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A Serene Duke

Over the four lands as named,

Blackshire Town, Ruithe Ville, Dusk-e-Lake and Scarlet Hill.

There stood a gargantuan castle on a plain-shaped hill.

The castle exuded an aura of pure dominace and pride, coupled with it's exquisite exterior.

This castle had a stone-bricked wall, painted all over with granites and black soot.

Artificial fences was woven as a source of innate security from invasion...

and powerful Sparks ignited within it's vestiges by the side of the giant castle which ran around in its defences.

The castle was considered a death sentence for anyone not a member within the castle, which means that...

if an intruder enters uninvited, he or she is likely to be putting his or her life at risk.

The confines of this impregnable walls interlocking each-sides never guarantee safety, especially with a lineup of strangr creatures protecting the castle.

There seem to be a cloud of doom hovering atop the castle, promising imminent apocalypse to anyone that goes near.

These clouds is as a result of the strong protective magic of runes in which the witches enslaved by Duke Ferilando had put to run the castle.

Heirlocks were held captives and enthralled to guard the fore entrance of the castle belonging to this duke.

More creatures were put to protect the core center of the castle, making it's security rather austere.

Duke Ferilando is the Lord over the four different lands. Most of the times, Blackshire Town is always invaded prior to the duke's orders and then numerous lives are reaped for the happiness and satisfaction of this duke and then...

foods and crops would be cultivating from Blackshire town and taken to the Duke's household to consume, leaving Blackshire dry and deserted.

From time to time, he penetrated Ruithe Ville or Dusk -e- Lake, using a means of magic and runes but, for some reason, Scarlet Hill remained out of his utmost reach.

This was because, the rogue witches had their dark powers hovering the land to prevent intrusion.

Plus the god of darkness had been kept preserved under cryostatsis in a particular center so, it was assumed that the god of Darkness was protecting the land which made infiltration impossible.

Even Duke Ferilando cannot and did not lay waste of Scarlet Hill because, there is a point where by he was allowed to tap into their dark magic... Which he greatly benefits from.

Duke Ferilando have heard about the Underworld Groove.

He had gotten information from one of his witches that the Groove was filled with insane creatures,

Duke Ferilando became so greedy.

With the witches and soccerers all having his back plus the special dark magic from the confines of Scarlet Hill, he would be able to make these dangerous creature to submit to him. The duke began to wonder what damage these creatures would cause...

Some people even realised that Scarlet Hill was free from the ravaging threat so they started moving towards the town.

The underworld Groove was describes to be the biggest inhuman threat one can face, the types of creatures to be found and humanoid wraiths... the Vampires which are also differentiated from the normal one and the deranged ones.

The Groove was starting to manufacture a rogue in the midst of all vampires.

Then they have the Mallocks. The mallocks were deadly creatures which had the face of man but the appearance was like a hideous mask engraved on the beast, it's talons and hybrid tongues covered in thick black scales.

There's also the daredevils and then the Scavage fiends, harrowing wraiths, a Sinister Derioun, Spire scavenger...

These are all unwanted creatures that the law of nature states that if they roam around earth, they might cause damage, the balance of life might tilt to it's emergence.

But right now, Duke Ferilando wanted all of the creatures to himself, he wanted them to obey his commands and...

Infact, he wanted to rule over everything, he wanted to become the master and the rest below should submit to him.

He gathered the best of his enslaved witches to perform the rituals.

By what he had heard, the Underworld Groove has been locked away and only witches can enter and return alone but anything other than white witches that enters can never return back to the real world, it is bound to be trapped for life.

It is the Groove itself that would be merciful to some humans and then grant them powers.

But if the Groove is being breached, that would instantly spell doom for humanity because, it's ability to trap hideous creatures, those one's with the ranks after and before the gods would weaken drastically.

The Duke was aware of this but still yet, his greed had to get the better of him.

"Draw more blood from yourself to perform this rituals or, do you want me to chop your hands off myself you lazy witches?"

The duke hissed at the witches who sat at a drawn runic circle.

The circle was drawn in a distance that defied all logic and a burning fire was anchored at the very epicenter.

A triangular dimensional was added to the circle of runes which would muster the energy and the witch sliced his hand making blood trickle out, leaking on the floor in a puddle and then into the fire... drop by drop, and the burning blood started oozing with a bright silvery radiance with energy so powerful, but still dimming slightly due to the lack of blood which needed to be replaced because half of it was already used up.

When the duke discovered that the energy had dropped by few radiance and wouldn't be able to make the gate surface, he immediately picked up the dagger and stabbed the man on his already bleeding hand making more of his blood which had already clothed to suddenly start dripping with more blood making the male witch to grimace in pain.

"There, since you couldn't do it."

The duke said as he watched the flames of the fire dancing to the gentle wind as the witch went back to mumbling the chant and curses under his breath, the glow shot up to an intense level and started pulsating.

Golden characters started drawing it's way among space, forming lines and angles only to have a large door being drawn out.

The golden light dazzled with intensity as the gate released a terrifying aura that was able to cause chill deep down any spine.

Immediately, the witcher turned to face the duke,

"the gate to the underworld Groove is locked and cannot be breached. But if you still want me to try open it, I would need more blood here. My own blood wouldn't be enough to drive the spell and work the signs."

The duke thought for a while.

"Guards!!!"

When the heirlocks came, a palpable silver could be spotted in their eyes to indicate that they were being enthralled by the witches,

Andd the duke ordered;

"go to the nearest land and get more humans for killing. Execute every single one of them and return with their blood."

The heirlocks unbrandished their slits, swords and their spears hanging over their huge and broad backs. They headed out, ready to drag life from whoever wherever and whenever.

Meanwhile the witch who sat by the burning fire and at the center of the circle was running low of blood.

Plus, he was growing exhausted from his too much combustion of his reserves and he knew that he wouldn't last one minute and this wicked duke was watching him. His silvery lights was glowing dimmer and the already structured golden lines in the shape of a door began to waver and fade. The witcher's eyes began to close,

"ma-master, am... exhausted."

The duke casted a bored look at him,

"oh please. You eat everyday, don't tell me that you are already exhausted."

"Master, I-I am..."

Immediately, the witcher collapsed, making all of the lights and radiance to vanish in a go, leaving the male witch laying in a pool of his own blood.

The duke got frustrated seeing everything quench.

He was almost successful at this and now,

"you fool!" He hissed and stabbed the dagger he held into the already visible neck of the witcher severing the head from it's body as the unconscious witcher shuddered only to lay lax on the floor.

In the Underworld Groove.

Blake had been trying to pick an energy.

He did not want to end up picking a wrong energy that would change the course of his life for good but which one is the best?

There are four energies hovering, blue, gold, pink and black. Blake didn't want to imagine what the black energy would contain.

Dark energies are known to bring doom, so Blake thought as much to stay far away. But the remaining three looked so good. Gold, it looked more faccinating... and the blue had an alluring radiance and then pink which looked like a red eyeball gawking at him.

Blake gritted his teeth in anger.

All of a sudden, simmering runes appeared at the end of the sealed entrance like an anomaly, it's radiance feasted within the cave like an omen of doom.

Seems like someone was trying to breach it but it still looked to be locked.

But, what if it was some sort of danger?

A chill crawled down his spine.

Immediately, Blake grabbed the blue energy to his palm and the rest vanished into thin air.

Now with the ball of energy hovering above him, Blake stared at the simmering runes and back at the energy emanating from the sealed entrance. The Simmering runes; which indicated that, he had been accepted by the power.

He needed to leave just incase.

Immediately, a great light flashed... and insane powers flooded into him.

His bone and body wriggling at the influx. It was like his bone and body was being destroyed and being rebuilt only to go back to the same destroy and rebuild process over and over again.

Tears dripped his cheeks and bids of sweat formed in his forehead.

He was transforming. It wasn't long before the runes in the shape of a door he had seen earlier become weak and then vanished.

And that was when it occurred to Blake...

He immediately regretted picking the blue energy, but what can he do?.

He didn't imagine that the door-shaped runes would disappear so soon.

Plus he had taken this whole scenerio to be an incoming danger, that was why he had acted fast to pick the blue energy. What would now become of him? What did fate have in store for him after picking this strange powers? Will the power be good or bad?

Question ran past his mind because if he happen to choose a bad energy then, he would never see the face of the earth again. His plan to rescue Jotham would be a total flop because trapped here would spell his doom.

His transformation was still metamorphosing right now and he couldn't place the right thoughts to mind, the pain was just too much for him.

What would he do next? How would he put this strange power into good use?...

But what if this energy was a bad one? What was he to do about it?

Blake's bones chilled at the thought.

If so then, he was doomed!

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