Chaos Legion's New Zone Proposal

Jori stepped across the barren black field, his courage wavering. All of his training with the Order was the only thing keeping him from turning around and running as fast as he could. He gripped his Avenger so tightly his knuckles were pure white under his heavy metal gauntlets. The clank of his armour echoed the rythm of the crunch of the black soil as he slowly walked his way foward, mustering all his will power. At least he had not had another encounter with the moving soils that seemed to suck him down and held him so fiercly. He had barely managed to escape the last time, and the slime he found on his boots afterwards seemed to slowly eat away at them.

All around Jori the landscape layed unchanged, a flat barren black field that streched as far at the eye could see. At the end of his vision the land seemed to merge with the solid gray clouds, as if there was no sky at all, only clouds. One, constant, solid gray cloud.

He bent down to one knee to summon the powers of his faith to aid him in his time of need, praying out to Severan to shield him. His calls went unanswered. Jori's courage began to fade, Severan had never let his calls go unanswered before. His palms began to sweat, and as he was about to stand erect, he noticed a slight glisten in the char black ground. He bent closer to inspect, sifting his fingers through the soil to retrieve the only brightness he could see. The darkness from the soil stained his shining gauntlets, like ash after a fire. He brougt the ivory colored item close to his eyes so he could see it closer in the dim light. No, that couldnt be? Could it? A small piece of bone? Was that the crunching noise he had been hearing all these miles? No, the amount of crunched bone would be unthinkable. He stood up and began to walk foward again, not thinking about where he was going.

He walked for what seemed an eternity. The endless gray sky the sun never reached blinded his senses of time. He could have walked for days and not known. He dared not stop again, for the tricks the mind played on itself were deadly here. Step by step he made his way fowards, for if he went any other way, he wouldn't know where he began or where he was going. His mind began to blank, left alone with his thoughts, and even those were not his own. The dirt seemed to call out to him, through the windless air, calling for him to join it.

Jori's muscles grew weary, his strength faded from so much travel. Just at the point where he thought he could go no farther, he lifted his downcast head and out of the soil, a small obstruction putruded through the ground. His heart raced, ANYTHING to break the deadly monotonus grey sky and black ground that ran to eternity would ease his mind. He skampered to the object, the proud walk of the paladins had been left miles ago. He fell on the ground, reaching out to the small piece of leather. As he grabbed it, he instantly knew there was more burried. Instinctivly he pulled it through the soil, and gasped. The tan leather glove came out of the ground easily, revealing a skeletal hand gripped tightly into a fist.

Jori began to cry, the tears streamed down onto his once shining breastplate, now stained with ash like dust and dirt. He knew he was going to die here. As he lay down, preparing to accecpt death, he rolled onto his side. Then, in the mist of all despair, he saw a gate, not very far from him. How long had he been walking with downcast eyes? He pushed himself up onto his knees, gaining more and more hope of survival with every muscle movement.

As he pushed himself erect he saw that the gate was made of black cast iron. Strong looking vertical poles every half foot stood straight up, at the peak they turned into the ends of spears. Through the gaps in the gate he saw what seemed to be a rise in the endless flatland. He raised his eyes above the gate, and saw a black mountain, towering above anything around him. Above the mountain the clouds were pure black, a sharp contrast from the endless grey he had seen for so long. Tentacles of black cloud stretched out into the grey, squriming as if reaching for something.

Jori pushed himself to his feet, and began walking towards the gate, gaining more and more strength with every step. He looked up as he approached what seemed to be the gate's entrance. He saw at the top of the mountain, positioned lop-sided towards the west half, there was some sort of fortifaction. It was a castle or keep of some sort. Even in the distance, he could tell he had never seen anything like it. The black castle on the black mountain seemed to emanate the evil he had come here to destroy.

A divine sense of peace overcame him, he regained the proud composure of a master Paladin, and approached the gate full with pride and courage. He drew his Avenger from the scabbard it had been placed in so long ago, and ran towards the gate, striking the black cast iron with all his might. A spray of sparks flew! Blue! White! Golden! The light blinded him, he had only seen grey and black for days. As his vision returned he looked at the iron, and gasped as he noticed there was not a scratch on it. His Avenger easily cut through even the strongest metal.

He looked for alternative ways to enter into the gated area, and found only one. There was a latch that bore no lock not ten yards from where he stood. Immeaditly he began to walk towards it, only to stop half way there. Directly under the gate there was a body, or what looked to be a body, laying against the gate. It was dressed in full obsidian armour, and Jori could not see what was keeping the armour together. On the breastplate lay red stone, tainted with streaks of black. It was held there by a necklace composed of small back stone links. The stone seemed to shimmer in a fascinating way. Nevertheless, he started again towards the latch with the intent to kick the armour out of the way then open the gate, when suddenly, the armour began to stand.

The hollow frame stood upright and turned away from Jori. The phantom bent down, retreiving a sword Jori had not seen before. Then suddenly, in fluid motions it turned towards Jori, and he froze. Inside the obsidion helmet two glowing red eyes like ambers after a fire gazed back at him. Jori knew this was a creation of the Evil he sought to destroy. With the arrogance of a master Paladin, he drew his Avenger back and ran at it with a warcry of Severan.

Before Jori could realize what was happening, an echoing, booming voice which he could only guess was coming from the hulk of armour shouted out words of the purest evil, shaking his very being. As the words continued to boom through Jori's mind the creature grasped the stone around it's neck with it's gauntlet, and thrust it towards a quiving Jori. Jori felt his very soul being ripped out, his essence sucked from him, and he was powerless to stop it. His vision began to filter, and he felt himself being dragged from his body, towards the strange stone. He screamed, but his body did not.

The stone welcomed him, absorbed him, imprisoned him. He raged with all the might he could, knowing it was useless. He watched without eyes as the creature drew back it's shining black blade with the hand without the stone, and with one motion leaped at Jori, plunging the weapon through his breastplate into his heart. Jori's body fell lifeless to the blackend soil, finally joining it.

Jori knew what had just happend, he was dead. Now he would be welcomed back to Severan's arms, and be exhalted in a throne on high. His soul left the strange stone. The bonds the stone had on Jori no longer able to hold him, for Severan had come for him. But instead of going towards the sky as he had anticipated, he began going towards the mountain.

His view was spherical, all around him. He "saw" everything at once as he was drawn towards the strange castle, powerless to direct his movement. As he moved up the mountain he saw the creature that had killed him sit down, and resume its lifeless form exactly as he had found out. Jori wondered what that abomination was, that thing, that phantom, that Forsaken. The castle grew closer.

The castle's walls rose high in the air, straight up, without seams where the blocks of stone would have come together. The demoralizing obsidian stone, pure black at the bottom, slowly changed to a blood red at its jagged tops. In through the gate he drifted, if you would call it a gate. More like a simple stop in the wall in the shape of a arch, there appeard to be no way to close it, or a door of any sort.

The courtyard spanned larger then he would have thought, as if the walls moved outwards as he entered. The floor was made of obsidian blocks, with stairs in groups of three when needed to compensate for differences in the land's height. To the north, in the center of the courtyard rose a looming tower that seemed to absorb any light still present. At the top of the tower the walls seemed to move slightly, Jori would have thought it was his eyes playing tricks on him, if he still had eyes. Directly above the tower a black mist rose towards the clouds. As the mist touched the clouds they turned to the purest black, and shuttered slightly, like heat on the horizon.

To the northeast a tall statue of the pagan god Barbrizul stood hauntingly. His left arm bore a large representation of the stone the creature at the gates used, while his right arm wielded a double-bladed weapon. Out of his back eight tentacles emerged, frozen in what seemed to be mid flail. The eyes were large stones of red and black swirling in an endless dance.

But Jori was not drawn towards the looming tower, or the pagan statue. He was drawn towards the northwest of the empty feeling courtyard. There a small doorway, with pillars to either side lead to the ground. Through the doorway, into the unlit tunnel threw turn after turn Jori's soul went. Down, down, down, in a seemingly endless spiral of descending tunnels. The tunnel branched every so often, making it hard for Jori to remember where he was, but he always kept to the main, descending corridor.

The silence that had not been broken for days other than the cursing words of the Forsaken was suddenly shattered as Jori suddenly entered a chamber glowing with green light. Screams of horror ran through Jori's head like the pounding of a hammer. So many screams they merged into one, horrific scream. A million voices, screaming as one. He knew without knowing how, that the screams came from the glowing green pool in the center of the chamber. Jori focused on the green pool, sunken from floor level. The liquid that filled the pool twisted and turned like a caged animal as it gave off it's sickening green, dismil light. Along the edge of the pool unholy markings were engraved into the tainted stone. The symbols seemed to shimmer and glow in the light, as if full of power.

Where was Severan? At the edge of the pool was a black figure surrounded in black robes leaning against a ten foot obelisk made of the same substance of the stone his soul was first taken by. The obelisk gave off a dull red hue, overpowered by the green light givin off below the obelisk. The red hue and the green light danced on the man's robes, screaming of the pure evil that lurked in his soul.

Jori felt horror flood threw him without end as he realized where he was going. Dispair, horror, and hopelessness overcame him in waves as he gave up what everything was. He plunged into the twisting pool, and lost his being. At the very last of his undoing, he thought he heard the black figure at the top of the pool giving off a chuckle. Then everything faded to black, as he joined the millions of other hopeless damned souls that would never be free. Continue...