In a place far away from the safe walls of Ironmarch, the land was a depiction of darkness and bleakness. The ground was dark and there were no plants on the ground, but it was decorated with humanoid bodies and blood. Carcasses of beast, human, and other races like elves and dwarves were spread all over the place. This was the Abyss, a place of intersection between Primordia and the other realm, a battlefield between forces of Primordia and the invaders.
The air was thick with the stench of death and blood, as if the air itself were poisonous. The stench was so thick, to the point that it was visible to the naked eye.
On an open field, the clash of steel and flesh could be heard. An army of thousands was charging against a tide of grotesque-looking demonic beings. Some had huge bodies with multiple limbs, some had humanoid bodies, but the heads only had one big eye with a horrifying mouth with sharp teeth, while some were beastly and grotesque with tentacled bodies. Arrows and spears were flying through the air, piercing the bodies of those dark beings.
In that fierce battle, the army of dark beings was fighting against the army of elves. The elves were throwing arrows, spears, and spells at the dark beings. Despite their bombardment, the numbers of the dark beings were endless, while the numbers of the elves were decreasing. Some of the elves were eaten alive, some were caught by the tentacled beings and ripped apart in the middle, and some were pierced in the head and exploded into pieces. The ground was a mixture of elves' blood and the darkish blood of the dark beings.
"My Lord, please retreat to the back line. The defense has been breached by the Eldritch beings." said an elf with a stoic face.
"We have to hold the line until the reinforcements arrive," replied the elf lord. His face was grim, looking determined for death.
"My lord, we can die here, but you cannot! Please retreat." The subordinate kneeled and begged for the elf lord to retreat.
"Nakin, I've made up my mind. I'd rather die than leave my army here as food and playthings to these wretched Eldritch beings." He said flatly with fierce eyes to his subordinate. He then looked at the battlefield and saw with his own eyes his army slowly being devoured and massacred by the Eldritch beings.
The gruesome battle continued, and the number of elves grew less and less as time went by. Suddenly on the horizon, an army of ten thousand strong humans could be seen. Above the army, a hundred-meter-long golden dragon was flying majestically with a slow pace. On the back of the dragon, a handsome young man was standing heroically while holding a white spear in his left hand. The appearance of the third party attracted the attention of the Eldritch beings and the elves.
"My lord, the reinforcements have arrived!" Nakin said excitedly to the elf lord beside him. The elf lord also sighed in relief when he looked at the reinforcement.
"Order the army to retreat." He ordered Nakin.
"Yes, general Velen!" Nakin said and began to spread the order to the army. Usually, during an intense war like this, the defensive party would push and corner the enemy when the reinforcements arrived. But this time was different.
The elf lord knew that the reinforcements needed no help; it was the Eldritch beings that needed help now. The human reinforcements that looked menacing and strong were charging at full speed at the Eldritch beings. The ten thousand strong human soldiers were wearing golden armor with silvery patterns. They looked like holy knights marching at the devils.
"Elgoras, take me to the middle of those pests." The handsome youth with silver hair on the top of the dragon commanded his mount. The dragon responded with a roar as if saying 'yes' to his command. The dragon flew fast and arrived in the middle of the sea of Eldritch beings. He jumped down like a meteor.
A golden aura surrounded his body as he torpedoed himself into the middle of the Eldritch beings. In less than a second, he crashed into the ground and the shockwave spread across the area for kilometers. The impact itself killed thousands of Eldritch beings and vaporized them. A giant crater ten meters deep could be seen as he stood menacingly in the middle of the crater.
Seeing that the Eldritch beings were charging at him, his spear glowed with golden-yellowish light, and he propelled himself with powerful momentum at the enemy. He thrust the spear to the front as a beam of golden light killed hundreds of his enemy in front of him, leaving a kilometers-long scar on the ground. He grasped into the air as sparkles of fire condensed on his palm. An orb of fire appeared on his hand; the air distorted around the small fireball the size of the teenager's palm. People with keen eyes could see that the fireball could easily evaporate a big city with ease.
He then threw the fireball into the enemy ranks, and behold. The flash of light, blinding to the eyes, could be seen far away. The detonation of the fireball destroyed everything around the blast area, leaving a crater so big that if it were filled with water, it could be a lake that fed an entire city.
He continued his rampage on the battlefield as he marched deeper into the Abyss territory. Each spear swing could take hundreds if not thousands of lives of the enemy; each spell could alter the environment on the battlefield, as if a divine being were showing his wrath on the mortal realm. The human army fought at least kilometers away from him to not be caught in the impact of his fight.
Suddenly, the Eldritch army retreated slowly into the Abyss; he stopped his march and waited for his army to arrive beside him.
"Supreme Commander, the Eldritch beings have fully retreated to Pandemonium Fort." A burly man with golden armor said to the silver-haired youth. His golden armor was tainted with thick black liquid, the blood of the dark beings.
"Stay here; I will deal with them myself." He said flatly with full arrogance to the burly man.
"Yes, milord!" The burly man retreated.
A faint golden-yellowish aura appeared around his body as he slowly levitated and suddenly sped up like lightning into the horizon, disappearing into the darkness.
The place into the darkness was full of rotten corpses and dark aura. The ground was dark; carcasses and bones of giant creatures decorated the ground. Suddenly, a golden light flew by and stopped above a dark fortress with walls made of bones. He stopped and looked at the fortress and shouted,
"PESTS!" His roar sent a shockwave that cracked the walls. The Eldritch beings inside the fortress trembled with fear, as if a being more terrifying than them had come to reap their lives.
Among them, a shadowy being with a humanoid body stepped up and flew into the air, gazing at the youth with fearsome eyes. His dark purple pupils stared at him, his hands clenching into fists.
"How dare you come to this fortress!" The shadowy being said.
"There is nothing that I don't dare to do." He said flatly to the shadowy figure, as if talking to an insect.
"YOU! You cannot do this! This is a violation of the Great Accord!" The shadowy figure said desperately with an angry face.
Hearing his response, the handsome youth sneered and said, "My will is the only Accord!" With powerful momentum, he threw his spear into the shadowy figure. The spear was too fast for the shadowy figure to respond; the spear obliterated him instantly, and the momentum was not reduced even a little. The spear sped up even more and struck the ground in the middle of the fortress.
From the outside of the darkness, a blinding light could be seen as if a rising sun were shining in the darkness. From that blinding light, the army outside knew that the Supreme Commander had obliterated another fortress. No one was shocked, as if this were just another daily routine.
A few minutes later, the darkness returned as a handsome young man with silvery hair slowly appeared from the darkness, approaching the army. Looking at the approaching youth, the burly man came and said, "Southern Commander Velen Sylvarien has invited the Supreme Commander to his tent for an important intel."
He nodded to the burly man in response and said, "Make sure to burn all the Eldritch beings to ashes before we leave this area," he said, sounding bored, as if still unsatisfied with how quickly the battle had ended.
Wherever he walked, the soldiers' eyes followed him with an expression of pure reverence. They saw a godly being that they adored, admired, and were fanatically loyal to. He was Magnus Kyros, the Supreme Commander of the Abyss Eradication Force and the Crown Prince of the Divine Kyros Empire.
Thousands of tents, arranged in neat rows, dotted the vast, open space. In the center, a single, large tent stood apart from the rest. Despite being in the middle of a desolate wasteland near the Abyss, the encampment was quite clean and organized. Elves, their faces grim and exhausted, tended to the wounded, a grim reminder of the brutal battle they had just endured.
Suddenly, an army of ten thousand human soldiers arrived and formed a formation on the outskirts of the elven camp. The army's appearance caught the attention of all the elves that were on the outskirts of the encampment. They stood perfectly still, looking like statues. Above them, a golden dragon, a hundred meters tall, soared gracefully before settling to a gentle landing near the large tent in the center. Magnus dismounted, his presence commanding reverence.
All the elves watched with a look of deep admiration and respect. Everyone in the Abyss Eradication Force knew that wherever Supreme Commander Magnus appeared, victory was assured, no matter how dire the situation looked. Since his rise to power and taking the position of the Supreme Commander, no one had ever seen him injured, not even a single scratch. He was the living embodiment of invincibility and power.
He gave the golden dragon, Elgoras, a gentle pat on the head before walking slowly toward the large central tent. Two elf guards bowed in unison as he passed. Inside, the elf lord Velen Sylvarien and his trusted subordinate, Nakin, were waiting for him. They were looking over a large map of the Abyss, their expressions grave.
"You have anything to report, Commander?" Magnus asked, his voice low and commanding.
"Reporting to the Supreme Commander," Velen said, rising to his feet and bowing with elven grace, though his tired movements could be seen because of his recent battle. "My scout from the outskirts of the Abyss region reported that a group of Eldritch beings managed to sneak through our encirclement."
Magnus's eyes narrowed. Black blood from the Eldritch beings was smeared on his armor and a little on his face, making his gaze more menacing. "Oh? I thought our encirclement was perfect. We even have black dragons and some members of the spirit race monitoring the patrol. How could they have possibly sneaked through?" he interrogated.
"That is still under investigation, Lord Supreme Commander," Velen answered calmly.
"Send your quickest scouts to track and kill these pests," Magnus ordered, his voice like cold. "It would be troublesome if they were let loose on the outside world. They could corrupt the weak-minded."
"Yes, Supreme Commander," Velen replied, turning to Nakin. "Nakin, send our most elite and quickest trackers. Tell them to find and kill the Eldritch beings."
Nakin bowed and vanished from the tent.
"Thank you for your timely arrival," Velen said, bowing once more with a light smile of genuine gratitude. "If you had not come, I would not have seen tomorrow."
"Small matter," Magnus said, as if saving an army was a daily occurrence for him. "Is there anything else?"
"There is," Velen replied, his voice becoming serious. "A day ago, a scout from West Commander Doggur Stoneskin appeared in our encampment half dead. Before he fell unconscious, he said... the Eldritch Lords are making a move!"