Chapter 11: Ravyn's Return

In a tall and dark tower; made with bricks and stones, was seated close to a ravaging volcano, surrounding passageways of lava's and smokes with the endless endeavour of people, emitting obscene disposition, outside of the mysterious land; where Theon is at. A rambunctious noise was heard of. It echoed and reached forth outward to the slumps of the said land.

"These obnoxious faggots!" Was heard of inside the covenstead tower.

The woman who was covered with a monotonous black veil above his head, slammed her palms on the table, stemming a loud noise.

"How dare they opposed to all my plans!" She shout once more with her wicked and trembling voice.

She saw inside her smoky magical crystal and distinctively witnessed how Ambroz's heat slowly subsided when Theon pleasured him and share his warmth with Ambroz. She could not believe her eyes as she never thought that this would come across her plan.

"For pleasure to effect in the curse this way, it must also have been because of that ornament. It couldn't perform well for a mere body such as this fellow." She said pertaining to Theon.

The woman stroked her long crumbly fingers and pointy nails on her magical crystal.

"Despite being a warrior, his mind is flawed and indecisive. Smidgen push of aggressiveness, I am certain he'll give up on the temptation." She assumed.

She laughed devilishly and stopped when she heard footsteps from afar. The huge sturdy door slammed open and revealed the man she just wouldn't want to see at the moment.

"My love, you're back again. How is the plan with all the explosions going on?" She asked and smiled in the most unnatural way possible.

Coming all the way back again in this period, you sure have a lot of time in your hands, eh." She thought.

Even so, she faked a smile and rushed towards him with her hands widely opened. However, the man transcends her welcoming hands and head over to her dusty and full of spider webs table. She got quite the humiliation when the man's few men laughed at her. She looked at them and faked a cough.

"Ahem!"

In an instant, they went silent and pretentiously gazed elsewhere.

What a couple of wretched men. Just you wait and I'll crumble you all into tiny pieces of ash. Imbecile!"

She turned and cleared her throat as if nothing had happened. Sneered and smirked with intentions no one would think. Alright then, if this is how it should be from now, I'll carry on with it.

With her very own eyes, she sighted how the newly arrived man abruptly looked at her crystal and then gaze back at her.

"You know too well what is going at my base. I should be the one asking you what's taking you so long for that dragon to explode. We are not attacking him as per your instructions but if your plan still isn't making any progress, I and my men will make a move, as for you! You know the consequences."

The woman has heard enough. "My love, don't worry for this kid is not to your concern, I can singlehandedly succumb this fellow to vanish and the plan is all set up. All you have to do is disperse the explosion and my curse will revive anytime soon." She assured the man with double meaning words as she held his shoulders.

The man was not pleased, he brushed off the woman's hands. "Don't think you can fool me, witch," He made a fuss. "Remember that I am the one who rose you from the slumps outside that forest. If this will not succeed even after my death I'll make sure you receive yours with continuous atrocities."

It silences her for a couple of seconds. She faked another smile and pierced her eyes on the man. "Of course, there really is nothing for you to worry about. Have you forgotten my curses and spells? They are put to work. Besides, no one would dare stop us."

The man narrowed his eyes. "Not even Aranyani and a bunch of those pointy heads?"

She gulped greedily. "Aranyani is put to sleep. She won't even notice that we already took over her land."

"How about those pointy heads?" He asked.

"Well, I am sure they won't interfere or I am after their heads."

"I hope you are not all talk." He glared at the woman whom he called a witch.

"I assure you I am not, my love."

The man traced his way towards the door and asked his adherents to slam the door closed.

She slightly flinch when it made such a loud blow. From fake smiling to lips brought to a line. Her eyes were filled with bitterness and hatred. She clenched her hands and slowly went through her huge window. There she saw from below, Novak, the man from a while ago, and his men riding a bunch of black horses. Horses contain a curse that runs as if there is no impasse.

She removed her veil and there her eyes and her face were revealed. Violet pupils, thick sharp brows, and long tornado-like grey hair.

"Really, Novak? You? Murder me? I suppose it will be the other way around. You forget that I, am Ravyn once a daughter of Gwydion— your so-called evil, a treacherous and powerful witch. " She laughed evilly. "However, I am your worst nightmare. You' regret threatening me, Novak."

As she laughed once more, raising her arms and opening her fingers, the crows spread vastly and the volcano gave an indulgent grumbling noise.

The sky was filled with grey clouds as the rain strenuously fell. With turbulent and tumultuous thunders and growling. The rain came down so hard it almost hurt, stinging the skin and blowing into the eyes and nose and mouth, but in the forest, its fall is broken by the trees.

As if a mad maiden sob upon the atmosphere, with the swiftly loud howling of winds pass through the space. A web of clouds, back-lit by the failing sun, mist billowed through the trees and over the fields and hung low in the air, masking the camp in a ghostly grey

The rough noise of banging and clunking of armours, revolvers, and swords filled the air with smokes. Shouts were all over the place, the place that was once belonged by kind-hearted folks and now colonized by wicked conquerors.

In the middle of all that.

"Step aside, you knuckleheads!" A shout was heard of a man riding a cursed horse. "Your master is passing through! Hey, move out!"

He kept shouting and making a huge fuss about their leader passing through. And so, men made a way for them to pass through. Some were carrying loads of explosions, others were hammering their swords, loading their huge firearms containing silver bullets that would immediately pierce inside your skin and would cause you a lot of bleeding, and some

The leader they were pertaining to was Novak; Black with a small tint of violet, his upper part of hair grown upwards and pointy, the lower part was laid down and as his bears above his mouth have grown long with time.

And behind him was a man, Ludovic, with a slightly swollen back whose face was filled with huge moles and messy hair.

"How is the explosion going?" He asked the men on all ears.

They looked at each other and they looked like they were having a hard time choosing which one of them would answer Novak's question.

"So? Are all your mouth's robbed?" He asked with fury in his voice. "You!" He pointed the man in the middle.

It recoiled upon his approach and stepped forward. He was hesitating to open his mouth but for seconds of silence, he had no choice but to open his mouth.

"They... They are in progress and some accidentally... Uh... exploded, Master." He couldn't raise his head and was lowered all the way as he spoke while stuttering.

"Exploded? I have sourced you those hard made explosions and you dare destroy my creation?" He yelled as his eyes widen in despair.

"Pardon, but it was the witch's creation, Master." Ludovic corrected.

"Silence, Ludovic!" He retorted right back.

"R... Right, pardon, my master."

The men were trembling as they felt Novak walking near them. Especially, the one who answered his queries about the explosions. With all the anger he had, he grabbed a sword from some fellow who was hammering it and pierced it through the respondent's chest.

"Urk—" He groaned.

Titian-red blood spurted from his wounds as men wailed and screamed in the back of their heads. They had no choice to

Novak released it back and swing it in the air to remove the excess blood. As the man fell on his knees and laid down breathless.

"Now you see if I have ever heard of my explosions being gone to waste. I won't hesitate to pierce you all with this silver sword!" He uttered in exclamation.

"Now! Ludovic asked these men to get back to work." He demanded to his servant.

"Very well, master." He bowed his head.

No one did dare to speak as their faces were filled with fright and feign that they had not seen such a remorseful event in front of them.

"Now, as the master demanded. Get back to work!"

Novak was heading to the general of the conquerors. The one who leads the men to slaughter the people and steal their land. The one who demanded to kill Eliaz with his proponents and have heard of Eliaz's last words.

Entering the small tent he saw the man he was looking for. Sitting on a chair with a wooden table placed in front of it

He is Devreon, a merciless general of today's conquerors.

"I see you have killed one of my men, Novak." T'was the first thing he had said.

"Your men wasted the explosions that I gave you with their faint brains." He uttered. "Laying my hands on them wouldn't be much of a trouble since it was their negligence."

Devreon laughed and hit one of his men back's. "That was just a testament to your materials."

"Even so, I won't be thinking twice to pierce one at you if I ever saw you wasting my pieces of equipment again." He looked at Devreon straight in the eyes.

Devreon gulped and gulped. "So, what is the master doing here again? I thought you would be with your beloved and plan more things to demand from us."

"Don't say such disgusting things, Devreon. The witch and I just made a thorough deal. I still get to decide what to do here."

Devreon was caught off guard.

"Understood, my apologies. However, you do understand that this will be our land as well, don't you?" Devreon tried assuring him.

"Of course, unlike you I keep my deals organized and I don't destroy any of it." He exclaimed.

"I see," Devreon leaned back. "If it's not too much trouble. I may have to ask you."

"What is it?"

Novak saw how Devreon looked at his two men standing beside him.

"When we were killing the people in this village, one spout about someone being awakened and is lingering further in the forest. Do you know about such a creature?"

As Novak heard of that. He couldn't help but sneer in his mind. How mindless of them."

Novak smirked. "I see you don't know of the legendary creature lingering inside this forest." He asked.

"A legendary creature?"

"That's right, there's a serpent or most precisely a dragon guarding this forest who breathes flames and will bring ash to your skin."

Devreon was taken aback by Novak's statement he couldn't believe his ears. He thought, perhaps it was just a piece of unnecessary information but to think it was this massive of trouble, he ought to think twice.

"Why do you look so frightened?" Novak questioned him while vigorously snickering.

"You must be playing with us, Master. I know there's no such thing as... Dragon." He nervously cackled.

When he noticed how Novak was a for a short time silenced. He knew he was wrong. Novak met his eyes once more.

"Oh, but there is." He smirked.

Devreon widened his eyes. "Then what are we doing here? If you say it like that, doesn't that mean that it will burn us all into ashes?" He asked with his face filled with anticipation.

"Speaking of which, the people who escaped from our grasp was also not found in the deep grove. Also, those faint roars that we have been hearing from afar." He augmented to his say.

"Calm your fussing down. How rare to see a merciless conqueror panicked to such things as a creature." He sneered and crossed his fingers together.

"Ha! Master, aren't you too calm about this?" He furrowed his brows.

"We will be battling our blood and sweats with that sort of creature and all we have got is our silver pieces of equipment and explosions. I may not know how it will appear before us, but I am sure as hell it is huge." Devreon complained while slowly shaking his head horizontally.

Now Novak was the one who leaned back. "Of course, we're not here to battle against that serpent. The witch I made an undertaking deal with is the one who has cursed him and is monitoring his complexion."

Devreon leaned forward. "Your beloved witch? Just how strong is this witch you're dealing with to have cursed him."

"Not as strong. She's having trouble dealing with matters, that's why the progress is taking us longer to wait." He responded.

"Matters?"

"The serpent is currently a human somewhere inside the forest, yet we need to wait for a signal and tame this dragon."

"What do you mean tame, Master? And the dragon is some sort of a shapeshifter?" Devreon asked as he was confused.

"Indeed, he is a shapeshifter. The witch told me to wait for it to shift into its curse form and so we tame it and it'll be under us." He said with vigour.

"Master, the plan seems flawed. Why don't we just capture it when it is still not in a dragon form, don't you think it will most certainly come to success?" Devreon said it as if he had made a huge juncture.

But to Novak, he was saying nothing but junk.

"If we would attack him first, do you think the gods of this forest will sit still? After all, he was made as a guard inside that deep timber. It would be a huge failure if we set war to the goddesses."

Devreon was silent as he understood what was Novak trying to say.

"Nevertheless, she seems to be having great sources of sorcery. With this, are you sure to trust a woman who has accumulated magic?" He whispered to Novak.

"Put an end to your insolences, whether I trust her or not is in no way your concern." He stood up and swing his hands. "Let's stop the talk, I am here to tell you about the additional equipment my servants will be bringing, spread it as vastly as you should be. I repeat, don't waste them, this is an order to our pact." He exclaimed and went straight out of that small tent.

It was still raining hard outside but it didn't affect him the slightest. As he walked to Ludovic, he thought.

These conquerors asking me such things with no sense of shame. Only thinking about a place to colonize yet lack knowledge about commodities in this forest. After all of this has been brought to an end, I will make sure you work under me. As well as that witch."

"Master, the pieces of equipment have arrived," Ludovic informed him.

He nodded and went straight to the men that have brought this in their location. "Have you dwell on your dreams and arrived this late? Give it to the conquerors." He ordered them.

"Yes, master." They responded in a monotonous voice.

They each began to spread. Novak saw how they carry the huge boxes containing the explosions. He wanted to make sure no equipment was put to waste again.

"Where is that special box?" He asked among the men.

A man, his follower, approached him and gently placed the box down. It was yet again but another explosion equipment. But, it was sort of different. He asked Ravyn to do this quite differently. He grabbed one and looked at it. Sphere shaped transparent glass with black smoky tint inside. It was emitting brightness.

He snickered. "With this, I won't have to worry anymore."

In his peripheral view, he saw a few of the conquerors grabbing the explosions from afar. He gazed at them and as if the timing was set right, one of them bumped into each other and dropped one equipment of explosion.

Everybody close to it ran except the one who dropped it. He knew he was going to die anyway so he left himself close to it and shouted.

"Ah!"

The bomb exploded and split the man's body into tiny pieces. The blood squirted even from his distance. He received a few stains on his hand when he covered his face with it.

All of the men who saw it made a huge fuss about it and began to sprint back again into their works.

Novak then thought, I guess the war with these knuckleheads starts here."

"Any more waste and I'll end all of your breaths."

He shouted and all of the workers did all of their jobs carefully.

"What was that?" Theon asked when he heard the explosion.

It reached his distance.

It seems that he kept hearing explosions from afar, roars, and growlings. Ever since he entered the forest, this has been the norm for him.

"Was that perhaps the conquerors doing?" He asked himself. He has just arrived at the cave carrying the water and cloth in his hands.

He proceeded to enter the cave and headed to Ambroz. The explosion had not escaped his head but was distracted when he saw Ambroz's condition.

"Ambroz," He uttered his name in a soft voice as he walk towards it.

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ABYSSCESS