Chapter 52 - Lord of Shadows.

The chilly desert winds brought during the nighttime woke Naz up from her unconscious state.

She was surprised to see her hands being strapped with a silvery black rope while her feet tingled with the desert sand.

"We're restrained by mana ropes," She thought.

"Where are we?" said a voice, a few meters away from her.

"Shush! Urluck. We fell into a trap" She said.

"They had water, anyone would fall for it after crossing the desert for three days," Eiggeira refuted her.

"But I wonder why she did that?" he added.

"It's because she's a sour hand," Naz answered.

"Great, first we lost our way and now we're about to be made sacrifices in exchange for power due to the crazy beliefs of a few dolts and mad orcs," Bickernash complained.

"I have to agree with you," Naz nodded.

Urluck revealed a grin at the duo "Not all hope is lost, we can still escape"

"Have you paid no heed to the tightness of the rope? Its infused with mana that strenghtens it" Bickernash scolded him.

"As usual, the only purpose of your mouth is to be ran at all times"

Their bickering was interrupted by the sounds of loud footsteps in the sand and a torch inching towards them.

The group stared at the figure who had trapped them with hospitality, her brown eye color had now switched to dark red.

From the burning gaze of the cactus spine that served as a torch, Mag smiled at them before speaking "Today, I have gained four healthy level 15 orcs for sacrifice,"

"Feel proud, for your strength will be useful in giving power from the Graklar Lord of Shadows," She said.

From the room he stayed in to watch the events of Ornio, Shawn felt amused at what he had heard "The Lord of Shadows hmmm,"

"System, what's with this Lord of Shadows that the orcs in the hardcore desert believe in?"

[The Lord of Shadows is a being formed from the law of belief and associated with strength which is gained from the shadows cast by the sun's light]

"I could ask what the philosophy of the followers of this being are but I'll prefer to just watch," he said while facing the screen.

"You followers of that being are disgusting. Using your fellow comrades in exchange for a short span of power is deplorable,"

Mag did not reply to Naz's taunts and just placed her hand on the sand before moving around to form a circle around the group.

Then she started to create straight lines at the four edges of the circle, each line facing a different direction.

She then placed her hand on the ground and began to speak out words that the group found strange.

"She's about to start something," Bickernash yelled before he started to roll in the sand, escaping the circle that Mag had just formed while also ruining it.

Mag's face revealed irritation as she was still holding her cactus torch with her other hand.

She soon dropped the torch on the ground and sand filled some parts of it so as to keep it stable.

Upon noticing her inching towards him, Bickernash began to roll on and on and before long, the rest of the team joined in and literally ruined all that she has made.

"You weren't expecting us to remain still while you willingly murdered us for power?" Naz spat out.

"As long as you're still bound by those ropes which you cannot break free and are bound to die no matter how you run,"

Mag replied as a black miasma erupted from her red arm and converged to become an hand that held Bickernash's neck and threw him back into the circle.

Mag then slammed her fist into the ground as a pair of pitch black hands stretched from the sand below Naz that held her in position before allowing Mag to come and drag her to the .

The other two did not get far and were also dragged and thrown back into the circle.

Mag then touched the ropes that were being used to bound them changing the color to be even darker and enhancing its strength even further.

"My power and strength are drawn from within the power of the shadows," She said as she drew the last straight line on the circle's edge that faced the west.

Her forefinger then touched the circle line as she speak in the unknown words that the orcs did not understand.

They felt a dark aura erupt from the area of the circle as it lit up with dark flames.

The dark flames were expanding to all parts of a circle when...

A loud thud was heard and the flames began to recede.

The group of four was shocked to see Mag lying dead on the floor. An axe had decapitated her head where blood now flowed from.

"Followers of the lord of shadows are at their weakest point when they begin the flaming" A large orc appeared from behind the dead body with a short axe at his left hand.

"Who are you?" Urluck asked feeling intimidated by the orc's aura.

He wore a large bone necklace with a skull at its centre and his axe held blood dripping from it.

The orc grinned at them "I am Thrasnak and you are all very lucky to be saved today,"

"Its not everytime that orcs are rescued from being inflamed," he said before walking into the circle and scattering sand around it.

"You've all been trapped by dried ropes enhanced with shadow mana," he said before touching the skull of his necklace.

A dim green light was released from the part of the skull that would be called the eyes.

The group was terrified by this causing Thrashnak to smile as he placed the axe near their ropes and began to slice them off.

"What item is that?" Naz asked.

"A powerful one given to me by a very powerful orc" he replied as he finished cutting off Urluck's binds before coming to cut her own.

"Tell, how did you end up here?" he asked while gently cutting the binds.

"Sand storm,"

"Ahhh, scouting?"

The group nodded unanimously, acknowledging his words.

"Would you like to come to my horde?" he asked.

The group nodded once again.

"Yes, anything to survive" Bickernash said.

At the current point they were in, they didn't know the location of their tribe and were now wandering an unforgiving environment. It was better to follow Thrashnak rather than continuing roaming about.

"So graklar's followers believe in sacrificing their own kind for personal gains like strength and more power to shadow magic?"

[Yes Creator Shawn]

"Many cultures also had some culture of sacrificing but for the belief of prosperity for the many." he thought.

"I could be making a wrong idea but maybe i could tweak their belief system a bit to not include the death of their kind as a means of power"

"And if I can't do that, then I would like to crest a perfect counter to this barbarism," he said.

[Creator Shawn could make Graklar the lord of shadows as an higher being and instruct him to solve the issue]

"Of all the higher beings that I've chosen, everyone of them possessed the characteristics and personalities that their people believed they had. A Higher being of Shadows who accepts live sacrifice of someone's own race is highly likely to be twisted, who knows the level of power he could use to wreak havoc"

[Summoning 'Lord of Shadows' is now out of the option]

"Show me the domains of battle that have orcs. After all, there's a reason why they have a warring culture. Only the one's in the oasis have taken a different path."

A tab appeared in front of him showing him pictures of all the domains that had orcs in them. He began swiping while contemplating.

"Hmm, domain of protection, domain of war, domain of chaos, domain of shadows,"

He kept swiping until he found one that grabbed his attention "Domain of Warding?"

He clicked on the tab and read the description under the title Gravagor - The One who guards.

[Gravagor lived his life as a normal orc in his own horde until the attack of a group of monsters they call 'Grols', creatures with thick brown skin that could not be sliced through easily, possessed tusks and lived in desert caverns.

During the raid of the Grols, Gravagor lost his family and in grief took and axe and slaughtered two thirds of the Grols that were invading. After the raid,the orc had lost an arm but eventually lead a group of orcs to slaughter the Grols in their cave before eventually dying off due to fatigue]

"Can you show me the location of where his tribe was"

A second tab appeared and showed the area of the north eastern lands. A red dot then appeared at the western part of the map.

"So it seems the Grols live in between the goldorns hill ranges and the orcs territory,"

"Should the goldorns take on an expedition, the low number of orcs would be wiped off."

"Have followers of the 'Lord of Shadows' reached there?"

[Currently a few 'Lord of Shadows' messengers have reached the region of highlands and lowlands mix]