Legends of Cydrisia: The Reign of the Soul Eater

By Joshua Storm

The dark titan, Cephius, and five of his six children, the demon princess of Shivar have been sealed in their fiery realm by the gods of the realm. This leaves the gods weak, too weak to continue the fight against the darkness. So they retreat into the heavens to the celestial palace where they will recover.

Mankind must continue the fight against prince Gregormere, the soul eater, and his dark legions, but with the retreat of their gods, many lose hope. The races retreat and hide, all but one. They will stay and fight to death. They will revolt against the darkness like a pillar of light in the storm. They will be led by a man, a warrior, who will be named the champion of the son god valor. He will unite the races of mankind and show the seed that will bring about the end of the soul eater’s reign. An end to the darkness seeking to devour the realm.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Release date: Nov 10, 2023
• ISBN: 9781685628413

Joshua Storm

Joshua Storm grew up in a small town in Illinois with a loving family. At an early age, he became fascinated by Greek mythology, ancient warfare, and other cultures. This love of the ancient world blossomed into a love of Fantasy. At the age of twenty-five, he began creating his own world, a world filled with heroes, and legends; a world he would name Cydrisia.

Book preview

About the Author

Joshua Storm grew up in a small town in Illinois with a loving family. At an early age, he became fascinated by Greek mythology, ancient warfare, and other cultures. This love of the ancient world blossomed into a love of Fantasy.

At the age of twenty-five, he began creating his own world, a world filled with heroes, and legends; a world he would name Cydrisia.

Dedication

For my son, the reason for my being, and for my mom, who’s a queen and a warrior. None of this would be possible without you. I love you both.

Copyright Information ©

Joshua Storm 2023

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher.

Any person who commits any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

Ordering Information

Quantity sales: Special discounts are available on quantity purchases by corporations, associations, and others. For details, contact the publisher at the address below.

Publisher’s Cataloging-in-Publication data

Storm, Joshua

Legends of Cydrisia

ISBN 9781685628406 (Paperback)

ISBN 9781685628413 (ePub e-book)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2023911301

www.austinmacauley.com/us

First Published 2023

Austin Macauley Publishers LLC

40 Wall Street, 33rd Floor, Suite 3302

New York, NY 10005

USA

[e-mail]

[phone]

Acknowledgment

First and foremost, I thank God for this great opportunity. Thank you to my mom for her patience, and for all of the time she put into finding a publisher who believed in the realm of Cydrisia.

Thank you to my production team at Austin Macauley Publishers, and everyone responsible for making this book possible.

Last but not the least, thank you to my brother, Bobo. Your feedback made this book, and the books that will follow, what they are. I love you, brother.

Prologue

A Battle of Titans

Throughout the universe, there are nine material realms.

Each realm was created by the One Great Eternal, creator of all beings. But, in these realms, the Great Eternal sent titan gods to oversee mankind and maintain balance throughout the worlds.

This is the story of one of those worlds, in which balance did not come easily, and the world fell into darkness, nearly for eternity.

***

They fell from the heavens, two great serpents, coiled together like bolts of lightning. They were titan gods in their rawest forms. The light was Cydrisius, and the darkness was Cephius. They were two halves of a whole, for without one, the other could not exist.

They crashed into the ground, and stood up in the form of giants, hundreds of feet tall. They slammed into each other, locking into a grapple as the inhabitants of the world fled from the battle, seeking cover.

The titans pushed against one another, each evenly matched, their power infinite. Cydrisius separated from his brother, breaking free of the grapple; and he summoned a ball of searing, white, hot fire in his palm and closed his fist. Then he threw his body forward, twisting his hips, and smashed his giant fist into Cephius’s face.

The dark titan god answered with an equally powerful blow, his fist, covered in dark energy and slammed his fist into the light titan god, throwing him to the ground.

As Cydrisius landed on the ground, giant crevices opened up, spreading across the land. Over the course of the battle, these crevices filled with the two titan gods’ sweat and formed the oceans, while their golden ichor formed life in the great bodies of water.

Cydrisius came to his feet, and hurled a great ball of energy at Cephius, which the dark titan god blocked, and threw it aside. The energy rained down, like fiery comets, and formed the mountains, the great amounts of energy creating the veins of precious ores and metals deep inside the mountains.

It was mankind, who brought the battle between the titan gods to an end. They prayed, crying out with their voices, hearts, and minds, until the titan gods heard them. Millions were caught in the great bodies of water, and were drowning, or were crushed by the fiery comets of energy that rained down from the sky. Both the titan gods came to a halt, and retreated, after seeing the damage they were doing to the realm they had been sent to protect.

Cydrisius spread his white, feathered wings and flew into the heavens. It was there, among the clouds and stars, that he made a great palace, harnessing the energy of the universe to create the Celestial Palace, the place where all of the souls who lived their lives doing what was right would go. But those who lived their lives doing evil, they were sent far below, to the realm known as Shivar.

Cephius sought out darkness when the battle between the two titan gods had come to a halt. He burrowed deep into the ground, nearly to the planet’s core, and there he created his palace of fire and rock. He summoned creatures of shadow and sent them to bring the sinners to him, reaping the souls of man. Then he tortured them, purifying their souls by forcing them to feel the weight of their sins in the pits of fire.

Mankind grew to fear the creatures of darkness and they strived to live their lives right. Clans grew as time passed, and they became great cities, and then civilizations. But, as resources began to dwindle and civilizations could no longer feed their people, crime and war became commonplace.

During those dark days, entire cities were burned, their people slaughtered for nothing more than food. Entire races were put to the sword, erased from history, sometimes enslaved.

Cydrisius could hear the suffering of mankind, their blood crying from the ground where it had been spilled. The souls of the damned cried out from Shivar, begging for mercy. And in life, the titan knew many had no choice but to steal food, or starve to death…Some had been forced to kill, they deserved mercy in death, if not in life. So, he united the seven greatest races of mankind, giving a piece of his power to a chosen member of each of the seven races. This made them gods and united the races, stopping the wars of mankind. But, Cephius didn’t see this as mercy, for mankind was evil; they must pay.

The dark titan god struck out at the weakened Cydrisius, and the blow shattered the titan of light into pieces. Shards of immense power were scattered all over the world, and the realm was thrown into darkness, the sun, ceasing to rise.

Cephius sent his creatures of darkness out into the world, commanding them to reap the souls of mankind and leave no man alive, for they were all unworthy of life. But, the seven gods wouldn’t let the world fall into darkness; they rose up to protect mankind, and gave them the runic language of magic to fight the shadow creatures.

Cephius watched, angrily, as his creatures were destroyed and mankind survived, so he sought out a new way to punish them. He sent madness, plagues, diseases, and famines out on the world. He promised mankind wealth, power, and immortality if they would forsake their gods, and worship him. Millions died, some forsook their gods, and those, he made into his generals. Those who went mad, he gave immortality. They became known as demons, and they lost all sense of right, from wrong. They lived to cause suffering on the world, raiding villages, raping the women, eating the flesh of the children, and reaping mankind’s souls for their dark deities to devour. Over time, the creatures became unrecognizable, their features distorted by the darkness inside of them.

Despite the gods’ efforts in their war against the darkness, they couldn’t stop the dark titan and his dark legions. ’They were forced to retreat, doing their best to get mankind to safety, but it was hopeless, until Valor, the human god of the sun, found one of the shards of the shattered titan god.

Valor used the power in the shard and his own power over the sun to create a race of immortal warriors.

They came down from the heavens, the sky opening up for the first time since Cydrisius was shattered. The immortal warriors were surrounded by auras of fire, their armor, shining like molten gold. They carried great, glittering shields, that glittered like diamonds, the face of their shields encircled with runes engulfed in blue and white flames. They wielded swords of crystal, the inside of the blades, vessels, swirling orange, yellow, and red flames that shot out of the tips of the warriors’ swords to incinerate legions of demons, and shadow creatures. Mankind called the race of immortal warriors the Sky dancers, for their great, majestic mounts. They were griffons—giant, winged beasts with the body, rear legs, and tail of a lion and the head, talons, front legs, and wings of an eagle.

Valor took to calling them the Vali, the sentinels of the sky, and with the great warriors by his, and the gods’ side, they managed to defeat the dark titan god, and five of the six Shivarian demon Princes. Only ashes remained of their legions, and the gods forced them into Shivar, where they used their power to seal Cephius, and five of the Princes of Shivar inside an impenetrable gate, blocking their exit, trapping them in the fiery realm.

The defeat of the dark titan god, and five of his children, along with their legions, was a huge victory, but when the final Shivarian Demon Prince, the Soul Eater, advanced with the full force of his legions, the gods were forced to retreat, the Vali Legions were destroyed, and mankind was forced to hide. The gods had used the bulk of their power to seal Shivar off from the realm of Cydrisia.

The gods disappeared, vowing to return when they had recovered the power to continue the fight, and in their absence, many of the races lost hope.

The orcs built ships, and sailed off into the far north.

The dwarves built ships, and fled, but remained close to Ardenia, settling in the mountainous region of Kyral, it’s land rich in precious ores and metals, which the dwarves would use to create the greatest weapons, and armor in the world.

The Fae, or fairy kind, would follow the dwarves, and settle on the northern side of Kyral. Their goddess, Nakata, would build her home there, living in secret with her race, leaving many of the races to think that the Fae were eradicated in the war.

Giants would scatter throughout the world, their race being one of solitude.

The elves, one of the two largest races, remained close. They traveled through a narrow pass to the west, that was a league in length, only ten feet wide, from wall to wall. This gave the elves an advantage, for the demons could only come through two to three at a time, shoulder to shoulder, making it hard for them to invade. The elves built their home in the land to the far West, the land that their goddess, Vala, goddess of the moon, had called home before she was chosen as the goddess of her race. She had lived with her companion, Pawa, a lioness, in the Silver Forest. It was a forest of silver trees that, when harvested, could be used to create strong, unbreakable weapons, and armor.

The humans, the largest race of mankind, vowed to remain in Ardenia. They refused to retreat from the enemy, a move that nearly served as their extinction. Many clans hid in the Bloodstone Mountains, or in the far East. But, as the demons burned village after village, one clan came forward, led by a warrior named Merciah Thul. Their bravery would earn them the name, the Sons of Valor. Their skill in war, and their devotion to their god, would make them the first order of paladins to exist. And, as for the warrior that would lead them against the legions of darkness, he would become legendary for bringing King Brighton, the dwarven king, who united the thirteen dwarven clans, to Ardenia. They would build a wall from the northern coast to the Horzon Desert in the far south, and Merciah would assemble an army to push the last of the Shivarian Princes back, and sow the seed of the Soul Eater’s fall, and banishment back to Shivar.

This is the story of Merciah Thul, and the order of Paladins he led, the Lionheart Army he assembled, and the many races and heroes that came together to bring the Soul Eater’s end, such as Lilith, the child goddess of nature, and prophecy, goddess of seers, and all who were gifted with foresight had predicted.

Chapter 1

Battle Tested

Merciah made his way through the camp, his body weighed down by exhaustion from the fighting. The screams of his men being ripped apart by demons haunted his mind. He could still smell their pyres burning; the poisoned wood they had been forced to use for the pyres, mixed with the putrid smell of burning flesh…He would remember every night. But now, he listened to the heart-breaking cries of the newly widowed…They weighed heavily on his mind, filling him with guilt, for they had entrusted the lives of their husbands to him. He was tasked with leading them into battle, and bringing them home, alive. But, this time, he couldn’t even bring their corpses home, for there had been too many to carry.

With the guilt and exhaustion weighing heavily on him, Merciah made his way to King Brighton’s hall, which was more of a tavern than anything else. He heard a drunken ballad as he neared the wooden door, the voices of the dwarves singing to a tune that only they could hear, if you could even call it a tune.

He pushed the door open, his mood lightening up as he was greeted with the sight of tables of dwarves bouncing and bellowing the words to the ballad, spilling ale from their foaming wooden mugs. King Brighton was seated at the head of the table, a wooden chair, fashioned to look like a throne, was swallowing him up, for it was far too large. His long, gray beard was wet with foam from his mug of ale in his hand, his tunic, and the table in front of him wet with spilled ale. His crown of gold and the thirteen jewels, one for each of the clans he had united, glittered in the torch light from the torches burning around the room, but his green eyes shined brighter when they fell upon Merciah, standing in the doorway to the hall.

Me friend has returned! The dwarf king bellowed, bringing the dwarven ballad to a sudden stop, as all eyes turned to Merciah. The king leaped down from his throne and quickly made his way around the tables to Merciah.

Cheers rose up from the dwarves, and many began to shout, Get ’em some ale!

Merciah grinned at his old friend’s antics, and they greeted each other by taking each other by the inner arms and pulling each other close. Then, as they came apart, the dwarf king turned around with a scowl and shouted, Get me friend some ale, yee stingy, bearded fools! He’s got a tale to tell!

Several dwarves hurried to the kegs set up at the end of the tables, but Merciah stopped them with a wave of his hand.

Maybe tomorrow, old friend. I have just returned, and have yet to see my wife or son, Merciah answered, an apology in his voice.

King Brighton paused, and looked up at Merciah with a look of disappointment on his face, that quickly turned to a look of understanding and sympathy.

Aye, we saw the smoke from the pyres burning in the distance. A lover’s arms beat the bottom of a mug any day, the dwarf king relented, and then, with a look of amusement, Yee young lassy has been pacin’ back, and forth on top of thee wall every day since yee rode out!

Several dwarves agreed with an Aye! making a grin cross Merciah’s face.

Make sure yee come back on the morrow, me friend! King Brighton said, opening the door for Merciah. I want to hear about the battle!

***

Merciah left the tavern behind, and heard the drunken bellows of the dwarven ballad resume with a renewed vigor before he was out of earshot. He made his way through the tents, nodding to soldiers and their families as he passed by. Then he found himself lost in his thoughts, the faces of the fallen at the front of his mind, but those thoughts faded when he came to the last row of tents, and to the edge of camp where the Sons of Valor’s wooden cabins were set up, his among them. And as he caught sight of his cabin, Brittany came running out of the door at the sight of him.

Her stormy-gray eyes were filled with tears of joy, that, spilled out, and streamed down her beautiful, tanned face. Her long, dirty-blonde hair was flying loosely behind her. She was dressed in a simple, rough, brown skirt as she threw herself into Merciah’s arms, nearly knocking the large, six-foot warrior to the ground.

Merciah embraced her his body, and mind relaxing his soul, finally at peace for the first time since he had ridden out. He knew his place was with her, and every time he left, his soul became restless. He felt her body begin to shake as she began to weep with relief. His tunic wet with tears as she buried her face in the center of his chest. Then Merciah heard an excited squeal, and his heart leaped with joy. He looked up to see his eight-year-old son, Tyrn, running toward him, his soft, black, curly hair surrounding his cherubic face, an excited look of pure joy at seeing his father, covering his face. Then he was there, throwing his arms around his father’s waist.

Dad! was all Tyrn could say, and then the tears of joy came for Tyrn and his father.

I missed you both, Tyrn whispered, holding Brittany close with his arm around her and his hand resting on his son’s head, pulling him close.

Later that night, after Merciah spent time with his son, play-fighting, and they had eaten supper as a family, Merciah carried his son, who had fallen asleep sitting around the fire listening to his father’s tales, to his bed. He tucked Tyrn in, and he went to find his wife.

Merciah found Brittany standing near their bed. Her ample breasts were bare, her nipples hard as she cupped them in her hands, and met his gaze with a seductive look of pure passion. He crossed the room quickly, and picked her up, his hands cupping her ass as she wrapped her legs around his waist, and pulled him close with her hands on his lower back.

He kissed her passionately, their tongues dancing together, as he laid her down on their soft, feathered bed. She reached down with one hand, pulling his tunic out of the way, and took his hardened cock in her hand, stroking it eagerly.

Merciah groaned as his wife took his cock in hand, and left her lips, kissing down her neck and chest until he made it to her breasts. Then he took her nipple in his mouth, and swirled his tongue around her nipple, and reached down with his right hand, and slowly began to rub her wet clit with his finger, before penetrating her with his middle finger.

Brittany arched her back, moaning