chapter 1

It was in the middle of the night, the light of the moon was blocked by clouds giving the night an eerie darkness and silence, there was no wind and the sea was calm.it was peaceful; hiding the betrayal and atrocity committed that night. The silence was broken by splashes and hushed voices. A lantern could be seen and by its light, four men, one was rowing a boat grunting with a scowl on his wrinkled face showing his displeasure on the task. The other three were standing with two of them facing one, whose hands were cuffed and his feet shackled of which the chain connected to a ship anchor. A short sword was held up on his neck by one of the men who had a wolfish smile on his face. The remaining person was dressed in robes with fine patterns; he was bald, had saggy cheeks and wore eyeliner. On one hand he had a bunch of grapes which he periodically threw one to his mouth.

"This seems to be the right spot, Grundy you can stop now," the bald man spoke to the man rowing.

"Thought you'd never ask! don't like bein' here, should've been in bed with my wife but you just had to pull me out in the middle of the bloody night Baron!" Grundy said with annoyance displayed on his rough face. "Don't we all??"Asked Baron.

"I for one am glad to be here, I get to relish killing this one nice and slow, "said the man holding the short sword to which the shackled man sneered much to his displeasure.

Grundy grunted and then Baron spoke, "we don't have time for that, Brandon, this is supposed to be a quick job before anyone notices his missing" he then looks towards the shackled man." Not that anyone will miss the bloody bastard"

The shackled man let out a haughty laughter and said," I was legitimized and last time I checked I was above you in the line of succession "

Baron frowned and stepped forward and backhanded the shackled man,"you think you are above me you son of a whore? " he shouts then proceeds to sneer "well doesn't matter soon you'll be at the bottom sea ,you'll make a fine royal meal for the fish," the shackled man spits out blood from his mouth and shadows start to gather around him," am going to beat yo-" he was cut off as he spits a mouthful of blood.

Brandon lifts the shackled man's head up by the hair, still holding the short sword to his neck and says "surprised ain't ya, hahahaha , those are the new prototypes specifically made for source magic users, congratulations you are the first for them to be used on, other than the test subjects"

The shackled man had an incredulous look on his face "what do you mean… what are you planning Baron? Answer me dammit!"

"Aah, well I commissioned those to be made to keep you disgusting magic users in check! You think you are above everyone, dubbing yourselves as gods walking among men, the audacity! That power… am going to trample on it, no longer will men be dependent on you freaks for protection and power, people will have to be dependent on themselves as you've made them weak, mankind has stopped evolving and thriving as they've become comfortable in this sense of safety you've given them in a cruel world. They need to start achieving things by their own hands and you'll soon be dust on shelves ready to be cleaned and rid of!" the baron said with a venomous tone. There was a long silence as if to let the message sink in until the shackled man spoke "I understand where you are coming from, you're not a source magic user and that it has made life hard for you, especially in our family but magic is needed as it is a foundation of this world and there are many magic users, the king is a magic user, what makes you think he will allow such a ridiculous idea to pass"

Baron laughed maniacally" the great warrior Sven, bane of the Chrovic Empire ,the shadow knight, giant slayer, bastard of the great king Erik II ,did I get it right? For all the titles you have I didn't find you to be the naive one, magic has done enough destruction to this world, millions have died entangled in the world of magic users, I have garnered enough support to do what I set out to achieve, the king is just an annoying pebble on my path to be kicked away!"

Sven's eyes widen," you mean to murder the king! He's our brother for fucks sake!"

"A bloody fool that's what he is! How dare he legitimize you...you...you who are a spat to the royal family! Father fucking disgraced mother who was the queen with a fuckin witch the whore she is!" Baron shouts," Alfred legitimizes you… a bloody heathen to top it off! He is no brother of mine, he looks down upon me just because he was the first to come to this world and be blessed with the source! You've all lived to look down upon me just because I wasn't a warrior or a sorcerer but lucky enough I had brains to make up for it!"

"So you are telling me you were faking all those times we were together, you who was the most kind of all of us, you were the heart of the family! I can't believe this is you… who's making you do this? You are our brother we would never look down on you… who is feeding you such poisonous thoughts?" Sven asked with a hint of anger and worry in his voice. There was silence, Baron stared at the dark sky, the shadow on his face from the light was hiding what expression was on his face "you see that's the thing I once WAS but now am NOT, since I opened my eyes and saw what you all weren't seeing, the world was cruel to us, those without magic ….. I heard heartbroken cries from the queen each night till it drove her to madness and eventually suicide in front of my eyes!"

"Wait, you told us it was an assassin from the Chrovic Empire we destroyed an empire in the name of revenge for the queen and now you're telling me she killed herself!" Sven asked in disbelief, "I fuckin burned down an empire in her name!"

"you know mother hated me, she always compared me to you and Alfred, I think I reminded her of father, she said we looked alike, she was broken after he died but it all started when you were brought before us, father loved you and it was evident, maybe she believed he valued your mother more than her and when he died she broke…hahaha… sad, she won't get to see me be king and neither will you! Brandon do the honors!" Baron says

"Aye your grace" says Brandon as he proceeds to knee Sven in the solar plexus. Sven falls to his knees trying to catch his breath due to the pain. The magic dampener cuffs had drained out his energy when he activated his magic but he won't go down easily so he bide his time to strike. As Brandon reached out to grab Sven's hair, he suddenly stood up and using the momentum as power and with the back of his head, he hit Brandon on the nose sending him to the edge of the boat. The sudden movement caused the boat to yaw making it hard to balance. Sven knew he would die but he won't let his brother have blood of his kin on his hands, so when boat rocked side to side making his brother, Baron, loose his footing and fall towards him he took his chance and made to grab him while Brandon was still distracted by his bloody nose. He forced the boat to yaw even harder threatening to capsize. Much to his amusement he heard Grundy shout as he grabbed the edge firmly "bloody bastard is plannin' to send us to damnation with him! Brandon you had one job one fuckin job!" Sven whispered to his brother "tonight we die together brother!" then he proceeded to push the anchor to the sea with his leg as he drags his brother with him. The sea was cold and as he sank he lamented on the days he spent with his family, his family was his all .He remembered the time when his father died, he swore to protect his family and now he was killing his brother who wanted to kill him and their older brother. He wondered how it came to that point; he could only regret not noticing his brother's plight early. His lungs burned as he lacked air, his brother was already shaking violently but soon stopped and became still. He cried for losing his brother, especially at his hands and he let go, prepared to meet whatever punishment that was in store for him in damnation and thus closed his eyes never to open them again