Danny was led through a massive mansion that stood next to a historic prison. The air practically hummed with energy, energy that Danny could recognise as mana. As he was led through the building the energy in the air built.
They arrived at a large set of doors where Smith stopped. The man silently gestured for Danny to enter the room.
With his heart and mind set, Danny stepped into the room.
The air was thick with mana, invisible to the eye, but sickening to whatever sense it was that could detect it.
In the centre of the room was a large throne that looked to be carved from crystal. Upon that throne sat a ghoulish figure.
A large man, only large in boney frame, sat on the throne. The man wore a Victorian suit that looked as old as the city itself. The refined clothing did nothing to contain the vicious aura of the man.
The air around him appeared to distort and warp and Danny couldn’t tell if it was purely in his mind or not. Danny had been around many fighters in his time, he had trained with professional fighters and veterans of war alike, but the man before him was something else. Danny instinctively knew that this man was a fighter. A fighter who had fought for their entire life and with their entire life. Someone who had given it all to the fight.
It made his skin crawl. The man’s eyes were deeply set in his skull, with dark rings and heavy bags marking his face. His eyes were sharply staring at him, cutting through everything he had. Danny knew that there was nothing this man didn’t see about him, or at least, that’s how he felt.
Danny took a deep breath and did his best to steady his resolve.
“I see that you are a fighter,” the man said in an almost stereotypical British accent.
Danny nodded. “Yeah. I’d say the same about you.”
The man grinned, his lips cracking apart and revealing a revolting set of gnashers. “That is so. I have fought for hundreds of years, fighting beasts that none of this meagre planet could comprehend.”
That was a lot to unpack.
“I’ve heard that demons will be invading Earth.”
The man nodded but appeared completely unphased. “That is so. As they always have.”
“Why did you want to meet me?” Danny cut to the chase.
The man’s ghastly grin returned. “I have heard that you have a talent rumoured to be legendary in its potential. I have killed thousands of such talents.”
Danny took a deep breath. “Are you going to kill me?”
“Those talents all thought themselves to be above me. They proclaimed that once they grew I would be no match for them. That I would be crushed beneath their domineering might. And yet,” the man gestured a bony hand around the room. Danny followed the hand and was shocked to see human skulls sitting in small alcoves carved into the walls. “I am the one that is still alive.”
“Here I sit, surrounded by legendary talents who were never given the chance to actualise. It is not talent that has ever concerned me. Talent often goes unrealised.”
Danny stayed silent and made eye contact with the ancient man.
“I see spirit in those eyes. Spirit that reminds me of my own when I was your age. How old are you, child?”
“Twenty-four.”
The man smiled, his aged flesh warping around his bony face. “Ah yes, that is when I entered my first rift. I almost died that day. I was shockingly ill-prepared for the work of a Delving Wizard. Books, academies, and classrooms cannot teach in centuries what the harshness of a rift does in moments.”
The influx of new terminology barely phased Danny at this point.
The man’s eyes refocused on Danny. “I have been told that you have demonstrated power far beyond your control.” The man stopped, willing Danny to answer his statement.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
“That could be said.”
“What would you do with something so dangerous, when it presents itself on your doorstep?”
Danny paused, aware that his life hung in the balance here. “I would harness it, use it for my own purposes.”
The old man burst out into laughter. A horrible dull sound that echoed throughout the room. “Harnessed? You are a bold child. Such power is rarely harnessed. It inevitably corrupts or destroys. There is no harnessing such power. We as humans were not born to wield mana, we merely pretend that we can.”
Danny shrugged. “You said rarely, there must be cases where it has happened.”
The man stilled. “Of course, look around you child, even the mundane can feel mana when it is as dense as it is here. I wield more mana than any human alive. I solely decide the fate of wizards throughout the world, even more so as we enter such tumultuous times.”
“Good workers are hard to find in the best of times, even more so during difficult times.” Danny bargained.
“And you child, are a good worker?”
“I’m an honest worker. I work hard and I do my work to the best of my capability.”
The man smirked. “That we shall see. My prison always needs new wardens. You show promise. Little Richard will give you a task. If you complete this task sufficiently then you will live. If not…” Aldous Madley gestured to a particular spot on the wall, where there sat an empty alcove.
Danny turned and left the room, cold sweat had drenched his back without him noticing.
As he left the room he found Smith waiting for him. The man led him out of the mansion and back to the car. Once in the car Danny let out a breath he didn’t realise he had been holding.
“I’m surprised kid, I only gave you a 20% chance of leaving that room.”
“Cheers man.”
“Congrats on surviving your first meeting with the Mad King of Madley, only a few of us can claim such a feat.”
Danny was too tired to bother processing that. “Whatever man. Who’s Little Richard?” Danny needed to work out whatever this task was and get it done.
“That’s me.”
Danny raised an eyebrow and looked at the man. Danny was a very large human by normal standards, but Smith wasn’t small, even compared to him.
“Madley has a strange naming sense,” Smith explained.
“Uh huh, clearly. Anyway, what’s this task I have to do?”
“We’re going there now.”
“Can’t I sleep first? It’s been a long day.”
Smith shook his head. “Not happening. You don’t make Madley wait.”
“Sick. So what am I doing?”
“You’re going to clear out a coven of demonic practitioners that we found recently.”
“Oh sick. That sounds delightful.”
Smith’s face was grim. “It’s never pretty work. These covens and cults are always made up of the worst of subhumans. People who have given up their humanity for the demonic.” The large man shivered. “They do things no human would.”
“This doesn’t sound like it’s going to be easy.”
“You think Madley would give you something easy?”
“A man can hope.”
The two sat silently for a while as Smith drove them out of the city, heading south. Eventually, Danny had to ask for more details about what it was he was being asked to do. Smith made it clear. Danny was going to be an exterminator. This group of occult practising demon worshippers had made the mistake of popping up on the radar and they had to be dealt with.
It was a job that was becoming increasingly common. Retta had talked about it in the class, but Smith was on the practical side of it. These groups have been cropping up with increasing frequency since the start of the year. They couldn’t be left to their own devices or they’d do irreversible damage to the world around them, which meant someone had to go in and clear them out.
There was no rehabilitation for those caught consorting with demons, the only remedy was death. That was what Danny had been tasked to do. Exterminate this group of people, leave no survivors, and destroy all traces of demonic practice. Danny’s skin crawled at the prospect.
Smith talked about these groups with extreme prejudice, only using dehumanising language. He refused to acknowledge any humanity in them. It was baseless, but Danny was suspecting that it was a way of coping with having to do this kind of work often. Danny had learned that this kind of work had almost entirely been carried out by Smith.
They drove for an hour, before stopping out the front of a large property. It appeared to be a winery of some sort, or at least it had been. The road was poorly maintained and the signs on the road had been painted over.
“The group is situated in the main building on the property. There are 13 of them. All of them haven’t left the property in two weeks.”
“And I just need to kill them?”
“Yeah, ring me when you’re done and I will show you how to destroy their stuff. Things with demonic mana can be hard to destroy conventionally.”
“What do I need to be prepared for?”
“Curses, fire, summoned creatures. You’ll work it out.” Smith shrugged, “Or you won’t.”
The man then shoved him out of the car and he had no choice but to start walking down the broken road that led into the property.