Having reached the center of the Desolate Desert where the Font of Death was located, Marcus and his companions had found the nation of Aezam's guardian beast, the Phoenix Zaila chained up and slowly being turned into an undead monster by being submerged within the Font of Death.
However, before Marcus could heal Zaila, the perpetrators behind the unnatural events within the Desolate Desert had impeded him.
The four individuals causing turmoil that threatened to destroy Aezam using an army of undead had two familiar faces among them.
One was Mrazivý's traitorous uncle Vaughn Borealia who had allied himself with demons, and another was Argus, the former third ranked great knight of Tralenstein who had fought alongside Marcus during Tralenstein's civil war.
After a brief clash, the group of demon collaborators led by Vaughn had managed to teleport away and leave a berserk Zaila behind as a distraction.