Dark Lord: Rise to Power

Arin felt like his lower body would get crushed under this monstrous constriction. He decided to apply 'Feeble' on it, to make it lose strength, and free himself. He believed he could do it, as he was sensing excessive surge of dark energy inside him. He touched the snake and with great difficulty, chanted, "Drained by shadow, let your strength flee; Weaken to death, I whisper my decree". But something strange happened. He received a notification.

[Curse of Feeble has been resisted]

"What isss thissss" the serpent spoke, "Foolisshhh toy trying to cast dark magic? I have breathed and bassssked in Dark Mana. No Dark Magic can even touch me!" The serpent tightened its coil. Arin realized it was his last moment in this world. His only power was Dark Magic. And this was completely useless in front of such a monstrous being.

Arin faced utter despair and regret. He did not know what to do. And then, at this critical moment, he realized his one crucial mistake. He was a necromancer. He had one important and special skill which no one else had- Necromancy. He could raise dead, let a howl that could destroy moral of enemies, and suck the very life from his enemies. And his most valuable trademark skill was raising dead. But he actually had avoided it the whole time. And now it was too late. He doubted if his 'Dread Howl' would proven to be strong enough to shake the great serpent's morale considerably. If he started draining life from it, he feared he would rather explode before he could even suck fraction of the Serpent's life force. But, raising the dead? It was something which was completely possible, so was fighting the serpent with his undead minions. But he could do nothing.

"If only…." Arin murmured in frustration.

"Ssssaid ssssomething?" the Serpent mocked.

"If only I could raise my minions?" Arin whispered, writhing in crushing pain.

"Why don't you try" the Serpent taunted, "whatever it issss!", and tightened its coil.

Arin, tormented to the core, with all his power, shouted at top of his voice, "RISE!". The cry was so emotional, and full of passion and intensity, it echoed through the entire labyrinthian sewage system.

Arin though of giving up. But he still could feel there was a power surging inside himself. Actually, he was having this overwhelming feeling as soon as he had stepped in this secret part of chamber; and it had only grown in intensity the closer he came to this hall. And after entering this chamber he had felt a sharp power spike inside himself. However, it was all for naught. This encounter was going to be his last. "I am sorry father" he said as he decided to give up, and suddenly realized what he had done just now. He literally proclaimed the God of Death as his father, - not to appease him, or in fear of him, or to seek his favor. He did this spontaneously, genuinely, and unconsciously. He did not even know when he had started treating him as his father, but he had.

Suddenly, the stone tablet in the center of the hall started glowing. It was so bright that suddenly the dark hall got illuminated in a bright green glow. And in this glow, first time Arin witnessed his enemy at it's full extent. It was a giant snake, looked like the fearsome snake Anaconda from his past world;- but much much bigger in size, and stronger. Suddenly the door of the hall opened with a loud screech, and both of Arin as well as the giant snake shifted their gaze from each other to the silhouettes that had gathered near the door.

They were obviously Rat men. But there was something different. Their eyes were emitting a cold blue glow. Before both of them could understand what had happened, all those strange rat men jumped on the Snake and started biting, scratching, gnawing on the it's flesh. Not only them, but there were a bunch of rats which also jumped in the fray.

"What foul sorcery is this?" the Snake cried, "how did you turn my servants against me?". The snake did not free Arin, but started throwing its attackers away by whipping them with it's powerful tail. Many of the rat men were thrown like rag dolls against the wall. This collision was supposed to kill them. But strangely, they all stood up. However, every one of them did not got up on their both legs. Some crawled on. Some dragged their legs. But they all attacked the snake again and again. And each of them continued attacking the snake till it got crushed completely under its powerful tail.

However, Arin realized, its strength was dwindling. The strange rat men could not make any successful fatal attack. But they were successful enough to chip way the Snake's strength bit by bit with their weak but repeated consistent attacks.

"STOP IT" the Snake shouted, wiggling in pain. It made effort to gobble Arin whole to stop those Rat men and the rats. Arin realized it was a now-or-never chance. He opened his backpack and took out the Acid flask. As the snake's gigantic open mouth closed in, Arin threw the Acid flask in its mouth. The flask broke in its mouth. The snake threw Arin away and started turning and twisting in pain.

Arin felt his spine had broken in the impact. He stayed laid down on his stomach and casted "Life Drain" on the Snake, "From your flesh, life shall seep; Into my grasp, your soul I'll keep". And soon life force started flowing from the snake to Arin. And it was so potent and powerful, Arin felt all his broken bones, limbs, teared ligaments and muscles, all scratches getting healed. He felt even his energy, which he was missing a while ago, was returning to him.

Soon he felt saturated with the snake's life force. He decided to heal his minions now. He had realized these Rat men and rats were nothing but the ones he had killed tonight and had been resurrected hearing his summon to rise. So, he felt it was wise for him to reward them with regained life force.

"Bone and shadow, rise once more, Life from death, health restore." He chanted and the life force that was being suck by Arin from the snake was now getting diverted towards those walking corpses. They all again stood up on their legs. This time they seemed much healthier, stronger, livelier.

Arin looked at the Snake. It was now a shadow of its earlier self. But it was still alive. Arin ordered his minions, "Finish it!", and this time, swiftly this was done. Those awakened rat men moved like shadow and quickly finished the snake which was already weakened enough.

As it was done, suddenly, to his surprise, Arin saw the thick miasma getting dissipated, and now this time the darkness was natural, and normal enough for Arin to see clearly.

He leaned down on the strange stone tablet. To his amusement, he felt the stone tablet was similar to the Stone Statue he had seen in the Realm of Ner'thazir.

"What have you done!" cried a shadowy figure that had appeared in front of the Door, "you have killed our Lord's Child, the Venom Sovereign's avatar, his acolyte". As the Shadowy figure rushed inside and jumped on the withered, mangled carcass of the giant snake, Arin could realize it was a bigger Rat Man.

"Capture him" Arin ordered his minions, and they swiftly moved behind the Bigger Rat Man. The Rat Man did not resist. Either it was too shattered to resist, or it had realized that resistance was futile.

"Who are you?" Arin asked it, "What is happening here?"

"We are Cuitlaquilin" the Ratman spoke dejectedly, "I am their Cazaqui, or priest in your language. I serve The Great Nahun, the God of Decay; - by tending to his Acolyte" he paused, "or I used to". The Cazaqui now broke in tears, "My Lord, I have failed you!"

"Wait" Arin stopped him amidst his emotional breakdown, "tell me first, what is this place, why is My Lord Ner'thazir's Altar is there? What are you and your God is even doing here?"

Cazaqui laughed now, "The vile city of Siterion has been built on ruin of Ziggurat of your Lord. After Malkurt, the wretched Lord of Light's devotees attacked and destroyed the Ziggurat, they built this vile city on ruins of it. But the Dark Energy was too powerful to get rid of. When a scouting party of our clan discovered the chamber, they recognized the dark energy and its potential. So, we brought our Lord's Totem and hatched his acolyte here to let him nourish in this potent dark energy. We were growing strong and we would have successfully invaded this city soon and killed all those humans if you had not destroyed all our plan. Just imagine, all of Cuitlaquilin pouring out of the sewers at dark embrace of night, being guided by out Lord's Acolyte; when all those filthy humans were sleeping, and we would storm the entire city, kill them all; and when sun would rise, the city would belong to our clan". It paused and looked at Arin with a fiery gaze, "But you have destroyed it, YOU HAVE RUINED IT ALL"