A cloaked man walks into the only tavern on the outskirts of the Falahan Kingdom. It's a small establishment in the middle of a small clearing on a near forgotten path leading out of the kingdom. The forest surrounding it is home to some of the wildest and strongest beasts in the world and so the lone building is home to some of the strongest and rowdiest adventurers in the world.
Accompanied by a young girl, no more than 14 or 15 years of age, the man casually finds a table in the middle of the room, completely ignoring the stares from the patrons. Keeping his hood over his head to hide his face, the two of them wait for the barmaid to make her rounds. Hushed toned conversations and whispers start immediately, but the couple ignores them.
"Crimson cloak…"
"That can't be him…"
"That girl is smoking!"
"Whatcha gonna have, stranger?" the barmaid asks as she stops at the table. She does a quick double-take as she looks at the young girl since her skin seems to be glowing just under the surface as if she bore fire from within and a small wisp of smoke emanates from under her cloak. The barmaid removes her eyes from the young girl, with difficulty, and looks back at the man. The man never looks up at her and just quietly stare into space. The young girl frowns as she looks at him and turns to the barmaid with a bright smile.
"Nothing for me, but he'll have an ale." The barmaid is taken aback for second then smiles back at the girl.
"You got it, young'un." She walks to bar and speaks to the barkeep as interest in the couple starts to wain and conversations get rowdy and boisterous again.
"You have to be nicer, Kai." Kai grunts in response.
The barmaid brings him his ale before long and he gingerly sips it without moving his hood. The young girl bounces in her chair slightly as if impatiently waiting for him to finish so they can leave. Kai just finishes half of his mug when the door bursts open and immediately stops all noise inside the tavern. Four shining soldiers, in full armor, stomp through the opening. They are followed by a rat-like bureaucrat noble that slinks in behind them. One of them is shinier than the others and is obviously higher rank with his feathered helm and blue satin sash across his breastplate, adorned with medals. They quickly scan the crowd as they spot the couple at the table.
Continuing to sip his ale, Kai ignores the soldiers as they surround him with swords drawn. The young girl stops bouncing and smiles at the soldiers as if she knows the punchline to the joke and can't wait to tell it.
"Blood Red," the higher rank shouts at Kai, "I, Captain Renald, am here to arrest you for the kidnap, torture, and murder of Prince Helem the 2nd. Do not resist, I have been told that dead is just as good as alive." Kai only slightly moves his head, so his face is still hidden in the hood, but he looks at the soldiers surrounding him. The girl starts bouncing impatiently again.
"You are so certain it was I that did this crime," he asks turning back to the Captain.
"Do you have any proof?"
"Of course, I do," the Captain responds loudly. "This noble happened to pass by as you committed the murder and was brave enough to come forward." The rat noble sneers a smile and bows gracelessly.
"I live to serve," he vomits. The Captain nods and turns back to Kai at the table.
"That is all the proof I need to arrest you. We have methods to get a confession from you." The girl looks at the slippery noble when she notices Kai staring at him and her eyes grow big with recognition. A firm grip on her thigh by Kai stops her from leaping at the noble.
"Is that so," Kai slowly replies without breaking his gaze at the nobleman. For a brief moment there seemed to be a flash of red from under the cloak, where his eye should be. The Captain looked skeptically at the darkness there and slowly raises the hood with his sword. A collective gasp and murmuring sounds through the quiet hall as Kai's face comes into full view for the first time.
His face is horribly scarred and blackened on the right side. The mark appears to travel down his neck and disappears into his cloak. His eyes are different colors, blue on the left and red on the right. The hair on his right side is blood against his left side's brown. The scarred side forms a perfect seam to what appears to be two different beings sewed together.
The Captain sneers in disgust at the sight.
"What happened to you?" Asks one of the patrons around them. He refuses to answer. The Captain motions to the soldier behind Kai. Producing chains from a pack, the soldier approaches him from behind.
With a swift and savage attack, Kai spins around and drives his short sword through the advancing soldier's chest. A spray of blood follows as he pulls the sword clear. At nearly the same time, The Captain brings his broad sword down on to Kai's head only to be stopped by a second sword he was holding in his other hand. The broad sword stops instantly as if hitting a solid boulder instead of a sword held by a single arm. The Captain's face twists in disbelief as Kai roughly shrugs the broad sword away.
The exchange took only a few seconds and the other soldiers had no time to react before it was over, and the stand-off resumed.
"I have too much to do to have your misunderstandings delay my journey," Kai announces through clenched teeth. His eyes glow brightly with their color shade. A gentle breeze from his feet flaps his cloak and hair. A magic circle forms on the ground and flies up over his body like a halo before vanishing above his head. The blue shade of the magic circle encases him in its glow before slowly fading away.
"Wh-What did you just do?" Asked the Captain. The patrons of the tavern started making their way to the door and the barkeep and maid snuck out the back. Slowly, the only one's left were the soldiers, nobleman, and the couple. Kai waits until all the bystanders leave the building before answering.
"Just a little magic." He vanishes in a whirlwind of dust. He reappears in the air, spinning arm over arm, in front of one of the soldiers. One sword removes the soldier's arm at the shoulder, while the continued motion of the spin causes the other sword to slice through his torso at a diagonal. The soldier falls to the ground in a shower of blood, shock and fear locked on his face. He cleans the swords off by whipping them in front of him, forming a bloody 'X' on the ground.
"I really don't have time for this," Kai says over his shoulder, "my prey is right in front me."
"Bastard!" The Captain rushes Kai with his sword behind him. Swinging with a swift and powerful attack, Kai bends backward to dodge and then vanishes again. The third soldier collapses forward as his back opens up. Kai stands over him as the blue glow appears and disappears in fading floating particles.
"Still not perfect," he observes then collapses to one kneel.
"It takes way too much energy for such a short time," he notes through clenched teeth. The Captain starts laughing menacingly as he makes his way toward the exhausted man, dragging his sword's tip on the ground.
"You got too cocky, Blood Red," he screams.
"Forget arrest, I'm going to end you right n-!" The Captain gets interrupted by a pair of soft and warm thighs wrapping themselves around his head from behind. His helm slowly lifts, and he looks up at the figure on his shoulders. The young girl's bright wide smile contradicts her strength and aura.
"I can't have you killing my special person, now can I?" The Captain's eyes grow wide with fear as the girl pushes herself in a handstand on his head and spins. His neck snaps as his head turns to face opposite direction. The girl gracefully lands on her feet as the body crashes to the ground.
"You were too reckless," she tells him as she walks up to him. She places her hand on head and closes her eyes. She glows brightly as a mist of white envelopes him and his energy is replenished. Standing up, he checks his condition.
"I was hoping it would work better this time," he concedes.
"Seems I either need more stamina or energy. Or is it in the incantation? I'll have to experiment some more when we get done here." The girl rolls her eyes. The nobleman starts clapping at the display causing the couple to glare at him.
"That was very lovely to watch, old friend."
"I imagine it was, Aastra," Kai growls, "do you even remember the old country?" The nobleman shrugs with a bored look on his face.
"Unfortunately, I wasn't there long enough to remember much of anything."
He slowly smiles at a single thought as he looks at Kai, his eyes glowing with sinister mischief.
"Though there is one thing I remember with vivid clarity!" He throws his hand out as if grasping something invisible. Kai screams in pain as he grips his right side and drops back to his knee. Breathing heavily, he squeezes his side almost to the point of drawing blood.
"Hurts?" Kai screams again as Aastra squeezes his fist around the invisible object. He fights to catch his breath against the pain.
"AASTRA!" The young girl screeches as she leaps the great distance between her and him. With little effort, Aastra catches her around the neck in mid-flight. He barely moves as she struggles in his grasp. Inquisitively, Aastra regards her intently before sneering in shock and disgust.
"You vile pseudo-spirit," Aastra jeers before snapping her neck and throwing her lifeless body behind the bar. Kai relaxes slightly as Aastra releases his grasp and walks up to stand over him. Deliberately, Aastra crouches down and grabs Kai's face, forcing him to look him in the eyes.
"This power is not yours to use as you see fit," Aastra growls as he grabs Kai's shoulder and clenches his fist. Kai screams in pain and nearly passes out. The scar glows under the surface as if something trying to get out of a trap. He screams louder and clenches his teeth as the scar bulges slightly. Chains creak and groan. The black scar-like chains that make up the mark on Kai's body slip and move, in response to the growing power underneath. The power tries to escape and the chains move themselves to contain it. The lock mark clicks and groans in effort and eventually snaps shut to constrain the light behind it.
Aastra clicks his tongue and releases Kai's shoulder.
"I praise you, boy. This lock is extraordinary." Sweat beads Kai's face and neck in pained effort as he glares venom at Aastra. Aastra slowly drags his fingernail across the marked scar causing Kai to grunt in pain. Reaching the end of the mark, Aastra looks curiously at a long, tattooed, chain leading from the mark to the back of Kai's hand and connected to a weird clock face tattoo with only 6 numbers.
"SALLI!" Kai shouts. Flames explode from behind the bar, melting the glasses and turning the wooden stools and counters to ashes almost instantly. Standing in the flames, almost as if made of flames herself, is the young girl, very much alive. Her eyes swim in the flames, black pools of void in the bright heat of her flaming head. A crooked, cracked smile, also devoid of color, manifests across her face.
"It's about time you called for me," she complains, "I was growing tired of playing dead and hearing you scream." She leaps at Aastra and they lock into a fierce battle allowing Kai to escape. Drawing power into his fingertips, Kai places them on the clock face on his hand. He slowly, with great effort turns the tattoo clock hand from 0 to 1 and a loud latch is heard. The sound of a lock opening. Chains creaking.
The power under the mark glows brightly as small opens appear that the chains neglect to cover. Kai grunts and clenches his teeth in effort as he tries desperately to keep the power under control inside him.
"You are my power now!" He commands half to himself. The power explodes violently from his scarred half. Drawing the expended energy to him, Kai shapes it, with effort, into a ball. Using his hands to smooth and round it. The energy continues to grow, and Kai turns the tattoo to the 0 once again. The energy sparks and flares like a mini sun in his hands. Kai smokes from his scarred side and looks pale and exhausted from the effort of controlling the power.
"It was only level one," he says to himself. She looks at Salli still distracting the noble while he finishes his preparations.
"Now!" he shouts, and Salli doesn't hesitate, she grabs hold of Aastra and wraps her body around from behind, preventing his arms and legs from moving. Despite the massive flames melting his flesh, the noble never screams in pain or tries to get a way. It's almost as if he doesn't feel the heat at all.
"Let me go!" Aastra screams. He tries to wiggle from her grasp but is unable to do so.
"Hey, Aastra!" Aastra stops struggling and looks at Kai with his eyes growing big from shock. Kai releases the ball toward Aastra and is thrown into the wall behind him from the shockwave. Aastra struggles a new and seems to panic as the energy ball sails through the air toward him.
"Too much! Too much!" he screeches as the energy ball slams into his body and explodes. The resulting fireball disintegrates Aastra, Salli, and the surrounding building. The roof and three of the four walls surrounding the building vanish without a trace from the explosion. Kai watches the building fall around him with a bit of satisfaction, his protection spell barely able to keep him from death. Flames burn through the wooden surfaces that withstood Salli's initial flaming onslaught.
Only a charred and smoking corpse was left of the Nobleman.
"Kai!" The flames burning next to him dance and coalesce into the young girl, Salli. The flames form her body and clothes before dying away and leaving the fully human girl again. She places her hand on Kai's face and lovingly checks his condition. Kai smile softly at her worried face.
"I'm fine, Salli, just really tired." Salli relaxes and sits on her feet with a relieved breath. She sighs an exasperated breath.
"This was a crazy and incredibly dangerous idea, Kai," Salli scolds as she helps him to his feet. One of the rafters, that hadn't fallen yet, crashes to the ground in an explosion of sparks. The final wall creaks as it burns, before collapsing itself.
Kai and Salli find themselves standing in the middle of the burning ruins of the tavern.
"I guess it was a little too much," Kai admits after looking around. Salli places her hands on her hips and glares at him.
"If you had only waited another two days you could have been at full strength and wouldn't have had to rely on the First Lock," Salli grumbles, throwing her hands into the air in surrender.
"Seriously, fighting that monster with only 10% of your strength. What the hell were you thinking?!"
"Well, to tell you the truth I didn't think the Ability Boost spell would drain that much energy from me. So that was a miscalculation." Salli rolls her eyes and gives up. Kai gingerly walks over, still holding his side, to the smoking corpse and stares down at it.
"Is that the last of him?" Salli ask as she walks up to him. Kai shakes his head.
"No," he spits out. Kai drops his foot onto the corpses head and watches as it turns to ash before he turns to walk away. Leaving the burning vestiges in the clearing, Kai walks tall despite the pain and exhaustion he feels. Salli runs up and grabs his arm, Kai smiles a small smile at her before he turns to the horizon and dons a serious expression.
"Demons are not that easy to kill," he finishes as they leave the Kingdom.
The two failed to notice the figure burst from the ashes of the corpse. A 7-foot-tall black skinned monstrosity with molten fire for eyes. Its mouth spreads into a razor toothed grin and giant bat wings explode from its back. It lifts into the air and turns to look at the couple one last time.
"Kaiser Aetner, at last," it growls before disappearing into the black night and smoke.