Valley of Shadows and Roses | ONC 2024

Chapter 8

The Shadow Lord returned to the Dark forest. Anger flared in him. That was the second time she had rejected him. Second time. He let her die for a whole year, and she still rejected him. He had expected her to be begging him to stop it at this time. Instead she would die with a smile on her face just to show him that he was not going to win over her. She's so stubborn, he thought. At the same time, however, she was an admirable opponent for him. Luna didn't break. She's stronger than he expected. The Shadow Lord liked her stubbornness. But it drives him crazy if things don't go according to his plans.

A furious Shadow Lord walked through the Dark forest. All the shadows were moving out of his way, hiding. They knew that at such times, it was better to get out of his sight; otherwise it could cost them their lives. More than once, they witnessed bold shadows that thought they could match him in power and were never seen again.

And so the dark prince decided to vent his anger in a nearby village. It was still night; the sun was about to appear over the horizon. People slept peacefully in their beds. Dreaming their sweet nightmares.

The Shadow Lord walked right into the middle of the square in the middle of the village. The fog followed him. It covered the streets in a milky veil. Although the day was creeping across the landscape, the fog absorbed all the sunlight and shrouded the country in the gloom. People woke up to a darkened morning as they got up for their daily duties. There was something bad in the air. Everyone felt it immediately. A threat they had no idea had arrived. They feared it would happen, but they didn't expect it actually to come.

What he unleashed there was like a plague. A disease that completely destroyed you. It caught them off, guard. With each breath, the infection entered their lungs and spread through the blood throughout the body. People couldn't breathe. Each breath brought them closer to death. Their whole body, their whole spirit ached. People were suffering from convulsions. They were delirious. The hallucinations tortured them. And the Shadow Lord watched his work.

A young woman crawled up to the dark prince, crying, pleading. "Please. Please stop it," she begged him. "It hurts."

The Shadow Lord raised her gaze to his. "It stops when you die," he told her. "And the more you fight it, the more it will hurt."

Desperate cries and screams of pain filled the air. Bodies writhed in death convulsions. Bloody tears ran down their faces. They fell to the ground like rotten apples. Some tried to run away in an attempt to avoid death, but it was too late. It was in them. And the creator of that horror watched with pleasure.

The wind carried a whiff of someone else's death. It felt familiar to the Shadow Lord, so he followed it into a narrow, dark alley. He saw him there. His own nightmare. His curse. He was leaning against the wall of a small house. A mischievous smile played on his lips.

"Hello, brother," the man said, dark brown hair falling into his eyes.

"What are you doing here?" snapped the Shadow Lord irritably.

His brother was definitely the last person in this world he wanted to see. Truth be told, he hoped he was dead.

Once there were three shadow brothers. The first of them was the most powerful, more powerful than any shadow that ever lived. Because of this, he became the lord of all shadows. The second brother was very jealous. He envied his brother's power and began to hate him. He promised himself that one day he would take that power away from him. The third brother, as if he didn't even exist. He preferred to stay in the background. He liked the first brother better than the second.

Among the shadows, the hierarchy works in such a way that if they wanted to advance in it, they had to be stronger, and there was only one way to do that - the shadow kills the shadow and thereby absorbs its power and becomes more powerful itself.

The jealous second brother decided to kill the third brother, hoping to gain enough power to defeat the first. However, even that was not enough. The first brother, the Shadow Lord, was growing stronger. They fought. It was a brutal fight.

And the Shadow Lord won. He defeated his brother, filled with envy. He would have killed him, but he escaped. He hadn't heard from him since then, but he knew about his every move.

Until now.

"Can't I visit my beloved brother?" he smirked.

"The last time you called someone like that, you stabbed him in the back," the Shadow Lord replied to his brother.

"Come on!" said the second brother. "It's been so long, and you're still upset. Stop living in the past, brother."

"I'll stop when you're dead, and I forget you ever existed," said the Shadow Lord. "Now, what do you want here, brother?" he said with all the disgust in his voice he could muster.

"You're awfully negative, brother." he was amused at the fact that he surprised the Shadow Lord by showing up there. He knew he had caught him off guard, and he was going to take advantage of that.

"I heard about your bride. She's not really your bride, actually. She rejected you. Twice, as I know."

"Do these words of yours have any meaning, or are you just trying to annoy me? In the second case, I should have warned you that I am already annoyed, and still haven't forgotten what you did and what you tried to do. So in your best interest, I would run as fast as you can, just like you used to do."

The Shadow Lord's brother was excited by his contempt for him. He believed that one day he would show him who was the best. He will beat him and watch with joy as he takes from him everything he never deserved, everything that should have been rightfully his. He will take everything that is dear to him. He will destroy him. However, now is not the right time.

"That princess makes you weak, brother," he continued to provoke.

The Shadow Lord laughed. "So this is what you're after," he said. "You're a disgusting hyena waiting for my carcass to drop dead so you can eat the remains. In that case, I have bad news for you, brother, because it's not going to happen."

The second brother laughed again at his brother's pride. "You forget that everything we do has consequences. And you use your power recklessly. You yourself give me that advantage." he said. "We gain strength from death, but you give the princess life. Eternal life, to be exact. You are defying your own nature, brother. Your punishment for her for rejecting you is more of a gift than a curse. You've softened."

The Shadow Lord no longer wanted to listen to his brother's words. He laughed ominously at him. The Shadow Lord towered over him. He may be right that how he plays with Princess Luna weakens his position and power, but forgets that he is still stronger than him. He forgets where he belongs.

The Shadow Lord could no longer control himself, grabbed his brother by the neck and pushed him against the wall.

"Do you really think you are in a position to lecture me? Your provocations are unnecessary and will only make me angrier, which would only work against you, Sebastian." he hissed at him.

His brother's face showed shock. His eyes were wide open – from his brother's words, but also from the air that was denied him. He admitted to himself that it was imprudent to provoke his brother like that. Maybe he underestimated the situation a bit. However, he was pleased with how easy it was to provoke him. Just a few moments with him, and he knows everything he needs.

"Did you really think, dear brother, that I don't know what you've been doing all these decades and where you've been hiding? Always out of my reach but always close. Even after all these years, I hate you, I decided to be generous with you today and give you your own life." he told his brother. "Run! Run as far as possible. And if I ever see you again, I swear, I will flood this earth with your blood. I will tear your body to pieces and discard each part in a different part of the world."

The Shadow Lord finally released his brother, who took deep breaths of air into his lungs. For a moment, he thought that he had supposed it wrong and that his brother would kill him on the spot. He wasn't ready to fight him yet, so he obediently did as he said and disappeared into the shadows. But he wasn't going to stay hidden forever.