It was early morning in the town of Angel Bay, New South Wales, Australia, just up the coast from Sydney. It was still fairly dark, with only a little bit of light creeping over the horizon. Two maintenance workers, Derek and Paul, were busy doing routine checks on a cellular tower near Angel Bay University, which was the town’s only university.

They were both weary and eager to just get this done, and were drinking a lot of coffee. It wasn’t great coffee, however, and apparently this particular coffee pot didn’t agree with either of them.

“I’m never letting you get coffee for us ever again,” Paul grumbled as he worked on examining the electronics.

“Eh, it’s alright, just makin’ me feel kinda weird. Almost like it’s booze,” Derek said, sitting down on the lawn.

“You’d wish it was booze. But it’s the middle of the week, not Friday,” Paul noted, as he continued to work.

There was half a minute of silence before Derek changed the topic.

“Hey, Paul, you heard about those people goin’ missing recently?” Derek said.

“Oh, no, no, it’s not like it’s not all over the bloody news,” Paul grumbled. “Dozens of people reported missing over the course of a month, and the police suspect there might be even more.”

“You think it’s some terrorist plot or somethin’?” Derek said, glancing at his colleague. “Mass kidnapping for a ransom from the government?”

“If it was it’s sure as hell a ballsy idea, there’s never been a terrorist attack in Australia. At least, not that I can think of,” Paul shrugged. “The feds are usually on it like flies on shit, if this is a mass kidnapping I’m just surprised the culprits haven’t been caught yet.”

The sounds of metal being sheared echoed through the air. Paul was much quicker to react, and shone his flashlight in the direction of the sound. “Hey, what the hell is going on over there?”

“Huh?” Derek blinked, also turning awkwardly in the same direction, fumbling with his flashlight. The two of them could see three figures having somehow ripped large holes in the nearby chain link fence. “what the hell are you doing? You’re damaging private property and trespassing, get outta here before I call the cops!”

The figures stepped through, not answering. They seemed to have skin as black as night, with glowing red eyes and light armour over what looked like normal clothes, complete with helmets. Their expressions were blank, eyes wide.

“Hey, Derek, these guys look super creepy,” Paul noted to his colleague, his hand gripping the flashlight tighter, “why are their eyes glowing like tha-”

“Oh, it’s a prank!” Derek laughed, clapping as he stepped towards the trio, his caffeine-fuelled mind coming to a premature conclusion on what was happening. “Nice job with the paint, fellas, but the costumes really need some work. You almost had me there for a second, I’ll give you that.”

The three figures just stared at Derek, not even making a sound.

Paul began moving towards Derek, intending to pull him back as he stretched out an arm. “Derek, mate, you should step back, I don’t like this at all.”

“What? They ain’t got weapons or anythin’-” Derek was interrupted by his arms being seized by two of the figures, whose free hands suddenly transformed into nasty-looking blades that were held to his throat. “Hey, what’re you doing?!”

Paul almost stopped in his tracks, as he watched the third figure suddenly form some kind of black spherical substance from his body, which floated in mid-air, moving towards Derek. He had a wrench on his belt, but he didn’t know if it was a decent weapon against someone with a helmet. The notion of fleeing entered his mind, if but a moment.

He tried to attack anyway, grabbing the wrench and rushing one of the armoured figures, slamming it into his head. The figure actually stumbled back, the helmet cracked and his face was clearly damaged, but it seemed to just stare at him unblinking, and it wasn’t bleeding, just cracked like a porcelain doll.

Paul swung again. The armoured figure just blocked the strike with its arm, not even flinching from the blow.

The sphere suddenly shot at Derek, sticking to his torso in a splatter of black mass. The man gawked down at it, bewildered. “What the… This stuff is kinda-” Then the black substance began to expand outwards across his clothes. “H-Hey, what’s it doing?!”

The two figures restraining him suddenly let go. Paul wondered why, until it became apparent that, despite Derek’s best efforts, he could not tear the black mass free from his body.

“Get it off me! Paul, help!” Derek screamed in panic as the mass spread, covering most of his torso and spreading to his limbs, beginning to pull his entire body together. He was rapidly silenced as the mass spread over his neck and mouth, with only muffled screams to be heard.

Paul finally found the nerve to flee, dashing away from them with immediate haste, grabbing his phone and hurriedly attempting to call emergency services, something he should’ve done from the start.

“No, we can’t have that,” spoke a distorted, masculine voice from the shadows, as a bolt of energy came into Paul’s vision, striking the phone and shattering it in his hands.

Paul continued to flee regardless, but before he could even reach the fence as he fumbled for the gate key, he slammed right into something that at first he thought was invisible. It took a moment for him to register that the obstacle in front of him was a translucent blue energy field. He tried to slam his shoulder against it, eyes widening as he tried to figure out where it stopped. “What… What’s going on now?!”

“A simple combination of runes, ‘Barrier’ and ‘Creature’, to create a field that keeps living creatures from leaving its confines. I also enacted a non-solid barrier with the ‘Sound’ rune to ensure no sounds escape,” remarked the distorted voice, coming from behind. “Of course, I doubt you understand what I’m talking about, you pathetic little thing that knows nothing of magic.”

Paul spun around, scanning the scene that had been right behind him as he fell down on his ass, slumping back against the barrier. “Barrier? Magic? What?!”

Firstly, the black mass that was on Derek had formed a cocoon around him. And something was growing from it - a humanoid figure that resembled the silent figures, but had a face that Paul realised was identical to Derek’s, and was wearing his outfit under the armour.

Secondly, striding over towards him was a taller figure akin to the others, but one that wore grander, more impressive armour and helmet covering his entire body, along with a regal-looking cloak. Paul swore for a moment that above and behind the imposing figure there had been an indistinct black spectral form with glowing red eyes, gone as quickly as it had appeared.

The regal figure stopped in front of Paul, glaring down at him. The stare was enough to freeze the man to the spot as he trembled. The figure spoke, “I’ve found myself rather enjoying the looks of terror on the faces of weaklings like you.”

“So you’re… You’re some crazy supervillain or something?” Paul said, trying to feign any kind of courage. “I guess you’re behind all the people going missing, then. Well, once the government figures out what’s happening, they’ll just send in the army, and you’ll be-”

Suddenly, the figure’s gauntlet-covered hand shot forward, grabbing Paul by the throat and lifting him up with inhuman ease. Paul briefly choked, registering that the grip was just enough to only lightly constrict his breathing. He tried to strike the hand and arm with his flashlight multiple times, but neither budged. Their eyes met, and Paul realised that what little of his attacker’s face he could see past the helmet looked surprisingly youthful in complexion. How old was he?

“Your attempts at trying to look brave are lacklustre at best,” the regal figure said. “I’m tempted to indulge myself, but I’m on a deadline. Rejoice, you will be reborn as one of my servants, like your colleague was. I am the Tenebris Imperatoris, and the future ruler of this world.”

Paul had little opportunity to either register the name or properly respond as the ‘Tenebris Imperatoris’ started dragging him back over towards the minions, still holding him by the throat as Paul desperately struggled to try and loosen his grip, before tossing him to the ground fiercely.

Paul’s body was wracked with pain, as he tried to get back up onto his feet, but the Emperor’s boot slammed him back down, eliciting a scream of pain. He glanced upwards, to see the Emperor create another black orb, which shot down at Paul’s body.

Paul’s screams were swiftly silenced, only heard by his captors, with the town around him completely unaware of the threat in its midst.