Shadow of the Crusaders

by Spore Harvest

Scroll 1 "backstory"

"BEEP, BEEP, BEEP, BEEP!!!" The alarm clock blasted into my ear, I should probably get up and turn it off, but the bed is so comfy. Ah screw it where's the hammer. While I was reaching for my hidden hammer someone blasted through my door.

"Rise and shine Mike. Breakfast is ready." A to cherry voice for the morning said. I know that voice to well and if I don't comply now, he is going to open the blinds and I am going to get blinded.

That voice belongs to my royal adviser and best friend Greg. He is a one point seven meter tall chalk white skeleton, with bright red lights in his eye sockets which represent his eyes. He is usually clad in his yellow and blue robe, which he got as a gift from his one hundred and tenth birthday from me. I asked him multiple times why he wares it to work and he always answers the same way "because they are comfy." After some time I just stopped asking, if he likes it, hey I wont bother him about it. That still isn't going to stop me from teasing him about it. Because he really looks like a girl if he is not speaking.

Now back to waking up, but I guess Greg had something planed for today because he didn't even give me a chance to turn my alarm clock off, before he stepped to the blinds and opened them letting the harsh sun into the room and especially into my eyes.The light change was so harsh that I fell out of bed. After that little stunt I was completely awake.

"Okay i'm up, i'm up. Where's the fire." I said while dragging myself up from the floor.

"Under you if you don't get up immediately. You have allot off work today. Court right after breakfast. And after that you need to make an appearance at the new school of magic."

"That's today? I completely forgot."

"That's why you have me. You would probably forget your own head without me. And that might come true if you make the monsters from the empire angry now get dressed and meet me down stairs for breakfast. I asked the chef to make your favorite."

"Yeah, okay. I'll be down there in about five minutes. See you there."

And with that he walked out of my room. Now that I was alone I went into my bathroom to take care of my business. After I finished that I took a quick shower and I brushed my teeth. Once I got myself cleaned up I went to my wardrobe and took out some simple jeans and a dark blue t-shirt. After I finally got dressed I went in front of my mirror to check myself out.

I was a one point six meter tall guy and quite scrawny looking. But I somehow managed to make an empire, but that is besides the point. Now I have to go down to the dining room and eat my favorite breakfast. With that in mind I stepped out of my room.

After I left my room I noticed That I was being flanked by two of my zombie guards. That was weird to me because I thought that I gave all of my guards a week off. After some time I asked them "Why are you all on duty. Didn't I give you the week off? Did Greg ask you to stay?"

The one on my right answered "Sorry if we have disappointed you my lord, but Greg did ask us to stay because of increased patrols near our empire of Farelight."

The one on my left said "We only want to do what we signed up for and that is to protect our empire. If you want to punish us we will take it with no complaints."

"Oh, come on now you guys you know that I don't punish anyone, except for those who are proven to be truly guilty. If you want to protect the empire instead of being at home with your families, that's your choice and I respect it. I'll make sure that you get payed extra for this week." I said while raising my hands in a placating way.

"Thank you my lord." they both said in unison and after that we fell into silence.

The rest of the journey was pretty straight forward. Greeting monsters and other soldiers. After a minute of walking I finally got to the dinning room where Greg was waiting for me. I dismissed my guards and went to my chair and sat down. After we were alone I finally asked the one million dollar question.

"When did you order the guards to stay and protect the empire?"

He responded briskly, as usual "I asked them yesterday when I received a letter from our warewolf scout Black Fang. He thinks that they are trying to gather enough information to attack and destroy our empire"

"I see. So is that the reason for my abrupt awakening. I think we should mobilise our army now, because I have a bad feeling about this." That was always true. Whenever I get a bad feeling, it always ends up being justified. Like last week when I had this feeling, that something bad is going to happen in the town square and boom a fight broke out that I thankfully stopped.

"I'll go and do that immediately, but now is not the time for war, now you should enjoy your chocolate waffles with strawberry yam."

"Oh yeah thank you. We will continue this discussion in morning court. Now if you excuse me i'm going to enjoy my waffles. Are you going to be joining me?"

That put a smile to his face. Don't ask me how a skeleton smiles they just do. After that he answered."You know that I am. Now lets go eat."

The rest of breakfast went without a problem. After we finished, we said our goodbyes and went to our rooms to prepare for morning court. The journey back to my room was uneventful and when I got there I went straight to my armour stand. It's quite the interesting piece. I should probably describe it.

The whole armour is made out of black crystal. A material made by the dwarfs in the collaboration with some of the best skeleton wizards that the empire has to offer. The crystals main feature is that it can regenerate itself if it is damaged. Another feature is that it can be easily enchanted, but the real kicker is that it is also magic resistant. I know pretty retarded, but since my wizards helped in creating the material it is not so difficult for them.

So by the description of the material you can guess that the main colour of the armour is black, but that locked a bit to frightening to the general populace so I decided to add a couple of dark purple and blue highlights to it to make it look less menacing.

Now the rest of the armour was pretty generic, because I don't like to be a walking art piece. so the only two pieces that are stylised are the helmet and the chest plate. On the chest plate I have the symbol of the empire imprinted on it. The symbol is that of a snake that is eating its own tail, which represent the empires eternity. in the center of the snake circle is a dragons head, which represents the empires pride and strength.

And now finally to the helmet. That is the main piece to look at because it has a special visor. Now that may not be interesting to some, but the visor is enchanted to glow a bright green light. Why? Because first it looks bloody cool and second, because it changes colour depending on my mood. I would give you all the colours and all there respective emotions, but I think you can guess which colour corresponds to which emotion. The other attention grabbing thing about the helmet is its crown. Its nothing special. It was added to make me look a little more kingly. Not that I despise it, its actually quite a nice crown made out of rubies , but it is rather outlandish looking. It looks like someone took the skull of a dragon turned it into a ruby and fitted it to someones head. It looks awesome and represents our empire so I have little to complain about.

Now that I finished describing my armour I will quickly put it on. After about twenty minutes of putting on the armour I was finally ready for morning court. I didn't look forward to this day, not only because of the warning that I got from Black Fang; but also because I will have to stop petty squabbles from the populace. Hey its not a pretty job but its my job.

After finally reaching the throne room I sat in my iron throne and waited for my first arrival. In that time I took notice of my surroundings. The throne room is pretty scarcely furnished. the only notable things are the red carpet which leads to the throne, a couple of guards stationed against the walls. There is also big glass windows across the walls which are letting the natural light into the room they also give a nice view on the empire now with my observation complete I waited for Greg to announce the first monster to have a complaint for me.

"Now arriving Roby the endoskeleton and Martha the mummy queen" announced Greg.

After he said that I just couldn't help myself but groan. Why? You may or may not be asking yourself. Well you see, even tho I am the emperor I still need some financial supporters to help me keep this empire afloat. Because I can't keep all of the populace in check by myself and since I have multiple different kinds of monsters here with different needs and wishes. But that still doesn't answer the question why I don't like them, well here goes. Those two are very stuck up sons of bitches thinking that because of their positions they can boss every one around. I don't have this problem with the other races only these two. But don't let me be your judge, see for your self.

"Good morning emperor Mike. How are you today." They both said in unison.

"Well let's see, everything was going well until you two showed up. So let's just get to the chase because we have more important matters to attend to than to listen to your complaints why nobody is listening to you" I said with my visor turning orange.

They both flinched back, when they saw it and then Martha said "Well, Mike we were robed by an imp."

My visor turned back to green and I asked "An imp robed you? Sorry if I am a little sceptical. But they don't have the word stealth in their vocabulary so how did they rob you and what prof do you have, If you don't have any then just turn around and go through those doors."

They then had the audacity to say. "Well we don't have any."

"So let me get this straight you two got robbed by an imp, which don't know the meaning of stealth and yet you have nothing to tie him to this crime, so tell me why shouldn't I throw you two out of a window."

Roby than said "Well you see..."

"I'm going to stop you right there. Just shut up and get out."

"but you didn't hear me out." he tried again.

Than my visor turned red and i yelled "GET OUT OF MY THRONE ROOM AND I DON'T WANT TO SEE YOU HERE FOR AT LEAST A YEAR. NOW SCRAM."

They turned and ran out as if they were chased by a monster. When they were gone, I tried to calm down so I started my breathing exercises.

While I was doing that Greg came up to me and tried to help me calm down.

"Mike are you okay. I've never seen you get so mad at anyone, but I guess those two deserved it"

After I was sufficiently calmed down I said "Phew... Well they did, they always make me so mad, but that just crossed the line. Trying to demolish a playground is one thing, but accusing a monster of theft that's just to far."

"Let's hope they heed your warning." Greg said.

After that Roby returned with an axe and went after me.

His axe struck true and rightfully broke on my armour. Roby steeped back his face contorted into shock and then fear when he saw me getting up.

"Oh, now you've done it Roby." Said Greg.

I grabbed the endoskeleton by his neck and lifted him up of the ground.

"Well what do we say now and make sure you answer correctly."

"please emperor please don't hurt me i'm sorry I didn't know what I was doing please don't kill me." He said while on the verge of crying.

"You answered correctly."

His face then turned into a smile. After that we went to a window and I punched him out of it, but then of in the distance I saw an army slowly approaching. My eyes literally bugged out of my skull.

"Greg, cancel the rest of morning court."

"Of course but why?"

"And is the army ready."

"yes, the army is ready. Dude what's happening? You are starting to scare me."

"Well Greg let's just say we are going to war."

"What! right now."

"Yes Greg right now. They are already approaching the empire. So I'm going to go there and challenge the leader of their army and hope to God that I win."

And with that said I went behind my throne to pick up my war hammer Undertaker. It wasn't anything special it was made from the same material as my armour and had the symbol of the empire on it sides, I absorbed it into my gauntlet and went to the center of the throne room there I drew a rune circle. Why? Because I wasn't sure what they had up their sleeves. This circle will hide the empire away into another dimension where it will be in a state of suspended animation and it will stay that way until my body is back at full power. It's just a fail-safe should I die in battle. By this point Greg already left the room to tell the monsters that the empire is at war and that they should stay indoors because of it. With the circle ready I went out the throne room, which I properly lock behind me, and go out of the castle and in front of my army.

One of the zombie soldiers stepped forward and asked. "Why are we assembled and why is Greg screaming around that there is a war that we need to stop?"

"Well I'm not going to sugar coat it. We are in a war against the human forces. I just saw them coming a couple of minutes ago marching towards us and we need to setup a perimeter around the entire empire. While you do this I'm going to go up front and battle their leader."

"But sir, why don't you let us fight by your side."

"Because no matter what you all feel like my family and I wont let any of you die if it isn't necessary. Now go make that perimeter and make sure no human gets in I've got a fight to get to." And with those last words I left to fight the human army.

***

Say what you want about zombies but they set up that perimeter far sooner than you'd think. But now wasn't the time for reminiscing now was the time to prepare for battle. So I waited on a rock about five kilometers away from the empire and I waited. And waited. and waited. After I almost fell asleep I finally heard it the tale tale marching sound of hundreds of soldiers. So I got in position and when they were around a kilometer away I announced my presence.

"WHO DARES SET FOOT IN THE LANDS OF FARELIGHT EMPIRE. MY NAME IS MIKE THE LICH KING AND I AM THE EMPEROR OF THIS EMPIRE SO I DEMAND THAT YOU LET ME SPEAK WITH YOUR LEADER." My visor during this time was a bloody red colour so I hoped that they knew I was being serious.

And lo and behold one of them stepped up front. He was wearing a silver and gold full body armour just like mine, but his locked like it couldn't even take one hit with my war hammer, but i digress. the emblem that was imprinted on the front of his chest and shield was that of a griffon. He was also sporting quite a big and ornate sword on his belt. After I have finished my examination he started to talk.

"My name is king Arthur and I am the king of Camelot. We are here to end your empire and end your raign of terror once and for all you filthy monster." he said in a posh voice like I was beneath him. I definitely didn't like that.

"So you are here to end me and my empire. Well if you want to destroy it than you will have to go through me first."

"Challenge accepted you filthy creature," With that he pulled out his sword. "Now i'll show you the full might of Excalibur." And then he launched himself at me with full force.

I had just enough time to pull out Undertaker to block his attack but he still managed to launch me back a couple of meters. I decided against flashy and energy wasting attacks and just decided to attack him with brut strength. And I was very successful until I got a little to cocky and so I got a mean cut across my back. The armour quickly started healing itself and while it was busy I went for a nice little surprise uppercut which send him flying into the air, but i didn't stop there so I launched my self to his level and brought my war hammer down on his head. With that I thought he was defeated, but to my surprise he got up and he looked pissed. He charged at me screaming but he was getting unpredictable in his movements so it wasn't a surprise that I got hit a couple of times, but those were shallow cuts. After a couple of strikes I decided to make some distance between us, so I decided to freeze his legs to the ground. And then I said.

"I must admire Your tenacity, but I can clearly see you've not been a king for very long."

"Hold you're tongue creature." He said while struggling to break free of the ice that I coated his legs in.

"You will not tell me what to do. You are a foolish king to think you can boss every one around. I don't even want to think what you're kingdom looks like." I said slyly. I will come to regret ever saying those words because in a sudden burst of strength he got free of the ice and he impaled me through the hart.

"Now go down to hell and rot there for all eternity." He said in a smug tone.

I couldn't help it, but that line made me laugh so hard I didn't even care that it hurt like a bitch. That turned his face from smug to confused.

"Why are you laughing you are about to die?"

After I calmed down enough to speak I said "You really don't know anything about liches. Do you. I will regenerate over time and I will return, so will my empire. Enjoy knowing that this fight was meaningless."

That made him mad. "I will obliterate you there will be nothing left for you to regenerate." And with that he charged somekind of magic into his sword and blasted it all into me making me explode and scattering my armour across the entire world.

"Now with him gone we will attack his... Why is his empire glowing."

With those words there was an audible pop and the entire empire was gone there was nothing left.

Arthur than said "Well that was easy, but I have this feeling that he will return. Eh, a thought for another day. Warriors we have won."

After he finished that his entire army started celebrating a job well done, but little did they know that Mike is going to return one day and when it comes, nothing of significance is going to happen,because he is only going to bring back his empire and nothing more. Well lets hope his day comes soon.

Author's Note:

First scroll done. Hope you enjoyed it. Leave a like, comment and share. If you leave a dislike please tell me what was wrong so I can fix the mistakes or something you didn't like.

I'm also searching for a profreader to check my spelling, because god knows I need one. If you want to help please message me and I'll try to answer you.

See you in the next Scroll.

Comments

[Crescent Glaive]

Certainly a interesting start to this

The grammar needs some fixing but it is tolerable

[Xanatos Speed Chess]

Reminds me of what Sombra did to the Crystal Empire.

Inspiration?