Turning back to the headmaster, Aurelius asked him if he could question the prisoner alone.
The headmaster’s eyebrows raised at the request, clearly surprised.
“Are you sure you want to do this alone? Do you know how interrogating someone even works?” The headmaster questioned.
Truly, Aurelius had not the first idea. However, the moment he stepped inside the tent and looked into the eyes of the captive, he could tell that the Dark Elf’s resolve was a moment away from breaking. It wouldn’t take much from Aurelius before the Dark Elf began to spill what he knew.
Aurelius gave a firm nod to the headmaster, communicating his intent.
“Alright... Just yell if you need anything, we should hear it.” And with that, the headmaster slowly walked out of the tent, closing the flap behind him.
Watching the headmaster leave, Aurelius turned around and faced the captive. Walking up, Aurelius sat down in a chair that was placed in front of the captive.
The Dark Elf's gaze flickered with a mix of defiance and uncertainty. His skin was pale, his eyes dark and intense, a stark contrast to the fair features of the High Elves. The atmosphere in the tent grew tense as Aurelius and the Dark Elf locked eyes, both aware of the gravity of the situation.
Aurelius took a deep breath, centering himself before he began to speak, his voice calm and steady. "I don't know your name, and I doubt you'd tell me willingly, but it doesn't matter. I'm not here to intimidate you or play games. I want information, and I believe you have it."
The Dark Elf's lips curled into a faint, bitter smile. "You're quite confident, aren't you?”
A period of silence followed as Aurelius and the Dark Elf stared each other in the eyes, neither backing down.
“Fair enough, there is little reason for me to hide anyways. However, I want you to promise me one thing: after I tell my story you have to kill me.”
Aurelius’ eyes raised at the peculiar request and gave a slow nod of affirmation.
“Deal?” The Dark Elf asked, wanting a verbal confirmation.
“That can be done. However, it depends on the value of the knowledge that you give us,” Aurelius responded.
This time it was the Dark Elf who gave a slow nod.
“I guess I should start with who I am. My name is Kael and I was born within the Dark Elven city of Qar'Malan. My family was part of house Thraeyln, and around the end of my teenage years, I joined the infantry, like many of the boys of my status.”
Aurelius looked at the Dark Elf impassively, he didn’t want to show his emotions on his face. Inwardly however, he couldn't believe how readily the Dark Elf, Kael, had spilled the information.
Suddenly, the Dark Elf’s eyes snapped up, meeting Aurelius’ own.
“But, you probably don’t want to hear that. You probably want to know more about him.”
Aurelius had no idea who this ‘him’ character was, but the Dark Elf said it with such vehemence that Aurelius’ curiosity couldn’t help but pique. Aurelius nodded, urging the Dark Elf to continue.
Kael let out a sigh, “I don’t know too much about where he came from. All I know is that at the beginning of the year, we started getting reports of cities… disappearing, for lack of a better word. One day it was there, and the next, we stopped receiving all contact.
“Of course, we sent scouts to determine the cause of this, trying to understand what was going on. Based on their condition, it seemed as if the cities were coming under attack. At first, we didn’t know he was behind it, we thought it might be the advance of another Chosen on the continent, but there were oddities all over the place. For one, the cities were being lost too quickly, at some points it was on a daily basis. And secondly, and more importantly, there were no survivors, or bodies for that matter.”
Aurelius couldn’t help but interject. “You said the city looked like a battle had taken place right? How would there be no bodies?”
Kael let out another, more resigned sigh. “That was the thing. We had no idea.”
“Naturally, we tried to combat this new threat. Malaki, our Chosen, went searching for whatever was causing this problem. He set out with an army at his back… Luckily, I wasn’t part of this army.”
“After a few days, similar to the cities, all contact with the army was lost. Apparently, the army was destroyed by him, again. The only way we gained knowledge of this was due to Malaki's unexpected return to the capital about a week later. He stumbled back, bearing a tapestry of cuts and scars, a lone survivor of the decimated army."
Kael shook his head, and with a third sigh, continued his narrative.
"Of course, we attempted to extract information from Malaki regarding what transpired and why he stood as the lone survivor. However, he remained unresponsive. Not dead, but unresponsive, barricading himself within his own residence. It was as though something inside him had changed.
“A few weeks later, Malaki finally made a public appearance, leaving the confines of his house. He kept on warning everyone that he was still coming and that we had to leave the continent. Of course, by then, with our Chosen unresponsive, most of our Dark Elven cities had fallen to whoever he was. Only the capital and a few others remained. With no better options, most of the race decided to follow our Chosen, fleeing our continent. That’s when we ended up on yours, the holy hexagon.
“Wait, wait,” Aurelius interjected. “You're telling me your entire race fell to this one person in just a couple of months,” Aurelius asked, horror entering his voice.
Kael flinched at Aurelius’ interjection. “Yes,” came the quiet voice.
“And do you have any idea who this ‘he’ is?” Aurelius followed up quickly. At first, when Aurelius heard that there were no bodies at the sight of the battle, he had naturally assumed that whoever was responsible for this was a necromancer. He had read of similar situations by Necromancer Chosen in the past. However, based on Kael’s recounting, this necromancer was far stronger than any in recorded history. To completely wipe out an entire race, single handedly, was something Aurelius couldn’t comprehend.
“Us, Dark Elves, call him the Maledrakor, meaning ‘general of pain.’ Like I said earlier, at first we thought it was another Chosen, but it seems that Maledrakor is something more than that. I don’t know though,” Kael said with a sad shrug.
Aurelius mulled over what Kael said. There were a couple inconsistencies in what he was saying, and Aurelius would most likely have to confirm elements of the story with other sources. However, another question entered his mind.
“How did you guys end up attacking the capital city?” Aurelius asked.
“I was getting to that. After we left the continent of Aran'thal and arrived in Silverhaven,” Kael began slowly, as if expecting some sort of backlash from the news. “We thought that our main problem was going to be you, the High Elves. We didn’t expect that Maledrakor would follow us from the continent.”
“In the middle of the night we were attacked. After first, we thought it was the High Elves trying to take the city back. We soon realized, however, that it wasn’t. It was something far worse.” The Dark Elf let out another choked sob, likely remembering whatever had unfolded that night. Aurelius patiently waited for him to continue.
“I don’t know how to explain it.” Kael began, tears beginning to well up in his eyes. “But the best way I can describe it is that Maledrakor can corrupt people. It doesn’t have to be dead ones either, like a necromancer. I have watched as comrades have suddenly turned against each other, brother against brother. It was unlike anything I’ve ever seen.”
Aurelius let out a slow breath, his mind racing to process the gravity of the information. This.. the powers that Maledrakor seemed to have were unlike anything Aurelius had ever heard before.
“In what felt like less than a minute, most of our remaining Dark Elven warriors and mages, who were trying to defend the city, were either dead or corrupted. And death wasn’t salvation either.” Kael said, leading off.
The next part he delivered in a whisper. “I’ve watched him raise bodies like a necromancer. Transforming them into undead soldiers that fight with the ferocity that you saw earlier.”
Slowly, the pieces began to click into place in Aurelius’ mind.
“Given how quickly we were losing the battle, our Chosen, Malaki, pleaded for peace with Maledrakor. The entire Dark Elven population was trapped in that city, Silverhaven. We all knew that if we lost this battle, and we surely would’ve, the Dark Elven race would be extinct.”
Kael let out a slow breath before continuing, seemingly trying to calm his nerves. It didn’t work. “To our supposed fortune, Maledrakor agreed to settle with a deal. As you may have guessed by now, the deal was that our Chosen would have to take the Dark Elven warriors, both the alive and corrupted ones, towards the High Elven capital city. If we captured it, Maledrakor would spare us.”
Kael’s tears were now freely flowing down his face as he stared down at the ground before him. “And so, with no other option, we did just that. Together with some of the corrupt troops that Maledrakor sent with us, we sailed towards the capital city. Somehow, the corrupted Dark Elves seemed to have a mind of their own, unlike the regular undead that normal Necromancers summon. These didn’t need to stay in the vicinity of their summoner. They carried out their summoner's directives with a single-minded intensity unlike anything I’ve ever seen before.”
“At first, we were hopeful as we sailed towards your capital. Despite everything that we had recently gone through, maybe — just maybe — with the help of some of these corrupted soldiers we could capture the capital and save our people.”
Kael’s breath hitched as the tears continued to flow. He took another deep breath before continuing, but Aurelius could already figure out what happened next. “We should’ve known better. We should’ve known better to make a deal with a demon. It was nothing but a trap all along, and now the final members of our race, filled with innocent civilians, are at the non-existent mercy of Maledarkor.
A chill ran down Aurelius’ spine as he heard the final words of Kael’s story. A surge of questions surged within him, twined with an even greater surge of apprehensions. The type of power that Kael was describing was something unprecedented, and something that Aurelius certainly couldn’t hope to deal with, especially this early in his growth as a Chosen.
Aurelius only knew of one person that could perhaps provide him answers to whatever the fuck was going on right now and what this Maledrakor creature was. Standing up, Aurelius started to make his way out of the tent.
Suddenly, however, Kael’s gaze snapped up to meet Aurelius, tears still flowing from his face.
“Please kill me now, I have told you everything. You promised!”
Aurelius responded calmly.
“Give me a second, I need to talk to someone.” And with that, Aurelius Left the tent, bolting past the guard outside and leaving the screams of Kael behind.
Instead of heading back into the city, where it seemed that some reconstruction and reorganization was taking place, Aurelius headed further outwards. Using his agility and teleportation, Aurelius quickly left the battlefield behind, finding a secluded area. He wasn’t sure if this was going to work, but he had to try.
“AUGUSTUS!” Aurelius yelled on the top of his lungs, repeating the name a couple of times.
When he first met the god, he had described Aurelius to practically be a glorified entertainer. If that was the case, Aurelius was banking on Augustus watching him right now.
After a couple of tries, a familiar crow popped into existence next to him, appearing in the same manner of his storage space.
“Well, well, well, it seems I have your attention, young Chosen," Augustus' voice from the crow, a blend of formality and amusement.
Aurelius took a deep breath, steeling himself before he began, “Augustus, who is Maledrakor? And more importantly, what is he?”
The crow flapped its wings a couple of times before responding. “Well, it seems like you're in luck. Normally, I wouldn’t be able to tell you the information about another Chosen, that would be against the rules.” Aurelius began, with a smile in his voice. “However, this creature, Maledrakor, isn’t a Chosen, no, no, no. He is something worse.”
Aurelius nodded, urging Augustus to continue. Already one of his fears had been confirmed, and Aurelius needed to know how much deep shit he was in.
“But, before I tell you, there is a story behind the background of this character that you need to understand if you want to know what Maledrakor is. The story is a long story that might cause a lot of questions,” Augustus trailed off leadingly.
The mention of this only served to further pique Aurelius' curiosity. As he gazed at the sun steadily making its descent along the horizon, he turned to Augustus and remarked, "We do have time. I'm all ears."
"Ookkk," Augustus drifted off in a sing-song manner, capturing Aurelius' attention. “Let’s start by explaining how you can become a god.”
