To celebrate the fact that I don't have exams for the rest of the week (I still do have exams, but that's later on), I give you chapter 36. Enjoy.

Chapter 36

The Guilds in Darkness

The fire in the great hearth burned brightly, giving out enough heat to keep the entire guild hall warm. Around the hall torches in brackets, set on the walls, blazed.

However, even the light they gave out was not enough to defeat the silence of a congregation of members from three guilds.

Everyone was seated around the massive guild hall of Scarlet Palace. No one was making a sound. No one was moving. Their eyes were still, fixed upon the sight of the three men sitting in the middle of the hall. There was a clear circle around these men; beyond the circle were the hundreds of warriors.

Valkron interlocked his fingers together. His face was as blank as a wall. His green eyes looked between Adiemus and Raven as he stayed in silence.

Raven looked no better. The rogue was staring at a point between Valkron and Adiemus. His expression was hard; his jaw was set; his eyes narrowed.

Adiemus was not looking at anyone. His eyes were closed. No one could blame him for this; he had bandages all over him. One of them was wrapped around his head and covering one of his eyes; it sported a faint red stain on one side.

No one was talking.

For a while, it remained that way. Then Valkron broke the silence.

"Tell me what is happening."

"We've told you over and over, Valkron," said Raven. "The Black Cross is sending out its elites. We don't have a choice. The guilds have to rise."

"I am not going to retaliate without evaluating the situation first, Raven," snapped the knight. "I am not a mercenary without reason. I'm sure you know that."

"Even so, the Black Cross is going too far--"

"Who is there to say that they're going too far, Raven? Apart from you? Guilds rise, conquer and fight. Their chance of surviving in a guild-fight-guild world depends on how long they can stand their ground. The Black Cross is doing what it does."

"Attacking the Exodus Faction's only agit is not justified--"

"Raven, I know you're still pretty irritated about losing your true purpose as a defender of Prontera," said Valkron sharply. "However, it does not mean you can simply accuse the Black Cross of felony."

"Since when did I accuse the Black Cross of felony? I am saying that they should know better than to attack the Exodus Faction at this time of the year!"

"Adiemus, is it considered a crime to abruptly attack an opposing guild?" asked Valkron, his eyes not leaving Raven's face.

They waited. After the Black Cross' attempted attack on Scarlet Palace had left Adiemus shaken, he had not been responding quickly. Iruna had carefully taken Valkron aside and quietly warned him that the crusader was prone to delayed shock.

Finally Adiemus said, "No."

"I find this absolutely outrageous," said Raven, clearly enraged by his reply. "First your daughter goes off to marry that scum Vineis. Then she gives Apocalypse Ultima a boot in the rear out of Bright Arbor, completely crushing our chances of forming an alliance with him. Now you're making it look like you're siding the Black Cross completely! Come on, Adiemus, you've never been this soft before!"

"Give him a rest, Raven, it's not his fault," said Valkron, glancing at the pale crusader. "He's losing blood as it is, too. I'm not going to address this problem of the Black Cross making an unprecedented move on the Exodus Faction, Raven. I want to know why Vineis is using his elite troops to move in."

"Obviously because he doesn't underestimate us, Valkron," said the rogue sourly. "He's not a mercenary. Sheuth isn't, either. They think mercenaries are too rough for their guild."

"Hah, and he invited me to join," Valkron remarked dryly. "But he's right. We don't usually play by the rules."

"We do."

"Not their rules."

"Ah." Raven sighed and looked away.

"If he's using his elite troops, he'll move in on the others as well," continued the knight. "Apocalypse Ultima, the Legionnaires...I wouldn't be surprised if he moved in on the Seven Eyes."

Adiemus cleared his throat. They looked at him. His eyes were still closed.

"The Black Cross," he said, in a hoarse, tired voice, "has formed a war alliance with the Seven Eyes. The agreement was signed...a week ago. They call it the Fire of Heaven Alliance."

"Yeah, right," said Raven disgustedly.

"And why is it called so?" asked Valkron quietly.

"Because...the Black Cross' superior power and numbers, combined with the Seven Eyes' independence and tactics is said to be able to blaze through all obstacles."

"Bunch of al'kravahk," said the rogue.

"Whatever," said Valkron, glancing at Raven this time. "So...what do you plan to do about it?"

No one said anything. The knight looked around in surprise at them.

"You're just going to sit around and do nothing?" he said. "Even you, Raven? I recall you growling at me because I'm doing nothing about them."

"It's not like we can do anything about it, can we?" said Raven. "Emisht ihk'la tredian messikt."

Valkron gave him a look. "Why are you talking Morrocian?"

"He says it gives him more words to speak," said Adiemus.

"Oh, really? Avasht kraddin m'elhkla, ihk'la tredian ul'issimit." Valkron smiled mirthlessly at Raven's enraged stare. "You're not the only one who can speak perfect Morrocian here. Remember Al'Zahur."

"I bloody well remember it!"

"Right." Valkron got to his feet; everyone's eyes turned to follow him. "I'm leaving for Repherion now."

"You can't just go!" protested Raven.

"Then suggest to me something we can actually do and not just waste our time talking."

Raven gaped at Valkron. Adiemus opened his good eye and sighed.

"Let him go, Raven," he said. "He's right. We can't suggest anything at the moment...well, anything that works. You know Valkron's practical about what he discusses. Hard to satisfy him, but then again that's the reason why he's so successful. Besides, it's late and I need sleep. Badly."

Valkron nodded. "You should, you look tired to the bone. I'm taking my entire guild off with me. See you."

As the knight made his way to where Scarlet Palace's Kafra employee was standing, the crowd parted in front of him. The Raulus guild members quickly detached themselves from the mass of people and hastily joined him in the whirling portal.

Adiemus and Raven watched him go, before sitting in silence as the members of the Exodus Faction and the Defenders of Prontera moved away, out of the great hall. Eventually they were the only two people left sitting there.

"Are we going to tell him our plans?" asked Raven.

"No." Adiemus looked down at his hands. "Not yet. Valkron has not fully established his presence over the Britoniah region."

"By the time he does we're probably under the Black Cross," said the rogue.

"Not true," replied the crusader. He looked up at Raven and smiled a little. "We still have Apocalypse Ultima."

Back in Repherion, everyone was watching Valkron anxiously. By 'everyone', this meant the group of people Valkron knew and trusted, including Silas, Zak, Kumahar, Nalini, Kala, Aramithar and Kushana.

Finally he said, "Right. I want details on the three elite fighters Vineis has got."

"What are their names again?" asked Nalini. "One of them sounds familiar."

"We'll go slow with it, then," said the knight. "Who knows...Zweihaender? Put up your hand if you do."

The only person who responded was Iruna. Valkron gave her a look of surprise.

"You know him?"

"He's a crusader," she replied. "In the Junoan Church he's an exorcist; in the Order of Juno he's a sergeant-at-arms. I'm glad I don't go to the same barracks as he does."

"What do you mean?" asked Emeth, looking up from the table. Kushana was next to him.

"Zweihaender doesn't look much," Iruna replied. "He's dark, with a thin face and blue eyes like chips of ice. He's also known as the Lone Wolf amongst the younger crusaders, and he walks with a strange loping motion that really looks like a wolf's gait."

"So why is he one of Vineis' best?"

Iruna's eyes narrowed, and her face darkened. Valkron took a step back.

"He's on the blacklist for unnecessary purging and merciless exorcism," she said. "You can consider him a religious zealot. I'm not saying that I don't have faith in my religion, but Zweihaender...well...just has a bit too much of it."

"I'm not surprised that that's coming from a man whose name means 'two-handed sword' in Junoan," said Emeth.

"Well, he does think that salvation can only be achieved by one stroke of the sword," said Iruna, her eyes still narrowed. "He constantly has this belief that his purpose in life is to save everyone from the demons of the world, which he calls servants of Satan. Zweihaender is also reputed for his hatred of anyone who abuses power."

"Nice combination," said Samaroh.

"That's...fairly frightening," admitted the knight.

Iruna smiled grimly. "Incidentally, he asked for my hand in marriage."

"What?"

"Don't worry, it was a few years back. I turned him down sharply. I won't ever stay with someone like him."

"And you had to tell me that," said Valkron, looking heavily disgruntled.

"Thought it might spice up the conversation a bit."

"It did." Valkron shook his head. "Thank you, Iruna. Moving on to the next person...Arlena."

Silas put up his hand, his face expressionless. Valkron raised an eyebrow.

"How did you know her?"

"She's a monk," he said. "Just like me. An orphan brought up on the streets of Prontera."

"That can't be that bad, can it?" asked Emeth, looking tentative.

Silas shrugged. "Depends on what you think is bad. Arlena grew up rough. There are some rumours about her still circulating the monastery, but I'd rather not go into them."

"Yes, spare us the detail," agreed Valkron.

"She's got a very distinctive attack style," Silas continued, while Zak examined his sword blade behind him. "During the War of Emperium she has a bad habit of using a hide clip whenever a wizard, priest or another monk is around. I say 'habit', because she does it automatically, and 'bad', because it usually means complete obliteration when she starts doing it."

There was silence. For a quite a long time.

Valkron broke it with a "How?"

"It means that she begins to locate vulnerable warriors and pummels them into a pulp."

After a while Emeth said, "I don't know what's worse - the fact that she does that, or the way you said it so matter-of-factly."

"I've never got the receiving end of her Asura Strike, touch wood," said the monk. "But I've seen it happen to others, and it's not a pleasant sight. She's often the turning point in a battle, since she doesn't have mercy to spare for her victims."

"Thank you," said Valkron, in a strained voice. "I am beginning to feel slightly hesitant on this, but I think I don't actually have a choice. Let's just move on. Does anyone know who Oripheus is?"

"He's a sage," said Nalini.

"Really? You know him?"

To his surprise the sage shook her head. "No, I'm sorry."

"But you just said--"

"I only know him because my friends up at the research institute in Juno talk about him all the time," she said. "I can't tell you what they said about him. It's mostly his appearance. No one knows anything about him because he's always in the advanced section of every library in Juno, and probably so deep in them that someone has to go and dig him out every now and then. So I've heard."

"Sounds like a heavy researcher. Are you sure that's all you know?"

"Yes."

"Looks like we'll have to leave him for now, then--"

"Um...Valkron?" said Samaroh.

"Yes?"

The priest pointed at Emeth, who was holding his hand up.

"Oh. Sorry, Emeth. Yes?"

The wizard gave Valkron a stare that made the knight ask, "I think you're not happy I brought up the topic, am I right?"

"Oh, yeah," said the wizard. "Hell yeah."

"Okay, then let's get this over with."

"Oripheus is a battle sage," said Emeth. "He can do close combat as well as cast spells that knock your socks off. Battle sages are designed to support and attack at the same time. Let's just say that they can cast spells while they physically attack others, which makes us look like right wimps."

"You're kidding."

"Do I look like I am?"

"No."

"Good. Thought so. You should know that we wizzies are vulnerable to sages unless we've got a priest around, and even so that only raises our chances of successfully defeating a battle sage by about...zero point three percent, on the outside. As their name suggests, battle sages are all about melee. Hard melee too, I might add."

"Somehow whenever you talk analytical it gets a bit complicated," said Valkron. "But when my brain starts to try and work out what you actually mean, I feel slightly happier because I don't have to just sit around and listen. No, you don't have to explain it again, I understood what you said."

"It sounds like we've got a team that's near impossible to defeat," said Samaroh. "Iruna, does Zweihaender use Sacrifice?"

"How am I supposed to know? I don't know him."

"Sorry."

"Why do you ask that question?" asked Valkron suspiciously.

"Because a battle sage and a Sacrifice crusader is a feared team to defeat on its own," explained the priest. "I've heard stories about these two-man teams. You don't want to know what they do."

"Zweihaender's trademark spell is Grand Cross," said Iruna. "He uses it. A lot."

Valkron chewed on his lip for a few minutes. Then he said, "All right. I'm thinking that we should start mobilising our defences for any invasion of any sort. We'll need to be prepared for forced sieges and attempted invasions. Emeth, how many people do we have in our guild now?"

"Since yesterday, nearly a hundred."

"Good. We'll need to distribute them evenly over Repherion, Merseitzdeitz and Eyorbriggar. The portals leading into Yesnelph and Bergel are still open and unguarded; I'm not risking any sneaky guild taking Eyorbriggar from under our noses. Kushana, Nocturne, how's the patrol squad turning out?"

"Perfectly fine," said Kushana. "They're chomping at the bit, ready for action."

"Right. Station them on all three castles."

Everyone in the room sat up. Valkron was beginning to talk steadily - a sign that he was truly gearing up for war.

"Nocturne, as part of the trappers I need you to set up defences in all castles with your group," he said. "Do remember that your bows can come into use if all fails."

"Got it."

"Khan, I'll need you to get assassins to guard the third floors of the three castles. keep the kids out of the way this time, I don't expect any mercy from anyone. Iruna, you might need to keep guard at the first and second floors along with the other knights and crusaders. Emeth, we've got a few wizards with us; I want you to bring them along as our gate defence. Samaroh, split the battle and support priests up and divide them equally throughout the three castles. Same goes for you, Eni and Aramithar--"

"Can I ask a question?" said Eni, raising her hand.

"Yes?"

"Why are we setting up defences, not offences?"

The world held its breath. Valkron's stunned look indicated he had not been expecting such a question.

Finally he said, "I'm going to attack a castle in Greenwood Lake."

There was an uproar. Khan reached Valkron first and gave him a shaking by the shoulders.

"We can't have you going alone again, damn it!" he shouted, still shaking Valkron. "We've already had enough trouble with Baphomet the last time!"

"If you're attacking Adiemus or Alya no one's going to forgive you!" Iruna said frantically.

"What the hell is going on?" said Emeth, somewhat belatedly.

Everyone's voices were raised as they shouted at the knight. Valkron was still being given a good shake by Khan, and although he was trying to make an effort to talk, he wasn't succeeding.

Suddenly a massive gale struck the room. The crowd broke up, too distracted with trying to hold on to something instead of talking Valkron out of his idea.

The wind died down a few minutes later, although there was still a huge magic circle spanning the entire floor of the room. Emeth was standing on the table.

"I was sure something would work," he said, looking around at his windblown targets. "Wasn't so sure what, though. Right, now that we have peace and order restored, we shall get down to the business of Valkron in a much more organised way." He got down from the table and strode over to where Valkron was.

"Firstly, he never said which castle he was going to go after," said the wizard to the room at large, clearly ignoring the fact that everyone else was still picking themselves up off the floor. "Secondly, he never said he was going alone. So, Valkron, present your defence."

"It's Bamboo Grove Hill," said the knight, still looking shaken.

Emeth stared at him. Then he said, "You are mad."

Vineis leaned back in his chair and gazed at the three standing in front of him.

"You failed to claim Scarlet Palace," he said quietly. It was not a question.

Zweihaender coughed. "No one told us that the Defenders of Prontera was with the Exodus Faction."

"Yes, but do remember you have cleared out alliances of 4 guilds before." Vineis leaned forward and steepled his fingers in front of his face. "I expect much more of you next time round. Now that you have failed, the guilds will begin building alliances again, and we will face tougher competition.

"I do not want that to happen. Enough casualties have taken place. Hundreds of people have been heavily injured, because they do not realise that their alliances are not enough to counter our strength." Vineis closed his eyes. "I have no wish to destroy the guilds. They are necessary for the running of this kingdom - small as it may be, small as they may be."

"Then why are we fighting the Exodus Faction?" asked Arlena.

"Because they have a vantage point in Greenwood Lake," answered the wizard, without opening his eyes. "Scarlet Palace is a vulnerable place. It is not as protected as the others are. Bamboo Grove Hill is safer."

"Bamboo Grove Hill is haunted," said Zewihaender.

"Do we still believe in old wives' tales?" asked Vineis, opening his eyes, and looking at the crusader. "This is a new world we live in, Zweihaender. A new age. Adiemus is strong in his own right, and I have no doubt that alongside Raven he will succeed." He sighed. "Now that you have failed in your move to claim Scarlet Palace, they will be watching for future attacks. We cannot do anything much for now."

"So what are we going to do now?" Arlena asked.

"What can we do?" Vineis relaxed. "People now know our motives. We should lie low." He frowned slightly. "I noticed Oripheus...has not said a word since everything began."

As one Zweihaender and Arlena turned to the third member of their group. The sage was standing a little farther away from Vineis's desk, and half in the shadows where the room was in darkness.

"He's not said much when we were fighting," said the monk, "but he appears to be quite satisfied with what we are doing."

Vineis raised an eyebrow. "Satisfied? How?"

Arlena shrugged. "Oripheus has his ways."

The sage looked up, his face expressionless. His thin lips had not moved throughout the entire time, nor had his expression actually changed.

"Oripheus?" said Vineis. "What is your word on this?"

They waited for him to answer. The sage appeared to think about Vineis' question for a few minutes, before opening his mouth.

"It...has been fine."

"Fine?" asked Vineis.

"Yes." Oripheus nodded briefly. "Fine."

"You are satisfied with what you have done?" asked Vineis, in a ludicrous tone.

"No. I am satisfied with what we are doing."

"That's it? No other thoughts to your work?"

"No."

"You know he doesn't care about what work he's given, he just does it," said Arlena. "It's not as if he's been programmed to do it. He just does his work."

Zweihaender raised his eyebrows. Vineis' eyes had softened.

"Oripheus, I have never heard you question my orders. It is not always necessary for you to obey."

The sage blinked. "It does not matter."

"Well, it does to me." Vineis leaned back. "People may think that I am turning you into a human with no free will. This is not true. You are not a slave."

"It does not matter."

"Why doesn't it?"

Oripheus blinked again. "Because it is what I want."

"To serve someone else and not to live for yourself?"

"I live for myself, by serving you." There was a tone in the sage's voice that indicated the conversation was over.

Vineis looked puzzled, but he did not press the matter. "Well, then, I shall let you take time off. I doubt, however, that you will be off for long."

"As long as we get something to do," said Arlena, "that's fine."

They turned and left, their footsteps echoing in the room.

"So...why do you think you can defeat the ghost of Bamboo Grove Hill?" asked Iruna.

"You mean, 'What makes you think you can defeat the ghost of Bamboo Grove Hill?'" said Valkron disgruntledly. "Well, for one I think we need to help Adiemus reinforce the grounds around them."

"You can't just go and leave us to defend the three castles of Britoniah," said Eni crossly. "Without you the guilds will think that we've become weak, and they'll attack us."

"What, and you can't fight back without me?" snapped Valkron, who was clearly in a bad mood after being crowded by the entire senior guild. "Come on, don't tell me you'd actually give up just because I'm not around! If I was ever seriously injured what would you do? Panic and give up the castle to our attackers? I'd rather get my neck sliced op--"

Iruna clapped her hand over his mouth. "Not too far, Valkron, you're giving us bad luck," she said, grinning, at his astounded expression. "But he's right, Eni. Think about it."

Eni sighed. "Forget it."

"They won't expect us to leave Britoniah unless Valkron does succeed in getting Bamboo Grove Hill as his own," said Emeth, who had been watching them. "After that...boom."

"Boom?" asked Eni and Iruna, looking mystified.

"Yeah, boom. They just crash into us and hope we give way."

While Eni and Iruna stared at him, Khan sighed. "This is Baphomet all over again."

"Hey, what was so bad about that?" asked Valkron angrily, freeing himself from Iruna's hand. "At least you had something out of it, right?"

"He means don't get yourself so heavily beaten up again," said Samaroh, who was folding linen. "I wanted to say that, but I didn't have the chance to till Khan said it."

The knight sighed.

"Well, once his mind's made up, he'll do it," said Emeth, shrugging. "Can't say much against it, can we? Anyway, he's an old guy. You all know what to expect from old men."

Everyone, even Eni, started laughing. Valkron joined in several minutes later. Emeth clapped him on the back.

"So...when are you going to do it?" he asked.

The whole room fell silent.

Valkron looked up at Emeth's serious face. "The next session, of course. I'm not holding it off any longer. We've wasted too much time."

The wizard pondered this for a minute or two. "Yeah, true. And the Dark is coming along, too..."

"I've always wanted to ask you that, Emeth."

"Huh? About what?"

"The Dark."

Emeth stared at him. "You...don't know?"

Valkron shook his head.

"You really don't know?"

Valkron nodded.

The next one from Emeth was like the blast of a horn. Valkron nearly toppled backwards off his chair. "How can you not know? It happens every single year!"

"Don't blame him, Emeth," said Iruna. "He hasn't had a magical education like most of us do."

"What do you mean by that?" There was a ziiiip of cloth; Emeth had pointed swiftly at Nocturne and Kushana, who leaned back to avoid his finger even though they were sitting quite far away from him. "They're hunters, they don't use magic! They know about the Dark!"

"When you're guarding your guild house at one in the morning during the thirteenth month, you get a pretty good idea of what the Dark is, eventually," said Nocturne, leaning away carefully. "And fairly quickly, too. No one ever tells us what it is."

"Do you know about the Dark?" the wizard asked the two young teenagers watching the entire scene in bewilderment.

"Mummy told me about the Dark so's I wouldn't go out at night," said Niki-Haru. "I didn't believe her, until I had a look out of my window."

Emeth looked agonised, but turned to Kyo. "What about you?"

"We get lots."

"See? Even these kids know what the Dark is!"

"Calm down, Emeth!" snapped Samaroh, looking up from his folding. "Just tell him, you idiot! No one's got the time to stand here and listen to you raging about how much Valkron doesn't know about the Dark! Get on with it!"

It was quite something to see Samaroh in such a bad mood, but completely another to experience it. Emeth's outrage died down almost immediately.

"Okay, okay," he said. "Fine. I'll explain it."

He sat down. Valkron, after seeing that Emeth really wasn't going to blast him again, drew up his chair.

"Right. So. The story goes that several hundred years after the world was created, demons still roamed the lands and fought with the humans, yes? We've had powerful warriors to fight them as well, such as the mage-knight Thanatos, who prevented Surtur, the king of the giants of Muspelheim, from burning up Midgard. Well...before him came the Eight, who fought most of the demons of the world.

"With their magic and whatever else they used to fight the demons, they sealed away a large number of lesser and greater demons. No one knows how many, but we know there were a lot. The seals can't be broken unless there's a huge amount of evil going on in this world.

"Well, you know us, being humans and all. The seals began to weaken several thousand years ago, but the weakening process began to speed up around the time the Old Empire became corrupted. Ever since then the souls of the demons have been escaping back down to Midgard and taking on their old forms again, thus disrupting the balance of the world. One of the earliest discrepancies is the lengthening of our year, so we now have a thirteenth month."

"Is the Dark Portal any way related to it?"

"I think so. According to research done at Juno the magical atmosphere fluctuated so much that one of the seals broke and released a large amount of demon souls. The seals have been collecting evil souls though, as well, so I guess that was how Argath Iruvedla was resurrected."

"Don't even remind me about him." Valkron frowned. "What do you mean, evil souls?"

"The seals kept the demons away from Midgard because they were attracted to evil. The other effect is that they collected human souls as well."

"Sounds good."

"Sounds good? The problem was that the souls were supposed to go to Niflheim, where they will stay until the end of the world! The seals aren't permanent. Like the spell Argath used to absorb the souls of the world, when the seals reach their saturation point they will descend onto Midgard and release the built-up energy of the souls into a place with a high magical atmosphere." Emeth sighed. "The Dark is so called because during the thirteenth month the world's magical atmosphere fluctuates to fit in with the coming year. It leaves weak spots in the atmosphere, like holes. The magical atmosphere now slows down the rate of absorption of souls by the seals, and prevents the demon souls from coming back here by creating a barrier between Midgard and the seals. If there are holes the souls can easily make their way down through the weakened seals while the seals collect even more fresh souls."

Valkron raised an eyebrow. "So...are you saying that they are above our heads?"

"They can be anywhere," said Emeth. "Other dimensions. Time and space don't pose any problem for the seals."

"I didn't know all this," said Nocturne. "Interesting stuff. So how long can those seals last?"

"The sages in Juno estimate it to be until the end of the world." Emeth shrugged. "The seals will only weaken, not break. It is said that when the Eight finally reappear on Midgard as themselves, the seals will break, and the final battle will take place. There. The Dark explained."

"That explains the horrid atmosphere during the thirteenth month?" asked Kushana, looking horrified. She wasn't the only one.

"Yep."

"Hey, fellas," said Zak, who was looking at a calendar at the far side of the room. "I just realised the next guild war is tomorrow."

Everyone looked at Valkron.

OMG WHEN WILL THIS CHAPTER END??

Anyway.

The Battle of Al'Zahur is not going to be explained in any part of this story, so I think I better explain it here. It IS an important element, however.

Ten years before the events of Warriors of the World (the first one), Turtle General and some other monster I forgot (also in the first story) made an alliance and attacked Comodo. After Comodo was left in ruins they headed across the desert for Morroc.

Comodo sent out a warning message to Morroc, and Morroc sent out a distress signal to the other cities of the kingdom. The cities responded by sending what they were designed to do - for example, Alberta sent merchants to help sell potions and weapons, and Geffen sent wizards to help defend, and blacksmiths to repair and forge weapons. However, there were not enough available city defenders (and that time guilds were purely non-existant, save for the default associations).

Prontera addressed this situation very quickly with a hastily called-up council of war. The Prontera Chivalry, seeing how critical the situation was, also decided to utilise the Mercenary Division, Military Department.

Valkron was one of the mercenary knights who were called to lead a troop of these mercenaries into battle. In total, about 5000 mercenaries fought alongside city defenders for the year they battled against the two monsters.

However, at the end of the year, one of the monsters was killed. To this day no one knows who killed the beast, but the mercenaries argued over it. There were massive rewards on the heads of both monsters.

So for the next two years, the mercenaries warred between themselves at Morroc, as well as with Turtle General. There was much rebellion and some troops turned against comrades. Valkron's troop suffered the misfortune of being attacked by rebels, and from a group 0f 30 mercenaries, after being attacked five times, only 10 survived. These 10 mercenaries decided to return to Prontera to report, and travelled through the desert. Out of the 10 only 4 came out of the desert, Valkron being one. Adiemus was also one of them.

By the time they reported the matter to Prontera, the mercenary war had escalated into a massive battle. Valkron was sent out to stop the final war, which was to take place at a large oasis called Al'Zahur, but he was attacked and delayed by Turtle General's minions. By the time he came to the oasis, the battle had already begun.

The rest of the Raulus guild (the senior members) were all in the war. Also in are the other mercenaries - Raven, Kuroihi, some few other people.

Near the end of the battle Turtle General took the opportunity to attack the mercenaries and cause havoc. Shortly after he did, however, mercenaries reported seeing the monster being attacked by a wizard. No one knows who the wizard is, or how he looks like, but he defeated the monster and disappeared. He is still known as "Child of the Devil", because of the ferocity and ruthlessness with which he had attacked the monster.

The battle ended with Valkron charging into where the leaders of the two divisions were fighting, and consecutively defeating them singlehandedly. Out of 5000 mercenaries, only 200 survived the Battle of Al'Zahur, but there have been many memories left behind...

(note: if I have the time, I can probably write about the Battle of Al'Zahur. But Warriors of the World is already a long series, and I don't know if anyone wants to read something that took place 10 years ago before reading the end of Warriors of the World. With the same characters, too.)