Rick and Beatrice stand on a cliff overlooking a small pass between the equatorial marshes and Heroldin. Thousands of Hellbent soldiers bottleneck into the pass forcing their way through ruksha forces. Screams of hatred and agony echo through the ravine as soldiers clash.

  “Should we intervene brother?” Beatrice asks.

  “No, we are but pawns on the board of war, we should report this information to queen Hera.”

  “Do you think she will send aid?”

  “If she doesn’t, then she might not have a kingdom to rule.”

  “What about Mateo, he’s been taken by the dragon knight sir Jessica.”

  Rick laughs. Beatrice stares at him. He continues to laugh. After a few moments he regains his composure.

  “Sorry, Sir Jessica sounds fucking stupid, anyway, senior Ryusane has more powerful friends than he knows, I hold no worries about him.”

  “But she’ll torture him, she’ll hurt him,” Beatrice says concerned.

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  “And he will endure.”

  Fighting an order of dragons and their knights will take more than just a few adventurers. Even kings and queens haven’t been able to drive them from the core lands in thousands of years. Who will step in to save Gottes from the Hellbent? Then when it’s in a weakened war-torn state who will protect it? Is this the intention of the Cult of Drakvania? To strike when the lands are weakened. Surely the council of dragons would not approve of such a thing. That is, unless it seemed like they were there to help.

  A holy war rages across Gottes led by a realmwalker who has spent decades of their time founding the ‘Cult of the Immortal Father’. Their true identity is a mystery to all but their followers. The profit of the Cult of the Immortal Father is yet to be revealed.

  In a realm where Mateo seeks to find a way to escape bullshit. Bullshit finds a way.

  In one of Natalia’s memories a luminous pink glow lights the midnight sky. Auerelius looks over his sleeping companions as Natalia appears on his shoulder.

  “Why do you watch them sleep?” Natalia asks.

  “To see them at peace, for if I lose them tomorrow, at least I can remember them this way,” he replies.

  “Do you watch me sleep too?” Natalia asks.

  He pulls her off his shoulder laying her on a small, enchanted mattress beside his own bedroll.

  “Only until your peaceful slumber comforts me unto my own.”

  Natalia smiles as he snaps his fingers pulling a small blanket over her.

  “Natalia, I know you may not be my pixie in the conventional way, but,” Auerelius pauses.

  “Yes, prince Everbold?” she replies.

  “I love you.”

  “Hell isn’t a place, it’s a mindset, somewhere we put ourselves when we feel we need to be punished.”

  -Mateo Ryusane