Chapter 100 - Trial

“We have arrived, little Drenai,” I said toward the sleeping girl I held with one arm. I dropped her against the marbled floor without even one second of hesitation.

The Drenai were a race of humanoid creatures with light blue skin. Likewise, the little Drenai girl I had dropped against the floor was no exception.

She woke up with a startle and a moan of pain, her hands rubbing at her blurry eyes. The tears on her face had dried long ago, but her eyes were still somewhat red. The Drenai girl was a weak creature, her slightly chubby face which had still not lost the battle against childhood, and her short brown hair which was cut in a childlike fashion—weak.

The memories of my childhood were hazy and blurred from the edges of time. Centuries and a few millenniums had passed since my birth. But even with these blurred memories, I could still remember what was known as the Age of Residuum—the period of time I was born in.

It was a chaotic period, the aftermath of the Ages of the Warring Gods, where men, dragons, demons, dwarves, elves, and a multitude of other races cowered in fear before the might of the Gods. The oceans and the continents raged with their magic and their might.

Mountains were formed. Lakes were created. Whole continents were split into pieces. Death was rampant.

Even for me, I count myself lucky to not have been born during the Ages of the Warring Gods.

“Where are we,” the Drenai girl asked with a look of childlike curiosity mixed with a tinge of fear.

“The sacrificial chambers,” I replied back in her Drenai language.

The Drenai girl kept looking around the marbled chambers, but she saw nothing that could satisfy her curiosity. There was nothing interesting about these chambers. There were only marbled pillars, a floor with intricate carvings, and off in the distance, near the end of the room, was a plain-looking throne made entirely out of grey stone.

There was nothing to suggest that these chambers were for sacrifices.

I dragged the Drenai girl out of the dark illusion I had placed her under.

Reality crashed against her, opening her eyes to the true nature of the chambers.

Her screams went up high into the air, echoing around the chambers. She looked below to find herself in a pool of blood that reached more than half her waist. These screams became even louder when she saw what was around her.

Surrounding her and lined up against the walls of the chambers, against the marbled pillars of the chambers, against the floor of the chambers, were a multitude of corpses of various races. Their bodies were tortured beyond imagination and each and every face of the corpses were frozen in an expression of unimaginable terror.

Fresh blood, decaying bodies, and an atmosphere of malignancy permeated the sacrificial chambers.

The Drenai girl quickly trudged through the pool of blood she had found herself in.

She fell, tripping against a bleached white skull that had floated upward.

A scream which turned into sobbing shudders was let out.

Then the Drenai girl died as soon as my hand reached for her face. A poisonous dark cloud instantly surrounded her, dissolving her flesh, until all that remained was a hazy cloud of blood and the white skeletal frame of a child.

Another sacrifice had been added into the pool of blood. A sacrifice which would serve as power for my servants. Around me, I heard the moans of trapped souls who had witnessed these familiar scenes far too many times.

I ignored their pain. Their moans were just born out of futility. They would never be allowed a blissful departure into the realms of death.

As for the Drenai girl, I had only taken her blood. Her soul was not taken. I had no more need for souls, so she could count herself lucky for having taken a quick departure into the realms of death.

A few seconds had passed already, so the soul of the Drenai girl was out of reach for me, even if I wanted to change my mind and trap her soul. Once a creature died, only a few precious seconds were allowed to interfere with the soul of the creature.

“Arise,” I quietly whispered into the pool of sacrificial blood I stood in.

All around me, misshapen creatures, skeletons, undead warriors, dread knights, death knights, liches, and other powerful, dark creatures stood up from their slumbers in the depths of the pool of blood. Their eyes glowed with an evil light, the malignant presence of all the hateful souls and all the deaths having affected them deeply.

“My Great Lord,” the closest lich said to me in a baleful voice that could sear the very soul of a lesser creature. “What is your command?”

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I woke up shuddering in the middle of the night, gasping for air. Even for me, I could not stay calm at the evil memories of Demon Lord Codrixas. The images of all those tortured souls and corpses were branded into my very mind.

“Damn you...” I muttered. Even half sealed, Codrixas could still influence my memories. I could only hope he would stay trapped with the Deathwalker in the very depths of my mind and my soul. It was already hard enough that I was beginning to integrate with his magic and powers. I did not need his memories and personality as baggage. I could only vow to myself to never bring myself near the breaches of death, else the consequences would be dire.

I looked around the small cave I was in. It was near Navra's chambers, just to the other side of the mountain. The eldest had created a small chamber in the mountain for me to live in and so that I could stay close to him.

Could this be due to some sort of fatherly affection?

Then the Eldest's impassive, calculating eyes, and his amused face with that small incongruous smile came floating into my mind.

There was no way such a dragon whose age was almost unimaginable, I was beginning to think, could hold some sort of affection for the son he had created. And to begin with, I was not even his real son, just some creation of his.

I could only laugh at myself for even forming such a thought.

We were similar in mind though. I held no real fondness for the Eldest. I only held caution and respect for his might.

Snuggled against my chest, Aqua, the small two feet tall fairy, was sleeping blissfully. I had been careful not to move too much to wake her.

Her delicate and thin wings that looked as if they were made of silk were folded behind her back, and the slender curves of her body were hidden gracefully by the white silk-like material she was wearing.

I could have easily tear them apart...

Where had that sudden thought come from?

Mentally, I shook myself free of the cobwebs of memories.

The silk-like material Aqua was wearing was a form of water-crafting that was unique to her Asrai race. The aquatic fairies were quite skilled at that, having born and lived near water all their lives. Their miscellaneous abilities with water were quite impressive.

I let my head fall back down onto the floor of my cave, which was made of the soft furs of a variety of animals I had skinned.

But sleep came like a distant and ephemeral thing, hard to grasp, and nothing to retain.