Helfri, I've never heard of this place until Liora mentioned the name. Even with all the places that were in the books mom showed me— I don't ever remember seeing this name before, not once.
What I do know is that Liora is the most knowledgeable one when it comes down to the followers since she was a keeper. I'll have to ask her about where that ranks amongst them but I doubt it's something minor.
Her role was definitely more significant than some normal soldiers. I also think they have to have a better name than the followers so what exactly is it?
"You probably don't know much about Helfri or why I would suggest it as our next location, I'll tell you all about it." Liora says before she starts to dive into it.
(Liora's Stories of Helfri)
Years ago Helfri use to be the place to go for the best weapons or even armor that you could find, but that's also where people began worshipping the goddess of death.
You could say it's almost like the birth place of all her followers over the years but eventually things did change.
Tragedy tends to strike unexpectedly so what can you do? People were all over the streets, browsing through the various shops as they usually would— Except today was different from any other day, something new would make it's way into Helfri.
A young girl by the name of Isabel entered into the great city of Helfri, the city where most went to prepare for their treacherous journeys.
Isabel wasn't like most adventurers who came through because she was still young and learning about the world. She made it to this city after running away from the bandits who killed her family.
She was roughly 9 or 10 at the time but yet she wasn't afraid of dying, in fact she embraced death. Isabel came to Helfri knowing that she needed a weapon to kill the men who murdered her family.
That's why she was here, but she was blessed with something even greater— Isabel met the first few people who started the cult of Nyxoria.
"What's a little girl like you doing here all alone, are you okay?" A man asks while kneeling down before the girl.
A serious expression was across her face, no tears, just ready to handle anything that came her way. "I need a sword to handle the bad men who...killed my parents.." She breaks for a moment.
The men didn't hesitate to help the girl out with getting a weapon and even walked back with her to her home. It was a gruesome sight back at her home where the bandits were still pillaging through everything.
Her family has quite a good amount of valuables to take if needed so why would they run away so quickly. Of course the men met their fate with the men wounding them and letting Isabel finish them off.
I'm sure you might be wondering what this has to do with Helfri, well this girl became one of the main leaders of the cult going forward.
The cult of Nyxoria is made up of three leaders to make it easier to spread everything throughout the world. Isabel is the leader of this continent while the other two watch over the others as they try to grow more.
They only need one more leader and that would cover all four continents so that they could increase their reach and influence.
But Isabel turned Helfri into what you could describe as literal hell, people would be murdered just for talking down on us, for speaking against the goddess of death, and for small crimes.
It was almost as if she took over as a queen, except she wasn't the queen— Everyone just follows behind them because we are working towards Nyxoria's revival.
Her coming back will mean the dawn of a new age, an age where God's can walk amongst us without penalty.
"I'm still lost on what's so important about this place?" Artemis interrupts.
"I'm getting there, just listen a bit longer." Liora responds before continuing.
Helfri still holds one strong artifact that can be used against the cult itself so if we can get that... we might be able to stop them even faster. They left it there because most people are too scared to even look in Helfri's direction.
Isabel went out of her way to make the place as brutal as can be so that not even kingdoms want to get involved with it. It's not worth sending men to die there so they have complete control over the city itself.
That's exactly why everyone goes to Bristiel now instead of going to Helfri since originally Helfri had the same reputation as Bristiel. If the cult can be dealt with though, maybe they will be able to come back.
(Temporarily the End of the Story for Helfri.)
So that's where one of these leaders was basically born since they happened to stumble upon the early followers. I'd be more worried about Isabel herself being present since the place probably holds a place in her heart.
"How many years ago was this anyway?" Artemis asks with a bit of curiosity.
"About 15 now I believe, so Isabel has quite the experience on her from how long she's been holding Helfri and even her work within the cult itself." Liora answers.
It could be extremely dangerous if we run into her but this artifact is also a game changer for us if we manage to get it. Helfri will definitely have to be the place to go for now until something better turns up.
Though it feels a lot more dangerous than the person she was basically warning us about before so I don't understand.
"Wouldn't this be more dangerous than the person you were thinking about going after next?" Artemis asks with a bit of a confused expression on his face.
"Fear is what runs through Helfri, they don't keep a lot of strong people there because it's got plenty of reputation to go off of. That's the short and sweet of it at least. I promise it's fine." Liora assures after answering.
I guess there's only one way to truly find out what awaits us there.