Capital Storm
Ayy. What’s the word? Hopefully good. I’ve been hard at work on two big projects, but I wanted to take a break to post up the next big part of the story in AURORA MORTIS. This is for Capital Storm, and involves Erdinus having to take on five deadly trials in order to get to where he needs to go.
To proceed, Erdinus Athelard would have to face five trials.
The First Trial: Path of Flame
In the fiery Depths, he walks the Path of Flame. He guides his weapon through hordes of wingèd heathens and hell-knights, their every riposte a flurry of scalding talons, as the ground shifts and wobbles on a sea of magma. But the young mortal presses on.
The Second Trial: Abyssal Descent
Marching deeper into the abyss, he’s faced with a Second Trial: the tortured souls who call these Depths home seek to claim him for their ranks. However, his lum’nous spirit repels the poor wretches, and, reluctantly, they grant him safe passage.
The Third Trial: Labyrinth of Illusion
In the Third Trial, the mortal comes upon a twisted, winding path. Lured in by its Sirens and their delicious falsehoods, he’s lost for a time in their mirage-maze. He awakens to the true taste of their rotten goblin fruit just in time to escape with his will and wits intact.
The Fourth Trial: Trial of Fear
The Trial of Fear is a road trafficked by many spirits: the mortal’s demons, ghosts, regrets. His wartime atrocities and personal failings alike rise out of the obsidian to walk beside him through the subterrene. Here, where their shadows meet, they are as kin.
The Fifth Trial: Confrontation with the Fire Goliath
The Fifth and Final Trial brings forth the Fire Goliath, a colossus half living, half cursed to wander the Nyxian lands for eternity. The young man battles this titan of shadow and flame with his soulstained blade alone, his might unwavering as he calls upon all that he has learned in lives above and lives below. At last, the Goliath’s rage fades with a great gasp, and the beast crumples. It leaves but a mount of ash.
Before the wise Count—protector of these Depths—can congratulate him on his victory, the warrior feels the entire plane begin to unravel beneath their feet. All around them, the black bedrock of the night realm collapses, spraying fire about the chamber as Visalius and his pupil claw and climb their way to the sun-kissed surface, the dancing grass, the open sky.
“Your trials have borne fruit,” says the Count. “For you have glimpsed the order behind all things. You’ve seen beyond the Known, and you’ve kept your sight. Yet there’s one more test you must undertake: your role in the Dire Prophecies. The Capital of Lior awaits us.”
Peace,
-Sam