To the Nearn

It has been a week and I'm getting stronger. At the start of the week I had some problems. But as the days went by, it started to become easier and easier.

I have hunted multiple magical beasts and each time I defeated a new one, Aktor started telling me their lore and stuff. Multiple times I told him that this knowledge would have been better to know beforehand, but each time he said it is a good challenge for me and how is he supposed to know if something out of place appears. Which is true in a sense.

When there was time, Lex taught me multiple spells. And in fact, raised my skills in magecraft to a whole new level. I can now cast multiple spells of "greater" quality as well as some advanced level spells. He also taught me how to craft my own spells, but that's too much for me right now.

Honestly. I still am a bit shocked about what is going on with me, but I'm willing to look past it for now. It isn't something that I can do anything about anyways, so why just not look past it for now. There might come a time for more answers. Or it might not come. Especially if I don't do something in the meanwhile.

Anyway, Now is the time to head towards Nearn. And to do that we have to talk to Lex a bit.

- So are you two ready to head out? Once you go there, I won't teleport you back before you make some progress.

- I am. What about you Nor?

- I am as well. As ready as I can be.

Lex starts to cast some huge spell.

- Are you sure you haven't forgotten anything?

- I did get us some supplies for a while. And a map. And the currency used there.

- Great. I wish you two good luck. We will be in contact with each other, so don't worry. I will send you now to a completely different continent across the sea as close to the anomaly as I can near some town. See you later.

And a huge flash of light appeared and then there was a brief moment of darkness. I start to hear people speak.

- Hey where did those two come from!

- They just appeared out of nowhere!

- Don't get distracted boys! Quickly take care of these bastards and we look at what our two new friends have on them.

I open my eyes and see a battle going on. It is cloudy outside and we are on what used to be an open field for farming. I quickly take out my sword and start attacking the ones that looked like they were the ones who were attacking innocent people. Must be raiders or something. I haven't dealt with these kinds of people before.

- Who the hell are these guys? Boss, I don't think we can take them.

- Shut your mouth! Just deal with them.

- But boss, we...

And before the underling could finish her sentence, Aktor decapitated her. Honestly, killing people feels a bit unsettling. But I must push on. These people knew what they were doing. But they aren't as hard to deal with than a simple wolf. And so we dealt with a group of around twelve raiders with Aktor killing the majority, including the boss of the group. He didn't even let the runners escape.

- Thank you so much! Our saviors!

- Yeah! Thank the lords above you came when you did!

They seem friendly enough so I start talking to them.

- No problem. Why were those people attacking you guys?

- Oh. That's just how it is these days. Bunch of raider groups have formed since the collapse.

- Collapse? What do you mean?

- Oh. Right. You two must have come from somewhere far away right? So it is not a surprise that you don't know yet. Just look a bit around you and you understand.

I looked around me and noticed a bunch of corpses hanging in some wooden structures and spikes. I nearly fell over when I noticed this. There are so many on the horizon. The closer I looked I noticed that some of the corpses were showing signs of being drained from their blood.

- What on earth happened here?

The people then started telling us how this came about. Apparently one day a soldier came through a portal in the capital and was speaking a language similar to Nernish. He went to the castle and gave the current king a message. What the message said is unknown but soon a couple of days later many soldiers started to come through similar looking portals and started killing people left and right. The king said nothing to these attacks and let the killing continue. Some guards started fighting back, but their efforts were for naught because the enemy's strength was too much for them. And soon after that all went to chaos. People started grouping together to survive and some started to take advantage of the chaos and started pillaging others for supplies. There is currently no sane person who wants to live here, so they were setting off to the neighboring country before getting attacked. When I asked if the king was still around, the people were unsure of his fate.

We asked for directions to the capital city and they pointed us to the north-east of here for a couple of days to walk from here. Then we parted ways and started walking toward the capital. And I asked Aktor.

- What do you make from this?

- There is certainly a problem that needs our attention. Let's head to the capital and see if the king is still kicking.

- Should we inform Lex about this?

- That... Would be a good idea.

We called Lex using the ring and explained the situation to him. He agreed to our plan and added this.

- The strange portals could be a hint towards understanding the cause of these phenomena. If you come across one try to describe it to me.

We walked for a two days. fighting mainly ghouls and some bigger creatures. They didn't seem to care much about Aktor's ability. And once we saw a group of soldiers we suspected to be those ones that came through the portal. We tried to watch them from a distance but later they noticed us and started attacking us from afar with strange spells. They were formidable for sure and tough to beat. Much tougher than when I spar with a guard once.

Lex then told one of us to hold the ring close to one of the soldiers and so I did. It appeared that Lex could do a "scan" with the ring "remotely" from where he is. He found out that they were under some mind controlling spell and the weapons they carry have a blood sucking ability. Probably the reason why most of the corpses were looking like they were sucked out of blood. Then we found out they were carrying crystals that could also store blood. This is getting crazier by the minute.

Then we reach the capital and the amount of corpses hanging from strange structures and spikes increases the closer we get. At the gate there is a group of guards, as to be expected, and we take care of them. Yet again they were formidable and I even got some of my blood sucked by their weapons. And this time Aktor let me handle most of them by myself.

We had to fight many guards along the way, but we finally reached the castle. We went inside and found a throne room where we saw someone sitting there. That person soon called the guards to him and we saw a room filled with these bloodthirsty armored soldiers.

It took us some back and forth to get through them, some slashing and dodging, some crowd control, but we eventually got them all. It was an epic, though a bit repetitive, fight. Their armor was the biggest problem and their movements were easy to read. Just had to slice through the correct parts and then it was easy to handle them. They kept fighting to the last man with no regards to their own safety.

Then we got to the person sitting on the throne and Aktor put his spear close to his throat.

- Who are you?

- I'm the king of this land and you are trespassing on my property.

- That doesn't matter now. Why would you abandon your people?

- Their sacrifice was necessary to save this country.

- Was it necessary?

Aktor's eyes are getting darker. Like a person who is looking at someone deserving death.

- If I didn't agree, then my role as a king would have been revoked by someone who can revoke it.

- And who would that person be?

- I don't have to answer...

Aktor puts the spear as close as he can with only a drop of blood spilling from the king.

- And I soon don't have a reason to keep you alive. Now who... Was... It?

- The founder of this country King Joshua Nearn the I.

- How is that possible? He should've died a two millennia ago,

- Those portals are connected to their time. They are time portals. They come here from the past to feed on the people of the future.

- And why are they feeding on people in the first place?

- King Joshua was known for achieving great feats by himself. But he was also known to use blood as his power source. Where he got it from was unknown to us until the moment he sent me that letter. The letter said in short that "It is the time to claim our blood for the past of your hero's rain. Rejoice, for you shall be the fuel of our past glory. For if you refuse this gift your ancestors won't have the victories they had and your history shall be forfeited". And so I had no choice but to not do anything and let our ancestors claim that's theirs.

- You are foolish to think of yourself as a king anymore. Cause you are only king to those corpses you see outside your windows.

- I know... I know.

Aktor stops holding his spear against the king's throat.

- You wish for me to show you mercy and kill you?

- No. I can't die by your hand.

- Then by whose hand do you wish to die from.

- By the hands of my countryman. For they have the only right.

- What if no one comes?

- Then I shall starve for my own people. For if they show me kindness, I can no longer accept it.

Then I ask.

- For what reason can you not accept it?

- You only need to look around and you should know the answer.

- I see it was a foolish thing to ask then.

- Indeed... Now take this.

He hands me a really old looking key.

- What is this?

- This is the key to King Joshua's tomb. It was sealed by a powerful sorcerer when king Joshua was defeated. Go though the time portal, lock him inside that tomb and come back to finish the job. This is all I ask of you. Please. Safe my country... No... safe my people from this nightmare.

I clench my fist.

- I promise.

- Thank you. Now go.

We start walking out from the throne room and I hear a faint yell.

- And good luck.