Shadow Magic

King Akimitsu Gushiken had valiantly defended the central city. He had fought bravely, together with his men to hold off the invading army from advancing to the east and north. He was wielding a javelin of bamboo and obsidian steel. He had slayed over 200 so far but the javelin head was still dry as the soil had been since the drought. There was no sign of blood.

He possesses shadow magic. And he was the only red rank in Abalon. His shadow magic proved to be decisive just after the sun went to sleep.

In the dark of the night, a dozen allied warriors charged though the central district where the King was awaiting their arrival, ready to give them a royal welcome. As they closed in, King Akimitsu's eyes beamed with a shade of red. He snapped his fingers and immediately flames popped up from behind the men and their long shadows intersected right infront of the king. He raised his javelin and with all his might, he thrust it into their shadows and as it pierced the ground, gaping holes opened in their heads and blood and brain gushed out as they fell gracelessly to the ground.

He was widely known as the silent shadow. When he strikes a shadow that is made by his flames, the person will suffer the same fate as their shadows. If he strikes a the shadow head then the owner's head will be simultaneously struck. That is why his javelin was dry despite a high kill count.

He raised the javelin head that was plunged deep in the ground and when he raised his head, a man was standing before him with the extremely rare white eyes. The eyes beyond spectra. The eyes that holds all the mystic powers known to human kind. He was the only person in two thousand years since the world flood to have such eyes. His name was Omiros.

"You must be the king." He asked.

"I'm Omiros the commander of the Imperial Army of Onisia.

"Ghost is what they call you, right?" King Akimitsu asked.

"I guess my reputation far exceeds me." Omiros replied.

"Tell me wise king, what got you in this position." Omiros asked.

King Akimitsu thought Omiros was mocking him that they were invading his city but what Omiros really meant was why he marched against Adonis and then retreated back into his city.

Infuriated by the question, King Akimitsu snapped his fingers and when the flames popped, he struck the ground with his javelin. However Omiros vanished together with his shadow. He reappeared on top of a roof and he was violently met by fire ball flames.

Immediately multiple black holes swallowed them and disappeared as quickly as they appeared. Before the black hole disappeared King Akimitsu saw about 10 men at a junction and as his flames popped behind them, he struck their shadows and they fell dead without knowing what hit them.

King Akimitsu knew very well that he couldn't beat Omiros, not even on a good day so he summoned his shadows right away. With the back of his javelin, he tapped his own shadow three times and it separated into five humanoid beings, all distinct in appearance. There were two wearing a kasa and one raced towards the north while the other was east bound. All the burning flames around the city snuffed out wherever they passed.

The other three stood between Omiros and King Akimitsu. Two of them were wearing shinobi shozoku, blending well with the night shadows, while the other was wearing a samurai helmet, a mask, chest armor paired with shoulder guards, sleeves, a skirt, thigh protection and shin guards. They were all wielding a wakizashi. These three shadows have one goal, that is to terminate the target within five minutes. If they fail, they fade. However they had successfully finished every mission, that is why they haven't faded yet.

Without wasting time the three humanoid shadows lunged at Omiros. He created three black holes and thought he had destroyed them but somehow the shadows were not sucked in the holes. Instead they went right through the black holes and closed in on him.

'What are this things?" Perplexed Omiros asked himself as he was escaping the end of the blade from the samurai shadow.

He backed away dodging relentless and coordinated attacks from the shadows. He lost a lot of ground and he was simply dominated. As the fight was raging on, one of the shinobi shadows sliced through his shirt with a sharp kunai blade. He used his transmission magic to vanish but as soon as he reappeared the shadows reappeared with him and continued the onslaught.

'How are they using my techniques?' He thought to himself.

'And how are they fast as me?'

'Their master is not this fast.'

The pondering was interrupted short by a blade to the neck. As he deftly avoided the wakizashi blade, another blade swiftly rushed in. He used his own sword to block the attack but he should have known better than to do that. The samurai blade passed through his blade like it was made of air. Upon realization his grave mistake he instantly transmitted himself up in the sky.

This time the shadows did not appear with him. And he instantly knew why.

'They are using my shadow.'

'Wherever I appear, my shadow appears with me.'

'And they instantly appear where my shadow is.'

'Now that I'm high in the air, my shadow is far from me.'

'That is why they are still in the ground.'

At King Akimitsu's command the shadows followed him up the sky, however Omiros had his own plans. He appeared near the king and as he was conjuring white flames, the shadows immediately appeared between the two. They were his shadows after all and they were now back by his side, ready to protect him. One shinobi shadow was struck by the white flames as it tried to shield the king and to the king's suprise, the shadow faded before the five minutes had elapsed.

They were not indestructible after all. They might overpower other flames and snuff them but not the rare white flames. And the king was realizing that at a really bad time.

Omiros is a man of many firsts. He was the first man to conjure such flames since the age of the nephilms, the golden age of magic. That's how rare the flames were.

The shadows were running out of time and so was the king. However he had managed to buy time for the other two shadows that were snuffing out flames. They had overpowered all the flames burning around the city from the central district towards the north and the east. They extinguished every single blaze by just their presence alone.

When almost all the flames had been snuffed out, Daniel, Raphael and company were about to be killed by the three men they hid from earlier with Haruki's magic. And not only them, there were about hundreds more warriors closing in. The secret gate was just a block away but it seemed they had run out of options.

As Omiros was busy slaying the shadows, King Akimitsu saw one of the Onisian warriors. He quickly summoned thousand flames all around the central, northern and eastern parts of the city. The dark city flared into beautiful blue flames but there was nothing beautiful about what happened after. Well, to the allied warriors.

As the flames sparked around the city, one appeared behind the warrior he had just seen and immediately King Akimitsu's javelin sparked with a powerful bolt. He struck the man's shadow with the javelin and about 2000 allied men immediately fell dead to the ground through out the city, including the men who were overtaking King Akimitsu's twin sons, Daniel and Raphael.

He used the Onisian man as a contact point to massacre multitudes. They all suffered the same fate the man suffered. They were puntured in the chest all the way through their hearts to their spines while they were also electrocuted by the bolt of lightning. And the boys managed to escape the city.

King Akimitsu fell on his knees, exhausted by the spell. His two shadows were killed quickly afterwards by Omiros. And he approached the drained king.

"Why did you march against Adonis?'

"I have never marched against Adonis." The king replied in a breathy voice.

"We were told that you marched against us to avenge your friend Loannis." Omiros said.

And when we sent a delegation to reason with you, you slayed them."

"There is no truth in that." The king replied.

"I am the one who sent a delegation to you and they had not returned."

He did send a delegation but the scouts reported to Flavia and he got them killed without Omiros's knowledge. He feared that they might make peace a treaty.

After deep thoughts, Omiros replied.

"We have been tricked into a war."

"For what it's worth, I'm sorry for bringing this calamity on your city."

"Though it's a little too late for apologies."

"However I am going to spare you life."

"Now go and run as far away from here as possible."

Omiros went towards the south to blow the trumpet to signal the end of war. King Akimitsu limped away and as he was trying to make his way towards his castle, a man appeared behind him and immediately thrusted a sword into his back. He supported the king with his leg and removed the blade. As the blade retreated, huge chunks of flesh and bones were swallowed by the blade.

As Flavia had finished slaying the king, the trumpet resounded in the city.

'Oh so fast? I was starting to enjoy myself.' He thought to himself with a dejected face. He was disappointed.

"Doggy weren't you enjoying?"he asked while looking at the blood stained sword.

King Akimitsu crawled in all fours away from Flavia, blood pouring out. Flavia strutted towards him and bent down.

"How rude of me to not bow down to the king." He said and clobbered him with a kick to the face. The king rolled on the ground and when he halted, his back was kissing the ground and his eyes were fixed on the beautiful stars in the cloudless sky. As his eyes wandered, he caught a glimpse of Flavia.

"That sword you're using to kill me, will be the sword that will kill you." King Akimitsu uttered a curse and Flavia pinned him to the ground with a single thrust.

The king took his last breath and died a hero. He saved countless people who managed to escape towards the east. However those who were captured were enslaved and the city was plundered.

Flavia was charged for his crimes and was exiled for 35 years. He went to Alaska, a tribe known for hibernation spells. And had not been seen since.

Joel took 6 days to finish reading the drought wars and in those 6 days he had trained with Uriel, Lucia, April, Nathan and Amaros. The explosion that rocked the camp of the Pakresian forces had delayed their march and it bought the Abalonians some more time to prepare.

However when Solis's body disfigured and exploded at Lori's tent as they were gathered for a meeting, Julian swiftly made a barrier and as the explosion blasted through the tent, he contained it at a 30 degree angle and managed to protect Lori. Draco and Fredis saved themselves with their magical armors and complex magical abilities.

The rest of the 330 degrees angle was totally decimated to the ground by the explosion in a 300m radius. Half the lieutenants and the druids who were also part of the meeting were not doing so good. The blast was just too powerful and healing mages had to attend to them and 3 succumbed to the injuries. It was a day of mourning at the camp.

Their supplies too had been devoured by the blaze and their waters licked up. They had to delay their march to gather some new supplies for the journey.

Cassie had also sent a raven to Daniel about her investigations to find the organization trying to incarnate the half men, half demons. Her findings led her to Akanza and she believed she was on to something. However she had to come back to help her people win a war. She wrote to them, saying that she would join them in battle.

After two more days they marched from Hokane towards Pakresia. For the first time ever, Joel marched along side his brother Uriel, not as a companion who just tagged along but as one of the most powerful and perhaps the most talented.

Reading the book of the laws made him learn a little more about his magic which ultimately led to awakening his magic. In the drought wars book, he also learned that the most powerful man to ever live since the age of the nephilims, possessed white flames. Coincidentally he was the very same man who wrote the book of the laws. Joel too had conjured the white flames by accident. The question on everyone's minds was, 'could he be the next white ranked?'

[END OF VOLUME 1]