For more than 20 years, Federtic stood alone in the easternmost summoning room of the War College. Only the burning green flames in his eyes could pierce his dark, dusty home.

It is here that the Doomsday Messenger stands silent. All the summoners in the alliance know the cautionary tales of his abuse of power and misdeeds.

A few decades ago, there was a powerful rune mage from Zaun, and his name was Estfan. After the Fifth Rune War, he became the Alliance's First Summoner.

Federtic is a terrifying living scarecrow, an abomination that wanders in the dark, wielding a scythe and preying on unwary creatures.

Aided by the ferocious pecking of the crows, Federtic would first taste the fear of his prey, and then take the lives of his prey in the midst of hurricane-like feathers and blood-spattered beaks.

Nilan and his fellow robbers prepared their horses in the scorching midday sun. He tethered the last pouch firmly to the saddle.

Each pouch is filled with an assortment of delicate daggers, snow fox skins, and bacon. The weight of the stolen goods was too heavy, and his saddle had dropped noticeably, so he decided to lead his horse back to the camp.

Minesh slowed down on his horse and walked beside Nilan.

"Why don't you ride up," he asked.

"He who treats his horse well will be rewarded," Nilan replied.

"Maybe it will reward you with a good price on the market," Minesh said, "and its back is too dented to be ridden." ”

"No, I didn't. This old horse has many years to come," Nilan said. Hearing this, Minesh shook his head and quickly overtook him.

By the time the group returned to the wasteland in front of the cave where they were hiding, the setting sun had cast a rosy afterglow on the horizon.

A cloudy wind howled over rotten straw and roadside weeds. The moldy haystacks were wantonly mutilated like corpses on the battlefield.

A clumsy scarecrow made of rags and weeds watched over the wasteland, two willow legs keeping its balance. The rags on its body fluttered in the wind, and a rusty scythe hung in one hand.

The robbers made their way through the field, into the jagged bushes beside them, and then approached a cave with stalactites hanging abruptly like mutilated teeth.

Nilan hobbled his horse with his companions at the entrance of the cave, and was joined by the other robbers, who were making a fire in the spacious cave.

Lemuel nodded to him, and the robber had a long scar right in the middle of his face. Nilan reached into his pocket, rubbing his most expensive treasure: a shiny red amulet with a delicate chain attached to it.

Nilan recalled the moment he saw the noblewoman wearing the necklace around her neck, sitting in a carriage with luxuriously embroidered curtains around the window.

He and Lemuel stopped the group and waited for them, pretending to warn them to be wary of a group of robbers approaching, when in fact their men were already waiting around.

It didn't take long for the guards to realize that it was a trap, but it was enough. Nilan slit the throat of the first guard, and Limir stabbed the second guard in the stomach.

Their accomplices killed the other guards with a rain of arrows. Nilan broke into the carriage and demanded the necklace, but the woman held it to her chest.

The stubborn victim even slashed at him with a hidden island, but then he stabbed his own dagger into her neck and snatched the necklace from her.

Nilan clutched the necklace as tightly as it did then, wiping a trail of blood until it reflected the light of the rising moon. He put the amulet back in his pocket, when a sudden neighing drew his attention to the horses at the entrance of the cave.

"Rats are in their feed again," Nilan asked.

"They're just suspicious, what a bunch of brave horses," said Limir.

"It's not a ghost," said Minesh, "a bird of prey, a big and terrible crow"

The robbers burst into laughter.

Indeed, there was a blackbird hovering over the heads of the bandits in the cave, its cries echoing incessantly, and a wave of fear began to creep up into Nilan's heart. He watched as the bird hovered overhead, not looking for a place to stay. The cave was silent.

The silence was broken by a shrill scream, and hundreds of crows roared like a storm into the hole, beaks and claws ripping. The robbers screamed, and all exposed flesh was being pecked at by the crows.

The jet-black claws were deeply embedded in Nilan's shoulder, sucking blood, and Nilan immediately shook the crow away.

Nilan fell to the ground, and climbed to the mouth of the cave with his hands and feet. Outside the cave, the night sky should have been clear with the full moon after the autumn equinox, but the dense crows covered it all.

The echoes in the cave amplified each sound tenfold, echoing with a dissonance of shrill screams and inhuman howls.

He looked up and saw Lemuel staggering forward, blood pouring from his hollow eye sockets. You, Ram, climbed through the bushes at the mouth of the cave. He won't be killed by a flock of birds

On the other side of the bushes, a storm of crows surrounded a figure at the edge of the field. The clumsy scarecrow stood there, arms outstretched, embracing the raging storm.

Its mouth grinned in a jagged way. Everything around it was crumbling: faces were torn open, revealing web-like interlaced tendons and teeth, and ravages the flesh down its throats instead.

The scarecrow suddenly turned around and looked straight at Nilan. Its eyes burned violently with green spiritual fire. Terrified, Nilan scrambled up, ran through the bushes, and ran into the wilderness in a panic.

The monster went up and followed with a long wooden leg in a big stride, with a strange speed. Nilan's gasp was mixed with the stench of rotting straw.

Nilan glanced back, horrified to see that the scarecrow was getting closer. It swung its scythe at Nilan's legs from below, and he reached the first haystack.

Nilan was blinded by fear, his hands and feet were in a mess, and he fell to the ground. His heart was already beating to his throat, and he wanted to get up quickly, but his legs were crippled, and he collapsed weakly.

So he continued to crawl away on his hands and knees, desperate to escape from the nightmarish monster behind him. But the scarecrow stepped directly on his back, nailing him to the ground.

The monster reached back and grabbed Nilan's head, ready to slit his throat like a pig. Cold fear took over Nilan, and the scarecrow pressed against him, bending down, and the two of them faced each other, only inches apart.

His mouth is full of pain and fear, and his throat is gagged with some kind of corrupted soul.

"You've trespassed on my territory," said the scarecrow, his voice muffled, as if his mouth was stuffed with damp graveyard dirt. "Everything that grows here is mine."

Bloodthirsty crows surrounded Nilan, beaks and claws.