Chapter XIX

After much consideration, the king made a difficult and painful decision. He gathered the best researchers in the kingdom to find a reasonable explanation for what had happened to the miner. As time passed and there was no improvement on the matter, several researchers had suggested the king to use life subjects, but the king refused to use live subjects.

Word had started to spread out of how a miner had collapse dead for no apparent reason. The official report stated that the dwarven individual had collapse due to a heart disease. The king refused to return the body of the miner, therefore, many different speculations were made about why the body wasn't returned.

The family and friends started to grow relentless since they weren't able to mourn for their loss in a proper manner. The king ignored their wishes and in result, they shared their anguish. The people of the capital sympathized with them and band together to start a protest. Many took that as a chance to rebel against their king, an uprising.

In light of many who had tried to enter the castle and assassinate the king, some of them were tortured to set an example of what would happen to anyone chose to rebel against the king and others respected royals. The rest were use as live subjects since their sentence was death due to their uprise against the crown.

In a matter of weeks after they sacrificed 58 lives, they had manage to uncover the "truth" of the rare crystal and the king was astonished at what it could do. The rare crystal would steal the core of its victims and exchange it for magical power which could be used to power the kingdom. As soon as the crystal could absorb the core, the core could also be turned into a zeniths rune which meant the rune was the highest level of rune.

There were different types and levels of runes, for low level runes you had to feed it with some of your magika constantly for it to be able to work. For others, you could just give it some magika to store and it would work only when needed without taking any magika from anyone else. However, the dwarf had now uncover a rune which didn't require any magika from the caster or user. This new rune would use the core of the individual it was taken from and use the life essence and use it as magika. Just a few seconds of the life essence would be turned into high levels of magika, lasting for years when transferred into a rune. It was an intricate and grueling process but once accomplished, it was rewarding for years to come.

The great crystal was broken down into and distributed into 9 different items which were a Great sword, a Sword, a Bow, a Lance, a Scythe, Twin Daggers, a Staff, a Shield, and the Crown of the king. Each items were forgers with different and sturdy materials. Every single one of the items had immense power and attributes.

The king knew that the newly forge weapons should never end up in the wrong hands; therefore, they were only given to the most trusted members to the crown. The only members who were automatically entitled to one of the weapons were those born into the crown. Which as they grew, they had to train in a style of fighting that best suited their talents. It also meant they had to train tirelessly until they turned 15. Once turning 15, they had to choose one of the weapons they would be proficient enough to wield.

PRESENT:

What had just happened was unbelievable for any who knew of what the sword could do, the soldier stood in shock out of words.

"Is something the matter with your sword, my kind sir?" Silas said humorously.

"What!? How!? No, no, no, it must've been an illusion. There's no way it didn't work! You should be dead and core-less by now!" The soldier spouted angrily.

Everyone who had gathered around the great commotion the soldiers created gasped and showed concern and worry from what the soldier said, as well as Silas. He knew the sword was a rare item, a sword that could steal a core. He was intrigued by it, making it his new goal to obtain it no matter what.

The soldier got worried and decided to strike the man in-front of him once more. He ran as fast as he could, swinging his sword at Silas repeatedly. Silas tried to evade the swings however the soldier was too fast for him; yet it seemed that Silas wasn't receiving any major damage. Silas knew he had to step up his game if he was going to manage to obtain the sword. Silas jumped back in a flash while throwing himself up in the air, making the soldier to step back since he knew the man was about to counterattack.

As Silas was in the air, he broke the bracelets that obstructed the flow of magika in his body. As he had broken the bracelets, Silas' outfit suddenly changed into an all-black and red shendyt which fell on his lower waist, almost revealing the unholy land. The shendyt revealed each side of his upper leg and was made of different pieces of cloth, making it part like if it were long wide ribbons with the color being black on the waist and morphing red as it feel lower, turning into a beautiful umbrae. While a red blood belt rested on his waist, the belt has a one side rhombus like net connected to it. There was a huge knot of the shendyt keeping everything together, adorned and secured with a golden long and pointy things that looked like baby dragon teeth.

He had a black eye mask materializing on his face with red linings, while a scarf wrapped on his shoulders, the inner color of the fabric was black that matched Silas' hair with the outline of the fabric being a blood red. His hands were wrapped with red and black cloth while also altering his physical appearance. His hair growing in length almost reaching his knees. The last and most noticeable change was on his forehead, there was a royal blue crest. As he fell back down, a great black scythe appeared floating in place. The soldier was baffled by the sudden change of Silas' appearance.

Silas stepped forward and said, "If you wish to live give me the sword and I shall spare your lif…"

"As if me the prince of the dwarven kingdom ever admit defeat." The prince/soldier exclaimed.

"Ah, I see. I mustn't kill you since I rather not antagonize my master any further. However, I must procure that sword one way or another. Therefore…"

"Your master!? Are you just a slave of some sort!? You must serve Nosmirc! You shall die for invading my country!" The prince of the dwarf ran, ready to attack Silas.

"As you wish young stubborn prince."

The battle had begun once more, however, the young prince wasn't able to touch Silas this time. Everyone saw how Silas evaded each and every swing with ease. The young prince stopped since he had waisted all his stamina trying to strike Silas.

"Are you done throwing a tantrum boy?"

"Don't patronize me you human! How is it you are way faster now!? Answer me!"

"Give me your sword and I'll answer any question you have."

"Never! Soldiers, attack him!"

"If any of you wish to die attack me, I have no need for any of you and hold no true importance unlike the prince; therefore, if you come at me, you will die and you'll be able to serve my master."

All 16 soldiers rushed to attack Silas without thinking of the warning he had given them. As each and every soldier tried attacking Silas, he blocked all the strikes thrown at him with the black scythe. Suddenly they caught a glimpse of their weapons, they were all turning black and disintegrating rapidly.

"You should let them go if you don't want to die." Silas said unprecedented.

None of them listened to his warning, making the black corroding effect transfer to them as well. As each and every single one screamed in pain and begging for their lives, Silas looked at the prince and demanded for him to give him the sword unless he wanted the same thing to happen to him. Everyone who witness the terrible fate of the soldiers, ran screaming in horror.

"I will never give it to you! This is one of the 9 treasures of the kingdom! I will give my life to protec…." The prince yelled enraged however before he could finished talking, he saw how the face of the man in front of him changed into a curious and amassment one. He saw how his face seemed to be one of eternal lust which gave him a horrible feeling of worry.

"One of nine?!" Silas whispered excitedly, making his face morphed so much. His eyes opened so wide, and his smile grew so much that it looked inhumane.

The prince knew he had messed up by mentioning the other great treasures. He knew he couldn't give the name or locations of any of them. That would be consider treason and bring shame on his family.

"Where are they? No, what are they? No, no, what can they do? They must be like your sword. I still haven't figured out what it does, but I know it's a powerful sword, one of a kind. So, tell me…" Silas spoke rapidly.

"I'd rather die than tell you anything!"

"Die huh… know there are worst things than death boy."

"Nothing can be worse than death, nothing!"

"Is that so? Master, would you please show this boy what I mean" Silas turned to look at Orazen.

Orazen felt conflicted and confused at what Silas had asked him to do. Yet, he knew it could be something related to his necromancer class. Therefore, he closed his eyes and tried to focus just like Silas had when he animated the dwarven skeletons.

"dwelling of spirits has been activated"

Suddenly, everything and all the buildings around Orazen turned into different shades of blue with continuous glittering sparkles falling down from the sky. Orazen was astonished from how beautiful everything seemed when suddenly, he noticed several translucent figures in front of him. They seemed to be all the soldiers Silas had killed. As he got closer to them, a voice caught his attention.

"Hello, I am Akira… I have been entrusted with the task of helping you understand each and every skill you acquire. As also to walk you through on choosing a proper summon or help you bring a soul back to the mortal realm. By the way, welcome, you've entered the dwelling of spirits. The dwelling of spirits, as you may know by now, lets you interact, find, look, or see any who have died and are in the process of disappearing from this world permanently."

"Umm, I'm sorry for interrupting but can we do this another time? I'm kind of in a hurry."

" As you wish… what could I do for you? "

"I just need to bring all of these 16 individuals with me"

"I see, you can only keep an unofficial summon temporarily in the mortal realm. For any and each unofficial summon, the host must give in exchange 5,500 magika per summon. That would equal 88,000 in total. At this moment, the host has 310,000 magika Available "

"Wait, what? Why so much! Would I have enough to summon all of them at once or should I just summon one or..."

" At this moment the host has a total of 310,000 magika Available. "

"Why do I have such high levels of magika if I'm just level 1?"

"The host has leveled up by defeating several enemies. This could have been accomplished either by you or your summon. The experience you've acquired has been from defeating a Lv. 25 Midrybo, Lv. 11 Soldier, Lv. 15 Soldier, Lv. 12 Soldier, Lv. 10 Soldier, Lv. 11 Soldier, Lv. 14 Soldier, Lv. 10 Soldier, Lv. 11 Soldier, Lv. 11 Soldier, Lv. 15 Soldier, Lv. 13 Soldier, Lv. 12 Soldier, Lv. 11 Soldier, Lv. 15 Soldier, Lv. 10 Soldier, Lv. 13 Soldier. Due to this, the host has variously leveled up and has regained full status in any and all attributes. In addition, every time the host gains a level, 10,000 magika points are rewarded to you. Therefore, the host Orazen Kovalyov has risen to Lv. 22 and has a total of 310,000 MP. Would the host like to summon all 16 dwarven soldiers?"

"Oh, uh, yes please!"

As Orazen finished giving his answer, a purple and blue-like flames grew rapidly from Orazen's hands. The young prince gave worried look, not knowing what was happening. Suddenly, a chill ran down his spine. Flames emitted by Orazen transferred to the ground, making every brick shake uncontrollably. Before anyone knew, the bricks had turned into dust and made every light around them flicker while slowly losing its brightness and the strong winds harassing any who were near. The only thing keeping the street illuminated was Orazen's spell. Silas knew what his master was capable of, however, he wasn't expecting what his master had just done.

As the harsh and uncontrollable winds came to an end, the young prince looked towards a group of people and as he looked up, his eyes were met with some kind of moving corpses. Their faces where unrecognizable, they seemed to be in a state of decomposition. Their eyes replaced with a round torques light and yet, there was something oddly familiar about them; along with the fact that they were all wearing dwarven armor.

"As you can see child, there's worst things than death." Silas said with pride.

The prince looked at Silas and the undead soldiers. The prince started hyper ventilating, as he realized the undead soldiers were his dead brethren and not being able to make heads or tails out of what had just happened.

"No, no, no! wha… wha… wh… what kind of ma… ma… magi… magic is that!? No, no, no it isn't possible!"

"Just do as Silas says. Please, I really don't want to hurt you. Please, just do as he says and I promise you, we'll let you go." Orazen says.

"Ho… how dd… dare yo… you… you tttt… a… talk ttt… t… to mmm… mm… me you ha… haha… hafling pp… p… pi… pigg! Wh… ho… whoo… Who are you?"

As the dwarven prince said, Silas released an immense shock of aura, making the prince roll back from the force.

"You worm! How dare you call my master that! I have tried reasoning with you, but now you shall die for your insolence!" Silas shouted, enraged from what the prince had said as he walked towards the dwarf on the floor. With each step, Silas made the ground shuck while making the bricks crack. Meanwhile, dwarven soldiers from every part of the capital were approaching them with the outmost hazed along with the king. Every citizen was ordered to evacuate the area.

The king was informed that three individuals had enter the capital by some form of teleportation. The king felt worried since no one was allowed to enter the capital by any means of teleportation unless it was authorized by him.

It was a decree that all nations had regarding the capitals. Even if anyone decided to ignore the decree, every nation had taken measures to insure no one could teleport in or out of any capital. Each nation had either a barrier or items/gadgets to prevent any from doing so. Yet, someone had been able to break through the nation known for their high-end revolutionary technology. The dwarven kingdom would lose a great part of their respect and power over other countries. This was something that should never leave their territory. Therefore, the king sent the strongest and most powerful force in there nation.

He sent the Frotlish Battalion, it comprised of 55 dwarfs with the highest skill and most powerful of the dwarven race. Within the 55, there was only one carrying a legendary weapon. However, the king had seen it fit to accompany the Frotlish Battalion.

As the battalion were approaching towards Orazen, Silas, and Lorelay, Silas was about to do something that would make them into enemies of the dwarven kingdom. Silas kept approaching the prince while resummoning his scythe, however, this time it seemed different. The scythe had a blue glow-like trying to escape the black and ominous veneer of darkness that surrounded it. Once in-front of the prince, Silas swung his scythe to strike him when he heard a few words in a distance. As Silas approached the prince, Silas swung his scythe to strike him, but then heard a few words in a distance.

"Moradin, God of creation, earth, good, law, and protection, aid me in my time of need. Shield and protect my son, prince Radinom, heir to the crown. Help us defeat our foes with our fist and might. Send your divine protection on each and every single one of your humble servants to overcome our enemies!"