Sometime in the future…

Dark and infertile, the area considered to be a wasteland by most races, was in fact the perfect place for the race known as the Irever. Made of bones and skeleton-like in appearance, most other beings confused them for undead. Having no flesh, they walked, talked, and did most things any living race could do. They even reproduced naturally, needing no necromancer or outside influence in order for the irever race to grow. Though no one outside of the irever were sure of those exact details.

In the irever village of Eltar Jus, the sun shone seldomly.  Nestled within a relatively flat portion of the region’s brown rolling hills, the village had a relatively small population when compared to human settlements. Devoid of most flora and fauna, one of the few plants that managed to grow in the barren soil was the mana-rich plant called the vunae, a small succulent-like plant that somehow found places to thrive within this dreary equivalent of a desert. Much like the fireflies on a summer night, the vunae lit up their modest fields with a pleasant green light. Cultivated by the typically agrarian Irever, the plants sat ready to be harvested, ground into a special paste for the skeleton-like beings to absorb through their bones. The unexpected problem was: there were no farmers in the fields. 

Being somewhat sentient, the vunae recognized that something was wrong. Normally irever children ran through them, laughing, and enjoying life throughout their midst. Teenagers and young adults often picked yellow flowers from the succulents when they were in bloom, so that they could give them to a loved one or a crush. All of that was suddenly gone and the vunae wondered why. 

Had some sort of malignant force come through? 

There had been no feelings of pain. They had sensed no suffering. Without eyes to see or ears to hear, the vunae would never know what happened to the people that tended to them. 

None of the plants feared dying as they had grown in the area long before the irever had shown up. All it had been to them was a happy symbiotic relationship but still saddened by their loss, each plant let one green bulb go into the air. 

A small sea of green floated upwards above the simple dirt buildings of Eltar Jus, a tribute to the irever that had suddenly vanished. The light shone in the sky for a few minutes before the bulbs dimmed and fell back towards the ground, finally losing all brightness. 

A jet black irever walked through the vunae fields that had long since become chaotic. Succulents grew wherever their seeds had fallen and it was not the vunae’s fault that this had happened. Taking off his mythril burgonet, the irever crouched down and took a yellow flower from the dim vunae. Despite having no flesh, the opening of his mouth formed a sad smile as the lights of the vunae started to flash more brightly after the flower had been picked. The irever placed the flower in an opening of his helmet and placed it back on his head. 

Along with a dozen other assorted color irever warriors, they slowly walked through the remains of the village. 

Structures had fallen into disrepair. The paths in and out of the village were overgrown with vunae. There were no smells or sounds except for the buzzing of some insects that helped pollinate the nearby succulents. 

After confirming that the village was empty, a grey irever with mages' robes pointed her bony hand to the sky. A sparkling blue light went up and within a few moments, they all started to hear the sound of rumbling approaching the village. Some of the irever started to dig up the vunae that had grown up in the middle of the street and began to transplant them elsewhere, taking care not to disrupt the plants that were such a major part of the irever way of life. 

Stolen story; please report.

The black warrior walked towards the sound of the rumbling, staring in wonder as the three steel beasts approached. He had been told that none of the beasts were actually alive but to him, they might as well have been. Their abilities to intimidate, destroy, and protect other living beings made it seem as though they were alive. 

Leading the pack was the one that they called Königstiger. 

Larger than the other three, it had brown, green, and tan skin that swirled in some sort of odd pattern. A handful of irever warriors jumped off its rear as the growling behemoth went past. The black irever looked down and was amazed to see the deep and continuous footprints that it had made in the ground. 

After the largest beast went by and kicked up a cloud of dust, the monster known as a Panther came through next. The first one that went past the irever had a splotchy dark green and tan pattern for its skin.  It, too, kicked up a heavy cloud of dust as they traversed through the empty village at a speed reminiscent of the average riding animal.  

The other type of steel beast was much different than the other two types. While it was able to match the speed of the others, it had a less intimidating appearance and it didn’t have a head; even though it appeared to have a rather large snout. With tan being its only color, it had two different sets of legs instead of only one like the others. Eight human men with an odd assortment of gear sat on its back. The irever could only see their faces and gray helmets as they rode past. Curiously, this beast didn’t have a name. So the irever had named it Kruret for one of the four legged pack animals that inhabited this world. 

Lastly, a red brown, tan, and light green lined Panther came rolling through last. The black irever waved to the human male that sat on its head. Unlike the men with helmets, this man wore a grey hat with a black brim that had a silver bird on its front. He had black ear muffs for whatever reason. 

Turning his head, the man nodded acknowledgement to the irever as it went past, and the last thing the irever noted of him was the two silver lightning bolts on the man's collar and skull that was on his hat. 

On the Panther’s rear, sat an arachne which the irever had never seen before. She had her legs hanging over the sides of the Panther, her spider’s silk attached to a makeshift sled that carried a handful of irever that were unable to defend themselves. He waved to the children and they waved back. 

Turning his attention back to the route from which the steel beasts had come in, he took up a position near a dilapidated residence and took up watch. 

Once they had made sure the village was completely empty, the irever warriors were to hop onto the steel creatures and proceed on to the refugee camp. Many irever had already perished and that had caused many to despair. One saving grace was these human men and their behemoths. 

While few in number, they had made a difference for them. 

Most importantly, it gave them hope. 

SS-Hauptsturmfuhrer (Captain) Philipp Redlich, commander of Panther 101, nodded to the black skeleton that waved to him. Despite how long they had been here already, he still couldn’t quite get used to sentient beings that weren’t human; much less something that looked like a human skeleton. So the fact that he could at least look at the irever in the face and acknowledge him or her at this point was something short of a miracle. 

He had spent most of his career on the Eastern front, assigned to 3rd SS Panzer Division Totenkopf.  Needless to say, Redlich had both seen and participated in his own share of atrocities and traumatic experiences. Most of them he regretted at this point, but to say that he was fighting here to atone for his sins was far from the truth.

Fighting on the Eastern front was indeed something that had scarred him. But some of the things that they had seen and encountered here in this world were far worse.

Much, much worse. 

“Fillipp.”

His thoughts interrupted, he replied with irritation, “What is it, Lalleri?”

“Look behind you.”

Knowing better than to ignore the arachne, he looked back towards where they had come in from, expecting to see the lone black irever that had waved to him. 

All that he saw was one yellow flower, drifting back and forth in the breeze.