The path of darkness (Private)

Rose Garden, the place where you can find all kinds of joy and wonders. A city were different kind of magics meet, and became a daily part of life. From the market stalls to even the lanterns itself, a place where the festivities never end and it's lights illuminated through the night. Most people came to this place to unwind from the daily slumber of work, or just to see a wondrous city that had much to offer. But Frederick was not most people, no his intentions were much darker. Because besides the magical festivities that were to be found here the town also held a certain secret hidden underneath. A secret that Frederick had been chasing for a long time and that could cause great calamity for the townspeople of Rose Garden. A long forgotten gateway that could according to myth could make a connection with the land of the death. And even bring them back from the other side. Activated by two keystones, which Frederick recently got in his possession. So as Frederick's men walked through the streets of Rose Garden, it's citizens continued with their daily life. Giving the black clothed soldiers no attention. All while the soldiers were a sign of the danger yet to come.

'Careful with what you are carrying! The master will have your heads if anything happens to it'
A soldier that was fully clothed in black armor yelled at the soldiers that were carrying an almost two meter long beautiful wooden box. With wooden flowers carved on it, which were painted with golden and silver texture.
'In matter of fact he will probably have more then your heads if there is even the slightest scratch on it!'
The man shivered when he remembered Frederick's threats on how he would give them to the poisonous beast of Savage Skull. If there were any fates worse then death, then that was it.
It took the group some time to move through the busy streets before they reached at the old church. An upon seeing other people from their guild, the soldiers that were carrying the wooden structure sighed with relief. Happy that they could finally take a rest.

The big wooden door to the church made a cracking sound when the knight commander pushed them open. As if the building could easily break apart by just entering it. He quickly ordered the man to put the wooden structure down on the floor, and looked around for his hooded master to report in. Who was easily spotted standing next to an altar. The hooded man called Lord Frederick, master of the Reformed Savage Skull. A face who he has never seen before, because it was always hidden under the darkness of his hooded cloak.
He quickly approached the man and took a knee in front of him.
'Master we have arrived and brought what you have asked for, we even cleaned it after we dug it up'
'Excellent' now prepare your men again. And follow us downstair, some of our men have already start venturing underneath the church. Making sure that Cecilia will reach the gateway safely.'
The commander nodded and walked away from Frederick and his monotone voice. And ordered his men to carry the coffin into the mausoleum underneath the church. After that he made some last arrangements for ten other men to guard the church. And to make sure that anyone who was even the slightest bit interested in the church would regret coming here.
He then followed his men downstairs into the mausoleum, where saw he a rather large group of  soldiers and dark knights that already arrived. Preparing their gear for the long walk underneath the city. Behind the group of Savage Skull soldiers laid the remnants of what used to be a statue of some sorts. It seems that Frederick had it tear down, only to reveal some sort of entrance towards a pitch black tunnel.
At that moment the commander let out a sigh, he wasn't particular fond those pitch black tunnels. He'd rather liked to see everything that was in front of him. He could miss an rare item  that was laying around there with that darkness.
Then a voice shouted through the mausoleum stating that they were going to depart. The commander looked up and saw a heavily armored knight standing in front of everyone. A knight from Frederick's own personal honor guard. The view of the knight made sure that the man let out another sigh and started to follow the rest of the group into the darkness of the tunnel.

The light that came of the torches gave the feeling that it had trouble keeping up with the imminent darkness that tried to deprave the tunnel of any form of light. Giving Frederick and his men only a few meters in front of them which they could actually see. Not that there was much that got their attention, just besides the occasional carving on the wall next to them the small tunnel was as lifeless as it could be. No insects, rats or a sign of subterranean vegetation. Just the endless tunnel where they could only walk with three or four at most next to each other. But Frederick was actually thrilled or at least as what appeared to be thrilled for a man couldn't see any joy in life anymore. It was a feeling he hadn't felt in a long time, but now that he closed in on the gateway. He had a chance to bring back Cecilia. His beloved fiancee that had passed away all those years ago, and he wouldn't let it go to waste. Whatever the cost.

The group ventured through the small tunnel for another hour before their surroundings gradually grew bigger, until they couldn't see the walls next to them anymore. But being unable to see any walls around them anymore made sure that the large party slowed down. Carefully treading forwards, hoping that they wouldn't accidentally step into nothingness and fall down or worse.
Until a sudden peculiar smell made Frederick stop. Which was followed by the clinging armor of the soldiers behind him that stopped as well. Soft voices were to be heard wondering why they were stopping in the first place, some of the soldiers even drew their swords in case they had encountered something vicious.
'You there, give me that torch'
A clueless soldier handed over his torch to Frederick and closely observed his master searching something in the darkness until he stopped at some sort of round stone structure.
'Just as I thought, some kind of oil.'
Frederick held his torch close to something inside the structure, and the second right after flames lit up illuminating a big portion of their surroundings. A few seconds after that a similar structure further on lit up as well.
'They seem to be connected somehow, someone look at the other side for something like this as well'
Some started to search around immediately and a few moments later new flames lit up. And when new light sources started to lit up further on their path as well, Frederick could finally see where they were. A giant hall with in it's middle a long bridge like path that led to the other side of the room. And they were standing on it, because of the darkness before his men walked close by each other. Afraid of what they couldn't see, but now that they had a visual image again they could see that the bridge was wide enough for them to spread out. Some of them even started to look over the stone railing and saw that there was nothing but an imminent death if they fell.
But Frederick's eye caught something else, when the last lights lit up they revealed what he was searching for. The light revealed a tremendous arc like structure, entirely made out of stone. With large ritual markings on it
'I've found it, finally'

It took some time before Frederick reached the arc even if it was in his sight the entire time, and when he approached the structure he could still feel the lingering power that it contained. Which surprised Frederick, that after so many ages or maybe even millennia there was still power to be felt. But Frederick only understood it's true value after a soldier pointed something out to him.

'My lord, I think you have to take a look at this'
A young soldier had approached his master, and lead him to the very end of the gigantic room they were in. Until they walked into the wall itself. Which still was almost completely hidden in the darkness itself.
'Just earlier the light of my torch revealed some weird scribbles on here. I thought it may be something important. I also think there is some light source around here'
The young soldier walked away, trying to find something that could illuminate the wall. Leaving a surprised Frederick behind. It didn't happen very often that a soldier had some interest in scribbles, most of them had their kept their eyes out for anything that could make them more money. But when the lights around the wall lit up, it showed that the soldier had found something very fascinating. Something that even left Frederick astonished and in awe.
From the bottom to the top there were all kinds of texts written on it, each one of them in a different language.
'My god... All these languages, I recognize some. And others don't, some of them must even predate the oldest civilization known to men!'
Being in awe Frederick laid his hand upon the wall, and for a short moment he felt the pressure of all those ancient tribes weighing down. And he realized that the gateway, how incomprehensible it was before. That it even exceeded that, and that he never could truly understand it weight of all that came before him.
'The Nirvit, the Gaul, all these text tell a similar story. And for those that I can read it tells me that each had their own name for it. The fountain of youth, the ninth gate.. philosophers stone.'
'What do you mean, my lord.'
'I mean that all those civilizations had their own stories about immortality, and all of those were connected to each other. But these also tell me the truth about the arc, that for activating and brining life. I need to take life as well..'

Here it was the answer to Frederick's question, the end of his search. He had finally reached the destination that he had been searching for all those years. It made him excited, as if he actually could feel joy in that moment. But that thought passed as quickly as it came. He just knew that bringing her back was within his grasp.
He quickly walked over to the other side of the arc again and stopped at a pedestal in front of it. Which contained two open slots, that the exact shape of the two keystones he recently obtained.  The soldiers seemed to notice that something was going to start and stopped whatever they were doing, turning their attention to their master.
Frederick in turn had position himself behind the pedestal, facing the gateway. Glaring at the coffin that contained his fiancee between it.
'Shall we begin... Cecilia!'
As if the keystones could feel what Frederick was doing they started to vibe. And synchronizing with the structure itself. And as a response two huge black lacrimas raised from the ground ready to asorb the souls of the townspeople on the surface.
A maniacally laugh was to be heard coming from Frederick as he smashed the keystones into the pedestal. And thus activating the arc itself.

-

Primo looked around in amazement as turning he heard clapping.Primo being curious followed the clapping and found nothing. "aww nobody here. then Primo looked around and saw people laying down as if they were dead. Primo started feeling weak and a green aura appeared

earth aura

the ground pushed him up and his power came back. soon Primo felt a strange power coming from the hole where the rock was. Primo jumped in side the hole and found ruins. woah". Primo soon found lord Frederick deep inside but stayed hidden.
primo had no idea what was going on but got weaker.


Primo began running and passed Frederick barely seen but got out of the hole. he ran away from the hole and tripped beside people and saw Sukiro with the lit up fire he began to watch as the thought about what was going on in that hole.

A man stopped in front of the big walls and gates of rose garden. The city that he heard so much about. That he know as his pocket in his dreams. But now finally he was here the real thing. The city renowned for its magic. He let his eyes fall over the gate that was keeping unwanted guests out of the city and were guards man were searching people. They were lit with some kind of magical lanterns. He was surprised to see light without a flame. You have to know his homeland was pretty barren of magic. It was one of the last places on this world were magic wasn’t wide spread. A big mage hunt hundreds of years ago wiped that population nearly out. But those rulers were gone and peace returned.

Ah well let us first start how this man is named. His name is Dryaw loghtur. He is a head priest of the Dela’chia church. He was brave enough to pass the test of the gods and now he has divine power under his control. But he was feeling restless in his home country and wanted to see the world while praying and thinking of his goal. So he went to the place he wanted to see the most. Rose Garden the best town to start if you’re interested in magic. And so we find ourselves here at the gates of it.

Dryaw brushed his long hair away from his eyes and started to walk to the gate. He hoped people wouldn’t be scared of his looks. Since he left his country many people were afraid of him or jumped up when they saw him. It was a rare sight for foreigners. Since only priests of his order walked around like this. It was not his clothes. That was a simple military outfit. With one metal shoulder plate and underneath that shoulder a white cape was hanging out. His uniform was blue with white and some silver buttons and belts over it. His face would have been rather nice looking. But his eyes were gone and in the place golden globes where in there with red runes. Golden lines covered his face that ended in circles with symbols. Many people wondered what they did but nobody had seen it yet.

He walked to the gate as he just couldn’t wait to enter the city to explore. He was so excited that he nearly walked past the guards without noticing the weird looks on their faces. One of them screamed something to another guard and not much later three of them came rushing in. spears that were on flame were hanging closely to his neck as they shouted.

“HALT RIGHT THERE!”

It were three men dressed in clothing that was yellow with red stripes. They were hoods with a feather on it. Two of them had a small beard on their chin and one of them a very long moustache. Going from one ear to the other. On that moment a more well-dressed person with a more normal face came walking in front of them. Lowering their spears. He was wearing a metal breast plate with a normal black pants under it. His long waving hair was tickling the nose of the guy behind him and not long after a sneeze was heard.

“sorry for the rudeness of my men. Pulling there spears so quickly was a bit excessive to be threatening you with spears. Tough sorry to be rude but seeing your appearance I have to ask you if you have any papers on you and what’s your reason of visit.”, the man calmly said while looking into dryaw’s eyes. Well he was trying to but the globes didn’t really reveal anything of dryaw’s intentions.

“Ah I am a priest on travel here are my registration papers of travel to this land and permission of the Holy orders to visit any temple or church in the world that’s under them. That’s also why I am here I am here to visit the cathedral. I azure you I am only here for peaceful reasons I may look fierce but that has its reasons that is a bit too personal to go into.”, he said while he was looking through his bag and searching for it. It was hard to find paper when everything was gold. But in the end he found them and gave them to the captain. While he talked as camly and diplomatic as possible.

The man turned around as he took the papers and was discussing them with his soldiers as mumbling sounds were heard. After some time he turned around and gave the papers back while he was bowing.

“Were very sorry for this hindrance. Evryhting seems legit and good. As for the cathedral. Just walk this road down till you get to a crossway take the right passage till you arrive to a dancing stage. The road left of it will lead you to the cathedral. I wish you a good stay in our nice city. I shall send a messenger to the religion stays in the east of the city. The people at the cathedral shall show you the way.” The man said with a nice smile and bowed a couple of times before the turned around and shouted his underlings to work again.

Dryaw turned around and started to walk following the direction he gained. He was very inprest of the city while he was walking. All kinds of things that shouldn’t be moving where moving. Fireworks were going off without fire. Floating people on floating objects flew through the sky. There were all kinds of shops around the place with magical stuff. Tough dryaw didn’t had any talent for that kind of magic he stayed out of it and only took a glance through the windows. It was all nice to see and his trip took longer than it was meant to be since he was really impressed by everything he saw.

But finaly he had reached the stage of the dancers. There was already a rather large crowd standing in front of it. behind the stage he could already see the roof of the cathedral rising above the homes of the people. But this music was pretty comfy after a long trip and the view on the girls was not that bad either. So he relaxed as he sat down on one of the countless bars near the stage. Being surprised the moment he sat down when feathers appeared around the newest girl appeared. And not much later fire started to appear around the girl. This was truly an amazing place. While in the distance a rather scared boy was running towards their location.

Dryaw didn’t had time to keep watching this. Evil things were going close to the location they were. He bowed to the stage and thanked the gods for the view that he had seen and then took off in a sprint to the cathedral. He hoped he wasn’t too late yet. If they hurt the church by any change he shall take revenge for his gods damaged property. Oh the church was probably not intended for his gods but his were the only true ones. So in the end they were praying to them. As he sprinted he could already see it. it was a bit old styled but had a lot of magical stuff going around it. like moving gargoyles on the roof. That was pretty impressive to witness. The magical lights were enlightening the walls to give a better look to it in the dark. But it seemed there magic was withering as there light was going down. Something was pulling all the magic in the area. There was something terrible going on. As he arrived near the entrance of the church he could see five people standing near it. some where smoking. Others were drinking booze. But it seemed they were guarding the door. Chelvaric waited a bit from a distance to hear them out.

“What do you think the boss is doing with these crates he made us carry.”, one of the man said out of boredom to the other guys as he took a drag of his cigarette. The others looked up most kept quiet because they didn’t want to waste there energy on talking but one of the guys answered him.

“He’s planning something big that’s for sure. And if he plans for something big it gone be loads of killing for us hehe. I hope we blow this ugly building up and make a casino here.”, the man said while he laughed about it. the others soon followed him in a concert of stinging pains in to dryaws brain. Hwo dare they disrespect the building. NO how dare they disrespect the gods. They shall be punishment to the heights of torment. He couldn’t sit idle anymore. He pressed a symbol of a hammer on his cheek and then started to run towards the evil guys. He jumped up and hold his hand out for a fist attack but a magic seal was appearing to.

“you there stop!. Sound the alarm we got a intruder let’s take him down!”, the first man said and he readied him to take the hit that was coming his way. Thinking it was a simple melee hit. Normaly he would have been right and would have easily blocked the hit that was coming his way. But the magic seal on Dryaws hand started to go up and none other then a one handed mace appeared in Dryaws hands. Inscribed with golden lines and a steel spike on the other end of the mace. Dryaw threw it backwards and then landed it with a lot of power on the man’s arm. The sound of steel on bone was moral breaking for the other villains as the arm was shattered in pieces inside. He hold his arm by his side as he couldn’t move it anymore. The man’s scream went through bone and mind.

Dryaw changed the direction of the mace and crushed the man’s skull. He jumped behind the man and started to run towards the other mages. They were still a bit dazed by the turn of events but not much later one of them started to form a dark hand and shot it out to Dryaw. He dodged by going through his knees and the hand shot over them. After this he pressed himself from the ground. The enemy just blinked and where Dryaw was once standing he was disappeared. Jumping high enough he kicked the man on the ground and slammed the mace against the legs of the man next to him. His legs were shattered and he fell on the ground.
Dryaw was thrown back against the wall as a fire ball had hit him full on. The leader of the group had acted quicker than his servants and waited till Dryaw had sat still to hit him from afar. Dryaw felt the burning power on his back as his cape was on fire. He scattered the cape and stood up. He had minor burn wounds but that wasn’t too much of a problem for him. He clearly was outranking these mages.

“One man can’t stop us. Zack go warn the others that we have intruders. Maybe he’s distracting us.”, the leader said as he took out two claws and put them on his hands. The burned on fire and he aimed at Dryaw as a challenge. The guy that Dryaw had kicked on the ground stood up and quickly joined the leader standing behind him. The person named Zack bowed and took off to the church.

Dryaw wanted to stop the guy but by doing that he would spend valuable magic power for his fight against the head of this group. Well let him go get his reinforcements. I shall deal with these two first. The captain of this group seems a bit tougher then his sub ordinates.

“Okay then let him go warn your comrades. I shall finish you before they arrive here. By the judgment of Calior as I swing his hammer. Be crushed by the judgment of a god!”, dryaw shouted and he made a faint move to the right as he was going to walk to there. The subordinate fell for it and he shot a shadow bolt towards the location dryaw would have been standing. But the captain was smarter and jumped forward with fire dash as the under soles of his feet started to catch fire and shot out towards dryaw.

Dryaw catched the man with his hammer and then spinned around and swung his hand downwards to make a uppercut move. The moment the hammer was nearing the kneecap of the man a dark shield stopped the mace. But the golden lines started to glow and the shield started to show breaking lines and not much later it broke in pieces. But the captain had enough time to get away and jumped on the hammer of Dryaw and tried to kick him. Dryaw let him fall on his hands to dodge the attack. Dropping his hammer to the floor. He then rolled backwards and took his hammer with him again. The darkness mage was so foolish to follow him while he made a big darkness axe. The axe towered above him and he swung it down. Dryaw fell on his shoulder and rolled to the right to dodge it. The crushing hit destroyed the earth and rocks shattered to everywhere. The captain made a sign with his hands and before dryaw could react a tornado shot out towards him. He would have been fried hard if it wasn’t for the fact that his subordinate didn’t take notice of his team partner at all and got caught in the spells trajectory. The man fell to his knees as the top of his body was being fried to crispers.

“You even fry your team mates you are not worth to be saved by the gods. I shall decimate you and will not say a prayer for your body. Now let this next attack be our final one give it all you got!”, dryaw shouted above the screams of the burning man. The captain nodded and slammed his hands together.

“May the fire demon have mercy on your  bonus priest. I call upon the sword of Malici the demon of the Crimson inferno.”, his  claws started to melt and the dripping metal started to gather in front of him. It started to make more form with each passing moment. A long blade formed and then a hilt started to form. It was the maw of a snake. The man put his both hands into the maw. The maw snapped close around the wrists of the man. He made a M in the air and it continioud to burn. Dryaw just spinned the mace and charged at the man. The man charged trough the fire m and suddenly disappeared in a fire bolt. He flew over dryaw and appeared in his back. Dryaw turned around just in time and caught the blade with his mace. The were having a strength test as they both pressed there weapons against each other. Till they were pushed back both. The captain jumped at dryaw again. But the time dryaw kicked in the dirt and shot up some dirt into the face of the man. The man tripped over his feet and felt in the direction of the priest. Dryaw spinned around with all his might and crushed against the chest of the fire mage. The man flew back into the air and was shot over the homes.

“ssssssssStrike! For calinor I perished you. Now I have to get out of here and find another entrance before the backup shows.”, dryaw shouted as he spinned the weapon around again. He had 6 attacks left with the weapon before it would break. Time enough he taught and sprinted to the bushes to go around the church.

As fate started to unravel on the surface and slowly brought the mages together, beneath it the imminent danger started to grew larger. In his madness Frederick had activated a gateway that according to legend, could bring back the dead. But bringing back someone from the other side always comes with a price.
In order for the gate to work it needed the life force from the people on the surface, which Frederick would sacrifice gladly if it brought back his fiancee.
Now the fate of Crocus is linked to the gate and Frederick.


One by one the carvings on the gate started to radiate a bright blue light, that vaguely reflected on Frederick and his men. An eerie sight that was only more intensified by Frederick's maniacally laugh, that resounded through the entire ruin.
At the same time blue leylines slowly started to appear in Crocus, slowly moving through the streets. Each of them connecting with another line, trying to complete a pentacle that would mean the end of the city.
It's citizens didn't knew the meaning of the pentacle and only looked surprised at it. Most of them just shrug their shoulders at it. They were probably thinking it was just another festivity or magical wonder. Just another regular happening in their famed city.

'Soon we will be reunited my love! And then nothing will come between us ever again!'
Frederick's madness made some of the men feel uneasy, never before had they seen him like this. Normally he always appeared as this cold emotionless figure. That always spoke with the same monotone voice. But they knew all this was worthy, after the fall of the Lichborne the guild was split into smalls factions. Always fighting with another and everyone of them sticking with another important member. But among them Frederick always seemed more beneficial to them then the rest. And this was prove of it. After the city was drained of life there would be no one left to stop them. They would have the entire city to themselves. They could plunder and loot everything without any resistance, this would made every one of them rich. So they kept looking at the gateway while a  blue veil slowly started to appear in it.

Spoiler:

Max forward through the immense crowds that walked in the opposite direction with an unemotional face he looked toward others with anger and annoyance. Being abused and not being told that where he was being taken had took out the pep in his step that he had even before their journey here had started.

~ Magnolia the day before~

"A vacation?..."

Max questioned Mari in her explanation.

"A vacation! You and me are going to head to Rose Garden for the weekend. Its this enormous city that's filled with different magics and especially stores an abundance of them. We'll just hang around and have fun, relax you know?"

She tried to explained the setting of the city and what they were planning to do over there. Trying to get Max to agree in this little adventure was going to be a challenge since he can be really picky with other people's decisions rather then his own. He squinted his eyes toward Mari in a sense of wonder and curiousness. He scratched his chin before looking at her with obnoxious eyes.

"Fine.....but no work. Every time you bring me on a job I lose a few hairs on my tail."

Excited and motivated, Mari threw her arms around him pulling onto hard enough to leave some furs gliding in the air before pressing him into her chest.

"Its going to be so much fun! I promise!"

~Present~

"This wasn't...fun"

Max said loud enough for Mari who was having a hard time keeping up as she pushed through the continuing crowds. She dragged the bag of hers on her back, excusing those that she had to press or push against as she moved.

"Come on Max it was just one show and they are paying for our room."

She shouted in return. Max could only furiously turn around and threw a arm toward her before the ground beneath their feet lit up. Mari stopped in her track right in front of Max as they looked down toward the ground and back at one another.

"Master.....what is this......"

Max asked in a surprised tone. Mari couldn't answer let alone speak as she looked up and noticed that they continued down the road and quickly turned around, noticing that it continued as well. No one was bothered by the situation and they couldn't understand why. Max summoned his wings before flying behind onto Mari's back and shot into the sky. Building top after building top they reached a higher altitude. Turning around and looking toward the ground they noticed there was even more then just that one line that glowed.

Spoiler:

A large magic crest was placed within the city and they didn't know what it meant nor what it was for.

"Master....this doesn't look good...."

Max said.