Sitting on his enlightened throne, in an outworld dimension, God Mohzer looked thoughfully to the life over a world, which had in ancient times hosted the glorious Derdian’s empire.
The rock and the whole Lornack’s valley region had been destroyed in a tremendous apocalypse, caused by Mohzer self, after his Golstar puppet’s awakening from the spell, keeping him slave.
Golstar had returned to Derdian after discovering all the shameful acts he did, after the final Astar’s battle.
He proclaimed democracy and the damnation for all the evil gods in the whole reign. Among them Mohzer too, of course, and his demon Lord Troghlor.
Mohzer did not appreciate those actions, and decided that if not himself, nor the good as well had to possess Derdian. Hence he resolved to sink the whole region in the ocean.
During this long time of prosperity in Astar there had been a big technological revolution instead. In the very same skies, where it was common seeing purple red Dragons to fly during Derdian’s epoch, now they had to share the stars with flying vehicles and aeroships capable to travel in the space too.
Planes and valleys once covered by vegetation, rarely leaving some spots for ancient fortresses, now they had a very different look. High and huge buildings made of crystal and tranxium (a very common material on that small globe lost somewhere in the universe) climbed to the sky vault, like the new society wanted to joke Mohzer by showing that prosperity they got defeating him millennia before in that epic legendary battle
Mohzer assisted through several millennian to all this, with great grudge. He wanted finally establish the order and his supremacy over that world of weaks driven by other gods or wannabe meaningless heros.
He needed to confirm he was the only entity deserving of being worshipped. For fear at least, if not for devotion!
To accomplish his plans, Mohzer wanted to use again his favourite, Lord Troghlor, the only one who never failed him. The only capable to conquer the region, proving to be so evil and merciless that Mohzer just had to add an unlimited power.
The demon stood beside Mohzer after his ascent to semigod, observing the first glory, and the subsequent fall of tyrant Golstar. He was turned temporarely by Mohzer to a big and dark flying beast.
“Goodbye to my loyal servant” said Mohzer, “we assisted to the miserable fall of our great creation, by that inept Golstar. May he burn in the hell without ever joining again with the spirit of his wife!”
So now, after three thousand years of this black Olympus, Mohzer’s voice thundered: “Troghlor!”
Troghlor did not answer, just humbly bending in front of his master, he accepted this new condition of flying demon joining the cloud of other hundreds creatures, spiraling since ancient times that dark dimension.
They were thinking creatures neither, just puppets only useful when the god resurrected them to accomplish some of his dark plans.
Suddendly a fire column opened in the spectral cloud formed by those wicked beings, inside it the shape of Troghlor demon, human again, came slowly down, bearing as a majestic king. All the other beasts stopped immediately their perpetual motion hovering, and bending toward the Mohzer’s favourite demon.
Troghlor approached his master, he bent too waiting for orders.
“Troghlor, time has come. Destroy, bend and reconstruct. This I command to you. Astar is prosperous and peaceful. Shall we allow it?”
“No, master” promptly answered Troghlor with his usual grin.
“So, go!”
Troghlor stood up in all his heights, he lifted the hands to the sky and powerfully screamed, calling to himself many of the flying beasts, who aligned behind him like a trustworthy army. He approached to one of them, looking like a big dragon with red void eyes, huge bat wings and spike everywhere. He jumped on its back. “Astar!” he shouted, followed by the boast from other beasts and the pleased laugh from god Mohzer, who was enjoying the scene.
Troghlor flied away with his army.
Meanwhile in an old hut in Astar, maybe the only one left in the whole new era, an old Dorian lied, a very old indeed. He was, the sorcerer who succeded 3000 years before to break Golstar’s spell, summoning lady Loren in his dreams.
The old man achieved the immortality, through his ever increasing powers and continuous exercise of magic, demanded by kings and lords of all the epochs. He also became an institution, a symbol for an historical and ancient time, the one who transmitted the related memories.
That night his dreams were troubled, because he already perceived in his mind, what was about to happen again on that doomed land. The old man abruptly woke up, deciding to go investigate about.
He sat on the floor crossing legs, and started to meditate with closed eyes. Few minutes later his souls teared from the body starting to drift in the dimensional space. Dorian materialized in the Olympus just in the moment when Mohzer was giving his orders to Troghlor. Dorian observed the whole scene hidden behind a big rock and frowned.
In the moment when Troghlor lifted up with his army, Dorian’s spirit floated toward Mohzer, who couldn’t see him anyway. He stopped in front of him at few centimeters, watching in his mind across those demoniac eyes..
Dorian saw Astar burning and its gigantic tranxium buildings blowing up under the attack of Troghlor’s army.
At this time Mohzer smiled and stared Dorian in the eyes. “What do you think, old man? A god is not able to see your spirit, uh?”
Dorian tried to escape but Mohzer took him by the neck and trew him on the ground. The old and powerful Dorian felt a cruciating pain everywhere, like it was his physical body. Anyway he stood up again looking bad in front of the god, who boldly laughed further.
“Mohzer I just sensed your dark will. You’ll never succeed. Astar is ready to send you back in the hell, where you come from. Your favourite will never win against new era’s people. New generations of heros and sorcerers I trained during these millennia. They will challenge you”
“So talk as you wish, old!” answered Mohzer in anger. “Troghlor is already there killing your people, and you are wasting your time here”
“Not that much Mohzer!”, Dorian’s spirit tried to dissolve, but Mohzer’s spear broke up between it and the dimensional passage, leading it back to the earth.
“Not that quickly, old man! I want to play a bit with you, first”, said Mohzer laughing.
The two started a magical and physical duel to the last blood. Mohzer fought with his spear and his supernatural powers, Dorian tried to withstand using his magic and his capability with the teleport
After a fierce fight, when Mohzer was about to overwhelm. Dorian realized he couldn’t anything against the god, and found an escape in a moment of Mohzer’s distraction. He entered a dimensional port, awaking in his physical body.
He stood up abruptly running out of his hut. Invasion was not started yet, Mohzer cheated.
Dorian mounted on his flying board, he got rapidly to the Astar’s headquarters, in front of king Kargor, direct descendant of king Exenthar, who was a dear friend of his 3000 years before.
Dorian explained what happened directly to the the council, already there to discuss other themes.
Present authorities were upset. Nobody would have ever imagined to front such a problem again. Events happened in the ancient history were quite clear to everybody. They were like impressed in the DNA of planet’s inhabitants, and Dorian was a very reliable authority indeed.
King Kargor said: “Dorian, wise old friend of mine, are you sure of what you are saying? It would be a new apocalipse”
“Kargor I watched with my eyes Mohzer giving this job to Troghlor, who was truly thirsty of blood and in search of vengeance. I faced Mohzer in a magic duel, almost exhaust, that I believed not to survive to. We should have expected my friend. They had not been canceled, it just was a matter of time. They are coming…with an army of dark flying creatures led by Troghlor!”
Meanwhile a roar broke up the discussion, all the council run to the huge hall’s window, to see a fired sky, painting the whole city of a deadly red.
An enormous chasm had been opened in the sky, from this dimensional port they saw a big black mass of flying things, flooding on their beloved planet.
“Lift the shields!” shouted promptly king Kargor. Immediately an enormous transparent energy dome wrapped the city. On the roads people screamed in panic running away everywhere. The black mass became ever more defined, until they could clearly see the creatures shapes.
In the first line center, Troghlor riding his dragon dominated with his might
The army lined up hovering in the sky just in front of the headquarter’s window, the whole council was watching. The king commanded the zoom screen activation, to clearly see the Troghlor’s face.
As soon as his image appeared, Astar people’s blood froze instantly. Troghlor’s image showed up only in few ancient paintings or in history books, before then. Now he was really there more terrifying than ever, purple eyes, long and dirty floating hair, and his huge body, full of scars from so many wars.
Finally, that sadic laugh.
Behind him the enormous dark dragon’s army, with other flying creatures, completed that gruesome terrifying picture.
King Kargor took the situation in his hand, and after having activated the external speakers, he said:
“Lord Troghlor I guess… What this unexpected visit is for?”
Troghlor stood still some minute, to watch the city, then he broke the silence.
“King Kargor, king in the city I love that much…the city who took me years long as prisoner in that dark cell, to eat rats and pieces of my body… Look how beautiful technology you developed. I do not believe to my eyes”
“You were a criminal, you received the treatment you deserved!” answered promptly Kargor.
“Was it supposed to be? No beast deserves such a treatment. Your people reserved it to me. Now you will do what your ancestors didn’t… PAY!”
The beastly Troghlor’s army started to jump for the excitement of imminent fight, animal barking sounded all the valley along.
“Fleet and troopers!” shouted Kargor, seeing that a clash could not be avoided anymore.
Immediately two big gates opened over the great headquarter’s hangar, and a fleet of a hundred star fighters, the ultimate innovation of the great Astar’s might, lifted to quickly face the flighting Troghlor’s army.
The infantry too, soldiers totally equipped with black shimmering suits, provided with every sort of arm system, lined down the dome just under the fleet.
The 1300 Astar troopers suggested that it would have been a never seen before epic battle, with all that short but nevertheless powerful rifles, capable to split molecules in minutes particles.
Supernatural powers from an ancient world of old gods against the most advanced technology skills, but produced by the human mind.
Troghlor mocked at the enemy laughing uncontrollably, then pointed up the hands staring at the sky. Immediately a lightning shot his hands materializing an oversized sword and a steel-rocky shield.
In the shield’s center there was the great Derdian eye, which 3000 years before was put on top of the black castle’s tower.
An heavy steel helmet, in other times forged, appeared magically on his head, two huge Capricorn horns turned back and forth toward the enemy.
Troghlor’s body seemed to become even bigger than before, his army made an unbearable noise, all Astar’s inhabitants fled in terror inside the planet’s nucleum, where very long galleries built in the past years led to big underground huts, capable to host the whole globe’s population.
They could access the nucleum with quick underground ships, which could reach the planet’s center in few hours.
In Astar there only were two deployed armies, separated by the protection shield, the war council commanded by Kargor and the old wise Dorian.
Everybody knew that the shield nothing could do against such a kind of enemy, and that it just was matter of few time, for the Troghlor’s army to violently break in the city.
“Fire!” screamed Troghlor to his dragon army, which started to spit flames in direction of the dome.
The shield withstood the flames, so annoyed Troghlor approached his hand to it concentrating a so big supernatural energy amount, that a big fireball generated from nothing ready to explode
The fireball exploded producing a new roar, the shield splitted producing current discharges. The star fleet advanced as one with laser bombs, as the infantry too but whatever they fired passed through Troghlor and his army, like they were hitting ghosts.
The Battle’s result was clear. After a bloody fight of few hours Troghlor’s army did not have any single casualty. Astar was erased, the fighters destroyed, no survivor.
The king and Dorian boarded an aeroship as soon as they saw the things were going bad, and they escaped to the nucleum.
That was a very long trip where everybody of the survivors was so upset that they could not even think. The only one who though anything was a sitting Dorian.
The old man, perharps because of the long experience, perharps just because of the age o for having lived 3000 years before these events, he already was in search for a solution.
But he couldn’t share yet his thoughs with the king, who was humbly crying like a father losing all of his sons.
Meanwhile Troghlor and his army were landed in a completely erased Astar, where the only dominating things were the skeletons of those big crystal-tranxium buildings, once symbol of the astarian progress.
The biggest civilization of that time was swept away. Mohzer and Troghlor owned the whole planet, the evil god’s wishes became true again.
In this land of destruction Troghlor approached the headquarter rests, looked around satisfied, and finally fell on his knees bending the head. Immediately on the sky above him appeared Mohzer’s image, who silently closed the eyes and bent the head like he was about to meditate for something.
Suddendly the earth started to tremble violently and more. Troghlor stood there closed eyes like he knew exactly what was about to happen. His army of wild beasts looked scared instead and upset. The chaos spread all over his ranks.
From the earth started to come out black spikes, which pointed to the sky like a zombie hand wishing to reach the moon. Later came the walls, then the rest of the city.
Derdian city resurrected… on the very same Astar’s soil. It was sunk 3000 years before in the ocean, almost equal, threatening, dark, terrifying, Derdian dominated once again that doomed planet, about to know a new era of terror
News traveled quickly. Astar didn’t exist anymore, a second Derdian empire was born, Troghlor was back!
Mohzer’s worship was recovered. Few days later, the messengers from the near cities already had started their tribute visit to Derdian, in order to confirm their loyalty to the emperor. Just a loyalty obtained for fear.
Astar’s survivors re-organized their underground life full of desperation and dejection.
Their home was anymore, they were unarmed against the new Derdian’s empire. Their technology nothing could do opposed to the supernatural god Mohzer. How should they have done, to take back their country, the world?
Inexorably months and years passed by. King Kargor, Dorian and all underground Astar’s citizens looked powerless at the destruction of their ancient and peaceful world, through secret cameras hidden on the whole planet’s surface. Especially in the once Astar’s own area.
Now all the cities in the planet had been enslaved by Troghlor, who strongly and relentlessly reigned.
Whatever hope and optimism, individual, or common either were extinct, like the memory of an ancient era being summoned back.
Until a morning, after a sleepless night full of visions, Dorian came to the king Kargor with an idea.
The king was silently sitting on his throne, sadly staring down. The portrait of an old highness, being shaded by the shame of a failure. Or the perception of it, at least.
“Kargor, I sensed all”, Dorian said.
The king frowned. So deep he was inside himself, that he didn’t even notice Dorian entering the hall.
“I got the solution, we are going to take back our home”
“I got the solution, we are going to take back our home” said the old man with a smile and a hope spark in the eyes…