The Dark Ruler reached out his hand and tested his power once again on the far wall, shooting a ball of flame from his palm. It crashed against the stone and licked out at the air in a wide circle before fading away, leaving him in darkness. Again he waved his hand, and another ball of fire left his palm. The flames crackled and sizzled as they died away against the stone.
He was growing more powerful. But there was always room to grow. He wanted more power, more magic. It wouldn’t take much for him to finally be able to achieve the ability to transform, that one wondrous trick that always eluded him. He had been stretching himself, studying every book on magic that he could get his hands on, roaming the worlds in search of a source of power that he could overtake in order to finally grasp the talents of his ancestors.
Widening his stance and waving his hands around each other, palms toward the floor, he stirred up a small whirlwind and sent it spiraling toward the stone wall, then shot out another ball of flame so that it slipped through the top of the whirlwind and spat out the bottom. The flames increased as the air swept around it, and the explosion on the stone shook the floor. The Dark Ruler smiled. There were few in the realm who could match him in power, and none, he was confident, who could best him. The few people who had any chances of beating him in a one-on-one battle were on his side, so he had nothing to fear.
Deciding to stretch himself a bit, he reached to the ceiling and curled his fingers. Sparks of lightning licked at the air above him. Making their intensity grow, he reached out his other hand to the floor. Small pools of water began to form at his feet. Carefully controlling the lightning, which sparked out wildly against the ceiling, he brought the electricity down toward the water.
The impact shook the entire room and smoke filled the air. He swept it away with his hand and smiled down at the dark stain on the floor where lightning had zapped the water, instantly causing it to evaporate into steam and smoke.
Just then the doors to his right burst open, and seven teenage boys filed in. The leader, Korigan, held a small wire cage in one hand, which he swung carelessly back and forth to match his long stride. He had a smirk on his face that the Dark Ruler wanted to smack right off of him. Even though Korigan was annoying and had an attitude problem, he was useful for certain things around the Base, like getting rid of people quietly. He was the messenger boy, the assassin, the minion. He was useful at times, but for the most part he just got in the way.
“Get out, Korigan,” the Dark Ruler demanded, causing electric sparks to spring from his hand. “Or I’ll use you as a target.”
Korigan stopped in mid step, the smirk falling from his lips. His deep red eyes still held their glisten, revealing the hint of rebellion he still held within him. He showed no fear as he objected, “You’re going to want to hear what I came here for.”
“It can wait,” the Dark Ruler replied curtly. The electricity in his palm intensified. “Get out.”
“It’s a gift from your wife,” Korigan continued, ignoring him completely. “She said to tell you that your search is over.”
Lifting an eyebrow with mild interest, the lightning faded away. Korigan waved his hand to keep his friends back, then joined the Dark Ruler at the center of the room and held up the cage for him. “Be grateful that I’m loyal to you, Tokala,” he spat, shooting the Dark Ruler a dirty look. “I almost took it for myself.”
Tokala snatched the cage from Korigan’s grasp and peered inside. Clinging to one of the thin bars, shaking with each motion of the cage, hung a butterfly with a wingspan twice the length of his hand. Its wings reflected every color imaginable, and sparkled with a mild shimmer as they caught the low lighting of the candles lining the walls. It radiated a mild glow, one that flickered as if in fear.
Laughter bubbled from deep within the Dark Ruler’s chest. This was what he had been searching for all these years. This was the source of magic he needed to finally be able to transform. This was the end of his search.
Korigan took a nervous step back as Tokala’s laughter echoed through the practice hall. “Ha!” he cried. “I have been waiting a long time to meet you, butterfly.”
“What are you going to do with me?” a young voice cried, barely audible in the midst of the laughter.
Tokala lifted the cage closer to his face and peered inside. “You talk?”
“Of course I do!” the butterfly cried, his voice breaking with fear. “I’m no ordinary butterfly, you know.”
“Oh, is that so?”
“Yes. And… um… If you don’t let me go, bad things will happen to you.”
“I seriously doubt that,” Tokala grinned.
“Please just let me go,” the butterfly begged, its wings fluttering. “I was just looking for my friend, and I took a wrong turn in Cavern Hole and the next thing I knew I was in this cage…”
“Well that’s what you get for venturing down into Cavern Hole,” Tokala laughed. “That place isn’t the wonderful garden that you came from. It’s a dark and desolate series of tunnels that lead to only one thing: my wife.”
The butterfly shuddered. Its wings fluttered, cascading specks of light down upon the bottom of the cage. “She was a horrible woman.”
“Yes, that’s why I married her.” Chuckling to himself, the Dark Ruler opened the door to the cage and reached his hand inside. The butterfly squealed in protest and hopped from one bar to another until it was as far away from the cage door as it could go, but there was no escape. Tokala wrapped a cloud of his dark power around it and drew it from its cage, watching it wriggle and writhe within a bubble of dark grey fog.
“What did I do wrong?” the butterfly cried, its body shaking as it began to sob. “Please don’t eat me. I’m not an ordinary butterfly, I’m not just made of pure magic, its so much worse than you think.”
“Oh, don’t worry, my pet,” Tokala smirked. “I won’t hurt you. Much.”
“Please stop! You’ll be committing murder!”
“It wouldn’t be the first time.”
The butterfly thrashed within the confines of the smoky bubble, but its efforts were fruitless. There was nothing it could do to escape. However powerful this remarkable source of magic was, Tokala was much more powerful.
Mesmerized, Korigan watched with wide eyes as his Dark Ruler brought the trapped butterfly to his chest and pressed the bubble against his black armor. The smoke absorbed into his chest, and the butterfly with it. The sharp piercing cry of the butterfly’s pain hovered in the air moments after its colorful wings had vanished.
Taking a deep breath, Tokala closed his eyes. “Oh, yes,” he breathed in satisfaction.
As the Dark Ruler began to emit a soft orange glow, Korigan backed up nervously, keeping his eyes on the powerful man in the center of the room. “Let’s get out of here,” he whispered to his comrades. Without objection, they followed him from the room and shut the doors behind them.
Pity they didn’t stay, Tokala thought to himself. They’re missing the show.
Drawing on the newly absorbed power within him, Tokala pictured himself growing. Smoke flooded the ground as he gradually grew in size until his head nearly touched the ceiling three stories tall. His arms and legs began to fatten up, and his black armor and robes molded into shimmering scales. When he opened his eyes, Tokala was a dragon.
Spilling waves of laughter from his scaly jaws, the Dark Ruler crushed the cage that had once held the butterfly, smiling at the crunching sound it made from underneath his enormous foot. For good measure, he spat a ball of fire from his mouth, lighting up the room with the brightest flames he had ever created. Oh yes, this power was well worth the wait he had been forced to endure.
And now that his wait for it was over, it was time to turn his time and attention to more important things in life, such as taking over the realm one world at a time. He would turn those bright and happy worlds into a single dark existence, just as his ancestors had sought to do.
The only thing powerful enough to bring him down was the Ultimate wielder. But there had been no wielder in the realm for thousands of years. There was nothing to fear. There was only success ahead of him.
As he returned back to his human form, Tokala sighed peacefully. Everything was going his way.
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