PROLOGUE
Standing next to a yellow car is the one this story is all about: a young man on his way to enjoy the warm weather and the beaches of Cavalaire-sur-mer, in France.
This man, called Eren Erebus ludocus, or Ren for friends, had brown hair, brown eyes, was fit, but not too muscular, and had quite the good looks, although not the best.
(He had been lucky his mother was there when he was named, or his middle name would’ve been his first name. His dad was always one who liked mythology and stories of gods, so he wanted to name his son after the god ‘Erebus’ god of darkness, as, in his words, “the universe began in darkness and life ends in darkness as well” luckily, his mom had a better naming sense.)
He had just finished his first year in college, and it was going well, although in his opinion, it would’ve been better if he had a girlfriend to take with him on vacation.
He was currently drinking a coffee and resting after driving for the past 4 hours, and was planning to sleep a bit as soon as he was done drinking it.
It was a good day for a long drive, good weather and not too much traffic. This ensured that what should’ve been a 12-hour drive would probably only take 10, so he was in a pretty good mood.
Finishing his coffee, he crossed the street to go throw away the cup. He knew himself, if he didn’t throw it away immediately, he’d leave it in his car for god knows how long…
Throwing away the cup, he turned around and… his mind went blank as pain erupted on his head!
Not knowing what happened, he tried to turn around and look behind him, but was greeted by a second wave of intense pain and then…
Darkness... nothing but darkness...
untill... one day, the door opened, and light came in.
CHAPTER 0 --- THE TREASURE
Darkness... nothing but darkness...
untill... one day, the door opened, and light came in.
…………………………………………………
Mory, an infamous man and the current head of outer disciples of the blackblood sect,
stood in front of a huge door with his crew:
Rorin, a strong muscular blond swordsman of average height with brown eyes and a longsword at
his waist.
Marina, the only girl left in the team, who was more muscular than even Roran. Any who saw her would doubt that she was a she. She had long brown hair tied in a braid, dark blue eyes, and fought using a claymore.
Nin, a thin, slender man with black hair and yellow eyes, looked like a typical assassin. He carried with him two daggers on his belt, and a short sword on his back along with a few other knives hidden on his body.
And Dar’han, the biggest of the bunch, who was a stunning 2.3meters high, he looked more like a bear than a man. He walked around with a shield and a sword. He had a simple face with brown hair and black eyes that revealed a kindness that betrayed the fact that he did not really belong in a sect like the blackblood sect.
Mory himself looked like a typical lowlife, little beady eyes filled with malevolence, a scar going from his left eye, over his mouth all the way down to his chin. He was fat, and had thick muscular arms filled with scars.
It had taken him months to get this far, and now he finally made it.
He had lost 3 brave men on the way, well, two of them he just used as meatshields.
But he could replace them anytime so he didn’t really care.
“HAHAHA WE MADE IT!!!”
Mory cried out happily, seeing the huge door with a name plate next to it.
*stab*
“that’s for our brothers, you bastard. Thanks for giving us the treasures, hehe”
Mory turned to look behind him, trying to speak while coughing up blood “you…*cough* you….”as Rorin pulled out his sword.
*Shiiiiiiiiiing* *bathud*
His body soon fell on the floor, but none of them gave him a second look, their leader had caused the death of too many of their brothers, and his end was well deserved.
“Good”, Rorin said, ”later, when we meet the elder, we’ll just say he died in a trap, okay?”
He turned to look at the others.
“”Sure”” Nin and Marina said, but Dar’han looked hesitant, and asked” are you sure we should’ve done this?”
Roran looked at him menacingly, and said “What, you don’t think he deserved it? He pushed Micheal in front of him to take that arrow-trap instead of dodging it, and forced Ja’hi to eat those poison pills to see what they were! That was clearly just because she rejected him! If we hadn’t poisoned him and taken him by surprise, he probably would’ve killed us so he could keep all the treasure here!”
Seeing Rorin look at him like that, Dar’han, who was as timid as he was big, could only say “I know… but, if the elders find out…”
“Hmph, if none of us speak, they will never know!” Rorin scoffed, “the elders might be strong, but if we destroy the body, even they can’t find out what happened. In the worst case, they’ll punish us for not protecting our leader well.”
At this, Nin, who was usually just silent, sarcastically said “oh great fifth elder, our venerable leader bravely pushed Ja’hi aside, to save her from a trap, unfortunately, both of them died in the process”
Everyone stared at him blankly, stunned for a moment, until Roran started laughing “Hahaha, that’s a good idea, with his ‘heroic’ death, even the elder won’t ask too much questions, everyone knew he was pursuing Ja’hi!”
Dar’han said no more, as he watched his companions start to plunder Mory’s body while they mocked him, kicking his corpse and spitting on it. After they stripped the corpse of anything of value, they set it on fire and finally decided to go into the last room of this tomb. “Come, let’s see what this La Tory’s tomb looks like!” Roran said, as he read the faded words on the wall and entered the last door in this underground dungeon.
Entering the dark room, lights instantly activated and lit up the whole room.
what they saw in front of them left them completely stunned, as they expected treasures, or at least some rare metals, as the dungeon was known for its metal monsters, but instead, in front of them was nothing, but a boy…
Yes, in the middle of the room, was a huge tube willed with water, and a boy that looked like he was about 12 years old. The boy looked malnourished, and what was most surprising was that his hair was pure white in color. It was not the white of old age, but a white that was so pure it was almost blinding to the eye. None of them really knew what to say, until Rorin walked up in pure rage and started attacking the tube with his sword while cursing loudly.
*bang…*
“GODDAMMIT!!!”
*...bang…*
“WHERE’S MY FRIGGIN TREASURE!!!!!”
*...bang…*
“F*CK”
*...bang…*
*ALL FOR A STUPID F*CKING KID!!!
*…bang.. CRASH!*
When the tube finally broke, water flowed everywhere, taking Roran by surprise. Before he could react, his feet were swept from under him, and he fell face first on the floor.
Immediately trying to get up, the first thing Roran saw was the kid hitting him in the face. Roran fell to the floor again, making for a sorry sight. When he finally got up, he looked like a drowned cat.
Cursing loudly upon hearing his friend’s mocking snickers, he yelled “Nin! Make sure the kid’s alive, if he is, we can gift him to the third elder, you know his hobbies, he’ll surely reward us!”
‘And I’ll get my revenge, you friggin brat’ He thought inwardly, hateful of having lost so much face in front of the others.
“mmhm!” Nin mumbled, concealing his mocking smile rather poorly as he bent over to look at the kid. But before he could even touch him, the kid was already coughing up the water and taking in deep breaths.
“ He’s breathing,” Nin said, surprised” strange, shouldn’t he have drowned?”
“I don’t know, it’s probably not normal water, too bad we don’t have something to put it in…
could’ve sold or gotten us something from the elder… anyway take the kid with us. We’ll give him to the elders and they’ll deal with it.” Rorin said, not really caring. As long as he could sell or give the kid away for benefits he was more than happy enough.
Looking around, Rorin said “Hey, search the place for hidden treasures, we never know what we’ll find… and I sure as hell am not getting out of here empty handed… just the kid alone won’t get us that much!”
Everyone started searching the place from top to bottom, but other than the glass tube, nothing else was found.
Exiting the dungeon, they arrived at a plain a bit away from their sect. Ahead of them was the small outpost where an outer sect guard elder stood waiting to check their loot. The outpost was basically a square tower with 4 floors, and a counter to deposit the loot in exchange for coins. Every outer sect disciple had to check in after getting out of the dungeon, and even if there were items they wanted to keep, they still had to show them to the elder, just in case it was too valuable to spend on an outer sect disciple. Of course, a lot of outer sect disciples tried to sneak some things past the elders. But none of those who got caught were ever heard of again, thus discouraging a lot of those who had ideas.
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Upon arriving at the counter, the outer sect elder greeted them and checked their loot. Noticing the kid, he jokingly said “So, Marina, who’s the father? I hope it’s not that useless Mory, hahahaha! Where is he? Too afraid to show his face? Haha!”
Everyone’s face turned ugly at the elder’s stupid joke, as they all looked around awkwardly.
Noticing the strange atmosphere, the elder had a bad premonition so he asked, “What’s wrong? Did something happen?”
Everyone turned to look at Rorin, his expression turning grim as he explained ”We lost Mory, he died trying to pull Ja’hi out of a trap. She didn’t escape either…”
As he heard this, the elder’s expression turned a bit strange. He understood Mory’s nature well, and knew it was unlikely, unless… “Did she finally give in to his advances?” he asked, and Nin was the one who answered this time.
“ I don’t know for sure, but she didn’t avoid him anymore, and they spent a lot of time together…”
The elder raised an eyebrow at this,knowing that it was unlikely, but decided to leave it at that.
“So what’s with the kid?” He finally asked, motioning to the unconscious kid.
“We found him inside, in some sort of tube. I don’t know why he was there. He’s been like that since we found him. He’s alive though, so we were thinking about giving him to the third elder, for his… ‘Games’, hehehe…” Roran answered with a snicker.
Hearing this, the elder couldn’t help but frown, curiosity flashing through his eyes, but still sent them on their way after checking everything they found. He wouldn’t dare take something that was meant for the third elder!
Crossing the plain, they arrived at a huge cliff, part of a mountain range. In the cliff was a large but well hidden tunnel, with a white arc with ‘Black Blood’ written on it in, what looked like, actual blood. Going through the tunnel, what greeted them was the majestic sight of a mountain within the mountain. In the ceiling of the mountain was a sun-like stone illuminating everything, and in front of them was a mountain filled with majestic buildings. The whole outer mountain was kept up with 8 round pillars with a diameter of about 500m. The inner mountain was situated in the middle of them, built upon the remnants of what once used to be the 9th pillar.
Next to the mountain were the less than majestic, small wooden houses of the outer sect disciples, which circled the mountain and made up for about 60% of the population. Then came the better, stone houses for the inner disciples, with a herb garden for each of them.
Higher up were the housings for outer sect elders, mansions in their own right, with large gardens and servants attending their needs. Between these houses was the arena, where slaves would fight for amusement of the elders and disciples, and disciples with an irreconcilable grudge could settle their matters. Then, at the top of the mountain, was a large palace, in the style of a large roman building, but black instead of white, which housed the 6 inner sect elders, and the sect head.
After passing through the outer sect with the kid, they went straight towards the inner sect gate, which was guarded by 2 of the weaker inner sect disciples. Roran, as the leader of the group, requested an audience with the 3rd elder. The inner sect disciples guarding the door snickered,
“Haha, you think you can meet the elder just because you ask to?” clearly intent on extorting something out of them.
Noticing this, Roran snorted, “hmph, if you want to be the ones to tell the elder that Mory died, please, be my guest!” Hearing this, the disciples guarding the entrance turned pale, they knew all too well that Mory was doted upon by the elder, so much so that there were a lot of rumors of him being the elder’s illegitimate child. Thinking about this, the disciples guarding the entrance didn’t dare delay. “Wait here, I’ll go request the audience” one of them said.
20 minutes later, he returned and took them to a hall adjacent to the arena.
Entering the hall, they saw that the third elder was not alone, but was accompanied by the fifth and second elder. This put Roran and the rest at ease, with the other elders here, the third elder wouldn’t be too harsh with punishments regarding Mory’s death.
After looking at the elders, Roran and the rest immediately bowed and said “disciples greet second, third and fifth elders.”
The three elders turned around, the second elder, called Mara, was an elderly lady, but looked more like an old witch than a nice old lady. With long crooked nose and dark-red hair, she wore a dilapidated gray robe that probably had a real color a few centuries ago, which would also be the last time it was washed.
The third elder, Jonah, was a well groomed man, just past his middle ages, but clearly took great care of his appearance. He had dark black hair, was quite fat, and looked like someone who enjoyed the pleasures of life. He would look quite friendly if it wasn’t for that strange smile he had on his face. Any who saw it would feel ill at ease, but wouldn’t be able to say why. The feeling the smile gave you could only be called creepy, but the smile itself couldn’t be called malicious or vile, leaving people guessing at ways to describe it.
The fifth elder looked like a nice old man, just by looking at him, he would be anyone’s favorite grandpa, who always smiled a sweet smile, and was always incredibly polite and gentlemanly in his speech and actions. But those who really knew him understood that the brighter his smile, and the more polite his speech, the lower the chance you would live to see the next day. He was an expert in poisons and medicine, and even the sect head treated him with utmost respect.
The third elder looked at Roran’s group impatiently, waving his hand and saying, “Yes, yes, what is it, I’m quite busy so hurry it up.”
Hearing this, everyone once again looked at Roran, who couldn’t help but swallow deeply when thinking about the elder’s reaction to the news.
*gulp*
”elder, it is with great regret that I have to inform you that Mory, while trying to save Ja’hi, met his untimely demise together with him.” Roran said as eloquently as possible, clearly showing why he was the one to speak in this situation.
The third elder’s face immediately darkened, but he didn’t allow himself to lose his composure in front of the other elders. Before he could say anything, Roran continued. “But at the end of the entrance discovered by him, we found this child’ he said motioning to the unconscious child.” And knowing him, I am sure he would’ve wanted you to have it, venerable elder.” At this point the elder’s face had straightened up a bit, looking at the white haired child, it had more use than Mory had. But the elder still snorted, “hmph, you think you can just give me a child to replace him? Tsk, I can’t believe I backed such a stupid child, to actually die saving someone, and to even fail at it! How useless can you be! Well, be glad I’ll let you off with just this child, maybe if he’s truly useful I’ll give you a reward. Now leave the child and go back.”
Roran and the other’s faces immediately brightened, not daring to believe they were let off that easily. And they quickly bowed before the elders, saying “elders” respectfully before leaving as quickly as possible.
Seeing the disciples leave in a panic, the fifth elder chuckled.” hahaha, still playing favorites to weed out the weak disciples I see?” he said, glancing at the third elder.
“Hmph, that stupid pawn really was a waste! Now I’ll have to find a new disciple to raise up into an arrogant idiot. Really, if we don’t have an idiotic bully to weed out the weak, we’d have too much outer sect disciples, they reproduce like rabbits…” the third elder responded coldly.
If the outer sect disciples were to hear him, they’d probably go crazy. Actually using them in such a way, even the livestock was treated better! Of course, all those who were in the know were either trusted and enjoyed the benefits, or were no longer alive to tell the tale.
Taking a bell out of his robes, the third elder used it to lazily call upon a servant. As soon as the servant arrived, he commanded “get this kid in a cell downstairs, I’ll take care of him later.”
As the servant left, the third elder continued his discussion.” So, where were we? Ah! Yes, about those pills and weapons…”