Sitting in a deep dark cell, not knowing where in the world he was dropped in, Salin thought about how his life came to this. He had been living the best life he could dream of, having the feeling of importance wherever he went. People feared him wherever he went, the knowledge that an empire's Hidden protector was in the premises sent shivers down their spines. People whose names appeared in the hidden protector's book of death never saw him coming, one moment they were alive, unaware that their lives had been out on a timer, and the next, they were gone—just dead like that. And the ones who knew of his arrival always lived in terror wherever they ran too, thinking they could somehow escape his blade, their deaths were always lousy when it came.
It had all come crashing down when he met that man—A spirit lord. Now that he knew better, he shouldn't have followed the man, he should have ran the other side the moment he suspected something was wrong, and now he was paying for it. Stuck in a closed-up cell, with no entrance that he could see, and in a location he knew nothing about. There wasn't even a sign of the critters that usually graced any kind of cell. The only sign that he wasn't alone was the high-pitched screams that he kept hearing every few hours. People begging in different languages. That was what clued him in of the place where he was being kept.
The warren.
A place where the empire kept its high-level prisoners. He hadn't visited the place before, even his status as a hidden protector couldn't get him the authority. It was a place he'd only heard of, where the empire kept its worst prisoners, either to be tortured continually or left alone to wither and die, their only company, the screamings and begging of their fellow prisoners. And now he was sitting there, not as a visitor but as an inmate. Cheers! He thought to himself.
He had woken up next to an emotionally and spiritually crushed spirit lady. She didn't even pay him any kind of attention when he came too. Despite his evident terror when she was the first thing he saw when he woke up, the knowledge of what had been inflicted on him was still on his mind. He shivered at the memory.
When other pillars had then started appearing, he later learnt what had happened. One of the most feared and powerful people on the planet was left crushed and broken, never to rise again. The other was dead, torn to pieces. All done by a single man.
He had been immediately taken into custody, no questions asked, they just knocked him unconscious and threw him into this dark hole of terrors, leaving him there for days to stew and drown in the screams that pierced the everlasting darkness.
When he'd had the time to sit and think coherently, he finally understood what he had escaped from. The fact that he had encountered that monster and then was left unscathed was a cause for celebration, but his current situation didn't leave room for any sort of celebration.
He was still in his head when he felt himself being dragged through space, unable to contest the mountain-sized will dragging him. "I thought teleportation was blocked in this place," he said to himself before he was whisked away, leaving his dark room once again empty.
When he appeared, he immediately collapsed on his knee, pressure pressing down on him. The sheer presence filling the room was so crushing that he felt the air refusing to enter his lungs as if the air itself didn't want to be associated with him. He couldn't think and his vision was beginning to darken I'm going to die, he thought to himself, terror filling him. Tears were beginning to fall from his eyes when he felt the pressure lessen. Giving a reprieve from the crushing presence, he immediately drew in huge gasps of air, filling his lungs. That was when he finally took notice of the other occupants in the room.
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Pillars.
Eleven of them were standing on both sides of the throne room in which he now found himself. The auras emanating from them were so crushing that it felt like holding up a mountain, almost making him collapse from sheer exhaustion.
They were dressed in different outfits, from militaristic to casual to opulent dresses that glittered with different pearls.
His status in the empire as a hidden protector allowed him certain information, information which was mostly known by the top kingdoms—the empire's enemies. It was mostly uncertain information about the numbers of spirit lords fielded by the empire, but he knew for a fact that the empire fielded twelve spirit lords, minus the king. A feat unaccomplished by any of the other kingdoms. So it was confusing at first to count only eleven spirit lords standing on both sides of the throne room, until he remembered that the empire had recently lost a spirit lord. Elora Darkfang was standing in a corner of the room, head down. If he didn't know for a fact that she was a spirit lady, he'd have thought that she was a servant, judging from how she was apart from the rest.
The attention he drew when he appeared didn't seem to be a good one, judging from the thinly veiled bloodlust radiating from most of the lords present. Even his patron who was standing to one side seemed to have a changed opinion about him. And there goes my only path out of this mess, he thought.
The man with the single most powerful aura in the room was the emperor. He was a fit man, if a little bit short by most standards. He had the body and face that looked like it was sculpted.
Sitting on a golden throne with a sunburst sigil on the headrest. The throne was placed on a dais, with two guards standing on both sides at the foot of the platform—both powerful spirit lords. The emperor wore a red garment with black linings on the wrists and neck. A golden circlet rested on his red hair, matching his similarly golden eyes. Salin was forced to quickly avert his face when his eyes met those glowing golding eyes.
"Come," He commanded, voice filled with authority and a sense of superiority to match.
Salin didn't dare dally. He crawled on his knees towards the foot of the throne.
When he stopped, he looked up to see the emperor regarding him with barely contained anger. His leaking aura was filled with such heat and crushing force that Salin didn't know if he was going to be burned or crushed to death. Thankfully, the emperor immediately closed the leak when he noticed Salin's expression which had turned sheet white.
"Do you know why you've been brought here?" The emperor asked.
Salin nodded. "I revealed classified information to an enemy of the empire," he said. It didn't take him long to figure that one out, Elora practically said it before she tortured him.
"Not just any empire enemy, the man you met is possibly one of the greatest enemies of the empire."
Salin turned deadly pale.
"You also caused the death of an empire's pillar and the subsequent termination of another's cultivation," he said, head nodding towards Elora whose head went down more in shame."Do you have anything to say for yourself?"
Quickly taking the opportunity presented to him."Your Highness, in my defence, I did warn them about the man when I was captured," Salin said.
The emperor raised an eyebrow, he turned to regard Elora who had begun shifting with apparent nervousness.
"Continue," he said to Salin.
"The man told me to warn my superiors to stay away from any of his interests and he would do the same," he said, Exposing the truth which he was now sure Elora had failed to mention. "When I was captured, I informed both spirit lords of the warning I was told to deliver. My warning was discarded and I was subsequently tortured afterwards."
"Is that so?" The emperor said, looking at Elora with hardened eyes. She practically shook from all the attention diverted towards her.
"Nevertheless, a reply must be sent, even if we were the ones that caused it due to sheer idiocy," he said, eyes smouldering with anger as he looked at Elora. "We must reply, otherwise we'll be seen as weak by the other kingdoms."
The emperor looked up to coolly regard the other spirit lords in attendance. Eyes glowing and voice hard.
"Prepare yourselves, we go to battle."