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The ocean. Bottomless and black. Its movement like the lungs of the planet.

Surging and pounding, unending in its persistence.

It aims to swallow me. But I must not let it win. Time is running out.

My travel is not without direction. The sphere speaks to me, it guides me through the foggy abyss.

My eyes begin to grow heavy. My body slips into troubled sleep.

I dreamt of a time before time, when the world was much different than it is now.

Where Gods walked among men, where magic was the way of the righteous.

They crafted thirteen towers, each of which a doorway to other worlds.

The central tower anchored them all, to prevent them from spiraling out into the void.

Over time, servants of The Eye began to lay siege to the towers, attempting to gain control of all the worlds for the Crimson King.

So they stripped the magic of the central tower, and placed it within a host, the body of a goddess that could be moved and hidden while still holding the other twelve towers in place.

Then was chosen a guardian, a man with honor and strength.

For eons, he has protected her, as was his charge.

Yet the Ancient Ones never could have foreseen their love for one another.

They began the hunt, to restore her magic to the tower, and end their lives for their sins. They were unaware that their actions had led the Crimson King right to them…

Wrath. Destruction. Murder. Desecration. This is the Crimson King.

An outcast of the Ancient Ones, a power-mad antithesis to their utopian ideals. He seeks vengeance, and absolute rule.

He wishes to ascend the tower, to reign over all the worlds.

The whole history of creation resides within this glass treasure.

I feel myself rising from its depths…

I wake from my dream, to this reality.

I can see the tower through the mist.

Dwarfing all, obelisk.

I will be with you.

Before this day is through.

The orb is pulsing. It breathes, it has awakened.

Ancient magic pulling me in close.

Speaking forgotten tongues.

I can hear his voice.

Coming from the pink sphere.

This voice was not mine, but his. The Crimson King.

I have been betrayed and led astray.

Waves crushing down on me.

I have brought him here.

Opened the gates of hell.

The sphere turns from pink to black. And I am gone, I can hear him laughing.

Once again, I am within the sphere.

Yet it is not the same.

Blackness becomes me.

I am His emissary.

The thirteen worlds, all lay out before me. I see what He sees.

An army, to command, prepared to storm the tower.

I try to fight his control, but he is too strong.

The power of the black consumes me. I hear the swarm approaching.

I have lost myself.

I am his dog of war.

Imbued with limitless strength.

I set my foot on the shore.

As I take each step closer…

I can hear the swarm.

The army of the Crimson King draws near.

And I am their General.

I have failed you.

They are mine to command.

I have failed you…