Chapter 10: A devil named Asura

The entire throne room was in turmoil. Everyone was gathered around the soul jade slips. Everyone looking was stunned they could not comprehend what was happening. Right after the competition had started one slip after the other stopped giving of magic. Within 15 minutes all but 5 of the kings children died. Of course the three favorites and surprisingly the 17th and the 25th jade slip. Up till then people were surprised but thought it was to be expected.

The three favorites were just that strong so obviously everybody assumed it was them who had swiftly started to take out the competitors. Never would they even dream that it was the 17th prince alone who took out one young beastkin after the other while slaying hundreds of shadow beasts. But when in relative quick succession the second followed by the fourth and seventh slip fell silent everyone was stupefied. The only two survivors were the two that were most unlikely to survive. What happened.

While everyone was fixated on the jade slips in order to see just who would come out on top: The dropout without affinity or the healer who couldn’t fight, the magic formation leading to the dungeon suddenly became pitch black. And rising out of the mass of darkness were exactly those two: the dropout and the healer. Suddenly everyone present could feel bone piercing killing intent. No one not even the king had ever felt something like this before. It was as if death himself had come to this hall to take them all away.

Several people fainted the rest started to sweat and people started to slowly turn towards the magic formation. And what they saw their faces turned into a grimace twisted by fear. Before them stood the 17th prince. But a 17th prince unlike the one they could remember. Not anymore the timid human figure that would always stand furthest in the back not trying to draw any attention. No in front of them stood figure clad in shadows and darkness. It was bizarre how dark energy would crawl along his body while shadows twisted around him. One could clearly see that those were two different kinds of energy but no one could make sense of it. The sheer pressure generated by the figure in front of them was enough to subdue the entire elite of the beast kingdom.

Not matter if ancient vampire, black dragon or higher werewolf. Not talking about those even the king could hardly move himself and he is regarded as one of the strongest on the entire continent. And suddenly the king was overjoyed. It worked! This young kid in front of him has even succeed him! They could finally take the fight towards the enemy.

Suddenly as if revitalized he used all his force to resist the oppressing killing intent and started to speak: “My son. It seems we have a devil in form of a human here. You have by far exceeded my expectations and you are surely a worthy successor to my title. So how about you get rid of that last nuisance over there and then come here to your rightful place. Where you belong.” He gracefully held his right hand out: “By my side on top of the world.”

Silence. No one made a sound after the kings proposal. If a needle would drop right now, you would definitely hear it. Suddenly cold high laughter echoed throughout the hall. The oppressive atmosphere turned hostile and deadly and the king had to take several steps back. The prince suddenly walked out of his sphere of darkness. Holding his belly while laughing he still wore the same clothes as before even though they were burned and cut open now. A plain dark shirt with a light black leather armor above. A grey cloak with hood, black hardened leather bracers, black pants and his two two feet dagger hanging from his sword belt to both sides. Dark enough even without shadows and darkness it seems.

His dark eyes fell on the king and he started to talk in a deadly voice: “Dragonking Bar’ath our relationship ends here. You and i have nothing to do with each other from today onward. I first wanted to kill you but to be honest? You are nothing you are not even worth killing. I will take my sister and leave now and you will leave us alone otherwise i will come back and i will wipe this nation of the face of the earth. If you think that i can’t do that… KAM’YA” Suddenly a mass of darkness started to swirl around the prince and in seconds that mass of darkness turned into the shape of a human woman that seemed to suck all light in.

“This is the empress of darkness Kam’ya. Kam’ya should the dragonking or his subordinates harm me or Mia… Wipe this place from the face of Vamon.” The black figure bowed and answered with a voice that seemed to come out of a grave: “As you command master.” Empress! The empress of darkness! What did that represent? It was a legend. Legend has it that if you ascend to the tenth rank of an element the now solid elemental energy would give you access to the emperor of the corresponding element. The emperor are the rulers of their element. They have absolute control and command over their respective elements. They are basically the essence of magic.

And before their eyes the empress of darkness has bowed to the 17th prince. That she was the empress of darkness there was no question. Everyone present could feel her absolute power. With those words the speaker turned towards the portal leading out of the throne room. “Mia come.” And he started to leave followed by the young dryad. The empress meanwhile flooded back into the darkness but everyone could feel that she was still present. The leaving young man opened the door and as he was about to leave he turned around once more: “One more thing: My name

is Asura.”