Chapter 365

365 Movements In the Darkness

***CONTENT WARNING: LANGUAGE, GORE, AND VIOLENCE***

Marco quickly made his way down the darkened passageways to where the winding stair case was. His guards were all waiting for him, thinking that he might need the extra security. The project that Doctor Stein was working on wasn’t exactly stable..

As they went down, Marco asked; “Has the rest of General Zas’ family arrived yet?”

“Not in the capital, Your Grace. A few are still in Dragonhorn until the actual reunion,” Draco replied as they continued down the long flight of steps.

Running the calculations in his head, Marco nodded before asking; “How are the trackers doing, Norvis?”

The young guard giggled as he replied; “Oh, they’re doing well. My inventions never fail..”

Sheri smirked; “Except that one time-”

“Shut up! That only happened because you got her all wet!”

Sheri shrugged; “We were training. Can’t expect two Water Mages not to use water on each other, right? You’re the idiot that knew she was also a Water mage, but did nothing to protect your little tracking chip. Don’t try to put your failures on me.”

.....

“She’s not Just a Water mage! Skye can use Sha-”

“That’s enough, you two,” Marco stated, then looked over his shoulder; “Draco, what is my current wife up to?”

The guard sighed deeply; “She’s a crazy bitch, that’s what. She went back to your quarters after they had refused to let her back into the meeting. When she saw that girl on your bed, I had to drag her out of the room before she could kill her.”

“Was she touched?”

“No, Your Grace. I stopped Karena from getting to her..”

“Is that how your face got all scratched up like that?” Sheri inquired.

Draco grunted, still angry over the entire thing as Marco said; “It won’t be much longer now.. Then you can dispose of her however you wish, like I promised.”

A dark smile stretched across Draco’s face as he fantasized. It used to disturb Sheri whenever he did it, but seeing how she treated him made her understand why. As they reached the bottom of the stairs, the five visible people went into the lab..

Sheri hated the smell, and couldn’t figure out how the entire city didn’t reek of the dead. Tens of thousands of rotting corpses covered the floors in stacks. They weren’t moving, much to Sheri’s relief. The last time she’d come into the lab with Marco, Stein was preforming tests..

They were simple tasks like swinging a sword, moving oversized rocks from one end of the room to the other; things of that nature. It was to see not only how well they took orders, but to also test if their bodies would function properly.

The ones that were close to being Skulls moved languidly, their slowly-detaching flesh making it difficult for them to move properly. Doctor Stein realized that the more degraded ones needed a special blend of magic, to make it possible for them to fight properly.

The ooze that they used to bind the crystals to the corpses was almost the same as the stuff Richard produced. It connected the dead to their Controllers, which would mostly be Marco’s guards at first. As the five walked to the far end of the massive room, Doctor Stein became visible..

A massive body that was twice the size of General Zas lay on several tables pushed together. As he looked up and saw his guests, the doctor paused in his tinkering to greet them. He was practically bouncing in place as he bowed.

“Good day to you, my King! Oh, such a fine, fine, fine, day it is!

Marco motioned him to stand up as he replied; “Good day to you, Doctor. What is the count up to?”

The doctor smiled; “We have about twenty thousand Decoms here, all coated in the plasma. There’s another twelve thousand Skulls at our second location, too. They’ve all been coated as well, but I can’t make anymore until I have more crystals and plasma. I only had enough left for test subject Zero here..”

As a giant grin stretched across his face, Doctor Stein added; “But It worked, my King! It really worked! Your idea worked!”

Marco stared at him flatly; “Of course it did. Is Zero ready for a demonstration?”

“Oh aye! Aye, he’s ready! But are they?” Stein more stated than asked as he gestured to the four guards.

Draco and Sheri smirked, but Norvis and Benzo glared at him. None of them liked the doctor, but he was their King’s favorite pet. He stunk, was overly hyper, and creepy as hell, but Marco deemed him valuable to his future empire...

“They’re ready. Bring it back,” their King ordered.

Nodding enthusiastically, Doctor Stein placed a crystal on the creature’s chest. It had the pieces of two mages put together, minus the extra legs. Instead of putting the arms as two on each side, he had sewn the two smaller arms in the middle of it’s chest.

That way, the creature could choke or stab it’s victim if it had the gull to fight back. As Marco walked up to it and place his finger on the crystal, Stein poured the last of the plasma on to the corpse..

At first nothing happened, then a loud, bone-chilling roar erupted from the creature before it sat up. It backhanded Stein, sending him flying against the wall. The creature then turned to face Marco, but barely caught a glimpse of him before his four guards were standing in front of him.

Sheri opened a large pouch of water, and used it to douse the creature. Norvis stepped forward and threw several tiny machines of his own design onto him, then snapped his fingers. A massive electric shock shot through the monster, but it barely fazed it.

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Reaching back, it tried to punch them, but Draco and Benzo shifted to block it with their swords. They were both Hybrid Tanks, but even together; they could barely hold it back. With lightning-fast speed, it used it’s other arm to smack all four of them out of the way..

Marco stayed where he was, smiling like a demon. If it could fling his guards so easily, then it was incredibly strong.. ‘Strong enough to deal with my brother’s subordinates, if need be..’

As it cranked it’s arm back, Marco said; “Ahriman, take it’s arms off..”

Out of nowhere, a streak of darkness crossed in between them.. Then the creature no longer had arms. As it yelled out, the black streak came down from the ceiling, and sliced the monster in two. It flailed as it sprayed, coating everything within a few feet in rancid-smelling black ooze, and blood.

Sheri instantly made a gagging noise, which earned her a stern look from Marco. He was covered head to toe in it, but seemed unfazed by the mess. As Sheri choked back the bile threatening to come up, the man named Ahriman turned to face his master..

“Master?” was the only word the shadow figure said.

Marco nodded; “It’s fine. I didn’t expect them to be able to handle it. They can continue to serve me. Well done, Ahriman.”

As the guards regathered their senses, Marco walked over to Stein, to make sure he was still alive. As the man rubbed his head then looked at his hand, there was black ooze. Marco smiled, but his four guards were shocked to see that he was experimenting on himself as well..

“You’re lucky, Doctor. That impact would’ve killed you a year ago,” Marco stated as he extended his hand.

After pulling him up, Stein replied; “That is true.. Very, very true.”

“You put that stuff in your own body?! Aren’t you scared that it’ll kill you?! Or destroy your brain, or something?!” Norvis asked in a whiny voice.

The doctor shrugged; “Well, not the important parts: just my sanity, hehe.”

“Why did it attack, Doctor?” Marco asked, getting back on topic.

After he thought about it a few minutes, Stein replied; “With the connection you have to the other crystals, I think your power is stretched too thin. Once the future Queen brings the Ethereal Spear here, you’ll have all the power you need, and more..”

“When is Princess Skye due back?” Draco asked.

“They’re heading to the Old Capital in a of couple weeks, then she’ll be back a couple weeks after that. Then she and Tidas will go to Sai, and by the time they get back: Alcon will be mine.. Then, Skye will be..”

Benzo quirked an eyebrow at his King; “Why not just convert her once you get the Spear?”

Marco smirked; “Let’s just say that there’s something in Sai that she needs before I can claim her..”

“Is that when you want us to take the General’s family? And King Lawrence’s children?” Sheri asked with an odd tone.

Marco looked at her with a scrutinizing gaze as he replied; “Yes, is there a problem with that?”

Sheri kept her face as placid as possible; “As long as they leave before the General’s family reunion is over. It’ll be hard to collect an entire family from across the kingdom unnoticed.”

Marco nodded, satisfied with her answer; “I know, don’t worry. If I have to, I can have my father delay their departure. I only have to limit my influence until my brother returns. Otherwise, the second part of my plan won’t work...”

After a quick discussion with Doctor Stein about ‘supplies’, the four guards escorted their King back to his quarters. Ahriman had disappeared without anyone realizing it, but that was his job: to go unnoticed. No one except for the other guards even knew that he existed; that’s how good he was.

Draco broke off to go reluctantly tend to Karena. Benzo and Norvis went back to their original tasks of following certain people, and Sheri went back to being Marco’s known, but unseen guard. She used her Mist Mirage technique, and disappeared as Marco opened his door..

The redheaded lass was still sitting on his bed as he walked in and shut the door. Going straight up to her, Marco grabbed her chin and asked; “Do you have family in the city? Anyone that will miss you?”

Still compelled by his magic, the girl replied; “No, my Prince. Just a brother who lives in Lord Reinbolt’s domain, but I havena seen him in years..”

Marco smiled like a madman as he replied; “Good...Then I have no need to hold back..”

************

Zas, Lawrence, Maevis, and Nicolas all made it to the RMC Headquarters, and quickly found the children being spoiled rotten by the soldiers. Victor had two groups playing kickball with him while several others fussed over Anna’s cuteness.

They greeted the children, then asked the soldiers to preoccupy them for a bit longer. Both Zas and Maevis had things that they wanted to discuss with Shasta and Lawrence before everyone went their separate ways for dinner.

Knowing that the children were cared for, the four went off to Tidas’ office to talk with Shasta...