Everyone walks their own Road to Purgatory

But sometimes, a Call is made and all Roads must bend to follow the same direction…

In a dark forest, a lonely, black-clad figure is slowly walking, until the figure stops in the middle of a clearing. With a wave of a dainty, pale-blue hand, five massive trees around the clearing start to glow with a malevolent, blood-red colour, slowly pulsing to an unheard beat.

The figure starts to laugh softly, before raising their hand, holding up a crystal that glows with a faint, purple light. Moments later, the five massive trees burst into black flames, rapidly turning to dust.

“We need to send out a call,” a female voice declares, her tone gentle but filled with conviction.

A small group of teenagers runs happily across a clearing, playing at being the Wild Hunt, chasing an unseen prey across the land. Their leader is sending an arrow into the shadowy forest ahead, laughing all the while.

Suddenly, the teenagers freeze, staring into the forest with fear in their eyes, before turning around and running away, screaming. The view shifts, showing the teenagers running away as seen from inside the forest, only that there’s a dark blade in the foreground, dripping blood.

Moments later, a hail of razor-sharp Icicles starts falling between the teenagers, the Icicles exploding just before they hit anything. All, but two, teenagers fall to the ground, their flesh lacerated, their mouths screaming in pain as their blood soaks into the torn earth.

“What call are we sending out, your Holiness?” a male voice asks, humble, almost servile.

A group of cavalry sets out from a massive thicket of thorny vines, mounted on massive felines, clad in leather and armed with spears. Alongside them run a group of guards, clad similarly but their arms are sheathed, carrying gurneys and medical supplies. With them is a teenager, one of those who managed to get away before, returning to help their friends.

Before them lies a field of slaughter, the teenagers who had just been running away, now bleeding and screaming for help. The mounted guards give a quick salute to their counterparts, before setting off, charging into the forest. In the meantime, the medics begin directing the guards, trying to help the injured teenagers, to rescue as many as they can.

In the forest, a group of elves was carefully moving through dense fog, thick enough to turn those more than an arm’s length away into vague silhouettes. Their movement is slow, methodical, when suddenly, one of them lets out a sharp scream, only to be cut short moments later. All of the elves turn, trying to find their attacker when a massive figure quickly moves past them, a casual backswing of a giant axe sending another elf flying.

Following behind that silhouette are more shapes, smaller, following in the bigger one’s wake. One of the elves jumpers forward, trying to intercept, only for one of the running figures to strike, faster than the elf’s attack. The elf falls and suddenly, an eerie, inhuman screech echoes through the forest, striking fear in the hearts of all sane beings that hear it.

Near the fallen elf, a grotesque being tumbles out of the air, a maggot-white monster with a soft-looking body, five legs and far too many tentacles, all ending in gaping maws, lined with sharp teeth. The creepy monster wastes no time, leaping on the mortally wounded elf, tearing into their flesh for a moment, before attacking the next elf. Seeing that abomination, the elves abandon their pursuit and focus on killing the monster before them.

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“Ancient evil is stirring… We are calling for a Crusade,” the female replies, pausing for a moment to let out a sigh.

In the middle of a large, calm meadow stands a massive tree, towering over the land. High above, the moon and stars shed some dim light past a few clouds, a gentle wind makes the grass sway and the leaves rustle. From a burrow in the middle of the tree falls a small waterfall, dropping into a placid lake.

Suddenly, a dark figure appears in that opening, only for a moment, before vanishing again. Moments later, the tree bursts into black flames, flames that race across the meadow in a wave of dark fire, incinerating the distant forest. From above, past the clouds, the area becomes visible, miles upon miles of forest, engulfed in black fire.

“Who… who are we calling?” the male voice asks again, breaking as if terrified.

Between the trees, three figures are fighting against a group of elves. A massive female, clad in leather, flanked by a silver wolf and a smaller female, clade in cloud-white, diaphanous garb, her black hair sparkling in the dim light. The two women are surrounded by a crimson aura, shining brightly on the large female and dimly, almost like a reflection of the other one. Each swipe of the giant’s axe forces the elves back, while the smaller one suddenly darts forward, blades tearing through elven flesh with incredible brutality.

The elves are trying to encircle them, to use their numbers to counter their opponents' superior strength. Only, it isn’t working.

Their smaller foe suddenly vanishes, leaving just a rapidly fading shadow behind, only to reappear from the shadow of a tree, blades already striking. Her chosen target tries to dodge, only to stumble and fail, the blades piercing into his back. For a moment, the elf’s mouth gapes open in an unheard scream, his eyes burning with a mix of grey and blood-red light, before the female lets the elf drop, like a toy that was thrown into the trash.

Moments later, after the two females have already moved on, the dropped elf rises again, eyes now completely grey, only now, the elf looks completely feral. With an animalistic growl, the elf leaps forward, trying his best to sink his teeth into the unprotected face of a former compatriot, the sudden attack sending both of them to the ground.

“Everyone…” the female orders, now only steel remaining in her voice.

In the middle of an open clearing, a wolf-headed giant, holding a massive axe cleaves into a line of elves, trying to hold her back. Following in her shadow is a raven-headed monster, black wings unfurled, swooping out of her shadow, striking with wicked claws of shining ice. Each strike of the raven sends one of the elves flying, only for that elf to rise moments later, eyes devoid of life and driven by a hunger for their former compatriots.

Chaos reigns and a rain of blood falls all around them.

Suddenly, a dreadful howl pushes the elves back for a moment and the giant is visible in all her crimson glory., golden light shining for her eyes. As if to echo the howl, the raven lets out a loud call and for a moment, the world is still as the raven rises into the air.

Then, a beat of black wings and the world starts to move again, at first there is only a gentle breeze, barely moving the trampled grass but with each beat of those black wings, the wind becomes stronger, turning from gentle breeze into brutal blizzard, fog and hail turning shapes blurry. Within that storm, flowers of crimson blood bloom, limbs go flying and the cries of the fallen get carried away, never to be heard again.

Finally, as if to mock the desperate elves, the frozen wind ignites with a pale-blue flame, the fire cold enough to burn their skin and turn their lush, tropical forest into a frozen tundra. One last beat of the black wings and the flames race outward, trees bursting from freezing winds, all life snuffed out by those cold, blue flames.

As the pale-blue flames race outward, they turn into a deeper blue and just as the globe becomes visible, blue flames spreading across the land and oceans, a hand becomes visible, supporting the globe from below and a golden-robed figure turns around, their face hidden in the shadows of her cowl.

“...Everyone, who wants to live under the Sun.” the female voice finishes, full of conviction.

As those words echo, countless people are seen. From petite gnomes to slender elves, from stout dwarves to hulking Giantblood, from serpentine Naga to winged Valkyrs, people of all races are gathered under a single banner. The banner of the golden sun.

Will you follow the call? Or will you try to keep your path, on your Road to Purgatory?

The image fades to black and the logo is shown, an image of the globe, with ghostly blue flames racing across it until it is completely shrouded in an aura of blue fire.