In the silence, Bismarck turned towards Beli-Ola and addressed him; "Have you found the thief and would-be assassin?" he asked as the shadows snaked down the stairs and towards Beli-Ola. "No, my lord. I tracked him to the forest where I lost his trail. I can track him, but I need more time." Beli-Ola responded as he stood up and made his way towards Bismarck's throne, keeping his distance from the stairs and the shadows that rested there.
Bismarck let out a tired sigh on his throne, his shadows became lax, retreating from the stairs back to the horde of shadows swirling around him sluggishly. Bismarck had a distant look on his face as a shadowy tentacle made its way to his face and lovingly rubbed itself against his cheek before retreating back into the shadows as he turned his attention to Beli-Ola; "As long as you can find him and retrieve the item before time runs out, take as much gold and men as you need."
Bowing before his master, Beli-Ola walked out of the room leaving Bismarck and his shadows alone in the throne room. "I do hope those two succeed, I'd hate to have to step in myself" Bismarck said aloud, seemingly talking to himself, "You're right. It would be an experience to face a newly formed dragon, but maybe at a later time." He muttered before relaxing, the shadows around him expanding until they covered the room, plunging it into complete darkness.
The Island
Several tens of thousands of years ago during the dark ages, there was a war between all the races for dominance over the world on a scale greater than anything imaginable. The war ravaged the planet and at its climax, a group of sorcerers with unknown affiliations accidentally released one of the seals binding an ancient evil that had existed before the gods themselves in hopes that it would help them win the war. The evil swallowed the sorcerers, turning them into twisted perversion of what they once were in order to serve him; monsters. Continuing its conquest with the monsters in tow, the evil began to swallow everything and everyone, leaving nothing but death, decay and newly formed monsters which swelled the army of darkness.
Realizing the fate that awaited them, all the races put aside their differences and previous quarrels and came together in the first and only all racial alliance. As the evil pushed forward, dragons, elves, dark elves, humans, beastmen and dragonkin stood side by side for the first and only time in the history of their planet; Sehrem. They fought back the evil for years, slowly losing ground until a warrior of unimaginable skill and power by the name of Arthur took control of the army, leading them into the final battle and their victory, becoming the first king of all humans and cementing himself forever in history. With cheers of joy, they named the country they fought on Simul and peace loomed over the horizon.
However, a disagreement over which race the country belonged soon erupted, seeing as each race had shed equal amounts of blood, sweat and tears fighting for their lives and pushing back the evil, and none of them were willing to back down. The arguments quickly dissolved into violence, with everyone back at each other's throats, creating a never-ending conflict that went on to this day. With each race being equally matched, their main forces withdrew leaving behind some troops to occupy areas of the country and continue the war on their behalf.
The unnamed island off the coast of Simul was several hundred thousand miles long and wide, dotted with several small pools and lakes of lava and steaming water while a volcano stood proud at the center of the island, smoke lazily drifting out of it. The air was thick with the smell of sulphur and several vents on the ground running through the island released more sulfuric gas into the air. The entire island was devoid of plant life with the sole exception of large bone white petrified trees, while the animals on the island had evolved beyond the need for plants, instead feeding on sulphur, lava and the flesh of their fellow creatures, the surviving few slowly changing their structure and form to survive, while a select few became draconic in nature over the centuries due to their parasitic nature and habit of feeding off the leftovers, shed scales and corpses of the dragons that had lived and died on this island, developing rudimentary wings which merged with their forelimbs and the ability to use the breath attacks of the dragons they developed from, but not the ability to make use of magic. These creatures later became known as wyverns and slaying one became one of the requirements to test one's strength.
On the edge of the island, a door made of shadows formed out of thin air depositing Muri Thunder who had a pale and shivering Scott Necro on his back. Looking around to make sure that they were safe, he dropped Necro on the floor and sat next to him trying his hardest to keep his breathing in check and his hands from shaking, ignoring the sounds of vomiting which came from Necro's direction. Glancing at the shivering, puke covered form of his friend, he realized that Necro was close to breaking and he would if something wasn't done. Despite the fact that he was more than enough to complete the mission, Muri knew that he couldn't let his friend break here and now. Sitting on the floor, he took a deep breath in and let it out before commenting; "So that's what happens to the people he consumes" in a lame attempt at humor, letting out a dry chuckle.
Hearing the lame attempt at humor Necro looked at him with an incredulous look before getting up, wiping the vomit from his mouth with his handkerchief and dusting his trousers. "Thanks Muri, I really needed that" Necro said as he took note of their surroundings, trying to keep his mind off what he saw in the dark place that brought him here. Heated pools of water and lava dotted the landscape as far as his eyes could see and the cries of wyverns filled the air as they flew across the sky, often diving into pools of lava or engaging in aerial combat, sometimes crashing to the ground or releasing jets of fire into the sky or at one another while sone of them made their nests in the mountains that dotted the island.
Necro's eyes drank all this in for what seemed like hours before tearing his gaze away, returning it to his sitting friend. "Are you ready?" came the question from Muri who had his gaze focused inland, staring past the wyverns and pools of lava. "Not yet, I need a wyvern. The larger the better" was the response he received before getting up from the floor, "Alright buddy, let's get you that overgrown lizard." As soon as the sentence left his mouth, a loud roar echoed through the section of the island they were at, emanating from deep in the island. "Does that sound big enough for you?" Muri asked his partner as he got up, dusting off the dirt from his trousers. "Yeah, sounds about right Muri" Necro told him as he set his gaze on the forest, "Let's go get ourselves a wyvern"
The two of them set out towards the forest, avoiding wyverns whenever they could, and those that they couldn't avoid, Muri took out in a single hit leaving a trail of unconscious and wary wyverns behind them. It took them a day to reach the forest on foot, and another day to navigate their way through it while avoiding detection, much to Muri's ire since he wanted nothing more than to test himself against more wyverns. Just when he was about to complain once again about how long it was taking to get there, Necro held up a finger to silence him. Glaring at his partner, Muri wanted to speak out in anger, only for his partner to point ahead of them; there in the clearing ahead was a wyvern. It was seventeen meters from snout to tail and fifteen meters tall on its hindlegs, the body of a smaller wyvern clutched in its forearms as its snout tore into the sides of the wyvern.
Seeing his target occupied, Necro's hand slowly reached into the pouch behind him, pulling out a light green bracelet which had several runic patterns for strength and range inscribed all over it. Putting the bracelet on his right hand, the runes on the bracelet lit up, crawling off the bracelet and onto his skin as he held back a hiss of pain. Stretching his hand towards the wyvern who was still eating, he muttered a single word; "Gbábodé". Immediately those words crossed his lips, a marking which resembled the letter "A" without the bar going through it appeared on his right cheek with a single vertical line going through it, while the inverse appeared on the wyvern's right cheek.
Clutching his hand, the marking on his face gave off a glow which resonated with the marking on the wyvern's cheek, enveloping both of them in light, causing the wyvern to drop the corpse in its hands before the two of them were sent flying into one another, producing an even stronger light which caused Muri to shield his eyes while his ears picked up on the screams of pain from both Necro and the wyvern.
As the light died down and the screams faded, Muri uncovered his eyes and saw a crouching figure with steam rising off it which was neither Necro nor the wyvern in the clearing where the wyvern once was. The figure slowly stood, revealing it to be Necro, but not as he once was; parts of his body were littered with scales and he had a tail emerging from the base of his spine. The joints of his knees were reversed, and a thin membrane emerging from his armpits connecting itself to his wrist via a large bone which jutted out from it, forming rudimentary wings, similar to the ones that bats had, and a large bone. Two small horns jutted out from his forehead while his eyes had become slitted. Flexing his clawed fingers and moving his tail slowly, Necro began to go through basic motions in order to get used to his new form. Half an hour later, he had gotten used to his new form and turned to face his partner, "Alright, I think I'm ready for this" he said as he spread his arms, showing off his wings.