-The Messenger-
“Commander Ammok, I have been sent by Lord Draxis to deliver a message. The siege on the elven fortresses is well underway and victory is at hand. My lord requests that you be cautious in your approach as the forest is ablaze in an evil, all consuming fire. The trees of the elvenkind are being devoured by my lord’s armies as we speak.” The messenger spoke and held out a scroll with written instructions from Draxis himself. “He crafted this piece specifically for the drakes, Commander, not for orc eyes.” The messenger spoke and nodded, leaving the scroll in Ammok’s hand before vanishing into wisps and returning to his invisible shade form to resume observation of the drake’s approach.

-Lord Draxis-
As the siege continued, Draxis smirked and kept pressing his attack closer to the elven throne room.” It’s curious that the elves have not sent their full force; it is likely that most are away on the true warfront with the rest of Arman’s armies, preparing for the assault against the orcs. They thought they would be safe in this fortress of theirs, hidden from the sight of all mortals. They were wrong.” He spoke as he climbed the steps towards the doors of the great elf hall, blade in hand. “No matter what they do now, it will all be over for them soon, a great shattering blow to their morale will be exactly what we need to turn the tide in our favor.” Draxis pushed open the doors to the hall and cut down the first gaurds who approached them. They weren’t outfitted for battle, more to be a last line of defense… of course they weren’t the best and brightest however. They were already gone to fight against the orcs. All that were left were the royal guard and their pitiful forces. Draxis knew the outcome of this battle, he knew the movements of the enemies armies before many of his comrades in arms, his spies were everywhere, in every corner of the country and they saw every happening. “The power of knowledge and the power of controlling that knowledge is what win you the battle and mostly the war. I knew that these arrogant elves would deploy their full might and leave their capital unguarded. They think that they are untouchable here, but they never knew the true might of my army. Nor did they expect my level of cunning and use of tactics and intelligence to overwhelm them. Arrogance will be the downfall of the elves and their lack of insight into these matters is what in the end led them to ruin.” Draxis pointed his blade towards the throne room doors. “Haselfen, Geront! Break down the doors!” He shouted as his two leading commanders of the Dethsworn bounded in on horseback, stampeding down the door and smashing it with great lances made of twisted, hardened bone. They each adorned a grim looking armor with a gargoyle motif, with menacing helms to look as terrifying as the creature depicted in their armor. “Haselfen, constrict the king and queen in your ice. Geront, take care of the rest of the gaurds with your locust swarms, and get the rest of the Dethsworn to bar the doors in. I do not want any interruptions.” He spoke as he approached the royals that sat upon their thrones, waiting for Draxis to meet them. 

“You haven’t won yet, fiend. The Armanian armies will take you and the rest of your devilish kin back to your graves where you belong!” The Queen shouted and slammed her fist into the armrest of her respective throne. “Ah, but that is where you’re wrong. Yes, you may have that fabled ‘Blade of Kings’ on your side and all the griffons as well. But you forget that I am not fighting for Razgar and his horde, I am waging my own war, and this opportunity serves as a perfect opportunity for my plans to succeed. You see, I’m not just after Arman. I am also going to slay that pitiful orc, Razgar, as well and claim the lands for the undead and for my lord Baphomet.” He spoke as he approached the queen, moving his face to be only inches from hers. “And I’m going to use your armies to do it. I will slay every last one of your people and enslave them to my army, a shuffling mass of undead elves and all of their ‘great power’ under my control. You have no idea what I am capable of and you never will be, you lost. You could never have hoped to defeat me unless you sent your whole might, but you never saw me as enough of a threat until it was too late. You, so old with all your wisdom and power from your ‘gods’ yet they have betrayed you, left you to die in this hole because they cannot save you from the wrath that is undeath. Not even your great pantheon can stand to my might because they simply don’t exist, if they did, you would have somehow known about this end of your race and known that I would come for you.” He spoke as he grabbed the queen by her throat with one hand and pointed his ancient blade at the king. “Neither of you could stop me, what makes you think that this King Arman can do the same? Human arrogance and pride far outweighs that of the elves. He thinks that he can scrape together some orc hating peasants and call on his mightiest warriors to face Razgar. But he faces not just the orcs and their hordes of beastial allies. But he faces the drake forces, lead by Ammok, a faithful servant to their king Azarth, and he faces me and all of my legions of undead. Not to mention he has to worry about the ones you cast out, the Dark Elves. You have made a grand error in judgment, trusting a human king to take on all of the immortal forces of this realm. Just because he can control a great military, does not mean he can face the might of three separate armies of equal size to his own and defeat each one. We each have our own motivations and we each are devout to our causes, however the true victor will always be death. It has been since the dawn of time and it will remain so. Every man and woman that falls in the fields of our bloody and brutal war will rise again to fight against their brothers in arms. They will join me and I will conquer.” He spoke coldly as he squeezed his hand with all of his might, crushing her throat and rendering the queen lifeless in his hand. 

A moment later he dropped her body to the floor and faced the king. “No is the beginning of the end, this day will be marked as the start of a new world, one ruled by undead lords and their armies. A world shaped by my hands.” Draxis said with a pleased tone, watching the elf king cower in his throne. “It’s not like you to show such weakness in the face of danger. You’ve always been a brave man, even before you became Arman’s lapdog; it’s quite enjoyable to watch you shrivel up in fear of your fate. I wish I could say you fought bravely, but alas, no man could ever stand to me and not quiver in fear. It is my special and unique power, to bring the fear of death into a man, to paralyze him with the thought of perishing. Quite funny if you think of it, most would simply flee from such a fate, but you cannot hide from the reaper of souls, old elf.” He spoke as he shoved his blade through the chest of the elven king, watching his lifeforce slip out and into the blade, leaving but a frail husk of a once great king, lying on the blade as lifeless as his wife. “I claim this keep and fortress for the Dethsworn. This will be our new base of operations, I gift it to Haselfen, and may you keep this keep as I do mine in Vigil’s Keep. Let the screams of the dead ring out and pierce the ears of the living across the land.” Draxis spoke as he sat upon the kings throne, tossing the body off of his blade and letting him sit lifelessly beside his wife, in a heap on the ground, blood pooling around them as Draxis let out an evil cackle, enough to make skin crawl and hearts stop.