Hard packed ground slowly turned into soft billowing waves of tall grass, as they moved
through, trees were lush and vibrant with several small ponds in their view as the ground
seemed to go down into the most beautiful valley, they had ever laid their eyes on. Overhead
there was a rushing wind as a roar broke the silence as a grey dragon flew over and seemed to
turn then morph into a smaller humanoid complete with wings and scales with a smaller head
than its transformed state, it wore black and red robes with an insignia of a dragon’s head
perched on top of a tree, it spoke “Mortals, begone from this sacred haven or be destroyed”
the voice boomed at them “Greetings Dragon, I am Zurgad of the Kingdom of the Sanguine
Court, I bid thee a greeting and ask for safe passage through your valley as we will not
disturb the denizens here” Zurgad was being diplomatic but the Grey Blood Dragons were
often bullish and ignorant “I care not for your kind vampire nor that insect by your side, I
reject your words and spit upon them, turn your backs to this valley and seek naught its
splendor or its sights and take the long way around” Zurgad felt insulted but Darius strode
forward “Look here lizard, either get out of our way and let us go unmolested or I’ll make a
nice coat out of your hide” he shook his head and heard the quiet laughter of Bane in his
head, the dragon looked at Darius “You dare insult me human? I have lived six of your
lifetimes and killed more than you can possibly know, and yet you seek to insult me by
calling me Lizard!? I ought to breathe on you and scorch the ground where you stand” the
dragon began to inhale when he felt a large hand on his shoulder as a black bipedal dragon
with silver flecks in its scales looked at the young dragon “It’s getting late Aurf’ra head home
or your mother is going to worry about the fact you are annoying a king that we have an
accord with” the smaller dragon nodded and walked off feeling defeated “I bid thee welcome
King Zurgad of the Sanguine Court, leave that abomination out here, in fact maybe you
should exsanguinate this beast and put it out of its misery you would be doing the world a
favor” the eyes of the dragon could almost see through a person, everything they are and
everything they are not “I’m going to let that insult go, I have been called much worse, we
only want to pass through as it is the most expedient way to get to the Viridian Steppes either
get the fuck out of the way you subspecies of lizard shit and let us go through or I’ll commit
another atrocity and turn you into a belt or a nice pair of boots” the anger was starting to boil,
he didn’t want to hurt someone but at the same time he felt a sense of urgency about his plans
“Quite the mouth on you, at least for a pathetic short lived sack of meat whose only use is let
the crows peck at, maybe we should use you for public humiliation by publicly flogging you
in the street of our sacred city” the dragon grinned, Darius got close to the dragon “I dare you
to try, I’ll have you begging for mercy and I’ll skin you while you still breathe then just to
add insult to injury I’ll piss on your corpse” Darius had a look on his face that indicated
amusement but the dragon laughed “Oh Darius it has been sometime my friend!” he gripped
Darius and embraced him “How long has it really been since you passed through here?” the
dragon asked “Seventy six years give or take, Ava’ra’ka” Ava’ra’ka just laughed again “Did
you ever shorten your name? the headache inducing feel when I pronounce it gives me
conniptions” Darius said huffing “Aye it is true my name is hard for humans to speak so just
call me Avra now its more befitting your tongue anyway” Zurgad seemed confused “Is that
vampire friend of yours alright?” Avra asked “I thought there was going to be a fight here, I
was preparing to fight” he scratched his head “I’m going to ask why you are heading to the
Doll Maker’s dominion? Rumors out of there say that he has constructed a massive legion to
conquer the Northern Tear” Avra wasn’t concerned about invasion but he had young
wyrmlings of his own, as much as he would like to go to war he would rather live in peace
“Who was the kid?” Darius asked “Oh, my nephew, a little brash and somewhat idiotic,
habits are slowly being broken but enough of this idle chat, come we’ll have a banquet at the
return of the Hero of the Taloned Claw to our valley” Darius seemed to remember the battle
that took place here a long time ago, seventy-six years for a human was long but Darius was
already fifty years old when he came here.

They walked through an archway of trees revealing the city on the other side, it looked like a
massive aery constructed like a massive castle city when Avra roared “Vor, tel ir ka oh Darius
en daf gui gar!” (Come and celebrate the return of our hero Darius) crowds began to
gather at Avra’s words as the dragons began to open their palms and place them on his body
and some of them backed off in awe bowing their heads “Zurgad, you seemed confused
again” Avra said smiling “Despite the evil he has done in the world he is still hailed as a hero
here?” Zurgad asked, he knew what depravity Darius had done in the guise of Bane but
heroism? Never seemed like this kind of bread and butter to him “How are they hailing you a
hero?” Zurgad asked Darius “I stopped some of Virtus’ hunters from slaying them, believe
me it wasn’t easy. Five of them were high tier manifesters who could use three
manifestations, I had to resort to using the fourth and fifth manifestations” Zurgad cocked his
head to the side “Fourth and Fifth, I thought there was only three with sub variants” said
Zurgad “Fourth is Manifestation of Will and the Fifth is Manifestation of Soul, but it was
considered a sub variant of Manifestation of Self and not officially recognized by most
Manifesters but it is there” said Darius but Zurgad was concerned, he had never heard of
Fourth and Fifth Manifestations as he had been around several lifetimes longer than Darius,
but he may have attained knowledge that was classed as forbidden “I don’t think you are
telling me the whole story here, I mean look” Zurgad was pointing at a statue of a human that
looked very similar to Darius, clasping a wand with a bright jewel atop still pulsating with
power “You have a statue in your honor, who does that? Now tell me the whole story while
we walk” Zurgad knew how to get to the heart of the matter “Fine” was all Darius said before
closing his eyes then opening them letting out a breath.

It happened before I was even recruited by Virtus, even Bane had gaps in his memories but
that aside. I had just slaughtered my despicable family while they lived rich on my expense, I
found myself out in this wilderness, wandering aimlessly like I normally do when I came
across a camp of heavily armed men, spiked armor and even more spikes on their weapons,
these hunters had an overt obsession when it came to spikes. They called themselves Thorn
Company, I had to snort in derision at their ridiculous name but they told me they were
hunting the last vestiges of dragonkind and they had rumors and stories about a valley
somewhere in the plains. They asked me to join their little campaign as I was a manifester
and they were just trained warriors with no real ability except the Manifestation of Self sub
variant ‘Armory’ which strengthens their bodies with overt strength but wears out the caster
quickly. I had questions which they only too eager to answer, my first question was something
along the lines of Why hunt dragons? They told me it was on the orders of their Emperor,
little did I know at the time it was Virtus eliminating any creature that could control the
weave naturally he perceived a threat. So during one of their searches for the valley they
came across a young Teal Horned Dragon, pretty placid by dragon standards, very social too
as in they have zero fear of humans but these hunters slaughtered it, skinned it and roasted it
on a spit, I was not horrified by their lack of mercy I was repulsed and disgusted by their
actions but at the same time curious on how they kill their prey, so like a good predator I
studied them and watch every move they made, every strike no matter how small then when
they decided to camp near the valley entrance as to move in the next morning I decided to slit
their throats in the middle of the night but they were ready for me however as one of them
was very sensitive to surface thoughts of the mind and had alerted several of them to assail
me. They died painfully as their bodies were burning in a raging inferno. Back then I always
went overboard when I used to use my power but as they finished roasting, I removed their
charred armor and ate them… quite stringy but tasty all the same. Understand I was
desperate and cannibalism is quite common in some cultures, I simply used them to fill a
necessary craving, and not for human meat as I had been starving for the last couple of
months, the food they harvested from the young dragon was enough to fill their leader and his
second in command. Believe it or not I found myself quite justified in my actions, I met Avra
not long after as he been watching since feeling the death of a young one so he peered out to
look at what was going on and found me chewing on some thigh meat and a heart I think,
hunger makes people delirious and crazy. After that however more hunters came after not
hearing anything from their comrades, the sad thing was they had a herd like mentality only
trained to slay their prey and lack of a conscious thought between them, only to serve their
master but they came in roaring like barbarians they were massacred in equal measure…
during that fight I was at my most sadistic, turning bones into an explosion of shrapnel
shredding men and the man next to him into a cloud a red gore, turning their weapons into
lightning rods, forcing their entire bodies to implode on itself, but the last hunter I took my
time with, I inscribed dark and most cruel runes upon his body by carving it with his own
weapon, he suffered briefly but for him it felt like an eternity. They made a statue in my honor
not really my thing but they insisted, I had almost forgot I was here… odd that.

Darius ended his story and Zurgad was a little bit shocked if shock could move the nerves in
his undead face “I suppose that is one explanation into your past, although I am confused as
your actual age, you are one hundred and twenty six years old but you have the look of a man
in his mid-thirties” Zurgad noted, Darius sighed “The so called education at the academy I
attended it was one in experimentation, the High Inquisitor in the Iron Gaol was one of the
individuals responsible for turning me into what I am, of course Bane was a general cause for
my bad reputation but I accept that, hell I was even willing to accept execution in the
Imperium when I was captured. Braelion was my advocate, he seemed like the good sort”
Darius smiled warmly for the first time in a long time, “But I’m getting off point. The
experiments were study into lasting life, for the average human who live to about forty five or
even sixty if circumstances were right but they did things even I have no recollection of, all I
remember from that is opening a door to my family’s estate and raising my hand sending a
gout of flame at them then just laughing like a madman in front of the blazing inferno that
came soon after, then I found myself in Virtus’ kingdom” said Darius, he felt as if he was
unloading a burden he had on his shoulders for a very long time “Back then Virtus is a
inherited title from father to son and so on Virtus the First was a benevolent man,
compassionate and generous, his son Virtus the Second was much of the same but he had a
mean streak, he used to abuse his six wives and his children, then came Virtus the Third, the
current so called Emperor. He was born premature and gaunt, he barely survived being cut
out of his mother who died from massive blood loss and her power was drained by her son.
His youth from what I understand was supposed to be full of love and joy despite his mother
dying during childbirth his father and grandfather gave him everything he ever wanted, slaves
were permitted in that day in age but Virtus III had an even worse mean streak than his father,
his first victim was a sixteen year old servant girl who made a small error straightening his
bed, she apologized and begged for mercy but the humanity in him had died already so he
picked up a small statue of a Black Slate Dragon and beat her to death with it by smashing
her head open and continued until nothing was left of her head” he briefly paused, took a
breath and exhaled then continued “When he turned eighteen he had begun reading old texts
about blood sanctioned rituals and something called The Black Pact, from what I heard from
the old Sages in the Enclave of Eternity it summons a spirit of sorts or some entity beyond
the veil of our world. It was a parasitic creature that fed on the darkest emotions and actions,
torture, sadism and general darkness it eventually took him over assuming his identity and
life. I only knew after the fact when he recruited me for his plan to conquer the known world
but for whatever reason he had me team up with Rigel and through subtle manipulation of my
memories and personality Bane was hidden within and Rigel had no idea what kind of
monster that was sealed within, I am almost thankful he never realized it but Virtus had killed
him a couple of months ago according to Haldrith, but since it was you who told me he was a
parasitic creature I finally had put the pieces together enough to formulate a plan, its quite
hinky but it has half of a foundation” Darius smiled again “So gather allies then what, throw
then at Virtus until he gives up? Not really solid, pretty damn thin” replied Zurgad “Half a
plan” Darius retorted “I wouldn’t send one of my low-ranking skeletons to do that kind of
mission” Zurgad struck back “The plan was to send an army to distract him so we infiltrate
the kingdom and kill him there but there is a problem, since we don’t exactly have an army I
plan to travel the world finding as many allies as I can and hopefully make amends for past
misdeeds”.