Darkmancer Chapter 10

Almost three months had passed since we had created our first Ill’guard, he had used his powers to slowly change people’s feelings and emotions, and implant a thought into the pupil’s minds. All of this had happened under the noses of the teachers. It had taken almost two and a half weeks for Nocturna to come into contact, she had spent time corrupting the tree’s in the forest and turning them into other Night’Nymph’s. she now had a force of 176 nymphs under her control. I had slowly overtime summoned several other daemons and bound them inside the crystal key to my will. Everything was coming together very well, Tom had mastered balefire and was starting to be able to summon a single arching bolt of dark lightening. Lucifer had grown stronger, but still need the feeding, I had granted him a new power, the ability to shift into a Ka’Imp. A Ka’Imp was a fully grown version, instead of been an infant in looks, he could transform into a full grown male imp, reaching nearly five hand spans , with powers over fire, but I had also given him the ability to summon balls of balefire. However, this drained him of most of his power and required him to charge up sooner, as a Ka’Imp he could only last for 4 hours before needing to charge up again. 

When Saturday evening came, both Tom and I were ecstatic, the party was happening; I would be on stage in front of the entire school. The faculty, from the lowest grounds men to the headmaster, would be present and pupils of all ages, inside the main hall.

Nocturna sent one of her children, a Vine’Lord, a creature made of vines and leaves, given a roughly human appearance, with eyes that burned with internal fire to tell us that she and her children would also be attending the concert.

I got washed and headed out of the bathroom, Tom was already dressed in his formal robes, I dried of and put on my silk robes. I would need to wear real clothes not simply have the semblance of clothes for this concert. Lucifer was already flying about looking giddy, happy to be able to come out for the concert. We headed out and began the walk towards the main hall, Lucifer was invisible, I double checked and felt the key in my pocket.

“Sam, are you alright?”
“Sorry Tom I was in a world of my own, yeah I'm alright I’m just thinking of the concert, it should be a blast”
“Well it certainly won’t soon be forgotten by anyone”

“That’s for sure, I’m going to go all out, I’m not going to cock this up. I’ve worked to hard over these months to have it fail now. Just make sure that Propaganda is in position and ready for the finale”
We continued on down the path until we reached the doors, the hall was already starting to fill with pupils all wearing the formal robes of the school. The chairs were all out; ready to be filled with the entire school. Some of the teachers were already sat down, Tom went and talked to the band, telling them the list of songs that I wanted to do, I had checked that they could do them all and created a list of what I wanted to perform. 

I went behind the stage and got ready with the rest of the band, who also wore the standard robes of the school. When all people were in the hall, the headmaster came up on stage and announced that it was time for the concert to begin. The crowd cheered and we walked up on stage, the cheering intensified. Lucifer was sat with Tom at the side of the stage, for almost 2 hours we went through different songs, people had got up and were now dancing; the chairs had been moved to the side. Even the teachers were tapping their heels and some were moving with the songs, with some of the more classic music, such as Aretha Franklin. When I had finished the penultimate song, everyone was cheering and clapping. 

“Sorry folks, this one is the last song; this is going to be the big finally”
Telepathically to the Ill’guard Propaganda, who in his human form was called Ickabod Dernal to begin the plan, that we had setup all those months ago.

The band behind me started to play the beginning of T-Rex’s ‘Children of the revolution’ everyone was joining in and singing along. With the final verse starting I looked out of the halls large windows and saw, several Night’Nymph and many Vine'Lords running along the walls, they were in position, Nocturna had secretly entered the hall and was hiding in the rafters, hidden out of sight. 
With the final line, the doors that had been open in the hall, slammed shut, the windows burst showering the crowd with shards, inflicting minor wounds, with a single burst of energy from Propaganda, all the pupils fell down asleep in the hall. Vine’Lords shot their vine fingers and wrapped around parts of the hall, sung into the hall, shooting out small seeds at the crowd on the floor. The seed’s burst out and wrapped a small collar of a single vine around their necks. 

The teachers who had not been effected began attacking the Vine’Lords, several launched fireballs, some dodged others weren’t as successful, when they were struck they burnt into ash, the nymphs entered and were attacked by the gardeners, casting magick's to prune them away. The nymphs simply dispelled any magick that attacked them. They shoot roots out and grabbed many of the teachers, trapping them in roots as thick as a person. The headmaster rose from his chair and was engulfed in high flames, casting them out killing several nymphs. Nocturna dropped down and began to attack, shooting thorns at him, any that touched him simply burnt. I rose from the stage, with a simple gesture Nocturna backed away. I took her place.

“That’s some impressive magick sir, however, you will submit, you are hopelessly outmatched”
“You think that your creations that you summoned are going to take me down, your mistaken young mage”

I allowed for the first time the power of the void, and my Darkmantic self to show. My long blond hair that trailed down to my hips turned to pure black, my blue eyes turned black and the whites changed to black as well. On the surface of my body, small cracks of dark lightening rippled across. The headmaster backed away a step, then renewed his flames, intensifying them casting intense light.
“So you’re a Darkmancer, you still are hopelessly outmatched”

He hurled out a stream of magick, a filament of Darkmantic energy shot out from my waist and consumed the stream. I returned his action hurling a ball of balefire at him, he protected himself with a shield of high magick, and the shield blocked the magick, however, his high magick flames had died down visibly, the light was less intense. He cast a binding shell and threw it at me, it touched me and my magick’s were bound and contained. I was powerless, with a single psychic message, before it engulfed me completely, Lucifer turned into his Ka’Imp form, in a flash of red light, and he flew at full speed to the headmaster, throwing balefire at him, slowly weakening the headmaster’s power. The headmaster turned and began to try to attack him; however, Lucifer was far to fast. He easily dodged any attack, while they fought; I moved and wriggled until the key fell out of my pocket. Nocturna helped Lucifer by hurling thorns at him. Vine’Lords cast out vines that snaked and tried to wrap around him, they burned as they touched the fire, but it was working, his light was diminishing. I could fell my power return, I shouted

“Release the horde”

The key erupted out and the Heartstone blazing, burning a hole in the floor as six Hereazou, eighteen Vrock and 2 Gorgons, burst out and helped Lucifer. The Vrock using their wings flew at the headmaster and blasted him with their fire magick, the Gorgons, threw balls of stone and the Hereazou began to break the spell. The green energy shattered off me and I stood, returned to my full power, with a blast of dark magick all the creatures stopped their attack, Lucifer shifted back to his infant form and flew to me, I tore of my robe and shifted, growing fur, my fingernails grew into claws, large black feathered wings erupted from my shoulder blades and pivoted behind my back ,I was bathed in balefire. Lucifer landed on my chest and crawled and began to suck at my nipple, drawing power to replenish his diminishing resource.

I walked forward and the headmaster began to chant 
“Inceptas Pulcer Imperio”

He launched a huge ball of high magick that engulfed me and exploded in a ball of High Magick flames. Even in the roar of the High Magick I could hear the headmaster laugh, with a swipe of my hands the flames extinguished. The headmaster’s face went from a look of joy, to horror in a second. I launched an attack, casting out twelve dark filaments, all aimed at him, they reached him and drained all the flames out of him, Nocturna seized the moment and drew up a tangle of roots that burst out of the floor below him and wrapped him, reaching into the air, with the rest of the staff.

With the battle over, I viewed the scene. There were many piles of ash, which represented fallen Vine’Lords and some Night’Nymphs, Lucifer crawled up onto my shoulder, and Tom rose from behind the stage, from where he had helped unify the army. The Vine’Lords finished planting the seeds on the necks of the mages. I sent forth hundreds of dark filaments and touched the collars, they melted into the necks and continued until all where infected. The vines were in fact samples of Darkmantic energy trapped in the sap, when this sunk into the bodies, it laced the spirits with Darkmancy, making them into a form of pre-Ill’guard prepared for the change, yet not yet servants completely corrupted and bound to my will. 

When all where melted in Propaganda sent out another pulse and the mages woke up from their deep sleep. Surveying the damage, some wore shock on their faces other wore awe. Several wore a mixture of bliss and excitement, the transfusion was successful, they had become tainted by Darkmancy, freed from the restrictions of mind and body. Their power was now their own to command. 
I walked back up onto the stage, Tom followed, and he had used his powers to change his robe from a turquoise to black, and like a twisted version of a halo, crackles of dark lightening floated above his head. Lucifer sat on my shoulder, looking out on the assembled crowd.

“Welcome to the new order of the Fortress of Ajbal, from now on the old order is to be discarded. High Magick has lost all its power in this place. Originally this place was built as a home for Darkmancers, a place for them to hide from the masses that hated and despised them. Now our time has come again, Mages have shied away from ungifted humans, we separated from them and hide in shadows, and we deny to the world what we truly are. It is time for us to rise up, to rule this place like it should be, we should not hide and fear ungifted humans. We should live in a place where we can be ourselves, where the mages of all ages can live in peace.”