CH75.1

Duskthorne, it is morning now and the streets are already filled with people doing their different jobs in this calm town that is basically depending on the stores.

But in one of the houses, a man in his fifties was sitting in his bed while looking in horror at the letter in his hand.

"Lance, honey?", Said a woman gently from outside the room, it sounds like she is looking for the man who is named Lance before finally entering the room.

"There you are, I was calling for you and you weren't replying so thought you went out to bring something, breakfast is ready, come on.", Said the woman gently before she noticed that Lance was looking afraid, her looks started to change gradually into worry.

"Lance? You don't look well, what's bothering you?", Asked the woman while walking closer to Lance, she then noticed the letter in his hand.

"Honey, look at me, what is in that letter?", Asked the woman again while putting both of her hands over Lance's cheeks and kneeling down.

Lance gradually looked in her eyes, he was crying! The woman was shocked after seeing him like that, he was in shock and afraid.

"They are dead, Linda, they are all dead.", Said Lance in grief, Linda started to look afraid too.

"Who? Do you mean the seekers?!", Said Linda in shock while widening her eyes.

"Every one of them, they died in a gruesome manner with no one to help them.", Said Lance in grief before bursting in tears like a child! His cries were for someone in great sorrow and gloom, Linda started tearing too but she immediately hugged Lance tightly.

"I'm sorry, Lance, it's not your fault, please don't blame yourself.", Said Linda while tearing but still holding herself from breaking down like Lance who wasn't able to hold himself, he was even drooling like a baby from the heartache.

Now it's obvious that Lance know knows about what happened to the shadow seekers in Orstone, and his love for his guild was unmatched as he's clearly not faking those tears and cries of despair, all his friends and the people that trusted him are dead, and he was even crying more for someone else that he thinks that she died among the seekers too.

The castle of the Cragmoore zealots, especially in a very dark room at the lower part of the castle deep in the mountain, there was someone in the middle of the room with green vapour emitting from his body, there was a creepy looking circle in green and red colors drawn on the ground that this mysterious person is standing on, the circle contained creepy signs and words in a very strange language.

The light was absent and the only source of light was the green color of the circle that was illuminating strangely, and due to the fact that the light was faint, the person wasn't visible enough to detect him but his height was actually apparent, he was about 7.2 feet! That's something inhuman of course, he was wearing some sort of an armor that wasn't very visible and he was partly leaning on a long sword stabbed in the ground and he was grasping the grip with his right hand in black metallic gloves.

With his left hand, he was carrying the same strange war mask that was with Blamore before in the balcony! He actually looking at it calmly but his long pale yellow hair was covering his face along with this dark room, his hair was actually reaching the middle of his back!

The war mask looks different now, it's not looking old anymore and there were additional horizontal metallic bars intersecting with the vertical ones in the shape of net which makes it harder to detect the person, if person is the right word to describe him, behind this metallic mask.

His breathing was calm but actually very audible and making some sort of resonance in the room, the cold breath was frightening!

"Welcome back, paladin Tairish.", Said Blamore who was standing close to the door of the room and looking at the mysterious person, Tairish, a paladin!

"I DIDN'T GET THE HONOR TO BE CALLED A PALADIN FROM MY LORD, SO IT'S STILL COMMANDER TAIRISH, HUMAN.", Said Tairish in a cold sinister voice that resonated harshly in the room, his voice was literally menacing as a demon!

"I know, but you were going to be promoted to a paladin sooner or later but the cursed night came.", Said Blamore confidently, Tairish remained silent for a moment.

"YOU SEEM TO KNOW A LOT, HUMAN, WHO ARE YOU AND WHERE AM I?", Asked Tairish in deep sinister voice, it looks like he started to feel that Blamore knows a lot.

"I know you are wondering why you are still alive and what is happening, but I decided to let you look at your war mask for some time to know that we are not the enemies, we both serve the same lord although the difference between our species, first of all, my name is Vex Blamore, and I'm the current leader for the Cragmoore zealots, the only worshippers of our lord, not the tainted gods of course.", Said Blamore confidently, Tairish listened carefully to him but upon hearing the word (gods), he started tightening his grip more over his sword.

"WORSHIPPERS?", Said Tairish in his sinister voice.

"There is a lot that happened after the ancient war, let me enlighten you about all what happened after it, paladin Tai-.", Said Blamore calmly before Tairish interrupted him aggressively.

"DO NOT CALL ME BY THAT HONORABLE NAME AGAIN, ONLY MY LORD WAS THE ONE TO GRANT ME THAT HONOR AND I FAILED AT THE END, I DO NOT LIKE TO REPEAT MY WORDS, HUMAN.", Said Tairish angrily in a higher voice while dark energy started to raise from his body and the mountain started to shake! Blamore looked seriously at him.

"It is best not to trigger him in that state, he is still in the shock of his death and he seems very loyal.", Thought Blamore.