As the petition for inquiry went to the dark council, they began sending their task force down to Marshgrave school to investigate.
Days passed as things went into motion.
Prince Ryggatigris granted them authority to investigate the school.
Various members of the task force checked the great hall, interviewed students, and even the dark mages.
Even Prince John was summoned for questioning, although being a member of the dark council itself, he has treated with the highest respect.
Prince Ryggatigris, being a member of the dark council himself, began lobbying for the secret investigation of Prince Kenius.
At first, members were unwilling.
This is due to in part of a few reasons, like the last king being human, and that Prince John wielded large influence within the council.
Prince Ryggatrigris had only lobbied to the few members he could trust that would not rat this out to Prince John himself.
There is a plot somewhere, and something does not add up.
On the other hand, in Prince John’s abode, he rapidly chastise his 4 dark mages, especially Xiltharina.
How could she let her ego expose them to public scrutiny.
He sentenced the dark elf to be punished through torture every night for as long as the investigations are not cleared.
Fear fills Xiltharina’s eyes and she was taken away by other dark mages to perform their duty.
The nights were filled with her screams and hooks and blades twist into her flesh.
Magic was also employed in her punishment, inducing horrible nightmares and playing into her fears.
Only in the day, she was released back to the Prince’s side to guide him in school.
She had to remain hooded up, as the wounds she sustain every night will be shocking for the common people to lay their eyes on.
Also, the three claw marks from Prince Ryggatigris healed, but remained there, scarring her beautiful face.
Sslisstith, on the other hand, is briefed by Prince John to instill false memories into Prince Kenius so that he will passed through the council.
They began to prep for this inquiry.
Meanwhile, inside the subconsciousness, the great phantasm laughed at the sights it has seen of the outside world through the eyes of Prince Kenius’s body.
Prince Kenius was practicing his dark magic but failed to grasp the theory.
He focused on the various aspects, beginning to be able to wield some of them.
However, since there was nothing but him and the bat in this plane, Prince Kenius could not get a true feel of whether his powers were working or not.
For example, he could use the absorption aspect but there is nothing to absorb here to test it.
The bat, feeling bored, proposed something to the young prince.
“I see that you are making progress.
However, there is nothing here that can gauge your progress.
I am intrigued by what you have achieved thus far, so let me assist you in this regard.” It flapped its wings and a dark being formed out of thin air.
A shadowy figure, like a being of pure shadow, in the shape of a human.
“This will be your sparring partner.
Show me what you have learned.” Prince Kenius, finally having something to pit against, took a stance.
The shadowy figure dashed forward, dark tentacles opened up from its back and began a rapid assault.
As he tries to block and parry the blows, Prince Kenius begun thinking.
Which aspects to use to counter this?
Lets try something first.
He raised his hand.
“Dark Magic – Absorption” The shadowy figure’s tentacles gets pulled into Prince Kenius.
It tried to struggle to break free.
Then, it broke its own tentacles and landed a kick on Prince Kenius, shooting him a good distance away.
As Prince Kenius recovered from the blow, he began coughing as he was struck in the stomach.
However, there was no time as the shadowy figure jumped up and the tentacles had come together to form a spike on one arm.
Prince Kenius immediately pulled out his sword and an exchange of blows come to pass.
THe shadowy figure then thrust forward, while Prince Kenius attempted to deflect it.
It was not enough.
It needed more power, or risk getting struck by the spear tip that has been formed by these shadow spikes.
Prince Kenius then imbued the Void / Nullification aspect into the sword and it broke through the shadow spear.
Realizing he is gaining ground, Prince Kenius went on the offensive.
He swung his sword, now armed with the gravitational aspect of Dark magic, for a high impact blow.
The shadow caught the sword with its two hands, and got sinked down into the ground but the gravitational waves coming out of the sword.
“Good, you are cornering it.
How will you deal with it if it changed tactics though?” The bat wondered.
At this moment, the shadow figure pushed out the sword and leapt back.
It began to aim with his arm and started firing elemental projectiles at the Prince.
“Switching to middle range tactics eh?” The prince began evading them by sliding and slipping around, like a shadow.
The projectiles hit the floor, completely missing the prince, but leaving a lot of destruction in its wake.
“Shadow aspect…
what about this then?” The bat flapped its wing once.
The shadowy figure began summoning shadow creatures with the size of vermins.
However, it had summoned a few hundred and it began dashing towards Prince Kenius.
With a great blast of energy, Prince Kenius emitted another aspect, the decay / destruction aspect of dark magic to clear all the vermins.
“Good …
good…
now how will you finish it?” Before the bat could finish its sentence, Prince Kenius has closed the distance and launch an orb of energy that aims to destroy everything it touches.
Dark Aspect – Nothingness.
Dark Magic – Orb of Disintegration As he plunged it into the shadow figure chest, surprisingly, nothing happened.
The shadowy figure responded immediately by launching many shadow tentacles into Prince Kenius, it pierced him multiple times.
Screams of pain and blood filled the dome.
Prince Kenius has just lost and died to his injuries.
The shadowy figure disappeared.
The next thing, Prince Kenius reformed again.
Fully formed, no injuries, no holes in his body, no pain.
He touched his chest, knowing that a few seconds ago, a shadow tentacle had pierced it.
“What is the meaning of this” Prince Kenius asked the great phantasm.
“Did you think you will die, in your own subconsciousness?
The rules here are different.
However, do not take death lightly.
The more you forego the idea of death here, when you are back in the real world, life is not that precious anymore.” Prince Kenius pondered.
He finally had some results.
His training and understanding of the various aspects were correct, except for nothingness.
It did not work at the last second.
“Great bat, the last aspect I used.
Nothingness.
It did not work.
Why is that?” The bat chuckled and said:”If I had wanted to give you the answer, then I would have a silver spoon ready.
Figure it out yourself.
Its either the theory was not correct, or your body cannot handle the output required and fizzled.
Do I look like an answer sheet to you?” Prince Kenius smiled and thought: “This bat may not want to give me answers, but it is indirectly giving me hints and helping me to grow.
Look at it trying to play all hard to get.” The bat then interrupted Prince Kenius thoughts.
“By the way, the shadow partner that you were sparring against, is merely on easy difficulty.
If I had to rate it on a level system for you to understand, I would say it is level 1 out of 100.
You ever want to do this again, tell me and I will let the shadow partner beat everything out of you.” Prince Kenius laughed and said: “Fine, lets try this again” and prepares by taking up his stance again.
This is the best time for him to train.
Back to the real world, many had gathered in the assembly hall of the dark council.
Rumors of a dark mage assault on a student in THE Marshgrave School is unprecedented.
It had attracted factional attention of the denizens.
The trial was to be held in the Obsidian Palace, in the central’s palace assembly hall.
It would be opened to the public to listen to the trial.
As the trial begins, the task force presented their findings on the inquiry and based on evidence, it determined that an excessive force was used against a student here.
The head of the griffin family, Rector, father to Reginald, stood up from his seat and scolded angrily about what has his son does to deserve this and that he is still in hospital, recovering from his wounds and paralysis.
The inquisitor that presented the findings determined that the mage, Xiltharina, acted of her own accord and used multiple layers of magic that is more commonly used for higher tier battles or war against a student who had barely awaken his talent and just came back from his first posting.
The sentiment in the assembly was getting heated.
They knew that the dark elf is about to be sentenced and that Prince John would not be able to disconnect himself from this.
The inquisitor’s final line though, shocked everyone.
As spoken with the mages involved, Xiltharina admitted that the actions she took was of her own and that she wanted to kill the victim out of pure pleasure.
Seeing as it is a singular motive, no blame can be placed on Prince John, whose role was just assigning guards to protect his son.
From the VIP section, headmaster Prince Ryggatigris stood up in anger and protested this finding.
To his eyes, it definitely had to do something with Prince John.
Prince John, sitting a few seats away, smirked at him, knowing that the runaway prince had no leverage on him.
Even if Xiltharina acted on her own, people were trying to bring Prince John down.
The inquisitor then continued.
In light of the heinous crimes and the sadistic motives behind the act, dark elf Xiltharina will hereby be sentenced to shadowfication.
The crowd gasp at the sentence.
Shadowfication, the act of drawing one being’s shadow to take over the main body.
They literally become a shadow of their former selves, perfect to be indoctrinated into the shadow guards.
It tears out your shadow and it becomes your main body.
The excruciating pain is like experiencing the moment of death multiplied by much more.
You are always surrounded with this memory and pain, while your shadow self is controlled like a hive mind.
It is a punishment, worse than death.
A robed being, boring a spiked crown on its head, with a device that carry four swords that a long handle at its back, stood up.
Its roped sash dangle at its waist.
The hooded section looked up and into the depths of the hood was pure shadow.
A true shadow being.
“We accept the dark elf into our fold.
Where there is light, there is darkness.
We will be one.” as it raised its robed arm, tendrils of shadow forming the shape of a hand gestures a welcome sign to the dark elf.
The inquisitor bowed and said: “Thank you, Prince One-who-walks-in-shadow.
We hope that she will be a fine addition to your retinue.” The dark elf began to have tears streaming down her cheeks.
“No, this cannot be!
Prince John, your highness, you told me that I will be exiled and thats it.
Let me go!” Prince John, knowing that shadowfication is the safest bet as she will not be able to be resurrected / reanimated like an undead, or dark magics to pull out her knowledge of things that Prince John is doing.
It completely tears a being asunder and remakes them into shadow.
The Shadow Prince is his ally in this regard, with Prince John providing materials, while the Shadow Prince helps Prince John with silence.
“The sentence will begin now.
You may be considered for reverse shadowfication after a period of 1000 years.” The inquisitor gave his closing.
The shadow prince glided up to the main dias, where a chained Xiltharina is held.
“Your life….is now forfeit.
Your shadow…shall be reborn anew.” With that, Prince One-who-walks-in-shadow pulls out the device from his back.
It is a sword, with 4 different swords with their blades out.
As the shadow tendrils flow into the sword, the main blade formed out of shadow tendrils.
The shadow prince stabbed the elf, and she died immediately.
The crowd all gasped in shock.
Plain, cold blood murder just happened in front of their eyes.
As her cold lifeless body lay there, the Shadow prince kept his sword on his back and reached out with his hand.
The corpse started having spasm and jolting.
It then began convulsing as the light left her eyes.
The dark elf corpse was twitching and her shadows seems to come to life.
Beings began fainting at the sheer horror that is happening.
Then, as the shadow prince poured out more magic, it pulled a shadow being out of Xiltharina’s shadow.
“Inhabit your new body now, and be one with us.” said the robed being.
The shadow then proceed to assimilate with the dark elf corpse, covering each and every square inch with shadow.
The corpse began screaming and writhing in pain as this was happening, losing the last vestiges of oneself.
Finally, when all is said and done, the shadow figure stood up, assimilation completed.
A shadow is born.
However, a shadow cannot exist out in the open just like that.
To allow it to exist on the material plane, Shadows need to be cast after all.
With a whiff of his robes, the Prince conjured up an initiate robe to cover the shadow being and a rope lash tied around its waist to secure the robes.
“Arise now, for you have become One with us.
You shall be One-who-repents-in-peace.” The shadow acknowledges its new name and bowed towards the Shadow prince.
The inquisitor, being appalled at what happened, spoke in a terrified manner.
“My Prince, I-I did not expect you to perform the ritual here.” “I merely carried out the sentence as you have laid out.
To show everyone here that all wrongs have been righted today.” Its waft, smooth, airy like voice replied.
Prince Ryggatigris stood up in and shouted out:” One wrong righted does not solve the whole issue.
This happened on school grounds, others could have been involved.
Prince John should not be dismissed so easily by the task force.” The shadow prince looked back and spoke as its words carry lightly through the air:”Tiger prince, the punishment has been enacted.
A new shadow now stands before you, eager to serve our dark faction, yet you call on for more punishment?
Is this not enough to satisfy you?” “What about Prince Kenius?
He was ‘defended’ because his best friend was trying to harm him?
We have eye witness accounts that this was impossible.
Also, Prince Kenius did not even respond to the whole situation at all, there is definitely something amiss.
I implore the dark council to check it out.” Prince Ryggatigris made his point known.
2 more princes of the dark council made their presence known as well.
The vampire lord, Count Vicken von Struck, in charge of the undead and the corrupted being known as the Hollowed Sovereign, a corrupted archfey governing the corrupted and dark beasts of the realm.
Count Vicken von Struck spoke with elegance: “It seems that Prince Ryggatigris has some truth in his tale.
I sense a foul magic seeping from the young human prince.” The hollowed sovereign, speaking through her intermediaries of various voices, “I…detect…corruption…within…him” These were the allies of the Werebeasts Prince.
Prince John, completely taken aback, stood up and spoke like the statesman that he is.
“Very well, since my fellow princes has doubts, we can discuss this in a private session of the dark council meeting.
I will share what I know with everyone.” The princes all nodded in agreement.
The Inquisitor asked all the crowd and non-essential personnel to be dismissed, leaving only the princes and their retinue.
The crowds slowly made their way out of the hall, guards retreated and headed out to guard the entrance of the assembly hall.
Suddenly, the Obsidian Palace, was quiet once again.
Here we get to see the full council of Princes, representing their respective races.
1.
Prince John (Humans) – a middle aged human man 2.
Prince One-who-walks-the-shadows (Shadow) – a robed shadow being 3.
Prince Ryggatigris (Werebeasts) – a werebeasts that takes the form of a tiger and current headmaster of Marshgrave School.
4.
Prince Count Vicken von Struck (Undead) – an undead vampire lord 5.
Prince Hollow Sovereign (Corrupted Beings) – a corrupted archfey 6.
Prince Thalassos the Drowned (Abyssal) – A burning merfolk wrapped in scale armor 7.
Prince Clock-Gear-Grind (Dark Dwarves) – A half clockwork, half flesh dark dwarf 8.
Prince Orihalcum Wing (Airfolk) – A Gargoyle made of Orihalcum 9.
Prince Slithergore (Madness) – An amorphous ooze.
Highly intelligent but utterly alien.
Prince Kenius stood in the middle, as the subject in question.
The inquisitor said: “Now, the next discussion begins.
Prince Riggatygris has accused Prince John and his role in causing recent events to happen.” CREATORS’ THOUGHTS MishuAurius Thought to release one more chapter due to the person adding the collection.
Thank you once again, hope you enjoy it and this is dedicated to you.