The Four Lords of Seostria

Prologue - The Old Labs

Loud footsteps bounced off of each of the tight walls in the small underground fixture, with gas powered lights flickering to life upon sensing motion, before then dimming once more. The empty hall staring down its master and creator, a tall standing man with a fine-kept black beard, straight as a razor, and thick as a forest. Behind him walked a slender lady, dressed in an all white lab coat and medical fixture. The two of them, both researchers at Project Emerald, were about to change the world.

Entering through a metallic door, the man held it, before the lady entered. As soon as the two found themselves in the main labs, many men and women, mostly human, all dressed in similar garb, shot from their seats, holding an almost saluting stance as their arms were placed over their hearts. A man with small golden bars across his coat began to speak, his voice raspy and dehydrated, like sandpaper grinding against granite.

"This one is... promising, to say the least, Admiral.", he started, before clearing his throat, his voice now deeper in tone, and more full with volume. "His spirit is healthy, free of corruption. The disease seems to almost be repelled by him, even... We've kept him in a stasis while we wait for your observation.", the man gestures towards a glass cage, with thick iron corners and steel bolts on the sides... The entire room, even, was reinforced in such a way. With each column bolted and welded together with a mix of iron, and steel.

"Well, pull him out. Every second we waste is another corpse on our hands.", the bearded man answered, his face affixed into a focused scowl as he looked towards the cage.

The cage was big enough to walk two steps in each direction, perfectly square, and reinforced with three layers of the finest steel the project could afford with its mostly limitless budget. A gift of the old dwarves, their metalworking superior to many of the elven nation's archetree bark that they tried to offer countless times. In the small cube there lay two entities, a small boy, no older than 6, and a pulsating mass of rot. The boy lay motionless in the corner of the cage, his head resting against the metallic floor with closed eyes. His complexion suggested he was born of human parents, due to his fair skin, the bearded man was willing to assume he was found in the southern regions of the island. Sharing the metallic prison with the human child lay a pile of refuse. Pulsating browns, blacks, and reds, around the size of a small dog. The rot pile started off as a shred of infected flesh, just as all other patient's was. Grown from a defective corpse, and placed in the cages, it is fed with compost and scraps until it grows to a suitable enough size to infect others.

The man with golden bars found his way over to another of the researchers, one sitting by a collection of small buttons, strings, levers, and all other sorts of unlabeled mechanical triggers. For the time we are in, this is among the most advanced control panels across all of Seostria, maybe even rivalling those across the world.

"More dwarven tech...", The bearded man hated that they always had to borrow from the high regions of Rederium. If anyone wants anything to get done right, you must do it yourself, yet they continue to buy from outside forces.

After pushing down on one of the buttons, a small hiss, and the pulling of a wire resonated through the silent room, as each researcher watched the boy's eyes flutter to life. Just like all others, he slowly got up, rubbing his head, and began to look around. His pupils dilated as he focused on each of the strange men on the opposite side of the glass from him... His mouth opened, trying to speak, though the case was so incredibly insulated that not even a scream would be able to pierce through it. A benefit, to say the least.

The boy's focus then turned to the rot pile, and as if sensing the attention, the pile began to shudder. Fumes rising into the air, polluting the cage, causing the small boy to instinctually cover his mouth with his hands, before his eyes began to lull once more he was scared, his pleading eyes turned to the outside as a small film began to form over his pupils, a tear forming. Something everyone in this room had seen too often by now, it was like watching the same movie over and over again.

With a bored expression, the bearded man stared at the cage... Maybe, just maybe, this would be the one to bring salvation. Though, with each passing second, the boy's breathing grew heavier, and heavier... Before he collapsed. The rot pile oozed towards the boy's spasming body, before coating his hand.

"Dispose of him. Find one less... emotional." The man sighed, turning around, and leaving the room, just as quickly as he entered. The woman followed in a pursuit, waiting for the heavy door to slam shut behind her before she began to speak, though the man already knew what she was going to say.

"Rose, we can't keep doing this." The woman started, her long hair following close behind as each of her steps grew more aggressive, both to keep up with the man, as well as to convey her emotions. "When you said we were to do whatever it takes, I understood, but this..." she paused, looking back towards the room they both came from. "This is excessive."

"There's nothing we can do but continue forward...", Rose answered in the same bored tone he did before, a phrase he used constantly to explain himself. "If we don't stop this infestation before it breaks out, who knows what could happen, Kiri. One hundred... one thousand people is enough to justify our cause. We could be saving millions!", his tone growing more and more frustrated. This conversation, just as the tests before, were becoming standard, a repeat of the same lines, like a script to a badly written play.

"And what happens if we fail?", the woman asks, her voice slightly raspy. "What happens when-"

"We will not fail.", Rose stopped in his tracks, now making eye contact with the woman, Kiri. The two in a standstill of silence.

The hallways rang absolutely silent after that phrase. The two locked in direct eye contact for a total of 5 seconds, before Kiri let out an annoyed sigh, and started to walk ahead of Rose. Her footsteps, lighter, rang through the soulless halls, as they did before, but this time alone. Rose too began to take his first steps forward once more, before he was immediately interrupted by the shriek of metal grinding against metal. What were those fools doing back there?

Rose turned to the metallic doorway, and what his eyes laid upon shot fear through his mind. The doorway was completely open, no heavy metallic doors to block the hall from the testing chamber. Resonate heat began to pulsate from the room, as a blood curdling scream rang throughout the entire hall, causing Kiri to look back towards the chamber as well. Rose stood in stunned silence, as smoke began to fill the room, a roaring flame deafening the sounds of squelching meat. The glass cage completely shattered, iron bent into crude, jagged spikes. Floating above a man, there was the form of a radiant creature. The thing looked down to the man, a head researcher, and his head began to twist and contort. Bones splitting in half, cracking underneath the rumble of great fires, as the creature's head too began to slowly twist clockwise. The man then fell to the ground, choking and coughing on crimson blood, leaking from his mouth across the floor. The creature looked to Rose, its blindingly white body radiating all throughout the hall like a miniature sun, and his deep black eyes dilated, as he focused on the man at the end of the hall.

"Success.", Rose whispered, as a black flame hurled through the halls, breaking every and all of the gas powered lamps, causing heat to rise through the pipes, and travel to the surface, finding a great tank full of highly combustible oil.