Blood of Syne

Zane eagerly watched all the cultists struggle with the dark energy. A quarter had already fallen over and died, but the rest were going strong! Nevermind, they were down to half!

A few more gave up before the rest stabilized. The survivors were sweaty and out of breath, but they could feel the dark energy inside of them. They were now all awakened as Dark Mages.

"Down to less than half, could be worse." Zane applauded. "Well, since you guys were heading the meeting, I suppose you could be the new heads… Ooh."

Zane looked down at the cultists around the meeting table, noticing that the second and fourth cultist had failed to survive drinking the dark energy. That left only the third and fifth cultist alive.

He turned to the regular cultists, picking out two at random and calling them over. He made them line up in front of the table with the third and fifth cultist. Zane stepped down from the table in front of them. 

"Okay, names." Zane snapped his fingers.

"H-Harry." Said one of the random cultists. He was young, and had brown hair and eyes.

"Lilac." Said the other random cultist, a girl with long purple hair and purple eyes.

"Benjamin." Said the former third cultist, a man with black hair and gray eyes.

"Sarah…" Said the former fifth cultist, a girl on the shorter side with orange hair and eyes. Zane nodded after getting their names.

"Harry, Lilac, Benjamin, and Sarah. You four are now the heads of the Blood of Syne. Eventually, after being notorious enough, you each better get a unique title." He pointed a finger at them one by one. "As for your main goals: Take down the Magine Kingdom, destroy the Children of Namek - this kingdom's only big enough for one cult - and most importantly, lay low." 

As the newly appointed heads of the Blood of Syne nodded, Zane clapped his hands. Two stacks of paper appeared on the table, one smaller than the other. 

"The big stack is full of basic spell diagrams to get you all used to being a Mage. Once you've mastered them, you can move on to the next stack, which is full of basic Dark Magic spell diagrams."

"Sir Zane…" Sarah raised her hand. 

"What is it, my fourth head?"

"How are we gonna learn the magic?"

Zane blinked. He forgot to give them spellbooks. 

"I'll be right back." 

Before their very eyes, Zane suddenly disappeared. They stood there for a minute or two, unsure what to do. Luckily, Zane reappeared with a large pile of empty spellbooks. He quickly distributed them before coming back to the four heads.

"Ok, once you learn a spell, put it in your spellbook. Get stronger, don't betray me, attack the army when you're strong enough. I'll check on your progress every week. I'm gonna go to bed now."

Zane turned around and yawned before remembering something. He drew a symbol on the wall with his finger. "If you need to reach me just put your mana into this." 

Zane disappeared once again, leaving the cultists confused. Looking around at the state of the room, Lilac cleared her throat. 

"Well, since we're the Blood of Syne now…" She let out a whistle. "I guess our first order of business is to clean up and rebrand." 

Lilac took off the green robe symbolizing the Children of Namek, and the rest followed suit. 

"We serve a new god now. A crazy god, but also a generous one." A glint appeared in Benjamin's eye as he willed the dark energy to appear in his palm. He watched the chaotic black substance with interest. "It would be in our best interests to please him."

"Oh, dear…" Harry bit his thumb. "I'm not sure I'm cut out for this 'being head' stuff…"

"Well, he chose us. Better get used to it." Sarah sighed.

"This is gonna be a long night."

******

The next day, sunrise.

5 people were riding across the outskirts of The Capital. They all wore uniforms, but the one taking the lead had medals attached to his more-detailed uniform.

"Captain Chambers, are you certain they are all dead?" The leading man asked.

"Yes, Major Anthem. The tracking spell I cast on them before they departed shows me their location and heart rates with a few hours' delay. For at least 12 hours, they haven't changed location, and they have all flatlined." A woman riding behind the Major said.

"Alright. You analysts get ready to take a look at the situation while my Captains and I will watch over you." Major Anthem told the two riding at the very back, who had the simplest uniforms out of the group, while a man riding next to Captain Chambers nodded.

After a while, they finally reached their destination. Stopping their horses, they dismounted while looking in shock at the scene.

"What monsters did this…" Said the second Captain, Captain Bridges, a young man with green hair and eyes.

Stunned into silence, Major Anthem only looked at the scene while the analysts got to work. He stared at the corpses of over 20 soldiers, most of them separated from the rest of their bodies from what the Major assumed was a giant blade (judging by some stab wounds on other corpses), while a few further from the rest of the bodies instead looked like they had been melted or burned.

However, the corpses weren't what concerned the Major and his Captains the most. It was the giant message written in the soldier's blood on the grass: BLOOD OF SYNE. What's worse was that the area reeked of an energy that their bodies subconsciously rejected.

"Sounds like the Children of Namek aren't the only thing for us to worry about anymore." Captain Bridges put his hands on his hips. "Is it just me, or does the word 'Syne' feel familiar?"

"Syne is the family name of two Dark Mages that were executed over 12 years ago." Major Anthem said with a grim look on his face. "Sense the dark energy all over the place?"

"So that's why I feel terrible…" Said Captain Chambers, fighting back nausea. "Are there any other Synes still alive? Maybe they could've done this?"

"They have a son, but he is still young. He was a little boy when they were executed, so even if he awakened, he would be too weak to do this." Recalled Captain Bridges. He had been there at the execution.

"It's either there's a relative we don't know about, or their son has made some connections to other Dark Mages." Major Anthem clicked his tongue. "We'll have to be careful. Dark Mages are a dangerous business. Everyone here keeps this incident quiet for now, I'll talk to the General later."

He turned to his Captains. "When we get back, I want you two to find the son and question him. We need to find out what's going on. This mission is top secret until I tell you otherwise." 

Major Anthem went over to the analysts to ensure their confidentiality while Captain Chambers and Captain Bridges saluted him. "Yes, Major!"