Dark Lord's Obsession

Chapter 5: Touching the Frozen Sea

Dark Lord’s Point of View

The wind beneath my wings gave me the satisfaction of flying over everything. My eyes travelled across the vast ocean. The warmth of the air was pleasant. That salty breeze touched my scale as I flew over along the seashore of the nation of Great East from my castle. The sun was yet to rise. My people were waiting for me near the border of the Frozen Sea of South. Arak castle was our first target.

As I flew over these lands, fixing my gaze where those humans were living, all I could feel was rage. These were our lands. My ancestors ruled over them. Those filthy mortals used to be our slaves. My mind travelled back to those days my father used to talk about.

About a millennia ago, we had everything under our wings. My grandfather was on the throne. He was strong and fearless, just like our kinds. The only thing he lacked was trust. He trusted too much too soon.

My ancestors were the most powerful creatures in this world. We were gifted with an emerald stone that was the source of our power. In our human form, we could control the elements of nature: fire, earth, air and water. But our ultimate weapon was our dragons. We could shift into that fire-breathing reptiles whenever we wanted, releasing our inner beast. In that form, we were stronger than ever, faster than ever. A creature that could live for centuries.

My grandfather trusted the protection of the magical emerald with one of our kinds who was weak enough to resist the temptation of mortal beauty. One day, that human lass poisoned my family to sleep and stole our emerald. When they woke up, they could sense a part of them was missing. Soon they realised the emerald was gone.

Before they could catch her, she crossed our territory. My grandfather was furious. He chased her with his entire army of dark dragons. Their wings caught up with that girl, and their fire spread across her gown. Her limbs gave up. Still, he didn’t surrender. When the last hope was erased from her eyes, she slammed the emerald against a huge rock, causing it to break into thousands of pieces. The emerald became one with the air, leaving hardly anything.

We lost our ability to control the natural elements. But my forefathers were still stronger. They never worried much about the emerald until they discovered a group of warriors from the human world who could control the element of fire. Soon they realised the blessing of the emerald that offered those mortals unique powers to control the elements. Those timid humans learned to protest. They rebelled against the throne and forced us to hide. The worst thing in our species was we could only have male children, and hence we were dependent on our human slaves for birth.

My grandfather died in an old cave out of remorse. He couldn’t protect his kind. The human became more potent, and they kept pushing us towards the darkness. We were ceased to exist. Only a few of our kind was alive when I was born. Since childhood, I learnt how those morons took away our lands and drove us away from our homes. The only thing I was taught was not to trust any human.

Since my young age, I worked hard to enhance my strength. My Dragon was larger than any of my kind. The royal bloodline gave it the power I needed. My only motto was to take back what was rightfully mine, and I would accomplish that at any cost.

The wind around me became colder, making me realise I was close enough. We had already conquered the Westmont turning those mortals into our slaves, and the castle of Midlands again became our home. The castle that used to sing the song on dragons became ours once again. The rest of the three continents didn’t welcome us well, causing troubles here and there. A war broke, and they kept losing their people.

It had been almost a century now, and I had had enough of all this. It was time to put an end to this war. It was time to get even with those mortal thieves, and I would start it with The Frozen Sea of South, the weakest of all. And Arak, the closest island to Midlands, would be our first victory.

As I flew higher, a distinct scent caught my nostril. My dark red reptile followed the trail to find my warriors waiting for my arrival. My sight fell on those metallic war marines, standing in two rows. The dark vapour from their stem was making the air heavy. Moving my wings once, I moved towards them. All the warriors were standing on the deck, waiting for my order. They were ready to take down the first castle of Frozen Sea of South, the castle of Arak.

Circling them thrice, I gave them a hint. A loud growl vibrated through my chest, causing them to shiver for a moment.  The other shifters took the lead and jumped off the boat. In a blink, their skin covered with scales, and their nails grew. Their limbs changed shapes, giving them long, scaly wings to catch the wind. I flew a little higher, just enough to be in sight of those warriors. My dragon warriors followed me along with the war marines.  Using my instinct, I led them towards Arak. The small island came into our view.

With another growl, I alerted them. My eyes caught the line of evergreens that were encircling the entire island. A few small villages were scattered here and there, surrounding the wooden castle. I smiled inwardly, imagining how it would look after our arrival.

The dawn light was just touching the villages silently. Everyone was still asleep. The freezing temperature wasn’t bothering my beast much. Inhaling deeply, I exhaled through my mouth, creating smoke. The smoke soon turned into a fire that spread across the evergreens. My warriors followed me, burning down the entire forest that was protecting those villages from others. The ships arrived at their shore soon, and my mortal warriors made their way towards those villages. I flew down near the war marines and half shifted into my human form before I walked inside the ship. A warrior came up with my clothes and helped me to dress up. I knew conquering this island would be easy enough. They wouldn’t need me anymore. My men would take care of everything.

Once I was fully dressed, I walked down. My horse was already prepared. A loud neigh left its mouth as its eyes fell on my half-scaled face. Patting him twice, I climbed on its back. The rest of the warriors followed me to the castle Arak.

The burnt scent and ashes were telling me everything was under control. My warriors were capable enough to take care of everything. When I reached there, they had already captured the duke along with all other nobles and fighters. All the villagers were gathered around the castle. Their hands and legs were wearing the thick metallic chain. Their distressing situation was giving me satisfaction. Those mortal thieves! They stole from us and then rebelled against us. I would never stop before I teach them the lessons they deserved.

As I walked into the front of the castle, my most trusted man, Dimitrov, greeted me, bowing his head, “your Majesty!”  

Dimitrov was my cousin in relation. We grew up together, trained together and made our warriors stronger together. When we were alone, he would call me by my name, but he had always addressed me with respect in front of others.

“Dimitrov!” I nodded. My eyes moved towards the women first who would be sent to the slave harem for breeding. They flinched, seeing a monster like me standing before them. My dark red eyes and scaled skins with dark animalistic nails were enough to make them tremble. My legs moved near the lasses standing in a row. Dimitrov might have prepared them. I was the emperor, and hence I got to choose first. Then it would be Dimitrov and other warriors depending on their ranks. Sometimes the lowest-ranked warriors used to get the woman Dimitrov, or I threw out after my night.

Those mortal women had always been beautiful. Their gesture was obedient. As I moved closer, they hung their head low, avoiding my eyes. Using my long nail, I held their faces high, one by one. The fear I could see in their eyes gave me a distinct satisfaction. They all were beautiful, but none caught my eyes. I moved ahead, leaving them for Dimitrov or my warriors. My legs stopped in front of a girl, in the end, holding her head high. She was different. Her green eyes were showing nothing but hatred. Her golden hair was falling freely over her shoulder.

I couldn’t help but smile at her bravery. She looked directly into my eyes as she whispered, “coward!”

Before I could react, Dimitrov came over and slapped her hard, causing he falling to the cold snow bed.

“Watch your words,” he warned.

I thought she would be scared and submit. To my wonder, a chuckle left her mouth as she looked directly into Dimitrov’s eyes.

“A real man would have come in broad daylight to conquer a castle not before dawn when we were helpless.”

Dimitrov was furious. Before he could continue the dispute, I stopped him and asked her instead, “what do they call you?”

“I am Kayla, the lady of the castle.” She spoke with pride.

“A noble-born,” I muttered.

My gaze shifted towards Dimitrov, “send her to my harem. I will personally take care of her.”

“Yes, your majesty,” Dimitrov smirked, looking at that girl.

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