Kadin couldn’t believe what he was hearing; even if it was all true there was no way he could let it happen. Struggling against his bond and trying to reach his mana again he pushed in a panic. The Necromancer noticed and he smiled again – not a cruel or evil smile but a smile of a man contented happy but before Kadin could say anything he spoke again.

“Why I am telling you this is because I need your help.” He gestured to the alter and spoke

“I am planning on opening a portal to the demon realm to bring them back. But I was not strong enough before, I needed to drain power from people in the towns and villages I passed through.” The necromancer frowned looked sad before collecting himself and going on

“It brought me no pleasure to kill all those people – but I needed their strength, it was only at the last village I had the strength to spread my essence over the whole village and drain the life energy out of everyone, that’s why the town was empty, everything converted to magical energy and absorbed.” A small sad smile was on his face when he spoke again.

“ I even tried it on you.. when I realised you were following me, I reached out entering your dreams, hunting you – draining your energy, I thought I might have got you one of the times when I felt a big influx of energy .. but it was an animal mind a beast. But I took a lot of effort and then you found a way to shield yourself too, well done .. I was surprised at how fast you caught up to me.” Kadin searched his face for any sign of mockery or arrogance, but there was none – if anything he seemed almost humble now a far change from the man he first met. So Kadin thought he might be able to convince him so he tried to say something, anything.

“ You don’t have to do this – you can just leave.” It sounded stupid to even his own ears and his target chuckled at that before saying

“We both know that’s not an option.” He turned to look at the altar again and said

“Even with all my new strength, I cant open a stable portal to the demon realm, it needs to be stable and permanent, which brings me to you. I have fuelled the alter and used enchanted glyphs to expand and stabilise the portal but to keep it open permanently it needs something more – it needs the life blood of a soul.” He sighed at this and even looked somewhat sad before going on

“A death is required so that a whole race may live.” Kadin was only half listening as he worked furiously to get out of these bonds. There were the three black band holding him but they weren’t like normal bindings, a numbness radiated out of them that held his body in place, but he was making progress with his right arm, he could almost freely move his wrist and he was now working back pushing at his elbow – if he could get free range of motion he could surprise his captor. But what he said had finally been processed, life blood, a death, MY death!

Kadin needed to buy more time, he opened his mouth not sure what he was going to say

“You seem sad about killing my, why ? you have killed hundreds of people these past weeks.” As he said this he was slowly starting to move his elbow, his whole had felt like it had been in frozen water for hours, cold pains occasionally working through the numbness he felt. Then the other man spoke

“You will understand, at the end.” As he said this he went around to other side of the alter he gave a light follow gesture and Kadin slowly floated after him, with the movement Kadin tried to move any part of his body, his feet and legs were completely numb, so was his chest and his left arm which was still clutching his demon sword in a reverse grip, there was a light tingling around his neck but was still able to move his head a little and surprisingly he was gaining more movement in his right arm. He just needed more time so he spoke again

“Even if you kill me, why would you bring the demons back – you are sad about killing those few hundred – the demons will want war they will kill hundreds of thousands!” But this time the Necromancer didn’t even look up he started gesturing over the alter, occasionally using a small metal file to scrape something in the stone. As Kadin floated closer he seen old runes and symbol underneath, with newer carvings over the top of them most glowing with power, but then he seen what was being scratched, it was a channel for blood flow so his blood would overlap all the glyphs and runes before running to a hollow bowl in the stone that had multiple glowing soul gems in it. They were now face to face on opposite end of the alter when the necromancer sighed in finality looked his captive in the eyes and said

“Before we end this, please tell me again your name? – I cant remember from when we met in the tower.”

Still struggling to buy as much time as possible Kadin answered

“My name is Kadin Banto, gold seven of the Aspire guild.”

“Well met, Kadin Banto – my name is Norman McGuniss. You were a worthy adversary.”

After he said this Norman moved his hands to reach into his black robes.

‘Its now or never Kadin thought’ as he threw all his effort, all his thoughts, all his fears in to moving his hand. His right hand still held his dagger in a forwards grip – he pushed at it with every fibre of his being, willing himself to move.

His hand lurched forwards, almost comically slow to the reaction speed he was use to – but it was enough. His blade ripped through the neck of his target slicing the jugular of the man in front of him.