PROLOGUE

It was finally nearing the end. After all that they had been through, all the hardships they endured, and the sacrifices they had to make along the way.

The Altar of Rites.

It looked surprisingly normal, a simple, plain, stone altar, much shaped like your standard water fountain, but, with some distinct engravings on the stone, shaped like small circles, each slightly larger than the size of her hand.

Zara knew better than to touch it right away, and she pulled her book out of the side of her quiver. The Altar was supposed to be an ancient artifact of old, and, judging by the insanity they had to endure and how many demons were slain and friends fell on their quest, Zara didn’t want to take any risks by touching it.

She opened the book on the page before the last and re-read its passage: “to those who decide to touch the Altar’s engravings, a new sense of duty shall fill them, and they will be restless in its pursuit – until it either consumes them to death or they fulfill it, upon which extraordinary powers will be bestowed upon them. It is no simple task, and, the Altar changes and shapes itself to the powers of the one who touches it. Mere mortals, who have come before, have all fallen to the powers of the Altar. Beware those who dare.”

The passage still sent chills down her spine, even after all that they had been through – what if this was all too much to handle? What if she shouldn’t meddle with this ancient artifact?

Many have tried it before, and now, their names were carried in scared whispers around dubious taverns, brothels, and churches. Not a good sign when your name is half whispered as your body is burning… However, all of those who came before were only mere humans, which is an inconvenience when it comes to meddling with the unknown powers that lie hidden in Sanctuary.

“What now?”, asked Serle. 

Serle was a sorceress, with which Zara had made acquaintances and then friends, as they bonded together during their journey, and, they had been through so much that Serle was now basically a shadow of her former self.

As a sorceress trained in the most elite institutions in Sanctuary, all about Serle screamed elite. She was a tall, slender woman, with blonde hair, and blue eyes and walked covered in a myriad of dark blue and gold-woven robes, typical for the highly trained sorceresses from Sanctuary. Her training started almost from birth, and it consisted of a mix of theoretical studies on the history of Sanctuary, a continent shaped by and changed by all kinds of magic, mythical creatures, and natural events, to the history of how sorceresses came to harness their powers by learning how to channel energy from the nature and elements around them. Serle could conjure the brightest light, the hottest flame, and make the heaviest rain pour as long as she learned to control and master her use of a substance known in the books as “Essence”. It was said to be linked with the sorceress's soul and through their training, they learned to conjure it forward into the mortal realms and tame it to their will.

Over time and with prolonged use, the essence would replenish quickly but, through ingenious research efforts, a potion was created that, once drank, would immediately give a boost to the essence’s reserves of the sorceress. It was so effective that a very tiny vial would replenish around a third of the essence spent.

Serle

However, not all sorceresses were equal when it came to their efficient use of essence, and, the more experience and training one got, the better one became, and, Serle, while not being the absolute best, was definitely competent.

The journey had left scars and bruises both physical and mental on the duo, having lost a friend along the way and being on the brink of exhaustion right near the end of their journey.

Serle was now a bruised, ragged, and tired version of her best self, a deep cut had left a scar along the left side of her neck until the beginning of the shoulder, and her hair was now much more bleached and darker in tone compared to when they set out for their journey.

Zara was in better shape, in fact, she was as good as when they set out for the journey, but, bear in mind, Zara is not a normal human, she’s actually a Nephalem. Beings forged between the union of Gods and Men, Nephalem exist to protect Sanctuary from evil and they were created by the gods to ensure that no harm would come to the human race and the world as we know it.

By combining Gods and Men, Nephalem can use their god-like powers among men and live and wander completely blended in with other people. While they look normal, they possess unique godlike abilities that grant them enhanced senses, strength, stamina, agility, and some degree of healing abilities that humans simply cannot have. They are still mortal, so, much like a human, their vital strength can simply be spent, they can be killed, and they age, although, many of these processes happen at a much, much slower rate than with normal humans, and, coupling this with their enhanced abilities granted to them at birth by the gods, they become essentially like semi “human gods” and act as protectors of Sanctuary.

Zara

Zara while also being bound to the mortal realm by her very own nature, was much more liberal in how she acted and paced herself in times of peril, as Serle had seen many times during their journey, after all, being partially bound to the realm of gods allows for a certain lax attitude that humans can’t have.

However, she was now legitimately scared of the Altar now that they were face-to-face with it. This was it. From here onwards, it was all unknown territory, and who knows what lay ahead in store for them. What if the book was wrong? What if there was no power but instead just more pain and suffering? Would she be able to endure even more of it? Would it finally break her?

The fear and uncertainty were creeping up on her like the night sweeps away the daylight, all engulfing, all at once. Relentless.

“I don’t know…”, she finally managed to utter, shattering the silence that had fallen between them like a glass hitting marble.

Serle scowled, realizing that Zara was now hesitating right at the very end.

“What do you mean?”, she asked, an edge to her voice, almost as if begging her friend to just do what they had set out to do from the very start.

“This is what we’ve been searching for! This might give us the edge that we need so that we can finally make Sanctuary free of demons forever!”

“Yes, but, what if it’s not that simple?”, Zara asked, “what if the book was a lie?”.

“Yes, that can be, but, that will be a risk that you’ll have to take.”

“I guess you’re right…”

The book was unclear on the procedure for interacting with the Altar itself, presumably because the scholars from old, only always saw people dying upon touching it, so, the actual actionable details on how to use the Altar were scarce to none.

In fact, as far as they knew, Zara would be the first Nephalem to attempt to touch the Altar in as long as it had existed, so anything that happened from here on would be uncharted territory.

Still hesitating, Zara looked a bit more attentively at the Attar itself.

It was very plain in aspect. It truly looked like a normal water fountain, perhaps slightly larger, but, nothing that would warrant a second look, which, for some reason, made Zara feel even more uncomfortable about it.

The only thing that was very distinctive were the engravings on its top area. Each engraving had its own distinctive shape.

Several circular engravings, resembling seals, adorned the top of the altar, arranged in a tree-like structure, with the first seal on the single top level being connected to three other seals, then each of the three seals at the “second level” connected to two other seals, on the third level.

Stolen novel; please report.

Finally, each seal on the third level was yet connected to two other seals on level 4 and each of these last level seals converged into one unique seal that was shaped more like a rectangle.

A total of 28 seals populated the entire altar.

It was an interesting structure because it meant that you could reach the lower levels by traversing each seal at every level only once from each side, so, you didn’t really need to go through all the seals to reach the supposed “last level” for each of the seals on the last level.

“Have you noticed how we don’t need to traverse every single seal if we want to reach the end of every level?”, Serle asked, seemingly reading Zara’s thoughts…. Maybe she was… Sorceresses should be able to read thoughts, right?

“You’re right, and the book doesn’t really say anything about that, I guess that nobody even successfully unlocked a single seal before, which is totally crazy considering how old this thing must be.”

“I guess the best thing to try out will be to…. Just touch the first one, right?”, asked Zara.

“I guess…”

Without thinking anymore, Zara placed her left palm on the Altar. Nothing happened.

“So?”, Serle was actually curious now, her scholarly side overriding the fear she was also feeling just moments ago. “Anything?”

“Not rea…”, Zara started.

But, at that moment, time and space eluded her, and she was not in front of the Altar anymore.

Instead, she felt really cold, surrounded by a bright blue light and a spirit was standing in front of her.

“Greetings, Nephalem! Many have stood where you are now, but few suceeded in clearing the trials.”

Zara was just feeling disoriented and very, very dizzy, so her mind wasn’t really registering what she was witnessing before her very eyes. A spirit was greeting her? Where the hell was she?

“Where am I?”, she managed to ask.

“You’ve just accessed the Altar of Rites, Nephalem. The ones who came before you are long gone, forgotten in the ancient history of Sanctuary. You’re the first Nephalem to enter here in many, many eras.”

Seems like this explained why she and Serle thought that the Altar had been left unearthed since forever. Time is hard to comprehend when you start measuring it in eras instead of centuries or even millenia… How powerful the Nephalem from before must have been… It was a true mind-boggling thing to even consider it.

“So, not a single Nephalem has touched the Altar in….eras?”

“That’s right… Its power is tied to the creation of Sanctuary itself and shifts and changes as eras pass, so, now, it can be claimed anew… If you wish to do so. It will be no easy task though”.

“What exactly is the Altar? What’s its purpose?”

“The Altar was unearthed many many eras ago, during a mining expedition, by a scholar by the name of Lorath Nerath, which was joining the mining crew as a scribe and teller of events mostly. It was, you could almost say, an accidental discovery of one of the most powerful artifacts to ever be put in Sanctuary. The Gods originally created the Nephalem, like yourself, as a last resort to gain an upper hand in the Eternal conflict between gods and demons. Many of your like, blessed Sanctuary with their power, formed factions and order was maintained as a delicate balance of power between demons and gods, with Nephalem tipping the scales, if ever so precariously slightly in favor of human kind.

However, when rumours started spreading that Diablo was being brought back to life to push back on the Nephalem influence and let demons roam free, gods were at a standstill.”

“Because Gods can’t directly intervine in the human realm…. But Diablo and its likes have no concern for order or the boundaries between realms…”

“Exactly! Gods have actually sworn a sacred oath that binds them to their own realm, where the conflict still happens, and where they are most needed…. After all, if Heaven falls, all that will be left is Hell…. And Diablo knows it.”

Zara was instinctively aware of this in the back of her mind. Her purpose was to get revenge for all of her loved ones felled to the demon spawn from hell and she was put on the realm of men to purge demons away from it and send them back to hell. Her powers could manifest in this realm as a physical manifestation of God’s will. She was the ultimate instrument crafted by the gods to protect Sanctuary from demons, hell and destruction. She had accepted her purpose and was set to fullfill her mission to the best of her abilities until her very last breath.

“So, this Altar… is it like… a Nephalem?”

“In a way, yes, but, it’s also different, in the sense that the altar is not really a living thing, instead, its imbued with the essences of many different Nephalem artifacts and it relies on their essence to grant you, extraordinary powers. You will only truly understand when you touch it with intent.”

Zara knew exactly what the spirit meant.

She was fueled by a duality of hatred and discipline. The hatred for the demons was the main driver that led her to seek revenge against all her loved ones, as well as all the innocent ones who had died at the hands of demons.

To effectively fullfill her hatred, she relied on discipline. It was what allowed her to channel her most powerful skills that allowed her to decimate waves of foes almost at will and conjure a myriad of both offensive and defensive spells that made her a threat for any demon or demon-like creature.

So, upon touching the Altar she needed to just…. Channel her inner discipline and all would be clear…

“Be aware that each task will be much harder than the previous one and once you start, you will not be able to rest in your pursuit to unlock every seal in the altar, unless you make a blood offering to it for every seal left. An offering releases you from your bounds to the Altar because of your Nephalem powers, which allows for the altar to restore itself. However, may you unlock every seal, and you’ll be rewarded with power behind your wildest imagination and, you alone, will be able to face and purge Diablo from Sanctuary for all eternity. May you succeed in your endeavors, Nephalem.”

“WAIT…”, Zara started shouting, but, as quickly as she had disappeared from the Altar room, she was now back in it, with Serle just curiously looking at her. How long was she gone? It felt like a long time…

“So?”. Serle asked. “Anything happened?”

“What happened?”, Zara was even more disoriented than before.

“Nothing; at least, nothing that I can see.”, Serle replied. “You just touched the seal, your eyes blinked and well, that was it.”

“Really? Well, I can tell you that something definitely happened.”

Zara just explained her ethereal encounter with the spirit who told her all about the Altar and what she needed to do to yield its powers now…

Serle was, understandably, shocked.

“So… it’s real?”.

“It is real.”

“All that’s left is to do it…”

Serle was Zara’s support during their entire journey and now, it was not going to be any different. It was not going to be all for naught.

“No matter what, I will be here for you!”, Serle said while gently squeezing Zara’s hand.

“I know.”

And, finally, Zara set out to do it.

“She cleared her mind, almost like entering a meditation state, and closed her eyes to focus on her inner self, commanding her own will to tame itself to her wishes, filling herself with discipline, the sheer focus to do what she must and carry it through.

She then reached for the first seal in the altar, and, this time both she and Serle clearly saw a white light emanating from the seal, almost like a blend between light and mist and it enveloped around her wrist, engraving its shape in her wrist…

She heard a whisper in her mind….

“Nnneeeppphhhaaalleemmm……..”