Chapter 1: New Emperor Of Darkness

King Cirius, a man with large frame, facial hair and scary personality, as many describes him, he is a stoic man with strong will, who rules with an iron fist. 

Rumour has it Cirius was never to be king, because his father never saw him fit or wise to rule, and feared for the future of Mardadus; the province he hails from, but a mysterious death of his father occured days to the heir naming ceremony, and his brother went missing after the death of his father. All this occured when Cirius was just 19 of age, he gained the fear and respect of his clan at a very young age, and he was a tyrant to his people, not caring for their well being but his personal gain, he increased the tax, first day of his regime, and beheaded a priest, for standing up against it. 

Sitting on his throne, with a smile on his face and looking at all his achievement. King Cirius is addressing his eight advisors;

"Mardadus is a great province, and deserves to at least produce an Emperor, they deny us the right to sit atop the throne like we are savages, but I tell you today, my Advisors, I besiege you to prepare, it is time our clan stand out and get rid of the Oatos province for good" king Cirius says with a stern voice.

"But their forces outnumbers ours, My lord isn't it ....." general Aidan said but was cut short.

Heldric, the king top advisor cut in "My lord, I do not doubt your strength, but this is a war that might bring ruin to Mardadus, and might take us time to heal from".

"My lord, Heldric is right, their forces are too large" Miron, the minister for public affairs chipped in

"NONSENSE" King Cirius yelled, "Gilhelm and his clan has mocked us enough, I will bring the whole of Oatos to it's kneel, and they will know the strength of Mardadus, I don't need any Pessimistic opinion, I want strategy, I want to win a war, I'm tired of been the third most powerful king in all of Aitoro"

"My lord, my only advice and strategy I will share at this meeting, as a general, is, we wait, till they are distracted, after all the GAME is on the fourth day, it will steal their attention and it will lower their defense, and there will be less man power"general Aidan said, proud of his suggestion.

"Aidan, you are right, seems you have thought of everything, apart from one, and that is Dandier, Gilhelm trusted adviser and grand druid to the people of Oatos. Gilhelm is powerful, but we all know he is able to still stay in power with the help of Dandier, who is rumoured to have never failed in battle" Hela said, the royal healer, a beauty good at her job.

"I'm afraid of saying this but we need a plan, to separate, Dandier from Gilhelm in this battle" Mike, commander responsible for the training of junior knight.

"Well, all we have to do is divide our forces, and hope Dandier takes the bait" King Cirius said with an evil smirk.

All his advisors knows him, when he smiles, there is something evil to follow

***********

Aitoro, A great Empire comprising of 26 provinces and 300 clans, with kings ruling each province, and an Emperor ruling over the Empire. It was no mere rumour, the Aitoro empire is filled with a lot of atrocities, they believed in dark magic, and find fun and joy at war and killing. There was constant war for power, and Slavery overtook Aitoro, the weakest clans were enslaved.

A bald man sat atop a throne, short but very muscular, he wore a blue robe with silver lining, His name is Gilhelm, and he is the Emperor of Aitoro.

he is discussing with his advisors the outcome of the GAME; the game as Aitoro love to call it, is a bloody match held in a Ring, where wild beast fought against Gladiators, or men against men, untill all are dead except one. Which the people of Oatos are hosting this year's own

"you are all dismissed" Gilhelm told his advisors, 

"Not you Grim", he was tired of hearing their blabbing on political matters.

In the huge grand floor of the court room, is Gilhelm and his trusted advisor and general of his army.

"what of Dandier", Gilhelm asked his general, and most trusted advisor, Grim;

"he went on a mission, the Nanaki clan is attacking one of our stronghold" Commander Grim replied, standing at Gilhelm side

"but the Nanaki clan is not strong enough to attack one of our stronghold, they lack skills and enough men to fight, why didn't Dandier allow our men handle this" Gilhelm asked;

"My lord they were surprisingly strong, and had more than enough men, it seems, they were backed up by someone powerful, even our men found it hard to counter their attacks" Grim replied,

"well Grim, I want you to look into this, and make sure to strengthen our defense, I do not have a good feeling about this" Gilhelm said

"yes my lord"Grim said, with a slight bow, and exited the court room.

 ***********

Emperor Gilhelm, well his not a saint, but there is a bit of order in Aitoro, he managed to keep the peace, there was war, but compared to his predecessors, his regime was the best, less blood shed, but slavery and the use of dark magic still carried on, Aitoro is a powerful Empire, being an emperor has its limit, there were things you don't meddle with, such as the slavery, dark sorcery, the GAME e.t.c, if an emperor meddle with any of this activities then they will be war from the 26 kings, and Gilhelm can't afford putting his province or clan in such tight situation.

"I have tried, for this empire but what can I really do, I feel dark times is fast approaching, well an emperor should not be scared, I have seen worst, if it's war then I will fight to protect those I care about" Gilhelm thought to himself, fearing for the future of his family and people.

Sitting at his side is his lovely wife Cecilia in a white silk dress embroidered with silver color flower, and the helm at the bottom of the cloth and hands were gold, and it brought out her shape, a magnificent dress it is. She is a blonde hair woman with an hour glass shape, and her face like that of a child, her beauty is the talk of all of Aitoro, sometimes they hail Gilhelm for having eyes for women

Cecilia was the daughter of the late King Vulga, who was the ruler of Auran province, they increased their power by marrying of their princess, Cecilia to Gilhelm, with the two forces combined they were unstoppable, so it seems.

Sitting by her side is their daughter Vera, who is thirteen of age, and only heir to the throne, like her mother she is very beautiful and have brown hair, and a round face, she was an epitome of beauty and the wish of most men in Aitoro.

"Darling, it's time to announce the beginning, of the Game" Cecilia said, waking him from his thoughts.

"oh, thanks dear"he got up and went to the balcony of the Ring.

"Well my dear people today is the day we have been waiting for, the time we see the strongest among us, a time to judge courage, valor and strength, the time of the arena, and may the strongest , and most noble come out victorious, with this, I hear by announce, let the GAME begin" with this few words, Gilhelm went back to his sit.

***********

William, also known as Terror, not very large in body, have smooth head, and always put on creepy smile on his face, his body stature is suitable for fast movement when fighting, he is a ruthless assassin, and he kills for the right price. Right now his in the crowded market of Rays in Gully, the capital of Oatos province with two men wearing brown and gold armour,

"Terror, quite a scary name" General Aidan says with a slight smile.

"let's get down to business please" Terror replies, with his alway creepy smile.

"well, as I said we give you 500 gold pieces now and 500 when the job is done" General Aidan says stretching out the pouch of gold coins.

"well that is much, so who's the person that's worth such amount" replied Terror grabbing the pouch greedily and checking it while smiling creepily.

"All you have to do is participate in the Game, and when you hear the horn the third time, attack and don't stop till Gilhelm is dead" Aidan says sternly.

"well firstly you do not tell an assassin how to do his job, and secondly, I never knew it was the Emperor so I will charge extra or deals off" Terror said still smiling creepily.

"will you just listen to simple order" Aidan said furiously "and we aren't adding any extra you greedy bastard"

"well I guess deals off" Terror said walking away, but was stopped by Aidan hands blocking him by his chest, he swiped Aidan hand in a rude manner off his chest, which led to the armored guard by Aidan side to pull out her sword from her sheath and Terror pulling out his daggers.

Aidan immediately stopped the guard from taking action

"it's ok, we shouldn't belittle ourselves to fighting with a commoner" Aidan said throwing an extra 350 gold pieces his way 

"well Terror, hope that is enough, we'll give you the remaining 850 gold pieces when the job is done" with the guard sheathing back her sword

Terror smiled putting his daggers back in his belt "now you are talking" with this he left.

"well hope the cretin, gets the Job done sire" Bella said, commander of the Third battalion.

" we are not stupid to rely on only him" Aidan said with an evil smirk on his face.

"he's merely a distraction" still smiling.

***********

At the back were gladiators preparing. a man with black hood, and scarf covering his mouth just stood there until the horn sounded and a huge gate opened up, and all the gladiators ran in.

the host of the event is Gin, from the noble house Wail, he seems happy for hosting this year GAME.

"May I present the 5 participant in the GAME, first is Gordric, Typhoon, Scot, Ric and Terror. well this year GAME seems like is gonna be tough, let me not bore you with words, todays game, is simple, everyman is expected to fight till death and the winner is to fight the Sculk beast, seems like they don't want any winners for this year game, with this, as our Lord proclaim, let the game begin".

the Game began, Gordric ran towards Scot with his mace, swinging it vigorously and Scot moved his head to the side, and dodging the blow by an inch, at that very moment, Scot fist collided with Gordric's face, sending shivers through his body, Gordric moved back few inches and laughed

"It seems I underestimated your strength" Gordric said.

" you are slow and not very skilled" Scot replied with a smirk, then unsheathed his sword

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at the far corner was Typhoon and Ric fighting, Ric threw his spear towards Typhoon who dived to the side at the very last second, but did not account for Ric who flew to his side, and giving him a dropkick to the jaw, Typhoon fell to the floor with alot of pain going through his jaw region. he looked up and saw Ric bringing down daggers to his head, at the very last second he rowed out of the way, and the dagger went through the floor where his head had been.

"damn, this guy is fast", Typhoon thought to himself, clenching his bow tight, and ready to pull an arrow from his quiver.

#####

Terror stood at one corner, inspecting the arena, and the fight, he wasn't really interested in fighting he just want to get the job done, and get out of this arena.

"We are getting close Gilhelm, let's see how strong you are" Terror snuzzle the dagger in his belt.

And immediately the horn sounded for the third time, and a smirk appeared on Terror's face,

"the time we've all been waiting for", a smile appeared on his face

he immediately went behind Typhoon's side, who was busy trying to get a good aim at Ric, and stabbed him deep, Typhoon screamed, and at the last second he took his other dagger, behind his belt, and threw it towards Ric, it was a clean strike driven deep into Ric's shoulder, and was to fast for Ric to dodge or counter back, Ric let out a groan and stumbled to the floor.

"Well I guess, you won't be needing this" Terror grabbed Typhoon's bow and arrows off the floor where Typhoon lies. 

Typhoon was very weak to to fight back for his weapons, for he knows he won't be needing it anymore, with that much blood he loosed, everywhere was getting dark by the minute, and a trickle of tears dropped down his eyes as he look to the sky.

"so this is the feeling of death" he said to himself before giving up to nothingness.