Robert stretched his arms up over his head as he yawned. He missed the party earlier in the day when the Lady Deason had finally given birth to twin boys. It had been whispered that the Lady was barren, and Lord Deason was coming to the ends of his wits worrying about the line of his family. Sure he had a younger brother, but he had been gone for over a decade with no news. Robert did not even know what he looked like, and he had lived with the family his whole life.

Robert walked along the battlements of the keep in deep silence. The moon was shrouded by heavy cloud cover, and there was not even a simple breeze to disturb the quiet of the night. It was amazing how much the keep seemed like a tomb in the dead of the night, especially after such a joyous occasion as occurred earlier in the day.

Robert gazed out into the darkness, straining his eyes to see clearly. He had just recently been promoted to the night watch because of his advancement to the Nascent Realm, a considerable accomplishment in this area of the country, especially taking his youngish age of twenty-six into account. Some promotion, he thought. Robert was not yet accustomed to the night hours, but he was a good guard and he would do his duty. There were only a handful of other Nascent Realm guards working for the Lord and Lady Deason, with Captain Pritch having attained the Spirit Realm a couple years prior.

Captain Pritch was a real powerhouse. With his abilities as a Spirit Realm cultivator, he could have his pick of military commission in the army, but he chose to stick with his life-long benefactor, Lord Deason. Lord Deason had told him he did not have to stay, but Captain Pritch was nothing if not loyal.

Gah! This is boring. Robert continued along the battlements, keeping his eyes to the outside of the keep. He was not entirely sure why such a small keep so far from the border needed a night patrol, but he could begrudgingly concede the point about protecting the new infants and Lady Deason. He did not know what he would necessarily be protecting them from at this point, but he was not paid to think of these things.

With his thoughts drawn towards the newborns, Robert's eyes followed his mind. It seems weird that there should be a light on in the children's room at this hour. Most likely the Lord or Lady checking up on them. Something did not feel right about this situation to Robert. Sure it was the first night with newborn children, but that light seemed off to Robert.

He quickened his pace along the top of the wall to the tower stairs. He hurried down the stairs and made his way to the guard shack where there would be a couple of the younger guards rotating on and off patrol duty. Robert glanced around and saw that the night leader, Caerd, was not inside. Only Zac and Donald, two of the newest recruit guards, were present in the shack. These two young men were getting a taste of ordered life before they got old enough to travel inland and join the army. From how serious they took their job, Robert knew they had a bright future ahead of them. Well, at least not a dull future.

"Where's Caerd?" Robert asked of the youths.

"He just stepped out to do an outer perimeter check of the wall only a few moments ago, sir. He said he was getting antsy about the weather for some reason. Weather seems fine to me." Zac stood up to address the older man.

"It's ok, you don't have to stand. And don't call me sir, either. Leave that for the management, ha. If he gets back any time soon and asks why I'm not on the battlement before I'm back, just tell him that I got antsy about the weather inside the manor." Robert tried to make light of his gut feeling to keep the young men at ease.

"Yes, sir." Zac and Donald responded.

Robert grunted and turned to head towards the manor. The Lord and Lady instructed the guards to maintain their presence on the grounds, battlements, and outside the walls, but to only enter the manor when either invited or with a reasonable suspicion. Robert knew that Lord Deason did not have this policy because he was arrogant. Quite the contrary, he wanted his men to be outside and not cooped up, but also not in the way of his family members either.

Robert approached the doors of the manor and again felt that inexplicable feeling of something being off. The doors were closed, but Robert gave them a push. The right side door slowly swung open. The doors had been closed, but not latched. Weird, why would they leave the doors open to being caught in a draft? Robert shook his head at this. If I didn't know better, I'd say an intruder set this up, but how could that be? We've been attentive to the entrances to the keep and manor all day and all night.

Robert stepped into the manor and felt a chill run down his spine. It was deathly silent in the building, and the torches seemed to be giving off repressed light. Robert had never seen anything quite like it, almost as if the light was afraid to encroach on the darkness. Robert felt the first stirrings of fear in the pit of his stomach.

Get a hold of yourself, man! You're simply verifying that it's the Lord or Lady checking up on their children. There's nothing to be scared of! Robert was a sensible man, and was not prone to flights of fancy. But there was just something about the quiet and the light. He suppressed those feelings ruthlessly.

Robert proceeded along the manor towards the central staircase. There were no servants, family members, or guests out and about. Of course not, why would there be at this hour? Robert soon arrived at the top of the stairs and looked down the hall towards the infants' room. The twinges of fear came back full force and slammed into him like a punch in the stomach, all of the blood draining from his face and paralyzing him.

The darkness seemed to be physically pooling on the ground, churning like a mist. It was a phenomenon that Robert had never even heard of before. Something was not right here, but Robert could not move. He was physically paralyzed. He screamed at himself in his mind to move his body and find out what was going on. This had never happened before, and he could not understand what was keeping him rooted in place.

"Twins?! Heh heh heh. This explains so much. Why there were two threads in the streams. Heh heh heh. Kyumen, you old fool. Did you think I wouldn't snip this thread? You have underestimated me once again. Heh heh heh." A voice came from the room of the infants. The owner of the voice occasionally gave out short, barking laughs. They sounded almost a parody to what real laughter sounded like.

Robert's entire body felt like it dropped twenty degrees in temperature. Just that voice alone caused him to want to flee to the ends of the land, but he was still paralyzed in place.

"What are you doing?" The whisper in Robert's ear knocked him out of his paralysis when he jumped at the sudden noise. He glanced over to his left to find Captain Pritch standing there eyeing the darkness with trepidation. He did not appear to have heard the voice within the room.

"Sir, I can't explain, but I believe someone is in the room with the children." Robert knew not to waste any breath on anything that was not of utmost importance. Right now the only thing that mattered was that they get into that room. More importantly that Captain Pritch, a Spirit Realm powerhouse, got in the room.

Captain Pritch did not waste any breath either. He simply nodded and dashed towards the door. As soon as he entered the congealing darkness, his progress was noticeably slowed. Robert did not think about it and followed his captain to do his duty.

The darkness felt like tiny tendrils of ice snaking up his legs trying to hold him in place. If felt like the warmth, indeed the very life, was being drained out of him while he was moving through the darkness. Captain Pritch arrived at the door and slammed into it, bursting it open. The scene that greeted them caused Robert's stomach to churn, and tears came unbidden to his eyes.

A... creature stood in the middle of the room. He looked like a man, but at the same time not. The darkness was coming from this man, swirling about with him as the epicenter. He was incredibly tall, towering over both of the guards. He was cradling an infant in his left arm, and his right hand was clutching a small pair of legs. The legs traveled up to the waist, and ended with no torso. There was a bloodstain on the ground by the intruder's feet.

The intruder looked over at the duo and grinned an impossibly wide grin. Robert felt like he was staring at madness itself.

"Heh heh heh. Too late! Too late! I know how important these little sacks of flesh are to you, so you can have this one. Catch! Heh heh heh." With that the man tossed the pair of legs at Pritch.

Pritch stood there stunned for a couple of seconds, letting the legs hit him and slowly slide down to the ground. Then he erupted with Spiritual Energy and rushed towards the tall man with a mighty bellow. Robert knew that the rest of the manor would be awake now, and he knew his duty was to help Captain Pritch contain this embodiment of evil.

As Captain Pritch condensed Spiritual Energy into his fist to conduct a Ki strike on the creature, it casually backhanded Captain Pritch with an apparent ease that defied logic. Sure there were many people who were vastly more powerful than a Spiritual Realm Powerhouse, but this caricature of a man gave off no Spiritual Energy fluctuations at all. It was almost as if he was a void in existence.

The backhand landed on Captain Pritch and he literally exploded in a mist of blood and gore. The speed with which this great man was reduced to nothingness in front of Robert caused his mind to go completely blank. He knew that there was nothing he could do to stop this thing. He did not even know if would survive the night.

"What's all this commotion?! And why is it coming from my child's room? There had better be a good explanation for this!" Lord Deason came charging down the hall from his room, half dressed in a robe in a near panic. Lady Deason was poking her head out of the room at the end of the hall.

"My Lord, get the Lady and get out.. Erghk!" Robert tried to wave his Lord off, but the creature came bowling over him from the room. He was not struck with an attack, but the thing's body caused electrical currents to seize his entire body and he was thrown into the churning dark mist, once again completely paralyzed and mind going blank.

"Heh heh heh. More souls for the grinder. I shall allow myself to feast tonight. Oh how long it has been since I've come out of the shadows for a little fun. Heh heh heh." The monster opened its impossibly wide grinning mouth into a horrendous maw of fangs and needles as he approached Lord Deason. The man stood trembling in front of this abomination, unable to move with his gaze locked on the creature's face. Robert had never heard of anything close to how utterly horrifying this creature and this situation was. It was no wonder Lord Deason was unable to function any longer.

The creature bent down over Lord Deason, placing the upper half of his body mystically in its mouth. There was no room inside the creature's head for what was obviously happening in front of Robert's very eyes, but it was undeniable that it was happening.

The thing suddenly, ruthlessly chomped its mouth shut, cutting Lord Deason in half. It looked up at Lady Deason, chewing its mouth, still with the impossible grin on its face. Blood dribbled down its chin as its eyes shown with ecstasy. The bottom half of what used to be Lord Deason started to crumple, but the creature grabbed it up and shoved the rest of him into its mouth as well.

"Heh heh heh. Such tasty souls. Not very filling. All you pathetic weaklings on this plane have no substance to your souls. I remember the feasts my brothers and I used to have on the True Realm cultivators of days gone by. Now that was sumptuous! Heh heh heh." The creature's maniacal voice started to take on a strange timbre, almost as if it was two voices slightly off from each other.

True Realm cultivators of days gone by? Robert was thoroughly in shock at this point, and his mind latched on to the only thing that made any kind of sense to him. This statement caused Robert to grow even more confused in his near comatose state, but he did not have the chance to reconcile his thoughts on the matter as the darkness consumed his mind and everything went blank. The last thing he heard was a scream from Lady Deason and that ghastly chuckle before everything went black.

"Heh heh heh..."

----- Author's Note -----

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