#arganon

There's a great swamp within the Southeastern reaches of Arderos officially known as the Blackmud Moor.

Most know it by another name:

The Death Swamp.

Fishermen and exotic hunters set up shantytowns and unofficial-official shacks within the sodden dirt, only to be found mere days later, bloodied and empty.

Most blame either the wilderness itself, or the many tribes of warring lizardfolk within, some morons even dare say the Church could be hiding something within the Moor.

The Church has no secrets.

Most fear the encroaching Blackmud Moor for the reason that it seems to be growing a person's length each year, expanding its boundaries beyond where any swamp should, as hillocks and groundwater cracks the soil and ground around its borders.

The Church is diligently researching ways to try and slow such spread, as swampland so far into the Lightlands could ruin future projects such as foundations for new churches, or trading posts set up by companies allowed by the Church.

The Church is trying to help you, let the Militia do the dirty work, and pray for the Militiaman's safety within the Churches so that they may return home safely.

Do not trust the men in masks

Secret lies, a darkened past

Thieves await you down below

Greedy dwarves, driven low

Vampires around in masquerade

An Entourage of Shadows, death to be made

An Iron God with endless cables

Broken Angels lie in cradles

Follow the path that you all choose

This world is yours, I give it to you

For when's the time to come back alive

Your fangs will grow, and hearts arise

More's the merrier for predators galore

Starting to hyperfixate on Owls

They're Sky-Cats, and I love them

And a Giant Owl'd make for a terrifying D&D encounter

"Specialized light made into corporeal forms to serve a greater purpose."

"Gods are a dying race, meant to fill the void with light for moments longer before being swallowed by the darkness again."

"Light is an aberration; something lesser beings created by a god take for granted."

"All a SOUL really is, is just a concentrated ball of light. A sphere meant to grow on its own to be returned to its deity, in order to increase their power."

"Hell is darkness' counter."

"A system made to take the light and deliver it back to the darkness it all spawned from."

"So no, dear mortal, your life is just a means to a futile end. I made a mistake once, one that I will not repeat within my future existences."

"Go ahead, try and stop it, you have no power over anything outside of this realm."

"Even if you were to travel and somehow collect every tome of knowledge, every scrap of deceased deific matter, you'd fall so spectacularly short of any form of real power that even lesser gods would laugh at you.

"Even if you were to properly ascend to godhood, blessed or forced, I would still kill you the same way I kill self-proclaimed 'God Kings/Queens'."

"Who am I?"

"..."

"Hark've gone the bells

Sweet were silver bells

All seemed to've said

"Throw cares away

Christmas was here

Be of good cheer"

From everywhere

Filled all the air

All were here and bound

Raised up the sound

All here and there

TOLD ALL THE TALES

GAYLY RANG OUT SONGS

OUT AND HERE

GONE WERE THE CHEERS

CHRISTMAS WAS HERE

MERRY MERRY MERRY MERRY CHRISTMAS...

...

Merry merry merry merry Christmas...."

Sat in a room with little more than a fireplace and a few chairs, the Slayers and Prodigies gathered around as snow fell from above onto the roof of their little cottage.

Riot sat in an old rocking chair, his bulk causing it to creak as he rocked back and forth.

Deregaius stood behind his wife, hands on the back of the couch she sat on as the firelight danced across his carapace and face.

Rath sat beside Riot, also sat in a different rocking chair. His face wasn't so hollow on this merry day, traced with glimmers of satisfaction.

Eva sat on the main couch, reading various Christmas stories to Luna and her small elemental friend, as was tradition.

Luna sat before her adoptive mother, her wolf-like ears perked up as high as they could go, so she could listen to the stories she told.

Adelia sat with Archeron across the room, their outfit and various plants that normally grew around them had long since turned to greys and whites to herald the change of seasons.

Archeron sat with Adelia, matching their expression of parental joy as their 4 kids sat with Luna to hear the tales of Christmas' past.

Ork was in the small kitchen of the cottage, quietly cooking the perfect feast that was to come post-story time. He was very good at his job.

Onion and Brocli joined Ork in the kitchen, preparing and catching the various ingredients that would go into the meal, with Onion only occasionally freaking out when the ingredients attempted to escape.

Eda rested in her own rocking chair, her hair beginning to grey from the years she'd lived and battles she's seen. Despite this, she still bears a kind and hopeful expression and SOUL...extraordinary

Lia sat next to her sister Del, quietly using her spider Sugarhoneybabypookiekins to help spin Ugly Christmas Sweaters for all to wear later.

Broing was outside, ensuring the protection stave around the cottage was stable, but also ensuring that the snow did not gather too much and try to crush in the roof, using specialized magics.

It was a very Merry Christmas for all.

A time of love and giving.

Joy and laughter.

Love one another.

"This is the only way it should have ended."

The last voice he ever heard, before a blade was driven through his skull.

He couldn't understand what had happened.

Worldbreakers struck fear into the hearts of even the most jaded Archdemon, even HE was scared of them.

Finally getting one under his command took all he had, and even then, he had to quite literally give up his legs to fuse with the fleshy-steel brain of the titan.

And yet this Godlet managed to blow through the entire thing with one.

single.

blast.

The false skull detonated, and his world had become engulfed in blue flames.

He could only watch as The Bastard approached him as he laid paralyzed on the ground.

But when his eyes met theirs...

...he understood.

He was going to die, for good this time.

A hand then punched itself through his chest and tore out his heart, and he saw why everything has happened the way it did.

He was just another piece of the Grand Puzzle, another cog in the wheel, his heart contained a fragment of the Apolachy; a twisted device to be used come [REDACTED] and the Void King had claimed is as its own.

This is the only way it could possibly have ended.

He was doomed from the start.

Heaven nor Hell awaits the tide of slaughter ought to follow.

Only

The Giant/Dragon War was the greatest calamity ever seen upon the face of Arganon.

Such battles of ferocity and earth-shattering power took place, that they shook the mantle of the planet so violently it threatened all life on its surface.

Humanity and all of their kin were still in primitive times, but the Gnomes had advanced far beyond even where the great Giants had.

The Gnomish folk had made machinations of such caliber that they could stand against and even win select few direct engagements with the Giantkin. Their elders and council spoke about topics much too complex for the simple folk of Human, Dwarf, and Elven peoples; and in a lone workshop surrounded by other inventors, with a grand pressure the size of a mountain on his back...

Knobb Horruk had an idea.

To defeat the Giants, and crush the Dragons, one must dwarf them in both size and power.

His ideas rang out amongst his fellows, the Elders of his clan were astonished and even perhaps a little frightened of the ideas Knobb was purposing.

Great Mechanical Titans, on which entire villages could be built upon the backs of for the sake of maintaining the great beasts, powered simply by walking them near the Ley Lines no druid could ever hope to guard.

...

...

...

3 of these beasts were made, each with their own weaponry and defenses. Great rituals and depravity swallowed the Horruks, empowering these Bringers of Ruin with their own blood and souls, all for the sake of "protecting their people". They took decades to construct, progress often being delayed due to sudden conflicts around them as the ground trembled further, made of so many tons upon tons of excavated metal great canyons were carved to birth those hideous colossi.

As Knobb himself finally fell to the wasting affects the rituals and deals made with lower powers, his creations fell with him into the layers of Hell.

Where they would stay, powered and ran by the tormented souls of him and those he sacrificed for his twisted cause.

Even Demon Lords fell to the shear crushing power of these constructs, their armaments leaving entire civilizations in ruin for no other reason than to do so, whilst being impervious to all damage thanks to a barrier of souls that unwillingly protected them.

They never saw their intended purpose.

They never wanted to.

They wanted to bring ruin.

They wanted to break the world.

So they were named: The Worldbreakers.

May the Heavens quake at their return to the mortal planes.

It was a week of what should've been glorious freedom.

Instead it, was a literal living hell.

I carried Victor everywhere I went, but unfortunately, he's a baby, so he cries...a lot. This is good for drawing the attention of the things we've grown to eating (mainly other weaker demons, or demons caught in whatever trap I can scrape together), but sneaking past larger hordes of demons who toss fire at literally anything that moves is near impossible when one of them snorts too loud, and Victor's big blue eyes start shimmering...

I wouldn't give him up for anything, though.

Even as pieces of my torso were torn free by violent windstorms blown down from Lust, or Gluttony's Hive scouts boiling up from beneath our feet and forcing us to move again, I still found myself protecting Victor with all I had.

Really wish I could get out of here.

Sitting in an abandoned slaughterhouse, skimming pieces of not-yet-rotted meat from our last kill, I thought about all the ways I could try and escape. Legends of those select few demons who managed to get so powerful they could move wherever they pleased roiled amongst us at the factory, and the possibility of "anywhere but here" was enough to get some of us whipped for daydreaming.

Some demons became Dealmakers, making and collecting on contracts from mortals in the world so they could possess their eternal souls down here. Abaddon was one of the greatest Dealmakers to ever un-live, made his princedom entirely off of the sheets of parchment that sealed the fate of so many before and after him. They could travel wherever they saw an opportunity, or were summoned, but I was certainly not noticeable enough to be summoned by any mortal cult.

I certainly couldn't become one of those Dealmakers, too many have failed because there was a loophole that allowed their clients to control them for eternity. You had to be DAMN clever to be a good Dealmaker, something I am not.

Rumors used to be whispered that there were great steel colossi out beyond the limits of even the most savage demons, those so large and so powerful that they could bore holes through the dimensions, but simply chose not to...those rumors and legends terrify me.

The thought of a construct to grand, that it chooses to stay in this place because that allows it to do whatever it wants to do, staying just to give us nightmares about the destruction one could cause.

Truly demonic.

But how in Hell could I escape Hell? Hell's supposed to be below the other dimensions, maybe if I just kept going up? Nothing's ever reached the Ember Ceiling because of the Felgeists (Giant, fire breathing bats that actually LIVE up there), and any who've tried were snatched up in their giant talons and hoisted away into their nests...

...what happens next, I didn't have time to think about. I heard hoofsteps of a larger demon, and decided I'd overstayed my welcome in this old meathouse.