The Great Shadow War(Part Three) Zeal's Vengeance

As the two sides prepared for one last battle to settle it all, a loud, painful screech came roaring at them out of the unnatural darkness. Coming at them screaming death and vengeance, was a withered, undead dragon. Dead flesh hung from its bones, and its eyes burned with the intense red fire of the hells themselves. And upon its back, in burned armor with face melted nearly beyond recognition, sat a man in the blue-tinged armor of an Arcanian warrior.

The dragon landed with a crash that shook the ground for miles around. Soldiers on both sides were appalled and terrified. Only one person on the battlefield knew what was happening, who the intruders were.

Toth-Gadal knew the undead dragon was indeed the former dragon-lord Virex. And upon the dragon’s neck, though his face was nearly gone, Toth recognized his former lieutenant. Zeal.

With another bone-chilling scream that filled both sides with terror, the dragon began its rampage. The undead creature tore through both armies. No defense could save them, and no offense proved effective against the dragon. Even the Arcanian’s vaunted Sil weapons had almost no effect on the undead beast.

As the dragon tore through the armies, Zeal reveled in the slaughter, using his own magic to augment the deadly rampage. The dead armies soon littered the battlefield. All seemed lost.

Suddenly nine people, five men and four women, emerged from the darkness. Clothed in plain grey rags and holding nothing but quarterstaffs, all at once they rushed toward the dragon, and changed the course of battle.

Where the sharp weapons of steel had had no effect on the undead beast, the plain weapons of these strangers seemed to cause the dragon a great deal of pain. Try as it would, the dragon could never catch any of these newcomers in its claws. And when it finally caught one of them in its deadly breath, the fire seemed to have no effect at all.

Zeal shot his deadly spells at these upstarts, but few reached them, and when they did the warriors seemed to merely shrug off the magic. At last, the dragon began to slow, somehow weakened by the attacks of the mysterious strangers.

All at once, the nine strangers suddenly raised their hands. A bright, white light shot toward the dragon from their outstretched palms, striking the beast in various places along its withered corpse. A hellish scream of pain, unlike anything heard before or since erupted form the dragon.

And suddenly the dragon exploded. Giant bones flew into the night. The force of the blast pushed the remaining armies to the ground. All save the nine men and women who stood exactly as they had.

As the sound of the blast echoed across the battlefield, the will to fight finally left the armies of both sides.

The Great Shadow War was over.

But the effects of the conflict wear on.

With the Arcanian necromancers killed by the dragon, no one was left to undue the deadly spells cast by the Arcanian sorcerers. So the lands of the Narrow Way remained cursed, and continue to do so. Now known as the Black Plains, this land between northern and southern Bordelon has become a deadly wasteland that no one dares cross. The sky above has remained eternally dark. And the soil still emits its deadly toxin.

The remaining forces of the Northern Alliance returned to their homes after the conflict. A great castle was later built near the edge of the Black Plains, to stand guard against the nightmarish creatures that began to emerge from within the deadly landscape.

Though neither Zeal nor Toth-Gadal were heard from again after that last battle, a legend grew about those last hours.

Some said the two former comrades were seen on a hilltop overlooking the last battlefield, engaged in an eternal conflict. No one has ever dared enter the Black Plains to verify this unlikely scenario.

Southern Bordelon was slow to recover from Toth-Gadal’s war. Many claimed the throne in Cerasin-Cera, very few holding onto it for very long. No person, man or woman, ever held the esteem or power reached by the great Toth-Gadal.

Slowly, over many years, the power of the Sorcerer-Kings waned. The southern nations began to look to themselves instead the of the fortress-city on the mountain. Though the Arcanian Empire still existed, it was largely in name only. Few rulers in the south would ever again agree to send their men and women to form an Imperial army.

Until another strong, charismatic leader emerged with a vision to rebuild the Arcanian Empire and restore it to the glory of its past.

But that is another story.