are the first signs of invasion, which will occur around the assassinations to further destroy our moral. They intend on taking out the stronger ones by using the dangers Rifts hold to either swarm them or force sacrifice.


    What the void doesn''t understand is that we have a way of closing rifts without needing a sacrifice anymore" He raises a yellow crystal the size of his fist, a black aura and a purple aura seem to be at war around it. "This....Blackhand and his mages made these crystals to house my original mana, utilising it as a cataclyst for the spell inscribed on the outside of it." he points at the lines of runes on the crystal "What this does is open another Rift within the original one, forcing them to collapse on each other, as for how Birse managed to accomplish such a spell...He never told me" he glances at Xaria before continuing "What''s important now is that enough of these crystals have been made to temporarily close most rifts and portals that will open around the world, and like water in a bucket the voidlings will flow out of the remaining holes. Towards us."


    Grakt sighs "And how are we to deal with such a force? Our numbers and power surely overwhelm any of the standing armies at the other regions but we still lack numbers compared to the void. It will turn into a war of attrition that they will win."


    Wyrran nods "Even if we were to use ranged combat to minimise our losses we will be overwhelmed by their numbers."


    William crosses his arms "Now...I thought the greater minds of this world could comprehend...but I guess I was mistaken..." he mocks


    Xaria suddenly springs up standing, unable to control herself "Then please explain oh "greater mind" " she glares down at William, obvious anger in her eyes. Kesa moves to try and hold the Abbysal to only be shrugged away by the ever reddening and angry demon.


    William raises his arms in a surrendering gesture "Please excuse me, I simply teasing. As for how, well...Firstly you are wrong about two things. First is that their numbers will not overwhelm us, the area a rift or even a portal takes is too large to accommodate too many which limits how fast they can travel, also I have noticed that there is a couple moments between each amount of voidlings, they don''t flow out like a river but in waves. This can mean many things but right now it only means that it further slows down their arrival into the battlefield, their numbers could be limitless but an army flowing through a ravine fighting a platoon within that ravine.... the larger force will not have the space to stretch out its full power. Making it an even battle which will be determined by individual strength and not numbers, our strength. The second thing you are wrong about...Ranged combat will prove much more advantageous than you think it will. Have none of you ever noticed?" he looks around the carriage at each individual "The voidlings have no ranged fighters." A series of annoyed or confused looks flow through the group.


    "Of course we fucking noticed! But as long ears said it won''t matter if they keep on coming!" Xaria lets out one final burst before she sits back down pouting.


    William sighs "It means their only way of dealing with aerial targets is by using their own. Back in my world the ability to fly has been thoroughly researched and implemented in military combat and has far changed our battlefields. Not the beastial melee that most of you races utilise in midair combat, but ranged combat within flight. The Drakeling riders have implemented this tactic minimally, obviously due to diminished accuracy which in turn slows down the rate of fire as to not waste ammo. But what if accuracy is no longer a requirement?" another series of confused expressions are sent his way. "Well...to be more specific what if you only needed to choose a direction....Downward. My kind calls it aerial bombardment, aerial units simply fly over the enemy and drop explosive material on top of them." with his explanation ended, the carriage''s quiet is only broken by single words..."Maniacs..."..."Monsters..."..."Warmongers..."..."Massacre..."


    ----------------------


    Nearing the hollow mountain is a single drake pulled carriage, containing names that echoed through the ranks of the thousands of soldiers marching around the mountain and into the makeshift camps outside its walls. Soldiers of all races gathered their gear and formed ranks as the carriage landed, whispers flowing from soldier to soldier along with doubts as well as curiosity. The soldiers lined up forming platoons which in turn formed an army of over thirty thousand, all awaiting the members of the loosely named "Hero''s Guild" to exit the carriage. Each race roared at the appearance of their hero, one by one they exited and moved down the massive army to line up with their men. Once almost the whole group had exited, the soldiers who had clear sight of the carriage stared in confusion and curiosity at Loke''s figure that awaited outside the carriage, they had been told of the human taking command of their ranks but have never seen one before to form any thoughts.


    William prepared himself to face the men and women waiting outside for his entrance, he never was a people person. He sighs and scowls at himself for not preparing himself beforehand for this crowd. The barely adult human steps out and down the carriage steps, his grey armour summoned with its purple runes glowing menacingly. His grey eye''s blue aura flowed behind his movement like an after image while his purple eye''s aura lashed out eagerly at every direction. He felt anxious and nervous at the glorious sight that presented itself in front of him. Men and women of every race lined up as far as his eyes could see to his right, forest opening where the camp resided was completely hidden behind them. They had landed at the left end of the army, he walked with Loke to reach the other side. He took note of every kind of soldier he had at his disposal while ticking and taking notes on the crystal screen he carried with him. The alliances graced him with twelve thousand melee combatants, five thousand mages and rangers along with eight thousand aerial riders. Along with the remaining five thousand or so mercenaries they numbered in the thirty thousand or more, amazingly still being outnumbered by what the void has to offer.


    William walked down the army''s ranks, glancing at many of them. He took mental note of their expressions, empty gazes as if awaiting death. But he had other plans for them, nobody would die senselessly today. William may not be a sun tzu, but he knew his strategy well. He also knew well that, these men did not see him as a commander but as a foreigner. The others had asked him to give a speech, even going as far as giving him a speech enhancement crystal for his voice to reach the whole army...But he was no grand leader. In the end ge resigned to at least saying something. Half way down he stops as Loke takes the screen crystal from his hands, he grabs hold of the white crystal in his pocket as he feels the magic taking effect.


    He starts to speak "Races of all kind..Dwarves...Elves...Drakons...Giants" every name followed by roars and cheers of the respective race"Faes, Werebeasts, Orcs, Mers, Aracnids, Demons and Avians." he momentarily stops, gathering his thoughts. "For millennia has the void spread fear and anguish, corrupting your lands... endangering your kingdoms...But today is far worse...If we do not stop them here, the void will do far worse. They will trample your homes....Massacre your families...Turn your friends against you....But today you will defy that future. You rise and stand against their insatiable hunger, make no mistake there will be death within the valley behind you today. But the corpses that will lay rotting tomorrow will not be yours." Finished and content with his speech he turns to continue walking, followed by cheers that shake the air around him.


    On their way down the ranks they see Karl, Seyl and Jax lined up with the mercenaries. With the other commanders following after him, after they spoke with their subordinates, the leaders walk beyond the breaking ranks of the army as everyone heads back into camp to continue preparations. As he walked down with the others towards the main tent, he noticed the other mercenaries around the camp. Unlike his previous beliefs of them having lowered moral at the loss of their commanding officer, the mercenaries were bursting with energy as blood lust engulfed their expressions. Revenge is a powerful motivator. Once at the officer''s tent, everyone settled down around the table where a map of the mountain and the forest around it was sprawled on top of it.


    William started giving out orders to each leader, joining them into divisions."Elin, Xaria, Weiss and Jax will lead the air. Kyla, Ryle, Seyl,Yorick, and Kesa will lead the ranged division, line up the mountain tops surrounding the valley. Grakt, Isaac and Karl''s division are in charge of loading the ammunition under Kalus''s division who will supply. You all know the plan, give out the details to your subordinates then meet me down at DarkGlade. Waste no time, we must be ahead of them or this plan will fail. Dismissed." William turns as everybody else with a series of nods, scatters out the tent and around the camp. A makeshift sketch of paths all along the mountain lined the map behind them. William headed away from camp and towards the mountain, stopping at the start of its climb. Behind him large amounts of movement could be seen as everyone moved into their positions, mages and archers climbing the mountain side heading for the top, warriors carrying heavy machinery over to the dragons, drakes, wyverns, gryphons and pegasi.


    "Erza.." he whispers as name. Erza''s form flickers in shadow next to him until she is fully there.


    He turns to her "Have you found "him"?" he asks with a quizzical expression.


    "It was not easy mind you...For him to actually become one...it was far fetched...But yes, he awaits your contact." she frowns and looks up at the mountain. "He was surprised to hear from you so soon."


    William''s expression grows into a smile "Let''s go." at his command Erza''s form shifts in shadow again, it grows to its full size gaining many''s attention. She soars into the sky and then down towards the fort.


    ----------------


    William waited on top of the black dragon for what seemed like hours, but was actually just a couple minutes. Loke had joined him after obtaining contact with the other kingdoms, bringing him news that the void already started it''s invasion of the cities. William foresaw this, the void''s hunger overruled it''s patience. As the others also joined him via air born mounts, he felt a familiar presence occurring around him.


    He looks around "Good, we''re all here. Because here they come as well." with these words everyone grasped their weapons and called fort their magic. Every combatant within the fort''s dead streets called upon their power or that of their contracted spirits. The pressure they all amassed itself was impressive, but what followed would leave a sane man laughing maniacally. The air around them seemed to shift as it bent and swirled on itself, reality itself seemingly move and join the tens of whirlpools. Portals opened all around the fort but none within, confirming what Birse had told him. Rifts leave the area they open at too unstable...which William used to his advantage. As waves of voidlings started falling from the portals onto the valley around the fort, William called fort his newest addition. With a mocking posture and a smile worthy of a madman he spoke out loud.


    This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it."I name you beast! I name you formless! I name you wolf! I name you Lycan! I name you Behemoth!" He opens his arms as red smoke escapes his palms and merges to make a form.


    "Seriously...Best you could think of? Behemoth?" the being of red smoke scowls at William''s sense of naming, having a humanoid shape but still made of smoke.


    "Shouldn''t have gone and died on us, now stop wasting time." William mocks the red form from atop Erza, before getting down and landing next to the others.


    The red being sighs and turns to look at the rest "Guess it can''t be helped..." his form flickers for a moment before expanding in an explosion of red which is then engulfed by grey as a being large enough to compete with Erza''s devourer size appears.


    "W..W...K...William! What''s the meaning of this?...We...We saw him!...He..." Seyl tries to mouth a sentence but can barely form words as tears gush down her face.


    "He did... " William sighs "I''m sorry I did not tell you three before but I had to be sure first." he turns to look at Seyl, Karl and Jax. "He is just a spirit now, I contracted with him. Kurt is dead and his spirit here, is what remained."


    "Alright you shits, stop balling your eyes out and form up." the Lyan growls at the three cry babies "I may be dead...which was not a vacation by the way...You will not diminish our reputation! Get a hold of yourselves! Straighten up!" Kurt turns to look up at the sky filled with winged beasts, raining hell down on the voidlings as explosives. Above the mountain tops more hell was being brought down on the portals as arrows and bursts of magic of all elemental alignments. When ever air born voidlings would appear platoons of Faes and Avians would skillfully fly down to eliminate the threat, to then rejoin the bombardment.


    Suddenly the waves started getting larger and larger, flooding the valley with bodies. Soon voidlings started trying to climb the valley walls to reach the ranged division, only to be shot down by archers or the air division. The voidlings then turned to the ravines that snaked out of the valley onto the outside, they clawed and bashed at the gates that kept them inside. William foresaw this as well, squads of mages had been set aside for this. As the void flooded the gates to the ravines with more numbers and larger creatures such as drakes and dragons, the mages begun. The earth on each side of the gates shook as the mountain seemed to close on itself, earth mages cast their speciality onto the mountain sides to close the ravines completely. Some voidlings were pushed back from the gate but most were squashed by the flowing earth, the valley was now completely closed.


    "Well...we got their full attention now...are you all ready?" William turned to look at everyone moving forward, towards the wave of monsters heading their way.


    Yorick sighs "One day...boy...One day.."


    Kalus lets out a roaring laugh "Hahahahahah!! Bring it on!!"


    "It''s a good day to die." Karl ends the conversation as the wave of beasts engulfs their position.


    With no where else to go, the void focused on the meal in the middle of the valley. A meal they would regret following its scent. A black mass of a dragon soared the sky above the fort, cascading black flames onto the legions of grey and green. A massive grey wolf trashes around the city streets, clawing away hundreds at a time. Weiss, Yorick and Seyl travel from roof to roof raining arrow after arrow. Grakt lead a charge through the wave of monsters followed by Karl, Jax, Isaac and Wyrran while Elin, Kyla, Ryle and Kesa headed with Xaria to the opposite side with their own charge. Kalus was no where to be seen except for his loud laughter followed by the sound of steam pistols and explosives.


    William took in the battlefield around him, they needed to hold out as much as possible. Their single goal was to massacre as many voidlings as they possibly could while the portals to the main cities where forcefully closed by Birse''s mages. The sudden increase in void numbers shows that Birse was successful, now it was their turn. He relaxed his grey eye''s aura, allowing his purple eye to take over. He had done this several times in private within the past days, but this time he wouldn''t stop half way. He had long decided he would not allow the atlantians to mock him by using the power they gave him, he wanted to abandon their beliefs completely. Time seemed to stop around him, the purple aura growing to engulf his whole body. His grey eye glowed a bright blue, trying to fight off the purple aura but was ineffective in doing so as that power was never natural to William''s body to begin with. His true mana now started to take over, as time is resumed with a blast of blue energy forming a massive shockwave with him at the middle of it. The shockwave burst forth in every direction killing hundreds of voidlings along its path, the other "heros" dared not get close to William.


    He stood there for a moment, eyes closed. The very ground shaking around him as purple tendrils grew from his aura and lashed out at literally everything. His real alignment had been unlocked the moment he dispersed the unnatural mana the atlantians implemented into him. Chaotic energy flowed through his whole body as it shook the ground around him and increased the air pressure. When ever a voidling passed within his range it was torn apart by the chaotic ethereal tentacle like aura. But he wasn''t left standing for long, as a roar shattered any and all sound within the valley.


    As three portals merged and started to collapse on each other, a single looming giant walked out of them. The portals shrunk into nothingness behind it. The being was the same race as Erza, but wasn''t limited by no contract and was much larger in size. William recognised the being almost immediately "This must be the final boss..." he glared at the dragon, knowing full well what it was. "Erza, Behemoth to me. Everyone we''ll deal with this one, continue to shave off their numbers" as he rushed forward towards the dragon, Erza and Kurt also darted towards it.


    "Come to me mortals! Sate my hunger!I am Xer the Elder Dragon of light! Face my wrath!" The elder dragon roared in anticipation, its white scales gleamed in the sunlight almost blinding. It''s wings spanned so high they rose above the mountain tops and scattered many of the ranged division behind it. It''s eyes though, were as green as the aura it permeated. The void''s alignment of corruption flowed from its body, threatening to kill you with fear alone. As it roared grey smoke exited from between its fangs and flowed onto the battle field, seemingly enhancing any voidling it touched.


    Behemoth was the first to attack leaping off the mountain side he bared his fangs down onto Xer''s hide, his claws also digging into its back as electricity passed through the lycan''s body and into the dragon, slowing down its movements. Erza closely followed by engulfing the elder''s head in black flames, as it shrieked in agony and releasing its own grey breath. Erza rolled midair to the side as the grey flames burned the air she once hovered in, she gaped open both jaws as another wave of black flames burst at Xer''s neck. William did not initially join the fight but watched as he charged up his attack, he had one chance and if it failed Xer would devour them all. All around him he gathered his mana turning his aura even more chaotic and frenzied, he couldn''t miss and it would take every ounce of his power. Xer grew tired of the two spirits , she rose on her hind legs and crushed Behemoth into the mountain side as a wail of pain filled the canyon. Leaving the lycan to recover behind her Xer moved to grab Erza with her jaws, Erza swiftly dodged to the side only to be smashed down by a massive white tail.


    Xer loomed over Erza''s grounded body, opening her mouth and baring her fangs as grey smoke exited. Before she could breath, Behemoth leaped onto her neck digging his fangs in and forcing her to the ground with him. Erza rose up and turned to face her elder, hovering into the sky again and not to be one to waste an opportunity she breath black flames again onto Xer''s back. Behemoth barely dodging the black flames by a hair''s breath. But Xer did not fall she rose back up and through the flames, adding her own that devoured the black with grey. Erza was hit head on as she plummeted to the ground crashing into Behemoth on the way. Xer barred her fangs at the two as she moved forward to end them, but she stopped in mid step. Xer turned to glare at William, sensing his intentions. But it was already too late.


    "Imbecile! You wish to turn this whole world into a battlefield?!" Xer snarls at William''s direction, leaping towards him.


    William grimaces "You already did...And no...That is not my intention..." he was standing next to a portal while he spoke, entering it after he was done.


    Reality seemed to spin around him as he unleashed his magic, his chaotic aura ripping the portal apart from within. As the tendrils ripped open the whirling mana, more holes started to form within the tunnel. As he lost consciousness, through the new tunnels he could see their end. Other worlds...Some made of fire...some made of water...others bursting with nature...as well as the original tunnel ending in a wasteland of disfiguration. Xer entered the portal chasing after William as she forcefully expanded it to allow her large form to enter, only to be sent spiralling into a completely different tunnel. She roared in anger and frustration as she neared a world of fire...multiple other roars muting her own....


    William could not stop now...He could only look back at the massacre happening at the entrance...Heroes...Beasts...Fighting a single enemy....Two figures appeared next to him...A woman with red eyes and pitch black hair...a man with grey hair, a grey ageing beard and bloodshot ember eyes...The three spiralled down the tunnel, unable to see its destination as it formed.


    ---------------


    In the end, the void''s invasion was successfully stopped. The massacre that happened at DarkGlade weakened the void''s mass legions enough to allow the other races to fully retaliate. The only five to return from within the DarkGlade valley alive were Loke RuneWalker, Kalus Highsung, Seyl Reijin ,Jax Meister and Weiss Tundra, five who would lead the remaining army of thirty thousand into the void and continue the massacre from the void''s back lines.


    They searched for their leader, some were even sent through the portal he entered only to arrive at other random worlds never before seen. In the end the portal was closed as it posed too much a threat, but soon after rifts cracked open around the valley to each of the worlds the portal tunnelled to. Each rift stabilised over time becoming unsealable. Weeks of morn passed as the alliances rebuilt their broken walls and named their heroes, at the same time focusing their mages to fully research portals. Years passed as this world was finally named ; Etyria, the races finally making peace with the fact of being abandoned by their gods.


    But our story doesn''t end here dear curious souls, as one might say; The end of an age is only the beginning of another...


    ---


    Author: And there you have it....Yeap....Seriously speaking....well writing....I am very proud of this "ending" as I am after all a lover of mystery. What happened to William? How did the world progress after the invasion was halted? Where did the atlantians go? All these juicy questions... I plan to answer them, but not in this story. No this story has indeed ended, but as any other author as I end this story I start another. After much pondering I simply couldn''t abandon the world I created in my mind, much of which I have not even written about as the story progressed around a meagre part of this world. Not to mention the *cough* elemental worlds *cough*....


    In the end I came to a decision. My next story will continue on using this world I''ve built and take you around it, with new characters and some old. No the next story will not be a direct sequel, you can start reading it and completely ignore this one. It will simply use the setting of this world and its systems.


    Thank you for reading and please remember to rate.


    ~ The Sly Wolf

 The real story.

    As I have said before I did not give up on this story and have continued it''s progression here; (http://royalroadl.com/fiction/7622</a>) with a different mc. This story was supposed to be a test for me of how well I can do but in the end it became a sort of a prequel to the linked story, in which the mc will meet characters from this story and maybe gain them as companions on his journey throughout the multiverse.... Thank you for reading :)