Council of Oblivion

Chapter 17: Revenge

“What are you doing here, Malak?” asked Ansa.

“Enough!” shouted Malak. “No more games. I’ve suspected it all along. You’ve been working against the Council all along. I now have proof. Your precious little servant didn’t cover his tracks well enough. I saw him fighting my armies in Falador.” Malak wasn’t able to hold back his anger. It seeped clearly through in his speech.

“And you followed him back here to find me?”

“Yes, next time you should be more cautious where you send your agents. You’ve grown too cocky Ansa. You’ve overplayed your hand, and now it’s time to pay.”

Ansa paused for a brief moment then chuckled. “Let me say two things. First of all, I never had any intentions of undermining the Council. Second, stop your boasting, you’re making a fool of yourself.”

“Not betraying the Council? You lured our armies into a certain defeat! You sent your servant to help fight against us! That is a CLEAR betrayal!”

Ansa removed her hood to reveal a young, grayish face with orangish hair. “You misunderstand me. My intentions were never to betray the Council. I never destroyed the Council’s armies… I simply destroyed YOUR armies.”

“That’s another thing! How are you making us forget your face! And why?”

“Once again, simply another misunderstanding,” said Ansa. “I’m not making you forget my face. The face you see before you is a magical illusion. The reason you don’t remember my face is because your magical abilities are too weak to do so.” Malak became even angrier at the apparent insult. “Funny, your little pawn, Thyker. He was capable of remembering this illusion face when we met. I wonder, is he really the weaker of you two? I wonder if he’s enjoying that ranger’s armor”

Malak growled. “So, it was you after all! You’ve been working overtime to sabotage me all this time! Before I finish you off, I want to know why!”

“You want to know why all this is happening, do you? Let me dispel the illusion, and I think you’ll understand the severity of the circumstances. I’ll have to make sure you never leave this place alive, afterwards, of course. But then again, I’m supposed to kill you anyway, so I guess that doesn’t make a difference.”

Malak looked slightly puzzled at Ansa. She bowed her head and raised a hand. A few moments later, her face transformed. Malak gasped. “So, you’ve escaped from your prison.”

“Yes, I must say, I feel quite lucky. I spent centuries sealed away, but we both know, what the sands bury, they can sometimes uncover, as well. My master found my prison and was able to release me. Well, master isn’t quite the right word. We’re closer to… partners. Of course, I recognize which of the two of us is calling the shots. I’m no fool. Of course, I’m sure you remember all of this, don’t you?”

“It can’t be!” Malak exclaimed. “He’s supposed to be dead!”

“Supposed to be? Well, with the way the undead acted centuries ago, to some degree, yes, he should be dead. My you severely underestimate him. You were rather young at the time, but I’m sure you remember what happened back then. The undead armies of Canifis stood idly by while my master’s enemies attacked him, waiting to see who the victor would be and taking their side. My master was defeated, as you know. But killed? Oh no. Weakened, yes. But he escaped into another dimension. And of course, once my master was defeated, the Temple Knights hunted me down. They couldn’t kill me, but sealed my away under the sands. Until now, that is.”

“So what’s your master planning?”

“Heh, funny you should ask. His current plan is revenge. Against all who wronged him. See, he got a little impatient. He demanded revenge on the undead armies for your failure to serve him. With your loyalty, he would have still existed in this dimension. You can see why he’s quite angry, and that’s why you and all the other undead of Canifis must perish. Of course, you should be glad. You know that if my master got his hands on you while you were alive…”

“So that’s been your plan all along? To destroy the vampiric aristocracy?”

“Please, give some credit to my master. That’s only the tip of the iceberg. Currently, he’s been banished to the dimension of the demons. The demons adore him. Not a surprise, he is their type. As it currently stands, his ability to affect this dimension is essentially nothing. But that’s going to change. Luckily for him, I, his most powerful ally, still live in this dimension. With my help, I will perform one of the most amazing feats ever accomplished. I will teleport an entire world into another dimension! This world and the world of demons will be one! Of course, the demons’ bloodlust makes them fanatical to this plan. All demons have rallied to help in whatever way they can. Allow me to demonstrate. Come on out, little on.”

Malak jumped back as a ball of light appeared out of his back. The ball of light turned into a tiny imp and ran over to Ansa. “See, my little friends have been spying on you and others all along. And no one ever suspects them. In many cases, no one ever sees them. Thus, I know everything.”

Malak was beginning to panic. He now realized how outmatched he was here. He had to find some way to escape. Somewhere where Ansa couldn’t find him. But where? The imps could be anywhere, they would see him. And even if he did hide, he would only be hunted down by an even greater power when the two worlds merged. There had to be some way to stop her! Malak knew he alone was outmatched. But wait! Ansa had said Thyker showed magical abilities great enough to at least match her illusion. Maybe with Thyker’s help he COULD stop her. He would have to figure someway out for it to happen. But first, there was one more thing he needed to know. “You seemed to have been helping the Council, and said you had no interest in betraying them. But their plans have nothing to do with yours. So why?”

“The answer is more simple than you think, Malak. The Temple Knights have sharp eyes. Without my master, they were able to defeat me once. I needed distractions. Things that would make them shift their focus away from my activities. Your precious Council is perfect. Each of you had your own little plans to stir up chaos around the world. A perfect distraction for the Temple Knights. Of course, I have no interest in whether you succeed or not; the results will all be the same after the teleportation is accomplished.”

So that was it. Malak, Horacio, Glough, Godfather, they had all been her pawns. They were merely a distraction.
“Malak, I must say, I’ve always hated you the most. Even without your unsavory past, you are arrogant and naïve to your own weaknesses. I’d like to demonstrate a little something to you.” Ansa put her hands together then touched them to the imp. “Berseker unleashed!” With that, the imps began to glow with magical energy. Its eyes turned red and its appearance became fierce. “Go ahead little one, show him what you can do.”

The imp dashed towards Malak. Wow, it was MUCH faster than Malak had expected. The imp tried to claw at Malak, but Malak countered with claws of his own. Incredible, the imps claws were nearly as strong as Malaks. The imp jump up and took a slash a Malak’s face; he was caught off guard by the quick 1-2 attack, and the imp put gashes into Malak’s cheek. However, the imp was unable to do anything else for a moment, and Malak clawed back at the imp. The imp smashed into the ground and lay there for a moment.

“Aw, poor thing,” said Ansa, “come back here.” The imp jumped up and ran back toward Ansa. She touched her hand to its head and its appearance returned to normal. Malak had defeated the imp, but still, for even imp to be even capable of injuring Malak, even though the wound had already healed by now, it was still amazing.

“Now you see how weak you really are, Malak.” Malak now recognized he was even more outmatched against Ansa than he had thought. He had to escape. “You look frightened. Don’t worry, Malak, I’m not going to kill you.” What? Had she gone soft for some reason? Maybe Malak could escape after all. “No, I’m going to reserve that pleasure for someone else. Dave, Minoxo, come out here!”

The familiar shape of Evil Dave emerged from the cave. Behind him was a greater demon with a broken horn. “So,” said Malak, “you’re going to have the demon kill me off?”
“Actually, I’m reserving that pleasure for Dave. Though Minoxo’s welcome to participate if he chooses.”
Malak came up with an idea. Ansa’s faith in Evil Dave had backfired. Had she decided to kill Malak herself, he would stand no chance. However, with Evil Dave here, Malak still stood a chance. He had a way of creating a distraction for just long enough to escape. “Evil Dave, before you kill me, there’s something I’d like to tell you.”
Evil Dave glared directly at Malak. “Yes, what is it?”
Malak grinned. “Mind possession!” Now was his chance. “Dave, I want you to attack Ansa and the demon with as much power as you can muster.”

Chapter 18: Rain of Fire

Janrok walked up to Tiffy. He was once again sitting on the familiar bench in Falador. The battle had never really breached the city walls, so the inside of the city was basically untouched. Of course, Falador guards were still trying to repair the broken walls of the city. The humans had undoubtedly won, but there had still been a small price in both money and lives. Janrok himself had spent a good deal of time picking up the ammunition he could recover. When a knife was thrown, it often fell to the ground and could be picked back up. Sometimes, the knife was destroyed in the process and couldn’t be recovered. Still, if you had the patience to pick up your ammunition, you could make it last a lot longer.
Janrok had spent the night sleeping, but today, he was ready to talk about what he had seen during the battle the day before. “Tiffy.”

“Yes, sonny, what can I do for you?”

“Tiffy, I saw something strange yesterday. There was a black wizard in the battle. He was helping fend off the undead.”

“Well, that is strange,” said Tiffy. “One black wizard you say?”

“That’s the thing, I think there may have been more. I saw one wizard. I know him. His name is Dave, he likes to call himself Evil Dave. But I saw a huge magical blast during the battle come from our side. There must have been other wizards hiding in the crowd; Dave is too incompetent to pull off something like that.”

“Evil Dave you say?”

“Yes. Wait, do you know him? What am I saying, you know everything. Go ahead, tell me what you know.”

“Well,” said Tiffy, “for one thing, I know you might be underestimating him. Let me ask you something. You say you know this Evil Dave. Do you know about his history?”

“Actually… no,” admitted Janrok. “I know he’s a wanna-be evil wizard. That’s about it.”

“Ah. Well, let me tell you a story. Several years ago, there was a wizard known as Evil Dave. He was rather ignorant of the world and the magics, but he had enormous potential. And thus, he tried to join the Temple Knights, hoping to do good.”

“Wait, you’re telling me that Evil Dave was a member of the Temple Knights?”

“Well, not quite. He tried to join the Temple Knights. He never completed the training. See, I personally trained Dave in magics. Let me tell you, he was incredibly powerful. But he was a slow learner. In most things, to be honest, not just magic. All he needed was a teacher and time. However, a few low-ranking Temple Knights didn’t like the special attention he was getting. See, I rarely teach students myself, and I took a liking to Dave, to be honest. Well, these two Knights ambushed him one day and tried to kill him. They attacked him mercilessly and left him for dead.”

“How dreadful!” Janrok shouted in horror. “What happened?”

“Well, despite their attempts, Dave barely survived. He never found out who the attackers were, though I might add that I found out and punished them quite severely. Anyway, he knew that they were Temple Knights. After the attack, he soon came to see me personally. See, he had a great deal of trust in me before then, and even at that point. It seemed like a struggle was starting inside of him. He believed Temple Knights to be the absolute good. He always wanted to do the right thing, not necessarily the good thing, and if the Temple Knights could do something so foul, he decided that the good path was not the right one.”

“And thus he decided to become evil?”

“Exactly.”

“But Tiffy, Evil Dave isn’t really evil. He’s just a wanna-be.”

“Ah, but that’s where the beginning of the story comes in. Evil Dave was a slow learner in all things, including in how to be evil. However, with the right teacher… Janrok, you must listen to me. My story was not to elicit sympathy for him. I don’t know exactly what Evil Dave is involved in, but I guarantee it’s something quite dangerous.”

“But he was defending the city of Falador!”

“Precisely. Even he would know that defending Falador wouldn’t be evil. To be involved with something like this, he must be working for a very powerful puppet master. And you’ve seen his magical abilities firsthand. Janrok… Evil Dave is extremely dangerous. Should you ever confront him, you must show him absolutely no mercy. Do you understand?”

“But…”

“Janrok! You must listen to me on this!”

“Ok…”

“Janrok. I’m sorry to be asking this so soon, but I need you to do me one other favor. I’m afraid it’s of fairly urgent importance.”

*****


Dave stared at Malak. He continued to stare. “Go!” shouted Malak. “Destroy Ansa and the demon!”

“Well, Dave?” asked Ansa. “What do you plan to do?”

“I…” said Dave. “I think I’ll pass.”

“What!?” shouted Malak. “This isn’t a request!” Malak’s eyes glowed even brighter. “Destroy the two of them!”

Ansa chuckled. “Poor Malak. You’ve never learned the limits of your powers, have you? A true warrior recognizes their strength, but also their weaknesses and limitations. Or else you might find that your own techniques backfire.”

“What are you talking about?” asked Malak.

“Your precious little Mind Possession,” said Ansa. “First of all, it only works on those who feel subservient to you. Of course, in your little undead world, all humans are taught to be subservient to vampires, so you would never notice. Of course, you never learned to investigate how it truly works, so you didn’t know. Second, I doubt you could possibly muster enough magical power to overcome Dave.”

“This human! More powerful than me! Ha!” Malak grinned. “And I’ve seen the Mind Possession work on him. Many times. I used it to spy on you.” Malak’s grin suddenly disappeared. “Unless…”

“So,” said Dave. “You’ve finally figured it out? You’re a little slower than I expected.”

“Malak growled. “So that’s why I couldn’t keep track of Ansa. You’ve been feeding me bad information all along, acting as if it were real information.”

“I actually kept it as similar to the truth as possible while still bending it the way Ansa wanted so you wouldn’t figure it out. Of course, looking at things now, I don’t think that would have mattered.”

Malak boiled over with rage. A halberd of composed of something strange materialized in the air. Malak grabbed it and struck a fighting pose.

“Dave, I’m going to leave this in your hands,” said Ansa as she walked into the cave.

“Foolish woman,” Malak thought. With her gone, he might stand a chance of defeating the demon and escaping.

“Minoxo,” said Evil Dave. “Would you like to assist me for a moment?”

“Ha!” said Malak. “I knew you couldn’t cut it. Already calling for your little friend to help?”

“Don’t worry,” said Dave. “I promise this will be a one-on-one battle. I wouldn’t waste Minoxo’s energy. I’m just going to use him to help me show you something.” Dave reached into the rune pouch and pulled out several runes. Primarily soul runes. He then cross his arms in front of his chest in an X-like shape. The demon mimicked the motion. “Are you ready Minoxo?”

“I’m ready.”

“Ok then. Soul unison!” Dave and Minoxo’s body suddenly turned into a complete shadow. The shadows began to remold themselves into two new forms. Suddenly, the shadows returned back to normal bodies.

“What’s this?” Malak asked in astonishment. It was like looking in a mirror. Each took on a pale, red skin, similar to that of a lighter demon. It was shorter than Minoxo but taller than Dave, and they had the claws of the demon. Yet, they were thin and still took an almost human-like appearance. And they were exactly the same! Well, not quite exactly. Minoxo was still distinguishable thanks to the broken horn on his head.

“This,” said Dave in a growling voice that was strangely both demon-like and human-like, “is the new era of combat. The soul unison. As Ansa told you, the art of combat involves understanding your weaknesses. I’ve gone a step further. With the soul unison, I and Minoxo have combined our attributes. Where I was weak, I’ve become stronger. And where I was strong, I remain strong. The physical abilities of a demon while retaining my magical powers. The ultimate warrior! And what’s best of all… Minoxo is in exactly the same situation.”

“But… that’s…”

“Don’t waste your breath. Nothing you say matters anymore,” said Dave. He turned to Minoxo. “You can take a rest now.” Dave then turned back to Malak. “If we worked together, it would be impossible to stop us. My only regret is that you won’t see what we can really accomplish together. Still, I think you’ll be amazed enough by what a single one of us can do.”

“So you’ve made yourself even uglier. I’ll still take care of you!” Malak rushed towards Dave. He swung his halberd, but Dave dodged it easily. Malak took several more swings, but Dave dodged them without any apparent effort behind it. “Ha! So all you can do is run. I knew it. You’re all talk and no action.”
Malak took another swing at Dave. This time, Dave’s arm glowed and quickly struck into the halberd. A burst of wind released from his hand upon contact. The combination of the force of his motion and the wind spell sent the halberd careening out of his hands. “Actually, I was just taking a moment to appreciate how pathetic your attacks are.”
“Well, let’s see what you think of this,” Malak said as he rushed in with his claws.

“I’m a demon you fool,” Dave said as his attack struck before Malak’s could make contact. Malak fell a few steps back. Dave grinned. “Like this, I have claws of my own.”

“I’ll incinerate you!” Malak shouted as dozens of glowing balls of vampiric magic appeared around him. “You won’t be able to dodge this.”

“You’re right…” said Dave. “That would be hard to dodge. I have an idea. Let’s try magic versus magic. Your vampire energies vs. my fire driller.”

“Your what?”

“Oh, you’ll see soon enough,” Dave said as he pulled out a few fire runes. Dave then stuck both hands straight out in front of him, holding the fire runes in front. “Well…, are you ready?”

Without a word, Malak launched the glowing balls all at once towards Dave. Suddenly, it was like Dave was surrounded by a hurricane of fire. The hurricane converged to a point at Dave’s hand. At the same time, Dave launched forward like he had been shot out of a cannon. The energy balls made contact, but upon hitting the swirling flame around him, bounced off in different directions. Malak noticed what was happening, but in his shock, was unable to dodge. The tip of Dave’s swirling flames, as well as Dave himself, hit into Malak and drilled into his flesh. Malak hit the ground and lay stunned with his eyes closed for a few moments. He could feel that a hole had been partially burned into his chest. It was healing, but slowly. It was a near-fatal wound, even to a vampire.

“I wonder what will happen when I do it again from here.” Malak opened his eyes. Dave was standing on top of a small cliff close to Malak, about 20 or 30 feet in the air. Dave was holding the fire runes again in his hand. Dave jumped off the cliff, and the swirling flames encompassed him again as he flew downwards towards Malak. Malak tried to move, but he was still too injured from the previous hit. He could only watch as Dave’s attack rained down towards him.

Chapter 19: Enter Bob, the Mustachioed Hero!

Thyker walked westward past the village of Draynor, thumbing the evil chicken’s egg in the palm of his hand. He had decided to take a different route back to Zanaris, in case Janrok had tried to track him down again. Luckily, the gnome stronghold contained a series of interconnected Spirit Trees which could teleport people to each other. Using the trees, he had teleported to the woods north of Varrock, then walked southward towards the entrance to Zanaris. Once there, he had relayed the message to the Fairy Godfather and retrieved his egg. Now that that was all done, Thyker could resume his quest for the additional foods. However, before anything else, he needed to speak to someone. And that required going to Falador.

Thyker was regretting sending Janrok to Falador. There was a chance that he could still be there. And Thyker still hadn’t completely recovered. However, Thyker needed to speak to Tiffy about the dream message he had received from Karil. Besides, he suspected Janrok had already headed west towards Ardougne to track down Thyker’s trail. Thanks to the spirit trees, he had always stayed to the east of Falador, and his trail would be very difficult to track.

Thyker soon approached the southern gates of Falador. Something didn’t seem quite right… Oh wait, a wall was missing! Wait a minute… why was a wall missing? Well, guards were working to rebuild the wall. They seemed to be working pretty fast too… hopefully that wall wouldn’t be down for long. You never know when an army could try to attack Falador.
Thyker continued into Falador. He knew exactly where Tiffy would be. And his assumption was right: Tiffy was still sitting on the bench. He wondered if Tiffy had even stood up once since Thyker had left. Nothing interesting ever seemed to happen to him, other than getting information.

“Tiffy,” said Thyker.

“Oh, sonny, how are you doing?”

“It’s… complicated,” said Thyker. “Um… why is a wall missing?”

“It’s… complicated,” said Tiffy. “Don’t worry about it now. Anyway, what brings you here? I doubt it was to talk about walls.”

“No. Actually, something strange happened when I…”

“Thyker!” shouted a voice. Oh no… Thyker recognized the voice. Great. He kind of figured he’d have to face him, but he wasn’t prepared! Not yet.

Thyker turned around and saw Marik standing behind him. “Oh, hey Marik… where’ve you been?” he said without much enthusiasm. Well, maybe it wasn’t all bad. He would have had to track down Marik eventually, anyway. And he was kind of curious where Marik had been.

“Oh, I was out getting some of those ingredients on your list.”

“… What?!”

“Yeah, I got tired of waiting for you to get out of the lair. And I knew where to find a few of the ingredients, so I went off to get them.”

“Wait, which ingredients did you find?”

“Well,” said Marik, “I went off to Soviet Shadowville.” Ugh. It looked like Marik had done something useful. Soviet Shadowville was run by an incompetent loser… Thyker didn’t want to go there. “There I was able to find two things. First, I found this,” he said as he pulled out a strange piece of food.

“What is that?” asked Thyker.

“This is the infamous sarcastic kebab… with a mustache,” he said. Once Marik mentioned it, Thyker did recognize what it was. It was a little bigger than a normal kebab, wore sunglasses, and had a thick black mustache.

“You can call me Bob,” said the kebab.

“Wait…” said Thyker, “that thing can talk?”

“Well, I am a ‘sarcastic’ kebab, genius. Did you expect me to be sarcastic through interpretive dance? Because that would be difficult, since I don’t have arms or legs.”

“Yeah… I guess. Marik, what else did you get?”

“I also got this,” said Marik. “It’s called a Giant Limpwurt Root. I got it from a Giant Hobgoblin in Soviet Shadowville.”

“Hey,” said Bob. “Thyker, are you going to comment on how big it is?”

“Yes, I recognize the idea that it’s called a ‘giant’ limpwurt root, so it must be big.”

“Hmmm… well, you didn’t seem to pick that up with the ‘sarcastic’ kebab.”

“Shut up,” said Thyker. “I’ve never seen food talk before.”

“Well, maybe that’s because you didn’t have anything important enough to say to interest your food?” said Bob.

“Do you want a piece of me!?” shouted Thyker.

“Bring it on!” shouted Bob.

“Thyker!” shouted Tiffie. Thyker had forgotten he was there. “Stop it. Look at you. You’re bickering over a word… with a kebab.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right…” said Thyker.

“He started it!” shouted Bob. Thyker drew his sword and wound up for a strike.

“Marik! Get that kebab out of here before Thyker kills it!” shouted Tiffy. “Oh, and you might want to be the one to hold onto it for the trip.” Marik stuffed Bob into his pouch and walked away.

Thyker and Tiffy were silent for a moment. Thyker was the first to speak. “I have to be honest, I’m glad to see Marik’s not dead. Someone like him is a sitting duck in a world like ours.”

Tiffy chuckled. “Oh Thyker. I wouldn’t underestimate him too much. He’s got more ability to defend himself than you think.”

“Look, Tiffy, I know you’re going to try to tell me that Marik is some great fighter and I just don’t know it. But for once, your information is a little wrong. I know that all citizens of Lumbridge are tested for their abilities with a sword, and those who are good are put into the Lumbridge army. Marik must have taken that test, and since he’s a cook, that means he must have failed.”

“Hmmm, so you’re telling me he failed in his sword-fighting abilities? Well, I guess I’ll just take your word for it. Anyway, what did you come here to tell me?”

“Oh yeah,” said Thyker. “Anyway, when I was unconscious, Karil’s spirit came to speak to me.”

“Ah, yes. I’ve often heard that powerful spirits can sometimes commune with the living world. The Mort'ton brothers’ spirits are indeed powerful, and you carry the armor that Karil’s is attached to.”

“Good, so it wasn’t just a dream. Actually, no, that’s bad.”

“What do you mean that’s bad?” asked Tiffy.

“Ahrim also came to speak to me in a dream. Ahrim said that his owner was a powerful mage named Ansa, and that she was attempting some kind of powerful mass teleportation.”

Tiffy thought to himself. Something Thyker said had rung a bell in him. “What kind of mass teleportation?”

“Ahrim didn’t know exactly. He just knew it had something to do with a teleportation spell between the human and demon dimensions that would bring an enormous army of demons into our world.”

Tiffy began to think again for a moment. Then he quickly started shuffling through some of his notes. “But that doesn’t make sense. It would take an enormous amount of runes to perform such a teleportation. The elemental runes might be obtainable, but I don’t think there are enough law runes in existence to perform it. Unless…”

“Unless what?” asked Thyker.

“Unless somehow this Ansa has discovered a way to create a law staff.”

“A law staff?”

“Yes. As you know, staffs can be imbued with the power of a certain type of rune. However, this is incredibly difficult to do, and it’s only known how to be done when using weak elemental runes. However, it is theoretically possible to create a staff for any rune. But that would require an enormous amount of law talismans, and a very powerful staff. Does that ring a bell, sonny?”

“Um… no.”

“Weren’t you paying attention last time I talked to you!” Tiffy shouted.

“Not really… you were just babbling…”

Tiffy sighed. “Let me refresh your memory. We’ve had a problem with a severely large number of talismans being stolen. I just assumed it was some gang trying to sell them off to other people for a profit. But the majority of those talismans were law talismans. And Ahrim’s staff is incredibly powerful. I’m not sure how, but Ansa must have somehow discovered to create a law staff. Still, she would somehow need to obtain enough elemental runes to perform the teleportation spell… and even that can’t be easy.”

“So what’s to be done?” Thyker asked.

“Oh, don’t worry yourself about it sonny. I’ll have my Temple Knights look into it. Just continue your little mission. Oh, and one more thing. Please stop in to see me when you’ve gathered all your ingredients. I’d like to check up with how you’re doing at that time.”

*****


“You’re telling me Malak’s entire army was wiped out in one battle?!” Glough shouted.

“To the best of my knowledge, yes,” said Horacio. The Godfather nodded from across the room. It was a good thing that door prevented sound from escaping, or else the entire castle could have heard Glough. “However, I don’t know for sure quite yet. Malak hasn’t reported to me yet. But his body wasn’t found on the battlefield. For all I know, pieces of his army might have escaped. Nonetheless, it was a devastating blow.”

“But why did he attack so early? We weren’t ready yet,” said Glough.

Horacio hesitated. He wasn’t ready to let his and Malak’s fears about Ansa be known to Glough and Godfather yet. Horacio kicked his foot. An imp was crawling on it. The pesky creatures seemed to follow Horacio everywhere. “He had some issues with his army. He had to attack immediately. That’s all I know. As I said, Malak hasn’t spoken to me yet.”
A puff of black smoke appeared in one of the corners of the room again. As always, it was obviously Ansa. She somehow always knew everything that was going on. He hadn’t informed her of the meeting, yet somehow she knew. He didn’t want to speak with her yet, not without Malak here. Malak was his trump card. Malak had proof that Ansa was up to no good.

Ansa took a step forward. She was dragging some kind of bundle of clothing behind her. “I’ve come to announce my resignation from the Council of Oblivion. It seems you’ve been plotting behind my back all along.” Ansa threw the bundle forward. Everyone in the room, except for Ansa, gasped. That bundle was Malak. Or at least what was left of him. His body and clothes were singed. He was pale, even for a vampire. And there was a rather large hole in his chest. No question, he was dead. “Malak attacked me. I do not know why, but I highly doubt he was acting alone. I no longer feel safe working with the remainder of you. Fear not though. I have no intention of disrupting your plans. Carry along as usual. Do not disturb me and I will not disturb you.” And with that, Ansa disappeared in a puff of black smoke.

Written By: Shadow7
Submitted By: Serpentis
Edited By: Knil
Coded By: Hoof NoobQuest