Rise, King of Shadows, and Let Darkness Consume: Lord to Tyrant [Private Training/Plot]

 
Adrastos was whisked out of the dungeon, near the entrance to the main Kou Alchemist’s hideout. Disoriented, he stared around him. It took a few moments before the magician realized where he was before he stumbled forward, entering the underground. The dark king’s feet shuffled along the dimly lit hallway. In his hand, he carried the scroll from the dungeon, but his mind still felt foggy. Movement on his shoulder caused the dark king to jump.

“I’ve never seen you like this,” echoed a concerned voice from his shoulder. Silver eyes stared at him in the darkness. Thyme… Hades… “You’re right. I suppose… my body and mind are just…” What was the word? “Unhinged…” How much time had passed while he braved the dangers of the dungeon? Was there any way to tell? Was the war over? The dark king entered his chamber, locking the door behind him before falling back onto his bed. Hades pawed at the scroll in his hand. “What will you do with this?”

Looking over, Adrastos stared at the sealed scroll. He could open it now, but he wanted to collect his thoughts and emotions first. “Just… hide it,” he said flippantly with a wave of his other hand. He didn’t care too much about the scroll at the moment. There was too much on his mind; the thought of the djinn rejecting him was frustrating. He didn’t even give a reason, just picked Ani and said everyone else failed. The dark magician clenched his teeth. His hand reached for the nearest object, a knife stuck into one of the bedposts, and chucked it toward the door in a blind rage. “Damn that djinn!”

“My, my… A little more to the left and I would have been in trouble,” said a woman, her voice smooth as spider’s silk.

Glancing at the doorway, Adrastos saw the leader of the Alchemist’s Kou district, Zhīzhū. She was a stunning creature, beautiful and cunning, but the dark king had no interest in amusing her. He adjusted himself on his bed to make sure his back faced her to mirror his indifferent mind. Clearly, the woman couldn’t take the hint as he felt the bed shift when she laid next to his side. “Is this any way to treat me after months of no contact?” There was a pout in her voice, a tone of playful disappointment. Had it really been months? “Tch,” Adrastos responded, “I did not ask for your company; the locked door should have been a clue. Leave.”

Zhīzhū’s fingers lightly caressed the man’s shoulders, their touch tracing the scars on his flesh. She wanted more from him than just attention. Ever since he appeared before her, seeking answers about the dark metal vessel, Zhīzhū had been trying to manipulate him, control him. Adrastos could tell as he would use similar tactics against others. Right now, the spider was trying to seduce the dark mage. Appeal to his base desires... If she wasn’t careful, she’d wind up tangled in her own web.

“So serious,” she purred into his ear. “Was your dungeon dive that terrible?”

The dark mage turned to face the woman. His silver eyes stared at her seductively smug face and glowing amber eyes. Pressing his lips in a firm line, he had all that he needed to understand. She knew where he was at because the Alchemists were keeping an eye on him, making sure he didn’t divulge the organization’s secrets to anyone outside the circle. Zhīzhū giggled. “What did you expect from a dungeon brought up from the concept of Fate and light? That it would choose you, a vessel of darkness?”

Adrastos didn’t want to admit she was right, but he couldn’t argue with her. He had lost the djinn to an Imuchakk girl; a mother lunatic enough to bring a baby to face the perils of a dungeon. Ani. She seemed so pathetic, so weak-willed, in Dantalion. How could she of all people be granted that power? Why did it matter though? Why was he brooding over something that should have been so trivial to him? After all, he had his own power: the dark metal vessel. Sitting up, he took the crown off his head to stare into the obsidian metal. This was all Adrastos thought he needed, and yet, when turned down by a proxy of Fate, it hurt. Or perhaps hurt wasn’t what he felt. Disgust? Anger? Annoyance? Just before the dungeon, he had come to terms of being a black king, stained by darkness and depravity. Why falter now? Did the djinn see through his lies? His deception? Did the djinn know that he was insincere, spouting nonsense about revealing himself when he had no intention to do so? A fake? Just like this crown… The crown was just a copycat of the real thing, something made because people like him were unworthy of something genuine.

As if sensing Adrastos’ growing doubt, Zhīzhū wrapped her slender arms around his torso. “You’ve barely begun to unlock the secrets of the power you wield, the power that was given to you, and you don’t think it’s worth having?” She slid off the bed to stand in front of the magician. His eyes didn’t look up at her, but that didn’t stop him from feeling the sharp sting of contact across his face as his head whipped to the side. Reaching for his cheek, he stared at the woman. “Did you just…?”

“Listen here,” she said sternly, “You weren’t given you vessel only for you to second guess yourself every time something doesn’t go according to plan or when you want to play with a bunch of white rukhs in a dungeon. You’re pathetic. You haven’t learned anything, and your conviction is weak.”

His conviction was weak? If anything, it was stronger than before. She wasn’t in the dungeon, she wasn’t there. She had no right to open her mouth. “Get out,” he growled, “Before I kill you.” She shrugged with a smirk on her face. Before closing the door behind her as she left, the woman had to have the final say. “You couldn't even kill me in your dreams.”

The dark magician grabbed the nearest object he could get his hands on, a wine glass, and chucked it at the door. A roar erupted from his lips, his breathing heavy, as outrage boiled under his skin. “That damn witch…” Adrastos was infuriated. Why did he need to be ridiculed so many times by so many people? Taunted and laughed at. Why?! The dark magician clenched his teeth and fists, but then his body was loose, calm like a still pond. His slender white hands intertwined with his silver locks as he slid his hair back. “If you want to play that game, we can. I’m a patient man; I’ll do what I’ve always done best: slither in the dark until the time to strike," Adrastos said with a smirk. “No more… She will be the last… And then… I’ll take what belongs to me.”

After two days, Adrastos sat in the very chair he saw Zhīzhū when he met her. The chair wasn’t much, certainly not his style in terms of its withering web-like design, but it would make do for now. Zhīzhū stormed into the main room of the complex, her eyes burning. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Adrastos tilted his head with a smile, “Hit a nerve did I? Do you not like me sitting here?” His fingers gently tapped against the armchair. He watched her expression, enjoying the burning rage he saw in her eyes before it morphed into something else. “Not at all,” she said, a smirk playing on her lips, “But we’ll see how long you last there.” Perplexed, the dark magician wondered what she meant.

His body began to feel numb and his stomach churned. A haze washed over his mind to the point he didn’t even realize he slid off the chair in a fetal position. “What… What is this?” Through his blurring vision, Adrastos tried to focus on Zhīzhū who now walked toward him. The closer she got, she closer she began to transform, or was he hallucinating? “It’s a special poison I concocted for people like you: those unworthy of the gift they’ve been given and lack the conviction to wield the power. Perhaps if I kill you, I can take what you don’t deserve.” The witch kneeled next to his curled up form and placed a hand on his cheek, stroking it gently as if consoling a dying animal. “My darling boy,” her voice whispered, Adrastos felt his heart stop as he looked up at the woman. Zhīzhū was no longer there. In her place, a woman with tangled pink hair.

“Mom…”

“Shh... Don’t worry,” the woman smiled warmly, “It’ll be over soon.”

The last time Adrastos saw his mother was ages ago, back when he was still a child and his sister was merely a toddler, but this was just the trick of that spider witch. There was no way she could be-

“Oh, but I am. I’m very much alive, my son, and I am very disappointed in you.” Closing his eyes, Adrastos wanted to block out the illusion, this nightmarish hallucination. “After all… you’re the reason why I’m dead…” Feeling a warm liquid pooling under him, the dark magician managed to force himself to his feet, but when he opened his eyes, the beautiful figure’s face was covered in blood. Blood covered his hands and the knife he gripped so tightly. Her face morphed, changing into a withered corpse before crumbling to dust. Her blood still covered his body and the ground, but this wasn’t real. It couldn’t have been real. “Stop… What the hell is this?! What have you done to me?!” Adrastos felt his heart race. These thoughts, these distorted memories, should have been pushed back so far, there was no way to recall them. Stepping back, Adrastos turned to run, only to be stopped by rotten arms emerging from the pool of blood beneath him.

“Why?”

All around him that question rang, echoing in his mind and sending vibrations to his very core. With each word, more and more hands slinked their way up his body, wrapping around him. Louder and louder, he could hear them cry, the gargling voices until suddenly, silence.

The chattering of teeth dispelled the sudden quiet.

A shaky wheeze.

A woman’s dying whisper in his ear.

“Why did you kill me?”

Shaking free, Adrastos tore himself away from the deathly clutched, almost stumbling as he tried to escape. A withering corpse stared at him with empty sockets for eyes, but he could tell it belonged to his mother by the strands of pink still clinging to the rotten flesh on the head.

“You deserved it. You all deserved to die, but you…” The man stared at his trembling hands. He chuckled nervously. “I had to… There was no other way… You didn’t want me… You were afraid of me…”

That’s not true.

“It is!”

Drakon.

Adrastos lunged at the corpse. Wrapping his fingers around the neck of the creature, he squeezed. “Don’t. Don’t you dare… That’s not my name.” Adrastos squeezed until the corpse turned to dust in his hands. He didn’t even realize his surroundings change to his household home. Looking around, the magician felt a stabbing pain in his heart and something wet fall down his cheek.

“Drakon,” said a woman’s voice behind him. The voice belonged to his mother, Sirena, but unlike before, she wasn’t a rotting cadaver. Her cheeks were rosy and eyes sparkled with life, and she sat on a couch wearing her favorite dress that father had given her. “Why are you crying, Drakon?” Wiping the cursed tears away, Adrastos shook his head. “That’s not my name, mother,” he corrected. However, she only responded with that same warm smile from so long ago. “I know, but I’m still your mother.” She motioned to the empty spot beside her, inviting her son to sit with her, but Adrastos didn’t move. This was all a trick, like what happened in the dungeon, except this was the work of poison, not a djinn. None of this was real.

“Dra-” Sirena shook her head. “Adrastos,” she said with a sad smile, “Why are you crying? Are you regretting what you did?”

Did he? Adrastos didn’t know. Perhaps he did regret his actions. Try as he might, he could never forget those memories of blood and fire. The screams piercing through the night. Before that hellish night, the days were peaceful and fun for the most part. He showed a high aptitude for magic at a young age, perhaps three or four. He remembered his father praising him, saying he’d rise to new heights, how he’d soar above everyone he knew. However, there were times that something didn’t feel right. His mother smiled, but there was something hidden behind it. Her eyes showed worry. Did she see the darkness in him? Perhaps that’s why she had another child, one that looked so much like herself. On that fateful night, he just took it upon himself to kill her. It was the perfect opportunity since nobody would think a child could kill his own mother during such chaos. But… he was missing something...

“Must we go through this every time?”

The voice sounded exhausted as if they tried explaining the same thing to a child who just couldn’t understand.

“You killed her for a reason. She’s dead. If you hadn’t, you would be dead instead,” a hand fell on Adrastos’ shoulder. It belonged to himself, but it wasn’t really him. As per usual, it was his other-self. “She was going to leave you behind, take your sister with her. She didn’t care about you. She was scared of you and your power. Your potential for greatness was something she couldn’t comprehend.”

“No,” Sirena said, “A mother would never leave their children behind. I cared for you. I was proud of you.” She smiled. “You took after your father… Even now, you look so much like him.”

Dark Adrastos scoffed. “Look, the only reason we’re in this mess of self-doubt all over again is because you can’t accept what happened. You killed your mother. You weren’t worthy of the djinn.” He stood in Adrastos’ way, blocking his view of his mother. “Zhīzhū was right… what did you expect? You already hold the power of a djinn; why bother with the light?”

Without a second thought, Adrastos already had an answer, “If the power I have is a fake, a mere copycat of the light, then I will make it real. To do that, I need to observe and experiment what it’s like to hold the power that gave birth to the creation of this dark vessel. Whether I obtain the power of a djinn or not, I still have Erebus,” his hand touched the metal crown, “and with it, I’ll move forward however I see fit.”

Shoving past his other self, Adrastos walked toward his mother. She smiled at his advance. “Sit with me, my son, my little Drakon,” she motioned once again toward the empty seat beside her. Stopping and bending down to embrace his mother, he closed his eyes. She smelled the same as back then, like a rose after rain. “I love you,” he whispered into her ear.

“I love-” A gasp stopped her words. Pulling away slightly, Adrastos wore a crooked grin. He twisted the blade into his mother’s back before wrenching it out. Then, the knife went into her stomach. Adrastos watched as Sirena’s shock turned into despair and pain as life slowly seeped from her body. “Shh… It’ll be over soon, Sirena.”

“But…”

“But what? You thought you could smother me with love? Have me remember the good old days?” Adrastos chuckled. “I’d kill you over and over again, along with every other person I’ve killed.” The dark magician tilted his head ever so slightly. “I don’t quite care why I killed you, it doesn’t matter. None of the lives I’ve taken matter in the end, not to me. They were just a grain of sand on an ocean floor…” His hands, stained red with his mother’s blood, brushed aside her pink hair from her face. “I don’t regret what I did, but I think I’m done trying to block out the memory that began my existence. For that… I thank you.” Adrastos pointed the knife to her heart. “Unfortunately…” The knife pierced her flesh. “Your usefulness has long since,” deeper the knife impaled her body, slowly, “expired.” With the last word, the knife found its home within her now still heart. No longer amused, Adrastos tossed the corpse to the side. “And my name is Adrastos.”

“Now as for you,” he said, looking back at his other half. “I thought I told you never to show up again.”

The other Adrastos bowed. "Soon, but it’s time for you to wake up.”

Adrastos groaned, coughing up blood as he struggled to regain his senses. Zhīzhū’s form came into focus first. She was sitting in her throne with an expression of disbelief, pride, and disappointment. The mixture of emotions didn’t look well on her face, but Adrastos could tell she was more shocked he wasn’t dead or at least insane.

“You damn bitch… You’ll pay…”

Zhīzhū laughed, “If you keep forcing yourself, you’ll die. You can’t fight me, let alone beat me in your condition.”

“Shut up,” Adrastos stood slowly. No more. With shaky hands, he reached for his crown as he tried to maintain his balance. “Don’t underestimate me...” With a sigh, Zhīzhū stepped down and struck the dark magician with her hand. As unsteady as he was, Adrastos fell. A kick to the stomach sent him flying into the ceiling. The impact caused him to vomit blood and gasp for air. Colliding with the floor below almost made Adrastos pass out when his skull cracked against it. She was using magic to enhance her physical strength.

Get up.

Crack! His ribs began to break.

Get up!

His body was being dragged across the ground by his hair and blood trailed behind him. As Zhīzhū pinned him against a wall, her words were faint. “Any last words?” With a bloodstained smirk, his lips parted. “Obscure, Ere-” he whispered. Knowing what he was about to do, Zhīzhū tried to crush his skull, but it was too late as he finished his words. She was pushed away and black rukh flooded the room.

Adrastos stood, wielding his scythe. His eyes were crazed with anger and yet they were still so calm, so still. “You will be the last,” he said before lunging at the leader of the Kou Alchemists, ready to take off the witch’s head.

 
Zhīzhū’s body flew backwards, in sync with Adrastos’ lunge. Her hand reached into her cleavage as she moved away, her hand returning with two vials. One was thrown towards Adrastos while the remaining one stayed within her hand. A flirtatious smirk spread across her face as her eyelashes flickered coyly. Though her heart was cold, her voice was warm. “Enjoy the gift, darling.”

Adrastos didn’t expect to hit her, but he certainly wasn’t expecting her to match his movement perfectly. He didn’t know what the vial would do. How did it work? Break on contact? Cause some sort of toxin to spread? Explosion perhaps? The magician side-stepped slightly, barely managing to miss the vial thrown at him as it passed centimeters from his chest. He was grateful for the training he did to become a warrior. Adrastos used the momentum to spin, extending his scythe to give him the extra two meters of length, swinging it toward Zhīzhū. A black construct, a shadowy raven, flew from the scythe. The raven was part of the weapon’s passive and always appeared when he swung his weapon for the first time in combat. “All I want is your head at my feet,” he hissed.

Disappointment was hidden within the depths of Zhīzhū’s eyes as Adrastos sidestepped the vial. “Still not willing to accept my affection?” With a wave of her hand a complex combination of light and sound magic covered her. A metallic claw, shaped around her finger, seemed to be the source of her spell. As this magic manifested, she split into three copies of herself. One went to the left, the other went to the right, while the last kept retreating.

Adrastos, with his knowledge of spells, would be able to sense that the strength of the magic manifested was much stronger than what he simply saw before him. There was more to her spell than what met the eyes. A playful expression, like a cat facing a mouse, covered the three women’s faces. They moved in tandem, and the sounds emitted from each of them were all realistic. “Yield to me, boy. It will never be my head at your feet. Relax… Make me your mistress.” The three women pointed to the same spot on the ground, behind Adrastos, as another spell was uttered. Strength magic flowed forth, and the clicking of a mechanism being activated resounded through the room.

The floors began to move, opening a two meter wide chasm in front of the chair. This chasm was not lit, though the light from the room shone upon this new addition to the room. Spider webs, as thick as  cord, littered the sides of the chasm. The liquid from the vial dripped down the side of the walls. As it did so, the webs began to sway.

"I could say the same, but there's no reason if we aren't going to get anywhere by playing the same game," he said. He had thought about manipulating her, using her, but it would be a losing game. "Besides… I know about black widows." Adrastos watched her three clones carefully. He staggered as the ground shook beneath him and the chasm opened behind him. The magician clicked his tongue. Should he attack the chasm? Or ignore it and focus on the caster? “Eringo Umbra.”

Three shadowy clones of Adrastos rose from the darkness. “I won’t be anyone’s slave, not even yours.” The shadow raven swooped down toward one of Zhīzhū’s forms while one clone charged forward. The other two split up to attack the others. Each shadow clone would do a simple horizontal swing at their target. His silver eyes kept watch of the chasm in his peripheral, watching as the webs swayed. He didn’t know there was a secret chasm she could open at her leisure. Adrastos knew he needed to be careful so he didn’t fall victim to any traps she may have in the room.

Just as the shadows approached the three Zhīzhūs the webs in the chasm moved. A one meter large spider darted out of the webs, climbing up towards the top. The creature’s mandibles were long and sharp. Its legs, even longer, scurried with a frightening speed. Though it moved quickly, there was something strange about its movements - instead of directly heading towards Adrastos, the spider made its way to the spilled contents of the shattered vial - the opposite side of the chasm.

Right as the creature made its presence known, Adrastos’ three clones struck out at the three forms of Zhīzhū. Each of those three forms disappeared.

With all of this happening at once, there was a sudden appearance of a dagger weilding Zhīzhū behind Adrastos mid-swing.

Hearing the scuttling of a creature behind him, Adrastos turned. The magician jumped back but not before the knife grazed his forearm. Putting some distance between her, Adrastos swung his scythe horizontally toward the chasm. An arc of shadow extended from the blade and flew outward. The shadow raven swooped past Adrastos to fly right behind the arc. He also directed the clones toward Zhīzhū. Whether or not Zhīzhū dodged the arc, the explosion radius should still hit the chasm. She’d also need to deal with the construct behind it and the three shadow clones. If the shadow clones got close, one would use Echetus’ Punishment to temporarily cloud her vision while the other two would swing their scythes around her and pull, trapping her between the blades.

Meanwhile, the arc of darkness would hit the chasm and cause an explosion of shadow ten meters wide and two meters tall. Anything still lingering in that chasm, if close enough, would be harmed by the explosion itself or be crushed by falling debris.

Zhīzhū clenched her teeth as she charged through the first attack. She would not be mired by a mere web of her opponent’s making, instead showing her capability in scheming by moving against convention. The explosion from the arc of darkness had far-reaching effects, engulfing not just her and the spider behind her, but Adrastos’ shadow puppets as well. Though Adrastos may have believed she would dodge the attack, that was not the choice she made. Her Borg soaked the force, nearly bursting from the impact. The explosion that came afterwards was to her surprise.

To the spider’s credit, a quick shot of web flew out and attempted to slow the attack down. This proved somewhat effective, however some remaining shadow magic crippled its two front legs. The creature cried out in fear, scuttling backwards from the damage. Zhīzhū was not relying on that creature, however, to be the driving force in this fight. It had already served its purpose in distracting her opponent, whom she had already closed the distance on.

Zhīzhū’s clawed hand pointed towards Adrastos as a sound emitted from her hand. The frequency visibly shook the air as it headed towards him - this spell was just as powerful as Adrastos’ last attack towards her, though it seemed the frequencies were intended to disorient him more than attack his organs.

The clones were tougher than your typical clone. Even though the shadow puppets were damaged by his own spell, they could still be useful as they executed the same moves as before while she was busy attacking Adrastos. The raven swooped directly down from the air, aiming for Zhīzhū’s head. Adrastos gracefully spun as he sidestepped, using the ripples in the air to tell him where the attack was headed and how big of an area it took. She didn’t seem like she was taking this seriously, or at least wasn’t going for him with the intent to kill. “Stop toying with me.” At the end of his small spin, Adrastos sprinted toward the woman. He jumped into the air and smashed downward with the scythe.

Zhīzhū witnessed Adrastos moving, swinging his scythe at her from above. The sound of his constructs approaching her from behind entered her ears. The fact they were still alive bewildered her, though she only had a few moments to spare. The woman pulled three small balls from a concealed location. With a flick of her armored finger against a small piece of flint built into those small balls, the three became lit. Her hand moved with a practiced tempo, throwing them at the three clones.

Zhīzhū clicked her tongue as she drew a dagger to defend against the scythe. The strength behind it, however, was more than she could handle. Her spell-casting hand was preoccupied dealing with the clones, so the remaining hand could only delay. The dagger was quickly knocked from her grasp, falling to the floor as she fell backwards. A numb feeling covered her off-hand, though no lasting harm befell her. “But dear, you’ve always been my toy. Or do you think… That you’ve escaped my poison?” Zhīzhū gave a pointed look towards the cut along Adrastos’ forearm from earlier.

Losing the clones didn’t mean anything to the dark magician, but being called her toy annoyed him. Adrastos glanced at the cut along his forearm. The blood still dripped from the wound. He didn’t feel any odd reactions to a poison. However, just because he practiced as a doctor, that didn’t mean he knew about poisons. If he was poisoned, what effects did the poison have? A slow death? Temporary paralysis? Adrastos narrowed his eyes. “You think that will stop me from killing you? Do you want me to beg on my hands and knees for some antidote?” He stepped closer. “Hate to break it to you, sweetheart,” he said with a sneer, “but you’re going to need more than poison to get me to bow down to you.”

Zhīzhū giggled in response, a mocking tone tinging her voice as her clawed hand made its way back to the forefront. “Little boy, it turns out that a child twice bitten knows fear… But this time your hesitation cost you an opportunity. You’ve been fooled!” As she spoke, life magic erupted from her hand as she threw some seeds to the ground and jumped into the air and backwards, towards the chasm. At the same time, she retrieved the vial from her bosom once more, breaking it above her and covering herself in the tonic.

The magic hit the seeds, causing them to quickly grow into vines - these vines were quite sharp, shining with the coating of a strange substance. As these plant-like tentacles extended, one covered the gap of the chasm while keeping the thorns away from Zhīzhū. The remaining three shot forward to Adrastos, approaching from the left, the right, and above. They looked like they were attempting to bind, poison and pierce him if he did nothing in response.

With the vines as cover, Zhīzhū threw a small bomb into the air, using the angle of the vine approaching from above to cover the movement. Her plan was to strike Adrastos with this hidden attack, hopefully within the gap of an attack towards the vines.

Little boy? Fear? He wasn't afraid of her. Adrastos jumped backwards, watching the vines stretch toward him. On top of that, there was a bomb thrown in the air. The dark mage felt pressured, but not to the point of panicking for his life. He took a deep breath. Adrastos swung twice in quick succession. These swings allowed him to notice the bomb but it was too late to actually do anything to react as he saw it explode.

The flames would engulf the magician’s torso, though the weapon equip of his dark metal vessel would prevent his borg from coming to his defense. The blazing heat would set his clothes aflame, harming the underlying flesh beneath in the process.

Zhīzhū withdrew another dagger, throwing it towards Adrastos even as she used another spell to re-form a vine into a spear. Both objects flew at the man with the scythe. The dagger’s trajectory was aiming for his right leg while the vine was aiming for his heart. Zhīzhū did not trust the flames to finish her opponent alone. She slowly licked her lips as she imagined the death of this man who would not submit.

Adrastos staggered. The heat of the flames burned his eyes and nostrils, but the pain of his flesh burning was more excruciating. He was able to fight through the pain and deflect the vine, but in doing so, he’d miss the knife. The blade sunk into his thigh and Adrastos fell to the floor. Panic began to set in. Pain and panic. Rage. Regret. The dark magician screamed, unable to think as his emotions clouded his ability to take control of the situation, to put out the fire and fight back. He always cursed his emotions for getting in the way, but now they were about to kill him.

“No…” Adrastos clutched his scythe tightly and grinded his teeth together. “I will not lose…” For him to win, Adrastos needed to rid himself of these human emotions, cure himself of pain and fear. Eventually, the fire no longer burned his body. He could feel his emotions being eaten away, his past, his inner struggles. The pain turned to numbness until nothing remained. He inhaled deeply.

You are ready… Now… Repeat after me...

“Lost in the mist of darkness,” Adrastos chanted as if listening to some inner voice, “remain oblivious of what lurks within shadow for all eternity!” He stood to his feet slowly with the flames still eating his body. “Obscure, Erebus!” Black rukh swarmed the area, but instantly Adrastos flew into the air behind Zhīzhū. The flames had been extinguished thanks to the sudden burst of flight, exposing his new form. Adrastos had maintained his long white hair, but his pale white skin took a more ashen grey tone. On his chest, a red symbol was carved into his flesh: a circle with three lines equally spaced. He wore obsidian gauntlets with spikes and claws that go up to his elbows, an obsidian belt that held up a long tattered cloth, and obsidian metal from his ankles to his knees. The scythe had a chain attached to the bottom. However, the most striking change was in his eyes, once cool silver now raging crimson. “Game over,” he whispered in Zhīzhū’s ears before immediately swinging his scythe to beheading her on the spot.

Zhīzhū’s heart went cold as Adrastos rose from the flames. Her eyes hardly had any time to adjust to the sudden developments. As the man’s voice entered her ears, a chill shot through her spine. His voice was dead - emotionless, like that of a grim reaper. Her head flew off her shoulders, tumbling in the air and granting her one last look upon his visage. Ah, she weakly thought, his gaze is merciless… The sight of Adrastos’ dead eyes, like the depths of a black pool, gazing past her was the final thing she saw before all went dark.

The dark king watched as her body crumpled to the floor and her head fly through the air. He grabbed the head, his trophy, by the hair and made his way over to the throne. Placing the head on the arm rest, he sat down. He now had what he wanted: his djinn equip and the Kou Alchemists under his control. Nox walked in, slowly at first, as if wary of what he would see, but upon seeing Adrastos in the throne, he bowed his head. Adrastos couldn’t read his expression behind the mask he wore, but he didn’t really care. “Did you bring it?” Nox nodded as he showed the scroll the dark king obtained from the dungeon. Adrastos smiled a dead smile. “Bring it here,”  Adrastos said while deactivating his djinn equip. “It’s time I learned the truth.”