Dunmer Elvrios.

He was a member of a minor branch family, Elvrios, of the Black Castle. However, when it was revealed that his growth rate far surpassed that of the children of royal descent, especially those of the Elders, he was quarantined on the basis of “tainted blood.”

The nobles of the Dark Elves claimed Dunmer was a spawn of the Daemons’ experiments, which explained his abnormal development. They called him a potential calamity to their kind.

Of course, that was far from the truth.

He really was just ridiculously gifted. As a one year-old, he could instinctively manipulate the forces of darkness at a level that 100 year-old Dark Elves could barely reach.

By ten years old, he had escaped the cellars of the Black Castle at least thirty-four times and caused hundreds of deaths when they tried to bring him back.

By one-hundred years old, even the Elders began to fear his endless growth. They considered killing him if he would potentially undermine their power in the future.

But they had kept him alive to experiment on him in order to find out the reason behind his strength. Alas, they couldn’t find out anything. They could only bind him with countless mana-restricting chains and throw him in a cellar. They decided to only use him as a weapon should the need arise.

By his one thousand, sixty-seventh birthday, he had undergone many deadly “tests” and was strained both physically and mentally. The only thing that kept him alive was his own monstrous mana pool and astounding innate abilities. Amazingly, the tests didn’t have any side-effects besides “minor” emotional ones.

It remained that way until his soon-to-be-Master came.

“Hey, can I have this ball? Seems pretty nifty,” a masked youth had asked at the entrance of the castle, casually playing with a glass ball pulsating with a violet light.

“Who are you? How did you come into these lands?”

“What the, he has the Orb of Obscurity!”

“An intruder! Kill him and take it back!”

“Yeesh, fine, I’ll give you back your stupid orb. No need for violence,” he said before setting the orb down. But then, he looked towards the direction from which Dunmer was observing in the shadows.

After a while of feeling uncomfortable from the gaze, Dunmer realized the masked youth was staring right at him. Dunmer’s suspicions were confirmed with the next words of the masked youth.

“Looks like I found a pretty good gem. Hey, do you want to leave this place and accompany me?”

Were those words directed to him? If so...there was only one obvious choice for Dunmer.

Yes!

There was no hesitation in Dunmer’s response when he heard the masked youth. Even though he replied immediately and he didn’t know whether he could be heard from the cellar, that one answer held all the pain, suffering, desperation, and willpower of the last millennium for him.

The masked youth laughed in approval and faced the belligerent Elders.

"Sorry, ya old geezers. I lied."

He placed his foot on the orb before stepping down and easily crushing it. Then, he disappeared the next second. The upper halves of the Elders vanished. Before their remaining halves started to spurt a rain of blood, they vanished as well.

“Yeah, I think getting rid of the whole thing is cleaner,” the masked youth decided out loud when he reappeared in the spot he was in before, as if he never moved.

Even in mana-restricting chains, Dunmer heard and saw everything through the shadows. He could still do at least that much with his overwhelming power, even with it restrained. He watched, amazed, as more and more Elders came and pounced on the masked youth. It was literally a carnival of darkness and destruction as the Elders tried to overwhelm the youth with pure magical might.

Soon, the other branch families, nobles, and royal descendants arrived to stop the masked youth. The damage was unimaginable, and the Black Castle was in shambles. Their magic and spells were ultimately useless and it ended for them in the same, simple way.

They all vanished. Even Dunmer, who spectated the whole event, was unsure what the masked youth did.

In the end, the masked youth destroyed his way towards Dunmer and effortlessly ripped off his chains. Dunmer was in complete and utter awe at the being’s power. The Elders, especially as a group, could contend with the ancient powers of Solvenheim. Yet the masked youth made them vanish without even a hint of blood.

Dunmer was not sad that he witnessed the elves of the Black Castle disappear in droves. Even when his original branch family, Elvrios, was swept in the tide, his spirit never faltered. Even when he knew that he was not normal, both physically and mentally, he wanted to accompany the masked youth and serve him.

“My name’s Em. What’s yours, dude?”

“Dunmer Elvrios, Master Em.”

“Jeez, why are you calling me ‘Master?’ I only said you could accompany me. You don’t have to serve me, you know,” Em chided the Dark Elf.

However, when Em caught the fiery glint in the elf’s eyes, he could only sigh, “Haaah, whatever.”

He went silent as he contemplated something before snapping his fingers.

“Got it! You’ll be ‘Dun’ from now on!” he exclaimed proudly. “Boy, am I a genius or what?”

Em could only let out a sigh himself at his new name. But under the facade of gloom, there was a wild energy within him and peculiar thoughts in his head.

I shall serve this man, in hopes of living like him.

Hence, when Dun heard of his Master’s purpose, he could only smile.

‘Gather those with the greatest potential, even if you have to turn everything on its head to find them.’

Dun was truly exhilarated when given his first assignment. What he didn’t expect was that he would do this job on a much, much wider scale.

But, that would be far in the future.

A month had passed since then, and Dun was faithfully completing the task given by his Master. That’s why, at the moment, he had come to the Human kingdom Aquaria, which was known for their royal family. It was full of young martial and mana-attuned talents.

As a being of shadows, Dun was the perfect choice for completing the mission of kidnapping “potential inhabitants,” as his Master called them. He was a master of concealment and covert operations. Of course, he could easily deal with powerhouses on his own as well. He didn’t know what his Master’s goal was nor why he called the kidnappees that peculiar title. He didn’t know what “potential” his master referred to even though it could be anything. He didn’t care. Regardless, Dun was excited at the prospect of doing things like this with his Master.

Currently, Dun was sitting cross-legged in an alley. He was in a town far away from the royal castle of the Aquarios family.

This is the last human kingdom to infiltrate. Targets of interest include King Atlos Aquarios and his children Jacquelin, Raphael, Sebastian, Arthur, Amelia, and Boros. Wow, that’s a lot. Wait, does he have a wife?

Dun suddenly took out a few papers. On them, there was information and background concerning the most powerful individuals and families of Solvenheim.

Deceased, huh?

Dun smiled in spite of himself.

Then, it’ll be less troublesome to take the last three in one fell swoop. It’ll be harder than the previous ones. But it wouldn’t be interesting otherwise.

The Dark Elf smirked before his figure melted into the shadows of the alley.