In this world of magic and atrocities, countless regions and continents stood afloat in the seemingly infinite oceans, landmasses that stretched for hundreds of millions to billions of miles no less, each with their own unique facets and specialties, and each with their own race and champions. Currently only 35% of the World has been completely explored by the mortals that reside in it, the rest being hostile and deathly territories where countless beings of horror lurk.
The people have been doing steady progress in expanding the hospitable territories in the World, but only to little avail, that is because the unexplored regions of the World is just far too mysterious, unknown and deadly to gamble sending champions to explore these lands, so there was no significant discovery in the exploration progress.
However thousands of years ago, an ancient nation has been discovered out of pure luck, and it happened to be a peculiar one at that.
It is an inhospitable land that contained nothing but ice, the land of Auroealis.
The land of Auroealis is anything but warm and welcoming. Its blizzard seemed to never end, and the people that have been living here since its discovery never fully adapted to the brutality of its nature. Mountains of glaciers towered over the civilization that has been built in the nation, scattered in the far distances like hills that are reaching for the skies. Snowstorms are prevalent and ever so ferocious, bodies of water are completely ice, and in the inhospitable areas of the frozen lands lie countless numbers of beasts in various shapes and sizes each with their own distinctive level of horrors.
The beasts were only being held back from laying siege in the nation by a strange mechanism which was developed by the brilliant minds of masterful smith dwarves that allows for the civilization to be inconceivable for the creatures that lurked and wandered Auroealis. A barrier made of transparent magical metal, also served as an extra layer of defense as contingency, and in the far reaches of the barrier were turrets capable of obliterating mountains are posted, operated by men that specialized in firing the gargantuan weapons.
One could only ask, if the nation is that inhospitable, then how come is there people that are living in its midst? The answer, is exclusive resource.
Auroealis is the only discovered nation that contains an extremely rare mineral, the dark ice. Dark ice is a mineral created from the extremities of Auroealis' environment, regular ice that has been exposed to the harshness of the nation's weather, undergoing the pressure of countless catastrophic avalanches, and combined with the withered fossils of countless fallen beasts long forgotten by time for centuries, it is an amalgamation of these factors.
But by far the most important reason for the dark ice's existence in the first place, is the presence of an unstoppable corruption that has been slowly consuming the lands of Auroealis. The source of the said corruption is rumored to be a titan frozen by an otherworldly being for no one knows how long, as the existence of Auroealis was only discovered about a thousand years ago.
Why was the titan frozen in the first place? No one knows for sure, but in the legends written in the scriptures in the caverns, it was that the titan was an unwanted child of a senile God.
The titan with its inner hatred towards its supposed to be father, laid war against the God's prophets and strongest warriors, eager to taunt the God into descending in the mortal plain. The God did descend, ripping off the fabric of reality, from it, only the God's hand were beholden by mortal eyes however, and it simply pointed below where the titan is laying its onslaught, and striked the lands with a world-destroying ice blast, killing or freezing everything in its point of impact, be it the God's followers, or its son the titan itself, no one escaped the grasp of the imminence of the ice.
That's how Auroealis was created, in the legends written in the scriptures at least. A nation of ice caused by a God's immortal power, the heart of it being the titan, frozen or may be killed, unmoving for an unknown amount of years, also being the source of corruption responsible for the development of dark ice.
Residences in Auroealis were extremely close to each other to efficiently distribute the heat of their steam-powered heaters that aren't powered by magic, but are instead ran by slave laborers that are from different nations, and are of different races. The slaves ranged from being brute-like creatures such as orcs, lizardmen and dwarves to elves, hybrids, and lastly the race that made up 80% of the slave population in Auroealis, humans.
Unlike the other uncommon races, humans are superfluous resources due to the sheer amount of them alive in the world. With absolute certainty a singular human is nowhere near as strong as a singular orc, it is quite an unfair comparison, however where they fare against the odds though is through their numbers. What makes humans such a dispensable resource though unlike any other races is their innate trait to be less likely to learn magic, their affinity towards any form of magic is absolutely dreadful, and perhaps the worst part of it is the likelihood of one to be awakened, it is no understatement to say that out of millions of humans, it is a miracle for one to awaken. Thus, in this world ran by magic, strength and awakened, humans are at the bottom of the social and power hierarchy.
That by no means mean that there is no strong human in the upper echelon of this world, in fact there are quite a few, it is that the power of the race as a whole is completely obsolete when put up against races that has higher affinity towards magic or stronger in strength.
Well, be it humans, elves, dwarves or a royal, if you are a slave none of those matters, your fate will be as equal as everyone else that is one.
"MOVE! STOP SLACKING OFF YOU SWINES!"
"MOVE! YOU PATHETIC EXCUSES OF FILTHS"
The thunderous sounds of numerous whips hitting flesh echoed in the snowstorm, making the the mountains shudder a little.
As the whips hissed in the air, the backs of the naked slaves produced deep cuts that slowly bled frigid blood.
All the slaves at this point already has numerous number of scars on their whole bodies if they even managed to survive. Most have already perished from being overworked, hypothermia, bleeding out, or having their wounds be infected by deadly pathogens. Most that remained to this day are the newly shipped slaves, and the few ones are the slaves that have adapted to everything that was thrown at them, albeit barely.
The sounds of pickaxes striking on hard rock constantly clanged in the cavern that is being mined. Hoarse and ragged breathing of the slaves are instantly silenced with one strike of a whip from the wardens, no one is allowed to show even a sliver of exhaustion in their faces or bodies.
"Ha...Ha.....Ha....." a weakened breathing escaped from the mouth of a human child slave.
With one of the wardens at full alert in their vicinity the child was sure to be whipped mercilessly.
"Well well well, It's just a child, it would really be a stain to my manhood if I harmed a child as a grown man." said the orc warden with a gentle smile in his face as he caressed the tired face of the child which seemed to gleam with hope.
"I'm not that despicable, so I will let my son handle you instead...." he said without a hint of emotion in his voice.
The orc warden then placed two of his fingers in his mouth, and whistled. With his two tusks the rhythm of his whistle is different from that of a regular whistle, the whistle produced was extremely loud and screeching, but at the same time so distinct and specific.
A moment later, answering to his calls, a greyhound the size of 2 meters arrived. It has 3 gray eyes filled with intent to slaughter, two being in the normal positions and one in its forehead just below its broken obsidian horn, its fangs bared revealing sets of razor sharp and uneven canine teeth that can tear through flesh and bone effortlessly, its stature quite uncanny as its spine is hunched with thick muscles pulsating from it like a heartbeat underneath its fur.
It slowly walked towards the orc warden with full submission.
The orc warden then stroked the fur of the greyhound like it is just a regular house dog.
"Eat that kid up, son."
The hound then turned its eyes from the warden to the exhausted child and lunged at him without any mercy.
"No no no PLEASE NO!" the child cried, pleading for his life as the hound tore him down flesh by flesh.
"Yes, spectacular, continue"
The teeth of the hound sunk down the flesh of the child with no effort, it was as if the child was entirely made up of clay. The child was being thrown in the air like a ragdoll as the beast bit hard on his arm wanting to tear him apart from there, blood and chunks of flesh flew in the air as the beast tightened its crunch on the child's arm rabidly without plans of stopping.
Slaves never minded the situation that is happening in their midst even as they hear the agonizing cries and plead for help by the child, they continued to mine the rocks deeper hiding their exhaustions in the process fearing that they will go through the same torture as the child that is being flung around.
"Help, he-" before the child could finish, the hound bit off his head in one ravenous bite, showering the air with blood, fragments of bone and chunks of brain matter.
The child's headless and mangled body convulsed for a couple of moments, and finally ceased of life as his heart stopped beating, the greyhound then proceed to devour the body of the child mindlessly, its mind only filled with hunger.
Nobody said a word, because that is just how it always turns out although very differently each time when a child turns into a slave and sent here, if they were weak they were disposed of and fed to the orc warden's son.
That's just the brutality of being a slave, your life is worth nothing in the eyes of others, most especially to the wardens which value the slaves' lives as more of a toy than a person.
No slave can go against them.
"That's tough Sugorim, another brutal feeding session for your dog, and its a human again? Aha can't say I am surprised." another orc warden spoke to warden Sugorim.
"Of course Umhra, you expect nothing less from such a pathetic excuse of a race, they are nothing but feed to my so-, did you just call my son a dog you mongol?" Sugorim responded with an insult to Umhra's insult.
"Oh shut up Sugorim, your son is a fucking dog, A DOG, why are you so offended by it when you are committing homicide on a daily basis, it's just the reality of things, you adopted that thing." Umhra retaliated.
Sugorim looked at the other orc with utter disdain in his eyes, almost like he was going to kill this guy for good.
"Come to think about it, the only human child I have ever remembered surviving here was... that guy if I am not mistaken." Umhra added, pointing to a particular human slave.
The slave didn't stand out at all, but unlike the other beings here he was only a human with no regenerative capacities, and so his scars were a lot more grotesque and noticeable, in fact his scars still look like open wounds that just stopped bleeding, it is a pain in the eyes to look at, the man itself isn't tall nor is he really muscular, quite the contrary actually, however him remaining standing here after the fall of so many humans were something that these wardens are fascinated by, he no longer gets a lot of strike of whips because he just doesn't seem like he is affected by it, but also because he just does the job very well especially for a human his size and stature.
"Ah that guy, I remember him being brown, so full of life, look at him now, barely standing, but at least just does the good shit done. If I don't mistaken it, that human's name is... Alteyar? Aelteayr? A- Altair right right, Altair the human guy." Sugorim remarked.
"Pretty phenomenal for a human I must say, but still, such a shame for a mortal like him to be born one, if he was an orc pretty sure he'd be our friends or something-" Umhra replied but cut off when one of the slaves ran towards him in a rushing manner.
"Lord Umhra, Lord Sugorim, we have found something, something that we haven't ever seen before." an elven slave reported.
Sugorim and Umhra wasted no time and went to see what the elf is talking about.
***
After minutes of walking with the elf's guidance, they arrived at the place.
Elves with their natural ability to sense magical elements in their surroundings aren't used for rigorous labor, instead they are mostly used as scouts to patrol for any unnatural happenings or if any magical element is nearby or be scapegoats when an area with indiscernible magic presents itself, it isn't any better than being the miners, one would argue that it is worse.
As Sugorim and Umhra arrived at the spot, they were tantalized by what awaited them there.
A giant orb of energy made up of white matter, swirled by crystalized stream of liquidized dark ice in all its axis floated in this recently mined part of the cavern, its glow is very difficult to perceive, without an elf discovering it, finding this might have been impossible.
"Oh my heavens, what is this?!" Sugorim questioned
"I have no idea my lord, I sense malevolence in its energy, but not too much that I think it is harmful, I believe it is some sort of an otherworldly core from the legends written in the scriptures, otherwise I think it might be something beyond our comprehension and I believe its best to leave it alone."
Umhra got closer to the orb, and felt an unfamiliar sensation.
"Its... giving me essence... I can feel it elevating my power substantially, what kind of thing is this?" he said as he stepped back from testing it.
"Really? Let me give it a try" Sugorim replied as he went closer to the orb himself.
The same sensation fell over Sugorim's entire being, he felt essence pouring into his soul increasing his power substantially.
He stepped back, perplexed by its nature, at the same time dark thoughts came to his mind after experiencing its blessing.
"Umhra... this is it, the path towards our transcendence, we have been trying for so many years and we have failed again and again until we just gave up on that dream entirely. Not many of us Orcs became transcended and if we become one we instantly become a part of the higher echelon in our own nation, we might even become nominees to become one of our nation's new champions if we did transcend, however it was just impossible after years of hardwork, you know that best." Sugorim expressed
Umhra looked worried and with a refusing look in his face.
"What the hell are you thinking?"
Sugorim stared deep into Umhra's eyes.
"You know damn well what I meant Umhra, with this divine object, our path to transcendence is certain, can you imagine what that would do for us?! YEARS UPON YEARS OF HARDWORK BORE NO FRUIT UMHRA! YOU AND I KNOW THAT FULLY WELL AND HOW DISAPPOINTING IT IS THAT WE WILL NEVER GET TO TAP INTO A NEWER LEVEL OF POWER, THAT WE ARE NOWHERE EVEN NEAR AT THE TOP, SOME HUMAN AND ELF IS STRONGER THAN US YOU BUFFOON, THINK! THINK FOR A SECOND, THIS IS IT, AN OPPORTUNITY, A ONCE IN A LIFETIME CHANCE, AND YOU ARE NOT GONNA TAKE IT?" Sugorim angrily spoke.
"I-"
Sugorim with just one look at Umhra understood how it actually is.
"I get it Umhra, I wanted to share the path with you, but just like usual you are a hardheaded monggoloid, and now I will be taking all of this for myself." Sugorim calmly spoke as he went closer to the white orb of energy.
Sugorim felt the essence flowing in his body speeding up as he continued to get nearer and nearer to the orb, the acceleration of the flow felt strange to him but it was more than welcomed as he felt his entire body evolving as the flows of essence continued pouring into his soulstream, unto his soul core.
Vitalized Sugorim felt a burst of excitement and happiness as he felt his transcendence taking place.
"HAHAHAAAA! UMHRA YOU FOOL! LOOK AT ME NOW, LOOK AT ME NOW! I AM GETTING CLOSER!" Sugorim expressed with great pride.
Sugorim got close to the white orb that he could touch the ball of energy with his own hands, and as he did, the entirety of the white orb collapsed on itself, forming an ethereal contrast of singular light and dark strings that coiled together, and proceed to slither slowly inside his flesh to reach one destination, his soul core.
As the energy of dark and white coursed through Sugorim's existence, he finally opened up the path to transcendence.
Sugorim's body beamed with dark light, devouring the already dark cavern in true darkness. The energy emanated by his evolution caused a ripple in the nation that caused an Earthquake.
A moment later the beam of dark light ceased and the quaking stopped, Umhra and the elf stunned by what just happened wiped the smokes of dust from the air to see what happened to Sugorim.
There he was, standing on the same stature as he previously was, his body clearly underwent extreme changes, his orc-like appearance is replaced with that of something akin to an obsidian demon, with numerous cracks in his bodies like tattoos, from those cracks induced infernal embers, his face resembled the face of a human with one horn circulating his entire head, his tusks broken and charred, his breath produced steam, he did not look like a divine being that a transcendent is supposed to look like, no, he looked like he came straight from hell.
"Brother Umhra, this was a mistake." he spoke with a hoarse satanic voice.
Umhra stared at him in disbelief, confused by what he meant and why Sugorim turned out to be like this after his transcendence, he doesn't look like someone that is filled with essence, he is someone that is devoid of it, he is barely standing and is clearly in agonizing pain.
"Sugorim what are you sayi-" Uhmra wanted to clarify but got cut off by Sugorim.
Sugorim shouted with all his might "RUN NOW!"
As his voice echoed in the entire cave, Sugorim's head tilted up, his eyes no longer have any signs of life in it, his body stiffed, and the embers in his cracks fanned out.
There was a moment of silence after.
Until Sugorim's body spasmed, and vibrated violently.
Suddenly two hands came out from his mouth, gripped both the opposite sides of his mouth extremely tight and ripped him open. A downpour of putrid black blood showered Uhmra and the elf slave.
Uhmra looked at the ripped apart body of Sugorim in horror and perplex.
And from it, a man emerged gracefully, waking up from his slumber that lasted for God knows how long.
The blasphemous child of a forgotten God.
"My my, you guys took too long to find me. You really made sure I slept well haven't you?"