Dark Castle

"Where am I?" Seraph looked around the grandiose corridor, his intrigue piqued. Outside of this corridor was a massive kingdom that he didn't know existed until now.

"You are in Dark Castle. The true last stand for all dark elves."

"What do you mean?" Seraph gaze turned from the scenery to look at Alena.

"Are lands are being pillaged and taken on a daily basis, are borders have shrunken from their previous past glory and are being taken by the high elves." Her expression changed gradually, her eyes narrowing slightly and balling up her fists "All because of you heroes."

"Wha-" He was cut off,

"The Battle of Peak Hide, Initially are wars with the high elves were equal. Both of us didn't hold a superior advantage over the other, so the wars usually ended with a few battles to vent out our rage on our opponents or on the rare occasion a captured fortress."

"However, that changed with the battle of peak hide. The King of the dark elves, Sigurd Rein gathered his forces along with the two high dark elf princes of the time. They moved their train through the high elves land, capturing and destroying a few cities as they have done for centuries. However, on the peak of the fourth day of their raid they were halted by the high elves army along with the wood elves from the east and west, they dug down. Preparing for a fight."

"Our forces were evenly matched. The battle continued on for two days, until the wood elf's army broke and fled. We pursued the high elves, all the way to Peak Hide. A fortress at the outskirts of their territory and ours. The fortress switched hands regularly, however at this time the high elves had just recently won it back."

"Sigurd dug down once more preparing for a siege, however, a hundred defenders sallied out to meet the army. They weren't elves, they looked very different from the elves in fact. They wore armor superior to are own, their shield could repel any attack and their swords could cut through are meager armor with ease and the magus warriors they had were able to wipe out countless troops with a meager chant."

"Sigurd and his high princes fought with these experts viciously for an hour, they lost. The entire dark elf army wiped out within an hour," She paused and firmly emphasized the time

She continued "Sigurd had brought the two high princes… Both of them were his sons. With that said, one could only imagine the inner turmoil of the dark elves at this time. "

"Things only turned downhill from there. The High Elves regrouped, they became tyrants. They quickly pushed into our land and destroyed village after village and captured city after city. They took the inhabitants and deemed them as devils, so they killed the men and enslaved the woman and children..."

"Those experts aided them, they destroyed town after town. The gods of the world descended as are second fortress 'Melton' fell to the experts and named them all 'heroes'." Her fist clenched tighter as she boiled in rage.

"However, we survived. As time passed, and more fortresses fell a dark elf grew in power. They were named a genius, cold and calculative. They fortified the defenses of Dark Castle, drew magic from the world and empowered its defenses more, then when the heroes met are last fortress he wiped them out."

"This man became 'Morose King' and left a line of descendants, however, the damage had already been done. We could only recover only some of the lost fortresses and rebuild temporarily." She suddenly turned around to face seraph, seraph had to stop abruptly to avoid bumping into her.

"You are a 'hero'. The great savior of the high elves. You look just like what the stories say." She had no emotion on her face, but seraph felt pressure on his body. He could feel her rage concealed behind that poker face of hers.

Seraph lowered his head and muttered, "I'm not like them."

"Then you should prove it, tomorrow." She pivoted on her feet and began walking. She continued "The Princess, despite my advice, has decided to ask your help."

"I imagine she already discussed what you would be doing?" She peered over her shoulder and watched seraph, he tilted his head to the side and looked at her confused causing her to sigh.

"What did she tell you?" She turned around a corner, the interior of the palace changed slightly, looking more gentle and comfortable. There were some tables in this hallway which held the extremely expensive vase.

She had walked for about a minute in silence, when she turned around "Where did he go?" Her eyes narrowed, she backtracked and found seraph catching up with a bright red face.

"Sorry, I- I got distracted with how beautiful… the city looked." Seraph bowed his head then approached her. She only stared at him, making him feel nervous "I was also wondering what those two buildings were…" He pointed at the two massive buildings apart from each other.

"That's the royal warrior academy, it trains all future warriors including magus and the next generals. This was built by the 'Morose King', after he had defeated the heroes. He built it with the same materials he used to build the wall. The one across from that is the royal scholar academy, all great scholars go there." She first pointed at the building with the dark towers representing the royal warriors academy and then at the building with the white towers representing the royal scholar academy.

"Those buildings are huge… What about the churches?" Seraph absentmindedly asked, he remembered from class that in the past countries took their religion seriously so they naturally had huge religious structures…

"..." She just stared at seraph.

"Oh! Sorry, ha ha… you guys must hate the gods… for… what...they...did." Seraph nervously laughed and shrunk back. Despite having no emotion, Alena was a scary person.

"What did the princess tell you." She asked.

Seraph's face turned bright red, "Well she...just ummm… came in the room and just took off her clothes and went straight to sleep… we didn't talk or anything."

"Did you do anything to the princess?" She asked normally, however, seraph could feel a hint of rage in her voice.

"No! Never, I didn't do anything to the princess while she was sleeping. I left when she went to sleep…" Seraph pulled his hands up and waved them in surrender.

"I believe you." She turned around "You are too much of a coward to do anything to a woman."

'Coward? Good thing she doesn't realize what I actually did…' Seraph rubbed the back of his head as he let out a nervous chuckle.

"Come on, you're too slow." Alena rushed seraph along. They walked in complete silence until they reached another large elegant door, she swept her hand across the air and pointed toward the door "This is the library."

"What?" Seraph just stared at the door.

"You wanted to explore." She stared back at seraph, causing him to rub the back of his head and chuckle awkwardly "You have the memory of an ant. Go inside."

Seraph nodded, Alena grabbed the door and opened it for seraph. Seraph stepped inside and looked around the library that was grandiose and clearly ten times larger than the school library he had seen back at home 'These guys really embody the phrase, go big or go home…'

"Come with me, stop gawking" She grabbed seraph's hand firmly and pulled him deeper into the library, they went into a corner of the library where there was a table and two chairs. In the middle of the table was something that resembled a golden candle holder however, in place of the candle was a blue ball with a mist that swirled around in the center.

She pulled him and pushed him into his seat, then took a seat opposite of him. Her hand gently reached over and tapped the blue ball.

"This ball traps sound within its effective range, making it excellent for people who want to talk in private." She spoke gently as she pointed at the magical ball, seraph nodded his head at her explanation. "Now, that i can speak to you privately i can tell you the things the princess should've told you…"

She continued " The dark elf kingdom is in a bad situation... "

"How bad?" Seraph leaned forward.

She raised her hand and pulled his head back to place, "After the death of Sela's grandfather the situation within the palace has been… difficult. Princess Sela's father has become ill and is constantly stuck to the bed but the problem is that he had four sons, each of them are attempting to get the throne…"

Seraph nodded his head, he then gave a brief smile as he heard the princesses name, 'First time hearing her name…'

"Focus!" Seraph felt something hit his head, he blinked and looked at alena who had leaned forward and flicked his forehead, sitting back down she continued " The princesses brothers have divided the court, the brothers each seek the throne. Their fight has caused many nobles within the empire to flock to their cause."

"The princess within this whole entire show, has been placed in the back lines. She can only seek aid for her father while also seeking out her own forces to defend herself, however, she has had no luck doing that…"

"As a result of her lack of power, she has been arranged to marry Duke Kabin. Something that the princess does not want at all… The princess wants to focus on the military of the empire and attempt to tame her brothers. If she marries the duke… an avid supporter of the first prince this will be impossible."

"Which is where you come in, you are going to change the tide… the title of hero even though hated within the kingdom holds immense power. The princess needs power, with your unique position you will void the marriage."

"How?" Seraph looked at her curiously.

"You are going to meet the king tomorrow,"