Warcraft Fan Fiction ❯ Bloodstained Shadows - Chronicles of a Lost Soul ❯ Memories of the Twilight - Chapter 10 ( Chapter 26 )

Chapter 10:

 

 

I've never found out why the Dreadlord had suddenly fled in fear of his life leaving me behind. Yet I have to admit I didn't really care about the 'why', the only thing I was thinking of was the fact that this whole situation showed me how careless and weak I still was. I left the Shen'dralar only minutes after waking up. Those elves were just crazy, nothing more and nothing less.

After returning to the Undercity on the back of my new mount, I started studying whether there were ways how I could grow stronger. I spent several days in the library without finding anything. During those days I met Calystea once, but I just ignored her. She was close to tears, she still didn't know what went wrong with our friendship. I have no idea if she has ever found out.

In times of resting I thought more and more about the virtues of the Forgotten Shadow. Just to think about it. What characterizes a god? Strength and immortality! Soon I realized that if you believed the Forgotten Shadow immortality would be a side effect if you reached a certain level of power. I still wasn't sure if they really meant true immortality or only something like a name that becomes immortal, that you will never be forgotten or something similar. After all, fame was of no interest to me.

I soon came to the conclusion that there would be no way to grow stronger in Azeroth, fortunately the military expeditions to the outlands were rather well organized and would offer me several possibilities to grow stronger there. I heard rumours that there were areas where you could really see the nether flowing around you. I also found a chapter in a book that explained the function of cloth infused with magic. A robe or another piece of clothing produced like this would be able to enhance the magic potential by a large extend.

This was the only thing I actually found out so I had no other choice but to go to the Dark Portal in the Blasted Lands. But my plans would soon change.

I left the Undercity with my felhunter by my side and took a zeppelin to Stranglethorn. From there I travelled north, through Duskwood. The little human settlement was of no interest to me, I just wanted to pass through without fighting, but everyone who attacked me, of course, paid with their lives for their foolishness.

I turned to the east and headed for the Deadwind Pass and the Swamp of Sorrows, from there I would have the possibility to go south into the Blasted Lands.

I already could see the portal from a great distance, the crater around it was large. I felt huge demonic energies in these lands. I came to the conclusion they came from the portal, but I soon found out that my senses fooled me. It did not come from the portal, but from an area further to the south. I wondered who or what was emitting these large amounts of fel energy. According to my map there was an almost unexplored area named `the Tainted Scar`.

Thoonum expressed his concern about us heading there. I didn`t listen to him, I just yelled at him that he should remain quiet and started making my way towards this scarred part of the land.

This was the first time when I completely rejected the opinion of one of my demons. Although the Tainted Scar was a rather large area on the map, something was drawing me to its northern end.

The whole area was festered with demons, felhunter of different seizes, felguards accompanying them.

I tried to avoid them as good as I could.

I reached the place that I was drawn to rather fast. It was an old altar. Behind it there stood a large statue of a hooded man holding a sword. The eyes of the statue were glowing in a faint orange. Two chains, one to the left and one to the right connected it with two blocks of stone. Old runes of a strange language were carved into them.

The altar itself was about as tall as I was and also chained to the ground, for whatever reason, human skulls were piled all around it. I approached the structure on the back of my dreadsteed, my felhunter following in a distance. He was actually scared of this place.

As I came close I saw a man kneeling in front of the statue with the glowing eyes. He seemed rather old. The moment he saw me he got up to his feet and drew nearer to me.

“Obviously... you are far away from your home...“

I didn`t know if that old man wanted to scare me but it didn`t work, he also talked rather quietly and calmly. I asked him what this place was. He told me this part of the land was the former dwelling of the demon lord Kazzak and the altar behind him was built by his own hands. He was an old warlock that achieved most of the things one could want if you sought for power. He looked at me and assured me that I was already incredibly strong, yet... he told me that I would not be able to even scratch him with a single spell of mine. Hearing this made me furious, but he knew the likes of people like me as he said, he would offer me help in enslaving a doomguard of Kazzaks legions, because my minions were to weak.

I listened to the things I would have to do carefully, that would have meant a lot of travelling again. Yet the last thing he said made me turn down the offer, at least for the moment.

He had told me that the doomguard would not provide me with extra power because of its magical defence and the fact that it was barely enslaved and you would still have to beg that it followed your orders properly. That`s not what I wanted or needed right now.

The old man thought for a moment and came up with another offering for me. This was the moment when I first noticed it. He called himself warlock, but this guy had no demon pet.

He would show me something that would greatly enhance my power in turn for a favour. He made me curious, I wondered what this might be. I was willing to do everything in order to grow stronger. I also told him that, but he responded calmly that I shouldn`t say something like that so easily. And if I wanted to hear his offer, I would have to send my felhunter to the demonic realm for a while. I had no idea where this was leading to, but I wanted to know, so I dismissed my felhunter. No matter what the old geezer might have said, I was pretty sure about being able to defend myself if he would try to attack me.

After Thoonum had vanished, the old man started talking a bit easier. He told me his name was Daio.

What a strange warlock. Then he sat down next to a pile of skulls and looked at me. He warned me about what he would tell only a few moments later. That the progress could not be undone and I had to be really sure if I wanted to do this. And the old man told me that he would help me with doing it, but only if I decided quickly and only today. If I would return here on another day, he would not hold back and kill me immediately.

That man couldn`t scare me away, no matter what he would say. I just nodded and waited for him to go on.

He then told me about an old ritual used by the warlocks of the Shadow Council. But this technique was soon banished because the cultists became too strong and the ones in charge lost control over them. A warlock can highly increase his strength and vitality by releasing the energy bound in the demonic pet he controls and taking it up into his own body. The demon is like an energy reserve for the warlock and with this spell you unleash this energy.

In this ritual you kill your own demon. Once it is dead, you receive powers according to the nature of the creature.

“And all I want from you... is the blood that is spilled onto my altar.“

I silently stood there thinking about the offer. At first everything inside of my head screamed that I should just forget about this all, but something kept me from doing so. I thought about what had happened in Dire Maul, I thought about the words of Daio that I wouldn`t be able to hurt him at all and I thought about Calystea. I didn`t know what to do, but with every minute that passed I thought of this ritual as more appealing. It took a while, but eventually I agreed. I could remember how it felt after summoning the infernal for the first time and I wanted to feel something similar again.

I climbed onto the stone altar and Daio handed me a special dagger for the ritual, no demon would be able to withstand it.

What I can clearly say is that in the moment I took the dagger into my hands something died inside of me. Power was like a drug to me at that time. Having it feels tremendous, but the feeling soon starts to fade and then you want to feel it again and again. But each time the effect is not as great as it was before, so you want more and more.

I don`t regret what I did on that day. I would have come to such a point eventually sooner or later. But the words they all said before dying are still haunting me until today.

I started off with the imp. I kneeled down before summoning him, the dagger clutched in my right hand.

He squealed happily as he jumped through the portal.

“Erm... where aaaare we, maaaaster? You didn`t summon Pipfip for aaaa long time now.“ I didn`t answer him. I couldn`t say anything. I guess I remained quiet for the whole rest of the day from the moment on I was given the dagger. I looked at the imp with cold eyes.

“Whaaaa....“, the dagger pierced the chest of the little demon. A bright green fluid was dropping down the dagger and onto the altar.

“Archimtiros faramos...“

He spoke his last words in Eredrun, his eyes looking at me were filled with anger and maybe even hatred.

Something in my head screamed to stop, I yelled at myself that I had already made a great mistake that couldn`t be undone anymore. But ... now I already came this far. I did not want to stop. I was desperate.

I got up to my feet and summoned my voidwalker just after the body of my dead imp had disappeared into the twisted nether.

The blue demon stepped into this world without a single word. Actually, for one time he really seemed to like the place where we were.

As the blue bulb was looking around I closed my eyes and blindly stabbed Belmon in his big blue back. A viscous blue liquid started pouring out of the wound covering the altar as well as the dagger and a part of my robe.

“Toralar... amir tiros...“

His voice sounded as hollow as always.

I closed my eyes, regret was already creeping up to me. But I just kept telling myself I couldn`t stop here. Not after getting this far. I sacrificed two of my demons, if I didn`t go on I would be mocking them. What a wretched logic, but it convinced me to keep going.

I kneeled down again, the felhunter would be the next one.

Thoonum stepped out of the portal. He came towards me calmly. “I know what you want to do... I felt how two of your demons died only seconds ago... YOU WON`T FOOL ME!“ He yelled at me inside my head. “After all we have been through together... I saved your life several times, you cruel bastard!“

It was the first time that I heard him talk this way.

I drove the dagger through his neck upwards into his head.

“Toralar maev...“

Three of the demons I had fought for so hard had died by my own hands within only a few minutes. I had betrayed them. What had I done? I kneeled there in front of the corpse of my felhunter. The warlock besides the altar was growing impatient. Yelled at me that there was only one demon missing. And that I should keep on going, it was almost done.

I slowly stood up again. I had no idea how Darnys would react on summoning her. She could go on a frenzy the moment she was called to this realm.

I swallowed hard and summoned her. She came into this world her head hanging low. Then from one moment to another she came rushing towards me. My mind was filled with the fear that she already knew what I wanted to do to her. She flung her arms around me and embraced me. A tear dropping from her cheek onto my robe. I was so startled about her charging at me that I stabbed her immediately.

She looked at me with her eyes growing more and more blurry. Black blood was running down the edge of the dagger.

“X rethul shi..., xi ashj...“, she whispered to me as she tried to kiss me. But she collapsed beforehand.

She had died right in my arms.

I wanted to burst out in tears, but I couldn`t. I shed a single tear, ...the last one of my life.

I even thought of turning the dagger on myself, but I was too weak to do so either. I fell to my knees holding the body of Darnys until it vanished into the nether. I just kept kneeling and stared into the sky above me.

Daio looked at the whole scene for a while until he decided to break it up.

He told me that I could keep the dagger, it would do great as a magical weapon. He also told me that it would take some time for the body to be able to make use of the overflowing energy I could control from now on. Little did he know. I already felt the effects of the sacrifice. I felt how limitations vanished in collecting energy for a spell.

The sacrificing of my four demons altered me in many ways. The death of my imp largely increased the amount of energy I could use for any type of fire magic and made me able to create demonic fire at the blink of an eye now. Thanks to my voidwalker my lifespan was dramatically increased as well as the ability to resist shadow magic and I also received the power to drain life from opponents. Darnys granted me strength concerning the shadows and the power to inflict pain to a target at will when I touched it. And after the death of my felhunter I became able to feel the magic inherited in other beings as well as to drain it from them. All these effects would last until I died.

Everything kicked in rather early. I could sense how strong Daio was from the moment on where he told me that I could keep the dagger. It was clear he couldn`t estimate how strong I had already grown only a few minutes after the ritual.

I looked at the old man with merciless eyes. By then I also understood what he meant with the sentence that I was not able to even scratch him, but now this had clearly turned around to my favour.

I looked at him wanting more. I wanted gratification for killing off my demons.

He then told me on his own that he needed the blood because he wanted to fuse with a demon to become one himself.

But knowing this wouldn`t satisfy me. I jumped down from the altar pointing with the dagger at the old man. Whatever he was thinking, he clearly underestimated me.

“Gul kar maev shi rikk amir xi no, kanrethad daz amir!“ , I yelled at him.

I thought about giving him a chance at first, but I knew this would not be enough to calm myself down. I wanted him dead.

Hatred became my strongest weapon since that day.

Daio was killed within only a few seconds.

Not even a scratch? Pathetic...

I left nothing of him behind that could be identified.

I fastened the dagger to my belt and left this area.

I didn`t know where I should go, but definitely not a larger city nor the Outlands.

I just wanted to be alone for a while and think. Ironically enough that I was alone for most of the time. But every time I met someone either myself or the other person was hurt. So I would chose the life of a lone wolf... at least for the moment.