The rulers left Rasmus whom by his side was Aella to carry out the task of moving the children. They went to a room at the top floor of the building which was just a floor above their throne room. Surprisingly, this room was also a throne room but with just one seat. The seat was coated in red colour and was designed with gold. It was placed in the centre of the dark room which unlike theirs had tall lit candles as its source of light.
The walls were painted black, there were a single window in the room, but even that was covered with black curtains. On the floor was a circle drawn with different symbols around it and one large drawing of a bull's head with bleeding eyes in it's middle. Around the circle all five leaders went on their knees and took off their masks throwing them into the distance but placed the hood of their cloaks over their heads.
They began swaying their bodies slowly from side to side, humming a similar tone with their eyes closed and their hands raised.
"We call forth our god, we call forth the great Lord Darkness! Come Lord and grace us with your presence. Hear our call, oh great one!" They said in uison repeating the same words five times and the marking glowed brightly, the room shook violently pushing some of the candles down.
A dark fog came out of the marking and swayed over to the throne like seat kept in the room. The fog took the appearance of a person, but it's features were not visible for it only looked like a being covered in black smoke. The only notable thing was this being had two thick curvy horn on its head. The rulers dared not look at the being in its seat. Instead they bowed towards its direction.
"My loyal servants, for what reason have I been summoned?" A deep husky voice resounded in their ears causing the room to vibrate. The being itself wasn't fully there but the room was not able to contain this little fraction of power present. Not just that room, but everywhere in that building shook and everyone felt immsense pressure on their bodies and just the tingling feeling of a great presence in their midst.
"We have come to seek that you let us go back to our old ways," Constantine responded with his head down.
"We want to grace you with not just their blood, but also their anguish." Brielle added.
"We have come across some problems and this way is a solution we could deem fit." Said Renjiro.
"We want you to accept this form of sacrifice for the time being, we promise to not falter even in the slightest to punish them." Roderick spoke. The mysterious figure said nothing for a while and then finally spoke.
"I will accept whatever form you have chosen to present them to me and in turn will continue to bless you. But, everything good must be drained," it spoke sending chills down their spine before disappearing back into the mark from which it came from.
"Thank you, Lord Darkness," They bowed their heads and then left the room.
"Well, now that it's confirmed can I have even if it's just one?" Roderick pleaded with his fellow rulers to give him another child to play around with.
"No. You have had enough this past weeks, you need to slow down." Constantine said and left, the other rulers followed.
"No one understands me," Roderick said sadly and left as well.
Meanwhile, in a much brighter and spacious room, the children were placed with beds even. They were quite surprised but were also confused as to what the large machine in the centre of the room was for. It had six tubes attached from the ceiling to it and looked like a capsule that could fit at most ten children at once.
"See, isn't this more comfortable?" Aella smiled walking round the machine. "From tomorrow, you start your work." She said with a giggle. "Aren't you excited? I am."
"Let's go." Rasmus said pulling on her arm a bit.
"Bye-bye loves." She waved at them and closed the door.
"Tomorrow begins their true use." Rasmus sighed and Aella smiled.
"Shall we tell them to begin the next part of the plan?" She asked.
"No, it's still too early." He replied.
The children were all still too reserved hardly ever speaking and just scared of everything. Only those whom already knew each other or were siblings would converse from time to time. Alfred and Malakai were one of such pairs. They always clung to each other's side. They currently sat on one of the beds in the room looking at the chains around their wrists and ankles. Their clothes and they themselves were filthy. They had only being given one plate of slob everyday and not gotten a wash for the week they had been here.
"Do you think we'll ever get to leave here?" Alfred asked.
"Of course, we will be saved. If we are not, then we'll escape from here." Malakai said giving his friend a bit of hope.
The next day came rather quickly and the children were woken up early and taken to get cleaned up. The recent treatment they got was unsettling and they found it strange. After the bath, they were also taken to a room were they all were fed till they were filled. Aella being her usual self would move about, forcing silly conversations with the children.
After eating they were returned to their room. They all began to talk with themselves a bit, whispering to themselves about some certain things they seen in the building and could almost be certain they were in the areas of the city. They sat around for a while and once it was mid-day, Rasmus and Aella showed up.
"Okay it's time for you to come see your owners." Aella gave a little twirl. "We need just five of you," She said "...and I will do the picking. She looked around for a while while rubbing her chin as if in thought.
"You, you, she, him and her." She made her choice. "Come with me."
Alfred immediately grabbed hold of Malakai as he was one of the five pointed at. "Please pick someone else, don't take him!" Alfred said. He was teared up almost instantly.
"That's rather selfish." Aella said.
"I don't want to be separated from you as well," He said to Malakai. As much as Malakai wanted to stay back, he had been chosen and had no choice.
"Maybe it'll be like last time when they just took a sample and asked for your information, I'll come back." Malakai said with a forced smile.
"Please don't take me, please don't hurt me." Others chosen cried as well scared of what awaited them.
"You getting hurt depends on you and you alone. If you come with me nicely then we will have no issues."
"That's enough playing around." Rasmus said and tapped on his watch, the chains on the chosen children lit up and they immediately got up and moved towards them.
"M-Malakai?" Alfred said softly.
"Don't worry, you'll see him again...I think," Aella said to Alfred and they left.
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Hello, author here, participating in my first WPC. Giving the world of revenge a try, so here's a story about secrecy, greed, power, bloodshed, gods and demons, and a young man who finds himself between them all.
You can let me know your thoughts in the comment section.
I hope you enjoy reading.