Prologue

 

            Long ago in the land of Acraven, there raged a great war between the deities Tahara Goddess of the sun, and Rahgaodun the Lord of The Abyss. Both goddess and demon had limitless armies at their command, Tahara’s ancient guardians pitted against the abyssal demons.

For centuries the battles did raged on until one day the great knight Damian of Ipathis, the hero of mankind, offered himself to the great sunlight goddess as her champion. The kind and loving deity accepted his offer, and imbued her powers unto the great knight so he could walk into the very Abyss where Rahgaodun resided. She told the knight of the link between the human realms and the Abyss and that with her blessing he could now freely traverse between the Veil. Tahara then bestowed upon the brave knight an ancient set of golden armour so bright it would put the sun to shame.

            Damian bowed to the goddess before he used his new ability to cross the Veil and soon found himself falling. Damien saw nothing as he fell through the darkness, he reached out, trying to find something to grab hold of but his fingers only grasped at darkness. The knight tumbled through the void for what felt like decades before he finally touched ground. Damian looked down and saw that despite the long excruciating fall, he had safely landed in a pile of what looked to be human bodies. Damian grunted in disgust as he looked forwards. He was no longer in a dark endless void, but in what looked like an ancient tomb.

The dusty stone walls where clad with ancient markings and pictures of beasts the likes of which Damian had never seen. The carvings seemed to be calling to him in a light moan that made him shutter, he quickly shook his head and the noises stopped. Damian continued down the dark stone corridor trying hard not to look at the carvings as he passed. Further and further, he walked down the network of tunnels until all of a sudden he heard what sounded like heavy breathing followed by the smell of rotting flesh.

Damian followed the guttural sounds and putrid scent deeper into the hall, as he trekked onwards the rotting corpse smell intensified to the point it was almost unbearable when Damian finally came to an archway, he carefully made his way across the threshold and into the vile smelling chamber. To his surprise, the vast room was empty save for a large golden gilded chest surrounded by piles of discarded bones.

Slowly he walked towards the chest and gave the room another quick once over before kneeling next to it. Damian ran his hand over the box’s smooth surface, as he quickly scanned for a locking mechanism but to his surprise, the box itself was unlocked. Damian took a deep breath as he slowly opened the top of the chest, but before the lid was even half way open he heard a cracking sound. He jumped to his feet his hand on the hilt of his sword, every hair standing on end.

“Who’s there?” he yelled into the air as he turned on the spot hoping to spy any possible ambushers but before he even made it all the way around he heard another cracking sound, even louder then the first, and before he even had a chance to react the archaic floor gave way and Damian was again falling.

The fall was significantly shorter and a lot more painful as Damian quickly hit the ground with a metallic thud. He staggered to his feet and drew his sword in preparation but before he could fully draw his blade it was swiftly knocked from his hands as a disembodied voice chuckled, “no mortal blade can harm me fool!” it yelled as again the floor gave way to reveal a large pit of lava below the centre of the room.

The temperature of the room started to rise as Damian crept towards the lava filled hole. He slowly peered over the edge as the lava started to bubble. The bubbles came slowly at first but started to come more rapidly as Damien backed away, “Knight of man you have no place here, the realm of the damned. I am Rahgaodun, Lord of the Abyss.” The disembodied voice said as a massive hulking figure slowly emerged from the pit of magma. The beast looked directly at Damien and laughed again.

“Knight of man, you stand no chance.” The beast said still staring at the petrified knight. Damien took a step forward, “I fear you not, and I have come to put an end to you and this war.” He shouted at the red skinned beast. Rahgaodun only laughed as he grabbed the knight in his giant scaled hands, “you cannot destroy me you pathetic fool, and you don’t even understand why you’re here do you? No matter, your mine now.” The beast uttered as it lifted Damian above its open mouth.

All Damian had time to notice was how awful the demon’s breath was before he was once again falling, this time into the monster’s hideous maw. The beast shut its mouth swallowing all that remained of the hero of man. Rahgaodun let out one final deep laugh as he slowly sank back into the pit of lava, the echoes of its laugh filling the chamber.