The Shattered God

Chapter 2

Castle Gangrene

Castle Gangrene was built on a mountain that oversaw the entire city of Hermes by Lord Xerxes Bismarck over a thousand years ago. He started life as a peasant but gradually rose in power due to his cunning nature and exceptional skills in war which lead to the realm of men successfully repelling the armies of non-humans that tried to take the city. Due to it being on the very edge of the Realm of Men and by proxy almost always the target of various attacks, the city and its inhabitants had become hardened and had lacked certain morals and had a darker view on the world. The city of Hermes was the first major line of defense against everything that wanted humanity dead, it has been defended by the mountains and the Bismarck family for generations. Its in this very castle that we find covered in shadows, James Bismarck; the last surviving heir of Tobias Bismarck sitting on a throne and there before him kneeling on one knee, was the cloaked figure that threw the knives at Karito in the forest. It stayed in the kneeling position with its hooded head facing the ground until Bismarcks voice came from the shadows;

"I assume you have completed the task?" he questioned.

"Yes my lord" the figure responded with a raspy voice, "My daggers impaled his chest and he fell, but he used a portal to escape."

Silence reigned in the room for a while before the shadows grew larger and wrapped around the figure twisting around him and lifted him into the air while a tendril hovered in the air waiting for a command. As the figure struggled against the shadow tendrils, Bismarck spoke up; "If he escaped, then how is the mission complete?"

"I got him in the chest my lord, and I watched him fall. Even if he escaped, he should have bled out from the knives and he was still weak from the torture my lord." The figure replied as the shadows kept him suspended in the air trying to make his lord see reason. Bismarck kept silent for a while before the shadow tendril that was hovering wrapped itself around the figures neck slowly tightening itself until it left the figure gasping for air.

"I find your half assed work disgusting, but none the less you have served your purpose. Goodbye."

The shadow tightened and a snapping sound was heard as the figure stopped moving, a group of shadows formed under the body becoming liquid in nature before they loosened up and let the figures prone form fall into the pool of shadows. As the body slowly sank into the shadows, Bismarck pondered his next move before an idea surfaced in his head.

"Beli-Ola, I have need of you." His voice rang through the seemingly empty hall before a figure dropped down from the rafters and landed on the ground cracking it with his weight. He straightened himself and knelt down on one knee before Bismarck. "My lord. Beli-Ola answers your summons." Beli-Ola told him while keeping his head down and watching the body drown in the shadow pool.

"Beli-Ola, do you still have the assassins scent?"

"Yes my lord."

"Good. Find him, and bring me his head"

"As you wish, my lord." With that, Beli-Ola stood up and walked out of the room leaving Bismarck alone with his shadows and the still sinking body.

The Fighters Pit

In Hermes, there were various forms of entertainment; most blood related, but none was for famous than The Fighters Pit. It originally started out as a form of execution in which two criminals would fight to the death for the amusement of the public, the winner would gain the right to live until the next fight, and if they ran out of criminals the they would then execute the survivor. Gradually, people started placing bets on the winner of each match, and soon the pits grew larger and more organized until it changed from a pubic form of execution to a public form of entertainment and execution. The fighters were mostly composed off criminals but the occasional slaves and civilians could be found among their ranks due to being sold to pay off debt or looking for a way to make money.