Xenarra: The Dragon Throne 43 A Civil War?

My eyes instantly focused onto the noise. All I could see was the darkness of the hallway. But as the clapping got louder an old man walked into the room. He was wearing what seemed like normal robes, but on them I could see the occasional flicker of runes appear on the clothes. As well as that once he entered the hall, a pressure fell down onto me though I could tell that he wasn't doing it intentionally. It was just a natural pressure he was producing.

As he walked in, I also noticed that the ranger who was in charge of overseeing us was with him, but was standing back and every time his gaze landed on the old man, it was filled with a kind of reverence and fervour that I have never seen before. I then looked back at the old man.

'He must be really strong, for that kind of look from the ranger.'

Then what was more surprising, was Erebus who appeared seemingly by melting out of the shadows, like he was a part of the shadows themselves. What was even more surprising was that he too, fell in behind the old man.

'Just who is he?'

He walked straight through the room, his eyes never leaving mine. As he got closer to me, the pressure he was releasing was slowly getting stronger but this was only due to him being the source of it so the closer he is to me, the stronger the pressure will be.

Once he stood in front of me, the pressure itself disappeared as if it was never there at all. A let out of a breath, it was at that moment I realised that I had not really been breathing. A layed there panting like a dog for a few minutes. Once I was breathing normally, I slowly got to my feet. Standing in front of the man, all of the hairs on the back of my neck stood up as well as all of my senses were screaming at me to run. This man is dangerous.

After what seemed like an entirety of silence the man finally spoke. His voice was gravely and firm, which was in stark contrast to his appearance.

"So, you are the one I have been hearing so much about. Looking around it seems like there was a good reason for that. Come on now, get up. Come walk with me, we have much to talk about."

I looked around at the others, their b.l.o.o.d.y bodies. Seeing me look at them, the old man had a slight smile on his face.

"Don't worry about them, they will be fine. I will have these to others here to see their injuries. Now come on then, these bones of mine won't last forever you know."

He walked off towards the gla.s.s, which I had looked out of before. Arriving in front of it he muttered something and drew something into the air. Once he was finished, a white, glowing writing appeared in the air. It then imprinted itself onto the gla.s.s. Where it imprinted itself a doorway appeared in the gla.s.s, stunning me.

The old man walked on through the opening. He stopped a few minutes in, then turned back to look at me. "Are you coming or would you like to become a skeleton before we talk."

Sensing the annoyance in his voice, I stopped staring in astonishment and hurried after him. Once I was through the doorway, it sealed behind us. Contrary to my expectations, instead of becoming pitch black, the pa.s.sage which we were now in, was well lit up.

It seemed like this was done with a series of lambs but on each lap there were a large number of different runes inscribed onto them.

After letting me gawk off for a moment, the old man began to walk down the pa.s.sageway. The pa.s.sage itself was made of what seemed to be a solid stone. The stone itself was black, it was so well cleaned that I could see a reflection of myself in it. The roof at the walls were the exact same except for the lamps on the wall.

"So you seem to be strong, at least strong enough to beat the h.e.l.l out of all of them back there. So tell me, what do you know about the fall of the imperium?"

"The fall?", I mutter more to myse;f than to him.

"Yes, the fall. I won't repeat myself."

"The imperium fell, due to a portal to the underrealm opening in the capital of the Imperium. The holy city of Ymountin. Then demons emerged destroying the capital and the Imperium collapsed not long after and was overrun by demons."

The old man looked at me, then he started laughing and laughing. After a few minutes he stopped, then looked towards me and started laughing again. This repeated for a little while, by the time he stopped completely, I was astonished at how long someone could laugh.

"The Imperium fell because it was in the middle of a civil war. The demons had no opposition when they emerged. It was a slaughter or so the books and records say. That's why I was laughing. If there was no civil war the Imperium would have annihilated the demons the moment they left their portals. Unfortunately that was not the case and you know the outcome."

What he told me surprised me alot. In all of the records and the lessons I had been taught there was never any record of a civil war occurring in the Imperium at all. Not even the trace of one, in fact there was never any record of any major problem in the Imperium which as I know think about it, does seem rather stupid of me to belive that there was never any problems at all.

As we carried on down the hallway, there were multiple pictures and carvings on the walls. Each depicting many scenes. From ma.s.sive battles, to people who I a.s.sume are kings sitting on their thrones. There were also images of dragons and weapons. As we got to the end of the hallway. We entered a chamber as I looked around, all I could see was a ma.s.sive picture.

It seemed to be depicting some kind of battle. There were two sides one in red and the other in blue, the most notable thing about the battle was a ma.s.sive black spire in the background. There was also someone leading the red soldiers, his sword was covered in blood and behind the red troops followed him as if he was the leader.

'Isn't this the battle which I fought in that trial. That would mean I was that person…. What is this battle?'

Seeing me looking at the picture, the old man chuckled. "This is the battle of black spire. The man leading the red troops is the first man to awaken part of his bloodline on his own. He would later become the traitor of the blades of vengeance. They were dragon slayers."

After saying that he walked off through the door, out of this chamber. Leaving me alone. Looking around one more time, I followed him out.