Chereads / Rise of the Dragon Emperor / Chapter 10 - The Darkness Returns

Chapter 10 - The Darkness Returns

"Wai....."

The last thing Druak remembers was him telling the ominous voice he heard to wait, but before the words could escape his mouth he was suddenly surrounded by complete darkness.

He couldn't see anything, not even his own hands. All he could was wait and wait but the darkness continued.

It felt as if days had passed by but still, nothing happened.

He waited and waited and eventually something finally happened. A blurry image began to appear before him, it was as if he was flying above looking down at whatever was happening.

As he watched what was occurring in front of him something familiar came to mind. Isn't this the cliff I fell from.

Druak continued to observe what was happening and noticed that a figure seemed to be approaching something that was on the floor.

Druak tried and tried but couldn't make out what was on the floor. Despite not knowing what was on the floor for some reason he seemed to recognise it, but he had no idea where from.

Just as the floor was about to come into view, the image he once saw had disappeared and he had once again fallen into darkness, failing to make out what could have possibly been on the floor.

Druak sat down in the darkness once more and decided to think about the academy and what he could learn. He couldn't do anything else so if it was better than doing nothing, it also kept his mind occupied.

After what seemed like weeks. Druak couldn't take it any longer, he began to look for any possible way to escape.

The first thing he did was try to brute force his way through by casting magic but soon realised his magical spells couldn't be cast in this strange space.

'What if I'm just stuck inside my own mind and that ominous voice was some kind of creature that possessed me.' This was the conclusion Druak came up with as there was no other explanation for what was happening to him right now.

After thinking about any ways he could take advantage of this he decided not to, as it might backfire and he could lose his body forever.

He wanted to pry inside the mind of whatever possessed him but he ended up going a much safer route, just trying to get control of his own body.

The first thing he did was sit down cross-legged to try to make it easier for him to access his mana veins. His plan was to hopefully flow enough of his own mana through his mana veins to affect the being that was possessing him and give him a chance to take back control.

This seemed to have a greater effect than the last attempt as he was now able to see what was actually happening to his body.

He observed what was going and tears began to fall down his body face, it was complete devastation.

All around him were the corpses of villagers and soldiers.

He could only stare and watch as his body continued to decimate entire villages, it was a complete massacre and he could do nothing but watch.

After a few days, the massacring began to stop and it appeared as though whatever possessed his body had what it wanted.

The bodies of hundreds and thousands of villagers and soldiers began piling up one after another. It seemed as though they were tossed into specific areas and seemed to for a massive circle of corpses

Druak was in horror at what his body had done, of what his choice caused to happen. This was the most devastation he had ever seen, even more so than when his village was destroyed by orcs in his past life.

'This is all my fault, what have I brought into this world.'

'Stop, just stop. Please stop killing all of them.' Druak tried constantly to get his thoughts across but it never worked.

[THEY MUST PAY.]

These were the only words he ever got in reply to his pleas.

After two full weeks of constant agony and Druak could do nothing but watch.

Then just as he was drained of any semblance of fear he witnessed one last despicable act.

His body had left a few hundred humans alive and was preparing for some kind of ritual.

This was worse than any normal death as the body of someone that took part in almost any ritual of this nature would often die an excruciating death.

Druak had done a much safer ritual that was done to create a mana core but due to his inexperience and lack of power his body had almost exploded due to the mana veins being formed, this caused him to go into a coma.

A darker ritual like this almost guaranteed the death of the individual.

While the possessed body of Druak was preparing for the ritual a loud horn could be heard from a mountain pass not far from the piles of bodies and sacrificial humans still alive.

Inside a large tent sat 10 knights. These Knights were known as the Argonaut knights of the Argonaut kingdom.

The Argonaut kingdom was one of the lesser kingdoms of this continent but they were renowned for having some of the greatest knights among all the lesser kingdoms.

The knights had been summoned by the kingdom to deal with the dark sorcerer that has destroyed and massacred villages all around the kingdom.

Some of the knights seemed rather frustrated for some reason, one even speaking up.

"Why do we have to deal with such a boring job isn't it the nobles of this land's job to protect this place.*Spit*"Pathetic cowards."

Most of the knights laughed at the comment however there was one particular person that seemed angry at this comment. This was a rather skinny man with short red hair and appeared to be quite old. He was glaring at them with gritted teeth however, he ended up not doing anything.

"We need to storm the ritual site now before more are killed." A large man with a black beard and a fire bear cloak said.

"Why should we care for pathetic villagers, we should be thinking of our own safety first."The older, much skinnier man said. His angered face now showed a giant grin as he seemed to enjoy watching the villagers suffer.

The arguing continued as did the volume and it seemed to not be stopping anytime soon.

An enormous man with grey hair and a massive beard suddenly had a wave of intimidating aura escape his body as he slammed the table in front of him."ENOUGH, both of you be quiet and let me think."

This was the leader of the knights, he was known as the Greyhound of the battlefield. His renown was known throughout the kingdoms and he was the first 6th stage platinum ranked knight of any lesser kingdom in over 2 centuries.

He had been the leader of the knights for over 100 years so all the other knights had great respect for him.

All the knights bowed in unison, putting their fists to their chests.

"So what is your plan Greyhound." A much younger Knight asked, this Knight held a greatsword in his right hand and was completely covered in armour. The only reason everyone knew him as the young knight was due to Greyhound using those worlds when conversing with him.

"Shut up newbie, you've only been around for 2 months, what right do you have to speak." Said the skinny-looking Knight.

"I SAID ENOUGH."An enormous grey aura exploded out of Greyhound.

Everyone fell silent.

"Good now stop your bickering and act like the knights you are."

Back at the place of all the massacring, the being which had been inhibiting Druak's body had already sensed the knights coming toward him and had prepared a special gift for them.

As the knights came storming down the hill towards the open plains of the ritual site a rumbling sound could be heard beneath their feet.

*Crack* An enormous hole opened beneath their feet, swallowing dozens of knights.

Among some of the knights, there were 10 that were clad in golden armour, these knights had exceptional skills and managed to avoid the hole before it even appeared, some even saving other knights.

The youngest of the knights had leapt from one side of the hole to the other grabbing anyone that had fallen.

A plethora of the knights however wasn't nearly as lucky as they fell into the clutches of whatever creature had caused the hole.

All that could be seen or heard from the hole was blood and guts splattering out and screams of terror as bone-crushing sounds echoed throughout the hole.

While the knights were busy Druaks body began to release a green mist that seemed to slowly surround the corpses of the villagers. It then started to squish all of the bodies closer and closer.

The sound of guts and bones could be heard as they slowly compacted together, glowing a strange black.

As they compacted together the shape of some kind of skeletal creature began to form, the bones were pitch black and seemed to be exuding mana.

Druak watched his body as it did such horrible things.

He couldn't do anything but try to break free and stop this abomination from doing any more harm.

Just as the form of the skeletal creature started to form Druak's body started to approach a young man, only a few years older than Druak currently was.

'Please leave them be.'Druak begged as he continued to try to take back control, but it had no effect as his body continued to move closer to the villager.

As he approached the villager his grin began to grow.

[YOU WILL BE THE CATALYST]

He then ripped out the heart of the villager. As blood gushed out of the villager he spat out blood and dropped instantly to the floor, blood gurgling out of his mouth.

A green mist began to wrap around the heart of the villager as it disappeared leaving behind a red crystal also known as an anima crystal.

The crystal in Druaks hand began to float towards the skeletal creature, gradually reaching its skull and disappearing.

Druaks body disappeared into thin air and reappeared directly in front of a much older villager.

Druaks hand began to approach the heart of the older villager but before it could reach the villager's heart someone had managed to stop him.

*Bang*