Many and many years ago, in ancient times, a ruthless war erupted between the largest, oldest empire of Canelux, Adeluna, and a small, powerless bordering village, whose name was forgotten in the past. Before the village coule be annexed into the Empire, they made a desesperate call for help, but only civilization answered. These were the Fratians, the most civilized people from the Mo'mey Steppes. Some called them a mere tribe, but these warmonger civilization saw themselves as the mightiest empire of all times, so they accepted the call at arms to prove their might against the Adelunan Empire.

Although highly trained and skilled, the Fratian inferior numbers were defeated by the larger armies of Adeluna in a single battle that took place somewhere in the Ancense mountains, a vast, unhabited wasteland. Hundreds and thoudands of soldiers perished here. This decisive loss marked the downfall of the young Fratian Empire

Now that Tacitus Silanus, remnant leader of the Fratian people, has a magical gem he stole from a necromage cult hidden in the Valley of Vada, he plans to use it's power to resurrect the ancient army that once fought in these lands and avenge them.

With the Necro gem, Silanus and 20 of his best soldiers, some allied orchish chieftains among them, arrived and prepared a ritual to resurrect the large, dead army. "Today marks the day our ancestors return to life, as we give them an opportunity to avenge their shameful defeat at the hands of the Adelunan Empire! Raise your weapons, warriors, for today the almost forgotten Fratian Empire is reborn!" Exclaimed Silanus as he rallied his troopers. A large lance was thrusted in the ground, and the magical gem was placed on it. 

The ritual would take several hours, as the gem's energy needed time in order to arrive to the dead skeletons and revive them. If the ritual continued and nobody stopped them, a dark time full of dangers would begin. Perhaps a lone adventurer, or a troop of warriors would interrupt the ritual and spare Adeluna a crisis? 

Cedric arrived in the fallen ruins, showing clear boredom with his current life. As he arrived, he just so happened to stumble across a troop of soldiers and a few orcs adorned in warpaint earned over many battles won. Cedric grinned under his metallic mask, he snapped his finger, and as the explosion occurred, Cedric rushed in, mercilessly slashing the remaining forces, though one of them survived, he looked the most fierce of his comrades, possibly a commander. Soldier crawled out, charred, nowhere near being ready for battle, but their loyalty proved strong. They pushed themselves. "Good soldiers you've got here" Cedric taunted the commander, while picking off his remaining charred soldiers. "Problem is, they aren't very fireproof"

Cedric grabbed the lance out of the ground "Mind if I borrow this?" and he stabbed it into an orc, he unknowingly interrupted a ritual that could bring about the end of Adeluna.
The last of the soldiers were dealt with and the fires died down. Cedric readied his twin blades, blood dripped from the blades like raindrops. "Now, I don't want any innocent civilians dying because of whatever voodoo ritual you guys were doing" Cedric lowered his guard, inviting the commander to strike at him, but in a second, he had already charged, swinging his blade ruthlessly. 

It was also impressive how some lonely wanderer dared to attack one of the most experienced armed militias in all Canelux, with their commander, a powerful and feared warlord and warlock, whose temper was as deadly as his sword. Unimpressed by his new enemy's combat skills, and how he killed his bodyguards, Silanus answered to the boy: "Congratulations, you assassinated 6 unexpecting guards. That is a crime where I come from."

As he spoke, he put on his plumed roman helmet, then continued to talk: "And as a criminal, your crimes must pay. Today, I shall be your judge, your jury… And your executioner." A bloodthirsty grin was drawn in his face as he finished speaking. An orc chieftain, wearing his famed orichalcum armour, said to his general: "Let me handle this kid, my maul is craving for broken bones." However, Silanus simply shaked his head and unsheated his short sword. "Watch me, fellow warriors, and contemplate how I deal with intrepid fools!" He finally exclaimed as his remaining soldiers gathered around to watch.

Silanus first observed how his foe charged, swinging his blade blindly, first mistake. The commander would take profit of this; the commander's shield-hand began to glow, meaning he had casted both an agility and a resistance spell to help him in battle. With his agility improved, Silanus jumped high in the air, landing just behind his enemy. "What are you, stabbing the air!?" Asked Silanus, before hitting the back of his head with his sword hilt. "Focus on the battle, fool!" He said, raising his shield in a full defensive stance after having hitting him.

The mountainous region was heavily avoided for good measures such as the wild beasts that would devour anything they could sink their fangs into as well as the less than holy deeds of body dumping. But the ruins of a kingdom lost forever in time intrigued the god greatly, perhaps he would find more artifacts that he could add to his collection. Besides, it had been so long since he’s been out and about and not coop in his isle. It would serve him well to see the goings of the outside world.

However, to go out and expose himself simply would not do- there were many that cursed his name due to his less savory actions taken recently. While he could care less about the opinion of others, his family would truly be marked men and women if he was there to remind people of their hatred for him. So after a few alterations to his appearance, he looked so much more like a wayward warrior than a divine devil. Hiking up the valleys proved to be more annoying than actually difficult.Still, he couldn’t fathom how mortals made these long, winding treks- even when he was just a demon, he had magic to teleport to his destinations.

But even with the seemingly impossible journey, he could overhear the sounds of a fight and some dialogue going back and forth as he made it closer to the action. This could prove to be messy if they had found any trinkets that he could want. If anything, he’d rather not bring too much attention to himself. The rugged swordsman would make over to where he saw freshly slain bodies, the scent of blood alerted him far before he saw them and at the center of this conflict were two warriors in their own right combating one another. There were others around them as well, comrades of the dead he assumed by their armor and refusal to intervene in the fight. What they were fighting for was a mystery but it was clear that they were ready to fight to the death.

Xunatar merely took a seat far from the action but close enough to witness things while he attempted to get a grasp of what was really going on.

Cedric was hit on the back of the head with something strong, it stopped his flurry of sword strikes. Cedric looked behind him, ready to stab but he found that the man had put up his shield, he stabbed his rapier into the shield, but it simply bounced back. He instead kicked the shield, to little effect. Cedric sighed, drooping both his arms and head. He lowered his guard, before perking back up, he sent a fireball towards the shielded commander. But before the smoke even cleared, Cedric rushed towards the commander, and used the shield to propel himself upward, landing far behind the commander, and very close to a surviving soldier.

Cedric greeted the guard sarcastically, before it kicked him back into the pit. Cedric stood up to face the commander. Cedric sent off another explosion but he was caught in the radius, he was sent crashing into the orc chieftain, who said to him "You've picked the wrong fight lad" and then pushed him back into the pit, the orc pushed hard, Cedric nearly broke his leg, trying to balance himself after the push, he dropped his cracked swords and took off his melted mask. He cracked his knuckles and prepared his fists.

His bloodied lips formed a huge grin and his eyes turned into a daring expression. He stepped forward slowly, advancing towards his opponent.

Although Silanus had his shield raised, the explosive fireball was much more than he had expected, thus sending him flying some meters away, ending with a rough roll on the ground. His long red cloak was caught on fire, so he had to remove it. When he finally stood up, the general brushed the dust and dirt off his body and said: "Ugh… It… Impresses me how calm you are, even though you deeply know you'll die today." 

As he spoke, some soldiers sneaked and grabbed the gem, which was dropped on the ground, and placed it back on the lance once again to continue the ritual. Silanus twirled his blade and raised his shield in a defensive stance once again, before igniting his sword with green infernal fire and sending three slash blasts towards his foe. "Your fireballs are nothing compared to hellish fire, scum!" Silanus charged after that, so if his enemy dodged the blasts, he would be met with a shield bash. "Now you DIE!" 

Meanwhile, as the ritual proceeded once again, the waves of dark energy started to disturb the corpses. The dark sky began to glow brightly, and some thunders fell. Growls could be heard, and the lance which channeled the energy was shaking. The ritual was working!

Cedric was slightly surprised by his opponent's remarks, he shrugged it off. "Do you think I'm afraid of death? If you do, then you must not be updated, as I've went to hell and back, infiltrated Adeluna and fought a legendary ghost ship. And yet, here I am, I've survived many adventures, and I'm sure that I'll survive this one!" Cedric replied, catching the final strike of his opponent's blade with his left hand, it slashed his hand open and the fires felt far worse than salt being rubbed upon wounds, but he held it in place, his pain showing.

"But here's something you should know: whether your plan succeeds, there is no way that the people of Revaliir will stand idly by!" He shouted at the commander, before being bashed by a durable shield. He stood back up, visibly shaken, he stood, his tall posture drooping down slightly, his eyes glowed in confidence, his grin wide. He still had a few tricks up his sleeve. Cedric flicked his right wrist, a miniature crossbow appeared, wires bound themselves to Cedric's fingers, he straightened his fingers and quickly withdrew them, a bolt fired from the small crossbow outfitted on the palm of Cedric's hand, it grazed a random soldier's helmet and flew off and was stuck to a tree.

Cedric, carefully took a strange obsidian dagger with a fiery glowing tip by his fingertips, it heated up on it's own and he used it to quickly seal up his hand wound. The painful sting of the hellfire didn't go away nor did the blade ease it, but at least Cedric could work with this hand once again, he armed himself with his two remaining weapons. He rushed towards the enemy, and he slashed through the commander's metal shield with his still smoldering hot dagger. It cut through the half of the shield before slowing down halfway. Cedric pulled the dagger out and kicked the shield again.

Cedric attacked mercilessly, but still thinking about the decisive positions to attack. But Cedric withdrew, catching his breath. He prepared his crossbow and dagger and prepared for his opponent's counter attack.

It was surprising how his opponent didn't try to dodge the flaming slash, instead, he caught it with his bare hands! Was he gone mad!? "Oh, you're so determined to stop me. Such a shame! I'd have you allowed to join my Empire as an elite soldier!" Before Silanus could continue speaking, his foe shot one of his soldiers with a small crossbow. The hit stunned the man and made him drop, but his helmet protected him.

Silanus wanted to stab him, but before he could do so, his enemy pulled out an ignited obsidian dagger and quickly stormed in, cutting through most of his shield, then kicked it, making some pieces fall apart. The large scutum was useless now, as it had large parts missing, and it would not protect from any real damage. Now, with only one shortsword as a weapon, Silanus had to change his fighting technique from defensive to full aggressive.

"Bellum, god of War, guide my strikes!" Yelled Silanus as he attacked, making the crowd of soldiers cheer and rally. He slashed three times, in a fast, controlled and fashioned matter. The first slash was directed to his foe's knees, the second one to his torso and the third one to his neck. If his opponent blocked, dodged or survived the three attacks, Silanus would finally hit him in the face with his elbow. "No superstes!" Were the words he finally yelled, meaning "no survivors" in an ancient, long forgotten language.

Cedric reeled back, the blade slashed Cedric's knee and barely dodging the next wave of strikes, an elbow met Cedric's face and he was pushed back. "Okay, you're a real pain" Cedric said to the commander, "But if you're going to call upon a god of war, that isn't fair at all" Cedric pulled out a card and smashed it in his palm, "Come, Vequaniel!" an armored elemental riding a large horse rose from behind Cedric, it wore a large winter cloak and stood a good 12 feet tall. It waved its hand around in a pattern before the area behind the soldiers burst into high flames, it trapped Cedric, the commander and the soldiers, but this was all but a cover, it disappeared and the smoke from the flames covered the surrounding area for a little while.
 
The clashing of metal and obsidian and the added smoke confused the soldiers. Lightning struck somewhere outside the arena, the force from the strike caused the smoke to clear and it revealed that the lance that was stabbed to the ground was now held by the elemental Cedric summoned, the soldiers were angry. But many of the ancient soldiers already rose, some of them being archers. Arrows flew through the air like wind, Cedric withdrew his crossbow and used his right hand for his blade, and his left hand held a large fire.

Cedric charged, with the elemental following behind him, the sword's temperature skyrocketed and he slashed at the commander, leaving the elemental to deal with the soldiers.

It did not matter! The energy that emanated from the large gem had awaken atleast 90% of the undead army! Roars and growls could be heard and a large, black thunder fell. The mighty thunder left a huge crater, from which hundreds of armored undead appeared. They were not skeletons nor zombies, simply people who had lost their humanity, their lives. Gray, uncolored skin, bloodless bodies, men who only had thoughts of death, revenge and destruction, all united under Silanus' banner! This was a dream come true for him! Ruined, rusty steel armours and weapons, torn and ragged clothes, marks of wounds and injuries; The cause of their death could still be seen. Some had arrows stuck in their bodies, other had scars of deadly blows in their body, but none mattered. They had been granted a second life, a second chance to prove their might!


The living soldiers, however, were busy fighting this tall, armored elemental, who was ridding a horse. Spearmen aimed for the lower body of the creature, while other soldiers on the rear threw javelins at it. While some soldiers perished, it seemed to be a levelled fight. That was, until the undead army charged. Hordes of organized undead legionnaries charged to battle, finally bringing down the elemental with cooperated attacks. Meanwhile, Silanus parried the swordslash, then jumped a few meters back. To his surprise, the heating blade his foe is wielding melted the sword after he parried the blow. "This sword is nothing cheap, you'll have to pay it somehow! Uh… I know… I'll grab your sword, it's rather pretty, elegant. I'll take it from your dead corspe!" Exclaimed Silanus, after seeing his melted weapon.

Before returning to the fight, Silanus scavenged a spear from a dead body of one of his fellow soldiers. Now, his only weapon was that spear he held with both hands. The General jumped, and, just like his opponent's blade, the steel tip of his weapon ignited in a green-hellish fire. He impaled it in the ground, causing a wave of explosive fire burst from below in Cedric's direction.