Nocturnal Eternity
-by Ranger Aragorn

Nocturnal Eternity (Part I)

The sun was going down by the hill when the city guard started to walk to the Castle entrance. It was the end of the month, and it was the day that he would receive his wage. As he entered the room of the Guard's Base, in front of the Castle, a fat man with a mustache threw a bag with 30 gold coins to him.
"What is your name?", asked the man while checking a list.
"Trevarus Dredmor," replied the city guard, walking out while the fat man crossed his name in the list.
For five and a half years he had been a guard of the city of Darkon, capital of the kingdom of Drakon. This was the 66th time he repeated this same thing. Work during the day, getting his wage, and go to his house to rest. But this night was going to be different.

As the tired man was walking to his house with his well-earned gold he looked toward the Castle Tower. That was where the mage Azilin, king of Drakon, lived.
"I wonder what that crazy mage does there everyday," thought the guard. Suddenly, another tower of the castle started to fall and the floor started to move. From the tower at which he was looking before came a great wave of a dark blue light. The only thing Trevarus could see was men being hit by that light and dying. Without thinking twice he jumped and tried to hide somewhere. He saw a dark blue light, and then everything turned into black.

He woke up in the same place he fell. Around him were destroyed buildings, dead bodies, and the sky was completely dark.
"What happened?! Am I dead? How long have I being sleeping here?!" Confused, he started to walk, his destination unknown.

He remembered walking through the destroyed city for one month, always under the black sky, until he found a group of three people, two men and a woman. One of the men was tall, with a gray beard with long hair of the same color. He showed a symbol of Fardos to him, "Go away, undead creature!".
Dredmor said "Wait! I am not an undead, I am a living one, like you!" "It is true!" said the woman, she was young and beautiful. Green eyes, long black hair, and a mysterious face. By the red cloak and the staff she was holding, he assumed she was a sorceress.

"I am glad to meet another strong fighter, I will need some help if we want to get away from this cursed place alive," said a middle-aged man. He was armored heavily, he had a tower shield in one hand, and a sword with magic flames in the other.
Dredmor introduced himself to the group, and the group introduced themselves. Telerf was a cleric of Fardos, Diana was a sorceress and Drinus a knight. They invited Trevarus to join then, and started to walk again trough the dark land.

Three years had passed, until they saw a dark tower. It was the first place that could have some living creature in there, all this time. The group decided to get prepared to enter the place. Trevarus started to feel some headaches, but he did not know why. He took up the rear, while Drinus was the first, with Diana and Telerf in the middle.

The dark tower was not that big, it had only a spiral staircase to a room at the top. The group went up and into a room decorated with skulls, black books, light candlesticks and a dark throne. Sitting there was a horrid creature with a black cloak. The only thing that they could see was his skull face with red lights in the place of the eyes.

The creature started to speak, "Welcome! I have been waiting for you. What can I do for my only visitors in all these years?.." A cold breeze went with his words.
"You are responsible for all that happened to this kingdom?! You are responsible for our suffering?" said Drinus, raising his firesword.
"No, but I will be. I know that you all want to go out of this endless nightmare. I will give you the chance, but only one of you may go," said the undead.
"No way! If we cannot go together, then none of us will go! We will find another away!" said Telerf, with Fardos' symbol in hand.

"I would not be so sure," said Trevarus, as he beheaded Telerf with his sharp axe. Diana faced him, scared. She had shown a special attraction for him in the last months, but now she could not move. How could he do that? Her mind was full of questions, those could not be answered, because Trevarus put his axe trough her chest in a matter of seconds, her heart stopped, her eyes closed.
"Damn you!" said Drinus with much rage. He battled with Dredmor for a long time, but the swordsman fell at last, dead.

Trevarus was confused, why did he do that? He knew that he should not, but he did not feel any guilt.
"I have the answers to your questions," said the skeleton, getting off his throne.
"You were chosen, you are the one I have been looking for."
"What do you want with me? My life?" said the wounded guard.
"No, you will become my servant, and in exchange I will give you all you always wanted. You were tired of your meaningless life as a guard, I will give you gold and power. I will take you off this cursed land."
"What exactly will I have to do for you?" Said Trevarus, cleaning the blood off his axe.
"First you will have to get ready, to become a black guard."

Dredmor had read many books about religions, laws and culture about the land he would be sent too. He also had to further train his fighting and riding skills. He was trained to kill.
"Now you are truly a black guard to me, the Lich King, you are ready to travel to the lands to which you shall bring death and destruction!" said the lich.
"As you wish," replied the black guard.
"I enchanted your axe. It will give you strength, but it will require souls, human souls, to feed the blade. If you do not feed it, it will feed up off your own soul. I named your blade with your name, Dredmor shall it be called as well."
"No worries about that, souls will not be missing," said Trevarus.
"Then go through that portal, and I will give you further instructions when the time comes," said the lich.
The dark knight went through the portal, not knowing exactly were it would lead.


Nocturnal Eternity (Part II)

When he opened his eyes he saw a field of grass, trees around him, the sun, and a road, that would probably lead to a city. He heard a group of people coming from the south, and them he moved with his black horse into the woods. After some time he could see a group of merchants coming.
"I am going to need some food and gold, and this axe also needs some souls." With no doubt he gave the order to the black horse, and both started to run attacking the merchants.
It was not a hard battle, he attacked commoners, after all. Trevarus started to count the gold, and get the water and food. He stacked a bottle of water at this belt, at the side of some bottles of poison he had there. Looking to the bodies laying on the ground, in pools of blood, the black guard saw a big shadow. He looked to the sky, and something big was coming in his way.

It was a griffon, with some kind of divine warrior over it. The sacred one yelled "I am Bertor, sacred warrior, your sins shall be punished now!!!" The griffon charged against Trevarus, and he fell from his horse. Quickly the griffon came to a second deadly attack.
Before the griffon could hit the black guard with his claws, Trevarus broke a bottle of poison that fell on the ground from his belt with his axe. The axe was poisoned. He dodged the griffon's attack, and hit it with a deadly strike. In a few seconds the griffon died.
The sacred warrior was in pure rage, his companion just died. The sacred fought against the profane, but the rage of Bertor was his curse to die. The fury of the moment did not let him concentrate on the fight, while the cold-blooded black guard finished him with an axe hit at the neck.
Trevarus could see the soul of the sacred warrior flying around Dredmor, the cursed axe. He could feel the power coming through his arms. He could fell the energy of the souls in agony.

After taking care of his wounds, Trevarus followed the Main Road that led to a big city called "Thais". He saw a cemetery, and decided to visit a grave. "I do not know anyone buried here, what am I doing here?" he thought. "You are here to receive my message. Mass murdering is the most evil action for a human, even more without regret, like you are now. I will give you your mission. You need to take a sacred symbol that is being used by a high priest in the city ahead. Take the symbol to me!" He heard inside his head, the cold as ice voice of the Lich.
He went back to his horse and started to follow the road to enter Thais.

As he entered the city a guard stopped him, saying "You are the one who robbed the merchants, and murdered them, Are you not?!" Five more guards came from the street corner, to back up the first.
Trevarus was a bit confused "Guards� haha. and I was one once..." He got even more confused when he saw a woman behind the guards. She had a long black hair, a beautiful white, almost pale, skin, she must had around 22 years, and her green eyes made her even more beautiful. Though he noticed a sacred symbol of Fardos with her.
"Answer me?!" said the first guard, getting his sword, as the other five already did.
"Answer? Of course," Trevarus said, and he knocked the first guard, not killing him, but hitting his head with the wooden handle of the axe. He passed through the other guards with his horse, and faced the woman. He needed to take that symbol, but looking to her scared face, he just could not. Dropping his defense the other 5 guards knocked him down.

He woke up inside a prison. After one hour the guards came to take him somewhere. They took him to a public place, a square, where many people were watching the scene. On this morning, on the stage, three people were sitting, two men and one woman, in large chairs. For some reason they reminded him of Drinus, Telerf and Diana.
The man in the middle started to speak "We, the high priests of Fardos, are here today, to judge this man, accused of murdering 10 people, and a sacred warrior of the good Fardos. Let the justice of goodness prevail in this judgment."
"Do you admit the crimes of which you are being accused, black knight?"
"Yes, I do"
Everyone was in silence, how could someone do that, did he not know that he would be killed because of that?!
"You killed the fathers of many families, you evil beast! For this, your life will be taken to pay the cost of their lives, you miserable worm!"
"Interesting how this miserable worm is worthy to pay the life of your great citizens."
"What? You dare to disrespect me?! You will be killed tomorrow, by the morning!"
"Are you not the good god? Yes, I killed you, but I do regret my actions."
Trevarus was taken away to the prison again. The public was a bit confused, but applauded his death sentence.

Inside his cage there was a skull. He looked to the skull. He started to hear the voice of the undead skeleton, the lich, again. "Do not fear, black guard. If you work to take the sacred symbol, I will save you. If you do not, you will have to suffer the consequences."
"But there is something special about that woman!" Trevarus said.
"It was nothing, you were confused because of the sacred relic, find a way to escape from your prison, and bring the sacred symbol to the graveyard!" He heard the bell strike 4 o�clock. He was going to die at 5 o�clock. Suddenly, the woman, the high priest, came and opened his cage.
"Hurry, we have to escape!" she said.
He looked into her eyes "Why are you helping me?" he asked. "What is your name?" she asked.
"Trevarus."
"Trevarus, I believe you regret your actions, and I think you deserve a second chance."
"What is your name?"
"Liana."
A guard appeared in the corridor, both started to flee, Trevarus only had time to grab his axe out of the cage.

They went up a staircase, and then found themselves over a mountain. They heard the bell striking 5 o'clock. They walked until they were allowed to, because the mountain was over at a great dark fall.
"This place is called Great Abyss, no one dares to go down there, the few who did never returned! We are surrounded!"
A group of armed men, lead by Felerf and Drinus, the other two high priests of Fardos, came over the stairs.
"All right, now you kidnap lady Liana, I will give you a lesson, worm!" said Drinus.
The small army prepared their bows, and shot arrows in their direction. Liana took a step forward and took a shot in the chest, preventing Dredmor from being wounded. She fell on the ground, her breath was going slower, the wound was deadly.
"Forgive me," Trevarus said.
"Do not worry, I know I am doing the right thing. I do not know why, but I know it is the right thing to do," Liana replied.
"I am not a king, I am but a guard! How could I trust if there was good and bad�" Trevarus said, almost crying.