|Far off in a majestic and flawlessly built temple.|
"We seem to be missing one of you. Well isn't this an interesting turn of events? So Siegbald, are you able to find where the missing Otherworlder is."
A warm and charismatic voice spoke from atop a throne made of the most expensive wood of this world.
He was dressed in the most majestic yellow and blue edged robe with a heavy looking crown placed upon his head. His hand was gently resting on his sword still fresh with blood as his cold and emotionless eyes continued to examine the extremely scared and wide eyed group of Otherworlders in front of him.
A soldier in thick, vicious looking black armor with magic engravings was kneeling with respect in front of the throne and spoke in a deep voice.
The Strongest and most loyal soldier, hunter, demon, devil, butcher, and Son of the King. Siegbald of the Abyss.
"Your Majesty. I have already dispatched my Demon Ghost Unit to look for the missing Otherworlder." Siegbald answered his King. "I should be hearing something from them within the minute."
"The Demon Ghost Unit? Well we should be seeing them soon then." The King didn't even look at Siegbald. "Still, I wonder, how was someone able to not be summoned into the Temple of the Otherside?"
The King asked knowing that he wouldn't get an answer currently.
The atmosphere in the temple started to feel heavy as silence started to take over. Even the Otherworlders were trying to not breath heavily as some of them were still trying to comprehend what just happened to them.
But what they were really concerned about was the spilt corpse of one of the others that was summoned with them and the Queen of the King who was slowly drawing the Otherworlders blood into a plain yet evil looking gourd.
Just as the Queen was almost done drawing the Otherworlders blood into her gourd, Siegbald grabbed one of the multiple vicious looking axes on his back as he threw it in the direction of the temple doors.
But just as the doors of the temple barely opened Siegbalds ax split the head of four fully armored men before it stopped and embedded itself into the skull of a fifth fully armored soldier.
"I don't care who you are or who you are under, you know the rules. Once the time of the summon begins no one, and I mean no one is able to disrupt the ceremony." Siegbald said with no emotion as he started to slowly stand as an almost plain looking halberd started to materialize in his hand. "Now say your last as your life now belongs to the Abyss."
A pale faced looking noble who stood behind the fifth soldier could hardly speak before Siegbald appeared in front of him as the plain looking halberd was mere inches from his skull.
"Siegbald." The King said.
Siegbalds halberd stopped just as a small thin line of blood started to form on the pale looking noble's forehead.
Siegbald stopped with only one word from the King. But he didn't remove his halberd but held it in place.
"Siegbald is right, so say your last and make sure you don't stutter or I'll just tell Siegbald to continue." The King still continued to examine the group of Otherworlders as he spoke. "Oh also don't try to move as even if you try Siegbald will take your life."
It was like the scene that just happened didn't matter to the King as the only thing that drew his interest was the group of Otherworlders in front of him.
Even the Queen seemed to be disinterested in what was happening as an almost euphoric look spread across her face as she sealed her gourd as blood red lines started to slowly creep across its surface.
The pale faced noble didn't even nod his head as he swallowed the lump in his throat as he started to tell the message he had.
"Your Majesty, I come with news from Duke Heerwagon. He says that there is a priest of Blue Sky who says that an Otherworlder has appeared in the domain of Ulrich Braune the Grave Keeper."
Just as the pale-faced noble finished, the light in the entire temple started to flicker, making him lose his sight as the King appeared in front of the noble towering over him.
"Oh, well that is very interesting news to hear. Was there anything else the priest of the Blue Sky said?" The King spoke with the slightest bit of emotion for the first time.
"He-he-he-."
The pale faced noble could hardly speak as he felt like he could breath as the King stood before him. And what made him even more terrified was how the King was slowly raising his hand.
Just as the pale faced noble saw the increasing size of the King's hand appear before him he closed his eyes. Only to feel the King gently place his hand upon his shoulder as the most gentle and caring voice entered his ears.
"It's ok. Just breathe and catch your breath. Everything is going to be alright."
The pale faced nobles eyes shot open as he looked at the King's face, as tears started to pour from his eyes. He couldn't believe that the King was telling him that everything was going to be alright and to catch his breath. He even started to have thoughts that the King would spare him after he finished his message.
The noble closed his eyes, ignoring his tears as he slowly started to take a couple of deep breaths.
Slowly opening his tear filled eyes with a new look of confidence the noble to one last deep and soothing filled breath. "Your Majesty, he did mention that the Grave Keeper would forgive him for calling his inheritor…"
The noble wasn't able to finish as he felt cold. He was a little confused as to why it was cold until he looked down and saw a fine looking sword stabbed through his stomach as a slow stream of bright crimson blood flowed from the new hole in his stomach.
"Your Majesty??" The noble asked with confusion and even in the oddest feeling, joy. Didn't the King just say that everything was going to be ok. And yet where is this intense feeling of joy coming from?
"Siegbald." The King spoke from atop his throne as a hardly noticeable smile appeared on his face as his attention returned back to the group of Otherworlders.
Siegbald didn't even answer as his halberd easily cut through the now weeping noble and slaughtered the remaining soldiers.
Siegbald made quick work as he slowly returned to the temple with not a single drop of blood on his armor. But if one looked close you would see slight blood red pulsating lines appear on his armor.
"Siegbald call back your Demon Ghost Unit. Duke Heerwagon will send an escort of his own soldiers to the Temple. And knowing Ulrich he'll make sure that we won't see the Otherworlder until the afternoon." The King looked toward Siegbald as he spoke.
"Already done, Your Majesty, I've already sent one of my Spears to inform my Warlord of the situation." Siegbald saluted as he slammed his chest. "Your Majesty, permission to speak freely."
The King's smile started to become more noticeable as it turned soft. "You have my permission, Son."
Siegbald removed his helmet to show a gray skinned grizzled looking man with deep blue eyes and short white hair.
"Father I know you have a past with Ulrich and you placed him where he is to belittle him. But why? I've never asked before as at that time I was understanding what it meant to be the Crown Prince." Siegbald asked with wonder and curiosity.
"But even more, why have you never killed that… Devil." Siegbald asked with even deeper curiosity as he had always wanted to know why his father truly had never killed Ulrich.
"And with this current situation with the Otherworlder appearing in his domain isn't that a little too coincidental."
The King's smile deepened further as he looked at his Son. "I agree with you Son, it is a little too coincidental for the Otherworlder to appear in his domain." The King slowly stood to his feet and walked in front of his Son.
"To belittle him, plain and simple. I was younger then and my Wisdom wasn't the best." The King answered with a slight sigh. "But you asked one wrong question, I have killed Ulrich before multiple times. Kings of the past have even killed Ulrich."
The King sighed again as he looked at his Son before placing a hand on his shoulder.
"My Son, Ulrich Braune isn't a Devil. If anything he is definitely Human, I should know I have fourteen of his damn hearts in the treasury, thirteen wine glasses made from his skull, and we are still studying three of his brains…"
Siegbalds couldn't believe what he was hearing from his father as he continued to tell multiple things about who Ulrich Braune was. And everything that he was hearing sounded even more ridiculous than the next.
"My Son, if you take anything from this little chat about Ulrich Braune, know this. Ulrich Braune is the strongest Human in the world and has been around since the beginning of the time of the first summonings." The King finished as he softly hugged his Son.
The Queen even joined in as her face was flushed a deep red creating an incredibly warm looking situation.
Except the only ones that felt like it wasn't a warm situation was the group of Otherworlders who were still conscious and watched the entire situation unfold in front of them.
As the same question appeared in all their minds?
'Just what is going on here?'