While Nogryl and Aryon rode towards the capital of the kingdom, Nal'zuk's army plundered what was left of Lindenrow, and from what they salvaged, they forged the weapons and armors for the Morkaag's clan.
Living beneath the mountain, mining and forging for most of their lives, the ur'gluns of his clan were very adept at smithing and crafting, while Morkaag's followers were the practitioners of dark magic who enchanted their weapons before rushing into the battle to claim their promised death and be born anew in the afterlife as the gorugolm, the angels of chaos. The unity of cultures of the clans provided the both with proper weaponry and armour, as well as the sinister enchantments.
Morkaag was left to rule the temporary camp that settled in the besieged town, while Nal'zuk left on his quest to the underworld, accompanied by a small troop of armored guards who brought with them the slaves, locked in thick black chains tied to the dark iron rings around their necks.
As they approached the entrance to the cave from which the ur'glun warchief knew the paths to the world beneath, they could hear the rustling of leaves, and abruptly, a tall, cloaked figure appeared in front of them, and the whole convoy was stopped.
"Nuula?“ The ur'glun spoke.
"How have you guessed?“ she replied and removed her hood, revealing her human face, leaving her old friend surprised.
"What have they done to you?!“ Nal'zuk asked in a worried voice.
"You look like a human! Are you blind in the dark, like a chicken?“ he added, as the guards burst into laughter.
"No, fool! The power was given to me by the human pea-brain, brought to me before my feet, a power that will change the course of history in our favor!“
"The power?“ He asked, and she replied,
"My appearance is nothing but an illusion; knowledge of the spell can spread all across the underworld! We can raise armies of gorugolm infiltrators to gather valuable information about the human troop movement and execute tasks such as assassinations of the high-ranking officials! And I can finally be accepted back from my exile and prove myself worthy to the cause!“ But after her speech, the ur'gluns just scratched their heads in confusion.
"Alright! If it's truly so great to be able to become a chicken, come with us; we are heading in that direction anyway. Nal'zuk clearly did not understand the importance of the discovery. He was clueless about the functioning of human society; all that he saw in humans was a bunch of meat bags, some of them covered in iron scales, and the rest hiding behind the fortified walls around the towns.
Nuula joined them, and the convoy continued through the dark woodland into the caves and deeper towards the underworld, where no light of day could be seen and the cold breeze swirled the misty air.
They traveled through many caverns where the droplets echoed through the darkness beneath the stone as they fell into the underground lakes and springs, through the silent tunnels where the silence was broken only by the footsteps and the occasional howl of an unfortunate soul,
and deeper through the foul air of underground forests of glowing mushrooms and through the nests of enormous arachnids that lived in the bowels of the earth, cutting their way through the webs while frightening their makers with flames,
and far beneath the mountain chain around Nal'Gorah, to the heart of the black mountain itself.
As they reached their destination, a large hall could be seen in front of an enormous iron gate, greater than most of the buildings that they've ever seen. It was far in the realm beneath where no living man ever laid his foot, and the whispers spoke loudly in the darkness.
The entire group stopped, halting their slaves and awaiting in front of the gates as the frightened men and women trembled in fear and cold. Nal'zuk went in front of the group and approached the gate, and as he yelled,
"Open the gates!“ the entire construction slowly opened, with a loud rattling of heavy chains. The gates were opened ajar, slightly more than it is required for a group of men to pass, and then they stopped.
Behind a gate could be seen a light of a large underground city, and from the gate, a large armored warrior emerged, riding an armored beast that resembled a reptile, significantly larger than an ordinary horse, with many rows of sharp teeth and two large horns like that of a ram, but much sharper and covered in scales. Its tail was laid with thick black bristles, and underneath its black armor, it had thick scales almost comparable to those of the dragons. Its eyes were yellow, and its iris was like that of a lizard.
On top of the creature, the rider was clad in thick black armor made of valkrulnal, and he was almost two and a half meters tall, and behind him, a small group of well-armed gorugolm, clad in the cursed black steel, and with shields that slightly resembled the horned heads of the dragons with their shape.
"What is it that you want?" The rider yelled, and his booming voice echoed through the cavern.
"I, Nal'zuk, the ur'glun warchief, require of you to state who I am talking to!“ He proclaimed as the light that came from behind the gate revealed his scarred face. And as he yelled, the silence prevailed, and his armored guards stood closer to each other, as if they awaited to be rained upon with the hail of arrows. But not much later, the silence was broken as the rider replied,
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"General Karg'ra, one of the leaders of the black legions of Gorugolm in service of the dark lord!“ And as he spoke, the armored ur'gluns beside Nal'zuk fell on their knees.
"With my allegiance sworn to the dark god from the abyss, I bring prisoners to exchange for troops, in celebration of our victory against the Lindenrow and its garrison, twenty young human women and five men!“ Nal'zuk replied.
"The dark lord is aware of your accomplishments, Warchief! Let them come. The general yelled, and the warchief smiled with a wicked grin.
"What are you waiting for! Release the prisoners!“ He screamed at his troops, and they quickly did his bidding, and with the released prisoners, Nuula walked towards the gate, hoping to end her centuries of exile with the discovery that she made.
And as they passed through the doorway, the gate was slowly closed behind them with a loud clash, but not before a large group of a hundred warriors emerged. As they approached, they all lined up in ranks, seemingly by instinct, in front of Nal'zuk.
The warriors were not gorugolm nor ur'glun, nor were they men. As he inspected them, he saw an army of humanoids, about the size of the humans, armored with black iron armor and armed with weapons of the same material. They were significantly smaller than the gorugolm, yet larger than the ur'gluns. Their skin was gray and covered in ash, and their eyes were orange like the eyes of an ur'glun, yet their facial features resembled those of the men, but with sharp teeth and flatter noses that almost merged with their face, thin black lips, and with many hard growths on their skin.
They had very little hair on their bodies, and their build was muscular, like that of the most renowned warriors. Their weaponry consisted of plate armor with many scales made of black iron, long spears, and iron shields with a sharp blade on their right side, conveniently placed for an aggressive fighting style that involved both a shield and the main hand weapon, and their sidearm was a black curved sword resembling the ones that Nal'zuk had, designed to cut through the flesh, with a tip capable of piercing the armor.
The creatures in question were known as the Rugols, the hybrids born of the human mothers and the ur'gluns. They were bred to serve as the soldiers for their dark lord, yet their lifespan was limited, much like that of the ordinary men, so they were much less valued than the immortal gorugolm.
They had only one lifetime to spend it training and giving it in battle for the honorable death, so most of their daily activities consisted of preparations for battle, discipline, and combat training that made them as efficient warriors as the mortal race could possibly be.
The ones that were not considered fit to become the warriors were used as the workforce in the mines, willingly mining and forging for the common cause, so one day the dwellers of the underworld might reclaim the world for themselves and overthrow the god that they deemed a tyrant.
The ones that excelled in combat were often marked with tattoos that represented their virtues.
Rugol was a vile word, and their race was considered inferior to the gorugolm; it could roughly translate into human-beast, even if more accurately "gol“ translated into less than "glun", which meant people, but they never cared for such concepts, for their only purpose was to serve in battle and earn their glory because everyone was equal in death when only the deeds remained.
The rugols were branded when they were considered ready by their immortal masters, so each one of the soldiers had a brand on the back of their neck.
Rugol women were valued much less than the men due to their inferiority in regards to the physical strength that was much required on the battlefield, but since the grand majority of the rugols were infertile, they were often trained to serve as archers, a role considered less honorable among their Immortal master race, for it lacked the opportunity to prove in close combat. Despite that, all of the gorugolm were trained in the use of bow and arrow.
"Three rugol archers are equal in value to two rugol warriors.“ The gorugolm generals often said, and such was the distribution of the rations.
"They are already creating rugols in mass numbers.“ Nal'zuk thought as he examined his new army,
"Those soldiers cannot live forever, and they spend the valuable resources; this must mean that the large-scale conflict is slowly preparing, else the gorugolm would not be doing this." The thought ran through his mind as he walked towards the surface with the army of the beasts whose purpose of life was only to kill, but his mind quickly wandered off, thinking about what will happen to Nuula, as the vision of the gates closing appeared before his eyes. Regardless of that, the strongest feeling that he felt inside his dark heart was the thirst for vengeance, the rage that boiled through his veins, and the lust for power. And now he had everything he required for his dark ambition that slowly unfolded before his eyes.
