It was a bitterly cold winter day in Haldoria. Not that every single day in the frozen country wasn't a cold winter day, but today the chill possessed a distinctly sharper, more lethal edge. Without heavy protection, the biting air would claim a man to frostbite in mere minutes rather than the usual dozen.
Trudging through the deep drifts, a man in his mid-fifties leaned heavily into the thick leather harness strapped across his chest. He was hauling a wooden sled loaded with half a dozen thick logs—the single most vital resource in the country, and the absolute only thing capable of keeping people warm enough to survive. He grunted, struggling to drag the heavy burden up a steep, snow-packed incline.
"There's no rest for these old bones," he muttered to himself, forcing his heavy boots to keep kicking into the deep snow. He still had a long, grueling way to go, after all.
He paused for a brief second to catch his breath, glancing back at the heavy timber. "Hopefully this lasts us a while," he wheezed. "Don't wanna have to do this journey again soon."
Wiping a layer of freezing sweat from his brow, he looked up at the endlessly overcast, snowy sky—the standard, dreary view in Haldoria. But as his tired eyes scanned the grey expanse, he noticed something incredibly odd. Piercing through the thick layer of clouds was a tiny dark dot. Within seconds, it was getting bigger. And bigger. It was moving at a terrifying speed, glowing with a bright, blazing fire as it hurtled straight toward the exact hill he was standing on.
"What in Goddess's name!?" he yelped.
Panic immediately overriding his exhaustion, he violently twisted out of his harness, letting go of the ropes. The heavy wooden sled instantly slipped, careening wildly back down the snowy incline he had just spent an hour climbing. The old man didn't even watch it fall. He threw his arms over his head and dove face-first into a deep snowbank for cover.
The object slammed into the earth a mere fifteen feet away, violently shaking the hillside with a deafening crash. A sudden wave of blistering heat washed over the man's heavy winter coat. As the ringing in his ears subsided, he peeked over the edge of the snowbank. The tremendous heat radiating from the small, newly formed crater had completely melted the surrounding frost into mud and hissing steam, instantly vaporizing any new flakes that drifted down from the sky.
Trembling from the adrenaline, the older man slowly scrambled up to his feet in absolute shock.
"What the hell?" he muttered.
Bracing himself against the unnatural, radiating warmth, he took a few cautious, crunching steps forward to see exactly what had just crashed down from the heavens.
He crept to the edge of the steaming crater and peered down through the rising mist. His eyes went wide with absolute disbelief. It was a man. No—the proportions were far too massive to simply be called a man. It was a behemoth of a being, clad from head to toe in full plate armor. Every single inch of the metal was obsidian black. There were no sigils, no engravings, no ornamental flourishes—only brutally practical design, forged to deflect, absorb, and endure any form of attack. The sole exceptions were the skull of some unknown beast mounted securely on his left shoulder, and a thick, gray-furred half-cape draped over his right.
"Wha-what is this?" the older man asked aloud.
He quickly snapped his gaze upward, frantically scanning the gray, snow-filled clouds to see if anything else was hurtling down from the heavens. There was nothing.
Looking back down at the unmoving, armored figure, he couldn't help but wonder if the giant was even alive. Drawn in by a mix of morbid curiosity and the incredibly inviting warmth radiating from the heated earth, he took a cautious step forward. He got a little too close. The heat-softened mud instantly gave way beneath his boots. With a surprised yell, the old man slid sharply down the steep incline, tumbling directly to the bottom of the crater.
"Should've watched my step," the older man groaned, brushing the wet sludge from his heavy coat as he pushed himself up.
He froze, his eyes locking back onto the unmoving giant just a few feet away. Swallowing hard, the old man took a hesitant, crunching step closer. He slowly reached out a thick-gloved hand, intending to touch the dark metal just to make sure it was real.
Before his fingers could even graze the obsidian plate, the behemoth shifted.
The old man yanked his hand back as the giant let out a low exhale and shook its heavy, helmeted head. The earth seemed to groan in protest as the being planted its massive gauntlets into the mud and slowly pushed itself upright. As it rose to its full height, the true, terrifying scale of its ten-foot-tall frame was made abundantly clear.
The older man scrambled backward in blind panic, his boots slipping in the mud until he fell flat on his back, staring up at the giant in pure terror.
The towering being slowly tilted its head, looking down at him. For Demon Knight Commander of the Second Generation, Kharveth, the very first thing he saw after drifting through the freezing, endless void of space for over a month was a terrified old man cowering in the mud.