Days gone by.
Murmurs and whispers surround the Dark Faction.
Beings are whispering about the dark prince.
His soulless eyes, emitting a green sickly energy.
How he is always accompanied by 4 mages wherever he goes.
His appearance only limits to the school and his home nowadays.
“They say a curse has befallen the dark prince.” “I heard he suffered a setback during one of his experimentations” “Is that so, I heard different.
He got struck by some curse during a duel and became a shell of his former self.” As the rumor mill continues to grind, news traveled far and wide.
For Prince Kenius, the reality is he is sort of under a spell.
He retains his cognitive functions, yet cannot act on them unless commanded to do so.
The 4 mages of his father’s retinue spent much time maintaining the magical seals that bind him in place, while the corruption magic of his father courses within his body.
The day goes like this.
He goes to school as he was not assigned any posting after the talent awakening.
The 4 mages secured special permission from the new Headmaster, Prince Ryggatigris, and is allowed to accompany the young prince.
Studies occurred as per normal, basic magic was taught now that the students of this batch has awaken their latent potential.
Once school is done, instead of heading off to chill with his friends, Prince Kenius returns home immediately.
There, the 4 mages instill in him the knowledge of statecraft.
On how to rule, what to do when powerful nations threaten us, how to navigate political conflicts etc.
They do so not by teaching, but by pouring in magic to fill his mind with the knowledge, resulting in a sensory overload.
Normal humans are not able to bear with such a feeling and will feel like their heads are bursting, but the mages has limit the pain receptors in Prince Kenius.
In the evenings, the 4 mages then take him out to the courtyard, and began blasting spells at him to hone his combat abilities.
There were incidents where a huge mishap almost occurred, like when the dark prince lost control and almost went in for the kill.
The 4 mages then had to reinforce the seal to stop him.
At night, the worse of the worse occurs, after retiring to his chambers after having his meal, the 4 mages will prepare the young prince.
Dressed him up in dark garbs and masked his face.
Under the orders from Prince John, Prince Kenius was made to go out and hunt for political targets.
Basically, an assassination.
He only returns in the wee hours of the night, before being granted a short time to rest.
Deep inside, the real consciousness of Prince Kenius witness everything.
How his body is being mistreated.
How the mages instill knowledge into him like pumping gas to a car, often overloading it.
How he was being reforged into a killing machine, and sent off to kill real beings.
That anger made him curse and swear at the world.
Is this truly his fate.
The great bat chuckled, and spoke to him.
“Do you merely wish to be a bystander and watch everything that is happening like watching a movie?” “Then what do you expect me to do.
You will not help me.
You are dark magic itself.
This corruption, these seals, your dark magic can take all of it out!” The prince turned back and spoke to his neighbour.
The phantasm open its wings and stood up, imposing a menacing aura.
“I can do all that, then what?
Your father will send the full force to capture you.
Maybe lock you away until the time is right.
He has attached strings to you and manipulating you.
If you resist, he may keep you away or implement more strings to control you further.” As the bat flew around the space, it said: “I have not even seen an ounce of resistance.
I may be dark magic, but you awakened the dark magic.
Do something if you really want out of this.
Also, think hard about what your plan is next after you do so.
The full might of your father will descend upon you.
I am merely a spectator.” Prince Kenius stood there.
He looked out into the windows which represents his eyes, seeing the atrocities being committed in his body.
He then looked down on his sword, reminded of his friends who were always there for him.
Then he look down on his hand, his palm began to glow, the King’s Insignia burned through and revealed itself again.
Thats right, he was destined to be King.
Not a pawn.
“Alright, Bat.
Teach me, how to use this magic.
Since you say I owned this magic, and its source is right here in front of me.” The bat laughed again.
“You are asking me to teach you something that is akin to breathing.
You don’t learn how to breath, you just do it.
Its only when you think about it then you realize you are breathing.
It should be 2nd nature to you.
The line of Kings had no one to teach them when they awaken their powers.
They each made the dark magic their own.” From there, Prince Kenius had an epiphany.
They each made the dark magic their own.
The first human king focused on the corruption aspect of darkness.
Other kings focused on different aspect of darkness, like absorption and domination.
I need to understand the various aspects of darkness and find one for me.
He then sat down and began to think.
Corruption, Absorption, Domination, what else.
Darkness pulls things in.
Weight?
Mass?
Oh its gravity.
Shadows, blending in.
Phasing in.
Darkness induces fear,paranoia.
Like a Phantom.
The great tower in the middle of the palace.
Soul Magic.
Death is usually accompanied by darkness.
The passage of time causes death to disappear.
Decay.
Then, it dawn on him.
Darkness is where everything returns to nothing.
The absence of light.
The absence of life.
The absence of anything.
Nothingness.
He opened his eyes.
There will be many more aspects of dark magic, but Prince Kenius knows what he wants.
“I will focus on the aspect of nothingness.” This piqued the bat’s interest.
It stood up and started crawling its way to the young prince.
“Interesting, all will be none, eh?
Nothingness.
I remember one king who tried that, similar but not the same.
He focus on the void aspect of it.
To nullify.
Dark negates light and cast shadows.
I wonder how will nothingness happened.
Your theory should be solid enough.
The ways of the world are not that simple.” Prince Kenius, empowered by his enlightenment, says that he will use dark magic to create nothingness.
“I will use dark magic, to empower my ideas, to create true nothingness.” “And how, will that be.
When you destroy something, it changes it.
From a solid to fragments of a solid.
Or when you burn a liquid, it gets turned to gas.
It is always a conversion.” The great bat questions the young prince.
“That is what I need to figure out.” He sat down and began charging up dark energies.
“I may need to understand the various aspects of darkness first, before I can create true nothingness.
Can you tell me more about how the old kings derived their understanding of dark magic?
How they made their specialty?” The dark bat looked up in surprise.
This prince seems to have gotten himself together.
Perhaps he can find a way to make it happen.
A new aspect, one that is powerful.
Plus, it had a lot of time.
The bat began to reminisce about the past kings.
Meanwhile, back in the real world, its has been about a month.
Students who were sent to their posting now returned back to school.
Leo, Reginald and Jayzee were in the great hall of Marshgrave School.
Reginald was showing how he had fought against beasts in the main continent.
Many beasts attempt to attack the floating lands as they deem it unnatural and as it floats into their territory, they think we are encroaching upon its domain.
Usually against flying beasts, Reginald claimed to have shot three out of the sky.
Leo was more calm, speaking of his time in the front lines.
Currently, the dark faction is fighting against the fire nation due to the incident of Mal’za’Keeth.
The fire nation has said that the dark faction has killed one of its ancient beings/elders and that we must answer for our crime.
Leo had seen the fights against fire giants, lava wyrms, horned fiery demons and more.
He was sent to fight against scouts like imps and hellhounds.
Jayzee was more solemn.
He was sent to the spying and scouting facility.
He lament on his time having to survive out in the wild.
He said if not because of his talent, he would have died long ago.
Clearly unsuitable to survive out there.
As they were speaking, Prince Kenius walked in, accompanied by the 4 mages.
Reginald saw his friend and stood up and wave.
“Your Highness, we are over here.” Prince Kenius saw it, but completely walked off from it, choosing to sit at the utmost corner of the room, while the 4 mages take their seats around him.
The three of them looked at each other, wondering what is going on.
They stood up and went over.
Reginald began by putting his hand on the prince’s shoulder and asked:”Hey, its been awhile, why didn’t you come join us?” Prince Kenius just stared blankly ahead and ate his soup.
One of the dark mages sitting next to the prince, took Reginald’s hand and swiped it off the Prince’s shoulder.
It spoke, face still hooded.
“Please do not bother his Highness.” “Bother, his highness is my friend, our friend.
Who are you and why are you interrupting us?” Reginald retorted back.
“We are mages sent by his father, Prince John, to accompany the prince.
This is your last warning.” “Or else, what?” Reginald spoke while reaching for his staff.
The mage’s hand reach out and turned, a magic seal appeared in that instance.
Reginald swung his staff forward, and slam it to the magical seal.
“You are asking for it!” the mage screeched.
It unleashed a magical wave of energy to push Reginald back while the mage stood up.
Reginald blocked the blast with his staff and get launched back to an area at the entrance.
He then took on his combat stance again.
“Its like hunting those beasts again” The lone mage stood up and walked over.
“This is why I do not like meddling kids.” The other 3 mages continued eating, while Prince Kenius just continued drinking his soup.
Reginald shouted: “The name is Reginald, of the house of Griffin.
Who are you and why are you here?!” The mage pulled back the hood, and revealed a woman with dark skin and long, silver hair.
She had dark eye makeup and dark lips.
However, what was more interesting was the long ear tips she had.
“A dark elf!” “A corrupted being of the woodland realm” “I had no idea one of the mages was a woman.” “She’s pretty” Students began talking to one another about the appearance of this rare race and she is quite beautiful to boot.
“I am Xiltharina, of the shadows and fey.
I serve Prince John and now Prince Kenius.
You have overstepped your boundary and hence, you will pay for your crimes against the Prince.” Cheers began erupting.
Some were cheering the jock of the school, scion of the griffin family.
Others, mostly males, are cheering for this mysterious alluring lady dark elf.
Reginald shouted: “Prepare yourself then.
Lets see if you are worthy of punishing me!” and lunges forward with his staff.
10 chapters.
A mini milestone for myself.
I do see views going up, but reading numbers are not that great.
Not sure if its how the platform records it.
I wrote this as a way to past time and hope you can find it and give it a read.
Its my first novel and I do welcome any constructive feedback for me to improve.