11/01/2025
In a memory, Markus was on the trail of the leader of a new upstart militant group in Highcroft known as the Dawn Chasers, Shala Bast. He had tracked her to a battlefield outside the Ruins of Caern in an effort to discover some big move she'd been planning to make.
Upon finding her, she was adamant about getting word out about her organization, but Markus was drawn to a figure on the battlefield filled with destroyed undead. This figure, a Paladin, sat atop the massacre and scoffed at the notion that Shala Bast's Dawn Chasers had won the day.
When Markus questions the Paladin, she drew his attention to a massive undead giant, which she had slewn while the Dawn Chasers cleaned up the small zombies and skeletons who were part of the fight.
The woman, Lady Milano, claimed she killed the giant, and had other places to be, opening a golden portal to elsewhere. Markus saw a man through the portal, Lady Milano's mentor and teacher, Riftkeeper Endymion, who Lady Milano joined through the portal, disappearing.
Back in the present, Ezekiel spoke to Zeb about leaving the group to go to Harrow Hall, formerly known as Venture Ridge, to lead the Harrow Guard while Zeb worked with Star and Scale to recruit for the group and set things right around Vault.
Ezekiel said his goodbyes to everyone and set off, but not before Markus gave him a journal from his grandfather which described a ritual to forge the darkness within him into a light he could wield.
Before visiting Cloudthinner, Elowyn told Markus that Gift was in Othrund and that the two should talk.
Using Elowyn's mysterious connection with Gift, the group tracked him to an observatory owned by a halfling.
Within Gift, surrendered himself, but Markus merely questioned Gift's intentions. Preferring to be called Talus, he explained that he had been sent to Vault to clean up after the Constellation War, but had arrived thousands of years too late for some reason.
Because of this, he knew another Constellation War was inevitable and the people of Vault would be the ones to suffer in a war where gods fought gods, but neither side could be defeated permanently. And this cycle would continue endlessly, resetting civilization every couple thousand years.
To this end, Talus wished to consume the gods with the Divinaxiom, breaking the cycle. This is exactly the premise of Omnia's plans she'd expressed to the group back in Caim.
The group decided to tell Talus where Gideon Seuthe could be found, and with him, the Divinaxiom. Markus protested this decisions, but it was done, and Talus left.
Outside the observatory, the group came upon a battle in the streets of Othrund in which the forces of Eve Galdarion fought the forces of Parliament, and there were dead civilizians among the casualties.
Dulce had finally seen enough and motioned for the group to follow her to the Acropolis.
Upon arriving, Dulce fought against a group of Parliament guards, killing them and destroying some of the Parliament building in the process.
She used some of the souls of the dead soldiers to empower Star and Scale, giving them a seed of darkness that would soon extinguish.
The Lady's Grimm felt her power and found Dulce then, demanding she return to Eve to set things right. Dulce refused, and the two fought. During the battle, Star and Scale made their way to Cloudthinner's lair, allowing the two super powers to clash.
Within Cloudthinner's lair, Zeb and Eden, being Vadian, were able to give the salute of the Devout, which seemed to spark recognition in Cloudthinner.
As Cloudthinner explained he served Eve and only her, and that they should leave or be removed, Lady Milano portaled in, having been hired by Parliament to remove the threat of Cloudthinner permanently with their grip on him now all but diminished,
Star and Scale tried to forestall the fight that Lady Milano very well could win by trying to bring Cloudthinner back to what they believed to be his true self. Elowyn was able to locate a trapped consciousness within his mind, and with the help of Markus, shattered the prison it was being kept in.
Alongside Eden and Zeb pouring their power into reforming Cloudthinner's body, all empowered by the darkness Dulce had given them, the group was able to bring Cloudthinner back from undeath enough that Lady Milano could then expend her power into healing the Elder Dragon to his ful former glory.
Lady Milano stepped back through a portal, considering her contract fulfilled, and the group stepped atop Cloudthinner's head and burst out the canopy of Othrund into the skies over Core Vandal.