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Dear Diary,
“A home is not a home without a cat” Nixie oftentimes used to say. It’s been almost seven years since we’ve last been home, and somehow Hamsa is still alive. That cat is really a lucky one. But I swear to the Almighty that if Nixie mentions that Hamsa one more time I’ll fight the cat myself. It’s been seven long years of hearing the same stories about it.
 
Yes dear diary, we got home at last. We left the Continent during war, and we returned to see it at war again. With a few days until the solstice, we are now marching to the battle for the Continent with three hundred thousand Redochian soldiers and another two thousand OrkMaians. We must hurry! The army of the Continent is soon going to fight a whole army of undead people, orc creatures, Zarkus’s ugly relatives and everything of such. And we promised we’ll help. They hope we’ll come and help. I don’t want to let them down. I am writing from this carriage, where Isbel, Marc and me were sent to rest near Lullaby. But I’m impatient and worried. The goblins must have seen us and reported by now. Who knows what the Xantinya prepared for us.
 
But nevermind that, for this might be the last of my diaries so I want to explain how we got here. We were still in the dimension of the Spirit, planning our next steps. Before we could decide however, Lullaby suggested we pass the interdimensional gate to our dimension, just to see what’s on the other side. What the interdimensionals said was true, they indeed destroyed the SAI base. Even the tank I wanted to use was now in pieces. And now, the area was under the control of Orkmaaians. They were a great group of warriors who used magic to make their equipment stronger. I liked them from the beginning. Brave fighters who came all the way from west of Gava, to invalidate a prophecy about the end of the world. Sounded like friends to me. In their religion, it was said that the Gods will send some kind of sea monster to destroy the world and they came here to stop it. It took some time to understand everything they said, because Damaschini had to translate from Gavan. Some parts I didn’t really get anyways. But it was quite clear when they kneeled in front of Lullaby, raising a flag with a fish and swearing to fight any war that’s to come. And so dear diary, we got our new allies.
 
Who would have ever guessed we have allies so far beyond Gava? Whatever happens to us next, whatever happens in this battle, I am content with what we leave behind. Our legacy. We may not be neither the strongest, nor the smartest, but in our way, we reached the hearts of people from everywhere. Do not worry, dear diary, I do not plan to die so I promise I’ll return to write more. But when you go to such battle and you have time to rest, your mind sometimes has weird thoughts. For example, I still wonder, why did Xantinya want to destroy the Continent now, and not wait for the Solstice? If she wants to rebuild the original world anyways, why bother to spend so much time into building the most atrocious army of all just to destroy the Continent? Maybe, there is something here that could stop her or is it just for revenge?
 
But anyways, dear diary, The Orkmaaians even brought gifts: a whole orb full of start essence which was given to them by “the Gods”. Truth being told, they would go and pray near the Sapphire Sea, and every time, Sea’s friends would give them a small amount of star essence. So, we decided to return to the dimension of the Spirit, and use the star essence to build an interdimensional gate straight to the Continent. But, while we had the idea, we did not have any plan to build it. So, we gathered once more to have talk. In the meantime, Lullaby had to talk with the Parliament and start preparing the army for the battle.
 
But, before we could leave our dimension, Nixie remembered something very important: we left the Primordial Branch in the chest that had magic again, and…we forgot Anevys too. I don’t know why she was so worried. No one hurts a branch, and if Anevys saved me in Metherol, I’m sure she’d survive in the chest. But before we got to say anything, Nixie already ordered Miyun to go and bring Anevys back. When we noticed that she is not coming back, we decided that I should go in and try to search for her. I got in the chest and everything was exactly how we found it before we moved it. The nursery was no more, neither were any paintings that Nixie left behind. I tried only to track Miyun’s steps. But, they stopped in front of a random wall, as if Miyun passed through it. After what happened in the library, I have learned not to touch anything, so I decided to go back and let the others know. Amusingly enough, on my way back, I bumped into Anevys, who was coming from the garden. She was surprised to hear about Miyun, and about the magic of the chest. It seems that nothing disturbed her while she was gardening. She must be at least as lucky as Marc. Ayways, we hurried and returned outside. We didn’t know what to do, so we decided to go in the dimension of the Spirit, and maybe because there would be no magic, Miyun would be able to come back. But that didn’t work either. In the end, Damaschini decided to go again and search for Miyun. After about ten minutes or so he came back, holding Miyun in her hands. “She’s not breathing” he hurried to say. Vas and Nixie hurried and tried to help her.
When she woke up, Miyun was not remembering much. But she managed to tell us that at some point, she ran out of air. Maybe changing the dimensions was a bad idea! I should have thought about it. In the end, Miyun was alright, but as an apology, she wanted Nixie to admit that Miyun is indeed the princess of the chest. To be fair, I am convinced she is some kind of boss of the chest. I mean maybe her father left something hidden for her to discover and the whole chest is just another dungeon, but I guess we will never know. But for me, the chest definitely belongs to Miyun. Probably she’ll get it when she’s older.
 
Now, that no one was in danger of dying anymore, we continued our mission. Lullaby went to talk with the parliament, and we focused on creating a gate. Thanks to the OrkMaaians, who somehow knew about the Continent, we managed to get a very important piece of information. It seems that the Continent, was the one place in our dimension which had a stronger link to the others. And if such place existed in our world, it must also exist in the others. Tallion came with the idea that Xantinya might have actually build her Xenatine towers right near those places. And she wanted to use them to “reset” the world, just how the Hell poem said. We thought of ways to stop that, but none of us had any ideas. We figured that the other interdimensionals might help, the ones that were Sikorki’s students, but took a different way than Lullaby, Bajid and the rest. But we had no way to contact them. In the end, when we got to the Continent, Lullaby managed to send them a message, hoping that they might come.
 
Back to the interdimensional gate, we spent a good part of the day to decide how we were going to arrange star essence stones. You see, based on our design, Damaschini had to infuse the stones with star essence differently. So first, as far as I understood, we needed to decide on the idea that would make the gate work. After a bit of debate, we all agreed that all dimensions are part of the same Primordial world and that our gate was not linking different places, but rather, the same place in different planes. It takes a while to start making sense, but once you understand it, it’s quite easy. To match this idea, we decided to build the gate in a straight line, with a pillar in the middle. Now, that we had the structure, all we needed to do, was to make it work. When she returned, Lullaby had to use her plane manipulation powers to help one of us link the place where we built the gate, to the place we wanted to reach in the Continent.
 
But we yet didn’t know what that place in the Continent was. Where exactly did we want to go? It needed to be a special place, to which one had some kind of connection. Since the others have never been to the Continent, it was up to Nixie and me to find something. I could have named many places that are special to me in the Continent: the training field where I used to train with Grandpa, the place where I used to play with Flavia and Forsun when we were kids, my small home in Flegen. But, all of them would have taken us right in the middle of the enemy. And I soon realized that probably none of them are going to be as I remember them, if they still exist of course. It was sad, but at least I was grateful if there was anything standing in the Continent. So, we had to rely on Nixie’s memories for this plan to work. “So Nixie, do you know any special place that would help us?” someone asked her. But Nixie never really mentioned such thing to me before so it took her some time to think. In the end, all those years of listening to Nixie were useful, for in many of her stories, she talked about this lake where she used to go with Elisar. I found it fitting, so I suggested it. The others seemed to agree. And it worked perfectly since in the Spirit dimension, the closest point to the other dimensions was at the bottom of the sea. So we would just need to “swim” on the other side of the same water. Good thing that Bart kept telling us how the sea in the dimension of Spirit looks similar to the shape of the Continent. Otherwise we would have never found it!

So when Lullaby came back, she made some kind of spirit manipulation, and we all had the same dream. Well I am not sure if it was really a dream, but we were not in our bodies and we were somehow flying. And we were seeing everything around us, but it was different from what we saw when we were awake. Nixie managed to guide us to the sea, and we all started to follow her when she started swimming. We were underwater but we still could breath. Very suspicious dream! I was watching Nixie very closely because I was afraid not to get lost, when she just stopped. She didn’t really know where to go and neither did i. But then, I saw Xixi go deeper and deeper into the sea until we couldn’t see her anymore. I didn’t know if it was dangerous or not, so I tried to remember the Continent, and see if that would help Nixie find out if that’s the way to go. And it did! The fishes around me all started going in the direction Xixi went. A fish is always a good sign. We couldn’t talk with one another, so I just pointed at the fish to the other. But while I got distracted, Nixie got lost somewhere and now the others were searching for her. I took my eyes of her for a few minutes! How could she get lost in a sea?? To be fair, dear diary, for a second there, I wanted to continue and catch up with Nixie later, but I realized it was not a smart idea.
 
Then, seeing what happened, Lullaby must have broken the spell because I had these horrible dreams I don’t even want to talk about. Luckily, everyone woke up, and we had to try again. Poor Lullaby was exhausted from the whole day. She wasn’t well at all and I was very worried for her. The doctor gave her some pills to take and anticipated that she only has a few days until she needs to give birth. Yet she wanted to come with us and help. I thought it would be very dangerous until Dillen pointed out that it might be even more dangerous to leave her alone when she’ll give birth in a dimension with a thousand of hidden undying elves. It’s a bit sad to see that the safest place to give birth right now is near us on a battlefield. Either way, Nixie and me insisted that she shouldn’t come with us, but in the end, I for one realized that we still need her help. And no matter what happened to us, which one of us would stay on the side and not fight anyways? Cut my arms and legs, and I’ll still find a way to fight this. So it wasn’t fair to ask her to stay aside. I just didn’t insist on it anymore.
 
As for the dream, we tried again. This time, Nixie went deep in the sea, and we walked through some weird rooms, and then back in the sea. And at some point, somewhere stuck in the sand, we saw this golden staff. Suddenly, Tallion started to show to the staff and make weird faces. We couldn’t talk so I didn’t know what he wanted, but after a small challenge of understanding each other’s mime language, we decided the staff was a good thing. So Nixie went to it and tried to push it harder and harder, and somehow we made it to the other side, to the lake of the Continent. Then, we woke up and went straight to the gate to see if it worked. And it did!
 
Now it was finally time to use the gate. Was I ready? Of course not. I’ve had mixed feelings about the Continent since forever. I loved the place when good things happened, and I hated it when I lost everything there. But it was long ago and all I have left about the Continent, are some memories which started to fade as well. The funny thing about memories is that they are all so subjective. I sometimes wonder if what I remember about my mother was true, or I really saw her worse than she was. Maybe when she left, she just knew better or maybe she was the one who sent Grandpa to come take care of me. I’ll never know dear diary. Nonetheless, it was the moment everyone long waited for, maybe some more than the others. Going to the Continent. And I was both a bit excited and scared. I wanted to go home, to revisit all those special places, to meet the people that I once knew. But while I missed home and I wanted to return, once again I was afraid it will take everyone I have. So which one is it: Will I love or hate the Continent this time?
 
I was so distracted about these thoughts that I didn’t even notice that we were already there. Dark clouds were covering the sky and no ray of light go through them. I didn’t recognize the area, for I have never been in this part of the Continent, but I got this weird feeling of peace that I was finally home.The air seemed familiar. We found ourselves near what seemed to be a small empty village. One survivor approached us and told us that not long ago the orcs had raided the whole place. He gave us the news about the Continent, how they invaded Flegen and how they tried to hold the lines in Aisere. He didn’t know much more than the fact that the army of the orcs went south and that maybe somewhere in the North, it was Ghebaro’s army. I got used with the idea that Flegen is no more, but I was more worried for Nixie. Lampsidron is very close by, in the south, so the orcs could have attacked there too. Did her family actually survive this? We had to find them quick!
 
We had decided that it would be the best to split up and meet back in a few days. Damaschini took Miyun and they flew to the south to see what was the situation with the orcs. Nixie, Kelly and Lullaby went back to the dimension of Spirit to prepare the army and Isbel,Marc and me went North to see if we could find Ghebaro’s army. In the meantime, Bart, Eve and the rest would keep a close eye on the gate here while Xixi would travel on the lake to see what happens on the village on the other side. Before we left, Damaschini gave me a ring that controls the Gollem and said we could ride it. It was very nice of him to do so especially because we had no horses. And truth being told, it kinda saved our lives.
 
So we each went in their own direction. Marc, Isbel and me followed a road for a good part of the way. I was looking everywhere to see if anyone was following but I didn’t see anything. That is until we were crossing this field and we met a bunch of goblins who were riding some wolfs and who blocked our way. The pomenian warned us that these creatures were guarding the forests nearby and that they might attack us, so meeting them was expected. To be fair, I was curious to see what kind of creatures they would be. I never met one before. Their boss asked us who we are and all that stuff. I thought we could agree to leave each other alone and be on our way. That is until they started to provoke me. “I see, you are one of the fire people we annihilated not long ago” their leader said. “Don’t do it, Verfy! Don’t raise your weapon at him, you must be smarter. Do what you learnt from Nixie! When they provoke you, you provoke them back. Or did she say not to provoke them back? I don’t remember!” I thought for myself. So the next second, I told their leader: “You did? I thought it was the orcs beat the elementals!”. You see, dear diary, I didn’t hear much about goblins in my life, but even I somehow knew that they hate the orcs. They actually got very offended and raised their weapons at us.Umm…Oops? But it was the truth! I was getting ready to fight all those goblins when Marc pointed out very well “You have a Golem, Verfy. Use it!”. I totally forgot about that. Well, once again, the only way out was in front. With an amazing power, the Golem charged through the goblins, killing some of them. We then continued, but the goblins wouldn’t give up. They were following us from both parts, throwing some things at us. They were trying to make us fall so they can catch us. One of them tried to grab me but I was strong enough to make him fall from the wolf. Anyways, in the end, we managed to lose them when we got to a swamp area. It was somewhere around night, but we couldn’t rest here. We had to move on as fast as possible.
 
So we continued our way, until we got to another field. We decided to rest here but since it wasn’t safe, we decided to use the Golem once more. Damaschini told me that the Golem could somehow open up and transform in a sort of cage that could protect two people only. I must admit, Marc and Isbel are very amusing to travel with. We decided that we would dig a whole where I could sleep so all of us to fit under the Golem. But the goblins kept tracking us and at some point, we found ourselves surrounded by fire everywhere. The problem was that the Golem needed some time to transform back into a horse and if he passed through fire, we would have gotten burned pretty badly. Well I had no choice so I exited the cage and I tried to disperse the fire around us so that the Golem could pass through without the others getting burned. The Golem once again charged, and we managed to run away. But these goblins are very persistent, they followed us into the woods. They would have probably caught us if not for the soldiers of the Continent that managed to scare them away.
 
It was the middle of the night when we met the Continent soldiers for the first time. After a short introduction, Ravon Hiledis, the general that protected us from goblins, took us to the camp of the army. The camp was surrounded on all the parts by dangers: the woods were now raided by goblins, from somewhere further away we could see purple lightnings and who knows what other dangers were around. To my surprise, although the late hour, the camp was rather lively. Soldiers were moving around from one side to the other, there was light in many places and to be fair there was barely anyone sleeping. It was a rather pleasant change to see the fire elementals getting along with the others. Last time I remembered; they were enemies. I would have loved to hear more about what was happening but there was no time for stories, since it was just a bit more than a week left until the solstice. General Ravon soon welcomed us in a tent where we met a few people, some of which I recognized as being generals in the fire elementals army.
 
They were all looking at Isbel, Marc and me very insistently and they scared me a bit. What was I supposed to do now? We came here to see if the army was close by, but we never talked about what I should tell them if we met! I started by introducing ourselves, explaining that we are the people from the message and that we came to help. I didn’t know if I should mention the Redochian army yet so I preferred to keep it for a bit later. But then a small awkward silence fell over the room. “What do I do now? Did I do something wrong?” I started to panic myself. Thankfully, Perdoto, the current prime-governor of the Continent, started talking. “We hoped someone will come. We fought until now, hoping that someone will come to our help. Thank you!” he said. Or it was something among those lines. I felt a lot more relieved now and I focused talking with him as if the others were no even in the room. It’s easier to talk with one person rather than a council. I explained about the Redochian army that is ready to fight and that they were two days away from here.
 
“How did you bring all these people here?” asked an elf that presented himself as Rudolf. He seemed like a nice person and I liked him just by the fact he doesn’t have a name made of other three names like the other elves. But how was I supposed to answer that? “You see Rudolf, we are coming from another dimension. We build this interdimensional gate to the Continent by dreaming we are diving to the bottom of a sea. And now all the soldiers are passing through that gate and coming to help us.” Even in my head this sounded like I’m some kind of lunatic. Rudolf kept insisting on the subject and jokingly said: “It’s not like they came from the lake”. Actually THAT WAS EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENED. I told him that and probably seeing that I did not want to talk more about this subject, he gave up. I hope he doesn’t think I am a liar or something.
 
Then Perdoto and Rudolf started to explain about the current situation in the Continent, which was very bad. Most of the civilians went to hide in Zalonia, but they were far from being safe. The army of the Continent was massacred in Flegen. Then, they tried to keep their hold in Aisere, but they were forced to retreat and that’s how they arrived here. Now, with the last of their people, they had to keep the river, otherwise the enemy would soon arrive in Zalonia, and everyone in the Continent would be massacred. And the enemy was strong. An army of hundreds of thousands of undead people was only a few days away from this place, and they had a lich riding an undead dragon! I know only one lich so that guy was probably Mal (Or his full name Mallaband). Of course, the orcs wouldn’t have missed such a battle, so part of their army was here. As if that was not enough, the so-called “His Majesty” Haldric and an army of woranians were there too, and another small group of people which we recognized as casparians. But that was not all. A bit more to the north side, the ikains were riding to Zalonia, and as we already knew, the orcs were keeping the south. In other words, we either win this battle or everything that we know as a Continent would be gone forever. There was no place for us to retreat.
 
You must have noticed by now that His Majesty Ghebaro was missing from all this strategic planning. I had already guessed what happened when I didn’t see him in this tent with the others. But, I did not want to mention it. From what Perdoto and Rudolf told me, Xantiniya made her appearance in Aisere battle and Ghebaro, in a brave attempt to save everyone, challenged her to a fight. The army had to retreat so they did not know more about it, but they haven’t seen Ghebaro ever since. So they assumed he was dead. But, something tells me that Xantinya planned something way worse than death and we will soon find out what. But it must have been a hard hit for everyone in the Continent, since everyone loved Ghebaro, especially for Perdoto and Rudolf who, from what I understood, were close friends of the king. As expected, King Ghebaro would have done anything for his country and the Continent shall never forget that. I have not lived in the Continent while Ghebaro was king. But no one, not even Xantinya hurts our king and then, can expect the Continent to not fight back. I for one sure will. For King Ghebaro and all the others that have fought and still fight in the war.
 
In the end, we agreed on a plan which was pretty simple in theory. We come with the army as soon as possible, and the Continent army tries to hold of the enemy if they attacked before we arrived. Perdoto, Rudolf and the others seemed more motivated than ever to fight. More motivated that they seemed a few hours ago when we got here. I wish we could have helped them earlier but I was glad we gave them a bit of hope to get them through these few days. It was the least I could do after I wasn’t here to protect my home. The problem was that now, they were relying on us to arrive in time and help. The more I thought of that the worse it got. Nothing of what I said was yet planned. When we parted the others, the parliament still didn’t vote if the Redochian army will come or not. Who knew how long that would take. And then we actually needed to bring the army here. I placed a dangerous bet by giving them hope we’ll make it in time, and I was very afraid we’re going to be too late. But looking at all those soldiers outside, at Perdoto and Rudolf and the other generals, I just knew that they needed this motivation. So, no matter what we had to keep our promise.
 
Later, Perdoto took me aside and he told me stories about what happened in the Continent in the years that I was gone. You know, dear diary, the prime governor is doing an amazing job to leading the army instead of the king and he is kinder than it seems at first sight. It was nice to hear that the Continent was at peace, living united as one. He then told me how they went out the Continent and they met Marv, who was caught by some pirates (yes, dear diary, the pirates that killed Orman). They rescued him and that’s how they got our letter. To be fair, I expected Marv to not be here anymore. He’s the type that comes and goes whenever you expect the least, but to my surprise Marv was in the camp! And he was alive! It’s nice to see an old friend from time to time.
 
We didn’t want to waste more time, so we prepared to leave as soon as the sun comes out. Before that, Perdoto and me announced the army of the news. Probably for once in a long time, you could hear some cheers from the soldiers. A fresh breath of hope does good to any army. “Great! Now, not only the generals but also the soldiers will lose their hope if we don’t show up!” I worried for myself. We really needed to go. Of course, I was as worried for the army as I was for Nxie’s family. I asked Perdoto if he could find any elves that had her last name. But, I was in a rush and did not have time to wait for an answer. I really hope Nixie can meet them after this battle.

The rest of the day was a race against time for me. We left the camp with 100 soldiers to protect us from the goblins. Every second of every minute counted. But time seemed to pass faster than ever. I was impatient. I wanted to hear the news from the others and gather that damn army. Marc, Isbel and me did not eat or rest until we got to the others. We haven’t slept in two nights when we got to the others. But there was not time for that. The moment I saw the others, I rushed to them and asked them to gather. The hope and the lives of a hundred thousand people depended on our promise to them. I did not plan to ruin it. Xantinya was here, our most powerful enemies were here, and we had the most army we’ll ever gather. I do not think I was ever more serious about something that in that moment because to me it sounded that it was our last chance to save this world. I quickly wanted to elaborate on everything the others told me but Dillen and Nixie were both in the mood of making jokes about ikains. Maybe it was because I was tired, but never in my life I have been more annoyed by them.
 
Either way there was no time to waste on fighting, so we quickly got back to the subject. Damaschini and Miyun also found out that the Lampsidron had been abandoned before the orcs could come, and somehow they managed to find Hamsa. Lullaby and Kelly stayed in the dimension of the Spirit to prepare the army, and when Xixi returned, she told us about a few thousand soldiers guarding the village on the other side of the lake. I'm very happy for Nixie that she managed at least to find her cat.
With all of these information, we hurried to get the army from the dimension of the Spirit. On the way, I kept thinking about the motivation I saw in the soldiers earlier and I wondered if I could really do that myself on the battlefield. But I had no clue how so I went to talk with Damaschini. I needed to give him the Golem back and if anything, he knew how to do that. After all, he also is a fighter with his own code. I was curious how he uses it to motivate the others. Maybe I have a thing or two to learn from him after this battle.

So dear diary, as I have told you before we are now marching to battle. I tried to rest and managed to sleep for a while, but now the impatience is keeping me awake. It felt nice to be back home. I haven’t realized until now, but I think I missed seeing other elementals around. Today, when I talked with the soldiers, I felt like I was talking with Flavia and Forsun once again. I felt more confident. And maybe Nixie is right, I don’t need to know what I’ll become. For now, all I need to know is that I am a a fire elemental soldier going to fight. That should be enough. I can worry about the rest after the battle.

Also I have a new friend, his name is Vef…Wait! I hear sounds outside! I need to go dear diary!