Chapter 2:

"THERE ARE FIVE ARCANES; OCEAN, THUNDER, CLOUD, EARTH, AND, OF COURSE, ME AND JIRATH'S ARCANE, HELLFIRE, THOUGH SOME OF THEM LABELED IT A MYTH."

- THE HELLFIRE CHRONICLES, HOLY BOOK OF TRAGSXT

1st of Jirath. 1012 on the War calendar. 10 years after the fall of Lerau City:

Etheail Hearth patrolled the fortress with a spear in hand. In truth, he was more useless than a Frosjr trying to do anything except torment. Etheail had no training or knowledge of how to use the spear. He just hoped the image would be intimidating enough to ward off the Ira Vultures and would-be robbers.

Right now, Etheail had a splitting headache which also caused him to stare randomly at the Obelisks now and again.

He stared at the Obilisk of The Deep, a giant trident of flowing water rammed into the ground. The Ilra used it as part of their border.l

"Etheail..." A husky voice whispered into his mind.

That had been happening a lot lately. He didn't know why.

The Ira Vultures started cawing; the sun was about to set.

"By the Arcanums!" Etheail muttered. How long had he been staring into the distance? Well, no raiders had come, so that was good.

Etheail started wandering towards the ruined castle he guarded, keeping an eye out for Freeze Bugs on the way.

He admired how sunset always gave the sprawling red grass a shine; it felt like one of the few advantages of being in Kraetez.

Ethail passed the broken castle's bridge that miraculously still held. The entire fortress still standing was Tragsxt's own miracle. It had been used so long ago, even before the war started, during the 3rd Bleakness.

It was a base belonging to the Devildealers of old, led by Tragsxt himself. Or that's what the scriptures taught, at least.

If Etheail was being honest, the religious significance was secondary to how easy it would be to escape and how hard it would be to invade; Tragsxtism was pretty much dead since the fall of Larau City, anyway.

Etheail reached the gate of the castle and knocked three times, "Orange will!" He shouted; it was the password.

The gate slammed open and was met with a warm reception by Jrui, the kid assigned to guard the entrance.

Etheail said kid, but he was probably only a few years younger than himself. But, well, he just felt older than his time.

"Etheail..." The phantom whispered again. It was just his imagination. It had to be.

He walked through the castle yard and into the building proper, finding a massive area with hundreds of commerce stands filled with people.

An old man hobbled over to Etheail.

Uria, a fellow follower of Tragsxt. Small world.

"King!" Uria said with an upbeat attitude.

"Uria, I'm no king. Mayor is too grand a term for what I do."

The old man at him, slightly reverent, "Lad, you built this place from the ground up. You call it New Lerau City, and that place had a king."

"Fine." Etheail relented. "Is there any problem?"

"No, none at all, Etheail." The old man's stomach growled as he lied.

Etheail sighed, "Uria, I didn't make you...vice king so you could lie to me." He said.

"I know, lad. It's just. You're so young with so much on your shoulders! The food is barely an issue; the farms are going reliable. We can survive a few months!" Uria said,

"Survive. Not thrive." Etheail replied. "Undo whatever rationing plan you were to enact; I'll go fetch some food in the morning."

"You mean steal...From the armies!" Uria protested,

"They have enough Nanos to spare!"

"One of these days you're going to get yourself killed, lad."

"One of these days, all of us are going to die, lad," Etheail replied. It was grim humor, but it tended to get him out of moral debates with Uria.

Uria sighed, suffering, "I swear lad, you're worse than the Frosjrs."

Etheail raised an eyebrow, "The Frosjrs terrorized all of humanity during the Bleakness." The Bleakness referred to a series of eras where devils known as Frosjr invaded. The last one was supposed to have happened during The Lost Era.

"Yeah, now we have you to terrorize us. Uria joked before walking off.

Etheail shouted goodbye to Uria and walked down the commerce area. After the stands, a large stairwell leads up to the hundreds of sleeping quarters.

Uria insisted he sleep in the king's quarters, but it just didn't feel right. Instead, Etheail picked the bedroom to the corner. Distinguished enough that people could find him but normal enough that he didn't feel self-conscious.

"Etheail..." The phantom whispered. He really was crazy, wasn't he? "Not much time...155 days...5 months." Etheail stopped in place. He was sure that it was simple insanity from his trauma, but a countdown? He couldn't be that bad, but... what else could they be?

Etheail shook his head, instead opting to ignore the issue and go to bed.

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Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

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2nd of Jirath. 1012 on the War calendar.

Etheail jutted awake in a cold sweat. He put a hand to his heart; it was beating much faster than what could be healthy.

He had a nightmare, of that he was sure. But what was it? He couldn't remember.

All he was left with was a vague feeling of anxiety. He looked out the window of his quarters. It was barely sun up.

Etheail got up from his bed, unable to sleep any further. He left his quarters and roamed to the stairs going up to the roof where a majestic sight met him.

A vast panorama of the area, flush with rivers and red grass. He could see a few places overrun with freeze bugs, but they'd be unfrozen within the day.

It was a beautiful sight, and Etheail felt grateful to be able to see it. Especially since it gave him a clear view of the Yjriath war camp not 6 miles from the fortress.

"Please...Not time...154 days." The phantom pleaded.

Etheail ignored it. He didn't know what it was counting down to, and he didn't care.

Etheail traveled down the castle and through the gate, taking a moment to greet Jrui before leaving.

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Etheail was about a 2 hours walk away from the fortress when the land disappeared.

If Etheail hadn't known it was coming, he might have fallen in.

Around the border of the claimless land, the earth dipped thousands of meters. It was sudden, so much so that it practically made the horizon; The Hollows, the battlefield of the endless war.

Etheail dipped his head forward, taking a peek down. Creators, hundreds of thousands of them stretching endlessly. Well, not endlessly. From where Etheail was standing, it looked about the size of his palm, but he could see Ilra, the land of Tidebringers.

Somewhere during the Lost Era of the War Calendar, something massively powerful made the connecting plunges, which looked like cracks from above, according to Cloudsummoners.

Legends tell of men and women so powerful they tore Kraetez itself apart; the Arcanums, supposed lords of the Devildealing Arcanes. Elaria, The first Earthsplitter. Dalthor, the first Stormforger. Kalendi, The first Cloudsummoner. Salara, the first Tidebringer. And, of course, Jirath, The first follower of Tragsxst

However, most scholars agree the legends and the Hollows came from some weapon that confused people to the point of them making god-like entities to explain it.

Etheail agreed with the scholars; the Arcanums seemed silly to him, but clearly, people disagreed as half the year was named after them.

Etheail was pretty sure calling Jirath silly was blasphemous, but his relationship with Tragsxt was complicated.

Near where he stood, there was a lone mountain The Hollows, Utop would be a couple of thousand tents and a giant portable warehouse filled with food Nanos, a Yjriath war camp.

Slowly, Etheail climbed down the grooved walls of The Hollow, and then he ran towards the mountain as fast as possible, stopping right before the slope up.

He didn't have much time; soon, one of them could find him!

Etheail breathed in quickly, preparing himself for the robbery when a low-pitched growl rang behind him.

A very recognizable growl. It sounded like chalk to a board mixed with crunching.

Etheail gulped before hesitantly turning around, finding his worst fears come to life.

Before him was a massive beast standing around 15 feet tall, give or take. It was covered in a deep navy fur patterned with light markings, barely visible for the time being. It resembled a mammoth, except it had eight legs, two tails, and three heads, each bearing a singular red eye along with two massive tusks protruding upwards.

It was a Jkri Tusk, a killing machine found only in the Hollows.

The red eyes focused on me as drool dripped off its furry lips. The thing roared as black markings flashed on its fur.

Etheail ran up the mountain as fast as he could, luckily the Jkri Tusk was slow to charge and slower to complete its ceremony.

A series of rhythmic roars fired behind Etheail as he climbed as fast as he could.

Upon reaching the top, Etheail yelled out, "Jkri Tusk! It's here!" Soldiers barely questioned him running towards the warehouse as they charged in formation.

Etheail stopped in front of the warehouse, taking a moment to catch his breath.

After composing himself, he opened the steel door to the warehouse, finding a sea of steel cabinets filled with rhombus-shaped pieces of obsidian with a spark of glowing gold inside. Nanos; containers that hold things much larger than their size.

Etheail wandered over to the food area. Each meal Nano was enough to feed an adult man for a week, there were about 400 people in his city, so taking a few thousand would suffice until they got farms running, and it wouldn't even scratch the wealth of Nanos they'd produced.

Etheail started taking as many Nanos as he could manage into his bags; he intended to steal as much as he could.

A man shuffled into the warehouse.

Etheail turned sharply. There was a Soldier of a sturdy build. He was tall with dark skin and long dreadlocks, a ruff but somehow still eloquent face that matched his silver padded samurai armor, the Yjraith stander, but it bled into a cloak at his waist and striking white eyes.

"Clever. Lie about a Jkri Tusk, then sneak away to steal food." The dark-skinned man held up his hand, "Glass!" He summoned.

A twisting ball of glowing clouds formed in his hand; his Pledgeborn.

The glow illuminated Etheail's face. The soldier studied him, "You're the king of new Learu city." His voice was confident in the statement, but his face told Etheail he was asking.

"Yes, I am. My people need these, and you have more than enough." Etheail replied, somewhat daftly.

The soldier raised an eyebrow, but not at Etheail. He thought to himself for a moment before snapping into action.

He walked towards Etheail and started bagging along with him. After bagging close to what Etheail had originally intended, the man took out an empty Supreme Nano; a Nanos that could store other Nanos. They were easy to tell apart as their size was three times larger.

The bags flashed gold before disappearing inside the Supreme Nano.

The dark-skinned man studied Etheail again, "You're not a selfish man. Good." He stated.

"I didn't lie about the Jkri Tusk," Etheail informed him.

"Spears." The dark-skinned man cursed softly but gave a nod of reassurance.

"Glass, take the good king here home." The man said.

Clouds formed around Etheail like lifts. Then he was flying.

It was then that Etheail discovered that he hated flying.

The clouds around him started feeling like chains as he hurled passed The Hollows and the Jkri Tusk surrounded by soldiers. After what felt like an eternity, but was just a few seconds, the clouds put him down on the edge of the Hollow, leaving Etheail to walk the rest of the way.

"Rude," Etheail commented.

"Please, listen. Not much time! 154 days!" The phantom whined in his ear, when it realized Etheail wasn't listening it just started a low-pitched whine.

"It isn't real...It can't be real." There were only two explanations for the phantom. Preferably, Etheail was going insane. Or, his relationship with Tragsxt was about to get much more complicated.

A Pledgeborn had started bonding with him.