..A/N: Another hour well spent! I hope you enjoy! By the way, I plan on releasing two a week, since they aren't horribly long, so stay tuned!

Chapter 3: Vengeance, Shaken not Stirred

I could barely believe that Shal was gone. We'd travelled together so long now, he was like a crazy, frothing brother to me. It was hard dealing with the loss of your brethren, crazy and frothing or deals with grief, in their own way. People like Ignos cry, for example. I, on the other hand, drink. If liquid can't come out of my face, I'll pour it down my damn throat. That was half of the reason why we came to the inn. The other was because innkeepers, knew everything. I hoped he knew who this Dage was, because neither I or nor Ignos did. I sat and I drank until even the ugliest hag looked beautiful, Ignos wouldn't dream of drinking.

When Phairre, the Innkeep came by for the eighth time I shouted "Ay, Phairre! I.. hic... Gotsh a queshin for ya!" He walked over patiently. He was kind old man, just over 60. He spent the last of his days in a quiet little settlement. His face showed kindness and understanding. "Yes?" he replied. "Th' Hell'sh Dage! I'ma kill em!" Phairre looked at me, stunned. I couldn't tell if it was my drunkenness or my question. "Dage The Evil! He's the ruler of the Undead Legion! He leads millions of undead soldiers with an iron fist! Why in the name of the maker would you pick a fight with him!"

"He's a murderin' summa bish!" I shouted. Others were starting to glance over and, in hindsight,I don't blame them. Ignos made up for my idiocy by saying "He killed someone..." He was getting choked up. "..Someone close to us," Phairre looked at the boy thoughtfully.

"I see, why?"

"We've got no idea, He said he gave him power but... I don't understand.."

"Power? By the maker now I know why!"

"Why then!" Ignos demanded. "Why would he kill Shaladur!"

"I've heard tales of men who sell their souls to Dage for power beyond your wildest dreams, this must've been what happened to your friend, except your friend tried to abandon Dage, and so he payed the price,"

"I'm still gunna make em eat shteel," I proclaimed. If you can't tell the strength my alcohol tolerance envies oxen.

It was about this time that the screams came from outside, accompanied by a massive explosion.

We quickly ran outside. A Howl of pure concentrated rage echoed throughout the town. "I WILL HAVE VENGEANCE!" Fire rained from the sky, which had turned a blood red color. Buildings burned and crumbled. Creatures began to rise from the ground, though these were nothing like Dage's minions.

These were small, horrible little things. They were black and had fangs the size of half their bodies. Others joined them, Short green ghoulish figures with claws that envied the others fangs. Other terrible things erupted from the ground attacking anything they saw.

Men ran from their homes to combat the evil. Some had weapons, others used pitchforks. I drew my dagger and leaped into the fray. Hundreds of the little buggers littered the area and I slashed each of them to ribbons. Ignos wasn't helping to control the fire, but he was damn good at pest control.

Many of them were dead, and human casualties weren't fantastically low either. Corpses were scattered about, I even saw Phairre lying among them, his kind face with his eyes and mouth stuck open in horror and dread. Many were charred, other torn to bits, some were even a combination of the two. More minions erupted from the ground, thousands. The town was quickly overrun. We fought bravely, but I knew that my life would end here.

The minions stopped attacking. A hulking figure walked through them. He easily stood over 9 feet tall. He wore black armor decorated with glowing skulls. You could only see his stomach, biceps, and face. He wasnt human. His face was large, with six glowing red eyes. His teeth were huge, and were gritted together, in anger. He lacked hair, and instead had Two horns jutting from sides of his head. He looked both of us over.

For a split second I saw an emotion on his face, it was a forlorn look. He remembered something, but what?

The beast grimaced, then spoke to us in a booming echo.

"You, I do not seek to kill you," He looked around at the corpses of many of his servants, courtesy of yours truly. "No, you are too powerful to kill," He grinned. "I only wish to kill, Dage..." He now frowned and his eyes grew narrow. "As do we," I said, now mostly sober. "Then join me and we shall destroy that coward once and for all," Ignos and I were ready to accept, but there was one more thing. "Who are you? Why did you attack this place?" He grinned wickedly,

"Heh, I am Nulgath, keeper of the Underworld. I need land to operate in above ground, and souls to devour," I didn't like him, but we'd have to deal with that later, all I cared for was vengeance. I didn't get it at the time but Ignos said faintly "Wait... Nulgath..."

"N"