Bloodfire burned from every corner of the Temple of The Abyssals in Za’Lim which was decorated with stones made out of screaming faces which casted shadows along the walls.

  At the center of the chamber, a massive demon knelt in submission with his forehead touching the ground. His purplish skin carved with runes pulsed with abyssal magic along with the four bronze-like horns which curled backward from his skill almost like a crown.

  He pleaded, “Oh, Lord of The Abyss! Where darkness flows endlessly! Where the forsaken cry! Please hear my words O’Lord! I, Margon, your servant, humbly requests your presence. Please guide me!”

  Before him stood a big, eerily glowing violet statue of a faceless figure wearing armour with a star in it’s hand. It was carved from the stones brought from the deepest layers of the Abyss.

  Suddenly, the chamber trembled faintly as the statue glowed brightly and a cold voice echoed from it.

  “Changes are stirring. The seal weakens. Keep your eyes on the source.”

  Malgron pressed his forehead to the cold stone floor and said in a voice filled with fear and reverence, “Yes, my lord. I will find it.”

  “Do not fail me, Margon.”

  The light from the staute flared dangerously.

  “The time soon approaches when the Blood of The Evil will awaken… and we must be ready.”

  Margon clenched his fists in anger and he dug his claws onto the floor and shouted, “As my Lord commands!”

  The light in the statue flickered, then dimmed to the usual eerily violet glow.The presence behind it faded, but the air remained heavy with malice.

  Rising to his feet, Margon cracked his muscles and a cruel smile formed on his scarred lips as he murmured,

  “The hunt begins!”

  ---

  In the Tainted Forest,

  A crackling purple portal formed on the outer edge of the forest. Kaelen and the old mage emerged out of it as the portal twisted and vanished behind them.

  “Woah!”, Kaelen quietly exclaimed as he gazed at his surrondings while thinking, ‘T-This is… unlike anything I have ever seen.’

  The huge trees stood unnaturally still with ashen grey bark and marked with scars. The canopy above was so thick that it blocked whatever was left of the sunlight after the grey clouds above them blocked most of it.

  “This place feels… wrong,” Kaelen muttered as he adjusted the armour on his shoulders.

  The old mage sighed heavily as he dug his staff into the dark soil, his breath visible in the cold air and said,”It should. This is a cursed land which is tainted by the blood of an ancient war which shattered an entire Elven Kingdom.”

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  “What?! An entire kindom?!”, Kaelen exclaimed loudly.

  “Shhh!”, The old mage put a finger on his lips and said, “Do not shout here, boy! Unless you want to get killed.”

  Kaelen nodded and whispered, “What happened here that caused an entire kingdom to collapse?”

  Gazing at the destroyed forest with nostalgia, the old mage began, “Long ago, this forest was part of Sylvalia, the great elven kingdom that stretched from the eastern borders of the Crellan Empire into the now Kingdom of Restoveria. Back then, the high elves flourished. They were masters of magic. They balanced politics, strategy and trade with ease. But pride…”

  He shook his head in disgust and continued, “… was their downfall.”

  “Oh?”, Kaelen raised his eyebrows and asked curiously, “What did they do?”

  “They began to consider themselves as beings worthy of worship and began to play with powers that were way beyond their understanding,” The old mage continued, “The ruling family sought to make themselves as deities in the temples they worshipped. They cast every other elven race as inferior when compared to them especially the dark elves. The dark elves were told to leaves their homes in the kingdom and live in Khraos since the high elves had told everbody that the dark elves were born as a result of a union between an elf and a demon.”

  “Of course,” The old mage said as he began to walk forward, “The dark elves wouldn’t just sit still and watch their homes be destroyed and their families be humiliated publicly and forced to relocate. Thus, the Twilight war began.”

  “Why would the high elves do that?”, Kaelen frowned as he followed the old mage.

  “Power, Kaelen.” The old mage replied, “The dark elves believed that the high elves had always deliberately tried to weaken them. They thought that they were stripped away from their true potential. They called themselves Vael’Sharis – ‘Children of the Dark.’ And during their rebellion, they used magic from Khraos itself.”

  “What?!”, Kaelen had a disgusted look on his face as he asked, “They allied with demons? Even knowing that this would prove what the high elves lied about them?”

  “Not at first.”, The old mage chuckled bitterly, “But desperate people make bad decisions. When they realized that they were no match against the high elves’ magic, they allied with the demons of Khraos and opened up a rift, connecting both continents. The demons had promised them that they would wipe out the high elves for them in exchange of a piece of a territory in the new kingdom the dark elves would build later on after winning the war. Little did they know, they unleashed hell upon their own homeland and this very forest became the battlefield.”

  He gestured around them and said, “See those scars? The air? The magic from centuries ago still lingers here. Those trees?”

  He pointed at a blackened trunk and said, “They are grown from the blood of fallen elven mages whose ghosts wander around here seeking vengenance.”

  Kaelen shivered despite the warmth of his armor and asked, “And the war?”

  “It ended in ruin. The high elves won but at a terrible price. The survivors of the Vael’Sharis ran inside the rift to Khraos and Sylvalis fell not long after as its magic lines had been fractured beyond repair.”

  “Sounds like a place we shouldn’t be wandering into,” Kaelen muttered nervously.

  The old mage smiled faintly and replied, “True. But where else would you find what we seek?”

  They pressed deeper into the forest and the air grew heavier with each step. Fog clung to the ground like mist, curling around Kaelen’s boots and he thought, ‘I can’t shake the feeling that something is watching me.’

  The old mage’s voice snapped him out of his reverie, “Stop daydreaming, Kaelen. Stay alert. This place is still—”

  WHOOSH!

  Suddenly, the sharp hiss of an arrow cut through the air. Kaelen’s training instincts kicked in as he twisted to the side just in time to avoid the arrow that grazed his cheek and stuck itself into a nearby tree.

  ‘What in the seven hells?!’, Kaelen thought as he heart pounded in his chest. He spun in the direction of the arrow and narrowed his eyes.

  Among the shadows of the trees, two furious emerald-green eyes emerged with a bow drawn toward him.

  “Demons aren’t allowed here!”