Chapter 1: A Kingdom goes to war
Darius captain of the guards for King Jeremiah strode through the vast giant halls of Castle Voluntas. His full faced helmet hung in right hand as the female servants stared in awe at his beauty he was taller than nearly everyone in the army at 6'2 and had a stocky build to his body with tanned skin and jet black hair that was always slicked back neatly. Despite his large appearance his grey eyes and smiled showed nothing but kindness as he pushed open the door entering into the throne room where upon a large iron throne adorned with jewels sat King Jeremiah.
The man atop the throne wore a huge flowing robe of red silk with the crest of the kingdom on his breast and a large golden crown rested a top of his head while grey and white hair bristled out of the sides of the crown. His bright blue eyes stared down at Darius while he stroked his long grey/white beard and tapped the golden sceptre which atop sat a bright shining rainbow gem. "What news do you have to report Darius" he spoke in a sophisticated and proper tone while Darius knelt down on one knee and stared at the ground "My lord we have reports that the outlying village of Krios has been under attack by an unknown force".
The King rose from his throne and slammed the staff down as it echoed around the room "WHAT! Who would commit such an atrocious crime attacking a defenceless and peaceful village" he roared. "This man survived the attack and was sent to us carrying a specific message for you my liege" Darius said an old man hobbled into the room blood stained across his forehead as one eye was caked shut from the dried up blood. A soldier helped him walk into the throne room before he attempted to kneel before the King to which Jeremiah waved a hand "You do not need to kneel in your condition just speak and tell me what happened". "Thank you my liege, I have a message to deliver to you from Suriv the man who attacked our village. He says that soon your pathetic kingdom and everyone in the gaming world will be enslaved to him so prepare your armies" "Who is this Suriv I've never heard of a name like that" the King said as the old man wiped back a tear that formed under his eye "He is a magician from his appearance who wields incredibly powerful magic he managed to transform everyone in the village into these mindless grey soldiers wearing armour... even my family wasn't spared but I a useless old man was" he said breaking down into tears as Darius placed a hand upon the old man's shoulder.
"My liege I insist you allow me to summon a group of soldiers and travel to this village to crush this so called Suriv and avenge the villagers" Darius said standing up and drawing his long sword pointing it to the air. "Hmmm I'll allow this in any case we still need to survey the damage and see what condition the village is in as well but if Suriv and his army is there you have my permission to engage and wipe this barbarian mage out".
As Darius stormed out of the room a voice from behind the throne spoke "Sir are you sure you shouldn't have sent me instead to investigate if he's a powerful magician" the voice spoke in a dark gruff tone. "No Balthazar I'm sure Darius is more than capable of handling this he is captain of the guard after all and you're my personal bodyguard" the King said as the dark shadow stepped out into the light. He was 6 foot tall and athletically built with a dark and cold demeanour to his appearance; he had dark piercing blue eyes with a diagonal scar across the right and bright white spiked up hair. He wore pitch black armour while his helmet shaped like a wolf's face hung in his right hand while two blades were strapped diagonally across his back, one had a black hilt with flames and the other was grey with bright yellow wolf's eyes on the hilt.
"I guess you're right..." Balthazar grumbled not entirely approving of the plan but had no real say in the matter. "What are you going to do with the old man?" "We shall give him food and shelter until he can safely return to his village" "Or at least what's left of it" Balthazar mumbled walking out onto the balcony and gazed over the edge into the distance where the village of Krios was located as flames could easily be seen licking the very sky itself with giant grey smoke clouds. "It smells like death and destruction I hope Darius will be safe".
Darius and his group of 12 fully armed men slowly rode on horseback into the front of Krios village where the gate had been torn open and the wooden walls were charred black from the raging fires while some were still burning away chewing up any piece of scraps they could find. Each knight had their sword unsheathed as they gazed around the ruins of the once prosperous village which was eerily quiet; houses were torn down and burnt to ashes while others were being eaten away by the hungry flames. "There's no sign of the attackers" one man said leaping down off his horse as everyone else followed pulling out their shields as well "Alright everyone split up and search the alleyways, houses anywhere you can think of for survivors or the attacks" Darius said as he slowly stepped towards one of the houses which hadn't collapsed or burnt down and gazed around the corner of the front entrance.
The sounds of footsteps creaked onto the wooden floors upstairs as Darius stepped inside and yelled out "Hello is anyone there I'm Darius captain of the knights guard". Again the creak of footsteps were heard as he slowly moved towards the bottom of the stairs and peered up seeing no signs of movement, very carefully he moved up each step shield and sword raised as he quickly spun around the corner and stared into an empty and deserted room. In the corner though he spotted movement as he raised his hands "I don't mean you any harm if you aren't foe" he called out watching as the shadowy figure stepped out into the light. "My god what the hell are you" Darius said mouth hung ajar in shock as the villager fully came into view, it was completely covered in a strange grey skin with blood red eyes and no mouth, nose or hair. As it moved towards him it's neck and body twitched as electricity crackled around it "Stay where you are beast" Darius roared holding his shield in front of him and pointing his long sword at the creature.
It suddenly charged towards him with speed he had never seen before as it crashed into his shield and knocked him down the stairs as he went tumbling down. Hitting the bottom his shield and sword spilled out skittering across the floor away from him while the beast sat a top of him it's hands moving towards his throat with incredible strength he had never felt before. As its hands wrapped around his neck Darius reached down to his side and pulled out a tiny dagger which he raised up and plunged into the creatures neck as it let loose an ear piercing wail clutching at the wound while grey goo spilled out hitting the ground and making an acidic sizzle. Crawling backwards Darius felt his long sword which he gripped in both hands and jumping up swung it around beheading the beast as it fell to the ground unmoving.
As Darius caught his breath he noticed the strange grey skin was dissolving from the creature and all that was left was the body of a male village his head a few feet away from him as the knight stared aghast. "That thing was a villager and I slaughtered him" he thought "What foul sorcery achieved this" he said spitting on the ground before hearing the combined screams and shouts of his men as he grabbed his shield and raced outside to find them locked in a heated battle with more of the strange creatures but these ones were different to the one he faced. Whereas the one he defeated was naked with grey skin these ones were claded in full iron body armour and wielded an assortment of weapons from long swords, battle axes, spears and maces.
Already five of his men lay dead in a pool of blood at the feet of these monsters their blood red eyes flashing out from behind those full faced helmets and a strange static sounding noise could be heard from them which he assumed was their only form of speech. "Captain Darius you must escape they're to powerful whatever they are" one of the knights said appearing by his side as Darius shook his head "No we stand and fight together" "You must retreat sir and get word of this back to the king he must prepare his army in case they come to attack" the man said as a second later his face froze and he coughed up blood before falling to the ground an arrow protruding from his neck.
Jumping up on his horse Darius went to turn and leave only to find a strange looking magician standing in his way "Greetings you must be a knight from the kingdom" he spoke in a posh British accent. "Yes I'm Darius captain of the guards" "Oh a captain I'm honoured" the man said bowing before standing up and staring at him his brown eyes flashing along with a smile "I must introduce myself I'm Suriv" "So you're the man responsible behind this attack and these abominations" Darius yelled pointing his sword at the man who simply laughed. "Yes I must take credit for these creations isn't it incredibly I turned a group of pathetic and weak villagers into the ultimate fighting warrior and soon I shall do the same to your men" "YOU MONSTER" Darius roared charging towards him as he swung his sword down at the magician only the man to dissolve away his laughter echoing "It'll take more than a pathetic blade to defeat me now go on run back to your King and let him know everything that has happened for I shall return with a full army and crush his pathetic castle and take what is most valuable to him for myself".
As Darius rode away from the village the cries of his comrades being slaughtered and turned into those god forsaken mindless brutes rang in his mind. What were they exactly? Strange grey like skin and those eyes oh god those blood red eyes looked like they were staring into your soul. Then there was Suriv he was an incredibly talented magician but there was also an air about him that made him seem other worldly Darius just couldn't quiet put his finger on it. "Somehow we must find a way to defeat him or the entire kingdom is doomed" he mumbled to himself as his horse rode back towards the castle leaving the smouldering ruins and horrors that lurked in Krios village behind.