A Guide to Kingdom Building

"By yer gods' beards! K-keep 'em at bay!" The dwarf exclaimed at the knights. "Lad, 'tis us, calm down!"

The Commander noticed the horrible scenario of the knights and the dwarf pinning 132-X down on his bed while the elf tried protecting the beastman at the adjacent bed.

Lord Prestonheim quickly ran to the bed and helped restrain 132-X. He held him down by the chest while the rest held him by the arms and legs. Servus 132-X became stronger than ever, forcing himself to rise from his bed. They pinned him down forcefully to the bed until it broke.

All of them fell hard to the ground, but still pinning 132-X down. Suddenly, they noticed the black veins on 132-X's right arm pulsated and slowly shifted its way to its chest, crawling underneath the ex-slave's skin.

"L-Lord Commander, look!" One of the restraining knights exclaimed. "Something's breaking from his skin!" The knight pointed out.

Lord Prestonheim saw 132-X's skin break as the veins began to incircle the Commander's hand. The foul black blood oozed from the wound and began to latch itself to the Commander. He quickly moved his arms out of there, but he was too late. The foul blood bore its way into his skin, creating a small puncture wound before it slowly slithered in.

As it went inside him, he could feel his memories flashing right from his very eyes. Memories he thought he buried deep in him, the memories he feared to remember the most. It came out fast and went out as quickly—the visions he had at the battle of the Gorge.

He felt everything again. The screams of men and faerfolk burning. The smell of blood and burnt flesh loomed on the air. Cries of civilians that were struck by both sides and the sight of his son's head pierced in a pike on the other side of the Gorge.

Lord Prestonheim never imagined reliving that feeling again—the fear of loss and hopelessness. The feeling of heartbreak and bloodlust. It all came back to him. He froze in shock while the foul blood bore deeper into his skin.

Luckily the mute elf rescued him in the nick of time. The elf grabbed both his hand away from 132-X's chest. She bit her thumb to bleed, then wrote Indicentic Runes on his arms. After that, she pressed her hands against the runes and where it began to light up.

Lord Prestonheim could feel a surge of pain in his arms. The warm light felt like it was burning his muscles. The black blood wriggled defiantly under his skin, causing a lot of pain. The Commander clenched his jaw as he realized that it was working. The black blood was crawling out of him.

The flashbacks faded from his mind and he gained clarity over what was happening. It took another moment for the elf to finally purge the black blood out of him and when it did, he was panting hard as if awakened from a long nightmare. He moved away from 132-X and asked the elf

"W-what was that?" He pointed at the wriggling anomaly that the elf burned with a light spell on the floor.

The elf looked at him, not answering his question. She diverted her attention to 132-X. She wrote another rune of his chest while struggling with the black blood trying to latch on to her. After managing to write it, she activated the rune.

A blast of blinding light overwhelmed the tent. They closed their eyes to avoid the painful glow of the light spell. Lord Prestonheim could only hear unearthly and painful shrieks from where 132-X was. Later the shrieks turned into a gurgle and soon, it was gone.

They opened their eyes to see the elf slumped on the ground while 132-X went limp on the ground. The dwarf grabbed her arm and saw how the spell took a toll on her.

"Lass, that could've killed yah!" The dwarf sighed as he helped the elf up on her feet and let her sat on one of the empty beds near the beastman, who was still asleep from the heavy medication.

"Atleast he'll be alright." She signed back to the dwarf.

"W-what was that?" Lord Prestonheim composed himself.

"It was an Obscurial infestation." The dwarf relayed the elf's answer.

A few moments later, Mnemsiel returned from disposing the bucket of black blood. He was pale and his hand bled profusely.

"Ob..scur…" The elven knight panted as he knelt in exhaustion. His pale face looked as if he was drained of most of exousia.

Lord Prestonheim crawled back to 132-X and checked his pulse by his left wrist. He was still alive, albeit barely. He checked him for any of the defiled blood that might have remained. Everything was gone and cleaned already. The wound on 132-X's arm was still there, but the foul dark blood and the veins were already gone.

Suddenly, 132-X jittered. The other knights quickly grabbed the commander away from the ex-slave. He watched as 132-X began to spew a pool of black blood from his mouth. The dwarf immediately came and put him to a side lying position to avoid from choking on the vile liquid.

After spewing some more, the liquid evaporated immediately into thin air.

132-X eyes began to open and seemed to reach out something from the air. The dwarf saw this and reached for his hand.

"C-cloo..se..i-i..tt…" Servus 132-X weakly murmured.

The dwarf could not clarify what his comrade was saying. 132-X began to convulse and foamed in the mouth alarming them once more, but this time he went limp after that episode.

"W-what did he just said?" Lord Prestonheim asked.

"I…I am not sure, M'Lord." The dwarf answered with a baffled and worried look on his face.

Lord Prestonheim stood up with the aid of the knights and approached Servus 132-X before uttering, L-Let's convene later after everything has been cleaned for." He sighed and stormed out of the infirmary.

The Commander rushed into his tent and wash his sweat with water by a basin at the side of his bed. He panted as he splashed more water on his face and head, trying to make logic of the unusual situation. Lord Prestonheim took the towel by the side of the bed and wiped his head with it and then sat by the side of his bed.

"I didn't know I would see you this distressed?!" Servus 305-M sat by the dark corner of his tent. "I heard a ruckus in the infirmary…"

"GET OUT!" He glared at the redhead.

Servus 305-M tried to open his mouth again to speak but the Commander's glare was too much for him. He went out and left the Commander in his room.

He laid down on his bed and slept until the low level of Andenoon. He woke up and called in some knights into his tent. He instructed them to assemble a make-shift tent beside the infirmary. The knights nodded and bowed in agreement then started immediately.

Later that day, after the tent was set-up Lord Prestonheim called 132-X's comrades into the tent along with Servus 305-M and Mnemsiel and went on to convene.

Everyone was on the edge. With the incident that occurred earlier, it was obvious that anyone was afraid of what might be lurking down the burrow. The dwarf stepped in and told the Commander of what they are against with.

"Me nan told me when I was a wee lad 'bout monsters from the dark." The dwarf began. "Them monsters that feed out of fear and blood."

Servus 305-M scoffed at this idea and laughed. "Are you basing the incident by your granny's story?" He asked sarcastically, "You might as well tell us that a big crystal moon dropped over the land and created aetherium!"

"Are yah mookin' me people's beliefs?" The dwarf modulated his voice, hiding a hint of anger. "Yah telling me nan's story is a jest, Bhstrd?!" He pointed the redhead.

"Yhs! Tlng chyldrn strys mtyr nnt tryth!" (Yes! telling children's story doesn't count as truth!) The redhead answered the dwarf using Dwyrvyn tongue.

"Bhlycks! Cmprhndyn yld strys yr stl yhng! (Bollocks! You're too young to understand the stories of old!)" The dwarf replied. "Whlkd yldrs wv! Cmprhndyn tryth! (We walked with the Yldars! We know it's true!)"

"Silence!" Lord Prestonheim commanded. "If you are to speak here, speak that all can understand!" He growled at them.

The room was silent once more, but the tension never faded. Lord Prestonheim gained control of the conversation once again and pried on the dwarf's earlier statement. He drew his attention to the dwarf and asked.

"What do you mean by monsters?" He massaged the bridge of his nose. "Can you make that clear?"

The dwarf nodded. "Yes, monstars! Yer story call 'em Dhampiirs. Blood suckers, fear mongers yer monsters."

"August," 305-M tried to interject. "You are wasting your time with hearsays and—"

"I need not to hear of your opinion!" The Commander said. "Continue with your story…ummm…" Lord Prestonheim was trying to figure out a name to call the dwarf aside from his slave name.

"It's Dwarf, M'Lord." The dwarf answered. "I don't bugger be called as such."

Lord Prestonheim nodded, "Very well, Dwarf, continue with your story."

"Them monstars, yah called Dhampiirs." He began, "Them ones yah think dies by stake to them hearts, is no ordinary monster. Hell! It ain't gonna work!"

The dwarf cleared his throat, "Them are born from the Crawling Darkness. The ones spat from Oyue's mouth." He walked towards Servus 305-M and stared at him right in his eyes. "Them Obscuros. By Oyue's name, I hope I'm wrong."