The Northern Council of Paladins from the Holy Kingdom, known for its power and strength, which has carried the justice of the country in recent years, helped its counterpart in the recent attacks from the Abelion Hills and sent paladins after paladins to help maintain the Great Wall; Recently the Council received strange reports of some villages near the north coast that from one day to the next went completely silent, all the merchants, all the taxes, even the guards on duty, this was not normal by any means and for this reason the Council assigned two paladins to find out what was going on in the region and why these villages were silenced.

The two chosen paladins were Almeida Pureza, considered one of the most loyal paladins of the Northern Council, who had served many times on the Great Wall, returning only for a year for every other year he spent on the Great Wall, with his long black silky hair shining in contact with the light of the sun, but a stiffened face, he bore many scars on his forehead and a large scar that ran from his right temple across the center of his nose to the left corner of his jaw. He had a chest full of confidence and muscles and wore an armor inherited from his family with the marks and purity seals of all the members of his family who had served the Order since the foundation of the Holy Kingdom; Together with him Rafa Sol would be sent, he was not as well known as Almeida since he was a paladin who preferred never to leave the Northern Holy Kingdom and usually dealt more with the small threats that appeared from time to time, he had short brown hair divided in curls, his green eyes stood out for their brilliance, his nose was considered large and above average, which sometimes caused him to cover part of his face with the scarf of his armor to avoid being called a toucan, even more so with his lean body, which was only enhanced by the armor and made him look as if he had more flesh than bone. The two were chosen to scout the coastal region and see what was going on in the villages.

They were both on their horses and finally reached the first village, which was reported to have been quiet for several days. The village of Salmao was right on the sea and had a harbour for the fishermen, they lived off the economy generated by the sale of the fish and the wonders of the sea, it was considered a rich village, but what Almeida and Rafa saw was just a ghost village, the streets were completely empty of life or human noise, the pets could be seen walking on the streets and the remains of the place and the boats looked like they had not seen any movement for days, they were covered with dust, they did not see a single body, not a single trace, nothing, they checked every house, every corner, every single board, diaries and they did not find a clue.

'This is definitely much more dangerous than the council imagines,' Rafa said as he picked up one of the books from the floor in the house, trying to imagine what might have happened there with a puzzled look on his face. 'What do you think? Have you ever seen anything like that near the Great Wall?'

Almeida looked under the beds of the rooms, trying to find perhaps a survivor or a note, perhaps holes under the houses? he remembered that some of the beastmen were able to dig holes that were really dangerous, but the more he looked, the more worried he became about the situation that was so uncharacteristic of the Demi-Humans, even for undead or creatures of the sea this was strange, there was no blood, no material goods were even touched, no corpses, even the fish was rotting in some of the houses and boats. 'No, I have never seen anything like this before and honestly I am worried too, maybe we should move on to the next village, maybe we will have better luck there.' He stood up, looked at Rafa and waited to see if his colleague would agree.

Rafa dropped the book on the floor, 'Yes, maybe there are people there. We just need one person to explain what's going on in the name of the hells.' He opened a slightly more relaxed smile. 'Maybe it's just a small group of cultists, if that's the case, maybe we can kill them in no time and return home'

Almeida wanted to believe that it was just a small group of cultists, after all it would make more sense to capture people for some kind of malicious ritual, yet he felt in his gut that something was wrong, that something was watching them, he preferred to ignore the feeling and go with Rafa to the next village. The next village was Tinto, a village that was located more on fertile land and was responsible for producing some wines and fruits of inferior quality, it was a small village with about sixty inhabitants, but none of their were seen merchants or wines were sold in the larger towns during this days; The gates of the village were opened and once again the sight repeated itself, another ghost town, one more village without any trace of people, which annoyed Almeida and worried Rafa a little, who took a deep breath and set out to explore the place to find clues.

Almeida decided to follow Rafa that night until he saw Rafa suddenly stop. Almeida also stopped and tried to look around to see what was in front of Rafa, but he saw nothing, he looked in confusion at Rafa, whose face was torn with a sense of horror when he realized that Rafa was standing there dead and in front of his armor was a huge hole, that almost completely penetrated him, with the armor and flesh fused together and the vital organs apparently liquefied, Rafa slowly turned his head to Almeida with a pale look in his eyes, trying to comprehend what had just happened as his body fell dead to the ground. Almeida immediately took his shield and mace and tried to figure out who had done this.

'SHOW YOURSELF COWARD!, I SHALL SMITE YOU DOWN IN THE NAME OF THE VERY GODS!' Almeida screamed at the top of his lungs and looked up to the ceiling of the house, where he finally saw a movement, a humanoid being with six eyes, taller than a normal human, putting his hand to his side and conjuring a spear of blue light from the tinny air. Almeida did not recognize the spell and decided to attack first,'SMITE!' he shouted while moving his mace and jumped in the direction of this creature, but in mid air Almeida felt something reach his side and burn his skin and armor, he looked to another end, another of these creatures just shot at him with one of these spears and the one in front of him shot shortly after the other, reached his back.

To the surprise of the creatures Almeida was barely alive, he was holding on to the ground, unable to move, the creatures decided to take him somewhere, all Almeida felt was that his body was being carried by them, they were strong, not simple wizards and looking at their weapons, they weren't simple staffs, but tridents, he imagined that perhaps these were the powerful soldiers of the Baharuth Empire, said to have mastered the arts of combat and magic, but his thoughts began to leave him, along with his conscience.

When Almeida woke up, his wounds were healed, he saw himself with his clothes and equipment, even if his armor was partially destroyed, he looked around and saw many men and women, including a face he recognized, a member of the Order of Paladins, Nilt Campos, but he looked defeated in soul and spirit, his eyes were empty of any will to live, Almeida noticed from the stone floor the steps of the cell, he saw gigantic crystals that took over the vision of this place, and disgusting Demihuman snakes.

Almeida analyzed himself first, he noticed that the places that had been pierced by the creatures magic now had burn scars, his armor was in terrible condition but it would have to do for the situation, his mace did not look like it had some kind of magic trap on it, they just let his mace go with them, why... they were not afraid that he would escape...? his shield was only with a part of the lower cone melted by the impact of the magic on his side, probably it was thanks to that that he did not bite the dust ; With calm steps Almeida walked in Nilt's direction. -Paladin Nilt. -Expecting him to react now, he looked at Nilt with a worried face, his eyes scrutinizing Nilt's body to see if he was wounded.

Nilt saw the man, a paladin like him, it was surprising but not a happy sight in this situation, he didn't know who this man was but looking at his condition he was attacked by these spellcasters, Nilt wanted to say something but his will was too broken, he looked to the ground and hid his face on his kness. -What do you want? -The words came out of his mouth like the whisper of a corpse, a defeated man with a broken spirit, whose eyes were already deeply tortured by his continuous nights of despair in that cell.

Almeida understood the man, seeing him in this situation made his heart sink, he understood the horror of this situation, even more when he saw that these people were apparently all kept together, in other words, whoever was behind this prison, was not afraid of a rebellion or maybe even expected it to happen sooner or later, he tried to appear brave on the outside, but the realization of the nightmare he had just walked in made his face contort into despair for a brief mini-seconds, he looked back at Nilt. -I really need to know what's going on, I was sent by the Northern Council, help will come in no time, but I need to understand how I can help from here.-

Nilt laughed out loud when he heard Almeida's words, looked at him with an expression of pure despair on his face, and shouted in an insane voice - THERES NOTHING WE CAN DO!, HE WILL SOON BE BACK, HE ALREADY TOOK MANY AND THEY NEVER COME BACK!, NEVER!, HE EVEN TOOK - Nilt's face covered in madness now started to drown in tears and the despair distorting his face even more as he moved his hands to his face and pressed on his eyes and cheeks, the people around him started to cry but they somehow looked a little apathetic as if this was happening over and over again. -He took her away from me, oh my Yara, what did he do to you? -Nilt's voice was softer, but his tone was still full of madness and sadness, so Almeida took a step back and looked around.

-There is always hope, Nilt, if you do not recognize it, I will bring it back, for all of you. -Almeida spoke looking at the cell grades, he began to prepare and attack, he took his mace in both hands while the serpent demi-humans on the other side began to prepare to break into the cell, Almeida began to be surrounded by a tin gold aura and his mace began to glow brightly. - HOLY!- He moved his mace to hit the cell grades, and at the moment of shock he released all the energy of the attack. - IMPACT!- with these words, the grades exploded, creating a hole through which Almeida flew with the speed of his attack, moving quickly and swiftly in the air and trying to move his mace to hit one of the snake demi-humans in the face before landing.

Almeida landed on his feet after the hit on the demi-human, making it fall from the stone banisters, he looked at the remaining demi-human snakes preparing himself for the battle while hearing others coming from the stairs, he was on the upper cells, he smiled proudly even full of fear in his eyes, ready to face death once more, even if this was the last time, he screamed with courage. -BRING IT OOOOOON!