The King's Game - Blackbarrow Arc (Part 1)

Chapter 5: The King's Advisor and his Dance with the Dead

"I told you to leave the boy, there was nothing you could do for him. Your reckless actions could have derailed this entire mission."

"I gave him a peaceful death at least. Or would you rather have let me leave the boy to get ripped to shreds by that beast?"

"We don't care about one boy's life. Sacrifices have to be made, and you will have to sacrifice a whole lot more if you wish to complete this mission."

"I will complete the mission don't worry about it."

"I hope you do, for there is no place in heaven for failures."

The bellowing voice faded and the cloaked figure was left alone. He walked over to the dead boy's corpse and grabbed a flame. The cloaked figure crouched and placed the flame on the corpse's chest, watching as it sunk into the corpse's chest.

"With this your soul will be at peace, and your body will serve a greater purpose."

The corpse slowly started burning and morphing, bending to the will of the flames. As time went by a more coherent shape was taking form. A golem standing at 8-foot-tall was formed from the corpse, it's eyes opened and burned with a deep red hue. The golem raised its arm and drew a massive stone sword, which it plunged into the ground. With both hands still on the hilt of the stone sword, its eyes once again closed, as it returned to a dormant state. The cloaked figure could never understand why the Gods did not see this as cruel, to use the corpses for golem guards. He however, had no say in the matter and was simply following the orders given to him. Even he was not immune to the Gods' wrath, and had no intention of testing it.

"It's almost time. I should get ready to move."

Somewhere in a distant plane, five figures assembled around a white round table. None of them spoke, as they waited for the servants to finish filling their goblets will wine and the table with fresh fruit. Once the last servant had left the room, the female figure was the first to speak.

"How is the mission coming along?"

"Everything is progressing as planned. He even used the boy's corpse as a golem, despite how much he hates it." Another figure said.

"I expect there to be a lot of resistance. The Fallen might intervene and aid those lowlife creatures and their leader Conanus."

"You think Royland can't handle it?"

"I think that we need a contingency plan, in case he fails."

"Should he fail; we will simply eliminate him. We cannot risk exiling him, only for him to join the Fallen."

"Who will we send to eliminate him?"

"Do not worry about that, I have just the person in mind."

"Very well, if that is sorted let us move on to the next topic on the agenda."

"We have already made contact with the Demon King, he has sent a workforce for us to use. With the upcoming battle for peace in Ejitope, he will acquire a lot more units to be used."

"Excellent. Is the meeting still in place?"

"Yes, we will have to make our way there shortly."

"Good.", one of the figures chuckled as it raised its goblet, "To prosperity!"

"To prosperity!" The others said in unison as they raised their goblets.

Deep underground, in a dark room, illuminated only by a dim candle on a desk, a scrawny cloaked man sat and flipped through a book. The book was old and near the point of breaking, the pages seemed as if they would rip from the slightest touch. A scrawny finger with a long pointed fingernail traced along the passages written in the book. At certain points during his reading, the scrawny man would stand up and move to another desk, where a small skull emitting a purple flame hung. Herbs were crushed and mixed before placed into various little pouches. The man took out a small knife and cut the tip of this thumb. With his blood he drew a symbol on the palm of his hand. The symbol looked like a triangle with and eye in the centre, surrounded by a circle with long lashes all around the circle. Once the symbol was completed, a purple flame started burning in the palm of his hand. He opened one of the pouches and sprinkled some herbs into the flame. A puff of smoke arose from the flame and the flame turned blue. The man closed his hand into a fist, extinguishing the blue flame.