*Biofantasy*: Rhapsody

Hail to everyone!!! ...

...do you remember me? Yes, that's right, me, your friend Aresius of Elgard, ancient (but not too much, eh?...ha, ha, ha!) wizard of my beloved enchanted lands.
I told you about the situation of the enchanted lands threatened by the hellish army of Akron, known as the 'black king', in the first chapter of these chronicles. In the second one I revealed to you the secret of the emerald sword and how my valorous friend, known to you as the 'warrior of ice', was able to open the ivory gates and to finally handle it !
I want to tell you straight off that this third chapter will be no less valorous and tragic than the previous ones... probably too tragic even for my taste...! So now is the moment for you to learn everything that has happened since the chosen one left the magic portals behind him, riding to Ancelot with the magic weapon in his hand...
Enjoy this new tale of courage and pride and abandon yourself to the green valleys of the enchanted lands... where the mystical journey is about to begin again...!

The emerald sword was glinting wildly in his valorous hands and his ride to Ancelot began at the first light of the new dawn. In village after village The Warrior of Ice was able to find new fighters ready to demonstrate their pride for the safety of the holy town of the Enchanted Lands. So, when he finally reached the rocky mountains surrounding the citadel, the chosen one could count on a real army ready to face the demonknights led by Dargor, prince of the darklands serving the cause of Akron.
The hero of Loregard didn't want to waste time anymore because the cries of Ancelot and its defender Arwald were desperate and touched his brave heart deeply. At his command the entire army of the enchanted lands raised its steel to the sky glorifying the holy war in the name of a future long peace with no innocent victims falling to satisfy the thirst for power of the darklands' lords.

From that moment onwards only king chaos dominated...

Lux Triumphans

Dawn of Victory

Triumph for My Magic Steel

The Village of Dwarves

...after the legendary fight of the bravehearts against Dargor's army Ancelot was free once again and the warrior of ice could finally raise his divine steel in the air reeking of blood, as a sign of victory. Two proud warriors, the chosen one and Arwald, hero of the northern lands, led the valorous men of the enchanted lands to another great day that will be sung and remembered at the court of the kings by all the royal jesters in the following ages... But, as usual, war means free violence and cruelty and both could not restrain their tears of anger for all the innocent victims who fell on the dusty ground surrounding the citadel.

Dargor, Shadowlord of the Black Mountain

And the nightmare never seemed to end... Airin, Arwald's beloved princess of Ancelot, captured during the siege of the town together with another dozen of proud knights known in all the southern regions of the enchanted lands for their valour, was on the way to Hargor, hellish town of the darklands, located in the heart of chaos.

Dargor and his prisoners were now marching through the dragonlands and it seemed impossible to reach them before they reached the Akron's nest.

The Bloody Rage of the Titans

Holy Thunderforce

Trolls in the Dark

So in the following days, whilst organizing plans to free their imprisoned friends, The Warrior of Ice and Arwald could do nothing but wait for the inevitable demands advanced by the cruel black king...

The messenger of chaos finally came and the fear of all became tragic reality: the demons of Akron would impale, one by one all the prisoners if he didn't receive the legendary steel of the gods... yes, my friends, that's right... the mystical emerald sword. Oh, god... what hellish use could be made of that precious weapon...! But anyway something had to be done, and as soon as possible... so the decision was taken! Arwald and the warrior of ice would meet the black king in the center of Hargor, that godforsaken town of the darklands, and Akron would guarantee the life of the prisoners by exchanging it for the mystical emerald sword. But The Warrior of Ice knew that in the wrong hands this precious weapon could help the hellish king and his dreams of conquest...

And I can confirm to you that his thinking was correct, because, as I already told you in the first chapter of these chronicles, a bloody war between the 'Holy Alliance' and the hordes of Akron's empire was raging on the border between the southern lands and the darklands, and, as you also know, the power of the emerald sword could have also decided the destiny of wars! So, my dear friends, it is time to raise your faces to the sky and to call the mightiest of all the rages... oh, yes, that's right!... the bloody Rage Of The Titans!!!

Yes, dear friends, this is exactly what really happened, although your friend Aresius would never have liked to have told you...

When our two heroes finally arrived in Hargor, they immediately understood that it would have been really difficult to go back!

The vision was tragic... of the knights imprisoned during the siege of Ancelot nothing was left except their heads and limbs impaled in awful hellish geometry...

The Last Winged Unicorn

The Mighty Ride of the Firelord

The message was clear and my two friends could do nothing other than attack as Furies about to die in the proudest way. But no... what the black king had planned for them was even more terrible... and I can assure you, I felt that something was not going right, being in mental contact with them most of the time ! Captured and imprisoned, after many days of torture the two warriors awakened in a dark cavern lit by seven torches. Heavy steel chains were limiting their movement. Airin, oh my god, yes, right, poor Airin, was in front of them, covered only by a black veil, on an unholy stone altar. Akron, his dream of handling the mighty emerald sword satisfied at last, was laughing before the altar together with all his demonknights shadowing the cavern and no sane mind would like to imagine what could have happened in the next moments...

No, I don't want to tell you...! but I have to..., because you all, my friends, have to understand how cruel and blasphemous the acts of a man can be, ...although it's difficult for me even to consider him as a man..., possessed by the evil forces of cosmic oblivion!

So... Airin, Arwald's beloved princess, was brutally raped by all the evil creatures of that hellish place in front of our two heroes and by Akron himself, still laughing and increasing his dark energy by the pain of suffering innocence.

Even the valorous Dargor, already trying to convince his king about the inanity of the trap and all this unfettered violence, felt himself constrained to condemn this horrible ritual of bloody depravation... the prince of the darklands, even if he swore his faithful to the cult of evil being educated by one of my biggest enemies, the wizard known as Vankar of Helm, had always tried to conciliate his acts with some ideals that often contrasted with Akron's philosophy... and now once again!

Returning to our tale... the ritual finished even more tragically... Airin was forced, with her last breath of life and looking for the last time at her beloved Arwald, to sink in the Sgral, a magic substance able to corrode the strongest steel.

And, after a while, her death was a reality...

Excuse me, my friends, if in this moment a tear is filling my old eye, but the tragedy is too big for an elderly, tormented heart like mine...

Arwald prayed to all the gods of the cosmos to be freed of that unholy vision and, being unable to endure the pain of it, he soon lost his senses...

Akron had prepared something special for everybody ...so the hero of the northern land was also tortured in every way possible and in the end he also was forced to become a victim of the terrible corrosive substance...

But in that moment the gods of the cosmos heard his call... with his last divine inner energy, with his legs burning in the acid, Arwald used his arms, already showing the white of the bones, to throw some of the green acid towards The Warrior of Ice. Destiny would have it that part of it splashed on the chains imprisoning the chosen one... The steel corroded and our hero was able to free himself... Arwald, with his death, had thus saved the life of our mutual friend. Armed only with stones from the cave, his mighty rage led him against the horde of evil and he was only able to avoid the deadly fury of Akron by throwing himself into the subterranean river, known as Aigor, which flowed through the cave and which carried him to the free air outside Hargor. After many moons, escaping through dark marshes and then over rocky mountains, he was finally able to reach his beloved valleys and then the forest of unicorns... only there could he feel himself finally safe... Sad, tired, hungry, enraged, furious... but at least safe... The emerald sword was now brightening in the hands of Akron and something had to be thought up and done before it was too late for our beloved enchanted lands !

Alright, my dear friends, my old body endured too much stress this time telling you this tragic tale, and so it is better if I rest for a time between the magic trees of this green valley, which have offered me hospitality for some moons. I will be back to you soon for the last chapter of these chronicles... I think the most intense, dramatic and epic that I will ever tell you!

So prepare yourself and in the meantime try to live your life with the same ideals of honesty and justice which fill the hearts of my valorous friends, ready to use the rage of the thunder to fight unfettered violence, so that another old wizard will be proud to tell the chronicles of your existence with the same epic enthusiasm...!

Forever yours
Aresius