Rise to Prominence

Months have passed since the abyss demon incident. Jervaintus was promoted to captain and now his own man. He used the money he saved up to purchase new armor and an ornate long sword. A thin small amount of silver was mixed with the metal, its holy properties would help him against any demons he will face.

He is summoned by King Algis "The Fury", the new ruler of the Hozran Kingdom. He assigns Jervaintus with Sargeant Durkins once again, as the two have formed a strong bond together.

"We have had reports of demon attacks in the monastery. You two are the only soldiers available who have experience on these matters. I shall have you accompanied by a few reinforcements as well." The king dismisses them.

Jervaintus and Durkins head to the barracks to ready their gear for the mission. Jervaintus stops what he is doing and asks Durkins.

"What did Godfrey tell the old king?" He sorts his belongings.

"Some sort of prophecy where the world ends and some imminent threat approaching, the usual." Durkins sounds displeased.

Jervaintus raises an eyebrow,

"You sound like you hate the guy." He tells him.

"His story was told throughout the kingdoms. A lot of those storytellers bend and twist the truth to spread their propaganda and lies." He finishes up, and leans on a nearby pillar.

Just as the conversation was going to continue, a small company of soldiers enter the room stating that they are here for the mission. Jervaintus shrugs it off and takes the lead.

The men travel north of the city. They reach a monastery engulfed in flames. Jervaintus approaches a nearby villagers,

"Are there any casualties?" He inquires.

"None, milord. They've been evacuated. Take heed, there is a strange creature wrecking havoc on the holy artifacts inside." The man bids the soldiers farewell as he too evacuates from the area.

"Well, the floor is yours, captain." Durkins gives him a push.

Jervaintus orders the other men to surround the burning building. He enters through a burned down section of the wall, the flames are manageable enough, he deems.

He follows a shadowy trail that looks similar to the smoke emitting from the fire until he sees a mass of dark muscle and multiple eyes scattered around its body. He identifies it as one of the lesser abyss demons from the way it looked and behaved.

He catches the creatures attention by taunting it out of the building. He gets him into an open field and signals the others that he will take care of it himself. The creature lunges at Jervaintus, running on all fours like a beast. He avoids its claws and gets in a cut on its front. The silver from his sword leaves a deep cut into the demon, causing it immense pain as its murky, green bloody trickles down its body.

The abyss demon retaliates by wildly swinging its claws at Jervaintus, which he easily dodges with no effort. He blocks one swipe and counters the demon with a stab into the hand, forcefully removing its claws. The demon's whimpering in pain causes Jervaintus to smile.

"You're a sad, pitiful excuse for an abyss demon." He takes in the moment.

Another demon emerges from the flames and charges against Jervaintus. He signals to the others and they join in the fray. A third demon jumps down from the roof and tries to get its piece.

"Three's a crowd." Jervaintus' eyes light up as he slashes at the first demon's neck without looking at it.

The group slowly picks off the demons and outlast them. They put out the fire, scout every building and ensure the village is safe again. They escort the villagers back into their homes and ask anyone about the incident.

They finished gathering information and came up with this conclusion: a group of cultist were having some sort of ceremony to worship their god in front of the monastery. The priest called forth the guards to end it but the cultists insisted they continue so the guards were forced to cease their operation. A fight broke out and the cultists ended up sacking the church. They summoned abyss demons and made their escape.

"We do not know who these cultists are affiliated with." Durkins tells Jervaintus.

"Could be the Jyus Society, the Agnaum Kingdom, our own, or maybe even defectors." Jervaintus adds.

A soldier runs to them and calls their attention, he tells them that he has valuable information. Jervaintus allows the soldier to speak,

"I am a tracker, sir. The cultists' tracks are fresh. I believe we could catch up to them if we leave now." He suggests.

Jervaintus grins at Durkins and the group sets out, the tracker leading the way. The tracks lead into a small forest near the village of Jervaintus' first mission.

"This will be a fun reunion." He thinks to himself.

They sneak upon the cultists, who are celebrating their hollow victory. They speak in some long lost language. As Durkins was about to formulate a strategy, Jervaintus jumps out of the bushes like a madman, drawing his sword against them. The cultists are taken by surprise, as well as Jervaintus' group.

Jervaintus' slaughters the group of cultists easily like a hot knife through butter. His allies stare in awe and in fear. He maniacally laughs as he slices one of the cultists in half in mid-air. The cultists curse at him in anger and a huge portal opens before him.

An eyeless, dark minotaur creature emerge from another the realm of the Abyss. He drags a heavy, rusted and bloody cleaver, inserted into the stub of its right arm. Jervaintus marvels at the sight of such creature.

Durkins commands the troops to take battle positions but Jervaintus waves them off, he wants to take the challenge. The demon swings his sword arm at Jervaintus. He ducks under and sneaks in a cut on the demon's kneecaps. He climbs on its back and takes a whack at stabbing its neck.

Durkins orders the troops to intercept the regrouping cultists. One of the cultist manages to fire off an arcane bolt at Jervaintus. It manages to faze him and force him into the ground. The beast capitalizes this opportunity and swings the cleaver at Jervaintus. Durkins swings his sword at the same moment to redirect most of the cleaver into the ground but it grazes on Jervaintus' neck.

Durkins takes the job on distracting the creature while the other soldiers dispatch of the cultists. They slowly hack away at the at the giant demon. Jervaintus slowly recovers.

He stands up slowly, grasping at his sword. His eyes turn into a look of rage but his grin never diminishes. Some vengeful aura seeps from his soul, instilling terror within every living thing near him. He runs up toward the beast and aims his blade at the beast's blade arm and stabs deep enough to force the blade to hang out the arm by the ligaments.

He climbs up the beast, stabbing its body the way as it goes. The demon screams at Jervaintus with all its might, trying to scare him off. Durkins splits off the demon's knee cap with a hard strike with his sword.

Jervaintus' pulls the demons head back by its horn. The demon sticks out in tongue in exhaustion and quiets down. It admits defeat and stops fighting back. Jervaintus' grin turns into a frown.

"Back into the depths of hell with you." He stabs the sword deep into the demon's mouth and into its throat.

The demon coughs up blood and saliva onto Jervaintus as it struggles before laying still on the ground but it is not enough for him. He pulls out the sword and repeatedly stabs the demon until the blood covers him and the demon lies in a pool of it.

Jervaintus slowly climbs off the demon as he wipes off the blood from his face. The other soldiers are mortified from his look. He sheathes his weapon and looks back at them,

"And that, gentlemen, is how you dispatch of a demon." He admires his work.

"You're a crazy man." Durkins responds.

The men reported back to the king, much to his delight. Jervaintus quickly became one of the best soldiers in the Hozran army. Months after serving Hozran, he decided to leave and pursue a mercenary life so he would freely find stronger opponents to fight.

The rate of the abyss demons attacking have risen across the kingdoms and their rulers would offer plenty to warriors who have experience in combating these creatures. Jervaintus decided in his best interests to serve the Jyus Society. Joventrius, its ruler, personally approached him on his travels to ask for his services in exchange for large amounts of gold. This part of Joventrius' journey marks the start of his descent into madness, his greatest weapon.