While we headed to the mountains the distance between us and the Black Rider’s nest felt like a bridge to another world. The jagged green black peaks loomed ahead their sharp silhouettes cutting into the heavy clouds but far behind us the Black Obsidian Throne was no longer the sanctuary we had left it as.

  ─── ??☆?? ───

  It was morning in the Demon Lord’s domain though the concept of day was a loose one. The permanent storm clouds of the purple sky churned with restless energy casting long bruised shadows over the obsidian spires.

  A figure emerged from the shifting mist walking with a slow deliberate pace toward the front gate. He was dressed in the fashion of a gentleman from a fog drenched era wearing a dark high collared frock coat a double breasted waistcoat and sturdy trousers tucked into polished leather boots. A deep black hood was pulled over his head but it was his face that stole the breath from the air. He wore a flat white mask that lacked eye holes nostrils or a mouth it was a smooth featureless void that seemed to stare back without looking. Strapped to his wrist was a heavy intricate brass timepiece the gears of the late 1800s London watch clicking rhythmically in the silence.

  At his heels moved four chimeras creatures stitched together from nightmares. They possessed the heads of snarling wolves and the lithe muscular bodies of cats for perfect flexibility. Their tails were venomous snakes that hissed and lashed out in a defensive coil while their backs were draped in heavy dragon wings that functioned as living suits of armor.

  The figure in the mask didn't respond to the guards' warnings. He simply tapped the glass of his watch. One of the chimeras lunged forward unhinging its wolfish jaw. A sphere of pure mana condensed between its teeth. With a deafening hum a beam of concentrated energy tore through the air. When it struck the gate the massive structure wasn't just broken it was erased. The stone disintegrated into dust and the guards stationed near it vanished before they could even scream.

  The chimeras blurred into motion sprinting into the castle courtyard. Chaos erupted instantly. Guards charged forward but their spells flickered and died against the beasts. A shimmering magical resistance barrier coated the monsters' scales rendering every elemental strike useless. The guards realizing too late how much they had underestimated these creatures were slaughtered where they stood.

  Suddenly the ground trembled as Korgath a massive man in spiked plate armor slammed into the courtyard followed by Seryna a slender woman whose hair was a writhing nest of serpents.

  As they arrived the hooded figure vanished. He activated a specialized camouflage magic that completely erased him from the five senses—sight sound smell touch and even the vibration of the air. He lowered his mana to a faint ghostly hum making him detectable only to the most advanced mana sensing. Because his movement was limited while maintaining this state he stood perfectly still atop a ruined pillar watching the generals.

  The two generals unable to find the master turned their fury on the chimeras. They relied on pure stats and strategy to overcome the beasts' magical immunity. Seryna forced massive snakes to grow out of the ground as a natural phenomenon injecting the chimeras with lethal toxins. When a beast’s biology tried to counter the poison her snakes mutated on the spot creating a new more volatile venom instantly. Korgath ignored the mana nullifying scales entirely using his massive mace to hammer the beasts into the stones with raw overwhelming physical force. They fought with a desperate brutal efficiency until the last chimera lay in a broken mangled heap of flesh and scales.

  As the dust settled Korgath wiped a smear of black blood from his visor. He looked around expecting to hear the shouts of the back up guards he had heard approaching moments ago.

  Suddenly it was far too quiet. The ringing in his ears faded replaced by a silence so heavy it felt like a physical weight.

  "Seryna" Korgath grunted his voice low and tight. "Where are the men?"

  Seryna narrowed her eyes her serpent hair swaying as she scanned the courtyard. "They were right behind us. I heard them Korgath. There were dozens of them."

  They turned toward the inner gatehouse and both froze. The air left their lungs in a sharp hiss. Strewn across the obsidian stones like discarded dolls were the corpses of thirty back up guards. They hadn't been torn apart by beasts. They were slumped over in perfect rows their heads severed with such surgical precision that the bodies hadn't even had time to fall before the life left them. There had been no battle no clashing of steel. Just a silent efficient harvest.

  "When did this happen?" Seryna whispered her voice trembling with a rare prickle of horror. "I didn't hear a single blade. I didn't feel a ripple in the mana. Korgath they're all dead!"

  Korgath gripped his mace so hard the metal groaned. "How is this possible? They were right there! We would have heard them scream!"

  Standing on the far side of the mountain of corpses the man in the mask shimmered back into view. He was idly cleaning a long silver knife with a silk handkerchief looking utterly disinterested.

  "Truly a disappointment" the masked man sighed his voice a refined old English lilt that carried perfectly through the dead silence. "I had hoped at least one of these reinforcements would be a lady. Cutting through so many men is quite tedious. They have such dull reactions to the prospect of death. No grace no melody in their final breaths. Just... boredom."

  He looked up the featureless white mask tilting as if he were finally acknowledging the generals.

  Korgath roared in fury his massive frame lunging forward like a battering ram. "You'll pay for that intruder!"

  The masked man moved with the terrifying speed of an experienced assassin. He didn't retreat. He stepped into Korgath's guard dodging the massive mace by a hair's breadth. With a movement so fast it was almost invisible he extended two fingers and tapped a specific point on Korgath's neck.

  The Spike General's entire body went rigid. His eyes rolled back and his massive armor clattered against the stone as he collapsed instantly unconscious. The man hadn't used a spell he had simply shut down Korgath's nervous system with a single touch.

  Seryna shrieked her serpent hair lunging at the figure. "Korgath! You monster!"

  She unleashed a wave of toxic mana but the figure flickered like a glitch in reality. He was a blur of silver and black appearing behind her then beside her leaving shallow cuts on her arms before she could even blink. He toyed with her dancing around her strikes with a bored elegance.

  "I shall inquire but once" the figure’s voice came out in that refined lilt. "What may be your names before I depart you from this mortal coil?"

  "I am Seryna" the woman hissed. As she spoke two massive serpents erupted from the shadows behind the figure their fangs dripping with a poison that could dissolve stone. They lunged to tear him apart but the figure simply dissolved into a swirl of dark smoke. The fangs snapped shut on empty air.

  He reappeared a few feet away checking his watch. Seryna gasped stumbling as a wave of sudden exhaustion hit her. "What... what did you do?" she stammered clutching her chest. "Why does it feel like my mana is disappearing? I can't... I can't hold my forms!"

  The figure stepped closer the silver kitchen knife in his hand gleaming. "Well if you spend hundreds of years cutting open living flesh" he whispered his voice smooth and cold "you'll find you eventually pick up how to cut air or even the mana inside a body. Your power isn't vanishing it is simply floating out of you. I cut a hole in your mana flow and now it leaks out like water from a cracked glass."

  The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  He was interested in the intricate mutating nature of the woman’s power. He reached out and gripped Seryna’s head lifting her off the ground with one hand.

  "Well this woman really does have a unique body to slice open" the figure mused his voice dripping with a cold predatory hunger. She thrashed her snakes hitting his arm fruitlessly as her mana bled into the air in visible flickering wisps. "You know I don't really like killing men but a female is a different case entirely. They tend to make such lovely sounds when they break."

  He raised his long knife ready to cut.

  CLANG!

  A heavy iron frying pan flew through the air and struck the hooded figure square on the side of his head. He paused his head tilting slowly toward the source. Standing atop a balcony was Lyra her blue hair windblown and her face set in pure fury.

  "I’m the one left in charge while the boss is out" Lyra shouted pointing a finger at him "and look at this damn place! You’re gonna pay for the repairs you masked freak!"

  He carelessly dropped Seryna her body hitting the stone like a discarded doll. "Well now a snake girl and a curvy maid in one night? Now that's greedy."

  As he shifted his weight to lunge toward the balcony the air around him began to scream. A violent spinning vortex of wind erupted at his feet but it didn't hit him directly. The wind swirled wildly knocking over a nearby statue and nearly blowing a surviving guard off the ramparts instead of hitting the intruder.

  "Shit if only my aim was better!" Lyra cursed her face turning red with frustration. She quickly recalibrated throwing a concentrated burst of pressure a punch made of pure invisible air from her outstretched fist. It hit him square in the chest with the force of a battering ram sending him tumbling.

  Lyra didn’t give him a moment to breathe. She swept her arms in a wide arc and the atmosphere itself seemed to bend and fracture. Sharp invisible blades of wind whistled through the courtyard slicing through the air with air itself. The figure moved like a blur twisting his body in mid air to dodge the gale force slashes that left deep gouges in the obsidian walls behind him.

  "So you control the element of air do you?" the figure asked landing lightly on his feet his featureless mask tilted in curiosity.

  "You don't need to know anything!" Lyra shouted her usual playful demeanor replaced by a mask of cold fury. She clapped her hands together with a thunderous crack. Two massive walls of high pressure air slammed together from either side but they missed and slammed into the ruins instead. "I said stay still!"

  The dust settled but the figure was gone.

  "An aggressive one... I like it" a voice whispered directly into her ear.

  Lyra’s eyes widened. All she saw were silver flashes dozens of tiny stinging slices appearing on her maid uniform. In a heartbeat the figure was standing directly in front of her on the balcony his kitchen knife raised and pointed at her heart ready to drive it home.

  Suddenly a blur of grey rags intercepted the strike. A powerful kick caught the intruder in the ribs launching him off the balcony and back into the courtyard below. Standing in front of Lyra was the Third General Vahn a man who lived in shadows. He wore nothing but tattered ancient rags that fluttered in the wind his face completely veiled by a hood and cloth wrappings.

  "You should respect a lady you know" the General said his voice deep and gravelly.

  The mysterious figure’s body suddenly turned to thick black smoke as he hit the ground. He reappeared instantly behind the rag clad warrior his knife aimed for the back of the neck. Without looking Vahn reached back with a hand that looked like weathered stone grabbed the figure by the face and with a roar of pure physical power threw him across the castle grounds. The intruder crashed through multiple obsidian walls the sound of collapsing masonry echoing through the halls.

  "Lyra get the survivors out of here! Run!" the General commanded.

  Lyra didn't hesitate. While the General leaped into the wreckage to continue the fight Lyra spread her arms wide. A series of gentle but powerful updrafts caught the fallen guards the unconscious Korgath and the dazed Seryna. With a focused hum of power she lifted everyone into the air at once the wind acting as a protective cushion as she ferried them toward the inner sanctum.

  Meanwhile the battle between the General and the mysterious figure raged on. "You might get away" a voice echoed from the very sky resonant and chilling "but knives don't care! They're here to stay!"

  The figure reappeared high in the air against the purple clouds. Around him hundreds of silver kitchen knives materialized. With a flick of his wrist he shot them toward the earth like a rain of steel. The General didn't flinch he leaped into the air his fists moving so fast they created sonic booms that shattered the incoming knives into fragments. He was a whirlwind of destruction closing the gap to the assassin while the figure flickered in and out of existence leaving shallow cuts on the General’s arms and legs.

  Just as the figure prepared a final storm of daggers Lyra returned dropping from the balcony with her eyes glowing. "Now!" the General roared.

  Lyra clapped her hands and the air around the floating mysterious figure suddenly thickened becoming as heavy as lead. She manipulated the atmospheric pressure to trap him in a pocket of solidified air pinning his limbs and freezing him in place.

  "He's caught!" Lyra signaled with a sharp whistle.

  The General seized the opening. He lunged forward with a burst of raw physical speed delivering a devastating punch a high pressure physical strike that caught the figure square in the shoulder. The force was so immense it cracked the stone masonry fifty feet behind them.

  The figure dissolved into smoke once more escaping the fatal follow up. He reappeared instantly at the edge of the ruins right where the gate had once stood. He stood over the corpses of his fallen chimeras his hand outstretched to claim their remains.

  He stopped sensing the remaining mana in air. He looked back at the rag clad warrior and the blue haired maid who were preparing for one last charge.

  "Who the hell are you!?" the General screamed his voice echoing through the ruins.

  The figure stopped at the precipice the wind whipping his black hood. "You may call me Jack the Ripper" he replied with a mocking bow. "And who might you be fine warrior?"

  The rag clad man stood tall his presence heavy and ancient. "I am Vahn the General of the Silent Grave."

  "A pleasure Vahn" Jack whispered.

  With a snap of his fingers the corpses of the four chimeras vanished into thin air followed immediately by Jack himself. He disappeared as if he had never been there leaving behind only the scent of ozone and the silent broken gates of the Black Obsidian Throne.

  The space where Jack the Ripper had stood remained cold a lingering chill that defied the natural warmth of the morning. Vahn the General of the Silent Grave stood motionless for a long moment his tattered rags whipping violently in the receding magical wind. He finally exhaled a sound like grinding stones and turned back to the ruins of the courtyard.

  "Is survivors still drawing breath?" Vahn asked his voice echoing through the hollowed out gatehouse.

  Lyra hopped down from the balcony dusting off her apron and adjusting her headband. Despite the shallow cuts on her arms and the tattered state of her uniform she managed a lopsided grin. She walked circles around Vahn peering intensely at the gaps in his shredded rags.

  "Gosh Vahn after all those fancy knife moves that freak pulled I thought for sure we’d finally get a peek at what’s under those dusty old bandages" Lyra teased her voice regaining its melodic playful edge. "Are you actually a person under there or just a collection of very grumpy shadows and old laundry?"

  Vahn didn't even turn his head. "Focus Lyra. The perimeter is breached."

  Lyra’s expression shifted becoming the commanding lead maid once more. She turned to the surviving guards who were emerging from the shadows shaky and pale. "Alright listen up you lot! Stop shaking your boots and start moving! You get a masonry team to the front gate. You start clearing the chimera slime off the obsidian pillars. I want this place looking like a palace again before the Master returns or I’ll have you all scrubbing the dragon stables with your own toothbrushes!"

  As the guards scrambled to obey the other two generals limped toward them. Korgath the Spike General was clutching his side where his nerves still tingled and his armor had been gouged open and Seryna the snake haired general looked visibly shaken her serpent hair hissing weakly.

  "Look at you" Seryna hissed though there was a hint of a smirk on her lips as she looked at Lyra. "A human girl tossing around gale force winds like she’s cleaning rugs. I suppose we should be embarrassed that a maid had to save our scales."

  "Don't worry Seryna" Korgath grunted leaning heavily against a broken pillar. "At least we were here from the start. Vahn over here just waited for the dramatic finale so he could swoop in and steal all the glory. Very professional 'Silent' General."

  Vahn crossed his arms his hidden gaze fixed on the horizon where the mountains lay. "I was busy ensuring the lower wards weren't being bypassed. If I wanted glory I would have kept the intruder’s head as a trophy."

  Lyra laughed the sound bright but slightly hollow. She leaned back looking up at the swirling purple clouds. "Yeah yeah you’re all big and tough. But seriously did you see that mask? He didn't have a scent. No mana no heartbeat. Just... nothing."

  She looked at the devastation around them her fingers trembling slightly as she gripped the handle of the frying pan she had retrieved from the ground.

  "If Lord Malphas comes back and sees his favorite gate turned into confetti" Lyra whispered her eyes wide with genuine worry "he’s going to be absolutely livid. Or worse he’ll think I’m incompetent. I’m supposed to be the one who keeps this place standing while he’s away."

  She shook her head forcing a smile back onto her face as she turned back to the generals. "Well! No use crying over spilled mana. Vahn help Seryna to the infirmary. Korgath help me coordinate the barrier repairs. We have a castle to put back together before the Scary Dad gets home."