Journey of the Dead King by Landon G. (best life changing books .TXT) 📖

staff over to where my stuff was as my nails and teeth grew.
“Hmm... Master Delacroix did not inform us you were a demon, this will be troublesome,” said the wraith in its cold dead voice.
I jumped at it, kicked it in the chest sending it flying into the ground, in reached inside its hood. It felt cold but I found what I was looking for, I ripped out a blue, wriggling spirit.
“Let me go!” it demanded in a breathy echoing voice.
“Not a chance,” I said.
I punched the soul and it disappeared, the once full robe seemed to instantly deflate as ash blew out from inside.
More wraiths started to appear from allies and dark ruins of what were abodes mere hours before. They seemed to ooze from the shadows as the floated toward me.
“We will devour your soul. You cannot escape. You will die,” seemingly endless chants of these words were emitting from under the specter’s hoods.
I growled softly, I could tell my demon was starting to take over. Without any sign of it, I jumped at a wraith. It tried to dodge but I was too quick, I ripped the soul out of its hood and smashed it, like the other ash flew from its robe. I did this one after the other, pounce, rip, smash, over and over, until they were all dead for good.
“Ha! Is this all you’ve got Delacroix?” I yelled into the sky, I sounded like I was going crazy, “You’ve gotten soft!”
Just them I heard a maniacal laughter from the clouds; I knew Delacroix was talking back.
“You’re right, Darian, so I’ll just make it a bit harder!” he yelled.
At that moment the ground started to rumble, at first softly but it got stronger and stronger. When it was at its strongest the cause of it came plowing through the burning buildings around me, several trolls, as large as the houses they pushed aside, came lumbering into the small square. They must have been Delacroix’s.
They were green, each wearing nothing but a loincloth. They all had large uprooted trees which I guessed were their clubs. Fortunately for me trolls were slow and very, very simple minded.
They all stared at me, as if trying to determine whether I was friend or foe, after a moment they all started to lumber in, I remained still.
When they we all a few feet away from me, they raised their clubs and I jumped the moment before they smashed the ground, shattering the spot I had been seconds before.
I ran up one of their arms, onto its shoulder, grabbed its head and snapped its neck. A sickening crack rang through the square.
It fell to its knees and toppled into another troll, whose neck I had just sliced up with my claw.
The others looked terrified and started to lumber away as quickly as they could. As they retreated I decided to turn their weapons against them. I picked up one of the fallen troll’s clubs, which was light due to my demon strength, and ran over to them. One by one I started smacking them upside the head with the whole tree, each either falling unconscious or dieing due to their skull caving in. When only a single one was left, I decided to finish it the old fashion way, I blew a hole in its stomach with my Dark Lightning spell.
At that moment I remembered Dart and razor were in the nearby destroyed inn room watching the whole thing. I jumped up into the room and saw their shocked faces.
“Wow,” Dart said moments later, finally finding his voice, “you just took down half a dozen trolls. I wish I were a demon.”
“Darian,” Razor said, “what if all this fighting as your demon is taking a toll on you?”
“What do you mean?” I asked
“Well, look at yourself!” she replied, “You weren’t like this when I met you.”
She was right, I was sitting on the floor like a wolf or dog would, spattered in blood and feeling proud of myself. I had never been like this before.
“Oh,” I said, “I see what you mean now that you mention it. I guess the thought of Delacroix trying to kill me again drove me a little insane.”
“That was the point,” Delacroix’s voice echoed from the clouds, “You have proven yourself, I think you deserve this.”
At that moment a body dropped in front of me. It was a man, purple scraggly hair, average height, black leather tunic and pants and black boots. There was a stab mark in his back. He also wore a cloak and a bag, both much like the ones I had. I realized immediately that this was my body.
I felt a strong pull towards it, I laid my hand on my forehead and was immediately pulled into myself.
I wound up laying on the hardwood floor, blood and demonic marks gone, a sharp pain in my back.
I grunted loudly, “Dart, get one of those healing potions from my bag, they’re the red ones,” I told him.
He reached into my bag, which was now on my side, and pulled out a potion.
“Okay, can you pour it on my wound?” I asked him.
“Yeah,” he replied.
I rolled over and he poured the potion on the dagger hole in my back, in burned for a second, then all the pain just disappeared.
“Thanks,” I said, “I really needed that.
I took the potion from him and put it back in my bag. I sat up and looked around, then looked at my hands, nothing was different, if you don’t include the missing blood from my battle before.
I was just about to get to my feet when I heard clapping. I looked outside to where it was coming from, sitting cross legged on top of the ruins of a burning building, was a man, tall, long white hair, black armor and red eyes.
“Bravo,” he said a deep voice, “you kicked more ass than any army I’ve seen or heard of, and got your body back.”
“Who’re you?” I demanded.
“My name is Carthasis. I lived here before the wraiths attacked. I’ve heard of you from a friend in Meridian. He was right, you’re quite strong,” he said.
“Well, Carthasis,” I said, “What exactly do you want?”
“I want what you want,” he replied, “I want to take the throne.”
I could hardly believe this, I thought about what I should do. Should I let him take it? Should I kill him? I couldn’t decide. I looked at Dart, he shrugged. I turned to Razor, she had the look of ‘Do what you think is right’ in her eyes.
“Let’s strike a deal,” I said, “you help me kill Delacroix, and you can have the throne.”
“Done.” He answered almost immediately.
He jumped from his rooftop perch into our destroyed room.
“When shall we go?” he asked.
I looked at Dart, “Anytime you’re ready,” he said. I looked at Razor, “Same here,” she said.
“Alright, we can leave right now.” I told him.
“Excellent,” he said, “though shouldn’t we let your lady friend get dressed though?” he asked.
I looked at Razor. She was still only wearing her black silk nightgown.
“Yeah, Razor you go ahead and get dressed, we can wait,” I told her.
“Okay, thanks,” she said.
She walked out of the room, and Carthasis jumped to the rooftop again.
“I’ll be waiting at the village gate,” he said. And with that he dashed across the charred roofs to the gate.
“So, I was wondering,” Dart said, “I was expecting one of you, I mean you and Razor, to sleep on the floor, but I see no sleeping bag or anything.”
“Oh, uh,” I stuttered, “we’ve kind of been keeping a secret from you. Razor and I are... uh, in love.”
“Lucky,” he said.
I looked at him, confused.
“Well, Razor’s a really nice woman, smart, caring, beautiful, you’re really lucky,” he answered to my look.
“Heh uh thanks, I guess,” I replied.
Once Razor was ready, we set off, Carthasis was at the gates as he said, it wasn’t a long journey from Karskin to my old castle, there was about an hour or two of walking ahead of us.
Carthasis barely talked along the way, I decided to ask him about his life.
“So,” I started, “you said you lived in Karskin?”
“Yeah,” he replied, “I grew up in the company of a great mage, he taught me a lot of his spells and I’ve even made my own.”
“Wow, can I see a few?” I asked.
“Sure,” he answered. He pointed ahead of him, and drew a pentagram, then inside the pentagram he drew a sword, he was using a white energy to draw in midair, this was an ancient and very powerful form of summoning.
He thrust he palm through it and immediately clenched his fist, as if he was holding a weapon. A moment later he was holding a glowing white sword. By the looks of it, it was made completely of his white energy.
“Amazing,” I muttered, “absolutely fascinating.”
“Thanks,” he said, “I can also summon bows, demons, animals, and other assortments of creatures.”
So, as we went on we showed him our magic, though I kept one spell away from him, the Soul Ripper. It completely obliterates the target’s soul causing them to die. I told him about it and he suggested that I use it against Delacroix, but it doesn’t work on anyone with demon blood in them.
We made it about half way through the trip when I started feeling strange. My head was pounding like crazy, and I was starting to feel dizzy.
I collapsed in the middle of the road. I heard the voices of my friends, though I could not hear what they said. I was feeling even worse. I held onto consciousness for a few more seconds, and then I passed out.

I woke to a similar rumbling that I did after I died. I was having an easier time getting focused. I got up, still a little dizzy, and looked around. I was back in hell. I front of my I could see Death, waiting on his throne like before.
“What the?” I said, still slightly dazed, “Am I dead again?”
“No,” replied Death, “I just brought you here for a moment.”
“Oh,” I said, feeling foolish, “well why did you bring me here?”
“I wanted to tell you something. First of all congrats on getting your body back.” He said.
“Thanks,” I replied.
“Now, one bad thing, you cannot turn into a demon,”
“What!?” I yelled.
“Let me finish,” he said, “You cannot turn into a demon anymore, easily. There is a way but it requires the right circumstances.”
“What are they?” I demanded.
“I cannot tell you,” he answered, “you will have to find out on your own.”
“But,” I started to argue.
“Farewell, Darian,” he said.
Next thing I knew I woke up in the middle of the road, my friends all around me.
“What happened?” I asked.
“You passed out,” Carthasis said.
“Oh, okay,” I said calmly, coming up into a sitting position.
“Okay?” Razor said in a surprised tone, “You passed out! You could have something seriously wrong with you.”
“Relax, Death just wanted to tell me a few things,” I told her, “It’s nothing to worry about. Let’s just continue on our journey.”
“But,” she started.
“Don’t worry,” I told her again. And with a kiss on the cheek, I got up and started walking again. They stood there for a second, I could feel them staring at me as if to say ‘What the hell just happened?’, then I turned around and asked, “Well? Are you coming or not?”
They gave me a vacant look, then