Gormath and Roth the Rendered's Arc

Chapter 1 of 1

Gormath stood in the command tent and gestured at Roth. His second head had argued all morning about the rankings. Numbers alone wouldn't prove anything when the throne arena opened. Gormath needed physical proof from each of the seventeen worlds — something challengers could see and touch. Roth wanted to display weapons or armor, but Gormath shook both heads. Those were objects anyone could forge or fake. He needed moments frozen in time. He sent teams to seventeen locations across his conquered territory with specific orders: find battlefields where resistance peaked, then turn everything to stone. The first specimen arrived three days later — alien warriors locked in their final clash, blades raised, faces twisted in defiance. Gormath placed each battlefield in ranked order around the perimeter of his future arena site. Krador Prime's petrified warriors stood tallest at the position of honor. Tremormaw's spot remained empty, waiting.