The Dark King

by Steffen Schmidt

  Dudian heard sounds coming from his left side. He turned to see a large cage. There were more than a dozen snakes twisting inside the cage. Obviously, these were also other captured materials for various experiments.

  The old man did not urge Dudian, but quietly observed him, similar to a hunter watching its prey attempting a final struggle. When he saw Dudian's expression changed, his mouth slightly curved into a cruel smile.?At this time, Dudian has arrived to the table.

  "Do you see that chain? Tie your arm." The old man ordered Dudian.

  Dudian looked at the few chains fixed to the workbench. Most of these chains and tools were used beforehand in experiments. His eyes flashed but he still grabbed the chain and wrapped around his wrist.

  Old man's face reflected a trace of disdain and sneer. As Dudian chained himself up, he would go to cut him alive to death.

  Bang!

  Dudian squatted down. At the same time he shook the chain and hit the cage. The snakes twisted and struggled in attempts to escape.

  Old man spoke: "Little devil. You just have to act like a smart ass, don't you? Do you think you can escape from here? Now, you obediently come out and I will forgive you for once!"

  Dudian naturally refused to believe the old man's words. He kicked the iron cage. He used the table as a cover from the crossbow that the old man was wielding. His aim was to get close to the old man so that he would have the opportunity to wrestle him.

  Although the old man had an external amputation to his body, so it took a lot of willpower and it was mentally exhaustive to command it. The fatal weakness of utilizing something like that (the body modifications) was that it would terribly weaken him.

  After a few kicks, the iron cage fell onto the table. Fortunately, one of the doors were opened and a dozen snakes slid out of it. Some of them moved towards the darkness, few towards the old man and most slid towards Dudian.

  The old man smiled, "There is no difference between life and death to me!"

  The next moment, his smile instantly halted. He saw the serpents that were supposedly moving towards Dudian changed their direction. Few of them bent around to move other places but four or five of them moved towards the old man.

  "How ... ..." Old man's eyes went wide. He suddenly looked to the table. His face became gloomy, "No wonder he had the courage to shake the snake cage!"

  Dudian clutched his hand. He held a small bottle of powder. He smeared it all over his entire body. He had previously bet on this bottle of powder. It must be something that old man used to capture the snakes. Even though the old man refers to himself as 'alchemist' but essentially he used chemical elixirs.

  The old man couldn't have captured all these serpents unarmed. He had to rely on other things.?The results of his logical deduction was spot on as he had expected. Earlier, as he inched closer towards the table he had seen the bottle of the powder on it. Perhaps for too long, nobody else but the old man lived alone. So he had placed many things in a very casual manner on top of the table. Dudian secretly grabbed the bottle as he moved.

  "Humph!". Old man grabbed a brown robe that was hung on the wall. He quickly draped it over his body. After that, the serpents who were moving toward him immediately stopped, twisted their bodies and swam to the surrounding darkness.

  Dudian understood that the dress was dowsed with the same powder and most probably was used in catching the serpents.

  "Kid, you better be obedient." The old man stared at the table. The crossbow was still in his hand. As long as Dudian showed his head, he would immediately shoot! Although Dudian was a child, but one after another time had created misfortunes. Dudian had made old man felt threatened so he was not going to give any chances to him.

  Dudian looked around the chamber. The only way to survive was to subdue the alchemist. He had a dagger but it was far from enough.

  He seized the opportunity to grab the cutting tool from the table which looked similar to a dagger.

  Now, Dudian saw large stash of bottles and jars on a board near the fallen cage. There were labels stuck over them. Impressively two of them were labelled with sulfur and charcoal!

  This was one of the main raw materials of making gunpowder!

  Dudian's eyes lit up. His heart felt ecstatic, as he quickly looked around, but did not find any nitric acid. He was disappointed as sulfur and charcoal was not enough to create gunpowder.

  He clenched his fists. He felt as if he acquired a chance to survive only to be slapped back at the same moment.

  "I know, you have a dagger in your hand. Ready to fight with me, aren't you?" The old man's voice boomed again. Dudian's mind sank. It seemed that old man has noticed him taking the dagger. "Are you hungry?", old man continued.

  As he heard him talk, Dudian felt the hunger after an entire day. His stomach juice was burning up.

  However, his heart is a little relieved, at least he had the time to continue to think of a way.

  At this time, a green mist floated.

  Dudian's pupils shrank, and quickly covered his mouth and nose. He did not expect the other party would even release this darned thing in a narrow chamber. Apparently the old man had antidote or other kind of measure to counteract the mist.

  Dudian pinched his nose. His heart was beating fast, knowing that his time had slowly run out. He didn't stood up in desperation as the other side may had aimed the crossbow at his position. As long as he stood up he would be shot.

  He gritted his teeth, and firmly clenched the dagger. He looked at the bottle of powder on his other hand. He was ready to throw it out. Then, an idea flashed in his mind.

  Chapter 24: Solitary

  "Little devil, let's see how long can you hold on!" The old man wore a dark green mask, only to reveal a pair of cold eyes. He stared at the table. His fingers were on crossbow, ready to shoot at Dudian at any time.

  Sou!

  A shadow suddenly flew out from the table.

  Old man's finger instinctively pulled the trigger of the crossbow. It shot out a short arrow which flashed quickly but it didn't hit the shadow. It nailed right into the rear of the wooden cabinet.

  At this time, a bottle of powder fell in front of old man's foot.

  His face changed and quickly looked up to see Dudian jumping up from the ground. He did not jumped across the work table towards him but to the cupboard. Dudian casually grabbed the bottles and jars and threw them at the old man.

  The old man's anger burst to sky. It was very difficult to amass all these experimental materials. To see them casually knocked to ground made him crazy. He loaded another short arrow into crossbow and aimed at Dudian.

  However, in his short time to reload the crossbow, Dudian had already once again retreated behind to the table.

  "Damned little devil!" The old man's angry eyes could almost spat fire. He missed the chance to shoot Dudian the second time. If somebody before this asked him if he would feel threatened by a small child, he would have laughed at the idea. But not now.

  "I'd like to see how long you can hold!" Old man checked the green fog that was slowly filling up the chamber.

  "Got it!" Dudian held a large glass bottle. It was the bottle filled with sulfur which he spotted before. At this moment, he felt suffocated as there was less oxygen due to the green fog. Unfortunately there was nothing to lit it up.

  "Damn it! No fire, no fire!"

  Dudian's mind was in despair. As he was desperately thought of a way out, his eyes concentrated on the wooden wall where shadows were reflected. "The oil lamp", he whispered to himself.

  "How did I not thought of the oil lamp before?", Dudian was in joy.

  The despair in his heart vanished. He quickly used fabric torn from his shirt to envelop the bottle of sulfur. He gritted his teeth. His life and death would be result this move succeeded for failed.?Sou!

  The old man saw large group of flying shadows. By nature of self-preservation he shot the crossbow. The short arrow penetrated one of the bottles. But another bottle which was a
imed at him was not affected. In a hurry he raised his left arm to block the oncoming shadow.

  Unfortunately for him, he blocked the bottle covered with fabric. It cracked and some of the sulfur smeared onto his arm and clothes. He swayed his arm which hit the table when another bottle hit the oil lamp and overturned it.

  Dudian saw the fabric burning up so he quickly lied down.

  Bang!

  Suddenly a thunder-like explosion sound resounded in the chamber. Few pieces of the wood on top of the chamber cracked and fell down. Dust filled the room.

  Dudian felt a massive destructive force hit the table and which then projected onto his body. He felt as if his ribs were going to break. Tears flowed out of his eyes because of the pain.

  At this time he could not control his slow and restrained breath. Therefore he inhaled large amounts of air. There was the flavor of burned sulfur. Moreover, he inhaled residue of the previous green fog. His limbs felt soft.

  The top of the chamber collapsed at some parts. The cold wind flowed into the chamber which pushed out the air filled with the smell of sulfur and green mist outside. He slowly began to inhale the fresh air.

  Dudian immediately began to crawl out because there was a big blast in the chamber and nobody knew when it will completely collapse. He did not want to be buried alive.

  As a result of the previous explosion, the oil lamp blown out. At the moment, the chamber was covered in darkness.

  Dudian began to move towards the old man's direction even though he couldn't see what was in front of him. He relied on his previous vision to remember the distance between him and the old man. It didn't take long before his hand touched a wet, sticky but hard object. His face became ugly.

  It was the bones of old man.

  Although being in the dark, Dudian knew that what he touched were the parts of the body that had remained after the explosion. He did not expect the power of this sulfur explosion to be so terrible. It was not made into gun powder so the reason for it to be so effective should be due to 'dust explosion' principle.

  "I killed a human being ... ...". Dudian's mind trembled. A living human was killed. He had seen the situation of poor in this world and at some point faced the distortion of the law. But to personally kill someone. He did not dare to think of such things previously.

  He was slightly shaken, so he secretly whispered in his heart: "It was just self-protection. I wanted to protect myself, so it's not a crime... not a crime..." His heart was filled with sadness. The proper laws had long since disappeared from this world so even if it was a crime ,who can convict him of a crime?

  In this dark pit which was illuminated under the starlight, he suddenly felt so lonely and desolate. Gradually he relaxed his body. The fear in his heart disappeared. Instead, a kind of faint indifference was born. He silently looked at the derelict part of the old man's corpse. His body slowly moved, not to leave but to explore.

  He checked the crossbow.

  Chapter 25: Alchemy Notes

  Faintly, Dudian once again touched old man's corpse. Even though there was fear in his heart, he was not as nervous as he had been previously. He fumbled the robe. He found two objects in the wrinkly robe.

  He took out the first object and lifted towards the sky to identify it under the star light.

  It was a small sickle used to ignite fire.

  Dudian's heart was pleasantly surprised. He tried hard to use the friction from fire sickle to ignite a small torch. Soon a small fire lit up the darkness. He clearly saw the old man's fractured arm from the elbow. The ribs of his chest were blown apart and the rest was charred.

  Dudian's heart beat fast. He confirmed that old man's chest didn't undulate anymore so he felt much more relieved. There were papers scattered on the ground while pieces of the cloth worn by old man were missing because of the explosion.

  As the fire became bigger, Dudian could see the appearance of the chamber after the explosion. All kinds of equipment were knocked to ground and damaged. Some of the things were buried under the sand which had flowed in from the outside. He looked at the crossbow which had its drawstring snapped. Obviously, it could not be used anymore.

  Dudian's mind was in distress. He was preparing fire to completely burn down the underground chamber. Suddenly he saw spotted few books on the other side of the chamber. He went closer to the book shelf and the first book that caught his attention was named 'Alchemy of Life'.

  In addition to 'Alchemy of Life', there were several alchemy books. There was a small manual with no name imprinted on it. He took it up and opened it.

  "Alchemy Notes?" Dudian was surprised. He checked the content of the manual. It was actually the old man's alchemy diary.

  "Giant wall calendar. Year 287. The Black Snow Season."

  "Today's experiment is progressing smoothly. Sure enough to create life I have to use humans as experimental materials. The problem is how to find the perfect material..."

  Dudian rolled the pages, there were some records of the experimental process and other events. He didn't look in depth, instead he hid it under his cloth. As for the 'Alchemy of Life' and the other books, he simply skimmed through. Although the books had impressive sounding titles but they all give the feeling of primary level biology books.

  He did not take these books as they were too thick. It would be hard to hide and they would be easily exposed. From the old man's actions he knew that alchemy in this world didn't have a good reputation. Or else he would not hide in this desert to secretly do experiments.

  Dudian ripped the books, threw them on the flames, and fed the fire. He threw the rest of the books on the body of the old man. Later on, he found the oiler, which fell to the ground, and poured the oil unto the old man's corpse. The first thought in his mind was to destroy everything.

  As the fire spread, Dudian ascended the wooden staircase he had previously rolled down from. He climbed out and peered back into the hole. From the gap he could vaguely see the reflection of fire. He had a hint of melancholy for a moment. He sighed, turned and ran along the route towards their camp.

  He came back to see the fire pit still burning but couldn't find Mason and the other two.

  Dudian refused to sit down and rest, dragged his exhausted body around the ground looking up. Soon he saw traces of traction, and immediately followed the sand marks. In a distant he saw a shadow moving.

  As he got the closer he saw Zach dragging Mason and Sham.

  "Wasn't he affected?" Dudian was confused. Then he thought back. Zach had always been a cautious character. Most probably he played possum (pretended to be dead) the same way as Dudian had also done.

  Dudian's heart warmed as he saw Zach struggling to drag Sham and Mason. He tied Alchemy Notes onto his leg with a belt and went after the Zach.

  "Who?!" Zach jumped in fear as heard the sounds. He released Sham and Mason and nervously bent over to grab sand.

  "It's me," said Dudian.

  Zach heard Dudian's voice. He was surprised, "You come back? Are you alright? What happened to that monster?"

  Hearing this, Dudian understood that Zach had secretly watched him and the old man while they fought. Moreover he had seen the mutation: "I'm lucky to run away. We should leave quickly." He grabbed Mason's arm and saw him still breathing. He was relieved to know that the green fog was not a lethal toxin.

  Zach's face turned white because of fear. He could not help but look behind Dudian as if the monster was gazing at them from the darkness. He shivered and grabbed the Sham and said in hurry, "Run... Let's not get caught again!"

  Dudian dragged Sham while trailing in the back. The water was sufficient in that place. Although the old man was dead, but there was no guarantee that there won't be other alchemists who would come to visit the watering hole. When they find the next water source, at least he would be more experienced.

  ...

  ...

  Half an hour later.

  Above the old man's secret chamber, few shadows appeared. The shorte
r one pulled out a small oil lamp and lit the fire. He looked through the gap down to the chamber. He saw burning fire inside the messy room.

  "He has been killed." One of the shadows said, a graceful figure seemed to see what had happened. Her voice was full of chill as she continued: "The corpse is ruined. The den is burnt. It seemed that they didn't want use to leave any clues."

  "These beasts and their vicious methods. They are really the apostles of the devil." Another burly figure gloomily said.

  "The alchemists have long sold their souls to the devil," he said, "to attain the power of the devil at all costs. Killing each other is nothing for them. But they should not fight with each other for no reason. I think there was something very important that made them fought each other. It would been better if we had arrived earlier."

  "Look there! What kind of force was released in here could instantly destroy it?" The previous graceful figure was pointing inside the burnt chamber, and the collapsed gap, and added on, "It seems these alchemists have terrible devil power. "

  Chapter 26: Ten days

  "You see here, there are footprints." The burly figure suddenly said.

  The other three immediately look to the side of the sand marks and found footprints. The graceful woman's face changed, said: "It is the footprints of children. Damn it, this alchemist was involved in human experiments. I've underestimated him." Then, from the gap created by the collapse, she jumped down.

  A moment later, she jumped out from the inside, firmly standing on the stand. If Dudian was here, he will be stunned. The height of the chamber was at least three meters. To jump that high, how strong physically you had to be?

  "This one turned out to be a 'life' alchemist!" The graceful woman was holding a dark medal. Above it there were three five-pointed stars engraved on it. The alchemist's belief system refused to acknowledge The Creator or Father, but they do believe in the sky over their heads. Some crazy alchemy warlock's goal was to ultimately refine the stars.