Nulgath's origins and the assault on the Fiend Shard

A Memory in Originul

The story opens with bad news: Dirtlicker says Malgor proved stronger than expected and that Shadowflame overtook a Nulgath clone. Nulgath dismisses the loss as a setback for only a fraction of his power, mentioning another clone left in Tercessuinotlim. Dirtlicker asks for more forces to keep the Legion and Shadowflame from seeing the Nation as weak. Nulgath agrees, but threatens a long and painful death if Dirtlicker wastes them; Fiends emerge through a portal.

In Pinewood Forest, the Hero approaches a Fiend who has left the stronghold. A spirit emerges from the Fiend's body, which falls to the ground, and identifies as a Spirit from Oversoul. The Spirit says Nulgath's conquest threatens its world and explains that it came to Nulgath's homeworld to find the source of his power and stop him. The Spirit tells the Hero that helping a world in need—or taking Nulgath's power—would be a win for the Hero. The Hero agrees to help the Spirit.

The Hero brings the Spirit to the Nation stronghold, where Dirtlicker explains that he built a library to preserve the Nation's history. Once Dirtlicker returns to his duties, the Hero and Spirit look for the source of Nulgath's power and find a volume titled The Origins of Master Nulgath, The Archfiend of Adimonde. Its account takes them back to Nulgath's early life.

The Archfiend’s Bargain

The remembered account begins with Nulgath escaping an Inquisition prison, only to be hunted by those who want to control and use his magical talents. His first remembered tasks take him through the pursuing Inquisition, its captains, and the Grand Inquisitor. He then finds a portal that seems to need bones, opens it, and feels a new power as he enters the Fiend Realm.

There Nulgath encounters Adimonde, who says he is bound to the Fiend Realm and needs a vessel to leave it and consume other worlds. Adimonde offers power through a Fiend Shard in exchange for conquering worlds in his name and leading the Fiends. Nulgath refuses to be controlled, accepts the challenge on his own terms, and vows to grow Adimonde’s power until he can return and take the Fiend God’s place.

After taking the shard, Nulgath turns to proving himself to the Fiend army: he says strength is what Fiends understand, then sets out to stop others from communing with Adimonde and making rival shards. He punishes disobedient Fiends as traitors, even while acknowledging that executions may reduce his numbers. The memories show his rule tightening around exclusive power and fear.

A Fiend Champion then challenges Nulgath’s authority. While Nulgath is occupied with that rival, other Fiends organize a coup and try to destroy his shard. After the coup fails, Nulgath says word is spreading and claims the Fiends are accepting his rule; he vows to create more shards, conquer worlds, and ultimately conquer Adimonde. Back in the present library, the Spirit takes Nulgath’s fierce defense of a shard as the opening to weaken his hold: one shard is in this stronghold, another in Tercessuinotlim, and destroying even one would be a major blow. The Hero agrees to move while they have the chance.

The Fiend Shard

The Oversoul Spirit tells the Hero that Oversoul was peaceful until Nulgath arrived with his Fiends; since then it has been at war. The Spirit was killed in one of Nulgath's attacks but refused to pass over, knowing there was still a need to help stop him. The Spirit proposes destroying the fortress's Fiend Shard to weaken Nulgath, hoping this will be enough to save Oversoul.

Before the quiet search begins, Dirtlicker confronts the Hero and refuses to let them pass to destroy the Fiend Shard. The Hero says they would rather not fight. Dirtlicker then reveals his own, personal Fiend Shard, given to him by Adimonde. He has studied Nulgath's power and wants to become Nulgath's second-in-command, promising to slaughter enemies and traitors who stand in the way.

The Spirit and Hero continue toward the shard by quietly taking out guards and searching the fortress. A locked door becomes their lead, so they question the Fiends about how to open it; the Spirit expects that some will resist. The clues reveal a key with four pieces, and they search every Fiend in the area to find them.

Once the four key fragments are together, the way back to the door is blocked by a small army, and the Hero and Spirit fight through to reach it. Their work still is not done: a Fiend Paladin and Void Knight guard the way. When those guards are cleared, Dirtlicker is the last obstacle.

Dirtlicker has learned of the plan and says he acquired his own Fiend Shard through Adimonde. The Hero breaks that personal shard. Dirtlicker makes one last attempt to attack, then is left unconscious; the Spirit says to leave Dirtlicker there and believes he should no longer be a threat without his shard. Through the doors is a different object: Nulgath's massive fortress shard. The Spirit warns that if Nulgath's other shards are near its size, Nulgath is nearly unstoppable.

The Hero must chip away at Nulgath's fortress shard while fighting off the surrounding Fiends, and eventually destroys it. The Spirit says it was like a large amount of power had been erased; the Hero notices that the Fiends collapsed. The Spirit offers a likely explanation: they were feeding off the shard and will probably be out for a while recovering. The Spirit believes this fortress, linked to the Spirit's world, should have cost Nulgath substantial power, and says the world now has a chance of survival. With the forces weakened, the Spirit plans to keep searching the library for information against Nulgath and Adimonde, then return to Oversoul when reinforcements arrive. A separate optional repeat quest warns that the shard may regenerate and asks the Hero to keep defeating it.

A cutaway to the Fiend Realm shows Adimonde mocking the setback. Nulgath says he has many other Fiend Shards across Lore and Oversoul and calls the Hero's destruction of one impressive. Nulgath compares it to removing a grain of sand from a desert; Adimonde replies that removing enough grains does remove a desert. Nulgath says he does not punish strength and will make the Hero's tasks harder. He also considers returning from the Realm to remind his subjects of their place. Adimonde tells him to use the power absorbed in the Fiend Realm as intended: consume. One fortress shard is gone, but Nulgath's other shards remain.