16 years later...
Since the disappearance of Lucius, everyone has started looking for him in every corner of the castle and the surrounding area but no trace except that they found Lucius' creature, Dead a few meters from the shore. Betty had her husband's creature buried in the cemetery where all the Calaways are buried with their creature in front of their grave. For 16 years, Betty's son has become another man, he can't smile, no more emotion passes on his face.
During his coronation, he renamed himself Undertaker, everyone had to call him that now, his mother refuses to call him that. He was tired of everyone taking him as his father, an ignoble monster who killed people in cold blood. Even though he changes his name, he has the blood of a Calaway, a bloodline power.
The first time his dark form appeared was on a full moon night, he started aching all over and spider legs came out of his back, very dark black eyes obscured the green color of his eyes, sharp teeth. He couldn't even control his emotions and actions, he killed more than 20 people. Only Markus can stop him, his creature enveloping him in a thick spider's web, suspended 30 feet off the ground, with Markus hiding to watch him.
~!~
Taker is in his room, looking out the window at the horizon, his hands behind his back dressed in his big black dress. Taker has been changing physically for some time, he has been building muscle, running and lifting heavy bags, he has tattoos up and down his arms, long black hair with a goatee as a beard making his appearance more demonic. Several of his allies said he looked like the first Calaway with this look.
His gaze rests on the village of his court, at the beginning of his reign, he removed certain rules that his father put and made change in the castle. He built houses, shops, farms in the fortress for humans who have no place to live. At first, the humans weren't too sure about trusting him, but Taker was able to earn their trust.
The door of his room opens and Betty, his mother, enters, her face marked with wrinkles due to old age, her gray hair but the love for her son has not changed despite his change of behavior and his curse. She walks over to her son who is still with his back to her, looking out the window, putting her arms around his son's arm, Taker looks beside him and sees his mother. "Why don't you go out for some fresh air?" She asks her son, Taker turns his attention to the window. Betty smiled sadly when her son didn't answer her. "I know what you're thinking Mark. You want to find your father but you have to come to terms with the idea that he's dead." She says calmly but Taker remains silent, watching the children playing outside on this sunny day.
He knows his father is not dead, he can feel it. During all these years, with each battle he fought, he hoped to find his father but in vain. Until he saw his father's body with his own eyes, he wouldn't believe his father was dead. "I'm going to feed Markus." He said leaving his room, leaving his mother.
~!~
Taker goes to the creature food supply, picking up a large bag of meat and bags of blood before heading into the forest. He walks a few minutes before arriving at the place where all the creatures are. He deposits the bags near the hole where Markus is normally but no spider. Taker frowned and looked around, he saw more creatures of some soldiers but not Markus on the horizon. Suddenly, he feels something behind him, feels the sound of leaves cracking as if something heavy has landed behind him. He dodges the paw that was going to hit him in the waist, turns around then dodges Markus' attacks before casting a thunder spell with Markus wrapping the thunder ball in a web of spiders and throwing it back at Taker too quickly that he failed to dodge.
Taker gets knocked to the ground as Markus stands on top of him and watches. Taker catches his breath looking at his creature then smiles. "You..you got me. Well done" he said before getting up, brushing the dust off his heavy coat.
Markus and Taker walk over to the food bags then give a piece of meat to Markus who takes his meat between his paws while Taker sits on a log that has recently been cut.
~!~
After feeding Markus, he goes to leave when Markus takes Taker in his paws to wait. "What's the matter?" He asked trying to free himself from his paws but Markus holds him and backs him up to a path that leads to the forest. Taker looks deep into the forest, seeing nothing on the horizon, maybe his creature heard something. He watches the other creatures watching where Markus wants Taker to go. "You heard what?" He asked looking at him, Markus looks worried about his behavior, someone needs help. Taker rides on Markus' back and his creature takes him deep into the forest.
Taker sees from afar what he looks like two men racing with creatures, a young woman. "Let's go Markus." He said before Markus quickly followed the girl's attackers.
~!~
The blonde girl runs as fast as she can, she is panicked. Scratches all over her body, torn clothes, her blonde hair is stained with blood. She stumbled on a hill and fell, she recoiled in fear watching the soldiers slowly walk towards her, looking at her smiling. "You are not going to escape an agonizing death, my dear." Said one of the soldiers not realizing he is alone, he raises his hand to her pulling her hair as she cries begging not to kill her. "Come on creatures she's a.." He stopped talking when he turned around and saw...nobody.
He looks around him but does not see his colleague and the creatures, he feels a dark presence near them. He puts the young woman in front of him, holding her firmly when he sees a man, dressed in a heavy coat, the hood hiding his face, his hands are full of blue goo liquid, the blood of creatures and human blood. The soldier didn't have time to ask the question where they are his allies when the heads of the two creatures and his allies fell from above. The soldier looked at the man in surprise as he didn't move, only his hands behind his back, looking him in the eyes with a smile then lifted his head and gave a loud shout.
The girl runs away from the diehard soldier's arms as Markus grabs him and eats him. She sits down holding her ankle which turns blue, when she sees the man advancing towards her, she slowly backs away in fear. Those eyes...that look... she thought. Taker approaches her, squats in front of her, looks at her ankle. He puts his hands on her ankle checking if it's not broken, he sees that she has fear in her eyes, he tries to be as reassuring as possible knowing that she must probably know who he is.
"Everything is fine now, I'm not going to hurt you, trust me..." He reassured, the ankle is not broken but she has a sprain, she will need cold on her ankle.
He wraps his hand around her ankle and his hand gets cold, which is good for the woman with a really bad ankle. After a few seconds, her ankle was better but she is still wary of this man because she knows who he is. "Where are you from?" He asked seeing her with a simple white dress a little torn, barefoot. She has blond hair stained with blood, her thin face with her magnificent purple eyes. Seeing that she doesn't answer, still not confident to talk to her, Taker gently takes her hand to lift it, he takes off his black coat to put it on the girl's shoulders. "You have nothing to fear" he said in a deep and soft voice.
"Where is your village? where are you from?" He asked looking at her. Why is she afraid? she knows him, she knows the history of this man's family but there are rumors about this man in front of her. But on the one hand, this man saved her life, a Calaway saved her life, she wants to trust him. "I..I come from the village which is a few miles from here..I..I want to go back..to..to save my family." She says hesitantly, Taker looks at Markus walking towards them. It's Markus, the famous creature. she thought.
"I think it would be dangerous for you to go back there, you will be safer in my village." he suggests, without having time to say anything, she gets lifted by Taker to sit on Markus' back. Taker gets behind her before Markus walks towards the castle. It's the first time she's climbed on a creature, she puts her hands on the hairs of Markus' back gently, touched a creature, a spider and especially Markus, it's weird but soft to the touch. "What is your name?" He finally asked Taker who is sitting behind her, his hands on her knees. "I..my name is..Diana..Majesty" She says, Taker looks at her without saying anything then looks at the horizon seeing that they are almost there.
~!~
Arriving at the bridge leading to the castle, Diana and Taker descend from Markus' back before crossing the bridge leading to the main gate of the castle. Diana is behind Taker looking around, impressed with how big Calaway's fortress is. A village, a farm, animals and at the far end of the fortress, the immense castle of the Majesty. There are people like her who live in the village and they seem to be happy here, they all bow when the majesty passes in front of them without any fear. She follows Taker to a house that seems uninhabited. "This is your home, don't hesitate to take a walk in the fortress but don't walk out of the fortress." He said before leaving but she held him by the arm, Taker frowned, not liking to be touched, looking back enough to watch her. "Thank you Majesty" She said sincerely, her eyes shining with tears, grateful that he was not like all his ancestors as she had read. Seeing that he looked bothered that he was being touched, she removed her hand from his arm. "Call me Taker like everyone else does." He said in a deep voice before leaving.
~!~
Taker returned with Markus to the village where the girl lived. Seeing the thick, black smoke in the sky, he knew he wasn't far away. He descends from Markus' back before continuing on foot, he enters the village, looking around in case there are enemy soldiers left here but nothing. Just fire, blood, corpses. There seems to be no survivors, Markus walks behind his master but the creature is attracted by a noise coming from one of the destroyed houses.
He looks behind him when he hears a noise and sees Markus trying to enter a house, he looks intrigued. Taker walks over to him, patting his paws on the right side one by one to calm him down before walking through the door. He stops when he sees a man crawling towards the wall to stay away from the door, staring at Taker and Markus.
The man in his 50s appears to be in poor condition, with minor facial injuries, a deep right side injury. "You..." the man said, recognizing the man standing in front of him with his cold stare. "Can you stand up?" Asked Taker crouching down in front of the injured man, the man tries to sit up. "Yeah I think so." He said trying to get up with the help of the Majesty. He looks at the man in front of him, he is not dreaming, it is a Calaway who stands in front of him and helps him.
This Calaway is not like the others, he tolerates humans, he has heard so many good things about him but always beware of a Calaway. "Have you... have you seen my daughter? tell me, she's alive, she's blonde, her eyes are purple. please... She's the only one I have left... "He almost cries, Taker helps him out of the house, ignoring what this man says. Markus ducks down to make the man climb easier, Taker climbs up behind the man before looking around one last time before leaving.