Eons ago, in a parallel dimension, the Ancients, an archaic humanoid race, were fighting a brutal and seeming endless civil war.
An almost endless wave of warriors marched out of their vast castles and stone fortresses, intent on war. Sword clashed with axe, and the sound of steel ringing off steel echoed across the gray wastelands of their world.
They fought out of ignorance, out of evil and out of hatred.
Many of the warring Ancient kingdoms slowly discovered a psychic force springing up within many of their armies’ units.
The power to read minds, and manipulate the world around them with the sinews of thought and emotion.
Little is known of their mysterious power.
Out of foolishness, and the greed of the ancients, some factions stretched their power to it’s very limits, tearing the very fabric of reality… and spawning the evils.
Unending storms blotted out the sun, casting their world into a perpetual twilight, wracked with lightning storms. Darkness and unspeakable cruelty were spread among the stars, and even to parallel dimensions.
Unspeakable monsters, brainless swarms of zombies and beings of pure concentrated hate were unleashed upon the ancients’ home world.
This new evil gained such terrifying strength, that the Ancients’ kingdoms formed a tense alliance and bound together, facing their greater, demonic foe.
The Ancients’ losses were devastating.
Untold numbers of the Ancients were massacred by the enemy; Genocide had begun.
The Evils visited one horror after another upon the Ancients, each worse that the last.
Before total extermination, the wisest and most powerful Ancient psychic, the Wise One, vowed their power must be kept safe from the Evils, lest the universe collapse under a tide of chaos and so used the last of his energy to seal the race’s collective psychic power in one of three Ancient mountaintop stone fortresses.
The Castles.


During the Wise One’s own valiant last stand, driven mad by pain and the proximity of so much evil, he wrathfully cursed all Evils, living and unliving, dead or in limbo, to be forever bound to guard the Castles against intrusion for all time.

Two books, tomes of Ancient knowledge with their purpose yet unclear were hidden in two of the Castles, as the third and most important castle held the fabled ‘Power of the Ancients’

The books sat in dust and darkness, circled by their undead guardians; undisturbed…
Until now.






Chapter One: Dead world.

Next to the Roaring of blood rushing through his ears, the only sound Etrius registered was the steady Thwap Thwap Thwap of the chopper’s rotors, as it sped them back to Fort Hades. Outside, the bleak grey landscape sped by, shrouded in it’s endless fog. Etrius hoped the pilot knew what he was doing; they had a whole planet to get lost in.
Gritting his teeth, he pressed harder on the wound in his bicep, where the damn creature and bitten him. It hurt like a bitch; the thing hadn’t just bitten him, it had chewed, and shaken it’s head, like a dog trying to tear a hunk of meat off the bone.
The bleeding slowed, and Etrius tried to slow his hammering heart. He gulped and looked over at the Warrant Officer, running his hands over the book as though it were a trophy that needed polishing.
“Alright, now let me take a look at that,” said the medic, unpacking his tools.
Etrius took his hand away and prepared himself for the pain, as the medic applied antibiotics and antiseptics to the wound, before pressing a gauze into the hole, and fixing it in place with a bandage.
“You’ve lost a lot of blood, my friend. Looks like you’ll be in the infirmary for a while. Don’t worry, you’re going to be fine.” He patted Etrius on the shoulder, and started repacking his supplies, fastidiously checking that everything was in it’s proper place.
Etrius nodded and grunted, bringing himself to a more comfortable sitting position.
The faint sound of pilot’s chatter brought him to the window, right now he needed to see Fort Hades, if only for the comfort of familiarity.
In the midst of a vast plateau, ringed by mountains, sat the base, it’s spotlights sweeping the vast empty land around, illuminating the desolace of this grey blasted world, and serving only to enhance the feeling of intense loneliness.
Etrius anxiously stared, searching for signs of battle, but found none. The Guard towers still stood, and he could barely make out guards patrolling the high walls. The command tower in the middle also still stood, awash in blue light from the Gate.
The science department seemed in fine shape as well, all the windows still glowed; the science team guys were known to stay up till all hours, engrossed in their studies, but it was difficult to be a night owl on a world with no night or day.
The red beacon lights of the landing pad were blinking in unison, signaling them to land and the chopper touched down gently. Gotta hand it to the general, thought Etrius. He sure knows how to get the best personnel.
Another medic was waiting for them, along with a representative of the science department, fidgeting anxiously, and Colonel Beecher, looking dour as usual.
As the Medics helped him out of the chopper, the scientist impatiently pushed forward, beginning to speak, when the Colonel grabbed him by the shoulders and pushed him bodily aside. “Status?” he barked. Etrius almost smiled; the colonel cared for his men and was always concerned when one was injured, but he was always a man of few words. Bastard probably only said a handful of words at his own wedding, thought Etrius with a silent laugh, as the medics half carried him toward the medical block; his arm-hair stood on end when they took him past the Gate, and his head started aching.
“Blood loss… and probably shock. He should be okay for active duty in a few days.” The medics called over their shoulders, as they assisted Etrius to the doors of the infirmary.
The further away he got from the Gate, the better he felt; all the men reported a wide range of complaints when in proximity to the Gate; headaches, nausea, muscle spasms, blurring of vision, temporary loss of vision and hearing… even psychological problems manifested themselves near the gate. Guards reported hallucinations and depressing thoughts, and an almost painful sense of loneliness when their patrols took them near the gate.
Etrius looked back over his shoulder and saw General Creed speaking with Beecher and the scientist, but couldn’t hear them over the dying sound of the chopper’s rotors.


General Creed adjusted his beret and stepped out of the command centre, and the wind kicked up as though in greeting. The chopper had set down perfectly, and he could see Etrius being taken to the infirmary. Good.
He strode up to the chopper and returned Beecher’s Salute, before nodding to the scientist. Creed didn’t know the man, but he was one of Romanov’s handpicked ‘experts’ and Creed trusted the Ukrainian’s judgement.
“Will he make it?” The General asked. His Texan accent always thickened when he was stressed. He could not afford to lose Etrius, the man didn’t know it, but he was vital to all the General’s plans for the future.
“Well,” Beecher sighed. “He was bitten by one of those creatures.”
General Creed blinked. “I see,” was all he said, but he was secretly impressed that Etrius survived a close quarters brawl with the things. None of the scouts ever had.
“So that’s it, huh?” Creed pointed to the book held in Beecher’s clenched hand.
The General took the book from Beecher and turned away, dismissing Beecher and the scientist with a wave. He pressed the ‘Send’ button on his radio headset and spoke. “Doctor Romanov.”
Romanov’s heavy eastern European accented voice came through the line, thin and raspy. “Ah, General… Yes… What do you need?”
“Come to the helipad, ASAP.” Creed’s tone of voice made it clear that he expected to be obeyed, but Romanov had an annoying habit of following his own schedule. “Um, well sir, I’m quite busy studying the book.”
Creed sighed. “We have the second book.” He knew that would make Romanov drop everything and come running, and he was right.
“What!? Don’t touch it! I’ll be right there!” Creed smiled.


Etrius was fading in and out of consciousness. Lying on a wheeled stretcher now, he was being taken along a white walled corridor, everything stank of sterile disinfectants.
Is there any stink worse than this stuff? He asked himself. Wait, yes, there is. Back in that first Castle. The smell of centuries-old death, musty soil and the musk of a creature that no living man had ever seen.
Etrius recalled his first mission into the new world. Climbing up the mountain, his only company was the incessant howling wind, and the ever-silent private Frost. Hand after hand, he climbed, reaching the base of the Castle atop the mountain after what seemed like hours, but according to his watch it was only about forty five minutes. Entering through a breach in the fortress walls, he remembered being hit full force by the stench of something foul.
Thunder boomed in the sky and roared through the valleys, fading away into the distance.
He remembered the pitch-black hallways of the castle, his torch the only source of illumination aside from the occasional flashes of lightning flashing through the high slit windows, which would light everything and then fade away, leaving purple afterimages dancing on his eyes.
He and private Frost had made their winding way through the deserted, echoing Castle to a vast cavern, carved out of the rock inside the mountain, where the book lay on a raised pedestal. Etrius had no idea how large the chamber truly was, it’s walls were shrouded in darkness, but the echoes told him the cavern was gigantic. Telling Frost to cover him, Etrius had climbed the stairs leading to the book, passing statues wielding swords, and picked it up from it’s stand. As soon as his fingers touched it’s worn and dusty cover, a shiver of premonition went though him.
“Frost!” He screamed. “Get back!”
A pair of twin lights, like the high beams of a car lit in the distance, and turned to face him. Etrius crammed the book into his pack, secured tightly to his back, and leapt blindly to the side as the gigantic shape hurtled past him, emitting a shriek like a speeding train wreck.
In the light of a thunder flash, Etrius saw Frost mangled by a set of jaws with fangs as long as his legs.
His gaze took in the great reptilian wings and long, sinuous body, and his mind fixed a name onto it. Dragon.
Shuffling awkwardly on its thick stumpy limbs, the dragon turned to glare at him, Frost’s viscera dripping from it’s maw. It roared, shaking the cavern with the noise, and stretched it’s mighty wings, preparing for flight.
A stalactite plummeted from the unseen ceiling and smote the creature on the spine, sending it into great flailing spasms that sent smashed stone flying in all directions.
A great lash of it’s tail collapsed a portion of wall and revealed the bleak twilight of outside. Nothing had ever looked so beautiful.
Etrius had sprinted for that opening with all the strength he had, dodging falling stalactites, and leaping over fallen statues.
The dragon seemed to have regained some control over it’s body; it was dragging itself after him with it’s forelegs, the hind legs and wings flopping uselessly.
Even with the gargantuan creature half crippled, Etrius had known he could never outrun it. Desperately casting around, his eyes fell on one of the statues.
Depicting a robed and armored knight, it held a steel sword clutched in stone fingers.
Knowing it was his only hope, Etrius had wasted precious seconds kicking the crumbling stone to pieces, and hefting the sword, he had turned to meet the creature’s lumbering assault.
It lunged with it’s head, intending to swallow him whole, and he sidestepped barely enough to avoid being eaten, but not fast enough to avoid being dashed against the hard stony ground. The dragon reared it’s head and opened it’s maw wide. The light of approaching flame glowed from down it’s gullet and Etrius knew what was coming next. He snatched a stone from the rubble-strewn ground and pitched it at one of the beast’s white-glowing eyes. Etrius had expected the blow to simply sting the creature, perhaps delaying the coming attack enough for him to get back to his feet and circle around the crippled monster. But his stone had done much more than that, shattering the eye completely, and spilling steaming ichor all over the ground.
It raised it’s head to the stormy heavens and bellowed an ear-splitting roar, giving Etrius ample time to scramble to his feet, snatch up the sword and charge in, slashing at the strained tendons of it’s forelegs, further crippling the brute.
It crashed to the earth with a ground-shaking whump that Etrius felt more than heard, his ears still ringing from it’s roar.
Pressing his advantage, he scrambled and clawed his way up the creature’s shoulder, spread his feet for balance, then plunged the sword up to the hilt in the base of the monster’s neck. It’s violent thrashing threw him off like a ragdoll, and he fetched up against a boulder, cracking his head on it. The next thing he had known, a retrieval team were bundling him into a chopper and taking him to the second Castle, a medic checking his injuries (which turned out to be scant) and they left the dragon to it’s death-throes.
He came back to himself briefly, lying on a hospital bed now, the nurse checking his bandage, and he drifted back into the memory of his second mission.

He had gone into the second Castle better armed by far, with a Desert Eagle AE, (the American version, which he quite liked) as well as a pair of machine-pistols and the sword he had retrieved from the last mission.
The second Castle had consisted of only a single massive chamber with an opening in the ceiling through which light fell, illuminating a set of stone steps leading up a pyramid-like structure roughly thirty-five meters high, with a stand upon which sat the book. The pyramid was the only part of the castle that was lit; all else was shrouded in the same oppressive darkness that had filled the last Castle.
Etrius had proceeded extremely carefully, keeping watch for another dragon.
Thirty paces into the chamber, a deep growling sounded off ahead of him. That’s no dragon, he thought briefly, before the first of them stepped into the pool of light.
At first he was relieved to find that this foe was much smaller than the last one he had faced. Only a little taller than himself, the creature ahead of him was ugly nonetheless.
A muscled humanoid frame clothed only in shadow stepped out from behind the book’s pedestal, it’s powerful stride carried it three steps down before it growled at him again, baring sharp, glinting canines that left no doubt as to it’s nature. The dimly glowing eyes narrowed and began to glow brighter, and as they did, other sets of eyes had begun to glow in the darkness.
Etrius’ recollection of the next few minutes was patchy and fragmented, but all he knew was that in the end he was the victor.
He could vaguely recall the chopper flying above the castle and raining bullets down through the opening; he could also remember being bitten by one of them near the top of the pyramid, before snatching the book and making a desperate leap through the gap in the roof and boarding the waiting chopper. At some point he had lost his sword, but for the life of him could not remember where or how.
The medic tended to his chewed arm as they sped back to Hades Base.

Fully awake now, he sat upright in the bed, and looked around the dim room.


Chapter Two:.


The months earlier.
“The General will see you now,” said the pretty brunette secretary, as she opened the door and ushered Etrius inside. It smelt of stale sweat and cigars; Smells he had come to associate with General Creed.
The General himself sat behind his expensive mahogany desk, several files labeled ‘TOP SECRET’ in front of him.
He looked a little older than he did when Etrius had known him. A little more wrinkled. A little more hunched, as though he carried a great weight.
His eyes still had the same way of staring though, and his voice had lost none of it’s gruff command.
“Ah, Etrius. Long time no see.” The General stood as Etrius entered; Etrius knew he was being shown more respect than Creed showed most others, but he didn’t care. He was too angry.
“Do you realize that I could break these things as easily as your neck?” growled Etrius, raising his hands to indicate the handcuffs.
“Yes, but procedure must be followed. Besides, I’m not sure you can still do that. I would have thought retirement would make you soft.”
“What do you want?”
The ghost of a familiar smile flashed across Creed’s lips for an instant. “Same old Etrius, straight to business, eh? Ok, I’ll level.”
Creed stood and began slowly pacing behind his desk. “I’m having some problems here, Etrius. Ever since you left, I haven’t had a single reliable man suitable for the kind of missions that you’re used to.”
Etrius considered giving the cliché; ‘You know I’m retired, I don’t do this anymore,’ but he knew it wouldn’t do him any good. The military knew how to get things done, and if they wanted you, they had you. He didn’t have much of a choice in this one.
“Why am I here?”
Creed sat down at his desk again and started rummaging through the numerous files. “Do you believe in different dimensions?”
Etrius simply stared. Unfazed, the general continued. “For a long time theories of parallel universes have existed. Places where the laws of nature don’t necessarily have to be the same as they are here. These other universes are connected to ours. No further away than the width of a shadow, without us being able to see them or enter them.”
Creed stubbed out his cigar. “Four months ago a research team managed, for the first time, to open a link between two universes. Ours, and another, never seen by us. This newly discovered universe is a dark, deserted world.”
General Creed opened one of the folders and slid a photo across the table. Etrius stepped closer and glanced at the shot. It was a giant gothic castle, precariously perched on a mountaintop with storm clouds overhead.
“After four months of exploring a lonely wasteland, a helicopter pilot spotted what seems to be a castle.
“A team of scientists and archeologists were sent in for investigation. None of them were ever heard from again. There’s something-”
Etrius interrupted the general. “I’m not some goddamned archaeologist; stop wasting my time!”
Creed was unfazed. He simply lit another cigar and continued talking. “Etrius, someone must have built those castles, an ancient culture. We believe they used some sort of a…” He groped for words. “Power, using it as a world resource.”
General Creed stood and walked over to the window, gazing out through the blinds at the crime-ridden city of Washington. “We don’t need to fight over Earth’s last resources. No-one’s struck oil for decades. The rain forests are nearly gone and the oceans are flooding cities. Hell, you know that, you’re from England, right? Your old home in York is gone… Earth is dying. This power resource is our last hope.”
Creed stepped away from the window and went back to the desk, began putting the files back in their folders. “All your old team members have already been sent in. They’re waiting for you.”