Two men sat across from each other in a cramped earthen hut, smiling and chatting happily as they munched on potatoes.
One of them sported short blonde hair and a light blue t-shirt, while the other rested his hand on a demonic-looking helmet.
The two mortal enemies… were now happily sharing food and shelter?
"Ghost, these potatoes are amazing! This potato tastes like barbequed meat! Is all food in your world like this?"
The man clad in demonic armor nodded, his flamboyant maroon hair bobbing about.
"It's only natural that the food created by us Suvians would be greater than anything you under-developed goblins could think of."
Edol rolled his eyes, responding in his native tongue of English.
"Under-developed? Says the dude who dresses up in heavy armor and swings around a sword like it's the middle ages! And if your words are to be trusted, you're on par with even the best warriors from your world! If your weakling army tried to catch hands with even the weakest country on Earth, you'd still get rolled!"
The demon- no, the man clad in demonic armor scoffed, but couldn't think of a comeback.
Ghost's prediction that the spider wasn't dead for good was correct, and the bloodthirsty creature returned every few hours to kill the duo.
At first, the sounds of Edol being dismembered didn't sound so bad to Ghost, but the blonde's wrenching screams made it impossible to sleep, so Ghost finally decided to let Edol into his dirt hut during his rest times.
Edol smacked his lips as he finished off his potato, retreating to the side of the hut that housed his makeshift dirt bed. The faint pitter-patter of spider legs could be heard through the earthen walls, but the spider seemed to lack the intelligence to find the resting duo.
"Ghost, your family was killed in your last life, right? What happened?"
The demon grimaced as he recalled the events that led to his death in his previous life.
"My buddies and I traveled all around the western continent, searching the most dangerous and hidden tombs for treasures to help the Union hold off against the goblins' crazy new Emperor. Ever since that self-proclaimed immortal took control of Glory 11 years ago, the assault on the Union has increased twofold."
"Wait, an immortal?!"
"He's just some cocky nutjob hellbent on conquering the world, there's no such thing as immortality, so-"
"You and I seem to be immortal, so why not this dude?"
"And so is Mr. Spider, so stop interrupting me, or I'll throw you out there to ask him about life."
Edol shivered in response, and Ghost continued his story.
"Glory's soldiers pushed all the way to Dread's End, our last and strongest island base standing between the mainland and the goblins' forces, and even snuck some soldiers around our forces to launch raids on the mainland. My parents… were caught up in one of these raids. After we got the news, my relic team decided to join the fight in a more direct manner. We'd already snuck past enemy lines and were approaching the eastern mainland when I woke up one day to find myself here…"
"But if the eastern continent is populated by goblins, wouldn't you be easily spotted anytime you went to any settlement?"
"Ha… luckily not. Those eastern goblins have rotten hearts, but their outside appearances are nearly the same as ours. Even further east of Glory lay a few other countries, some of which are said to have similar moral systems to ours."
Ghost used an earth spike to draw a rough outline on the ground, outlining the two continents.
A few volcanic islands lay between the two continents, and Ghost pointed out the furthest west one as Dread's End.
"On the eastern continent, the furthest west country is Glory. A country of greedy warmongerers… the total lives lost from their endless warring is countless."
"A bit further east is the religious kingdom of Miaan. The country is wreathed with rivers, and it's said they have a monopoly on much of the continent's trade industry. Anything that goes through anyone's hands makes its way through one of Miaan's rivers at some point. Their trade sector is strong, but they don't have much in terms of military might, so they wouldn't stand a chance against Glory."
"To the south is Birka… there's lots of fish and wheat, I guess? I really don't know much about this country."
Ghost moved the spike to the eastern end of the continent.
"This… was our goal. The only country Glory doesn't dare to mess with. They haven't even turned their greedy hands to the neighboring countries out of fear of angering the renowned military. The country we hoped to ally with to crush Glory once and for all."
"Easthill."