Marked Ones: Advent of the Demon Prince

Life in Aedrider was generally peaceful. For most elves, they could live their entire lives in the country free from experiencing conflict. Even crime was relatively low amongst the populace. Arguments were almost always verbal in nature and rarely escalated beyond that.

Such was the result of being a long-lived race. Each generation that passed on had centuries of knowledge that they shared with the others. This vast collection of knowledge that was eagerly shared between each other led to a rather harmonious environment in which elves thrived. At least, that's how it was in the deeper parts of elven territory.

Nerill grew up in a border village. All of her relatives were pure-blooded elves, but rather than move away from the borders, they stayed in their ancestral lands, tending to the fields. Life for Nerill and the other villagers was not such a dream as was told to her by her grandparents as fantastical bedtime stories.

Rather than the peaceful life free of struggles, they suffered constant attacks by bandit groups who were almost always made up of other races or mixed-bloods. Because of them, the life she was born into was filled with difficulty, forcing her to learn to fight and defend her home.

Before she had even turned twenty, the love of her life and the man to whom she was to be wed was murdered by a half-elf brute who thought that he could get away with stealing food. The thief thought that because he had family struggling to eat that he could push their struggles onto Nerill's family through theft of their own supplies.

Nerill's darling fiancé heroically tried to stop the thief, but was unarmed. The perpetrator on the other hand, had a knife and planted it into her lover's abdomen. He tried to claim it was an accident and that the knife was not his, but he only defended himself.

However, these were nothing but vile lies dribbling from the mouth of the people who kept her true people from the life of peace they deserved.

Shortly after the funeral, Nerill left for Varris in the hopes of joining the guards and eventually the military. After becoming a soldier, she could then finally move deeper into the country and away from as many of the other races and the mixed-bloods as she could.

Things did not turn out as she had planned though. Nerill ended up under the command of one of these mixed-bloods and stagnated for nearly a decade. The guard captain was aware of her proclivity towards hating non-elves and railroaded any chances she had at promotion or transfer into the military. When Princess Ayalla's armies formed and Varris allied with them, Nerill finally had her chance.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

She quickly was promoted to Vice-Captain of Varris's guards. It was a pleasant posting and she figured that she would do well to help Princess Ayalla build the world that Nerill had dreamed of since she was a little girl.

However, things were changing yet again. She was abruptly awoken by an intense amount of mana and light. Then as she attempted to move from her bed, was knocked unconscious by a constant stream of burning, stinging pain. By the time she came too, she was loosely bound by ropes behind her back.

It took only a few movements of her wrist to force them off and once they fell to the floor, she peered around her. Everyone save their most recent patrol seemed to be in the room with them. It was familiar to her as well as she immediately recognized it to be the storage room on the third floor.

"Vice-Captain, what's going on?"

One of her men next to her, a fresh-faced boy who was new to the force, asked her nervously. His gentle brown eyes and soft expression reminded her of her past lover. Because of this she had taken a liking to him, despite the protocols that opposed such fraternization.

Nerill smiled kindly and reached out a hand, gently brushing his cheek. "Don't worry. I'm sure we will be fine. After all, we are all still in the building and we all seem to be together."

"Vice-Captain!"

A gruff voice pulled her attention to their commanding officer. He had stood up on the other side of the room. He had not yet seen her, but figured she was present. Without hesitation she stood and saluted. "Sir! Present."

She watched his lips move to speak, but someone else's voice spoke out first. They were unfamiliar to her and seemed coated in venom. "Not that I needed clarification on who was in charge, but at least now I know the second-in-command."

All the elves in the room quickly turned to face the person standing at the stairwell. He wore simple black leather armor. His hair was as black as night and the mask covering his face lacked any features, save two holes for him to see.

Nerill felt the hair on the back of her neck stand on end as a wave of mana hit them all. It was similar to when she had just woken up causing her to cry out, "Don't move! It's [Lightning Field]!"

The man in black chuckled evilly before he stood completely straight from his relaxed leaning position. He slowly moved around the room, eyeing each person carefully. He had clearly already done so when everyone was still knocked out, but now that they were awake, there might have been a difference in his assessment.

Nerill could not help but wonder what it was that the man wanted from them. It was clear that he did, because none of them had their throats slit. Neither were any of them injured. Even the suspected burns from when he captured them with [Lightning Field] before were not visible.

"You're all on edge! No worries. If you all simply play along with me, you will return home to your families at the end of this war without issue." He paused before he tapped his finger on his chin. "Though I suppose I can't make any promises about what Letheya's military will do to you… How about this, I promise that I won't hurt you. Deal?"

His words boiled Nerill's blood. She thought that he was some sort of powerful member of the resistance forces. Maybe Kestis had finally grown a pair and made a large move into his brother's territory, but it seemed that was not the case.

Neither was this person a mercenary hired by the mixed-blood brother of Sir Indarel. His words and intentions clearly identified him as a member of the army loyal to the bitch, Princess Letheya.

"Who are you?" The guard captain asked from his corner of the room. The look on his face was grim which shook Nerill a little. She had hoped he was strong enough to break through the spell keeping them from moving, but it seemed that was not the case. "What do you want?"

The man sighed and stopped his pacing around the circumference of the room. By the time the captain had spoken, their captor had almost made a full circuit around the captured elves. The man lifted his hand to his mask and slowly pulled it free of his face. Nerill turned away because she had heard that if a kidnapper showed their face, then it decreased the likelihood they would let you live.

"Titan of Eroa!" The guard captain shouted. His words startled everyone in the room as they all instantly honed their eyes in on the man's face.

Indeed, he matched the description of the infamous man. He had two, glowing eyes that reflected the light crystals hung in lanterns on the walls. One was a brilliant silver and the other glinted like gold. His pupils had a cat-like shape to them and he had an extra set of sharper canines in his mouth.

"I'm so glad you recognize me. That saves me a lot of explanation." He said as he reached toward one of the lamps in the room and flicked it off. Four of these lanterns illuminated the space, but now there were only three. Satisfied, Titan moved across the room to a second lantern, turning it off as well.

"What I want," He said after shutting off the second one, "Is for you to allow me the use of this space. No worries, you can do your work like normal. We will simply be sharing it."

"Why in the world would we do that? You are a monster, an enemy, and a criminal!" Nerill shouted reflexively. She hated the position they were in, but the fact that it was a non-elf who had done it threatened to push her over the edge.

Titan smiled as he flicked off a third lamp. He slowly moved across the room without a sound to the final light source. His hand rested on the crystal.

"What does it matter if you turn off the lights? Though we don't have a beast's eyes like you, elves are not so helpless in the dark." The captain laughed. "Is this some kind of intimidation tactic?"

"No, it just makes things easier. The darker, the better." Titan said with a smile before flicking off the last light. Your journey continues on empire

The room was instantly plunged into darkness. It took Nerill a moment to readjust to the change. Though the light crystals were no longer active, there was still a dull glow coming from the floor thanks to the active spell. Occasionally a spark of lightning would dance across the floor, providing a moment of additional light.

As Nerill surveyed the surroundings, she settled her eyes on Titan of Eroa. He locked eyes with her gaze and smiled once more before snapping his fingers. Instantly, the spell vanished and they could move freely once more. Before anyone could do so, the man said in a tone just barely audible. "[Abyss Break: Abyssal Prison]"