Ch 9 - Great Halls

As the squad realised they were locked in this place, they began trembling and could not keep their calm. The foul smell of mutilated bodies, the fear of unknown and disappearance of half of their crew was enough to make them lose all their hope. They tried breaking the door, smashing windows, finding other escape routes, none worked. As if a mysterious force was keeping them stuck inside the shelter they felt similar to an insect stuck inside box. They cannot escape. The chief despite all the tensions tried to keep himself calm. He started counting the remaining officers.

"1, 2, 3, 4, 5- KABOOM!!

The sound interrupted the counting as the officers tried to find the origin of explosion, but it was of no use. Suddenly they heard a scream of their fellow officer, as they looked behind he was gone, vanished into endless darkness. One after the other until only chief and the firefighter remained. It was at that time, through great struggle they were able to find the main current switch of the shelter. They turned it on.

As the light illuminated the shelter, the duo were shocked to see the place neat and clean like it was newly built. The previous mutilated bodies were no more, the fungus growing on the ground had now vanished and the foul smell of dead was replaced with a smell of newly built building. They were shocked and almost borderline hysterical.

When they reached the centre of shelter, the earth trembled as the shelter began to collapse once again, the firefighter screamed but before the chief could even turn his back, firefighter vanished and now chief was left alone in a collapsing hall. As the roof began falling down, chief accepted his upcoming death and fell onto his knees praying for a miracle. Just when the falling debris was about to crush him, it suddenly stopped. As if time was frozen, the whole world stood stationery, the ground where the chief sat was now afloat, the collapsing debris now stood still in air, the air distorted and reality collapsed and the place where chief kneeled, was now nothing but a flat ground with chief vanished, only a mural resembling wings of an angel remained in his place.

***

The Kingdom of Frozen Hell

It was the single most powerful and influential unit with the whole land of Frozen Hell under its authority. Within the Kingdom, the title of The Great King granted supreme authority over its land and control. The power of Great King was so supreme that not even Council of Wise ones could oppose it. Council of wise ones was a group comprised of Dukes of many providences within the Kingdom.

The Kingdom of Frozen Hell was divided into 7 providences with each having one duke and one protector. The providence were also divided into various districts and rest on. It was a simple heiarchal system. There should be atleast 56 districts for it to be collectively known as a providence. Each district was further divided into various wards, each divided according to diverse needs of various races residing there. A collective group of 28 wards were allowed to be called a district. The representative of a ward was often elected by its residents or in some cases the position of representatives was taken by force like in cases of races with violent nature such as Orcs, the strongest one is always the leader and anyone is permitted to challenge and take over their position. The representative of a ward was called a Gerent. While the ruler of a district was called as Baron despite the gender.

Once during every 4 years, all the gerents from a district come together to either elect or forcibly take the position of Baron. The wards whose gerent was victorious becomes new capital ward of the districts and enjoy various benifits. There are some districts whose Baron hasn't changed over in 100s of years. Each ward has to have a specific profit model to contribute tax to thier respective district and pay an additional protection fees to the Kingdom. Ofcourse just because there is order doesn't mean everyone follows it....

"Kill him!!! Kill him!!" The crowd of diverse races erupted excitedly and repeated the same words over and over. As a tall, masculine reptillian figure wearing an elegant black suit held the body of a troll twice it's size by its neck, he quickly smashed its head into the asphalt and then flung the body into air and greeted the crowd

"Ladies and gentlemen, as you can see..."

The troll's body came crashing and landed exactly behind the reptillian being as he continued

"Our little troll right here thought he could come in anytime and challenge me, Vreythrek, The Gerent of west melano like I was some kind of a street thug..." As he stepped on the troll's face and started stomping on him "and now he is sleeping here like he owns this place" the onslaught continued as the crowd cheered when suddenly

"Hey you Lizard-bitch, aren't you taking it a bit too far?" A voice of a young man wearing a cowboy style hat and attire was heard behind Vreythrek. The crowd went silent before angrily shouting profanities.

"Kill that little bitch!! Kill that brat!!" Crowned jested. Vreythrek first annoyed then began to observe the crowd before smugly smilling and spoke

"What do you want punk? You know who I am right?"

As he threw the troll's body at the young man.

"I am Gil and I am here to set things in order." He didn't try to dodge and simply swiped his hand in the air, the troll's body began dissappear into dust. The crowd this time went silence in shock and even Vreythrek was thrilled. It was when he noticed that he was bleeding from his his right ear.

"Oh no. I was trying to end it in one shot." Gil said taunting Vreythrek. Thrill turning into anger made Vreythrek to suddenly muscle up. His body started growing rapidly, his muscles were now being covered by another layer of scales. His suit tore and now he became a four legged dragon.

"You are going to pay for it." Vreythrek said as he grabbed Gil with his mouth and flew into the air.

"You don't really learn right?"

Gil said as he freed from Vreythrek's mouth and in an instant punched on Vreythrek's head with such a force, the body of the dragon hit the ground, the impact caused an earthquake due to which the lamps in the arena fell thus igniting a fire.

The crowd panicked as they try to run out of the arena as thier bodies distintigrates into dust. Vreythrek now semi-conscious looks at the chaos and felt a strange fear. As he tries to get up, suddenly shivers run down his spine as he seems Gil standing there, smiling like he is enjoying the chaos he created. Vreythrek returned to his original form and as he transformed, his body also started turning into fine particles of dust. He realised his fate and fell onto his knees in front of this monster called Gil.

"What do you want kid?" Vreythrek asked.

"I just hate trash. So I am simply burning it down" as the arena burnt into ashes, people screamed in fear, panic and agony.

"You are a sick bastard..." Vreythrek muttered as he turned into dust.

Gil stood there smiling mysteriously before vanishing into thin air. As the authorities arrived at the scene, they found nothing but a note with message written on it in a distinct writing

'The Vessel of Darkest night has been found'

****