The Land of the Dead, dark, desolate and forbidding, a place where only the truly forsaken or cursed would live. Nothing grew in this barren place except for pain and despair....
.....Chaos couldn't think of a place that suited him more. As he stalked through the empty land in his black hood and cape, he reminisced about the countless times he had walked about these lands seeking lost artifacts and slaying decrepit fiends.
But it had been many a year since Chaos had returned to this land of death, had it not been for the calling he may not have come for many more long years.
The calling....it had come while he was walking through the streets of some begotten city, searching for a decent meal, a great force pulled at him like someone had suddenly grabbed him by the cloak, dragging him towards these empty plains.
Something had been awakened and now it was calling to him, begging him to come back to the land he had forgotten. Now that he was here he it was stronger, the pull was overwhelming even had he wanted to he doubt he could have turned and left.
Suddenly he could feel the pull stregthen and grow, he could feel its powerful embrace pulling him further towards his unknown destination. Ahead he could see a disruption in the calm flatness of the plain. As he neared it revealed to be a gigantic crater blasted into the surface of the land.
"Amazing," he murmured in awe at the crater, "It would take great dark magics to scar the earth so deeply, even in a place like this."
Again Chaos felt the powerful pull down into the depths of the crater where he noticed that there was something at the bottom of the hole.... something of great power. From the ground rose a dark metal pedestal with two metal spiked jutting out on opposite sides. Seated atop this dark spike was an midnight black orb, from it pulsated evil so strong that Chaos could not even imagine what powers it beheld. The Orb was imbedded into the told of spike, almost like a gem on the pommel of a sword....strangely enough, the whole object looked vaguely like hilt of some enormas sword. "It must be mine," whispered Chaos greedily as he stepped towards the stone and placed his hand upon it.
Suddenly a great thunder came from beneath Chaos as he struggled to keep his hand on the Orb. Opposite him the rocks exploded as a great shape emerged from the ground. Its great body was that of a dragon but its top half was vaguely human, with very obviously demonic features. Its eyes glowed red as a burning blaze and from its mouth burst black flames that licked about his face.
"Unhand my sword puny lich!" roared the demon in a great booming voice, "Or you shall feel the power of my heart,"
"Of course," thought Chaos sourly as he clung desperately to the orb, "Only a demons heart could hold a power so dark and vast."
"Do you wish to trifle with me lich?!," roared the demon as it stepped towards Chaos, leaving foot prints of flame in his wake, "Do you honestly think you can stand against me boy? I am Magtheridon, Lord of the Black Heart! Your pathetic magics hold no sway with me."
Chaos had no idea what to do, he could not possibly face a being of such power on his own. Suddenly he remembered the orb benath his hand, he grabbed a firm hold of it and pulled it from the demons blade. Magtheridon screamed at the loss of his greatest possession, he ran forward and grabbed his blade preparing to smite the pitiful lich.
Frantically Chaos stowed the heart under his cloak as he summoned his staff and prepared for battle, hopefully he could hold out long enough for someone to help him.......surely someone else must have felt the hearts pull......

The dark sky made the plains of Dori'ba seem, if possible, even more desolate and forbidding. Any sane person would never even dream of coming out here at the best of times, let alone the dead of night. But yet, there were still people out here, a man in dark robes and, far above him, a figure with white wings. Dayne had been following the figure below for several hours, firstly because she was bored, and secondly because she wanted to know why anyone would want to be out here in the middle of the night. On foot.

Twirling a couple a spirals lazily, Dayne suddenly realised that the figure was no longer below her. Fanning out her white wings, she slowed and hovered, searching the dark ground below for any sign of the stranger. After a couple of moments, she spotted him at the edge of a large crater. That was odd in itself.
Last time she was here, the archangel could have sworn that there had been no crater of any kind. But, then again, last time she was here, she had had no time to go sightseeing at all. Not that dark day, where she had been forced to land by pounding rain, only to find herself surrounded by rising zombies. "There always seems to be zombies around here," the blonde girl mused as she watched the man below.

He seemed to be headed towards the centre of the crater itself where she could just made out a spot of blackness that seemed to draw all shadows towards it. Involuntarily, the girl shivered. Whatever that thing was, it was evil, and although good and evil didn't really mean much to her, Dayne knew that the thing down there was dangerous, good or bad. So she dropped lower in the sky, keeping behind the dark robed man so he would be much less likely to see her. She watched him reach towards the dark shape, which she could now make out was orb shaped, and she suddenly felt a tug of foreboding.

"Don't..." she started, forgetting that she was a considerable way out of earshot, but it was too late. As soon as his hand touched the orb, the ground underneath the mans feet thundered and cracked, throwing rocks on the opposite side of the crater high into the air. From beneath the boulders a monstorous creature erupted, its humanoid top half bulging with muscles and its bottom, dragonish half covered in black scales. Dayne couldn't help herself. She screamed as it raised itself up to full height, towering over the man below. It roared something to the man but it was too loud for Dayne to comprehend what the creature was saying.

It took a step towards the helpless man before the archangel snapped into action, drawing her longbow and nocking an arrow to the string with the ease of years of practice. She rocketed towards the demon, bow already at full draw before she released an arrow, slamming it into the demons right eye. "Don't just stand there!" Dayne screamed to the man who was attempting to stow the orb in his robes, "Do something!' she cried, shooting higher up into the air in order to avoid a thrust of the demons great horned head and firing another arrow at the same eye.