The midnight air was serene and carried the chill of the late winter as it flowed through the sleeping town.

A figure darted through the streets trying to shake off the shadows that had been following him for quite a while now. He knew if he got caught it wouldn’t end up with just him going down. The other side was way stronger than theirs.

The plan that they had designed for so long had just been thwarted so easily that it wasn’t even funny anymore. It was supposed to be the beginning of the war but somehow they couldn’t execute their plan.

Presently, there were at least ten or so people that were tailing him and he had been running for a while to try and get them off his back but they were persistent and in enough numbers to keep up.

He had no idea as of how he would get out of this matter but he had to. He needed to get back to his mentor and report to them about his findings. He couldn’t afford to get caught.

He kept running and running until he reached at the dense forest outside of the town and turned around. A small ball in his hands for the times of emergencies like this one.

He stood in his spot, his heart hammering away as he let them come closer and closer until he heard a hoot above him and he whipped his head up to see something small and black circling the sky. He cursed under his breath as the figure swooped on and he gasped feeling the searing pain slice through the side of his face. Its sharp talons sliced through the mask that was covering his face and tore through his skin drawing blood.

He shouted loudly trying to get rid of him as he flailed his arms to shake the large black bird off of him.

"Get him alive!"

"Don’t kill him!"

There were shouts as he whipped around looking at the shadows of the swift guards of the town caught up to him.

The guards were close enough so, he smashed the ball in his hand on the ground. The impact shattered the ball and the black smoke blew out making all of the guards gasp. It was a smokescreen.

The man slipped away successfully using the distraction. Even on his way, he kept turning to see if someone was still on his back. But he couldn’t see or sense anyone.

He had managed to get them off his tail but the tricky part was that he had led them till the forest and that could be dangerous since their base was close enough.

He ran deeper into the forest until he reached at the ruins of a building. He entered through the doorless wall and walked inside, he turned corners watching the feeble light managing to stream through the broken walls and shattered windows until he managed to reach at the end of the corridor and saw a metal door. He sighed before he placed his hand up to his chest probing for the key but then his eyes widened as he couldn’t find it.

He looked down patting at his clothes but he couldn’t find it, the warm black blood was still oozing from the side of his face and he realised that maybe it was during the time that the bird’s attack that he probably either lost his key or dropped it somewhere else.

He felt the anger surged through his being breaking through his skin like black rashes that stood over his skin like the spider web.

He calmed himself and wiped the dark blood from the side of his face wincing before he reached out and banged his hand over the door.

"It’s me, please open up!" He shouted.

A moment passed by and he waited before banging again.

"Open the door!" He shouted again.

His voice echoed through the ruins and he sighed deeply as the side of his face hurt. The bleeding wasn’t stopping. He wondered just what that bird was, no bird was strong enough to attack someone like him like that. And even his bleeding wasn’t stopping, if was as if that bird was-

There was a sound of a creak behind the door and he lifted his head looking at the door.

"Name." A deep voice demanded from the other side.

He sighed, "Azar."

"Where’s your key?" The voice asked.

Azar was apprehensive but he answered, "I was attacked on my way... And I lost it."

There was a moment of silence and Azar waited.

"Were you tracked?" The voice asked, the tone remained even and neutral.

"No, they followed me for a while but then I used the smokescreen to get them off." Azar answered.

There was silence again and Azar felt his patience thinning.

"Hey, I’m injured here and the bleeding won’t stop. Let me in already." He spoke up.

The door opened and swung on the inside, Azar stepped inside and a tall figure stood on front of him. This man was the right hand man of his mentor and there were only a handful of people here. With him being the second in command after their mentor. Nobody knew his real name but they all called him Reikah because he appeared like a hollow shell of a man with his dead black eyes and waxy, pale skin.

"What happened?" Reikah inquired without any hint of concern in his tone or his bleak black eyes.

"A... bird attacked me." Azar answered.

Reikah raised his brow and he pushed his black hood back revealing the left side of his face which now had three large gashes running from his temple to his jaw, the blood continued oozing from them and the black rashes emanated from the wounds.

The man eyed the wound with a cold expression and then looked up at Azar.

"A bird you say." He spoke and Azar nodded wincing again.

"It hurts."

The man’s eyes remained on the gashes before he turned and walked down the dark stairway throwing a command behind him.

"Come."

Azar sighed and walked behind him, he kept his deep brown hair away from his face and followed the man, his green eyes slowly adjusting to the darkness.

"What kind of bird was it?" Reikah asked.

"An owl... A large black owl." Azar said and Reikah’s face remained unchanged.

"The Dragon’s pet." Reikah spoke and Azar pursed his lips.

Azar gingerly touched the left side of his face and now it kind of made sense why his wounds won’t stop bleeding. The Dragon had a pet which was made of mana too, the pure mana that was capable of annihilating the dark mana was latched onto him. The black blood of his body was turned that way because he was preparing to be a Warlock and the first thing that the Witches or Warlocks did was shed away the blood that made them human. Their blood would turn black after the first curse and further they would slowly have their bodies turn as they would be made to injest the demon’s blood. The small amount of intake slowly made their body to adjust and thus after some time they would become capable of casting the larger curses.

Apart from Azar there were around three more apprentices under the Witch that they worked for. Just like Reikah, nobody knew her real name and just called her by her title Domina.

A full-fledged Witch was called a Domina while the Warlock was called Dominus. The two were the strongest humans that would do the bidding for the demons and were capable of summoning the higher level of demons and disasters on earth. But their power was limited because of their human body. The demon’s blood turned them into hybrids somewhere between humans and demons.

Reikah was close to evolving into a Dominus, if they succeeded in their plan of taking over the Sestia kingdom.

Azar and Reikah reached at the end of the stairs and faced the large circular hall. The stone ground had a large enchantment etched on it and in the center of it was a large stone altar where there were a lot of books and other cursed objects.

Domina stood behind it, she lifted her black eyes to look at them as they appeared. Her long curly blood red hair sat messily atop her head and flowed down her back. She wore a black gown with the silver pendant of a ram’s skull hanging from her chest.

It was easy to know a Witch or Warlock when you spotted one, their eyes were completely black with their pupils glowing faint red.

Her red pupils contracted as she saw the blood oozing from Azar’s face and she frowned.

"What happened?" She demanded.

Reikah glanced at Azar who stepped ahead feeling his heart hammering in his mouth and reported about what had happened. Domina’s eyes widened and her jaw clenched.

"So, his familiar injured you."

"Yes," Azar said.

Domina released a sigh and then ran a hand through her hair. She had already been frustrated, because she couldn’t meet her new pawn for the next step of her plan and now the Dragon’s dogs and familiar were on her back. She knew he would get the information about her sooner or later, but for him to see through her plan of the disaster curse and thwart it at once was something that she wasn’t expecting.

It was exactly a millenium ago that the war between the humanity and the demons began. At that time, the Dragons hadn’t appeared in the beginning that’s why the demons had managed to find their way to the earth but now that there was a Dragon here in this era, actively being a hurdle in their path it wasn’t easy to start the war again.

Domina sighed again and picked up the small vial of the black blood from the altar and gestured for Azar to come closer. Azar gulped before he walked over. She opened the lid of the vial picked up a black feather from her desk, she dropped a single drop of the black blood onto the feather and the smoke arose from it as if it was acid.

Azar stood in front of Domina who brushed the feather over the left side of his face. He winced and grunted in pain but didn’t dare move. His skin sizzled and the stench of rotting flesh filled the air before he felt his skin slowly mending itself.

She removed the feather and the three long gashes that were on Azar’s face were now nothing but three faint scar lines. He touched his face, feeling no pain and was relieved that he was alive.

"The blood you shed is precious." Domina sneered, "It’s not yours in any sense, remember that."

Azar bowed, "Yes, Domina."

Domina placed the feather down and placed the lid on the vial before placing it in a box and then while she looked at the grimoire that was sitting open in front of her.

"What did you find?" She asked.

Azar gasped as he realised that he hadn’t reported yet.

"The trials for the future King of this kingdom are going to be held in the capital. The Dragon and his men are done with the preparations. I managed to get the maps and the plan for the place but I couldn’t find what exactly these trials will be." Azar said plucking out the papers from his tunic and placed it down on the altar.

Domina glanced at the papers and the plans of what looked like an arena and a smirk graced her features.

"This is interesting," She muttered.

Azar pointed at the arena and said, "There are chances that the Dragon would have the two Princes spar against each other."

Domina nodded. She could already see different ways to get back at the Dragon for interfering with their plan and he would pay dearly for it. His town, his people and his child would suffer for his actions.