Sorcerer King Chapter 1

Hey Guys! SOOOOOO..... A lot of stuff is going on IRL right now. I just got a forced promotion at my job, IE. my boss got fired, so things are hectic at work, then I had schedule to move this weekend, but due to the crap at work I barely had time to work on my novel. I do have the next chapter ready its just going up tomorrow, so that I can get back on schedule with you guys.  I'm really sorry for this past week! I felt bad about not giving you guys anything so here is this to tide everyone over!

Dragonsunxx

“Ow, OW, OWWWW!” a voice yelled in the darkness, suddenly the crystal flashed and fused with the Skeleton. A flash of green light and the eyes of the skeleton were completely filled and a large creaking sounded as the skeleton moved for the first time in over ten centuries. It looked around, then down at the crystal embedded in its chest. 

“Did you bring me back little crystal?” I asked as I tapped the crystal in my chest.

“No, you were there the whole time, I was forced to bond with you as you were crushing my body.” a voice called out, a little indignant. Suddenly an imp appeared in front of him. The little thing had two small wings short arms and legs and was wearing a suit I had never seen before. It was deep burgundy skin, probably around a meter tall.

The skeleton leaned forward its bones creaking as they were still filling with ethereal energy. As it moved the armor it wore fell away to dust. The only thing left after it completely stood up was its sword strapped to its waist. The skeleton glanced at it before looking back to the imp. 

“What is your name little creature?” I asked it.

“I am the great Imp Chief Zriq.” it said pushing its chest out in pride, “I was once the city manager from the coastal city Gail, unfortunately it fell to invaders who then lost my crystal many decades ago.  What is your name, Master?” Zriq asked after his brief history.

“I am Oberon, or was, as I don’t know how long I have slept.” I answered it. I remembered my name and most of my life but parts were missing, I could tell from trying to remember people from my past and names. The only name I remembered clearly was Lucifer, that traitorous bastard. While I was thinking to myself I failed to notice that Zriq face had completely fell to sit on his backside and looked like he was about to have a heart attack. 

“You’re...You’re… You’re Oberon, The World’s Curse?!” Zriq squicked out in panic.

“Hmm, I don’t know that alias, what earned him or me that name?” I asked curious, my memory was still a little foggy. 

“You, He… Um....” he paused and took a deep breath, “He cursed the entire realm, introducing the Sins of the Races and caused much pain and suffering when he did this.” Zriq explained nervously. 

“Sins of the Races?” I asked still curious. 

“For example. Elves became overcome with Sloth, they live to be much older but rarely interfere with the other races, too lazy to be bothered. More close to home, many fairies and Fae fell due to our uncontrollable Vanity, many becoming ugly and a horror to look at,” he explained and gestured to himself.

I finally remember my last moments before my death and looked at him, “Sorry little fellow, that was indeed me, I had cast a curse on the land meant for just the city and surroundings, but the City crystal I inadvertently used as part of the casting was of the Legendary class and caused a World Shift.”

“We all know that you Cursed the World in retaliation to Lucifer, so you’re not so much blamed as feared that you had so much power. After this incident the World has Shifted twice, the first time was during the Demon-Angel war that caused them to Shift into their own Realms, the second was caused by a Hero that was summoned to try and break your curse.”

“Interesting, so where is Lucifer now?” I asked 

“He is the Leader of the Angel race still and is locked in the Angel Realm. Angels and Demons require immense mana to materialize on the Main realm now.” 

I felt the mana flowing around me and inside my… body. It was quite dense having been concentrated here for many years. I pulled my sword from it sheath and looked at the blade, Promise Bringer, Ender of the Soulless. It was still blemish free but had lost a large amount of it mana over the many years. The blade was a deep blue almost black, with a sharp edge that looked like it could cut stone like butter, the hilt was simple with a ruby sitting above the handle. I let my mana flow to it rebinding it to my soul. I looked over to a boulder that had fallen near the throne, I swung my blade, my bones creaking the whole time, and the boulder fell into two pieces. I found it ironic that a sword used to end the undead was now being wielded by one. 

“That’s one amazing blade Master.” Zriq said admiring the sword in my hand. 

“Yes one of the greatest ever made, it grows with its master.”

“Now where are we, do you know?” I asked Zriq.

“Sorry Master, When I am in crystal form I am unable to perceive my surroundings.” Zriq answered with his head falling. 

“That's alright my little friend let's have ourselves a stroll.” I said as I started to walk slowly to the only door not blocked by rubble. We made our way down a hallway that had seen much better days, all the art and decorations were gone, wasted away by the sands of time. The ceiling looked like it was about to collapse. As my body was still getting reinforced by whatever magic had brought me back I was moving quite slowly. We came to a room that was not completely blocked and I tried to remember what it was in the past.

I walked inside and looked around. I think it was a meeting room as there was the ruins of a table surrounded by pieces of chairs that had rotted away. The only thing I saw was a picture that had been magically enchanted to last the test of time. It had a group of people in it, I recognized myself standing in the middle with the representative of all the races around me, I recognized Lilith was sitting in a chair in front of me, her name coming back to me in a flash.

“Zriq, What happened to Lilith?” I asked the little imp that was following me. 

He looked sad for a moment then answered, “She is trapped in an Angelic prison located on the 4th or 5th floor of Hell, she has been held ever since the Sins of the Races. The Demons have tried to rescue her many times, all have ended in failure, due to her life being at stack eventually Lucifer allowed her to make a statement where she told her children to stop, that was about 100 years ago. I’m not sure about her conditions there.”

“Lovely.” I said with a frown, I was hoping she would have been able to escape.

We left the sitting room and made our way down the rest of the hallway. We came to a decent sized room that was still in good condition, a pedestal was standing in the center with magic runes and sigils engraved on the floor surrounding it. As I was looking around I suddenly remembered what this room was for. It held the fortress crystal that was the defense part of the city, sadly it never was truly challenged because the city fell from inside forces. I ground my teeth in anger at the thought. I walked forward to the pedestal and saw the red crystal lying on it. 

I felt my growing mana, inside my mana sea to see if I had enough to activate the crystal. I placed my hand on the crystal the sight of bones threw me for a second but I pushed it down. I started to channel my mana into the crystal.

[Connection established. Owner established. Power level: 3%]

An image of the surrounding castle came into being in front of my eyes. The image took me by surprise as before I vaguely remember it being intuitive to view the data related to the crystals. I was also surprised by the fact that three of the golems had survived this long, the fortress must have been supplying just enough mana to keep them active. I looked over at Zriq.

“Is this the other world shift you were talking about?” I asked.

“Yes master, it uses magic that the hero convinced a god to create. It has helped the races combat their sins as we have a “Corruption Count” that slowly goes up as you indulge in your sin. Average people sit around 10-20 points. Ahh, if you want to check your own information just think ‘status’.” He explained.

I did what he said and a nearly transparent screen appeared before me. It seemed to hold most of the relevant information about myself, but didn’t show my knowledge or anything in depth.

I looked back to the Fortress screen. There was a lot of damage and I mean a lot. We were also quite a ways underground. The Golems were located in the mage quarter and effectively cut off from us while we were underground. As if reading my thoughts, which I guess it was, a prompt came up.

[Would like to move the Fortress above ground?]

[Mana Required:2%]

[Yes/No]

I looked over the map again the Fortress was about a mile or two squared and was originally the center of a vast city. A regal palace once sat in the middle and housed me and my most trusted advisers when they were visiting from their homelands. The walls were mainly intact having been built using special Dwarven magic that made them last. The rest of the Fortress was mainly of human construction though and I could tell that time had not been gentle. While many areas had been magically reinforced even magic can run out without anyone to supply it, the few buildings still showing on the map were the center portion of the palace and the mage quarter. 

After who knows how long of thinking I mentally clicked the Yes. a few moments later a deep rumbling could be felt under my feet. A blue shockwave rippled out from the Fortress crystal and enveloped everything it touched. I looked over to the window and saw all the stone that was visible through it a moment ago was seemly flowing around the building. This lasted for about 10 minutes when the stone turned to sand and finally we burst through the ground and the rumbling finally came to a stop.