by Kran Sanon
DAWN OF DARKNESS
book 1
of the
ARKHEN FALLING TRILOGY
by
KRAN SANON
Copyright 2019
Published by HNEX Comics and Publishing.
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be constructed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organisations is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the author except in the case of brief quotation embodied in critical articles and reviews.
BOOKS IN THIS SERIES
ARKHEN FALLING
Book 1: Dawn of Darkness
Book 2: Shadow of the Forsaken
Book 3: End of Days
Prequel Series
ARKHEN WARS and ARKHEN ORIGINS
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Map of the Midlands Kingdom
PROLOGUE
Thousands of years ago, the gods created men to rule the new age of the world in order to preserve the virtues of life. The elves were commanded to oversee the plans are followed and eventually leave. Some of the gods did not agree with the idea and suggested that they should prove themselves. To test them, they created the Necros, a race made from the dead. The very reason for this was to see whether man can set their selfish ambitions aside and fight together for a common goal which is the survival of their race. Eventually, the doubtful gods were proven wrong as the kingdoms of men united together with the elves and dragons and easily defeated the Necros but what no one saw coming was that the Necros learned to evolve. Together with the help of magic, they grew their armies and ultimately building an empire. The balance of power now had shifted. The gods in order to combat this mismatch, created the race of Arkhenians. These were beings created from both men and dragons. The Arkhen Kingdom itself was created based on the name of the very first Arkhen King Arkhi Rutherford making him the most powerful man in the world. The gods eventually left the fate of the world on whichever race has the will to survive. Now it has been 15000 years since the creation of the Necros Empire and the Arkhenians. Man fully rule the world with the Necros not being heard of in thousands of years. Even the Arkhenians are now slowly fading away with only rare dragon sightings but something is emerging in the darkness.
CHAPTER 1
The Night of Terror
King Solas Alistair of Selux Kingdom is on his way to the small kingdom of Wovia. He is supposed to meet King Morrigan Pentaghost of the Vrailan Kingdom in an attempt to make a truce for a civil war that has been raging on the Midlands Empire for the past five years. It is one of those nights where rain and thunders dominate the sky. As King Solas and his men arrive at Wovia, the only thing they find is a ruined kingdom burned down to ashes. King Solas commands his men to get their guards up as this only looks like an ambush from the Vrailan Kingdom. As they enter the kingdom, one of his men says
“My King, the dead men are not only from Wovia but belong to the Vrailan Kingdom as well.”
Amos Alistair, who is the brother and military commander of King Solas, tells him that they must have died in battle but the Kings right hand Robin Geoffrey disagrees. He tells him
“That cannot be possible because there are so many of them dead. Wovia is a very small kingdom. They cannot kill this many of the Vrailan men. It is definitely someone else. Someone who was not supposed to be at this meeting.”
King Solas then tells him it might not be someone else but something else.
“Look at their bodies. It has been completely ripped apart. This is no work of men but seems like a work of any monster,” he says.
“What kind of a monster would kill its prey and will not even eat it?” asks Amos.
Solas says he has no idea.
Amos then asks them
“What about the dragons from Arkhen? I know they are not supposed to be in the realms of men, but there are still a couple of them who visit the Elves Kingdom, don’t they?”
Solas tells him they do visit the Elves Kingdom but that is because of the friendship between the Arkhen King and the Elf King. Besides, what happened is not a dragon’s work.
“Dragons burn and not just rip someone apart like that,” he tells him.
As they talk about it, they suddenly hear soldiers screaming as some of them start disappearing. Something is approaching on the east of the palace. King Solas commands his soldiers to create a defensive formation. As those things get near them, one of the soldiers scream
“They are monsters!”
Robin tells them that those things look like the Necros from the ancient myths.
“It cannot be” the King says.
Everybody is stunned because the race of the Necros were all destroyed thousands of years ago. They have not been heard of since the “Arkhen Wars” which occurred well over three thousand years ago.
“Even if some of them survived somehow, they could not make all this way from the ruins of the Necros Empire without being noticed” the king says.
As all of them contemplate about it, the Necros attack and a battle breaks out. They all quickly realise that they are completely outnumbered. King Solas and his men know they cannot win this battle, and it is better to retreat but they cannot seem to get the chance. The Necros are attacking like animals without the fear of being killed. Their target appears to be the King himself as most of them are going towards him. The Selux army eventually starts to fall one by one. They have never faced something as vicious as the Necros before. King Solas fights valiantly but eventually cannot hold off so many of them. One of them finally succeeds in stabbing him with a sword. The king somehow manages to kill him but he is severely injured. Amos and Robin are made aware of this and straight away go to their kings’ aid. Amos then asks his brother to leave now, or else he will die.
“You need to go, brother. We will distract them until you are far away. Go and try to find help. We will also retreat once you are gone” says Amos to his brother.
Solas does not want to leave his men in battle, but his right hand reminds him that leaving is the only plan that can work in this scenario. King Solas eventually listens to them and tries to escape. The East entrance is covered with the Necros so he has to go towards the West of the kingdom. He makes his way towards the South West Mountains to have a better chance of escaping from the Necros. He cannot find any help and he is too injured to go on any further. He ultimately gives up and drops to the ground. He knows this is his last moments and starts to think about his daughter and his wife understanding that he will never get to see them ever again. As he is about to give up, he sees something coming towards him. He suspects that it might be one of the Necros but it is rather a dragon. Seeing him injured, the dragon picks him up and flies him over to the Arkhen Kingdom. The Arkhen King, Cullen Rutherford recognises that the man is the King of Selux. This is because King Solas is a much-respected man in all realms of men and beyond. He is very kind and has kept order and balance in the midlands kingdom for a very long time now. That has led to him gain respect not just from men but from the Arkhen King Cullen Rutherford and the Elf King Samven as well. King Cullen tries to help him, but he is informed that he is beyond saving now and that his death is imminent. He is also made aware that it is not only the wounds he sustained from the battle but also the po
ison that has entered his body from the sword that is killing him. He is also told that King Solas wants to talk to him before he dies. As King Solas is taking his final breaths, King Cullen goes to visit him to find out what happened to him. King Solas enlightens him of the events of Wovia.
“We were supposed to meet King Morrigan at Wovia in attempt to make a truce but were attacked. It was not the Vrailan men but your enemies. It was the Necros” said King Solas.
King Cullen stunned by what he was just told tells him that it cannot be true, but King Solas keeps on repeating
“It is them.
It is the Necros
It is the Necros”
He then holds the hand of King Cullen and asks him to make a promise to him.
“I have kept the promise that my ancestors made to you and this kingdom. I have kept a balance between all realms of men, but when I am gone, all of that might be gone. You need to promise me that you will protect my people and what we stand for. You need to protect my daughter from whatever kind of war is coming. Promise me” King Solas asks King Cullen.
Cullen tells him that he will not let anything happen to his people or his family and that he will find out whoever is behind all of this.
King Solas is now dead, but King Cullen still cannot believe his story. He placed his hand on the head of King Solas and used his magical powers to see and feel everything that King Solas has been through but is still sceptical about the sudden appearance of the Necros. King Cullen was part of the Arkhen Wars some three thousand years ago when his brother and then Arkhen King Conor Rutherford completely destroyed the Empire of the Necros and wiped their race out of existence.
“Maybe some of them survived and now are preparing a new war” said the kings’ right hand Daniello.
King Cullen though does not agree.
“Even if they are back, both of us know them really well. They do not need to poison their swords to kill someone. All of this was definitely staged by someone else. I am sure of it” he replies.
Daniello then says that he suspects all of this are the doing of King Morrigan Pentaghost and knows that King Cullen shares his view.
“I do” says King Cullen.
“But I am not certain. I need to get to the bottom of this. King Solas was the pillar holding the realms of men together in times of civil war. He is gone now, so I need to figure out how to keep the balance intact after what has happened. I need to talk to Samven. He will know more about what happened at Wovia” continues the King.
The Elf King Samven and Cullen have been friends since the Arkhen Wars and trust each other with their lives. Samven has always respected the decisions made by Cullen and has been there whenever Cullen needed him. The same can be said about Cullen.
Samven has come to the Arkhen Kingdom upon Cullen’s request and also after running his own investigations for the events of Wovia. Cullen greets him like he always does, like a friend and asks how he is.
“I am good, but I am pretty sure that is not the reason why I was invited here, isn’t it?” replies Samven.
Cullen smiles and invites him over to dinner.
They both discuss the events of Wovia over dinner where Samven tells Cullen that he and his elf army have investigated Wovia and all of its nearby villages.
“We have investigated Wovia and every place close to it as Daniello told us to but have not found out anything new to what you already know. Are you sure it is the Necros that we should be looking for?” asks Samven.
Cullen tells him maybe not.
“I extracted every information from the mind of King Solas. I know everything that he saw and every information that he knew. It was the Necros or something that wanted us to look at them as the Necros. I suspect some people staged all of this, but now I am certain. We know the Necros do not just hide. If they start something, then they will finish it unless they fall. Whoever is behind this seems to have every intention to start a war. I need to find out who” he tells him.
Samven then asks King Cullen if he suspects anyone. “Right now there is only one man to suspect” says Cullen.
“That is King Morrigan of the Vrailan Kingdom” Cullen responds.
Samven tells him that might not be true.
“King Morrigan also ran away from the battle. I have already had a word with him, and he had told me about what happened when he and his men arrived at Wovia. The story is no different from what happened to King Solas and most of his men. When King Morrigan and his men arrived at Wovia, they also only saw the ruins of a fallen kingdom. Then they were also ambushed by the Necros as King Morrigan flew from the battle to save his life. He was also certain that it was the Necros that attacked him and blamed King Solas for all of this. He, just like everyone else in the realms of men do not know that King Solas is dead; that is why he thought that it was King Solas who set all of this up” said Samven.
“And do you believe him?” asks Cullen.
Samven says that he does not believe him but why would King Morrigan go to such great lengths.
“What would he want to prove imitating such a vicious race which he or no one else has seen in ages?” said Samven.
“That is what I need to find out. King Morrigan is the person who is responsible for the civil war that has been raging on the realms of men. You and I both know how ambitious he is. He wants to dethrone Selux as the biggest empire in the kingdom of men and replace it with his own Vrailan Kingdom. He knew King Solas was the biggest barrier standing in his way. King Solas was the most respected man in almost all of the kingdoms of men so Morrigan knew he had to defeat him in battle only or else the people will riot. Making it look like some monsters did it would avoid that. But like you said, it is still not clear why would he go so low to make it happen. There were other ways as well to ambush them and make it look as if someone or something else did it. Maybe it was something or someone else who was responsible for what happened. That is something that you and I need to find out” said King Cullen.
Samven says they will find out who is behind all of this. He then asks him what should they do about the secret that King Solas is dead since no one still knows where he is, and Selux Kingdom is still scouting for him. Cullen says now is not the right time to tell the people the truth.
“Selux Kingdom is men’s biggest empire and the leader of all the Kingdoms in the midlands. When the Arkhen Wars ended thousands of years ago, we decided that the realms of men should be left to them to rule. We chose the Selux Kingdom to lead all other kingdoms of men. For so long it was exactly like that until Solas Alistair became the King. He showed everyone a new way, a better way. He let every other kingdom rule themselves. He brought peace and equality between the rich and the poor. That is why every person in the realms of men respect him so much. Everyone looked up to him whenever they needed answers, and he delivered every single time. Now that he is gone, everything that he and his kingdom stood for is on the brink of being lost. The realms of men have been in a state of civil war created by King Morrigan. King Morrigan is a leader who believes in the old ways of ruling. He will create a world full of tyranny and inequality. That is something that you and I should not allow. That is why no should know the truth that King Solas is dead” said King Cullen.
“But his people and his family need to know the truth” says Samven.
“His people are trying to find him ever since the events of Wovia happened. I do not think it is right to hide the truth from them. Even if we do, they would eventually know that he is gone as time passes.”
“They will not find out. At least not right now” said Cullen.
Samven tells him he does not understand what Cullen is trying to say to him.
It is simple to understand Cullen tells him.
“Like I said before. I extracted every information I could from King Solas when he died. My powers have told me a lot about him; how he lived, how he ruled, and how he interacted with every person around him. I have seen everything that he saw. I know everything that h
e knew. That is why I need to take advantage of this information to end this war. I will use my shifting powers to become King Solas and take his place until I resolve this conflict” King Cullen tells him.
“But that is also not morally right” replies Samven.
“I do not think we stand for this! Hiding the truth from them is something else but trying to take the place of their King without telling them the actual truth is not right. I do not think this is who you really are” he adds.
King Cullen tells him that he completely understands what Samven is trying to say to him, but he has been left with no other choice.
“You and I both know what will happen when the people find out that King Solas is dead and like you said, eventually the people will find out. I know we let men rule themselves but this is different from that. Before King Solas died, he made me make a promise to him to protect his family and his people. By his people, he did not only mean the people of his kingdom but every person in the realms of men. He was a man of honour, and so am I. I have every intention of keeping that promise. I will honour my word. I have no other choice. You know there is something greater at work in this war. Something that is either working with King Solas or making it look like that. Whatever it is, I need to find out. If I manage to end this war, then imagine the number of innocent lives that will be saved. I know it is hard for you to allow something like this, but you are the only person that I can trust. You of all people need to understand how important it is to end this war and find the truth. Please trust me in this. I promise I will tell everyone the truth and leave” King Cullen tells him.