Level Up Legacy

1399  The Dark Prince

Two threads of gold and black floated across the recovery room. Their trajectory touched every elf on the beds and then connected them to Arthur himself. As the golden thread pulsed with life, the black one pulsed with wrath. At the same time, Tiara raised her hands to cast a veil of recovery on the patients to ease their pain. Arthur and the elven princess worked together to heal them, and they began waking one by one. "That was the last of them," Arthur announced as he nodded toward Tiara. "What should we do now?" "It would benefit Malrik if we understood what led to their infection," Tiara said as she began helping them stand. The twenty elves began telling her about what happened before they were infected. Arthur frowned as he heard their tales. The survivors spoke of an army of mutant monsters touched by famine, led by an elf with long dark hair. Everything it touched would mutate into something otherworldly, dark, and inhuman. "An elf?" muttered Tiara with confusion. "Are you certain?" "It doesn't matter if they are certain," Arthur said with a frown as he looked at the survivors. "As long as they are telling the same thing without being in the same place, we can believe them." Tiara was silent, and Arthur could sense the fear in her. This unknown entity, which somehow resembled an elf, wasn't anything they were aware of. If this creature was the source of famine or its product, Malrik and the rest were in danger. "What are we supposed to do?" asked Tiara with fear as she approached Arthur. The rest of the elves were waking up, and their testimonies were the same. The one who did this to them was the dark-haired elf himself. "We need to warn them—or reach them in time," Arthur said with a frown. "Does any form of communication work inside the Dark Forest?" "Artifacts lose their function inside. This is also what made the fight so difficult," Tiara said with worry. "It has been an hour or so since they left the camp. We should be able to get there in time." "We need to understand our enemy first," Arthur remained calm as he walked toward the nearest elf, who looked like a young man with thick eyebrows and hair. "Greetings. My name is Arthur Netherborne. I can use my runes to create an image of the person who did this to you, but I would need your cooperation." "…Anything," the elf nodded after he looked at Tiara for confirmation. "What do I need to do?" "Just close your eyes," Arthur said as he raised his hand. "And try to think about the elf, how he looked, and any distinguishing features." The elf closed his eyes, and Arthur retrieved the image from his mind with his rune. However, he didn't stop there and did the same with the rest of the elves until he had a unified image of what that person looked like. Most of the images were exaggerated by fear, but Arthur managed to superimpose them all to form an accurate image of the culprit. Arthur retrieved the image from his rune, turning it into a physical copy that he examined together with Tiara. The elf was tall with slender arms. He wore black robes that seemed to flutter through existence. He had long silky hair that seemed to be an extension of the void itself. His eyes were fully white, with no pupils inside them. "What kind of creature is this?" muttered Arthur as he stared at the strange man who looked more like a monster than an elf. His ears were tall and slanted, while his teeth were black and sharp. "Do you recognize—" Arthur wanted to ask Tiara about his identity but realized that the elven princess was shaking. He turned toward her to see her face pale and her lips trembling in fear. The princess was sweating as she staggered backward. "Are you alright?" Arthur asked her, removing the image from her sight to calm her down. Tiara snapped out of her daze and looked at him with shaky pupils. "I know him…" Tiara said as she gulped. "We all do." "Who is he?" Arthur asked with his brows furrowed. "It's a long story, but it's somehow a myth now that people forgot," Tiara said with a frown as she clenched her fists. "But I know his face because I walk past his portrait every day in the palace. That is my uncle, the queen's younger brother, and the man infamous as the Dark Prince." "The Dark Prince?" Arthur repeated as he looked at the image. "How old is he, and how come I never heard that the queen had a brother?" "It happened shortly after her coronation. My uncle refused to abide by the rules of elves and demanded that he become king. It was the beginning of a rebellion, which was ultimately defeated." "And the queen simply spared his life?" asked Arthur with confusion. "The Dark Prince died in battle, and his body was buried in an unknown location to prevent anyone from retrieving his arts. He managed to use our forests and legacies not to heal, but to curse others with poison." "Medicine and poison have always been two sides of the same coin," Arthur said with a sigh. "But how is he still alive if he should have been dead a long time ago?" "I don't know… but my mother should know the truth about this," Tiara said with hesitation. "You must find Diana and Malrik to warn them, while I shall return to the royal palace with this news." "Take this as well to make the queen believe this nightmare," Arthur gave her the image. "Let's hope I find them before it's too late." Arthur then left the recovery room and jumped down to the ground. His body landed without disturbing the peace as he disappeared, rushing through the gates of the camp to enter the Dark Forest. Although he trusted Diana and her abilities, he couldn't help but be worried about her now.

 n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om