A figure walks through a filthy, diseased city. Homeless people crouching over dead bodies, while rats feed on the remains. Run-down buildings surround the streets, and crows perch every rooftop.
The figure continues walking past rundown shops and stalls, passing more disease, His black hair flowing with the chilling breeze.
Grabbing the door handle the figure walks in and is greeted by the shop owner a large elf with a cut ear and golden teeth
"So of all places to enter in this terrible place you choose mine, strange isn't it the So called Golden city isn't all it's cracked up to be huh"
The hooded figure steps around the shop looking at different items and finally stops after seeing a necklace with a blue gem embedded into it
"Ah I see you're interested in my newest import it was delivered to me a few days ago, imported from the Royals here in the golden city"
The figure grabs the necklace, pulling its hood down, revealing its red eyes and black hair; its face forms into a smile.
"Yes what an excellent string of luck it's taken me a few days to find you and your sick ilk"
The young man walks forward reaching for something behind him, stepping closer to the man. The elf man is frozen in confusion from the young man's sudden change in demeanor.
"Hey, look, I can make a deal with you. I'll give you everything I have in this shop – even that necklace. All I ask in return is that you let me leave"
The large elf man walks backwards crashing into the bookshelves behind him and falls to his butt on the ground scrambling to back away from the young man in front of him
"I don't want the shop"
The young man jumps onto the counter now drawing his sword holding it ready to cut the man in half. Terrified, the man gets to his knees holding his hands in prayer.
"Please don't kill me. I'll tell you where everything is, I swear."
The young man jumps down from the counter, placing his sword directly on the man's neck, pressing into his skin and drawing blood, which causes the large man to begin hyperventilating out of fear for his life. His eyes shake, and his legs tremble from the fear of dying.
"Where is it.. tell me now or die like the rest your friends"
The elf man points his finger to a bookshelf to the right of them and lets his arm fall to the ground after pointing him in the right direction.
"Now was that so hard to do this could have gone quicker but you just had to be dramatic"
The young man removes the blade from the elf's neck and stands up to go to the hidden passageway to the inner walls of this shop.
"Before I go here's one last thing"
The young man turns back around and slashes the air creating a blade of shadow that speeds toward the elf and slices him in half. Causing blood to splatter everywhere covering the floor and bookshelf.
"You're free to go"
The young man walks over to the bookshelf grabbing the sides trying to bring down the bookshelf, after shaking and rocking the shelf back and forth it finally rips off the wall revealing an entrance with stairs down to a cellar.
A terrible stench emits from the dungeon as the smell of rot flows through the air
Without pausing he runs down the stairs quickly descending, running past cages filled with bones and other lifeless bodies, running faster and faster checking any cage he could see he stops at the end of the hall.
Running towards the last one there are 4 girls slumped against each other not moving, grabbing the cage door he breaks it off and tosses it to the side.
Stepping in he checks the pulses on each girl confirming if they're dead or alive, one by one he lets a sigh of relief out as all four are alive but in terrible shape
"Don't worry it'll be over soon I'm going to get you out of here, I promise you will be free"
One of the girls weakly opens her eyes and looks him in the eyes, his bright red eyes shining through the dark corridor.
"P-please h-help us.."
The girl begins to slump over before she's caught and held up by her rescuer
"Hey wake up I need you to stay awake for me ok? Keep talking about yourself and the others"
The girl nods and weakly points to the three beside her and begins to list their names.
"T-their names are-
Before she finishes she grabs her arm in pain
The young man takes his hood off revealing his pitch black hair and bright red eyes, and tan skin.
"My name is Kaiser and wha-"
Before he could finish footsteps could be heard rushing in quickly above.
"We'll finish this later for now sit back and I'll protect you"
The girl turns around, a hellhole flickering barrier around the four of them attempting to protect them.
Soon the footsteps are descending the steps as a group of men carrying swords and knives enter the basement corridor.
A man walks forward holding a sword and a shield wearing a long black coat and steel boots, his face covered in scars and his hair braided with jewels and bones.
"So, you're the little shit that's been running around and ruining my legitimate business eh"
Kaiser says nothing and just begins to walk forward towards the group of men
"Silent huh alright then"
The man points his sword forward and the men chase him, rushing Kaiser with arrogance and excitement.
"How arrogant of you"
Kaiser throws his hand out and crouches as one of the bandits swings their sword dodging it completely.
"If you think that's going to work on me then you've made a mistake"
Kaiser dodges the man's legs from under him, as he's falling he grabs his arm and swings his body into the crowd of bandits in front of him.
As the bandits crash into each other Kaiser's sword appears from a streak of darkness, grabbing it he twirls it in the air and stabs it into the nearest person making them drop dead.
More of the men move forward surrounding Kaiser with their weapons at the ready, litsng for a death blow.
"You see boI you've trampled on a very delicate operation here and we can't have you ruin it, not now or ever if you leave right now we'll ignore your transgressions and let this slide for now'
Kaiser grabs his sword from the lifeless body and flicks blood from the blade, he raises his other hand summoning his second blade.
"If you think surrounding me was the best idea"
Shadows begin to grow from the blades and seep away from their own shadows.
"Then you're dead where you stand"
The shadows like blades burst out and cut the men surrounding him in half, their insides spilling onto the dirty floor.
"Bravo you're a real show off aren't ya boy tha- was a neat trick you know the shadows and the shadow blades tell me.
The man grabs his shield and sword and begins to walk towards Kaiser his power glowing through his eyes
"Why the fuck is a Demon Child here in our illustrious Kingdom"
Kaiser rushes forward, slashing his swords at the man as he shields himself from the shadow blades, pushing forward the man pushes forward, breaking the struggle and jumps back throwing his shield behind Kaiser.
"You mis-
Before he can continue the Elven ricochets off the wall and hits Kaiser in the back causing him to fall flat on his face.
"Never let your guard down, boy. You may be a demon but you are simply a child to me"
He jumps up and stabs his sword where Kaiser's head was only hitting a shadow
"You call me a child but fall for such a simple trick how arrogant of you"
Kaiser summons more shadow blades hovering them behind him as he rushes forward, throwing Magic left and right.
The man dodges some of the blades and deflects one with his shield but one gets through his defenses and cuts his arm.
"I'm surprised you can still move with those old bones of yours"
The man rushes forward throwing his shield at the wall behind Kaiser, bringing his sword up he slashes down as the shield is about to ricochet back.
"You've made a mistake"
The shadows immediately burst off the walls grabbing the shield, the sword and the man himself.
"I control the shadows that is my power fighting me in here was your worst and last mistake"
The man stuck in place attempts to move his arms or legs to escape the shadows that only for them to tighten around his joints.
"The more you struggle the worse it becomes now stay still and accept your death"
Kaiser turns around and goes to the four girls checking to see if they are alive and no extra wounds from his fight.
"How are they holding up? They're still alive, yes?"
The one conscious girl nods her head and stands up tying the loose rags around her to cover her private areas
"Thank you for helping us. We've been here for however long I lost count after 2 months of being here."
Kaiser then looks at the other 3 and bends down to grab one of the girls to put on his shoulders.
"This isn't over, you hear me!! I will escape an I will skin you all alive, one by one I'll make you and your friends watch each other die"
Kaiser puts the girl back down and turns around to the man who's still desperately trying to escape.
"You're done"
Snapping his finger the shadows grow spikes and stab into the man instantly killing him, his body slumping and blood pooling on the floor.
"Come on let's get the others and get out of this place and get you girls home"
Grabbing two of the unconscious girls and the other girl grabbing her friend they begin walking down the corridor stepping over the multiple bodies and through the pools of blood.
"Don't mind them, they are the ones who've done this to you and multiple others. Feel no guilt for this is what they deserved."
As they get to the stairs carefully they walk up the stairs with the others on their shoulder and pass through the hidden entrance and lastly, the dead elf man.
Walking out of the shop Kaiser conjures a carriage and a shadower, moving towards it he places the two girls he carried in the carriage and she places her last friend beside them.
"You know I never was able to tell you my name Kaiser, I think it's only fair if I tell you mine"
The girl stands up straight, her elven ears popping out from her frizzy hair and her green eyes shining bright.
"I am the Princess of the Eastern Elven kingdom and my name is Yellana the oldest daughter of King Caelan"
She bows and Kaiser responds in kind as the two stand back up and they see royal knights rushing towards them on horseback with weapons ready.
"Those…. Those aren't any royal guards I recognize."
Kaiser holds his hand out and his sword flies into his hand his shadows growing darker
"There's one thing I need to tell you that I should have said sooner"
Kaiser creates a huge shadow barrier blocking the warriors off before they could come any closer.
" I've spent weeks trying to solve it and I figured out who sold you into this hell hole and let you be kidnapped"
Yellana braces to hear a name she's familiar with hoping her thoughts were simply just crazy
"Your uncle he is the one who gave you to slave traders, he is the one controlling the elven slave trade. He is the one controlling it all"
A large crack appears in the shadow barrier growing bigger as heavy blows cause it to grow bigger and spread further
"Ignoring that we need to get on the carriage we need to go now!"
Jumping onto the carriage Kaiser points forward as the horse begins to run forward, then the barrier shatters and a large squad of royal knights chasing after them some on horseback and others running or flying towards them.
Kaiser turns and looks confused at the amount of soldiers chasing them
"My suspicion is correct a Royal is keeping eyes on you"
The knights begin catching up to Kaiser and the girls dodging the condensed shadow bombs he's throwing at them, some missing badly and destroying the rundown buildings.
On a taller building a figure is watching the chase happening crossing their legs in wonder what will happen next
The carriage turning corners soon the Streets are turning a lighter shade and buildings becoming white and gold the carriage continues carrying all of its occupants from it's pursuers
"I have an idea but i need a few seconds"
Handing over the reins Kaiser, jumps on top of the shadow carriage and begins clasping his hands together and slowly pulls them apart an extremely dark ball of shadow crackling and growing in size slowly he compresses the ball focusing the energy.
"Whatever you're doing I need you to do now they're going to catch us!!"
Kaiser turns his head to look back and see how much time he has only for the carriage to get hit by a fireball nearly crashing it.
"Oh shi-"
The shadow ball drops out of his hands unstable and quickly grows then a flash of darkness happens before it touches the ground
Exploding.
"Retreat get a-"
The elven soldiers get caught in the shadow explosion and they disappear into it, the carriage carrying the girls and Kaiser flips end over end and gets engulfed in the explosion.
The explosion engulfed everything around it in shadows in the golden city. A large boom is heard as the shockwave destroys buildings, windows and people in the vicinity.
The shadows disperse leaving a smoking crater where a portion of the city still exists, alarms going off, Elven children crying and the elven citizens shocked.
Kaiser underneath rubble looks around and sees the 4 girls he rescued behind a barrier he managed to conjure at the last minute pushing the barrier up to get them out of the rubble, he climbs out of the hole only to see the crater he created.
"Damn…it"
Kaiser falls to his knees in pain looking over the destruction
" I was right in telling Her majesty you did not need to be alone especially when operating in other kingdoms"
Kaiser turns around and sees the Queen's right hand Priscilla floating in the air, her clothes flapping in the wind
"I don't have time to listen to your lectures. Why are you here? To scold me?"
Priscilla floats down and gracefully lands on her feet and begins walking to Kaiser who's still kneeling on the ground.
Bending down she grabs his shoulder and brings her head to his ear.
"I'm here to clean up your mess boy by orders of the queen, she's been watching you and today she is not amused"
Priscilla summons a bubble to carry the unconscious girls and a portal appears in front of Kaiser and she walks partially through and turns to Kaiser
"Go through now there are many things to discuss"
Getting up he steps through the portal and enters Into a throne room covered in black and red jewels, a golden throne with red spikes spiking out of it, guards and citizens alike sitting in silence waiting for something or someone
"Hear me,her Majesty the cruel and powerful Has appeared kneel"
Instantly everyone in the throne room kneels except for Priscilla and Kaiser and soon footsteps could be heard coming closer and closer.
Turning from the corner was a Tall woman with short jet black hair and red eyes, wearing a short dress over armor covered in blood, her face dripping with blood.
Walking towards the throne she stands in front of it then snaps her fingers then sits down crossing her legs as her weapons clang against her throne,Priscilla and another woman flank her left and right.
"Tsk. Tsk. Tsk..."
Kaiser moves his gaze from the floor to the queen attempting to speak, but as he opens his mouth nothing comes out.
"For three months you've been running around the Golden city after I explicitly told you to never go there, and what do you do? Blow a crater into the city"
Kaiser begins to speak and walks towards the throne
"I can explain-
Before he could finish the Queen smashes her fist into the throne a black and red pulse flashing throughout the room.
"I do not care for excuses"
Her loud voice echoes through the chamber as Kaiser is standing before her, her hand fidgeting with her swords.
"Do you truly think they'll let you get away with this"asked The Queen
Kaiser begins to walk towards the queen only for Priscilla and another woman to appear in front of him with their weapons preventing him from getting closer.
Kneeling down Kaiser bends his head to speak
"I will accept my punishment with no complaints I acknowledge the wrong I have done but In the same situation I would have done it again"
The queen looks at him before a smile creeps on her face.
"Good"
To be continued..