To show secrets that you don't see with the characters.
To show the characters in their full glory.
Yep. It's just like it's says.
Also a few notes:
Some of the backstorys are intentionally vague for story reasons. They only cover very important plo...
This story, is in many ways, a sneak peak to a future story that will occur later on the timeline of my stories. This scene will take place at some point during the present day where magic and beasts exist. This is also the story about remnants of Ru'uan, both dragon berserkers and heroes, adapting to a world that has continued on without their assistance. And with Nihil's armies seeping back into their world, they have to pick up their weapons and fight for something they don't even recognise. But the beings from the void have other ideas....
Anyway, enough from me. Let's let our king of shadows take centre stage. And let him tell the tale that is his.
Take centre stage, Jacob Lycan.
I was never destined to become the host of Viper. Hell, I was meant to be the host of Flouren; the Titan beast of the winds. Created by the billowing wings of Protis when he fought Aquarias at the start of time. I was meant to be his host after my father died and then become the Lord of Falconclaw in place. It was my uncle, Joshua Lycan, to be the host of Viper and keep the hydra from driving the world insane with his influence at bay.
If only had been the case, then maybe I would have died alongside my friends when Nihil's armies bled once again into my world and they fought with everything they had and died for what they believed in. Legends they became, tales told for all of time, representation of what we should be; while I faded from legends, becoming a figure of abstract myth. I didn't mind, and so my name faded from the books, scrolls, walls and slates of humanity as they grew accustomed to the absence of magic that we had relied on for so long. Sparta became what they would refer to the United States of America. O'kallis would transform into Germany, picking up the odd accents of O'kallis with it. The dragon isles that the Dragon Berserkers had thrived on became what was known as the British Isles. The world morphed and changed that it almost became unrecognisable to many who survived. And I retreated into the shadow realm, where I would watch the world develop and change while I kept the shadows that Nihil had used to plague the world at bay with my own subjects. And there I waited and kept careful tabs and vigilance on both Hollow's kingdom and the current state of Nihil's bonds that kept him sealed away from both my realm and so many others. That's how it remained, for what seemed like eternity to me. Countless years I spent in my throne room, waiting in the hall that was built into one of the various mountains that dotted the landscape of the realm I occupied.
Until recently, something happened to Nihil's bonds. Whether someone summoned him or broke his bonds I do not know; but what I do know now is that everything that my friends, my brothers and sisters-in-arms had given up everything up for was now in vain. And with the breaking of Nihil's bonds, armies of vampires started using my realm as a way to travel far distances without using their wings or feet. Though I wasn't happy with this, I wasn't going to stop them. I made my presence known, a few skirmishes and ambushes here and there but not his that would have caused major damage at least in my mind. But recently more concerning things had come to mind and ears; a war that was taking several hundreds of realms and possibly even multiverses. Then pieces clicked into place and I balled my fist in an all to familiar yet distance emotion that I hadn't felt in what seemed like centuries: anger.
And that is where this little tale starts, in the dark silent plains of the shadow realm. Well I say silent.
The thuds of marching feet were all too familiar to me at this point. Then the heavy ebony doors of my hall swung open, revealing the accursed form of one of Knightfall's vampire lieutenants, something that seemed to be a running thing among my lands recently. I reluctantly looked up with my one revealed eye, my expression emotionless and Trechares yang impaled into the ground. He was strong looking for his size, quite small compared to many of the others I had seen in the recent months. I winced as I sat up, vertebra and joints clicking as I did. "What do you beings want now?" I asked, voice cold and as emotionless as ice. "King of the shadows, the emperor of vampires has demanded that you take a side in this conflict. You and the world cannot simply remain neutral in this conflict." I rolled my eyes, cracking my neck as my shadow soldiers materialised from the darkness. "Who said that we couldn't? I don't remember ever being told that. Especially since I don't take orders from underlings." I replied, maybe a bit of malice had been sprinkled into it. The vampire snarled, pointing at me and chattering in their language; probably orders since the troop he had following him started to charge at me full speed. I growled loudly, giant clawed hands that were covered in grey scales erupting out of shadows and grappling the vampires into the ground. They growled and screeched as they attempted to claw at the hands with contempt; the soldiers I had summoned made themselves known slamming their claws into the ground as their eyes glowed into a distinct purple colour. They let out a gnarled and ancient roar, like something you would hear in one's taunting nightmares.
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They held the general down, their gnarled blade like claws as white as bleached bones in the desert sun. He struggled against their combined weight but was having no luck on moving or trying to get away. I stood up, hearing my heavy raven black cloak hit the ground as I stood up from the jagged throne that I sat on for the countless of thousands of years watching humanity from the depths of the shadow realm that I had long ruled. I walked up to him, my footsteps sending echos away from me like ripples in water. I walked up to him, eyes staring down in contempt and anger.
"It seems like Knightfall has taken my mercy to be cowardice. I'm offended. I let you people to use the very land I rule as your bridge into combat. Remind me, how many of my friends, how many Ru'uanians, how many of my blood and my kind gave up their lives to help seal away the the shadow demon? That you fools have now recklessly release him not expecting something to retaliate or at least react; did you?" I asked, hearing the multiple seething voices of Viper reverberate with my own. His face seemed to drop in fear; eyes widening, body shaking, sweat beading on his forehead, pupils dilating all things that I knew were effects of my alliance with Viper and being his host. "Tell your emperor of vampires that he's made a bitter mistake and that I will not fight with him or against him. And if he seeks to make a pact with me." I closed my fist over Techares Yang. One of the vampires let out a screech of unbearable pain as it was crushed by one of the grey clawed hands. "He will find no allies here. Nor tolerance to not stab you or the emperor of mankind. Only pain among the shadows. Now BEGONE!" I shouted, as the shadows dispersed into the darkness. He nodded as he and the vampires he had brought fled out of the doors and slammed them shut behind them.
And one again, I was among darkness. Like I had been for thousands of years.
