The giant pried away the wreckage of the door revealing a courtyard within. A spear was thrown at my face. My hand caught it with the tip merely inches away from my left eye. I flipped the spear around and saw who had thrown it. A thickly built man with green skin. (Another troll subtype. Trolls must be either really popular or h.o.r.n.y af) I thought as I chucked the spear at him full force. He tried to catch it but was impaled to the wall instead as he vomited blood and flew backwards. The wall cracked from where he was stuck. He merely hung there like a side of beef in a butcher shop. I grunted.(Not worth the effort I put in. I had hoped for a more entertaining fight.) I thought disappointedly.

My blood puppets poured through the open gate and into the courtyard. It was large to say the least. The size of a football field. Many flowers adorned the walls. But those had died months ago. All that was left was vines snaking up the walls like dead veins on a dark arm. The cobblestones were uneven and the trees withered and dead like a drought had been brought on them. I examined them quickly because something felt off. I felt an ominous and dark power working through the roots and bark. It consumed life energy in great amounts. Souls stayed away lest they risked getting sucked in involuntarily.

"What manner of magic is this?" I whispered in wonder and horror at what just one afflicted plant had done to this place. It was horrific to say the least. There was hardly a speck of life energy left in the courtyard. I began to trace the power along where it entered the tree. As I traced it I weaved through merc packed corridors and archways covered in dead vines bearing withered flowers. Everything screamed death magic here. But nothing I had ever heard about. Necromancy never figured out how to absorb life like this. If so the Cleric faction would have wiped us out eons ago.

It was when I entered the kings hall that I woke up to what it was. The doors were made of a thick wood and coated in gold. Or they were coated in gold. The gold was chipped off and the wood seemed to be rotting. I pushed against the door and it crumbled to nothing but dust. What I saw next scared me. Beings that stood 10 feet tall. They looked strong and muscled. But the only problem I truly saw was that they were all made of shadow. It leaked out of them like evaporating ink. black as night and you couldn't see through it. But that was not all. They... felt like a void. like they didn't really exist. And these were the things absorbing all the life energy I had traced.

"A troublesome one has found us." A deep echoing voice sounded echoing through the hall. I looked around and counted 13 of them.

"I am not here for you. I'm here for that dipstick of a king. Answer my question and I'll pa.s.s through quietly. If not... I think you can guess what my answer will be." I said as I rested my scythes blade tip on the ground where it sank in slightly. The veins stopped absorbing as he creatures moved to encircle me. "A mere Catastrophe cla.s.s welp is threatening us!" A shrill voice echoed. "We should tear you limb from limb." It trilled. I smiled revealing my teeth and my aura began to reach outwards. I could feel them with the aura. But nothing else. My mind began to churn some as I processed the information given to me. One of them suddenly lunged at me. I opened my mouth and caught its arm which dissipated in my jaws. But I still got something. /Shadow fiend part absorbed. Lifesteal is now available among your skills as a pa.s.sive. Adding to Immortal dragon body/

I smirked as the fiends arm reformed. "What sharp reflexes this one has. He will be a good meal for us." The deep voice echoed again. "So all you guys think about is what goes in your stomache... Finally a kindred spirit." I chortled as my wings and arms unfurled. They charged at me together. To went for my back as the others raced about me in haste. I swung the weapon and caught two of them and found to my astonishment that they were absorbed by the demon metal. This made the others hop away from me quickly. The others were still gnawing on my wings painfully obvious to me. My tail whipped up and caught one of them sending it hurtling it above my head where I cut it in half with the scythe.

I managed to grabbed the other one with my back arms and ripped it in half as the other 10 circled me. "He has the kings materials! How? They were supposedly destroyed!" A tenor voice echoed in what seemed to be fear. It was then that I felt and heard something come from the weapon itself. "You think that you shards are enough to destroy me? Simpleton shadows of Lucifer... Hahahahahaha! YOU FOOLS!" The voice was like a giant lion. It roared and was like a rocky avalanche. The weapon s.h.i.+fted and moved about. The scythe turned to liquid and was swallowed by the dragons head. The hammer turned into a clawed paw with four finger-like appendages. The weapon was s.h.i.+fting till what stood next to me was something very interesting. A dog sized lion with draconic horns and steel eyes. The limbs were a lion's with demonic looking hands and feet. I felt something more coming from it. A level of power above mine. "Have you forgotten your king!? I am King Henricus Bartwell! Remember well you fiends. You were and always will be the lowest within my court! I was struck down but I will rise once more to be superior to all races! I will..." He was abruptly cut off as I grabbed his body and bit into it. A m.u.f.fled screaming came from my jaws as I chewed and swallowed. My stomache warmed and I felt the metals melting. I looked at the fiends who were staring at me with their mouths open in sheer shock and horror. "... What? I hat long dialogues from a guy that should already be dead." I grunted with my mouth full of the last half of the metal. /You ate he remains of the demon King Henricus Bartwell.... You're an a.s.s. But anyways. You obtained ever growing aura. A pa.s.sive ability absorbing energy from all surroundings to increase your own power permanently./ Gluttony huffed at me.

I felt the power in the air being drawn to me. Even the fiends were skidding toward me and tried to dig their feet into the ground. / You have absorbed netherworld energy. A life absorbing energy to create half life beings. Combining with current abilities./ I shrugged and swiped my claws at the fiends. They screamed in terror as they were swiftly absorbed into my body where gluttony hungrily ate them. All they gave me was energy. I finished them all off in seconds leaving only shadowy whisps in the air which quickly dissipated. I grunted in dissatisfaction as I pulled dragons cry from my back. "Guess you'll be doing the rest of the work old friend." I tapped it slightly and it seemingly purred in my hands. I saw another set of double doors at the other end of the hall and sent my puppets to open it. What I found made my stomache sick. It was a hall filled with blood, gore, and bones. Human obviously from closer inspection of the skulls above the windows. " He's gone mad." I whispered as I saw the dismembered bodies of hundreds maybe thousands of people. The only way someone gets this many people is from the town. It explains why I saw no people in the city. He sacrificed them all... But for what?

I ventured down further till I reached a set of stairs going up. I began to climb.It only took me a few moments to reach where I needed to. It was a large platform with a crucifix in the middle. And on it was a very awake and obviously extremely scared Samantha. Tears ran down her face despite her being dressed in extremely nice clothes. Like she was going to a ball. I looked around quickly and found noone else around. "Sam!" I shouted. Her head turned and she burst into even more tears.

"Ignis! Help me!" I shot forward like a bullet taking the whole crucifix and flying off the platform. "Where is the king?!" I shouted as I glided down to the courtyard. Sam shouted something but I couldn't hear. I gently set down in the courtyard and untied her. She leapt up and hugged me balling her eyes out. I gently pushed her away and held her at arms length. "Where is the king?" I asked again. She pointed up at the platform mutely where I quickly looked. There he was. Hanging on a web made of black slippery material. He was screaming about something. I looked at he web further till I saw exactly what had done it. A spider the size of a Tour bus. It's eight black beady eyes glaring at me. It was pitch black but that wasn't the freaky thing. Its body was covered in faces. Human, elf, dwarf, and monster faces. Hundreds of them. Each in the image of terror. The largest was a giant face on its abdomen. It was terrifying to any normal being who would have seen it. To me. It made my mouth water a little for some reason. I felt excited. A real boss battle! How would this feel? These are the things I felt. It was like reaching the end of the game to fight the thing keeping the princess captive.

I kept my eyes locked on it as a squeal came from the hallway close by and the Duke and his family raced out to embrace Sam who was still staring in horror at the spider. When they noticed they began to panic at the sheer size of it. "What do we do now! It has to have noticed us by now." Gerald said quickly I waved my hand and a wave of blood pooled close by swirling into a ma.s.sive tornado that grabbed everyone except me. "Ignis!" Sam screamed. I glanced over my shoulder. "I didn't come all this way just to see you die. And death isn't something I'm scared of anyway. Take care of her till I finish this thing off." I shouted as the blood quickly carried them all away. The spider watched me in interest even as it played with it's prey. The king. He was screaming as it suddenly sank its fangs into his skull and tore it form his body. It swallowed it whole very unceremoniously. Blood sprayed out the neck which the spider clamped down on and gulped greedily. It's size began to grow an inch ever second. 20 seconds went by before the body was shrivelled and left a hollow husk. It was then chucked to the ground like a discarded juice box. "That idiot tastes horrible." A cold feminine voice trilled out the spider as the kings terrified face appeared on one of it's legs. "Perhaps you'll taste better." It growled as it lifted its front legs and shot out a strand of black webbing. I set my body on fire which immediately caused the webbing to burn to nothing but smoking ash. "I think me eating you will be the most likely outcome. Bring it!" I roared as I charged forward.