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  It was another five day journey of hiking mountains, where Elas was also made a part of the group. On their journey, she explained her special ability as it had been explained to her. There are three types of magic: natural, crafted, and demonic. Natural magic exists rarely with people that are born, much like Elas's case where she can craft snow and ice on command. Crafted is mainly used in spells, taking magic from the world and contorting it into the desired spell. Demonic is synonomous with dark magic, the type that corrupts what it touches like a virus.

  Elas integrated very quickly into the group, much thanks to Lilly and Lucia's openness. They talked about girl things that Eric tried his best to listen to, but he was out of his league in their conversations. Things like the perfect wedding, cramps, and who had the better figure. Eric was forced to judge, which he took the diplomatic route and labeled out the different fine features of each lady. After that, he avoided getting caught in anymore judging contests.

  Eric had a long list of different chains that he could integrate into an ever-changing array of attacks and skills that he was slowly leveling up. His bind skill was so high, it would last for an entire day and was unbreakable by anything below Eric's own strength level. His 'Bind Mines' were now projectiles that could reach farther than he could throw, and his Area Constriction now had a mile radius around him. He had more than a dozen new chains: barbed, hellfire, point tipped, grappling-hook tipped, web chain, spiked ball-and-chain, heavy, large, super-sized, light, ice, and grinder chains. Combining these variations with his skills create interesting new ways to defeat opponents, such as the 'Iron Maiden' skill that combines 'Bind' + 'Barbed Chains'(Ouch).

  On the travel back to the camp site of the Midrardians, Eric and company defeated sevearl monsters that had come out of hiding to attack the group. They weren't much trouble, but defeating a big poisonious frog gave Eric a new variation that produced a poisinous slime over the chains. It seemed that defeating monsters unlocked new chain variations, a very interesting discovery. The walk back was spent with Eric primarily using his hammer to attack so it would gain experience and become stronger. Compared to his chains, the hammer was severly lacking in skills and power, though his massively increased strength was enough to do without the hammer.

  The trip back to the Midrard camp seemed to pass by faster, even though it still took four days. The group finally climbed up a hill, passing through a scattered forest to come out to a level plane with wild grass waving gently in the breeze. The Midrard camp was nowhere to be seen, neither flag nor tent was on the grassy field.

  "I could have sworn this was where the camp was," said Eric, looking around with some confusion. "Span out and look for signs of the camp, maybe they moved on."

  The group seperated, looking around the area for any signs of where the Midrardians had moved to. As Eric walked around the grass, trying to find signs of a camp, he tried to accurately predict where the area had been before. Judging based on the treeline they had exited and the features from the opposite side of the valley. Eric judged the camp to be just a little ways away where Lucia was searching. He watched Lucia put her hand to her mouth, her body siezed up as her eyes stared at something spread around her feet.

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  "ERIC," Lucia yelled, looking up to see that Eric was already looking at her. Eric made his way through the tall grass to the area that Lucia had been searching, and he finally saw the clearing of the Midradians. Eric saw the piles of ash that lay scattered around the camp, the sets of armor that lay scattered around the empty field with the bodies of the slain turned to ash inside. Lucia had tears welling up in her eyes, looking at the field of the dead that had once been the lively Midrardian camp. Eric was just as shocked, his eyes wide and his hands out to his sides as if intending to grab one of the fallen Midrardians.

  "Who?..." said Eric, then he saw saw a large group of body armor just a little ways away. It was Baldur's armor, the Midrardian symbol displayed proudly on his chestplate with a single puncture to the heart. The puncutre was tall and wide enough to suggest a blade, but the Midrardian armor was thick and couldn't have been punctured by ordinary weapons....

  "What is this?" came Elas's voice, and Eric looked at her with great sadness in his eyes.

  "This is the camp of the Midrard refugees," said Eric, getting on his knees and putting his hands on Baldur's helmet. His face was still noticable through the gaps in his helmet, his eyes closed and his feature rested with some skin eaten through by insects. Eric felt a cold sensation, both in his heart and on his back. Eric turned to see Elas with her fists clenched and snow beginning to swirl around her as tears streaked her face.

  Eric stood and hugged her, his huge arms chilled to the touch as he pressed his body against Elas. "It's alright," said Eric soothingly, petting Elas's hair to calm her down.

  "But I'm so angry!" cried Elas with a quiver in her voice as her emotions slowly got the better of her. The swirling snow slowly got thicker, but Eric was there to hold Elas.

  "I know," said Eric calmly, "I'm angry, too. But this isn't the place to take out that anger. We have another job to do, then we'll use that anger to fight the people that deserve it." Elas shook as she emotions bubbled up inside, but the swirling storm slowly resided.

  "What happened here?" demanded Draco as he and Lilly entered through the grasses. Eric looked at them, still holding Elas, his eyes were cold and emotionless.

  "The other heroes did this," said Eric, his own anger boiling violently. "I was ordered by the king to do the same, but he must have sent the others after me."

  Eric's meaty hands were clenched in fists of rage, his anger at himself for not expecting something like this to happen.

  "But they're heroes," said Lilly innocently, "they wouldn't do something like this."

  "No," said Lucia, remembering the way Tyler had come after her, "they would do something like this." There was a heavy silence before Eric let go of Elas.

  "They deserve to be buried," said Eric soundly. "We'll give them all proper funerals, then we'll go have a talk with the king. Maybe then we can vent this anger."

  For an entire day; Eric, Elas, Lucia, Draco, and Lilly covered the ground of the decimated Midrardian camp in solemn silence, gathering sets of armor and setting them into makeshift graves. By nightfall, there were over a hundred sets of armor that had no bodies to be buried with, and half as many holes to dig. Elas gave the Midrardians their last rights, but she needed to take breaks to avoid freezing the entire country side. When Eric filled in the last grave, he looked at the rows upon rows of graves he had just created. These men and women, chased from their homes and made to die on this empty plain, did they deserve this?

  No, they didn't.

  And Eric would make damn sure the king knew that.

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