Pain burned in Nero. Extreme pain. As if thousands of insects were squeezing through his veins.

His eyes also began to burn and tears gathered in them. Nero fell to his knees and spat blood. He wanted to scream, to tear the skin from his body.

For fifteen minutes Nero rolled on the floor in spasms, full of pain.

Then, finally, the pain subsided. Though it was still there, it was much weaker now. Nero's mind cleared as he pulled himself together. He was breathing heavily and he was covered in sweat.

-What the hell? -

Nero sat on the ground and looked at his hands in confusion. His hands were pale and somewhat torn, but otherwise, he saw no injuries or anomalies. There were a few wooden splinters in his right hand, which he quickly removed.

He then examined the rest of his body, but could not find any unusual areas. Nero picked himself up and stood on weak legs.

The pain still pulsed inside him, but only faintly. Nero looked to where the vein of black crystals was, but surprisingly there was only a huge hole in the wall. Not a single sliver of the crystals could be seen anymore. Again, Nero looked at his hands,

-Something entered me. But what was it? -

Nero panicked that it was something harmful when suddenly a man came from behind. He started to lift the stones into his cart.

Nero went over and helped him. The man nodded to him gratefully and Nero nodded back slightly.

This was one of the men who transported the stones from the caves outside. Because he was on the surface more often, he was not quite as pale as the other people. He was fortunately not one of the people who ratted others out to the supervisor for extra points.

Nero had been lucky, if he had found the crystal in the morning he would have had to work in pain all day, but any moment now the sixth chime should be ringing. And there it was.

Nero set in motion and walked into the large main cave and then to the first cave entrance. Many captives of different ages and both genders were doing the same.

The cave opened into a gigantic room from which dozens of corridors led. Nero walked past the guard and got something to eat and then continued to his cave. Nero had a cave to himself since his fellow prisoner had died ages ago.

Nero sat down on the hard stone floor and ate the small already moldy bread. Suddenly he froze and dropped the bread. An explosive pain pierced his entire body. He growled softly as the pain subsided and he sat up.

Nero frowned and looked around in confusion. Suddenly, he found it difficult to breathe as strong pressure fell on him. He felt an all-pervasive gaze on him. But Nero saw nothing and no one. His pupils shrank.

He slowly raised his hand and reached into the dark. Immediately the darkness drew toward him. Nero wiped back and pressed his hand against the darkness. It spread throughout the entire cave, with only his spot left with light. All this had happened instinctively, like moving his fingers. Nero didn't know how he did it, but he seemed to literally feel the darkness around him.

He carefully reached out again and let the shadows flow to him. Then he stopped and clenched his hand into a fist. The shadows followed his movement and became a ball. He spread his fingers and the ball exploded into spikes. Nero flinched and ducked, but amazingly the spikes just went through him and didn't harm him.

Slowly, Nero stood up again. While the spikes had not harmed him, the same could not be said about the walls of the cave, which were full of holes. Nero's eyes began to glow and a slight smile formed on his face. This was his chance to escape from this hellish nest.

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The next few days, he practiced controlling the shadows. He practiced controlling them and using them to his advantage. He tested the limits of his abilities, but he didn't get to the end or it would have caused too much of a stir. He knew, however, that they were very strong. He could travel blasters in the wall and break out stones with ease. But when he used too much of the magic, a feeling of weakness would come over him, which would get stronger and stronger over time until he was close to fainting. He also noticed a few other things that occurred when he used the magic too excessively.

For one, his eyes began to burn and his vision blurred. Besides that, his skin also cracked. First at his fingertips and then higher and higher up his arm. For almost a month, Nero practiced. Only then did he start his escape.

It was shortly after the last bell when everyone started walking towards the dining hall. Nero walked in the crowd, taking deep breaths in and out. He felt the shadows and how they were waiting for his orders. He felt this unknown power flowing through his veins, like a second stream of blood.

He stopped in the middle of the large cave and put his hands together in a ball. People jostled him, but he didn't care,

"Hey you, what are you doing?" one of the guards shouted and walked towards him.

Nero closed his eyes and focused only on the shadows. This was supposed to be his most powerful attack yet. So far he has never controlled so many shadows at the same time. He felt all the darkness in the cave and held his breath. A hand fell firmly on his shoulder and grabbed him, Nero opened his palms and spread his arms. When his arms had fully extended he rammed them back together and clapped. The darkness poured in.

When Nero opened his eyes again, no person was alive in the cave anymore. Hundreds of spikes had shot from the shadows on the floor and walls right to Nero, piercing all the people in their path. Nero lowered his hands and the shadows dissipated and became normal spots on the surroundings again.

Nero looked around. Everywhere lay riddled bodies of prisoners and knights. In the cave entrance to the first cave, dozens of eyes looked at him in fright. Nero smiled slightly. He pointed to the ceiling of the cave entrance and shadows bombarded it. A short time later, it collapsed, burying the people behind it alive. Nero turned and ran toward the exit.

He reached into space with his hand and a black ball gathered around them. When Nero got to the first guards and they raised their spears to stop him, Nero shot out two pieces of the darkness from the ball. They penetrated the heads of the two guards. He kept running, killing every single person that came his way along the way.

Finally, he saw the light of the sun in front of him. He quickly put a small layer of darkness in front of his eyes. He stepped out of the cave. Despite the shadow film on his eyes, they burned because of the bright sunlight.

They were only used to darkness and torchlight. Nero wrenched his hands apart and without even being able to see how many people were there, he slaughtered them all with a wave of darkness. It took a moment as his eyes adjusted to the new circumstances and he was finally able to look around.

The sun was just setting, which was his good fortune. Around him lay a dozen dismembered corpses.

"A DEMON!"

Nero heard a person screaming. It was one of the guards standing far enough away to survive. He was as pale with shock as Nero and had dropped his gun. Nero smiled at him and the man pissed his pants. With a wave of his hand and the knight's two arms were torn away by pure darkness. Slowly Nero started to have real fun with this.

At first, he had been afraid that the sun and the light would weaken his magic, but he felt no drop in strength.

A signal was given on the wall and people began to gather on it.

They were all pale and their eyes radiated fear as they spoke quietly to each other. Oh, how Nero would love to hear what they were saying at this moment. It didn't matter.

Nero laughed as he pulled back his fist and punched the air. A gigantic shadow fist hit the thick wall and tore it down. The men who were about to draw their bows collapsed with the wall. Nero exhaled slightly, sensing that he was not even close to his limit.

"Let's test out how strong I really am."

He concentrated. A pain ran through him and the skin on his palms began to burst open. Normally, this only happens when he used his magic continuously for two days. Nevertheless, Nero continued and did not stop. He extended his senses and felt the shadows still a hundred meters away from him,

"Good," he said, slowly raising his hand.

The shadows began to lift. Darkness spread, but it seemed collisionless. It passed through the houses and walls without harming them. Nero was aware of screams and movements through the darkness. This surprised him, but he could not focus on it. He held his breath and felt that he had reached his limit. If he continued to spread the bubble of darkness, he would faint and the bubble would collapse harmlessly. But that was not what Nero wanted. Nero clenched his hands into fists. Immediately, the bubble collapsed at a furious pace.

But this time it was not harmless. It took everything in its path with it, whether houses or the street. Everything collapsed into a single place. Nero felt the pressure growing as he squeezed things together and soon he could take no more. He released the darkness and a gigantic pile of rubble fell to the ground. But Nero was still satisfied. A huge crater had been torn into the outer shell of the city. Even the ground was gone.