An Eternal Love.

A chest under his arm, and the key to open it well hidden in his pocket, Artificer Aemon of the Hall sneaks out of Alessar’s Keep seeking even greater treasure to sate his unending greed.

His skeletal head makes him a pariah in the streets, but he could not care less: the enormous riches he bears makes those passerby’s who rudely stare nothing more than cockroaches in his eyes.

After a fortnight’s journey, Aemon arrives to the Brambles, a prosperous land that welcomes him with blossoming almond trees and pink lily flowers. Its King, Battle Mage Axel of the Canyon, is a jealous, stingy man, who keeps his wealth safely locked away in the famed and impenetrable royal tower vault.

The King’s wife dies giving birth to their only child, a beautiful girl named Conjurer Nori of the Brambles. Afraid of losing her as well, the king locks her up alongside the rest of his riches in the tower.

Nori is now a young woman, but her childhood was solitary; her only friends being her father’s trinkets and magic tomes, as well as those of imagination.

On a bright Spring afternoon, the sight of the blossoming Brambles moves Nori to recite a "poem" from her favorite book. Unwittingly, the poem turns out to be “Aphrodite's Heart: the Love Spell” that has the power to create a soulmate bond between the target and the first creature they see.

Dancing around the room, she ends the spell and finds herself in the mirror. Her reflection glows pink. Her hands shake. Her stomach growls. How did butterflies get inside her? What is this feeling?

BANG!

The window of her room explodes with a loud burst. She falls to the ground. Splinters fly across the room.

Squinting for the pain, Nori sees the most beautiful man emerge from the smoke. He climbs the window and graciously trips on the frame. He tumbles to the ground, elegantly bringing the bookcase down with him. Like a charming prince, he cracks his back and realigns the jawbone with the rest of his skeleton head. He is the wizard Nori always dreamed of.

Aemon, who broke into the vault with the intention of stealing the king’s most valuable possession, inadvertently succeeds.

With the king’s army on their tail, Aemon and Nori escape the Brambles, and after months of traveling, find respite in Moorville, a hidden village of farmers and shepherds, with a couple of shops and a tavern.

Aemon’s purse buys them a wonderful house, and Nori’s charm buys them the affection of the townfolk. They give birth to Azazel, a beautiful baby boy, whose golden skull shimmers of a red-yellow light.

Aemon can finally enjoy his riches. On Azazel’s sixteenth birthday, Aemon celebrates by building an Obelisk to rise above everything in sight. But the symbol of Aemon’s love for his son is also the cause of their doom.

With the Obelisk to guide them, the King and his army, led by Sorcerer Zaros of the Capital, finally find Moorville. They must rescue the princess, kill the thief who stole her, and destroy their monstrous child.

Aemon, Nori, and their son, Necromancer Azazel of the Obelisk, are trapped. The kingsmen blockade the village and tighten the noose quickly. Aemon knows it is just a matter of minutes until they find them.

Aemon refuses let Nori live in chains. And will protect his son at all costs. So he slips his hand deep into his pocket, where he finds... the key to Alessar’s chest.

It is time to turn everything to nothing. He casts the Forbidden Spell. Twists the key in the padlock. The lid flies open.

An explosion of Sacred Flame blinds him. After that, oblivion.

When the mushroom cloud of dust settles on the ruins of old Moorville, the ashen corpses of town-folk and soldiers alike rise into their new life, reborn with powers before unimaginable. Their souls have been freed from the chains of mortality to fulfill their true destinies, evolved into their true selves.

An army of souls gathers around the crater where the village once was, seeking the wizard who freed them, but all they find is...

...a Rose on a Grave.

As they stare at the flower, an invisible presence breaches their dark hearts.

One by one they kneel before the Rose, swearing loyalty until the end of times.

Within the Rose flows the lifeblood of a wizard who made the ultimate sacrifice of both flesh and gold to protect those whom he loved.

Entered by: 0xa5d0…8E76 and preserved on chain (see transaction)