Death Knight Box Set

by Michael Chatfield

  Lemar looked at his aide, who was stuck in thought.

  Guardians? Judgement? Just who are these people to make him look confused? He’s always seemed like he knows everyone’s moves.

  Chapter: Leader Of The Black Rags

  “Are you sure of this, Lady Tissis?” the guard captain asked as he read the orders she had passed him.

  “Have you forgotten your oath?” Tissis said, her eyes cold and her voice dangerous.

  “No.” It seemed as though the guard captain wanted to say more but saluted instead.

  There was a knock at the door.

  “What is it?” Tissis snapped.

  “The leader of the Black Scarves is here!” someone yelled through the door.

  “What is he doing here?” The guard captain frowned.

  Tissis paled. Does he know? How could he know? They say that he is powerful and he was able to stop a riot in its tracks. Is he coming here to get more help, to pressure me? Does he know what is going on?

  Tissis needed a few seconds to get herself under control. “Send him in.” Tissis then looked at the guard captain. “Make sure that you have people ready.”

  “Yes, my lady.” The guard captain quickly left.

  Tissis cleaned up her office as she waited. It wasn’t long until the leader of the Black Rags walked into the office.

  He is a human indeed, though I can’t see through his armor.

  “Lady Tissis,” the man said in greeting as two guards came into the room with him.

  ***

  Chaos, Anthony thought. Everything was telling him that there had been an Agent of Chaos or a person converted with the power of chaos in this room just a few hours ago.

  Anthony used his Eyes of Truth to look at Tissis.

  “You must be the leader of the Black Rags, Anthony?” Lady Tissis looked at him from the other side of her desk.

  “I thought that someone should help out with the chaos around here.” Anthony watched her closely. She seems a bit awkward, but the word chaos didn’t seem to affect her.

  “Many people have told me that they feel a fluctuation in their bloodlines, as if someone is cutting them off from their ancestors.”

  Bingo, she’s come into contact with one. Anthony could read her emotions as if they were an open book.

  Anthony looked up at the painting that was behind the office desk. “The battle of Xindez,” Anthony said, picking out the different terrain features. His eyes noticed the Guardian emblem at the top of the painting.

  “You know of it?” Tissis asked.

  “You could say that.” Anthony took a moment, seeing the painting come to life in his mind, the fierce fighting as the forces of Dena collided with the chaos vanguard. It was one of the first battles between the people of Dena. They hadn’t been fully united; the humans and the beast kin were fighting different waves of chaos that flooded through their gates.

  “So now, tell me about when you came in contact with someone affected by chaos.” Anthony’s hand rested on his swords and the two guards in the room tensed up.

  Tissis looked at Anthony.

  “They should have been here only a few hours ago. Did you make a deal with them?”

  Tissis opened and closed her mouth. Her features started to twist as shadows shot out from Anthony’s feet. Solomon wrapped around the guards’ and Tissis’s feet and mouths.

  “Do not test me, little lady.” Anthony’s voice transformed, sounding like a demon that had clawed his way out of hell. “Did you make a deal with someone just hours ago? It would have been in your room? He entered and left through a secret passage in this room.” Anthony walked up to the desk, his hand on his sword.

  “It looks like you did.” Anthony could read her expression clearly. “What was your deal?” Anthony used a spell. He was drained from having powered such a large Guardian’s Judgement. He felt as though he were scraping the bottom of the barrel as his spell hit Tissis. Her eyes went glossy and Solomon moved away.

  “I made a deal with him to heal me and my husband. In exchange, I would need to break the Black Rags apart.”

  Solomon wrapped around her mouth; the guards looked at her in shock and her eyes cleared and widened in alarm.

  “Okay, have you had any other dealings with them?” Anthony watched her and nodded. “That would be a no. Have you done anything to carry out their actions?” He let out a sigh at her expression.

  “Do you know anything about them that would allow me to identify them?” Her expression changed again. “Okay, so I’ll need to move fast if I want to follow his trail.” Anthony moved to her desk and rooted around in it quickly. Solomon destroyed his shadows across the city so Anthony could use more of them to search the drawers. Anthony pulled out a guard badge and then wrote a letter, sealing it with the Skalafell lord’s seal. “That should help.”

  Anthony put the crest on his armor and then moved to the two guards in just a few steps.

  With two hits, their eyes rolled back and they fell on the floor.

  Anthony took them into the bedroom, using the sheets to tie them up.

  “When I return, you’ll undergo judgement,” Anthony said.

  Tissis’s eyes were wide as Anthony hit her, knocking her out. He took her into the bedroom and tied her up.

  He followed the stain of chaos and went to a bookshelf. He pushed the bottom to the side and crawled through the hidden passage there. He closed the hidden entrance behind him and rushed forward. The chase was on!

  Anthony slammed through a hidden door, coming out into another room in a spray of wood.

  “Ah, they were just here!” Anthony yelled as he ran forward, hitting the doors out of the room. Something feral had woken up in him. The power of his familiars was stronger than ever, more powerful than adrenaline. People jumped out of the way of the mad knight running through the halls.

  He ran past two servants, eyeing them because they had come into direct contact with a chaotic being. They both screamed and jumped.

  “Official business!” Anthony yelled, holding out his badge as he kept on running through the halls. He saw a large beast kin marching down the hall, a number of guards with him.

  Anthony started to laugh as the group turned around to look at the knight closing in with them.

  The guards started to move to block his path.

  “Chaos! I’ve come for you!” Anthony’s eyes glowed with a fierce light under his helmet. His face formed a twisted smile.

  “Guardian!” One of the men with the count turned and ran.

  “What are you doing!” the count hissed.

  Anthony moved forward. A blade came for his head. He shot past the attacker in a burst of golden speed. His body glowed green as he grabbed their arm, tossing them into a wall. Then he grabbed a blade coming through the air, snapping it in half as he kicked the guard into another behind them.

  He arrived in front of the count, who was powering up. Two quick smacks disoriented the beast kin. Anthony picked him up by the torso and slammed him into a wall where there was an arrangement of swords.

  A golden head appeared over Anthony’s shoulder, breathing on the blades. A black shadow emerged from the wall. A demon mask looked at the beast kin as its shadow tendrils pushed the blades down around the count, so that he had no room to move, the sword acting as a prison.

  “I’ll talk to you later.”

  Anthony’s armor glowed green while his joints leaked a black miasma and golden wings appeared on his back.

  He looked where the chaos-touched being was running and then looked toward a window.

  Anthony took a run and leaped out of the window. The rough glass window shattered around him as Dave’s wings unfurled. The early morning sun spread over Skalafell as a demon took to the skies.

  Anthony banked around, picking up speed. He took in a deep breath, banking wide and then toward the building.

  His wings collapsed as he darkened the window. His helmet lit up with his blue eyes as he saw the Agent of Chao
s who had just reached the top of the stairs.

  A swirl of gold, green and black appeared in Anthony’s eyes as he drew on the power of his familiars.

  The Agent of Chaos’ hood had come back, revealing his elven features and the look of panic on his face as he saw Anthony in front of him.

  Anthony went through another window as the Agent of Chaos let out a yell that contorted into a roar; his body shimmered, shook, started and stopped—elvish one moment and chaotic beast the other, made from contorted and alternating colors. It stood six foot tall, had black feet and claws, with a body that looked like glass, allowing one to see the twisted power inside its body.

  “Guardian!” the elf yelled out before he broke his restraints, shuddering between forms and becoming a chaotic beast.

  Anthony crashed through the window as the chaotic creature fired off a pillar of chaos energy. A mana shield appeared around Anthony, but he was like a rock in front of a hose. The power was breaking around him, as he forced his way upstream.

  “Judgement comes.” Anthony drew his sword and pushed it forward.

  A purple energy shot forward into the chaos. The beam disappeared, with silence returning in an almost painful fashion. Anthony gritted his teeth as he felt the physical pain of using more mana than his body had been able to recover.

  The chaotic beast took a few steps backward. A green gas came from the wounds on his arm.

  Anthony dropped to the landing between the stairs. He started jumping up the stairs as the chaotic beast jumped on the wall, tearing it apart and corrupting the materials there as he rushed for the window Anthony had entered.

  Anthony jumped off the stairs, imbued with Bruce’s strength as Solomon appeared under the chaotic beast, screaming at them as he threw them off the wall.

  “Familiar weakling!” the chaotic beast cursed out as they raked their claws across Solomon.

  Solomon cried out, but his mask face only seemed to demonify more as a blade of shadows struck the chaotic beast, making them cry out. Solomon disappeared in smoke, as if he were never there.

  Anthony brought the pommel of his sword down and smashed it into the back of the chaotic beast, sending it shooting into the floor. Anthony touched the ceiling and then dug his sword into the wall as he fell, controlling his descent as the stunned chaotic beast started to get up.

  Anthony shot past the chaotic beast as a cloud of green appeared above it, followed with a scream of pain. Anthony opened his visor and stuffed the arm into his armor as it started to dissolve into mana, in an effort to replenish his own mana.

  Anthony took the other arm and then the legs of the chaotic beast.

  “What kind of monster takes his prisoner’s limbs!” the beast/elf cried out. As his power decreased, he could no longer hold onto his beast form completely.

  “Oh, I’m much smarter than that, wee beastie.” Anthony waved his sword at the chaotic beast as he picked up a leg. The green miasma was forcefully dragged in by Anthony and his aura grew quickly.

  “You can refine chaos!” The chaotic beast had shown anger and annoyance so far, but now he showed fear.

  “Tasty.” Anthony dropped the limb. It hit the ground and shattered, turning into dust.

  Anthony picked up the next limb and started to drain it as well.

  “You—how could you know that? Only the upper echelons of the Guardians could do that!”

  “Seems like you chaotic types have been talking a lot about us while it seems that the rest of Dena forgot all about us. Do you have a fan club for the best Guardians? You must.” Anthony laughed as he took the last limb and consumed it.

  It fell to the ground as dust. Anthony consumed the one inside his armor and shook his leg, dust falling on the floor.

  “That’s going to be annoying to clean,” Anthony complained as he stretched. He felt good—better than he had in a long time. He still felt as though he was much weaker than when he was at his peak, but now his mana had recovered quickly. He hadn’t been able to fill it yet.

  If I can find a few places with a high mana concentration, or some chaotic individuals... Anthony would have licked his lips if he had a tongue.

  Guards rushed the stairwell, pointing their weapons at Anthony and the chaotic beast that was shuddering between his beast form and elven form.

  “Put your weapons down!” one of the guards yelled.

  “Official Guardian business here.” Anthony reached his hand out to the side, closing his hand around a gavel that formed from purple energy. His emblem appeared on the left breastplate of his armor.

  “I charge you for trespassing on the lands of Dena, for instigating a plague in Skalafell.” Anthony brought the hammer down. It rang out and a wave of force pushed the guards back out of the top of the stairwell as the chaotic beast, without his limbs, was suspended in the air. Judges appeared at their podiums in the large hallway that looked cramped with them all in it and the guards who had been ignored and pushed back.

  “Hmm?” The pig kin looked around as he scratched his belly.

  “Found him,” Anthony said to all of the judges.

  “This is Skalafell!”

  “Silence in the courts!” the pig kin yelled out in an almost bored tone. The pressure of his bloodline made the guard commander slam into the ground face-first.

  The guards all lowered their weapons and looked at one another.

  “You’re guards of the kin! Act like it in a court of law!” The pig kin seemed to have passed his point of patience with his own people.

  Anthony took his seat as they all looked at the chaotic beast.

  “Oh Leadio.” The elf among the court sighed.

  The chaotic beast twitched at the name.

  “He was once part of our people.” The elf judge raised their hand; the right side remained a beast while the left side was elf.

  The elf held a deep disappointment in his eyes.

  “For creating a plague and setting it upon the population of Skalafell, how do you plead?” Anthony asked.

  “Guilty!”

  “For trying to kill the people of Dena, how do you plead?”

  “Guilty!”

  “What was your plan?”

  “The plague hides a curse. We weakened the people in the noble houses, made them hide away. Then the people who were poor—we didn’t get too many of them—stir the pot with a few people who we had made deals with. Then they would make the poor fight the nobles, then with one another. When the city was opened, the curse would die out. There would be people dead all over the place, but people would learn from the survivors about people turning on one another. We would plant evidence that the elves in the Deepwood were fighting for the humans, add them into the war against the humans,” the elf/beast answered.

  “How many agents of chaos that are able to convert others are there here or chaotic beasts that have been altered already?” the elemental judge asked.

  “There are three more enlightened. Chaotic beasts as you say.”

  “Where is the agent that changed you?” Anthony asked.

  “I do not know. I was given my mission and the curse, that was all.”

  “Chaos cell.” The gnome sighed.

  The others looked at the split man.

  “It would be good if we could trace out the cell and see who they’re connected to but then the plague will advance too much,” the dwarf said.

  “Guardian Anthony?” the pig kin asked Anthony.

  “I say that we destroy the cell here, then we alert the authorities in the area. Make sure that the people are prepared to deal with chaotic agents if they want to return here,” Anthony said.

  “With the power of the chaotic forces, do you think that you will be able to heal the city?” the elf asked.

  The judges all looked to Anthony.

  Anthony let out a sigh. “I’m not sure. Once the curse is removed, then people will be able to heal instead of getting sicker. From there, I can clean the water and use my spells to enhance its ability t
o heal. I will need to help here and there with the most severe cases. There will be people who could die, but then medicines will work on them unlike before when they were affected by the curse.”

  “The sooner the better.” The hob tapped their shamanic staff on the ground.

  “I ask the court to allow me to examine the accused’s memories,” Anthony said.

  “It will wipe their personality and kill them.” The pig kin looked to the elf.

  “This is a war and they have attacked our people. They don’t care about their methods and we must eliminate their chaos so that it doesn’t affect Dena. He has become interconnected with chaos. There is no way to remove the power from him without destroying him.”

  Anthony could see the pain in the elf’s eyes as he said those words.

  The chaotic beast was trying to move against invisible restraints.

  “I put it to a vote,” Anthony said.

  They all cast their votes anonymously.

  “Everyone is in agreement.” He looked at the results. “Leadio, your memories will be scanned, your mind destroyed, and your power will be converted so that it might no longer stain Dena.”

  The hammer hit the surface of his table.

  His table disappeared and Anthony stepped forward through the purple court. He stepped upon the air. As he reached the accused, he put his hand on the man’s head. Purple and white intermixed. Anthony was hit with a blast of memories. A young man growing up, he hadn’t been outstanding but he had a simple family who lived on the outskirts of Dena. He had been out playing when a group of beast kin had hidden in his village. They had been across the border in the human lands; the elves didn’t know and hosted them, looking after their wounds.

  Humans had come in and demanded to be allowed into the town.

  With ancient elven culture, the mayor refused politely. The beast kin were their guests; they wouldn’t go against their old traditions.

  The humans had then burned down the village. The beast kin and humans had fought one another. The beast kin had won, but instead of helping the people who had helped them, they had taken supplies from the elves and ran off.