Lazarus proceeded to get off his horse to see what exactly this old lady wanted. Shortly after the clouds thickened black, and it started to downpour.
"Who are you, old lady?" said Lazarus.
"Oh... you've changed a lot since the time I've seen you" said the old lady.
She slowly approached Lazarus and placed her hand on his shoulder.
"My name is Zoe do you remember me, boy?"
Lazarus' eyes lightened up with joy, as memories started to pile back into his mind.
This old lady Zoe was the same woman who saved him as a child, from Grim City, 1000 years ago.
"H-how in the world could you still be here?" said Lazarus.
"That bastard, Alexander. He used me as a test subject for his immortality research. It was brutal, and he threw me out shortly after he was done with his research. I didn't know what I was getting into. I trusted him as he was a priest. But it was all a lie. Now I'm stuck here, living forever" said Zoe
"That bastard will pay one day." said Lazarus
Zoe took an oracle out of her cloak, it was glowing red. She began to look nervous and started to get flustered foreseeing the future.
"Listen to me Lazarus, pretty soon this world will turn to chaos. Though his ritual was successful and summoned you, it also summoned a bunch of other myth spirits, for example, Arjuna. Some will want to seek out revenge. You're going to need to pick a side soon Lazarus." said Zoe
"Hold on, you're telling me there's more of us out there?" said Arjuna shaking his head.
"Absolutely, some are the definition of evil, and their magic powers are grand." said Zoe.
"You know damn right I wouldn't seek to do evil" said Lazarus
"I understand, but this war is much different than the ones you fought in the past Lazarus. Weapons aren't used the same, the magical powers that you will come across will be frightening. Your old ways of fighting are deemed useless in this war, boy." said Zoe
Lazarus looked away and towards the road, looking at the bright lights of Grim City.
"I don't even know how to go about this granny, I'm still confused as my memories haven't fully come back to me for some reason. I need to train, I want to feel confident when I go into battle." said Lazarus
Zoe pointed her finger at a bright sign in Grim City. It was a local pub.
"I was just going to lead you to it. Come with me there, boy. I've already met fellow heroic spirits that will train you, and guide you." said Zoe
"I'll follow your lead then." said Lazarus
They continued on the damp dirt road into Grim City. It was late at night by this time, and the city was bustling. People were out and about throughout the city, partying, working, drunk, or commuting. Within the city, there were plenty of bright lights, pubs, and factories. The factories produced thick black smoke that you can see from miles away.
Grim City was even the same way 1000 years ago when Lazarus used to live here. It was where the poorest peasants went to find some type of opportunity. It was around the Great Castle of Yanni as the city produced most of the materials for the castle.
As they entered the city people stared at Lazarus, they were staring at the precious jewels on his crown. They can tell that he is an outsider.
"Ah, it feels good, and bad to be back here." said Lazarus
Arjuna was amazed at how these people lived. Where he was from, was very mountainous. He lived in a small village named Oland. Young boys in the village were trained to become monks, and trained to defend the village in the art of the spear. Arjuna was the hardest worker in the village and was considered the one closest to nature.
He was always the one to make light of horrible situations, and despite his dedication, was a class clown. He had beautiful long black hair that he kept in a bun and bright green eyes.
One night his village was attacked by the opposing faction, and most of the men were wiped out, Using the art of the spear, and having intense knowledge of the layout of the land Arjuna was able to defend the remaining men and reclaim his village from the attackers.
After that night, he was deemed the Hero of Oland. And continued the legacy of the art of the spear in Oland.
"This is magnificent." said Arjuna
Lazarus chuckled. "If you think this is magnificent you must be out of your mind." said Lazarus
"I've never seen this many people, and this many lights all in one place before." said Arjuna
"Well that's what opportunity brings." said Lazarus sarcastically.
They continued onto a side street, where there were no lights. Infront of them stood three men, all cloaked and armed. They felt a strong evil presence from them but decided to continue as the pub was just a little way ahead.
One of the men waved at them to stop, and all three of them started to slowly approach them.
"Oh ho ho, hey there friend." One of them said.
"I like that pearly crown you have! Mind if I take a look?" another said.
The men all pulled out their weapons, one had a black sword, another a dagger, and the last one a gun. They started to charge toward Lazarus, and ready their weapons.
Lazarus put his hands in the air.
"I don't want anything to do with this! I'm not here to hurt you people." said Lazarus.
The three men didn't listen and the man with the gun fired at Lazarus.
"W-what the hell?" said Lazarus as he fell off the stallion from the impact.
"Lazarus, are you alright!?" said Arjuna
Zoe took cover behind Arjuna as he readied his spear.
"That's weird it seems like I didn't get hit though." thought Lazarus.
As Lazarus went to ready his sword, he noticed the green aura flowing around his entire body. And noticed that the bullet was within the flowing aura. Somehow, the sword flung out of the sheath itself and started to fly towards the gunman's head.
"Gah" screamed the gunman.
It was so fast nobody was able to comprehend what happened, and the gunman fell to his knees. As the sword penetrated his head, the green aura then started to absorb his body. Slowly, the man fully disappeared through the thick aura.
The other two men, after realizing what just happened, ran for their lives.
Through the terror of what was happening, Lazarus' skin started to become bright again, and his veins started to feel like they were pumping. He felt no pain anymore and felt like his stamina was replenished again.
"Sheesh, what the hell was that about? You a secret vampire or something?" Arjuna laughed.
"I told you boys, this is the start of a new era. There are things that are happening beyond comprehension!" said Zoe.
"It seems that I can't just settle down for a bit." Lazarus said nervously.
"Hah, well let's see if we can actually make it to this pub in one piece." said Arjuna.
Lazarus noticed that he felt great, but didn't think anything of it. He thought it was just the adrenaline pumping through his body.
The three of them cautiously continued down the muddy street to the pub. When they finally arrived, they opened the door, there were only three men inside. The bartender, and two men.
One of the men who had light blonde hair and a scar around his eye, who was smoking a cigarette, leaned over and said
"Oh, I see you've finally brought him, Granny?"
"Explain to him how this new era works, Petros." said Zoe.
"I can for a price." he said.
The other man who was also blonde-haired, skinny, and rugged laughed and proceeded to say "Yeah, join our allegiance and we'll think about telling you the meaning of all this."
"Nike, please let me do the talking." said Petros.
Nike shrugged and continued to chug on his beer.
"Lazarus, we obviously all know of you. I want you by my side in this war. I won't reveal my identity just yet. But understand that I know more than anybody else about the bullshit that is going on right now." said Petros.
"How can I trust you? And anyway I'm a lone wolf. I don't need anybody." said Lazarus.
"Well, unfortunately, this isn't how the new era works Lazarus. And you will need to pick a side now." said Petros.
Lazarus interrupted. "What do you mean by pick a side?"
Petros lit up another cigarette and leaned back into his chair.
"Well, what I mean is there is one singular evil now. That Great Castle of Yanni will contain all of it, once all of the demon myths come right to their master." said Petros.
Lazarus shook his head.
"Can you slow down and explain all of this to me?" said Lazarus.
Petros turned around in his chair and let his back face, Lazarus.
"Listen, man, I told you. If you don't want to join the allegiance you can leave. It's a shame if you don't, I heard the demon myths are coming into town tomorrow." said Petros.
"It's gonna get pretty interesting around here." Nike said jokingly.
Lazarus sat down at one of the tables next to Petros and Nike, and Arjuna and Zoe followed.
Lazarus didn't exactly want to join this allegiance, but he knew that knowledge was key.
"Well, whatever. Tell me how I can join this allegiance." said Lazarus.
"Oh so you've finally realized what your in for?" said Nike.
"Well, welcome in Lazarus. I'm the leader of the Allegiance." said Petros.
Petros got up and stuck his hand out to Lazarus. The both of them shook hands and Petros took a seat next to Lazarus.
"There's a lot to explain but tomorrow you'll see it all in action" said Petros.
"Ok, first off explain to me what these demon myths are." said Lazarus.
Petros lit another cigarette. The smoke filled up the entire room.
"After the ritual succeeded and brought you here, it also brought many other myths out. One of them being the demon myths. As you know, they are another myth of war, but unlike heroes they were demons. And were said to be hellish people who wanted nothing but blood, and would ravage villages, and kill anyone in sight." said Petros.
Lazarus was puzzled and didn't understand how to process it.
"And they are coming to Grim City tomorrow?" said Lazarus,
"No, they are reporting back to their master, that bastard King Alexander. He is the one in control of them. They contain some of the strongest magic out of all the myths out here. This isn't just normal warfare we are going into." said Petros.
Arjuna, who has been falling asleep this whole time, woke up and said
"So wait how do you expect us to win against these things exactly?"
"Though the demons are the strongest, we are looking out and seeking all different hero myths that are in Yanni, to become part of our allegiance." said Petros.
Petros pulled down his hood and revealed a marking on his forehead. It seemed to be a drawing of a red eye.
"I'll let you in on a secret, I am also a hero myth. I am able to locate any myth within ninety meters of me" said Petros.
"The magical powers that you contain, it's called a system." said Nike.
Lazarus glanced down at his jeweled sword. "I don't even know exactly what my system does."
"Welp, we'll find out tomorrow." Nike chuckled.
"We'll try to train with some of the other hero myths tomorrow once we reach the next city over," said Petros.
Before any of them can continue, an explosion hit the pub. Glass and rubble poured down upon them, and all of them collectively ducked and got prepared for battle.
They heard deep loud pitch screaming, there was stomping coming straight at them.
Nike stood up and ran head first towards it.
Nike squinted at the figure trying to figure out what it was "I think it's a demon myth!"
"Holy shit." Arjuna stood back and took a defensive stance.
Lazarus readied his sword out of his sheath, it began to pour out the green aura again. "That's the biggest creature I've ever seen." he said.
What was upon them was a giant human-like creature, it was red, and has scars all over its body. It has a skull with horns for a head that was pouring red mist out as he screamed.
Nike summoned his weapons into his hands, it was two swords in the shape of a thunderbolt and was glowing bright blue. He leaped up into the air and stabbed the creature in the chest.
"Gah, Help me out boys!" he said as he was hanging off of this demon.
It caused the demon to be stunned by an electric shock, but it let out a huge roar. It was so powerful, that Nike was sent flying through the air, and he hit the wall at the back of the pub.
"Ah.. what the fuck?" Nike said as he was grasping his shoulder.
"Nike!" Petros called out.
"Are you alright back there?" said Lazarus.
Zoe went to care for Nike while Arjuna, Petros, and Lazarus stood there, with their weapons out waiting for the demon to approach. The demon slowly inched towards them and finally spoke his first words. His voice was deep and seemed to echo throughout the pub.
"You people, are the reason I'm like this. You see, I hate seeing happy-go-lucky people like you. I am Pluto, welcome to the new era."
Pluto jumped to the end of the pub where Nike was and slashed his face.
"Ahghhh" Nike cried out in pain as blood leaked out of his cheek.
Arjuna tried piercing him, but Pluto evaded.
Petros sprinted at the demon Pluto and grasped onto his large forearms. Petros closed his eyes and out behind him came a large glowing wheel. It kept spinning and sparking, it then revealed more wheels. The wheels then started generating weapons, and as it spun it shot out all sorts of weapons into Pluto.
Though Lazarus was confused about his abilities, he sprinted and while Pluto was stunned stabbed Pluto in his right thigh and the green aura poured out around Pluto's body. Arjuna followed up and summoned a wolf pack to attack Pluto.
But their attacks were futile and Pluto let out another huge roar, that sent all of them flying to the end of the bar.
They crashed into the wall sending rubble flying everywhere. They all seemed to be passed out.
The blood that was dripping from his wounds, was burning the wood on the ground as he moved about the pub.
Each step he took was as though a giant were walking through this tiny pub. Pluto put his hands together, and a giant swirling portal made of blood was summoned through the portal you can faintly see a hellish land filled with fire and rubble.
Hands were grasping out of it, screaming, and creatures started to pour out all at once. They were dark, winged, creatures who looked similar to Pluto.
The creatures started to sniff around the pub.
Pluto then regained his balance, wiped the blood off his sword, and let out a speech.
"This is just a taste of what is to come, this new era will be ours." he walked up and bent down into Nike and Zoe's faces.
Zoe was cowering with fear. As the creatures he summoned were sniffing her and the red mist of Pluto was hitting her face.
"Do you hero myths save others to make yourself feel better? Is that what it is? I have a hard time understanding why you would want regular old humans running the world."
He stood back up and started to pet one of the creature's heads.
"Humans work for nothing, all of their work goes to waste, and they are useless. Just like your legacy Lazarus, useless. Look what ended up happening" he chuckled.
He then proceeded to walk to Petros, Lazarus, and Arjuna who were all on the ground seemingly passed out.