74 The Cost of Power

"How the hell is he here!?" The Warlord exclaimed when she felt that eerie chill in the air. An ominous dark blue, violet, and black aura were simmering from Riyku. The Warlord could see this quite clearly. It was what helped her recognize 'his' presence. "Who?" Hannah inquired. She could feel such immersive diabolical pressure coming from Riyku; however, she knew nothing of its origin. So, she was not as frightened as her Master. "The Shadow King..." The Warlord would mutter. Hannah's entire body froze at those words. Her face went pale, and the life in her eyes seemed to slowly dim out as if she was going to faint.

"Overlord Skill... Total Control..." Riyku had muttered, and a transparent flare of his aura expanded around him like a sonar pulse. "Kneel." Riyku would command with an authorized tone of voice. Since the Warlord and Hannah had been within the range of the sonar pulse, the command to Kneel forced them to kneel on one knee. "Grovel." Riyku would unleash another command when he saw them kneel, and both of them would grovel. Riyku had been steadily approaching them. Upon arrival, they were groveling before him in which he would stare down at them. Riyku's wicked right arm would face both of them with an open palm. "Raise your heads." Riyku would command, and both of them were forced to look up from the ground. They saw a complex runic circle starting to formulate in front of his palm. They could see just how much Diaobolical Energy was being drawn into his right arm as well. "Bastard..." The Warlord would grit her teeth as she glared at him. Meanwhile, Hannah had seemed to completely faint. The archer woman even pissed her pants in the process.

"You brought this upon yourselves. Anything and everything that gets in my way will perish." Riyku would remark. When the runic circle finished, it began to give off an ominous glow, and then it unleashed a massive black beam. The power behind the attack was surely enough to leave a massive crater; however, it had not even dug into the ground as it dissipated. The Warlord and Hannah were nowhere to be seen either. Perhaps their beings were disintegrated without so much as leaving bone or ash. Lowering his right arm to his side, he would unleash a hefty breath. Riyku's eyes shifted behind him, where he saw The Madam with both Hannah and The Warlord at her side.

"Why did you save them?" Riyku would turn around, so his entire body was facing their direction. The Madam would chuckle lovingly. "Why else? They are clients. What say you forgive them just this one." The Madam seemed unfazed by Riyku's ominous aura. While she did know who that Aura belonged to, she also knew that such power came with a price. "They tried to kill me, and you want me to forgive them? How odd... I did not think demons were nice, or have you changed your ways recently?" Riyku would retort with a shrug and shake of his head. The Madam would shake her head while exhaling some of the smoke from her lungs. She had been periodically taking hits from her pipe. "Not at all. I will pay for their transgression. With my body, if need be." The Madam would add nonchalantly. Riyku would close his eyes, thinking on the matter for a moment.

"Very well. However, I do not care for your body." Riyku would remark; his little remark caused The Madam to arch a brow in slight confusion and slight pain. She was rather prideful of her appearance, so much so that she knew that no demon in the entire Underworld would deny her. So that remark hurt her ego. As such, she dared to ask, "Then what do you want?"

"Power." Riyku would reply. "I need Power. If you can not provide that, then step aside." Riyku would add. Interestingly enough, he did wait for her reply. Maybe because he had some respect for The Madam. She would take a long hit from her pipe while thinking on the matters of negotiation. When she came to an answer, she exhaled the smoke and nod. "Fair enough. I will help you obtain power. I will teach you everything I know, and I mean everything. Does that satisfy you?"

Riyku would wasn't dense. He caught onto the everything part, which would most likely entitle to sexual pleasures. He figured he had harmed her pride earlier, but that did not matter to him. As long as he was able to obtain pure power, he would do it. "Yes." Riyku would reply. "Good." The Madam would reply before turning to The Warlord and Hannah. "As for you two, you two will be working off your debt. Because of the trouble you have caused, I have to pay the price to keep you two alive. You do understand what this means, correct?" Stern and lethal was her voice, but her innocent smile made her last statement come off as extremely scary. The Warlord would nod. "Yes, Ma'am!" Since Hannah was still out cold, she would have no choice but to comply. "Then return to my shop. I will accompany Riyku for the rest of the day." With these words, she shifted her attention to Riyku. "I assume that is okay with you?" She asked to make sure. Riyku would nod. As he did, the aura around him diminished. The Warlord found herself able to stand on her own two feet and took hold of Hannah shortly after making her way to The Madam's Whore house.

The Madam would watch them leave before making her way up to Riyku, who appeared exhausted. She seemed to make it just in time to catch him, keeping him from collapsing face-first into the ground. "You overused both Skeith's and The Shadow King's power. What would you have done if they lived your attack? Even now, I can kill you." The Madam would comment as she held Riyku, who he looked up at her weakly. "Try it." He would retort, but the woman just chuckled lightly. "Yeah, no, thank you. I already know that there is more than just Skeith and The Shadow King inside of you. I would end up losing an arm or leg, and I would rather avoid that." The Madam would reply while slowly lowering herself to the ground while steadily lowering Riyku's head into her lap. "Rest up for now. I'll keep watch. No one would dare attack you with me here." The Madam would comment. Her gentle smile was the last thing Riyku saw before he passed out. His body had been aching all over after he released that beam. It felt as if every last bit of energy he had inside of him had been stripped from him. It took so much to remain on his feet afterward and have such a conversation with The Madam. She was not unfazed because she knew that he was putting on a brave front the entire time.

In the depths of Riyku's subconscious, there he stood upon empty space. His head would shift left and right as he observed his surroundings. Caution in his eyes stared deeply into the darkness around him. After a moment, a voice would vibrate from all directions.

"Who are you?"

Riyku stood there in silence and said not a word. The voice was anonymous, unable to tell between feminine and masculine even as it spoke once more.

"What you are?"

Riyku would still not speak. He did not even know where he was at the moment. Sure, the last thing he recalled was seeing The Madam's gentle smile, but there was pitch black after that. For all he knew, he could have been trapped somewhere. The voice spoke up once more after a bit of silence.

"Why are you here?"

Riyku refused to answer yet another question and yet another moment drove by. Though his body did react when the voice spoke up once again. The voice was familiar, far too familiar. The warmth and gentle grace behind the voice caused his eyes to tremble as if he were on the verge of tears.

"Are you okay?"

"M-Mother..." Riyku finally spoke up; the voice would once again ask in the same manner as before.

"Are you okay?"

"I..." Riyku would grit his teeth and shake his head. Tears slowly starting to stream down his face. "No. I am not, Mother." Riyku would reply with a shaky voice, swallowing deeply to avoid crying out before continuing.

"I was unable to protect them. I lost everything again. I swore I would protect them. I told myself it would not be the same thing again. I would save them. I would keep them safe. Yet... I lost them, just like how I lost you. I am sorry, Mother. I am so sorry...."

Riyku would fall onto his knees and hunch over, clenching his shirt tightly. He held by whines and cries, but his mouth opened as tears fell onto the groundless floor before him. The voice had not spoken up; it said nothing and only kept silent only until after Riyku apologized.

"That is right. You are the reason I am dead. You are the reason we are dead." The voice split into three. The voice of Riyku's Mother, the voice of Astraia, and the voice of Astrid. "You could not keep any of us safe." The voice split once more, adding in the friends Riyku had made during his time in the Underworld as well as his friends and tribesmen from before he died. "You are too weak. You are worthless. You should be the one suffering, not us."

Riyku stared into the depths of the ground seeing the frowns and glares from his loved ones staring back at him with hatred and anger. The negative remarks continued over and over for a while longer. Despair started to take over, and once it did, all tears came to a halt. His eyes held nothing but despair in them, pure despair. No hope, no light, nothing.... but despair. It was then the faces faded, and the voices stopped, only for a non-gender voice to call forth with several questions.

"Who are you?"

"Useless." Riyku would reply.

"What are you?"

"Worthless." Riyku would reply.

"Why are you here?"

"Because I am weak." Riyku would reply.

"Are you okay?"

A pause came as Riyku's lips parted.

"Are you okay?"

The voice asked after a moment in which Riyku would reply.

"I am okay." With a beautiful broken smile curved across his lips. The smile was creepy, not so much in an eerie manner, but contradictory in and of itself. It was beautiful, genuine, and yet... fake.

"What do you seek?" The voice continued.

"Power." Riyku would reply.

"Are you willing to sacrifice everything?" The voice asked once again, and without hesitation, Riyku would reply.

"Yes."

"Even if it consumes you whole?" The voice would add, and Riyku would reply once more.

"Yes."

"Even if nothing of yourself remains?" The voice would ask one final time, and for a final time, Riyku would reply with resolve filled with despair and gluttony.

"Yes."

It was then that the darkness around started to pike Riyku. Piercing through him in an execution fashion. The color of his skin slowly turning black as he screamed in pain. Black blood dripped upon the groundless flooring behind him.

"The contract has been completed. You are now my next vessel, demon."

Those words were muffled by Riyku's screams of pain in which he finally awoke from his slumber. Although, he did not shoot up. Instead, his eyes opened to see a pair of enormous breasts. Despair-filled eyes shifted away from them to look elsewhere when a voice perched up. "Awake, are we? You slept quite a while." The Madam's voice rang within his ears in which he shifted his attention back towards her to see her eyes staring back into his. She took note of the look on his face and the despair in his eyes. It was a complete takeover, unlike before when there was even the faintest bit of light. There was nothing now.

"Riyku, are you okay?" The Madam inquired in which Riyku would remove himself from her lap and dust himself off. "I am fine." He replied to her question. There was a lack of emotion in his voice. Even before, his voice held resolve, if anything, but now there was nothing at all. "I see..." The Madam would remark. "Shall we head back and get started? I have surveyed all I need." Riyku would comment in which The Madam would stand up and nod. She still wanted to pester him about what he was groaning about and the fact that his skin had turned pitch black for a moment when he slept; however, it seemed she wasn't going to get anything out of him from the way he answered her question.

Both of them would return; upon their return, The Madam received an earful from Racheal about many things. When the commotion died down, The Madam sent the Warlord on a mission to keep watch for those above ground while she trained Riyku. She would start being reteaching him how to use magic runes and the [word of power] along with how to control his own diabolical energy. Besides that, she would teach Riyku to use poisons, traps and apply magical properties to both these. Then there was the combat training; she taught Riyku not to so readily rely on his power and instead focus on training both his own body and power. She used ancient text to instruct him on manipulating the shadow better, among other versatile ways of using the shadow.

After all of that came the more sexual pleasures. The Madam would train him personally, showing him a fair amount of erogenous spots that Riyku could find on women and how these spots differed depending on the woman. His training was quite relentless; during the day was the standard magic and combat training. During the night was sexual pleasure training. Riyku would spend years doing this without ever actually heading above ground. So much so that those who were pursuing him were unable to find him. It was almost like he had completely vanished, but they knew that he was somewhere.

Eventually, The Madam would send him out once she saw he was ready. He would undergo several assassination missions, information gathering, and smuggling. He used everything he was taught, from poisoning to seduction. Man or woman did not matter; Riyku would use whatever power he obtained to further his goals. Each successful mission and he became closer to his goal. Still, each successful mission Racheal and The Madam could tell that something inside of him was dying. The despair was still ever-present, and Riyku had become strikingly good at hiding it. Still, they could easily tell that there was something else. They just did not know what it was.

Another few years passed. It became time; Riyku received the mission of becoming the new Overlord's personal guard and assassinating him when the time was right. This was the mission he was waiting for. He knew all along that he did not kill the other Overlord; he knew all along that something else killed it, and he was just in the way during the time it happened. He knew how weak he was, but this was it. He had become stronger. He knew how strong he had become. All the experience, all of the training, all of it was for this moment. Once he killed the Overlord, he would gain control over this Netherworld and create a world to his fit. A world that he had total control over and once he did, no one would oppose him. No one would be able to stop him.

No one...