Part 23: Epilogue

Epilogue



Dremers, a greater threat to Ardania than goblins and Grum-Gog or Rebellion of Lunord ever were, finally met their end. While Great Mages bickered and fought between themselves, and proved in numerous other ways to be hardly “great” (and doubtfully “mages”), one of their ranks worked hard to save himself and his realm.
A most unlikely king in the most unlikely kingdom. Lich King V, a lich that has died five times leading a realm made up of barely thinking goblins, ravenous gnomes, noble werewolves and grizzled trolls.
Together, they triumphed against plentiful monsters of Ardania, incompetence and pettiness of other Great Mages, wave after wave of Dremers… and all to finally launch a counter invasion, and kill their leader.



The Dremer threat was finally over.



Life could return to its normal ways and cities, even the ones established in distant demiplanes, flourished.



Now was the time to rebuild. Summoning great magics, King Lich V restored the land that had been burn in ominous meteorite strikes that may or may not have had something to do with the invasion.
The volcano that erupted near Lichopolis had been taken care of even before and Lichship Bay was a bay again.



The damage that Dremer done had to be unmade, too: this was no fable written by some addled-minded scribe, where destroying the foe’s leader would immediately undo all the harm done.



Contamination was all around and had to be cleaned up.



Far worse was the destruction wrought by exploding Dremer gates, twisting Ardania so much that it repulsed both life and unlife. Here, the power of the gods was needed. If Krolm would restore the land to the way it was before, Dauros had other ideas. Dauros’ Lands of Order would transform the warped ground into frozen plains, much like those found in the extreme north of King Lich’s realm.
Yet even this was much preferable to blackened, defiled shatters that marked places where the Great Mages failed.



As for Dremer, they still plagued the world as leaderless berserk beasts. There would be no more gates appearing and no more corruption to consume fertile lands. And with each Dremer hunted down by roaming patrols, there would be one beast less.



Of course, the magical sky fleet employed by King Lich V didn’t stop with Dremer and fought any and all that threatened normal life in Ardania.



But at the same time… at the same time one unknown mage had not only weathered the storm, but done something great and terrible.



The spell of Unity. The ultimate incantation that made a mage practically one with magic of Ardania. This granted immense power… and immense ambition.



Soon, the United One, as the mage was called, went on to subjugate his former peers. Some joined almost willingly, others were beaten, and some inevitably had to be killed.

King Lich V, the hero of Dremer invasion, would not bow down to someone who waited till someone else defeated the main threat and then used peace to subjugate the world.

It was a great fight of magic lightning and spell-slung flame.

And while King Lich was great in knowledge and power, the United One was basically power itself.



The inevitable happened and King Lich V died, again.


















“AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!”