Kios sat silently inside his prison cell. He leaned against the cold stone wall, looking up at the ceiling, which was also the same grey stone.
"I find myself increasingly bored." He let out a weak laugh, "You don't talk much, do you?"
Outside his cell, the female guard leaned against the wall too, except she was standing. Kios could only see her shadow; the corridor with cells lined up had many torches, allowing a well-lit space.
"I don't particularly want to engage in conversation with a lunatic" Her voice was stern. Irritated.
Kios was silent. He sighed dramatically, "I'm a lunatic now? Why do you think that?"
"I hear your ravings. Even at the dead of night, I can hear you speaking quietly"
"And I don't feel like talking to you, so be silent" She added.
Kios reached for his waste bucket, which smelt of piss, and thew it through the cell. The ground on the other side dampened.
The female guard yelped and immediately opened Kios's cell, spear in hand. She was extremely angry now.
"Filthy deranged animal!" She thrusted her spear forward, aiming for Kios's right hand. At that moment, Kios smiled.
The spearhead went through his palm, but when she tried to pull it out, it was to no avail. Kios's hand was gripping onto the spearhead tightly.
Kios's breathing became shallow, but he smiled darkly. "If a snake doesn't have it's venom, then it is just an eel"
Kios punched her with his other hand, aiming for a liver shot. Her eyes widened, and she began kicking Kios.
He put his arm up, and with his hand with the spear in it. He pulled back, making her lose balance. He swept her leg, and with a soft thud she landed onto the hard ground.
The female guard had eyes like slits, and ebony hair that reached past her shoulders. She was lightly armoured, with just some padding underneath a flowing white robe.
Kios pulled the spear out of his hand, leaving it a bloody mess. He clenched his fist tightly and looked at the guard with disdain.
"How am I going to escape a warlord's prison with just one hand?" He pouted
"You won't, you'll die a very painful death. I hope our Khan tears your limbs off and feed them to you"
She tried to get up, but Kios was pointing her spear, which was a crudely made wooden spear with a small triangular steel spearhead — at her neck.
"Tear off some of your robe" He pressed slightly harder to her neck. She hardened her gaze, but obliged, and tore off some fabric.
Kios opened his injured hand, blood was still oozing out of it slowly, and a small gaping hole then went all the way through. She looked at Kios's face, and saw that he was completely unfazed.
"Tie it over my palm" He said calmly. She slowly sat up, and tied the silky white fabric over his injured palm.
"Thank you" Kios smiled sincerely, and with a strong thrust, pierced her neck.
He left the cell, spear in one hand. The 'prison' was really just a long corridor with cells on one side, and torches on the other.
As he walked down the corridor he saw that there were no other prisoners. 'They probably rarely take prisoners. But they didn't kill me, which makes me think they wanted to use me for something…'
'But really, only leaving one girl to guard me, I commend their stupidity'
Kios felt quite weak; two weeks of barely any food and water made one quite helpless physically. Kios was used to starving, so his body retained quite a bit of strength.
Exiting the corridor, he found himself outside. Taking in some fresh air, he looked up at the sky.
It was grey, with dark clouds scattered over. It felt quite cold too, much to Kios's displeasure.
Moddaric, the castle he was currently in was very old. He had been near it when he killed some of the Ghengz. It seemed that the Khan and his group of savages had taken up residence in the old castle.
He had been taking a leisurely stroll when he was ambushed by more then twenty men.
They robbed him of his belongings, and thew him into a cell.
In front of Kios was a courtyard, with three directions. He looked to his right and saw the main body of the castle, he also could faintly hear some voices.
Left led to a tall grey spire, and in front of him was a tall stone wall.
As the wind blew, Kios felt slightly unnerved. He didn't see anyone, which was odd. He thought that Ghengz where very disciplined in warfare and defence. Yet he could not see anyone patrolling the area.
"Perhaps there's something big happening in the main part of the castle" He inwardly muttered.
"My belongings are probably in the spire. I recall one of them walking that direction.
He treaded on the dark green grass and mossy stone pathways, making his way to the tower.
Lowering himself slightly, he creeped towards the entrance. A double wooden door, which he pushed open easily.
A pungent smell hit him, and he smelt the corpse before he could see it. A Gheng's familiar white robe and feather headpiece greeted him. But there was no skeleton.
Kios immediately climbed up the stairs, each floor was empty, bar the few occasional chests and rusted armour sets. Kios reached the top, and saw a wooden pedestal, an empty book place on top of it.
Kios bit onto his thumb, and allowed a prickle of his crimson blood to fall to the ground.
He blurred his eyes, and entered a different state of vision. The world's colours became brighter, and the darkness became a pitch-black.
The empty book was surrounded an eerie light green aura.
"It's not particularly high-level. It appears to have a low-level curse imbued into it. But…"
With a slightly confused expression, he looked down to see his drop of blood has turned into a frothy black.
He turned his back to the book, and looked through a tiny gap. The main body of the castle, which he though he heard voices from, was silent.
Blurring his eyes, he saw that the rectangular building was surrounded with a similar light green aura. And by straining his eyes, he could see that inside the building there were no colours.
An infinite black abyss, which became alerted of Kios's presence. With a jolt of his head, he unblurred his eyes and began rummaging through every chest in the spire.
Clothes, clothes, clothes, gold?
Kios pocketed all the gold coins he found, and in the next chest he found his belongings.
A black cloak with silver lining, four silver chains each attached to a corresponding gemstone. Red, yellow, purple and orange. A vial filled with a black, cloudy liquid and a seemingly normal leather-hilted dagger.
Kios didn't hesitate to put on the cloak, he instantly felt more relaxed and stable - not because the cloak itself had any supernatural properties, but because it was Kios's favourite cloak.
"Moddaric…a fortress for the Farren Dynasty. Farren…they practised mysticism and occult practises, right?" He asked himself.
He went back upstairs and saw the blank book. Instead of touching it directly, Kios used his dagger to flip the pages. But it was all blank, only the yellow tinted parchment greeted him.
Kios's lips slowly curved up as he touched the book. He blurred his eyes and peeked through the tiny gap, and saw that the abyss situated in the main body of the castle was…
"Moving?" Kios saw the body of incorporeal black mist surround the spire, and slowly curve up. He poked his head through the gap and looked directly down.
He heard a myriad of different voices, all in different languages, female and male, child and even the barking and chirping of dogs and birds.
He could vaguely make out shadowy faces with painful expressions. He saw a fat-faced slit-eyed man with a short white beard.
Kios's gaze hardened. "The Khan…" He whispered solemnly. As the mist fully curved up and surrounded the spire, Kios was trapped inside. With the mist blocking the light, he could not see either.
Blurring his eyes he was greeted by the same black, although it had a faint light green outline. The stone was colourised by dull grey — similar to it's real world counterpart.
The small gap, which was only enough for a head to fit through had the black mist go through it, and swirl in a circular motion. It became a cylindric whirlwind of mist, sending Kios slightly back.
The swirling stopped, and Kios could see a similar light-green humanoid outline step out. Kios promptly armed himself with his dagger, and with his heart-beat exceeding it's usual rhythm he clutched tightly onto the yellow gemstone chain.
He saw the figure standing still, and could hear hundreds…thousands of different voices whispering softly in an long-forgotten tongue.
"Thoros…Farren….Ja-
The voices suddenly became distorted, and a moment they returned to normal. With the repeated whisperings of these words the figure slowly stepped towards Kios.
It was unnaturally tall, but was shaped like a human male. The light-green became lighter, and as it continued stepping towards Kios, he unblurred his eyes and thew the yellow gemstone pendent at the figure.
Although it didn't reach him, wisps from the darkness surrounding the spire reached in through the gap and surrounded the pendent.
Kios's smile returned, as he said softly "Light!"
He closed his eyes as the pendent erupted with a blinding light, the darkness around the top-half of the spire was completely obliterated, and as Kios opened his eyes, using the remnant brightness from the pendent, he could see the figure.
Adorned in a long flowing red alb, with golden symbols, was a skeleton. It's eye-sockets where leaking of the familiar black mist.
'I only have a moment.' He reminded himself, the black mist was already reforming to consume the tower. Kios, dagger in hand — dashed towards the skeleton, his cloak swaying behind him.
"Arum, est Ignis" He said breathlessly as the tip of his dagger glowed a bright red. He aimed to stab the skull.
The black mist coming from the eyes of the skeleton formed into the shape of a spear. With frightening speed it was sent flying at Kios, who went to the side, and using his glowing dagger, cut the spear from the side.
Golden flames erupted from the dagger, illuminating the room. Suddenly, thousands of whispering voices softly echoed in Kios's mind. His eyes turned bloodshot as the voices grew louder and sharper.
The mist enveloped the tower, leaving him in the dark. Panting, Kios reached from his cloak and pulled out a vial of that black, cloudy liquid. Screwing off it's cap, he gulped it down.
The familiar, unpleasant taste accompanied by a burst of vitality and spirituality. Kios could feel his body become stronger, and his dagger which fed off his spirituality, let off even brighter flames.
However, blood leaked from both of Kios's nostrils, and he felt an overwhelming bloodlust. The black mist from outside entered the tower and began forming humanoid figures, who ran at Kios.
As he cut them down with his flaming dagger, the fire devouring the darkness, the robed skeleton stiffly walking towards the pedestal. The black mist leaking from it's eyes forming more levitating spears which shot at Kios.
Hissing through the air, the first two where dodged by Kios who crouched and swayed, seeing the spears embed themselves in the stone walls and ground.
'It seems…they…turn solid' His thoughts where scrambled, partially because of the ravings before, but now mostly because of the potion. Holding his flaming dagger in his right hand, it's golden flames almost burning Kios's bare arm, he leaped — with golden flames coming off the soles of his feet, towards the skeleton.
The other two levitating spears shot at both of Kios's arms. Kios, who was feeling so bloodthirsty he felt sick — allowed the spears to pierce his palms, and as they went clean through — Kios landed in front of skeleton.
With his bloody hands, he grabbed it's skull. Staining it with his crimson blood, which turned into a steaming frothy black, which disintegrated it's skull.