The Castle of Crepuscolo stood under the clouds looking elegant. Or at least as elegant as an old evil castle can be. Inside one of the rooms lay a massive meeting table. It had many chairs surrounding it, but only three of them were being used. Those users being Harold, Pierre, and Charlina. They were gathered at the table, discussing their scheme. The conversation was going smoothly, but at the moment they least expected it, the entrance doors opened, interrupting them. Theifblin, Nocturus, General Slithera, Cite and Scorpius had returned from their mission. They walked through the wooden doors and into the lavish stone room.

“Take a seat,” ordered Harold, to the five of them. They followed his command and sat at different points around the table. “Was the mission successful?” he asked. “Yes, and here’s the evidence,” answered Theifblin. He took the Maioura Blade out of his bag and tossed it over to Harold. Harold caught the Maioura Blade and looked at it in delight. “Excellent job. We are one step closer to achieving our goal,” he announced, laying the Maioura Blade on the table in front of him as he spoke. Pierre, who was sitting nearby, grabbed the blade to investigate it himself. When Pierre first held the Maioura Blade, he was delighted. But that quickly changed. As he looked at it longer, he grew confused, he believed something was off.

Nocturus, seeing the confusion on Pierre’s face, spoke up. “Is something wrong?” he asked in a somewhat concerned voice, unheard of from him. Pierre didn’t directly reply to Nocturus, but he did speak. “J … just give me a second,” he ordered, as he got up from his chair. Pierre walked out of the room with the blue Maioura Blade in his hands. A minute later he returned, but with the yellow Maioura Blade also in his possession. He placed both of them on the table and began an analysis.

“From what I have read, the Maioura Blades are made from onyx and neutralised Maioura Crystal,” explained Pierre. “This blade is definitely made out of those materials,” claimed Pierre as he lifted the yellow Maioura Blade. A second later, he put it down, and grabbed the blue one. “But this blade appears to be made of mere painted rock and pigmented glass. Which means this one, is a fake,” he said, a noticeable tone of anger growing in his voice.

The stone warriors were afraid of the current circumstances. All of them kept silent, except for Cite. “Please, we don’t know what happened here,” he explained. “We went to Halmarn Museum, and we went to the fifth floor and—” Before Cite could finish talking, Pierre interrupted him. “All of you, stand up and listen to me,” demanded Pierre, to all of the stone warriors. Cite, Theifblin, Nocturus, General Slithera and Scorpius saw no use in arguing, so they just followed the order they were given.

“When I order you to collect an artefact, especially an important artefact, you do not return to the castle with a fake artefact,” explained Pierre angrily. “AND YOU MOST CERTAINLY DO NOT TRY TO PASS IT OFF AS THE REAL ITEM!” he shouted. After scolding the stone warriors, Pierre walked to the other side of the room. He retrieved Harold’s staff and gave it to him. “Harold, do me a favour and show these creatures the consequences of lying,” Pierre ordered in a sadistic tone. “How should I do that?” asked Harold, as he held his staff. “Your staff can bring stone to life,” explained Pierre, “but it can also put pressure onto the magic running through the veins of these warriors, like water, boiling until the glass bottle shatters because it can’t take the heat.”

Harold didn’t ask any further questions because he’d figured out what Pierre wanted him to do. Harold stood from his chair, pointed his staff, and began the process. Theifblin, Nocturus, General Slithera, Cite and Scorpius all felt the same thing; the sensation of intense pain growing in their body, like they were being crushed by walls closing in on them. They all felt as if the pain was just going to increase by the second. But to their great shock and relief, the pain grew less until it ended. “I shall spare you this time, but if you commit this action again, you will not be as lucky,” explained Harold, as he looked at his warriors.

Pierre stood there in complete confusion and disgust. He looked as if somebody had slapped him in the face. “What? NO!” he exclaimed. “We’ve been planning this scheme together for years. All they did was DELAY THE DAY OF YOUR JUSTICE! WHEN OUR WARRIORS FAIL US, WE PUNISH THEM PROPERLY!” Harold didn’t know what to say. The stone warriors were not human, but they were sentient, and Harold didn’t feel comfortable permanently harming a sentient creature. Especially since he had known the five generals for more than a week at this point. Harold stood there, confused.

Eventually Pierre grew impatient with this. “FINE! I’ll do it,” announced Pierre, as he snatched Harold’s staff. He pointed it at the stone warriors and did the same thing Harold had done earlier. The stone warriors felt the pain increasing. It was just as bad as it was previously, but unlike last time, there was no rescue from the agony. The pain stabbing through the stone warriors grew until their bodies couldn’t bear it. When the pain reached that point, Theifblin, Nocturus, General Slithera, Cite and Scorpius shattered into a thousand pieces. That part of the room no longer had five stone generals standing in it. Instead, there was just a pile of rocks in all shapes and sizes. Pierre handed the staff back to Harold in the hope that he would use it well. Charlina stared at the pile of rocks. For the first time ever, she was scared of Pierre. She sat at the table quietly, hoping she wouldn’t be dragged into the situation, but unfortunately, she was. Harold looked at her and gave her some instructions.

“Within the next week, I want you to retrieve the other two Maioura Blades,” he ordered. Pierre added his piece into the conversation. “And if you don’t, let’s just say, you’ll end up like those generals,” he commented. Charlina should have been terrified by Pierre’s statement, but she wasn’t, due to a flaw she found in it. “I’m not a stone warrior,” she explained confidently. “That magic won’t work on me.” She wasn’t as lucky as she previously thought since Pierre quickly sent a comeback. “I don’t need my victims to be stone for me to inflict pain on them,” explained Pierre sadistically. He was demonstrating his dark magic in front of her. Although he wasn’t doing anything aside from generating purple energy blasts.

Harold and Pierre left the room, with their capes flowing behind them like curtains on a windy day. Charlina didn’t move. She sat there, thinking about how she was going to get the Maioura Blades in a week. Before he left her sight, Pierre gave Charlina one last piece of information. “I will create some stone warriors for your mission,” he announced. “They will just be foot soldiers, as generals have been proven unreliable.” This piece of knowledge made Charlina slightly less worried about her current circumstance. But she was still concerned about the week ahead of her, and what it meant if she failed her mission. She knew that she could not let Harold and Pierre down.