He took part in war councils in the field with a dozen other knights and exchanged what little he could of his previous experience. However, their scouts never returned and they kept losing platoon after platoon in the incursions. The smoke reached the clouds and the sky was turned into a mass of black clouds raining ashes and one day the morning never came as the sun was completely blocked. The force was divided into retreating and pushing forward and the general was slain with poison by mutineers. Paranoid, the captain employed Sigur as food taster and remained the only one with his thrust.

Having lost half of the soldiers to the poisoned air alone, the captain conceded in returning to the Capital without having even fought a single creature. Upon their return, they were notified that half the kingdom had been taken and the whole army was mobilized to fight the threat. Bordering nations sent their own troops to help and, under command of a new general, Sigur was to try again, now as one of twelve captains. All the mobile siege weapons in the realm were mobilized for what was being called Holy Campaign by the churches of several deities.

This incursion was spearheaded by four powerful wizards from different countries and their many apprentices were sent to the front lines to clear the smoke. The clergies sent their acolytes to support the advance and legendary assassins were hired to scout ahead. Among this heterogeneous force were also high ranked adventurers armed with magic weapons and rare spells. After a long march, they dove into the smoke taken territory without stopping and clashed with the strange monsters on an open field.

After a brutal battle that took half a day and the lives of one third of the force, a group of adventurers faced a giant fiend and prevailed. The smoke receded a few miles and exposed creatures so alien that their mere sight drove some soldier insane. At this point, it became clear that Sigur was knight in name only as he never clashed weapons with an actual enemy and his inputs on the strategies were poor, earning the title by the benevolence of his king. Shunned by the officers, he was demoted to lieutenant in the field and given command over a platoon with half-mad soldiers to be the advance party.

Needless to say, they were wiped out. Again, however, his life was spared, this time by the flash of a miraculous light as bright as the sun that turned the creatures encircling him into ash. It was a foreign adventurer party from the far East that was deep in the enemy territory. Taken to the foreign camp he was let known that their country was also targeted by these strange creatures in the past. They gave him an alchemical serum to prevent poisoning by the smoke. He also learned the party leader was chosen since birth and dubbed hero after an ancient prophecy from their homeland and these beings were coming from under the earth in the sea floor. According to the old astrologer in the camp, no ordinary weapon would be any good against them nor would any ordinary fighter.

The hero and his party left him in the camp under the protection of the astrologer and went back into the smoke world. After they left, Sigur told his story and the astrologer took pity on him, offering for him to stay until the issue was resolved. However, it would mean desertion and, as he was compelled to go back, he was given a sparrow made of folded paper and instructions to make it shine and fly to guide him towards what he desired most. He prepared himself to go out and left the camp. When he whispered the chant to the sparrow, it started emanating a golden light and hovered in the air before speeding up in a direction. Feeling afraid for being alone but eager to go back home, he followed the paper sparrow until it disappeared in the distance. Uncertain of what to do, he realized he no longer could see the foreign camp. Thus, he kept going towards where the sparrow disappeared.

The sound of rocks and flames surrounded him, as did the indescribable sound those creatures made. His fear led him to run and after running for almost an hour, he found himself in a familiar place. The scorching earth under his boots remembered him of the once paved road he took from the Wulfin March to the Royal Capital. With renewed hopes, he kept running until his legs were about to give out. Then he walked. And walked for so long he lost track of time, with only able to see a few feet of what remained of the road stones to guide him.

At some point, dizzy by the heat and without any more water to drink, he started letting go of his heavy armor. That's when he saw what looked like a strange building with a purple glow in the distance. Wary but moving, he walked towards it. It took him some hours to see it resembled a church with some parts of it missing. Arriving near it, he noticed the church ceiling was no more and the glow was coming from a partially broken stained glass at the top. He did recognize it, however. It was the church that was built at the center of the town where he lived.

He started crying, realizing the magic sparrow guided him back home instead of the army. Half mad with despair, he started laughing hysterically. It was then he saw the contour of a slender humanoid being in the smoke. A disembodied hoarse voice echoed in the distance and small point of pure blackness was growing in front of the creature until it was so big it was the only thing he could see. Pure blackness that reached him and severed him of all his senses. That's the last memory he has of that land.

Unaware of how much time passed in what seemed like a trance, he came to in another paved road at nighttime. Above him, the stars were visible and around him, several buildings of unfamiliar architecture. He started walking towards what seemed to be a lit establishment. That's when his lifetime adventure begins.