04 The Trade (Prequel)

(Prequel 4/4) The final part of The Bloodstones prequel.

                Magic and Blood were clueless of the recent freedom of the Dark Lord. Both of the lords lived apart from each other. Magic stayed in one of the largest cities still standing on Earth. He watched over and helped out the city as is grew and tried to return to their normal way of life.

                Blood, however, preferred the company of nature. He lived in the outskirts of another large city, a city several miles south of Magic’s city. Blood found comfort in living away from the humans. He always held a distrust for them.

                Together, Magic and Blood watched over the world. They tried to not keep their existence well known to the public, they wanted the humans to control their own lives. They knew that their creation was not what the world needed, especially the state that it is in right now.

                Blood had began studying the notes and studies of the very scientist that created him. He wanted to find out how to destroy another lord. There had to be a way, he thought. Not only to destroy the Dark Lord, but Blood felt he shall destroy himself and Magic as well. He strongly believed they were not needed on Earth. Magic believed the same thing, however, he left the studying to Blood. Magic thought that he should help out the humans as much as possible before they leave, if they ever do.

                Blood remained in his human form since the Dark Lord was locked away. He lived as a human, not a god. He felt it was better that way. The power couldn’t get to his head as easy if he lived amongst the mortals. On this night, he sat in the corner of his hut, scrambling through a pile of notes from Dr. Ratzo. Candlelight fire lit up the whole room. Blood threw a pile of the notes to the side.

                “No, that’s useless…” Blood muttered to himself, throwing another mashed up bundle of notes to the side.

                As the hours went on, Blood seemed to be coming closer to finding what he was looking for.

                “Okay… Very clever, Ratzo…”

                Blood started writing neatly on a blank piece of paper:

1.       A beast, well tamed.

2.       A soul, pure of heart.

3.       The love of a brother.

4.       A young leader.

5.       The strength of a barbarian.

Blood looked carefully at this list.

“It doesn’t quite make full sense, yet…”

                The sound of a human scream blasted through the walls of Blood’s home. He dropped his work and ran to the window. He quickly spotted the source of the scream. A tall woman ran out of the dark woods, looking right towards Blood in the window. Her hair was in a tangled mess, and blood covered almost the entire right side of her body. She was trembling, and her eyes were frozen open with fear.

                Her constant and irregular breathing only allowed her to utter a word before collapsing to the ground,

                “Wolves…”

                As Blood ran up to the woman’s body, he stopped dead in his tracks to something else that had caught his eye. In the depths of the dark, twisted trees, a wolf emerged from the shadows. Blood noticed right away, this was no ordinary wolf. The wolf’s claws shined in the moonlight, protruding over three inches out of his feet, they appeared to be steel, by the looks of the metallic glare. The wolf bared its bloody teeth while its tail lightly swatted back and forth. The end of the tail seemed to form in to a blade-like tip. A dark gas surrounded the wolf as it growled directly at Blood.

                Blood turned back to his door to discover two more of these wolves blocking his path.

                “Can it be? The Dark Lord?” Blood thought to himself.

                One wolf snarled and lunged in to the air towards Blood. Blood simply held up his hand, palm towards the leaping wolf, and closed his hand to a fist. The wolf’s bones snapped loudly and the beast fell to the ground, crippled.

                Blood watched the next two wolves briefly stop and make eye contact with each other. Their eyes met for only mere seconds, but Blood could sense the communication between the two. Each wolf started to circle around Blood as he tried to guess what they were up to.

                Both wolves suddenly burst in to a sprint towards Blood. The first one, Blood took down without a problem, but the second one latched on to the back of Blood’s neck before he could react. The bite sank deeply in to Blood’s neck. He reached his arm back and gripped tightly on the wolf’s neck. Blood yanked the wolf’s body, flipping it over his head and in to the air in front of him. Blood slashed his fingers through the air, and the wolf hit the ground in two separate pieces. A faint black gas seeped from the body in to the air. Blood remained stationary for a moment as he looked around.

                Blood rubbed his already healed neck and turned towards his house. He knew he needed to pack up and go see Magic right away. He ran towards his house and entered the door.

                As the door opened, a rush of air surrounded Blood. The air felt stale and warm as it engulfed his body. The room was soon filled with black smoke. The smoke swirled around Blood’s body for a while, then swarmed to the corner of the room, where all the sounds and feelings of the rushing wind suddenly stopped.

                A familiar silhouette stood in the corner, gazing in Blood’s direction. Blood knew for sure now. It was The Dark Lord.

                “Ah, Blood… You’re useless seal could not hold me in. There are loop holes to everything, brother.” Dark said, smugly.

                “How did you escape? What are you doing here?” Blood demanded and answer.

                “None of that matters now. All that matters is that it is now my turn to walk the Earth and do what I want with it. My plans may be much darker than yours, however…”

                Blood took a step towards Dark, “I don’t know what you think you will accomplish with me and Magic around. You know as well as we do that we cannot kill each other.”

                Dark walked out of the shadow in to the dim light of the cabin, “Ah, you speak only the truth, brother. This brings me to only one conclusion. That temple where I have been locked up for recent years shall work well to keep one of you out of my hair. With one of you out of the picture, no one can overpower me. It takes two of us Lords to take control on another.”

                Blood cut him off, “The humans control more than we ever can, they can-”

                “But of course…” Dark started, “The humans can overpower a Lord with the help of one other Lord, but you dare put your trust in the humans? As we speak, my wolves are tearing them apart limb from limb. My Slashers are a wonder, aren’t they?”

                “You’re a fool, Dark. An evil fool.”

                Dark laughed, “Well, I don’t give a damn what you think, Blood. Once I have you locked up, I will extinguish any human that stands in my way. Magic will be left to hide out and rot until the end of all time... Let’s finish this.”

                                Without another murmur, Dark flew across the room, slamming in to Blood. The two of them burst through the wall of the cabin and back out under the light of the moon. Blood managed to quickly get to his feet. Blood held his hand out towards Dark, swiping his fingers through the air. Dark’s body split in to two pieces that only puffed up in to gas in the air. Blood turned around, looking for Dark.

                                “What are you planning to do?” Blood yelled out in to the air, “You said yourself that you can’t overpower me without the human interaction.”

                                Dark reappeared in front of Blood, “Oh, did I forget to mention? The humans belong to me…

Their weak minds were not hard to control at all. They do what I say, when I say…”

                                Blood turned around and noticed tens of people surrounding him. Their eyes were completely vacant as their hands grasped on to their weapons. Behind them stood an equal amount of the wolf creatures that Dark referred to as ‘Slashers’

                                Dark laughed before he spoke again, “this is the end of you, Blood. May you be kept for eternity in the tomb that you tried to seal me in to.”

                                Blood took a step away from Dark, but shortly thereafter felt a bite on his hind leg. He quickly turned and noticed the Slasher latched on to his ankle. Blood held up his hand and took the wolf out without much effort. Blood quickly turned to a sharp pain in his side. A man stood there with an empty stare, holding a spear that lodged in to Blood’s side. Blood forced the man back and tore the spear from his side. Before the end of these shortly lived events, Blood already had more wolves and more men attacking him.

                                Dark walked up to Blood, who only shortly made contact. Dark held out a hand over Blood’s head.

                                “Goodbye, brother…” Dark muttered under his breath.

                                Blood struggled, throwing one man to the left, one wolf to the right. He was overpowered, though. Blood stopped one man from swinging a sword, but only to leave his side open for another to pierce him. Blood held his arms out and let out a scream. A red aura surrounded him as all his attackers flew away from him. Suddenly, everything was frozen in time.

                                Dark looked Blood in the eyes, “It’s too late, Blood. You’re mine…”

                                Blood reached out an arm towards The Dark Lord, but only saw his hand slowly raise and blur in to darkness. He had passed out.

                                When Blood had awakened, he was in pure darkness. He tried to look around and find out where he was, but only one thought could remain. The Dark Lord successfully imprisoned him. His thoughts were correct.

                                Outside the temple, The Dark Lord stood with a small smirk on his face. A man stood by his side, hidden in the darkness. Dark spoke to him;

                                “Thirteen seals? You placed all thirteen seals on the door, minion?”

                                The figure responded, “Yes, my lord. Thirteen seals…”

                                The dark shadow of a man held up a bag; “In this bag are thirteen stones, where the spells of the seals are incased in. One must place every one of these stones in the door to break the seal.”

                                Dark nodded, “To my strongest minions these stones shall be handed to. With thirteen stones scattered across the land, not even Magic can collect all of them.”

                                Dark laughed as darkness encased around him and his shadow of a friend. They disappeared in to the night as the faint sound of the Blood Lord pounding against the temple doors filled the air.

                                The Blood Lord had been imprisoned. Without his coupled power with The Magic Lord, the globe was up for grabs…