19 December, 40,028
Location- Somewhere in the outskirts of Klington City
It was almost dawn, yet a strange mansion was enveloped in eerie darkness. There was a dark and vile history regarding this old but strangely majestic mansion. This creepy yet alluring mansion had a name fitting it perfectly. It was called "The Raven Palace". It had a long history but most of it was forgotten and lost in the vicious cycle of disastrous wars and conflicts, now it just solely existed for putting the locals in dread and awe. No mortal dared to get even near the terrifying mansion.
However, recently there had been some rumours circulating among the local folks about some ancient grey spirit that had recently began residing in it. There had been no solid evidence backing the rumours but only some handful of eyewitnesses. The government didn't take an action against these sightings due to lack of evidence, besides The Raven Palace had always been feared so the government chose to remain ignorant just like they did in the past.
The Raven Palace looked splendid even during dawn, it's obsidian walls refusing to reflect any sunlight, as usual it instilled dread in the chirping birds and even bats didn't find any solace around it. But one figure sitting in the main balcony of the mansion did. That figure looked inhuman and his looks resembled the rumoured and infamous grey spirit which recently began to reside in the mysterious mansion. He was around one hundred and ninety centimetres in height, his physique being lean muscular, with a mark on his face, a flambeau which had crimson flames burning on its one end. He had long crimson hair and silver eyes containing sharp vertical eye slits within them. His gaze sharper than a blade and colder than ice, looking towards the blue sky, wondering about Zarius. He wanted an audience with Klubius too but Zarius refused him to tag along, now he was just pondering while sitting on a wooden rock chair which was beside a table. There was a cup on it which seemed to belong to a royal family, perhaps maybe this mansion was once a residence of a filthily rich royal family. He cradled the cup which was full of hot green tea and then he brought his other hand closer to the cup and released some air from his index finger, soon the green tea turned lukewarm. He slowly took a sip of the green tea and then hummed for some time but his privacy didn't last long because he suddenly saw a figure emerging in front of him. It was none other than but Zarius, the Prince of Calamities! Soon without any word he took a seat, massaged his temples and snapped his finger, a coffee table appearing in front of them with a cup of coffee on it. He grabbed the coffee cup with a frown on his face, his eyes radiating malevolence just like always. He drank the whole coffee without wasting any time and then sighed in disappointment. The Zarden with long crimson hair was keenly observing him, waiting for him to speak. And finally his test of patience was over when Zarius spoke, his tone sort of relaxed but cold nevertheless.
"That damn Zverius has also reincarnated. It seems our speculation was correct, Roy."
As Zarius spoke, deep cracks appeared on the poor coffee cup. Roy glanced at the coffee cup with pity. A slight frown appearing on his Zarden face, Zarius didn't give a shit about pieces of art but Roy did. Actually he was really fond of artistic crockery but that was not important right now. They had a lot of more important things on their plate.
'But still I feel sad for that poor cup!'
Roy thought while keeping his own cup on the coffee table, the fabulous cup was still half filled with green tea but unfortunately it wasn't lukewarm anymore. He then finally looked at Zarius who was staring at him with a somber expression. Roy awkwardly cleared his throat and then said:
"I see, then I suppose our plan failed, didn't it?"
Zarius threw the cup aside, shattering it into pieces and with a stern expression, he grimaced.
"Not completely but more or less yeah it did fail because we didn't consider some possibilities."
Zarius's eyes narrowed and then he added with a somber intensity.
"I think we need to look back at our plan."
Roy nodded, serious demeanor replacing his carefree one.
Zarius looked at Roy, his gaze full of cold calculativeness. He then took out a map from a leather bag, which was lying beside the chair he was sitting on. He kept the map on the coffee table and pointed a finger towards it, Roy looked at the map, Zarius lingered for a few seconds and then said with indifferent expression on his face.
"First let's start from the beginning. So my consciousness was awakened on 1 November of this year. It took me two days to learn and comprehend everything about this modern world through my vessel's memories and knowledge. Then I started communicating with him and told him everything I desired, as expected from the reincarnation spell it provided me a vessel which also shared almost the same desires and goals as me. On my instructions he contacted all those students in his school which I suspected to be your vessel but me and my vessel's efforts seemed futile. Then I started to browse online for some paranormal incidents which had recently occurred in Klington but even that didn't yield any significant results. Then my vessel catched cold so he went to buy some medicines from a pharmacy shop near Klington civil hospital but he noticed Harold buying some medicines there too. After Harold left, my vessel asked the shopkeeper about what Harold had bought from him. The answer was some dopamine inducing pills and cortisol lowering pills. Which indicated towards Harold's deteriorating mental health so it was safe to assume that something fishy was going on but since you hadn't awakened that's why I was reluctant to act alone, So I didn't make any move and my vessel continued to approach those students whom I suspected to be your vessel and finally something major happened which was Harold's suicide attempt. I was convinced that either a foe or a friend was inside him so I decided to visit him the same day especially considering the reason that he attempted suicide due to paranormal stuff and also not to mention that he survived even after jumping off from a twelve story building. But then I received a call from a certain someone apparently it was one of the suspect for your vessel, finally when I called back and heard your voice, I felt like that I had made some significant progress. Then we speculated that it was either Klubius or Minshius who were causing this havoc in order to attract attention of their allies. Then I proposed to use this to our advantage which was to lure David, Dylan and Henry into that so called haunted hospital because on 8th December everyone except Harold was evacuated from the hospital which gave us an opening to use it according to our desire. We lured those brats because my vessel had just happened to listen David and Henry's conversation which was the revelation about Cerebius, that foul bastard had reincarnated and Henry was his vessel. David seemed surprised and didn't even believe Henry one bit which made obvious that he was a mundane human at least that time he was. Since this incident of Cerebius's revelation was before Harold's attempted suicide so it was sensible why a mundane human like David wouldn't believe Henry. And when Harold's incident occurred and we met, we planned to use those brats in order to dispose Cerebius and Klubius off but the main problem was how would we lure them there."
Roy narrowerd his eyes and said coldly:
"And that's where I suggested to use money to lure them in."
Zarius nodded indifferently and met Roy's cold gaze with his own and continued his breakdown of their plan.
"Yes, that's right and I proposed the idea to use Harold's father for our plan. Basically we made him a human puppet whose mind was controlled by your powers. It was the best approach because after all the most worried person in this world about Harold would be his own father so it was correct to use him as a money bait for those brats. Since David and Dylan are poor so 100,000 silver coins which would be enough for them to buy a decent bungalow was an alluring offer for them. We just wanted them to lure them in the hospital after that we didn't care about Harold's father and consequences of his "illegal actions to manipulate underage kids". Before they would enter in the hospital I was already present there, hidden in the darkness, my body clad in crimson membrane in order to keep myself hidden from Klubius's pesky field. I was sort of expecting to learn some secrets which maybe Cerebius knew but he let his vessel fight Klubius until he felt like his vessel was going suffer heavy damage but finally when Cerebius and Klubius met, I hoped to gather information about Zverius but Cerebius...that sly bastard was cautious. He must've used an advanced level of field to detect my presence so he just kept blabbering about some nonsense so I intervened their cliche reunion in order to force out whatever they knew but Zverius....messed up everything!"
Zarius sounded infuriated as he completed his breakdown and sighed, regaining his composure. Roy lingered for a few moments and then asked, his question dipped in cold reasoning.
"I suppose you do know about Zverius's vessel's identity then and if you do, would you care to tell?"
Zarius glanced at Roy with a sinister indifference and then uttered just one word:
"David Marsh."
Hearing this Roy smiled wryly and shrugged.
"He's a small fry, you needn't to be wary of him, Zarius."
Roy's statement made Zarius scowl, his eyes reflected caution. He pointed a finger towards Roy, his crimson eyes glaring at Roy solemnly.
"Underestimating an enemy is a greatest blunder one can commit, Roy. David Marsh is a formidable foe because he knows what should be kept hidden and what should be shown to others."
Roy leaned forward, raised his brow and asked curiously:
"Why do you exactly deem him as a formidable foe?"
Zarius stared at Roy for few moments with his cold gazes making Roy shiver a bit. Zarius crossed his arms, sighed and simply said:
"That's because he refuses to show his true strength and capabilities to others."
Zarius glanced at the walls of the obsidian mansion and added:
"He has never seriously tried to score enough marks to earn a seat in A division of school. As you know our vessels' high school judges students talent, potential and capabilities on their grades in academics, sports and various other fields and assigns them a division based on that. A division consisting the students with highest grades and E division consisting the failures but there are several students in B class who purposefully lower their grades a bit in order to avoid a major hassle which is related to an absolute rule in this school. I presume you do know about that pain in the butt rule?"
Roy thought for a few moments, then answered with stark indifference.
"The rule which says that all A division students are compelled to participate in student council activities and event management."
Zarius nodded.
"That's right, he is like a person who couldn't be scaled on the basis of his grades and actions. He is a mystery, Zverius just wants to use David's unknown potential as a leverage in the war which I intend to wage."
Zarius's statement did make sense because the only person who could counter Zarius's ploys was his own twin brother, Zverius. The Zarden who had somehow escaped from death's door and managed to reincarnate his comrades. If he had chosen David as his vessel then there must be solid reasons behind it. These twins were polar opposites of each other in many aspects and one of it was that Zarius craved destruction of this world, eager to wipe out humanity whereas Zverius would gamble everything to save humanity, both were crazy in their own ways. The only thing Roy couldn't fathom was why would Zverius choose David Marsh as a vessel. One question froze in Roy's mind, making him wonder and think about it for hours.
What was David Marsh really capable of?
To be continued....