War wasn’t something new to Nemesis.

Once a knight in life so long ago, he had been responsible for starting and ending them and spilling too much blood to have any hopes of being washed off. This, however, wasn’t just a simple war for land, riches or conquest. This was a war to see if Revaliir would see another day. His marching orders were simple- his forces were to eradicate these abnormalities and anything infected by them. By the numbers, their armies were a makeshift array of races and nationalities but there was a united goal among them. Almost. While Nemesis would fight against their enemies, he didn’t do it for any of them but for the wellbeing and survival of his own family. Of course, that thought never slipped from his tongue. It didn’t matter as much with the crack being close to Kurayo, close to home. He couldn’t just stand by and let fate decide for them.

No, he would have to aid those he didn’t know as well as those that had made his kind their enemies.

The surrounding area of the lake was eerily beautiful despite the masses of creatures that poured from the cracks, baring teeth, claws, tentacles and more as they rampaged through the land. Cladded in black armor from head to toe, the God watched from his trusted steed as it exhaled hard, releasing smoke from its nostrils. His forces were close by and he could smell the fear radiating from a lot of them. While he would have relished in the feeling of feasting off the emotion, there was no point now. Not only that but deep inside the seemingly stoic man, he was afraid of what would happen to his legacy, the family that he spent years crafting and protecting. They would not be undone by these void creatures nor by the world eaters. Crimson eyes craved for their complete and utter destruction as he rode towards their path, his blade withdrawn as the charge led him to the first of many beasts, which he struck down hard with his steel. Erebus continued leading his master as his onslaught started.

“Do not let your fate be left to these beasts!”, he spoke into the minds of the combatants as he continued to fight against the unbelieve amount of enemies, “Fight for all you have and destroy these things! Fight for your realm!” The knight pushed aside his own worries and focused on taking out as many of them as possible as the crack continued to spawn these damned things.

Ah war, that which I strive to end and yet find myself inexplicably drawn back to, Icarus thought to himself. Even as he caught the alert pertaining to this invasion from the Void, from his realm, he scoured the world searching for a battle he felt he could have an impact in. When his searches of Canelux and Onnen didn’t bear fruit, he returned to the Void for a period and wandered from the Unstructured to the Semi-Structured in an attempt to find the source of the invasion to no avail. It wasn’t surprising, however, since the Unstructured was theoretically infinite in size and he was but a mortal.

Alas, he happened to observe the sounds of battle from Jasumin Lake and saw the dark lord had erected an army to face against the invaders. Although he knew the dark lord was among those counted as deities and likely could lead the force to victory, Icarus wouldn’t discount his opportunity to gain some measure of favor by contributing to the war effort. Looking up to the clouds, he summoned his golden traveling cloud and watched as it descended with haste toward his feet. Stepping lightly onto it, Icarus rose up overhead to gain a better vantage over the battlefield.

Using his item summoning ability to withdraw items from his home in the Void was no difficult task, but he had to enjoy himself on the rare occasions he ventured into the world. ”Now where did I put it…” he trailed off as he pretended to have a difficult time finding his never-ending cup of ale. ”Eureka!” he exclaimed as he removed it from the small portal that essentially served as an item bag. 

In his endeavors to make more effective means of fighting, he experimented frequently with electricity and water. Well, ale was an impure combination of alcohol and water and could conduct electricity quite well compared to purified alcohol. As he thought of his next endeavor, he had to consider the fact he was using lightning magic across a wide range, which would diminish the results when the charge spread across multiple enemies. This was the reason he chose the highly-conductive low-purity alcohol to make the charge more effective.

His next concern was trying to keep the effects from reaching the allied frontlines. For that effort, he ascended high overhead and calculated the wind speed as accurately as he could manage, mostly by eyeballing it. With his preparations completed, Icarus began to sing a song his father had taught him as a child when entertaining nobles at their villa.

”Once Bacchus returns, the consciences will flourish.
My child, bring me a grail.I think I have the singing abilities of Creesus.Now, child, bring me a grail.I've been left with a crown of ivy and I crash it all upon my anger.
My child, bring me a grail.Feed me although I drink. Now, child, bring me a grail.Now, child, bring me a grail” he sang, holding the mug upside-down so the ale would flow endlessly on the foes below.
Resting for a moment, Icarus began summoning his mana, turning it and forming it within his other hand. His efforts were focused on expending half his mana to deliver a lightning ball many times more powerful than the simple spell offered. Little did he realize, the electrical display was drawing attention from below and the amount of time he could safely draw in more power was running short.

War was on. The entire clan of hunters had left the hidden village to take part in this war. Jedrek was surprised that the Council of Elders had allowed the outpour of the warriors to take part in such an endeavor. It had never been done before in the history of Jiyu. Then again, leave such a change of mass proportions to Matriarch Uial. She did not take well to anyone telling her that something could not be done, or least of all shouldn’t be done for the sake of tradition. Jedrek was proud of his Matriarch. Even so, he had to find himself on a separate battlefield than the woman. His heart was turned into aching bits knowing that she had found someone to make her love. He was happy for her, but he needed the distance now more than ever.

It was on the shores of Jasumin Lake that Jedrek decided to find himself against the beasts calling from the Void. If it had not been for the defiling demons, Jedrek was certain that the place would be have been rather lovely. The gold and orange leaves along with the autumn flowers were beautiful. He hated to see them colored in blood.

These sort of thoughts went through his mind as his katana cut through the enemy as if their flesh were made of butter with a hot knife. Every move he made was fluid as well as from muscle memory. Jedrek had found himself to be within a rather large horde of ‘chompers’ as they were being called. Human like figures with teeth filled mouths in the center of their stomachs. The demon hunter was familiar with creatures that were unsavory, but these were beyond that description in his mind. They were disgusting.

The golden gleaming eyes on the hunter took the opportunity to look about the battle field. There were not as many of those fighting on the lake shore as he had seen on the plains outside the village. It was to be expected since there were bigger establishments of city around there. Even so, he was glad to see that there was a rather powerful element not too far in the distance. From the looks of it, there was more than just a little bit more of power in the man on the steed.

Voice echoed in his mind that most undoubtedly came from the knight. Jedrek smiled lightly as he dodged another attempt from a chomper to bite off his arm. In one smooth motion, the hunter sheathed his katana at his side. While making a quick spin move, lightning formed between his hands. Another turn and it was released in a chain like formation to electric a line of five enemies.

For a split moment, there was hesitation from those that were surrounding him. There was no fear from the demon hunter as he drew out his katana again. What he did feel was slightly tired. It had been a decent amount of time to pass as the fighting continued. More weight had to be pulled with fewer fighters in the area.

Large disgusting looking blob creatures were making a way towards Jedrek’s position. The smell was putrid. A wrinkle in his nose answered the stench that reached his senses. He knew that getting close was not going to be the direction of fighting style to go. Lightning was called upon again with a larger force in an effort to keep the things at a distance.

Thoughts have run across his mind as he continued the fight, mainly on how to close off that crack. If it was possible to, then they could cut off the massive force and finish the rest off. The problem was, how to achieve it? Nemesis wasn’t foolish enough to believe that he alone contained the strength to force it shut nor did it seem likely that any known magic could do it. A grim look came from his eyes as he drove his blade into the abdomen of the infected. He circled Erebus around to charge through their ranks, bring forth shadows that followed close behind his steed’s hooves until they made contact with the enemy. Once they had, spikes shot up from the earth they traveled and impaled a good number of them.

In between his slayings, he could see that the others were proving fruitful as well. The question simply remained how long would they last? Unlike the infected, their pool of resources was limited and there was a good deal of the enemy that they had little to no knowledge of. Such came about when he noticed the earth begin to tremble violently and reined Erebus back. Three grotesque, imposing creatures of great height were making their way through the masses of infected, crushing a good deal of those that weren’t smart enough to stay clear of their path.

“For hell’s sake…” he muttered at these abnormalities and turned to those fighting for Revaliir. They were going to have to cut these monstrosities down to size somehow. Perhaps by dealing with one of them at a time and see what weaknesses they possessed. And there was only one way to do that.

Nemesis rode through the thicket and headed to the nearest one, observing it as he drew closer and readied his sword. The Black Rider quickly swiped at the creature, only for it to bounce off its shell as he rode past by. He turned around and swiped again, this time onto it its thick legs. Blood or some similar substance pour from the wound but didn’t seem to stop it on its path though. Instead, it roared at him and clumsy charged full speed at him. “Damn!” He rode Erebus away with the titan ganging up on them before he summoned the shadows again and sprouted spikes to slow it down. It’s ferociously was admirable if not terrifying as it tore through the spikes, even as its body was pierced by many of them. Worse still that there were two others that kept onto their path of destruction, and from the looks of things, could be the thing that kept their enemies at a high advantage.

When Icarus finished pooling his mana, he tilted the cup upright, ensuring there was no longer a trail of fluid for the lightning to return with. Grunting from the effort, he clutched the now three-meter diameter ball of electricity and sent it crashing forth, falling onto his cloud from the mana expenditure. The great orb of energy flew downward, lighting up the sky as it fell like a golden sun with tendrils of energy stretching here and there from it. As it impacted, a booming sound of thunder erupted and the lightning chained between dozens of the creatures, vaporizing them as the energy conducted along the ale. A pocket of emptiness 20 meters in diameter formed in the midst of the enemy horde, a weak-point the allied forces could take advantage of.

It was then that Icarus saw them; three behemoths he had never witnessed during his travels in the Void. He watched as even the dark lord’s blade bounced from the shell of the creature. So it is a matter of piercing a thick carapace? he thought to himself, developing the strategy necessary to defeat them. He did, however, have some concerns due to the dark lord’s proximity to one of the beasts. 

Testing a spell he had never used before, he attempted to contact the dark lord mentally. ”Ahem, testing, testing… is this thing on?” he said, trying to establish contact. ”If you can hear this, pull back from the behemoth. I have enough mana to handle the first one and will need a few minutes of rest before I can strike another down,” he explained.

Whether he proceeded with the plan was subject to the reaction he received. He didn’t want to have to worry about others being crushed under the weight of the behemoth. In the meantime, he began focusing his attention toward the destination of his spell, aiming with precision to be able to cause the maximum amount of destruction to the enemy.