| By M.J.Leech In the Beginning |
| About two thousand years ago, Karaz, the wicked witch of the west came into the possession of a desperate old sorcerer named Jkran, he was about one hundred years old, no one really knew. He lived in a castle that his slaves built for him and his army when he ruled the land, about when he was twenty-nine. His ruling was stopped however by his army who turned on him and nearly killed him in his own castle. Failing the army split up into groups that still search for him as I tell this story to you now. But I’m trailing from the story; we should get back to Jkran and his newly found witch, Karaz. Karaz’s first job was to recruit new personnel for Jkran’s army. Her first stop was the small town of Wiácina. The town had a population of about six hundred. Two hundred men joined the army. At about the same time of Karaz’s finding, two shadowed figures walked into town. They wore nothing but black, black jeans, black T-shirt, big black leather boots, which were about knee high and a long black cloak. The figures walked strait to Karaz, drawing their giant swords and facing her, telling her to leave before the situation got serious. Of course Karaz refused, forcing the strangers to attack with overwhelming force. Karaz retreated in great shock, running back to Jkran to speak of her news. As for the strangers, they simply pressed on, travelling into the night. Nobody knew who they where, what their purpose was or where they came from. As the figures walked off into the night they took off their hoods that shadowed their faces. One had dark brown eyes; black hair and a beard the other had sky blue eyes and pure white hair. Dariel Vangelis the one with white hair was about thirty-six and had a dark side to him, the other, Marious Dictarnos was about forty-three and had a simple yet aggressive attitude. The two talked happily to each other and found themselves a place to stay for the night. It was a small abandoned hut about ten miles out of town, and what seemed to be a good place to stay the night. The next day they were woken by the scream of a woman. They jumped out of bed, put on their boots and the sword belts and grabbed their cloaks while running out of the hut. The scream came from a clearing in a thick forest about two hundred metres from where the hut was. They ran into the forest and into the clearing. To their surprise a giant net fell over them, they had been tricked; four goblins stood in front of them. Marious drew his dagger and attempted to cut the net, but the net just let out a bright glow and didn’t break, it had a spell cast on it to improve its strength. The goblins roared with laughter and took Marious and Dariel away in the net. “What do you want?” yelled Marious One of the goblins turned to him and gave him an evil look, but no answer. They were taken to an opening in a side of a cliff, as they went inside they found themselves in a tunnel that lead into a giant chamber. At the far end of the chamber was a mound of dirt, at the top of it was a huge goblin, Dariel realised that it must have been the leader when one of the goblins that caught them said... “Here is your dinner sir” The net fell to the ground along with Dariel and Marious, the bag loosened. “Get up!” yelled the giant goblin. As Dariel and Marious got up, goblin guards moved closer to them with the swords drawn, there were about sixty of them and Dariel drew his sword. One of the goblins lurched forward and cut Dariel’s arm. Dariel roared with pain fell to his knees. When he looked up his eyes were glowing an evil fiery red. He clutched his sword and hurled it at the goblin that had struck him. The sword landed heavily in its chest, as it did so twenty other goblins burst apart, leaving only their skeletons with swords and axes. The skeletons turned and charged at the other goblins attacking them full force. Marious looked at Dariel with wide eyes... “I didn’t know you could do that!” Dariels looked at him then jumped up and ran over to his sword and dislodged it from the dead goblin's chest and ran after the giant goblin that had ran down a dark corridor. Marious followed him, taking one last look at the skeletons and the guards fight. As they ran down the dark tunnel Marious followed Dariel around bends and through junctions and finally ended up returning to the outside world. It was a large valley with trees either side of a huge river. Dariel had stopped and was looking around. “How did that thing get away from me? Where did it go?” he cursed. “Ah... Forget about it, lets go find a place to sleep”, said Marious in reply. “Yeah. We’ll head down the valley. There’s a town not far from here” Marious nodded and followed Dariel down the river, back to the small fishing village of Kabráza. It only had a population of about fifty, but it had its own Inn where for two gold coins Marious and Dariel stayed the night. The next day they went down to the bar, only to find bodies scattered across the room. Marious trotted up to one of them and checked for a pulse. “He’s dead”, he stated. “Yeah. So is this one”, said Dariel, standing up from beside the bar tender. “Well looks like we get a free bear!” joked Marious, happily. Dariel smiled poring himself and Marious a bear. “I wonder what happened. It must have been magic, there’s no weapon wounds”, said Dariel with a puzzled look on his face. “I don’t know”, said Marious as he looked out the window, “But it would appear that who ever did this got away on horses” Dariel looked out the window, noticing that he was right he ran out the door and jumped on a horse, Marious followed him with great enthusiasm. “We’ll have breakfast later, for now lets find the people who did this!” Dariel yelled over the wind rushing past their ears as they thundered on the track the horse hooves had made. They followed the track deep into the forest running alongside the beach. After 20 minutes at a high speed, the horses had become tired and Marious and Dariel’s stomachs had started to rumble. They stopped at what seemed to be a comfortable place to sit; it had a lovely view of the beach and forest and had shade from the hot morning sun. Dariel had caught some fish and Marious a wild bore. They cooked their food over a fire and sat down to enjoy the peace. The only noise being the whistle of the birds and the sizzling of meat over the fire. After breakfast they set off again, following the tracks left by the horse-riders that had killed all the people back at the Inn. After a long while following the trail they found it came to a stop. There were no more hoof prints, nor were there any foot prints, showing that someone may have walked the rest of the way. Dariel and Marious got off their horses and walked the perimeter, finding no one. Dariel had found a recently fallen over willow tree. He drew his sword and hacked out a large chunk and carried it back to Marious and the horses. He sat down, got out his dagger and started to calve it into a long pole. Night fell and Dariel was still calving away at the long pole of wood, making it smooth. It was getting late by the time he finished and put it down and Marious had fallen asleep next to the fire he had made only hours before. |
| The Bow. The next morning Marious awoke to the sound of soaring arrows. He got up and went to see what was going on, with his sword drawn. To his surprise Dariel had made a Bow, a quiver and 20 arrows with stone heads and dove feathers at its end. The bow was huge, a good 5 feet long. Dariel had the quiver slung over his back, over the top of his cloak. There was also another holder, in which Dariel put the Bow. Marious smiled. “I didn’t know you knew how to use a bow and arrow.” “It’s been along time since I’ve used one, but it seems I’ve improved.” Replied Dariel, sounding impressed with his work. After breakfast, they got on their horses and continued along the shingle path along the beachfront. After a mile or two, the horses went nuts, bucking and rearing. Once Marious and Dariel got them under control, they hopped of and went to inspect what had scared the horses. Dariel drew his bow, and readied an arrow. As he did so, the fat giant of a goblin jumped out to meet him. The beast drew a massive sword and swung it, cutting Dariel’s new bow in two. Dariel’s eyes widened and he drew his own sword from its sheath. He swung his sword striking the goblin in the ribs, cutting a huge gash in his side. The beast fell to the ground, dropping its sword to the ground. Dariel went and picked it up, leaving the goblin to suffer. Dariel struggled to hold the huge six-foot sword in one hand, but he managed to turn it so that it caught the sun. It sparkled all the colours of the rainbow. Dariel looked at it wide eyed. “It’s a Claymore,” He said to him self, amazed. He put his Crystal sword back in its sheath on his belt and he put the Claymore where his bow used to go, in the sheath on his back. After travelling quite a way they stopped to have lunch. After collecting some food, they sat down and started to cook it. “Dariel,” said Marious, “Back in the caves you used magic. Where did you learn how to do that?” “Born that way” Said Dariel. “Of course my teacher showed me how to control it.” “How much do you know?” questioned Marious. “A lot, unfortunately” He replied. “Magic isn’t the greatest thing to have these days.” “What do u mean, It would be great!” “Well, people like to refer to my kind as freaks.” “Oh stuff them, think about it, you’ve been using swords and bows all your life. Yet you could be using a greater force. I reckon you should go back to your old ways.” “If you say so.” Dariel said in a quiet voice. He turned his head and looked at a fallen log. Suddenly a pair of robes and a cloak appeared upon it. He walked up to the robes and through his old cloak down, and picked them up. He put the robes on, tying the blood red cloth around them. The robes themselves were black and had what seemed to be a demon hand with a fireball floating about two centimetres above the palm. He then grabbed the new cloak, It too was black, and had a large hood that could easily hide ones face. He picked up his crystal sword and handed it to Marious. “This is yours now, I won’t need it anymore.” “Thank you” Said Marious, looking at the sword. “As for the claymore, I’ll sell it at the town up ahead” After they had eaten, they travelled to the small farming village of Markana. There, Dariel sold the claymore and his old cloak. They thought that they should stay in the tavern, rather than pressing on. They made there way over to the tavern and booked a room with two beds, they then went to the bar and got a drink and something to eat. That evening when it was getting late, and a few people around the bar had become drunk and angry with one another, one of the townsfolk popped up out of his set and stumbled up to Dariel and punched him in the side of the head. Dariel tumbled off this stool and spilt his drink and broke the mug that was containing it. The crazed drunk then started yelling jumbled words at Dariel. “You up getting now ‘n’ me fight!” he yelled. Dariel looked at him and shrugged his shoulders and leaped up off the floor ramming his fist heavily into the drunk’s face, a loud crack echoed around the silent room and the drunks nose stared to bleed. He then fell to the floor in an up set state. Dariel then picked up the broken glass and placed it on the bar. “Sorry ‘bout the mess” he said, he then left the bar and when out side for a walk. That night while in bed sleeping Dariel’s old nightmares awoke him in a cold sweat. The days of him been a possessed necromancer where coming back to him, slowly but surely. Ever since he had changed back into his old forgotten robes the power had started to surge in him. The power to control minions of the damned and ungodly creatures. He was not any ordinary necromancer though, he had powers of another type also, the power of the druids, the mages, the socerers, and the wizards. He was a powerful being back in his time, when he had the company of a demon inside him. The demon’s name was karanok, but people who feared him called him El diablo, or the devil. Of course he was not the Devil at all, but he was feared none the less, With him in the body of Dariel, both of them ruled the battlefields, slaying all that stood in their path. Dariel held a massive scythe; it was at least seven-foot high, and its blade a powerful four-foot long. It could cut through anything no matter how thick. It was the ultimate weapon. |
| The Scythe of Chaos I n the morning Marious woke to find that Dariel had left the room. He found a note written in blood saying: I have gone into the east to find a friend, I will meet you in Arumbea when the sun is at full height. Marious looked oddly at the map as he walked down stairs to the bar. He looked at the bar tender and asked him: “Can you tell me when I might find the town Arumbia?” The tender laughed. “You won’t find that poor town. The dark traveller burnt that place to the ground four hundred years ago” “What” replied Marious “But my friend said to meet him there” “Well” said the bartender “Its ruins are about four hundred miles Northeast of here, but before you leave I think you should know something about your friend” Marious looked at him wide eyed “What about him?” he said “Your friend is the one they call the dark traveller” he began “About four hundred years into the past, many towns had been destroyed by this creature and many people slain, he was possessed by a demon known as Karanok, but I can’t really call is possessed because they shared the body, not one controlled it. He wore a dark black cloak with a hood and carried a huge scythe” Marious looked at him wide eyed “Are you telling me Dariel is 400 years old?” “No not at all, he’d be about 2000 years old now” Marious just about fell over with the news about his friend “I have to go, I have not long to travel to Arumbia,” said Marious “Good bye” The bartender looked at him and as he watched Marious leave he said to himself “True friends never leave, not even if one is evil”. By midday Marious had reached Arumbia and had discovered that the bartender was right, the old town lay in ruins. There was nothing left, apart from a few chimneys and walls of stone. “A mess isn’t it,” said a cold harsh voice behind Marious. Marious turned quickly drawing his swords. “Who are you?” Marious questioned. The figure smiled. “I am the Arch-Bishop Lazarus, Master of the dimensions” Marious looked at him with a curious eye. “Dimensions?” he asked, “What do you mean?” Lazarus smiled and gestured Marious to sit down. Marious did so and looked at Lazarus as he did so as well. “There are many different dimensions. For example Hell, Heaven and Earth. There are many others as well, some the same as Earth, but ruled by creatures unlike humans” Marious started to speak, but out of the shadows someone spoke. “Ah. The dimension story again. Lazarus you are full of crap” Lazarus jumped up pointing a clawed finger at the shadowed figure. “It is not crap, demon!” he yelled. “What ever” mumbled Dariel as he stepped from the shadows “Dariel” Said Marious happily “I was wondering when you would show up” “Yes, sorry about that” “Some people decided to sever themselves on my blade” Dariel said with a grin on his face. “Still slaughtering people are you Dariel?” said Lazarus “Oh no, of course not. They started it” replied Dariel After awhile the three decided to travel together into the East, over the mountains of the Orks, back to the ocean. They continued walking long into the day, by the time they had reached the farming village of Knok at the foot of the mountains it had become quite dark. “Well, looks like well have to stay here for the night” said Marious. “Yes, I’ll go find a suitable place to stay,” said Dariel as he walked of into the town. Marious watched as Dariel left them. After a moment or two, Marious spoke. “What are you?” he asked Lazarus. Lazarus smiled. “Half human half demon” he said, “My father is Karanok, the one that’s in Dariel” Marious looked surprised, but in away he knew it could be true. “Who was your mother?” he asked. “Some druid from the far north” he replied, “I don’t really remember her anymore” Marious did not speak again until Dariel returned and led them to a house of people willing to let them stay the night and feed them. In the morning the three woke up to the sound of burning flames. Lazarus, been the first to get out of bed, went outside to take a look. To his surprise, ten fully armoured men stood about three meters away from the door, serrounded by burning buildings. Lazarus ran back inside to grab his staff and tell the others. “Ten men! Three meters! Out door!” he yelled at them Marious and Dariel garbed their weapons and ran outside with Lazarus to face the small army of men. As they stood face to face with the men one of the ten spoke. “I fight Lazarus, and Lazarus only!” Dariel looked at Lazarus. “Do you know them?” he asked “Don’t think so” he replied The man who spoke grabbed his sword and charged violently at Lazarus. Lazarus simply raised his hand at the man, as he did so the man flew back several meters into two of his army members. Lazarus walked up to the man lying pathetically on the ground, unable to move a muscle. Lazarus raised his staff and out of the bottom of it a meter long blade shot out of it. He held it to his victim. “Who are you?” he yelled at him, over the roaring of the flames The stranger looked at him with a smile and morphed into a more familiar shape. “Tassadar!” Lazarus cried with happiness, “Brother where have you been?” “Brother?” said Marious and Dariel sounding very surprised. Lazarus helped his brother up “Yes my brother, master of illusions” Tassader swept his hand through the air and the other nine men vanished. After a good day of travel into the great mountains out the back of the town, the came across a slight obstacle. In their path stood a man wearing long robes and held a staff. Next to him, ten men stood fully armoured and with swords drawn. The wizard then raised his arm and shot a fireball from his palm. The fire roared through the air, finally stopping when it hit Tassadar in the chest. Tassadar fell to his knees, and then to his chest, his body burst into flames, he was now dead. The other men ran into the waiting blades of Marious, Dariel and Lazarus. Many men were slain. But for each one killed it would appear that there were another four to take its place. Men ran in from many different areas of land. After what seemed to be hours of constant battle, it all stopped suddenly for Dariel when a large sword was lunged into Marious’s chest. Dariel looked in horror as Marious slowly slipped away and died. Dariel roared with anger and leaped back into action slaying anyone that stood in his path, although it all ended with arrows coming from all directions. At least a hundred landed in Dariel; he to slowly dropped to the ground and perished. Lazarus looked around him. Seeing all his friends dead around him a new energy burned inside him. The ground shook, trees fell and people exploded, as the rage and power was expelled from him. Everything with in a ten-mile radius was blown to smithereens except for the small peace of land that he himself stood on. Lazarus fell to his knees exhausted. He looked around him to see if any of his friend’s bodies were intact. Marious was the only thing within miles that was still in one piece. Lazarus stood up and summoned his staff. He slammed the end of his staff into the ground, it sent out a few shocks of blue light and formed a portal. He picked up Marious and walked through the portal, which closed behind him. The portal lead to an old temple. It was very big and had a huge wall surrounding it. In side the walls where wooden, and had a lot of carvings on them. Lazarus took Marious’s body to a room at the far end of the entrance hall. The room was full with unlit candles and has a stone table at the far end of it. Lazarus lay Marious upon it. As he did so the candles in the room lit, the once dark room, became flourished with light. Lazarus went to a bookcase to the left of the table and grabbed a book from it. He walked back to Marious and placed the book next to him and began to chant words from it. He sprinkled some strange herbs across Marious’s body. With the chants Marious’s body began to glow, he started to emit a bright orange light. And then with one last booming word Marious took his first immortal breath. “Welcome back,” said Lazarus with a smile on his face Marious breathed heavily and replied “What happened?” “Well, to be honest you died. You’re better now though and now you’re immortal. Like me” “WHAT!” yelled Marious, “What about the others?” “Unfortunately I could not save them, I’m afraid they have left this plain, but maybe, once you have recovered more I could take you to them” Marious looked at him in shock, but then gave a smile and shut his eyes. A few months later Lazarus and Marious were out hunting for food in the Gardarium realm. The Gardarium were a worrier race that ruled their own realm. Lazarus and Marious weren’t going to stay long; they were just there for the Gratlets, a small but very delicious pig like animal with two heads |
| To be continued... |