The man was in fact the king. King Nyrond the 27th to be exact and Eric was his bastard child. The result of a drunken night out, merely two weeks after his wedding, when he was but a brash prince and every poor village girl swooned before him. To avoid any difficulties, both political and at home with his queen he had to put the child away. Not so far as to completely abandon him, yet not close enough to be found out. But someone did find out, for the secrets of man are as an open book to the demon underworld. And this is how the Father Abbot learned about the king’s bastard child and a plan hatched in his evil mind.

Eric’s wish to be rescued never came to pass. They came in at night several weeks after the plague began – a heavyset man in dark robes and an elf. Without a word they gagged him, bound his hands and feet and carried him off. He awoke, tied to an altar with an old scary man hovering above him, chanting evil words. Eric was terrified but not nearly as much as in the next minute – for that was when the demon arrived.

Weak by demon-standards, the imp found the boy’s psyche easy to control and subdue. It wasn’t even a battle, the demon thought as he settled into the shell of Eric’s body. In a second the boy’s will was gone. In another the Imp learned everything about the young prince. And in the third it realized it was bound to our world and that the old man looking at him and cackling in mad glee was his new master. It didn’t really care – almost everything is better than being an imp in the underworld. There it was but a lowly servant and a slave. A disposable scout or fodder at times of war – not even a real soldier. On our world however, the imp had a chance to grow, become stronger and wreak havoc and terror wherever it went. Perfect! The fact that the old man himself did not realized he was being controlled by a demon lord made this all the more exciting. The imp, or “Eric”, was curious to see what this chaotic world had in store for him…

Days before Soran’s transformation into Brother Justice was complete, more of the Father Abbot’s plan was revealed. In Triel, the town closest to the Albian Monastery of Dalanos, a strange sickness started spreading. People stopped eating, stopped caring, stopped thinking. They shambled along in the streets, their bodies slowly withering and decaying as their apathy grew. Eventually they would die but some dark force kept them going, waiting for the Father Abbot’s commands. It is believed that the old evil man wanted to create an army he could use to launch an attack against the high king of Nyrondria. The walking corpses could distract the king’s army long enough for the Father Abbot to unleash his full force on the land.

Among the ranks of the Albian Order, a Master is highest in rank after the Father Abbot. All of the masters of the order were in league with the malicious old man, all but one. Master Jonas was a true believer of Dalanos and he realized what the Father Abbot was doing in Triel. Going against the Father Abbot’s wishes, he departed the monastery with two of his students and went to Triel to try and heal its dying people.

Enraged, the Father Abbot called upon the newly trained Brother Justice to exact the church’s wrath upon the disobedient master. He decreed the three as heretics and ordered Soran to go after them and bring back their heads. Since Master Jonas knew about the fashioning of Brother Justice and probably anticipated his eminent attack, and since Soran’s training was never tested, the old man wanted to increase the mission’s chances of success. He released Dymir, the renegade elf, from the monastery’s dungeon and left him in the care of Soran. Should Dymir try to flee, Brother Justice was instructed to eliminate him as well. But the elf had nowhere to go. He was lost, alone and filled with self-loathing for the murder he has committed. And so he followed Soran’s lead and did as he was told to do.

Together they reached Triel and were ambushed by Master Jonas and his disciples. They were captured and tied up. Master Jonas tried to reason with Soran, showing him the evil that was the Father Abbot. But he was addressing Brother Justice. Soran was only there by name, by some distant memory. All that was left was the Father Abbot’s will – nothing else mattered.

And so the elven hands burst in flames, scorching the ropes that bound them. And the brother of justice howled in rage, hatred and loathing and the ropes around him broke. Barely a whisper was heard as the two disciples were slain and a great battle between Master, Brother and Mage commenced.

But the two proved far superior to the Master standing before them and before long he was dead. They beheaded the corpses and left the bodies in an alley.

That night one of the Masters was tasked with building a pyre and conducting a dark ritual. He was then ordered to throw the heretics’ heads into the blaze. The next morning that master was found dead, the scorched remains of his head visible among the ashes. Master Jonas’ head and body were never recovered.