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The story so far: The war has practically halted after the dragon battle ended in catastrophe. Delezar was killed by Verdemis. Aalok and Elessa are in a dream state of some sort after going for the armor. We found out that Aalok is actually the former King Atrelegis. The cave collapsed in on Verdemis and the other heroes. Not sure what happened to verdemis but the G'Dar is holding up the debris and the others are trying to dig their way out.
This issue begins with Elessa and Aalok re-emerging from the dream world. Essentially, Aalok has been living in limbo since he died. Rather than passing on, Elessa experienced his history and brought him back to the present world.
Aalok's only real thought besides still anguished over all the suffering he has caused is to confront Malagen once and for all.
The Datarans are having no luck now. Still the obvious power in this war but Shim'Tar falling and taking out half their force as well as giving the mortals time to regroup was bad for their plans. But things are about to get worse. It seems Astaroth has made his move!
The demons finally arrive and attack the vampires. Malagen assumes they think he has the Darklyte Armor, even though he does not.
Meanwhile, the band of heroes trapped in the cave finally make it to the light but are confronted by hostile elves. Again. The elf captain, part of the party now, jumps forward to sort things out. Demands to be taken to the queen. So they are.
Things go a bit better with the elves this time however. The Queen is leading the entire army this time and has joined the war. It seems the boats got word back to them and convinced them to join the fight. With the vampires fighting the demons they look at this as a good chance to regroup with the mortal forces.
During Elessa and Aalok's conversation we find out more of King Atrelegis and his love for the dryad being forbidden. More importantly we find out he is actually still a vampire. The Darklyte Armor has returned his consciousness and keeps the thirst for blood at bay but he is still being tormented.
After some more chit chat, Aalok makes clear he has no desire to lead his people and his only goal is to end Malagen's reign. Someone is following them and confronts Aalok. It is Verdemis! He survived the collapse and has been following in curiosity. Why has he not killed the elf?
Verdemis calls him a traitor and wants to fight. Aalok gives him a couple chances to back down. He doesn't want to fight Verdemis, just Malagen. But Verdemis wants to fight because they are warriors!
And the issue concludes before the action starts.
This was another forces gathering kind of issue. As well as more backstory for Aalok. Things are getting interesting in the war front. At first it seemed the Datarans would be unstoppable, but now they are taking some heavy losses. With the demons attacking and the Eastern Kingdom forces regaining their footing as well as adding the elves to the mix, can the Dataran's once overwhelming force regain its dominance? I don't think vampires can turn demons into vampires after all so it isn't like if they were fighting humans they could just rebuild their force by turning the humans to vampires. And to top it off, Aalok has the Darklyte Armor and is coming for Malagen, just as the prophecy foretold.
Of all the vampire characters I think I've grown a bit fond of Verdemis also. He seems rather practical for the most part. Not a drama queen like some. Just kind of hanging with his pal, the prince. Playing with his pet dragon. Now he lost his pet and his closest friend! Poor guy.
With Verdemis attacking Aalok now, what can we expect of this fight? Verdemis has been shown to be pretty powerful, but obviously not as strong as Aalok, even without the Darklyte Armor. So in the next issue I suspect we'll get to see the power of the armor. But will Aalok spare Verdemis? Or give him the warrior's death he wants?
To Be Continued!
As a side note. I recently asked about tribes and tags. So I'm going to add a couple of the general topic tags here. Maybe some neoxians, proofofbrains, and palnetians like comic books? 😄