Voldrak spent the hours leading up to his meeting with Adriani thinking about what he could get from her and what he couldn't demand. He finally decided to stick with pretending to be more powerful, taking everything he could without having to ask.
He was tempted to leave Floyda behind, only to let her come along at the very last second, not seeing how her presence or absence would make any difference.
Finding out where Adriani, the clan leader, lived was easy, and getting in was easier as they were led in by a slave who was already waiting for them. It was the gold color of the doors and the decorative handle that informed him whose room he was walking into just as he entered and came face to face with Adriani, who was halfway lying on a long sofa covered with many white sheets. Her dress was gold and regal, adorned with jewels and covering most parts of her body, including her neck, which was surprising considering the fragrance in the air, which he could have sworn was meant to scare him, as he used the dark energy in his body to slowly filter it out.
"This looks nice," he said, gesturing towards the platter of food on the table in front of her as he slowly moved towards it. Floyda also stepped in, sticking to the wall by the door where she wouldn't draw any attention to herself.
"I aim to please!" she responded in a sultry tone, picking up a sliced piece of apple and tossing it into her mouth as she continued to lean on her elbow. He moved to take the only seat by the table, facing hers. Her eyes focused on him in a way she hadn't dared a few hours before. 'She's more confident,' he noticed, which wasn't a good thing since it meant she had one more thing to lean on against him.
For a while, there was stone-cold silence between them, one he had no intention of breaking until it stretched on much longer than he wanted, finally spurring him to open his mouth. "You need my help," he told her, just in case she forgot.
"In exchange for not killing you, you'll bring down the other four," he continued, making sure she understood that he was in charge and in exchange she would get to keep her life. He would have liked to unleash a bit of his dark energy, but although it had increased in quality, the quantity he could generate was still too little to waste on trying to look more menacing to the woman in front of him.
He was taken aback to see her smile in response. The fear he had once glimpsed in her eyes was completely gone, replaced by a smugness whose source he couldn't divine.
"That's the thing, isn't it? Even now I can't sense a lick of the power I sensed the night before!" she told him, knowing that the only reason he was still seated in her private room talking to her was because she was sure the power she had felt indeed came from him, unable to think of anyone else in her clan who could wield it.
"Did you know that Loret, whose body you now possess, was an idiot? My advisors tell me he spent all night drinking and couldn't even say two sentences without stuttering through them!"
"Your point?" Voldrak asked, focusing his gaze just as intensely on her, waiting for what he was sure was bound to come.
"I don't think you're as powerful as I thought. Yes, you killed Murra and Ophari, but that was a one-time thing, a stroke of luck!" Adriani began to speak as she got to her feet, a slow smile spreading across her face. She dusted her spotless gold gown and stepped closer to Voldrak, who no longer saw a need to remain seated, especially when he could feel Adriani's bloodthirsty aura slowly seeping out.
"You're willing to bet your life on it? To die for this belief?" Voldrak asked, knowing that he wouldn't shy away from the fight, but it was also something he would prefer to avoid, only to watch her shake her head as her mass of silvery hair danced wildly at her back, her smile turning into a sharp grin.
"You wouldn't ask me such a question. The man wielding such heaven-defying powers would have already attacked to kill me!" This time, Voldrak didn't hesitate to unleash the entirety of his aura, leaking all the black energy he could into it as he realized there was no use in hesitating. He fought down the urge to glance at Floyda, his backup plan for when the strange system took over his body and refused to hand it back.
"Not bad!" Adriani boasted with a flick of her hair. "…but I'm better!" she scoffed, brimming with arrogance as she raised her right hand to unleash a wave of water out of thin air, one that turned into tiny pieces of metal before it was halfway towards Voldrak, who was already diving to the side, trying to evade it. Materializing his dark rod was easy enough, but it didn't make it any less difficult as he gritted his teeth, making sure it solidified enough to slice right through the wave. He watched with mild satisfaction as the rod carved a path, turning the section it passed through dark in a way that Adriani could no longer control—but he could.
He swung two more times with immense satisfaction before he saw Adriani dash back, raising a second wave to combat his own dark wave of metal, which had belonged to her, sharper than the one she wielded.
He could see that she was getting serious, but Voldrak didn't have the energy to. Instead, he gave it all he had, dragging every bit of dark energy present in his body to the surface, intending to take her head. But as he was still attacking and gathering his energy, he watched Adriani raise another wave that looked more like a ball-shaped shield than anything she would be able to use for defense.
His gaze was still focused on her, raising the dark rod he held in his hand to attack again when he felt it: a sharp shift in the air behind him. He barely had seconds to turn around before he came face to face with a very dark-skinned man wielding two swords toward his head, which he barely parried even as he felt his limbs tremble from the weight of it. He watched the man move to stand beside Adriani, who had a smug look on her face as she gazed at him.
"Alone, I might not be able to defeat you, but together with Bortris, we can kill you and dig under your skin for what we need!" she softly said, raising her hands again as large streams of water materialized in thin air, turning into sharp blades as they shot right past him. Even with his focus on her, he could already see Bortris, whom he was convinced was a clan leader, waiting by the side, watching for an opening.
Angry and wary of letting the fight drag on, Voldrak dashed towards Adriani, attacking all the blades and waves of water she ruled with a vengeance, dyeing them black with his rod until he had control over them, turning them back on her. He was satisfied to watch her hide behind the defense wall she had built.
"It'll be foolish to ignore me!" Bortris screamed from behind, but a cruel smile was already spreading across Voldrak's face as he drew on every bit of power, feeling one of his eyes turn red, bleeding from how much more darkness he tried to draw when none could be found. Regardless, he found it—since although the body had none, it originated from his soul, and if he forced it hard enough, it would give.
It gave! And Voldrak, moving with blinding speed, swung his rod straight towards Bortris's head, satisfied to watch it slam through the swords he held up as a shield and slam right through his skull, sinking itself into his brain.
The dark energy in the rod pulsed, seeking to DEVOUR, but this time around, Voldrak ordered it to do what it did best: to CORRUPT, and it did.
Voldrak had barely withdrawn his rod, with blood and gore still dripping from it, when Bortris's body shook once in death, and twice as it slowly scrambled to its feet to Adriani's horror. She had been watching from behind her defense shield, preparing her attack, beyond shocked to see Bortris die too quickly for her to save him.