Sen looked at the tablet in his hand, the screen displayed all the information of his most pressing troubles.
"I see, so you're all useless." He said, eyes still glued to the screen, his voice reverberating in the walls, all the people in the hall felt their hearts tighten.
"Three months in and you still have no news of him nor the bodies he took." He said, putting down the tablet and getting up from his chair.
"I've run out of patience, maybe..."
"Maybe it's time to replace them?" A voice intruded, breaking off his speech, followed by the sound of bare feet on the cold floor and the rhythmic clapping of hands.
"You..."
"Oooh? Surprised to see me? Thought you've been looking all over for me, so..."the man said, spreading out his arms"...here I am... father"he said, spreading his arms and grinning under his battered hood.
" How did you get in... no more importantly, what did you do to them?" Sen said, his voice low, almost at a growl.
" Them??! They've been long dead for too long,the bones of those knights were pitifully rotting away and the big bird was wasting away..."
The aura surrounding Sen began distorting the air around him, faint cracks began to show on the ground yet the prince's smile only grew more fanatical.
" So I thought, lemme give them life, but wait... I don't have any ways to do that... So,the kind me decided..."he said as he swung back his hood dramatically, "why don't I share mine."
The hall was quiet, all the officials held their breaths as they looked at his face.
Whatever semblance he once had with the prince was all but gone, in it's place was a face with various patches of loose, dried up corpse skin.
Part of the skin on his jaw had eroded away revealing the blackish skin beneath. His once pure red eyes were now green with something black swirling beneath. His hair had turned ash grey and his frame became thin, yet.
' This power' Sel thought as he looked at him, then the next thing honestly shocked him.
On his back, the prince Rakeon's robe started wriggling as a smoky back green aura started swirling around him. He curled inward in a crazed manner with his body spasming as he stood, the guards, watching this rushed to stop him but the instant they got in range their vitality was immediately sucked from them.
Watching this, the ministers around began frantically running away as the smoky fog spread, reaping a few more lives before dispersing altogether.
Rakeon stopped laughing, standing back up straight at the now almost empty giant hall, facing the king. In the next moment, his bojerked to his right as a bone poked right out of his shoulder, followed bu his left, then cracking sounds ensued as his frame grew taller and bigger along with his aura.
"Huu...." His voice, now deeper, came out, he raised his head, where the once two horns were now four along with miniature ones jutting from the ends of his chin.
He straightened his figure to natch his gaze with Sen's as two wings with barely any skin or feathers on them unfurled.
He made one coil forward as he began stroking them.
"Beautiful... aren't they?" He said as he looked at them. His eyes which were now only two balls of fire didn't even flicker.
"Well I guess you'd obviously know that seeing that you once rode on the filthy bea..."
*BOOOOM!!!!* The unnatural shockwave sound came as his fist crashed through a low uppercut right into Rakeon's stomach, propelling him right into the sky, breaking straight through the chandelier and past the roof.
"Ivy..." He called out. In the next second a shadowy mist came from beside him and a maid dressed immaculately came out.
"Yes my liege..."
" Take Eri and run." He said, not adding an explanation before bending slightly and immediately walked to the throne and ripping it out, took out the weapon lying beneath, a double bladed great sword(AN:think of thano's weapon in infinity war)
His body then twisted sharply as he held it up like a javelin and threw it right at the roof where ot headed straight for Rakeon.
The prince who'd just stabilized himself from the gut nlow immediately crossed his arms together at the sight of the sword and covered his body with the wings which shone with a dark green light.
*Pang!* The sword got deflected at the cost of his body being greatly pushed back but was intercepted mid flight by Sel who caught it as it spun, held the hilt in two places, twisted and separated it into two blades with a chain connecting them both passing through the hilt all the way to the arm guards.
In less than one breath, he spun with the two blades, headed straight for Rakeon, with his body beginning to engulf in flames.
Rakeon seeing this quickly moved his hands to cast the strongest shield he could and the second the two forces collides, a shockwave swept through the, busy streets of the city, instantly turning some weaker residents into paste while the stronger ones had their skins peeled off.
The two didn't pay heed to this, or rather couldn't as their bodies clashed. This time, Rakeon attacked first, when their two bodies came close, he clapped his two hands together forming a pseudo flash bang.
The instant Sel closed his eyes, he retreated but not right before a sharp sensation sliced past his throat. The fire around him burned fiercer as his sight returned, to find a deathly scimitar swinging straight for his face. He reconnected the two blades and moved them to his side to protect him.
The scimitar got deflected but in the next instant, he saw a bony hand covered in mist headed straight for him, as the hand approached him, Sel decisivelyreleased his hold on his weapon and started forming a firebomb in his own.
'BOOM!!!'
'BOOM!!!'
Two explosions rang out as two trails of smoke, one dark green and another black could be seen as they arched down into the city streets.
"Urgh." Rakeon and Sel both grunted as they pushed their bodies out of their respective rubble. Sel stretched his back when he finally stood, acting completely ignorant to the deep wound on his chest which was healing rapidly.
Seeing this, Rakeon, who could barely stand up, laughed out hysterically with his half blown away face.
"Hahahaha!! I can't believe it! ' he said, looking upwards as if in prayer, his body cracking and cracking as he stood.
" You truly are something else," now his eyes were moving frantically, "it was a pity, I thought all I needed was just a few souls..."
A foreboding feeling crept up within Sel as he kicked up from the ground he was on, headed straight for Rakeon.
" Sorry my beloved citizens but..." He said as a green pentagram lit up covering the city,
" your king beckons for your souls."
'Boom!!' a shockwave pushed Sel away from Rakeon, covering the circumference of the pentagram before converging back to him, with it, countless souls followed.
When Sel felt the tug on his soul, his expression finally turned to shock and slowly to resignation as his body slowly floated down to the ground.
He looked at the terrifying creature before him slowly forming and finally breathed out, his breathe carrying flames with it, which began covering his body.
"To go to such lengths..." His voice got deeper.
"Millions of souls..." Cracking of embers could be heard coming from him as the flames.still surrounded him.
" Your own soul shall be your price..." This time, the fire faded as a new body came forth underneath, exoskeleton like armour covered his body as his face now resembled they of a true demon from hell itself.
" As the one who brought you into this world... so your soul I claim as the price."
He said as two scaly wings unfurled from behind him and raised his hand before bringing it down in a straight line.
"Judgement..."
.......
"Papaaaa!!!" A familiar voice broke Sel from his frozen state, when he tried to move, his body ached, nevertheless, he still struggled till he could stand, only to find Eri running to him.
"Eri...." He mustered up the strength to smile as he struggled to see through the red screen covering his remaining eye.
Right when the young girl reached arms length she stopped, her light purple eyes, no longer shielded by the visor she usually wore flooded with tears.
"Pa...pa..." She barely managed to say, as the words choked before they came out.
She didn't even sniffle, she couldn't as her tears just ran down freely, her face one of shock as if she couldn't believe her eyes.
"C'mere..." Sel managed to say as he dragged Eri over to a hug with all his remaining strength.
"Be... strong Eri,... so...sorry I couldn't k... keep my promise..."
His hands tightened around her as he made a desicion, the onlookers, Ivy and crew could only stand straight in respect, though tears could be seen in their red eyes as well.
The man was barely there, his ribcage was wide open and insides could be seen yet they still stood respectfully, even as they all felt it, his life force, fading away.
Sel looked down at Eri glad, albeit in his last breathes that she survived and he'd won and thought a bit before saying.
"Remember...the song?"he watched as Eri looked up slowly, her face now starting to contort into a cry.
"It goes don't worry...about a thing ..." He said as he raised his hand to boop her nose
" Cause every... little thing's... gonna... be ... alright..."
His voice faded when his finger touched her nose, so did the life in his eyes... he was dead.