(Author: Hello! Hope the color change helped. As you can tell, I am writing this story to quickly reach the point where Regis can enter the human world and begin learning the way of the knight. At last, my first battle scene for this story. Fear the Scion of Darkness! Hope it goes well. Enjoy.)
-------Chapter 5: Scion of Darkness-----------------
Two armies were currently engaged in a bloody battle. To the west were the allied forces of humans, beast kin, dwarves, and elves. To the east were monsters, members of the Star Clan, dark elves, and demons. The human forces and their allies originated from the south and headed north west, conquering some of the demon and monster territories. Answering the call to aid, the dark elves and the powerful Star Clan rushed to assist their own allies and prevent them from spreading east into their own territories.
The humans and their allies were at a stalemate until the other army suddenly stopped attacking and stayed on the defense. Confused, it became a war of attrition as they were wary of the sudden change in strategy. Then, they saw several lights descend on the forces of the Star Clan that were on the side of the demon army. Only the elves and dwarves knew what those lights represented and paled and trembled. Four of them were exceptionally powerful and were the color of the moon itself.
Within the Star Clan territory, members of the Star Clan smiled as they saw the light descend on the statues of the moon. Each statue of the moon was fifteen feet in diameter and were made entirely of stone. However, once the light of the moon descended on them during the ritual, they became the guardians of the Star Clan. The situation was so dire that it was the first time in four hundred years that the statues were made and taken outside their territory instead of staying in the mountains and in a silent vigil.
To anyone else watching, they were just pillars of light. To members of the Star Clan, they knew it was the members of their clan who were undergoing the Ritual of the Moon Goddess. They waited as the moon statues began to crack like eggs. Over twenty statues were lit until one pillar of light remained. As the moon statue cracked, wisps of darkness emerged from the statue, instilling fear to anyone in the vicinity. Slowly a member of their main branch emerged from the statue. The sight shocked the dark elves, demons, and other monster races as they saw the others, but this one scared them the most.
It emerged from the statue as it were in a cocoon and not an egg. A fifteen foot long snake body with abyssal black scales and gold crescent moon pattern, with gold stars at each point, coiled from the statue. Then, an upper body wearing luxurious gold armor and mask emerged with pitch black hair, gold wings, and dark purple eyes. What scared them the most were the three jade blades on each dorsal side of his forearm and the black aura the Star Clan member emitted. It felt dark and cold as if all the warmth in the world was being drained into it.
"Behold, a Scion of Darkness descends," one of the elder members of the sub branch announced as he bowed upon recognizing such power. "This one is surely the most powerful that has undergone the ritual this year."
Immediately, everyone knelt in front of him. Any Scion the Elements was powerful beyond compare. The statues that appeared lifelike were nearly indestructible but not many were very powerful. Regis stared around, but could not talk to them to ask them why they kneeled before him. He didn't want them to stop as it felt good. They didn't kneel before him because of his grandfather. They knelt for him at first because he was a Scion of Darkness.
"Oh Powerful One, the elder bowed, the humans and their allies are camped to the west. Please aid us and punish them for invading our lands."
Regis stared at the elder and realized the elder did not want outsiders to know the truth about the statues. Regis did a slight nod as he was brimming with power. This was what it was like to be a shaman. To control the elements like the gods themselves. When he awakens in his real body, he couldn't wait to find out which spirit he contracted and how good it would feel to control ice and light magic in secret with his grandfather.
It would have to wait as all he could use was his darkness, his absolute most powerful element. What was a Scion of Darkness? It was someone whose affinity for darkness was ninety, but this one seemed as if he was a demi-god and he was barely a hatchling in their eyes. His affinity for darkness was sure to be over a hundred! Only they could freely manipulate darkness like the gods.
Now was the only time he could manipulate darkness on such a grand scale. When he makes his mysterious disappearance and becomes a spy, he would be forbidden to use his darkness element and could only rely on light and water magic to survive. Ice too as his affinity for water was exceptionally high. He rubbed his hands together and teleported into the heart of the human army. He didn't know how he could do it, but it was as if he was the darkness itself and it was begging him to. In his statue body, he was exhibiting his true potential. Once he mastered his power, he could do in the future what he did just now.
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PoV of an Elven Princess
My name is Princess Irene of the Forest Kingdom of Izlancar. It has been thirteen long years since my father has marched his forces to conquer the demon lands under our agreed alliance with the humans. I don't understand why we fight, but he took me and my elder sister along to see the battle first hand. Two years ago, my sister, Qing, turned fifteen and left to study in the allied lands to the south. I finally turned fourteen and would join her in a year. We age as humans did until our twenty eighth year and remain the same for eternity. We only look older after doing very powerful rituals
I would witness one final battle with the enemy before leaving to study for one final year under my mother before departing at age fifteen to study in the allied lands like my sister. We were supposed to engage at dawn when we all saw giant pillars of beautiful moon light descend on the enemy army. My people were terrified and were muttering among themselves.
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"Father," I began as I looked at him. "What's going on? Why are they frightened."
"The Guardians of the Star Clan are descending. They only descend once a year and are nearly invincible as they represent the true power of their race. Most are half snake and half human but there are some variations. Don't worry, they're not much of a...." the king smiled until he suddenly trembled and I felt a dark energy appear in a flash at the center of the army.
I finally saw what my people were afraid of. It really was a half snake and half man but had beautiful golden wings. However, it felt so terrifying as it emitted dark energy that seemed so cold, it was as if all the warmth in the world was being drained. I looked back and heard my father mutter three words that horrified him: Scion of Darkness.
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Regis PoV
The humans trembled before him. He didn't care as he wanted to experiment his new power. The innocent boy that traveled in tunnels was gone. He stared silently at the chests of the female humans before he began to kill. Was that wrong? Not if they looked beautiful anyway. He covered the dual blades on his arms in darkness and began swinging his arms, slicing through human steel like butter. It was weird at first, but he gradually got used to it.
He created a pillar of darkness here, threw a few daggers of darkness there. It was pretty fun. It was as if he was playing a game on how to kill ants on a anthill in a variety of ways. None of the humans posed a threat to him, not even the dwarves. As he fought, he noticed the other members who underwent the ritual take advantage and safely arrive to fight the army. He nodded as he saw to Star Clan members with stag horns and octopus tentacles. He chuckled a little as some of the women were killed as the tentacle suckers ripped their armor, exposing themselves. He would have to keep himself in check.
He grunted as he felt a massive impact on his back, cracking some of his scales. He stared back in anger and saw the elven forces. Yelling in fury, he hacked and slashed at them, cloaking his body in darkness and seemed like an indestructible battering ram with blades as all the elves were cut to pieces in front of him or crushed under his snake body. He saw a trembling elven princess in mithril armor and a mithril crown on her head jump up and cut at him with her sword. He didn't bother to block it and headed for the king. However, the blade did something impossible and managed to pierce both his darkness and his scales. Not even mithril could hurt him as he killed the royal guards, but the little princess's sword hurt him? Preposterous! It was impossible!
"S, stay back! Don't hurt my father! I have a sword made of adamantine," Irene hesitated as she pointed her sword at him.
Regis muttered a curse word and flickered his tail, knocking it from her grasp. He wasn't used to dual blades, but he knew his snake body well. The girl paled as he sword was knocked from her grasp and clutched her hands to her chest as her wrists were bruised in the process. He glared at the king and wrapped his snake body around the princess before the king would move.
"Father!" the elven princess cried while the king's face grew grim as Regis put a hand on her throat.
He was about to rip her throat when he noticed the moon shine and a voice said, "It is not your place to kill a member of royalty. Attack the humans. They are your priority."
He grimaced in disgust and flung the princess into her father's arms. He picked up the adamantine sword and experimented with his darkness upon it. It cracked as he focused his power upon it and then shattered, shocking the king. He swung his left arm and watched as blades of darkness elongated from the dual blades and kill some more members of the elven royal guard. He spat on the ground before teleporting away to kill more humans.
It was because of them that his brother and Regis had to kill innocent humans. The human army must be punished. They could not live. Those thoughts repeated in Regis's mind as he joined Javi and Theo and killed humans while protecting each other. He paused as he saw a member of the branch clan who took the ritual stare at him. Regis was shocked as his cousin was a Scion of Fire. He became angry as his cousin flung a ball of fire from his hands at him. Enraged, the two cousins began fighting, shocking the human forces as they watched the scene while the beast kin, dwarves, and elves wisely stayed away from the humans while the others attacked them.
His cousin threw fireball after fireball and even sent a wave of fire at him. It was all in vain as a small black hole would appear in front of Regis and absorb the fireballs as if they were nothing. Regis wrapped his dual blades in darkness and charged at his cousin. He cut him repeatedly as his cousin kept burning him. As the fire was too intense, Regis took advantage and covertly covered his body in a layer of concentrated water. The water would evaporate and the water was constantly replaced.
Finally, Regis coiled his body and began crushing the lower, snake, body of his cousin. His cousin howled in pain as Regis's harder, thicker scales crushed his own and finally burst in blood. The cousin coughed blood and Regis coiled his upper half on the human body of his cousin. Unable to scream, the cousin could only watch, wide-eyed, as his vision was soon blocked by black and gold scales before his chest, arms, and head burst into a puddle of blood. As the cousin died, every part of his body, flesh, blood, and scales became fragments of stone. Regis pulsed a thin darkness from his body as the stones on his scales shattered. He looked like he was laughing as he extended on arm while another hand was on his face as he mouth seemed to move as if he was laughing hysterically.
None of the armies wanted to linger any longer and scattered, abandoning their posts and fleeing for their lives. Regis and the others were unable to give chase as they succeeded their mission. They crumbled into rocks and pieces once the last of the enemy forces vanished from sight, pillars of light ascending to the sky from their bodies. Only nine survived the dream when the fighting ended and Regis was one of them.