Making preparations

Nero sat in a small chamber, somewhere at the west end of the fortress.

It was lit dimly as there were no windows threw which, light could have entered. The room only had one door, forged using a strong metal. The walls were equally reinforced by metal, but the modifications could not be seen with the naked eye as they were built into the wall.

These were all precautions for Nero to be one hundred percent undisturbed. He sat cross-legged in the middle of the room on a comfortable cushion. His cloak as well as his crown had been deposited beside the door.

Nero had his eyes closed, showing a relaxed expression while holding a black crystal, the size of an apple in his right hand. Slowly, Nero clenched his hand into a fist, and the crystal began to show cracks. At first, only a small rupture formed on its smooth surface, stretching across it like a spider web, then there was an audible crack, and the crystal shattered. However, no remnants of the hards could be seen anywhere, while a faint black smoke emanated from Nero's hand.

Suddenly, Nero's face tensed up and a black fume flowed up his arm, slowly entering his skin and going into his veins.

Nero's eyes remained squinted tightly, only twitching slightly at times. The black stain continued its way into his body and reached Nero's magic heart, where it disappeared. Nero's face contorted even more with an expression and pain. While sweat was pouring from his forehead, he felt the black power trying to take over his heart, but he took control of the situation by using his mana to counter the darkness.

This was a difficult endeavor, as he had to not use too much mana because the black power could be extinguished if he did.

He had to keep a balance of both his mana and the black smoke at all times, and on top of that, the process was incredibly painful. The procedure felt like someone was ramming a knife into his chest. But slowly and surely, the darkness aligned with his mana and unified with his heart.

So finally, after two hours, he had done it. Slowly, Nero opened his eyes and exhaled in relief. Again, he felt his power increase, reaching a new peak. He felt it wouldn't be long now, till he reached a qualitative change, as he had four times so far.

He didn't know much about how it worked, but his knowledge was enough to understand that there were several levels of magic, and with each level, the magical heart would change.

This knowledge applied to both him aswell as the demons, except the demons didn't use magic crystals to absorb magic and increase their power.

Slowly, he stood up and put his cloak back on. It was about 8 years ago when he first picked up one of those black stones.

Filled with nostalgia, he looked back to that day. He opened the door and stepped into a wide corridor. Xersies waited next to the entry, and a slave stood slightly off to the side. Nero turned to the slave first,

"Run me a warm bath in my chambers in half an hour. "

Silently, the servant gave a deep bow and disappeared around the next corner.

Then Nero looked at Xersies,

"And you come with me, it's time to see what awaits us in our next destination. The messenger should be showing up at the portal in the next few minutes."

"As you wish, my Duce."

Together they went to the huge gate at the wall. On the way, they met Ramor, who accompanied them quickly.

When they got to the gate, Xersies gave an order upstairs to the guards in the tower, and the gate slowly opened. Standing outside on the stairs was a black guard, who stood there to keep watch over the throne room.

His name was Shire and he was one of the most powerful demon warriors as well as one of the 5 generals close to Nero.

Next to him then were of course Xersies and Ramor. Xersies was a Mage of Light and Ramor was a Symbolic. A Symbolic was a mage, that could use symbols to inflict all kinds of effects. Symbolic was one of the rarest types of magic among the Polykenas, but Nero knew that it rarely appeared even among humans.

There were two types of symbols a Symbolic could use. The first was an Active Symbol.

This was engraved once on an object or body, and could then be activated with magic. The second type was passive symbols.

These are very expensive for normal beings and cost nothing more than the Symbolic's lifetime to draw. In return, these symbols are active until they are destroyed by an outside influence.

As for the black-skinned warrior, his magic was not an offensive one in official terms, but he could by and large use it to strengthen his body.

This was the most common type of magic used in the "Polykenas", as they called themselves. However, the warrior before him was by far the strongest of them.

"Were there any incidents or peculiarities? "

Nero asked the warrior directly. The warrior shook his head,

"No my Duce. No one had entered or left the portal, nor had any human approached our fortress. Even the birds seem to fear your might and power, and keep away."

The warrior's voice was deep, like the roar of a lion, while at the same time, raspy like a crow. From experience, Nero knew that Shire's voice in battle could strike fear and terror into the hearts of his opponents.

"Where are Fril and Ester?" asked Ramor in his ghastly voice.

"Here!" came a low hissing voice from above them.

Turning around, Nero saw Fril hanging from the castle wall far above. Fril was another creature inside his throne room, hanging from the ceiling.

He was the 4th of the 5 generals directly under Nero. Just like Shire, his magic consisted of strengthening his own body. Among the Polykenas there were exactly two different types of magic. There were the warriors like Shire and Fril whose magic consisted of strengthening themselves. These could be easily recognized by their black skin.

Then there were the mages specializing in range combat. They used conventional magic that could affect things around them, like light magic or wind magic. They were much less common than the warriors, with only one mage for every 1000 warriors. They usually had pale white skin.

Among Nero's generals were 3 mages, Ramor, Xersies, and Ester, and two warriors, Shire and Fril.

"Come down here right now and say hello to your Duce, or are you a stupid insect that climbs walls senselessly all the time?" Shouted Ramor, which made his voice even raspier again.

Fril bared his teeth and hissed angrily, but he came scrambling down the wall without hesitation. He stopped a few steps in front of Nero and straightened up. Then, he bowed and said respectfully,

"Fril at your service, my Duce."

Nero smiled coldly, "How nice. Now let us begin."

"But Ester isn't here yet."

Nero sighed irritably,

"Knowing that crazy beast, he's going to do experiments on humans again while forgetting the appointment. Let's call him so he can join us later.

For now, let's get started. Ramor I wish you to stop interrupting me or you will have to suffer the consequences."

Nero said that in a cold and deadpan voice while he looked deeply into Ramor's yellow eyes. Panic flashed briefly in his gaze, but he only nodded and remained silent for now.

Nero pulled a small blue crystal from a black leather sack hanging on his hip and lifted it.

It gave off a faint blue glow and began to vibrate. A short time later, the room in front of him split apart threw which another world could be seen. Up on the wall of the fortress, several dozen Polykenas mages were getting ready for an enemy attack. Many warriors also stood scattered around the portal with their weapons drawn and their magic activated.

This was all a safety measure for they couldn't know what might be waiting on the other side of the portal. There was always a threat, their scout might have been captured.

While the Polykenas were 100 percent loyal to him, Nero didn't know if the mages on the other side had a way of extracting thoughts. While he himself also had a few dozen stones that had that ability, they only worked on mortals and not magical creatures. Nero would never dare to think of an unknown threat as a weak enemy.

However, even after waiting a considerable time, no enemy army or assassin came out of the crack. Instead, the white-skinned Polykenas stepped through the portal.

As usual with the species, he had yellow eyes and instead of 5 fingers, like humans, 6 long sharp claws. He was quite small, but he radiated the same aura as Xersies or Ramor.

The creature's name was Lors, and he was a mage of the dark.

It wasn't the same magic as Nero's, but specialized in illusions and deceptions, and was perfect for infiltrating and disappearing without being noticed. It had no real offensive option but could incapacitate targets for several hours, or even drive them to the verge of suicide.

After Nero made sure all was well with Lors, he signaled to those around Polykenas that he was indeed the messenger. Lors bowed to the 5 and then turned directly to Nero.

"Greetings my Duce, I bring good news. The world is much larger than Earth, but the mages there are weak and in small numbers, only slightly stronger than the ones on the last planet. They call the planet "Sourge".

I have already recorded their entire language and can give it to you, my Duce. Other than that, I can safely say that our army has the ability to take their planet with ease, bringing much chaos and destruction."

This news brought a grin of anticipation to the faces of those around Polykenas.