Calatan's Re-emergence

Calatan's Re-emergence, also known as The Near Nether War, is the name given to a series of events that occured in the western side of New Voldrania throughout early Year 95 of the Voldranian Calendar. The events were orchestrated by Calatan Morentius, a highly wanted man and practitioner of illegal dark magic.
==Part 1, Storm in Zethrel==
This story is told from the perspective of Meq, one of Varrenholm's Unknown Soldiers, as well as the oldest adopted son of Calatan Morentius.
===Prelude===
12-28-94: Good news just arrived at my doorstep. Apparently several people over in Zaescaes have spotted someone who resembles Calatan Morentius, though none of them know for sure if it’s him. I don’t care if it’s just speculation, that’s the only lead I have on finding this guy. And I have to find him… I don’t want to imagine what would happen if his plan came to fruition. I’ve already requested a leave of absence from the Unknown Soldiers in order to investigate this further, and I’m hoping it bears fruit.
12-31-94: It’s the eve of the new year, and people here in Zaescaes have gotten quite festive. Sadly, I don’t have the luxury of festivities at this time, since I’m still following those leads on Calatan. So far, I’ve managed to narrow down all of the spottings down to one area, the Zethrel district. It’s not a particularly nice place from what I’ve heard, mostly being filled with vagrants and petty thieves. I’ll start my search there tomorrow, still hoping that I find a solid lead.
1-14-95: For two weeks I’ve been here in the Zethrel district, with absolutely no luck. The people I found who were actual witnesses described him perfectly, and I have extremely little doubt that it was Calatan they saw. After all, there probably isn’t another man alive, if you can even call it that, with grey sclera. However, even though they did in fact see him, nobody knew where he went or what he was doing. I suppose this lead is a dead end, how very disappointing. I guess I’ll leave in the morning.
===The Storm===
It hadnt even been 20 minutes since I put my journal down that it all began. At first I couldnt even describe it, but I heard a lot of panic outside, as well as what I believed to be buildings collapsing. Without even thinking, I began running towards to door to see what was going on. As soon as I got outside, all I could see was the city burning and people running around. I reverse teleported my equipment on pretty quickly, as my gut was telling me that something was coming. And then it happened. A giant skeletal arm came out of nowhere and grabbed the inn I was staying at, and just ripped it out of the ground. My insticts kicked in, and I quickly launched a volley of sandstone rubble around me at the arm while charing them with an explosive glyph. The arm snapped and began to fall, but another arm came down just as quickly and grabbed the end of the first arm. I looked up to see where these strange arms were coming from, and then I saw.... it. I don't think there are enough words in the Tavrosian language to describe exactly what it was that I saw, but I shall try.
Floating in the sky, probably around 100 meters above me, was an absolutely massive pair of grim looking doors. The image of the doors is still burned into my mind. They were at least 100 meters tall, made of stone trimmed in obsidian, and bore skull like visages in the center of each door. Wrapped around each gate were massive golden chains, with several broken ones hanging on the inner sides, as if they had connected the doors together but broke. Between the two doors, which were partially slid apart, was a massive red portal, from which dozens of massive skeletal arms were coming.
These massive arms were extending all over the city, and I noticed a few of them were carrying civilians and retreating towards the portal. With no real idea on how to react, I just started breaking more skeletal arms as they came down around me. No matter how hard I tried, arms never seemed to stop coming down and grabbing the ones I had broken. It was only after a few minutes that I began to feel a familiar prescene. My eyes willed me to look back at the gates, and I could just barely make out a figure standing on top of them. There was only one person who could give off an aura like that... no doubt it was Calatan.
I pulled out one of Vor's teleport knives, and Im still questioning why the hell I was carrying it around. With the help of a reject glyph, I managed to launch the knife towards Calatan, and prepared a teleport. When I felt the time was right, I teleported to the knife, and appeared about 20 feet above the gate Calatan was standing on. He looked up at me in utter shock, but that didn't last very long. As I was falling down, he shot a fireball at me, which I quickly rolled mid air to avoid. I landed just in front of him, and quickly lunged with a makeship manifest dagger. He didn't even try to dodge it. The knife plunged deep into his stomach, but he just looked down at me and laughed.
"And what have we here? Might you be an Unknown Soldier young man?" His voice, as always, was extremely shrill, and sent shivers down my spine.
"I'm not at liberty to answer that," I replied.
He threw his head back and laughed. "Playing hard to get eh? I like you already." 
I chose not to respond to that.
He squinted his eyes with this action, "Hmm... something seems familiar about you, boy. May we have met before perchance?"
Well, he wasn't far off.
"You must be imagining things, but that isn't important. So lets skip the unnecessary chatter and get to the point; what exactly is it you're doing here, Calatan?" 
He responded with a grin. "I'm not at liberty to answer that, Unknown Soldier."
I let out a sigh, "So now we're doing this, fine. In that case, I don't really care, just hurry up and surrender." 
He started laughing maniacally, "Surrender? HA! What makes you think that I'M the one whos in the spot to surrender?
Hes up to something then... but what could it be
He seemed to notice my concern, and spread his grin just a bit further. "Whats the matter, lose your nerve?"
I was getting ready to reply, but he beat me to it. "Still cant figure it out? Then maybe all you need is a little demons-TRATION." With that, he lunged at me, probably to try and grab my shoulder.
My reflexes kicked in, and I jumped backwards a few times. For a second, he had a look of panic on his face, but he looked like he was trying to hide it with his usual grin.
Why did he look so scared? Even if just for a second, I had never seen him panic before. A few seconds later, I think I got my answer.
A storm began cracking above me, and I risked a glance up. What I saw was a single orange storm cloud, centered right above us.
"Noticed the cloud, eh? Well get ready, I think you made him angry."
"Him? Who are you talking about?"
He let out a nervous laugh, "Oh, hes nobody special really. Just the god I partnered up with."
With that, red lightning began to crackle in the orange cloud above us. I anticipated that a bolt or two would come down at me, so I began to prepare myself. However, rather than me, a single bolt came down and hit Calatan. He began seizing out and fell to his knees, but eventually managed to get to his feet.
Calatan looked up, with a look of suffering on his face. "Alright, you win this time, Unknown Soldier. But don't you dare think this is over! I will be back for you, AND your people!"
With that, one of the skeletal arms came up and grabbed him before retreating into the portal.
After the arm finished retreating, I noticed that all of the other arms quickly flew back into the portal as well, and it closed. But it wasn't an ordinary close, the 2 slabs slid together, and the broken chains that were hanging suddenly reconnected. When the gates finished closing, they just... vanished. It took me a few seconds to realize that I was several hundred meters in the air... and the ground had just vanished beneath me. As I fell, I quickly tried to connect myself back to base, and was able to finish the teleport when I was about 20 feet above the ground. I won't say the landing at the teleport was pleasant, but at least I had survived.
==Part 2, The Plan==
===Prelude===
This part of the story is told from the perspective of Jex, another one of Varrenholm's Unknown Soldiers.
It was just another day on the base, at least, thats what I had hoped for. It had only been a few days since I got back from my last assignment in Jados, and I was hoping to get some time to relax and wind down. If only I were so lucky, but no, the Captain had called me into his office to give another assignment. Why he just had to pick me and not say, Zel, who hadn't had an assignment for the past few months, I'll never know. Anyways, he started talking about a lot of technical stuff and details that didn't particularly interest me. It was something to do about a sleeper agent we had in Jados going rogue, I think. Point is, the guy had been spotted in Alred, and the captain wanted me to go find him and bring him in.
It was while he was talking about what the agent looked like that things started to happen. For starters, all of the ink we had lining the walls and floors of the base started to glow. This was nothing new, as they always did that whenever someone was in the middle of teleporting back to base. However, as soon as the glowing stopped, I heard a loud crashing sound right behind me. I quickly turned around to see Meq, lying on his stomach at the bottom of a small crater that had just appeared at the center of the base. I started to run over, but somehow Zel appeared at his side and started checking him out. By the time I got there, Vor and Tov had already come out of their rooms and made it to his side.
"What the hell happened? Did he just eject out of a teleport at high speed or something?" I asked.
"I doubt it," Vor replied, "He probably just teleported while falling."
"What makes you think that?" I asked.
"I studied teleport glyphs extensively recently," Vor replied, "and I found out that teleporting cuts half of the velocity you may have had while teleporting."
He looked worriedly down at Meq, "If he still had this much velocity after that, he must have fallen pretty far."
"We can ask him the details later," Zel said, still examining his body, "For now, we need to get him treated."
"Yeah but who? Do any of you know field medicine?" I asked.
"I do, I'll patch him up." Zel replied, already starting to pick Meq up.
After that, Zel took Meq back to his room and started treating him. The rest of us stood outside, hoping that our comrade would end up alright. After what felt like an eternity, Zel walked out. Even though I couldn't see his face, what with his mask and all, I could tell he looked relieved.
"He'll be alright, its just some broken bones." Zel said.
===Shit Gets Real===
This part of the story is told from the perspective of Meq.
I woke up laying in my bed back at base. It had been a few years since I had used this bed, and it was pretty clear that the sheets hadn't been cleaned in that time. I started looking around, but noticed I was alone.
"Oh look, its still alive," Said a familiar voice.
I started looking around again, but I couldn't find anyone else in the room.
"You alright Meq? You seem a bit dillusional," said the voice again.
It was at this point that I realized there was someone standing at the foot of my bed, but I could have sworn they weren't there before...
"He hit his head pretty hard, so I wouldn't be surprised if it caused some brain damage." Another familiar voice, different from the first.
"I've hit my head harder, so I know what hes feeling. It should pass, just give it a second." Yet another familiar voice.
I looked around some more, and saw that there were now 4 people around my bed. My bearings started to come back, and I began to get an idea of what was going on. I had teleported while falling from the top of the gates, and I guess I didn't lost my velocity during the teleport.
"Looks like hes starting to recover. Hey, Meq, can you hear me?"
Now that I had my bearings back, I could see that Jex was standing at the foot of my bed, while Zel, Tov, and Vor were to the side of it.
"Yeah yeah, I can hear you Jex." I said, trying to sit up.
"Whoa, slow down there, you aren't in any condition to be sitting up yet." Said a somewhat concerned Zel.
Despite his warning, I managed to sit up without any real problems. Oddly enough, I didnt feel like I was in any pain. Truth be told I felt the same way I did any other day.
"Strange..." Zel muttered, "Your back shouldn't be able to support you after a fall like that, yet you seem perfectly fine to me."
"Well whatever the case, if you're feeling fine now, mind telling us what happened?" Vor said.
"Yeah, I'll tell you everything... but not here" I replied, "This is big, really big, and needs to be talked about in an assembly."
Vor nodded, "I'll get the captain, lets all meet in the assembly hall and hear him out.
A few minutes later, I found myself sitting at the table in the bases' assembly hall. All 5 of us were present, as well as The Captain.
"Vor tells me you have an interesting story behind your recent arrival, so lets hear it." The Captain said.
I gave them a full recap of everything that happened, from the gates, to Calatan's involvement, to the supposed "god" that Calatan was working with.
"Hmm... well that isn't at all what I was expecting," The Captain replied, "and definitely not what I wanted to hear."
"That all sounds like something out of a story, are you sure it wasn't a dream?" Jex said.
"No, I know for a fact that everything I saw wasn't a dream or a hallucination, it really happened." I replied
"Well, I don't even know what to make of this," Vor said, "but its definitely something we need to look into."
The captain let out a light snicker, "I guess all those times I took your warnings about Calatan for granted have come back to bite me."
Leave it to The Captain to make light of a situation like this
"I guess so, but thats not important," I replied, "What IS important is figuring out where we go from here."
"Well," The Captain began, "I think the first step is figuring out exactly what it is we're dealing with. What are these gates? Who is Calatan's accomplice? What is his goal?"
"I can answer the third one," I replied, "He wants to ressurect the Void Devourer."
This caused several people present to get uneasy, and Vor even shivered.
"I hope that isn't the case," Vor said, "I've seen that being with my own eyes, and humanity couldn't stand up to it without outside help. Hell, the only reason we survived was because the Inversion weakened him before we got there."
"If what you say is true," The Captain said, "Then how will mass kidnapping help?"
"That part, I don't know." I replied, "The only theory I have is that resurrecting a being that powerful will require a lot of life energy."
"Out of curiosity," chimed Jex, "How is it that you know so much about his goal? I don't remember you mentioning him saying that in your recap."
I let out a sigh, "No, he didn't tell me that at Zaescaes. However, if I'm going to answer that, I'll need to go into details of my past, before becoming an Unknown Soldier."
I looked over at The Captain. He gave me a light nod.
"My name is Tabarinth Morentius, and Calatan is my foster father."
Everyone's eyes lit up.
"That... is not what I was expecting," Jex said, "but that would explain quite a bit."
"If he was your father," Vor asked, "then why are you trying so hard to bring him down?"
"After the Nether War, Calatan nearly lost it." I replied, "He started to get a bit dillusional about finishing what the Void Devourer started. These dillusions gradually got worse, until eventually, he became obsessed with bringing the Void Devourer back to life using his Necromancy. This sudden change in nature caused most of his cultists, including me, to leave his side. I ended up finding myself in Varrenholm after I left, and you know the rest."
Everyone sat silent for a second, probably taking this all in.
"If you've known this all along, then why have you waited so long to tell us?" The Captain asked.
"I was hoping to avoid causing panic, but mostly I was just dreaming that he would never get anywhere with his goal." I replied.
I let out a light snicker, "Guess that dream was just a fantasy."
Vor leaned forward, now more serious than I had ever seen him. "If what you say is true, then we can't put this on the backburner. We have to find him as soon as possible. I don't think I need to tell you all what will happen if he succeeds."
We all nodded. "I would consider that the extinction of humanity. Who knows if the Inversion or any of the Keepers would be able to help us this time."
"Which is even more reason for us to figure out everything we can about whats going on so we can find him and stop him." The Captain said.
"Now, back on topic." The Captain said, "Any ideas on what these strange gates could be?"
"The Gates of Despair."
Most of us looked to Tov in shock, as he hadn't said a word since we got here.
"The Gates of Despair?" I asked, "What the hell are those?"
Tov leaned forward, "They're from an old legend I used to hear when I was a kid."
"A children's story?" Jex asked, "You sure something like that is credible?"
Tov nodded, "I say its credible, because it began as the ramblings of a madman. And in my experience, I find that madmen are usually the most honest."
The Captain leaned forward, "Tell us about this legend, but just the key parts."
Tov nodded, "It happened a long time ago, somewhere in Restine. A man who was outside of the town he lived in at the time claims that a massive pair of gates, decorated with golden chains and skulls, was floating above his town. He didn't see what they did, as he just saw them close, but when he got back to the town, it was empty. Everyone was gone, and a few buildings were missing as well."
"What do you mean missing?" Zel asked.
"Missing as in the foundations and parts of the base of the buildings were still there, but the rest of the buildings were gone." Tov replied
He then looked to me, "Almost as if giant hands had grabbed them and pulled them out of the ground."
"Hmm... well that does fit the description perfectly." I said. "Almost too perfectly."
Tov nodded, "Either the gates you saw are the gates from the legend, or someone knew that legend and based the gates off of it."
"Lets just assume that its the former." I said.
Everyone nodded in agreement.
"So we're dealing with a dillusional madman who wants to bring the Void Devourer back to life using gates from an old legend with help from a god." The Captain said. "Yup, definitely sounding like a storybook."
"If only we were so lucky." I replied.
"Speaking of this supposed god, I think I might have a theory on who it is." Vor said.
We all turned our attention to him
"You mentioned that a red lightning bolt came down and struck Calatan out of nowhere." Vor said
"Yes, but I wouldnt say out of nowhere." I replied, "He had just mentioned that a god was helping him, and he looked... scared. It's like he knew it was coming."
"Well whatever the case, its the red lightning bit that gave me the theory." Vor said.
"Do all of you remember what happened in Skal a few weeks ago?" Vor asked.
How could we possibly forget? Orange skies covered the island of Myvatel, and powerful red lightning bolts began to tear up the landscape. There were countless casualties, and more fatalities than what we received during the Nether War.
"Based on the proximity, I would think it not out of the question that the 2 events are related." Vor said.
"So what you're saying," I replied, "Is that you think either Zeno, Vada, or Xicci is the god helping him?"
"I wouldn't think it out of the question that its all 3 working together." Vor replied.
"However, its just a theory, based on evidence from another theory." Vor said. "However, its the only theory I have."
The Captain nodded, "Plausible, but does anyone else have any ideas?"
We all shook our heads.
"Then lets just assume Vor is right," The Captain said, "and base our plan of action around that."
"Speaking of a plan of action, we need one, obviously." Jex said.
"Step 1 in that is finding where it is hes hiding." The Captain said.
I shook my head, "I hate to say it, but waiting is probably our only option."
The Captain let out a sigh, "I hate to admit it, but you're right. He vanished in a way we aren't familiar with."
I started to grin, "However, he did end up unintentionally telling me where he plans to strike next."
Jex raised an eyebrow, "Really? I don't remember you mentioning anything about that."
"Thats because I didn't." I replied. "He just gave me some hints, and I used my understanding of his nature to figure it out."
"Hes going to appear over one of our cities." I said, "Most likely the city with the highest population."
"Ulfarstradden then, makes sense." The Captain said. "If you plan to strike an enemy, aim for the head."
The more I thought about it, the more it made sense. Ulfarstradden had the highest population in the nation by a significant margin. Additionally, it was our capital, where he could send out the biggest message. If he wasn't going to re-appear there, then I don't know where he would appear.
"I almost hope you're right," The Captain said, "because it would be easier to fortify that city than any other."
"I guess we should make a plan in the scenario that the gates actually do appear there." I said.
Everyone nodded in agreement.
We spent the next few hours discussing means of fighting back the gates, with weapon layouts for every city in the nation. We also made a plan of action when the gates end up appearing again. Plan A was to kill Calatan, as we assumed he would have to be there when the gates appeared. Plan B was to blow up the gates, if we even could. Plan C was to send Vor, Jex, and myself into the gates themselves and try to take Calatan out from in there. We were leaning more towards Plan C, as it meant we would be able to get all of the kidnapped Zaescans out... hopefully.
==Part 3, Assault on Ulfarstradden==
===Prelude===
This part of the story is told from the perspective of Meq.
The date is April 22nd, 95 AE, and I was sitting in my office in the Varren Mage's Collective building. Its been 3 months since Calatan appeared in Zaescaes, and hes been quiet ever since. News of the events in Zaescaes have spread throughout the world, and I can tell just by looking at people that there is a sense of unease. Can't say Im surprised, since so many supernatural forces have been messing with us lately. While the world worries about the gates, we Unknown Soldiers have prepared to strike. Every city in Varrenholm has had their arsenals upgraded, mostly with the new rotating cannons the VDST coughed up after researching the ones the Monitor used. However, here in Ulfarstradden, we've set up some extra upgrades. The Captain had the genious idea of setting up rotating cannon stations inside of the attics of buildings that didn't use them all over the city. With those, we have an effective anti-air array covering the entire city. I also think my fellow mages here in the collective set up some sort of big glyph cannon like thing, but I'm not really too sure if it works or not. Not to mention the small aresenal of equipment I've prepared. Other than that, we still have some airships docked on the outskirts, as well as a small naval fleet at the northern docks. I hope its enough, but I'm getting the hunch that it won't be.
If the forces we have stationed here aren't enough to deal with the gates, the 5 of us Unknown Soldiers are prepared to teleport to whatever city the gates appear in. Truth be told, I'm starting to get a bit nervous. The notorious "what if" keeps rolling through my head, and I can't seem to get it out. I've already run countless scenarios through my head on what to do in any situation because of it, but it doesn't seem to be enough. I just hope we make it through this....
As I thought about this, a familiar sound started echoing in the distance. I quickly looked out the window, and saw them.
The Gates are here, in Ulfarstradden.
===The War===
This part of the story is told from the perspective of Meq.
As soon as I saw the gates, I prettymuch stopped thinking. I jumped out the window... and remembered that my office is on the top of a 6 story tower... on top of the 4 story mage's collective building. Thankfully, I was able to react in time, and landed harmlessly on the roof of the main building. As I was standing back up, I finished preparing a teleport, and teleported my combat gear on. I had set up my glyph arsenal specifically to fit this situation, even throwing on a few new toys. I started up my favorite of these toys, and black manifest matter wings formed on my back. I launched myself forward, flying towards the gates. It wasn't long before I remembered that my wings only last about 30 seconds, so I ended up plummeting to the ground. Once again, I was able to react in time and landed harmlessly on the ground. I have GOT to get my head on straight...
Now on foot, I started running towards the gates. From the looks of it, they had appeared above the town square, but didn't seem to be making much progress. Seems those rooftop rotating cannons were a great idea, because they're working like a charm. Every time a skeletal arm came down, it blew up almost immediately. However, I was still getting the nagging suspision that it wouldn't be enough. I eventually made it to the town square, and got an answer to my suspision. Standing in the town square, directly underneath the gates, was my brother, Keith. There was a pile of corpses around him, and he seemed to be in the middle of a ritual. After a few seconds, the corpses all jumped up, and began charging in various directions. One of them came right at me, and was about to get ready to punch me. I intercepted with a quick fireball, which caused the corpse to collapse. However, there were still a lot of others running in various directions. Keith looked over at me, giving a quick smirk before vanishing. Seeing how the gates were still being bottlenecked, I started going after some of the other corpses, quickly blasting them down. However, there were so many, and I wouldn't be able to take down all of them. Thankfully, out of the corner of my eye, I could see Tov and Zel, who were quickly taking corpses down. So 3 of us were already here, and it hadn't even been 15 minutes since the gates appeared.
"Looks like you were right again, Meq." Zel smirked, still shooting corpses down with his bow.
"Of course," I replied, "Its kind of my thing to know everything."
"We can talk later," Tov shouted, "Set your priorities straight you two."
We both nodded, and went back to fighting.
I stopped counting the seconds after the gates appeared, but I would have to venture a guess that we had been killing corpses for a good 10 minutes now. At around that time, I noticed Vor show up, with Jex arriving a few minutes later. Guess we have a full party now. It wasn't long after that that we finished cleaning up the last of the corpses. I could have sworn there weren't even close to this many when Keith reanimated them... but there were hundreds littering the streets. Thankfully, none of these corpses were Varren, in fact they barely looked human. I'll have to look into this after we deal with Calatan.
"Seems those cannons are working wonders on the gates." Vor said
I have to agree, even after nearly half an hour, not a single arm had managed to make it to the ground. Honestly, I was surprised he hadnt given up and just left.
"I guess now we go with plan A, kill Calatan." Jex said.
"Yeah, we should split up and start looking." I replied
We all nodded in agreement.
That was when we felt it.
A feeling I can't really describe as anything other than... cold. It felt like the air around us had suddenly gotten... heavier. I took a look up, and saw a humanoid figure standing on top of the gates. I honestly have no idea how I was able to see him from so far away, but there was definitely someone there. I looked over, and saw Vor was also looking up at the figure.
"Everyone... look up there." Vor said, with a bit of fear in his voice.
Everyone looked up, and seemed to notice the figure as well
"I see him, but whats got you so worked up Vor?" Jex asked
"That person... its a nether spirt." Vor replied.
"Alright, that doesn't surprise me, but what makes this one so bad?" I asked
"I've... never seen a spirit that powerful before, not even close." Vor replied
"Wait, you can tell how powerful he is from this far away?" I asked, "How strong is that eye of yours?"
"Its the fact that I can see its prescence from here that led me to know how strong he is," Vor replied, "Be very careful."
It was at this point that I could see the figure moving... it looked like he had outstretched his arms.
"Oh that can't be good." I said.
"Its not," Vor replied, "Hes getting ready to cast something."
"Just how powerful is he?" Zel asked.
"I can't tell exactly from here," Vor replied, "but hes without a doubt stronger than Zeno, Vada, and Xicci put together."
Alright... now I was starting to get a little scared.
"In any case," Vor said, "I get the feeling this is the supposed "god" helping Calatan out."
I guess Vor's theory was wrong; it wasn't Zeno, Vada, or Xicci. It was someone worse. It was at this point that I noticed the sky starting to change. Storm clouds started forming, and they were changing colours; going from grey, to red, to orange... Oh no...
"Oh shit," I said, "BURNING SKY, GET DOWN."
Almost as if on cue, red lightning began to strike down all over the place. I noticed, however, that they were coming down in what seemed to be specific spots. After a few seconds, they stopped striking, and the sky returned to normal. That was when I realized it.
"Those bolts... took out all of the cannons" I said.
The skeletal arms began descending down towards the city unhindered. It took us a few seconds to regain our bearings, but all 5 of us started taking aim at the arms. Zel started blasting them with explosive arrows, snapping the limbs and causing them to fall. I noticed Vor was climbing up a few of the arms, periodically slashing them cleanly all the way through. I think I saw Jex slicing through arms with a 10 foot long blade made from his shadow. I couldn't see Tov, but I could hear his crash glyphs somewhere behind me. I started picking up the rubble around me, explosively charing it, and launching it at the arms. We were making progress, but the five of us weren't enough to deal with all of the arms. That was when I felt the prescence of someone walking up behind me.
"Looks like I was right to come here."
I recognized that voice... but I didn't dare turn around to see how it was. I got my answer pretty quickly, as a familiar man launched into the air and sliced one of the arms up. Theres no doubt about it, it was Ec, which means behind me was...
"Pax! What are you doing here?" I yelled.
"I got a hunch that you would need some help, so I brought the new recruits with me." Pax replied.
New recruits? We had new recruits?
"Haw! Lux! Show your seniors what you can do!" Pax yelled.
At that moment, I saw a ripple in the air shaped like a wave flying towards the gates. The ripple cut cleanly through 2 of the arms before hitting the gates and dissapating. Simultaneously, a bolt of vortex lightning shot violently above me, and tore a hole straight through one of the arms.
"Reporting for duty sir," said an incredibly familiar feminine voice behind me, "I am Unknown Soldier #8, Lux."
There was a light pause, "and this is Unknown Soldier #7, Haw." said the same familiar voice.
"Why dont you introduce yourself?" I asked, "Why make her do it?"
"He doesn't talk," she replied, "Ever."
So we got an extremely quiet recruit that fights with air, and a woman who fights well with vortex glyphs. This party gets more interesting everyday it seems.
Things started looking up from there, thankfully. It seems that 8 of us were enough to bottleneck the gates. However, bottlenecking wasn't enough, we needed to take Calatan down. Much to our luck, he came to us, appearing on the ground in front of us.
"You again?!" He shouted, "Why do you keep showing up wherever I appear?!"
"I guess we're just drawn to each other." I replied.
He started staring me down, but I noticed he was occasionally peeking up. Even though I was still bringing arms down, I risked a glance at what he was looking at. I noticed that the strange being on top of the gates had vanished, thankfully.
"It seems god has abandoned you Calatan." I smirked, "Now give up, you've lost."
A look of pure anger appeared on his face, and he just kept staring me down. It was at this point that I started to feel heat building up around me. Oh, so thats how it is. I waited a few seconds, then jumped back as the air in front of me exploded.
"WHAT?!" Calatan screamed, "How did you see that?!"
"I'm a member of The Dark Circle old man," I replied, "I know all about the banned magics. The Curse of Detonation won't work on me."
He let out an aggravated scream, and launched himself into the air. From the looks of it, he was headed for the portal.
"PLAN C!" Vor shouted, "MEQ, JEX, INTO THE GATES! QUICKLY BEFORE THEY CLOSE!" 
We all followed Vor's lead, and began making our way towards the gates. My wings had, thankfully, recharged, so I just flew up towards it. I noticed Vor and Jex running up the arms, but Jex seemed to be getting bored of just running, and started latching his shadow onto higher points and pulling himself higher. We were about 20 meters away, and we saw Calatan vanish into the portal, but the gates didn't seem to be closing this time.
"Hurry!" Jex shouted, "Before they close!"
We all picked up the pace, and launched towards the portal. Simultaneously, the three of us made it, and jumped through the portal.
==Part 4, Battle at the Fountain of Domination==
===Part 1===
The first thing I noticed after popping out the other side of the portal: IT WAS HOT. When I say hot, I'm talking volcanic hot. It was like I was walking around inside of a fire, only without getting burnt. I noticed Vor was also panting, but Jex didn't seem to be bothered by it. I guess shadows aren't affected by heat or something. Lucky bastard... Anyways, at least I had a means of dealing with it. I fired up a glacier glyph, and made a hat out of ice. It felt amazing, for about a second. However, the ice almost immediately melted, and the water dripping down from my head was starting to steam. Well wonderful, guess I'm dealing with this oven.
The rediculous heat aside, I started to look around, to try and get an idea of where we were. What I saw gave me absolutely no clues. It looked like a massive cavern, with a ceiling at least a kilometer above me. The ground seemed to be covered in a few centimeters of some sort of liquid, but everything just looked red, so I had no idea what it was. Other than that, there was nothing. No buildings, no people, just empty space. I turned around, and noticed the portal we had come out of looked like a smaller version of the gates that had brought us here.
"God its hot," I said, "Where the hell are we?"
"I don't know," Vor said, "but its definitely in the Nether."
"How can you tell?" Jex asked.
"A few reasons," Vor replied, "The heat, the netherrack in the walls and cieling, and the still air."
"Well thats comforting," I said, "At least we know where we are."
"I wouldn't consider it a good thing," Vor said, "After all, there isnt any glowstone dust in the air here."
"Remind me to make a copy of that eye of yours later." I said.
Vor, as usual showed no response. This guy really needs to develop a sense of humour....
"Whatever the case, where do we go from here?" I asked.
"Forward." Vor replied.
"Seems obvious." Jex replied. "Any particular reason?"
"I can vaguely see something in the distance ahead of us." Vor replied.
Jex and I both nodded, "Forward it is."
"Be careful though," Vor said, "Theres a lot of an energy I dont recognize in the air around us."
"What kind of energy?" I asked.
"I don't know," Vor replied, "But I'm getting a bad feeling from it. Keep your guard up."
"Dude," Jex replied, "We're in the middle of the nether in hostile territory. Having my guard up is basically a reflex."
Vor still showed no response to this. Seriously, does this guy even know how to smile?
In the end, we simply began walking forward. With the heat, it was pretty hard to think, so I don't even know how long we walked for. However, what looked like a structure of some sort started to appear on the horizon. As we got closer to it, I swear I started to hear someone talking in my head....
Vor suddenly stopped, and held his arm out.
"Do either of you hear that?" He asked.
"You mean the voices in my head?" I replied, "Yeah, I wasn't sure if I was just thinking weird thoughts or not."
"Voices?" Jex asked. "I don't hear anything."
"You don't?" Vor asked, "Might have something to do with your shade body, I don't know."
"Do you hear them Vor?" I asked.
"Yes, I hear them," He replied, "but I don't know whos doing it."
"You think it has something to do with this place?" I asked, "Maybe the energy in the air?"
"I would say yes to the first," He replied, "but I don't know about the second."
Vor looked forward again, "Lets keep going, I can definitely see something ahead of us."
Without another word, we continued forward. As we got closer, I started to get a better idea of what I was looking at. There was an incredibly large tower, which seemed to go all the way up to the cieling. I could see people, Zaescans, scattered on the ground around the tower. They all seemed to be concious, thankfully. I ran over to one, and noticed his eyes were bloodshot, and WIDE open.
"I'm... not sure what to make of this." I said, "Any ideas from you two?"
Both of them just shook their heads. In the end we decided to investigate this strange tower first, the people second. As we stepped in, I noticed that the inside was very similar to the outside. Extremely blank, and empty. The only thing of interest was a massive crystalline structure in the very center of the room. As I got closer, it started to look more and more like a person sitting in a chair. I wonder if I'm just imagining things.. These voices in my head aren't helping either. I mean, I couldn't even make out what they were saying, it just sounded like blank whispers. When we got to the base of the crystal structure, I noticed that there was a bright glowing spot, right around where the heart would be if it actually were shaped like a person.
"What do you suppose this thing is?" I asked.
"I don't know," Vor said, "but that glowing spot has me worried."
"You too huh?" I asked, "I don't know why but I'm getting a weird vibe from it."
"The energy..." Vor began, "the energy thats all around us, it seems to be concentrated in that one glowing spot."
"Thats because its all pouring out of that spot."
A voice I could never forget, Calatan was standing behind us.
===Part 2===
It seems that once again, our target came to us. Calatan was standing about 10 feet away, with an extremely calm look on his face. We all flashed our weapons, ready to fight
"Oh put those away." Calatan said, "I know I can't win against 3 of you, so I won't even try."
None of us put our weapons down.
He let out a long sigh. "Well if it makes you feel better, sure, keep them out."
He started walking towards us, but I couldn't feel any hostility coming from him. In the end, he simply walked between us, and started staring at the glowing spot on the crystal.
"My partner calls it The Heart of Mahkrokin," He said, "Which is pretty accurate."
"Mahkrokin?" Vor asked, "That sounds familiar."
"Really?" Calatan asked, "I'm surprised. Most people haven't heard of the Keeper of Domination."
"Keeper of... Domination?" I asked
Even though I couldn't see his face, I could feel him smirking at me. "Yes, he was a keeper that didn't like his position in the nether, and wanted to relocate to the Overworld."
Calatan continued. "Naturally, he could never convince his boss, The Serpent, to let him relocate. So he just sat here, in the middle of this fountain and waited."
Calatan finally turned around. "That is the story that those idiots at that institute on Kal'Kan teach, not knowing his full story."
He put his hands behind his back, and started pacing back and forth. "The truth is, he didn't just sit here and wait. He took action. You see, Mahkrokin earned his title because of his power to control the minds of others. He ended up amassing many followers here in the nether, and devised a plan to relocate. If he couldn't get moved to the Overworld, he would take a spot there by force."
He stopped pacing, and looked straight at us. "In other words, he planned to march on the Overworld and kill a keeper."
We all remained silent, still pointing our weapons at him. I was trying to wrap my head around why he was telling us all of this...
Calatan continued, "In the end, he built those gates that you saw in Zaescaes, and again in Ulfarstradden. He called them The Gates of Domination, a fitting name. He entrusted the ability to summon the gates anywhere in the Overworld to his head follower, and tasked him with traveling there to kidnap thousands of humans. The humans would be brought back here, and would be brought under Mahkrokin's control over time, just from being in his prescence. Once he amassed enough human pawns, he would march on the Overworld, and kill his target."
Calatan started pacing again. "I'm not sure who his intended target was, but I would have to guess it was that piece of shit Silifis."
I noticed Vor harden his stance. I wonder why...
Calatan continued, "However, as you can probably guess, his plan did not go as planned. His head servant was discovered in the Overworld, and was believed to have been killed. Mahkrokin was later discovered, and in the end, was killed here. This crystal structure in front of you is all thats left of him."
Calatan stopped pacing again, and faced us. "However, several forces seemed to be on Mahkrokin's side. When he was killed, his heart continued to ooze out his power, which can still dominate the minds of people around it. I'm sure that you in the middle, the one with the eye that can see energy, have noticed it in the air around us."
Calatan knew about Vor's eye? Where the hell did he get that kind of information?
Calatan turned to me. "Don't be so surprised, I know almost everything there is to know about the three of you."
"Tabarinth Savegaze, Arch Mage of the Varren Mage's Collective."
So he only knew my fake name? Well thats comforting...
He then turned to Jex, "Damien Tyr, an orphan and military prodigy. I know all about your shade magic as well."
Finally, he looked back to Vor, "And Vor, the military supersoldier with no past. I visited that island of yours actually, and found that you buried that bastard Silifis. Shame that my partner wasn't the one that got to kill him... hes been holding a grudge for a long time."
"But where was I?" Calatan asked, "Oh yes, Mahkrokin's servant. Yes, not only is Mahkrokin's heart still oozing domination power, but his head servant, the one who controlled the gates, wasn't actually killed. He survived, but only regained conciousness a few months ago. When I found him, and learned his story, we decided to work together to finish his masters plan. But you know what? Neither of us wanted to actually finish it. We both had similar interests, the reunion of the 2 dimensions. So now we're working together to achiev this goal."
A malicious smile crossed Calatan's face. "He gave control of the gates over to me, and I'm bringing him fresh vitims. It turns out he can empower himself by eating Mahkrokin's energy, but only when its in human hosts. I will continue to bring him human victims, until his power is equal to that of the Void Devourer, and we will finish the Nether War!"
Calatan started laughing like a madman.
"Wait," I said, "So your plan ISN'T to bring the Void Devourer back?"
"Bring him back?" Calatan asked, "Please, I tried that decades ago. There isn't any way of bringing him back that I'm capable of doing. I abandoned that goal a long time ago."
I started staring Calatan down. "I only have one question for you Calatan."
He looked at me and raised an eyebrow, "Oh? And what that might be?"
"Why are you telling us all of this?" I asked
Calatan looked behind me and smiled. "Simple, I've been trying to buy enough time for my partner to arrive. And here he is!"
I immediately felt it.. that cold prescence. The fact that I suddenly felt cold in this oven was surprising, but I slowly turned around. There was an incredibly tall man standing behind me, I'm talking 8 feet tall at least. He was wearing a black cloak, with black boots and black gloves. His skin was somewhat pale, with long jet black hair. What really caught my attention was the lightning bolt shaped scar over his left eye... Then I noticed his eyes. They were red, like Calatan's, but his sclera were... pitch black. The figure gave us a wide grin, and I knew immediately that this was the figure we saw on top of the gates.
"You're late." Calatan said. "What took you so long?"
"Sorry Calatan." He said, with an incredibly deep voice that sent shivers down my spine. "I got sidetracked."
He started eyeing us down, but his attention got stuck on Vor.
"Ooh," He said, "This one knows who I am."
Jex and I both turned to Vor.
"I had a theory after that incident you pulled with the burning sky." Vor said, "But after seeing you up close, I know that the theory was right."
Vor paused, "You're Tethris, aren't you?"
He gave us a big grin, and a mock bow.
"God of Disaster, at your service."
===Part 3===
So, this was Tethris. I had heard stories about him, mostly from Calatan when I was younger. The incredibly powerful nether spirit that caused havoc in Restine over a millenia ago. But one thing about him was bugging me...
"I thought you died." I said. "Wasn't it a keeper that obliterated you?"
He continued to smile. "Well, you're half right. As Calatan said, I was in the Overworld gathering human sacrifices with the gates. It was going well for awhile, but then that bastard Silifis showed up and ruined it. Thankfully, he didn't realize that when I die, my body splits into pieces. I ended up breaking into 6 pieces, with 1 of those taking the hit and dying, while the other 5 slipped into the nether."
"Let me guess." Vor said. "Zeno, Vada, and Xicci were 3 of those fragments."
Tethris gave a light clap. "Right you are my boy! Yes those are the names given to those 3 fragments. The other 2 fragments were never given names, probably because they just hid out in the Overworld. However, when the other 3 fragments were reunited, they hunted down the other 2, which resulted in my rebirth."
"What about the 6th fragment?" I asked.
"Oh he died, so I was quite a bit weaker after rebirth." He replied. "Thankfully, thanks to Calatan here, I've already recovered that strength, and then some."
I was starting to get a feel for this guy... He had a personality that I wasn't expecting for starters. But I could feel his prescence, and not just from the chill. It was like this guy unintentionally demanded everyones attention, and got it. I knew we would be able to take down Calatan, but this guy...
"If you ladies are done gossiping." Calatan chimed, "Help me deal with these 3."
"No." Tethris responded.
"I'm sorry," Calatan said, "but what did you just say?"
"I said no," Tethris responded, "I'm not going to help you fix the problem you caused."
"WHAT?!" Calatan yelled, "But I can't beat these 3 on my own!"
"Who was it that told you not to attack their capital?" Tethris yelled, now with a very serious look on his face.
"I..."
"Who warned you that attacking in the spot that they would predict would end badly?"
"Bu..."
"Who told you that going through with your stubborness and doing it anyway would result in your death?"
"Y... You.."
"Yes, exactly, I told you that. Yet you still went ahead and did what you wanted anyway."
Tethris exhaled
"I'm not going to bail you out of the problem that I told you would happen. If you want to stop these 3, you'll have to do it on your own."
"But..." Calatan said, "But I'll die!"
"If you die," Tethris said, "Then its because you didn't heed my warning."
Calatan let out an extremely agitated scream. "Fine! I'll do it myself! But we're going to have a long chat after this!"
I'm not sure where this confidence came from, he was just freaking out about us killing him a minute ago. Calatan pulled a knife out from his robes, and began pointing it at me. Vor and Jex began walking forward, but I held my arm in front of them.
"Stay back, I'll deal with him." I said.
"You sure?" Vor asked.
"Yes," I responded, "I can take him. Besides, you 2 should keep an eye on Tethris, just incase he tries something."
Vor and Jex both nodded, and stepped backwards.
"So its just you and me now." Calatan said, a huge grin spreading across his face. "I'm going to enjoy tearing you appart."
I didn't bother responding, and simply stared him down.
His grin quickly fell to an angry glare. I started to feel the heat around me build up. I already told him this wouldn't work... I waited a few seconds, and jumped forward as the air behind me exploded.
"I already told you." I said, now charging towards Calatan. "The Curse of Detonation wont work on me!"
Calatan started grinning again, and held both of his hands up behind him. So he learned that one too? He threw his arms forward, and a miniature tornado appeared and began charging towards me. I noticed the tornado was spinning counter clockwise, and quickly hit the sweet spot with a force glyph. The tornado quickly began to dissipate.
"Catastrophe wont work either." I said. "In fact, none of the curses will work on me."
His started glaring at me, and I noticed him pulling a metal rod out of his sleeve. As I watched, the rod sharpened into a blade. So he can use the Curse of Sharpening on other objects? That was new to me. I quickly glassed a sword, and countered his swing.
"Stubborn as ever I see." I said, "You really never change."
His grin slowly started to come back, and I noticed a green light beginning to emit out of his body. God, how many curses did he learn? Whatever the case, my upper body strength wasn't that great, so he was beginning to overpower me. I let out a light surge of lightning through my sword, which traveled through Calatan's rod and electrocuted him. I jumped back, but noticed he didn't seem to be that fazed by the shock. The green glow around him was slowly getting brighter over time.. I guess he can use the Curse of Ascension a lot consecutively.
"I never expected you to learn Curse Magic," I said, "Who even taught you? Was it Black?"
Calatan threw his head back and laughed. "Black? Please, Black is dead."
I raised an eyebrow, because as far as I knew, Zane Black was still MIA.
"Yes, hes dead," Calatan said, probably noticing my confusion, "he died during the Dalverad Outbreak. So no, it wasn't Black. It was someone better."
Better at Curse Magic than the father of Curse Magic? Who could that be....
"Ignatius Tearsay." Calatan said, "He taught me when I joined Black Hand."
Black Hand? Calatan was in Black Hand? It was a name I had heard many times, an organization that would take just about any job you would offer them, so long as it paid well. They were pretty well known in the various underworlds in New Voldrania. To think that Calatan had joined them... and that one of Varrenholm's most wanted man is in it as well. What really confused me was why Calatan was talking so much in the middle of a fight... I mean, I do it all the time, but still.
I had gotten the information I wanted though, and decided to finish him off here. I pulled out a small jar filled with a strange clear liquid, and opened it up. I poured some of the gelatinous liquid on my sword, and charged at Calatan again. He simply smiled, and stood there. He didn't even resist when I stabbed him in the stomach.
"Please, you can't kill me with a stab to the.... sto...mach..." His voice began to trail.
Almost immediately, he screamed in pain, and I could see the cracks on his face gradually expanding.
"WHAT?! HOW?! WHAT DID YOU DO?!" He screamed.
I grinned. "I coated that sword in rabble badger saliva."
"WHAT?!" He screamed in confusion. "What the hell would that do?"
"I've been researching your special advanced necromancy for decades Calatan." I responded, "And in that time, I found out a very bizarre weakness. It seems the spell keeping you alive doesn't know how to react to rabble badger saliva, and eventually ends up killing itself."
A look of pure fear erupted on Calatans quickly crumbling face, but that look quickly changed to pure anger.
"You.... You!" He tried to talk, but he could barely formulate words.
"Now rest in agony... father." I said
A look of confusion appeared on his face, but within a few seconds, his body had completely crumbled to ash.
===Part 4===
It is done. The goal I've been striving towards for nearly 20 years. I wanted to take a second to revel in my victory, but I remembered we still had another issue at hand. I heard clapping behind me.
"Bravo! Bravo!" Tethris said, with a big grin on his face. "You did very well."
I turned around, confused.
"Wait," I said, "You're happy that I just killed him? Wasn't he helping you?"
"Yes, he was," Tethris said, "but I've been planning on killing him myself for the past few months. So you've saved me the trouble. Thanks!"
Vor, Jex, and I looked at him in confusion.
"You seem confused," he said, "but you're in luck! Since I'm in such a good mood now, I'll explain!"
He started laughing merrily, but the 3 of us still kept our weapons out and our guards up.
"You see," he began, "There was a very important detail that Calatan didn't realize. I wasn't Mahkrokin's head servant, I was his most powerful slave. He didnt HAVE any servants, he just dominated the minds of everyone around him. However, I, unlike the other slaves, was concious of the fact that he was controlling me, so I always harbored a grudge towards him."
He looked up at Mahkrokin's corpse and began smiling. "When I woke up, I found that I was no longer under his control, but I still had control over his gates. While I wandered, looking for a purpose, I came across Calatan, and we started chatting. Personally, I never had any intention of doing what he wanted, I just followed him around and told him my story in hopes of finding a purpose. It wasn't long before he really started to aggravate me, however, but I still followed him around because he was giving me power. While I wasn't the biggest fan of powering up using my old slaver's leftovers, power was power. It wasn't until a few weeks ago that I remembered what my original purpose was, the purpose I had before Mahkrokin found me."
He looked back down at us. "My purpose was to become powerful enough to stand up to my brother."
Brother? Do nether spirits even HAVE brothers? These were the only questions going through my head at the time.
He continued. "In the end, I decided that I would sit back and watch Calatan fail, but I warned him that he would because I knew he would try it anyway. That made his death all the more satisfying. Now that hes dead, I guess I'll have to search for a new means of accumulating power."
Tethris began to turn around. "So I guess this is goodbye for now." He held his hand up as he started walking away.
He was just... leaving? Honestly I was expecting him to kill us for fun or something.
However, he suddenly stopped, and I think my heart skipped a beat. "Oh yeah, I almost forgot."
He turned his head back to face us. "Since you did me a favour, I guess I'll do you one too."
I don't think I like where this is going.
"Calatan wasn't the one in control of the gates today." He said, "He handed control over to one of his followers earlier, just before he showed up in your capital. I never bothered learning the guy's name, but he had the same hair and skin colour as Calatan, and I think his name started with a C.... or maybe a K."
With this, he turned back around. "Now we're even. Let's meet up later sometime. We can do lunch!"
With this, he took another few steps forward and vanished.
===Part 5===
Calatan was dead. Tethris had left, but didn't seem hostile. The gates are now being controlled by who I'm going to assume is my brother, Keith. Not really the ending I was expecting to this story...
"First order of business," I said, "How the hell are we going to get out of here?"
We had already checked back on the Zaescans, and upon closer inspection, we realized they were dead. What a shame... In addition, we had walked back to the gates we used to get here, but they were closed.
"I don't know," Jex said, "Maybe we can open them from this side?"
We had already looked up and down them, but couldnt find any kind of lever or switch to open them. I almost suggested we teleport, but I remembered that teleport glyphs can't cross dimensions. Suddenly, a strange thought crossed my mind...
I yelled "-4601, 66, 2324!"
Jex and Vor looked at me like I was crazy, but at that moment, the eyes in the skulls on the doors lit up. The chains in the middle started to strain, and suddenly shattered. The gates slid apart, and a portal appeared in between them.
"What..." Vor said, "What did you just do?"
"Simple," I replied, "I yelled the coordinates of a place that I know of. I honestly didn't expect anything from it, but it seems to have worked!"
"Ok..." Vor replied, "But how do we know that this portal actually leads to that spot?"
He did have a point... I thought of a solution though, and glassed a long metal rod. I stuck the rod through the portal and held it there. After a few seconds, lightning began to course through the rod.
"Yup, definitely where I think it is." I said.
"What? Jex asked, "You know what, I'm not even going to ask..."
"How can we be sure its safe?" Vor asked.
"Well..." I said, "We can't. But do you have any other ideas?"
Vor looked like wanted to say something, but couldn't.
"Alright then," I said, "Lets go!"
I started walking towards the portal, but Jex and Vor stayed back.
"Ah what the hell," Jex said, "Its not like we have any other options."
Vor, however, remained indecisive. In the end, I grabbed his arm, and jumped through. Jex followed right behind me. As soon as we passed through the portal, we appeared in the air above a massive crater, with the full sized gates behind us. Yup, we made it. Only problem: We we're pretty high up. I let go of Vor, and just switched on my wings. They really helped with making a safe landing. Jex did nothing while in the air, but as soon as he hit the ground he just vanished. A few seconds later, he came out of the ground, completely unharmed. Vor seemed to be throwing his knives straight up, and teleporting to them. I get it, hes cutting his velocity. After a few teleports, he teleported safetly to a knife he had thrown to the ground.
"Lets not do that again." Vor said.
"I don't know Vor," I smirked, "It was pretty fun."
"No." He said, "Never. Again."
Jex and I both laughed.
I looked around, and confirmed where we were. We were standing at the bottom of a massive crater I had made on a small island in the middle of Stormvale. It may or may not have been made when I was testing Genesis and Apocalypse Glyphs...
Whatever the case, we were back.
Our job was finished.
But I knew... this wasn't over.
==Aftermath==
News of the event that had come to be known as "The Near Nether War" quickly spread all over the world. Thankfully, most of what had happened was kept under wraps. All the world knew was that Calatan had tried to start another Nether War, but had failed.
Varrenholm wrote a public letter to the rest of the world, telling them that Calatan Morentius was dead. Sadly, the heroes responsible for killing him are unknown.
News of Keith Morentius controlling the gates was somehow leaked, which only raised the sense of unease in the world.
The existance and threat Tethris posed was also made known to the world. Most Norvanian priests began to spread the news that the world would be in danger is Tethris was not dealt with.
Both Ulfarstradden and Zethrel were able to fully recover from the damage they had recieved during the appearances of the gates, but the fear still runs deep in the hearts of their respective citizens.
Memorials to the lost were built in both Zethrel and Ulfarstradden, honouring those that had lost their lives during these events.
While most call this event The Near Nether War, some have taken to calling it "The Dawn of a Dark Age."
Category:New Voldrania Category:Story