Deralect opened his eyes to see nothing but darkness. Everything around him was just black, and if he knew any better, he would have thought that he was in the void, the world after death. But no, he could feel the stone floor beneath his feet, cold and rough as it was, and a passing breeze flitted around his astral body to the darkness ahead.

He took a deep breath, noting how clean and pure the air was here, as if he were taken to another world, entirely different from his own. No, but he knew he was still on Earth, mingling among all of the other self important fools who thought themselves righteous and true, safe, from the terrors that coursed throughout their reality. Oh, how wrong they were.

He lifted his head to look up at the ceiling, finding it just as dark as everything else. Slowly, he turned around, just to find more darkness. He sighed. "How did I even end up here?". No one answered.

After stalling for a few minutes, he decided to walk in a random direction, hoping to find an exit. Yet, after walking for minutes on end, he found nothing but pure darkness. Impatient from achieving no progress, he decided to activate his soul weapon, hoping it would generate enough light to observe his surroundings.

A flash of purple light blasted into his vision, blinding him for a second before his eyes recovered, and what he saw after that surprised him entirely.

He was in a vast, circular room, with a low domed ceiling engraved with a multitude of different ancient runes, each representing a different deity of old. In the center of the room, a set of stairs led up to a pedestal that held an ancient black orb, seeming to emanate a grim presence.

Deralect stared at the orb in awe, an abundance of different emotions clashing within him chaotically. "Th-that is the Darkness Orb, a legendary artifact said to give the bearer the power of a black level entity.” He muttered in disbelief. His soul weapon, Nova, pulsed sporadically, imitating his increased heart beat. He took a small step towards the orb, then another, then another, and soon he was at the base of the stairs, adrenaline rushing throughout his body in tremendous waves.

"Calm down, calm down." he muttered to himself, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath, before exhaling slowly. After his heartbeat slowed, he opened his eyes, and stared determinedly at the legendary object, before gathering all of his willpower and slowly walking upwards, reaching the top of the stairs. After a moment of hesitation, he stretched out his arm towards the orb, feeling a vibrating thrum pulsate from it as he neared it.

“With this artifact, I will be able to achieve my goal and get revenge on all those that wronged me, and I will encase the world in my wrath!" he shouted defiantly, pressing the tips of his fingers on the apex of the orb and holding his breath.

For a second, the world stood still, and every atom seemed to shine with great detail before his eyes. Then, blackness poured out of the orb, and darkness consumed everything, compressing his body into a tight ball and sucking the air out of his lungs, as time seemed to contract and retract in an uneven rhythm, causing his soul to fluctuate wildly and emit bursts of energy. Then, it all stopped, and he opened his eyes to observe a perfectly cubic white room, where a blurred figure stood before him.

“It looks like entertainment will finally be attained.” The figure whispered softly, and the walls trembled in response, before suddenly fluctuating violently, causing Deralect to fall to the ground as he lost his balance, and then abruptly regain his footing, as he found himself back in the first room, standing before an empty pedestal.

‘Who was that? Why did teleport me to their location the second I touched the orb? How? Ok, don’t lose your cool, you will find out when the time comes, but first, did it work?’

He raised his hand in front of his face and focused on his open palm. Soon, black particles started forming into a gas, before swirling and taking the shape of a sickle that resonated dark energy, which then solidified and landed in his open palm. He stared at it, transfixed, almost not believing that what he had just seen had actually happened.

“I… Have power above all else now, the power of someone in the final realm, Black. This has not happened for a thousand years! I will use it to attain my goal, and destroy the world!” he yelled manically, raising the sickle above his head and gathering up all of the energy he could muster into the tip of the blade, before releasing it towards the sky. The room around him exploded, as a beam of pure darkness shot up into the heavens, staining them black. The world trembled, a huge crater forming around him as he was exposed to the open air, free of the dark room at last.

“I am free, and stronger than ever! From this day on, you will all feel the true might of the most powerful being in a thousand years! And you will all meet your demise!” He shouted, his voice sending out powerful vibrations that could be felt in every corner of the continent.

“Armageddon will occur.”

***********

Capital city Sundering Falls, Tetrarch Tower

A man sat on a marble throne in an empty room, looking out at the bustling urban cityscape below him. He wore a flowing purple robe engraved with golden stripes that hid his legs from view, making him seem to float off of the ground. His long golden hair shimmered as it swayed slightly in the soft breeze, like an angel sent from heaven. Yet his face, beautifully etched as it was, was stuck in a permanent frown, ruining his image entirely and showing his true personality for the world to see.

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“You're still as stuck up as always, aren’t you Reginald?” a voice called out from behind his throne.

“Do not call me by my first name, commoner spawn. Since I am your better, call me by my title, and then bow down to me and ask for forgiveness, for you have insulted my standing in society, and set an example for other non-nobles to do the same.” Reginald replied in an annoyed tone.

The voice chuckled, before muttering something incoherent and then silencing entirely. Abruptly, a very average looking man wearing a similarly purple robe appeared in front of Reginald, holding a cane high above his head, before promptly striking the tip straight into the ground beneath him, causing a spider web of cracks to spread out from the center.

Reginald surveyed the scene, unimpressed, before sighing dejectedly and waiving his right hand in a flourish, causing a purple light to shine brightly throughout the room. After a few seconds, the light disappeared, and a marble table surrounded by wooden chairs appeared in the center of the room, seemingly having appeared out of nowhere.

“Sit. Wait for the others to arrive before we begin.”

“Of course your majesty, whatever you say your majesty.”

Reginald’s frown deepened, but he said nothing, feeling that it was beneath him to participate in such immature squabbles.

Suddenly, another man wearing a purple robe appeared in the room, and noticing Reginald, he sneered and looked away, muttering something under his breath.

“Why don’t you sit down at this lovely table that our host arranged for us, it’s the polite thing to do.” Said the first man, a pensive expression on his face.

“Shut your mouth Farsaw, you’re no better.” The second snapped, frantically looking around for another place to sit. After finding nothing, he dejectedly sat down at the table, making sure to avoid the others' gaze at any cost.

Farsaw chuckled again, before closing his eyes and leaning back in his chair, falling asleep. Silence permeated throughout the room as the group waited for the last remaining member to arrive. As the minutes passed by, Reginald’s irritation grew stronger and stronger, until he finally couldn’t take it anymore, and smashed his fist into the side of the table, causing it to shatter into hundreds of small pieces that thrummed a violent purple. The second man stared in shock at the former table, while Farsaw remained fast asleep, not even having batted an eyelid. All of a sudden, a woman wearing a purple dress appeared beside Reginald’s throne, a soft smile forming on her lips as she surveyed the chaotic mess in the center of the room.

“Sorry to keep you boys waiting, albeit it seems you have been quite busy before I got here, perhaps you had started without me?” she asked cheerily, walking over to the remaining empty chair and sitting down.

Farsaw opened one eye and peered at her as she fixed her demeanor, before promptly closing it again, finding nothing of interest.

“You dare to come this late to our meeting, and when you finally arrive you blabber random nonsense?! This is an insult to my family line! Who do you think you are, to do such atrocious things before me!” Reginald shouted, causing the building they were in to tremble slightly.

The woman looked at the trembling room, her grin growing even wider, before then waving her hand, causing the building to stabilize and the table to reassemble itself. “Calm down Reginald, let's focus on the matter at hand, and then afterwards we can talk about my behavior and whether it was good or bad, hmm? Don’t you agree?”

“...Fine.”

“Good, now let’s begin. Farsaw, can you accurately say that the energy signature we felt twenty minutes ago was that of a Black realm?” the woman asked, scrutinizing Farsaw as he leaned forward in his chair and rested his hands on the table.

“...Yes.”

“And can you accurately say that the energy signature matched that of the presumably dead cult leader, Deralect?”

“...Yes”

“So there you have it folks, we cracked the case. Now all we have to do is find this crazy maniac and kill him, so that he doesn't hurt anybody with his newly gained inconceivable po-”

“It's not that simple, Grace. There are many more unknown variables, and we don’t even know if we can even defeat him with our current power.” the second man interrupted, getting a sharp glare from Grace which he returned fervently.

“Everyone be quiet, I figured out what we have to do.” Farsaw declared, turning everyone's attention towards him.

“We cannot simply attack him rashly, for that is what he wants us to do. We must scout out his whereabouts and find out what he’s doing, before executing a small-scale attack to measure his strength. After that, depending on the results, we either attack him head on with our full force, or we wait it out and see what he does with his newfound power and arrogance.”

Everyone stared at Farsaw with mixed emotions, and after a moment of contemplation, the second man stood up and placed his hands on the table, making sure to grab everyone's attention.

“I, Daron Felius, declare that the twenty-third meeting of the four ruling tetrarchs, is concluded.”

A flash of purple light shined throughout the room and Daron disappeared, leaving the other three tetrarchs to stare at the spot he had once inhabited, still thrumming with purple particles.

“Well, see you guys later, I'm off.” said Grace, disappearing in a flash of purple light.

The remaining two tetrarchs glanced at each other, each with different emotions inhabiting their faces. Reginald scoffed and looked away, flinching slightly as Farsaw grinned widely at his antics.

“See you next time, Reginald.” he said, before disappearing in a flash of purple light.

Reginald stared at the empty room and sighed, before waving his left hand above his head, causing the table and the chairs to collapse into tiny motes of purple light.

“See you next time.”