Flaming torches rest in brackets along the grey, stone walls, casting a dim orange light over the interior of the room. They were not the only source of light however, for the numerous spidery runic scriptures carved into every inch of the cubical room glowed with a pulsing, eerie red light. The pulsating glow gave off the impression that the room was alive and breathing.
In the center of the chamber, a derelict monolith wrought of black marble stood at the height of a man. Similar runic scriptures adorned its surface but does not possess the throbbing radiance of its surrounding counterparts. A thin, longitudinal hole blemishes the center of the monolith like a deep festering wound.
Three figures are present in the middle of the chamber, standing in the middle is a tall man with flowing long black hair and silver eyes. His body seems to be wreathed by shadows that are darker than the night, yet they do not hide his pale white skin. He exudes a powerful presence, the kind that would render it impossible for people not to notice him. Another one is a young male of medium stature. He could be considered attractive by some, were it not for his lifeless eyes. A corpulent stench suspiciously emanates from him. He is dressed in a set of gold trimmed white armour; dried bloodstains paint the front of his breastplate . A small sigil in the shape of a standing lion is inscribed on the left side of his breastplate, right on top of his cold, dead, heart.
The last person is a wizened old man with a thin hairline, dressed in expensive gold robe adorned with white ornate designs. The same figure of a standing white lion can be seen on the front of his robes, covering the entirety of his torso. His head is bowed while his back is arched as he kneels before the pale, shadowy man.
"How goes the preparations, Horus?" the tall man spoke to the man dressed in robe with a deep, charismatic voice which is suited to commanding whole nations.
"Very well, my lord, although there is some... complications" the kneeling old geezer answered with an oily voice, one that belongs to a deceitful man. His hands twitch nervously, as if he is a criminal who is about to receive judgment.
"Very well but with complications? Explain yourself" the man raises an eyebrow at the unusual statement.
"Ah... yes, yes of course, my lord" Horus replies as he continues to grovel pathetically on the ground.
"I have managed to... convert a sizable portion of the Barrier Magus and Sanctus Leo Militis to our cause" it is always better to tell the good news first, Horus knows that.
"Those fools are no better than their king, willingly shedding their blood in name of their blind faith" he added, a smirk forming across the wrinkled skin of his visage. Though inappropriate with his current circumstances, he could not help letting out a gleeful chuckle as he remembers the simpletons he had fooled.
"Oh....? Deceiving a sizable portion of the Holy Order in such a short time, Horus? Surely that is an impossible feat even for the Grand Priest" the unnamed lord shares his musings.
"Perhaps my lord recalls the Holy Order from the distant past, the current generation would gladly jump into the pits of hell if I mention key words such as 'crusade' or 'for the Sacred White Lion', heheheh" Horus snickers malevolently. The Holy Order, an ancient large military organisation belonging to the Great Holy Empire of Bosco with every single one of its members being pious believers of the Church of the Sacred White Lion. They are the Empire's shield and sword.
"Perhaps.. and what is the complication?"
"Unfortunately, my lord, the barriers placed by my ancestors are not so easily removed. Ah, but with the help of the several hundred... enlightened Barrier Magus, I have managed to slightly weaken it" Horus explains as he raises his head and looks around at the glowing runic scriptures decorating the walls, floors and ceiling of the room. The pulsating red glow of the runes shine his face, embellishing his wicked expression.
"How long until I am free from this prison of mine?" the tall man questions while opening his arms wide, gesturing at the entirety of the chamber. He had been imprisoned for too long, far too long for his tastes or anybody's tastes for that matter.
"It-it.. would take at least ten more years for us to unravel the barriers, my lord" Horus turns his eyes towards the floor, not daring to look at his master.
"Ten years, ten years... what is a mere ten years compared to the decades of imprisonment I have endured?" the master speaks as he stares at the black monolith.
"Ten years would be of no consequence, my powers have yet to fully return... ten years would be sufficient for my wings to grow back" he refers to the two hardly noticeable black stumps on his back. Faint shadows seems to swirl around the wings as they are slowly absorbed by it.
"O-of course, my lord... what use is returning to the surface if you are not in your most glorious state?" Horus presents a rhetorical question, eager to please his lord with carefully constructed words. Angering his master would not serve his purpose well, the path he treads on is a precarious one thus utmost care must be taken to prevent the worse outcome, his own death.
"Enough, your reward will be the same regardless of how many praises you pile upon me. How goes the other preparation?" the lord dismisses his empty words, disinterested by it and moves on to another topic which is of more importance.
"Nothing but the most honest of compliments coming from me, my lord. Ah, yes.. the other preparation has been going well with no problems"
"The charcoal is easily obtained, and I have recently sent miners to the volcanic areas... we have also started to extract those powdery white crystals from the limestone caves" Horus states, beaming with pride at his achievements.
"But, may I know why you need all of these.. and in such vast quantities?" Horus questions, his brows furrowed in puzzlement. He had spent a considerable amount of gold to hire the workforce needed for the task and not to mention the amount of lies that he had to think of to explain to various people about his motives. The nobles of the Empire are sharp, clever people who are not easily fooled like the current king but that does not mean they would not fall under the persuasion of the Grand Priest's silver tongue.
"I shall explain once you have managed to gather more of them, take utmost care by storing them in cold and dry environments" the master stresses the second part of his sentence, it seems to be very crucial.
"Very well, my lord. I shall comply to your wishes, like the faithful servant I am" Horus bows in a servile manner.
"Do not let your toys distract you from your duty, Horus"
"Not to worry, my lord. The Underground Arena is but a pastime of mine... no,no, I would not neglect my duties" Horus shakes his head vigorously. It had been months since his last visit to the Arena, he had been far too busy for it.
"Very well, you may leave now" with a wave of his hand, the lord dismisses the Grand Priest of the Church of the Sacred White Lion.
Horus bows deeply and shuffles towards the wall of the chamber. He places his palm over it and starts to mutter incantations under his breath. The runes on a small portion of the wall stops glowing. The affected section of the wall folds inwards, revealing a long stone hallway. An almost transparent barrier shimmers in the newly revealed opening of the wall.
"Wait, bring Gale with you" The lord interrupts Horus, causing him to stop in the middle of chanting his incantation and turn around.
"Wha-What? But, my lord! the barrier still stands! That- thing, cannot exit this room!" Horus points at the armoured undead, his eyes wide in surprise. The wall behind him begins to fold back into place, and the runes covering it starts to pulsate again due to Horus's incomplete incantation.
"The barrier... was specifically made to contain me. Gale is but a pitiful puppet of mine, his soul trapped in his body which is preserved in its rotting state. Only a faint part of me is being carried within him and thus the barrier does not exert its full power upon him"
"B-but, the barrier still-" Horus tries to explain the impossibility of the request, but he was interrupted.
"While I may have yet to recover fully, I have recovered enough to temporarily open a hole in the barrier... weakening it sufficiently to allow Gale to pass"
*Gasp*
"But my lord, a portion of your power would escape the Earthscraper! It would drive the weaker monsters of this world crazy and alert all of humanity of your return!" Horus voices his objections, it would not be favourable to his movements should the whole world realise of the Demon King's return.
"Oh? After all these years thinking I'm gone from the world, having perished in the battle with the hero which occurred in my castle over half a century ago? No, I doubt it. I do not believe that current fool for a king of yours would reveal to the world that his empire has been keeping the Demon King sealed in its subterranean level" the Demon King wears an indescribable expression, one that is a mix of contempt and amusement.
"Your empire has not leaked any information of the Earthscraper to the outside. Only a few knows of my presence here... one which had freed me from that accursed weapon, another which had become my corpse puppet.." he glances at the undead, Gale. It had required a fair bit of his power to resurrect an individual of great strength like Gale, but it was worth it.
"as well as you who are now my faithful servant and the current king whose strings you are pulling" the Demon King finishes his short speech.
"......"
"..Very well, my lord. As you wish.. but if I may ask, why do you need to free Gale?" Horus relaxes after hearing the reasoning behind the Demon King's orders. The idea of a corpse being sent to wander around the world perplexes him.
"I need him to seek out Equilibrium and destroy it, or seal that accursed weapon away if destruction is not an option" the Demon King speaks through gritted teeth. The damned weapon had brought too much trouble for him, it would do him well if it disappears from the face of the world.
The Demon King strides towards the monolith and touched the thin, longitudinal hole upon it. A dull, silvery light envelops his outstretched arm and gently brushes the surface of the monolith.
"Remember this feeling, its presence, hound it down to the deepest pits of hell or to the edge of the world" The light forms a thin thread and stretches towards Gale, seeping through his skin but eliciting no reaction from his lifeless body. The Demon King had bestowed Gale the ability to sense Equilibrium's presence, he would now be able to sense it if they are in the same vicinity.
The silvery light fades away, replaced by intense darkness which coalesced on the Demon King's fingertip. He points it towards the hidden door on the wall.
"Open the door, Horus" He commands with an overbearing tone.
The corrupt Grand Priest hurriedly tears his eye away from the spectacle and turns around to face the wall, muttering incantations while touching the stone surface with his palm. The walls fold inside yet again, revealing the shimmering translucent barrier.
"Move" Horus complies and scurries out of the way, just in time as a thick black beam flies over his previous position.
The black beam collides against the barrier and begins to rotate viciously, slowly drilling through it. After a few seconds, the barrier starts to flicker and dies out letting the beam pass through. The beam splits into dozens of smaller ones, flying through the numerous winding hallways of the Earthscraper while making its way up at breakneck speed. The beam continues to branch out at each intersection it comes across, thinning it further. One of the beams; now thin as a thread having split into thousands of strings of similar size, made its way to the entrance of the Earthscraper above ground.
The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.
It pierced through the gigantic inverted pyramid's door and shot straight up into the morning skies, connecting the earth and the heavens by a thin line. The bottom end of the thread slowly recedes upwards, into the sky and reformed into a pitch black ball among the clouds. The ball expands outwards at a creeping pace, forming a small ring and then snaps back like an elastic band. A thin circular wave of darkness explodes out at a ridiculous velocity, traversing the entirety of Armus and fades away after a few moments.
The spectacle was observed by the thousands of knights and Barrier Magus stationed around the perimeter of the Earthscraper, almost all of them bewildered with not an inkling of an idea as to what just happened. None of them knew of what they were guarding, except the fact that guarding the Earthscraper is a sacred duty entrusted upon them. Some of them smiled darkly, knowing that the Grand Priest had achieved something great down below the earth. Nevertheless, none of them tore their eyes away from the scene which unfolded before them.
"MEN! BAR THE AREA! NOTHING GOES OUT OR IN UNTIL I KNOW WHAT JUST BLOODY HAPPENED!" a tough looking man wearing a silver trimmed white armour barks an order, snapping the members of the Holy Order out of their daze. The regular knights wearing plain white armour got back to their posts, weapons drawn and eyes alert. The Barrier Magus wearing white robes channel their mana and erect layers upon layers of barriers in the shape of domes around the perimeter, sealing off the area.
As much as he wanted to enter and investigate, entry to the Earthscraper is forbidden to all except for the Grand Priest. The man begrudgingly waits outside, standing guard faithfully as he always had.
--------------
"Hey, corpse, do you remember the way out?" Horus asks his newly acquired companion which is trailing behind him while wrinkling his nose in disgust at the stench being given off. They are now outside of the Demon King's confinement room at the very bottom of the Earthscraper. The wall behind them looks perfectly natural, anyone who managed to wander to this point would not even know of the door hidden there let alone the terror residing within.
The Earthscraper is an ancient inverted pyramid buried within the earth, built by the Holy Order centuries ago. The thousands of misleading passages within it are filled with deadly traps and golems to deter anyone who does not know their way around. Only a few people knows of the correct pathway from the entrance to the bottom of the Earthscraper.
"My name... is Gale... Lawrence Gale.." The corpse mutters sluggishly.
"Yes, yes, whatever I am asking whether you still retain your living memories? No, wait what-? Lawrence Gale, not Gale Tempest?" Horus is slightly shocked with the answer.
"....." Gale did not reply. He darts off ahead at an insane speed and disappeared at the first corner, leaving Horus alone.
"I guess he remembers then.." Horus shrugs indifferently, he has various matters to take care of and a stinking zombie is definitely not one of them.
-----------------------
-An hour later-
*BOOM*
The trapdoor leading to the entrance of the Earthscraper is blown up towards the sky with a large impact and falls down with a thud, landing right next to the tough looking man wearing silver trimmed white armour. He grips his sword tightly and gazes at the gaping hole where the trapdoor was previously.
A figure jumps out of the hole and zips past him in an instant, like a lightning bolt. However, Vern, the Vice-Commander of Light is no ordinary man. He managed to react and swung his sword once at the blurry figure, only to be parried effortlessly by a bronze coloured blade. It was an exchange that did not even last for a fraction of a second, but it was enough for him to glimpse the face of the phantom. A look of utter surprise dawned on his face as he did so.
The figure continues to bolt through the perimeter, the lower-ranking knights do not even realise it passing by them. Those who did, could not even react in time to do anything to block its path. Pebbles and dust are blown off the ground into the air as furious winds are kicked up by Gale's advance.
*Cr-Cr-Cr-Cr-Crack!*
The layers of barriers were smashed through in rapid succession, down to the last one, allowing the unknown figure to escape. The only thing that he left in his wake was the fierce howling gales on the path he trod on, and a slumping Vice-Commander of Light by the entrance of the Earthscraper.
The situation broke into utter chaos as the Barrier Magus realised their barriers had been broken simultaneously. They were unable to perceive the time interval in-between despite the hundreds of meters worth of distance between each layer of barriers, for that is how fast the living corpse, Lawrence Gale was. The surrounding knights who did not even see the shadow are confused, some of them scratching their heads in utter confusion. Those who saw it, looked at their Vice-Commander.
Vern recollects himself and stood up, feeling the confused stares of his men.
"AT-TEN-TION! RECONSTRUCT THE BARRIERS AND DO NOT LEAVE YOUR POSITIONS! WE SHALL NOT LET ANYTHING ELSE GO IN OR OUT!!!" He yells in frustration, the familiar face of the shadow playing in his mind. Under normal circumstances, he would have immediately gone into hot pursuit. However, the target is too swift to capture and he doubts he could even detain the target with his level of abilities.
"send someone to alert the palace, tell them something had escaped from the Earthscraper" he whispers to one of his subordinates while withholding the name of the figure.
-Half a day later-
Torches had been lighted to illuminate the area as it is already nightfall. Faint footsteps could be heard from the hole, approaching the top of the stairs leading to the surface. Vern signals his best men to ready themselves; he concentrates as hard as he could, intent on not repeating his previous failure. A head topped with thin strands of greying hair pops out of the entrance. The Grand Priest has finally returned from his monthly inspections of the Earthscraper. Vern and his men relaxed their tense muscles, relieved that no further unknowns are popping out.
"What's wrong, Vern? It's as if you have just seen a ghost" Horus spoke, sporting a kind tone of voice which is the very opposite of his behaviour.
"You have no idea..." Vern replied, and told the whole story to Horus but skipped the part about seeing the figure's face. Horus nods attentively, playing the role of a clueless man.
"Ahh.... yes, let me explain it to all of you gathered here so you may spread it to the rest of your men to soothe their troubled minds" Horus smiles warmly.
"You see, during my inspection just now... I came across a foul curse, very foul indeed" Horus knits his eyebrows together to emphasise the foulness of the curse.
"It was trapping the soul of a poor adventurer who was driven by greed and had sneaked inside the Earthscraper a long time ago. I could not bear to see him being tormented, despite his past sins. So, I unraveled the curse with the powers of the Sacred White Lion aiding me. I believe that is the black beam all of you reported about, the remnants of the curse flying towards the sky... purified at last. The phantom which appeared later is the spirit of the freed adventurer, going back to his rightful place in heaven" Horus ends his tale with teardrops at the edges of his eyes.
The surrounding knights begin to sob.
"Ooh!! Ohhhh!!! How kind of you, Grand Priest!! What a great soul!!" One of them bellows in admiration.
"*Sniff* *sniff* *Srott* Ugh! May the soul of the adventurer find peace!!" Another one wails, touched by the Grand Priest's kindness.
Vern on the other hand, is utterly confused. It was definitely no adventurer that had escaped, nor had it been a spirit. The blade which parried his sword, was wielded by a very much corporeal and extremely skilled swordsman, one that he knew very well. It was Gale Tempest, the sole Legendary individual of the Great Holy Empire, The Storm Knight, previously the strongest swordsman in the world and also the Commander of Light who went missing three decades ago.
"Hmm? Is something the matter, Vern?" Horus eyes the Vice-Commander, a concerned look plastered on his face.
"N-no, I was just touched by the suffering faced by the adventurer" it had been ages since Vern last uttered a lie, but the situation called for it. An eye for an eye, a lie for a lie.
"Your Holiness, did you perhaps recognise the face of the adventurer? I wish to pay my respects to his family.." he sets a trap for the Grand Priest.
"No, he is but an unknown poor adventurer who had been trapped inside for centuries" Horus made a sad face while answering.
"I-I see..." Vern turns his head down, cold sweat running down his back.
'Why is the Grand Priest lying? What is going on?' that was the first time that Vern had questioned his duty, doubts start to sprout in his mind.
'I don't know what happened today, or what would happen later... but I have a very bad feeling about this...'
Vern decided not to call out the Grand Priest's bluff, and chose to carefully observe the Grand Priest's actions from now on.
---------------
Everywhere on Armus, monsters feel the dark wave which had flown across the sky that day. It was but a faint trace of the Demon King's power, but it made the monsters' blood boil. The stronger monsters could resist the call, but the lower ranked and weaker ones were entranced by the power. Rapidly, the Demon King's touch eroded away their minds and turned them into mindless puppets.
--------------------------------
Okay~! I have finally entered the main storyline! :saveme:
The main villain of the story has been revealed, ABOUT TIME HUH?? Yet he holds many more secrets to be found out. There's like.... 5-6 more arcs I've planned for this fiction and yes.. this one is not finished yet :hotinhere:
next chapter is already done, and will be uploaded sometime tomorrow. What? Don't look at me like that, I spent a long time writing chapters up... I can't just like..release them all at once and have you finish them in less than an hour~ :cries:
Follow the fiction if you don't want to miss the new chapter <--- this is not a shameless advertisement :blush:
Stay tuned!
Mystifying DiscoveryArmusMeanwhile..
For The Curious Mind