This is my first fiction novel. I'd appreciate comments and suggestions, but please show mercy embarassed [/Scripts/Plugins/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-embarassed.gif]
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Chapter 1: Lord Blackwood
“Enter,” The voice said, deep and emotionless.
The door opened as a man in black robes entered the room with caution in his steps. Wearing black robes and a golden mask, the lich was quivering in fear as he removed his mask, revealing his undead skull to his master. With a swift motion, he knelt on the cold floor on one knee. He kept his head down, hoping that the meeting with the Lord will be quick.
Though Lord Barnabas Blackwood was still a mortal and a human, he was known as the most terrible and the most powerful dark mage in history. Greatly favored by the Chaos God Sendra, even liches who have conquered death through the foulest of rituals, feared and trembled at the Lord’s presence.
The Lord’s office was located in the highest tower of the fortress. The dim lighting gave the room a gloomy and chilling atmosphere. Adding to the atmosphere was the Lord’s vast collection of dark artifacts and rare books about magic. Even though the fortress has a library, the Lord preferred to keep the most precious of his books in the confines of his office. Most of the books were rumored to be cursed if one foolishly attempts to open the book without proper preparation.
The servant lich often wished he could sneak out one of the books, especially, the legendary magical book called Enchiridion.
“My lord,” The servant said in a whisper, praying to all the gods, sacred and profane, for his own safety.
Robed in clothes, dark as midnight, a tall scrawny man sat with an impeccable posture on an ornate desk. He was scribbling in a yellow parchment without even acknowledging the presence of his servant. The Lord turned his bored gaze on the book, then returned writing on the parchment.
The silence, with the exception of the sound of the Lord’s pen, drove the lich mad on his knees. Even though he could not possibly feel any physical pain with his undead vessel, the Lord has a vast knowledge of soul magic and can obliterate a pitiful lich like him in a flick of a finger.
“What is the meaning of this interruption?” The Lord said very slowly, teeth gritted in annoyance and lips barely moving. “I assure you, Greyworth. I am not in a forgiving mood tonight.”
Cold dark brown eyes bored a gaze on the fearful servant as Lord Blackwood spat out with venom, “Speak.”
“My lord,” The servant in black robes gulped as he carefully rethinks how to break the bad news to his master. “I received a word that The Resistance has taken Carhold.”
The Lord shook his head and breathed out a sigh. “Then assemble the troops and retake Carhold.”
Lord Blackwood has many dark mages and creatures in his service. Necromancers, dark mages, vampires, liches and monsters. Surely, an army of skeletons and mercenaries along with mages and liches would suffice to retake a castle even a well-fortified one such as Carhold.
“M-my lord, we lost all of our mages and all the three-thousand troops stationed at Carhold,” If Greyworth still had skin, he would be sweating a lot. “It will take thousands to storm Carhold.”
The Lord ignored Greyworth and continued scribbling.
“We can’t afford to lose any more troops. The resistance continues their advance to Skald Fort,” Greyworth continued. “My lord, if we send more of our troops in Carhold, we’ll be left vulnerable here in Skald Fort.”
Lord Blackwood glared daggers at Greyworth. His pale skin radiated black mist – corrupted magic leaked due to his anger. “You dare disobey my order, Greyworth?”
“N-no my l-lord,” Greyworth stammered. He stood up and bowed to his lord. “I will personally lead the army and retake Carhold. I will not fail you, my lord.”
“Good,” Said the Lord. “Leave.”
“My lord,” Greyworth sighed in relief and bowed for one last time, scurrying out of the Lord’s study room.
As soon as the Greyworth left the study room, Lord Blackwood couldn’t help but beam as he paced in the room with his thoughts. He was glad that the resistance successfully took over Carhold and managed to wipe out every one of those morons. Their victory was a huge blow against his forces and his ‘master’ Sendra, the Chaos God.
It was known that amongst the six Chaos Lords of Sendra, Lord Barnabas Blackwood was the most powerful and loyal servant of the Chaos God. In reality, Barnabas secretly supported the other side, the forces that fights for the Light and Order or so called ‘The Resistance’.
Barnabas was once genuinely loyal to the Chaos God. Starting from a lowly servant with no copper coins to rub together to a wealthy Chaos Lord, Barnabas became the only mortal, a human, who have managed to gain Sendra’s absolute trust. In fact, the other five Chaos Lords were not humans, but great demons from Sendra’s unholy realm and yet the Chaos God chose a human as his greatest champion. Barnabas’s shift in allegiance happened almost two decades ago because of one mistake; a mistake that made him realize that everything that he has worked hard for, everything that he had earned: wealth, power and knowledge was all for nothing.
As an atonement for his sins, Barnabas became more determined to gain the Chaos God’s trust and confidence. Not to serve Sendra’s whims, but to learn his weakness, to gain knowledge on how to destroy him. All the while, helping the resistance to fight the Chaos God’s forces.
The Resistance was led by the Chosen One. A girl whose age was no more than twenty years. She was strong, blessed by the holy gods and gifted with powerful magic that can oppose the six Chaos Lords and perhaps the Chaos God himself. Barnabas helped the Chosen One in secret by sending information necessary in her quest to defeat the forces of Chaos. In the guise of ‘visions’ in the Chosen One’s dreams, Barnabas appeared in her dreams as a talking spider. Spiders symbolize fate. Barnabas chose this particular form so that the girl would attribute her prophetic visions from the three sister goddesses of fate.
As much as Lord Blackwood wanted to declare his open support for the Chosen One, he could not jeopardize his position in the Chaos God’s ranks. Not only he sent visions to the Chosen One, Barnabas also used his power as a Dark Lord to lead his army in countless disadvantageous battles by appointing only the most incompetent, but loyal followers as commanders of his army. Surely, he would do more good within the Chaos God’s ranks.
Those who were smart and cunning enough to gain influence amongst the Chaos God’s ranks were assassinated or let some ambitious moron take care of them. Barnabas gained his fearsome reputation by ‘randomly’ torturing his servants with dark magic. Every meeting with his commanders, Barnabas would use soul magic to his commanders. Barnabas would do this whenever he was bored or when he’s in a bad mood or when his incompetent followers actually managed to succeed. Barnabas would say that inflicting pain to his followers was his way of ‘celebrating victory’.
This particular soul magic was one of Barnabas’s creations, Soul Fire. This magic burns, not the flesh or anything tangible, but one’s soul. It was very effective for most of his followers since most of them were liches. However, Barnabas never used this nasty piece of dark magic against innocent people or to torture the members of the Resistance who was unfortunate enough to get captured.
In his excuse, the enemies were unworthy to feel or to know the Soul Fire’s power as it was his magnum opus. Surprisingly, many of his followers bought his excuse. Some even ask their Lord Blackwood to use Soul Fire on them because it was considered an honor. Barnabas was only too glad to grant them such honor.
It goes without saying that Greyworth was his favorite servant. He appointed the coward, bootlicker lich as his most trusted right hand. That’s because Barnabas could trust Greyworth for his incompetence, idiocy and blind loyalty to him. Barnabas never tortured Greyworth. A slap on a wrist or two or some good ol’ scolding, but never inflict pain. Thus, it gave Greyworth a great sense of pride as he was the one and only follower who was clearly favored and trusted by Lord Blackwood. Each time Greyworth fucks up, he would only command him to try harder and Greyworth, without a fail, would fail.
In no time, other five Chaos Lords were defeated by the Chosen One and the Resistance. He was the only one left standing and Sendra was not pleased with the failure of his other Chaos Lords. Sendra gave Barnabas even more power and influence as a reward for his loyalty and competence. Not that the other Chaos Lords were total idiots, but Barnabas sabotaged the other lords to make himself look ‘successful’. Barnabas also took the credit of the few successes of his followers and sometimes, the other Chaos Lords.
All was good and all was going according to plan. However, Barnabas has encountered an obstacle in his cunning plan. Sendra could not be defeated by conventional means. Even if the Chosen One is powerful, the Chaos God was invincible because of the essence anchor that binds him to the mortal realm. This essence anchor was similar to phylacteries or soul jars that liches uses to bind their souls to an object. The only difference was, Sendra’s soul was anchored to the planet’s core.
Barnabas tried to remedy this hiccup in his plan by cutting the tether that connects the Chaos God and the essence anchor. However, Barnabas found out that not only it was hard to destroy, but it will take at least fifty years to cut the tether. Obviously, humanity would be wiped out long before that. The Chaos God’s words to Barnabas, “Soon, I will become the true God of this realm”. Clearly, Sendra was up to something and that was why he was laying low for years now.
The essence anchor was now stable to the point that the only way to destroy the Chaos God was to destroy the planet itself. Sadly, the only way to save the world now was to destroy it. Knowing how the Chaos God’s train of thoughts works, he probably thinks this is funny and indeed, deliciously ironic.
Even if it seemed that all hope was lost, Barnabas placed his hopes to the Chosen One. Barnabas prayed that the girl’s title was not just a title. After all, the sacred gods would not bet on the girl if there was no hope that she would not succeed. Hell, even the ‘dark’ gods are helping the Chosen One to make sure the world will not end and the Chaos God defeated. After all, if the world ends, then there will be no mortals left to entertain their selves with.
Now that Barnabas thought about it, the girl did have an uncanny ability to survive in the most extremes of dangers. The girl could conjure miracles out of the thin air just like how a magician pulls out horned rabbits from a magic hat. Barnabas snorted as he remembered that the old coot of a wizard that accompanied the girl claimed that the Chosen One’s power came from the greatest power in the universe: Love. Barnabas could only shake his head at the old wizard’s delusions.
Lord Blackwood stopped from pacing to work on his contingency plan as he left the study room and descended to the dungeons. As much as he wanted to believe and trust in the ‘miracles’ of the Chosen One, Barnabas was not going to rely on faith or the power of ‘Love’. He doesn’t believe in prophecies or destinies. As a matter of fact, the gods were not all-powerful and all-knowing. They were just as powerful and knowledgeable than most mortals, if not all. Not to mention the fact that he managed to deceive the Chaos God Sendra himself.
The gods cannot do anything to stop Sendra from destroying the world. They cannot directly intervene with the mortal realm and its affairs because of an absolute divine law created during the creation. Barnabas could only imagine how Sendra laughs his ass off when he found a loophole and gained access to the realm.
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In the lower dungeons of Skald Fort, there was a room which contained all of Lord Barnabas Blackwood’s treasures. Heavily warded by magic, ten-inches of Dwarven forged steel and guarded by a lone homunculus which the Lord created himself, the treasure room was filled with mountains of gold, silver, perfectly cut gems, trinkets and the like. Rumor has it that the vast wealth of Lord Blackwood was contained in this very room.
Obviously, that was not the case.
Barnabas was not stupid to put all his wealth in just one room. That was just asking for trouble. Most of his assets were invested in real estates and company shares while his liquid assets were kept in banks to earn interest. Gold sitting in a treasure room will not just multiply on its own. Not to mention that banks have better vaults, better security and an insurance for his assets and boy, they kept surprising Lord Blackwood with new investment opportunities. The world truly hated Lord Blackwood. That’s for sure. Banks, however, did not care if he was an evil dark wizard and they really loved Lord Blackwood for his money.
The wealth contained in the treasure room was meant to be a decoy. Hidden within the treasure room was a false wall which leads to a secret room that contained Barnabas’s greatest secrets and his true treasures. In case that anyone managed to stumble into the treasure room, hopefully, they would be satisfied with gold and gems and stop searching for his secret room.
There were fifty-four magic torches surrounding the treasure room. Upon reaching the twenty-third from the left, Barnabas stopped and muttered his favorite candy under his breathe.
“Goofies.”
There were no visible effects or whatsoever to anyone except Barnabas himself. The wards he placed made the door invisible to anyone but those who said the password. As a wooden door revealed itself, Barnabas entered the room and muttered the password again to close the entrance.
The room was twice as large as his office in the tower. Countless of parchments were everywhere filled with handwritten notes of his research on magic. On a shelf on the right side of the room was where he kept his personal journals that detailed every important event in history and his life. He also had a well-detailed plan on what to do once he was successful on his project. He had committed all of them to his memory.
It was almost five years ago when he learned the futility of defeating the Chaos God and the inevitable destruction of the world. It was also five years ago when the Chosen One started her fight against the evil god. With the defeat of the five Chaos Lords, Sendra decided to focus on the final phase of his plan and went into hiding. His last orders to Lord Blackwood was to delay the Chosen One and the forces of light for as long as possible. Of course, Barnabas only has the faintest of ideas of what the final phase of the plan entailed. He could not even contact the Chaos God to learn what it was.
That was when Barnabas began his study on one of the most mysterious of magics: Time.
Little was known about the magic that could manipulate time. Barnabas’s vast collection of tomes about the subject was not enough. Even his greatest treasure, a book called Enchiridion, mentioned Time magic once. Within only five years, Barnabas crafted and tested his theories on how to reverse time. Most of the results were fruitless as he exhausted all possible avenues of his research.
One thing that Barnabas knew for certain was that Time magic would require an enormous amount of mana. There was a reason why Barnabas chose Skald Fort as his center of operations. Below the ancient fortress was a rich mana well connected to a local dungeon that spawn monsters. This mana well was used to power magical wards and shields.
A magic formation along with a complex set of runes were drawn on the floor. It was the fruit of Barnabas tireless research about Time magic. A few months ago, Barnabas had a major breakthrough. He was – more or less – successful in sending inanimate objects back in time. He sent an enchanted golden ring in one-year time. It was enchanted with Count and Track rune clusters so that the ring would start to count each day that have passed since its activation and Barnabas can track it wherever it may end up when it is sent back in time.
As soon as the ring vanished, Barnabas activated the ring’s Track rune to locate it only to find that the ring ended up in the bottom of the sea. When Barnabas sent his men to retrieve the ring, he found out that the ring indicated that a year has passed! Barnabas then spent the rest of the day celebrating his huge success by hosting a party in his castle. Drinks were passed around and a grand feast for everyone. The celebration ended badly as one of his lich commanders had a ‘nervous breakdown’. Greyworth humbly suggested to Lord Blackwood to try not to act so nicely again because it was unlikely of him and it made his followers extremely tense.
After the success of sending the ring back in time, he began to send living creatures such as mice, cats and dogs back in time. Barnabas equipped the animals with collars enchanted with the same runes as the golden ring. It was also a success. However, none of the animals he sent have survived. All of them seemed to have died the moment they were sent back in time.
“Fuck,” Barnabas shook his head and sighed in frustration.
Barnabas sighed as Bounty, one of his favorite lab mice, have died. He only sent his beloved mouse in one-day time and he even updated his magic formation so Bounty would end up being teleported inside the castle. Barnabas has no idea why no one could survive time travel.
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It’s been a month since the Greyworth’s attack of Carhold has taken place. As expected, the battle was lost and more of his less loyal followers deserted. Greyworth, his most loyal servant, was said to be killed in the Battle of Carhold. The idea that the Chosen One have managed to kill a lich without even touching its phylactery was terrifying. No wonder why the commanders were thinking of leaving Lord Blackwood too.
However, Lord Blackwood’s words are the words of Sendra, the Chaos God, himself. Therefore, Lord Blackwood’s words are law. His command was to defend Skald Fort to the last man. Or in their case, to the last skeleton and zombie.
Last night, Lord Blackwood received a report that The Resistance was coming to attack Skald Fort and they will arrive the next day. Fifty-thousand men and women of different races have come to destroy evil once and for all. Barnabas felt excitement as the Chosen One continued to show promise that not only she did unite the people under one banner against evil, she even had the ability to truly destroy evil. There was now little doubt in Barnabas’ mind that the girl will be victorious against Sendra. Well, he still doubted because the world is totally screwed.
“Hold the gates!” One of his lich commanders shouted, “Necromancers, summon more zombies! We can’t let them get in!”
Lord Blackwood beamed, hearing his followers struggle. The screech of dying liches, the delicious crack of skeleton warriors and the dying howl of chimeras were music to his ears. As much as he wanted to watch the battle to come to an end, he had to go back to his throne room and wait. After all his efforts, Barnabas never found the solution to go back in time. Last week, Barnabas finally decided to send himself back in time and activated the Time magic on himself, but nothing happened after he spent all the mana he could get from Skald Fort’s mana well.
Barnabas didn’t find the reason why Time magic has failed on him when most of his experiments were successful. Perhaps it was the nature itself that forbade him to succeed. Perhaps Time was never meant to be messed with. There was no doubt that he won’t live for long as the Resistance and the Chosen One were coming to him with a desire to bring justice to him. For Barnabas, it won’t matter. The world will become a better place without him.
Magic missiles, arrows, dark spells were thrown around in the chaos of battle. Fortunately, he slipped passed unnoticed as the battle raged in the halls of the castle. The Resistance has managed to break through the gates. As Barnabas waited in his throne room, he saw a familiar red haired girl opened the doors along with her six loyal friends who have supported her in her quest.
“Lyra…” Barnabas’s voice has cracked the Chosen One finally met his gaze.
“Blackwood,” Beautiful set of blue eyes were burning with hatred as it gazed upon him. Lyra, the Chosen One, smirked in contempt. “This is the end.”
“Lyra…” Barnabas’s eyes, once cold and emotionless, was tearful. His heart began to beat wildly, not of fear, but happiness. The surrounding suddenly became silent. Barnabas could not hear the battle going on in the castle. The sound of his heartbeat seemed to have drowned all of the sound in his ears.
The girl wore an armor that shone brightly like it was forged with light. Her beautiful red hair swayed over her long elven ears as she unsheathed her sword, ready to destroy him. Barnabas could not contain his happiness as he saw Lyra. He was proud of her. The times they shared in their dreams. It was not long ago when Lyra was a shy girl, but now, she was brimming with confidence as she faced one of the greatest evil in the world.
“Don’t tell me you’re starting feel remorse, Blackwood,” Lyra sneered as she pointed her sword towards him. She has noticed Lord Blackwood’s teary eyes. “Not after slaughtering thousands of innocents for your master.”
Guilt has struck Barnabas’s heart like a thousand needles. Remorse. Yes, I regret it all. I was blind and foolish to have walked this path. After everything I have done, I do not deserve forgiveness. Your forgiveness.
“You’re a coward!” Lyra continued. “You hide behind your minions. You’re afraid to face me, aren’t you? You couldn’t even look at me in the eyes!”
Yes, I’m afraid. I am a coward. Barnabas raised up his chin in a false attempt to show pride, but his tears fell without end from his eyes.
Memories of the times they shared in their dreams flashed in Barnabas’s eyes. As Clarity the friendly spider in Lyra’s dreams, he used to tell her stories as a child. Stories about heroes of the past, about wizards who helped Barnabas loved when he was young. Barnabas closed his tearful eyes, remembering Lyra’s laughter when he told her jokes. Barnabas loved Lyra’s expressions when he told her everything he knew about her mother.
She was a splitting image of her mother, Meera. The woman he loved the most. She was one of the few persons who cared for her. His first love, and probably, the last. Even if Meera has chosen and married another man, Barnabas never stopped loving her. After her death, her ghost haunted Barnabas in his dreams. Every night, he would remember how brutally his beloved was killed and how she reminded him that it was all his fault. It was in this moment that Barnabas realized what he has done, especially when he learned that Meera have given birth to a daughter.
After her death, Barnabas vowed to do everything he can to help and prepare Lyra destroy the Chaos God. He took care of Meera’s daughter in his own way. Barnabas didn’t care that he wasn’t the girl’s father. Instead of a reminder of a painful memory that Meera’s heart was never his and never will be, Lyra was the last flicker of Meera’s light in the world. Barnabas would do and give everything to preserve it. To let that light to spread in the darkness of the world.
Barnabas knew that what he did to her parents was unforgivable, so he did not have the courage to face her. He helped Lyra and watched her from afar. He has witnessed how Lyra was loved by parents whom she never shared her blood, how she was surrounded with friends who loved her dearly. He watched her grow. The once little girl was not so little anymore, even though in Barnabas’s eyes, she will always be a little girl. Barnabas was proud of what Lyra has become.
“Are you going to cry all day or are we going to end this?” Lyra scowled.
“Come on, enough talking. Let’s kill him already,” A dark haired teenage boy nudged Lyra’s shoulder.
Barnabas’s knuckles went white as he clenched it tightly. That teenage boy was vying for Lyra’s affection for a long time. The little twat is no good for her. How dare you flirt with her, you piece of shit!
“Seven on one is hardly what you call fair,” Barnabas sneered as he once again wore his Lord Blackwood persona, cold and cruel.
Lyra and her six friends cautiously and slowly tried to surround Lord Blackwood. With one wave of his hand, everyone in the throne room, with the exception of Lyra and Lord Blackwood, fell to the ground with a thud. Lyra’s face contorted in anguish and fear as she watched her friends fall.
“Do not worry, child,” Lord Blackwood grinned, “They are not dead. Just – sleeping. Now we can fight one-on-one.”
Lyra glared furiously at Lord Blackwood, “You!”
The girl charged forward with sword in hand. She slashed diagonally aiming for Lord Blackwood’s body. He barely dodged her attacks and he was impressed on the girl’s swordsmanship. Her movements were graceful and fast; the girl has indeed taken her lessons well from her instructors. Barnabas felt Lord Blackwood’s mask melting from his face. He couldn’t help but be awed at Lyra’s fast movement. He couldn’t even track her movements with his eyes!
A transparent dome of magical energy appeared as Barnabas cast a silent shield spell to block Lyra’s lightning fast sword attacks. Even though physical attacks could not hope to break the shield spell that Lord Blackwood has perfected long ago, Lyra has managed to shatter his shield completely. Fortunately, he can cast the shield spell again and again. He wanted to see the girl’s magic with his own eyes.
“Coward!” Lyra shouted as she shattered the shield spell once again. “Fight me, you coward!”
Barnabas waved his hand as a magical force knocked her back. He never wished to hurt Lyra, but he shuddered as Lyra fell on her back. Though unhurt, Barnabas felt guilty.
As Lyra stood up glaring at him, Barnabas felt a sudden increase of magic in the throne room. Lyra held her hand as the light gathered on her palm. Barnabas had no idea what the girl was doing, but he felt his spines tingling at the feeling of her powerful magic. He felt the familiar mana signature that he thought he had forgotten long ago. This magic was, without a doubt, holy in nature. Such purity. Just like her mother.
Barnabas figured that this magic was meant to finish him. As Clarity the spider, he taught Lyra never to hesitate to use her power to finish a fight as quickly as possible. Barnabas released all protective magic that he cast on himself. It was time for Lord Barnabas Blackwood to die. To deliver justice on his crimes.
He looked at Lyra’s sapphire eyes for one last time. It was truly a sight to behold. If only the eyes weren’t staring at him with such coldness. It only reminded him of his sins of the past. Meera also looked at Barnabas with the same coldness when she chose to leave him. The guilt that Barnabas carried for most of his life seemed to be at its heaviest when the same cold stare was upon him.
The whole throne room was surrounded by a light as bright as the sun. Barnabas closed his eyes as the warmth and light enveloped his body. The powerful magic began to tear his body apart, disintegrating piece by piece of him. There was no pain at all. Barnabas felt… happy.
Barnabas hasn’t felt this kind of joy and happiness for a very long time. He has almost forgotten what it was like to feel true happiness. At the very least, he will carry on this fleeting moment as a memory when he faces his judgement and punishment in the afterlife.
If there was such a place.