CHAPTER 1
THE FIRST ENTRY IN THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MASON COURBIS
"A Bright Future"
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Baron Vuerix Ya’Cerczik II; known as, “Vuerix the Endless,” and the Overseer of “The Limitless Fortress.” An Archdaemon that controls the Autarchy's hold on the Eastern coast of the island-continent of Hsura. It’s a lot of information to process, but in the end he was never that much underneath it all. He was a fiend, granted he was powerful both in strategic knowledge and magical potential. With enough time and effort, however, even the toughest of stones wear thin and crack.
My name is Mason Courbis.
I’m the Hero, and protector of this realm.
And if you’re reading this,
It means I’m probably already dead.
To Vuerix, though, I was nothing but a whisper on the wind until I was suddenly an uninvited guest in his private chamber. He spat up his evening tea right onto his priceless custom tapestry rug as he caught a glimpse of me from the corner of his eye.
“GUARDS—” he screamed, as he readied a spell in his left hand. I was faster, however, as a thrown knife suddenly pinned his hand to his desk before he could finish casting, sending the destructive force of the spell careening through a nearby nightstand. His cry of pain twisted into a snarl as he reached for his sword with his free hand. As he grasped its hilt, however, he wailed and recoiled once more; through the pain and distraction, he’d failed to notice that I’d been using a Heat Metal spell on it ‘till it had turned a bright orange. With both options thrown out the window, he attempted to push himself up from his desk only to find that the movement threatened to push his neck onto the tip of my blade. I stared down at him with a dull smile as I held his throat at knifepoint.
“Greetings Vuerix; my name is Mason. Welcome to your last dialogue.”
Vuerix began to pool a globule of spit in his mouth as if to launch it at me, but a sharp and generous reminder of my bladetip at his jugular convinced him to change his mind. Instead he sneered at me as he began forming his final monologue.
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“Just who do you think you are, trespassing so brazenly in my private chamber?! I am Vuerix the Second, Vuerix the Endless!”
“The Endless, you say? My, Vuerix, I daresay that if you wanted to live forever, you shouldn’t have made so many enemies.”
“Hah! Then what say you, fool who has challenged The Infinite? My guards shall have you captured in but seconds. Your torture will be nothing less than severe.”
“I’d say I haven’t the time. I’ll be cutting down The Watchful on next moon, so I can’t exactly afford to stick around.” A wicked, manic grin spread across his face, which brought a light frown to my own. It was a bit unsettling.
“The gall! The sheer audacity! The stupidity, it’s outrageous! I...” Vuerix blinked once, and looked around, trying to catch glimpses of his chamber doors, likely wondering why his guards had failed to arrive yet. I simply smiled.
“They aren’t coming, Vuerix. This whole floor is quiet, and the ones beneath it are next.” I chuckled a little at that, and added, “Did you know that humans slaughter livestock like cows and pigs for food? They’re led to a place with no exits, and are left with nothing more to do but die.” I pushed the blade just hard enough against his thick skin to cause a small stream of blood to flow, and I could feel him wince. “I imagine this is exactly how they feel, Vuerix.”
“Insolent brat! Delusional fool! You are nothing! You’re meaningless— insignificant!!” His golden-orange eyes turned wild, and he stared at me with an expression that overflowed with fury.
“JUST WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?!”
I didn’t answer immediately; instead, I pushed my blade through his neck, and slit his throat. He gurgled pathetically at me, and acted as if he were trying to spit blood in my direction. He only succeeded in dribbling it down his chin and over his cheeks. As he fell over his desk, sputtering and glaring still, I wiped my bloodied blade upon his expensive-looking shirt.
“I’m just enough to do the job, apparently.”
Vuerix was never anyone special to me, aside from the first real step on my journey. Though any of the Barons would have sufficed as a first step, I chose Vuerix specifically because of his title, “The Endless”. In my mind, putting an End to the Endless was a fitting sort of message I wanted to send, both to the Hsurans as well as to the Autarchy. After I’d dealt with Vuerix and his elite, I began working my way down the chain of command, taking out his Daemons and higher ranking Devils within the fortress as well as a few of the more powerful Demons. It took time and patience, but eliminating the more challenging enemies through stealth and subterfuge was what I was there for. Once they were out of the way, I set off a signal flare from a balcony on the western face of the fortress; the Hsuran Resistance rose up from their hiding places in a furious battlecry, and charged. It was honestly one of the most motivating and moving scenes I’d ever witnessed before in my life, and I had a veritable first-row seat. They fought valiantly until daybreak, and though they sustained a few casualties the fiends were utterly crushed. The East Coast was taken back for Hsura, and we had won our first victory in our campaign for freedom.