#darkness demon

I woke in my rented room and walked casually down to the eating area of the tavern and smiled easily. I was unused to being alone on journeys or adventures, but I had grown somewhat accustomed to being alone quickly. I mean i wasn’t technically alone, i had my familiars, but they were a sleepy pair. They rested on my hip in their gourd shape and I left them there. I walked down the stairs smoothly so as not to cause them to bump around to much and sat at a table. A server came quickly and I told him what I wanted. I paid him in advance and sent him off to get the food they were serving for breakfast. It turned out to be some kind of soup with a bread that was so soft that you could mold it into another shape, but I was assured it was cooked and edible as it was. I smiled at the soft stickiness of the bread and slowly began to take a spoonful of soup to my lips. Been a Long while since i ate anything in the astral. I hadn’t thought about it until the moment I spilled the soup onto my tongue. It was good, but definitely not as tasty nor filling as the food i was used to with my guard.

I stoped eating a moment and shook my head. He wasn’t my guard anymore. He guarded who I was, not who I am. The person I am is so different than the person I was that even I believe them to be two different people. I tried to dull my thoughts of the matter by practicing spinning three orbs of darkness above my hand, letting them glide wherever they please inside the boundary.

“Hey! You!”

I turned to the person yelling and i recognized the person to be the being that owned the tavern. “I want you gone! Sign says no magic!” he yelled slapping the sign in question. I looked at the sign and immediately stopped my magic. I looked down at the food i’d barely touched. “May i ask to finish my meal before leaving?”

The demon grumbled at me and looked at the food. “Well it’s already been made. Eat and leave! Any more of that magic and the guards’ll be here.”

I nodded gratefully, but I heard the snickering of other beings in the hall from behind me. I turned back to my food and shrugged. I didn’t really care about what they thought. I lifted the spoonful of soup to my lips and tasted it for a moment before pulling the spoon out. Curiously the soup had found its way back onto the spoon despite the fact I clearly tasted it.

“Oh. What’s wrong? Can’t even eat properly?” I heard someone snicker to my left and my first thought was “Why is this even a thing?” I turned to the group of three and see a being grinning at me victoriously. When he blinks his eyelids come from the bottom up. taking a closer look at him i saw a second, clear, set of eyelids sit over his eyes. He was some kind of water,or sea being. I sighed at his control over my soup. Seriously? Who does this shit?

“I have half a mind to just report you for the same thing I am going to be leaving for.”

The sea being snickered as did his friends. “For what? I don’t understand what you mean. There has been no magicking on my part. Just yours.”

I am not angry. Annoyed at him, Yes. I try to take in the soup again and I am stopped again. I take a deep breath, but I don’t like anybody getting between me and my food when i’m hungry. I turn to him again. “Stop. Now. I tire of your game.”

His face turned from a mocking smile to an annoyed glare. How dare I interrupt his fun with my meal. “You want me to stop fine.” he flicked his fingers and the bowl spills onto my lap and the soup in the spoon spills over onto me as well. “Oops.”

I stared in annoyance. How the fuck is there a dudebro in the astral? Like seriously. I grabbed the bread and stood up. I smiled tautly at him and he and his friends snickered. I felt the urge to sprout blades from inside their defenseless throats, but I didn’t. Instead I walked over to him and, before he could do anything, snatched up the bread from his meal and the two others and began walking outside.

They got up loudly knocking into their table.I deftly hide the breads in my sleeve shadow all except for my own while keeping it out of their view. They began to scream bloody murder about me being a thief, but the owner sees only the one loaf and yells at them for whining over some bread. They made after me to take matters into their own hands and practically skipped outside. There is a guard nearby. I smile. “There are three young ones that wish to challenge me in a contest of strength over trivialities. May I indulge them so that these trivialities can be drawn to a swift end?”

The guard looks at me and nods easily with a shrug. Wasn’t altogether an uncommon thing for beings to fight in D.D. lands. It was a way to relieve some stress. The three storm out almost upon his agreement and I turned to them with a smile. I take another bite of my bread and savor its soft and squishy texture. The stickiness comes from sweetness that reminds me of honey.

The three begin to start towards me and I reveled in the fact that the bread was delicious and spread through the palate easily before lifting my hand and creating chains of darkness that sprout from their shadows and bound them with ease. The water demon began shouting obscenities at me and merely smirk as I watched his growing uncomfort. The others joined him for a few sentences before they understood what was happening. They shouted at him to stop yelling, but he didn’t listen. He went on and the chains kept warming. Being stoked by the flames of his own anger. The more angry he got the hotter the chains would burn. He started wincing in pain at the heat and shouting challenges and beratement that only encouraged the chains to burn hotter.

I smiled at the guard and broke off a piece of bread for him. He took the small morsel and popped it into his mouth. “I love this stuff.” he muttered with a smile. “Teaching him a lesson?” he asked muffled by the sticky bread.

I nodded. “He lets his pride get the best of him. Don’t even know him well enough to speak on friendly terms, but he thought to enchant my soup and spill it over me for his own amusement.”

The guard looked offended. “What? Did you even get to mix the two?” he asked pointing at the bread. I wonder what that has to do with anything, but I shook my head. “You missed the best part of the meal then! Little rascals deserve what they get.” He walked off immediately and disappeared into the inn. The three on the floor look in astonishment as the guard passed them without a word about their situation. I smirk at their surprise and I am compelled to ask. “Is this your first time in the D.D. domain?”

One of them says yes, while the loudmouth writhes in anger and curses at me again and the guard for doing nothing. I burst out laughing. “I see i’m doing this all wrong then. Let me show you how things Really are here.”

I let up the chains and in an instant they are all on their feet. The loudmouth bares his fangs and claws and charges forward without a second thought. He lunges and side-step him before kicking him harshly in the stomach. He gets the wind knocked out of him and i grab his arm that he’s holding out feebly to keep me at bay. I wonder how soft his bones are since he is aquatic in nature and with some allocation of pressure i found out how much is needed to break them. Not much at all. He wanted to cry out, but the air had not returned to his lungs to do so. I let his arm go and punched him harshly. His jaw crumples easily and he falls to the ground unconscious.

“Poison gland.” I heard U.D. tell me and i am confused for a moment before it dawns on me and I made a knife to slice into his jaw. The blood the slipped out of the wound was red and spotted with a black-greenish liquid that I could only assume to be poison. Well there’s a bad thing about having a poison gland in your face.

I shrugged and looked at the two others who had been laughing before. I oh so wanted to beat their faces in similarly, but the guard came back and sighed with disappointment. “Over already? These little rascals didn’t even stand a chance.” I noticed he had a bowl in his hand. It is full of the soup. “You three get going.” he said while waving them off and then turned to me. “Here. Try it with some of this.” The two other picked up their leader and bolted off with him and I distinctly heard laughing as they passed by other darkness demons on the street who could all tell what happened.

He lifted his hand and a small orb of the liquid lifts out of the bowl. I noticed he was only using a thin film of darkness. just enough to hold the liquid without spilling any, but so thin I barely recognized it was there. I wondered if i ever had as much control over my power as this guard did over his.I was about to dip the bread, which would be better called dough, but he shook his head. “No you wrap the (sweet dough) around it!”

I realized that making the small connection in my own head switched some of how i interpreted him. I did as he said and immediately the dough began soaking it up and designs on the dough began to form. Spirals, star patterns, and curving lines all formed. I looked at it with interest before popping it into my mouth to enjoy. Somehow the dough and soup merged to become gel-like and squealed in delight at the flavor. Mouthgasmic.

“Sweet fucking damn that was good!” I moan out and the guard looks happy and slightly confused by my words. “I’ll give you half, if you give me one of the (sweet doughs) you took from the rascals.”

I blushed slightly at being caught. “You were watching huh?”

He nodded. “Since you were called out for using your magic in their. You didn’t really do anything worth getting you in trouble for, plus those three deserved what they got.”

I pulled out two doughs from my sleeve and handed him one and he smiled with delight as he pulled out another orb of soup and wrapped the whole dough around it. “Not supposed to be eating while on the job, so help me finish this and we’ll both be on our way without any trouble. I nodded and wrapped mine around the soup he shared with me. I watched as the whole dough went from plain beige to slowly having light brown designs come together as the liquid spread through it. The color of the designs reminded me of cinnamon sugar.  I smiled gratefully at him and we finished our breakfast together. He waved me off and then I continued on my adventure. I smiled at it and spent the next few hours walking along a road practicing my magic. I was determined to get as much control over my magic as the guard had over his.

I ended up giving the last sweet dough to my centipede familiars who had some difficulty at first with the stickiness, but after i broke it down into easy to swallow pieces for them they seemed to enjoy it. I was slightly saddened that i didn’t get to share the soup mixture with them, but that shit was too good to share. If i had soup enough for their dough i would’ve given it to them, but the one i had was for me.

I go on for a few hours before I see another town in the distance. I was a bit surprised by the closeness of the two towns, but I shrugged it off and quickened my pace a bit. I wasn’t too much farther away from the town when i heard a massive roar.

My instincts immediately kicked in and my armor was on, my familiars also immediately woke and wrapped themselves around my feet as greaves. I took off in the direction of the roar and I felt everything rushing by me. The greaves made me faster than i expected and they kept me unusually well balanced despite their light weight and bumpy exterior. I practically ran around the town to the other side before i saw the beast who was responsible for the commotion. Large, brown, wide and pissed off to all hell. Six pairs of thickly muscled legs and a hide that looks similar to leather or maybe elephant skin. It was flat along its top but that didn’t matter. It whipped around with the quickness of a lizard and gnashed at the people fighting it. They were set up in a formation and orders were being shouted out and followed quickly. More knights!

I skidded to a stop near the one shouting orders and they turned to me confused. “Get out of here! This is-”

The knight got cut off as I grabbed her and jumped upwards to avoid a swipe of the beast’s tail. We ended up somewhere in a tree. “Sorry. Thing was too fast to warn you about. Better to just get us both away.”

The knight nodded. “We need someone to help push it farther away from the town or pin it down. Think you can help?”

I nodded and she pulled my arm away and kicked off the tree to rejoin the fray. I smiled and leaped off the tree to join as well. The beast noticed me quickly, having swept aside most of the knights with its previous attack. It snarled and lunged at me with a wide mouth. “Hjukl nemas.” I felt my body charge with energy and I tried leaping backwards, and it was like i quick dashed in video games. I moved a set distance and felt myself stop abruptly in the air. “Hjukl nemal.”

Again the demonic words slipped out and i felt a spell circle empowering my next movement. I felt my familiars pulse with magic and the seal doubled before it launched my legs first into the beast and forced it sideways a couple of yards. My legs hurt from the impact, but the beast just looked annoyed at me. I didn’t do shit to it besides shift its body.

“Different approach.” I moved away from the beast and let the knights begin drawing its attention.  thought of a way to seal it almost immediately and set the plan into action. I began muttering the demonic words and syllables quickly and let the image of it form in my mind and then above the creature. Three black horseshoe fences, large enough to get around the creature’s girth, with deep spikes pointing inward to pin it in place and make sure it didn’t slip out. Once again I felt my familiars empower the magic and they crashed heavily onto the beast just after it spun around once more to push away more knights. The knight in charge looked back at me as finished the spell. The beast hissed angrily and i saw blood slipping down the gates. It saw the knights surrounding it, but i was gonna put it down. I began muttering a spell, one to create a piercing shard of darkness to kill it, but U.D. stopped the spell before i could get far. “No. Listen.”

The beast thrashed around and I knew it was in pain, but more angry than anything. “Vete a la mierda! Te voy a matar por esto!”

I blinked in surprise and shook my head. “No….I didn’t just hear that.”

“Finally! Good job! This beast was causing the town much strife. Now we’ll put it down.” the beast snarled as the knights yelled and rallied themselves to deliver the killing blow.

“Wait! Give me a second to try something.” i asked and Knight leader looked at me warily before nodding.

The beast was still snarling angrily when i stepped forward. “Usted habla español?”

The beast stared at me in surprise and so did everyone else. “Sí. ¿Cómo sabes de mi lenguaje, demonio?” Wow this was kinda trippy. My first spanish speaking spirit.

“Sucede que soy un descendiente de una familia de habla española. No totalmente demonio, ya ves.” i said and i felt the beast still fidgeting in anger as the knights still surrounded them.

“Cálmate y dime por qué estás atacando a estas personas. Tal vez puedo trabajar arreglos pacíficos entre usted y ellos.” i knew for damn sure that my darkness was stepping in to guide me, because i was Nowhere near this fluent in spanish.

"Me llamaron AQUÍ! Ellos abogado por mi bendición y cuando vine que creció temeroso y me atacó! Como Usted tiene!" the beast snarled out and i flinched. They were right. I sighed and wished I thought more about my actions sometimes. I got what felt like a consoling hug from U.D. and shook my head. “If you can speak to the beast tell us why it is here.”

“someone called them here. Something about blessings.” i told her without breaking eye contact with the beast.

She grabbed me and tried to make me look at her, but i still focused on the spanish speaking beast. Not sure if it was a demi-god or a child of one or just some spirit that grew super powerful over a huge expanse of time. “What do you mean!?”

"Ellos abogaron por cosechas y animales para cazar. Tienen hambre y una vez que vieron mi gran tamaño de su miedo y el hambre los tentados a tratar de cazar. Yo no será cazado! No por ninguna de ellas." the beast snarled out.

I nodded in understanding. If the knights weren’t doing anything to it, then the whole town was gonna be stomped down to nothingness before anyone strong enough could show up and my spell was draining the hell out of my now. beads of sweat formed on my body and began sliding down my skin quickly.

"¿Puedo pedirle que los perdone y dejar en paz? Si los que convocó te hacen rogar por su perdón se les deje en paz?" i asked, almost pleadingly. I lowered my head in askance as to show some kind of reverence.

The beast went quiet and looked closely at me. "Si ellos abogan por lo que piden mi perdón entonces voy a salir de la ciudad por sí sola, pero me he hecho daño y por lo que son más culpables entonces. ¿Qué vas a hacer para pagar lo que debes?"

I try to think of what i can do and the clearest and most simple answer comes to mind. I tell the knight to search the town for the ones who summoned the beast and gave her the reasons why they did it. I assured her that leaving any knights behind would only be taken as offense and that they should all go looking for the ones responsible. I would stay behind as collateral to prove their trustworthiness. She was resistant to it, but did it as I asked.

When they left I braced myself for my stupidity to shine through. "La deuda que tengo es uno de carne y hueso. Te sanaré de tus heridas y llevarlos a mí mismo como un castigo. ¿Sería eso suficiente para ganarse su perdón?"

The beast looked at me solemnly and nodded. "Tu palabra es su enlace, demonio,"

I smiled at the phrase and outstretched my arms towards them and released the gates from their existence. They faded back into shadows and I felt the injuries they had left behind. I took a deep breath and began muttering the words for the spell. The transference of injuries and pain. I felt my skin wrenching open along my back and poured as much darkness as i could handle through my body to speed up my regeneration. It was a constant struggle between ripping flesh and repairing flesh and not soon after i started the knight returned and immediately ran to my side. “You damned fool! The size of his injuries alone will rip holes through your body! You’re going to die!”

I hear her, but say nothing. My everything is focused on repairing and transferring injuries. Nothing else is permitted. I fell to my knees but didn’t stop. Fuck i had lost a lot of blood, but so had the beast. The problem was just sheer size difference and me having used a lot of energy to keep them restrained. I felt a wave of energy pulse through me and i realized the knight was donating some to me. Not taking on any wounds to herself, but giving me energies to survive what the hell i was doing. Afterall, this kind of spell didn’t stop until it was done.

Within a few minutes i was done and my body ached with exhaustion. i felt cold and i knew the earth was soaked in my blood. I could barely feel the dirt on my face as i laid in it.what little energy i had left i continued circulating through my body. The energy enticed the bone marrow to produce more blood, despite all the blood they had produced to keep me while it spilled out of holes in my back. Next to me were some other darkness demons, one of which seemed to have some kind of beastial heritage in him and i chuckled. i wondered if the beast was some kind of spirit his family asked for help in hunting in the beastial lands, or if he just found the beast theirself.

The beast looked over to me after they had finished their apologies and with a giant round flat foot stepped lightly on me. Just enough for me to feel it, which was probably why i was being pressed into the dirt. "Voy a recordar esto, valiente y demonio tonto"

instantly the pressure was gone and so was the beast. The knight in charge pulled me out of the dirt and took me to the nearest inn and paid for a room. The next morning i found her sleeping next to me. The both of us quite naked, but i could tell by scent alone we didn’t do anything. She just slept with me to keep me physically warm. She woke and slipped out of the bed and got dressed. “We will discuss your payment over breakfast.

I raised an eyebrow. “breakfast is on you. I’d call it even there.”

She looked back at me annoyed, but I looked at her with a bored expression. “It’s not like I was expecting to get paid when i jumped in. I was just doing what i felt like, and paying the consequences of my own actions. Now all i want is something to fill my stomach and perhaps to commit the waking hours of this day to sleep.”

I had gotten about a day's journey from the town where i had entered the fight  and made a ton of coins. I could quite easily live comfortably for a good long while without doing much, but that wasn't my concern. I had somewhere to be and it was my supply money. I had no idea how far i was from my destination.

I was walking peacefully, swirling spheres of darkness around my hand idly. Practice made perfect.  i heard the pounding of feet before i saw anything. I let the spheres return to my shadow and listened closer. I could feel darkness extending my senses and mixing them somehow. I could see what i was hearing. Not only see it i could feel the exertion on it's body and the hunger that drove it from its den. Feral, animal and hungry. It smelled me.

I opened my eyes and it burst through the brush in front of my and stood its ground. I hadn't moved, hadn't flinched, hadn't even quickened my breathing. the wolf-like beast stared me down and knew I wasn't afraid.

"Meat."

I raised an eyebrow at the description the Darkness from the Underground (Gonna abbreviate that to U.D. from now on)  gave the beast. I knew what U.D. was thinking. I grabbed the gourd from my side and tossed it lightly towards the beast. It was unflinching, but it kept a wary eye on them. "Wake up you two. There is some food for you." i said softly.

The gourd shifted and began unraveling. The two beings looked like centipedes with neon green bubble like sections that with separated by living lines of darkness. They opened their eyes slowly, like black beads on the top-most section. They had little pincers, but when they saw their prey those pincers grew to the size of knives. They launched themselves at the wolf-beast and it didn't even have a chance. They burrowed immediately under its flesh and began to eat everything they passed through. They bursted out of its flesh a few and dug their way back in. The beast howled in pain until one of the centipedes burst through its skull and burrowed itself back in. The beast squirmed from time to time as the centipedes ate every scrap of meat from the bones and began trying to gnaw through those to get to the marrow inside.

I could feel the ravenous hunger from them. Several time that of the beast. They could eat the entire pack and still hunger for more. Welp there went half my money for supplies, but first.

I conjured a knife out of shadows and pricked my finger. As the bead of blood formed i saw the two centipedes turn to me. Their pincers were the size of knives still and I could tell they saw me as more meat. I rolled my eyes and was going to lower my hand for them to feed, but U.D. stopped me. I felt it turn my hand over so the blood would drip from my finger and the centipedes watched the blood eagerly. I dripped some blood onto each one of their heads and they began to fight over it. Each one wanted the blood from the top of the other's head and after a few seconds of agitation they looked ready to snip each other's head off to get what they wanted.

I saw that and flared my power over them. "Stop."

The flinched at the power and turned to me, this time without the glaze of feral hunger in their eyes. I rescinded my power and continued staring them down. "Who are you?" one of the centipede's chittered out. 

I smirked at them and shook my head. "I don't have a name, but I've been carrying you for a few days now."

The little centipedes retracted their blade like pincers to a non-threatening size and crawled towards me cautiously. They didn't have feelers, but I could tell they were trying to sense something in me. "Got a question for you two. Do you know a being named Chiriki?"

Their heads perked up immediately at the name. "Chiriki? You know the bird?" Dammit. I was hoping they would give me a gender so i could know what gender Chiriki was. little bird doesn't talk about ximself in any other way than third-person.

I smiled and nodded. "Yes. Chiriki is my familiar. If you take turns you'll see that for yourself." 

They looked at each other and then one lowered their head for the other to taste the blood on their head. after both tasting the blood they looked at me with a sense of recognition. They knew me by the blood I carried. I was a descendant of the one they called master. They crawled quickly at me and climbed up my legs and moved around towards my hands. "I'm sorry to tell you, but my arms are reserved already. The centipedes stopped and doubled back and circled around my chest, "that is reserved too."

They chittered somewhat annoyed and moved to my legs. "All yours if you want." i told them as they slowed to make sure they weren't moving to another reserved space. They raced down and somehow shifted themselves into greaves. I looked them over and smiled. "I like." 

They chittered and i felt something scratching into my skin. While it was a different feeling It held a sense of familiarity. They were binding their contract into my flesh. Admittance of their bond to me and my bond to them. It felt like they were scratching into my flesh with their claws and each claw dripped acid and flames to sear the wounds. I ended up gouging through a few trees during the process, but I managed to keep conscious through it. I decided to rest for a bit before doing anything else and the centipedes climbed up from my legs to get to know me better. they asked me about Chiriki and where Xe was. where the rest of my familiars were and i told them i was on my way to retrieve them. To be nice to them when they met. I've remembered when Chiriki first met my second familiar. Xe began pecking at him and hissing.

I asked them what else the two could do and they introduced themselves by name. They told me they could become weapons and i began testing that out. Twin swords, a dual headed spear, spiked rods, wrist blades, i tested them out for a while and asked if the transformations hurt them. They shook their heads, but admitted they didn't like being used as rods. They preferred to use their mandibles and legs (which could be thinned out to blades) as their attacking parts. I nodded and promised them not to use them like that. I asked if they had poisons and they nodded. One spat out a barb that pierced into a tree and almost immediately the tree began hissing as acid ate through it. They mentioned they had several types of poison glands and they could mix them to create new ones. I shook my head with a chuckle because their excitement. 

All of a sudden they began to slow down and what sounded like a yawn escaped them. "Still tired...Still hungry."

I patted their heads. "Sleep. I'll have more food for you when next you wake."

They began curling around each other and locking legs to keep their shape. "Promise not to take too long?'

I felt my heart tighten a little at the words. They had been waiting for more than a single human life for someone to wake them. they had been with just each other in slumber for several hundreds of years. "I promise."

They chittered sleepily and finished taking on their gourd-like shape. I decided that i wanted to rest as well and laid down for a nap. I woke up sometime later because of the feeling of people surrounding me. i opened my eyes annoyed at being interrupted, and got to my feet. Once they saw i was awake they didn't bother hiding themselves anymore. They all stepped forward and I saw there were 5 of them. "You are the one who won the prize in Karxus, are you not?"

i looked around at them idly. "Who is asking?"

The knight with seniority stepped up. "Knight Nublis. Currently employed to the Noble Gerliz. Ruler of these lands."

I pursed my lips at his title. A respectable thing. "Then I am indeed the one who won the contest. I suppose you are ordered to take me back."

"You suppose correctly. You are to be brought in peacefully. If not, then we will use force."

I rolled my eyes and sighed. "Sure. I'll go listen to what Gerliz has to say."

He nodded and moved out of my way. No shackles. No bonds. They made a shadow gate and teleported us to the palace. I was walked into the room where Gerliz was waiting. a Slightly elderly looking demon. He looked me over as the knights stepped off to the side to oversee the meeting between us. 

"I was not expecting you to come so easily." There was a 'that's what she said' joke tickling the back of my mind, i managed to settle it with a small smile. "I wasn't looking for a quarrel."

Gerliz looked down at me with a glare. He had been hoping that I was beaten before I was brought before him. "You understand why you have been brought here yes?"

I wanted to roll my eyes at his obvious question. Instead i looked wistfully off at the architecture of the room. "I'm here for 'insulting' your son and making him look weak in front of his subjects. Therefore i'm being given a choice of swearing loyalty or facing execution. That about right?"

Gerliz smirked. "You are perceptive. Perhaps you were taught by someone after all. Not some nameless fool that you would have the masses believe."

I shook my head. "I never proclaimed to be a fool, but it is true I have no name." I looked at him. "Besides, how is it an insult to lose to me?"

He flared his power angrily over my and i began to do the same. I kept most of it restrained so as to only take up less than half the space between us, but I could tell i was using far less effort than he was to fill the space. his face looked calm and uninterested, but his arms were taut with effort. Mine was most lax, though my hands were in tightly balled fists. It looked like he had more power over me, but he understood i stopped myself from overpowering him. I let my power retract, pretending it was being slowly pushed down until his power pressed on my flesh. he let up shortly after i stopped resisting, but kept a watchful eye on me. "It is not shameful for your son to have lost to me or his guard. I nearly rival you in power."

I gave him a pleasant smile and watched him. He knew what i was saying. "Besides. I have no intention of staying in these lands."

He raised an eyebrow. "Oh? Then what are your intentions?"

"I plan to leave these lands immediately. There are some people I must meet with. Private business." I said not to offend him, but also not to tell him more than he needed to know. Now it was up to him. Attempt to keep enforcing his plans and ensue chaos, or let me leave and probably never hear from me again.

I saw the knights muttering to themselves about my power. what i had showed was of a similar level to their own individually.They were discussing possibly inviting me to their order, but one sharp glare from their leader quieted them. He was interested in me as well, but maintained a much better sense of decorum.

"I see. Do you swear not to keep silent about this incident as you leave my land?" I bowed slightly in agreement. "Then you will be allowed to leave on the condition that you do not break your oath."

I nodded and he waved me off dismissively. I smiled and turned away and immediately Nublis and his knights were with me. They escorted me out of the chamber and back through their shadow gate before breaking it down and walking me to the edge of the lands. We talked casually for most of the journey out of the lands. We stopped once so i could buy some supplies, and i bought a meal for everyone with me. They appreciated the gesture and ate with me. I put my newest familiars into my sack of food and woke them up to the food. As i continued walking i could feel the sack lessening in weight as they ate and digested their meal.

They offered me the choice to join their order and i shook my head. I wasn't the same person as i was before the Boneyard. I had none of the connections or bonds that i did from before, not really. But i would not betray the order i was apart of. "Sorry, but I've already got an Order i'm planning to join."