Heroes of Newerth Story: A Time of Heroes (part 2/7)
It was said that Jeraziah and Ophelia were linked by birth, and though those bonds had been battered by war, they could not be sundered. The same fears haunted their mirrored souls, just as the same man, the once-king Maliken Grimm, roved their dreams and urged them onward. Both knew that there had to be an end to the endless struggle, something other than utter ruin, but neither dared to withdraw from the field of battle. How could they? For nearly twenty years their people had traded atrocities, and a whole generation had been taught nothing but war without quarter.
Wearily, warily, each moved war-bands like dwindling pawns across the lands of Newerth and shuddered at the inevitable need to call upon more and more daemons to augment their forces. Like long-separated friends, each imagined a glorious reunion that could turn their years of division to nothing; but whenever Prince and the Priestess met, their only words were war cries.
The Hellbourne hunger swelled with anticipation, and they shook us by our strings for a final dance.
The last forces of the Legion of Man -- barely a fraction of those who had set out to unify the world a generation before -- gathered themselves at the Old Stump, in the very heart of the beasts' wilderness. It was a gesture of defiance, of desperation, but above all of the desire for a final closure to the struggle that had lasted so long.
The almost-feral tribes of the Beast Horde encircled them in the surrounding woodlands, starving, slavering, eager for the end.
Ophelia and Jeraziah each knew that no matter the outcome, Newerth was doomed. They faced this with the sad certainty that Fate, not their decisions, had brought them there. Destiny, they knew, could not be denied.
On the eve of battle, beneath a brooding, starless sky, they shivered and slept as fitfully as their followers. And in their sleep, divided by sword and claw, they dreamed together.
HoN Story: A Time of Heroes Part 1
HoN Story: A Time of Heroes Part 2
HoN Story: A Time of Heroes Part 3
HoN Story: A Time of Heroes Part 4
HoN Story: A Time of Heroes Part 5
HoN Story: A Time of Heroes Part 6
HoN Story: A Time of Heroes Part 7
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