Forgive my bad grammar and spelling mistakes. Its not finished but, the people Ive showd it to seem to like it so far. Plz give constructive critisism.
Crow Gate
Chapter one: All beginnings begin badly
The modern age; the age of technology. There is no room any more for the ways of old; of magic and nature of wizards and daemons. What was once clear in our heads has become blurred, covered by the fog of time. But we cannot shut it out forever, we cannot pretend creatures that once formed empires on this earth do not exist, we cannot pretend the greatest power a man can wield only exists in stories. And now as the magic slowly creeps back into the world; like a dog kept outside for to long it is angered. The balance of all thing has been weighed and it is not level. We cannot keep them out forever.
Thomas awoke, his bed wet with cold sweat. “Another Nightmare” he thought to himself, he had been having many lately, they were weird, visions of dark places, faces in the distance, voices in the darkness, “no matter” he said to him self, they were just dreams. He began his regular routine out of bed, make bed, eat breakfast, brush teeth, get dressed, watch exactly 6.4 minutes of television, go to work. That’s how every work morning went and how in Thomas’s eyes they would always go; oh but how he was wrong.
As he journeyed to work Thomas noticed something, the sky was grey, but not cloudy, just grey he didn’t understand how that could be but “oh well” he thought as he so often did. Thomas never really cared for enquiring into things unless they really interested him; and most things didn’t. He was just an ordinary 28 year old man trying to get by, he wasn’t particularly good looking but he was not ugly ever. He didn’t really care for fashion but he made sure he didn’t dress like a bum. Work flew past as normal and before he knew it Thomas was making his way home.
It was oddly cold that afternoon and large clouds had gathered; again Thomas thought this was odd (it being July and all), but Thomas didn’t really care. Crack! A huge lightning bolt hit the ground about 200 metres away from were Thomas was standing, a small smouldering crater was left where part of the road had just been. Crack! Another, this time much further away but just as loud; this time Thomas saw it. But this was the strangest thing of all, the lightning wasn’t white it wasn’t really bright at all it was more like a bolt of shadow than a bolt of light, but the overall effect was the same.
Thomas decided to start running home before anymore “strange shit!” occurred. But before you knew it, it began to snow; and not only that this snow was grey. Well at least it looked like snow at first, before some of it landed on Thomas’s hand; he crushed it. That’s when he realised that it definitely wasn’t snow. Ash. A very thick, course, grey ash was falling from the clouds and black lightning was blowing chunks out of the city; “now if that’s not weird I don’t know what is” thought Thomas.
When Thomas finally got home it was all over the news and believe me ash and black lightning wasn’t the half of it. “Reports of clouds forming out of the Themes and ascending into the sky, from England. The sea around Australia has completely frozen over and is now growing inland slowly covering all of Australia. Freak growths in New York’s Central Park have left more than half of the state covered in thick forest and Deserts in Africa are apparently becoming swamp like mud land with sand melting into a thick mud like liquid. More on these stories as they develop.”
“What the hell is going on!“ thought Thomas. Knowing little of the events that would follow today’s phenomenon Thomas went to bed; tired and confused it was probably the best thing to do, but that wasn’t going to happen. BANG! A large explosion ensued Thomas’s first step towards his bedroom. It came from the kitchen, a mix of fear and laziness filled Thomas now; not really wanting to open the door from fear of what caused the explosion and he really wanted to go to bed. But still curiosity got the better of him and in the end Thomas found himself turning the kitchen door knob. The door creaked open and what Thomas then saw was extremely unexpected, food and kitchen appliances all over the floor and walls (well that was expected) but, in the middle of the mess sat an old man dressed in old brown robes, with a small rope belt tide around his waist. He had a withered face and a long gray beard.
The man stared at Thomas with a look of such confusion that it even confused Thomas, “your not a Daemon” said the man in a scared tone.
“well, no. Why would I be?” asked Thomas forgetting completely about the phenomenon of how the man got there.
“This isn’t Daemonasia. This is earth well its changed quite a bit from what I can remember. Hmmm I wonder how I got here: random matter teleportation? No that cant be it. Oh god it cant be!” rambled the man.
“what?” enquired Thomas. “Crow gate; its activated. All that was pulled out is being pushed back in.”.
“What the hell is crow gate?” wondered Thomas.
“Hmmm well you see……” the old man paused and took on a more comfortable position “Oh dear this is going to be a long story” thought Thomas. “Anyway you see, in ancient times daemons and humans lived together on the earth in ummm, well I’d like to say harmony but you see, well lets just call it tolerance. Yes, they lived together in tolerance. We had kingdoms, they had kingdoms, we had kings, they had kings so on and so forth. Well in the 7th age of the world the king of the lands of humans and wizards was a man called Epidifamace and he hated daemons, with a passion I might add. You see when he was 9 a daemon, a quite powerful one at that, killed his entire immediate family; mother, farther, sisters that sort of thing. He was the first cousin of the heir to the throne and when his cousin suffered a freak shaving accident Epidifamace was appointed king.”
The man repositioned himself again, stretching out his back “aaaah that’s the spot. Anyway you see Epidifamace had a plan, a plan to rid the world of all daemons. He got his most powerful wizards to build him a sort of portal that when activated would pull all the daemons on earth threw it and into another plain of being. He called it Crow Gate but as expected it didn’t go as planed and instead of just the daemons being pulled threw all the wizards, half daemons and even the raw winds of magic itself were ripped from the world. But after that the magic that powered Crow Gate was gone and so everything that went threw was stuck; but now its active again some how and so everything that the king wanted rid of is coming back and lord are they pissed off. Then again it could just be random matter teleportation.”
“Right…..” said Thomas now taking on the same expression of confusion that the old man had when Thomas first saw him. “And who are you again?” asked Thomas.
“Oh my, I must seem so rude. I am Velrarn High mage of Esignar I used to specialise in intelligence roaming the lands of the earth finding out things about everything and everyone and writing them down. So what’s your name?” Thomas had stopped paying attention half way threw the old mans introduction of himself, he was wishing that he had a name as interesting as Velrarn and wondering whether he should lie and tell the man that he was called Thomarius or something like that. But in the end he couldn’t be bothered.
“Huh? Oh right I’m Thomas I specialise in, um well nothing really.” said Thomas eventually. “aaah Thomas what a um…..modern name” said the old man.
“What’s a daemon exactly?” asked Thomas.
“Aaah I was wondering when you would ask me that. Well a daemon is a living….um well no not really, a daemon is a personified …..hmmm not always, a daemon is, well we’ll just say that when a human thinks of something hard enough the thought reverberates into the daemons dimension, and there the thought creates a daemon in its image. You see even when daemons and humans lived together on the same earth daemons were still part of a different dimension. The most powerful of daemons can create there own sort of mini daemons called familiars in there own image; familiars look different depending on which daemon they belong to but all the familiars of a single daemon look the same, usually being a lesser version of themselves. Unlike familiars daemons are all unique and there will never be two the same, never even after one has died.”
“Ok…..” said Thomas again taking on the same expression as Velrarn did when Thomas first walked into the kitchen. A large explosion came from outside at that point, followed by screaming and many smaller explosions.
“Oh dear its happening”.
“What is” asked Thomas”.
“They are coming.”
Chapter 2: Mommy the monster under my bed just ate your face!
“Shouldn’t we get out of here!” shouted Thomas.
“And go where, you think there’s anywhere on this earth that they wont appear? And remember they aren’t the only things you have to worry about.” said Velrarn calmly.
“What do you mean?” enquired Thomas.
“Most of them aren’t here to kill all of human kind they just want to reclaim what was once there’s. They are a lot like us in some ways they have morals, a sense of humour, compassion, empathy and so on. They have there own laws and prisons, so most of them wont hurt you intentionally as long as you don’t get in there way or mention Epidifamace. But remember they aren’t the only thing that’s gonna be coming back out of that gate.”
“Wizards?”
“You wont have to worry about us we’re on your side, most of us will be running around collecting wizards to train.” replied Velrarn.
“Collecting wizards?”
“Humans are supposed to have powers, well some of us are about one in a thousand are born a wizard and one in about every 2000 are born half daemons.”
Velrarn changed his position once again now sitting cross legged in the middle of a group of shattered plates. “Now the difference between a wizard and a half daemon is that well, a half daemon is a person who is well half daemon, they have much more endurance than a regular human, or wizard for that matter and also heal at a much faster rate, They also have a specific special ability if you want to call it that. Just like Daemons there powers are unique so one half daemon may be able to shoot lightning from his hands or be able to move things with there mind. But, a Wizard is a human who is specially attuned with the raw winds of magic and so can mould it to there will turning it into a fire ball they could hurl at there enemy or using it to lift them in the air and fly and so on and so forth. Wizards can be extremely dangerous if not trained there ability to control the raw winds of magic can be extremely volatile if they don’t learn to control it, a sudden change in emotion or large amount of pain can cause an untrained wizard to involuntarily unleash there power in the form of a large explosion usually, or a catastrophic natural disaster; well not that natural in this case, and that is why we must collect them together and teach them to control their gift before it becomes a most destructive curse.”
“Ah…..” said Thomas this time not confused. Loud noises started coming from the room above Thomas’s apartment, screams and large thuds came from all over the ceiling.
“Well that cant be good” said Velrarn not seeming to care much. Suddenly a large part of the ceiling fell in and threw the gaping hole hung a half eaten corpse. The noise had stopped, Thomas and Velrarn waited in silence the only sound that could be heard was the drip of blood coming from the corpse. A snapping purring sound began to come from above the hole and then out of nowhere a strange creature jump down out of the hole. It had the structure of a human but was definitely not one “It must be a daemon” thought Thomas, “or at least a familiar.” It had no skin only muscle was showing, Its long fingers lead into long talon like claws and its hoof like feet scratched at the ground as it unnervingly stood there. The most inhuman thing about the creature was that is had no head, instead its extremely long neck craned forward out of it’s body, at the end of the creatures neck there were row upon row of sharp, jagged teeth.
The monster snapped at Thomas making him jump, “Do something!” shouted Thomas, now pointing at the creature.
“Like what?” replied Velrarn, in a way that made Thomas think that Velrarn had forgot he was a Wizard.
“I don’t know! You’re a Wizard! You said you can control the raw winds of magic!” Said Thomas waving his arms about in a magical way.
“Were you listening to the story! The raw winds of magic were pulled from the earth by Crow Gate!” Shouted Velrarn who seemed to be very offended by the way Thomas was waving his arms around.
“So no Fireball?” Said Thomas in a voice that sounded like it was coming from a puppy.
“No fireball!” Shouted Velrarn still offended. “Just stab the thing! For gods sake man its just a familiar! It’s not like it’s got a brain, you don’t have to out fight it just out think it!”
Thomas picked up a kitchen knife from the mess on the floor gritted his teeth and started to walk towards the Familiar. When Suddenly the creature turned away from Thomas, it darted backwards and suddenly another monster jumped threw the window onto the familiar. This one was smaller than the original one which now was laying disembowelled on the floor, it looked more like a cat than a person it was covered in bloody mottled fur and had two rather large and cunning eyes that stared at Thomas in a very strange way. It had two large teeth that poked out from its top lip, four long muscular legs and two triangular and now raised ears.
The new familiar slowly moved towards Thomas. The pace it was moving at was unnerving but, the look in its eyes was even worse. The creature, now by Thomas’s feet, began purring, not in a normal cat way but a more daemonic type of purring. It stroked its head against Thomas’s thighs (It was a very big cat) and jumped out of the building threw another window.
“What the hell was that?” screamed Thomas in a very scared tone.
“Some kind of Familiar I think you’re lucky it came when it did.” said Velrarn still strangely calm about the whole experience.
“What do you mean?” asked Thomas confused again.
“All that, all you have to do is out think it stuff was bullshit. That thing would of ripped you to shreds!” said the Wizard seeming to be rather proud of himself.
“What the fuck man! You’re saying that thing would of killed me! You… You! There is no word, that I can think, of that explains what an arsehole you have just been!” Shouted Thomas. He thought for a moment and then said “was this all because I waved my arms in the air when I said control the winds of magic!” Shouted Thomas, he shouted a lot.
“No! of course not!” said Velrarn quietly giggling to himself.
“Well now what? We cant just sit here! Can we?”. At that moment gunfire began outside and the level of screaming became a deafening roar. Above all this a shrill voice filled the air, sending shivers up Thomas’s spine.
“Die mortals! Die! Your corpses shall build the foundation of the kings new palace muhahahaha!!”
“Oh dear.” Said Velrarn now not so calm.
“What”, asked Thomas not confused by Velrarns words but now very scared.
“Vagrash is a daemon, a very powerful one. He’s the kings advisor and he has well, a personal vendetta against all humans.”
“So, what can he do?” asked Thomas still quite scared.
“Well he can create and control the growth of cells and bodily tissues. Not only is this an incredibly destructive power but, Vagrash has mastered it to an extreme extent where he can create giant pillars of flesh and bone, regenerate his own tissue at an incredible speed and do, well almost anything he can imagine with it.”
“Ah…..” said Thomas now even more scared.
“How dare you obstruct the coming of the king!!” screamed Vagrash followed by many simultaneous human like screams. Thomas looked to the kitchen and Velrarn had vanished, he felt a hand on his shoulder, it was Velrarn, beckoning him towards the door. They began running down the stairs and out of the building. The streets were littered with dead bodies, destroyed cars and bits of rubble. By the look of some of the corpses the army had shown up to try and control the situation but, must have failed horribly. As Thomas and Velrarn silently slunk threw the blood stained roads the sound of screams and the insidious voice of Vagrash filled there ears, even Velrarn looked worried.
“Where are we going?” asked Thomas remembering what Velrarn said earlier on.
“Away from Vagrash! I like life, I don’t know about you.” said Velrarn now obviously very worried about the whole situation. Thomas nodded at Velrarn showing him yes I would like to live so I’ll keep following you. They walked for a good 4 hours threw abandoned buildings and burning wreckage until they came to a building which Velrarn said was safe they sat inside and rested eating some strange tasting caky stuff Velrarn called “frastone”
It wasn’t very nice but at least it was food.
Meanwhile back by Thomas’s apartment Vagrash had built a mighty palace out of flesh, bone and bits of buildings. Vagrash was not a very impressive daemon but he was a very unsettling site, he wore drab black robes that covered most of his body, his face was covered in boils and large tumours, two eyes the size of tea cups shined out from his hood a bright sickly green colour. He had three circular mouths containing small needle like teeth they all moved simultaneously as he spoke making his voice even more unsettling than his face. He has long figures with no nails and his robes were to long to see his feet.
“Make way for the coming of the king!!!” screamed Vagrash at the top of his voice, at that moment a lone survivor ran from a building into the road attempting to get away, Vagrash simply pointed at the man and he began to scream in agony, large tumours instantly began to grow all over his body tearing away his clothes and large sharp bones shot from his stomach and thighs tearing threw his skin. It happened over only a few moments and before you knew it all that was left of the man was a bleeding mound of flesh and bone.
“Insolent mortal how dare he interrupt the kings coming!” At that moment all the familiars behind Vagrash (they were the same as the one that fell through Thomas’s ceiling) began wailing at the sky, Vagrash raised his arms and a large Gate of yellow coloured gunk raised from the ground, all the familiars behind Vagrash began to burn covered in purple fire, the bodies of the dead humans in the area began to burn too and a great portal in the centre of the gate began to form and swirl.
“100 daemonic souls and the souls of 1000 mortals! Gate of Summoning activate!” A great wall of fire exploded from the gate but reseeded before it reached Vagrash and a form began to step out from the gate. Vagrash leapt onto the floor, “your majesty!” The form stepped completely out of the portal and that gate collapsed as he did. There he stood the king of all daemons, he was a very tall figure, with thin lanky arms and legs, he had very dry and cracked brown skin almost like leather. His large oval head stood above everything, he smiled, his mouth stretched across the whole of his face revealing many rows of small sharp teeth. He had no eyes, nose or ears his face was blank apart from his large mouth. He wore many rings over all of his long fingers. He wore no clothes or crown, he was not a king of materials but a lord of power.
“So this is my new palace Vagrash. Hmmmmmm it could do with a little more colour variety, you may have over done it with the red.”
It was dark now, Thomas sat by the road side staring into the infinite abyss in front of him. The shadow seemed to stretch on forever, without any street lights or light coming from buildings the city was a scary place at night. Every noise made him jump, he couldn’t sleep.
How could he, with all the things he had been through, today he would not sleep.
With the sun came hope. The sunrise made Thomas feel happy for the first time in a very long time.
“Maybe all this is a good thing” he thought to himself, not a moment had past after that thought had crossed his mind when a strange creature appeared out of nowhere. It stood right in front of him not 10 metres away. The creature looked a lot like a man in a large cloak but it had no face, all that was inside the cloak was shadow, shadow and smoke. The creature floated towards Thomas, when suddenly Velrarn leapt up in front of Thomas at incredible speed.
“Noooooo!” the old man shouted. He raised his arm and lightning spouted from his finger tips, it arced into the creature, dissipating it, leaving only the cloak and hat it was wearing left.
“oh dear….” said the old man very out of breath, “I haven’t moved that fast in a long time.” He then slumped onto the floor.
“So…. I guess the raw wind of magic are returning then.” said Thomas in a very unsure way.
“Slowly but surly, yes” The old man replied, still very out of breath.
“What was that thing? A daemon?” asked Thomas.
“No. A very dangerous familiar, from an even more dangerous daemon.” said Velrarn, who had finally court his breath. “But we wont go into that.” Murmured the wizard quite worryingly. “Hmmmmm.” thought the old man (out loud).
“What?” enquired Thomas.
“I sense the earth is in trouble. Ever since Vagrash became the kings advisor the law has shown no remorse or sympathy towards wizards and half daemons, but now that he’s on earth, well. Hmmmmm if human kind is to survive Vagrash must be killed.”
“But how? He’s too powerful isn’t he?” exclaimed Thomas.
“We do have one hope. A group of rogue daemons tried to turn against the king and Vagrash once, in the end they were captured and placed in Harlgo maximum security prison if we could get them out they could help us kill Vagrash.” said Velrarn who was now pacing up and down in a very important way.
“But how will we get to the prison if the prison is in daemon umm….. Daemon land?” asked Thomas watching Velrarn pace up and down like a kitten watching two people play tennis.
“What if it wasn’t in Daemonasia.” said the old man raising his eyebrows.
Vagrash was wondering around outside the mighty palace he built for the king, when one of the familiars, who looked a lot like a giant bloodied wolf ran up to him in a panicky fluster.
“I smell… I smell.” gurgled the creature still panting.
“What do you smell?” asked Vagrash very impatiently.
“A wizard.” gurgled the daemon.
“Who?” enquired Vagrash now rather interested.
“Velrarn sr.” barked the monster before it fell down in a tired heap. Vagrash ran to the kings throne room as fast as his stubby grotesque legs could carry him, he tripped and stumbled several times as he panicked.
“ Your majesty! One of the flesh hounds traced Velrarns sent to the area!” Shouted Vagrash struggling to catch his breath.
“Hmmmmm this is troubling news. Send the twilight assassins after him!” said the king his voice echoing through the halls.
“Yes your majesty.” said Vagrash as he began to run again this time out of the throne room. Vagrash stood outside the palace of flesh on top of a small pedestal he had mad for himself out of dead corpses. Four large cloaked figures shrouded in darkness stood before him fear emanated from them. “Go find Velrarn he could not be more than 2 days ahead of you, kill any who get in your way human or other. Destroy the old man but bring me his head, unspoiled. You go with the grace of the king, do not fail me!” shouted Vagrash in a very important manner. The four figures sank into the floor and disappeared. “Lets see the old man get out of this one! Muhahahaha!” The grotesque daemon laughed to himself for a moment, spat a globule of blood at the floor and entered the palace once again.
“Crow Gate is expelling all that was once sucked in back onto earth.” the old man explained. Thomas nodded at Velrarn.
“Uh huh” he said. “So all we have to do is wait for Crow Gate to expel the prison back onto earth.” said Thomas quite proud of himself for working it out all by himself.
“Ummm no. Crow Gate is randomly throwing everything back onto earth. So it could take years for the prison to appear and it could appear anywhere on earth.” stated the old man.
“Ah” said Thomas now very disappointed that he wasn’t right.
“But we can help Crow Gate along with the prison.” Said Velrarn optimistically. The old man then fell to the floor, he was gritting his teeth and holding his head.
“Argh!” the old man screamed. Thomas ran to him and help him to his feet.
“What’s wrong!” asked Thomas anxiously.
“We are not safe! Vagrash has sent the Twilight Assassins after us, well after me but, they will not hesitate to kill you!” shouted Velrarn in a very worried tone. Velrarn stood and thought silently to himself for a moment and then said, “he must of traced our sent to the area with one of his flesh hounds.”
“Why have they sent assassins after you?” enquired Thomas rather worried.
“Well me and the Royal Court have a history you see and not a good one.” replied Velrarn in a sheepish manor. “But there is no time to explain now, we must begin.” shouted the old man.
Velrarn raised his arms pieces of rubble and debris began to move and float of the ground creating a giant mound in the centre of the road. The old man was struggling, his face was scrunched into a ball of wrinkles, he was gritting his teeth so hard that it looked like he was going to shatter his own teeth.
The debris now began to float in mid air and fuse together creating was looked like some sort of gate. The wizard then pushed both of his hands together and the structure was complete. It was some kind of gate but, not like anyone Thomas had ever seen.
“Now it usually takes a sacrifice of 1000 mortal souls and 100 immortal souls for this to work but, it looks like we are going to have to improvise.” stated the old man optimistically.
“Hmmmmm now lets see. Ah yes that should work. Hopefully.” Said the old man now rummaging through a small brown bag he had pulled out from under his cloak.
The wizard pulled out an old, dusty stone, it was round and purple.
“ In this stone are the bound souls of 1000’s of beings. So hopefully this will work>“ said the old man full of hope. He threw the stone at the gate, as soon as the stone reached its centre it froze in mid air, the stone ignited covered in purple fire and a strange portal appeared in the middle of the gate.
“Gate of summoning acti……..” before the old man could finish his sentence what looked like a ball of pure shadow flew past his head, the ball hit a near by car. The car the fell inward on its self imploding, leaving nothing but a shadow.
“They’re here, Thomas hide!” Shouted the old man. The wizard span round to face his enemies, his grey beard flapping in the wind. In front of him now stood four tall figures hooded and cloaked, shrouded in shadow, Velrarn knew these figures well they were definitely the twilight assassins. Created by the Lord of fear himself, they were the henchmen of death.
“You can not win this time Velrarn” said one of the figures in a sinister voice.
“With the winds of magic only being few so will be your powers.” said another in an equally sinister voice. Velrarn knew this to be true but he was not afraid.
“Do not worry my vile friends I still have a few tricks up my sleeve.” said the wizard defiantly.
“Very well then.” said the first one. Two of the creatures shot toward Velrarn, blades of pure shadow appearing in their hands. The wizards aimed his hands at the floor, a pulse of power sot from his hands sending him into the air. As Velrarn flew above the daemons he clenched his fists searched his body for all the power he could muster and released it at the two that were still standing motionless. A great beam of fire and light shot from Velrarns right arm, decimating the two daemons and the area that they where standing in.
Velrarn hit the floor but, quickly got to his feet, he was tired and running out of options.
“Well played wizard” said the second assassin. The two left slowly moved towards Velrarn, one still wielding its shadow blade, the other had created some form of bow and arrow set from the darkness it controlled. The creature pulled back an arrow on its bow and fired.
Velrarn caught the arrow in mid flight, he then moulded the dark form into a sword similar to the one, one of the daemons held.
“Un guard!” shouted the old man, raising his shadow blade. The assassin with the sword began to float towards him its weapon raised. Velrarn had no intension of fighting with the daemon in close quarters, Velrarn consumed his shadow blade and fired a large bolt of dark energy from his right hand, the bolt went right through the foul creature killing it instantly. Velrarn turned to face his last foe, who was now moving away from him.
“Your move.” said Velrarn calmly. The creature sunk into the floor and fled. Velrarn was about to tell Thomas to stand up from behind that car and tell him everything was safe when a large explosion came from the gate of summoning. The old man quickly turned to face the portal and shouted “Harlgo pris…” The gate then collapsed.
Velrarn sunk to the floor, that was it he thought to himself, he had failed.
“Look over there!” shouted Thomas pointing into the distance. Velrarn stood up and looked, in the distance he could see a large purple hill and on top of it half a a strange daemonic building.
“It worked!” the old man cheered. “Well sort of.” now remembering that there was only half a building on the hill.
“Well its better that nothing aye. So I guess you only had one of thoughs stones then. That’s why you were so upset.” said Thomas again proud of himself for working it all out by himself. Velrarn nodded, which only reinforced Thomas’s self pride. “Now what?” asked Thomas.
“Now? Now its time to recruit us some daemons!” said Velrarn excitedly.
There was only one way to describe the atmosphere inside the prison, chaos. With only half the building transported many cells were now open and the daemons inside were not very happy. Some of the most powerful daemons in all of Daemonasia resided inside that prison either for terrible crimes or for just being to much of a threat to the king.
Among all these were the six lords, too powerful for wall or bars they were magically sealed inside six individual amulets, keeping them relatively secure but, if anyone were to put one on then the horror inside would be set free.
As the Thomas and Velrarn walked up to the gate of the prison all that could be herd was screaming and explosions, so nothing unexpected then. Velrarn took a small vile of liquid from his bag and took a small sip. He then began to speak in the loudest voice Thomas had ever heard, louder than any amount of screaming or explosions anyone could muster.
“I am Velrarn High mage of Esignar, I have been noted many times for my crimes against the Royal Court of Daemons and now I call on you! Thoughs of you who wish to silence the vile and corrupt advisor to the king, I see no reason to mention the creatures name. Step forward now!” At first nothing happened but then 3 figures appeared from a hole in the prison wall they were a sight to behold, 3 of the strangest looking things Thomas had ever seen and over the last few days Thomas had seen some pretty strange things.
One was about the same build and height of the average man accept he was made of flame and not just ordinary fire, swirling and ever changing white flame.
Standing next to the flaming daemon was a very mysterious character. He was covered in drabs of purple cloth and wore a dark purple Borsalino hat. His eyes where pitch black and seemed to spiral inwards, like two small black holes.
The third daemon was extremely small, he was about one foot tall. He wore a long (well for him it was long) black cloak, with a cloak shrouding his face in darkness. All that could be seen was a bright pair of glowing yellow eyes.
“I am White Flame” stated the flaming daemon. “I am Isaac” murmured the purple one. “Call me the Morpher.” Said the small one in a rather deep voice.
Velrarn introduced himself and Thomas. He told the three daemons what he intended to do and how hard it was going to be. The three knew of the difficulty involved as they had all attempted doing it at some point in the past.
“Do you think we have enough people?” asked Thomas worryingly to Velrarn.
“Probably not but, hopefully we shall collect more before the time to fight comes.” said the old man in an encouraging tone.
The 5 journeyed back to the palace of flesh, near where Thomas and Velrarn first met. The are was deserted and the palace was falling apart. The corpses of dead familiars littered the surrounding area and the stench of rot was strong in the air.
“What happened here” asked Thomas very confused. Thomas enquired further “Has the king been killed?”
“No. Just moved, a battle was fought here but it was short lived. This must have only been a temporary palace, while the real one was being built somewhere else.” said Velrarn thoughtfully. Isaac began to wonder toward one of the corpses. He leant down next to it, it wasn’t like the others I wore a long black leather coat and had long black hair that covered its face. Isaac was about to lift up its hair to examine its face when the creature evaporated into a cloud of thick black smoke.
Isaac jumped backwards, the dark mass now moving towards him. Suddenly the cloud of smoke became a large flock of crows that began to soar towards Isaac. The mass of birds screeched at him with murder in their eyes. Isaac moved his hands and a large amount of rubble and wreckage from the sides of the road flew at the flock of crows. As soon as the projectiles hit the bird they tuned to smoke and changed back into birds the second that the wreckage had passed through them.
Isaac shrugged his shoulders.
“Have it your way then.” he shouted at the mass of birds. Isaac pointed towards the flock and a large black vortex appeared in mid air. Everything near it was pulled towards it, it began sucking in everything in the surrounding area, the mass of crows was in its grasp. Isaac smiled, he thought he had won. The flock of crows then merged together to become a man, or at least what looked like a man. He was wearing a long black leather coat and had long black hair which covered half of his face. He was dressed all in black and had a very depressing look on his face. The man stood firm not taking notice of the pull coming from Isaacs vortex. The man then pointed at Isaac and a mass of shadow and smoke began to engulf Isaac. He stumbled backward loosing control of his vortex.
The vortex now disappeared and Isaac filled with fear. The daemon closed his eyes and raised himself of the ground. But, with him came a very large piece of the road. He stood there blind on top a large piece of floating road, wondering what to do next.
A spark went of in Velrarns head, he knew the daemon that Isaac was fighting.
“Oh dear.” said the old man to himself, but The Morpher was one step ahead of him. The small daemon had jump in between Isaac and the strange crow man. He then suddenly multiplied into at least 20 copies of himself and then together they formed a small tower of Morphers.
“Stop this crow!” Shouted the tower of Morphers. “He is not your enemy!” the tower continued.
Crow did not listen, instead he began walking towards Isaac and the Tower of Morphers. The Tower then Merged into a large black mass which then took the form a large daemonic dragon.
“Stop!” Bellowed the dragon. “It is the King and Vagrash you want and so do we. So come with us and you will be able to complete that goal!” reasoned the dragon.
“Very well” said Crow in a very mysterious and interesting voice. Thomas could tell that he was going to be a very interesting companion from the beginning, and that’s when Thomas began to wonder why he was here. He had no powers, he couldn’t turn into a flock of slightly annoying pigeons let alone murderous crows. Maybe he had a greater part to play in this story or maybe it was just all a big coincidence. Well only time will tell.
“Lord Vagrash, there is bad news” whimpered the daemon at the door. Vagrash sat on his old wooden stool, behind his large and lavish desk littered with scraps of paper, potions and other strange objects. The vile daemon looked up from a scroll he was reading and said “What is it minion?” in a very unnerving voice.
“Velrarn still lives. He managed to kill 3 of the Twilight assassins.” said the daemon who was now on his knees.
“Hmmm how interesting.” said Vagrash in a very calm manner. “You may go.” continued the grotesque creature. The daemon slowly walked backwards out of Vagrash’s chambers. The daemon thought he was safe and began to walk away normally, when he suddenly felt a blinding pain in his stomach. The daemon fell to the floor, when he looked up he saw the vile shape of Vagrash’s face.
“How dare you fail me you worthless worm of a daemon!” shouted Vagrash in rage. Vagrash then clenched his fist and the daemon on the floor exploded. Leaving behind only a pile of bones, blood and internal organs. As Vagrash walked back to his chambers he unclenched his fist and the pile of dismembered body parts evaporated leaving behind nothing but a disgusting stench.
Vagrash walked back to his desk, and sat on his stool. “That wizard thinks he can escape me forever does he! Well we’ll see if he can escape Nortch! HaHaHaHa!” Laughed Vagrash in a sickly manor.
Darkness had come again, and the six sat together around a small fire, Which Flame had created. They were all silent and motionless. Isaac was starring at Crow in an odd way, which made Crow feel very uncomfortable.
“What do you want!” said Crow in an aggressive tone.
“Why Crows?” Asked Isaac who seemed to be very intrigued by his point.
“What?” Replied Crow rather offended
“Why not Ravens? They’re stronger. Bigger. Scarier. Darker. Why Crows?” Enquired Isaac.
“I don’t know, that just what I do. Hey why Gravity huh? Why Isaac?” Asked Crow almost shouting.
“Hmmmmm, I don’t know. I think Gravity and Isaac might be linked though. But that’s not my only power.” said Isaac still calm.
“What” asked Crow not really caring.
Well I’ve never told anyone this before, but.” Isaac beckoned him closer so that he could whisper. “I can shoot apples out of my hands.” Isaac began to laugh to himself. But then suddenly stopped, “But no joke!” he said now very seriously.
Thomas was sitting on a small blanket that Velrarn had given him. The old man was lying with his hands behind his head looking up into the sky.
“How does The Morpher know Crow?” asked Thomas very quietly.
“Hmmmmm well you see, back when all us magicky thing were on another plain of existence there was much fighting and war was everywhere. The Daemons blamed the Wizards, the half daemons blamed the daemons and so on and so forth. Now in this time of confusion the king of daemons was frequently killed and so was frequently changing.” explained the old man just as quietly.
“Oh so to become king you have to kill the king” said Thomas.
“Exactly. But when the current king came to power, he hired himself two very powerful daemonic body guards. This does not mean the king couldn’t hold his own, it was just a precaution.” the old man explained further.
“Crow and The Morpher, right?” asked Thomas trying to clarify.
“Yes. But, when Vagrash became the kings advisor the two of them noticed he was doing strange things, and began spying on him.” said the old man now even quieter.
“Like what?” asked Thomas now very interested.
“I wont go into that now but I will tell you this. Things that no ordinary daemon would do. Anyway, eventually Vagrash found out that The Morpher and Crow were spying on him and he then convinced the king that they were traitors working for the Half daemons, bla bla bla they were attacked and banished you know that sort of thing.” explained the old man no longer very quiet.
Thomas looked over at The Morpher and Crow, they were playing some sort board game, it looked like a daemon version of chess to Thomas.
The group awoke to a red sunset. The sun loomed over the destroyed palace covering the area in a dreary shadow.
“That shadow palace is in our way!” Said Isaac rather annoyed.
“We can go around it easily enough.“ Replied Velrarn calmly.
Isaac thought to himself for a moment, he didn’t want to take the long way round, he didn’t need to take the long way round. Isaac raised his arms and everything in front of him, The palace, rubble and all the dead bodies shot into the air. Everything that was in their way has disappeared out of sight before the group realised Isaac did anything.
“Where did the palace go?” asked Crow very confused. Isaac shrugged his shoulders and began walking on.
“Maybe it got bored and went home.” said Isaac sarcastically.
The group walked for a while, until Thomas stopped suddenly.
“Where are we going?” asked Thomas very confused.
“To the kings palace, you fool!” Shouted Velrarn angrily.
“I know that! But where is it?” Wondered Thomas.
“Its ummmm. Good point.” said Velrarn now equally confused.
The group sat down for a moment of thought. When Velrarn stood up suddenly, he began sniffing the air.
“Can you smell that?” Asked Velrarn in a very serious manner.
“Smell what?” Wondered Isaac.
“Nortch!” shouted the wizard jumping to the ground. A large ball of black slime flew overhead, as it hit the ground the area it touched melted leaving a smouldering hole in the road.
Nortch stood in front of them a sinister smile on his face. He had the form of a large man but was pitch black and seemed like he was melting. Black liquid pored down his body like an ever flowing stream of poison. He left a trail of it when he walked and the vile liquid dripped from his finger tips as he stood there. When it hit the floor it eroded threw the road leaving holes all around him.
“Prepare yourself wizard!” Shouted the creature in a voice that sounded like his mouth was full of water.
“That’s Nortch?” said The Morpher in a confused way.
“I’ve heard of him but I haven’t ever actually seen the creature!” Continued the small daemon.
“Be warned he’s a much tougher opponent than he looks, and remember no matter what u do….DON’T TOUCH HIM!” warned the wizard.
“Why not?” asked The Morpher rather insulted by what Velrarn had said.
The Morpher made a copy of himself, the copy ran at Nortch and jumped on him. The copy began to melt and evaporate at the same time and seemed to be in terrible pain.
“Oh that’s why!” Said The Morpher rather sheepishly.
Nortch turned to face The Morpher who suddenly had multiplied into at least 100 copies of himself.
“We all came from the slime! And in the end we shall all return to it! Marharhar!” laughed Notch to himself in a sickening way.
“Jump!” Shouted Velrarn. Everyone except Thomas shot into the air.
“Oh dear.” Thought Thomas to himself, he then flew into the air lifted by Isaac. A pool of dark brown slime pored from the soles of Nortch’s feet.
“Don’t touch it, it will pull you onto the ground and sufficate u!” warned the wizard again.
“OK we get it! Don’t touch him or anything that comes out of him!” Shouted Isaac who seemed very annoyed. The group landed on solid ground, the daemons stood behind Velrarn and Thomas stood sheepishly at the back.
“Screw this!” shouted White Flame. He created an immense ball of white and blue fire in the palm of his hand. “Try this on for size slime boy!” Continued White Flame. He threw the ball of flame at Nortch and it exploded on impact with the vile daemon. A great display of flame ensued the explosion and Nortch was gone. All that remained was a burning crater in the ground. White Flame sneered at the crater and began to turn around when a strange noise began to come from behind him.
“Bahahahaha! You thought you could kill me that easily, creature of fire! Now you shall burn!” Girgled the voice behind him.
From the bottom of the crater arose a burning Nortch. Black liquid came out from under the flames consuming them. The now no longer burning Nortch convulsed in White Flames direction sending wave of vile liquid at the flaming daemon.
The liquid enveloped around White Flame forcing him onto the ground. The daemon then exploded and was sent soaring into a near by building.
“Bahahaha!” laughed Nortch black liquid spilling from his vast mouth.
“Come one and all! See Isaac the grand magician and his bottomless magic box!” Shouted Isaac strutting about and waving his arms.
“Magic Box?” Wondered Crow very confused. The 100 Morphers looked at Crow and shrugged simultaneously.
Isaac pulled a small black from under a drab of cloth.
“Tadar!” he shouted very please with himself. He pointed the box at Nortch, who seemed to be very confused. Isaac then took of the lid and Nortch was sucked in instantly.
“HAHAHAHA!!!” Isaac Began to laugh hysterically and fell onto the floor.
“Now that’s just cheating!” said Velrarn rather surprised.
“Don’t worry it only works if when you look inside after I take of the lid.” Said Isaac still trying to fight of the laughter.
White Flame suddenly landed next to Velrarn.
“What happened?” Asked Whit Flame ready to fight.
“Isaac used his magic box.” Sais Thomas rather confused but also trying to fight of laughter (well it was quite funny).
“What have I told you about using the box of Athura!” Shouted White Flame very angry at Isaac.
“Not to.” Said Isaac hanging his head in shame.
“Ah its on of the Athurian artefacts. Yes it may be wise not to use that often.” Said Velrarn thinking to himself at the same time.
“So how are we gonna figure out where the palace is?” Wondered Thomas.
“I know where it is.” Said Crow mysteriously.
In a large dark hall sat the king of daemons and next to him sat Vagrash. They sat in a large circle amongst a group of other powerful daemons.
“The human armies are retreating on all fronts!” Shouted one of the daemons, who looked a lot like a man made entirely of earthworms.
“Yes but it is not our place to decide the humans fait. If they do not attack us we shall not attack them. We must get through this with the least amount of casualties as possible.” Said the king in a very wise voice.
“But sire! They are just worthless mortal we could destroy them all and rule this world! They must pay for they did!” Shouted the worm daemon jumping out of his seat in a threatening manor.
Vagrash stood quickly in response and began staring at the daemon. The daemon fell to the floor writhing in pain.
“How dare you address the king in that way!” Shouted Vagrash at the daemon.
“Calm yourself Vagrash” warned the king. Vagrash looked away from the daemon and he stopped screaming, Vagrash then sat down.
“It is true that we could destroy the human race, now in its moment of weakness but it is not our place.” Said the king just as wisely as before. Suddenly a very worried daemon rushed into the room. He looked like a small man but was green and covered in large white spines. The king stood and looked at the creature.
“Velrarn still lives! And has joined a band of daemons! One of them is carrying one of the Athurian artefacts! And they are headed towards the palace. ” Shouted the king in anger.
“How can this be Vagrash sent Nortch after him!” Asked one of the daemons who was very surprised.
“Well obviously they must of killed him!” Shouted Vagrash rather annoyed at the daemons insolence.
“But Nortch is one of the most powerful daemons at our disposal!” Said another of the daemons.
“Was.” Said Vagrash who was getting even more annoyed. “Hmmmm it seems we must handle him ourselves. I will go to destroy Velrarn myself and I will take the other members of the daemon council with me!” Continued Vagrash very full of himself.
“Very well. Vagrash you will go Margana, Uti, Gartha, Solari go with him!” Commanded the king.
Vagrash bowed to the king and left the other daemons followed him, leaving only the king and one other member of the council left in the room.
Vagrash and the other daemons made there way out of the palace. Vagrash then lead them into a deep cave.
“What are we doing in here Vagrash, is this where we are going to plan our next step?” asked one of the daemons.
“I’m very sorry my friends but your part in this story is over.” Said Vagrash very calmly.
“What?” Asked one of the daemons who was very confused.
“Goodbye.” Said Vagrash still very calm, he then began to walk out of the cave.
He then took a small vile of liquid from under his cloak and threw it onto the floor behind him. The vile broke as soon as it hit the floor and the liquid inside began to evaporate into a thick gas.
“You should be honoured that is one of the potions made by pain himself.” Laughed Vagrash as he left the cave, creating a wall of flesh behind him to block the entrance.
As Vagrash made his way down a road all he could hear was the distant sound of pain filled screams coming from the cave. He was not sure what the vile of liquid did but, if it came from The Lord of Pain it couldn’t be good.
