[Dark God]

After breaking the Seventh and final ward and unleashing the dark god Arkonen upon the Overworld, Bane, Demon Lord, is close to death. Exhausted by the supreme effort and doomed by the ill effects of the dark power, he is deep in despair, and filled with a terrible fury at Arkonen’s betrayal, he longs to die. Only the young healer’s fragile and misunderstood hold on his heart makes him cling to life, and Mirra begs him to save the Overworld. But Bane has no wish to do so, he hates the Land of Light and all who live in it. Yet Mirra nurses him back to health, and at her request, Bane takes her to the Lady’s Temple, but he refuses to be purged of the dark power and healed, and goes to face Arkonen, bent on vengeance.

Knowing that if he uses the dark power again without first being healed he will die, and with him, the last hope of saving the Overworld, Mirra pursues him. She is slain by a droge assassin sent to kill Bane, and the Demon Lord discovers sorrow. In his despair, he calls upon the goddess Lyriasharin and threatens to destroy the Overworld if she does not return Mirra to him. After forcing Bane to admit that he cares for the young healer, she does, and Bane is purged and healed, then goes forth to battle Arkonen. But the dark god tricks Mirra into leaving the safety of hallowed ground, and takes her hostage. While distracted by Mirra’s plight, Bane is mortally wounded, and returns to the temple, where the healers save him by calling down the goddess’ white fire, a great miracle.

The Black Lord sends his dark army to destroy the temple and slay Bane while he is wounded, but the Demon Lord protects the healers. In his bid to invade the Light Realm and enslave Lyriasharin, thereby ruling all three of the domain’s realms, Arkonen strives to corrupt Mirra, for the soul of a healer is the Key that will open the great World Gate, but only one who has fallen to the darkness. To this end, he sets a transformation in Mirra’s flesh, and only the intervention of the goddess prevents it from consuming her. But Lyriasharin’s battle to save Mirra drains her power, and the white fire in the temples begins to die. As the hallowed ground shrinks and the demons that wait beyond it draw closer, Bane knows that he must challenge Arkonen, or the Overworld is doomed. But Arkonen is an immortal spirit god many thousands of years old, while Bane is just a young, mortal dark god.

Mirra, imprisoned in Arkonen’s dark citadel, clings to her last scrap of faith as the foulness creeps through her blood, knowing that if she gives it up she will be transformed in an instant. Though he longs to save her, Bane cannot enter the room where she is imprisoned, for the rune magic in it will cast her into the deepest pit and kill her the moment that he does. Bane is reluctant to face Arkonen again, knowing that he will use Mirra as a shield, and the shadows cannot harm him. The Demon Lord is trapped in a destiny not of his choosing, forced to fight the dark god whom he has regarded as his father, and perhaps sacrifice himself for the sake of the world of Light, which he despises. But if he does not, he will lose the only one who loves him, and whose love has saved him from the Darkness. It seems an impossible task, for only the Light can strip away Arkonen’s dark form and cast him into the Land of the Dead, but Bane is a dark god, and the goddess cannot use the white fire as a weapon. She has chosen the Demon Lord as her champion, but there seems to be no way that he can win
this battle...

In book III, Grey God, Lyriasharin’s father returns, and she asks Bane to save her daughter from a powerful dark god in a distant domain, but to reach it he must
travel through the trackless and dangerous God Realm…