It was in the royal court of Yew where my enemy Aribeth Kalgroth had been put on trail for her crimes against the forces of good and Virtue. I remember sitting in the court room, listening as the list of crimes she had committed were read and the judge gave sentence. Due to the nature of her being, the court could not risk her remaining in Britannia, so the court demanded that she be burned at the stake and her ashes locked up into a magically sealed chest and taken back to her home in the Stygian Abyss. As the last of the Virturi Knights and her only remaining enemy, the task was given to me to bring her to eternal banishment. Little did they know, that this request would doom the whole world and bring an end to the Virtues.

Aribeth was a young girl, born thousands of years ago and enslaved by a Daemon that required mortal flesh to exist out of his home in the Abyss. Aribeth was young, a suitable host but now it had ended, even to my own eyes, it was painful to watch a young girl being burned alive. My people had tried for years to find a way to separate her from the daemon, but it could never be done.

I journeyed across the lands for many long days, before approaching the forbidden mountain of Montor, the location of the closed Abyss Gate. I stopped on the mountain floor to get some rest before moving on and helping myself to some water, checking on the small chest inside my pack. I rested it on a nearby rock as I helped myself to some provisions watching the lava flowing down the sides of the mountain into the river bellow. The smell of ash was making it hard to breathe, but I had been in worse spots before. As I was taking a bite out of some bread I turned my head to the chest, noticing it had fallen down onto the grass. I picked it up, feeling a lone rumbling from inside before it violently shook in my hands and flew out and against the mountain wall.

The impact, regardless of the magical enchantments could not hold the force back and the chest shattered, releasing a darkened mist, a wraith of some kind, Aribeth in her purest form. I drew my sword, alarmed at what was happening, the power of the evil from the mountain must have somehow aided her in escaping, but she did not talk to me, only looked upon my face for a few moments before drifting off into the mountain top. I could not let her escape so I made my way up into the city above the mountain, to try and find her.

Confronted on the way by all manner of evil beings and elementals, I soon made it to the bridge leading to the Abyss gate, Aribeth had made herself back into the form of that young girl I was so used to seeing. She stood there and looked at me as if I was some kind of bug that needed to be crushed. I looked at her with a worn gaze; I could not afford to let her go again. “How did you return to that form?” I asked her.
“The power of this place, regenerated my mortal flesh from the ashes, you were a fool to bring me here!” she cursed. “Now I will be rid of your kind once and for all!” she shouted, throwing a blast of lightning from her hands, slamming me in the chest.

I laid on the floor waiting for her to come up to me. She looked down onto me knowing in her mind that I wasn’t dead and smirked, starting to cast a fireball in her hands. I opened one eye and grabbed my sword, pushing it through her chest. She froze up for a moment as I pushed her down onto the floor next to me and as she screamed in the pain I picked her up as best I could and threw her off the bridge into the Lava. I collapsed onto the floor clenching my own chest as it burned from her spell. The sounds of laughing could be heard echoing around the mountain as once again the black wraith rose from the fire and swooped down towards me, throwing fire from the sky.

I ran as fast as I could across the bridge towards the Abyss Gate the Obilisk had changed from before. The area was surrounded by Lava, I was trapped and finding it hard to breath among all the fire and ash, my sword had fallen into the fire and Aribeth was right behind me. I looked upon the structure and decided that this had to be the end. There was nowhere else to go, I could not kill her, I could not stop her and if I was to run I would either die a meaningless death, or live knowing that Aribeth was still alive. It had to end here!

I turned around as Aribeth returned to her child like form. She pointed at me and seconds before she cast forward a mighty bolt of energy, I pulled down my shield pushing me back towards the edge of the structure and closer to the pit of lava bellow. “There is one thing you’re forgetting Kalgroth!” I shouted. “I am a Virturi Knight, Guardian of the Virtues, Keeper of the Shards and Gatekeeper to the Abyss. My peoples influence over the ancient realm surpasses that of any other mortal being”
“Your people are dead!” Aribeth shouted. “You have no influence!”. I stared at her from behind my shield before throwing it to the ground and drawing a staff from my belt, extending it forward with a thrust of my hand. I began to spin the staff with as much energy as I could, chanting words into the whistle it was blowing.

“She that hides a dark soul and foul thoughts shall be judged by a pure mind!
She is her own dungeon!

Either Slain or Living, thou shall gain Virtue, by conquering thy fears and hates! Therefore, arise unto Virtue, making a firm resolve!

Holding pleasure and pain alike, Gain and Loss, Victory and Defeat! Then gird thyself for battle and discipline thy mind! Thus thou shall not become that of Chaos!

With these words the founders brought with them a shimmer of hope and light and rallied us to defend our beliefs!

They gave us faith, strength and virtue, and with these powers we fight for what is right!”

Aribeth laughed as I chanted the words I chanted before I slammed the staff onto the concrete floor, the building began to rumble, rocks began to fall from the mountain, the lava began to bubble violently. Aribeth looked around alarmed before shouting “Stop it!” she yelled, throwing a fireball towards me, but the Fireball dissolved into ash from a protective aura that surrounded my body. One at a time I named the Virtues.
“Spirituality! Valour! Sacrifice! Justice! Honesty! Compassion! Humility! Honour!” as I completed my chant the lava in the centre of the structure began to swirl into a large black and endless hole, I watched as Aribeth struggled against the pull of the Abyss. She held onto a nearby pillar before being sucked through the vortex.
I held on for as long as I could to the structure, but I knew this was to come at a price, I took a book from my belt and threw it to the floor before I lost my grip and was pulled in to the Void. The mouth closed shortly after, leaving no trace of what had happened, except for my book. A book that was locked, my diary, perhaps someone will find it one day and finish the last page.

Aribeth had returned to her home in the Abyss, I had gone with her, to a place where few have ever returned. I am happy however that I have lived a life of meaning, the people that I have met and known as my friends, the people that I’ve come to love. Maybe one day, someone will turn around and wonder where did Telsia Tearheart go? Perhaps one day, someone may find out. Opening the Abyss had not been done for many hundreds of years and while not fully open; the rift between dimensions was now fractured. It is now only a matter of time, before the fracture bleeds open a whole new world.

In my final words, regardless of my death and the death of my people, the last of my people are now gone, it is up to the generations of the future to find new ways of battling against the evil that is to come. The Virturi have protected this world for thousands of years, I can only hope that the next generation will protect it with Faith, Strength and Virtue!