Alright ladies and gentlemen, any and all things under the protection of international copyright laws that appear in this story are not mine. The only things I own in this story is the plot line and the made-up characters. So with that said I am pleased to present...

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Diablo III: Lord of Apocalypse

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Chapter one:Tiring Heroes

Twas just another night in Lut Gholein's quaint tavern, The Golden Jewel. Khali, the accountant and one of The Great Seven's former warriors, was seeing to the tavern's taxes and predicted income when he removed his spectacles because he sensed a disturbance in the pub. So when he went to go see to it he found a rather burley drunk harrassing Atma. He looked around to find that Geglash had a rather good reason for not helping Atma in the first place: he was passed out on his barstool. At this Khali sighed inwardly to himself and spoke to the brute. "I belive it would be a wise health decission to leave the lady be my good sir."

At this the brute looked up from Atma and in a rather grizzly voice said, "Yeah, and are you gonna fight me about it wimp?" a little angry that a skinny, white haired, weakling would challenge someone his size.

"Me?" Khali said pointing to himself, "Oh, good heavens no," he said laughing a bit, "However," at this point he walked over to a trapdoor in front of the bar, pulled it open to reveal the sand beneath the building. He then slipped his yew wand out out of his pocket, pointed it towards the earth and a golem made of rock came up and out of the trap door, "I think," Khali said, addressing the brute once more, "you'll find that my friend here would be more than happy to help you find the door."

Five minutes later, Fenrier, leader of the townguard former leader of The Great Seven and the greatest paladin Sanctuary has ever seen, was walking down the street when he saw a rather large man being thrown out of The Golden Jewel by a rock golem that said "GROG GRILLA!" and a second voice, belonging to Khali, coming from the tavern, saying, "He means: and stay out." The man then got up and ran past Fenrier, with a wet spot on his pants indicating where he had soiled himself. Fenrier then made his way into the tavern to find the air in the room a bit more tense as Khali lowered his creature back down into the earth. "Khali, what is the meaning of this?" Fenrier said in a calm yet annoyed tone of voice.

"He needed to leave, so I simply helped him through the door," Khali replied in a tone that made his actions seem as innocent as he stated them.

"You can't keep doing this," Fenrier said in an exasperated voice.

"Why not?" Khali said in a tone that clearly stated that he felt he shouldn't have to explain his actions.

"Because it completely undermines my purpose in this city."

"And that purpose is?" Khali said in a sarcastic tone, "Oh yes, wasting Jerhyn's gold on a task far from needing to be done!"

"That's enough of this!" said Atma lopping off the serpant's head before it could truly bite, "Besides, Khali, his job is infinantly more important than yours, oh great accountant," at this Khali turned a rather noticable shade of pink. She then turned towards Fenrier, "Besides, are you seriously going to arrest him for helping a poor old woman like myself?"

"Well...no," Fenrier admmited as if he was a child, being accussed of an untruth by a schoolmaster, "But it is my job to ke-"

"Then go out and do it instead of standing here and crying over spilt milk," Atma interrupted. Fenrier then shuffled out of the pub, the paladin's armor clanking louder than it would if he walked normally. Atma then rounded on Khali, "As for you, get into that backroom and make sure that I'm not wasting my gold on you for a task, as you put it for Fenrier, far FROM NEEDING TO BE DONE!"

Khali then, rather hurridly at that, went into the backroom out of fear for more than his job. Upon entering he got back in his chair and almost instantly slumpped over and fell asleep, which was odd considering the night was fairly young. Simultainiously outside Fenrier fell asleep against the outer wall of Fara's smithy.

"Hey, Tulwik," Charsi said to her husband, whilst rubbing her pregnated stomach from their room in the rouge monastary.

"Yes?" inquired Tulwik, former warrior of The Great Seven, fearocious barbaric battle commander andhusband to the rouge's most aspiring blacksmith, Charsi.

"Why don't we ever have Vash and Leera over? I mean we haven't seen them since they were wedded." Charsi was of course reffering to two of the other six warriors who banded together with her husband to defeat The Three Prime Evils and thus becoming known as The Great Seven. She brought them up because Tulwik, Vash and Leera that were the only ones left in Khanduras.

"Because we don't know where they are my dearest," the northlanding barbarian chuckling a bit at his wife's simplicity and innocence.

"Well last I heard they were in The Tamoe Highlands."

"Charsi, the countryside is still crawling with zombies, carver tribes and fowl crow. Now unless it's important, and not about inviting our friends over for diner, I won't go walking around out there aimlessly with the chance of being attacked."

Elsewhere, in The Black Marsh, a large group of carvers had converged to destroy the small village of Hallow's End. They were hidden by a rather large outcropping of rocks. Their leader, that had givin them so much confidence, was only in his position because he was as large as a regular adult human male. His name was Baldoor the tall.

Then one of the many shamens that followed under Baldoor's flag came up to speak with him, as the other subordanants prepared for the impending siege upon the town before them, "My lord, must we proceed upon this town?" asked the particulary ravaged shamen. For he had lost his left arm, his right eye, one of his horns were cracked, the other gone entirely and his chest bore many terrible scars. All of this apparent yet he never told his fellow demons how he came to bear these scars.

"Don't tell me you belive these rumors of The Great Seven in Khanduras," Baldoor said addressing the shamen, in avoice close to a growl, "Even if they do travel through these lands they are no match against me or my power!"

"My lord!" the shamen cried in a state of alarm, "Me thinks it's time for you to hear of how I came to gain my apparent good looks," he than paused, remembering that fateful day, "We were assigned by the demoness Andariel to guard the sacred Carin Stones."

"Carin Stones?"

"Yes, they are the only other way to get into the town of Tristram other than the main road which was incredibly, heavily guarded, it was Diablo's will that the last of the Horadrim be left to rot in hopelessness and misery, and thus Tristram became his prison. Few knew about the stones and a priestess by the name of Akara was one of them. That bitch of a soothsayer practically lead them right to us! We were eighty strong that day and lead by one of our own with the powers of a mage. You'll notice today your force is near one-twenty, not much larger than our's was," the last statment had gianed an angered snarl from Baldoor, but the shamen took no notice. This was personified by him continuing his story without begging for forgivness when he offended Baldoor. "When the seven decended upon us they came in from different directions, so there was no escape. I was raveged by one of them masquerading as a werebear, Vash is what they called him. By the end of the battle I was the only one left. But they were nowhere near as powerful then as they are today. Which is why I emplore you that we move towards Westmarch and out of Khanduras."

Baldoor then took this into consideration and then said, "It's a shame."

"What is my lord?"

"That this would happen to a studied shamen like yourself."

"Don't worry, for one day I shall take my vengance."

"No, it's not about your injuries. It's about this," Baldoor then unsheathed his sword and ran it through the shamen's remainig eye until only the hilt could be seen. He then took the the blade out and leaned in close, so the shamen could hear clearly with his dying breath, "Should I meet you in hell, we will continue this." He then used his sword to behead the unfortunate creature before him. Baldoor then got up and went to the only exit and entrance to the shelter (or death trap) of the outcropping, for the outcropping was mostly made of smooth, high rockwalls in allmost a complete circle except for a path through which only three at a time could travel through. "THE TIME FOR THIS TOWN TO FALL IS AT HAND!" this had gained many cheers from his men, "ONWARD TO VICTORY!"

"ONWARD TO VICTORY!" Baldoor's men had mimicked. Then suddenly an arrow came over the wall opposite the exit and before it hit a mark it split into eight, resulting into five causualties and a panic. Whilst the panic insued and a pile up at the exit began, none of the cavers noticed living vines covered in thousands of poisonous miniscule barbs coming out of the ground. Many carvers tripped over these and died before they could get back up. By that time, ravens had joined the fight, they would come down out of the sky and peck a carver to death before disappearing once more into the inky black sky, making it impossible to tell how many there actually were. Those fortunate enough to make it past the vines, the ravens and the steady stream of arrows that rained death were met with a much more brutal fate. For at the end of the path were ten wolves, five grizzly bears and, what the other beasts seemed to be controled by, a werebear.

All had died except for two carvers, one who was as large as an adult, human male. Baldoor was amongst the last to make it out of outocropping's walls, he barely made it past the beasts on the outside. For three wolves took pursuit of him and one of his men who followed him out of thet maw of that hell hole.Fortunatunately for him they were distracted by his subordinate, when Baldoor tripped him. Baldoor was nearing the shelter of the forest when out of the corner of his eye he saw a woman, amazonian by the looks of her, was giving feeble chase with bow and arrow in hand. She then stopped, took aim and fired an arrow. But Baldoor saw it coming from a mile away (which oddly enough they was about that same amount of distance between them). When the arrow was a few feet from him, he ducked and let the arrow pass over him. He then jumped to his feet, and continued to his mad dash for his life. That was until the arrow he just evaded came back the other way. It went into his chest, through his heart and out of his back. Thus, that was the end of Baldoor the tall.

"This was actually a good haul," said an Amazonian warrior by the name of Leera, who was former secondary commander of The Great Seven and wife to Vash, one of the greatest druids Sanctuary has ever seen, also formerly of The Great Seven. At the moment Lerra was gathering up all the decent weapons she had set aside whilst gathering up the bodies to burn them,"Ooh, this should fetch a fair price," she said whilst throwing a gemmed double edged ax onto the cart she found.

"Yeah, they actually had food that's edible," said Vash said finishing the rest of a hen he found roasting rather nicely on a spit(he had already sent his animals to find their own meals), "Question."

"Yes dear?"

"Why don't we just do the whole retirement thing? You know, settle down, build a house in the countryside, have kids, tea, cakes and all that other junk."

"Why? I mean that's for bitter, assholic bastards like Khali. Besides," she said as she picked up a gold, green tinted ring with a pine green emerald on it and putting it on her left index finger, "the spoils of victory are a beutiful thing. Plus there's always the ever apparent throughs of passion that comence after a fierce, life threatening battle."

"Really?"

"Oh yes...BEAT YOU TO THE OUTSIDE!" With that the two ran towards exit, undressing as they ran. But before they could reach the outer walls they fell down asleep. Which was strange considering the battle was like child's play to them and nowhere near exausting. Oddly enough at that same moment Tulwik fell down asleep upon the threshold of his room when he was leaving to "releave" himself.

"What I don't understand, Moontear, is why you would willingly work for a decrepit, old alchemist such as myself," Alkor said as he sat down to continue his conversation and incredibly bitter tea (this is before sugar) with his employee, having just closed up the shop for today.

"Nonsense Alkor, buisness has been booming since you created the Volcano potion. I mean we get thirty Iron Wolves in here a day to buy it. Not to mention all the other merchants and adventurers who clamour for it," said Moontear, taking a sip of her tea. Moontear was formerly of The Great Seven, a highly adept sorceress and currently the employee of the month for Alkor's Amazing Potions and Elixers (which was easy considering she was the only employee). The shop was located in lower Kurast

"Coming to them why didn't you join the Iron Wolves like Ishami did?" Ishami was the last member of The Great Seven.

"Well I could never be comfortable being a mercenary. Because when my friends and I destroyed the three, I did it to help those in dire need, rather than for fame or glory. Those were just perks," she uttered the last sentence under her breath, for the shear sake of modesty. "Where is Ishami tonight anyway?"

"Oh, I belive that she, Asheara and a few of the other Wolves are out looking for that band of very expeidiant theives that has been terrorizing the nothern parts of Kurast as of late."

Meanwhile in the jungle, just north of Kurast, the thieves had just struck again. They were now being pursued by the Iron Wolves mercanaries, unfortunately the theives were extremly fast. Plus they knew everything about the main paths and a lot about the hidden ones making it incredibly hard to maintain pusuit. By the time the theives finally came to their hideout the was only three people who were able to keep up. Asheara, leader of the Iron Wolves mercenanaries, one of her subordinates and Ishami, formerly of The Great Seven and assassin extrordinair.

Ishami then thought about what they were doing and stopped herself and her companions from continuing. "I'll go in first," she said in a hushed voice, "to see what we're up against."

"Why?" said the wolf subordinate, "I mean with you here, there's no way in hell we can be harmed, no matter how many they have."

His statment had gained a rather cynical laugh from Ishami, "Forgive me if you think me rude but, you, regretibly, are an ass! Ever since I began to study the martial arts, I have never once underestamated my opponent or adversary, ever. From the greatest of demons to the smallest of insects, I treated them all as my greatest adversary without hesitation, because many times over that was the cold hard truth. So you may be foolish enough to belive that I'd take an arrow for you, but belive me when I say that you shall travel down the road to the west long before I do, if you continue this way of thinking. So stay here and come if I should call for help, if it is not too strenuos for you to comprehend!"

Ishami then proceeded into the cave. Upon leaving tunnel and entering the main chamber she was appauled at how long these men and women had avoided justice 'til now. The fools didn't even feebly try to hide their ranks, which was a pathetic twenty. She then thought of how to easily gain the two-hundread gold piece reward, with little to no blood spilt. All she needed to do was get a good look at their eyes and their weapons. So she used a technique called The Mental Hammer to blowout the bonfire, delving the room in total darkness.Ishami of course anticipated this and, through years of training she could see in colors even if things were completely pitch black. After looking them up and downwithout making a single noise, an amazing feat in it's own right, she went to the back of the chamber satisfyed with her results.

The first thing she took quick notice of were the eyes, not one of them had the look of a killer in them. Also the pathetic state that their weapons were in suggested that they weren't the greatest of warrior's, because an adept warrior takes as much care of their weapon as they do themselves, espeacially if they are their weapon. Also through their weapons she could tell that they're not used to going toe to toe with anyone, the manner in which they runaway when spotted only seconded this. But what had truly saved them was their age, not one of them was a day over twenty-two, making them all far too young to die.

By the time the theives could get the fire going again, Ishami, was more than prepared incase things should get violent. She had her twin catclaws ready in a fighting stance almost impossible for even those that have mastered many fighting styles to detect. She had her protective warmask pulled over her face, for people recognized her quicker with it on than without it. Also she had many firetraps in place, poised to go off incase things should take a turn for the worst, the amount of flame would incinerate everyone in the chamber, including herself.

"That was weird," said one of the bandits, " what blew it out?"

"Don't know," said another.

"It was me," said Ishami, stepping into the light of the fire. The fear in their eyes was instant and apparent. "I trust you all know why I am here, keep in mind that you have annoyed me enough by running away from me and my associates, so please try not to give me any more reason to slaughter you all without mercy." Her voice was as cold as ice, but gave no sign of anger, but more of discontent. However her message was obviously the truth all the same.

"Please forgive us my lady!" cried one of the women sobbingly, her eyes ripe with tears, "We haven't harmed anyone, I swear it! Please spare us!"

"Save your tears!" Ishami spat out, her voice filled with malecontent, "If I had wanted you dead you would never, even remotely, have had the chance to plead for your life. Therefore I am not going to kill you unless you give me just reason to. Since it is quite dark outside, we shall travel in the morning."

Ishami then brung Asheara and the wolf subordinate into the cave to await dawn. She also redirected all the traps to kill them all if someone should try to leave before she undid them at dawn, she of course made sure everyone had known about this. This was after she set many traps to keep anything from entering the chamber, alive that is.

"So since you got them to come along quietly, I guess I can do you the courtesy of keeping watch for you." Asheara said to Ishami as she was coming back from telling the theives about the traps that were in place.

"I thank you for the offer, but I must say that I respectfully, decline," said Ishami, sitting down next to Asheara, "Besides, I'm not tired."

"Really?" Asheara's voice ripe with skepticism.

"I assure you that I can stay awake for this and the eight following fortnights."

"Yeah, sure, of course."

"I'll have you know tha-," and with that Ishami slumped over and fell asleep in Asheara's lap. Elsewhere, Moontear fell asleep facefirst on the table in Alkor's. This had severely worried the old alchemist, for they did work with extremly volitile potions.

So that's the first chapter and incase you were wondering, no they are not naceleptic. For if you read the next chapter all will be revealed. So until then KEEP ON ROCKIN AND REVIEWIN, 'CAUSE I'LL HANDLE THE ROLLING!