The Occupied Territories, Maramanakama, the forest outside Tolina.

Heat raged all across the battlefield as the Imperial army furiously used all of its strength to prevent the fire from engulfing them.

 The seemingly endless sea of flames, the h.e.l.l-like heat and the raging ocean of fire, turned even the grey rock which formed the bedrock of the forest, red from heat.

This huge tug of war between the inferno and the army was a testament, to both the limitless power of Mother Nature and to the training and quality of the Empire’s soldiers, both struggling to gain the upper hand in this endeavor and both where having a hard time with the other.

And although the struggle only began a few minutes ago, to the brave souls trapped in this h.e.l.l on earth, the peaceful forest and it’s cool breeze, the relaxing smell of mountain plants and sweet music of birds and the sounds of other mountain creatures, seemed to have been a lifetime ago.

It felt like countless eons pa.s.sed in that sea of fire and blinding light, until an even greater light was seen from the heavens, for as Bartolommeo and countless other soldiers looked to the sky they could see the incoming bombardment from the navy.

“Sir, incoming transmission from the Fleet!”

“Read it my boy!” Bartolommeo said happily as he watched the incoming bombardment.

“Complements of Admiral Cullen, we have launched the freeze bombs as you requested.”

“Freeze bombs…………..what freeze bombs? I ordered fire bombs!” Bartolommeo said in a panic.

“But sir, isn’t that a good thing? Cold stops fire, doesn’t it?”

“Yes, but this whole forest is on a rock plateau, which the fire has no doubt heated up! And what’s incoming is ice cold weaponry, composed out of arctic air, frozen water and frost spells, do you know what happen when you trough water on a red hot rock?!”

 BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!

The freeze bombs impacted the ground, extinguishing a great part of the fire, but is also created a small tremor that continued to grow bigger and bigger, until a great earthquake emerged.

“The rock breaks up like paper mache!” Bartolommeo shouted as the ground beneath them shook and great cracks began to appear beneath their feat, opening great chasms in the ground, that where seemingly bottomless in their depths and appeared to lead to the inferno itself. 

“d.a.m.ned forest, d.a.m.ned fire, d.a.m.ned bombs and d.a.m.ned communications error!” Bartolommeo shouted as a great and constant cracking noise was heard, he looked behind him and what he saw filled him with dread and after decade in the military this was not an easy thing to do! For the sight that he saw, was that of the mountain breaking in two and an avalanched of rock now poured towards the Imperial army.

“d.a.m.nED MOUNTAIN!” he shouted as he looked at the great horror, which was hurling towards him and the army.

“Sir, urgent message from the head earth mage! It warns of a priority one danger!”

“What could possibly more dangerous than fire to our front and a rock slide at our backs?!”

“It……..It……..It says the mountain’s not a mountain.” the lieutenant replied as he looked at the last word on the report………. he struggled to try to say the rest of the message, but his lips failed him from shock.

Bartolommeo saw this and despite the fire that was starting to breakthrough their defenses and the rock slide that was crushing their read, he paused for a minute and asked in a calm, but panicked voice.

 “What is it then?”

The lieutenant looked at him, with the eyes of a sentient which had just seen h.e.l.l itself, and with his voice half failing him he uttered:

“It’s……….it’s………..it’s a dormant volcano……………and it’s waking up!”

BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!

A great explosion was heard as a ma.s.sive body of ash and dust was hurled into the air, forming the dreaded mushroom cloud of death. After that horrid image, came the great rain of fire and brimstone from the awakened volcano.  The mountain then poured out of its mouth the dreaded tidal wave of lava that made its way down the slopes, towards the imperial army, incinerating everything in its path.

“This is General Bartolommeo! All uni-”

A great piece of red hot rock fell next to his spider wolf jeep, flipping it on its sides, preventing the general from finishing his sentence and badly injuring him.

“d.a.m.ned………….volcano……………” General Bartolommeo said after regaining consciousness, but with great pains coursing throughout his body, as he struggled to stay conscious, he was likely bleeding internally.

“Lieutenant, get the knife beneath your seat.” he ordered but no reply came, he turned and saw the Lieutenant or rather what was left of his bloodied, mangled corpse was, hanging from his seat, the only thing preventing the now deceased soldier from falling to the ground was his seatbelt.

At that site, Bartolommeo started saying a prayer to the Creator, or rather his people’s interpretation of his name and will.

“Blessed GamaraBatchu, receive the soul of Lieutenant-” he tried to continue but he just realized that he didn’t knew anything about the lieutenant. He had been on his staff for years, had died just now, and Bartolommeo didn’t know what was he like, what he wanted to achieve, his hopes, his dreams, he didn’t even know his name!

Like the countless other pour souls that were dragged into war, another one perished. Hurt, alone, and seemingly forgotten and with the incoming magma, it was very likely that not even the ashes from his bones would remain for a proper burial.

“All that talk, all those actions you did old man, acting like you cared about your troops and yet…………………….and yet you didn’t even knew the name of one of them.”

He felt his head becoming lighter as his consciousness started to fade, but by then he didn’t care anymore.

He looked at his clock and realized that he had been unconscious for quite some time now, for it was now 00:00 Local time, and from the sounds and smells coming from both the mountain and the forest he wondered what would get him first, the fire, the landslide or the magma.

But at this point it mattered not, for in the end death was death.

“d.a.m.n the mountain…….. d.a.m.n the rebels……..d.a.m.n the navy…….d.a.m.n the army…….. and………and  ……………d.a.m.n me.” he muttered as he once more lost consciousness and closed his eyes.

 That is a sense was a blessing, for around him, what was left of his leaderless and shattered army broke rank and tried to escape.

Some managed, most didn’t, but all around the battlefield the terrible cry of agony was heard as the lucky sentients died from suffocation, the unlucky ones burned alive, as the world around them was engulfed in a mist of flame, rock, molten magma and ash that started blocking the sun.