A lustrous black chain glistened in my hand, draping down the stairs beneath me, it was firmly fastened to a purple leather collar. The woman wearing the collar lay meekly before my feet. She had deep purple hair and a beautiful black dress that complimented her perfect figure. Despite the beauty before me, my eyes were firmly fixed on the door roughly 30 yards in front of my throne.
The grand hall I presided over resembled a gothic church, elegant stone pillars flanked the central walkway and hauntingly beautiful stained glass windows adorned the walls allowing a myriad of colorful light rays to stream into the room. The entire area screamed Boss Room cementing me as a dangerous adversary for the approaching heroes
My body was wreathed in a formal white suit with coattails that transitioned into a rated waist cape. The suit was adorned with the image of two red skeletal arms crisscrossed on the front with their bony fingers resting on the shoulders of the suit. A blood red formal shirt peeked through the suits collar and lustrous black buttons were fastened at the collar and breast pocket.
A skeletal like white mask rested upon my head obscuring my face and complementing my natural white hair nicely.
Guarded by a legion of skeletons that served as my guards I was confident that the heroes stood little to no chance against me. “You won’t get away with this Judas,” The purple haired woman said. “The Silver Dragon party will stop you.”
“Let them try” I responded, curtly tugging her chain causing the young woman to grasp at her neck. As if on cue, the hall’s great doors burst open as a wave of fire and smoke rolled out scorching the entryway.
A group of four clad in assorted colorful armor and robes entered the room with their weapons at the ready. “We've come to end your tyranny, Judas you traitor.” The group's leader shouted while stepping forward. “Hand over the captives and we’ll let you live.”
“Fools, the living are my servants and the dead are my slaves,” I responded calmly. I raised my hand and the skeletons around me began to stir. Bones creaking and grinding as they slowly encircled the heroes. “And I find you’d be much better slaves than servants.”
The skeletons pounced and swung their weapons. Sparks flew as the leader of the heroes swung a brilliant golden sword, reducing two of the undead in front of him to a pile of bones. The other three heroes began fighting as well, swinging their various oversized fantasy weapons in a frenzy.
I watched with an amused expression on my face as the hero party slowly whittled down my undead soldiers. Growing tired of their futile efforts, I channeled mana in my left palm and readied a spell, “Grasp of Hades.”
Burning charred hands broke through the ground beneath the adventurer's feet. A burly man wielding an axe and a tall brunette woman with a wizards cap had their legs seized by smoldering hands. The skeletons around them struck the two down in their moment of confusion.
The leader of the party grew enraged as he watched his comrades dissipate into magic particles and yelled a battle cry before charging at me. A scream rang out as the fourth party member, an elf girl wielding a bow, was grabbed by two undead and surrounded by several more. Her bow falling to the ground as she helplessly watched her party leader and friend recklessly charge forward
“And then there was one,” I muttered as the hero continued his charge. As he finally reached me, I sidestepped his sword swing and grabbed his arm twisting it behind his back. I folded two fingers inward and bent my wrist pressing a small lever carefully hidden in the palm of my glove.
A mechanical click followed by the sound of rushing air accompanied the hidden blade that sprung from my sleeve and buried itself in the hero’s back. A small grunt was heard as the hero looked down in disbelief at the blade piercing through his chest before fading into mana.
“Now arise my new slaves,” I said, waving my hand. The ground trembled as three fresh skeletons clawed their way up out of the cracked floor. “And kneel my new servant” I spoke as myself and three skeletons surrounded the archer girl cowering on the floor.
___
“Let go of me you wench” I shouted as Lauren, the purple haired beauty that had moments ago been kneeling before me, twisted my arm. “You yanked me pretty hard you know,” she replied while continuing to twist my arm. The two of us were seated in a backstage dressing room after having removed our costumes and makeup.
“The collar was padded,” I shouted. “Forgive me for hurting your dainty neck drama queen.”
“I’ll show you who has a dainty neck” she replied grabbing my neck with her free hand. We continued to grapple with each other until a loud voice called out from behind us.
“An excellent performance as always young Alexander, though I wish you conducted yourself with half the grace of your persona Judas when not under the spotlight” The man spoke. “Yea, sorry Albert,” I muttered while Lauren snickered behind me. Albert was a tall elf with picturesque blonde hair and beautiful blue eyes. While he looked like the frontman of a boy band, he actually served as the director of this Mana Battle Stage.
“I came to inform you that you should begin packing your things,” he said.
“I’m fired!” I yelled.
“No, unfortunately not, it seems your manager found a new venue to perform at,” he responded indifferently.
As he and Lauren exited the room, a beautiful lamia in a tight button up shirt slithered in. She was my manager and while she was a bit of a klutz, nobody had helped me move up the industry as much as her. Her white tail was adorned with neon purple markings which mirrored her white hair with purple streaks.
“Umm, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner” she said bowing her head.
“It’s fine” I replied trying to mask the displeasure in my tone “but why the move, are we downsizing.”
“No no no, not at all !” She replied, raising her head and shaking her hands. “If anything the new venue is a major upgrade. You’ve been climbing up the rankings and I got a pretty good contract at a large venue near your new school.”
“Wait, what new school?” I asked.
“I’m terribly sorry I forgot to mention that as well,” She said, returning to a bowing position.
To summarize, she had managed to get me transferred to some fancy private school with a private Mana Battle Stage on campus. The school had its own dorms but they were a short walk from the school’s Stage so I wouldn't need to commute.
Yes, despite my earlier victory against the silver dragon party, I wasn’t a demon lord or anything of the sort. In fact, the heroes I had killed were currently sitting in the lobby of this venue raiding the complementary buffet. Magic was very much real, though it hasn't always existed in our world.
Nearly a dozen years before I was born, a strange portal opened up in our world through which all manner of fantasy creatures emerged. Despite the potential for disaster, humans made peace with the fantasy creatures and manna flooded into our world allowing humans to use magic allowing for a new era of magical technology and entertainment.
The otherworlders quickly became enamored with human stories of the fantasy genre and embraced those stories to put on tournaments called raids. While most humans and demi-humans had access to light and elemental magic, demons and monsters could use cursed and dark magic
Demons and monsters played the role of villains despite their surprisingly friendly nature in order to entertain the masses and make money. Humans and other fantasy folk would form parties and raid the demon's lairs using Mana Battle Stages, which simulated battles using mana to keep the games safe.
When I was young, I had always wanted to be a hero but for some unknown reason, I could use the cursed magic necromancy despite being a pureblood human. As I tried to join hero parties, I was constantly turned down due to my magic being too evil or creepy.
Thanks to several helpful people in the raid industry like Grace, I established the character of Judas, the human traitor who sided with the demons, and have been growing in popularity ever since.
In this normal world turned fantasy paradise, the silver dragon party were a bunch of losers destined never to make the top page, Lauren was a college freshman acting part time in the shows we put on to make a quick buck, and I was donning a mask and moonlighting as the world's only human dungeon master.
Interesting first chapter.
We look towards your career with great interest.