Chapter 13- Rumors of war

 

The defeat of the Undead King did little to calm the tensions between the Blood Pact and the Edict of Dawn. Orcish skirmishes at the borders and raids on caravans were an ever-constant source of contempt between the Holy Order and the Orcs. The Orcs saw the Holy Order as an easy target and would often venture into the Holy Orders kingdom raiding villages and taking slaves. In response the Holy Order declared the Orcs as creatures born of darkness and evil and vowed to eradicate their kind. The Holy Order saw it as their righteous duty to rid Ward of the creatures of darkness. This tenant of the Holy Order would often lead to conflict and outright war between them and many of the different factions of the Blood Pact.

 

The Elves and Dark Elves were different from the other races. They were never truly in open combat with each other. The Elves and Dark Elves seemd ever content in their ever-constant bickering. The Elves saw the devastation that spread from the Dark Elves desolate kingdom of perpetual twilight as an afront to The Creator and his grand design. Whereas the Dark Elves could only survive in the darkness and saw it as their right to live and grow though the darkening of the skies in and around their territory. I wasn’t until a young charismatic leader had risen through the ranks of the Dark Elf nobility that this changed. The young man was destined for greatness, as he was the heir to the Dark Elf throne. He had trained his whole life to eventually lead his people and on his coronation day everything changed.

The pride of the Dark Elves was The Eternal Flame. It was a holy relic bestowed upon the Angels by The Creator during their early days. Upon accepting their charge as the elite defenders of the Great Citadel following the first demonic invasion the Eternal Flame was bestowed upon the citadel as a source of power and a connection to the will of The Creator. However, with the fall of the great citadel the Eternal Flame had been removed and now serves as the most holy relic of both Elf and Dark Elf kind on Ward. On the day of the crown prince’s coronation, he was to step into the Eternal Flame to accept his birthright and be blessed as king of the mighty dark Elven kingdom. However, the kingship was not an inherited title, but a title voted on by the Council of Nine whom the king led. As the time came one-by-one the nine cast their votes and the crown prince was not to be the next leader, but rather his brother. Rage boiled inside the prince as he watched his brother step into the Eternal Flame and accept its blessing and his birthright. He had been cast aside.

 

Rejected and disgraced, the former crown prince rejected the notion that we would not rule the Dark Elven kingdom, and if they would not appoint him as the next king, he would make himself the next king by force. The fallen prince traveled the Dark Elf kingdom gathering all those would support his cause. He amassed a large following and began the Dark Elf civil war. For two years the civil war raged across the Dark Elf kingdom. At first the fallen prince had been met with very little resistance, but the Council of Nine commanded great power within the Nine districts of the Dark Elf kingdom. They rallied their ramies and struck back against the prince crushing his forces at every turn. Losing the war and unwilling to accept his defeat, the fallen prince did the unthinkable. The prince gathered his remaining armies and fled the Dark Elf lands to the Citadel of Agony. With the secrets that locked away the Citadel of Agony, the fallen prince and his cabal of dark sorcerers slowly and systematically removed the protective sigils trapping in the forces of Utrall.

 

Corruption swept over the fallen prince as the doors to the citadel flung open. Wild Demons of all shapes and sizes poured out of the citadel. But the prince was a master sorcerer himself and easily cut down the rampaging demons. Not impressed with the strength he had witnessed, the prince captured and tormented some of the remaining demons. They revealed their secrets that only a small portion of the Hell Gate still remained open. Determined to recruit a force that this world had not seen in a Millenia and retake his throne, the fallen prince commanded his followers to go to the surrounding towns and villages and gather slaves. Over the weeks hundreds of slaves poured though the great citadel doors to never been seen again. Choking columns of smoke could be seen for miles as massive forges were kept stoked by the countless remains of emaciated corpses. Rivers of blood now poured from the torture chambers into great cauldrons. Infusing the corruption magic, they had learned from the few remaining lesser demons, the Dark Elves performed rituals to imbue the massive cauldrons of blood. All at once the great cauldrons were poured into the Hell Gate. Instantly the rift began to grow as if feeding on the imbued blood. Larger and larger the Hell Gate grew, and the flow of demons began streaming out of the gate. Then it stopped, the gate had grown to dozens of feet across and twice as tall. From the sickly green glow of the gate, it appeared. Spiked and horrid in appearance, the largest demon the prince had ever seen now stood before him. The Demon King had returned.