Chapter 8

I let out a groan and opened my eyes, but I opened them too quickly. The dim light of the room was enough to flood my senses and give me a nasty head ace, so I grabbed the top of my horns as a first reaction to the pain.

Reminds me of the time Torvin took me to my first tavern. The following day was the absolute worst day of my life; I almost didn't leave my room because of a hangover. I thought, and then I decided it would be best to go into survival mode.

I opened my eyes again, slowly, and surveyed the room. There was just one, iddy bitty problem; no door anywhere. It was chilly too, but an unnatural chilly; I stood up to feel along the walls to find something to help me escape. It was a regular sized room with enough space for a bed, maybe a bookshelf, and a desk. But it was empty with nothing but a dark, cold shadow. I was still feeling the wall when I heard,

"So it's you, the favorite one. Tell me something; did our dear mother put you in an orphanage because she didn't love you?" said a voice behind me

Somehow I knew who was behind me, but I still turned around hoping to expect someone else. When I turned around I saw a Tiefling; he looked a little older than me but he looked almost the same as me and I'm pretty sure we're family. The horns, my horns curved over my head and formed a helmet of some sorts, and he had the exact same set as me. He looked thuggish though; he wore black leather armor with his hood down and an assortment of tools on his belt.

"Are you Drexel?" I asked

"Yeah, so you didn't answer my question runt. Did our mother abandon you in an orphanage too? Doesn't surprise me, that whore could barely keep herself alive let alone another child." He said

That infuriated me, and I almost went at him. But I used all my will power not to hit him, and replied with my teeth grit.

"It was your dead beat of a father that abandoned you, you foolish coward! How dare you even attempt to blame out mother, who mourned heavily after you left, do you not remember how much she loved you? She told me to find you, no, she made me promise to find you; but I haven't yet. All I've found is a shriveled husk of what could have been my brother." I said; my hands and voice shaking.

His expression turned sad; almost like he hated himself for the words he just said.

"I'm sorry I don't know what came over me, so how is she doing?" he asked

My anger started to subside," She's fine now, but her age has been catching up to her the past few years." I said, he walked within arm's reach of me and put a hand on my shoulder.

"Good, I'm sorry I wasn't there to watch you grow. But, as it turns out I guess you didn't need me after all. See you around; little brother." As he finished his sentence he dissipated into black sand that faded into the floor.

I started to tear up and I could feel my stomach start to knot up, but then I heard something behind me. On instinct I spun around into a defensive stance with my staff, but it was only a door that had appeared from what appeared to be the black sand that was once my brother. I wiped my face off and took a second to regain my composure, and then I cautiously exited the door. When I left it I saw everyone else, but they looked as if they saw ghosts. Aireon had a shocked look on his face and Mythrik looked like a sad puppy, but I think Drakak had it worse out of all of us. He was in tears,

"Drakak what happened?" I asked him, and then I ran over to comfort him. But his response was; well I guess the only way to describe it is sad.

"*sniffles* Dad… angry*whines and cries* Drakak s-smash… Dad grab ham-hammer*lets out loud cry* he s-s-said he lov-love me!" he just broke after that, and then Aireon spoke,

"I saw my parents, but separately. First it was my father; he blamed me for what happened to him so I shot an arrow in his face. But he dissipated into black sand and then my mother appeared, but I don't want to talk about it. After that a door appeared." He said

"You saw your parents too?" Mythrik said, "My dad blamed me for his death, but I told him I was too young to defend him. After that my mother appeared, and she said she always loved me and thanked me for what I did at the graveyard."

Then they looked at me, wanting my side of what happened.

"I saw my brother, and he hated me at first. Called me "the favorite" and insulted my mother, but when I told him off and said it was his father's fault he calmed down and acted kind of wishful. Wishful that he was there to watch me grow up," I started to tear up again so I stopped.

After a few minutes we decided to continue on, and we found a hallway into what appeared to look like a large cistern. The cistern was full of some strange black liquid, and it had four mage statues that stood three times as tall as a normal human. They had their arms out like they were rising something; something out of the black liquid. I turned away to survey the room for a second and heard a splash, and when I quickly turned around I saw Drakak playing in the ankle deep water.

"Get out of that you don't know what it is!" I shouted.

He sulked as he got out of the water, but then it started to shimmer and ripple in a very odd way. We all got around it and looked into the water, and we saw an image start to form. When the image finally stilled we saw a man standing on a balcony with a large fireplace, but he looked tremendously familiar. And then Mythrik spoke up with pure hate in his words,

"Marfedelom" he said

I almost couldn't believe what was going on, and then the fire behind him grew and some two headed figure appeared.

Its right head spoke, malice and evil were etched in his deep, dark voice,

"For the last time Marfedelom, I will not destroy the Monastery. I have other things to set my mind to right now."

Marfedelom turned around, his eyes a bright red,

"My forces grow impatient master, and so do I. You can put aside you petty rivalries for a time; if you help me destroy the monks we can increase your power. And if I can take the grandmaster alive; there's no telling what kind of possibilities would be available to us. I can be very persuasive, and his strength will break under my "persuasion"." He said that last part with a smile, and I almost punched the water.

"He has a point, if we control this world we will exceed the power of our rivals and we will become the most powerful-"the left head spoke with the same evil.

"No! If we show our strength now we will not have the advantage in the future." The right one rebutted

"And they will fear us! If you sit back and wait nothing will change, so let me attack. I will bring you more power and more souls to fight your wars, just let me attack." Marfedelom yelled; the room shaking as he did.

The two heads (they looked like baboons) started whispering, and argued at the same time.

"Very well Marfedelom, but know this. If you fail, it will be your last mistake ever. Do you understand?" the right head said, Marfedelom kneeled.

"Yes, Demogorgon," he said and the fire went down. A heavily armored goblin approached him.

"Send the Evistros. Also take a white dragon with you so that you do not have to fight." Demogorgon said

"Very well, I have another important matter to attend to." He turns to a scribe that's in the corner of the room," Add more demons to the list to make things interesting, they've been bored for quite some time." Marfedelom said.

Then the water started to shift, and I started to panic.

"We have to leave to the monastery now!" I said

Aireon grabbed me, "Wait there's more starting to show!" he said. I looked back at the water and it showed a big paladin looking solder with white-silver armor. "They're ready for you sir." A scribe said through a door. He sighed and got up from his chair and pushed the huge doors open with ease. The room was filled with what looked like kings and other great warriors of every race, including vampires. The King of Rivian was among them, and also an angel.

"Now," the paladin looking solder said in a very deep yet comforting voice, "I have gathered you here because of a new threat, Marfedelom. He is mobilizing troops near the Monastery of Eberron, so we need to organize an army of elite warriors over there before they destroy it and burn it to the ground. If the monastery burns Marfedelom will move to the surrounding cities and kingdoms, and by then it will be too late. Does everyone agree?" he asked them. After they all mumbled back and forth to each other they all came to an agreement, they would send the necessary troops.

"Good, now onto a more controversial topic. Morgukia, Mythrik, Drakak, Aireon, Bodo, Bhar, and Cruven; and having them absolved of their crimes." He said. And then the entire counsel was in uproar; half of them with him and half against him. Then the angel stood up out of his chair and struck the table,

"Silence!" he bellowed, "They are the only ones that have been trying to fight Marfedelom relentlessly that aren't angels! Yes what Drakak did will not go unpunished, but that can wait until his strength is not needed anymore. Those adventurers might be our only hope in defeating Marfedelom, so we have to absolve if not postpone the trial for their crimes. All in favor of at least postponing the trial say aye." Everyone gave out a half-hearted aye and then the black water of the cistern turned back into its original form.

"Ok we can go now," said Aireon, and then we were off to the monastery as fast as we possibly could, after we found the super long stairs and had to climb it. There must have been ten-thousand steps, or more.

...

We rented a fast carriage and traveled east to the monastery; the trip took a day in a half but we still made it there. However, when we did arrive everything was normal; no zombies or goblins or demons. So we decided to head on inside and check on the Grand Master and Bodo; when we were inside the whole monastery was a busy hub of preparation. There were solders and monks' running back and forth stocking weapons, munitions, and artillery. The Grand Master was in the center of the courtyard directing most of the traffic, so we swam through a sea of bodies and finally reached him.

"Master," I said with a bow, and he greeted me with one.

"Morgukia, I am blessed to see you return safely! We're about to start moving troops to their lines for the battle. It would help greatly if you stay here and guard the courtyard from anything while we evacuate any non-combatants; oh and Bodo left this for you. He left a few weeks ago in the cover of night, and only left this letter in the chair he used to sit in."

He handed me the letter so I opened it and began to read it out loud.

"Dear Friends,

By the time you read this letter I will be gone, but not forever. I decided that sitting around sulking and crying over my friend would get me nothing but more sadness. So, I am going to Bhar's tribe to rally them into saving him from that hellish prison. I will find a place to meet all of you sooner or later; in this world or the next.

Godspeed, Bodo Fraggins"

As I finished that last word, five Evistros appeared and started to set fire to the ground around us. Evistros are small demons that attack in groups and destroy everything around them. By the time we closed in on them I noticed that they weren't touching anything else around them; almost like they only wanted to kill us instead of the others. We were surrounded by a large ring of fire, and then I heard someone yell from outside it.

"They're here! Everyone man your stations and start marching your troops! TO VICTORY!"

The war has now begun…